it cannot be denyed that the Protestants in all their Translations have a recourse still to the Originall of Hebrew and Greek which was inspired by the Holy Ghost and these they preferre before all Latine and Vulgar Translations whatsoever Bibl. Complut in Proefat on the other side your Translation as your Interpreters fancie hangeth betweene the Greek and Hebrew as Christ hung betweene two theeves Nay more your men esteeme the Vulgar Latine before the Originall Bell. de verbo Dei lib. 2. c. 11. Not saith Bellarmine that the rivers of Translations should be preferred before the fountaines of Hebrew and Greeke of the Prophets and Apostles but because the fountaine is muddie in many places which otherwise should runne cleare for without doubt as the Latine Church hath beene more constant in keeping the faith than the Greeke so likewise it hath beene more vigilant in preserving her bookes from corruption These Paradoxes doe open a gap to Atheisme for if the originall Scripture be corrupted what assurance what certaintie can wee have of true faith and religion and if wee doubt wee are condemned already Neither can it enter into my thoughts that profane Writers should bee preserved in their simple purenesse from their first ages and that their Translations should remaine in subjection to their copies from whence they are derived to be examined by them and yet the Watchman of Israel who neither slumbers nor sleepes for want of providence should suffer his sacred Word become a Tributarie to a Translation But by this the world may see the guiltinesse of a bad cause you will rather charge the word of God it selfe with corruption than faile to make good the corruptions of your owne Church Your learned Andradius condemnes them that preferred the Latine before the Hebrew of the Old Testament as pretending it was corrupted by the Jewes Andrad def fidei Trident. l. 4. It was very inconsiderately conceived saith he by some that there was more credit to bee given to the Latine Edition than to the Hebrew because the Latine ever remained entire uncorrupt in the Catholique Church and the Hebrew was falsified depraved by the perfidiousnesse of the Jewes And your owne Sixtus Senensis doth witnesse of the Greeke Text likewise Sixt. Senens Biblioth l. 7. that it is the same which was used in the dayes of S. Hierome and long before him in the Apostles times and is free from hereticall corruptions as by the continuall writings of the Greeke Fathers as namely Dionysius Justinus Irenaeus Melito Origen Affricanus Apolinarius Athanasius Eusebius Basil Chrysostome Theophylact doth most plainly appeare and yet your Gregory Martin and the Rhemists are not ashamed to professe that the Translation which they follow is not onely better then all other Latine but even than the Greeke Text it selfe Preface to the Rhem. Testam in those places where they disagree To examine your Translation in generall and so descend into the particulars of yours and ours First it is decreed by the Councell of Trent that amongst divers Translations then in use Concil Trid. Sess 4. Decretam de editione librorum the old and vulgar Translation should be declared to be authenticall in all publike Lectures Disputations Sermons and Expositions and that no man should dare or presume to reject it upon any pretext whatsoever What Translation was understood by the old vulgar was not expressed in the Councell It is pretended to be and is called at this day St. Hieromes Translation and which is remarkable the Translation was decreed but by 42. Bishops at the first beginning of the Councell From hence ariseth the first Quere which of St. Hieromes Translations your Church doth follow for St. Hierome confesseth that the first was corrupt and accordingly he did correct many things in his first Translation To this Objection your Cardinall makes this faire and free confession Bell. de verbo Dei l. 2. c. 9. Although Hierome did perceive some things fit to be changed and afterwards did change them yet the Church did adjudge the first translation for true and chose rather to keep that for the vulgar Edition And then he concludes Although the greatest part of the vulgar Translation be Hieromes yet it is not that pure Edition which he translated out of the Hebrew but in a manner mixt Habemus confitentem reum Now heare your owne Sixtus Senensis Albeit he pretends that the different readings in the Bible be no prejudice to the Faith Sixt. Senens Bibl. l. 8. p. 664. yet saith he wee ing enuously confesse that many errours were corrected by Hierome in the old Translation and likewise there are found in our new Editions some falsifications solecismes barbarismes and many things ambiguous not well expressed in the Latine some things changed other things omitted and the like Here both confesse that Hieromes first Translation was erroneous and the one saith that your Church hath chosen that which is not pure nor agreeable to the Hebrew the other confesseth it hath Barbarismes and untruths To speake ingeniously the Sunne never saw any thing more defective and maimed than the vulgar Latine Your Bishop Lyndan cryes aloud Lynd. de opt genere Interpret l. 3. c. 1 2 4.6 and protesteth it hath monstrous corruptions of all sorts scarce one coppie can be found that hath one booke of Scripture undefiled many points are translated so intricately and darkly some impertinently and abusively some not so fully nor so well and truly sundry places thrust out of their plaine and naturall sense the Translatour possibly was no Latinist but a smattering Grecian I proceed to the examination of more witnesses About forty yeares after Pope Paul the third had decreed the vulgar Latin in your Councel of Trent Sixtus Quintus by his Breve prefixed to his Bible gives us to understand that certaine Roman Catholikes were of such an humour of translating the Scripture into Latin Breve Sixti 5. that Sathan taking occasion by them though they thought no such matter did strive what he could out of uncertaine and great variety of Translation so to mingle all things that nothing might seeme to be left certaine and firme in them and thereupon hee takes occasion to publish a Latine Translation of his owne perusall and withall makes his Declaration of it in this manner We of our certaine knowledge and fulnesse of Apostolicall power Sixt. 5. in Bulla praefix Bibliis An. 1588. doe ordaine and declare that the Edition of the vulgar Bible of the Old and New Testament which was received by the Councell of Trent as authenticall without any doubt or Controversie is to be reputed or taken for this onely Edition which being as well as was possible reformed and printed in our Vatican our will and pleasure is and we doe decree it to be read throughout the whole Christian World in all Churches with this our determination and satisfaction for all men That first it was allowed
548. p. 551. but Gretzer your fellow Jesuite extremely wondreth that this judgement of the Booke of Agobardus should proceed from a Catholike for Agobardus in that whole Book doth nothing else but indevour to demonstrate although with vaine labour that Images are not to be worshipped Usher p. 463. and yet I say it is more to be wondred that your men should purge such Authors of Antiquitie contrary to your Trent Decree and when by purging them they have made our Faith and Doctrine invisible in them to the Reader you call upon us to shew where our Church and Religion was visible before Luther Johannes Bertram a Priest of the Monastery of Corbey in France wrote a Booke of the Body and Bloud of Christ This Booke is forbidden to bee read by command of your inquisitors and condemned by the Councell of Trent But the Divines of Doway perceiving that the forbidding of this Book gave an occasion to many to seeke more earnestly after it thought it better policie to allow it and accordingly they publish it with this Declaration Ind. Expurg Belg. p. 5. edit Antwer Anno 1571. Although we care not greatly whether this Booke of Bertrams be extant or no yet seeing we beare with many errors in others of the old Catholike Writers and extenuate them and by inventing some devise oftentimes deny them and faine some commodious sense for them when they are objected in disputations or conflicts with our Adversaries we doe not see why Bertram may not deserve the same equity and diligent revisall lest the Heretikes cry out that we burne and forbid such antiquity as maketh for them This is a free and faire confession of your men in our behalf that the Fathers are but pretended for your Doctrine when as oftentimes they make against you and indeed accordingly you have framed a commodious sense for the better understanding of this Author as for Instance where he saith the substance of the Bread was to be seene visibly wee must read it say they invisibly and where he saith the substance of the creature which was before consecration remaineth after consecration by substance say they you must understand accidents These devises howsoever at first they seemingly made some shew of answer to the vulgar people yet they proved harsh untunable to the eares of your learned Proselytes and thereupon your Romanists wisely by way of prevention at length gave up this verdict It were not amisse nor unadvisedly done Ind. Belg. p. 421 Quiroga p. mihi 140. B. that all these things should be left out But it seemes these small pills did not sufficiently purge the Authour and thereupon after more mature deliberation it was at last concluded Totus liber penitùs auferatur Ind. Belg. p. 17. let the whole Booke be suppressed Now what answer doe you thinke can be made in justification of this proceeding Your Jesuite Gretzerus briefly resolves it Dum prohibetur Bertramus Gretz de jure prohib libr. l. 2. c. 10. while Bertram is forbidden I deny that a Father is forbidden for the Father is no naturall Father but a Stepfather who nourisheth not the Church with wholesome food but with darnell and pernitious graine together with the Wheate wherefore as the Popes have dealt with some writings in Origen and Tertullian by the same right may they now according to their wisdome abolish any writing of others either in whole or in part by cutting or blotting them out Thus first they dispensed with this ancient Author and our Doctrine then they correct him in some passages by speaking flat contrary to his owne meaning and when all would not serve the turne they absolutely forbid him to be read or rather command him to be utterly blotted out and totally suppressed In the tenth Age 975. Aelfricus Abbot of Malmesbury wrote an Homily touching the Sacrament of the Eucharist The tenth Age Ann. 900. to 1000. Aelfrichs Sermon on Easter day which was thenread throughout all our Churches on Easter day and consonant to the Doctrine of our Articles This Booke is extant in the Saxon tongue in many Libraries but what is the reason he is not numbred amongst your Bookes prohibited Why surely you have foisted in a Parenthesis which by a miracle inferres your corporall presence which makes some shew for your Religion and yet because it is contrary to the whole scope of his Booke you confesse that Harpsfield in his History shewes That the Berengarian Heresie began somewhat to bee taught and maintained out of certaine writings falsely attributed to Aelfricke and thus for one reason you will not prohibit him or lay a deleatur upon his works but for the other reason there is a deletur upon him and he is a man cleane out of your Bookes In the eleventh Age The eleventh Age An. 1000. to 1100. Ind. lib. prohib pag. 47 p. 93. Huldericus Bishop of Auspurg wrote an Epistle touching the single life of the Clergie wherein he taxeth Pope Nicholas for restraining Priests from marriage and therefore is rejected by your Inquisitours his words be these Assuredly you are not a little out of the way Hulder Episc ep de caelibatu Cleri when you doe compell Clerks by force to keepe themselves from marriage which you should admonish to forbeare for it is violence when any man is constrained to keepe a particular decree against the institution of the Gospell and the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost wherefore wee counsell you by the fidelity of our subjection that with all diligence you will remove such a scandall and by your discipline root out that Pharisaicall Doctrine from the flocke of Christ And whereas it was objected that Gregory the Great long before that time had made a Decree for the restraint of Priests marriage in his first Epistle to Pope Nicholas Ibid. p. mihi 482. Orthodoxagraphia Patrum Tom. 1. p. mihi 481. Piusquam sex millia infantum capita viderit p. mihi 1482. hee tells him There be some which take Gregory for a maintainer of their Sect whose ignorance I lament for they doe not know this perillous Decree was afterwards purged by him when as upon a day out of his ponds were drawne above 6000. childrens heads which after he beheld he utterly condemned his Decree and praised the counsell of Saint Paul It is better to marry than to burne adding this also of his owne It is better marry than be an occasion of death Here you see our Doctrine was taught touching the marriage of Priests and because it is a plaine evidence for our Church your Inquisitours have ranked this Epistle amongst the Bookes prohibited Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury taught our Doctrine in the most substantiall point touching faith and good workes The forme of preparing men for their death was delivered to the sicke man in this manner a Credis nō propriis meritis sed passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi virtute merito ad
the time of which the blessed Apostle prophesied when men will not suffer wholesome doctrine is altogether fulfilled in our eares For behold there are many that pervert the holy Scriptures deny the sayings of the holy Fathers reject the Canons of the Church and civill Constitutions of the Emperors Looke into the age before him Matth. Paris p. 843. Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne complaines that there was a defection a revolt an Apostasie from the true Faith Looke into Bernards time and there you shall finde by his owne confession Bernard in Cant. Serm. 33. p. mihi 673. The wound of the Church was inward and past recoverie These former complaints and grievances in the Church did sound aloud in the eares of the later ages and she made great mourning and lamentation for her children because they were not such as she first bred them and accordingly no doubt they wished for a reformation of errors in doctrine as well as Discipline in the Church Looke after Pope Alexanders time and before the Councell of Trent and your Bishop of Bitonto will shew you the state and miserable condition of your Church as it were in a Glasse In Ep. ad Roman c. 6. Alas saith he how were the Scriptures neglected in the later Ages to the detriment of all peple Rivet Sum. Controv. p. mihi 98. There was then in request a tedious and crabbed Divinitie about Relations about quiddities and formalities and all those things were handled and wrested with Syllogismes and humane Sophistrie which without doubt by the same authority as they were received might be refelled The whole Age was spent about the decrees of men which were contradictory amongst themselves and irreconcilable and nourished perpetuall contention He was accounted the best Divine that knew best how to devise the greatest wonders for his Traditions It was a part of their honour and vaine glory to speake bigge words with great lookes among women not to be understood when they disputed of the Scriptures The Preachers of the word were all sworne to the word of their Masters and from hence sprung sixe hundred Sects as namely Thomists Scotists Occhamists Alexandrians c. O heinous wickednesse The Gosspels and Epistles of the Apostles were laid aside true Divinitie lay hid and was handled of very few but coldly I will not say unfaithfully In what state the Church remained in those dayes when Papall Traditions and cunning Sophistry prevailed against the sacred Scriptures let the Reader judge Onus Ecclesiae c. 16. p. mihi 79 Your owne St. Francis foretold that the times were at hand wherein many differences should arise in the Church when charitie should waxe cold iniquity should abound and the Divell should be let loose and that the purity of his Roman Religion should be depraved and accordingly saith my Author the Image of the Crosse in the Church of St. Damian spake unto him Vade repara domum meam quae ut cernis tota labitur Goe and repaire my house which you see is altogether decayed Thus Bishops and Friers and Images stocks and stones cried out of the falling away of your Church if we may credit your owne Authors and yet by no meanes you will assent to a reformation of doctrine or manners At Luthers first rising which was almost 30. yeares before the Councell of Trent your Guicciardine tells us Guicciard Hist lib. 13. that there were that yeare many meetings at Rome to consult what was best to be done The more wise and moderate sort wished the Pope to reforme things apparently amisse and not to persecute Luther Hieronymus Savanarola told the French King Charles the 8. he should have great prosperitie in his voyage into Italie to the end hee should reforme the state of the Church which if he did not reforme he should returne with dishonour and so saith he it fell out I come to the Councell of Trent it selfe where you may reade many decrees for reformation and yet neither doctrine nor manners reformed But let us heare your owne confession It is true the Councell indeed complaineth with great reason of the avarice of such whom the Knight calleth the Popes Collectors though the Councell speaketh not of the Pope but false it is which he saith that the Councell complaineth of Indulgences an Article of faith as his words are The Councell likewise complaineth of many things crept into the celebration of the Masse and the words of the Councell are right cited by him in Latin in the Margent but in the English he foully corrupteth them For in stead of many things hee translated many errors which is a grosse errour and corruption in the Knight These be your grand exceptions to the grosse corruptions laid unto my charge but all this while you doe not discharge the accusations laid justly to your Church And in this I must needs say you play the Hypocrite who can discerne a mote in your Brothers eye and cannot see a beame in your owne First therfore cast the beame out of your own eye and then you shall easily disccrne without Spectacles that the Collectors of Indulgences are the Popes Collectors although the Pope is not mentioned in that place and Indulgences are an Article of Faith created by that Councell although the Councell proclaime it not an Article of Faith so that multa many things might well stand for many errors and corruptions since they were errors in practise Neither would I have set the Latin in the Margent if I had meant to corrupt them in English and withall if you had taken the last edition as you ought to have done you should have found them in another Character and then all your waste words of foule corruptions had beene needlesse But in this you resemble Palladius a lewd fellow who in like manner charged St. Hierome with falsifications and false translations He preacheth and publisheth abroad saith Hierome that I am a falsarie Hieron ad Pāmach de optimo genere interpret Tom. 2. that I have not precisely translated word for word that I in stead of the word Honourable have written these words Deerely beloved These things and such trifles saith he are laid unto my charge Now heare what Answer St. Hierome makes Whereas the Epistle it selfe declareth that there is no alteration made in the sense and that there is neither matter of substance added nor any doctrine devised by me verily by their great cunning they prove themselves fooles and seeking to reprove other mens unskilfulnesse they betray their owne Let us heare therefore the rest of your Things for so you will have me terme them which are crept into your Church and need a Reformation The Councell say you seemeth to acknowledge the avarice of Priests in saying Masse for mony was not farre from Symonie It speaketh of the use of Musicke wherewith some wantonnesse was mixed as also of certaine Masses or Candles used in certaine number proceeding rather from superstition than true
