or rather annotations considered that there are divers Fathers meerely forged as Hyppolitus Amphilochius the epistles of Cletus Anacletus c. B. Iuell D. Rainolds that world of learning the honorable B. of Winchester haue proued which point was never answered as yet Secōdly divers false tracts are fathered on the true fathers as Mr Perkins Probleme a book neuer answered the worke now in our Oxford library in hand for comparing all the Fathers with their most ancient manuscripts do shew 136. bastard Epistles already discovered in Gregory Thirdly the Fathers are reiected most scornefully by Papists where they cannot wrest them to their purpose as is proved by the practise of Canus Villa vincētius Sixtus Senensis Baronius Bellarmine Fourthly that all of these Papists haue taxed the Fathers for particular errors Fiftly omitting many more reasōs the fathers make more for vs thē for Papists nay only for vs not for Papists as that precious Iewell of the Church hath irrefragably proved The counsaile out of Lyrinensis is already answered but this I adde hee doth not there meane vnwritten verities or a supply to bee made to scripture for hee doth acknowledge in the next Chapter and so againe in the 41. that solus Canon Scripturae sufficit ad omnia Vincent Lirinens satis supérque that the Scripture is sufficient alone against all Heretickes yea alone for all things more thē this that it is more then sufficient his 41. Chapter doth plainely deliver vnam regulā to be scripture the interpretation of which is ever to bee approved by Scripture And for those notes of vniversality Antiquity and consent which you say doe inseparably concurre Vinc. c. 4. c. 5. 11. he saith not so the word inseparably is not his for Vincentius sheweth that Heretikes haue claimed the two former shewing that the Arrians had vniversality and the Donatists Antiquity And for consent he forewarneth as a Prophet in 39 Chapter that when men endeavor Maiorum volumina vitiare to corrupt the ancient Fathers as Papists most openly doe to obtaine Consent then the only remedy is sola Scripturarum authoritate convincere to convince them by the only authority of Scripture And therefore if you built your fort vpon this ground as not hauing red or not vnderstood your Author choosing some fragments and not observing all the particulars and passages of his meaning your foundation is not on the corner stone the foundation rotten the building reeling and your doctrine hath no approbation from Vniuersality Antiquity or lastly from consent either iointly from all from the greatest number of fathers or from that which is the only Countenance and Approuer of Spirits Doctrines from the Scripture That therefore which you make your first motiue to haue rended you from the truth the same I make my first confirmation to settle me therein and to detest Popery that seeing Papists admit not a trial of their religion by Scriptures that the Fathers admitte none that reiect Scriptures as also that Papists approue not alwaies the Testimony of the Fathers as they pretend I infer in particular that this doctrine of yours is worthily condemned but not the Ancient Church as also in generall that by condemning of vs in any point you cōdemne Antiquity seeing our Reformed Churches be reduced to the ancient Primitiue And therfore your New foūd Religion is Rebellion against the Truth Apostasie frō Scripture and Antiquity Mr LEECH The second Motiue The Protestants preferre their Reformed Congregations before the ancient Catholique Church AS my violent Iudges did palpably disclaime the sentence of the ancient Church so they vnreasonablie required my submission vnto their reformed Congregations which as they be not comparable with the purity of the former so their principal Doctours Luther Zwinglius men no lesse odious each vnto the other S. Austin S. Ambros S. Hierom. then both are hatefull vnto the Church of Rome are no waies matchable with the Patrones of my doctrine For as S. Gregory Nazianzen iustly excepted against the Arrians in this māner If our faith be but 30. S. Gregory Epistola 1. ad Cledō contra Arrianos yeeres old 400 yeares being passed since the incarnation of Christ then our gospell hath been preached in vaine our martyrs haue died in vaine vntill this time c. So if for a point of faith I must remit my selfe vnto Luther Zwinglius Calvin and their reformed conuenticles rather then vnto the holy Fathers ancient Church thē surely the gospell hath beene miserably taught and all our predecessors haue beene pitifully deceiued for 1600. yeares since Singular therefore was the folly and partiality of my Iudges to detract authority from our blessed Fathers to yeeld it vnto Lutherans men of as new a stāpe in these times as the Arrians were in S. Gregory Nazianzen his time whose carnal appetites and base condition of life drew them to allow that in their doctrine which they performed in their practise being contrary in both vnto the canon of scripture and continual succession of the Church The consideration whereof did manifestly detect vnto me that either their vnderstāding is very meane or their will very perverse who feared not to disauthorise the Fathers yet would not grant me the same liberty against their brethren in whom I neuer approued any thing other waies then it was consonant with the prescription of Antiquity or dissonant from hir Tradition ANSVVER THe reformed Church that hath left Babylon and is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler having received true Religion 〈◊〉 according to Scripture was in all reason to haue had submission performed from you both because that the truth professed is against this position as also for that profession and subscription you had willingly afforded to her when you were supposed to be not only a member but a Minister in her Congregation Had you straied as a sheepe through simplicity it had been lamentable but to fly being a shepheard through Apostasie this is damnable Luther and Zwinglius though they agreed not in all points yet they both ioined in demolishing your Dagon Great lights of the Church haue diffred in some particulars nay haue whet their pens like rasors and edged their tongues like swords yet in the truth of God they haue agreed to the suppressing of the kingdome of Sathan The differēces between these two were nothing so scādalous as their ioint conflicts with Rome were victorious To coūtervaile your place out of Gregory Nazianzene Prudent Peristep hym 10 which you apply improperly Prudētius witnesseth the heathens did scornfully so deale with the religiō of Christianity in the beginning thereof Nunc dogma nobis Christianum nascitur post evolutos mille demū Consules so you as if after so many holy Fathers our Religion had beginning from Luther Zwinglius or Caluin But how contrary to all truth this is Bristow Motiue 45. Bristow his confession sheweth in
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
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
owne fellowes as this the advantage is small to take vp a tearme of contumely from any hot-brained railer to cast vpon the name of this Angell of his Church Your Paradoxes did not passe vnnoted both because of the rudenesse of the delivery of them the vnaptnesse of the tearmes as also your ignorance that as you would not truely preach as a Protestant so you knewe not how neatly to play the Papist All of any note noted your absurdity and insufficiencie either to shew yourselfe a friend or an enemie You aske why this distinction was so hatefull I answere the distinction so vsed as the Fathers interpreted was not denied but the cōsequēces of it as you vrged it were harmefull therefore hatefull Not because so many of our Religion be married for howsoever marriage is a most honorable state how many hundreds in our Vniversity haue consecrated themselues to God in the Ministrie that abhorre your opinion and yet be not matched or married but the cause of the contempt and loathing of the Doctrine is that it was derogatory to the law of God to the Church of God to the sonn of God a doctrine that hath bewitched many and led them Captiues into the habitation of darknesse the Cell or Hell of blindnesse a doctrine whose roote is heresie whose trunk vncommanded privacie whose branches be infidelity against truth violating the law contemning the Precept whose leaues be pertinacity hypocrisie whose fruits be idlenesse drowsinesse filthinesse This is