published by Pope Pius the fourth were anciently received though newly defined by the Councell of Trent for proofe he instanceth in the first Councell of Nice and compareth that Councell and their Creed with this of Trent hee proceeds by way of recrimination to question the 39. Articles of our Church he accuseth us for corrupting and misinterpreting the Scriptures for declining Traditions Fathers and Councels hee excuseth their Index Expurgatorius and accuseth us for falsifying the Fathers and lastly he concludeth with the doctrine of implicite faith and this is the substance and contents of his answer to my first Chapter All which and whatsoever else is materially contained therein and the rest of his sections following I will take into severall parts distinctly and returne him a moderate answer The Reply to Mr. Lloyd FIrst touching your Trent Creed you complaine that according to the common fashion of our Ministers by way of derision I divide it into twelve points as it were into twelve Articles which say you he and they might with as much reason divide it into foure and twentie Here you begin to quarrell at your first entrance but I hope you will gladly forgive us this wrong for if wee accuse your Trent Fathers for coyning twelve Articles in stead of foure and twentie they and you are more beholding to us for laying the lesser number to your charge and yet if you please to review them you shall finde they fall most naturally within the number of twelve But you would know what difference there is betwixt the Councell of Nice and the Councell of Trent and their two Creeds Let mee tell you if ever the proverb held true Comparisons are odious it holds betwixt the two Councels and their two Creeds the Councell of Trent is not worthy to be named the day wherein the Councell of Nice is mentioned That famous Councell of Nice was the first and best generall Assembly after the Apostles time that was summoned in the Christian world it had in it 318. Bishops Totius orbis terrarum lumina saith Victorinus amongst whom were the foure Patriarchs of the Easterne and Westerne Churches It was called by the first and best Christian Emperour Quasi servator medicus animarum Euseb in vita Conslant orat 3. c. 10. Constantine the Great who was Vocalissimus Dei praeco and as it were the Preserver and Physitian of our soules saith Eusebius This Emperour exhorted the Fathers and Bishops of that Councell Omni igitur seditios â contentione depulsâ literarum divinitùs inspiratarum testimoniis res in quaestionem adduct as dissolvamus Theod. Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 7. p. 208. to lay aside seditious contention and resolve all doubts and questions by the testimonies of divine Scriptures and accordingly they framed their Creed out of the doctrine of the Apostles and all who were not of the Arrian faction did assent and agree to it saith Theodoret. Now take a view of your Trent Councell and compare them together Your Councell of Trent like Demetrius Assembly was summoned by Pope Paul the third without a lawfull calling the three Patriarchs of Constantinople of Antioch of Alexandria refused to be present the Legates of the Kingdome of Denmark of Suetia and the Dukedome of Prusia were all absent and returned their answer that the a Gravamina opposita Concil Trid. Causa 1. pag. 21. Pope had no right to call a Councell Our Queene b Epit. rerum in orbe gest sub Ferd. 1. ann 1561. apud Scard tom 3. p. 2171. E Belgio in Insulam trajicere prohibuit ibid. Elizabeth of blessed memory disavowed the Councell in so much that when the Pope sent Hieronymus Martinengus as Legate into England to summon our Bishops shee would not suffer him to land or set his foot on her Dominions The French King signifieth by his Legate James Amiot that hee for his part neither held it for a generall not yet for a lawfull Councell but for a private Conventicle and accordingly hee wrote Conventui Tridentino The Emperour Innoc Gentil sess 12. and Hist of Trent l. 4. p. 319. Illyric in Protest contr Concil Trid. Charles the fifth declared by his Embassadour Hurtado Mendoza in the name of the whole Empire that the Bishops wholly hanging at the Popes becke had no authoritie to make lawes in causes of reformation of religion and manners Andreas Dudithius Dudith in Ep. ad Maximil 2. de Calice Sacerdotum conjugio the Bishop of five Churches told the Emperours Maximilian and Ferdinand that the Trent Fathers were like a paire of countrey Bag-pipes which unlesse they were still blowne into could make no musick The Holy Ghost had nothing to doe with that Councell and therefore they could create no new Articles of faith Your historie of Trent tels us The historie of Trent the Spirit was sent in a Carriers cloak-bag from Rome to Trent but when there fell store of raine the Holy Ghost could not come before the flouds were abated and so it fell out that the Spirit was not carried upon the waters as wee read in Genesis but besides them Looke upon your Bishops they were but fortie and two at the first meeting and two of them titular the rest for the most part saith Dudithius were but hirelings Andr. Dudith ut suprà young men and beardlesse hired and procured by the Pope to speake as hee would have them To say nothing of those Emperours who called the first and best Councels and were present in person when as the Popes send but their Legates Euseb in vitâ Constant orat 3. c. 16. Ego intereram Concilio saith Constantine I was present at the Councell amongst you as one of you Touching his Imperiall seat in the Councell Ibid. c. 10. his throne was very great and passed all the rest saith Eusebius whereas there is no greater distance in the time Advertendum quod locus ubi sedet Imperator 〈…〉 tenet 〈◊〉 Pontifex Liber Ceremon l. 2. c. 2. than there is now difference in the places for the Emperour is allowed but to sit at the Popes foot-stoole and it is specially to bee noted saith your booke of ceremonies that the place whereupon the Emperour sitteth may bee no higher than the place where the Pope setteth his feet Your Councell of Trent hath made many decrees for reformation of manners but did they ever reforme this abuse and restore the ancient custome You then that are so confident in equalling those two Councels doe you thinke there is no difference betwixt a conventicle and a generall Councell betwixt a Councell lawfully called and one summoned by usurpation betwixt a late Councell held in a corner of the world in the worst age and an ancient Councell in a most famous citie held in the most flourishing age betwixt a Councell that layes her sole foundation in the Scriptures and one that builds her first Article of faith upon Traditions Bulla Pii
doct Fidei Tom. 1. l. 2. Art 2. c. 22. p. 203. viz. that the Church could not create a new article of faith How can any such article saith he framed after many yeares be catholique and universall when as it was unknowne to our fore-fathers for foureteen hundred yeares before It was not beleeved because not heard of when the Apostle tels us faith commeth by hearing Such an article therefore although it be of faith yet it cannot be catholique and this hee proves directly from Fathers and Councels And whereas you affirme that your Church can no more make an article of faith than shee can make a Canonicall Booke of Scripture Canus loc Theol. l. 2. c. 7. p. 38. Canus your Bishop of Canaries will joyne with you That the Church of the faithfull now living cannot write a Canonicall Booke of Scripture and hee gives the reason for it There are not now any new revelations to be expected ither from the Pope or from a Councell or from the universall Church and from hence it will follow of consequence by your owne Logick Therefore the Church can create no new article of faith Thus farre I have waded in your behalfe that you may the better justifie your owne Assertion for you wil find your Church is like a house divided against it selfe and therefore cannot stand long I say that Quere which was made in Waldens dayes was resolved above two hundred yeares before by your profound Schoole-man Thomas Aquinas in your Churches behalfe that the Pope had power Condere articulos fidei to create new articles of faith to remove therefore these fig-leaves with which you would cover the naked truth This learned Doctour well understood that there were many new articles of religion crept into the Church in his dayes he knew well that albeit he were the prime Schoole man of his time yet with all his sophistrie hee could not make them comply with the ancient Catholique faith and thereupon he thought it the surest way to give the Pope an absolute and independant power over faith and religion and accordingly resolved Ad solam authoritatem summi Pontificis pertinet nova Editio Symboli sicut alia omnia quae pertinent ad totam Ecclesiam Thom. 2.2 q. 1. Art 10. It belongs onely to the authoritie of the Soveraigne Pope to make a new Edition of the Creed and all things else that concerne the universall Church Then he concludes the question and gives this reason for it The publishing of a new Creed belongs to his power who hath authoritie finally to determine matters of faith and this saith he belongs unto the Pope Upon which passages Andradius a chiefe pillar of your Trent Councell confesseth that the Bishops of Rome Romanos Pontifices multa definiendo quae anteà latitabant Symbolum Fidei augere consuevisse Andrad Def. Concil Trid. lib. 2. in defining many things which had beene formerly hidden have been accustomed to increase their Creed Now what thinke you of your Aquinas position and your Andradius confession I hope you perceive that your learned Schoole-men are of another opinion And that you may know that your Church doth not approve your pretended Tenet for Catholique doctrine hearken and consider what your holy Father the Pope declareth touching this question and then consider in what case you stand Pope Leo the tenth sent out his Bull against Luther and amongst other articles Certum est in manu Ecclesiae aut Papae prorsus non esse statuere articulos fidei Tom. 4. Conc. Par. 2. in Bulla Leon. 10. in fine Lateran Conc. novissimi p. 135. he chargeth him in particular with this that Luther should say It is certaine that it is no way in the power of the Church or Pope to ordaine articles of faith This you see is Luthers Tenet and this is yours Now what exception think you might the Pope take at this your Assertion Behold for this and the like Tenets he thundereth Anathema against him hee declareth this with the rest of his Articles to be a pestiferous pernicious scandalous and seducing errour to well-minded men he protesteth it was contrarie to all charitie contrarie to the reverence of the holy Church and mysteries of faith and in conclusion condemnes all his Articles as hereticall Inhibentes in virtute sanctae obedientiae ac sub majoris excommunicationis latae sententiae Ibid. p. 136. forbids them to be received by vertue of holy obedience and under paine of the graund Excommunication You have heard the sentence of your Lord Paramount and by it you may know your owne doome If you hold with Luther you are in danger of Excommunication and stand as a condemned heretique by his Holinesse with the Lutherans If you forsake your hold you have lost your faith And thus you have a wolfe by the eares you stand in danger whether you hold him or let him goe I wonder that you having taken so long a time to answer so poore a Work and having many Assistants for the composing of it they and you could be all ignorant of the Popes infallible Bull. Your Cardinall Bellarmine Quasi Ecclesia posterioris temporis aut deserit esse Ecclesia aut facultatem non habeat explicandi declarandi constituendi etiam jubendi quae ad fidem mores Christianos pertinent Bell. in Barcl who in these latter times hath laboured more than any other to uphold your new Articles of faith yet in obedience to the Pope and saving all advantages to his cause when in the question of deposing Kings he failed of antiquitie and proofe out of Scriptures and Fathers at last returnes this peremptorie answer As if the Church of these latter times had ceased to be a Church or had not power to explaine and declare yea to ordaine and command those things which appertaine to faith and Christian manners and that you may know that you and your Co-adjutors stand single in opinion against the Pope and his Cardinals your Jesuite Salmeron will shew you Doctrina fidei admittit additionem in essentialibus Salm. Tom. 13. Disp 6. Par. 3. §. Est ergo Idem Disp 8. that it stands with great reason to make additions in essentiall points of faith and hee gives this answer for it Because nature is not capable of all truths at one time and from this and the like reasons he concludes therefore there may be new traditions concerning faith and manners though they were never created or declared by the Apostles Thus you see the unitie amongst your selves and howsoever these positions may seeme strange to you and others of your opinions yet your Schoolmen and Lawyers have played the Popes Midwives yea Pope Leo the tenth hath put to his helping hand to deliver your Pope Pius the fourth of that issue I meane those new borne Articles of which your Church hath so long time before travailed Briefly let mee tell you your Articles are detected by your owne men
contrarie hee recants it saying a Bel. Recognit de summo Pont. p. 16. I allow not that which I said with Albertus Pighius that Paul appealed to Caesar to be his lawfull Judge Againe whereas it was said the Popes used to be chosen by Emperours the word Emperor potest fortè debet deleri b Idem de Cler. p. mihi 52. it must and peradventure ought to be blotted out And when I sayd that Paul was subject to Caesar as to his temporall Lord I meant it was so c De facto non de jure Ib. p. 17. Sapendo M. Paolo chasotto Sisto Quinto usci un Indice de libri prohibiti il quale se ben subito si occulto non fu pero cio cosi presto fatto che non ne restassero gli essemplari Et in questo erano compresse le opere del Bellarmino In lib. Confirmatione del considerationi del M. Paulo di Venetia di M. Fulgentio Brestiano servita In Venetia appresso Ruber to Mejetti 1606. Con licentia de superiori in 4 to in fact but not of right And in truth it seemes that neither the Pope nor his Inquisitors were well pleased with this Catholike doctrine For Frier Paul of Venice acknowledged Cardinall Ballarmine and Baronius for learned men and further saith that he hath knowne the one and the other in Rome but he could wish withall that they had written that which they sincerely thought without being forced to recant any thing that they had spoken For Frier Paul knew well that under Sixtus Quintus there came out an Index of prohibited Bookes which though it were suddainly stayed and called in yet it was not so closely acted but that there remained Copies of it and in that Index the workes of Bellarmine were comprehended If this learned Cardinals Booke had beene forbidden you and your fellowes would have beene to seeke of an answere for many objections made against you for it is usuall with you to referre me for an answer to Bellarmine But as it is observed they recanted many things in their writings Dum plurima Annalibus digerendis pervolutanda fuere agnovit ingenuè quae primis editionibus autmāca aut non omnino ad plenam veritatem abs se fuerāt scripta id quod in Annalibus non semel testatus est For Baronius confesseth that in his first Editions many things were imperfect and not altogether true which were corrected in the other impressions And I am perswaded ere long wee shall have an Index a Defēsio Johānis Marsilii in favorem respōsi 8. propositiones continentis adversus quod scripsit illustrissimus Cardinalis Bellarminus Venetiis 1606. Expurgatorius lay hold on him For saith Johannes Marsilius I have heard that as he hath taken a liberty to mend the Fathers Canons and Historians so he will correct the Councels after his manner and for his owne purpose and so assume unto himselfe a licence hereunto which God forbid Againe saith he b Marsil p. 357. See B. Mortons encounter against M. Parsons reckoning l. 1. c. 1. p. 10 11 the Answers of Cardinall Baronius are not unlike the answers of Cardinall Bellarmine who whilst he cannot finde an objected argument to be assoiled by Historie he saith that those words have beene inserted into the Bookes much like to Mr. Floyd when there is no answere to be made to some particular objections out of the Authors you reject them all as condemned by your Inquisitors And this answere I am sure may serve for all objections that can bee made from most Classicall Authors The last thing which I here meane to speake of is a certaine distinction of explicite and implicite faith which the Knight and his Ministers cry out against and are pleased sometimes to make themselves merry withall as if they would laugh out but it is too well and solidly grounded to bee blowne away with the breath of any such ministeriall Knight as he is Thus you You professed formerly to teach mee for my learning now it seemes you would instruct me for my manners you tell me I make my selfe merrie with your doctrine as if I would laugh out truly I am sorry to thinke you teach such ridiculous doctrine as should deservedly cause laughter Shall I make you my Confessor I cannot chuse but smile when I consider what great paines you have taken in this whole Chapter to uphold the Articles of your Faith with sixe pretended rules and all infallible as namely Scripture in the plaine and literall sense Tradition or common beliefe and practice of the whole Church Councels either generall or particular confirmed by the See Apostolike the authoritie of that whole See it selfe defining Ex Cathedra though without either generall or particular Councell the common and uniforme consent of ancient Fathers or moderne Doctours and Schoole-men delivering any thing unto us as matter of Faith All these sixe rules say you we acknowledge and are ready to make good whatsoever is taught any of these wayes When I say you assume confidently that all these are infallible rules to leade men to the knowledge of your Faith and at last you conclude and as it were shut up all those rules of knowledge with the doctrine of an implicite faith This I confesse is such a mystery of foolishnesse as deserveth rather laughter than an answer For as Cato said He marvelled that a Soothsayer did not laugh when he saw a Soothsayer So I am verily perswaded that your selves doe smile when you meet each other to thinke how you cousen the poore ignorant people with a blind obedience and an implicite Faith To let passe your Golden Legends and leaden miracles which occasion sufficient mirth in long winter nights for all sorts of people what I pray is that implicite Faith that you condemne me and our Ministers for laughing at Mistake us not I know no Protestant doth laugh at an implicite Faith which is directed to the proper object the holy Scripture we laugh not at an implicite Faith which cannot be well unfolded or comprehended by reason as namely the unsearchable mysterie of the Trinitie of Christs conception by the holy Ghost and the like but we disclaime and condemne your Catholike Colliers Faith which is canonized for your Popish Creed that is to pin our Faith upon the Churches sleeve and to assent to every thing the Church propoundeth to be beleeved without examination whether it be agreeable to the Scripture or besides it We laugh or rather wee pitie that Merchant of Placentia who chose rather to bee a Papist than a Protestant Laurent Discept Theolog. p. 5. because saith he I can briefly learne the Roman faith For if I say what the Pope saith and deny what the Pope denyes and if he speake and I hearken unto him this is alone sufficient for me And wee cannot choose but smile at the judgement pronounced by your Gregorie de Valentia upon this poore ignorant
were true might not a man thinke you tell as good a tale of some Protestants who in their pots have made so bold with Almighty God himselfe as to drinke a health to him and were not this a fine argument to prove that there is no God It is intollerable presiemption in the Knight to take upon him to censure so great a Councell as that of Trent Wherein the whole flower of the Catholique Church for learning and sanctity was gathered together the splendour of which Councell was so great that your night owle Heretiques durst not once appeare though they were invited to goe and come freely with all the security they could wish Whoreas the Knight saith that it is a senselesse and weake faith that giveth assent to doctrine as necessary to be believed which wanteth authority out of Scriptures and consent of Fathers I answer he knoweth not what he saith for all the Fathers agree that there are many things which men are bound to believe upon unwritten traditions whose authority you may see in great number in Bellarmine De verbo Dei l. 4. c 7. The consent of Doctours of the Catholique Church cannot more erre in one time then another the authority of the Church and assistance of the Holy Ghost being alwayes the same no lesse in one time then another Tertull. de prescript cap. 28. quod apud multos unum invenitur non est erratū sed traditum and Tertullians rule having still place as well in one age as another that which is the same amongst many is not errour but a tradition St. Paul thought he answered sufficiently for the defence of himselfe and offence of his contentious enemy when he said 1 Cor. 11. If any man seeme to be contentious we have no such custome nor the Churches of God It is false which the Knight againe repeateth that an article of faith cannot be warantable without authority of Scriptures for faith is more ancient then Scripture to say nothing of the times before Christ faith was taught by Christ himselfe without writing as also by the Apostles after him for many yeares without any word written As no lesse credite is to be given to the Apostolicall preaching then writing so no lesse credit is still to be given to their words delivered us by tradition then by their writings the credite and sense of the writings depending upon the same tradition St. Austine defendeth many points of faith De baptisme l. 2 c. 7. l. 5 c. 25. cont Maximin l. 3. c. 3. et Epist 174. de Genesi ad litteram l. 10. c. 23. l. de cura pro mortuis et Epist 118. de unit eccles c. 22. et tract 98. in Iohan. either onely or chiefely by tradition and the practise of the Catholique Church as single Baptisme against the Donatists consubstantiality of the Sonne the divinity of the Holy Ghost and even unbegottennesse of the Father against the Arrians and the Baptisme of children against the Pelagians to say nothing of prayer for the dead observation of the feasts of Easter Ascention Whitsontide and the like Nay this truth was so grounded with him that he accounted it most insolent madnesse to dispute against the common opinion and practise of the Catholique Church In his booke of the unity of the Church he saith that Christ beareth witnesse of his Church and in his Tractates upon John having occasion to handle those words of St. Paul If we or an Angell from Heaven c. wherewith the Knight almost concludeth every Section he thus commenteth upon them the Apostles did not say if any man preach more then yee have received but besides that which you have received for if he should say that he should prejudicate that is goe against himselfe who coveted to come to the Thessalonians that he might supply that which was wanting to their faith but he that supplieth addeth that which was lacking taketh not away that which was before these are the Saints very words in that place by which it is plaine that he taketh the word praeter besides not in that sense as to signifie more then is written as you would understand it but to signifie the same that contra St. Paul himselfe useth the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 para besides Rom. 16.17 for contra and you in your owne Bibles translate it so I beseech you brethren marke them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them The Hammer AS Erucius the accuser of Roscius Amerinus having little to say against him Cic. pro Rosc Amer. to fill up the time rehearsed a great part of an invective which he had penned in former time against another defendant so the Iesuit here failing in his proofes for indulgences for which little or nothing can be said to fill up the Section transcribeth a discourse of his which he had formerly penned concerning the necessity of unwritten traditions which hath no affinity at all with the title of this Chapter de Indulgentiis In other paragraphs we finde him distracted and raving but in this he turneth Vagrant and therefore I am to follow him with a whip as the law in this case provideth Touching the point it selfe of Indulgences which Rivet fitly termeth Emulgences but the Iesuit the Churches Treasury whosoever relieth upon the superabundant merits and satisfaction of Saints for his absolution for his temporall punishment of sinne after this life shall finde according to the Greeke proverbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of treasure Eras Adag Thesauri Carbones glowing coales heaped upon his head in hell For neither are there any merits or superabundant satisfactions of Saints Luk. 17.10 Christ saying when you have done all you are unprofitable servants nor were there any could they be applied or imputed to any other men 2 Cor. 5.10 the Apostle teaching that every man shall receive according to that which himselfe hath done in his body whether it be good or evill 2 Cor. 11.15 nor hath the Pope any more power to dispose of this treasury for the remission of sinnes our Saviour Matth. 18. v. 18. and Iohn 20.23 conferring the same power of remitting sinnes upon all the Apostles which he promised to S. Peter Matth. 16. Neither if the Pope had any speciall power of granting Indulgences could it extend to the soules in Purgatory quia non sunt de foro Papae because they are not subject to the Popes court Serm 2. de defunct 9 9. as Gerson rightly concludeth Neither lastly can it be proved that there is any Purgatory fire for soules after this life St. Iohn expresly affirming that the blood of Christ purgeth us from all our sinnes 1 Iohn 1.7 the fire therefore of Purgatory is rightly termed chymerica and chymica chymericall and chymicall chymericall because a meere fiction and chymicall because by meanes of this fire they extract much gold The Apostle saith there is
the purpose that that Councell seemed to be an assembly not of Bishops but of Hobgoblins not of men but of Images moved like the statues of Daedalus by the sinewes of others What the Iesuit addeth of night owles not daring to appeare in the splendour of that Councell hath no colour of truth For it is no newes for owles to appeare at popish Councells At a Councell held at Rome by Pope Heldebrand Fascic rerum expetend sugiend Ortwhinus Gratius writeth there appeared an huge great Owle which could not be frayed away but scared all the Bishops As for Protestants whom this Blacke-bird of Antichrist termeth night Owles if they had flocked to that Councell they had shewed themselves not Owles by appearing in that twi-light at Trent but very Wood-cocks to trust any security offerd them by those who after publike faith given to Iohn Huz and Ierome of Prage notwithstanding the safe conduct of Sigismond the Emperour for their going to and comming from the Councell at Constance most cruelly burned them at a stake to ashes To the seventeenth Divine faith must be grounded upon divine authority and that cannot be the Catholike faith which wanteth consent of Fathers As for those Fathers whose authority Bellarmine draweth ob torto collo to testifie for unwritten traditions de verbo Dei lib. 4. cap. 7. the Iesuit may see them fully answered in Iunius Whitaker Daniel Chamierus and Dr. Davenant Bishop of Sarum and a farre greater number of Fathers alleaged to the contrary by Robert Abbot in his answer to William Bishop cap. 7. Phillip Morney in his preface to his booke de sacrâ Eucharistiâ and Iacobus Laurentius in his singular tractate de Disputationibus and others To the eighteenth The assistance of the Holy ghost was more speciall in the times of the Apostles then in latter ages they could not erre in their writings others might yet we charge not the Catholike Church of Christ in any age with any fundamentall errour though we may the Roman Tertullian his rule may have still place and as well in one age as another if it be rightly taken and not misconstrued and misapplied for if it be taken generally that whatsoever is the same amongst many is no errour but tradition it is it selfe a great errour For the same opinion concerning the inequality of the Father and the Sonne is found amongst many to wit the Arrian Churches the same doctrine concerning the procession of the Sonne from the Father onely is found amongst many namely all the Greeke Churches at this day the same practise of administring the Eucharist to children was found amongst many namely all the Churches of Affrica in St. Austines time yea and in all Churches subject to the Bishop of Rome for many ages as Maldonat the Iesuit confesseth yet the above named Positions and this latter practise are confessed on all sides to be erroneous But Tertullian by many understandeth not the practise of some particular Churches Tertul. de prescrip Age nunc omnes ecclesiae erraverint verisimile est ut tot et tante in unam fidem erraverint much lesse of factious persons of one Sect but the generall and uniforme doctrine and practise of the whole Church as his words in the same Chapter quoted by the Iesuit declare Goe too now admit that all Churches have erred is it likely so many so great Churches should erringly conspire in one faith To the nineteenth We derogate nothing from any generall custome of the Catholike Church let the Iesuit produce out of good Authors any such custome for Indulgences to redeeme soules out of Purgatory flames by Papall Indulgences and this controversie will soone be at an end howsoever let me tell the Iesuit the way that this text of St. Paul is impertinently alleaged to prove this or any other article of the Trent faith For St. Paul in this place speaketh not of any Article of faith nor matter of manners necessary to salvation but of habits gestures fashions and indifferent rites in matter of which nature there is no question at all but that the custome of the Churches of God ought to sway as is abundantly proved by Dr. Andrewes late Bishop of Winchester in his printed Sermon upon that text To the twentieth Disputabamus de alliis respondet Iesuita de cepis we dispute of Indulgences the Iesuit answereth of Traditions in matter of Faith These are very distinct questions and so handled by all that deale Work-man-like in points of difference betweene the Reformed and the Romane Churches but the Jesuits common place of Indulgences was drawne drie and therefore hee setteth his cocke of Traditions on running which yeeldeth nothing but muddy water What though Faith be ancienter than Scriptures the Argument is inconsequent Ergo Scripture is not now the perfect rule of Faith Faith neither is nor can be more ancient than the Word of God upon which it is built this Word of God is now written and since the consigning and confirming the whole Canon of the written Word by Saint Iohn in the Apocalypse is become the perfect and as the Schooles speaketh the adequate rule of Faith It is true Christ and his Apostles first taught the Church by word of mouth Lib. 3. advers heres cap. 1. Non enim per alios dispositionem salutis nostrae cognovimus quam per eos per quos Evangelium pervenit ad nos quod quidem tunc praeconiaverunt postea per dei voluntatem in scripturis nobis tradiderunt fundamentum columnam fidei nostrae futuram but afterwards that which they preached was by the commandment of God committed to writing to be the foundation and pillar of Faith as Irenaus testifieth in expresse words To the twentie one If the Iesuit could prove as undoubtedly any words of the Apostles that are not set downe in Scriptures to be their owne words as wee can prove the writings we have to be theirs wee would yeeld no lesse credit to them then to these but that neither can hee nor so much as undertaketh to doe And whereas he further faith that the credit of the Scripture depends upon Tradition unlesse hee qualifie the speech some way it is not onely erroneous but also blasphemous for it is all one as if hee should say that man gives credit and authority to God as Tertullian jeareth the Heathen In Apolloget not receiving Christ for God because the Romane Senate would not give their consent and approbation to make him one Iam homo deo propitius esse debet or that the credit and authority of Gods Word dependeth upon mans receiving it Whereas in truth Gods Word is not therefore of divine and infallible authoritie because the Church delivereth it to be so but on the contrary the Church delivereth it to be so because in it selfe it is so and the Church should erre damnably if shee should otherwise conceive of these inspired Writings then as of the undoubted Oracles of God
to which we owe absolute consent and beliefe Vid. August supr cit without any question or contradiction To the two and twentieth Saint Austine defends no point of Faith against Heretikes either onely or chiefly by the Tradition and practise of the Catholike Church but either onely or chiefly by the Scriptures For example in his booke of Baptisme against the Donatists after hee had debated the point by Scriptures hee mentioneth the custome of the Church and relateth Stephanus his proceeding against such as went about to overthrow the ancient custome of the Catholike Church in that point But hee no where grounds his Doctrine upon that custome though hee doth well approve of it as wee doe Againe in his booke against Maximinus and his 174 Epist to Pascentius hee confirmeth the faith of the Trinity by the written Word against those Heretikes his words Ep. 175 Haec siplacet audire quemadmodum è Scripturis sacris asserantur to the same Pascentius are Here thou maist heare if thou wilt how these points of our Faith are maintained by Scripture So farre is hee from founding those or any other points of faith only or chiefly upon unwritten Traditions What the Iesuit alleageth out of his tenth booke De Genes ad literam cap. 23. Consuetudo matris Ecclesiae in baptizandis parvulis nequaquam spernendus est neque ullo modo superflua deputanda no whit advantageth his cause for there Saint Austine saith no more but The custome of the Church in baptizing Infants is no way to be despised or to be accounted superfluous Wee all say the same and condemne the Pelagians of old and Anabaptists of late who deny Baptisme to be administred to children or any way derogate from the necessitie of that Sacrament The Iesuit saith hee will say nothing of Prayer for the dead yet hee quoteth Saint Austine de curâ pro mortuis as if in that booke hee taught Prayer for the dead and grounded it upon unwritten Tradition Whereas in that booke hee neither maintaineth Prayer for the dead nor maketh mention of any unwritten Tradition for it but on the contrarie solidly out of Scriptures proveth Esaias Propheta dicit Abraham nos nescivit et Israel non cognovit nos si tanti patriarchae quid erga populum ex his procreatur ageretur ignoraverunt quomodo mortui vivorum rebus atque actibus cog noscendis adjuvandisque miscentur et paulo post ibi ergo sunt spiritus defunctorum ubi non vident quecunque aguntur aut eveniunt in istâ vitâ hominibus Ep. 118. Si quid hocum sic faciendum divinae Scripturae praescribat authoritas non est dubitandum quin ita facere debeamus similiter si quid per orbem tota frequentat Ecclesia that the Saints departed have no knowledge of our affaires upon earth the Prophet Esay saith Abraham knoweth us not and Israel is ignorant of us If so great Patriarchs knew not what befell their posteritie after their death how can it be defended that the dead intermeddle with the actions or affaires of the living to helpe them onward or so much as to take notice of them A little after he concludes flat upon the Negative The Spirits therefore of the dead there remaine where they knowe not what befalleth to men in this life To what end therefore should wee call upon them in our troubles and distresse here Neither hath this Father any thing in his 118 Epistle for the Iesuit or against us for there hee speaketh of Ecclesiasticall Rites and Customes as appeares in the very title of that Epistle not of Doctrines of Faith and yet even in these hee giveth a preheminence to the Scriptures If saith hee the authoritie of divine Scripture prescribe any Rite or Custome to be kept there is no question to be made of such a Rite or Custome and in like manner if the whole Church throughout the world constantly useth such a Rite or Custome The Iesuites next allegation out of this Fathers booke De unitate Eccles cap. 22. falleth short of his marke hee saith there that Christ beareth witnesse to his Church that it should be Catholike that is spread over the face of the Earth and not to be confined to any certaine place as the Province of Affrica Wee say the same and adde that the bounds of it are no more the territories of the Bishop of Rome than the Provinces of Affrica Wee grant that Whosoever refuseth to follow the practise of the Church to wit the Catholike or universall Church resisteth or goeth against our Saviour who promised by his spirit to leade her into all truth and to be with her to the end of the World Which promise may yet stand good and firme though any particular Church erre in Faith or manners as did the Churches of Asia planted by the Apostles themselves and the Church of Rome doth at this day Cont. lit Petil. l. 3. c. 6. Now because that testimonie of Saint Austine wherewith the Knight concludes almost every Section If wee or an Angell from heaven preach unto you any thing whether it be of Christ or of his Church or any thing which concerneth Faith or manners besides that which you have received in the Legall and Evangelicall Scriptures let him be accursed is as a beame in all Papists eyes therefore they use all possible meanes to take it out but all in vaine for the words of the Apostle on which Saint Paul commenteth are not as the Iesuit would have them If any man preach unto you Contra against but if any preach unto you Praeter besides Ep. ad Galat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neque enim inquit si contraria solum predicaverint intulit anathema esto sed si evangelizaverint preter id quod ipsi evangelisavimus hoc est si plusculum quidpiam adjecerent as Saint Chrysostome and Theophylact accutely observe The Apostle saith not if Chrysostome rightly understand him if they should preach any thing contrary but if they shall in their preaching adde any thing be it never so little besides that which wee have preached unto you let him be accursed And Theophylact is altogether as plaine as Chrysostome in his Glosse upon the words The Apostle inferreth not if any man preach contrarie to that yee have received but if any preach besides that which wee have preached unto you that is if they shall presume to adde any thing though never so little let them be accursed Neither doth Saint Austine in his tractate upon Saint Iohn upon which Bellarmine and after him Flood so much beare themselves any whit contradict the former interpretations of Saint Chrysostome and Theophylact. For his words in that place carry this sense The Apostle saith not if any man preach more unto you than you have already received that is perfectly conceived and apprehended for then hee should goe against himselfe who saith that hee desired to come to the Thessalonians to supply
contradict Romish doctrines not out of disobedience to man but out of obedience to him who commandeth us to contend for the true faith and to reprove and convince all gainesayers What Papists intentions are we take not upon us to judge their doctrines we put to the test of Gods word and finde them false and adulterine and all be it some points of their beliefe considered in themselves might seeme indifferent yet as they hold them they are not because they are not of faith Rom. 14.23 and what soever is not of faith is sinne Now no point of the Romish Creed as they hold it is of that faith the Apostle speaketh of that is divine faith because they ground and finally resolve all their articles not upon Gods word but upon the authority of the Pope Resp ad Archiepis Spalaten c. 47. Firmitas fundamenti â—â— firma licet implicita in aureo hoc fundamento veritatis adhaesio valebit ut in Cypriano sic in nobis ad salutem faenum stipula imbecilitas caries in tecto contignatione explicitae erroris opinio non valebit nec in Cypriano nec in nobis ad perâ—â—tiem or Church of Rome which is but the authority of man whereas on the contrary as Doctor Crakent horpe demonstrateth If any Protestant build hay or stubble upon the true foundation he may he saved because be holdeth the true foundation which is that every doctrine of faith ought to be built upon Scripture If the Iesuit wonder at this conclusion let him weigh the Authors reasons and he will be forced to confesse that the errors if there be any in Protestants in regard they sticke close to the true foundation and implicitly deny them cannot in them be damnable whereas the very true doctrines of faith in Papists because they hold them upon a wrong ground and foundation very much derogatory to God and his truth are not so safe To the third With what face can the Iesuit avow this considering that Prieras before alleaged and other writers approved by the Church of Rome mainetaine this blasphemous assertion that the authority of the Church is greater then the anthority of Scripture and all Papists of note at this day hold that the Scripture is but an imperfect and partiall rule of faith all Protestants on the contrary teach that it is an entire and perfect rule of faith Papists believe the Scripture for the Churches sake Protestants the Church for the Scripture sake Papists resolve all points of faith generally into the Popes infalibility or Churches authority Protestants into the written word of God which as Bellarmine himselfe confesseth De verbo Dei non script l. 4. c. 11. containeth all things necessary for all men to beleeve and is a most certaine and safe rule of beleeveing Yea but saith the Iesuit out of Vincentius Lerinensis De verbo Dei l. 1. c. 2. he that will avoid the deceits and snares of Haeretikes and remaine soundin the faith must strengthen his faith two wayes to wit by the authority of the divine law and the tradition of the Catholike Church This advise of Vincentius is sound and good if it be rightly understood and not in the Iesuits sense Vincentius there by tradition of the Catholike Church understandeth not unwritten verities but the Catholike expositions of holy Scriptures extant in the writings of the Doctors of the Church in all ages and we grant that this Catholike exposition of the Doctors where it can be had is of great force to confirme faith and confound Heretikes Vt Scripturae ecclesiastice intelligentiae jungatur authoritas For the stopping of whose mouth that Father saith and we deny it not that there is great neede to add to the Scripture the Churches sense or interpretation albeit as he there addeth which cutteth the throat of the Iesuits cause The Canon of Scripture is perfect and sufficient of it selfe for all things nay rather as hee correcteth himselfe Over and above sufficient cum sit perfectus scripturae canon sibique adomnia satis superque sufficiat To the fourth Here the Iesuit would make his Reader study a little and his Adversarie to muse Vero nihil verius certo nihil certius but it is indeed whether hee be in his right wits or no. For first as Seneca well resolveth one thing cannot be said truer than another one truth in Divinitie may be more evident to us than another but in it selfe it cannot be truer or surer Secondly admitting there could be degrees of certainty at least quoad nos there can be yet no comparison in regard of such certaintie betweene an Article of the Creed assented unto by all Christians and a controverted conclusion maintained onely by a late faction in the Westerne Church But the sitting of Christ at the right hand of his Father is an Article of the Creed set downe in expresse words in holy Scripture Mark 16.19 Luke 24. consented unto by all Christians in the world whereas the carnall presence of Christ in the Sacrament by Tranfubstantiation is no Article extant in any Creed save onely that of Pope Pius his coyning in the yeare of our Lord 1564. It is neither in words set downe in Scripture as the other Articles are neither can it be necssarily inforced or deduced by consequence as foure great Cardinals of the Roman Church confesse Cameracensis Cajetan Roffensis and Bellarmine Neither was this Doctrine of the Romane Church ever assented unto by the Greeke Church nor by the Latine anciently or generally as I shewed before Thirdly the Iesuit contradicteth himselfe within eight lines for having said in the eighteenth line Pag. 384. that Christ his corporall presence in the Sacrament was more sure than his presence in heaven at the right hand of his Father about seven lines after forgetting himselfe hee saith that Wee shall find as much to doe marke as much not more in expounding that Article of the Creed as they doe in expounding the words This is my Body Wherein it is well hee confesseth that Papists make much to doe in expounding the words This is my Body which is most true for by the demonstrative Hoc they understand they know not what Neither this Body nor this Bread but an Individum vagum something contained under the accidents of Bread which when the Priests saith Hoc it is Bread but when hee hath muttered out an Vm it is Christs Body Likewise by the Copula est is they understand they know not what either shall be as soone as the words are spoken or is converted unto or is by Transubstantiation Lastly by Body they understand such a body as indeed is no body without the extension of place without distinction of Organs without facultie of sense or motion and will hee make this figment so incredible so impossible as sure nay more sure than the Article of Christs ascension into heaven and his sitting at the right hand of his
published by Pope Pius the fourth were never anciently received pag 25. The 39 Articles of the Church of England justified pag. 30. Papists teach that the Pope hath power to create new Articles of Faith pag. 33. Many Doctrines of Poperie are new by the confession of Papists themselves pag. 38. Protestants have a certaine rule of Faith Papists have not pag. 45 The Roman translation of the Bible is most corrupt pag. 51. Three sorts of corruptions and abuses of ancient Fathers 1. By foysting bastard Treatises entitling them to the Fathers 2. By falsifying their undoubted Treatises by additions detractions or mutations 3. By alleaging passages and places out of them which are not extant in their Workes and of all these three kinds Romanists are proved guiltie pag 64. Corruptions and falsifications of ancient Writers by Papists In the first Age. pag. 65. In the 2. Age. pag. 67. In the 3. pag. 68. In the 4. pag. 73. In the 5. pag. 77. In the 6. pag. 89. In the 7. pag. 90. In the 8. pag. 92. In the 9. pag. 105. In the 10. pag. 109. In the 11. pag. 110. In the 12. pag. 111. In the 13. pag. 112. In the 14. pag. 114. In the 15. pag. 115. In the 16. pag. 122. Of implicit Faith and blind Obedience maintained by Papists pag. 143. CHAP. II. Papists their bitternesse against reformed Churches is causlesse pag. 148. The definition of Heretikes agreeth to Papists but no way to Protestants pag. 151. Rome confessed to be Babylon by learned Romanists pag. 157. CHAP. III. Cassander and Caesenus are justified pag 164. Corruption in Faith as well as manners are confessed to have been in the Roman Church by the learned of that partie pag. 165. The Councell of Trent intended a reformation of Faith as well as manners pag. 173. CHAP. IV. The Catholike Faith is not so indivisible but that a man may renounce it in part though not in all as many learned Romanists have renounced the Trent Faith in part pag. 178. Priests marriage is lawfull pag. 181. CHAP. V. Romanists prefer their own interpretations of Scriptures before the ancient Fathers pag. 188. CHAP. VI. Many errours have crept into the Church whose first Authors cannot be named pag. 191. The difference between Heresie and Apostacie pag 196. CHAP. VII The petty degree of the Romish Faith is drawne from the ancient Heretikes namely the Osseni Helcheseite the Capernaites the Manichees the Aâ—gelici the Collyridians the Tacians and the Cathorists pag. 219. CHAP. VIII The Antiquitie and Vniversalitie of the Protestant Faith in generall is proved by the testimonies of our learned Adversaries pag. 253. There are but 22 Canonicall books of the old Testament as is proved by the testimonies of the ancient Fathers both of the Greeke and Latine Church pag 276. Errata in the first Part. PAge 42. line 8. reade his lin 17. r. authority in marg l. 2 r. ad Dard. p. 57. lin 11. r. their foreseene p. 66. l. 4. r. the deepe p. 75. l. 20. r. Angles p 92 in mar l. 8. r. alius in text l. 29. r. rejected p. 93. l. 16. r. serve p. 109. l. 23. r. making him speake p. 131. in mar l. 12. r. veniali p. 138. l. 25. r. very corruptly p. 139. l. 25. in marg 1. repurgata p. 153. l. 22. r. homoousians p. 164 in marg l. 25. r. vicesimi terrii p. 173. l. 23. r. operierunt p. 189. in mar l. 17 sequuntur p. 218. l. 2. r. Vitalian p. 219. l. 18. in marg r. regnum p 224. in marg l. 10. r. minus p. 248. in marg l. 12. r. curvat l. 14. r. pronus l. 18. r. iudico p. 251. l. 6. r. argument p. 255. l. 3. r. ingenuously p 257. l. 12. r. true body l. 21. r. is l. 22. dele and. p. 270. l. 4. r. looke p. 271. l. 29. r. of the. p. 273. l. 3. dele to the p. 279. l. 22. r. when To J. R. AUTHOR OF THE BOOKE CALLED A paire of Spectacles I Received a Treatise from you Mr. J. R. not long since published against me by the title of A paire of Spectacles or An Answer to a booke called Via tuta The safe way wherein you say the booke is shewed to be a Labyrinth of Errours and the Author a blinde Guide To what end your Spectacles were made for a blinde man I cannot tell for sure I am if I were blinde a paire of your Spectacles could not make me see howsoever if the indifferent Reader will look but upon the Frontispice of your own book he shall easily discerne that your glasses are deceitfull and do justly occasion a Writ of Error to be brought against your selfe for making that to seem in S. Austin your first Author which is not Your words are these Qui autem praetergreditur regulam fidei non accedit in viâ sed recedit de viâ Aug. in Joh. Tract 98. Tom. 9. p. 487. He that goeth besides the rule of faith which is the Catholique Church doth not come in the way but goeth out of the way wherein you have added these words of your owne viz. which is the Catholique Church in the same character with S. Austin and in lieu of Scripture you pretend the Church to be the rule of Faith whereas that ancient Father assures us Civitas Dei credit Scripturis Undè fides ipsa concepta est ex quâ justus vivit Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 19. c. 18. Tom. 5. Sancta Scriptura nostrae doctrinae regulam figit Idem de bono Viduitatis Tom. 4. c. 1. that from the holy and canonicall Scriptures that faith is formed and bred by which the just doe live Nay more hee expressely professeth with us that the holy Scripture doth fix or settle the rule of our doctrine And thus in your first citation you falsifie S. Austin and go besides the rule of faith and good manners also and by stumbling at the threshold you shew your selfe to bee the blinde guide you speake of in the first page and the first place I proceed to your Dedicatorie Epistle first you begin to descant upon my name in paralelling the words Lyend and Lye howsoever say you The title of Sir will be left for you These bee the first flowers of your eloquence and they savour sweetly Now if I should repay you in your owne language and shew you what men are branded with the letter R which stands for your name if I should shoot backe I say your arrowes even bitter words into your owne bosome would it not shew rather want of matter than proofe of doctrine If you delight to sit in the seat of the scornefull it shall be my comfort to tread in the steps of my Saviour who when hee was reviled reviled not againe To let passe your bitter reproaches of my learning and breeding I will come to the matter You have not stated the question say you fully and truly for you were
because the Author of it hath borrowed both the matter and manner of writing from St. Peter and therfore he was thought some scholar of theirs but no Apostle Others said he brought in a profane Author concerning the strife of the Arch-angell and the Devill about the body of Moses which cannot be found in Canonicall Scripture Lastly the Revelation of St. John was likewise doubted of first because of the noveltie of the title of John the Divine secondly because of the difficultie and obscuritie of his Prophecies These and the like reasons were motives to some in the Church to question the Authors of those Books but it was never generally impeached For further proofe of this Assertion let antiquitie be heard and it will appeare that all those Bookes were cited for doctrine of faith by the writers of the first ages and consequently were approved from and after the dayes of the Apostles Hieronym ad Dardan◠de terra repromissionis Ep. 129. p. 1105. Looke upon St. Hierome he proclaimes it to the Church Illud nostris dicendum est Be it known to our men that the Epistle to the Hebrewes is not only received by all the Churches of the East that now presently are but by all Ecclesiasticall writers of the Greek Churches that have beene heretofore as the Epistle of Paul though many thinke it rather to be written by Barnabas or Clemens and that it skilleth not who wrote it seeing it was writby an Author approved in the Church of God and is daily read in the same This ancient Father shewes plainly that howsoever some doubt was made of the Author of that Epistle yet it was received both by the Easterne Westerne Churches And howsoever some of the Ancients did attribute it to St. Luke others as namely Tertullian did attribute it to Barnabas yet all agreed in this that it had an Apostolike spirit and accordingly Cardinall Bellarmine tels you in your eare Ineptè dici vetustatem de hac Epistola dubitâsse Bell. de verbo Dei lib. 1. cap. 17. It is foolishly spoken in saying Antiquitie did doubt of this Epistle when there is but one Caius a Grecian and two or three Romanists in respect of all the rest that speake against it and if we respect not the multitude but the antiquitie of the cause the Roman Clemens is more ancient than Caius and Clemens Alexandrinus than Tertullian and Dionysius Areopagita than both who cites this Epistle of Paul by name Touching the second Epistle of St. Peter it was cited by Higinus Bishop of Rome within an hundred and fiftie yeares after Christ and that by the name of Peter The Epistle of St. Jude was cited by Dionysius Areopagita by the name of Jude the Apostle within seventie yeares after Christ Dionys de divinis nominibus cap. 4. Tertuil de habitu muliebri Orig. l. 5. in c. 5. ad Romanos Cypr. in lib. ad Novatianum by Tertullian within two hundred yeares after Christ by Origen and Cyprian within two hundred and fiftie yeares after Christ Lastly touching the Revelation of St. John it was received for Canonicall in the first and best ages Dionysius Areopagita cals the Revelation The secret and mysticall vision of Christs beloved Disciple Arcanam mysticam visionem dile cti discipuli Dionys Eccles Hier. cap. 3. In Dial. cum Tryphone Iren. lib. 1. cap. ult and this was seventie yeares after Christ Justin Martyr doth attribute this Booke to St. John and doth account it for a divine Revelation and this was an hundred and sixtie yeares after Christ Irenaeus saith this Revelation was manifested unto St. John and seene of him but a little before his time and this was an hundred and eightie yeares after Christ Tertull. de praescript l. 4. Tertullian amongst other things accuseth Cerdon and Marcion of heresies for rejecting the Revelation and this was two hundred yeares after Christ Origen in his Preface before the Gospel of St. John sayth that John the sonne of Zebedee saw in the Revelation an Angel flying thorow the middest of Heaven having the eternall Gospel and hee flourished two hundred and thirtie yeares after Christ Thus you see the Catholique Christians and most ancient Fathers in the first ages received both the Epistle to the Hebrewes the second Epistle of St. Peter the Epistle of St. Jude and the Revelation of St. John with one consent accounting them no better than Hereticks which either doubted of them or denyed them and yet you to outface the truth would make the world beleeve that it was three or foure hundred yeares before they were received into the Church and made canonicall and upon this vaine supposall you would know of me Whether there were any change of faith in the Church when they were admitted or whether those Books received any change in themselves To answer you in a word your proposition is foolish and your question is frivolous for those Books were alwayes received even from the first times and no more could that word of God bee changed than God himselfe who is immutable and yet we see your faith is daily altered for want of that foundation and thereupon it behoves you to get more and better proofes for the confirmation of your new Creed From your justification of your Trent faith you begin to looke asquint thorow your Spectacles at the reformed Churches and after your wonted manner you crie out They have no certaine rule of faith wherewith wee may urge them authoritie of Church they have none Scripture they have indeed but so mangled corrupted perverted by translation and mis-interpreted according to their owne fancies that as they have it it is as good as nothing Thus you Have we no certaine rule of faith What thinke you of the Scriptures Doe not we make them the sole rule of our faith and is not that rule by your own Cardinals confession Bell. de verbo Deo l. 1. c. 2. Regula credendi certissima tutissimaque the most certaine and safest rule of faith And as touching the authority of the Church it is an Article of our Religion Art 20. That the Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies authoritie in controversies of faith and yet it is not lawfull for the Church to ordaine any thing that is contrarie to Gods word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another This Article shewes our obedience to the Scriptures it declares the authoritie of our Church and it vindicates our Ministers from perverting and misinterpreting of the Scriptures wherewith you charge us in the next place It is true say you Scripture you have indeed but mangled corrupted perverted by translation Here your charge is generall and your accusation capitall therefore you must give me leave for the better discoverie of the truth to send out a Melius inquirendum that your Translation and ours being compared in particulars the truth may better appeare First then
