All-sufficiencie or containing of all things expressely is a necessarie point of perfection hee is deceived for then would it follow that the Gospell of Saint Matthew Saint Marke and other particular Bookes should be imperfect and especially that of Saint John wherein hee saith expressely that all things are not written Were the Scripture perfect in the Knights sense yet would it not then be a sufficient rule of Faith of it selfe alone for it would still be a booke or writing the very nature whereof doth not suffer it to be the sole rule of Faith or judge of Controversies for a Iudge must be able to speake to heare and to answer whereas the nature of a Booke is as it were to leave it selfe to be read and expounded by men No Catholike declineth the triall of Scripture in regard of imperfection but onely in regard that it being a written Word no Heretike can be convinced by it as I shewed you even now out of Tertullian who saith It is lost labour to dispute with an Heretike out of Scripture Let any man by the effects judge who reverence the Scripture most Catholikes or Protestants let him compare the labours of the one in translating and expounding Scriptures with the labour of the other and hee shall find the truth of this matter In admitting any triall with Protestants by Scriptures De praescript c. 15. Non esse admittendos haereticos ad ineundam de scripturis provocationem quos sine scripturis probamus ad scripturas non pertinere Vos qui estis quando unde venistis quid in meo agitis non mei Quo denique Marcion jure sylvaâ—â— meas caedis wee condescend more to their infirmitie than wee need or they can of right challenge For wee acknowledge that saying of Tertullian most true that Heretikes are not to be admitted to the Scriptures to whom the Scripture in no wise belongeth who are you when and whence are you come What do you in my ground you that are not mine By what right ô Marcion dost thou fell my wood By what leave ô Valentine dost thou turne my fountaines By what authoritie ô Apelles dost thou remove my bounds c. This is Tertullians discourse and words where it is but changing the names of Marcion Valentine and Apelles into Luther Calvin and Beza and it will fit as well as if it were made for them You must first shew your selves owners of the Land before you can claime the writings and evidences belonging to it and which make good the Title The Hammer VVHereas many other things argue that our Adversaries maintaine a desperate cause so especially their excepting against the holy Scriptures of God and refusing to be tried by them in the points of difference betweene us and them For what was the reason why the Manichees called in question the authoritie of the Gospell of Saint Matthew Aug. l. 28. cont Faust cap. 2. and the Acts of the Apostles Desperation because by those writings they were convinced of blasphemous Errour What was the reason why the Ebionites rejected all Saint Pauls Epistles Desperation Irenaeus l. 8. cap. 26. because by them their heresie was most apparantly confuted Iren. l. 3. c. 2. Cum ex scriptur is arguuntur in accusationem convertuntur ipsarum scripturarum quasi non recte habeant nec sint ex authoritate nec possit ex iis inveniri veritas ab his qui ignorunt traditionem Tertul. praesc advers haeret What was the reason why the Gnosticks and Valentinians disparage the Scriptures saying that They were not of authoritie and the truth could not be found out of them by those who were ignorant of Tradition Desperation What was the cause why Papias and the Millenaries preferred word of mouth before Scriptures and pretended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unwritten tradition for many of their fables Desperation What was the reason why the Heretikes in Tertullians daies refused to examine their Doctrines by the touchstone of the Scriptures saying More things were required than the Apostles had left in writing for that either the Apostles knew not all or delivered not all to all In like manner wee can impute it to nothing else but diffidence and distrust of their cause that Lyndan Turrian Lessius and Pighius speake so disgracefully of holy Scriptures as they doe terming them dead Characters a dead and killing Letter a shell without a kirnell a leaden rule a boot for any foot a nose of wax Sybils Prophesies Sphinx his riddles a wood of Thieves a shop of Heretikes imperfect doubtfull obscure full of perplexities If they should bestow the like scandalous Epithets upon the Kings Letters patents or the Popes Buls or Briefes they would bee soone put into the Inquisition or brought into some Court of Judicature and there have either their tongues or their eares cut or their fore-heads branded yet the Iesuit is so farre from condemning these blasphemous speeches in his fellow-Jesuits and Romanists that hee deviseth excuses for them and sowes fig-leaves together to cover these their Pudenda which I will plucke off one after another in my answer to his particular exceptions against the Knight To the first