may your Proselytes beleeve you another time when you say Wee alwaies translate it or rather falsifie it into Ordinances For a conclusion of this Section you say that the three Creeds the two Sacraments the foure Generall Councels the two and twenty books of Canonicall Scripture We had them from you Let it be your comfort then that you had something in your Church which was worth the gleaning after the devill had sowed the Tares amongst the good Corne. But I would not have you overmuch confident of that neither for originally wee had them from the Church Catholike before there was a Roman For the Gospell was preached in England before it was in Rome and we had in England a Christian Church and King before Rome had a Christian Emperor yea long before Poperie or the name of Pope was heard of in the Christian world in the sense you now take it And in after Ages when the Gospell of Christ was rooted out by Heathen persecutors where it was first planted it was afterwards replanted by Preachers partly sent from Rome partly by the Greeke Church but by neither was the Faith preached and restored which your present Church now teacheth and maintaineth at this day And lastly if wee had the three Creeds the two Sacraments the 22. bookes of Canonicall Scripture and the first foure Generall Councels from you then you cannot deny that we teach the Ancient Faith first given to the Saints and that we had a Church visible long before Luthers dayes for those Tenents were sufficient of themselves to make a glorious and a visible Church in the first and best ages they were received by succeeding Christians in all the later Ages and are now become the Positive and Affirmative Articles of our Beleefe which for the greater part were ever taught and received in the bosom of your owne Church To shut up all your bitter Aspersions of Corrupting of Falsifying of Lying of Lynding and I know not what reproches cast upon me in these first 8 Sections I will shut up all I say which hitherto hath beene delivered by you with that answer of Socrates to his accusers before the Judges Plato in Apologia Socratis My Lords saith hee in what sort your affections have been stirred with mine accusers eloquence which you heard them speake I cannot tell But well I wot for mine owne part I my selfe whom it toucheth most was almost perswaded to beleeve that what they said was true yea although it were against my selfe so handsomly they can tell their tale and so likely and so smoothly they convey their maters every word they spake had appearance of Truth and yet in good sooth they have scarsely uttered one word of Truth The Titles of the severall Chapters and Sections in the ensuing Treatise Chap. 9. Alphab 1. Sect. 1. Of Iustification by Faith onely Pag. 2. d Sect. 2. Of Transubstantiation Pag. 12. Sect. 3. Of Private Masses pag. 42. Sect. 4. Of the seven Sacraments pa. 69 Sect. 5. Of Communion in both kinds pa. 127 Sect. 6. Of Prayer in an unknowne tongue pa. 145 Sect. 7. Of the Worship of Images pa. 176 Sect. 8. Of Indulgences Alphab 2. pag. 8. Chap. 10. Of the certaintie of the Protestant and uncertaintie of the Romish Faith pag. 44 Chap. 11. Of the greater safetie and comfort in the Protestant Faith then in the Romish pa. 68 Chap. 12. Of respect due to the Ancient Fathers pa. 84 Chap. 13. Of razing Records and clipping Authours tongues by the Roman Indices Expurgatory pa. 92 Chap. 14. Of the perfection and perspicuitie of Scripture and our Adversaries blasphemous Exceptions against it pa. 104 Chap 15. Concerning Bellarmine his subscription to Protestant Doctr in the main point of Iustification pa. 122 Chap. 16. Of Martyrs and particularly that the primitive Martyrs were not Papists pa. 128 Chap. 17. Concerning the Protestants charitable opinion of Papists pag. 137. And in what sense some affirme the Romane a true Church pag. 148 Chap. 18. Concerning the Confession on all sides for the Safetie of the Protestant Religion pa. 154 A Sermon preached at the Funerall of the Right Worshipfull Sir Humphrey Lynde at Cobham in Surrey p. 171 Errata in the second Part. PAge 5. lin 7. reade authors in marg l. 15. reade gloriamur p. 17 l 8. r. eat ye p. 22. l. 8. in mar r. fieri p. 40 l. 1. dele of p. 98. l. 28. in marg r. alleviationem p. 109. l. 2. in mar r. de pecc mer. p. 148. l. 10. r. at the first in p. 151. l. 9. r. Of. p. 191. l. 12. in mar r. perhibeat p. 202. l. 12. dele visible p. 203. l. 6. r. Miracles l. 14. wonders shew p. 218. l. 6. dele the. Alphab 2. pag. 39. l 12. in mar r. hic p. 51. l. 5. add hee p. 58. l. 16 r. et l. 26. r. her p. 62. l. 19. r. Of. p. 92. l. 8. r. Caietans p. 134. lin 5. r. the. Errata in the Sermon Pag. 181. l. 12. in mar r. vertit p. 184. l. 14 in mar r. Condemnant p. 191. l. 1. r. menacing p. 192. l. 35. in mar r. illaqueet l. 36. oblectet p. 195. l. 27. r. conseruare p. 202. l. 8. in marg r. puteum p. 204. l. 16. in mar r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 17. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pa. 211. l. 6. in mar r. volentibus l. ult r. his p. 212 l. 3. r. dores l. 8. in marg r. Christo pa. 214. l. 7. in marg r. obdâ—citur l. 11. in mar r. Epitaphii l. 14. in mar r. laâ—rymis implentur CONCERNING IVSTIFICATION BY FAITH ONLY Spectacles Chap. 9. Sect. 1. THE Knight faileth in the proofe of his first point of Iustification producing but one only place out of a booke intituled Ordo baptizandi visitandi and that of no speciall good anthoritie as hee alledgeth it out of Cassander and Author placed in the first Classis in the first index librorum prohibitorum and even in that which he alledgeth there is nothing that doth not very well stand being rightly under stood with the Catholique faith which wee now professe L. 1. de Iustific c. 7. prop 3. for there is nothing but that which was shewed before out of Bellarmine to wit that in regard of the uncertaintie of our owne justice that is whether wee bee just or no and for the perill of vaine-glory it is most safe to put our whole confidence in the sole mercy and benignitie of God Which word sole doth import confidence in that and in nothing else with which it may stand very well that men in the favour and grace of God may doe workes meritorious of encrease of grace and glory which is the controversie betweene us and heretiques The Hammer AS David cut off Goliahs head with his owne Sword a Eras Apoph Laconum and Brasidas ranne through his Antagonist with his owne Speare and Iustine Martyr refuteth the Philosophers out
are not written And of S. Chrysostome all things that are needfull are manifestly set downe in holy Scriptures And againe in the holy Scriptures wee have a most exact ballance and rule of all things And of S. Ierome who maketh the Scripture a two edged sword cutting heresies on both sides both in the excesse and in the defect We beleeve saith he because were ade in Scriptures we beleeve not what were ade not And of S. Austine among those things which are openly set downe in Scriptures all such things are to bee found as appertaine to faith and manners And so of S. Cyril all things which Christ spake and did are not written but all are written which the writers of the Gospell thought to bee sufficient for doctrine of faith and manners And of S. Vincentius Lyrinensis the Canon of the Scripture is perfect and over and above sufficient for all things And of the prime of the Schoole-men Gabriel Biel The Scripture alone teacheth us what we ought to beleeve and to hope for what things are to bee done and what to bee shunned and all other things that are necessarie to salvation And of William Pepin Dom. 2. advent sala haec scriptur adocet perfectè planè quid credendum c. The holy Scripture alone teacheth perfectly and plainely what wee ought to beleeve as the articles of our Creed what wee ought to doe as all divine precepts what wee ought to desire as heavenly joyes what we ought to feare as eternall torments And of Scotus In prim sent prol q. 2. sacra scriptura sufficienter continet doctrinam necessariam viatori The holy Scripture sufflciently containes doctrine necessarie for away faring man that is in his travell to heaven Howbeit because Cardinall Bellarmine beareth downe all before him the more to convince this Iesuit and nonplus all Papists I will examine what the Knight alledgeth out of him to our present purpose All thing are written saith he by the Apostles which are necessarie for all men to know If all things which are necessarie for all men to know then all things which are necessarie for all Priests Bishops Cardinals yea and the Pope himselfe to know unlesse the Iesuit will prove them to bee no men Assuredly the Apostles and the Fathers assembled at Nice and Constantinople set not downe a different Creed for the Priest and for the people but one for all Christians Yet I grant that as the measures of the sanctuarie were double to the common so the learning of a Priest ought to bee double at least to that of the common sort a more exact full and exquisite knowledge of all both the principles and conclusions of faith is required in thom then in the other yet nothing is required of them as necessarie to salvation which may not bee drawne out of holy Scriptures in which are contained all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge 2 Tim. 3.16.17 Oecum Chrys in huno locum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lit. ad Phil. Hisp reg Nam quod ad Theologiam attinet quae summa Philosophia est his libris omnia nostrae religionis divinitat is mysteria explicantur quod verò attinet ad eam partem quae moralis nominatur hinc quoque omnia ad omnes virtutes praecepta colliguntur quibus quidem duabus partibus omnis nostrae salutis falicitat is ratio continetur Banes in 1. p. Tho. q. 1. art 8. conclus 1. omnia quae non consonant judico eorum gravioribus censuris inurunt idque tanta facilitate ut meritò irrideantur The Apostle saith not only they are able to make wise unto salvation indefinitely but that the man of God that is the minister of God may be wise not only wise unto salvation but furnished to every good worke that is as S. Chrysostome and Oecumenius expound it fully accurately and exactly instructed And for ever to seale the Iesuits mouth thus much Gregorie the thirteenth Pope of Rome in his letters to Philip King of Spaine freely confesseth thus expatiating in the praises of holy Writ as for Theologie which is the prime Philosophie or metaphysick in these bookes speaking of the Bible all the my steries of our religion and divine knowledge are unfolded and as for that part which is tearmed morall from hence all precepts to all vertues are gathered and on these two parts depend all the course or meanes of our salvation and happinesse 3. To the third What Dominicus Banes wrote of certaine Divines in his time that were so free in their censures of other men that they became a laughing stook to all men of judgement may bee truly applyed to the Bishops assembled at Trent who are so free in casting their thunder-bolts of anathemaes against all that differ from them in judgement that the learned and judicious account divers of their Canons no better then Pot-guns As arrowes that are shot bolt upright fall downe upon their heads that shoot them unlesse they carfully looke to it so causelesse curses fall alwayes upon the cursers themselves and hurt none else This made the Knight so much sleight the bruta fulmina of your Trent Councell Yea but saith the Iesuit It is a heavie thing to have the curse of a mother Apo. 17.5 and such a mother which doth not curse without cause The Church of Rome I grant is a mother but mater fornicationum as shee is tearmed the mother of fornications and abominations of the earth but shee is none of our mother Ierusalem or to speake more properly the catholike christian Church is our mother the Roman Church must speake us very faire if wee owne her for a sister even this sheweth her to bee no Mother that shee is ever cursing us the true Mother would by no meanes suffer her child to bee divided This cruell Stepdame not only suffereth those whom shee would have taken for her children to be cut in sunder but her selfe as much as in her lieth by her curses divideth them from God and all the members of Christs mysticall body yet wee spare to apply the words of the Psalmist unto her shee loved not blessing and therefore it shall bee farre from her Ps 109.17.18 shee delighteth in cursing and therefore shall it enter like oyle into her bowels and like water into her bones Howsoever wee are not scared with the bugbeare the Iesuit goeth about to fright us withall Maledictio matris eradicat fundamenta the curse of a Mother doth roote out the foundation For first the booke out of which he citeth this text is not Canonicall Next we denie that the text any way concerneth us who are blessed and not cursed by our Mother the true Catholike Church as for the Roman Church shee can in no sence bee tearmed our mother For we had Christian Religion in this Island before there was any Church at Rome at all as I have else-where proved at large Lastly the text the Iesuit
824. a Synod was held at Paris under Ludovicus Pius where the foresaid Councell of Nice was likewise condemned In the ninth age Ionas Aurelian de cultu imag l. 1. quae picturae non ad adorandum sed solummodò teste beato Gregorio ad instruendas nescientium mentes in ecclesijs sunt antiquit us fieri permissae Agob l. de â—ict Imagin rectè nimirum ad ejusmodievacuandam superstitionem ab orthodoxis fratribus definitum est picturas in ecclesia fieri non debere ne quod adoratur in parietibus depirgatur Rhemig in psal 96. non sun sunt adoranda simulacra nec enim Angelus adorandus est Ansel gloss interlin in Deut. c. 4. formam non vidistis ne scilicet volens imitari sculpendo faceres idolum tibi Vid Symph Cathol p. 822. Ann. lal 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ionas Bishop of Orleans wrote against Claudius Bishop of Turin concerning images wherein he holdeth that the images of Saints are not to bee worshipped though they may be set up in Churches for ornament and to bring into the mind of simple people the storie of the Bible And Agobardus Bishop of Lions telleth us that the orthodox Fathers for the avoiding of superstition did carefully provide that no pictures should bee set up in Churches Rhemigius boldly professeth that neither images nor Angels are to bee worshipped In the tenth age Anselmus Laudunensis the authour of the interlineare glosse upon the Bible composed of the Fathers writings expoundeth that text of Deuteronomie Yee saw no manner of similitude in this sort lest that willing to resemble that similitude by engraving thou shouldst set up an idoll to thy selfe In the eleventh age Nicetas Croniates a Greeke historian reporteth in the life and reigne of Isaac Angelus one of the Easterne Emperours that when Frederick Emperour of the West made an expedition into Palestine the Armenians did gladly receive the Almaines because among the Almaines and Armenians the worshipping of images was forbidden alike In the twelfth age Annal. p. 1. Hist eccl l. 18. c. 53. imagines patris spiritus sancti effigiant quod est pe rabsur dum Durand in 3. sentent dist 9. q. 2. facere imagines ad repraesentandum deuÌ„ patrem et spirituÌ„ spirituÌ„ sanctuÌ„ aut venerari ej us imagines fatuuÌ„ est unde Damascenus dicit quod insipientiae summae impietatis est figurare quod est divinuÌ„ AveÌ„t hist Bavar l. 7. In Deut. 4. in imaginibus signantibus Deum unde scilicot trinitatem duo inconvenientia sequi possunt primuÌ„ idololatriane etiam imago colatur secundum error haeresis scilicet attribuere Deo illam corporeitatem essentiâ—lem differentiam gualeÌ„ tres illas figuras figurare coÌ„spicimus Roger Hoveden an English Historian condemneth the worship of images for speaking of the Synodall Epistle written by the Fathers of the second Nicene Councell wherein Image worship was established hee addeth quod omninò ecclesia Dei execratur which the Church of God altogether abhorreth In the thirteenth age Nicephorus writing of the Iacobites saith that they made images of the Father and the holy Spirit which saith he is most absurd Durand stoutly maintaineth that it is utterly unlawfull to picture or represent the Trinitie or God otherwise then as in Christ hee tooke our flesh and Pope Iohn the 22. calleth certaine men that dwelt in Bohemia and Austria Anthropomorphitas that is heretiques ascribing an humane shape to God because they painted the Trinitie in forme of an old man with a young