it cannot be denyed that the Protestants in all their Translations have a recourse still to the Originall of Hebrew and Greek which was inspired by the Holy Ghost and these they preferre before all Latine and Vulgar Translations whatsoever Bibl. Complut in Proefat on the other side your Translation as your Interpreters fancie hangeth betweene the Greek and Hebrew as Christ hung betweene two theeves Nay more your men esteeme the Vulgar Latine before the Originall Bell. de verbo Dei lib. 2. c. 11. Not saith Bellarmine that the rivers of Translations should be preferred before the fountaines of Hebrew and Greeke of the Prophets and Apostles but because the fountaine is muddie in many places which otherwise should runne cleare for without doubt as the Latine Church hath beene more constant in keeping the faith than the Greeke so likewise it hath beene more vigilant in preserving her bookes from corruption These Paradoxes doe open a gap to Atheisme for if the originall Scripture be corrupted what assurance what certaintie can wee have of true faith and religion and if wee doubt wee are condemned already Neither can it enter into my thoughts that profane Writers should bee preserved in their simple purenesse from their first ages and that their Translations should remaine in subjection to their copies from whence they are derived to be examined by them and yet the Watchman of Israel who neither slumbers nor sleepes for want of providence should suffer his sacred Word become a Tributarie to a Translation But by this the world may see the guiltinesse of a bad cause you will rather charge the word of God it selfe with corruption than faile to make good the corruptions of your owne Church Your learned Andradius condemnes them that preferred the Latine before the Hebrew of the Old Testament as pretending it was corrupted by the Jewes Andrad def fidei Trident. l. 4. It was very inconsiderately conceived saith he by some that there was more credit to bee given to the Latine Edition than to the Hebrew because the Latine ever remained entire uncorrupt in the Catholique Church and the Hebrew was falsified depraved by the perfidiousnesse of the Jewes And your owne Sixtus Senensis doth witnesse of the Greeke Text likewise Sixt. Senens Biblioth l. 7. that it is the same which was used in the dayes of S. Hierome and long before him in the Apostles times and is free from hereticall corruptions as by the continuall writings of the Greeke Fathers as namely Dionysius Justinus Irenaeus Melito Origen Affricanus Apolinarius Athanasius Eusebius Basil Chrysostome Theophylact doth most plainly appeare and yet your Gregory Martin and the Rhemists are not ashamed to professe that the Translation which they follow is not onely better then all other Latine but even than the Greeke Text it selfe Preface to the Rhem. Testam in those places where they disagree To examine your Translation in generall and so descend into the particulars of yours and ours First it is decreed by the Councell of Trent that amongst divers Translations then in use Concil Trid. Sess 4. Decretam de editione librorum the old and vulgar Translation should be declared to be authenticall in all publike Lectures Disputations Sermons and Expositions and that no man should dare or presume to reject it upon any pretext whatsoever What Translation was understood by the old vulgar was not expressed in the Councell It is pretended to be and is called at this day St. Hieromes Translation and which is remarkable the Translation was decreed but by 42. Bishops at the first beginning of the Councell From hence ariseth the first Quere which of St. Hieromes Translations your Church doth follow for St. Hierome confesseth that the first was corrupt and accordingly he did correct many things in his first Translation To this Objection your Cardinall makes this faire and free confession Bell. de verbo Dei l. 2. c. 9. Although Hierome did perceive some things fit to be changed and afterwards did change them yet the Church did adjudge the first translation for true and chose rather to keep that for the vulgar Edition And then he concludes Although the greatest part of the vulgar Translation be Hieromes yet it is not that pure Edition which he translated out of the Hebrew but in a manner mixt Habemus confitentem reum Now heare your owne Sixtus Senensis Albeit he pretends that the different readings in the Bible be no prejudice to the Faith Sixt. Senens Bibl. l. 8. p. 664. yet saith he wee ing enuously confesse that many errours were corrected by Hierome in the old Translation and likewise there are found in our new Editions some falsifications solecismes barbarismes and many things ambiguous not well expressed in the Latine some things changed other things omitted and the like Here both confesse that Hieromes first Translation was erroneous and the one saith that your Church hath chosen that which is not pure nor agreeable to the Hebrew the other confesseth it hath Barbarismes and untruths To speake ingeniously the Sunne never saw any thing more defective and maimed than the vulgar Latine Your Bishop Lyndan cryes aloud Lynd. de opt genere Interpret l. 3. c. 1 2 4.6 and protesteth it hath monstrous corruptions of all sorts scarce one coppie can be found that hath one booke of Scripture undefiled many points are translated so intricately and darkly some impertinently and abusively some not so fully nor so well and truly sundry places thrust out of their plaine and naturall sense the Translatour possibly was no Latinist but a smattering Grecian I proceed to the examination of more witnesses About forty yeares after Pope Paul the third had decreed the vulgar Latin in your Councel of Trent Sixtus Quintus by his Breve prefixed to his Bible gives us to understand that certaine Roman Catholikes were of such an humour of translating the Scripture into Latin Breve Sixti 5. that Sathan taking occasion by them though they thought no such matter did strive what he could out of uncertaine and great variety of Translation so to mingle all things that nothing might seeme to be left certaine and firme in them and thereupon hee takes occasion to publish a Latine Translation of his owne perusall and withall makes his Declaration of it in this manner We of our certaine knowledge and fulnesse of Apostolicall power Sixt. 5. in Bulla praefix Bibliis An. 1588. doe ordaine and declare that the Edition of the vulgar Bible of the Old and New Testament which was received by the Councell of Trent as authenticall without any doubt or Controversie is to be reputed or taken for this onely Edition which being as well as was possible reformed and printed in our Vatican our will and pleasure is and we doe decree it to be read throughout the whole Christian World in all Churches with this our determination and satisfaction for all men That first it was allowed
else doe you and your associates confesse that the contrary Tenets were taught and revived by the Ancients And as touching the name of Antichrist if that be appropriate to Heretikes it cannot touch the members of our Church for we make Christ and his Apostles the sole rule of our Faith On the other side if you consider the Pope either as he sits in the place of Christ as his Vicar Generall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is agâ—â—â—â— Christ in the place of Christ as his Vicar or as he and his adherents teach and uphold a doctrine against Christ for the word Antichrist imports both without doubt they beare the markes of Antichrist and consequently the word Heretike reflects upon your selves Cassander tells us there be some who make the Pope of Rome Almost a God Cassand de officio Pii viri preferring his authoritie not onely above the whole Church but above the sacred Scriptures holding his judgement equall to the divine Oracles and for an infallible rule of Faith I see no reason saith he but that these men should be called Pseudo-Catholikes or Papists Indeed I must confesse I much wonder that any Protestant should give you that honourable title of Catholike especially when you terme them by the name of Heretikes Those that have the marke of the Beast imprinted in their foreheads have borrowed both the Name and Nature from him and therefore your Cardinall tells us Bell. de Not. Eccles c. 4. The word Papist is derived from the Pope such as was Peter And more particularly your Gregory Martin and the Rhemists give you to understand Rhem. Annot. in Acts. 11.26 that to be a Papist is to bee a Christian man a childe of the Church and subject to Christs Vicar You that are so inquisitive after other mens pedigrees see if with all your Heraldrie you can make good your nominal descent from Christ and as you stile him Pope Peter Your Father Bristow Bristow Demand 8. as a knowne Antiquarie in this point gives your Father Bellarmine the lye for he avowes it for certaine that your name Papist was never heard of till the dayes of Pope Leo the Tenth and this was 1500. yeares after Christ and this opinion I am sure is most probable and more sutable to the Noveltie of your Religion But say you we Catholikes stile the Knight and the Reformers by the common name of Hereticks You told me formerly the title of Sir would be left for me now you have added to the title the name of Hereticke and you professe it is the worst word of all It seemes the worst word you have is good enough for me But I pardon you and I must let you know that the name of Catholike is as comely with the Professors of your new doctrine as a golden ring in a swines snout And as touching the name of Hereticke wherewith you charge me you rightly resemble Athalia 4 Kings 11. who when shee understood that Joas the right inheritour of the Crowne of Judah was proclaimed King ranne in her furie to the Temple and cryed out Treason Treason when the treason was not in King Joas but in herselfe that wrought it Your Alphonsus à Castro hath written a Booke against the Heretickes in all ages and in his Index haereticorum I have searched diligently and I finde the names of certaine Popes among them but mine owne name I doe not finde For I professe with St. Austin Errare possum haereticus esse nolo I may erre but I will not bee an Hereticke Shall I make my confession unto you I beleeve all things which are contained in the Scriptures and nothing contrary or besides them as matter of faith necessary to salvation Cum hoc credimus priuscredâ—mus nihil amplius credendum esse Tertul. Ibid. I beleeve the holy Catholicke Church This is an Article of my Faith and this I first received from the Apostles Creed Next I undoubtedly beleeve the Nicene Creed and this was called Catholicke by those holy Fathers to distinguish the Heretikes from the Orthodoxe Christians in the Primitive Church or according to your owne words Chap. 1. p. 2. appointed to be publikely professed by all such as meant to bee counted Catholikes Concil Trid. Sess 3. and for the same cause your Councell of Trent decreed it to be received as a Shield against Heresies and therefore by your owne confession the Councels decree and your Creed it selfe I am free from the name of Heretike Lastly I professe and beleeve Athanasius Creed and that Holy and ancient Father witnesseth of that confession Haec est fides Catholica This is the Catholike Faith If therefore I beleeve the Scriptures and Catholike Church which teacheth the true Faith If I beleeve the Articles of the Nicene Creed which distinguisheth the right Beleevers from the Heretikes If I receive Athanasius Creed which containes the summe and substance of all Catholike Faith and doctrine what remaines then why I should not be exempted from the name of Heretike unlesse I shall acknowledge with you the fourth Creed published by Pope Pius the fourth and consequently subscribe to new particular doctrines which as you confesse doth ever accompanie the nature of Heresie But the Reformers are Heretikes He that shall heare but the word Reformers in all probability will conceive that they were men which opposed some errors or heresies crept into the Church and for that cause desired a Reformation In the Churches of Corinth Galatia Pergamus and Thyatira there were some of the Sadduces opinion who denied the Resurrection others that joyned Circumcision and the workes of the Law with Christ and the worke of salvation The Apostles you know did reprove those errors in their dayes and no doubt many accordingly did reforme themselves Now will you condemne those reformed persons for Heretikes because they differed from the rest with an utter dislike of those errors which the seduced partie retained Surely this is the true state and condition of our Church and accordingly your Trent Fathers made a decree for Reformation in the Councell and pretended that it was summoned to redresse Heresies which were crept into the Church and will you say if they had redressed them the Reformers had beene Heretikes The Rogatian Heretikes would have made the world beleeve that they were the onely Catholikes and the Arrian Heretikes called the true Christians sometimes Ambrosians sometimes Athanasians sometimes Homoâ—sians And in this manner St. Paul himselfe was called before the Judges to make answer to matter of Heresie and according to this way which you call Heresie Acts 24. so worship we the God of our Fathers beleeving all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets They that so rashly pronounce and call every thing Heresie are often stricken with their owne dart Alph. de Heres l. 1. c. 7. saith your owne Alphonsus and fall into the same pit which themselves have digged for others Hee shewes therefore
order of Franciscans as witnessing the visibilitie of our Church above 300. yeares agoe you answer he was condemned for disobedience and rebellion for he said Pope John the 22. was an Apostata and an Hereticke and therefore not true Pope And in this manner you can easily resolve all doubts and reject all Authors that speake not Placentia according to your pallate onely say you St. Bede is a Catholicke Now if you please take a review of these Authors Cassander you know was a learned man he was highly favoured for his wisedome by two Emperours Maximilian and Ferdinand he was moderate in all his writings he sought to extenuate the palpable errors and heresies of your Church he indevoured to accord and if it had beene possible to reconcile the differences on both sides and lastly he lived and died in the communion of the Roman Church Cecenas was a Frier and Generall of the Order of Franciscans he was condemned de facto by the Pope but it doth not appeare quo jure by what right for if the accusation were true the Pope deserved the punishment and not the innocent Frier listen therefore to the rebellion and disobedience for which he was accused Cecenas shewes in particular that Pope John was a schismaticke and an heretike in his peremptorie opposition against the Word of God and the Catholicke Church Mich. de Cecena tractat contra errores Papae p. mihi 1314. 1336 in Tom. 2. Gul. Occham de Jurisdictione Imperiali Naucler Gener 45. Anno 1324. he charged him with twelve severall errors which you may reade at large in the place cited and for those and the like accusations he was excommunicated and deposed by the Pope I confesse the accusation was capitall but it was no other than was justly laid to his charge For Nauclerus saith Many great and famous Divines of great learning and good life proclaimed Pope John by the name of Pope to be an Hereticke for certaine errors Tepidè which errors notwithstanding it is said that he coldly revoked at the time of his death and hee addes withall that Pope Benedict his immediate successor openly condemned the same errors You see then it was not the Franciscan Frier onely but many Divines both good and learned did condemne him of Heresie and not they alone but the Pope himselfe who succeeded him publikely condemned him for an Hereticke And thus much touching Pope John the 21. called by some the 22. There was another Pope John by the name of 22. otherwise called 23. who was living one hundred yeares after he was chosen Pope at a Plat. in Joh. 24. Bononia by the consent of all the Cardinals Against this John it was specially objected at the Councel of Constance b Quinimo dixit pertinacitèr credidit animam hominis cum corpore humano mori extingui ad instar animalium brutorum Concil Constant That he obstinately held that the soule of man dieth together with the body and is consumed to nothing as the soule of brute beasts Neither did he hold this Tenet as a private man which is your generall Answer for Antoninus saith plainely Pope John held this error in the time of his Popedome c Johannes sermonē faciens in publico consistorio dixit quaedam haeresin sapientia Anton. part 3. tit 21. c. 6. and pronounced words savouring of heresie openly in the Consistorie Neither was this accusation of these men accounted rebellion and disobedience in them as it was in Ceaenas for saith Gerson d Falsitas doctrinae Papae Jobānis vicessimi quae dānata fuit cum sono buccinarum vel tubarum coram Rege Philippo per Theologos Parisienses Gers serm in Festo Paschae Tom. 4. pag. mihi 491. his false doctrine was condemned by the Divines of Paris and proclaimed with sound of trumpets in the presence of King Philip and withall the Councell it selfe deprived him of his Popedome which shewes plainly the authority of a Councell is above the Pope And to his deposition subscribed 4. Patriarkes 29. Cardinals 47. Archbishops 270. Bishops 564. Abbots and Doctors in all above 900. deposed both Benedict the 12. and John the 23. and yet these men are reputed by you for an infallible Rule of the Roman Faith And thus not onely Ceaenas was deposed for his disobedience towards an Hereticke and is now thrust into your first Classis of damned Authors but the whole Councell of Constance touching that Session where they decred the Councell to be above the Pope is rejected and disavowed by your Church It is no difficult thing then to prove your infallible Pope may bee an Hereticke but if any man of your owne Church shall say so and manifestly prove it yea although it be a generall Councell it must therefore be censured and condemned by your Church And this may briefly serve in answer to what you say against my second Section The third Section say you is of corruption both in Faith and manners Pag. 50. which the Knight proveth out of the Councell of Pisa and out of the Councell of Trent To which I answere For matter of manners wee willingly acknowledge a reformation to be needfull but for doctrine with the contradiction of his owne former lye hee telleth a new one It is a true saying of Chrysostome A lyar thinkes no man speakes the truth Qui mendax est neminen◠verum putat dicere Chrys in Matth. Hom. 19 But that the truth of my assertion may appeare looke upon the Letters of summons they declare that the Councell was called to reforme errors that concerned Faith they shew there was a due and wholesome reformation to be made aswell of the Church doctrine as of the manners of men for quieting the consciences of the faithfull And accordingly Pope Alexander did assemble the most learned of all Nations Idem dixit quod ipse volebat vacare circa Reformationem Ecclesiae c. Acta Concil Pis Sess 20. Bin. Tom. 3. Pars 2. p mihi 837. the Cardinals did binde themselves with an Assumpsit that they would not proceed to the election of a new Pope when his predecessors Gregorie the 12. and Benedict the 13. were deposed unlesse the Pope would agree to a reformation in the Head and Members and will you say the Pope did assemble the most learned of all Nations to teach good manners onely Cardinall de Aliaco was living in his dayes De squallor Rom. Eccles p. 34. in Biblioth Westmonasteriensi Gers declaratio defect virorū he complaines that Pagan abuses and diabolicall superstitions were so many in the Church that they could not be imagined Gerson Chancellor of Paris complained of particular errors that Images in Churches occasioned Idolatrie Apocryphall Scriptures were brought into the Church to the great damage of Christian Faith Occham compēdium contr errores Papae p. 957. Incipit Prologus Looke into the age before him Occham a Frier Minorite cries out Alas
the time of which the blessed Apostle prophesied when men will not suffer wholesome doctrine is altogether fulfilled in our eares For behold there are many that pervert the holy Scriptures deny the sayings of the holy Fathers reject the Canons of the Church and civill Constitutions of the Emperors Looke into the age before him Matth. Paris p. 843. Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne complaines that there was a defection a revolt an Apostasie from the true Faith Looke into Bernards time and there you shall finde by his owne confession Bernard in Cant. Serm. 33. p. mihi 673. The wound of the Church was inward and past recoverie These former complaints and grievances in the Church did sound aloud in the eares of the later ages and she made great mourning and lamentation for her children because they were not such as she first bred them and accordingly no doubt they wished for a reformation of errors in doctrine as well as Discipline in the Church Looke after Pope Alexanders time and before the Councell of Trent and your Bishop of Bitonto will shew you the state and miserable condition of your Church as it were in a Glasse In Ep. ad Roman c. 6. Alas saith he how were the Scriptures neglected in the later Ages to the detriment of all peple Rivet Sum. Controv. p. mihi 98. There was then in request a tedious and crabbed Divinitie about Relations about quiddities and formalities and all those things were handled and wrested with Syllogismes and humane Sophistrie which without doubt by the same authority as they were received might be refelled The whole Age was spent about the decrees of men which were contradictory amongst themselves and irreconcilable and nourished perpetuall contention He was accounted the best Divine that knew best how to devise the greatest wonders for his Traditions It was a part of their honour and vaine glory to speake bigge words with great lookes among women not to be understood when they disputed of the Scriptures The Preachers of the word were all sworne to the word of their Masters and from hence sprung sixe hundred Sects as namely Thomists Scotists Occhamists Alexandrians c. O heinous wickednesse The Gosspels and Epistles of the Apostles were laid aside true Divinitie lay hid and was handled of very few but coldly I will not say unfaithfully In what state the Church remained in those dayes when Papall Traditions and cunning Sophistry prevailed against the sacred Scriptures let the Reader judge Onus Ecclesiae c. 16. p. mihi 79 Your owne St. Francis foretold that the times were at hand wherein many differences should arise in the Church when charitie should waxe cold iniquity should abound and the Divell should be let loose and that the purity of his Roman Religion should be depraved and accordingly saith my Author the Image of the Crosse in the Church of St. Damian spake unto him Vade repara domum meam quae ut cernis tota labitur Goe and repaire my house which you see is altogether decayed Thus Bishops and Friers and Images stocks and stones cried out of the falling away of your Church if we may credit your owne Authors and yet by no meanes you will assent to a reformation of doctrine or manners At Luthers first rising which was almost 30. yeares before the Councell of Trent your Guicciardine tells us Guicciard Hist lib. 13. that there were that yeare many meetings at Rome to consult what was best to be done The more wise and moderate sort wished the Pope to reforme things apparently amisse and not to persecute Luther Hieronymus Savanarola told the French King Charles the 8. he should have great prosperitie in his voyage into Italie to the end hee should reforme the state of the Church which if he did not reforme he should returne with dishonour and so saith he it fell out I come to the Councell of Trent it selfe where you may reade many decrees for reformation and yet neither doctrine nor manners reformed But let us heare your owne confession It is true the Councell indeed complaineth with great reason of the avarice of such whom the Knight calleth the Popes Collectors though the Councell speaketh not of the Pope but false it is which he saith that the Councell complaineth of Indulgences an Article of faith as his words are The Councell likewise complaineth of many things crept into the celebration of the Masse and the words of the Councell are right cited by him in Latin in the Margent but in the English he foully corrupteth them For in stead of many things hee translated many errors which is a grosse errour and corruption in the Knight These be your grand exceptions to the grosse corruptions laid unto my charge but all this while you doe not discharge the accusations laid justly to your Church And in this I must needs say you play the Hypocrite who can discerne a mote in your Brothers eye and cannot see a beame in your owne First therfore cast the beame out of your own eye and then you shall easily disccrne without Spectacles that the Collectors of Indulgences are the Popes Collectors although the Pope is not mentioned in that place and Indulgences are an Article of Faith created by that Councell although the Councell proclaime it not an Article of Faith so that multa many things might well stand for many errors and corruptions since they were errors in practise Neither would I have set the Latin in the Margent if I had meant to corrupt them in English and withall if you had taken the last edition as you ought to have done you should have found them in another Character and then all your waste words of foule corruptions had beene needlesse But in this you resemble Palladius a lewd fellow who in like manner charged St. Hierome with falsifications and false translations He preacheth and publisheth abroad saith Hierome that I am a falsarie Hieron ad Pāmach de optimo genere interpret Tom. 2. that I have not precisely translated word for word that I in stead of the word Honourable have written these words Deerely beloved These things and such trifles saith he are laid unto my charge Now heare what Answer St. Hierome makes Whereas the Epistle it selfe declareth that there is no alteration made in the sense and that there is neither matter of substance added nor any doctrine devised by me verily by their great cunning they prove themselves fooles and seeking to reprove other mens unskilfulnesse they betray their owne Let us heare therefore the rest of your Things for so you will have me terme them which are crept into your Church and need a Reformation The Councell say you seemeth to acknowledge the avarice of Priests in saying Masse for mony was not farre from Symonie It speaketh of the use of Musicke wherewith some wantonnesse was mixed as also of certaine Masses or Candles used in certaine number proceeding rather from superstition than true
Religion This you confesse is true in your Councell but to these you answer nothing Concil Trid. Sess 22. Can. 9. You might have added to these abuses both Superstition and Idolatry in the Masse for your Councell confesseth them both and I thinke it toucheth your errors in Doctrine But have you reformed all or any of these things Is your superstitious number of Masses and lights in the Church abated Are your lascivious and wanton songs set to the Organs and mingled with other Church musicke redressed Is your covetousnesse in Priests with their Superstition and Idolatry in the Masse abolished Mirae mirae entis Res. Juvenal These corruptions are things and things as you call them and such as I wonder your Councell was not ashamed to confesse much more to tolerate or rather to practice in the daily sacrifice of your Masse I hasten to the Reformation in doctrine but you tell me it is a Lye the Councell never intended it I instance in private Masse Latin Service c. You answer it is most false for the doctrine is the same still and ever was I perceive your passion makes you much forget your selfe for your doctrine I confesse which is commonly received is the same now that was decreed in the Councell of Trent but that it was ever the same as now it is all the Colledge of Cardinals and Jesuits cannot prove Looke upon your owne confession in those two particular instances Your private Masse where the Priest communicates alone is not the same now as it was heretofore For say you it was the practise of the Primitive Church for the people to communicate every day with the Priest Spectacl pag. 191. Your Prayer in an unknowne tongue is not the same now as it was heretofore for say you Prayer and Service in the vulgar Tongue was used in the first and best Ages Pag. 271. and now the vulgar is become the Latin unknown tongue Take heed therefore of these confessions for by such palpable contradictions you may lose your Proselytes and bring the Lye upon your selfe Againe you confesse that the Councell wisheth that the standers by did communicate not onely spiritually Pag. 53. but also sacramentally and doth not your Church in this wish a reformation in doctrine Doth it not in this preferre the practice of the reformed Churches before their owne and in a manner confesse an error in the allowed practice of the Roman Church Your Councell commands Pastors that have care of soules to expound that to the people which is delivered in the Masse in an unknowne tongue and doe not those that require the Priests to expound it to the people shew likewise that without such exposition the people are little better for the Masse and that the Church intended the people should understand it What is this else but to joyne hands with the Protestants and to acknowledge a reformation needfull in your Church for requiring Service to bee celebrated in a knowne tongue that the people may understand it But that I may make good my assertion and that the Reader may know I have said nothing but the truth in affirming the Councell of Trent did make decrees for Reformation for doctrine as well as manners looke upon the second Session and tell me if they did not professe a reall intention in both Concil Trid. Sess 2. the words of the Session are these Whereas it is the speciall care and intention of the Councell that the darkenesle of Heresie being expelled which so many yeares hath covered the earth the light and parity of the Catholicke truth may shine through the helpe of Christ which is the true light and that those things which need reformation may be reformed the Synod exhorteth all Catholikes assembled or to be assembled and especially those who are skilful in the sacred Scriptures that with continuall meditation they may diligently consider with themselves how these things may bee effected that they may condemne those things which are to be condemned and approve those things which are to be approved that the whole world with one mouth and confession of one and the same faith may glorifie God the Faiher and our Lord Jesus Christ Take a review of the words of your Councell First Praecipua cura intentio ut propulsatis errorum tenebris quae per tot annos operiarunt terram the chiefe care to dispell the darkenesse of errour which covered the earth which words cannot be meant of the Protestant doctrine For our light is pretended by you to be lately come in and but in a part or corner of the world Secondly peritiam habeant sacrarum literarum ut sedulâ meditatione secum ipsi cogitent c. ut probare probanda damnare damnanda queant There needed not this diligence and skill in Scriptures for Luthers Religion for they were condemned before by the Pope Thirdly Nullus debeat c. obstinatis disceptationibus contendere which should not be about Lutheran points but about doctrines of their owne Fourthly in the third Section de extirpandis haeresibus c. which say they is adversus spirituales nequitias in caelestibus which heavenly places are meant by their owne Church not by Luthers as is most evident For they would never acknowledge our Churches heavenly places Now I pray what thinke you of your Councels Decrees Will not they extend to a Reformation in doctrine or will you say that Heresies in manners crept into the Church and the most learned in the Scriptures were chiefly to be imployed for reforming them that thereby there might be one Faith of Papists and Protestants through the Christian world De extirpandis haeresibus moribus reformandis quorum causa praecipue est congregata Sess 3. Looke upon the third Session and there likewise you shall finde a Decree for rooting out of Heresies in doctrine aswell as rectifying of manners and the discipline of the Church and for both those causes saith your Decree the Councell was principally called It is a most evident truth then howsoever you redouble the lie upon me that the Councell did intend a Reformation in doctrine for otherwise to what end should the Pope summon all Christian Bishops out of all Nations even at that time when the Protestants were in number infinite and had discovered and proclaimed the errors of the Roman Church Besides to what purpose were those disputes and oppositions in the Councell against particular points of Doctrine if they had not beene adjudged erroneous and needed a reformation But herein the Reader shall easily discerne the policie of your Church At the first calling of the Councell when these first Sessions were made the number of Bishops were but few about 40. but after the faction of the Popes creatures in multitude prevailed all hope of reformation was abandoned And thereupon the Bishops of Apulia publikely declared that the Trent Fathers were nothing else but the Popes creatures and his bondslaves See
may your Proselytes beleeve you another time when you say Wee alwaies translate it or rather falsifie it into Ordinances For a conclusion of this Section you say that the three Creeds the two Sacraments the foure Generall Councels the two and twenty books of Canonicall Scripture We had them from you Let it be your comfort then that you had something in your Church which was worth the gleaning after the devill had sowed the Tares amongst the good Corne. But I would not have you overmuch confident of that neither for originally wee had them from the Church Catholike before there was a Roman For the Gospell was preached in England before it was in Rome and we had in England a Christian Church and King before Rome had a Christian Emperor yea long before Poperie or the name of Pope was heard of in the Christian world in the sense you now take it And in after Ages when the Gospell of Christ was rooted out by Heathen persecutors where it was first planted it was afterwards replanted by Preachers partly sent from Rome partly by the Greeke Church but by neither was the Faith preached and restored which your present Church now teacheth and maintaineth at this day And lastly if wee had the three Creeds the two Sacraments the 22. bookes of Canonicall Scripture and the first foure Generall Councels from you then you cannot deny that we teach the Ancient Faith first given to the Saints and that we had a Church visible long before Luthers dayes for those Tenents were sufficient of themselves to make a glorious and a visible Church in the first and best ages they were received by succeeding Christians in all the later Ages and are now become the Positive and Affirmative Articles of our Beleefe which for the greater part were ever taught and received in the bosom of your owne Church To shut up all your bitter Aspersions of Corrupting of Falsifying of Lying of Lynding and I know not what reproches cast upon me in these first 8 Sections I will shut up all I say which hitherto hath beene delivered by you with that answer of Socrates to his accusers before the Judges Plato in Apologia Socratis My Lords saith hee in what sort your affections have been stirred with mine accusers eloquence which you heard them speake I cannot tell But well I wot for mine owne part I my selfe whom it toucheth most was almost perswaded to beleeve that what they said was true yea although it were against my selfe so handsomly they can tell their tale and so likely and so smoothly they convey their maters every word they spake had appearance of Truth and yet in good sooth they have scarsely uttered one word of Truth The Titles of the severall Chapters and Sections in the ensuing Treatise Chap. 9. Alphab 1. Sect. 1. Of Iustification by Faith onely Pag. 2. d Sect. 2. Of Transubstantiation Pag. 12. Sect. 3. Of Private Masses pag. 42. Sect. 4. Of the seven Sacraments pa. 69 Sect. 5. Of Communion in both kinds pa. 127 Sect. 6. Of Prayer in an unknowne tongue pa. 145 Sect. 7. Of the Worship of Images pa. 176 Sect. 8. Of Indulgences Alphab 2. pag. 8. Chap. 10. Of the certaintie of the Protestant and uncertaintie of the Romish Faith pag. 44 Chap. 11. Of the greater safetie and comfort in the Protestant Faith then in the Romish pa. 68 Chap. 12. Of respect due to the Ancient Fathers pa. 84 Chap. 13. Of razing Records and clipping Authours tongues by the Roman Indices Expurgatory pa. 92 Chap. 14. Of the perfection and perspicuitie of Scripture and our Adversaries blasphemous Exceptions against it pa. 104 Chap 15. Concerning Bellarmine his subscription to Protestant Doctr in the main point of Iustification pa. 122 Chap. 16. Of Martyrs and particularly that the primitive Martyrs were not Papists pa. 128 Chap. 17. Concerning the Protestants charitable opinion of Papists pag. 137. And in what sense some affirme the Romane a true Church pag. 148 Chap. 18. Concerning the Confession on all sides for the Safetie of the Protestant Religion pa. 154 A Sermon preached at the Funerall of the Right Worshipfull Sir Humphrey Lynde at Cobham in Surrey p. 171 Errata in the second Part. PAge 5. lin 7. reade authors in marg l. 15. reade gloriamur p. 17 l 8. r. eat ye p. 22. l. 8. in mar r. fieri p. 40 l. 1. dele of p. 98. l. 28. in marg r. alleviationem p. 109. l. 2. in mar r. de pecc mer. p. 148. l. 10. r. at the first in p. 151. l. 9. r. Of. p. 191. l. 12. in mar r. perhibeat p. 202. l. 12. dele visible p. 203. l. 6. r. Miracles l. 14. wonders shew p. 218. l. 6. dele the. Alphab 2. pag. 39. l 12. in mar r. hic p. 51. l. 5. add hee p. 58. l. 16 r. et l. 26. r. her p. 62. l. 19. r. Of. p. 92. l. 8. r. Caietans p. 134. lin 5. r. the. Errata in the Sermon Pag. 181. l. 12. in mar r. vertit p. 184. l. 14 in mar r. Condemnant p. 191. l. 1. r. menacing p. 192. l. 35. in mar r. illaqueet l. 36. oblectet p. 195. l. 27. r. conseruare p. 202. l. 8. in marg r. puteum p. 204. l. 16. in mar r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 17. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pa. 211. l. 6. in mar r. volentibus l. ult r. his p. 212 l. 3. r. dores l. 8. in marg r. Christo pa. 214. l. 7. in marg r. obdâ—citur l. 11. in mar r. Epitaphii l. 14. in mar r. laâ—rymis implentur CONCERNING IVSTIFICATION BY FAITH ONLY Spectacles Chap. 9. Sect. 1. THE Knight faileth in the proofe of his first point of Iustification producing but one only place out of a booke intituled Ordo baptizandi visitandi and that of no speciall good anthoritie as hee alledgeth it out of Cassander and Author placed in the first Classis in the first index librorum prohibitorum and even in that which he alledgeth there is nothing that doth not very well stand being rightly under stood with the Catholique faith which wee now professe L. 1. de Iustific c. 7. prop 3. for there is nothing but that which was shewed before out of Bellarmine to wit that in regard of the uncertaintie of our owne justice that is whether wee bee just or no and for the perill of vaine-glory it is most safe to put our whole confidence in the sole mercy and benignitie of God Which word sole doth import confidence in that and in nothing else with which it may stand very well that men in the favour and grace of God may doe workes meritorious of encrease of grace and glory which is the controversie betweene us and heretiques The Hammer AS David cut off Goliahs head with his owne Sword a Eras Apoph Laconum and Brasidas ranne through his Antagonist with his owne Speare and Iustine Martyr refuteth the Philosophers out
alledged by the Knight saith not that there are no more then foure Sacraments but on the contrarie concludes Par. 4. q 5. n. 7. art 2. that there bee neither more nor fewer then seven Sacraments t is true indeed that Hales was of opinion that the forme and matter which wee now use in the Sacrament of confirmation were not appointed by our Saviour but by the Church in the Councell at Melda but this Hales saith sine praejudicio that is with leave not stifly nor arrogantly maintaining his owne opinion Hugo de Sancto victore excludeth not Penance from being a Sacrament For in his 23. chapter hee calleth Penance the second board after shipwrack C. 12. Septem sunt principalia ecclesiae sacramenta c. and saith that if any man endanger his cleansing which he hath received by Baptisme he may arise and scape by Penance Moreover the same Hugo in his Glasse of the mysteries of the Church saith that there are seven prinoipall Sacraments of the Church whereof five are called generall because they belong unto all to wit Baptisme Confirmation Eucharist Penance Extreame vnction and two speciall to wit Matrimonie and Order Although Bellarmine denieth that Extreame Vnction can be deduced out of the last of S. Marke and Cajetan out of the first of S. Iames and although Hugo and Peter Lomberd and Bonaventure and Alenfis and Altisiodorensis denie it to bee instituted by Christ yet none of them all denie it to be a Sacrament Bessarion the Cardinall saith not that there are but two Sacraments for he was a great man in the Councell of Florence wherein seven Sacraments are precisely taught but that we find these two Sacraments expresly delivered and that wee find none other and none of the rest so delivered that is so plainly Soto though he denieth that ordination of Bishops is truly and properly a Sacrament yet hee denieth not the Sacrament of order in the Church Durand saith indeed that Matrimonie is not ae Sacrament univocally agreeing with the other six but all acknowledge it to bee an errour in him and Divines of his owne time did note it for such though the matter then were not so clearely defined Cajetan saith indeed that the prudent reader cannot inferre out of the words of S. Paul Ephes 5. hoc est magnum Sacramentum that Matrimonie is a Sacrament yet hee denieth it not to bee a Sacrament For though it bee not inferred from that place Locor Theol. l. 8. c. 1. si Lutheram de hoc matrimoniorum genere disceptare voluerint intelligant se in scholae disceptationem incidisse necoportere catholicum ad eorum argumenta respondere sin verò argumententur matrimonium cum sacris ceremonijs administratum Sacramentum ecclesiae non esse tunc catholicus respondeat fidenter securè contra pugnet it may be inferred from oiher or if neither from that nor other yet it may bee deduced out of tradition Canus telleth us that the Divines speake so uncertainly of the matter and forme of Matrimonie that hee should bee accounted an unwise man who in so great differences of opinion would take upon him to establish any thing certainly yet hee denieth not Matrimonie to be a Sacrament For these are his words if the Lutherans argue that Mariage administred with sacred Ceremonies sacred matter sacred forme and by a sacred Minister as it hath ever beene administred in the Roman Church even from the Apostles time if I say they argue that this is not a Sacrament of the Church then let a Catholique answer confidently let bim defend stoutly let him gainsay securely Vasquez doth not say that Matrimonie is not a Sacrament properly so taken but that S. Austine speaking of Matrimonie doth use the word Sacrament but in a large sense This is true but it is but Vasquez his private and singular opinion not in a point of faith but only in the meaning of one Father in the use of a word and in this his opinion he is contradicted by other Catholique Divines Bellarmine saith that the Sacraments signifie three things De Sacram. in Gen. l. 1. c. 9. one thing past to wit the Passion of Christ another thing present to wit sanctifying grace which they worke in our soules another thing to come to wit eteruall life The signification of these three things is most apparant in Baptisme and the Eucharist but not so apparant in the rest Thus farre the Knight quoteth Bellarmine but leaveth out that which followeth tamen certum est implicitè illa omnia significari but it is certaine that the rest of the Sacraments signifie all these things at least implicitly The Hammer ALthough the Iesuit was very angrie when hee wrote this Paragraph as appeareth by his snarling at every passage almost yet in his discretion hee thought good not to meddle with some things which were too hard for his teeth To Theophylact Fulbert and Paschasius and the last passage out of S. Austine as also to the refutation of the popish arguments for their septenarie number of Sacraments from incongruous and ridiculous congruities hee replieth not a word and three of their prime Schoole-men Durand Vasques and Cajetan hee lets shift for themselves defend them he neither will nor can yet for all this hee puts up as if hee had done wonders in this Paragraph and filleth up the defect of solid answers with bragges and swelling words of vanitie Bullatis vndique nugis pagina turgescit But these bubbles wee shall see will dissolve of themselves in the particular answer to his twentie severall exceptions against the Knights discourse To the first The Iesuit in this Paragraph thinketh that hee discourseth very profoundly for page 201. he saith the Knight is not capable of it whereas his chanel here is so shallow that any child instructed in his Catechisme may wade thorow it Without an infallible rule saith he there can be no certaine beliefe in God An extreame veritie without an unerring Pope no certaine rule of faith an extreame falsitie the Iesait cannot see Christ for the Pope nor the Scripture for the Trent Canons Let him remove them out of the way and if hee have an eye of faith hee may clearly see both and in them an infallible rule of faith and certaine meanes to learne true beliefe in God The occasion of this discourse of the Iesuit was the Knight charging Cardinall Bellarmine for laying a foundation of Atheisme in saying that if we should take away the credit of the Roman Church and Councell of Trent the Christian faith it selfe might bee called in question The charge lieth heavie upon the Cardinall For to disparage the selfe-sufficiencie of the holy Scriptures and suspend our Christian faith upon the Decrees of a late factious conventicle rejected by the greater part of the Christian world is a ready way to overthrow all Divine faith and true religion Yet the Iesuit seeketh to cover the nakednesse of the Cardinall with these fig leaves If
are they not as much as an outward element Yes surely as much in quantitie and more too Bell. l. 1. de matrim c. 6. Si matrimonium consideretur Vt jam factum celebratum conjugati sunt materiale Synbolum externū cujus re fut at vid. apud Chamierum Panistrat Cathol de sacr l. 4 c. 27. but none ever before this Iesuit and his Master Bellarmine maketh mens bodies outward elements in any Sacrament the bodies of men and their soules are either the Ministers or receivers in every Sacrament not the elements or materiall parts thereof The element in every Sacrament hath the denomination of the whole as when wee say the sacrament of Circumcision of the Passeover of bread and wine but who ever heard of the sacrament of men and womens bodies Our third exception against the sacrament of Matrimonie is that if it bee a sacrament conferring grace as they teach ex opere operato why doe they deprive Priests of it and make them take a solemne vow against it The Iesuit answereth that though Mariagebee a holy thing as Order also is yet as Order is forbidden to all women so upon good reason Mariage is forbidden all Priests T is true I grant that all holy things in themselves are not fit for all ages sexes and callings In particular it is no way fit that women should be admitted into holy Orders because they are forbidden to speake in the Church 1 Cor. 14.34 and it seemeth to bee against the law of nature that the weaker and more ignoble sex should be appointed to instruct and governe the stronger and more noble but there is not the like reason in Order and Matrimonie Heb. 13.4 For the Scripture saith Mariage is honourable among all but not that the order of Priesthood is commendable in all men Much lesse women yet the Iesuit saith that upon good reason Mariage is forbidden Priests because it is not agreeable to the high and holy estate of Priesthood and religious life A strange thing that a sacrament should not bee agreeable to the most sacred function that a holy Rite conferring grace should not bee agreeable to a religious life If Marriage were any disparagement to the holinesse of priesthood why did God appoint married Priests under the law and Christ chose married Apostles in the Gospel Eusebius saith of Spiridion that though hee were married and brought up children Sozom. Eccles hist l. 1. c. 11. Chrys in Gen. 5.22 vet that hee was nothing thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hindered or disparaged in his sacred function and S. Chrysostome in his Homilie upon those words Enoch walked with God noteth it that it is said twice for failing Enoch walked with God and begat sonnes and daughters to teach us that marriage is no impeachment to holinesse or the highest degree of perfection whereby wee are said to walke with God To shut up this point concerning Matrimonie Cardinal Bellarmine teacheth us that the seven Sacraments anwer seven Vertues Baptisme answereth to Faith Confirmation to Hope the Eucharist to Charitie Penance to Iustice Extreame Vnction to Fortitude and Matrimonie to continence or temperance if so then certainly Matrimonie is most agreeable to the office of a Bishop or Priest 1 Tim. 3.2 For a Bishop must hee continent and modest and as it there followeth the husband of one wife and unlesse the rules of Logick faile if Matrimonie hold correspondencie with temperance the prohibition thereof and forced single life must needs answer to intemperance as the testimonie of all ages proveth it For Extreame Vnction the lagge of all their Sacraments little or nothing can bee said For it wanteth all the three conditions requisite to a Sacrament it hath neither element nor forme of words prescribed by Christ nor any promise of saving sanctifying grace The Apostles indeed used oile but as a medicine to heale the body not as a sacrament to cure the soule As the Apostles used oyle so Christ spittle in restoring sight to the blind will they hereupon make spittle an eighth sacrnment Sacraments ought to be of perpetual use in the Church whereas the Unction whereof the Scripture speaketh wherby the sick were miraculously cured is ceased long agoe if the Iesuit will not give eare to us let him yet yeeld so much respect to Cardinall Cajetan as to peruse what he commenteth on that text of Scripture on which the Church of Rome foundeth this Sacrament Is any sick among you Iames 5.14.15 let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him anoynting him with oyle in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if hee have committed sins they shall bee forgiven him Cajet com in hunc locum neque ex verbīs neque ex effectu verba baec loquuntur de Sacramentali Vnctione seu sacramento Extremae Vnctionis sed magis de Vnctione quam instituit Dominus Iesus in Evangelio à discipulis exercendâ in aegrot is textus enim non dicit infirmatur quis ad mortem sed absolutè infirmatur quis effectum dicit infirmi allemiationem de remissione peccatorum non nisi conditionaliter loquitur cum extrema Vnctio non nisi propè articulum mortis detur directè ut ejus-forms sonat tendit ad remissionem peccatorum adde quod Iacobus ad unum aegrum mult os praesbyteros tum orantes tum Vnguentes mandat vocari quod ab Extremae Vnction is ritu alienumest On these words thus Cajetan inferreth it cannot bee gathered either from the words nor from the effect here mentioned that the Apostle speaketh of sacramentall or Ex. treame Vnction but rather of that anoynting which Christ appointed in the Gospell to bee used in healing the sick for the Text saith not is any man sick unto death but simply is any man sick and the effect hee attributeth to this anoynting is the ease or raising of the sick of remission of sinnes he speaks but conditionally where as Extreame Vnction is given to none but at the point of death and directly tendeth to remission of sinnes as the forme importeth Adde hereunto that S. Iames commandeth many Elders to be sent for both to pray and anoynt the sick which is not done in Extreame Vnction To the sixt The Knight having shot two arrowes out of S. Austines quiver the one with a head the other without yet sharpe pointed the Iesuit quite concealeth the one and endeavours to blunt the other The former hee drew out of S. Austine his treatise de symbole ad catechumenos where speaking of Baptisme and the Lords Supper he saith haec sunt Ecclesiae gemina Sacramenta these are the two twin Sacraments of the Church De latere in cruce pendentis lanceâ percusso sacramenta Ecclesiae profluxerunt to this the Iesuit answereth negry quidem To the other taken out of the 15. tract
