your place or faculty to preach That being most true which you falsely apply of Iehu and Ioram while the fornications of Iezabell and the abominations of Babell were mainetained by you no peace to be kept with you Isay 48.22 God commandeth it There is no peace to the wicked saith God Mr LEECH Wherefore after signification of my thankful minde to his Lordship who now vouchsafed in some sort to commiserat my vniust vexations I answered that I had greater respect of the cause for which I suffered then of the punishment which I did sustaine assuring M. Barkham that restitution vnto my place was not the principall part of my desire For as God did require of me the constant iustification of his eternall truth so I coulde not but require it also at their hands who by their function as Ministers and dignity as Bishops were specially obliged therevnto ANSVVER His Grace commiserated your stubborn opposition but never iudged your iust punishment vniust vexation The respect you had of the cause was more then your respect of God truth faith peace or conscience If restitutiō to your place was not the chiefest of your desires what was Was it your desire of conquest and victory that your individual sentence should haue overswayed the iudgement definitiue resolution of so many so wise and learned Iudges It is impietie to averre that God did require the iustification of this truth by you Truth it is not to be iustified it was not by all the proceedings it is manifest that God by the mediatiō mouth of his Magistrates approveth it not The function and dignity of your iudges did yeeld you all equity though you continue your accusations and supercilious detractions against them Mr LEECH Whereas he pressed me farther with motiues of profit and that I hindered the course of my preferment by contending against the authority of Magistrates who as he said must stand one with another my reply was to this effect that I desired not to rise where truth must fall vertue is the path to Honor Heavē must not be lost for earth the plenty of riches doth not recompence the emptines of the soule a good conscience is a continuall feast ANSVVER These motiues of profit and preferment if they were vsed are subordinate to the motiue of sauing your soule These can neither repaire nor empaire those directing inciting comforts that come from aboue The contentments that the world cā afford are but weake and momentary but the ambition of preferment in heauen is the holy resolution making a true Christian firme and square You hindred your selfe in your worldly heauenly course in cōtending with religious Authority And howsoever you professe you made vertue the path to honour yet this is proued contrary for you refused the best of vertues Lombard quadruplex conscientia your religion And though a good conscience be a continuall feast yet Lombard and others distinguish of conscience that as a good conscience may be troubled so an evill conscience may bee so quieted that it thinkes it selfe good Mr LEECH As for the Magistrates I reverenced their persons and honoured their places knowing that their power is from God but designed for the preservatiō of his truth which if I impugned let them strik mee with the sworde of Iustice but if they withstood it yet I must defend it with courage Ecclus 4. as also I shall suffer for it with patience For I alwaies had the counsaile of the wise man before mine eies Striue for the Truth vnto death c. ANSVVER Had you considered duly that not only their power is from God Rom. 13.2.4 as Paul speaketh but as hee addeth hee that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receiue to themselues condemnation giving the reason for hee beareth not the sworde in vaine your respect had beene more to thē if you had thus remembred the dignity from God giuen them Courage is then good when a good cause and a good conscience meet But to be couragious in defence of any adulterine proposition that hath not radicall truth it is condemned and wil be punished Acts are to be measured by desires desires by integrity And had you had God alwaies before your eies you had not been so Apocryphally wife in your owne eies Mr LEECH Which resolution in me though it sorted not with his liking nor yet perhapps was expected from a poore oppressed scholler whom his vncharitable adversaries had determined either to bowe or breake yet hee importuned me at the least to see his Lord and not to neglect his favorable inclination to doe me good ANSVVER Poore and lame and slack arguments cannot enforce resolution in the will or settle information in the vnderstanding All the connexions and all your concoxions out of Coccius had not this nutritiue power to nourish your conscience to such a strength of resolution But some other vnrevealed cause there is which only the searcher of all hearts knoweth Reprehension is not oppression nor had you any vncharitable adversaries they are adversaries to all vncharitablenesse they meant to direct straighten you not to bow much lesse to