man and a Dove In the fourteenth age Abulensis is utterly against all painting of the Trinitie because from thence two inconveniences may follow first the perill of idolatrie in case the image it selfe should come to bee worshipped secondly errour and heresie by ascribing to God such bodily shapes and formes as the Trinitie is usually pictured withall And Gerson commenting upon the first Commandement speaketh fully in the Protestant language all images are forbid to bee made to adore or worship them thou shalt not adore nor worship them that is thou shalt not adore them with any bodily reverence as bowing or kneeling to them Gerson compend theolog de pri praecep ad adorandum colendum prohibentur imagines fieri thou shalt not worship them with any devotion of mind But to returne back to Philo whose testimonie the Iesuit would faine put off by a double answer first that the Iewes had not in their Temple any picture of God because hee cannot be painted next that they had no picture of Saints because there was none as yet might have the honour to have their pictures in the Temple being not yet admitted themselves into the Temple of God The first of these answers the better it is the worse it is for himselfe the stronger it is the more it maketh against the practise of his owne Church in which wee see the Trinitie familiarly painted In his second answer hee palliateth idolatrie by impietie and that hee may have some colour to set up images of new Saints in Churches upon earth hee excludeth all the old Saints before Christ out of the heavenly temple of God Not to digresse here to a dispute about their imaginary Limbus I would faine know of the Iesuit where did Enoch walke with God after hee was translated that hee should not see death to what place was Elias carried in a fierie chariot not into heaven When Dives soule was dragd by Divels into hell was not Lazarus soule carried by Angels into heaven the text saith Luk. 16.22 hee was carried into Abrahams bosome and where is that S. Austine will informe you even where the soule of his friend saint Nebridius and other blessed Doctours and confessours now live whatsoever place saith hee is meant by the bosome of Abraham ibi vivit Nebridius meus quis enim alius locus tam piae animae August Confess l. 9. c. 3. there my Nebridius liveth for what other place were meete for so godly a soule To the sixt There is nothing so easie as for a man with Antipho to pursue his owne fancie or shadow to set up a man of straw and push him downe with a festraw the Knight doth not thus argue the Iewes hate the Image and crosse of Christ therefore Christians ought so to doe for by the like reason it will follow that wee should condemne the very Gospell yea and hate Christ himselfe because the Iewes doe so that is not his argument but the Iesuits phantasme The Knights argument standeth thus if of his enthymem we make a Syllogisme None may or ought to give a scandall to Iew or Gentile But by setting up images or crucifixes in Temples the Iewes are so scandalized that even those among them who other wayes might be enclined to embrace the Christian faith are made utterly averse from it because they cannot perswade themselves that it can bee the true religion which maintaineth image-worship which is so directly and expresly forbidden by God in the law That the Iewes are thus scandalized at the idolatrous practice of the Roman Church the Knight proveth by an eye-witnesse Sir Edwine Sands who in his description of the religion in
witnesses for proofe of the Catholike Faith beginneth with Martyrs those particularly who being Pastours of the Roman Church suffered Martyrdome successively one after another to the number of thirty three These saith Campian were ours and nameth some of them as Telesphorus Victor Sixtus Cornelius with the particular points which they held conformably with us against Protestants That these Martyrs are ours notwithstanding they died not for any of those points the Knight mentioneth is plaine because they professed the same Catholike Faith which wee doe which wee also prove by the Faith of their successour Vrban the eigth who as hee holdeth their seat so also their Faith for Peters Chaire and Faith goe together as the very Heretike Pelagius confessed to Pope Sozimus saying to him Tu qui Petri fidem sedem tenes Not to stand here upon the most effectuall and infallible Prayer of our Saviour himselfe Oravi pro te Petre ut non deficiat fides tua which proofe must stand firme till Sir Humphrey can tell us what Pope began to vary from his predecessors For adoration of Images whereas the Knight asketh whether any of these three and thirty were canonized for it though there be no speciall mention of any of these three and thirty their adoration of Images yet there is very pregnant presumption thereof by this that Pope Sylvester who was the very next after the three and thirtieth and was Pope in time of Constantines conversion had the pictures of Saint Peter and Saint Paul which it is most like he received from his Predecessors Moreover it is plaine that those three and thirty were ours by their owne decretall Epistles which are so full of those points which Father Campian citeth that the Heretikes have no other shift but to denie the authority of the same Epistles That the consecrated Bread depending upon the Priests intention is the reall Flesh of Christ or that this Priest Garnet by name hath power to consecrate is no matter of Faith but that in the Sacrament the matter forme intentton and all things requisite concurring the Bread and Wine is really and truely converted into the Body and Blood of Christ this is a matter of Faith and this a man is to die for Neither maketh it any matter whether any man have died for it or not for that is more in the persecutors power to appoint what point of a mans Faith hee will put him to death for than in the Martyrs owne who must be readie to die for all and every one as well for one as for another The Hammer IN this Chapter the Knight pulleth the garland of Red Roses off from the heads of all Papists I meane the Crowne of Martyrdome by three most forcible arguments which may thus be reduced into Syllogisticall forme 1. None of those who suffered death for the common Articles of the Christian Faith which we all professe are to be accounted Popish Martyrs But the 33. Popes and all the Martyrs in the Primitive Church suffered death for the common Articles of faith which we all professe Ergo none of them were Popish Martyrs neither can they lay any more or better claime to them then we if so good 2. All that may be tearmed truely Popish Martyrs must suffer death either for the profession of the Trent Faith in generall or some speciall point of it wherein they differ from the reformed Churches But none of the Primitive Martyrs suffered death for the profession of the Trent Faith in generall or any point thereof wherein they differ from the beliefe of the reformed Churches Ergo none of the Primitive Martyrs were Popish 3. If the Articles of the Romish Creed published by Pope Pius were either unknowne to the Primitive Church or not then declared to be de fide none in those dayes could suffer Martyrdome for them But the twelve new Articles of Pope Pius his Creed were altogether unknowne to the Primitive Church or not then declared and defined to be de fide as the Iesuit Page 490. in part acknowledgeth Ergo none in the Primitive Church could suffer Martyrdome for them What wards the Iesuit hath for these blowes we shall see in the examination of the particular exceptions before mentioned To the first It is as true that those 33. martyred Popes were Martyrs of the Romish Religion as that Campion the Iesuit who suffered death for Treason against Queene Elizabeth was a Martyr The truth is that although Campion in his tenth Reason search Heaven and rake Hell also for witnesses to prove the truth of the Romish Religion yet he findeth none as D. Whitaker clearely demonstrateth in his answer to that tenth reason and his defence thereof against Dureus To let others passe those 33. Bishops of Rome the Iesuit mentioneth who now weare Crownes of Martyrdome in Heaven never ware the Popes triple Crowne on Earth P. 486. l. 16. I answer that those Martyrs suffered death not for the points now in controversie with Haeretikes but for the profession of Christianity at the hands of the enemies of Christ They sate as Bishops of Rome they sate not as Lords over the whole Church neither was the cause of their death any contestation with Princes for Soveraignty nor the maintenance of any points now in controversie as the Iesuit himselfe confesseth but the profession of Christianity They were not therefore Martyrs of the Roman Church as she is at this present nor of their Trent Creed but of the Catholike Church and the common faith once given to Saints To the second The Iesuits argument drawne from these 33. Bishops of Rome to Pope Vrbane the eighth fall short at least by 1300. yeares If he should thus argue in the Schooles Pope Vrbane the eighth in the yeare of our Lord 1633. held the Trent faith and beleeved Pope Pius the fourth his Creed therefore the 33. Bishops that suffered Martyrdome under the Heathen Emperours within 300. yeares after Christ held the same faith and subscribed to the same Articles of Trent he would be stampt at and hissed out by all present for who knoweth not that George the Arian immediatly succeeded Athanasius the most Orthodox Bishop and that all the Arian Bishops in Constantius his time held the Sees of those Orthodox Bishops who in the first Councell at Nice condemned that blasphemous haeresie In our memory did not Cardinall Poole a Papist succeede Cranmer a Protestant Bishop and Martyr againe did not Parker in Q. Elizabeths daies a learned Protestant succeed Cardinall Poole an Arch-papist in his Arch-bishoprick of Canterbury What a wooden Argument then is this to inferre succession in Doctrine from succession in the same Chaire This wretched Argument the Iesuit proves as lewdly by the testimonie of Pelagius the Heretike This is indeed to Aske his brother if he be a thiefe or no to aske an Heretike whether your Romish Doctrine be not hereticall Yet so unfortunate is hee in his proofe that even this his onely witnesse how liable
are very idle and all his instances in Turkes Iewes and Haeretikes nothing to the purpose for the unbeleeving Iewes and Turkes never were nor yet are members of the Catholike Christian Church the Arians Nestorians Eutychians and Marcionites have beene long agoe excluded out of the true Church of Christ and their Haeresies are by name condemned in ancient generall Councells approved by the whole Christian world These therefore come not within the verge of the Knights proposition which is restrained to Christian Churches and such whose Tenets have not in particular as yet beene cryed downe and censured as erroneous in any oecumenicall Councell among such doubtlesse those are in the safer way who hold nothing for an Article of faith necessary to salvation which is not clearely deduced out of Holy Scripture and assented unto even by the opposite part whose testimony saith the Iesuit Page 498. must needs proceede from evidence of truth To the second The Iesuit hath received answer already to the former of these demands where I shewed by twenty instances that we stand not single as they doe by affirming what they deny and denying what they affirme for the most if not all the affirmative Articles of our Creed are firmed and subscribed by Papists themselves whereas their additionalls to them are firmed by none but themselves and therefore herein our cause hath a great advantage on theirs For if their beliefe be true our beliefe in all the affirmative Articles thereof must needs be so but not on the contrary because they have many affirmative Articles which we give no credit unto To his second demand I answer that though a multitude of Professors is no perpetuall and infallible marke of the true Church Luke 12.32 Matth. 7.13 Apoc. 13.17 Apoc. 20.2 Apoc 1◠4 The woman arrayed in purple and scarlet called The Whore of Babylon had a cup of gold in her hand c. Apoc. 13.3 All the world wondered and followed the Beast ver 8. All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the Booke of Life for Christs flocke is but a little flocke in comparison and broade is the way that leadeth to death and destruction and though it is true that in the latter and worser ages of the Church especially after the yeare 666. which is the number of the name of the Beast and much more after the thousandth yeare wherein Satan was let loose the Romish Church was much more visible to the eye of the world then the Protestant as it is prophecied in the Apocalypse the 16. 6. that the false and malignant Church should be farre more glorious and pompous then the true Spouse of Christ yet in the first and best ages of the Church our adversaries have not so much as one single witnesse who can be proved to have given testimony to their Trent faith and since the happy reformation began by Martin Luther in King Henry the eights dayes the better part of Europe is fallen from the Pope adde we to them all those who in Asia and Africa professe the Christian faith and yet acknowledge not the Pope nor subscribe to the Trent faith and it will appeare we have neere a thousand for one in the Catholike visible Church scattered far and wide over the face of the earth as may be seene in the Mapps set forth in a booke printed the last yeare and intituled Christianographie or the Description of the multitude and sundry sorts of Christians in the World not subject to the Pope with their unity and how they agree with the Protestants in the principall points of difference betweene them and the Church of Rome To the third If the argument bee so weake let the Iesuit remember that it is his owne and that he confesseth as much in the first words of this Chapter which are these The substance of this Section is contained in the title and it is nothing but to turne the Catholike argument mentioned in the former Section the other way for the Protestant side The argument then is a Catholike argument of their owne and if it make for Haeretikes Iewes and Turkes as he saith it doth the blame and shame thereof must light upon the Iesuits that first framed it and not upon the Knight who retorteth it onely upon them for thus it mooveth upon their Axletree that wherein Professors of different religions both agree is safer to beleeve then that wherein they stand single but Iewes and Christians agree in the beliefe of the old Testament Christians and Turkes agree in the truth of Christs humane nature in other points the Christians are single therfore the beliefe of a Iew or a Turke is safer then the beliefe of a Christian The conclusion is here false and blasphemous the minor or assumption is evidently true and confessed on all sides the fault therfore must needs be in the major or ground of this argument but the major or ground is your owne as will appeare by reducing the Iesuits Argument propounded in the former Section into forme That Church wherein parties of a different Religion as Papists and Protestants agree is a safer way than that wherein one party stand single But Papists and Protestants both agree that salvation may be had in the Romish Church but the Protestants stand single in that they say salvation may be had in the Protestant Church therefore it is safer living and dying in the Papists Church than in the Protetestant In this Syllogisme the Knight and all Protestants though they answer to the Assumption by distinguishing as is expressed in the former chapter yet they simply absolutely deny the Major which is not universally true nor at all necessarie Secondly Dato non concesso that the Major is true the Knight nimbly turnes the mouth of the Papists owne Canon to batter their owne walls thus That position say you in which both Papists and Protestants agree is safer than that wherein one partie standeth single but in the eleven Points mentioned by the Knight Papists and Protestants agree in the twelve Articles coyned by Pope Pius the fourth the Papists stand single therefore the Protestant Faith is the safer To the fourth A strange Argument for the Iesuit to conclude other mens sight from his owne blindnesse because hee seeth not how the Knight can avoid the instances in Jewes Heretikes and Turkes whereby hee goeth about to disable the Knight his retorted Argument therfore will hee inferre that any man may see that the Knight is no good guide For pitty let some fit the Iesuit with a paire of Spectacles that he may better see the Knight his way and his own wandrings * How far the Romish Religiō is distant from Heresie Iudaisme and Turcisme or rather trencheth upon all three See P Croy his booke of Conformities and Sutcliffe his Turco papismus Iews and Turks are out of the Christian Church hold not all Positive Articles necessary to salvation and therefore they come not in the Knights way at all nor hath hee to doe with them in this Argument which proceedeth from professed Christians and not open enemies to the Faith For the Knight from his heart detesteth all pathes leading to any of those dangerous precipices and chaulketh to all men Viam vere tutam certam rectam regiam a faire and Safe Way and the very Kings High-way to his Pallace wherein wee have Christ and his Apostles for our Leaders the holy Spirit for our Guide the blessed Angels for our Convoy the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church for our fellow Travellers through the whole and the best learned of the Romane Popes Cardinals Bishops and Schoolemen to beare us companie the greater part of our way Wherefore I doubt not but that the indifferent peruser of the Knights Book and the Iesuits Answer and my Reply unto it will breake out into the Apostles exclamation and say to this Romish Sorcerer Acts 3.13 or rather if hee will so false Spectacle-maker Flood O full of all subtiltie and mischiefe thou child of the devill wilt thou not cease to pervert the right way of the LORD FINIS Laus DEO sine fine
