to the Iewes and Greekes repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ hee could not but have seene the absurditie of his answer wherein he denieth that S. Paul speaketh of the written word For who knoweth not that repentance towards God and faith towards Iesus Christ are written almost in every Sermon of the Prophets and chapter of the Evangelists What hee addeth for confirmation of his answer from the example of our Saviour who made knowne to his Disciples whatsoever hee heard from his Father and yet delivered not one word in writing no whit at all helpeth his cause For albeit we grant that our Saviour wrote nothing except wee give credit to a relation in Eusebius of a letter written by him to King Abgarus yet hee commanded his Apostles to write those things which they had heard and seene what thou seest write it in a booke Euseb eccles hist. l. 1. Apoc. 1.11 and send it to the seven Churches and S. Peter saith 2 Ep. 8.20 that no Scripture is privatae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as Cal vin well rendereth the words privatae impulsionis of private impulsion or motion for the prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost and therefore Irenaeus saith expresly Advers haeres .3 c. 1. non per alios dispositionem salut is accepimus quans per quos E vangelium ad nos pervenit quod primum praeconiaverunt posted secundùm Dei voluntatem in script is reliquerunt columnam firmamentum fidei futurum Euseb hist eccl l. 2. c. 14. fideles iterat is precibus impetrârunt à Marcout monumentum illud doctrinae quod sermone verbis ill is tradidisset etiam script is mandatum apud eos relinqueret Esay 8.20 that what the Apostles preached first by word of mouth by the will of GOD they afterwards delivered in writing to bee a pillar and foundation of our faith and S. Austine affirmeth that what Christ would have knowne of his words and deeds as needfull to our salvation that hee gave in charge to his Apostles to set downe in writing If this suffice not I will stop the mouth of this Iesuit with the free confession of a greater Iesuit then hee Gregorie of Valence in his eight booke of the Analysis of faith the fift chapter minimè in ipsorum arbitrio positum fuit scribere aut alio tempore aut alijs verbis scribere the penmen of the holy Ghost were so guided by the spirit that it was not in their power or at their choyce to write or not to write or to write at another time or to write in other words then they did To the testimonie of Bellarmine the Iesuit gives as sleight an answer as to the former out of S. Luke whereunto I need to reply nothing because in a case so cleere wee need not the Cardinals confession having such expresse testimonie of Scripture and Fathers as namely of Esay to the law and to the testimonie if they speake not according to this word Deut. 4.2 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the booke of the law to doe them And Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the Priests which bare the Arke Gal. 1.8 2 Tim. 3.15 it is because there is no light in them of Moyses yee shall not adde unto the words which I command you which to bee spoken of the written law is apparant by comparing this text with Galathians 3.10 and Deuteronomie 31.9 And the words of Christ Iohn 5.39 search the Scriptures for in them you thinke you have eternall life And of S. Iohn his beloved Disciple Iohn 20.31 these things are written that yee might beleeve that Iesus Christ is the Sonne of God and that beleeving ye might have life through his Name And of S. Paul if we or an Angel from heaven preach unto you any other Gospel then that yee have received Advers hermog c. 22. adoro scripturae plenitudinem scriptum doceat Hermogenes Epist ad Pomp nihil innovetur in quit Stephanus quod traditum est unde est ista traditio Vtrum de Dominicâ Evangelicâ authoritate descendens an de Apostolorum mandatis epistolis veniens ea enim facienda quae scripta sunt Deus restatur siergo aut in evangelio praecipitur aut in Apostolorum epistolis aut Actibus continetur observetur haecsanctatraditio that is as S. Austine expoundeth it praeterquam quod in Scripturis legalibus Evangelicis accepist is if any preach unto you any Gospell beside that which is contained in the writings of the Law and the Gospell let him bee accursed And thou hast knowne the Scriptures from a child which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus for all Scripture is given by Divine inspiration and is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction and righteosnesse that the man of God may bee perfect throughly furnished to all good workes And of Tertullian I adore the fulnesse of Scriptures let Hermogenes prove what hee saith out of Scriptures or otherwise let him feare the woe denounced against all such as adde any thing thereunto or take there-from And of S. Cyprian our brother Steven will have nothing to bee altered in the Church tradition Whence is this tradition is it from the Gospel or the Acts of the Apostles or their Epistles if it be so then let this holy tradition bee kept for God himselfe witnesseth that wee ought to observe those things that are written And of Athanasius Athanas. orat 1. cont Arr. Sufficiunt per se inspiratae scripturae ad veritatis instructionem Basil Serm. de side 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 3. in 2. ad Tbess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et in 2. ad Cor. Hom. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ierom. advers Helvid c. 3. credimus quia legimus non credimus quia non legimus Augustin de doc Chris l. 2. c. 9. in ijs quae apertè posita sunt in scriptura inveniuntur illa amnia quae continent fidem mores Cyril in Evang. Iohan. l. 1.2 c. 68 ea conscripta sunt quae scribentes Sufficere put drunt ad mores dogmataque Vincen. Lyrin advers Haeres hic requirat aliquis cum sit perfectus scripturae canon sibique ad omnia sat is superque sufficiat Biel in can mis lec 71. quae agenda quae fugienda quae amanda quae contemnenda quae timenda quae audenda quae credenda speranda caetera nostrae saluti necessaria quae omnia sola docet Sacra scriptura the holy Scripturesare sufficient to instruct us in the truth And of S Basil it is a manifest falling away from faith either to refuse any thing of those that are written or to bring in any of those things which
which is more your Non conficient Priests doe generally commit that Sacriledge by receiving the consecrated Bread without the Cup flat contrary to the decrees of the ancient Bishop of Rome In the sixth age the second Councell of Orange is falsified in the behalfe of your merits the words of the Councell are these Hoc etiam salubriter profitemur credimus quod in omni opere bono non nos incipimus posted per Dei misericordiam adjuvamur sed ipse nobis c. Concil Arausicanum Can. 25. Bin. Tom. 2. p. 639. We solemnely professe and beleeve that in every good worke wee our selves doe not first begin and are helped afterwards by the mercie of God but he Nullis praecedentibus bonis meritis no good merits of ours going before doth first of all inspire us with faith and love towards him This Councell condemned the Pelagians for their doctrine of Merits and Freewill and accordingly declared that we have neither free will of our selves to doe good neither any fore-going workes to merit any thing of our selves and this is a safe and humble confession both of our weaknesse and Gods good grace and mercy towards us But observe your Church-men for the defence of their merits they have falsified the Canon and quite perverted the sense and meaning of the Councell and in the place of nullis meritis no merits have inserted the word multis many merits so that the Fathers of the Councell are taught to reade a new lesson flat contrary to the ancient Doctrine of the Church viz. We solemnely professe that wee first beginne many of our owne merits going before c. than which assertion what can be more arrogant in assuming power to our selves and derogating from the goodnesse of our God In the seventh age Gregory the great Bishop of Rome is falsified his words be these The King of Pride is neare Greg. Ep. lib. 4. Indict 13. Ep. 38. p. mihi 146. b. Edit Antwerp 1515. Paris An. 1521. fol. 384. in Aedibus Francisci Regnault and which is a haynous thing to name Exercitus Sacerdotum a whole armie of Priests is provided to attend his comming In your Edition of Antwerpe and Paris for the word exercitus you thrust in exitus Sacerdotum so that whereas Antichrist comming it is observed that an host of Priests shall belong unto him now on the contrary it is read that at Antichrists comming there shall be an end of Priesthood Now as you have detracted from Pope Gregories doctrine in one place so likewise you have added to him in another for honour of his See and the Canons of your Church the words are these Let not the reverence due to the Apostolike See bee trouhled by any mans presumption Greg. l. 11. Indict 6. Ep. 42. Citatur à Bel. in Ep. ad Blackwell contra jus regium Vide Jacob. Regis ope a. p. 262. 279. for then the state of the members doth remaine sound when the head of the faith is not bruised by any injury and the authority of the Canons alwayes remaine safe and sound This was urged to Blackwell the Priest by your Cardinall Bellarmine as a principall testimonie Contra jus regium and yet as it is observed by a learned Divine M. Stephanus these and many such particular passages are inserted into the printed Gregory which are not to bee found in the ancient Manuscripts Againe in the former Epistle St. Gregorie is likewise falsified by Stapleton in behalfe of the Popes Supremacie the words of St. Gregorie are these Greg. Regist l. 4. Indict 13. Ep. 38. Certainly Peter is the first member of the universall Church Paul Andrew and John what are they but heads of particular people and notwithstanding they are all members of the Church under one head And lest any should apply the name of head to Peter in his 36. Epistle being the second Epistle before this he saith Omnia soli uni capiti cohaerent viz. Christo Ep. 36. Stapl. de princip doctrin l. 6. c. 7. All the members are joyned to one head Christ Now observe the addition and falsification of your learned Stapleton Andrew James and John saith he were heads of severall Congregations and all members of the Church under one head Peter And thus your Popes creature hath left out Peter in the first place where hee was made a member and added the name of Peter in the last place to make him a head Againe Gratian who was ever ready to supply all defects for the Popes title hath given us an inexcusable forgerie in the name of Gregorie for the Papall power the truth of it was this When Anatolius Deacon of Constantinople had written to Pope St. Gregory that the Emperour commanded another Bishop to be chosen in the place of the Bishop of Justiniana by reason of his head-ache St. Greory made this answer Greg l. 9. Ep. 41. Indict 4. p. 370. You wrote unto me that our most religious Lord the Emperour commanded another to be chosen in the place of our reverend Brother John Bishop of Justiniana because of the paine of his head by which tenour St. Gregory shewes that the Popes obeyed the Princes lawes so they were not against their Canons Now observe Gratian hee leaves out first the words Grat. causa 7. quest 1. fol. Mihi 186. our most religions Lord and in stead of the Emperours name he assumes the Popes person saying Your lovingnesse wrote to me that I should command another to be chosen whereas in those dayes by the confession of Pope Gregory the Emperors made Election of the Bishops and not the Popes The sixt Councell of Constantinople is falsified corrupted by Gratian in the 36. Canon of the said Councell it was thus decreed We determine that the See of Constantinople shall have equall priviledges and honour with the seat of elder Rome and in Ecclesiasticall matters be advanced as far forth as it being next unto it Gratian cites the former non tamē in Ecclesiasticis saith he but not in matters Ecclesiasticall which is flat cōtrary to the meaning of the Councel In the eight age venerable Bede was living The eight age An. 700. to 800. and taught our doctrine touching the Sacrament but was afterwards forged by Fryer Walden to prove the doctrine of Transubstantiation against Wickliffe Ibi forma panis videtur ubi substantia panis non est nec est ibi inquit panis alius quam panis qui de coelo descendit Wald. Tom. 2. de sacr c. 82. fol. mihi 138. b. his words are these There the forme of Bread is seene where the substance of Bread is not neither is any other Bread there but that which descends from heaven This is alledged out of the Booke de mysteriis Missae in the name of Bede when as in all his 8. Tomes hee never wrote or mentioned any such worke The Councell of Franckford is likewise corrupted and falsified for the
