places of his body as there were seuerall wounds in the same shed his most pretious bloud for the sinnes of the world and redemption of mankind if after all this done and suffered for man he should haue left him no certayne meanes or infallible way for his obteyning the fruites therof by discerning betweene heresy and Catholicke religion 50. Furthermore since heresy as all ancient and moderne Orthodoxe Deuines notify is nothing els but to choose or make choice that is yet more plainly to adhere obstinately to a mans owne priuate opinion and proper election when soeuer different points of religion are proposed vnto him if thē there be not some perspicuous apparant rule and reason left by Christ to conuince vnto ech mans conscience and vnderstanding or at least to make a sufficient conuiction which is truth and which is not which is Heresy and which is Verity which to be imbraced and which is to be abandoned I say if this way rule and reason be not most clearely left in the Church whereby a man may guide him selfe then why may not a man make his proper choice and vse that benefit of his owne election in spirituall matters which God hath bestowed vpon him in morall and ciuill affaires permitting therin a choice to his free will Why may he not choose or be a chooser which in our sense and the Churches acception and appropriation of the word importeth an Hereticke without so greiuous and damnable a sinne as Heresie is by vs already disclosed to be Why should a man be damned by his owne iudgment be left inexcusable for that no plea of pretended ignorance will serue his turne since being such a chooser or hereticall man as S. Paul calleth him and brandeth him for he cannot say Nemo corripuit as S. Chrysostome S. Ambrose Theophilact Oecumenius ioyntly expound the place For if the meanes and way of conuiction decision be not infallible it should seeme that man may make his choice but this particuler choice and election out of a mans owne head and priuate iudgment which makes a choosier or Hereticall man is seuerely prohibited and condemned and that by the iudgment of S. Paul as you haue heard at large therfore it must follow by force of necessary and ineuitable consequence that Almighty God out of the depth of his mercy wisdome equity and piety hath left vnto vs some euident vniuersall certaine and infallible way for deciding of all doubts and controuersies in Religion For so he promised when Isay prophesied thus saying That at the comming of Christ there shal be a holy path and a way and it shall be vnto you a direct way so as fooles may not erre therin Thus he prophesied And is there any doubt that he performed it Hath he promised and shall not he make it good Hath he spoke it shall he alter the thing that is gone out of his lippes Atheisme Heresy and Infidelity may question it but all religion piety and Christianity will vndoubtedly belieue the same 51. Wherfore this ground being presupposed and granted as a chiefe principle in Christian Religion that there is some such way left vnto vs whither we must haue recourse in all doubtfull causes and controuersies of Religion the Question then is betwixt the Protestants and those of the Catholicke Roman Religion where and what this way is how we may come to the notice of it and in what manner it is to be followed after it is once found out The Protestant commonly of what Sect or faction soeuer he be auerreth that the written word of Canonicall Scripture is this infallible way directory-guid and this he doth not in my conscience so much for any honour and reuerence that he beareth vnto the oracles of Gods sacred Writ as he would falsely beare the world in hand he doth but only vpon an hereticall intent that he may auoid therby the iudgement of the Church And no meruaile for Qui malè agit odit lucem the guilt of his Heresy flyeth the censure of the Church Some others do add that when the Canon of Scripture is not perspicuous and obuious vnto euery man then for explication of the word they may inquire of the spirit of God which inspireth ech man and that will instruct him and lead him vnto all truth But now this falsely supposed and imaginary spirit can be no infallible rule of direction For that S. Iohn hath giuen vs a Caueat touching these false spirits Beloued belieue not euery spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false Prophets are gone sorth into the world And was not this the common tricke of all condemned Heretickes and heresies Did they not all of them plead the spirit of God against the liuely authority and speaking voice of the Church Doth not the whole ranke of ancient Fathers that wrote against thē thunder out that terrible comminatiō threatning a fearefull woe and vengeance vnto all priuate lying and deceyuing spirits Vae illis qui sequuntur spiritum suum Woe be vnto them that follow their owne spirit Lastly haue not all ancient Heresies and Heretickes Arians Nestorians Pelagians c. beene vniustly condemned and therefore must not their heresies be raked out of the ashes of Hell againe and set fresh footing in the Church if the rule of interpreting Scripture be ech man his priuate spirit It cannot be denyed for that all of them vaunted of the spirit as the Sectaries do at this day Well then the conclusion is that this vaunting of the spirit is nothing else but a horrible belying and presumptuous blaspheming of the spirit of God making that spirit of vnited verity a spirit of distracted heresy And therfore this their priuate spirit can be no rule to direct them any longer And so much of this way in following euery man his owne spirit 52. And now for the former way of following Canonicall Scriptures for this only rule and sure direction though this be euer to be graunted as most true that the holy Scriptures breathed by the instinct of the spirit be diuine and of infallible truth and direction when they are by the Church both known to be Scriptures rightly interpreted by the assistance of the spirit in the Churches voice sense yet forasmuch as the Scriptures sublimity fitteth not with euery meane and ordinary capacity for the most part of people are vnlearned and cannot read or vnderstand what they read much lesse those learned tongues wherein the Scriptures were originally written It followeth euidently that the Scriptures alone can be no sure vniuersall infallible way for the discerning of Catholicke Religion and discouering of heresie Or at least wise this rule is not generall to all as it ought to be for as much as all must haue sufficient meanes left for their saluation 53. But here me thinketh I heare the Protestāt obiect that howsoeuer the Scripture is no way for the
Region 94. And in all this we haue not iustly offended the King our Soueraigne let heauens Tribunall be witnesse of our innocency and we must against all detractions and calumniations of our vniust aduersaries plead yt also before your Matie And this same change in like manner will I hope and pray for in your Maiesty and with this hope will I for this time againe dutifully depart frō your Highnes and passe to the Christian Reader to examine now in particuler the foure heades most Prudently and Religiously proposed and resolued vpon by your Matie The God of Salomon inspire into your Princely breast the wisdome of Salomon and make your Matie as an Angell of god that you may discerne betwixt the right hand the left the right and the wronge Catholicke Religion and Hereticall innouation that you may be able to put a difference betwixt those of your Subiects that serue God and such as feare him not THE SECOND CHAPTER THAT TREATETH THE FIRST HEAD TOVCHED BY THE KINGS MAIESTY for try all of a Christian Catholicke which is the belieuing of holy Scriptures AMONGST those principall groundes seriously acknowledged and confidētly yet religiously auerred by his Excellent Matie of England for testifying conuincing himselfe to be a Christian Catholicke King and no Hereticke the first in place and order of method if we duly respect the inestimable weight of the diuine heauenly subiect was zealously asseuered by his Royall Person in these very wordes following to wit As for the Scriptures no man doubteth I will belieue them but euen for the Apocrypha I hold them in the same accompt that the Ancients did Which pious assertion of his Matie I for my part belieue with all my hart and be it euer farre from me to imagin otherwise of my Soueraigne in intertayning any the least sinister opinion or suspition but that He giueth his full consent and assent vnto all God his sacred Writ which He esteemeth to be Canonicall Scriptures and that He reuerenceth in like manner the other as heere he sayth distinguishing them by the names of Apocripha as writinges compiled by good and holy men but yet for such as are secundae lectionis or ordinis and not Canonicall or sufficient for so are his Maiesties wordes wherupon alone to ground any article of faith except it be confirmed by some other place of Canonicall Scripture So his Maiesty doth piousty I doubt not and with great discretion in his sense auerre 2. But yet I must ingenuously confesse that imploying my selfe somewhat seriously in my priuate meditatiōs and most secret silence about this subiect many difficulties occurred diuers were the Considerations that presented themselues vnto me as my mind began to be somewhat earnesty bent about this busines and these I haue thought good to impart vnto the Christian Reader in this place as they ensue The first Consideration AND first if this were all that on Scriptures behalfe there were no more to be required to proue make a man a Christian Catholicke but a franke and ingenious acknowledgement to assent vnto and to belieue all those Scriptures which we deeme for Canonicall in our opinion and for the sense to iudge it agreeable and correspondent to our own priuate imaginations I say if this were all all controuersies of Religion betwixt all parties neuer so opposite different in opinion might easily no doubt surcease and speedily without either further delay or difficulty be accorded for that all sides and parties do freely and voluntarily offer to professe this point and that as I verily thinke from their hartes 4. But alas this is neyther all nor any sound part of all all is but we deeme and we iudge this is Scripture and this is the sense here is nothing in all but that which marreth all that in the very maine point which should make all and that is proper choice priuate election which we know by that which hath bene formerly treated and sufficiently proued must needes be heresy and consequētly this mayne ground of Scripture it selfe thus from our selues taken and thus laid for auoiding of heresy openeth the very mayne gap vnto all heresy And yet I must here though now with no small griefe and vexation of spirit I do remember it liberally acknowledge that for some yeares togeather when I framed Religion in the shop of my owne brayne proper inuention and priuate glosses as all Sectaries vsually do I was so hartily affected sincerely as I thought delighted yea as it were rauished with this alluring consideration and best pleasing perswasion of Sacred Scriptures alone whose sole authority I seemed to my selfe then to follow and no other humane or terrene motiue whatsoeuer no not so much as once reflecting backe vpon the authority of the Church whence as I receaued the Scriptures themselues so much more ought I to haue receaued the sense as I thought my selfe more then halfe in heauen when God knoweth I was ready to tumble into the pit of hell thinking this way of the Scriptures alone of all other waies the most infallible and so certaine as that I could not possibly erre therby 5. And being in this peremptory presuming veine and straine of Scriptures to adde as it were fuell vnto the fire of this my strong conceipted imagination I often tymes remembred and with wonderfull admiration repeated yea reiterated againe and againe that animous couragious heroicall sentence and speach of Apostolicall and Propheticall fortitude as to me it then seemed of Luther himselfe who alleadging Scriptures for his cause and contemning all other proofes thus triumphantly insulted ouer King Henuy the eight Hic sto hic sedeo hic glorior hic triumpho hic insulto c. Here I stand here I sit here I do glory here I do triumph here I do insult ouer Papists Thomists Henricistes and Sophistes and all the gates of hell much more ouer the sayings of men be they neuer so holy God his word is aboue all the diuine Matie maketh for me so as I passe not if a thousand Augustines a thousand Cyprians and a thousand King Henries Churches should stand against me God cannot erre nor deceiue but Augustines and Cyprians may erre and haue erred So he 6. And truely this bould kind of free speach affected me very much as then for that it seemed to me simply to proceed out of the exceeding great confidence of his cause and me thought that I felt and perceiued some part and measure of the same spirit in my selfe at that time which brought me also to this peremptory resolution to wit that whatsoeuer I spake forth of Scriptures or could make but the least shew of wordes and warrant for out of Gods holy booke that must nedes be true certaine and infallible in the very selfe same sense that I speake it and could not possibly no not by men or Angells be controlled The same spirit also did I obserue in many others of
are no Catholicke Christians do professe the same as hath bene already euidently shewed that is to say they will openly beare the world in hand that they build their whole Religion vpon the maine foundation of the Scriptures wheras notwithstanding it is out of question that they rather build vpon their owne idle heades and fanaticall spirits forsomuch as they deduce their acknowledgement of Scriptures and the interpretation thereof from their owne braine sense and priuate fancy and not from any more stable authority at all 21. This is made euident and perspicuous if we exnmine any the least sect or sectary in the world or compare many of sundry sectes togeather for that euery one of them though as opposite among themselues as heauen and hell light and darkenes God and Beliall yet will all pretend to build vpon God his word all will appeale vnto Scriptures the Lutheran Caluiuist Anabaptist Brownist Protestant and euery other sectary but when you tye them to the point bring them to the examination of the Scriptures question them concerning these two particulers to wit which is Scripture how it is to be vnderstood then do they appeare in the liuely colours of Heretickes then do they discouer their owne hereticall fancies to be both all and the chiefe groundes that euer they had to build their religion vpon as by the ensuing Considerations will better appeare in both the heads before touched The third Consideration IF the Oracle of the Prophets and Apostles the diuine VVrit I meane so called because the holy Scriptures were written by the ministery of Propheticall and Apostolicall men be in their owne nature of that sublime excellency and transcendent eminency as hath bene formerly decyphered and discouered vnto vs If the authority of the said sacred Writ be not humane but diuine not the word of any mortall mā nor proceding frō any earthly spirit but the word of the immortall God breathed nō his heauenly spirit and consequently if it be not in it selfe most holy sacred sure certaine and of infallible truth then let vs assuredly know that as on the one side it is a capitall crime of sacriledge to decree any thing for Scripture which is not or to intrude any humane writing into the participation or association of Gods Diuine word so it is a sinne no lesse damnable on the other side to call rashly into question or to disauthorize any part or parcell of that which is Scripture indeed or to deny therunto the honour due to diuine and sacred Writ and therfore it highly importeth vs aswell in the one as in the other to mannage our selues with all humility sobriety modesty and circumspection in a matter so weighty as the Scripture is and so neerely concerning the eternall saluation or damnation of our soules 23. Now then if the point standeth thus it behoueth vs indeed if in any other matter then especially in this to vse all carefull and exact diligence that we may find out that certaine rule and infallible direction before mentioned that by the immediate guidance thereof we may most certainely attaine vnto this to wit to know what is truly Scripture and what is not if euer this were necessary then much more in these later and worser daies and times of schisme and heresie when as no small controuersies are stirred vp about the same 24. For wheras so many dangerous Sects and heresies of perdition to speake in the phrase of the holy Ghost are raised vp from hell in these our vnfortunate times vnfortunate indeed in respect or them and that within the compasse of one age since one luxurious Luther opened the first gappe to the generall detection all which schismes and heresies as before hath bene notifyed couertly shroud themselues vnder the name and pretensed veile of Scripture the first contention and now most necessary question to be discussed with them is what books of the Bible or partes therof are truely Scripture what are to be wiped away to be cut offrō the sacred Canō of holy writ and all to this end that we may vndoubtedly know vpon what groundes we may stand safely in citing authorities from thence 25. Furthermore forasmuch as all the bookes of the sacred Bible Gods holy volume haue cōmonly anciētly hitherto bene deuided into these three orders or rankes the first into such as were neuer called into questiō by Catholick men though there neuer wanted hereticks calling thēselues Christians reformed Christians as the Protestants do at this day that impugned the same as the Basilidims and the Marcionists reiecting the ould Testament as indited by an euill God and Faustus Manichaeus contemning all the foure Ghospelles as written by impostors 26. The second into such bookes as albeit some men did for some time doubt whether they were Canonicall or not yet afterwardes they are receiued into Canon by the whole Church that is held for diuine books written by the spirit of God and of such infallible truth as they may be a Canon or rule or sure direction vnto our infirmity for any thing that is found in them For so S. Augustine from the Etimology of the word describeth the meaning of the word Canonicall being applied as a fit Epethete vnto the Scriptures 27. The third order is into such bookes which notwithstanding they go ordinary in the common Bibles and containe in them many good morall instructions of piety and were sometimes by some particuler men esteemed for essentiall partes of the Scripture yet were they neuer so accompted by the vniuersall Church and therfore they are called Apecrypha that is hidden or obscure for that their authority was neuer receaued or published generally in the Church and for such are reckoned the third and fourth of Esdras the Appendix of the booke of Iob the booke of Hieremy intituled Pastor the prayer of King Manasses and finally the 151. Psalme 28. I say now this tripartite diuision of holy Writ being thus generally admitted and receiued by all orthodoxe Deuines doth it not concerne euery man that is carefull of his soules saluation to inquire diligently after the pursuite and knowledg of these things especially in this generall sommoning and appealing of all vnto the Scriptures for the finall decision of all Controuersies 29. And now to speake something to the point concerning these three rankes and orders of books The third of these is generally reiected by all as well Catholickes as Protestants the first is admitted by all All the question then is concerning the second and this comprehendeth sundry bookes both of the old and new Testament as of Hester Baruch certaine parcelles of Daniel the bookes of Tobias Iudith Sapientia Ecclesiasticus and the first and second of Machabees out of the ould Testament and certaine parts of the Ghospell of S. Marke S. Luke and S. Iohn with the Epistles of S. Iames S. Iude the 2. of S. Peter the 2. and 3. of S. Iohn and the Apocalyps
proue that this Catholicke visible Church doth not consist of the good and elect only which is another erroneous position of Protestant Religion and proued largely by S. Augustine to haue bene the heresy of the Donatists and Pelagians their bretheren but of good and bad togeather vnto the worlds end and for confirmation thereof he doth produce interpret those Parables vsed by our Sauiour Matth. 3. to wit of the good corne and chaffe in the floore and of the net cast into the sea that brought vp both good and bad fish and lastly of the weedes and good corne commaunded to be permitted to grow togeather Vpon which place S. Leo the first giueth the glosse thus In extremo iudicio sunt quaedam vrenda flammis sunt alia condenda horreis In the last iudgement some things are to be burned with the flames of dānation other thinges are to be gathered into Gods granary All these places and many more both S. Augustine S. Leo many of the Fathers do interprete of the good and bad that are promiscuously mixed in the Church togeather Do our Protestants follow these expositions 57. Thirdly my foresaid Authour goeth yet further for prouing of a third assertion as contrary to the Protestants as they are opposite vnto truth to wit that this publike and visible Church granted once by Protestants themselues to haue bene the true Church could neuer faile or euer fall away to the worlds end For prouing of which assertion he alleageth sundry passages of holy Writ farre different for interpretation from the Protestants sense His wordes be That Church saith he that was once of all Nations he meaneth the Catholicke is it not now Hath it perished They say so that are not in her O impudent voice Is not she because thou art not in her This abominable and detestable voice full of presumption and falsity susteined by no truth illuminated by no wisedome seasoned with no salt vaine temerarious precipitate and pernicious is preuented and refuted by the holy Ghost c. And then doth he cyte seuerall places of Scripture to proue that notwithstanding all exposition and contradiction of Hereticks that the said visible Church bring once collected of all Nations and placed vpon the open hill and mount of this world and conspicuous vnto the eyes of al could neuer possibly vanish away againe or fall frō Christ as Protestants do falsely charge the Mother Romā Church and consequently they would neuer agree to expound these Scriptures as S. Augustine did But whom shall we rather belieue VVhether is a Luther or a Caluin or S. Augustine to be followed Or which Church his or this of the Protestants is likest to go neare the truth and to light vpon the true meaning of the holy Ghost in expoūding these Scriptures For certaine I am their expositions vary and are repugnant one to the other 58. And in this manner might I proceed in disclosing this great Doctor and famous pillar of the Church S. Austine his iudgement for the exposition of Scriptures concerning all controuersies or the most of them betweene the Catholickes and the Protestants at this day wherein the sayd Father is no lesse perspicuous and copious then as if being an eye-witnesse and an eare-witnesse of all poynts now controuerted he had written in these very dayes of sirife amongst vs. And eyther this is or I know not what can be a manifest demonstration that the holy Ghost guided the pen of this worthy Doctor to taxe and prescribe against the manifould heresies of our times As for example touching the doctrine of Purgatory whome Doctor Field out of a fanaticall spirit and spirit of heresie surchargeth and falsely traduceth of heresy what writer of this time can deliuer and set downe his opinion more resolutely then he doth his prouing the same irrefragably both by the allegation and exposition of sundry passages of holy Scripture as namely by those wordes of our Sauiour Matth. 12. It shall not be remitted vnto him eyther in this life or in the next Whereupon this great Doctor inferreth that some sinnes are remitted in the next consequently there must be a Purgatory And so that place of S. Paul 1. Cor. 3. Euery mans worke shal be tryed by the fire of what sort it is S. Augustine doth also apply to proue the same purging fire to remaine for some sinnes or bad workes in the next life And these expositions of Scripture confirming Purgatory deliuered by S. Augustine and oftentimes reiterated in his workes were neuer reprehended by any as false nor the Father taxed as teaching any erroneous doctrine dissonant from the doctrine and beliefe of the Catholicke Church which doubtlesse he could neuer haue escaped had his assertion of Purgatory bene erroneous liuing in the age of S. Ambrose S. Hierome and other learned Fathers who wanted neyther learning nor zeale to haue both matched him and confuted him had he swarued in ought from sound faith and the doctrine of their present Church and consequently Purgatory was then held for no errour or heresy And the like I might aboundantly proue in many other pointes both out of S. Augustine and sundry other of like antiquity learning and sanctity 59. Finally the conclusion of all this mayne Chapter and Treatise of sacred Scriptures must of necessity fall out to be this that not all belieuing of Scriptures nor appealing vnto Scripture nor sensing of Scriptures nor presuming of the spirit is sufficient to make a man a Christian Catholick for that as hath beene formerly noted forth of S. Bernard many men presume of Gods spirit when it is not but their owne spirit or rather the spirit of Sathā and consequently take or rather mistake their owne spirits expositions for the interpretation of the holy Ghost Againe some when they erre in expounding Scriptures are notwithstanding of opinion that they follow Scriptures when indeed they follow their owne errours So S. Augustine obserueth 60. Thirdly others by a peruerse interpretation make of Christs Ghospell mās Ghospell or that which is worse the Diuells Ghospell as S. Hierome noteth and yet all these with the Diuell and all former heretickes pretend to vrge and build vpon Scripture But no meruaile if all these appeale vnto Scriptures vpon a false confidence thinking that the word of God maketh for them when it maketh against them For let these Scripturians be but marked let them be vnmasked that is as Vincentius Lyrinensis excellenly deliuereth the obseruation against them let not only their sayings but their meanings not their wordes but their senses of Scripture be noted then their bitternes shall be detected their madnes disclosed their new poyson vented forth their prophane nouelties reuealed then the hedge shal be cut then the boundes of Fathers shall be translated then Catholicke faith shall be violated and the Churches position cancelled Hitherto Vincentius 61. The only way then to make a man a true Christian Catholicke indeed if
