and his followers is more tolerable c. In Assert Art 28. concerning the Church'es Laws in things indifferent Sive Papa sive Patres siue Concilium sic aiunt sic sentiunt nemini debent c. For the Pope or Fathers or Councils saying or thinking this or that it ought to prejudice no man but let every one in things not necessary to salvation abound in his own sense And de abrog Miss Quod sine verbo Dei ordinatur non ab Ecclesia sed a Synagogo Satanae sub Ecclesiae nomine ordinatur What is ordained without the word of God not the Church but the Synagogue of Satan under her name ordains it And in the distractions of the new Reformation some motioning a Synod to be called amongst them as necessary for setâ—ling them he gives his grave judgment of Synods thus in tom 2â— p. 243. Quantumvis bono zelo tentata est res mali exempli ut probant omnia Ecclesiae Concilia ab initio A thing however zealously attempted yet of ill example as all the Councils of the Church do shew So far as not to spare that of the Apostles Act. 15. Ita ut in Apostolico Concilio fere de operibus traditionibus magis quam de fide c. In the Synod of the Apostles was treated in a manner of works and traditions rather than of faith but in all others since never at all of faith but always of opinions and questions Insomuch that I begin to suspect and hate as much almost the name of Councils as of Free-wil Whence we may gather that a Council was appealed to by him only because he hoped none would be called or assembled and that he was content to stand to a Judge that would never hear his cause and that this was like the thief's appeal from God and the Country to be judged by Christ and his twelve Apostles At length when he saw that a Council was already called and likely would be convened he to prevent the damage it might do to his new Religion which he well fore-saw took his pen and writ a book of Councils A. D. 1539. five years before the Council of Trent began and before that he could raise any particular quarrel against it wherein he forbears not to asperse even the most sacred and famous Councils that ever were the Apostolical Act. 15. and the first Nicene arguing from the in junction of the first to abstain from blood and things strangled which was only temporary that it is lawful not to obey the decrees of Councils and saying of the second That its Canons are foenum stramen ligna stipulae ' Hay straw wood stubble And concerning the third Canon prohibiting the Clergy Ne haberent secum mulierem extraneam nisi forte sit mater aut soror aut avia aut amita aut matertera That they should not have with them in their ' house any woman that was a stranger unless their Mother Sister ' Grandmother or Aunt se non intelligere Sanctum Spiritum in hoc Concilio That he did not understand the Holy Ghost in this Council Again An vero nihil aliud est negotii Spiritui Sancto in Conciliis quam ut impossibilibus periculosis non necessariis legibus suos ministros obstringat oneret Has the Holy Ghost nothing to do but to bind and burden its Ministers with impossible dangerous and unnecessary laws Lastly affirming Majus lumen accedere Doctrinae Christianae ex Catechismo puerili quam ex omnibus Conciliis That the Christian doctrine received more light from the Childrens Catechism than all the Councils Not considering the end of these great meetings not to prescribe Catechisms or known Principles but to decide matters controverted and to support the Church'es Doctrine or Discipline where some pertinacious adversaries or corrupt manners have invaded them Lastly we may judg how he would have received the sentence of another Council aganst himself by his censure of the Council of Constance its condemnation of J. Husse concerning which he useth this language c. Assert Art 30. Omnes articulos Johannis Huss Constantiae esse damnatos ab Antichristo suis Apostolis in Synagoga illa Satanae ex sceleratissimis Sophistis congregata in faciem tuam sanctissime Vicarie Christi tibi libere dico omnia damnata Johannis Huss esse Evangelica Christiana tua autem omnia prorsus impia Diabolical All John Huss'es Articles were condemned at Constance by Antichrist and his Apostles in that Synod of Satan made up of those wicked Sophisters and I tell you plainly to your very teeth you most holy vicar of Christ That all John Huss'es condemned doctrines are Evangelical and Christian but all yours altogether impious and Diabolical § 20 Come we now to the ancient Church and to the Fathers to see what price he sets on them 〈◊〉 Aâ—d Fatherâ— In the conclusion of his book contra Regâ—m Angliae he saith Non ego quaero quid Ambrosius Augustinus Concilia Vsus saeculorum dicunt Miranda est stultitia Satanâ— quae iis me â—mpugnat