the cause of the suppressing and choaking of this and such continuing weeds of heresie that seek growth in our Church no other cause of pleasure or profit God and his Angells be witnesses They that haue sould themselves to worke wickednes with greedinesse looking for the reward of Balaams wages are ready to resist all truth and if it fall within compasse of their itching humor willing to get a name will be the Patrons of bewitching error And therefore here I fasten my right constant determination to avoid that religion that corrupteth the knowledge with blindnesse and the heart with hardnesse Mr LEECH The ninth Motiue The Protestants doe vnconscionably impugne the knowne and manifest truth SInce the controversies of Religion are many in number and intricate in nature it was my desire from the beginning of my paines in the study of sacred Theology to finde out the true Church that so I might referre my selfe vnto her decision and rest within her bosome For which cause I wholly employed my selfe in turning ouer the volums of the ancient Fathers and whatsoever I found clearely expressed by their vniforme testimony I accepted that according to Vincentius his rule as the iudgement of the Church Among other Doctrines which seeme Popish vnto the new Evangelists I receiued this particular from their instruction so clearly taught so conformably witnessed so iointly approued that if the grounds of Religion be not vncertaine then this Doctrine is absolutely free from all exception And for proofe hereof I remit me vnto the sētences of the Fathers wherewith I thought it meete to conclude this discourse Wherefore since they that glory in the Fathers wāt neither wit nor learning for this matter doe impugne this doctrine and punish her professours how can I think that they doe not fight against their conscience and reasō And how can I thinke that any truth will finde entertainement at their hands when this truth so potent so irrefragable is thus fondly reiected by my Calvinian iudges But whome haue they condemned me a brother somtimes of their gospell a graduat of their schooles a Minister of their Church No but in me and with mee reverend Antiquity the gray headed Fathers the venerable Doctors yea holy scripture it selfe is censured by my vnworthy iudges Wherefore as Ieremiah See Apolog. Iusti Calvin pag. 11. 12. the Patriarch of Constantinople wrote vnto the Lutherans so may I testifie and proclaime vnto these men The ancient divines who were the light of the Church you intreate at your owne pleasure honouring and extolling them in wordes but reiecting them in deed endeauoring to shake them out of our hands whose holy and divine testimonies we should vse against you We see that you will never submit your selues vnto the truth Finally as the Patriarch concludeth that hee will haue no entercourse with the Lutherans forasmuch as hee is taught by S. Paul to avoid an heretike after the first or second admonition so I being persecuted by men of this condition am bound to a void them knowing as S. Paul speaketh that such as they are condemned by their owne iudgements ANSVVER THE controversies in Religion are many hence great alterations haue beene moved in Europe great changes through the world Controversies were in abundance raised by the infection of the smoake of the bottomlesse pit divers armies of Hereticks vanquished by the Reverend fathers yet al these as if but half dead are againe revived by Antichrist only this is the difference the former Heretikes were cōfuted because they opposed the fathers these later wiser in their generatiō seeke to confute all other that oppose them by the Fathers Each man among them at first asketh the way to the Church no Church can serue them but Rome that is their parish Church all other but Chappels they obserue not the alteration of many Christian nations from the sea of Rome or the occasion of this revolt the declination of that sea from the sincerity of the faith and the vnspeakeable corruption thereof Which seperatiō was made vpō these two groūds first because Rome did persecute the professors of this reformatiō with al bloody massacres secōdly because that Antichristian sea would admit no reformation of her corruptiōs but grew vncurable according to that of the Prophet We would haue cured Babilon but shee would not be healed And such hath beene the growth of this Reformation the Lords most holy name for ever be praised that the Church hath recovered more health in one age then shee had lost in two and the Romane Synagogue left infected as that it hath not only drunke the cup of all others abominations but breedeth heresies in it selfe inwardly and hath received such poysons by ambition such corruptions by want of reformation and such indelible markes of Antichrist by continuall persecution outwardly as now it is made plaine to all the world shee is not the Church But the Question of the church you aske of the fathers It is a worthy speech of Iob aske the fathers and they shall tell thee but how vnhappy is hee that perverteth all he readeth or that stomacke that turneth all into poisō that it receiveth you say you bestowed your whole time in turning over the volumes of the Fathers you did turne them indeed frō their meaning it was no more cōmēdable thē the cōtinuall praying of the Eutichae or the cōtinual reading of the Pharisies the one without care senselesse the other without knowledge fruitlesse and both superstitions
in gathering stickes never making iudgement the Master of your opinion seldome adorning your speech with the better part of that which the Navy of Hiram brought to Salomon I meane with gold and siluer but with Ivory and Apes and Peacocks legends allegories c. But neerer to the purpose to answere why your doctrine was not descried by his vigilant wisdome and rebuked the reason was either his absence at that time which whither he were or no hee knoweth not being not only then but ever since hee gouerned vs imployed continually in the greatest and most aduantageous businesse that ever any Vicechancelor laboured in or else because of the vndisposed vndigested rude and crude manner of your preaching wherin you proposed your positions so darkly and obscurely that vnlesse you were vnacquainted with your selfe you had not begun your Epistle with Efficacior lingua quā litera for if * Some body doth much iniury you if hee were not author of much corrector of most in this your booke none had mēded your pen your most ingenuous friendes woulde haue as much neglected your paper worke as your pulpit O howe much are you to answere for the prophanatiō of that holy place and for your idle words in that holy worke beating the aire mispending the time mistaking the Text that the most iudicious among vs could hardly conceiue whether your doctrine were positiue or priuatiue affirmatiue or negatiue the most charitably censorious thought it perdere horā to heare you Arist as the Philosopher spake to such another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose speech was composed of non sense non sequitur If in your first sermon you only vrged the distinctiō and began to build your rotten wall vpon that foundation afterwardes marvaile not that when like a Mole you were working vnder ground you were not discried when you were not aboue ground For as it is a doctrine conceived in darknes so you brought it forth in clowds of darknesse Mr LEECH Howbeit certaine of a purer straine Brethren some mē call them and Brethren I confesse them to be fratres in malo as Simeon Levi sometimes were secretly murmured and began in corners priuatly as Heretiques vsually haue done to traduce me my doctrine and my author S. Gregory calūniating that in secret which openly they durst not yet adventure substantially to impugne ANSVVER Nullus est eorum fidus affectus Ierom. quorum est diversa fides saith S. Ierom Difference in religion extinguisheth charity in affection You proue this true when you taxe the purer straine and yet you straine for a more perfect straine Do any of the more pure strain professe angelicall integritie virginall chastity spirituall transcendency as you teach Or to come to your meaning be any here of those purer straine whome while you scoffe he that sitteth in heauen shall laugh you to scorne be there I say any here of those who making conscience of their waies haue refused in manuall subscription and orall declaration willingly to manifest their harty