in the morne When you your bed forsake And late at night when you returne Sweet sleep againe to take Meekly vpon your knee With humble vowes attend So pregnancy of wit will he And health of body send Yea better things then these Will he vnto you spare Only refer all to his praise Both what you haue and are To my Daughter E. D. Written on her Bible Sith you my child the child of wrath were borne From sinful flesh deriuing sinfull staine Into Gods fauour can you not returne If of the spirit you be not borne againe None are new borne but of immortall seed That seed immortall is this word of truth By it next vnder God I trust to breed Your second birth who bred your former ruth This will in you subdue each sinfull lust Your mind enlighten and your hart create Pious to God towards your neighbour iust And to your selfe sober and temperate This season will your greener yeares with grace And crowne your head when you haue run your race A Prayer MY sins o Lord haue me unworthy made To licke the crums that from thy table fall My guilty soule dares not for comfort call That Now through famishment my strength doth fade But thou dear Lord that vaild in mortall flesh For mans offence on bitter crosse didst bleed With bread of life my starued soule refresh My soule doth thirst like to the parched ground And humors moist are turnd to summers drought Thy burning wrath this inward heat hath wrought And feare of Hell my conscience doth confound But lord thou art an euerlasting well Whence purest streames of liuing waters flow O quench the flames wherein my hart doth glow And on thy banks let me for euer dwell Through stranger countries harborles I stray From Paradise exild my natiue land And angrie Cherubin with burning brand Of my returne doth intercept the way Thou art the way sweet Iesu thou the dore Yet harborles wast in a manger borne O let my soule faint weary and forlorne By thee reenter then retire no more Ah who is me for opened are mine eyes And now with shame my naked shame I see My soule abasht faine would thy presence flee And sory figleaues to her shame applies But Lord thy wardrobes store can nere be spent And whitest rayment thou doest sell for nought O let the robe of iustice foorth be brought Therwith t' inuest this thriftles penitent My soule o Lord is fild with strange disease And cruell theeues haue wounded me so sore That nought but wound I am and bloudy gore And on my life eternall death doth seize But Lord thou art that good Samaritan The skilfulst leach to salue a wounded hart O let thy precious balms soone ease my smart And dying soule preserue from endles bane In deepest dongeon comfortles I lie Ne of my debt can pay the lightest graine My Iailour Satan is my sin the Chaine And bound with sin who can the bonds vnty But thou deare Lord hast broke the gates of Hel And with thy dearest bloud our debts doest pay O cancel thou my bonds my debts defray And from my hart all seruile feare expell Pinde thirstie exild naked sick in iaile Feed quench returne couer recouer baile A Hymne vnto Christ LVte awake Why sleepest thou so long Come let vs musick make And chant some holy song My heart and voice shall with thy strings accord To sing the prayse of Christ my King and Lord. Brightest beame Of brightest glory bred The euerlasting streame From purest fountaine shed The light the life true God chiefe good thou art And of thy good to each wight doest impart Then thou wast When time was not begun Without thee nothing past By thee all things were done The earth the sea the aire the heauens aboue By thee doth stand doth flow doth breath doe moue God thou art Yet didst our nature take Enduring bitter smart A peace for vs to make Thy Crosse thy Wounds thy Blood thy Death thy graue Our sinfull soules from endlesse death doe saue Glorifide Thou now in heauen doest raigne And for thy Saints prouide A place there to remaine Where King is three in one and one in three Law perfect loue and tearme eternity Lachrymae IF by sighs or teares or cries I could discharge the weight of griefe Which on my soule so heauy lies Soone would I find releefe My sad heart would vapour sighs Mine eyes would streame foorth flouds of teares My voice with shrikes and dolefull cries Would vent mine inward feares But my soule too deep is wounded Nor can my troubled sprite By sighs or tears or cries be lightened Of those sorrowes me affright Shallow are those foords that murmure Sleight sorrowes soone complaine My heart mine eyes my voice astonied are With extreame disease and paine Thus my woes emprizned in my breast Still on me tyrannize Happy happy whose cares are blest With sighs with teares with cryes Once deare Lord vnworthy mee With gracious eyes thou didst respect Thou shewdst me ioyes that none can see But Saints in Christ elect Now alas why doest thou frowne Why doest thou gnash thy teeth at me From highest blisse why am I throwne To lowest misery Shall thy wrath exceed thy mercy Can pitie cruell proue Shall death and hell and flames that neuer die Seize whom thou sometime didst loue Ah sweet Iesu bee my Iesu Though sin my soule haue slaine Thy wine thy oile thy balme may life renue And close vp my wounds againe Why then am I with despaire possest Sith hope and grace I see Kill me kill me yet will I rest My stedfast faith on thee The Spouse of Christ longing for and reioycing in her marriage with him COme returne hast away O thou whom my soule doth loue Lo thy spouse night and day Longs to rest with thee aboue While thou tariest all too long Cruell tyrants me oppresse And triumph in my sad distresse Come therefore auenge my wrong Ease my hart brimfull of greefe O hast thee Lord and bring releefe Welcome ioy farwell woe Hither lo he speeds a maine Swift as hart swift as roe Skipping high on Bethers plaine Nightly shades are fled and gone And now dawnes that blessed day That weds me to my loue for aye Now my foes lament and mone Iustly doomd to darkest Hell But I with Christ in heauen shall dwell An Euening Prayer O Holy and eternall light Defend vs now this darksome night Grant inward peace to troubled heart To wearied sense sweet sleep impart Whilst heauy eyes sleeps comfort take O let our soules still on thee wake Let thy right hand keep and protect From sleep of sin thy Saints elect When sleep of death shall close our eyes O let our soules ascend the skies Meane while fraile flesh shall rest from strife Till death bee swallowed vp of life A Soule distracted betweene Hope and Feare HAte I deserue and yet for loue I sue I beg for life and yet death is my due Worthy I am that
Person certenly there cannot bee two Sonnes one of God and another of Mary but the Sonne of God must needs be the Sonne of Mary and so Mary be the Mother of the Sonne of God And as by reason of this Hypostaticall vnion Christ himselfe doubted not to say The Sonne of Man came downe from heauen so the same analogie and proportion of Faith requires vs to say The Sonne of God is borne of the Virgin Mary which as Vincentius Lirinensis saith is most catholickly beleeued and most impiously denied Much more might be added hereunto but to them that iudge of persons by the Faith this is too much and enough euen to them that iudge of Faith by Persons Only from hence I inferre first that Titius confounding Papists in open pulpit for calling the blessed Virgin Deiparam the Mother of God either knew not what he said and so proued himselfe but a nouice in Diuinity or if he spake aduisedly and out of iudgement it was no lesse then professed heresy Secondly that I disapprouing Titius therein cannot iustly bee taxed of tricks or niceties or spirit of contradiction vnlesse together with mee Councels Fathers Protestants the Apostolicall and Chalcedonian Creed Scripture and the Analogie of Faith vndergoe the same censure Lastly that as Seneca otherwise an excellent Moralist spake very irregularly when hee said Drunkennes would sooner be commended in Cato then Cato condemned for his Drunkennes so you though els I perswade my selfe a sound and Orthodoxe Christian much swarued from the rule of Piety and Faith when you chose rather to excuse Nestorianisme in Titius then with me to condemne him for it And all least some who haue ouer prodigally bestowed transcendent and immoderate prayses vpon him should seeme eyther too weake in iudgement or too strong in passion M. ANTONIVS MVRETVS his Institution for Children translated MY Sonne while you are young These precepts learne of mee Beare them in mind not on your tongue And let them practiz'd bee First see you serue and feare The God of heauen aboue Then Parents deere and such as beare The roome of Parents loue To lie count it great shame What thereby can you gaine If you haue err'd confesse the same So grace you may obtaine Seeke learning greedily Then learning what more sweet By it you may most readily With wealth and honor meet If any shall you chide When you haue faulty been Thanke him therefore and then take heed He chide you not agen The man that speakes you faire Count him not straight your friend He hates the child that doth him spare When as he doth offend Who once hath you deceiu'd With flattring words and faine He when occasion is perceiu'd Will you deceiue againe If you be wise nor none Nor euery one belieue You loose your credit by the one Th' other will you deceiue If sin you should commit Or in your mind should plot God who sees all things seeth it Though man perceiue it not To none but friends well tride Your secrecies reueale And what you would haue others hide First you your selfe conceale Fixe not your eye on things Uncomly to be done By wanton sights young tenderlings Soone take infection Refraine and turne your eare From filthy ribaldrie Such as delight therein forbeare To keepe them company Vnpleasant if the root Of studie seeme to you Yet doubtles sweet wholesome fruite In time from thence will grow If you in play delight That pleasure soone decayes If in your booke the benefit Thereof remaines alwayes If rest bee moderate Health it and strength doth breed But duls the spirits and doth rebate Wits edge if it exceed Whiles others good you seeke Good to your selfe you gaine Vnlesse you louing be and meeke Loue can you not obtaine Wonder not when you see How wicked men doe thriue God will at length reuenged bee Though he a while repriue If rest you seeke and ease Spare you no paines in youth For after labour quietnes With dignity insueth Looke often in your glasse And beauty if you finde Beware you doe it not deface With vices of the minde But if therein you see Your selfe deform'd and foule Let that defect supplied be With vertues of the soule Doe not what you would dread To doe if men did see And let your selfe to you insteed Of many a witnesse be To shew you much should heare And few should be your words Nature to you a double eare And but one tongue affoords Haue care you oft behold What you would safe should bee Theeues seldome are with those things bold Which oft the eye doth see Slouth fawnes at first and fleeres But euer ends in shame Industrie rigorous first appeares But breeds immortall fame Or tast no wine or it With store of water drench For youth in wine to take delight Is fire with fire to quench Let your lookes modest be Your speech courteous and kinde So doing shall you easily Much loue and frendship finde In your desires let not Wealth more then vertue sway Vertue by wealth cannot be got But wealth by vertue may What so you learne that striue To hold fast in your mind Else draw you water in a siue And vainly beat the wind Vndiscreet anger flee Then wrath what fouler vice What moues thereto great praise will be To you if you despise Elms high on mountaines plac't With storms are often beat Whose fury shrubs doe seldome tast That low in vales are set So at the great mans gate Great dangers doe attend But euer to the meane estate The heauens more safety send A few words seasonably If children speake is fit The one doth argue modesty The other argues wit The way to honest fame Would you faine learne of me 'T is this be you in truth the same You would be thought to be Who feares his Masters charge The rod he needs not feare Who that contemnes and runs at large The smart of this must beare Thrice happy child that growes In vertue more then yeeres Deserued prayse each one bestowes On him aboue his peers On him they look to him They wish all happines But none vouchsafeth speech to them That rust in idlenes Them all men doe despise The vulgar them deâ—ide Their parents scarce with patient eyes Their presence can abide Sin hurts not then alone When we the same commit For vse of sin makes vs more prone And apt againe to it What so is good pursue If hard at first it seeme Yet after vse and practice due You easie will it deeme The good turne you receiue Extoll you and confesse What you haue done giue others leaue To praise make you it lesse When with vtility Honesty cannot stand You may not doubt but honesty Must haue the vpperhand And thus to you my child These few rules I commend Which well obseru'd strange fruite will yeeld Vnto you in the end Meane while that God aboue Whose mighty word and will What euer is doth rule and moue Blesse your endeuours still Whom early
question bee indeed as they seeme vnto me sound and necessary you may as well chide the Sun for mouing towards the west or the earth for resting stedfastly on her center as me for being swayed and perswaded by them And yet by your leaue I was not so transported with Confidence but that I still kept my selfe within the bounds of Modesty For although it pelase you in the former section to charge me with â—oasting that scarce Archimedes could better and more liuely haue painted his Theoremes then I iustifying Faith yet was I in truth as farre from it as you are from truth in affirming of it submitting my selfe in all humility vnto the censure of Gods Church and promising vpon conuiction of my error to reuerse what euer I had said Yea but very insolently I haue bidden battell to all the learned men of Christendome bitten snapt and snarled at Melancthon Martyr c. yea all Fathers and Writers both old and new for these 1600. yeeres 1 Sam. 17.26 Intolerable arrogance I confesse if your accusation be iust for who but a presumptuous and proud Goliah would in such opprobrious manner defie and reuile the host of the liuing God But tell me I beseech you what are those despitefull and contumelious tearmes wherewith I haue so reproched those famous and excellent men Nay did I in my Sermon so much as name either Melancthon or Martyr or Caluin or Beza or Grynaus or Pelanus or Whitaker or Perkins whom yet you say I snapt and snarled at For that you adde particularly of M. Perkins as if I had boasted by my sudden arguments to haue driuen him so hard to the wall as hee knew not what to answer is but a blacke drop of your slanderous pen. The truth is this that in a priuate conference I told you that he being demaÌ„ded if Faith be an assurance of our present state in grace and future saluation what comfort remained for him who not feeling this assurance thinks himselfe to bee without Faith and consequently in the state of damnation his answer was which also in his books he hath published that desire of assurance is in the acceptation of God as assurance indeed to the which I sayd I could no way yeeld seeing by the couenant of Grace actuall Faith it selfe is absolutely required vnto Iustification and therefore actuall assurance if Faith bee assurance Besides this priuate speech all I haue publikely said or written is no more but this in generall that though my opinion differ from the writings and doctrine of most learned and worthy Diuines to whom as farre inferiour I owe all respect and reuerence yet being Gods freeman I cannot endure to bee mans Bondman and sweare to all they say And is not this the same in effect which all our Diuines answer when they are charged by the aduersary to dissent from the Fathers Let one Whitaker speake for them all We are saith he not the seruants but the Sons of the Fathers Contrà Duraeum if out of the law and from diuine authority they prescribe any thing vnto vs wee obey them as Parents if they command ought against the voice of the heauenly doctrine wee say wee must harken not vnto them but God You Iesuits like bondmen and base slaues admit without iudgement and reason all the sayings of the Fathers fearing I thinke the gibbet or whip if yee refuse any Now M. Baxter say if you dare that glorious Whitaker with the rest of our Diuines bite and snap and snarle at the Fathers as well as I if you dare not and yet I vse no other language then they doe then are biting and snapping and snarling but your owne doggish tearmes arguing rather notorious Sycophancie in you then such barbarous inciuility in me Well yet sith you will needs say you come barefoot to these mountaines giue me leaâ—e to sift your arguments and to shape you an answer for the defence of Iustifying Faith Exod. 3.5 Sir it was reason I should pull off my shooes and come barefoot to these mountaines because the ground on which I was to stand is holy Neuerthelesse in this encounter with you I trust you shall find my feet so well shâ—â— with the preparation of the Gospell of peace Ephes 6.15 that I need not care what briers or thornes soeuer you plant in my way And therefore good leaue haue you sift my arguments in Gods name at your pleasure for to that very end sent I them you in writing But I am afraid least insteed of sifting I find from you nothing else but meere shifting as indeed I doe not For to some of my arguments you shape no answer at all some you unshape and turne cleane out of the forme I set vpon them to not one of them doe you shape so much as probable or tolerable answer So that although you seeme very ambitious and greedie of the title yet if you haue no better skill in sifting arguments and shaping answers you will hardly obtaine so high an honor as to bee stiled Defender of the Faith Further you tell me that shortly I shall receiue the writings of other most learned men and grasple with them They shall bee welcome M. Baxter whensoeuer they come for the more you are that impugne the truth the more honorable will the victory be But I beseech you Sir when will that shortly you speake of be expired for it is now more then two yeeres since you first threatned me with them as by the date of your writing appeareth and yet hitherto could I neuer heare either from them or of them whether they be white or blacke Only it seemes they are very angrie Pismires that a man cannot spit among them without sore lips But when I shall speake with these enemies in the gate as the Psalmist saith I hope they shall finde my lips so seasoned with the salt of grace and so well prouided of an answer Psal 127.5 Col. 4.6 that I need not feare if they proue a nest I say not of Ants onely but euen of Waspes and Hornets also In the meane season if they bee so deeply learned as you pretend how is it that you so hastily preuent them and haue not the manners to stay till your betters haue spoken It is not you say vpon presumption of your greater learning being one of the least but out of a greater measure of zeale as being the most offended But M. Baxter they that doe the works of Zimri haue not lightly in them the affection of Phinees And seeing you will needs bee the most offended shall I say being the most offending Certainly hauing no iust cause of offence giuen you it is not so much either the glory of God or the satisfaction of your people as your own factiousnesse and vaineglory that sets you so forward in this busines and makes you so impatient to thinke of the second place Of a colder temper it seemes are those learned Rabbies you scarre me
