Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	believe_v	scripture_n	tradition_n	2,560	5	9.2943	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B13579	A suruey of the apostasy of Marcus Antonius de Dominis, sometyme Arch-bishop of Spalato. / Drawne out his owne booke, and written in Latin, by Fidelis Annosus, Verementanus Druinus, deuine: and translated into English by A. M.; Survey of the apostasy of Marcus Antonius de Dominis, sometyme Arch-bishop of Spalato	Floyd, John, 1572-1649.; Hawkins, Henry, 1571?-1646.; De Dominis, Marco Antonio, 1560-1624. Archiepiscopus Spalatensis, suæ profectionis consilium exponit. Selections.	1617 (1617)	STC 11116; ESTC S117494	69,215	152

so that except the Churches reasons do so fully conuince you that it manifestly appeare to you that she proposeth to our beliefe that only which is conteined in the Scriptures except you see this I say you will not yeild nor do you thinke it meet that you should yeild being a man of such yeares Thus to stand vpon reasons drawne from Scripture is I say an hereticall tricke For those ancient Heretikes amongst whome as S. Augustine saith it was ordinarie to oppose their reasons and arguments to countermaund the definitions of the Church these heretikes I say did not vrge reason without Scripture but they boasted that they had and exacted likewise of the Church argumēts out of Scripture so cleere and so perspicuous that mans vnderstanding cannot resist against them And the same kind of conuincing arguments our Nouellestes require of the Catholike Church nor will they graunt any man to be an Heretike but such a oneas being conuinced by testimonies of Scriptures cleerly seeth that to be affirmed in Scriptures which the Church would haue to be beleeued notwithstanding he refuseth to belieue This is their doctrine which if we once admit to be currant t' is impossible there should be any men in the world properlie Heretikes For if that which the Church proposeth to be belieued they find not cleerlie deliuered in Scripture although they disagree from the Church they be not Heretikes as they say And on the other side if they see the doctrines of the Church to be cleerlie contained in Scripture they cannot dissent from them vnles they belieue either that God can lie or that the Scriptures of Christians be not the word of God And if they beleeue either of these two things they be not properly Heretiks For if they beleeue that God can lie they are not Heretikes but Atheists if they beleeue that God is true but thinke that Christian Scriptures be not his word they be not Heretikes but Infidells seing they wholy deny Scriptures and as Tertullian saith There can be no Heretike without Scriptures Praes c. 39. And if you say they be Heretiks that deny the Scriptures not wholy but in part then this followes that there can be no Heretike which doth not refuse some part of Canonicall Scriptures And then I aske of Protestants how they can taxe vs Catholikes for Heresy who from the Canon exclude no booke which they themselues admit nor do we find the doctrines cleerlie deliuered in Scriptures which they so boldly and clamorously contend to be conteined in them But my purpose is not at this time to ouerthrow this proud Tower of Heresy which is not to beleeue the Church vnlesse they see with their owne eys that her doctrine is conteined in Scripture 30. This only I vrge that you Antony were come to this last step towards Apostasy which is not to yield to the Churches authority without she make her word good by weighty reasons that out of presumption of your Wit and Learning but especially out of a great opinion of the ten Bookes you promise to print you haue shamefully reuolted frō the Church That which we read of Agar Sara's handmaide Gen. 16. may very well be applied to you Who perceauing that she had conceaued with child set light by her Mistresse For as soone as you had conceaued in your braine that new forme plot of an Ecclesiasticall gouernement and Christian vnion you forthwith contemned the iudgment of the Roman Church to whō you should haue beene obsequious submitting and captiuating your iudgment But it seemes by your manner of proceeding that you be of opinion that in those your ten Bookes more is conteined then in the whole Catholike world besids For you promise many great wonderfull Benefits which by your Reuolt from the Pope shall redound to the Church to witt the suppression of Schisme the vniting of Churches the extinguishing of Heresies the pacification of Princes from open Hostility and the combining of their forces for the subuersion of the Turke with the infranchisement of Christiā Captiues groaning vnder their yoke These are great and glorious things Let vs now see by what power you will performe them As Dauid with fiue stones encountred Goliah so you with the same number of bookes twice told will enter into combat with the aforenamed Monsters The Church say you shall shortly heare my voyce I will speake to the hart of Ierusalem I will call her forth Thus you and yet if I be not deceaued God only is he that speakes to the hart as for men euen the greatest the most learned and eloquent while they inuite men to heauenly matters of themselues can do no more but knocke at their eares Nor do I see vpon what grounds you may be so sure that your voyce should penetrate into the hart of the Church though I see very