infallible Church which soeuer that be Nor will it help this Aduocate that soone after his Aduersary as it were directing his speach to Catholiques calleth that Church our Church for to Catholiques this needed no further proofe who belieue it already Whence with them he might presume it as granted according to that of S. Paul sapientiam lequimurinter perfectos we vtter wisedome diuine truth among those who belieue it reseruing that doctrine that our Catholique Roman Church is the true Church of God to the proper place as to be proued against Protestants But you shall take him very often faultring in this Fallacy Fallacy ante-dating his Aduersaries order and therefore seldome answering to the subiect in hand whereof hereafter instances will occurre very plentifully He wil say perhaps he hath fore-inserted his Aduersaries discourse entire and as it lye's in his owne Booke but to this I say againe he answer's is not as it lyes there but misordreth it to his aduantage euen as formerly ordred by himselfe For according to faire play and ingenuous behauiour although he might do well in answering the whole discourse by retaile or by parts yet he should haue taken notice of the relation and connexion of one part with another and so haue answered reason's as reasons positions as positions and not haue made euery reason a position I know he hath learned to analize a Discourse better then so and would esteeme it poore Anatomy only to dissect limbe from limbe ioynt from ioynt and neuer shew the naturall commissure and compacture of limbe with limbe ioynt with ioynt nor distinguish them according to their true Nomenclature and their seuerall both proper absolute relatiue functions But he as though the dissected were only bellua multorum capitum a beast with many head 's so he lectures vpon legs thighs belly eyes eares armes c. all vnder one appellation of Head as though all the parts and members were heads for iust so he hath anatomiz'd his Aduersaries context of speach making euery part as it were a seuerall head and why Because as in a naturall body by reason of that due order and composure of members a certaine mutuall intelligence of influences and sympathies of the members betweene themselues is entertained of which mutuall intelligence and influence depends the life and vigor of euery part and ioindy of the whoâ—e body so in the body of a rationall discourse there is the like influence of one part into another and one part vpholds strengthneth the other and to take away this mutuall correspondence and relation is to take away the very harmony of discourse none who know's what he doth will do it but he who intends to marre the musicke or loues discords and iarrings better then harmony For to this purpose which I haue said what other can be imagined he hath deuided those reasons and confirmations of his Aduersaries position into so many heads or propositions distinguishing them not only by numbers as you say first Pref. and you say againe you say thirdly then fourthly then fiftly but also by seuerally varying the odious phrase as you say confidently inough then you say with sufficient confidence thirdly you say with conuenient boldnes fourthly you say with confidence in abundance when all is indeed but one thing said the Proposition with some few proofes adioyned Yet the fauourers of his cause and person would easily pardon this poore peece of Sophistry or waue it at the least had he achieued his intent by this but now Cuibone what hath he got by this Nihil omnibus actum Tantorum Impensis operum With so much ado with so great expence of honesty and ingenuity laid out vpon a miserably Fallacy to do nothing is intollerable had he yet ouerthrowne those scattered forces or made something of his owne dissections more then a dissector of an oxe can doe now for my part I had no other drift but only to note his Fallacies and Calumnies and to do more in shewing his weake attempts vpon these disranked and dissected parts as they are singly encount'erd by him would proue an enterprise much more easy then needfull Yet because I haue shew'n his insufficiency against his first Prosection which is his Aduersaries Position whereof the ensuing members are as I haue said the proofes I will only employ a dash of pen vpon what he hath against the rest and the rather because I assure my selfe that euen in these too I shall meet with Calumnies and Fallacies these being indeed as the very soule or the naturall and proper language of his pen without which it cannot speake His Answers to his Aduersaries Arguments Fallacious or none SECT XX. Pref. YOu say sayth he againe if this infallibility be once impeach't euery one is giuen ouer to his owne wit and discourse To this he answer's by a distinction Giuen ouer to his owne wit and discourse not guiding it selfe by Scriptures he denyes this to be consequent to infallibility of the Church so impeach't giuen ouer to discourse that is right reason sanaratio say the Socinians grounded on diuine reuelation and common notions consequent deductions from them he denies this consequent to be inconnenient though it follow of the infallibility of the Church denied Answ Now this euasion his Aduersarie foresaw and therfore barred the passage which barre this nimble Aduocate slily skip's ouer taking no notice of it The barre of preuention was this And talke not here so his Aduersatie of Scripture for if the true Church may erre either in defining what Scripture is Canonicall or in deliuering the sense and meaning thereof we are still deuolued either vpon the priuate spirit or esse vpon naturall wit and iudgment What place then for discourse guided by diuine reuelation in colâ—erence of their doctrine who take away the meanes of knowing what reuelation is diuine Either materially in regard of the Canonicall Scripture or formally in regard of the true sense and interpretation of such Scriptures whereof neither the one nor the other can be afcertained without the infallible authority of the Church the only meanes to arriue to this certainty Wherefore if the man be in his wits he will find out his guide and know him to be a sure guide before he put himselfe into his iourney otherwise both the guide and guided may fall into a ditch whence neither his Logick-rules nor all his consequent deductions with twenty ropes to boot will euer be strong inough to pluck him out Now the only guide which guideth reason by Scripture is the holy Spirit the only true and sure interpreter of holy Scriptures This holy spirit is not promised to any priuate man but to the Church it is promised therefore in this Church is infallibly to be found whence he that followeth this company of men not only followeth not a company of beasts Pref. which this Aduocate would insinuate the Church may be but he followeth the holy Ghost
derogatory from the maiesty of the diuine word to be conceaued in the spirit of man no more then it was from the Maiesty of the Sonne of God to be conceaued in the wombe of the B. Virgin Mary and that as there the Eternall Word was inuested with humane flesh so heere in these spirits of men as in the wombe of the Church the Word of God sowne by the holy Ghost should be inuested with humane notion and brought forth to light of the world in the guise of humane speach and voyce In which sense we may interprete that testimony of the holy Baptist Ego vox clamantis I am the voyce of the cryer as his voyce was the inuesture of that Word of the holy Ghost crying in the desert by which it was conueyed to the eares of mortall men so is the voyce and declaration of the Church the meanes by which the Word of God and all Truth contained in it is conueyed to our soules and vnderstandings And as that cry of the Holy Ghost was first conceaued in the spirit of the Baptist then vttered by his voyce to the world so these Scriptures were first conceaued in the Church those Apostolicall spirits in which they were first imprinted and inuested if I may so speak by the operation and Energy of that fire which appeared in tongues afterwards vttered vpon due occasions in words and writings As therefore those of that tyme heard the voyce of that cryer in the desart from the mouth of the Baptist so all Christians heare and must heare the word of God and diuine truth by the mouth of the Church Well then what this man so confidently auerreth that there is no ground yea that no ground can be pretended why we should hold Gods Church for so he must say if he say any thing against what his Aduersary sayes infallible vnles we first belieue the Scripture diuine I as confidently deny And for as much as respects priority or antecedency of beliefe since the Scripture as I haue said is no other word but what the Church hath and daily doth vtter vnto vs whether historicall or dogmaticall or howsoeuer first conceaued in the vnderstanding and spirit of the Church it followeth that as we haue receaued it vpon her credit telling and teaching vs that it is diuine so we must à Priori belieue the Church as infallible witnes or reporter before we can belieue the infallibility of Scripture which she reporteth it followeth also that we must belieue the Church interpreting the Scripture for it is incredible that any other man should better vnderstand what I speake according as I haue conceaued or what I meane by the words I speake then I my selfe the speaker who only intend to vtter my conceipt It followeth yet further that although there were no Scripture and these Christian Verities had descended to vs only by Tradition and by the testimony of former ages transmitting them successiuely from Christ to this present age we should be bound to belieue the Church that is that continued succession of men belieuing those Christian Verities vnles we will say there was no obligation vpon men to belieue in God and to worship him according to that beliefe before the tyme of Moyses before the Scriptures were For was not Circumcision obligatory before Moyses and was not the posterity of Abraham obliged to belieue and practise that tradition as of diuine authority of which our Sauiour sayth Moyses dedit rebis Circumcisionem non quia ex Moyse est sed ex Patribus He will say You proue the Church infallible by Scriptures your Scriptures must be first belieued infallible I answer we proue this out of Scriptures against such as professe to belieue Scriptures not the Church as out of their owne principles it followeth not thence that we first belieue the Scripturs diuine or infallible For though in methode of confuting such Aduersaries we begin with the Scriptures yet in the methode of belieuing we begin from the Church vpon whose credit we belieue the Scriptures to be diuine and according to this method commencing from the Church Christian fayth was first propagated among nations and imbraced by Heathens Nor will it be to the purpose to reply that Heathens were induced to belieue by reason of miracles This I say is not to the purpose how the Church gained this credit but hence it is inferred that in regard of Christian Beliefe the Church had the Precedency before Scriptures that is the Church was belieued before the Scriptures were belieued Wherefore to conclude this point if it be impiety not to belieue Scriptures as no doubt it is yet it is an impiety no way deducible from this doctrine that the beliefe of an infallible Church is precedent to the beliefe of Scriptures But it is not hard to conceaue by the very carriage of the busines as he handles it what he driues at in all this discourse which is indeed to euacuate all authority both of Church and Scriptures and vpon the ruines of both to build the Godles Socinianisme Therefore all inferences which may seeme any way to perplexe Christian doctrine or force it into straits are his aduantages It was the prudent industry of the Roman Consull to prouoke Catiline whose secret practises and designes vpon the Common-Wealth he had vnderstood into open warre and rebeilion for he supposed no Cittizen would then appeare in his defence or make the oppression of a Tyrant his quarrell As no man would approue the fyering of the house wherein himselfe were or wracking the shippe wherein he sayled himselfe I suppose likewise if this pretended Champion for Protestancy were once discouered and strip't to the naked truth of what he is indeed that is as I haue said a very Socinian Mole vnderworking euen Protestancy it selfe and all Religion no Protestant who hath any zeale of the Religion he professeth would euer be seene in his patronage nor willingly I thinke in his company nor would he vouchsafe the ordinary greeting or salutation as good-morrow Ep. 2. Joan. to him who acknowledgeth neither day nor morning of Christian religion or God saue you to him who doubts whether there be any such thing as God Saluation nor would they thinke him fit to conuerse among Christians who hath disputed himselfe out of all termes of Christian commerce and conuersation His Calumny concerning Protestants reputed Atheists c. by Catholiques SECT XXVIII Pref. YOu say fifthly and lastly sayth this Aduocate with confidence in abundance that none can deny the infallible authority of your Church but he must abandone all infused fayth and true religion if he de but vnderstand himselfe Answ This Aduocate himselfe is no small part of proof of the truth of this Hypothetique who since he hath relaps't from this doctrine of infallible authority of the Church hath withall disclaimed all infused fayth as his Aduersary hath charged him vpon information more then credible wherin that is in abandoning both I confesse
the authority of the Church applying them in confirmation of this mistery gather a necessity of acknowledging the infallible authority of the Church without which notwithstanding holy Scriptures we should be in doubt how to belieue some principall point of Christian beliefe The necessity of which authority appeareth yet more euidently euen by what he quarrells concerning the doctrines of Eusebius Origen and those other questioned and controuled by the like authority of the Church Against which authority no faculty of wit and vnderstanding no eminency or glory of science and erudition could preuaile no not martyrdome it self could protect any error against orthodoxe beliefe or escape the censure of this supreme Iudge on earth What he sayth of Cardinall Peron informing the world of some Errors of those Ancients Calumny against Peron if he meane the world knew them not before discourers great plenty of ignorance in himself if he knew it without his information he sayth nothing for could not Socinians who deuoure Christian Libraries to no other end but to digest them into scandals read the very same in others of far more ancient authority then this most learned Cardinall In that the Arrians would gladly be tryed by the Fathers before the Councell of Nice they shew their hereticall spirit which always flyes from the authority of a Visible Vocall and liuing Iudge to the mute copy of Gods or mans word as here to defunct authors who left behind them their priuate opinions in things at that tyme not expressely defined which is indeed to fly to their owne interpretations both of Fathers Scriptures from a publique authority to which a neuer failing assistance is diuinely promised to some particular or single opinions of priuate men to whom no such assistance was promised But whither will not a theefe fly from the sentence of authority which can condemne him And whither not an Heretique from the Church And who doubts but the Church of Christ is most representatiuely and iointly and vnanimously in a generall Councell as a kingdom in a Parlament or full senate in which mysticall body then as euer yea then more effectually and actiuely then euer the holy Ghost as the soule informing moueth and directeth Whither flyes he then who flyes from this Church but from the spirit of God Quo ibo à spiritu tuo Whether shall I fly from your spirit True he flyeth from Christ but escapes him not from him a Sauiour to him a Iudge from his Mercy to his Iustice si desceudero in infeinum ades if I go downe to hell you are there And is this the Socinian scandall or is this any way leading men into Socinianisme that the Church of God assembled together of purpose to examine or determine some question of fayth hath defined the contrary to some doctrine or opinion of some priuate Doctor or Doctors who as such whatsoeuer they preiudged could not say as the Councell could Visum est spiritui sancto nobis it hath seemed good to the holy Ghost and vs You see then the weaknes of this Fallacious Calumny yet strong inough to cast a mist before the eyes of the vnlearned or vnpassioned Reader the number of which sort because it like to affoard him most voyces their applause and approbation is the triumph he aymes at His Sophisticall Calumny concerning differences of Catholique Doctors in questions vndefined SECT XXXI ANother occasion or inducement to Socinianisme pretended by this Aduocate are those different opinions of Scholastique Deuines in points of doctrine as yet vndetermined by the Church this is also one of those a thousand tymes recoct Crambes like some cold Seruice daily brought in only to furnish vp the table vntill it grow mouldy and meat for no body But what is this towards the disabling or disparaging the authority of the Church in points now defined and no longer disputed as douâ—â—full Will the Socinian hence argue thus In some points of doctrine vndecided some Catholique Doctors disagree among themselues Ergo in points decided they haue no certainty Who seeth not the inconsequence of this illation If they differ concerning the modification of diuine Prescience and the different respect and habitude which it hath to future euents necessary or contingent abloâ—ute or conditionall will they out of this variance inferre the vncertainty of diuine prenotion or conclude that God foreseeth not at all But yet see how he concludes for the Socinians Pref. The Dominicans sayth he maintaine on the one side that God can foresee nothing but what he decrees The Iesuit's on the otherside that he doth not decree all things Answ Iungentur iam Gryphes equis he will make these one and other sides to meete in one syllogisme and so be no more sides at all and then no different doctrines at all which is the quite contrary conclusion to what he assumeth Reflect setiously vpon these different propositions of the Dominicans and Iesuits and you shall find them contradictories and so impossible to inflow into one Conclusion true or false by any lawfull consequence For ex nihilo nihil and contradictories annihilate one the other Now this proposition God foresees nothing but what be decrees is in effect equiualent to this God decrees all that he foresees Againe God decrees not all things as ratione materiae equipollent to this God decrees not something which be foresees for the question being stated of things future or which shal be both sides grant that God foresees them the difference betweene them is hâ—w he foresees them Now let any man commit the two propositions as ioynt premises and see whether from that complexion or commission the Socinian conclusion can any way result Nay you shall find it generally true which I haue said That two Contradictions can neuer ioyne in any such commission to produce a third proposition as truly consequent from them but see them now committed and obserue how ready and obuious the Conclusion will be which the Socinians draw from them Dominicans God foreseeth nothing but what he decrees Iefuits God doth not decree all things Socin Ergo God doth not foresee all things In what mood and figure Logician But what Socinian syllogizing is this to ioyne two propositions of contrary doctrines and repugnant in themselues in one formall complexion of premises and out of those to inferre the conclusion Is it wonder if of so monstrous a coniunction of premises a prodigious conclusion be brought forth the conclusion being the naturall issue of the premises Might he not aswell conclude from two propositions the one of Catholiques the other of Arrians in like manner thus Cath. The Sonne is consubstantiall with the Father Arr. The Father is greater then the Sonne Socin The Sonne is lesse and equall to his Father An obuious conclusion sayth the Socinian as though he would say Fairely encounterd and kisse it For out of this absurd conclusion he will further question whether there be any such thing as Father Sonne in
