the Protestants in their preaching and writings upon Scripture have beene farre more laborious then the Papists Name me one Papist who Preached so often and wrote so accurately upon the Holy Scriptures as Calvin I grant their bookes exceede in bulke and number because they have a hundred to one and they abound with leisure and meanes having many thousands maintained in their monasteries who are not charged as our Divines are with care of soules and perpetuall labours in their Pastorall function To the sixteenth If it were sufficient to bandy sentences without proofe and words without reasons how easily could we say mutato nomine de te fabula narratur It is but changing the names of Marcion Valentine and Apelles into Bellarmine Valentia and Lessius or if you will into Iohn Flood and it will fit as well as if it were made for him How proves he that Papists are in the Church and Protestants out of it He shall never prove but that we have as good title and much better to the Holy Scriptures the deedes and evidences of our salvation then they To the seventeenth Possession of a land proveth not necessarily a right to the writings and evidences belonging unto it For possession may be got by violent usurpation or intrusion but on the contrary the writings and evidences left by the disposer and bequeather of the land being examined will shew who hath the true title to the land that is the Church By these deedes and evidences we offer to be tried but they refuse the triall pretending I know not what nuncupatory will by word of mouth and disparaging these writings and evidences as uncertaine ambiguus and unperfect as the Knight hath made good against him in this Section Concerning the testomonies of Cardinall Bellarmine Chapter 15. Spectacles a page 464. usque ad 485. THE testimonies alleaged by the Knight out of Cardinall Bellarmine for the Protestant faith in the points of Transubstantiation private Masse Prayer in an unknowne tongue Communion in both kindes the number of Sacraments the necessity of good workes and justification by faith alone have beene all answered in the former Sections and that which he addeth concerning universality and miracles maketh for the Catholike and against the Protestant faith The Hammer THe testimony of an adversary is of great force Isid Polus ep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially a learned one most of all one his death-bed when he looketh every houre to be summoned before the Judge of all flesh and therefore we have all reason to make great dainties of the noble confession of the learnedest of all our Romish adversaries in the maine point of faith wherewith he gave up the ghost Domine me admittas in numerum sanctorum tuorum non meriti astimator sed veniae largitor Lord admit me into the number of thy Saints not weighing my merits but pardoning my offences this testimony and prayer of his printed in his will the Knight in this Section backeth with another taken out of his third booke Dejustificat c. 17. Vel habet homo vera merita vel non habet c. Either a man hath true merit or he hath not if he hath not he is dangerously deceived and seduceth himselfe whilest he trusteth in false merits for these are deceitfull riches saith Saint Bernard which rob a man of the true but if he hath true merits he looseth nothing by this that hee regardeth them not but putteth his whole trust in Gods mercie only This is not only Forte but Fulgens telum to use the words of Quintilian Not onely a strong but a beautifull bright and shining weapon wherwith the Knight giveth his Adversary such a deadly wound that hee panteth as it were for life through all this Section Much adoe hee hath to say any thing which yet is as good as nothing to wit that Bellarmine in his first booke De Iustificatione cap. 1. saith that Hee will indeavour by five principall Arguments to demonstrate that a man is not justified by Faith onely What will the Iesuit conclude from hence that the Cardinall contradicteth himselfe I grant it and I take it for a singular Argument and Evidence of Truth on our side which inforced this great Cardinall after hee had spent all his strength in justifying the Romish Tenet concerning justification by workes and the merit therof in the end to undoe all that he had done and conclude fully with the Knight that In regard of the uncertainty of a mans owne justice and the danger of vaine-glory it is safest to renounce all mans merit and to put our trust onely in Gods mercie Sufficit ad meritum scire quod non sufficiant merita For other passages in this chapter I shall passe them over with a drie foot because there is nothing materiall in them said in excuse of Bellarmine his warping from the Romish Religion which hath not beene discussed before As for such Rotten-stuffe wherewith hee pieceth it up in his later Paragraphs namely five six seven and eight fetched from Romish Broker-shops concerning the name Catholique and multitude of Professours and miracles because none of it sutes with the title or argument of this Chapter I will not defile my hands with it onely I wish the Reader to take notice that the Iesuit twice in this Chapter convinced by evidence of Truth yeeldeth the Knight the Bucklers acknowledging out of Cardinall Bellarmine That our Doctrine is safer than theirs in two maine points the one concerning the Sacrament the other justification by Faith onely For the first Linea 28. Page 465 hee is constrained to confesse that though hee holdeth Private Masse to be lawfull yet that It is a more perfect and in a certaine sort more lawfull Masse where there be some to communicate with the Priest for then it hath both the ends for which it was ordained Certainly that which is more lawfull is safer our Communion therefore wherein some of necessitie communicate with the Priest is safer than their Private Masse by the Iesuits owne confession For the second I find page 471. that though much against his will yet in Terminis hee concurres with Bellarmine in acknowledging our Doctrine concerning relying onely on Christs merits and Gods mercie for salvation to be safest and what else doe all Protestants contend for in the point of Justification by Faith alone but that all men renounce their owne inherent righteousnesse and trust onely to Gods mercie in Christ for Justification and Salvation If at Christs dreadfull Tribunall the safest Plea are Christ his merits applied to us by Faith I wonder any dare to use any other If there be safety nay most safety as the Iesuit confesseth in this point of Protestant doctrine there must needs be truth in it for there can be no safetie for the soule in a lye Concerning Romish Martyrs Spectacles Chapter 16. a page 485. usque ad 490. THE blessed Martyr Edward Campian in his tenth reason bringing all sorts of
true though the things there spoken be not understood in a proper sense but in a metaphoricall sense onely Nay more your Jesuite Suare Suarez Tom. 3. disp 46. confesseth that this Cardinall in his Commentary upon this Article doth affirme that those words of Christ This is my body doe not of themselves sufficiently prove Transubstantiation without the authoritie of the Church and therefore by the command of Pope Pius the fifth that part of his Commentary is sponged out of the Romish Edition Thus one while you correct your Authors another while you purge them for delivering the truth in our behalfe Look upon your Cardinall Bellarmine although he will not allow that sense which the Lutherans give Bell. de Euch. l. 2. c. 19. yet hee granteth that those words This is my body may imply either such a reall change of the bread as the Catholiques hold or such a figurative change as the Calvinists hold And although hee would seeme to prove that the words of Scripture are so plaine that they may compell a refractorie man to beleeve them yet having well weighed the reasons and allegations of other Schoole-men Bell. de Euch. l. 3. c. 23. at last concludes It may justly be doubted whether the text be cleere enough to inforce it seeing men sharp and learned such as Scotus was have thought the contrary How therefore your Church should ground a point of faith upon a doubtfull opinion or on such words as by the testimonies of your best learned Divines may receive a double construction I leave it to be judged But farther in proofe of Pope Pius Creed I could urge Sr. Humfrey say you with the 39. Articles appointed by the authoritie of the Church of England to be uniformely taught by all Ministers which they are to sweare unto which Articles though they be indeed new coyned as the foundation of a new Church yet Sr. Humfrey being his mothers Champion will not I suppose yeeld her or her doctrine to bee new Thus you It is true as you say there are 39. Articles appointed by our Church to bee uniformely taught by all Ministers and it is as true that they are published and received with unitie and consent which your men acknowledge for a proper marke of the true Church And withall let me adde this one thing for your observation and indeed it is a thing remarkable whereas all your Trent Articles have beene questioned and confuted by Chemnitius Chamierus Gentilletus and other Protestant writers yet there was never any Papist could goe farther than to tell us as you doe I could urge you with the novelty of the 39. Articles I say never as yet did any Romanist attempt much lesse was able to confute and overthrow our Articles which stand like a house built upon a rocke immoveable and cannot be shaken Let me tell you further your comparisons betwixt our Articles and yours doe not hold for all your Articles are fundamentall points to your Trent beleevers and the deniall of any of them makes them heretiques and damned persons as your Popes Bull expressely declareth Bulla Pii quarti On the other side some of our Articles concerne the discipline of the Church and are not essentiall to salvation others concerne the ancient and latter heresies wherein we teach the negative and those are not properly Articles of faith which we beleeve but points of doctrine which wee condemne and beleeve not And that you may know our Articles are not new nor newly coyned by our men if you will put on your spectacles you shall finde that most of our prime Articles are taught and received by your owne Church as well as ours and therefore I hope you will confesse they are not coyned and built upon the foundation of a new Church Briefly touching our 39. Articles The first sort are in the Affirmative both ours and yours and all those are uniformely received by both Churches The second sort are ours onely which we affirme and you deny and those are very few in number and are evidently deduced from the Scripture The third sort are yours which we deny and you affirme and for that cause you terme our religion negative and those remaine for you to make good Joyne therefore those negative Articles which are wholly yours to those positive Articles which you hold with us and you shall easily discerne if the denomination followeth the greater part those Articles may most properly bee termed Articles of your faith for I dare confidently avow that of