and were preferred to Ecclesiasticall dignity could be allowed to read any such authours Thirdly he sayth that from the first yeare of his Clergy he had nourished in himselfe an inborne desire of the vnion of al Christian Churches inquyring what might be the cause of their Schisme which did excruciate and torment his mynd and doth still consume and wast him as you may perceiue by looking vpon him with such grief and sorrow as is wonderfull Fourthly telling you vnder hand pag. 11. That leauing the Society of Iesus where he had read Mathematickes Rethoricke Logicke and Philosophy preached often done them other domesticall seruice for the which they were very sory to leaue him he sayth Fiftly page 11. and 12. That being made a Bishop and falling to read bookes of printted Sermons Quadragesimalls and others for the exercise of his Episcopall function in preaching he found great abuse of Scripture in them apocriphall and ridiculous examples inuentions of Auarice and Ambition not without superstition wherewith the people were deluded Sixtly he sayth pag. 13. That in reading the Fathers he obserued that his maisters had taught him many thinges against them and that the Ecclesiasticall discipline of our tyme did differ very much from the auncient practise therof These considerations I haue called dispositions which somewhat prepared his mynd to make mutation of Religion because as he saith they made him to see as it were a farre off that matters went not well and because all this while he did not fully consent but made some kind of resistance vnto them Wherein before we passe any further not to confound you with too much matter togeather let vs consider whether that which he hath brought be of any moment to perswade his Reader that his new beleefe proceded from God And to begin with his vehement suspition which was the first seed from whence his vocation sprung wherein and in the other three assertions which follow I wil be content to do him that courtesy which he refused to shew vnto his Maisters and to suppose he cyteth the booke of his conscience aright though none but himselfe can looke into it it appeareth euidently thereby that this new seed of suspition was nothing els but the worst kind of cockle which our enemy and his the Father of Heresy is wont to sow vpon the good Corne of Christ For suspition is nothing els but an opinion of euill without any iust or sufficient ground as the Rhetoritians S. Thom. 2.2 q. 60. art 3.4 Philosophers and Deuines define it And therefore it alwayes importeth some fault and some iniury done to the party who is thereby wronged because vniustly suspected whereof I maruell how your learned Bishop could be ignorant Wherefore to suspect and concerue an ill opinion of so many as he did in a matter of such importance without any reason or sufficient cause was a sinne and that a great one especially in him who at that tyme thought himselfe bound in conscience to belieue entirely the whole doctrine of the Church of Rome For if to doubt of any article of Faith without inclyning to either side be an act of Heresy as all Deuines do affirme then much more to suspect which is to inclyne and to giue some consent to any motion contrary to the very ground of Faith must needs be Heresy But you will say the Bishop made resistance thereunto and therefore he did not sinne against his conscience To which I answere If when the thought therof came first to his mynd he did repell it that then in that case it neuer grew to be any suspition but if once it came to be suspition as he affirmeth it was then hauing cōceiued an opinion of so great euil vpon sleight occasion or rather no occasion at all it cannot be denyed but that he sinned in admitting the same though he might do well afterward in changing his mynd and in opposing himselfe against it And therefore this suspition being so great a sinne it could not be inspired into him from God Almighty So as it can no way be denyed but that this first motion arising in the Bishops mynd against the Catholike Religion was the bad seed sowne by the Diuell which sprung vp out of his owne Malice Pryde Leuity and Inconstancy from whence neither a good tree nor good fruite can be expected For as you know Paruus error in principio magnus in fine and if the light it selfe wherewith he began to worke be darkenes then the works themselues that proceded from it must needs be the workes of extreme darkenes Let vs now proceed to the increase of this his strong and vehement suspition as he tearmeth it occasioned as he saith by the strict prohibition of such books as are cōtrary to the Roman doctrine Which likewise we shall find that as it begun without reason so was it augmented vpon a very false and friuolous reason and as it sprung out of pryde and leuity so was it fed and nourished with pryde and curiosity And therefore the new strength or force which it receiued could not proceed from the spirit of God For supposing as all Catholikes do and as he then did that such kind of bookes are full fraught with the poyson of Heresy which is the most damnable vice of all other it standeth with great reason that they should in no case admit such dangerous warres amongst them for such bookes being once admitted they easily passe from maisters and learned men to the hands not only of Schollers but also of other simple people who not knowing what they are but feeding of all the bread that comes from the Baker and of all the dishes that are set before them insteed of wholesome meat should fall vpon poyson for whose soules their negligent pastors should answere to God at the day of Iudgment For I pray you if some vnquiet and ambitious spirit in other Countreys should make clayme to the Crowne of England and call in question the Kings title though neuer so cleere with vs do you thinke that the Pleas and Processe of such a man should be remitted to the reading of euery yong student or Counsellour at Law in the Ins of Court especially if this Claymer or Pretender had got some Lawyers to be of his side and had made a party which followed him and sought to set footing in England Much more is it necessary for those that haue the gouerment of soules to be iealous of their safty to be vigilant for the preseruation of peace amongst them But you will say vnto me why then are Catholike Latin writers permitted to be read by our ministers and others here in England to which I answere that the case is farre different For first England was neuer yet fully Protestant the Catholike number remayning still very great and therefore the state of England in this respect might do well to follow the example of the primitiue Church wherein after that the Christian Religion
lesse pouerty of meanes and matter in buylding without a foundation as much want of proofe to persuade in giuing you nothing but wordes insteed of other substance But you will reply whatsoeuer he sayth here he promiseth to proue and pursue hereafter in his Booke of Ecclesiasticall Common Wealth I pray you were it fit that when a souldier cometh into the feild to fight he should come without weapons and should thinke either to ouercome his aduersary or to satisfy the beholders of his prowesse by saying that he hath an excellent sword a making Were it not absurd that a Scholler comming to dispute of any Probleme should thinke to satisfy the arguments of his aduersary or to perswade his auditours that the truth were of his side by affirming that he would or that he had composed a great volume of that matter This booke being made by the Bishop to proue his spirit to disproue his aduersaryes and to approue his change of Religion to all those that should here thereof now was the tyme to vse his Weapons to shew his Wisedome and to bring forth his euidence And therefore if he sayle of his proofes it is an euident signe that he is altogeather destitute and vnprouided of them Neither is it true which he sayth That when his worke cometh forth whatsoeuer he hath heere affirmed shal be there proued For how will he proue that Rome hath coyned not a 100. or a 1000. new articles of Fayth in one day but as he sayth innumerable and that euery day How will he proue that the Church of Rome suppresseth the Councells Doth it not make them a rule of Fayth hath it not alwayes preserued them doth it not mayntayne and defend them from the calumniations and contradictions which the Heretikes of these dayes oppose against them How will he proue that we belieue the whole spirit of Christ to remayne in the Pope alone and that all which hath been sayd heretofore in the honour of the vniuersall Church must be applyed to the Court and Pallace of the Pope alone Do we belieue that to be Catholike one holy visible to haue conuerted Nations and Kingdomes which are some of the supernaturall prayses and excellencyes of the Catholike Church whereby she shyneth like the sunne in the Firmament aboue all other Congregations or assemblyes Do we belieue I say as an article of our Fayth that these things agree to the Pope and his Pallace alone That the Pope or his Court is extended ouer al the world That the Vnity Holynes Visibility and Miracles of the Church and of the Pastors and Saints thereof are only to be found in the Pope and his Pallace and that all other Catholike Nations and Kingdomes are excluded from the participation of these graces can this be proued thinke you And can it stand with the grauity and reuerent authority of a Bishop to affirme these things with promise to confirme them making them also the ground of his conuersion Could any ignorant shamelesse Minister whose learning were nothing els but lying Could any Zani or Counterfait that had been hyred to rayle against the Pope haue spoken more fondly more intemperatly or more absurdly The innumerable new articles whereof he speaketh and the whole doctrine of so many Churches impugned by the Church of Rome which he vndertaketh to defend can surely contayne no lesse then all the points in Controuersy betwene you and vs which are so farre from being decided in his Ecclesiasticall cōmon Wealth that for the greater part of them they cannot be so much as mentioned therin For as it appeareth by his owne description therof the 4. first bookes proue only in effect that all Bishops and their Churches by the Law of God are equall And that neither S. Peter nor the Pope nor the Roman Clergy should haue any Primacy or Papacy or Prehemynence aboue the rest In his 5. and 6. Booke he taketh away all kind of iurisdiction from the whole Church not only in temporall but also in Ecclesiasticall matters In his 7. booke he disputeth of the rule of Fayth In the rest that follow he speaketh of nothing els but only of the temporalityes and immunityes of the Church In the 8. he considereth the external gouernemēt of the Church by Lawes and Canons which if he affirme to be lawfull it is directly contrary to his 5. and 6. booke wherein he reiecteth all kind of Iurisdiction from the Church of Christ So that this great booke wherof he braggeth so much contayneth in effect but one Controuersy alone And he that should proue the Popes Primacy and Supreme Iurisdiction ouer the Church of God should ouerthrow the substance of this whole Volume For thereof it would follow directly that the gouernement of Christs church vpon earth is Monarchicall against his first and second booke that the gouernours of the Church are not equall in authority by the Law of God against his third booke That the Pope and Church of Rome hath preheminence ouer other Churches against his fourth booke That the Church of God hath Iurisdiction both Ecclesiasticall directly and temporall indirectly the latter being necessary for the maintaynance of the former against his 5. and 6. booke That the decree of the Pope as Head of the Church in a generall Councell is a sufficient rule of Fayth against his 7. booke The resolution also of the matters contayned in his 3. other bookes is of no great importance and may easily be deduced from the former conclusion Wherefore if he thinke to discharge himselfe of all other poynts in Controuesy by handling the titles of these bookes alone he shall behaue himselfe like a Banquerupt who insteed of the whole debt should scarce make payment of one in the hundred SECTION VI. Concerning the Popes Supremacy The state of the question is proposed and S. Peters Supremacy is proued by Scripture BVT now as oftentymes it falleth out that vnder the fayre shewes of Banquerupt Merchants vnder their goodly inscriptions of many rich commodityes and dissembling text letters vpon pots packs and boxes there is nothing to be found except perhaps some poore refused brockage that is not salable so to make it manifest that vnder these glorious titles of the ten Bookes which the Bishop promiseth there is nothing contayned but false wares and idle tryfles lapt vp in so many bundles of wast paper And to giue you withall some satisfaction in this one point of Controuersy of the Popes Supremacy the occasion being so fit the labour not great the way so well beaten by others I will briefly set you downe some of those euident proofes wherewith the Catholikes are wont to demonstrate the Popes Supremacy in spiritual matters Whereby also it will appeare how well the Bishop hath spent his 10. yeares in reading of the Fathers whether he haue more attended to his study or to his belly For the greater breuity and more perspicuity in handling this ample and copious matter I will reduce all that I