breake Some vpon whom you seemed to relie most in Oxford haue protested that they had proceeded in the same or a more strict course against you if the censure had passed their hands Mr LEECH Wherevpon I made a shew that I would shortly visit his Grace And this I did because I did probably collect that my intention was by some meanes disclosed vnto him whereby I might be defeated of that course vpon which I was now wholly resolved For me thought that God did speake within my heart as he spake sometimes vnto Abraham his seruant Goe forth of thy land Gen. 12.1 and from thy kindred and from thy fathers house and come into the land which I shall shew vnto thee For can any Church or any faith be in that land where the very grounds and principles of ancient Christianity are dissolved where there is no certaine foundation to build Religion vpon Where every mans power is his reason to make good his doctrine Where an iniury sustained for the truth can finde no redresse without treasonable connivencie to see the truth oppressed ANSVVER This was Aequivocation in speech and action neither honest but both common among Papists S. Austin condemned the Priscilianists for this and so other Fathers haue reproved this lying mummery hypocrisie Sepulueda de Ration dicēdi testimon Et de ratione dicendi occulta in praefat Azor. Ies Inst par 1. l. 11. c. 4. in fine cap. Emanuel Sa. in Aphor. And not only Scotus Aquinas Henricus Gabriell Biell are resolute against it as Sepulveda witneseth but also Iesuits themselues haue reproued it as Azorius Emanuell Sa and others You began to equivocate timely I doubt not but you haue increased it The reason of making this hypocriticall shew was lest you should be defrauded
concerning your request for compassion and yet even in that your petition you breake into a furious passion to accuse those reverend learned Doctors who censured you as if they had beene a faction I will not be nice to climbe ouer those seeming difficulties that lie in my way and yet without enlarging the limits of your speech as all your assertions like so many diseases attend vpon the ague of error so this among the rest wherein you censure those that iudicially censured you to be a factiō If any afforded your pen maintenance or your sermons countenance by clancular approbation contrary to the iudgement and truth deliuered by the learned Vicechancelor and his worthy asistants they were the faction not these It is not a factious position which is generally maintained by the happy and gratious Church of England grounded vpō irrefragable places of holy Scriptures taught by many impregnable places of ancient Fathers yea your grand Iury of Fathers called into the Star chamber of iudgement by a iudicious learned religious k Doctor Benefield Divine now all witnessing against you Were you vnworthily intreated when loue allured you and authority sollicited you to take better councell Were you silenced or imprisoned or censured at all til that engastred impostume brake out in your last sermon all dayly expecting a much more earnest course against you the discommoning rather of you thē the losse of your commons And whereas you desire vs to be moued with compassion toward our selues we may vse the words of our Saviour weepe not for me but weepe for your selues so compassionate not vs but your selfe And for my selfe among many others I shall ever afford you that harty pitty non l Bernard oris attactu sed mentis affectu as to say to you as the m 1. Kings 13.30 old Prophet did of the seduced Prophet alas for thee my brother Mr LEECH For as the iniury which God and his truth haue sustained in my person is now made knowne not only vnto our nation but the fame thereof beginneth to spread it selfe abroad in these forraine parts so it concerneth you my louing fathers and brethren to wipe away that disgrace and blemish from your mother and your selues which some of har vnnaturall children would both staine her with and deriue vpon you endeavoring to obscure their private folly in the publike shame Which protection I will neuer afford vnto them vnlesse they can obtaine it by your own consent ANSVVER Was the quiet and long forborne conventing of you iudiciall hearing learned opposing religious counselling calme censuring of you such an iniurie vnto God and his truth that not only the whole Vniversity but also the whole nation and quae regio in terris vestri nō plena furoris almost al the world taketh notice as you say for the FAME thereof beginneth to spread it selfe in those forraine parts A good thing the more generally it is spread the better but of the contrary ever the contrary falleth out n Plut. Plutarch telleth of a plague that began in Aethiopia thence filled Athens killed Pericles vexed Thucydides and spread it selfe far It should seeme by the spreading of that report of what you endured that it was some contagious stuffe that did so expatiate But what if it doe so among those who haue banished truth as a stranger chained vp Religion as a