proue that this Catholicke visible Church doth not consist of the good and elect only which is another erroneous position of Protestant Religion and proued largely by S. Augustine to haue bene the heresy of the Donatists and Pelagians their bretheren but of good and bad togeather vnto the worlds end and for confirmation thereof he doth produce interpret those Parables vsed by our Sauiour Matth. 3. to wit of the good corne and chaffe in the floore and of the net cast into the sea that brought vp both good and bad fish and lastly of the weedes and good corne commaunded to be permitted to grow togeather Vpon which place S. Leo the first giueth the glosse thus In extremo iudicio sunt quaedam vrenda flammis sunt alia condenda horreis In the last iudgement some things are to be burned with the flames of dānation other thinges are to be gathered into Gods granary All these places and many more both S. Augustine S. Leo many of the Fathers do interprete of the good and bad that are promiscuously mixed in the Church togeather Do our Protestants follow these expositions 57. Thirdly my foresaid Authour goeth yet further for prouing of a third assertion as contrary to the Protestants as they are opposite vnto truth to wit that this publike and visible Church granted once by Protestants themselues to haue bene the true Church could neuer faile or euer fall away to the worlds end For prouing of which assertion he alleageth sundry passages of holy Writ farre different for interpretation from the Protestants sense His wordes be That Church saith he that was once of all Nations he meaneth the Catholicke is it not now Hath it perished They say so that are not in her O impudent voice Is not she because thou art not in her This abominable and detestable voice full of presumption and falsity susteined by no truth illuminated by no wisedome seasoned with no salt vaine temerarious precipitate and pernicious is preuented and refuted by the holy Ghost c. And then doth he cyte seuerall places of Scripture to proue that notwithstanding all exposition and contradiction of Hereticks that the said visible Church bring once collected of all Nations and placed vpon the open hill and mount of this world and conspicuous vnto the eyes of al could neuer possibly vanish away againe or fall frō Christ as Protestants do falsely charge the Mother Romā Church and consequently they would neuer agree to expound these Scriptures as S. Augustine did But whom shall we rather belieue VVhether is a Luther or a Caluin or S. Augustine to be followed Or which Church his or this of the Protestants is likest to go neare the truth and to light vpon the true meaning of the holy Ghost in expoūding these Scriptures For certaine I am their expositions vary and are repugnant one to the other 58. And in this manner might I proceed in disclosing this great Doctor and famous pillar of the Church S. Austine his iudgement for the exposition of Scriptures concerning all controuersies or the most of them betweene the Catholickes and the Protestants at this day wherein the sayd Father is no lesse perspicuous and copious then as if being an eye-witnesse and an eare-witnesse of all poynts now controuerted he had written in these very dayes of sirife amongst vs. And eyther this is or I know not what can be a manifest demonstration that the holy Ghost guided the pen of this worthy Doctor to taxe and prescribe against the manifould heresies of our times As for example touching the doctrine of Purgatory whome Doctor Field out of a fanaticall spirit and spirit of heresie surchargeth and falsely traduceth of heresy what writer of this time can deliuer and set downe his opinion more resolutely then he doth his prouing the same irrefragably both by the allegation and exposition of sundry passages of holy Scripture as namely by those wordes of our Sauiour Matth. 12. It shall not be remitted vnto him eyther in this life or in the next Whereupon this great Doctor inferreth that some sinnes are remitted in the next consequently there must be a Purgatory And so that place of S. Paul 1. Cor. 3. Euery mans worke shal be tryed by the fire of what sort it is S. Augustine doth also apply to proue the same purging fire to remaine for some sinnes or bad workes in the next life And these expositions of Scripture confirming Purgatory deliuered by S. Augustine and oftentimes reiterated in his workes were neuer reprehended by any as false nor the Father taxed as teaching any erroneous doctrine dissonant from the doctrine and beliefe of the Catholicke Church which doubtlesse he could neuer haue escaped had his assertion of Purgatory bene erroneous liuing in the age of S. Ambrose S. Hierome and other learned Fathers who wanted neyther learning nor zeale to haue both matched him and confuted him had he swarued in ought from sound faith and the doctrine of their present Church and consequently Purgatory was then held for no errour or heresy And the like I might aboundantly proue in many other pointes both out of S. Augustine and sundry other of like antiquity learning and sanctity 59. Finally the conclusion of all this mayne Chapter and Treatise of sacred Scriptures must of necessity fall out to be this that not all belieuing of Scriptures nor appealing vnto Scripture nor sensing of Scriptures nor presuming of the spirit is sufficient to make a man a Christian Catholick for that as hath beene formerly noted forth of S. Bernard many men presume of Gods spirit when it is not but their owne spirit or rather the spirit of Sathā and consequently take or rather mistake their owne spirits expositions for the interpretation of the holy Ghost Againe some when they erre in expounding Scriptures are notwithstanding of opinion that they follow Scriptures when indeed they follow their owne errours So S. Augustine obserueth 60. Thirdly others by a peruerse interpretation make of Christs Ghospell mās Ghospell or that which is worse the Diuells Ghospell as S. Hierome noteth and yet all these with the Diuell and all former heretickes pretend to vrge and build vpon Scripture But no meruaile if all these appeale vnto Scriptures vpon a false confidence thinking that the word of God maketh for them when it maketh against them For let these Scripturians be but marked let them be vnmasked that is as Vincentius Lyrinensis excellenly deliuereth the obseruation against them let not only their sayings but their meanings not their wordes but their senses of Scripture be noted then their bitternes shall be detected their madnes disclosed their new poyson vented forth their prophane nouelties reuealed then the hedge shal be cut then the boundes of Fathers shall be translated then Catholicke faith shall be violated and the Churches position cancelled Hitherto Vincentius 61. The only way then to make a man a true Christian Catholicke indeed if
dore of the Church the one of them must of necessity serue the other so impossible it is that two so contrary the one to the other should stand togeather such is the implacable hostility and extreme opposition betwixt them 7. When Abraham the Father of the faithfull for so the Scriptures style him perceaued that a breach might happily fall out betwixt him and his nephew Lot vpon a dissention already begunne betwixt their heards-men he calleth vnto him consulteth the case treateth and intreateth with him and to perswade him to vnitie vseth this motiue of all the most perswasiue Let there be no dissention betwixt me and thee betwixt my heards-men and thy heards-men for we are brethren c. But it fareth not thus betwixt the Catholicke and the Hereticke no vnion can be made no communion had no condition of peace to be treated and offered betwixt them And if you will haue the reason of this they are no brethren nay which is more they cannot be brethren for the Catholicke in his spirituall birth hath God for his father and the Church for his mother wheras the Hereticke hath an Hethite to his father and an Amonite to his mother that is Sathan is his father and Schisme is his mother he is a stranger to the couenant and a meere alien to the houshould of faith And therefore as Ichu first answered Iehoram his messengers demaunding of peace Quid vobis est paci what haue you to do with peace get you behind me follow me c. And secondly vnto Iehoram himself when he came in person to meet him and demanded Is it peace Iehu what peace whilest the fornications of thy mother Iezabel and her witch-crafts are yet in such aboundance so what peace can the Catholicke make with the Hereticke whilest his heresy worse then the sinne of witchcraft and his spirituall fornications in worshipping of false gods that is intertaining false opinions in religion and dissonant from Catholicke faith continue a terrible caueat to all temporizers that will make a linsey-wolsey of all Religion reconciling Catholicke Religion with Protestants heresy which is as possible as to vnite things most contrary and deadly iarring To these I can giue no other counsaile then such as Elias gaue to the worshippers of Baal when his fiery zeale would admit no diuision betwixt Idolatrous superstition and Gods most pure and vndefiled Religion How long will you halt betwixt two opinions if Baal be God follow him but if God be God follow him c. The application is if hereticall innouation be God his true worship follow it but if Catholicke tradition be the only true and soule-sauing religion then vnder eternall paine hazard of your soules resolue halt no longer betwixt the two God will either haue all or none he careth not for a hart and a hart a deuided hart and the Church will receiue none within her bosome nor help to saue any with her Sacraments but such as are her true-borne children constantly professing her piety abandoning all kind of schisme heresy and securely resting only and truely within her bosome 8. And although I do not affirme that all Catholickes shall be saued for that euill life and matter of fact may condemne as well as bad beliefe and matter of faith yet am I most certaine and I dare pronounce it that all heretickes so liuing and so dying shall be damned agreeing with that so often times reiterated by S. Cyprian Numquam perueniet ad praemia Christi qui relinquit Ecclesiam Christi alienus est profanus est hostis est He shall neuer aspire to heauenly glory that forsaketh the Churches verity and falleth away from Christ by Apostasie he is a forreyner he is profane he is an enemy And as all perished without the Arke and were certainely corporally drowned so assuredly all without the Arke of the Church shall eternally be damned since the Scriptures teach vs that this Arke was a liuely type of the Church And as an Hereticke and a Catholicke can neuer be ioyned togeather in heauen so can neuer the Catholicke and Hereticke Catholicke Religion and heresie in any one point be conioyned vpon earth this is the vniforme and vnanime to vse his Maiesties word consent of all orthodoxe pious and religious Deuines 9. The reason of all the foresaid opposition betwixt a right-beleeuing Catholicke and a misbelieuing Hereticke is this the Catholicke knoweth nay belieueth it as the ground-worke of his faith that Christ our Sauiour hauing left the world in respect of his visible presence continueth inuisible by the immediate assistance of his holy spirit with his Church which is Domus Dei Porta Caeli the house of God and the Gate of Heauen as Iacob spake of the place of his vision Columna firmamentum veritatis the piller and foundation of truth Vnto this Church our Sauiour reuealeth all his secrets that concerne her saluation maketh her of his priuy Counsaile gouerneth her visibly first by his owne person secondly by his Apostles directeth her inuisibly by his immediate spirit the holy Ghost and so continueth her vnder visible gouernment and inuisible direction vnto the worlds generall consummation leading her into all truth such was his promise made vnto her and here is the performance And the reason that the Church is thus neare and deare vnto Christ is this Corpus est shee is his body according to that of S. Augustine Totum quod annunciatur de Christo caput corpus est Caput est filius Dei viui vnigenitus Corpus Ecclesia c. All that can be said and auerred of Christ is his head and his body The head is the onely begotten Sonne of God the body is his Church bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh for Christ hath two bodyes the one natum ex virgine and therefore naturall the other redemptum sanguine and therefore mysticall and the later was more deare vnto him then the former for he wholy bestowed his naturall body to redeeme his mysticall body 10. The Catholicke then knowing this correspondency betwixt Christ and his Church belieueth all wholy and without eyther choice or additiō of his owne which the said Church vniuersally spread ouer the world doth propose vnto him as matter of faith to be belieued conteyning himselfe within that most sure and infallible prescription of Tertullian Nobis verò nihil ex nostro arbitrio licet inducere sed nec eligere quod aliquis de arbitrio suo induxerit It is not lawfull for vs to innouate at our pleasure nor yet may I make choyce of that which another man vpon priuate fancy hath added But as for the Hereticke non sic ille non sic it goeth not so with him for being an Hereticke that is a chooser he according to his name and nature because he will not haue his name for nought maketh choice of what he listeth to belieue
great doubt that then arose in the Church to wit whether the obseruation of the ould law of Moyses should be ioyned necessary with the new law of Christ and because they would leaue a patterne for all succeeding ages to follow they determined the matter and thēselues I meane the Apostles and Prelates of that first age decided the doubt by those high wordes of authority taken from the foresaid commission of our Sauiour Visum est spiritui Sāto Nobis it seemeth good vnto the holy Ghost and vs for the Church and the true spirit of the holy Ghost go inseparably togeather in regard of Christ his promise made vnto the Church so that the holy Ghost euer keepeth his residence in her guideth her gouerneth her directeth her and sitteth as President in all her consultations and assēblyes and therefore this vmpiring and determining forme of speach hath euer since beene vsed in the lawfull succession of the said visible Church vntill our daies will be frequented still especially in generall Councels euen vnto the worlds end to put a firme period and full conclusion vnto all controuersies that come in question And the reason is for that the same authority and assistance of the holy Ghost which that first Church had for directing of mens soules vnto their saluation the very self same and none other hath the visible Catholicke Church of our age and hath had in all ages and shall haue in all to come Verum enim non variat It is an ancient prescription and no more ancient then true Gods giftes and graces conferred vpon his Church are without repētance the holy Ghost is euer one and the selfe same spirit of truth in Patriarkes Prophets Apostles Martyrs and other succeding Pastours and Doctors and Christ his promise was not for one age only he shed not his pretious bloud for those of his age alone but for all all were alike neere vnto him all were alike deare vnto him he tooke our nature in generall to saue mankind in generall and therfore the care he had for one age of the Church the same he had for all succeeding ages of the same as well for the last as for the first and this care of his continueth so long as the sunne and the moone endureth 60. This remittance then and reference vnto the Authority of the Church originally proceeded from the Apostles themselues was continually perpetuated by all succeeding ages of the Catholicke Church and therfore as S. Paul in a controuersy of lesser importance writing to the Corinthians about women being veyled in the Church saith to shut vp the dore to all further cōtention that If any man will seeme to be contentious we haue no such custome nor yet the Church of God repressing the contentious man as you see with the Authority and Custome of the Church so did all subsequent Fathers of the orthodox Church whether it were in the priuat writings or in the worlds grand Parlament in Generall Councells in all their conflicts with Hereticks they euer vsed to repell and represse them by one and the selfe same meanes and that was with the authority of the knowne Catholicke Church And looke what sentence they pronounced against thē for their contumacy see what censure they inflicted vpon them for their heresy it remayned good against them and irreuocable it was ratyfied as the law of the Medes and Persians which could not be altered their authority was grounded immediatly vpon those wordes of Verity VVhat soeuer you bynd on earth shall be bound in heauen and the Tribunall of heauen confirmed the authority of the Church vpon earth nay standeth expecting what is done by it vpon earth such is the mysticall dependency betwixt the one and the other such is the mutuall correspondency betwixt the head and his members Christ and his Church Dare then any man hereafter oppose his priuate spirit against the authority of this Church Or will he impudently presume to preferre his owne conceipt and opinion before her publicke tradition 61. Ancient S. Irenaeus who was in manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostolorum for he liued in the very next age after them writing against the heresies of his dayes and hauing first declared how the primitiue Church was visibly planted by Christ and his Apostles and how it was continued to his time doth then pourtraict out vnto vs discourse at large of the authority sufficiency treasury tradition and absolute perfection of this Church for the repelling of all heresy and deliuering of all truth his wordes are these Tantae igitur ostensiones cùm haec sint c. Wheras these thinges which I haue said are so great demonstrations of the truth we must not yet seeke the truth from others which is easely taken from the Church wheras the Apostles did most fully lay vp in her all thinges belonging to the truth as in a certaine rich treasure-house so as euery man that will may take from thence the liquor or sustenance of life for that is the intrance vnto life euerlasting to belieue the Church all others that flie this way are theeues and murtherers and therfore we must auoid them that are such but with great diligence we must affect those things that are of the Church and from her take the tradition of truth And truly if our contention were but about some small question in Religion yet ought not we to haue recourse vnto the most ancient Churches wherin the Apostles had once bene conuersant and so take from them that which is certaine and cleere for deciding of the question And what if the Apostles had left vnto vs no Scriptures at all had it not bene needfull notwithstanding to follow the order of tradition which they haue left vnto vs to whome they to wit the Apostles had committed those Churches 62. Thus farre S. Irenaeus which I haue of purpose chosen to cite more at large for that it is sufficient alone to disclose his iudgement and the Iudgment of that first age next after the Apostles how farre the authority of the visible vniuersall Church then stretched and was esteemed for especially for clearing soluing and deciding of all doubtes that possibly could arise in religion And the reason there rendred by the same Father is this She is the store-house wherein Christs merits and the Churches treasure is laid vp She is the way of life whereby we may come to eternall life and escape euerlasting death that all are theeues yea murtherers of soules that doe impugne her or seeke other wayes of tryall then her and her tradition from hand to hand That this tradition is sufficient though there were no Scripture That from her and her alone the truth is to be taken and not els where That by her and her authority alone all doubts and questions are to be so ued and decided Can any thing be spoken more effectuall then this Or is there any more playne easy euident