consent and reverence to the religious Articles in our Church maintained The name of Brethren is much abused by you a name that Christ by his own mouth sanctified the Apostles in the Acts so frequently vsed S. Iohn in his Epistles so familiarly recited the Primitiue Church in their time so blessedly entertained The a Ratisbon in Comp. Theol Schooles obserue the name of Brother to be nomen vnitatis aequalitatis charitatis societatis and even by this brotherhood we haue santiorem copulam cordium quam corporum saith Bernard Bern. A name more welcome to the godly then the Oliue branch to Noah then David to Ionathan then the waters of Bethel to David It is an Oade a Psalm a Canticle a c Cant. 1.2 name as an oyntment powred out as that name in the Canticles It was the oyer and determiner of d Gen. 13.8 Abraham and Lots controversies in the law and it is the bonde of peace and girdle of truth to al true Christians in the Gospell Of Iosephs miseries it is recorded that the Archers greiued him and shot against him and hated e Gen. 49.23 him Malitious perfidious murtherous brethren greeued him iniuriâ operis shot against him blasphemiâ oris and hated him invidiâ cordis saith f Hugo in Gen. Hugo You may be rankt with such brethrē if you continue the Cacoethes of traducing those worthies whose liues shine before men that they honor God and glorifie their Father which is in heauen Discharge not then such arrows even bitter words hedded with venome feathered with fury and shot off with folly But these Brethren you say they bee fratres in malo such as were Simeon and Levi. How Caiphas-like you denounce iudgement against fratres in malo your brethren in iniquitie looke the Text Gen. 49.5 Gen. 49.5 c. Never any Scripture came so neere to any offenders as that to fratres in malo the salt Peter Pyoners who like as if the dreame of the Stoicks had come to passe that the world should be fired had instruments of cruelty in their habitations into their secrets let not my soule come saith old and Reverend Iacob my glory bee not ioined with their assemblies for in their wrath they killed a man and in their selfe will they digged down a wall Cursed be their wrath for it is fierce and their rage for it is cruel Nay the very curle of curses and very bottome of the viall and dreggs of vengeance with the dissipation and dispersion of their families vpon the face of the earth the eternall detestation of their names with the clapping and hissing and supplotion of al the world against them be vpon them and their posterities that practise such Helborne boundlesse conspiracies Wee haue no such fratres in malo Obiect not murmuring against any among vs it is the brand of malecontented Traitors not of godly preachers The Christians in this life may be compared to the Stork desolately sitting to the Turtle mourning to the Doue lamenting to Rahel weeping and to the soules vnder the altar crying out How long Lord holy and true dost not thou avenge So they may sorowfully complaine to see the abomination of desolation Romish diuilish Antichristian positions presume ever to bee taught in our Churches and Temples It was no factious murmuring no secret calūniating as you vniustly tearme it but the vindicating of truth from oppressiō which neither Policy for example nor religion for peace could tolerate Your preaching was misliked not your author S. Gregories praises we neither deny nor envy yet h Bar. Tom. 8. Annal. An. Christi 1593. num 62. p. 57. Baronius affirmeth that he liued in a barrē time and therein taxeth him for some wants in learning And i Canus loc Theol. lib. 11. c. 6. Canus observed that he was overcredulous in the reports of miracles in his time therein toucheth his defect in iudgement But
Flavianus Bishop of Constantinople in his first Epistle to Pope Leo the first Haeretici est praecepta patrum declinare instituta eorum despicere It is the propertie of an heretique to decline the precepts of holy fathers contemning their cannons and decrees ANSVVER Your iudgement or opinion is very small seeing you take vp any thing at the second hand and from Coccius Treasury that cocks dunghil cul Pearles as you thinke them Twise before you submitted your selfe to the Church and in every page almost to the interpretatioÌ„ of the Fathers That the Church hath necessarily a stroak in the decision of Controversies we deny not but so ever that it subscrib to the truth of scriptures Next you submit to the Fathers the Fathers we reverence more then any Papists in the worlde doe neither doe I beleeue that ever any Protestant in the Christian world hath offered so much disreputation vnto the Fathers as Bellarmin himselfe hath don not only in generall De Pont. lib. 2. c. 27. § resp istas Bell. de Purg. c. 18. praeterâ—a q. ad quartum de poenitent l. 1. c. 1. § igitur Beilar de verbo Dei l. 3 c. 10. § dicens making all the Fathers but Children and novices to the Pope but in particular almost every Father is vilified by him To Damascene he giues the flatly and affirmeth that Tertullian is not to be reckoned amoÌ„g Catholiques so worse then so he speaketh of many others so ill a Patron is he of them that disesteeming any of them in any thing that crosseth his assertions he concludeth thus it is evident that the cheefest of them haue greeuously erred So that it seemeth Bellarmine is the heritique that Leo speaketh of who declineth from the precepts and coÌ„temneth the decres of holy Fathers Mr LEECH Thus much be spoken in defence of that great pillar of the latine Church S. Gregory saying Quidam non iudicantur pereunt quidam iudicantur pereunt quidam iudicantur regnant quidam non iudicantur regnant as also in defence of that sentence inferred vpon the last braunch transcendunt aliqui praecepta legis perfectiori virtute ANSVVERE It is strange in divinity not only but in common sense that first you should make your sermon theÌ„ after choose your Text it was vsuall in you if those that were best acquainted with your vnmethoded studies be not mistaken You grounded your distinction vpon that Text that without much wresting and wiredrawing would not serue you And you accommodated your distinction as vnfitly to this doctrine of Counsells as you father this doctrine vpon Gregory from whose authority you cannot produce any word of Evangelicall Counsell your defence was a very poore on you left S. Gregory to fight for himselfe for you fled Cum caeteri pugnabant maximè tu fugiebas maximè saith the Comoedy Father Anbignies defence for concealing Ravelliacks damned treason against the last French King was this Anti-Coton that God had given him a grace to forget all that he heard in confessioÌ„ It appeares you haue the like guift to mistake most that you read in the Fathers else you would never haue maintained such disiointed inferences Mr LEECH This I haue the rather done God and his holy Angels in whose presence I now stand and speak De Mysterio Mediatoris lib. 1. As hereticks as temporizers bearing me witnesse lest that imputation of Fulgentius should light vpon me viz. Fidem Ecclesiae nolle asserere est negare vno eodémque sileÌ„tio firmat errorem qui errore seu tempore possessus veritatem silendo noÌ„ astruit Dominicam gloriam qui non firmârit evacuat divinaÌ„ contumeliam qui non refutârit accumulat Miles ignavus som noleÌ„to corpore depressus regia castra oppugnantibus tradit dum competentibus vigilijs non defendit That is not to aver the Doctrine of the church is to deny the faith of the Church So are some in England So are others for with one the selfe same silence he strengthneth an error who being possessed or carried away with errour or time avoucheth not truth by his silence He that coÌ„firmeth not the glory of God weakneth it and he that confuteth not iniurie offred vnto God augmenteth it The slothfull sleepy souldiour betrayeth the Kings tents to his enimes whilst hee keepeth not true sentinell as he should ANSVVER Fulgentius speech fitteth vs as well as you your protestation we partly beleeue and yet but partly because you sinne more of negligence then of ignoraÌ„ce I would I could giue you that testimony which S. Paul did the Israelits Rom. 10.2 I beare you record that you haue the zeale of God but not according to knowledge or as another testimony of Scripture in the like case that you do onlie stray by ignorance Then would I hope that terrour of conscience should not punish your error in knowledge The Donatists loved their opinions