say for number very many in doctrine all opposite to the Roman and all agreeing among themselues in the pure primitiue truth But pretermitting these questions I only aske when you say that the Churches which being very many Rome hath raysed vp to be her aduersaries do very little swarue from the pure primitiue doctrine whether you speake of all the Churches and Companies that in doctine are opposite to the Roman or of some of them only You cannot with truth speake it of all they being so many and so repugnant the one against the other Grecians Lutherans Caluinistes Libertines Anabaptists Arians Trinitarians How can it be that they all should very little or nothing disagree from the true doctrine whose doctrines disagree mainly and allmost infinitly the one from the other 7. If you say that though not all yet some of the Churches aduersaries to Rome do very little disagree from the primitiue truth then I demaund Why do you not distinguish these pure Churches from the other impure before you prayse them Why do you thus at random rashly not to say impiously cast that great commendation to swarue very litle from the pure primitiue doctrine vpon the confuse multitude of sects disagreeing from the Roman Church in which masse euen your selfe being iudge all be not sincere yea many be corrupt many impious many most food sottish And yet by your words no man can perceaue whether this high prayse be bestowed by you on the Grecians or on the Septentrionals on the Lutherans or on the Anabaptists on the Caluinists or on the Arians Verily you be not the mouth of God Antony you be not the preacher of Truth who to good bad layd togeather on an heape giue your approbation without any distinction not seuering pretious from vile noxious from wholsome hereticall from Catholike impious from Christian doctrine And yet herein you are excusable For what els could you do who had not as yet made choice of any certaine Church you might magnify before al other being vncertaine for the present and ignorant what finally your choice might be you durst not condēne any Church of the many opposite to Rome fearing you should perchance condemne that Church which you might be forced to fly vnto Had you singled one Church out of that number extolling it only aboue all other the rest perchance would with lesse willingnesse haue intertained you taking your singular prayse of that one Church as a disparagement to them all nor durst you commend distinctlie and by name all the sectes that are enemies to the Pope knowing that thereby you might expose your selfe to iust exception that Catholikes might take at you as being a friend of damnable errours Wherfore craftily you resolued to shoot at randome in the praise of Churches that oppose themselues to Rome without specifying the name or doctrine of any that so you might haue both freedome to runne to what sect you pleased and shelter against Catholikes should they except against you as fauouring the errours of any particuler heresy Now Antony perceaue you not that your secret wily deuise is layd open that this your booke brings to light the things which you most of al desired should haue byn hiddē 8. Thirdly so great is your vncertainty that you are not only ignorant to what sect to fly from the Roman Church but also you know not from what doctrine of the Roman Church you should fly I confesse you do particularily mislike the Primacy of the Roman Bishop but you were not ignorant that the hatred of this authority is common to all sorts of Heretikes Whosoeuer are wicked in the world the more egregiously that they are wicked the more mortally do they hate the power of the Pope all being herein combined Grecians Protestants Lutherans Caluinists Anabaptists Arians Turkes Iews Atheists What other article of the Roman beleife do you condemne besides this You name no other but in generall you proclaime that you fly the Roman sinnes errors abuses and innumerable nouelties Why name you them not I will tel you the sects that band against Rome being very many do not all mislike the same doctrines in the Roman Church What one condemneth another prayseth what some approue others abhorre so your religion depending on future euents you could not shew detestation of the Roman errours in particuler till you had made certaine choice of your Church You knew that you were to condemne in the Roman Church other articles did you become a Grecian others did you fall to be a Lutheran others did you turne Caluinist others did you cleaue to the Anabaptists others should you stay in Germany others should you fly to France others should you sayle into Englād Wherfore wauering in vncertainties not able to forsee what shall becom of you without naming any particulers with all your might and mayne you cry out on the Roman Errours When you shall haue made your election for your religion therein set vp your rest then shal the Roman Church erre in those poynts and as damnably as it please that company you liue with to haue you say 9. But I pretermitt say you in the 17. page to set downe particularly the Errours of Rome because in my booke of the Ecclesiasticall Common wealth I do fully prosecute them which booke now a good while ready for the print I haue and will set it forth out of hand and bequeath it to the first printer in Germany that by the way I shal find for the purpose I beseech you Antony why did you not performe what here so solemly you promise Met you with no Printer in Germany that was for the purpose or did the King of great Britany countermand your purpose or did you of your self shrinke from your purpose I search not into this secret This I say that now you shall not print the booke you brought out of Italy with you but another Your selfe growing daily worse and worse will change therein diuers things either taking away some points of Catholike doctrine or adding some new doctrines gotten by your reading in the books of heretikes to say nothing of the things which Ministers by their arguments will winne you to alter And what shall I say of his gracious Maiesty so excellent for his knowledge To change some things in your booke and to adde other things to it he will persuade you by his learning to leaue out diuers doctrins that sauour to much of Rome he may compell you by his authority perchāce also sundry of his sayings though he vrge you not yet you to please him will put them into your booke Know you not what befell Casaub one How much changed he was from that affection and mind that he seemed to carry with him into England which alteration he going about to excuse to his friend plainly confesseth that by entrance into the English Court he was become a slaue not daring in any thing gaynesay the Kings pleasure which basenes
enlarged but the rights of the Roman Bishop ouer you abridged Hence arose Spleene Malice Strife with which whirlewind blowne away you were carried headlong into Apostasy You would not indeed haue gone but you could not stay being once possessed with this passion Euen as weighty things which cast headlong downe make no end of mouing till they lye on the ground These things meane we to make good For that you write pag. 14. I was lifted vp from my Bishoprick to be an Archbishop from whence sprange to me a new and more vrgent occasion of renewing my endeauours and of a more feruent and exact pursuite of them For when I began to be stirred with the molestations of the Suffragan Bishops of my Prouince but much more with the ouer much power of the Courte of Rome disturbing my Metropolitan rightes I was forced to search more narrowly into the roote and origen of all the Ecclesiasticall degrees powers functions offices dignityes and especially of the Popedome So you I cannot tell whether you wot what you say For by this discourse truly you haue wholy dashed your owne cause and defeated your writings of all credit against the Pope which I trust so to demonstrate that perhaps your selfe or at least euery man besides your selfe may see it manifest 23. Your Suffragans I know not nor haue I to do with thē You are their Primate be you also Accuser Witnes Iudge against them They wrought your vexations I excuse them not They enuied your honour they would haue diminishtit T' was ill done The Pope helped you not but rather with his authority oppressed you more See now how fauourable an aduersary I am I do not deny but that it may haue so happened You grieued at it you tooke it hainously You were incensed and set on fire with anger This I allow not yet let it be held a pardonable fault and according to kind to be sensible of iniuries But you should not fret