the 39. Articles there are above 35. yours that is either such which you hold with us which are at least twentie or such wherein the affirmative is yours and not ours which are at least fifteene take therefore your owne libertie either confute ours or make good your owne herbam porrigemus and I will give you the bucklers You proceed and upon a false supposall that our Church hath created new Articles you proclaime in the name of your owne Church these words We teach that for Articles of faith the Church can make none as she cannot write a Canonicall booke of Scripture Thus you When Diogenes saw a supposed Bastard casting stones in a presse of much people he gave the boy this caveat Take heed lest thou hit thy father This is like to bee your case for by this Tenet you will wound the Church your Mother and amongst others you will surely hit your holy Father the Pope It appeares first that you endevoured to shew that your Church hath created no new Articles of faith but for want of solid proofes you begin to faint and thinke it the safest way to turne Protestant in this point and say the Church can create none but I wonder how you dare pronounce in the name of the Church we teach whereas in truth your Church teacheth it not This is therefore but a cunning device of yours to dazle the eyes of the ignorant with your false glasses and to make them beleeve it is the generall Tenet of your Church and then you thinke they will conclude according to your Assertion Ergo The Church hath created none when as your saying makes more strongly against you if either your Articles prove new or the Pope and his Agents professe the contrarie Mr. Heigham who first answered my Book Mr. Heigham in his answer called Via verè tuta pag. 199. 200. was a member of your Church and he cries aluod that the Church hath power to decree and promulgate new articles of faith But your third Replyer Tom Tell-troth in his Whetstone of Reproofe thought it the wisest way to decline the question for hee knew well when you were both at odds and taught flat contrarie doctrine each to other the Whetstone of necessitie would belong to one of his fellow writers But to let passe such differences amongst your selves bee it spoken to your comfort Friar Walden about two hundred yeares agoe affirmed the same that you doe Waldens
order of Franciscans as witnessing the visibilitie of our Church above 300. yeares agoe you answer he was condemned for disobedience and rebellion for he said Pope John the 22. was an Apostata and an Hereticke and therefore not true Pope And in this manner you can easily resolve all doubts and reject all Authors that speake not Placentia according to your pallate onely say you St. Bede is a Catholicke Now if you please take a review of these Authors Cassander you know was a learned man he was highly favoured for his wisedome by two Emperours Maximilian and Ferdinand he was moderate in all his writings he sought to extenuate the palpable errors and heresies of your Church he indevoured to accord and if it had beene possible to reconcile the differences on both sides and lastly he lived and died in the communion of the Roman Church Cecenas was a Frier and Generall of the Order of Franciscans he was condemned de facto by the Pope but it doth not appeare quo jure by what right for if the accusation were true the Pope deserved the punishment and not the innocent Frier listen therefore to the rebellion and disobedience for which he was accused Cecenas shewes in particular that Pope John was a schismaticke and an heretike in his peremptorie opposition against the Word of God and the Catholicke Church Mich. de Cecena tractat contra errores Papae p. mihi 1314. 1336 in Tom. 2. Gul. Occham de Jurisdictione Imperiali Naucler Gener 45. Anno 1324. he charged him with twelve severall errors which you may reade at large in the place cited and for those and the like accusations he was excommunicated and deposed by the Pope I confesse the accusation was capitall but it was no other than was justly laid to his charge For Nauclerus saith Many great and famous Divines of great learning and good life proclaimed Pope John by the name of Pope to be an Hereticke for certaine errors Tepidè which errors notwithstanding it is said that he coldly revoked at the time of his death and hee addes withall that Pope Benedict his immediate successor openly condemned the same errors You see then it was not the Franciscan Frier onely but many Divines both good and learned did condemne him of Heresie and not they alone but the Pope himselfe who succeeded him publikely condemned him for an Hereticke And thus much touching Pope John the 21. called by some the 22. There was another Pope John by the name of 22. otherwise called 23. who was living one hundred yeares after he was chosen Pope at a Plat. in Joh. 24. Bononia by the consent of all the Cardinals Against this John it was specially objected at the Councel of Constance b Quinimo dixit pertinacitèr credidit animam hominis cum corpore humano mori extingui ad instar animalium brutorum Concil Constant That he obstinately held that the soule of man dieth together with the body and is consumed to nothing as the soule of brute beasts Neither did he hold this Tenet as a private man which is your generall Answer for Antoninus saith plainely Pope John held this error in the time of his Popedome c Johannes sermonē faciens in publico consistorio dixit quaedam haeresin sapientia Anton. part 3. tit 21. c. 6. and pronounced words savouring of heresie openly in the Consistorie Neither was this accusation of these men accounted rebellion and disobedience in them as it was in Ceaenas for saith Gerson d Falsitas doctrinae Papae Jobānis vicessimi quae dānata fuit cum sono buccinarum vel tubarum coram Rege Philippo per Theologos Parisienses Gers serm in Festo Paschae Tom. 4. pag. mihi 491. his false doctrine was condemned by the Divines of Paris and proclaimed with sound of trumpets in the presence of King Philip and withall the Councell it selfe deprived him of his Popedome which shewes plainly the authority of a Councell is above the Pope And to his deposition subscribed 4. Patriarkes 29. Cardinals 47. Archbishops 270. Bishops 564. Abbots and Doctors in all above 900. deposed both Benedict the 12. and John the 23. and yet these men are reputed by you for an infallible Rule of the Roman Faith And thus not onely Ceaenas was deposed for his disobedience towards an Hereticke and is now thrust into your first Classis of damned Authors but the whole Councell of Constance touching that Session where they decred the Councell to be above the Pope is rejected and disavowed by your Church It is no difficult thing then to prove your infallible Pope may bee an Hereticke but if any man of your owne Church shall say so and manifestly prove it yea although it be a generall Councell it must therefore be censured and condemned by your Church And this may briefly serve in answer to what you say against my second Section The third Section say you is of corruption both in Faith and manners Pag. 50. which the Knight proveth out of the Councell of Pisa and out of the Councell of Trent To which I answere For matter of manners wee willingly acknowledge a reformation to be needfull but for doctrine with the contradiction of his owne former lye hee telleth a new one It is a true saying of Chrysostome A lyar thinkes no man speakes the truth Qui mendax est neminen◠verum putat dicere Chrys in Matth. Hom. 19 But that the truth of my assertion may appeare looke upon the Letters of summons they declare that the Councell was called to reforme errors that concerned Faith they shew there was a due and wholesome reformation to be made aswell of the Church doctrine as of the manners of men for quieting the consciences of the faithfull And accordingly Pope Alexander did assemble the most learned of all Nations Idem dixit quod ipse volebat vacare circa Reformationem Ecclesiae c. Acta Concil Pis Sess 20. Bin. Tom. 3. Pars 2. p mihi 837. the Cardinals did binde themselves with an Assumpsit that they would not proceed to the election of a new Pope when his predecessors Gregorie the 12. and Benedict the 13. were deposed unlesse the Pope would agree to a reformation in the Head and Members and will you say the Pope did assemble the most learned of all Nations to teach good manners onely Cardinall de Aliaco was living in his dayes De squallor Rom. Eccles p. 34. in Biblioth Westmonasteriensi Gers declaratio defect virorū he complaines that Pagan abuses and diabolicall superstitions were so many in the Church that they could not be imagined Gerson Chancellor of Paris complained of particular errors that Images in Churches occasioned Idolatrie Apocryphall Scriptures were brought into the Church to the great damage of Christian Faith Occham compēdium contr errores Papae p. 957. Incipit Prologus Looke into the age before him Occham a Frier Minorite cries out Alas
that which was lacking to their Faith to supply I say that which was lacking to their Faith not to the Gospell which Saint Paul preached hee saith not let him be accursed who further informeth you in the Doctrine of the Scriptures or delivereth you more out of them than yee have yet received within that Rule but hee that delivereth you any thing besides that Rule And that this is his meaning appeareth by the words immediately following which the Iesuit cunningly suppresseth to wit these Qui praetergreditur regulam fidei non accedit in viâ sed recedit de viâ Hee that goeth besides the Rule of Faith doth not goe on in the way but departeth out of the way Yea but the word in the Greeke translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used is the same with that Rom. 16.17 which wee in our Bibles translate against not Praeter besides Yea but the Jesuits in their owne Latine vulgar translation to which they are all sworne as wee are not to ours render this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Praeter besides and not Contra against and that this translation is most agreeable to the Apostles meaning appeareth by comparing this text Rom. 16.17 with a parralell'd text 2 Thes 3.6 Withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the Tradition which you have received of us There is no necessity therefore of expounding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that text to the Romans by Contra against wee may as well or better expound it by Praeter that is besides yet if in one place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might signifie Contra it doth not follow that it must be so taken Galathians 1.8 for it is well knowne that the naturall and most usuall signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke is Praeter besides not Contra against and words are to be taken in their most proper and usuall signification unlesse some necessarie reason drawne from the circumstances of the text or analogie of faith inforceth us to leave it which here it doth not As for Saint Austines judgement in the point it selfe to wit that Scripture is the perfect rule of Faith hee plainely delivereth it both in his 49 tractate upon