this little So that this being not a little but a great point S. Basill doth not speak against us but for us who sayes that in these great points there should be no difference Now it might be called little by some not for the little weight of the point but for the litte odds in the sound of the word so that in the little difference of a syllable the great point lay affirmed or denyed And indeed it were better that death were imbraced then any such point of divine doctrine should bee betrayed Besides â—s there a desire on our side of betraying or delivering up any lesser points of divine doctrine but rather a charitable hope that men may be saved though differing in opinion concerning some lesser matters by not knowing that they be divine doctrines or not reaching to them by a weake and inferiour degree of a faith But who so will truely judge our maine quarrell with Romists hee shall finde it to be a defence of divine doctrine against humane fictions and traditions And Romists most grossely offend against the words and example of S. Basil who permit many syllables of the divine doctrine in the second Commandement forbidding worship of imâ—ges to be left out of their Catechismes and the divine doctrine of halfe a Sacrament to be denyed and made voyd to the people and the divine doctrine of praying in a known tongue in the Church to be actually betrayed Saint Gregory Nazianzen is next who as our Author saith thus delivers himselfe Nothing can be more dangerous then those hereticks who when they run straight through all the rest doe yet with one word as with some drop of poyson infect the true and sincere faith of our Lord. If this Champion had gotten this place by his owne knowledge he could not well but take notice that the sincere faith whereof Gregory speaks is the faith contained in the Nicene Creed which Creed is set at the head of the Tractate and accordingly the one word of which hee speaks as being dangerous to the faith is the word that giveth not to Christ one Substance with the Father This word Nazianzen often names in this discourse so that the Cavalier could not well oversee it if hee had seene the place yea hee saith plainly that it lets in the Arian heresie And if it be thus this Champion is yet far from his Conclusion by this Antecedent which must thus lead the way It is most dangerous to differ in one word of the Creed which concernes a point fundamentall even the Deity of Christ therefore it is most dangerous to differ in points out of the Creed which are extra-fundamentall and of the Popes decreeing But let Romists look whether this place doe not fight against them who thrusting the word Roman after or into the word Catholick have drawne the soules of too many to beleeve in the Pope or Popish Church in stead of God and so have changed the very foundation of their faith Saint Hierome must have the same answer no man denying but that for some one word or two contrary to the faith or Creede in points fundamentall many heresies have been and ought to bee cast out of the Church It followes Saint Leo saith That out of the Catholick Church there is nothing pure According to that of the Apostle Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne But what doth this here where the question is not Whether they sin that be out of the catholick Church but Whether they be out of the catholick Church that differ in any smal point of doctrine from some other members of the same Church But because this place wants help hee adds a second If it be not one it is no faith at all We acknowledge there is but one saving and fundamentall Faith in Christ Iesus as but one Baptisme and this faith was once delivered to the Saints and the Saints still doe so uniformely receive it as that they who have any other fundamentall faith have none at all But if Romists will have faith to bee one in all points then by this Popes doctrine they have no faith for their faith is not one in all points with the one faith once delivered to the Saints nor with the faith in the time of Leo for in that one faith there was no worship of Images no universall Monarchy of the Pope no worship of Bread The Cavaliers first place of Augustine I am loth to bring forth to spare both the Cavalier and the Reader It is somewhat long but very short of the Cavaliers mark it proves against the Donatists That the Church in earth and the Church in heaven are not two Churches but one But who denyes this yea who denyes the true Church on earth to bee but one and this is the Protestants maine businesse to keep it one though differing in some lesser points of doctrine And it is our Authors businesse to breake this unity even by this place which he produceth under a shew of proving unity but not proving by it such an unity as by it hee may make a division hee is faine to set a second Buttresse to support his wall of separation Thus hee reareth it To shew moreover by the judgement of Saint Augustine that the Church in her doctrine was to be truly one hee spake thus of the Donatists who called upon the same God preached the same â—ospel sung the same Psalmes had the same Baptisme observed the same Easter and the like in those things they were with mee yet not wholly with mee in schisme not with mee in heresie not with me in a few not with mee but in regard they were not with mee in a few their being with mee in many could not help them If the Cavalier had gone on in his Allegation the very next words would have given him an answer to the objection which hee drew out of the former for those words say that the one thing wherein they were not one was Charity And the want of this hee proves out of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 13. to make all the rest unprofitable But our question is not of want of charity but of differing in some small point of faith True it is that this uncharitablenesse was back'd with an error which hee called an heresie That the Catholick Church was onely in the part of Donatus and so as Saint Augustine infers that the Church was not catholick But let our Author remember That this voucheth an Article of the Creede as denyed by the Donatists but with the denyall of any such Article he cannot charge us But yet that their error did not kill nor cut them off all from being truly of the Church except the error were accompanied with the want of that one thing which was true charity we have great probabilities if not proofes out of Optatus and Saint Augustine the former of which commonly calls them brethren and the later denies not but some of them might be