quae ipse impugno perpetuo principium petit Pro libertate ego pugno Rex pro captivitate I care not what Ambrose Augustin Councils and the practice of Antiquity says A strange folly of Satan thus to oppose me with those very aâ—guments I impugn and always beg the question I fight for libâ—rty the King for slavery Slavery in submitting to the Fathers 〈◊〉 In assâ—rtione Articul Jam quanti errores in omnium Patrum scriptis inventi sunt Quoties sibi ipsis pugnant Quis est qui non saep us Scripturas torserit In the writings of every one of the Fathers how great errors are there How oft do they contradict themselves Who is there of them who does not very many times wrest the Scriptures And in the beginning Primum scire contâ—statosque cos volo me prorsus nullius sancti Patris authoritate cogi velle nisi quatenus judicio divinae Scpipturae fuerit probatus c. I will have 'em know and do take 'em to witness That I will stand to no Father further than he shall be allow'd by the Word of God i. e. his own sense of it which thing I know they will take very ill And they say the Holy Scriptures are not to be interpreted by a private spirit And Cur non liceat hodie aut solum aut priâ— um sacris literis studere sicut licuit primitivae Ecclesiae Why may we not now as well as they of the primitive times study only or chiefly the Scriptures as if nothing desended by Tradition In his Protestation before his book De abrogatione Missae Protestor imprimis saith he adversus eos qui insanis vocibus in me sunt clamaturi quod contra ritum Ecclesiae contra statuta Patrum contra proâ—atas Legendas c. First of all I protest against those who shall furiously cry out of me for teaching contrary to the
intonare c. That the Council of Trent had not one dram of faith not one line spoken of the 6th Sess without some considerable error No fiction so trifling but is reckon'd by these asses amongst articles of faith Had they not hoped for the vizard of a Council as a blind to mens eyes they durst never have ventur'd their sensless fooleries to the judgment of the meanest Swine-herd That these rascals should dare to frame things of their own heads without any ground in Scripture and yet these Swine are not asham'd to thunder out their Anathema's to fright the simple A good many of the Popes scarce ever learn'd their Grammar Hardly one of an hundred ever read over one of the Prophets Epistle of the Apostles or an Evangelist Certain prating impudent Monks whereof some look for Miters others for Cardinals caps first taught the Reverend Fathers their lesson that so they might chaunt it out to us afterwards After a noise and brawling together like the croaking of Aristophanes's frogs out come their goodly Decrees forsooth which henceforth must be vaunted for mere dictates of the Spirit And Blateronem quempiam ex Monachis qui Concilium regunt commentum suum recitasse Patres ad sesquipedem usque auritos annuisse Upstarts one of those prating Monks that lead the Council by the nose and tells a tale of a tub to which the Fathers with their ears a foot and half long give their assent That the former Councils whose Decrees they pretended to follow were held Post extinctam sanae doctrinae lucem quibus meri asini crassi boves interfuerunt qui nihil prae se ferebant antiquae dignitatis After the extinguishing the light of sound doctrine and made up of meer asses and dull blockheads not the least shadow of the dignity of ancient Councils appearing among ' em And Innocentium tertium cum pauculis cornutis bestiis lacqucum hunc populo Christiano induisse quem Patres Tridentini astringunt Innocent the 3d. with a few more as very beasts as himself brought this snare upon Christians and the Council of Trent ties the knot faster As for their piety and manners Nihil mirum tam esse audaces qui nullo unquam serio divini Judicii affectu tacti sunt no wonder of their impudence that were never touch'd with a true sense of God's judgments Facile esse Patribus Diabolica securitate ebriis temporales vocare poenas quibus peccatum fere nullum est nisi quis hominem occiderit quibus scortatio vix leviculumest peccatum quibus foedissimae libidines virtutis sunt exercitia quae in laude ponunt qui nullum occultum conscientiae vulnus pilo aestimant Hanc sententiam abominantur Cornuti Patres Porci isti in contrariam partem detorquent Non attendant stulti homines Well may the Fathers speaking of degrees of Punishment for sin drunk with a divelish security talk of temporal punishments who scarce count any thing a sin under murder with whom fornication is a meer peccadillo and the filthiest lusts virtuous exercises and praise-worthy who make no account of the hidden wounds of a guilty conscience These Fathers