better then their liues and you affect your owne folly more then Gods glory wherefore my exhortation to you is Returne Returne ô Shunamite Can. 6.12 if you wil not my praier and Petition for you is this Father forgiue him for he knoweth not what he doth Your marginallis false scaÌ„dal not our Church slander not our professors The Law Gospell agree in this Cursed be he that revileth the elders of his people Mr LEECH Hath any weedes of superstition growne vp with this Doctrine in the field of the Church Oh let not the pure wheate of Evangelicall Counsailes of perfection quoad viam quoad gradum fare the worse for the weedes Vnskilfull husbandmen are they and very vnfit to manure the Lord his tillage whose preposterous zeale issuing from the ground of a private groundlesse iudgement would pul vp both wheate and tares togither ANSVVER The words be otherwise in your coppy commanded by authority and by the notes against which exception was taken by the learnedst of our assemblie Vnder your owne hande This Paragraph beginneth thus Hath any weedes of SVPEREROGATION growne vp c. And dare you not nowe vse the same tearme Insteede of supererogation you put in superstitioÌ„ I grieue to think that you do receiue the wages of iniquity for maintaining as far as your poore revenews serues these two bastards of the Pope Aug. retract l. 1. c. 19. Hier. l. 1.3 contra Pelag. Theodor. in Rom. 10. Chrysost in Rom. 10. hom 17. Sed. in 10. RoÌ„ impiety absurdity The works of supererogation are of al other points of Popery most abhominable besids that none of the fathers teach so and that many of them bee expresly against theÌ„ as Austin HieroÌ„ Theodoret Chrysostome Sedulius your owne defenders Aquinas Gerson Iansenius Paludanus and Cusanus all deny this point And seeing that Scarlet whore of BabiloÌ„ druÌ„k with the blood of Gods Saints is nowe carted by heavenly iustice through all the reformed Congregations of the world I see not but every true Christian
desire to be taught the rule of faith out of an humble and a religious meaning here you may learne it it was a question worth his asking a point worthy your learning Mr LEECH Why said he what other ground of faith then the pure word of God I demaunded then who shall interpret this word Hee replied the spirit What spirit good Sir The spirit of God only which privat men thinke they haue Against which rule I except for that it was the common plea of all condemned Heretiques Wherefore I required a triall of this pretended spirit for I cannot admit that to be God his spirit in any private man which consenteth not with the spirit of the Catholique Church And thus you see M.D. Airay that what you formerly reiected out of my rule as Popish you must necessarily admit as true that is Ecclesiasticall Tradition annexed to the sacred Canon for the discerning of private spirits Otherwaies each Heretique will sense Scripture in the mould of his owne braine ANSVVER That the word of God is the ground of beleefe in God sacred Scripture it selfe proveth in manifold and pregnant places as in the olde Testament in the Proverbs Prov. 2.9 They make a man vnderstand righteousnes and iudgement and equity and every good path Esay 8.19.20 in Esay should not a people enquire at their God at the law and at the Testimonie they that speake not according to this word there is no light in them by Malachie Mal. 4.4 Remember the law of Moses which I commanded all Israell with the statutes and iudgements in the new Testament in S. Paul 2. Tim. 3.15 The Scriptures are able to make a man wise vnto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Iesus in S. Peter 2. Pet. 1.19 We haue a most sure word of the Prophets wherevnto we must giue heed as to a light that shineth in darknesse till the day starre arise in our hearts Luc. 1.4 in S. Luke They containe the certainty of those things whereof we are instructed and in S. Iohn Ioh. 5.39 These things are written that yee might beleeue that Iesus is that Christ the sonne of God and in beleeuing yee might haue eternall life and by Christ himselfe sealing this point Search the Scriptures for in them you haue eternall life and they are they which testifie of mee but to this also the Fathers with all reverence haue agreed Basil Ep. 80. ad Eust Med. Let the Scriptures be arbitrators betweene vs saith Basill in his 80 Epistle and whosoever holds consonant opiniōs to those heavenly oracles let the truth bee adiudged on their side We are to enquire for iudges saith Optatus Contra Parmenianum de coelo quaerendus est Iudex Optat. cont Parmen l. 5. the Iudge must bee had from heaven but saith hee wherefore need we to knock at heauen when we haue a iudge wohm wee finde in the Gospell The Scripture is the rule of faith saith Tertullian contra Hermogenem Tertull. cont Hermog Chrysost in 13. Homil. in 2. Corinth It is a most exquisit rule saith Chrysostome in his 13 homily vpon the second to the Corinths It is an inflexible rule Greg. Nyss Grati. de ijs qui adeunt Hierosolymā saith Gregorius Nyssenus And S. Austin ample for this in many places in his booke de bono viduitatis testifieth that the Scripture pitcheth downe the rule of our faith And not only the Ancient Fathers but the Schoole-men haue succeeded in the same resolution Aquinas writeth expresly Aq 1. qu. 1. art 8. that our faith must rest vpon the Canonicall bookes of Scripture Durand agreeth with this Durand pref in senten that the maner of our knowledge exceed not the measure of faith and the holy Scripture expresseth the measure of faith Sum part 3. tit 18. c. 3. Nay Papists haue acknowledged this Antoninus confesseth that God hath spoken but once to vs and that in Scripture so plentifully that hee voucheth Gregory in the 22 book of his Moralls thus God needeth to speake no more concerning any necessary matter Al. 1. sent quaest 1. art 3 1. Coroll seeing all things are found in Scripture Alliaco consenteth to this The verities of Scripture bee the Principles of divinity quoniam ad ipsas saith he fit vltima resolutio Theologici discursus Bell de verbo Dei lib. 1. c. 2. In one word Bellarmin agreeth to all these Testimonies in his first book de verbo Dei Sacra Scriptura est regula credendi certissima tutissima This may serue to shew you that there is no other ground of faith then the worde of God Scriptures Fathers Schoolemen nay even our Adversaries being witnesses Deut. 32.31 as Moses speaketh You demaund who shall interpret this word It is replied the spirit of God which spirit the elect doe know certainly that they haue not only thinke as you traduce the speech of this reverēd Doctor but they assure thēselus that they haue the spirit and hee that knoweth not this ◠Cor. 3.16 is ignorant as Paul teacheth by an interrogatiō Knowe yee not that yee are the Temples of the holy Ghost and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you But against this rule you except for this was you say Chrysos prolog in Epist ad Rohan 3. de Lazar. the plea of al Heretiques It is false Heretiques and the devill did vrge Scripture but these could never for wāt of Gods spirit compare Scriptures together The privat spirit even every Priuat man of himselfe saith Chrysostom only by reading may vnderstand yea need nothing else but to read Chrysos hom 13. in Gene◠by which he meaneth to confer one place of Scripture with another And the same Father giveth the reason Scriptura seipsam exponit auditorem errare non sinit The scripture expoundeth it selfe and suffereth not the hearer to be deceived Distinct 37. Relatum So speaketh Chrys 13. hom in Genes The Canon Law is most plaine herein Non enim sensum extrinsecus alienum extraneum sed ex ipsis Scripturis sensum capere veritatis oportet For we must not from without them seeke a forraine and strange sense but wee must out of the Scriptures themselues receiue the meaning of the truth And a clowde of witnesses do testifie the same Wherefore it is no way necessary that we aske helpe of Tradition which is as I formerly spake the cittie of refuge for all runnagate points in your religion Popish Tradition in the Church soiourning only as the deuill doth to deceiue as a treacherous stranger not to be acquainted with or as an Infidell not to be conversed with and therefore D. Airay taught you the truth when you heretically thought you might mould the sense of scripture in the brain of the brasen head Tradition Mr LEECH And now M. D. Airay being thus overthrowne in the rule of his faith proposed vnto me a question of