and that with a vehemencie for hee injoynes them not barely to follow but as it were to persecute even with a swift and eager prosecution to run after the things of peace yea he adjures the Philippians by all consolation in Christ and by the fellowship of the Spirit and by the bowels of mercy that they be of one accord Finally the Sonne of God our Saviour of whom Melchisedech was a type is the King of peace as well as the King of righteousnesse and his subjects who will partake of his righteousnesse must also partake of his peace Christ hath made peace betweene God and us even peace between heaven and earth not that men being at peace above with God should have discord below among themselves but the peace which is begun in heaven must come downe and dwell among his members on earth wee must be one as he and his Father are one the peace which wee receive from God by Christ wee must impart each to other yea it must rule in our hearts being called to it in one body Accordingly as wee expect peace from God through Christ so let us heare and obey Christ commanding peace amongst our selves Have peace one with another and then let us not doubt but if the Peace of God bee among us the God of peace is also with us Deus semper in pace est Where spirituall and true peace is there ever God is SECT III. That this love and peace are catholick and universall extended to all the members of Christ and that our Church by professing this Catholick love declares her selfe to be a truly Catholick Church THe two excellent and powerfull Graces Love and Peace may not be bounded by us but by God himselfe the Author and Commander of it Him must we follow in the inlarging or straitning of it and not goe from his leading to the right hand or to the left where God commands love and peace we may not forbid them neither whom God by sanctifying hath made fit for our peace must wee accompt common or uncleane and fit for separation Now the extent and bound which God appoints for our love and peace is no lesse then all the Saints even the whole body of Christ the bond of peace is not one jot shorter then the unitie of the spirit If then God have not disdained to bestow on any man his sanctifying Spirit let not man scorne on such a one to bestow his love and peace for hee that denyeth his love and peace to that man in whom is the Spirit hee denyeth his love and peace to the spirit which is in that man Therefore if God have gone before with his saving grace and sanctifying spirit let us not doubt to follow God with our love and peace Now we know that God according to his promise to Abraham hath an holy seed out of all Nations which is the catholick and universall Church if then the Church bee catholick and universall let our love and peace bee also catholick and universall And to this end our affections must be enlarged and made capable of the whole world For hee that will love a catholick Church with a catholick love must not have a narrow love contracted and confined to the measure of one City Kingdome or Nation but extended and enlarged to the measure of all Cities Kingdomes and Nations even of the whole world If that which is to bee loved bee universall the affection which loveth must not be partiall For if the love be but to a part when it should bee to the whole this is not that catholick love which belongs to the Catholick Church and whatsoever title such men may take to themselves they are not true but counterfeit Catholicks for they have not that catholick spirit of love which is in the true catholick Church and by which the catholick Church doth love it selfe with a catholick love But such men by likelihood have a private spirit by which they love a private part and faction and are short of that universall spirit which loveth the universall Church with an universall love for there is a private spirit of love aswell as of faith and it is that kind of spirit which Saint Iames mentioneth a spirit that lusteth after envie after sects and divisions But let us never rest untill wee get that catholick spirit by which we may embrace the catholick Church with a catholick love and then we may bee assured we are not titular but true and reall Catholicks Hereby wee know that wee are of the truth saith Saint Iohn and wee shall assure our hearts before God And wee know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren even the brethren without exception and reservation and hee that dwelleth in this generall and unreserved love God who is love dwelleth in him and he in God And we know that we dwell in him and hee in us because he hath given us his spirit even the spirit of this catholick and universall love Let no man therefore say of another He is of such a Nation with which my Nation is at enmity or of such a Church which professeth some differences with the Church in which I live and therefore I will by no meanes have love and peace with him but remember that in every Nation hee