the walls of the Church because they thought not the walls a place convenient lest the plaister breaking off in some places they might become deformed and so contemptible Where unto I rejoyne first that if the Councell did this out of honour to images Canus loc theol non modò imprudenter sed impiè decretum why doth their learned Bishop Canus so severely tax this Decree tearming it not only a foolish but an impious Canon Secondly if the Councell made this Deeree out of honour to images Why doe not all Papists who stand so much for the honour and worship of images obey this Decree and deface all images that are painted on Church-walls Thirdly if it bee an honour to images to be removed out of all Churches according to the purport of this Decree in the Iesuits understanding then the reformed Churches may justly be thought to have shewed the most respect and done the greatest honour to images of all other by casheering them out of their Churches prae amore excluserunt foras no doubt out of love they shut them out of doores Fourthly this reason taken from plaister breaking needeth a plaister to make it whole for if for this reason images may not bee painted on walls for feare of being defaced by weather or the plaister breaking by the like reason they should not bee painted in cloth or upon board because they are in like manner subject there to be soyled razed stolne away or many other wayes to be injured To the thirteenth The Iesuit sueth a Duplex querela against the Knight concerning Valence the Emperour first because hee stileth him a good Emperour next because hee ranketh him with Theodosius as Copartner with him in the Empire whereas Valence was killed twentie three yeares before Theodosius was borne Against his first quarrell I need plead nothing because Valence is not so styled by the Knight in the last corrected edition of Via tuta If the Knight had so styled him in any former edition Bapt. in Chrō he might have vouched a good authour for it namely Baptista Egnatius who speaking of Valence and his brother Valentinian saith Digni imperia fratres inter bonos referendi they were worthy the Empire and to bee ranked among good Princes saving that Valence was somewhat blemished by being seduced in judgement by the Arrians Invect in Iulian as also was Constantius the Emperour and yet Gregorie Nazianzen commendeth him for a religious Prince that much promoted the affaires of the Christians against the heathen and for the blotte of errour in his judgement hee layes the blame of it upon the subtile wits of the Arrian heretiques who put tricks upon that other-wayes good Emperour For the second quarrell hee pickes it is not worth a straw For though Valence and Theodosius lived not together yet they might both enact the same law Valence might first make it and after Theodosius confirme and revive it as King Iames hath revived many lawes made by Queene Elizabeth and other her predecessours though they never reigned together in this Kingdome howsoever if there were any error in relating this law out of the Coad as the Iesuit pretendeth Zanch in praec 2. Sed Petrus Crinitus scribit apertè se vidisse legem ipsam in antiquissimis codicib qaae simpliciter habebat ne pingeretur nulla mentione soli out marmorum humi positorum facta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he ought to plucke Petrus Crinitus by the beard for it for the Knight quoteth not the Coad or Digests for this law but Petrus Crinitus De honestâ disciplinâ l. 9. c. 9. where hee may find the precise words alledged by the Knight unlesse peradventure his Petrus Crinitus hath felt the razor of the Popish Inquisition and if so let him looke to more ancient editions of Crinitus quoted by the Authour of the English Homilies and Zanchius in his Comment upon the second Commandement where this golden locke of Petrus Crinitus is not cut off For what Timon spake concerning the Editions of Homer may bee said of Crinitus and other Romish Authours the most correct copyes are those that were never corrected To the foureteenth The Iesuit should have said a Paulian heretique for Clemanges and Wickliffe professe with Paul Acts 24.14 That after the way which they the Papists call heresie they so worship the God of their fathers in spirit and truth that they beleeve all things written in the Law and the Prophets and nothing as necessarie to salvation which is not written in them It is true Wickliffe was condemned for an heretique but it was many yeares after his death when hee could not plead for himselfe and the Councell which condemned him was a perjured and a condemned Councell not only in the judgements of Protestants but also ingenuous Papists for in that Councell three Popes were deposed and a fourth chosen Martin the fift Huz and Ierome of Prage contrary to the safe conduct sent them under the Seale of the Emperour Sigismund were burnt to death and their ashes throwne in the River Now as it is an honour laudari à laudato to bee commended by men that themselves deserve commendation so it is no disgrace or disparagement at all damnari à damnato to bee condemned by a Councell which is condemned and reproved it selfe even by the Roman Church at least in the first Sessions of it Bellar. de Concil c. 7. Concilium Constantiense quantum ad primas Sessiones ubi definit concilium esse supra Papam reprobatum est in concilio Florentino Laterananensi ultimo And such as are the first fruits such is the whole lumpe To the fifteenth All the Iesuits Geese are Swannes Multa Dircoeum levat aura Cygnum c. but our Dircaean Swannes with him are no better then geese antiquum obtinet this was just the fashion of the ancient hereretiques the Gnosticks and the Donatists if any came over to their side hee was presently cryed up for a man of singular parts and vertues but if hee returned to the bosome of the Church hee was cryed downe for a Weather-cocke or a tressis agaso It was well saith Saint Austine for Maximianus and Primianus that they fell to the Donatists sect whereby presently they gained the reputation of great Clarkes and prime men wher as other wayes if they had kept their old station Maximianus would have beene held Minimianus and Primianus Postremianus but let me tell the Iesuit that how much soever he sleighteth Cassander Erasmus and Wicelius that the worst of them in the time when he lived was of better account then I. R. or Leomelius or Daniel a Iesu As for gravitie and wisedome hee commeth farre short of Cassander for zeale and integritie of Wicelius so if wee speake of all kind of learning hee is not worthy to carry Erasmus bookes after him Dispeream si tu matulam praebere Mamurrae dignus es But I spare him in this kind because