the Land and then being for such his contumacy censured proscribed declared rebell or Traitor to the State vnles he would come in and acknowledge his obedience conformity to that order or Law still pretend that such a Law is no Law but an abuse of authority and say that if they will not allow him the Name and priuiledge of a true subiect but vpon such condition that by his subscription he professe against his conscience his consent to an error in gouernment to which he consent's not or acknowledges for law what he belieues not to be law in this case they for requiring such a condition are rebell's and traitours to the state not he for disclaiming it And I belieue the disparity will not easily be assigned neither will it euer be proued that the Temporall Laick authority of any State or Common-wealth in order to ciuill Gouernment or Command is more sacred and inuiolable then the authority of the Church of God in regard of determining doctrines of fayth or in order to Ecclesiasticall Lawes Constitutions Whence it may seeme a matter worthy the consideration that this spirit of doctrine hath in the very bowell's of it the very Embryâ— of all seditions and rebellions such as if it liue to grouth and strength of age may proue such a monster as may import in tyme the confusion and Anarchy of all State and Gouernment Verily it will appeare as I thinke very manifest that any refractory or rebellious subiect may accommodate this discourse to the maintenance and defence of his rebellion with very good congruity yea and finally retort the Traitor or Rebell vpon the Prince or Authority which proscribâ—s or censures him III. Motiue Because if any credit may be giuen to as creditable records as any are extant the Doctrine of the Catholicks hath byn frequently confirmed and the opposite doctrine of Protestants confounded with supernaturall and diuine miracles III. Remotiue To the third If any credit may be giuen to Records farre more creditable then these the Doctrine of Protestants that is the Bible hath been confirmed and the Doctrine of Papists which is in many points plainly opposite to it confounded with supernaturall and diuine Miracles which for number and glory out-shine Popish pretended Miracles as much as the Sunne doth an ignis fatuus those I meane which were wrought by our Sauiâ—ur Christ and his Apostâ—â—â— Now this booke by the confession of both â—â—des confirmed by inâ—umerous miracles c. III. Promotiue Before I mooue any further I thinke it best to close with you heere I haue already often said and must say it often that the Socinian iudgment is no iudgment at all nor any arrest of sentence but a very waue of a floating sancy and giddy affection which swelling now and appearing bigge soone after break 's vpon the shore and another waue of opinion followes growne from another fancy which is the Trident that moues and commaund's in the Socinian Ocean Not long fince when I know not now what wynd moued your phantastique affection towards the shore of Catholique truth then if any credit might be giuen to as creditable record's as any are extant c. after that the wynd changing and another affection flowing from a new fancy see how this Trident hath turned your iudgment to the quite opposite shore and now if any credit may be giuen to records farre more creditable then these What haue you now fouÌ„d out records far more creditable then these which are as creditable as any are extant then it seemes these records farre more creditable are not extant and yet you haue found them out Or are they now extant which seauen or eight yeares fince when your Motiues were conceaued were not extant Good Syr put them out to the print to the stationers with all possible speed London Oxford will come together by the â—ares for the commodity but be not rash in promising to either least a more liberall offer make you resent They will off at any Price you may compasse another purchase by the gaine of the commodity especially comming forth with the recommendation of a most plausible title as Record's for protestancy neuer extant in print before set forth by M. Ch. lately Roman Catholique now Atturney or adâ—â—cate for Protestants The first edition c. But now in earnest let vs examine these Records of superlatiue credit whereby the doctrine of Protestants that iâ— the Bible do you meane the bible it self or the doctrine of the Bible for there is great difference betweene â—â—ese two and â—othaps you will not easily find out of your Records how the Bible it self hath beene so miraculously confirmed that is declared by miracles that this Bible is the word of God and yet you say This booke confirmed by innumerous miracles I suspect you meant to be obscure and yet willing to haue it so vnderstood that the Booke it self hath beene so confirmed that your appeale to it might appeare more specious But then I dare be bold to say that the Bible that is the Scriptures translated by Protestants shall neuer be proued to haue receaued any confirmation at all by any one peece of a miracle therefore in this sense what you say is a meere vaunt void of all truth whereas againe if as translated and set forth by authority of the Catholique Church it hath euer beene miraculously confirmed this is a confirmation of Catholique authority and a shame and confusion of all Sectaries who reiect this authority But I will be so fauourable as to construe your meaning such as you can make good with most ease as that the Protestant-doctrine is the doctrine of the Bible which is no more then euery Heretique would say of his doctrine rather then submit it to the Censure of the Church which Protestant and Bible-doctrine hath been confirmed iointly by miracles out-shining all Popish miracles as the Sunne doth ignis fatuus In which place I will only specify one doctrine of Protestants and insist vpon that which is That the Church of God may erre in definitions of fayth or that it is not endued with infallible authority in order to such definitions Now when will you be so good as to proue vnto vs that this negatiue doctrine hath bene confirmed and the contrary doctrine of Papists confounded with supernaturall and diuine miracles When will you shew vs out of your more creditable records then any extant that those miracles of our Sauiour and his Apostles were wrought in confirmation of those doctrines wherin you oppose the Catholique Roman Church Nay when will you proue that any one of those miracles were not so many testimonies of some point of doctrine which the Roman Church professeth and teacheth at this day Come leaue your brauing dâ— not always â—ly with a Simon Magus in the ayre of verball ostenlation Quid cessas An tibi Mauors Ventâ—â—â in linguâ pâ—dibusque fugaâ—ibus istis Semper erit Come downe and instance in one point
of difference betweene vs and you which point held by you in opposition to the Roman Catholique hath euer beene countenanc't by any least miracle of our Sauiour or his Apostles or the opposite doctrine of Catholiques confounded by the like testimony For if you make not this appeare by your sunne of Euidence those diuine and supernaturall miracles what will remaine for your confirmation but ignis fatuus I know your Sanctuary when you haue tost turned all your creditable records and euidences you will shew vs forsooth that those points of fayth which you haue receaued and hold of the Catholique Roman Church though the tenure be merely Hereticall that is of voluntary choice because it pleaseth you to hold some such as import no restraint or that some face of truth may appeare like the face and song of Siren's to draw men vpon your rock's of pernicious Heresies those I say you will proue to haue beene attested and confirmed by those miracles of our Sauiour and his Apostles which will help your cause nothing at all but rather weaken it when by such testimony of miracles you can confirme no other doctrine but what you haue receaued from vs. Neither yet are those doctrines yours which you can proue to haue beene so confitmed I say no otherwise yours then those things which you haue stolne or keep by force from the right owners therefore they are with you as children rauish't from their mothers bosome and the company of their brethren by the Turket or Mâ—ret with whome they remayn so sequestred perforce daily testifiyng by their sighes and grones the tyranny of their restraint and their defire to returne to their Mother brethren After this violent manner are those Catholique doctrines with you and thus are holy Scriptures in your not custody but captiuity both of them entertained by you to no other end but to be slaues and seruants to your owne children the peculiar dâ—â—trines of your Schisme to carry torches before them to gaine â—ome reputation of light to those workes of darknes Although for Scriptures as I haue said before and say againe no Heretique hath them properly that is as they are the word of God which they are not but as truly interpreted for which truth of interpretation he can pretend no warrant or title at all For the Scriptures are not only the word of God but the word of the Church which hauing first conceaued them by the holy Ghost the spirit of truth brought them forth to light and bequeathed them from age to age to the children of her obedience made partakers of the same spirit and therfore they only can discerne them to be the word of God which is only discernable to those to whom it is spoken or reuealed by the same spirit which is only in the Church of Christ the one mysticall body of Christ which is also called the spirit of Christ and therefore is not to be found in any other Body or Society of men for then Christ should be the head or heads of more bodies which is absurd blasphemy And as the Church of God alone is endued with this spirit of discretion whereby she discernes what Scripture is the word of God so this Church alone hath the spirit of interpretation of Scriptures and she alone can certainly say this is the sense and meaning of this Scripture who can truly say this is Scripture as only that Daniel cold declare the interpretation and meaning of Nabuchâ—donozors dreame who could tell him what he had dreamed which none of those Wizards or Sorcerers or Enchanters could do who yet professed they would interprete the dreame so he would tell them what he had dreamed But the wise King belieued them not qua sunâ— per Allegoriam dicta But heere good Sir I must tell you as a friend I am ashamed to sâ—â— a man of your expectation hopefull promisings to come forth in this thred-bare liuery of old Heretiques this appeale from Church to Scriptures There was neuer so putide an Heretique which hauing once cast off the authority of the Church could not find some refuge or sanctuary in the darknes of Scripture hauing also togeather with that authority excussed taken to himselfe the freedome of interpreting Scriptures Belie us it Syr. it is and euer will be a maine presumption that you draw â—nder the same yoke with former Heretiques when you can not get out of the same Cart-rout which they haue track't before you Et monstrata diâ— veteris trabis â—rbita â—ulpa For first you haue gone out of the Roman Catholique Church so they from the authority of that Church you appeale to Scriptures so they then you interprete Scriptures according to your single vnderstanding without any other liuing guide or Vocall authority so they being gone out you turne all your power of Pen-gall against that Church whence you went forth so they But neither you nor your patrons nor Apostles conuert any nation to Christian fayth nor they You reduce few sonles from sinfull courses to better life nor they In the whole number of your Patriarches you cannot name one Saint nor they I see how you haue consociated your self and your Clyent 's with the knowne Heretiques of former tymes I would gladly know someone distinctiue signe by which you discerne and vindicate your selues from the formall character or character 's markes or brands of ancient Heretiques In the meane tyme let vs examin the remnant of this Remotiâ—e Rem This booke c. foretell's me plainly that in after ages great signes and wonders shall be wrought in confirmation of false doctrine Prom. But hath it fore told you that in after ages no true miracle shall be wrought in confirmation of true doctrine If not it hath foretold you nothing to the purpose you pretend Rem And that I am not to belieue any doctrine which seemes to my vnderstanding repugnant to the first Prom. Wâ—â—ch seemes repugnant c. to your vnderstanding Most ridiculâ—us 〈◊〉 no such thing was euer foretold you by the Booke of Gods Word you dreamed it But that doctrine is not to be belieued which to an infallible vnderstanding which is the vnderstanding of the Church which is guided by the spirit of truth is not only seemingly but really repugnant to Apostolicall doctrine But still you put vs in mynd of your Character your appeale to your owne vnderstanding you will not out of this Cart-rout Rem But that true doctrine should in allages haue the testimony of miracles that I am no where taught Prom. Are you any where taught the contrary Or that the testimony of miracles promised by our Sauiour is confined within a certain compasse or period of tyme Hath the Church only a lease of miracles for terme of yeare and if it hath when expired that terme or lease Vnles you can tell vs this for ought you know it is yet in being Now the promise of our Sauiour being conceaued and exprest in plaine words
teachers of it which I feare is a great scandall to many beaux Esprits among you Answ Surely the acknowledged doctrine of our Lord and Sauiour makes in great part for the temporall end 's of the teachers and will these beaux Esprits M. Ch. with the rest of the Session of wits make Christian doctrine their scandall for that Qui vos audit me audit he who obey's you obeys me if it be rightly vnderstood and belieued practically is of force to subdue the world to the Gouernours and teachers of the Church and Christian doctrine by a far more eminent obedience and commaund then whatsoeuer dominion of temporall Soueraignty or whatsoeuer subiection of men to men And that Pasce oues meas vnderstood as it ought not of feeding only but of ruling too is a more large commission granted to S. Peter by God himselfe from whom all iust Empire and Commission is deriued then Augustus Caesar euer enioyed euen then when he styled himselfe Emperour of the world as we may suppose by that Edict which issued forth by his order vt describeretur Orbis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the inhabited or knowne world which may seeme to haue beene the language of that age that made him equall sharer of Empire with Iupiter deuiding the scepter and sway of all nature betwixt them two Tu secundo-Caesare regnes Te minor latum reget aquus orbem Tu graui curru quaties Olympum c. And yet all that power and iurisdiction reaching from East to West extended to the body only and exterior subiection and commaunding the subiects purses c. For it is but a flattery of the Poet Victorue volentes Per populos dat iura Whereas the Empire of the Apostles extendes indeed to the commaund of soules yea from this East their kingdome begin's from thence they raigne euen vnto the West of mortall bodies which seruile nature being subiect to the soule becomes his subiect who commaunds the soule Augustus could imprison banish or confine bodies soules he could not Illa per immonsas spaciatur libera terras Caesar in hanc potuit iuris habere nihil He could lay bodies in fetters and chaines but the Apostles were endued with power to fetter and enchaine or to enlarge soules from fetters of sin quas Sathan alligauit which Sathan bound And are our beaux Esprits of the new Academy scandalized at this We will giue them yet further matter of scandal quite pluck out the ey 's of Enuy if she haue any left For of the Church and of the Gouernours and Doctors of the Church we read the Prophesy of Esay fulfilled in the Catholique Church Qui sunt istiqui ficut nubes volant sicut columbae ad fenestras suas who are these that flye as Cloud 's and as Doues to their window's Me expectant insulae naues in maris principio vt adducam filios tuos de longè For the Iland's expect me and the ship's of the sea that I may bring thy sonnes from farre But that which follow 's makes for the temporall end 's of the teachers those flying Cloud 's c. who bring to their nest's the spoiles of their Conuertites or Proselytes togeather with them argentum eorum aurum eorum c. their siluer and their gold Thus we read how the first Christians sold their whole estates laid downe the prices of all at the feet of the Apostles that they might from thenceforth receaue as from God by the hands of their Gouernor's the supplies of their necessities But was not this a gainfull trading to the Apostles And were not their fortunes fairely improoued Could they euer haue so enrich't themselues by fishing Luc. 5. Praeceptor per totam noctem laborantes nihil cepimus labouring this whole night we haue taken nothing And were not those nets well sold Nor were they content with part O scandal of Socinians they would haue all and punisht exemplarly some who reserued part of their money 's to themselues for their priuate vses But yet let them heare further to their greater scandall Rumpatur quisquis rumpitur inuidiâ Let him burst who swell's with enuie Et aedificabunt filij peregrinorum muros tuos Jsa Ibid. reges eorum ministrabunt tibi and the Children of strangers shall build thy wall 's and their Kings shall minister to thee Behold the fruit and haruest of their preaching those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word-seeder's Kinges become their Vassalles yea and commaunded vnder paine of perdition to be so Gens regnum quod tibi non seruierit peribit the nation and kingdome that shall not serue thee shall perish Et venient ad te curui filij eorum qui humiliauerunt te the posterity of those who haue persequnted thee shal come vnto thee vpon their knees And yet more plainly and fully suges lac gentium mamillâ regum lactabere and thou shalt suck the milke of the Gentiles thou shalt be nursed with the milk of Kings Had these happy changes and fortunes appeared to this Aduocate as probably possible to be achieued by him if he should become one of those teacher's of such doctrines I am verily persuaded he would haue made one yea and a very busy one and would haue flow'ne as fast as any of his fellow-pigeons to a benefice Howsoeuer they who know him well will not easily belieue he disliked such points of Catholique doctrine because they carry before them a face of gaine to accrew to the teachers of them nor will they belieue he is so very an enemy of gainfull doctrines who know how many Irons of thrift he hath in the fire at once and some in the water A further solution of this Calumny and Fallacy SECT IX BVt now to shew more plainly that this pretended scandall is but a fallacious Calumny I deny that points of doctrine are therefore to be disliked much more to be reputed scandalous because they make for the temporall end 's of the teachers if they be not made for those ends if those temporals be only the material not formall ends that is not the ends intended by the author of those doctrines but only shadow's or concomitants of the true and formall end Otherwise these tender Socinian consciences might as well stumble at the choyce of Salomon who hauing the choyce giuen him of what he would wish made choice of wisedom optaui datus est mihi sensus inuocaui venit in me spiritus sapientiae I wisht and sense was giuen me I inuok't and the spirit of wisedom came into me O but did he thriue by this guift venerunt autem mihi omnia bona pariter cum illâ all felicities all good things came to me togeather with it Nay to seeke the kingdome of heauen makes for the temporall ends of the seekers Primum quaerite regnum Dei c. first seeke the kingdome of heauen and all these other commodities shall be added as the ouer plus