according to that I haue prayed for thee c. Agatho likewise in his Epistle to the Emperour Constantine which was read and and approued in the 6 generall Councell sayth This is the rule of the true Faith which the Apostolike Church of Christ both in prosperity and aduersity hath liuely held c. because it was sayd to Peter I haue prayed c. here our Lord promised that the Faith of Peter should not fayle and admonished him to confirme his brethren which the Apostolike Bishops the predecessours of my littlenesse as all men know haue alwayes fulfilled Simplicius Epist 1. in his Epistle to Zeno the Emperour calling him sonne and exhorting him to defend the Faith he sayth for the same rule of Apostolicall doctrine doth abyde fast in his successours speaking of Pope Leo to whome our Lord inloyned the care of his whole flock where you see he acknowledgeth tho doctrine of the Pope to be a rule of Faith which was to remayne according to the institution of our Sauiour And els where he saith notably as followeth The doctrine of the holy memory of our Predecessors being extant against the which it is not lawfull to dispute whosoeuer doth seeme to be rightly wise hath no need of new instructions Eusebius in his Epistle to the Bishops of Tuscany and Campania sayth Epist 3. that the sentence of our Lord Iesus Christ cannot be pretermitted which sayth thou art Peter c. And those words which were then spoken are proued true by the effects of things because in the Apostolike sea the Catholike religion hath alwayes byn kept without spot Gelasius likewise sayth That the Apostolicall sea is very carefull not to be stained with any contagion of prauity or false doctrine because the glorious confession of the Apostle Peter is the roote For sayth he If any such thing should happen Epist ad Anastas August which we assure our selues can neuer be how should we presume to resist any errour c. Where you see he proueth that the Apostolike seat is priuiledged from errour being grounded vpon the confession of S. Peter whereunto our Sauiour promised that stability which is fit for the roote and rocke of truth Felix the 2. in his answere to Athanasius and to the Aegyptian Bishops vnderstandeth likewise the words of Christ Matthew 16.23 to be meant of the Roman Sea Lib. 4. ep 32. cont Ioan. Ep. Constant Gregory the Great sayth That it is manifest to all that know the Ghospell that vnto S. Peter the prince of the Apostles the care of the whole Church was committed to whome it was sayd Feed my sheep Lib. 6. indict 15. c. 37. alias 201. I haue prayed for thee c. thou art Peter c. And els where he relate than epistle of Enlogius the Patriarch of Alexandria acknowledging the Chayre of Peter to be the sea of Rome and then he addeth Who is it Lib. 7. ep 125. that knoweth not the holy Church to be founded on the solidity of the prince of the Apostles For the which cause he teacheth also that those things Lib. 3. ep 41. which haue beene once decreed by the authority of the Apostolike sea do need no other confirmation And he admonisheth Bonifacius in one of his epistles to take heed that his soule be not found deuyded from the Church 〈◊〉 Blessed Peter least he being despised heere in this worth should shut the gate of life against him in the next And to adde one or two more of some what latter tymes Nicolaus 1. in his epistle to Michael the Emperour sayth The priuiledges of that 〈◊〉 the Roman are perpetually rooted and planned by God they may be thrust at they cannot be transferred they may be pulled they cannot be placked vp The same which were before your raigne remaine God be thanked hither to vntouched and shall remaine after you and as long as the name of Christ is preached they shall not leaue to subsist To conclude Leo the 9. auoucheth That by the sea of the Prince of the Apostles the Roman Church and as well by S. Peter himselfe as by his successours the deuices of all Heretikes haue beene reproued conuicted beaten downe and the harts of the brethren haue beene confirmed in the fayth of Peter which hitherto hath not fayled nor shall euer sayle hereafter SECTION XIII The Popes supremacy in Iudiciall authority is proued out of the testimonies of the Popes themselues THVS far we haue alleadged the authority of the Popes themselues for their supremacy in matters of Fayth and for the infallibility of their doctrine It followeth now to produce the like restimonyes of Popes for their Supremacy in some speciall poynts of Iurisdiction and gouernement ouer the Church of God â—â—rst therfore concerning their authority in calling and confirming of Councells besides that which hath beene sayd already out of the first foure generall Councells Marcel Marcellus who dyed about the yeare of Christ 310. in his epistle to the Bishops of the prouince of Antioch affirmeth that â—o Synod or Councell can be lawfully made without authority of the Roman sea Iulius Iulius the first in his epistle ad Orientales calling the Roman sea the first sayth That vnto it belongeth the right of assembling Synodes of iudging Bishops and of reseruing the greater causes vnto it selfe because it is preferred before the rest not only by the decrees of Canons and holy Fathers but also by the voice of our Lord and Saniour Leo. Epist 47. Leo the first in his epistle to the Calcedon Councell signifyed that it was the will of the Emperour that the Councell should be assembled sauing the right and honour of the most blessed Peter the Apostle And further he sayth That by his vicar he was the President therof And in his epistle to Putcheria the Empresse speaking of the decrees of that Synod concerning the honour of the second seat to be giuen to the Church of Constantinople he sayth that by the authority of Blessed Peter the Apostle with a generall definition he did vtterly disanull them and make them voyd Gelasius likewise Gelasius in his epistle ad Dardanos doth auouch that the Apostolicall seat confirmed all Synods and that no Bishop can auoyd his iudgment More in particuler concerning the Iurisdiction of the Roman sea ouer Bishops and in greater causes Anicetus in his Epistle doth say Anicetus That it belongeth to him to determine the iudgments of all Bishops The like hath Elcutherius in his epist cap. 2. Eleutherius Victor And Victor in his epistle to Theophilus sayth that to do the contrary is nothing els but to transgresse the bounds of the Apostles and their successours to violate their decrees Felix likewise sayd Felix ep 1. that the greater causes of the whole Church were reserued vnto him Melchiades in his epistle to the Bishops of Spaine saying that it appertayned vnto him to iudg of Bishops addeth these wordes
you may know this man to be one of those of whom S. Paul speaketh who taking vpon them to be Doctours of the Law do not vnderstand neither what they speake nor of what they affirme Let vs suppose it were true that his eyes were opened as he saith and that he saw manifestly and clerely in the Fathers Canons and Councells those so many Churches whome Rome hath made her aduersaryes do differ little or nothing from the ancient and pare doctrine of the pure Church What other thing I pray you did he see with his eyes broad open so plainly but only this that he is alienated from the Church of God a deceiuer and a killer of the sheep of Christs a blasphemous defender of many horrible Heresyes a disposer to Arianisme and Turcisme insathanized and 〈…〉 c. according to the purity of the Lutheran Ghospell That he is amalepert wicked furious herecike and a slane of the Diuell in defenthing Luther according to the purity of Caluins doctrine That he putteth no difference betwene truth and falshould Christ and Antichrist God and the Diuell but it one of the Antichristian Swyntsh rabble according to the purity of the Puritants themselues And lastly that he is excommunicated and guilty of a wicked errour according to the purity of the Protestants for defending most impurely that all these Sects togeather do differ little or nothing from the purity of the Ghospell SECTION XX. The conclusion of this Tract cōcerning the Bishops motiues by occasion wherof the nature of a motiue is declared and the first Catholike motiue of the holynes and sanctity of Catholike doctrine is propounded AND this much concerning the Bishops Motiues and the formall Reasons of his conuersion which I haue shewed that being in themselues not only strang but also incredible he neither goeth about to proue in this place nor can possibly proue them in his other bookes hereafter because in them he doth not descend to those particuler points which are in Controuersy betwene vs as is manifest by the titles of his bookes themselues And this one Controuersy alone of the Popes Supremacy according to the doctrine of the ancient Church I which is the substance of all the bookes he promiseth is found as I haue shewed to he most extreme against him and that which he maketh the ground thereof hath been also discouered to be a most absurd and most pernicious position as much contrary to the authority of your Bishops and to the Puritan Eldership and to the title of his owne booke as to the Popes Supremacy and if all were true which he pretendeth to proue in his Common wealth it might shew perhaps the Catholike Religion to be false but yours to be the right it could not proue I haue also made it euident vnto you that the Bishops motiues as they are heere set downe in his little booke are as monstrous vntruths as can be deuised and albeit he may saue them from broad lyes perchance vnder the title of some rhetoricall figure whereof he hath been a Maister yet too much of one thing is good for nothing and he cannot deny but that it is a great disgrace euen to the Art of lying to vse this one figure of manifest vntruth so often By this also that hath beene sayd concerning this matter you will further perceiue the Bishop being a man so deeply learned and after ten yeares study hauing produced such reasons as these for the proofe of your Religion how hard or rather how impossible it is for any man whatsoeuer to giue any sound or good reason for it Wherin also by the way it wil be worthy your knowledge to consider that such reasons as may induce a man to be of any Religion are of two sorts For either they proue euery point of Religion in particuler to be true or els they open and declare the euidence of certaine generall principles which being once receiued draw after them the consent of the mind to all those thinges in speciall which are taught or practised in that Religion Vnto the first kind do belong all those books which treat of particuler Controuersyes as of the Masse of prayer for the dead of prayer to Saints Purgatory and the like which indeed to a man that hath but little will or little leasure to read is a wearisome course and tedious way to tryall Vnto the other doth belong those shorter discourses which some haue tearmed motiues and for the Catholike party may be seen in such as haue handled the notes of the Church in Canipian his ten Reasons in the booke of the Three Conuersions of England in Bristow and others Whereunto besides that they must be generall reasons as I haue shewed two things againe are necessary The one that the truth of them be more euident then the truth of other particulers which depend vpon them The other that they induce almen Heathens or Christiās of what belief soeuer they be to change opinion and to submit their iugdments to the obedience of that Religion for which they are produced This being seene if you please but to examine a little all those Protestants books which haue been published in this kind you shall not find any one argument in them which may be called a generall reason or an vniuersall motiue for the truth of your Religion but either they are no lesse obscure then the Religion it selfe as that the word of God is truly preached and the Sacraments rightly administred amongst you or most improbable as that the Protestants haue beene alwayes the most visible Congregation of all other Christian Churches or that your religion accordeth with the doctrine of the ancient Fathers as here the Bishop pretendeth or el they concerne some particuler point in Controuersy and commonly are not only most improbable as that the Masse is Idolatry that the Pope is Antichrist and the like but also most palbably false as that we hope to be saued without the merits of Christ that we worship stockes and stones that for nication is a veniall sinne such other iniuries of like nature as it pleaseth your vnlearned Ministers for want of knowledge or of better matter to lay vpon vs. Whereas on the other side euery Catholike whether learned or vnlearned wise or simple is able to giue you such a reason of his fayth as may be sufficient to moue any indifferent mind of what belief soeuer to like and imbrace it For Almighty God not inforcing man against his wil but drawing him according to his Nature and demaunding a reasonable obedience of him hath ordayned in the sweetnes of his prouidence that all Christians should make profession of some principall motiues of their fayth wherein many others are vertually conrayned saying in their Creed I beleeue the holy Church Catholike Not only to moue others therby but also more and more to confirme themselues in their beliefe For albeit matter of diuine fayth be infinitly aboue the knowledge of naturall reason which