with horns on their heads abominate this doctrine These nasty Swine wrest it to a contrary sense These Block-heads do not consider This is enough Such his language of so many Reverend Bishops his Canonical Superiours assembled from several parts and nations sitting in Council It is an hard matter that a person so proud should not also be erroneous Neither useth he in his other writings mentioned before his Patriarch and the chiefest Governour in the Church any whit more civilly Quis saith he non fustibus magis lapidibus compescendum hunc impuri Canis latratum dicat Who would not think sticks and stones the fittest to quiet this filthy barking Curr And Quid tibi cum hac S. Apostoli voce sceleste Apostata imo omnis Apostasâ—â—e Princeps qui cum dies in machinandis perditionibus in fraudibus excudendis in moliendo innocentium exilio in destruenda Ecclesia c. consumis reliquum tempus vel cum Epicureis suaviter te oblectas vel in medio scortorum grege te volutas instâ—r Porci c. What are the Apostles words upon the Pope's saying That he was afraid with St. Paul lest evil Communications should corrupt good manners to thee thou wicked Apostate nay Prince of all Apostates for your daily imployment is only plotting and contriving murders inventing some or other new frauds proscription of innocent persons ruin of the Church c. the rest of your time is sweetly spent either in merriment with Epicures or wallowing like a swine amidst a heard of impure â—urtizans where you neither hear nor discourse of any thing but what savours either of some execrable impiety or rank obscenity thereby to provoke that thy shameful leachery which tho out-worn and grown impotent with age yet itches still To speak this with any truth one would think he must be one of the Pope's Bed-chamber and Privy-Council and to speak it with any piety or good conscience that he must never have heard of St. Paul's Brethren I wist not that he was God's High-Priest c. Mean while by this let sober Protestants judge how well this spirit of their two chief fore-fathers Luther and Calvin agrees with the character of the Holy Spirit let down before § 1. And whether so great Pride is likely to discover to the world any great store of Truth or rather to betray inch persons to strong delusions To leave this second and return again to our Prime-Founder § 32 Ioâ—y His frequent communications with the Devil acknowledged by himself Hitherto I have shew'd you out of his own and the writings of other Reformed the spirit and temper of this man and the several steps of his bold march against the Governours common Doctrines and Laws of the present and former Church In all which he seems to have suffered most strong Delusions from Satan and as he deceived many others so to have bin first by him miserably deceived himself Which the better to discover it is necessary that I premise the extraordinary negotiations the familiar Disputes and Conferences the several Temptations and Skirmishes which he relates himself to have had with and to have suffered from this Enemy of Mankind and the manner of his behaviour in them This then in his de Missa Privata Sacerdotum Vnctione speaks of the Devil as of one whose Arts and Practices by long experience were very well known to him A me ipso saith he exordiri confessiunculam aliquam facere institui Quondam intempesta nocte e somno evigilavi mox Sathan hujusmodi disputationem in animo meo quemadmodum scilicet multas noctes mihi satis amarulentas acerbas reddere ille novit mecum instituit Audisne Excellentissime Doctor I am resolv'd to begin with my self and make a piece of a Confession Once about midnight
apprehended that the Devil did this only to perswade him seeing the Mass was clearly unlawful that he had formerly for many years in using it incurred a most horrid sin for which God's Justice would never pardon him Thus the Devil useth to represent to us the former good we have done as evil the former faith and truth we have held and maintained as error or idolatry or blasphemy c. seeking many times thereby to beget in good people also as well as bad a diffidence in God Here therefore all ought to be suspected that he saith all his proofs well weighed and tho when God and our own conscience or our friends accuse us of our sins it is a commendable humility in us to be most ready to confess them yet when the Devil will make us a roll of them it is no such vertue here to confess them such because he calls them so or trust him with such an office for if we do he will throw into the account all our virtues too and require repentance and reformation for our good works Therefore in the assaults of this enemy as we are to fence our selves for things ill done from