to make use of that Instrument of instruments as Aristotle calleth it in every peece of worke I undertooke By this meanes it came to passe that I began to thinke as men commonly doe account highly of that wherewith they are most in loue that Logicke was if not the onely yet the principall Art for the obtaining of true knowledge in any kind of learning whatsoever If I lighted in reading upon any thing that was hard that I seemed to be in a Labyrinth Logicke was like Ariadnes clew of thrid to guid me in it to bring me out of it Was I desirous in any exercise of learning to take the right course in speaking or writting Logicke like Mercuries Statue poynted me out the way and shewed me all the turnings and windings in it To conclude my continuall practise in this Art hath given it such power over me that with the Hebrew servant my Exod. 21. 6. eare is fast nayled to the doro post so that I can nether stir from it nor willingly heare any sound without that may draw me from thinking on it This is the first degree of necossitie by which I am bound to this kind of writing The other is greater and streighter And therein as we are all ready like our first parents to excuse our faults I haue a good mindâ— to make a vertue of necessitie by perswading my selfe that I doe that out of iudgement which I doe indeed to help my weaknes in judging For I must and doe freely confesse that I haue neither such quicknes in apprehending nor such sharpnes in judging but that I find my selfe many times at a stand in understanding and at a losse in resolving What help haue I in this case but to flee to Logicke as to an Oracle By that I am instructed to take the frame in sunder to view every part by it selfe to trie how every tenant and mortuis is fitted each to other which principals are too weake which peeces are too long which too short whether they will serue in that building or no if they will how they must he ordered If any man be able without this labour at the first sight of a building to say all is right well I would intreate him to beare with my slownes and backwardnes upon promise that I will not repine at his quicknes and forwardnes As for them that thinke I troble my selfe more then needeth by taking this paines I hope they are not like him in Seneca as I remember Mendyrides who would yawne and stretch when he saw an other man labour as if he had ben wearied therewith himselfe Long experience aboue 40 yeare hath made me fearefull suspicious I haue many times perswaded my selfe of the strength goodnes of an argument which upon triall I haue found to be weake and naught Many times I haue thought I understood a thing at the first reading very fully wherein upon the review I perceived I was deceived In this disputation it had not ben possible for me to haue discerned the weaknes and sophistry of the Papists arguments if I had not brought them to the beame and weighed them parcell by parcell as I haue done But if I had now forborne to runne this course and written more plausibly to euery mans apprehension yet I must haue been faine to come to it hereafter whensoeuer the aduersaries shall assay to make good their arguments against my answers If this course be followed in examining Popish bookes we shall saue them and our selues a great deale of labour for they will be afraid to come to such a triall as will not suffer them to run the wild-goose chase but will tether them that they shall be kept within compasse as if they were coiured within a circle By this sifting we shal seuer the flower from the bran that a bushell will be brought within a peck that in a book of twentie sheets there will be no more to be answered then may well be contained in fiue or sixe But this course will be too hard for ordinarie mens vnderstandings it will till they be acquainted with all as strange things commonly vse to be perhaps they will not at the first be able to conceiue fully of euery answer if they will but take the paines to pause vpon it they may learne more by a few lines often read then by a great manie once posted ouer besides if they vnderstand not all yet I dare vndertake they shall by this course vnderstand more and more certainely in reading 3 leaues then by iunning ouer 13 in a loose discourse Logicke beloued is nothing else but the perfection of reason it is not a deuise of Schollers but a plant of nature euery man vseth it dayly in his speaking or writing the termes are vnknowne so are the termes of warre of Nauigation of husbandrie and of the meanest trade and occupation till they be knowne they are hard when they are known easie If I might find so much fauour with you as to get you to make a tryall I make no doubt but this course would soone haue entertainment and your knowledge thereby grow beyond your expectation At the least let me craue and obtaine pardon of you for making so bold with you in a matter as I take it so fit and needfull I hope it shall not fall out with vs reuerend