Spiridion that famous Bishop of Cyprus Eccles Hist l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they lived in wedlocke and had many children without any disparagement at all to their Sacred function As the Rod of Aaron in these brought forth fruit in Holy Matrimony so it budded also in others in our Church who followed virginall chastity and lead a single life as Iewell Reinolds Andrewes Lakes and many other reverend Prelates and Doctors who for eminent learning and examplary life may compare with any of the Romish Mitred Prelates or late Canonized Saints Neither can they pretend that any Eve gave these an Apple whereby their eyes were opened but on the contrary we can produce many a Lucretia who have given Apples to their Popes Lucretia nomine sed re Thais Alexandri filia sponsa nurus whereby their eyes have beene blinded and their reputation for ever blasted See Picus Mirandula his oration extant in Fasciculus rerum expetendum fugiendum and Mantuan his Poem Sanctus ager scurris venerabilis ara cinaedis Servit honorandae Divûm Ganymedibus aedes As for Olivereus Manareus his Legend of Buxhorne if the Reader will be pleased to peruse an apologie for this Buxhorne written to the Chancellor of Lovan wherein the true cause is related for which this licentiate Divine abandoned the Papacy he shall finde in that treatise printed in the yeare of our Lord 1625 a Rowland for his Oliver or Oliverius Manareus the Iesuit to whose relation as much credit is to be given as to Cocleus his History of Luther and Bolsecs of Calvin The Devill the grand Calumniator hath suborned in all ages men of prostituted consciences and corrupt mindes and mouthes to staine with their impure breath the golden and the silver vessells of the Sanctuarie but Illi linguarum nos aurium dominsumus their tongues are their owne they may speake what malice dictateth our eares are our owne and we will hearken unto and assent onely to what truth confirmeth As for their Lutheran baits he mentioneth aurum gloria dilitiae veneres gold glory delights and Venus if these things abound any where it is in the Roman Church where the Pope who pretends himselfe to be the successor of Peter the fisher fisheth with a golden hooke and baits it with fleshly lusts what so pompeous and glorious as his Holinesse triple Crowne and his Cardinals Hats and his Bishops Miters and Croziours for what sence hath not the Romish Religion baits for the eyes they have gawdie shewes for the eares most melodious musicke for the smell sweetest incense and perfumes for the taste feasts without number for the touch whole streets of Curtezans not onely in Rome it selfe but in all the Popes Townes which are commonly knowne by this fowle Cognizance Concerning our adversaries their blasphemous exceptions against the Scripture Spectacles Chap. 14. à page 447. usque ad 463. THough Catholikes hold for most certaine that the Scripture is not the sole rule of faith nor that out of it alone all controversies can be decided as for example in particular which bookes be Canonicall Scripture which not yet for most things now a dayes in controversie many Catholikes have offered to trie the matter onely by Scripture Though Catholikes ground many points upon tradition and practice of the Church yet they ground others upon plaine and expresse authority of Scripture from which Protestants are faine to flie running to this or that corner of I know not what figurative or tropicall interpretation Though the Pope question not much lesse condemne Scriptures of obscurity and insufficiency yet his Apostles and Evangelists have left some things in writing of which some are hard even by the judgment of Scripture it selfe for so saith Saint Peter of the Epistle of Saint Paul which saith he the unlearned and unconstant doe abuse as they doe other Scriptures to their owne perdition If any condemne the Scripture of insufficiency it is St. John in saying that all things are not written and St. Paul in willing the Thessalonians to hold the traditions which they had learned whether by speech or letter Whereas the Knight chargeth us with ranking the Bible in the first place of prohibited bookes wee say it is false for it is not in the Catalogue of such bookes onely in the rules which concernes the Index there is mentioned how the free use of vulgar translations is not to be permitted but for the Latine vulgar translation there is no manner of restraint though if there had beene we might very well have warranted it by the authority of St. Jerome who did no way admit such free use even of the Latine Bibles It is no such crime to forbid the reading of Scripture to some sort of people as may appeare by the testimony of this holy Father who in the same place saith moreover that the beginning of Genesis and the beginning and end of Ezekiel were not to be read by the Iewes till they came to thirties yeare of age A kinde of forbidding of reading the Scripture is no derogation but a great commendation of it for they are forbidden to be read out of reverence and honour due unto them and in regard of the danger which may come by them not of themselves but in regard of the weakenesse of the Reader for want of necessary learning and humility For Cornelius Agrippa it maketh no more matter what he saith then what the Knight saith for it is but aske my brother if I be a theefe Not to answer the places objected by the Knight out of Lindan Lessius Turrian and Pighius I say in generall that those things are spoken not of the Scripture as it is in it selfe that is consisting of both words and meaning but of bare words and letters only which Haeretikes still do and ever have abused as the Devill himselfe did to our Saviour and in this sense it is a wood of theeves Our Authors say no more then St. Jerome doth in effect Marcion Basilides and other plagues of Haeretikes have not the Gospell of God Comment in 1. ad Gal. because they have not the Holy Ghost without whom it becommeth the Gospell of man which is taught nor let us thinke that the Gospell consisteth in the words of Scripture but in the sense not in the superficies or barke but in the pith not in the leaves of speech but in the roote of reason so that if the Knight will say any more of this matter he must undertake the quarrell against St. Ierome Lessius in particular whom the Knight most up braideth to us is farre from saying that the Scripture is uncertaine in it selfe that is that the doctrine thereof is doubtfull but onely that our rule will be uncertaine or rather wee uncertaine of the rule because wee cannot know the Scripture by it selfe It is not all one to say that Scripture alone is no sufficient Rule and to say it is imperfect For although the Knight imagineth that the
Faith or at least send their children to the Donatists to be baptized L. 1. De baptis cont Donat c. 3. Esse vero apud Donatistas baptismum illi asserunt nos concedimus because both parties granted that there was true Baptisme among the Donatists whereas the Donatists denied that there was any true Baptisme among the Catholikes or this the Indian Priests teach that it is unlawfull to take bread from the hand of a Christian the Christians teach that it is lawfull to take bread from an Indian therefore it is safer to take bread from an Indian then from a Christian or have fellowship with an Infidell Indian then with a charitable Christian because a Christian hath a better opinion of the Infidell then the Infidell hath of him as Protestants have a more charitable opinion of Papists then Papists have of them When the Iesuit is sober let him thinke how to give an answer to Bishop Morton his instance whereby he sheweth the invalidity of this mad argument of Iesuits A mad man thinketh other men to be beasts a sober man confesseth that a mad man is a man and no beast is a mad man therefore in the right or in the better case then the sober man because the sober man judgeth better of the mad man then the mad man doth of the sober Concerning the confession of all sides for the safety of the Protestant Religion Spectacles Chapter 18. Ã page 509. usque ad finem THAT the ground of safety which the Knight thinketh he taketh from Catholikes is foolish impertinent and without sense as he setteth it downe for thus he saith it is the safer way to persist in that Church where both sides agree that salvation may be had then where one part standeth single by themselves in opinion for I would know what Church is that wherein there be two sides to agree or disagree or what Church that is that doth not stand single in opinion by it selfe if it be a Church of a different faith as we speake here of a Church A Church must have unity it being a company of men all professing the same faith and Religion therefore it is plaine there is no sense in this principle of his I would aske him whether the Protestants doe not stand single as well as we by affirming of what we deny or denying what we affirme or rather whether he and his Church be not so much more single then we as they have not one on their sides for every million which we have or have had on ours By the Knights argument a man may prove any haeresie that ever was nay Iudiasme and Turcisme to be a safer way then the Catholike or even the Knights Protestant faith for Arius may say he agreeth with us Catholikes in all things save onely in the Divinity of the second Person of Trinity whom he acknowledgeth with us to be an Holy Man and that we stand single by our selves in the assertion of his Divinity Macedonius may say the same of the Holy-Ghost Nestorius of the plurality of persons in Christ Eutyches of the singularity of Natures Sergius Pyrrus and the Monothâ—lites of the unity of will in Christ Ebion Cerinthus Marcion and almost all haeretikes in their severall haeresies may say as the Knight doth of the points controverted that we stand single by our selves in them and so it is the safer way to beleeve onely that wherin they and wee agree nay the Iewes may make the same argument thus That they agree with us that there is one God Creatour of heaven and earth and that the old Testament is Canonicall Scripture for the rest wee stand single and the Turke may say that hee agreeth with us that Christ was an holy man and a Prophet for the rest wee stand single and therefore hee is in the safer way What can the Knight say for defence of his Argument For though Iewes and Turkes doe not agree with us in the profession of the Christian Faith yet I see not why that should be necessary by the Knights Argument and thereby a man may see what a good guide he is and how safe a way he goeth and whether the saying of Salomon be not truly verified of his Safe Way Prov. 14.12 There is a way which seemeth to a man straight and the end of it leadeth to death and consequently to hell for what other is the end of Heresie Judaisme and Turcisme whereto the Knights rule doth leade all such as will be ruled thereby The Hammer SEmper ego auditor tantum nunquam ne reponane Hitherto the Knight held up his Buckler and stood upon his owne defence but here hee setteth upon his Adversarie closeth with him wresteth his owne Sword out of his hand and therewith giveth him as many wounds as Iulius Caesar received in the Senate For besides the 12 Articles of Pope Pius the fourth his Creed in all which the Papists stand single hee inffanceth in eleven points more wherein the Papists agree with us in our affirmative positions but they alone maintaine their affirmative addition wherupon hee condemneth the Iesuit as Christ doth the Evill Servant in the Gospell out of his owne mouth thus That Religion is lesse safe in which the Professours stands single than that in which the parties other wayes dissident agree But in all or most of the affirmative points of Popish Religion they stand single but in all such positive points of the reformed Faith not only Papists but in a manner all Christians of the world concurre with us Therefore the Popish Religion by the Iesuits owne rule is lesse safe To illustrate this by a few instances the positive points of our Doctrine are chiefly these 1. That the three Creeds the Apostles the Nicene and that of Athanasius are to be received upon paine of damnation 2. That religious worship is due to God 3. That God is to be called upon 4. That Christ is head of the Church 5. That hee is our Mediatour and Advocate 6. That hee was conceived without sinne 7. That wee are saved by his merits and satisfaction 8. That the Scripture is a rule of Faith 9. That there are two and twenty Canonicall Bookes of the old Testament 10. That the originals in the Greek and Hebrew are authenticall 11. That there are two Sacraments of the new Testament Baptisme and the Lords Supper 12. That Children of the Faithfull are to bee christened 13. That in Baptisme water is necessarily to be used 14. That Christ is truly present at his Supper and that the worthy Receiver is by faith made spiritually partaker of the true and reall body and blood of Christ 15. That the Sacrament may be administred in both kinds 16. That the Images of Christ and his Saints may serve for Ornaments and Memorials and that there is a lawfull historicall use of them 17. That Peter had a Primacie of Order among the Apostles 18. That there are two places for soules departed
The Ancient DOCTRINE OF THE Church of England Maintained in its Primitive Purity CONTAINING A Justification of the XXXIX ARTICLES of the Church of ENGLAND against Papists and Schismaticks The Similitude and Harmony betwixt the Romane Catholick and the Heretick with a Discovery of their Abuses of the Fathers in the First XVI Ages and the many Heresies introduced by the Roman Church Together with a Vindication of the Antiquity and Universality of the Ancient Protestant Faith Written long since by that Eminent and Learned Divine DANIEL FEATLY D. D. Seasonable for these Times Leo Mag. Ser. 1. de Epiph. Insanis veritas scandalum est caecis Doctoribus fit Caligo quod lumen est LONDON Printed for Austin Rice and are to be sold at the Crown in Saint Pauls Church-yard 1660. TO THE RIGHT Reverend Father in God THOMAS By Divine Providence Lord B. of DURESME c. May it please your good Lordship AFTER I had taken a resolution to apologize for my departed friend and make a kind of hedge to his Via tuta I seriously bethought my selfe who would maimtaine the fence by one so made and patronize this patronage of that his worthy worke For though the cause in hand be the truth of God and the person whom I undertake to defend against the Calumniations of his Adversarie be now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the eye of (a) Horat. Od. 14. l. 3. Sublatum ex oculis quaerimus invidi Ovid. l. 3. De Pont Pascitur in vivis livor post fata quiescit Et Iuvenal Sat. 1. Nulli gravus est percussus Achilles aut multum quaesitus Hylas envie and the reach of malice yet I well know that neither the consideration of the one nor regard to the other will prove any Amulet against the poyson of the (b) Aristoph in Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est annulis medicinalis aut antidotus Sycophants tooth or venom of the Detracters tongue Death I grant which sets a period to all suits in Courts should grant a Supersedeas of Course against all Arrests and molestations of them who have taken Sanctuarie in the grave and therefore (c) Brusonius facet et exemp l. 1. Solon legem condidit quâ prohibuit in defunctos maledicta consicere Et Theodorus Chius censuit Pompeium in aegypt admittendum addens Mortuos non mordere Erosm Apoph p. 374. Selon enacted a Law whereby under a great penaltie he prohibited any to cast any foule aspersion on the dead And (d) Bruson ibid Asinius Pollio cum orationes condidisset in Plancum quas post mortem ejus legendas serâ—abat audlit à Planco cum mortuus non nisi larvas puguare Plancus sharply reproved the folly of Asinius Pollio who threatned to stigmatize him after his death by publishing his declamations against him saying None but Hobgoblins fight with ghosts Notwithstanding this privilege granted to the dead even by the Law of Nature I cannot remember without horrour nor expresse without griefe what the Acts and Monuments of the Church present to the view of all men concerning Popish malice surviving life it selfe and committing inhumane not onely unchristian outrages on the corpes and not lesse upon the workes of Orthodoxe Professors now with God The blessed Martyr Saint (e) Cypr. de lap Ep. l. 2. Saevitum est in plagas saevitum est in vulnera in servis Dei non jam membra torquebantur sed vulnera manabat pro fletibus sanguis pro lachrymis cruor e semiustulatis visceribus defluebat Cyprian setting the cruelty of the heathen as it were upon the Racke could straine no higher after hee had said These Salvage Persecutors wreake their furie on the brused and battered servants of Christ and torture not so much their members as their wounds Yet there is a Plus ultra in the enraged malice of our Romish Adversaries Saevitum est in cadavera saevitum est in ossa saevitum est in cineres For they (f) Vide hist de mort Spalatensis M. S. Arraigne the dead they sue against them an Ejection out of their long homes and interre them in (g) Acts and Monuments volume 3. pag. 778. The body of Peter Martyrs wife at Oxford was taken up by Doctor Marshall out of her grave in the Church of Saint Frideswids and buried in a dunghill Lestals nay they burne their (h) Acts and Monuments vol. 1. p. 606. The body and bones of Iohn Wickliffe by the Decree of the Synod of Constance were taken up burned 41. yeares after he was buried in his owne Parish at Lutterworth and his ashes taken throwne into the river and so was hee resolved into three elements Earth Fire and Water thinking thereby utterly to exstinguish and abolish both his name and Doctrine for ever Acts Monuments volume 3. pag. 771. The Vice chancellor taking with him a publike Notarie bound the Parishioners with an oath to digge up Paulus Fargius his bones and received the like oath of Roger Davis and William Hazell for doing the like with Martin Bucer when they came to the place of execution the Chests were set up an end with the dead bodies in them and fastened on both sides with stakes and bound to the post with a long â—on chaine fire being forthwith put to as soone as it began to flame round about a great sort of bookes that were condemned with them were cast into the same bones and strew their ashes on the rivers Tantene animis coelestibus irae Loe the bowels of them who most boast of workes of Mercie i Edmund Camp rat 10. Clavinum has principes unum coelum capere non potest Et Fishers resp to Doctor White and Doctor Featley c. 2. p. 152. Out of the unity of the Romish Church no salvation Et Coster resp ad refut Osiander proposit 8. wisheth himselfe damned with Lucifer if ever any Lutheran were saved towards the bodies of true Professors whilome Temples of the holy Ghost yet their charitie to their soules exceeds this for these they peremptorily exclude out of heaven and send them pell-mell without Baile or Mainprise to the dungeon of hell and there sentence them to more exquisite (k) Coccleus hist Hussit l. 2. Multo graviora esse crediderim Wicklefi tormenta quam sint apud inferos vel scelera tissimorum hominum Iudae proditoris Christi Neronis Christianorum persecutoris torments than either Nero the monster of men or Iudas the betrayer of Christ himselfe indure Of this straine is the Knights (l) Flood Spect. c. 17. per tot Papists dying in their Reliligion saved Protestants damned Alastor with whom I am to deale whose perfect character your Lordship may see in Sozimus drawne to the life by Isidorus Pelusiota 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as your Lordship may find likewise an exact Emblem of his booke in Plinie his description of the (m) Plin. nat hist l. 9. c.
to shew the visibilitie of the Church by persons in all ages Then you demand of me where the Church was which S. Paul called the house of God and pillar of truth and thus you prescribe mee my weapons and teach mee how to fight Touching the visibilitie of the Church it is not to be confined within the narrow compasse of an Epistle and therefore I will answer you and your Jesuites challenge at large in place convenient and as touching your demand where the Church was which is called the pillar of truth I answer in briefe not in Rome but in Ephesus for otherwise it might seeme incongruous that the Apostle should exhort Timothy to walke circumspectly in the Church of God because the Church of Rome was the pillar and firmament of truth And therefore the Turke may better alledge this place to prove Mah mets religion being now subject to his power than you to justifie the Romish religion because Ephesus was the pillar of truth You proceed and by way of prevention you tell me the controversie is not so much of the doctrine as of the persons and then you conclude simply in the very same page The question is not of the doctrine but of the persons Oportet esse memorem I will but let you see your contradiction I quarrell it not onely I pray you tell mee in the words of sobernesse and truth did ever any wise man except your selfe undertake to prove the true Church by the visibilitie of the persons May not Jewes and Heretiques by the same reason claime a true Church because they had visible persons in all ages But say you this hath beene the way which the holy Fathers have taken either in proving the Catholique faith or disproving of heresies and for your Assertion you cite Tertullian Irenaeus Cyprian Optatus and Augustine give me leave to examine your Authors for as yet you have produced but one ancient Father and him you have falsified in the Frontispice of your booke Touching your first Author Tertull. prescript c. 32. lib. 3. Car. advers Marcion Tertullian in the first place cited by you hee demonstrates two wayes how to discerne the Church first by shewing some Apostle or Apostolicall person to have founded it next by the conformity of the doctrine to the Apostles and in his third book against Marcion which is your second citation hee hath nothing at all for your purpose Touching your second Author Iren. l. 3. c. 1 2 3. l. 4. c. 43 45 46. Irenaeus hee is expressely against you for in the first chapter and third booke cited by you he saith By the will of God they have delivered the Gospel to bee the pillar and foundation of truth In the second hee saith that when Heretiques are convinced by the Scriptures they fall to accuse them as if they were not right or of authoritie and that they are ambiguous and doubtfull In the third hee proveth the truth of the Church by the conformitie of doctrine to the Apostles not by the visibilitie as you pretend In his fourth booke cited by you he shewes that bare succession is no note of the Church and in his 45. chapter which you quote there is nothing that maketh for your question And lastly in the 46. chapter he proveth that the New Testament is as severe against fornication as the Old or rather more and this may touch the free-hold of that Church which dispenseth with Stewes but of the point in question he speakes nothing at all Touching your third Author S. Cyprian Cypr. Ep. 52. 76. in the 52. Epistle cited by you he perswades Antonianus rather to adhere to Cornelius than Novatianus and in his 76. Epistle alledged by you hee shewes that Novatianus succeeding none in that See was ordained by himselfe and therefore could bee no true Bishop but as touching the controversie in question Ne gry quidem Touching your fourth Author Optatus Optat. advers Parmen lib. 2. he handleth not the question neither maketh any thing at all for you Lastly August Psal 2. part Don. Ep. 165. de Utilit credendi c. 7. touching S. Austin you cite the second Psalme and there is nothing handled of the question you cite likewise his 165. Epistle wherein hee declares a succession of Bishops from the Apostles time to Anastasius Si ordo Episcoporum succedentium considerandus est Ep. 165. p. 751. Preculdubio ab Ecclesiâ Catholicâ sumendum exordium De Utilit credendi c. 7. Idem contr Cresc l. 1. c. 33. If saith he an orderly succession of Bishops is to be considered Yea but S. Austin say you particularly proves the question where he tels his friend Honoratus he must begin his enquirie from the Catholique Church Hee that told the Manichees wee must take our Exordium from the Church told the Donatists likewise wee must resort to that Church for the resolution of our faith which the sacred Scriptures undoubtedly demonstrate to be the true Church for in them saith he we have knowne Christ Idem Ep. 166. in them wee have knowne the Church If you can derive your succession in person and doctrine from Christ and his Apostles we will answer you as sometimes S. Austin answered Petilian the Donatist Idem contr l. Petil. l. 2. c. 85. Whether of us be Schismatiques we or you aske you not mee I will not aske you let Christ bee asked that hee may shew us his owne Church After these severall passages you returne againe to your first Author Tertullian Tertull. prescript c. 19. and with him you conclude where it shall appeare that there is the truth of Christian discipline and faith there shall bee the truth of Scriptures and Expositions And from hence you inferre that we are first to seeke the persons that professe the faith that is the Church Whereas in truth his testimony doth rather prove the persons by the doctrine than the doctrine by the persons and this is most agreeable to his owne Assertion in the third chapter Idem c. 3. Ex personis probamus fidem an ex fide personas As if hee should say wee plainly prove the persons by the doctrine not the doctrine by the persons Now put on your Spectacles and take a review of your Authors The first maketh nothing for you the second is expressely against you the third speakes not to the point in question the fourth and fifth handle the question but not at all to your advantage or our prejudice and thus you have produced foureteene severall places out of the ancient Fathers in one page and all either impertinently or falsly or directly against your selfe by which the Reader may conjecture what is like to bee the issue of your whole worke who have so grossely falsified so many authorities in your Epistle and before the entrance into the body of your booke From your lame proofes of the Churches authoritie you proceed to the justification of your maimed commandements
4. Art 1. betwixt a Councell approved by the whole Christian world and one that is disclaimed by most Christian Kings and Bishops and the major part of Christendome But you would further know a difference betwixt their two Creeds Let me tell you in briefe When a Romanist like your selfe would needs know of a Protestant the difference betwixt his religion and ours Subesse Romano Pontifici omni humanae creaturae declaramus dicimus definimus pronunciamus omninò esse de necessitate salutis Bonifac. 8. in Extr. de Major Obed cap. Unam sanctam because both beleeved the Catholike Church in the Creed the Protestant made answer that wee beleeve the Catholike faith contained in the Creed but doe not beleeve the thirteenth Article which the Pope put to it when the Romanist was desirous to see that Article the Extravagant of Pope Boniface was brought wherein it was declared to be altogether of necessitie of salvation for everie humane creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome This thirteenth Article in your Trent Creed besides the newnesse of the rest makes a great difference Mr. Lloyd betwixt the two Creeds and the rather because it is flat contrarie to the decree of the Nicene Councell besides many other differences as shall appeare hereafter But say you they agree in this that as the Arrians of those times cryed out against that Creed as being new and having words not found in Scripture for example Consubstantiation so our Protestants cry out against the Trent profession of faith for the same reasons of noveltie and words not found in Scripture as for example Transubstantiation It is true the Arrians at the time of the Councell cryed out against the Nicene Creed for defining the word Consubstantiall or Coessentiall as being new but it is as true they complained without a cause for long before that time the word was used by Origen Doctos quosdam ex veteribus illustres Episcopos Homousii dictione usos esse cognovimus Socrat. l. 1. c. 8. and other ancient Fathers as appeares by Socrates Wee know saith he that of the old writers certaine learned men and famous Bishops have used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and accordingly it was resolved by S. Austin that the name was not invented but confirmed and established in the Councell of Nice The word therefore Consubstantiall was not new August contr Maxim l. 3. c. 14. which they complained of but the word Transubstantiation is so new that it was altogether unknowne till the Councell of Lateran Concil Lateranense Anno 1215. Bellarm. 1200. yeeres after Christ therefore your comparison holds not in the first place But ad nit the Councell had first devised the word Quomodo dicis in Scripturis divinis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non inveniri quasi aliud sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quà m quod dicit Ego de Deo patre exivi Ego Pater unum sumus Ambros de fide contra Arrian Tom. 2. c. 5. p. 223. in initio August Ep. 174. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas Ep. quod decret Synod Nic. Congruis verbis sunt exposita Nihil refert hanc vocem non esse in Scripturâ si vox id significat quod Scriptura docet Vasq in 1. Thom. Tom. 2. Disp 110. c. 1. sect 4. yet it is agreed on all hands that the meaning of the word is contained in Scripture S. Ambrose writing against the Arrians puts to them this very question How doe you say the word Consubstantiall is not in divine Scriptures as if Consubstantiall were any thing else but I went out from the Father and the Father and I are one the word therefore was a pregnant word agreeable to the sacred word of God And albeit saith S. Austin the word perhaps be not found there yet the thing it selfe is found and what more frivolous quarrell is it than to contend about the word when there is certaintie of the thing it selfe In like manner Athanasius answered the Arrians in those dayes as I must answer you Touching the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 albeit it be not found in Scriptures yet it hath the same meaning that the Scriptures intend and imports the same with them whose eares are entirely affected towards religion We cry not out against you simply because your word Transubstantiation is not found in the Scriptures but because the true sense and meaning of the word is not contained in them for the words Unbegotten Increate the word Sacrament the word Trinitie and the like are not found in Scripture yet wee teach them wee beleeve them because their true sense and meaning may bee deduced from the Scripture and we professe with your Jesuite Vasques Nihil refert c. It mattereth not whether the word be in Scripture or no so as that which it signifieth be in the Scripture To come neerer to you doe you but prove that the words This is my body imply Transubstantiation and let me be branded for an Arrian if I refuse to subscribe to it but that the world may know we condemne you justly both for the newnesse of the word and your doctrine also hearken to the learned Doctors of your owne Church Your Schoole-man Scotus tels us that before the Councell of Lateran Bellarm. l. 3. de Eucbar c. 23. Transubstantiation was not beleeved as a point of faith It is true your fellow Jesuites are ashamed of this confession and thereupon Bellarmine answers Ibid. This opinion of his is no way to bee allowed Suarez in 3. Tom. in Euch. disp 70. sect 2. and Suarez not content with such a sober reckoning proclaimes that for his lowd speaking hee ought to be corrected and as touching the words of consecration from whence you would inferre both the name nature of Transubstantiation Mont. in Luk. 22. your Arias Montanus saith This is my body that is my body is sacramentally contained in the Sacrament of bread and hee addes withall the secret and most mysticall manner hereof God will once vouchsafe more clerely to unfold to his Christian Church The doctrine therefore of your carnall and corporall presence is not so cleerely derived from the Scriptures nay on the contrarie hee protesteth that the body of our Saviour is but sacramentally contained in the Sacrament as the Protestants hold and therefore not bodyily It is more than evident that the word Consubstantiation used by the Fathers was derived from the Scriptures but you have not that infallible assurance for your word Transubstantiation witnes your Cardinall Cajetan Cajet in Thom. part 3. q. 75. art 1. he assures us that there appeareth nothing out of the Gospel that may inforce us to understand Christs words properly yea nothing in the text hindereth but that these words This is my body may as well be taken in a metaphoricall sense as those words of the Apostle The Rocke was Christ that the words of either proposition may well bee
true though the things there spoken be not understood in a proper sense but in a metaphoricall sense onely Nay more your Jesuite Suare Suarez Tom. 3. disp 46. confesseth that this Cardinall in his Commentary upon this Article doth affirme that those words of Christ This is my body doe not of themselves sufficiently prove Transubstantiation without the authoritie of the Church and therefore by the command of Pope Pius the fifth that part of his Commentary is sponged out of the Romish Edition Thus one while you correct your Authors another while you purge them for delivering the truth in our behalfe Look upon your Cardinall Bellarmine although he will not allow that sense which the Lutherans give Bell. de Euch. l. 2. c. 19. yet hee granteth that those words This is my body may imply either such a reall change of the bread as the Catholiques hold or such a figurative change as the Calvinists hold And although hee would seeme to prove that the words of Scripture are so plaine that they may compell a refractorie man to beleeve them yet having well weighed the reasons and allegations of other Schoole-men Bell. de Euch. l. 3. c. 23. at last concludes It may justly be doubted whether the text be cleere enough to inforce it seeing men sharp and learned such as Scotus was have thought the contrary How therefore your Church should ground a point of faith upon a doubtfull opinion or on such words as by the testimonies of your best learned Divines may receive a double construction I leave it to be judged But farther in proofe of Pope Pius Creed I could urge Sr. Humfrey say you with the 39. Articles appointed by the authoritie of the Church of England to be uniformely taught by all Ministers which they are to sweare unto which Articles though they be indeed new coyned as the foundation of a new Church yet Sr. Humfrey being his mothers Champion will not I suppose yeeld her or her doctrine to bee new Thus you It is true as you say there are 39. Articles appointed by our Church to bee uniformely taught by all Ministers and it is as true that they are published and received with unitie and consent which your men acknowledge for a proper marke of the true Church And withall let me adde this one thing for your observation and indeed it is a thing remarkable whereas all your Trent Articles have beene questioned and confuted by Chemnitius Chamierus Gentilletus and other Protestant writers yet there was never any Papist could goe farther than to tell us as you doe I could urge you with the novelty of the 39. Articles I say never as yet did any Romanist attempt much lesse was able to confute and overthrow our Articles which stand like a house built upon a rocke immoveable and cannot be shaken Let me tell you further your comparisons betwixt our Articles and yours doe not hold for all your Articles are fundamentall points to your Trent beleevers and the deniall of any of them makes them heretiques and damned persons as your Popes Bull expressely declareth Bulla Pii quarti On the other side some of our Articles concerne the discipline of the Church and are not essentiall to salvation others concerne the ancient and latter heresies wherein we teach the negative and those are not properly Articles of faith which we beleeve but points of doctrine which wee condemne and beleeve not And that you may know our Articles are not new nor newly coyned by our men if you will put on your spectacles you shall finde that most of our prime Articles are taught and received by your owne Church as well as ours and therefore I hope you will confesse they are not coyned and built upon the foundation of a new Church Briefly touching our 39. Articles The first sort are in the Affirmative both ours and yours and all those are uniformely received by both Churches The second sort are ours onely which we affirme and you deny and those are very few in number and are evidently deduced from the Scripture The third sort are yours which we deny and you affirme and for that cause you terme our religion negative and those remaine for you to make good Joyne therefore those negative Articles which are wholly yours to those positive Articles which you hold with us and you shall easily discerne if the denomination followeth the greater part those Articles may most properly bee termed Articles of your faith for I dare confidently avow that of the 39. Articles there are above 35. yours that is either such which you hold with us which are at least twentie or such wherein the affirmative is yours and not ours which are at least fifteene take therefore your owne libertie either confute ours or make good your owne herbam porrigemus and I will give you the bucklers You proceed and upon a false supposall that our Church hath created new Articles you proclaime in the name of your owne Church these words We teach that for Articles of faith the Church can make none as she cannot write a Canonicall booke of Scripture Thus you When Diogenes saw a supposed Bastard casting stones in a presse of much people he gave the boy this caveat Take heed lest thou hit thy father This is like to bee your case for by this Tenet you will wound the Church your Mother and amongst others you will surely hit your holy Father the Pope It appeares first that you endevoured to shew that your Church hath created no new Articles of faith but for want of solid proofes you begin to faint and thinke it the safest way to turne Protestant in this point and say the Church can create none but I wonder how you dare pronounce in the name of the Church we teach whereas in truth your Church teacheth it not This is therefore but a cunning device of yours to dazle the eyes of the ignorant with your false glasses and to make them beleeve it is the generall Tenet of your Church and then you thinke they will conclude according to your Assertion Ergo The Church hath created none when as your saying makes more strongly against you if either your Articles prove new or the Pope and his Agents professe the contrarie Mr. Heigham who first answered my Book Mr. Heigham in his answer called Via verè tuta pag. 199. 200. was a member of your Church and he cries aluod that the Church hath power to decree and promulgate new articles of faith But your third Replyer Tom Tell-troth in his Whetstone of Reproofe thought it the wisest way to decline the question for hee knew well when you were both at odds and taught flat contrarie doctrine each to other the Whetstone of necessitie would belong to one of his fellow writers But to let passe such differences amongst your selves bee it spoken to your comfort Friar Walden about two hundred yeares agoe affirmed the same that you doe Waldens
to be grandement suspicious of new coynage and if for no other cause yet for this alone they give a just occasion and jealousie when such poore shifts and evasions are devised by your Pope and his adherent to make them good for it is a true saying of a renowned Bishop and it is the faith of all reformed Catholiques B. Morton Grand Impost cap. 2. sect 2. He can onely make an article of faith who can create a soule and after make a Gospel to save that soule and then give unto that soule the gift of faith to beleeve that Gospel I proceed to your doctrine That is onely to bee called a new faith say you which is cleane of another kind that is differing or disagreeing from that was taught before Thus you I will not take advantage of your first Assertion that your faith is grounded upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles which you can never prove but wil joyne issue with you upon your last Assumpsit That is only to be called a new faith which is cleane of another kind and is different disagreeing from what was taught before but such are many of the Articles of Pope Pius the fourth extracted from the Councell of Trent as shall appeare by proofes at large in their proper places In the meane time let me tell you your Church teacheth not onely Novê but Nova not onely Praeter but Contra even besides and contrarie to that which she first received from the ancient Church so that howsoever you seeke to darken truth by faire and specious pretences yet in truth your Trent Additions are forraine to the faith as neither principles nor conclusions of it And that you may know and acknowledge with us that your Trent faith is differing and disagreeing from what was taught before I pray call to mind your owne confessions touching these particular Articles of your Roman Church Your doctrine touching Lay-peoples communicating under one kind namely in bread onely is an Article of the Roman faith and now generally taught and practised in the Roman Church but this practice by your owne confession is different and disagreeing from what was taught before for you say pag. 253. touching the Authors which you bring for proofe That it was the common practice of the Church for the Laytie to communicate in both kinds I allow of their authoritie Your Prayer and Service in an unknown tongue as it is now used in the Roman Church by your owne confession is different and disagreeing from what was taught before for say you pag. 270. It is true that Prayer and Service in the vulgar tongue was used in the first and best ages according to the precept of the Apostles and practice of the Fathers In the beginning it was so Your doctrine of Transubstantiation which at this day is generally received de substantia fidei for an Article of Faith yet by your owne confession is different and disagreeing from what was taught before for say you pag. 167. Transubstantiation might well be said not to have beene de substantia fidei in the Primitive Church as Yribarne speaketh because it had not beene so plainly delivered nor determined in any Councell till Gregorie the seventh his time and this was above a thousand yeares after Christ Your private or solitarie Masse wherein the Priests doe daily communicate without the people is by your own confession different and disagreeing from what was taught before and practised for say you pag. 191. They say speaking of divers Authors it was the practice of the Primitive Church to communicate everie day with the Priest I grant it These points of controversie which are so eagerly pursued by your men against the members of our Church the strength and force of truth hath extorted from you and therefore I may truly conclude Exore tuo from your owne confession that your Trent faith is new because it is different and disagreeing from what was taught before You that have taken an oath to maintaine the Papacie and are so ready to teach others you I say have either violated your oath or at leastwise have forgot your old lesson Oportet esse memorem c. for verily it behoves him that speakes lyes and contradictions to have a good memorie But it seemes you did conceive the Reader might easily passe by many such contradictions being in severall passages and farre distant pages For otherwise it would seeme strange that you which so bitterly inveigh against our reformed religion should confesse the antiquitie of our Articles and the noveltie of your owne with flat contradictions to your owne Assertions I will say to you therefore as sometimes St. Hierome spake in his Epistle to Pamachius and Oceanus Hieronym ad Pamach Oceanum Tom. 2. Thou who art a maintainer of new doctrine whatsoever thou he I pray thee spare the Romane eares spare the faith that is commanded by the Apostles mouth why goest thou about now after foure hundred yeares I may say foureteen hundred yeares to teach us that faith which we before never knew why bringest thou forth that thing that Peter and Paul never uttered Evermore untill this day the Christiam world hath beene without this doctrine To pursue the rest of your Allegations The Church of England say you admitteth of divers Books of the New Testament for Canonicall whereof there was doubt of three or foure hundred yeares to gether in the Church of God as the Epistle to the Hebrewes the second Epistle of St. Peter the Epistle of St. Jude the Apocalyps of St. John and some others which were after admitted for Canonicall 〈◊〉 I would know of him whether upon the admittance of them there were any change of faith in the Church or whether ever those books have received any change in themselves Thus you It seemes you begin to feare that your Trent faith would be discovered to be different and disagreeing from what was taught before and thereupon you would seemingly illustrate the antiquitie of your new Articles by the authoritie of the ancient Books of Canonicall Scripture But I pray where doe you find that the Books of the New Testament as namely the Epistle to the Hebrewes the Epistle of St. Peter and St. Jude and the Apocalyps were not received for three or foure hundred yeares for Canonicall It is true there was some doubt who were the right Authors of those Books but their divine authoritie was ever generally approved by all Christian Churches and allowed for Canonicall The Epistle to the Hebrewes was therefore doubted of by some because the difference diversity of the stile made them think it not to be St. Pauls and by others because the Author of it seemed to them to favour the error of the Novatian heretikes in denying the reconciliation of such as fall after Baptisme The second Epistle of St. Peter which you speake of some doubted of because of the diversitie of the style The Epistle of St. Jude was doubted
and tell me if I may not truly retort your Assertion into your owne bosome Scripture you have indeed but so mang led corrupted perverted by Translation that as you have it it is as good as nothing But you have misinterpreted the Scriptures say you according to your owne fancies Your bolt is soone shot and if all your words were Oracles and that Ipse dixit were sufficient your bare word for other proofes you have none would easily conclude us but I will shew you so plainly that without Spectacles you may see that these Aspersions likewise reflect upon your selves It was a question amongst your fellow Jesuits whether Jacob Clemens the Dominican might by Authority of the Scripture kill Henry the third B. Barloes defence of the Articles in his Preface p. 7. King of France and one of your Jesuits reasoned thus with himselfe Ehud killed Eglon and therefore I may kill Henry for Eglon was a King and so is Henry Eglon signifies a Calfe and Henry is a Calvinist and therefore assuredly I may murther him by Scripture I hope you will confesse that this Jesuite although he were of your Society did interpret the Scripture according to his owne fancie In like manner your Patriarke of Venice concludes seven Sacraments from the words of Scripture and I conceive it is according to his owne fancie That saith he which Andrew spake Inn. Gentil exam Concil Trid. l. 4. n. 26. Sess There is a Boy which hath five loaves and two fishes must be understood of the ranke of St. Peters successors and that which is added Make the people sit downe signifieth that salvation must be offered them by teaching them the seven Sacraments And whereas the Prophet David saith Thou hast put all things under his feet Antoninus your Archbishop of Florence Anton. in Sum. part 3. tit 22. c. 5. about two hundred years since expounded those words in this manner Thou hast made all things subject to the Pope the Cattle of the field that is to say men living in the Earth the fishes of the sea that is to say the soules in Purgatory the fowles of the Ayre that is to say the soules of the Blessed in heaven whether this Exposition be according to the sense which the Catholike Church holdeth or according to his owne fancy let the Reader judge To come nearer to you Whitak Camp Rat. 9. Moses saith God made man after his Image Pope Adrian inferreth Therefore Images must be set up in Churches St. Peter saith Behold here are two swords Pope Boniface concludes Extra de Major Obed. Therefore the Pope hath power over the spirituall and the temporall St. Mathew saith Give not that which is holy unto dogges Mr. Harding expounds it Juels Def. p. 52. Therefore it is not lawfull for the vulgar people to reade the Scriptures It was sayd to St. Peter in a vision Arise kill and eate your Cardinall Baronius hence infers In voto Baronii contra venetos The Pope is Peter and the Venetians are the meat which must be killed and devoured To let passe those farre fetched and extravagant senses of Scriptures which your learned men wyer-draw for your Romish Doctrine It is the word of God Goe to my servant Job and he will pray for thee therefore there is an Invocation of Saints in Scripture Give us this day our daily bread Bellar. de Sāct Beat. l. 1. c. 10. therefore the bread must bee given to the Common people and not the Cup. Roffens adver Luther Art 16. Our Saviour opened the Booke of the Prophet Esay and afterwards closed it Ledis de divinis Script Quâvis linguâ non legendâ cap. 22. therefore Prayer and Service in an unknowne tongue is commanded by the Scripture These and such like false glasses you temper for your Spectacles to deceive your poore ignorant Proselites with the name of Scripture and for feare they should make any doubt of the right interpretation of them Si quis habet interpretationē Ecclesiae Romanae de loco aliquo Scripturae etiamsi tamen habet ipsissimū verbum Dei Hosius de expresso verbo Dei your Cardinall Hosius protesteth to all Romanists If a man have the Interpretation of the Church of Rome of any place of Scripture he hath the very words of God though he neither know nor understand whether nor how it agreeth with the words of Scripture This puts me in minde of that excellent passage of St. Hilary who speaking of the errours and Heresies crept into the Church in the dayes of Constantius makes this generall complaint which in these dayes is truly verified in the Roman Church Hilard 3. ad Constant l. 1. ad Const defunctum Faith is now come to depend rather on time than on the Gospel your state is dangerous and miserable you have as many faiths as wills and as many doctrines as manners whilst faiths are either so written as you list or so vnderstood as you will I come now to your forbidden Bookes wherein the mysterie of iniquitie will manifestly appeare and first touching the sacred Bible which is forbidden in the first place The Bible say you is not so forbidden but that it is in the Bishops power to grant leave if upon Conference with the Parish Priest or Confessor of the partie that desireth leave he finde him to be such a one as may not incurre danger of faith c. which with any reasonable man may be counted sufficient liberty It is true that by the fourth Rule of Pope Pius the fourth the Bible may be licensed by the Bishop but the party must have the license in writing and withall it is decreed Regula 4. in indice libr. prohibit p. 16. If any presume without such license either to reade or have it unlesse he come in first and give up his Bible to his Ordinary let him not have the pardon of his sinnes It is not lawfull then to reade the Bible without a dispensation but with a license any man may reade it and this say you is sufficient liberty for any reasonable man If I should grant you that which you say yet you are never able to make good that license for Pope Clement the eight about thirty yeares after upon this dispensation so granted gives us to understand That upon the Rule of Pius the fourth Observatio circa 4. Regulam Ibid. p. 22. in fine Concil Trident no new power was granted to the Bishops or Inquisitors or Superiors to license the buying reading or keeping the Bible in the vulgar tongue seeing hitherto by the command and practise of the holy Inquisition the power of granting such licenses to reade or keepe Bibles in the vulgar Language or any part of Scripture as well of the New as the Old Testament or any sums or Hystoricall Abridgement of the same in any vulgar Language hath beene taken from them Quod quidem inviolatè servandum est and
of the ancient Eusebius neither could he say truly that the Colein was translated by a Catholike for indeed it is the property of an Here-ticke to falsifie and corrupt the Text. And thus you have done in your Colein Edition where you have altered the sense in that manner Eusebius Emissenus Bishop of Emesa in Syria is forged by Gratian for the doctrine of Transubstantiation Grat. Dist 2. de Consecrat Quia corpus fol. Mihi 432. his words are these Christ the invisible Priest turned the visible creature into the substance of his body and bloud with his word and secret power saying Take eate this is my Body whereas there are no such words to be found in all his Works The Councell of Laodicea is falsified in favour of your Iâ—vocation of Angels The words of the Originall are these a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Conc. Laod. Can. 35. Bin. Tom. 1. p. 245. Christians ought not to forsake the Church of God and depart aside and invocate Angels and make meetings which are things forbidden If any man therefore be found to give himselfe to this privie Idolatrie let him be accursed Now in the same Councell published by James Merlyn and Fryer Crab by transmutation of a letter you are taught a lesson contrary to sense and reason saying b Quod non oporteat EcclesiaÌ„ Dei relinquere abire at que angelos nominare congregationes facere Merlin Tom. 1. Concil edit Col. An. 1530. f. 68. Crab. edit An. 1538. Colon. fol. 226. Verit as non quaerit Angulos It is not lawfull for Christians to forsake the Church of God and goe and nominate or invocate Angels or corners and make meetings and thus Angeli are become Anguli Angels are become Angles or Corners as if truth did seeke Corners when so faire an Evidence is brought against Invocation of Angels St. Basil the great Archbishop of Caesarea was forged by Pope Adrian the first at the second Councell of Nice for the worship of Images his words are these c Pro quo siguras ImaginuÌ„ eorum honoro adoro veneror specialitèr hoc enim traditum est à Sanctis Apostolis necest prohibendum acideò in omâ—ibus Ecclesiis nostris eorum designamus Historias Citat ab Adriano in Synod Nic. 2. Act. 2. p. Mihi 504. For which cause I honor and openly adore the figures of the Images speaking of the Apostles Prophets and Martyrs and this being delivered us by the Apostles is not prohibited but in all Churches we set forth their Histories This Authority was cited by Pope Adrian in the name of Basil the Great in his Epistles when as in all his Epistles of which are extant 180. there are no such words to be found St. Hierome is likewise forged for the same doctrine and by the same Pope the words in the Epistle are these Sicut permisit Deus ador are omnem gentem manufacta c. Citatur ibid. Ep. Adr. p. Mihi 506. As God gave leave to the Gentiles to worship things made with hands and to the Jewes to worship the carved workes and two golden Cherubins which Moses made so hath he given to us Christians the crosse and permitted us to paint and reverence the Images of Gods workes and so to procure him to like of our labour These words you fee are cited by your owne Pope at a generall Councell as you pretend for a point of your Romish faith and yet there are no such words nor the meaning of of them to be found in either of those Fathers and without doubt there was great scarcity of true ancient Fathers to bee found at that time to prove your adoration of Images when your Pope was driven to shifts and forgeries especially when your owne Polydore tells you Polyd. de ReruÌ„ Invent. that the worship of Images not onely Basil but almost all the ancient holy Fathers condemned for feare of Idolatrie as S. Hierome himselfe witnesseth This puts me in mind of Erasmus complaint that the same measure was afforded to Basil Eras in Praefat. lib. de Spirit Sanct. Bas which hee had otherwise observed in Athanasius Chrysostome Hierome that in the middle of Treatises many things were stuffed and forced in by others in the name of the Fathers St. Ambrose Bishop of Millaine is falsified and corrupted Franciscus Junius as an eye witnesse Junius Praefat. in Ind. Expurg Belg. tells us that at Leyden in the yeare 1559. being familiarly acquainted with Ludovicus Saurius Corrector of the Printing house and going to visit him hee found him revising of St. Ambrose workes which then Frelonius was printing after some conference had betwixt them Ludovicus shewed him some printed leaves partly cancelled and partly razed saying this is the first Impression which wee printed most faithfully according to the best Copies but two Franciscan Fryers by command have blotted out those passages and caused this alteration to my great losse and astonishment It may be the discoverie of it by Junius might stay their further printing of it or else might be an occasion to call it in after the printing for otherwise if that Impression may be had it were worthy the examination Bolseus dicit se in manibus Secretarii hâ—c testimonium vidisse inspexisse In disp de Antichristo in Apend Nu. 49. 53. Laurent Rever Rom. Eccl. p. 190. Non habent Petri haereditatem qui Petri sedem non habent Grat de Paenit Dist 1. c. Potest fieri But for a proofe of this falsified Ambrose Lessius the Jesuit tells us that Bolseck doth confesse he saw the Copie in the hands of a Secretary howsoever their later Editions are sufficient proofe of your manifold falsifications But I will speak of Impressions onely that have been within my view First to prove your succession in doctrine in your owne Church Gratian tells us from St. Ambrose They have not the succession of Peter who have not the Chayre of Peter and thus he hath changed Fidem into Sedem Faith into Chaire This forgery in time may creepe into the Body of Ambrose but as yet the words of Ambrose are agreeable to our doctrine that is a Non habent Petri haereditatem qui Petri fidem non habent Ambr. de Paenit c. 6. Tom. 1. p. 156. Basil apud Joh. Frob. An. 1527. Ambr. de Sacr. l. 4. c. 5. Tom. 4. p. 393. Basilâ—ut supra they have not the succession of Peter which want the faith of Peter These be the words of true and ancient Ambrose hereby declaring unto us and them that they may have the See of Peter and yet want the faith of Peter Againe in his Booke of the Sacrament St. Ambrose saith b Fac nobis haÌ„c oblationem ascriptam c. quod fit in figuram corports sanguinis Jesu Christi Amb. Colon. Agripp An. 1616 Tom. 4. p. 173. Make this Oblation to be a reasonable acceptable one quod est