sense requireth the stay of a sure interpretation and this is only that which can make a man a true Catholicke Christian. 50. S. Augustine amongst those manifould cōflicts which he had with the Manichees concerning the Catholicke Church her authority openly and ingenuously professed vnto the said Manichees that he would not haue belieued the Ghospell if the authority of the Catholicke Church did not moue him therunto Whence I do obserue that if we receiue the Ghospell vpon the credit of the Church for that the Ghospell would not be belieued to be the Ghospell vnlesse the authority of the Church did tell vs that it were the Ghospell then followeth it necessarily for the argument is drawne à maiore ad minus that much more should we depend and rely vpon the Church and take from her the true sense meaning and exposition of the Ghospell from whom we haue belieued and receaued that it is the Ghospell and therefore saith the same Father to his friend Honoratns Multò facilius mihi persuaderem Christo non esse credendum quà m de illo quidquam nisi ab his per quos credidissem esse credendum I should much more easily perswade my selfe that we ought not to beleeue in Christ at all then that any thing were to be learned cōcerning him of any man but only of those whom I was taught to belieue in Christ. Can any thing be spoken more effectually for the Authority of the Church since this is the sole cause of his belieuing the Ghospell This is the onely motiue of his imbracing the faith of Christ 51. But now whether Protestants do follow this trade and way of true Catholicisme in their sensing and vnderstanding of Scriptures that is not hard to discouer For when wee come to particuler controuersies and to ioyne issue togeather and that they and their aduersaries do alleage Scriptures and expound the same then doth it appeare as cleare as the sunne who followeth a priuate interpretation and who adhereth to the true Catholicke Churches exposition For the Roman Catholicke first desyring to find out the truth and then willing to imbrace nothing but the truth reflecteth vpon the former interpretation of ancient Church when the present controuersy was not yet in hand and consequently when the exposition cannot be so much as in any semblable reason suspected to be wrested or wrongly interpreted by men of those ages who neither feared nor fauoured any party but must needes be according to the common meaning and sense of the Church in those ancient tymes and this interpretation which the Protestants also in some of their better humours do admit for good the Catholicke followeth vpon this as vpon the rock of God his word truly sensed by the Church he stayeth himselfe buildeth his religion 52. Now the Protestāt being guilty in his conscience and knowing well that antiquity detesteth and hath already anathematized his heresy he by all meanes possible by vociferatiōs and exclamations seeketh to extenuate the authority of this Church much like to the theefe or malefactor who arested by the law to abyde the triall of the same beginneth to raile exclaime against his lawfull ludge and iurours and then in his imagination he deuiseth certaine Chymera's and Idea's of his Church in former times in the ayre of his owne braine which lineally saith he but God knoweth how for he knoweth not descended vnto Luther and Caluin c. And from these people partly and partly from himselfe frameth the Protestant his exposition of Scripture and vpon this foundation buildeeh he all his religion of his owne deuice 53. And albeit all Fathers do not allwaies agree in one and the selfe same sense and exposition of Scripture for that there may be be diuers senses of one the selfe same place of Scripture as before you haue heard at large yet doth the holy Ghost so rune and strike vpon the stringes the tonges and pens I meane of these ancient Wortnies of the Church that all the variety that euer I could find yet amongst them sounded forth a heauenly harmony and neither iarred not yet was dissonant from Scripturs verity or faiths Analogy so farre is the Churches vnity from all contrariety And verily this diuersity of antiquity in the execution of Scriptures without all repugnancy or any contrariety was no small motiue vnto me to imbrace the present Roman Catholicke Religion which all so I found in them for I could not but conclude that as one spirit breathing out these Scriptures intended all these senses so the same spirit guided all And therefore no meruaile that neither the ages wherin such Fathers liued nor any succeeding Century of the Church reprehended their expositions For the wisedome of the spirit euer continued in the Church and thereby they know that such variety breeded no contrariety whilst one Father sensed the Scripture literally another Allegorically and another mystically or Anagogically but yet all to a pious sense and with no obstinate proteruity or animosity against that which the Church did hould or determine for truest 54. And now to come vnto some particuler exposition or Scripture by the Fathers let vs instance in the age of S. Augustine for the Protestants are wont to graunt that the true Church florished in his time and his Maiesty also condescendeth to extend the triall of Controuersies to his time and somwhat further The same Father writing of this Church we haue formerly mentioned proued the same first to be visible and obuious vnto euery mans eyes against the assertion of the Protestants inuisibility of the Church and this he confirmeth out of the wordes of our Sauiour registred by the Euangelist Matth. 5. A Citty vpō a hill cannot be hidden that is to say the Church cannot be inuisible which is many times repeated by the same Father to this effect As also forth of those wordes of the Psalmist Psal. 18. In sole posuit tabernaculum suum he put his tabernacle in the sunne that is he placed his Church in the sight of the world to be seene of all men 55. In like manner the same Father applyeth and expoundeth those wordes of Christ Matth. 5 about the Candle placed on the Candlestick to signify the visibility of the Catholicke Church crying out against them Qui contra lucernam in candelabro positamoculos claudant who willfully shut their eyes against the candle placed on the candlestick Qui tammagnam montem non vident who cannot see so great a hill as the Church is And lastly for conclusion of all he giueth his censure of them in these wordes Quid amplius sum dicturus qùam caecos esse What shall I say more of them but that they are blnd Thus did S. Augustine interpret and apply these Scriptures and many more to this purpose as you shall read throughout his whole Tract de Vnitate Ecclesiae contra Petilianum andels where 56. And the same S. Augustine to
Psalme did forsee this abominable and detestable voyce of some that should say that the Catholicke visible Church had perished and fallen into Apostacy a speach full of presumption and falshood susteyned with no truth inlightened with no wisdome seasoned with no salt a vaine temerarious headlong pernicious speach So S. Augustine And then further some few lines after the same Father bringeth in the said visible Church of his age to expostulate with those furious and franticke Donatists in this manner Quid est quod nescio qui recedentes à me murmurant contra me quid est quòd perditi c. What is the cause I know not why certaine people that go forth of me doe murmure against me What is the cause why certaine lost fellowes do contend and say that I am perished For this is their saying that I was the true Church but am not now c. The Scriptures say they haue bene fulfilled for that all nations haue belieued but the Church hath Apostated and perished throughout the world c. VVhen we vrge the promise of Christ Behold I am with you vnto the consummation of the world here they say that Christ promised to be with the Church vntill the end of the world for that he did foresee that they the factiō of Donatus should arise and continue the true Church vpon earth So. S. Augustine of and to the Donatists And surely nothing can occurre and be represented vnto our vnderstanding more conforme and answerable vnto the sense iudgment voyce agreement and speach of the Sectaries of these our times concerning their false imputations and most vniust calumniations against the present Roman Church 17. Now if this graue and holy Father S. Augustine one of the chiefest pillars of the latyn Church in his dayes speaking in the voyce and sense of the said vniuersall Catholicke Church in his age doth so grieuously and dreadfully censure this speach and blasphemous slander of the Apostacy of the visible Church so triuiall and familiar vnto Protestants now adayes as that he calleth it impudent abhominable detestable presumptuous false foolish rash temeratious and pernicious as you haue heard If he condemne euen to the lowermost pit of hell all those that frequent the same calling and accompting them for perditos lost and damned people recedentes ab Ecclesia Apostated from the Church vpon a false surmise of their owne foolish fancy supposing that the Church it selfe hath Apostated or may fall into Apostacy what shall we say of Protestants that do the same and stand in the very same case 18. But here it may be perhaps some man will reply that S. Augustine in the place before cyted sayth not that the visible Church cannot Apostate or perish but that it had not so done and fallen away in his time when the Donatists did falsly impute the same vnto it but that it might erre and fall away from truth in time to come that S. Augustine doth not deny 19. To this I answere that albeit S. Augustine totidem verbis do not say in so many wordes the Church in time to come may not Apostatate yet in pure force of argument and true substance of matter he doth affirme it in that he alledgeth against the Donatists and vrgeth to conuince thē the very promise of our Sauiour made vnto his Disciples and in their persons vnto the Church for euer Ecce ego vobiscum sum vsque in consummationem saeculi Behold I am with you vnto the consummation of the world which promise holdeth for all times in S. Augustine his iudgment euen vntill the worlds generall consummation and therfore the same Father in another place writing vpon another Psalme hauing first shewed how the Church is the Citty builded vpon an hill he further addeth Sedfortè ista Ciuitas quae mundum tenuit vniuersum aliquando euertetur Absit Deus enim fundauit eam in aeternum Si ergo Deus fundauit eam in aeternum quid times ne cadat But happily this Citty that hath possessed the whole world shall in time to come be ouerthrowne God forbid for God hath founded the same for euer as the Psalmist speaketh If therefore God hath founded the same for euer why dost thou feare least this foundation may fall Which very poynt S. Augustine repeateth againe in his first booke de Symbolo and the fifth Chapter to shew his constant and vnuariable resolution in this matter of the Church 20. And here I might alledge Father vpon Father Greeke vpon Latin and produce so many testimonies of the ancient Worthies and ancient Fathers as might suffice to fill a large volume and all of them tending directly to this effect to wit that the visible Church planted by our Sauiour he being the foundation stone and by his Apostles and spread ouer the face of the whole earth shall neuer perish or Apostatate from Christ by any the least damnable errour or heresy vnto the end of the world Christ his second comming vnto iudgement And to proue this they do all of them alleage and bring many pregnant and euident places of Scriptures 21. As for example these two heere vrged by S. Augustine as also that plaine text vttered by way of promise vnto his disciples Matth. 16. by our Sauiour portae inferorum non praeualebunt aduersus eam The gates of hell shall not preuaile against this Church on this place S. Chrysostome dilateth himselfe much as be by occasion treateth vpon the 148. Psalme and in an homily made at that tyme when he was to be expelled from Constantinople he inferred these wordes vpon that place Quòd si non credis verbo rebus ipsis operibus crede if you will not belieue Christs wordes the things themselues here spoken belieue his workes How many Tyrants haue gone about to impugne the Church c. Where are they that went about these things Quomodo impurissime Diabole Ecclesiāte putas posse deijcere How doest thou think thou most impure Diuel that thou canst ouerthrow the Church c. Which demaūd this blessed Father would neuer haue vrged vnto the wicked spirit if the Diuell might haue replyed that in tyme to come he should be able to ouerthrow it by sowing the tares of ignorance errour and heresy in it And now that S. Chrysostome meāt of the externall visible Church it is more then euident by the instāces that he bringeth of the horrible and inhumane persecution raysed and stirred vp by infidels and hereticall Emperours against the same most holy Church 22. And S. Cyprian that ancient and renowned Martyr treating of this argument soundeth forth this Eulogy in praise of the Church Adulterari non potest sponsa Christi incorruptaest pudica est domum vnam nouit vnius cubiculi sanctitatem casto pudore custodit The spouse of Christ cannot be adulterated she is vnspotted she is chast she knoweth one house she keepeth the sanctity of one chamber one bed and that