such fayth besides the necessity of it cannot possibly mooue any scorne to religion Pref. but is rather most fit and congruous to beget a more honourable conceipt due Veneration of diuine mysteries in faythfull soules For those other who out of an excesse of an Hyperbolicall Pride will seeme to scorne whatsoeuer stand's without their sphere or because they are not will suppose there are no Eagles we can expect no lesse from them For this indeed is that verbum crucis pereuntibus stultitia that word of the crosse folly and matter of scorne to those who perish 1. Cor. 1. ijs autem qui salui fiunt id est nobis sayth S. Paul virtus Dei but to them that are saued that is to vs it is the Power of God And he who tell 's them which this Aduocate takes so hainously that he makes it some part of his Apology for Atheisme that they were as good not belieue at all as belieue with a lower degres of fayth Pref. meaning human fayth only sayth no more but true that humane fayth can neuer aspire to the purchase of supernatur all hopes that therefore in regard of euerlasting Saluation if it grow no higher it becomes fruitles and lost labour As if a generall pardon were proclaimed for all such who should make their personall appearance in such a Court or Pallace before the king vpon such a day or within such a space of tyme a man should say it were as good stay at home as to goe to the Court only and neuer enter or appeare in presence of the king because the pardon was granted to such personall appearance made not to such a iourney made for so likewise Saluation and pardon of sinnes is proclaimed and promised to such a fayth as should enter those adita those sacraries or treasuries of diuine hopes not to such as cannot and will not enter but stand without S. Leo Serm. 7. de Nat. in the mist of humane reasons or in the smoke of worldly wisedom vnable to ascend into that presence of Maiesty And yet there forsooth will they stand by this Aduocat's aduise nor goe one foot further or higher then they can see the way in that mist and will yet I thinke contest with diuine Wisedome yea and quarrell too if he vouchsafe not to come downe a degree lower and pardon them vpon equall termes or shew them some conuincing reason why it should be necessary to clymbe vp those staires of diuine fayth or why they should not sufficiently deserue pardon by taking so much paines in comming as farre as they could vpon the plaine and eauen ground of reason and why his Maiesty should annexe vnto his pardon such impossible and contradictory conditions as to require a voluntary and certaine assent to things in humane reason impossible that many moderate and considering men who would otherwise come readily and sue forth their pardons according to his Proclamation hearing of these conditions fly backe and belieue that there is either no such pardon to be expected and that this is but some forged Proclamation or that surely it is or should be granted vpon reasonable termes and such conditions as may sute with mens abilities that conditions of this impossible and contradictory nature are likely to make considering men scorne all pardons and all religion So they with their lower degree of fayth where I leaue them disputing with God at the foot of the staires proceed For thus is followeth The Church compared with Scripture SECT XIII Pref. LAstly I should desire you to consder whether your pretence that there is no good ground to belieue Scripture but your Churches infallibility ioyned with your pretending no ground for this but some text's of Scripture be not a faire way to make them that vnderstand themselues belieue neither Church nor Scripture Answ This Cauill or Calumny we might retort as he is wont almost totidem verbis as thus Whether their pretence that there is no good ground or rule whereby to determine what is truth in doctrine of fayth but Scripture ioyned with their pretending no ground for this but some text's of Scriptures togeather with euery mans naturall reason interpreting it which is as errant a guide and diuerse as the head 's of men be not a faire way to make men that vnderstand themselues belieue neither their doctrine nor their Scripture But what is this to him who cares not how his argument reflects vpon himselfe so it wound the Catholique who will be content like another Samson or Eleazar to be crush't to death vnder the ruine of his Aduersaries Trahere cùm pereas inuat he is cōtent that the ship be shot through and through wherein he sayles with the Catholique nay this would be his glory Solus nequis occidere nobiscum potes But what if we be deceaued all this while What if he be not the man Achylles himselfe but a Patroclus in his guise and fighting in his armour while he with his Socinian Myrmidons stands aloofe out of shot or if he fight and fall with Protestancy he will reuiue and reuenge himselfe in Socinianisme What I say if all this arguing for Protestancy against the Catholique be nothing else but a cunning vndermining to blow vp both Or what if this Switzer in religion fight only for pay To day for Holland to morrow perhaps for Spaine but if the warre and seruice grow hoat he willl serue neither he wil returne home and sleepe safe in the new Academy and in a whole skin Notwithstanding because this arrow howsoeuer flying from hart or hand only for Religion or for Pay being shot against a rock not entring there may chance to glance and wound some stander by who is neither rock nor rocky it will not be amisse to fore-arme such by fore-warning them It is false then which he presumeth Gratis that we pretend no other ground for the infallibility of the Church but some texts of Scriptures nor is our doctrine so incoherent to it selfe but as before and without Scripture the Church could truly say Visum est spiritui sancto nobis it hath seemed good to the holy Ghost and to vs So if no Scriptures were now the same Church guided by the same holy Ghost might truly say Visum est spiritui sancte nobis yea and this very doctrine that the same holy Ghost Spirit of truth speakes in the Church we are taught not only by this and those other texts of holy Scripture but à priori by the Church vpon whose credit and testimony we receaue this Scripture For thus I vrge Where was this Scripture where the whole Ghospell before it was written Was it not first in the Church in the soules and spirits of the Apostles and disciples of Christ wherin they were written by the fingar of the holy Ghost nay the presence of the holy Ghost sayth S. Austin was that Scripture or Scriptures written in their harts De spir
to himselfe a glorious Church hauing neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing And is all this come at length to a de iure not de facto to a what should be only not a what is And is this that state of beauty no lesse permanent then spotles wherein tyme which withers and wrinkles all the beauty of fields ' and flowers ' aruit foenum cecidit flos should cause no fading or impayring because 1. Pet. 1. Verbum Domini manet in aeternum that word of truth is euerlasting which as the forme and soule of beauty in this glorious spouse should neuer abandon her Now doth Christ Iesus thus sanctify his Spouse or no hath he purchast her this permanent Beauty or no If no then is he frustrate of his designe which was to espouse vnto himselfe a Church which should de facto indeed not deiure of duty only be euer Holy for though it be placed in the particular choice of euery single man to be holy or no thus and in such sort that no man is or shall be holy or vertuous of force or against his wil or not freely yet it is not in the particular choice or power of any particular man or men no nor in the malice of Hell it selfe to effect that Christ Iesus shall not haue a holy Church on earth euen to the worlds end For this was the intent of his precious death bloud-shed vt sanctificaret that he might de facto fanctify his Spouse that he might acquire vnto her a perpetuity of beauty not a duty only to preserue it And this intent can neuer be frustrate and yet it should be if the spouse of Christ should only of duty alwayes be holy but were not so indeed Or tell me is she spotlesse who should haue no spot's but hath them Is that a faire face which should be so and is not hath she no wrinkles who should haue none Rem But God hath neither decreed nor foretold that his true doctrine should de facto be alway's visibly profess't without any mixture of falshood Prom. What because he hath not foretold it to you who haue lost your eares of hearing or haue stop't them with humane reason or dwell too neere the Catadupa and the noise of waters or conuerse with bleating or bellowing cattle in fine haue your attention taken vp in the traffick care and tumult of earthly commodities that you cannot heare the musick of the Sphear's or the harmony of heauenly Truth And haue all men forfaited their eares since you haue beene deafe on the left eare or forgotten what you haue heard heretofore with the right But to other men it hath beene told and foretold in all the languages of the world they haue heard it foretold in those words of Esay Esay 35. Eterit ibi semita via via Sanctorum vocabitur hae erit vobisvia directa c. and this shall be a direct or straight way so that fooles shall not mistake it But Socinians are no simple fooles they may mistake it Now if this way be humane reason humanum est errare nothing human as such is exempt from error If the Scripture be this way the wisest may erre in interpreting it and then it is no way or at least not the way of Saints nor the true and straight way when a false interpretation hath distorted it But the doctrine of the Church is that Via Sanctorum the way of Saints wherein the spirit of truth residing according to promise interprets holy Scriptures which then becoms a way and a straight way wherin a Foole shall not erre 1. Cor. 3. Ibid. a Foole I say who hath made himself a foole that he may be made wise by Christian wisedom which is folly to the world and to Socinianisme as the wisedom of the world and Socinian Reason is madnes and folly to God and Christian Religion Againe they haue heard foretold in those words of our Sauiour Math. 28. 16. Ecce ego vobiscum sum c. and those other Et portae tuferi non praualebunt aduersus eam the power of hell shall not preuaile against it the preseruation of the Church of God from error of doctrine from all falshood of heresy They vnderstand it decreed by God Ephes and foretold by S. Paul Et ipse dedit quosdam Apostoles alios prophet as c. ad consummationem sanctorum in opus ministerij which worke of ministery necessarily supposeth visibility of the Ministers and ministred in adificationem corporis Christi for the edifying or building vp the body of Christ which is his Church the members whereof being to accede throughout all ages to this mysticall body by the Visible ministery of those Visible ministers Prelates Teachers and Gouernours inferre a necessity of true doctrine visibly taught or to be taught them by those their Prelates without which truth of doctrine they could not be the regenerate issue of the spirit of Truth They haue likewise heard the Church of God called by S. Paul 1. Tim. 1. Domus Deiviui columna firmamâ—ntum Veritatis the house of the liuing God the pillar and proppe of truth Of the house of God it is said Domum tuam decet sanctitudo Domine Psalm 92. in longitudinem dierum sanctitude becomes thy house O Lord for euer which fanctitude consistes in the rectitude of the vnderstanding and will of man rectified by truth of doctrine both in fayth and manners Ibid. And this is sure that visible house wherin S. Timothy was to be wary and to know how to conuerse for the edification and example of others who should be eye-witnesses and eare-witnesses of his doings and sayings This Church is also the pillar and proppe of Truth which proppe or pillar surely shall stand while truth hath need of a proppe which shall be in order to mankind while man is mortall obnoxious to errour and lapse in question of diuine truth To this pillar of Truth Isa 59. Johan 14.16 Johan 16.13 the spirit of God is by speciall Couenant tied to the worlds end or is himself this pillar of Truth and that spirit of truth which shall teach the Church and by the Church omnem veritatem all truth that is all necessary truth which necessary truth certainly excludes all falshood in doctrine of fayth and manners which are the points in contestation between the Catholicks and Protestants All this and much more the Fathers and Doctors of the Catholique Church haue heard and belieued as foretold and decreed by God concerning the Visible profession of true doctrine in the Church of Christ without any mixture of falshood and the continuance of such Visible Profession de facto not de iure only Nor if you can glosse these Scriptures to anothersense shall they cease for that to tell vs this truth to whom the Catholique Church doth so interpret them and who as sonnes of obedience haue learned to turne the
deafe eare to all exotique interpretation yea and to all naturall reason and discourse when it impugnes this authority as you Socinians are deafe to supernaturall truth when it sounds a note aboue the reach of your reason Wherefore since this your answere is in effect no otherwise a confutation of your first Motiue but by a flat deniall I do not see but it may moue still with as much force as euer yea and liue againe to fight against the Father and that with more equity then he fights against his Mother And all this I haue said supposing he meanes by his de facto as I vnderstand him and as I haue some reason more then euery man knows to thinke he mean's If he meane otherwise when he shall vouchsafe to come out of the Clouds and appeare in his true meaning he shall be answered otherwise II. Motiue Because Luther his followers separating from the Church of Rome separated also from all Churches pure or impure true or false then being in the world vpon which ground I conclude that either Gods promises did faile of performance if there were then no Church in the world which held all things necessary and nothing repugnant to Saluation or else that Luther and his Sectaries separating from all Churches then in the world and so from the true if there were any true were damnable Schismaticks II. Remotiue To the second God hath neither decreed nor foretold that there shall be alwayes a company of men free from all errour in it selfe damnable Neither is it alwayes of necessity Schismaticall to separate from the externall communion of a Church though wanting nothing necessary For if this Church supposed to want nothing necessary require me to professe against my conscience that I belieue some errour though neuer so small and innocent which I do not belieue and will not allow me her communion but vpon this condition In this case the Church for requiring this condition is Schismaâ—icall and not I for separating from the Church III. Promotiue Gods decree concerning the perpetuity of a Visible and infallible Church on earth to the end of the world hath bene foretold many wayes as hath beene declared in part in the former Promotiue and more fully and plainly by many Catholique writers and the contrary is heere assumed with too to great boldnes but without all proofe or possibility of proof That such separation from the Church is schismaticall is euident for schisme being the breach of vnion in Charity as Heresy violates the vnity of faith to separate from the externall communion of this Church is to shew you are fallen out with the Church with which you refuse to conuerse in Ecclesiasticall conuersation as he who flyeth the company of a man with whome he hath beene formerly familiar in way of ciuill conuersation is supposed to be fallen out with him Then againe this separation is very scaÌ„dalous as yeilding a iust presumption that such a Separant is in his iudgment an Heretique Now to scandalize wittingly and knowingly as such a Separate cannot be ignorant that this is a true cause of scandall or if he be he is wilfully ignorant is to violate the law of Charity and this especially when you separate from a Church wherein nothing necessary to Saluation is wanting as you make the supposition But if this Church wanting nothing necessary as you suppose require you to professe against your conscience that you belieue some error then say you your Separation is lawfull But either this error required by the Church to be belieued is in your conscience an error of doctrine concerning fayth or manners or no If yea then in your conscience somewhat necessary is wanting to that Church that is the contrary doctrine of truth If it be no error of doctrine concerning either of these but only some opinion held or practized as indifferent then certainly the Church will neuer vrge you to belieue it then againe you may choose whether you will belieue it or no and then lastly you should haue no cause for this to breake with the Church or deuide your selfe from her Communion If you say in the iudgment of the Church it may perhaps be held indifferent yea perhaps a necessary point of doctrine but to my conscience it is an error in faith or manners Now this I expected and this I knew you said in your hart so then I say againe in your iudgement and conscience the Church is wanting in some necessary point of true doctrine And heere now I appeale to the sentence of any sober and indifferent Christian what greater pride can be imagined then that any priuate or single man should haue a conscience repugnant and refragatory to the conference of the Church of God What sober Christian I say reflecting duely vpon such a conscience will not doome it mere insolency and arrogance True it is no pride of man can be a Paragon with the pride of formall Heresy this is indeed that Pes superbiae that foot of pride by the length and bulk whereof you may coniecture how Gigantique a monster an Heretique is For which cause all Orthodoxe Spirits haue learned to pray with the Church Psal 35. Non â—eniat miâ—ipes superbiae manus peccatoris non moucat me this foot of pride this suggestion of Sathan may it haue no accesse vnto my soule and the hand or pen of such a sinner let it haue no power to moue or drawe me from an humble beliefe Ibi ceciderunt qui operantur iniquitatem expulsi sunt nec potuerunt flare there and in that pride Apostat-Angels fell with them Apostat-Christians fall from the Church expulst and eiected thence or by reason of their pride they could stay no longer there For after this pride growing daily more in an Hereticall conscience hath at length extinguished the spirit of God stifled all his Inspirations and Motiues then the same spirit of God expulseth that Satanicall and mutinous spirit out of his family which is the Church of Christ bandites throw's him forth into the open field of professed Heresy 1. Iohn 2. vt manifesti fiant that they may be knowne for Heretiques and warred against as open rebels that their conuersation may be eschewed by weaker Christians their Herefies lay'd open and beaten downe by the more learned to be buried at last in the ignominy and obliuion of their infamous Ancestry 2. Thess 2. whom our Lord Iesus from age to age hath and will kill with the spirit of his mouth And now after their eiectmens and expulsion they pretend the equity of their separation when it is indeed their Iniquity which hath separated and expelled them qui operantur iniquitatem expulsi sunt c. As when God and the Apostate Angels by reason of their pride became two factions if I may so say the immensity of heauen was too strait to containe both Quaemare quae terras quae totum possidet Orbem Non caepit