Iohn and in the ninth chapter of the second booke De doctrinâ christianâ and in the last chapter of his second booke De peccatorum meritis remissione and in his booke De bono viduitatis cap. 11. What words can be more expresse and direct for the sufficiencie of Scripture than those in his 49 tractate upon Iohn The Lord Iesus did Quae saluti credentium sufficere videbuntur In iis quae aperte posita sunt in Scriptura inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem moresque vivendi G. ult Credo etiam hâ—ic divinoruÌ„ eloquioruÌ„ clarissima authoritas esset si homo illud sine dispendio salutis ignorare non posset Sancta Scriptura nostrae doctrinae regulam sixit ne auderemus sapere ultra quam oportet and spake many things which are not written as the Evangelist testifieth but those things were chosen to be written which seemed to suffice for the salvation of Beleevers unlesse those in his second booke De doctrina christiana Among those things which are openly or plainly set downe in Scriptures all things are found which concerne or containe Faith or manners or those in his second booke of the remission of sinnes I beleeve that the authoritie of divine Scriptures would have beene most cleere and evident in this point if a man could not have beene ignorant of it without perill of his salvation or lastly those in his booke in the commendation of Widowhood What should I teach thee more than that which thou readest in the Apostle for the holy Scripture setleth the rule of our Doctrine lest wee should presume to be wise above that wee ought Concerning the infallible certainty of the Protestant faith and the uncertainty of the Romish Spectacles Chapter the 10. a page 346. usque ad 380. THE Knights failing in his proofes of our novelty is a sufficient proofe of our antiquity and his owne novelty The Jesuits may not be ashamed of the oath they take to defend the Papacy nay they may glory in it as an heroicall act whereby they binde themselves to the defence of that authority whereon the weight and frame of the whole Catholike Church and salvation of all soules from Christ his owne time to the very end of the world hath doth and still shall depend Catholike Doctors whom the Knight chargeth with division among themselves may indeede differ in opinion so long as a thing is undefined for so long it is not faith but when it is once defined then they must be silent and concurre all in one because then it is matter of faith The Knight can have no certainty of his Christianity because that dependeth upon his Baptisme or the faith of his parents which he cannot know He can have no certainty of his Marriage or the legitimation of his children because the validity of the contract dependeth upon the intention of the parties which marry and no man can have any certaine knowledge of anothers intention and so the Knight is in no better case then his adversaries in this respect It is cleane a different thing to dispute of the certainty of the Catholique faith which we maintaine and of every mans private and particular beliefe of his owne justification or salvation which we deny to be so certaine the one being grounded upon the authority of Gods divine truth and revelation the other upon humane knowledge or rather conjecture Howscever though we be not certaine by certainty of divine faith that this or that man in particular is truely baptized or ordained a Priest yet we are certaine by the certainty of divine faith that not onely there be such Sacraments but that they are also truly administred in the Catholike Church It might be good and profitable as Bellarmine noteth to invoke the Saints though they themselves should not heare us as the Knight would prove out of Peter Lumbard and Gabriel Biel who though they doubt of the manner yet they doubt not of the thing it selfe Gabriel saith the Saints are invocated not as givers of the good things for which we pray but as intercessours to God the giver of all good And Peter Lumbard saith that our prayers become knowne to the Angells in the word of God which they behold so also doe Saints that stand before God Though it be true which Caietan saith that it cannot be knowne infallibly that the miracles whereon the Church groundeth the Canonization of Saints be true yet it followeth not that we are uncertaine whether the Canonized Saints be in Heaven or no because the certainty of Canonization dependeth upon more certaine ground to wit the authority of the See Apostolique and continuall assistance and direction of the Holy-ghost the spirit of truth to whom it belongeth not to suffer Christs
The Ancient DOCTRINE OF THE Church of England Maintained in its Primitive Purity CONTAINING A Justification of the XXXIX ARTICLES of the Church of ENGLAND against Papists and Schismaticks The Similitude and Harmony betwixt the Romane Catholick and the Heretick with a Discovery of their Abuses of the Fathers in the First XVI Ages and the many Heresies introduced by the Roman Church Together with a Vindication of the Antiquity and Universality of the Ancient Protestant Faith Written long since by that Eminent and Learned Divine DANIEL FEATLY D. D. Seasonable for these Times Leo Mag. Ser. 1. de Epiph. Insanis veritas scandalum est caecis Doctoribus fit Caligo quod lumen est LONDON Printed for Austin Rice and are to be sold at the Crown in Saint Pauls Church-yard 1660. TO THE RIGHT Reverend Father in God THOMAS By Divine Providence Lord B. of DURESME c. May it please your good Lordship AFTER I had taken a resolution to apologize for my departed friend and make a kind of hedge to his Via tuta I seriously bethought my selfe who would maimtaine the fence by one so made and patronize this patronage of that his worthy worke For though the cause in hand be the truth of God and the person whom I undertake to defend against the Calumniations of his Adversarie be now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the eye of (a) Horat. Od. 14. l. 3. Sublatum ex oculis quaerimus invidi Ovid. l. 3. De Pont Pascitur in vivis livor post fata quiescit Et Iuvenal Sat. 1. Nulli gravus est percussus Achilles aut multum quaesitus Hylas envie and the reach of malice yet I well know that neither the consideration of the one nor regard to the other will prove any Amulet against the poyson of the (b) Aristoph in Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est annulis medicinalis aut antidotus Sycophants tooth or venom of the Detracters tongue Death I grant which sets a period to all suits in Courts should grant a Supersedeas of Course against all Arrests and molestations of them who have taken Sanctuarie in the grave and therefore (c) Brusonius facet et exemp l. 1. Solon legem condidit quâ prohibuit in defunctos maledicta consicere Et Theodorus Chius censuit Pompeium in aegypt admittendum addens Mortuos non mordere Erosm Apoph p. 374. Selon enacted a Law whereby under a great penaltie he prohibited any to cast any foule aspersion on the dead And (d) Bruson ibid Asinius Pollio cum orationes condidisset in Plancum quas post mortem ejus legendas serâ—abat audlit à Planco cum mortuus non nisi larvas puguare Plancus sharply reproved the folly of Asinius Pollio who threatned to stigmatize him after his death by publishing his declamations against him saying None but Hobgoblins fight with ghosts Notwithstanding this privilege granted to the dead even by the Law of Nature I cannot remember without horrour nor expresse without griefe what the Acts and Monuments of the Church present to the view of all men concerning Popish malice surviving life it selfe and committing inhumane not onely unchristian outrages on the corpes and not lesse upon the workes of Orthodoxe Professors now with God The blessed Martyr Saint (e) Cypr. de lap Ep. l. 2. Saevitum est in plagas saevitum est in vulnera in servis Dei non jam membra torquebantur sed vulnera manabat pro fletibus sanguis pro lachrymis cruor e semiustulatis visceribus defluebat Cyprian setting the cruelty of the heathen as it were upon the Racke could straine no higher after hee had said These Salvage Persecutors wreake their furie on the brused and battered servants of Christ and torture not so much their members as their wounds Yet there is a Plus ultra in the enraged malice of our Romish Adversaries Saevitum est in cadavera saevitum est in ossa saevitum est in cineres For they (f) Vide hist de mort Spalatensis M. S. Arraigne the dead they sue against them an Ejection out of their long homes and interre them in (g) Acts and Monuments volume 3. pag. 778. The body of Peter Martyrs wife at Oxford was taken up by Doctor Marshall out of her grave in the Church of Saint Frideswids and buried in a dunghill Lestals nay they burne their (h) Acts and Monuments vol. 1. p. 606. The body and bones of Iohn Wickliffe by the Decree of the Synod of Constance were taken up burned 41. yeares after he was buried in his owne Parish at Lutterworth and his ashes taken throwne into the river and so was hee resolved into three elements Earth Fire and Water thinking thereby utterly to exstinguish and abolish both his name and Doctrine for ever Acts Monuments volume 3. pag. 771. The Vice chancellor taking with him a publike Notarie bound the Parishioners with an oath to digge up Paulus Fargius his bones and received the like oath of Roger Davis and William Hazell for doing the like with Martin Bucer when they came to the place of execution the Chests were set up an end with the dead bodies in them and fastened on both sides with stakes and bound to the post with a long â—on chaine fire being forthwith put to as soone as it began to flame round about a great sort of bookes that were condemned with them were cast into the same bones and strew their ashes on the rivers Tantene animis coelestibus irae Loe the bowels of them who most boast of workes of Mercie i Edmund Camp rat 10. Clavinum has principes unum coelum capere non potest Et Fishers resp to Doctor White and Doctor Featley c. 2. p. 152. Out of the unity of the Romish Church no salvation Et Coster resp ad refut Osiander proposit 8. wisheth himselfe damned with Lucifer if ever any Lutheran were saved towards the bodies of true Professors whilome Temples of the holy Ghost yet their charitie to their soules exceeds this for these they peremptorily exclude out of heaven and send them pell-mell without Baile or Mainprise to the dungeon of hell and there sentence them to more exquisite (k) Coccleus hist Hussit l. 2. Multo graviora esse crediderim Wicklefi tormenta quam sint apud inferos vel scelera tissimorum hominum Iudae proditoris Christi Neronis Christianorum persecutoris torments than either Nero the monster of men or Iudas the betrayer of Christ himselfe indure Of this straine is the Knights (l) Flood Spect. c. 17. per tot Papists dying in their Reliligion saved Protestants damned Alastor with whom I am to deale whose perfect character your Lordship may see in Sozimus drawne to the life by Isidorus Pelusiota 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as your Lordship may find likewise an exact Emblem of his booke in Plinie his description of the (m) Plin. nat hist l. 9. c.
