whole one Citie the world Hath it onely succession where to set aside the inquirie of Doctrine so manie Simoniacks and intruders haue ruled as about fiftie of your Popes together were by your owne mens confession Apostaticall rather then Apostolicall Or Vnitie where there haue beene thirtie Schismes and one of them which endured fiftie yeares long and at last grew into three heads as if they would share among them the triple Crowne And as for diffentions in Doctrine I remit you to Master Doctor Halls peace of Rome wherein hee scores aboue three hundred mentioned in Bellarmine alone aboue threescore in one onely head of Penance out of Nauarrus As to that addition in all ages and places I know not what to make of it nor wherâ—o to refer it Consider I beseech you with your wonted moderation what you say for sure vnlesse you were beguâ—led I had almost said bewitched you could neuer haue resolued to beleeue and professe that which all the world knowes to be as false I had welnigh said as God is true touching the extent of the Romish Church to all ages and places Concerning the agonies you passed I will say onely thus much if being resolued though erroniously that was truth you were withholden from professing it with worldly respects you did well to breake through them all But if besides these there were doubt of the contrarie as me thinks needes must be vnlesse you could satisfie your selfe touching those many and knowne exceptions against the Court of Rome which you could not be ignorant of take heede lest the rest insuing these agonies were not like Sampsons sleeping on Dalâ—lahs knees while the locks of his strength were shauen whereupon the Lord departing from him he was taken by the Philistims had his eyes put out and was made to grinde in the prison But I doe not despaire but your former resolutions shall grow againe And as I doe beleeue your religious asseueration that for very feare of damnation you forsooke vs which makes mee to haue the better hope and opinion of you for that I see you doe so seriously minde that which is the end of our whole life so I desire from my heart the good hope of saluation you haue in your present way may be as happie as your feare I am perswaded was causelesse For my part I call God to record against mine owne soule that both before my going into Italie and since I haue still endeauoured to finde and follow the truth in the points controuerted betweene vs without any earthly respect in the world Neither wanted I faire opportunitie had I seene it on that side easily and with hope of good entertainment to haue adioyned my selfe to the Church of Rome after your example But to vse your words as I shall answere at the dreadfull day of iudgement I neuer saw heard or read any thing which did conuince me nay which did not finally confirme me daily more and more in the perswasion that in these differences it rests on our part Wherein I haue not followed humane coniectures from forraine and outward things as by your leaue mee thinkes you doe in these your motiues whereby I protest to you in the sight of God I am also much comforted and assured in the possession of the truth but the vndoubted voice of God in his word which is more to my conscience then a thousand Topicall Arguments In regard whereof I am no lesse assured that if I should forsake it I should be renounced by our Sauiour before God and his Angels then in the holding it be acknowledged and saued which makes me resolue not onely for no hope if it were of 10000. worlds but by the gracious assistance of God without whom I know I am able to doe nothing for no terrour or torment euer to become a Papist You see what a large distance there is betweene vs in opinion Yet for my part I doe not take vpon me to foreiudge you or anie other that doth not with an euill minde and selfe condemning conscience onely to maintaine a faction differ from that which I am perswaded is the right I account we hold one and the same faith in our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ and by him in the blessed Trinitie To his iudgement we stand or fall Incomparably more and of more importance are those things wherein wee agree then those wherin we dissent Let vs follow therefore the things of peace and of mutuall edification If any be otherwise minded then he ought God shall reueale that also to him If any be weake or fallen God is able to raiâ—e him vp And of you good M. Waddesworth and the rest of my Masters and Brethren of that side one thing I would againe desire that according to the Aposiles profession of himselfe you would forbeare to be Lords ouer our Faith nor straightway condemne of heresie our ignorance or lacke of perswasion concerning such things as wee