applause and approbation to their Heresies being so farre indeed from any true agreement or harmony with them that they iarre euen in what they hold with them euen in those very doctrines wherein they say the same which the Fathers say The reason because in all those doctrines of Fathers this transcendent condition of a prepared and prompt submission to whatsoeuer determination of the Church is so permeant and pertinent and transfused throughout all their doctrines and sentences as the very soule and consistence of them so that whatsoeuer doctrine of Heretiques wanting this ingredient of a Catholique Submission and Relation to the Church can neuer be the same doctrine nor agreeable with that of the Fathers though it seeme neuer so much the same in words though inuested I say in the same language and exterior signification yet euen so they are but wolues in vestimentis ouium in the skin and garments of sheep which skin they put on for no other end nisi vt mactent perdant to kill massacre the soules of such who belieue they are Orthodoxe because they speak the language of the Fathers This is then the distinctiue signe the spirituall marke and cognoisance which infallibly proclaimes them to be Heretiques this pertinacity in any single opinion of fayth yea in any one the least point of fayth this standing our against the authority of the Church and refusall to submit destroyeth the whole forme the very constitutiue and distinctiue Character of a Catholique subiect Howsoeuer he appeare in all other points of Christian doctrine an Angell of light by this you shall discerne him as by a clouen foot with this submission no Hereticall opinion can make a man an Heretique without this the whole Apostolique Creed cannot make him a Catholique si per impossibile if it were possible that such submission should be wanting in him who belieues entirely the Apostolique Creed VII Motiue Because the first pretended reformers had neither extraordinary commission from God nor ordinary mission from the Church to preach Protestant doctrine VII Remotiue The Pastors of a Church caÌ„not but haue authority from is to preach against the abuses of it whether in doctrine or practise if there be any in it c. VII Promotiue Extraordinary mission or commission is immediately from God Ordinary mission or Commission is that which issueth immediatly from man placed in authority vnder God Now to proue an ordinary mission or commission is easily done by producing the testimony of that authority which sendeth or granteth the commission Extraordinary missions cannot be proued or manifested by ordinary manifestations and being not proued cannot oblige to acceptance or beliefe Now since to reforme is an act of power and authority and all power and authority is from God whether mediatly or immediatly hence it is that no such act can be legall or regular and so effectuall and valid of it self without mission or commission that is without receauing such power or authority to reforme from him who hath power to giue it that is from God himself immediatly or mediatly from his Officers Since then those pretended Reformers had or could proue no such mission or commission neither immediately nor mediately from God hence it followeth that they had none at all no authority Psay at all to reforme the Church Ergo their pretended Reformation was an illegall and irregular act of presumption It is true a Commission may be of two kinds respectiuely to circumstances It may be either an expresse and formall commission or interpretatiue only The expresse and formall Commission is that which I receaue expressely granted by superior authority Interpretatione I may call that which though I haue not expressely receaued from such authority yet I prudently and vndoubtingly suppose would be granted me in such circumstances of tyme place c. if the Superior had notice of them vpon which supposed and prudently presumed grant yea and direct will of the Superior I execute such an act of authority as to reforme reprebend teach preach c. Thus much premised let vs now consider this Remotiue or anti-Motine what waight it hath in ballance with the Motiue Remot The Pastours of a Church cannot but haue authority from it c. Promot Beware of false dealing in the very entrance A Church denoteth a particular Church The Catholique which is the Vniuersall Church the whole mysticall body whereof particular Churches and euery A Church are parts and members is improperly styled A Church but properly The Church as The spouse of Christ not A spouse as though he had many spouseâ—â— Vna est columba mea perfecta mea with which one Church or perfect Spouse particular Churches yea particular soules are his Spouses as they are one with her Now it is true that the Pastour of A Church hath authority from The Church to preach against the abuses of that particular Church when it swarueth either in doctrine or manners from the law's or doctrine of the Catholique Church to which it oweth Conformity But then againe the Pastour of A Church is the sheep not Pastour of The Church therefore his preaching against The Church is without all authority or commission either from God or man nay it is a prodigious presumption for any Christian subiect to preach against the doctrine or practise of that Church as against abuses whose doctrine and practise is his rule wherby to know what is abuse in either For of the preposterous way of making the Scripture the Rule to discerne such abuses by it inough hath beene already said how absurd and groundlesse it is especially when the point of doctrine which is imputed or traduced as abuse is concerning the Scripture it self or the true meaning or interpretation thereof which no priuate Spirit or particular Pastour hath authority do determine against the Church Remot Neither can any Christian want an ordinary commission from God to do a necessary worke of charity after a peaceable manner when there is no body else that can or will do it In extraordinary cases extraordinary courses are not to be disallowed Promot Commission immediate from God as granted to any subiect with out all mediation yea or approbation of his ordinary Superior cannot be an ordinary commission therefore it is not to be admitted or accepted yea or belieued without Precedent proofe and manifestation that it is from God by extraordinary signes and testifications Againe to vndertake such a reformation without any ordinary commission or yet extraordinary duly manifested to be such and that in opposition against ordinary authority cannot be peaceable for peace cannot be where order and subordination is violated therefore non est pax impijs dicit Dominus wicked men enioy not peace because in and by them as such due order is subuerted For this cause also this cannot be a worke of Charity being an act of dissention and rebellion and therefore of it self destructiue and subuersiue of Peace and Charity Remot But when there
Scriptures Fathers or whosoeuer quoted and cited as theirs which are not to be found in them Of which kind of falsifications our Catholique Writers from the beginning of Protestancy haue discouered almost innumerable and those vnanswerable and vnexcusable whereof your self Syr when you were intra mures at least in inclination or shew or I know not how were a part of testimony and an eye-witnes or else you verified my Verse And euen concerning this very Writer whose sword and buckler you are now there are who remember your obseruation when you said malum omen hauing met with a manifest falsification in the very beginning of his answere to Charity-Mistaken though now you are become Recantatis amicus Opprâ—brijs since he is in your bookes and your commodity in his Cellar's Vincunt benefacta feras Verily such false and fraudulent dealing in a bufines of this religious consequence and therefore to be treated with all reuerence and religiosity ought to be a strong Motiue to lead any prudent and indifferent man into iealousy and suspicion of such a cause and the maintainers of it that neither the cause is the cause of Truth which needes the patronage and defence of lyes nor the maintainers men of a consciencious spirit who can take vpon them the impudence to be the publique Authors of such Therefore the Catholique Writers haue taken paynes to manifest these falsities not in grosse as you do heere but by retaile particularly and namely as hic nuâ—â— here they falsify in this sentence in this very authority misalleaged where no probable mistake can be their apology which if you could do as they giue you example you would haue done it you who haue made calumnies of sober Verities sophismes of plaine and euident deductions you would not haue omitted to lay hold vpon some of those so many falsifications to haue made your Aduersary as odious and faithles as you could wish But you haue found none you can obiect none particularly and namely no not one You know you cannot do it and euen here you falsify your owne testimony I demonstrate you cannot do it because you do it not which in you who attempt to do more then you can to all aduantage of your cause and disparagement of your Aduersary is indeed an euident demonstration as many falsications c. as leaues and nor shew one O ridiculous Hyperbole and most negligent Calumny we see those leaues we see your most prying perusall of them nor blame I that but you who haue the ey 's of an Eagle or Aesculapian snake by which you see the least mote in your Aduersaries eye could so great a beame haue escaped your notice or discouery And for the number of Calumnies which you obiect and those ioyntly with falsifications and this purposely because you can easily by your willfull mistaking and misinterpreting your aduersaries words make vp some number of Calumnies where there are truly none so that if pretended falsifications stand but as Cypher's yet they will serue to double or treble the number of both yet I dare auouch let any man compare this your Aduersaries little Pamphlet with your great Pamphlet his falsifications and calumnies will stand like Cypher's with yours to make yours numberlesse Yet howsoeuer you haue not purged your prime Controuersy-Writers whom in your Motiue you consure as notoriously guilty of falsifications and calumnies no this aspersion stick 's fast vpon them still nor will it be wip't of by casting the like vpon others Clodius accusat Maches Catilina Cetheges Yet neither those Machi nor Cethegi are therefore guiltlesse because Clodius or Catiliue are guilty of the same crimes and this were the accusation or crime by you obiected against protestant-Writers by you the same truly recriminated in Catholique Authors And all men know by experience that euen in false crimes it is much more easy to sprinkle any man's reputation with discredit then to wipe it out againe X. Motiue Because by denying all humane authority either of Pope or Councels or Church to determine controuersies of sayth they haue abolished all possible meanes of suppressing Heresies or restoring Vnity to the Church X. Remotiue Lot all men belieue the Scripture and that only and endeauour to beâ—â—eue is in the true sense and require no more of others and they shall find this not only a better but the only meanes to suppresse Heresy and restore Vnity c. X. Promotiue Ti 's easy to perceaue that you haue tasted hony with Ionâ—thaâ— since your returne from Troy your eyes are now so open illuminate when you haue eaten more fully you will do meruailes Nor is this a petty meruaile that you haue recouered what was abolish't and haue reduced not only to possibility but to existence and actuality the meanes of suppressing Heresies c. without either Pope or Church or Councelâ— which before you had tasted hony seemed impossible to your vnderstanding The secret forces and vertues of nature say the Alchymist naturall Magician are discouered by vexation of Nature After much vexation and toyling of your brayn and body by your so many turn's and return's to and from Religion you haue found at length the Ariadne's threed of a most manifest direction Which threed of direction so often offered to your hand 's spun out of the bowell's of all Aduersaries of the Catholique Church as ordinary as cobwebb's I wonder much how you saw it no sooner It is euident you haue tasted hony For what more ordinary Rendeuous of all Heretiques then Prouocation from the Church to Scripture But no we are deceaued for in this way of discourse wherein you reiect all ordinary meanes of suppressing Heresies you take a shorter course to abolish Heresy it selfe yea to exterminate the very name and essence of it è rerum naturâ out of the world nay out of the vnderstanding of man that there shall not remaine the very notion or definition of it which is a more vniuersall and totall abolition and suppression then if the whole world were regested and reconfounded into the first Chaos or nothing of it For how can there be or euer haue beene any such thing as Heresy in coherence with this discourse For was there euer Heretique who could not pretend his endeauour to vnderstand the Scripture in the true sense yea and sufficient endeauour excluding the authority of the Church Councels c. by employing all the forces of his natural wit personall abilities who can say he employed not his endeauour by all these Then this endeauour only supposed though he belieued the Scriptures in a false sense and vpon that false sense grounded false doctrine euen repugnant to Christian faith yet he was no Heretique by you nay they did him wrong who would molest him any further or require any other beliefe at his hands Who can say now that Arius was an Heretique or Eutyches an Heretique or Manichaus an Heretique Who can say that any of those anciently
changes Victa racemifero Lyncas dedit India Baccho E quibus vt memorant quicquid vesica remittit Vertitur in lapides congelat aēre tacto I pray good after so much rocking and reeling he be not rock't a sleep become as deafe as a rocke nor by any wynd or storme of diuine threats or floods of reasons and persuasions any whit more moueable towards Religion Quà m si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes So that now to question his constancy of resolution in this kind were to question the constancy of the Moone which changeth so constantly euery moneth Notwithstanding I would haue you to take notice of the constancy of his discourse and how easily he falles of from his rocke within three lynes I know he may do so and yet be constant and true inough to his new Academiques for hauing immediatly before professed his rocky resolution vpon euident reasons not to belieue the Roman Doctrine he adioynes forthwith Pref. Neither truly were you more willing to effect such an alteration in me then I was to haue it effected Answ How standes this rocke of resolution vpon euident groundes not to belieue that is not to be altered with willingnes yea so much willingnes to be altered especially that euidence supposed by him to be such as no wynd c. no force of reason or persuasion could ouerthrow Vnles in saying his Aduersary was not more willing to effect such an alteration then himselfe to haue it effected he thought perhaps that his aduersary had no will at all to effect any such alteration as of one so often altered already that to alter him againe would not quit the cost conceauing that after another alteration he would be still more easy to be altered then euer to be setled who goes about to settle the wynd or fasten it to any one corner of the world or any thing else gouerned by the wyndes windmils or weather rocks or the like Pref. Yet because he makes shew of some desire to goe the right way to eternall happines though whether this way lye on the right hand or the left or straight forward to him it is indifferent Answ I will tell him my opinion which is that his way lyes neither on the left hand nor the right nor straight forward no nor backward though this last was not well omitted by him in his distribution as lying nearest to the right way but rather indeed straight downward as if you would settle a wether-cock in one constant positure the readiest way wil be to take it downe and place it on the ground This was the way S. Paul was put into though his alteration by the way is no Apology for this Atturneyes so often iterated reiterated alterations he changed with the change of the whole world Ecce ego noua facio omnia in Christo neque praputium neque circumcisio est aliquid sed nona creatura and t' was his fault he changed no sooner nor was it yet indeed a change For who will say he is changed who conuertes with him who is neuer changed in quo non est mutatio nec vicissitudinis adumbratio But this way Act. 9. I say was downeward Cadens in terram audiuit vocem c. Falling flat vpon the proued lying now eauen with himselfe that is with dust earth and nothing there he hard the voyce of his direction which eauenesse of place and center of truth he euer after kept both in life and doctrine qui existimat se aliquid esse cum nihil sit ipse se seducit he who thinks he is something being indeed nothing he beguiles himselfe At what tyme also he became blind that he might see For he was rather indeed shew'n then made blind he regained his sight by the imposition of handes of Ananias without further dispute who if he would haue disputed with him he could haue done it and remained blind still with a resolution built vpon a rocke of more euident groundes then any M. Aduocate hath to build vpon He would if he had beene of his humor haue questioned the credit of all those visions as being perhaps he would say illusions or at the least not infallibly true and then what could flow from those Principles more strong and infallible then the Principles themselues And suppose they were of infallible authority well then he was to persequute no more or if he were to be a Christian too yet why was Baptisme necessary why Circumcision not sufficient why such a Christian as Peter or Iohn See would he say how many Syllogismes you are short of the Conclusion you would infer Thus might he haue vanish't away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his disputes and haue proued rather a Vessel of Contention then Election And yet after all might haue returned with this or the like glory that he was now more confirmed in his beliefe of Iudaisme then euer or with somwhat like to this Ego exprobraui agminibus Israël hodie date mihi virum vt ineat mecum singulare certamen I haue braued the hostes of Israël this day challenging the best man among then to single combat of dispute with me I haue heard of some such Braues of the new Academy who had little cause of any such glory and who haue found their match more then once but they are so wise as to make their Aduersaries silence or secrecy their aduantage And yet I verily thinke you need not goe far to match this Goliath this Pythagorique Transmigration do but match him with himselfe if he fight not with himselfe yea if be not to hard for himselfe almost in euery page in some oftner then once or twice I dare be bound to answere the forfait As euen namely in this place hauing boasted his resolution built vpon a rock not to belieue the Roman Doctrine very soone after he professeth he retaines a Trauailer's indifference which way of religion to take of so many way 's as are now in the world When will this indifferent Trauailer come to his iourneys end who is not yet resolued of his way nor know's yet whether he be in it or no Yea and if he proue true to his principles will alwayes be thus indifferent So that if he haue gone twenty miles to day on the left hand of truth he wil goe to morrow as many on the right if he meete with a more apparent or howsoeuer more preuailing reason which may be nothing else perhaps but a better friend or some greater commodity or the like The third day you shall haue him gone as far a third way the fourth a fourth way and so forth and a thousand to one after many yeares you shall find him very litle aduanced in his way Inue Academiâ vmbriferâ nitidoue Lyceo In some Colledge-groue or Cloyster there you shall haue my indifferent Trauailer disputing of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But where is now that inuincible Resolution Was it only a