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
your place or faculty to preach That being most true which you falsely apply of Iehu and Ioram while the fornications of Iezabell and the abominations of Babell were mainetained by you no peace to be kept with you Isay 48.22 God commandeth it There is no peace to the wicked saith God Mr LEECH Wherefore after signification of my thankful minde to his Lordship who now vouchsafed in some sort to commiserat my vniust vexations I answered that I had greater respect of the cause for which I suffered then of the punishment which I did sustaine assuring M. Barkham that restitution vnto my place was not the principall part of my desire For as God did require of me the constant iustification of his eternall truth so I coulde not but require it also at their hands who by their function as Ministers and dignity as Bishops were specially obliged therevnto ANSVVER His Grace commiserated your stubborn opposition but never iudged your iust punishment vniust vexation The respect you had of the cause was more then your respect of God truth faith peace or conscience If restitutiō to your place was not the chiefest of your desires what was Was it your desire of conquest and victory that your individual sentence should haue overswayed the iudgement definitiue resolution of so many so wise and learned Iudges It is impietie to averre that God did require the iustification of this truth by you Truth it is not to be iustified it was not by all the proceedings it is manifest that God by the mediatiō mouth of his Magistrates approveth it not The function and dignity of your iudges did yeeld you all equity though you continue your accusations and supercilious detractions against them Mr LEECH Whereas he pressed me farther with motiues of profit and that I hindered the course of my preferment by contending against the authority of Magistrates who as he said must stand one with another my reply was to this effect that I desired not to rise where truth must fall vertue is the path to Honor Heavē must not be lost for earth the plenty of riches doth not recompence the emptines of the soule a good conscience is a continuall feast ANSVVER These motiues of profit and preferment if they were vsed are subordinate to the motiue of sauing your soule These can neither repaire nor empaire those directing inciting comforts that come from aboue The contentments that the world cā afford are but weake and momentary but the ambition of preferment in heauen is the holy resolution making a true Christian firme and square You hindred your selfe in your worldly heauenly course in cōtending with religious Authority And howsoever you professe you made vertue the path to honour yet this is proued contrary for you refused the best of vertues Lombard quadruplex conscientia your religion And though a good conscience be a continuall feast yet Lombard and others distinguish of conscience that as a good conscience may be troubled so an evill conscience may bee so quieted that it thinkes it selfe good Mr LEECH As for the Magistrates I reverenced their persons and honoured their places knowing that their power is from God but designed for the preservatiō of his truth which if I impugned let them strik mee with the sworde of Iustice but if they withstood it yet I must defend it with courage Ecclus 4. as also I shall suffer for it with patience For I alwaies had the counsaile of the wise man before mine eies Striue for the Truth vnto death c. ANSVVER Had you considered duly that not only their power is from God Rom. 13.2.4 as Paul speaketh but as hee addeth hee that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receiue to themselues condemnation giving the reason for hee beareth not the sworde in vaine your respect had beene more to thē if you had thus remembred the dignity from God giuen them Courage is then good when a good cause and a good conscience meet But to be couragious in defence of any adulterine proposition that hath not radicall truth it is condemned and wil be punished Acts are to be measured by desires desires by integrity And had you had God alwaies before your eies you had not been so Apocryphally wife in your owne eies Mr LEECH Which resolution in me though it sorted not with his liking nor yet perhapps was expected from a poore oppressed scholler whom his vncharitable adversaries had determined either to bowe or breake yet hee importuned me at the least to see his Lord and not to neglect his favorable inclination to doe me good ANSVVER Poore and lame and slack arguments cannot enforce resolution in the will or settle information in the vnderstanding All the connexions and all your concoxions out of Coccius had not this nutritiue power to nourish your conscience to such a strength of resolution But some other vnrevealed cause there is which only the searcher of all hearts knoweth Reprehension is not oppression nor had you any vncharitable adversaries they are adversaries to all vncharitablenesse they meant to direct straighten you not to bow much lesse to breake Some vpon whom you seemed to relie most in Oxford haue protested that they had proceeded in the same or a more strict course against you if the censure had passed their hands Mr LEECH Wherevpon I made a shew that I would shortly visit his Grace And this I did because I did probably collect that my intention was by some meanes disclosed vnto him whereby I might be defeated of that course vpon which I was now wholly resolved For me thought that God did speake within my heart as he spake sometimes vnto Abraham his seruant Goe forth of thy land Gen. 12.1 and from thy kindred and from thy fathers house and come into the land which I shall shew vnto thee For can any Church or any faith be in that land where the very grounds and principles of ancient Christianity are dissolved where there is no certaine foundation to build Religion vpon Where every mans power is his reason to make good his doctrine Where an iniury sustained for the truth can finde no redresse without treasonable connivencie to see the truth oppressed ANSVVER This was Aequivocation in speech and action neither honest but both common among Papists S. Austin condemned the Priscilianists for this and so other Fathers haue reproved this lying mummery hypocrisie Sepulueda de Ration dicēdi testimon Et de ratione dicendi occulta in praefat Azor. Ies Inst par 1. l. 11. c. 4. in fine cap. Emanuel Sa. in Aphor. And not only Scotus Aquinas Henricus Gabriell Biell are resolute against it as Sepulveda witneseth but also Iesuits themselues haue reproued it as Azorius Emanuell Sa and others You began to equivocate timely I doubt not but you haue increased it The reason of making this hypocriticall shew was lest you should be defrauded
froÌ„ robbing the Church of a Sonne the King of a Subiect and your selfe of a soule Your misapplication of that speech of God to Abraham I might dilate much vpon as hauing variety of interpretations which doe vnderstand that place of the devill the world the flesh But I come neerer to your purpose hoping that those wordes that you say God spake to you were receiued by no revelation a frequeÌ„t imposture amoÌ„g Papists filling the mouthes of many swaying the faiths of some But what is the blemish you see in your mother â—oth our Church deny the principles of ancieÌ„t Christianity Doe wee not receiue the Scriptures the Creedes and Fathers of the first 500 yeares Do we not build our Religion vpon the foundation Iesus Christ the corner stone Is the rule of our doctrine any other then Gods sacred will revealed in his word Is any iniury sustained by you for truth It is not iniury but true iustice to punish those that be stubborne in action precipitat in resolution and faulty in opinion not able to maintaine their cause but with much wresting of conscience their revolt ever attended with sedition scandall and humane respect Mr LEECH But I will pretermit good Reader here to make a speciall enumeration of my Motiues drawing me vnto my finall resolution for they will ensue orderly in the thirde last part of this Treatise Only consider with me now with what conflict of flesh bloud I could intertaine this resolution to come out of my Land from my kindred and from my Fathers howse with what griefe I could forsake a noble Vniversity the company of my kindest friends the comfort of my dearest familiars other