viz. in leaving out the second and altering the fourth in your Breviaries and Psalters You say you print them in your Bibles and therefore they are not absolutely left out as long as they are elsewhere Mute quod scimus It is true the words are contained in your Bibles But Dic quod rogamus why doe you not publish Gods commandements as hee wrote them Admit that in your Catechismes you should set downe this forme of Baptisme I baptize thee in the name of the Father and leave out the Sonne and the Holy Ghost would it be sufficient to say it is not absolutely left out because it is contained in the Bible Shew mee the man amongst your Papalins that dare alter a Kings command or a Popes Breve and will your Church attempt more against the Precepts of God than against a Popes Bull or a Kings Proclamation But the truth is and you know it too well if the second precept were expressely set downe in your Psalters the common people would be too busie in expostulating the cause why Image-worship should be commanded by the Church and yet condemned by Gods word Yea but it is part of the first commandement say you or otherwise it is ceremoniall Let it bee one or other since God thought it needfull to be added how dare you leave it out Deut. 4.2 It was the voice of God himselfe You shall not adde unto the word which I command neither shall you diminish ought from it that you may keepe the commandement of the Lord your God Againe how is it a part of the first if it be ceremoniall when the first is agreed on all hands to be naturall morall The truth is it is not ceremoniall but morall and plainly distinct from the former for the first forbids the true worship of any false god the second forbids any false worship of the true God and howsoever Peresius and Catharinus and you for company would have gladly the Law against Images to be positive and ceremoniall and so to cease at the comming of Christ yet your owne Bellarmine disavowes it with a Non probatur Bellarm. de Imag. l. 2. c. 7. This opinion is not allowed of us both for the reasons made against the Jewes and for that Irenaeus Tertullian S. Cyprian and S. Austin doe all teach that the commandements excepting the Sabbath are a Law wholly naturall and morall After your Apologie for your maimed commandements you grow so virulent as if the poyson of Aspes were under your lips you crie out I notoriously falsifie some Authors and impertinently alledge others you charge me with execrable perjurie you say I am a framer of lies and I offend in all kinde of falshood and lastly you conclude the booke to bee none of mine but some Ministers because you heare it from some that I scarce skill of ordinarie Latine I professe for my learning I cannot boast of it I doe willingly assume that saying of Origen Gratias ago Deo quod ignorantiam meam non ignoro Orig. 1 Cor. 1.27 Psal 82. I am not ignorant of my ignorance but let me tell you as in Gods cause I seeke no praise so I feare no reproach for God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise nay more out of the mouth of babes sucklings he hath ordained strength to still the enemie and the avenger And howsoever seemingly you condemne mee for ignorance yet I am verily perswaded that if I were more ignorant than you make mee you would love me the more for your Church commends Ignorance for the mother of Devotion and the rather because your owne Clemangis tels us Nich. Clemang c. 6. before the dayes of reformation Many Priests who had cure of soules were sent to their flocks not from their studies or from the schoole but from the plough and they understood as much Latine as Arabick nay they could not read and that which was shamefull they could not distinguish an Alpha from a Beta Neither can it be denied that many Popes have dispensed with ignorant men who per saltum without any learning have leaped into a Bishopricke Pope Paul the third created Robertus Venantius Arch-Bishop of Armach for two speciall qualities Tum quod Missam bellè canere tum quia cursu Veredario in equo vehi peritè diceretur Gentil Exam. Concil Trid. l. 2. sess 1. p. 33. the one because hee could sing Masse sweetly the other because he could ride a Post horse skilfully And in the latter ages it was so usuall to admit any Ignoramus's into a Bishoprick that when our King Edward the third sollicited Pope Clement the sixth to create Thomas Hartfield Bishop of Durham notwithstanding the Cardinals cried out he was a Lay-man and an Ideot the Pope replyed If the King of England had entreated for his Asse Si Rex Angliae pro asino suo supplicâsset votum suum hac vice obtinuisset Walsing citat apud Antig. Brit. in vita foh Uffordi And Godwin in his Catal. of Bishops p. 526. Eras Encom Mor. Heb. 7.3 he should have obtained it at that time To come neerer to the times Julius the third made the keeper of his monkey a Masse-priest and I presume he had small store of Latine The Friar who would prove from the words of Christ An non decem facti sunt mundi that God made ten worlds had scrace skill of ordinarie Latine And lastly hee was Sr. John Lack-Latine who would prove that Melchisedeck offered salt with bread and wine because he read in the text Rex Salem which is the King of peace I speake not this by way of recrimination but to let you know how well you and your fellowes are read in the two titles of the Law De maledicis De Clerico promoto per saltum Take therefore from me what learning you will distraine it and impound it at your pleasure I will never trouble you with Replevin onely I say with S. Austin Seeke others of more learning but beware of them that presume of learning And whereas you conceive a Minister made my booke and I beare the name onely for to countenance the worke If I had received help from some in this kinde you need not blame me for it for it is ordinarie with your men to have whole Colledges joyne their helping hand in defence of your cause But in answer to your supposall and to vindicate our Ministers from those great aspersions of ignorance of corruption of obstinacie of perjurie laid unto their charge as Authors of the worke I witnesse a true confession before God who knowes I lye not a Minister was so farre from making my booke Via Tuta Via Devia that I neither had help from Clergy-man nor Lay-man for composing or making either of my bookes Let it suffice for me to have said the truth which although it appeare never so simple yet it is able to remove a mountaine of learning if
there be in mee I say not any talent but onely a mite of a talent my prayer unto God is ever was it may be bestowed wholly to the honour of his truth and the benefit of his Church And whereas you charge mee with obstinacie and malice which say you is the true cause of all my errours let mee tell you if I were in an errour you have not the patience to shew it me but by bitternesse and railing Your learning haply may worke miracles in the eares of the unlearned that cannot judge but it cannot turne darknesse into light nor errour into truth And although your bitternesse might justly occasion that malice of which you accuse me yet it is so farre from my thoughts that I pitie you and in requitall of your paines I pray for you and that which S. Paul said of the Israelites Rom. 10.1 I wish to the Romanists and members of your Church Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God is that they may be saved But say you these were not your first fruits for you translated and published Bertram an obscure Author with a preface of your owne and thereby gave sufficient triall of your ignorance and corruption whereof you were convinced by O.E. but never cleered your selfe of so foule a taxe It is true that some ten yeeres since I caused Bertram to be reprinted and published with a preface before it and it is as true that hee being a Romish Priest taught our doctrine of the Eucharist above eight hundred yeeres since and therefore by way of prevention you terme him an obscure Author though he were famous in his time As touching the foule taxe of ignorance and corruption in false translating it wherewith you charge mee you are much mistaken for I never translated it but onely reprinted the old translation this both hee and you might have seene in the Frontispice of the booke in these words Translated and imprinted in the English tongue Anno Dom. 1549. and now the third time published so that the Translation into English was made before I was borne Againe in the end of my preface you shall finde these words Pittie it were but this lamp should receive a new light by reprinting him which the iniquitie of the time had almost extinquished Now I pray Sir what cause was there of any answer to your namelesse Author or rather what cause was there of his and your bitternesse in charging mee with false translating with ignorance and corruption I professe I am not ignorant that your men are guiltie of many such false accusations ad faciendum populum to make your Proselytes beleeve that all our bookes are full of lyes of whom I may truly say as S. Austin sometimes spake of the Donatists When they cannot by slie and wily cosenage creep like Aspes with open professed violence they rage like Lions Lastly you say that an Answer to my booke hath hitherto beene deferred because no man of learning would thinke it worth his paines to make any Let mee tell you I have received three printed answers to Via tuta besides two written copies from namelesse Authors the first was from a Merchant and that is called Via verè tuta the second from a Priest and that is called A paire of Spectacles to see the way the third is from a Clerk and that is termed A Whetstone of Reproofe The first printed Author is termed Mr. John Heigham whose Treatise savours too much of blasphemie and ribaldrie the second is Mr. John Floyd whose worke is full of bitternesse and subtiltie the third is Tom Tell troth for so he termes himselfe whose pamphlet is fraught with all childishnesse and impertinencie Now if none of these were men of learning as you confesse because no learned man would take the paines to answer it what may I thinke of your wisdome which hath returned an answer full of railing accusations such as the Angell of God would not have brought against the Devill himselfe I say in regard your bitter lines are rather a libell without a name than