because the Author of it hath borrowed both the matter and manner of writing from St. Peter and therfore he was thought some scholar of theirs but no Apostle Others said he brought in a profane Author concerning the strife of the Arch-angell and the Devill about the body of Moses which cannot be found in Canonicall Scripture Lastly the Revelation of St. John was likewise doubted of first because of the noveltie of the title of John the Divine secondly because of the difficultie and obscuritie of his Prophecies These and the like reasons were motives to some in the Church to question the Authors of those Books but it was never generally impeached For further proofe of this Assertion let antiquitie be heard and it will appeare that all those Bookes were cited for doctrine of faith by the writers of the first ages and consequently were approved from and after the dayes of the Apostles Hieronym ad Dardan◠de terra repromissionis Ep. 129. p. 1105. Looke upon St. Hierome he proclaimes it to the Church Illud nostris dicendum est Be it known to our men that the Epistle to the Hebrewes is not only received by all the Churches of the East that now presently are but by all Ecclesiasticall writers of the Greek Churches that have beene heretofore as the Epistle of Paul though many thinke it rather to be written by Barnabas or Clemens and that it skilleth not who wrote it seeing it was writby an Author approved in the Church of God and is daily read in the same This ancient Father shewes plainly that howsoever some doubt was made of the Author of that Epistle yet it was received both by the Easterne Westerne Churches And howsoever some of the Ancients did attribute it to St. Luke others as namely Tertullian did attribute it to Barnabas yet all agreed in this that it had an Apostolike spirit and accordingly Cardinall Bellarmine tels you in your eare Ineptè dici vetustatem de hac Epistola dubitâsse Bell. de verbo Dei lib. 1. cap. 17. It is foolishly spoken in saying Antiquitie did doubt of this Epistle when there is but one Caius a Grecian and two or three Romanists in respect of all the rest that speake against it and if we respect not the multitude but the antiquitie of the cause the Roman Clemens is more ancient than Caius and Clemens Alexandrinus than Tertullian and Dionysius Areopagita than both who cites this Epistle of Paul by name Touching the second Epistle of St. Peter it was cited by Higinus Bishop of Rome within an hundred and fiftie yeares after Christ and that by the name of Peter The Epistle of St. Jude was cited by Dionysius Areopagita by the name of Jude the Apostle within seventie yeares after Christ Dionys de divinis nominibus cap. 4. Tertuil de habitu muliebri Orig. l. 5. in c. 5. ad Romanos Cypr. in lib. ad Novatianum by Tertullian within two hundred yeares after Christ by Origen and Cyprian within two hundred and fiftie yeares after Christ Lastly touching the Revelation of St. John it was received for Canonicall in the first and best ages Dionysius Areopagita cals the Revelation The secret and mysticall vision of Christs beloved Disciple Arcanam mysticam visionem dile cti discipuli Dionys Eccles Hier. cap. 3. In Dial. cum Tryphone Iren. lib. 1. cap. ult and this was seventie yeares after Christ Justin Martyr doth attribute this Booke to St. John and doth account it for a divine Revelation and this was an hundred and sixtie yeares after Christ Irenaeus saith this Revelation was manifested unto St. John and seene of him but a little before his time and this was an hundred and eightie yeares after Christ Tertull. de praescript l. 4. Tertullian amongst other things accuseth Cerdon and Marcion of heresies for rejecting the Revelation and this was two hundred yeares after Christ Origen in his Preface before the Gospel of St. John sayth that John the sonne of Zebedee saw in the Revelation an Angel flying thorow the middest of Heaven having the eternall Gospel and hee flourished two hundred and thirtie yeares after Christ Thus you see the Catholique Christians and most ancient Fathers in the first ages received both the Epistle to the Hebrewes the second Epistle of St. Peter the Epistle of St. Jude and the Revelation of St. John with one consent accounting them no better than Hereticks which either doubted of them or denyed them and yet you to outface the truth would make the world beleeve that it was three or foure hundred yeares before they were received into the Church and made canonicall and upon this vaine supposall you would know of me Whether there were any change of faith in the Church when they were admitted or whether those Books received any change in themselves To answer you in a word your proposition is foolish and your question is frivolous for those Books were alwayes received even from the first times and no more could that word of God bee changed than God himselfe who is immutable and yet we see your faith is daily altered for want of that foundation and thereupon it behoves you to get more and better proofes for the confirmation of your new Creed From your justification of your Trent faith you begin to looke asquint thorow your Spectacles at the reformed Churches and after your wonted manner you crie out They have no certaine rule of faith wherewith wee may urge them authoritie of Church they have none Scripture they have indeed but so mangled corrupted perverted by translation and mis-interpreted according to their owne fancies that as they have it it is as good as nothing Thus you Have we no certaine rule of faith What thinke you of the Scriptures Doe not we make them the sole rule of our faith and is not that rule by your own Cardinals confession Bell. de verbo Deo l. 1. c. 2. Regula credendi certissima tutissimaque the most certaine and safest rule of faith And as touching the authority of the Church it is an Article of our Religion Art 20. That the Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies authoritie in controversies of faith and yet it is not lawfull for the Church to ordaine any thing that is contrarie to Gods word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another This Article shewes our obedience to the Scriptures it declares the authoritie of our Church and it vindicates our Ministers from perverting and misinterpreting of the Scriptures wherewith you charge us in the next place It is true say you Scripture you have indeed but mangled corrupted perverted by translation Here your charge is generall and your accusation capitall therefore you must give me leave for the better discoverie of the truth to send out a Melius inquirendum that your Translation and ours being compared in particulars the truth may better appeare First then