prisoner To preach a doctrine twise before forbidden you was seditious to preach a doctrine no way to be warrāted was erroneous that doctrine so soone to spread it selfe through so great a nation so many forraine parts it was dangerous Good things are not so fertile The great eie of heauen and the God which must iudge you and that cōscience which must accuse you doe all witnesse how iniuriously you dealt here with your gouernors in disobeying them and now howe vniustly abroad in traducing them Durst any in those forraine parts so peremptorilie and presumptuously publiquely haue maintained any point of the contrary religion but hee had beene apprehended and presently cast into the iawes of that monster the Spanish inquisitiō your vsage was otherwise you were warned by some counselled by others pitied by al not publiquely convented not commanded to recante not imprisoned not expelled only forbidden to preach because you offended by preaching put out of commons for a while the common punishment for any collegiate offence the fame of this so far to spread it cannot profit you any way nor preiudice the chariots of our Israell the governours of our Vniversitie Only remember what o De fam spe diat 117. Petrarch admonisheth in such a case Multi famam se mereri sperant dum infamiam mereantur Let not this fame bee your infamy nor let these blemishes and disgraces which you impute to our Academicall mother or the vnnaturalnesse you deeme to bee in her children be found all of them in you feare your owne private folly flie your owne publike shame I vse your owne words To make a shew of nakednesse where there is none is worthily cōdemned but to spit such words of blemish disgrace folly and shame in the face of such reverend Fathers O remember it is accursed I haue gathered vp all your burdens bonds pressures complaints summe them vp all they be all nothing Mr LEECH Wherefore out of my affectionate zeale vnto your credit I doe both humbly desire and earnestly require you to avert this infamy from your noble mother and to free her from the imputation which otherwise you draw vpon her as being either a Patronesse of falshood or fearefull to defend the truth which folly in the first or pussillanimity in the second is a great staine to men of your quality and place ANSVVER It was p Diog. Laert. in vita Diog. Diogenes speech Oportet sapientiam ab insipientibus feriri but yet g wisdome shal be iustified by her children q Mat. 11.19 and the blowe given by you in the pulpit which you think shal leaue a scarr in the face of Oxford is easily remoued For no sooner were you remoued hence but the infamy was averted the aire purged from receauing the contagion of any such amphibious amphibologious heresie For your zealous affection when you are truely zealous towards God you will be truly affectionate towards his servants let not the fume of envy and fome of vanity turne holynes into hypocrisie zeale into folly and assure your self as long as this Metropolis of learning shal stād which I hope shal be as long as the sunne and moone endure shee will bee so far from being either Patronesse of falshood or feareful to defend the truth that she wil ever haue many strong men armed in the studies of Divinity furnished with the skill of tongues laboriously exercised in the sacred Scriptures studiously cōversant in the Fathers wel acquainted with the history of times who like the valiant men of Israell that guarded r Can. 3.7.8
moue you to reverence this honest and learned Doctour hee did truely and wisely chardge you that S. Gregory had no such distinction Praeceptum and praecipitur be Gregory his words In your strongest place out of him you can vrge no such thing That the Fathers haue called virginity poverty c precepts shall hereafter appeare at large In the meane time to prescribe against al opposers to giue you a tast to bring your metall to the test before I try it by the ballance Virginity is called a precept by d Athan. in edit Comelin Graecol p. 77. Athanasius his words be Omnium Rex Christus tantùm valuit praeceptis sui◠vt pueri nondum maturi legum disciplinae virginitatem quae supra leges profiteantur Poverty and leaving of al is accoūted a precept by e Hilary in 19. Mat. Hilary on the 19. of Matthew where on those wordes vende omnia hee thus speaketh Adolescens insolens iacturam legis facere praecipitur And not only these but many other of the Fathers doe so call them thereby strongly invading your opinion Mr LEECH And this was his definitiue resolution sifting out of the sieue of the Church all the wheaten meale I meane the fine flower of spirituall Poverty Angelicall Chastity leauing nought else within it but the branne and huskes of Iovinian his heresie which to speake of it in one word as it deserveth is the very evacuation and exinanition of all the best fruits of our Christian religion And this he did with an earnest protestation not being able to containe himselfe from vowing and solemnely swearing before God that he would send me vp to