cannot perceiue to be founded in holy Scripture Enioy your owne opinions but make them not Articles of our Faith the analogie whereof is broken as well by addition as subtraction And this selfe same equitie we desire to find in positiue Lawes Orders and Ceremonies Wherein as euerie Church hath full right to prescribe that which is decent and to edification and to reforme abuse so those that are members of each are to follow what is enioyned till by the same authoritie it be reuersed And now to close vp this Account of yours whereof you would haue Doctor Hall and me to be as it were examiners and Auditors Whether it be perfect and allowable or no looke you to it I haue here told you mine opinion of it as directly plainely and freely as I can and as you required fully if not tediously I list not to contend with you about it Satisfie your owne conscience and our common Lord and Master and you shall easily satisfie me Once yet by my aduice review it and cast it ouer againe And if in the particulars you finde you haue taken manie nullities for signifying numbers manie smaller signifiers for greater correct the totall If you finde namely that out of desire of Vnitie and dislike of contention you haue apprehended our diuersities to be more then they are conceiued a necessitie of an externall infallible Iudge where there was none attributed the priuiledge of the Church properly called to that which is visible and mixt If you finde the reformed Churches more charitable the proper note of Chists sheepe The Roman faction more fraudulent and that by publike counsell and of politicke purpose in framing not onely all later writers but some ancient yea the holy Scriptures for their aduantage If you finde you haue mistaken the Protestants doctrine touching inuisibilitie your own also touching vniformitie in matters of Faith If you haue beene misinformed and too haâ—â—ie of credit touching the imputations laid to the beginners of reformation For as touching the want of Succession and the
subdued my will to relent vnto my vnderstanding by meanes of prayer and by God Almighties grace principally I came to breake through many tentations and impediments and from a troubled vnquiet heart to a fixed and peaceable tranquilitie of minde for which I doe most humbly thanke our sweet Lord and Sauiour Iesus before whom with all reuerence I doe auouch and sweare vnto you as I shall answere it in the dreadfull day of iudgement when all hearts shal be discouered that I forsooke Protestant Religion for very feare of damnation and became a Catholique with good hope of saluation and that in this hope I doe continue and increase daily and that I would not for all the world become a Protestant againe And for this which here I haue written vnto you in great haste I know there bee many Replyes and Reioynders wherewith I could neuer be satisfied nor doe I desire any further Disputation about them but rather to spend the rest of my life in deuotion yet in part to giue you my deare good friend some account of my selfe hauing now so good an occasion and fit a messenger and by you if you please to render a reason of my Faith to Master Hall who in his said printed Epistle in one place desires to know the motiues thereof I haue thus plainly made relation of some points among many Whereunto if Master Hall will make any Reply I doe desire it may bee directly fully to the points and in friendly termes vpon which condition I doe pardon what is past and of you I know I neede not require any such circumstances And so most seriously intreating and praying to our gracious Lord to direct and keepe vs all and euer in his holy Truth I commend you vnto his heauenly grace and my selfe vnto your friendly loue Seuill in Spaine this first day of Aprill 1615. Your very affectionate and true louing friend IAMES WADDESWORTH To the Worshipfull his respected friend Master WILLIAM BEDELL at his house in Saint Edmundsbury or at Horinger be there deliuered in Suffolke Kinde Master BEDELL MIne old acquaintance and friend hauing heard of your health and worldly well-fare by this Bearer Master Austen your neighbour and by him hauing opportunitie to salute you with these few Lines I could not omit though some fewe yeeres since I wrote you by one who since told mee certainly hee deliuered my Letters and that you promised answere and so you are in my debt which I doe not claime not vrge so much as I doe that in truth and before our Lord I speake it you doe owe me loue in all mutuall amitie for the heartie affectionate loue which I haue and euer did beare vnto you with all sinceritie For though I loue not your Religion wherein I could neuer finde solide Truth nor firme hope of saluation as now I doe being a Catholique