vseth his owne election siue ad instituendas siue ad suscipiendas haereses whether it be to be an authour of Heresy or a follower as Tertullian speaketh in the place before cyted and all this he doth according to his owne iudgment and fancy ascribing litle or rather nothing at all to the authority of the Church in any thing that misliketh his owne iudgment so that in conclusion these two men are most opposite the one to the other 11. The first cleare knowledg that euer the Church had of this peculiar and Ecclesiasticall appropriation of these two words Catholicke Hereticke was from the holy Ghost inspirer of all truth as hath byn formerly noted and to beginne first with the last the very first intimation giuen of that odious and pestiferous appellation of Heresy or Hereticke was by the Apostles theÌ„selues as namely S. Paul to the Corinth There must be heresies that those who be approued may be manifested amongst you which manifestation Tertull. saith is meant aswel of those tam qui in persecutionibê° steterint quaÌ„ quiad haereses exorbitauerint who haue remained constaÌ„t in persecutions as they who haue not declined out of the right path to follow heresies So he Secondly the same Apostle in his Epistle to Titus writeth thus Auoid an Hereticall man after one or two reprehensioÌ„s knowing that such a one is subuerted and sinneth as daÌ„ned by his owne proper iudgement Id non tam infirmitate ac ignorantia quà m spontanea malitia de obstinata industria peccat For so I may well expound it that is he sinneth not so much of infirmity and ignorance as he doth of voluntary malice and obstinate industry or els eligit sibi in quo damnatur as Tertullian giueth the sense his owne election maketh good his owne daÌ„nation And as S. Paul inueighed thus against Heresy Hereticks so did S. Peter as you shall read 2. Pet. 2. branding them for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 damnable heresies and the teachers of them for such as brought vpon themselues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swift damnation or as it is rendred in another place immediatly following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their damnation sleepeth not Can any thing be spoken more terrible to forwarne vs of heresy and hereticks then this Excellent therefore is the counsaile of Tertullian wishing vs to auoid an hereticke post vnam correptionem non post disputationem adeo interdixit disputationem correptionem designans causam haeretici conueniendi hoc vnam scilicet quia non est christianus ne more Christiani semel iterum sub duobus aut tribus testibus castigandus videretur cum ob hoc sit castigandus propter quod non sit cum illo disputandum After one reprehension and not after a disputation for that the Apostle did therefore forbid disputation because the speaking with an Heretick should be for his reprehension and this onely once because he is no Christian least after the manner of a Christian he should seeme to be chastised once and againe and that by two or three witnesses when for this cause he is to be chastised because there is no disputation to be had with such a one 12. And although the word Heresy be vsed two or three times in the Actes of the Apostles where the sectes of the Scribes and Pharisies be called Heresies and though S. Paul himselfe speaking out of the opinion of the Iewes most willingly vndergoeth the imputation where Christian Religion was branded with the termes of Sect or Heresy yet was not the word taken in such a heynous signification here in these places as in the other places of the Apostles before mentioned for that of no kind of sin or sinner did they euer pronounce so grieuous a sentence as namely that he was to be fled from as subuerted and damned by his owne iudgment that they brought in daÌ„nable Heresies that they brought vpon themselues swift damnation and that their damnation slept not which they feared not to pronounce nay they bouldly pronounced of an hereticall man they bring vpon themselues swift damnation Here is nothing but damnation and all to giue vs a terrible admonition to beware them and auoid them And thus much I thought good to say of this dreadfull name for stirring vp my former brethren of the Ministry to beware therof but much more to decline the cause and occasion of the same 13. As for the word Catholick it came from heauen and was first reuealed from the holy Ghost by the mouth of all the Apostles in their common Creed For being assembled togeather to compose a perfect platforme of true and sauing-beliefe and to keepe out Heresy whilest they dispersed themselues abroad to sow the sacred seed of EuaÌ„gelicall verity they being at this time and for this purpose assembled and their tongues being the pennes of a ready writer when they came vnto that article which concerned the Church they by the instinct of the neuer-erring spirit laid downe the forme thus Credo in Spiritum Sanctum SanctaÌ„ Ecclesiam Catholicam I beleeue in the holy Ghost the holy Catholicke Church where they did not thinke it sufficieÌ„t to say they belieued the holy ChristiaÌ„ Church but they thought the word Catholicke to be more eminent significant and effectuall for the purpose Neither could this be done without the singuler care prouideÌ„ce wisdome of that all-seing spirit that vndoubtedly inspired theÌ„ guided theÌ„ For as Tertull. obserueth that S. Paul forseeing that heresies would afterwardes spring vp in the Church as the weedes vsually do amongst the purest and rankest corne foretold and forewarned them to come yea pointeth out as it were with the finger to some heresies particulerly euen so the Apostles foreseeing that all heresies were to shroud themselues vnder the names of Christian Churches Assemblies and Congregations they thought it most conuenient for preseruation of vnity and verity to set this remarkable stamp of Catholick vpon the Church for the more manifest conuincing and detecting of all heresy which badge or cognisance being once set vpon the sleeue of the Church impossible it was that any Hereticke that euer was is or hereafter shall be can euer fasten vpon this title And since it is more then apparant that the genuine description of Catholicke requireth more particulers and more easie to be discouered then doth the name of Christian in generall most pertinent if not necessary is the imposition of this name vpon Christes Church for the better excluding and keeping forth of all hereticall and particuler Sectaries whatsoeuer 14. From these two fountaines then of sacred Scripture and common Creed originally flowed the knowledge and vse of these two wordes of Catholick and Heretick both of them came from heauen both were particulerly inspired by the holy Ghost breathed into the Church for her better preseruation as hath beene formerly noted the very consideration wherof
most compassionate nay whose bowels burned with compassion within them towards the greatest and grieuous sinners as for example we read in that notable story of S. Iohn the Euangelist who ranne vp and downe the mountaines againe and againe after the first relapse to gaine a yong man that was a theefe as S. Hierome and other Church storyes witnes yet these selfe same men were so seuere against the enemies of Gods truth that they neuer could so much as indure the very sight and conuersation of an Hereticke And so we haue not only S. Iohn counsailing vs not to salute or conuerse with an Hereticke but also the said Apostle practizing the same euen in his owne person in his heroicall factes whensoeuer any iust occasion was offered For S. Irenaeus who liued in the next age after him and recounted it vpon the relation of S. Policarpe that liued with S. Iohn and happily might be present whē the thing was donne recordeth that S. Iohn being in the Citty of Ephesus at a common bath whither many did resort and vnderstanding that an Hereticke of his time named Cerinthus was within the bath he instantly departed againe would not enter into that bath with him who had departed out of the Church from him could not be perswaded to stay any while there affirming that he doubted lest the very foundation of those bathes would fall downe where such an enemy of God was presēt who had as much as in him lay ruinated the very foundation of Christian Religion denying the diuinity of the Sonne of God A notable example of this great Apostle left to all posterity giuing them a sufficient caueat euen by his owne person and example for auoiding of Heresy and hereticall company 41. And the same Irenaeus in the very same place before cited registreth this story of S. Policarpe himselfe to wit how he reiected and defied an Hereticke named Marcion that met with him and spake vnto him calling the said Marcion Primogenitum Diaboli the first begotten of the Diuell and then the Authour endeth his narration with this most graue and memorable Conclusion saying So great feare had the Apostles and Disciples not to communicate in any one word with any of those that haue adulterated and corrupted the truth euen as S. Paul saith Auoid an hereticall mā after one reprehension knowing that such a fellow is peruerted damned of himself So S. Irenaeus 42. And truly this one point ministred vnto me store of matter and exceedingly enlarged my meditation to consider on the one part how carefull and not only carefull but fearefull these ancient Fathers and Apostles were as Irenaeus testifieth to admit any conuersation or to enter into communication with Hereticks flying them as mōsters serpents and Diuels vpon earth and starting affrighted as it were with the bare name of Heresy and Hereticke and on the other side that now in our dayes the name and thing it selfe is growne to be so common and familiar as that we seeme to haue no sense or feeling therof so senselesse and benummed are we in our spirituall vnderstanding But this proceeds from a supine negligence and carelesse inconsideration for such as seriously ponder and earnestly debate the matter more deeply doe apprehend farre otherwise therof especially such as are addicted to the reading of ancient Fathers the surest refuge and pillars for a resolued soule to rely vpon for true direction in religion in these miserable dayes of Schisme Heresy and Apostasy Nulla saith the old holy martyr S. Cyprian cum talibus commercia copulentur nulla c. And let noe trafficke or conuersation be ioyned with such men noe banquets be made no speach had but let vs be as separate from them as they are separated fugitiues frō the Church 43. And after this Father againe that Atlas of his age and great Saint S. Athanasius writing the life of S. Antony the Monke doth set downe the opinion and feeling of them both in this point S. Antony saith he did so detest Hereticks as that he tould all men that they must not so much as come neere them alleaging the authority of S. Paul for the same who often and seriously talking of Hereticks doth inculcate these wordes Et hos deuita and these you must auoid And yet my author goeth further in this relation of S. Antony adding this that when the said holy man was at the point of death ready to breath out his soule into the hands of his Creator whome he had with all fidelity and seuerity so faithfully serued practising ouer and aboue the precepts of the law Christs high counsailes of perfection he exhorted the standers by especially and aboue all other things to beware of Heretickes and Schifmatikes and to auoid their poison Meumque saith he circacos edium sectamini Seitisipsi quod nullus mihi ne pacificus quidem sermo cum eis vnquam fuerit And do you imitate my hatred towardes them For your selues can beare me witnes that I had neuer so much as any peaceable speach with them This was S. Antony his resolution in this point and this was his last charge that this dying Saynt left vnto his lyuing friends 44. And of the same spirit and iudgment were all other Saints and holy Fathers ensuing that euerliued and dyed in the vnion and communion of the Catholicke Church and namely S. Leo the Great first of that name a most compassionate man other wayes as by his charitable workes of piety well appeared yet in this point of Heresie he was so inflamed with the zeale of God his true Religion so rigorous and seuere against the enemies of God his truth that he burst forth into this vehement exclamation against them Viperea Haereticorum vitate colloquia nihil nobis commune sit cum eis qui Catholicae aduersantes fidei solo nomine sunt Christiani Do you auoid the viperous and serpentine speaches and conferences of Heretickes haue you nothing at all to do with them that being aduersaries vnto Catholicke faith are only Christians in name So S. Leo. And in this point that Heretickes be not Christians but only in name and appellation he hath cōmonly all the ancient Fathers concurring with him with vniforme consent as namely S. Irenaeus S. Cyprian and Tertullian before mentioned which Fathers do euidētly proue that Heretickes are worse then Heathens Pagans or Infidels This argument is handled in like manner by S. Chrysostome and that largely in his 50. Homily ad populum Antiochenum and by S. Augustine in his 21. Booke de Ciuitate Dei cap. 25. by many other Fathers after them the reason whereof is set downe by S. Thomas in the beginning of this second Consideration 45. Vpon these groundes then reasons causes and contemplations the whole streame and ranke of Ancient Fathers do with full consent concurre in this one point do inculcate the same often in their writings to wit that it is
places of his body as there were seuerall wounds in the same shed his most pretious bloud for the sinnes of the world and redemption of mankind if after all this done and suffered for man he should haue left him no certayne meanes or infallible way for his obteyning the fruites therof by discerning betweene heresy and Catholicke religion 50. Furthermore since heresy as all ancient and moderne Orthodoxe Deuines notify is nothing els but to choose or make choice that is yet more plainly to adhere obstinately to a mans owne priuate opinion and proper election when soeuer different points of religion are proposed vnto him if thē there be not some perspicuous apparant rule and reason left by Christ to conuince vnto ech mans conscience and vnderstanding or at least to make a sufficient conuiction which is truth and which is not which is Heresy and which is Verity which to be imbraced and which is to be abandoned I say if this way rule and reason be not most clearely left in the Church whereby a man may guide him selfe then why may not a man make his proper choice and vse that benefit of his owne election in spirituall matters which God hath bestowed vpon him in morall and ciuill affaires permitting therin a choice to his free will Why may he not choose or be a chooser which in our sense and the Churches acception and appropriation of the word importeth an Hereticke without so greiuous and damnable a sinne as Heresie is by vs already disclosed to be Why should a man be damned by his owne iudgment be left inexcusable for that no plea of pretended ignorance will serue his turne since being such a chooser or hereticall man as S. Paul calleth him and brandeth him for he cannot say Nemo corripuit as S. Chrysostome S. Ambrose Theophilact Oecumenius ioyntly expound the place For if the meanes and way of conuiction decision be not infallible it should seeme that man may make his choice but this particuler choice and election out of a mans owne head and priuate iudgment which makes a choosier or Hereticall man is seuerely prohibited and condemned and that by the iudgment of S. Paul as you haue heard at large therfore it must follow by force of necessary and ineuitable consequence that Almighty God out of the depth of his mercy wisdome equity and piety hath left vnto vs some euident vniuersall certaine and infallible way for deciding of all doubts and controuersies in Religion For so he promised when Isay prophesied thus saying That at the comming of Christ there shal be a holy path and a way and it shall be vnto you a direct way so as fooles may not erre therin Thus he prophesied And is there any doubt that he performed it Hath he promised and shall not he make it good Hath he spoke it shall he alter the thing that is gone out of his lippes Atheisme Heresy and Infidelity may question it but all religion piety and Christianity will vndoubtedly belieue the same 51. Wherfore this ground being presupposed and granted as a chiefe principle in Christian Religion that there is some such way left vnto vs whither we must haue recourse in all doubtfull causes and controuersies of Religion the Question then is betwixt the Protestants and those of the Catholicke Roman Religion where and what this way is how we may come to the notice of it and in what manner it is to be followed after it is once found out The Protestant commonly of what Sect or faction soeuer he be auerreth that the written word of Canonicall Scripture is this infallible way directory-guid and this he doth not in my conscience so much for any honour and reuerence that he beareth vnto the oracles of Gods sacred Writ as he would falsely beare the world in hand he doth but only vpon an hereticall intent that he may auoid therby the iudgement of the Church And no meruaile for Qui malè agit odit lucem the guilt of his Heresy flyeth the censure of the Church Some others do add that when the Canon of Scripture is not perspicuous and obuious vnto euery man then for explication of the word they may inquire of the spirit of God which inspireth ech man and that will instruct him and lead him vnto all truth But now this falsely supposed and imaginary spirit can be no infallible rule of direction For that S. Iohn hath giuen vs a Caueat touching these false spirits Beloued belieue not euery spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false Prophets are gone sorth into the world And was not this the common tricke of all condemned Heretickes and heresies Did they not all of them plead the spirit of God against the liuely authority and speaking voice of the Church Doth not the whole ranke of ancient Fathers that wrote against thē thunder out that terrible comminatiō threatning a fearefull woe and vengeance vnto all priuate lying and deceyuing spirits Vae illis qui sequuntur spiritum suum Woe be vnto them that follow their owne spirit Lastly haue not all ancient Heresies and Heretickes Arians Nestorians Pelagians c. beene vniustly condemned and therefore must not their heresies be raked out of the ashes of Hell againe and set fresh footing in the Church if the rule of interpreting Scripture be ech man his priuate spirit It cannot be denyed for that all of them vaunted of the spirit as the Sectaries do at this day Well then the conclusion is that this vaunting of the spirit is nothing else but a horrible belying and presumptuous blaspheming of the spirit of God making that spirit of vnited verity a spirit of distracted heresy And therfore this their priuate spirit can be no rule to direct them any longer And so much of this way in following euery man his owne spirit 52. And now for the former way of following Canonicall Scriptures for this only rule and sure direction though this be euer to be graunted as most true that the holy Scriptures breathed by the instinct of the spirit be diuine and of infallible truth and direction when they are by the Church both known to be Scriptures rightly interpreted by the assistance of the spirit in the Churches voice sense yet forasmuch as the Scriptures sublimity fitteth not with euery meane and ordinary capacity for the most part of people are vnlearned and cannot read or vnderstand what they read much lesse those learned tongues wherein the Scriptures were originally written It followeth euidently that the Scriptures alone can be no sure vniuersall infallible way for the discerning of Catholicke Religion and discouering of heresie Or at least wise this rule is not generall to all as it ought to be for as much as all must haue sufficient meanes left for their saluation 53. But here me thinketh I heare the Protestāt obiect that howsoeuer the Scripture is no way for the