anon and anon by Gods help will I farther maintaine it against you In the meane season let vs see how skilfully you can vse your buckler hand and ward of those arguments I obiect against you And that the reader may more easily concerne the course of our disputation and how pertinently things are applyed as hitherto before my Reply I haue set downe the words of your Answer so henceforward before your Answer will I set downe the words also of the Treatise I sent you Treatise I will not play the Philologer in shewing the diuerse vse and acceptation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fides or quote Ciceros Fiat quod dictum est or Augustins Fac quod dicis for the Notation of it nor play the Philosopher in discoursing of Physicall or Morall or Ciuill Faith nor lastly will I speake of Theologicall Miraculous Faith N. B. No doubt but then we are like to heare good stuffe seeing at the first entrance into the lists you refuse to bee tried by those that best knew the meaning of the things which they would expresse Nomen quod rem notat quasi notamé nec aliter enunciari res possit nisi aliquo nomine Aug. de Gen. ad lit c. 7. lib. imperfecto Apoc. adu Gent. c. 46. Ib. ca. 3. and therefore found out names fit to note their natures But Tertullian could haue told you whose words you cite in your preface though falsly Sinominis inquit odium est quis nominum reatus quae nominum accusatio Nisi si aut barbarum sonat vox aliqua nominis aut infaustum aut maledicum aut impudicum If you find fault with the Word wherein doth the Word offend what can you say against it except the Word bee barbarous or ominous or slanderous or vnchast I. D. Stumbling at the threshold they say bodes no good and little hope doe you giue of honest and plaine dealing in the sequele that make your beginning with so fond and shamelesse a cauill For neither doe I refuse to be tried by those who found out the names of things neither doe my words import any disliking of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fides only I omit to discourse of such things as are vulgarly knowne and not greatly materiall to my purpose Apolog. c. 2. 3. Tertullian indeed tels mee that the Gentiles sometimes hated the very name of Christian persecuting it with as much rigour in them that bare it as they did notorious wickednesse in others albeit the Name neither were barbarous nor ominous nor slanderous nor vnchast But what is this to the purpose vnlesse you say I am growne into as deep a detestation of the word Faith as Pagans were of the name of Christiā which none but an infidell can doe and no other then a Satanicall and diuellish spirit would obiect vnto mee For as the thing signified by the Word is that most noble grace of the Spirit of God which giueth the forme and being to a Christian man so the Word also I confesse hath from the beginning both beene sanctified by the Holy Ghost and religiously retained in the Church to signifie the same neither can it now without sacrilege and impiety either bee violated or disused It is not I therefore that finde fault or am offended with the Word it is you rather that offer open violence vnto the plainest sentence giuing withall strong suspicion that hauing once passed the bounds of modestie wilfully peruerting the state of the question you will hereafter steele your forehead and waxe rechlesse of saying any thing But I haue cited you say the words of Tertullian falsly Not so falsly as you haue cited him idly For wheras that Father saith Apol. c. 46. Philosophers player-like affect truth and affecting corrupt it as being ambitious of glory but Christians necessarily desire it and intirely practice it as being carefull of their saluation I report it somewhat more breefly thus Although Philosophers player-like affect the truth as being ambitious of glory yet Christians studiously follow it as being carefull of their Saluation So that omission of a word or twaine without any alteration of the sence in a matter neither hindering nor furthering the cause in hand or some such toy as Hierome speaketh Epist 101. ad Pammach is the crime you charge mee withall For the true meaning of the sentence I am sure I haue kept as for the words because I endited out of my memory being then in Bristol and vse not to cary my Library about with mee when I trauell abroad it was easie to mistake or forget some part of them N. B. But you knowing the very meaning of the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persuasus sum vel fui I haue beene or am perswaded whereof commeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persuadere to perswade would haue stayed you from condemning vs that say Faith is a full perswasion Besides the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comming of that which a man simply is perswaded of Truth and the Greeke comming of the Passiue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee perswaded if you would might haue stayed you from incurring this infamy and me from this labour It had therefore as I thinke beene much better for you to haue been Philologos then Antipistos But let vs see how you proceed I. D. Kemnitius a graue and learned Diuine saith that so great a matter as is the Definition of iustifying Faith is not to bee committed only vnto Grammaticall disputations Loco de Iustif and yet so great store doe you make of one poore and naked Etymologie as if there need no more but the knowledge thereof to decide the controuersie For this you say if I would might haue stayed mee from condemning you and eased you from this labour Let vs therefore seeing you are so confident vpon it trie the strength of this Achilles Faith you say in the Greeke and Hebrew comes from a word signifying to bee perswaded Ergo Faith is a Perswasion Sir I deny your Consequence For first euery word beares not alwayes the signification of the primitiue from which it is deriued Arist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ca. 1. partly because the number of words being certaine and definite but infinite of things one word of necessity must haue more then one meaning partly by vse which is the rule and warrant of speech they oftentimes degenerate from their natiue and first signification into a strange and farre different meaning So that if your kind of reasoning may passe for currant great danger and error must needs ensue vpon it For example Hypostasis if wee regard the first originall thereof signifieth Substance and so saith Hierome all schooles of humane learning vnderstand it Epist 57. ad Damas. yet were it horrible blasphemie thereupon to conclude Ergo in the matter of the Trinity it must signifie so too for what mouth saith the
things Hence the ancient Fathers inuented the word Trinity to signify the plurality of persons in one substance Homousios to expresse the consubstantiality of the Sonne with the Father Theotokos to maintaine the personall vnion of both natures in Christ and six hundred such like words vtterly vnknown vnto former ages Ibid. old matters as the same Athanasius saith Cap. 18. receiuing new names those new names couching vnder them no new meaning According whereunto Vincentius Lirinensis though he would not haue his Timothie to broach new things yet giueth him leaue to teach the same things he hath learned after a new manner Being therfore warrāted both by the precept practice of the Primitiue Church I see no cause but that euen in this point also I may be permitted to vse new tearmes Perhaps you will say that not only the tearme wherewith it is inuested but the matter hereof is also new for so much your questions out of Hierome and Tertullian and the floud of words following with not a drop of reason in them seeme to import Whereunto though I haue already sufficiently answered yet now I adde by way of surplus that many Truths lye a long time hidden in their principles and vnheeded of the wisest which being at length disclosed and brought to light are not therefore new in themselues but onely vnto vs comming newly vnto our knowledge euen as the countrey of America is called the new world not because it is of a latter creation then Europe Asia or Africa but only because it is of a later discouery These Conclusions vntill their dependency and coherence with the principles doe manifestly appeare vnto vs it sufficeth to beleeue them implicitly and in the preparation of the Minde but when they shall bee vnfolded out of their principles and clearly demonstrated vnto vs by necessary deduction from them we are bound to yeeld distinct and expresse assent vnto them And then as it would haue been great folly in the Spaniard to haue refused the gold and treasures of the new world because it was found out not by the old Argonauts but by Christopher Columbus a late sailer so would it bee great sinne in vs to disclaime and renounce the benefit of a truth because it is made known vnto vs not by an ancient Father but by a man of yesterday or to day Iam. 2.1 For this were to haue the faith of God in respect of persons as S. Iames saith and to restraine the gift of the Spirit of Wisdome and reuelation vnto the times of our predecessors as if they only had eyes giuen them to spie out truths and it were impossible for vs to see what they saw not although wee caried the Sunne in our hands as Lactantius speaketh Now then to apply this vnto the matter in hand if the point you quarell at bee not onely new vnto the present custome De Ciuit. Dei lib. 22. c. 7. as S. Augustin speaketh but also contrary vnto reason and the grounds of Faith I confesse it is erronious and iustly may you come vpon mee with your demaunds out of Hierome and Tertullian Ep. 23. ad Paulin. De veland virg cap. 1. who are you whence when that after 400. yeeres you should goe about to teach vs what wee knew not before But if it bee new only vnto vs and not in it selfe then doe I answer your Hierome with Hierome Weigh not truth by time and Tertullian with Tertullian Nor space of times nor patronage of persons nor priuiledge of places may prescribe against truth For that which is no otherwise new is true and as the truth of God is with all reuerence and submission to bee embraced Howbeit this I say not as if I would be thought to bee the first discouerer hereof or that it had laine hid as it were in the pit of Democritus vntill this time For that there is a Faith whose obiect is the Person of the Mediator was neuer yet vnknowne in the Church but hath euer beene manifest euen from the beginning Search the Scriptures and you shall find therein nothing more cleere then this For as in the treatise sent you I haue shewed the whole tenor of them runs thus Hee that beleeueth in mee shall not perish Ioh. 3.16 Ioh. 14.1 Ioh. 1.12 yee beleeue in God beleeue also in mee As many as receiued him to them hee gaue power to bee the Sonnes of God that is to them that beleeue in him c. Rom. 3.22.26 Gal. 2.16.3.22 Phil. 3.9 Iam. 2.1 Reu. 2.13.14.12 Whereunto I adde that in sundry places it is expresly called the Faith of Iesus Christ not because it inhereth in Christ as in a Subiect but for that it hath relation and respect vnto Christ as vnto the right Obiect And that at length it appeareth both that the matter is euery way old though the tearme bee new and that new tearmes may bee giuen to old matters euen of this kind so as they bee proper determined and adequated thereunto It remaineth onely to shew that such is the tearme which here I vse For proofe whereof I say no more but this that if our best Diuines haue conueniently distinguished other Faiths according to their obiects calling one Faith of story because Scripture story another Faith of Promise because the Euangelicall promise a third Faith of Miracles because miracles are the proper obiect of them I see no reason why I may not as freely and as fitly call that Faith of Person which hath for its Obiect the Person of Iesus Christ Neither can I conceiue if this bee an inkhorne tearme as it pleaseth your elegancy to tearme it why Faith of Story Faith of Promise Faith of Miracles should not bee inkhorne-tearmes also But you are a very nice and dainty man you can tast no wine how old or generous soeuer vnlesse the cup out of which you drinke it bee grauen by Myron or Polycletus N. B. But this hath beene the course of all fanaticall spirits in all ages moued with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil 1.14 selfe-loue contention hypocrisie and couetousnesse De Haeresibus ad Quodvult Deum to condemne all others to set vp and stablish their owne fantasies Read Augustine yea see the Ecclesiasticall histories Eusebius Sozomen Euagrius Dorotheus Vincentius c. there shall you see whereupon these Schismes in the Church began Let mee therefore intreate you if you will needs deale in these graue causes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet that you will deale also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well as becommeth a wise man For otherwise you shall bewray your mind desirous of nouelties hazard your credit offend the Church yea as hee saith take vpon you to glew an egge Diogenianus loosing your labour and making your selfe ridiculous to the best I. D. What hath beene the course of fanaticall spirits in all ages and whereupon they haue been moued to beginne their Schismes in the Church I am not now to learne
Saints with your niceties and falsities any longer for thus you reason No historicall Faith hath any interest in the matter of Iustification But firmely to belieue the truth of Gods Word and specially the Gospell is historicall Faith Therefore firmely to belieue the truth of Gods Word and specially the Gospell hath no interest in the matter of Iustification Good Sir I deny your Maior which you thus endeuour to proue ab absurdo enumeratione partium No generall knowledge shall haue any stroke in the matter of Iustification All historicall Faith is a generall knowledge Therefore no historicall Faith hath any interest in the matter of iustification Proue your Minor which I denie telling you moreouer that firmely to consent to the truth of Gods Word in genere and the Gospell in Specie is not a Generall knowledge but a Speciall knowledge and therefore I argue Such a speciall knowledge of the Gospell is the beginning of Faith Iustifying Mat. 13.11 Ioh. 17.3 Mat. 16.17 But firmely to consent to the truth of Gods Word and the Gospell is such a speciall knowledge ex confesso Therfore firmely to consent to the truth of Gods Word and especially the Gospell is the beginning of Iustifying Faith I. D. If you were as farre from hood-winking your owne eyes as I am from blearing the eies of others you might easily perceiue that now I deale against our common aduersaries the Papists and ouerthrow the iustification of their Historicall Faith by the chiefest arguments which Protestants vse But you after the manner of those Gladiators called Andabatae nor see nor care whom or what you strike and so mildly affected are you towards mee that so you may make some probable shew of endammaging or disaduantaging mee you reck not though through my sides you reach and wound the best Diuines of our Church yea and the common truth which wee all maintaine Neither doe I vse such circumguagues nor wiredraw my arguments into such a length as you beare vs in hand but hauing nakedly and plainely defined what Historicall Faith is I proue by two reasons that Faith so defined doth not iustifie the first whereof is this because it is absurd that so generall a Knowledge should iustifie So that your Ferio Syllogisme deserues a Ferula and vtterly to bee cashed as being no creature of mine but an idle figment of your owne and the next in Celarent for so you forme it although indeed it bee also in Ferio the Minor proposition and Conclusion notwithstanding your generall notes being but particular enuntiations is the onely Syllogisme intended by mee and including my first argument The Maior whereof it seemes you grant saying nothing vnto it and the Minor only you deny which I cannot but wonder at seeing both the Minor and Conclusion are vniuersally vouched by all the Diuines of our side The Conclusion is that Historicall Faith iustifies not So saith Hyperius De fide Hom. iustificandi There is a certaine Historicall Faith whereby those things which are propounded in holy writ are simply beleeued but yet is not applyed vnto Christ and the matter of our Saluation Loco de Fide The Minor is that Historicall Faith is a generall Knowledge So sayth Kemnitius There is a certaine generall Faith which vsually is tearmed Historicall and againe Historicall Faith is a generall assent holding in generall that the promise of the Gospell is true And M. Perkins Ser. caus c. 36. A generall Faith whereby they giue assent vnto the Gospell Neither doe I know any one of our Diuines that either in the Conclusion or the Minor doth gainsay them So that by the iudgement of these men both consenting to Gods Word in generall and to the Gospell in speciall is not a Speciall but Generall Knowledge and if the Speciality of the Gospell being but a part of the whole Scripture did specify Faith it would follow thereupon that there are as many Speciall Faiths as