my Lord Bishoppe of London to answer the point before the high Commission ANSVVER The Church is compared to the house of God but that in this house there should be such a vtensile as a sieue I never read nor heard It is not mystica vannus Iacchi that it should as you thinke after such a preposterous maner retaine the bad and shake out the good I leaue your sifting comparison and yet will remember you f Mat. 3.12 that there is one who shall come with his fanne in his hand shal purge his flower gathering his wheate burning his chaffe You seeme ignorant of the difference betweene asseverations oaths when you tearme Doctor Huttons earnest and religious protestation an oath David to Ionathan Vriah to David Elisha to Eliah the Sunamite to Elisha S. Paule to the g 2. Cor. 11.31 Corinths h 1. Tim. 2.7 Timothy and i Gal. 1.20 Galathians did vse more earnest and vehement protestations and yet were not taxed for swearing Sathan hath his brand for accusing his brethren how full you are of Accusatiues every page doth betray it selfe He maintained no part of Iouinians heresie vttered no oath in any violent fervency you straine out vires and virus passion and poison against him that afforded you much loue and compassion who was a meanes to obtaine a place for you in that house and when some distasting you sought to work your remoue he defēded you against that storme Mr LEECH To this I replied Sir the distinction betwixt Precepts Counsels is no devise of mine but the doctrine of S. Paul grounded vpon Christ his restrictiue negatiue non omnes capiunt wherevpon S. Paul had no precept and vpon Christ his exhortatiue affirmatiue qui potest capere capiat Herevpon the Apostle giueth his counsell Consilium do 1. Cor. 7.21 and thus all ancient Church hath interpreted his sentence ANSVVER It was not S. Pauls doctrine Counsell is not his worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not so translated the Lexicons shew that the greeke Poets Orators did not so vnderstand it Doctor Benefield hath so sufficiently answered it that there is no gainesaying The heresie of Nestorius lay but in the chāge of one letter taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those many Bishops that resisted Nestorius as S. k Basil apud Theod. l. 4. c. 19. Basill observeth were so religious in the carriage of that controversie that they woulde not exchāge a syllable or letter If the change of a letter may doe so much what may the misinterpretation of a word though it be a very naked proofe to ground any point of beliefe vpon one word howsoever vnderstood I know you haue not distilled much out of the School-limbiques therefore wil remember you of this distinct difference betweene counsell sentence that the one is proper to the will Aquin. 22 dae the other to the vnderstanding The place of Scripture out of Christes mouth maketh nothing in this matter for you non omnes capiunt c. The later wordes of the Text answere the former Omnes non capiunt hoc Christ his speech is interpreted in respect of the common condition of nature in generall So virginity may be proposed not imposed vpon any none may be compelled none constrained therevnto but Capiuntij quibus datū they must that are able to take it vpon thē And so Christ inioineth enforceth commandeth them by an Imperatiue in the 12. verse He that is able to receiue this let him receiue it Thus the Church hath and doth interpret this speech Omnes nō capiunt all in generall not enforced because not enabled but qui potest capere capiat he that is so furnished by Gods spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee is commāded by this word of God it is not voluntary but necessary therefore no counsell but a cōmande and so consequently the place maketh not for you Mr LEECH But admit by way of supposition your peremptory conclusion and suppose that there bee no counsailes but let all be precepts do they not thē as Precepts binde you that sub poenâ For that which is a precept is commanded that which is commanded must be done of necessity that which must perforce be done is punished being left vndone in vaine is that commanded as necessary which is left in the free choice of the commanded as volūtary as S. Hierome teacheth Wherefore giue me leaue without offence to demaunde why do you or any other marry or possesse anie of the worlds goods Ought your practise to bee cōtrary to the precept And doth not S. Gregory teach that if coūsailes were precepts then were it sin and that damnable too to possesse any of the worlds goods And were not mariage taken away which is no lesse then flat heresie if virginitie were a precept as S. Basill and the Fathers teach ANSVVER The Stoicks divided the offices of Philosophy into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfectum et commune So the Papists distinguish al the duties of a Christians life into these two Counsells and precepts k Mat. 7.11 and so by the Pharises l Corban they affect such perfection by the rule of Counsaile as that they transgresse the law of Commandement for as m