so ordered by the will of God that they minister store of matter vnto Heretickes when I read in Scripture oportet haereses esse there must be heresies which cannot be without Scriptures And this is my former Author his iudgment of the Scriptures wrested and peruerted by seuerall Heretickes in his dayes for maintenance of their seuerall heresies Which being so here is neither certainty nor generality nor facility nor perspicuity nor infallibility in this way of the Scripture barely and nakedly proposed of it selfe alone neither can it euer be inferred by any seeming probable conclusion that the Scripture alone is this infallible way which we do further illustrate by this familiar example obuious vnto euery mans capacity 56. If some rude and vnlearned countreymen repayring vp to the Metropolitan Citty of the kingdome to prosecute some suites in law touching a Farme or house or matter of lesse moment yt these men I say after conference had with their learned counsaile should receaue no other answere nor comfort nor direction of them for further managing of their suites but be remitted by them vnto the body of the law it selfe without any Iudge or Counsailour they being of themselues not able either to read or vnderstand the law much lesse to apply it to their proper cases and peculiar suites would not euery reasonable and conscionable man condemne these lawyers And had not the poore Coūtreymen themselues being vndone by this meanes in their worldly estates iust cause to complayne and cry out against the falsehood and treachery of their Coūsailours And yet behold here in a suit of of suits and matter of greatest moment and importance in the world not in a title or triall of a Farme or house but concerning our interest and right of inheritance vnto the heauenly mansion we are this way worse then thus since the matter is of far greater importance abused deluded betrayed we are promiscuously sent learned vnlearned men women yong old to the body of the Scripture mysticall volume of God his sacred and seauen-fold-sealed book as S. Iohn speakes of the Reuelation Apocal. 5. 1. we must seeke search confer cōpare expound interprete euery man must there be a chooser euery woman an expositor and euery creature must be his owne caruer all must presume of the spirit that they cannot erre all presume to be taught immediatly from God without the ministery of the Church Sola Scripturarum arsest saith S. Hierome against Heretiks of his time quam omnes sibi vēdicant hanc garrula anus hanc delirus senex hāc sophista verbosus hanc vniuersi praesumunt lacerant docent antequam discunt c. Only the art of Scripture is it which euery one challengeth to himselfe this the prating ould wife this the doting old man this the babling Sophist this all of them togeather presume to know and teach and teare in peeces before they learne it So he And this is all the way and ground prescription direction rule and line that our hereticall Sectaries can affoard vs for the guiding of our soules and the grounding of our faith Will any man therefore hereafter that hath but the least care or that can intertaine but one thought either of the present of future wellfarre of his soule rely vpon such false guides blind teachers since this ground of Scripture alone sensed by a priuate spirit was is euer shal be the cōmon ground nay rather desperate shift and refuge of all condemned heresies and hereticks and that purposely that they may auoyd the censure and tribunall of the Church 57. There followeth then the way indeed appointed by God reuealed by the holy-Ghost designed by Christ and proposed by the Catholicks and Catholicke Church and this is the sure easy euident generall and infallible waie indeed which is the vniuersall knowne Catholicke Church in euery age which is perspicuous and notorious easy to be found for that it cannot be hidden it is compared by holy Scripture to a Citty placed vpon a hill as S. Augustine in diuers prolixe Treatises of his doth euidently demonstrate it is a light vpon a candlestick it lighteneth all through the Egiptian darkenes of this worlds schisme and heresy and leades their soules into the way of truth it is that pillar of fire that leadeth all Gods chosen people through the vast and roaring wildernes yea and all the nightes darkenes of this world vnto the promised land of Canaan I meane the heauēly Hierusalem it is generally also figured by the dew that fell vpon the floore as well as vpō the fleece when Gedeon required the miracle to be doubled which was a mysticall representation of the Iewish Synagogue and Christian Congregation implying also that the dew of Gods truth and sauing grace should at last passe from the fleece of the Iewes to the floore of the Gentils and all to teach vs that this Catholick Christian Church should extend to all serue for all learned vnlearned yong ould high low great small for that all sortes sexes ages and conditiōs of people may repaire vnto her receiue her doctrine admit her instructions and directions by the continuall successions of her Bishops Pastors and teachers of euery age And finally this way is a most sure certaine and infallible rule for that Christ hath expresly assured and promised vs that he will be continually with this Church vnto the worlds end that he would send the holy Ghost to instruct direct and induce this Church in omnem veritatem into all truth suggerit vobis omnia quae dixere vobis and it shall suggest vnto you all that I will from heauen speake or notify vnto you It was Christ his promise vnto his Apostles in their persons vnto his Church for euer And lastly the gates of hell which are the gates of errour and heresies shall neuer preuaile against this Church 58. This then to exclude all by-pathes and blind waies of Heretickes is the way indeed this is that rule of faith as Tertullian speaketh instituted by Christ and it is such a rule and so certaine that Nullas habet apud nos quaestiones nisi quaes haereses inserunt quae haereticos saciunt no questions are so much as moued with vs concerning this rule but such as heresies cause and which very questions moued concerning the Church do cause and breed hereticks 59. This Church being once published by our Sauiour and the promises he had made vnto her being once diuulged what followed but that all men presently that had any care of the saluation of their soules flocked vnto her began to lay handfast and houldfast on this way and to haue recourse in all doubts and controuersies vnto the common knowne Catholicke Church of their age for explication and finall decision therof So shall you read Act. 15 6. that the Apostles immediatly after the Ascention of our Sauiour assembled the Church togeather for the detiding of that
and vniuersall direction Can any rule be more probable and infallible then the rule of the Church And to this do agree both my foresaid Authour in many other places of his workes as also all that succeeded him tooke the like enterprize in hand of writing and prescribing against Hereticks as Tertullian S. Cyprian S. Augustine S. Athanasius Epiphanius Theodoret S. Hierome S. Leo Vincentius Lyrinensis in his goulden booke against the prophane innouations of the Hereticks of his time and diuers others which to auoyd prolixity I omit all these do principally and really prouoke and challenge all the Heretickes of their tyme vnto this only and sure waie of the Catholicke Church in their dayes for the triall of the truth and for discerning what is truly Catholicke and what is Hereticall their seuerall sentences are to prolixe to be conteyned within the strict precinctes and narrow boundes of my briefe intended Confiderations 63. And now to put a period to this my third Consideration least it exceed a due proportion the vpshot is this For asmuch then as this visible Christian Church begun and founded by our Sauiour vnder the Apostles was a visible Church made and consisting of visible men gouerned by visible Pastors hath visibly descended from age to age through the centuries of the Church by all lawfull and ordinary succession of Bishops which Tertullian required of the Hereticks of his time as they would auoid the blot of heresy that haue lineally come downe to our dayes Secondly for asmuch as the authority of his Church was esteemed in euery age to be the same for infallible direction that it was in the former first ages through the assurance of Christ his promise to that effect And lastly for as much as the whole vniuersall Church of the fifteēth age hath in a generall Coūcell examined decyded condēned the doctrine of the Protestants for heresy in more then an hundred maine points by name hath accursed and anathematized both them and all their participants to the pit of hell that according to the very selfe same groūds wherby the ancient Fathers did vse to curse anathematize all ould heresies and Hereticks in former tymes these things when I considered with more attention made a generall reflection thereon a suddaine feare and care astonished yea as it were ouerwhelmed me for that my euerlasting saluation depending vpon this point I had beene so negligent in examining the premises And now I plainely saw as in a perfect glasse of most impartiall iudgment that vnlesse I could imagin with my selfe as diuers others fanatically do that Christes promise had fayled that the first visible Christian and Catholicke Church founded by him and spread ouer the whole world had fayled vanished and perished as being ouercome by hel-gates and ouer growne with the weedes of errour heresy I could neuer haue any hope of saluation as long as I continued in the Protestant Religion And this was the issue of that Consideration The fourth Consideration THERE remaineth now a fourth consideration the subiect wherof which notwithstanding perhaps is of greatest importance of all the rest is this to wit how out of the premisses a man may probably collect nay necessarily conclude whose opinions be Catholicke and whose Hereticall and therevpon may reflect vpon himself in what state or condition he standeth betwixt both as eyther affected to the one or interessed in the other And albeit this hath beene partly discouered by that which hath beene spoken in the first Consideratiō touching the name Catholicke that signifieth Vniuersall and whole and not a part or singularity in opinions by choice of a mans owne will and iudgement for so Hereticke doth signifie as hath beene laid forth in the second Consideration yet shall it be made more manifest by the particular practice of the things themselues when the name shall passe into nature and appellation be turned into application And first to speake to the point in a word the Catholike admitteth all wholy and intierly without addition or detraction which the knowne Catholicke Church proposeth to be belieued of her sonnes as she hath it reuealed vnto her from God her Father But as for the Hereticke and the chooser tamquā Dominus propryiuris as he that will take his owne swing though it be in Schisme and heresy he making himselfe iudge ouer all I meane God the Scripturs and the Church admitteth some and reiecteth the rest as it pleaseth his priuate fancy or displeaseth his peeuish iudgmēt he neither respects the authority of the Church nor regardes his owne obedience due therunto his ground is either Scriptures falsely by him interpreted or a priuat lying spirit such as Micheas the Lords true Prophet prophesied to be in the false Prophets of Baal wherein he is deluded or other arguments of reason nature against faith and the God of nature And thus he is bewitched peruerted contrary to all true and onely sauing Catholicke grounds contrary to that sure certaine and infallible way of triall which erst while we treated of in the third Consideration and purpose now by Gods holy assistance to make vse of all in this 65. Some men I find to intertaine this concepit that English Protestants and Roman Catholickes may liue in their seuerall professions of Religion and be saued togeather and much more they are of opinion that all Protestants of different professions and Sectes as Lutherans and Sacramentaries and much more the different sortes of one and the selfe same sect as Caluinists in England distinguished by the names of Molles and Rigidi moderate Protestantes and feruent Puritans And the reasons for this their opinion are first of doctrine for that euery one of their differences do not make heresies or if they do yet not so grieuous heresies as the Fathers of the Primatiue Church condemned and anathematized they meane such heresies as impugned the persons of the B. Trinity the Natures of Christ God and Man the Incarnation and Passion and the like cōsequently though those ancient heresies were damnable yet are not those of our daies plead the Protestants but that both partes liuing well may be saued as his Matie in this his Premonition to Princes doth testifie that his noble Mother sent him word not long before her Martyrdome by the Maister of her Household a Scotish Gentleman yet liuing that his Matie might persist in his Protestant Religion and yet do well inough if he liued vertuously and gouerned accordingly 66. But surely how farre the credit of that maister of Household being a Protestant as I heare he then was and now is may extend it selfe to be belieued against the mistresse and highest Lady of that Household in a matter of that quality and consequence I know not yet certaine I am of this that the opinion that a man may be so saued is most false and absurd in it selfe and very vnlikely also to proceed from her
antiquity well the admonition is this Caue Christiane Lector c. Beware Christian Reader of the bookes of Iohn Caluin especially in the articles of Trinity of the Incarnation of the Mediator of Baptisme of Predestination c. for that they doe containe most impious and blasphemous doctrine So he VVhereby is vnderstood not only the censure of the Lutheran Church concerning the Caluinists doctrine but also in what articles the difference betwixt them doth principally consist and these are neither few in number nor meane in nature as you see confirmed by the particular exceptions VVhich articles are reiterated by other Lutheran writers as namely by Albertus Grauerus in his booke intituled The warre of Iohn Caluin with Iesus Christ which booke was set forth in the yeare of our Redemption 1598. wherin he sheweth that the Articles wherby the Lutherans do cheifly differ from the Caluinists hereticall doctrine are of the person of Christ of the Supper of our Lord of Baptisme and of Predestination And Iacobus Halbruneir another Lutheran Doctor published an other booke the same yeare before to proue Caluinisme to be heresy and to the former articles of Albertus he addeth other two wherin Lutherans and Caluinists do deepely dissent which are de Maiestate Christi Ministerio Verbi wherby he maketh it euident that Caluinists are truly and properly Hereticks to Lutherans And this for the second point 80. Yt resteth now that I come vnto the third ranke of English Protestants and Puritans which are two different sects of Caluins doctrine which are found togeather in no state or Kingdome perhaps of Christendome but only in England And although some Protestant writers for dissembling their owne diuisions when they deale with Catholickes will needes forsooth acknowledge them for brethren as not differing from them in any substantiall point of Doctrine yet in all their other writings eyther against them or of them they disclose playnly what they thinke of ech other holding them both for Schismaticks and Hereticks in respect of their Protestant Church Which being presumed by them as they must needes presume to be the only true Catholike Church it must needes follow that Puritans who from their innermost soules detest the same and the communion thereof as Antichristian must needes be Sectaries nay Heretickes to that Church And this is consonant to the doctrine of these Scriptures and most conformable to the opinion of ancient Fathers as is before copiously in the precedent Considerations asseuered 82. For confirmation of which dissention capitall and reall hostility betweene our Puritans and Protestants in sundry mayne points of their Religion I might heere alledge and produce infinite authorityes and innumerable arguments if I should not surcharge my Treatise The two bookes yet extant printed by publicke authority in one and the selfe same yeare I meane the Suruey of the holy pretended Discipline compiled as it is thought by him that is now arriued to the highest pitch of Ecclesiasticall dignity in that Kingdome and the other bearing the inscription of daungerous Positions ascribed to Doctour Sutcliffe both of them receyuing presse at London by Iohn VVolfe Anno Dom. 1593. do sufficiently notifie vnto the world how reconciliable the Puritan position is with the Protestant Religion and that in sundry Articles of great weight and moment And amongst many others which to auoid prelixity I purposly omit the titles of the 22. and 23. Chapters of the Suruey are these That they to wit the Puritans do take from Christian Princes ascribe vnto their pretended regiment the supreme and immediate authority vnder Christ in causes Ecclesiasticall and in the oppugning theros do ioyne with the Papists Whereupon I inferre that if this spirituall Supremacy be any substantiall point of doctrine amongst the Protestants then the obstinate repugnance therof by the Puritans must needes be Schisme and Heresy 82. I pretermit diuers other bookes whereof I haue beene an eye witnesse how purposely and directly they treat of these matters as namely the Answere of the Vicechancelor Doctors of Oxford vnto the petition of a 1000. Puritans Anno Dom. 1603. wherein it is plainely conuinced that the Puritans hould their platforme of Ecclesiasticall gouerment of the gouerment of Christ vpon earth for a thing of no lesse importance then is the Ghospell of Jesus Christ. They hold it further for an essentiall part of their said Ghospell for a matter of faith to be receyued vpon paine of damnation for an essentiall marke of the true Church without the which the Protestants Church is no Church their faith no faith their Ghospell noe Ghospell c. And to conforme to that which M. Rogers writeth in his Preface to the Bishops Articles where he testifieth that the Puritans do hold their platforme differing from the Protestants to be a speciall part of the Ghospell yea the very Ghospell it selfe to be of such importāce as if euery haire of their heades were a life they ought to affoard them all in defence therof So they And in sober sadnes supposing their principles to be true haue they not great reason for that their differences be in so maine very substantiall points if we refere them to their heades wherof there is extant a very substantiall declaration and conuiction as to me it seemeth in the Preface of the Catholicke Deuine in his answere to Syr Edward Cookes fifth part of Reportes whither I referre the ingenous iudicious Reader for further perusall of this point for there it is shewed and irrefragably against all impugners therof proued how essentiall and substantiall difference of doctrine there is about the origen of Ecclesiasticall power and authority betweene the Protestantes Puritans and Catholickes of England the one that is the Protestāt ascribing it to their temporall Prince the other challenging it as most properly pertayning to their priuate Conuenticles Assemblies the last third to the Succession of Bishops from the Apostles the consequence wherof is this that whosoeuer of the three parties haue the right in this point there only is the true Church there alone is the true Ecclesiastiall Authority of preaching teaching or dayning Ministers administring Sacraments exercising Censures and Iurisdiction binding or loosing remitting or retaining sinnes and the like c. And for the other two Churches they do remayne as secular and prophane Congregations without any vitall spirit of Ecclesiasticall power at all Let them then contend neuer so much about the keys of Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction yet the plaine truth is they shall neuer be able to open or shut the gates of heauen vnto their owne friendes or against their enemies 83. And for as much as the Puritans also in their plea do perswade themselues to haue the right on their side they must needes inferre the other consequence against the Protestant Church houlding it to be no Church as the foresaid answere of Oxford Doctors pag. 15. doth confesse that the Brownists do ancrre