your selfe so much as to leaue the Church for the matter so to boyle as to seeth ouer the pot not to skip as the Prouerbe goes from the frying pan into the fire If you will not learne patience of any Man yet me thinkes you might of that worthie Matrone Paula Romana no lesse renowned for sanctity then for Nobility of bloud She without her fault hauing incurred enuy and being by S. Hierome exhorted to giue place to furie answered Hieron in Epitaph Paul You should say well if Sathan did not in all places molest the seruantes and hand-maydes of God or if I could find my Bethleem in any other part of the world Most wisely piously and aptely spoken to our purpose Sathan is busy euery where That the lesser do enuy the greater that the weaker be oppressed by the mightier is not Roman but humane If you thinke to eschew this mischiefe you must wholy fly from men also and not from Rome only There are troubles euery where iniuryes crosses euery where something to suffer but not euery where Bethleem that House of Bread is not else where to be found but in the Catholike Church The bread of heauenly doctrine that doth satiate vs with Faith The bread of the most sacred Body that feeds vs in the Sacrament you shall find Bread indeed in the Ministers Suppers but profane bread such as those which do take it stick not to share it to the dogges whose crummes and crustes without awe of religion they shake of on the ground Do you thinke this Holy Bread I do not thinke you do although to please his Maiesty of Great Brittanie you may feed of it with shew of much veneration your anger therefore should not haue lead you so farre as to carry you from Bethleem If there had been any such iniuries offered you either by the Suffragans or the Pope which you obiect but proue not they should rather haue been for Bethleems sake togeather with that diuine bread disgested by you 24. But take heed now in the heat of your anger and being so inraged against the Pope that you vtter nothing for which you may after repent you You say that the power of the Pope annoyed you much and that he assaulted you and your Titles also and that from thence arose in you that seruent and burning desire to search out the roote and origen of the Papacie Do you say this You say it certainly your words be witnesses therof nor could you with any other words so much haue wrought the vtter ouerthrow of your owne cause For cōsider I beseech what you do You moued with the wronges which as you perswade your selfe the Pope hath done you oppressed with his power and for that cause now put into heat and distemper set your self to read and write and search into the first beginnings of the Papacy First who can beleeue that you will disclose any truth in fauour of the Pope if happely you find it who burne with such passion against him That you will discouer if you chance to light on the certaine and firme roote of the Popedome the roote wherof to no other end you seeke but to haue it rooted out That you will lay open the vttermost extent of the Roman Bishops authority which by a preiudicate opinion you iudge ouer large now already before you know what it is Secondly can you hope to find out the Truth seeking it in anger and hauing so mighty a beame in your eye as is the power of the Roman Bishop in the sight of the enuier therof Know you not the verse though vulgar yet true Anger doth so the mind bereaue That Truth it can no whit perceaue Could none of these diuines sayings occurre vnto you Anger killeth the Foolish man Iob. 5.2 In your wrath you do loose your soule Iob. 13.4 An angry man raiseth strifes Iac. 1.20 Anger of man worketh not the iustice of God Could you not remember the precepts of the Apostle Giue place to Anger Rom. 12.19 not reuenging your selues Eph. 4.31 Banish from amongst you all Bitternes and Anger and Indignation and Clamour and lastly Blasphemy which is as it were a certaine fume of boyling Choller 25. Now therfore we shall not hereafter so much meruayle though your ten promised Bookes Of the Ecclesiasticall Common Wealth abound with Blasphemous vntruths which the furie of your breast incensed as you confesse your selfe with supposed iniuries done you by the Pope hath powred forth I should wonder indeed if that were true which you witnes of your selfe in perusing the Fathers in such heate of your prouoked passions That with your eyes more opened you easily obserued you saw now and throughly perceaued It is a strang thing that a man should haue a beame in his eye and not feele it that being starke blind yet to himselfe he should seeme quick sighted But tell me Antony what saw you there in that your feruour and passion of reading I saw say you and throughly perceaued that
with passion you read them ten yeares togeather In these say you I fully found out what I sought for much more then I sought for How wel you set downe the māner of your fal You hated Heresie but affected Cōtumacy against the Pope and whilest you will not leaue what you loued you are falne into that which you abhorred You would faine without losse of your religion haue remained an obstinate and stubborne Catholike but behould you haue made wracke of your faith and are become a rebellious heretike You sought for Catholike contumacy contempt of the Pope a thing not to be found but in lieu therof you haue found heretical perfidiousnes Verily that haue you found which by such an inquiry you deserued to find Lib. 3. ep 9. which al that haue sought in this same māner haue found For the beginning of Heretikes saith S. Cyprian is to take delight in themselues with a swelling pride to contemne their Superiours Hereupon they rush into schismes and prophane Altars are reared vp out of the Church Malignant feuers neere neighbours to the Pestilence when the Plague is rife alwayes turne to this mischief so neere of kinne vnto them so when Heresies abound the Contempt of the supreme Pastour a sin neerly allied to Heresie can scarcely be conteined but that at least it will empty it selfe into Heresie Let them learne by your exāple that go about to be rebellious what they are like to find at last And let this be the conclusion That very orderly you descended on the steps of the ladder of Apostasy which I set you in the beginning You grow more sinfull one day then other you still more and more fleet away from the Church and euery step you make brings you neerer to Hell The eight Degree Presumption of proper Iudgment against the Church THERE now remaines the eight and last degree in the ladder of your descent a degree and step not only neighbouring vpon heresy but also neere allied vnto it which it doth not only touch immediatly but is the very beginning and head thereof This is too much presuming of your owne learning and wit aboue the Church S. de vera Relig cap. 16. Augustine saith excellently That no errour can be in the Christian religion did not mans soule worship her selfe for God For it were impossible that a Christian should be an Heretike did he still submit himselfe and inthrall his vnderstanding to God and giue him leaue by the voyce of his Church to ouersway their wits which are blind rashe erroneous not only when they wander without diuine Scriptures through the works of Nature but thē also when within the boundes of sacred Writ they discourse according to their owne fense arbitrement Hitherto before you openly fled from vs were you fallen Antony and being in that case you did not so much tend towards Apostasy but rather were you arriued at your iourneyes end You cannot abide Subiection of vnderstanding to the obedience of Faith euery where you impugne it and at last conclude I am no child now whome being nigh threescore yeares of age euery man should perswade what he listeth without weight of reasons This your girding at the Roman Church contaynes either a grosse calumniation or a vast arrogancy For if you meane to taxe the Roman Church as though she did vse to propose to be beleeued of her children with true submission of their vnderstanding whatsoeuer a priuate man or Doctour or Prelate listeth to teach truly you hatefully charge her with that she neuer doth But if by whatsoeuer listeth any man you meane those points of doctrine which you call proper decrees of the Roman Church namely the Supremacy of Peter and his Successour the doctrine that most of all offends you If by euery one you vnderstand the witnesses authours vnto whose iudgment the Romā Church would haue her childen submit the supposed weight of their reasons If I say you meane this doctrine and intend to shew your cōtempt of the authorities that are by the Church