to the stoole ANSVVERE IF you respect repentance good works I wonder you regard christian charitie no more but so apparantly to slaunder vs against the generall voice of our writers who protest themselues herein greatly iniuried and vrge as great necessitie of good workes as you doe or can desire secluding them onely from the act of iustification not from the meanes of securitie euery where teaching that the keeping of a good conscience in true faith doth worke in vs that certaintie of hope for saluatiō which is the rest only peace of conscience in this life Notwithstanding whē we haue done what we can in Gods seruice since we are vnprofitable and our workes vnperfect it is not any way safe to trust in our selues or rely vpon them but onely in Gods mercies and Christes merits in which poynt Bellarmine himselfe doth most ingenuously ioyne with vs. Tutissimum tamen est propter incertitudinem propriae iustitiae periculum inanis gloriae totam fiduciam nō in opeirbus nostris sed sola dei misericordia benignitate reponere This is all I can find in our writers that giues any shadow of occasion to this vncharitable slaunder which in the iudgment of a cleere minde will easily vanish as a miste before the sunne Your simile I confesse is too strong and may easily ouercome me and modestie biddes me spare to encounter it MOTIVE THese are the two fallacies whereupon Luther built his rebellion and wherein all the heresies of our time conspire though otherwise at difference with themselues for there can bee no fitter baites to beguile simple men then opinion and sensuall men then ease because euery one lieth open to decay in his owne vices ANSVVERE THus are you taken in the snare which you layd for others For the power of God in our ministery being to encounter with those two vglie monsters of nature ignorance and sensualitie it is the ende of our whole profession both to make the simple wise to saluation in such pointes as be meete for their conceites and expedient for their seuerall callings as also to conuert the sensuall vnto newnes and holines of life Thus we professe and thus we teach neither feeding the one kinde with opinions nor promising ease vnto the other Therefore if you either perceiuing some loosenes of life in the laitie doe ascribe that to our doctrine or obseruing the due execution of this ministerie to be wanting in some of the clergie shall therfore condemne the whole do ye not plainly see the two grād fallacies wherein you beguile your selfe and whereupon you haue built this Apostasie THE FOVRTH MOTIVE AMongst many loadstones that which hath the preeminence of vertue in proportionable distance winneth the Iron from all the rest So Christ being lifted vp in the abasing of his passion promised by his attractiue vertue to draw vnto his seruice all men from all religions For what rebellion of nature cannot he pacifie vnto the vnitie of Faith when he pleaseth to come within compasse that hath vnited humane nature into Gods hypostaticall vnion Therefore to gather vp the effect as a threed to leade to the cause the greatest multitude in consent of communion among the diuerse parcels and rentes of those that beare the liuery of Christ his name is a sufficient demonstration of the true and naturall loadstone which must of necessitie drawe more vnto it then the rest because it effecteth by his owne vertue when all the rest worke onely by the touch thereof ANSVVERE THat I may the better finde you in this discourse I will expresse your meaning more distinctly which you carie in a cloud of generalities the easier to deceaue For when I enquire what kinde of beleeuers they be whose number you endeuour so far to enlarge and extend beyond others me thinkes the resemblance of the loadstone and that attractiue vertue of Christ his passion out of the 12. of Iohn doe import not so much an outward calling to the profession of the catholike faith which makes a visible Church as an inward and effectuall drawing to the power thereof proper onely to the liuely members who make a mystical and inuisible bodie not discernable in the eye of man yet so it falleth out that this number of elect and sanctified persons is not by you intended For many are called into the visible Church but few chosen into the number of the Saintes many clensed in the fount from originall leprosie scarce the tithe shewing due thankfulnesse in the residue of their liues Wherevpon that I may take you right I vnderstand you meane a visible companie of catholikes that is professors of the Apostolike faith And then must you shake hands with Christ his attractiue vertue resembled by your loadstone which is taken in the former kinde to signifie not so much the outward calling of men into the visible Church as an inward and forcible drawing of them into the fellowship of the sonnes of God And so hath Christ and doth still by his death and passion draw vnto him men of all conditions from all the quarters of the world Further if you take that visible companie of professours at the largest for all those that beare the liuerie of Christ his name vnder which liuerie saith