negatiue Resolution not to belieue the Catholique doctrine And hath that of all others deserued so ill of him Indeed he lost his fellowship by it but I presume the Catholique would haue giuen him a better had he but held out his yeares probation Yet now it seeme's he is resolued vpon euident grounds to be an indifferent Trauailer to all other Professions but neuer to belieue himselfe againe whatsoeuer he can obiect for the Catholique No he hath belieued himselfe that way twice already and hath deceaued himselfe therefore now he will neuer more dispute that question with himselfe againe but with this resolution before hand either to confute or not to belieue himselfe But to returne to that expected Achylles which this Aduocate had fancied Electum ex millibus the choyce Champion of thousand 's what becomes of him Marry this which we may suppose to haue beene the drift of this Chymerique discourse he hath met with this Aduocate a stronger Giant then he who hath despoyled him of all his confidence shew'n him his weakenes Pref. True some snares he found and colour's which might deceaue the simple but nothing that might persuade and very litle that might moue an vnderstanding man and one that can discerne betwixt Discourse and Sophistry Answ Now to shew this weaknes in his aduersary is indeed to vanquish him and himselfe must need 's be supposed this Vnderstanding-man who hath discouered it so that he hath made his aduersary an Achylles to great purpose to make himselfe a greater Achylles in defeating him Which successe that he nothing doubted heare his words Pref. In short I was verily persuaded that I plainly saw and could make it appeare to all dispassionate and vnpreiudicate Iudges that a veyne of Sophistry and Calumny did runne cleane through his booke from the beginning to the end Answ Now Syr if this charge be true which euen a passionate man if not wholy blinded with passion will presently discerne to be most false then is this very obiecting of a throughout continued Calumny and Sophistry a Gigantique victory indeed but the point is yet to proue And yet I will not vrge vpon him this way but for once will do him the curtesy my selfe to proue euidently that what he sayth is true For his answere as being indeed a very myne of Sophistry and Calumny as it shall manifestly appeare and by this ioynt-Edition running through his aduersaries booke it will easily follow by true consequence that a veine of Sophisty and Calumny runneth cleane through the said his Aduersaries booke from the beginning to the end ¶ And this is the busines I vndertooke deare Syr whereby to satisfy your request concerning my iudgment which shall appeare in actu exercito by what I shall note vnto you out of my obseruation in these two kinds especially of Sophistry and Calumny for to follow him a long in his quoted authorities of Bookes as I could not do it hauing neither those bookes at hand nor opportunity to procure them so I make no doubt but it will be fully donne by a better Champion though no Achylles neither but one I dare say who might seeme a dwarf standing by this Giant if selfe-conceipts might passe for true presumptions Calumnies and Sophistries of M. Ch. gathered out of his two Answers And first out of his answere to the Direction giuen him by the Maintayner of Charity SECTION I. AS among men Soph. Elench c. 1. sayth Aristotle some are of a healthfull complexion and constitution some are not but seeme to be so and of mettalls some are true gold or siluer others may haue the likenes and lustre of either but yet are neither so of rational Discourses some are indeed and really true discourses some are only apparently such Now sayth he because to some men it is more gainfull and aduantagious to seeme wise and knowing then to be and not to seeme therefore such men make choyce rather to seeme to do like wise and skilfull men then to doe it only and not seeme to do it The Sophister is such an one one who trade in false coynes of Discourse or seeming knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because the returne indeed iâ— quicker then in true gold of lawfull argument's and it is easier to deceaue the most part of men by fallacious inferences then to conuince vnderstanding men by true Conclusions The end and scope of Sophisme Soph. c. 3. is Victory intimated by the Philosopher in that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ambitious of Victory and a further end of this victory is some desired purchase as of riches honour or the like which are purchased thus at the cheapest rate as that which is bought with copper or the like counterfait trash comes cheaper to a man then what he buy 's with current gold For this cause therefore the Sophist serueth himselfe of such fallacious and adulterate formes of discoursing which hauing only the false face of true Syllogismes are indeed meere Sophismes and Paralogismes I haue no mind to introduce in this place an odious comparison between these two the Author of this answer with his Antagonist yet they who know them both will be able I thinke to make some probable coniecture to whether of the two this character of a Sophister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a trader or dealer in or for commodities may seeme the more proper to him who hath solemnely renounc't and diuorc't all trafficke with the world not only by profession but by a total and actual dispossession or to him who hauing added to the inclination of corrupt nature the poyse and sway of a bad repentance is fallen back vpon the world with a greater swing who conuerseth daily with trade and trafficke seeking to improue his fortunes by all the thriuing wayes he can Therefore so often and so lowdly to declaime against his Aduersaries Sophistry and Calumny I cannot imagine impudence inough in him to do it but an exigence raâ—her necessity to remoue from himselfe by his pretended dislike and detestation of these vices all opinion of them to withdraw mens eyes from beholding them in himselfe where they are most palpably to be seene and to deriue the iust hatred of them vpon his Aduersarie 1. Callumny and Sophisme So while he most proclaimeth his aduersaries sophistry euen then in that he imployeth his maister peece of a most sophisticall Calumny which I note as his primitiue and original Sophisme Calumny running throughout his whole Worke from the beginning to the end as shall appeare by the sequele of particulars But withall I am to premonish you Syr that you are not to expect to find all these fallacies within the number of Arisâ—â—tle's who were he now aliue and would vndertake to reduce them to those formes of Sophismes described and obserued by him and he was a man of no small obseruation in this kind had inherited the obseruations of many others I am verily persuaded he would haue found
premises of the Apostles feare and hiding themselues propter metum Iudeorum for feare of the Iewes Well then the Aduocate I will not say is deceaued but would deceaue for not all that fly the light hate the light Fallacy Light Equiuocall nay rather many flye the light because they hate darkenes For I hope it is not yet out of our memory or the memory of our Fathers that many by committing themselues to light haue beene committed to darkenes But howsoeuer is this to flye the light or triall of light to deny you personall meeting I would gladly know who more offer 's himselfe to light he who appeares in presence of fourty or twenty perhaps in some priuate Chamber or he who cometh forth vpon the stage of the world For I would aske the man what is it he pretend's by this prouoking to personall appearance Would he dispute with his aduersaries body his face his eys his forehead Grant that this Atturney hath the harder forehead hath nor his aduersary reason to eschew the encounter Or would he commit with with wit learning with learning c. If so he caÌ„not but know that the silent language of one Pen is lowder and further hard then the clamorous dispute of twenty Coursers and he who prefers a writing before a speaking iudge should me think 's in good coherence choose to be iudged rather by his pen then by his tongue For though the Apostles tongue he grantes were as good a rule as Scripture yet he who is no Apostle at least of the last twelue nor hath receaued their spirit though a clouen tongue must by vertue of his Principles and doth acknowledge Scripture a better iudge then speach If he loue the light indeed he should more loue the greater light If in confidence of his cause he desire to manifest his doctrine he doth best in making choice of such a light as wherin he may appeare not onely to a few but to many nor to the present in place alone but to the absent too nor onely to the present but to future ages For though he can speake low'd for a need yet he will scant be heard ouer the Thames disputing in Holbâ—rne nor in Westminster though in the vacancy but the voice of his Pen may be hard as far the Sequana and Poâ— and Rhenus and Tiber and Betiâ— Et Tagus Ganges forsan Antipodes And truly if he presume himselfe an equall match for so great vndertakings what shold he do els but manifest himselfe to the world and disabuse it Exalta in fortitudine vocem tuam tu qui euangelizas Sion you who euangelize Reformation to the Church of God exalt your voyce by the strength of your Pen the voyce of your tongue will proue too weake were it the voyce of ten Stentors If verily he affect notice and manifestation of a truth so presumed why will he choose to print those his waighty disputes rather in the aire then in written monuments if he please of brasse yea to out-liue the life of brasse or marble The truth is he wrongs his discretion by seeming to thinke otherwise and so shall he who belieues he doth nor his loue of light could not choose but be ambitious of this greater light yet howsoeuer he shews the folly of his fallacy in twyting his Aduersaries hate or feare of light who hath chosen to encounter him in the greatest light euen in the eye of the world The Application of this sentence of our Sauiour Qui malè agit c. to the Socinians SECT II. THE Atheist or the Embryo of Atheist the new Academy hateth the light indeed and therefore dixit insipient in corde suo c. he hath said it in the silence and secrecy of his owne hart where no body heares what he saith but they who are one heart with him They lurke in silence and obscurity although they walke at midday in open view in the market place yet still they fly the light they whisper in corners they will not speake plainly what they thinke what they belieue they sculke in Allegories and false pretences casting euer and anon cloudes of doubtfull questions ouer the most cleare and orthodox and receaued Doctrines Then they steale vpon you in the darknes vntill by little and little they leaue you no light of any positiue truth no fayth no grace no supernaturall blisse no Sunne aboue the Moone no God aboue the God of nature and reason confined within the necessity of the one and the short and narrow marches of the other Yet all this while this implicite or disguised Atheist holdes faire intelligence with our Protestant salutes him curteously takes him familiarly by the beard as though he would kisse him meane while with a flash of his sword through his side powre's out all his entralles of fayth and charity The poore Sonne of Abigail obserued not the sword hanging in a false sheath of counterfaite Religion whence it could easily slip out no more is this poysoned dagger of Socinians obserued hidden in the sheath of Protestancy or pretended ioyning with them against the Roman wherewith while he fleeâ—es in the face of Protestancy he giues it the deadly stabbe euen through the sides of Papacy These are indeed those Lucifugae those fly-lights those rationall Batts that sana ratio that sober mystery of iniquity negotium perambulans in tenebris the busines that walk's in darknes in tenebris in regione mâ—rtis in the misty and darkesome coast of sin and heresy These not daring to appeare vnto the world in the light of print in their owne guise of doctrine principles least so vgly Monsters should affright euen heresy it selfe in couert of his wing and in his nest hatch forth those griping Harpies Socinian problems that rauish religion out of the world defile and pollute all that 's pure and holy in Christian Fayth with their doctrine of Naturality sauouâ—ing of nothing but flesh and bloud c. Tristius haud illis monstrum nec sauior vlla Pestis ira Deum stygys sese extulit vndis Virginei volucrum vultus foedisâ—ima ventris Proluuies vncaue manus c. Would God would open the eyes of these our Countrymen especially our Vniuersities the two ey 's of this kingdome who vnwittingly and vnwillingly as I verily presume are made the stalking-horses to this Godlesse Academy this Progeny of viper's this issue of Heresy but which comming to light will kill that too and extinguish that litle remnant sparke of whatsoeuer beliefe or acknowledgment of a Christ of a Sauiour of mankind quaerunt extinguere scintillam meam quae relicta est vt non supersit viro meo nomen reliquiae super terram seeke to abolish and raze out of all notice and memory the very name of Christ Christianity So may the holy Church complaine of this Gigantique race in behalfe of his spouse who died to redeeme mankind whom these men seeke to murder againe in his seed
now he can vouchsafe to gleane after them And howsoeuer since Non-Conformity is now become out of all way of profit and preserment to say as they say and thinke with himselfe Pref. therefore to vse his words seeing we see these things done by him which hardly any man who knew him could belieue he would do what wonder if he goe forward still like to himselfe with as little modesty and moderation as hitherto For now he can call Catholique Honour and Reuerence towards the Images of our Sauiour or his Saints Idolatry and the legall proceeding of Catholique Countries against Heresies by them adiudged capitall crimes Murder and forgets in what coast of the world he writeth this and whose hart he wounds through the sides of Catholiques and how pretence of Heresy and pretence of Treason is laid by him to the charge of so many lawes and statutes lately prouided in such cases which remaine in force of vnrepealed decrees And may not this man write any thing so he write against Catholiques But can any man belieue that M. Ch. his first defection from Protestancy was so blind and headlong that he considered not whither he went Or that he knew not the Catholique doctrine concerning the vse of Pictures a Question so commonly vext and ventilated among Protestants Or is he the only Animal that in all spontaneous commigrations foreknow's only the whence but not the whither Or was he so wicked and irreligious that he would make choise of Idolatry Or conceaued he so meanely of the Profession for which he is now become so desperate a Whiffler that in his iudgement he plac't it behind Idolatry Or is lastly the Catholique vse of pictures become Idolatrous since he recoil'd secondly to Protestancy And with his reuolt from it is the Catholique doctrine reuolted from it selfe And may we not then iustly feare a generall Apostasy in the course of nature if M. Ch. should chance to turne once more Xanthe retro propera versaque recurrite lymphae His Calumny That Catholiques execution of Heretiques is Murder discussed and retorted SECT XVII Pref. DEuises haue beene inuented by Catholiques how men may worship Images without Idolatry kill innocent men vnder pretence of Heresy without murder Answ This point was not to be sleightly passed ouer contayning a notorious and fallacious Calumny wherein also if you obserue well you shall espy the Socinian mole working vnderneath Do but commaund your eyes a little patience If Heresy be only the pretended cause what is the latent true Cause which is pretexed or veiled vnder the name of Heresy What is that causa precatarchica that chiefly prineipally though couertly mouing cause if this be the euident and apparent cause only As when in the age of our Fathers some lost their liues vnder pretence of Treason it was easy to assigne the true cause practise or profession of ancient Religion made treagon by new Lawes Let him likewise declare vnto the world the true cause or causes pretens't and cloak't with the crime of Heresy in the procedures of Catholikes in those their capitall sentences and executions vpon Heretiques other then their willfull obstinacy in maintaining hereticall opinions I suppose now that Heresy is punishable by death euen in the opinion and practise of chiefest Protestants Caluin Beza Bellarm. de laicis l. 3. c. 22 and others being also the knowne and receaued doctrine of Fathers and Councels grounded vpon expresse testimonies of holy Scriptures And this a man would thinke to be the opinion of this Aduocate for euen in that he termes the killing of innocent men vnder pretence of Heresy Murder he should seeme to intimate that death executed vpon Heresy not the pretended but the true and primely mouing cause is not Murder nor killing of innocent men As he who calleth Death for Treason only pretended Murder supposeth that Treason it selfe truly so named is iustly punishable by Death will he then say that those opinions were not indeed Heresies but falsely supposed such or only made criminall vnder the name of Heresy and as such or insteed of such punished by death Which being neuer yet proued but rather the contrary conuinc't by all the Arguments and profes wherby any opinion can be conuinc't hereticall is in no wise now to be assumed And yet further if those opinions haue beene fore-iudged or fore-damned for Heresies Catholique posterity hauing those precedents according to those sentencing alike the very same Heresies cannot surely with any probability be said to haue proceeded to capitall condemnation of such opinions only vnder pretence of Heresy And if notwithstanding all those precedents of Antiquity authorities of Fathers Councels c. defining such opinions to be Hereticall what in after ages hath beene done according to those precedent Decrees and Definitions may be yet traduc't to a coulorable proceeding against such doctrines vnder pretence of heresy why may not likewise in the ciuill Gouernment of all Christian Common-wealths throughout the world capitall proceedings against many crimes in this present age according to Precedents Lawes of former tymes be brought back into dispute and Iudges of Assises condemned for their pronouncing capitall sentence against such delinquents and such and such demeanors vnder pretence of capitall Crimes being indeed would these men say no crimes at all or not iustly punish't with death And surely I belieue it will be hard for any Christian in consonancy to Christian doctrine to thinke that laycke and secular Precedents and Statutes may not with as litle scruple be recalled into question as Ecclesiastique Decrees or to giue a reason why the authority of a Nationall Synod Senate of Parlament should be more inuiolable then the authority of an Occumenicall Councell especially if we consider and belieue that this later authority both in regard of matter forme the things decreed and the manner of decreeing is of a nearer approach and accesse to diuine Law 's and Ordinances then the former If then Sentences and Iudgments conformable to Senatory or Parlamentory Statutes must not be esteemed colours and pretences only much more the sentences and executions of the Church in conformity to Ecclesiasticall orders and Constitutions cannot but absurdly be presumed to be only pretensions veilings and maskings of some hidden mistery of malice or pollicy For when the true cause is both apparent and of it selfe sufficient to authorize the proceeding of the Magistrate what need of masking and cloaking causes when whatsoeuer hidden or concealed cause is lesse valid and a lesse sufficient warrant for such proceedings then those publicke and noterious Decrees and Lawes prouided in such cases His Fallacy discouered his supposall of no Heresy according to Socinianisme SECT XVIII NOtwithstāding all this he hath yet an euasion though a very secret and close one somewhat like to the escapes of those amorously pursued riuers which Poet's fable vnder the ground whence we simple men while we thinke to follow him in open view and aboue ground