this is inviolably to be observed You see then that howsoever your Pius Pope gave a dispensation for the reading of the Scriptures yet Pope Clement his Successor declared that license to be void and of none effect and that which concludes your Assertion for an untruth it was by him decreed to bee kept without any dispensation or violation Inviolatè servandum Thus touching the sacred Bible you have severall Translations upon severall paines to be received and both different each from other in many hundred places you have ranked the sacred Bible amongst the Bookes prohibited and lastly you seemingly grant a license for the Ignorant to reade the Scripture and by another decree you abridge that license so granted I proceed from the forbidding of Scriptures to your purging and falsifying of the ancient Fathers As for Fathers say you it is most grossely false which the Knight after the ordinary Ministeriall tune stands canting that we blot out and raze them at our pleasures What is it then that these men would have What is it they can carpe at Nothing but that they themselves are stung in that hereby they are kept either from publishing their owne wicked workes or corrupting the Fathers at their pleasure and to wipe away this blemish from themselves would lay it upon us Thus you It seemes you have beene well acquainted with Rogues and sturdy Beggers who have taught you the Terme of Canting a word proper for such kinde of people but whereas you say it is grossely false that you blot and raze the Fathers and that therein we seeke to wipe away the blemish from our selves and lay it upon you for the better manifestation of the truth first looke I pray upon the place where the corrupted Fathers were printed see by whom they were licensed then heare your owne men witnessing their owne confession of purging them and lastly peruse the places which I shall produce razed and corrupted and then tell me if the Mysterie of Iniquity doth not closely worke in your Roman Church and that the ancient Fathers are grossely falsified and notoriously corrupted by your owne men even in the principall points of Doctrine controverted betwixt us First then wee must observe that corruptions and abuse of ancient Fathers may be of three sorts either by foisting into the Editions bastard Treatises and intitling them to the Fathers or by falsifying their undoubted Treatises by additions detractions or mutations or lastly by alledging passages and places out of them which are not extant in their workes and of all these three kindes your men are guilty Expurgari emaculari curâsti omnium CatholicoruÌ„ scriptoruÌ„ praecipuè veterum Patrum scripta Sixt. Senens in Ep. Pio 5. as it shall appeare by instances in their severall Ages for the first 800. yeares First concerning the purging of Fathers your Sixtus Senensis in his Epistle dedicated to Pope Pius the fifth amongst his many and famous deeds recounts this for one of the greatest That he caused the writings of all Catholike Authours but especially those of the ancient Fathers to bee purged And Greâ—zerus your Jesuit proclaimes it by way of justification Gretz l. 2. c. 10 If it be lawfull to suppresse or inhibite whole Bookes as namely Tertullian and Origen then it is lawfull likewise to suppresse a greater or lesser part of one by cutting out razing blotting out or by omitting the same simply for the benefit of the Reader And Possevine your Jesuit tells us Adistos enim quoque purgatio pertinet Possev l. 1. Bib. lioth select c. 12. that Manuscript Books are also to be purged as well as printed which shewes your good intention to the ancient Writers I may adde to these that you doe not onely purge and corrupt the Fathers as shall appeare in matter of fact in severall Ages but you forge Bastard Epistles in the names of ancient Bishops and you thrust counterfeits into the Chayre of the true and Catholike Doctors Peter Warbeck is taken for Richard Duke of Yorke and obscure Authors as namely Dorotheus Hormisda Hermes Hypolitus Martialis and other counterfeits for famous Writers and all to supply your defects of doctrine in the Orthodox Fathers Severinus Binius hath published certaine decretall Epistles in the names of Clemens Anacletus Evaristus Sixtus and many others to the number of thirty one all Bishops of Rome Insomuch as their Epistles are cited by Bellarmine by Peresius by Coccius by Baronius by your Rhemists for severall proofes of your Trent Doctrine Gratian saith Grat. Dist 20. Decretales they are of equall Authority with Councels nay more he labours to prove out of St. Austin Distinct 19. in Canonicis that those decretall Epistles were reckoned by him amongst the Canonicall Scriptures and yet by the severall Confessions of your learned Writers are adjudged to be all counterfeit and without doubt their leaden-stile their deepe silence of Antiquity concerning them the Scriptures alledged by them after St. Hieroms Translation being long before his time doe easily convince them of falshood Antoninus Contius the Kings Professor of Law in the Universitie of Bruges tells us that he brought many reasons in his Preface An. 1570. and notes upon your Canon Law which was printed at Antwerp by which hee proved and shewed manifestly that the Epistles of the Popes Silvester An. 314. who were before Silvester were all false and counterfeit The Preface with the reasons alledged against it is now razed and purged and Plantin the Printer gives this answer for it Raynold Hart. Cap. 8. Divis 3. p. 451. The Censor who was to oversee the printed Bookes would not suffer it to passe and what became of it he remembred not nor knew how to procure it Thus your men are not onely ashamed to publish their Bastard Epistles and equall them to the Word of God in behalfe of your new doctrine but you censure also and purge your owne men for condemning such lying inventions Whether to forge a false deed or to raze a true one be the greater fault it is not greatly materiall for your owne men are guilty of both And lastly when neither purging nor falsifying will serve the turne which you have practised in Bookes set out the first 800. yeares you bring a Prohibition against all Authors Priests and Professors in the bosome of your owne Church which testifie the truth of our doctrine and injoyne them silence by your Index Expurgatorius by cutting out their tongues and refining them with a new impression and this hath beene your ordinarie practice for the last 800. yeares I will give you instances in both and so I come to the second Age. In the second Age Ignatius Bishop of Antioch witnesseth the antiquity of our Doctrine he shews that our Communion in both kindes was practised in his dayes There is one Bread saith he broken for all and one Cup distributed to all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat Ep.