honour of your Images for whereas Regino faith Concil Franck-ford An. 794. Bin. p. mihi 141. Bin. Not. in Concil Frā c. p. mihi 164. b. The false Synode of the Grecians which they made for the defence of their worshipping of Images was erected by the Bishops assembled at Frankford under Charles the Great Binius the publisher of the Councels declareth that the Acts of the second Councell of Nice in the cause of Images was confirmed by it which is so farre from truth that he is inforced to confesse that therein he doth dissent though unwillingly from Baronius and Bellarmine Quam sententiam optarem esse veram sed suspicor esse falsam Bel. de Imag. l. 2. c. 14. §. Multi and indeed Bellarmine professeth I could wish this opinion were true but I suspect it to be false Againe to make the world beleeve that the Synod of Franckford condemned not the second Councell of Nice the chiefe upholder of Images your men have razed out Nice and thrust in Constantinople which altogether condemned Images Now therefore take a short view of all these your forgeries and corruptions In the first Age you have depraved the Scriptures by your false translations and corruptions and when all could not save your turne you place the Bible amongst the Bookes prohibited In the second Age you have forged Epistles in the names of 31. Bishops of Rome which were none of theirs and to suppresse our Doctrine touching the Communion in both kinds and to uphold your invocation of Saints and Angels you have corrupted Ignatius by a false Translation and you would have the Record razed touching the marriage of Priests In the third age you corrupt Tertullian for your Transubstantiation you falsifie Saint Cyprian for your circumgestation of the Sacrament and your Popes supremacie In the fourth Age you corrupt Eusebius Caesariensis for the Popes supremacie you forge Eusebius Emissenus for your corporall presence you falsifie the Councell of Laodicea for your invocation of Saints and Angels you forge Saint Hierome and Saint Basill the Great for your worship of Images you falsifie Saint Ambrose for the Popes succession in the Roman See and most corruptly for the Doctrine of the Sacrament In the fift Age you have razed two evidences in Saint Chrysostome both which confirme our Doctrine the one concerning the Lords Supper the other concerning our tryall by the Scriptures you have falsified the Councell of Carthage for the baptizing of women and for the shaving of Priests you have falsified Saint Austin for your Purgatory and for your Doctrine of Transubstantiation and your Popes decretall Epistles you have forged the Councell of Africa for the honour of your Apostolicke See you have forged Saint Cyrill for your Transubstantiation and your Popes Supremacie In the sixt Age you have corrupted the Councell of Orange for your Doctrine of merits and for the honour of your Priesthood over secular powers In the seventh Age you have razed Gregory the Great touching the comming of Antichrist you have purged him in an Epistle which maketh against the Popes Supremacie you have falsified the Councell of Constantinople in your Popes behalfe Lastly in the eighth Age you have forged venerable Bede in behalfe of your Transubstantiation and you have falsified the Councel of Franckford in behalfe of your Image-worship and yet for all this you are not ashamed to professe that for ancient Authors you note onely what is amisse but you neither raze nor blot out any thing that corner-correcting say you wee leave for such corner-companions as shunne the light p. 144. What credit can be given to you or your Church let the Reader judge when as by your owne confession the Trent Councell hath decreed it as a thing unlawfull to change any thing in the Bookes of ancient Catholikes Concil Trid. in Ind. lib. prohib de correct 4. p. mihi 32. except a manifest error appeare to have crept in by the fraud of Hereticks or negligence of the Printer Sure I am you will confesse that all these mentioned corruptions are not Errata slips of the Printer And as touching the fraud of Heretickes which did corrupt them your Trent Councell which made the Decree could not meane the Protestants for in those dayes they had printed no Fathers neither had they any Manuscripts but such as were kept prisoners in your Church The name of Heretickes therefore doth properly reflect upon your Pope Adrian upon Gratian upon Stapleton upon Thomas Aquinas upon Cardinall Bellarmine who appeare to be Authors of your falsifications and in generall upon your Roman inquisitors who are the knowne Authors of your corrupting and altering the true Fathers And this must needes seeme very probable to all because they are corrupted chiefely in those main Articles of Faith which make against your Church The ancient Records and Evidences which you have had many hundred yeeres in your possession doe all witnesse these forgeries and corruptions in the printed Fathers and will you claime the Fathers for your Rule of Faith when you make them speake more like children than fathers Shall a Guardian to an infant having possession of his Lands and keeping his Deeds and Evidences during his minoritie raze and falsifie them and thereby intitle himselfe to the Wards Lands because hee was some time possessed of them and can produce forged Evidences for them This is our very case The Church of Rome in her infancie was a faithfull Guardian of her childrens right shee kept the Manuscripts and the ancient Records of the Fathers in that puritie as she first received thē after the Pope had made an universall Title and claime to all Catholike Churches hee intruded into other mens Rights by forgerie and corruptions he made the Fathers speake according to the Trent decrees in an unknowne tongue and now by forged cavillation detaines the possession against the right owners But let me tell you as the Kings Subject you are lyable to punishment in such cases in temporall affaires See the title of Forger of false deeds fol. mihi 180. b. For if any person shall by false conspiracie subtilty and falsity forge any Deed Charter or Writing or shall pronounce publish and shew forth in Evidence any such false or forged Deed or Writing as true knowing the same to bee false and forged and shall be thereof convicted he shall be set upon the Pillory in some open Market Towne and there to have both his Eares cut off and also his Nosthrils to bee slit and cut and seared with an hot iron so as they may remaine for a perpetuall note or marke of his falshood Compare now this humane law with those forgeries of divine Evidences and tell me what you and your fellowes can say for your selves why the same judgment should not be pronounced against you For if the lawes of Kings are so strict in behalfe of temporall records and assurances betwixt men what may wee thinke the Law-giver himselfe will require at their
hands who doe not onely raze and falsifie Evidences touching the greatest mysteries of Salvation who I say not onely doe the same but have pleasure in them that doe them Thus much touching the razing and corrupting of the Fathers for the first 800. yeares Now I proceed to your Index Expurgatorius your purging and blotting out the moderne Authours for the last 800. yeares Forasmuch say you as concerneth the late Catholike Authors of this last age for this our Index of which is al the difficultie beginneth but from the yeere 1515. whatsoever needeth correction is to bee amended or blotted out yet for others going before that time it is expresly said that nothing may be changed unlesse some manifest errors through the fraud of Heretikes or carelesnesse of the Printer bee crept in Thus you From your corrupting the ancient Councels and Fathers which I have showne wee are at last come to the correcting of moderne Authors and as I have led you through an Hospitall of maimed Souldiers so now I will send you to the house of correction where I will leave you without Baile or Maine-prize till you have cleared your selfe and your associates for wounding and cutting out the tongues of your owne Authors in speaking truth against the corruptions of the Church But your correcting Index say you began but from the yeare 1515. P. 24. 144. and nothing is changed of Catholike Authors before that time I assure you I have not heard as yet one sentence nay scarce one word of truth fall from your pen wherein you dissent from us and this your assertion will prove as true as the rest Yea but fay you it is expresly declared by the Church that nothing may be changed and if this be true as true it is indeed the lesse credit is to be given you or your Church-men who make decrees and breake them at their pleasure for it shall appeare that your Index doth extend it selfe to the time of the Apostles and howsoever you pretend to purge the Fathers onely in the Index and Table of their Bookes yet I say some you have purged in the Text it selfe others you have corrected in the Index in the expresse words delivered in the bodie of those Bookes And as touching your Assertion that you purge the latter writers onely from the yeare 1515. and not beyond that time this is most false and you had said more truly if you had confessed that for 1515. yeares together your Church spared no Authours ancient or moderne if they speake not Placentia agreeable to your Popes faith and doctrine For the better manifestation of this truth looke first upon your Correctorium for so Lucas Brugensis termes it your worke of correction upon the Bible and tell me if you have not altered by your Popes command above three thousand severall places in the Scripture even in your vulgar Translation which you call St. Hieromes and although you dare not lay a Deleatur upon the sacred word of God yet upon the Commandements upon the Lords Prayer upon severall places of Scripture as I have shewed there is a Deletur a leaving out and a detracting from it Looke upon your Index Expurgatorius printed at Madrid by Cardinall Quiroga and tell me if you have not purged certain places in the Index of the Bible which are ipsissima verba the very words to a letter in the Textit selfe as for instance a Justificamur fide in Christum Galat. 2.16 We are justified by faith in Christ b Justitia nostra Christus 1. Cor. 1.30 Christ is our Righteousnesse c Fide purificantur corda Act. 15.9 By faith our hearts are purified d Justus coram Deo nemo Psal 143.2 No man is righteous before God e Uxorē habeat unusquisque 1 Cor. 7.2 Let every man have his wife c. All these passages I say are the very word of God in the Body of the Scriptures and yet they are commanded f Ind. Hisp Madr. f. mihi 15. B. tanquā propositiones suspectae for so are the words of your Index as if they were things questionable to bee blotted out Againe when your glosses or marginall notes agree not to your doctrine you cause your Index Expurgatorius to lay hold on them as for instance in the 26. of Leviticus we reade in your owne Translation You shall not make to your selves an Idoll or thing graven Deleatur illud Sculptilia prohibet fieri Idem fol. 7. when the glosse in the Margent saith God forbiddeth graven Images Let that passage say you be strucken out And whereas Samuel saith Prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him onely Ibid. fol. 8. b. the glosse upon the Text which is the same in substance viz. wee must serve God onely you command to be blotted out These and the like places relating to the Scriptures being contrary to your Trent doctrine you have excluded from your late printed Bibles in the places aforesaid as being too obvious to the eye of every Reader Ind. Hisp Madrid p. 6. 7. f. 138. Mihi 62. Crakenthorp adv Spal p. 66. Bell. de verbo Dei l. 4. c. 11. c. Ind. Madrid fol. 62. a. Deleantur ex Textu illa verba Sed ubi non habuerit Dei timorem in seipsis nec Jesum per fidem incolam c. Ibid. Eam verò solūmodò naturam quae increata est colere venerari didicimus Ant. Meliss serm 1. Bell. descript Eccl. p. mihi 184. Looke upon the Fathers and tell mee if your Index Expurgatorius doth not correct both St. Chrysostome and Austin and Hilarie and Hierome in their Index touching the prime points of controversie betwixt us Nay more St. Austin saith Vives is purged ten or twelve lines in the body of his workes St. Chrysostome in his 49. Homily is purged 70. lines by Bellarmines confession other places are razed out of him and other Fathers as I have shewed before Looke upon St. Cyrill Bishop of Alexandria who was living above 1200. yeares agoe and tell me if your Inquisitors have not commanded a Deleatur upon his words in the very Text it selfe Looke before his time upon Gregory Nyssen and tell me if through the sides of Antonius Abbas who was living by Bellarmines accompt neare 900. yeares agoe you doe not wound that ancient Father in the body of his workes in commanding this golden sentence to bee blotted out Ind. Belg. p. 270. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nissen in Orat. 4. Tom. 2. Edit Graeco-lat p. 146. We have learned to worship and adore that nature onely which is uncreated * Parsōs warn-word to Sir Fran. Hastings wast-word Enc. 2. c. 9 p. 69. your F. Parsons takes great paines to little purpose to excuse it one while he tells us that the sentence is not to bee found in Gregory Nissen which is most false another while he confesseth that they cannot stand to give a particular reason
548. p. 551. but Gretzer your fellow Jesuite extremely wondreth that this judgement of the Booke of Agobardus should proceed from a Catholike for Agobardus in that whole Book doth nothing else but indevour to demonstrate although with vaine labour that Images are not to be worshipped Usher p. 463. and yet I say it is more to be wondred that your men should purge such Authors of Antiquitie contrary to your Trent Decree and when by purging them they have made our Faith and Doctrine invisible in them to the Reader you call upon us to shew where our Church and Religion was visible before Luther Johannes Bertram a Priest of the Monastery of Corbey in France wrote a Booke of the Body and Bloud of Christ This Booke is forbidden to bee read by command of your inquisitors and condemned by the Councell of Trent But the Divines of Doway perceiving that the forbidding of this Book gave an occasion to many to seeke more earnestly after it thought it better policie to allow it and accordingly they publish it with this Declaration Ind. Expurg Belg. p. 5. edit Antwer Anno 1571. Although we care not greatly whether this Booke of Bertrams be extant or no yet seeing we beare with many errors in others of the old Catholike Writers and extenuate them and by inventing some devise oftentimes deny them and faine some commodious sense for them when they are objected in disputations or conflicts with our Adversaries we doe not see why Bertram may not deserve the same equity and diligent revisall lest the Heretikes cry out that we burne and forbid such antiquity as maketh for them This is a free and faire confession of your men in our behalf that the Fathers are but pretended for your Doctrine when as oftentimes they make against you and indeed accordingly you have framed a commodious sense for the better understanding of this Author as for Instance where he saith the substance of the Bread was to be seene visibly wee must read it say they invisibly and where he saith the substance of the creature which was before consecration remaineth after consecration by substance say they you must understand accidents These devises howsoever at first they seemingly made some shew of answer to the vulgar people yet they proved harsh untunable to the eares of your learned Proselytes and thereupon your Romanists wisely by way of prevention at length gave up this verdict It were not amisse nor unadvisedly done Ind. Belg. p. 421 Quiroga p. mihi 140. B. that all these things should be left out But it seemes these small pills did not sufficiently purge the Authour and thereupon after more mature deliberation it was at last concluded Totus liber penitùs auferatur Ind. Belg. p. 17. let the whole Booke be suppressed Now what answer doe you thinke can be made in justification of this proceeding Your Jesuite Gretzerus briefly resolves it Dum prohibetur Bertramus Gretz de jure prohib libr. l. 2. c. 10. while Bertram is forbidden I deny that a Father is forbidden for the Father is no naturall Father but a Stepfather who nourisheth not the Church with wholesome food but with darnell and pernitious graine together with the Wheate wherefore as the Popes have dealt with some writings in Origen and Tertullian by the same right may they now according to their wisdome abolish any writing of others either in whole or in part by cutting or blotting them out Thus first they dispensed with this ancient Author and our Doctrine then they correct him in some passages by speaking flat contrary to his owne meaning and when all would not serve the turne they absolutely forbid him to be read or rather command him to be utterly blotted out and totally suppressed In the tenth Age 975. Aelfricus Abbot of Malmesbury wrote an Homily touching the Sacrament of the Eucharist The tenth Age Ann. 900. to 1000. Aelfrichs Sermon on Easter day which was thenread throughout all our Churches on Easter day and consonant to the Doctrine of our Articles This Booke is extant in the Saxon tongue in many Libraries but what is the reason he is not numbred amongst your Bookes prohibited Why surely you have foisted in a Parenthesis which by a miracle inferres your corporall presence which makes some shew for your Religion and yet because it is contrary to the whole scope of his Booke you confesse that Harpsfield in his History shewes That the Berengarian Heresie began somewhat to bee taught and maintained out of certaine writings falsely attributed to Aelfricke and thus for one reason you will not prohibit him or lay a deleatur upon his works but for the other reason there is a deletur upon him and he is a man cleane out of your Bookes In the eleventh Age The eleventh Age An. 1000. to 1100. Ind. lib. prohib pag. 47 p. 93. Huldericus Bishop of Auspurg wrote an Epistle touching the single life of the Clergie wherein he taxeth Pope Nicholas for restraining Priests from marriage and therefore is rejected by your Inquisitours his words be these Assuredly you are not a little out of the way Hulder Episc ep de caelibatu Cleri when you doe compell Clerks by force to keepe themselves from marriage which you should admonish to forbeare for it is violence when any man is constrained to keepe a particular decree against the institution of the Gospell and the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost wherefore wee counsell you by the fidelity of our subjection that with all diligence you will remove such a scandall and by your discipline root out that Pharisaicall Doctrine from the flocke of Christ And whereas it was objected that Gregory the Great long before that time had made a Decree for the restraint of Priests marriage in his first Epistle to Pope Nicholas Ibid. p. mihi 482. Orthodoxagraphia Patrum Tom. 1. p. mihi 481. Piusquam sex millia infantum capita viderit p. mihi 1482. hee tells him There be some which take Gregory for a maintainer of their Sect whose ignorance I lament for they doe not know this perillous Decree was afterwards purged by him when as upon a day out of his ponds were drawne above 6000. childrens heads which after he beheld he utterly condemned his Decree and praised the counsell of Saint Paul It is better to marry than to burne adding this also of his owne It is better marry than be an occasion of death Here you see our Doctrine was taught touching the marriage of Priests and because it is a plaine evidence for our Church your Inquisitours have ranked this Epistle amongst the Bookes prohibited Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury taught our Doctrine in the most substantiall point touching faith and good workes The forme of preparing men for their death was delivered to the sicke man in this manner a Credis nō propriis meritis sed passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi virtute merito ad
gloriam pervenire c. Ind. lib. prohib p. 696. Dost thou beleeve to come to glory not by thine owne merits but by the vertue and merit of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ Dost thou beleeve that our Lord Jesus Christ did dye for our salvation and that none can be saved by his owne merits or by any other meanes but by the merits of his Passion then for a conclusion it followes fol. 35. b NoÌ„ erit desperandum vel dubitandum de salute illius c. Ordo baptizandicuÌ„ modo visitandi Imp. Venet. Ind. Belg. p. 419. 1575. Ind. Madrid p. 149. Ind. lib prohib p. ut supra We ought not to doubt or despaire of the salvation of that man who beleeveth with his heart and confesseth with his mouth the forenamed propositions These severall passages are commanded by three severall Indices to be blotted out Nay more the Booke which containes this Doctrine you thrust it into the third Classis amongst those namelesse Authors which deliver Doctrine say you in some sort pernitious to the Catholike faith as if the foundation of all comfort in Christ were pernitious to the Christian faith But let me tell you your Inquisitors have much forgot themselves for they forbid that Booke which say they was printed at Venice 1575. when as by their owne rules they professe openly that they never meant to condemne any namelesse Authors but such onely as have beene published since the yeere 1584. nor any Author whatsoever by their Trent Decree but from the yeere 1515. Howsoever this namelesse Author was both printed at a See Bishop Ushers answer to the Jesuites Challenge cap. Of Merits p. 513. Venice at Antwerp at Coleine at Paris juxta ritum S. Romanae Ecclesiae for so be the words according to the rites of the Romane Church b Cassan in Append ad opusc Jo. Roff. de fiducia misericordia Dâ—i Cassander tells us the Book was to be had in all Libraries and particularly was found inserted among the Epistles of Anselme who was commonly accounted to be the Author of it and the like is confessed by Cardinall c Hosius in confessione Petri cap. 73. Hosius himselfe But this was the time wherein the Dâ—vill was let loose and wherein your Pope Hildebrand did not onely d Non solum fabulas comminiscitur annales corrumpit res gestas invertit sed etiam coelestia oracula adulterat Aven Annal. l. 4. pag. 455. invent Fables corrupt Chronicles and inverted things that were done but did also adulterate the Scriptures themselves and therefore Cardinall Beno who wrote of the life of Hildebrand and was living in that age is e Ind. lib. prohib p. 11. vide Illyric de vita Hildebrand p. 1322. forbidden also to be read because he toucheth to the quicke your Caput fidei the head of your Church In the twelfth age a Sigeberti liber contra Papam Gregorium contra Epist Paschalis Papae Ind. lib. prohib p. 85. Sigebertus Monachus Gemblacensis wrote a Booke against Pope Gregory The twelfth Age An. 1100. to 1200. and against the Epistle of Pope Paschalis hee lived and dyed a member of the Roman Church yet his Booke is prohibited because it complaineth of the state of your declining Church b Sigebertus Ab. ep p. 188. in lib. Goldasli Replio Hactenus interpretatur ideo docuisse PetruÌ„ per Babylonem siguare Romam quia tunc temporis Roma confusa erat Idololatriâ omni spurtitie At nunc dolor meus mihi interpretatur quòd Petrus prophetico spiritu dicens Ecclesiam in Babylone collectam praevidit confusionem dissentionis quâ hodie scinditur Ecclesia Ibid. For what greater confusion saith he was there in times past in Babylon than there is now in the Church In Babylon there was a confusion of languages among the Gentiles in the Church of Rome the tongues are divided and the minds of the faithfull Saint Peter saith the Church which is Babylon salutes you hitherto hee did interpret that Peter by Babylon did signifie Rome because Rome at that time was confounded with Idolatry and all uncleannesse But my griefe doth now interpret unto mee that Peter by a propheticke spirit by the Church at Babylon foresaw the confusion of dissention which doth now rent the Church of Rome If this testimonie had made for our Church as it doth against yours certainly you would never forbid the Record to be read nor to be blotted out but this shewes that there was a revolt a defection from the faith after the loosing of Sathan which were proper for your men to permit to bee read and seene in after ages that the truth might appeare in all and every age of the alteration of the Church c Arnol de villa Novaopera nisi repurgâ—ntur Ind. lib prohib p. 5 36. 37 Arnoldus Carnotensis Abbas bonae vallis his workes are forbidden till they be purged and for no other reason as I can conceive but because he discovers the errours of your Church He tells us that Cloyster Monkes are damned because they falsifie the doctrine of Christ and leade soules to Hell He tells us that your Clergie-men did most perfidiously mingle Philosophicall dreames with the sacred Scriptures He tells us that Masses did neither profit the living nor the dead and for these and the like Protestations against the abuses of his time he is now condemned by your expurgatory Indices In the thirteenth Age Anno 1215. Urspergensis in Anno 793. Urspergensis Abbas is both corrupted and purged by the Inquisitours The Synod saith he which not long before was assembled under Irene and Constantine his sonne at Constantinople called by them the seventh generall Councell was there in the Councell of Franckford rejected by them all as voyd and not to be named the seventh nor any Councell at all This Councell was assembled at Nice and not at Constantinople but the word Constantinople is forged in stead of Nice that the honour of that Councell for Images might not seeme to be impeached or condemned when as the Synod at Constantinople banished Images Now what answer I pray is made in defence of this forgerie August Stench de Donat. Constant l. 2. numero 60. Behold your Augustine Stenchius Keeper of the Popes Librarie tells us that wee have forged those Bookes and conveyed them into the Popes Library where they lye written in ancient hands How probable this answer may seeme that wee should forge Authours in defence of your cause and convey them into the Vatican at Rome I leave it to be judged sure I am it stands corrupted in your Copie printed by command of your Inquisitours and Superiours Againe there be certaine additions to the Historie of Urspergensis which treate of divers memorable things from the time of Fredericke the second Ind. lib. prohib p. 94. unto the time of the Emperour Charles the fifth that is from the yeare 1230. to the yeare 1537.
all which are forbidden to be read wherein are contained the proceedings of the Councell of Constance against Hierome of Prague and John Husse where the decree is mentioned for the 19. Session of the Councell of Constance viz. a Sess 19. decernitur Haereticis non esse servandam fidem quam vocant Salvum conductum Paralip p. 378. That faith is not to bee kept with Heretikes which is wholly omitted and purged in your printed Councels Honorius Bishop of Anthum in France Anno 1220. Honorio Angustodunensi falso ut creditur adscriptus liber de praedestinatione libero arbitrio Ind. lib. prohib p. 47. wrote a Booke of Predestination and Free-will but so different from your doctrine that your Inquisitors forbid him to be read untill hee be purged What good soever the Elect doe it is God that workes it in them as it is written God doth worke in us both the will and the deed according to his good pleasure if therefore God doe worke in us what reward is imputed to man God doth worke and the Elect do worke God doth worke his Elect by his preventing Grace to be willing and by his subsequent Grace to bee able and both co-operate by Free-will by consenting with a good will this good will is rewarded in them as it is written We have received Grace for Grace wee have received Grace when God prevented us to be willing and followed us to make us able Looke into his forbidden Dialogues Turne thee saith he to the Citizens of Babylon consider the principall persons there and thou shalt finde the See of the Beast for they neglect the service of God pollute his Priesthood seduce his people and reject all Scriptures which belong unto salvation Vide Illyr p. 1426 in Dialog d. Praedestin lib. arbitrio For these and the like discoveries of the corruptions in your Church he is forbidden and under this pretence also that the Booke of Dialogues is falsely ascribed to him In the fourteenth age flourished William Ocham a Fryer Minorite and a learned man saith Bellarmine An. 1320. Bell. de script Eccl. p. 269. de Gulielmo Ocham but being too earnest a favourer of Ludovike the Emperour by that meanes hee fell into some errours and therefore deserved to have his name registred amongst the Bookes prohibited Now observe those errors Ocham Compend Error Joh. 22. He complained that many in his dayes perverted the holy Scriptures denyed the sayings of the holy Fathers and rejected the Canons of the Church and civill Constitutions of the Emperours He professed according to St. Hieromes and the doctrine of Gregory the Great that the Bookes of Judith Idem Dial. par 3. Tract 1. l. 3. c. 16. Tobit the Machabees Ecclesiasticus and the Booke of Wisdome were not to bee received for confirmation of any matter of faith He professed that the Pope and Cardinals were no rule of faith Idem Tract 2. part 2. c. 10. Dial. part 1. l. 5. c. 25. p. Mihi 494. He professed that a Generall Councell although it be a part of the militant universall Church yet is not the universall Church and consequently saith he It is rashnesse to say that a Generall Councell cannot erre against the faith Idem Dial. l. 3. prim Tract 3. part c. 8. He professeth that it cannot be proved manifestly by Scripture that Peter was Bishop of Rome or that he removed his seat from Antioch to Rome or that the Rishop of Rome succeeded St. Peter Idem Dial. part 1. l. 2. c. 3. p. 413. or that the Church of Rome hath the Primacie or that hee governed the Church of Rome or any thing touching the Papacie thereof He professeth with us Idem Dial. l. 2. c. 1. part 3. p. 788. that though it be expedient there should be one Bishop over some part of the Church and People of God yet there is not the same reason there should be one over the whole Christian world And lastly touching Pope John the 22. he reports from the mouthes of them that heard it that in the yeare 1333. on Munday being the third of January Idem 2. part proem p. 740. Guliel Ocham opus 90. dierum Item Dialogi script omnia contra Johannem 22. Ind. l. prohib p. 4. Pope John held a publike Consistorie wherein by word of mouth with great earnestnesse he indeavoured to prove that the soules of Saints being purged see not God face to face till after the day of judgement These are the supposed errors which caused his Dialogues and other of his workes to be prohibited In the fifteenth age Anno 1420. Nicholai Clemangis opera quamdiu expurgata non prodierint Ind. lib. proh p. 71. Clemangis de corrupto statu Ecclesiae Nicholas Clemangis Doctor of Paris Archdeacon of Bayeux so long as his works remaine unpurged saith your Index are forbidden Now observe the reasons why hee is put to silence The truth is he wrote a Booke Of the Corrupt estate of the Church he declared that the Pope was the cause of all the calamities and disorders of the Church he shewes that he was not contented with the fruits and profits of the Bishopricke of Rome and St. Peters Patrimonie Idem c. 4. though very great and Royall he layd his greedie hands on other mens flocks replenished with milke and wooll Cap. 5. 7. and usurped the right of bestowing Bishoprickes and livings Ecclesiasticall throughout all Christendome Cap. 5. and disannulled the lawfull elections of Pastors by his reservations provisions and advowsons Cap. 6. Cap. 7. Cap. 8. and oppressed Churches with first fruits of one yeere of two yeeres of three yeeres yea sometimes of foure yeeres with tithes with exactions with procurations with spoiles of Prelates and infinite other burthens Cap. 9. and ordained Collectors to seize upon these taxes and tributes throughout all Provinces with horrible abusing of suspensions interdictments and excommunications if any man refused to pay them Cap. 10. Cap. 11. Cap. 12. and used such merchandise with suites in his Court and rules of his Chancery that the house of God was a denne of Theeves Cap. 13. and raised his Cardinalls as complices of his pompe from Clergie men of low estate Cap. 14. to be the Peeres of Princes and enriched them with his dispensations to have and to hold Offices and Benefices not two or three or ten or twenty but a hundred or two hundred yea sometimes foure hundred or five hundred or more and those not small or leane ones but even the best and fattest To bee short in that he filled the Sanctuary of the Lord with dumbe dogges Cap. 19. 20. Cap. 7. 14. Cap. 29. Cap. 42. Cap. 18. Cap. 3.4.5.9 and evill beasts even from the highest Prelates to the basest hedge-Priests through usurpations exemptions compositions symony prostitution and fornication committed with Princes of the earth and all to maintaine the pride and
lust and riot of his wordly state which he hath lifted up above Kings and Emperours Lastly he complaines that the Study of Divinity is made a mocking stocke and that which was most monstrous for the Popes themselves they preferred their owne traditions before the Commandements of God These bee the pretended errors Mr. Floyd which causeth your Index expurgatorius to spare no Author for his age and yet you tell us such corner-correcting you leave for such corner-companions as shunne the light p. 144. Aeneas Sylvius who was afterwards Pope Pius the second is forbidden by your Index and the reason is given for it Aeneas wrote in behalfe of the Councell of Basil when he was a young man saith a Bell. de script Eccles de Aenea Sylvio p. 289. An. 1450. Bellarmine but when he was an old man and Pope he retracted it and so his Bookes are deservedly forbidden But what say you then to his Retractations are you pleased with them No b Cautè legenda opera Aeneae Sylvii ipse enim in Bulla Retractationis nonnulla quae scripserat daÌ„navit c. Ind. lib. prohib Class 2. a. p. 3. you must yet warily read the Workes of Aeneas Sylvius for in his Bull of Retractations hee hath condemned something himselfe which he had written and therefore when a new Edition shall come out let that Bull also be purged in the beginning of his Workes It seemes then neither that which hee wrote as a private man in his younger dayes nor that which he retracted as Pope in his latter dayes are well pleasing to your Church Let us therefore compare the difference of his Doctrine with the difference of his degrees and then you shall observe whether according to the ancient saying Honours have changed manners Aeneas Sylvius as a private man protested that c Antè NicenaÌ„ Synodum unusquisque sibi vixit parvus respectus ad EcclesiaÌ„ Romanam habebatur Aene. Sylv. in Epist 288. before the Councell of Nice each Bishop lived severally to himselfe and little regard was there then had to the Church of Rome Pope Pius the second being the same man but onely that hee was now become a Pope doth exhort and d Suadete omnibus ut id solium prae caeteris venerentur in quo salvator Dominus suos vicarios collocavit c. Bulla Retract Pii 2. Tom. Concil 4. post Concil Floren. p. 739. perswade all that they would reverence the See of Rome or that Throne of Majesty above all Aeneas Sylvius saith They thinke themselves well armed with authority that say no Councell may be kept without the consent of the Pope Ex hisce authoritatibus mirum in modum se putant armatos qui CoÌ„cilia nâ—gant fieri posse sine consensu Papae QuoruÌ„ sententia si ut ipst volunt inviolata persistat ruinaÌ„ secum Ecclesiae trahet Quid enim remedli erit si criminosus Papa perturbet Ecclesiam si animas perdat si pervertat malo exemplo populos si denique contraria fidei praedicet haereticisque dogmatibus inbuat subditos sinemusque cum ipso cuncta ruere At ego dum veteres lego historias dumastus perspicio Apostolorum hunc equidem morem non invenio ut soli Papae Concilia convocaverint nec post tempore Constantini magni alioruÌ„ AugustoruÌ„ adcongreganda Concilia quaesitus est magnopere Romani consensus Papae Idem de Concil Basil l. 1. Whose judgement if it should stand as they would have it would draw with it the decay and ruine of the Church For what remedy were there then if the Pope himselfe were vitious destroyed soules overthrew the people with evill example taught Doctrine contrary to the faith and filled his subjects full of Heresies should wee suffer all to goe to the Devill Verily when I read the old Stories and consider the acts of the Apostles I finde no such order in those dayes that onely the Pope should summon Councels And afterward the time of Constantine the Great and of other Emperours when Councels should be called there was no great accompt made of the Popes consent On the contrary Pope a Bulla Pii 2. Retractat p. mihi 739. Pius saith Order requireth that inferiours should be governed by their superiours and all should appertaine to one as the Prince and Governour of all things which are below him As Geese follow one for a leader and amongst the Bees there is but one King even so in the Church militant as also in the Church triumphant there is one Governour and Judge of all which is the Vicar of Christ Jesus from whence as from a head all power and authoritie is derived into the subordinate members Thus when he was young and had read the old Stories and considered the acts of the Apostles hee found no such Authority and respect given to the Pope but when he was Pope and old it seemes he forgat the Apostles and ancient Writers then hee attributes all power and reverence to the Pope of Rome Briefly Aeneas Sylvius saith a De Româ—nis Pontificibus liceret exempla admodum multa adferre si tempus sineret quoniam aut haeretici aut aliis imbuti vitiis sunt reperti Idem de Concil Basil lib. 1. Of the Popes of Rome wee might shew forth very many examples if time would permit that they have beene found either Hereticks or else defiled with other vices But Pope Pius saith speaking of these and the like assertions b Pudet erroris poenitet malè fecisse male dictoruÌ„ scriptorumque vehementer poenitet c. Bull. Retract ut supra I am ashamed of my error I earnestly repent both of my words and deeds and I say Lord remember not the faults and ignorance of my youth And thus being Pope saving all advantages to his See he hath condemned him selfe and his Writings as published by him when he was a private man and yet notwithstanding the Inquisitors professe hee hath retracted that as Pope which afterwards hee condemned and therefore by their doome hee must have a new purgation and from thenceforth Tum Pius Aeneas But tell mee I pray was hee Pius Aeneas when he complained that at Rome the c Nam ipsae manus impositiones Spiritus sancti dona venduntur Aene. Sylv. Ep. 66. imposition of hands and the gifts of the Holy Ghost were sold for money Was hee Pius Aeneas when he complained that the Court of d Quid est Romana curia his qui summam tenent nisi turpissimum pelagus ventis undique durissimis reÌ„pestatibus agitatuÌ„ Idem Ep. 188. Rome in the chief amongst them was but a most filthy Sea tossed on every side with winds and strong tempests Was hee Pius Aeneas when he protested with griefe that e Jacet spreta religio justitiae nullus honos fides penè incognita Ep. 398. religion was despised righteousnesse dishonoured faith in a manner unknowne Or was hee Pius
Aeneas when he retracted as Pope that which he had written or when he condemned that which hee had retracted No surely he was Pius in nothing in the opinion of your Church but in his Bull of Retractations and he was Aeneas in nothing more than in condemning that which he retracted And accordingly he himselfe beggs of your Church Bulla Retractat Pii 2. Illud Gentile nomen parentes indidere nascenti hoc Christianum in Apostolatu suscepimus Ibid. Pium recipite Aeneam rejicite Receive you Pius but reject Aeneas and he gives his reason for it Aeneas is a heathenish Name which our Parents gave us at our Birth but Pius is a Christian name which we assumed in our Apostolike calling You may adde to this Aeneas was a private man and subject unto errour but Pius was a Pope and therefore in his determinations infallible or rather you may truly say with him Nihil mentiti sumus nihil ad gratiam nihil ad odium retulimus Bulla Retractat that Aeneas before he was Pope delivered the truth neither for feare nor hatred and yet he was forced to retract it but Pius * Cum doctrinā non sanam suspectam quae offensionem parere potest contineant c. Class 2. in Ind. lib. prohibit when he was Pope delivered false and suspected doctrine and such as was offensive to your Church and for that cause is commanded to bee purged Quid Pius Aeneas in te committere tantùm What ill hap had good Aeneas or rather what ill fortune had Pope Pius that he could neither satisfie your Church either as he was Aeneas or as he was Pius neither as a private Doctor nor as an infallible Pope Rivet Criticū Sacr. Specimen c. 7. p. 49. or rather I may say with your owne Canus What doth it availe men who desire to know the truth to raze Records out of their Bookes when they cannot blot it out of their mindes Petrus Crinitus was a Romish Priest Anno 1450. and is commanded to be purged and if we shall examine the reason we shall finde it for no other cause but that he speakes the truth against your Pope and Popish Doctrine To instance in particulars Let both the Title and the Chapter be razed say your Inquisitors touching Pope Boniface the 8. Petr. Crinit l. 7. c. 13. de dom Disciplinâ and the reason is pregnant that Chapter shewes the insosolencie and pride of the Pope in particular in matter of fact and it further declares that under pretence of Religion the Popes in generall thinke they may doe what they list Againe when he speakes of ancient Lawes Idem l. 14. c. 5. made in generall for Marriage and propagation of Children they command that page to be strucken out and there can be no other reason but because on the contrary it is a positive law of your Church to forbid Marriage Lastly whereas he shewes that Leo the Emperour made an Edict Idem l. 9. c. 9. that all Images in Churches and houses of the Christians should be razed and hee declares in his opinion that it doth not appertaine to Religion to adore any mans Image and that Valens and Theodosius made Proclamation to all Christians that they would suffer no man to fashion to grave or paint the Image of our Saviour either in colours or in stone or in any other kinde of metall or matter and that wheresoever any such Image should bee found they commanded it to be taken downe Index Belgic p. 421. Index Madrid p. 150. Ind. lib. prohibit p. 79. 718. Bulla Pii 4. Art 9. Art 22. These and the like passages your Inquisitors in three severall Indices command to be razed out and what cause can you pretend but that it makes against a speciall Article of your faith viz. that Images should be set up in Churches and worshipped and by this meanes you strike likewise at the Articles of our Church and when you have made such Doctrines and Evidences invisible by razing the records then you bid us shew where the Church was visible before Luther Now what credit shall the Reader give unto you and to your Trent Councell that would assure us that your Church intended the purging of no Authors but from the yeare 1515. when as it appeares plainely that you have spared neither the writings of the Apostles nor the Fathers in razing and falsifying their owne very words and sentences And as touching other Authors in the latter ages you have gone beyond your Commission hundreds of years in falsifying corrupting forbidding and purging them and this was long before your prefixed yeare of 1515. In the sixteenth age Luther began his Heresie saith Bellarmine Anno 1517. Anno 1517. Bell. Chronol p. 3. pag. 117. and your Church to make some shew that your Index Expurgatorius had a relation onely to Luther and his followers tooke her rise from the yeare 1515. which was but two yeares before his comming as if all the members of your Church before his comming had lived in the unity of one faith and doctrine This deceivablenesse of your unrighteousnesse I have in part discovered Now I come to your Authors of this last age for I will cite none but your owne Authors and therein lieth another mysterie not inferiour to the first and that is this your Index Expurgatorius was first proclaimed generally against all Heretickes meaning the Protestants but when it comes to examination it points especially at the particular members of your owne Church and that which is most remarkable after that your Trent Councel had distinguished with Anathema's her Roman faith from the faith of Protestants after she had forbidden and condemned by her Index divers of your owne Authors as savouring of suspected and false and scandalous doctrine nay more after she had declared all to be Heretickes and their Doctrine Hereticall who would dare to teach or publish any contrary beliefe to that which was once established by a Generall Councell yet I say the members of your owne Church and those not of the meanest ranke both Bishops and Cardinals have delivered in print many points of Doctrine agreeable to the Articles of our Church and yet you say they never left the Church they are not personally to be noted nor ranked amongst Heretickes when for the very same Tenets we are accused accursed forbidden and utterly condemned as Heretickes and Reprobates and thus the head of your Church being divided from the members in points of saving faith may say unto the tongue I have no need of thee and consequently may cut it out Howsoever this use we may safely make of your Index that if in after ages by new Impressions the true doctrine of Protestants shall be razed and utterly abolished in your Roman Authors yet your very Index will appeare as a strong Evidence to shew that such doctrines were taught in former Ages and howsoever the faction in the
Papacie formerly prevailed yet it is more than evident by the Testimonies and Records of your owne men that we had not two Churches before Luther but that we had alwayes Testes Veritatis witnesses of Gods truth and our owne Religion in all Ages in the bosome of the Roman Church I proceed to particulars in this last age Anno 1500. Cardinall Cajetan is purged in severall and maine points of doctrine being different from your owne Church Touching the ground of Transubstantiation he denies that the words of Scripture This is my body are availeable to prove it of themselves and thereupon your Jesuit Suarez complaineth Ex Catholicis c. a Ex Catholicis solus Cajetanus in Commentario hujus Articuli qui jussu Pii 5. in Romana editione expunctus est docuit seclusâ Ecclesiae authoritateverba illa Hoc est corpus meum ad veritatem hanc confirmādam nonsufficere Suarez Tom 3. Disp 46. Sect. 3. quaest 75. Art 1. p. 515. Impress Mog An. 1509. Amongst the Catholikes Cajetan onely teacheth that the words This is my Body bee not sufficient without the authoritie of the Church to confirme the truth of it And therefore by the command of Pope Pius the 5. this passage is blotted out in the Roman Edition Touching justification by faith onely whereas hee saith b Absque exceptione aliqua cōditionis sexus qualiatis c. dicitur omni credenti sola fides exigitur ad salutem Cajet Ep. Paulï c. Parisus 1571. fol. 4. Ind. lib. prohibit p. 876. without any exception of person of any Sexe or quality or condition It is said of every Beleever faith alone is required to salvation your Index commands those latter words to bee blotted out Lastly in speaking of the Crosse and the like he saith These are altogether unlawfull and not to be embraced because they are part of an ill worship you cause these words to be strucken out and in lieu of them you subjoyne these words following which are flat contrary c Idem p. 805. These are altogether lawfull and are to be embraced because they are part of the divine worship and the better to colour these miserable shifts and falsifications you give this Caveat to the Reader Idem ibid. p. 805. Be warie if you finde any such Doctrine for it is to bee feared the Heretikes have suggested it Alphonsus à Castro wrote a large Booke against Heresies Anno 1500. and in particular he charged Luther with many Yet in his first Booke and fourth Chapter hee attributeth the same title of Heretike to the Pope and shewes the Pope as Pope is subject to Heresie but behold the record stands published against Luther but is wholly razed touching the Pope Quod autem alii dicunt eum quierraverit in fide obstinatè jam non esse Papam ac per hoc affirmant Papam non posse esse haereticum in reseria verbis velle jocari Ad hunc enim modum quis posset citra impudentiam asserere nullum fidelem posse in fide errare nam cum haereticus fuerit jam desinit esse fidelis Non enim dubitamus an haereticum esse Papam esse coire in unum possint sed id quaerimus an hominem qui aliàs in fide errare potuisset dignitas Pontificalis efficiat à fide indeviabilem Non enim credo aliquem esse adeo impudentem Papae assentatorem ut ei tribuere hoc velit ut nec errare aut in interpretatione sacrarum literarum hallucinari possit Nam cùm constet plures eorum adeo illiteratos esse ut Grammaticam penitus ignorent quî fit ut sacras literas interpretari possent Alph. à Cast advers haer l. 1. c. 4. p. mihi 6. b. Coloniae excudebat Melchior Nouesianus Anno 1543. The words in my Edition are these Whereas some say that he which erreth wilfully in the faith is now no longer Pope and thereupon concludes the Pope cannot be an Heretike they seeme in a sad matter to dally with words For saith he wee make no doubt whether the Pope and an Heretike may agree in one person but this is our question whether a man that otherwise might have erred in the Faith by vertue of the Papall dignity be made such as he cannot erre For I doe not beleeve that there is any so impudent a flatterer of the Pope that will give him this preheminence to say that he can neither be deceived nor misse in the expounding of the Scriptures for seeing it is well knowne that many Popes be so utterly void of learning that they know not the Principles of their Grammer how may it be that they should be able to expound the Scriptures These words I have cited at large out of my Edition 1543. for if you looke into Alphonsus printed within these last threescore yeares I beleeve you will finde them razed in this particular without an Index Expurgatorius which plainly shewes that as the Pope was and may be an Heretike so likewise falsifying of Records is a proper marke of Heretikes Johannes Ferus a Frier Minorite An. 1500. Usher p. 162. and prime Preacher at Mentz in Germany is purged and falsified in many points of controversie which he held with us Touching the power of Priesthood in remitting of sinnes it was the doctrine of Ferus a Non quòd homo propriè remittat peccatum sed quòd ostendat ac certificet à Deo remissum Neque enim aliud est absolutio quam ab homine accipit quà m si dicat En fili certifico te tibiremissa esse peccata annuncio tibi te habere propitium Deum quaecunque Christus in Baptismo Evangelio nobis promisir tibi nunc per me annunciat promittir Fer. Comment in Matth. l. 2. c. 9. Mogunt An 1559. Lugdun apud Johannem à S. Paulo An. 1609. Contr. Man did not properly remit sinne but did declare and certifie that it was remitted by God so that the absolution received from man is nothing else than if hee should say Behold my sonne I certifie thee that thy sinnes are forgiven thee I pronounce unto thee that thou hast God favourable unto thee and whatsoever Christ in Baptisme and in his Gospell hath promised unto us hee doth now declare and promise unto thee by me Of this thou shalt have me to be a witnesse goe in peace and in quiet of conscience This declarative power of remitting sinnes was Ferus doctrine this is ours But behold the case is altered for in Ferus printed at Lyons 1609. all those words are razed out and on the contrary saith that b Sacerdos enim Dei minister verè remittit peccata ac certificat à Deo remissa fol. mihi 160. b. In Matth. l. 2. c. 9. the Priest doth truely remit sinnes and as the Minister of God doth also certifie that they are remitted of God Touching our justification by faith onely the true Ferus
saith Nempe quòd solâ fide in Christum nullis meritis nostris justificamur In Ep. Pauli ad Rom. c. 16. In verba illa deleatur Ind. lib. prohibit p. mihi 629. Ind. Madrid fol. 133 Ind. Belg. p. mihi 393. That we are justified by faith alone in Christ and by none of our merits That our owne workes whatsoever they be are not of that value that they should merit a reward of condignitie or congruitie but so farre forth as God in his mercie doth accept them These and the like passages are commanded to be blotted out And whereas hee sayth a Sic verè nullum hominum genus est quod minimè movetur verbo Dei quà m hi qui in sua justitia confidunt Idem in Joh. c. 1. There is no kinde of men that are lesse moved with the word of God than those which trust in their owne righteousnesse your men as being guilty of their trust in their merits of workes command this and the like passages to bee stricken out Your Index of prohibited Bookes published by the b Opera tamdiu prohibentur quaÌ„diù expurgatio noÌ„ prodierit Ind. l. prohibit p. 56. Cardinall of Sandonall and Roxas tells us that the workes of Ferus are forbidden to be read till such time as they shall be purged and sure I am when they are purged they are none of his For I appeale to you and your fellow Jesuites Mr. Floyd whether these passages following be his or yours I meane either the Protestant doctrine which he published before Luthers dayes or the Popish tenets which are since altered by the Inquisitors and taught by the Trent Fathers In the third of St. Matthew the true Ferus sayth c Quòd si aliquando mercedem audis pollioeri scias non ob aliud esse debitam quà m ex promissione divina Ferus in Math. 3. If at any time thou heare of a reward promised know that it is not due for any thing else but for the divine promise sake Your Inquisitors command it to be altered thus Quòd si aliquando mercedem audis polliceri scias non sine promissione esse debitam Ind. Madrid fol. mihi 125. If thou heare of a reward promised know that it is not due without the promise The one saith it is not due for any respect but for the divine promise ex promissione divina the other saith it is not due without the promise when the true Ferus addes Gratis promisit gratis reddidit He promised freely and he hath given freely you command these words to be stricken out And whereas Ferus commenting upon the words of Christ Ind. Belg. p. mihi 372. Ind. lib. prohib p. 627. Qui hanc fidem nescit ad EcclesiaÌ„ non pertinet etiamsi videtur primus esse in Ecclesia Idem in Mat. l. 3. c. 16. p. mihi 25. Ind. Madrid p. 125. Ind. Belg. p. 370. Tues Petrus c. Thou art Peter and upon this Rocke I will build my Church she wing that this Rocke was meant of Christ by the confession of Peters faith And saith hee whosoever is ignorant of this Faith belongs not to the Church although hee seeme to be the chiefe in the Church These words are otherwise read in your generall Indices and are commanded to bee stricken out And upon the words Si quis natus fuerit c. he saith a In Joh. c. 3. p. mihi 69. Ind. lib. proh p. 625. The Preachers of Gods Word ought first to teach faith by which a man is justified and afterwards good workes there the words by which a man is justified are commanded to be stricken out Now as you have purged many places so likewise you have forged and falsified others by addition or retraction Looke upon his Commentary on the first Epistle of Saint John and you shall behold strange additions and the true Protestant Doctrine wrested to flat Poperty as for instance b Scriptura sacra data est nobis seu certa quaedam regula Christianae doctrinae Idem in 1 Ep. Joh. c. 2. edit Antwerp An. 1556. The holy Scriptures saith the true Ferus are given us as a certaine sure rule of Christian Doctrine In Ferus printed at Rome he is taught to say The holy Scriptures and a Romana edit An. 1577. traditions are given us as a certaine sure rule of Christian Doctrine The true Ferus saith b Justus lic èt in Christo manet tamen sine peccato nec esse potest septies enim in die etiam justus cadit Idem in cap. 3. Though the just man remaineth in Christ yet he is not neither can be without sinne for even the just doe fall seven times a day your Roman Ferus addeth c Sine peccato originali not without veniall sinnes The true Ferus saith d Fiâ—eÌ„ charitateÌ„ conjungit Apostolus ita tamen ut fidem praeponat Ibid. The Apostle conjoyneth faith and charity yet so as hee preferreth faith your Roman Ferus addeth he preferreth faith e Additur ordine non perfectione in order not in perfection The true Ferus saith f Charitas timoremexpellit quia fidem quâ Christum vitaÌ„ propitiationem salvatorem nostrum apprehendimus probat confirmat certámque reddit Ib. c. 4. Aliter Charity driveth out feare because it trieth confirmes and makes assured our faith whereby we apprehend Christ our life propitiation and salvation your Romane Ferus saith g Charitas timorem expellit quia peccata remittit Spirit us saÌ„ctus eam consolatur testimonium perhibens quòd filii Dei sumus Ibid. Charity drives out feare because it forgiveth our sinnes and the Holy Ghost doth comfort it giving testimony that we are Gods children The true Ferus saith h Ibid. cap. 5. There be some who after faith doe earnestly urge good workes but because they teach not withall to what end they are to be directed and how much is to be ascribed unto them they give cause that almost all the common people doe trust in their owne workes and so they build upon the sand the Roman Ferus saith There were some who after faith and with faith did earnestly urge good workes but because they cast away their necessity and others ascribed too much to them they all did build upon the sand Lastly in the true Ferus sometimes by changing of a word or by taking away of a word you pervert the sense and meaning of the Author As for instance whereas the true Ferus saith Saint John condemned all glorying in our workes omnem gloriam your Roman Edition hath turned omnem into inanem and saith Saint John condemned inanem gloriam vaine glory Ridiculum est quod quidam bîc volunt Cephas idem esse quod caput Idem in Joh. c 1. p. mihi 43 c. And whereas the true Ferus saith It is ridiculous that some will have Cephas for the head your