Barnard many doe seruice vnto Antichrist then doe you make both the Church of Rome and ours to be members of one visible Church al professing one Lord that is Christ giuing the name to all christians Secondly one baptisme without rebaptization of either hand Thirdly one faith as it is summarily premised in the counsell of Trent and professed dayly in our Church Thus far be we knit togither by a triple bande of vnitie which is not easily broken And so farre is your note of multitude common to both and therefore not to the purpose of this motiue It remaines then in the third place that the middle way be taken twixt these two vnderstanding the companie of sounde beleeuers and orthodoxall professors of Christs truth for in these three seuerall sences is the Church taken by diuers The first that is the companie of Saints is too narrow for your purpose the second containing all professors is too large and for the third that is the companie onely of sound and orthodoxall professors if you proue that that is and euermore hath been preeminent for multitude euen in persecution and inundations of heresies I shall much meruaile MOTIVE THis populous inheritance of such as professe the communion of his doctrine was giuen him as a royaltie in the 2. Psalme And after his resurrection he sent his Apostles to take possession of the dowrie of his Church from Hierusalem vnto the ends of the world and the prophets who from their high tower of speculation might ouerlooke more then the compasse of 2000. yeares and therefore tooke the draught of Christ his kingdome could perceiue no signe more glorious and visible then a multitude reaching from the East to the
whole body This is a marke Saint Paul willeth vs to aime at and indeuour to attain the perfection of it But you as if your Church had alreadie attained it and were perfect in this vnitie of faith haue fansied to your selfe such an vniformitie in religion and such an infallible meanes to enioy the same as doth expell all differences in iudgements and opinions remoue all occasions of doubt and reply and vnto which perfect obedience is tied By this cognisance haue you discerned and noted the onely true catholike Church and thereby cut of al protestants from that body So did Tully describe an oratour who neuer yet was knowen either at Rome or Athens so did Plato imagine a commonwelth collected of the select perfections of all societies and so hath your chymicall phansie conceited a Church in her state here militant which by triall will proue a meere Eutopia not to be found vpon the earth For you might easily conceiue euen in reason that albeit vnitie be essentiall to a bodie and consequently the vnitie of faith to the Church of Christ yet as there be many degrees of perfections in the church so be there likewise of vnitie in faith Concerning the very bodie of religion and more materiall pointes of faith there is in our Church an vniforme accord and agreement though in other branches some differences as amongst your selues how manie iarres betwixt Aquin and Scotus and y e rest of that scoole scarce three of thē saying one thing How many errours cōdemned in your Cardinal Caietan by Melchior Canus and Bellarmin The Iacobins and the Cordelians could neuer agree about the Virgin Mary her conception In a word it cannot bee denyed but so many orders of fryers almost so many sectes in opinions and deadly quarrels euen at this day Wherefore before this your peremptorie conclusion of deposing Churches it had bin a point verie requisite first to haue defined what degree of vnitie were necessarie and what kinde of differences brings the Church of Christ to vtter dissolution so that it remaine noe longer to bee a Church But you taking a course most easie to deceiue your selfe and others discourse aloofe in generalities and take the perfection of vnitie at the highest pitch to make a more glorious shewe So then the weight of this your argument resteth it selfe vpon these two poyntes First that the prouidence of God hath prouided for his Church militant a perpetuall and infallible meanes of vnitie in faith and such a vnity as takes away varietie of iudgments and opinions remoues all occasions of doubt and reply and vnto which absolute obedience is tyed Secondly that this meanes is to be found in the Church of Rome and not els where Let vs briefly examine the first ground which if it proue sandie the whole frame of this your building falles by it owne weight Saint Paul his argument in the fourth to the Ephesians from whence you haue raised this whole discourse in your owne sence makes directly against you For as from vnitie of Gods Church hee buildeth the vnitie of faith so doth he likewise the vnitie of spirit in the bond of peace Then if from the defect of vnitie in faith you will goe backward to deny the Church you must deny it likewise by vertue of the same text vpon any quarrels or contentions ciuill or eccleasticall which doe impeach the vnitie of loue in the bond of peace But I wot you will be better aduised and graunt there may be a visible Church though the vnitie of peace be not in