honour of your Images for whereas Regino faith Concil Franck-ford An. 794. Bin. p. mihi 141. Bin. Not. in Concil Frā c. p. mihi 164. b. The false Synode of the Grecians which they made for the defence of their worshipping of Images was erected by the Bishops assembled at Frankford under Charles the Great Binius the publisher of the Councels declareth that the Acts of the second Councell of Nice in the cause of Images was confirmed by it which is so farre from truth that he is inforced to confesse that therein he doth dissent though unwillingly from Baronius and Bellarmine Quam sententiam optarem esse veram sed suspicor esse falsam Bel. de Imag. l. 2. c. 14. §. Multi and indeed Bellarmine professeth I could wish this opinion were true but I suspect it to be false Againe to make the world beleeve that the Synod of Franckford condemned not the second Councell of Nice the chiefe upholder of Images your men have razed out Nice and thrust in Constantinople which altogether condemned Images Now therefore take a short view of all these your forgeries and corruptions In the first Age you have depraved the Scriptures by your false translations and corruptions and when all could not save your turne you place the Bible amongst the Bookes prohibited In the second Age you have forged Epistles in the names of 31. Bishops of Rome which were none of theirs and to suppresse our Doctrine touching the Communion in both kinds and to uphold your invocation of Saints and Angels you have corrupted Ignatius by a false Translation and you would have the Record razed touching the marriage of Priests In the third age you corrupt Tertullian for your Transubstantiation you falsifie Saint Cyprian for your circumgestation of the Sacrament and your Popes supremacie In the fourth Age you corrupt Eusebius Caesariensis for the Popes supremacie you forge Eusebius Emissenus for your corporall presence you falsifie the Councell of Laodicea for your invocation of Saints and Angels you forge Saint Hierome and Saint Basill the Great for your worship of Images you falsifie Saint Ambrose for the Popes succession in the Roman See and most corruptly for the Doctrine of the Sacrament In the fift Age you have razed two evidences in Saint Chrysostome both which confirme our Doctrine the one concerning the Lords Supper the other concerning our tryall by the Scriptures you have falsified the Councell of Carthage for the baptizing of women and for the shaving of Priests you have falsified Saint Austin for your Purgatory and for your Doctrine of Transubstantiation and your Popes decretall Epistles you have forged the Councell of Africa for the honour of your Apostolicke See you have forged Saint Cyrill for your Transubstantiation and your Popes Supremacie In the sixt Age you have corrupted the Councell of Orange for your Doctrine of merits and for the honour of your Priesthood over secular powers In the seventh Age you have razed Gregory the Great touching the comming of Antichrist you have purged him in an Epistle which maketh against the Popes Supremacie you have falsified the Councell of Constantinople in your Popes behalfe Lastly in the eighth Age you have forged venerable Bede in behalfe of your Transubstantiation and you have falsified the Councel of Franckford in behalfe of your Image-worship and yet for all this you are not ashamed to professe that for ancient Authors you note onely what is amisse but you neither raze nor blot out any thing that corner-correcting say you wee leave for such corner-companions as shunne the light p. 144. What credit can be given to you or your Church let the Reader judge when as by your owne confession the Trent Councell hath decreed it as a thing unlawfull to change any thing in the Bookes of ancient Catholikes Concil Trid. in Ind. lib. prohib de correct 4. p. mihi 32. except a manifest error appeare to have crept in by the fraud of Hereticks or negligence of the Printer Sure I am you will confesse that all these mentioned corruptions are not Errata slips of the Printer And as touching the fraud of Heretickes which did corrupt them your Trent Councell which made the Decree could not meane the Protestants for in those dayes they had printed no Fathers neither had they any Manuscripts but such as were kept prisoners in your Church The name of Heretickes therefore doth properly reflect upon your Pope Adrian upon Gratian upon Stapleton upon Thomas Aquinas upon Cardinall Bellarmine who appeare to be Authors of your falsifications and in generall upon your Roman inquisitors who are the knowne Authors of your corrupting and altering the true Fathers And this must needes seeme very probable to all because they are corrupted chiefely in those main Articles of Faith which make against your Church The ancient Records and Evidences which you have had many hundred yeeres in your possession doe all witnesse these forgeries and corruptions in the printed Fathers and will you claime the Fathers for your Rule of Faith when you make them speake more like children than fathers Shall a Guardian to an infant having possession of his Lands and keeping his Deeds and Evidences during his minoritie raze and falsifie them and thereby intitle himselfe to the Wards Lands because hee was some time possessed of them and can produce forged Evidences for them This is our very case The Church of Rome in her infancie was a faithfull Guardian of her childrens right shee kept the Manuscripts and the ancient Records of the Fathers in that puritie as she first received thē after the Pope had made an universall Title and claime to all Catholike Churches hee intruded into other mens Rights by forgerie and corruptions he made the Fathers speake according to the Trent decrees in an unknowne tongue and now by forged cavillation detaines the