confesseth That he also was a long tyme very much troubled with these cogitations Melancthon also spared not say Melāclhon Cōc theol part 1. p. 249. Mirror for Martinists pag. 24. The same hath And. Duditius vbi supra Castal in his preface to his Latin Bible Geor. Ma. orat de cōfusio dog Bull. Firmam part 1. cap. 1. Powell grounds of the new religiō part 2. cap. 1. Perks ep dedic before bis Apology That nothing did so much terrify others from the Ghospell as their own discord was wont to complaine with others that they knew whome they should auoyd meaning the Papists but whome they might follow they did not vnderstand This that learned Sebastianus Castalio tooke for a signe that the Protestants being thus deuided were stil drowned inextreme darknes and most grosse ignorance This sayth Georgius Maior a principall Lutheran did so much tempt and trouble the minds of the simple as they altogeather doubted where to find the truth and whether any true Church of God were remayning in the world This vehement and implacable dissention sayth Bullinger maketh many as it were in despayre to giue out that from hence forward they will beleeue nothing exclayming What credit should we giue to that fayth which is distracted into so many factions Many thereby sayth M. Powell do not call vpon God but fly from God many fall into an Epicurean contention of Religion and are oppressed with despaire These contentions sayth M. Perks are no small preparatiues to Atheisme c. in so much as many are brought to their wits end not knowing what to do Amidst all which miseryes and mischiefs the Papists insult and triumph to see those that professe themselues brethren Relatiō of Rel sect 45.6 Whitaker defensio tract 3. c. 6. p. 278. to be at such deadly iarres amongst themselues Syr Edwyn Sands affirmeth that the contentiōs of Protestants tend maynly to the increase of Atheisme within Mahometisme abroad And D. Whitaker complayneth that the Church of England is replenished with Atheists whome no doubt since his tyme are much increased This therfore is a vehement perswasion to draw any man from the Protestant Religion and on the contrary side men of iudgment that behold so many sundry Nations and people so different or rather so opposite in many other respects of clymate language complexion lawes and customs vnder so many seuerall Kings and Gouernours alwayes in warres more or lesse one against the other to conspyre in the vnity of one Fayth for so many ages togeather subiecting thēselues voluntarily to one head who hath no temporall force to cōpell them and beleeuing so many things aboue the reach of human vnderstanding so contrary to flesh and bloud and to the vehement motions of mans peruerted Nature must needs confesse acknowledge that it is a supernaturall worke and a most miraculous effect of the Spirit of God who is the God of peace and not of contention SECTION XXV Of the authority of the Catholike Church in generall THE last generall argument which I intend to propound for the euidence and truth of the Christian and which is al one of our Catholike religion shall be the great authority of the Catholike Church to the end it may serue as well for a further explication and confirmation as also for a full conclusion of all the former motiues For the capacity of the best vnderstandings amongst vs miserable men being but small and shallow and there being a greater difference betweene man and man in the parts of the mynd then in the sharpnes of sense or strength of body and the mynd of man being of it owne nature but like a fayre table or a lease of white paper which at the first contayneth nothing and by little and little receiueth the pictures or the writings for the which it was ordayned more or lesse better or worse according to the skill and industry of the Paynter or Writer and the aptnes of the matter and the goodnes of the instruments wherewith they worke Hence it is that as Nature inclineth the poore to depend of the rich and the weake to defend thēselues by those that are strong and the blind or bad sighted to be guided and directed in discerning by those that are endued with more perfect sense so by the same law and voyce of Nature all men are taught and obliged to rest their minds and to rely their vnderstandings vpon the authority of those that are generally most approued for their vertue and wisdome aboue the rest and alwayse ceteris paribus other circumstances being equall the fewer in number to yeild submit themselues to the iudgment and opinion of the greater party And so in all speculatiue sciences where our end is nothing els but the delightfull aspect fayr sight of truth the authority of Maisters and skillfull men in those facultyes is necessarily required for our direction to teach vs which way we ought to bend and whereupon to sixe the eye of our vnderstanding to shew how to proceed from poynt to poynt and to giue vs the print of those markes whereby we may best discouer the forme of that truth which we seeke to find or labour to conceiue or comprehend And if the sight of our wit be so short as that we cānot perfectly discerne the same yet it is better to see with another mans eye or as it were by the candle of another then altogeather either to be ignorant of it or els which is far worse to be deceiued therein And as this is true in science so in those arts and facultyes where our end is the doing or the attayning of something which is necessary or profitable for mans life the benefit of authority is much more apparent For in extremity of sicknes or in law matters of great importance or in deliberations about the preseruation or gouernement of Commonwealths to contemne the direction of Phisitians the aduice of Lawyers and the counsell of men experienced in matter of State or not to admit therof in some cases nor to suffer our selues to be oueruled thereby albeit it seeme neuer so much contrary to the sense or imagination of our owne priuate iudgment were to be esteemed rather obstinate madnes then any other errour within the degree of human weaknes But especially the necessity and vtility of the approbation of other mens assertions either of all or of such as are wise and honest appeareth in those things which we can neuer know or make vse of but from the report of others As for example historyes of former ages Relations of the present state and condition of forrayne Countreys or constant reports of such things as were sayd or done in our absence or as S. Augustine noteth that we are the sonnes of such Parents borne in this Countrey or that which is the beginning and foundation of all permanent societyes and the like In which respect this kind of knowledge is properly called beliefe
God yet receiuing it from their Alcaron which is the ground of their fayth and teacheth them many vntruths their perswasion of the vnity of God is no beliefe but errour Or as the Iewes albeit they receiue the old Testament as you know yet because they rely vpon the interpretation of their Rabbins which is subiect to errour their ground being deceitfull their faith is nothing but deceipt and therefore no faith at all So in like manner the Protestants albeit they follow a rule which according as they vse it doth propound vnto them many things that are true yet propounding likewise very many that are false and being thereby deceitfull as hath been declared they belieue the truth it sheweth no more then they belieue the falshood whereof it is manifest they belieue nothing at all And for this cause the authority of the Church being the only ordinary meanes to make vs know the rule of faith Matt. 18.17 our Sauiour himself sayd that such as would not heare the Church were no better then Infidells because consequently depryuing themselues of the rule of Faith they loose all true Faith and diuine fidelity From whence likewise is inferred that common principle of Christendome that out of the Church there is no saluation because without Faith it is impossible to please God and without obedience to the Church in matter of beliefe there can be no faith at all From hence also the Councell of Nyce as witnesseth the Creed of Athanasius read in your Churches euery Sunday togeather with the auncient Fathers hath concluded that denying one article of the Catholike Faith or not belieuing the same wholy and inuiolably no man can be saued Because he that obstinatly denyeth or doubteth of any one poynt of Faith denieth the authority of the Church without which we cannot certainly know the rule of Faith therby loosing his faith is no better thē an Infidel as our Sauiour hath declared SECTION XXVII VVherein two Motiues that is to say Feare of danger and the Instigation of a certayne spirit which induced the Bishop to change the place of his aboad are propounded and examined THESE therfore are some of the reasons which euery Catholike man though neuer so simple is able to giue of his beliefe and are so euident and iustified in themselues that there is no man hauing sense of God if he put them in the Ballance of his Iudgment but he must needs feele their weight in his mind and in his will the diuine power and vertue of them Whereas on the other side this learned man the Bishop after 10. yeares study writing to edify the world with his Motiues can bring forth nothing but that which appeareth at the first sight to be false as you haue heard hath receiued sentence of Iudgment three tymes already being once of old condemned by the auncient Fathers and twyce more in our age by the Protestāts themselues who first condemned the Fathers as being against them and afterwards also condemned the heretical doctrine of one another And this may suffice to haue spoken of those dispositions and other considerations which the Bishop accuseth to haue been the causes and motiues of his change in religion It followeth now to examine the groundes that induced him to change the place of his aboad Which albeit he setteth downe very confusedly I find they may be reduced to 3. principall heads The first therfore was his danger in staying The second his spirit that compelled him to go And the third his zeale forsooth of truth and peace that drew him on As concerning his danger he confesseth that in Rome notice was taken of his writing against the Roman doctrine and that more then once he had been admonished and reprehended for it by the Popes Nuntio or Agent residing in Venice In which respect he had iust cause to feare that the Venetians not to maintayne a manifest heretike in their State might easily be induced to deliuer him vp to the Nuntio especially at that tyme they hauing need of the Pope in respect of their warrs and that the Nuntio would haue sent him vp to the Holy House in Rome where he should haue byn receiued with such kindnes as was agreable to his deserts Wherby it appeareth vpon the matter that being entred so far into Heresy as he could not go back without great infamy he sound Italy to hoat for his foot fled from thencefor no other good respect but only because he could stay no longer without the horrible feare of extreme danger By the way of this discourse he putteth himselfe into a great chafe against the Pope laying aside his disguise of Monsignor fate voi he sheweth himselfe a plaine Italian Facchine without any truth ciuility or modesty And like your Collyer of Croydon being a myte out of Towne he taketh his pleasure of the Pope rayleth against him most despiciously And who is there that hath but soone the state of Germany Spaine France or Italy and thereby knoweth as he must needs the great reputation and authority of the Catholike Clergy and especially of the Bishops the heads of the Clergy but will admire at his impudency to heare him say That Catholike Bishops now adayes haue nothing but the name of Bishops That they are not permitted by the Pope to haue any gouennement of their Churches That they are vilde and contemptible and which is no lesse vntrue then the former That they are made subiect to Religious Orders for Religious men except they be Bishops or indued with Episcopall authority haue no exteriour iurisdiction at all neither ouer Bishops nor any secular persons To the rest where he sayth That the Church of Rome is wholy become a temporall Monarchy a vineyard only to make Noë drunke a flocke whose bloud the Pastours sucke and the like What shall we say but that he sheweth himself to be far worse then one of Noë his accursed children and to be no better then a wilde Boore that would destroy the vineyard of Christ or a rauenous Wolfe that howleth against the Shepheard Neither all that went before being most false will I grant that to be true where he sayth That Christ hath placed him for a dog in his flocke For the truth is that he thrust himselfe in for a dogge as I haue shewed long ago But now at length it hath pleased God to put him out for a Curre and so he sheweth himselfe to be in barking against his Maister In the end making these vntruthes some colour and occasion of his departure at length he concludeth that to auoyd the Popes malice which was so neer vnto him and the ordinary effects therof which he sayth to be poyson and punyards it was altogeather necessary for him to run away Leuit. 26.36 Iob. 15.21 An ill conscience feareth the sound of a flying leafe and the noyse of feare is allwayes in his eare where peace is he suspecteth treason In which respect although it