perfectiō And may there not be one also amongst vs in some differences of iudgments yea much more since varietie of opinions rise commonly from ignorance and weaknes of iudgment whereas those other quarrelles proceed rather from malice and enuie and therefore are lesse veniall and more likely to take away the possibilitie of dependance vpon God Let vs then leaue to straine at gnattes and ingenuously acknowledge thus much at the first that all differences doe not take away the nature of the true Church Next that all vnitie doth not proue a Church For there may be aswellconspiracie in errour as vnitie in faith Yea the kingdome of Sathan is at vnitie with it selfe Or els saith our Sauiour it could not possibly endure If this policie be the strength of his kingdome no meruaile if the same be found amongst his instruments as the prophet Nahum speakes of the enimies of Gods people the Assyrians comparing them to a firre bush or heape of thornes twined or folden one within another Your next shift will be that differences of iudgments among catholikes before definitiue sentence giuen bee neither damnable nor concerne matters of faith but after the Church hath giuē her voice vnto which perfect obedience is tyed then such a truth so determined is presently to be imbraced without reply or further enquirie Which conceite seemes to make voide the ende of that diuine dispensation by which you affirme some sediitons and factions to spring in the kingdome of God Which in his wisedome be not onely permitted but disposed and ordered to the exercise and more full triall of the faithfull To which purpose wee are often vrged in the text to search the scriptures trie the spirits proue all things but here is a shorter cut for a catholike Onely these two poynts First in any doubtfull question vndetermined either let him suspend his iudgment or if he lift to take a side it is not daungerous vntill the Church haue defined and then secondly after definitiue sentence let him imbrace it as a matter of faith without further examination Me thinkes this triall is too too easie that a catholike should put himselfe into such complete armour as y e Apostle biddeth as to haue his loines girt with veritie his feete shod with the preparation of the Gospell to take vnto him the shield of faith the sword of the spirit to make such search and examination for the truth of God and when it comes to the point so he keepe himselfe within compasse of the visible Church which is verie spacious he may safely fight on which side he list without daunger and when sentence is past yeelde consent with securitie Which position I must needes confesse hath the aduantage of mans nature farre aboue the other For that which we desire and wish for we are easily induced to beleeue wherefore euery man naturally affecting to enioy securitie with all facilitie and ease that may bee doth willingly perswade himselfe of this and the like plausible conceites euen by the sway of his owne inclination Which thing makes it no whit lesse suspected of errour but rather much more because euery naturall motion and desire arising out of the inferior part of the soule must by the kingdome of Christ be either quite subdued and rooted out or at the least so crossed and qualified as it seldome remaines the same So then to draw this whole poynt to a
inferre vndoubted positions from weake and false premisses infallible conclusions Omnipotent power that makes the conclusion stronger then the premisses whereupon it is grounded But I will spare this sore because Doctor Stapleton saith it is a sinne to touch it Thus it is quoth hee but we must not enquire the maner how it is that were curiositie Happily it is a mysterie and it were safe for your Church it were not looked into The consequence of your argument if any impotencie of erring in one then in all is too too weake there is a meane betwixt all and none at all you run altogether vpon extremities all errours be not at once disclosed nor all truthes alike necessarie to be knowne What say you to your Doctor Stapleton who limits the Church with a condition of determining such points onely as be necessary to be beleeued or belong to the verie substance of faith else she may erre both in discourse and definitiue sentence a condition which would be looked vnto if not quite put out of his workes for it shaketh many a decree Nay what say you to Bellarmine who acknowledgeth there be some true catholikes which hold that the Pope in a general counsel may erre when he giueth not all diligence Which generall condition if it be truly obserued in assembling the synod without partialitie in selecting points of moment and necessitie in consulting with all simplicitie with such like included vnder all diligence doubtlesse Gods spirit for his part will neuer be wanting See now if you would be reasonable we might happily shake hands in this point but you presently runne backe to an absolute omnipotencie of not erring in any one point and so shall we neuer meet I aduise you though doe not take it for an article of your creed but remember Bellarmine his rule That