bona sunt à fide Ecclesiae non recedere I would you had taken this course in reading Gregory But for the point in hand you haue not in al the words of S. Gregory the distinctiō of Praeceptū Consilium no place that defineth Evangelica consilia neither their name number or any thing concerning thē And therefore to any never so little intelligent you will seeme strangely ridiculous to make Gregory Godfather to that childe he never knewe or Author of that doctrine which he never taught or thought Wee call not his credit into question I would yours did it not as I formerly shewed and especially t Bar. Tom. 8. Annal. Ann. Christi 1593. num 62. p. 57. Baronius who speaking of the barrennesse of learning in Gregory his time sheweth that Gregory himselfe was ignoraunt in many things Mr LEECH And yet rather then the doctrine shall be thus odiouslie traduced and my Author want his promerited defence I will according to that poore ability wherewith God hath enabled me endeuor to defend both it and him and therefore if S. Gregory in this point hath not transgressed the boūds of Ancienter Church nor crossed any tenent of his owne Present Church nor yet for this hath hitherto been censured by the lawfull iudgement of any Catholique succeeding Church nay if the Church more ancient then his his owne present and the ever after succeeding Centuries of Catholique Church haue from hand to hand deliuered vnto him receiued with him and with vniforme consent followed him in this point of doctrine never so much as once noting it questioning it impugning it cōtradicting it which certainely they would haue done had the doctrine beene erroneous for their devoted piety spared no Heretique Origen Millienar Tertul. Montanising Cypr. rebaptising no not the most renowned martyrs nor glorious fathers of the Church in any of their errors repugnant vnto the vnity of Catholique verity then vpon these premises I may irrefragably conclude in defence of my Authour and doctrine that S. Gregory his position is no privat opinion hatched out of his owne braine but the vniforme deduction and tradition of Christ his spouse the true Catholique never erring Church inspired guided directed by God his holy spirit in all ages ANSVVER Rather then you will let truth haue the supereminence quae magna est praevalet you will continue to father your opinion vpon Gregory yea and vpon the Primitiue Derivatiue Church Act. 9. But it is hard for you to kicke against the truth The weedes of supererogation growing vnder the shaddow of Evangelicall Counsailes haue had no time of encrease of growing in the ancient primitiue Church None of the first and worthier Fathers taught it It is a common but not commēdable vse among you of imposturing interpreting the Fathers in a wrong sense The chiefest groūd for your doctrine is the misinterpreting of that place of S. Paule which sense neither the Originall will carrie nor any Greeke Father ever followed And that blessed servant of God Mr Perkins in his Probleme proveth against opposers how farre the Fathers were from mainetaining workes of supererogation Physitians that meane to cure the disease first beginnne with the cause so giue me leaue seeing workes of supererogation bee only the inductions and cause of teaching this doctrine First I desire you to answere whether S. Hierome thought any such works were performed who disclaiming them thus speaketh p Hier. lib. 1. c. 3. cont Pelag. Tum ergo iusti sumus quando nos peccatores fatemur iustitia nostra non ex proprio merito sed ex Dei consistit misericordia or whether S. q Retract l. 1. c. 19. Augustine doth thinke a man might supererogate who affirmeth a contrary positiō Omnia mandata Dei facta deputantur quando quicquid non fit ignoscitur or r Chrys in 8. Hom. in 4. ad Roman Chrysostome who in his 8. homily on the 4. to the Romanes affirmeth No man to bee iustified by the Law because none can fulfill the Law ſ Bern. in 73 ser in Cant. or Bernard in his 73. vpō the Canticles who wisheth no man to trust to his own iustice or fulfilling of the Law or to approch neerer what meant t De Consil Evang. statu perfectionis Gerson that famous Doctor to deny any perfection in Evangelicall counsailes Secōdly I desire you to answere why u Aq. 22 dae Art 5. Aquinas teacheth that perfection doth essentially which is perfectly consist in keeping the Commandements which none can do and in the fulfilling of the Lawe if that perfection of Counsailes bee so much aboue the Law why x In sent lib. 3. distinct 34 q. 3. Paludanus vpon the Sentences doth affirme that some men may attaine to as great height of perfection liuing in marriage and possessing much as they that liue single and giue away all that they haue I will aske no more questions but seeing this is so taught by so many reverend Ancients yea by many of your owne later y Ians in 100. Cap. in Evang Iansenius in his 100. chapter vpon the Evangelicall concord professing with Gerson and Aquinas that only the fulfilling of the law doth iustifie and z Cus excit lib. 10. Cardinall Cusanus confessing that none but Christ ever did fulfill the Commandements seeing all this is thus why will you so boldly affirme that this doctrine was never impugned never contradicted c which indeede was never rather taught never approved It is true S. Gregory was never contradicted in this for hee never taught any such thing But this opinion was gainesaid and disliked and the Church never received never generally delivered any such position Although if it had your epithet of never erring Church is scarce currant for you cannot deny but the Church hath had her blots a Dial. contra Lucif S. Ierome cōplained that the whole world groaned and wondred to see it selfe Arrian b Aduers proph Novit Vincentius Lerinēsis confesseth that not only some portion of the Church but the whole Church may be blotted with contagion But this was none of her blots spots or infectious blemishes for shee never generally mainetained or taught this Doctrine Mr LEECH But M. Doctour Hutton lending a deafe eare vnto my defence though in my conscience and iudgement it ought to haue satisfied him sounded another alarome and ringed a fresh peale in my eares charging nay surcharging me ad nauseam vsque for holding any distinction betwixt Precepts Counsailes For saide hee there is no such distinction those which you falsely cal Coūsailes are in deed Precepts and not Counsailes ANSVVER The Comoediā c Plautus Plautus taxeth some that had no stuffe in them but in their tongue and that only in speaking lewdly of their betters Isthic est thesaurus stultis in lingua situs ut quaestui habent malè loqui melioribus Let the lawes of God Nature and Nations
outlawry the law doth accuse you for sin and you accuse it for imperfection Vnlesse you send for an advocate to Hell there is none to speak for you Briefly to your quotation I say the law wanted not perfecting but man wanted meanes of fulfilling it Christ in that sense added perfectiō to the law in fulfilling it because as Cardinall l Cusanus excit l. 10. Cusanus confesseth never did any fulfill the commandements but Christ But in this there was no addition and therefore no former imperfection in the law Mr LEECH And as he taught this vnto vs by practise in his owne most sacred person and in the persons of his Apostles so he left vs the first pure primitiue Church and raised vp many in the other succeeding ages and Centuries of the Catholike Church to be examples and patterns of these Evangelicall Counsells ANSVVER It is a toile that my pen must follow yours in these so idle repetitions and needlesse Tautologies I ingeminate my former answer Christ did not professe the teaching of Evangelicall Counsells he came not from heauen with another edition of the law then what Moyses had brought The Primitiue Church knewe not the name of Evangelicall Counsells that as m Assert Luther conf art 18. pag. 86. Fisher B. of Rochester said of Purgatory that there was litle mentiō or none at all among the Ancients thereof so I say of Counsells this opinion was a Posthume to the Primitiue Church Anselmus that liued many hundred yeeres after denyeth that any man may performe more then he oweth as you would teach by Counsells His words be n Anselm de concep virg c. 21. Nullus potest reddere quantum debet solus Christus reddidit pro omnibus qui salvantur plus quà m debetur But as o Dion Xiphilin in epitome Domit. Decebalus king of Dacia put to flight the Romans by