and our Lord is my witnesse who shall be my iudge yet indeed I doe loue your person and your ingenuous honest good morall condition which euer I obserued in you nor doe I desire to haue altercations with Master Ioseph Hall especially if he should proceede as Satyrically as he hath begun with me nor with any other man and much lesse would I haue any debate with your selfe whom I doe esteeme and affect as before I haue written nor would I spend the rest of my life which I take to be short for my lungs are decaying in any Questions but rather in deuotion wherein I doe much more desire to bee hot and feruorous then in Disputations beseeching our Lord to forgiue my coldnesse yea my neglect therein and to pardon and free me from all sinne and to guide and keepe you in all happinesse euen as I wish for mine owne soule through the Redemption of our sweet Sauiour and by the interâ—ession of his holy Mother and all Saints Amen Written in haste from Madrid 14. Aprill 1619. Your assured true friend IAMES WADDESWORTH Receiued Iâ—ne 4. 1619. To the Worshipfull my very good friend Master IAMES WADDESWORTH at Madrid deliuer this Salutem in Christo Iesu. THe late receipt of your Letters good Master Waddesworth did diuersly affect me with ioy and shame and I know not with whether most I was glad to heare of you and your prosperous state much more to receiue a kinde Letter from you Ashamed therein to be called vpon for debt who haue euer endeuoured to liue by that rule of the Apostle Owe nothing to any man Yet not so much for that which you must vrge the debt of loue sith by that Text it appears that it can neuer be so discharged as there should not be more behinde to pay And your selfe who challenge this of me doe owe me as much or well more For let me tell you I haue the aduantage of you herein by my profession for where your loue is to me as to a man or to an honest man nor can by your present perswasion goe any further I can and doe loue you as my deare brother and fellow member in the mysticall body of our Lord Iesus Christ. And from this ground to his knowledge I doe appeale I doe heartily pray for you and beare with you and as the Apostle enioynes Rom. 15. 7. Receiue you with a true brotherly affection I am not therefore ashamed of this debt but doe reioyce as much in the owing of it as in the payment But my shame growes from the being behinde with you in the office of writing Wherein yet heare my honest and true excuse Neither will I goe about to set off one debt with another For you may remember how at our parting you promised to write to me touching the state of Religion there which if wee shall make out a perfect reckoning I account to be a good debt still But this I say when your Letters of the first of April 1615 came to my hands I purposed to returne answere by the same Bâ—arer who as hee told mee was to returne about the Midsommer following But I had a sodaine and extraordinarie iourny which came betweene and kept me from home till after the Commencement so as that opportunitie was lost Besides vpon the reading of your Letters I perceiued your intention was to haue them imparted to Doctor Hall expecting in a sort some reply from him To him threfore did I send them After some moneths I receiued this answere which though I had once purposed to conceale as not willing to be the meane of any exasperation betweene you yet now hoping of your wisedome and patience I send you inclosed that it may be some euidence of my true excuse Vpon the receipt of it I began to frame an answere to the points of your Letter according to your desire full and in friendly termes I had well-nigh finished it when I was presented to this Benefice and thereby entered into a world of distractions These together with the labour of writing it ouer and vncertaintie of safe conueighing my
in forraine parts It is now a yeare and more that I receiued a Letter from Master Waddesworth challenging an old debt of me an answere to his Letters which occasioned this of yours I wrote backe and among other things enclosed this your Letter which he hath censured as you see His answere by reason of the sicknesse of the Gentleman that brought it first at Paris and after at Bruxels came not to me till the latter end of May and now lately another I receiued from him wherein he desires a Copie both of your Text and his Glosse as he cals it as hauing reserued none for haste I haue not yet sent him my answere to his Motiues which hath long layen by me for lacke of leisure to copie it out and meanes safely to conuey it being well towards a quire of Paper My auncient fault tediousnesse But the Gentleman that brought me his former Letter hath vndertaken ere long to consigne it into his hands Therein