is not to be held as a point of faith against which some catholikes do hold being reputed catholikes of the Church and not condemned for heretiks But some catholikes hold the Church may erre quando non adhibet omnem diligentiam therefore resolue not all your faith vpon this point but alas we haue your resolution MOTIVE COntrarie the Catholikes auouching the inflexible truth of the Church as the voice of Christ and direction of the spirit doe stay the mindes of the faithfull from doubt and wauering But the other making an head from the bodie of the Church are rightly punished both with beleefe in errours and vnbeleefe in truth ANSVVERE SEe now your conclusion which buildeth not vpon that point alone we haue alreadie sifted but assumeth with all a farre more slipperie ground that that Church you haue lately plunged your selfe into is the onely Church we haue talked of all this while the onely true vniuersall visible Church vpon the earth Which two vncertainties wel examined and laid together will I feare me make but a sandie foundation to build vpon and an vnstable principle to stand vpon it owne ground and vphold all religion Yet this is your only sanctuary wherin you secure your soules of all sound beliefe which standeth vpon these two main pillers first that the Catholike Church cannot erre which is not so dangerous if rightly conceiued as hath been said Secondly that this Romish Church whereof you professe your selfe a member is that Catholicke Church Which second branch must be yet further resolued into other vncertainties presupposed by you as vndoubted truthes whereupon the frame of your religion doth rest it selfe to wit first that this present Romish Church doth not degenerate from the ancient Catholike but soundly and sincerely professeth that same faith which was established in the primitiue by the Apostles continued in the ancient Romane Church in the time of the Fathers for the space of 600 yeares Secondly this being proued and made manifest you must adde further that this Church of Rome is not so Catholike as was the Church of Corinth Galatia c. that is not as a member communicating in the faith of the whole Catholike but that it selfe is the whole entire Catholike Church thereby excluding all other Churches in Christendome as hereticall which doe not acknowledge themselues subiect to the Bishop of that Sea Which thing you must defend not against protestants onely who proue you rather to be an Italian faction then the Catholike Church which Iohn Hart doth ingenuously acknowledge to be more probable then he was aware of but euen against your owne Doctors and Cardinals must you arme your selues in this point who complaine there is nothing decreed in counsels but what the Italian Nation liketh of as Ludouicus Cardinall of Arle complained at the Councell of Basil and Claudius Espencaeus a Doctor of your owne in Paris witnesseth for Trent Haec est illa Helena qua tridenti nuper obtinuit c. speaking of the Italian Nation Now if any of these pointes faile you which me thinkes be verie tickle then is not the voice of your Church euermore the inflexible truth of Christ and direction of his spirit which you presume to be the first ground of Christian Religion that doth stay the minds of the faithfull from doubt and wauering in all the rest THE THIRD MOTIVE THe infinite waies of errours draw themselues in their originall into two heads opinion and affection which as two cankers breed the one in the vnderstanding the other in the will for our iudgement is easiest deceiued by those things we esteeme truest and our inclination by what we loue best There is nothing of more manifest presumption then the truth of the Scriptures nor fuller of desire then securitie of happinesse therefore these two being left vnlimited the one of Canonitall exposition the other with necessitie of meanes are a direct method of indirect consequence Such is the practise of the later religion they teach that nothing is to be credited but what is warranted in holy bookes and giue not infallible rules of interpretation but such as at last must be ouerruled by priuat opinion for conference of places propriety of phrase acceptations of wordes can make no other conclusion then euery ones conceit will aforde So that of an infallible proposition and arbitrary assumption must needes insue a dangerous conclusion though not euer in the matter which is concluded yet alwaies in the manner of concluding ANSVVERE TO let slip your philosophicall introduction sparing in this short discourse to catch at by matters you haue pitched your motiue vpon the two maine partes of a christian soule The vnderstanding of diuine truth and the desire of true happines assuming to your selues and denying wholly to vs both sound iudgment for the triall of the one and necessarie meanes for the enioying of the other Our iudgment is impeached for resting it selfe wholly vpon the written word being depriued also of the infallible interpretation of the same For the first point we doe indeede maintaine the written word as the most perfect worke of God to