honour of your Images for whereas Regino faith Concil Franck-ford An. 794. Bin. p. mihi 141. Bin. Not. in Concil Frā c. p. mihi 164. b. The false Synode of the Grecians which they made for the defence of their worshipping of Images was erected by the Bishops assembled at Frankford under Charles the Great Binius the publisher of the Councels declareth that the Acts of the second Councell of Nice in the cause of Images was confirmed by it which is so farre from truth that he is inforced to confesse that therein he doth dissent though unwillingly from Baronius and Bellarmine Quam sententiam optarem esse veram sed suspicor esse falsam Bel. de Imag. l. 2. c. 14. §. Multi and indeed Bellarmine professeth I could wish this opinion were true but I suspect it to be false Againe to make the world beleeve that the Synod of Franckford condemned not the second Councell of Nice the chiefe upholder of Images your men have razed out Nice and thrust in Constantinople which altogether condemned Images Now therefore take a short view of all these your forgeries and corruptions In the first Age you have depraved the Scriptures by your false translations and corruptions and when all could not save your turne you place the Bible amongst the Bookes prohibited In the second Age you have forged Epistles in the names of 31. Bishops of Rome which were none of theirs and to suppresse our Doctrine touching the Communion in both kinds and to uphold your invocation of Saints and Angels you have corrupted Ignatius by a false Translation and you would have the Record razed touching the marriage of Priests In the third age you corrupt Tertullian for your Transubstantiation you falsifie Saint Cyprian for your circumgestation of the Sacrament and your Popes supremacie In the fourth Age you corrupt Eusebius Caesariensis for the Popes supremacie you forge Eusebius Emissenus for your corporall presence you falsifie the Councell of Laodicea for your invocation of Saints and Angels you forge Saint Hierome and Saint Basill the Great for your worship of Images you falsifie Saint Ambrose for the Popes succession in the Roman See and most corruptly for the Doctrine of the Sacrament In the fift Age you have razed two evidences in Saint Chrysostome both which confirme our Doctrine the one concerning the Lords Supper the other concerning our tryall by the Scriptures you have falsified the Councell of Carthage for the baptizing of women and for the shaving of Priests you have falsified Saint Austin for your Purgatory and for your Doctrine of Transubstantiation and your Popes decretall Epistles you have forged the Councell of Africa for the honour of your Apostolicke See you have forged Saint Cyrill for your Transubstantiation and your Popes Supremacie In the sixt Age you have corrupted the Councell of Orange for your Doctrine of merits and for the honour of your Priesthood over secular powers In the seventh Age you have razed Gregory the Great touching the comming of Antichrist you have purged him in an Epistle which maketh against the Popes Supremacie you have falsified the Councell of Constantinople in your Popes behalfe Lastly in the eighth Age you have forged venerable Bede in behalfe of your Transubstantiation and you have falsified the Councel of Franckford in behalfe of your Image-worship and yet for all this you are not ashamed to professe that for ancient Authors you note onely what is amisse but you neither raze nor blot out any thing that corner-correcting say you wee leave for such corner-companions as shunne the light p. 144. What credit can be given to you or your Church let the Reader judge when as by your owne confession the Trent Councell hath decreed it as a thing unlawfull to change any thing in the Bookes of ancient Catholikes Concil Trid. in Ind. lib. prohib de correct 4. p. mihi 32. except a manifest error appeare to have crept in by the fraud of Hereticks or negligence of the Printer Sure I am you will confesse that all these mentioned corruptions are not Errata slips of the Printer And as touching the fraud of Heretickes which did corrupt them your Trent Councell which made the Decree could not meane the Protestants for in those dayes they had printed no Fathers neither had they any Manuscripts but such as were kept prisoners in your Church The name of Heretickes therefore doth properly reflect upon your Pope Adrian upon Gratian upon Stapleton upon Thomas Aquinas upon Cardinall Bellarmine who appeare to be Authors of your falsifications and in generall upon your Roman inquisitors who are the knowne Authors of your corrupting and altering the true Fathers And this must needes seeme very probable to all because they are corrupted chiefely in those main Articles of Faith which make against your Church The ancient Records and Evidences which you have had many hundred yeeres in your possession doe all witnesse these forgeries and corruptions in the printed Fathers and will you claime the Fathers for your Rule of Faith when you make them speake more like children than fathers Shall a Guardian to an infant having possession of his Lands and keeping his Deeds and Evidences during his minoritie raze and falsifie them and thereby intitle himselfe to the Wards Lands because hee was some time possessed of them and can produce forged Evidences for them This is our very case The Church of Rome in her infancie was a faithfull Guardian of her childrens right shee kept the Manuscripts and the ancient Records of the Fathers in that puritie as she first received thē after the Pope had made an universall Title and claime to all Catholike Churches hee intruded into other mens Rights by forgerie and corruptions he made the Fathers speake according to the Trent decrees in an unknowne tongue and now by forged cavillation detaines the possession against the right owners But let me tell you as the Kings Subject you are lyable to punishment in such cases in temporall affaires See the title of Forger of false deeds fol. mihi 180. b. For if any person shall by false conspiracie subtilty and falsity forge any Deed Charter or Writing or shall pronounce publish and shew forth in Evidence any such false or forged Deed or Writing as true knowing the same to bee false and forged and shall be thereof convicted he shall be set upon the Pillory in some open Market Towne and there to have both his Eares cut off and also his Nosthrils to bee slit and cut and seared with an hot iron so as they may remaine for a perpetuall note or marke of his falshood Compare now this humane law with those forgeries of divine Evidences and tell me what you and your fellowes can say for your selves why the same judgment should not be pronounced against you For if the lawes of Kings are so strict in behalfe of temporall records and assurances betwixt men what may wee thinke the Law-giver himselfe will require at their
is a poore Pedanticall observation for to spend many lines about such toyes and trifling words and to passe by the maine sinew strength of the Citation this is to confesse in plaine termes that you cannot justifie your doctrine and the rather it appeares in this particular point wherein Master Harding doth not onely condemne the people for their neglect but excuseth hereby your Churches ordinance in generall as being not guilty of the coldnesse of the people Nay more hee plainly intimates the Antiquitie and Vniversalitie of our Doctrine in these words Iuel Divis 7. p. mihi 11. In case the people might be stirred to such devotion as to dispose themselves worthily to receive their Howsel every day with the Priest as they did in the Primitive Church what would these men have to say And as touching Safety and Certainty of our Doctrine hee freely expresseth his thoughts and liking of our Communion of Priest and People saying It were to be wished Iuel in Art 1. Divis 9 p. 17. as oftentimes as the Priest doth celebrate the high Sacrifice that there were some who worthily disposed might receive their Rites with him and be partakers Sacramentally of the Body and Blood of Christ with him and hee gives a reason for it Idem Divis 25. p. mihi 45. Because it would be more commendable and more godly on the Churches part And thus much touching your three Authors whom say you I have so egregiously belyed Touching your worshipping of Images I referre it to his proper Section And whereas wee charge you with flat Idolatrie in the adoration of the Sacrament of Reliques of Images and the like howsoever I say you excuse your selves with the manner of your adoration yet to our endlesse comfort be it spoken you cannot charge us in the Positive Doctrine of our Church no not with the least suspition of Idolatrie This I told you before and blessed be God you have not wherewith to charge us in your Reply But you say It is far greater evill for you to be truly charged with Heresie than for us to be charged with Idolatrie yet neither you nor all your fellow-Jesuits could ever prove us guilty of either But what may wee thinke of your Church which is justly charged and highly guilty of both Your Popes which the Jesuits resolve to be the Church are condemned for Heretikes by your Councels acknowledged Heretikes by the Popes themselves and condemned of Heresie by your best learned Divines Your worship of Images and Saints concludes in flat Idolatrie and in particular by the Doctrine of your owne Church the adoration of the Sacramentall Bread and Cup for want of a right intention becomes an Idoll in the Temple These things I have in part proved which in place convenient shall be more fully handled hereafter But it is observable after I had ended my Section with this point of Idolatrie I say after this conclusion you flye backe to the middle of the chapter and now question me where our Church was before Luther but when I answered that from your addition and Articles of Faith The question doth truly result upon your selves Where was your Church that is where was your Trent Doctrine and Articles of the Roman Creed received de fide before Luther You are so farre from shewing it that you cunningly suppressed these words and not so much as mentioned them and thus one while suppressing the point in question other whiles by declining the true state of the question you shew your wit is better than your cause and declare your Sophistrie to be better than your Divinitie But to follow you backe againe you say Wee must shew you a companie of men in former times distinct from yours It were no difficult matter to shew you many that did seperate both from you and the errours of your Church in former Ages The Waldenses were a distinct companie of Beleevers and separate from your Church above 500. yeares since Reinerius the Inquisitor confesseth upon their examination that hee found they had in one Diocese one and forty Schooles in another ten B. pp. Tom. 13. Reiner contrà Wald. cap. 3. p. mihi 299. and withall reckons up forty Churches by name in Lombardy in Province in France and other Kingdomes he protesteth that amongst all Sects There was none more pernitious to the Church of Rome than it and that for three causes First Ibid. because it is of longer continuance for some say it hath continued from the time of Sylvester which is three hundred yeares after Christ others say from the time of the Apostles Secondly because it is more Vniversall for there is scarse any Country wherein this Sect hath not crept Thirdly whereas all other sorts blaspheme God this Sect hath a great shew of godlinesse for they live justly before men they beleeve all rightly concerning God and the Articles of the Creed onely they speake evill of the Church of Rome and hate it and by this meanes draw multitudes to their beliefe after them Thus if you require Antiquity for their Doctrine they derive it either from Christ or from Sylvester 300. yeares after Christ if Vniversality all Countries were filled with their Doctrine if good life they lived well before men and beleeved all rightly concerning God and the Articles of their Faith and this the force of truth hath extorted from your grand Inquisitor Augustus Thuanus Presicent of the Parliament of Paris Thuan. hist Tom 1. 1550. p. 457. 465. tells us that these who are commonly called Waldenses Picards Albigenses Cathari Lollards though by their difference of place they had divers names yet they held the same faith which Wicliffe held in England and Husse in Bohemia and gathered strength at the comming of Luther especially in the Caparienses who professed a Religion agreeing almost in all things with Martin Luther But withall he ingeniously professeth that Cardinall Sadolet did examine them and found many things malitiously fained against them Poplinerius saith that about the yeare 1100. these men did publish their doctrine differing but a little from the Protestants Poplin Hist Franc. l. 1. Bb. Vsher de statu Eccl. c. 8. p. 209. not onely through France but also through all the coasts of Europe For both French Spaniards English Scots Italians Germans Bohemians Saxons Polonians Lituanians and other nations doe peremptorily defend it to this very day And by reason they separated from the doctrines of the Roman Church Pope Innocent the third about the yeare 1198. authorised certaine Monkes who had the full power of the Inquisition in their hands to deliver the people by thousands into the Magistrats hands and the Magistrats to the Executioners Histor of the Wald. c. 3. St. Dominick who instituted the order of the begging Monkes called Dominicans was a great persecutor of them and their doctrine The Mother of this Monke saith your Martyrologe Martyrologe in the life of St. Dominick P. mihi 556.