the ancient Church gathered and assembled foure within the compasse of one age and an halfe and the Protestant Princes and people do bound and border nearer togeather then did the Christians in former tymes which were in a manner dispersed here and there farre and neere ouer the whole face of the earth 27. If reply be made that then there was but one Emperour to affoard his Imperiall consent for the assembling of the Synod now since the diuision of the Empyre into many Dukedomes Princedomes Kingdomes and free States there be many particuler Princes whose wills and iudgements can more hardly be agreed whose assents are with greater difficulty to be required and obtayned I answere this euasion is but a meere collusion and therefore must not be suffered to passe without due reprehension For since the forsaid diuision of the Christian world into seuerall Kingdomes and states many generall Councell haue bene called and gathered amongst Catholickes as before hath bene shewed yea and that in the middest of tumults vproares and garboyles in the temporall estates of the Christian world and this a man of common sense and reason may comprehend imagin to haue byna greater let and impediment vnto the gathering of Generall Councells then any incumbrance and inconuenience that the Protestants surmise or pretend But the truth is heresy and schisme originally grounded vpon proper election priuate inuention stubborne selfwill and proud conceipted iudgment togeather with obstinacy against the Churches authority this I say can neuer abide that exact discussion which a generall Councell doth require For how can the Protestants thus deuided as they are and knowing the weakenes of their owne cause indure parly and treaty eyther with the Catholicks whome they accompt aduersaries or among themselues with their owne Sectaries 28. Not with Catholickes as may be seene by examples of ancient hereticks condēned in these 4. first Generall Councells to wit the Arians in the first the Macedonians in the second the Nestorians in the third and the Eutichians in the fourth who fled what they could those Councells appealing only to Scriptures whereof there is one notable example amongst many others in the last of these foure Councells I meane that of Chalcedon wherein the Archimandrite and Archereticke Eutiches being sent vnto with Notaries from this graue and learned Councell to yield an accompt to the Councell of his hereticall opinion held of one onely nature in Christ after his Incarnation he first bethought him of this euasion to say that he would agree and subscribe to the expositions of the Fathers that had sate in the Nicen Councell and that of Ephesus but this was but meere collusion for thereby he only meant most craftily and heretically to euade and fly both the other two Councells of Constantinople that had already dealt against him and condemned him as also this of Chalcedon that was now gathered against him to heare his cause and to be his iudge 29. But yet secondly for feare that he might yield also to farre in this he added presently an exposition saying Si verè aliquid contingat eos in aliquibus dictis aut falli aut errasse hoc neque se vette reprehendere neque subscribere solas autem Scripturas scrutari tamquam firmiores sanctorum Patrum expositionibus If not withstanding it had happened that the said Fathers of the Nicen and Ephesine Councells had bene deceiued and erred in many of their sayings then would he neither reprehend the same for modesties sake nor yet subscribe therunto but that he for his part would attend himselfe wholy vnto the Scriptures alone as being more firme and sure then the expositions of any Fathers whatsoeuer And is not this spoken like a Protestant 30. Thirdly when he had repeated and vrged againe his blasphemous heresy of one only nature in Christ in presence of those graue and reuerend Prelates that were sent by the whole Synod to take his confessiō and further when he had read vnto them a booke compiled Apologetically for defence of the same heresy he then tould them openly and plainely that this was his faith according vnto the Scriptures and as for the other to wit the Catholicke assertion that Christ consisted of two natures diuine and humane vnited in one person he said flatly Neque se didicisse in expositionil us sanctorum Patrum neque subscriberevelle sicontigerit ab aliquo ei tale aliquid legi quia diuina Scripturae meliores sunt Patrum doctrinis That he had neither learned any such assertion in the expositions of the holy Fathers he meaneth the blessed Fathers of the Nicene and Ephesine Councells nor yet would he for his part admit and imbrace it if any such thing should happen to be read vnto him out of their writinges and his reason was that which is so cōmonly vrged by Protestants for that the diuine Scriptures are better then the doctrines of all Fathers the which though it be true in it self yet was his meaning to deceiue therby as you see thinking by this faire glosle goodly pretence of Scripture to haue auoyded and escaped the tribunall and censure of the Catholicke Church in that time but the Councell condemned his opinion and person notwithstanding his shifting euasions to the contrary 31. And truly the very Consideration of this particuler I meane the conformity of spirits in this ould heretick and diuers of the new Protestants that cry out with sull and open mouth to haue all thinges in Generall Councells tryed by Scriptures alone left in me a very great impression and the matter it selfe seemed vnto me very considerable and worthy of all diligent attention For I patticulerly reflected vpon that sentence of Caluin wherin in my poore iudgment and opinion I rightly compared the two Arch-heretickes togeather and whether I wrong Caluin let his owne wordes witnes and his best fauorites and sectarirs defend their Maister from speaking like an hereticke I meane like Eutiches Nulla saith he nos Conciliorunt Patrum Episcoporum nomina impedire debent quo minùs omnes omnium spirituum ad diuini verbi regulam exigamus verbo Domini examinemus num ex Deo sunt VVe are not to passe for Councels Fathers Bishops it is not in naming of all or any one of them can barre vs from examining all kynd of spirits according vnto the squared rule of Gods word and we may call them vnto accompt sift them by the word of the Lord whether they are of God or no. So far he 32. And here also I remēbred that I had seene the conditions required by the Protestants of Germany when as they were inuited to come vnto the Councell of Trent at the very first gathering thereof and the said conditions were published in a seuerall booke which did beare this Inscription Causae cur Electores Principes c. The causes why the Electors Princes and other addicted to the Cōfession of Augusta do not come to the
vseth his owne election siue ad instituendas siue ad suscipiendas haereses whether it be to be an authour of Heresy or a follower as Tertullian speaketh in the place before cyted and all this he doth according to his owne iudgment and fancy ascribing litle or rather nothing at all to the authority of the Church in any thing that misliketh his owne iudgment so that in conclusion these two men are most opposite the one to the other 11. The first cleare knowledg that euer the Church had of this peculiar and Ecclesiasticall appropriation of these two words Catholicke Hereticke was from the holy Ghost inspirer of all truth as hath byn formerly noted and to beginne first with the last the very first intimation giuen of that odious and pestiferous appellation of Heresy or Hereticke was by the Apostles theÌ„selues as namely S. Paul to the Corinth There must be heresies that those who be approued may be manifested amongst you which manifestation Tertull. saith is meant aswel of those tam qui in persecutionibê° steterint quaÌ„ quiad haereses exorbitauerint who haue remained constaÌ„t in persecutions as they who haue not declined out of the right path to follow heresies So he Secondly the same Apostle in his Epistle to Titus writeth thus Auoid an Hereticall man after one or two reprehensioÌ„s knowing that such a one is subuerted and sinneth as daÌ„ned by his owne proper iudgement Id non tam infirmitate ac ignorantia quà m spontanea malitia de obstinata industria peccat For so I may well expound it that is he sinneth not so much of infirmity and ignorance as he doth of voluntary malice and obstinate industry or els eligit sibi in quo damnatur as Tertullian giueth the sense his owne election maketh good his owne daÌ„nation And as S. Paul inueighed thus against Heresy Hereticks so did S. Peter as you shall read 2. Pet. 2. branding them for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 damnable heresies and the teachers of them for such as brought vpon themselues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swift damnation or as it is rendred in another place immediatly following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their damnation sleepeth not Can any thing be spoken more terrible to forwarne vs of heresy and hereticks then this Excellent therefore is the counsaile of Tertullian wishing vs to auoid an hereticke post vnam correptionem non post disputationem adeo interdixit disputationem correptionem designans causam haeretici conueniendi hoc vnam scilicet quia non est christianus ne more Christiani semel iterum sub duobus aut tribus testibus castigandus videretur cum ob hoc sit castigandus propter quod non sit cum illo disputandum After one reprehension and not after a disputation for that the Apostle did therefore forbid disputation because the speaking with an Heretick should be for his reprehension and this onely once because he is no Christian least after the manner of a Christian he should seeme to be chastised once and againe and that by two or three witnesses when for this cause he is to be chastised because there is no disputation to be had with such a one 12. And although the word Heresy be vsed two or three times in the Actes of the Apostles where the sectes of the Scribes and Pharisies be called Heresies and though S. Paul himselfe speaking out of the opinion of the Iewes most willingly vndergoeth the imputation where Christian Religion was branded with the termes of Sect or Heresy yet was not the word taken in such a heynous signification here in these places as in the other places of the Apostles before mentioned for that of no kind of sin or sinner did they euer pronounce so grieuous a sentence as namely that he was to be fled from as subuerted and damned by his owne iudgment that they brought in daÌ„nable Heresies that they brought vpon themselues swift damnation and that their damnation slept not which they feared not to pronounce nay they bouldly pronounced of an hereticall man they bring vpon themselues swift damnation Here is nothing but damnation and all to giue vs a terrible admonition to beware them and auoid them And thus much I thought good to say of this dreadfull name for stirring vp my former brethren of the Ministry to beware therof but much more to decline the cause and occasion of the same 13. As for the word Catholick it came from heauen and was first reuealed from the holy Ghost by the mouth of all the Apostles in their common Creed For being assembled togeather to compose a perfect platforme of true and sauing-beliefe and to keepe out Heresy whilest they dispersed themselues abroad to sow the sacred seed of EuaÌ„gelicall verity they being at this time and for this purpose assembled and their tongues being the pennes of a ready writer when they came vnto that article which concerned the Church they by the instinct of the neuer-erring spirit laid downe the forme thus Credo in Spiritum Sanctum SanctaÌ„ Ecclesiam Catholicam I beleeue in the holy Ghost the holy Catholicke Church where they did not thinke it sufficieÌ„t to say they belieued the holy ChristiaÌ„ Church but they thought the word Catholicke to be more eminent significant and effectuall for the purpose Neither could this be done without the singuler care prouideÌ„ce wisdome of that all-seing spirit that vndoubtedly inspired theÌ„ guided theÌ„ For as Tertull. obserueth that S. Paul forseeing that heresies would afterwardes spring vp in the Church as the weedes vsually do amongst the purest and rankest corne foretold and forewarned them to come yea pointeth out as it were with the finger to some heresies particulerly euen so the Apostles foreseeing that all heresies were to shroud themselues vnder the names of Christian Churches Assemblies and Congregations they thought it most conuenient for preseruation of vnity and verity to set this remarkable stamp of Catholick vpon the Church for the more manifest conuincing and detecting of all heresy which badge or cognisance being once set vpon the sleeue of the Church impossible it was that any Hereticke that euer was is or hereafter shall be can euer fasten vpon this title And since it is more then apparant that the genuine description of Catholicke requireth more particulers and more easie to be discouered then doth the name of Christian in generall most pertinent if not necessary is the imposition of this name vpon Christes Church for the better excluding and keeping forth of all hereticall and particuler Sectaries whatsoeuer 14. From these two fountaines then of sacred Scripture and common Creed originally flowed the knowledge and vse of these two wordes of Catholick and Heretick both of them came from heauen both were particulerly inspired by the holy Ghost breathed into the Church for her better preseruation as hath beene formerly noted the very consideration wherof
Religion To this I answere in generall that the Diuell and all Heretickes had their Scriptures as well as they as many and more then they but the truth is sheeps clothing belongeth not to wolues nor Scriptures to them their possession of thē is meer intrusiō into thē therfore according to that excellent prescription of Tertullian first they should prooue their right of possession of them before they so bouldly aduentured vpon the interpretation of them which since they could neuer yet do it is apparant and out of questiō that they haue no more right vnto the Scriptures then the Diuell himselfe and all former Heretickes haue had vnto them 37. Yf besides the Scripture they plead the spirit for this is their other ground and these two be all the groūds that euer I could perceyue they had for their Protestāticall Religion I answere this spirit is a spirit of priuate interpretation their owne proper inuention and election it is not the spirit of the Church it is not the spirit of the holy Ghost that breathed these Scriptures and therefore it is the spirit of the Diuell the spirit of all their Grādprogenitors ancient Hereticks And now to cut of with one blow the heades of all pryuate spirits let S. Bernard himselfe speake for me and strike for me Nonnulli adesse putant spiritū cùmnon adest suumque sensum prosensu spiritus sequūtur deuiantes Many thinke they haue the spirit when they haue it not and fall into error following their own sense for the sense of the holy Ghost Dare any man hereafter vaunt of his priuate spirit All this and much more is implied in the heauenly admonition of our Sauiour Beware of false prophets and which was my first place of Scripture against Hereticks I come to the second which followeth thus 38. The Apostle S. Paul that trumpet of the Apostles Preacher of the world and discloser of heauenly mysteries thundereth out a terrible commination against an Hereticke whereby he insinuateth to leaue a premonition to all succeeding posterity to be ware of heresy And albeit I haue touched the place somwhat in the former Consideration in disclosing the nature of heresy yet here I must returne to the same againe for better laying forth the miserable effectes therof and the care the said Apostle had to haue it eschued Auoid saith he an hereticall man after the first or second reprehension knowing that he that is such a one is peruerted and sinneth as damned by his owne iudgment Vpon which place S. Hierome writeth thus Haeretici sententiam in seipsos ferunt suo arbitrio ab Ecclesia recedenies quae recessio propriae conscientiae videtur esse damnatio Heretickes giue sentence vpon themselues and are damned vpon their owne iudgment for that they depart from the Church euen out of their owne selfe will and this departure seemeth to be the damnation of their owne conscience expressely mentioned by S. Paul So S. Hierome And can there be any thing more terrible or dreadfull then this Againe Auoid an Hereticke propter periculum propter consortium propter poenam so S. Thomas vpon this place First auoid them in regard of the perill of infection serma enim illorum serpit vt cancer Secondly auoid them in regard of their fellowship and communion that you be not wrapped and intangled in their sinne whilest you seeme by your familiarity with them to consent vnto the same Lastly auoid them propter poenam euen for feare of the punishment of condemnation which hangeth ouer their heads and yet moneatur let him be admonished to see whether he will amend If he amend not after once or twice admonition auoyd him si curari poterit non est vitandus si non dimittend us est If he can be healed of his heresie he is not to be auoided If he cannot be cured he is to be shunned Hitherto S. Thomas 39. My third place is out of S. Iude conteining a very dreadfull description of Hereticks yea so terrible that the very consideration therof were able to make a man to treamble lest he should be any way intangled and infected with this fearefull sinne of heresie either in being an Hereticke himselfe obstinate and malicious or in beleeuing them as being seduced by them For after the Apostle had premised the salutation togeather with the motiue of his Epistle which was to beseech them Supercertare semel iraditae Sanctis fidei to stand fast and fight for the faith once deliuered vnto the Saintes which were the first Christians presently he giueth a most serious warning to all sorts of Christians of the approach and intrusion of Heretickes Subintroierunt enim quidam homines c. There haue crept in certaine men saith he prescribed or prepared from the beginning vnto this terrible iudgment wicked men who haue turned the grace of God into wantonnes c. And then he thundreth out a terrible commination against them sāying VVoe be vnto them that haue gone in the way of Cain and haue for reward powred out themselues with the errour of Balaam and haue perished in the contradiction of Chore. So he And that this contradiction of Chore against Moyses Aaron for which he his conspirators were by Gods iust wrath swallowed quicke vp into hell the earth opening her mouth deuouring thē represented the contradictiō of all Hereticks against the Catholicke Church and Gouernours thereof no man that hath any insight into Deuinity can deny and therfore our Apostle S. Iude who alludeth and compareth betwixt them denounceth Gods vengeance yet further against them Quibus procella tenebrarum seruata est in aternum for whom a tempest of darknes or of torments in darknes is reserued for all eternity And this being so will any one call another hereticke in iest Or is there any cry me so dreadfull as this 40. But if we passe from the Apostles and Scriptures them selues vnto the succeeding Primitiue Church and withall hould their iudgment sense and feeling concerning Heresy we shall find that all of thē without exception of any one had this very spirit of detesting anathematizing flying and auoiding Heretickes aboue all other sinners and malefactors vpon earth yea wheras towardes others neuer so great greieuous and heyncus offendours wee are exhorted willed and ioyned to be benigne sweet meeke compassionate and the like the cleane contrary is counsailed vnto vs against Heretickes to witt not to salute them not to eat or drinke with them not to receiue them into our houses not to conuerse with them but to fly them abhorre them detest and auoid them as pests and plagues and poysoned serpents infecting vs with the inuenomed poyson of hell as damned soules already vpon earth damned by the guilt of their owne conscience and by the irreuokable sentence of diuine Iustice as before we haue signifyed And that which is most worthy our obseruation such seruantes of God as were otherwise