well that you imagine there is no small force but rather some diuine efficacy in your voyce Well what is that you will proclayme that shall be heard ouer Christendome Let vs now heare it from you own mouth I will say you shortly put forth my ten Bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Common wealth in which principally I endeauour that the Roman Errours may be detected the truth and soundnes both of Doctrine and Discipline may appeare that many of the Churches cast forth and reiected by the Roman Church may be reteyned still in a Catholike sense That the way of vnion betweene the Churches of Christ may be demonstrated or at least pointed at with a nod or finger And that if it be possible that is if it be possible my bookes wil do the deed we may all say and thincke the same thinges and so all Schismes may be repressed that the occasions may be taken away from Christian Princes of oppressing one another that therby the better they may direct their forces in such sort that the Churches of Christ groning vnder Infidel Tyrantes may be recouered to their former liberty Thus you write of your Booke What victories will this your Child yet in wombe get for the Church What ouerthrowes and woes will he worke vpon Heretiks if he may be once happily borne into the world 31. Whose birth therefore you iudge a matter of such consequence that any wickednes may be committed that he may be borne For I pray you is it not a wicked thing to forsake the Church Yes certainly and yet you finding no possibility to print your booke in a Catholike Country rent your self wholy from the Catholike Church that so your ympe finding no other way of passage to life might worke himselfe into the world by renting his mother Againe is it not great wickednes for Pastours to forsake their flock to the continuall tuition whereof the law of God seuerely bindeth them Without question it is Yet you write in this manner It was very necessary for me to leaue my flocke that so hauing broken also these bandes being at more liberty I might be the

reason teacheth that the bookes contrary to the Roman doctrine should be barred from the students and from those that are well affected to the Catholike faith You plainly confesse by this that you had not only a motion of doubt against faith but an assent also nor were you tempted only but you assented likewise to that which the temptation suggested to wit that the Roman faith was if not false at least wise not free from suspition of falshood 7. From hence is deriued the second Argument of your secret Infidelity You say that you euer haue suspected the Roman Church because she layeth those bookes out of sight which are any waies contrary to her doctrine And by and by you explicate more cleerely your suspition to wit That something there was no doubt in the bookes of heretikes which the Roman doctrine was not able to conuince I take you at your word that you alwaies suspected the Protestants doctrine to be sounder then the Catholikes What may be deduced from this Euen this that you were neuer a Catholike indeed neuer truly indued with the Roman Faith For he that beleeues like a Catholike and a Christian this thing of all other first and chiefly he belieues that nothing may be found surer or holier then his faith And this persuasion if it be vnsteddy and wauering is no Faith nor the substance of thinges hoped for nor the firme and immoueable ground of saluation Tertul. praesc ca. 8. When we beleeue saith Tertullian we desire to belieue no more for this thing we first of all belieue that there is not ought else to be belieued And againe Ibidem c. 11 No man seekes for that which he hath not lost or neuer had If you belieue the things that you ought to belieue and yet imagine something else to be sought for then surely you hope that there is something else to be found which you would neuer do but because either you did not belieue that which you seemed to belieue or else now you haue left to belieue Thus leauing your Faith you are found a denyer Thus Tertullian Who seemes Antony to speake to you your cōscience he conuents you say that with reason you haue alwaies esteemed the Roman doctrine to be touched with suspition of infirmity Is this you speake true or false If false who hath so bewitched you to giue the lye to your owne selfe how is it likely that you will speake well of the Pope whome you hate that spare not your owne selfe he that is not good to himselfe to whome will he be good If true how were you euer a Catholike and a Roman Catholike that haue alwaies iudged the Roman doctrine if not openly false yet lying open to suspitions of falshood and no way secure 8. Since then you confesse your Faith to haue been euer so sickly and feeble we trouble not our selues with the searching out of those decrees and mysteries of the Roman Faith wherof you doubted But in reward of your ingenuous confession we do of our owne accord vouchsafe you the graunt of your suite which you so painefully endeauour in this writing to obtayne of vs. For you desire that your departure may breed no admiration in vs Your suite Antony is reasonable and not amisse for vs. For it is the part of a Christian rather to eschewe heresies whereof Christ foretold vs Matth. 