fathers and brethren in the ministrie as it did with Aristotle and Isocrates they were both Platoes Schollers but followed diuers professions the one giuing himselfe to Philosophie the other to Oratorie each of them was so carried away with the pleasure he took in his own course that he wholy despised the other As it becommeth me I leaue euery one to his owne iudgement and practise desiring to be directed and aduised by any man that can and will doe it At some of you I wonder with delight other I commend there is none but I excuse as I desire to be excused my selfe Great wits may make a shift without artificiall Logicke ordinary men shall find extraordinary helpe by it The Lord in mercie so direct vs all that we may seeke and procure by his blessing the manifesting and maintaining of his truth to the glorie of his name the good of his Church and our euerlasting saluation in Iesus Christ our Lord. CHAP. II. Of the state of the question to be disputed THE Heathen taught by Plato alwayes held them for bad common-wealths men who in a ciuill broile when their countrie was in an vproare would not labour to informe themselues whether part had the right and ioyne with them but keepe aloofe from both that they might strike in with the conquerour to their most aduantage And what kinde of Christians shall we account those men that seeing all on fire euer since they were borne about matter of Religion haue not all their life resolued what is true what false but are still to make their choyse whon they are neerer their buriall then their
vs againe to be fellowes and friends with them If we should content our selues to turne to the Pope and to his errours it should be a very dangerous matter both to kindle Gods wrath against vs and to clogge and condomne our soules for euer And in another place he speakes thus to the same purpose As for vs we haue not fallen from the Bishop of Rome cap. 20. dirts 2. vpon any matter of worldly respect but so the case stood that vnlesse we left him we could not come to Christ Dr. Reynolds another shining light of the Vniuersitie D. Renolds of Oxford shewes vs the same truth in another maner viz. in his verses vpon the third conclusion handled in the Schooles Nouemb. 3. 1579. If that ye seeke eternall life see that you Rome forsake Of the same minde was Dr. Whitaker a man for his learning whether we respect reading or iudgement knowne and approued of the Churches of Christ especially this of England We say saith he that the Church of Rome must be D. whitaker de Eccles cont qu. 6 cap. 1. forsaken of all men that desire to be saued And a little after he addes that There can be no saluation hoped for in the Church of Rome Lastlie Mr. Perkins in knowledge and zeale a worthy Scholler of so excellent a Master treading in his footsteps concludes that All those that will be saued must depart M. Pâ—rlins Reformed Chath nâ— the prolog sed Thus then and separate themselues from the faith and religion of the present Church of Rome We haue seene the iudgement of these learned and reuerend Diuines and therein the consent of both the Vniuersities Cambridge and Oxford for their bookes especially the three last were allowed for printing by the principall Doctors of the seuerall Vniuersities then resident in them neither is it to be taken for the iudgement of the Vniuersities onely but also of the whole Church as appeareth euidently by the continuance of it from time to time in the writings of these famous learned men successiuely one after another It was first propounded by that reuerend Father in defence of the Church of England to iustifie our departure from that strumpet of Babylon diuers yeares after proclaimed openly in the publike Schooles by Dr. Reynolds ratified afterwards by Dr. Whitaker in his publike lectures of Diuinitie and last of all confirmed by Mr. Perkins and by euerie one of these published in print with the approbation of our Church and State And this to say the truth hath alwayes beene the iudgement and practise of the Churches of God in all Protestant Countries euer since the last birth and infancy of reformation in this age for the space of more then an hundred yeares for what else hath beene aymed at in so many writings and disputations of Ptotestants but the iustifiing of our deparâ—ure from the Synagogue of Rome Not of a bodily departure saith Mr. Perkins in respect of cohabitation Peform chathol in Prol guâ— and presence but of a spirituÌ„all separation in respect of faith and religion It cannot then reasonly be denyed or doubted but that our Church generally holds separation from the Church of Rome to be a matter of great consequence yea of absolute necessitie especially if we remenber that euery Parish throughout the whole Land is enioyned to haue the Booke of Bishop Iewel with the rest of his workes in their seuerall Churches for all men to read and that they were all new printed to that end CHAP. IIII. wherein the necessitie of separating is proued YOu see from whom I take the point that I haue vndertaken to maintaine from the same men will I ferch the grounds of my disputation What is the reason by which these worthy learned and godly diuines did iustifie the separation of our Church and her continuing separated from the Romish faith let vs heare themselues speake We haue departed from that Church saith thereuerend Father B. Iewel whose erroâ—rs were proued and made B. Iewel Iuf. apol pag. 4. cap. 11. 