It is true that some Roman writers of late have made an assay to prove some of their Popish doctrines out of Scripture but with no better successe than Horantius had in undertaking to refute Calvin his Institutions as appeareth by Pilkington his Parallels If the Scriptures were so firme for our Adversaries why are not they as firm for them why doth the Iessuit in the fore-front of this Section bid as it were defiance to them professing in plaine termes that The Scripture is not the sole rule of Faith nor that out of it alone all Controversies can be decided Doubtlesse any indifferent Reader will conceive that the Scriptures make most for them who stand most for their authoritie and perfection as all the reformed Divines doe not onely affirming but also confirming that the Scripture is not only a most perfect but the only infallible rule of faith Ep. 112. Si divinarum Scripturarum earum scilicet quae in Ecclesiâ Cano. nicae nominantur perspicuâ firmatur authoritate siâ—e ullâ dubitatione credendum est aliis verò testibus vel testimoniis quibus aliquid credendum esse suadetur tibi credere vel non credere liceat quantum ei momenti ad faciendam fidem vel habere vel non habere perpenderis Ep. 97 Solis iis Scripturarum libris qui jam Canoniti appellantur didici hunc timorem honoremque deferre ut nullum earum authorem scribendo aliquid errasse firmissimè credam lib. de Nat. Grat c. 61. Me in hujusmodi quorumlibet Scriptis hominum liberum quia solis Canonicis debeo sine recusatione consensum l. 11. c. 5. Ep. 48. every article of divine faith must be grounded upon a certaine and infallible ground to us but there is no certaine and infallible ground to us of supernaturall truth but
that which was lacking to their Faith to supply I say that which was lacking to their Faith not to the Gospell which Saint Paul preached hee saith not let him be accursed who further informeth you in the Doctrine of the Scriptures or delivereth you more out of them than yee have yet received within that Rule but hee that delivereth you any thing besides that Rule And that this is his meaning appeareth by the words immediately following which the Iesuit cunningly suppresseth to wit these Qui praetergreditur regulam fidei non accedit in viâ sed recedit de viâ Hee that goeth besides the Rule of Faith doth not goe on in the way but departeth out of the way Yea but the word in the Greeke translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used is the same with that Rom. 16.17 which wee in our Bibles translate against not Praeter besides Yea but the Jesuits in their owne Latine vulgar translation to which they are all sworne as wee are not to ours render this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Praeter besides and not Contra against and that this translation is most agreeable to the Apostles meaning appeareth by comparing this text Rom. 16.17 with a parralell'd text 2 Thes 3.6 Withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the Tradition which you have received of us There is no necessity therefore of expounding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that text to the Romans by Contra against wee may as well or better expound it by Praeter that is besides yet if in one place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might signifie Contra it doth not follow that it must be so taken Galathians 1.8 for it is well knowne that the naturall and most usuall signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke is Praeter besides not Contra against and words are to be taken in their most proper and usuall signification unlesse some necessarie reason drawne from the circumstances of the text or analogie of faith inforceth us to leave it which here it doth not As for Saint Austines judgement in the point it selfe to wit that Scripture is the perfect rule of Faith hee plainely delivereth it both in his 49 tractate upon Iohn and in the ninth chapter of the second booke De doctrinâ christianâ and in the last chapter of his second booke De peccatorum meritis remissione and in his booke De bono viduitatis cap. 11. What words can be more expresse and direct for the sufficiencie of Scripture than those in his 49 tractate upon Iohn The Lord Iesus did Quae saluti credentium sufficere videbuntur In iis quae aperte posita sunt in Scriptura inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem moresque vivendi G. ult Credo etiam hâ—ic divinoruÌ„ eloquioruÌ„ clarissima authoritas esset si homo illud sine dispendio salutis ignorare non posset Sancta Scriptura nostrae doctrinae regulam sixit ne auderemus sapere ultra quam oportet and spake many things which are not written as the Evangelist testifieth but those things were chosen to be written which seemed to suffice for the salvation of Beleevers unlesse those in his second booke De doctrina christiana Among those things which are openly or plainly set downe in Scriptures all things are found which concerne or containe Faith or manners or those in his second booke of the remission