possession against the right owners But let me tell you as the Kings Subject you are lyable to punishment in such cases in temporall affaires See the title of Forger of false deeds fol. mihi 180. b. For if any person shall by false conspiracie subtilty and falsity forge any Deed Charter or Writing or shall pronounce publish and shew forth in Evidence any such false or forged Deed or Writing as true knowing the same to bee false and forged and shall be thereof convicted he shall be set upon the Pillory in some open Market Towne and there to have both his Eares cut off and also his Nosthrils to bee slit and cut and seared with an hot iron so as they may remaine for a perpetuall note or marke of his falshood Compare now this humane law with those forgeries of divine Evidences and tell me what you and your fellowes can say for your selves why the same judgment should not be pronounced against you For if the lawes of Kings are so strict in behalfe of temporall records and assurances betwixt men what may wee thinke the Law-giver himselfe will require at their
hands who doe not onely raze and falsifie Evidences touching the greatest mysteries of Salvation who I say not onely doe the same but have pleasure in them that doe them Thus much touching the razing and corrupting of the Fathers for the first 800. yeares Now I proceed to your Index Expurgatorius your purging and blotting out the moderne Authours for the last 800. yeares Forasmuch say you as concerneth the late Catholike Authors of this last age for this our Index of which is al the difficultie beginneth but from the yeere 1515. whatsoever needeth correction is to bee amended or blotted out yet for others going before that time it is expresly said that nothing may be changed unlesse some manifest errors through the fraud of Heretikes or carelesnesse of the Printer bee crept in Thus you From your corrupting the ancient Councels and Fathers which I have showne wee are at last come to the correcting of moderne Authors and as I have led you through an Hospitall of maimed Souldiers so now I will send you to the house of correction where I will leave you without Baile or Maine-prize till you have cleared your selfe and your associates for wounding and cutting out the tongues of your owne Authors in speaking truth against the corruptions of the Church But your correcting Index say you began but from the yeare 1515. P. 24. 144. and nothing is changed of Catholike Authors before that time I assure you I have not heard as yet one sentence nay scarce one word of truth fall from your pen wherein you dissent from us and this your assertion will prove as true as the rest Yea but fay you it is expresly declared by the Church that nothing may be changed and if this be true as true it is indeed the lesse credit is to be given you or your Church-men who make decrees and breake them at their pleasure for it shall appeare that your Index doth extend it selfe to the time of the Apostles and howsoever you pretend to purge the Fathers onely in the Index and Table of their Bookes yet I say some you have purged in the Text it selfe others you have corrected in the Index in the expresse words delivered in the bodie of those Bookes And as touching your Assertion that you purge the latter writers onely from the yeare 1515. and not beyond that time this is most false and you had said more truly if you had confessed that for 1515. yeares together your Church spared no Authours ancient or moderne if they speake not Placentia agreeable to your Popes faith and doctrine For the better manifestation of this truth looke first upon your Correctorium for so Lucas Brugensis termes it your worke of correction upon the Bible and tell me if you have not altered by your Popes command above three thousand severall places in the Scripture even in your vulgar Translation which you call St. Hieromes and although you dare not lay a Deleatur upon the sacred word of God yet upon the Commandements upon the Lords Prayer upon severall places of Scripture as I have shewed there is a Deletur a leaving out and a detracting from it Looke upon your Index Expurgatorius printed at Madrid by Cardinall Quiroga and tell me if you have not purged certain places in the Index of the Bible which are ipsissima verba the very words to a letter in the Textit selfe as for instance a Justificamur fide in Christum Galat. 2.16 We are justified by faith in Christ b Justitia nostra Christus 1. Cor. 1.30 Christ is our Righteousnesse c Fide purificantur corda Act. 15.9 By faith our hearts are purified d Justus coram Deo nemo Psal 143.2 No man is righteous before God e Uxorē habeat unusquisque 1 Cor. 7.2 Let every man have his wife c. All these passages I say are the very word of God in the Body of the Scriptures and yet they are commanded f Ind. Hisp Madr. f. mihi 15. B. tanquā propositiones suspectae for so are the words of your Index as if they were things questionable to bee blotted out Againe when your glosses or marginall notes agree not to your doctrine you cause your Index Expurgatorius to lay hold on them as for instance in the 26. of Leviticus we reade in your owne Translation You shall not make to your selves an Idoll or thing graven Deleatur illud Sculptilia prohibet fieri Idem fol. 7. when the glosse in the Margent saith God forbiddeth graven Images Let that passage say you be strucken out And whereas Samuel saith Prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him onely Ibid. fol. 8. b. the glosse upon the Text which is the same in substance viz. wee must serve God onely you command to be blotted out These and the like places relating to the Scriptures being contrary to your Trent doctrine you have excluded from your late printed Bibles in the places aforesaid as being too obvious to the eye of every Reader Ind. Hisp Madrid p. 6. 