emoluments which such a place doth actually yeeld and prepareth vnto greater ANSVVERE Your Motiues shall be answered as briefly as vrged because they be to bee scanned at a higher barre Your conflict was not with flesh and blood but you did agree with the world and the Diuell and applyed your selfe to the service of that painted but ill-favoured witch the church of Rome Neither did you forsake our Vniversity friends and familiars before they forsooke you They at length heard hated who at first obserued your folly and pittyed Mr LEECH Howbeit my Brethren since there is banishmeÌ„t indeed where no place is left for truth I esteeme al these things as dongue that I may gaine Christ for he is my sufficient reward I did not conceiue that when I preached my doctrine among you I shoulde haue giuen you such an example thereof in mine owne person But thankes be vnto him who disposeth all things sweetly for the benefit of his children Finally my brethren I wish that you may enioy your country which is aboue without forsaking that which is below But if you cannot by reason of the time theÌ„ looke vp vnto your eternity let not your excellent spirits abase themselues vnto the loue of transitory things For behold I shew you a more excellent way 1. Cor. 12.13 ANSVVER If in the world there be any sanctuary for truth it is there where shee may appeare without controll without colors or disguises Which you woulde willingly acknowledge to be true if ignorance were not the mother of your devotion To forsake all for Christ is blessed but to forsake eveÌ„ Christ himselfe it is most cursed He is a sufficient reward to all that feare follow him and will follow theÌ„ that fly from him How pervious you were to fly from your Country after you had fled from the truth your intent before and your practises since haue manifested But farre be it that God should be reputed as the disposer of you to this vnnaturall and vnchristian disobedience to the Church and State O what bitter punishment must attend that presumption that endangers a double perishing and is so far from having expresse commaund that it hath direct and iust inhibitions Your wish that we may enioy our countrey that is aboue is a wish aboue your charity We wish your admission into the heavenly Hierusalem which is aboue and would from our harts pray for your triumphant state there Luke 16.25 but that as Abraham said to Diues Remember thou in thy life time receiuedst thy pleasure and Lazarus paines therfore he is comforted and thou art tormented so we are willing to awake you with this that seeing you make your selfe of the Church triumphaÌ„t in earth you coÌ„tinuing this course are like to haue small part in the triumphant glory in heaven And while wee for our partes and stations are here wee will affect no pilgrimage but from nature to grace so to glory hoping to accompany them that are in possession of the lawrell And to this iourney we haue no other hie way 1. Kings 8.36 1. Sam. 12.23 Ier. 6.16 Ioh. 14 6. but the good way which God teacheth and the right way which Samuell describeth and the old way which Ieremy informeth al which be not as yours be Crosse waies but doe terminat in the way even Christ Iesus THE THIRD PART CONTAIning 12. Motiues which perswaded me to embrace the Catholicke Religion Briefely and naturally deriued out of the premises * ⎠* S. AVGVST In Psal contra partem Donati Scitis Catholica quid sit quid sit praecisum à vite Si qui sint inter vos cauti veniant vivant de radice THE THIRD PART CONTAINETH 12. Articles against you whereby your 12. Motiues are disproved as having not affinity with the faith of the 12 Patriarks or spirit of the 12. Prophets or doctrine of the 12. Apostles or beliefe of the 12. Articles of our Creed shewing that as Art doth imitate Nature and an ape a man so as many grounds as good Christians rely vpon for their faith Apostats boast to alleadge for their fall Wherein as in the premises the particular Apostasie is confuted condemned with much facility and breuity * ⎠* S. AVGVST In eod Psal Contra Partem Donati Ipsam formam habet sarmentuÌ„ quod praecisum est de vite Sed quid illi prodest forma si non viuit de radice Venite fratres si vult is ut inseremini in radice Dolor est cum vos videmus praecisos ita iacere Aug. de vnitate Ecclesiae cap. 2. De hoc inter nos illos quaestio versatur vtrum apud nos an apud illos vera Ecclesia sit Mr LEECH To the conscionable and Ingenious Reader THOVGH the generall motiues vnto the Catholique Religion are many and waighty yet the particular which issued out of this present businesse where such as conuinced my vnderstanding and swayed my affection to approue and embrace the same Wherefore courteous Reader aswell to procure thy good as to iustifie my selfe and to satisfie others I haue coÌ„municated them vnto thy view For matter they are the same now as when I conceiued them in the beginning for manner they are brought forth in somewhat a different shape Thus much
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
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
a mā of good esteeme who was acquainted both with the proiect and the day of lecture whereof hee gaue me a particular intimation ANSVVER As S. Paul speaketh of some widdowes h 1. Tim. 5.11 that being idle they go from house to house not only idle but pratlers busie bodies so no doubte we may iudge of some intelligencers or relators that bestow only their time in condemning the time in accusing of their Bretheren abusing of their betters But Mr Russell whom you quote in your margent is none such and the learned Doctor did desire him to certifie this to you because you might take notice he red against Bellarmin not against you Mr LEECH This lecture I both heard and noted in writing But such an other lecture so false so Hereticall with such violent wresting of sacred write such impudent reiecting of holy fathers quite besides the drift of the one cleane cōtrary to the resolution of the other I seldome or never heard in that famous and renowned Academy ANSVVER Quousque tandem how far shall the bounds of your froathy and foaming waues passe a Iob. God hath set land markes to the sea and the b Arist in Ethic. Philosopher hath set limits to that salt sulphureous humour of raging and will neither Divinity Plut. nor humanity confine you Plutarch setteth downe the difference betweene the sea and those that be tēpestuous sailers ever in the storme of vnsavory winde of words The sea raging in a Tempest casteth mire dirt sed mare tum purgatur but the sea is then purged of the filth and froath scumme But the heart of such when it rageth casteth their stomacke of bad and boiling virulent speeches Ea dicentis animum conspurcant the wordes that come from them defile them saith c Math. 7.23 Christ And they foame out their owne shame saith d Iude. 13. Iude. Helvidius saith S. e Hier. cont Helvidium Ierome thought his conscience then best discharged when by reviling his stomacke was most disgorged But doe you not so for God knoweth I wish your good and salvation in Christ Iesus and these kinde of actions will much impeach and impaire your spirituall good Yet seeing you haue blowne out such a Tempest of disgrace I will in the rugged sea of your last Paragraph cast Ancor for this worthy Doctor and to vindicat him whom soundnes of iudgement in learning sincere conscience in his actions and singular mildnes in his deportment doe immure and compasse from anie iust imputation Know that his learned reading vpon the point now in hand his lecture is extant reade it answere it or acknowledge that you haue vncharitably and vnchristianly traduced him who never injured you he hath wrested no Scriptures rejected no Fathers falsified nothing in his lecture Mr LEECH The text by him treated vpon was goe sell all that thou hast and giue to the poore and thou shalt haue treasure in heaven and come and follow me A maine ground pregnant text as I take it I take it aright if all ancient Church mistake it not to build vp rather thē to batter downe to confirme rather then to confute Evāgelicall Counsailes The Fathers which he cited and named to stand for Counsailes were divers hee might haue vrged all both of the Greeke and Latine Church all of them being resolute for Counsailes and that vpon those words of our Saviour go sell all c. As also vpon that distinction of the Apostle Now cōcerning virgins I haue no precept from our Lord but I giue my advise