arming trunks of trees insteed of souldiers so the new Romans suppose to gull vs by obtruding shadowes insteed of substance inserting into their Pamphlets the name of the Primitiue Church Ancient Catholike Church Fathers of the Church in those matters controversed betweene vs whereas the Church and Fathers in this case may answere Papists as answer was made to p 1. Sam. 28.26 Saul in the 1. Sam. 28.16 Wherefore dost thou aske of mee seeing the Lord is gon from thee and is thine enemie Mr LEECH This was the summe of my repetition with a more ample explanation of my former doctrine iustified now in publike against the Brethren who had traduced it in their whispering conventicles according to the liberty of their private spirits ANSVVER You haue landed this discourse thinking hereby to gaine the name of an authorizer if not an author But bragge not that you haue publikely iustified that against the Brethren which you will be constrained to deny before the Saints The writtē Coppy which you delivered is much different frō this second repetition you and it farre from truth Because with Peter you hope to warme your hands at the high Priests fire therefore you deny the truth of your Master Follow Peter rather in repenting then in forswearing CHAP. 4. Mr LEECH THis sermon being ended and supper time immediatly approaching M. Doctor Hutton one of the Channons of Christ Church now deputed Provicechancellour in the absence of Mr. Doctour King sent for me by one of my fellow Chaplaines into the commō kitchin A place fitt to treat vppon Iovinianisme but vnfit for the sacred mysteries of Religion to conferre with me vpon the point delivered in my sermon ANSVVER The summe of this ensuing chapter was begot in the Kitchin it is so full of smoake heat Your marginall note doth much traduce Doctor Hutton Prebendary Subdeane of Christ-Church an auncient learned preacher Professor Doctor of Diuinity the least of these titles might haue restrained you in your duty towards him But a more neere respect of obseruance bound you to reuerence him not only for private but for publicke authority not only for feare but for cōscience sake saith the Apostle He was the Magistrate Provicechancellor Deputy Governor of your betters at that time not in that house alone but in the whole Vniuersity He might haue sent for you by an officer not your fellow Chaplaine vnto a publique place not so familiar to cōvent censure imprison punish you not to conferre with you It is not the place that doth honest the man but the man the place Lucifer rebelled in heaven Adam sinned in Paradise whē as Lot served God in Sodom Ioseph in Egypt Better to speake truth in the Kitchin then falsehoode in the Pulpit The place of all other is least circumstantiall Mr LEECH Hither I no sooner came but hee interessing himselfe in the quarrell of IOVINIAN began very fiercely to assault and chardge me for preaching scandalous erroneous doctrine excepting farther against the tearmes of Angelicall Chastity and Evangelicall Counsailes of perfection expresly mentioned by me in the aforesaid sermon ANSVVER For any Iovinian heresie that you taxe him with or the opposers of your opinion you knowe in your conscience that no Protestant ever defended anie of them S. r Aug. de haeresibus ad quod vult De um haeres 82. Augustine in his tract De haeresibus ad Quodvult Deum the 82. heresie reciteth the divers positiōs of Iovinian and I doe freely and fully protest that I knowe no point wherewith our Church in that kinde may be accused In what point of Iovinianisme was he guilty name it I am sure if you could you would Your doctrine offered much offence therfore was scandalous and was opposite to our Churches doctrine and therefore to be called erroneous Mr LEECH The onset being thus given by his worship my warde was Sir vnder your correction the doctrine lately by me preached howsoever you disconceipt it is not nay cannot possibly be either scandalous or erroneous for it is the doctrine of that great Pillar of the Latine Church S. Gregory accorded vnto and confirmed by vniforme consent of fathers both of the Greeke Latine Church ANSVVER As Salomon spake of ſ Eccl. 12.12 making many books so may I of vsing many words There is no end the one wearying of the flesh the other angariation to the spirit It is not as you take it the doctrine of that great Pillar of the Church S. Gregory it is a Doctrine which is the Pillar of Monkes I assure my selfe the Monkes would not maintaine it vnlesse it did maintaine Monkes The Fathers of the Greeke and Latine Church are answered so sufficiently as that I hope you will change and challendge your Grand-Iurie for beeing too partiall for our part Mr LEECH As for the termes of a Virginity equalleth it selfe to Angells yea if wee examine well the matter we shall finde it to exceed Angells for that contrary to nature it getteth a victory in flesh aboue flesh which Angells doe not Cypr. de
may suffice for thy instruction concerning these Motiues Onely I may not forget to advertise thee that whereas through their titles I vse this perpetuall stile THE PROTESTANTS c. howbeit the most learned amongst them differ in iudgement from the common sort and in this respect cannot bee concluded in the generality of ALL I haue not done this without good consideration For though the principall divines in England do vtterly distast the vaine opinions of D. King and such like yet since by publike profession of the truth they giue not sufficient notice vnto the world of their Catholique positions I must involve them also in this common accusation And as they against their knowledge Corde creditur ad iustitiam ore fit confessio ad salutem doe suffer a preiudice to fall vpon God his truth they must likewise against their will suffer an infamy to remaine vpon their owne persons ANSVVER The Catholikes like to the olde Circumcellions are Individua vaga ever in motion Campians reasons Bristowes motiues the one ten the other 48 yours a Iurie This former treatise hath answered all yours But seeing they so commanded your affection and convinced your vnderstanding wee will heare your descriptions and marke the motions If it be the good of your Reader you wish you would not leade him into so many darke entries of the Chambers of death your booke is come into the hands of many better informed soules then your selfe and some that haue breathed lately from their Antichristianisme that haue seene and heard more then you haue and haue hated and abhorred and returned You seeke to iustifie but do condemne your selfe and you hope your satisfaction will proue an infection to some But each man doth disdaine that these should draw ouer any wise Proselyte They are the same in substance as in your sermon only as the Patron of error can change his shapes so doe these You say you must not forget to advertise and I cannot omit to discrie the vntruth in the advertisement For if with an indifferent eie ANY observant in the state of our Church doe looke vpon the more learned Of our Divines he shal finde that either they be writers or publike Readers or continuall Preachers against Popery neither doe they differ in iudgement from the common sort as most iniuriously you traduce them By publike profession in the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace in the essense and substance of religion all agree And howsoever there haue beene some differences in opinion betweene many of the most orient fixed starres in the firmament of the Church as betweene Ruffinus Ierom Ierom Austin Austin Symplician and many others yet all the world wil free our Church from hauing in her Religion any diversly affected from the truth addicted to Popery at the least any that ever were of deserving note or accounted the Principall divines If there be any such homely and home-made peeces as your selfe that coccle they be no sooner noted but punished Your preiudice and infamy will returne vpon your selfe for accusing our worthiest to maintaine a linsey woolsey blended mangled Religion Being supplanted your selfe in reputation you seeke to supplāt others the vtmost spirits of your malice and spite being as Enginers to overthrow the credit of those that by their learned paines do seeke to overthrow the wals of Babell Their publique profession and positions free them from your common accusation their sermons Lectures writings might satisfie you but that these heavenly showers haue fallen besides you Error surprising your will ignorance your knowledge a smale things may moue you that were never setled Mr LEECH The First motive The Protestants admit not a triall of their Religion by the testimony of the Fathers whatsoever they pretend to the contrary BEcause it is a preposterous devise to iudge the former ages of the Church by the later D. Field pag 204. We willingly admit a triall by the Fathers saith he in the name of his Church therefore the courses of my study haue ever beene directed vnto a diligent pervsall of ancient Fathers whose authority simply considered as it may preponderate our moderne writers so in reference vnto the Church being her witnesses who is the iudge to define all controversies their testimony is to be preferred before all Authors whatsoever Neither resolued I thus without serious deliberation and especially contra haeref cap. 1. 