24.19 Act 20. then to wonder at them not to wonder I say though the starres should fall from heauen or that from among Bishops whome Christ hath placed to gouerne his Church purchased by his bloud there should arise men lying and speaking peruersly Wonderers as Tertulliā saith by the fall of certaine persons which were held for learned or holy men are edified to their owne destruction They vnderstand not that we ought to receaue Doctours with the Church and not with Doctours forsake the Church nor to esteeme the Faith for the persons that imbrace it but the persons for the Faith they imbrace But as for you Antony why should we wonder at your fall seeing you confesse that you were neuer stable Cypr. epist 52. ad Anton Graue men saith S. Cyprian and such as are once well soundly founded on the rock are not shaken with wind or stormes much lesse remoued with a sil●y blast It were a wonder indeed if such men so grounded in the faith should fal but you that neuer stood fast vpon the Rock against which the proud gats of hel cannot preuaile Aug. cont part Donat you that alwaies had the sayles of you high mind spread to the winds of nouelty you that continually suspected the infallible doctrines of the Roman Church for feeble you being so doubtfull and vncertaine no meruayle if at last tossed with diuers fancies as it were with certaine blastes of windes rushing vpon you you were beaten from your first purpose The Faith that in your selfe already was false could not long retayne the semblance of standing The third degree Suspicious Lightnes and Inconstancy BVT now if we do looke into the causes of these your doubts such causes especially which you commit to writing straight appeareth your suspicious Leuitie readily carried away with euery blast You obiect forsooth errours abuses and innumerable nouelties to the Roman Church but they are but words only For in particuler you do not so much as name them much lesse proue them Namely and especially you vrge two incitements of your change two things that scandalized you in the Catholike Church which we will now examine and lay open the vanity you discouer therein The first in your 8. page you set downe in these words That which made me more doubtfull was the exact and rigorous diligence vsed both at Rome and in my owne Countrey Wherby a most vigilant heed is taken that no books contrary to the Roman doct●i●e be handled or read of any good reason I thought there was that the vulgar sort should be forbidden them But that students and those very well affected to the Catholike faith and well knowne to be sound in doctrine should wholy be depriued of them I haue euer thought it a matter of suspition And in hiding suppressing and destroying of such books so much industry is had that for this cause only a man may well suspect that there is something in them which our doctrine is not able to conuince Two things you say first that you haue always had the Roman Church in suspitiō because she prohibits the aduersaries books The other is that for this very cause her doctrine may wel be called in question By the first you bewray the instability of your mind but in the second your impiety also 10. For the first then what a lightnes inconstancy is it vpon so vaine a suspition to renounce the Church especially that Church that hath bred you to Christ In whose lap to vse S. Augustins words many iust respects should haue held you Aug. cont Epist rundam

with passion you read them ten yeares togeather In these say you I fully found out what I sought for much more then I sought for How wel you set downe the māner of your fal You hated Heresie but affected Cōtumacy against the Pope and whilest you will not leaue what you loued you are falne into that which you abhorred You would faine without losse of your religion haue remained an obstinate and stubborne Catholike but behould you haue made wracke of your faith and are become a rebellious heretike You sought for Catholike contumacy contempt of the Pope a thing not to be found but in lieu therof you haue found heretical perfidiousnes Verily that haue you found which by such an inquiry you deserued to find Lib. 3. ep 9. which al that haue sought in this same māner haue found For the beginning of Heretikes saith S. Cyprian is to take delight in themselues with a swelling pride to contemne their Superiours Hereupon they rush into schismes and prophane Altars are reared vp out of the Church Malignant feuers neere neighbours to the Pestilence when the Plague is rife alwayes turne to this mischief so neere of kinne vnto them so when Heresies abound the Contempt of the supreme Pastour a sin neerly allied to Heresie can scarcely be conteined but that at least it will empty it selfe into Heresie Let them learne by your exāple that go about to be rebellious what they are like to find at last And let this be the conclusion That very orderly you descended on the steps of the ladder of Apostasy which I set you in the beginning You grow more sinfull one day then other you still more and more fleet away from the Church and euery step you make brings you neerer to Hell The eight Degree Presumption of proper Iudgment against the Church THERE now remaines the eight and last degree in the ladder of your descent a degree and step not only neighbouring vpon heresy but also neere allied vnto it which it doth not only touch immediatly but is the very beginning and head thereof This is too much presuming of your owne learning and wit aboue the Church S. de vera Relig cap. 