to shew the visibilitie of the Church by persons in all ages Then you demand of me where the Church was which S. Paul called the house of God and pillar of truth and thus you prescribe mee my weapons and teach mee how to fight Touching the visibilitie of the Church it is not to be confined within the narrow compasse of an Epistle and therefore I will answer you and your Jesuites challenge at large in place convenient and as touching your demand where the Church was which is called the pillar of truth I answer in briefe not in Rome but in Ephesus for otherwise it might seeme incongruous that the Apostle should exhort Timothy to walke circumspectly in the Church of God because the Church of Rome was the pillar and firmament of truth And therefore the Turke may better alledge this place to prove Mah mets religion being now subject to his power than you to justifie the Romish religion because Ephesus was the pillar of truth You proceed and by way of prevention you tell me the controversie is not so much of the doctrine as of the persons and then you conclude simply in the very same page The question is not of the doctrine but of the persons Oportet esse memorem I will but let you see your contradiction I quarrell it not onely I pray you tell mee in the words of sobernesse and truth did ever any wise man except your selfe undertake to prove the true Church by the visibilitie of the persons May not Jewes and Heretiques by the same reason claime a true Church because they had visible persons in all ages But say you this hath beene the way which the holy Fathers have taken either in proving the Catholique faith or disproving of heresies and for your Assertion you cite Tertullian Irenaeus Cyprian Optatus and Augustine give me leave to examine your Authors for as yet you have produced but one ancient Father and him you have falsified in the Frontispice of your booke Touching your first Author Tertull. prescript c. 32. lib. 3. Car. advers Marcion Tertullian in the first place cited by you hee demonstrates two wayes how to discerne the Church first by shewing some Apostle or Apostolicall person to have founded it next by the conformity of the doctrine to the Apostles and in his third book against Marcion which is your second citation hee hath nothing at all for your purpose Touching your second Author Iren. l. 3. c. 1 2 3. l. 4. c. 43 45 46. Irenaeus hee is expressely against you for in the first chapter and third booke cited by you he saith By the will of God they have delivered the Gospel to bee the pillar and foundation of truth In the second hee saith that when Heretiques are convinced by the Scriptures they fall to accuse them as if they were not right or of authoritie and that they are ambiguous and doubtfull In the third hee proveth the truth of the Church by the conformitie of doctrine to the Apostles not by the visibilitie as you pretend In his fourth booke cited by you he shewes that bare succession is no note of the Church and in his 45. chapter which you quote there is nothing that maketh for your question And lastly in the 46. chapter he proveth that the New Testament is as severe against fornication as the Old or rather more and this may touch the free-hold of that Church which dispenseth with Stewes but of the point in question he speakes nothing at all Touching your third Author S. Cyprian Cypr. Ep. 52. 76. in the 52. Epistle cited by you he perswades Antonianus rather to adhere to Cornelius than Novatianus and in his 76. Epistle alledged by you hee shewes that Novatianus succeeding none in that See was ordained by himselfe and therefore could bee no true Bishop but as touching the controversie in question Ne gry quidem Touching your fourth Author Optatus Optat. advers Parmen lib. 2. he handleth not the question neither maketh any thing at all for you Lastly August Psal 2. part Don. Ep. 165. de Utilit credendi c. 7. touching S. Austin you cite the second Psalme and there is nothing handled of the question you cite likewise his 165. Epistle wherein hee declares a succession of Bishops from the Apostles time to Anastasius Si ordo Episcoporum succedentium considerandus est Ep. 165. p. 751. Preculdubio ab Ecclesiâ Catholicâ sumendum exordium De Utilit credendi c. 7. Idem contr Cresc l. 1. c. 33. If saith he an orderly succession of Bishops is to be considered Yea but S. Austin say you particularly proves the question where he tels his friend Honoratus he must begin his enquirie from the Catholique Church Hee that told the Manichees wee must take our Exordium from the Church told the Donatists likewise wee must resort to that Church for the resolution of our faith which the sacred Scriptures undoubtedly demonstrate to be the true Church for in them saith he we have knowne Christ Idem Ep. 166. in them wee have knowne the Church If you can derive your succession in person and doctrine from Christ and his Apostles we will answer you as sometimes S. Austin answered Petilian the Donatist Idem contr l. Petil. l. 2. c. 85. Whether of us be Schismatiques we or you aske you not mee I will not aske you let Christ bee asked that hee may shew us his owne Church After these severall passages you returne againe to your first Author Tertullian Tertull. prescript c. 19. and with him you conclude where it shall appeare that there is the truth of Christian discipline and faith there shall bee the truth of Scriptures and Expositions And from hence you inferre that we are first to seeke the persons that professe the faith that is the Church Whereas in truth his testimony doth rather prove the persons by the doctrine than the doctrine by the persons and this is most agreeable to his owne Assertion in the third chapter Idem c. 3. Ex personis probamus fidem an ex fide personas As if hee should say wee plainly prove the persons by the doctrine not the doctrine by the persons Now put on your Spectacles and take a review of your Authors The first maketh nothing for you the second is expressely against you the third speakes not to the point in question the fourth and fifth handle the question but not at all to your advantage or our prejudice and thus you have produced foureteene severall places out of the ancient Fathers in one page and all either impertinently or falsly or directly against your selfe by which the Reader may conjecture what is like to bee the issue of your whole worke who have so grossely falsified so many authorities in your Epistle and before the entrance into the body of your booke From your lame proofes of the Churches authoritie you proceed to the justification of your maimed commandements
true though the things there spoken be not understood in a proper sense but in a metaphoricall sense onely Nay more your Jesuite Suare Suarez Tom. 3. disp 46. confesseth that this Cardinall in his Commentary upon this Article doth affirme that those words of Christ This is my body doe not of themselves sufficiently prove Transubstantiation without the authoritie of the Church and therefore by the command of Pope Pius the fifth that part of his Commentary is sponged out of the Romish Edition Thus one while you correct your Authors another while you purge them for delivering the truth in our behalfe Look upon your Cardinall Bellarmine although he will not allow that sense which the Lutherans give Bell. de Euch. l. 2. c. 19. yet hee granteth that those words This is my body may imply either such a reall change of the bread as the Catholiques hold or such a figurative change as the Calvinists hold And although hee would seeme to prove that the words of Scripture are so plaine that they may compell a refractorie man to beleeve them yet having well weighed the reasons and allegations of other Schoole-men Bell. de Euch. l. 3. c. 23. at last concludes It may justly be doubted whether the text be cleere enough to inforce it seeing men sharp and learned such as Scotus was have thought the contrary How therefore your Church should ground a point of faith upon a doubtfull opinion or on such words as by the testimonies of your best learned Divines may receive a double construction I leave it to be judged But farther in proofe of Pope Pius Creed I could urge Sr. Humfrey say you with the 39. Articles appointed by the authoritie of the Church of England to be uniformely taught by all Ministers which they are to sweare unto which Articles though they be indeed new coyned as the foundation of a new Church yet Sr. Humfrey being his mothers Champion will not I suppose yeeld her or her doctrine to bee new Thus you It is true as you say there are 39. Articles appointed by our Church to bee uniformely taught by all Ministers and it is as true that they are published and received with unitie and consent which your men acknowledge for a proper marke of the true Church And withall let me adde this one thing for your observation and indeed it is a thing remarkable whereas all your Trent Articles have beene questioned and confuted by Chemnitius Chamierus Gentilletus and other Protestant writers yet there was never any Papist could goe farther than to tell us as you doe I could urge you with the novelty of the 39. Articles I say never as yet did any Romanist attempt much lesse was able to confute and overthrow our Articles which stand like a house built upon a rocke immoveable and cannot be shaken Let me tell you further your comparisons betwixt our Articles and yours doe not hold for all your Articles are fundamentall points to your Trent beleevers and the deniall of any of them makes them heretiques and damned persons as your Popes Bull expressely declareth Bulla Pii quarti On the other side some of our Articles concerne the discipline of the Church and are not essentiall to salvation others concerne the ancient and latter heresies wherein we teach the negative and those are not properly Articles of faith which we beleeve but points of doctrine which wee condemne and beleeve not And that you may know our Articles are not new nor newly coyned by our men if you will put on your spectacles you shall finde that most of our prime Articles are taught and received by your owne Church as well as ours and therefore I hope you will confesse they are not coyned and built upon the foundation of a new Church Briefly touching our 39. Articles The first sort are in the Affirmative both ours and yours and all those are uniformely received by both Churches The second sort are ours onely which we affirme and you deny and those are very few in number and are evidently deduced from the Scripture The third sort are yours which we deny and you affirme and for that cause you terme our religion negative and those remaine for you to make good Joyne therefore those negative Articles which are wholly yours to those positive Articles which you hold with us and you shall easily discerne if the denomination followeth the greater part those Articles may most properly bee termed Articles of your faith for I dare confidently avow that of the 39. Articles there are above 35. yours that is either such which you hold with us which are at least twentie or such wherein the affirmative is yours and not ours which are at least fifteene take therefore your owne libertie either confute ours or make good your owne herbam porrigemus and I will give you the bucklers You proceed and upon a false supposall that our Church hath created new Articles you proclaime in the name of your owne Church these words We teach that for Articles of faith the Church can make none as she cannot write a Canonicall booke of Scripture Thus you When Diogenes saw a supposed Bastard casting stones in a presse of much people he gave the boy this caveat Take heed lest thou hit thy father This is like to bee your case for by this Tenet you will wound the Church your Mother and amongst others you will surely hit your holy Father the Pope It appeares first that you endevoured to shew that your Church hath created no new Articles of faith but for want of solid proofes you begin to faint and thinke it the safest way to turne Protestant in this point and say the Church can create none but I wonder how you dare pronounce in the name of the Church we teach whereas in truth your Church teacheth it not This is therefore but a cunning device of yours to dazle the eyes of the ignorant with your false glasses and to make them beleeve it is the generall Tenet of your Church and then you thinke they will conclude according to your Assertion Ergo The Church hath created none when as your saying makes more strongly against you if either your Articles prove new or the Pope and his Agents professe the contrarie Mr. Heigham who first answered my Book Mr. Heigham in his answer called Via verè tuta pag. 199. 200. was a member of your Church and he cries aluod that the Church hath power to decree and promulgate new articles of faith But your third Replyer Tom Tell-troth in his Whetstone of Reproofe thought it the wisest way to decline the question for hee knew well when you were both at odds and taught flat contrarie doctrine each to other the Whetstone of necessitie would belong to one of his fellow writers But to let passe such differences amongst your selves bee it spoken to your comfort Friar Walden about two hundred yeares agoe affirmed the same that you doe Waldens
doct Fidei Tom. 1. l. 2. Art 2. c. 22. p. 203. viz. that the Church could not create a new article of faith How can any such article saith he framed after many yeares be catholique and universall when as it was unknowne to our fore-fathers for foureteen hundred yeares before It was not beleeved because not heard of when the Apostle tels us faith commeth by hearing Such an article therefore although it be of faith yet it cannot be catholique and this hee proves directly from Fathers and Councels And whereas you affirme that your Church can no more make an article of faith than shee can make a Canonicall Booke of Scripture Canus loc Theol. l. 2. c. 7. p. 38. Canus your Bishop of Canaries will joyne with you That the Church of the faithfull now living cannot write a Canonicall Booke of Scripture and hee gives the reason for it There are not now any new revelations to be expected ither from the Pope or from a Councell or from the universall Church and from hence it will follow of consequence by your owne Logick Therefore the Church can create no new article of faith Thus farre I have waded in your behalfe that you may the better justifie your owne Assertion for you wil find your Church is like a house divided against it selfe and therefore cannot stand long I say that Quere which was made in Waldens dayes was resolved above two hundred yeares before by your profound Schoole-man Thomas Aquinas in your Churches behalfe that the Pope had power Condere articulos fidei to create new articles of faith to remove therefore these fig-leaves with which you would cover the naked truth This learned Doctour well understood that there were many new articles of religion crept into the Church in his dayes he knew well that albeit he were the prime Schoole man of his time yet with all his sophistrie hee could not make them comply with the ancient Catholique faith and thereupon he thought it the surest way to give the Pope an absolute and independant power over faith and religion and accordingly resolved Ad solam authoritatem summi Pontificis pertinet nova Editio Symboli sicut alia omnia quae pertinent ad totam Ecclesiam Thom. 2.2 q. 1. Art 10. It belongs onely to the authoritie of the Soveraigne Pope to make a new Edition of the Creed and all things else that concerne the universall Church Then he concludes the question and gives this reason for it The publishing of a new Creed belongs to his power who hath authoritie finally to determine matters of faith and this saith he belongs unto the Pope Upon which passages Andradius a chiefe pillar of your Trent Councell confesseth that the Bishops of Rome Romanos Pontifices multa definiendo quae anteà latitabant Symbolum Fidei augere consuevisse Andrad Def. Concil Trid. lib. 2. in defining many things which had beene formerly hidden have been accustomed to increase their Creed Now what thinke you of your Aquinas position and your Andradius confession I hope you perceive that your learned Schoole-men are of another opinion And that you may know that your Church doth not approve your pretended Tenet for Catholique doctrine hearken and consider what your holy Father the Pope declareth touching this question and then consider in what case you stand Pope Leo the tenth sent out his Bull against Luther and amongst other articles Certum est in manu Ecclesiae aut Papae prorsus non esse statuere articulos fidei Tom. 4. Conc. Par. 2. in Bulla Leon. 10. in fine Lateran Conc. novissimi p. 135. he chargeth him in particular with this that Luther should say It is certaine that it is no way in the power of the Church or Pope to ordaine articles of faith This you see is Luthers Tenet and this is yours Now what exception think you might the Pope take at this your Assertion Behold for this and the like Tenets he thundereth Anathema against him hee declareth this with the rest of his Articles to be a pestiferous pernicious scandalous and seducing errour to well-minded men he protesteth it was contrarie to all charitie contrarie to the reverence of the holy Church and mysteries of faith and in conclusion condemnes all his Articles as hereticall Inhibentes in virtute sanctae obedientiae ac sub majoris excommunicationis latae sententiae Ibid. p. 136. forbids them to be received by vertue of holy obedience and under paine of the graund Excommunication You have heard the sentence of your Lord Paramount and by it you may know your owne doome If you hold with Luther you are in danger of Excommunication and stand as a condemned heretique by his Holinesse with the Lutherans If you forsake your hold you have lost your faith And thus you have a wolfe by the eares you stand in danger whether you hold him or let him goe I wonder that you having taken so long a time to answer so poore a Work and having many Assistants for the composing of it they and you could be all ignorant of the Popes infallible Bull. Your Cardinall Bellarmine Quasi Ecclesia posterioris temporis aut deserit esse Ecclesia aut facultatem non habeat explicandi declarandi constituendi etiam jubendi quae ad fidem mores Christianos pertinent Bell. in Barcl who in these latter times hath laboured more than any other to uphold your new Articles of faith yet in obedience to the Pope and saving all advantages to his cause when in the question of deposing Kings he failed of antiquitie and proofe out of Scriptures and Fathers at last returnes this peremptorie answer As if the Church of these latter times had ceased to be a Church or had not power to explaine and declare yea to ordaine and command those things which appertaine to faith and Christian manners and that you may know that you and your Co-adjutors stand single in opinion against the Pope and his Cardinals your Jesuite Salmeron will shew you Doctrina fidei admittit additionem in essentialibus Salm. Tom. 13. Disp 6. Par. 3. §. Est ergo Idem Disp 8. that it stands with great reason to make additions in essentiall points of faith and hee gives this answer for it Because nature is not capable of all truths at one time and from this and the like reasons he concludes therefore there may be new traditions concerning faith and manners though they were never created or declared by the Apostles Thus you see the unitie amongst your selves and howsoever these positions may seeme strange to you and others of your opinions yet your Schoolmen and Lawyers have played the Popes Midwives yea Pope Leo the tenth hath put to his helping hand to deliver your Pope Pius the fourth of that issue I meane those new borne Articles of which your Church hath so long time before travailed Briefly let mee tell you your Articles are detected by your owne men