there are seuerall Articles of the Creed which were vnreasonable to imagine For that Faith which assenteth vnto the Gospell is no other then that which assenteth vnto the rest of holy Scripture and although it may principally respect that part of diuine truth yet doth it not only respect it nor is limited thereunto as vnto the proper adequate obiect thereof but vniuersally extendeth it selfe vnto all supernaturall reuealed verities whatsoeuer As for that Faith which our Diuines call Speciall is to be vnderstood of Faith of Promises wherby the Saints apply and appropriate them vnto themselues particularly and indiuidually assuring themselues of their present iustification and future saluation And the ignorance hereof as I ween is the cause why you turne generall into speciall and write of this matter so wildly and confusedly This notwithstanding very peremptorily you pronounce that Historiall Faith is a speciall Knowledge and thereupon Syllogistically inferre that it is the Beginning of Iustifying Faith to what end I wot not well vnlesse it bee to proue that it doth iustify because as you conclude it is the beginning of that Faith But whatsoeuer your intent bee your argument I answer by distinguishing of the word Beginning For if you vnderstand thereby a Pre-requisite or Preparatiue vnto iustifying Faith you doe but fight with a shadow for in that sence I grant the Conclusion neither doth such a beginning of Iustifying Faith iustify If you meane thereby that it is Iustifying Faith inchoat and in a remisser degree then I deny your Maior and say that such a knowledge call it as you please generall or speciall is not the beginning of iustifying Faith If it were then Diuels and Reprobates hauing it should haue iustifying Faith which Gods Word attributes vnto the Elect onely Tit. 1.1 And if it bee true that Faith of person is the consummation of Iustifying Faith as in the former section you say it cannot bee that such a knowledge should bee the Beginning thereof vnlesse you will say that Accidents may passe from one Subiect to another which is against all Philosophy For Historicall Faith is in the Vnderstanding and Faith of Person is in the Will and therefore Faith of Story beginning in the Mind can haue no subsistence elsewhere and iustifying Faith being perfected in the Will cannot bee begunne in any other Subiect The passages quoted in the margent though you should rack them till they rent asunder yet will they not confesse what you alledge them for For how I pray you hang these things together To you it is giuen to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of heauen This is life euerlasting to know thee Flesh and Bloud hath not reuealed this vnto thee but my Father Ergo Such a knowledge is iustifying Faith begun This is too violent astraining of Scripture and as Volusian speaketh is not a sucking of milke but drawing of bloud from the dugs of the Church Ep. 1. ad Nic. 1. As for the Minor I haue already sufficiently demonstrated the falshood thereof only
it seemeth strange why you should take it as confessed For sure I am in expresse tearmes I haue affirmed the contrary neither can I guesse of what words you gather it vnlesse perhaps of that I say and specially the Gospell which were too ridiculous For that indeed confesseth the Gospell to bee a speciall part of Gods truth but not determining Faith onely thereunto it doth in no sort specifie it as is aboue fully proued N. B. Historicall Faith not diuided from the other two kinds but ioyned with thē is cause of Iustification Againe I would pray you to speake more learnedly and argue soundly For if you had said formerly No Historicall Faith only iustifieth c. We had been agreed For Historica Fides est causa iustificationis non solitaria sed socia non diuisa sed coniuncta But speaking thus absolutely you speake vnlearnedly Well thus you proceed leauing your Minor naked and exposed to the mercie of the World I. D Agreed quoth you Nay hee can hardly agree with mee that is at warre with himselfe and had I spoken neuer so learnedly and argued neuer so soundly yet I verily belieue you would haue quarrelled at it because I see you make contradiction of mee the onely rule of your speeches That there is but one Faith you say it is nouelty not to grant and that Faith only iustifies I think you dare not deny how is it then that in the margent forgetting your selfe you talke of three kinds of Faith which except my Arithmetike faile mee are more then one and ioyne fellowes with that in iustification in the body of your text which yet you confesse doth onely iustify But what is it that comes not within the sphere of your omnipotent Philosophie The power of your Logicke hath already contracted Vniuersall into Speciall and why then may not the subtlety of your Metaphysicke find a plurality also in an Vnity But to be plaine with you I say that Historicall Faith is so far from being a ioint cause that at all properly vnderstood of Iustification but onely as I haue said a Pre-requisite or Preparatiue thereunto True it is that Faith of Person is neuer Solitary but is euer conioyned with sundry other graces and among the rest with Historicall Faith yet are not their operations to bee confounded because in the same person they are conioyned Many seeds lye in my hand together yet euery one hath his seuerall and distinct vertue Faith of Person is neuer without Faith of Story yet it is Faith of Person which onely iustifies And as in the generation of man the Sensitiue soule goes before and prepares a fit organ for the infusion of the Reasonable and yet not the Sensitiue but the Reasonable only doth informe so in the reparation of man Faith of Story proceeds and makes way for the inducement of Faith of Person and yet not Faith of Story but Faith of Person only doth iustifie Now whether in speaking thus absolutely I haue spoken vnlearnedly as you say or no it skilleth not much seeing I am sure I haue spoken truly 1 Cor. 15.9 What euer I am by the grace of God I am and desire so to bee vnto his glory My want and inability I thanke God I know yet know I no cause why in this mediocrity of knowledge and speech I should in comparison with you any whit disable my selfe But sith as the Apostle saith knowledge puffeth vp 1 Cor. 8.1 God grant vs both the spirit of humility that denying our selues and all our learning wee may be content to bee wholly captiuated vnto the obedience of the Faith of Christ The Minor which you say I left naked and exposed to the mercy of the world was this that Historicall Faith is a generall knowledge which indeed in my Treatise I did forbeare to confirme not for want of sufficient proofes but presuming that so euident a truth would neuer haue beene denied But now I hope it appeares by what I haue aboue said to bee so well guarded with strength of reason and approbation of the learned that henceforward it need not feare the rigor of your opposition Treatise Acquisite Faith the Diuels haue according to that of Saint Iames The Diuels belieue and tremble Infused Faith the Reprobates may haue as Balaam Iudas Magus Now iustifying Faith is proper to the Elect and therefore historicall Faith cannot iustifie N. B. O yee noble Schollers marke this Syllogisme I haue made your arguments hitherto for you Master Downe and in this creeping and incroching argument tell you that you beg the matter in question For I deny that your definition of Historicall Faith is a generall knowledge but speciall and peculiar vnto the Elect in the beginning of their iustifying Faith conioyned with the Application and Resting vpon Christ and his merits And to bee plaine with you I tell you it is ridiculous yea blasphemous to say that Diuels haue Faith or that euer Balaam Iudas or Magus had Faith And so telleth you M. Caluin In Iac. 2.19 Ridiculum erit si quis Diabolos habere fidem dicat it is ridiculous for any man to say that Diuels haue Faith For there is but one Faith Eph. 4. and the other is spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abusiuely and by an equiuocation and is but a vulgar knowledge or rather peculiar shew by miracles c. as the same M. Caluin sheweth right learnedly 1 Cor. 13.2 Calu. ibid. and also telleth you Abundé constat totam hanc disputationem de fide non haberi it is plaine that this whole disputation Iam. 2. is not about Faith Let this therefore serue for an answer I pray you to your first distinction of Historicall Faith which you confound with a vulgar knowledge as appeareth before knowing this No man that finally contemneth this Speciall knowledge of Gods Word and specially the Gospell can be saued For hee can neuer haue the other two kinds of Faith spoken of before except he begin with this kind of Faith I. D. Surely I am very deeply beholding vnto your Mastership hauing so small skill in Logicke that you will bee pleased to forme my arguments and to shape them in so excellent fashion for mee But I beseech you spare your paines where you are like to reape little thanks for your labour Such officiousnesse in an aduersary is not without suspicion and if you may haue the hammering of my arguments your weakest answers I doubt not will be proofe inough against them Leaue me therfore I pray you to the meaning of my own weapons and looke you well vnto your owne defence for I feare mee you will hardly bee able to auoid the danger of them For thus I reason That Faith which Diuels and Reprobates haue iustifies not Historicall Faith Diuels and Reprobates haue Ergo Historicall Faith iustifies not Here you see nor creeping nor incroching but faire and plaine dealing and such as I am well content all noble Schollers marke it But let
vs see what you reioyne hereunto First you say I beg the matter in Question What matter that Historicall Faith is a generall knowledge but neither is that the matter now in Question neither doe I any way beg it For in this Syllogisme the Question is whether Historicall Faith doe iustify of your Question there appeares nor palme nor footstep which yet in the former section against your negatiue I haue proued to bee most true That which you adde if it bee not senselesse is contrary both to your selfe and vnto reason For saying that Historicall Faith is proper and speciall vnto the Elect in the beginning of their iustifying Faith you plainely distinguish it from iustifying Faith which is contrary to what you haue elsewhere said If you still confound them and make Historicall Faith the beginning of Iustifying Faith it is as if you should say the beginning of iustifying Faith is speciall and peculiar vnto the Elect in the beginning of their iustifying Faith which is altogether witlesse and senselesse Lastly to say that Historicall Faith which before was Generall and common as soone as it is conioyned with application and Resting on Christ becomes speciall and peculiar is vtterly void of reason For as Grace superadded vnto Nature in the Elect makes not Nature speciall and peculiar vnto them but that still it remaines common vnto all men so also Historicall Faith by accession of Iustifying Faith or Affiance changeth not its nature and becomes Speciall but as it was euermore continues Generall Generall I say both Obiectiuely as stretching it selfe vnto all supernaturall reuealed verities and Subiectiuely not being appropriated vnto the Elect onely but commonly incident vnto others also Secondly you deny the Minor telling mee plainely that it is ridiculous yea blasphemous to say that Diuels haue Faith or that euer Balaam Iudas or Magus had Faith If I should now temper my inke with some sharper ingredient and in the zeale of my affection say vnto you as the Angell sometime said vnto Satan Iude 9. The Lord rebuke thee it were no more then here you iustly deserue For it is not holy and learned men alone which yet were too impudent but euen the spirit of Wisdome and truth himselfe whom I tremble to speake it you charge with ridiculousnes and blasphemie For doth not the Holy Ghost by Saint Iames in expresse tearmes say The Diuels belieue and tremble and by Saint Luke Then Simon himselfe also belieued Iam. 2.19 Act. 8.13 and did not Balaam prophecying of Christ and Iudas preaching Christ assent vnto those truths wherewith they were illuminated And what Orthodoxe Diuine is there ancient or moderne who falling vpon this question doth not acknowledge that Diuels and Reprobates doe Historically belieue De vnico Bapt. cont Petil. c. 10. Saint Augustine is bold and compareth the Faith of Diuels confessing Christ Wee know thee who thou art euen the Sonne of God with that memorable confession of Peter Thou art the Christ the Sonne of the liuing God This confession saith hee was fruitfull vnto Peter but pernicious vnto the Diuels yet in both not false but true not to bee denied but acknowledged not to bee detested but approued And a little after hauing vouched that of Saint Iames the Diuels belieue and tremble and compared therewith the Faith of those who belieue the truth of God but liue wickedly Behold saith hee Wee haue found out of the Church not onely certaine men but Diuels also confessing the same Faith of one God yet both confirmed by the Apostles rather then denied Of the same iudgement are our latter writers That Faith is attributed to Simon Magus Inst lib. 3. ca. 2. §. 10. saith Caluin We vnderstand not with some that hee fained in words a Faith which was not in his heart but thinke rather that being ouercome by the Maiesty of the Gospell hee did in a sort belieue and acknowledge Christ to be the Author of Life and Saluation Simon saith Beza In Act. 8.13 On the Creed Ans to Rhem. T. in Iam. 2.6 belieued with Historicall Faith Historicall Faith saith Perkins is in the Diuell and his Angels Such a Faith saith Fulke as is in Diuels namely an acknowledging that there is one God and so likewise of all the rest of the Articles of Faith to bee true without trust or confidence in God Finally the whole Church of Auspurg Whereas Saint Iames saith Harm Confess the Diuels belieue and tremble hee speaketh of an Historicall Faith Now this Faith doth not iustifie for the Diuels and the wicked are cunning in the History Which last words I would wish you to note and obserue For if Historicall Faith bee no other then an assent of the Mind vnto the truth of Gods Word then Diuels and Reprobates so assenting yea being cunning in the Story must needs haue Historicall Faith Adde hereunto that if they doe not so much as Historically belieue then the sinnes which they commit against the Gospell are onely sinnes of ignorance and not against knowledge neither can they offend of malice or fall into that vnpardonable sinne which is against the Holy Ghost Mat. 12.32 Neither lastly can any bee said to haue made shipwracke of Faith which yet the Scripture saith some haue done 1 Tim. 1.19 vnlesse perhaps you will say a man may make shipwracke of that which hee neuer had So that now if I haue spoken ridiculously and blasphemously as you say you see what Schoolemasters haue deceiued me and vpon what reasons I haue been drawne into this folly and impiety or rather the world sees what folly it is in you thus against all reason to impute blasphemy and ridiculousnesse vnto the truth of God and the most glorious preachers and defenders thereof Yet Caluin you say telleth mee it is ridiculous to say that Diuels haue Faith and it is plaine that this whole disputation Iam. 2. is not about Faith But is it possible that Caluin should striue against the torrent of so maine authority or like the Philosopher of whom Aristotle speaketh forget his owne voice and vnsay that which he had formerly said Certainly if you wil giue him leaue to bee the interpreter of his owne meaning you shall find hee doth not For when hee denieth that Diuels haue Faith and that Saint Iames there disputeth of Faith hee vnderstandeth not Faith indefinitely but particularly iustifying Faith This is euident by his annotation on the twentieth verse In Iam. 2.20 Here saith hee is no disputation of the cause of Iustification whereby what other can hee meane then Iustifying Faith And when hee saith the dispute is not about Faith hee addeth forthwith but of a vulgar knowledge which conioyneth a man to God no more then the sight of the Sunne lifts him to Heauen Now what is that Faith which vnites vs vnto God but onely Iustifying Faith and what is this vulgar knowledge other then Historicall Faith by which the eye of the mind sees diuine truth