and vniuersall direction Can any rule be more probable and infallible then the rule of the Church And to this do agree both my foresaid Authour in many other places of his workes as also all that succeeded him tooke the like enterprize in hand of writing and prescribing against Hereticks as Tertullian S. Cyprian S. Augustine S. Athanasius Epiphanius Theodoret S. Hierome S. Leo Vincentius Lyrinensis in his goulden booke against the prophane innouations of the Hereticks of his time and diuers others which to auoyd prolixity I omit all these do principally and really prouoke and challenge all the Heretickes of their tyme vnto this only and sure waie of the Catholicke Church in their dayes for the triall of the truth and for discerning what is truly Catholicke and what is Hereticall their seuerall sentences are to prolixe to be conteyned within the strict precinctes and narrow boundes of my briefe intended Confiderations 63. And now to put a period to this my third Consideration least it exceed a due proportion the vpshot is this For asmuch then as this visible Christian Church begun and founded by our Sauiour vnder the Apostles was a visible Church made and consisting of visible men gouerned by visible Pastors hath visibly descended from age to age through the centuries of the Church by all lawfull and ordinary succession of Bishops which Tertullian required of the Hereticks of his time as they would auoid the blot of heresy that haue lineally come downe to our dayes Secondly for asmuch as the authority of his Church was esteemed in euery age to be the same for infallible direction that it was in the former first ages through the assurance of Christ his promise to that effect And lastly for as much as the whole vniuersall Church of the fifteēth age hath in a generall Coūcell examined decyded condēned the doctrine of the Protestants for heresy in more then an hundred maine points by name hath accursed and anathematized both them and all their participants to the pit of hell that according to the very selfe same groūds wherby the ancient Fathers did vse to curse anathematize all ould heresies and Hereticks in former tymes these things when I considered with more attention made a generall reflection thereon a suddaine feare and care astonished yea as it were ouerwhelmed me for that my euerlasting saluation depending vpon this point I had beene so negligent in examining the premises And now I plainely saw as in a perfect glasse of most impartiall iudgment that vnlesse I could imagin with my selfe as diuers others fanatically do that Christes promise had fayled that the first visible Christian and Catholicke Church founded by him and spread ouer the whole world had fayled vanished and perished as being ouercome by hel-gates and ouer growne with the weedes of errour heresy I could neuer haue any hope of saluation as long as I continued in the Protestant Religion And this was the issue of that Consideration The fourth Consideration THERE remaineth now a fourth consideration the subiect wherof which notwithstanding perhaps is of greatest importance of all the rest is this to wit how out of the premisses a man may probably collect nay necessarily conclude whose opinions be Catholicke and whose Hereticall and therevpon may reflect vpon himself in what state or condition he standeth betwixt both as eyther affected to the one or interessed in the other And albeit this hath beene partly discouered by that which hath beene spoken in the first Consideratiō touching the name Catholicke that signifieth Vniuersall and whole and not a part or singularity in opinions by choice of a mans owne will and iudgement for so Hereticke doth signifie as hath beene laid forth in the second Consideration yet shall it be made more manifest by the particular practice of the things themselues when the name shall passe into nature and appellation be turned into application And first to speake to the point in a word the Catholike admitteth all wholy and intierly without addition or detraction which the knowne Catholicke Church proposeth to be belieued of her sonnes as she hath it reuealed vnto her from God her Father But as for the Hereticke and the chooser tamquā Dominus propryiuris as he that will take his owne swing though it be in Schisme and heresy he making himselfe iudge ouer all I meane God the Scripturs and the Church admitteth some and reiecteth the rest as it pleaseth his priuate fancy or displeaseth his peeuish iudgmēt he neither respects the authority of the Church nor regardes his owne obedience due therunto his ground is either Scriptures falsely by him interpreted or a priuat lying spirit such as Micheas the Lords true Prophet prophesied to be in the false Prophets of Baal wherein he is deluded or other arguments of reason nature against faith and the God of nature And thus he is bewitched peruerted contrary to all true and onely sauing Catholicke grounds contrary to that sure certaine and infallible way of triall which erst while we treated of in the third Consideration and purpose now by Gods holy assistance to make vse of all in this 65. Some men I find to intertaine this concepit that English Protestants and Roman Catholickes may liue in their seuerall professions of Religion and be saued togeather and much more they are of opinion that all Protestants of different professions and Sectes as Lutherans and Sacramentaries and much more the different sortes of one and the selfe same sect as Caluinists in England distinguished by the names of Molles and Rigidi moderate Protestantes and feruent Puritans And the reasons for this their opinion are first of doctrine for that euery one of their differences do not make heresies or if they do yet not so grieuous heresies as the Fathers of the Primatiue Church condemned and anathematized they meane such heresies as impugned the persons of the B. Trinity the Natures of Christ God and Man the Incarnation and Passion and the like cōsequently though those ancient heresies were damnable yet are not those of our daies plead the Protestants but that both partes liuing well may be saued as his Matie in this his Premonition to Princes doth testifie that his noble Mother sent him word not long before her Martyrdome by the Maister of her Household a Scotish Gentleman yet liuing that his Matie might persist in his Protestant Religion and yet do well inough if he liued vertuously and gouerned accordingly 66. But surely how farre the credit of that maister of Household being a Protestant as I heare he then was and now is may extend it selfe to be belieued against the mistresse and highest Lady of that Household in a matter of that quality and consequence I know not yet certaine I am of this that the opinion that a man may be so saued is most false and absurd in it selfe and very vnlikely also to proceed from her
my brethren of the English Ministry who in like manner some of them with great zeale grounded themselues vpon Scriptures euen as I did which concurrence in opinion did not a little cōfirme me in this my owne headstrong imagination 7. But afterwardes vpon better insight of matters many occurrences and circumstances of no small importance for the shaking and ruinating of this false and tottering foundation interposed themselues to the view of my vnderstanding and these greatly calmed this feruour of mine and abated the edge of my appetite vnto the bare letter of the Scripture and my owne Commentaries therupon 8. For first I found that euen Luther himselfe that did thus confidently triumph vpon alleadging of Scripture against all ancient Fathers Thomists Sophists Henricistes and the like is not admitted nor followed by our English Church in many of his maine positions of Religion though we of England did and do hould him for a great Saint a flying Angell one that had Primitias spiritus the prime spirit of the new Protestant Ghospell whereupon I haue heard some that haue presumed in their popular pulpit declamations amidst their owne Sectaries to inuest him with the tytle of a fifth Euāgelist I say he is not belieued by vs though he cyte neuer so many Scriptures and neuer so confidently in sundry weighty positions and cōtrouersies now in hand as namely about the Reall presence wherein he most of all pretended yea and had indeed foūded himselfe vpon cleare and euident Scriptures And is it any meruaile when heresy departing from vnity must needes breed variety and cause diuersity betweene the Sect-maister and the Sectaries the Father of innouation and the followers the author of Schisme and the mantainers the inuentors of nouelties and the imbracers thereof Let vs heare what old Tertullian saith to the same aboue 1400. yeares agoe when heresies were yet but yong and as it were in their infancy Mentior saith he si non etiam à regulis suis variant inter se dum vnusquisque proinde suo arbitrio modulatur quae accepit quemadmodum de suo arbitrio eadem composuit ille qui tradit Agnoscit naturam suam originis suae morem prosectus rei Idem licuit Valentinianis quod Valentino idem Marcionitis quod Marcioni de abitrio suo fidem innouare Denique penitus inspectae haereses omnes in multis cum Auctoribus suis dissentientes deprehenduntur I am deceaued if they do not yet differ from their owne rules amongst themselues whilest euery man therfore tuneth the things which he receaued after his owne fashion as the author deliuered them according to his fancy The issue of the thing agniseth her nature and argueth the manner of her origen The same is lawfull for the Valentinians that was lawfull for Valentinus and for the Marcionites that was lawfull for Marcion to bring in an innouation in Religion at their pleasure To conclude all heresies being throughly looked into are found in many things to dissent from the first Authors and broachers of them Hitherto Tertullian Can any more effectually prescription be made then this against the Heretickes of our daies Do they not seeme to expresse and present the conditions and qualities of their ancient progenitors and forerunners This then was my first cogitation that albeit our English Protestants did well allow and admire that insolency in Luther of pressing Scriptures neuer so madly vnderstood against Catholickes yet when he vrged neuer so cleare Scriptures against themselues and their opinions they reiect and contemne both him and his Scriptures 9. Secondly I considered that when the Diuell tempted Christ he came not without his Scriptum est he had the Word for his warrant and therefore the lesse I meruailed that all Sectaries and Hereticks from the very first foundation of Christan Religion had principally founded themselues and their heresies vpon pretence of Scripture as may appeare by the seuerall workes of all the ancient Fathers that confuted them Frequentes sunt in citandis Scripturis saith Tertullian they are frequent in citing Scriptures They runne ouer the Law Psalmes Prophets Ghospells Epistles and the residue of holy Scripture with great facility sayth Vincentius Lyrinensis and euen in compitis conuiuijs in market places and banquets amongst their owne Sectaries amongst strangers priuatly publickly in their bookes in sermons will they be full of Scriptures Nihil vmquam penè de suo proserunt quod non etiam Scripture verbis adumbrare conentur they bring nothing in manner of their owne which they shaddow not and cloake with some Scripture or other not vnlike our London Dames and the wiues of other great Towns and Cytties at this day I had almost added Shrewsbury Omnes tument c. all of them swell with pride all of them promise knowledg they are perfect Catechistes before they can their alphabet Ipsae mulieres hereticae quà m procaces quae audeant docere contendere c. their very hereticall women how saucy and malepert they are which dare teach contend c. So Tertullian And then further as S. Nazianzen before alledged well noteth these hereticall Scripturians running ouer all the corps of sacred Writ nay galloping ouer the whole field of the Scriptures as though the whole were but a horserase they do here and there vno verbo vel altero tamquam veneni gutt a inficiunt with a word or two of false exposition as with a drop of poyson infect the whole peruerting the true faith of Christ by their false sense of the Scripture and that to their owne damnation and damnation of their followers as the Apostle S. Peter doth signify 10. Thirdly I considered that not onely the ancient Hereticks but also the moderne Schismatickes and Sectaries of our time did by the one and the same spirit appeale to the tribunall of Scriptures and that both generally against those of the Roman beliefe particulerly among themselues the one against the other as Lutherans against Sacramentaries and Sacramentaries against Anabaptists and those against these and euery Sectary against his fellow and all directly against God his Church and his Truth And though ech Sectary professe to alledge Scripture and pretendeth neyther to build vpon the sandes nor vpon the shore of priuate fancy or his owne vnstable iudgment but vpon the mayne rocke of God his word yet Heresies grow on all sydes and thereupon controuersies become endlesse and interminable I remember not long since that lighting vpon a little booke of the Anabaptists I fell vpon thirty places of plaine Scripture and euery one of these places seemed by the externe letter to make perspicuously for the aforsaid Anabaptists and their heresies which yet in England we do condemne and consequently doe hold all those places of Scriptures to be misalledged abused and falsely interpreted by them be they neuer so many seeme they neuer so plaine or pregnant 11. But here I would demaund of any ingenious Protestant how
Paul to the Hebrewes compareth it is there no danger of cutting and wounding and killing by this sword if it be vnwarily handled Scriptura sancta saith S. Ambrose attento animo legenda ne quis has cum legerit quasi puer macheram tractare per injantiam fortiora arma nesciret magique vulnus ex imprudentia quà m salutem ex lectione sentiret Infirmos enim tela sua vulnerant nec potest bene vti armis qui ea ferre non nouerit Sacred Scripture must be heedfully read least any man that readeth them be vnskilfull to handle these stronger weapons as a child by reason of his infancy skilleth not how to handle a sword and consequently rather receaueth and incurreth the wound of damnation through his imprudency abusing them then the help of saluation by the right reading of them For the weake are wounded by their owne weapons neyther can he vse weapons well who knoweth not to weild them 43. It is excellently obserued by Theophilact and it is the common obseruation of all the Fathers that when the Apostles curiouslly inquired nondum enim ex Alto Spiritu sancto repleti for as yet the holy Ghost was come vpon none of them afterthe knowledge of the day and houre of iudgment when the time precisely should be occultat Christus non ignorat diem he hideth the day he is not ignorant of the day let Caluin and his sectaries blaspheme as long as they will against the knowledge of Christes sacred humanity and the reason rendred of this Ne cognitio diei iudicij tanquam machera c. Least the knowledge of the day of iudgment reuealed by Christ vnto his Apostles should proue a sword put into a childes hand Thus then you see both by all former examples and especially by this last of the Apostles themselues what a dangerous way the path of the Scriptures is to walke in if we be not warily guided therin For as by the natiue and genuine interpretation of Gods sacred Epistle as S. Gregory stileth holy VVrit men are directed aright through the sourges of the seas of this world to ariue securely at the hauen of saluation euen so by the erroneous and false exposition of the same Scripture men are deceiptfully misguided wrongfully lead as it were blind-folded into the brakes and briers of pestiferous and pernicious heresies to the euerlasting damnation both of the beginners and followers 44. S. Paul calleth the Scripture the sauour of life vnto life and the sauour of death vnto death which as it is true in that place in respect of the sauing of some and the perishing of others so it is most true in regard of the right sensing of it by the sonnes of the Catholick Church who follow Catholicke interpretation and the wrong interpreting of it by others as are out of the Church and adhere vnto false exposition and hereticall innouation 45. Tertullian of opinion that the Scriptures themselues are so disposed by the will of God that they should minister matter vnto Hereticks his reason is because he readeth in Scripture that there must be Hereticks which without Scriptures could not be and yet his meaning is not that the Scriptures are the cause thereof Christs propheticall prediction was no cause of Iudas treason but rather mans temerarious presumption vpon Gods word and precipitate intrusion into his booke by erroneous and false conceipted opinion is the true cause of all errour and heresy 46. S. Augustine writing to Consentius doth excellently discouer the cause of heresy in these words Omnes Haeretici Scriptur as sibt videntur scrutari cùm suos potiùs scrutentur errores per hoc non quòd eas contemnant sed quód eas non intelligant Haeretici fiant All heretickes to seeme to themselues to follow Scriptures when in very deed they rather follow their owne errours and hereby it commeth to passe that they are made hereticks not for that they contemne the Scriptures but for that they vnderstand them not 47. But heere me thinks I heare the Hereticks obiect as I haue heard them often whilest I did frequent their hereticall Conuenticles and Sermons that the Scriptures are easy to be vnderstood That the Word is neare vs not farre from vs That it is a lanterne vnto our stepps and a light vnto our pathes And thus will they fly through the law and the psalmes the Prophets and Apostles as Vincentius noteth of the Heretickes of his time to proue the facility of the Scriptures To this I answer and grant it to be true in respect of sundry passages of holy Writ where the lambe may wade as well as the Elephant may swymme yet that other places of Scripture are hard intricate mysticall and very apt to be mistaken besides many proofes and those most pregnant that might be brought out of the Scriptures and Fathers the experience of our vnfortunate dayes doth most clearely euince 48. For otherwise how commeth it to passe that all Christendome is in an vprore about the exposition of Scriptures How grow so many contentions amongst the learned at this day Why haue we so desperate and obstinate heresies grounded as the heretickes thinke vpon such apparent and pregnant places of Scripture as that the Authors thereof being deceaued themselues and deceiuing others by the Scriptures will rather desperatly choose to loose their liues their soules togeather then to forgoe and abiure their opinions in matter of religion which once by the least apparent shew of Scripture they haue begunne to defend These men though neuer so learned neuer so wise neuer so morally vertuous yet are they deceiued Shall I say by Scripture nay rather they wilfully by their owne hereticall choice against the knowne interpretation of Catholicke Church Roman Church ancient Church abuse the Scriptures and so are deceaued intangled blindfolded and this they could neuer be brought vnto if the Scriptures were so easy that a priuate spirit might interprete without the publicke spirit and interpretation of the Church And to this S. Augustine alludeth saying Multis multiplicibus obscuritatibus ambiguitatibus decipiuntur qui temerè legunt Scripturas aliud pro alto sentientes They which do rashly read Scriptures are deceaued with many and sundry obscurityes and ambiguities taking one sense for another which would not be if all were easy in the holy Scriptures as all Sectaries do pretend 49. The vnderstanding then and true sense of the Scriptures is the very mayne point which importeth and importuneth vs for our saluation and in seeking out this if euer by seeking we meane to find it we must first abandon our owne iudgment and particuler election and imbrace the common publicke iudgment of Christ his Church This is the interpreter of the Scriptures this is the controller and guider of all certayne and sure exposition Expetitque hic sensus certae interpretationis gubernaculum to cite the whole sentence out of Tertullian this
sense requireth the stay of a sure interpretation and this is only that which can make a man a true Catholicke Christian. 50. S. Augustine amongst those manifould cōflicts which he had with the Manichees concerning the Catholicke Church her authority openly and ingenuously professed vnto the said Manichees that he would not haue belieued the Ghospell if the authority of the Catholicke Church did not moue him therunto Whence I do obserue that if we receiue the Ghospell vpon the credit of the Church for that the Ghospell would not be belieued to be the Ghospell vnlesse the authority of the Church did tell vs that it were the Ghospell then followeth it necessarily for the argument is drawne à maiore ad minus that much more should we depend and rely vpon the Church and take from her the true sense meaning and exposition of the Ghospell from whom we haue belieued and receaued that it is the Ghospell and therefore saith the same Father to his friend Honoratns Multò facilius mihi persuaderem Christo non esse credendum quà m de illo quidquam nisi ab his per quos credidissem esse credendum I should much more easily perswade my selfe that we ought not to beleeue in Christ at all then that any thing were to be learned cōcerning him of any man but only of those whom I was taught to belieue in Christ. Can any thing be spoken more effectually for the Authority of the Church since this is the sole cause of his belieuing the Ghospell This is the onely motiue of his imbracing the faith of Christ 51. But now whether Protestants do follow this trade and way of true Catholicisme in their sensing and vnderstanding of Scriptures that is not hard to discouer For when wee come to particuler controuersies and to ioyne issue togeather and that they and their aduersaries do alleage Scriptures and expound the same then doth it appeare as cleare as the sunne who followeth a priuate interpretation and who adhereth to the true Catholicke Churches exposition For the Roman Catholicke first desyring to find out the truth and then willing to imbrace nothing but the truth reflecteth vpon the former interpretation of ancient Church when the present controuersy was not yet in hand and consequently when the exposition cannot be so much as in any semblable reason suspected to be wrested or wrongly interpreted by men of those ages who neither feared nor fauoured any party but must needes be according to the common meaning and sense of the Church in those ancient tymes and this interpretation which the Protestants also in some of their better humours do admit for good the Catholicke followeth vpon this as vpon the rock of God his word truly sensed by the Church he stayeth himselfe buildeth his religion 52. Now the Protestāt being guilty in his conscience and knowing well that antiquity detesteth and hath already anathematized his heresy he by all meanes possible by vociferatiōs and exclamations seeketh to extenuate the authority of this Church much like to the theefe or malefactor who arested by the law to abyde the triall of the same beginneth to raile exclaime against his lawfull ludge and iurours and then in his imagination he deuiseth certaine Chymera's and Idea's of his Church in former times in the ayre of his owne braine which lineally saith he but God knoweth how for he knoweth not descended vnto Luther and Caluin c. And from these people partly and partly from himselfe frameth the Protestant his exposition of Scripture and vpon this foundation buildeeh he all his religion of his owne deuice 53. And albeit all Fathers do not allwaies agree in one and the selfe same sense and exposition of Scripture for that there may be be diuers senses of one the selfe same place of Scripture as before you haue heard at large yet doth the holy Ghost so rune and strike vpon the stringes the tonges and pens I meane of these ancient Wortnies of the Church that all the variety that euer I could find yet amongst them sounded forth a heauenly harmony and neither iarred not yet was dissonant from Scripturs verity or faiths Analogy so farre is the Churches vnity from all contrariety And verily this diuersity of antiquity in the execution of Scriptures without all repugnancy or any contrariety was no small motiue vnto me to imbrace the present Roman Catholicke Religion which all so I found in them for I could not but conclude that as one spirit breathing out these Scriptures intended all these senses so the same spirit guided all And therefore no meruaile that neither the ages wherin such Fathers liued nor any succeeding Century of the Church reprehended their expositions For the wisedome of the spirit euer continued in the Church and thereby they know that such variety breeded no contrariety whilst one Father sensed the Scripture literally another Allegorically and another mystically or Anagogically but yet all to a pious sense and with no obstinate proteruity or animosity against that which the Church did hould or determine for truest 54. And now to come vnto some particuler exposition or Scripture by the Fathers let vs instance in the age of S. Augustine for the Protestants are wont to graunt that the true Church florished in his time and his Maiesty also condescendeth to extend the triall of Controuersies to his time and somwhat further The same Father writing of this Church we haue formerly mentioned proued the same first to be visible and obuious vnto euery mans eyes against the assertion of the Protestants inuisibility of the Church and this he confirmeth out of the wordes of our Sauiour registred by the Euangelist Matth. 5. A Citty vpō a hill cannot be hidden that is to say the Church cannot be inuisible which is many times repeated by the same Father to this effect As also forth of those wordes of the Psalmist Psal. 18. In sole posuit tabernaculum suum he put his tabernacle in the sunne that is he placed his Church in the sight of the world to be seene of all men 55. In like manner the same Father applyeth and expoundeth those wordes of Christ Matth. 5 about the Candle placed on the Candlestick to signify the visibility of the Catholicke Church crying out against them Qui contra lucernam in candelabro positamoculos claudant who willfully shut their eyes against the candle placed on the candlestick Qui tammagnam montem non vident who cannot see so great a hill as the Church is And lastly for conclusion of all he giueth his censure of them in these wordes Quid amplius sum dicturus qùam caecos esse What shall I say more of them but that they are blnd Thus did S. Augustine interpret and apply these Scriptures and many more to this purpose as you shall read throughout his whole Tract de Vnitate Ecclesiae contra Petilianum andels where 56. And the same S. Augustine to