despair by God's mercy and Christ's merits so are we very warily to examine whether the actions he blames have incurred God's displeasure and be really faulty § 38 And that Luâ—her had no secure ground that he was not by him most miserably deluded These several ways and subtleties of the Devil well considered I see no sure ground or motive that Luther had in such frequent negotiations as he pretends with him whereby he can secured that he was not miserably deluded and deceived by him Neither the great plerophory and confidence he had in his opinions and in his singular interpretations of Scripture of which confidence see more below § 47. that it is many times an operation of the evil spirit in us Neither the strong imagination he had touching the regrets he felt within himself touching his Reformation that these were Satan's suggestions and temptations only thereby to make him despair or desert truth For why might not this imagination rather be from Satan and this regret from a relenting Conscience or God's Holy Spirit And strange it is how he makes the Devil here blow both hot and cold for when he was as yet in the bosom of the Church then the Devil objected gross errors to him and by his Arguments disputed him into a Reformation and when gone out of the Church and having so Reformed it must be the Devil again that with terrifying his conscience and telling him that his new Doctrines had undone the world endeavours to drive him back again and make him undoe his former work But if he gathered from the later of these attempts of Satan that because this Fiend would perswade him his Reformation was full of guilt therefore it was just and right why in his former attempts concluded he not That because the Devil opposed his saying Mass and such other things therefore he rightly performed them Neither is this any sure argument of Luther's not being deceived by him viz. his frequent railing and inveighing against the Devil his discovering and slighting of his arts and wiles his vilifying and triumphing over him as a routed and vanquished enemy See § 32. Whose subtleties holy men use to speak of with much more modesty and fear of being deceived For as I have said before § 35. none rail more at the Devil than the Devil will do for his own advantages nor profess a greater hatred of him or be more ready but this is a greater plot to discover his plots In fine then in the great uncertainty of the Author of the several thoughts and scruples that do arise within us and in such variety and disagreeing shapes of Satan's suggestions and temptations I know no safe-gard for Luther or any other to stand upon but this to be sure not to be gotten out of the Circle which incloseth all Catholicks of their obedience to their Superiours and to subject their own private holy Spirit if I or they may so call it to the publick Holy Spirit that dwells in God's Church and to entertain no private senses and expositions of God's Word contrary to the general one of the Church from whomsoever these singular senses come much lesse when they know they come from Satan As Luther relates in his Disputation with him de Missa privat Sacerd unctione many of those to have done according to which he regulated his Reformation § 39 11. In particular concerning Satan's famous Disputation with him touching the Mass nullity of the present Clergy Justifying Faith c. and Luther's behaviour therein Which famous disputation of Satan with him I think not amiss to view more particularly because several things appear from it very prejudicial to Luther's new doctrine which it concerns Christians to take notice of For whatever Satan's design in that disputation might be whether by his defending and proving such things for truth to drive Luther into despair for having so long practised contrary to them the thing which Luther imagined or whether by the strength of his reasons tho not by the credit of his authority to confirm Luther the more in his new opinions which indeed was the issue of this disputation he having yeilded the field to the Devil in this combate as Conquerour 1. There seems great evidence from this disputation that the whole platform of the Reformation be Satan's design therein what it will He deceiving Luther or deceived himself proceeded originally from the Devil For many of these very arguments against the former Church-doctrine and Faith which the Devil now openly owned and urged to Luther in this disputation held A.D. 1522. i.e. as he saith fifteen years after he was made Priest and said Mass which was in 1507 Melch. Adam vit p. 104. were the very same that had bin urged by Luther some years before who began to publish them to the world about A.D. 1518. And who was as