that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of God and therefore doe thou enquire whether this spirit of feare and holinesse be in him which those that have are accepted of God if he be accepted of God take heed hee be not rejected of thee It were a madnesse in thee for Gods sake to hate one whom God loves and for Christs sake to hate a member of Christ. Indeed if he be of a Church infected with errors thou must be wary of him that hee infect thee not with those errors but bee also wary of not hating the spirit of Christ in a member of Christ It is an Apostolicall and so an undenyable Inference If yee have put on the New-man in which is neither Greeke nor Jew Circumcision nor Uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all in all Put on therefore there is a binding force in this therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindnesse c. And above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which ye are called in one body Let us then have love and peace with a beleeving Muscovite Grecian AEthiopian Indian if hee be of that one body wherein Christ is all in all and by the unity whereof we are called to love and peace yea from this universall peace and love may not bee excluded any remnant according to the election of grace pertaining to the body of Christ though sojourning in the tents and territories of Rome we may not
a more full spectacle of them which may serve to prove that disunion which hee goes about to confute and to confute that union which hee goes about to prove SECT II. Wherein severall heads and springs of division amongst the Papists are opened 1. The controverted Supremacie of the Pope or Councels 2. Their affected ambiguity in deciding controversies 3. The great number of Questions purposely left undecided 4. The opposition betwixt the Preachers and publick Professors of that Church IN the view of this division wee may first take notice That there is an opposition and division even betweene this supposititious Head of unity and his members and even in this radicall and head-point Whether hee be the Head of unity or not for the Head is divided from much of the Body and the Body within it selfe even about the Head The Pope hee will bee above the Councell and the Councell is thought by many to bee above the Pope And this hath beene decided by Councels and by them the Councell was set above the Pope which indeed agrees much better with the Councell in the Acts and with Saint Paul to the Ephesians lately alledged yea it was made hereticall to deny this Supremacy of the Councell above the Pope And if that the Head of unity bee divided into two how can two Heads bring men onenesse yea how can two Heads but divide the Church into two Bodies It is an undeniable truth That two Masters opposing each other can never cause unity in their servants he that is at unity with some fellow-servants by cleaving to the one Master is at division with others that cleave to the other And they that maâ—e the Councell the Head and root of unity as the Councell of Constance and Basil and many that followed them especially in France how must they not needs differ from those that make the Pope to be Head and Lord of unity by a controlling power over the Councell And accordingly in those points which the Councell decreeth as by a supreme power and the Pope againe dissolves as by a supreme power how can Romists be at unity that are divided in the different beliefes of these two Supremacies Even in that point resolved in Basil That it is hereticall to beleeve the Pope not to be subject to the Councell how is it possible that Romists should bee at unity of whom a part beleeves and a part beleeves it not yea each seeme Hereticks thereby unto the other And thus if in the roote of unity there bee division how great is this division and who can shew how ever this division can bee reconciled by Romists For if there be a free Councell no doubt such a Councell will decree the Pope to be subject to it as they have good reason from Scripture and Antiquity But if the Pope be free and may command the Councell who can expect but that the Pope shall judge for himselfe and subject Councels to his headship and infallibility Behold the great Citie divided into great parts and division growing even from their roote of unity Againe many members of this Head of unity are at division about the Popes earthly Supremacy some hold that hee may onely excommunicate Kings and then can doe no more his power being meerly spirituall others hold that after excommunication hee can depose Kings yea cause their subjects to kill them a weighty controversie and hardly to be decided amongst Papists but onely by the unity of Kings agreeing together to depose Popes Againe in some things hee takes power to dispense and in the same things his Doctors say he hath not power to dispense A paterne of which opposition we may plainly and actually see in the Popes Bull of Dispensation to Henry the eighth for marrying his Brothers wife and the Testimonies under Universitie Seales of the Doctors denying him the power of this Dispensation These and the like questions concerning the power of this Head of unity make division betweene the Head and members and make division betweene the members themselves Secondly wee see divisions doe againe arise from this Head of unity because this Head leaves many things of controversie so doubtfully decided in Councels that their very decisions breed controversies And what unity is to be expected from such a Head who by decisions gives occasion of dissentions and leaves division when he sits of purpose in his Chaire under pretence of making unity So wee know Vega and Catharinus against Soto and upon the Popes Decree in the Councell of