all ancient rules and Canons of the Church fayle not is first to admit and reuerence that for Scripture which the vniuersall Catholicke Church hath by lineall descent of tradition deliuered and commended vnto vs for Scripture and that after all doubts and controuersies discussed about the same and not that which Luther or Caluin who could make vnmake Scripture at their pleasure or our owne priuate spirit shall conceipt to be Scripture and secondly for the sense and true meaning of the Scripture if we haue any care of that or imagine that it doth import vs at all we are no lesse to stand to the iudgement of the sayd Church for the exposition and interpretation therof then we did before for the deliuering of Scripture vnto vs. And so much for this Chapter THE THIRD CHAPTER CONCERNING THE SECOND POYNT OR GENERALL HEAD PROFESSED BY HIS MAIESTY Concerning his belieuing of the three Creeds receiued by the CHVRCH AS the former offer so constantly auerred by his Matie of England concerning the belieuing of all Canonicall Scriptures was a signe and liberall token of a Religious inclination Zealous affection and Pious disposition as before hath beene intimated and related euen so no lesse Religious Zealous and Pious is this assertion also here so coÌ„fidently asseuered by his Highnes touching the acceptance and admittance of the Three ancient Creeds and that in the very same sense as the ancient Fathers Councells that made them did vnderstand them For these are his Maties very words which I haue thought good heere to relate wishing them to remaine vpon an euerlasting and time-out-wearing Record And that for these two principall reasons first that I may not vndutiâ—ully forget to deferre and bring the iust descrued honour and the most highly respected commendation vnto my Soueraigne Lord the King most due to his Grace for this his Confession which also out of a true Subiects loue and loyalty towards his Prince I could sincerely wish might neuer by any the least cloud of errour in his Royall vnderstanding be eclipsed or obscured and secondly for that I trust my former brethren of the Protestanticall Church of England will eyther now at last stand to their grounds of Creeds Councells Fathers Scriptures voluntarily chosen by the Lord and Head of their Church that hitherto vpon my knowledg would neuer be confined within the lists and limyts of any euen tryall or els that my Lord the King will easily out of the depth of his iudicious Vnderstanding vnmaske and discouer these men for such as they be euen wolues in sheeps cloathing false Ghospellers Antichrists deceauers seducers impostors And now to come to the words theÌ„selues as they are substantially couched together in his Maties Booke of Premonition they are laid downe as followeth 2. And now for the point of Heretick I will neuer saith he be ashamed to render an accompt of my profession and that hope that is in me as the Apostle prescribeth I am such a CATHOLICK CHRISTIAN as belieueth the three Creedes that of the Apostles that of the Councell of Nyce and that of Athanasius the two later being Paraphrases to the former and I belieue them in that sense as the Ancient-Fathers and Councells that made them did vnderstand them To which three Creedes all the Ministers of England do subscribe at their Ordination And I also acknowledge for Orthodoxall those other formes of Creeds that eyther were deuised by Councels or Particuler Fathers against such particuler Heresies as most raigned in their times Hitherto extend the wordes of his Maiesty And can any thing be spoken more honorably then this This forme of Confession punctually and so substantially deliuered by his Highnes I can neuer sufficiently coÌ„mend for that this is so farre from sauouring of any spice of Heresy as that here is nothing els but true Catholicke Diuinity For what can be more required for more full supplement of a Catholicke Christian mans Confession then to belieue the three Creedes in the very selfe same sense as the holy Apostles ancient Fathers and generall Councells did vnderstand them And now if the Ministers of England that do subscribe vnto them in their Ordination would keepe and confine themselues within that sense which the ancient Christian Church did both constantly and religiously hold and would not of their owne fancy presume to add any other new glosse or priuate interpretatioÌ„ of their own brayne the world should neuer haue seene and heard such breaches and tumultes such vproares and out-cryes such inundations and innouations and all about Religion as now there are 3. But the truth is as S. Augustine affirmeth Quòd fieri potest vt integra quis teneat verba Symboli tamen non rectè credat de omnibus Symboli articulis A man may hold and professe all the wordes of the Creed he meaneth the Apostles Creed and yet not haue a true beliefe of all the articles of the said Creed Nay S. Augustine in his booke de fide Symbolo goeth yet further saying Sub ipsis paucis verbis in Symbolo constitutis plerique haeretici venena sua occultare conati sunt Most part of Heretickes haue gone about and endeauoured vnder these few wordes of the Apostolicall Creed to couer their poysoned heresies So as the belieuing of these Creeds in generall they conteyning but Capita credendorum Vniuersall heades of thinges to be belieued is not sufficient to make a man a Christian Catholick except also we giue our firme asseÌ„t vnto all the particulers that necessarily may be reduced or deduced from those generall heades For better explication wherof I haue thought it conuenient in this place to addresse certayne Considerations that heere ensue The first Consideration AS the skilfull and carefull Phisitian imployeth noe lesse industry sparing neither Counsaile in phisicke nor prescription in dyet for the conseruing and continuing of the bodily health of his patient vntill he haue brought him to former health and full strength then he did bestow paines and trauaile in recouering him of his infirmity and raising him from the bed of his malady euen so the Apostles as so many soueraigne soules best phisitians most painefully and diligently watched ouer the soules of men their sick patients to vphould and continue them in Christian piety and Catholicke verity as well as they had cured them of their spirituall leprosy and raysed their soules which had long laine sick vpon the bed of heathenish infidelity and all that they might recouer full strength in sauing and belieuing faith and grow to be perfect and whole men in Christ Iesus And here you haue the occasion motiue drift reason intention of Christs holy Apostles in compiling the perfect platform of wholsome faith and Christian beliefe I meane this methodicall and Apostolicall forme of Creed which inuolueth in it eyther explicite or implicite in plaine wordes or necessary supply whatsoeuer belongeth to the obiect of our faith And therfore saith S.
to make good against them in the particuler carriage and passage of this present busines of Councells let vs but leaue the barky rind and outward corke and enter into the inward marrow and substance that is let vs giue no credit to their words but looke into their deedes and we shall easily discerne yea the matter will disclose it selfe For to set their wordes aside whome we haue euer found contrary in their deedes if the Church of England do sincerely imbrace and receaue for Catholicke and Orthodoxe these foure first generall Councells which did resemble comprehend and present the whole Primitiue Church for more then foure hundred and fifty yeares togeather after Christ then must it follow if they meane as they say and that their wordes shall not proue wind that the English Church and our lay Parlaments must acknowledge and admit also that doctrine for Catholick and Orthodoxe which without impeachment controllement or contradiction of any can be substantially proued to haue bene taught and held in this visible vniuersall Church whereof these foure Councelles collectiuely represented the whole body for all that tyme. Which foresaid doctrine that both it and euery point therof passed for so many ages vncontrolled this one reason may suffice to proue insteed of all for that the said doctrines should otherwise haue bene noted espied out reprehended and censured by some of these Councells els had they not done their duties neither had they bene so vigilant for the good of the whole body as they ought to haue bene if hauing condemned some heresies as they did they had winked at others Which once to imagine of an Ambrose an Augustine a Hierome for the latin Church a Basill a Chrysostome and an Athanasius for the Greeke nay to suppose it and that confidently though most impudently of all the great Saints and learned Doctors in the world togeather this cannot be no lesse then senselesse absurdity grosse stupidity yea heathenish impiety when as the least of these which I haue named was for learning able to haue resisted the whole Christian world and for their zeale would haue spared none in a point of errour or heresie as I may instance and proue by Tertullian Origen and S. Cyprian were any of these though neuer so great by the rest spared VVere any former merits though neuer so many respected if once they presumed to innouate the least errour whatsoeuer And therefore to strike at the poynt I ayme at in the period of the Conclusion doth the English Church and Parlament admit all the doctrines that were taught in the Church and that continued without the impeachment of any notwithstanding all the zealous vigilant Pastours in the Church I thinke it will make great difficulty and let it reiect them or any of them there needes no more to proue that Church to be hereticall let it admit them it proues it selfe by departure from them and their doctrines to be Apostaticall for that it houldeth not the same points of faith with these foure first Councells which it maketh shew to receiue and imbrace In a word let it admit them or reiect them they shall neuer be able to wipe away the blot and blemish imputation and innouation of damnable errour from their Church For better vnderstanding whereof as also of some other particulers thereto belonging and hereupon necessarily depending I haue thought good to decipher out these ensuing Considerations The first Consideration MY first Consideration which I promise as the very ground-worke and foundation of all the rest must of necessity be this that the Parlament and Church of England admitting these foure first generall Councells of Nyce Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon for Orthodoxe and truly Catholicke as representing in their Bishops the complete and entyre body of the Catholicke Church in their seuerall ages must needes acknowledge in like manner that for these first foure hundred and fifty yeares or rather fiue hundred for that it is not probable nay possible that within the compasse of fifty yeares the same should now faile which had allready by vertue of Christ his promise continued foure hundred and fifty yeares the true Catholick Church of Christ consisted not only of the elect and consequently was invisible but of good and bad and therupon was visible vnder visible heades And this was figured by the Parables of the net that caught both good and bad fish and by the field that brought forth good corne and weedes And further that this visible externall Church in those dayes was the very same wherof Christs wordes were to be vnderstood when he gaue this in charge to one vpon occasion and supposal of a complaint made against his brother which if he succeeded not then Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church as also that other of S. Paul that the Church is Columna firmamentum veritatis the Pillar and foundation of truth so as if a man in those dayes would haue had any controuersy in Religion debated and resolued if he would haue knowne what Scriptures the Apostles and Euangelists had committed vnto the custody of the Church for Canonicall Authenticall and further if he desired to know which they were how they might be knowne from counterfait how they might be truly sensed and rightly vnderstood what and how many Sacramēts were left by Christ vnto his Church which they were what were their effects operations how they were to be administred and such other like And if he were a Iew or Gentill that thus demaunded questioning these doubts and would vpon the resolution therof become a Christian but being vnlearned would be instructed in all these cases and the like he was to haue made his repayre and recourse vnto this externall visible Church and to haue stood in all points whatsoeuer vnto her finall determination decision direction instruction and perpetuall gouerment in all these first fiue ages without malepart repugnancy or obstinate reply if he euer intēded to be saued And if vpon any animosity or peruicacity any mā were cast out of that Church in all that time eyther for interpreting Scriptures in his owne sense according to a priuate spirit or for peruerting or innouating de nouo de suo of his owne head or braine in any the least poynt of faith and mystery of Christian religion as the Protestants do both his damnation was by all held and concluded for certaine except he repented and listened yea and obeyed the voice of the Church his mother that sought to reclaine him for that the authority of this Church was euer held for God his highest tribunall vpon earth and therfore irrefragable since the tribunall of heauen standeth expecting what is here done by the Church vpon earth being euer ready to loose or bynd to deliuer ouer vnto Sathan or to release from the bandes of sinne errour and heresy according vnto the former passed doome and sentence of the Church as among other Fathers S. Iohn Chrysostome in his
with a chast shamefastnes and loue So S. Cyprian in that excellent Tract of his devnitate Ecclesiae which Tract alone though it be but a very short one yet is it sufficieÌ„t to be the bane of all heresies and to keepe any man desirous of truth within the bosome of Catholicke vnity 23. With S. Cyprian agreeth S. Hilary writing to the same effect in expresse wordes affirming Hoc Ecclesiae proprium est vt tum vincat cùm laeditur tum intelligatur cùm arguitur tum obtmeat cùm deseritur This is peculiar vnto the Church that when she is hurt by persecutions then she winneth and ouercommeth when she is reprehended by heretickes then is she perceiued that is to say when she is misconceiued she maketh her selfe in her doctrine to be better vnderstood by declaration of matters called into question when she is forsaken eyther by rebellious children that go out from her or by Gods permission exercising her by tribulation then doth she obteine the victory and gloriously triumph So as here you see that they spake not only of the Church of their time but of all other ensuing ages that it cannot perish or be corrupted And with these agree S. Ambrose saying Haec ergo nauis Ecclesia est quae si quotidiè saeculum istud tamquam aliquod pelagus sortitur insestum numquam eliditur ad saxum numquam mergitur adprofundum So speaketh S. Ambrose in his booke intituled de Salomone the 4. chapter that is to say This ship therefore of the Apostles that was tossed vpon the seas of this world as the true Church of Christ which albeit it do dayly find and feele the world to be troblesome vnto it as a certaine tempestuous and stormy sea yet doth it neuer dash and split in peces by striking against any rock nor yet is it euer dryuen and drowned to the bottome All which priuiledges could not be verified of the said Church if it were possible that the spouse of Christ could become a harlot or fall away from Christ by intertayning any damnable errour or heresy 24. And as S. Ambrose so speaketh S. Hierome in his commentary vpon the fourth chapter of Isay his wordes be these Super petram sundatur Ecclesia nulla tempestate concutitur nullo turbine ventisque subuertitur The Church being founded vpon a rock is shâ—uered with no tempest is ouerwhelmed and ouerthrowne by no fury violence of windes whatsoeuer And the same holy Father in another place putting a reall distinction betwixt the Synogogue of the Iewes the Christian Church but especially betwixt the promises of God made vnto both assumeth the speach of Christ and speaketh to the Iewes in the person of our Sauiour Linquetur domus vestra deserta your house your Church your Synagogue shal be left desolate and empty vnto you But as for the Christian Church saith he aeternam habebit possessionem for that Christ promised vnto his disciples behould I will be with you or as other Readings haue it I am with you to the consummation of the world And the same speaches are reassumed and reiterated by him in his Commentaries vpon the ninth of the Prophet Amos and vpon the 28. of the Ghospell of S. Matthew 25. And here I might tyre out both the reader and my selfe also with alleadging the vnamine consent of all the ancient Fathers to proue that the visible Catholicke Church of their dayes could neuer perish Apostatate or fall away from Christ to the end of the world in regard of Christ his promise made vnto it and yet the contrary hereticall tenent is a common receiued doctrine in the Protestants schooles in this last worst age of the world For do not the Protestants pro aris focis as though it were a matter of the life or death of their Religion as in very deed it is no lesse stifly peremptorily defend that the visible Church that held these foure generall Councells which are admitted by his Matie and the Church and Parlament of England and fourteene other no lesse Generall from that of Chalcedon to the last of Trent this Church say I descending by succession of Christian people and by lawfull and Ecclesiasticall ordination of Prelats Pastours and Bishops for gouernement of the same hath after the aforesaid Councell of Chalcedon by little little say the Protestants Apostated from Christ and his true doctrine and hath left their roome and place for Protestants to enter and supply their defects And this is iust like the allegations and pretences of the Donatists in S. Augustines time And no maruaile that Protestants and Donatists thus conspire against the true Church for surely the right of the Donatists is as good to lay clayme thereunto as the interest of the Protestants for ought that I can see to the contrary And let this suffice for my first Consideration The second Consideration MY second Consideration concerning this present subiect of the foure first Generall Councells receaued by the Protestants lay Parlament as is already premised shal be this that for as much as this Ecclesiastical deuise and inuention of calling generall Councels and this spirituall authority in erecting this great consistory and supreame tribunall of the Church for the deciding and determining of all doubts and controuersies that may possibly arise therein eyther by the friendes or rather enemyes of the Church must be presumed to haue come peculiarly and proceeded originally from the holy Ghost partly for that the first forme origen and practice therof was prescribed by the Apostles themselues as you shal read Act. 15. according to that which we haue formerly noted and partly and especially in regard of the infallible assistance of the said holy Ghost that euer-blessed and neuer erring spirit of truth testified by the words of high and soueraigne commaunding authority vsed by the Apostles in that first Councels decree visum est Spiritu Sancto nobis it seemeth good to the holy Ghost and vs why I say this being so haue the Protestants in our dayes hauing now almost had a full age since their defection from Catholicke Roman Religion neuer as yet called a generall Councell amongst themselues to repaire their owne breaches reconcile their owne emnities determine and decide their owne controuersies which as before I haue shewed are both many and waighty implacable and irreconciliable Truly it seemeth vnto me that if they had beene of the same spirit with the ancient Apostolicke Church that gathered these foure first generall Councels to hould all in one vnion and communion nay if they had not bene led or rather misled with a contrary spirit of schisme heresy and diuision they would haue troden in the steeps of these ancient Fathers and haue imitated them in applying the soueraigne remedies of generall Councells for curing the woundes of their owne home-bred diuisions and damnable dissentions at least wyse they would without faile in a whole age haue called some one forasmuch as