could to proceed in his suite yet if the nyne other of equall worth and weight with him should be of contrary opinion disswade him frō the suite assuring him vpon their learning that he would be cast in the same yea and condemned if he proceeded therein would not this man now beginne to consider more seriously of his suite intended Of his right pretended Would he not view ouer and ouer his writings examine all his euidences againe and againe least in aspiring to be made for euer he chance for euer to be vndone Euē so the case standeth in the point we haue in hand Here is a royall banquet prouided for your Princely Maiesty here is a Princely inheritance indeed an incorruptible Diademe of glory prepared for your Excellency this banquet is not to continew for an hundred and fourescore dayes as that of Assuerus did to set forth the maiesty of an earthly Monarch but it endureth for euer and euer throughout all eternity to disclose the honour and power and glory and riches of the heauenly Diety diuine Omnipotency the food of this banquet is neither earthly nor materiall but heauenly and spirituall Agnus occisus ab origine mundi It is the lambe slaine from the beginning of the world that is to be set and serued on this table nay Deus est qui nobis futurus est omnia in ommbus It is Almighty God himselfe who will then as S. Paul teacheth become vnto vs all in all that is all in the eye for our vision and all in the tast for our refection and all in the touch for our fruition all in the eare of our consolation and all in our smell for delectation in a word all in the senses of our body and all in the faculties of our soule Deus omnia in omnibus for our plenary perfection 89. Besides this banquet there is a Princely Inheritāce and an incorruptible Crowne of glory prepared for your Matie and this Crowne so farre excelleth all earthly Crownes as immortall exceeds mortall incorruptible corruptible in a word as farre as God excelleth man and a thing infinite surmounteth a thing finite betwixt all which there can be no proportion and is there not cause now that your Matie should beware of the poison of Heresy that killeth both body and soule And will not your zealous and religious Hart hereafter peruse ouer all forged writings and neuer cease searching vntill you haue found the euidences of the Catholicke Church wherby your Matie can only lay clayme to this Crowne of immortality 90. And this is all that we your Maiestyes humble subiects and seruants do in our dayly sighes teares and prayers to Almighty God begge at his handes to wit that our gratious God would of his mercifull goodnesse vouchsafe so to inspire your Princely hart with the principall spirit that you may once at the least come to make this reflection vpon the course that you are in now concerning Religion Then should you easily discouer the fraudes and impostures of the Protestant cause Then should you disclose the poysoned and inuenomed druggs of their erroneous opinions wherby they would insect both the body and the soule of your Princely Person suspecting no guile fearing no such treachery and that to your euerlasting destruction Lastly then should you desery how false and counterfait their euidences are concerning Religion and that they can neuer hould plea for the foresaid Princely inheritance wherunto your Noble Person is interessed 91. Your Maiesty was borne amongst the Protestāts as S. Augustine compassionately complained of diuers borne amongst the Donatists therby you could not but receaue that impression that was infused and instilled into you by your first educators and therby you haue bene made as I trust rather credens Haereticis then Haereticus as the same Father said of his friend Honoratus Your Maiesty is earnest now against the Catholicke Romā faith and professors therof and so was I my selfe too once and so was S. Augustine whilst he was a Manichean and soe was that great Apostle S. Paul perswading himselfe no doubt that he ought yea that he should do God good seruice persecuting that way of Christian profession vntill God had opened his eyes inlightened his mind to see the erroneous course wherin he then was 92. And now may it please your Matie to consider of this one reasō which though it be the last yet is it not the least viz. that so many of your Maties loyall Subiectes men of considerable birth worth and quality yea and some of them such that haue spent much pretious time and haue bene content to exhaust their Patrimonies in your Noble Vniuersities and all in the pursuite of learning and truth of Christian Religion these men I say hauing now iust reason to expect some preferment with other their equalls after their long wearisome labours endeauours would not so suddenly change their minds as they do daily in this point of Religion forgo all future hopes and fortunes abandon Countrey kith and kinne expose themselues to all temporall difficulties and losses and that without constraint of any euen voluntarily and after all this to be ready to shed their blond and sacrifice their innocent liues for their Resolution made concerning Religion all which they could neuer do were it not that a higher hand than humaine euen the hand of heauen leadeth them into the bosome of the Church were it not vpon the force and efficacy of euident truth when it pleaseth almighty God so to inlighten their vnderstanding as in the middest and thickest of the darknes of heresy to shew them the only and alone sauing Catholicke Truth and Church as also to frame their wills and inflame their affections to yield all obedience therunto notwithstanding any obstacles whatsoeuer 93. Alas my dread Soueraigne what is Rome to vs English men that we should so mind it Or the Church of Rome that we should much affect it Or the Pope of Rome that we should so highly honor him were it not that Rome euer was is and shall be the Chaire of S. Peter the present faith of Rome the former faith of S. Peter were it not that this conuerted our Iland this Church first planted the Christian faith in our Iland this Bishop from time to time repayred renewed and continued the decaying faith in our Iland In a word were it not that all that separate themselues from this head and origen of vnity in the Christian Church are as beames cut of from the sunne as boughes violently broken downe from the tree as channels streams deuided from their fountaine which must needes dry vp wither and consume to nothing This is the sole cause my Liege Lord that Rome is so neare and deare vnto vs the Bishop of Rome so honored by vs the faith of Rome so receaued of vs. This is may it please your Matie the only cause of our suddaine change and constant resolution in
my brethren of the English Ministry who in like manner some of them with great zeale grounded themselues vpon Scriptures euen as I did which concurrence in opinion did not a little cōfirme me in this my owne headstrong imagination 7. But afterwardes vpon better insight of matters many occurrences and circumstances of no small importance for the shaking and ruinating of this false and tottering foundation interposed themselues to the view of my vnderstanding and these greatly calmed this feruour of mine and abated the edge of my appetite vnto the bare letter of the Scripture and my owne Commentaries therupon 8. For first I found that euen Luther himselfe that did thus confidently triumph vpon alleadging of Scripture against all ancient Fathers Thomists Sophists Henricistes and the like is not admitted nor followed by our English Church in many of his maine positions of Religion though we of England did and do hould him for a great Saint a flying Angell one that had Primitias spiritus the prime spirit of the new Protestant Ghospell whereupon I haue heard some that haue presumed in their popular pulpit declamations amidst their owne Sectaries to inuest him with the tytle of a fifth Euāgelist I say he is not belieued by vs though he cyte neuer so many Scriptures and neuer so confidently in sundry weighty positions and cōtrouersies now in hand as namely about the Reall presence wherein he most of all pretended yea and had indeed foūded himselfe vpon cleare and euident Scriptures And is it any meruaile when heresy departing from vnity must needes breed variety and cause diuersity betweene the Sect-maister and the Sectaries the Father of innouation and the followers the author of Schisme and the mantainers the inuentors of nouelties and the imbracers thereof Let vs heare what old Tertullian saith to the same aboue 1400. yeares agoe when heresies were yet but yong and as it were in their infancy Mentior saith he si non etiam à regulis suis variant inter se dum vnusquisque proinde suo arbitrio modulatur quae accepit quemadmodum de suo arbitrio eadem composuit ille qui tradit Agnoscit naturam suam originis suae morem prosectus rei Idem licuit Valentinianis quod Valentino idem Marcionitis quod Marcioni de abitrio suo fidem innouare Denique penitus inspectae haereses omnes in multis cum Auctoribus suis dissentientes deprehenduntur I am deceaued if they do not yet differ from their owne rules amongst themselues whilest euery man therfore tuneth the things which he receaued after his owne fashion as the author deliuered them according to his fancy The issue of the thing agniseth her nature and argueth the manner of her origen The same is lawfull for the Valentinians that was lawfull for Valentinus and for the Marcionites that was lawfull for Marcion to bring in an innouation in Religion at their pleasure To conclude all heresies being throughly looked into are found in many things to dissent from the first Authors and broachers of them Hitherto Tertullian Can any more effectually prescription be made then this against the Heretickes of our daies Do they not seeme to expresse and present the conditions and qualities of their ancient progenitors and forerunners This then was my first cogitation that albeit our English Protestants did well allow and admire that insolency in Luther of pressing Scriptures neuer so madly vnderstood against Catholickes yet when he vrged neuer so cleare Scriptures against themselues and their opinions they reiect and contemne both him and his Scriptures 9. Secondly I considered that when the Diuell tempted Christ he came not without his Scriptum est he had the Word for his warrant and therefore the lesse I meruailed that all Sectaries and Hereticks from the very first foundation of Christan Religion had principally founded themselues and their heresies vpon pretence of Scripture as may appeare by the seuerall workes of all the ancient Fathers that confuted them Frequentes sunt in citandis Scripturis saith Tertullian they are frequent in citing Scriptures They runne ouer the Law Psalmes Prophets Ghospells Epistles and the residue of holy Scripture with great facility sayth Vincentius Lyrinensis and euen in compitis conuiuijs in market places and banquets amongst their owne Sectaries amongst strangers priuatly publickly in their bookes in sermons will they be full of Scriptures Nihil vmquam penè de suo proserunt quod non etiam Scripture verbis adumbrare conentur they bring nothing in manner of their owne which they shaddow not and cloake with some Scripture or other not vnlike our London Dames and the wiues of other great Towns and Cytties at this day I had almost added Shrewsbury Omnes tument c. all of them swell with pride all of them promise knowledg they are perfect Catechistes before they can their alphabet Ipsae mulieres hereticae quà m procaces quae audeant docere contendere c. their very hereticall women how saucy and malepert they are which dare teach contend c. So Tertullian And then further as S. Nazianzen before alledged well noteth these hereticall Scripturians running ouer all the corps of sacred Writ nay galloping ouer the whole field of the Scriptures as though the whole were but a horserase they do here and there vno verbo vel altero tamquam veneni gutt a inficiunt with a word or two of false exposition as with a drop of poyson infect the whole peruerting the true faith of Christ by their false sense of the Scripture and that to their owne damnation and damnation of their followers as the Apostle S. Peter doth signify 10. Thirdly I considered that not onely the ancient Hereticks but also the moderne Schismatickes and Sectaries of our time did by the one and the same spirit appeale to the tribunall of Scriptures and that both generally against those of the Roman beliefe particulerly among themselues the one against the other as Lutherans against Sacramentaries and Sacramentaries against Anabaptists and those against these and euery Sectary against his fellow and all directly against God his Church and his Truth And though ech Sectary professe to alledge Scripture and pretendeth neyther to build vpon the sandes nor vpon the shore of priuate fancy or his owne vnstable iudgment but vpon the mayne rocke of God his word yet Heresies grow on all sydes and thereupon controuersies become endlesse and interminable I remember not long since that lighting vpon a little booke of the Anabaptists I fell vpon thirty places of plaine Scripture and euery one of these places seemed by the externe letter to make perspicuously for the aforsaid Anabaptists and their heresies which yet in England we do condemne and consequently doe hold all those places of Scriptures to be misalledged abused and falsely interpreted by them be they neuer so many seeme they neuer so plaine or pregnant 11. But here I would demaund of any ingenious Protestant how