impudent glossems of your owne But yet when I say a man ought to haue Assurance doe I not therein confesse it to bee so necessary vnto Saluation that a man cannot be saued without it Nothing lesse and God forbid that euery ignorance or doubting of what wee ought to know should presently exclude and barre vs from Saluation for then no flesh possibly could bee saued Although therefore when I say a man may bee assured I confesse a possibility and when I say hee ought to bee assured I acknowledge a dutie yet doth it not follow thereupon that such assurance is of absolute necessity Necessary it may bee vnto the well-being of the Sonne of God but not vnto his Being as if hee could not bee a new creature without it necessary to cheere and solace him in the way to the end but not vnto the end it selfe as if without it hee could not aspire vnto saluation Such absolute necessity of assurance vpon paine of damnation I know none saue onely of those truths which wee call fundamentall among which I suppose your and my iustification and saluation are not to bee reckoned And yet had I said which I deny that Assurance is necessary vnto Saluation what inconuenience is it to say that neuerthelesse it is not necessary vnto iustification For Saluation is the End Iustification a meane or way vnto the End and more things are subordinate vnto the end then vnto the way as vnto Saluation both Faith and workes are necessary but vnto Iustification Faith alone is required And therefore also it is no absurdity to say that two Faiths are requisite vnto Saluation as indeed Faith of Story and Faith of Person are although but one Faith iustify which is Faith of Person And thus much for your plaine-song now let vs heare your descant and diuision vpon it N. B. Martiall Emerepes apud Apophth Chrysippus Dij mentem tibi dent tuam Philaeni God send you your right wits to see these errors and to amend them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ne vities Musicam said one Corrupt not musicke speake not contraries nor nouelties You cannot alwayes saile in the night but at last will bee taken if you were as craftie as a Cuckow Athanas in Symb. as spake Pliny and Aristotle Wee hold in Diuinity but one Faith and not diuers in specie and that euery Christian man is bound to haue it hauing meanes giuen him from God vpon paine of damnation and that no man can ordinarily bee saued without it And therefore doe cast out your cobwebs as following his counsell that said Vasis eijcias quas nectit aranea telas knowing that your speeches endeauour to mingle water and fire together which is impossible to doe Neither are your forces any thing able to deceiue Gods Elect so long time trained vp in his blessed schoole Well may you consume your selfe as one said Comedo meipsum more Polypi Alcaeus apud Athen. l. 7. Catull. Mat. 11. 1 Tim. 3.15 Act. 9. I eat vp my selfe like Polypus but the Church can you not deceiue for your sacke is full of Spiders as Catullus telleth one Nam tui Catulli Plenus sacculus est aranearum The Church is no reed but the pillar of truth and therefore it is hard for you to spurne against it I. D. Vnto this Rapsodie of sentences and prouerbs drawn in like Hercules oxen and tyed together like Samsons foxes so preposterously by the tailes were I a Grammar-schoole-boy againe I would quickly patch you vp an answer in the same kinde But now I affect not an opinion of learning that way desiring as becomes a Diuine rather to bee reall then verball If children either in age or vnderstanding bee pleased with such Pedanterie and delight to see so many babies in your writing I enuie it not so long as the grauer and learneder sort rest contented and satisfied with the substance of my reasons Only vnto that charitable prayer which you make for me out of that deuout Poet Martiall that God would send me my wits againe Lib. 2. Sat. 3. I know not what kinder wish to oppose then that of Horace the deuouter Poet of the two that you which are franticke and bedlem-mad would something beare with those who are but a little discrazed and distempered For indeed you are right twin vnto the Lunaticke gentleman in Horace and as hee euery day visited the theater and there â—ate clapping his hands and keeping a stirreas if he saw some notable Tragedieacted before him whereas the stage all the while was empty so you here make much adoe and tell mee of I know not what absurdities contrarieties and nouelties and yet the ground you lay for them is in my words no where to bee found Wherefore as Sophâ—cles being accused of dotage read before the iudges his Ordipus Coloneus which he had very lately composed Cic. de Senect and then demaunded of them whether it seemed the poem of a dotard or no so because you charge mee as berâ—â— of my right wits and fraught with nothing else but errors and contradictions I appeale vnto the Christian reader praying him to peruse and ponder my treatise and if hee please this Disputation also and then to iudge indifferently betwixt vs whether I bee as this Festus accuseth me mad and beside my selfe or else with Saint Paul Act. 26.24.25 haue spoken the words of truth and sobernes Treatise 1. Arg. If this were iustifying Faith then whosoeuer liues and dies without this particular Assurance cannot bee saued sine Fide c. without Faith it is impossible to please God But a man may bee saued without it Ergo. N. E. I hope you meane de adultis of men that haue meanes giuen them from God to get this Assurance for otherwise I easily agree that God may extraordinarily saue whom it pleaseth him But doubting not of your meaning and denying your Minor you take vpon you to proue it first by an instance and next by six reasons All which let vs see I. D. Epist 57. Taking me to meane de adultis you doe no whit mistake mee for as Augustin saith that Infants know the things of God who know not so much as the things of men if wee should goe about by words to demonstrate I feare mee wee should bee iniurious euen to our very senses endeuouring to perswade that by speech the euidence of whose truth surpasseth all faculty and office of speech Neuerthelesse because it is written without Faith no man can please God and the iust shall liue by his owne faith many learned men haue hereupon conclude that Infants haue a Faith euen of their owne Adacta Colloq Mompelg Resp de Bapt. in so much that Beza though of a different iudgement confesseth this to bee a very solid and firme foundation and soone after addeth that of this matter very learned Diuines yea and the ancient Fathers also differ in opinion for this Question saith he is among the
in the life to come Faith ceaseth and then they liue by vision not by Faith But I forbeare farther to examine either these or the rest of your arguments partly because wee agree both in the generall Conclusions Demonax apud Plut. Apopâ—h and partly lest I proue as wise as he who while his fellow was milking a ram-goat held a siue vnder to receiue the milke N. B. But you say the German Church holdeth it I deny it neither can you be able to shew it and therefore it is a great sinne thus to traduce the fame of so honorable Personages Three and those no small lights in the Church of God I will shew which hold the contrary and so leaue you to the Spirit of God who worke in you conuersion In Postill maior in Sex-ages in Euang Luc. 8. de Semine Luther in the place before saith Veri auditores sunt qui Verbum Dei perpetuò retinent fructum adferunt They bee true belieuers which hold fast alwayes the Word of God which none can doe without Faith and bring forth fruite Brentius speaking of time-seruers saith that they did neuer truly belieue In idem Euang In ad Eph. c. 1. Bucer calleth that Faith which may be lost imaginem fidei simulatam credulitotem an image of faith and counterfait credulity Now you haue heard these great Fathers of Germany against you with what face can you accuse so indefinitely the Brethren of Germany of so notable an error But I will stay your leisure to produce those German-Brethren I. D. My leisure shall you not long stay for That many doe not perseuere but fall from grace both Scripture and experience teacheth saith Kemnitius Exam. parte 1. de Iustil They that are most elected may become Reprobates and therfore vtterly fall away saith D. Andreas Colloq Mompelg quaest de Bapt. De gratiâ vniuersali p. 26. Ib. p. 30. Dauid was elected faith Hemingâ—â—s yet indeed lost the spirit and was made guilty of eternall wrath vntill hee againe repented And againe As often as a sinner saith hee although neuer so enormious repenteth of a vessell of dishonor and wrath he is made a vessell of honour and mercy as on the contrary side whosoeuer is a vessell of honour and mercy when willingly and wittingly hee fals into sinne hee wasts his conscience and loosing Faith becomes a vessell of wrath and dishonor The Century-writers Cent. 1. l. 2. ca. 4. p. 275. l. 1. c. 4. p. 120. That Faith once conceiued may be lost and shaken out it is plaine by sundry examples and by the sayings of Christ and that Faith may bee lost the Apostles both by their sayings and examples doe demonstrate Finally the whole Church of Saxonie Harm conf incon Sax. art 10. It is manifest that some that are regenerate doe grieue and shake off the Holy Ghost and are againe reiected of God and made subiect to the wrath of God and eternall punishment Read Zanchie in his Miscellanies and there shall you find how much trouble that that worthy man sustained in Germany among other things for gainsaying this point For indeed this is one speciall Article wherein wee and the Lutherans for them I vnderstand by Brethren of Germany doe disagree and the ignorance thereof argues that you are little or nothing at all acquainted with the controuersies that are betwixt vs and them But you haue great Fathers of Germany against mee and can shew three no small lights in Gods Church which hold the contrary euen Luther Brentius and Bucer First Luther was no Lutheran and not holding all those errors which those who are called of his name defend is not to bee reckoned among them yet thus saith hee In artic smal cald It is necessary to teach and know that when the Saints fall into manifest sinnes as Dauid did then Faith and the Holy Ghost are lost Brentius indeed was a rigid Lutheran and therefore it is likly hee held as the rest of his fellowes doe for certainty I haue none hauing not his writings by mee Neither doth the passage you alledge out of him euince the contrary for as Excutifidians giue me leaue so to call them distinguish they that haue true Faith in the trunesse of essence or existence may yet as they say want true Faith in the trunesse of permanence or perseuerance As for Bucer hee fals not within the compasse of those whom I meane by the Brethren of Germany for hee was none of those whom they call Lutherans In Miscell And yet as hee is alledged by Zanchie and others for the Perpetuity of Faith so is hee vouched also by the contrary side for falling away from grace as where hee saith They who sinne against conscience by no meanes haue a true and liuely Faith In Colloq Ratisb pag. 247. But suppose these three were such Brethren as wee speake of yet what are they to Kemnitius D. Andreas Hemingius Illyricus Wigandus Mathaeus Iudex Basilius Faber the whole Church of Saxony and generally all Lutherans who all hold as I haue affirmed And therfore I do not as you say traduce their fame nor accuse them wrongfully of error they themselues haue diuulged and published it to the whole world in their books And so my Assumption that they haue not Assurance remaineth hitherto in his full strength and vertue N. B. You conclude vpon the premisses thus Therefore or at leastwise probably this is not iustifying Faith Dispute you positiuely and conclude probably Alas Master Downe doe you preach after this manner at Cambridge to deliuer definitions by Sophistrie when you should speake verè truly It seemeth when you said so you were not perswaded that your doctrine was true but determined contingently and probably with fine words to ensnare poore silly hearers For when you say Therefore or at leastwise probably you doubted of the Truth thereof Surely this is not to goe recto pectore with an vpright conscience in Gods cause Ammian Marc. l. 17. Plutar. in collect But I hope wee shall take heed of you when you preach next seeing you meane to tell vs the truth but only a probable tale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A wise man will eschew your snares Ep. ad Bosphor Bis enim ad eundem lapidem impingere stulto conuenit saith Gregorius Theologus It is the property of fooles to stumble twice at one stone I. D. Why Sir is it vnlawfull to conclude otherwise then Apodictically or is it Sophistrie to vse Dialecticall Syllogismes in matters of Diuinity Certainly then much to blame are all those Logicians who handle Topicall Syllogismes whose matter is contingent other where then among the Elenchs and foully ouerseene are all writers both sacred and profane ancient and moderne who oftentimes dispute probably knowing that although Demonstration only doe force and constraine yet Probability doth very much bend and incline the minde Saint Augustin did not so lightly esteeme of Probable
of an implicit or couched ignorance Of an implicit Faith we haue often heard and of a rude and confused apprehension the Iesuit in the place by you quoted speaketh but an implicit ignorance was neuer yet heard of and what meaning it may haue for my part I cannot see De iustif lib. 1. ca. 7. Bellarmines right words are these Faith is better defined by ignorance then knowledge which saying of his how my speech helpeth I would you had taken a little more paines to make it manifest For whence and how you should collect it I cannot tell except perhaps it bee thus I say that Faith is not a knowledge Ergo I say also it is an ignorance I answer therefore secondly that Bellarmine and I speake not of the same Faith for hee speaketh of Faith of Story and I of Faith of Person so that when I say Faith of Person is not a knowledge I cannot help him who saith Faith of Story is not a knowledge For as for Faith of Story you cannot bee ignorant that contrary vnto Bellarmine in my Treatise I haue called it a Generall knowledge so farre am I from defining it by ignorance with him And yet I would haue you to know also that when I say Faith of Story is a knowledge I meane not thereby Science of Conclusions acquired and gotten by demonstratiue proofe out of such principles as are of themselues knowne and euident For how can a man by the light of naturall reason aspire to the knowledge of that which is supernaturall and aboue reason But I vnderstand an explicit and distinct apprehension of the necessary Articles of Faith opposite vnto that brutish ignorance which Papists call implicite Faith and Blind obedience which distinct apprehension Bellarmine in the place before alledged denieth necessarily to bee required vnto Faith Farthermore I would faine know how this followes Faith is not knowledge Ergo it is Ignorance for by the same reason you may conclude Faith is not Hope Ergo it is Despaire or thus Earth is not fire Ergo it is water and so by your creation all things in the world shall bee one of two fire or water Metaph. 12. But you should remember that simple negation is positiue of nothing and that Priuations are reduced vnto that subiect whereunto their Habits doe belong whence it followeth that denying Faith to be in the Vnderstanding and so to be knowledge I deny it also to bee Ignorance N. B. Againe whatsoeuer bringeth life eternall bringeth iustification and is Faith But true knowledge of Iesus Christ bringeth life eternall Therefore true knowledge of Iesus Christ bringeth iustification and is Faith The Minor I proue out of the Words of Christ in S. Iohn Ioh. 17.3 Mel. Pez Arg. Theol. p. 3. notitia Es. 53. significat non solum agnitionem personae beneficiorum Christised etiam fiduciam quiescentem in Christo sicuti Ioh. 17. This is life eternall to know thee to bee the onely true Lord and him to bee Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent into the world The Maior is plaine whatsoeuer apprehendeth that last which is life Eternall apprehendeth the former as election and iustification c. But the knowledge of Christ apprehendeth eternall life Therefore it apprehendeth iustification But hence it followeth whatsoeuer apprehendeth iustification is Faith True knowledge of Jesus Christ apprehendeth iustification Therefore true knowledge of Christ is Faith and so consequently and conuersiuely Faith is knowledge and this knowledge is Faith Ioh. 19.25 Eph. 3.14.15.16.17.18 1 Cor. 13. And by this meanes Particular knowledge commeth not in time after faith but is Faith and is knowledge in the beginning in proceeding is knowledge and in the end is knowledge I. D. The Maior of your first Syllogisme that whatsoeuer bringeth life eternall bringeth iustification I deny You say it is plaine because whatsoeuer apprehendeth the last such as is eternall life apprehendeth the former also which is iustification But first what rule of Logicke allowes you thus to shift tearmes and to turne bringing of life and iustification into apprehending life and iustification For howsoeuer you seeme to vse them indifferently yet are they words of different significations and therefore confounding them thus you make not so much the truth of the Maior plaine as obscure the meaning thereof Againe chuse whether of these tearmes you please yet is it palpably false that Whatsoeuer bringeth or apprehendeth the last bringeth and apprehendeth also the former Rhetoricke brings a man to speake eloquently which is the latter yet it is Grammar not Rhetoricke that brings a man to speake congruè which is the former Physicke brings a man to the faculty of curing diseases which is the latter yet brings not to the knowledge of the nature of things for that belongs vnto the naturall Philosopher and according to the old saying where the Physiologer ends there the Physician begins So also in diuine matters Hope apprehends eternall life which is the latter for it is the proper obiect about which it is occupied it apprehendeth not iustification which is the former for then by your rule it should bee Faith it selfe that being faith as you say which apprehends iustification As therfore when diuerse needles are by the Loadstone trained one after another the vertue of the stone moueth the first the first the second and so of the rest but the third or second is no way the cause of the dependency of the first so in the concatenation of the causes of our saluation reckoned vp by the Apostle to wit Election Rom. 8.30 Vocation Iustification Glorification the former are mouers as it were vnto the latter but not the latter vnto the former The reason of all in a word is this because as I haue already shewed more is required vnto the maine end then vnto the subordinate meanes and therefore seeing saluation is the end Iustification the meanes not whatsoeuer is requisite vnto that is presently necessary vnto this The Minor that true knowledge of Iesus Christ bringeth eternall life I also deny For Particular assurance which is the knowledge you must here vnderstand or else you conclude not to the purpose bringeth not eternall life in as much as a man may be saued without it as we haue already sufficiently proued Neither doe the words of Christ in S. Iohn verify your Minor Ioh. 17.3 for by knowledge there he meaneth not your particular assurance and perswasion by which a man knowes he is iustified shall be saued but such a knowledge of Christ and his Gospell as is mingled with faith and worketh our wils to accept of Iesus Christ for our onely mediator And this knowledge is said to bee eternall life not because euery one that barely and nakedly knowes liues eternally for as wee haue shewed Reprobates and Diuels haue Historicall Faith but partly because no man can liue without it partly because by it the Spirit of God worketh in the Elect that Faith by