the Bishop is euidently conuinced both of Schisme and Heresy IN the tyme of S. Cyprian as the Nouatian Heretikes on the one side denyed that such as were once fallen Cyp. ep 55 ad Cornel. were to be receiued into the Church againe vpon any tearmes whatsoeuer so there were other heretikes who affirmed that all were to be receiued without any pennance or satisfaction for their former sinne For the which cause S. Cyprian sayth of them that they endeauored that sinnes might not be redeemed by iust satisfaction lamentation that wounds might not be washed by teares That weeping and wayling might not be heard to proceed from the brest and from the mouth of such as were fallen that such as were inuolued in defrauding and deceyuing or defyled with adultery or polluted with the cōtagion of sacryfiee to Idols might not make confession of their crymes in the Church whereby all hope of satisfaction and pennance being taken away they lost both the sense and the fruit thereof Which heresy whether it be reuiued by the Bishop or by those congregations wherunto he hath vnited himselfe I shall leaue to your iudgment to consider But one of those heretikes called Florentius Pupianus writing vnto S. Cyprian in the same māner as heere the Bishop in the latter end of his booke addresseth his speach to thē Pope to giue them satisfaction and to purge himselfe of his proceeding against them S. Cyprian to abate his Pryde to make him acknowledge that it was the cause of the schisme and heresy wherinto he was fallen vseth these words among others and sayth From hence Schismes and Heresyes haue risen and do arise because the Bishop which is one and gouerneth the Church is cōdemned by the proud presumption of some and the man whome God hath vouchsafed to honour is iudged of men to be vnworthy And after a while he sayth There speaketh Peter vpon whom the Church was buylt shewing and teaching in the name of the Church That albeit the proud stifnecked multitude of those that would not obay departed from Christ yet the Church departeth not wherefore thou oughtest to know sayth he that the Bishop is in the Church and the Church in the Bishop And so he who is not with the Bishop is not in the Church wherof he concludeth that such do flatter themselues in vayne who not hauing peace with the Priests of God thinke it sufficient to communicate with others The like words S. Cyprian vseth in his epistle to Pope Cornelius where he sayth Cyp. lib. 1. epist 3. That there is no other cause of Heresyes and Schismes but that the Priest of God is not obayed and that one Priest and one Iudge is not acknowledged in the place of Christ in the Church for the tyme. Where also hauing sayd as before that the Church was built vpon Peter at length speaking of the former Heretikes that presumed to go and complaine of him to Pope Cornelius he sayth That they were so audacious as to sayle vnto the Chayre of Peter and to the principall Church from whence the vnity of Priesthood did proceed not considering that they were Romans whose fayth was praysed by the mouth of the Apostle and vnto whome perfidiousnes or error in fayth can haue no accesse The like words againe he wrote in his Treatise of the vnity of the Church where he sayth That men are transported by the Diuell into Heresy and Schisme out of the Church of God because they do not returne to the origen of truth nor seeke the head nor follow the doctrine of their heauenly Maister Which if they considered there were no need of any long treatise or argument but that the tryall of Fayth would be very easy And then shewing what was this heauenly doctrine and what the head and origen of truth which is taught vnto vs he addeth immediatly Our Lord sayd vnto Peter I say vnto thee thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke c. and vnto the same man after his resurrection he sayd Feed my sheep and so concludeth that our Sauiour built his Church vpon him alone and committed vnto him his sheep to be fed and gaue him the Primacy that there might be one Church c. And a little after he addeth This vnity of the Church he that doth not keep doth he beleeue that he keepeth the Fayth He that resisteth the Church and striueth against the same he that forsaketh the Chayre of Peter doth he confide that he is in the Church And to the same purpose els where he sayth Epist 8. ad plevē vniuersam God is one Christ one and the Church one and the Chayre one built vpon Enter by the voyce of our Lord any other Altar or new Priesthood beside one Altar and one Priesthood cannot be erected and made Whosoeuer gathereth els where scattereth Out of which places because it is euident that our fugitiue Bishop with proud presumption cōtemneth that one Bishop who hath the chiefe place in the gouernement of Gods Church and likewise that he contemneth the Successor of him vpon whom the Church was built and who is in the Church and the Church in him because the Chuych is nothing els but the people vnited to the Priest and the flocke adhering to the Pastour And againe because it is euident that he disobeyeth the Priest of God and doth not acknowledge one Priest and one iudge for the tyme in the place of Christ and forsaketh the Chayre of Peter and the principall Church from whence the vnity of Priesthood proceedeth and wherunto no falshood in Fayth can haue accesse that he obserueth not the dostrine of our heauēly Maister neither returning to the origen of truth nor seeking the head which is S. Peter vpon whome alone our Sauiour built his Church and committed the feeding of his sheep vnto him which course according to S. Cyprian is the only cause and occasion and only meanes whereby the Diuel transporteth men out of the Church into Schism and Heresy it cannot be denyed but that your Bishop forsaking the successor of S. Peter the Chayr of Peter who holdeth the place of Christ in the Church forsaketh the Church and in vayne beleeueth to be therein and gathereth not with Christ but scattereth with Antichrist And thus much cōcerning the obiections which he pleased to frame against himselfe SECTION XXXV The conclusion of the Bishops booke togeather with a short Conclusion of this whole Treatise THERE remayneth only the conclusion of his booke wherein because I haue wearied my selfe too much already with sweeping a way the cobwebs of his idle discourse whereunto in respect of the sleightnes and vnprofitablenes and foulnes of the matter the substance thereof may fitly be compared I will only note two or three things vnto you very briefly First therefore as Iudas saluted Christ and sayd Marc. 14.45 hayle Maister and kissed him whom a little before be had sould to the Iewes as a false Prophet
so the charity of this man is no lesse to be obserued and admired in calling the Pope his most holy Father and the Bishops vnited with him his most blessed Brethren giuing them thereby his kisse of peace whom before through all his booke he had sould to the Protestants for blind guydes teaching innumerable errours for corrupters of Gods word tyrants oppressors of the Church Babylonians and the like Which termes albeit no lesse falsely then impiously they are applyed by him to the Pope and his Bishops whether you respect the former wherein he should shew his loue or the later wherein he expresseth his hatred vnto them yet because as it appeareth by his owne words he describeth therein his owne spirituall kindred it cannot be denyed but that he is ready to acknowledge if need were the author of lyes himselfe for his holy Father and his wickedest children for his most blessed Brethren Wherefore considering his zeale wherof he boasteth so much to be so large and the armes of his charity to be so far extended from East to West as to imbrace the fellowship of Babylon which is the Citty of the Diuell it is manifest that he excludeth neither Turks nor Iufidells from his Communion And therefore me thinks that as no good Protestant can be much delighted with it so euery good Christian should abhorre and detest it The second poynt to be noted in his conclusion is this that he rather ordereth commaundeth then aduiseth the Pope to restore peace and charity to all those Churches that professe to receiue the essentiall Creeds of Fayth By which he must needs meane the three Creeds of the Apostles of the Councel of Nice against Arius and of the Councell of Constantinople against Macedonius and therefore supposeth all other poynts of Cōtrouersy not contayned in those Creeds to be matters indifferent not sufficiently defyned and not to be beleeued as articles of Fayth Which is such a monstrous opinion as doth euidētly shew him to be of no Religion at all and therefore I maruell how he could be suffered to publish such wicked doctrine in England For if the Pope must haue peace and communion with all those that receiue the Creeds alone howsoeuer they please to vnderstand them thereof it will follow that all Councells which haue beene celebrated since the making of those Creeds haue beene the authors of Schisme and dissention in condemning later Heresyes and that albeit a man should deny al Sacramēts yea and al Scripture at this day yet according to this Antichristian doctrine it should be Schisme to refuse him or to accompt him no good Christian for the same And how easy a matter is it not beleeuing the Scripture to contemne the Creeds or rather how impossible contemning the one to beleeue the other This therefore may be another signe to be added vnto those which I haue touched before that the Bishop being fallen frō the Church is fallen likewise to Neutrality in Religion may be a cause of greater mischiefe and of greater dishonour to our Countrey then they that feed him haue yet discouered in him I cannot omit his incredible ignorance which he discouereth where among other poynts of idle Counsell which he pleaseth to bestow vpon the Pope and the rest of the Bishops of the Catholike Church himselfe being so wyse as to admit no Counsell at all neither from them nor any other he telleth them that he will haue them belieue for certaine that Schisme in the Church is a greater euell then Heresy it selfe Wherin it is to be admyred how he could presume to teach the whole Church such a notable falshood with such arrogant temerity as heere he doth For as he that hath no faith can haue no charity so Heresy that destroyeth Faith bringeth also schisme with it which is opposed to Charity So that albeit there may be schisme in the Church without heresy as faith may remayne without charity yet charity without faith or heresy without schisme there cannot be And therefore all Deuines haue euer held that heresy is far the greater mischiefe which bereaueth a man of all supernatural vertue and maketh him worse then an Infidell The rest of his conclusion is much of the same nature wherein no lesse insolently then ignorantly he taketh vpon him to schoole and to catechize the Pope all his Prelates prescribing vnto them what they ought to belieue and with what tearmes and conditions they may giue him satisfaction make their peace and concord with him Whereunto I thinke no better answere can be giuen in the Popes behalfe then that which S. Cyprian made to Florentius Pupianus of whom we haue spoken before for no man can be thought of so fit as S. Cyprian to rebuke his Pryde whom a little before vnder the colour of much respect he so much abused And in his arrogant and insolent behauiour towards the Pope he doth so perfectly resemble the presumptuous demenour of Pupianus towards S. Cyprian Cyp. ep 65. as that the one seemeth to haue been but the figure of the other the words therefore of S. Cyprian are these that follow What swelling Pryde is this what arrogancy of hart what inflation of mynd to call vnto the trybunall of thy Iudgment the Priests that is to say the Bishops and those that are set ouer thee that vnlesse we can purge ourselues to thee and be absolued by thy sentence now for so many yeares for more then a thousand the Fraternity must be condemned to haue had no Bishop the people no Prelate the flock no Pastour the Church no Gouernour Christ no Antistes and God no Priest Let Pupianus or Marcus Antonius be pleased to help vs let him giue his sentence and be contented to make good the iudgment of God of Christ that so great a number of faythfull people ranged vnder vs may not be thought to haue departed without hope of saluation and that so many Nations of new beleeuers be not accompted to haue receiued from vs no grace at all of the spirit of God that the Communion and reconcilement giuen by vs to so many that haue repented be not dissolued and taken from them by the authority of thy decree vouchsafe at length to grant our request giue vs thy fauourable sentence confirme vs in our place by thy iudiciall authority that God and his Christ may giue thee thanks that by thee their Prelate is restored to their Alter againe and their Rector to the gouernement of their people Truly me thinks these words of S. Cyprian being so applyable to your Bishop as they are should make any man that seemeth to respect him euen to blush and to be ashamed for him And as concerning his Vertue of peace and concord S. Cyprian in the same place doth answer him so fitly as if he had penned the same directly for Marcus Antonius vnder the name of Florentius Pupianus For the which cause it being no way seemly for me to adde any thing