should be ready to cast a stone the stone which I cast against superogatiō is no other thē that which S. Iohn cast against it who giveth the lie to him that saith he hath no sin Bell. de Mon. lib. 2. c. 13. And Bellarmine is constrained to cōfesse that S. Austin Bernard and Thomas doe thinke it impossible to keep that Commandement Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soule and with all thy minde Mr LEECH These are wiser fuller of zeale then Christ himself who suffred nay gaue commandement as it is in the parable that both tares and wheat should grow together vntill the harvest of the last iudgement and then shoulde the tares and weeds be bound vp in bundles fitted for the fire and the wheate should be gathered into his barne For at the last iudgement Sermo 3. de le iunio collectis 1. Cor. 3.12.13 there are some things vrenda flammis other things condenda horreis as S. Leo speaketh And doth not S. Paul allude to this Whose words be if any man build vpon Christ the foundation gold silver precious stones timber hay stubble every mans worke shal be made manifest for the day shal declare it because it shal be revealed by the fire and the fire shall try every mans workes of what sort they are To which fire let this Doctrine be reserved to stand or fall to burne as stubble hay timber or rather to escape as gould silver and precious stones ANSVVERE True zeale is the true seale of a Christian If you had any sparke therof I would wish as Porsenna did to Scaevola concerning his Country Lavater Iuberem macte virtute esse si pro mea patria virtus ista staret So I for true Religion Iobs friends had a bad cause but handled it well Iob had a good cause but maintained it ill neither ability of the cause nor dexterity of the handling haue assisted you The multiplicious abuse of Scripture in your text is frequēt that as the Prophet spake of aslying book so may al of your lying book You wold by intimation of that Scripture in the Parable of the Tares desire that as the tares are suffred to growe Mat. 13.30 so your doctrine may remaine vncēsured till the iudgement It is well that you acknowledge your doctrine to be like the Tares Fearefull will that iudgement be at that vniversall Sessions where Christ will be iudge the Saints the Iury when you are accused with those words of the Parable Master sowedst not thou good seed in thy field whence thē are these tares In that Parable of Christ as the streame of interpretation doth carry it is meant that by the evill seed mixt with the good the Church shall never be free from some wicked that it is impossible to roote them finally out for if wee wish to avoide these so fully as the godly could wish wee must goe out of the world as the Apostle speaketh So that of lewd persons not of hereticall positions that place is to be vnderstoode for Christ doth threaten the Churches in the Revelation for connivencie of false doctrine Laodicaea Rev. 2.3 chap for beeing neither hot nor cold Rev. 2.14 Rev. 2.20 Gal. Pergamus for maintaining the doctrine of Balaā Thyatira for suffring Iesabell to teach and deceiue his servants The Church of Galatia is reproved for that they suffered the Copartnership of Iewish Ceremonies when they were established in the Gospell of Christ and shall Religion the truest bond betwixt man and man the knot of coniunction and consociation In Dion Cass shall it bee divided Shall Maecenas wish Augustus to hate and correct any that change any thing in the service of the Gods Ioseph cont ap 2. Shall the Athenians enact that they that spake of their God otherwise then the law appointed should be severely punished And shall we so much neglect the attonement of iudgements and peace of soules as to suffer blending of doctrines not only leaven in our Lumpe but poison in our bread Far be it frō vs and from our seed for ever Let it be the brand not only of a luke-warme affection and of a Policie overpolitique but of Machiavillians and matchlesse villaines to call for connivency of hereticall positions From hel it came to hell it must returne againe We cannot chuse but suffer the Tares of iniquitie to grow vp but we will endeavour pro aris focis to eradicat the Tares of heresie Your second place of Scripture out of S. Paule A chardgeable Appeale is very fit for your purpose and the words in the next present verse as fit for mine 1. Cor. 3.11 Let every man take heed how he buildeth the later of those verses shall bee my praier for you that though your worke burne at that day and you loose yet you may be saved In the meane time Scripture hath disapproved you and the fathers haue refused you Mr LEECH Now to God only wise be rendred praise power might maiestie rule dominion and thanksgiving and let al the creatures in heavē in earth or vnder the earth say so be it Amen ANSVVER Vnto that supreame iudge Rev. 22.13 and to the last iudgment be this referred and vnto the everliving God who is in himselfe α ω in Angelis sapor et decor Aust in iustis adiutor