2. the graue counsaile of Vincentius Lyrinēsis did prevaile with me seeing that learned holy men did generally conspire in this opinion If any man will discerne Heretical pravity from Catholike verity he must be furnished with a double helpe first the Canon of sacred Scripture Secondly the tradition of the Catholique Church wherein three things inseparably concurre Vniversality Antiquitie Consent The reason of which prescription is yealded by him to be this The Scripture is sublime and forasmuch as all men sense it not alike it is necessarie to adioine therevnto the continuall interpretation of the Church Vpon this infallible ground evident vnto all men of any apprehension I builded my faith conforming it alwaies vnto those Orthodoxe principles which I had derived out of the venerable Fathers Hence I assumed this doctrine of Evangelicall Coūsells which as I delivered out of the sacred volumes of Antiquitie so Antiquitie it selfe deduced it with mee out of the divine Oracles of holy Scripture And therefore seeing that my opinion was cleerely built vpon this foūdation I pressed it vncessantly vntill my vniust Iudges were enforced to forsake this meanes of triall and consequently to punish the Fathers in me as I had spoken by them But when I plainely saw that my doctrine could not be condemned without condemnation of the ancient Church and that my Iudges were driuen to this extremity I inferred that their Religion could not be good and that their consciences were verie bad ANSVVER It is a most preposterous devise to make the Fathers iudges of the Scriptures whereas the Scriptures as S. Austin confesseth ought to be the iudges of the Fathers otherwise what you impute to vs is the practise of your selues which you seeke approbation of the former Church by the latine That the Fathers may preponderate the moderne writers I answere for their antiquity they doe but where the same truth is in both for their authority they do not exceed Hath the Church had no growth since their time Hath the sonne of righteousnesse Psal 19. going from the ende of the heauens and in his compasse returning to the ende thereof againe by his beames given no more light then when it first rose Hath not God revealed somethings to one which he hath not to another 1. Cor. 14.30 as S. Paul speaketh Our reverend estimation of the Fathers is most learnedly and fully delivered by his Maiestie in his premonition and our willingnesse of a triall by the Fathers is openly testified by the Reverend Bewcleark D. Field these exceptions
as Hereticall for which Act S Ierom himselfe was much condemned and how his bookes against Iovinian were excepted against even at Rome D. Field sheweth in the place cited by you Whose words which you propose so disgracefully are better worth the pondering then you thinke Our determination state of that question is this breefly virginity is a state of life wherein if all things be answerable in the parties that embrace it there are fewer occasions of distractions from God and more opportunities of attaining to the height of excellēt vertue then in the opposite state of marriage yet so that it is possible for some married men so to vse their estate that they be no way inferiour to those that are single This doth S. Austin confidently defend so your Iesuit Espencaeus as before and so also Gregory Nazianzen absolutly doth proue it Nazianz. in his Oration made in the praise of Gorgonia his sister I might stand much in proofe of this as also that the olde Roman Church did defend and maintaine the cause of Iovinian But I haue in many places already answered this accusatiō and therefore I retort vpon you that seeing your imputations be furnished with malice spite rather then truth and spirit my sixt resolution is to acknowledge with thankfulnesse duty comfort the truth of God defended in this Church of England from whence rather out of a desire to maligne thē out of strength of argument to repugne you are fallen by contumacy in action and heresie in opinion Mr LEECH The seauenth Motiue The Protestants accommodate their Religion vnto the state and present time AS the formes of Ecclesiasticall gouernments are varied by the Calvinists in sondry places according vnto the state vnder which they liue so their Doctrines are framed according to the times and made sutable vnto the policy of their common wealths Pipe state and dance Church Religion must haue no coat otherwise then measure is taken by the State Aiust experience whereof I had in the passage of this businesse For as the more grosse and senselesse Calvinists in England do Heretically confound Evangelicall Counsailes with Legall Precepts so others more regardfull of the time wherein they liue then of the truth which they should professe doe willingly yeeld for if they should doe otherwaies they should speake against their iudgement and conscience that this distinctiō is founded in the gospell and propounded by the Church but they say that it is not a doctrine seasonably to bee delivered in these times And might not this statizing reason aswell plead for Arrius his damnable Heresie being more generally disaffected by the state in those times Contra Lucifer dum totus mundus ingemuit sub Arrianismo as S. Hierom speaketh But I considered first that truth is not to be impugned suppressed is the common fury of Calvinists hath euer sought to extinguish it to the vttermost of their power in which respect I found my selfe extraordinarily affected for the reiection of their heresie in this behalfe And I trust it was not without speciall motion of that spirit which breatheth in the whole body of the Catholike church and consequently in every member of the same Secondly though time beare the blame yet men are in the fault therfore seeing that the opē enemies of truth did barke when her secret friends did holde their peace I conceived that it was my duty rather to change the time from evill into good then to suffer it to grow from evill in to worse And though some men assisted with power to punish that which their peevish fansie disaffected did beare me downe by violence yet I tooke no lesse comfort by this iniurie which they offred vnto me thē courage by the course which they held against my doctrine For I saw that they rather observed prophane policie to force me vnto silence then either shew of iustice or piety in proceeding against my falsely supposed crime or waight of reason in convincing my vnderstanding And why they are the slaues of time but not disciples of truth ANSVVER HOw true this imputation vrged against vs is in the Romane Religiō some parts of the Christian world see and others feele it Leo that kinsman of the roaring Lyon when he was about to go in visitation to his infernall cosen confessed how much worth to his purse fabula Christi that tale of Christ was as he blasphemously called the gospell And is it any better esteemed at this day among Papists at lest haue they not enioined tales and fables and lies to bee beleeved as well as the Gospell Indulgences and Purgatory to go no farther be they not only invented to get mony doth the Pope ever keepe fire but he hath his fuell from Purgatory Is not this doctrine of Monkery only invēted to humor divers melācholike fat paūches If our land were a poore Coūtrey the Pope would never keep such a stirre it is not to gaine souls but Peter pence And to sum vp all in one word all religion depends on the Popes pleasure That as in the Metaphysickes the vtmost proposition is Nihil simul est non est so in Popish divinity the vtmost resolution is Papa non potest errare Wherefore