dore of the Church the one of them must of necessity serue the other so impossible it is that two so contrary the one to the other should stand togeather such is the implacable hostility and extreme opposition betwixt them 7. When Abraham the Father of the faithfull for so the Scriptures style him perceaued that a breach might happily fall out betwixt him and his nephew Lot vpon a dissention already begunne betwixt their heards-men he calleth vnto him consulteth the case treateth and intreateth with him and to perswade him to vnitie vseth this motiue of all the most perswasiue Let there be no dissention betwixt me and thee betwixt my heards-men and thy heards-men for we are brethren c. But it fareth not thus betwixt the Catholicke and the Hereticke no vnion can be made no communion had no condition of peace to be treated and offered betwixt them And if you will haue the reason of this they are no brethren nay which is more they cannot be brethren for the Catholicke in his spirituall birth hath God for his father and the Church for his mother wheras the Hereticke hath an Hethite to his father and an Amonite to his mother that is Sathan is his father and Schisme is his mother he is a stranger to the couenant and a meere alien to the houshould of faith And therefore as Ichu first answered Iehoram his messengers demaunding of peace Quid vobis est paci what haue you to do with peace get you behind me follow me c. And secondly vnto Iehoram himself when he came in person to meet him and demanded Is it peace Iehu what peace whilest the fornications of thy mother Iezabel and her witch-crafts are yet in such aboundance so what peace can the Catholicke make with the Hereticke whilest his heresy worse then the sinne of witchcraft and his spirituall fornications in worshipping of false gods that is intertaining false opinions in religion and dissonant from Catholicke faith continue a terrible caueat to all temporizers that will make a linsey-wolsey of all Religion reconciling Catholicke Religion with Protestants heresy which is as possible as to vnite things most contrary and deadly iarring To these I can giue no other counsaile then such as Elias gaue to the worshippers of Baal when his fiery zeale would admit no diuision betwixt Idolatrous superstition and Gods most pure and vndefiled Religion How long will you halt betwixt two opinions if Baal be God follow him but if God be God follow him c. The application is if hereticall innouation be God his true worship follow it but if Catholicke tradition be the only true and soule-sauing religion then vnder eternall paine hazard of your soules resolue halt no longer betwixt the two God will either haue all or none he careth not for a hart and a hart a deuided hart and the Church will receiue none within her bosome nor help to saue any with her Sacraments but such as are her true-borne children constantly professing her piety abandoning all kind of schisme heresy and securely resting only and truely within her bosome 8. And although I do not affirme that all Catholickes shall be saued for that euill life and matter of fact may condemne as well as bad beliefe and matter of faith yet am I most certaine and I dare pronounce it that all heretickes so liuing and so dying shall be damned agreeing with that so often times reiterated by S. Cyprian Numquam perueniet ad praemia Christi qui relinquit Ecclesiam Christi alienus est profanus est hostis est He shall neuer aspire to heauenly glory that forsaketh the Churches verity and falleth away from Christ by Apostasie he is a forreyner he is profane he is an enemy And as all perished without the Arke and were certainely corporally drowned so assuredly all without the Arke of the Church shall eternally be damned since the Scriptures teach vs that this Arke was a liuely type of the Church And as an Hereticke and a Catholicke can neuer be ioyned togeather in heauen so can neuer the Catholicke and Hereticke Catholicke Religion and heresie in any one point be conioyned vpon earth this is the vniforme and vnanime to vse his Maiesties word consent of all orthodoxe pious and religious Deuines 9. The reason of all the foresaid opposition betwixt a right-beleeuing Catholicke and a misbelieuing Hereticke is this the Catholicke knoweth nay belieueth it as the ground-worke of his faith that Christ our Sauiour hauing left the world in respect of his visible presence continueth inuisible by the immediate assistance of his holy spirit with his Church which is Domus Dei Porta Caeli the house of God and the Gate of Heauen as Iacob spake of the place of his vision Columna firmamentum veritatis the piller and foundation of truth Vnto this Church our Sauiour reuealeth all his secrets that concerne her saluation maketh her of his priuy Counsaile gouerneth her visibly first by his owne person secondly by his Apostles directeth her inuisibly by his immediate spirit the holy Ghost and so continueth her vnder visible gouernment and inuisible direction vnto the worlds generall consummation leading her into all truth such was his promise made vnto her and here is the performance And the reason that the Church is thus neare and deare vnto Christ is this Corpus est shee is his body according to that of S. Augustine Totum quod annunciatur de Christo caput corpus est Caput est filius Dei viui vnigenitus Corpus Ecclesia c. All that can be said and auerred of Christ is his head and his body The head is the onely begotten Sonne of God the body is his Church bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh for Christ hath two bodyes the one natum ex virgine and therefore naturall the other redemptum sanguine and therefore mysticall and the later was more deare vnto him then the former for he wholy bestowed his naturall body to redeeme his mysticall body 10. The Catholicke then knowing this correspondency betwixt Christ and his Church belieueth all wholy and without eyther choice or additiō of his owne which the said Church vniuersally spread ouer the world doth propose vnto him as matter of faith to be belieued conteyning himselfe within that most sure and infallible prescription of Tertullian Nobis verò nihil ex nostro arbitrio licet inducere sed nec eligere quod aliquis de arbitrio suo induxerit It is not lawfull for vs to innouate at our pleasure nor yet may I make choyce of that which another man vpon priuate fancy hath added But as for the Hereticke non sic ille non sic it goeth not so with him for being an Hereticke that is a chooser he according to his name and nature because he will not haue his name for nought maketh choice of what he listeth to belieue
ought effectually to moue vs to make great esteeme of their knowledg to intertaine them as we ought and that is highly to reuerence and sincerely to affect the one since out of the confines of this there can be no saluation as also to detest and fly from the other as from a serpent yea as from Sathan that first seducing serpeÌ„t since this bringeth with it assured daÌ„nation 15. For these and the same causes the Ancient Fathers of the Primitiue Church so much commended by his Maiesty as that he referreth himselfe in matter of ReligioÌ„ to their decision as soone as euer these wordes and their mysteries were reuealed in the Church least in time they should be buried in obliuion did presently with their pennes aduance the most high commendations of the one as the only ordinary high way to euerlasting saluation as also by many detestations and execrations depresse the other as the very path to eternall perdition 16. Amongst which Worthies and famous Pillars of the Church the ancient Father Pacianus so highly commeÌ„ded by S. Hier. for his holines aboue 1200. yeares agone wrote a learned Epistle to one Sempronianus a Nouatian Hereticke of the excellency of this name Catholicke for that those heretickes as ours also of this day do made very little accompt of this Name But the holy Father describeth at large how necessary it was for the holy Ghost to leaue vnto vs this Name or rather Syr-name for distinguishing all faithfull Christians from misbelieuers his wordes are very effectuall for this purpose Ego sortè ingressus populosam Vrbem hodie saith he cùm Marcionitas c. I bechance entring this day into a populous Citty and finding there some called Marcionites some Apollinarians some Cataphrigians some Nouatians and others of like Sectes all calling themselues Christians I did not know by what Syr-name I should find cut the Congregation of my people except by the name of Catholickes So he And then proceeding further Certè non ab homine mutuatâ—m est quod per tantae saecula non cecidit Certainely this Name was neuer taken or borrowed of man that hath not fallen or decaied for so many ages And then he alleageth the authority of Catholick antiquity and vniuersall Church namely the authority of S. Cyprian in particuler for the vse of that name against all heresies whatsoeuer concluding thus Quaere ab haeretico nomine noster populus hac appellatione diuiditur cùm Catholicus nuncupatur c. Wherfore our people is distinguished by this appellation from all hereticall names when it is called Catholicke and yet further he saith Christianus mihi nomen est Catholicus verò cognemen me illud nuncupat istud ostendit hoc prober illo significor Christian is my name but Catholicke is my Syrname the first doth name me onely the second doth point me out by the name of Christian I am fignified only but by the Syrname of Catholicke I am tried and examined whether I be a Christion or no. So he 17. This was that high accompt and esteeme wherein that ancient Father of the Primitiue Church S. Pacianus held the word Catholicke after that the Christian Church had appropriated assumed this distinctiue appellation setting it as a most certaine badge or cognisance vpon the breast of the Church in generall and vpon the sleeue of euery member of this Church in particuler and the reason reassumed in the Conclusion is in effect this Appellatio Catholici congregat homogenia dissâ—pat heterogenia that is in plaine termes this name Catholicke maketh a coniunction vniting her owne and it noteth a disiunction separating all Sectaries from her society And here is the wisdome of Salamon euen the wisdome of Almighty God discerning betwixt the true mother and the false this is the true naturall mother of euery child of the Church she will admit no diuision of her child she will haue all or none for Catholicke is her name But to leaue S. Pacianus and to passe to others since that the Scripture requireth that in the mouth of two or three witnesses euery thing should be established where we may note by the way that if the testimony of two or three ordinary witnesses may stint the strife in matter of controuersy and tend to reconciliation in foro saeculi how much more then the vniforme consent of extraordinary witnesses witnessing iudges and iudging witnesses greater then all exception ought to compromise and finally decide the question now in hand in foro Caeli in foro Ecclesiae 18. These witnesses consenting with Pacianus in the premised point of Catholicke were all the ancient Fathers which liued eyther before or after him in the Centuries of Christian religion within the vnity and bosome of their mother the Catholicke Church as namely before him S. Cyprian whome he expresly mentioneth and before him againe old Tertullian one of the most ancient Fathers of the Latin Church whome S. Cyprian the martyr so highly reuerenced and when he would read him he pointed him out thus Da mihi Magistrum And after these two S. Augustine who ascribed so much and that as he thought worthily vnto this name Catholicke as that he feareth not to say that it was one speciall motiue both to draw him to it and to hold him in the visible vniuersall Church of his daies Neyther doth this great Doctor barely affirme it vpon his word and credit which had beene sufficient for vs to haue belieued the same but he yeeldeth a substantiall reason therof in the wordes following Quod non sine causa inter tam varias haereses ista Ecclesia sola obtinuit which very name of Catholicke not without cause this only Church hath obteined among so many heresies as haue sprong vp Againe the same Father positiuely and boldly affirmeth in another place that the word Catholicke was so appropriate to this Church euer since the Apostles in their Creed gaue that Name vnto it as that no Conuenticle of Heretickes whatsoeuer could once fasten vpon the Name themselues or procure the same to be giuen vnto theÌ„ by others And hereupon he concludeth that the very possession of the Name and common opinion of men was a sufficient coÌ„uincing proofe against all Aduersaries that this Church was the true Catholicke Church indeed 19. Hitherto S. Augustine Now if we descend lower to succeding ages of the Church I meane vnto those Fathers that liued after S. Augustine his time we shall find such harmony in vnity such vniforme consent in iudgement touching the true explication of this name Catholick as also the very right explication of that vnto the visible vniuersall Church of their daies that we must hence necessarily inferre that one spirit breathed in all one the same spirit directed all And here I might produce a whole cloud of witnesses to speake in the phrase of the Apostle as namely S. Damascen Oecumenius Theophilact for the greeke Pâ—lgentius S. Gregory the
great S. Beda for the latin But for that I will not be prolixe and because I hasten to my second Consideration which is the very maine Conclusiō of all my whole discourse hitherunto I will knit vp all with that goulden admonition of Vincentius Lyrinensis an Author which who so readeth and belieueth it is impossible if he will professe any religion that he should be ought els but a Roman Catholicke well his wordes are these Let vs hould that saith he which hath bene belieued generally of all for that this is truly and properly Catholicke as the very nature signification of the name doth import And then for further explication he giueth a threefold prescription for a more sure and infallible direction and this is vniuersality Antiquity and Consent all which he must as time and occasion serueth adhere vnto that will be accompted truly Catholicke And yet in the beginning of his fourth Chapter he illustrates the first Prescription of Vniuersality most pertinent for our purpose at this time by way of supposition and question moued and answered His wordes are these VVhat then shall a Catholick Christian doe if any parcell of the Church shall cut it selfe of from communion of the vniuersall faith This is the questiō moued the answere followeth VVhat els forsooth should he doe but that he preferre the health of the whole body before any one pestilent and corrupted member thereof 20. And hereupon I began to enter into a serious Cōsideration and a seuere examination of my owne Conscience in a secret recollected and most retired conference betwixt God and my owne soule touching matters of religion as they shall eyther doome me or saue me at the last day First I considered yea and seriously within my owne hart debated demaunding of my selfe whether the Protestants Church and doctrine wherof I then was a reall and formall member and Professor had not cut it selfe of yea departed and separated it selfe from the vnion and communion of the vniuersall faith and from the sauing and conuerting Ghospell of Christ his Kingdome which was first to be preached to all Nations as Christ promised that it should come to passe before the worldes great destruction and generall consummation This was my first demaund and the answere returned vnto me by the Catholicke Church of ancient Fathers vpon view of their doctrine and comparing it c. nay by the spirit of God since it was promised to be the guider and directour of his Church I say the answere returned was that the Protestants Church doctrine had abandoned both Catholick name Catholick faith and therefore as beames cut of from the sunne as boughes violently broken of frō the tree and streames and channels parted and separated from their originall fountaine as S. Cyprian speaketh they were to perish vanish and come to naught And now what course remained for me to take if I regarded at all the welfare of my soule but to follow the sage weighty counsaile of my foresaid authour Vincentius Lyrinensis my Authour indeed being the only meanes next vnder God of my Conuersion from heresy to Catholicke Religion and that is to prefer the health and welfare of the whole body before any one pestered and infested member therof His meaning in plainer termes is that in time of Schisme and Heresy or in particuler Countries Apostacy from the Catholicke Christian faith and religion euery Catholicke Christian that is already in the Church must hoouer vnder the winges of the Church by retyring into her lap and bosome in time of any danger And he that is an Hereticke and of an hereticall Congregation and consequently forth of the Church must endeauour by all means possible to become a Catholicke by returning againe vnto the Communion of Catholick Religion out of which it is impossible there should be any saluation 21. This first Consideration I enlarged yet further extending it by a second supposition to witt if the Protestants Church and doctrine be Catholicke indeed as they would beare the world in hand it is then it hath bene generally reaceaued of Christians ouer all Christendome in that sense as it is now in opposition against the Roman Church then the Protestants can produce visible Churches of theirs that haue bene extant from the Apostles time downwards hitherto that haue held the selfe same points of doctrine the selfe same number of Sacraments other such differences as now Protestant Churches haue in them from the Roman thē according to that most sure prescription of Tertullian they can Edere origines Ecclesiarum suarum euoluere ordinem Episcoporum suorum Declare the beginnings of their Church they can turne ouer and bring forth an orderly succession of Bishops running on as he saith from the very beginning and continuing without any interruption to the Apostles tyme then can they proue that the first Bishop that held these differences was instituted and ordayned by some Apostle or Apostolicall man for so saith Tertullian could the Church of the Smyrneans proue their succession of Bishops from S. Policarpus ordayned by S. Iohn and the Church of Rome proue from S. Clement placed by S. Peters in one word then according to another prescription of Tertullian can they proue that the doctrine of their Church as now it standeth in contradiction with ours conspireth with the doctrine of the originall Apostolicall and mother Churches and that they hold that very doctrine which the Church receiued from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ and Christ from God and that the same hath cōtinued by neuer interrupted succession from that time to this of theirs These things if they shall euer be able soūdly and substantially to proue on their part then shall I acknowledg that they and their Religion are Catholicke indeed and that out of their Church there is no saluation 22. But if these things haue bene by them attempted and could neuer yet be proued by them nay if their affirmatiue haue bene disproued by a negatiue in all the forenamed notes markes prescriptions of the Church and against Hereticks as is already too apparently knowne to the whole Christian world then let them at the last vpon so manifest a conuiction ingenuously confesse that the denomination of Hereticke rather then the appellation of Catholuke doth properly apertaine vnto them 23. And albeit I cannot but vnderstand that the Hereticks of ancient times and all moderne Sectaries in these our vnhappy dayes both in Germany France Holland Scotland and England doe ambitiously affect this renowned name of Catholick to haue it giuen vnto their hereticall Cōgregations nay which is more howsoeuer they do fraudulently sometimes cloath themselues in sheepe skinnes when surreptitiously they inuest thēselues with this high title supreame dignity of a Catholick though in points of doctrine amongst themselues they be neuer so much opposite the one to the other ech condemning other for Hereticks nay damning themselues amongst themselues and