this great Fisher Peter for feare of a Girle denies his Master all the people laughing at her question and hissing at his deniall and in all these revels and ridiculous stirs Christ onely is serious and severe but seeking to move passion and sorrow in the audience he is so farre from that that he is cold even in the divinest matters to the great guilt shame and sinne both of the Priests that present it and the people that behold it These words and blasphemous actions Ind. l. expurgat p mihi 41. as being ashamed of them you doe well to command them to bee blotted out but yet they are reprinted and your men are not a shamed to continue the practice of it in your owne Religion And lastly where he sayes That those who preferre the Latin Translation before the Greeke and Hebrew fountaines Idem in Aug. l. 15. c. 13. p. 83. are men of evill mindes and corrupt judgements that passage is left out in the Antwerpe print And whereas he saith that the story of Susanna Idem l. 18. c. 31 of Bell and the Dragon are Apocryphall Scriptures and not received of the Jewes nor translated by the Septuagint Ind. l. expurg p. mihi 41. all those words are commanded to be stricken out Jacobus Faber Stapulensis a member of the Roman Church taught the Protestant doctrine in many points and therefore he is purged by your severall Indices Whereas the Rhemists translate the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Penance he defined it Repentance Jac. Fab. in Evang. Matth. c. 3. fol. mihi 13. b. Ibid. c. 5. fol. 24. in initio and makes a distinction betwixt Repentance and Penance such as the Protestants doe and therefore it is commanded to be stricken out Againe speaking of the Scribes and Pharisees who did attribute righteousnesse to themselves and their owne workes Ibid. c. 6. f. 30. a. Ind. Madr. fol. 112. The faithfull saith he which are of the Law of grace doe worke most diligently but doe attribute nothing to themselves or their owne workes but all of them doe impute their righteousnesse to the grace of God All consisteth with the one in the merit of workes with the other in grace the one respect themselves and their workes and are delighted therein the other regard not themselves but the grace of God they admire his goodnesse and therein is their chiefe delight Againe if any man shall doe good in this world hee must not doe it because it is his will but because God commandeth it For he which is perfect hath not a will peculiar to himselfe but his will must be the will of God and this is the third Petition of the Lords Prayer In the sixteenth Chapter of St. Matthew upon the words Thou art Peter c. he shewes that according to St. Pauls doctrine Ibid. fol. c. 16. mihi 74. b. the Rocke was Christ Hee shewes that Peter was so farre from being a firme rocke that Christ himselfe did intimate the contrarie when he said Get thee behinde me Sathan for thou savourest not the things of God but of men He shewes us further that our Lord Christ promised to Peter the Keyes of binding and loosing but withall testifies that those Keyes were not Peters but Christs whereby Peter doth not binde or loose by his power but by the will of Christ He addeth moreover that not onely Peter received those Keyes but also all the rest of the Apostles But saith he there be some which understand by the Keyes of binding and loosing the Popes power as Christ spake of that faith witnessing that he was the Sonne of the living God which is one of the Keyes of the heavenly Doctrine upon which the Church is founded and Peters faith as upon the true Rocke Christ was builded a Deleatur ab illis verbis Ne quis putet Petrum c. usque ad Aeterni Patris infusio Ind. Madr. fol. mihi 113. Ind. Belg. p. 51. This and much more to the same purpose for thirty lines together is commanded to be strucken out In his 20. Chapter he saith b Verum qui operibus suis aliquo modo fidunt minus Deo fidunt minusque amant Deum qui autem nullo modo sed pacto sed promissioni imo omnia Deo tribuunt plus Deo fidunt cujus ineffabili bonitate qui novissimi suerunt operando factisunt primi gratiam recipiendo qui primi operando novissimi gratiam recipiēdo Quare bonum c. deleatur usque ad Dei autem omnia Ind. ut supra Those which any wayes trust in their workes have the least affiance in God and love him the lesse but those which give all to his promise and to God himselfe they trust most in God by whose ineffable bounty those which are last in working are made first by receiving grace and those that are first in working are become last in receiving Whatsoever therefore a man doth it is good for him to trust wholly to God his goodnesse for it is the will of God and of his speciall grace that wee are saved and not of our will or workes These words and much more to the same purpose in the same chapter are commanded to be blotted out Touching his Commentaries upon Saint John your Inquisitors have pronounced this definitive sentence c Ind. Madr. fol. mihi 115. Because they cannot be handsomely purged let them all be spunged and blotted out Touching his Commentaries upon Timothy In Tim. c. 3. fol. mihi 205. hee shewes that it was lawfull for Priests to marry a Virgin till the time of Gregory the seventh which was nine hundred yeeres after Christ hee shewes likewise that the Grecians kept the Apostolicall Tradition in marrying of Wives and could not change them and that other Churches which vowed single life by their incontinencie fell into the snares of the Devill And lastly in his Commentary upon the Galathians at large he proves a Per solam fidem Christi infunditur justificatio In Gal. c. 2. fol. 154. That by the Faith of Christ alone we are justified and that he which b Idem c. 3. fol. 156. Qui autem confidit in operibus in seipso confidit baculo innititur arundineo qui frangitur in seipso supernum lumen non videt unde descendit Justificatio trusteth in his works trusteth in himselfe and leanes upon a staffe of Reed which is broken in it selfe whereby he doth not discern the heavenly light from whence our justification doth descend These and many other like passages in severall places of his Workes which are consonant to our Protestant Doctrine are commanded by the c Ind. Madr. f. mihi 118 119. Inquisitors to be strucken out d Friderici Furii Cenolani Valentini Bononia sive De libris sacris in vernaculam linguam convertendis Fridericus Furius writes a whole Book of translating the Bible into the vulgar tongue
Merchant God saith he will have nothing to lay to this mans charge at the dreadfull day of Judgement His meaning it may be is God can charge him with nothing because this man knew nothing This doctrine of Obedience doth well agree with Cardinall Bellarmines exposition upon that place of Job Bell. de Justif l. 1. c. 7. The Oxen did plow and labour and the Asses fed by them By the Oxen saith hee are meant the learned Doctors of the Church by the Asses are meant the ignorant people which out of simple beliefe rest satisfied with the understanding of their Superiors And accordingly your Cardinall Casanus perswades his Proselytes to relye upon the Church without further inquirie of the truth Cusan exercit l. 2. l. 6. For saith he Obedience without reason is a full and perfect obedience that is when thou obeyest without enquiring of reason as a horse is obedient to his Master He that shall make a question in your Church whether the Pope can erre must resigne up his understanding with this beliefe Bellar. de Pont. l. 4. c. 5. If the Pope should so farre forth erre as to command vices and forbid vertues the Church were bound to beleeve that vices are good and vertues are evill unlesse she will sinne against her owne conscience This is Bellarmines lesson and that must bee your Faith Nay more Cardinall Tollet will assure you that if one beleeve his Bishop Toll de Instruct sacerd l. 4. c. 3. although it be contrary to the faith yet in beleeving that falshood hee shall performe an act meritorious I understand you are a Jesuite and therefore I doe not much wonder that you so much insist upon the justification of an implicite faith for you had it from your founder and are injoyned to make it good by your owne Order There is a little Pamphlet entituled Regulae Societatis Jesu which your selves have caused to be printed at Lyons in which Ignatius Loyala the Spanish Souldier and Patron of your Sect Anticotton or a refutation of Cottons letter to the Queene Regent p. 24. printed at Lyons by Jaques Roussin Anno. 1607. hath laid downe these rules to your Societie Entertaine the command of your Superiour in the same sort as if it were the voice of Christ Againe Hold this undoubtedly that all which a Superiour commands is no other than the commandement of God himselfe and as in beleeving those things which the Catholike faith proposeth you are presently carried with all the strength of your consent so for the performance of all those things which your Superiour commands you must be carried with a certaine blinde impetuosity of will desirous to obey without further inquiring why or wherefore And lest that such command might seeme sometimes unjust and absurd he commands your Jesuits so to captivate their understanding that they sift not the commands of their Superiours but that they may follow the example of Abraham who prepared even to sacrifice his sonne at the commandement of God and of Abbot John who watered a drie log of wood a whole yeare together to none other purpose but to exercise his obedience and another time put himselfe to thrusting downe of a great Rocke which many men together were not able to move not that hee held them things either usuall or possible but onely that hee would not disobey the command of his Superiour This is that blind obedience and implicite faith which wee laugh at and this is the ridiculous Doctrine which your Rhemists teach He saith enough Rbem Annot. in Luc. 12.11 and defendeth himselfe sufficiently who answereth he is a Catholike man and that his Church can give a reason of all the things which they demand of him But we have not so learned Christ wee are ready alwayes according to the Apostles instruction 1 Pet. 3.15 to give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us And for the better fulfilling of the Law and the Prophets wee testifie with Moses Secret things belong to the Lord our God Deut. 29.29 but the things revealed belong to us and our children that we may doe all the words of the Law We say therefore particular knowledge is to be joyned with the assent of faith for no man can assent to that which hee never heard and therefore I thinke no man of understanding with a blind obedience and implicite faith will resigne up his eie-sight and looke through such spectacles as you have tempered for them For without doubt it was the constant and uniforme Doctrine of the ancient Church that howsoever faith apprehends mysteries not to bee inquired into yet the proposition and doctrine of all the Articles of Faith were distinctly taught and conceived by all and thereupon Theodoret who was then living gives us to understand that in his dayes You might see every where the points of our Faith to bee held and knowne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Theod. Graec. Serm. 5. not onely to them who are Masters in the Church and Teachers of the people but even of Coblers Smiths and Weavers and all kinde of Artificers of all sorts of women and all these you may finde saith he discoursing of the Trinitie and the creation of all things CHAP. II. The summe of his Answer to my first Section THe Church of Rome not without cause bitter against the Reformed Churches because they are Heretikes Theodoret is impertinently alledged Bellarmine is falsified The Catholike Church cannot be depraved because of her promises And this setting aside your reproches and impertinencies is the substance of your second Chapter in answer to my first Section The Reply First you say in your Title The Church of Rome not bitter against Heretikes It is true the Church of Rome is not bitter against Heretikes as you understand them for Protestants for they are no Heretikes but if the termes of Luthers whelpes Hell-hounds of Zwinglius damned persons and worse than Infidels if such termes I say be Catholike complements which your fellow Jesuits have given us I shall freely confesse your Charitie is mistaken But say you the word Heretike which is the worst of all hath ever gone with such as have held new particular doctrines 1 John 2. and such St. John calleth Antichrists Surely you have my assent and wishes with you that is that the name of Heretike may alwayes goe as it hath gone with such as teach new and Antichristian doctrine But let me tell you this description of yours is a perfect Character of the Roman Church and I verily beleeve that if all the pictures and patternes of a Papist were lost in the world they might all againe be recovered and a Papist painted to the life in the description of such an Heretike as you here define Looke upon the particular doctrines of private Masse your halfe Communion your Prayer in an unknowne Tongue and tell me if these be not new why
beyond exception who spake as it were prophetically of the Church of Rome in her most flourishing state St. Hierome writing to Marcella a noble Lady exhorteth her to depart from Rome which he compares to Babylon Hier. ad Marcel Ep. 17. Tō 1. p. mihi 156. Reade saith he the Revelation of St. John and consider that which is there said of the woman clothed in purple of the blasphemy written in her forehead of the seven Mountaines of the great waters of the fall of Babylon Goe out from thence my people Babylon is falne and is become the habitation of Divels and the hold and cage of every foule spirit Now that wee might understand this was not spoken by him of heathen Rome he adjoyneth these words following Est quidem ibi sancta Ecclesia There is a true or holy Church there are the Trophies of the Saints and Martyrs there is the true confession of Christ published by the Apostle Ludovicus Vives your very friend in commenting upon this place tells us that St. Hierome thinketh there is no other Babylon described by St. John in the Revelation than the City of Rome But now saith he it hath put off the name of Babylon Lud. Vives in August de Civ Dei l. 18. c. 22. there is no confusion now you cannot buy any thing now in matter of Religion without a faire pretence of holy Law for selling it yet may you buy or sell almost any kinde of cause holy or hellish for money In D. August Annot. Ludov. Vives prohibentur nisi corrigantur Ind. l. prohibit Class 2. For this and the like passages your Vives is forbidden till hee be purged I must confesse I doe not thinke that the Rhemists would have interpreted Babylon for Rome if it had not beene to prove Peters being at Rome It is happy therefore for you that Peter wrote his Epistle from Babylon for otherwise your succession from Peter had beene questioned and it is as well for us that you are contented to allow Babylon for Rome for by this meanes your Antichristian Doctrine is discovered and your succession of Peters faith is quite abolished But say you if you meane as you expresse your selfe that a true Church may bee depraved I know not what to say but to stop my eares against that mouth of blasphemie And is it blasphemie to say a true Church may be depraved Sure I am it is not blasphemie against the holy Ghost for the mouth of St. Paul hath spoken it in parricular to the Roman Church even at that time when she was a most incorrupt Church Towards thee goodnes Rom. 11.22 if thou continue in his goodnesse otherwise thou also shalt be cut off And may not a Church thinke you be depraved that is in possibility of being cut off What thinke you of the Church of Hierusalem Psalm 48.19 Did not the Prophet David terme it the City of God and was it not afterwards termed a Harlot by the Prophet Esay What say you to the Temple of Solomon was it not termed by him 1 Kings 8.20 the house of Prayer and in Christs time was not that house of Prayer become a denne of Theeves Mat. 21.14 He that sayes Antichrist shall sit in the Temple of God doth plainely intimate that the true Church may be depraved and that before his comming there was a true Church In his answer to Card. Peron p. 9. Eng. What Babylon is saith learned Casaubon thus much the matter it selfe doth plainly shew that whether some private Church be understood in that place by the name of Babylon or the greater part of the whole it was before this a true Church with which the religious might religiously communicate but after it was more depraved the religious are commanded to goe out and to breake off communion with her And as touching the authority you cite that he would be with them to the worlds end that the Church is built upon a Rocke that the gates of Hell should not prevaile against it these promises I say concerne no more the particular Roman Church than the seven Churches of Asia that are falne away The blasphemie then you lay to my charge if any such be is but against your Roman Church and of such blasphemie many of your best learned are guilty in acknowledging a depravation of their faith notwithstanding all the promises of Christ to the Catholicke and universall Church Your Bishop of Bitonto by way of prevention cryes aloud in your Councell of Trent Cornel. in Concil Trident. Would to God they were not wholly with generall consent gone from religion to superstition from faith to infidelitie from Christ to Antichrist I could bring you a world of complaints against the falling away and depravation of your Roman Faith but that your eares will not endure such blasphemie Howsoever since your best learned have acknowledged Babylon to bee meant by Rome and that Rome is falne from her first faith Jerem. 51.6.9 I say with the Prophet Jeremie Fly out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soule we would have healed Babylon but she is not healed forsake her and let us goe everie one into his owne Country for her judgement reacheth unto Heaven and is lifted up even unto the skies CHAP. III. The summe of his Answer to my second and third Sections IN the second Section he saith I labour to prove the contention betwixt the Churches to proceed originally from them The third Section is to prove the corruption both in faith and manners Both which are easily answered First by asking what is this to the purpose for the visible Church Secondly with the contradiction of a former lye he telleth a new one for the Reformation was sought for manners onely and not for doctrine This is the substance of your third Chapter in answer to my second and third Sections The Reply You have answered two Sections almost in two words the first in denying it to be to the purpose the latter in giving me the lye And thus like another Caesar you have briefly expressed the expedition of your victory in few words Veni vidi vici I came I saw I overcame First you demand what is this to the purpose of a visible Church But I rather wonder to what purpose you make such a demand For my Booke is entitled The Safe Way not the visibility of the Church Yet let me tell you the Authors which I cite are for the most part members of your Church and their authorities tend much to the proofe of a visible Church if your Index Expurgatorius did not spunge them and cause their testimonies to be often invisible For instance in our behalfe I cite Cassander To Cassander you answer he is like your selfe an Hereticke or next doore to them and yet elsewhere you say with much adoe he may passe for a Catholike Pag. 21. Oportet esse memorem I cite Cecenas Generall of the
Crakenthorpe and accordingly there was an oath proposed severally to be taken in this manner I vow and sweare true obedience to the Bishop of Rome Bulla Pii 4. c. And all other things likewise doe I undoubtedly receive and confesse which are delivered defined and declared by the sacred Canons and generall Councels and especially the holy Councell of Trent and withall I condemne reject and accurse all things that are contrary hereunto and all Heresies whatsoever condemned rejected and accursed by the Church and that I will be carefull this true Catholike faith out of the which no man can be saved which at this time I willingly professe and truly hold be constantly with Gods helpe retained and confessed whole and inviolate to the last gaspe and by those that are under me or such as I shall have charge over in my calling holden taught and preached to the uttermost of my power I the said N. promise vow and sweare So God me helpe and his holy Gospels Now what good saith Dudithius could be done in that Councell Andr. Dudithius in Ep. ad Maximil 2. which onely numbred but never weighed suffrages Though our cause was never so good we could not come off with victory for to every one of us the Pope was able to oppose an hundred of his owne This Author was sent as Ambassador to the Councell from the state and Clergy of Hungarie and he consirmes what I have testified of their proceedings But observe the mysterie of iniquitie displayed in your Councell after it had continued eighteen years Sess 25. c. 1. Decreâ— de Refor p. 312. and during the lives of eight Popes in conclusion they declared in their last Session contrarie to their former decree of Reformation that the Synod was chiefly called for restoring of Ecclesiasticall discipline and hereby is plainly discovered their deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse insomuch as I may truly say with that learned Gentleman and Translator of the Trent Historie The Bishops of Rome Sir Nathaniel Brent in Ep. to the Historie of Trent in stead of being Christs holy Vicars as they pretend have beene the greatest and most pernicious quacksalving Juglers that ever the earth did beare Those Bishops therefore that boast of the Law of God and make as it were a covenant with him to renew the ancient Faith and restore it to her first integritie as your Trent Bishops professed let them consider with themselves how neare that Prophesie of David doth concerne them who deny a Reformation For unto the ungodly said God why dost thou preach my Lawes Psal 50.16 17. and takest my Covenant in thy mouth whereas thou hatest to bee reformed and hast cast my words behinde thee CHAP. IV. The summe of his Answer to my Fourth Section TO this Section the title whereof is That many learned Romanists have falne from the Catholike Faith to be Protestants he saith the Catholike Faith is indivisible and they that renounce it in part renounce it in all Hee affirmeth that in Priests who cannot conteine to marry it is a greater sinne than to keepe a concubine This is the substance of his fourth Chapter in answer to my fourth Section The Reply I shewed in my fourth Section that many learned Romanists convicted by evidence of truth either in part or in whole renounced Poperie before their death Pag. 58. That some have renounced the same inpart say you is foolishly said for no man can renounce the Catholike Faith in part it being indivisible If I shall prove your assertion to bee a strange Paradoxe the foolishnesse will returne into your owne bosome For the better illustration therefore of your Tenet Oratio in laudem Athanasii heare what division Gregory Nazianzen makes upon that ground When one taketh up water in his hand saith he not onely that which he taketh not up but that also which runneth forth and findeth passage betweene his fingers is divided and separated from that which he holdeth and incloseth in his hand so not onely the open and professed enemies of the Catholike Faith but they also that seeme to be her best and greatest friends are sometimes divided one from another What thinke you of this ancient Father Is your Faith indivisible by his Doctrine or will you say it is foolishly spoken of him But say you he that ceaseth to beleeve one point ceaseth to beleeve any one as he should And is this wisely spoken thinke you Is not this your latter error greater than the first For proofe therefore of your assertion shew mee that man who before the Councell of Trent held all the points of your Faith as they are now taught and received in your Church I say give me but one since the Apostles time who within the compasse of fifteene hundred yeares beleeved all your doctrines of Faith entirely in all points and for that one mans sake I will confesse your Faith is indivisible and submit my obedience to your Church Your Index Expurgatorius discovers the weaknesse of your opinion I speake not of Authors which were condemned in your first and third Classis for Heretikes Propter suspectam doctrinam Ind. lib prohibit but of those Romanists who in the second Classis are purged for their suspected doctrine as you terme it and yet never forsooke your Church I dare confidently avow that there are above foure hundred of those Classicall Authors all members of the Roman Church never excommunicated never condemned for heresie in your Church and yet are commanded by your Inquisitors to be blotted out in some particular points of doctrine which make against your Trent Faith If these men therefore have renounced your Faith in part how is your Faith indivisible Or if they cease to beleeve one point why doth your Church cite their testimonies and allow their opinions in other doctrines consonant to your Church when as by your Tenet he that ceaseth to beleeve one point ceaseth to beleeve any one as he should If you should forsake all Authors that forsake your doctrine in part or in some particular points you will generally suffer a Recoverie against your owne Church I will give you but one instance It is the common Tenet of the Roman Church at this day that the blessed Virgin was conceived without originall sinne yet the contrarie Tenet is likewise maintained by the members of your owne Church Ludovicus Vives tells us that two orders of Friers Ludov Vives in lib. 20. de Civit Dei cap. 26. p. 828. both fierce and both led with undaunted Generals set this question a foote the Dominicans by Thomas Aquinas and the Franciscans by Duns Scotus the Councell of Basill decreed that shee was wholly pure without all touch of sinne but the Dominicans objected that it was no lawfull Councell and the Minorites of the other side avowed that it was true and holy and called the Dominicans Heretikes for slandering the power of the Church so that the matter had come to
sense of the Calvinists and withall confesseth that St. Austins opinion is more probable If this I say may bee deemed raving then will I confesse your railing is a good answer But he despaires say you of his cause who seeth Maldonats saying practised by the Church of Rome against his Church and doctrine I confesse with the blessed Apostle Acts 5.38 39. If our counsell or worke be of men it will come to nought and then I might despaire of it but if it be of God yee cannot overthrow it lest happely yee be found even to fight against God We have no cause blessed be God to despaire of our Religion which in one Age hath spread over the better part of Christendome But I conceive there is little hope of you or your cause who have sold your selves either with Ahab to worke wickednesse and maintaine Idolatrous worship for your owne advantage or like Maldonat See Maldonat Col. 1536. Unum è duobus intelligatur necesse est aut tunc non scandaliz abimini cùm videritis filium hominis ascendentē ubi erat prius aut contra tunc magis scandaliz abimini prioremsensum plerique sequātur Chrysost Augustin c. Yet Maldonat followeth the latter openly to professe greater hatred to Protestants than love to the truth it selfe For it is apparent ex professo he preferreth his owne opinion without any authoritie before St. Austin nay contrarie to St. Austin and hee gives this reason for it Because this sense of mine doth more crosse the sense of the Calvinists But I may say to you as sometimes a Ludov. Viv. de Civ Dei l. 13. c. 24. Ludovicus Vives spake upon the like occasion St. Austin is now safe because of his age but if he were alive againe he should be shaken off as a bad Rhetoritian or a poore Grammarian And yet this good Saint was so farre from defending any opinion against the knowne truth that on the contrarie he preferreth the interpretation of b August contr Cresc Grammat l. 1. c. 32. l. 2. c. 32. p. mihi 218. 241. Cresconius a Grammarian before St. Cyprian the Martyr because it seemed to him more probable and agreeable to the truth CHAP. VI. The summe of his Answer to my Sixth Section THe Knight saith he seemes to acknowledge that he cannot assigne the time and persons when and by whom the errors of the Roman Church came in Good Physitians use to enquire of the causes effects and other circumstances and upon the circumstance dependeth the knowledge of the disease We pleade prescription for our doctrine from the beginning The difference betwixt Heresie and Apostasie The Church cannot fall away without some speciall note and observation The Reply I◠is to be wondered what art and policie your Church doth use to put off the triall of her cause when it should come to hearing If we speake of a depravation of your Faith you crie out it is blasphemie If we shew your owne mens complaints for a reformation of your doctrine you say they meant a reformation onely of Discipline If we plainly prove the noveltie of your Trent Articles by comparing them with the Tenets of ancient Religion you threaten to bring an action of the Case against us for slandering and defaming of your Church except we can assigne the precise time and person when those errors came in Let us use the words of your fellow Campian Can I imagine any to be stuffed in the nose Camp Rat. 2. that being forewarned cannot quickly smell out this subtle juggling Why doe you not rather complaine of the Noveltie of our doctrine and bid us shew the time when and the Authors who first broached our two Sacraments our Communion in both kindes our Praier in a knowne tongue our spirituall presence and the like if I faile in these then say The Knight seemeth to acknowledge he cannot doe it The errors in your Church which wee complaine of are negative Articles amongst us and the proofe lies on your side If you cannot shew Apostolicall Authors for your owne doctrine must we be therefore condemned because we doe not prove the Negative Or otherwise it must needes follow by your Logick that it is the same doctrine which was once delivered to the Saints because we cannot shew the first Author of it You cannot denie that there are many particular errors in the Church whose first Authors cannot be named by you nor us and therefore will you conclude they are no errors The custome of communicating little children in the Sacrament of the Lords bodie and bloud was an error and continued long in the ancient Church yet the first Author of it was not knowne There were many did hold there was a mitigation and suspension of the punishment of the damned in hell by the suffrages of the living this error was anciently received yet the first Anthor was not knowne The opinion that all Catholike Christians how wicked soever shall in the end be saved as by fire was an ancient error but the Author is not knowne Againe Alph. contr haeres verbo Indulgentia p. mihi 354. there are many things saith your Alphonsus knowne to later writers which the Ancients were altogether ignorant of There is seldome any mention of Transubstantiation amongst the Ancients almost none of Purgatorie what marvell if it so fall out with Indulg ences that there should bee no mention of them by the Ancients If therefore such errors crept into the Church in the first and best Ages which are now condemned by your selves and us without enquiring after the time and Authors that first broached them Nay more if your points of Faith as namely Transubstantiation Purgatorie and Indulgences were altogether unknowne to the Ancients as your men confesse why should you require us to shew the first Authors of your doctrines which were utterlie unknowne to the ancient Fathers Or rather why do you not condemn them with us as you do the errors which were received for true doctrines amongst the Ancients If St. Peter were at Rome no doubt the Church received beleeved his Prophesies There shal be false Teachers among you 2 Pet. 2.1 who privily shall bring in damnable heresie If the Apostle both forewarned you and us that errors and heresies must steale in privily sensim sine sensu secretly and by degrees into the true Church and yet would not reveale the Authors of the heresies what madnesse were it in you or us to passe by those damnable Heresies or rather to pleade for them because wee cannot learne the name of the false Teachers Vincentius Lyrinensis Vincent Lyr. de haeres c. 15. who was living 400. yeeres after the Apostles time complaines that certaine in his dayes did bring in errors secretly which a man saith he cannot soone finde out nor easily condemne The Serpent hides himselfe as much as hee can saith Tertullian and sheweth his chiefe skill in wreathing himselfe into folds Tertull.
was discovered and herein the Author the time and place was observed and knowne to all but in the Church of Rome it was otherwise there was first an Apostacie a falling away from the truth which was first caused by an error secretly stolne into the Church and therefore it is sometimes called a mystery of iniquity because mystically covertly secretly hee shall winde his abominations into the Church of God and accordingly the Apostle gives Timothy to understand that in the last times some shall depart from the faith 1 Tim. 4.1 giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils and such as speake falshood in Hypocrisie which place plainely shewes saith a learned Divine that Antichrist himselfe shall not professedly renounce Christ Mr. Bedel against Wadsworth p. 40. and his Baptisme that his kingdome is a revolt not from the outward profession but inward sinceritie and power of the Gospel And therefore all doe not understand Apostacie a forsaking of Christ and Christianity Not all no not the same Apostle where hee useth the same word Apostacie to the Thessalonians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 2 Thess 2.3 Let no man deceive you by any meanes for that day shall not come except there come an Apostacie a falling away first Hee speakes of the departing from the orthodox Faith not from Christianitie Not all no not your Rhemists in their Annotations upon this place Rhem. Annot. in 2 Thess 2.3 For it is very like say they be it spoken under correction that Gods Church and all learned Catholikes that this great defection and revolt shall not be onely from the Roman Emperour but especially from the Roman Church and withall from most points of Christian Religion or as they interpret in their Margin from most Articles of the Christian faith Not all no not Campian your fellow Jesuite who termes Luther an Apostata for falling from your Church not from Christianity Not all no not your Decretals who terme a Monke for leaving his Order or a Clarke forsaking his habit an Apostata Not all no not Gregory the Great Greg. l. 6. Ep. 24. who called John Bishop of Constantinople an Apostata for assuming the title of universall Bishop Lastly Not all no not your Councell of Basil where 900. condemned and deposed your Pope Eugenius for a Symonist Concil Basil sess 34. a forsworn man a man incorrigible a Schismaticke an Apostata a man fallen from the faith and a wilfull Hereticke I say therefore not all nor any of these did understand an Apostacie to be a forsaking of the name of Christ and Christianity and therefore I hope you will confesse that your assertion is neither Catholike nor universall When therfore we lay Apostacie to your Church we doe not charge you with a totall falling from Christian Religion like that of Julian the Apostata with an obstinate pertinacie in denying the principles of the faith necessarie to salvation or a renouncing your Baptisme and consequently the name of Christianitie Wee charge you not with Apostacie in such a fearefull and horrible sense unlesse you will assume it to your selves Lyra in 2. Thess 2. but wee thinke with Lyra that as there was an Apostacie or revolt of many Kingdomes from the Roman Empire and of many Churches from the Communion of the Roman Church so there hath beene an Apostacie from the Catholike saith in the midst of the Church not for that all at any time did forsake the true Faith but for that many fell from the sinceritie of the Faith After your definition of Apostacie you proceed in this manner How then can we be Apostatas in no wise certainely but if wee erre wee erre as heretikes and if wee be heretikes you confesse you must assigne the persons time and place I have cleared you from the hainous title of Apostata in your owne sense but not in ours D. Potter p. 19. 60. yet let me tell you with griefe and pitty be it spoken your profane and wicked application of the Apostles Creed as you pretend in jests is a fearefull signe of falling from Christ and Christianitie it selfe and therfore although I may free your Church in generall of that name and in that sense yet it behoves you to acquit your selfe in that particular But this by way of friendly admonition If we erre say you wee erre as heretikes I shall easily condescend unto you in that For the errors in the Roman Church caused an Apostacie at first and was mysticall and secret now after long practise and usage in the Church is become an heresie and so wee may truely assent unto you that you erre as heretikes And although I am not bound upon this acknowledgment forthwith to assign you the Authors of your heresies because they came in by degrees and at severall times privily and insensibly yet because you are so inquisitive after you predecessors Ecclefia sua definitione non facit talem assertionem esse haeresin cum etiamsi ipsa non desnivisset esset haeresis sed id efficit Ecclesia ut nobis persuam censuram pateat illud esse heresin Alph. à Castr l. 1. c. 8. D. Potter sect 4. p. 101. 97. if you will have but patience I will draw your pedigree in the next Section In the meane time let me tell you it is another errour in you to say They come to have the name of heresie onely by the condemnation of the Church For the Church condemnes them because they are heresies contrariwise they are not heresies because the Church condemnes them The Doctrines of Arrius Macedonius Nestorius Eutyches Eunomius and Dioscurus were themselves hereticall even before they were solemnly condemned in the foure generall Councels but woe to us and all the reformed Churches if this Tenet were true and Catholike for then are wee condemned already But I pray what if your Pope whom you Jesuites now make the onely Church admit I say your Pope were an Heretike such as was your Pope Eugenius or your John the 23. or Pope Vigilius or Pope Honorius were they able to judge of heresies in others that were tainted with them themselves or must their definitive sentence in Cathedra stand for a Law Si autem Papa erraret praecipien â—o vitia vel prohibendo virtutes c. Bell. de Pont. l. 4. c. 5. Sand. de visibili Monarch l. 7. An. 1541. p. mihi 595. and make that heresie which is no heresie Indeed your Cardinall sayes The Pope hath power to make that no sinne which is sinne and accordingly he hath placed that Tenet amongst the Heretikes and by the same Law he makes that to be heresie which is no heresie Your learned Sanders tells us it is heresie to translate the Scriptures into the vulgar Tongue and accordingly he hath placed that Tenet amongst the Heretikes Your Chancellor of Paris and Director of the Councell of Constance tells us it is heresie to communicate in both kindes and accordingly
he hath wrote a Tract De haeresi communicandi sub utrâque specie And to passe by all the Trent Articles the deniall of all or any of which makes a man an Heretike your infallible Pope Nicholas proclaimeth Qui Romanae Ecclesiae privilegium auferre conatur hicproculdubio labitur in haeresin that whosoever goeth about to abrogate the priviledges of the Church of Rome he is no doubt an Heretike If the deniall of all or any of these make an Heretike there is no doubt all the Reformed Churches stand guilty of that capitall crime by the law of your Church and your Popes doome Yet let me tell you the Scriptures were translated into all Languages in the Primitive times and Christ and his Apostles did communicate in both kindes and your first foure generall Councels did bound and limit those privile dges of the Church of Rome which are now extended into all parts of the Christian world and were all these Heretikes If you call this Heresie goe on and fill up the measure of your wrath untill the time come that Christ and his Saints acquit us or condemne us of that imputation In the meane time you shall doe well to reflect upon your selfe and consider rather the case at this day betwixt the Sorbonists and the Jesuites which meerely toucheth your owne particular Aurcl in vindiciis pag. 383. Idem in libro sine titulo Hermannus Laemelius that is to say John Floyd termes the propositions of the Parisians destructive to the Church and hereticall on the other side they accuse him of heresie Hadier in ad mâ—ait ad Lect. p. 8. 9. 16. 24. blasphemie and impietie and the like Are you all members of one Church under one head the Pope and are your propositions different and hereticall on both sides and must I say that you and the rest have the name of heresie onely by the condemnation of the Church But you are sure the Pope will not condemne his owne members and without his judgment they are but words of course or at best but course phrases delivered in heate against an adversary For say you The Fathers did forbeare absolutely to condemne things for heresies till they had acquainted the Bishop of Rome and had his judgement as is cleere by St. Cyrill of Alexandria in the case of Nestorius Neither doe we denie that in this and the like case the Bishop of Rome ought to be acquainted For Nestorius was Patriarch of Constantinople and therefore good reason the Bishop of Rome as another Patriarch should be acquainted with it that hee might be judged by his Peeres but in other cases they sent Letters without acquainting the Bishop of Rome neither ought you to require or expect that we should produce any such letters of premonition against the points of Trent doctrine for which we now condemne you because those errors which then began to spring in the Church by custome and pertinacies became heresies in many ages after About that time and in that very Age St. Austin condemned the superstition of some in worshipping Sepulchers and Images which at this day is an Article of your Faith but you answer that he condemned the heathenish and superstitious worship of dead perhaps wicked mens tombs and pictures and for a solution of this place you referre me to Bellarmine It seems you could give me no satisfactory answer of your own and therefore you returne me to your Cardinal but I wonder why you do not recite his answer to this place I conceived that you were ashamed of it or there was some misprision that made you conceale it thereupon I have perused it and find that he hath falsified both the place and meaning of it As for instance whereas Austin saith Aug. de moribus Eccles â—a thot l. 1.6.34 p. mihi 774. ToÌ„ 1. Bell. de Reliquiis Sanct. l. 2. c. 4. I know many worshippers of tombes and pictures your Cardinall leaves out the word pistures and saith I know many worshippers of tombes and for his full solution he subjoyneth Austin wrote this in the beginning of his first conversion Again he cites another place of S. Austan as it were to illustrate the former without any respect or mention of the worshippers of pictures and tells us Ibid. that the Emperour did pray at the Sepulcher of St. Peter yet proves not the point in question that he did worship the Sepulcher it selfe for who doubts but that we also may worship God at St. Peters shrine and yet not wo ship the shrine it selfe Nay hee goeth on further and she wes that Austin did not reprehend Chrysostome and Hierome but the ignorant sort of people for Chrysostome saith Let us adore the Tombes of Martyrs when as there are no such words in Chrysostome but rather Let us adorne them Ut Tumulos Martyrum de center cur ari Chrys And whereas he saith further that Hierome wisheth Marcella a Ladie to worship the ashes of the Prophets in Bethlem so likewise I say he doth wish her in the same place to lick their dust and therefore it was not to be understood as a thing spoken properly but figuratively For elsewhere he saith expresly against Vigilantius I say not we worship not nor adore thereliques of Martyrs but neither the Sunne nor the Moone nor Angels nor Archangels nor Cherubin nor Seraphin Neither did S. Austin speak as you say of the heathenish and superstitious worshipping of wicked mens Tombes Andr. resp ad Card. Bell. pag. mihi 49. but of them which in ipsa vera Religione in true Religion were worshippers of pictures and shrines For he shewes that his owne mother Monica did usually bring to the shrines of Saints certaine Bread and Wine August Confes l. 6. c. 2. and other provision but because the celebrating after the manner of the memory of the dead did very much resemble the superstition of the heathen she was forbidden it by St. Ambrose which forbidding saith he shee did so piously and obediently embrace as that my selfe did wonder to see her made with such ease rather a condemner of her owne ancient custome than a questioner of the present prohibition For a conclusion whereas you would excuse it that St. Austin did condemne onely the superstitious worship of wicked mens Tombes your men are likewise guiltie of the same worship For your owne Cardinall will tell you Bell. de Sanct. Beat. l. 1. c. 7. that the people of the Roman Church did for a long time celebrate Sulpitius for a Martyr who afterwards did appeare and told them that he had heene a theefe and was damned Idem ibid. And that Alexander the third reprehended certaine men for worshipping one as a Martyr that was killed in his drunkennesse and thus to use your owne words for these I send you backe againe to Bellarmine for an answer I come to the rest of your answers First I cited out of Ferus that Masses Monasteries Ceremonies
Feasts Images are otherwise now used than they were in the beginning I produced likewise Polydore Virgil Erasmus Scotus Agrippa Cassander Gregorie de Valentia in severall points against your new doctrine now let us heare your severall answers to them Touching Ferus he is a Frier say you in your Bookes but not in ours save onely in the Roman Index of forbidden Bookes Touching Polydore he saith as the Knight telleth us and as much as any Heretike can say but it booteth not for his Booke is forbidden Touching Erasmus he is no Authour for us to answer he is branded in the Roman Index Touching Scotus you neither condemne him nor answer him he tells you plainly that Transubstantiation was not received for a point of Faith till the Councell of Lateran above 1200. yeares after Christ but of this passage Ne gry quidem And yet you might have answered with Bellarmine this opinion of his is no way to be allowed or with Gregorie de Valentia for this saying he ought to be corrected As touching Agrippa and Cassander you will not vouchsafe them an answere but reject them inter damnatos authores as men to be cast out of your Synagogue Lastly touching Gregorie de Valentia you sav his authoritie doth make against the Knight why else should he corrupt and mangle it But whether I or you have corrupted it let the Reader judge my words were these The Communion in one kind when it got first footing in the Church minimè constat it doth not appeare saith Greg de Valentia Youto prove my corruption cite the words in this manner When that custome began in some Churches it appeareth not but that there hath been some use of one kind ever from the beginning I shewed before so Valentia and thus you But in truth this is none of Valentia's own period but one of your owne making who cunningly joyne the latter words which follow in Valentia 4. or 5. lines after to the former with a But which is none of Valentia's the former part of the period is notably mangled by you For thus it stands When that custome began in some Churches Augustana Confessio it appeares not as is acknowledged by the Augustane Confession Now in that Confession the words are these The custome of both kindes remained long in the Church neither doth it appeare when or by what Author it was changed so that he plainly speaketh of the Church in general sheweth the corruption here pretended by M. Floyd to be but a cavill viz. That Valentia saith this not of the Church in generall but of some particular Churches Thus either you blot prohibit all Authors that make forus although they be members of your own Church or else you vouch safethem no answer or else you quarrell without any just occasion offred and this wil prove an easie way for the weakest scholar in your Church to answer all that can be produced against your faith and doctrine Now as the Reader hath heard your answer in the generall so let him see your exceptions to the particulars For whereas I said with St. Paul Forbidding of marriage is a doctrine of Devils you answer as if you were angrie with St. Paul that he hath been answered more often than the Knight hath fingers and toes and it seems for that reason you will vouch safe him no answer at all This puts me in minde of the saying of Ludovicus Vives amember of your owne Church who assures us Lud. Vives de Civ Dei l. 13. c. 24. If St. Paul were living in these dayes he would be held either a mad man or an heretike And since you will not resolve me of St. Pauls meaning in that place I will appeale to St. Bernard an Abbot who was restrained from marriage by the law of your Church who speaking of that restraint gives us the true sense and exposition of St. Paul in these words All heresies have an heretike for their founder the Maniches had Manes Bernard in Cant. Serm. 66. the Sabellians had Sabellicus the Arrians had Arrius c. so that we know the Authors of those plagues but by what name will you terme the Author of those that forbid marriage Surely it is not of man or by man and far be it from the spirit-of God but it is foretold by the Apostle St. Paul to be the fraud doctrine of devils But marriage fay you is not a thing evil in it selfe but because it lesse agreeth with the holinesse which is required for the exercise of Priestly function I pray then what thinke you of a concubine Doth companie with her better agree for exercise of your sunction than with a wife Sure I am this is the doctrine of your Church nay more your Pope Siricius would inferre by authoritie of Scripture that martiage is unholy in it selfe for he cites the Text for it They that live in the flesh cannot please God Qui in carne sunt Deoplacere non possunt Now I pray you what difference is there betwixt the ancient heretikes and the members of your Church The Montanists the Tatiani the Eucratitae did not prohibite marriage to all no more than you doe but onely to their perfecti as being a disparagement to their perfect estate or as you interpret not agreeing to the holines of Priesthood Again whereas I proved out of Polydore that the marriage of Priests was not altogether forbidden till the time of Gregorie the 7. that is to say above a thousand yeares after Christ you answer that which Polydore cites is most evidently false as appeareth particularly by a Canon of the first Councell of Nice and the second Councell of Carthage Now if Polydore were mistaken it concernes not me for I cited him truly and he is a member of your Church but the truth is you are much mistaken touching those two Councels Sozom. l. 1. c. 22. For the Councell of Nice saith Sozomen commended Paphnutius judgement and touching this matter of mariage made to decree an all but left it to each mans owne will without any force of necessity And the Councell of Carthage forbiddeth not marriage in Priests but commandeth abstinence from marriage rites for a certaine time as St. Paul doth that they may more freely give themselves to prayer and the offices of their sacred function Which plainly shewes that both Priests were married in those dayes and consequently that those two Councels make flatly against you But Marius say you cannot find the beginning of this prohibition Polydore findeth it and yet both make for the Knights purpose And without doubt they doe for they contradict not one the other Polydore speaketh of publike absolute and reall prohibition Marius of the first condemning it in any Priest and these confessions may well stand together CHAP. VII The summe of his Answer to Sect. 7. 1. That the imputations of ancient Haeresies are false 2. That Succession besides Antiquity importeth continuance and perpetuity