alleadged for it refusing to submit your iudgment to them then are you come to this last step which consumates an Apostata For you know all Catholikes all Bishops through out the world and the vniuersall Church now spread through Europe and the new found Indies acknowledge the Romā Supremacy I will not presse you with the old Councells I wil not vrge you with any thing that you may or will deny Only I say that this doctrine was defined by the Tridentine Councell by the Florentine by the Lateran which Lateran for the generall concourse of all Christendome and for the number of Bishops that were in it was the greatest of all Christian councells that haue beene hitherto assembled Will you then submit your iudgment to the censure of these councells You will not The assembly of so many so great and so worthy men by you is tearmed quisque euery one ordinary fellowes Their iudgmēts you accompt no more then quod quisque libuerit you reckon them as trifles Behould now appeares the arrogancy of your speach which though you harboured in your mind yet you sought to cloake with ambiguous words 29. You say that euery man shall not make you belieue what they list being a man as you are of almost three score yeares of age you say that you haue reasons of weight that the Church shal giue you better or as good before you will beleeue her O craft of Heresy what doth not she inuent to saue her selfe she sees that if the matter come to be tried by authority she will not be able to stand nor shew her selfe in comparison with the Catholike Church that her vpstart paucity will blush to appeare before the Catholike authority which in former ages was and now is spatiously enlarged ouer the world What shift then doth Heresy make With full mouth she cryes that she hath weighty reasons on her side hoping by the promise of reasons to counterballance the Churches authority If you will not credit me that this is the tricke of heresie then heare S. Epist 56. Augustine that long ago noted and discouered this fraud Heretiks saith he perceauing that they are vtterly ouerthrowne if the authority of their Conuenticles be brought to compare with the Catholik authority they endeauour by making shew promises of reason in some sort to ouercome the most graue and grounded authority of the Church For this kind of boldnes is the common and ordinary tricke almost of all Heretikes So S. Augustine which in truth toucheth your right who go about to poise the weight of your reasōs against the authority of the Church Nor do I captiously intend to wrest your words to a sense perhaps from your own meaning as if before you will beleeue you demaund of vs weighty reasons drawne out of Philosophy naturall Knowledge I deale not so hardly with you for you meane perhaps reasons grounded on Scriptures but
readier to praise the truth and so much the safelier condole the ruines of the Church which it susteynes at the hands of the Roman Marke I beseech you your wordes What is this els but so say let the bands of the diuine Law be broken let soules redeemed by the bloud of Christ perish all is well so that I with my ten stringed Psalter may get liberty to chaunt out the praises of Truth or to deplore the wretched state of Schisme You hold belike the teares you spend for the Roman Church at so high a rate that the Bloud of soules the Law of God must be set at naught and contemned for them Yf you had such a pleasure to singe mourne why would you be a pastour Why entred you not into some Religious family deuoted to the quire and solitude and there haue giuen your selfe to songes and teares Lastly what greater crime then to dissemble in matters of Religiō with body to approach that Church whose faith in your hart you approue not Is not this wickednes Now tell me Antony haue you so soone vomited forth all those Roman doctrines wherewith you were once imbued or haue you suddainly swallowed vp all the articles of the English Faith that you haue so without guide of Conscience imbraced their Communion I cannot thinke it but rather that you dissemble in many points to giue them satisfaction of whom you expect your hire and to get the Kings Protection and assistance for the priuiledge of your Booke that what you could not publish in the light of Christianity you may at last set forth in the darcknesse of Heresie 32. It is reported of a certaine Zoilus that was wont to keep his bed like a sick man when in truth he was not so that he might thereby take occasion to shew forth a purple Couerlet of his wherin he was much delighted Such a kind of languour is it wherein you languish with desire to publish your writings which that you might the better bring to passe you feigne your selfe an Heretike in the English Church you lay your selfe downe at the feet of the Kinges Supremacie ouer the Church as though you were sicke of that Parlamentarian Maladie and all this to get leaue to print your Bookes and shew them to the view of the world and yet alas when these your so highly by you esteemed treasures of learning shall haue passed the print which by committing so many sinnes you haue found out at last there will not want diuers I say not Catholiks but Protestants that hauing read your so much expected Booke will apply to you that which was spoken to Zoilus These riches are but vaine Which make the sicknesse fayne I wish you would rather follow the counsaile that the Angell gaue vnto Agar Genes 16. being great with Child which was Returne home to thy Mistresse againe and humble thy selfe vnder her handes Returne I say home againe to the Church which you haue forsaken Cast prostrate at her feet your selfe your wit your learning your bookes Submit them to the Catholike and Roman Censure As Rachels seruant deliuered her children into her Mistresse lap so do you offer vp your Bookes to the pleasure of the Church But me thinkes I see you turne your head aside at this and say This is base this is seruile this is to become againe a little child It is so indeed But oh noble basenes and high humility whereby a Christian transcending himselfe and his naturall wit comes to be vnited to God reuealing mysteries that surpasse mans capacity by the mouth sometimes euen of vnlearned Prelates Oh happy seruitude that tieth makes men bondeslaues of the Truth which only affoardes true Liberty Oh huge littlenes which only art capable of heauen which only canst intertaine God! So that Antony though you be welnigh threescore yeares of age you shall neuer enter into the Kingdome of Heauen vnles you be conuerted and become as a little child They that scorne to be little ones grow to be great ones indeed not in wisedome but in malice and folly which shal be further demonstrated in the second part of this Suruey of your Apostasy THE SECOND PART OF THE SVRVEY OF MARCVS ANTONIVS de Dominis his Apostasy CONCERNING The state wherein now he is WE will not there being no need vse circumlocutions but plainly set downe the misery of your present state By the former eight degrees not of beatitudes but of maledictions you are falne into eight bottomles Gulfes which within the compasse of Heresy are contayned I will first tell you what they are and then shew that you lye plunged in them These they are Forsaking of the Church of Christ Not to be certaine of any religion Hypocrisy Mendacity against the Church Contumelious speach Arrogancie Inuenting of new flattering doctrine Vayne and idle talking That you are swallowed into these pits belonging to Heresy I will make playne and by no other arguments then such as your owne booke affoardeth This booke now pleadeth against you but more dreadfull euidence will it giue in at the day of doome against your obstinate perseuerance Wherefore Antony rise out of this mayne deep of Heresy wherein as yet you lye not so low but repentance may reclayme you The first Gulfe of Apostasy The forsaking of the Church of Christ TO abandon the Church of Christ and the Catholike Communion is the first though not the shallowest gulfe of Hereticall peruersity All Heretikes saith S. Hierome are Apostata's that is Reuolters The Apostle tearmeth the Heretike peruerse Tit. 3 11. because no man is an Heretike that hath not auerted himselfe and swarueth from the way of Truth wherein once he walked He saith also that the Heretike delinquit proprio iudicio condemnatus that he is a delinquent condemned by his owne iudgment That you are in this Gulfe Antony is a thing so cleare that it need not to be proued yet seeing you deny it I will proue it not by common arguments but such as shall leaue you conuicted out of your owne words 2. He that forsaketh the Church of Christ and the communion of Saintes is peruerse a delinquent an Apostata This you will not deny and that you do it your selfe most manifestly affirme For that you fly from the Roman Church that you depart out of it in the pag. 34. you openly professe This my departing say you this my going out of Babylon or flight I will haue to be cleare from all suspition of schisme You depart then out of the Roman Church which you stile Babilon but the Roman Church is the Church of Christ the Society of Saintes therfore you impiously go from it impiously you call it Babylon If you aske me how I can proue the Roman Church to be the Church of Christ the society of Saintes I answere euen by your owne words which are registred in the 28. page I may not say you be wanting in my charge I being a Bishop in the Church