so much as we heare on the one side the terrible horrour of the said Name and on the other side we see the common and to much vsed familiaryty therof in these our vnhappy tymes later and worser dayes which are so replenished with all kind of Sects and Sectaries as that each one commonly calleth the other Hereticke and that with as great facility and with as litle regard as if the accustomable practice of calling Hereticke had taken away the true sense and reall feeling of an Hereticke or as though he called him good fellow or witty inuentor of new opinions which amongst the Sectaries of our age is rather reputed for a pleasant iest and ingenious cōmendation then for that which in sober sadnes setting all Atheisticall scoffing and iesting in matters of such momēt a part it is to wit a terrible accusation and dreadfull charge of a most high and Capitall crime committed against God his Church his Sauiour and all to the destruction of his owne soule 28. But alas who doth not now adaies delight and esteeme himselfe the more for his sharpnes of wit subtile ingeny for inuenting finding out deuising framing new positions new translations new interpretations and that coyned stamped in the shop of his own braine therby of set purpose to impugne and of desperate malice to withstand some Catholick points of ancient Churches doctrine And if you tell him that he must keep him to the traditiō of the Church deliuer that to the sonnes of the Church which he hath vniformly receiued frō the Fathers of the Church that he must not remoue ancient bands in matters of beliefe for feare of a curse that he must reddere depositum as S. Paul chargeth Timothy and that with a vehement asseueration and what is that reddere depositū that is as Vincentius Lyrinensis excellently expounds it Quod tibi creditum est non quod à te inuentum quod accepisti non quod excogitasti rem non ingenij sed doctrinae non vsurpationis priuatae sed publicae traditionis rem ad te perductam non a te prolatam in qua non author esse debes sed custos non institutor sed sectator non ducens sed sequens that which is committed vnto thee not any thing inuented of thee that which thou hast receaued not deuised a matter of doctrine not of wit not of priuat vsurpation but of publicke tradition a matter brought vnto thee not brought forth of thee wherin thou must be no author but a keeper no maister but a scholler no guider but a follower Lastly tell him that he must content himselfe with being a relator only not presuming to be an author otherwise his position will proue innouation priuate inuention erroneous election and consequently heresy I say tell him all this and what more you can deuise and he will laugh at you for your simplicity in going about to terrify him with such buggs and in tying his spirit to any rule of Church-authority since the wind bloweth where it listeth c. which he fanatically applieth vnto his spirit presuming it to be inspired from aboue And with that spirit if you will belieue him vpon his bare word is he so inspired that he needeth no other direction no further instruction And this is all the accompt that he maketh of being a Catholicke or a choosing Hereticke But reflecting vpon the other syde of the Roman Religion which may truely and only be called Catholicke I experimentally found another kind of reckoning made of both these wordes Catholicke and Hereticke most highly esteeming the one as hath bene formerly spoken and fearfully declining the other as the origen and ofspring of all calamity 26. And first I found in the common doctrine of their Schooles they assigning Heresy for one of the three species or members of infidelity opposite to Christian Religion they hould it to be the worst most heinous of all three in respect of the extreame and desperate malice therof to wit that it is in a degree of euill and sinne worse and more damnable then either Paganisme or Iudaisme not for that all heresie denyeth more parts of Christian doctrine then do the Pagans or Iewes for in this the Pagan sinneth more then a Iew and a Iew commonly more then an Hereticke but because they do corrupt and impugne the Catholicke Christian faith which once they receiued and from which they are now wilfully departed which implieth more malice then can be ascribed to eyther Iew or Gentile that neuer receyued the same In which respect their sinne and damnatiō is more grieuous say Catholicke Doctors then is eyther of the other two Wherupon is inferred by S. Thomas and it is the common opinion that an Hereticke is in worse state then a Iew or Gentile for the life to come 30. Againe for further aggrauation and exaggeration of the horror of this Name and loud-crying sinne therby signified the Catholicke Deuines in a more particuler explication do constantly and with vniforme consent auerre that an Hereticke discrediting or not belieuing as he should any one article of the Catholicke faith doth loose his whole faith and habit thereof in all the rest And the reason herof is assigned by the Schoole Doctors for that the chiefe motiue or formall reason why a man doth belieue any thing in Christian Religion is because it is reuealed by God and propounded by the Church without which Churches propounding and approuing nothing can be securely belieued And therefore when an Hereticke in any one article discrediteth and detracteth from the authority of this Church which is necessary and primary condition in beliefe denying it thereby to be an infallible rule of beliefe in this one article he denieth the same in all the rest As for example if a man should aske a Protestant why he belieueth the Scriptures and S. Matthews Gospell to be S. Matthews Gospell he can answere no otherwise but that God hath reuealed the same vnto vs by the Church which propoundeth these books for Scripture Here then the proposition of the Church appertaineth to the formall reason or cause of beliefe as Deuynes doe tearme it which if once it be denyed or discredited in any one article as the Protestants do when we alledge it against them for Purgatory Prayer for the dead Sacrifice inuocation of Saints and the like then can it not hold in the former about Scriptures or any other article and consequently Hereticks haue no diuyne faith at all about Scripture or any other article but are meere Infidels in all and consequently shal be damned say they not only as chusing Heretickes beleeuing one thing and reiecting the other but as vnbelieuing Infidells deuoid of all faith Which seemed to me to be a very terrible commination and fearfull distriction and yet did I see it substantially grounded and so orderly deduced as that I must ingenuously confesse it so conuinced my vnderstanding and
informed my iudgment that I could not do otherwise then giue my full consent vnto it Nor did I possibly see how the same might be any way denyed or probably with any colour of reason impugned And was there not cause now that I should looke about me examin the groundes whereupon I stood seriously debate with my selfe of my late resolution and change made in religion weighing pondering all things with mature deliberation and serious meditation 31. Wherefore retyring my selfe to the sacred Scriptures and blessed Fathers which according to Vincentius direction I had euer resolued vpon for the infallible rule and Canon of my faith to see what they said in this matter since that other foundation theÌ„ this can no man lay I fouÌ„d the same seuerity in their assertions iudgments which argued that the Schoole Doctors had originally drawne the matters of their doctrine froÌ„ the most pure fountaine 32. And first I found that the said Heretickes and heresies were foretould and prophesied of by Christ and his Apostles in the Scriptures of God as namely that they should enter into the Church immediatly after Christs time and his Apostles and so that they should continue from time to time as Matth. 24. 5. Ioan. 5. 44. 1. Cor. 11. 19. 1. Tim. 4. 1. 2. 3. 2. Tim. 2. 17. 18. 2. Pet. 1. 2. 1. Ioan. 2. 18. 19. and else-where throughout the whole volume of Gods booke All which as large Commentaries discouer vnto vs the nature and condition of Heresies and Heretickes But I will confine my selfe within shorter straiter bounds and at this time I will especially ponder vpon these three ensuing places namely Matth. 7. 15. 16. 3. â—it 10. and 11. the Epistle of S. Iude almost throughout the whole Epistle 33. And first he that spake as neuer man spake the Wisdome of the Father and the soules best Phisition that euer was giueth vs both a serious admonition and a perspicuous description of Heretickes Attendite à fâ—lsis Prophetis c. Beware of false Prophets which come vnto you in sheeps clothing but inwardly they are rauening wolues you shall know them by their fruites Beware there is the admonition of false Prophets there is the deception and circumuention which come vnto you in sheeps clothing there is their frauduleÌ„t hypocrisy but inwardly they are rauening wolues there is their violent cruelty you shall know them by their fruttes there is a manifest discouery of their impiety Againe Beware that is take heed looke about you there is imminent perill and hazard of your soules hangeth ouer your heads of false prophets false deceauers false Apostles Antichrists Heretickes which come vnto you in sheeps clothing pretending outwardly to be Angels of light but inwardly they are rauening wolues messengers of Sathan and spirits of darkenesse you shall know them by their fruites if not by their wordes yet by their workes if not by their sayings yet by their meaning Lastly beware neuer was there any more need of circumspection of false Prophets I poynt you to the poison that coÌ„meth from the persons which come vnto you in sheeps cloathing hauing nothing in their mouthes but Euangelium Christi Euangelium Christi the pure Ghospell of Christ the pure Ghospell of Christ but inwardly they are rauening wolues corrupters of his Ghospell and soule-quellers deuouring the innocent sheep of Christ you shall know them by their fruits for the liberty of their Ghospel shal argue to their faces the impiety impurity of their harts 34. The text of Scripture is excellently expounded both by Tertullian and Vincentius Lyrinensis And first what is this sheeps clothing sayth Tertull. but the extrinsecall name of a Christian and what be these rauening wolues but deceiptfull glosses and spirits inwardlly lurking and infesting the flock of Christ who are these false prophets but false preachers who are these false Apostles but adulterous Euangelizators who are these Antichrists now and allwaies but rebels against Christ hurting and persecuting the Church with the secret impiety of their heresy asmuch as Antichrist shall then doe with his open cruelty and tyranny So he 35. Secondly Vincentius goeth further and though he liued twelue hundred yeares agoe yet speaketh he so particulerly to this point of vnmasking heresy hereticks as if he had liued in the very dayes of Luther Caluin and the ProtestaÌ„ts Apostasie which inforceth me vpon an often scrious meditation to conclude that his spirit was inspired and his pen guided by the immediate hand finger of God Let vs heare him then speake interpret What is this sheepes cloathing saith he but the oracles of the prophets and Apostles who be these rauening wolues but the cruell virulent violent interpretatioÌ„s of Hereticks who alwaies infest the fouldes of the Church and teare in peeces the flock of Christ by al meanes that possibly they can But that they may deceiptfully steale vpoÌ„ thevnwary sheep they put of their wolwish shape continuing in their woluish cruelty and they wrap and couer themselues with sentences of holy Scriptures as it were with certaine fleeces that when any man shall perceiue the softnes of their woll he may not feare the sharpenes of their teeth But what saith our Sauiour You shall know them by their fruits that is when they beginne not only to bring but also to expound the places of Scripture nor yet to brag of theÌ„ only but further to interprete them then their bitternesse then their sharpenes then their madnes is perceyued then their new poison shal be vented forth then their prophane nouelties shal be detected then shalt thou see the hedge fence to be cut and broken downe then shalt thou see the ancient meares and boundes of the Fathers to be translated and remoued then Catholicke faith shal be violated then Ecclesiasticall doctrine anihilated and destroyed Hither to my Authour 36. And can any thing be spoken more effectually Or is it possible that men or Angels can interprete this place more truly Are not all Heretickes here vnmasked Are not the ProtestaÌ„ts palpably discouered couering their hereticall faces with the visard of Scriptures when otherwise they durst not appeare in their woluish and theeuish shapes If this be not so or that I wrong theÌ„ in ought nay if they be not guilty in their owne consciences of much more then I can charge them withall let the iust doome of heauen reuenge it vpon my soule and let me neuer see the face of God haud ignotaloquor what I speake I speake vpon long practice and experience which I haue had amongst them And if this be so then are they of the number of those false Prophets concerning whome our Sauiour giueth vs admonition heere Beware of false Prophets which come to you in sheeps clothing but inwardly they are rauening wolues you shall know them by their fruites c. Why but the ProtestaÌ„ts will plead in generall that they haue Scriptures to confirme euery assertion of their
great doubt that then arose in the Church to wit whether the obseruation of the ould law of Moyses should be ioyned necessary with the new law of Christ and because they would leaue a patterne for all succeeding ages to follow they determined the matter and thēselues I meane the Apostles and Prelates of that first age decided the doubt by those high wordes of authority taken from the foresaid commission of our Sauiour Visum est spiritui Sāto Nobis it seemeth good vnto the holy Ghost and vs for the Church and the true spirit of the holy Ghost go inseparably togeather in regard of Christ his promise made vnto the Church so that the holy Ghost euer keepeth his residence in her guideth her gouerneth her directeth her and sitteth as President in all her consultations and assēblyes and therefore this vmpiring and determining forme of speach hath euer since beene vsed in the lawfull succession of the said visible Church vntill our daies will be frequented still especially in generall Councels euen vnto the worlds end to put a firme period and full conclusion vnto all controuersies that come in question And the reason is for that the same authority and assistance of the holy Ghost which that first Church had for directing of mens soules vnto their saluation the very self same and none other hath the visible Catholicke Church of our age and hath had in all ages and shall haue in all to come Verum enim non variat It is an ancient prescription and no more ancient then true Gods giftes and graces conferred vpon his Church are without repētance the holy Ghost is euer one and the selfe same spirit of truth in Patriarkes Prophets Apostles Martyrs and other succeding Pastours and Doctors and Christ his promise was not for one age only he shed not his pretious bloud for those of his age alone but for all all were alike neere vnto him all were alike deare vnto him he tooke our nature in generall to saue mankind in generall and therfore the care he had for one age of the Church the same he had for all succeeding ages of the same as well for the last as for the first and this care of his continueth so long as the sunne and the moone endureth 60. This remittance then and reference vnto the Authority of the Church originally proceeded from the Apostles themselues was continually perpetuated by all succeeding ages of the Catholicke Church and therfore as S. Paul in a controuersy of lesser importance writing to the Corinthians about women being veyled in the Church saith to shut vp the dore to all further cōtention that If any man will seeme to be contentious we haue no such custome nor yet the Church of God repressing the contentious man as you see with the Authority and Custome of the Church so did all subsequent Fathers of the orthodox Church whether it were in the priuat writings or in the worlds grand Parlament in Generall Councells in all their conflicts with Hereticks they euer vsed to repell and represse them by one and the selfe same meanes and that was with the authority of the knowne Catholicke Church And looke what sentence they pronounced against thē for their contumacy see what censure they inflicted vpon them for their heresy it remayned good against them and irreuocable it was ratyfied as the law of the Medes and Persians which could not be altered their authority was grounded immediatly vpon those wordes of Verity VVhat soeuer you bynd on earth shall be bound in heauen and the Tribunall of heauen confirmed the authority of the Church vpon earth nay standeth expecting what is done by it vpon earth such is the mysticall dependency betwixt the one and the other such is the mutuall correspondency betwixt the head and his members Christ and his Church Dare then any man hereafter oppose his priuate spirit against the authority of this Church Or will he impudently presume to preferre his owne conceipt and opinion before her publicke tradition 61. Ancient S. Irenaeus who was in manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostolorum for he liued in the very next age after them writing against the heresies of his dayes and hauing first declared how the primitiue Church was visibly planted by Christ and his Apostles and how it was continued to his time doth then pourtraict out vnto vs discourse at large of the authority sufficiency treasury tradition and absolute perfection of this Church for the repelling of all heresy and deliuering of all truth his wordes are these Tantae igitur ostensiones cùm haec sint c. Wheras these thinges which I haue said are so great demonstrations of the truth we must not yet seeke the truth from others which is easely taken from the Church wheras the Apostles did most fully lay vp in her all thinges belonging to the truth as in a certaine rich treasure-house so as euery man that will may take from thence the liquor or sustenance of life for that is the intrance vnto life euerlasting to belieue the Church all others that flie this way are theeues and murtherers and therfore we must auoid them that are such but with great diligence we must affect those things that are of the Church and from her take the tradition of truth And truly if our contention were but about some small question in Religion yet ought not we to haue recourse vnto the most ancient Churches wherin the Apostles had once bene conuersant and so take from them that which is certaine and cleere for deciding of the question And what if the Apostles had left vnto vs no Scriptures at all had it not bene needfull notwithstanding to follow the order of tradition which they haue left vnto vs to whome they to wit the Apostles had committed those Churches 62. Thus farre S. Irenaeus which I haue of purpose chosen to cite more at large for that it is sufficient alone to disclose his iudgement and the Iudgment of that first age next after the Apostles how farre the authority of the visible vniuersall Church then stretched and was esteemed for especially for clearing soluing and deciding of all doubtes that possibly could arise in religion And the reason there rendred by the same Father is this She is the store-house wherein Christs merits and the Churches treasure is laid vp She is the way of life whereby we may come to eternall life and escape euerlasting death that all are theeues yea murtherers of soules that doe impugne her or seeke other wayes of tryall then her and her tradition from hand to hand That this tradition is sufficient though there were no Scripture That from her and her alone the truth is to be taken and not els where That by her and her authority alone all doubts and questions are to be so ued and decided Can any thing be spoken more effectuall then this Or is there any more playne easy euident
very essence of heresy then the first though both of these men being out of the Church must be damned but yet with different measure of punishment 73. This fearefull Conclusion then of damnation standing a foote and remaining in full force to be inflicted vpon all kind of Hereticks we are now and next to cōsider whether the Protestants opinions at this day wherin they differ from the Catholicks be truely heresy being cōpared with the Romā faith and Religion and secondly we are to discusse whether the different sortes sects and professions of the said Protestant religion among themselues especially the principall as Lutherans Sacramentaries in Germany be heresies to the other and the like of Puritans and Protestants in England all originally rising from Martin Luther I say we are to consider whether all these seuerall heades be Hereticks indeed the one to the other or may be saued togeather ech man dying in his owne Religion 74. To proceed then in order vnto the examination of the particulers And first that Protestant Religiō in many great points throughout the mayne corps of controuersies now in hand is truly heresy to those of the Roman fayth and Catholick Religion this point being so cleare needeth no further dispute for asmuch as the Protestants do openly auouch aboue an hundred positions against the same Roman Catholick Church defending the same with obstinate resolution And the late generall Councell of Trent where the flower piety and learning of the whole Catholicke Christian world vnder one spreame Pastour and infallible conduct of God his holy Spirit were assembled hath discussed examined according to ancient grounds of holy Fathers discouered for Hereticall and thereupon hath anathematized 125. points by name and that in so many different Canons enacted concerning the Sacraments only and the controuersy of Iustification Besides all the rest I say the case being thus cleare against them and their conuiction so manifest there needes no further dispute For if by S. Augustine his iudgment euen now alleadged and other Fathers of greatest learning and credit in the Church one only erroneous proposition or assertion held with obstinacy against the doctrine of the knowne Christian Church be conuinced for a point of heresy and held for a matter of most certaine damnation to the houlder for that it casteth a man out of the said Church out of which is no saluation what is to be inferred where so many condēned assertions are held against the knowne Church authority therof 75. To the second also to wit whether Lutherans and Sacramentaries who made the first diuision of Protestants whilst Luther himselfe was yet aliue be truly and properly Hereticks the one to the other and consequently that the saluation of one is the damnation of the other were it possible that any Sectary could be saued This is with as great facility proued as the former and that first by the testimony of Martin Luther himselfe the originall Authour of all these later Sectes and then by the mutuall and concurring consent of all the Lutheran Doctors Pastours and Prelates that succeeded him 76. First I say it is well knowne that Luther himselfe euer reputed the Sacramentaries that comprehend both Zuinglians and Caluinists for dāmnable and intollerable Hereticks Let his owne testification often reiterated and seriously aggrauated in diuers of his bookes be a sufficient cōfirmation of this His first serious Censure denounced against them all is this Haereticos seriò censemus alienos ab Ecclesia Dei Zuinglianos Sacramentarios omnes qui negant Christi Corpus Sanguinem ore carnali sumi in Venerabili Eucharistia We do seriously censure for Hereticks and Aliens from the Church of God the Zuinglians and all other Sacramentaries who do deny that Christes sacred body and bloud is receaued by our carnall mouth in the Venerable Eucharist Can any thing be spoken more clearely or determined more effectually then this Or can any Caluinist with any face hereafter exempt himselfe from out of the number of them that are accursed and condemned by their owne grand Progenitour 77. The same in effect he hath in his Epistle ad Iacobum Presbyterum Ecclesiae Bremensis his wordes are these All Sacramentaries that deny the Reall Presence are Hereticks and for such to be auoided And yet in a third place least any man should thinke he had altered his iudgement de Coena Domini of the supper of the Lord he condemned by name for damned Hereticks the very first Authors of Sacramentary doctrine to wit Carolostadius Oecolampadius and Zuinglius and questionles Caluin had neuer escaped his singers as sly an Hereticke as he was had he bene then either of name or note well his finall and irreuokable doome for it was denounced against thē in his decrepit age was this Ego tamquam alterum pedem iam habens in sepulchro c. I being now ould and hauing as it were one foote in my graue do yet carry this testimony glory with me to the tribunall of Iesus Christ that with all my hart I haue condemned as enemies of the Sacrament Carolostadius Zuinglius and Oecolampadius and all their disciples and followers and haue auoided their company haue no familiarity with them eyther by letters writings wordes or deedes as the Lord hath commanded not to haue with Heretickes Thus much of Luther himselfe 78. And now if we should prosecute the seuerall iudgmentes and Censures of all others the most learned Lutherans against Sacramentaries in this matter of heresy and namely against Caluinistes who were of no reckoning in Luthers daies for that their new heresy was but then a hatching there would be no end and I should rather fill a large volume then cōteine my selfe with in the precincts of my briefe intended Considerations Let one or two of the principall serue for all Matthias Illyricus a great Lutheran Superintendent of Saxony and one of those foure that compiled the lying Centuries doth in a certaine booke intituled Desensio Consessionis Martinistarum or Luther anorum censure Caluinistarum Lyturgiam the Lyturgy or seruice of the Caluinists not only for hereticall but to be Sacrilegious also Et proh dolor saith he innumeras animas aeterno exitio inuoluere And to inuolue alas innumerable soules with euerlasting perdition 79. Franciscus Stancarus also no meane Authour one of the Lutheran side writing to the King of Polonia in his days pronounceth confidently of all those new professors vnder Caluin in Geneua that they were Publici manifesti haeretici notorious and manifest Hereticks And yet as though this were little the same Author in his booke de Trinitate prescribeth this Caueat to the Christian Reader concerning Caluin and would to God it were as well remembred and practised in the Vniuersities of England where yong Deuines are for the most part poysoned with the drugges and dregges of Caluins doctrine my hart bleedeth to thinke of it before they can tast of the pure liquor of