a Christian and moderate confutation I might well have declined a replication to it and have told you with S. Jerome Your bitternesse deserves rather an answer with scorn Magis indignationem scribentis quam studium Hieron advers Vigil than a refutation in earnest But when I considered it was the fruit of your religion and common practice of your Church that for want of matter you commonly fall upon the person I resolved with my selfe to call you to a sober reckoning that the truth of God might appeare and that by your owne bitternesse you might better discerne the character of a bad cause and an evill spirit For a conclusion take but a short view of your bitter reproaches you term me a blind Guide a Ministeriall Knight you say my booke is a Labyrinth of errours you crie out my sirname hath the two first letters of a lye you say the title of Sir will be left for me you condemne me of execrable perjurie you affirme I am a framer of lyes and abound in all kind of falshood you tell me I scarce understand Latine and it is conceived a Minister made my booke you charge me with obstinacie with malice with corruption with ignorance with false translating you proclaime the fearefull judgements of God upon me for perverting soules and as if I were past all grace you say I am not capable of any good advice yet at last as if you would make mee some amends for all your accusation you conclude I forbeare to say any more resting howsoever your well-wishing friend Surely you have said enough and you doe well to forbeare to say more for I thinke the words of your Epistle are so sufficiently dipt in lye and gall that they will serve for your whole worke but I pardon you and shall returne you no other answer than the Arch-Angell gave to Satan Jude vers 9. The Lord rebuke you onely let me tell you I cannot thinke you a well-wishing friend whose heart and tongue is full of cursing and bitternesse for I may truly say of you as Cato sometimes said of Lentulus Dicam falli eos qui negant os habere Seneca They are much deceived that deny you to have a mouth and a foule one too In the meane time you must remember that for your idle and vaine words you must give accompt to God and for your fifteene severall falsifications you must give an accompt to your Reader And thus by way of Traverse and deniall to all other things impertinently alledged I answer No to your railing I answer nothing AN ANSWER TO HIS PREFACE to the Reader Good Christian Reader FIrst thou shalt observe that the author of the Spectacles chiefe aime is either by shifts and cavils to outface the truth or by Sophistrie and bitter words to darken it one while hee cries downe my booke and slights it in such a scornefull manner as if
by a generall and joynt consent of the whole Catholike Church and Holy Fathers secondly by a Decree made in the late Councell holden at Trent and now lastly by that Apostolicall Authority and Power which God hath given us and therefore is to be received and accompted for a true lawfull authenticall and undoubted Copie to be read and no other in all publike and private Disputations Lectures Sermons or Expositions This Translation was published by Sixtus with great care and paines professing that he printed it in the Vatican at Rome Nostra nos ipsi manu correximus siqua prelo vitia obrepserunt Idem in Praefat. and corrected the Errours of it with his owne hands he professeth it was approved by the generall consent of the whole Catholike Church he professeth it was received for the best and most vulgar Latine Edition excluding all other Translations private or publike whatsoever and thereupon concludes Ibid. Let no man attempt to violate this our Decree our will and declaration herein or by rash boldnesse contradict it for if any shall presume so to doe let him know that he shall incurre the indignation of Almighty God and his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul From hence will arise a second Quere whether this Translation of Sixtus were that Hieromes Translation formerly confirmed and ratified by the Trent Councell If it were his and confirmed by a Generall Councell how came it to be corrected by Sixtus If it were not the same how could Sixtus Bible be allowed by a Decree made in the Councell of Trent for so are the words of his Bull whereas the Councell was called Anno 1545. and Sixtus published his Bible Anno 1592. which was above 40. yeares after the Councell was called But observe the sequell The Decree of Sixtus was kept inviolable for a short time and approved by Urban the 7th Gregory the 14th and Innocent the 9th his immediate Successors But Pope Clement the eight about seaven yeares after the death of Sixtus called in question that Translation and published another of his owne Ad perpetuam rei memoriam Clem. in praef Sixti Bibl. and corrects Sixtus Bible under this pretence that his Predecessor perceived not a few things to have crept into the Bible through default of the Presse and that it needed a second care and that certainly he himselfe had intended to bring the whole worke to the Presse againe had he not beene prevented by death These two Editions were published by two severall Popes and both commanded to be read and followed in their severall Breves Pope Sixtus disclaimes all Bibles whatsoever both Manuscripts and printed of the vulgar Edition which did not agree with his Edition Ad literam to a letter Pope Clement professeth that his Translation although it be not absolutely perfect in all points yet without doubt it is more pure and better corrected than any other that was published before it In conclusion Ne minima quidem particula mutata Sixt. in Praef. both agree that the Forme of each must be inviolably observed without the least particle of the Text added changed or detracted Now take your choyce of which Translation you please if you allow Sixtus it was corrected in many places by Pope Clement if Clements you must incurre the curse of his Predecessor Pope Sixtus if you will receive the vulgar Translation which you terme St. Hieromes your Cardinall tels you it is not of his purest Edition Lastly if you approve the vulgar Edition decreed by the Councell of Trent I say neither you nor all the Papists living can resolve which is that vulgar Edition For a Conclusion either your vulgar Translation before Clements time was corrupt or in vaine did Clement command a Correctorium to passe upon it and to be read according to that correction The worke of Lucas Brugensis who was living at that time hath sufficiently discovered your corruptions in the Bible of Sixtus which in his time was reputed for that onely Edition confirmed by the Trent Councell commanded to be read throughout all Churches and allowed by the consent of the whole Catholike Church this Bible I say which for many ages was reputed the onely authenticall Edition in your Church is purged and corrected I speake within compasse in above 3000 severall places And as it hath beene observed by a painfull labourer in that Vineyard Dr. Iames in his Bellum Papale your Translations in many places are flat contradictory each to other and he that beleeves contradictions beleeves nothing at all From the charge in generall I will descend into particulars And first I will give you an Instance in the Old Testament We reade in the 34. of Exodus and the last verse The Children of Israel saw the face that the skinne of Moses face shone Videbant faciem egredientis Moisi esse Cornutā Sixt. Bibl. Ibid. v. 29 and 35. your Sixtus Bible in the vulgar Translation twice renders it They saw his face horned but your Sixtus Senensis complaines of Hierome that contrary to the Originall he so translated it Thus one while you leave Hieromes Translation when it savours not to your Palate another while you excuse your owne by condemning of St. Hierome Now whether it were a part of that corrupt Translation which your men use and Hierome himselfe corrected Rident ita que nos execrantur Judaei quoties Mosen in noflris Tēplis cornutâ facie depictum espiciunt quasi nos eum Diabolum quendam ut ipsi stuliè interpretantur esse putemus Sixt. Senens l. 5. Annot 116. p. 368. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I dispute not but saith he therefore the Jewes doe scoffe and hate us Christians whensoever they happen to see the picture of Moses painted with hornes as though according to their Imagination we though him to have beene a Devill Looke upon the particulars in the new Testament In the third of Matthew for Repentance you translate Penance and by Penance you understand satisfaction for sinnes So that when the Evangelist saith according to the Greeke Originall Repent you follow the Latine Translation which hath an ambiguous construction and say Paenitentiam agite which your Rhemists translate Doe Penance And in the 9th of St. Matthew Math. 9.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he saith I am not come to call the Righteous but sinners to repentance you translate I am not come to call the Just but sinners and leave out the word Repentance which is in the Originall And lastly as if you were guilty of a false Translation in both in the first of St. Marke Mark 1.15 you translate the words according to the Originall and in stead of Doe Penance you rightly interpret Be penitent and beleeve the Gospel In the 11 of St. Luke you have maymed and falsified the Lords Prayer you say in this manner Father sanctified be thy name thy Kingdome come our dayly bread give us this day and forgive us our sinnes for
figura which is a figure of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ Your Ambrose printed at Colein doth mince those words and sayth quod sit in figuram as if it might stand for a figure but were no figure and more particularly in the Canon of your Masse you cite all those former words of Ambrose to prove the Antiquity of your Masse but you leave out the latter which is a figure of the Body and say c Ut nobis corp sanguis fiat dilectissimi fiâ—ii tui Domini nostri Jesu Christi Missale Parv. An. 1626 p. Mihi 82. Grant that it may be to us the body and bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ. And lastly that Ambrose might seemingly appeare to be yours in the point of Transubstantiation whereas he sheweth the power and wonders of God in creating all things of nothing by his word only and from thence concludeth d Siâ—ergo tanta vis est in sermone Domini Jesu ut inciperent esse quae non erant quant ò magis operatorius est ut sint quae erant in aliud commutentur Idem de sacr l. 4. c. 4. Basil ut suprà p. 392. If therfore there be so great force in the speech of our Lord Jesus that the things which were not begun to be namely at the first creation of all things how much more is the same powerful to make that those things may still be the same they were and yet be changed into another thing Here St. Ambrose sheweth plainly that the Elements of Bread and Wine are the same in substance as they were before although they are changed into another nature Your Inquisitours knowing well that such Doctrine is flat contrary to their Tenet which teach that the Elements are not the things in substance they were before Consecration have wisely left out in their late Edition two poore words Sint and et and accordingly the sense runneth after this manner How much more is the speech of our Lord powerfull to make that those things which were Ut quae erant in aliud commutentur Paris An. 1603 Colon. Agripp An. 1616. Tom. 4. p. 173. should bee changed into another thing And by this meanes St. Ambrose a Protestant is become a Masse Priest and with a