of sinnes I beleeve that the authoritie of divine Scriptures would have beene most cleere and evident in this point if a man could not have beene ignorant of it without perill of his salvation or lastly those in his booke in the commendation of Widowhood What should I teach thee more than that which thou readest in the Apostle for the holy Scripture setleth the rule of our Doctrine lest wee should presume to be wise above that wee ought Concerning the infallible certainty of the Protestant faith and the uncertainty of the Romish Spectacles Chapter the 10. a page 346. usque ad 380. THE Knights failing in his proofes of our novelty is a sufficient proofe of our antiquity and his owne novelty The Jesuits may not be ashamed of the oath they take to defend the Papacy nay they may glory in it as an heroicall act whereby they binde themselves to the defence of that authority whereon the weight and frame of the whole Catholike Church and salvation of all soules from Christ his owne time to the very end of the world hath doth and still shall depend Catholike Doctors whom the Knight chargeth with division among themselves may indeede differ in opinion so long as a thing is undefined for so long it is not faith but when it is once defined then they must be silent and concurre all in one because then it is matter of faith The Knight can have no certainty of his Christianity because that dependeth upon his Baptisme or the faith of his parents which he cannot know He can have no certainty of his Marriage or the legitimation of his children because the validity of the contract dependeth upon the intention of the parties which marry and no man can have any certaine knowledge of anothers intention and so the Knight is in no better case then his adversaries in this respect It is cleane a different thing to dispute of the certainty of the Catholique faith which we maintaine and of every mans private and particular beliefe of his owne justification or salvation which we deny to be so certaine the one being grounded upon the authority of Gods divine truth and revelation the other upon humane knowledge or rather conjecture Howscever though we be not certaine by certainty of divine faith that this or that man in particular is truely baptized or ordained a Priest yet we are certaine by the certainty of divine faith that not onely there be such Sacraments but that they are also truly administred in the Catholike Church It might be good and profitable as Bellarmine noteth to invoke the Saints though they themselves should not heare us as the Knight would prove out of Peter Lumbard and Gabriel Biel who though they doubt of the manner yet they doubt not of the thing it selfe Gabriel saith the Saints are invocated not as givers of the good things for which we pray but as intercessours to God the giver of all good And Peter Lumbard saith that our prayers become knowne to the Angells in the word of God which they behold so also doe Saints that stand before God Though it be true which Caietan saith that it cannot be knowne infallibly that the miracles whereon the Church groundeth the Canonization of Saints be true yet it followeth not that we are uncertaine whether the Canonized Saints be in Heaven or no because the certainty of Canonization dependeth upon more certaine ground to wit the authority of the See Apostolique and continuall assistance and direction of the Holy-ghost the spirit of truth to whom it belongeth not to suffer Christs
a shrewd passe but that Pope Sixtus forbad this Theame to be any more disputed To proceed to the rest of your observations I produced for a witnesse Paulus Vergerius who renounced Poperie being a Romish Bishop by the testimonies of Sleidan and Osiander I cited the Councell of Basil for dispensing with the cup to the Lay people Aeneas Sylvius for Mariage of Priests Mr. Harding against your private Masse Mr. Casaubon for your translating of the Scriptures Lord Cooke for the Papists frequenting our Churches till the 11th of Qu. Elisabeth Now let the Reader judge of your moderate and learned confutation First Pag. 59. Sleidan and Osiander say you are notorious fellowes both for lying and heresie Paulus Vergerius when he dyed cast forth a horrible stench and roared most fearefully like an Oxe The Councell of Basile you know is of little or no authoritie with Catholikes as being reproved by the Sea Apostolicke Aeneas Sylvius what hee wrote in the time of that Councell is revoked by him in his Bull of Retractations Touching Casaubon you say there is shame enough in store for us both Touching the Lord Cooke he was soundly answered by a Catholicke Divine and so exposed to the scorne of the world for his notorious falshoods These be your severall answers and this is a confutation of their authorities but I say to you if these men have spoken untruth beare witnesse of their falshood if otherwise they delivered the truth why do you reproach them Either let their proofs bee plainly and moderately confuted or let the lying lips saith David