7. f. 138. Mihi 62. Crakenthorp adv Spal p. 66. Bell. de verbo Dei l. 4. c. 11. c. Ind. Madrid fol. 62. a. Deleantur ex Textu illa verba Sed ubi non habuerit Dei timorem in seipsis nec Jesum per fidem incolam c. Ibid. Eam verò solūmodò naturam quae increata est colere venerari didicimus Ant. Meliss serm 1. Bell. descript Eccl. p. mihi 184. Looke upon the Fathers and tell mee if your Index Expurgatorius doth not correct both St. Chrysostome and Austin and Hilarie and Hierome in their Index touching the prime points of controversie betwixt us Nay more St. Austin saith Vives is purged ten or twelve lines in the body of his workes St. Chrysostome in his 49. Homily is purged 70. lines by Bellarmines confession other places are razed out of him and other Fathers as I have shewed before Looke upon St. Cyrill Bishop of Alexandria who was living above 1200. yeares agoe and tell me if your Inquisitors have not commanded a Deleatur upon his words in the very Text it selfe Looke before his time upon Gregory Nyssen and tell me if through the sides of Antonius Abbas who was living by Bellarmines accompt neare 900. yeares agoe you doe not wound that ancient Father in the body of his workes in commanding this golden sentence to bee blotted out Ind. Belg. p. 270. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nissen in Orat. 4. Tom. 2. Edit Graeco-lat p. 146. We have learned to worship and adore that nature onely which is uncreated * Parsōs warn-word to Sir Fran. Hastings wast-word Enc. 2. c. 9 p. 69. your F. Parsons takes great paines to little purpose to excuse it one while he tells us that the sentence is not to bee found in Gregory Nissen which is most false another while he confesseth that they cannot stand to give a particular reason
without intermission 3. That Protestants have no shaddow of succession in person or doctrine 4. That Papists have a most cleare personall succession being able to shew 200. and odde Popes succeeding the other in place and office 5. That personall succession is a firme argument of succession in faith IT is my promise in my seventh Section to shew a descent of both Religions as namely that the Romish faith was derived from antient Haeretiks and the Protestant faith was drawne downe from Christ and his Apostles But say you It is one thing to prove a thing to have beene anciently taught another to have beene successively taught It is true Antiquity and Succession differ neither did I undertake to prove that those Haeretikes or your Church had a perpetuall succession in person and doctrine but for the truths sake I have acknowledged the antiquity of your Trent faith although descended from ancient Haeretikes and I made the first instance in Latin Service and prayer in a strange tongue brought in by Pope Vitolian as is witnessed by Wolphius but you cry out It is a most strange absurdity to averre fuch a knowne falsehood upon no other authority pag. 87. then a professed Haeretike And is he an Haeretike that speaketh the truth of your Religion What say you to your prime Champion Mr. Harding He saith expresly About nine hundred yeares past it is certaine the people in some Countries had their service in an unknowne tongue Iuel in his 3. Article Divis 1. as it shall be proved of our owne Country of England Now observe the difference Wolphius said the Latin Service came in after Christ about the yeare 666. Mr. Harding who wrote these 67. yeares since as appeares by Bishop Iuels Epistle tells us it came in 900. yeares past compute Wolphius 666. with Mr. Hardings time of 967. and you shall finde that they agree about one and the same time and therefore it was neither absurd nor false which Wolphius uttered Neither doe you disprove the reason of Wolphius but you make a quâ—ere upon his assertion During his 600. and odd yeares what other Lyturgies were there in the Latin Church but Latin And I may aswell say what were there in the Greeke Church but Greeke But this demand maketh against your Service in an unknowne tongue not against Wolphius who affirmeth not that the Latin Service was not in the Latin Church before the yeare 666. but that the Pope obtruded it upon all Churches even there where the Latin was not understood as in England saith Mr. Harding and elsewhere For Origen tells us before that time Orig contrd Celsum lib. 8. the Greekes call upon God in the Greeke tongue and the Latins in the Latin tongue and all severall Nations pray unto God and praise him in their owne natur all and mother tongues for he that is the Lord of all tongues heareth men praying in all tongues none otherwise then if it were one voice pronounced by divers tongues for God that ruleth the whole world is not as some one man that hath gotten the Greeke or Latin and knoweth none-other The ancient Primitive Churches therefore taught the Doctrine in a knowne tongue agreeable to the profession at this day But the truth is A. 30.666 A. 1.666 T. 300.666 E. 5.666 I. 10.666 N. 50.666 O. 70.666 M. 200.666 Sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nomen sexcentinum sexagiata sex numeruÌ„ habens valde verisimile est quonlam verissimum nomen hobet vocabulum Latini enim sunt qui nunc regnaÌ„t sed non in hoc nos gloriabimur Irenae l 5. cap 25. p mihi 355. the Latin Service and the name of the Latin Church is one of the most essentiall markes of the Roman Hierarchie And I know not whether it were by conjecture or by inspiration that Irenaeus above foureteene hundred yeares agoe in the word Lateinos found out the name of Antichrist and the number of 666. The name Lateinos saith he conteining the number of six hundred sixty six is very likely because the truest kingdome hath that name for they are the Latines that now raigne but saith he we will not glory in this You