clipped tongue lispeth Transubstantiation Fryer Walden in writing against Wickliffe cites this place by the halves ut sint et in aliud commutentur he would have the Elements one thing Wald. de sacr Euch. Tom. 2. c. 82 p. Mihi 138. b. and changed into another but excludes the principall words quae erant shewing that they should be the same which they were before and Lanfranck long before him stormed at Berengarius for citing this place out of St. Ambrose in behalfe of our Doctrine and cryes out against him O mentem amentem c. O mad mind O impudent lyar now truly there is no such words to be found in all St. Ambrose his workes Ed. Parisiis 1632. Ex editione Romanâ In quâ quae vel vitio vel incuriâ erant adjecta sunt rejecta quae sublata restituta quae transposita reposita quae depravata emendata c. In the fift age An. 400. to 500. c. But there is an Ambrose lately printed at Paris which makes a great promise of integrity and purity and yet the words are corruptly printed according to your other of Paris and Colein print In the fift age St. Chrysostome Archbishop of Constantinople is razed and purged touching the doctrine of the Sacrament his words bee these If therefore it be so dangerous a matter to transferre unto private uses those holy Vessels in which the true Body of Christ is not but the mysterie of his body is conteyned These latter words comprehended in the Parenthesis Chrys Antwerpiae apud fohannem Steelsium An. 1537. Paris apud Johannem Roigny An. 1543. Paris apud Audoenum Parvii Anno 1557. in the Editions of Antwerpe and Paris are wholly left out there is not a syllable of them to bee seene for indeed the Author of that worke saith negatively that the irue body of Christ is not there which overthrowes the very ground of your Popish presence and although your men make great brags of Antiquity to prove your reall Sacrifice of the Altar out of St. Chrysostome yet in the 19. Homily upon St. Matthew where hee termes it the Sacrifice of bread and wine Sacrificium panis vini they being also privie to this evidence as against their owne doctrine Sacrificium corporis saÌ„ guinis Christi Paris apud Audoenum Pâ—rvuÌ„ An. 1557. in c. 7. Matt. HoÌ„ 19. in their Edition at Paris have taught him to speake the Trent language in these words It is the Sacrifice of the body and bloud of Christ. Touching the Testimony of divine Scriptures St. Chrysostome is purged he tells us in his 49. Homily That from the time that Heresies invaded the Church Nunc autem nullo modo cognoscitur volentibus cognoscere quae sit Ecclesia Christi nisi tantummodò per scripturas Idem Homil. 49 Tom. 2 p. mihi 858. there can be no triall of Christianity nor refuge for Christians who are willing to know the true faith but to the divine Scriptures for at that time there is no way to know which is the true Church but by the Scriptures onely This authority is wholly agreeable to our doctrine and thereupon these times of Controversies and Heresies that have overspread the face of the Church wee say with St. Chrysostome those that be in Judaea let them flye to the Mountaines of the Scriptures But what answer can be made thinke you to the razing of so faire an Evidence Behold a Totus hic locus tanquam ab Arrianis insertus è quibusdam Codicibus nuper emendatis sublatus est Bell de verbo Dei l. 4. c. 11. Bellarmine tells us that this whole passage as if it had beene inserted into St. Chrysostome by the Arrians is blotted out of the late corrected Editions and as our learned Doctor Crakenthorpe in his answer to Spalatto observed there is above 70. lines in the Antwerpe Edition Crakenth in Spalat p. mihi 59. published 1537. purged in this Homily It seemes then it is hereticall doctrine to have recourse to the Scriptures onely for finding of the truth But sure I am it is the part of Heretikes to raze ancient Records and to avoyd the triall of their cause by the sacred Scriptures The fourth Councell of Carthage where St. Austin was present is in part forged in part razed In the 100. Canon it was thus decreed Mulier baptizare non praesumat Concil Carthag c. 100. Let no woman presume to baptize What answer therefore may we expect to this Canon Binius the publisher of the Councels expounds the meaning of it thus The Councell saith he doth decree that a woman should not presume to baptize that is when the Priest is
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
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
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
the See of Rome should be the head of all Churches for before that time saith Vspergensis the Church of Constantinople did write her selfe chiefe of all Churches so that anteà before that time the Bishop of Rome had no Supremacy and this agrees to Pope Gregories owne confession None of my Praedecessors did ever use that prophane Title Nullus unquam praedecessorum meorum hoc tam prophano vocabulo uti consuevit Greg. ep 36. l. 4. Nay more you had two Bishops of Constantinople viz. Iohn and Cyriacus who both successively assumed the title of Vniversall Bishops before ever the Bishop of Rome had any and those Bishops were suborned by Mauritius a bloody Emperour like unto Phocas who at that time made Constantinople the chiefe place of his aboade and by meanes of advancing the Bishops dignity sought to winne the greater credit to the City Gregory the Great writes unto them both severally as they lived in their Sees and doth accuse them of Pride of Singularity of error of vanity and blasphemy in that new title neither doth he make claime to it himselfe being then Bishop of Rome For mine owne part saith he I seeke to encrease in vertues and not in vanitie of titles Greg. lib. 1. ep 30. for if you call me universall Bishop you deny your selves to be that which indeede you are And when Mauritius the Emperour did countenance the Supremacy in the Bishop of Constantinople Gregory greets him in this manner Idem l. 4. Indict 13. ep 32. p. mihi I have received letters from my vertuous Lord that I should bee at peace with my brother and fellow Bishop Iohn indeede it well beseemeth a Religious Prince to command Bishops in such things but this was heavy to mee that my Soveraigne Lord did not rebuke him for his Pride After the death of Iohn the first Oecumenicall cumenicall Bishop Cyriacus succeeded in the See of Constantinople and continued that title of Oecumenicall Bishop by the power of the Emperour and accordingly Pope Gregory writes againe to Mauritius not to take part with Cyriacus and withall writes to Cyriacus at his first entrance into his Bishopricke Idem l. 6. ep 28. that he would abolish the word of Pride by which there was so great scandall given to the Church After the death of Mauritius Phocas who was a souldier and fought under the banner of Mauritius was proclaimed Emperour by the mutineirs who having committed many murthers and cruelties which Cyriacus could not approve for otherwise it is probable he might have continued the title of Oecumenicall he called a Synod at Rome consisting of 62. Bishops and by vertue of his power granted his Letters Patents to Boniface then Bishop of Rome whereby your Popes had the first authority of Volumus jubemus wee will and command And thus Phocas procured his Imperiall authority by treachery and blood Boniface obteined his power and Supremacy by pollicy and flattery of a bloody Emperour and this saith Platina was magnâ cum contentione with great contention Neither did Boniface enjoy this Title many monthes nor Phoeaeescape the heavy hand of God for he was afterwards slaine by Heraclius Quo quis peccat eo punitur as Mauritius was by him From Phocas you ascend to your first Progenitors the Kings of the Gentiles wherein I shewed the originall of your Papall Supremacy not that your Popes did lineally succeede them but that they did exceede them farre in Tyranny But the Pope useth to stile himselfe servum servorum Dei the servant of the servants of God pag. 95. and will you have it say you that by reason of his humility there must not be any Superiority Surely no for he that said learne of me for I am lowly and meeke made likewise this promise to him that would follow his lesson Matth. 20.25 He that humbleth himselfe shall be exalted Howsoever it is not the title of servus servorum that makes him Christs disciple or a universall Bishop for in that he succeedeth rather Canaan then Boniface but he must follow Christs precept and his example his precept was Luke 22.27 That none of his Apostles should reigne as Lord over his Brethren his example was I am among you as hee that serveth Neither is it the title which he assumes unto himselfe that makes him humble neither doe his Proselites followers so much undervalue him as a servant For saith Gerson Gers de potest Eccles consider 12. Fawning deceitfull flattery whispereth into the eares of ecclesiasticall persons especially of the Pope in a shamelesse manner saying as there is no power but of God so there is none either Temporall or Ecclesiasticall Imperiall or Regall but from the Pope in whose thigh Christ hath written King of Kings and Lord of Lords of whose power to dispute is sacrilegious boldnesse to whom no man may say sir why doe you so though he alter overturne waste and confound all States rules and possessions of men let me be judged a lyar saith he if these things be not found written by them that seeme wise in their owno eyes and if some Topes have not given credit to such lying and flattering words You see then the Popes owne creatures and servants would make all other to be servants unto him But it is strange to see how many of your men would palliate and extenuate the Popes power and Tyrannicall usurpation sometimes under the vaile and title of a servant and sometimes by a ceremony used at the time of his creation your Mr. Harding witnesseth both and seconds his humility in the title of a servant with his privie reason that is saith he lest the Soveraignty of honour exhibited unto him Iuel and Harding should in his owne conceit lift him higher then the degree of humane condition to that purpose saith he seemeth the stoole of easement at his creation to be set before him to temper the highnesse of that vocation with the base consideration of humane infirmities and necessities That is to say that he may remember himselfe in the midst of all his glory to be but a man when as in truth it is recorded that the Porphirie stoole serveth to put the Pope in remembrance of his virility Vt sedentis genitalia abuitimo diacono attrectentur â—sa bellicas that the world may know he is no woman Howsoever it seemes the title of servant is not sufficient to teach him humility without the stoole of easement and a stoole of easement is no sweete badge of his humility But this is as common to others as to himselfe and therefore by that way of Hamilitie he will not merit a Superioritie But say you because hee must carry himselfe like a Servant must he not therefore feed the lambs and sheepe of Christ God forbid But Saint Bernard who otherwise maintained the Popes Supremacie told us about 500 yeares since that the Bishops of Rome as well as other Bishops who had the
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