he saith of himself Prefat 1. Tom. Concionator Doctor Theologie 'a Preacher and Doctor of Divinity in 1517. Was made Doctor 1513 writ a Book de abroganda Missa privata ' of the abrogating private Mass in 1521. using such arguments against it then as Satan brought afterward as also then his Book against Monastic Vows and begins thus another Treatise De Abominatione Missae privatae quam Canonem vocant ' Of the Abomination of private Mass commonly call'd the Canon written in 1523. Toties hactenus cum pro concionibus tum editis libellis docui de ratione abrogandae horribilis istius profanationis Missae Papisticae c. Oftentimes heretofore both in Sermons and printed books have I shown why that horrible Prophanation the Popish Mass was to be abrogated c. Such Arguments then we see he used before this Disputation and by it it appears from whose suggestion he used them And tho this
not abandoned of all good intentions so neither deprived of all moral virtues these seem to me two very faulty extremities to represent any man's life so wicked as to have nothing good in it or so holy as to have no faults For any thing I can find this man was very free from the vice of Covetousness but then it is true that some men are freed from this only on this score that it cannot thrive near or cohabit with the vice of Ambition or Vain-glory. He is reported by his friends to have bin very charitable to the poor but this also may be done tho I cannot say his was so with an eye in our charity to humane praise as well as to our neighbour's necessities So Melancthon notes of him that he exceedingly opposed taking up armes in defence or for propagation of Religion which yet might ground it self on no better foundation but only a consciousness in his time of the weakness of the Protestants power in comparison of their Adversaries and he might be averse from it more because he thought it not expedient than not just He seems likewise to have bin a man of great and indefatigable industry of a resolute and undauntable courage of which see what is said before § 47. But these are reckoned amongst good or bad things according to their effect and so far as they tend to God's service or to any others benefit men may hope for a just recompence from God in accession of glory or diminution of punishment so far as they tend to God's dishonour or anothers harm they must needs proceed from an evil root and from him they may expect their wages whose work they do and whose cause they promote § 51 If such things as these may be urged for him yet what more do they shew than some of them that he was not at his worst at first and other that he was never so bad as he might have bin but what are these to recompence or make satisfaction for that spirit of pride and contention of licentiousness and rebellion of anger and impatiency self-admiration and contempt of others of railing and blaspheming against the Catholick Church stiling it the Whore of Babylon and the Spouse of Antichrist and that for many ages before his own time and against the spiritual Fathers thereof ancient and modern Prelates and Councils pronouncing even of the first Council of Nice Se non intelligere Spiritum sanctam in hoc Concilio see before § 19. against the Grace and Spirit of God as it inhabits in his Saints and brings forth fruits in them of a most sweet smelling savour to God of which he said for his advancing of Justification by Faith alone that Opus bonum optâ—me factum was peccatum mortale secundum judicium Dei and that Aeâ—â—ocertus se non semper peccare mortaliter against Chastity and Abstinency against Solitude and Watching against Fasting and Hair-cloth against the diurnal and nocturnal Offices of the Church and the Canonical hours of Prayer against hard treatment of the Body poverty and lowness of Spirit and preferring our Superiors reason and will for the conduct of our life before our own What are some good things found in this person as none is every way bad to counterpoise those vices so opposite to the fundamental virtues of Self-abnegation Humility and Charity which do appear in this former discourse to have so fully possessed and reigned in this man pride anger contention disobedience sensuality breach of lawful and sacred vows c Who is there that will absolve a Traitor arraigned for murthering his Prince because his neighbours come in and witness that he was charitable to the poor or a good house-keeper Or who will absolve the Pharisee for blaspheming our Lord's Spirit and Doctrine because he paid Tythe mean-while of his Mint and Cummin Whereas therefore those who have bin sent by God in several ages since our Lord's departure for the reforming of Christian manners and advancing of piety