16. Augustine saith excellently That no errour can be in the Christian religion did not mans soule worship her selfe for God For it were impossible that a Christian should be an Heretike did he still submit himselfe and inthrall his vnderstanding to God and giue him leaue by the voyce of his Church to ouersway their wits which are blind rashe erroneous not only when they wander without diuine Scriptures through the works of Nature but thē also when within the boundes of sacred Writ they discourse according to their owne fense arbitrement Hitherto before you openly fled from vs were you fallen Antony and being in that case you did not so much tend towards Apostasy but rather were you arriued at your iourneyes end You cannot abide Subiection of vnderstanding to the obedience of Faith euery where you impugne it and at last conclude I am no child now whome being nigh threescore yeares of age euery man should perswade what he listeth without weight of reasons This your girding at the Roman Church contaynes either a grosse calumniation or a vast arrogancy For if you meane to taxe the Roman Church as though she did vse to propose to be beleeued of her children with true submission of their vnderstanding whatsoeuer a priuate man or Doctour or Prelate listeth to teach truly you hatefully charge her with that she neuer doth But if by whatsoeuer listeth any man you meane those points of doctrine which you call proper decrees of the Roman Church namely the Supremacy of Peter and his Successour the doctrine that most of all offends you If by euery one you vnderstand the witnesses authours vnto whose iudgment the Romā Church would haue her childen submit the supposed weight of their reasons If I say you meane this doctrine and intend to shew your cōtempt of the authorities that are by the Church alleadged for it refusing to submit your iudgment to them then are you come to this last step which consumates an Apostata For you know all Catholikes all Bishops through out the world and the vniuersall Church now spread through Europe and the new found Indies acknowledge the Romā Supremacy I will not presse you with the old Councells I wil not vrge you with any thing that you may or will deny Only I say that this doctrine was defined by the Tridentine Councell by the Florentine by the Lateran which Lateran for the generall concourse of all Christendome and for the number of Bishops that were in it was the greatest of all Christian councells that haue beene hitherto assembled Will you then submit your iudgment to the censure of these councells You will not The assembly of so many so great and so worthy men by you is tearmed quisque euery one ordinary fellowes Their iudgmēts you accompt no more then quod quisque libuerit you reckon them as trifles Behould now appeares the arrogancy of your speach which though you harboured in your mind yet you sought to cloake with ambiguous words 29. You say that euery man shall not make you belieue what they list being a man as you are of almost three score yeares of age you say that you haue reasons of weight that the Church shal giue you better or as good before you will beleeue her O craft of Heresy what doth not she inuent to saue her selfe she sees that if the matter come to be tried by authority she will not be able to stand nor shew her selfe in comparison with the Catholike Church that her vpstart paucity will blush to appeare before the Catholike authority which in former ages was and now is spatiously enlarged ouer the world What shift then doth Heresy make With full mouth she cryes that she hath weighty reasons on her side hoping by the promise of reasons to counterballance the Churches authority If you will not credit me that this is the tricke of heresie then heare S. Epist 56. Augustine that long ago noted and discouered this fraud Heretiks saith he perceauing that they are vtterly ouerthrowne if the authority of their Conuenticles be brought to compare with the Catholik authority they endeauour by making shew promises of reason in some sort to ouercome the most graue and grounded authority of the Church For this kind of boldnes is the common and ordinary tricke almost of all Heretikes So S. Augustine which in truth toucheth your right who go about to poise the weight of your reasōs against the authority of the Church Nor do I captiously intend to wrest your words to a sense perhaps from your own meaning as if before you will beleeue you demaund of vs weighty reasons drawne out of Philosophy naturall Knowledge I deale not so hardly with you for you meane perhaps reasons grounded on Scriptures but