the forme of Consecration may be called a Benediction for the reasons alledged by the Spectacle-maker Odo Camerac in can mis dist 4. benedixit suum corpus fecit qui priùs erat panis benedictione factus est caro non enim post benedictionem dixisset hoc est corpus meum nisi in benedictione sieret corpus suam yet it is certaine that Odo Cameracensis distinguisheth the one from the other and ascribeth the conversion of bread into Christs body to the vertue of the precedent benediction and not of the subsequent Consecration Christ blessed the bread hee made it his Body that which before was Bread by his blessing is made flesh for hee would not have said after hee had blessed it This is my Body unlesse by blessing it hee had made it his Body Yea but Flood threatneth to bring a place out of Odo expresly to the contrary which is this Take away the words of Christ Odo Camera expos in Can. miss dist 5. tolle verba Christi non fiunt sacramenta Christi vis sieri corpus fanguinem appone Christi sermonem and take away the Sacraments of Christ wilt thou have the Body and Bloud of Christ made put thereto the word of Christ but which word of Christ for therein is the cardo questionis whether the word of Benediction going before or the word of Consecration following after In Odo his judgement by the word of benediction for hee saith Benedictione factus est caro by blessing it became flesh and that before hee uttered the words This is my Body which in Odo his apprehension as wee heard before could not bee true unlelesse bread had beene turned into Christs body before he pronounced them To the tenth I.R. Here Iohannes de Rivis or Iohn of the Flood speaketh very disgracefully of his Father Christopher us de capite fontium Christopher of the head of the Fountaines Nay to a most reverend Father the Archbishop of Caesarea for the Archbishop of Caesaerea his booke saith hee De correctione Theologiae scholasticae I doe not so much as looke into him but remit it to the Roman Index where you shall find this booke by you here cited forbidden and even the arrogancie of the title sheweth it to deserve no better a place Solinus c. 43. Bonasus Tauri similis si insequantur Agasones vebementiùs fimum emittit per tria jugera quicquid tangit Vrit The Bonasus when hee is hard followed casts dung in abundance on the pursuer and brayeth hideously so doth I.R. cast filth and raile downe right when he is so hard pressed with a testimonie that he hath nothing to reply The Roman Index Prohibitorum librorum is to Flood like the Philosophers pons asinorum in all extremities hee flieth to it But what is this Index to us hee might as well alledge the Turkes Alcharon against the Knight This Index of prohibited bookes deserveth not only a prohibition but a purging by fire For in the first ranke we find the holy Bibles translated into vulgar languages to bee set and after them most of the prime and Classick Writers almost in all professions There is nothing so easie as to prohibit this or any other booke but unlesse our Adversariee back this Papall prohibition with detection of errours and heresies contained in such bookes and a solid confutation thereof this tyrannicall Prohibition of the workes of Authours wil prove an evident conviction that they forcibly smother that truth the light whereof dazleth their eyes Yea but saith Flood there is a grosse historicall errour in that he saith that in that opinion of his both the Councell of Trent and all the Writers did agree till the late time of Cajetan as if Cajetan were since the Councell of Trent No historicall errour at all in the Archbishop but a frivolous cavill in Flood For hee saith not that the Councell of Trent was before Cajetan but that the Councell of Trent and all Writers before it also did agree till the late time of Cajetan Yea but the Knight maketh Cardinall Cajetan and the Archbishop of Caesarea his two champions against the words of Confecration as if they did both agree in the same whereas here the Archbishop saith quite contrarie that all are for him but only Cajetan A ridiculous sophisme ex ignoratione Elenthi the Knight alledgeth both Cardinall Cajetan and the Archbishop of Caesarea against the words of Consecration but not ad idem not to prove the same conclusion hee alledgeth Cajetan to prove that there is nothing in the words hoc est corpus meum to enforce Transubstantiation but the Archbishop of Caesarea to prove that the supposed conversion is made not by the words of Consecration This is my body but by the precedent words of Benediction Christoph de correct theoscholast fol. 11.41 usque ad 63. nisi prius quà m ista verba diceret Christus corpus suum ex pane factum erat ista proposito non fuisset vera hoe est corpus meum c. Fol. 23. and this hee proveth against all Papists strongly after this manner Vnlesse before Christ uttered those words this is my body his body had beene made of bread this Proposition had not beene true This is my body for when Christ said take ye eate yee if at that time the Bread by benediction were not changed it will follow that Christ did command his Disciples to take and eate the substance of bread and so wee must denie the article of Transubstantiation therefore saith he certo certius constat Christum non solùm per ista sola verba non consecrâsse sed ne quidem illa partem aliquam fuisse consecrationis quam fecit it is most certaine that these words were no part of the Consecration And this hee proveth to bee the opinion of all the ancient Fathers by name of Iustine Martyr Dionysius S. Austine Hesichius S. Ierome Gregorie Ambrose Rupert Alquine Bernard Seotus Landulph Peter de Aquila Pelbert and others To the eleventh The Knight alledgeth not Salmerons opinion but his relation of the opinion of other men and although his credit bee cracked with Protestants yet it is whole with Flood and his fellow Iesuits as Chamierus on the contrarie his credit is good with Protestants though none with Pontificians P. 162. Yea but saith Flood Chamier discovereth the Knights bad dealing I would faine know how or wherein first how by the spirit of prophesie or by some letter sent to the Knight after Chamier his death for Chamier was dead many yeares before the Knight wrote Were he alive what bad dealing could he discover in the Knight Cham. de Euchar l. 6. c. 7. who out of him truly and sincerely relateth the words of Salmeron the Iesuite concerning the Graecians in these words seeing the benediction of the Lord is not superfluous or vaine nor gave hee simply bread it followeth that when hee gave it the transmutation was made and those
them which is in other words to acknowledge them for a Rule of faith and consequently of infallible authoritie neither can any thing be said more against the present Church and present Councell of Trent then against the Church of that time and the Councels of those times The Knight impertinently alledgeth the testimonies of S. Paul You know that I have withdrawne nothing that was profitable v. 27. I have not shrunke to declare unto you the whole counsell of God Acts 20.20 and Bellarmine l. 4. d. verb. Dei All those things are written by the Apostle which are necessarie for all men and which they preached generally unto all For S. Paul speaketh not of the written word but of the doctrine of Christ by him preached neither doth Bellarmines saying helpe any thing because though those things which are necessarie in generall for all to know which are but few bee written there bee yet many more not written which are necessarie to bee knowne by some in the Church The Knight in praying that the Anathema decreed by the Councell of Trent might fall upon his head if any Papist could shew the number of seven Sacraments to have beene the beliefe of the Church for a thousand yeares after Christ is too forward to draw malediction upon himselfe it will come fast enough to his cost It is an heavier thing then he is a ware of to have the curse of a mother and such a mother as the Church which doth not curse without cause Ecclesiasticus 3.11 nor out of passion For as the Scripture saith maledictio matris eradicat fundamenta the malediction of a mother doth roote out the foundations The Knights definition of a Sacrament to wit that it is a seale witnessing to our consciences that Gods promises are true is senselesse and without ground largely refuted by Bellarmine Bell. l. 1. de sac in genere c. 14.16 and proved to bee most absurd For how can the Sacraments bee seales to give us assurance of his words when all the assurance wee have of a Sacrament is his word this is idem per idem Besides what promises are these that are sealed or if they be sealed what need we more seales and Sacraments then one if there may bee more why not seven as well as two Againe how doe wee see the promises of God in the Sacraments these are but foolish fancies bred in hereticall braines and so to be contemned The Knights Argument against five of our Sacraments that in them the element is not joyned to the Word or they have not their institution from Christ or they bee not visible signes of invisible saving grace is frivolous For confirmation and extreame Vnction have the element and the Word to wit oyle and the forme order and penance have institution from Christ as is confessed in order the patten with an Host and Chalice with wine in it is the outward element in penance humble confession with prayer fasting and almes-deedes are the outward element in Matrimonie the bodyes of a man or woman are as much an outward element as water in baptisme and though Matrimonie might bee a naturall contract before the Gospell yet was it exalted to the dignitie of a Sacrament by Christ and though it bee an holy thing as order is yet as order is forbidden to all women so upon good reason Mariage is forbidden to all Priests because it is good but of an inferiour ranke and not so agreeable to the high estate of Priest-hood That S. Ambrose Austine Chrysostome and Bede Aug. in Iohan. tract 15 de latere in cruce pendentis lanceâ percusso sacramenta ecclesiae profluxerunt teaching that out of Christs side came the Sacraments of the Church prove no more two then seven Sacraments For they say not that they were then instituted or that there were no more Sacraments instituted or that other Sacraments did not issue from thence Saint Ambrose maketh expresse mention of the Sacrament of confirmation L. 2. de sacram c. 24. and of penance as Bellarmine sheweth who also yeeldeth a reason why S. Ambrose in his bookes de Sacramentis mentioneth no more but three Sacraments because his intent in that worke is only to instruct the catechumenie in those things which are to bee done at the time of Baptisme For hee neither writeth to the beleevers of his age but only to some beginners as is manifest by the title of one of his bookes neither doth he there speake of the Sacraments which the Church hath taught and declared but of the Sacraments which those beginners that hee spake to had newly received S. Austine in those places where hee speaketh of two Sacraments restraineth not the number to two only Respice ad munera ecclesiae munus sacramentorum in baptismo in Eucharisliâ et caeteris sanctis sacramentis For in his first Sermon upon the 103. psalme hee saith cast thine eyes upon the gifts or offices of the Church in Baptisme the Eucharist and the rest of the holy Sacraments and in his Epistle 118. having brought in the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper he addeth this generall clause and if there bee any thing else commended in canonicall Scriptures Neither doth the place the Knight citeth out of the third booke de doctrinâ christianâ availe him any thing for it is plaine by the word sicuti that he bringeth in Baptisme and the Lords Supper for example only which doth no way restraine the number Besides his word in this place is not sacraments as the Knight citeth him but signa signes which is therefore a corruption of the Knights S. Cyprian de ablutione pedum reckoneth but five Sacraments not that hee thought there were no more Cyp. doi ablut ped propter hoc benignissime Domine pedes lavas discipulis quia post baptismum quem sui reverentia iterari non patitur aliud lavacrum procurasti quod nunquam debeat intermitti but that it pertained not to his purpose to speake of more in that place his scope being only to speake of such Sacraments as had relation to our Saviours last Supper and by ablutio pedum that Authour meaneth the sacrament of penance as appeareth by the words following for this O most benigne Lord thou didst wash thy Disciples feet because after Baptisme which may not be iterated thou hast procured another laver which must never bee intermitted S Isidore in his sixt booke of Etymologies cited by the Knight doth not so much as intend to speake of any Sacrament at all but his only intent is to treat of the names of certaine feasts as the title of the chapter sheweth to wit of feasts and their names Among which he putteth Christs Supper Moreover to shew that S. Isidore held more then the three Sacraments the Knight speaketh of in his second booke de Ecclesiast offic c. 16. l. 23. c. 19. he mentioneth two more Penance and Matrimonie Alexander hales in the place