verily you will misse of your purpose Theft shall be theft murder murder Schisme schisme will you nill you Antony Well but I fly say you from errors I fly from abuses I fly that I may not be partaker of her sins not haue part in her punishments O how liuely did the holy Ghost describe you long agoe The wicked sonne saith Prouerb 30 ver 12. as S. Augustine readeth that he is iust yet doth he not wash cleere his going out You say the Church swarmeth with errours is ful of abuses loaden with sinnes that you are pure iust and thereupon fly not to be partaker of the punishments due to our sinnes who haue no sinns forsooth of your owne to be punished You say you are iust but you do not proue it notwithstanding though you should in your owne cause say the very truth yet could not you therby cleere your selfe from the crime of Schisme which I will make manifest euen by your owne words In the 37. page touching S. Cyprian you write in this māner Cyprian made no doubt but that Stephen the Roman Bishop did erre very grieuously yet rather then to make a Schisme in the Church he chose to communicate not only with Pope Stephen whose beliefe and practise was contrary to his but also with others whome he iudged impure for this cause only because Pope Stephē did admit them into his Communion which example S. Augustine as he sets it before the Donatists so likewise he sets it before vs for imitation Now I will iudge you by your one euidence For why do you not imitate this example which you say is layd before you a purpose that you should imitate it If S. Cyprian could not deuide himselfe from Pope Stephen whome he most assuredly iudged to erre without being guilty of the crime of Schisme may you reuolt from Pope Paul the fifth vnder pretence that he errs and not be a Schismaticke If S. Cyprian had he forsaken Pope Stephen could not haue iustified his departure by saying put case he might truly haue sayd so I fly his errours his abuses his sinnes do you thinke that your defection frō the Roman Church can be washed cleane from the note of Apostasy by your loud exclaiming that you fly errour A protestation vaine though it were true and indeed false vttered without any proofe You go about Antony to wash a bricke you loose your labour your crime cannot be washed away without teares of repentance The second Gulfe Wandring vncertainty about Religion THE second Gulfe wherein you are drowned I call Nullity of fayth because you abandoned the Roman Church and Faith before you had made choice of any other Church or religion that should succeed in lieu thereof You seemed at your departure from vs to be a blanke ready to preceaue any Religion or faith that should be written therin so it were contrary to the Roman A deepe pit of impiety which heretikes do fall into whos property it is not to establish but to ouerthrow fayth to beate downe Christian Churches that stand not to reare vp Christian Churches amongst Pagans They ioyne friendship and communion indifferently with all Sectes sayth Tertullian nor do they regard though they be different from them in opinion Praese cap. 40. so they will concurre with them to ouerthrow the truth This want of sound and solide faith you shew Antony by many signes and tokens First by your perpetuall silence not declaring either in the title or in the body of your booke to what sect or Religiō you meane to passe from the Roman In the title you pretend to shew the reasons of your going but you tell vs neither whence nor whither you take your iourney Motion as Philosophers say receaues forme and shape of the end and marke wherein finally the same resteth which being true your going to which your title prescribes not any end nor restraynes within the compasse of any markes what may it seeme but a vast vncertaine blind and inconsiderate wandering This your omitting to set down in your title the finall marke of your iourney is the more blame-worthy because straight in the very beginning of your discourse you require that euen we Catholikes should approue your departure For how can any prudent man possibly approue your iourney before he know in what Country Church or Religion you meane to take vp your rest We that know not for what place you are bound can we know or approue your course Seing then this circumstance whither is the chiefe thing that giues light to them that are to iudge in the vndertaking of a iourney and therfore is the first thing to be declared in the very beginning of the deliberation why did not you Antony expresse it in the Title of your Booke why haue you not once thoughout your whole pamphlet tould it vs in playne and direct termes The answere is easy you tould it not because you were certaine neither of the Church nor of the Religion wherein you should make your finall abode You compare your selfe forsaking the Church of Rome with the great Patriarke Abraham who following God left his Countrey which comparison though in the mayne point it be very idle yet heerein you are not vnlike to Abraham that as he departed from his natiue soyle not knowing whither he went so you abandoned the Roman Church and Religion before you could tell what other Church or Religion you should imbrace vpon the forsaking therof 6. Secondly of this your doubtfullnesse in choice of Religion which you did but insinuate in the title you make open demonstration in your booke in the 15. pa. wherof you write Now myne eyes being more opened I might easely perceaue that the doctrines of the Churches which being very many Rome hath raysed vp to be her aduersaries which Churches though we sharply censure our Deuines maynly impugne do little or nothing at all swarue from the true primitiue doctrine of the pure Church So you write nor could you haue more disclosed the vast pit of vncertainty in your breast gaping for any doctrine so it be opposite to the Roman For let vs search into the matter I demaund of you Antony whither are you going to Churches say you that swarue very little or nothing from the true Primitiue doctrine I heare you But shew me these Churches which are they they be those Churchs which being very many Rome hath raised vp to be her aduersaries O what a deale of vncertainty and confusiō lyeth couched togeather in these words I let passe that vncertainty very little which how much or little it is no man knowes you only may determine and at your pleasure stretch or contract it I do not enquire where about in the world those Churches are to be seen which you so highly cōmend Which questiō should I propose I could pursue you from country to country and you would sweat to find such Churches in the world as you describe in your booke Churches I