proceede to the Haeretikes Ossem and you say first I am notably mistaken in placing them towards the Apostles time and withall you have read the Chapter there twice over and the second time more attentively then the first and yet you find not any such word so cited by mee First Trajan Anno 100. Bel. de script Eccles pag. mihi this Sect continued till Trajans time not an hundred yeares after the Apostles and therefore it was no errour in me to place them towards the Apostles time and if you please to peruse the place a third time with your Spectacles you shall find these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph heres 19 Nemo quaerat interpretationem sed solum in oratione haec dicat and there hee repeats a Prayer which if you peruse the Greeke text is more expresse Let no man inquire after the meaning only in his Prayer Let him say such words viz. such Hebrew words which Epiphanius there setteth downe Are not these Heretikes thinke you neere kinne to them who say Heare Latine Masse and say after the Priest it mattereth not whether you understand what hee saith or not From Epiphanius you flie to Saint Ambrose and there you make a great complaint that I put in words of my owne in the same Character with Saint Ambrose which are none of his as namely There were certaine Iewes amongst the Graecians Ambr. in 1 Cor. 14. as namely the Corinthians who did celebrate the Divine Service and Sacraments which the common people understood not I confesse ingenuously it is an errour in the print and I shall willingly alter the letter but not the words at the next impression But I confidently professe it is agreeable to the true sense and meaning of the Author and the strength of the argument is not in the words but in the sense and therfore I may truly answer you with S. Austine What folly is it to contend about words Aug. Ep. 174. when there is the certainty of the thing it selfe It cannot be denied that Ambrose taxeth the Hebrewes who amongst the Corinthians in Tractatibus oblationibus used sometimes the Syriack and sometimes the Hebrew tongue which without doubt the Greeks understood not And therefore in his Commentarie on this place hee gives the Hebrew to understand If you meet together to edifie the Church Ambr. in 1 Cor. 14. those things must be delivered which the hearers understand for to what purpose or profit is it that any one speake a tongue which hee himselfe onely understands and whereof hee that heareth can reape no fruit And a little after The Apostle saith I had rather speake five words in the Church according to the Law that I may edifie others than any long and large discourse in obscuritie Againe by
amongst them Iren. lib. 1. cap. 24. And so doth Irenaeus also witnesse they all restraining and adjudging it to be Heresie and Idolatrie to cense and bow to the Image even of Paul or Christs But doe you not find a difference say you betweene their adoring the creature of wood and colour in place of the creature and our adoring the Creator represented by the creature If there be any difference in the manner of the Pagan worship and yours it is in this That the Christians who know God and set up an Image unto him offend rather than the Gentiles who know him not and if to worship a creature which is the worke of Gods hands be flat Idolatrie how inexcusable is it to worship the worke of mens hands and the shadowes of Creatures represented by art and applied by mans vaine conceit to resemble the Creatour And in this respect Saint Austine preferred the Pagans and Heathens before the Manichees which were Christians For the Pagans worship things that be Pagani colunt ca quae sunt etc. Aug. contià Faust l. 20. c. 5. though they be not to be worshipped but you saith hee worship those things that be not at all but are fained by the vanitie of your deceitfull fables and tales It is true as you say the Heathen did worship the Creatures of wood in place of the Creator Gentes Ugnum adorant quia Dei Imagmem putant Ambr. in Psal 118. Serm. 10. but the reason is given by Saint Ambrose because they thinke it to be the Image of God And doe not you the like when you worship the picture of Christ in wood or any other metall I most firmly avouch that the Images of Christ and the Mother of God and other Saints are to be worshipped Bulla Pij 4 Act. 9. because it is the picture of Christ Those that worshipped the golden Calfe knew wherof it was made neither could there be such a Calfe amongst them to thinke it was a true God Tertullian up braideth the Pagans That in their owne consciences they knew well enough that the Gods which they worshipped were but men that it was to be proved in what places they were borne where they had lived Tert. Apolog. cap. 10. Provocamus ad conscientiam vestram c. and left a remembrance of their workes where they were buried and may not the like be proved by many of your Saints which you worship in your Church If the Pagans had adored their Images for God there had beene some difference betwixt you but they could answer the Christians as Celsus the Philosopher did Origen Orig. contrà Celsum l. 7. If the Christians deny things made of wood stone brasse or gold to be God wee grant it for otherwise it were a ridiculous opinion for who but a starke foole did ever account them for gods But in conclusion they joyne hands with you These say you are the services unto the gods or else certaine resemblances of the gods I will come neerer unto you It is the voice of the Heathen man in Clemens Clem. Recognit ad Iacob lib. 5. We worship the Images which we may see in the honor of that God which cannot be seen You may reade the like excuse of a Heathen man in Saint Austine I worship neither the Image nor the devill but by a Corporall figure Aug. in Psal 113. Concion 2. I behold the signe of