for the good of others not a necessary grace of the Spirit sanctifying and saving the soule of the ordained Besides this Sacrament of order is out of order For it hath no element added to the sanctified forme of words Yes that it hath saith Flood the Host Chalice and Patent or Letters of order The Bread and Wine I grant are elements appointed by Christ but in another sacrament the Eucharist not in this and t is confessed on all sides that as in the Sacraments of the old Law so of the New the elements must not bee confounded Neither doth Christ any where command that in the ordination of Bishops or Priests such a Rite or Ceremonie should be used neither doth the Host or Chalice signifie or represent the invisible Grace or Ghostly power then given And as for the instrument it is a parchment but no element it is a legible writing testifying the party is ordained but no visible signe of an invisible grace no Seale of the new Covenant For the Patent Chalice and Bible they are not as before was said any sacramentall signes of divine grace but only ensignes and tokens of their severall offices and functions or instruments that are to bee used in their ministration besides every one of these orders is conferred by words and Ceremoniss cleane differing one from another whereupon it followeth that either none of them is a Sacrament properly so called or that each of them apart is a Sacrament and so the number of Sacraments will bee neere doubled Bellarmines evasion De Sacram. ordin l. 1. c. 8. to wit that they are all unum genere and referred to one end will not serve the turne for so all the other six Sacraments are unum genere and all referred to one end to wit to unite the receivers some way to Christ or derive some grace from Christ to them and yet they are not one Sacrament but as they teach six distinct species For Confirmation we allow of it as an Apostolicall tradition not as a Sacrament of Divine Institution For where doth Christ command that those who have heene baptized should bee after confirmed by a Bishop Where is an element or forme of words prescribed by Christ as in Baptisme and the Lords Supper The Iesuit answereth that the element in this Sacrament is chrisme or oyle but this cannot be as well because in divers Sacraments there ought to bee divers elements and therefore sith Chrisme and oyle is the element in Extreame Unction which taketh the name from thence it cannot bee the matter or element in Confirmation Accedit verbum ad elementum saith S. Austine fit Sacramentum the word of promise being added to another element appointed by God maketh a Sacrament In this we have neither Word nor Element therefore as the Greeke Oratour spake of the evill lawes enacted in his time Aristor Rbet l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lawes need a law to mend them so we may say of this Sacrament of Confirmation it needeth confirmation and better proofe for it then yet we see For Penance as it is practised at this day in the Roman Church it is not of divine institution as it was practised in the Primitive Church and is at this day in ours is a Divine ordinance but yet no Sacrament because we find in it no outward element with a forme of words prescribed by Christ no visible signe of invisible grace No saith Flood is not the true sorrow of heart declared by humble confession together with prayer fasting and Almes-deeds an outward element or thing to bee perceived by sense I answer that every thing perceived by sense is not presently an element in a Sacrament it must bee as the Schooles out of S. Austine define a visible signe of invisible grace Confession and prayer are indeed audible but not visible Fasting and Almes-deedes are visible but visible workes of pietie and charitie not visible elements in the Sacraments they are morall duties not sacramentall Rites For what correspondencie is betweene these and absolution or remission of sinnes how doth Fasting or Almes exhibit to the eye this invisible grace Contrition of the heart of which hee speaketh is no visible or sensible signe Confession is sensible but not visible nor ordained as the elements are in Sacraments to signifie the grace of God but to aske it the sacred signes ought to be administred by the Priest but Confession is made by the penitent the same may be said of corporall satisfactions which are accomplished by the sinner and commonly in his house by fastings or whippings or abroad by pilgrimages whereas sacred signes are to bee administred by the hands of the Priest and ordinarily in the Church Absolution also cannot bee a sacred signe of the grace of God seeing that if it bee good and available it is the grace of God besides this Absolution is not an element nor a visible signe of an invisible grace for the words are not seene if it be said that it is sufficient that it is significantly the grace of God by the same reason the preaching of the Word should bee a sacrament for it is significantly the grace of God In all Sacraments the Word must bee joyned to the element but here they will have the Word to bee an element the imposition of the Priests hands on the penitent is a visible action but not a visible element nor is it instituted by Christ When the Trent Councell and the Roman Catechisme come to assigne the matter of this Sacrament they doe it very faintly with a quasi materia Sess 14. de poenit c. 3. Catechis Rom. part 2. c. 5. They say the actions of the penitent are quasi materia and such as the matter is such is the Sacrament quasi sacramentum For Matrimonie it is a holy ordinance of God but more ancient then the New Testament and therefore can be no seale of it it was instituted by God in Paradise not by Christ in the Gospell yea but saith the Iesuit though it were before a naturall contract yet might it not be exalted by Christ to the dignitie of a Sacrament I answer the Iesuit must not dispute what Christ might doe but what hee did When hee proveth out of the Evangelists or Apostles that Christ exalted it to the dignitie of a Sacrament wee will hold it in that high esteeme but this hee can never doe for none of the Evangelists relate that hee altered the Law or nature of Matrimonie but only that hee confirmed it and honoured it with his presence and the first Miracle which hee wrought Other exaltation wee find not in the Gospell And as S. Ierome speaketh in the like kind quia non legimus non credimus because wee reade it not wee beleeve it not Our second exception against the Sacrament of Matrimonie is that in it there is no outward element sanctified by the Word of promise To this the Iesnit answereth the bodies of men and women
neither nameth all of them either joyntly or severally this the Iesuit knowing well enough bringeth no one testimonie for the proofe of their seven Sacraments out of him but forceth only some sentences to prove out of them that hee held more then two as namely out of his first Sermon upon the 103. Psalme Cast thine eyes upon the gifts or offices of the Church in Baptisme the Eucharist and the rest of the holy Sacraments and Epist 118. having brought in two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper hee addeth such a generall clause and if there bee any thing else commended in holy Scriptures which words of his import that hee held more sacraments then Baptisme and the Lords Supper in that very sense wherein those two by him named are called Sacraments I answer S. Austine in neither of these places taketh the word Sacrament in a strict sense but in a large for every sacred rite commended in Scripture or gift and office of the Church As for the word coeter is the Iesuit insisteth upon it importeth only a generical convenience and similitude not a specificall and so wee acknowledge that there are many sacred rites in the Church which agree with Baptisme and the Lords Supper in the genericall notion of Sacraments but not in the specificall as the word Sacrament is taken for a peculiar seale of the New Testament having thereunto annexed a promise of justifying grace Now let us weigh what the Knight alledgeth out of S. Austine for two Sacraments only De doct Chris l. 3. c. 9. Our Lord saith that Father and his Apostles have delivered unto us a few Sacraments in stead of many in performance most easie in signification most excellent as is the Sacrament of Baptisme and the Lords Supper To disappoint this testimonie the Iesuit first layeth corruption and falsification to the Knights charge because S. Austines words are signa pauca not sacramenta Which is nothing but a meere cavill for signa and sacramenta are in S. Austine no other then synonima by signa hee can meane no other then sacramenta For he instanceth there in no other neither did Christ deliver unto us any other signa or sigilla but these two Yes saith the Iesuit for it is plaine by the word sicut that hee bringeth in Baptisme and the Lords Supper for example only and doth not restraine the signa to these two It is not plaine for sicut bringeth in an example be it one or more neither can wee from thence inferre that there are more For S. Iohn speaking of our Saviour saith vidimus gloriam ejus sicut unigeniti filij Dei Wee beheld the glorie as of the only begotten Sonne of the Father Will the Iesuit from thence inferre that God had more only begotten sonnes but to expound S. Austine out of himselfe those signes or Sacraments which here hee calls a few in his 118. Epistle hee tearmes most few Sacrament is numero paucissimis surely seven Sacraments are not numero paucissima fewest in number but two are so and therefore in his booke De symbolo ad catechumenos he tearmeth them gemina Ecclesiae sacramenta which passage the Iesuit taketh no notice of because hee could give no answer at all unto it yet hee setteth a good face upon the matter saying this may suffice for such testimonies as were alledged out of S. Austine Of all the Roman Captaines I cannot liken him fitter to any then to Terentius Varro who though hee fought so unhappily against Hanniball at Cannae that hee lost 40000. men upon the place yet hee seemed to bee little daunted therewith and the Roman Senat sent him publike thankes quòd de republicâ non desperâsset that hee despaired not of the Common-wealth To the ninth The authour of the treatise De ablutione pedum who was farre later then S. Cyprian mentioneth indeed five sacraments