notwithstanding I am persuaded did proceed not from the Kings disposition but from Casaubons dastardy 10. And as for the changes which I do now aforehand auouch wil be in your booke we haue a fayre presage or rather a beginning of them in this Pamphlet which reprinted in England differs somewhat from that you set forth at Venice For in your edition of Venice declaring the argument of the ninth booke of the ten you promise you say that you largely shew quà m parca esse debeat Ministrorum Ecclesiae sustentatio How scarse the maintenance of the ministers of the Church ought to be The word scarse maintenance sounded harshly in the eares of English ministers Peraduenture when you wrote at Venice you prouided maintenance for Bishops only not also for their wiues and children Wherefore in the London edition the matter is amēded you say that you declare qualis esse debeat ministrorum Ecclesiae sustentatio What kind of maintenance Church-ministers ought to haue And when your bookes come forth you may happily to gaine the good will of Ministers wiues change their scarse maintenance into plentifull You may see that without cause you bragge that you will publish a booke brought with you from Italy contayning the Roman errours togeather with many cleere sights and visions of truth you had at Venice and diuers doctrines different from the Roman which you learned by the only reading of the Fathers For the booke you now publish Antony is not that you wrote at Venice it is not I say that worthy worke which you as you vaunt placed in the midest of the darkenesse of Popery not hauing the candle of any hereticall booke shining before you writ only by the light which diuine illustrations falling downe from heauen yeilded to your pen these discourses of yours so noble and diuine be now lost vanished away perished Not so me thinks I heare you say for though some points of doctrine may be changed in my Booke yet many and very many will remaine Suppose this be true who will be able to discerne the reliques of the pure originall from so many the new corruptions therof or distinguish the parts of your booke vntoucht from the parts changed your ancient opinions from your new your Venetian beliefe from your English his Maiesties conceyts from those that be properly yours yours which you lately got by perusing the workes of heretikes from those whereof you boast as if you had receaued them immediatly from heauen No man certainly though he be neuer so sharpe-sighted 11. Fourthly you bewray your vncertainty in that to free your selfe from suspition and to meet with these inconueniences you haue not in this your writing set downe any confession of the faith you brought from Venice which thing was most expected and it did greatly behooue you to haue done it For this is the first thing which persons reclaymed from heresy haue care to do that seeing they now openly forsake the Religion which once they followed the world may take notice of the Religiō which in lieu therof they imbrace least otherwise they should thinke them plaine Infidels vtterly without any certaine religion Wherfore you should straight in the beginning of your reuolte haue made a plaine profession of your faith set down distinctly the doctrines of the Roman Church which you disliked also what you approued in the pretendedly reformed Churches for when you say of them that they swarue from the pure doctrine very little you seeme to insinuate that none of them do fully and absolutly content you This you did not but seruing the time rather then the truth and as S. Hilary saith Lib. 7. de Trinit Heretiks vse to do being ready to frame your doctrine to the humours of men by this negligence you haue changed the ten yeares of your cleere light into darkenesse eternal Neither shall any mortal man euer know what was the faith that ran away with you frō Venice nor what doctrine of Popery made you runne away your writings will be not only charged with falshood but also suspected of fiction that you write to please others what you beleeue not your selfe 12. Nor may you say that in this Booke you haue made confession of your faith in the 29. page therof where you write I am ready to communicate with all so long as we agree in the essentiall articles of our faith and the creedes of the ancient Church yet so if also we togeather detest new articles either openly contrary to the holy Scripture or else repugnant with the aforsayd Creedes This confession of faith is too wandring and wild within which all Heresies may range or at least very few are excluded by it And yet you are not constant in this profession For pag. 9 you cōmaund the Roman Church to restore communion to all the Christian Churches that professe Christ by the essentiall Creeds of faith Where you do not mention what heere you so expressely require the detestation of new articles that are openly contrary to Scriptures Moreouer how vncertaine and ambiguous is that phrase openly repugnant with Scripture For many kindes there be of errours openly contrarie to Scripture and euen Protestants themselues do mainly disagree nor can they define which of these errours must needs be detested vnder paine of expulsion from the Church Againe you say nothing of the Iudge to whose censure it belonges to decree which errours be new and clearly repugnant with Scripture For if you require of men that they detest those errours and articles which to themselues seeme clearly repugnant with Scripture there is not any Sectary that will not do it If you will haue all men reiect such errours and articles which in your iudgment be new and do manifestly contradict the Scripture you do them wronge For who made you their iudge If you will haue the Controuersy decided neither by your iudgment nor by theirs but remitted to the finall decision of a third Iudge why do you not name him Finally you do not declare what you meane by essentiall articles nor how many they be in number nor whether all the articles of the ancient Creedes be essentiall nor what you meane by Creedes essentiall that being a new phrase with I do not remember to haue read in any Authour Catholike or Protestant yea the word may without much adoe be drawne to such a sense as no Heresy will reiect any ancient Creed so farre forth as it is essentiall And why do you not rather exact full and absolute profession of all ancient Creedes but still with this restriction of the Creedes essentiall verily something lurkes in this phrase In libro de Synod Nican decret which we as yet vnderstand not nor without cause did S. Athanasius warne vs to suspect all the wordes and phrases of Heretikes Why speake you not plainly and ingenuously Why dally you with doubtful and ambiguous words in the busines of Religion but only because not being resolued of
what faith you would be you meane to frame such a profession of faith as might sute with diuers occasions times with sundry countries and sectes Wherein you do no new thing which your ancestors did not practise in S. Hieromes dayes They do saith he so temper their words they range them in such order they so mince the matter with ābiguous speach that they make a confession both of our doctrine and of our aduersaries doctrine that in one sense taken their profession is Hereticall taken in another Catholike Neither hath this our age been without such kind of Prothei and Changelings nor without these Camelion-like confessions of faith which change their colour and sense according to time and place Such was the confession of Ausburge which to Charles the fift Emperour the first Fathers of your Ghospell presented The articles of which confession Philip Melancthon the Authour therof Hospin concordia discord in an Domi 1527. did of set purpose and studiously cloth with doubtfull wordes The reason of which his deed writing to Luther he yields saying that those articles were now and then to be changed and made to sute with occasions So it is your faiths be variable and monthly but the verity of our Lord lasteth for euer The third Gulfe Hypocrisy THE third Gulfe of Heretical naughtines is Hypocrisy Heretikes saith S. Lib. 5. de ciuit c. 8. Augustine be crafty people endued not with the spirit of wisedome but with the spirit of wily deceit wherewith their harts are accustomed to boyle and so trouble the quiet of Saintes And S. Hilary Lib. 5. de Trinitate Vpon defection from the faith saith he wayteth lying Hypocrisy so that they keep the shew of godlines in their words the truth wherof they haue cast out of their conscience But it is not easy within the compasse of the skinne of one Lambe so to shut vp a whole wolfe that no part of him be seen You fayne Piety Antony but you dissemble in such sort that by your owne wordes you may be detected to be counterfaire which I will make euident with fiue examples First in the second page you take vpō you the testimony of a pure cōscience Our glory say you is the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity of hart in the syncerity of God not in carnall wisedome but in the grace of God I haue changed place Thus you appeale from the Iudgement of the Church to the Chancery of your secret Conscience you turne your selfe from publick knowledge to your owne priuity that is Confess lib. 10. saith S. Augustine from truth to falshood Shall I proue that you went away moued by the wisedome of the flesh out of care to sleep in a whole skinne ouer which you feared some punishment was imminent that had not this feare giuen you winges to fly away you might haue been still a Papist at this day in outward shew and haue adored those thinges which you now tearme Idolls In the 23. page Hatred against me say you was conceyued and harboured in their hartes at Rome who now had smelt out my