without intermission 3. That Protestants have no shaddow of succession in person or doctrine 4. That Papists have a most cleare personall succession being able to shew 200. and odde Popes succeeding the other in place and office 5. That personall succession is a firme argument of succession in faith IT is my promise in my seventh Section to shew a descent of both Religions as namely that the Romish faith was derived from antient Haeretiks and the Protestant faith was drawne downe from Christ and his Apostles But say you It is one thing to prove a thing to have beene anciently taught another to have beene successively taught It is true Antiquity and Succession differ neither did I undertake to prove that those Haeretikes or your Church had a perpetuall succession in person and doctrine but for the truths sake I have acknowledged the antiquity of your Trent faith although descended from ancient Haeretikes and I made the first instance in Latin Service and prayer in a strange tongue brought in by Pope Vitolian as is witnessed by Wolphius but you cry out It is a most strange absurdity to averre fuch a knowne falsehood upon no other authority pag. 87. then a professed Haeretike And is he an Haeretike that speaketh the truth of your Religion What say you to your prime Champion Mr. Harding He saith expresly About nine hundred yeares past it is certaine the people in some Countries had their service in an unknowne tongue Iuel in his 3. Article Divis 1. as it shall be proved of our owne Country of England Now observe the difference Wolphius said the Latin Service came in after Christ about the yeare 666. Mr. Harding who wrote these 67. yeares since as appeares by Bishop Iuels Epistle tells us it came in 900. yeares past compute Wolphius 666. with Mr. Hardings time of 967. and you shall finde that they agree about one and the same time and therefore it was neither absurd nor false which Wolphius uttered Neither doe you disprove the reason of Wolphius but you make a quâ—ere upon his assertion During his 600. and odd yeares what other Lyturgies were there in the Latin Church but Latin And I may aswell say what were there in the Greeke Church but Greeke But this demand maketh against your Service in an unknowne tongue not against Wolphius who affirmeth not that the Latin Service was not in the Latin Church before the yeare 666. but that the Pope obtruded it upon all Churches even there where the Latin was not understood as in England saith Mr. Harding and elsewhere For Origen tells us before that time Orig contrd Celsum lib. 8. the Greekes call upon God in the Greeke tongue and the Latins in the Latin tongue and all severall Nations pray unto God and praise him in their owne natur all and mother tongues for he that is the Lord of all tongues heareth men praying in all tongues none otherwise then if it were one voice pronounced by divers tongues for God that ruleth the whole world is not as some one man that hath gotten the Greeke or Latin and knoweth none-other The ancient Primitive Churches therefore taught the Doctrine in a knowne tongue agreeable to the profession at this day But the truth is A. 30.666 A. 1.666 T. 300.666 E. 5.666 I. 10.666 N. 50.666 O. 70.666 M. 200.666 Sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nomen sexcentinum sexagiata sex numeruÌ„ habens valde verisimile est quonlam verissimum nomen hobet vocabulum Latini enim sunt qui nunc regnaÌ„t sed non in hoc nos gloriabimur Irenae l 5. cap 25. p mihi 355. the Latin Service and the name of the Latin Church is one of the most essentiall markes of the Roman Hierarchie And I know not whether it were by conjecture or by inspiration that Irenaeus above foureteene hundred yeares agoe in the word Lateinos found out the name of Antichrist and the number of 666. The name Lateinos saith he conteining the number of six hundred sixty six is very likely because the truest kingdome hath that name for they are the Latines that now raigne but saith he we will not glory in this You proceede to the Haeretikes Ossem and you say first I am notably mistaken in placing them towards the Apostles time and withall you have read the Chapter there twice over and the second time more attentively then the first and yet you find not any such word so cited by mee First Trajan Anno 100. Bel. de script Eccles pag. mihi this Sect continued till Trajans time not an hundred yeares after the Apostles and therefore it was no errour in me to place them towards the Apostles time and if you please to peruse the place a third time with your Spectacles you shall find these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph heres 19 Nemo quaerat interpretationem sed solum in oratione haec dicat and there hee repeats a Prayer which if you peruse the Greeke text is more expresse Let no man inquire after the meaning only in his Prayer Let him say such words viz. such Hebrew words which Epiphanius there setteth downe Are not these Heretikes thinke you neere kinne to them who say Heare Latine Masse and say after the Priest it mattereth not whether you understand what hee saith or not From Epiphanius you flie to Saint Ambrose and there you make a great complaint that I put in words of my owne in the same Character with Saint Ambrose which are none of his as namely There were certaine Iewes amongst the Graecians Ambr. in 1 Cor. 14. as namely the Corinthians who did celebrate the Divine Service and Sacraments which the common people understood not I confesse ingenuously it is an errour in the print and I shall willingly alter the letter but not the words at the next impression But I confidently professe it is agreeable to the true sense and meaning of the Author and the strength of the argument is not in the words but in the sense and therfore I may truly answer you with S. Austine What folly is it to contend about words Aug. Ep. 174. when there is the certainty of the thing it selfe It cannot be denied that Ambrose taxeth the Hebrewes who amongst the Corinthians in Tractatibus oblationibus used sometimes the Syriack and sometimes the Hebrew tongue which without doubt the Greeks understood not And therefore in his Commentarie on this place hee gives the Hebrew to understand If you meet together to edifie the Church Ambr. in 1 Cor. 14. those things must be delivered which the hearers understand for to what purpose or profit is it that any one speake a tongue which hee himselfe onely understands and whereof hee that heareth can reape no fruit And a little after The Apostle saith I had rather speake five words in the Church according to the Law that I may edifie others than any long and large discourse in obscuritie Againe by
the Lords blood a Sacrilegious sleight Against these Heretikes also wrote another Bishop of Rome in the same age Grat. de Consecrat Dist 2. Comperimus namely Pope Gelasius We have intelligence saith hee that certaine men receiving only a portion of the sanctified Body abstain from the Cup of the sacred blood who for that it appeareth they be intangled with I know not what superstition let them either receive the whole Sacraments or be driven from the whole because the dividing and parting of one and the same mystery cannot be without grievous Sacrilege What thinke you of your halfe Communion you that brag so much of the antiquitie of your Church The Manichees without doubt were the first Authors of your Doctrine and by the suffrages of two infallible Popes your Sacrament is sacrilegious But say you as at that time the Church forbad the use of one kind so now it forbiddeth the use of both and may againe give way when it shall seeme convenient for the use of both kinds Thus you It seemes you make no scruple to thwart the Institution of Christ nor the Custom of the Ancient Church but because in this point your Church is branded with Sacrilege I thinke indeed you could be content to joyne with the Protestants and restore the Cup to the Lay-people but I would gladly know how it can be done Is not your Communion in one kind published and decreed by your Pope and Councell for an Article of Faith And is it in your Churches power to alter and dispense with Articles of Faith at her pleasure Bulla Pij 4 Act. 6. Concil Trid Sess 13 Surely this Confession proves that your Church can create new Articles of Beleefe which elsewhere you deny or else this is no Article of Faith being contrary to the practise of the first and best ages and by consequent your infallible Pope and Councell are guilty of Error and Sacrilege in a high degree For a conclusiō of this point you say the words Drinke yee all of this from whence we draw our succession in Doctrine were spoken to the Apostles and in them to Priests not to the Laitie By this reason who seeth not but you may aswell take the Bread from the Lay people as the Cup for that also was given onely to the Apostles but if the Cup were proper for the Priests onely why doe you deny it to your Non-conficient Priests doe they stand in the place of Lay people Nay more were not all Non-conficients at the time of Christs Institution what strange shifts and evasions hath your Church to uphold the Novelty of your faith I will give you but one testimony of Antiquity There is saith St. Chrysostome where the Priests differ nothing from the people Chrys 18. in 2. Corinth as when we must receive the dreadfull mysteries for it is not here as it was in the old Law where the Priest eates one part and the people another neither was it lawfull for the people to be partaker of those things of which the Priest was but now it is not so but rather one Body is proposed to all and one Cup to all To passe by innumerable authorities of the Ancients which you know are full in our behalfe I will shut up this haereticall point of doctrine for such is the foundation of it with a testimony of your owne side Gerard. Lorichius de Missa publica proroganda p. mihi There are some false Catholikes that feare not to stop the Reformation of the Church what they can these spare no blasphemy lest that other part of the Sacrament should be restored to the Lay people for say they Christ spake drinke yee all of this onely to the Apostles but the words of the Masse be these Take and eate yee all of this Here I would know of them whether this were spoken onely to the Apostles then must lay men abstaine likewise from the Element of bread which to say is an haeresie yea a pestilent and detestable blasphemy It is therefore consequent that both these words Eate yee Drinke yee were spoken to the whole Church Thus your Ancient Bishop of Rome termed your halfe Communion a Sacriledge and this latter Author of your owne termes it an haeresie and a pestilent Blasphemy and this may serve to prove your descent from the Haeretikes the Manichees in this point From your halfe Communion you proceede to your Invocation of Angels which I derived from the Haeretikes Angelici and for answer to them you say they were Haeretikes swarving from the rule of the Catholike faith by excesse that is honouring Angels more then their due And this is your very case for you doe not onely honour them but religiously worship them and call upon them I will compare your worship with theirs and let the Reader judge if you be not the children of those haereticall Authors called Angelici St. Austin saith Angelici in Angelorum cultu inclinati Aug. de haeres c. 35. Angelici vocati quia Angelos colunt Isid Orig in l. 8. c. 5. Rhem. Annot. in Apoc. 19. Sect. 4. that those haeretikes were inclined to the worship of Angels or as Isidore noteth they were called Angelici because they did worship Angels The one saith they were but inclined to worship the other saith they did worship On the other side you teach that there is a religious reverence honour and adoration which is not to be denied to Angels nay more you make it a point of Faith and have decreed that the Saints and Angels reigning with Christ are to be worshipped and prayed unto Art 8. in Bulla Pij 4. Thus whereas the ancient Haeretikes were but inclined to adoration your men have made it a doctrinall determination flatly to adore them and whereas they did worship them with a religious honour as a custome learned from the Heathen Philosophers you receive it as a Dogmaticall resolution of your Faith delivered by your Trent Fathers and surely in this if there be any excesse in the worship it is in your selves Againe those Haeretikes learned their lesson from the Gentiles For Celsus the Philosopher had said of the Angels Orig. lib. 8. contrà Celsum that they belong to God and in that respect we are to put our trust in them and make Oblations to them according to the Lawes and pray unto them that they may be favourable untous And is not this your very doctrine and yet these men say you swerve from the rule of the Catholike faith Observe then what was the Chatholike doctrine of those times Origen returnes his answer in the name of all true beleevers Idem Ibid. Away with Celsus councell saying that we must pray to Angels and let us not so much as afford any little audience to it Againe St. Chrysostome was living in the fourth age when Apostrophes began to be used to Saints and Angels yet hee telleth us it was the Devills doing to draw men unto the
so false and so apparently false as that it is not to be doubted but hee that shall averre it will make no soruple of any lie how lewd soever Thus you Good words and found proofes would better become men of your profession If you affirme that you have a Lineall Succession the proofe lyes on your side and when I shall see it as plainly proved as spoken I shall readily confesse my error till then let me tell you it is not your Catalogue of Popes which you say are sold and printed at London that can make a firme agreement of succession in Faith For by that reason our Queene Elizabeth of blessed memorie succeeded Queene Mary in Faith and consequently our Faith must be good by your owne confession By that reason Ahaz and Manasses that shut up the doore of the Temple succeeded David in the Faith By that reason Pope Liberius the Arrian succeeded Iulius a Catholike Bishop in the Faith By that reason your Cardinall Poole succeeded Bishop Cranmer our Protestant Martyr in the Faith This most firme Argument therefore as you call it is but weake and infirme and accordingly it was resolved by Saint Ambrose and the ancient Fathers Ambr. de Poenit. cap. They have not the succession of Peter that want the faith of Peter In fine if for no other cause yet for this alone your succession in Faith is interrupted because you your selfe confesse that some Articles which are received as points of Faith in your Church are different from those which were received in the Primitive Churches and therefore want succession in the true doctrine And that you may yet farther know there was an interruption of the true Faith in succeeding Ages Genebr Chrone lib. 4. your owne Genebrard confesseth that there were fifty Popes succeeding one another rather Apostaticall than Apostolicall Cardinall Bellarmine in his Chronologie tels us of six and twentie Schismes in the Papacie wherein it was questionable betwixt the Popes and Antipopes who were the true successors of Peter Your Cardinall Baronius tels us that base Harlots beare all the sway at Rome Baron An. 912. and gave Bishopricks at their pleasures and intruded their Paramours into Peters chaire false Popes whose names are written in the Catalogue of Popes onely to note and designe the times It is not then your Catalogue of Popes which you so much brag of that can free you from Heresie or make good your succession in the Faith and therefore I will conclude as I first began The pedigree of the Romish Faith is drawne downe from the ancient Heretikes and the Protestant Faith from Christ and his Apostles CHAP. VIII The summe of his Answer to Sect. 8. 1. That I allege but three Authors Adrian Coster and Harding and them falsly or impertinently for three severall points of the Protestant Faith none for the universality of it in generall as the title promiseth 2. That it is not sufficient to name some in the Roman Church who held some of our opinions but that I must shew a distinct companie from the Roman making a Church 3. That it is not to purpose to shew the Antiquitie and Vniversality of those points wherin we agree with you but in those other points wherein wee disagree 4. That if it were granted the Protestant Church in former ages lay hid in the bosome of the Roman Church that proveth it to have been invisible rather than visible The Reply IN the eighth Section I assumed to prove the Antiquitie and Vniversalitie of our Religion by and with the consenting testimonies of the Romane Church you tell mee It is a bold and unlikely adventure and it is shamelesse and impudent These words be like a house full of smoake without fire but what is the occasion of all this heinous complaint Forsooth the Knight bringeth not one Author I say not one for the Vniversalitie and Antiquitie of his Church And is this so grievous an accusation Surely I thought there was none so ignorant or impudent as to denie both the Vniversalitie and Antiquitie of three Creeds two Sacraments instituted by Christ the two and twentie books of Canonicall Scriptures of the first foure Generall Councels of the Apostolike Traditions of the Ancient Liturgies of the Ordination of Priests and Deacons These are our Tenets and these were the particular Instances which I made and to bring Authors for the proofe of these as if we made a doubt of that which all true Christians did generally receive and beleeve I say with St. Austin Insolentissimae dementiae Aug. It were a signe of most insolent madnesse But admit I should produce some Authors for proofe of this generall beleefe would their Authoritie free me from your termes of Shamelesse and impudent adventure Certainly no for say you If hee should have one two or three or ten men it would not be sufficient for him unlesse hee have the Authoritie of the Catholike Church or Church of Rome To cite many Authors or to bring none then is all alike to you for in your doome nothing will free mee from the name and punishment due to Heresie but the authoritie of the Church and yet in this you have granted mee more than I could expect for you have given mee liberty to take my authoritie from the Church so it be from the Catholike or the Roman And hereby you have made your Roman Church distinct from the Catholike which is most true which both you your selfe and most of your fellow Jesuits have made all one and confirmed by the title of Roman Catholike in all your writings This being granted I proceed to the rest of your exceptions In this Section say you he bringeth onely three Catholike Authors Adrian Costerus and Harding but no word for Antiquitie or universalitie Thus you Hee that shall reade my Section in Via tuta with this your Answer must needs confesse that you deale not fairly nor ingeniously with mee for sometimes you leape from the beginning of a Chapter to the end then you returne againe to the beginning being willing to conceale or confound the truth of my Assertions You so mingle my words with your own in the same Character that a prudent Reader can hardly discerne mine from yours but most usuall it is with you to cry down my words with bitter passages and decline the question in all As for Instance in this Section whereas I said the Church of Rome doth confesse the Antiquitie and Vniversalitie of our Religion long before Luther I instanced in our three Creeds and the rest before named One while you cry out of my impudencie that I cite no Authors another while that if I did cite them they would not serve my turne but you never mention either the Creeds or Scriptures or Councels or any of the points which you well knew had Antiquitie and Vniversalitie in the name and opinion of all Christians After that you flie to the later end of my Section and there you tell mee
Article of your Faith and ours and this is agreed on both sides to be without feare or perill of Idolatry Lastly as if you were guilty of false accusations you say suppose Adrian hath erred in this or in any other point doth it follow that he agreeeth with you in all other Then you tell a story of the Popes Bull against Luther You quarrell with your owne shadow for I had no relation at all to your Pope nor made any instance of him more then in a Marginall Note but since you stand so much upon the justification of his Doctrine hearken I pray wherein he maketh for you and wherein he is wholly against you Agrippa de vanit scient c. 64. p. mihi cap. de Lenonia Your Agrippa tells us that in these latter times Pope Adrian erected a most famous Stewes at Rome I confesse in this particular you may challenge him wholly for your owne But whereas you say he detested Luthers doctrine as most wicked and damnable you might have added likewise he wished a reformation of his owne and withall taught that doctrine for which you condemne both Luther and all his adherents for Haeretikes History of Trent l. 1. pag. 25. 26. 30. First witnesse his Nu tio Francisco Chiericato who had Commission from his Holinesse To ackowledge that the confusion of the Church was caused especially by the sinnes of Priests and Prelats confessing that some abhominations some yeares since were committed even in the Holy See that there were many abuses in spirituall things so that it may be said that the infirmity is passed from the head to the members from the Popes to the inferiour Pelates And lastly he resolves himselfe that he would use all diligence that the Church of Rome should be first reformed and the rather because hee saw all the world did earnestly desire it And that you may know the Church of Rome as well as the Court of Rome was fallen into errors and heresies hee himselfe publisheth that he heard it related of his Predecessor Pope Iohn the 22th That hee would have induced the Vniversitie of Paris to beleeve that the soules of the righteous doe not see God face to face and that no man should take his degree in Divinitie unlesse hee should first sweare to maintaine that perstiferous Heresie and perpetually to cleave unto it And that you may be assured hee was not wholly yours hee affirmeth for certaine one Position which would confound all Poperie Adrian in 4. de Sacram. Confir sub finem viz. That the Pope may erre even in things touching the Faith and avouch that which is Heresie y his determination or decree And thus your Pope Adrian complaines of many abominable things in his owne Church he tels us his Predecessor was reputed a Heretike he confesseth that both himselfe and all his Successors after him were in possibilitie of erring even in matters of Faith and it is very probable in his erring opinion hee began to erect that most noble Brothell-house in his owne See And thus much touching the Marginall note of Pope Adrian Your second exception is touching Costerus occasioned by these words Wee accuse them for taking away the Cup from the Lay-people they excuse it that it was not taken up by the commandment of the Bishops but is crept in the Bishops winking thereat saith Costerus In answer to this say you I would know what excuse you can find for such a notorious lye Let the Reader judge whether this modestie of yours deserve an Anser or whether this saying of Costerus may not be termed an Excuse Howbeit say you this custome came in not so much by the commandement of the Bishop as by the peoples use and practise Well take it as you would have it yet I say his meaning must bee understood not at all by the Commandement of the Bishops for that which is done by Command cannot bee said to have crept in But the truth is under colour of quarrelling with words and giving me the lye you seeke to dazle the eyes of your Reader and when you omit the weightier things of your Church then you question Where is Costerus testimony for Antiquitie Vniversalitie Certaintie and Safetie when as you know well this testimony was not cited for that ende And thus you straine at a Gnat and swallow a Camell Let us heare the rest of your verball discourse Since you are so shamelesse as to say That we doe not condemne you for receiving in both kinds Looke into the Councell of Trent and see whether you doe not finde a heavy curse c. Thus you And are you sure that your Councell hath sufficiently cursed us For following Christs example and receiving in both kinds for those were my very words Following Christs example which you altogether omitted If therefore we have altered any part of Christs Institution I say againe Curse on in Gods name and let your curses take effect but if the celebration of our Mysteries be answerable to his will and word that first ordained them you curse not us whom you would hurt but him that your cursed tongues cannot hurt which is God to be blessed for ever But let us heare your Councels The Councell of Trent say you layes a heavie curse against any that shall say that all and every of the Faithfull ought by the precept of God or necessitie of salvation to receive both kinds This cursing Councell toucheth not my Assertion for this Canon speaketh of the Precept of Christ whereas I spake of his Example onely Bell. de Euch 〈◊〉 cap. 7. and for proofe of this wee have Bellarmines testimony as well as ours It is not to be doubted but that is best and sittest to be practised which Christ himselfe hath done And therefore my Assertion still stands good viz You doe not condemne us for following Christs example Touching the Councell of Constance it condemnes not our receiving in both kinds but prevents the condemnation of her owne They decreed their halfe Communion with this Caution Concil Constant Sess 13. that If any should obstinately maintaine that it was unlawfull or erronious to receive in one kind hee ought to be punished and driven out as an Heretike And howsoever you would seeme to condemne our Assertion yet you condemne not our practise as unlawfull for the Councell of Basil not twentie yeares after your Decree in the Councell of Constance granted the use of the Cup to the Bohemians Your third exception is touching Mr. Harding who in the question betwixt him and Bishop Iuel of Private Masse stands not to justifie his solitary or private Masse but rather excuseth it in this manner Iuels Articles of Private Masse pag. That it is through their owne default and negligence whereof the godly and faithfull people have sithence the time of the Primitive Church much complained This say you hath no sense for here is a Relative Their without an Antecedent And let me tell you this
is a poore Pedanticall observation for to spend many lines about such toyes and trifling words and to passe by the maine sinew strength of the Citation this is to confesse in plaine termes that you cannot justifie your doctrine and the rather it appeares in this particular point wherein Master Harding doth not onely condemne the people for their neglect but excuseth hereby your Churches ordinance in generall as being not guilty of the coldnesse of the people Nay more hee plainly intimates the Antiquitie and Vniversalitie of our Doctrine in these words Iuel Divis 7. p. mihi 11. In case the people might be stirred to such devotion as to dispose themselves worthily to receive their Howsel every day with the Priest as they did in the Primitive Church what would these men have to say And as touching Safety and Certainty of our Doctrine hee freely expresseth his thoughts and liking of our Communion of Priest and People saying It were to be wished Iuel in Art 1. Divis 9 p. 17. as oftentimes as the Priest doth celebrate the high Sacrifice that there were some who worthily disposed might receive their Rites with him and be partakers Sacramentally of the Body and Blood of Christ with him and hee gives a reason for it Idem Divis 25. p. mihi 45. Because it would be more commendable and more godly on the Churches part And thus much touching your three Authors whom say you I have so egregiously belyed Touching your worshipping of Images I referre it to his proper Section And whereas wee charge you with flat Idolatrie in the adoration of the Sacrament of Reliques of Images and the like howsoever I say you excuse your selves with the manner of your adoration yet to our endlesse comfort be it spoken you cannot charge us in the Positive Doctrine of our Church no not with the least suspition of Idolatrie This I told you before and blessed be God you have not wherewith to charge us in your Reply But you say It is far greater evill for you to be truly charged with Heresie than for us to be charged with Idolatrie yet neither you nor all your fellow-Jesuits could ever prove us guilty of either But what may wee thinke of your Church which is justly charged and highly guilty of both Your Popes which the Jesuits resolve to be the Church are condemned for Heretikes by your Councels acknowledged Heretikes by the Popes themselves and condemned of Heresie by your best learned Divines Your worship of Images and Saints concludes in flat Idolatrie and in particular by the Doctrine of your owne Church the adoration of the Sacramentall Bread and Cup for want of a right intention becomes an Idoll in the Temple These things I have in part proved which in place convenient shall be more fully handled hereafter But it is observable after I had ended my Section with this point of Idolatrie I say after this conclusion you flye backe to the middle of the chapter and now question me where our Church was before Luther but when I answered that from your addition and Articles of Faith The question doth truly result upon your selves Where was your Church that is where was your Trent Doctrine and Articles of the Roman Creed received de fide before Luther You are so farre from shewing it that you cunningly suppressed these words and not so much as mentioned them and thus one while suppressing the point in question other whiles by declining the true state of the question you shew your wit is better than your cause and declare your Sophistrie to be better than your Divinitie But to follow you backe againe you say Wee must shew you a companie of men in former times distinct from yours It were no difficult matter to shew you many that did seperate both from you and the errours of your Church in former Ages The Waldenses were a distinct companie of Beleevers and separate from your Church above 500. yeares since Reinerius the Inquisitor confesseth upon their examination that hee found they had in one Diocese one and forty Schooles in another ten B. pp. Tom. 13. Reiner contrà Wald. cap. 3. p. mihi 299. and withall reckons up forty Churches by name in Lombardy in Province in France and other Kingdomes he protesteth that amongst all Sects There was none more pernitious to the Church of Rome than it and that for three causes First Ibid. because it is of longer continuance for some say it hath continued from the time of Sylvester which is three hundred yeares after Christ others say from the time of the Apostles Secondly because it is more Vniversall for there is scarse any Country wherein this Sect hath not crept Thirdly whereas all other sorts blaspheme God this Sect hath a great shew of godlinesse for they live justly before men they beleeve all rightly concerning God and the Articles of the Creed onely they speake evill of the Church of Rome and hate it and by this meanes draw multitudes to their beliefe after them Thus if you require Antiquity for their Doctrine they derive it either from Christ or from Sylvester 300. yeares after Christ if Vniversality all Countries were filled with their Doctrine if good life they lived well before men and beleeved all rightly concerning God and the Articles of their Faith and this the force of truth hath extorted from your grand Inquisitor Augustus Thuanus Presicent of the Parliament of Paris Thuan. hist Tom 1. 1550. p. 457. 465. tells us that these who are commonly called Waldenses Picards Albigenses Cathari Lollards though by their difference of place they had divers names yet they held the same faith which Wicliffe held in England and Husse in Bohemia and gathered strength at the comming of Luther especially in the Caparienses who professed a Religion agreeing almost in all things with Martin Luther But withall he ingeniously professeth that Cardinall Sadolet did examine them and found many things malitiously fained against them Poplinerius saith that about the yeare 1100. these men did publish their doctrine differing but a little from the Protestants Poplin Hist Franc. l. 1. Bb. Vsher de statu Eccl. c. 8. p. 209. not onely through France but also through all the coasts of Europe For both French Spaniards English Scots Italians Germans Bohemians Saxons Polonians Lituanians and other nations doe peremptorily defend it to this very day And by reason they separated from the doctrines of the Roman Church Pope Innocent the third about the yeare 1198. authorised certaine Monkes who had the full power of the Inquisition in their hands to deliver the people by thousands into the Magistrats hands and the Magistrats to the Executioners Histor of the Wald. c. 3. St. Dominick who instituted the order of the begging Monkes called Dominicans was a great persecutor of them and their doctrine The Mother of this Monke saith your Martyrologe Martyrologe in the life of St. Dominick P. mihi 556.
before he was yet borne dreamed that shee was delivered of a whelpe with a firebrand in his mouth with which he set the whole world on fire and your learned Doctors have interpreted this dreame that Dominick should be that dogge that should vomit out the fire which should consume the Haeretikes your infallible Pope likewise tells us that he saw in his sleepe the Church of St. John Lateran to totter and ready to fall Ibid. p. 562. and that St. Dominick supported it and held it up with his shoulders signifying thereby that he and those of his order should doe great good to the Catholike faith And howsoever these reports may passe for dreames yet this dog behaved himselfe so worthily in the persecution of those Christians that from that time forward the Monkes of his Order have bin alwayes imployed in the Inquisition Histor Wald. c. 2. But herein we may admire the great mercy and goodnesse of God unto this separate Church that notwithstanding this grievous persecution it was recorded by George Morell at that time a Pastor amongst the Waldenses that there were then remaining according to common report above eight hundred thousand persons that made profession of the same faith And thus breefely I have given you one company of men in former times distinct from yours If we looke beyond those times the Greeke Church was likewise separate from yours above eight hundred yeares agoe and differed in the points of Transubstantiation of Purgatory of private Masse of Prayer in an unknowne tongue of Marriage of Priests of the Communion in both kindes and the Popes Supremacy I say in all these they separated from your Church and this Church if you require Antiquity is before Rome in time if Vniversality she hath larger bounds and multitudes of people most of the Patriarchs seven universall Councels the Greeke tongue wherein the New Testament was written inso much as your Bishop of Bitonto was not ashamed publikely to professe It is our Mother Graecia Concil Trid. Episc Bitont unto whom the Latin Church is beholding for all that ever she hath And as touching the procession of the Holy Ghost which your men say they deny and therefore charge their Church with a knowne haeresie it may seeme rather that this is an aspersion laid upon them then any just exception Concil Florent Sess 35. For at the Councell of Florence about 200. yeares sithence your Pope Eugenius answered the Graeoians that he was well satisfied by them touching the procession of the Holy Ghost and that you may know they agreed with us in the principall points of our doctrine the Greeke Patriarch congratulates with the reformed Churches in this manner We give thanks to God the Author of all grace Patr. resp 2. in init resp 1. pag 148. and we rejoyce with many others but especially in this that in many things your doctrine is agreeable to our Church For a conclusion the Muscovites Armenians Aegyptians Aethiopians and divers other countries and Nations all members of the Greeke Church taught our doctrine from the Apostles time to ours This is so true an evidence in our behalfe that Bellarmine Bellarm. de ver Dei l. 2.6 ult in fine as it were in disdain of the Churches makes this answer We are no more moved with the examples of Muscovites Armenians Egyptians and Aethiopians then with the examples of Lutherans or Anabaptists and Calvinists for they are either Haeretikes or Schismatikes So that all Churches be they never so Catholike and Ancient if they subscribe not to the now Roman faith are either Schismaticall or Haereticall Thus I have briefely shewed you two sorts of Christians who were distinct from you and yet lived in the Communion of the Catholike Church I shewed you others also which lived and died in the bosome of the Roman Church but as farre different in opinion from your now professed Faith as those that went out from you The first sort separated themselves from your Church and Doctrine the latter continued in communion with you but separated themselves from the errors of prevayling faction in your Church the one sort you persecuted unto death for the other you cut out their tongues for speaking truth But you are not of it say you since the time you have begun to be against it And this you would inferre from Tertullian That us out of the mild fat and profitable Olive Tertull. de praescrip c. 36. the sower bastard Olive groweth so have errors fructified out of the true Church but became wild by untruth and lying degenerating from the graine of truth and so not yours and this doth fully answer the matter say you Surely if you compare the true and fruitfull Olive to your selves and us unto the bastard and wild Olive the matter as you say will be easily answered but this is to beg the point in question neither indeede can it be granted to you without a sinne against the Holy Ghost For the Spirit of God hath spoken it in particular to the Roman Church that Thou wert cut out of the Olive tree which is wild by nature Rom. 11.24 and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good Olive tree Now if the haeresies and errors which are compared to the wild Olive have sprung out of that good Olive tree into which you were first grafted or if the wild Olive is now returned to its owne nature I will say to you as sometimes Diogenes said to the Philosopher A me incipias erit verus sillogismus let the wild Olive be applied to your Church as it ought to be and the comparison will redound upon your selves and returne into your owne bosome From the Communion with your Church you question the Antiquity and Vniversality of those points wherein you differ from us and you would have me shew the deniall of them to have beene antiently and universally taught Pag. 121. Your demand to the first is unreasonable For it is sufficient for us that we professe that Faith which was once given to the Saints besides those new Articles which you thrust upon the Church are wholly yours and the proofe lies on your part to make good as being properly your owne on the other side to shew the deniall of them to have bin anciently taught is unsensible for the explicite deniall of them could not be taught till such Articles were offered and obtruded to us but the implicite deniall we prove by the positive doctrines of the Ancient Fathers which is incompatible with your new additions and corruptions From the Doctrine in generall you descend into the particulars and you say one of our Sacraments is an empty piece of Bread and a sup of wine Pag. 123. Hannibal of Carthage Cicero de Oratore lib. 2. when he heard Phormio the Orator talke pleasantly a long while together being afterwards demanded what he thought of his Eloquence made answer in this homely sort Multos se vidisse
elements is not reall and corporall but spirituall and sacramentall as that was in the Desert of which the Apostle speaketh the c 1 Cor. 10.4 spirituall rock followed them and that rock waes Christ When Manna fell and the rock was strucken Christ was not incarnate nor many hundred yeares after how then could the Manna or the water bee really and properly turned into his flesh and bloud Moreover howsoever hee eludeth the former words of Aelfrick There is a great difference betwixt the body wherein Christ suffered and the body which is received of the faithfull the body in which Christ suffered was borne of the flesh of Mary and consisted of bloud and bone but the other is gathered of many cornes without hloud and bone by saying that the difference which Aelfrick sheweth betweene Christ on the Crosse and Christ on the Sacrament is in his manner of being not in the being it selfe not denying him to bee really in both yet the later words which containe an inference upon the former therefore there is nothing to bee understood in the Sacrament bodily but spiritually admit of no colourable evasion for if nothing bee there understood bodily but spiritually then must needs the words This is my body be understood figuratively then must we not according to the doctrine of those times understand any substantiall change of the bread into Christs very body or the Wine into his bloud really and corporally To the third The difference betweene Papists of most eminent note concerning the words by vertue whereof they teach Transubstantiation is effected maketh much against the doctrine it selfe and by consequence quite overthroweth it For thus we argue against them out of this their difference If the bread bee turned into Christs body then either by the words of benediction before hee brake the bread or gave it c. or by the very words of Consecration viz. hoc est corpus meum But hee neither changed the bread into his Body by the one nor by the other Ergo hee changed it not at all Not by the precedent benediction as Aquinas and Bellarmine prove For till the last instant of the prolation of the words This is my Body the substance of bread remaineth Not by the words of Consecration for as Durand and Odo Cameracensis and Christopherus Archbishop of Caesarea prove Christ could not have said after hee had blessed the Bread This is my body unlesse by blessing it he had made it his body before If when Christ said Take yee and eat yea at that time the Bread by benediction were not changed it would follow that Christ did command his Disciples to take and eate the substance of Bread which to say is to deny the article of Transubstantiation Neither can the Iesuite heale this sore by his vertuall salve in saying that those men above alledged who impugne the prsent tenent of the Schooles concerning the words of Consecration in which the essence of the Sacrament consisteth vertually retracted such opinions because they submitted their writings to the censure of the Catholique Church for so wee may say with better reason that what they held against us they vertually retracted by submitting their judgement to the Catholique Church which we can easily prove not to bee the particular Roman but the Universall which in all times and all places through the Christian world hath professed the common faith once given to the Saints without any of those later Articles which P. Pius the fourth Jud. 13. and the late conventicle of Trent hath pinned unto it To the fourth Cajetan is truly alledged by the Knight for though neither the words Transubstantiation nor supposed are in him yet the sence of them is to be found in him for as both Suarez and Flood himselfe acknowledgeth p. 147. Cajetan said that these words This is my body doe not sufficiently prove the reall presence of our Saviours body without the presupposed authoritie of the Church and if in his judgement they prove not so much as the reall presence of Christs body in the Sacrament much lesse prove they the presence thereof by Transubstantiation or turning the bread into it By the word supposed which the Knight addeth more fully to declare Cajetans meaning hee intended not suppositions or barely pretended authority of the Church but truly presupposed which maketh not the speech sound at all contemptibly of the Church as Flood would have it whose stomack is so bad that it turneth sweet and wholsome meate into choler Nectar cui fiet acetum vaticani perfida vappa cadi To the fifth The Knight transcribeth so much out of Biel as was pertinent to his purpose with the rest he thought not fit to trouble the reader In Can. Miss Lect. 40. notandum guod quamvis expressè tradatur in scriptur â quod corpus Christi veraciter sub speciebus panis continetur à fidelibus sumitur tamen quomodo sit ibi corpus Christi an per conversionem alicujus in ipsum an sine conversione incipiat esse corpus Christi cum pane manentibus substantiâ accidentibus panis in Canone bibliae non invenitur The whole passage in Biel standeth thus It is to bee noted that though it bee expressely delivered in Scripture that the body of Christ is truly contained under the forme or species of Bread and received by the faithfull yet it is not found in the canon of the Bible how the body of Christ is there whether by conversion of any thing into it or whether it beginneth to be there without conuersion or turning the substance and accidents of bread remaining The former words in which passage make nothing against the Knight Who in this chapter for the most part condemneth Papists out of their owne mouth and therefore taking Biel for such hee maketh use of his testimonie against the Roman Church in point of Transubstantiation Which is very direct and expresse and the Iesuites answer is very weake and unsufficient thereunto to wit that hee denieth only that Transubstantiation is found in Scripture in expresse words For first Biel saith not non invenitur expressum but non invenitur It is not found in Scripture whether Christs body be there by conversion of any thing into it Now many things are found in Scripture as the Trinity of persons the eternall generation of the Sonne the procession of the holy Ghost from the Father and the Sonne the number and nature of Sacraments which yet are not set downe in expresse words Secondly it is evident out of the former words of Biel that hee accounted those things expressely to be delivered in Scriptures which yet are not set downe in expresse words for hee saith that it is expresly delivered in Scriptures that the body of Christ is truly contained under the species of bread and yet those words are not found in Scripure If wee should admit then of Flood his glosse upon Biel Transubstantiation is not found in Scripture that is
is not found expressely Yet our Argument from Biels testimonie is no way disabled thereby because it appeareth out of Biels owne words that hee holdeth that to bee expresly delivered in Scriptures which is either expressed in word or sence the reall presence he saith is expresse not in the letter or forme of words in the text yet in the sence but so saith he is not Transubstantiation the apparant opposition betweene the members of his sentence sheweth that what hee beleeved of the reall presence hee beleeved not of Transubstantiation but the former he beleeved could bee proved out of Scripture though not in expresse words yet in sence therefore the later hee beleeved could not be proved so much as in sense much lesse in expresse words To the sixt Although Petrus de Alliaco inclineth rather to the Lutherans opinion in the point of the Sacrament then to the doctrine of the Church of England yet the Knight upon good reason produceth him as a witnesse for hee speaketh home against Transubstantiation Cameracë in 4 sent q. 6. art 2. patet quòd ille modus sit possibilis nec repugnet rationi nec authoritati bibliae imò facilior ad intelligendum rationabilior est quum c. his words are that the conversion of bread into Christs body cannot evidently bee proved out of Scripture and that that manner or meaning which supposeth the substance of bread still to remaine in the Sacrament is possible neither is it contrary to reason or to the authoritie of the Scripture nay it is more easie to bee understood and more reasonable then that which saith the substance doth leave the accidents If this bee not as Flood will have it so much as in shew for the Knight I am sure it is both in shew and substance against the Trent faith for if it bee granted that Consubstantiation is not contrarie to Scripture nor reason it followeth necessarily that Transubstantiation is grounded upon neither but rather repugnant to both for as trans denieth con so con trans If the remaining of the substance of bread with the substance of Christs body be not repugnant to the authoritie of Scripture nor the meaning of Christs words then doe not these words This is my body signifie or make Transubstantiation which necessarily abolisheth the substance of Bread and putteth in place thereof the substance of Christs bodie If Consubstantiation bee more easily to bee understood and more agreeable to right reason in Alliacoes judgement then Transubstantiation it is evident but for feare of his Cardinalls cap hee would have simply avowed the former and renounced the latter To the seventh Take Roffensis his words at the best the Iesuite is at a great losse admit hee said no more then I.R. here confesseth that no man can bee able to prove that any priest now in these times doth consecrate the true body of Christ see what will follow hereupon that no man is able to prove that your priests and people are not grosse Idolatours adoring a piece of bread for Christ Secondly that none is able to prove that Christ is really and substantially offered in your Masse for if it cannot bee proved that he is there corporally present as Roffenfis confesseth and you be are him out in it it cannot bee proved that hee is corporally offered restat itaque ut missas missas faciatis Roff. cont Luth captiv Bab. c. 4 neque ullum posituÌ„ hic verbum est quo probetur in nostrâ missâ veram fi lci carnis sanguinis Christi praesentiam non potestigitur per ullam scripturam probari it remaineth therefore that you dismisse your misses or Masses For what can they availe the living or the dead if nothing but meere accidents and shewes of Bread and Wine bee offered which are meere nothing Wee may yet gather farther upon Roffensis his words if it cannot bee proved by any Scripture that Christs body and bloud are present in the Roman masse it cannot bee proved that they are present in any Masse unlesse it bee granted that the Roman masses are of a worser condition then others if not in any masse much lesse must Papists say in any Sacrament without the Masse What then becommeth of the maine and most reall article of the Trent faith which hath cost the reall effusion of so much Christian bloud I meane the reall and carnall presence of Christ in the Sacrament To Roffenfis I.R. should have added Cajetan and so hee might have had a parreiall of Cardinalls for the Knight alledged him and his words are most expresse not only against the proofe of Transubstantiation Caje in 3. p. Tho. g. 75. dico autem ab ecclesiâcum non appareat ex Evangelio coactivum aliuod ad intellg â—â—dum haec verba propriè quod evangelium non explicavit expressè ab ecclesia accepimus viz. conversionem panis in corpus but also of the corporall presence of Christ as out of the words hoc est corpus meum The Cardinalls words are that which the Gospell hath not expressed wee have received from the Church to wit the conversion of the bread into the body of Christ I say from the Church because there appeares nothing out of the Gospell that can enforce a man to beleeve that the words This is my body are to bee taken properly How doth this Flood swell in pride that to so great a Cardinal so profound a Schoole-man so eminent a Doctour so divine a Commentatour so golden a Writer all which titles are given by the Roman Church to Cajetan he vouchsafeth not a looke But indeed he held a Wolfe by the eares and was in a quandarie what to doe whether to keepe his holt or to let him goe if hee had taken notice of his testimonie against the Roman Church either hee must have disparaged the Cardinall or given his Trent faith a grievous wound To the eight Durand his words are plaine enough to prove that the conversion of bread into the body of Christ is wrought by the vertue of Christs benediction before hee uttered the words Benedixit benedictione caelesti virtute verbi qua convertitur panis in substantiam corporis Christi Dur. rat c. 41. This is my body hee blessed saith hee the bread by his heavenly benediction and by vertue of the Word whereby the Brend is turned into the substance of Christs body Yea but faith Flood hee addeth Wee blesse ex illa virtute quam Christus indidit verbis wee blesse by that power or vertue which Christ hath given to the words true verbis benenedictionis not consecrationis according to Durands mind by that power which Christ gave to the words of benediction going before not those words which you call the words of Consecration ensuing after viz. This is my body which words yet Durand there rehearseth not to prove the conversion to bee wrought by them but to prove Christs body to be truly there To the ninth Though
of the Apostle the cup of blessing which wee blesse 1 Cor. 10.16 is it not the Communion of the bloud of Christ the Bread which wee breake is it not the Communion of the body of Christ for wee being many are one bread and one body because wee are all partakers of that one bread is pertinently alledged by the Knight against private Masse which is a communion without communicants much like to Caesars monument Philippica 1. which the Oratour fitly tearmeth insepultam sepulturam an unburied buriall How is the cup of blessing a Communion if none pledge as it were the one the other in it how is the Bread a Communion if it bee communicated to none How are the people made one bread and one body by it if they partake not of it I grant the union betweene the head and members and Priest and people may remaine though the Priest say Masse and the people receive not as likewise it may remaine though the Priest say no Masse nor communicate himselfe because there are other meanes of this Communion besides the Sacrament yet because this Sacrament was ordained principally to confirme this union and communion and from thence taketh its name they who impropriate a common and of a publike communion make a private Masse destroy both the name and nature of this Sacrament Moreover as the worthy participation of the Sacrament wonderfully confirmeth so it was instituted by Christ to represent the union of the Priest with the people which cannot bee done in private Masses wherein the Priest communicateth alone For that representeth rather a distinction and separation of the Priest from the people then an union Yea but saith the Iesuit if this argument of the Knight were good it would follow that not only some but all the people must receive together with the Priest and that the people must not receive one without the other I answer that it followeth indeed that all the people that are solemnly invited by the Priest and come prepared ought to receive together and this the Apostles words strongly enforce wee being many are one bread and one body 1 Cor. 10.17 because wee are all partakers of that one bread marke it all partakers of one bread and therefore all one bread and one body How can Papists make this argument good out of their private Masses wherein none partaketh of the Bread or tasteth of the Cup but the Priest To the fifth By the Iurie of twelve men true and honest in the Iesuits account for they all lived and died in the communion of the Church of Rome all Priests that say I cannot say celebrate private Masses are cast as transgressours of the traditions and customes of the primitive Church Nay farther as novelists and innovators For they all testifie and that joyntly that the practise of the primitive Church is for our publike Communion and against their private Masses true saith the Iesuit they testifie concerning the practise of the primitive Church but they affirme not that the contrary practise was unlawfull the people then did communicate ordinarily with the Priest but there was no necessitie so to doe Admit this answer were true that the verdict of this Iurie passed for the practise and manner of the primitive Church not for any Canon or precept so to doe yet the Knight hath the better of the cause For they all prove that for which hee produceth them viz. that by the confession of our Adversaries antiquitie is for us in this point and that there was a Church celebrating the Lords Supper as we doe in the first and best ages when there was no Church extant in the world either maintaining or practising private Masses No man doubteth but that the constant and uniforme practise of the primitive Church ought to sway more with all religious Christians De sacrific Miss Dur. rat l. 4. c. 53. in primitivâ ecclesiâ omnes qui celebrationi missarum intererant communicabant Bellith in explicat can c. 50 Micro de eccles observat Tolos de Ritibus c. 38. Innocent 3. l. 6. myster mis c. 5 Odo in expos ean antiquitùs nullae missae sine collectâ hoc est caetu aliquo modò offerentium sacramenta participantiura agebantur Iustin in 1 Cor. 10. olim quod nunc etiam Graeci usurpant ex uno eodemque pane cōsecrato delibatae particulae singulis tribuebantur ut melius unio conjunctio cum Christo atque apertiùs significaretur then any novell constitution or practise of any later Church whatsoever If wee had nothing but their practise that alone were of great moment Yet wee have more I meane their judgement For sith whatsoever is not of faith is sinne especially in actions of this nature their constant and uniforme practise in this kind may serve as a demonstration to any sober-minded man that what they did they thought most agreeable to Christs institution But the Witnesses depose farther for some come home to the point of unlawfulnesse of private Masses Albeit Cocleus saith no more then that anciently the Priests and people did communicate together and Durandus that all that were present at the celebration of the Masse did every day communicate And Bellichus and Micrologus and Tholosanus and Innocentius the Third that in the infancie of the Church all that were present together at the Sacrament were wont to communicate Yet Odo Cameracensis goeth a step farther saying in the Primitive Church they never had Masses without the convention of the people to communicate together Iustinian addeth to the practise of the primitive Church the present practise of the Greeke Church backing them both with a good reason In ancient times saith hee which the Greeke Church useth at this day of one loafe of bread Consecrated divers parts were distributed to each communicant that by this their Communion their union with Christ might bee more plainly expressed Hugo de S. Vict. in spec eccles post baec dicitur communio quae sic appellatur ut omnes communicemus vel dicitur communio quia in primitivâ ecclesiâ populus communicabat quolibet die Cassand de solitar miss propriè communio dici non potest nisi plures de eodem sacrificio participant Ioan citat Cassand consult de solit miss res ipsa clamat tam in Graecâ quà m in Latinâ ecclesiâ non solùm sacerdotes sacrificantes sed reliques presbyteros diaconos nec non reliquam plebem aut saltem aliquam plebis partem communicà sse quod quomodo cessaverit mirandū est c. Bellar. li 2 de miss c 9 et 10 Durandus de hoeret l. 2. c. 4. and Hugo out strippeth him saying it is therefore called the Communion to teach us that we ought all to communicate of it or because the people in the primitive Church did communicate every day together Cassander enforceth the Argument drawne from the name of this Sacrament yet farther against private Masses it cannot bee said