or Counsaile which is a weighty consideratiō if their iointe consent and vniforme authority might haue borne anie sway with this noble Inceptour ANSVVER The text and interpretation therof by al Ancients as is by him most amply proved maketh against you Some Friers he named that mainetained the point but no Fathers professing then neither to name nor nūber those authorities that Bellarmin vnsitly collected out of the Fathers How plainly yet profoūdly he hath delivered the opinion of al ancient moderne Fathers and Sonnes both in his Text and that place of S. Paul 1. Cor. 7. I desire every honest ingenuous reader to obserue and your selfe to examine his Lecture and Appendix Mr LEECH But this novitiate Doctor if yet he deserue that title who dealt thus rudely with the true Doctors of the Church as he perverted the sacred writ of God his revealed wil in his word so reiected the Fathers blasting them all with this one hereticall breath that they were all bewitched deceived and carried away as men with the errors of the time wherein they lived Thus Calvin Luther the fowre good fellow Germans who composed their false and fond Centuries in a stone of Magdeburge taught their novice to blaspheme O times ô ages wherein we now liue when Calvin Luther fowre carowsing Almans nay rather Ale-men and one puny Doctour dare thus openly in the eares of Christendome and in the publike eie of so famous an Vniversity blaspheme God his holy spirit promised by Christ to lodge in the bosome of these venerable and sober aged Fathers chiefe pillars of the holy Catholike Church ANSVVER f Ambros in Psal 118. S. Ambrose observed of an adversary of the truth Quē veritate non potest laceret convitijs It is your practise whom you cannot taxe with vntruth you torment with slanderous reproaches It was a base retaliation of him in the g Terent. in Andria Comedy Si mihi pergit quae vult dicere ea quae non vult audiet It were vile if you should heare againe such wordes as you spake h Eph. 4.29 S. Paule mentioneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epes 4.29 corrupt speech which is as a stinking breath outwardly breathed corruptiō a signe as Phisitians hold of inward putrefaction When you make your throate thus an open sepulchre to belch out such vnsavorynesse it is an argument that like a graue you are full of dead mens bones and I feare that your inward parts are full of wickednes D. Benefield vsed no such vncivill speeches of bewitched Fathers vnlesse you were bewitched you would not so accuse him Concerning your scornfull speeches against Calvin Luther and the Magdeburgenses I say not as Zachary said to the Angell The Lord rebuke thee but from my hart I wish the Lord to forgiue it you Of that rare and blessed instrument of God Reverend Calvin I may truly speake as Mr i Hooker in the pref to Church Polity Hooker doth in the preface to his Polity For my part I thinke he was incomparably the wisest man that ever the French Church did enioy since the houre it enioyed him And for Luther let k Eras lib. 11. Epist ad Car. Eborac Erasmus who was his familiar giue testimony of him that his life was approued with great consent of all men and that the integrity of his manners was so great that his verie enimies could
find nothing which they could calūniate And for his learning let l Hosian trist cat cent 16. p. 837. Andreas Masius speake for him whom you haue reason to beleeue who reporteth of him that there was more divinity in one page of Luther then sometimes in a whole booke of some Father The Magdeburgenses though they seeme to be censorious and Aristarchicall were very speciall servants of God for liues most honest for knowledge most learned the eares that heard them blest them and the eies that saw them gaue witnesse vnto them and as Iob speaketh of himselfe so I of them They brake the iawes of the vnrighteous man and pluckt the pray out of his mouth Neither they nor Doctor Benefield did blaspheme Gods spirit as you slaunder them Neither was Gods spirit promised to lodge onely in the Fathers of the Church but even iointly in all the members of the Church And yet for the Fathers wee doe reverence them as much or more then the Papists doe as the KINGS most excellent Maiestie m In his Premon to his booke in his Premonition doth professe Mr LEECH This is right the Puritan cut as D. Bancroft observeth against the Presbyterian faction in some whole Chapters of his Survay And yet after he had thus censoriously handled the Fathers vpon my private conference with him in stead of the Fathers which I called for he offred vnto me two English pamphlets one whereof was entituled the Apologie of the Church of England whereat I could not but smile in regard of his simplicity though inwardly grieved much at the times misery when a statizing Pamphleter who would flie vpon the wing of his penne vnto the height of some ambitious designment shall bee compared nay preferred before the ancient Orthodox divines that painefully laboured in the vineyard of the Church against the brunt of all heresies ANSVVER That you came to Doctor Benefield to bee enformed about this doctrine it is true you came even then when you knew the instant approach of the Act was at hand the very next Saturday before the Vespers which time being vnseasonable did abridge him of any large or ample discourse with you Otherwise I assure my selfe that as no suiter came to that good Emperour Titus that returned discontented so none shall euer come to this worthy Doctor to aske counsell or conference that shall returne vnsatisfied The two bookes that you were offered either of them might haue enformed you that you held an opinion cōtrary to the Church of England to whose Doctrine you subscribed The one which you call the Apologie of the Church of England Oportet esse memorem was a booke entituled The Catholike doctrine of the Church of England an exposition of the Articles of religion professed here published by authority The other Reverēd Mr Perkins reformed Catholique such a booke and such an Author that your Bishop could wish hee had never beene Priest it hath so entoiled him he n In the beginning of his answere cōfesseth that he neuer saw any booke of like quantity published by a Protestant to containe either more matter or to be delivered in better method For Mr Rogers hee liueth worthy of much commendation for that necessary paine and his learned labour will liue long after him M. Perkins he is asleep in the Lord his holynes of conversation soundnes of learning actions labours life death haue sealed him A blessed servant of God I would others were as free from being flying wanderers as he or M. Perkins from being statizing Pamphleters You smiled you say at the Doctors simplicity but vnlesse you repent the world will laugh and hisse at your folly Was it simplicity indeed as simplicity is taken for integrity veritas est simplex the greatest attribute of truth is to be simple and so he might well prefer the simple positiue truth in one of those bookes before all the iugling expunged impostured Copies which you vrge for the Fathers The name of the Orthodoxall Fathers in matter of controversie I hold to be nomen verendum reverendum and the current of the Fathers in the true Copies for the first 500 yeeres or thereabout after Christ is like Iordan which passeth sweetly and quietly through Canaan but for their Current in some points after that time it is I will not say like to Iordan falling into mare mortuum but it is much hindered corrupted and abused I had here ended this point but that your Marginal vrgeth a testimony from that most wise and learned observation of dangerous Positions and proceedings published and practised for the Presbyteriall discipline First you may please to vnderstande that there was want of good manners in neglecting the reverence you owe to that rightly honourable AVTHOR whose eminent place in the State My Lords Grace of Cāterbury painefull Government in the Church carefull authority over our Vniversity and other his honorable respects do adorne him with the cōfluence of many Titles yet this sacred Prelat graue Counsellour our noble Chauncellor must passe so vnregarded by you But what do you ground out of that note His Grace wrote against the ambitiously factious and Paradoxically furious Presbytery Doctor Benefield none such his Profession an honourable Bishops Chaplaine his Positions mainely against Presbytery declare so much Haec