more narrow issue our demaund is whether vpon the promise of God made to his Church for her preseruation in the faith of Christ there may not be built ouer much securitie that is as the schoole hath conceaued of theological vertues though on Gods part respecting his promise there can be no excesse of hope or confidence yet in regard of the peruersenes of our nature which may make the generall promise of God lesse effectuall to vs there may grow presumption because those promises be not absolute but conditional so whether the promise of Gods assistance to his Church be of the like nature with some condition to be obserued of the Churches part or whether it be altogither absolute is one point in question That it is in part absolute is a thing graunted of all handes to wit that neither the wickednesse of man nor the gates of hell shall euer so farre preuaile against it as quite to extinguish it but it shal continue a Church till the last dissolution For else wherefore shuld heauen and earth stand to be a cage of vncleane birds or a theater of iddle vanities This cannot agree possibly with diuine prouidence But for those promises which concerne the better being of the Church as the enlarging of her dominions the increase of the number of true and zealous catholikes her more conspicuous and florishing estate her preseruation from the inundations of heresies from the Apostasies of her members and schisines of the whole bodie her deliuerance from the mistes of errors and finally her sound and more sincere profession of the truth concerning these promises of assistance I say though God be faithfull who hath promised yet the Church by reason of her manifold sinnes may make them lesse effectual vnto her But taking all these promises to be most absolute without condition we may grow presumptuous promising to the Church ouermuch securitie Such was the errour of the Iewes in the time of Iohn Baptist who building vpon the promise of God made to their forefathers not regarding any condition on their part to be performed thought themselues secure while they could but say they had Abraham to their father and shew their lineall descent out of his loynes But the answere doth directly ouerthrow that conceit God is able of stones to raise vp children vnto Abraham insinuating that which Saint Paul more fully doth expresse Gala. 3. 7. They which are of faith are the children of Abraham though by propagation no more proceeding out of his loynes then the verie stones in the streete Be it so that the promise of the assistance and residence 〈◊〉 Gods spirit in the Church was made to Peter and his successors as the promise of Gods fauour to Abraham and his seed The seed of Abraham according to promise we haue found not to be those children which proceeded out of his loynes by naturall descent but such as resembled father Abraham in faith godlines I demaund then first of any indifferent man who be principally meant by Peters successours according to the promise I meane that promise made vnto Peter and his followers to the end of the world Whether those Bishops of Rome who can onely say they haue Peter for their predecessour and shew a lineall and locall descent from Peter in that Sea or rather those of speciall note in the Church of Christ at Rome or elswhere who aswel in ability to gouern as soundnes of doctrine and sinceritie of life doe resemble that blessed Apostle Somthing to enlightē my selfe by example Saint Basil Bishop of Caesaerea but neuer of Rome was notwithstanding by Saint Chrysostome iuuested with that glorious title of Peters successour in his second booke de sacerdotibus I demaund whether such a father of the Church renowned for doctrine and life though neuer seated at Rome be not rather to be accounted the Apostle his successor according to promise then either Pope Iohn infamous for life or Pope Honorius the Monothelite for that heresie condemned by three generall councels Secondly to giue you a little more ground suppose the Bishops of Rome be more priuiledged by their local succession and haue greater interest in the promise made to Peter and his successours then Doctours of other seas which I cannot yet find but suppose it though as the seed of Abraham euen according to the flesh in that regard were neerer to the promise then straungers as the Apostle witnesseth For vnto you the promise belongeth my next demaund is whether that promise made to Peter and in him to his successours of Rome be absolutely tyed to them or with some condition by them to be performed Of that old promise made to Abraham we find two conditions required in his seed one of faith set downe by Saint Paul They which are of faith are the children of Abraham and the other of workes mentioned by our Sauiour If ye were Abrahams children you would doe the works of Abraham The breach of these conditions caused those natural braunches the Iewes to be cut off Whereupon the Apostle maketh an admonition to the Church of the Romanes the rest of the Gentiles by their example not to presume since God spared not the naturall braunches least he spare not them Noli altum sapere sed time