Trent entred into mighty Controversies and no wonder for it was a speciall craft in that Councell to use such generall words as might be large enough to hold two differing opinions in them and so leave the controversies not reconciled but still at liberty and distance And now againe where is that vaine shift or rather blasphemous abuse of Scripture in saying that Papists by submission to the Popes Church doe captivate themselves to the obedience of Faith and so keepe unity when the Pope having judged and they submitting to his judgement are yet in division What is this but by submitting to their meanes of unity to be still at division If the Head of unity by deciding make division how endlesse and incurable is that division Thirdly This Head of unity leaves divers controversies wholly undecided so that as it hath not been untold by some of his owne hee doth as it were leave strife and division to them In their Schoole writers bee farre more differences then disputations because divers in one disputation and perchance in one neere a thousand disputations yea in some points foure of five severall opinions each confuting one another and these not of light matters only but of many if not of all the Cavaliers prime points The catholick Church Justification of soules Communion of Saints Purgatory Indulgences Yea Doctor Iohn White in his way to the true Church Digr 24. undertaketh to demonstrate that there is no one point denied or affirmed against us wherein Papists doe not vary amongst themselves and of these differences he gives there divers patternes And many more are to bee seene in Bishop Mortons catholick Apologie And this division hath bin so deadly that we read that the Dominicans have charged the Franciscans with heresie and the Franciscans at length had the burning of foure Dominicans Let us hear a strong Dominican and a cathedrall Professor describing the differences of these Romists even to the charging one another with heresie It often fals out that one Divine doth most constantly affirm that he hath a Theologicall demonstration for some point of doctrine and that hee deduceth it by evident consequence from the sacred Scriptures and the traditions of the Fathers But then another on the contrary doth most certainly affirme that hee hath a Theologicall demonstration that this is heresie and an error in faith and that the contrary is deduced from scriptures by evident consequence Hence he saith of the
Wherein a vaine boast of the Romists confidence in maintaining their Religion by Excommunications is confuted And an inconsiderate charge That treason is pretended against Papists Priests in this Realme because wee dare not avow the punishing them for heresie is retorted BUt I wonder no lesse that this Cavalier should withall boast of his Catholicke Church That shee is so farre from obliging a man that beleeves not in his heart as shee teacheth under pecuniary mulcts to repaire to her Service and Sacraments that she will by no meanes admit him thereunto till hee have first cleared himselfe of that suspicion and sufficiently shewed himselfe free from any such want of beliefe For first what kind of converts are those whom Rome from whatsoever heresie converteth by the Faggot and admits to her Sacraments And is there not very just cause to suspect that they beleeve not from the heart all that she teacheth or at least doe not sufficiently shew themselves free from any such want of beliefe when they are turned to their new faith onely by such woodden arguments Secondly it seemes this Authours Catholicke Church is not the same Catholicke Church whereof Optatus and Saint Austin were members For Catholickes of that Church did compell men to Church by penalties that did not altogether beleeve in their heart as the Church taught And wee know the Churches intent is to bring them to heare and by hearing to beleeve what shee teacheth and so to fit them for the Sacraments Thirdly Bellarmine himselfe confesseth that the Church hath used such meanes for the reducing of Heretickes and in the very terms which the Authour denieth Pecuniary mulâ—ts And whereas our Authour eftsoones speakes of Ostiarii set to keep out men of contrary beliefe what knowne Protestant in France is hindered or at least how commonly are they admitted by the imaginary Ostiarii to bee present at the Masse And in the Archdukes Court Protestants have come to the Masse and known to bee such by most notorious Papists though they came in only to see the acting of it Secondly what Ostiarii did put off Catharinus for holding contrary to Trent That a man by faith may bee sure of his salvation Or Cajetan for holding That infants dying without Baptisme might be saved Who puts off the French that hold the Councell to be above the Pope a point of faith much differing from the present faith of Rome That which followeth I thinke at the first reading may appeare to bee the meere swelling of one that hath drunke the poysoned cup in the hand of the Scarlet Lady This Church enriched and endowed with the holy Ghost proceeds like a body which knowes it selfe to belong to an omnipotent head and feares not to avow both what it saith and what it doth And as on the one side shee expresses all the suavity which can bee conceived and is most ready to wrap up the most enormious sinners of the world and the most mortall enemies which shee hath in the very bowels of her compassion if they will come to God in the way of Penance For can the Reader keep himselfe from laughter when he seeth the lofty description of this Romish fortitude and withall seeth the low pusillanimity and meannesse of the Pope taking in an Excommunication denounced against the State of Venice without penance and satisfaction and so neither avowing