〈◊〉 1. manifest to the world which Church also had alreadie departed from Gods word and yet we haue not departed so much from it selfe as from the errours thereof What errours They are generally imploÌ„yed in these words of his chap. 10. diuis 2. Ignorance errour superstition idolatâ—◠〈◊〉 inuentions and the same commonly disagreeing 〈◊〉 the holy Scriptures And againe These men haue broke â— in peeces Apolog. pâ— 5. cap 13. divis 1. all the pipes and conduites they haue stopped all the springs and choaked vp the fonntaine of liuing water with dirt and mire And againe Wee haue renounced that Church wherein vve Cap. 15. divis 2. Apol. could neither haue the word of God sincerely taught nor the Sacraments rightly administred nor the nam of God duely called vpon and wherein was nothing able to stay any wise man or one that hath consideration of his owne sasetie To conclude vve part 6. chap. 22. divis 2. haue departed from him saith that learned B. of the Pope who hath vtterly forsaken the Catholicke faith For as Dr. Bilson Dialogue â—â—t 3. Bilson saith most truely No Article of the Church of Rome wherein we dissent from them is Catholicke D. Reynolds speakes not so plaine yet giues us sufficiently to understand that he therefore concluded the Church of RomÌ„e was to be forsaken because she was no sound member of the Catholicke Church nor held the right faith Her unsoundnes he thus sets out The Church Reynolds conclu 5. of Rome is not distempered with a little ague such as hindreth not the functions of life greatly but is sicke of a canker or rather of a leâ—prosy or rather of a pestilence in so much that she is past hope of recouery unlesse our Saviour Christ the heavenly physician doe giue her wholesome medicines to purge her of permcious humors Conclus 5. And in his presace to his sixe conclusions he writes thus Sith â—â— the fellowship of the Church of Rome it was not In Preface at the 6. â—n â—asâ—on lawfull for vs either to serue God with a holy worship or to beleeue God with a holy faith as God hath commanded sâ—â—h the Church of Rome being taken with contagious diseases and a frensie did put her Counsellers to the fire friends to the sword brethren to cruell death and stained the faith of Christ with reproaches creatures with the Lords honour Gods service with Idolatry we went away from Papists not willingly as from mâ—n not vnwillingly as from heritickes But D. Whitaker and M. 〈◊〉 deeccâ—eâ— coâ—â—o 2. quist 6. cap. 1. Perkins are most plaine Wâ— affirmâ— saith D. Whitaker that the Church of Rome is to be shuned of all men and that no salvation is to be hoped for in it yea we say it is to be condâ—mâ—ed as a deepe pitt of heresy and errour M. Perkins avoucheth our departure for the same reason Perkins in prolog Resor Catho The
nor shifting by willfull mistaken I began to declare the meaning of the termes in which I propounded my question but because I purposed to examine the matter in two seuerall disputations I forbare to expound the last words till I should come to the particular debating of the second point Now I am to enter vpon it and must therefore shew what I meane by those words Vpon paine of damnation and then proue that the faith of the Church of Rome is to be refused vpon so grieuous a penaltie Those words Vpon paine of damnation are not so to bee vnderstood as if I tooke vpon me to pronounce sentence of condemnation against all that beleeue as the Church of Rome teacheth but I would thereby giue all men to vnderstand that the beleeuing of that doctrine as matter of faith is a thing in it selfe damnable and such as maketh a man liable to damnation How it shall fall out with particular men in the euent I neither know nor meane to enquire Onely I say againe that their mis-beliefe is a sinne which setteth them in the state of damnation Now hauing proued alreadie that their faith is erroneous I shall not neede to make many words about the point For the Church of Rome against which I dispute holdeth it for a ruled case that an erroneous faith is damnable Wherefore else doe they thunder out so many Iâ—ai 8. 