elements is not reall and corporall but spirituall and sacramentall as that was in the Desert of which the Apostle speaketh the c 1 Cor. 10.4 spirituall rock followed them and that rock waes Christ When Manna fell and the rock was strucken Christ was not incarnate nor many hundred yeares after how then could the Manna or the water bee really and properly turned into his flesh and bloud Moreover howsoever hee eludeth the former words of Aelfrick There is a great difference betwixt the body wherein Christ suffered and the body which is received of the faithfull the body in which Christ suffered was borne of the flesh of Mary and consisted of bloud and bone but the other is gathered of many cornes without hloud and bone by saying that the difference which Aelfrick sheweth betweene Christ on the Crosse and Christ on the Sacrament is in his manner of being not in the being it selfe not denying him to bee really in both yet the later words which containe an inference upon the former therefore there is nothing to bee understood in the Sacrament bodily but spiritually admit of no colourable evasion for if nothing bee there understood bodily but spiritually then must needs the words This is my body be understood figuratively then must we not according to the doctrine of those times understand any substantiall change of the bread into Christs very body or the Wine into his bloud really and corporally To the third The difference betweene Papists of most eminent note concerning the words by vertue whereof they teach Transubstantiation is effected maketh much against the doctrine it selfe and by consequence quite overthroweth it For thus we argue against them out of this their difference If the bread bee turned into Christs body then either by the words of benediction before hee brake the bread or gave it c. or by the very words of Consecration viz. hoc est corpus meum But hee neither changed the bread into his Body by the one nor by the other Ergo hee changed it not at all Not by the precedent benediction as Aquinas and Bellarmine prove For till the last instant of the prolation of the words This is my Body the substance of bread remaineth Not by the words of Consecration for as Durand and Odo Cameracensis and Christopherus Archbishop of Caesarea prove Christ could not have said after hee had blessed the Bread This is my body unlesse by blessing it he had made it his body before If when Christ said Take yee and eat yea at that time the Bread by benediction were not changed it would follow that Christ did command his Disciples to take and eate the substance of Bread which to say is to deny the article of Transubstantiation Neither can the Iesuite heale this sore by his vertuall salve in saying that those men above alledged who impugne the prsent tenent of the Schooles concerning the words of Consecration in which the essence of the Sacrament consisteth vertually retracted such opinions because they submitted their writings to the censure of the Catholique Church for so wee may say with better reason that what they held against us they vertually retracted by submitting their judgement to the Catholique Church which we can easily prove not to bee the particular Roman but the Universall which in all times and all places through the Christian world hath professed the common faith once given to the Saints without any of those later Articles which P. Pius the fourth Jud. 13. and the late conventicle of Trent hath pinned unto it To the fourth Cajetan is truly alledged by the Knight for though neither the words Transubstantiation nor supposed are in him yet the sence of them is to be found in him for as both Suarez and Flood himselfe acknowledgeth p. 147. Cajetan said that these words This is my body doe not sufficiently prove the reall presence of our Saviours body without the presupposed authoritie of the Church and if in his judgement they prove not so much as the reall presence of Christs body in the Sacrament much lesse prove they the presence thereof by Transubstantiation or turning the bread into it By the word supposed which the Knight addeth more fully to declare Cajetans meaning hee intended not suppositions or barely pretended authority of the Church but truly presupposed which maketh not the speech sound at all contemptibly of the Church as Flood would have it whose stomack is so bad that it turneth sweet and wholsome meate into choler Nectar cui fiet acetum vaticani perfida vappa cadi To the fifth The Knight transcribeth so much out of Biel as was pertinent to his purpose with the rest he thought not fit to trouble the reader In Can. Miss Lect. 40. notandum guod quamvis expressè tradatur in scriptur â quod corpus Christi veraciter sub speciebus panis continetur à fidelibus sumitur tamen quomodo sit ibi corpus Christi an per conversionem alicujus in ipsum an sine conversione incipiat esse corpus Christi cum pane manentibus substantiâ accidentibus panis in Canone bibliae non invenitur The whole passage in Biel standeth thus It is to bee noted that though it bee expressely delivered in Scripture that the body of Christ is truly contained under the forme or species of Bread and received by the faithfull yet it is not found in the canon of the Bible how the body of Christ is there whether by conversion of any thing into it or whether it beginneth to be there without conuersion or turning the substance and accidents of bread remaining The former words in which passage make nothing against the Knight Who in this chapter for the most part condemneth Papists out of their owne mouth and therefore taking Biel for such hee maketh use of his testimonie against the Roman Church in point of Transubstantiation Which is very direct and expresse and the Iesuites answer is very weake and unsufficient thereunto to wit that hee denieth only that Transubstantiation is found in Scripture in expresse words For first Biel saith not non invenitur expressum but non invenitur It is not found in Scripture whether Christs body be there by conversion of any thing into it Now many things are found in Scripture as the Trinity of persons the eternall generation of the Sonne the procession of the holy Ghost from the Father and the Sonne the number and nature of Sacraments which yet are not set downe in expresse words Secondly it is evident out of the former words of Biel that hee accounted those things expressely to be delivered in Scriptures which yet are not set downe in expresse words for hee saith that it is expresly delivered in Scriptures that the body of Christ is truly contained under the species of bread and yet those words are not found in Scripure If wee should admit then of Flood his glosse upon Biel Transubstantiation is not found in Scripture that is
Bellarmine strive about S. Austine and the one refelleth the reasons of the other so that it seemeth our popish Divines are as ill resolved about the proofe of their doctrine as I shewed before out of Canus that they were in a wood concerning the doctrine it selfe Moreover I adde that though Bellarmine may goe in equipage with Vasquez yet Vasquez against them more disparageth their cause then Bellarmine for them helpeth it For a testimonie from an enemie is of more force for us then the testimonie of a friend or rather sworne vassall to the Roman Church can be for them To the twentieth Sithence signification is of the essence of the Sacrament and Bellarmine will have this signification necessarily to containe in it three things the Passion of Christ sanctifying grace and eternall life And whereas farther he confesseth that the signification of these three things is most apparant in Baptisme and the Lords Supper The Knight strongly concludeth out of him that our doctrine concerning two Sacraments is more certaine and evident then theirs concerning seven and consequently that our beleefe is safer in this point then theirs As for that which the Iesuit addeth out of Bellarmine that the rest of the Sacraments signifie all these things at least implicitly were it true yet wee had the better of the cause For our two Sacraments as it is confessed signifie these things plainly and evidently their 's obscurely and implicitly but indeed it is not true that they signifie or represent those things at all For what representation is there betweene imposition of hands in orders or joyning of hands in Matrimonie or confessing sinnes in penance or chrisme in Confirmation or oylein Extreame Unction and the Passion of Christ and eternall life What the Iesuit addeth for conclusion that the rest of the Knights section is nothing but such foolish stuffe as hee is wont to talke without rime or reason needeth no other answer then this that the Knight indeed from p. 157. to 161. taketh an inventorie of a great deale of foolish stuffe but it is theirs not the Knights to wit that Christ satisfied the people with five loaves and two fishes which make seven and that which Andrew said there is a boy here which hath five loaves and two fishes must be understood of the ranke of S. Peters successors Tyrabosc pat Ven. vid. Gentilet examen concil Trid. l. 4. and that which is added make the people sit downe signifieth that salvation must bee offered to them by teaching them the seven Sacraments Againe there are seven Vertues seven mortall sinnes seven Planets the Lord rested the seventh day seven dayes thou shalt eate unleavened bread Balak effered seven Bulls and seven Rams and in the Apocalips wee reade of seven Candlesticks seven Seales seven Trumpets seven Angels Ergo there are seven Sacraments properly so called or rather properly so proved Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici Are such argumemts the reasons of men sobriae vigilant is fidei as S. Austine speaketh are they not rather dreames of the seven Sleepers or as Epictetus spake of arguments against the truth Ex Hnmfr. in Vit. Iuelli Haec sunt infernorum somniorum Phantasmata Concerning the Communion in both kindes Spectacles chap. 9. Section 5. a pag. 242. usque ad 259. THe Knight in alledging the Councell of Constance touching Communion in one kind translateth the Latine falsly and absurdly I confesse that under one kind only all and whole Christ and the true Sacraments are received as if the Councell had said omnis totus Christus whereas the words are totus atque integer Christus that is whole and entire Christ In bringing this Decree hee hath brought a staffe to beate himselfe withall for the non obstante which hee would joyne with Christs Institution in both kindes as if the Councell forbid it in both kindes notwithstanding Christ did so institute it is not so joyned in the Councell but otherwise thus Though Christ did Institute this venerable Sacrament after supper and administred it in both kinds yet notwithstanding this the approved custome of the Church hath observed and doth observe that this Sacrament is not to bee Consecrated after Supper nor to bee received by the faithfull but fasting which Decree I suppose the Knight will not condemne This was no new thing begun by that Councell but it being growne to bee a generall practise to communicate in one kind which also from the beginning was somewhat practised and certaine heretiques arising and condemning the practise and beliefe of the whole Church this Councell condemned them and commanded the former custome to bee still retained Though Christ did institute the Sacrament in both kindes yet it is lawfull to receive in one neither doth the Councell decree any thing against Christs Precept by establishing the Communion in one kind for Christ may institute a thing without commanding it For example hee did institute Mariage yet commanded not every man to marry The Councell of Trent doth not any way contradict Christs institution or practise as the