protector in reprobis pavor et horror be ascribed the admiration of his Maiesty the acknowledgment of his mercy the awful remembrance of his power the ioyfull continuance of his favor And Hallelu-iah Rev. 19.1.2 Salvation and glory and honor and power be to the Lord our God for true and righteous are his iudgements for he hath condemned that great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornications Amen Hallelu-iah CHAP. 8. Mr LEECH THus gentle Reader thou hast seene my maine defence of this doctrine wherein I haue followed the mature advise of the Philosopher and Oratour For I thought it not sufficient to confirme truth in the former part of this sermon vnlesse I confuted falshood also in the later And this I did for establishing thee if thou be in the right or reducing thee vnto it if thou hast been in the wrong ANSVVER THus Gentle Reader thou hast seen the meane defence of this doctrine wherein whether the author as he professeth hath followed the advise of the Philosopher or Orator iudge by the contradictions misapplications falsifications in the sermon Can Oratory or Philosophy be obtained without Grammar or cannot a Grammarian distinguish between Concilium Consilium the one comming originally à conciendo Calepin id est convocando the other derived from Consileo eo quòd vno consulente caeteri consileant It was a most probable tryall of the Ephraimits in shibboleth Iudg. 12.6 and sibboleth the mistaking cost the death of the body It was a laudable triall betweene the Coūsell of Nice and
froÌ„ robbing the Church of a Sonne the King of a Subiect and your selfe of a soule Your misapplication of that speech of God to Abraham I might dilate much vpon as hauing variety of interpretations which doe vnderstand that place of the devill the world the flesh But I come neerer to your purpose hoping that those wordes that you say God spake to you were receiued by no revelation a frequeÌ„t imposture amoÌ„g Papists filling the mouthes of many swaying the faiths of some But what is the blemish you see in your mother â—oth our Church deny the principles of ancieÌ„t Christianity Doe wee not receiue the Scriptures the Creedes and Fathers of the first 500 yeares Do we not build our Religion vpon the foundation Iesus Christ the corner stone Is the rule of our doctrine any other then Gods sacred will revealed in his word Is any iniury sustained by you for truth It is not iniury but true iustice to punish those that be stubborne in action precipitat in resolution and faulty in opinion not able to maintaine their cause but with much wresting of conscience their revolt ever attended with sedition scandall and humane respect Mr LEECH But I will pretermit good Reader here to make a speciall enumeration of my Motiues drawing me vnto my finall resolution for they will ensue orderly in the thirde last part of this Treatise Only consider with me now with what conflict of flesh bloud I could intertaine this resolution to come out of my Land from my kindred and from my Fathers howse with what griefe I could forsake a noble Vniversity the company of my kindest friends the comfort of my dearest familiars other emoluments which such a place doth actually yeeld and prepareth vnto greater ANSVVERE Your Motiues shall be answered as briefly as vrged because they be to bee scanned at a higher barre Your conflict was not with flesh and blood but you did agree with the world and the Diuell and applyed your selfe to the service of that painted but ill-favoured witch the church of Rome Neither did you forsake our Vniversity friends and familiars before they forsooke you They at length heard hated who at first obserued your folly and pittyed Mr LEECH Howbeit my Brethren since there is banishmeÌ„t indeed where no place is left for truth I esteeme al these things as dongue that I may gaine Christ for he is my sufficient reward I did not conceiue that when I preached my doctrine among you I shoulde haue giuen you such an example thereof in mine owne person But thankes be vnto him who disposeth all things sweetly for the benefit of his children Finally my brethren I wish that you may enioy your country which is aboue without forsaking that which is below But if you cannot by reason of the time theÌ„ looke vp vnto your eternity let not your excellent spirits abase themselues vnto the loue of transitory things For behold I shew you a more excellent way 1. Cor. 12.13 ANSVVER If in the world there be any sanctuary for truth it is there where shee may appeare without controll without colors or disguises Which you woulde willingly acknowledge to be true if ignorance were not the mother of your devotion To forsake all for Christ is blessed but to forsake eveÌ„ Christ himselfe it is most cursed He is a sufficient reward to all that feare follow him and will follow theÌ„ that fly from him How pervious you were to fly from your Country after you had fled from the truth your intent before and your practises since haue manifested But farre be it that God should be