Bellarmine holdeth Question of Supremacy which all the world seeth to be but a matter of Policie Bellarm. in praef ad 3 cōtrovers to be summam rei Christianae who then are the statizers To say nothing of your Iesuits that manage al the affaires of those Princes in whose Courts like Salomons Spiders they remaine Our Religion is the same which the Apostles did teach was in practise in the Primitiue Church happy is the state in which this true Religion flourisheth your distinction of Precepts and Counsels hath beene sufficiently cāvased and you haue been taught in what sense wee retaine the name of Counsell and that S. Austin calleth your Consilia perfectionis Aug. lib. de perfect iustitiae ad coelestinum praecepta perfectionis It is a slander by which you seek to deceiue by your speech of accusing any of our part as if they did professe that your doctrine was true but not seasonable for these times We hold that all places and all times must entertaine truth and therfore your first collection is false Calvinists extinguish not truth Rome doth racke burne torture the Gospell and the truth therof but we feare the punishmēt of sinning against conscience and knowledge if wee should suppresse but the lest truth we behold it with an impartiall eie we represse not the professors but adversaries thereof of which number you were accounted one Your second Collection which hath more sound then sense is easily refuted time beareth no blame for truth secret enemies may looke against her open friendes but wisdome will bee iustified and though Sathan seek to sow bad seed in good ground yet the Lords busbandmen sleepe not but will reforme ill by good refute that is false
concerning your request for compassion and yet even in that your petition you breake into a furious passion to accuse those reverend learned Doctors who censured you as if they had beene a faction I will not be nice to climbe ouer those seeming difficulties that lie in my way and yet without enlarging the limits of your speech as all your assertions like so many diseases attend vpon the ague of error so this among the rest wherein you censure those that iudicially censured you to be a factiō If any afforded your pen maintenance or your sermons countenance by clancular approbation contrary to the iudgement and truth deliuered by the learned Vicechancelor and his worthy asistants they were the faction not these It is not a factious position which is generally maintained by the happy and gratious Church of England grounded vpō irrefragable places of holy Scriptures taught by many impregnable places of ancient Fathers yea your grand Iury of Fathers called into the Star chamber of iudgement by a iudicious learned religious k Doctor Benefield Divine now all witnessing against you Were you vnworthily intreated when loue allured you and authority sollicited you to take better councell Were you silenced or imprisoned or censured at all til that engastred impostume brake out in your last sermon all dayly expecting a much more earnest course against you the discommoning rather of you thē the losse of your commons And whereas you desire vs to be moued with compassion toward our selues we may vse the words of our Saviour weepe not for me but weepe for your selues so compassionate not vs but your selfe And for my selfe among many others I shall ever afford you that harty pitty non l Bernard oris attactu sed mentis affectu as to say to you as the m 1. Kings 13.30 old Prophet did of the seduced Prophet alas for thee my brother Mr LEECH For as the iniury which God and his truth haue sustained in my person is now made knowne not only vnto our nation but the fame thereof beginneth to spread it selfe abroad in these forraine parts so it concerneth you my louing fathers and brethren to wipe away that disgrace and blemish from your mother and your selues which some of har vnnaturall children would both staine her with and deriue vpon you endeavoring to obscure their private folly in the publike shame Which protection I will neuer afford vnto them vnlesse they can obtaine it by your own consent ANSVVER Was the quiet and long forborne conventing of you iudiciall hearing learned opposing religious counselling calme censuring of you such an iniurie vnto God and his truth that not only the whole Vniversity but also the whole nation and quae regio in terris vestri nō plena furoris almost al the world taketh notice as you say for the FAME thereof beginneth to spread it selfe in those forraine parts A good thing the more generally it is spread the better but of the contrary ever the contrary falleth out n Plut. Plutarch telleth of a plague that began in Aethiopia thence filled Athens killed Pericles vexed Thucydides and spread it selfe far It should seeme by the spreading of that report of what you endured that it was some contagious stuffe that did so expatiate But what if it doe so among those who haue banished truth as a stranger chained vp Religion as a prisoner To preach a doctrine twise before forbidden you was seditious to preach a doctrine no way to be warrāted was erroneous that doctrine so soone to spread it selfe through so great a nation so many forraine parts it was dangerous Good things are not so fertile The great eie of heauen and the God which must iudge you and that cōscience which must accuse you doe all witnesse how iniuriously you dealt here with your gouernors in disobeying them and now howe vniustly abroad in traducing them Durst any in those forraine parts so peremptorilie and presumptuously publiquely haue maintained any point of the contrary religion but hee had beene apprehended and presently cast into the iawes of that monster the Spanish inquisitiō your vsage was otherwise you were warned by some counselled by others pitied by al not publiquely convented not commanded to recante not imprisoned not expelled only forbidden to preach because you offended by preaching put out of commons for a while the common punishment for any collegiate offence the fame of this so far to spread it cannot profit you any way nor preiudice the chariots of our Israell the governours of our Vniversitie Only remember what o De fam spe diat 117. Petrarch admonisheth in such a case Multi famam se mereri sperant dum infamiam mereantur Let not this fame bee your infamy nor let these blemishes and disgraces which you impute to our Academicall mother or the vnnaturalnesse you deeme to bee in her children be found all of them in you feare your owne private folly flie your owne publike shame I vse your owne words To make a shew of nakednesse where there is none is worthily cōdemned but to spit such words of blemish disgrace folly and shame in the face of such reverend Fathers O remember it is accursed I haue gathered vp all your burdens bonds pressures complaints summe them vp all they be all nothing Mr LEECH Wherefore out of my affectionate zeale vnto your credit I doe both humbly desire and earnestly require you to avert this infamy from your noble mother and to free her from the imputation which otherwise you draw vpon her as being either a Patronesse of falshood or fearefull to defend the truth which folly in the first or pussillanimity in the second is a great staine to men of your quality and place ANSVVER It was p Diog. Laert. in vita Diog. Diogenes speech Oportet sapientiam ab insipientibus feriri but yet g wisdome shal be iustified by her children q Mat. 11.19 and the blowe given by you in the pulpit which you think shal leaue a scarr in the face of Oxford is easily remoued For no sooner were you remoued hence but the infamy was averted the aire purged from receauing the contagion of any such amphibious amphibologious heresie For your zealous affection when you are truely zealous towards God you will be truly affectionate towards his servants let not the fume of envy and fome of vanity turne holynes into hypocrisie zeale into folly and assure your self as long as this Metropolis of learning shal stād which I hope shal be as long as the sunne and moone endure shee will bee so far from being either Patronesse of falshood or feareful to defend the truth that she wil ever haue many strong men armed in the studies of Divinity furnished with the skill of tongues laboriously exercised in the sacred Scriptures studiously cōversant in the Fathers wel acquainted with the history of times who like the valiant men of Israell that guarded r Can. 3.7.8