I endeauour to vse him with the best respect I can deuise onely oppugning the Papacy and Court of Rome Now Sir that which I would entreate of you is this You know the Precept of the Apostle touching them that are fallen lend me your hand to set him in ioynt againe And be pleased not onely not to reflect vpon the weakenesse of his Glosse but not so much as vpon the strength of his stomacke ◠though that bee also weakenesse as Saint Augustine well cals it infirmitas animositatis Writ a letter to him in the Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which shall either goe with mine or be sent shortly after Who can tell what God may worke Surely at least we shall heape coales of fire vpon his head Although if all be true that I heare it is not to be despaired but he may be deliuered out of the snare of error the rather because he hath not that reward or contentment which he expected He liues now at Madrid with the Persian Ambassador Sir Robert Sherly and hath good maintenance from him being as his Steward or Agent The kinde vsage of his ancient friends may perhaps bring him in loue with his countrie againe c. This for that businesse Now. c. October 2 1620. To the worshipfull my very good friend Master IAMES WADDESWORTH at Madrid deliuer this Salutem in Christo Iesu. SIr I receiued by Master Fiston your letters of the eight of Iune and as I hope ere this time you vnderstand the former which I mention in them to which I wrote in answere and deliuered the same to Master Aston the 15. of the same Moneth Doctor Hals letter with your marginall Notes which in your last you require I send you herein enclosed Though if I may perswade or intreate you both neither should the Text nor Glosse make you multiply any more words thereabout Vpon the receipt of your Letter I spake with Master Aston who told me that he held his resolution for Spaine whereupon I resolued also to send by him mine answer to your first as thinking it better to doe it more safely though a a little later then sooner with lesse safetie And here Sir at length you haue it Wherein as to my moderation for the manner I hope you shall perceiue that setting aside our difference in opinion I am the same to you that I was when we were either Schollers together in Emmanuell Colledge or Ministers in Suffolke For the substance I doe endeauour still to write to the purpose omitting nothing materiall in your Letters If sometimes I seeme ouerlong and perhaps to digresse somewhat from the principall point more then was necessary I hope you will pardon it sith you required a full answere and the delay it selfe had neede to bring you some interest for the forbearance And because you mention the vehemencie of discreete Lawyers although me thinkes we are rather the Clients themselues that contend since our faith is our owne and our best freehold let me entreate of you this ingenuitie which I protest in the sight of God I bring my selfe Let vs not make head against euident reason for our owne credit or fashion and factions sake as Lawyers sometimes are wont Neither let vs thinke we loose the victory when truth ouercomes We shall haue part of it rather and the better part since errour the common enemy to vs both is to vs more dangerous For truth is secure and impregnable we if our Errour be not conquered must remaine seruants to corruption It is the first praise saith Saint Augustine to hold the true opinion the next to forsake the false And surely that is no hard masterie to doe when both are set before vs if we will not be either retchlesse or obstinate From both which our Lord of his mercy euermore helpe vs and bring vs to his euer lasting Kingdome Amen Horningshearth Octo. 22. 1620. Your very louing Brother W. BEDELL THE COPIES OF CERTAINE LETTERS c. Salutem in Christo Iesu. CHAP. I. Of the Preamble The titles Catholique Papist Traytor Idolater SIr I doe first returne you heartie thankes for the truth and constancie of your loue and those best effects of it your wishing mee as well as to your selfe and reioycing in my safe returne out of Italy For indeede further I was not though reported to haue beene both at Constantinople and Ierusalem by reason of the neerness◠of my name to one Master William Bidulph the Minister of our Merchants at Aleppo who visited both those places I thanke you also that your ancient loue towards mee hath to vse that word of the Apostle now flourished againe in that after so many yeeres you haue found opportunitie to accomplish your promise of writing to mee though not as ye vndertooke of the state of Religion there yet which I confesse I no lesse desired the Motiues of the forsaking that you had professed here Whereof since it hath pleased you as yee write now to giue