and religion have appeared to be persons of extraordinary sanctity and strictness and austerity of life of great humility and meekness and punctual obedience to their Ecclesiastical Superiours and their Reformations and new Institutions still licensed by the Same so it is that this person appeared in an opposite to all the former in casting down their works and in magnifying himself as a discoverer of new truth in throwing off all obedience to his spiritual Superiours in calling Christians to more liberty not strictness and casting the work of their salvation wholly upon Christ's shoulders yet how much he magnified the works of God the Son for the faithful so much depressing and vilifying the operations of God the Holy Ghost within the faithful § 52 13. The refeâ—â— blance of Luther's change of Rel gion in several particulars to the fâ—rmeroâ— Mahomet Where feeing that there have bin since our Lord's time only two most famous Innovations made in Religion against Church-Authority that have drawn many Nations after them and divided them one from another in the worship of God the first of Mahomet the second of Luther this second Innovator may be observed to have resembled the former in several particulars 1. In his overthrowing and rejecting the Sense exposition of the Scripture received in former times This later Innovator urging That the true sense and meaning of God's word was falsified for many ages as the other did that the words and writings thereof Of which see before § 20. Quanti errores in omnium Patrum scriptis Quisest qui non saepius Scripturas torserit c. And Scire cos volo me nullius Patris authoritate cogi velle c. And Si nihil habetur quod dicatur satius est omnia negasse i. e. in Patribus quam concedere Missam c. And Eruditis gratum erat saith Melancthon quasi ex tenebris educi Christum Prophetas Apostolos c. Sec before § 5. And of these his new Doctrines and Expositions Luther saith § 24. Illum se aut suam doctrinam Episcoporum aut ullius Angeli de Coelo subjicere judicio non dignari satis nunc datum esse stultae huic humilitati See before § 16. And Si nos ruimus ruit Christus und And Zuinglius observes of him Clandestinum effugium sibi hoc modo praeparat Si seductus aut falsus sum Deus me seduxit fefellit See before § 26. Such language this as never any Doctor or Reformer used before him unless Mahomet § 53 Secondly In his coming not with the power of the Spirit and Miracles nor with the spirit of temperance meekness and patience in worldly affronts but instead of these with the spirit of fury defiance and railing as the other said that he was sent not with Miracles but a Sword Hence that observation of the Tigurine Reformed Divines concerning his writings Tanta selectissimorum convitiorum copia scatere tanta verborum immodestia foeditate
fruits i.e. their doctrines ye shall know the persons whether they be true or false prophets or teachers or by their doctrines ye shall know whether they teach false doctrines for so still I have no direction lest me whereby to know their doctrines to be false yet for which their false doctrines â—am warned chiefly to be aware of these false teachers But the meaning thereof in reason must be that by their fruits of an holy or bad life by the fruits of the Spirit or of the flesh which they bear which fruits the sheep do see and can judge of when they cannot so well of the doctrines by these both the good or bad Spirit of the Doctor and the truth or falsity of his doctrines may be known § 58 First the Teachers Spirit whether it be of God or of the flesh and the Devil may be discerned by these fruits For if this Spirit be of God the Apostle hath told us Gal. 5.22 that the fruits thereof are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness continency or temperance if of the flesh and Satan the works or fruits are fornication uncleanness lasciviousness drunkenness revellings hatred variance emulation wrath strife sedition envyings c. Now Christians having once discerned thus by these fruits the Spirit of the Teachers where they have ground of presumption that it is a bad one have all reason to suspect his doctrine and his reasons and arguments and his expositions of God's word in confirmation thereof to be so too To be so too I say where ever the Church doth not authorize and secure such doctrine to them for the Scriptures are of no private interpretation i. e. not of every private man's interpretation out of his own brain because they are dictated by the Holy Ghost and by the Holy Ghost the meaning of the Holy Ghost in them can only be expounded By the Holy Ghost I say either in the private Expositor or the Church in which the Spirit of God for ever resides and guides it