the most Blessed and most Apostolike man the Pope of Rome who is head of all Churches whereby his Apostleship hath pleased to cōmaund that Dioscorus the Archbishop of the Alexandrians should not sit in the Councell all the Councell obayed And afterwards the letters of Pope Leo being read Act. 2. all the Fathers of the Councell sayd so we belieue Peter hath spoken so by Leo. And in the third action Leo is often called vniuersall Patriarch and vniuersall Archbishop And Iutianus one of the Bishops sayd vnto one of the Popes Legates that they held the Primacy of the most holy Leo and desired them as holding his place to giue sentence against Dioscorus wherunto the Councell consented and sentence was giuen accordingly in the Popes name against him In which Councell also Theodoretus who was deposed by a Synod of Ephesus being restored by the Pope was admitted to enter with these words Let the most reuerend B. Theodoret come in and be made partaker of the Councell because the most holy Archbishop Leo hath restored his Bishoprick vnto him S. Thomas of Aquin recitoth out of the same Councell the confirmation of appeales of all Bishops accused of any great cryme to the Pope of Rome and that other things defined by him should be held or receiued as from the Vicar of the Apostolike Throne and that the whole Councel made this acclamation to Pope Leo Let the most holy Apostolike and vniuersall Patriarch liue many yeares Lastly the same Coūcell in their Epistle to Leo confesse him to be their head and they the members speaking of the wickednes of Eutiches after all this say they ouer and aboue he extended his madnes euen against him to whom the custody of the vineyard was committed by our Sauiour that is against thy Apostolicall Holynes and he thought to excommunicate thee that doest hasten to vnite the body of the Church And in cōclusion with many faire words they desire him to grant vnto them that the Church of Constantinople might haue the second place after the Apostolike Sea which notwithstanding he would not grant them nor was it granted by his successours for a long tyme after And thus much of the foure first generall Coūcells which they that receiue them according to the Statute must needs grant that the Pope hath always had Primacy that he is the successor to S. Peter the head of the whole fayth of all the rest of the Apostles and the vicar of Christ the like That his care and study is the ground and foundation of the Church that he is the vniuersall Archbishop head of the Church that no Councells ought to be celebrated without his sentence that it is necessary the Councells should declare vnto him what passed in them that whatsoeuer he defined should be receiued as from the vicar of Christ That causes of great difficulty must be referred vnto him that all Bishops may appeale vnto him to the Church of Rome as to their Mother that he commaundeth in Councells that he may depose Patriarches restore them that be deposed And lastly that the decrees of Councells take no effect without his confent and confirmation SECTION XI The Popes Supremacy is proued out of the point of the infallibility of his doctrine by the Authorityes of the ancient Fathers FOVRTHLY therefore the Catholikes in defence of this doctrine of the Popes Supremacy produce the authorityes of all the ancient Fathers nubem testium a bright and great cloud of witnesses to inlighten the obscurity of fayth in this vale of darknes Which if I should go about to set downe at large I should be infinite Wherefore to contract this copious matter I will alleadg some of those who teach that the authority of the Pope of Rome and the Church of Rome as vnited with the Pope ought to be receiued in matters of Faith whereof it must needs follow that the Pope succeedeth S. Peter and that as vpon S. Peter in respect of his faith so also in his place vpon the Pope the Church is so built in such manner as that the gates of Hell shall not preuayle against it But before I begin I would haue you obserue that it is all one to affirme the sea of Rome to be the Rocke of the Church or the Pope to succeed S. Peter in his Pastorall Office or to giue vnto the Pope any of those titles which are proper to S. Peter as to say expresly that neither the one nor the other can fayle in teaching the true faith because these former assertions and the like do imply that the promise made vnto S. Peter doth belong also to the Pope his seat and that the fayth or doctrine which the Pope teacheth can suffer no defect because according to the words of our Sauiour the stability and duration of the Church dependeth of it And therefore it is manifest that the Fathers do signify thereby that the Church of Rome was not only the true Church in their dayes or that the Pope did not teach any false doctrine in their times as some Protestants seeme to vnderstand them but also that the truth was alwayes to continue therein and that the Pope could neuer erre in matter of Fayth grounding themselues as I haue sayd vpon the promise of Christ to S. Peter and that you may not doubt of this I thought good to proue the supremacy of the Pope out of the infalibility of doctrine which the Fathers acknowledge to be inseparable from the Pope and sea of Rome The first that I thinke fit to produce in this matter is the great Athanasius who withstood himselfe alone the force and fury of foure Emperours and sustained the persecution of all the Arian heretikes and a man may say of all the Easterne world against him He was Patriarch of Alexandria at that tyme the second seat after Rome was a principall man both in the Councell of Nice and also in that of Sardis In which sacred Schooles in respect of his excellent vertues it might perchance be truly sayd that he deserued the place of a maister But it is prayse sufficient that he shewed himselfe a most renowned scholer of those renowned maisters He therfore that had receiued the spirit of the Nicen Councell and wrote according to the sense and doctrine of the Fathers therof saluted Marke the Bishop of Rome in this manner Athan. ep ad Marc. To our most holy Lord venerable with Apostolicall dignity Marke the Father of the holy Roman and Apostolicall seat and of the vniuersall Church Athanasius the Bishops of East health and afterwards in his letters he acknowledgeth the Roman Church to be the Mother of all Churches and vseth also these words We are yours and vnto you with all those committed to our charge we are obedient and euer will be And in his epistle to Felix the second he with the other Bishops of Aegipt do say In tom 1. Concil that they suggest
propbane to be out of the Arke Iren. lib. 3. cap. 3. Hier. epist ad Dam. Aug. in psal cont part Don. not to gather but to seatter not to be of Christ but of Antichrist to be branches cut off from the byne and members denided from the body that in the next life the gate of heauen shall be shut against them the like For the which I reserre me to the 14. and 15. Section of this treatise Wherunto shall be added more anone when by occasion of these friuolous motions and illusions which made the Bishop to forsake his religion we come to propound some of those solid and substantiall motiues which are sufficient to induce any man that is not willfully obstinate to become a Gatholike And for the present because he seemeth to set downe the mayne ground of his peruorsion or conuersion as you please to tearme it in those words especially where he saith That reading the Fathers and perusing the Councells and ancient customes of the Church with great labour and busy diligence for so many yeares togeather he plainly saw at the length that the doctrine of those Churches being very many in number which Rome hath made her aduersaryes do little or nothing differ from the ancient doctrine of the pure Church the discussion hereof will also fall out to be very fit for our present purpose wherin you shall heare the Fathers vtterly to condemne the Religion now commonly professed in England and the Protestants themselues not only to reiect the Fathers but also most spitefully to inueigh most grieuously to censure one the other For that man whome neither the Authority of the Fathers nor the testy-monyes of his owne Doctors can moue or persuade neither if one should be sent from the dead toaffright him would be thereby conuerted Wherefore that you may as yet more fully perceiue the vanity and impudency of this man in affirming that all the Fathers are directly for him albeit he proue nothing I will take the paynes to shew you by some generall arguments that the Fathers do manifestly make against him First therfore you must know that the Catholikes prefesse the generall Consent of the Fathers or the doctrine of a few not contradicted by the rest to be a rule of faith and that all men are bound vpon payne of damnation to belieue it whose authority as the Protestants will not receiue so the Catholikes would not admit in such absolute manner if they were not fully perswaded that their religion were all one with the faith of the Pathers In confirmation wherof some industrious and zealous men amongst vs haue made certayne bookes of common places vnder the titles of the poynts in Controuersy betwixt vs and them wherin they hade recorded the sayings of the Fathers in approbation of our doctrine And therfore they call them the Confessions of the auncient Fathers So haue you the confession of S. Augustine in one volume of S. Hierome in another So likewise of S. Basil S. Bernard and others which it is impossible for any Protestant to see but he must needs confesse that the Fathers were all Papists and that they haue said so much in the proofe and defence of our opinions as all that we can bring is but taken from them And if the Bishop had but made the signe of the Crosse to driue away the Diuell that blynded him before he had turned ouer the Fathers workes he must needs haue seen euen by their titles and the argument of there seuerall treatises how much they make against him S. Basil S. Gregory Nazianzen S. Chrysostome haue written most excellent Sermons of the Lent and of other dayes to be fasted vpon payne of great sinne by the custome commaundement of the Catholike Church S. Basil S. Chrysostome S. Hierome and S. Augustine haue written bookes of the institute and rule of Monkes and of their vertues S. Chrysostome in particuler wrote a booke against the disgracers of Monasticall life And S. Augustine againe hath written three bookes of Free-will wherunto Luther opposing himselfe wrote a booke de seruo arbitrio of slauish will S. Augustine wrote also a whole booke of the Care of the dead and a long Chapter besides other sermons of Miracles wrought at the memories monuments of Martyrs Optatus whome S. Augustine compareth with S. Ambrose and S. Cyprian confuted the Donatists out of the Catholike Communion reprehended their wickednes out of the decree of Pope Melchiades refuted their heresy out of the succession of the Roman Bishops made knowne their madnes in contaminating chrisme the holy Eucharist abhorred their sacriledge in breaking down of Altars whereupon sayth he the mēbots of Christ were born and in polluting Chalices which he affirmeth to haue held the bloud of Christ S. Athanasius wrote a curious booke in the prayse of S. Antony the Aegiptian Eremit and in an epistle which he wrote in the name of the whole Synod of Alexandria whereof he was the Patriarch he appealed to the iudgment of the Apostolicall sea and of S. Peter Prudentius euery where in his Hymnes at the ashes bones of Martyrs adoreth the king of Martyrs S. Hierome hath written against Vigilantius in defence of reliques and honour due to Saints He hath written also against Iouinian for the state and vowes of virginity S. Ambrose did honour his Patrons S. Geruasius and S. Protasius with a most famous solemnity whose fact it pleased God to commend with more then one prodigy And therefore to omit the rest if it were not manifest by the Bishops leanesse how much he hath consumed his body with his ten yeares study of the Fathers and Councells by these contrary deuises which he sayth he hath found in them a man might wel imagine that he had neuer seene them Amongst other bookes of Controuersy very learned and profitable set forth in our English tongue by the direction of Gods holy spirit wherewith so many haue been conuerted to the Catholike faith there is no one that I would rather commend to the reading of a iudicious Protestant then the booke intituled the Protestants Apology for the Roman Chruch In which authour I cannot tell whether I should more cōmend the substance of the matter or the labour or the method or the breuity or the perspicuity or the fidelity or in fine the modesty of the manner wherewith it is written wherein you in particuler of the Innes of Court haue a speciall interest For as in the beginning it is in tytled to the King so in the end it is recōmended to the examination and consure of the learned Sages of our Cōmon law wherein you shall find three Chapters amongst the rest which do especially make for our present purpose The first folio 74. sequentibus where he sheweth by the confession of the Protestants themselues that the Catholike Roman Religion which is now professed in very many the most important matters in Controuersy betwene you and vs was