Which is not so to be conceiued as if there could be a generall Apostasie of the Catholike Church from faith but so as if amongst the Romanes or other Gentiles the current of the visible Church and fountaine of diuine graces might be dried vp and begin to spring afresh amongst the Iewes or other nations Then if this be possible nay if it be as the Apostle speaketh to be feared of vs that the Romanes or any of the Gentiles may fal from faith and be cut off from the promise as your selues doe sentence the Churches of the East at this day to be fallen then much more may there be a possibility of errour in your Church in some braunch of faith For such a fal cannot be in a moment but must needs presuppose some preparations going before So then to wind vp this whole discourse you taking the promise made in Peter to the Sea of Rome absolutely not respecting any condition at al may thereupon build ouermuch securitie and so consequently fancie to your selues a confirmed estate of the Romane Church like the state of Angels imagine therein a meanes of deciding controuersies more certaine and infallible then God in his diuine wisedome thought meet for her state militant here vpon earth Yet albeit we cannot hope for a meanes of vnitie in that degree of certaintie which fansie may easily imagine or mans nature desire Notwithstanding there be excellent means for the certaine finding out of necessarie truth prouided by God in his Church not one but many and amongst many no one so certaine to vs which man by his ignorance or wilfulnes may not peruert to his owne destruction Wherefore though first and
AN ANSVVERE TO WILLIAM ALABLASTER his MOTIVES By ROGER FENTON Preacher of Grayes Inne AT LONDON Imprinted by FELIX KYNGSTON for W. Aspley dwelling in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Tygers head 1599. THE CONTENTS OF THE seuen Motiues 1. Of the stay of the minde in doctrine of faith 2. Of the last resolution of religion 3. Of the rule of interpretation of Scripture and of necessitie of workes 4. Of the multitude of communicants in the catholike faith 5. Of alteration and reformation of religion 6. Of the power promised to the Church for discerning of truth and of the meanes of deciding controuersies 7. Of markes to discerne heretikes by and of innouation TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL HIS SINGVLAR GOOD PATRONES THE REAders of Grayes Inne RIGHT Worshipfull I craue your patronage and pardon both at once I haue stolne from my daily duetie vnto you vnto whom I owe both my selfe and all duetie certaine waste houres which I haue imployed about this discourse If my paines haue been fruitfullie bestowed yet they must craue pardon because they were bestowed without your leaue if idlie then I must craue pardon twise once for them and next for my selfe Howsoeuer I am sure my best desert must pleade pardon which I most humbly beg at your hands submitting my selfe and thaese stolne meditations to your milde censures Which if I finde fauourable I shall be encouraged with more alacritie to applie my studies in my ordinarie duties and with better content as well to amend what you shall finde amisse in this as also to prepare my selfe to some greater taske And so with my dailie prayers to almightie God for the happie and flourishing estate of your Honourable societie I humbly take my leaue At my chamber in Grayes Inne this 24. of Nouember 1599. Your daily bounden Orator ROGER FENTON The Author to William Alablaster prisoner in the Tower wisheth health of soule and bodie ALbeit Aarons body mysticall whereabout we contend might iustly occasion a much hotter conflict then that dead bodie of Moses for which Sathan stroue with Michael thereof to make an idoll yet haue I rather chosen beloued Alablaster to offend by ouer much mildnes in this generall suruey and discouerie of your grounds then any wise in bitternes of spirit vnderpretext of zeale to gaule and disgrace an aduersary Onely to the ende this slender taske imposed vpon me might finde the better intertainement euen at your hands I haue weighed your inducements with all indifferencie vrged the force of them so fully as I am able to conceiue and examined them by the touch and triall of your owne grounds VVherefore since by this time I hope the seething of your feruencie is well nigh ouer you become more staied then before and able to containe your selfe within some limits of moderation my heartie wish and desire is that you would vpon this new occasion take a sober reuiew of your owne worke more aduisedly consider the premises whereupon you build and as God shall moue you accordingly shape your resolution VVhich thing although I haue small hope my labour should be so happie as to effect in you yet least these your popular fallacies should insinuate themselues into the mindes of the more vnstable I am the rather induced to publish this briefe answere for the vse of such tender iudgements as shall in that kinde neede the same So committing to almightie God the happie successe hereof and submitting my selfe herein to the censure of the learned I bid you farewell from my Chamber in Grayes Inne Nouember 24. 