what it saith nor what it doth to the plain disavowing of that which this Cavalier saith Againe doth not this Church proceed much rather like a body ruled with a head possest not with a seventh vertue but with many of the seven deadly sinnes whereof a great one is Covetousnesse For doe wee not reade that which may make a modest Romist to blush when hee reades it when the Popes owne souldiers and servants fight for his supremacy a principall point of their forged and fictitious faith he by mony hath been brought from avowing what hee said for those servants and their services It followes Shee goes on so farre if shee see cause to separate them in the quality of Heretickes from her communion and proceeds not against them as against Traytors to Princes or States according to that poore shift of Protestants whose guilty consciences make them not dare though their hearts bee well bent that way to punish our Priests capitally as for a corrupt Religion but they set upon them false and impudent pretexts of Treason First We acknowledge that the Pope doth outgoe this Authour with his Excommunication for hee goes on so farre not onely when hee sees cause but when hee sees no cause to separate from his Communion even without any proofe of heresie for what cause was there seene of excommunicating the King of Navarre out of his Kingdome in the quality of an heretick who was taken for a Romist especially since it is recorded that the King of Spaine's conscience in his death-bed was not satisfied with the Pope's eye-sight of the cause but spake as seeing cause of Restitution where the Pope pretended cause of Excommunication And what cause had the Venetians given of Excommunication when their Restitution without penance shewes plainely that they were without cause excommunicated And what cause had the Pope for excommunicating Queene Elisabeth and giving away her Kingdome And whereas you say Shee proceeds not against them as against Traytors to Princes or States This is so true that I cannot confute it But to make your truth yet more true I must also add this That your Papacy proceeds against Protestants because they will not bee Traytors to Princes or States as appeares by the penance of the Irish Pilgrime formerly mentioned and by the Bull of Pius quintus where hee curseth and excommunicateth those subjects that will not bee Traytors to their Soveraigne And indeed by that Bull the Papists themselves were exceedingly troubled betweene two feares one of being tyed with the cords of this excommunication for want of Treason and another of being tyed up for Treason in obeying this Excommunication Which griefe with the remedy thereof I finde thus described by Master Hart a not unlearned Romist The Bull of Pius quintus for so much of it as is against the Queene is holden among the English Catholicks for a lawfull sentence and a sufficient discharge of her subjects fidelity and so remaines in force but in some points touching the Subjects it is altered by the present Pope For where in that Bull all her subjects are commanded not to obey her and shee being excommunicated and deposed all that doe obey her are likewise innodate and accursed which point is perillous to the Catholicks for if they obey her they bee in the Popes curse and if they disobey her they are in the Queenes danger therefore the present Pope to releeve them hath altered that part of the Bull and dispensed with them to obey and serve her without perill of Excommunication which Dispensation is to endure but till it please
the point then the Chapter hath been hitherto to the Title You say there are great differences between the Protestants and you about the understanding of the Article of the descent of Christ into Hell and the other of the holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints c. But what doe you here talk of differences in understanding fundamentals where the present question is Whether the Protestants doe acknowledge their fundamentalls to bee contained in the Creed For if Protestants declare that their fundamentals are contained in the Creed then your Title is gone which saith That they do not nor dare not declare them And surely it will aske a greater strength and a farre bigger volume then Charity mistaken to prove that Protestants doe not rightly understand the Articles of the Creed But secondly the Authours objection is grounded not onely upon a new but upon a false supposition if his fellow Romists may bee Judges For his supposed proposition is this That all the Articles in the Creed are Fundamentall Now this is different from the first proposall of our opinion That all fundamentall Articles are in the Creed It is also denied by his owne fellowes For though all fundamentall Articles be there yet they say that some Articles that are there may not bee fundamentall or explicitely to be known upon losse of salvation as before hath been shewed out of Vasquez and Azorius Therefore to stand upon a different understanding of those Articles which are denied by your owne men to bee Explicites or doubted is besides the matter But thirdly Do we differ from you in understanding those points What is that to the point undertaken in the end of the last Chapter and promised to be shewed in this That wee differ among our selves in the number of Fundamentalls You are now gone â—â—om our ridiculousnesse by differing in the number of fundamentalls and are come to a ridiculousnesse of your owne by your differing from us in the false understanding of some Articles of the Creed which all your owne Prophets doe not account Fundamentals But you add It is to little purpose to know or confesse that the Creede containes all Fundamentals unlesse there were some certaine way to understand them right