Knight would have it but inferreth only thus much though Christ did institute and deliver the blessed Sacrament to his Apostles in both kindes in the last Supper yet is Christ contained whole and entire in one kind and a true Sacrament received wherein saith hee I would faine see what opposition the subtiltie of the Knights wit can find what reason can hee give why it may not stand with Christ his institution in both kinds that he be whole under one and if whole why not also a true Sacrament The words Drinke yee all of this and doe this in remembrance of mee were spoken and appertaine only to the Apostles and in them to Priests as appeareth more plainly by S. Mark who sheweth all which our Srviour meant of when hee said Drinke yee all of this for saith S. Marke and they did drinke all Though Christ at his last Supper did institute a Sacrament in both kindes and so gave it to his Apostles yet Christ might at some other time after his resurrection communicate some of his Disciples in one kind and some Fathers thinke hee did his two Disciples at Emmaus The Knight needeth not to produce ten or eleven Authours to prove it to have been the practise of the primitive Church to communicate in both kinds for that would have beene granted him without all that labour but hee should have proved that the practise was grounded upon some divine precept indispensable or else it followeth not but that it is in the power of the Church to alter the practise in the use and administration of the Sacrament Bellarmine bringeth six severall Rites or practises of the ancient Church which Protestants cannot deny evidently convincing the frequent use of one kind The Nazarites among the first Christians in Ierusalem did communicate in one kind for they were forbid to drinke wine or even eate a grape or reisin The Knight in alleging Tapperus
the purpose that that Councell seemed to be an assembly not of Bishops but of Hobgoblins not of men but of Images moved like the statues of Daedalus by the sinewes of others What the Iesuit addeth of night owles not daring to appeare in the splendour of that Councell hath no colour of truth For it is no newes for owles to appeare at popish Councells At a Councell held at Rome by Pope Heldebrand Fascic rerum expetend sugiend Ortwhinus Gratius writeth there appeared an huge great Owle which could not be frayed away but scared all the Bishops As for Protestants whom this Blacke-bird of Antichrist termeth night Owles if they had flocked to that Councell they had shewed themselves not Owles by appearing in that twi-light at Trent but very Wood-cocks to trust any security offerd them by those who after publike faith given to Iohn Huz and Ierome of Prage notwithstanding the safe conduct of Sigismond the Emperour for their going to and comming from the Councell at Constance most cruelly burned them at a stake to ashes To the seventeenth Divine faith must be grounded upon divine authority and that cannot be the Catholike faith which wanteth consent of Fathers As for those Fathers whose authority Bellarmine draweth ob torto collo to testifie for unwritten traditions de verbo Dei lib. 4. cap. 7. the Iesuit may see them fully answered in Iunius Whitaker Daniel Chamierus and Dr. Davenant Bishop of Sarum and a farre greater number of Fathers alleaged to the contrary by Robert Abbot in his answer to William Bishop cap. 7. Phillip Morney in his preface to his booke de sacrâ Eucharistiâ and Iacobus Laurentius in his singular tractate de Disputationibus and others To the eighteenth The assistance of the Holy ghost was more speciall in the times of the Apostles then in latter ages they could not erre in their writings others might yet we charge not the Catholike Church of Christ in any age with any fundamentall errour though we may the Roman Tertullian his rule may have still place and as well in one age as another if it be rightly taken and not misconstrued and misapplied for if it be taken generally that whatsoever is the same amongst many is no errour but tradition it is it selfe a great errour For the same opinion concerning the inequality of the Father and the Sonne is found amongst many to wit the Arrian Churches the same doctrine concerning the procession of the Sonne from the Father onely is found amongst many namely all the Greeke Churches at this day the same practise of administring the Eucharist to children was found amongst many namely all the Churches of Affrica in St. Austines time yea and in all Churches subject to the Bishop of Rome for many ages as Maldonat the Iesuit confesseth yet the above named Positions and this latter practise are confessed on all sides to be erroneous But Tertullian by many understandeth not the practise of some particular Churches Tertul. de prescrip Age nunc omnes ecclesiae erraverint verisimile est ut tot et tante in unam fidem erraverint much lesse of factious persons of one Sect but the generall and uniforme doctrine and practise of the whole Church as his words in the same Chapter quoted by the Iesuit declare Goe too now admit that all Churches have erred is it likely so many so great Churches should erringly conspire in one faith To the nineteenth We derogate nothing from any generall custome of the Catholike Church let the Iesuit produce out of good Authors any such custome for Indulgences to redeeme soules out of Purgatory flames by Papall Indulgences and this controversie will soone be at an end howsoever let me tell the Iesuit the way that this text of St. Paul is impertinently alleaged to prove this or any other article of the Trent faith For St. Paul in this place speaketh not of any Article of faith nor matter of manners necessary to salvation but of habits gestures fashions and indifferent rites in matter of which nature there is no question at all but that the custome of the Churches of God ought to sway as is abundantly proved by Dr. Andrewes late Bishop of Winchester in his printed Sermon upon that text To the twentieth Disputabamus de alliis respondet Iesuita de cepis we dispute of Indulgences the Iesuit answereth of Traditions in matter of Faith These are very distinct questions and so handled by all that deale Work-man-like in points of difference betweene the Reformed and the Romane Churches but the Jesuits common place of Indulgences was drawne drie and therefore hee setteth his cocke of Traditions on running which yeeldeth nothing but muddy water What though Faith be ancienter than Scriptures the Argument is inconsequent Ergo Scripture is not now the perfect rule of Faith Faith neither is nor can be more ancient than the Word of God upon which it is built this Word of God is now written and since the consigning and confirming the whole Canon of the written Word by Saint Iohn in the Apocalypse is become the perfect and as the Schooles speaketh the adequate rule of Faith It is true Christ and his Apostles first taught the Church by word of mouth Lib. 3. advers heres cap. 1. Non enim per alios dispositionem salutis nostrae cognovimus quam per eos per quos Evangelium pervenit ad nos quod quidem tunc praeconiaverunt postea per dei voluntatem in scripturis nobis tradiderunt fundamentum columnam fidei nostrae futuram but afterwards that which they preached was by the commandment of God committed to writing to be the foundation and pillar of Faith as Irenaus testifieth in expresse words To the twentie one If the Iesuit could prove as undoubtedly any words of the Apostles that are not set downe in Scriptures to be their owne words as wee can prove the writings we have to be theirs wee would yeeld no lesse credit to them then to these but that neither can hee nor so much as undertaketh to doe And whereas he further faith that the credit of the Scripture depends upon Tradition unlesse hee qualifie the speech some way it is not onely erroneous but also blasphemous for it is all one as if hee should say that man gives credit and authority to God as Tertullian jeareth the Heathen In Apolloget not receiving Christ for God because the Romane Senate would not give their consent and approbation to make him one Iam homo deo propitius esse debet or that the credit and authority of Gods Word dependeth upon mans receiving it Whereas in truth Gods Word is not therefore of divine and infallible authoritie because the Church delivereth it to be so but on the contrary the Church delivereth it to be so because in it selfe it is so and the Church should erre damnably if shee should otherwise conceive of these inspired Writings then as of the undoubted Oracles of God
Popes superioritie to Councels before the Councell at Laterane under Leo the tenth nor most of Pope Pius the fourth his Articles before the late Councell of Trent wherein those points were first defined Then which what Argument can be more forcible to convince the novelty of the Romish Faith But whether an article of Faith is to be accounted such because it is defined to be such by the Church or whether it be defined to be such by the Church because it is such in its owne nature it will little serve the Iesuits turne to make up the breaches of the Roman Church For certaine it is that their Doctors differ amongst themselves even in points defined by the Church For after the bookes of the Old Testament with all the parts knowne by the name of Apocrypha by the Councell of Trent were defined to be of Canonicall authoritie Sixtus Senensis makes scruple of some of them Sixtus Senens bib Sanct. l. 1. After the immaculate conception of our Lady was defined by Sixtus the fourth and the feast in testimonie thereof authorised by him yet the Dominicans generally hold that shee was conceived in sinne After Justification by inherent righteousnesse De Caus instit l. 7. c. 21. was defined in the Councell of Trent Albertus Pighius and others cited by Vegas held the contrary And though the Councell of Trent stigmatize the doctrine touching assurance of salvation yet Ambrosius Catharinus a learned Papist set forth a learned treatise de certitudine salutis Lastly though Pope Leo the tenth in the Councell of Lateran defineth the Pope to be above a generall Councell yet the Sorbonists at this day maintaine that a generall Councell is above the Pope Therefore as St Thomas Moore said pleasantly of a poore Physitian that he was more then medicus to wit by one letter Mor. in Epigr. meaning that he was mendicus Vna tibi plus est litera quam medico so it may truely be said of the unity Papists brag so much of that it is more then Vnity by a letter to wit Vanity To the fourth If the Knight or any Protestant suspended the efficacy of their Baptisme upon the faith of their Parents or as all Papists doe upon the intention of the Priest the Iesuit might with some colour object to us the uncertainty of our Christendome but let him know if he doth not that we maintaine generally that the effect of Baptisme dependeth not upon the faith of the Parents and God-fathers nor yet upon the intention of the Priest knowne to God onely and himselfe but upon his outward action and his words knowne to all the Congregation We say that the observation of Christs institution in baptizing the partie in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy-ghost and not the Priests hidden intention makes Baptisme effectuall to all that belong to the covenant To the fift The Iesuit most absurdly inferreth absurdities upon his owne Tenet supposing it to be ours whereas we disclaime it affirming that although the Church useth in marriage all meanes possible by questions and answers by joyning hands by plighting their troth in most significant tearmes and confirming their mutuall promises by giving and receiving a ring and denouncing Gods judgments against them in most fearfull manner if they know any thing one by the other why they