Arius in the difference of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mistaking was heresie the death of the soule The Hebrewes haue a Tradition in their Talmud that they that could not discerne the pronouncing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should not be made Priest Meg. c. 3. p. 24 or reader in their Synagogue And surely vnfitte is hee to write of Counsells that knoweth not the difference of letters in Concilium and Consilium I hold those titivillitious altercations of some Criticks not altogether so necessary as whether Epistula or Epistola iccirco or idcireo cotidie or quotidie bee the better reading But in a matter of moment of maine differēce a letter may much alter the sense Caranza Caranza in Epit. Concil in Concil Laodicens Can. 35. in the Councell of Laodicaea the 35 Canō which was made against the worship of Angells putteth in Angulos insteed of Angelos hauing no other corner to runne into to free his Church from the assertion of Idolatry and in this there was wit ioined with knavery so that it was pretty though pestilent but it was absurd to continue in your written Coppy ever to write Concilia with the ◠in steed of s as fearing to make longam literā The great difference of the things and the warning of Franciscus Sōnius should haue made you more criticall For Sonnius very plainely giueth a Caveat in this behalfe as supposing some such as your selfe should hereafter need it This is such a soloecisme in any learned iudgement that it would haue cost a lashing in any free schoole in England And howsoever you hold that commō rude speech of the Popes true Fiatur in cōtumeliam omniū Grammaticorum yet not Theologorum Mr LEECH And howsoever the truth of this doctrine hath not already nor yet haply hereafter shall escape the tongues and penns of some malitious or ignorant carping adversaries enimies of God and his Church yet can it never be suppressed but it will prevaile in the ende and florish like a greene palme tree being iustifiable and glorious both before God and man where reason swaieth and not passion rageth ANSVVER Heresie hath beene gainsaid in all ages and among the rest this where by the title of Evangelicall Counsells of perfection vaine Imaginarists haue sought to proue merits perfection supererogation and other strange and false positions To the suppressing of which the Fathers in all ages haue concurred as to the extinguishing of a generall devastation by fire Account you the opposers of your doctrine malitious and ignorant carping adversaries but God whose cause they haue in hand seeth and iudgeth whether they that acknowledge their sinnes or they that obiect their merit whether they that confesse thēselues vnprofitable servants or they that professe Angelicall perfection Psal 19.7 they that with reverence doe beleeue the law of the Lord to be perfit and an vndefiled law or they that accuse it for want imperfection they that professe it is impossible to fulfill the law or they that vaunt of performing more then is required by the law and as he seeth and iudgeth so he rewardeth every man according to his worke and hath pronounced that the wicked shall bee as the chaffe that the wind scattereth to and fro Psal 1.4 Mr LEECH Farther I can for more full complement if neede bee produce all charters roles evidences iudgements cēsures sentences arrests of all Christian parliamens the vmpiring determinations of the highest Ecclesiasticall tribunalls and generall Councells notwitstanding all pretenses pleas intrusions surreptions shifts contentions of all Hereticall Iovinianists ANSVVER This Paragraph hath put you out of breath put truth out of you It is like that congerious and multiplicious numeration of Criticks Phrases in Merula where he reckoneth vp Commentarios Adversaria Merula pag. 218. Annotationes Scholia observationes Animadversa Castigationes Disquisitiones Miscellanea Centurias Syntagmata Collectanea Catalecta Spicilegia c. Such is your disfigured figure in conglomerating your charters roles evidences sentences arrests c. But what haue these to doe with Evangelicall Counsells Quid ad Rhombum any of sense that readeth it will afford no other allowance but this of the Poet Hor. art Poet Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu If I should follow you in this kinde I could vrge to make vppe an army royall in encounter of yours all Scriptures Patriarkes Prophets Apostles Martyrs Saints Kings Bishops Fathers Doctours Professours Schooles Chaires Vniversities decrees of the Church Canons of Councels Constitutions of Synods Histories acts and monuments of all times and of all places Notwithstanding the Index expurgatorius of the Pope the demolishing of Antiquity by the Iesuits the Corruption of the Fathers all authorities by the Vatican impostors and all the endeavors of Rome and Hell to violate the truth Mr LEECH Ad nihilum devenient tāquam aqua decurrens which S. Austine doth fitly apply vnto heresies Such is the difference betwixt truth and falsehood that errour in time as it is but the entertainement of time will of it selfe fall away when Truth will stand impregnable how many soever impugne her so true is that of the Apostle we can do nothing against truth ANSVVER The difference betweene truth and falshoode is as much as the height of heauen and the depth of hel But you never tooke paines to distinguish truth frō falsehood never to enquire publikely or to study seriously the arguments against your opinion S. Augustine thought it fit to make knowne whereof he stoode in doubt and also wherefore your course was otherwise Aug de Genesi literam you conceived in the eare and brought foorth in the mouth you read Coccius Bellarmine beleeved them and preached them and tooke vp from thē vpon trust but not vpō truth You builded vpō the sands your building is fallen because not founded on the corner stone for other foundatiō can no mā lay then that which is laid even Iesus Christ Mr LEECH And therefore leaving thee modest and discreet Reader to iudge of the matter doctrine now in difference as reason and Religion shall induce thee and not as the instigation and humour of some factious persons will seek to mislead thee I proceede to prosecute the remainder of this businesse hoping that no man of any apprehension will suffer himselfe to be deceived by vaine vnlearned suggestions ANSVVER Reason must be submitted vnto Religion but the triall of Religion only is submitted vnto Truth the ancor of Christians in the Tempest of Controversie Accoūt it no instigatiō by humor or prosecutiō against you by favour The Poet is my warrant Hominem malignum forsan te credant alij Ego te miserum credo c. Neither Fathers in divinity nor Fathers by authority can satisfie you but you presume to proceed I feare that like a flie about the Candel you will perish
Of revolting in these later times he had reason to speake whē the misery of this age is such that an asses head is sold at a shekle and our Philistine adversaries will offer any preferment to him that will turne their Proselite and yet when they receiue them admit them into no order but of Mendicants as the late proofe of some present experience of your selfe shew ◠Pet. 2.1 Apostasie was foretold as by others so prophetically by Peter that there shal be false teachers which shall privily bring in damnable heresies And who can ponderat this but with much sense and sorrow he will lament that anie sonne of this Country nay any son in the outwarde appearance of the church shoulde exenterat his naturall nay his spirituall mother and do this in a sinister conceit either for some particular discontent or for want of preferment ever for want of iudgement Lamentable is such Apostasie to Antichristian Popery Mr LEECH At which simple suggestion I coulde not but smile within my selfe first to consider that whereas he had absolutely charged this doctrine to be erroneous yet nowe he could not tel whether it were true or false Secondly to obserue that the preaching of truth contained in the gospell should be a meanes to draw men from the gospell vnto Popery as he was pleased to speake ANSVVER Simple suggestion If the Cumane beast could speake more modesty and duty would bee vttered You smile like the Picture that having two faces hath his embleme over it Nos tres so you by an enterchangeable view looking on them two you smile as ill favored as they and so make three The first cause of your vnseemely smile is that which wil cause gnashing of teeth vnlesse