1599. R. F. THE FIRST MOTIVE AS the moist and vnstable bodies because they are vnbounded in themselues neuer cease from motion vntil they be staied in some other bodie which hath stay in it selfe so the vnderstanding vnquiet by nature passeth through all formes of opinions vntill he resolue his assent vpon some principle that standeth onely vpon his owne ground ANSVVERE THat principle which stayeth the vnderstanding in humane knowledge containeth a truth firme in it selfe manifest to the light of nature shining in vs knowne to euerie man of meane vnderstanding carying euery proofe and vpholding each conclusion which reason is able from thence by discourse to inferre So that the vnderstanding passing through so many formes of opinions by discoursing at randome is therefore vnsetled because he cannot reduce those fareftcht conclusions to the first principle and examine all opinions by that truth which standeth vpon it owne ground MOTIVE THerefore when the question of truth in controuersie of faith is turned too and fro in the throng of so many particular quarrels it is best to goe aside and single out the two grand Originals and foundations from the which all other factions arise that by taking the iust estimate of the strength of eyther our iudgemēt may leaue to the stronger part Al particular controuersies in thēselues stand vpon their yea and nay but vnto vs require proofe which proofe is linked by reason which reason is chiefely groūded vpō scripture which scripture is authorised not in the letter but in the sense because it is doubtful in the varietie of apprehensions some leading others drawing many writhing their text to their seuerall factions The question is at last remoued frō the text to the interpreter frō the scripture vnto the men So that a mind studious of truth is now come to his last care to determine of the worth merit authority of these that are the exposit our ANSVVERE YOu passe from formes of opinions to controuersies of faith from an vnquiet vnderstanding by nature to an vnstable faith in religion which inference is not greatly amisse if rightly taken For as these two kinds be diuerse in nature so be they alike in proportiō For the principles of religiō differ from the principles of reason so doth this of faith from that of nature Hence an vnstable vnderstanding is not fixed vpon one and the same ground in both kindes They be alike in proportion thus as nature hath her principles written in the hearts of all men so religion hath hers reuealed from heauen to al faithfull men Secondly as the glimmering light of nature still shining in vs enlightneth her principles and maketh mens minds fully assent vnto them So the spirit of God enformeth all Christian minds with a supernaturall light of faith and full assurance of the first principles of religion Thirdly as the principles of nature are presented to our vnderstanding out of the booke of nature the volume of creatures and visible things of God together with many mysteries in part vnfolded by the wise Philosophers in their comments vpon nature so the first common principles of faith are euidently expressed in the booke of God besides many high mysteries in part reuealed vnto vs by the learned and holy men of God from time to time Fourthly as the naturall vnderstanding the further it is remoued from the first principles by discourse and tract of consequence the more vnstable
West and spreading ouer the earth And yet for the straights of the throng putting vp supplication to the Church to send some colones out to enlarge their habitation Angustus est mihi locus fac spatiū mihi vt habitem And because by diuine dispensation there were some sedition factions to spring in his kingdom that it might not breede admiration in the newe subiects by the noueltie or distraction of doubt if the new parte by number bee mistaken therefore Christ and his Apostles haue both foretold there should bee heretiques and branded them alwaies by the note of paucitie to be distinguished from the generall multitude For they shall come vnder the stile of small and thinne numbers and priuiledged places There is Christ among the Caluinistes in Geneua There is Christ among the Lutherans in Germany In the desert for a thousand yeeres since Phocas In some secret of concealed doctrine since the Apostles time But beleeue them not for not all or the most part shall be apostate but some not many but such as in compare of the whole multitude shall be as errant planets in respect of the fixed starres Therefore this argument from the multitude of communicants in the same faith promised by God foreseene by the Prophets confirmed by the Apostles was esteemed of so sufficient proofe by the primitiue commanders of Christ his Church that they vsed it alwaies against the heretickes and oftentimes when they were to encounter they would brandish this sword as deadly and vnauoidable to amaze and yet not strike with it Poteram omnes propositionum tuarum riuulos vno ecclesiae sole siccare For the experiment whereof if we turne ouer the succession