This is againe a ranging from shewing our differences among our selves or that wee have not these Fundamentals Yet I answer Wee have a certaine and the best way of understanding them right wee have a learned Ministery endued with gifts from on high which teacheth and preacheth these Fundamentals and the right meaning of them And the right meaning thus taught the Spirit in the hearers doth so discover and certifie the truth of them that the hearers see the Articles to bee Gods truth and not mans And accordingly their faith thus beleeving them resteth on God as the sole Foundation of their faith and this teaching of the Catholick Church wee use commend and allow But that The single Article of the holy Catholick Church should containe the reason of all our faith fundamentally seemes to mee an high kinde of Blasphemie And this blasphemous doctrine as wee have before shewed is the very spirit of Popery or Antichrist which sets up the Pope in Gods place and makes his beleevers truely Papists or Antichristians And this great offence and mysterie of iniquitie carryeth Papists by throngs into the Land of darknesse and into this secret of theirs the soules of the saved may not enter True it is that God useth the service of the Ministers or if you will of the Church in publishing the Articles of faith but no other Foundation of supernaturall faith there is but God himselfe though speaking by man unto man the Fundamentality of our faith passeth through man that is the instrument and resteth wholly upon God But saith hee If wee understand it otherwise the Scripture it selfe speakes of particular errours which are damnable in them by whom they are imbraced and yet they are not at all against any expresse Doctrine of the Creed As namely where Saint Paul calls it a Doctrine of Divels to forbid marriage and meates c. I answer first That the Authour hereby proves that which wee deny not and disproves not that which hee saith wee affirme For the point is not Whether there bee any damnable errours besides those that are against some expresse doctrine of the Creede But Whether there bee in the Creede those fundamentall points which being truely beleeved will cause unity with Christ the Head and unity with his Body the Church Other errours against other Truths in Scripture not fundamentall wee acknowledge there are many and proceeding from the Divell the Father of Lyes and in themselves damnable to such as hold not the true Foundation Christ Jesus by beleeving Fundamentals And it is to bee feared that such are many of those true Papists whose foundation is the Pope But otherwise they may bee rather damnable in themselves then actually damning to those who by infirmities hold them and by beleeving fundamentals are in Christ Jesus to whom there is no condemnation Secondly not onely Fathers in their Rules of faith but the Romists themselves doe not place the lawfulnesse of meates and marriage among their chiefe Heads of Christianitie or Explicites and Fundamentals and therefore this Authour doth ill require of us that which hee cannot obtaine of his fellowes Wherefore let him first make this objection against them and when hee hath their Answer then let him take it for us But being unhappily as well as impertinently fallen into the mention of these damnable errours hee saw that as soone as they were brought in they looked at least asquint on the Church of Rome and claymed kindred of her And therefore hee thought that there was need of an Apologie to put off this kindred and acquaintance Which by the way is not to bee understood of the chastity and fasts of the Catholick Church as Protestants doe most perversely affirme which knowes that those things are lawfull but that yet it is most gratefull to God when his servants for his love deprive themselves of those delâ—ghts But of the Heresies of the Manichâ—es as Saint Augustine doth expressely declare who forbad both marriage and meates as being abominable and impure through the institution thereof which they said was derived from a certaine second ill conditioned god of their owne making But this nor all the water in the Sea will wash away all the kindred betweene Romists and these errours For though Saint Augustine may apply this Prophecie to the Manichees yet may hee not also apply them to the Montanists Tertullian himselfe acknowledging that they have beene taxed out of this very place And if to the Montanists why not to those Romists who with Durandus maintaine a curse and so an impurity of flesh and cleannesse of fish who also forbid marriage to Priests which this place plainly condemneth And whereas this Authour talkes of voluntary deprivation it is certaine that
many whatsoever this Authour saith have not deprived themselves voluntarily of marriage but have taken it upon them as a yoke and burden which neither they nor their Predecessors were able to beare many sinking under it unto the very pit of Hell And let them labour with their wits and pennes so much as they can they will never by reason nor by the lives of their Priests disprove Christs truth That all men cannot receive it nor prove their owne untruth That all men can receive it And surely the Fornications Adulteries Murders and pollutions that have issued from this Law of Coelibate I doubt not cry aloud to heaven against Rome as once against Sodome for that sore to which it is condemned Hee adds further In like manner Saint Peter saith That Saint Paul in his Epistles had written certaine things which were hard to bee understood and which the unlearned and unstable did pervert to their destruction Saint Augustine declares upon this place that the places misunderstood concerned the doctrine of Iustification which some misconceived to bee by faith alone