be put to silence Psalm 31.20 which cruelly disdainfully and despightfully speake against the righteous Such as is your charitie such is your chastitie for when I cite your Jesuite Costerus for a witnesse Coster Enchir. cap. 17. propo 9. Pag. 64. that a Priest doth sinne more grievously in marrying a wife than keeping a concubine you scoffingly returne me this answere You seeme to take this for a great error but in Priests who cannot marrie it is a greater sinne to marrie for it is not marriage Thus you And is the marriage of Priests no marriage Was there no marriage in all the Tribe of Levi What will become of all the sonnes of Aaron were they all bastards Ignatius ad Philadelph I wish saith Ignatius that I may be found meet before God to follow their steps which raigne in his Kingdome as namely Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph and Esay and other Prophets of Peter and Paul and other Apostles who lived in matrimonie and used conjugall rites And in conclusion hee answeres your assertion in these words If any man call lawfull copulation and procreation of children Idem ibid. corruption and uncleannesse that man hath a serpent the Devill that fell from God dwelling in him Grat. Par. 1. dist 56. fol. 67. Osius Palea Againe your owne Gratian tells us from Pope Damasus that many Bishops of Rome were Priests sonnes as namely Pope Hosius Bonifacius Agapetus Theodorus Silverius Deusdedit Faelix Gelasius all these were Popes and Priests sonnes and then he concludes a Cōplures etiam alii inveniantur qui de sacerdotibus nati Apostolicae sedi praesuerūt Ibid. There were many others also to be found who were begotten of Priests and governed in the Apostolike See Athanas ad Dracontium p. mihi 518. And Athanasius writing to Bishop Dracontius tells him that in his dayes many Monkes were Parents of children and Bishops likewise were Fathers of Sonnes and this was 340. yeares after Christ But I presume you will not say that the marriage of those Priests was no marriage and their brood was spurious and illegitimate Those who account it a Capitall offence for a Priest to marrie and a veniall sinne to keepe a concubine doe rightly resemble the old Heretike Aërius who used to say Epiph. haeres 76. To have the company of a woman out of marriage is no more sinne De bono Matrim dist 27. Quoniam than for a man to claw his eare St. Austin puts the question and resolves it in this manner Some say they be adulterous that marrie after they have made a vow but I tell you saith he they sin grievously that put such asunder And elsewhere more particularly hee concludes against your Tenet Augustinus de bono viduitatis cap. 10. They that say the marriage of such men or women as have vowed continencie is no marriage but rather adulterie seeme unto mee not to consider discreetly and advisedly what they say And in his Tract of holy virginitie he plainly shewes the Antiquitie of your error August de sancta Virgin c. 34. and refutes it where speaking of vowed persons he tells us that many of them are kept from marriage not for love of their godly purpose of Virginitie but for feare of open shame which shame proceedeth of Pride for that they are more afraid to displease men than God they will not marry because they cannot without rebuke yet better were it for them to marrie than to burne that is to say with the flame of their concupiscence to be wasted they are sorrie for their profession and yet it grieveth them to confesse it Chrys contra Judaios Gentil haeret serm de nuptiis Cana in Galil In like manner Chrysostome in the same age doth elegantly illustrate the honour of marriage in Spirituall persons Our Lord honoured Marriage with his presence and sayest thou that Marriage is a hindrance unto godlinesse I tell thee Marriage is no hinderance Had not Moses a wife and children Helias was not hee a virgin Moses brought downe Manna from Heaven so did Helias fire Moses caused Quailes to flie in the heaven and Helias shut it with a word What hurt did virginity to the one what impediment was wife and children to the other See Helias coached in the ayre and Moses travelling through the Sea Behold Peter a Pillar of the Church he had a wife therefore finde no fault with Marriage Looke into the Ages following your Angelicall Doctor Thomas Aquinas resolves the question flatly against you your fellow Jesuits The Acolothytes were those that lighted the Tapers at the reading of the Gospel in the Masse If an Acolothyte saith he doe confesse to a discreet Priest that by no meanes he can containe the Priest doth not much offend in giving him this counsell that he should marry privately and closely blinde the eyes of the Bishop And if afterwards he be willing to take Orders we hold it lesse sinne for him to use his wife than to commit fornication for it is a lesse offence to accompany with his wife than to commit fornication against the Divine Precept They who pretend chastitie and make a vow to keepe it when they enter into holy Orders doe breake it even in this when they allow a concubine Aeneas Sylvius was conscious to himselfe of the danger of that sinne and therefore he wished that