labours in writing against her opinions for more then once by the Nuntius Apostolicus abiding in Venice was I warned hereof rebuked Therfore it was my best course to take the winges of the Done and fly into the wildernesse Behold how clearly you confesse that feare gaue you the winges wherewith you were carried away from vs feare I say not of the Romish Idolatry not feare to offend God or to fall into Hell but feare to feele the sharpenes of Roman seuerity feare lest the Republike would deliuer you vp or permit you to be taken and punished according to your desertes by the Inquisition 14. Secondly you make shew of great loue of crosses and of desire to suffer for Christ apparelling your affections in the words of S. Paul burning with diuine charity For my selfe with Paul I say it is a very small thing for me to be iudged of men let me be a foole for Christ let me be ignoble let me be buffeted and cursed let me endure persecutions let me be blasphemed let me be made the scum of the world an outcast and Anathema so only that I make satisfaction to Christ Thus you speake and forward you goe with the words of the Apostle seeming to long to suffer disgraces and torments for Christ But all is faygned for if persecution be your desire why runne you to a Countrey where you may rather persecute others then endure persecution your selfe Where you may securely rayle on the Pope blaspheme him curse him to the pit of hel as the outcast of the world and Anathema The motiue of this your running away you set downe in the 23. pag. What should I say you haue tarried longer in the midst of a peruerse and crooked Nation If I would haue taught and exercised the true Catholike doctrine I had hastened and brought vpon my head the most terrible Roman stormes and most foule tempests And is it so great a misery tody for Christ Antony doth death endured for the true Catholike doctrine seeme foule and hatefull in your eye it being honorable and pretious in the sight of God for the Pilot being in a storme to abandon his ship is foule and shamefull but for him to encounter with the tempest to venture life for ship and passengers is glorious You desire to be a Pilot you will needs gouerne the ship of the Church but to be in stormes and persecution to liue in perill of your life you cannot endure Verilie you dissemble Antony when you make shew of desire to suffer and little do you feele the affections of S. Paul whose wordes breathing forth a burning desire of Martyrdome you borrow for your self which be no more fit for your desire then is Hercules shoo for a Childes foote 15. Thirdly you make great demonstration of condoling with the Church and deploring the ruines she suffers at the handes of the Pope This griefe and sadnes say you in the 10. page did in wonderfull manner consume me and still day by day more and more consumes me Which wordes I could not read without smiling when I remember how your fall giueth euidence against this your pretended pining away for sorow In your whole body from top to toe there appeare not any signes of the mortification of Christ Iesus nor of any inward griefe either wasting your flesh or drying vp your bones When you write that you were in a consumption by reason of sadnes I wonder whether you smiled not your selfe Nor is this any new fiction but the common mantell of Heretikes Lib. 3. mor. ca. 19. which S. Gregory discouered longe since Heretikes saith he make shew to condole with the Church and with this sayre shew of loue do they bayte their bookes of deceyt You weep the teares of the Crocodile wherewith that rauenous beast moisteneth and maketh slippery the ground that when the passenger
suppression of euery heresy as S. Lib. 4. aduersusduas Ep. Pelag. cap. 13. Augustine writeth You greeue I perceaue that the Roman Bishop is able to condemne you without a generall Councell Vnhappy were the Church could he not do it Out of pride innated to heretiks you ayme at this honour that a Coūcell of the whole Church should be called about you which glory also the Pelagians as being most proud Heretikes sought greiuing exceedingly that euery where by the Roman Bishop and others without any Generall Councell they were condemned accursed They desired saith S. Augustine a generall Coūcell that at least they might trouble and disquiet the Catholike world seing they could not God being against them peruert it 25. The seauenth Vntruth is in the 22. pag. That the Episcopall administratiō of Bishops is wholy perished the whole gouernment of Churches is altogeather translated to Rome the Bishops are scarse the vicars and seruants of our Lord the Pope That Church-busines of most weight should be referred to the Roman Bishop the Fathers in all ages haue ordayned This is now adayes still practised in the Church what besides and aboue this you add is not the Roman custome but your slaunder 26. The eight That Bishops be subiect not only to the Pope Cardinalls c. but also to innumerable Religious Orders of Regulars and to their Friars who by their priuiledges deuoure and swallow vp the power of Bishops Verily Antony you seeme to haue lost all regard of your good name that dare in this manner range without the bounds of truth 27. The ninth That Catholike teachers namely your maisters the Iesuites do not furnish their Diuinity with the sayings of holy Scripture exactly discussed and declared that amongst them and in the Church of Rome there is extreme ignorance of Scripture He that will but peruse some Catholike writers in matters of sacred learning specially the Iesuites will soone see how false a slaunder this is 28. The tenth That the books of our Aduersaries are wholy concealed from vs that such as are excellent for their piety and knowledge yea the learnedst Doctours or Bishops we haue are not permitted in any sort to read them Thus you write shewing that hatred against the Pope so transports you that you mind not what you say How could the Catholiks of all nations confute your hereticall books did none of vs read them Are they in no sort permitted no not to the learnedst of vs all You may see Antony that though your booke be forbiden yet I haue read it Therfore S. Cyprian saith truly Lib. 1. ep 2. Amongst prophan men that are departed from the Church and from whose breasts the holy Ghost is departed what els is to be found but a depraued mind a deceitfull tongue cankred hatred and sacrilegious lying To which whosoeuer giueth credit shall at the day of iudgment be found to stand on their side The fifth Gulfe Contumelious speach against the Pope AFTER the Falshood of Heretiks followeth their railing as being a neere neighbour vnto it Heretikes sayth S. Lib. 16. mor. c. 14. Gregory with violency of words assayle the weake minds of the faithfull and robbe the poore people Not being able to supplant the learned they take from the vnlearned the veyle of faith by their pestiferous preaching I shall not need Antony to search into your booke for stormes of angry and rayling speach which in euery page meet with the Reader and rage against the Pope that so you may take from Catholikes the veyle of faith by furious blastes of words seing you can not with solide reasons persuade them to cast it away In the 16. page thus you thunder out against the Church of Rome At Rome many thinges are made articles of Faith which haue not any institution from Christ yea moreouer the soules of the faithfull be miserably deceaued and consequently being blind togeather with their blind guides be lead and fall headlong into the gulfe of Perdition And in the 22. page you rage yet more angerly against Rome It is not a Church say you but a Vineyard to make Noe drunke it is a flocke which the Pastour doth milke till bloud follow which he pouleth shaueth fleaeth and deuoureth In the 32. page It is not for Prophets to deale with the Roman Bishop that now doth so mainly trouble scandalize robbe oppresse the Church The Maiesty of the Roman Pope is counterfayt temporall proude vsurped nothing at all 30. Finally your splene against this present Pope moueth you to reuile the most holy Pope and Martyr S. Stephen For in the 37. page you say that S. Stephen out of indiscreet zeale by importune excōmunications ranne headlong into a mischeiuous Schisme But Cyprian by his Patience Charity and exceeding great Wisedome was the cause that the separation did not ensue This you charge the most holy Martyr as though he had gone headlong into schisme a sinne in your opinion much worse then Heresy How wrongefully and without any iust cause For no man could proceed more religiously more modestly and more prudently