And yet you neither do nor can name any article of the Roman faith which hath not beene euer intertained as a point of faith in former times or els defined not in Rome but in some generall Councell 20. The second vntruth in greatnes equalleth the first in malice surpasseth it This vntruth standes recorded in your 24. page where you say that you left the Church of Rome ranne away fearing the ordinary sequells of hatred that are poysoning stabbing For to this passe say you matters are brought in this age that at Rome by authority frō Rome the controuersies of the Church are committed no longer to Deuines nor to Councells but to racke-maisters to hang-men to cut-throats to bloud-suckers to parricides Here Antony you are seene to be in a fury and to haue your hart imbued with the bloudy disposition of the men you haue named The Church of Rome doth not practise that which you hatefully charge her with she referred the Church-controuersies of this age not to be maintained with poysoning stabbing by bloud-suckers and parricides but to be treated of and decided by Fathers by Bishops by graue and learned Deuines in the Councell of Trent Such as obstinatly defend doctrines accursed by Councells such as reuiue the controuersies that haue been already decided such men I say being conuicted of the crime and confessing themselues to be contemners of the Churches Councells she deliuers vp to be punished not to bloud suckers nor to Parricides but to Christian Princes and to the Iudges by them appointed she doth not reproue the endeauours of Deuines who discusse points of doctrine that are yet vndefined but the temerity of Heretikes whose labours are as S. Leo saith to seeke for the things that already are found Epist 60. to reuiue controuersies that are ended to repeale the doctrines that haue byn formerly established You lay to our charge Antony the cruell demeanour of your Caluinists who with swordes and weapons do not defend Decrees of Councells which were laudable do not put an end to controuersies that were neuer before determined which were an euill not altogeather so vntolerable but the doctrines that Councells haue builded and set vp they with their poyniards swordes and lances beate downe the beliefe which the tradition of Ancestours which the Decrees of generall Councells haue rooted in Christian breasts togeather with their bowells they draw out and cast into the fire 21. The third vntruth is page 16. that We Romanists haue contracted the Church Catholike to which Christ promised the perpetuall assistance of the holy Ghost to be the very Court of Rome What Catholike euer wrote spake thought or so much as dreamed of this fond conceite The particuler Church of Rome we tearme the principall Church with which all Churches must haue agrement and accesse vnto in regard of her more powerfull Principality we tearme the Church of Rome the head of that Catholike Church to which Christ promised perpetuall infallible assistance but we say not that the sole Roman is the vniuersall Catholike Church taking the Roman by it self without the rest of the Christian Churches adhering vnto her 22. The fourth vntruth is in the same 16. page where you say that It is exacted of vs that we belieue firmely as an article of our Faith that the whole spirit of Christ is resident in the Court of Rome only yea in the Pope only What greater falshood can be vttered or deuised The spirit of Christ is indeed but one nor is he in any one man in whome he is not whole if we respect his substance and in this sense we say that the spirit of Christ is whole in the Pope yea in euery Christian But this one and same spirit worketh very different and diuers things according to which he is not whole in euery one and in this sense to say that we beleeue the whole spirit of Christ to be abiding in the Pope only is a great vntruth First the spirit of Christ assisteth the Elect whome through the dangerous miseries of this life he guideth by sure meanes to the land of the liuing Do we make this spirit resident in the Pope only Do we not acknowledge that there be others Elect besides the Pope Secondly the spirit of Christ is the spirit of adoption in whome we crye Father Father Do we teach that this spirit is in none but in Popes that the Pope only is Iust Holy and the Sonne of God Thirdly the spirit of Christ signeth and sealeth the hartes of euery one that is faithfull and annointeth them that they may belieue And is this spirit also made by vs proper to the Pope only Do we say that there is not any true beleeuing Christian besides him Fourthly the spirit of Christ teacheth his Church so that the whole Church can neuer erre And do we not place this spirit infallible in the whole Church So that whatsoeuer hath byn in any age receaued by the vniforme beliefe of the whole Church that without doubt as being a most certaine Christian verity we imbrace Fiftly the spirit of Christ decideth the controuersies which concerning faith in euery age may arise in the Church neither do we make fast this spirit to the Pope only but we teach that the same is abiding in the rest of the Catholike Bishops who be the Iudges of Faith and togeather with the Roman Bishop their Head do determine assuredly the cōtrouersies of the Church Wherefore I wonder where your forehead was when you did not blush to write that we make the whole spirit of Christ to be abiding in the Pope only 23. The fift vntruth is in the 26. page That whatsoeuer hath byn formerly fortould by the Prophets for the honour of the vniuersall Church we by extreme violence and wronge draw it all to the Roman Court only It is certayne that some sayings of Prophets do particulerly concerne the Church of Rome and haue byn accordingly performed in it But that whatsoeuer is sayd glorious of the Church in the ancient Prophets we turne it all to the Church yea to the Court of Rome only you speake it indeed in your splene against the Pope but in speaking it your knowledge cannot choose but giue a checke to your tongue 24. The sixt vntruth is That the Roman Court hath now a longe while suppressed the holy Councells so hath put out the eyes of the Church If you speake of the Councells that haue byn celebrated already none do more Religiously obserue their Decrees then the Church of Rome If you meane of Councells that should be gathered that she hinders that they cannot be now assembled did not the Church of Rome I pray you call of late the Councell of Trent to say nothing of Nationall Prouincial and Episcopall Councells which are very frequently held And if your accusation be limited to General Councels you must know that to gather so great and vniuersall assembly is not an easy thing nor necessary for the