the purpose that that Councell seemed to be an assembly not of Bishops but of Hobgoblins not of men but of Images moved like the statues of Daedalus by the sinewes of others What the Iesuit addeth of night owles not daring to appeare in the splendour of that Councell hath no colour of truth For it is no newes for owles to appeare at popish Councells At a Councell held at Rome by Pope Heldebrand Fascic rerum expetend sugiend Ortwhinus Gratius writeth there appeared an huge great Owle which could not be frayed away but scared all the Bishops As for Protestants whom this Blacke-bird of Antichrist termeth night Owles if they had flocked to that Councell they had shewed themselves not Owles by appearing in that twi-light at Trent but very Wood-cocks to trust any security offerd them by those who after publike faith given to Iohn Huz and Ierome of Prage notwithstanding the safe conduct of Sigismond the Emperour for their going to and comming from the Councell at Constance most cruelly burned them at a stake to ashes To the seventeenth Divine faith must be grounded upon divine authority and that cannot be the Catholike faith which wanteth consent of Fathers As for those Fathers whose authority Bellarmine draweth ob torto collo to testifie for unwritten traditions de verbo Dei lib. 4. cap. 7. the Iesuit may see them fully answered in Iunius Whitaker Daniel Chamierus and Dr. Davenant Bishop of Sarum and a farre greater number of Fathers alleaged to the contrary by Robert Abbot in his answer to William Bishop cap. 7. Phillip Morney in his preface to his booke de sacrâ Eucharistiâ and Iacobus Laurentius in his singular tractate de Disputationibus and others To the eighteenth The assistance of the Holy ghost was more speciall in the times of the Apostles then in latter ages they could not erre in their writings others might yet we charge not the Catholike Church of Christ in any age with any fundamentall errour though we may the Roman Tertullian his rule may have still place and as well in one age as another if it be rightly taken and not misconstrued and misapplied for if it be taken generally that whatsoever is the same amongst many is no errour but tradition it is it selfe a great errour For the same opinion concerning the inequality of the Father and the Sonne is found amongst many to wit the Arrian Churches the same doctrine concerning the procession of the Sonne from the Father onely is found amongst many namely all the Greeke Churches at this day the same practise of administring the Eucharist to children was found amongst many namely all the Churches of Affrica in St. Austines time yea and in all Churches subject to the Bishop of Rome for many ages as Maldonat the Iesuit confesseth yet the above named Positions and this latter practise are confessed on all sides to be erroneous But Tertullian by many understandeth not the practise of some particular Churches Tertul. de prescrip Age nunc omnes ecclesiae erraverint verisimile est ut tot et tante in unam fidem erraverint much lesse of factious persons of one Sect but the generall and uniforme doctrine and practise of the whole Church as his words in the same Chapter quoted by the Iesuit declare Goe too now admit that all Churches have erred is it likely so many so great Churches should erringly conspire in one faith To the nineteenth We derogate nothing from any generall custome of the Catholike Church let the Iesuit produce out of good Authors any such custome for Indulgences to redeeme soules out of Purgatory flames by Papall Indulgences and this controversie will soone be at an end howsoever let me tell the Iesuit the way that this text of St. Paul is impertinently alleaged to prove this or any other article of the Trent faith For St. Paul in this place speaketh not of any Article of faith nor matter of manners necessary to salvation but of habits gestures fashions and indifferent rites in matter of which nature there is no question at all but that the custome of the Churches of God ought to sway as is abundantly proved by Dr. Andrewes late Bishop of Winchester in his printed Sermon upon that text To the twentieth Disputabamus de alliis respondet Iesuita de cepis we dispute of Indulgences the Iesuit answereth of Traditions in matter of Faith These are very distinct questions and so handled by all that deale Work-man-like in points of difference betweene the Reformed and the Romane Churches but the Jesuits common place of Indulgences was drawne drie and therefore hee setteth his cocke of Traditions on running which yeeldeth nothing but muddy water What though Faith be ancienter than Scriptures the Argument is inconsequent Ergo Scripture is not now the perfect rule of Faith Faith neither is nor can be more ancient than the Word of God upon which it is built this Word of God is now written and since the consigning and confirming the whole Canon of the written Word