then other Churches are no then the Church of Rome Yet let them haue made of him what they can or what they list a Vessell of Honour or Contumely since by their all-sufficient Canon of Scripture they are vnquestionable for what they do or make of such matter yet I assure my selfe he will neuer be able to make good this comparison or parity vntill he make it euident when and how that notorious change entred into the Roman Church whence the Church of England receaued Christian Religion how and when I say the Roman Church Apostated from her selfe For vntill then we shall neuer cease to extoll in comparison her first birth and entrance first sowne and planted by Apostolicall euangelizing then watred with the blood of two principall Apostles as is extant vpon record of irrefragable testimony then the entrance of the same Religion from thence propagated into other nations togeather with the entrers and founders of the same all men of knowne and eminent sanctity to extoll I say these entrances of the Roman Religion in comparison with the infamous ingredientes of defection from that Church into some of the same Nations achieued by men or monsters rather of most celebrated infamy and stigmatized Worders Had the Church of Rome needed reformation were these likely or probable instruments a Friar with his dis-nun'd and de-uirginated Concubine Or a second branded and inusted Institutor Or that third Poet of his owne bi-sexe and heterogenious Loues Felicia tempora quae ves Moribus opponunt habeat iam Roma pudorem Happy tymes that haue such reformers now Rome hath cause to blush Most certainly the wisedom of God neuer made choyce of such Apostles who sayth Qui mihiministrat me sequatur he that doth my seruice let him follow me All morall and Christian Vertues especially contempt of the world and of all interest respect of flesh and blood vsher'd and accompanied the entrance of the Roman Catholique Religion wheresoeuer it entred Many well knowne and notorious vices paued the way to nouell Heresies and entred with them yea grew from the very root 's and principles of them Which very Paralell and one point of comparison whosoeuer shall haue duely considered and seriously waighed let him in gods Name dispute parities of the Church of England with the Roman Church The rest which followeth in this 16. Paragraph concerning the Popes infallibility is nothing else but rauing language the ouerflowing exuberance of his pregnant passion To which it is full inough to answer in this place That the Pope neuer hath nor euer shall define vice to be Vertue or the contrary nor oblige men to belieue Antichristianity Christianisme or Christianity Antichristian nor lead men by any such doctrine into Socinianisme into Turcisme yea these are the mans word 's vnto the diuell himselfe if he haue a mind to it Yet I confesse giue him his due this was no ill order'd consecution from Socinianisme to Turcisme from Turcisme to the Diuell though perhaps the progresse might haue beene better gisted thus From Turcisme to Socinianisme from Socinianisme to the Diuell at the very middle doore of which three I heare this Aduocate dwell's if any chance to enquire of him Domui paries communis vtrinque deuided from either with a common wall so that his mutuall intelligence with both is both facile and credible His concealed Arguments for Socinianisme SECT XXX ALthough this Atturney of Protestants would seeme to deserue of them his fee yet he will not faile to aduance his owne cause or his most owne Socinianisme which is I doubt his finis cui his most intended affaire Wherefore as he laboureth in behalf of Protestants to weaken yea to abolish all infallibility of the Church of Christ so he endeauours out of the doctrines of some Catholiques to vnnerue the testimony of Scriptures vpon the authority of which the whole fabrick of Protestancy is pretended to rely For who seeth not what aduantage he with his Socinian Academy will draw from hence As thus Doctrines of Christian fayth according to Protestants cannot be proued by the Authority of the Church for that authority with them is errant Againe some of them in the opinion of Papists cannot be sufficiently proued by Scriptures as that maine point of their fayth and hope the mistery of the Trinity therfore if we harken to both or belieue both since whether rather to belieue we know not it can no way be proued Whence with a Diagorus the surnamed Atheos or a Protagorus concerning any such thing as Trinity and soone after as Deity they will returne a Non liquet it is not certaine For me who haue enterprized the discouery of his Fallacies together with some hidden driftes and mines alone it shall not be necessary or requisite to pursue his seuerall testimonies of Catholique Writers they will do it no doubt at the least so far forth as they shall deeme it needfull who vndertake the answere of this great Pamphlet though I verily thinke it will proue magis operosum quà m operae pretium the haruest will neuer render the seed in so barren a field And I do not know but a man may suspect he had a mind to entertaine his Aduersary hastning after him in examining his witnesses were it but to slow his pursuite like as Medea scattered her brothers bones in her flight from her Father to retard their speed who eagerly pursued her while they stayd to gather them vp Yet was she neuer sure so peeuish a shrew as to quarrell with them for not gathering them vp cleane as this Aduocate doth in behalfe of his Clients scattered bones which notwithstanding I certainly thinke his aduersary either hath done or would haue gathered to a bone if he had thought them indeed his bones and not rather some other watry or aery substance Only after a more short and generall way I answere as concerning those Scriptures out of which as he sayth some of our Writers deny that the Trinity can be conuinc't ad hominem thus M. Ch. himselfe hath denyed in the hearing of sufficient witnesses that this point of Christian beliefe can be proued out of Scripture and said that it can lesse be so proued then the Catholique doctrine of Transubstantiation which he with his Agonotheâ—'s the Protestants constantly deny possible to be proued by Scriptures Whence thus I argue M. Ch. sayth the B. Trinity cannot be proued by Scripture he the same denieth that any point can be held as of diuine fayth but what is proued out of Scripture therefore he denieth that the Trinity is to be belieued as of diuine fayth Ergo he belieues not the B. Trinity as a Christian therefore he is none So by his owne doctrine he leades himselfe to Turcisme or Socinianisme or to the diuell himselfe if he haue a mynd to it Moreouer I answere those Catholique Writers no doubt from those lesse expresse and conuincing authorities of holy Scriptures lesse I say conuincing of themselues abstracting from
inough that he quit the Catholique for temporall ends Pref. But it is incredible that if he had such ends or desires he should make choyce of Socinianisme Because sayth he Socinianisme explicates the law's of Christ with more rigour and lesse indulgence and condescendence to the desires of flesh and blood then Catholique doctrine doth Answ How true this is I will not heere dispute but giue it true So did the Manichaans so the Donatists so the Tertullianists so some other Heresies explicate some points of Christian doctrine and some sentences of Scripture more rigidly and more repugnantly to flesh and blood then the Catholique Church did and therfore those Explicator's were Heretiques and their rigor of doctrine Heresy because a man may be an Heretique vs well for the more as for the lesse But what is this to the surpose that Sucinianisme explicates the Law 's of Christ with greater rigour if it bind no man to belieue them or to belieue that they are the law 's of Christ the Sonne of God and therefore obligatory but leaues euery man free to his owne reason to belieue so much of them as he think's fit where is then the rigour So the doctrine of Caluin explicate's the lawes of God the Ten Commaundments not only hard but impossible to be kept Loe the rigour of explication Loe. but therefore he bind's no man to keep them Loe the indulgence of application That Socinianisme is the readiest way to temporall Aduancements SECT XLI ANother reason of incredibility that if the Motiue to abandon the Catholique Church had beene temporall respects or ends he would haue imbraced Socinianisme is this as followeth Pref. Socintanisme is a doctrine by which no man in his right mynd â—an hope for any honour or preferment either in this Church or state or any other Answ This I deny and auouch the quite contrary which is this that in any Protestant or not Catholique State a Socinian is most capable of aduancement My reason because Socinianisme bindeth no man to professe it publiquely nay it imposeth no obligation to any exterior act whatsoeuer which may yield the least sent or suspicion of it nay rather by the maine principle of it sana ratio right reason such as they terme right which so appeareth to euery man in particular they are obliged to exhibit no signe or shew at all which may hinder or crosse their designes therefore Socinianisme obligeth rather to all exteriour conformity Since therefore all Heresy is subiect to change and alteration alterable by the authority by which it stands the Socinian of all other is most ready to change with it and to conforme himselfe to any Church or state whatsoeuer as the waxe as yet vnprinted is capable of any impression and the Eye hauing in it self no colour receaues the formes or idols of all colours Therefore in such a Church or State no Sect is endued with so great aduantages as Socinianisme is which can without any difficulty or demurre put on the guise and liuery of any profession The Socinian can be a Puritan to day to morrow a Protestant the third day an Arminian and the fourth an Arrian and after so or so or neither so nor so Nor can I doubt but this is indeed the very principall cause why so many make this choyce For the Socinian is the only He who sayles with euery wynd whiles other professors some out of tendernesse or scruple iniected by the principles of their doctrine dare not yeild to the countermaund of secular authority others out of animosity of opposition or as it were the pride of their choyce will not conforme others out of the extreme hate of what they feare the hate I say of that truth which they feare will preuaile will not come in and while all these either by their not yielding or by direct opposition run hazard of their fortunes yea liues and liberty the smooth-faced Socinian arides euery change derides the folly of Non-conformants swims aloft like a Corke fall's and rises with the waues whatsoeuer stormes against religion or be the seas neuer so rough he will neuer drowne in briefe he is the one Pamphylus and Eutrapelus of tymes and fortunes the only State-humourer and State-complyer He might passe for a very wiseman in some heathen Philosophy a very Atheist in Christianity And tell me now is not this man in the high rode-way of preferment if which he must if he be true to his principles he can but keep his owne Counsell or impart it only to his confidents Adde vnto all this that wheresoeuer rules of Policy or Reasons of State sway the Gouernment more then rules of Piety or Religion the Socinian will be thought the fittest instrument for imployment in State-affaires who wil be wrought to any circumstance of aduantage who will vndertake yea and make good way through all those difficulties which neither Religion nor Honesty would venture vpon For who can question the aduantage which he hath ouer a Religion-bound Conscience who himselfe hath either none or a Socinian one which is so flexible changing with euery turne of fancy or affection varying with euery variety of occasion All which demonstrates to vse his word's that this foule aspersion is no false one or at the least not so cleanly wip't out but that notwithstanding all his purgations and compurgations it stick 's as fast and deepe as euer it did The Aduocates misconstructions of his Aduersaries Direction declared to be a iust and charitable Admonition SECT XLII AS for the fountaine whence this Aduocate supposeth these aspersions to haue proceded from a hart sayth he abounding with the gall and bitternes of vncharitablenes Pref. and euen blind with malice towards him I verily think whosoeuer knows both parties will neuer belieue this censure neither as proceeding from the one nor as against the other The Censurer will neuer deserue so much credit as to be delieued nor the Censured so much discredit as to be suspected of so much malice Besides that as I am informed his Charity and curtesy extended to this plainant in tyme and place haue deserued a better construction were he not growne now so forgetfull of all that he learned among Catholikes that he hath forgotten to construe Charity in any Christian language either words or deeds He might haue construed this foule aspersion which he so call's no aspersion at all but an Admonition and a needfull one least others might receaue infection from his contagious pen. He might haue interpreted it as proceeding from Zeale not a peruerse Zeale as his words are to his superstition which himselfe this Aduocate immediatly after call's the Catholique Cause Now to call the Catholique cause or Religion superstitioâ— is indeed to vse the phraze of the Chayre a very Bull. And howsoeuer he construes it out of his owne not Zeale which were a mere Solecisme in Socinianisme but his ouer and ouer and many tymes peruerted iudgment yet other more sober and
vnderstanding men comparing this Admonition with the profession and function of the Admonisher will interprete it a duety or a necessary Charity They I say who shall consider that the prudence of Almighty God ouer his Church hath for all tymes deputed certaine men to the charge and office of Gardian of Watch of Sentinell according to that of the Prophet Jsa 62 Super mures tues Hierusalem constitui custodes c. Vpon thy wals Hierusalem I haue placed watchmen will not only hold them worthy pardon but prayse too who discharge this office faythfully which followeth in that place Totâ die nocte non tacebunt c. Day nor night they shall not be silent And if men of that charge and prefecture be worthily honoured with the appellation of Angels to them most fitly may be applyed what the other Prophet sayth Angelis suis Deus mandauit de te c. God hath charged his angels to guard thee c. Yea were the Incumbent of such a Ministery neuer so meane of quality yet the obligation fals vpon him with his function to signify the approach of the thiefe or enemy Ezech. 33. and they who shall heare this sound of signification are likewise bound to take notice and stand vpon their Guard And yet if there be any who shall hold either their owne or other the like watchments silence or conniuency in these occasions of impendent dangers their greater prudence or discretion yet euen this their prudhominy or caution may be so much the more exensable if their stilnes be supplied by the barking of others And for this cause they will I thinke at the least excuse if not cherish such who by discharging them vndertake the whole burden of Enuy and perill vpon themselues But to such a minister who hath apostated and reapostated from Religion take which you will who hath delegated any such authority Vnles he will take it for his warrant which is written in the Canticles Posuerunt me custodem in vineis Cant. â— Vineam meam non custodiui they haue appointed me a keeper in the vineyards my owne Vineyard I haue not kept surely almighty God gaue him no such keeping And howsoeuer he think's the preiudice of his Person so often false and faultring in Religion should in equity be no disparagement to his doctrine or disaduantage to his Plea yet it is certainly so great and iust a preiudice that it dischargeth all men from giuing eare or credit to his reasons whatsoeuer they be and whatsoeuer he argues to the contrary in this place might as well Apologize for the Diuel who no doubt could vrge as strong and pressing Reasons against any profession of Religion as this Adnocate hath either learn't or can learne of him and yet I suppose no man is bound with indifference to heare Reason from the Diuell no although he preach Ghospell Yea I dare presume to say had Christ himself beene preiudged in the opinions of indifferent and vnderstanding men by the like presumptions so strongly and clearely made good against him the not acceptance of the Iewes had beene at the least excusable Which he himselfe not obscurely fignified by his appeale to themselues Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccate Who of you can charge me with any sinne as supposing that a sufficient warrant of their recusancy if they could iustly charge him with any sinne much more if they could haue charged him with so grieuous a crime as Infidelity or Socinianisme For who can belioue him who is presumed not to belieue himself For be his reasons neuer so strong yet he will be supposed able to answere them since he belieues not the doctrine built vpon those reasons No. Syr it cannot it must not be otherwise this preiudice must in reason staue off all beliefe vntill it be remoued And if either Bellarmine could haue beene proued a Iew or Peron an Atheist as easily as credibly as this Minister-Aduocate who by these base adiections seeltes to fly-blow their worthily memories with suspition can be proued a Socinian Calumny which is implicitely both Iew and Atheist their works and writings would haue as litle credit and authority as themselues fayth and religion Wherefore the Christian Reader that the streame of this Ministers discourse turned another way may serue to good vse Vt cursum mutaâ—it iniquum fragibus amnis Doctus iter melies knowing that his Saluation depends vpon his impartiall and fyncere iudgment of these things now to harken to Orthodoxe and seriously Christian Doctors rather then to Renegado's and Tâ—aitorâ— to all states of Religion and to bend a more inclinable eare to Vertue then to Vice is no partiality at all will guard himself I hope from such impostors and will regard the person also not only his reasons and who it is speaks to him not only what he speakes knowing that if the Diuell vtter some truthes euen in those truthes he conceales a false and diuellish meaning and after that he hath gained credit by the attractiue splendor of some true doctrines he will hope to be belieued euen when he lyes and so howsoeuer appearing first in the inuesture of light and truth he will proue an Angell of darknes and Imposture It hath beene the vsuall Practise of all hereticall writers to embellish their discourses with as many verities as they could possibly inculcate without apparent contradiction or repugnancy Euen this deuise begot not a little esteeme to the Answerer of Charity mistaken he had employed his care to make his work popular and taking by the intermedling of many Catholique truth's this was it which so much commended it to the vulgar Reader whose capacity could not sound the incoherence and inconsistency of those truth 's with the fashood's which he principally intended to bring into credit by consorting thom with those therefore when he heard his worke so popularly applauded he might haue said with great truth and modesty as she who hearing her self highly praysed for the hayre she wore said Nescis quam pro melaudat nunc iste Sicambram The rest which followeth in this Prefatory Answere to the Direction and immediatly precedeth his Conclusion is a briefe recollection as it seemes of what is scattered in his ensuing Volume trust vp together with a number of points fastned all to one chiefe point and maine head of Doctrine which is indeed a most false Principle in the sense he pretendeth That all things necessary to Saluation are euidently contained in Scriptures Whence it will follow that the beliefe of the B. Trinity is not necessary to Saluation as which in this Aduocates opinion as I haue noted heretofore is not euidently reuealed in the Scriptures And yet grant this principle true it will follow that the authority determining Controuersies of fayth cannot be the Scripture but the Church for it is notorious that some Her eticall doctrines haue beene grounded vpon some ineuident passages of Scripture and those vented as doctrines of