you repent He whose wisdome and knowledge ioined togither faithfully and strongly to charge you with the error of your doctrine did hee now doubte whether it were erroneous It is a mint of forgeries and falshoode and vnworthy the invention of anie that is called Christian Your second smiling consideration was as fonde as the other was false did you preach the truth out of the Gospell Bern. sup Cant. ser 65. Evangelium apellasti ad Evāgelium ibis Hast thou appealed to the Gospell saith Bernard vnto the Gospell thou shalt go The Law is said to be the killing letter but the Gospell will bee the killing letter at the arraignement of this supposititious erroneous position Mr LEECH But perceiving him to be enkindled with the flames of passion I forboare to adde fuell vnto the fire and therefore I pretermitted the mētioning of his folies at that time Only I made this briefe answere that if some truth bee not to be preached at all times yet the Contrary vnto truth was to be preached at no time and if it be lawfull for any man to impugne it is it not lawful for me to defend it and especially when it concerneth my selfe in particular For so it did in this case the eie of the whole Vniversity being cast vpon me in this behalfe ANSVVERE Rather say But trembling and fearing to stay much lesse to speake that there is so black liuor in your paper seeing you had so white a liver at your speech I admire not much Iam. 3. seeing your fictiōs be great though your Poetry none at all You say you forbeare to adde fuell vnto the fire S. Iames saith the tongue is a fire but I finde that your pen is a fire and yet but ignis fatuus I wonder that these poysonfull and filthy calumnies fabricated in the forge of a froathy braine eate not through your paper Lubert Replic l. 1. c. 1. If you continue this railing reviling slaundring you will so envenom your booke that none will buy it as Gretzer the devills agent in slaundring villany and railing scurrility was vsed in Frisia where only one of his bookes were to bee sold which none would buy because that foule mouthed Cerberus doth so besmeare all mens reputations hee dealeth with The conceited malice in you whetted with a custome of slaunder and edged with a contagion of error hath made your tongue so keene your stile so sharp and your truth so short that you woūd whom you can What follies can the bottomlesse pit of your opē sepulchre mētiō against this Paragon of men In whose defence men and Angells stand against all clamorous railers When you say Only I made this breefe answere c. that onely is ONELY more you neither did nor could reply so You never had that advantage given you as the acknowledgemēt of one sparke of truth in that doctrine nor ever was there doubt made but truth is allowed to bee preached and that you say the eie of the Vniversity was vpon you it was only the eie of iudgement and condemnation not the eie of respect or expectation few lent you their eies fewer their eares none their beleefe Mr LEECH Thus I tooke my leaue of M. Vicechancellour hee being full of passion and I of resolution for this matter against which he declamed with many words and without any reason consorting herein with those furious Donatists of whom S. Augustin pronounceth truly Contra lit Petil. l. 2. c. 51. Quid hoc aliud est quà m nescire quid dicere tamen non posse nisi maledicere ANSVVER He was full of resolution you full of discontented turbulent passion you were glad to be gon being so beaten with the power of truth for the wordes that stroke you were full of reason faith and religion as your consciēce knoweth notwithstanding your profusd dissembling and professed railing S. Austins speech to the Donatists retorteth it selfe vpon you so full of contradiction and malediction Aust and with it I returne another speech of S. Austin Non est intuendū quà m amarum sed quà m falsum I stand not so much vpon your acerbity as to shew to the worlde how you falsifie Mr LEECH CHAP. 3. THis Magistrate intending a preposterous course against me and yet pretending a formality of iustice convented me before him in iuridicall manner vpon the vigill of S. Peter a practitioner of my doctrine Lord said he what shall we haue that haue forsaken all and followed thee ANSVVER THis faithfull deputy of his maker and Master entended no preposterous course against you His brest like the hart of a good Magistrate is the Ocean whereinto all the cares of our Academicall causes empty themselues which hee ever sendeth forth againe in a wise conveyance by the streames of iustice he hath in all the time of his goverment beene the Pay-master of good deserts and Patron of Peace it was not formality of iustice he pretended but the satisfaction of the whole Vniversity who importuned that you might be convented and censured What vaine-glorious humor riseth vp in that froth of ostentation to cause you cal S. Peter a practitioner of your doctrine He was married therefore practised no Counsell of Virginity hee continued his
his Lordship thereof as hee had inioined me in his said letters ANSVVERE MAny offende as much in obtruding themselues as others in retyring especially when their doctrine is vnsounde In this is your condemnation rather then commendation more that you acted the best part with so bad a minde seminare zizaniam as the old Seminary Sathā had done long before You were silenced not for assiduous but erroneous preaching and being desirous to vtter some such point in a more eminent place though wise men hold our Vniuersitie sermons to be as solemne and more censorious then any other in the land you by great meanes obtained letters from some Chaplaine to be sent for to preach a vacation sermon the Common course of which letters was that they passe in name of the Bishop who often knoweth not the men or their worth I must confesse that the Right Reuerend Bishop the Angell of that Church did know your person and your no worth and had bestowed vpon you a Chaplaines place by the earnest suite of some of Reuerend eminent place in Oxford but not for your first sermō as you arrogate His Lordship did not request you at al nor enioin you not to faile your summons as you boast They be the cursary Tearmes of every of those missiue letters Mr LEECH The Vicechancellour getting notice of these summons sent for me immediatly and requested that he might haue a view of the Bishops Letters which in curtesie I then cōmunicated vnto him howbeit I had iust reason to suspect for his countenance expressed much perturbation in his hart that he would plot some meanes to hinder this designment And as in all probability he did coniecture that I would haue constantly asseuered my former doctrine in the greatest audience of the kingdome so I must acknowledge that this was my resolued determination ANSVVER The Reuerend Bishoppe most earnestly required the Vicechancellor to call for those letters and the first notice that he had was from the Bishops owne mouth whereby it is manifest that his Lordship sent no such letters nor knew of them at first for he was so earnest with his worthy successor that in a zealous vehemencie hee desired that vpon his comming home to Christ-Church you might be expelled grieving he had beene a meanes to giue any encouragement to any so stubborn disobedient ignorant The letters being demanded by the Bishop it was not curtesie as you cal it but duty to communicate or rather to render vp those letters There was no perturbation expressed by the faithfully zealous in this wisely iealous Goueror he only grieved that such a shame was like by your scandall to be imputed to Oxford Howsoever what he did in this was by the direction yea obsecration of that Reuerend Bishop of London And durst you intēd againe to presūe to appeare I say not in the face of mē but in the sight of God to deliver a doctrine so confuted so cōdemned for preaching of which you were twise inhibited censured silenced This determination as you cal it came not from God no motion of his spirit But the truth is this how ever you brag here you avowed with all earnestnes and the most eager protestations imprecations against your selfe that if you might bee suffered this time to preach at the Crosse you woulde neither preach this nor any point of controuersie Mr LEECH But Master D. King fearing least with so publike a promulgation of this truth I shoulde also blazon his shame which now neither Oxford nor London nor our divided world it selfe shall containe