mee an account and by me to Master Doctor Hall with some expectation also as it appeares of reply from one of vs I will vse the libertie which you giue me and as directly as I can for the matter and in Christian termes for the manner shew you mine opinion of them wherein I shall endeauour to obserue that Precept of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether it be to be interpreted louing sincerely or seeking truth louingly Neither soothing vntruth for the dearnesse of your person nor breaking charitie for diuersitie of opinion With this entrance my louing friend and if you refuse not that old Catholike name my deare brother I come to your Letter Wherein though I might well let passe that part which concernes your quarrell with Master Doctor Hall with aetatem habet yet thus much out of the common presumption of charitie which thinkes not euill giue mee leaue to say for him I am verily perswaded he neuer meant to charge you with Apostasie in so horrible a sense as
prophane nouelties of heresies Had they knowne of this infallible Iudge should wee not haue heard of him in this so proper a place and as it were in a cause belonging to his owne Court Nay doth not the writing it selfe of such bookes shew that this mattter was wholly vnknowne to Antiquitie For had the Church beene in possession of so easie and sure a Court to discouer and discard heresies they should not haue needed to taske themselues to finde out any other But the truth is infallibilitie is and euer hath beene accounted proper to Christs iudgement And as hath beene said all necessarie Truth to saluation hee hath deliuered vs in his Word That Word himselfe tells vs shall iudge at the last day Yea in all true decisions of Faith that Word euen now iudgeth Christ iudgeth the Apostle sits Iudge Christ speakes in the Apostle Thus Antiquitie Neither are they moued a whit with that obiection That the Scriptures are often the matter of Controuersies For in that case the remedie was easie which Saint Augustine shewes to haue recourse to the plaine places and manifest such as should need no interpreter for such there bee by which the other may bee cleered The same may be said if sometimes it be questioned which bee Scriptures which not I thinke it was neuer heard of in the Church that there was an externall infallible Iudge who could determine that question Arguments may be brought from the consent or dissent with other Scriptures from the attestation of Antiquitie and inherent signes of diuine authoritie or humane infirmitie but if the Auditor or Aduersarie yeeld not to these such parts of necessitie must needes be laid aside If all Scripture be denied which is as it were exceptio in iudicem ante litis contestationem Faith hath no place onely Reason remaines To which I thinke it will scarce seeme reasonable if you should say though all men are liers yet this Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in conscience to obey and yeeld thy vnderstanding in all his detâ—rminations for hee cannot erre No not if all men in the world should say it Vnlesse you first set downe there is a God and stablish the authoritie of the bookes of holy Scripture as his voyce and thence shew if you can the warrant of this priuiledge Where you offiâ—me the Scriptures to be the law and the rule but alone of themselues cannot bee Iudges if you meane without being produced applied and heard yee say truth Yet Nicodemus spake not aâ—isse when hee demanded Doth our law iudge any man vnlesse it heare him first hee meant the same which Saint Paul when hee said of the high Priest thou sittest to iudge me according to the law and so doe we when wee say the same Neither doe wee send you to Angels or God himselfe immediately but speaking by his spirit in the Scriptures and as I haue right now said alledged and by discourse applied to the matters in question As for Princes since it pleased you to make an excursion to them if wee should make them infallible Iudge or giue them authoritie to decree in religion as they list as Gardiner did to King Henry the eight it might well bee condemned for monstrous as it was by Caluin As for the purpose Licere Regi interdicere populo vsum calicis in Coena Quarè Potestas 〈◊〉 summa est penes Regem quoth Gardiner This was to make the King as absolute a Tyrant in the Church as the Pope claimed to bee But that Princes which obey the truth haue commandement from God to command good things and forbid euill not onely in matters pertaining to humane societie but also the religion of God this is no new strange doctrine but Calums and ours and S. Augustines is so many words And this is all the Head-ship of the Church wee giue to Kings Whereof a Queene is as well capable as a King