fayth and therefore as necessarily to be belieued or at the least not reiected by an expresse misbeliefe Againe some parts of Scripture may haue an euident construction to one which to another may be darke and obscure then the doctrine inferred vpon that euidence will be of fayth to him to whom it is euidently contained in Scripture to another who will deny the euidence because he see 's it not it will not be so What authority then other then the Church shall determine the true sense of this part of Scripture euident and ineuident especially which may often fall out if no other more euident Scripture can be brought in as a witnesse of greater authority to cleare the doubt Heere then the doctrine of Fundamentalls and not Fundamentals will be good for nothing but to bring in more Fayths yea contradictory Fayths since all points of Fayth are Fundamentall so as necessarily to be belieued by him to whom they are euidently contained in Scripture and none fundamentall to him to whom they are not euidently contained in Scripture and therefore not necessary to be belieued And if you say that such points euidently contained in regard of some vnderstanding not euidently to another are none of those which are coÌ„maunded to be preached to all men which euasion this Aduocate may seeme to haue reserued how will this be proued since our Sauiours commaund is in general termes this Praedicate Euangelium hoc omnicreaturae Preach this Ghospell to all the world he sayth not these or these points of the Ghospell and no more And yet againe Quod aeudistis in aurem praedicate super tectae what you haue heard in secret preach it publiquely But especially when any controuersy concerning doctrine of fayth ariseth and some Heresy is authorized by some supposed euidence of Scripture then the contrary truth is to be preach't and publish't to the whole Church least that Heresy should be imbraced for a truth of Fayth or the word of God yea God himselfe pretended the Author of that vntruth or Heresy which pretence is a very high and low'd Blasphemy By which may appeare the grosse and palpable absurdity of this Ministers doctrine legitimating as it were all Adulterate and suprious Doctrines and Heresies by saying Nothing that is obscure can be necessary to be vnderstood or not mistaken Which is indeed one of his capitall Principles and a chiefe support of his doctrine For I aske Is not the mistaking or misinterpreting of some parts of Scripture the very source of some Hereticall doctrines and those Scriptures the greatest strength and colour that giueth credit and countenance to such Heresies Is not then the not-mistaking of such Scriptures necessary euen as necessary as it is that such doctrines should not preuaile or win credit by the authority of those Scriptures For though the true vnderstanding of some obscure parts of Scripture be not necessary yet it is necessary that such obscure parts be not so mistaken as to warrant Heresy by their authority If therefore out of that first principle by this Minister presumed a thousand other absurdities follow such as those by him deduced howsoeuer for I will not examine the regularity of those deductions what is this to the matter in hand For this was not the Direction or Caueat giuen him by his Aduersary that he should not answere out of this principle of Protestancy but that he should not out of those other specified by his Director those Socinian principles which euen Protestants abhorre The Conclusion of his Preface with his fallacious Apology for himselfe SECT XLIII HE concludes after his self-plauding manner as I haue often noted before Pref. And thus your Venome against me is in a manner spent Answ Which words I take notice of also heere that you may obserue with me the spirit of his style perpetuate throughout his whole worke and with all the difference betweene it and his Aduersariâ—s Pen and then tell me whether this be not the spirit of a Spider indeed which findeth venome euen where none is whome therfore that is Aduocare and Spider I shall not doubt to ioyne in one and the same Word which mall be this for the tyme. Inueniam aut faciam I will find it or make it Pref. Now only two litle impertinenties remaine the first that I refused to subscribe the Articles of the Church of England the second my mortues which first induced me to forsake Protestantisâ—â—e Answ So he and to the first he answer's in effect this Pref. That the doctrine of the Church of England is so pure and Orthodoxe that whosoeuer belieues it and liues according to it vndoubtedly he shall be sauâ—d That there is no error in it which may nocesutate or warrant a man to disturbe the peace or renounce the Communion of it Which acknowledgment he is persuaded is the only thing intended by subscription Answ By this you see he hath now leueled his way to Ecclesiasticall preferment so that if hereafter you heare he hath accepted any such commodity you many know he did it vpon better consideration The scruple he had concerning subscription is vanish't into the aire whither the rest of his scruples will follow in their turnes It may be that scruple was but a melancholique Dreame such as he conceaues Luthers conference with the Diuell might be He is now Materia prima for any benefice Chayre Prebendary Chanonry or what yee will you may coniecture who hath had the tempering and working of this pliable clay he was a Maister in that feat you may assure your selfe if not a Doctor and this his Maister-peece To the second impertinency concerning his motiues he answere's Pref. That it is more impertinent and friuolous then the former Vnlesse sayth he it he a iust exception against a Physician that himselfe was sometymes in and recenerâ—d himself from that disease which he vndertakes to cure or against a Guide in a way that at first before he had experience himselfe mistoâ—ke it and afterwardâ— so and his error and 〈◊〉 it That 〈…〉 Michaâ—â— de Montaigne wassurely of a farre different mynd for he will hardly allow any Physician competem but only for such diseases as himself had passed through and a farre greater then Montaigne Answ I pray you by the way take notice of this as not spoken by chance or without due reflection least any man should question whether authority were of greater waight in the Socinian balance Iesus Christ or Michael de Montaigne Pref. Euen he that said Tu conuersus confirma sratres tuos thou being conuerted confimre thy brethren giues vs sufficiently to vnderstand that they which haue themselues beene in such a state as to need conuersion are not thereby made incapable of but rather engaged and obliged vnto and qualified for this charitable function Answ He might haue added to this that the Hollander's men say make speciall choyce of such men for Pilot's and Maisters of ships who haue formerly wrack't many ships
fortuna duos So an Heretique when he makes two with the Catholique they cannot stand together vnder one roofe of the Church expulsi sunt nec potueruntstare the Spirit of God as being the predominant spirit in the Church and in right of possession expels the other incompatible spirit of Pride But yet Good Sir Remouer is it possible so grosse a folly should escape your reflection as you manifest in the close of this your answere for thus you write That if this Church wherin nothing necessary to Saluation is wanting will not allow you her Communion but vpon condition c. in this case the Church for requiring such a condition is schismaticall not you for separating Now for my part I truly should haue had a very great Scruple to haue imprinted vpon your reputation such a character of a prodigious pride as you haue heere displayed with your owne hand and pen. For as I haue intimated before it is certaine yea and to surmise the contrary or draw it within suspitioÌ„ or iealousy is mere litigious cauilling that the Church will neuer require the beliefe of so small and innocent an error as includeth no preiudice or falshood against Catholique faith or manners and if it include any such it cannot be small or innocent Yet put the case that the Church should require of any single or priuate Christian that he would for peace sake condescend with the whole Catholique Church to the profession of some point of doctrine which euen in his iudgment were but a small and innocent error but in her iudgment an Orthodoxe truth though not yet defined and would aduise him to depose his single conscience in this point wherein he could not possibly be supposed to haue any conuincing euidence especially against the torrent and vnanimous consent of the whole Church and that finally in case he would not submit he should be excommunicate held an alien from the Church were it not a strange pride in such a man to say No he could not and so would not depose his conscience that he know's he is in the right and the whole Church in an errour for thus we must suppose according to the sense of this Motiue that Luther stood out single against the whole Church and that therfore vnlesse the Church will allow him her Communion vpon his owne termes and conditions that is without obligation on his part to any such profession of doctrine or practise of the whole Church he would disclaime her communion and proclaime her schismaticall for requiring from him any such concurrence with her in any such practise or exterior conformity Although by the way Luther for whome he apologizeth opposed the whole Church in points of fayth then already defined when those errors if errors were neither small nor innocent being now imposed vpon Christians to be belieued euen as they would belieue God himself I say no error so imposed or so authorized could be small or innocent but if an error at all a most grieuous and damnable imposture Or if they were true doctrines and then also defined by the Church then Luther and his sectaries by not belieuing them and for separating according to your former discourse from that Church all the Churches of the world and so from the true if there were any true were damnable Schismatiqueâ— Therefore this part concerning Luthers Apostasy as vrged in your Motiue remaines yet vnanswered And yet further let vs consider your Apology for this Apostata personated in your selfe In this case the Church not allowing me her coÌ„munion is schismaticall not I for separating Reflect seriously vpon this discourse whether it be not only vnchristian but incongruous and illiterate nor worthy to haue dropt from a Grammarians Pen much lesse from a maister of Art's or of a Chaire For if Luther or any such whom you act in this defence were euer in the Church from which he separates he was in it as a limbe or member in the whole body for example as an arme or legge or thigh c. Now in case of separation or diuision betweene the body and any member do we say the body is deuided from the legge or arme or the legge or arme from the body Schisme is diuision or separation the Church say you is Schismaticall for requiring the aforesaid condition From whome or what schismaticall from whom or what deuided Is the Church deuided or separated from you What the body from the legge as if you suppose it incurably gangrain'd and then Immedicabile vuluns Eâ—se reâ—idendum est ne pars syncera trahatur But shall the body in this case be cut from the legge quis ita lâ—quitur is not this very language schismaticall separate from all Catholique vse of common sense speach Doth the Church separate from you in not condescending to your single opinion or you from her in not submitting to her Catholique doctrine The Church held the same doctrine for which you separate from her before you came to her you found her possest of this doctrine you leaue her so possest ' and standing where you found her Who separates in this case You stood for a while ioyned to a pillar you flye from the pillar what is the Pillar gone from you or you from the Pillar Nay I say more were it indeed an error which the Church should vrge you to professe and which because you refuse to professe you forsake the Church yet not the Church if we speake properly but you are the Schismatique or Separant Schismatique or Separate alway's denominates the inferior or subiected part for who are now the Separatist's in England They who exact conformity that is the Gouernours of the English Church or they who refuse to conforme Do you not see that by the very like discourse the Non-conformant's may conclude the Conformant's to be Schismaticks Nay might not the Heretiques of all ages euen those who opposed the doctrine of the primitiue Church haue returned the Schismaticall vpon that Church Yea vpon the Colledge of the Apostles themselues for requiring the beliefe of some doctrine which those Heretiques belieued not and which in their deluded conscience was errour For could not euery Nicholait say as much You require of me to professe against my conscience that I belieue some error which I belieue not otherwise you allow me not your communion you for requiring this are Schismaticall not I for separating from you rather then to condescend to this your condition Nor truly do I see why a priuate subiect might not aswell stand out against the King and Parlament refusing to subscribe or obey some decree or order establish't by full consent and authority of both Houses pleading in defence of such his recusancy that the order or decree is an errour in the State and alleadging perhap's to that purpose some old Charter or record misapplyed by his owne priuate interpretation disagreeing from the common intendment and declaration of the Lawyer 's and Iudges of
is no body else that can or will do it c. Prom. When Martin Luther ran out of his Monastery and ran into a Nunry made a strumpet of a Nun and forthwith turned rebell vnder the colour of reforming abuses in the Roman Church there was not indeed another to be found so very a miscreant who could and would do the like worke of vnchristian Charity although the breach now made he was seconded by others true and most effectiuely by that burn't Sacrifice of Geneua who for his merit might haue been an holocaust Hem Correctores Behold the Reformers of the Roman Church with the true mark 's and brand's of their extraordinary Mission Habeat iam Roma pudarem blush Catholique Rome for your abuses laid open to the world by these innoceÌ„t Hieremies these extraordinary Committies or Missioners For in extraordinary cases extraordinary courses are not to be disallowed Remot If some Christian Layman should come into a Country of Infidels and had ability to perswade them to Christianity who would say be might not vse it for want of commission Prom. No man would say it that I know and as you M. Aduocate put the case you speake Law for in this exigent interpretatiue Commission from the Church to any Layman your self for example hath place for the Church giues leaue to any man to persuade Christianity especially in such circumstances of necessity yea and to make Christians too by baptizing But now the application What aduantage hath your plea from this Who can interpret that any man hath a Commission from the Church to preach against the same Church This can be no ordinary commission as I haue proued nor extraordinary of any effect or authority vntill it be manifested by extraordinary testimony which can be no other but true miracles VIII Motiue Because Luther to preach against the Masse which containes the most materiall points now in controuersy was perswaded by reasons suggested to him by the Diuell himselfe disputing with him so himselfe professeth in his Booke de Missâ priuata that all men might take heed of sollowing him who professeth himselfe to follow the Diuell VIII Remotiue â—â—thers conference with the Diuell might be for ought I know nothing but a melanchely dreame c. VIII Promotiue An qui amant ipsisibi somma fingunt Surely t' is you who dreame that Luther dreamed because you would haue it so otherwise you cannot choose but know by him that he dreamed not if you will belieue him who sutely knew whether he were waking or sleeping when the Diuell cour'st him otherwise you make the Diuell a very dull and Phlegmatique courser I haue seen much coursing in my dayes but neuer knew any man who slept while he was cours't yet I cannot but admire your iudgment and discretion that you rather belieue Luther in what he teacheth against the Church then what he testifieth of his owne certaine knowledge but this was properly and prouidently added by you for ought I know for I thinke you were not present at the disputation no you were then but an Embrie of Protestantisme no nor so much but only existeÌ„t in virtute causarum so for ought you know it was nothing but a melancholy dreame Yea and perhaps for ought you know he wal'kt too in his sleepe when as he confesseth of himselfe he oftentymes walk't with the