by Saint Iohn in the Apocalypse is become the perfect and as the Schooles speaketh the adequate rule of Faith It is true Christ and his Apostles first taught the Church by word of mouth Lib. 3. advers heres cap. 1. Non enim per alios dispositionem salutis nostrae cognovimus quam per eos per quos Evangelium pervenit ad nos quod quidem tunc praeconiaverunt postea per dei voluntatem in scripturis nobis tradiderunt fundamentum columnam fidei nostrae futuram but afterwards that which they preached was by the commandment of God committed to writing to be the foundation and pillar of Faith as Irenaus testifieth in expresse words To the twentie one If the Iesuit could prove as undoubtedly any words of the Apostles that are not set downe in Scriptures to be their owne words as wee can prove the writings we have to be theirs wee would yeeld no lesse credit to them then to these but that neither can hee nor so much as undertaketh to doe And whereas he further faith that the credit of the Scripture depends upon Tradition unlesse hee qualifie the speech some way it is not onely erroneous but also blasphemous for it is all one as if hee should say that man gives credit and authority to God as Tertullian jeareth the Heathen In Apolloget not receiving Christ for God because the Romane Senate would not give their consent and approbation to make him one Iam homo deo propitius esse debet or that the credit and authority of Gods Word dependeth upon mans receiving it Whereas in truth Gods Word is not therefore of divine and infallible authoritie because the Church delivereth it to be so but on the contrary the Church delivereth it to be so because in it selfe it is so and the Church should erre damnably if shee should otherwise conceive of these inspired Writings then as of the undoubted Oracles of God
other man to be present at a prayer which he understandeth not then for a Parish-Clarke whom alone hee will have here to be understood Who is very much beholding to him for bestowing the name of idiot upon him and truly such a Clarke as the Iesuit here defineth may very well take the idiot in the worst sence to himselfe For he requireth no more in a Clarke then that hee understand the Service so farre P. 265. as to bee able to answer Amen But it seemeth the Iesuit tooke his holy orders per saltum and skipt over the Clarke For if hee had well considered what belongs to the Clarkes office he should find that he hath more in his part then to say only Amen for in all ancient and later Liturgies that I have seene many short sentences or responds are to be said by him as namely Christe eleeson cumspiritn tuo habemus ad Dominum and the like neither can hee say Amen to any prayer in the Apostles sence unlesse hee perfectly understand it for to say Amen is not only to utter the word which a Parret or Popenjay may doe but to joyne in prayer with the Priest and to give his assent to every clause To the ninth The Iesuits answer to Iustinian is lame on both feet For whereas hee taxeth him for taking too much upon him it will appeare to any who peruseth the Code Digests that hee taketh no more upon him then God commendeth to Princes to wit the custodie of both tables he did no more then S. Austine affirmeth appertaineth to Christian Kings to command those things that are just and honest not only in civill affaires but also in matters of religion for what he did hee had many excellent presidents before him in David Salomon Hezekiah and Iosiah Kings of Iudah and Constantine and Theodosius and other Christian Emperours as is declared at large by B. Bilson in his defence of the oath of supremacre and Doctor Crakenthorpe in his most learned Apologie of this Emperour Next what hee saith that the Decree of this religious Emperour may well stand with the present practise of the Roman Church is most false Novel constit 123. For the words of the Emperour are generall commanding all Bishops and Priests to celebrate the sacred oblation of the Lords Supper and prayer used in Baptisme not in secret but with a lowd and cleare voyce that the mindes of the hearers might bee stirred up with more devotion to expresse the prayses of God Now I would faine know to what end all Bishops and Priests are commanded to pronounce their words clearely and distinctly both at the administration of Baptisme and the Lords Supper but that their hearers might undetstand what they say and bee affected with those things they heare which cannot beif the Priest speak to them in an unknown tong For how can the lowd pronouncing of words in a strange language stirre up the devotion of the people to praise God for his benefits which the Emperour here requireth under a great penaltie saying Let the Bishops and Priests know that if they neglect to doe according to our princely command they shall yeeld an account in the dreadfull judgement of the great God for it and wee having information of them will not leave them unpunished To the tenth After the Imperiall Decree the Knight alledgeth a text out of the Canon