reputed as the disposer of you to this vnnaturall and vnchristian disobedience to the Church and State O what bitter punishment must attend that presumption that endangers a double perishing and is so far from having expresse commaund that it hath direct and iust inhibitions Your wish that we may enioy our countrey that is aboue is a wish aboue your charity We wish your admission into the heavenly Hierusalem which is aboue and would from our harts pray for your triumphant state there Luke 16.25 but that as Abraham said to Diues Remember thou in thy life time receiuedst thy pleasure and Lazarus paines therfore he is comforted and thou art tormented so we are willing to awake you with this that seeing you make your selfe of the Church triumphaÌ„t in earth you coÌ„tinuing this course are like to haue small part in the triumphant glory in heaven And while wee for our partes and stations are here wee will affect no pilgrimage but from nature to grace so to glory hoping to accompany them that are in possession of the lawrell And to this iourney we haue no other hie way 1. Kings 8.36 1. Sam. 12.23 Ier. 6.16 Ioh. 14 6. but the good way which God teacheth and the right way which Samuell describeth and the old way which Ieremy informeth al which be not as yours be Crosse waies but doe terminat in the way even Christ Iesus THE THIRD PART CONTAIning 12. Motiues which perswaded me to embrace the Catholicke Religion Briefely and naturally deriued out of the premises * ⎠* S. AVGVST In Psal contra partem Donati Scitis Catholica quid sit quid sit praecisum à vite Si qui sint inter vos cauti veniant vivant de radice THE THIRD PART CONTAINETH 12. Articles against you whereby your 12. Motiues are disproved as having not affinity with the faith of the 12 Patriarks or spirit of the 12. Prophets or doctrine of the 12. Apostles or beliefe of the 12. Articles of our Creed shewing that as Art doth imitate Nature and an ape a man so as many grounds as good Christians rely vpon for their faith Apostats boast to alleadge for their fall Wherein as in the premises the particular Apostasie is confuted condemned with much facility and breuity * ⎠* S. AVGVST In eod Psal Contra Partem Donati Ipsam formam habet sarmentuÌ„ quod praecisum est de vite Sed quid illi prodest forma si non viuit de radice Venite fratres si vult is ut inseremini in radice Dolor est cum vos videmus praecisos ita iacere Aug. de vnitate Ecclesiae cap. 2. De hoc inter nos illos quaestio versatur vtrum apud nos an apud illos vera Ecclesia sit Mr LEECH To the conscionable and Ingenious Reader THOVGH the generall motiues vnto the Catholique Religion are many and waighty yet the particular which issued out of this present businesse where such as conuinced my vnderstanding and swayed my affection to approue and embrace the same Wherefore courteous Reader aswell to procure thy good as to iustifie my selfe and to satisfie others I haue coÌ„municated them vnto thy view For matter they are the same now as when I conceiued them in the beginning for manner they are brought forth in somewhat a different shape Thus much
may suffice for thy instruction concerning these Motiues Onely I may not forget to advertise thee that whereas through their titles I vse this perpetuall stile THE PROTESTANTS c. howbeit the most learned amongst them differ in iudgement from the common sort and in this respect cannot bee concluded in the generality of ALL I haue not done this without good consideration For though the principall divines in England do vtterly distast the vaine opinions of D. King and such like yet since by publike profession of the truth they giue not sufficient notice vnto the world of their Catholique positions I must involve them also in this common accusation And as they against their knowledge Corde creditur ad iustitiam ore fit confessio ad salutem doe suffer a preiudice to fall vpon God his truth they must likewise against their will suffer an infamy to remaine vpon their owne persons ANSVVER The Catholikes like to the olde Circumcellions are Individua vaga ever in motion Campians reasons Bristowes motiues the one ten the other 48 yours a Iurie This former treatise hath answered all yours But seeing they so commanded your affection and convinced your vnderstanding wee will heare your descriptions and marke the motions If it be the good of your Reader you wish you would not leade him into so many darke entries of the Chambers of death your booke is come into the hands of many better informed soules then your selfe and some that haue breathed lately from their Antichristianisme that haue seene and heard more then you haue and haue hated and abhorred and returned You seeke to iustifie but do condemne your selfe and you hope your satisfaction will proue an infection to some But each man doth disdaine that these should draw ouer any wise Proselyte They are the same in substance as in your sermon only as the Patron of error can change his shapes so doe these You say you must not forget to