should not be ioyned in marriage yet because the heart is knowne to God alone the validity of marriage with us dependeth upon the outward profession and sacred action done before sufficient and undoubted witnesse and not the secret intentions of the partie What the Iesuit addeth by way of jeare that a small deale of orders serves our turnes for he seeth not any thing done by vertue of our ordination which any man or woman may not doe without it I hold it not worthy any other answer then that sith he professeth his eye sight to be so dimme he would make use of the Spectacles he made for the Knight by helpe of them if he be not starke blinde he may see that by vertue of our ordination men in holy orders preach the Gospell administer the Sacraments remit and retaine sinnes which if he thinke any man or woman may doe without ordination like the foole in the Poet Dum vitant stulti vitia in contrario currunt he is gone from one extreame to the other and of a Papist become an Anabaptist With us none may execute the Priests office but he that is called thereunto as was Aaron If the Iesuit meane that any man or woman may doe the outward acts of Priesthood de facto though not de Iure may they not doe the like also sometimes among them doth not their Legend tell us that some Boyes getting by heart and pronouncing the words of Consecration hoc est Corpus meum turned all the Bakers bread in the street into flesh Do not Lady Abbesses and Nuns chaunt Mattins together in Romish Chappels Do not Midwives christen children in their Church With what face then can he charge us with those disorders whereof all the world seeth we are free but he and his Church most guilty To the sixt If we can have but a conjecturall and wavering knowledge of our salvation what comfort can a true Christian have in life or death If his hope be onely in this life the Apostle affirmeth expressely 1 Cor. 15.19 that he is of all men most miserable and certainely he is but little better if all his hope in the life to come be no better then a guesse or slender conjecture Iustly therefore did Martin Luther tearme the Romish doctrine concerning uncertainty of salvation non doctrinam fidei sed diffidentiae no doctrine of faith but of diffidence and distrust which if this Iesuit stiffely maintaines I would faine know of him how he interpreteth that Article of the Creed I beleeve the remission of sinnes Is the meaning onely this that there is a remission of some sins in the Church if so then the Devill beleeves as much concerning this Article as he but if as he beleeveth in the Article of the Resurrection the Resurrection of his owne flesh so in the Article of remission of sinnes the remission of his owne sinnes then his owne justification and particular beliefe of his owne saltion is a part of his Catholike faith and if that be but conjecturall then there is no certainty in the Catholike Faith It is true that it is a different thing to dispute of the certainety of the Catholike faith in generall and of every mans private and particular beliefe of his owne justification and salvation yet there is such a dependance betweene them that if the former be uncertaine the latter cannot be certaine Yea but saith the Iesuit we are certaine by the certainty of divine faith not onely that there be seven Sacraments but that they are also truely administred in the Church so as there can be no danger of the failing
in some sort more sure for a man that would be contentious may deny Christ to sit at the right hand of his Father because his Father hath neither right hand nor left There is no more fafety in the Protestant doctrine of Iustification than the Romane For Catholikes trust wholy in God attributing no more to their owne good workes than that they cooperate to Iustification meriting grace and glorie and on the contrarie Protestants teach vaine confidence in most of these points as that a man must assure himselfe that his sinnes are forgiven that hee must assure himselfe of his salvation and that he cannot fall from grace and the like which ground supposed how can hee worke out his salvation with feare and trembling Though some Catholikes say that there is more perfection of the Sacrament which consisteth in the representation in both kinds than in one yet there is the same safety and fruit in one and in both kinds Though the sacrifice of the Masse is more profitable when the people comnunicate with the Priest as the Knight proveth out of the Councell of Trent Harding and Bellarmine yet hee proveth not that there is any danger in private Masses or that it is unlawfull for the Priest to say Masse without hee have some to communicate with him which is the Controversie between Catholikes and Protestants Aeneas Sylvius Cassander and Panormitan are of opinion indeed that Priests should have libertie to marry yet they would not have them marry against the law standing in force but they would have the law taken away which is a farre different Doctrine from that of Protestants Howsoever it is safer to follow the judgement of all other Doctours of the Catholike Church all other Fathers and Councels teaching the contrarie of all which there is abundant proofe in Bellarmine and which was never contradicted by any but knowne wicked men Though publike Prayers in Latine may not be so profitable to the people yet they are lawfull and safe and the fruit of refection of the understanding by Prayer in a knowne tengue whereof Aquinas speaketh will not countervaile the tenth part of the inconvenience which may happen by having publike Prayers in a knowne tongue The inconveniences are vanitie curiositie contempt of Superiours disputes schismes prophanation and divulgation of secret Mysteries besides the very ignorance of the Latine tongue and consequently of all learning which would follow thereof onely in Clergie men is ten hundred times more harme than that fruit in the Laitie is good Cajetan was greatly mistaken when hee expoundeth the fourteenth chapter of the first Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corynthians of publike Prayers in the Church and hee is also mistaken in the very end of Prayer which is not edification or instruction of the people but the honour of God immediately Gabriel Biel speaketh not of Prayer in a knowne tongue nor of publike Prayers but onely of mentall Prayer and vocall and giveth those seven reasons which the Knight alleageth to shew that besides mentall Prayer it is convenient to use vocall There is no danger in worshipping Images or praying to Saints and Erasmus Cassander and Chemnitius who teach the contrary are of none authoritie Neither Bernard nor Waldensis nor Bellarmine contradict the Doctrine of the Romish Church in the point of Merit For Catholikes acknowledge with Bernard that there is no safe rest or securitie for a weake soule but in the wounds of our Saviour which doth not hinder but a man may say God rewardeth the good workes of his servants out of his justice and fidelitie which out of his mercie he gave them grace to doe and though Waldensis and some other Divines approve not of the word of Merit especially De condigno yet in the thing it selfe they all agree to wit that eternall life is given to men as the reward of their good workes which is all that others meane by condigne Merit The Doctrine of Bellarmine to wit that it is most safe to trust wholly in the Merits of Christ is as well the Catholike Doctrine as the Protestants who condemne not Protestants for not trusting in their workes or trusting wholly in Christ if so be they deny not the necessitie and efficacie of good workes for purchasing grace and glorie The Hammer AS Asia Minor is called by some Geographers Asia Asiae and the field of Agrigentum Sicilia Siciliae and Attica Graecia Graeciae and the Ball or Apple in the eye the eye of the eye so this Chapter of the Knight may be not unfitly termed via viae the safest path in his safe way other Chapters tend to the proofe of his title Via Tuta but this is full upon it For here he proves by many remarkable instances that our rocke is much more sure then theirs our very adversaries being judges his instances are prayers in a knowne tongue communicating in both kindes partaking of the Sacrament with the Priest immediate addresse to God by Christ adoring the Creator onely resolution of our faith upon Gods word relying wholly upon his Grace and mercy and renouncing mans merit And whose understanding apprehendeth not that it is safest to pray to God with understanding whose spirituall senses tell him not that it is more comfortable and profitable to communicate with a Priest then to looke on and to receive the Sacrament in both kindes then in one onely whose reason perswadeth him not that it is safer to worship God in spirit then by an Image to adore Christ in Heaven then in a peâ—ece of bread to expect ayde from God then Saints to trust in Gods word then in mans in his Grace then our will and in Christs merits then our owne yet as restie jades stumble in faire way so the Iesuit in this fairest rode of the safe way stumbleth often and tumbleth also as the Reader may observe in the severall annotations at his particular slips or rather downefalls in this Chapter To the first The Knight doth not conclude out of any one particular but maketh an induction out of many particulars in this manner The Protestant faith by the best learned among Papists in the point of Communion in both kindes of Prayer in a knowne tongue justification by Faith alone et sic de ceteris is safer then the Roman ergo simply and generally it is safer Though Silurus his Son could breake every Arrow by it selfe which his Father gave him yet he could not in like manner the bundle or sheafe of Arrowes which he put in his hand and bid him assay to breake them if he could nam vis unita fortior Et quae non prosunt singula multa juvant but the Iesuit hath not beene able to breake any one of the single Arrowes shot by the Knight in the former Sections how then will he be able to breake the sheafe in this To the second By the uncharitable censure of the Iesuit he sheweth of what spirit he is The searcher of all hearts knoweth that we