because the Author of it hath borrowed both the matter and manner of writing from St. Peter and therfore he was thought some scholar of theirs but no Apostle Others said he brought in a profane Author concerning the strife of the Arch-angell and the Devill about the body of Moses which cannot be found in Canonicall Scripture Lastly the Revelation of St. John was likewise doubted of first because of the noveltie of the title of John the Divine secondly because of the difficultie and obscuritie of his Prophecies These and the like reasons were motives to some in the Church to question the Authors of those Books but it was never generally impeached For further proofe of this Assertion let antiquitie be heard and it will appeare that all those Bookes were cited for doctrine of faith by the writers of the first ages and consequently were approved from and after the dayes of the Apostles Hieronym ad Dardan◠de terra repromissionis Ep. 129. p. 1105. Looke upon St. Hierome he proclaimes it to the Church Illud nostris dicendum est Be it known to our men that the Epistle to the Hebrewes is not only received by all the Churches of the East that now presently are but by all Ecclesiasticall writers of the Greek Churches that have beene heretofore as the Epistle of Paul though many thinke it rather to be written by Barnabas or Clemens and that it skilleth not who wrote it seeing it was writby an Author approved in the Church of God and is daily read in the same This ancient Father shewes plainly that howsoever some doubt was made of the Author of that Epistle yet it was received both by the Easterne Westerne Churches And howsoever some of the Ancients did attribute it to St. Luke others as namely Tertullian did attribute it to Barnabas yet all agreed in this that it had an Apostolike spirit and accordingly Cardinall Bellarmine tels you in your eare Ineptè dici vetustatem de hac Epistola dubitâsse Bell. de verbo Dei lib. 1. cap. 17. It is foolishly spoken in saying Antiquitie did doubt of this Epistle when there is but one Caius a Grecian and two or three Romanists in respect of all the rest that speake against it and if we respect not the multitude but the antiquitie of the cause the Roman Clemens is more ancient than Caius and Clemens Alexandrinus than Tertullian and Dionysius Areopagita than both who cites this Epistle of Paul by name Touching the second Epistle of St. Peter it was cited by Higinus Bishop of Rome within an hundred and fiftie yeares after Christ and that by the name of Peter The Epistle of St. Jude was cited by Dionysius Areopagita by the name of Jude the Apostle within seventie yeares after Christ Dionys de divinis nominibus cap. 4. Tertuil de habitu muliebri Orig. l. 5. in c. 5. ad Romanos Cypr. in lib. ad Novatianum by Tertullian within two hundred yeares after Christ by Origen and Cyprian within two hundred and fiftie yeares after Christ Lastly touching the Revelation of St. John it was received for Canonicall in the first and best ages Dionysius Areopagita cals the Revelation The secret and mysticall vision of Christs beloved Disciple Arcanam mysticam visionem dile cti discipuli Dionys Eccles Hier. cap. 3. In Dial. cum Tryphone Iren. lib. 1. cap. ult and this was seventie yeares after Christ Justin Martyr doth attribute this Booke to St. John and doth account it for a divine Revelation and this was an hundred and sixtie yeares after Christ Irenaeus saith this Revelation was manifested unto St. John and seene of him but a little before his time and this was an hundred and eightie yeares after Christ Tertull. de praescript l. 4. Tertullian amongst other things accuseth Cerdon and Marcion of heresies for rejecting the Revelation and this was two hundred yeares after Christ Origen in his Preface before the Gospel of St. John sayth that John the sonne of Zebedee saw in the Revelation an Angel flying thorow the middest of Heaven having the eternall Gospel and hee flourished two hundred and thirtie yeares after Christ Thus you see the Catholique Christians and most ancient Fathers in the first ages received both the Epistle to the Hebrewes the second Epistle of St. Peter the Epistle of St. Jude and the Revelation of St. John with one consent accounting them no better than Hereticks which either doubted of them or denyed them and yet you to outface the truth would make the world beleeve that it was three or foure hundred yeares before they were received into the Church and made canonicall and upon this vaine supposall you would know of me Whether there were any change of faith in the Church when they were admitted or whether those Books received any change in themselves To answer you in a word your proposition is foolish and your question is frivolous for those Books were alwayes received even from the first times and no more could that word of God bee changed than God himselfe who is immutable and yet we see your faith is daily altered for want of that foundation and thereupon it behoves you to get more and better proofes for the confirmation of your new Creed From your justification of your Trent faith you begin to looke asquint thorow your Spectacles at the reformed Churches and after your wonted manner you crie out They have no certaine rule of faith wherewith wee may urge them authoritie of Church they have none Scripture they have indeed but so mangled corrupted perverted by translation and mis-interpreted according to their owne fancies that as they have it it is as good as nothing Thus you Have we no certaine rule of faith What thinke you of the Scriptures Doe not we make them the sole rule of our faith and is not that rule by your own Cardinals confession Bell. de verbo Deo l. 1. c. 2. Regula credendi certissima tutissimaque the most certaine and safest rule of faith And as touching the authority of the Church it is an Article of our Religion Art 20. That the Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies authoritie in controversies of faith and yet it is not lawfull for the Church to ordaine any thing that is contrarie to Gods word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another This Article shewes our obedience to the Scriptures it declares the authoritie of our Church and it vindicates our Ministers from perverting and misinterpreting of the Scriptures wherewith you charge us in the next place It is true say you Scripture you have indeed but mangled corrupted perverted by translation Here your charge is generall and your accusation capitall therefore you must give me leave for the better discoverie of the truth to send out a Melius inquirendum that your Translation and ours being compared in particulars the truth may better appeare First then
Aeneas when he retracted as Pope that which he had written or when he condemned that which hee had retracted No surely he was Pius in nothing in the opinion of your Church but in his Bull of Retractations and he was Aeneas in nothing more than in condemning that which he retracted And accordingly he himselfe beggs of your Church Bulla Retractat Pii 2. Illud Gentile nomen parentes indidere nascenti hoc Christianum in Apostolatu suscepimus Ibid. Pium recipite Aeneam rejicite Receive you Pius but reject Aeneas and he gives his reason for it Aeneas is a heathenish Name which our Parents gave us at our Birth but Pius is a Christian name which we assumed in our Apostolike calling You may adde to this Aeneas was a private man and subject unto errour but Pius was a Pope and therefore in his determinations infallible or rather you may truly say with him Nihil mentiti sumus nihil ad gratiam nihil ad odium retulimus Bulla Retractat that Aeneas before he was Pope delivered the truth neither for feare nor hatred and yet he was forced to retract it but Pius * Cum doctrinā non sanam suspectam quae offensionem parere potest contineant c. Class 2. in Ind. lib. prohibit when he was Pope delivered false and suspected doctrine and such as was offensive to your Church and for that cause is commanded to bee purged Quid Pius Aeneas in te committere tantùm What ill hap had good Aeneas or rather what ill fortune had Pope Pius that he could neither satisfie your Church either as he was Aeneas or as he was Pius neither as a private Doctor nor as an infallible Pope Rivet Criticū Sacr. Specimen c. 7. p. 49. or rather I may say with your owne Canus What doth it availe men who desire to know the truth to raze Records out of their Bookes when they cannot blot it out of their mindes Petrus Crinitus was a Romish Priest Anno 1450. and is commanded to be purged and if we shall examine the reason we shall finde it for no other cause but that he speakes the truth against your Pope and Popish Doctrine To instance in particulars Let both the Title and the Chapter be razed say your Inquisitors touching Pope Boniface the 8. Petr. Crinit l. 7. c. 13. de dom Disciplinâ and the reason is pregnant that Chapter shewes the insosolencie and pride of the Pope in particular in matter of fact and it further declares that under pretence of Religion the Popes in generall thinke they may doe what they list Againe when he speakes of ancient Lawes Idem l. 14. c. 5. made in generall for Marriage and propagation of Children they command that page to be strucken out and there can be no other reason but because on the contrary it is a positive law of your Church to forbid Marriage Lastly whereas he shewes that Leo the Emperour made an Edict Idem l. 9. c. 9. that all Images in Churches and houses of the Christians should be razed and hee declares in his opinion that it doth not appertaine to Religion to adore any mans Image and that Valens and Theodosius made Proclamation to all Christians that they would suffer no man to fashion to grave or paint the Image of our Saviour either in colours or in stone or in any other kinde of metall or matter and that wheresoever any such Image should bee found they commanded it to be taken downe Index Belgic p. 421. Index Madrid p. 150. Ind. lib. prohibit p. 79. 718. Bulla Pii 4. Art 9. Art 22. These and the like passages your Inquisitors in three severall Indices command to be razed out and what cause can you pretend but that it makes against a speciall Article of your faith viz. that Images should be set up in Churches and worshipped and by this meanes you strike likewise at the Articles of our Church and when you have made such Doctrines and Evidences invisible by razing the records then you bid us shew where the Church was visible before Luther Now what credit shall the Reader give unto you and to your Trent Councell that would assure us that your Church intended the purging of no Authors but from the yeare 1515. when as it appeares plainely that you have spared neither the writings of the Apostles nor the Fathers in razing and falsifying their owne very words and sentences And as touching other Authors in the latter ages you have gone beyond your Commission hundreds of years in falsifying corrupting forbidding and purging them and this was long before your prefixed yeare of 1515. In the sixteenth age Luther began his Heresie saith Bellarmine Anno 1517. Anno 1517. Bell. Chronol p. 3. pag. 117. and your Church to make some shew that your Index Expurgatorius had a relation onely to Luther and his followers tooke her rise from the yeare 1515. which was but two yeares before his comming as if all the members of your Church before his comming had lived in the unity of one faith and doctrine This deceivablenesse of your unrighteousnesse I have in part discovered Now I come to your Authors of this last age for I will cite none but your owne Authors and therein lieth another mysterie not inferiour to the first and that is this your Index Expurgatorius was first proclaimed generally against all Heretickes meaning the Protestants but when it comes to examination it points especially at the particular members of your owne Church and that which is most remarkable after that your Trent Councel had distinguished with Anathema's her Roman faith from the faith of Protestants after she had forbidden and condemned by her Index divers of your owne Authors as savouring of suspected and false and scandalous doctrine nay more after she had declared all to be Heretickes and their Doctrine Hereticall who would dare to teach or publish any contrary beliefe to that which was once established by a Generall Councell yet I say the members of your owne Church and those not of the meanest ranke both Bishops and Cardinals have delivered in print many points of Doctrine agreeable to the Articles of our Church and yet you say they never left the Church they are not personally to be noted nor ranked amongst Heretickes when for the very same Tenets we are accused accursed forbidden and utterly condemned as Heretickes and Reprobates and thus the head of your Church being divided from the members in points of saving faith may say unto the tongue I have no need of thee and consequently may cut it out Howsoever this use we may safely make of your Index that if in after ages by new Impressions the true doctrine of Protestants shall be razed and utterly abolished in your Roman Authors yet your very Index will appeare as a strong Evidence to shew that such doctrines were taught in former Ages and howsoever the faction in the
Papacie formerly prevailed yet it is more than evident by the Testimonies and Records of your owne men that we had not two Churches before Luther but that we had alwayes Testes Veritatis witnesses of Gods truth and our owne Religion in all Ages in the bosome of the Roman Church I proceed to particulars in this last age Anno 1500. Cardinall Cajetan is purged in severall and maine points of doctrine being different from your owne Church Touching the ground of Transubstantiation he denies that the words of Scripture This is my body are availeable to prove it of themselves and thereupon your Jesuit Suarez complaineth Ex Catholicis c. a Ex Catholicis solus Cajetanus in Commentario hujus Articuli qui jussu Pii 5. in Romana editione expunctus est docuit seclusâ Ecclesiae authoritateverba illa Hoc est corpus meum ad veritatem hanc confirmādam nonsufficere Suarez Tom 3. Disp 46. Sect. 3. quaest 75. Art 1. p. 515. Impress Mog An. 1509. Amongst the Catholikes Cajetan onely teacheth that the words This is my Body bee not sufficient without the authoritie of the Church to confirme the truth of it And therefore by the command of Pope Pius the 5. this passage is blotted out in the Roman Edition Touching justification by faith onely whereas hee saith b Absque exceptione aliqua cōditionis sexus qualiatis c. dicitur omni credenti sola fides exigitur ad salutem Cajet Ep. Paulï c. Parisus 1571. fol. 4. Ind. lib. prohibit p. 876. without any exception of person of any Sexe or quality or condition It is said of every Beleever faith alone is required to salvation your Index commands those latter words to bee blotted out Lastly in speaking of the Crosse and the like he saith These are altogether unlawfull and not to be embraced because they are part of an ill worship you cause these words to be strucken out and in lieu of them you subjoyne these words following which are flat contrary c Idem p. 805. These are altogether lawfull and are to be embraced because they are part of the divine worship and the better to colour these miserable shifts and falsifications you give this Caveat to the Reader Idem ibid. p. 805. Be warie if you finde any such Doctrine for it is to bee feared the Heretikes have suggested it Alphonsus à Castro wrote a large Booke against Heresies Anno 1500. and in particular he charged Luther with many Yet in his first Booke and fourth Chapter hee attributeth the same title of Heretike to the Pope and shewes the Pope as Pope is subject to Heresie but behold the record stands published against Luther but is wholly razed touching the Pope Quod autem alii dicunt eum quierraverit in fide obstinatè jam non esse Papam ac per hoc affirmant Papam non posse esse haereticum in reseria verbis velle jocari Ad hunc enim modum quis posset citra impudentiam asserere nullum fidelem posse in fide errare nam cum haereticus fuerit jam desinit esse fidelis Non enim dubitamus an haereticum esse Papam esse coire in unum possint sed id quaerimus an hominem qui aliàs in fide errare potuisset dignitas Pontificalis efficiat à fide indeviabilem Non enim credo aliquem esse adeo impudentem Papae assentatorem ut ei tribuere hoc velit ut nec errare aut in interpretatione sacrarum literarum hallucinari possit Nam cùm constet plures eorum adeo illiteratos esse ut Grammaticam penitus ignorent quî fit ut sacras literas interpretari possent Alph. à Cast advers haer l. 1. c. 4. p. mihi 6. b. Coloniae excudebat Melchior Nouesianus Anno 1543. The words in my Edition are these Whereas some say that he which erreth wilfully in the faith is now no longer Pope and thereupon concludes the Pope cannot be an Heretike they seeme in a sad matter to dally with words For saith he wee make no doubt whether the Pope and an Heretike may agree in one person but this is our question whether a man that otherwise might have erred in the Faith by vertue of the Papall dignity be made such as he cannot erre For I doe not beleeve that there is any so impudent a flatterer of the Pope that will give him this preheminence to say that he can neither be deceived nor misse in the expounding of the Scriptures for seeing it is well knowne that many Popes be so utterly void of learning that they know not the Principles of their Grammer how may it be that they should be able to expound the Scriptures These words I have cited at large out of my Edition 1543. for if you looke into Alphonsus printed within these last threescore yeares I beleeve you will finde them razed in this particular without an Index Expurgatorius which plainly shewes that as the Pope was and may be an Heretike so likewise falsifying of Records is a proper marke of Heretikes Johannes Ferus a Frier Minorite An. 1500. Usher p. 162. and prime Preacher at Mentz in Germany is purged and falsified in many points of controversie which he held with us Touching the power of Priesthood in remitting of sinnes it was the doctrine of Ferus a Non quòd homo propriè remittat peccatum sed quòd ostendat ac certificet à Deo remissum Neque enim aliud est absolutio quam ab homine accipit quà m si dicat En fili certifico te tibiremissa esse peccata annuncio tibi te habere propitium Deum quaecunque Christus in Baptismo Evangelio nobis promisir tibi nunc per me annunciat promittir Fer. Comment in Matth. l. 2. c. 9. Mogunt An 1559. Lugdun apud Johannem à S. Paulo An. 1609. Contr. Man did not properly remit sinne but did declare and certifie that it was remitted by God so that the absolution received from man is nothing else than if hee should say Behold my sonne I certifie thee that thy sinnes are forgiven thee I pronounce unto thee that thou hast God favourable unto thee and whatsoever Christ in Baptisme and in his Gospell hath promised unto us hee doth now declare and promise unto thee by me Of this thou shalt have me to be a witnesse goe in peace and in quiet of conscience This declarative power of remitting sinnes was Ferus doctrine this is ours But behold the case is altered for in Ferus printed at Lyons 1609. all those words are razed out and on the contrary saith that b Sacerdos enim Dei minister verè remittit peccata ac certificat à Deo remissa fol. mihi 160. b. In Matth. l. 2. c. 9. the Priest doth truely remit sinnes and as the Minister of God doth also certifie that they are remitted of God Touching our justification by faith onely the true Ferus