by one that is iustified must needs presuppose the partie before to be iustified N. B. O. O. O. O. O. I. D. What mum Master Baxtar Hath Sigalion now instantly sealed vp your lips that you cannot or are you suddenly become a professed Pythagorean that you may not speake For me thinkes you that haue beene so vocall and wastfull of your breath in so many impertinent and friuolous excursions should not now bee so sparing and niggardly of a word or twaine vpon so necessary a point But the truth is the argument is vnanswerable and inuincible and therefore you held it better to say nothing and slily to passe it ouer then to marre all by saying nothing to the purpose Which course if you had also vsed in the rest of this disputation you should haue saued this scribling labor and I had receiued virgin paper from you And so as Galba in the iudgement of all might haue beene thought worthy of the empire if hee had not beene Emperor Tacit. 1. Hist you also in the opinion of some might haue beene counted able to write if you had not written But now that after so much loudnesse and clamourousnesse you are become so dumbe and silent it argues that though ability faile yet will should not haue beene wanting vnlesse the euidence of truth had perforce made vp your mouth And so construeing your silence to bee in this point no lesse then plaine yeelding I passe on to the next argument Treatise 4. Arg. In conditionall Promises there can bee no Assurance of the thing promised before the performance of the condition v. g. This is a conditionall Promise in the couenant of works Doe this and thou shalt liue Life is promised but on condition of Doing and therefore vntill wee haue performed the condition wee may not looke that God should bee reciprocall and giue vs Life Now in the Couenant of Grace Iustification is promised but vpon condition of Faith so saith the Scripture Belieue and thy sins shall be forgiuen thee Therefore the condition of Belieuing must first bee performed before wee can assure our selues our sins are forgiuen If so then Faith going before and Assurance following after Assurance connot bee Iustifying Faith N. B. I deny your Minor and say there may bee an Assurance of Saluation in some measure before there can bee the performance of Faith actuall in the highest measure Therefore your Minor is vtterly false For Faith in his true defined state is a firme Assurance and Perswasion and a firme Assurance and Perswasion is Faith and both the Greeke and Hebrew words signifieth Faith before cited doe declare Yea this Assurance is giuen vnto vs together with the hearing of the Word of God Habitualiter and will shew it selfe Actualiter in due time and therefore sometime is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometime is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first in the beginning the next in the Lords due time and this can neuer be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but secundùm magis or minùs shall externas vel internas exerere vires shew forth his forces either within man or without I. D. To make all plaine my argument reduced into the right forme standeth thus That which goeth before iustification is not that which followes after iustification But Faith goeth before iustification and Assurance followes after Ergo Faith is not Assurance The Minor of this Syllogisme is that which you deny affirming it to be vtterly false and you confirme it to bee so by this reason There may bee Assurance of Saluation in some measure before there can be Performance of Faith Actuall in the highest measure Ergo Faith goeth not before Assurance nor doth Assurance follow after Faith The Antecedent of which Enthymeme I grant for as much as there may bee Assurance in this life but not the performance of Faith actuall in the highest measure wee here Belieuing only in part as the Apostle saith But if hereupon it follow Therefore Faith goeth not before Assurance it will also follow Faith goeth not before Charity or good works because Charity and good works may be in some measure before Faith actuall bee in the highest measure or thus The elder Sonne is not borne before the yonger because the yonger may waxe as tall as a Pygmee before the elder bee growne to the stature of a Giant Which Consequences if they be absurd and ridiculous as absurd and ridiculous is it to inferre that Faith cannot bee before Assurance because Assurance may bee in some measure before Faith bee in the highest measure Nay farre better doth it follow from hence against your selfe that Faith is not Assurance nor Assurance Faith For if as you expresly say Assurance may bee in a lower measure when Faith is in a higher how can they possibly differing so in degrees but bee differing things For although it be true that more and lesse doe not diuersify the kind yet is it as true that the same indiuiduall quality cannot at the same time bee both intended and remitted no more then the same string in a Lute can at once bee strained vp and let downe and yeeld at the same time both a base and treble sound In the residue of this Section you shew your selfe to bee one of those idle Oratours of whom Quintilian speaketh Inst Orat. l. 11. who neuer regard where the point or issue of the Question lieth so they may besides the cause either from the persons or out of some common place find occasion of declaiming Lib. 6. Epig. 19. Such as was Postumus the Aduocate in Martiall who being entertained to plead the cause of one who had three Goats stolen from him by his neighbour left the proofe of this and fell a discoursing of the battell of Cannae of the Mithridatike and Carthaginian wars and other such impertinent matters But neuer was there any offended more notoriously in this kind then you all those speeches are nothing els but extrauagances and by-matters For I pray you how doth it concerne my argument to talke of the origination of Faith in Greeke and Hebrew how Assurance is giuen how it shewes it selfe of Oligopistie Plerophorie and Apostasie of the intention and remission of it and finally of the inward and outward forces thereof Surely De arte Poët as much as a Cypres-tree concernes a table of shipwrack as Horace speaketh And therefore giue mee leaue to plucke you by the eare and to say vnto you as did the poore Client vnto his Lawyer aboue named Now I pray thee Postume say some thing at length touching my three Goats N. B. Where it pleaseth you to make remission of sinnes a Promise vpon a Condition I tell you with all the Church of God in all ages it is rather an encouragement to belieue assuredly in Christ as if hee should say Thy sinnes bee forgiuen thee therefore bee of good comfort that both the former and latter to wit forgiuenesse of sinnes and Beliefe might bee ascribed to
saith effectually called and they onely who are effectually called are iustified and shall bee glorified And if it were possible that they should bee saued then were there change in the vnchangeable decree of God which hath finally reiected them which is impossible 7. Hee that commands a Reprobate that is not iustified and shall neuer bee saued to belieue that hee is iustified and shall be saued implieth a Contradiction therein and makes Falshood to bee Truth and Faith errour For according to that infallible maxime Falshood is not vnder Faith and therefore if the Obiect bee Falshood it is not Faith which apprehendeth it for true if it bee Faith Falshood is not the Obiect thereof So that hee which commands that false Proposition to bee belieued makes that to bee Faith which cannot beare the definition of Faith and that to bee the Obiect which is not the Obiect thereof that is as I said makes Faith to bee error and Falshood Truth which are contradictories 8. God therefore neither doth nor can so command neither is it impure or impious to affirme so much being in the Word of God so manifestly reuealed Impious rather and blasphemous is it to say the contrary for it imputes impotency and weaknes vnto God making him to say Yea and Nay and to auouch that for truth which is euidently false 9. But this opinion that Faith is an Assurance infers this blasphemous absurdity For as I haue shewed God cōmands all men euen Reprobates to belieue now to belieue as you say is to bee assured of iustification and Saluation Ergo God commands the Reprobate to be assured of his Iustification and Saluation which is absurd 10. Absurd therefore is that opinion that Faith is Assurance which infers it For from truth no absurdity or blasphemie but onely truth can follow These few Positions I pray thee Gentle Reader consider diligently and compare Master Baxters reply with them and then bee iudge whether hee paint not gourds as it is in the Prouerbe and talke cleane beside the purpose Those places of Scripture which you desire may bee well waighed and then by mee either answered or reuerenced I haue according to your desire duly examined and doe from my heart adore them as being the words of the Eternall Verity and this answer doe I giue vnto them that not one of them touches the question in debate betwixt vs. Rom. 11.23 The first telleth vs that the Iewes if they persist not in infidelity shall againe by the power of God bee ingrafted Gal. 3.22 the second that the Scripture hath concluded all vnder sinne that the promise by the Faith of Iesus Christ might bee giuen to them that Belieue both which argue against your selfe that Faith is the condition of the Promise the third saith that as many as were ordained vnto eternall life belieued Act. 13.48 2. Thess 3.2 Mat. 13.11 the fourth that euery man hath not Faith the fift that to know the mysteries of the kingdome of Heauen is giuen to some and denied to other some by which three it is cleere that Reprobates doe not belieue Prou. 16.4 Rom. 9.18.19.20 but the Elect onely the sixt affirmeth that God made the wicked for the euill day the last that God sheweth mercy vpon whome hee will and hardneth also whome he will and that in this point there is no disputing with God intimating therein that there is both an Election and Reprobation and that both depend vpon the good pleasure of God But not one of them proueth that God commandeth a Reprobate to assure himselfe of his present iustification and future Saluation which is the matter in question and therefore I hope I may notwithstanding them all freely conclude that as God cannot command to doe that which is vniust because hee is iustice it selfe so he cannot command to belieue that which is vntrue because hee is truth it selfe Neither doe I I trust so concluding grieue the Spirit of God although perhaps therein I greeue your stubborne spirit which hath I feare me throughout this reply too much rebelled against the light and therefore take heed lest you your selfe greeue the Spirit of God Eph. 4.30 wherewith the elect are sealed vnto the day of Redemption Treatise Arg. 6. That which the wicked may haue cannot bee iustifying Faith for it is The Faith of the Elect But the wicked may haue this Perswasion yea and many haue beene most confidently perswaded that they are in the fauour of God You will say it is true Perswasion But I say if forme make truth they are as formally and therefore as truly perswaded of it as the godly If the Godly then are therefore and for this cause iustified because they are strongly perswaded they are Iustified then why should not the wicked likewise bee iustified by his strong Perswasion But in truth these kind of speeches are vnreasonable and senselesse and so that opinion cannot be reasonable N. B. Many die and are saued that haue not a full Perswasion and assurance of their Saluation yet are saued by Faith I will answer you when you shew mee the man that so did die and was saued and How you know that hee had at his death no full Assurance of his Saluation in Christ Iesu and yet had Faith and when you proue that there is at the houre of death when the elect are made without spot or wrinkle in the Saints of God a doubtfull Faith I. D. That many Reprobates and wicked men are strongly perswaded they are in the grace and fauor of God nothing is more cleere and manifest Prou. 30.12 There is a generation saith Salomon that are cleane in their owne eyes and yet are not washed from their filthinesse Reu. 3.17 And the Angell of the Church of Laodicea saith of himselfe that hee is rich and growne to great wealth and had need of nothing Vers 14. Vers 17. and yet in the iudgement of him that is Amen the faithfull and true witnesse was wretched and miserable Inst l. 3. c. 2. §. 11. and poore and blind and naked Yea Experience it selfe saith Caluin sheweth that Reprobates sometime are affected with the like feeling almost that the elect are that in their owne iudgement they differ nothing at all from the Elect. Such is the deceitfulnesse of mans heart and the blindnesse of his selfe-loue that it makes him easily ouerweene himselfe and to promise peace vnto his soule when hee is in the ready way vnto destruction You will say that the Perswasion of the Reprobate and wicked is built vpon a false and erronious ground and therfore is Presumption rather then true Assurance For answer hereunto consider that the Elect of God before his Iustification is but a wicked man whence Diuines vse to call it The Iustification of the wicked warranted therein by that of Saint Paul Rom. 4.5 To him that worketh not but belieueth in him that iustifieth the wicked his faith is imputed vnto
Fiducia a Rest or Deuolution the Subiect of it the facultie of the Will not the Vnderstanding the next end of it Iustification the remore end eternall saluation and I thus define it A rest of the will vpon Christ and his merits for iustification and consequently saluation I. D. Because you complaine anon that the word Rest which I haue made to bee the iustifying act of Faith is ambiguous and thereupon it pleaseth you in your Answers following to take aduantage and make you mery with the Equiuocation thereof you shall giue me leaue before I step a foot further in a few words and a little more plainely to open my meaning touching that Act. And to this end seeing to proue that Faith is an Affiance or Rest I reported mee in my Treatise vnto the words vsed in the originall of the old Testament as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the forme of words vsed in the new as to belieue in to hope in or as in some translations it is read to belieue on to hope on I will first shew that these tearmes applied vnto Christ the right Obiect of Faith import that very Act whereby wee stand iustified before God and secondly I will diligently inquire and search out what may bee the true proper and naturall meaning of these tearmes both which being cleerely demonstrated it will manifestly appeare both what that Rest is which I make to be the iustifying Act of Faith and how fondly and vainely you cauill and dally with the ambiguity thereof That Belieuing in or vpon importeth that Act is in it selfe so apparant that I thinke no sober man will deny it but because to you a man must proue that the Sunne shines thus I demonstrate it That which is imputed for righteousnesse and by which wee are iustified is the true Act of Iustifying Faith This you cannot deny vnlesse you will turne Papist for our Religion will not permit you to ioyne any other companion with Faith in the matter of Iustification But such belieuing is imputed for righteousnesse and is that by which we are iustified so saith the Apostle Rom. 4.5 To him that belieueth in him that iustifieth the wicked his Faith is counted for righteousnesse and againe Wee haue belieued in Iesus Christ that wee might bee iustified by the Faith of Christ Adde hereunto that whereas the same Apostle saith With the heart man belieueth vnto righteousnesse Rom. 10.10 forthwith in the next verse hee interpreteth that Belieuing by Belieuing in For saith hee the Scripture saith V. 11. whosoeuer belieueth in him shall not bee ashamed Wherefore I conclude that so to Belieue is the Iustifying Act of Faith So also is Hoping in or vpon being in effect the same with Belieuing in For although Hope and Faith bee in nature two distinct Graâ—es and so reckoned by Saint Paul yet seeing by reason of the neere affinity betweene them Hope is sometime put for Faith it may not seeme strange that to hope in is also vsed for to belieue in Now that Hope is sometime put for Faith appeareth by that of Saint Peter 1 Pet. 3.15 Bee ready alwayes to giue an answer to euery man that asketh you a reason of the Hope that is in you where Hope as Caluin saith In eum loc is by a Synechdoche taken for Faith And as manifest is it by Saint Paul that to Hope in is no other then to Belieue in for hauing said That wee should bee vnto the praise of his glory who first hoped in Christ Eph. 1.12.13 In whom also yee hoped hauing heard the Word of Truth the Gospell of your Saluation by and by hee ads by way of interpretation In whom also Belieuing yeee were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise In a word the Act of Hope properly taken is expectation or looking out for the performance or comming of a thing but Hoping in imports Affiance or trusting on something for the performance thereof As touching the words of the old Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first I find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confounded with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as words of the same signification they being after the manner of Scripture ioyned together in the same verse as equipollent the one to explane and expound the other for example Psal 118.8 Psal 37.5 It is better saith Dauid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to trust in the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then to put confidence in man and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Roll thy way vpon the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and trust vpon him But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it selfe is in the same manner confounded with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which construed with the Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to Belieue in and is by your owne confession the very Act of iustifying Faith for example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they belieued not in God Psal 78.22 Mic. 7.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and trusted not in his saluation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Belieue not in a friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trust not in a Prince Againe that which in the old Testament is vttered by one of these words the same in the new is expressed by Belieuing in for example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We trust in the Name of his Holinesse saith the old Testament Psal 33.21 Ioh. 1.12 1 Ioh. 3.23.5.13 Prou. 3.5 Act. 8.37 Psal 25.2 Psal 31.1 Rom. 10.11 Hee that belieueth in his Name saith the new 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trust in the Lord with thy whole heart saith the old If thou Belieue with thy whole heart saith the new finally In thee O Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haue I trusted let mee not be confounded saith the old Hee that Belieueth in him shall not bee ashamed saith the new If you except against this last parallell that the Apostle hath reference vnto that of Esay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee that Belieueth maketh not haste rather vnto those passages of the Psalmes aboue quoted I answer with Beza that it is not likely In ad Ro. 10.11 partly because the vniuersall particle and the word in him is not to bee found in the Prophet partly because the Apostle saith not as the Phophet Esay doth maketh not haste but precisely accordeth with the words of the Prophet Dauid saying shall not bee confounded nor ashamed Howsoeuer seeing in all these places the same thing is intended and meant it is cleere that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Belieuing in are Synonyma differing in name but not in definition and so I conclude what aboue I vndertooke to demonstrate that all these tearmes properly import the Iustifying act of Faith In the next place are wee to inquire the right acception and signification of these words that wee may more perfectly conceiue what that Fiducia or Rest is which wee haue made to bee that Act. And first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as R. Kimchi obserueth properly and primitiuely signifieth to retire into