by occasion of what Saint Paul had writ to the Romanes and of purpose to countermine that errour hee saith that Saint James wrote his Epistle and proved therein that good works were absolutely necessary to the Act of Iustification Hereupon wee may observe two things the one That an errour in this point alone is by the judgement of Saint Peter to worke their destruction who imbrace it And the other That the Apostles Creede which speakes no one word thereof is no good Rule to let us know all the fundamentall points of faith To this I answer First That this Authour goes on still upon a false ground as if wee said that all errours in faith that may damne men were fundamentall and expressely against some Article of the Creede Whereas wee have often affirmed That any errour though not fundamentall may damne men that by a lively faith hold not rightly the fundamentals and so are without Christ. And it seemes that these men were not well grounded and founded by fundamentals in Christ Jesus whom Saint Peter calls unlearned and unstable and their errour the errour of the wicked A generation of vipers turne wholesome food into poyson and abuse Scriptures to their owne condemnation But secondly That faith doth not justifie but that good workes are absolutely necessarie to the Act of Iustification is most untrue and against Saint Augustine himselfe Untrue for a man is justified by faith in Christ and not by his owne merits which in your language are good workes as divers of your owne Authours affirme And a man in the instant of his Justification may dye before he hath had time to do good works and yet his Justification may be good And it is against Saint Austin even in the same place whence the former saying of Saint Peter is taken where you may find that commonly knowne sentence of his Opera sequuntur justificatum non praecedunt justificandum Good works follow justification and doe not goe before it So that whiles this Authour observes two things hee gives more then two scandalls to his Reader For first hee chargeth falsly not Saint Austin onely but Saint Iames with holding this errour That good workes were absolutely necessary to the act of justification And then secondly he will make him to say that the not holding of this errour is an errour which may worke their destruction that embrace it Yea thirdly that the Apostles Creed is no good rule to let us know all the fundamentall points of faith because it speakes no one word to teach us that the Cavaliers errour is a fundamentall point of faith Lastly his owne Doctors doe bring into their Explicites our faith in Christs passion resurrection for justification but not this his Article That good workes are absolutely necessary to the act of justification And if they doe not why doth hee require it of us in our fundamentalls SECT II. Wherein his Exceptions against the 39. Articles of Religion established in this Church are answered BUt having quarrelled in vaine with the Creed to prove the insufficiency of it for fundamentalls now hee comes to the Articles where he thus begins Others say that the Booke of the 39. Articles declares all the fundamentall points of Faith according to the Doctrine of the Church of England but this also is most absurdly affirmed For as it is true that they declare in some confused manner which yet indeed is extremely confused what the Church of England in most things beleeves so it is true that they are very carefull that they bee not too clearly understood And therefore in many Controversies whereof that Book speakes it comes not at all to the main difficulty of the question between them and us and especially in those of the Church and Free-will While the Authour speaks of a confused manner and which is extremely confused his words do returne upon himselfe and his owne discourse For that he may make his discourse confused it seemes hee makes use of this doubtfull word Declare For if wee say That the Booke of Articles declares our fundamentalls of faith wee doe not say it declares all the knots of questions which are between us and the Romists For it is well knowne there are divers controversies between us and the Romists which are not of fundamentalls And neither the Fathers in their rules of Faith neither Romists in their Explicites doe declare the knots of questions which may arise even concerning fundamentalls themselves if the fundamentalls be so expressed that their true and saving sense may bee received and beleeved by the working of that Spirit which makes Christs sheep to hear Christs voice They that thus beleeve shall bee saved though they know not all the knots which cunning and erring men doe make They that write rules of Faith Explicites and Fundamentalls doe not in the same undertake to write all knots of controversies which concerne them And the Cavalier doth not find them in his owne Doctors among their Explicites wherefore the answer which he makes for them let him take for us Secondly for his particulars of the Church and Free-will First for the Church Doth our Church hold that the visibility and inerrability of the Church are fundamentalls And if shee doe not how can this Authour accuse her for not shewing fundamentalls because she shewes not those points which she doth not hold to be fundamentall The Church is not the foundation of the Church but she her selfe is built on that onely foundation Christ Jesus And even your owne men are not agreed about making the Article of the Church one of the Explicites or at least agree not in declaring these points of controversies concerning her to be explicitely beleeved And for Free-will I might aske first Doth this Authour find in any of his Doctors this knot of Free-will for an Explicite But secondly Doth the Councell of