law not to shew his skill in both lawes as the Iesuit would have it but to demonstrate that the practise of the Roman Church in this point of prayer in an unknowne tongue is against all law both Ecclesiasticall and civill Tit. 3. de Offic. and that the walls of the Romish Babell are battered by her owne canons for though the Decree of Pope Gregorie were made upon a speciall occasion yet it is grounded upon this generall rule that Service and Sacraments must bee said and administred to the people in a language they understand which the Iesuit himselfe confesseth in part saying that it is a matter of necessitie in the administration of some Sacraments to use the vulgar tongue as in Mariage and Penance as for the Councell of Lateran and the Pope in his Decree they speake indefinitely of holy Service and Sacraments and the Logitians rule is that indefinite propositions in materia necessaria are to be taken for universals and by the same reason which the Iesuit alledgeth for Penance and Mariage to be celebrated in a knowne tongue wee may conclude that Baptisme also and the Lords Supper ought to bee so celebrated For in both questions are put to the people to the god fathers in the one and communicants in the other and answers are expected from them To the eleventh The Iesuit is like them taxed by the Apostle who knew not what they spake nor whereof they affirme Our question is not whether divine Service ought alwayes to bee said in the mother tongue for wee our selves doe other wayes in divers Colledges but the point in controversie is whether the service ought alwayes to besaid in a tongue understood by those that are present this all the Authours alledged by the Knight affirme and therefore they make for us and assuredly if for seven or 800 yeares the publike prayers of the Church were offered to God in a language understood by the people as is confessed questionlesse in many places the prayers were turned into vulgar languages For it cannot be imagined that all the people in the Christian world before Pope Vitalians time understood Hebrew Lyra in 1 Cor. 14. in primitiva ecclesia bene dictiones coetera fiebant in linguâ vulgari Gretz def Bel. l. 2. de verb. Dei linguâ auditoribus non ignotâ omnia peragebantur consuetudo tunc ferebat ut omnes psallerent Harding apud Iewel ia 3. art divis 28 Verely in the primitive Church prayers were made in a common tongue knowne to the people Liturg. canonicam precem in primis dominici corporis sanguinis consecrationem ita veteres legebant ut à populo intelligi Amen ucclamari possint Ioban Belit in sum de divin offic in primitiva ecclcsia prohibitum erat ne quis lo quereturling u is nisi esset qui inter pretaretur quid enim prodesset c. Wald. in doct art eccies tit 4. c. 31. fuit ergo ratio talis benediction is in ecclesiâ tempore Apostoli cui respondere solebat non tantùm clerus sed omnis populus Aquin as lect 4. ideò erat insania in primitivâ ecclesiâ quia erant rudes in ritu ecclesiastico Greeke or Latine neither is it a point much materiall whether the Authours alledged by the Knight speake of any Precept of praying in a knowne tongue or not it is sufficient that they confesse that it was the generall practice of the Primitive Church to performe their devotions in the vulgar tongue For certainly what they generally practised in their divine
Service they thought to be fittest and most agreeable to Gods commandement If wee had nothing but their practise for us it alone would prove the visibilitie of our Church in this maine point wherein wee stand at a bay with the Roman Church but the truth is though the Iesuit would bee loath to heare it his owne witnesses Cassander Belithus Waldensis and Aquinas speake home to the point even of a Precept the words of Cassander are the Canonicall prayers and especially the words of Consecration of the body and blood of our Lord the Ancients did so read that all the people might understand it and say Amen according to the precept intimated by the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. 16. The words of Belithus are that in the Primitive Church it was forbidden that any should speake with tongues unlesse there were some to interpret for what saith hee should speaking availe without understanding Waldensis saith more then that in the Apostles time the giving of thankes was in a knowne tongue he confirmeth the practise with a reason saying There was reason it should bee so because in those times not only the Priests but the people also were wont to answer Amen Aquinas goeth a step farther that it was madnesse in the Primitive Church for a man to have prayed in an unknowne tongue because then the people were rude and ignorant in Ecclesiasticall rites Now if the Iesuit thinke that it was not prohibited in the Apostles time to doe any madde act in time of divine Service he himselfe is bound for the Anticyrae Now for that the Iesuit addeth for the imbellishing of his former answer that none of the vulgar languages but the three learned to wit the Hebrew