Diuell in his bed-chamber that some of his Diuels with whome he conuersed so familiarly were braue Diuels Doctours of diuinity Doctours of the Chaire among the Diuels this he dream'd too Now I verily suspect these were the disputant Diuels who disputed him out of the Masse and being such great Doctors of Diuinity sure they would scorn to take hold of such an aduantage to dispute with him while he slep't For they no doubt intended a victory which had beene none if he had beene a sleepe while they disputed therefore I verily thinke he was broad-waking as he himselfe teaches But did he indeed trow you M. Aduocate eat so much salt with the Diuell as he saith he did It little appear's by this or did he but dreame he eat salt too For surely he was a very freshman in diuinity who would be driuen out of his saith by a dreame or because he could not defend it againnst the Diuell waking he sleeping But since you reserue so many euasions to escape this Diuellish disputation with Luther as not denying that he had such a Conference euen waking with the waking Diuell but that it might be otherwise then againe for ought you know we will presse you no further with this yet when you made this Conference of Luther with the Diuell your Motiue not to belieue Luthers doctrine authorized or suggested by the Diuell you then knew no more then now you know that is for ought you knew it might be but a melancholy dreame so this part of your Motiue stand's in the same force which then it had Remot But if it were reall the Diuell might persuade Luther from the masse hoping by doing so to keep him constant to it Prom. Certainly you haue taught the Diuell a lesson of Policy for which he will thinke himselfe obliged to teach you many In the mean tyme this is a very transcendent answere and applyable to many a solid blasphemy If the Diuell had persuaded Luther to preach against the Blessed Trinity as whosoeuer preacheth or teacheth against it may be presumed I thinke to do it by his perswasion and somewhat to this purpose I haue heard whisper'd of a certaine Socinian who stickles for Protestancy why might not a Socinian or Antitrinitarian answere to this likewise that the Diuell perswaded him this to keepe him more constant to the beliefe of the Trinity So likewise if Arius were said to haue beene perswaded by the Diuels arguments to preach or write against the Equality or Consubstantiality of the Sonne of God with God the Father why might not the Arian to whom this should be obiected answere the Diuell did it to keepe him more constant to the beliefe of Consubstantiality Syr I am sory you are become so priuate and inward with the Diuell that you can diue into his intentions and acquaint your selfe with them better then he who had eat so much salt with him who had his company at bed and board as daily and as nightly as his owne reueyled Catharine But do you not see what a gappe you lay open to a most outragious blasphemy when you teach Heretiques to make the Diuell a Gateghist and an Apostle of Christian doctrine and what he doth himselfe he might do by others his instruments So then the of-spring and posterity of those Heretiques who denyed that the sonne of God suffered death vpon the crosse might be said to haue beene perswaded by the Diuell to preach that deniall to the end to keep them closer to the beliefe of Christs Passion Now I see you so wholy taken vp in your extraordinary missions and extraordinary Courses
that I doubt you will reiect or deride what I shall propose concerning the Diuels ordinary missions Otherwise I should hope to moue you to belieue that the Diuels Apostles doindeed belieue the Diuell and execute his charges and commaunds in preaching false Doctrines And as S. Paul could say Sâ—io cui credidi I know whom I haue belieued so could Luther that he was not God whom he belieued may partly appeare by that his ingenuous acknowledgment so notoriously celebrated Nec propter Deum incepi nec propter DeuÌ„definam I began not for God nor will I end for God For as the spirit of God yea and holy Angels haue their seeret immissions influxions impulsions vpon the soules of good Christians and worke them by degrees to conformity of their vnderstandings and wils to theirs in such sort that those holy Conformists deserue themselues to be called Angels as we read of S. Baptist and others by reason also of which Conformity it is said in generall termes qui adharet Deo vnus spiritus fit cum eo he who cleaueth to God becomes one spirit with him so hath the Diuell his ordinary immissions illusions and suggestions into a foule which deadly sinne wrought vp at length to the ripenes of some desperate heresy or infidelity hath opened vnto him and deliuered him the keyes of the hart and all the doores of senses who forthwith takes possession and reuels there commaunds as in his owne vntill at last by his daily and customary instigations suggestions and illusions he hath affected the like Conformity of iudgment and affection and bringeth such a man to so neare a resemblance and similitude of himselfe that he may worthily be called a Diuell as Iudas was by our Sauiour Nonâ—e ego res elegi duodecim rnus exvobis diabolus est I haue read a sentence of Trismâ—gisâ—us to this purpose Quandâ— damon in hâ—manam insâ—uit animam semina propria notiouis inspergit when the Diuell inflow's into the soule of a man he spawnâ—â— the seeds of his proper notion there and who can expect from such seed or spawne any other but a Diuellesh frye which shall resemble the parent in notions and affections and shall therefore execute his will not as aliud agentes or praeter intentionem not intending it as the Diuell oftentymes executes Gods will but with the very same intention and affection as our Sauiour not obscurely teacheth Vos quae vidistis apud Patrem vestrum facitis Ioan 8. you do as you haue seene and learned of your father And againe Vos facitis opera Patrisvestri you do the workes of your father and that they do them willingly purposely intendingly he expresseth more plainely in the words following Vos ex Patre Diabolo estis desideria Patris vestri vultis facere the Diuell is your father and you will accomplish his desires Now certainly if euer he had an obsequious child or seruant with whom he might deale confidently and openly not couertly perswading one thing and intending another Luther was the man in whom he might confide Theolog. Tigur Confest Germ. Hospinian histor Sacrament and who would run whither he would bid him goe and preach on the top of the howse what he had learned of him in his Closet and that de facto he taught false and reprobate doctrines the most learned Protestants testify These things put togeather and confidered that the Diuell is the author of lyes that he hath his false Prophets by whome he preacheth them for truths that he hath them at his commauÌ„d c. we haue reason to make the Diuels disswading the Masse and his perswading Luther to preach against it some probable Motiue as you heretofore to persist in the receaued doctrine of the Church rather then to be perswaded by the Diuell to the contrary doctrine of Protestants Rem Or the Diuell might perswade Luther from the Masse hoping that others would make his disswasion from it an argument for it as we see Papists do and be afraid of following Luther as confessing himselfe to haue beene perswaded by the Diuell Prom. You indeere the Diuell still more and more by the honour you do him First you haue made him an Apostle and preacher of true Christian doctrine as you suppose it and now you make him also a true Prophet who foresaw the Catholiques would not belieue his doctrine and so would persist in their former beliefe They do not belieue him indeed nor you who teach the same doctrine which the Diuell did And I hope Syr you will pardon our scruple our scruple I say to belieue the Diuell rather then the Catholique Church If you do not pardon vs this indifferent men will thinke you vnreasonable who expect we should pardon you who make a scruple to belieue the Church rather then the Diuell What would you haue vs do You know Syr according to the principles of Sceptiques and Soctuians opinions are carried to and fro vpon the wheeles of affections some men are more scrupulous then others and some make a scruple of one thing some of another as they are diuersly affected towards she matter of their scruples Catholiques for this is a Catholique scruple not flowing from any single or particular fancy stand affected towards the iudgment of the Catholique Church therefore according to the Sceptique way of Philosophers they make a scruple to follow the diuells doctrine and to fly from the doctrine of the Churchâ— you out of a contrary affection make a scruple to relinquish the Diuells doctrine to follow the Church Quot capitum viuunt totidem studiorum Millia Well Syr you may liue to remember you had a faire warning giuen you by your self to take heed of following him who professeth himselfe to follow the Diuell So this eight Motiue staÌ„ds yet in force and may moue others yea and will one day I dare say moone you too at least to a Phrygian repentance IX Motiue Because the Protestant cause is now and hath byn from the beginning maintained with grosse falsifications and calumnies whereof their prime Controuersy-writers are noteriously and in a high degree guilty IX Remotiue Iliaâ—â—s intra â—â—tres peccatur extra Papist's are more guilty of this then the Protestants Euen this very Author in this very Pamphlet hath not so many leaâ—es at falsications and calumnias IX Promotiue To this ninth Remotiue I know some will say Iliacâ—s intra mures mentitur extra Within and without the Treian or Roman wall 's he doth the same thing he deserues the whetstone in his owne iudgment and therfore he giues and takes it to himselfe as is manifest by the Paralell of his Motiues and Remotiues in those within in these without the wall 's Let vs first declare what we vnderstand by falsifications the same which you no doubt vnderstood in your Motiue when it moued you that is testimonies or authorities of Scriptures Fathers c. falsely alleaged Sentences or doctrines of
condemned Heretiques endeauoured not sufficiently by all other meanes within the compasse of their abilities Pope Councell and Church excepted to find out the true sense of the Scripture or to belieue it in the true sense Remot For he that belieues the Scripture syncerely and endeauours to belieue it in the true sense cannot possibly be an Heretique Promot Who shall now be able to iudge or condemne any Heretique After what manner shall he frame his inditement Who shall be able to conuince a sincere Professour him or her who professeth sufficiently his endeauour to belieue Scripture in the true sense by his most daily versing and conuersing with it his most punctuall citation of Booke Chapter and Verse who will hardly exchange an ordinary salutation but in the Scripture-phrase who I say shall be able to conuince his want of endeauour to belieue the Scripture in the true sense especially being required to belieue that only and no man liuing nor nothing else who can condemne him for an Heretique whatsoeuer he belieue or belieue not Tell me Aduocate is this the way whereby to meet in that one Rendeuous Ephes 4. of which S. Paul Denes occuramus omnes in vnitatem fidei these as many seuerall beliefes as seuerall or diuerse or contrary vnderstandings of the Scriptures these so many wayes some on the left some on the right hand some forward some quite backward besides a thousand subdiuisious of so many seuerall wayes of doctrines and interpretations Where fall they into one way Yes you poynt me out the very place where after many wyndings and Meanders they fall as riuers into one Sea that is the Scripture endeauoured to be belieued in the true sense But good Syr Scripture in all those senses is not Scripture is not the word of God nether doth any mans endeauour to belieue it in the true sense make it the word of God as it is vnderstood in a false But it is the word of God you will say perhaps to them who conceaue it so But so might Baal and Astaroth and Ieroboams Calues be Gods to those who belieued they were so there is no Idolatry at all And certainely as well no Idolatry as no Heresy and heresy it selfe is a spirituall Idolatry So euery falshood as belieued to be reueald by God and warranted by holy Scripture is an I doll of the Vnderstanding and an I doll as such is nothing S. Paul hath no reall subsistence is a meere fancy or Chymera What an vnity then of faith will this be consisting of so many diuisioÌ„s what a strange harmony composed of so many iarring discord's may not a man dreame as good a Faith and as good an vnity of religion as this is Cuius velut agri somnia vana Finguntur species ut nec pes nec caput rui Reddatur forma Furthermore it is manifest that such an vnity of fayth cannot stand with trne Vnity of Charity For euen naturally affections of the will follow in proportion of sympathy the iudgments dict a mens of the Vnderstanding So dissention of iudgments hath euer beene and is and will be the seed and parent of inter-warring and hostile affections as betweene the Lutherans and Caluinists Moreouer Charity is candida and rubicunda of a light and fiery constitution Ignem veni mittere in mundum and sent it was in fiery Tongues Now Candor and Heat are so natur'd and tempered according to physiology and experience it selfe that they seuer and disiect and dissolue Heterogenious copulations which darke cold amasseth togeather So diuine Charity where it groweth from the root of vnited faith dissolueth not onely contradictory doctrines in points of Faith with which it cannot consist on both sides and that by an instantaneous mutation as the sun-shine dispels darknes in a moment but more and more as it increaseth attoneth differences of lesse consequence as interposed cloudes impeaching greater heat and radiancy of Charity Remot And if no more then this were required of a man to make him capable of the Churches Communion then all men so qualified though they were different in opinion yet notwithstanding any such difference must be of necessity one in Communion Prom. Loe you the Man who I foresaw would do meruailes and is not this a compelle intrare strangely interpreted A great busines hath beene made in requiry after lost-sheep such as had strayed from the flock of Christ such as our Forefathers haue alwayes supposed Heretiques to be so much a do so much wearines in labouring their reduction so frequent and earnest prayer and pealing heauen with sighes and groanes of a Christian zeale and Charity so much fasting and voluntary maceration directed to that end so many hazardous expeditions aduentures in this spirituall quest of such as haue attempted their recouery to the very losse of their bloud and liues Now all this is proclaimed folly and lost labour our Forefathers silly Babes and sonnes of Ignorance compared with a late borne Doctour dropt out of the skies God know's how to fetch back those lost sheep though neuer so far stragling a sunder neuer so opposite and oppugnant and euen whether they will or no to make them of necessity of one Communion and one Church Nay wheresoeuer they be neuer so far from the fold yet they must be within it of necessity he hath found a meanes to incircle them with an Ocean with an Amphitrite of Scripture yea to ingird them with the very strings of a Geneua-Bible Nor will he fetch in those aboue ground only he will rake Hell to find them out and bring them into his Churches Communion euen maugre Hell and maugre themselues were it not only to be out of Hell for the tyme. For what saist thou Arius Hadst thou not Scriptures for for thy opinion Yes and did'st thou not endeauour to belieue them in the true sense Yes Come thou art a good Christian thou must be one in our Communion thou hast beene iniured furto sublatus es è terrâ Hebraeorum Gen. 4. hic innocent in lacum missus es the Papists eiected thee by a preuailing faction and now hither they haue sent thee to be the Diuels Prisoner And thou Donatus thou could'st not abide the Pope no more then I. What saist thou didst thou belieue the Scriptures Yes and didst thou not endeauour to belieue them in the true sense Yes And had'st thou not Scripture for thy doctrine Yes very good Scripture Iudica mihi c. vbi pascas vbi cubes in meridie by this Scripture and by the eleuation of the Pole and the meridian line I belieued the Church could not but be in Africk and if in Africk then surely in parte Douati I promise you a very good Christian you haue both Scripture and right reason grounded vpon Scripture and your deduction is according to the neuer-failing-rules of Logique at least you thought so did you not Yes M. Aduocate And that thought or iudgement of yours was neuer coÌ„uinc't with any argument which in your iudgment was vnanswerable No I was neuer so silenc't but I had something to say So you remained still vnconuinc't To my dying day Syr. Good Syr neither do I go about to conuince you you are as good a Christian as I am for ought I know Let me alone with the Papists I le presume to re-enter and re-enrole you in Communion of Christians let them do what they can you shal be postliminie restitutus I le breake a hole in the Church wall bring you in that way if the worst come to the worst and if the Papists will be vnreasonably obstinate you shall be one of our New Academy and geere all Religions Pardon me M. Aduocate if I seeme to personate you in this Dialogue if I make bold to entertaine you in the behalf of those anciently styled Heretiques your Charity as widely extending I suppose as your faith hath created in me a iust Presumption that you will reiect no Clyent so qualified as your selfe haue described Within the limit's and precincts of which description I verily thinke there neuer was so very a Terrae filius so very a Giant of so ignoble and obscure extraction no man euer so out-law'd or bandited out of all Christian Communion of all those fore-damned Heretiques but he could make it appeare that he had liued and dyed and consequently a Diocesian of your Church But euen these are too narrow marches for your Charity it will extend it selfe yet further Turkes Iewes Infidels and Heathens too so they belieue a God as shall appeare hereafter all which no doubt you will oblige vnto you no lesse then him or those who gaue you thanks for shewing them a way to heauen without Faith THvs farre I haue play'd the Promooter if any man will take this occasion to call me so but then let him remember that I am his Promooter whom we may suppose to haue beene the first Moouer in these Motiues which as all moouing Verities may truely say in ipso viuimus mouemur sumus Act. 17. Then let him who list call me Gods Promooter Iglory in this name I professe it nor will I be ashamed of my Profession Thus euen the Apostles as they were his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his cooperators or coadiutors so they were Gods Promooters Nâ—me autem vestrum patiatur quasi homicida 1. Pet. 4. aut fur aut maleficus aut alienorum explorator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I thinke we may interprete it an Informer Let no man suffer himselfe deseruedly to be called such a Promooter si autem vt Christianus non crubescat if as a Christian Promooter let him heare it without blushing For this is our confort as dayly as the crime 2. Cor. 6. vt Seductores Veraces This by way of Preuention FINIS Gentle Reader THE faults which haue escaped in printing by reason of the vncorrected copy and imploying of strangers not skillfull in our language I hope are not very many nor yet such as may not easily be corrected by thy iudicious Reading