source of all Rebellion and Disobedience N. B. Your Genus is that Faith iustifying is a Rest which is false when you speake more learnedly I will deigne you farther answer I. D. That Rest is not the Genus of Iustifying Faith I easily grant you for as appeares manifestly in my Treatise I make Affiance or which is all one Rest to bee the Act or Forme of Faith and not the Genus thereof If I had thought it fitting to haue troubled the Definition therewith I was not so ignorant but I could haue called it either an infused grace or a gratious habit or a Theologicall vertue but because the Philosopher taught me that Habits are sufficiently defined by their Acts in reference vnto their proper Obiects I held it needlesse to expresse it But suppose I had made it to be the right Genus how doe you disproue it Forsooth it is sufficient for such a Pythagoras as you are to say it is false an inexpiable wrong would it be to demand a reason of your sayings Onely you adde Plut. in vitâ Alex. that when I shall speake more learnedly you will deigne me farther answer Brauely againe spoken and Alexander-like for neither would hee being a King contend with any but Kings neither may you being so transcendent for your learning and surmounting the most of men as farre as the Sun doth the lesser lights without impeachment of honour vouchsafe disputation with any but your Peers much lesse with such a one as is scarce to bee found in any Predicament Yet seeing the Sunne so surpassing in glory is no way enuious of his light but imparteth bountifully of his beames to the enlightning of the rest of the starres it may please you also with whom wisdome must liue and dye Ioh. 12.2 out of your benignity to send forth some influence of your learning vpon mee that I may more cleerely discerne at least in this question betweene truth and that which is onely seeming so N. B. Shew mee for your warrant one place of Scripture that so tearmeth it any one Father of the Church old or new for these 1600. yeeres Greeks or Latins that will auouch it and I will yeeld to your Genus The Hebrew word for Faith and the Greek word whereof you haue heard before doe vtterly condemne you they both signifying a perswasion and an Assurance and neuer a Rest I maruell you will teach the Holy Ghost to speake and the Church now to vnderstand what Faith is and that by such a woodden Definition which may rather moue to choller then consent I. D. If by denying vnto mee the warrant of Scriptures of Fathers old and new Greeke and Latin for 1600. yeeres and of the Greeke and Hebrew words for Faith you intend to proue that Affiance or Rest is not the Genus of Faith it shall without more a-doo bee yeelded vnto you for as appeares in the former section I make it to bee not the Genus but the Act or Forme thereof But if you would thereby perswade that Rest or Affiance is not the Act of Faith I must tell you that these reasons are cleane out of date and that you doe too much abuse your Readers patience setting againe before him these Coleworts now more then twice sodden For both in the beginning of this disputation and in the last section saue two before this I haue throughly scanned cleered this businesse shewing that I am so farre from teaching the Holy Ghost to speake and the Church to vnderstand what Faith is as you vnchristianly lay vnto my charge that I vse no other tearme but that which the Spirit of God hath in Scripture sanctified to this purpose and the Holy Church hath euer spoken and vsed But because I am loth to pester my paper with so many Tautologies and needles repetitions as you vse to doe thither must I entreate the courteous Reader to repaire for satisfaction In the meane season seeing both by expresse testimony of Scripture and cleere euidence of reason I haue warranted euery part of my definition and yet you without disprouing the weakest of my proofes tauntingly call it a woodden Definition you must pardon mee if I tell you plainely that this wood-kinde of answering deserues to bee reformed with a little woodden correction But where you say my Definition may rather moue to choler then consent a man would thinke reading this your answer that either your principles were so incurably hurt or your braine dam'd and ram'd vp with such a deale of dull and tough flegme that it were as easy almost to remoue a mountaine as to moue you either to the one or the other And yet indeed I find you of a cleene contrary complexion euen the most pettish and waspish gentleman that euer I met withall euery small petty occasion stirs your choler and works you presently out of temper But because I see it is your impotency disease I beare with you the more praying you notwithstanding to haue as much patience as you may if at times for the purging of this humor I play the Physician and minister some small quantity of rheubarb vnto you N. B. For alas Master Downe what Rest can a man haue vpon Christ without Assurance to bee saued by his death and Passion and knowledge of his Lord and Sauiour A full assurance therefore as a cause worketh Rest vpon Christ as an effect and is therefore the Generall word in the Definition of Iustifying Faith I. D. Your argument if I mistake not standeth thus That which is an Effect of Assurance cannot be the Act of Faith But Resting vpon Christ is an Effect of Assurance Ergo it cannot bee the Act of Faith I distinguish of Assurance for it is either of the generall proposition or of the Speciall and indiuiduall of the Generall when wee are assured that Whosoeuer Belieueth on Christ shall bee iustified and saued of the Speciall when wee are certainly perswaded that We are iustified and shall bee saued If you meane the former then I deny the Maior for such Historicall Assurance is a necessary pre-requisite vnto Iustifying Faith and is the cause without which wee cannot belieue on Christ and therefore that which is such an effect of Assurance may bee the Act of Faith If you vnderstand the latter then doe I grant the Maior for if such Assurance be as I haue demonstratiuely proued it selfe the Effect of Faith it is more then manifest that That which is an effect of such Assurance cannot bee the Act of Faith But then I deny the Minor that Resting vpon Christ is an effect of such assurance affirming that contrarily Resting vpon Christ is the cause of such Assurance and Assurance is the Effect of that Resting But what rest say you can a man haue vpon Christ without Assurance to be saued by his Death Passion Surely vnlesse wee know his Death and Passion to bee the onely meanes of saluation wee cannot rest vpon him for it but to
tell you the promise is not conditionall O hominis acumen argumentum lepidum O yee noble Schollers Wo vnto you You cannot escape Gods hand Quite contrary is this to your knowledge and conscience Goe dispute with Iesus Christ and tell him his Father deliuereth a blasphemous absurdity All Fathers all Writers old and new Greeke and Latin for 1600. yeeres besides many other such peremptory and confident speeches Instit Orator l 6. c. 5. Quintilian thought it scarce worthy to bee remembred in his Institutions that his Orator bee not turbulent and tumultuous as are they who are vnlettered and therefore I maruell how you who would bee counted as wise as Thales could forget your selfe so much as to imitate base barristers and pettifoggers Saue only Declam 18. as the same Quintilian saith it was necessary to auouch with as much contention of voice as might bee that which otherwise you could not proue that what affirmation it could not haue from truth it might receiue from your manner of speaking But Vanity saith Saint Augustin De ciuit Dei l. 5. c. 27. is wonderfull talkatiue yet is not therefore so powerfull as verity for if shee list shee can also bee lowder then verity For the shallower the brooke the more the murmure and the emptier the caske the greater the sound And therefore I would wish the Reader not to bee terrified with Torrents Enar. in Ps 57. as Saint Augustin speaketh whose waters make a noise for a time but presently will cease and cannot long continue For doubtlesse if they of the hot and dry countreyes of Tema and Sabaea repaire hither in hope to satisfy and quench their thirst Iob. 6.19.20 they shall as Iob saith returne confounded and ashamed because their brother hath deceiued them as a brooke and as the rising of riuers which suddenly are dryed vp and faile out of their places Iudg. 16.17 These Master Baxter are the Topicall places whence all your arguments are deduced and if I may so say the fiue locks wherein your chiefest strength lyeth What impressions they may haue made in the minds of simple people I cannot tell Plaut Paen. Hor. l. 1. Ep. 7. Perhaps they that cannot discerne betweene Conicall and true gold will bee content to receiue Lupins insteed of currant money and sounding words for sound proofes And indeed it is the manner of the vnskilfull vulgar though reiected and refused as most incompetent yet to beare themselues as iudges in euery cause how weighty soeuer and without taking any knowledge at all of the right issue to pronounce him ouercome that holds his peace and him to haue answered that hath not held his peace the controuersie to bee doubtfull or undecidable if both parties haue sayd alike much whither side speakes with more reason neither doe they attend and if they doe yet can they not vnderstand And because Vanity De ciuit Dei l. 5. c. 27. as wee haue obserued out of Saint Augustin is euermore talkatiue then verity and hee seemeth vnto them to haue spoken best who hath said most therefore doe they for the most part giue sentence against the truth for vaine talking But howsoeuer simple and ignorant people may iudge sure I am they that are wise and learned will esteeme the course you haue taken rather preiudiciall then any way auaileable vnto your cause For should a man as Iob saith Iob. 13.7 talke deceitfully for Gods cause or is the strength of truth so empaired that shee can no longer stand but by such wrie and sinister meanes Nay verily but shee is still of so noble and hautie a nature that shee scorneth to haue her conquests empeached by so base and dishonorable succors Deprauing of the aduersaries words and meaning impertinent digressions dissembling of his reasons and answers vnchristian reuelling and reproaching and tumultuous hoobubs and outcries are the vsuall weapons of those who resolue to fight in vnrighteous quarels But truth being pure and simple will not and standing firme vpon her owne base needs not and because falshood hath no subsistence but only by her cannot bee assisted and supported by such vniust and fraudulent policies Although therefore as I haue said these meanes may bee forcible inough to seduce and beguile simple people yet they that are wise and iudicious know that naked truth neuer comes disguised either in a Wolues or Foxes case but prudently discerning and separating betwixt passionate speeches and found reasons Rhetoricall flourishes and Logicall demonstrations vnnecessary circumstances and substantiall matter iudge alwayes of controuersies not by what is confidently said and affirmed but by what is reasonable alledged and proued And whosoeuer thou bee Christian Reader that art in this sort affected and qualified Deut. 33.8 Exod. 28.30 Mal. 2.7 especially if thou bee the man of Gods mercies vpon whose heart the Lords Vrim and Thummim are set whose lips preserue knowledge and at whose mouth the Law is to bee sought because thou art the Angell of the Lord of Hosts to thee and to thy vpright and vnpartiall censure doe I most humbly submit my selfe and my whole proceedings in this cause If thou approue Ps 141.5 it shall the more confirme and settle mee in the truth if thou reproue it shall not breake my head but bee vnto mee a most soueraigne and pretious ointment Iudge therefore betweene vs both indifferently and freely and the Lord giue thee a right iudgement in all things 2 Tim. 2.7 And thus Master Baxter haue you at length my whole and entire Apologie not importunately and violently wrested from mee as you say your Answer was from you but voluntarily of mine owne accord endited for the information and satisfaction of those who earnestly expect the issue of this combat Whereby the prudent and discreet Reader and I hope your selfe also may perceiue how small cause you had so vnseasonably to sing your Paean in your Prologue and to trumpet out victory before you were entred in the lists If for all this as yet you rest vnsatisfied the fault is your owne and not mine Eurip. for I cannot as Euripides saith fill him that is not staunch powring wise sayings into a man that is not wise And yet it may bee your Conscience and inward man are fully satisfied although ambition and vaine glory cause you to dissemble it If without all paraphrase and circumlocution I call a spade a spade and giue the right name vnto euery thing I beseech you beare a little with the ingenuity of my nature Plut. Apophth wee Macedonians are somewhat rude And yet I would haue you know that it is not so much your ignorance as your insolency which I inueigh against For Yuo Viliomar in Rob. Tit. as a late learned Humanist writeth There is no mortall man but is in some degree tainted with ignorance and this contagion haue wee drawne from mortality it selfe for man when hee erreth erreth because hee is a man
and to vpbraid error in man is to reproch euen mortality in selfe Which if you had seriously and duly considered either you would not with such petulancy haue beene caried against the errors you imagine to be in mee or at least you would haue remembred your selfe also to be a man But seeing you count your selfe the only wise-man and others as the Poet speaketh Homer to fly about like shadowes you may not thinke it hard if being both ignorant and insolent you be admonished of the one and chastised for the other OF THE FAITH OF INFANTS AND HOW THEY ARE Iustified and Saued By the late Reuerend and Learned Diuine Master Iohn Downe Bachelour of Diuinity and sometimes Fellow of Emanuell Colledge in Cambridge OXFORD Prinred by IOHN LICHFIELD for EDWARD FORREST Anno Domini M.DC.XXXV OF THE FAITH OF INFANTS AND HOW THEY ARE Iustified and Saued THat Christian Infants haue a particular Faith of their owne is generally affirmed both by Papists and Lutherans yet with some difference De Bapt. l. 1. c. 10. as Bellarmine writeth For Papists hold that they haue onely Habituall Faith and that it together with Hope and Charity is infused into them in the Sacrament of Baptisme but the Lutherans saith he attribute vnto them Actuall Faith or something like thereunto Wherein it may be the Cardinall doth them some wrong Field Append. part 2. §. 