advertise and I cannot omit to discrie the vntruth in the advertisement For if with an indifferent eie ANY observant in the state of our Church doe looke vpon the more learned Of our Divines he shal finde that either they be writers or publike Readers or continuall Preachers against Popery neither doe they differ in iudgement from the common sort as most iniuriously you traduce them By publike profession in the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace in the essense and substance of religion all agree And howsoever there haue beene some differences in opinion betweene many of the most orient fixed starres in the firmament of the Church as betweene Ruffinus Ierom Ierom Austin Austin Symplician and many others yet all the world wil free our Church from hauing in her Religion any diversly affected from the truth addicted to Popery at the least any that ever were of deserving note or accounted the Principall divines If there be any such homely and home-made peeces as your selfe that coccle they be no sooner noted but punished Your preiudice and infamy will returne vpon your selfe for accusing our worthiest to maintaine a linsey woolsey blended mangled Religion Being supplanted your selfe in reputation you seeke to supplāt others the vtmost spirits of your malice and spite being as Enginers to overthrow the credit of those that by their learned paines do seeke to overthrow the wals of Babell Their publique profession and positions free them from your common accusation their sermons Lectures writings might satisfie you but that these heavenly showers haue fallen besides you Error surprising your will ignorance your knowledge a smale things may moue you that were never setled Mr LEECH The First motive The Protestants admit not a triall of their Religion by the testimony of the Fathers whatsoever they pretend to the contrary BEcause it is a preposterous devise to iudge the former ages of the Church by the later D. Field pag 204. We willingly admit a triall by the Fathers saith he in the name of his Church therefore the courses of my study haue ever beene directed vnto a diligent pervsall of ancient Fathers whose authority simply considered as it may preponderate our moderne writers so in reference vnto the Church being her witnesses who is the iudge to define all controversies their testimony is to be preferred before all Authors whatsoever Neither resolued I thus without serious deliberation and especially contra haeref cap. 1. 2. the graue counsaile of Vincentius Lyrinēsis did prevaile with me seeing that learned holy men did generally conspire in this opinion If any man will discerne Heretical pravity from Catholike verity he must be furnished with a double helpe first the Canon of sacred Scripture Secondly the tradition of the Catholique Church wherein three things inseparably concurre Vniversality Antiquitie Consent The reason of which prescription is yealded by him to be this The Scripture is sublime and forasmuch as all men sense it not alike it is necessarie to adioine therevnto the continuall interpretation of the Church Vpon this infallible ground evident vnto all men of any apprehension I builded my faith conforming it alwaies vnto those Orthodoxe principles which I had derived out of the venerable Fathers Hence I assumed this doctrine of Evangelicall Coūsells which as I delivered out of the sacred volumes of Antiquitie so Antiquitie it selfe deduced it with mee out of the divine Oracles of holy Scripture And therefore seeing that my opinion was cleerely built vpon this foūdation I pressed it vncessantly vntill my vniust Iudges were enforced to forsake this meanes of triall and consequently to punish the Fathers in me as I had spoken by them But when I plainely saw that my doctrine could not be condemned without condemnation of the ancient Church and that my Iudges were driuen to this extremity I inferred that their Religion could not be good and that their consciences were verie bad ANSVVER It is a most preposterous devise to make the Fathers iudges of the Scriptures whereas the Scriptures as S. Austin confesseth ought to be the iudges of the Fathers otherwise what you impute to vs is the practise of your selues which you seeke approbation of the former Church by the latine That the Fathers may preponderate the moderne writers I answere for their antiquity they doe but where the same truth is in both for their authority they do not exceed Hath the Church had no growth since their time Hath the sonne of righteousnesse Psal 19. going from the ende of the heauens and in his compasse returning to the ende thereof againe by his beames given no more light then when it first rose Hath not God revealed somethings to one which he hath not to another 1. Cor. 14.30 as S. Paul speaketh Our reverend estimation of the Fathers is most learnedly and fully delivered by his Maiestie in his premonition and our willingnesse of a triall by the Fathers is openly testified by the Reverend Bewcleark D. Field these exceptions