then Pope Stephen did in this Controuersy with S. Cyprian When S. Cyprian impugned mightily a doctrine which as he did not deny was confirmed by the perpetuall custome of the Church what did this most holy Bishop appoynted of God to be Iudge and to giue sentence in this Controuersy where this perpetuall custome of the Church was opposed against by the excellent learning and sanctity of Cyprian He shewed a reuerent respect to them both as farre as truth conscience would permit him That the learning and sanctity of S. Cyprian might not ouerthrow a perpetuall custome without the assent of a generall Councell Vincent Lyrinens com c. 16. he set out that Decree so much commended by the Fathers Nihil innouandum praeterquam quod est traditum That nothing should be innouated contrary to that which had byn deliuered by tradition On the other side to shew the regard he had of S. Cyprians learning and sanctity he would not haue that custome should so preiudicate against S. Cyprians doctrine that thereupon it should be accompted Heretical before a generall Councell but that S. Cyprian though stil cleauing to his opinion should notwithstanding be retayned in the Catholike communion A most prudent and temperate decision 31. Neither did he with any bitter speach prouoke S. Cyprian who yet as S. Augustine saith too much moued against Pope Stephen powred forth such speachs as it were better to bury them in obliuion then to record and reuiue them Wherfore by the iudgment of antiquity not only truth stood on the Popes side but also modesty charity wisedome in his proceedings for the defence of the truth Take heed Antony that you be not a member of him Apoc. 15. to whome was giuen a wide mouth speaking bigge things and to blaspheme the tabernacle of God and the Saints that dwell in heauen You are as good as your word according to your
you might make your selfe a free passage to the Court and Kitchin of the King of Great Britany The doctrine is that Kings though they sin yet may not they be rebuked or checked neither by their Familiars nor by Priests nor by the cheefe Bishop but only by Prophets whome God doth extraordinarily raise designe for this office That you teach this new Diuinity I will conuince and leaue you being conuinced to be iudged by his most Gracious Maiesty The Roman Sage were he to giue sentence vpon you would put you in the number of theeues seing you seeke to depriue Kings of their best treasure Lib. 6. de beneficijs cap. 4. whereof in Courtes there is euer great scarsity I will shew you saith Seneca what is not be found in magnificent Pallaces what is wanting to them that want nothing they want one to tell the truth deliuer frō errour the man that sits amazed besides his wits in the midest of a great multitude of lyars brought by longe vse of hearing pleasing things insteed of true things to that passe he knowes not what truth is Such an admonisher and rebuker of Christian Kings the Roman Bishop is by office designed by Christ the greatest treasure he could bestow on them which you endeauour by your new Deuinity to take from them For in the page 31. to proue that a Bishop may reprehend and rebuke the Pope you beginne to declare the matter by the difference that is betweene an earthly King and the Pope writing in this manner 42. The Maiesty of an earthly King is to be dreaded who as Tertullian saith is second to God inferiour to God only and ouer whome saith Optatus none is but God only Wherefore when Dauid was to be rebuked for his adultery and murder not the High-priest nor any other either Priest or Leuite not any man either friend or familiar durst assume to himselfe that office But God himselfe for this purpose appoynted his owne proper and peculiar messenger and sent the Prophet Nathan to reprehend the King But for the Roman Bishop now most of all troubling scandalizing robbing and spoyling the Church it is not for Prophets to deale with him it is not to be expected that God should stirre vp for this enterprise singular Prophets nor send speciall messengers The Maiesty of our Roman Pope is not so great that it ought to feare vs that temporall stately Maiesty is counterfaite vsurped no Maiesty at all the Pope he is our brother our Colleague a Bishop as we are All these be your owne words Antony wherewith you breath forth that flattering doctrine which I layd to your charge You say the Popes Maiesty ought not so to terrify Bishops but they may rebuke him But the Maiesty of an earthly King is so dreadfull so much to be feared that no man that is not a Prophet though he be the chiefe Bishop may take vpon him the office to reprehend him Do you speake this of base feare which Cowardes beare towards them that haue power ouer the body or of pious feare and reuerence which by right is due to Superiours which if we neglect we do against our Duty and offend God If you speake of the first kind of feare you faigne a difference betweene the Pope and the King where there is not any at all 43. For as the Popes Maiesty ought not to strike into our harts base and seruile feare which makes vs to neglect our dutyes so likewise we ought not to be in this manner affrighted by Kingly Maiesty Christ hauing giuen vs an expresse cōmandment not to feare them that kill the body but can do no hurt to the soule Luc. 16. And de facto as the King by the terrour of his Maiesty may fright men vniustly and make them not to discharge towards him the duty that they owe of correction so may the Pope also for else why ran you away Why fly you the Popes paynted Maiesty paynted Prisons paynted sires paynted torments You be not so farre besides your selfe so that this fearefullnes of the Kings Maiesty aboue the Popes is deuised without any ground speaking of base and slauish feare For this sort of feare as neither of their Maiestyes ought so either of their Maiestyes may strike into base minded mens harts You speake then if you speake to the purpose of pious reuerence and feare of Superiours due by right vnto them and therein you put the difference betwixt the Kings Maiesty and the Popes So you say that the Popes Maiesty ought not of right to be so feared but that Bishops may freely rebuke him but the Kinges Maiesty by right and by the Law of God ought to be so dreaded that no man may reprehend him no not the Pope except he haue a Propheticall and extraordinary commission to do it Whence it is consequent that none may without sinne tell Kings of their faultes that be not Prophtes 44. Now how vngodly and abiect this your new conceyte is may soone appeare by considering the arguments you bring to confirme it They are three contayned in your former words and deriued from three differences which you imagine betweene the Pope and the King The first is That the Popes Maiesty is counterfayte temporall faigned no Maiesty at al but the Maiesty of a terrene King is exceeding great tremenda to be dreaded and feared therfore the Popes Maiesty may and ought to be freely rebuked but the Kings Maiesty in no case not for any cause nor by any man that is not specially sent of God for that purpose This diuersity betwene terrene and spirituall authority you proue not And no meruayle you found it not out by reason but by reuelatiō of that spirit which is prince ouer men that mind earthly things Philip. c. 3. vers 18. whose belly is their God whose glory in their owne confusion By the same spirit was Luther moued to compare the state of Virginity with the state of Marriage writing In epist ad Cor. that the first state is heathenish secular terrene mirery the second spirituall heauenly diuine golden This doctrine flesh and bloud reuealed to Luther which also moueth you to debase Priestly Maiesty vnder the feete of earthly In the palate of the ancient holy Bishops Priestly dignity had a more diuine sauour they had it in higher esteeme which they did so farre extoll aboue Royall as the heauen surmounted the earth the spirit goeth beyond the flesh You Greg. Nazian ad Praesid iras O earthly Princes saith one of them the law of Christ maketh subiect to our bench we likewise haue power and commaund yea power more excellent and eminent then yours is vnlesse it be reasonable that the spirit should yield homage to the flesh heauenly things giue place to earthly things Behold what an high conceit these pious Prelates did frame of their Pontificall power You to whome power to binde both in Heauen and Earth in respect of earthly power seemeth