Father there Yea but the Iesuit demandeth Wherein are you more safe than wee if hee be not there wee are in danger of adoring him where hee is not if hee be there then are you saith hee in danger by not adoring him where hee is I answer wee are every way safe and they both wayes in danger wee are safe because if hee be there wee who worship him there in spirit and truth not under any corporall shape are in no danger at all because wee worship him at his Table as hee requireth if hee bee not there wee can be in no danger for not worshipping him there where hee is not They are in danger both wayes of Will-worship if he be there of Idolatrie if hee be not there Of Will-worship I say if hee be under the accidents of Bread and Wine because they are no where commanded to worship him under such formes if hee bee not there then are they apparantly guiltie of grosser Idolatrie by exhibiting Culium latriae divine worship to a piece of Bread To the fift Here the Iesuit like an Adder thrusteth out his forked sting pricking with one of his forkes the Knight for calumniating their Doctrine with the other the Doctrine of the Reformed Church touching assured hope of salvation as matter of vaine confidence and a dangerous precipice of the soule The first is easily plucked out for the Knight chargeth them with nothing but what the Iesuit himselfe confesseth For if men cooperating to their justification merit both grace and glorie they doe not ascribe the whole glorie of it to God but as the Romans for the victorie they gained over the Cimbri sacrificed Deo Mario so doe the Papists at this day for the conquest of their ghostly enemies and their purchase of heaven burne incense Deo Mariae to Christ and Mary and attribute their justification and salvation partly to Christs merits partly to their owne together with the superabundant satisfaction of the blessed Virgin Mary and other Saints The other forke reacheth not home to invenome our most wholsome doctrine concerning assured hope of salvation for though wee teach that a man ought to be assured that his sinnes are forgiven him yet withall wee teach that this assurance is upon condition of Repentance and Faith And withall wee affirme because hee standeth not by his owne strength but by Gods power Who worketh in him both the will and the doed hee ought not to be high minded but to feaxe and in this feare to worke out his salvation Phil. 2.13 I meane in feare as feare is opposed to carnall security and presumption not as it is opposed to religious confidence and as hee must worke out his salvation with this feare so also with trembling as trembling is taken for an awfull and filiall reverence not for a servile affrighting For the trembling here meant is not onely joyned with assured hope that God will worke both the will and the deede but also with joy rejoyce unto him with trembling Psal 11. To the sixt Though the Iesuit tug hard yet the Knight holdeth him fast in Hales Vasquez and Valentia his net For if it be true that the Sacraments effect what they represent it will follow upon the Iesuits owne confession that in regard the Sacrament is perfecter in both kindes then in one in regard of representation it must needs be more perfect also in the fruit and operation and if so then more safety and comfort in our entire then in their halfe communion To the seventh Bell. de Missa l. 2. c. 10. Negari non potest quin sit magis perfecta et legitima missa ubi cōmunicantes adsunt quā ubi non adsunt Harding art 1. of privat Masse Where the people cō nunicate it is more cō nendable more godly Concil Trent ses 22. cap. 6. more fruitfull and more profitable The Iesuit would faine contradict the Knight but indeede he contradicteth himselfe For in granting that which Bellarmine Harding and the Councell of Trent extorteth from him that it is more profitable for the people to communicate with a Priest at the Masse then to loake on he sayes by consequent that there is more safety in it which is the proper point in controversie in this Chapter For as that which is unprofitable for the soule cannot but be dangerous so that which is profitable to the soule cannot but be safe nothing is profitable to the soule but that which some way tendeth too and furthereth the salvation thereof and is not that safer which more tendeth to salvation To the eight Aeneas Silvius maketh no mention at all of any Law of single life De gestis concil Bafil l. 2. Coss de caelib Sacerd. art 23. Panor de cler conjug c. Quum olim Credo pro bono et salute animarum statutum nunc iri ut non valentes continere possint contrahere but simply saith that It were safer for Priests to marry for that meanes many Priests might be saved in married Priesthood Cass de caelib Sacerd. art 23. Panor de cler conjug c. Quum olim Credo pro bono et salute animarum statutum nunc iri ut non valentes continere possint contrahere which now in barren Priesthood are damned Cassander and Panormitan make mention of the law which tieth Priests to single life and both thinke that the abrogation of it would be good and behoovefull to the foules of many Priests that those who cannot attaine to the first degree of chastity in a single life may be permitted to live in the second degree of chaste marriage And what is it else that we contend for but that it may be left free to the Ministers of the Gospell to marry if they thinke good which liberty implieth two things First that where there is a law restraining them from marriage that law may be abrogated Secondly for the future that no law prohibiting marriage in the Clergie may be enacted Yea but saith the Iesuit all the Doctors all the Fathers all the Councells and the continuall practice of the Church from the very beginning is against Priests marriage of all which you have abundant proofe in Bellarmine I answer of all this nay none of all this as you may see in Chemnitius History de celibatu sacerdotum Iunius and Chaumerus their reply to Bellarmine and most largely and plentifully in Dr. Hall now Bishop of Exon. his three bookes against Coffin intituled The honour of the married Clergy Pag. 392. Yea but saith the Iesuit in the last place the law restraining Priests marriage was never contradicted by any but knowne wicked men What a lowd and Stentorian untruth is here uttered by a foule mouthed Iesuit Was Paphnutius the confessor Spiridion the Saint were all the Fathers of the first generall Councell of Nice together with Pope Pius the second and the Fathers at the Synod at Basill besides infinite others produced by the Authors above named all
soever to exception saith nothing for him Pelagius was not so absurd as to hold this position that Peters Chaire and Faith goe alwaies together but only spake in a glozing manner thus to Pope Sozimus Thou holdest Peters Chaire and Faith and will the Iesuit inferre an universall from a particular Pope Sozimus held Peters Chaire and Faith therfore all that hold Peters Chaire hold his Faith What holdeth these two together Luke 22.32 Quest vet N. Test q. 75. Quid ambigitur pro Petro rogabat pro Iacobo et Iohāne non rogabat ut caeteros taceam manifestum est in Petro omnes contineri a most strong and effectuall Bond saith the Iesuit namely Christs promise to Peter I have prayed for thee that thy Faith faile not The time will faile me to declare particularly how many waies this Argument of the Iesuit failes first Christ prayed not here for Peter onely as Saint Austine affirmeth What doth any man make question hereof did Christ pray for Peter and not for James and John To say nothing of the rest it is manifest that in Peter all the rest are contained This prayer then no more privilegeth the See of Rome from error than of Ierusalem or of Ephesus or any other See of the Apostles Secondly Christ prayed not that Peter might not erre who afterwards erred Gal. 2.14 and was reproved by Saint Paul Galathians the second but that his Faith might not faile that is be overcome in that fearfull temptation in such sort that hee might not rise againe after his fall Thirdly Christs prayer is for Peter himselfe in his person and the Apostles whom Satan winnowed not for his See Fourthly if this promise any way belonged to his Successors certainly no more to those of Rome than Antiochia so infirme is this the Iesuits proofe which yet hee saith Must stand firme till Sir Humphrey can tell what Pope began to varie from his Predecessours Agreed Sir Humphrey shall presently tell him by name Liberius the Arrian Vigilius the Eutychian Honorius the Monothelite condemned in three generall Councels sixth seventh and eighth Iohn the three and twenty deposed in the Councell at Constance as for other enormous crimes so for this his damnable heresie that Hee denied the immortalitie of the soule and the life to come To which after the Iesuit hath replied instance shall be given in many other Popes which have beene branded with the note of heresie in like manner To the third A strange and loose inference three and thirty Popes adored Images because their Predecessor had the pictures of Saint Peter and Saint Paul Pope Gregorie allowed of the standing of pictures in the Church Vid. supr yet would have them by no meanes adored Helena the mother of Constantine had the wood of Christs crosse yet adored it not saith Saint Ambrose If to have the picture of Saint Peter or Saint Paul nay or of Christ himselfe maketh a man an Idolater or a Papist then not onely all the Lutherans generally but very many of the most orthodoxe Divines in our and other reformed Churches will be proved as good Papists as Pope Sylvester To the fourth Not only Protestants whom the Iesuit nick-nameth Heretikes but also Contius and other Romanists have disparaged these Epistles and if the Iesuits nose be not very flat and stuffed also hee may smell the forgerie of these Decretals by the barbarisme of the stile disagreeing to those times and many absurdities and contradictions noted in them by Coqueus and others To the fift If it be no matter of Faith that this particular Priest Transubstantiateth the Bread because no man knowes his intention nor that particular Priest Et sic de caeteris It followeth that it is no matter of Faith to beleeve that any Priest in the Roman Church by the words of Consecration turneth the Bread into Christs Body As for that hee addeth that it is no matter whether any ever died for this point in particular I answer it is a matter of great moment for if Garnet would not take it upon his salvation that this Bread hee consecrated immediately before the death was turned into Christs Body nor any ever would or did pawne his life for Transubstantiation it is evident that Papists themselves doubt of the certainty of that Article On the contrarie wee can produce hundreds nay thousands who for denying Transubstantiation have beene put to death and have signed the truth of the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches concerning the Sacrament with their blood and therefore the Doctrine of the Protestants in this point is of more credit than the contrarie because it is strengthened and fortified by a Noble armie of Martyrs Concerning the Protestants charitable opinion of the salvation of Papists Spectacles Chap. 17. à page 491. usque ad 508. THE Knights discourse in this Chapter is wholly from his purpose which he pretendeth in the title of his Chapter which is to answer our objections The Knights eight instances in the Doctrine of Merits Communion in both kinds publike use of Scripture Priests marriage Service in a knowne tongue Worship of Images Adoration of the Sacrament and Traditions are all answered before and proved some false for the things wherewith he chargeth us are all absurd if we consider the proofes of Scripture which he bringeth All testimonies from an enemy proceede not from charity but from truth and such are those which Catholikes bring out of learned Protestants to prove that a man dying in the Romish Religion may be saved Free-will Prayer for the Dead Honouring of Relikes Reall Presence Transubstantiation Communion in one kinde Worshiping of Images the Popes Primacy Auricular Confession and the like are all acknowledged some by one Protestant some by another not to be materiall points so as a man may without perill beleeve either way the severall authors are Perkins Cartwright Whitgift Fulke Penrie Somes Sparks Reynolds Bunnie and Whitaker John Frith a Foxean Martyr acknowledgeth that the matter touching the substance of the Sacrament bindeth no man of necessity to salvation or damnation whether he beleeve it or not John Huz held the Masse Transubstantiation Vowes Freewill Merit of workes and of the haeresies now in controversie held onely one to wit communion in both kindes Dr. Barrow acknowlegeth the Church of Rome to be the Church of God Hooker a part of the house of God and limbe of the visible Church of Christ Dr. Somes that all learned and reformed Churches confesse that in Popery there is a Church a Ministry and true Christ Field and Morton that we are to be accounted the Church of God whose words may be seene in the Protestants Apologie Tract 1. Sect. 6. Whereas the Knight saith that men otherwayes morally good relying wholly on the merits of Christ that is living Papists and dying Protestants in the principall foundation of our faith may finde mercy because they did it ignorantly where hath the Knight learned this Theologie that a man