Greeke and Latine were Dedicated on the crosse of Christ and consequently that they being the best and perfectest of all languages were fittest for divine Service to be said in them it is more plausible then substantiall For though I grant that every devout soule so affecteth the person of our Lord and Saviour that shee loveth the very ground hee trod upon and honoureth those languages above all other in which his titles were proclaimed for the greater advancement of his kingdome yet the reason holdeth not in our present case For though a golden key bee simply better then a key of iron yet a key of iron which will open to us a casket of most pretious Iewells is better for that use then a key of gold which will not open the lock Admit the originall languages of Greeke and Hebrew are simply perfecter and better then any other which are derivatives from them yet the Mother-tongue or vulgar language is better and fitter for the congregation in time of divine Service because it answereth the wards of their understanding and openeth to their capacity the Divine mysteries then celebrated which the learned languages cannot doe As for Pilats writing over the Crosse it is certaine he had no end therein to honour the three Languages with this title but to dishonour our Saviour thereby and put a scorne upon him and therefore that inscription in the three languages was rather a pollution then a Dedication of those tongues If Pilats action herein bee of any force it maketh rather against then for our Adversaries For Pilat therefore commanded the title to be written in those three languages that it might be understood of all or the greater part of those that then were at Ierusalem By which reason people of divers languages ought to have their mysteries for so the Iesuit calleth this title celebrated in their owne severall langurges Praef. in psal his maximè tribus linguis sacramentum voluntatis Dei beati regni expectatio praedicatur ex eoque illud Pilati fuit ut in his tribus linguis regem Iudaeorum Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum esse praescriberet S. Hilarie who is alledged by Baylie the Iesuit for the consecration of these tongues neither saith that these tongues were consecrated by that inscription not that Christs kingdome is to be proclaimed in them only His words are in these three languages especially the mysterie of Gods will and the expectation of his blessed kingdome is preached and hence it was that Pilat wrote our Lord Iesus Christ King of the Iewes in those three tongues This testimonie cutteth the throate of our Adversaries for the adverbe maximè or chiefly implieth that the mysteries of Christs kingdome were to be preached in other tongues though in these especially because these were then and are some of them at this day most generally knowne and understood Inc. 15 Marc. Deus voluit ut causa mortis Christi varijs linguis scriberetur quo ab omnibus intelligeretur Et Hieron ib. hae tres linguae in crucis titulo conjunctae ut omnis lingua commemoraret perfidiam Iudaeorum Baron tom 10 Anno Chris 880. ep 147. liter as Slavonicas à Constantino philosopho repertas quibus Deo laudes debitas resonent jure laudamus ut in cadem lingua Christi Dei nostri praeconia opera enarrentur jubemus neque enim trilus tantùm linguis sed omnibus Dominum laudare authoritate sacrâ monemur quae praecepit dicens laudate Dominum omnes gentes nec sanè fidei vel doctrinae allquid obstat five missas in eadem Slavonica lingua canere sive sacrum evangelium vel lectiones divinas N. V. Testamenti benè translatas interpretatas legere out alia horarum officia psallere quoniam qui fecit tres linguas principales Hebraeam scilicet Graecaem Latinam ipse creavit alias omnes ad laudem gloriam suam Lyra and S. Ierome harpe upon this string God would have saith Lyra that the cause of Christs death should bee written in divers tongues that every tongue might declare the trecherie of the Iewes and which marreth all the Iesuits musick the Popes Diapason soundeth out the same note for so wee reade in Bope Iohns Epistle to the King of Moravia we commend the Slavonian letters found out by Constantine the Philosopher whereby those of that countrey set forth the due prayses of God and we command that the preaching and workes of Christ our God bee declared in them for we are admonished by the Divine authoritie which commandeth saying Prayse the Lord all yee Gentiles to prayse the Lord not in three tongues only but in all for hee who made the three principall languages Hebrew Greeke and Latine hee created also all other for his glorie To the twelfth To this insolent interrogation of the Iesuit wee answer that in generall prayer in an unknowne tongue is commanded in all those texts of Scripture which require us to come neere unto God and pray unto him with our heart For by the heart the understanding as well as the will and affections are meants as appeareth by that prayer of Solomon Da mihi cor intelligens in particular and expresse words it is commanded in the 1