which are more then two yet lesse then seven and for those five hee nameth it is evident hee intended not that they were Sacraments in a strict sense For one of them is ablutio pedum which if it bee a Sacrament in the proper sense then hath the Iesuit an eighth sacrament as himselfe is sapientum octavus Not so saith hee for ablutio pedum which that Authour meaneth is the sacrament of Penance Then belike Peter and the Apostles did Penance whilest Christ washed their feet Although there may lie hid some mysterie in that ablution L. 2. de sac c. 24. and therefore it may bee tearmed a Sacrament in a large sense as Bellarmine expoundeth that authour Yet our Lord himselfe revealeth unto us no other mysterie nor maketh any other inference from it then a patterne of humilitie Ioh. 13 14. If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye also ought to wash one anothers feet Yea but saith Flood the authour speaketh of another Laver after Baptisme and what can that bee other then Penance He speaketh of another laver not of another Sacrament which laver is no other then the laver of penitent teares But dicis causa let ablutio pedum be Penance yet wee have but foure Sacraments mentioned by this Author what becommeth of the other three To this hee answereth that the Authour mentioned not them because his scope was in that place to speake of such Sacraments as had relation to our Saviours last Supper A ridiculous evasion for what relation hath Baptisme or Penance or Confirmation or order to our Lords Supper But the Iesuit like a Lawyer that hath taken his fee of his Client thought himselfe bound in conscience to speake something in behalfe of this Authour though nothing at all to the purpose like Erucius in Tully Ego quid acceperim scio quid dicam nescio Cic. pro. Rosc Amer. To the tenth The Iesuit in his answer to S. Isidore bewrayes extreame negligence For the Knight quoting S. Isidore at large in his sixt book and not naming any chapter this Desultorius Miles posting through one chapter and finding not the words there chargeth the Knight with falsification whereas in the chapter immediatly following to wit the 19. according to the later edition of S. Isidore but in the 18. according to the former the testimonie alledged by the Knight is found in expresse words and Baptisme Chrisme and the Lords Supper reckoned by him for the Sacraments of the Church there without addition of any other If hee had held seven sacraments questionlesse in that place hee would have named all or at least the major part of them The Iesuit applieth a plaister to this sore to wit that else-where the same Father mentioneth Penance and Matrimonie But the plaister is too narrow and the salve of no vertue at all First it is too narrow for though Penance and Matrimonie be added to Baptisme Chrisme and the Lords Supper we have yet but foure or if we take Chrisme not for a Ceremonie used in Baptisme but a distinct Sacrament from it at the most but five
same prayers are said breeds no deformitie at all but uniformitie rather Sith it is not the different sound of words but of sense that makes a difference either in the beliefe or practice of the Church There was never more unitie then in the Apostles time Acts 2.46 when all the be leevers were of one mind yet then they praised God in divers languages Acts 2.9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Indaea and Cappadocia in Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt and the parts of Lybia about Cyrene and strangers of Rome Iewes and Proselites Creets and Arabians wee doe heare them speake in our tongues the wonderfull workes of God To the fourth The diversitie of translations either of the Scriptures or the Church office breedeth no inconvenience at all provided care betaken that the translations bee revised by the learned and licenced by authoritie nay on the contrarie the Church reapeth much benefit by it for languages have beene therby improved and the Scriptures much opened For oftentimes that which is obscure in the originall is cleared in a good translation An unknowne tongue is like a vaile before a beautifull picture or a filme before the eye which by a good translation is taken a-away If it were either unlawfull or inconvenient to translate the holy Scriptures or choyce parts of them in the Church Liturgie into vulgar languages why did Severus translate them into the Syrian S. Ierome into the Dalmatian S. Chrysostome into the Armenian Vlphila into the Gothian Methodius into the Slavonian Bede into the British and the Divines of Doway and Rhemes of late into the English Aeneas Sylbist Bohem. c. 30. Nay why did the Pope himselfe signe and subscribe unto the Petition of Cyrill and Methodius Monkes sent to convert the flaves and Dalmatians who in behalfe of their Converts desired of his holinesse that he would give leave to say service unto them in the Slavonian tongue which the Pope consented unto upon their much pressing him with that text of holy Scripture Ps 150. v. ult Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord and let every tongue confesse unto him To the fift If there were any force in the Iesuits reason at all it would prove that neither the Scriptures of the Old Testament should have beene delivered to the Iewes in the Hebrew nor the New Testament to the Greekes in the Greek For Hebrew was then the vulgar tongue of the Iewes and the Greeke to the Gentiles yet wee find that neither the writing the Old Testament in the Hebrew nor the New in the Greeke which were then the vulgar languages to those people bred any contempt of sacred things with prophanesse and irreligiousnesse but the cleane contrarie effects The use of Scripture in a vulgar tongue is not the cause why any disesteeme or undervalew it but want of instruction in heavenly mysteries and carelesse and superficiall reading without searching into the bottome of the spirituall meaning where Orient Pearles lie A counrerfeit stone if it bee often handled is discovered to be false and thereby looseth its valew whereas a rich Diamond though it be worne every day on the finger loseth nothing of the price or valew of it If the publike use of Scriptures would have derogated any thing from the worth and valew of it God would never have commanded the children of Israel to rehearse the booke of the Law continually to their children Deut. 6.7 8 9 to talke of it when they tarried in their house and when they walked in the way when they lay downe and when they rose up to bind the words of the law for a signe upon their hand and as frontlets between their eyes to write them upon the posts of the house and upon the gates Worldly wise men seeke to improve their knowledge by concealing it or at least impropriating it to some few but God contrariwise valeweth his wisdome by making it common Earthly commodities the rarer the dearer but heavenly Iewels the more common they are the more pretious of other liquour the lesse wee tast the more we thirst after it but heavenly wisedome thus speaketh of her selfe Hee that drinketh of me the more he drinketh the more hee shall thirst As the comfortable beames of the Sun which shineth daily upon us are not lesse valewed then the raies of those starres that seldome appeare in our horizon so the word of God which is the light of our understanding issuing from the Sunne of righteousnesse loseth nothing of the reverend estimation and religious respect due unto it by the frequent irradiation thereof at the preaching and reading of Scripture nay it gaineth rather with all hearers in whom there is any sparke of grace As for danger of heresie Rain l 1. de Idol indeed Claudius Espenceus writeth that a friend of his in Italie told him that in that countrey they made shie of reading Scripture for feare of being made heretiques thereby but by heretiques hee meaneth such as S. Paul was who after the way which they call heresie worship the God of their Fathers Acts 24.14 beleeving all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets for otherwise if heresie bee taken in the proper sence for erroneous doctrine in point of faith it is as absurd to say that the stequent use of Scriptures is a cause or occasion to bring men into heresie as that the often taking of a sovereigne antidote against poyson is the ready meanes to poyson a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys tom 5. Matth. 22.29 S. Chrysostome in his Homilie de Lazaro exhorteth all his Christian hearers to the frequent reading of Scriptures as a speciall meanes to preserve them from errours and heresies For all errours in point of faith arise from the ignorance of Scriptures as our Saviour teacheth the Saduces saying Yee erre not knowing the Scriptures Assuredly there is lesse danger of falling into heresie by reading Scriptures then any other booke whatsoever partly because they alone are free from all possibilitie of errour partly because God promiseth a blessing to those that reade and meditate on them yet our Adversaries suffer all other bookes to bee translated out of the learned Languages into the vulgar only they forbid the translation and publike use of the Scriptures which containe in them most wholsome receipts not only against all the maladies of the will but of the understanding also not onely against all morallvices but also all intellectuall errours in matters of faith which wee call heresies To the sixt Had the Iesuit but an ounce of discretion and common understanding hee would never translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to announce which is no English word at all neither is hee of sufficient authoritie to coyne new words at Doway or Saint Omers and make them currant in England For the matter it selfe it is false which hee saith that the Actions at the Lords
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
other man to be present at a prayer which he understandeth not then for a Parish-Clarke whom alone hee will have here to be understood Who is very much beholding to him for bestowing the name of idiot upon him and truly such a Clarke as the Iesuit here defineth may very well take the idiot in the worst sence to himselfe For he requireth no more in a Clarke then that hee understand the Service so farre P. 265. as to bee able to answer Amen But it seemeth the Iesuit tooke his holy orders per saltum and skipt over the Clarke For if hee had well considered what belongs to the Clarkes office he should find that he hath more in his part then to say only Amen for in all ancient and later Liturgies that I have seene many short sentences or responds are to be said by him as namely Christe eleeson cumspiritn tuo habemus ad Dominum and the like neither can hee say Amen to any prayer in the Apostles sence unlesse hee perfectly understand it for to say Amen is not only to utter the word which a Parret or Popenjay may doe but to joyne in prayer with the Priest and to give his assent to every clause To the ninth The Iesuits answer to Iustinian is lame on both feet For whereas hee taxeth him for taking too much upon him it will appeare to any who peruseth the Code Digests that hee taketh no more upon him then God commendeth to Princes to wit the custodie of both tables he did no more then S. Austine affirmeth appertaineth to Christian Kings to command those things that are just and honest not only in civill affaires but also in matters of religion for what he did hee had many excellent presidents before him in David Salomon Hezekiah and Iosiah Kings of Iudah and Constantine and Theodosius and other Christian Emperours as is declared at large by B. Bilson