every one hee meeteth First hee falleth upon the Knight for creating a Cardinall to wit Hugo de S. Victore Flood p. 188. of his owne free goodnesse to make up the number of his Bishops and Cardinals I answer for the knight that he created no supernumerall Cardinall for he would not usurpe upon the Poges priviledge but committed a small errour in an 〈◊〉 and cry which was made after one Hugh in stead of another yet peradventure it was not the Knights mistake but the Correctors For Hugh of S. Victor though he hath his Cardinals hat in the margent yet hee standeth bare-headed in the text it is called a Communion Lynd safe way p. 119. because it is a common union of Priests and people otherwise saith Hugo it is called a Communion for that the people in the primitive Church did communicate every day But admit the Knight mistooke Hago de S. Victore for Hugo Cardinalis as Bellarmine confesseth that many learned men of his owne side mistooke Anselmus Laudunensis for Cantuariensis yet Flood should have pardoned or let passe and overseene this small oversight because wee tooke him at a worse fault in the like kind in examining his last Section wherein as I there shewed hee grosly mistaketh Bertram for Elfrick and a collation of two Authours for a translation of one Loripedem rectus derideat Aethiopem albus Eras Adag after this hee jeareth at the Knight for saying that the Councell of Trent wished well to our doctrine P. 189. What saith hee have you Masses Sir Humfrey take heed it may cost you money an Informer that should heare this might catch you by the backe and bring you in for so many hundred markes as you have received bits of bread in your Church which truly might prove a deere ordinarie for you The Orator said well Cic. pre Coel. nihil tam volucre quà m maledictam nothing is so easily cast out as a contumelious word and I may adde nothing so easily returned backe The Knight no where saith that wee have any Masses in our Church but only that the Councell of Trent wisheth well to publike Communions wherein the people communicate with the Priest which are not certainly your private Masses but admit hee had said wee have Masses in our Church hee might very well have defended this speech by my Lord of Duresme his distinction of Christ his Masse Tho. Mor. episc Dunelm l. nitit Christ his Masse and the Pope his Masse Wee have Christ his masse at every communion neither is any man merced for being present at it but for being absent from it For Masses are not sold with us as they are with Papists where there is a price set for drie Masses and wet Masses for low Masses and high Masses the ordinarie was but a groat for the one and a tester for the other but now it is raised and so to speake in the Iesuits language the Priests Masses prove a Deere ordinarie for the Laitie After this madde Tiger hath left the Knight hee fastens his teeth upon our Communion Table calling it an emptie Communion nothing but a morsell of bread P. 190. and a sup of wine and a prettie service and good-fellow Communion P. 199. Flood is the same full and fasting in jeast and in earnest for in both hee contradicts himselfe which discouereth an idle and addle braine If our Communion bee emptie and nothing but a morsell of bread and a sup of wine what good-fellowship can there bee in it But in good earnest how can the Iesuit call ours an emptie Communion which is every way full and fuller then theirs both for the signes and the things signified for the signes we have the substance of Bread and Wine they nothing but hungrie accidents and shewes a bit of quantity and a morsell of colours and a soppe of figures neither have the Laitie among them so much as a sup of the consecrated cup. For the thing signified we teach that all communicants by faith feed on the very body and bloud of Christ and all that so feed partake of all the benefits of Christs passion they teach that Infidels and reprobates eate Christs body and reape no benefit at all by it As for his good-fellow Communion let him take it to himselfe for Aquinas noteth that sometimes their Priests are overseene by drinking the liquor in the Consecrated cup Missal in cautel si in casu gulae Eucharistiam evomuerit and the cautels of the Masse appoint what is to bee done in case the Priest being drunke before cast up the host As for our Communion there can bee no excesse or as hee tearmeth it good-fellowship in it For the people have warning a weeke at least before to prepare themselves and they receive alwayes fasting before and the quantitie is so smal that it cannot distemper any which this bone Compaignion could not bee ignorant of But it seemeth hee tooke a cup of vinum Theologicum in the Taverne before hee set pen to paper in this section For besidemanifold contradictions before noted hee tearmeth in it our Commnuion sacrilegious P. 199. not considering that they sacrilegiously take the cup from the Laity and that we have restored it and he concludeth the Section with these words here is enough of such an idle subject Now the subject as appeares by the argument of the Section and the title he putteth throughout is Private Masse Nay which is a most certaine demonstration of his distemper when hee wrote this Section hee forgot that hee was a Priest and reckoneth himselfe among the Laitie saying the union may remaine betweene us and the Priest P. 197. l. 1. though he say Masse and wee not receive Concerning the 7. Sacraments Spectacles paragraph 4. a pag. 199. usque ad 242. THe Knight unjustly chargeth Bellarmine for laying a foundation of Atheisme Concil Trid. Sess 7. can 1. Bell. de effect sacram l. 2. c. 25. si tollamus authoritatem praesentis ecclesiae praesentis concilij in dubiū revocari poterunt omnium aliorum cōciliorum decreta tota fides christiana 1 Eliz. 1. in saying that if wee should take away the credit of the Roman Church and Councell of Trent which decreeth the precise number of 7. Sacraments the Decrees of other Councels nay even Christian faith it selfe might be called in question for if such a generall Councell may erre the Church may erre if the Church may erre the faith which that Church teacheth may faile and consequently there can bee no certaintie S. Gregorie the great did often say and write that hee did hold the 4 first Councels in the same honour that hee did the 4. Gospels which is the same as to say they could as little erre as the 4. Gospels And the Parliament lawes of England give as great authoritie to those 4. first Councels as S. Gregorie doth acknowledging that for heresie whatsoever is condemned for such by any of
agener all Councell may erre the Church may erne if the Church may erre the faith which that Church teacheth may faile and consequently there can bee no certaintie How easily are these leaves plucked away and torne in pieces 1. Though such a Councell as the Councell of Trent consisting of a few Bishops swaied by the Italian faction may erre it would not from thence follow that the whole representative Church might erre 2. Though the whole representative Church in a free and generall Councell lawfully called might erre yet many millions in the Catholique Church may hold the orthodox beliefe and consequently the faith of the Church not totally faile Yea but saith the Iesuit take away the infallibilitie of the Church there is no rule of faith This assertion of his is open blasphemie as if God would not bee true though all men were found liars though the Roman Church and Pope erre a thousand times yet the rule of faith remaineth unvariable in the holy Scriptures Yea but S. Gregorie equalizeth the foure first generall Councels to the Gospel and saith in effect that they could as little erre as the 4. Gospels and that upon the deniall of their authoritie the Christian faith might be shaken as well as by the deniall of the Gospels and the like authoritie giveth your Parliament unto them I answer S. Gregorie equalizeth the foure first generall Councels to the foure Gospels not in respect of authoritie but in respect of the veritie of the articles defined in them he saith not they could as little erre but they did as little erre in their decisions or to speake more properly that their doctrine was as true as Gospell because the determinations in those first generall Councels against Heretiques are evidently deduced out of holy Scriptures Our Parliament alluding to the words of S. Gregorie speaketh in the same sense as hee doth Yea but saith the Iesuit your Parliament lawes acknowledge that for heresie whatsoever is condemned for such in any of those Councels which is in other words to acknowledge them for a rule of faith and consequently to bee of infallible authoritie and to joyne them in the same ranke with the Canonicall Seriptures Idem jungat Vulpes by the like reason the Iesuit might say we joyne the booke of Articles of Religion and Homilies in the same ranke with the Canonicall Scriptures because we condemne for heretiques all that obstinatly maintaine any doctrine repugnant to them which wee doe not because we hold the Decrees of a provinciall Synod to bee of in fallible authoritie but because wee are able to prove all the Articles there established to be consonant to the holy Scriptures Yea but further saith the Iesuit in the same statute P. 203. you give power to the Court of Parliament with the assent of the Clergie in their Convocation to adjudge or determine a matter to be heresie which is the very same as to give it power to declare faith or to be the rule thereof I answer the statute giveth power to the Convocation to declare faith and determine heresie out of Gods word and by the sentence thereof and no otherwise In such sort to declare faith is not to be the rule of faith but to judge and measure things by the rule There is a maine difference betweene these two which yet the Iesuit here confoundeth as if they were coincident to declare faith and to bee the rule of faith every Iudge declareth the Law yet is he not the rule of the Law The Inquisitors in their jndices expurgatorij and the Sorbonists in their censures declare what is heresie yet the y are not Itrow the Rule of popish faith every meater in the market declareth that such or such is the measure of corne and graine yet is not every or any corne-meater the Winchester standerd It is one thing to be the rule and another to measure by the rule and declare what we have measured But to retort the Iesuits phrase upon himselfe hee is not capable it seemes of this discourse which yet every market-woman or boy is Well let the authoritie of generall Councels bee great in the Church and of the foure first Councels greatest of all quid hoc ad Rombum what maketh this for the infallibilitie of the Trent conventicle much saith the Iesuit every way for what saith hee can you say more against the present Church and present Councell of Trent then against the Church and Councels of those times What can we say nay what can we not say what have we not said or what could all the Papists in the world answer to what wee have already said After hee hath taken away the legall exceptions made against this conventicle by the Authour of the historie of the Councell of Trent and of the litterae missivae and Iewel his Treatise affixed to that Historie and Chemnisius his Examen and Doctor Bowles his latine Sermon preached to the Convocation and lately printed after hee hath proved which hee will never bee able that the Assemblie at Trent was a free and generall Councell and called by lawfull authoritie and all the proceedings in it according to ancient Canons yet it will still fall as short of the Councell of Nice in authoritie as in antiquitie that consisted of most eminent learned and holy Bishops and Confessors this for the most part of hungrie animals depending on the Popes trencher as Dudithius a Bishop present at that Councell declareth at large in his letter set before the Historie of the Councell of Trent to which I referre the reader To the second The testimonies alledged by the Knight for the sufficiencie of holy Scriptures are ponderous and weightie and the Iesuits exceptions to them are sleight vaine and frivolous To the testimonie out of the Acts I have kept backe nothing that was profitable unto you and I am pure from the bloud of all men Act. 20.20.27 for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the Councell of God hee saith that S. Paul speaketh of the doctrine by him preached not of the written word of God as in like manner our Saviour saith that what hee heard from his Father hee made knowne unto them Iohn 15.15 and yet delivered not one word in writing It is true S. Paul speaketh of the doctrine which he preached but it is as true that the doctrine which he preached hee confirmed unto them by testimonie of Scripture For S. Luke saith Acts 17.2 that S. Paul as his manner was reasoned with them out of the Scriptures opening and alledging that Iesus whom hee preached unto them was Christ and they that received the word with all readinesse of mind searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Act. 24.14 and again I confesse that after that way which they call heresie so worship I the God of my fathers beleeving all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets If the Iesuit had read the verse immediatly following testifying
integritie of corporall refection and the example of Christ it were more convenient to have the Communion under both kindes the Knight hearkeneth to him but where hee lispeth in the language of Ashdod saying that in consideration of the reverence due to this Sacrament it is ill and inconvenient to communicate in both kindes the Knight had reason to turne a deafe eare to him for it is cosin germane to blasphemie to say that is ill and inconvenient which Christ and his Apostles and the whole Church in all places for more then a thousand yeares practised the Knight might well say to Tapperus in the words of him in the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will be sober with you but I will not runne madde with you To the twelfth For the statute made in the dayes of that Phoenix of his age King Edward the sixt the meaning is unlesse among the people there bee some that either by a naturall antipathie to wine or other infirmitie cannot receive the Sacraments in both kindes it is ordained that it be delivered to every one in both kindes cessante ferreâ necessitate obtinet haec aurea regula that all receive the whole Sacrament in which the Statute and the articles of Religion published first in the reigne of this blessed Prince fully accord For so wee reade Article the thirtieth both parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs ordinance and command ought to bee ministred to all Christian people alike To the thirteenth That every article of faith ought to have sufficient proofe out of Scripture is proved by innumerable testimonies of antiquitie produced by Philip Morney in his Preface to his booke De Eucharistia Bilson of Supremacie part the fourth Abbot against Bishop chapter the seventh and Laurentius de disp Theolog Neither doth S. Ierome any way contradict them or us for wee beleeve that the consent of the whole Christian Church is an infallible argument of truth Albeit wee teach that any particular Church as namely the Roman or the French or the Dutch or the Greeke Church may erre yet we denie that the catholique Church universally hath ever erred or can erre in matter of faith necessarie to salvation and further I adde for conclusion that as the words of S. Ierome alledged by the Iesuit make nothing against us so if they bee applied to our present subject they make most strongly against him being propounded after this manner Although the authoritie of holy Scripture were wanting for the Communion in both kindes which is not so yet the consent of the whole world on this side testified by their uniforme practise confessed by Papists themselves ought to have the force of a divine Precept and so there would bee an end not only of this Section as the Iesuit speaketh but of this whole Controversie Concerning Prayer in an unknowne tongue Spectacles Sect. 6. a pag. 259. usque ad 283. THe Knight falsly chargeth the Councell of Trent with approving prayer in the vulgar tongue for though the Councell saith that the Masse containeth great instruction yet it doth not say that it ought to bee in the vulgar tongue nay contrarily it pronounceth an anathema against any whosoever shall say that the Masse ought to bee celebrated in the vulgar tongue It hath beene the generall practise and custome in the Church of God of having the Masse and the publike office in Latine all over the Latine and Westerne Church both in Italie Spaine France Germanie England Africa and all other places and so likewise in Greeke in the Graecian or Easterne Church though it were as large in extent and had as much varietie of languages in it as the Latine Church hath Vniformitie which is fit to be used in such things and unitie of the Catholique Church is excellently declared and also much maintained by this unitie of language in the Church office The use of vulgar tongues in the Masse or Church office would cause not only great confusion but breed an infinite number of errours by many severall translations The use of vulgar language in such things would breed a great contempt of sacred things with prophanenesse and irreligiositie besides the danger of heresie which commeth no way sooner then by misunderstanding of holy Scripture The place of Scripture alledged by the Knight concerning announcing our Lords death is not understood by words but by deeds as is most plaine by the circumstances The text of S. Paul where he asketh how hee that understandeth not the prayers shall say Amen is not of the publike prayers of the Church which no man can doubt of either for the truth or goodnesse and therefore he may confidently say Amen to them but of private prayers made by private and Laye men extempore in an unknowne tongue Haymo requireth not that all that are present at Divine service should understand but only that he that supplieth the place of the idiot or Laye-man in answering for the people should bee so farre able to understand as to answer Amen at the end of every prayer Iustinian the Emperour is ordinarily taxed for taking too much upon him in Ecclesiasticall matters yet all that hee saith may bee well maintained without prejudice to the present practise of the Roman Church for in the Decree alledged by the Knight hee requireth nothing more but that Bishops and Priests should pronounce distinctly and clearely that which according to the custome of the Easterne Church was to bee spoken aloud The Canon law capite quoniam in plerisque requireth only that where divers Nations are mingled that the Bishop of the Citie should substitute one in his roome to celebrate the divine Office and administer the Sacraments according to their ownerites and language for indeed it is a matter of necessitie in administration of some Sacraments to use the vulgar language as in Mariage and Penance but not so of other things Lyra Belithus Gretzer Harding Cassander and the rest of the Authours quoted by the Knight say indeed that in the beginning Prayers were in the vulgar tongue but the reason was because those three holy languages Hebrew Greeke and Latine dedicated on the crosse of Christ were then most vulgar none of them speake a word of any Precept There is no precept in the Scripture commanding prayers in a knowne tongue or forbidding in an unknowne whose authority or example can you bring for your selfe in this matter name him if you can It was more needfull in the Primitive Church that the people should understand because they were to answer the Priest which now is not so as Bellarmine noteth because that belongs only to the Clarke That the Knight contradicteth himselfe in one place saying That the alteration of the Church service was occasioned by certaine Shepheards who in the dayes of Honorius having learned the words of Consecration by heart pronounced them over their Bread and Wine in the fields and thereby Transubstantiated them into flesh and bloud and for this prophane abuse were strucken
Supper without the words shew forth or as he speaketh announce the death of our Lord for Bread is broken and Wine poured out at common meales yet our Lords death is not thereby declared both must concurre mysterious rites and sacred formes of words lively to present Christs death The Knights argument therefore standeth firme The Sacraments ought so to bee celebrated that by them the Lords death might bee shewed forth but it cannot be shewed forth unlesse the Evangelicall storie and especially the words of the Institution be pronounced in a language that may be understood For to speake Latine to the people that understand it not is surdo narrare fabulam to tell a tale to a deafe man or to set a beautifull picture before him that is blind or in the Knights phrase to speake to a wall at which notwithstanding the Iesuit ridiculously carpeth saying I never heard before that it was all one to speake Latine and to speake to a wall were hee according to our English proverbe as wise as a wall hee could not but understand what was the Knights meaning to wit that to speake Latine prayers and exhortations as Papists doe at their Masse to those who understand them not is no better then to speake to so many walls when the Apostle touching upon the same string the Knight doth 1 Cor. 14.9 tearmeth the uttering words in an unknowne tongue as speaking into the ayre This Iesuit in the spirit of Lucian might in like manner have jeared at the Apostle saying I never heard that to speake in an unknowne tongue bee it Greeke Latine or Hebrew is to speake to the ayre The meaning of both phrases to speake to a wall and to speake into the ayre is all one to lose a mans breath to speake idlely and unprofitably or to no end and purpose when no man is the better for it as the Iesuit afterwards confesseth saying The other reason from the Apostle is that those which heare a prayer in a strange language are nothing the better for it nor can say Amen unto it What then can the common people bee the better for hearing popish Mattens or even-song which are chaunted in Latine a language which they understand not To the seventh Admit the Apostle in that place spake not of publike prayers but rather of private extemporarie devotion yet the reasons he there useth against prayer in an unknowne tongue are as forcible against publike as private ptayers For if wee may not pray without understanding or speake into the ayre in our private devotions much lesse in our publike But the truth is the Apostle speaketh evidently of publike prayers and all the parts thereof first of petitions v. 15. secondly of giving of thanks v. 17. thirdly of prophecying and interpreting of Scriptutes v. 4. fourthly of singing Psalmes v. 15. and all this when the whole Church bee come together in one place v. 23. Moreover he speaketh of prayers made in the Church v. 19. of the edification of others v. 12.26 and of blessings also wherein the people are to joyne with the Priest v. 16. and what can such prayers benedictions hymnes and thankes-givings bee other then parte of the publike Liturgie in the Church in those dayes Yea but saith the Iesuit hee cannot speake of the publike prayers of the Church which no man can doubt either for the truth or goodnesse of them and therefore hee may confidently say Amen to them though they bee uttered in an unknowne tongue I answer that the Apostle here speaketh not of confidently saying Amen but understandingly saying it which no man can doe who is utterly ignorant of the tongue in which the Priest prayeth Hos de verb Dei I beleeve what the Church beleeveth the Church beleeveth what I beleeve And howsoever none of the coliers implicite circnlar faith can make any doubt of the truth or goodnesse of the prayers said in the Masse yet those whose eyes are not put out with the Romish coale dust may very well doubt of them first they may well doubt whether the Church of Rome which appointeth them may not erre as other Churches have done especially considering what the Apostle speaketh expresly of that Church Rom. 11.22 Vid. Bull. praefix breviar Rom. Melcbior loc theol l. 11. c. 5. nec enim animus est meri omnes historias quae passim in ecclcsiâ loctitantur Claudius Espen in 2. ad Tim. c. 4. digres 2. nostri quantum me pigeant falsa in ecclesia Dei cantica canentes quantae nugae canore mihi audibiles in uno hymno praeter ineptitudinem sententiarum mendacia ad minus 24. reperi Petrus Pictau ep 31. conqueritur inepta ac falsa in laudem Sancti Mauri super aquas currentis afficta that if shee continued not in her goodnesse shee should be cut off Secondly hee may doubt whether all those corruptions and abuses which the Fathers in the Councell of Trent complaine to have crept into their Masse are reformed Thirdly he may doubt whether the Priests booke may not bee some-where false printed Lastly he may doubt whether the Priest alwayes reades true surely that Priest who baptized a child in nomine patria filia spiritua sancta and another who read in the Doxologie glia pni flo spui sco scutrat in primpo scla sclorum Amen said Masse by rote and could not have skill of brachygraphy nor well spell Latine and can no man then doubt of the truth and goodnesse of any of the prayers that are said by your Masse-priests To the eighth The shaft which the Knight draweth out of Haymo his quiver flieth home For first he expresly teacheth that S. Paul speaketh of publike prayers 1 Cor. 14. and among other reasons used by the Apostle against the conceiving of prayers in an unknowne tongue hee insisteth upon that v. 16. when thou shalt blesse with the spirit how shall hee that occupieth the Roome of the unlearned say Amen at the giving of thankes seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest adding if one knoweth that onely tongue wherein hee was borne and bred if such an one stand by thee whilest thou dost solemnly celebrate the mysterie of the Masse or make a Sermon or give a blessing how shall hee say Amen at thy blessing when hee knoweth not what thou sayest for asmuch as hee understanding none but his mothers tengue hee cannot tell what thou speakest in that strange and barbarous tongue Hereunto the Iesuit answereth that if wee take Haymo altogether wee shall find hee doth not require that all that are by shall understand but that hee that supplieth the place of the idiot or laye-man in answering for the people shall understand An answer befitting an idiot indeed for doth not S. Paul 1 Cor. 14.16 and after him Haymo speake indefinitly of any that occupie the place of the unlearned or standeth by at Service or Sermon in an unknowne tongue or is it lesse absurd for any
that which was lacking to their Faith to supply I say that which was lacking to their Faith not to the Gospell which Saint Paul preached hee saith not let him be accursed who further informeth you in the Doctrine of the Scriptures or delivereth you more out of them than yee have yet received within that Rule but hee that delivereth you any thing besides that Rule And that this is his meaning appeareth by the words immediately following which the Iesuit cunningly suppresseth to wit these Qui praetergreditur regulam fidei non accedit in viâ sed recedit de viâ Hee that goeth besides the Rule of Faith doth not goe on in the way but departeth out of the way Yea but the word in the Greeke translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used is the same with that Rom. 16.17 which wee in our Bibles translate against not Praeter besides Yea but the Jesuits in their owne Latine vulgar translation to which they are all sworne as wee are not to ours render this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Praeter besides and not Contra against and that this translation is most agreeable to the Apostles meaning appeareth by comparing this text Rom. 16.17 with a parralell'd text 2 Thes 3.6 Withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the Tradition which you have received of us There is no necessity therefore of expounding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that text to the Romans by Contra against wee may as well or better expound it by Praeter that is besides yet if in one place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might signifie Contra it doth not follow that it must be so taken Galathians 1.8 for it is well knowne that the naturall and most usuall signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke is Praeter besides not Contra against and words are to be taken in their most proper and usuall signification unlesse some necessarie reason drawne from the circumstances of the text or analogie of faith inforceth us to leave it which here it doth not As for Saint Austines judgement in the point it selfe to wit that Scripture is the perfect rule of Faith hee plainely delivereth it both in his 49 tractate upon Iohn and in the ninth chapter of the second booke De doctrinâ christianâ and in the last chapter of his second booke De peccatorum meritis remissione and in his booke De bono viduitatis cap. 11. What words can be more expresse and direct for the sufficiencie of Scripture than those in his 49 tractate upon Iohn The Lord Iesus did Quae saluti credentium sufficere videbuntur In iis quae aperte posita sunt in Scriptura inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem moresque vivendi G. ult Credo etiam hâ—ic divinoruÌ„ eloquioruÌ„ clarissima authoritas esset si homo illud sine dispendio salutis ignorare non posset Sancta Scriptura nostrae doctrinae regulam sixit ne auderemus sapere ultra quam oportet and spake many things which are not written as the Evangelist testifieth but those things were chosen to be written which seemed to suffice for the salvation of Beleevers unlesse those in his second booke De doctrina christiana Among those things which are openly or plainly set downe in Scriptures all things are found which concerne or containe Faith or manners or those in his second booke of the remission of sinnes I beleeve that the authoritie of divine Scriptures would have beene most cleere and evident in this point if a man could not have beene ignorant of it without perill of his salvation or lastly those in his booke in the commendation of Widowhood What should I teach thee more than that which thou readest in the Apostle for the holy Scripture setleth the rule of our Doctrine lest wee should presume to be wise above that wee ought Concerning the infallible certainty of the Protestant faith and the uncertainty of the Romish Spectacles Chapter the 10. a page 346. usque ad 380. THE Knights failing in his proofes of our novelty is a sufficient proofe of our antiquity and his owne novelty The Jesuits may not be ashamed of the oath they take to defend the Papacy nay they may glory in it as an heroicall act whereby they binde themselves to the defence of that authority whereon the weight and frame of the whole Catholike Church and salvation of all soules from Christ his owne time to the very end of the world hath doth and still shall depend Catholike Doctors whom the Knight chargeth with division among themselves may indeede differ in opinion so long as a thing is undefined for so long it is not faith but when it is once defined then they must be silent and concurre all in one because then it is matter of faith The Knight can have no certainty of his Christianity because that dependeth upon his Baptisme or the faith of his parents which he cannot know He can have no certainty of his Marriage or the legitimation of his children because the validity of the contract dependeth upon the intention of the parties which marry and no man can have any certaine knowledge of anothers intention and so the Knight is in no better case then his adversaries in this respect It is cleane a different thing to dispute of the certainty of the Catholique faith which we maintaine and of every mans private and particular beliefe of his owne justification or salvation which we deny to be so certaine the one being grounded upon the authority of Gods divine truth and revelation the other upon humane knowledge or rather conjecture Howscever though we be not certaine by certainty of divine faith that this or that man in particular is truely baptized or ordained a Priest yet we are certaine by the certainty of divine faith that not onely there be such Sacraments but that they are also truly administred in the Catholike Church It might be good and profitable as Bellarmine noteth to invoke the Saints though they themselves should not heare us as the Knight would prove out of Peter Lumbard and Gabriel Biel who though they doubt of the manner yet they doubt not of the thing it selfe Gabriel saith the Saints are invocated not as givers of the good things for which we pray but as intercessours to God the giver of all good And Peter Lumbard saith that our prayers become knowne to the Angells in the word of God which they behold so also doe Saints that stand before God Though it be true which Caietan saith that it cannot be knowne infallibly that the miracles whereon the Church groundeth the Canonization of Saints be true yet it followeth not that we are uncertaine whether the Canonized Saints be in Heaven or no because the certainty of Canonization dependeth upon more certaine ground to wit the authority of the See Apostolique and continuall assistance and direction of the Holy-ghost the spirit of truth to whom it belongeth not to suffer Christs
Vicar using humane diligence and proceeding prudently in a matter of that moment Ep. 68. vivebant ut latrones honoraebantur ut martyres to erre and whereas St. Austine saith that many were tormented with the Devill in Hell who were worshipped by men on earth it may be well understood of the Martyrs of the Donatists who were Canonized by those Haeretikes to be Martyrs whose soules were tormented in Hell and whereas Sulpitius and Cassander speake of wicked Robbers and damned persons honoured by the name of Holy Martyrs it followeth not that because some people in St. Martins time did erre in worshiping a dead theefe for a Saint without any approbation of the Church ergo Catholikes may erre in worshiping of Saints Canonized and Authorized by the Church Though Gregorie and other Catholike Divines differ about the place manner punishment and durance of Purgatorie yet none rejecteth the beliefe of Purgatorie it selfe And as for Saint Austine alleaged by the Knight to the contrary his words are to be meant of the finall and eternall place of soules For otherwise Saint Austine is so expresse for Purgatory in the very booke and place quoted by the Knight to wit in his Enchiridian ad Laurentium that Mr. Antonie Alcock a zealous Disciple of Luther as it seemeth translating it into English is faine to write certaine annimadversions upon this Chapter wherein hee confesseth C. 110. Neque negandum est defunctorum animus c. Saint Austines opinion is here for Purgatorie The Saints owne words are Neither is it to be denied that the soules of the dead are relieved by the pietie of their friends living when the sacrifice of our Mediatour is offred for them or almes given in the Church The same Father elswhere saith The whole time betweene the death of a man and the generall resurrection containeth the soules in hidden receptacles as each is worthy either of ease or paine The Doctrine of Catholikes concerning worshipping of Images is not uncertaine it being this onely that Images are to be worshipped but not as Gods For the second Councell of Nice it requireth not onely kissing of Images and a civill kind of imbracing but a prostration on the ground and praying on the knees before them Gregorie de Valentia taketh the word Simulacrum in a good sense and concludeth out of Saint Peter that some Image-worship is lan full not any Idoll worship as the Knight imposeth on him The Hammer IN this Chapter the Iesuit in the fourth fift sixt seventh twelfth fifteene and sixteene Paragraphs doth nothing but seeth againe his old Coleworts which were tasted before and after cast into the dunghill From whence I purpose not to gather them againe or set them before the Reader lest his stomacke should rise at them but I addresse my selfe to examine onely such Sophismes Cavils and Evasions whereby hee indeavoureth to elude or retort the Knights arguments brought against him in this Section in order as I have set them downe To the first The consequence of the Iesuit drawne from the Knights supposed failing in his proofes failes many wayes as may be proved by manifold instances For albeit many later Mathematitians faile in refuting Copernicus his giddy opinion of the earths circular motion and the heavens standing still yet this their failing is no sufficient proofe of Copernicus his new fancie neither will it follow that the religion of Pagans Infidels hath sufficient ground because Lactantius failes in his proofes of Christianitie in Saint Ieromes judgement and Cyprian also in the judgement of Lactantius The defects of the Patron or Advocate ought not to be imputed to the cause It is a weake and silly Religion whose whole strength consisteth in the weakenesse of some of the opposers of it The truth is the Knight hath not failed in his proofes of the noveltie of the Trent Creed as the judicious Reader will find yet if there were any defect in them it may be abundantly supplied out of Iuels challenge at Saint Pauls-Crosse Abbots answer to Bishop intituled The true ancient Roman Catholike and Doctor Faner in his Booke of Antiquitie triumphing over noveltie and divers others To the second That the salvation of all soules dependeth upon the Popes supremacie which the Iesuits are bound by a fourth and supernumerary vow to defend is a bold and blasphemous assertion derogatorie to Christ himselfe who is the Saviour of his body Ephes 5.23 1 Cor. 3.11 and only foundation which beareth up the waight and frame of the whole Catholike Church When Christ said to Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rocke will I build my Church hee meant not as Saint Austine rightly observeth To build himselfe upon Peter but Peter and the whole Church upon himselfe non super te edificabome sed super me edificabo te The Church was founded and established before there was any Pope or Bishop at Rome and shall so continue when Rome shall perchance be burnt with fire Tract de auferibilit Papae and the Papacie which now tottereth shall be utterly destroyed Doth not their owne Gerson teach that the Pope may be quite removed and yet the Catholike Church still remaine how then can the Jesuit say that the waight and frame of the whole Catholike Church dependeth upon the authoritie of the Pope To the third The Knight used a dilemma or two-forked Argument Either the Popes sworn-Servants and our sworne enemies whose depositions before wee heard against divers articles of the Trent Faith concurred with other Papists in judgement or not if they concurred then by the joynt confession of all for those points at least they are destitute of universality which yet they make a prime note of their Church if others concurred not with them in judgement then their Doctors are divided amongst themselves and consequently they want another speciall marke of their Church which they make unitie in point of Faith To avoid the push of this Ramme the Iesuit starts * Quintil. Institut orat lib. 6. Diverticula et anfractus suffugia sunt infirmitatis ut qui cursu parum valent flexu eludunt aside into a Scholasticall speculation whether any thing is to be held for an article of Faith before it be defined and resolveth the matter thus When a a thing is once defined to wit by the Church then it becomes a matter of Faith Hee should rather determine because this or that is a matter of Faith therefore the Church defineth it to be so and not because the Church defineth it to be so therefore it is a matter of Faith For Faith if it be divine is founded upon Gods Word not the Churches definition if nothing be matter of Faith before it be defined by your Church then Transubstantiation was no article of Faith before the Councell of Laterane and Innocentius the third his dayes nor the Doctrine of Concommitancie and lawfull communicating in one kind before the Councell of Constance under Martin the fift nor the
of either to the notable preiudice of faith and the salvation of soules I reply first that for five of the seven as was discussed at large Section the fourth the Iesuit is so farre from any certainty that indeede he can bring no probability that there be any such Sacraments in the Catholike Church and for the other two which we acknowledge to be Sacraments properly so called he cannot be certaine that they are ever effectually administred in his Church according to their owne Tenents who suspend the efficacy of them upon the Priests intention Nay farther he cannot be certaine that they have any Church at all amongst them for there can be no Church as they teach without a visible succession of lawfull Pastours whereof hee cannot be certaine sith no man knoweth whether the Bishops who ordained their Priests or the Archbishop who ordained their Bishops or the Pope who consecrated their Archbishops intended that which your Church intendeth and if there failed an intention in any of all these or in him who baptized or ordained their first Pope since the Bishops of Rome began to be Popes hee hath no certainty according to his owne grounds of any Priesthood or Christianitie in his Church To the seventh I never heard before that it could be good or any way profitable surdo fabulum narrare to tell a Tale in the care of a deafe man Where doe the Scriptures or ancient Fathers give any approbation to such senslesse devotion can a man call upon him with faith or any hope of obtaining his suit whom hee conceiveth to be out of his hearing Yea but Gabriel Biel speaketh not doubtfully but certainly of Invocation though hee seeme to doubt of the manner how Saints in heaven know our necessities on earth Biel indeed lispeth somewhat that way but hee speaketh not plaine hee saith Invocantur sancti not sancti sant invocandi hee speaketh confidently and certainly of the practise of the Romane Church out not of the truth of this point of the Romish Faith that Saints ought to be called upon for that hee taught In Can. Missae Dist 31. videri probabile that It may seeme probable that God revealeth to Saints all those suits which men present unto them consequently holdeth that it may seeme also probable that the living may pray unto them But what is this his probabile or Peter Lumbards not incredibile to build an Article of Faith upon Yea but Peter Lumbard though hee make some doubt whether the Saints heare our Prayers as they proceed from us they being in Heaven and wee in Earth they being but in one place Sicut enim Angelis ita etiam sanctis qui Deo assistant petitiones nostrae innotescunt in verbo Dei quod contemplantur and those that call upon them in a million of places distant farre one from the other yet Hee maketh no doubt of their knowing and seeing our Prayers in the Word of God as the Angels doe I answer that this imaginarie Glasse of the Schoolemen wherein they conceive that the Saints and Angels see all things by the contemplation of God in whom are all things hath beene long agoe battered in pieces For if because they see God they must needs see all things that are in him and know all that hee knoweth it would hereupon insue that the Saints knowledge should be infinite as Gods is that they should know the day and houre when Christ shall come to judgement contrary to the expresse words of our Saviour Marke 13.32 that they should know the secrets of all hearts which the Scripture ascribeth as a singular prerogative to God To avoid these Rockes if our Adversaries will confine the knowledge of the Saints or Angels to such things onely as God shall be pleased to reveale unto them they beg then the point in question which they ought to prove viz. That God will reveale to every Saint what every man on earth prayeth to him for To the eighth First the Iesuit in this answer flatly contradicteth Cajetan whom hee undertaketh to defend for if the Church groundeth not the canonization of Saints upon the report of miracles voyced on them Cajetans Argument in that place is weak and of no force Secondly for the authoritie of the See Apostolike and the infallibility of the Popes judgement they are as uncertaine or more then that such persons canonized by the Pope are Saints L. 3. ep 3. nec quisquam sibi quod soli filio tribuit pater vindicare se putet ut ad areum pargandam c. 1 Kings 8.39 Saint Cyprian in his time severely censured those who arrogated to themselves that which the Father hath given to the Sonne onely to wit in the floore of the Church to take the fanne in his hand and sever the Wheat from the Chaffe If God onely knoweth the hearts of all the children of men either the Pope must be God as the Canonists blasphemously called him or hee cannot infallibly know who are true Saints and sincerely beleeve and love God As for Saint Austines complaint that many were worshipped by men on earth that are tormented by the devill in hell they are indefinitely spoken and not restrained to Donatists or any other Heretikes yet were it so wee may see in those Donatists a perfect picture of Papists For what Donatus did in Affrica that doth the Pope in Europe hee canonizeth those of his faction for Saints And as the Donatists gave the honour of Martyrs to those who justly suffered death for Robberies and Murders so doe the Papists crowne the heads of Murderers and Traitours with the garland of Martyrdome witnesse Becket Campian Oldcorne and Garnet whereof the first standeth in the Kalender of Romish Saints the later in the Register of Jesuiticall Martyrs Neither can the Iesuit so easily fillip off the testimonie of Cassander as if hee taxed the ignorant for making a Saint of a Thiefe Cassan consult art 2. and no way touched upon the Pope or your Church for hee layeth not the blame upon the people as the Iesuit here doth but saith simply that Saint Martin found a place honoured in the name of a holy Martyr to be the sepulcher of a wicked Robber Secondly 't is well knowne that the people cry not up at first a Saint or Martyr after his death but the Priests who voyce miracles upon them and keepe their Shrines and Reliques and by shewing them to the people make no lesse gaine than Demetrius and his fellow Crafts-men did of their silver Shrines of Diana To the ninth As hee that plucks the stickes out of the Chimney one by one at last puts out the fire so the Knight by loosening or quite removing the fuell of Purgatorie fire consequently extinguisheth it If all the parts and circumstances of the Doctrine of Popish Purgatory are doubtfull and uncertaine the whole certainly can be no Article of Faith but the Antecedent the Knight proves out of Bellarmine Dominicus a Soto Fisher
there is no controversie betweene them and us concerning the immaculate conception of our Lady whereas both Chemnitius and Reynolds many other Protestant writers have overthrowne the ground of their feast of the immaculate conception of our Lady and all reformed Churches in generall have strucke that feast out of the Calender and the title of the 15. Article of religion of Christ alone without sinne sheweth to the world that we beleeve it to be the prerogative of our blessed Saviour among all the Sonnes of Adam that he alone was free from all originall and actuall sinne And now Master Flood sith you are taken in so many and fowle untruths in one Chapter I hope the Reader will not envie you that Guerdon which Aristotle bestowes upon a lewd and lowd Lyer not to be credited when he speaketh the truth Concerning Razing of Records and clipping Authors tongues Spectacles Chap. 13. a page 435. usque ad 446. BECAVSE there have beene many bookes published this last age by occasion of Haeresie and liberty which came therewith to the great prejudice of the Catholike faith there hath beene a course taken for the restraint of all such not onely writings of Haeretikes but even of Catholikes which have any tang of haeresie and this kinde of care hath beene ever used in the Catholike Church So wee see in Scripture it selfe some that followed curiosities becomming Christians confessed their deedes and burnt their bookes Gelasius in the yeare 490. maketh a Catalogue of haereticall bookes which he forbiddeth and I would know of the Knight or any man else that cryeth so bitterly against our Index Expurgatorius what he can say against it that he may not say against this Decree and Councell of Gelasius and against which we may not defend our selves by opposing it as a buckler against all their darts Sith all swarving from the rule of faith is a declining to haeresie it appertaineth to the Catholike Roman Church which as Gelasius saith hath neither spot nor wrinkle to prevent the danger that may come by such bookes forbidding the use of them It were a more dangerous and unnaturall part in the Church not to use this care then it were in a mother that should see sugar and rats-bane lie together and seeing her child going to taste thereof should forbeare to warne it I will not stand particularly to examine every Author and justifie the inquisition onely I cannot omit one Author called Bertram whom of all men living me thinkes the Knight should never so much as have named considering how much disgrace he hath sustained by translating that booke and ventring his owne credit and the credit of his Church upon the faith thereof Another thing I am to note concerning his quoting the Canon of the Councell of Laodicea wherein first is to be noted his error in Chronologie concerning the time of this Councell which he maketh to be in the yeare 368. forty three yeares after the first Councell at Nice whereas it was celebrated before that Councell Secondly his corruption in the translation and cutting off the Canon which is thus non oportet relictâ ecclesiâ ad angelos abominandae idolatriae congregationes facere quicunque autem inventus fuerit occulte huic idololatriae vacans anathema sit Now where in this Canon doth the Knight finde the word invocation of Angells which is the thing he pretendeth to be forbidden Whereas the Knight objecteth to us the recantation of Henry Buxhorne who was sometime appointed to put in execution the tyrannicall Decree of the inquisitors and had noted 600. severall passages to be spunged and blotted out which animadversions of his he wished he could have washed away with his teares and blood his heart being smitten and his eyes open by the mercy of God I answere if such matter will serve the Knights turne he may have enough neither neede I search corners to finde out such obscure fellowes as this Buxhorne he might bring the Fathers of the Knights religion for example Luther Calvine Zuinglius Beza Carolstadius and who not for though they might pretend severall causes yet there was one principall one which consisted indeede in the smiting of their hearts with a fiery dart of carnall love and when they found an Eve to give them an Apple then their eyes were opened and so it proved also with their friend Buxhorne as I shall shew by a briefe story of his life most authentically related by that grave and Holy man Oliverius of the society of Jesus Henry Buxhorne a licentiate of Divinity c. It was not the razing then of evidences that made Buxhorne fall from his faith but there were certaine Lutheran baites wherewith many of them were catched which were aurum gloria delitiae veneres gold glory delights and Venus of which some are catched with one and some with another The Hammer IN the former Section the Iesuit shewed himselfe a prevaricatour but in this a cowardly runnagate For to the mangling of authors and razing out of Records objected against him namely this marginall note out of Stephanus his Bible Deus prohibet sculptilia fieri This Glosse upon Gratian the Priest cannot say significatively of the bread This is my Body without telling a lie Cassanders observation upon the same words that setting aside the authoritie of the Church they prove not sufficiently Transubstantiation Cassanders whole Tract concerning the Communion in both kinds Vdalricus his Epistle touching the lawfulnesse of Priests marriage Anselmes Treatise concerning the visitation of the sicke together with divers passages in Cassander against merit in Polydor Virgil against Images in Langus against Transubstantiation in Ferus against the Popes supremacie The Iesuit answereth nothing at all in particular but onely applies Salves in generall which no way heale the wounds given by the Knight to the Inquisitors as the Reader shall see by taking them off one after another and viewing the Sores To the first The Iesuits instance is wide from the purpose For those Books were not burnt by any decree of the Church much lesse the Church of Rome which was not then in being but by the owners of them to testifie their unfeined Repentance for so wee reade Acts 19.19 Many also of them brought their Bookes together and burned them before all men and they counted the price of them and found it 50000 pieces of silver Secondly these Bookes which the owners burnt of their owne accord were Bookes of such as used curious Arts that is Books of Art-magick Necromancie Sorcerie and the like Whereas the Bookes which the Romish Inquisitours either mangle or utterly deface are Christian Treatises written for the most part by them that lived and died in the bosome and peace of the Church of Rome To the second This Decree of Gelasius which the Iesuit opposeth as a Buckler against all our darts is not altogether approved by the present Romane Church for in reckoning the Canonicall bookes of Scripture the Pope there excludeth the booke
us of supernaturall truth but Scripture as is abundantly proved by Saint Austine If any thing be confirmed by perspicuous authority of Canonicall Scriptures we must without any doubt or haesitation beleeve it but to other witnesses or testimonies we may give credit as we see cause and in his 97. Epistle to St. Ierome I have learned to yeeld that honour and reverence onely to the Canonicall Scriptures that I most firmely beleeve that no Author of them could erre in any thing he wrot and in his booke de natura gratia I professe my selfe free in all such writings of men because I owe absolute consent without any demurre or staggering onely to the Canonicall bookes of Scripture To the same purpose he writeth against Faustus the Manichee l. 11. c. 5. and ep 48. But what neede I presse St. Austine when the evident letter of Scripture is for this truth Titus 1.2 Rom. 3.4 God cannot lie and let God be true and every man a lier that is subject to error and falsehood Againe the Scriptures are sufficient to instruct us in all points necessary to salvation therefore every article of divine faith is evidently grounded upon Scripture The Antecedent I thus prove 2 Tim. 3.15.16 whatsoever is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousnesse in such sort that it is able to make a man wise unto salvation and perfect to every good worke is sufficient to instruct in all points of salvation but the Scripture is so profitable that it is able to make wise unto salvation and perfect to every good worke Ergo It is sufficient to instruct in all points necessary to salvation The major is evident ex terminis the minor is the letter of the text and that the adversary may not except that this is my collection onely L. 3. Advers haer c. 1. Non per alios dispo sitionem salutis nostrae cognovimus quam per cos per quos evangelium ad nos pervenit quod quidem tunc preconiaverunt postea per Dei volun tatem nobis in Scripturis tradiderunt fundamentum columnam fidei nostrae futuram Aug. l. 3. cont Lit. Petil. c. 6. Sive de Chrlsto sive de ejus ecclesia sive de quacunque re quae pertinet ad fidem vitamque nostram non dicom si nos nequaquam comparandi ei quid dixit si nos sed omnino quod seturus adjecit si Angelus de Coelo vobis annunciaverit praeterquam quod in Scripturis Legalibus Evangelicis accepistis anathema sit I will produce to him impregnable testimonies of the ancient Fathers Irenaeus We have not knowne by others the meanes which God hath appointed for our salvation then by those by whom the Gospell came unto us which at the first the Apostles preached by word of mouth but afterwards by the will of God delivered in writing to be the foundation and pillar of our faith The second is Saint Austine Whether concerning Christ or concerning his Church or concerning any thing that pertaineth to our faith and life I will not say if we but even as he going forward addeth if an Angell from Heaven shall preach unto you any thing but what you have received in the Scriptures of the law and the Gospell accursed be hee Yea but the Iesuit objecteth against us and these Holy Fathers that by the Scriptures we cannot prove which bookes of Scripture are Canonicall and which are not I answere first our question here is not of the principles of Divinity but of Theologicall conclusions Now that Scripture is the word of God and that these bookes are Canonicall Scriptures are principles in Divinity and therefore not to be proved according to the rule of the great Philosopher in the same science It is sufficient to make good our Tenet that the Canonicall Scriptures being presupposed as principles every conclusion de fide may be deduced out of them Secondly that such bookes of Holy Scriptures are Canonicall and the rest which are knowne by the name of Apochrypha are not Canonicall is proved by arguments and testimonies drawne out of Scripture it selfe by Whitaker Disputatione de sacrâ Scripturâ controversiâ primâ by Reynolds most copiously in his Censura librorum Apochryphorum Thirdly I retorte the Iesuits argument against himselfe when they teach tradition is part of Gods word how prove they it to be so by Scripture or Tradition by Scripture they cannot prove that unwritten traditions are Gods word if they prove it by Tradition then they begge the point in question and prove idem per idem To the second The Romanists ground some doctrines of their faith upon the letter of Scripture but it is that letter which killeth as for example they ground their carnall presence of Christ in the Sacrament upon those words in the sixt of St. Iohn unlesse yee eate the flesh of the Sonne of God and drinke his blood you have no life in you which words if you take according to the letter this letter killeth saith Origen but it is the spirit saith our Saviour that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words which I speake unto you they are spirit and they are life Iohn 6.63 He that pierceth the barke and commeth to the sap runneth not from the tree of life but rather runneth to it so doe we when we leave the barke of the letter upon necessary occasions and pierce into the heart and draw out the sap of the spirituall meaning To presse the letter of Scripture against the spirituall meaning and analogie of faith is not onely Iewish but Haereticall For example The Anthropomorphites ground their haeresie upon plaine and expresse words of Scripture from which to use the Iesuits owne words All Orthodox Divines are faine to flie to figurative and tropicall interpretations To the third First Saint Peter saith not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in which Epistles of St. Paul but in which points and heads of doctrine many things are hard to be understood Secondly though some points be hard to be understood in themselves or are obscurely set downe in Scripture it followeth not from thence that all things necessary to salvation are not plainely delivered therein For as before I proved out of Saint Austine and Saint Chrysostome Among thuse things which are plainly delivered in Scriptures all such points are found as containe faith and manners all things that are necessarie are manifest Thirdly those things which are obscurely set downe in Saint Pauls Epistles may be and are elsewhere in holy Scriptures more perspicuously delivered Lastly Saint Peter saith not that those things are hard to be understood simply and to all men but to the ignorant and unstable who wrest all Scripture to their owne destruction Among which number the Iesuit must reckon himselfe and his associates before they can fit this text to their purpose To the fourth First this passage out of Saint Iohn hath beene discussed