are no Catholicke Christians do professe the same as hath bene already euidently shewed that is to say they will openly beare the world in hand that they build their whole Religion vpon the maine foundation of the Scriptures wheras notwithstanding it is out of question that they rather build vpon their owne idle heades and fanaticall spirits forsomuch as they deduce their acknowledgement of Scriptures and the interpretation thereof from their owne braine sense and priuate fancy and not from any more stable authority at all 21. This is made euident and perspicuous if we exnmine any the least sect or sectary in the world or compare many of sundry sectes togeather for that euery one of them though as opposite among themselues as heauen and hell light and darkenes God and Beliall yet will all pretend to build vpon God his word all will appeale vnto Scriptures the Lutheran Caluiuist Anabaptist Brownist Protestant and euery other sectary but when you tye them to the point bring them to the examination of the Scriptures question them concerning these two particulers to wit which is Scripture how it is to be vnderstood then do they appeare in the liuely colours of Heretickes then do they discouer their owne hereticall fancies to be both all and the chiefe groundes that euer they had to build their religion vpon as by the ensuing Considerations will better appeare in both the heads before touched The third Consideration IF the Oracle of the Prophets and Apostles the diuine VVrit I meane so called because the holy Scriptures were written by the ministery of Propheticall and Apostolicall men be in their owne nature of that sublime excellency and transcendent eminency as hath bene formerly decyphered and discouered vnto vs If the authority of the said sacred Writ be not humane but diuine not the word of any mortall mā nor proceding frō any earthly spirit but the word of the immortall God breathed nō his heauenly spirit and consequently if it be not in it selfe most holy sacred sure certaine and of infallible truth then let vs assuredly know that as on the one side it is a capitall crime of sacriledge to decree any thing for Scripture which is not or to intrude any humane writing into the participation or association of Gods Diuine word so it is a sinne no lesse damnable on the other side to call rashly into question or to disauthorize any part or parcell of that which is Scripture indeed or to deny therunto the honour due to diuine and sacred Writ and therfore it highly importeth vs aswell in the one as in the other to mannage our selues with all humility sobriety modesty and circumspection in a matter so weighty as the Scripture is and so neerely concerning the eternall saluation or damnation of our soules 23. Now then if the point standeth thus it behoueth vs indeed if in any other matter then especially in this to vse all carefull and exact diligence that we may find out that certaine rule and infallible direction before mentioned that by the immediate guidance thereof we may most certainely attaine vnto this to wit to know what is truly Scripture and what is not if euer this were necessary then much more in these later and worser daies and times of schisme and heresie when as no small controuersies are stirred vp about the same 24. For wheras so many dangerous Sects and heresies of perdition to speake in the phrase of the holy Ghost are raised vp from hell in these our vnfortunate times vnfortunate indeed in respect or them and that within the compasse of one age since one luxurious Luther opened the first gappe to the generall detection all which schismes and heresies as before hath bene notifyed couertly shroud themselues vnder the name and pretensed veile of Scripture the first contention and now most necessary question to be discussed with them is what books of the Bible or partes therof are truely Scripture what are to be wiped away to be cut offrō the sacred Canō of holy writ and all to this end that we may vndoubtedly know vpon what groundes we may stand safely in citing authorities from thence 25. Furthermore forasmuch as all the bookes of the sacred Bible Gods holy volume haue cōmonly anciētly hitherto bene deuided into these three orders or rankes the first into such as were neuer called into questiō by Catholick men though there neuer wanted hereticks calling thēselues Christians reformed Christians as the Protestants do at this day that impugned the same as the Basilidims and the Marcionists reiecting the ould Testament as indited by an euill God and Faustus Manichaeus contemning all the foure Ghospelles as written by impostors 26. The second into such bookes as albeit some men did for some time doubt whether they were Canonicall or not yet afterwardes they are receiued into Canon by the whole Church that is held for diuine books written by the spirit of God and of such infallible truth as they may be a Canon or rule or sure direction vnto our infirmity for any thing that is found in them For so S. Augustine from the Etimology of the word describeth the meaning of the word Canonicall being applied as a fit Epethete vnto the Scriptures 27. The third order is into such bookes which notwithstanding they go ordinary in the common Bibles and containe in them many good morall instructions of piety and were sometimes by some particuler men esteemed for essentiall partes of the Scripture yet were they neuer so accompted by the vniuersall Church and therfore they are called Apecrypha that is hidden or obscure for that their authority was neuer receaued or published generally in the Church and for such are reckoned the third and fourth of Esdras the Appendix of the booke of Iob the booke of Hieremy intituled Pastor the prayer of King Manasses and finally the 151. Psalme 28. I say now this tripartite diuision of holy Writ being thus generally admitted and receiued by all orthodoxe Deuines doth it not concerne euery man that is carefull of his soules saluation to inquire diligently after the pursuite and knowledg of these things especially in this generall sommoning and appealing of all vnto the Scriptures for the finall decision of all Controuersies 29. And now to speake something to the point concerning these three rankes and orders of books The third of these is generally reiected by all as well Catholickes as Protestants the first is admitted by all All the question then is concerning the second and this comprehendeth sundry bookes both of the old and new Testament as of Hester Baruch certaine parcelles of Daniel the bookes of Tobias Iudith Sapientia Ecclesiasticus and the first and second of Machabees out of the ould Testament and certaine parts of the Ghospell of S. Marke S. Luke and S. Iohn with the Epistles of S. Iames S. Iude the 2. of S. Peter the 2. and 3. of S. Iohn and the Apocalyps
Scripture is so heynous and temerarious a sinne as before we haue touched yea and that committed against the Blessed spirit that breathed them all and streamed these pure waters of life from one and the same liuing and life-giuing fountaine Let vs in the name of God in timore tremore euen with feare and trembling since the horror of the sinne committed requireth this at our hands examine a little in what a dangerous nay damnable state the Protestants of our dayes do stand in about their disauthorizing of Scriptures not in blotting out one booke alone but in wiping out many togeather from the number of the sincere Canon and let vs further consider in what a gaze and maze they stand being vncertaine of their ground also what they ought to belieue hould or determine after they haue lost the sure and stable-staying anchor of the Churches authority in this behalfe 34. As for example the Catholickes do belieue all those bookes before mentioned which are secundi ordinis in Bellarmine both the ould and new Testament to be Canonicall Scriptures of infallible truth and the reason is drawne from the Church for that she in her ancieÌ„t CouÌ„cells hath admitted the same for such at least wise since the 47. Canon of the third Councell of Carthage was enacted wherin S. Augustine himselfe was present and subscribed to the said Canon which Canon auerreth them to be bookes of true Canonicall Scriptures amongst which for example goeth the Epistle to the Hebrewes and of this my purpose is at this present to make some particuler Consideration for that the time within whose limyts I am straited will not easily permit me to treat of all 35. This Epistle then is belieued of the Catholicks to be a true part of Canonicall Scripture and written by S. Paul as well as the rest for that it was so receaued by the Church in old time as namely in the Councell of Laodicea the 59. Canon And after that againe in the third Councell of Carthage before mentioned and cyted in diuers other Councells and namely in the first Nicene whose authority his Matie of England offereth to stand vnto in the first Ephesine and of that of Chalcedon in all the grand Parlaments of the worlds Generall Councells it was receaued and acknowledged as the genuine Epistle of S. Paul But now in these our vnhappy times matters be raked into Controuersies againe and that after the whole Church hath in diuers Synods established the thing and euery sort of Sectaries will needes adhere to their owne brayn-sicke fancyes and will preferre their owne priuate opinion before the publicke determination and resolution of the Church Amongst all others as the Captaine and ringleader of the rest vpstarts Martin Luther but it was after he had broken vow and cloyster and married a Nunne taketh vpon him to censure the matter in his Prologue to that Epistle reuersing as erroneous the graue and infallible iudgement of so many Generall Councells directed by the spirit of God his wordes be these This Epistle saith Luther was neither written by S. Paul nor by any other Apostle and it conteineth in it some thinges contrary to the Euangelicall and Apostolicall doctrine This was Luthers heady and giddy censure of this admirable parcell of holy Writ Will any man hereafter so desperately cast away himselfe in crediting him who thus discrediteth Gods word 36. With Luther in this poynt conspire all the learned Lutherans about the disauthorizing of this holy Writ and namely Ioannes Brentius in his Confession of Wittemberg cap. de sacra Scriptura and the foure Magdeburgian good fellowes in their first loud-lying Century the 2. booke the fourth Chapter Col. 55. and that audacious and impudent Examyner and Censurer of all the learning and learned men of the whole Christian world I meane Martinus Kemniâ—ius in his examen of the 4. Session of that famous Councell of Trent And vpon this these men aduenture all their soules VVill any man suffer himselfe any longer to be deceaued by such pure reformers nay rather impure impostors But Iohn Caluin the next succeeding reformer of these Reformers being to beginne a new fect of his owne head he thought it most conuenient to oppose himselfe against the Lutherans in this point and therefore in his first Institutions printed in the yeare of our Lord 1554. cap. 8. § 216. he proueth that the Lutherans do erre in this poynt in houlding it not to be an Apostolicall Epistle yet he will not affirme that it was written by S. Paul but rather perhaps by Bannaby or Luke as may appeare in the same Institutions Chap. 10. § 83. and Chap 16. § 25. Vpon which scruple raysed by M. Caluin the Caluinian Ministers at a certaine Conuenticle of theirs held at Poysy in France in the yeare 1562. do in the third article of their Confession set downe this Epistle to the Hebrewes to be diuine Scripture but yet incerti authoris they leaue the authour of it to be doubtfull And this is a subtill trick peculiar to Caluin his inuention to wit to differ from other Protestants and yet not fully to agree with the Catholickes but to haue something singuler to himselfe as you see in this controuersy and it might be proued in many other 37. And here now I would demaund vpon what warrant in the world doth Iohn Caluin and his Sectaries contradict and oppose themselues against Luther and his followers in this point Certaine it is he agreeth not with the Catholickes at aâ—l and it seemeth then nay it is more then certaine he followeth a seuerall way and straine by himselfe and hath no ground or guide therin but his owne will iudgement choice and election 38. The like dispute I might propose about other bookes or partes of Scriptures and namely concerning the Epistle of S. Iames and the Apocalyps the former wherof is reiected both by Luther and all the forenamed Lutheran writers Brentius Kemnitius and the Magdeburgians all these auouch it to be no Scripture but yet it is asserted and asscuered by Caluin and the Caluinists for genuine and vndoubted Scripture The second which is that mysticall booke of the Reuelation composed by that high-soaring and Egale-winged Iohn S. Iohn syrnamed the Deuine this booke though it be in like manner discredited and disauthorized from Canon by Luther and most of his followers as namely by Brentius Kemnitius in the places before alleaged yet is the same booke eagerly defended against them by Caluin and his followers and good reason haue they in their iudgment for it forasmuch as thence they take vpon them to demonstrate the Pope to be Antichrist and the VVhore of Babylon in regard of the seauen hilled Citty I know not vpon what imaginations besides And this Consideration may be presumed to haue beene an especiall motiue vnto those chiefe Lutherans the Magdeburgians causing them to forsake both their Father Luther and their Lutheran brethren in this cause and to
concurre and conioyne themselues with Caluin and the Caluinists in defence of the Apocalyps 39. And yet I do not perceiue how his Maiesties assertion here about these bookes doth not rather agree with the Lutherans then with the Caluinistes for so much as he holdeth all those bookes for Apocrypha no Canonicall Scripture which are named by Bellarmine to be secundiordinis in which second order as before hath beene declared the Cardinall comprehendeth also these Epistles to wit the Epistles to the Hebrewes that of S. Iames and the Apocalyps and consequently it is necessarily deduced and inferred vpon his Maiestyes wordes and discourse that he houldeth these for no Canonicall Scriptures And this is contrary vnto Caluin and vnto the Church of England and vnto his Maiesty himselfe for he auoucheth them to be Scriptures and so vpon my knowledge doth the present Church of England And lastly his Maiesties so long standing vpon the Apocalyps in this his Premonition doth well shew that he esteemeth it for Scripture and this contradiction also must light vpon him who against knowledge and conscience if he hath eyther wrongfully suggested the place of Bellarmine vnto his Matie 40. But my maine Conclusion of all is this that nothing can be certaine as here it is sufficiently prooued when a man once departeth from the Authority of the Church for this is a certaine rule vnto all such a rule as is authorized by God himselfe for then euery man may make and vnmake Scripture at their pleasure vpon their owne perill But sure I am that he can neyther giue nor take away diuine authority from the Scriptures And if you say that neyther the Church can do this I demaund first who art thou that comparest thy self with the whole Church I graunt it to be true but yet let me tell thee this withall that though the Church cannot giue diuine authority to any writing which from the beginning was not truely Scripture nor take away the same from any part of that which from the very beginning was Scripture yet may the Church declare what bookes were written by Propheticall or Apostolicall men as before hath bene said and consequently by the finger of the holy Ghost and so were Canonicall Scriptures and of infallible truth and this might the Church know partly by tradition others not knowing the same might without suspition of heresy doubt of their authority before the said declaration of the Church and partly also by the euer guiding assistance of the holy Ghost in her Synodes when any such weighty matters for direction of the whole Church were treated in which Councells the said Church after due inquisition made and inuocation of the holy Ghost as her common custome is might no lesse conclude and bind all with Visum est Spiritui Sancto Nobis then did they of the first Councell in the Actes of the Apostles which no priuate man hath authority to do though Luther and Caluin presumed to determine the same The fourth Consideration THE briefe summe of all hitherto treated of in this second Chapter concerning the Scriptures is in effect thus much first euery belieuing appealing vnto Scriptures is not sufficient to proue a man a Christian Catholicke for that ech Sectary doth offer this Secondly that tradition without Scriptures might haue continued as sufficient for instruction if God had so pleased according to that of S. Irenaeus before cited and this is proued for that both the Church vnder the law and vnder the Ghospell were instituted ordayned by tradition without Scriptures as appeareth by the very time of the writing of the Scriptures both of the old and new TestameÌ„t after that the Church was first planted Thirdly the written Scriptures are distinguished discerned what is Scripture and what not what Canonicall and what Apocrypha and that by tradition and this is all about the letter of the Scripture only There resteth yet the greatest point of all and of most importance behind and this is how true Scriptures are to be rightly sensed and interpreted For if that of Tertullian be true in the 17. Chapter of his Prescriptions Tantùm veritati obstrepit adulter sensus quantùm corruptor stylus A false glosse marreth the truth as much as a naughty text Or that of S. Hierome Nec putemus in verbis Scripturarum esse Euangelium sedin sensu non in superficie sed in medulla non in sermonum foliis sed in radice rationis Neither let vs thinke that the Ghospell resteth in the wordes of the Scriptures not in the sense of the Scriptures not in the rind or barky letter of the wordes but in the marrow of the meaning not in the wordy leaues but in the root of reason by a right vnderstanding thereof Or that of S. Augustine to the same effect Si in Scripturis fanctis profunda sunt mysteria quae ad hoc absconduntur ne vilescant ad hoc quaeruntur vt exerceant ad hoc aperiuntur vt pasâ—ant if there be profound mysteries in holy writ which are therefore hid that they become not vile therefore sought after that men may be exercised and set on worke therefore disclosed that they may feed Lastly Si mare sit diuina scriptura habens in se sensus prosundos altitudinem Propheticorum aenigmatum as S. Ambrose auerreth If diuine Scripture be a sea contayning in it bottomles depth of profound senses that is the depth of propheticall riddles questions and predictions c. Si machera c. as the same author hath it If it be a sword with a sharpe and cutting edge oh then how warily ought we to walke in this way of sensing Scriptures Quae nihil aliud est nisi Epistola quaedam omnipotentis Dei ad creaturam suam as S. Gregory speaketh which is nothing else but a certaine Epistle of the omnipotent God vnto his owne creature 42. If a subiect should eyther maliciously or negligently misinterprete the letter of his Prince and that in a matter of some great moment should he escape seuere punishment And shall the treacherous hereticke who wilfully and maliciously vpon his owne peruerse choice depraueth corrupteth and misinterpreteth the Scriptures the letter Epistle and proper hand-writing of his God escape deserued condemnation Grande periculum est in Ecclesia loqui ne fortè interpretatione peruersa de Euangelio Christi hominis fiat Euangelium aut quod peius est Diaboli So S. Hierome It is no small hazard to speake in the Church least happily the Ghospell of Christ become the Ghospell of man or that which is worse the Ghospell of the Diuell and all by a peruerse and naughty interpretation Is the Scripture a bottomlesse sea and is there no daunger of drowning nay damning in hell if men be to busy with it to abuse it Is the Scripture a sword as S. Ambrose resembleth it or a two-edged sword for so S.