since it is an Act of authoritie not Ecclesiasticall Ministery proceeding from eminencie of power not of knowledge or holinesse Wherein not onely a learned King as ours is but a good old woman as Queene Elizabeth besides her Princely dignitie was may excell as your selues confesse your infallible Iudge himselfe But in power hee saith hee is aboue all which not to examine for the present in this power Princes are aboue all their subiects I trow and Saint Augustine saith plainly to command and forbid euen in the religion of God still according to Gods Word which is the touchstone of good and euill Neither was King Henry the eight the first Prince that exercised this power witnesse Dauid and Salomon and the rest of the Kings of Iudah before Christ And since that Kings were Christians the affaires of the Church haue depended vpon them and the greatest Synodes haue beene by their Decree as Socrates expresly saith Nor did King Henry claime any new thing in this Land but restored to the Crowne the ancient right thereof which sundry his predecessors had exercised as our Historians and Lawyers with one consent affirme The rest of your induction of Archbishops Bishops and whole Clergie in their Conuocation house and a Councell of all Lutherans Caluinists Protestants c. is but a needlesse pompe of words striuing to win by a forme of discourse that which gladly shall bee yeelded at the first demand They might all erre if they were as many as the sand on the sea shoare if they did not rightly apply the rule of holy Scriptures by which as you acknowledge the externall Iudge which you seeke must proceed As to your demand therefore how you should be sure when and wherein they did and did not erre where you should haue fixed your foot to forbeare to skirmish with your confirmation That though à posse ad esse non valet semper consequentia yet aliquando valet frustra dicitur potentia quae nunquam dueitur in actum To the former whereof I might tell you that without question nunquam valet and to the second that I can verie well allow that errandi potentia among Protestants be euer frustra This I say freely that if you come with this resolution to learne nothing by discourse or euidence of Scripture but only by the meere pronouncing of a humane externall Iudges mouth to whom you would yeeld your vnderstanding in all his determinations if as the Iesuites teach their Schollers you will wholly deny your owne iudgement and resolue that if this Iudge shall say that is blacke which appeares to your eyes white you will say it is blacke too you haue posed all the Protestants they cannot tell how to teach you infallibly Withall I must tell you thus much that this preparation of minde in a Scholler as you are in a Minister yea in a Christian that had but learned his Creed much more that had from a childe knowne the holy Scriptures that are able to make vs wise to saluation
to bee an euasion of Protestants THe first whereof is the dislike of the Protestants euasion as you call it by the inuisibilitie of their Church Giue mee leaue here to tell you plainly yee seeme to mee not to vnderstand the Protestants doctrine in this point Else yee would haue spared all that The Catholike Church must euer be visible as a Citie set on a hill otherwise how should shee teach her children conuert Pagans dispence Sacraments All this is yeelded with both hands The Congregations of which the Catholike Church doth consist are visible But the promise made to this Church of victory against the gates of hell the titles of the house of God the base and piller of Truth an allusion as I take it to the bases and pillers that held vp the veile or curtaines in the Tabernacle the body of Christ his Doue his vndefiled are not verified of this Church in the whole visible bulke of it but in those that are called according to Gods purpose giuen to Christ and kept by him to bee raised vp to life at the last day This doctrine is Saint Augustines in many placeâ— which it would bee too tedious to set downe at large In his third booke De doctrina Christiana among the rules of Tychonius there is one which hee corrects a little for the tearmes De Domini corpore bipertito which he saith ought not to haue beene called so for in truth that is not the Lords body which shal not be with him for euer but he should haue said of the Lords true body and mixt or true and fained or some such thing Because not onely for euer but euen now hypocrites are not to be said to be with him though they seeme to be in his Church Consider those resemblances taken out of the holy Scripture wherein that godly Father is frequent of chaffe and wheat in the Lords floore of good and bad fishes in the net of spots and light in the Moone Of the Church carnall and spirituall of the wicked multitudes of the Church yet not to be accounted in the Church Of the lilly and the thornes those that are marked which mourne for the sinnes of Gods people and the rest which perish which yet beare his Sacraments Consider the last Chapter of the booke De Vnitate Ecclesiae and that large Treatise which he hath of that matter Epist. 