antiquity well the admonition is this Caue Christiane Lector c. Beware Christian Reader of the bookes of Iohn Caluin especially in the articles of Trinity of the Incarnation of the Mediator of Baptisme of Predestination c. for that they doe containe most impious and blasphemous doctrine So he VVhereby is vnderstood not only the censure of the Lutheran Church concerning the Caluinists doctrine but also in what articles the difference betwixt them doth principally consist and these are neither few in number nor meane in nature as you see confirmed by the particular exceptions VVhich articles are reiterated by other Lutheran writers as namely by Albertus Grauerus in his booke intituled The warre of Iohn Caluin with Iesus Christ which booke was set forth in the yeare of our Redemption 1598. wherin he sheweth that the Articles wherby the Lutherans do cheifly differ from the Caluinists hereticall doctrine are of the person of Christ of the Supper of our Lord of Baptisme and of Predestination And Iacobus Halbruneir another Lutheran Doctor published an other booke the same yeare before to proue Caluinisme to be heresy and to the former articles of Albertus he addeth other two wherin Lutherans and Caluinists do deepely dissent which are de Maiestate Christi Ministerio Verbi wherby he maketh it euident that Caluinists are truly and properly Hereticks to Lutherans And this for the second point 80. Yt resteth now that I come vnto the third ranke of English Protestants and Puritans which are two different sects of Caluins doctrine which are found togeather in no state or Kingdome perhaps of Christendome but only in England And although some Protestant writers for dissembling their owne diuisions when they deale with Catholickes will needes forsooth acknowledge them for brethren as not differing from them in any substantiall point of Doctrine yet in all their other writings eyther against them or of them they disclose playnly what they thinke of ech other holding them both for Schismaticks and Hereticks in respect of their Protestant Church Which being presumed by them as they must needes presume to be the only true Catholike Church it must needes follow that Puritans who from their innermost soules detest the same and the communion thereof as Antichristian must needes be Sectaries nay Heretickes to that Church And this is consonant to the doctrine of these Scriptures and most conformable to the opinion of ancient Fathers as is before copiously in the precedent Considerations asseuered 82. For confirmation of which dissention capitall and reall hostility betweene our Puritans and Protestants in sundry mayne points of their Religion I might heere alledge and produce infinite authorityes and innumerable arguments if I should not surcharge my Treatise The two bookes yet extant printed by publicke authority in one and the selfe same yeare I meane the Suruey of the holy pretended Discipline compiled as it is thought by him that is now arriued to the highest pitch of Ecclesiasticall dignity in that Kingdome and the other bearing the inscription of daungerous Positions ascribed to Doctour Sutcliffe both of them receyuing presse at London by Iohn VVolfe Anno Dom. 1593. do sufficiently notifie vnto the world how reconciliable the Puritan position is with the Protestant Religion and that in sundry Articles of great weight and moment And amongst many others which to auoid prelixity I purposly omit the titles of the 22. and 23. Chapters of the Suruey are these That they to wit the Puritans do take from Christian Princes ascribe vnto their pretended regiment the supreme and immediate authority vnder Christ in causes Ecclesiasticall and in the oppugning theros do ioyne with the Papists Whereupon I inferre that if this spirituall Supremacy be any substantiall point of doctrine amongst the Protestants then the obstinate repugnance therof by the Puritans must needes be Schisme and Heresy 82. I pretermit diuers other bookes whereof I haue beene an eye witnesse how purposely and directly they treat of these matters as namely the Answere of the Vicechancelor Doctors of Oxford vnto the petition of a 1000. Puritans Anno Dom. 1603. wherein it is plainely conuinced that the Puritans hould their platforme of Ecclesiasticall gouerment of the gouerment of Christ vpon earth for a thing of no lesse importance then is the Ghospell of Jesus Christ. They hold it further for an essentiall part of their said Ghospell for a matter of faith to be receyued vpon paine of damnation for an essentiall marke of the true Church without the which the Protestants Church is no Church their faith no faith their Ghospell noe Ghospell c. And to conforme to that which M. Rogers writeth in his Preface to the Bishops Articles where he testifieth that the Puritans do hold their platforme differing from the Protestants to be a speciall part of the Ghospell yea the very Ghospell it selfe to be of such importāce as if euery haire of their heades were a life they ought to affoard them all in defence therof So they And in sober sadnes supposing their principles to be true haue they not great reason for that their differences be in so maine very substantiall points if we refere them to their heades wherof there is extant a very substantiall declaration and conuiction as to me it seemeth in the Preface of the Catholicke Deuine in his answere to Syr Edward Cookes fifth part of Reportes whither I referre the ingenous iudicious Reader for further perusall of this point for there it is shewed and irrefragably against all impugners therof proued how essentiall and substantiall difference of doctrine there is about the origen of Ecclesiasticall power and authority betweene the Protestantes Puritans and Catholickes of England the one that is the Protestāt ascribing it to their temporall Prince the other challenging it as most properly pertayning to their priuate Conuenticles Assemblies the last third to the Succession of Bishops from the Apostles the consequence wherof is this that whosoeuer of the three parties haue the right in this point there only is the true Church there alone is the true Ecclesiastiall Authority of preaching teaching or dayning Ministers administring Sacraments exercising Censures and Iurisdiction binding or loosing remitting or retaining sinnes and the like c. And for the other two Churches they do remayne as secular and prophane Congregations without any vitall spirit of Ecclesiasticall power at all Let them then contend neuer so much about the keys of Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction yet the plaine truth is they shall neuer be able to open or shut the gates of heauen vnto their owne friendes or against their enemies 83. And for as much as the Puritans also in their plea do perswade themselues to haue the right on their side they must needes inferre the other consequence against the Protestant Church houlding it to be no Church as the foresaid answere of Oxford Doctors pag. 15. doth confesse that the Brownists do ancrre
out of the new All these I say are receiued by those of the Roman Religion for Canonicall Scriptures in the sense before defined out of S. Augustine that is to say for holy and diuine bookes written by the finger of Almighty God by the ministery of those who were Pennes of a ready writer and consequently these of the second ranke were of no lesse authority nor infallible verity then those of the first order for that in things immediatly and a like proceeding from God his spirit there can not be lesse or more truth but all are of equall credit and so equally to be receaued honoured esteemed and belieued And thus much for the Catholickes who for a infallible ground and assured direction in this matter follow not any priuate erring spirit but the neuer-deceiuing authority of the Church which Church and spouse of Christ being guided by the spirit of God according to the promise of Christ her bridegrome hath from all ancient time in former ages in her Councells Synodes and Ecclesiasticall Decrees notified declared determined and established the authority of these foresaid bookes of the second rew for infallible and Canonicall that is to say declared them to be such and euer haue bene such to wit of most certaine and infallible truth though sometimes and amongst some men there haue bene doubt thereof And this is the manner of the Church to declare what is Scripture but not to make it 30. But as for the Protestants I find such diuersity and contrariety such opposition and contradiction among them that they seeme vnto me as mē in tangled shall I say nay perplexed and distracted not knowing what to doe or whither to fly or which way to turne them in this great busines of discerning and admitting Scriptures And surely the reason of all this misery ariseth from themselues alone Perditio tua ex te it was spoken of Israells transgression but neuer more truly verified thē of hereticall innouation for that these miserable deceiued and deceiuing soules leauing the high rode of the Churches prescription can neuer possibly attaine vnto any infallible direction one following one thing and another another and that in this maine point of the Scriptures importance Quot capita tot sententia euery man will be a chooser euery one will shew himselfe an Hereticke whence it commeth to passe that Gods word is wretchedly abused blasphemed reiected by some rent and torne in peeces by others and that which on God his part was ordained and prepared for them to be a sauour of life vnto life becommeth by their misusage of it a sauour of death vnto death and to speake all in a word through the fault of their owne peruerse will concurring and God his most righteous iudgment following them hard at the heeles it commeth to passe that that word which was giuen as a pillar of fire to direct and lighten them into all verity is turned into a pillar of smoke so darkening and infatuating their vnderstanding that they rush headlong into all kind of heresie 31. This being well peceiued by his Maiesty of England according to that notable apprehension of his Noble Nature he as it were out of a pious zealous and Religious disposition though wrongly missed by some time-seruing and Statizing Theologue who is somewhat to neere vnto his Royall Person writeth as in part before you haue heard concerning the Scriptures and it is in effect as followeth As for the Scriptures no man doubteth I will belieue them But euen for the Apocrypha I hould them in the same accompt that the Ancients did they are still printed and bound with our Bibles and publikely read in our Churches I reuerence them as writings of holy and good men but since they are not found in the Canon we accompt them to be secundae lectionis or ordinis which is Bellarmines owne distinction and therefore not sufficient wherupon alone to ground any article of faith except it be confirmed by some other place of Canonicall Scripture Thus writeth his Maiesty out of a good meaning no doubt and therefore great pitty it is that so Vertuous and Religious a Hart should erre or conceipt amisse But who shall determine whether these Scriptures here called Apocrypha which are those of the second order before mentioned be Canonicall Scriptures or not Herelyeth the substance of the questiō His Matie heere vpon the suggestion of his Domesticall Ministers of England saith no but the ancient Church of Christendome saith yea as doth also the present and her iudgement being in this case aboue all earthly authority is to strike the stroke betwixt God and man Let the word of my Soueraigne in all otherthings stand as the strong moūtaine that may not be remoued and as the law of the Medes and Persians which could neuer be altered only let not my lord the King be displeased with his seruant and subiect in this if his word may not stand but must of necessity fall to the ground as being countermaunded by the word of God that cannot nor will not be disauthorized by the word of any mortall man 32. It was suggested to his Matie but sinister was the information that Cardinall Bellarmine in his first booke de Verbo Dei cap. 4. held the former distinction of secundae lectionis or ordinis and that in his Maiesties sense but it is nothing so in the sense that here is set downe by his Maiesty to wit that this second order of bookes are of lesse authority then the first For albeit Bellarmine doth as before hath bene said deuide all the bookes that are in the Bible into three ranks or orders first into such as were neuer called in question by any Catholicke men Secondly into such as notwithstāding sometimes haue byn doubted of by some yet were afterwards admitted by the whole vniuersall Church And thirdly and lastly into Apocrypha yet doth he not either call those bookes of the second order Apocrypha or secundae lectionis as here is set downe nor yet secundi ordinis in his Maiesties sense as though they were lesse to be belieued and of lesse authority then those of the first ranke but rather he auerreth the quite contrary that they are all of one and the selfe same authority And therfore whosoeuer he was that suggested this place of Bellarmine vnto his Matie he dealt not well and sincerly therin with his Prince and he is bound by the law of conscience and by the law of a subiect towards his Soueraigne to acknowledge his errour were it of malice or of ignorance committed and humbly prostrate vpon his knees to craue pardon for this abusing of his Lord and euer after to beware how he presume to whisper any such vntruth palpable and notorious falshood into the eares of his dread Lord and King 33. But now forasmuch as this point of denying the infallible authority and irrefragable credit of any the least booke part or parcell of
Scripture is so heynous and temerarious a sinne as before we haue touched yea and that committed against the Blessed spirit that breathed them all and streamed these pure waters of life from one and the same liuing and life-giuing fountaine Let vs in the name of God in timore tremore euen with feare and trembling since the horror of the sinne committed requireth this at our hands examine a little in what a dangerous nay damnable state the Protestants of our dayes do stand in about their disauthorizing of Scriptures not in blotting out one booke alone but in wiping out many togeather from the number of the sincere Canon and let vs further consider in what a gaze and maze they stand being vncertaine of their ground also what they ought to belieue hould or determine after they haue lost the sure and stable-staying anchor of the Churches authority in this behalfe 34. As for example the Catholickes do belieue all those bookes before mentioned which are secundi ordinis in Bellarmine both the ould and new Testament to be Canonicall Scriptures of infallible truth and the reason is drawne from the Church for that she in her ancieÌ„t CouÌ„cells hath admitted the same for such at least wise since the 47. Canon of the third Councell of Carthage was enacted wherin S. Augustine himselfe was present and subscribed to the said Canon which Canon auerreth them to be bookes of true Canonicall Scriptures amongst which for example goeth the Epistle to the Hebrewes and of this my purpose is at this present to make some particuler Consideration for that the time within whose limyts I am straited will not easily permit me to treat of all 35. This Epistle then is belieued of the Catholicks to be a true part of Canonicall Scripture and written by S. Paul as well as the rest for that it was so receaued by the Church in old time as namely in the Councell of Laodicea the 59. Canon And after that againe in the third Councell of Carthage before mentioned and cyted in diuers other Councells and namely in the first Nicene whose authority his Matie of England offereth to stand vnto in the first Ephesine and of that of Chalcedon in all the grand Parlaments of the worlds Generall Councells it was receaued and acknowledged as the genuine Epistle of S. Paul But now in these our vnhappy times matters be raked into Controuersies againe and that after the whole Church hath in diuers Synods established the thing and euery sort of Sectaries will needes adhere to their owne brayn-sicke fancyes and will preferre their owne priuate opinion before the publicke determination and resolution of the Church Amongst all others as the Captaine and ringleader of the rest vpstarts Martin Luther but it was after he had broken vow and cloyster and married a Nunne taketh vpon him to censure the matter in his Prologue to that Epistle reuersing as erroneous the graue and infallible iudgement of so many Generall Councells directed by the spirit of God his wordes be these This Epistle saith Luther was neither written by S. Paul nor by any other Apostle and it conteineth in it some thinges contrary to the Euangelicall and Apostolicall doctrine This was Luthers heady and giddy censure of this admirable parcell of holy Writ Will any man hereafter so desperately cast away himselfe in crediting him who thus discrediteth Gods word 36. With Luther in this poynt conspire all the learned Lutherans about the disauthorizing of this holy Writ and namely Ioannes Brentius in his Confession of Wittemberg cap. de sacra Scriptura and the foure Magdeburgian good fellowes in their first loud-lying Century the 2. booke the fourth Chapter Col. 55. and that audacious and impudent Examyner and Censurer of all the learning and learned men of the whole Christian world I meane Martinus Kemniâ—ius in his examen of the 4. Session of that famous Councell of Trent And vpon this these men aduenture all their soules VVill any man suffer himselfe any longer to be deceaued by such pure reformers nay rather impure impostors But Iohn Caluin the next succeeding reformer of these Reformers being to beginne a new fect of his owne head he thought it most conuenient to oppose himselfe against the Lutherans in this point and therefore in his first Institutions printed in the yeare of our Lord 1554. cap. 8. § 216. he proueth that the Lutherans do erre in this poynt in houlding it not to be an Apostolicall Epistle yet he will not affirme that it was written by S. Paul but rather perhaps by Bannaby or Luke as may appeare in the same Institutions Chap. 10. § 83. and Chap 16. § 25. Vpon which scruple raysed by M. Caluin the Caluinian Ministers at a certaine Conuenticle of theirs held at Poysy in France in the yeare 1562. do in the third article of their Confession set downe this Epistle to the Hebrewes to be diuine Scripture but yet incerti authoris they leaue the authour of it to be doubtfull And this is a subtill trick peculiar to Caluin his inuention to wit to differ from other Protestants and yet not fully to agree with the Catholickes but to haue something singuler to himselfe as you see in this controuersy and it might be proued in many other 37. And here now I would demaund vpon what warrant in the world doth Iohn Caluin and his Sectaries contradict and oppose themselues against Luther and his followers in this point Certaine it is he agreeth not with the Catholickes at aâ—l and it seemeth then nay it is more then certaine he followeth a seuerall way and straine by himselfe and hath no ground or guide therin but his owne will iudgement choice and election 38. The like dispute I might propose about other bookes or partes of Scriptures and namely concerning the Epistle of S. Iames and the Apocalyps the former wherof is reiected both by Luther and all the forenamed Lutheran writers Brentius Kemnitius and the Magdeburgians all these auouch it to be no Scripture but yet it is asserted and asscuered by Caluin and the Caluinists for genuine and vndoubted Scripture The second which is that mysticall booke of the Reuelation composed by that high-soaring and Egale-winged Iohn S. Iohn syrnamed the Deuine this booke though it be in like manner discredited and disauthorized from Canon by Luther and most of his followers as namely by Brentius Kemnitius in the places before alleaged yet is the same booke eagerly defended against them by Caluin and his followers and good reason haue they in their iudgment for it forasmuch as thence they take vpon them to demonstrate the Pope to be Antichrist and the VVhore of Babylon in regard of the seauen hilled Citty I know not vpon what imaginations besides And this Consideration may be presumed to haue beene an especiall motiue vnto those chiefe Lutherans the Magdeburgians causing them to forsake both their Father Luther and their Lutheran brethren in this cause and to