in his defence of the oath of supremacre and Doctor Crakenthorpe in his most learned Apologie of this Emperour Next what hee saith that the Decree of this religious Emperour may well stand with the present practise of the Roman Church is most false Novel constit 123. For the words of the Emperour are generall commanding all Bishops and Priests to celebrate the sacred oblation of the Lords Supper and prayer used in Baptisme not in secret but with a lowd and cleare voyce that the mindes of the hearers might bee stirred up with more devotion to expresse the prayses of God Now I would faine know to what end all Bishops and Priests are commanded to pronounce their words clearely and distinctly both at the administration of Baptisme and the Lords Supper but that their hearers might undetstand what they say and bee affected with those things they heare which cannot beif the Priest speak to them in an unknown tong For how can the lowd pronouncing of words in a strange language stirre up the devotion of the people to praise God for his benefits which the Emperour here requireth under a great penaltie saying Let the Bishops and Priests know that if they neglect to doe according to our princely command they shall yeeld an account in the dreadfull judgement of the great God for it and wee having information of them will not leave them unpunished To the tenth After the Imperiall Decree the Knight alledgeth a text out of the Canon law not to shew his skill in both lawes as the Iesuit would have it but to demonstrate that the practise of the Roman Church in this point of prayer in an unknowne tongue is against all law both Ecclesiasticall and civill Tit. 3. de Offic. and that the walls of the Romish Babell are battered by her owne canons for though the Decree of Pope Gregorie were made upon a speciall occasion yet it is grounded upon this generall rule that Service and Sacraments must bee said and administred to the people in a language they understand which the Iesuit himselfe confesseth in part saying that it is a matter of necessitie in the administration of some Sacraments to use the vulgar tongue as in Mariage and Penance as for the Councell of Lateran and the Pope in his Decree they speake indefinitely of holy Service and Sacraments and the Logitians rule is that indefinite propositions in materia necessaria are to be taken for universals and by the same reason which the Iesuit alledgeth for Penance and Mariage to be celebrated in a knowne tongue wee may conclude that Baptisme also and the Lords Supper ought to bee so celebrated For in both questions are put to the people to the god fathers in the one and communicants in the other and answers are expected from them To the eleventh The Iesuit is like them taxed by the Apostle who knew not what they spake nor whereof they affirme Our question is not whether divine Service ought alwayes to bee said in the mother tongue for wee our selves doe other wayes in divers Colledges but the point in controversie is whether the service ought alwayes to besaid in a tongue understood by those that are present this all the Authours alledged by the Knight affirme and therefore they make for us and assuredly if for seven or 800 yeares the publike prayers of the Church were offered to God in a language understood by the people as is confessed questionlesse in many places the prayers were turned into vulgar languages For it cannot be imagined that all the people in the Christian world before Pope Vitalians time understood Hebrew Lyra in 1 Cor. 14. in primitiva ecclesia bene dictiones coetera fiebant in linguâ vulgari Gretz def Bel. l. 2. de verb. Dei linguâ auditoribus non ignotâ omnia peragebantur consuetudo tunc ferebat ut omnes psallerent Harding apud Iewel ia 3. art divis 28 Verely in the primitive Church prayers were made in a common tongue knowne to the people Liturg. canonicam precem in primis dominici corporis sanguinis consecrationem ita veteres legebant ut à populo intelligi Amen ucclamari possint Ioban Belit in sum de divin offic in primitiva ecclcsia prohibitum erat ne quis lo quereturling u is nisi esset qui inter pretaretur quid enim prodesset c. Wald. in doct art eccies tit 4. c. 31. fuit ergo ratio talis benediction is in ecclesiâ tempore Apostoli cui respondere solebat non tantùm clerus sed omnis populus Aquin as lect 4. ideò erat insania in primitivâ ecclesiâ quia erant rudes in ritu ecclesiastico Greeke or Latine neither is it a point much materiall whether the Authours alledged by the Knight speake of any Precept of praying in a knowne tongue or not it is sufficient that they confesse that it was the generall practice of the Primitive Church to performe their devotions in the vulgar tongue For certainly what they generally practised in their divine
Service they thought to be fittest and most agreeable to Gods commandement If wee had nothing but their practise for us it alone would prove the visibilitie of our Church in this maine point wherein wee stand at a bay with the Roman Church but the truth is though the Iesuit would bee loath to heare it his owne witnesses Cassander Belithus Waldensis and Aquinas speake home to the point even of a Precept the words of Cassander are the Canonicall prayers and especially the words of Consecration of the body and blood of our Lord the Ancients did so read that all the people might understand it and say Amen according to the precept intimated by the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. 16. The words of Belithus are that in the Primitive Church it was forbidden that any should speake with tongues unlesse there were some to interpret for what saith hee should speaking availe without understanding Waldensis saith more then that in the Apostles time the giving of thankes was in a knowne tongue he confirmeth the practise with a reason saying There was reason it should bee so because in those times not only the Priests but the people also were wont to answer Amen Aquinas goeth a step farther that it was madnesse in the Primitive Church for a man to have prayed in an unknowne tongue because then the people were rude and ignorant in Ecclesiasticall rites Now if the Iesuit thinke that it was not prohibited in the Apostles time to doe any madde act in time of divine Service he himselfe is bound for the Anticyrae Now for that the Iesuit addeth for the imbellishing of his former answer that none of the vulgar languages but the three learned to wit the Hebrew Greeke and Latine were Dedicated on the crosse of Christ and consequently that they being the best and perfectest of all languages were fittest for divine Service to be said in them it is more plausible then substantiall For though I grant that every devout soule so affecteth the person of our Lord and Saviour that shee loveth the very ground hee trod upon and honoureth those languages above all other in which his titles were proclaimed for the greater advancement of his kingdome yet the reason holdeth not in our present case For though a golden key bee simply better then a key of iron yet a key of iron which will open to us a casket of most pretious Iewells is better for that use then a key of gold which will not open the lock Admit the originall languages of Greeke and Hebrew are simply perfecter and better then any other which are derivatives from them yet the Mother-tongue or vulgar language is better and fitter for the congregation in time of divine Service because it answereth the wards of their understanding and openeth to their capacity the Divine mysteries then celebrated which the learned languages cannot doe As for Pilats writing over the Crosse it is certaine he had no end therein to honour the three Languages with this title but to dishonour our Saviour thereby and put a scorne upon him and therefore that inscription in the three languages was rather a pollution then a Dedication of those tongues If Pilats action herein bee of any force it maketh rather against then for our Adversaries For Pilat therefore commanded the title to be written in those three languages that it might be understood of all or the greater part of those that then were at Ierusalem By which reason people of divers languages ought to have their mysteries for so the Iesuit calleth this title celebrated in their owne severall langurges Praef. in psal his maximè tribus linguis sacramentum voluntatis Dei beati regni expectatio praedicatur ex eoque illud Pilati fuit ut in his tribus linguis regem Iudaeorum Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum esse praescriberet S. Hilarie who is alledged by Baylie the Iesuit for the consecration of these tongues neither saith that these tongues were consecrated by that inscription not that Christs kingdome is to be proclaimed in them only His words are in these three languages especially the mysterie of Gods will and the expectation of his blessed kingdome is preached and hence it was that Pilat wrote our Lord Iesus Christ King of the Iewes in those three tongues This testimonie cutteth the throate of our Adversaries for the adverbe maximè or chiefly implieth that the mysteries of Christs kingdome were to be preached in other tongues though in these especially because these were then and are some of them at this day most generally knowne and understood Inc. 15 Marc. Deus voluit ut causa mortis Christi varijs linguis scriberetur quo ab omnibus intelligeretur Et Hieron ib. hae tres linguae in crucis titulo conjunctae ut omnis lingua commemoraret perfidiam Iudaeorum Baron tom 10 Anno Chris 880. ep 147. liter as Slavonicas à Constantino philosopho repertas quibus Deo laudes debitas resonent jure laudamus ut in cadem lingua Christi Dei nostri praeconia opera enarrentur jubemus neque enim trilus tantùm linguis sed omnibus Dominum laudare authoritate sacrâ monemur quae praecepit dicens laudate Dominum omnes gentes nec sanè fidei vel doctrinae allquid obstat five missas in eadem Slavonica lingua canere sive sacrum evangelium vel lectiones divinas N. V. Testamenti benè translatas interpretatas legere out alia horarum officia psallere quoniam qui fecit tres linguas principales Hebraeam scilicet Graecaem Latinam ipse creavit alias omnes ad laudem gloriam suam Lyra and S. Ierome harpe upon this string God would have saith Lyra that the cause of Christs death should bee written in divers tongues that every tongue might declare the trecherie of the Iewes and which marreth all the Iesuits musick the Popes Diapason soundeth out the same note for so wee reade in Bope Iohns Epistle to the King of Moravia we commend the Slavonian letters found out by Constantine the Philosopher whereby those of that countrey set forth the due prayses of God and we command that the preaching and workes of Christ our God bee declared in them for we are admonished by the Divine authoritie which commandeth saying Prayse the Lord all yee Gentiles to prayse the Lord not in three tongues only but in all for hee who made the three principall languages Hebrew Greeke and Latine hee created also all other for his glorie To the twelfth To this insolent interrogation of the Iesuit wee answer that in generall prayer in an unknowne tongue is commanded in all those texts of Scripture which require us to come neere unto God and pray unto him with our heart For by the heart the understanding as well as the will and affections are meants as appeareth by that prayer of Solomon Da mihi cor intelligens in particular and expresse words it is commanded in the 1
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
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