other side begin with Pryde which is the root of all vice as the Catholikes begin with Humility which is the mother of all vertue For they teach their followers not to submit themselues to the iudgement of others in matters of Faith nor to any authority vpon earth of Church or Councell but rather to confide in the sense of their owne vnderstanding though they be neuer so simple which is the greatest and highest kynd of pryde that can be imagined next to the pryde of Lucifer For as he would haue made himselfe equall to God so euery Protestant if he follow his owne grounds compareth or rather preferreth himself in knowledge of the truth before the Church which is the Spouse of God infallibly assisted by his holy spirit as hereafter shall be proued Neither can they show one act of Christian humility or of those other supernaturall vertues aboue mentioned exercised or practised in any degree amongst them nor can they name any other commendable action of theirs wherin the heathens and such as are no Christians do not equalize and at least heretofore haue not much excelled them Many other poynts of doctrine also they teach which no vertuous mynd or well disposed nature amongst them would not be a shamed to follow being vtterly to be condemned by the very light of nature For they teach that we haue no free will to do well or ill which togeather with their doctrine of reprobation doth not only take away all meanes of doing well but also maketh it impossible to auoyd any sinne whereunto they affirme that men are compelled by the vnresistable power of God as in their opinion by the same necessity all men that do well are likewise impelled to vertue They teach also that it is impossible to keep the Commaundements and that Christians are deliuered from the obedience of them That Chastity is not to be vowed because it is not in our power VVhitak cont Camp rat 8. p. 153 from whence it followeth that it is not in the power of a man to be without a woman nor of a woman to be without a man which is a wholsome doctrine for yong vnmarried men and women Iacobus Andraeas Cont. 4. in cap. 22. Lucae Luther de captiu Babylon Perkins reformed Cath. pa. 9. M. Fulk against the. Rem Test fol. 447. willet Synop p. 560 and for such as are married whose partners are sick or absent from thē They contemne voluntary pouerty obedience set dayes of Easting Order of holy disciplyne and other good workes which as a pryme Protestant affirmeth is censured as new Papistry and new Monachisme amongst them They teach likewise that menare instified by only faith that they cannot loose their saluation vnlesse they will not belieue that he that doth once belieue can neuer loose his fayth by Adultery or any other sinne that sinne is not hurtfull to him that actually belieueth that vnto the faithfull professours all sinnes are veniall and vnto others all sinnes are mortall By which you see what a wyde gate they set open to all kind of sinne and sensuality the fruits whereof the Protestants themselues Luther in poliella cone 1. Dom. Aduent haue not been ashamed to confesse nor spared to publish that the seauenth head Diuell had inuaded the most part of their Ghospellers and made them worse then they were vnder the Pope that now euery man is possest with seauen Diuells whereas before to witt vnder the Pope they were but possest with one That in the Papacy men were religious in their errour euery man did willingly follow good workes Now in the light of the knowne truth they are more prophane then the sonnes of the world Looke vpon this cuangelicall people sayth Erasmus bring me forth one Prot. Apol pag. 414.415 whom this Ghospell of a gormandizer hath made sober of lewd chast I will shew thee many who are become worse then they were before And againe those whom before I haue knowne pure sincere and voyd of dissimulation hauing afterwards giuen themselues to this Ghospell they began to talke of wenches to become dycers to cast away their prayers most impatient reuengers of euery iniury vaine vypers in their manners and to haue cleane put off the nature of men I speake what I haue found by experience So far Erasmus You shall heare also how Musculus describeth his owne Lutherans Andraeas Muscul Dominica pruna Aduentus With vs Lutherans sayth he at this present thus standeth the case That if any be desirous to see a great rabble of knaues of persons turbulent deceitfull coseners and vsurers let him go to any Citty where the Ghospell is purely preached and he shall find them there by multitudes For it is more manifest then the day light that there were neuer among the Ethnicks Turkes and other Infidels more vnbridled vnruly persons with whome all vertue and honesty is quite extinct then are amongst the professors of the Ghospell The like description Castalio maketh vnto you Castalio apud Rescium p. 54. of them of Geneua who dwelled long among them and was a most particuler friend of Beza They are praud sayth he pufft vp with glory and reuenge their life is infamous and villanous they are Maisters of Art in reproches lyes cruelty treason and insupportable arrogancy They name their Geneua the holy Citty and their assemblyes Hierusalem but in very truth we should call it O Babylon Babylon ô most infamous Sodomy and children of Gomorrha Caluin lib. de scand p. 118.127 Whereunto Caluin himselfe giueth sufficient testimony where he asketh what other intention had the most that betooke themselues to the Ghospell but only the yoake of superstitiont being shaken off solutiùs in omnem lasciuiā diffluerent that with more liberty they might flow abroad and run out into all lasciuiousnes And to come nearer to you I must intreat you to be content to heare what some other good Protestants of our Nation haue writen of the manners of our owne Countrey For first of your Puritan preachers M. Sutcliffe writeth thus Sutcliffs answere to a ubell supplicatory pag. 89. Their pride sayth he malice cruelty couetousnes vsury glutony and chamber cheere which they call fasting and colour with tearmes of godly exercises do notoriously conuince them Neither yet sayth he further do I tell all for other matters I haue thought good to keep for a rare banquet c. And concerning the rest M. Stubs hauing told of his trauell in compassing the whole Realme about with a long and wearisom iourney sayth thus thereof As concerning the people Stubs in motiues to good works in the epistle ante med I haue found them in most places dissolute proud enuious malicious disdaynefull couetous ambitious carelesse of good workes a generall decay of good workes or rather a plaine defection and falling away from God and the ancient monuments Churches Schooles c. either quite dissolued or els so ruined and decayed as if the first
founders were now liuing they could not take them for their owne Which generall tearmes M. Geffreyes returning from his trauells in forraine Coūtreys doth explicate more in particuler in his Sermon preached at Paules Crosse where it is like he spake the truth for the testimony and perpetuall memory whereof it was afterward put in print His words are these I may freely speake what I haue plainly seene in the course of some traucils Geffrey in his serm preached 1604. printed 1605. pag. 31. and obseruations of some courses That in Flaunders was neuer more drunkennes In Italy more wantonnesse In Iury more hypocrisy In Turky more impiety In Tartary more iniquity then is practised generally in England particulerly in London SECTION XXI The former Motiue is confirmed and by occasion thereof the necessity of keeping the Commaundments to obtaine Saluation is declared CONSIDERING with no little grief of mind the great dissolution of life and corruption of manners in our Countrey which your owne writers haue published to the world as hath been sayd we comfort our selues somwhat in this that it cannot be imputed to the euil disposition of the people who are known for the most part to be of a nature as much inclynod to vertue as any other people of Christendome whatsoeuer but the fault of all must be layd where it is vpon the Maisters and first Apostles of this new Ghospell Who as they were most vicious themselues so they left that pestilent seed of their doctrine before mentioned to their posterity from whence no better fruit can be expected Which doctrine of theirs as I know that your selfe many other ciuill Gentlemen do vtterly detest so I doubt not but that you are free from the guilt of those crymes wherof you are so deeply accused by your own maisters Neither do I thinke that any honest morall man whatsoeuer he say with his lipps can deny in his hart his owne freewill wherof he hath dayly experience in all his actions and operations or that he can be brought to thinke that God doth either command or counsell any thing which he giueth no grace to performe or that he can belieue in his conscience to be saued by fayth alone though he dyelin sin 1. Cor. 5.10 but rather I presume he beleeueth according to the Apostle that we must all appeare before the tribunall of God where euery one shall receiue according as he hath done in his life tyme good or euill Wherein to giue you some further light and to say something heere by way as I haue promised els where of the necessity of keeping Gods Cōmaundments if we meane to be saued I shall pray you to vnderstand and to take notice heer with me that the Commaundments may be considered two manner of wayes either simply and materially as they are the law of God or more fully and formally according to the end for which they were giuen including in them the loue of God according whereunto it is sayd that the loue of God is the first and greatest Commaundment and that he who loueth God hath fullfilled the law Which loue and friendship with God because all kind of sinne doth not breake or extinguish therefore according to the holy Fathers Tertul. l. de anima c. 17 S. Chrysost bom 24. in Matth. S. Hier. lib. 2. cont Iouin some sinnes are called great crymes some others little small or dayly offences Great sins are sayd to be against the Cōmaundmēts as they include the loue of God because great crymes depriue vs of it Little and small offences are sayd in the same sense not to be against but besides the Commaundments because they may stand with the loue and friendship of God and though they be neuer so many yet they do not deserue that Almighty God in respect of them alone should take his grace and fauour from vs. Matth. 7.3 Mat. 23.24 2. Cor. 3.11 Mat. 5.22.23.24 And so in Scripture some sinnes are compared to motes in the eye some to great beames some to gnats in the throat and some to Cammells some enter into the building of God which is of gould and siluer like vnto hay and stubble which shall be purged with fire and some ouerthrow the whole building which shall burne eternally Some are in danger of Iudgment Iac. 1.15 or of a Councell and some are to be punished with the fire of Hell some are vnperfect because no perfect consent is giuen vnto them and some are consumated which ingender death Those that are little in their owne Nature and do not depriue vs of the friendship of God but deserue to be pardoned with some kind of punishment in this life Aug. l. de Natura gratiac 22 or in the next S. Augustine doth exemplify in Abel the iust who perchance sayth he did laugh a little immoderatly or did iest too much or coueted some little thing intemperatly or plucke some fruite ouer greedily for the which no man of vnderstanding can imagine that God who loued him so deerly would damne him for they are so little either in respect of the smalnes of the matter or of the imperfect consent of the will which is giuen to them that with some temporall punishment of their owne Nature they deserue to be pardoned In which respect S. Augustine doth call them Veniall sinnes whereas the other that extinguish the loue of God in vs which is the life of the soule are therfore called Mortall or deadly sinnes And from S. Augustine August Enchirid. lib. c. 1.22 the Church hath borrowed these termes of the distinction of sinnes and teach that some are Veniall and some are Mortall Of Veniall sinnes therefore these places of Scripture are to be vnderstood where it is sayd For this or for the forgiuenesse of this sinne euery Saint shall pray vnto thee The iust man shall fall seauen times a day Where you see Psal 31.6 Iac. 3.2 1. Ioan. 1.8 Rom. 6.23 Ezech. 18.4 that there are some sinnes which do not exclude sanctity may stand with iustice In which sense it is also sayd In many things we do all offend if we shal say that we haue no sin we deceiue our selues and the truth of God is not in vs. Of Mortal sinne these other places must needs be meant where it is writen the rewards of sinne is death 1. Ioan. 3.8 Iac. 2.10 Deut. 17.26 Ezech. 18.24 the sting of death is sinne that is to say the instrument wherewith it killeth the soule that sinneth she shal dye he that sinneth is of the Diuell he that offendeth in one is guilty of all accursed be he that doth not remayne in all these words of the law and doth not fullfill them in his worke If the iust man turne away from his iustice c. shall he liue All the iustice which he hath done shall not be remembred in the prcuarication wherein he hath strayed and in the sinne wherein he hath sinned in them