do they concerne Who requires that doctrines questionable be admitted as articles of Faith before they be fully and sufficiently defined Who would haue any to be accomted Heretikes before the Church instructed by the holy Ghost hath-censured them We Catholikes hold the Primacy of the Roman Bishop as a doctrine of Faith the denyers therof who haue byn accursed in diuers generall Councells we detest as Heretikes This grieueth you so many Councells be not full because you the Pastour forsooke of the vniuersall Church haue not subscribed vnto them And in the 38. page you thunder againe without any bolt and giue vs idle prescripts Let vs say you hold different doctrines let vs be of contrary opinions till things be fully defined which are not yet fully defined but in the meane time let vs continue in vnity Do not make the schisme greater then it is Thus you idly spend pen inke and paper What doctrine do we demaund that you should beleeue which hath not byn established by the Decrees of general Coūcels Well saith Marcian the Emperour that they call in question and dare publikely dispute against that which is already iudged and rightly ordayned offer great wronge to the iudgmēt of the most Reuerend Synodes The doctrine which most you mislike to wit that the Pope is appoynted of God Head and Pastour of the whole Church the Orient and Occident hath defined in nine Generall Councells What fuller Councells can you desire Are you yet fully satisfied No but you puffe and go forward blowing still demanding fuller definitions till you come to conclude your Pamphlet with this sentence which to me seemes wholy deuoyd of any good sense Let vs driue away by the light of the truth Euangelicall without firme obstinacy the darkenes of errours and falsities 50. Secondly that you not only beate the ayre with idle words but also fight against your selfe denying in one place what in another you affirme these fiue examples of your contradictions may make manifest 51. The first contradiction In the page 8. and 9. you say that the Roman diligence in forbidding the bookes of her aduersaries did euer displease you This practise say you not to be voyd of suspition as reason doth shew so did I euer Iudge Euer Antony did you neuer dislike the reading bookes that impugne the Roman doctrine did you neuer aboue measure detest it In the 4. page to proue that you tooke not your resolution to depart from vs by reading our aduersaries bookes thus you write I Religiously call God to witnesse that I did vehemently abhorre from the reading of the bookes that the Roman diligence had forbidden Which bookes if any Prelate addicted to the Roman Court hath detested then I by reason of vayne feares conceaued against this reading in my childhood did aboue measure detest 52. The second Contradiction In the 9. page you say That you still suspected the Roman Church by reason of her forbidding of her aduersaries bookes that her doctrine was weake and not able to ouerthrow her aduersaries arguments But in the 7. page you say the contrary to wit that the proper decrees doctrines of Rome were with true captiuity of your vnderstanding wholy imprinted and rooted in your mind How were they wholy imprinted in your mind if you euer supected them if you still imbraced them not without feare staggering 53. The third Contradiction You say in the 2. and 5. page That by going from Rome you incurre great losse of wealth and dignity And in the 25. page That vnder the Pope you had honorable dignities and commodities not to be contemned But in the page 22. you say that Bishops vnder the Pope that are not Temporall Lords and such a meere Bishop were you are scarse so much as seruantes of our Lord the Pope base contemptible oppressed troden vnder foote miserably subiect Now Antony make these things agree base seruitude and honorable dignity cōmodityes not to be contemned miserable subiection 54. The fourth contradiction In the 22. page you write That the Church vnder the Pope is no Church but a certaine Common-wealth vnder his Monarchy meerly temporall These wordes import that the Church of Rome is no Church but else where you call it a Church yea the Church of Christ Pag. 29. I am Bishop in the Church of Christ who then were Bishop in no Church but in the Roman And in the 35. page you call the Roman Bishops your Colleages and fellow-Bishops And againe page 39. you thus commaund the Catholike-Roman Bishops Offer your communion readily to all that still retayne their opinions against you yet so that falsityes be driuen away None can make that common with another which they haue not themselues If the Roman Church be not a Christian Communion and society how can they offer readily their Christian Society and communion to others If it be meerely and wholy a temporall Common-wealth what can it affoard to her friends