1. For it is obserued by some Diuines that they constantly deny Children to haue any actuall apprehension of Gods mercies or that they feele in themselues any such motions of Faith Whereupon it must needs follow that their meaning is not to attribute vnto them Actuall Faith but a kind of Habituall Faith onely or that seed root and Habit whence Actuall motions in due time doe flow But bee their opinion herein whatsoeuer it will bee sure I am that both Lutheran and Papist agree in this that Infants haue a particular Faith of their owne The principall reasons that they alledge for proofe hereof are these Heb. 11.6 Infants please God but without Faith it is impossible to please him Mat. 19.14 The Kingdome of God belongs vnto them Which yet the Scriptures say cannot be attained without Faith The Word of God euery where maketh particular Faith a necessary meanes vnto Iustification and Saluation as where the Prophet saith The iust man shall liue by his Faith Hab. 2.4 but Infants are iustified before God and being iustified cannot but bee saued Matt 18.6 Mar. 9.36 Luc. 1.41 Nay Christ himselfe expresly saith that they doe belieue And Iohn the Baptist in the very wombe of his Mother was filled with the Holy Ghost and sprang at the salutation of the Blessed Virgin Other arguments they vse but they are all of the like nature and notwithstanding them all I cannot bee perswaded that Infants while they are such haue any Faith of their owne either Actuall or Habituall And these among sundry others are my chiefest reasons Deut. 1.39 First the Scripture in plaine tearmes affirmeth that they haue no knowledge at all either of good or euill and that they cannot so much as discerne betweene the right and the left hand If so Ion. 4.11 how can they who conceiue not of things naturall vnderstand those things that are heauenly and aboue the pitch of nature To this effect Saint Augustin Epist 57. Scire diuina paruulos qui nec humana adhuc norint si verbis velimus ostendere vereorne ipsis sensibus nostris facere videamur iniurià m quando iâ—â—loquendo fuadere studemus vbi omnes vires officiumque sermonis superet euidentia veritatis that is If wee should goe about to demonstrate with words that Children know the things of God who as yet know not the things of men I feare wee should offer wrong euen to our very senses endeuouring to perswade by speech that the euidence of the truth whereof far exceeds all power and office of speech Secondly when Infants are presented at the holy Font and either sprinkled with the water of Baptisme or dipped therein how chanceth it that they so much dislike thereof testifying their dislike by their crying and other motion of the body Certainly had they actuall Faith they would endure all with much patience and cheerefulnesse and neuer bewray so much aduersenesse and discontent But if in doing so they goe against their knowledge the Sacrament must needs bee so fâ—rre from auailing them to the washing away of Originall guilt that by their reluctation they rather contract a further guilt of Actuall sinne which I suppose none except he be too too vncharitable will imagine of them Thirdly if they haue Faith why are they not after their initiation by Baptisme forthwith admitted vnto holy Communion In the time of Saint Augustin and Innocent the first it was the practice of the Church so to doe and it continued as some write for the space of sixe hundred yeeres downe vnto the times of Ludouicus Pius and Lotharius But why is that custome now growne out of vse and why are Children barred from the Eucharist if they belieue as well as elder people Nay why are they not rather admitted then those of riper yeeres For Infants haue not so much as euill thoughts in them but these by reason of their longer life haue made themselues guilty of many euill deeds besides Fourthly Faith as Saint Paul witnesseth commeth by hearing and hearing by the Word of God preached But Infants heare not neither by the eare nor by any other way proportionable thereunto or if they doe yet they vnderstand not what they heare For did they vnderstand I presume they would harken more attentiuely vnto what is said then we see they doe Wherefore not hearing neither doe they belieue If you say they belieue by an inward Hearing then is that Faith wrought either by Ordinary or Extraordinary meanes Not by Extraordinary meanes for it is done euery day and houre By Ordinary therefore If so then haue wee a double manner of working Faith and both of them Ordinary the one by Inward Hearing in Infants only the other by Inward and Outward also in those that are Adulti which is a meere nouelty in the Church of God Fiftly how commeth it to passe if Children haue Faith that among so many millions of them as haue beene in the world not so much as one of them when they come to riper yeares giueth any testimony of his Faith vntill hee bee farther taught and informed If a child borne of Christian parents and entred into the visible Church by Baptisme shall afterwards while hee is yet in his tender yeeres fall into the hands of Infidels or Turks as the more the pitie many thousands of them haue done and the whole band of Ianizars they say consists of no other doth hee not readily receiue that religion which is first instilled into him without once dreaming of the Christian Faith Which yet how it should bee hauing from his
man would much more will God performe his Word and Couenant although the seale be not set thereunto But if it may bee had there is Necessitas praecepti a necessity laid by Gods commandement vpon all those that are Filij praecepti the Sonnes of the commandement Those Sonnes all men are when they are grown to be Adulti and therefore if then they neglect to be baptized they deserue for their contempt to bee cut off and to bee eternally condemned But Infants while such are none of these Sonnes as being both vncapable of the precept and vnable to offer themselues vnto the Sacrament whence followeth that the commandement taketh hold onely of the Parents and those that haue the care of them So that although the Child dying vnbaptized may bee free from danger yet those that neglect to present him vnto Baptisme shall bee damned for breach of Gods commandement Leâ— Parents therefore by all meanes bee carefull to performe this duty and if by reason of weakenesse or some other impediment it cannot bee done publickely rather then left vndone let it bee done priuatly Wise men and amongst the rest M. Caluin would haue it so yea the Church of England requireth it prescribing a forme of Priuate Baptisme in case of necessity and commanding that what is priuatly done be by the Minister publickely made knowne in the Congregation An order heretofore too much neglected God grant henceforward it may be better obserued Finally and lastly seeing euery one that is Adultus must of necessity haue a Faith of his owne first it is the duty of Parents by all meanes to worke Faith in their Children when they are capable thereof that as they haue beene instruments to traduce Originall sinne vnto them to their perdition so they may againe repaire in them the image of God to their eternall saluation Secondly let euery one looke to himselfe and see that hee haue Faith for it is in vaine to trust to the Faith of another The righteousnesse of Christ indeed is a cloke large enough to couer the sinnes of all men but the Faith of another man is little enough for himselfe I cannot couer my nakednesse with it They were but foolish virgins that said Giue vs of your oile for our lamps are out and fitly were they answered by the wise virgins Wee feare there will not bee enough for vs and you but goe yee rather to them that sell and buy for your selues Let Papists blaspheme and say they can supererogate and more then satisfy for their sinnes and that one man may for a price buy out of the Popes treasury the Surplus of another mans merits yet am I sure the oile of another mans lampe will not serue my turne nor procure mee fauour to enter with the bridegroome God grant me therefore wisdome euen while it is called to day to get mee oile in my owne lampe NOT CONSENT OF FATHERS BVT SCRIPTVRE THE GROVND OF FAITH Written by the occasion of a conference had with Mr. Bayly by the late Reuerend and Learned Diuine Master Iohn Downe Bachelour of Diuinity and sometimes Fellow of Emanuell Colledge in Cambridge OXFORD Printed by IOHN LICHFIELD for EDWARD FORREST Anno Domini M.DC.XXXV NOT CONSENT OF FATHERS BVT SCRIPTVRE THE GROVND OF FAITH LOVING and Reuerend M. Bayly I acknowledge my selfe much endebted vnto you both for my kind entertainment and the peaceable Conference I had with you Would you but vouchsafe to visit my poore Cottage I should readily endeauour to satisfy some part of the debt if not with like entertainment yet with equall welcome The residue I know not how better to discharge then by pursuing my first intention that is by labouring to reduce you backe into the bosome of that Church out of which with such danger to your soule scandall to the brethren and vnkindnesse to her you haue withdrawne your selfe And to this end might I haue obtained from you in writing as at our parting I entreated what those speciall Motiues were which had wrought in you this sudden change I would haue strained my selfe by writing also to haue giuen them the best satisfaction But seeing for reasons best knowne to your selfe and into which I list not further to inquire you held it not fit as then to yeeld so farre vnto mee I haue thought good for the present to reflect vpon some passages of our Conference specially that ground whereon you then stood so much and vpon which you plainely professed that you would aduenture your Faith It may please you therefore to remember that being demaunded a reason of your departure you pretended that in reading the ancient Fathers you had met with sundry Bugbeares which so scared and affrighted you that vnlesse you would resist the light of Conscience and hazard your eternall saluation you could not chuse but bee swayed by them Whereunto it being replied that happily those Bugbeares were but Scarcrowes and that you should haue taken a safer and surer course if you had resolued your Faith into Scriptures nothing being sufficient to beare vp so weighty a peece but onely diuine testimony your answer was that vpon Scripture you relyed howbeit because it is obscure and subiect to manifold constructions vpon Scripture vnderstood according to the interpretation and doctrine of the Fathers nothing doubting but that as long as you held the Faith of them whom wee verily belieue to bee saued your selfe could neuer perish through misbeliefe In which answer howsoeuer in word you seeme to attribute some force and vertue to the Scriptures yet in truth you doe but cancell them and make them of none effect For if the Scriptures lie rather in the Sense then in the Letter and the Sense by reason of the darknesse and ambiguity of them bee not to bee found in themselues but elsewhere out of them in the writings of the Fathers it followeth clearely that in your account Paul and Peter and Iames and Iohn and the other Pen-men of holy writ are no better then Cyphers vnlesse Cyrill and Ambrose and Hierome and Augustin and the rest of that ranke as digit numbers vouchsafe to adde some value and signification vnto them So that now by your fauor this must bee my taske briefly and plainely to demonstrate that hauing remoued your Faith from the authority of Scripture vpon the exposition of the Fathers you haue built quite beside the rocke and layd your foundation vpon the sand But take this protestation first that wee neither disesteeme nor despise the Fathers as by Priests and Iesuites wee are ordinarily slandered but contrarywise with all duty wee rise vp to their gray haires and reuerence their venerable antiquity Withall wee acknowledge that they were in their times excellent ornaments and lights of the Church endued not onely with singular knowledge in the mystery of Faith but also with admirable sanctity and vprightnesse of life Whereby in all their combats and bickerins with Hereticks they maintained the truth of God so wisely and couragiously
Chrysostome Hierome Basil others but expresly affirmeth that the Friers are they who haue corrupted the Fathers Not so expresly Ludouicus vines In Ciuit. Dei l. 22. c. 8. yet couertly hee insinuates as much In this chapter of Augustin saith he many things are added by those who with their polluted hands haue defiled the writings of great Authors Euen of late Pamelius although eight other written copies failed him yet bashed not vpon the sole authority of one blind Cambron copie to insert into Cyprian de vnitate Ecclesiae these words He that forsaketh the chaire of Peter on which the Church is founded doth hee hope himselfe to be in the Church Which glosseme notwithstanding it bee not to bee found nor in Alopecius his print nor in that of Heruagius or Langlier or Crinitus or Gryphius or Manutius or any other Part. 1. p. 89. no not in any other written copie as our learned Bilson sheweth yet because it seemeth to make much for the authority of the See of Rome it must of necessity bee clapt into the text Whereas contrarily if all the Copies of the Imperfect worke vpon Mathew haue in them these words In which not the true Body of Christ but the Sacrament of his Body is contained because it maketh strongly against Transubstantiation it must needs bee inforced for so it pleaseth Bellarmins grace by some Scholler of Berengarius De Euchar. l. 2. c. 22. And as the Fathers haue been not a little wronged by way of addition so I feare mee they haue receiued much iniury also by way of Subtraction Ep. dedic Yee haue taken order saith Sixtus Senensis vnto Pope Pius the fift that all the works of Catholicke writers and specially the ancient Fathers should bee purged and corrected In Cyprians works printed at Rome by Manutius the letter of Firmilianus B. of Caesaria is left out Why but because hee is in somewhat quicke against Steuen B. of Rome In regard whereof saith Pamelius it had beene more wisdome if it neuer had beene set out The works of Ambrose also set foorth by Frelonius at Lions were before the printing of them razed by two Friers This Fr. Iunius saw with his eyes and the Corrector of the presse complayned of it professing hee would buy any other print rather then that You must needs bee very deafe for all the world rings of it if you haue not heard of the late order taken amongst you for the purging of books at the next reprinting of them namely that whatsoeuer is to be found whether in the Epistle Dedicatory or Preface or Margent or Tables or Annotations or in the Text of the worke it selfe any way seeming to make either against them or for vs be wholy cut off and left our in the next edition Then which I thinke there was neuer a more base and beggerly shift vsed Neither doth it argue other then the badnesse of your cause and the distrust you haue of it for truth and a good cause would much disdaine to bee supported by so vniust and dishonest meanes Yet is this policy now a principall pillar of your Religion and hath of late yeeres beene carefully executed Witnesse those Expurgatorie Indices which giue direction to the Ouerseers of this businesse what is to bee altered which to be added and what to bee defalked and spunged out of which fiue are published to the world one printed in Flanders a second in Spayne a third in Portugal a fourth in Naples a fift in Rome What others there be lurking in secret and not yet come to light I know not Witnesse also the writings of Cardinall Cajetan Polydor Virgil Andreas Masius Feras Ludouicus Vines Erasmus Beatus Rhenanus and innumerable others which haue already passed this Purgatory and are not set forth pitifully mangled and dismembred But to leaue this suppose the Fathers haue not been so shamefully entreated as I haue shewed yet would I pray you to answer mee these two questions the first whether you bee assured of this consent by your own reading or else belieue it vpon the report of others the second if you haue read them all your owne selfe whether you haue read them in a translation or in their owne originall language To the first of these two questions I presume you neither can nor will answer that you haue read them all your selfe for I know you neither haue them all nor haue you had sufficient either time or strength to peruse them all vnlesse happily your body bee made of yron and you haue reached vnto the yeares of Methuselah What then will you trust the allegations of other men Take heed what you doe for so you may soone bee deceiued For example Doct. Princ. l. 6. c. 14. Stapleton to proue that Paul was the Apostle of the Gentiles but Peter both of Iewes and Gentiles In Gal. alledgeth these words of Ambrose Hee nameth Peter alone and compareth him to himselfe because hee had receiued the Primacy to build the Church that himselfe likewise is chosen to haue the Primacy of building the Churches of the Gentiles yet so that Peter preached vnto the Gentiles also Here your Doctor stops and Iohn Hart taking it vp vpon trust vrgeth it against Reynolds as a strong testimony whereas Ambrose if yee curtall not his words saith cleane otherwise thus yet so that Peter also preached to the Gentiles if it were needfull and Paul to the Iewes Many mo such falsifications might I easily produce out of your writers but let vs rather heare how themselues censure one another Antony Augustin Archbishop of Tarracon desiring in a booke written to that purpose that Gratian might bee purged De emend Grat. l. 1. dial 1. saith His faults are so many that they cannot bee reckoned in one day For hee alledgeth false Authors ascribing words to Gregory Ambrose Augustin no where to bee found in them and produceth true Authors but so as oft times he bringeth in contrary sentences Cumel saith that the testimony of Hierome is by Molina Disp Var. to 3. p. 126. Pag. 124. Suares and others fraudulently cited and that Suares alledging Chrysostome cuts off that which immediatly goes before and followes after Defens p. 324. because hee saw Chrysostome fauoured not his opinion at all It is no rare thing saith Iohannes Marsilius for his illustrious Lordship meaning Bellarmine to cite Authors for an opinion whereas they affirme the plaine contrary Pag. 289. And againe It grieueth mee to see things imputed vnto holy Fathers the contrary whereof they affirme Ib. p. 357. Finally saith the foresayd Marsilius touching Cardinall Baronius I haue heard that as hee hath taken a liberty to mend the Fathers Canons and Historians so he will correct the Councels after his manner and for 〈◊〉 â—â—ne purpose and to assume vnto himselfe a licence 〈◊〉 which God forbid And thus you see euen by your owne men how dangerous it is to trust them in their allegations As