Church according to the Scriptures must needs haue been one chiefe cause of those swarmes of Athiests in Protestant Countreyes whereof their principall writers do so much complayne Whereat I wonder nothing at all For to what end did our Sauiour come into the world but only to espouse his Church in Faith To what end did he instruct her with his preaching redeeme her with his death and Passion and sanctify her with his holy Spirit augment and confirme her with the labours of his Apostles and with the bloud of so many millions of Martyrs but only to make her such a glorious Kingdome euen vpon earth according to all the former Prophesies so constant so stronge so imoueable that she should vphold the glory of his name against Princes and Potentats against Kings and Emperours against Schismaticks Heretikes and wicked Christians and against all the force of the world and on the Diuell himselfe that would seeke withall his arts and engines to suppresse it Wherefore if our Sauiour be the true Messias whose Name was foretold to be Deusfortis Emmanuel Esa 9 6. Esa 7.15 the strong God God with vs and who according to his owne speach came into the world to bynd the strong man which is to say the Diuell that held all the world in peaceful captiuity before his comming then it must needs follow that the Kingdome which he erected shall stand for euer Matt. 16.18 and that the Gates of hâ—ll shall not preuaile against it But on the contrary side if it were true which the Protestants affirme that his Church hath erred ceasing to be the true Church or which is all one that his Kingdome was destroyed and that there came one after him stronger then himselfe that is to say the Diuell who did bynd his body whereof he was the head defiled his Spouse bereaued him of this Kingdome Matt. 12.20 and tooke his vessells and riches from him then of necessity it must be granted either that the former Prophesies of him were not true and that the Scripture is false or els that our Sauiour was not the true Messias who contrary to the Prophets and to his owne promises and protestations to maintayne his Church for euer hath suffered it to perish and therfore was not able to defend it This argument therefore of the largnes glory contynuance visibility and inuincible constancy of the Church is of great force to induce any man whatsoeuer whether he haue the Name or not so much as the Name of a ChristiaÌ„ to become a Catholike For the Scriptures euen as they are in the hands of our enemyes the Iewes â—iâ—t full of the Prophesies of those excellent perfectioÌ„s of the Kingdom of Christ which according to the present tymes and according to the historyes of all former ages we shewe to haue been performed since the death of Christ in the Catholike Church that was planted by himselfe and propagated by his holy spirit which according to his promise was giuen to his Apostles and their successours after them to remayne with them for euer And if it be manifest that this world in respect of the beauty and perfection therof Rom. 1. is the worke of Gods hand condemning all those that do not acknowledge him to be the Creatour of it much more manifest is it Eph. 5.27 that this glorious Kingdome and Church is the worke of God wherein he sheweth the riches of his power of his wisedome and of his infynit goodnes condemning all those that will not acknowledge it and subiect themselues to the gouerment therof SECTION XXIIII Foure other particuler motiues of the Conuersion of Nations of the Miracles of the Martyrdoms and of the vnion of the members of the Catholike Church are briefly propounded VNDER these generall tearmes of Holy Catholike Church are comprised many other partiticuler gifts and graces which being all supernaturall and diuine ech of them is a sufficient motiue to perswade any mans coÌ„science that the Catholike Church is the only blessed of God and the elected spouse of Christ our Sauiour Whereof being entred into this matter of Motiues I thinke good to giue instance in some few remitting you for the rest to other Catholike authours who haue treated more largely of this matter Diuers therfore haue been induced to belieue that the Catholike Fayth is the only true Religion by obseruing that all Nations and Countreys which at any tyme professed the Name of Christ haue been conuerted by Catholikes alone And in this last age since the Protestant religion began they haue reduced and subiected very many Kingdomes vnto the yoke of Christ whereof Philippus Nicolaus Coment de reg Christil 1. pag. 315. p. 52. Sym. Lyth in respons altera ad alteram Gretseri Apol. p. 331. Tertul. de praescrip c. 42. a Protestant numbreth more then 20. In so much as another Protestant in his answere to Gretser the Iesuit sayth The Iesuits within the space of a few yeares c. haue filled Asia Affrick and America with their Idols Whereas in the meane tyme the Protestants haue only sowne tares among the wheat atteÌ„ding as Tertullian sayd of the Heretikes of his tyme not to conuert the heathen but to peruert those that were before conuerted And although they haue sundry tymes attempted to conuert some heathen with hope to possesse their Countreys yet no King or Kingdome or Countrey or Prouince Sarauia in defension tract de diuersis gradibus Ministrorum pag. 309. was euer conuerted by them And Beza sayth plainly that the Protestants may leaue such peregrinatious to those locusts that belieue the Name Iesus Which conuersions of so many sauage and barbarous Nations by the words of a few poore men with a little broken language to imbrace a Religion so far aboue the reach of Nature and in respect of the austerity therof so contrary to flesh bloud and especially to their former intemperate liues and brutish customes as it shewath Gods promises by the Prophets to be dayly fullfilled in them and proueth our Church thereby to be the Church of Christ So it is most euident that their conuerters were supernaturally assisted by the strength of Gods Arme which is sufficient to perswade any indifferent man that the doctrine they preach can be no other then the true Ghospell reuealed by Christ to his owne Apostles Which also is a manifest token that the grounds of Christianity and of our Catholike doctrine are the very same And that the Protestants for want of them can neuer conuert any Heathen Nation to Christian religion denying as they do the grounds therof which are the same with the grounds of the Catholike doctrine Secondly therefore many haue submitted themselues to the obedience of the Catholike Church by consideratioÌ„ of those notorious miracles which in all ages haue beene wrought therin being such marks of truth as no man can deny them to be the seales of God and the signes of his owne hand If I should
vnder it if they contemne it This is that great benefit which S. Augustine in his booke de vtilitate Credends acknowledgeth that the world in these latter tymes hath receiued of Almighty God who of his infinit goodnes hath prouided that the Catholike Faith being so austere to the eye of flesh and bloud so much aboue reason and so contrary as it is to our corrupted nature should be recommended vnto vs as it were by the generall consent and common beliefe of all people This saith S. Augustine the diuine prouydence hath brought to passe by the predictions of the Prophets by the humanity and doctrine of Christ by the trauells of the Apostles Aug. de vtil Cred. cap. 7. by the contumelyes crosses bloud and death of Martyrs by the laudable life of Saints and in all these things by such myracles as were fit for matters and vertues so great as these according as the oportunity of times required Wherefore seing the assistance of God to be so great and so great the fruite and benefit thereof shall we doubt to cast our selues into the lap of his Church Considering that now euen by the confession of mankind it selfe she hath receaued the prohemynence of all authority from the Apostolike seat by succession of Bishops the Heretikes in the meane tyme hauing barked about her all in vayne partly by the iudgment of the people themselues partly by the grauity of Councells and partly by the Maiesty of miracles hauing been all condemned To which Church not to grant the highest degree of authority is either extreme impiety or precipitate arrogancy For if our soules haue no certayne way to attayne true wisedome and saluation but where fayth beliefe prepareth and adorneth our reason what is it els to resist authority indued or est abbshed with so great labour but to be vngratefull to this help and assistance of Almighty God Thus far S. Augustine of the notable benefit that our faith hath receiued from the Common consent of so many Nations therein which he calleth the confession of mankind and of the wonderfull meanes which God hath vsed for the procurement of this vniuersall testimony vnto the truth thereof For albeit when the Apostles began first to preach all rules and principles of humayne wisedome were inforced to giue place vnto that diuine authority wherewith they were sent to their gifts of Tongues to the myracles they wrought to the power of that spirit which spake by them and to the splendour of those celestiall vertues which proceded from them yet since that time the sweetnes of Gods prouidence hath so ordayned that both these authorityes Humayne and Diuine the wisedome of God and the wisedome that naturally directeth worldly men should be ioyned togeather to the end that all mens wills might be drawne more easily gently and connaturally to imbrace the doctrine of Christ And that all vnderstandings great or small might either be conuinced or conuicted by it The voice of the most the testimony of those that are true and honest and the iudgment example and practise of the wisest being the best part of that light of nature which God hath lent vs for the direction of our liues his infinit goodnes and perfect iustice could neuer haue permitted this authority of the Catholike Church to haue grownâ— to this vnmeasurable greatnes nor could haue made it so inuincibly victorious against all those that haue opposed themselues vnto it confirming the same with so many Prophesies of Scripture and promises of his owne and not only with the ostension of miracles and heroycall constancy of innumerable Martyrs but also with the glory and splendour of so many other benedictions of excellent learning diuine wisedome admirable vnity piety and perfection of vertue as hath been shewed vnlesse it had been so ordayned by him for the recommendation and preseruation of that Truth which himselfe descended from heauen to teach the world and to dye the death of the Crosse for the eternall memory and fructification of it For if in any thing we should be deceiued by the power and greatnes of his authority we might well say it was no fault of ours but rather as S. Augustine affirmeth it were either extreme impiety or precipitate arrogancy Not to be so deceiued what need there any other reuelations or miracles as S. Augustine also obserueth in a case so cleere as this If so many Nations haue been conuerted to the obedience of this supernaturall faith and for so many ages haue been preserued in vnity therby without signes and miracles this it selfe is a most sufficient apparent and perpetuall miracle for the testimony of the truth thereof SECTION XXVI The same Authority and the grounds of Christian Fayth are further declared AS the obiect of reason doth farre exceed the knowledge of our senses so the truth of things supernaturall and diuine do no lesse surmount the light of reason And therfore the end of man and the meanes to attaine vnto it being both of them supernaturall diuine as it was necessary that God should reueale and deliuer the knowledge thereof to his Prophets and Apostles obliging all men to beleeue them so it was also expedient that there should be some certayne meanes ordained and established by Almighty God wherby we might infallibly know what it was that was so reuealed vnto them For otherwise if there be not such supernaturall and certaine help to attaine the knowledge of those Diuine Misteryes which do so much exceed the power and faculty of human vnderstanding to perswade our selues that we shall be able to arriue to any certaine knowledge of them by any human diligence or naturall endeauour alone were as wise a matter as for a man to go about to read in the darke or for him that hath no eyes to iudge of colours Nay it were much more ridiculous For such a kind of darke reading or blind iudgment might be practised or aduentured for some little wager or to make men pastyme but Christians that make their beliefe the rule of their life and death laying not only their fortunes but also their soules vpon it vnles they haue some Diuine help and infallible assistance of the spirit of God to know those things which they beleeue to haue beene reuealed to the Apostles and can no way be discerned by human reason they can neuer be excused from meer madnes and ridiculous folly Vpon what grounds the Catholiks beleeue the doctrine and preaching of the Apostles which is the Ghospell and the obiect of their fayth to haue beene reuealed from the mouth of God and that the Church is perpetually infallibly assisted by God himself in the preseruation of the foresayd doctrine from all stayne or touch of errours hath beene shewed already Almighty God hauing so magnified and fortifyed the authority of his Church as if the will of man be not too much peruerted it is impossible for his vnderstanding to resist it And therefore as S. Augustine sayd