into all truth from which Church he must learn such Exposition or with which Church he will concur in it if he learn it from God's Spirit But this man's new Doctrine entered into the world neither with Miracles nor if we consider all said with the signs of a good Spirit nor yet owned or defended nay also rejected and condemned by the Church § 59 Where 1. That truth and holiness error and vice have a necessary cenrexâ—â—n 2ly By their fruits of a strict and holy or of a corrupt and dissolute life are the truth and falsity also of Doctrines discovered For first as truth and goodness so error and vice have a most intimate and natural connexion so that I may say if there be any doctrine that really and naturally tendeth to produce in us more sanctity and purity of life than the contrary that most certainly is truth and the contrary error and therefore is an orthodox faith so much laboured for because it is the foundation of a good life and therefore Satan becomes the Father of all evil in us because he is first the Father of lyes to us Tho then it be not here denied but that a teacher of something that is false may bring forth the fruits of a good life and contrary the teacher of truth the fruits of a bad yet 1. here the fruit of good life can never proceed from the false doctrine taught by the one nor the fruit of a bad life from the truth that is taught by the other But the teacher of truth brings forth bad fruit from his lusts carrying him against the truth known by him and again the teacher of some errors brings forth good fruit from the truth which he possesseth mingled indeed with error but yet predominative thereof But if he be such a Teacher of errors as that the truths he holds as none err in every thing are in the operation which they might have upon his manners mastered and seduced by them here his life also must needs be corrupt whether he be supposed to practise according to his errors as if he indulged some forbidden lusts because conceived lawful or whether he practise contrary to them for so he doth what is right indeed but against his conscience all acting against which tho when it errs becomes evil Again if he be a teacher of such errors as are expresly condemned by the Church or at Jeast as he knows to be so whatever truths he may hold or some kind of virtues practise according to those truths yet his life in general can never be stiled holy or himself good because he wants the two fundamental and cardinal virtues of Obedience and Humility Lastly neither can a good man teaching some errors be so good as if rectified in these he might have bin but that he must also be so far faulty and defective in his manners as his false opinion any way tendeth to the depraving and leavening thereof This of the natural connexion of error and vice as of truth and goodness § 60 〈◊〉 That where more corrupt doctrines â—re believed and taught there for the general are â—ound more dissolute 〈◊〉 2ly Hence it will follow That tho as hath bin said it may not be affirmed that where ever a dissolute and bad life is seen in a teacher or others there it ariseth from their false opinions or doctrines because many times our life is evil where our tenents are generally orthodox and true Catholicks are sometimes bad men from our lusts warring and carrying us headlong against our knowledge and our faith yet in any Sect wherein more erroneous and corrupt doctrines are believed and maintained especially such as give more manifest liberty to the flesh there for the general must needs be more carnal corrupt and dissolute lives seeing that there are here both the same lusts warring against the Soul which are also tempting the Catholick and Orthodox to an evil life and moreover many gross mis-perswasions and pernicious doctrines siding with and countenancing such lusts or at least not curbing them For if our lusts even against knowledge are so powerful over us how swiftly will they move us when our errors go along with them and blow these Sails This I say for the general For as to particulars I do not deny but that the life of some persons labouring under many erroneous principles yet may be very regular both by reason of other truths believed which tho this not observed by them do contradict the other false ones and may suspend the bad influences of them upon their practice as also by reason of an extraordinary good inclination of their nature and helps also of God's restraining grace for even amongst the Heathen-errors have bin some persons of an external virtuous and unreproachable conversation and therefore much more may they be so amongst any Sect of Christians who cannot but have many Catholick truths mingled with their errors and yet much more