by Moyses the first pen man of the holy Ghost and so successiuely vpon sundry occasions continued 49. M. Rogers his first proposition is That the markes and tokens of their visible Church are the due and true administration of the VVord and Sacraments but these markes are not admitted by the Catholickes but worthily reiected for that they are as hard and obscure to find out and as much controuerted as the thing it selfe whereof they should be markes for that all partes yea all sectes and heresies doe pretend to haue due and true administration of the word and Sacraments and it is as hard a matter to determine this controuersy as the other viz. to find out which is the true Church But the Markes of Antiquity Vniuersality Vnity and Succession before mentioned and giuen by Catholickes for such were Tertullians 1400. yeares ago when he wrote that excellent booke of Prescriptions and Vincentius Lyrinensis 1200. years since to take away your late imputation and denomination of Papist vnto Catholickes are so cleare and euident in themselues that presently they will distinguish betwixt one Church and another betwixt Roman Catholickes and all hereticall Sectaries And albeit some Sectaries being pressed therewith will pretend to haue these markes in their Church and will set a good face vpon the matter and challenge them also yet are these wordes out before they be aware for the matter being so euident against them they presently giue ouer their clayme they are content to hold hāds of running to other obscure markes the common Plea of all condemned Heretickes of the due and true administration of the Word and Sacraments when God wotteth they haue neyther Word nor Sacrament according to the Catholicke integrity and sincerity 50. M. Rogers sixt proposition about the Church is That the visible Church to wit the true Catholick Church may and hath from time to time erred both in doctrine and conuersation which assertion the Catholick in his sense doth hold for so blasphemous and absurd yea ridiculous also as nothing can be more For if this be true that the true visible Catholicke Church spread ouer the whole Christian world can erre and induce into errour then is there no surety or certainty in the world no not in the promises of Christ and his Apostles who assured vs the contrary 51. But let vs take a view of M. Rogers proofes out of Scripture for confirming this his sixth assertion which surely are so fantasticall and impertinent for any consequence to be drawne from them so absurd in reason and ridiculous in religion that no man of iudgement or conscience can read them without indignation and laughter as by the view will appeare For thus he setteth them downe in his owne wordes only I will add the inference vpon euery probation out of Scriptures His first place is Take heed Matth. 24. 4. therefore the Church may erre Belieue it not Matth. 23. 26. therefore the Church may erre Beware of the leauen of the Pharisyes and of the leauen of Herod Mar. 8. 15. therefore the Church may erre Many shall be deceiued yea the very elect were it possible Matth. 24. 11. therefore the Church may erre Shall he find faith vpon the earth Luc. 18. 8. therefore the Church may erre VVe know in part 1 Cor. 13. 12. therefore the Church may erre Beware of Dogges therefore the Church may erre Beware of euill workes beware of concision Philip. 3. v. 2. therefore the Church may erre God shall send them strong illusions that they should belieue lyes 2. Thess. 9. 10. therefore the Church may erre And is not this a sound proofe out of the Scriptures 52. These are those cleare texts that M. Rogers bringeth forth to proue that the vniuersall Christian visible Catholicke Church for that only we now treat of may be deceiued and hath erred determining matters of doctrine and yet as you see here is not one word that is spoken or may be applyed to the said vniuersall Catholicke Church but only caueats giuen to the Church to beware of particuler deceauers Heretickes Pharisies Herod the like And consequently these places are so idly vrged and so absurdly applied by the Authour that I should wast time in spending any more labour about perusing them any further Only one of his places I will but touch in one word Many saith Christ shall be deceiued yea the very elect if it were possible out of which place for the ouerthrowing of M. Rogers proposition and inferring the cleane contrary assertion I reason thus and let Tribunal Syllogismi vmpire betwixt vs both which is the better and fitter consequence deduced out of this place if it be impossible that the elect shall be deceiued though many be deceiued then the Church comprehending the elect as a part of her cannot be beceiued sed verum primum for truth it selfe hath spoken it and this is the true meaning of those wordes if it were possible c. ergo secundum The like consequence I would inferre out of all the rest but the places are so absurdly and against all common sense and reason vrged that they are not longer to be stood vpon 53. The like miserable course or rather more pitifull if possibly it may be doth he take to proue the second part of his proposition which is that the said Catholicke visible Church may erre in determining matters of life and manners for that is the question and not his ydle word of erring in conuersation And first he doth alleag the words of Christ Iniquity shal be increased and the loue of many shall wax could Matth. 24. 12. therefore the Church may erre in determining matters of life and manners Secondly he citeth that of S. Paul Restore c least thou also be tempted Gal. 6. 1. therefore the Church may erre in determining matters of life and manners Thirdly I do not the good thing which I would but the euill which I would not that doe I if I doe that which I would not it is no more I that do it but the sinne that dwelleth in me Rom. 7. 19. 20. therefore the Church may erre in determining matters of life and manners Fourthly There is a fight euen in the best men and mēbers of Christ Rom. 7. 23 therfore the Church may erre in determining matters belōging to lyfe and manners for this must be his conclusion out of euery one of these places as his former of doctrine was out of the other And are not these goodly argumentes to proue his assertion His assertion as you haue often heard was that the visible Catholicke Church might erre in determining matters belonging to manners to wit in defining and finally determining this is good that is bad this is lawfull that vnlawfull and the like and he commeth in with his misapplied texts to proue that particuler men may haue infirmities in them and fight of their passions or concupiscence Doth he not hit the naile on the head
to make good against them in the particuler carriage and passage of this present busines of Councells let vs but leaue the barky rind and outward corke and enter into the inward marrow and substance that is let vs giue no credit to their words but looke into their deedes and we shall easily discerne yea the matter will disclose it selfe For to set their wordes aside whome we haue euer found contrary in their deedes if the Church of England do sincerely imbrace and receaue for Catholicke and Orthodoxe these foure first generall Councells which did resemble comprehend and present the whole Primitiue Church for more then foure hundred and fifty yeares togeather after Christ then must it follow if they meane as they say and that their wordes shall not proue wind that the English Church and our lay Parlaments must acknowledge and admit also that doctrine for Catholick and Orthodoxe which without impeachment controllement or contradiction of any can be substantially proued to haue bene taught and held in this visible vniuersall Church whereof these foure Councelles collectiuely represented the whole body for all that tyme. Which foresaid doctrine that both it and euery point therof passed for so many ages vncontrolled this one reason may suffice to proue insteed of all for that the said doctrines should otherwise haue bene noted espied out reprehended and censured by some of these Councells els had they not done their duties neither had they bene so vigilant for the good of the whole body as they ought to haue bene if hauing condemned some heresies as they did they had winked at others Which once to imagine of an Ambrose an Augustine a Hierome for the latin Church a Basill a Chrysostome and an Athanasius for the Greeke nay to suppose it and that confidently though most impudently of all the great Saints and learned Doctors in the world togeather this cannot be no lesse then senselesse absurdity grosse stupidity yea heathenish impiety when as the least of these which I haue named was for learning able to haue resisted the whole Christian world and for their zeale would haue spared none in a point of errour or heresie as I may instance and proue by Tertullian Origen and S. Cyprian were any of these though neuer so great by the rest spared VVere any former merits though neuer so many respected if once they presumed to innouate the least errour whatsoeuer And therefore to strike at the poynt I ayme at in the period of the Conclusion doth the English Church and Parlament admit all the doctrines that were taught in the Church and that continued without the impeachment of any notwithstanding all the zealous vigilant Pastours in the Church I thinke it will make great difficulty and let it reiect them or any of them there needes no more to proue that Church to be hereticall let it admit them it proues it selfe by departure from them and their doctrines to be Apostaticall for that it houldeth not the same points of faith with these foure first Councells which it maketh shew to receiue and imbrace In a word let it admit them or reiect them they shall neuer be able to wipe away the blot and blemish imputation and innouation of damnable errour from their Church For better vnderstanding whereof as also of some other particulers thereto belonging and hereupon necessarily depending I haue thought good to decipher out these ensuing Considerations The first Consideration MY first Consideration which I promise as the very ground-worke and foundation of all the rest must of necessity be this that the Parlament and Church of England admitting these foure first generall Councells of Nyce Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon for Orthodoxe and truly Catholicke as representing in their Bishops the complete and entyre body of the Catholicke Church in their seuerall ages must needes acknowledge in like manner that for these first foure hundred and fifty yeares or rather fiue hundred for that it is not probable nay possible that within the compasse of fifty yeares the same should now faile which had allready by vertue of Christ his promise continued foure hundred and fifty yeares the true Catholick Church of Christ consisted not only of the elect and consequently was invisible but of good and bad and therupon was visible vnder visible heades And this was figured by the Parables of the net that caught both good and bad fish and by the field that brought forth good corne and weedes And further that this visible externall Church in those dayes was the very same wherof Christs wordes were to be vnderstood when he gaue this in charge to one vpon occasion and supposal of a complaint made against his brother which if he succeeded not then Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church as also that other of S. Paul that the Church is Columna firmamentum veritatis the Pillar and foundation of truth so as if a man in those dayes would haue had any controuersy in Religion debated and resolued if he would haue knowne what Scriptures the Apostles and Euangelists had committed vnto the custody of the Church for Canonicall Authenticall and further if he desired to know which they were how they might be knowne from counterfait how they might be truly sensed and rightly vnderstood what and how many Sacramēts were left by Christ vnto his Church which they were what were their effects operations how they were to be administred and such other like And if he were a Iew or Gentill that thus demaunded questioning these doubts and would vpon the resolution therof become a Christian but being vnlearned would be instructed in all these cases and the like he was to haue made his repayre and recourse vnto this externall visible Church and to haue stood in all points whatsoeuer vnto her finall determination decision direction instruction and perpetuall gouerment in all these first fiue ages without malepart repugnancy or obstinate reply if he euer intēded to be saued And if vpon any animosity or peruicacity any mā were cast out of that Church in all that time eyther for interpreting Scriptures in his owne sense according to a priuate spirit or for peruerting or innouating de nouo de suo of his owne head or braine in any the least poynt of faith and mystery of Christian religion as the Protestants do both his damnation was by all held and concluded for certaine except he repented and listened yea and obeyed the voice of the Church his mother that sought to reclaine him for that the authority of this Church was euer held for God his highest tribunall vpon earth and therfore irrefragable since the tribunall of heauen standeth expecting what is here done by the Church vpon earth being euer ready to loose or bynd to deliuer ouer vnto Sathan or to release from the bandes of sinne errour and heresy according vnto the former passed doome and sentence of the Church as among other Fathers S. Iohn Chrysostome in his
Further I find that the Iesuits were neuer so strict with the Fathers as to restraine their credit and authority to the first foure or fiue hundred yeares only and consequently to accept some reiect others and all at their proper pleasure as the Protestants do but that they thinke the same spirit of truth and the same assistance of the holy Ghost descended also to the Fathers of the succeeding ages and shall do vnto the end of the world 8. Nor do I find them any where to affirme that euery one of the Fathers do vsually contradict others Nor yet were they euer of this erroneous and dangerous opinion that it is lawfull for ech particuler man to arrogate that liberty and authority ouer the Fathers as where he findeth them to agree with the Scripturs there to belieue them where otherwise in his opinion there with their reuerence to reiect them for that this would come to the same issue before mentioned to wit that euery mans priuate iudgment should be his owne rule and then would it consequently follow that quot homines tot sententiae wee should haue as many cōtrouersies touching the exposition of the Fathers as we haue already about the interpretation of the Scriptures And who seeth not wherunto this secretly tendeth euen to leaue nothing sound stable and certaine in religion which must be needes at last the ouerthrow of all religion 9. And now if it be lawfull for euery priuate spirit and particuler man to iudge when Fathers do alleage Scriptures whether they do alleage them rightly to the purpose or no then ariseth another question interminable whether in all liklihood of reason it be probable that that priuate man should vnderstand the Scriptures better then that Father or ancient Doctor 10. And as for the rule of S. Augustine suggested vnto his Matie by our English Ministers for patronizing of this point and reducing of all both Scriptures and Fathers vnto the examine of a priuate spirit I haue diligently pervsed the place as it lieth in his second booke against Cresconius Cap. 31. and 32. and vpon an exact suruey of the place I find that S. Augustine giueth no such generall rule or warrant for particuler men to iudge of the Fathers writings and citations of Scriptures vsed by them but only in the case and cause of S. Cyprian that had held contrary vnto the whole Church viz. that men comming from heresy were to be rebaptized whose Epistles also were vrged by Cresconius the Donatist against S. Augustine tamquam firmamenta Canonicae veritatis as grounds of Canonicall truth to vse S. Augustine his words I say vpon these premises the said Father answereth thus vnto the authority of S. Cyprian obiected that in a manifest point of heresy for so was the opinion and yet S. Cyprian was no heretik since he neuer defended it with obstinacy against the Church but in all his opinions submitted himselfe to the iudgment of the Church Nos nullam Cypriano sacimus iniuriam cùm eius quaslibet literas à Canonica diuinarum Scripturarum auctoritate distinguimus We do no iniury vnto Cyprian when we do distinguish any of his Epistles from the Canonicall authority of diuine Scriptures 11. And afterwards againe hauing named the Epistles which Cresconius vrged he proceeded thus Ego huius Epistolae auctoritate non teneor c. I am not bound to admit the authority of this Epistle