of all suits causes concerning the law is likewise publique for otherwise there could be no peace nor concord made betweene priuate men if euery one might interprete the law to his owne aduantage so likewise the Catholike Fayth being common and publique propounded to all and all men being commaunded to agree togeather in the same fayth with vnity and concord it must needs follow that the definition and sinall sentence of all controuersyes causes of faith be also publique For otherwise there could be no end of differences euery man obstinatly defending the sense of his owne spirit and presumptuously condemning all those Hier cont Lucif c. 14. that oppose themselues against it If in the Church sayth S. Hierome there be no imminent power there will be so many Schismes as there are Priests And among twelue one was chosen that a head being appointed Idem cont Iouin the occasiō of Schism might be taken away But of this we haue spoken sufficiently els where and haue also shewed by experience that the Protestants for want of this publike authority are infinitly deuided among themselues and censure most terribly and condemne most extremly the seuerall opinions of one another Wherefore to proceed and to omit for breuityes sake that this rule of priuate interpretation being once admitted there would follow nothing els but an infinite confusion of little truth much falsehood in the Church of God And that the mēbers thereof should haue no meanes to discerne with whome they ought to hold communion as sincere and orthodoxall nor whome to auoyd as corrupt and hereticall What can be more contrary to the light of Nature then where all haue equall meanes to know the truth or that some for sundry good respects may be thought to excell the rest euery particuler man though neuer so simple should more cōfide in his owne priuate vnderstanding then in the iudgment of the best and wisest which as it is most absurd in all kind of knowledge so especially in the right vnderstanding interpretation of Scripture being in great part most obscure and euery where subiect to errour as you may easily iudge by the controuersyes decrees and generall Councells of the Church concerning the same by the condemnations of so many excellent wits learned men that haue erred therein and by the explications sermons and cōmentaryes that without end are made vpon them And truely that euery Protestant man woman and child plough-man artificer or of what profession soeuer learned or vnlearned whether they can read or no should take it vpon them and vpon their saluation as they do and as they are bound to do according to the ground of their Religion to iudge infallibly by the Scripture alone which bookes are Scripture and which not and to know euery verse and euery line of the Canonicall from that which is not Canonicall better then the ancient Fathers or Laodicean Councell for example who doubted of many of them and better then that famous Councell of Carthage where at S. Augustine was present is thought to haue been the Secretary and penner of it which decreed many bookes to be Scripture that are now contradicted reiected by the Protestants is so strange a madnes as it seemeth impossible that it should sinke into any mans hart to imagine or that the mind of any sober man could be deluded with it And the same we may say of the interpretation of Scripture For beleeuing as an article of their Fayth that there is no external means wherby they may infallibly know the meaning of Scripture but by the Scripture euery idle companiō preferreth his owne priuate iudgment therin not only before the iudgment of all the Fathers in particuler who haue doubted of many poynts of Fayth and of the meaning of many places in Scripture vntill by a generall Councell their doubts were cleared but also before the sentence of the vniuersall Church which euery Protestant doth imagine to haue grosly erred beleeuing in the meane tyme his owne opinion to be most infallible Which is yet more strang in that the Protestants perswading themselues to be most certaine that they haue the Scripture and the true interpretation of Scripture they confesse notwithstanding the meanes which they vse for the attayning of this certainty to be most vncertayne That is to say the reading of Scripture their conference of places their diligence prayer and the like Whereof the two last alone are common to all and euery one of these meanes being by their owne confession but human endeauours are therefore subiect to the errour of our frayle Nature to the common ouersight of mans infirmity And as all partyes among them condemne ech other so there was neuer any Protestant in the world whom they beleeue or acknowledge notwithstanding the vse of all these meanes not to haue been very much deceiued in the interpretation of the Scripture And therfore as the authority of the Catholicke Church in respect of the clarity and extension therof is fitly expounded by S. Augustine to be that Lightning of the comming of Christ which breaking forth out of heauen is scene from the East to the West Matth. 24.27 and filleth the world inforcing all men to behold it so it is no great mystery to vnderstand that the Protestants shutting their eyes against it haue chosen to themselues such a ground of their fayth as by it self alone is not only most vncertaine vnto them for diuers sundry causes but also in respect of the formality therof is most contrary to Scripture most opposite to reason and most euidently ouerthrowing it selfe as hath beene shewed Whereof because no man that is not willfully blind among you can be ignorant therfore I can blame none of those great numbers of whome your authors do so much cōplaine who preferre the light of sense or naturall reason before the fayth of the Protestants and chuse rather to beleeue nothing then to be so grossly and so manifestly deceiued For such a kind fayth as hath been shewed doth not perfect the light of naturall reason but abuse it nor maketh men spiritually wise but rather diabolically contentious and absurdly foolish And the ground therof being false and friuolous they who rely the most thereupon are the most deceiued And albeit they may hold many things that are true yet speaking properly of diuine faith they haue no faith at all whereof I gaue you the reason in the beginning of this Section because to ayme at the secrets of God or to mooue any dispute about them without some infallible meanes which himselfe hath ordayned for the preseruation tradition and preaching or deliuery of them is no lesse ridiculous then for blind men as I haue sayd to cōtend of colours or as S. Paul affirmeth no better then vayne and idle talking 1. Tim. 1.6.7 not vnderstanding neither what is spoken nor of what to affirme But as the Turkes albeit they are perswaded that there is one
treason Especially charging the Pope as he doth with false doctrine which he would haue you belieue to be the cause of his schisme For the Pope being the immouable Rock and the foundation of true Fayth which Christ himselfe hath layd the Bishop in this case fitly resembleth one that launching from the shore whereupon he fixeth his eye should sweare and contest that the land departed from the boat and that the boat it selfe stood still or remayned imoueable In which case I cannot tell whether he in the boat should shew himselfe more ridiculous to the beholders then the Bishop doth manifest himselfe by this occasion to his iudicious Readers And thus much may suffice for the Bishops schisme Heresy is defined by S. Augustine August de vera Rel. c. 5. 6. 7. to be a peruerse doctrine contrary to the rule of truth which himselfe doth better expound where he sayth That it is an opinion declyning from the rule and turning men away from the cōmunion of the Catholike Church where he vnderstandeth the rule of truth to be no other then the doctrine of the Catholike Church for without this ground all other rules are insufficient as hath been shewed and the same if it were necessary might easily be confirmed out of the rest of the Fathers Wherefore the doctrine of the Catholike Church being made knowne and manifested vnto vs either by the common beliefe of all the faithfull or by the vniforme consent and common doctrine of all the Fathers or by a generall Councell or by the definition of the Pope as before I noted hauing conuinced the Bishop of schisme though much against his will let vs see how he can cleare and shift himselfe from the imputation of heresy For first it cannot be denied That whatsoeuer the Catholikes at this day do maintaine to be the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles against the Protestants was the generall beliefe of the vniuersall Church when Luther began to broach his new doctrine And therefore the Bishop condemning the Pope of many errours in poynts of Controuersy betweene him and the Protestants Vbi supra condemneth likewise the vniuersall Church of that tyme which as S. Augustine sayth is most insolent madnes extreme impiety and hayre-braynd or furious ignorance Secondly you haue heard how the auncient Fathers of the primitiue Church haue condemned for heresyes aboue twenty seuerall opinions of the Protestants And therefore the Bishop being now a Protestant is likewise aboue twenty tymes condemned by them And to omit that other seuerall sects of Protestants do all condemne him in like manner the generall Councell of Trent hath defined the doctrine of the Pope against the Protestants to be Orthodoxall and the contrary opinions to be likewise hereticall And the Bishop seeming to belieue that a generall Councell lawfully called and confirmed cannot erre in matter of fayth as hauing the speciall assistance of the holy Ghost leading vnto all truth according to the promise of our Sauiour hath no more reason to contemne the Councel of Trent then to reiect the Councell of Nyce or any other generall Councell Lastly hauing proued by the common doctrine of all the Fathers that the Bishop of Rome being successour of S. Peter cannot erre in defyning of Controuersyes that belong to fayth and that the Fathers put no difference betweene the Catholike and the Roman Church but that the same Church which is surmaned Catholike because it is vniuersall is also called the Roman Church because the Roman Church being founded in the Seat of Peter is alwayes conioyned and vnyted with the Catholike Church it followeth thereof that the Bishop being condemned for an Heretike by the Bishop of Rome successour vnto S. Peter and by the Church of Rome founded in the Seat of Peter according to the iudgment of the auncient Fathers standeth likewise condemned in this respect also by the whole Church And therefore hauing so many dreadfull sentences lying heauily vpon him vnlesse he amend and make peace with his aduersary Mat. 5.25 while he is yet vpon the way what can he expect at the day of iudgement but that Christ himselfe withall his Saints and Angells togeather with the whole world should condemne him And with this we will proceed to his second defence which is the authority and example of S. Cyprian wherein he seemeth to set vp his rest SECTION XXXI VVherein is shewed that the authority and example of S. Cyprian alleadged by the Bishop against the Pope ouerthroweth the principall grounds of the Protestant Religion THE words therfore of S. Cyprian in the Councell of Carthage to the Bishops there assembled alleadged by him are these that follow Iudging no man sayth S. Cyprian or depryning no man of our communion though he shal be of a contrary opinion For none of vs doth make himselfe Bishop of Bishops or compelleth his followers with tyrannicall terror to the necessary of yeilding to him whereas euery Bishop is to haue his owne proper iudgement in respect of the liberty and power which is giuen vnto him so that he cannot be iudged of another as he himselfe cannot iudge another But let vs all expect the iudgment of our Lord Iesus Christ who only and alone hath power to place vs in the gouernement of his Church and to iudge of our actions The example of S. Cyprian he propoundeth in such manner as that accusing S. Stephen of indiscretion and that with his excommunications he was falling headlong into the mischiefe of schisme he sayth That S. Cyprian dissenting from the Roman and almost from the vniuersal Church about the Baptisme of Heretikes and being strong in his owne opinion and esteeming Stephen the Pope to erre vehemently and all the rest to be in manifest errour yet notwithstanding he neuer suffered the band of vnion and Christian charity to be broken betweene them but chose to communicate not only with Stephen being of a contrary opinion and indeauour against him but also with those whome he reputed to be altogeather impure being moued thereunto because Stephen had receiued them into communion with him rather then by schisme to make a diuision in the Church of God By which authority and example of S. Cyprian he thinketh to haue clearely discouered where the fault lyeth and to whom the crime of Schisme is to be imputed and so thinke I too And here to curry a little fauour with him or rather to curry him with some fauour because he hath so well deserued it in this allegation of S. Cyprian albeit I cannot learne that euer he read or heard Rhetorike among the Iesuits as he himselfe affirmeth yet I will not deny it but rather I will acknowledge that he hath not been altogeather a Truant in the Schoole of Eloquence For though his booke be very small yet he hath been able to deliuer little or no matter at all in very many words And he seemeth to couer many vntruths vnder the colour of Rhetoricall Hyperboles And in this