beyond exception who spake as it were prophetically of the Church of Rome in her most flourishing state St. Hierome writing to Marcella a noble Lady exhorteth her to depart from Rome which he compares to Babylon Hier. ad Marcel Ep. 17. Tō 1. p. mihi 156. Reade saith he the Revelation of St. John and consider that which is there said of the woman clothed in purple of the blasphemy written in her forehead of the seven Mountaines of the great waters of the fall of Babylon Goe out from thence my people Babylon is falne and is become the habitation of Divels and the hold and cage of every foule spirit Now that wee might understand this was not spoken by him of heathen Rome he adjoyneth these words following Est quidem ibi sancta Ecclesia There is a true or holy Church there are the Trophies of the Saints and Martyrs there is the true confession of Christ published by the Apostle Ludovicus Vives your very friend in commenting upon this place tells us that St. Hierome thinketh there is no other Babylon described by St. John in the Revelation than the City of Rome But now saith he it hath put off the name of Babylon Lud. Vives in August de Civ Dei l. 18. c. 22. there is no confusion now you cannot buy any thing now in matter of Religion without a faire pretence of holy Law for selling it yet may you buy or sell almost any kinde of cause holy or hellish for money In D. August Annot. Ludov. Vives prohibentur nisi corrigantur Ind. l. prohibit Class 2. For this and the like passages your Vives is forbidden till hee be purged I must confesse I doe not thinke that the Rhemists would have interpreted Babylon for Rome if it had not beene to prove Peters being at Rome It is happy therefore for you that Peter wrote his Epistle from Babylon for otherwise your succession from Peter had beene questioned and it is as well for us that you are contented to allow Babylon for Rome for by this meanes your Antichristian Doctrine is discovered and your succession of Peters faith is quite abolished But say you if you meane as you expresse your selfe that a true Church may bee depraved I know not what to say but to stop my eares against that mouth of blasphemie And is it blasphemie to say a true Church may be depraved Sure I am it is not blasphemie against the holy Ghost for the mouth of St. Paul hath spoken it in parricular to the Roman Church even at that time when she was a most incorrupt Church Towards thee goodnes Rom. 11.22 if thou continue in his goodnesse otherwise thou also shalt be cut off And may not a Church thinke you be depraved that is in possibility of being cut off What thinke you of the Church of Hierusalem Psalm 48.19 Did not the Prophet David terme it the City of God and was it not afterwards termed a Harlot by the Prophet Esay What say you to the Temple of Solomon was it not termed by him 1 Kings 8.20 the house of Prayer and in Christs time was not that house of Prayer become a denne of Theeves Mat. 21.14 He that sayes Antichrist shall sit in the Temple of God doth plainely intimate that the true Church may be depraved and that before his comming there was a true Church In his answer to Card. Peron p. 9. Eng. What Babylon is saith learned Casaubon thus much the matter it selfe doth plainly shew that whether some private Church be understood in that place by the name of Babylon or the greater part of the whole it was before this a true Church with which the religious might religiously communicate but after it was more depraved the religious are commanded to goe out and to breake off communion with her And as touching the authority you cite that he would be with them to the worlds end that the Church is built upon a Rocke that the gates of Hell should not prevaile against it these promises I say concerne no more the particular Roman Church than the seven Churches of Asia that are falne away The blasphemie then you lay to my charge if any such be is but against your Roman Church and of such blasphemie many of your best learned are guilty in acknowledging a depravation of their faith notwithstanding all the promises of Christ to the Catholicke and universall Church Your Bishop of Bitonto by way of prevention cryes aloud in your Councell of Trent Cornel. in Concil Trident. Would to God they were not wholly with generall consent gone from religion to superstition from faith to infidelitie from Christ to Antichrist I could bring you a world of complaints against the falling away and depravation of your Roman Faith but that your eares will not endure such blasphemie Howsoever since your best learned have acknowledged Babylon to bee meant by Rome and that Rome is falne from her first faith Jerem. 51.6.9 I say with the Prophet Jeremie Fly out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soule we would have healed Babylon but she is not healed forsake her and let us goe everie one into his owne Country for her judgement reacheth unto Heaven and is lifted up even unto the skies CHAP. III. The summe of his Answer to my second and third Sections IN the second Section he saith I labour to prove the contention betwixt the Churches to proceed originally from them The third Section is to prove the corruption both in faith and manners Both which are easily answered First by asking what is this to the purpose for the visible Church Secondly with the contradiction of a former lye he telleth a new one for the Reformation was sought for manners onely and not for doctrine This is the substance of your third Chapter in answer to my second and third Sections The Reply You have answered two Sections almost in two words the first in denying it to be to the purpose the latter in giving me the lye And thus like another Caesar you have briefly expressed the expedition of your victory in few words Veni vidi vici I came I saw I overcame First you demand what is this to the purpose of a visible Church But I rather wonder to what purpose you make such a demand For my Booke is entitled The Safe Way not the visibility of the Church Yet let me tell you the Authors which I cite are for the most part members of your Church and their authorities tend much to the proofe of a visible Church if your Index Expurgatorius did not spunge them and cause their testimonies to be often invisible For instance in our behalfe I cite Cassander To Cassander you answer he is like your selfe an Hereticke or next doore to them and yet elsewhere you say with much adoe he may passe for a Catholike Pag. 21. Oportet esse memorem I cite Cecenas Generall of the
Religion This you confesse is true in your Councell but to these you answer nothing Concil Trid. Sess 22. Can. 9. You might have added to these abuses both Superstition and Idolatry in the Masse for your Councell confesseth them both and I thinke it toucheth your errors in Doctrine But have you reformed all or any of these things Is your superstitious number of Masses and lights in the Church abated Are your lascivious and wanton songs set to the Organs and mingled with other Church musicke redressed Is your covetousnesse in Priests with their Superstition and Idolatry in the Masse abolished Mirae mirae entis Res. Juvenal These corruptions are things and things as you call them and such as I wonder your Councell was not ashamed to confesse much more to tolerate or rather to practice in the daily sacrifice of your Masse I hasten to the Reformation in doctrine but you tell me it is a Lye the Councell never intended it I instance in private Masse Latin Service c. You answer it is most false for the doctrine is the same still and ever was I perceive your passion makes you much forget your selfe for your doctrine I confesse which is commonly received is the same now that was decreed in the Councell of Trent but that it was ever the same as now it is all the Colledge of Cardinals and Jesuits cannot prove Looke upon your owne confession in those two particular instances Your private Masse where the Priest communicates alone is not the same now as it was heretofore For say you it was the practise of the Primitive Church for the people to communicate every day with the Priest Spectacl pag. 191. Your Prayer in an unknowne tongue is not the same now as it was heretofore for say you Prayer and Service in the vulgar Tongue was used in the first and best Ages Pag. 271. and now the vulgar is become the Latin unknown tongue Take heed therefore of these confessions for by such palpable contradictions you may lose your Proselytes and bring the Lye upon your selfe Againe you confesse that the Councell wisheth that the standers by did communicate not onely spiritually Pag. 53. but also sacramentally and doth not your Church in this wish a reformation in doctrine Doth it not in this preferre the practice of the reformed Churches before their owne and in a manner confesse an error in the allowed practice of the Roman Church Your Councell commands Pastors that have care of soules to expound that to the people which is delivered in the Masse in an unknowne tongue and doe not those that require the Priests to expound it to the people shew likewise that without such exposition the people are little better for the Masse and that the Church intended the people should understand it What is this else but to joyne hands with the Protestants and to acknowledge a reformation needfull in your Church for requiring Service to bee celebrated in a knowne tongue that the people may understand it But that I may make good my assertion and that the Reader may know I have said nothing but the truth in affirming the Councell of Trent did make decrees for Reformation for doctrine as well as manners looke upon the second Session and tell me if they did not professe a reall intention in both Concil Trid. Sess 2. the words of the Session are these Whereas it is the speciall care and intention of the Councell that the darkenesle of Heresie being expelled which so many yeares hath covered the earth the light and parity of the Catholicke truth may shine through the helpe of Christ which is the true light and that those things which need reformation may be reformed the Synod exhorteth all Catholikes assembled or to be assembled and especially those who are skilful in the sacred Scriptures that with continuall meditation they may diligently consider with themselves how these things may bee effected that they may condemne those things which are to be condemned and approve those things which are to be approved that the whole world with one mouth and confession of one and the same faith may glorifie God the Faiher and our Lord Jesus Christ Take a review of the words of your Councell First Praecipua cura intentio ut propulsatis errorum tenebris quae per tot annos operiarunt terram the chiefe care to dispell the darkenesse of errour which covered the earth which words cannot be meant of the Protestant doctrine For our light is pretended by you to be lately come in and but in a part or corner of the world Secondly peritiam habeant sacrarum literarum ut sedulâ meditatione secum ipsi cogitent c. ut probare probanda damnare damnanda queant There needed not this diligence and skill in Scriptures for Luthers Religion for they were condemned before by the Pope Thirdly Nullus debeat c. obstinatis disceptationibus contendere which should not be about Lutheran points but about doctrines of their owne Fourthly in the third Section de extirpandis haeresibus c. which say they is adversus spirituales nequitias in caelestibus which heavenly places are meant by their owne Church not by Luthers as is most evident For they would never acknowledge our Churches heavenly places Now I pray what thinke you of your Councels Decrees Will not they extend to a Reformation in doctrine or will you say that Heresies in manners crept into the Church and the most learned in the Scriptures were chiefly to be imployed for reforming them that thereby there might be one Faith of Papists and Protestants through the Christian world De extirpandis haeresibus moribus reformandis quorum causa praecipue est congregata Sess 3. Looke upon the third Session and there likewise you shall finde a Decree for rooting out of Heresies in doctrine aswell as rectifying of manners and the discipline of the Church and for both those causes saith your Decree the Councell was principally called It is a most evident truth then howsoever you redouble the lie upon me that the Councell did intend a Reformation in doctrine for otherwise to what end should the Pope summon all Christian Bishops out of all Nations even at that time when the Protestants were in number infinite and had discovered and proclaimed the errors of the Roman Church Besides to what purpose were those disputes and oppositions in the Councell against particular points of Doctrine if they had not beene adjudged erroneous and needed a reformation But herein the Reader shall easily discerne the policie of your Church At the first calling of the Councell when these first Sessions were made the number of Bishops were but few about 40. but after the faction of the Popes creatures in multitude prevailed all hope of reformation was abandoned And thereupon the Bishops of Apulia publikely declared that the Trent Fathers were nothing else but the Popes creatures and his bondslaves See
was discovered and herein the Author the time and place was observed and knowne to all but in the Church of Rome it was otherwise there was first an Apostacie a falling away from the truth which was first caused by an error secretly stolne into the Church and therefore it is sometimes called a mystery of iniquity because mystically covertly secretly hee shall winde his abominations into the Church of God and accordingly the Apostle gives Timothy to understand that in the last times some shall depart from the faith 1 Tim. 4.1 giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils and such as speake falshood in Hypocrisie which place plainely shewes saith a learned Divine that Antichrist himselfe shall not professedly renounce Christ Mr. Bedel against Wadsworth p. 40. and his Baptisme that his kingdome is a revolt not from the outward profession but inward sinceritie and power of the Gospel And therefore all doe not understand Apostacie a forsaking of Christ and Christianity Not all no not the same Apostle where hee useth the same word Apostacie to the Thessalonians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 2 Thess 2.3 Let no man deceive you by any meanes for that day shall not come except there come an Apostacie a falling away first Hee speakes of the departing from the orthodox Faith not from Christianitie Not all no not your Rhemists in their Annotations upon this place Rhem. Annot. in 2 Thess 2.3 For it is very like say they be it spoken under correction that Gods Church and all learned Catholikes that this great defection and revolt shall not be onely from the Roman Emperour but especially from the Roman Church and withall from most points of Christian Religion or as they interpret in their Margin from most Articles of the Christian faith Not all no not Campian your fellow Jesuite who termes Luther an Apostata for falling from your Church not from Christianity Not all no not your Decretals who terme a Monke for leaving his Order or a Clarke forsaking his habit an Apostata Not all no not Gregory the Great Greg. l. 6. Ep. 24. who called John Bishop of Constantinople an Apostata for assuming the title of universall Bishop Lastly Not all no not your Councell of Basil where 900. condemned and deposed your Pope Eugenius for a Symonist Concil Basil sess 34. a forsworn man a man incorrigible a Schismaticke an Apostata a man fallen from the faith and a wilfull Hereticke I say therefore not all nor any of these did understand an Apostacie to be a forsaking of the name of Christ and Christianity and therefore I hope you will confesse that your assertion is neither Catholike nor universall When therfore we lay Apostacie to your Church we doe not charge you with a totall falling from Christian Religion like that of Julian the Apostata with an obstinate pertinacie in denying the principles of the faith necessarie to salvation or a renouncing your Baptisme and consequently the name of Christianitie Wee charge you not with Apostacie in such a fearefull and horrible sense unlesse you will assume it to your selves Lyra in 2. Thess 2. but wee thinke with Lyra that as there was an Apostacie or revolt of many Kingdomes from the Roman Empire and of many Churches from the Communion of the Roman Church so there hath beene an Apostacie from the Catholike saith in the midst of the Church not for that all at any time did forsake the true Faith but for that many fell from the sinceritie of the Faith After your definition of Apostacie you proceed in this manner How then can we be Apostatas in no wise certainely but if wee erre wee erre as heretikes and if wee be heretikes you confesse you must assigne the persons time and place I have cleared you from the hainous title of Apostata in your owne sense but not in ours D. Potter p. 19. 