for that I do not hould the Epistles of Cyprian as Canonicall but do consider them by the Scriptures which are Canonicall c. Finally after a long praise of S. Cyprian of his wit eloquence charity and martyrdome S. Augustine concludeth that notwithstanding all this yet for that in this point he dissented from the residue of the doctors and Pastors of the Church he refused to follow him his wordes are these Hoc quòd aliter sapuit non acipio non accipio inquam quòd de baptizandis Schismaticis Beatus Cyprianus sensit quòd hoc Ecclesia non accepit pro quae Beatus Cyprianus sanguinem sudit This that S. Cyprian held differently from others though not obstinately I do not admit I do not admit I say that which blessed Cyprian did hold about the rebaptizing of heretickes and Schismatickes and I do not admit it for that the Church doth not admit it for which Church blessed S. Cyprian did shed his bloud 12. So then we see that this which S. Augustine here instanceth and speaketh of comparing and trying S. Cyprian his Epistles by the Scriptures is no generall case nor common rule nor warrant that euery particler man may do the same to the writers of euery particuler Doctor For first S. Augustine himselfe that made this examine of Scriptures was a great and learned Doctor yea one of the greatest that euer the Church of God had and consequently was personally inuested with some more Ecclesiasticall authority then euery ordinary protestant Minister Secondly he perceaued right well that the opinion of S. Cyprian was much like the religion of the Protestants at this day to wit new and dissonant from Scriptures and different from the vniforme consent of Doctors expounding those Scriptures not receaued by the Catholicke Church nay and that which is aboue all condemned by the Church Thirdly S. Augustine did not presume vpon his owne authority to condemne S. Cyprians opinion as dissonant from the Scriptures for that in this case the Authority of S. Cyprian might seeme to haue bene as good as the authorty of S. Augustine especially hauing sealed the Ghospell with his bloud which the other though a great Saint had not done nor was put vnto But S. Augustine found S. Cyprian his opiniō dissenting from the true Scriptures exposition as it was carried along by the most holy tradition of Catholicke Church and so is S. Augustine to be vnderstood for Scripture and Church euer go togeather in the ancient Fathers and they neuer vnderstand the one without the other All which circumstances are of exceeding waight and importance in this case about which notwithstanding I haue thought it conuenient as before so heere to lay forth some further and particuler Considerations The first Consideration FIRST then touching the different esteeme which Roman Catholicks and professing Protestants doe hould of vnanime consent of Ancient Fathers in matters of Religion which is the first poynt here touched therfore of vs in the first place to be discussed I considered yet further what I had read in S. Augustine concerning this point which holy Saint and great Doctor though as now in part we haue shewed he doth alwayes postpone what authority of ancient Fathers soeuer to the Canonicall Scriptures all particuler opiniōs of some one or few vnto the consent of the greater part but especially vnto the iudgmēt of the Church yet was the same Father so respectiue in all his writinges to conserue the reuerence and iust deserued reputation of these great Saints and seruants
desensorem venerandum quis ignorat Hilarium Episcopum Gallum Who is ignorant or who doth not know that earnest defendour of the Catholicke Church against Heretickes venerable Hilary the French Bishop 32. And then againe of S. Amrbose Audi alium excellentem Dei dispensatorem quem veneror vt Patrem in Christo enim Iesu per Euangelium me genuit Beatum loquor Ambrosium Harken vnto another excellent steward of Gods house whom I do reuerence as my Father for in Christ Iesus he begot me by the Ghospell I meane blessed S. Ambrose And then of a third also to wit S. Gregory Nazianzen he giueth this commendation or rather by an interrogation would inforce his aduersary vnto an admiration of this great Saint and learned Diuine An tibi parua in vno Gregorio Episcoporum Orientalium videtur authoritas Doth it seeme vnto thee a small authority that is in one onely Gregory Nazianzen amongst the Easterne Bishops And then followeth the reason which truly is very well worth the marking 33. Est quidem saith he tanta persona vt neque ille hoc nisi ex fide Christiana omnibus notissima diceret neque illi eum tam clarum haberent atque venerandum nisi hoc ab illo dictum ex regula notissimae veritatis agnoscerent He is truly so great a person as neyther would he speake in this matter as he doth but out of the most knowne manifest Christian faith nor would men hould him for so excellent and venerable except they did know that what he said he spake out of the rule of most knowne truth Thus S. Augustine 34. And in these his wordes consisteth the whole substance of this my Consideration about priuate Fathers to wit that S. Gregory Nazianzē syrnamed Theologus the diuine for his admirable and profound knowledge in the greatest mysteries of Diuinity though he had bene but one in that matter against Iulian as he was not but accompanied with many as hath bene made cleare in the former Consideration yet so great was the authority of his person in the Church as that neyther he would haue said as he did but out of the common sense of the Church in his time nor should he euer haue bene held for a famous nor venerable a Doctor renowned throughout the Christian world but that the Church was sure that he would affirme nothing hould nothing publish nothing but out of the common rule and infallible Canon of the most knowne truth for that otherwise he should euen to his face haue bene contradicted by other Doctors and Fathers his equalls and compeeres that liued with him or ensued after him So as we see that particuler Fathers sayings and opinions when they are not gaynesaid by others or reprehended or condemned by the Church they are not so lightly to be respected or reiected as Protestants doe both ordinarily teach and practise But the maine point to be waighed and considered is this to wit to know in what times they were written vpon what occasion of what credit or authority the Father is whether other doe write the same and accord with him whether any exception haue bene taken against it and then by whome and when and how it stood in the Church eyther as iustifyed or condemned and many other such like materiall circumstances by me before touched for that sometymes it may fall out yea and often times doth as now we haue in part shewed and might do much more at large that particuler Fathers opinions and assertions not contradicted nor yet on the other side agreed vpon in expresse tearmes by the maior part of Fathers in their writings though otherwise belieued and receaued by them in the faith and beliefe of the Church may make a very strong argument that the Church did then belieue it especially if the same were so vnderstood also by the generall consent of the Fathers following in the subsequent age and Church and consequently it may bind euery man his conscience to giue more credit therunto then Protestants incredulity will allow And this shall suffice for my second Consideration The third Consideration HItherto haue we treated of the Fathers shewing first what credit we ought to affoard yeald vnto their ioynt cōsent when in any point of doctrine they agree in one and that is sine scrupulo sine vlla dubitatione as Vincentius speaketh without any further question contradiction or opposition most faithfully to belieue them and imbrace their iudgement as the liuely oracles of God and the whole speaking voyce of Catholick Church in the mouth of her Doctors and Pastors Which if you consider it well is a great deale more then the alternatiue allowed vnto them by Protestants which is eyther to belieue them or to be humbly silent without condemning them as though the Protestant were at his liberty in euery thing to make his choice which as we haue heard in the first Chapter is no lesse thē heresy and as though the renouncing and forsaking of them let it be promised with neuer so much silence reuerence were not on the Protestants part a sufficient cōdemning of them And this for that poynt 36. There remayneth yet behind the chiefe and principall poynt of all others in this present busines and matter we haue now in hand to be handled and to be especially considered of which is this to wit to know whether the ancient Fathers of the first fiue hundred yeares after Christ for so farre doth his Maiesties offer in the last edition of this his English Premonition extend it selfe do make for Protestants or for vs which poynt though to discusse at large throughout all the controuersies would both require and fill a very large volume and consequently farre surpasse the boundes of my intended breuity yet shall Iendeauour in this last Consideratiō to giue a sufficient glimpse of the truth therein in very few words for any indifferent Reader that will stand attent and iudge according vnto reason the more by the lesse 37. For first in generall it may be here seene by that which his Matie layeth forth that the Protestants do deale diffidenter distrustfully on their owne behalfe with the Fathers authority For they do first limit their yeares within the compasse of foure hundred in the first English edition and then of fiue hundred yeares in the next and last of all they call it back againe vnto foure hundred in the Latin edition which argueth that they know not well vpō what ground nor where nor when they stay themselues being still affraid least that they grant to much vnto thē as indeed whatsoeuer they grant vnto them it is to much on their behalfes since that whatsoeuer they graunt it maketh directly against thē which would not be if their friendship with them or hope in them were confident or any at all 38. Secondly they restraine their credit yet more whē they do not promise absolutely to belieue the consent of Fathers but only
of the first fiue hundred yeares which his sayd Maiesty most Royally offereth to follow For opening the window vnto which light I haue thought it my bounden duty both before God and man to take this small labour and to lay these few heades of Considerations before the eyes of his Highnes most wise Iudgment and vnderstanding THE SIXT CHAPTER CONTEYNING A BRIEFE CONTEMPLATION of what hath beene hitherto sayd with the Conclusion of the whole to his most Excellent Maiesty AND now hauing handled these points at some more length then at the beginning I had purposed I hope the benignity and Clemency of his Maiestie will take in good part that leauing the Reader I do returne vnto him againe as vnto my most dearly beloued reuerenced and dread Soueraigne to lay before the eyes of his Prudent Consideration the summe of that which hitherto hath beene considered of 2. First then the point of being a true Catholicke according vnto the name and nature of the word is of such importance necessity and consequence as hath beene shewed in the first Chapter that no riches in this world no wealth no treasure no state no power no policy no human felicity may be compared with it as rightly S. Augustine doth intimate And for that your Maiesties eternall weale after the briefe and transitory passage of this life dependeth therof I cannot but most humbly most hartily and most dutifully falling prostrate at your feet beseech you to giue some serious attendance and attention to this high and mayne point of euerlasting saluation to seeke out what is truely Catholicke both in the Church for whose Epitheton the Name was first by the Apostles inuented as also in particuler men who is a true Catholicke and who followeth the rule which the Name describeth to wit he that in Christian Religion followeth vniuersality and not singularity the whole and not a part ancienty and nouelty that which hath bene deliuered and conserued from time to time and not inuented framed and set sorth in later times 3. And for that on the other side heresy is the opposite and contradictory vnto Catholicke Religion for that it maketh choyce of a part to it selfe and therby is held to be the highest sin in the sight of Almighty god that is or can be committed vpon earth for that it ouerthroweth the very foundation of fayth vnder pretence to establish and reforme fayth My desire is so ardent in this point that your Matie should enter into due consideration therof as almighty God beareth wirnesse vnto my soule and spirit that nothing in this life stādeth more neere my hart considering the eternity of the next world the immutable weale or woe therof the vae or euge that ech man is to receaue as well Princes as others and that these earthly Princedomes will seeme but shadowes at that day and not worthy one houre of that glory or misery that is to be gotten or lost by Catholick Religion or heresy in this life And this is my first contemplation and I shall pray Almighty God that it may be also your Maiesties 4. The second is about those foure wayes proposed by your Maiesty for auerring Catholicisme and clearing frō heresy which are the admitting and belieuing of all Canonicall Scriptures the receauing of the three Creedes the approuing the foure first Councells and the acceptance of the Ancient Fathers of the first foure or fiue hundred yeares In all which if with the admitting in words there be also a true Catholicke sense no doubt but they do make a man to be a Catholicke and do condemne heresy But the importance of all standeth in the exposition for to belieue the Scriptures in the sense that I thinke best my selfe or to acknowledge them for Canonicall or not Canonicall as I or some few with me of later times shall please to prescribe or to admit the three Creedes with that exposition of the articles as I and mine shall best allow or the first foure Councells in some thinges and not in other or the first foure hundred yeares of Fathers so farre forth as they in my censure do agree with Scriptures is to reduce all to my owne iudgment a thing most opposite to Catholicisme and proper to heresy as we haue at large declared 5. Wherefore vpon my knees I do most humbly supplicate your Maiesty to consider well of this and especially of the last poynt concerning the ancient Fathers which doth in effect cōtaine all the rest for that these men deliuered vnto vs the Scriptures togeather with the true vnderstāding therof according to the sense of the Church in their dayes these men deliuered vnto vs the three Creedes the first as from the Apostles the other as from the Church the third as from a priuate man but yet approued by the Church these men deliuered vnto vs the first foure generall Councells wherein diuers of themselues sate as Iudges and Bishops and had voyees and suffrages in the same these men were they that examined the controuersies determined the Catholicke doctrine condemned heresies an athematized hereticks and cleared the coastes of all these wicked and turbulent incumbrances which seditious and headstrong spirits had raysed in the Christian world by their contentions 6. And finally these were they whom our Sauiour Christ did vse as sannes to winnow his corne to purge the flore of his Church separating the chaffe from the wheat and eroneous doctrine from the truth wherin they were so zealous and diligent labourers as not the least weed could spring vp in this field of the Church but that these carefull good watchmen and faithfull gardeners did presently note and pursue the same vntill it was eyther rooted out or condemned by the Church and therby as branches cut of from the body of the vine suffered to wither away and to consume of themselues For proofe wherof we may alleadge as many examples as there haue bene different heresies and hereticks in the Christian Church for the space of fifteene hundred yeares which albeit they ruffled much mightily for the time and had often great Princes Kinges Emperors and Potentates to fauour and patronize them as the Protestants haue now your Matie yet are they so consumed in tyme and by vertue of the holy Ghost as the very names of many of them are now scarce remembred and much lesse their arguments reasons proofes and Scriptures which they brought for the same and were it not that in these Fathers bookes who were their enemies some mention is made therof we should scarce know that there had bin such men in the world 7. But on the contrary side the Church that condemned these men and the Fathers and Doctors liuing therin remayned euer both then and after victorious and shal do to the worlds end and still by succession and continuatiō the same Church hath come downe frō age to age one age giuing testimony to another of the purity of the said Church