nota nihil notat praeter notam malitiae CHAP. 7. Mr LEECH THis solemne lecture reade in publicke schooles by an inceptor in divinity for so venerable a degree enforced me now evē as I would not openly betray the truth of this doctrine vnto a more plaine ample and personall defence inciting mee also nay inflaming me with some extraordinary desire for the reiection and depulsion of his infirme reasons ANSVVER IT is observed a Plin. nat hist lib. 11. c. 37. that in the falling sicknesse the eies though opē see nothing when the minde is darkened dim-sighted so seemeth it with you when in your declining and falling away you could not see or like the deafe adder would not heare charme the charmer never so wisely You say you were inflamed with an extraordinary desire for the reiection of the infirme reasons of the lecture I marvaile you should be in such a heat It had beene wel if with David you had cryed out My heart is hot and the fire is kindled within me that was a heat that tooke fire from the altar but yours was no such spirituall heat b Albert. in comp Theol. Albertus observeth that many sinnes are deciphered by many sicknesses luxury by a feaver envy by a leaprosie Anger by a phrēsie and pride by an inflammation take head of prowde heat such inflaming will breede flashing I would be sorie from my hart to heare that you should turne Melancholy Dominican or lowsie Franciscan or lazy Capuchine but of all others a Iesuiticall incendiary for he is the wilde fire of the world in mind ravenous as a wolfe in head crafty as a Fox in heart
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
that you haue punished me for teaching the contrary assertion ANSVVERE Your second demand was out of all course of reason or sense Was it not knowne to al that you were censured for preaching such Evangelicall Counsells of perfection whereby a man might doe more then the law required yea more then man need to haue performed was not your convention now and inhibition before censure at last sufficient witnes to all the world what you delivered why you were censured c. Nay was not this yea more then this your request offred you viz. that you should if you durst hold your position in the divinity Chappell in Christ church and in forme of a Respondent answere the Vicechancellour promising to appoint fiue paires of Masters to oppose you which you knewe had easily beene performed in that honourable and fruitful Colledge This you refused and thereby shewd that you had not an originall state but a Traditionall insight in this question This you durst not and therefore you required the subscription to make way to some threatning opposition That as the Poet speaketh Pede pes cuspide cuspis so now you hoped there might haue bin another kinde of digladiation pen against pen and hands against hands which you never could haue obtained Mr LEECH This request D. King not only denied but also exclaimed against me for making this petition And no marvell for he that durst never throughout this whole proceeding formally and by expresse mention condemne Evangelicall Counsells how could hee yeeld vnto any such subscription whereby he and the rest might haue remained Heretiques vpon their owne record ANSVVER You neglected the reverence you did owe to his government and detected the wilfull weaknesse of your owne iudgement to require it No such course vsuall in any Iuridicall proceedings And for your vile slaunder that the Vicechancelour durst not condemne Evangelicall Counsells it is impudent He did in the proceedings often rebuke and confute your maner of handling that point not denying but that a nominall distinction of counsells was sometimes vsed but he expresly condemned such Counsells as you preached being of another kinde then S. Austin dâ—livereth with the rest of the Fathers and Wickliffe whom you vrge who all maintaine each Counsell to be a commande for some time and some circuÌ„stance Which sentence and iudgement how you oppugned in your sermons may be seene where till you recant you remaine an Heretique vpoÌ„ your own record I vse your owne wordes Mr LEECH The conclusion of all was this M. Vicechancellour beating me downe with the blow of authority hauing no other meanes to convince me pronounced his definitiue sentence against mee which I will here relate word for word as neere as I could possibly beare it away ANSVVER You were beaten downe as you truly say by authority but more theÌ„ by humane by diuine You were driveÌ„ by Scripture to refuse scripture to be your iudg beateÌ„ by the censure of the Church that you deny to be censured by the Church convicted for stubborne impudence for preaching that doctrine which was inhibited you wheÌ„ you were countermanded it You were convinced for ignorance in that you produced witnesses that you knewe not and vrged Greeke Fathers that you read not And this conviction was not only by the blow of authority but by such a blow from heauen as Paul in the Acts was stroken Scripture Church Fathers Acts. 9. and all arguments of power did agree to this deiection of you and your cause and to the censure that ensueth Mr LEECH M. Leech for preaching scandalous and erroneous doctrine Doctrine as you well knowe stifly defended by the Church of Rome and wherevpon many absurdities doe follow I doe first as Vicechancellour silence you from preaching Secondly as Deane of this house I suspend you from your commons and function here for the space of twelue moneths This is my sentence and before these my associates I require you to take notice thereof ANSVVERE Here is the Act the manner of the Act the reason of the Act or censure The sentence was deliberat and guided with ripe wisdome the hand of Iustice in him was slower then the tongue For besides your heresie in the deliverie there was contumacie in you for presuming so to preach forbidden by Authority and yet was this censure easie by many wished to bee more by all marvailed at that it was no more For as the times increase in daunger so the rigor should increase in discipline But the manner of this censure was milde it passed no farther then losse of commons for a time this was within the walles of the Colledge and silence for preaching within the precincts of Oxford and this within the limits of the Vniversity This was no eiection expulsion out of Colledge and Vniuersity It had been worse by infinite degrees had you beene sent to London And the reason of all this was first intimated for your scandalous erroneous doctrine a doctrine stifly defended by the church of Rome inducing many absurdities I will vse an honourable speech of that most noble CouÌ„sellor at the arraignement of Garnet Earle of NorthamptoÌ„ fit to be bestowed vpon you Currat lex viuat Rex vincat veritas The marginall scurrile Note which you borrowed from some more witty but as wicked pate as your owne I coulde returne as a dart to your very soule but I forbeare because all reproach and contumelies against this worthy do breake themselues as waues shattered in peeces by the force of a rocke Mr LEECH Which sentence though it were tyrannicall and vniust yet it no waies discouraged me but rather confirmed me in my opinion Wherefore I protested the doctrine againe more resolutely then before wishing M. Vicechancellor and his assistaÌ„ts to vnderstande thus much from me First that I held the doctrine with asmuch nay more confidence then ever I did Secondly that I farther concluded the invincibility of the point out of the manner of their proceedings whereat they were driven into the extremity of fury and passion ANSVVER This vvas a greate degree of the hardnesse of your hart and it is manifest that you apprehended this as a pretence of your revolt The Vicechancelour was vrged to this doome which as it was impartiall so was it no way Tyrannicall had it been any other it had bin mercifull iniustice You should haue acknowledged the Truths victory given some signe of humility modesty and reverence to authority You say you were hereby confirmed CoÌ„firmed you were in your flight not in your faith And in your boast that you so againe protested the doctrine if it had beene so you shewed more boldnes then goodnes and the Truth had lost lesse then you gained but it was not so you did not you durst not contest so vmbragiously as you protest here My obseruation through your whole book holdeth true where you bragge most you faine most where you paint your speech there it is most corrupted and