subject unto in it selfe Lastly the Iesuit taketh himselfe by the nose in saying Heretikes in all Controversies run to the letter of the Scriptures leaving the true sense and spirituall meaning for so doe the Romanists apparantly namely in the Controversie of Supremacie Ecce duo gladii Loe here two swords therefore the Pope hath the temporall and spirituall Sword at command Peter rise up kill and eate therefore the Pope hath power to put Princes to death In the question about the number of Sacraments they alleage the letter of that text in the vulgar translation Hoc est magnum Sacramentum to prove marriage a Sacrament whereas the Apostle in the same place saith that hee speaketh not of corporall marriage of a man and his wife but of the spirituall marriage of Christ and his Church Likewise in the Controversie about the reall presence they run to the letter Except yee eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood though Christ in the same place expounding himselfe saith The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and life the like may be observed in other Controversies For answer to all which texts wee tell him out of Saint Ierome whom himselfe quoteth in the next Paragraph That the Gospell consisteth not in the words of Scripture but in the sense not in the supersicies or barke but in the pith not in the leaves of speech but in the root of reason To the tenth How neere neighbours the Romanists are to Marcion who denied or by consequence overthrew the truth of Christs humaine nature as the Papists doe in the Sacrament vailing him under the outside or accidents of a round water and what affinitie the Iesuit hath with the rest of the ancient Heretikes the Knight shewed him before in his seventh Section and if hee desire to know more of his pedegree from them I referre him to an Appendix to Whitakers answer to Sanders his Demonstration page 801. As for the aspersion of old Heresies which hee casts upon us they are washed away by Bishop Morton and Doctor Field in their Treatises of the Church Ad notam sextam But why hee denies that wee have the Spirit arrogating it onely to himselfe I see no reason but the pride of his owne spirit together with the malice of the evill spirit who suggested unto him this uncharitable censure of us To the eleventh The Scripture is a Light Psal 119. and the nature of a light is first to discover it selfe and then all things else therefore Calvin to his fond question how know you Scripture to be Scripture answereth acutely by retortion how know you the Sun to be the Sun If hee say by his bright lustre and beames wee say the same of holy Scripture that it is discerned by its owne light Which if the Papists see hot the fault ought not to be laid upon the Sun-beames but upon their Owles eyes To the twelfth That rule which needeth any thing to be added to it is imperfect but all Papists teach that to the written Word unwritten Traditions must bee added to make a compleat and perfect rule of Faith all Papists therefore teach the Scripture alone to be an imperfect Rule We on the contrary stand for the perfection of Scripture and constantly and unanimously defend that not onely the whole Scripture is perfect but that every part also hath its owne perfection but not the perfection of the whole Because the eyes have not the perfection of the whole head or the head the perfection of the whole body a man cannot conclude that the eye or the head is imperfect no more can the Iesuit conclude that the Gospell of Saint Matthew Saint Marke or Saint Iohn are therefore imperfect because they containe not in them all doctrines in particular necessary to salvation It is sufficient that they together with the rest perfectly instruct us in all points of faith by themselves they perfectly informe us so farre as the Holy Ghost intendeth that we should be informed by each of them in particular and this is their perfection that they have no defect in matter or forme and that they concurre with the rest of the bookes of Scripture to the maine end of the Holy Ghost in committing the word of God in writing for the infallible and perfect instruction of the Church and every faithfull soule in all Doctrines needfull to salvation To the thirteenth Although many Protestants have written de Scripturâ judice and they have warrant our of Scripture so to stile it the words which I have spoken they shall judge you yet in propriety of speech which especially ought to be used in stating questions the Scripture is rather to be termed a rule and law or sentence of the judge then the judge himselfe the supreame and infallible judge of all controversies we teach to be the Holy Ghost speaking to us out of Scriptures and the subordinate or inferior Judge the consencient authority of the Catholique Church To the fourteenth The Iesuit shewed no such thing nor can shew out of Tertullian De praescrip advers haeret c. 17. who convinced the greater part of Haeretikes in his time by Scripture as appeareth in his writings In the place which the Iesuit quoteth he hath no such words as he alleageth out of him viz. that there is no good to be done with Haeretikes by Scriptures He saith indeede in that place that it was but in vaine to conferre with a certaine kinde of Haeretikes by Scriptures alone quia ista haeresis non recipit quasdam Scripturas et si recipit non recipit integras et si aliquatenus integras praestat c. That is This haeresie admits not of certaine Scriptures or not intire or if in some sort in ire it perverts them by divising divers interpretations In which words he no way disparageth the holy Scriptures or derogateth from their perfection but discovereth the wicked practise of Haeretikes and their evasions and tergiversations when they are most evidently convinced by Scriptures Will you say that if a Bedlam or willfull malefactor either by puffing out the Candle or shutting his eyes or looking another way will not reade or see the evidence that is brought against him that therfore the evidence is not able to convince him To the fifteenth Though it were granted the Iesuit that the Papists have written more upon the Scriptures then Protestants it will not from thence follow that they more reverence or honour the Scripture sithence in their very Commentaries upon Scripture they derrogate from the authority sufficiency and perfection of them by refusing to referre all points of faith in controversie to their decision by resolving their faith last of all not into them but into the Church by teaching that they are obscure even in points necessary to salvation and that unwritten Traditions are equally to be reverenced with them Secondly compare men with men and oportunities with oportunities it may easily be proved that
witnesses for proofe of the Catholike Faith beginneth with Martyrs those particularly who being Pastours of the Roman Church suffered Martyrdome successively one after another to the number of thirty three These saith Campian were ours and nameth some of them as Telesphorus Victor Sixtus Cornelius with the particular points which they held conformably with us against Protestants That these Martyrs are ours notwithstanding they died not for any of those points the Knight mentioneth is plaine because they professed the same Catholike Faith which wee doe which wee also prove by the Faith of their successour Vrban the eigth who as hee holdeth their seat so also their Faith for Peters Chaire and Faith goe together as the very Heretike Pelagius confessed to Pope Sozimus saying to him Tu qui Petri fidem sedem tenes Not to stand here upon the most effectuall and infallible Prayer of our Saviour himselfe Oravi pro te Petre ut non deficiat fides tua which proofe must stand firme till Sir Humphrey can tell us what Pope began to vary from his predecessors For adoration of Images whereas the Knight asketh whether any of these three and thirty were canonized for it though there be no speciall mention of any of these three and thirty their adoration of Images yet there is very pregnant presumption thereof by this that Pope Sylvester who was the very next after the three and thirtieth and was Pope in time of Constantines conversion had the pictures of Saint Peter and Saint Paul which it is most like he received from his Predecessors Moreover it is plaine that those three and thirty were ours by their owne decretall Epistles which are so full of those points which Father Campian citeth that the Heretikes have no other shift but to denie the authority of the same Epistles That the consecrated Bread depending upon the Priests intention is the reall Flesh of Christ or that this Priest Garnet by name hath power to consecrate is no matter of Faith but that in the Sacrament the matter forme intentton and all things requisite concurring the Bread and Wine is really and truely converted into the Body and Blood of Christ this is a matter of Faith and this a man is to die for Neither maketh it any matter whether any man have died for it or not for that is more in the persecutors power to appoint what point of a mans Faith hee will put him to death for than in the Martyrs owne who must be readie to die for all and every one as well for one as for another The Hammer IN this Chapter the Knight pulleth the garland of Red Roses off from the heads of all Papists I meane the Crowne of Martyrdome by three most forcible arguments which may thus be reduced into Syllogisticall forme 1. None of those who suffered death for the common Articles of the Christian Faith which we all professe are to be accounted Popish Martyrs But the 33. Popes and all the Martyrs in the Primitive Church suffered death for the common Articles of faith which we all professe Ergo none of them were Popish Martyrs neither can they lay any more or better claime to them then we if so good 2. All that may be tearmed truely Popish Martyrs must suffer death either for the profession of the Trent Faith in generall or some speciall point of it wherein they differ from the reformed Churches But none of the Primitive Martyrs suffered death for the profession of the Trent Faith in generall or any point thereof wherein they differ from the beliefe of the reformed Churches Ergo none of the Primitive Martyrs were Popish 3. If the Articles of the Romish Creed published by Pope Pius were either unknowne to the Primitive Church or not then declared to be de fide none in those dayes could suffer Martyrdome for them But the twelve new Articles of Pope Pius his Creed were altogether unknowne to the Primitive Church or not then declared and defined to be de fide as the Iesuit Page 490. in part acknowledgeth Ergo none in the Primitive Church could suffer Martyrdome for them What wards the Iesuit hath for these blowes we shall see in the examination of the particular exceptions before mentioned To the first It is as true that those 33. martyred Popes were Martyrs of the Romish Religion as that Campion the Iesuit who suffered death for Treason against Queene Elizabeth was a Martyr The truth is that although Campion in his tenth Reason search Heaven and rake Hell also for witnesses to prove the truth of the Romish Religion yet he findeth none as D. Whitaker clearely demonstrateth in his answer to that tenth reason and his defence thereof against Dureus To let others passe those 33. Bishops of Rome the Iesuit mentioneth who now weare Crownes of Martyrdome in Heaven never ware the Popes triple Crowne on Earth P. 486. l. 16. I answer that those Martyrs suffered death not for the points now in controversie with Haeretikes but for the profession of Christianity at the hands of the enemies of Christ They sate as Bishops of Rome they sate not as Lords over the whole Church neither was the cause of their death any contestation with Princes for Soveraignty nor the maintenance of any points now in controversie as the Iesuit himselfe confesseth but the profession of Christianity They were not therefore Martyrs of the Roman Church as she is at this present nor of their Trent Creed but of the Catholike Church and the common faith once given to Saints To the second The Iesuits argument drawne from these 33. Bishops of Rome to Pope Vrbane the eighth fall short at least by 1300. yeares If he should thus argue in the Schooles Pope Vrbane the eighth in the yeare of our Lord 1633. held the Trent faith and beleeved Pope Pius the fourth his Creed therefore the 33. Bishops that suffered Martyrdome under the Heathen Emperours within 300. yeares after Christ held the same faith and subscribed to the same Articles of Trent he would be stampt at and hissed out by all present for who knoweth not that George the Arian immediatly succeeded Athanasius the most Orthodox Bishop and that all the Arian Bishops in Constantius his time held the Sees of those Orthodox Bishops who in the first Councell at Nice condemned that blasphemous haeresie In our memory did not Cardinall Poole a Papist succeede Cranmer a Protestant Bishop and Martyr againe did not Parker in Q. Elizabeths daies a learned Protestant succeed Cardinall Poole an Arch-papist in his Arch-bishoprick of Canterbury What a wooden Argument then is this to inferre succession in Doctrine from succession in the same Chaire This wretched Argument the Iesuit proves as lewdly by the testimonie of Pelagius the Heretike This is indeed to Aske his brother if he be a thiefe or no to aske an Heretike whether your Romish Doctrine be not hereticall Yet so unfortunate is hee in his proofe that even this his onely witnesse how liable
soever to exception saith nothing for him Pelagius was not so absurd as to hold this position that Peters Chaire and Faith goe alwaies together but only spake in a glozing manner thus to Pope Sozimus Thou holdest Peters Chaire and Faith and will the Iesuit inferre an universall from a particular Pope Sozimus held Peters Chaire and Faith therfore all that hold Peters Chaire hold his Faith What holdeth these two together Luke 22.32 Quest vet N. Test q. 75. Quid ambigitur pro Petro rogabat pro Iacobo et Iohāne non rogabat ut caeteros taceam manifestum est in Petro omnes contineri a most strong and effectuall Bond saith the Iesuit namely Christs promise to Peter I have prayed for thee that thy Faith faile not The time will faile me to declare particularly how many waies this Argument of the Iesuit failes first Christ prayed not here for Peter onely as Saint Austine affirmeth What doth any man make question hereof did Christ pray for Peter and not for James and John To say nothing of the rest it is manifest that in Peter all the rest are contained This prayer then no more privilegeth the See of Rome from error than of Ierusalem or of Ephesus or any other See of the Apostles Secondly Christ prayed not that Peter might not erre who afterwards erred Gal. 2.14 and was reproved by Saint Paul Galathians the second but that his Faith might not faile that is be overcome in that fearfull temptation in such sort that hee might not rise againe after his fall Thirdly Christs prayer is for Peter himselfe in his person and the Apostles whom Satan winnowed not for his See Fourthly if this promise any way belonged to his Successors certainly no more to those of Rome than Antiochia so infirme is this the Iesuits proofe which yet hee saith Must stand firme till Sir Humphrey can tell what Pope began to varie from his Predecessours Agreed Sir Humphrey shall presently tell him by name Liberius the Arrian Vigilius the Eutychian Honorius the Monothelite condemned in three generall Councels sixth seventh and eighth Iohn the three and twenty deposed in the Councell at Constance as for other enormous crimes so for this his damnable heresie that Hee denied the immortalitie of the soule and the life to come To which after the Iesuit hath replied instance shall be given in many other Popes which have beene branded with the note of heresie in like manner To the third A strange and loose inference three and thirty Popes adored Images because their Predecessor had the pictures of Saint Peter and Saint Paul Pope Gregorie allowed of the standing of pictures in the Church Vid. supr yet would have them by no meanes adored Helena the mother of Constantine had the wood of Christs crosse yet adored it not saith Saint Ambrose If to have the picture of Saint Peter or Saint Paul nay or of Christ himselfe maketh a man an Idolater or a Papist then not onely all the Lutherans generally but very many of the most orthodoxe Divines in our and other reformed Churches will be proved as good Papists as Pope Sylvester To the fourth Not only Protestants whom the Iesuit nick-nameth Heretikes but also Contius and other Romanists have disparaged these Epistles and if the Iesuits nose be not very flat and stuffed also hee may smell the forgerie of these Decretals by the barbarisme of the stile disagreeing to those times and many absurdities and contradictions noted in them by Coqueus and others To the fift If it be no matter of Faith that this particular Priest Transubstantiateth the Bread because no man knowes his intention nor that particular Priest Et sic de caeteris It followeth that it is no matter of Faith to beleeve that any Priest in the Roman Church by the words of Consecration turneth the Bread into Christs Body As for that hee addeth that it is no matter whether any ever died for this point in particular I answer it is a matter of great moment for if Garnet would not take it upon his salvation that this Bread hee consecrated immediately before the death was turned into Christs Body nor any ever would or did pawne his life for Transubstantiation it is evident that Papists themselves doubt of the certainty of that Article On the contrarie wee can produce hundreds nay thousands who for denying Transubstantiation have beene put to death and have signed the truth of the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches concerning the Sacrament with their blood and therefore the Doctrine of the Protestants in this point is of more credit than the contrarie because it is strengthened and fortified by a Noble armie of Martyrs Concerning the Protestants charitable opinion of the salvation of Papists Spectacles Chap. 17. à page 491. usque ad 508. THE Knights discourse in this Chapter is wholly from his purpose which he pretendeth in the title of his Chapter which is to answer our objections The Knights eight instances in the Doctrine of Merits Communion in both kinds publike use of Scripture Priests marriage Service in a knowne tongue Worship of Images Adoration of the Sacrament and Traditions are all answered before and proved some false for the things wherewith he chargeth us are all absurd if we consider the proofes of Scripture which he bringeth All testimonies from an enemy proceede not from charity but from truth and such are those which Catholikes bring out of learned Protestants to prove that a man dying in the Romish Religion may be saved Free-will Prayer for the Dead Honouring of Relikes Reall Presence Transubstantiation Communion in one kinde Worshiping of Images the Popes Primacy Auricular Confession and the like are all acknowledged some by one Protestant some by another not to be materiall points so as a man may without perill beleeve either way the severall authors are Perkins Cartwright Whitgift Fulke Penrie Somes Sparks Reynolds Bunnie and Whitaker John Frith a Foxean Martyr acknowledgeth that the matter touching the substance of the Sacrament bindeth no man of necessity to salvation or damnation whether he beleeve it or not John Huz held the Masse Transubstantiation Vowes Freewill Merit of workes and of the haeresies now in controversie held onely one to wit communion in both kindes Dr. Barrow acknowlegeth the Church of Rome to be the Church of God Hooker a part of the house of God and limbe of the visible Church of Christ Dr. Somes that all learned and reformed Churches confesse that in Popery there is a Church a Ministry and true Christ Field and Morton that we are to be accounted the Church of God whose words may be seene in the Protestants Apologie Tract 1. Sect. 6. Whereas the Knight saith that men otherwayes morally good relying wholly on the merits of Christ that is living Papists and dying Protestants in the principall foundation of our faith may finde mercy because they did it ignorantly where hath the Knight learned this Theologie that a man
bookes yet extant wherein he no way approveth of Transubstantiation but condemneth it expressely Neither doth he say that a right beliefe in the Sacrament touching the substance thereof is no matter of salvation but that it is no matter of salvation to beleeve after what manner the substance of Christs body is in the Sacrament whether by Consubstantiation or Transubstantiation which is most true for as Doctor Andrewes late Bishop of Winton acutely observed Christ said hoc est Corpus meum non hoc modo est or fit Corpus meum this is my Body not the bread is after this manner my body To the sixt If communion in both kindes be an haeresie Christ his Apostles and the Primitive Church which administred and received the Communion in both kinds as is confessed in the Councell at Constance cannot be free from haeresie And whereas the Iesuit saith that this Martyr in all other points held with Papists the contrary appeares in his printed bookes and by the prayer he made at his death mentioned by Cocleus in the history of the Huzzites wherein he prayeth to God that his soule after his death might be where the soule of Wickliffe is To the seventh To the Iesuit his allegations out of Barrow Hooker Some Bunnie and Covell Dr. Morton now Bishop of Duresme answereth at large in his Catholike appeale l. 4. from the first Section to the sixth where he proveth that the testimonies themselves and the reasons annexed to them doe shew that the above cited Protestants yeeld no more security to the Romish Church then they doe to any other erroneous Church wherein there is true baptisme and the the profession of the chiefe principles of faith Barrow acknowledgeth the Church of Rome to be a Church of God that is a Church professing Christianity in which there may be a possibility of salvation not an Orthodox or right believing Church in which there is certainty of salvation Hooker saith that the Church of Rome is a member of the visible Catholike Church a member not the Catholike Church and no sound member neither according to that Thesis of Doctor Reynolds Romana ecclesia nec est Catholica nec sanum membrum Catholicae Dr. Somes saith as likewise Iunius Iunius de Eccles l. sing Papatu◠est in Ecclesia seu in papatu est Ecclesia Papatus tamen non est Ecclesia that in Popery there is a Church that is under the Popes dominion Christ hath his Church or that Popery is in the Church yet that Popery is not the Church Bunnie saith that we are not a severall Church from the Papists that is not essentially defferent from it no more then a sicke man differeth from a sound Covell saith the Church of Rome is a part of the Church of Christ but a very unsound part From all which passages this onely may be concluded of the Roman Church as of other erroneous assemblies that though in regard of their manifold errors they must be esteemed sicke and unsound Churches yet in regard of the being and essence of a Church they must be acknowledged visible Churches of Christ Neither Field nor Morton saith that the Church of Rome is the Church of God but a Church of God Fields words are Romana ecclesia est verè ecclesia non vera ecclesia is truely a Church not a true Church Morton proveth in one whole Section that the Church of Rome is not properly the Catholike Church but a particular Church subject to error Sect. 6. Protest appeal l. 4. But in this point in what sense the Protestants call the Church of Rome a true Church see a late Treatise set forth by Doctor Hall the Bishop of Exton called the Reconciler wherein both he and Bishop Davenet and Morton in their letters affixed thereunto cleare the matter nothing at all I assure you to your advantage To the eight The Knight saith not that a man may be saved in one Religion yet so as he must not die in it but that a man living in one Religion to wit the Popish may be saved so that he renounce it before his death and dye in a better for not onely the bosome of the Church but also the gates of Heaven are alwayes open to the penitent as the Prophet Ezekiel teacheth C. 18.23 neither is this any new conceit of the Knight but the generall opinion of all Protestants as the Iesuit may read in the Catholike Appeale l. 4. c. 1. The Reverend Bishop now mentioned understanding how that great and honourable personage in the last Act of her life renounced all presumption of her owne inherent righteousnesse and wholly affianced her soule to Christ in beliefe to be justified onely by his satisfactory justice did therefore conceive hope of her salvation by vertue of that Cordiall prescribed by the Holy Apostle viz. that where sinne aboundeth the grace of God doth superabound which the Apostle hath ministred for the comfort of every Christian who erring by ignorance shall in sincere repentance for all his knowne sinnes depart this mortall life having the heele or end of his life shod with the preparation of the Gospell of peace not of the new Romish but of the old Catholike faith which is the faith of all Protestants C. 15. p. 363. And againe in his booke intituled the Grand Imposture If you demand why Protestants have so charitable opinion of some Romanists you are to understand that it is in regard of that without which they cannot be saved that they died in the beliefe of this Protestant Article of Faith which is to be justified by remission of all their sinnes through the satisfactory righteousnesse of Christ apprehended by faith and not by the legall justice or perfection of inherent righteousnesse in themselves as your Councell of Trent hath decreed and this opinion we finde verified in the experience of many Papists who howsoever in their life time they professe and magnifie your doctrine of perfection of works yet on their death bed as soone as the least glimpse of the majesty of Christs tribunall is revealed unto them and the booke of their conscience begins to be unclapsed and so laid open before them that they cannot but reade their sinnes which in their life-time they held as veniall to be deadly and written in Capitall litters then they take Sanctuary in the wounds of Christ from whence floweth the Ocean of all expiatory merit and satisfaction by which it is impossible but that every faithfull penitent should receive life To the ninth To this argument I say that it is paralyticall and weake in the sinewes For how doth this follow the Donatists held as the Papists doe that all men were damned that were not of their sect St. Austine de unit eccles c. 12. and other Catholike Bishops thought that some of them might be in the state of grace and that their Baptisme was good Ergo it is a safer way to embrace the Donatists haeresie then the Catholike
Heaven and Hell 19. That there are three holy Orders in the Church Bishops Priests and Deacons 20. That Confession to a Priest in case the Conscience be troubled with any grievous Sin is profitable and behoovefull To all these points and many more like unto these the Papists assent but in all their additions they stand single as namely 1. That a fourth Creed made by Pius the fourth is likewise to be received under paine of damnation 2. That religious worship is due to Saints 3. That Saints and Angels are to be called upon 4. That the Pope is the visible head of the Church 5. That Saints are our Mediatours and Advocates 6. That the Virgin Mary also was conceived without sinne 7. That wee are justified and saved in part by our owne Merits and superabundant satisfactions of Saints 8. That Tradition is a rule of Faith as well as Scripture 9. That besides those two and twenty there are other Books of the old Testament to wit Tobit Judith Baruch The Wisdome of Salomon Ecclesiasticus and the Maccabees to be admitted into the number of Canonicall Scriptures 10. That the vulgar Latin translation of the Scripture is most pure and authenticall 11. That besides Baptisme and the Lords Supper there are five other Sacraments Confirmation Order Penance Matrimonie and Extreme Vnction 12. That Gallies and Bels may and ought to be christened 13. That besides Water Creame Salt and Spittle are to be used in Baptisme 14. That Christ is present in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation and that his body and blood is not onely received spiritually by Faith but also carnally by the mouth 15. That the Sacrament of the Lords Supper may lawfully be administred to the Laity in one kind onely 16. That besides an historicall there is a religious use of Images and that they are to bee worshipped 17. That Peter had not onely a Primacie of Order but a power also and jurisdiction over the Apostles 18. That besides Heaven and Hell there is a third place of abode for soules to wit Purgatorie and a fourth also termed Limbus infantum 19. That besides those three holy Orders of Bishops Prists and Deacons there are others as namely Exorcists Acolyts c. 20. That confession of every knowne Sin to a Priest is necessarie Now because Negatives are not properly Articles of Faith but Positives or Affirmatives it appeareth evidently that the Faith of the reformed Churches is assented to by Papists themselves and all Christians in the world and therfore is most certain safe by the confession on all sides wheras the Popish additions wherein we stand onely upon the Negative and they are to make good the Affirmative are assented to by none but themselves and therefore by the Iesuits rule are weak doubtful and lesse safe This is Vulcaneum telum et argumentum palmarium the main and principall argument whereby the Knight demonstrateth the title of his Booke and hee is so confident of it that if that be to be accounted the safer way wherein different parties agree both in one as the Iesuit laid it downe in the former chapter hee will joyne issue with all Papists in the world in this very point and if in this hee make not good the title of his Booke that wee are therefore in the safer way because they agree in the principall and Positive points of Religion with our Doctrine hee will reconcile himselfe to the Roman Church and creepe upon all foure to his Holinesse for a Pardon At this the Iesuit is so mad that he fometh at the mouth and raveth saying Pag. 512. That to creepe upon all foure is a very fit gate for men so devoid of reason as to make such Discourses and to use such malicious insinuations as if men used to creepe upon all foure to the Pope Parce sepulto Parce pias scelerare manus be not so inhumane and barbarous in tearing the fame of the dead there is no cause at all given of such rage and furie The Knight doth herein no way blaspheme or falsly traduce Dominum deum Papam for those that ordinarily kisse the Popes toe unlesse his Holinesse be the more courteous to hold up his foot the higher must needs be neere creeping on all foure To say nothing of Dandalus King of Creete and Cyprus who was upon all foure and that under the Table before the Popes Holinesse as Iewell in his Apologie and the defence thereof undeniably proveth out of good Authors against Mr. Harding yet the Knight in this place chargeth not the Pope with any such imperious demand of Luciferian pride but onely professeth what penance hee would willingly enjoyne himselfe if hee should abuse the Reader and not make good the Title of his booke by the argument above propounded against which what the Iesuit here particularly Articleth and objecteth I will now consider To the first The words which the Iesuit would make seem so ridiculous are related by the Knight as their owne words not ours as any may perceive by the Preface to them therefore say they and by this that they are written in a lesser Character and is it not senslesse in the Iesuit and most ridiculous to laugh at himselfe and put his owne nonsense upon the Knight who taking the Iesuits words as he found them scorning to nible at syllables interpreted the Iesuits words at the best and taking his meaning joynes issue with him upon the point in this manner In a Church professing Christianity where the Scriptures of the old and new Testament are received and the two Sacraments instituted by Christ administred suppose we there to be two sorts of Professors either publikely allowed as in France or at least tollerated as in other Kingdomes both these entituling themselves to be members of the pure Orthodox Church and neither of them having beene particularly condemned in any generall Councell received through the Christian world the probleme then is whether of these two that party is not in the safer way who holdeth no positive Article of faith to which both parties besides all other Christians give not their assent unto then the other who maintaineth twelve Articles of faith at least wherein they themselves stand single and are forsaken by all Christians not onely of the reformed Churches in England France Germany Denmarke Swethland Norway Poland Transylvania but also in the Eastern and Greek Churches dispersed through the large Dominions of the Turke in Europe Asia and Africa But thus it standeth betweene us and Papists all the positive Articles which we hold necessary to salvation they themselves and all other Christian Churches in the world assent unto whereunto the Church of Rome hath added many other positive Articles in joyning all under paine of damnation to beleeve them in all which additions she standeth alone by her selfe therefore it is safer to adhere to the doctrine and faith of the reformed churches then the Pope his new Trent Creed The Iesuits exceptions against this argument
are very idle and all his instances in Turkes Iewes and Haeretikes nothing to the purpose for the unbeleeving Iewes and Turkes never were nor yet are members of the Catholike Christian Church the Arians Nestorians Eutychians and Marcionites have beene long agoe excluded out of the true Church of Christ and their Haeresies are by name condemned in ancient generall Councells approved by the whole Christian world These therefore come not within the verge of the Knights proposition which is restrained to Christian Churches and such whose Tenets have not in particular as yet beene cryed downe and censured as erroneous in any oecumenicall Councell among such doubtlesse those are in the safer way who hold nothing for an Article of faith necessary to salvation which is not clearely deduced out of Holy Scripture and assented unto even by the opposite part whose testimony saith the Iesuit Page 498. must needs proceede from evidence of truth To the second The Iesuit hath received answer already to the former of these demands where I shewed by twenty instances that we stand not single as they doe by affirming what they deny and denying what they affirme for the most if not all the affirmative Articles of our Creed are firmed and subscribed by Papists themselves whereas their additionalls to them are firmed by none but themselves and therefore herein our cause hath a great advantage on theirs For if their beliefe be true our beliefe in all the affirmative Articles thereof must needs be so but not on the contrary because they have many affirmative Articles which we give no credit unto To his second demand I answer that though a multitude of Professors is no perpetuall and infallible marke of the true Church Luke 12.32 Matth. 7.13 Apoc. 13.17 Apoc. 20.2 Apoc 1◠4 The woman arrayed in purple and scarlet called The Whore of Babylon had a cup of gold in her hand c. Apoc. 13.3 All the world wondered and followed the Beast ver 8. All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the Booke of Life for Christs flocke is but a little flocke in comparison and broade is the way that leadeth to death and destruction and though it is true that in the latter and worser ages of the Church especially after the yeare 666. which is the number of the name of the Beast and much more after the thousandth yeare wherein Satan was let loose the Romish Church was much more visible to the eye of the world then the Protestant as it is prophecied in the Apocalypse the 16. 6. that the false and malignant Church should be farre more glorious and pompous then the true Spouse of Christ yet in the first and best ages of the Church our adversaries have not so much as one single witnesse who can be proved to have given testimony to their Trent faith and since the happy reformation began by Martin Luther in King Henry the eights dayes the better part of Europe is fallen from the Pope adde we to them all those who in Asia and Africa professe the Christian faith and yet acknowledge not the Pope nor subscribe to the Trent faith and it will appeare we have neere a thousand for one in the Catholike visible Church scattered far and wide over the face of the earth as may be seene in the Mapps set forth in a booke printed the last yeare and intituled Christianographie or the Description of the multitude and sundry sorts of Christians in the World not subject to the Pope with their unity and how they agree with the Protestants in the principall points of difference betweene them and the Church of Rome To the third If the argument bee so weake let the Iesuit remember that it is his owne and that he confesseth as much in the first words of this Chapter which are these The substance of this Section is contained in the title and it is nothing but to turne the Catholike argument mentioned in the former Section the other way for the Protestant side The argument then is a Catholike argument of their owne and if it make for Haeretikes Iewes and Turkes as he saith it doth the blame and shame thereof must light upon the Iesuits that first framed it and not upon the Knight who retorteth it onely upon them for thus it mooveth upon their Axletree that wherein Professors of different religions both agree is safer to beleeve then that wherein they stand single but Iewes and Christians agree in the beliefe of the old Testament Christians and Turkes agree in the truth of Christs humane nature in other points the Christians are single therfore the beliefe of a Iew or a Turke is safer then the beliefe of a Christian The conclusion is here false and blasphemous the minor or assumption is evidently true and confessed on all sides the fault therfore must needs be in the major or ground of this argument but the major or ground is your owne as will appeare by reducing the Iesuits Argument propounded in the former Section into forme That Church wherein parties of a different Religion as Papists and Protestants agree is a safer way than that wherein one party stand single But Papists and Protestants both agree that salvation may be had in the Romish Church but the Protestants stand single in that they say salvation may be had in the Protestant Church therefore it is safer living and dying in the Papists Church than in the Protetestant In this Syllogisme the Knight and all Protestants though they answer to the Assumption by distinguishing as is expressed in the former chapter yet they simply absolutely deny the Major which is not universally true nor at all necessarie Secondly Dato non concesso that the Major is true the Knight nimbly turnes the mouth of the Papists owne Canon to batter their owne walls thus That position say you in which both Papists and Protestants agree is safer than that wherein one partie standeth single but in the eleven Points mentioned by the Knight Papists and Protestants agree in the twelve Articles coyned by Pope Pius the fourth the Papists stand single therefore the Protestant Faith is the safer To the fourth A strange Argument for the Iesuit to conclude other mens sight from his owne blindnesse because hee seeth not how the Knight can avoid the instances in Jewes Heretikes and Turkes whereby hee goeth about to disable the Knight his retorted Argument therfore will hee inferre that any man may see that the Knight is no good guide For pitty let some fit the Iesuit with a paire of Spectacles that he may better see the Knight his way and his own wandrings * How far the Romish Religiō is distant from Heresie Iudaisme and Turcisme or rather trencheth upon all three See P Croy his booke of Conformities and Sutcliffe his Turco papismus Iews and Turks are out of the Christian Church hold not all Positive Articles necessary to salvation and therefore they come not in the Knights way at all nor hath hee to doe with them in this Argument which proceedeth from professed Christians and not open enemies to the Faith For the Knight from his heart detesteth all pathes leading to any of those dangerous precipices and chaulketh to all men Viam vere tutam certam rectam regiam a faire and Safe Way and the very Kings High-way to his Pallace wherein wee have Christ and his Apostles for our Leaders the holy Spirit for our Guide the blessed Angels for our Convoy the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church for our fellow Travellers through the whole and the best learned of the Romane Popes Cardinals Bishops and Schoolemen to beare us companie the greater part of our way Wherefore I doubt not but that the indifferent peruser of the Knights Book and the Iesuits Answer and my Reply unto it will breake out into the Apostles exclamation and say to this Romish Sorcerer Acts 3.13 or rather if hee will so false Spectacle-maker Flood O full of all subtiltie and mischiefe thou child of the devill wilt thou not cease to pervert the right way of the LORD FINIS Laus DEO sine fine
I cite but three Authors and yet none prove the Antiquitie or Vniversalitie of our Faith Then you goe backe againe and you tell the Reader I say nothing here of the mans notable cunning and falshood in making him beleeve as if we did excuse our selves in those things whereof they accuse us If such extravagant excursions and reproches you call a Reply or a Catholike Answer I will lay my finger on my mouth and say with your Cardinall Qui decipi vult decipiatur Briefely the substance of my Assertion was this The three Creeds the Canonicall Scriptures the Apostolike Traditions the foure first generall Councels and the rest were so generally received in the bosome of the Roman Church that for that reason it might seeme a senselesse question to demand where our Church was before Luther Next I shewed that the positive Doctrines of our Church mentioned in our 39. Articles were contained in a very few points and those also had Antiquity and Vniversality then I shewed that those doctrines which they obtruded upon us were but Additions and Negative Tenets in our Articles and that many of those additions were condemned or at least excused by their owne men And I instanced in three Authors before mentioned for three severall points of their Doctrine and this is the substance and true meaning of that Section and thus much by way of advertisement to the moderate Reader Now to answer you distinctly to that you have produced confusedly Your first exception is touching Pope Adrian the sixth you say It is not as Sr. Humphry putteth it to wit if the consecrated Bread be Christ but if it be rightly consecrated And doe not you still by Adrians confession excuse your adoration by implying a condition and is it not all one according to your doctrine For if it be rightly consecrated it is Christ if not it is a Crust and no man amongst your Communicants knoweth what it is because he knoweth not the Priests intention Take it therefore which way you will yet my assertion stands true we condemne you for adoring the Elements for ought you know of bread and wine because it doth depend upon the intention of the Priest whether Christ be there or no but yet you cannot condemne us for adoring Christs rent body in the Heavens and however the Priests doe consecrate yet saith Gerson when the host is adored that condition is ever at lest to be supposed if it be rightly consecrated that is Gers compend Theol. Tit. de tribus virtut p. 111. if it be truely the body of Christ And this is that Pope Adrian hath delivered by your owne confession and therefore they are not to be cleered from Idolatry because they intended to worship one God as indeede there was but one God but because they adored him there where he was not and in that manner as they supposed him to be The case saith Catharinus is like in the host not consecrated Cathar Annot. in Caiet p. mihi 134. For God and Christ is not adored simply but as he is existing under the formes of bread and wine If therefore he be not there but it be found that Divine worship is given to a creature insteede of Christ there is Idolatry also For even in this regard they were Idolaters who adored Heaven or any other thing supposing with themselves that they adored in it the Divinity whom they called the soule of the world Compare then the certainty of your faith with ours which is the point in question and tell me if in this we are not more certaine and safe then you can be First your owne Bellarmine tels us Bell. de Iustific l. 3. c. 8. that none can be certaine by the certainity of faith that he doth receive a true Sacrament No man saith Andreas Vega can beleeve assuredly that he receiveth the least part of the Sacrament Vega l. 9. de Iustific c. 17. and this is so surely to be credited as it is apparant that we live And both give one and the same reason for it For there is no way except it be by Revelation that we can know the intention of the Minister either by outward appearance or by certainty of faith From this dangerous consequence we condemne your adoration and resolve to let you know from your owne men Th. Salistar de arte Praedicandi c. 25. that No man be he never so simple or never so wise ought precisely to believe that this is the body of our Lord that the Priest hath consecrated but onely under this condition if all things concerning the consecration be done as appertaineth for otherwise he shall avouch a creature to be the Creator which were Idolatry Now as this way in the generall is uncertaine and dangerous so likewise there are many other wayes which may easily occasion this Idolatry and therefore you cannot deny us to be in the more certaine and safe way As for instance Iohannes de Burgo who was Chancellor of Cambridge about 200. yeares since gives us to understand that a Priest may faile in his intention many wayes As for example Pupilla Oculi c. 3. 5. c. If the Bread be made of any other then wheaten flower which may possibly happen or if there be too much water in quantity that it overcomes and alters the nature of wine if the wine be changed into vinegar and therefore cannot serve for consecration If there be thirteene cakes upon the Table and the Priest for his consecration determine onely upon twelve in that case not one of them all is Consecrated Lastly if the Priest dissemble or leave out the words of Consecration or if he forget it or minde it not in all and every of these wayes there is nothing Consecrated and consequently the people giving divine honour to the Sacrament all Bread or Cup commit flat Idolatry When I heare the Apostle proclaime to all Christians that he which doubteth is condemned already I cannot chuse but pitty the state and condition of that miserable man who hath a doubtfull perplexed and uncertaine faith who taketh all upon trust and upon the report sometimes of an Hypocrite sometimes of a malitious Priest who hath no intention at all to administer the true Sacrament History of Trent For saith your Trent history if a Priest having charge of foure or five hundred soules were an Infidell but a formall Hyppocrite and in absolving the Penitent baptizing of children and Consecrating the Eucharist had an intention not to doe that which the Church doth it must be said that the children are damned the penitent not absolved and that all remaine without the fruite of the Communion Now let the Reader judge which doctrine is most certaine and safe either that of your Church which may occasion flat Idolatry in the worshiper or our sursum corda with hearts and eyes lifted up to Heaven where we adore our Saviour Christ in his bodily presence according to the
Popes superioritie to Councels before the Councell at Laterane under Leo the tenth nor most of Pope Pius the fourth his Articles before the late Councell of Trent wherein those points were first defined Then which what Argument can be more forcible to convince the novelty of the Romish Faith But whether an article of Faith is to be accounted such because it is defined to be such by the Church or whether it be defined to be such by the Church because it is such in its owne nature it will little serve the Iesuits turne to make up the breaches of the Roman Church For certaine it is that their Doctors differ amongst themselves even in points defined by the Church For after the bookes of the Old Testament with all the parts knowne by the name of Apocrypha by the Councell of Trent were defined to be of Canonicall authoritie Sixtus Senensis makes scruple of some of them Sixtus Senens bib Sanct. l. 1. After the immaculate conception of our Lady was defined by Sixtus the fourth and the feast in testimonie thereof authorised by him yet the Dominicans generally hold that shee was conceived in sinne After Justification by inherent righteousnesse De Caus instit l. 7. c. 21. was defined in the Councell of Trent Albertus Pighius and others cited by Vegas held the contrary And though the Councell of Trent stigmatize the doctrine touching assurance of salvation yet Ambrosius Catharinus a learned Papist set forth a learned treatise de certitudine salutis Lastly though Pope Leo the tenth in the Councell of Lateran defineth the Pope to be above a generall Councell yet the Sorbonists at this day maintaine that a generall Councell is above the Pope Therefore as St Thomas Moore said pleasantly of a poore Physitian that he was more then medicus to wit by one letter Mor. in Epigr. meaning that he was mendicus Vna tibi plus est litera quam medico so it may truely be said of the unity Papists brag so much of that it is more then Vnity by a letter to wit Vanity To the fourth If the Knight or any Protestant suspended the efficacy of their Baptisme upon the faith of their Parents or as all Papists doe upon the intention of the Priest the Iesuit might with some colour object to us the uncertainty of our Christendome but let him know if he doth not that we maintaine generally that the effect of Baptisme dependeth not upon the faith of the Parents and God-fathers nor yet upon the intention of the Priest knowne to God onely and himselfe but upon his outward action and his words knowne to all the Congregation We say that the observation of Christs institution in baptizing the partie in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy-ghost and not the Priests hidden intention makes Baptisme effectuall to all that belong to the covenant To the fift The Iesuit most absurdly inferreth absurdities upon his owne Tenet supposing it to be ours whereas we disclaime it affirming that although the Church useth in marriage all meanes possible by questions and answers by joyning hands by plighting their troth in most significant tearmes and confirming their mutuall promises by giving and receiving a ring and denouncing Gods judgments against them in most fearfull manner if they know any thing one by the other why they should not be ioyned in marriage yet because the heart is knowne to God alone the validity of marriage with us dependeth upon the outward profession and sacred action done before sufficient and undoubted witnesse and not the secret intentions of the partie What the Iesuit addeth by way of jeare that a small deale of orders serves our turnes for he seeth not any thing done by vertue of our ordination which any man or woman may not doe without it I hold it not worthy any other answer then that sith he professeth his eye sight to be so dimme he would make use of the Spectacles he made for the Knight by helpe of them if he be not starke blinde he may see that by vertue of our ordination men in holy orders preach the Gospell administer the Sacraments remit and retaine sinnes which if he thinke any man or woman may doe without ordination like the foole in the Poet Dum vitant stulti vitia in contrario currunt he is gone from one extreame to the other and of a Papist become an Anabaptist With us none may execute the Priests office but he that is called thereunto as was Aaron If the Iesuit meane that any man or woman may doe the outward acts of Priesthood de facto though not de Iure may they not doe the like also sometimes among them doth not their Legend tell us that some Boyes getting by heart and pronouncing the words of Consecration hoc est Corpus meum turned all the Bakers bread in the street into flesh Do not Lady Abbesses and Nuns chaunt Mattins together in Romish Chappels Do not Midwives christen children in their Church With what face then can he charge us with those disorders whereof all the world seeth we are free but he and his Church most guilty To the sixt If we can have but a conjecturall and wavering knowledge of our salvation what comfort can a true Christian have in life or death If his hope be onely in this life the Apostle affirmeth expressely 1 Cor. 15.19 that he is of all men most miserable and certainely he is but little better if all his hope in the life to come be no better then a guesse or slender conjecture Iustly therefore did Martin Luther tearme the Romish doctrine concerning uncertainty of salvation non doctrinam fidei sed diffidentiae no doctrine of faith but of diffidence and distrust which if this Iesuit stiffely maintaines I would faine know of him how he interpreteth that Article of the Creed I beleeve the remission of sinnes Is the meaning onely this that there is a remission of some sins in the Church if so then the Devill beleeves as much concerning this Article as he but if as he beleeveth in the Article of the Resurrection the Resurrection of his owne flesh so in the Article of remission of sinnes the remission of his owne sinnes then his owne justification and particular beliefe of his owne saltion is a part of his Catholike faith and if that be but conjecturall then there is no certainty in the Catholike Faith It is true that it is a different thing to dispute of the certainety of the Catholike faith in generall and of every mans private and particular beliefe of his owne justification and salvation yet there is such a dependance betweene them that if the former be uncertaine the latter cannot be certaine Yea but saith the Iesuit we are certaine by the certainty of divine faith not onely that there be seven Sacraments but that they are also truely administred in the Church so as there can be no danger of the failing