Articles he meriteth by belieuing although it be an error because hee is bound to belieue vntill it manifestly appeare that it is against the Church O immortall God if this bee true how easy a thing is it for a Papist to bee saued Onely belieue what your Prelate or Curate telleth you and you shall not need to trouble your selfe further for whether it be true or false sound doctrine or heresy you are out of danger nay it is meritorious to belieue it Alas alas that poore simple people should bee so miserably cheated and seduced God I hope will ere long open their eyes to see these impostures and by the light of his word guide their feet in a surer way In the meane season giue me leaue to summe vp all what I haue hitherto sayd and thereupon to inferre the Conclusion first intended Seeing therefore as wee haue now fully demonstrated the Fathers were but men as wee are neither hauing the Promise nor assuming vnto themselues the Priuiledge of Infallibility aboue vs seeing secondly many Counterfaits are set forth vnder the names of the Fathers which the best of your side cannot so readily discerne and which they ordinarily alledge in euery controuersie betwixt vs for authenticall Fathers seeing thirdly the writings of the Fathers are pitifully corrupted and adulterated by Hereticks and others and that sundry wayes by Addition Substraction Alteration Misquotation and False translation seeing fourthly the sayings of the Fathers are so ambiguous and obscure that not onely we and you one against another but your owne side also among themselues are distracted and diuided touching the sence and meaning of them seeing fiftly the more part of the Fathers sometime consent in errour yea and such errors as the present Church of Rome condemneth with Anathema seeing sixtly the most learned of your side make no scruple to reiect the Fathers whensoeuer they consent against them and warrant their so doing with diuerse reasons seeing lastly they make not Consent of Fathers but the authority of the present Church that is to say the Pope for the time being to bee the onely Infallible iudge of Controuersies seeing I say all these things are vndoubtedly so I will not bee afraid to conclude that the pretended Consent of Fathers is too weake and deceitfull a ground for a man with security to build his Faith vpon For whereas you say that beleeuing as the Fathers did if they bee saued as doubtlesse they are you cannot miscary take heed lest this proue but a broken reed and deceiue you in the end For first if for the reasons aboue set down you cannot be infallibly certaine which are the true Fathers and what is their right meaning how can you bee infallibly certaine that you belieue as they did Againe doe you thinke it safe to hold all their errors also and because they are not condemned for them that you shall escape condemnation in like manner beleeuing them Cont. Haer. c. 10. Heare then what Vincentius Lirinensis saith O wonderfull change of things saith hee the Authors of the same opinion are iudged Catholicks and the followers Heretiks the Masters are absolued and the Schollers condemned the Writers of the books shall bee the Sonnes of the Kingdome and Hell shall keep those that maintaine them For who doubts but blessed Cyprian the light of Bishops and holy Martyrs together with the rest of his Collegues shall raigne for euer with Christ Contrarily who is so impious as to deny that the Donatists and the rest of that pestilent crew who vnder the authority of that Councell presume to rebaptize shall burne for euermore with the Diuell Thus hee whereby you see how dangerous it is to beleeue euen as the best haue done before vs vnlesse wee haue better warrant then so for our doing Lastly suppose the Fathers consenting erred not yet are you neuer the safer For the strength of Faith exceeds not the strength of the testimony nor the strength of the testimony the Veracity of the Witnesse Now the Veracity of the Fathers is but the Veracity of men and the Veracity of men is imperfect and inconstant euer leauing roome for that word of truth All men are lyers Whence it followeth that your Faith being grounded only on the Veracity of men is no better then an Acquisite and Humane Faith Whereby though you belieue all that the Fathers did yet not belieuing as they did they may bee saued and you perish For they building vpon diuine testimony belieued with a Diuine Faith and therefore Sauing but you relying on humane authority belieue onely with an Acquisite and Humane Faith which saueth not no not although the things you belieue thereby are true For an Acquisite Faith the diuels themselues may haue and yet are damned Wherefore it being as you see so dangerous and vnsafe to trust in man and as the Prophet speaketh to make flesh your arme let mee entreat you euen in the bowels of Iesus Christ to take vnto you Christian seuerity and with all speed to returne your Faith backe againe vpon the rocke from which so rashly and vnaduisedly you remoued it Remember I beseech you how S. Augustin in a controuersy betwixt him and Hierome touching S. Peters dissimulation hauing eleuated the authority of foure of those seuen Fathers which were vrged against him and not being able to oppose three to the other three remaining Epist 19. quitteth himselfe thus When saith he I seeke a third that I also may oppose three to three verily I suppose I might easily find him if I had read much howbeit to mee the Apostle Paul shall bee insteed of all yea and aboue them all To him I flie to him I appeale of him I aske and demand c. In like manner doe you also and in Gods name let your finall appeale bee made vnto the holy Scriptures as vnto the supreme iudge in all questions of Faith Catech. 4. Theod. l. 1. c. 7. For as Cyril B. of Ierusalem saith The security of our Faith ariseth from the demonstration of the holy Scripture and the resolution of those things we seeke for must bee taken out of the diuine inspired Scripture saith Constantin in his oration to the Bishops of the Nicen Councell Con. Herm. De bon vid. c. 1. Orat. de ijs q. adeunt Hierosol Hom. 13. in 2. Cor. Epist 112. ad Paulin. And reason for the Scriptures are the rule of Faith as Tertullian and Augustin say A straight and inflexible rule as Gregory Nyssen saith A most exquisite rule and exact square and ballance to trie all things by saith Chrysostome In regard whereof saith Saint Augustin If a matter bee grounded on the euident authority of holy Scripture such I say as the Church calleth Canonicall it is without all doubt to bee belieued but as touching other witnesses and testimonies vpon whose credit a thing is vrged vpon vs to bee belieued thou majest lawfully either credit or not credit them as thou perceiuest them
haue better exprest it For my part I cannot guesse what it should bee nor will I trouble my braine in seeking it Happily your selfe know not what you would And thus haue I though breefly yet fully answered all your reasons It now remaineth that either you produce sounder arguments then yet you haue giuen vs or adde more vigor and strength vnto these or because I feare you can do neither that considering the weaknes of those reeds whereon you haue hitherto leaned hence forward you trust them no more It can bee no disgrace vnto you to bee ouercome of Truth neither is it leuity or inconstancy vpon sight of your errour to change both your opinion and practice Take therefore vnto you Christian seuerity and ingenuously reuoke what you haue held or done amisse so shall you giue glorie vnto God and God shall honour you in the sight of all his Saints But if notwithstanding all that hath beene said you meane still to persist in your error and will not bee persuaded although you be perswaded I feare lest after straining at these gnats you fall to swallowing downe of Camels and proceed from dislike of a few indifferent ceremonies vnto flat schisme and separation which God forbid for his mercies sake Amen See T de ora HOW S. PAVL AND S. IAMES ARE TO BEE reconciled in the matter of IVSTIFICATION YOV demand how Saint Paul teaching Iustification by Faith onely without the Works of the Law Ro. 5.20.28 Gal. 2.16 Iam. 2.24 and Saint Iames affirming that of Works a man is iustified and not of Faith only may bee reconciled I will endeuour to giue you the best satisfaction I can in a few Propositions 1 Scripture being the Word of God who is truth and whose promises are not yea and nay 2. Cor. 1.17.18.19.20 but yea and Amen although sometime there may seeme contrariety in it yet reall difference and repugnancy there can bee none truth euer agreeing and neuer contradicting it selfe 2 Paul therefore and Iames being inspired by the same spirit must needs conspire in the same truth although the one exclude Works from Faith in the matter of Iustification the other include Works together with Faith 3 The readiest way to reconcile this seeming contradiction is to obserue carefully the Occasions whereupon they were moued to deliuer these doctrines and to distinguish the Equiuocation and diuers vse of these two words Iustification and Faith For if there bee the same meaning in both and no ambiguity in either of these tearmes it cannot bee auoided but they must of necessity crosse one the other 4 Saint Pauls occasion was this Hee saw with what eagernesse contention certaine Iewes maintained Act. 15.1 that vnlesse the law of Moses were kept and obserued together with the Gospell there could bee no Iustification and that thereby mans Works were either substituted in the roome of or yoked together with Faith to the great preiudice of Gods free Grace Ro. 2.24 And therefore against these he proues by the testimony of the Law the Prophets that we are Iustified by Faith in Christ freely without the works of the Law 5 Hereupon some there were who like spiders sucking venome out of the wholsomest flowers so interpreted this comfortable doctrine as if it skilled not whether they practized good works and led a godly vertuous life so as they did belieue And against this sort of men the Apostle Saint Iames thought it necessary to oppose himselfe 6 So that Saint Iames doth not dispute against Saint Paul but for the right meaning of S. Paul against those that depraued and wrested his doctrine to a wrong sence Paul so defending Iustification by Faith without Works as hee denies not the necessary practice of them but only denies the power of Iustification vnto them Iames so establishing good Works not as giuing them force to make a man acceptable and iust in the sight of Gods iustice but onely disabling that Faith from hauing any power to Iustify vs which is not accompanied with them 7 And thus Saint Augustin vnderstandeth it When De fide oper l. 1. c. 14. saith he the Apostle saith that a man is iustified by Faith without the Works of the Law hee meaneth not that Faith being receiued and professed the works of Iustice should bee contemned but that euery one should know that he may be iustified by Faith although the works of the law goe not before For they follow him that is iustified but goe not before him that is to bee iustified And againe 83. quaest q. 16. When as Paul speakes of the good works of Abraham which accompanied his Faith it is manifest that by the example of Abraham he doth not so teach that a man is iustified by Faith without works that if hee doe belieue it concernes him not to worke well but to to this end rather that no man should thinke that by the merit of his former good Works he hath attained the gift of iustification which is by Faith 8 As the consideration of the different occasions which moued these two Apostles to speake so differently doth in part cleere this question so will it yet bee more euident if wee know the seuerall acceptions and vses of these words Iustification and Faith and in what sence either Apostle vnderstands them 9 Iustification vsually in the Scripture phrase signifieth not to make iust by infusing the quality of Iustice into the soule 2. King 15.4 Deut. 25.1 Psal 81.3 Prov. 17.15 Mat. 12.37 Ro. 8.33.34 but to pronounce and declare to be iust being indeed a Law-terme and drawne from ciuill Courts of iudicature and is opposed to Condemnation And this is so cleere that Tolet a Iesuite confesseth it most frequently so to signify in Scripture Pineda Vega and Salmeron three great Papists acknowledge it in this sence to be vsed by S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans where hee disputeth purposely of Iustification 10 Now there is a double tribunall where wee are to bee iudged one is Gods the other Mans and therefore God is sayd to Iustify and Man also God when he acquits a sinner from his sinnes for the merit of his Son Christ Man when seeing our good works which are the fruites and testimonies of our grace with God out of the iudgement of Charity hee accounts vs the Sonnes of God Of the former Saint Paul speakes of the latter S. Iames. S. Paul enquireth how wee are made lust before God namely by Faith S. James how it may appeare vnto men that wee are Iust namely by Works Faith is the principle of Existence by which we are Iust Works of Knowledge by which we are knowne to be Iust Iac. 2.10 In id cap. 11 That Saint Iames vnderstandeth such a Declaratiue Iustification is plaine by that he saith Shew mee thy Faith by thy Works And Thomas of Aquin affirmeth that Workes following Faith are not said to Iustify as Iustification is an infusion of
iustice but as it is an exercise or declaration or perfection of Faith 12 Concerning the word Faith sometimes it signifieth that sanctifying grace of Gods spirit whereby wee beleeue in or on God that is put all our affiance vpon God in Christ for Iustification and Saluation sometimes a naked assent or agreeing to all the truths contained in the Scripture specially such as are Euangelicall That is only of the Elect this the Diuels haue That either hath works following it as in Abraham or is great in child of works ready to trauell and bring forth if God giue time as in the theefe on the crosse This many times is without works and therefore dead and spiritles Of that S. Paul speaketh of this S. Iames. That sole but not solitary iustifies this being solitary iustifies not 13 In a word S. Paul speaks of the cause of Iustification S. Iames of the Effect S. Paul descends from the Cause to the Effect S. Iames ascends from the Effects to the Cause S. Paul resolues how wee may bee iustified S. Iames how wee may bee knowne to bee iustified S. Paul excludes works as being no Cause of Iustification S. Iames requires works as fruites of Iustification S. Paul denies works to go before them that are to bee iustified S. Iames affirmeth that they follow him that is iustified 14 Others distinguish and reconcile them thus Iustification is sometime vnderstood without implying Sanctification sometime as it implyeth also Sanctification with it In the former sence S. Paul taketh it when hee proueth that a man is iustified by Faith without works S. Iames in the latter when he concludeth that a man is iustified by works and not by Faith only And this I suppose to be a very sound interpretation 15 Howsoeuer that Faith alone without the works of the Law in the sence aboue deliuered doth iustifie these ancient Fathers auouch together with us Origen Cyprian Eusebius Caesariensis Hilarie Basil Chrysostome Ambrose Augustin Cyril Primasius Hesychius Gennadius Oecumenius whose direct and expresse words I can at any time produce Nay these late Papists also least it should be thought that none but Protestants hold it the Canons of Collein the authors of the booke offered by Caesar vnto the Protestant Collocutors in the assemblie of Ratisbon Pighius Cassander Stapulensis Peraldus Ferus and others who count themselues as good Catholiks as they that hold otherwise 16 And this only Faith is so sure an anchor of our soules and suchâ— fountaine of true comfort both in life and death that Charles the fift Steuen Gardiner Sir Christopher Blunt and sundrie others durst not at their death trust vnto their works but vnto Faith in Christ only And Cardinal Bellarmin after a long disputation touching the merit of works is faine to conclude that because of the vncertenty of our owne iustice and the danger of vaineglory the Safest course is to repose all our affiance in the only mercy and goodnes of God So that in his iudgement wee Protestants haue chosen the Safest course I for my part will neuer trust my soule vnto them who leauing so safe a course meane to hazard it through a more dangerous way OF THE AVTHORS AND AVTHORITY OF THE CREED AND WHY IT IS CALLED a Symbole THE inscription of the Creed seemes to father it on the holy Apostles calling it the Symbole of the Apostles So doe almost all the Fathers of the fourth age after Christ and downeward affirming that the Apostles hauing receiued the Holy Ghost at Ierusalem and being now ready to disperse themselues into all parts of the world to preach the Gospell thought it good before their parting to compile this Symbole that it might serue as a pledge of their vnity in the Faith and a canon for their doctrine and teaching Yea some of them proceed so farre as particularly to set downe what article was made by what Apostle whereof see Augustin in his hundred and fifteenth Sermon de tempore Now although it bee very hard for mee to sway against the streame of so maine authority yet can I not but doubt thereof Paraphr in Mat. Praef. and confesse with Erasmus I know not who made the Creed especially hauing so great probabilities for demonstrations I dare not call them that it should not bee done by the twelue Apostles For first were it compiled by them is it likely that Saint Luke writing the history of their Acts would haue omitted so principall a matter Sundry other things of farre lesse consequence hee hath carefully recorded but of this so important and weighty a businesse hee makes not so much as one word mention which certainly hee would neuer haue failed to doe had they done so Adde hereunto that not one of the ancient Fathers who liued within the three first Centuries of Christ speake of any such thing in any of their writings and yet they should best know it whose times were neerest vnto the Apostles This deep silence both of Saint Luke and all those ancient Doctors make it vnto mee more then probable that the Apostles neuer composed it Secondly as the silence of these worthies so the very language of the Creed conuinceth it to bee yonger then the Apostles For the word Catholike vsed in the Creed was not knowne in their time Can any man thinke that the Church should then bee called Catholike when it was not Catholike For when they say this Creed was compiled the Church was scarce begunne among the Iewes and the Apostles had no where as yet preached the Gospell among the Gentils But heare the expresse words of Pacianus Bishop of Barcilona Sed sub Apostolis Ad Sympronian Epist 1. inquies nemo Catholicus vocabatur Esto sic fuerit Vel illud indulge cum post Apostolos haereses extitissent diuersisque nominibus columbam Dei atque Reginam lacerare per partes scindere niterentur nonne cognomen suum plebs Apostolica postulabat quo incorrupti populi distingueret vnitatem neintemeratam Dei virginem error aliquorum per membra laceraret In the Apostles times you will say no man was called Catholicke Bee it so Yet by your leaue when after the Apostles heresies were risen vp and by diuersity of names they laboured to rent and teare in peeces the done and queene of God was it not requisite that those which were Apostolike should haue a sirname of their owne whereby the vnity of those that are vncorrupt might bee distinguished and the error of none might rent in peeces the immaculate virgin of God Thus hee Against which if it bee obiected that the Epistles of Iames Peter Iohn and Iude are called Catholicke I answer the Inscriptions and Subscriptions of the Epistles are not Apostolicall but added to them by some other and sometime vntruly Neither is there any reason they should bee so stiled aboue the rest For neither is the doctrine contained in them more Catholicke then of all the other Epistles neither were they written to all the