60. yet let me tell you with griefe and pitty be it spoken your profane and wicked application of the Apostles Creed as you pretend in jests is a fearefull signe of falling from Christ and Christianitie it selfe and therfore although I may free your Church in generall of that name and in that sense yet it behoves you to acquit your selfe in that particular But this by way of friendly admonition If we erre say you wee erre as heretikes I shall easily condescend unto you in that For the errors in the Roman Church caused an Apostacie at first and was mysticall and secret now after long practise and usage in the Church is become an heresie and so wee may truely assent unto you that you erre as heretikes And although I am not bound upon this acknowledgment forthwith to assign you the Authors of your heresies because they came in by degrees and at severall times privily and insensibly yet because you are so inquisitive after you predecessors Ecclefia sua definitione non facit talem assertionem esse haeresin cum etiamsi ipsa non desnivisset esset haeresis sed id efficit Ecclesia ut nobis persuam censuram pateat illud esse heresin Alph. à Castr l. 1. c. 8. D. Potter sect 4. p. 101. 97. if you will have but patience I will draw your pedigree in the next Section In the meane time let me tell you it is another errour in you to say They come to have the name of heresie onely by the condemnation of the Church For the Church condemnes them because they are heresies contrariwise they are not heresies because the Church condemnes them The Doctrines of Arrius Macedonius Nestorius Eutyches Eunomius and Dioscurus were themselves hereticall even before they were solemnly condemned in the foure generall Councels but woe to us and all the reformed Churches if this Tenet were true and Catholike for then are wee condemned already But I pray what if your Pope whom you Jesuites now make the onely Church admit I say your Pope were an Heretike such as was your Pope Eugenius or your John the 23. or Pope Vigilius or Pope Honorius were they able to judge of heresies in others that were tainted with them themselves or must their definitive sentence in Cathedra stand for a Law Si autem Papa erraret praecipien â—o vitia vel prohibendo virtutes c. Bell. de Pont. l. 4. c. 5. Sand. de visibili Monarch l. 7. An. 1541. p. mihi 595. and make that heresie which is no heresie Indeed your Cardinall sayes The Pope hath power to make that no sinne which is sinne and accordingly he hath placed that Tenet amongst the Heretikes and by the same Law he makes that to be heresie which is no heresie Your learned Sanders tells us it is heresie to translate the Scriptures into the vulgar Tongue and accordingly he hath placed that Tenet amongst the Heretikes Your Chancellor of Paris and Director of the Councell of Constance tells us it is heresie to communicate in both kindes and accordingly
so false and so apparently false as that it is not to be doubted but hee that shall averre it will make no soruple of any lie how lewd soever Thus you Good words and found proofes would better become men of your profession If you affirme that you have a Lineall Succession the proofe lyes on your side and when I shall see it as plainly proved as spoken I shall readily confesse my error till then let me tell you it is not your Catalogue of Popes which you say are sold and printed at London that can make a firme agreement of succession in Faith For by that reason our Queene Elizabeth of blessed memorie succeeded Queene Mary in Faith and consequently our Faith must be good by your owne confession By that reason Ahaz and Manasses that shut up the doore of the Temple succeeded David in the Faith By that reason Pope Liberius the Arrian succeeded Iulius a Catholike Bishop in the Faith By that reason your Cardinall Poole succeeded Bishop Cranmer our Protestant Martyr in the Faith This most firme Argument therefore as you call it is but weake and infirme and accordingly it was resolved by Saint Ambrose and the ancient Fathers Ambr. de Poenit. cap. They have not the succession of Peter that want the faith of Peter In fine if for no other cause yet for this alone your succession in Faith is interrupted because you your selfe confesse that some Articles which are received as points of Faith in your Church are different from those which were received in the Primitive Churches and therefore want succession in the true doctrine And that you may yet farther know there was an interruption of the true Faith in succeeding Ages Genebr Chrone lib. 4. your owne Genebrard confesseth that there were fifty Popes succeeding one another rather Apostaticall than Apostolicall Cardinall Bellarmine in his Chronologie tels us of six and twentie Schismes in the Papacie wherein it was questionable betwixt the Popes and Antipopes who were the true successors of Peter Your Cardinall Baronius tels us that base Harlots beare all the sway at Rome Baron An. 912. and gave Bishopricks at their pleasures and intruded their Paramours into Peters chaire false Popes whose names are written in the Catalogue of Popes onely to note and designe the times It is not then your Catalogue of Popes which you so much brag of that can free you from Heresie or make good your succession in the Faith and therefore I will conclude as I first began The pedigree of the Romish Faith is drawne downe from the ancient Heretikes and the Protestant Faith from Christ and his Apostles CHAP. VIII The summe of his Answer to Sect. 8. 1. That I allege but three Authors Adrian Coster and Harding and them falsly or impertinently for three severall points of the Protestant Faith none for the universality of it in generall as the title promiseth 2. That it is not sufficient to name some in the Roman Church who held some of our opinions but that I must shew a distinct companie from the Roman making a Church 3. That it is not to purpose to shew the Antiquitie and Vniversality of those points wherin we agree with you but in those other points wherein wee disagree 4. That if it were granted the Protestant Church in former ages lay hid in the bosome of the Roman Church that proveth it to have been invisible rather than visible The Reply IN the eighth Section I assumed to prove the Antiquitie and Vniversalitie of our Religion by and with the consenting testimonies of the Romane Church you tell mee It is a bold and unlikely adventure and it is shamelesse and impudent These words be like a house full of smoake without fire but what is the occasion of all this heinous complaint Forsooth the Knight bringeth not one Author I say not one for the Vniversalitie and Antiquitie of his Church And is this so grievous an accusation Surely I thought there was none so ignorant or impudent as to denie both the Vniversalitie and Antiquitie of three Creeds two Sacraments instituted by Christ the two and twentie books of Canonicall Scriptures of the first foure Generall Councels of the Apostolike Traditions of the Ancient Liturgies of the Ordination of Priests and Deacons These are our Tenets and these were the particular Instances which I made and to bring Authors for the proofe of these as if we made a doubt of that which all true Christians did generally receive and beleeve I say with St. Austin Insolentissimae dementiae Aug. It were a signe of most insolent madnesse But admit I should produce some Authors for proofe of this generall beleefe would their Authoritie free me from your termes of Shamelesse and impudent adventure Certainly no for say you If hee should have one two or three or ten men it would not be sufficient for him unlesse hee have the Authoritie of the Catholike Church or Church of Rome To cite many Authors or to bring none then is all alike to you for in your doome nothing will free mee from the name and punishment due to Heresie but the authoritie of the Church and yet in this you have granted mee more than I could expect for you have given mee liberty to take my authoritie from the Church so it be from the Catholike or the Roman And hereby you have made your Roman Church distinct from the Catholike which is most true which both you your selfe and most of your fellow Jesuits have made all one and confirmed by the title of Roman Catholike in all your writings This being granted I proceed to the rest of your exceptions In this Section say you he bringeth onely three Catholike Authors Adrian Costerus and Harding but no word for Antiquitie or universalitie Thus you Hee that shall reade my Section in Via tuta with this your Answer must needs confesse that you deale not fairly nor ingeniously with mee for sometimes you leape from the beginning of a Chapter to the end then you returne againe to the beginning being willing to conceale or confound the truth of my Assertions You so mingle my words with your own in the same Character that a prudent Reader can hardly discerne mine from yours but most usuall it is with you to cry down my words with bitter passages and decline the question in all As for Instance in this Section whereas I said the Church of Rome doth confesse the Antiquitie and Vniversalitie of our Religion long before Luther I instanced in our three Creeds and the rest before named One while you cry out of my impudencie that I cite no Authors another while that if I did cite them they would not serve my turne but you never mention either the Creeds or Scriptures or Councels or any of the points which you well knew had Antiquitie and Vniversalitie in the name and opinion of all Christians After that you flie to the later end of my Section and there you tell mee
Baptisme and the holy Eucharist of the body and bloud of Christ the double gift of the holy Ghost Paschasius the Catholique Sacraments of the Christian Church are Baptisme and the body and bloud of Christ Fulbertus the way of Christian religion is to beleeve the Trinitie and veritie of the Deitie and to know the cause of his Baptisme and in whom the two Sacraments of our life are contained Of all these arguments brought by Protestants the Iesuit could not be ignorant Yet hee glaunceth only at one of them to wit the second which he would make us beleeve to bee an absurd begging the point in question How can saith he Sacraments bee Seales to give us assurance of his Word when all the assurance we have of a Sacrament is his Word This is idem per idem or a fallacie called petitio Principij As S. Austine spake of the Pharisees Quid aliud eructarent quà m quo pleni erant What other things should these Pharisees belch out then that wherewith they were full wee may in like manner aske what could wee expect for the Iesuit to belch out against the Knight then that which he is full of himselfe sophismes and fallacies That which hee pretends to find in the Knights argument every man may see in his to wit a beggarly fallacie called homonymia For the Word may be taken either largely for the whole Scripture and in that sense wee grant the Sacraments are confirmed by the Word or particularly for the word of promise and the Word in this sense is sealed to us by the Sacrament and this wee prove out of the Apostle against whom I trust the Iesuit dare not argue what Circumcision was to Abraham and the Iewes that Baptisme succeeding in the place thereof is to vs but Circuncision was a Seale to them of the righteousnesse of faith promised to Abraham and his posteritie Rom. 4.11 therefore in like manner Baptisme is a seale unto us of the like promise What Bellarmine urgeth against our definition of a Sacrament to whom the Iesuit sendeth us is refuted at large by Molineus Daneus Rivetus Willet and Chamier to whom in like manner I remand the Iesuit who here desiring as it seemed to bee catechised asketh what promises are sealed by the Sacraments I answer of regeneration and communion with Christ His second quaere is what need more seales then one or if more why not seven as well as two I answer Christ might adde as many Seales as hee pleased but in the new Testament hee hath put but two neither need wee any more the first sealeth unto us our new birth the second our growth in Christ If I should put the like question to the Iesuit concerning the King what need he more Seales then one or if he would have more why not seven as well as two I know how hee would answer that the King might affix as many seales to his patents and other grants as hee pleaseth but quia frustra fit per plur a quod fieri potest per pauciora because two seales are sufficient the Privie seale and the broad seale therefore his Majestie useth no other Which answer of his cuts the wind-pipe of his owne objection His last question is a blind one how may wee see saith he the promises of God in the Sacraments S. Ambrose and S. Austine will tell him by the eye of faith Magis videtur saith S. Ambrose quod non videtur that is more or better seene which is not seene with bodily eyes Sacraments saith S. Austine are visible words because what words represent to the eares that Sacraments represent to their eyes which are anointed with the eye-salve of the spirit In the Word we heare the bloud of Christ clenseth us from our sinnes in the Sacrament of Baptisme we see it after a sort in the washing of our body with water in the Word wee heare Christs bloud was shed for us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist after a sort we see it by the effusion of the Wine out of the flagon into the Chalice and drinking it In the Word wee heare that Christ is the bread of life which nourisheth our soules to eternall life In the Sacrament after a sort wee see it by feeding on the Consecrated elements of Bread and Wine whereby our body is nourished and our temporall life maintained and preserved To the fift In the former Paragraph we handled those Arguments which the Logicians tearme Dicticall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this we are to make good our Elencticall in the former we proved positively two Sacraments in this privatively we are to exclude and casheere all that the Church of Rome hath added to these two which deviseth Sacraments upon so weake grounds and detorteth Scripture in such sort for the maintenance of them that a learned Divine wisheth that as for the remedie of other sinnes so there were a Sacrament instituted as a speciall remedie against audacious inventions in this kind and depravations of holy Scripture to convince them For of an Epiphonema this is a great mysterie Ephes 5.32 they have made a Sacrament the sacrament of Matrimonie of a promise whose sinnes yee remit Iohn 20.23 they are remitted they have made a second Sacrament the sacrament of Penance of an enumeration of the Governours and Ministers of the Church Ephes 4.11 And hee gave some Apostles some Prophets some Pastours some Evangelists some teachers a third Sacrament the sacrament of Order of a relation what the Apostles did Acts 8.17 In laying hands on them who received the gift of tongues a fourth Sacrament the sacrament of Confirmation Of a Miracle in restoring the sick to their former health by anoynting them with oyle in the name of the Lord a fift Sacrament the sacrament of Extreame Vnction A child cannot be bishopped a single partie contracted a Priest or Deacon ordained a penitent reconciled a dying man dismissed in peace without a sacrament the sacrament of Extreame Vnction If they take Sacrament in a large sense for every divine Mysterie holy Ordinance or sacred Rite they may find as well seventeene as seven Sacraments in the Scriptures if they they take the Word in the strict sense for such a sacred Rite as is instituted in the New Testament by Christ with a visible signe or element representing and applying unto us some invisible sanctifying and saving grace I wish the Iesuit might but practise one of their Sacraments that is doe penance so long till hee found in Scripture that and the other foure Sacraments which they have added to the two Instituted by Christ To begin with them in order and give Order the first place wee acknowledge the ordination of Priests and Deacons by Bishops to be de jure divino and we beleeve where they are done according to Christs Institution that grace is ordinarily given to the party ordained but not sacramentall grace not gratia gratum faciens but gratia gratis data a ghostly power