of historyes age by age we shall finde that when any heresie was at the highest floud it was not comparable to the ebbe of catholikes no not in the torrent and inundation of the Arrians by Athanasius testimony Therefore we may presume the euent of that prophesie which hath so equally proceeded hitherto and vse it for a weapon against the heretikes of our time which hath been so often died in the bloud of their ancestors and follow our fathers herein which so happily followed others Deo gratias ANSVVERE ALl these groundes except Athanasius his testimonie I finde translated out of D. Stapleton only Cacus-like that you might not be traced you haue somewhat inuerted the order and good cause why for the same author whence you borrow hath himselfe dissolued all the force of this motiue by adding a cautiō in the fifth chapter how those forealleadged places are to be vnderstoode That Popular inheritance promised to the sonne in the 2. Psalme discouered by Daniel to replenish the earth suruaide by Esay from the East to the West possessed by the Apostles from Hierusalem to the ends of the world is not so to be taken saith Stapleton as if the Church should at once in any one age enioy those large dominions no not in the most flourishing age but only in succession of times yet your argument is so pitched vpon those proofes as if the number of sound beleeuers at one and the same time euen at the lowest ebbe of Catholiks did farre exceed all others An inference without the compasse of those scriptures euen in the iudgement of your owne Doctor albeit himselfe after doe wrest them vnto the same purpose We doe indeed with all due thankfulnesse acknowledge according to those prophesies the Catholike faith of Christ to be preached and beleeued in seuerall ages in all the nations of the world truly and sincerely not at once like the deluge couering the face of the earth but as the water floudes in course winning ground in one place and loosing it in another dried vp at Hierusalem and Samaria before it haue watred the endes of the earth though in some ages full banck in some at a lower ebbe specially when it is pestered with heresies and schismes prophecied to come in the latter daies Insomuch that at the last dissolution the Sonne of God maketh doubt if he shall find faith vpon earth And if a true Catholike faith shal so faile as scarce to be found then maruaile not if your glorious note of the multitude of communicants in the same faith faile you A glorious note I confesse it is in the glorie of the Church when the sunne is in his full strength and well might the fathers in due time and place brandish this sword against vpstart heretikes with Poteram omnes c. but not so well strike with it or stand vpon it as an infallible demonstration since they well wist that in the eclips of the Church when heresies get a head schismes distract it when the diuel waxeth wood and the world groweth old this note of multitude with all must needs faile Your experiment for the torrent inundation of the Arrians is too too weake you striue against a streame of auneients Where be they saith Gregory Nazianzene in his Oration against Arrians who define the Church by a multitude and contemne a small flocke Doth not Hierome witnesse the whole world to haue turned Arrian what say you to Saint Hillary who perswaded men not to regard the outward face of the Church eyther Bishops or Priestes through the world It was a rare thing saith hee to find a Catholike amongst priest or people Did not the Emperour in Theodoret scorne the Catholikes for their paucitie foure or fiue to a world of Arrians Nay your owne Doctor in this yeelds to Luther that there were but a fewe Bishops to the Arrians and those few exiles Ecce in deserto ecce in penetralibus had been as glorious a play for Arrians against Catholikes as now against Protestants to the meaning of the text both alike Vincentius Lirin a man of great note amongst you for this one example of the Arrians doth abandon that note of vniuersalitie And thinke you to cary it with your bare auouching Athanasius his testimonie neither citing his wordes nor quoting the place against so strong a tide This is too too sleight THE FIFTH MOTIVE THis new stampe of religion which Luther and his minsters boast of to be reformed according to the ancient coyne cannot auoide the desert of counterfeit Because so generall a reformation and restitution of the primitiue Church neither can be neither was to be expected For although the worship of adulterous religion haue suffered many changes either by the admiration of some man of extraordinarie account or the intimation of Oracles or the ambition of superstitious or inuasion of neighbours or chaunge of gouernment the state alwaies fashioning religion the fittest consequence of policie yet in the true religion instituted by God himselfe the diuine ordinance hath made onely two memorable varieties not by condemning the former but by preferring the latter not in difference of substance but perfection not by retraction as in chaunge of their counsell but adding of timely accesse The first