48. The place is long which deserues to bee read for the obiection of the Vniuersality of Arianisme like to that of Papisme in these last ages which Saint Augustine answeres in the fifth booke De Baptismo contra Donatistas cap. 27. That number of the iust who are called according to Gods purpose of whom it is said The Lord knoweth who are his is the inclosed garden the sealed fountaine the well of liuing waters the orchard with Apples c. The like hee hath l. 5. c. 3. 23. he concludes that because such are built vpon the Rocke as heare the Word of God and doe it and the rest vpon the sand now the Church is built vpon the Rocke all therefore that heare the Word of God and doe it not are out of question without the Church In the seuenth booke cap. 51. Quibus omnibus consideratisâ— Read and marke the whole Chapter Out of these and many more like places which I forbeare to mention it appeares that albeit the true Catholike Church is such as cannot bee hid yet considering that it consists of two sorts of people the one which is the greater part who doe not indeed properly belong to it the other the fewer truely and properly so called to whom all the glorious things spoken of the Church doe agree The face therefore of the mixt Church may be ouer-run with scandals as in all times almost The greatest number may sometime bee Idolaters as in the Kingdome of Israel vnder Achab. The principallest in authoritie may bee false teachers as the Priests and Prophets in Ieremies time the sonnes of pestilence may sit in Moses Chaire as they did in Christs time Yet still the Church is the ground and piller of Truth in the Elect Ipsa est praedestinata columna firmamentum veritatis The Sheepe heare not Seducers Iohn 10. 8. to wit finally and in any damnable point Thus was it before Christ thus since thus in the Church of England before yea and since it was reformed Thus in that of Rome it selfe at this day There is a distinction of Thomas of those that be in the Church which rightly â— interpreted agrees fully herewith There are some De Ecclesia numero tantum Some numero merito The former are such as haue onely fidem informem the latter formatam Now though the persons of such as be in the Church be visible yet the Faith and Charitie of men wee see not and to argue from the priuiledges of the Church numero merito to the Church numero tantum is a perpetuall but a palpable paraâ—ogisme of the Romish faction which is grosser yet when they argue to the Church representatiue and grossest of all when one man is made the Church and he as themselues grant may fall out a Deuill incarnate CHAP. IX Of lacke of Vniformitie in matters of Faith in all ages and places ANd in this selfe same Paralogisme you were beguiled with in the next point of Vniformitie and concord in matters of Faith The true Church yee say â—uer holds such Vniformitie It is vtterly false in the Visible and mixt Church both before Christ and since It is false in the Church of Rome it selfe whose new-coyned faith patched to the Creed by Pius the Fourth came in peece-meale out of priuate opinions and corrupt vsages nor euer was in any age vniformely holden or taught as matter of Faith euen in it as it is at this day So by your owne discourse it should be no true Church And taking matters of faith so largely as it seemes you doe in opposition to such things as bee cerâ—mâ—nies or of gouernment it is vntrue also of the Church of the Elect or properly so called For though the Faith in the principles thereof bee euer the same yet many conclusions of Faith haue sometimes lien vnsearched out and like some parts of the world vnknowne till by the industrie of Gods seruants occasioned also by the importunitie and opposition of Heretikes they were discouered Sundrie common errours also there haue beene which in succeeding ages haue beene cleered and reformed as the â—hiliastes That Angels haue bodies That children after they be baptized are to be communicated That Heretikes are to be rebaptized To the Assumption First the Protestants challenge not to themselues any Church as their owne which I must aduertise you of here because formerly also you doe vse this phrase The Church is Christs both the visible and inuisible Next taking matters of Faith for foundations or articles of Faith necessarie to saluation the Church of Christ hath in all ages had