atque depictum habens imaginem quasi Christi vel sancti alicujus non enim satis memini cujus imago fuerit cum ergo hoc vidissem in ecclesiâ Christi contra authoritatem scripturaruÌ„ hominis pendere imaginem scidi illud magis dedi consilium custodibus ejusdem loci ut pauperem mortunm eo obvolverent atque efferrent Ierome in Ezek l. 4. c. 16. nos unam habemus vivam unam veneramur imaginem quae est imago invisibilis omnipotentis Dei. Amphiloc citat à pat concil Constantinop An. 754 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aug. de mor. Eccl. c. 34 novi multos esse sepulchroruÌ„ picturarum adoratores c. Ep. 109. ad Ian. in primo praecepto prohibetur coli aliqua in figmentis hominum Deisimilitudo non quia non habet imaginem Deus sed quia nulla imago ejus coli debet nisi illa quae hoc est quod ipse L. de fid symb tale simulacrum Deo nefas est Christiano in templo collocare but you must understand that that was joyned to the glory of his God-head in so much that his Apostles could not behold the glory of his flesh in the mount much more glorious is it now having put off mortalitie who is therefore able with dead and livelesse colours and a shadowed picture to expresse those bright and shining beames of so great glorie Epiphanius as zealous as either for entring into a Church at Anablathra and finding there a vaile hanging at the doore died and painted and having the image as it were of Christ or some Saint seeing this that contrary to the authoritie of Scriptures the image of a man was hung upin the Church of Christ he cut it and the vaile and gave counsell to the Keepers of the place to wrap and burie some poore dead man in it and he intreated the Bishop of Ierusalem to give charge hereafter that such vailes as that was being repugnant to Christian religion should not bee hanged up in the Church of Christ S. Ierome in his Comment upon the sixteenth of Ezekiel teacheth that Christians never acknowledge nor worship any image of the invisible and omnipotent God save one to wit his Sonne In the fift age Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium instructeth us what account the Church made of images in these words Wee have no care to figure by colours the bodily visages of Saints in tables because wee have no need of suchthings But by vertue to imitate their conversation and S. Austine treating of the catholique Church professeth that hee knew many worshippers of graves and pictures and withall addeth the Church censure of them but the Church saith hee condemneth them and seeketh every way to correct them as ungracious children and in his 109. Epistle to Ianuarius C. 11. hee writeth that in the first Commandement any similitude of God devised by man is forbidden to bee worshipped not because God hath not an image but because no image of him ought to bee worshipped but that which is the same thing that hee is as for drawing him after the similitude of a man hee utterly disliketh it saying it is unlawfull for a Christian to erect any such image and place it in the Church for as else-where hee argueth images prevaile more to bow downe the unhappy soule in that they have a mouth eyes eares Psal 113. Conc. 2. plus enim valent simulacra ad curvandam infaelicem animam quòd os babent oculos habent aures habent nares habent manus habent pedes habent quam ad corrigenâ—am quòd non loquantur non videant c. God li. 8. tit 12. prohibemus basilicam alicujus imagine obscurari Greg. Regis l. 7 ep 109. ad Seren praetereà judico dudum ad nos pervenisse quòd fraternit as vestra quosdam imaginum adoratores aspiciens easdem ecclefiae imagines confregit atque projecit quidem zelum vos ne quid manufactum adorari possit habuisse laudavimus sed frangere easdem imagines non debuisse judicamus idcirco enim pictura in ecclesia adhibetur ut ' hi qui liter as nesâ—iunt saltem in parietibus videndo legant quae legere in codicibus non valent Vid. Concil Nic. 2. Act. 6. Zonoras hist Tom. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrills hands and feet then to correct it in that they neither heare nor see nor smell nor handle nor walke In the sixt age The Emperour Iustinian setteth downe a law made by Theodosius and Valentinian which forbiddeth Churches to bee obscured with any images or painted tables In the seventh age When Images began to be set up in the Churches Serenus Bishop of Marsilis brake them downe which fact of his though Gregorie disliked because he thought that images might profitably be retained as lay-mens books yet in this hee commended his zeale that hee would by no meanes suffer them to bee worshipped In the seventh age There was a Councell held at Constantinople Anno 754. whereinlt was decreed by 338. Bishops in this manner Wee doe declare that all images of what nature soever made by the wicked art of the Painter be cast out of Christian Churches whosoever from this day forward shall dare to set up any images of God either in the Church or in a private house if hee be a Bishop let him bee deposed if he be a lay-man let him bee accursed Zonoras saith that in the hearing of all the people they openly forbad the worshipping of Images H. de orthodox fid l. 4. c. 17. orat de imag calling such as adored them idolater And in the yeare 794. Charles the great called a Councell of 300. Bishops of France Italie and Germany in which the second Synod of Nice which decreed the erecting and worshipping of images is refuted and condemned yea and some of the patrones of images as namely Durand and Gregorie the second professedly inveigh against all Images and Pictures made to represent the Deity or Trinitie it is unpossible saith Damascene that God who can neither bee seene by man nor circumscribed should be expressed in any shape or figure nay saith hee it is extreame madnesse and impietie to make a representation of the Godhead Ep. Greg. ad Leo. Imper. de imag in and Gregorie the second giveth this reason to Leo the Emperour why they painted not God the Father Quoniam quis sit non novimus because wee know not who hee is and the nature of God cannot be painted and set forth to mans sight In the eighth age Rhem. cont Hinc Laud. c. 20. Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes tells us that not long before his time a generall Synod was called in Germanie by Charles the great and therein by the rule of Scriptures and Fathers the Councell of Nice indeed saith he a wicked Councell touching images which some would have to bee broken in pieces and some to bee worshipped was utterly rejected In this age in the yeare
there is no controversie betweene them and us concerning the immaculate conception of our Lady whereas both Chemnitius and Reynolds many other Protestant writers have overthrowne the ground of their feast of the immaculate conception of our Lady and all reformed Churches in generall have strucke that feast out of the Calender and the title of the 15. Article of religion of Christ alone without sinne sheweth to the world that we beleeve it to be the prerogative of our blessed Saviour among all the Sonnes of Adam that he alone was free from all originall and actuall sinne And now Master Flood sith you are taken in so many and fowle untruths in one Chapter I hope the Reader will not envie you that Guerdon which Aristotle bestowes upon a lewd and lowd Lyer not to be credited when he speaketh the truth Concerning Razing of Records and clipping Authors tongues Spectacles Chap. 13. a page 435. usque ad 446. BECAVSE there have beene many bookes published this last age by occasion of Haeresie and liberty which came therewith to the great prejudice of the Catholike faith there hath beene a course taken for the restraint of all such not onely writings of Haeretikes but even of Catholikes which have any tang of haeresie and this kinde of care hath beene ever used in the Catholike Church So wee see in Scripture it selfe some that followed curiosities becomming Christians confessed their deedes and burnt their bookes Gelasius in the yeare 490. maketh a Catalogue of haereticall bookes which he forbiddeth and I would know of the Knight or any man else that cryeth so bitterly against our Index Expurgatorius what he can say against it that he may not say against this Decree and Councell of Gelasius and against which we may not defend our selves by opposing it as a buckler against all their darts Sith all swarving from the rule of faith is a declining to haeresie it appertaineth to the Catholike Roman Church which as Gelasius saith hath neither spot nor wrinkle to prevent the danger that may come by such bookes forbidding the use of them It were a more dangerous and unnaturall part in the Church not to use this care then it were in a mother that should see sugar and rats-bane lie together and seeing her child going to taste thereof should forbeare to warne it I will not stand particularly to examine every Author and justifie the inquisition onely I cannot omit one Author called Bertram whom of all men living me thinkes the Knight should never so much as have named considering how much disgrace he hath sustained by translating that booke and ventring his owne credit and the credit of his Church upon the faith thereof Another thing I am to note concerning his quoting the Canon of the Councell of Laodicea wherein first is to be noted his error in Chronologie concerning the time of this Councell which he maketh to be in the yeare 368. forty three yeares after the first Councell at Nice whereas it was celebrated before that Councell Secondly his corruption in the translation and cutting off the Canon which is thus non oportet relictâ ecclesiâ ad angelos abominandae idolatriae congregationes facere quicunque autem inventus fuerit occulte huic idololatriae vacans anathema sit Now where in this Canon doth the Knight finde the word invocation of Angells which is the thing he pretendeth to be forbidden Whereas the Knight objecteth to us the recantation of Henry Buxhorne who was sometime appointed to put in execution the tyrannicall Decree of the inquisitors and had noted 600. severall passages to be spunged and blotted out which animadversions of his he wished he could have washed away with his teares and blood his heart being smitten and his eyes open by the mercy of God I answere if such matter will serve the Knights turne he may have enough neither neede I search corners to finde out such obscure fellowes as this Buxhorne he might bring the Fathers of the Knights religion for example Luther Calvine Zuinglius Beza Carolstadius and who not for though they might pretend severall causes yet there was one principall one which consisted indeede in the smiting of their hearts with a fiery dart of carnall love and when they found an Eve to give them an Apple then their eyes were opened and so it proved also with their friend Buxhorne as I shall shew by a briefe story of his life most authentically related by that grave and Holy man Oliverius of the society of Jesus Henry Buxhorne a licentiate of Divinity c. It was not the razing then of evidences that made Buxhorne fall from his faith but there were certaine Lutheran baites wherewith many of them were catched which were aurum gloria delitiae veneres gold glory delights and Venus of which some are catched with one and some with another The Hammer IN the former Section the Iesuit shewed himselfe a prevaricatour but in this a cowardly runnagate For to the mangling of authors and razing out of Records objected against him namely this marginall note out of Stephanus his Bible Deus prohibet sculptilia fieri This Glosse upon Gratian the Priest cannot say significatively of the bread This is my Body without telling a lie Cassanders observation upon the same words that setting aside the authoritie of the Church they prove not sufficiently Transubstantiation Cassanders whole Tract concerning the Communion in both kinds Vdalricus his Epistle touching the lawfulnesse of Priests marriage Anselmes Treatise concerning the visitation of the sicke together with divers passages in Cassander against merit in Polydor Virgil against Images in Langus against Transubstantiation in Ferus against the Popes supremacie The Iesuit answereth nothing at all in particular but onely applies Salves in generall which no way heale the wounds given by the Knight to the Inquisitors as the Reader shall see by taking them off one after another and viewing the Sores To the first The Iesuits instance is wide from the purpose For those Books were not burnt by any decree of the Church much lesse the Church of Rome which was not then in being but by the owners of them to testifie their unfeined Repentance for so wee reade Acts 19.19 Many also of them brought their Bookes together and burned them before all men and they counted the price of them and found it 50000 pieces of silver Secondly these Bookes which the owners burnt of their owne accord were Bookes of such as used curious Arts that is Books of Art-magick Necromancie Sorcerie and the like Whereas the Bookes which the Romish Inquisitours either mangle or utterly deface are Christian Treatises written for the most part by them that lived and died in the bosome and peace of the Church of Rome To the second This Decree of Gelasius which the Iesuit opposeth as a Buckler against all our darts is not altogether approved by the present Romane Church for in reckoning the Canonicall bookes of Scripture the Pope there excludeth the booke
Faith or at least send their children to the Donatists to be baptized L. 1. De baptis cont Donat c. 3. Esse vero apud Donatistas baptismum illi asserunt nos concedimus because both parties granted that there was true Baptisme among the Donatists whereas the Donatists denied that there was any true Baptisme among the Catholikes or this the Indian Priests teach that it is unlawfull to take bread from the hand of a Christian the Christians teach that it is lawfull to take bread from an Indian therefore it is safer to take bread from an Indian then from a Christian or have fellowship with an Infidell Indian then with a charitable Christian because a Christian hath a better opinion of the Infidell then the Infidell hath of him as Protestants have a more charitable opinion of Papists then Papists have of them When the Iesuit is sober let him thinke how to give an answer to Bishop Morton his instance whereby he sheweth the invalidity of this mad argument of Iesuits A mad man thinketh other men to be beasts a sober man confesseth that a mad man is a man and no beast is a mad man therefore in the right or in the better case then the sober man because the sober man judgeth better of the mad man then the mad man doth of the sober Concerning the confession of all sides for the safety of the Protestant Religion Spectacles Chapter 18. Ã page 509. usque ad finem THAT the ground of safety which the Knight thinketh he taketh from Catholikes is foolish impertinent and without sense as he setteth it downe for thus he saith it is the safer way to persist in that Church where both sides agree that salvation may be had then where one part standeth single by themselves in opinion for I would know what Church is that wherein there be two sides to agree or disagree or what Church that is that doth not stand single in opinion by it selfe if it be a Church of a different faith as we speake here of a Church A Church must have unity it being a company of men all professing the same faith and Religion therefore it is plaine there is no sense in this principle of his I would aske him whether the Protestants doe not stand single as well as we by affirming of what we deny or denying what we affirme or rather whether he and his Church be not so much more single then we as they have not one on their sides for every million which we have or have had on ours By the Knights argument a man may prove any haeresie that ever was nay Iudiasme and Turcisme to be a safer way then the Catholike or even the Knights Protestant faith for Arius may say he agreeth with us Catholikes in all things save onely in the Divinity of the second Person of Trinity whom he acknowledgeth with us to be an Holy Man and that we stand single by our selves in the assertion of his Divinity Macedonius may say the same of the Holy-Ghost Nestorius of the plurality of persons in Christ Eutyches of the singularity of Natures Sergius Pyrrus and the Monothâ—lites of the unity of will in Christ Ebion Cerinthus Marcion and almost all haeretikes in their severall haeresies may say as the Knight doth of the points controverted that we stand single by our selves in them and so it is the safer way to beleeve onely that wherin they and wee agree nay the Iewes may make the same argument thus That they agree with us that there is one God Creatour of heaven and earth and that the old Testament is Canonicall Scripture for the rest wee stand single and the Turke may say that hee agreeth with us that Christ was an holy man and a Prophet for the rest wee stand single and therefore hee is in the safer way What can the Knight say for defence of his Argument For though Iewes and Turkes doe not agree with us in the profession of the Christian Faith yet I see not why that should be necessary by the Knights Argument and thereby a man may see what a good guide he is and how safe a way he goeth and whether the saying of Salomon be not truly verified of his Safe Way Prov. 14.12 There is a way which seemeth to a man straight and the end of it leadeth to death and consequently to hell for what other is the end of Heresie Judaisme and Turcisme whereto the Knights rule doth leade all such as will be ruled thereby The Hammer SEmper ego auditor tantum nunquam ne reponane Hitherto the Knight held up his Buckler and stood upon his owne defence but here hee setteth upon his Adversarie closeth with him wresteth his owne Sword out of his hand and therewith giveth him as many wounds as Iulius Caesar received in the Senate For besides the 12 Articles of Pope Pius the fourth his Creed in all which the Papists stand single hee inffanceth in eleven points more wherein the Papists agree with us in our affirmative positions but they alone maintaine their affirmative addition wherupon hee condemneth the Iesuit as Christ doth the Evill Servant in the Gospell out of his owne mouth thus That Religion is lesse safe in which the Professours stands single than that in which the parties other wayes dissident agree But in all or most of the affirmative points of Popish Religion they stand single but in all such positive points of the reformed Faith not only Papists but in a manner all Christians of the world concurre with us Therefore the Popish Religion by the Iesuits owne rule is lesse safe To illustrate this by a few instances the positive points of our Doctrine are chiefly these 1. That the three Creeds the Apostles the Nicene and that of Athanasius are to be received upon paine of damnation 2. That religious worship is due to God 3. That God is to be called upon 4. That Christ is head of the Church 5. That hee is our Mediatour and Advocate 6. That hee was conceived without sinne 7. That wee are saved by his merits and satisfaction 8. That the Scripture is a rule of Faith 9. That there are two and twenty Canonicall Bookes of the old Testament 10. That the originals in the Greek and Hebrew are authenticall 11. That there are two Sacraments of the new Testament Baptisme and the Lords Supper 12. That Children of the Faithfull are to bee christened 13. That in Baptisme water is necessarily to be used 14. That Christ is truly present at his Supper and that the worthy Receiver is by faith made spiritually partaker of the true and reall body and blood of Christ 15. That the Sacrament may be administred in both kinds 16. That the Images of Christ and his Saints may serve for Ornaments and Memorials and that there is a lawfull historicall use of them 17. That Peter had a Primacie of Order among the Apostles 18. That there are two places for soules departed