but meere human peace and temporall communion 55. The fifth Cōtradiction In the 39. pag. you cōmand Bishops to restore peace and charity to all that professe Christ by the Creeds essentiall In these words you require no more then the profession of the Creeds essentiall but within three lines after this sentence followes Offer readily your cōmunion to all sauing their opinions yet driuing away falsityes Here you will haue them that communicate togeather to agree not only in the profession of your essentiall Creeds but also in the abnegation of falsities wherof you expresse neither the quality nor the number And yet also herein you agree not with your selfe for in the 36. page you praise S. Cyprian because he did cōmunicate with such as erred and whome he iudged to erre most grieuously Here you will haue errours to be tolerated and communion not to be broken for errours but in the former speach you allow not communion but with this condition that on both sides falsities be driuen away I demand of you Antony whether errours grieuous errours be not falsities If they be then how is communion to be giuen without reiecting of errours and yet not to be exhibited without driuing away falsities Here you shamfully contradict your selfe The Conclusion I will now end I haue shewed who you were before you fell and by what stepps and degrees you came to fall into the depth of Apostasy I haue also declared who now you are and into what a low gulfe of Hereticall Impiety you be plunged Why then may I not conclude and in few wordes foretell what will finally become of you laying vpon you the Censure of the Apostle 2. Timoth. c. 3.9 You shall not further proceed for your folly shall be manifest vnto almen You being thus discouered by this Suruey if you will not see your selfe yet Protestants wil easily see who you are and what great want of iudgment you haue bewrayed in your writings They will wonder that into so little a Pamphlet written in your owne defence

you could possibly lay togeather on a heape so many things openly false absurd impious so many things wherein you contradict your selfe wherein you bewray the courses which you would fayne haue hidden wherin you vtterly ouerthrow your owne cause Wherfore you can neuer proceed further except you returne backe to the Catholike Church from which you haue fayled You are gone out of the way you must needs returne before you can make forward 56. The applause wherwith our Adueruersaries intertained you let it not detayne you from this returne Therein they did nothing that swarueth from the nature of Heretikes or from the course that ancient Heretikes held Praesc cap. 40. Being themselues Apostata's saith Tertullian they ioyfully receaue our Apostata's that fly vnto them they bestow on them benefices they aduance them to dignities so tying them fast to their sect by honours whome they cannot bind sure to them by the truth Nor let their exclamations prayses predictions allure you wherwith they shew their great hope conceyued that they shall vanquish the Pope you being their leader These are but bubbles froath which your fall from so high a state into so deep a gulfe hath raysed suddaynly will vanish away Despise them These are the oyle of sinners wherewith wretches appointed for fire euerlasting be in this world anointed that in the next their burning may be the sorer Abhorre them These are but conceits prayses wherwith they make a vaine shew of triumph ouer vs and flatter you to your face who behind your backe play vpon you with scoffes loading you with the disgracefull titles you truly deserue and with some also which perchance you haue not merited when not long ago at S. Dunstans you made a speach in the street do you not know what the people then present vttered against you They called you great-bellied-Doctour made fat vnder Antichrist and some there were also that sayd that before you ranne away from the Pope you got your owne Neece with child and that feare to be punished for it made you trudge away with your great load of flesh in such hast 57. I do not relate these things as beleeuing them or as desiring that they should be beleeued but to shew how vaine be the prayses of Heretikes how vayne a prophet you were in promising to yourselfe that your most beautifull Sara for so you tearme your good Name should remaine pure and vntoucht in the midest of Barbarians For these things were vented against you not in Rome by Catholikes but in London by Protestants openly in the streets Many great Personages also do not sticke to mutter about you that besides grossnes of body you haue brought nothing with you that is answerable to the greatnes of your titles that your booke doth not equall the solemne ostentation and expectation you haue raised therof that you do not performe therein what you promise yea some would not haue it printed at all fearing you may therwith disgrace your selfe and their Ghospell 58. Now then Antony why tarry you in the middest of a depraued and peruerse nation Why do you wretchedly draw on your gray hayres with grief and disgrace to your graue Seeke for true renowne who haue lost the vaine honour that you hūted for irreligiously Enter into your owne hart remember whence you are falne do pennance and turne againe to your first workes Through Gods goodnesse assisting you rayse your self a monument of the diuine mercy which this