you could possibly lay togeather on a heape so many things openly false absurd impious so many things wherein you contradict your selfe wherein you bewray the courses which you would fayne haue hidden wherin you vtterly ouerthrow your owne cause Wherfore you can neuer proceed further except you returne backe to the Catholike Church from which you haue fayled You are gone out of the way you must needs returne before you can make forward 56. The applause wherwith our Adueruersaries intertained you let it not detayne you from this returne Therein they did nothing that swarueth from the nature of Heretikes or from the course that ancient Heretikes held Praesc cap. 40. Being themselues Apostata's saith Tertullian they ioyfully receaue our Apostata's that fly vnto them they bestow on them benefices they aduance them to dignities so tying them fast to their sect by honours whome they cannot bind sure to them by the truth Nor let their exclamations prayses predictions allure you wherwith they shew their great hope conceyued that they shall vanquish the Pope you being their leader These are but bubbles froath which your fall from so high a state into so deep a gulfe hath raysed suddaynly will vanish away Despise them These are the oyle of sinners wherewith wretches appointed for fire euerlasting be in this world anointed that in the next their burning may be the sorer Abhorre them These are but conceits prayses wherwith they make a vaine shew of triumph ouer vs and flatter you to your face who behind your backe play vpon you with scoffes loading you with the disgracefull titles you truly deserue and with some also which perchance you haue not merited when not long ago at S. Dunstans you made a speach in the street do you not know what the people then present vttered against you They called you great-bellied-Doctour made fat vnder Antichrist and some there were also that sayd that before you ranne away from the Pope you got your owne Neece with child and that feare to be punished for it made you trudge away with your great load of flesh in such hast 57. I do not relate these things as beleeuing them or as desiring that they should be beleeued but to shew how vaine be the prayses of Heretikes how vayne a prophet you were in promising to yourselfe that your most beautifull Sara for so you tearme your good Name should remaine pure and vntoucht in the midest of Barbarians For these things were vented against you not in Rome by Catholikes but in London by Protestants openly in the streets Many great Personages also do not sticke to mutter about you that besides grossnes of body you haue brought nothing with you that is answerable to the greatnes of your titles that your booke doth not equall the solemne ostentation and expectation you haue raised therof that you do not performe therein what you promise yea some would not haue it printed at all fearing you may therwith disgrace your selfe and their Ghospell 58. Now then Antony why tarry you in the middest of a depraued and peruerse nation Why do you wretchedly draw on your gray hayres with grief and disgrace to your graue Seeke for true renowne who haue lost the vaine honour that you hūted for irreligiously Enter into your owne hart remember whence you are falne do pennance and turne againe to your first workes Through Gods goodnesse assisting you rayse your self a monument of the diuine mercy which this present age which the future times may admire and make a lasting benefit of Let reioycing posterity to the worlds end be taught by your example this comfortable truth that the bowels of diuine benignity be not so loathing of sinners but that they willingly take in againe euen tepide Apostata's whome they were forced to cast vp Ayme at the dignity of a Penitent seeing you haue lost the state of Innocēcy You that haue let go the sterne you who beaten out of the ship wherein you were Pilot floate in the Ocean lay hold on this board which is reached vnto you whereon you may swimme to a Kingdome You are threescore yeares old very nigh the remnant of your yeares be bad and few Withdraw these your bad yeares from vice that you may see good dayes Bestow these your few yeares in pennance that you may gaine yeares eternall Let not the bitternes of pennāce discourage you which by the dew of diuine Comforts falling from aboue will be sweetned Where sinne hath abounded there grace will more abound The deeper and darker that the dungeon is wherin you are kept by so much more sweet will the breath be that being thence deliuered you shall draw in the lightsome mercies of your Redeemer 59. Nor let it deiect you that you haue shamefully falne but remember that as the depth of the diuine Iustice so likewise the depth of the diuine Mercy is vnsearchable Who knowes the mind of God And whether he hath not ordayned that this your fall be for your owne rising againe and for the rising of many The secret pride wherein you went mounting a loft in your conceyts against your Creatour was to be beaten downe by a mighty thunderclappe that you others might feele it For this your pride standing on foote you could no wayes be saued by him that lookes vpon low things high things knoweth a farre off Wherfore I am not greeued with your defection no not for your owne sake which yet would grieue me could I be persuaded that you should haue byn saued had you continued in the Catholike Church But when I consider the wauering disposition the darke and intangled proceedings of Apostata's both ancient and new I come to be setled in this opinion That none perish by falling from the Church who would not as well haue perished through their secret concealed errours though they had continued outwardly in the Church And these men are by the secret course of diuine Prouidence cast out of the Church to the end that being so forlorne they may reflect on themselues or else that by being out of the Church they may benefit others who by remayning in the Church would neuer haue benefited themselues This to me seemes the opinion of S. Augustine whose golden words I here set downe de vera Relig. c. 8. Seing it is truly sayd that Heresies must needs be to the end that they who are of proofe amongst you may be made manifest let vs make vse of this benefit of the diuine prouidence For Heretikes be made of such kind of men who though they were in the Church would we neuerthelesse erre but being out of the Church they be very beneficial not because they teach the Truth for hereof they are ignorant but because they awake carnall Catholikes to seeke and spirituall Catholikes to declare the truth Thus S. Augustine 60. I could name diuers Apostata's with whome in times past I haue byn acquaynted who euen then when to others yea to themselues they seemed Catholikes were couertly infected with Errours against the Roman Faith and possessed with secret malice against the Roman Sea But you Antony are an example of this truth that may stand insteed of many For to say nothing of your open enimity against the Roman doctrine in your last ten yeares you that still beleeued that the Church of Rome was iustly suspected of errours what could the externall shew and profession of a Roman Catholike haue auayled you to saluation You that still were doubting whether some doctrine more firme then the Catholike did not lye hidden in the writings of Heretikes what good would it haue done you that you kept your eyes from their books your body frō their Conuenticls You had perished secretly nor such was your carelessnes had you perceaued that you did perish Now you erre openly that many may be taught the truth you perish in the sight of the world that diuers affrighted with your example may be moued to work their saluation And why may not this your fall turne to your euerlasting exaltation I will not despayre but when you haue been cloyed with the huskes of swine which now you feed in a farmers house that once were a feeder of sheep in the Church I do not despayre I say but that one day you will call to mind the aboundance of your fathers house and hauing learned by deare experience what a mischiefe secret Pride is retourning to the Catholike Church you will say I had perished vnlesse I had perished FINIS Faultes escaped in the Printing Page Line Fault Correction 6. vlt. of out of 8. 9. hell in hell in 12. 26. vnion vnion 16. 3. your our 19. penult false falne 23. 12. of if Ibid. 21. vnto men vnto you 25. 23. now as this now this 26. 5. prosecuteth persecuteth 31. 20. begon be gone 33. 14. do be to be 53. 3. to rather to Rather Ibid. 4. your selfe You your selfe you Ibid. 6. deeds You deeds you 67. 2. Church Church Ibid. 4. world world 68. 19. guide grudge 72. 19. swarueth swarued 79. 19. one owne 98. 18. fall face 102. 2. so to 111. 6. are were 121. 12. deserue do serue