within hir limits handled the matter so by his policie and authority that my Lord of London through his misinforming suggestions countermaunded the former by second letters discharging me from the performance of that duty And now Maister Vicechancellor thought that he had not only inconvenienced me but also secured himselfe ANSVVER Had the inke that wrote this been mixed with the poison of spiders it could not haue beene more venemous then this is malitious I grieue to thinke how little in this booke doth savor of a Minister nay of a Christiā What son of Zerviah can vtter more reproachfull shamefull speeches And what roapes can be vsed to drawe downe more speedy vengeance vpon your head then these false accusations against him that is true of heart He to feare his shame whose conscience is murus ahaeneus Hee receiue any disparagement from the mouth of any railer that by reviling of the most bright fixed starres in the firmamēt of our Church hath manifested an infallible demonstration of his degenerous and degenerate minde Shall not Oxford and London or the divided world only containe the promulgation of this I will not iniure Scripture but I hope I may safly apply that speech of Christ to the woman and therefore to counterblast your vnsavory breath I say wheresoeuer the Gospell shall be preached mention shall be made of him no way but in honor for the cleerenesse of iudgemēt sweetnesse of stile gravity of person grace of conversation and true hearted soundnesse in religion let them al backbiting Dogges spit out livor liuer and heart and all For what Erasmus spake of Prudētius shall be true of him Ibis quovis seculo inter Doctos Prudenti There was no suggestion vsed by the Vicechancelour against you it was the Bishops owne motion and earnest impetrature who also in his second letters manifested his reasons of disliking and disabling you for that service Mr LEECH For this end and purpose also he repaired then vnto a Doctor of principall place and eminent worth a man not vnder any if not over all with whom he intertained long discourse touching the Doctrine of Evangelicall Counsailes complaining that in Oxforde it had beene lately broached and obstinatly defended And now I pray you good Sir said he what is your opinion concerning this point ANSVVER To this Reverend Deane he was with many other Doctors invited to dinner he repaired not to him as to a Coūsellor in this businesse as you falsely enforme The worth and eminency of this Oracle of Textuall Schoole divinity is acknowledged with reverēce but from his owne mouth I haue received it that he protesteth against you in this imputation absolutely denying that the Vicechancellor ever asked counsell or opinion of him Only among many other discourses at Table this questiō was repeated but not debated Besides this false imputation here it is confessed by you that you obstinately defended the point and obstinacy is offensiue whatsoever the defence be Mr LEECH Here by the way giue me leaue good Reader to propose two things vnto thy discreet consideration First that D. King either had no knowledge at al or not well groūded in that point wherein he condemned me by violence of authority and not by force of reason Secondly that as I suffered with a good conscience so hee punished mee with an evill For I had not the least scruple nor
diffidence in this point All testimonies divine humane of God and of his Church did firmely establish me therein And therefore though I conferred with many learned men vpon the same yet I never demaunded of any man by way of doubt Sir What is your opinion c. but I alwaies said This is the Doctrine of all the Fathers this is the iudgement of the whole Church it is founded vpon sacred Scripture c. will you stand to it or will you disclaime it wherevpon I commonly receiued this answere the doctrine is true in it selfe though not seasonable for these times But Master D. King hauing not any such certainty of infallible grounds could not but fluctuate in the instability of his private iudgement ANSVVER VVhich two proposed coÌ„siderations be both false How can any indifferent Reader looke vpoÌ„ your lines with any other entertainement but contempt first you accuse Doctor King to want well grouÌ„ded knowledge whoÌ„ your conscience knoweth to be profound ready and resolute in all faculties in all studies in all learning was not the force of reason vsed as the meanes to coÌ„vert you when a solemne lecture was read vpoÌ„ the point was not the TeneÌ„t of our Church shewed you were not disputations many times offred you and did not the Doctors that assisted at the convention of you catechise you so farre as they founde you not able to answer what the church was what faith was what the rule and Canon was c was this violence of Authority or force of reason Violence did not appeare in authority against you never was wilde fire so quietly quenchâ—d nor open mouthed aduersary so favourably handled so movingly incited or so fully confuted Your secoÌ„dly is twin with the former only the limmes be greater Did he punish you with an evill conscience you suffred with a good Or you suffered with an evill and he censured you with a good You say you had not the least scruple of diffidence or distrust in this point Doubting in some causes is commeÌ„dable it is the meanes to sift and fanne try the wheat of truth froÌ„ the chaffe of error What mist had veiled and invelloped that eie sight that sawe not the monstrous absurdities of this point But you say all Testimonies are for you divine humane c. Your Testimonies haue beene pervsed and in them there is nothing worthie to commande affection or beliefe God and his Church I am sure certitudine fidei be against you and this I am established in that Gods law is not wanting nor imperfect craveth not the assistance and support of CouÌ„sels God vseth not second editions with supplemeÌ„ts he hath set forth no other Deuteronomy In your conference with many I beleeue you traduce many for I knowe that some that you had personall though not doctrinal fauor from do for ever disclaime any honest thought of you Were any common measure of hatred fit for a revolter I shoulde haue hoped that you would forbeare your slanders against many but your heate and hate do both conspire to make them subiect to interpretation who are most opposite to your opinion I dare pronounce it that no one of iudgemeÌ„t learning sound Religion did giue you that answere that here you deliver I haue beene bolde to enquire of your questions with some of very worthy respect and they disclaime the countenance and mainetenance of your opinion you know you were so repressed from preaching this Doctrine that while a Reverende and learned Doctor of publike respect and place in the Church and private goverment in the Vniversity remained here you durst not deliuer this but in the time of his attendance and absence in Convocation busines then you began to settle your selfe vnsettle truth Traduce none nor gull the world as if any affirmed your doctrine to be true All the learned in the world can not make sense of that which you by your written coppy deliuered where your literall meaning is often so poore that it can reach no sense and your mysticall so transcendent that no sense can reach it Truth is seasonable at all times and only enimies of truth will at any time suppresse it Falsifie no mans speech This slaunder coÌ„meth from no good spirit The well rooted resolution of the Vicechancelour anchored him his grouÌ„ds had certainty if Scripture containe it hee had truth infallibility his iudgement was not privat his certainty did not fluctuate Iude. 11. 