present age which the future times may admire and make a lasting benefit of Let reioycing posterity to the worlds end be taught by your example this comfortable truth that the bowels of diuine benignity be not so loathing of sinners but that they willingly take in againe euen tepide Apostata's whome they were forced to cast vp Ayme at the dignity of a Penitent seeing you haue lost the state of Innocēcy You that haue let go the sterne you who beaten out of the ship wherein you were Pilot floate in the Ocean lay hold on this board which is reached vnto you whereon you may swimme to a Kingdome You are threescore yeares old very nigh the remnant of your yeares be bad and few Withdraw these your bad yeares from vice that you may see good dayes Bestow these your few yeares in pennance that you may gaine yeares eternall Let not the bitternes of pennāce discourage you which by the dew of diuine Comforts falling from aboue will be sweetned Where sinne hath abounded there grace will more abound The deeper and darker that the dungeon is wherin you are kept by so much more sweet will the breath be that being thence deliuered you shall draw in the lightsome mercies of your Redeemer 59. Nor let it deiect you that you haue shamefully falne but remember that as the depth of the diuine Iustice so likewise the depth of the diuine Mercy is vnsearchable Who knowes the mind of God And whether he hath not ordayned that this your fall be for your owne rising againe and for the rising of many The secret pride wherein you went mounting a loft in your conceyts against your Creatour was to be beaten downe by a mighty thunderclappe that you others might feele it For this your pride standing on foote you could no wayes be saued by him that lookes vpon low things high things knoweth a farre off Wherfore I am not greeued with your defection no not for your owne sake which yet would grieue me could I be persuaded that you should haue byn saued had you continued in the Catholike Church But when I consider the wauering disposition the darke and intangled proceedings of Apostata's both ancient and new I come to be setled in this opinion That none perish by falling from the Church who would not as well haue perished through their secret concealed errours though they had continued outwardly in the Church And these men are by the secret course of diuine Prouidence cast out of the Church to the end that being so forlorne they may reflect on themselues or else that by being out of the Church they may benefit others who by remayning in the Church would neuer haue benefited themselues This to me seemes the opinion of S. Augustine whose golden words I here set downe de vera Relig. c. 8. Seing it is truly sayd that Heresies must needs be to the end that they who are of proofe amongst you may be made manifest let vs make vse of this benefit of the diuine prouidence For Heretikes be made of such kind of men who though they were in the Church would we neuerthelesse erre but being out of the Church they be very beneficial not because they teach the Truth for hereof they are ignorant but because they awake carnall Catholikes to seeke and spirituall Catholikes to declare the truth Thus S. Augustine 60. I could name diuers Apostata's with whome in times past I haue byn acquaynted who euen then when to others yea to themselues they seemed Catholikes were couertly infected with Errours against the Roman Faith and possessed with secret malice against the Roman Sea But you Antony are an example of this truth that may stand insteed of many For to say nothing of your open enimity against the Roman doctrine in your last ten yeares you that still beleeued that the Church of Rome was iustly suspected of errours what could the externall shew and profession of a Roman Catholike haue auayled you to saluation You that still were doubting whether some doctrine more firme then the Catholike did not lye hidden in the writings of Heretikes what good would it haue done you that you kept your eyes from their books your body frō their Conuenticls You had perished secretly nor such was your carelessnes had you perceaued that you did perish Now you erre openly that many may be taught the truth you perish in the sight of the world that diuers affrighted with your example may be moued to work their saluation And why may not this your fall turne to your euerlasting exaltation I will not despayre but when you haue been cloyed with the huskes of swine which now you feed in a farmers house that once were a feeder of sheep in the Church I do not despayre I say but that one day you will call to mind the aboundance of your fathers house and hauing learned by deare experience what a mischiefe secret Pride is retourning to the Catholike Church you will say I had perished vnlesse I had perished FINIS Faultes escaped in the Printing Page Line Fault Correction 6. vlt. of out of 8. 9. hell in hell in 12. 26. vnion vnion 16. 3. your our 19. penult false falne 23. 12. of if Ibid. 21. vnto men vnto you 25. 23. now as this now this 26. 5. prosecuteth persecuteth 31. 20. begon be gone 33. 14. do be to be 53. 3. to rather to Rather Ibid. 4. your selfe You your selfe you Ibid. 6. deeds You deeds you 67. 2. Church Church Ibid. 4. world world 68. 19. guide grudge 72. 19. swarueth swarued 79. 19. one owne 98. 18. fall face 102. 2. so to 111. 6. are were 121. 12. deserue do serue