20. curses in the Councell of Trent against all that shall conceiue otherwise of the matters of faith determined by that Councell then is therein decreed Notwithstanding that I may the better perswade all men to keepe good watch for feare they be suddenly surprized or vnawares intrapt by the great army of locusts the Priests and Iesuites which haue almost couered the Land from sea to sea I will bestow a little paines to giue them warning of the danger There are two wayes by which sinne leadeth a man into to the state of damnation the one is the desert or fitnesse it hath to procure damnation the other is the actuall meriting or deseruing of damnation Into the former sinne casteth a man off it selfe Into the latter he falleth as by sinne so by the ordinance or decree of God who hath layd a penalty of damnation upon it Out of this I raise this disputation against receiuing the faith of the Romish Church That which maketh a man vncleane in Gods sight hath a fitnesse to procure damnation For vncleane things are vnmeete for the presence of God and consequently are meete for damnation But the faith of the Church of Rome maketh a man vncleane in the sight of God For it is erroneous in so high a nature that it maketh a man guiltie of treason against God by installing the Pope in the Throane of God giuing him power and authoritie to determine as a iudge what is matter of faith what not without commission or warrant from God as I haue shewed in the former part of this disputation Neither doe they onely giue him authoritie to interprete the Scriptures but also allow him to set vp a forge where he hammers what he list and venteth it to be receiued vpon paine of damnation for the word of the euer liuing 2. Thes 2. 4. God What is it To sit in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God if this be not And are not they accessaries to this high treason that acknowledge this authoritie and yeeld obedience to it How can it then reasonably be denied that there is a worthinesse and fitnesse in the faith of the Church of Rome to procure damnation hereupon it followeth that euery one that ioyneth in faith with the Church of Rome is lyable to damnation There remaineth nothing now but the ordinance or decree of God to appoint damnation as a punishment of this sinne according to the desert thereof but that was passed long since by the Lord himselfe You shall put nothing to the word which I command you The penaltie is expressed Deut. 4. 2 12 30. Revel 21. 18. If any man shall adde to those things God shall adde to him the plagues that are written in this Bookâ— But more plaine The Lord shall send them strong delusions that they 2. Thes 2. 11. 12. should beleeue lyes that all they might be damned which beleeued not the truth Behold the Lord wrappeth them vp in damnation by his sentence that beleeue lyes that is false and erroneous doctrine not agreeable to the truth which they ought to beleeue What is wanting then to make the faith of the Church of Rome damnable and the professours thereof lyable to damnation when both the thing it selfe deserueth it and the Lord hath decreed that they which beleeue it should haue according to their desert I might as our writers commonly doe adde to that which hath beene said diuers foule and grosse errors which seeme more specially to touch the glory of God and secretly to vndermine the very foundation of our saluation namely the Mediatorship of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ But this as I take it will more plainly appeare and be more throughly inforced against them in the particular handling of the seuerall Articles to which I reserue it Neither will I enter into the common way of prouing popery to be damnable because it is Antichristianisme much hath beene disputed by our men to this purpose and it is like enough that much more may and will be added to their disputations But the controuersie is long and requireth more time then I can now afford it onely this I will say for the present that as his Maiestie hath prudently obserued there is no Church State nor man that hath beene since the penning of the Reuelation to whom those things foretold by the Apostle from the mouth of the Lord Iesus can in any reasonable sort agree but the Church and Pope of Rome alone And it is vtterly against reason to imagin that the Lord Iesus would direct Iohn to spend so many words in deliuering prophecies for some three yeares and a halfe in the end of the world and leaue so many yeares betwixt vnspoken of wherein such strange matters haue befallen the Church It is manifest that the Historie is prophetically continued for the first 300 yeares at the least and of that because it seemeth not much to concerne them the Papists make no great doubt he that will take the paines to reade the whole aduisedly may easily discerne that our Lord continueth his discourse to his beloued Disciple of such things as were to fall out to the very end of the world I forbeare to shew how vnlikely that I may speake most fauourably of the point because it hath some collourable allowance from antiquitie I will not say how vnpossible it is that any man should imagine hee can deceiue Christians as Antichrist by their conceite must doe or force them generally to denie the Lord Iesus and take himselfe to be either God or any man