2. Pet. 2.17 S. Iude doth attribute this to Apostats and S. Peter describeth them to be clowdes without water carried about with a tempest to whom the blacknesse of darknesse is reserved for ever Mr LEECH To returne now vnto the conference of M. Vicechancellor with the aforesaid Doctour he received a cold satisfaction vnto his hot demaund For the Doctour wondering that any difficulty should be made in this matter answered presently without any demur there are Evangelicall Counsailes and no doubt can be made thereof And what was thinke you Doctour Kings reply vnto this graue and confident assertion Did he dispute against it no he could not Did hee gainsay it no he durst not Thus the renowned pulpit-Doctor that could domineere over his poore inferiour censure him depraue him vilifie him with intolerable reproaches such as he feared not to vtter but I am ashamed to mentioÌ„ stoode mute not daring to disclose his opinioÌ„ which he could not iustifie by any waight of reason ANSVVER To returne to your most vntrue relation As before so againe I answere that the Vicechancelour did not doubt of the doctrine he manifested no haesitation he sought no satisfactioÌ„ The discourse was at dinner where neither argument was vrged nor any suffrage of iudgement required the allowance of the distinction being graunted by this reverend Deane what followeth therevpon Dare you conclude therefore that your doctrine was true The other sister and famous Vniversity hath had much experience of his rare dexterity in cleering the obscure subtilties of the Schoole and easie explication of the most perplexe discourses And not only he but others haue graunted such a distinction for distinctions bee but intentions they are signarerum non res signatae Many graunt Counsells that doe as much hate your opinion as you hate our Religion And how different froÌ„ your Tenent this learned Doctor is doth appeare in the sequele of this Chapter But first to your interrogation or rather your imaginary supposition The Vicechancelour needed not to dispute it nor meant to gainesay it For howsoever properly there bee no Evangelicall Counsells so he doth and ever did maintaine yet he never denied such a distinction repreheÌ„ding the consequents positions you grounded therevpon rather then the name of Counsels In scorne you call him the renowned Pulpit Doctor a Title generally worthily bestowed vpon him for who ever saw him without reverence or hard him without wonder Yet you heape so many obloquies vpon him that I marvell your soule doth not
by faith Your last close concerning men assisted with power to punish you disaffected by peevish fancy is meerely false it was not peevish fancie as your Popish folly tearmeth it but it was religious piety policy that disaffected reiected your doctrine the power of Scripture of Fathers of all authority assisting them Rage not courage strengthned you and therefore Iustice and Religion did censure punish you and God wil without your repentance plague you for your vile and violēt tearms against the disciples of truth your selfe being a fellower of blindnes and a hater of goodnes In the meane time this is my 7 confirmation that our doctrine is true Religion and Catholique seeing they that seeke to disgrace it be either statizing Politiques or slaundering Heretiques able to say little in shewe lesse in sense least in truth Mr LEECH The eight Motiue The Protestantes can patiently suffer the articles of the Creede c. to be violated but they are severe in those things that repugne their vtility or sensuality whatsoever EVery truth in respect of God revealing it and the Church propoūding it is of equall necessity to be beleeved howbeit in respect of the matter it selfe one truth may be of greater consequence and dignity then an other And yet it is not the greatnes of the matter it selfe but the manner of revealing which tieth vs to a necessity of beliefe I will instance in this present busines The distinction of Evangelicall Counsailes from Legall Precepts is a truth to be accepted vpon necessity of salvation Why because it is sufficiently revealed vnto vs by God and fullie propounded by the Catholique Church so that it is either wilfull ignorance not to know it or extreame obstinacy to withstand it But yet the Articles of the Creede which are the first elements of faith commended vnto vs by Apostolicall tradition may iustly be reputed more waighty in respect of the matter which is handled therein as namely the descent of Christ into hell Which article of faith is admirably perverted by the Ministers in England un so much as 3. or 4 sondry opinions thereof are freely and vncontroulably deliuered by them vnto their simple flockes I might instance in their different opinions about the Sacraments and other high misteries of saluation wherin fanaticall spirits expatiate without any reproofe But I willingly pretermit these and come to other particular points of doctrine which I preached amōgst them without impeachment First against Caluin his hereticall Autotheisme destroying the vnity of the divine essence I taught with the Nicene Creede and all antiquity that Christ is Deus de Deo hauing the same substance that is in the Father really communicated vnto him in his eternall generation Secondly with S. Gregory Damascen the Greek Latine Church I taught that Christ assumed our nature perfit and complete in the very instant of his conception contrary to the absurd opinion of diuerse Calvinisticall Protestants who avouch that his incarnation was by tēporall degrees and not by entire perfection in an instant Thirdly that God was only the permissiue not any impulsiue cause of sinne though Calvin blaspheme to the contrary and deride the distinction Fourthly Christ crying out Deus meus Deus meus c was not in a traūce he suffred no torments of hell died not by degrees as though his senses decayed by little and little but in perfit sense paine obedience patience humility constancie he rendred vp his righteous soule a voluntary sacrifice for sin But the common opinion of Calvinists is contrary vnto this position Fiftly Filius spiritus sanctus quoniam non sunt a se diem horam iudicij nesciūt a se pater autem quoniam a se est scit a se Hilar. in Mat. Respectu ordinis non teporis Lib. epist 8. c. 42. In Marc. 13.32 Christ was not ignorant of the day of iudgement either as God or man not as God for though he knew it not primarily originally as of himselfe being not God of himselfe yet did he know it secondarily by way of communication from the Father Not as Man for though hee did not know it Ex naturâ humanitatis yet did he know it In naturâ humanitatis as S. Gregory distinguisheth And this doctrine is contrary to Calvin his blasphemous glosse to wit Christus communem habuit cum Angelis ignorantiam These and many such like doctrines directly opposite to Calvin his tenents as he is cōtrary to truth for though his disciples call him a great light of the gospel yet I rather approue the censure of D. Hunnius Calvin Iudaiz a famous Lutheran saying that Calvin is an Angell of darknesse could passe vnnoted and vncontroled by my Calvinian Iudges and all other adherents vnto that faction Why then is this distinction of Precepts Coūsailes so hatefull vnto the Calvinists Alas it toucheth their coppy hold most of them being either married men or bending that way and therefore let Sacraments Christ Church c be abused nay let many points of Catholique doctrine be preached by Orthodox divines yet they are more attentiue vnto the suppression of this truth the like which doth more directly concerne their carnall pleasure and worldly profit For they that haue sold themselues to be the exact vassals of their owne affections and other mens wils are carefull to provide against any thing right or wrong true or false which may be preiudiciall therevnto rather attending what it is which will maintaine their sensuality thē what is orthodox in sound divinity ANSVVER The dignity of truth with the necessity of every truth we preach but this distinctiō so oft idle and vnnecessarily repeated I passe over as ever holding that they be Evangelicall precepts The Article of Christ his descēt into hell is not perverted by our ministers it is beleeued taught by vs witnesse Mr Rogers in his booke The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England Mr Perkins on the Creed our Articles concluded vpon in Convocation and other bookes in this kinde Bellar. de Anima Christi l. 4. cap. 6. §. quaeritur Bellarmin de anima Christi lib. 4. cap. 6. § quaeritur 2. saith thus Omnes conveniunt quòd Christus aliquo modo ad inferos descenderit Of the maner only of this descending if there bee some doubt there was the like also among the Fathers and so Bellarmine also in the place before cited declareth that aboue threescore Creedes of the ancient Fathers Councells leaue out this Article yet Luther Brentius the Centuriasts retaine it and Calvin cited by Bellarmin lib. 2. Inst cap. 16. § 8. dicit hunc articulum in praecipuis habendum The schoolemen agree not on it Durand 3. sent dist 22. quaest 3. Durand 3. sent dist 22. quaest 3. is confuted by Bellarmin in his booke de anima Christi lib. 4. cap. 15. So that if this be a motiue to forsake vs it should also bee a motiue for you to