And the place is very pregnant for prouing the point The bench being set the Ministers ech in time and order spake but God knoweth how few wise and true words were spoken amongst them The first starts vp and expounds it of Christ his suffering vpon the Crosse a second vnderstands it of the Graue a third extended it to Christ his sufferings of hell torments in soule and the fourth yet added and interpreted it of Christs being in the state of the dead The Moderator for such a one they haue in all their Exercises he as wise as the rest insteed of mending all he marreth all for he commendeth all approueth all and receiueth all and then falleth out into a wonderfull admiration of the diuersity of the gifts of the spirit that euery one of his fellow labourers in the Ghospell should haue his seuerall exposition and yet all to agree and all to be intended by the holy Church But this is iust according to Tertullian his prescription Nihil interest haereticis licèt diuersa tractantibus dum ad vnius veritatis expugnationem conspirent it importeth not amongst hereticks though so many men be of so many mindes whilst they can conspire to impugne one truth And do not so many seuerall and erroneous expositions banded against one true meaning of the article forcibly make good this prescription and note of Tertullian 37. And for my part as then so now I am of absolute opinion that if all my brethren and their Moderator with them had bene as farre out of the towne as they were euery one of them from the truth of the text and meaning of the holy Ghost in that place they would neuer more haue returned either to wiues or Cures or made such an other fanaticall exposition tending only to the ouerthrow of the Article 38. But yet my second obseruation goeth farre beyond all this and for the nouelty and absurdity of the exposition it deserueth to be registred in the record of eternall memory that all the world may take notice of the palpable blindnesse of heresy and it is of diuers stipendary Preachers who as they seuerally succeeded one the other in a very eminent place of that Kingdome so they diuersly expounded the article one of them expounded it of hell torments in Caluins sense a second succeding of the graue in Beza his meaning the third and last because he would be sure to proue himselfe an hereticke addidit de suo he found out such an exposition as was neuer heard of before vnlesse it were by one Iacob a turbulent and Schismaticall spirit that opposed himselfe against the Bishop of VVinchester impar congressus I say no more touching this article His exposition in plaine words was this Christ descended into hell that is sayth he he ascended into heauen and this he thought he proued substantially out of the Greeke wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which said he signifieth no more thē that Christ went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is said he to an inuisible place and this must be proportioned according to the dignity of the person and consequently must be heauen For what place can be fit for the Sonne of God being thus in the state of the dead but heauen And so as before his conclusion for a full and perfect exposition of this article was he descended into hell that is he ascended into heauen And is not this as Luther merily gibeth at the Canonicall exposition of Hoc est corpus meum as if a man taking vpon him to interpret this text God created heauen and earth should interpret it thus acroked staffe was made a kite or the cuccow did eat vp the kitling bones and all For certaine I am there is as much truth and correspondency betwixt the one as the other Oh miserable Preachers o thrice miserable people that thus suffer their eyes to be put out and their soules to be deluded beguiled and betrayed by such hereticall impostors 39. And now to proceed forward and to see what the Church of England doth hould in this point M. Thomas Rogers Minister of Horninger and Chaplaine to the Lord of Canterbury hauing taken vpon him to set forth in print of late The faith doctrine and religion prosessed and protected in England for so are his wordes in 36. articles agreed vpon as he saith by the Bishops and Clergy of England when he commeth vnto this article he seemeth not to know what to say for hauing laid forth this article of Christs descent into hell he hath these wordes That Christ went downe into hell saith he all sound Christians both in former times and now liuing do acknowledge howbeit in the interpretation of the article there is not that consent that were to be wished And so after he hath set downe diuers opinions of others forgetting to put downe his owne he passeth and posteth the matter ouer in such sort as that no man can tell what they of England do hold or what it is that is agreed vpon by the Bishops or whether they hold any thing at all though in the title of his booke he doth promise to set downe 39. Articles vniformely agreed vpon by the said Bishops and Clergy belike he found no concord or agreement in this behalfe only he recounteth the aduerse opiniōs which he holdeth for opposite erours and aduersaries to the truth and then going on futher he sayth But vntill we know the natiue and vndoubted sense of this article and mystery of Christian Religion we persist aduersaries vnto them that say that Christ descended not into hell at all or that Christ descended into the place of euerlasting tormentes or indured in soule the paynes of damned spirits c. which opinions you haue heard now to haue bene partly of Caluin partly of other Protestants so as with them the Church of England holdeth not nor yet with the Papists sayth he for that presently he addeth for an opposite errour vnto them That Christ in soule went downe into Limbo lake to fetch from thence the soules of our forefathers which soules saith he before Christs death as Papists dreme were shut vp in the close prison of hell Now then to reflect vpon the premises and out of them to inferre the conclusion the illation must needes be this Though all partes do in wordes admit this article of Christ his descent into hell yet do they greatly differ in the sense and the ministers of England as it seemeth haue no certaine faith therin at all neither do they ascribe so much assistance of the holy Ghost to their Church which the true Church could neuer want as to be able to explaine the natiue and vndoubted sense of this article and Mystery of Christian Religion to vse M. Rogers wordes so as their beliefe herein is only negatiue as their whole Religion is which is to belieue that all others are deceiued besides themselues and yet do they affirme nothing in particular And let
Psalme did forsee this abominable and detestable voyce of some that should say that the Catholicke visible Church had perished and fallen into Apostacy a speach full of presumption and falshood susteyned with no truth inlightened with no wisdome seasoned with no salt a vaine temerarious headlong pernicious speach So S. Augustine And then further some few lines after the same Father bringeth in the said visible Church of his age to expostulate with those furious and franticke Donatists in this manner Quid est quod nescio qui recedentes à me murmurant contra me quid est quòd perditi c. What is the cause I know not why certaine people that go forth of me doe murmure against me What is the cause why certaine lost fellowes do contend and say that I am perished For this is their saying that I was the true Church but am not now c. The Scriptures say they haue bene fulfilled for that all nations haue belieued but the Church hath Apostated and perished throughout the world c. VVhen we vrge the promise of Christ Behold I am with you vnto the consummation of the world here they say that Christ promised to be with the Church vntill the end of the world for that he did foresee that they the factiō of Donatus should arise and continue the true Church vpon earth So. S. Augustine of and to the Donatists And surely nothing can occurre and be represented vnto our vnderstanding more conforme and answerable vnto the sense iudgment voyce agreement and speach of the Sectaries of these our times concerning their false imputations and most vniust calumniations against the present Roman Church 17. Now if this graue and holy Father S. Augustine one of the chiefest pillars of the latyn Church in his dayes speaking in the voyce and sense of the said vniuersall Catholicke Church in his age doth so grieuously and dreadfully censure this speach and blasphemous slander of the Apostacy of the visible Church so triuiall and familiar vnto Protestants now adayes as that he calleth it impudent abhominable detestable presumptuous false foolish rash temeratious and pernicious as you haue heard If he condemne euen to the lowermost pit of hell all those that frequent the same calling and accompting them for perditos lost and damned people recedentes ab Ecclesia Apostated from the Church vpon a false surmise of their owne foolish fancy supposing that the Church it selfe hath Apostated or may fall into Apostacy what shall we say of Protestants that do the same and stand in the very same case 18. But here it may be perhaps some man will reply that S. Augustine in the place before cyted sayth not that the visible Church cannot Apostate or perish but that it had not so done and fallen away in his time when the Donatists did falsly impute the same vnto it but that it might erre and fall away from truth in time to come that S. Augustine doth not deny 19. To this I answere that albeit S. Augustine totidem verbis do not say in so many wordes the Church in time to come may not Apostatate yet in pure force of argument and true substance of matter he doth affirme it in that he alledgeth against the Donatists and vrgeth to conuince thē the very promise of our Sauiour made vnto his Disciples and in their persons vnto the Church for euer Ecce ego vobiscum sum vsque in consummationem saeculi Behold I am with you vnto the consummation of the world which promise holdeth for all times in S. Augustine his iudgment euen vntill the worlds generall consummation and therfore the same Father in another place writing vpon another Psalme hauing first shewed how the Church is the Citty builded vpon an hill he further addeth Sedfortè ista Ciuitas quae mundum tenuit vniuersum aliquando euertetur Absit Deus enim fundauit eam in aeternum Si ergo Deus fundauit eam in aeternum quid times ne cadat But happily this Citty that hath possessed the whole world shall in time to come be ouerthrowne God forbid for God hath founded the same for euer as the Psalmist speaketh If therefore God hath founded the same for euer why dost thou feare least this foundation may fall Which very poynt S. Augustine repeateth againe in his first booke de Symbolo and the fifth Chapter to shew his constant and vnuariable resolution in this matter of the Church 20. And here I might alledge Father vpon Father Greeke vpon Latin and produce so many testimonies of the ancient Worthies and ancient Fathers as might suffice to fill a large volume and all of them tending directly to this effect to wit that the visible Church planted by our Sauiour he being the foundation stone and by his Apostles and spread ouer the face of the whole earth shall neuer perish or Apostatate from Christ by any the least damnable errour or heresy vnto the end of the world Christ his second comming vnto iudgement And to proue this they do all of them alleage and bring many pregnant and euident places of Scriptures 21. As for example these two heere vrged by S. Augustine as also that plaine text vttered by way of promise vnto his disciples Matth. 16. by our Sauiour portae inferorum non praeualebunt aduersus eam The gates of hell shall not preuaile against this Church on this place S. Chrysostome dilateth himselfe much as be by occasion treateth vpon the 148. Psalme and in an homily made at that tyme when he was to be expelled from Constantinople he inferred these wordes vpon that place Quòd si non credis verbo rebus ipsis operibus crede if you will not belieue Christs wordes the things themselues here spoken belieue his workes How many Tyrants haue gone about to impugne the Church c. Where are they that went about these things Quomodo impurissime Diabole Ecclesiāte putas posse deijcere How doest thou think thou most impure Diuel that thou canst ouerthrow the Church c. Which demaūd this blessed Father would neuer haue vrged vnto the wicked spirit if the Diuell might haue replyed that in tyme to come he should be able to ouerthrow it by sowing the tares of ignorance errour and heresy in it And now that S. Chrysostome meāt of the externall visible Church it is more then euident by the instāces that he bringeth of the horrible and inhumane persecution raysed and stirred vp by infidels and hereticall Emperours against the same most holy Church 22. And S. Cyprian that ancient and renowned Martyr treating of this argument soundeth forth this Eulogy in praise of the Church Adulterari non potest sponsa Christi incorruptaest pudica est domum vnam nouit vnius cubiculi sanctitatem casto pudore custodit The spouse of Christ cannot be adulterated she is vnspotted she is chast she knoweth one house she keepeth the sanctity of one chamber one bed and that
they do interpret Irenaeus his meaning that he vnderstandeth onely by tradition written Doctrine But by this we may see how they are incumbred with the writinges of Fathers euen in this very first age after the Apostles when these and all other the like doctrines of Christian Catholick Religion were sealed with the fast shedding bloud of her Martyrs and Doctors 51. Another poynt also offendeth them much which is the excellency and great merit of Martyrdome which the Fathers of this age do in all their writings exalt De Martyrio say they nimis honorificè sentire coeperunt The Fathers of this age began to think too gloriously of Martyrdome belike these same good fellowes neuer meant that their finger should ake for Christ or Christian religion and then they say of holy S. Ignatius that constant Martyr Ignatius in epistolis valde periculosè loquitur de martyrij merito Ignatius in many of his epistles doth speake very dangerously of the merit of martyrdome Also they do check the same Saint and holy Martyr for that in his epistle vnto the Romans whē he was going vnto martyrdome to be deuoured of wild beastes in the Amphitheater of Rome he crieth out Sinite me vt bestiarum esca sim per quam possim Christum promereri Suffer me that I may be the food of beastes and thereby promerit to enioy God himselfe And what so great perill is there I pray you in this doctrine For that throughout the whole Fpistle it appeareth that he ascribed vnto Christ his grace all the fortitude which he expected for this combate and consequently all his merit of enioying God proceeded principally from the said grace of his Maister And so do the Catholicks at this day hould in the doctrine of merit if malice and enuy could suffer the Protestants to see it and acknowledg it 52. But they are very angry with him for frequent vsing of another phrase in three distinct Epistles to wit to those of Antioch of Ephesus and to Policarpe Pro animabus vestris ego afficiar quando Christum meruero adipisci I shall be come an intercessor for your soules when I shall deserue to obtaine the fruition of Christ. In which words as you see is not only expresse mention made of the singular merit of martyrdome but also insinuated the intercession of martyrs departed vnto the next life for their friends left behind them vpon earth as hauing not aspired vnto the heauenly blisse 53. And finally not to go any further they quarrell also with the said Ignatius about the merit and praise of Virginity as diuers hereticall Caluinists haue lately done in Oxford Ex Ignatij Epistolis apparet say they homines iam tum paulò impensiùs coepisse amare venerari Virginitatis statum it appeareth out of Ignatius his Epistles that euen then men beganne more earnestly to loue and reuerence the state of Virginity wherfore they giue sundry examples as namely in his Epistle ad Antichenos Virgines videant cui se consecrarint let Virgins consider vnto whome they haue consecrated themseleues and in his Epistle ad Tharsenses Eas quae in Virginitate sunt honorate sicut sacras Christi Honour those that liue in Virginity as the sacred of Christ. So excellent an opinion had this holy Father martyr in those first dayes of thè primitiue Church concerning the state of Virginity so little esteemed now by Protestants 54. All these points of controuersy then betwixt vs and the Protestants at this day to wit of Free-will good works possibility of the commandements externall Christian sacrifice tradition and rites the Primacy of the Church of Rome merit of Martyrdome and state of Virginity to pretermit sundry other articles as ouerlong to be handled here we see to haue bene auouched by the principall Fathers of the second age and that in our defence against the Protestants 55. And howsoeuer the Magdeburgians go about to discredit these Doctrines togeather with their Authours calling them incommodas opiniones naeuos stipulas errores patrum incommodious opinions blots stubble and errours in the Fathers yet seemeth this only reason and Consideration to be sufficient to conuince them of hereticall insolency in their condemning these Fathers for that it cannot be shewed and if it can let the Protestant speake that the said Fathers were euer taxed or condemned for these Doctrines by the Church or other Doctors of that age or of any age afterwards for the space of fourteene or fifteene hundred yeares togeather vntill Luthers prophane and vncleane spirit brake forth of the Cloyster and made way for hereticall insolency to barke against orthodoxall antiquity And this shall suffice for this second age Let vs now passe to see how conforme and agreeable the third age was vnto the second for by this lineall and personall descent of Doctors and Centuries we shall euidently and infallibly discouer how in all times ages and persons the busines and doctrine of the Church was still carried by tradition from hand to hand The third Age. 56. Concerning this third age wherein were Doctors Tertullian Origen Dionysius Alexandrinus Cyprianus Methodius and many others which for breuities sake I am inforced to pretermit the Magdeburgians do beginne with this Preface both complaining and taxing Quò longiùs ab Apostolorum aetate recessum est eòplus stipularum doctrinae puritate accessit The further of that we go from the age of the Apostles the more chaffe did grow into the purity of doctrine And yet you see we haue gone but one age from thence for the last was the first after the Apostles and this is the second and in the last you haue heard what chaffe they complayned of But now we shall see that they complaine not only of the same poynts of chaffe reiterated and confirmed againe by the Fathers of this age to wit about free will and good workes perfection of life possibility of Commaundements Sacrifice Tradition rytes Supremacy merit of martyrdome and Virginity for all these heads they do shew in their seuerall titles of doctrin to haue bene continued repeated and confirmed againe by the Fathers of this age but furthermore they do also shew and complayne of other articles explayned by the Fathers of this third age in behoofe of the moderne Catholicke religion much more aboundantly then before As for example they shew that it was an opinion of this age Angelosinuocandos esse that Angells are to be prayed vnto according vnto the doctrine of Origen who setteth downe also a certaine forme of praying and inuocating vpon Angells to wit Veni Angele suscipe sermone conuer sum ab errore pristino c. Come Angell and receaue him that is conuerted from his errour by the word preached Neither was this euer reprehended in Origen or numbred amongst his errours and consequently this may be presumed to haue bene the forme of praying in the publike Church at that day according to the rule before
children and after the said law was written also euery man and woman was not remitted promiscuously hand ouer head to the reading of those bookes but he was sent to take his instruction and institution from the ordinary Superiours Doctors Gouernors of that Church and these were to expound the law vnto him For which direction and tradition we find this warrant and commaunding yea prescribing authority Aske thy Fathers and they will tell thee thy elders and they will declare vnto thee Againe The lipes of the Priest preserue knowledge And yet in a third place I know that Abraham will demaund and teach his sonnes and househould that they walke in my wayes c. 17. And now to come from the law to the Ghospell from Moyses vnto Christ and so to proceed orderly with the history of the Church as God is no changling but euer like himselfe euen so the beginning proceeding establishing of the new Christian faith and Church was not much vnlike if not altogeather resembling the former For first this Church was planted by our Sauiour at Hierusalem and speedily by the industrious ministery of the holy Apostles assisted by the instinct of the holy Ghost spread ouer the face of the earth and yet neyther the Church nor the Apostles the principall pillars of the Church had as at this time any written instruction or methodicall institution deliuered vnto them concerning their teaching preaching or beleeuing except only the articles of the Creed deliuered by tradition in the Church as will appeare in the subsequent Considerations Secondly the institution that they had they receyued it by instruction from our Sauiour his mouth and from the immediate instinct suggestion and inspiration of the holy Ghost who was promised by Christ himselfe who could not lie nor deceaue to assist the Church continually vnto the worldes end and by this institution and inspiration alone they taught and conuerted both Iewes and Gentils instituted Churches establishing lawes and orders of life by word of mouth and tradition only from hand to hand before any thing of the new testament was committed to writing And this was the condition of the Church for some yeares and that in the infancy and purity of Christian Religion as the Protestant must perforce confesse Thirdly when the Wisdome of heauen thought it expedient that somthing should be written the first thing cōmitted vnto writing in the new Testamēt was the Ghospell of S. Matthew and this was collected and digested in that very order as it is now presented to the Church and that some eight yeares after the ascension of our Sauiour then the Ghospell of S. Marke some fiue yeares after that then that of S. Luke written twelue yeares after the former wherin diuers thinges omitted in the other Ghospell of are recorded And last of all was written the Ghospell of S. Iohn conteyning in it many great and important matters which are not found in any of the rest and this was not written of 66. yeares after the first visible Christian Church was planted and established by the comming of the holy Ghost 18. And now as all the rest were written vpon particuler occasions so especially was this famous Ghospell of S. Iohn which is the very key opening the dore vnto the vnderstanding of all the rest and particulerly vpon the occasion of Ebion and Cerinthus their heresy which impugned the Diuinity of the Sonne of God Whereupon I do inferre that for that which concerneth the new Testament the Church was for diuers yeares without any Scriptures at all and for 66. yeares which is the age of a man the points related by S. Iohn more then were vttered in the other Ghospells which are many and most important were receiued and belieued in the Church by tradition onely And now for Conclusion of all I would demaund but one thing of the Protestants that make such shew of appealing vnto Scriptures and the Primitiue Apostolicall Church this was demāded aboue 1400. yeares agoe by S. Irenaus before cyted who liued in the very next age after the Apostles vpon the very like occasion Sineque Apostoli Scripturas reliquissent nobis c. If the Apostles had left vnto vs no Scriptures at all yet ought not we to follow that order of tradition which they left to those to whom they committed their Churches So that holy Bishop and Martyr especially ought we not to follow that order of tradition since the true worship of God and the sauing doctrine of the Ghospell of Christ cōtinued for 2000. yeares in the time of the law and for many other yeares in the dayes of the Ghospell and that in the brest of the Church to be deliuered by tradition only without the help of any word written 19. Wherby we cannot but discerne and must acknowledge that Scriptures or the written word of God were not so absolute necessary for the reuealing of God his will vnto man kind and the continuing of man in that sauing knowledge of him but that his Diuine Maiesty might haue propagated and preserued his doctrine and man in the truth by tradition only of word of mouth without any Scriptures at all if it had so pleased him as he did for many ages and generations togeather both before the first great diluge by water in the dayes of our first Patriarkes vntill Abrabā his time whome he chose for the head of his people as also afterwardes when he directed the same people by like tradition as well in Egipt where they remayned in most cruell bondage for 400. yeares as else where before Moyses wrote his forenamed bookes And the like he might haue done with Christiās to the worlds great generall consummation last inundation by a flood of fire according to S. Irenaeus his sentence if he had listed as hauing instituted a more orderly exact and authorized Church yea and hauing indued it with greater priuiledges according to the perfection of the new law aboue the old then he had done vnto the former of the Iewes Whereupon it must needes follow by force of necessary consequence that the tradition of this Church and pure authority therof both in propounding Scriptures vnto vs and discerning the same which are truly Scriptures and which are not as also for deliuering vnto vs the true sense and meaning therof in their interpretation and exposition is much more to be respected by vs then was that of the Iewes Forasmuch as Christ our Sauiour promised the continuall assistance of his spirit vnto this Church and that in such measure as that it should alone be able to withstand all the infernall power of Sathan and the gates of hell idest the very entrance of all kynd of errour or herely into it whatsoeuer 20. These then that neuer so solemnely and neuer so confidently professe that they for their partes do belieue and follow the Scriptures without due reference or respect to the Church forsomuch as all Sectaries and Heretikcs that