that which I ought to worship Now change but the name of Pagan into Papist and these sayings will fully agree with your men and therefore if it be flat Idolatry in them that know not God the greater sinne lyeth at your Churches doore who joyne with Pagans and Idolaters which otherwise professe to know him and worship him as hee ought to be worshipped in spirit and truth The difference onely betwixt you and them is this They worshipped the Images of the heathen Philosophers aswelas of Iesus and you say that you worship Images of Christ and not of the Gentiles And herein your later error is greater than the first for if you had told a Carpocratian Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours wife because God hath forbidden it Clemens saith hee would have replied as you doe By thy Neighbour is understood the Neighbour of the Gentiles Clem. Strom. l. 3. And thus they excuse their disordered Lust and you to decline your Idolatrous worship savour of one and the same spirit and therefore to use part of your owne words This doctrine is too grosse for so subtile a Iesuit as you are To conclude you would know how our Doctrine against Images doth succeed the second Commandement Here you quarrell about the word Succeed when I say no such thing but that it is derived and thus you fight with a Paper-man of your owne making And lastly you say the word Image is not in the Scripture when as your vulgar Translation in Exodus is Sculptile and yours in Deuteronomie Sculpta similitudo both which signifie A graven Image or the likenesse of any thing Take for a Conclusion that friendly admonition which Origen sometimes gave to Celsus the Pagan Communis sensus cogitare nos cogit c. Orig contra Celsum l. 3. Common sense doth will men to thinke that God is not delighted with honour of Images made by men to represent his likenesse or any signification of him yea who saith hee that hath his right wits will not laugh at him who after those excellent and Philosophicall disputations concerning God or the gods doth looke to Images Ibid. l. 7. and either offereth prayers unto them or by the contemplation thereof as of some visible signe goeth about to lift up his mind to the cogitation of God thereby to be understood And thus much may serve touching your Patrons and first founders of Images From your Images you proceed to your Communion in one kind which I shewed was derived from the Manichees c. You to excuse the matter say That before there were Manichees in the world the blessed Sacrament was administred sometimes in one kind sometimes in both You say so but you say nothing to prove it and your ipse dixit will hardly carry it against a cloud of witnesses For confirmation of what I said that in this point of Doctrine you succeed the Heretikes hearken to Leo Bishop of Rome Leo Serm. 4. de Quadrages The Manichees to cover their infidelitie venture to be present at our mysteries and so carry themselves in receiving of the Sacraments for their more safety that they take the body of Christ with an unworthy mouth but in any wise they shunne to drinke the blood of our Redemption which I would have your devoutnesse speaking to the people learne for by this sacrilegious simulation they may be noted by the Godly that they may be chased away by the Priestly power Leo you see speaketh of the Manichees by name and those Lay-men also and calleth the forbearing
Father there Yea but the Iesuit demandeth Wherein are you more safe than wee if hee be not there wee are in danger of adoring him where hee is not if hee be there then are you saith hee in danger by not adoring him where hee is I answer wee are every way safe and they both wayes in danger wee are safe because if hee be there wee who worship him there in spirit and truth not under any corporall shape are in no danger at all because wee worship him at his Table as hee requireth if hee bee not there wee can be in no danger for not worshipping him there where hee is not They are in danger both wayes of Will-worship if he be there of Idolatrie if hee be not there Of Will-worship I say if hee be under the accidents of Bread and Wine because they are no where commanded to worship him under such formes if hee bee not there then are they apparantly guiltie of grosser Idolatrie by exhibiting Culium latriae divine worship to a piece of Bread To the fift Here the Iesuit like an Adder thrusteth out his forked sting pricking with one of his forkes the Knight for calumniating their Doctrine with the other the Doctrine of the Reformed Church touching assured hope of salvation as matter of vaine confidence and a dangerous precipice of the soule The first is easily plucked out for the Knight chargeth them with nothing but what the Iesuit himselfe confesseth For if men cooperating to their justification merit both grace and glorie they doe not ascribe the whole glorie of it to God but as the Romans for the victorie they gained over the Cimbri sacrificed Deo Mario so doe the Papists at this day for the conquest of their ghostly enemies and their purchase of heaven burne incense Deo Mariae to Christ and Mary and attribute their justification and salvation partly to Christs merits partly to their owne together with the superabundant satisfaction of the blessed Virgin Mary and other Saints The other forke reacheth not home to invenome our most wholsome doctrine concerning assured hope of salvation for though wee teach that a man ought to be assured that his sinnes are forgiven him yet withall wee teach that this assurance is upon condition of Repentance and Faith And withall wee affirme because hee standeth not by his owne strength but by Gods power Who worketh in him both the will and the doed hee ought not to be high minded but to feaxe and in this feare to worke out his salvation Phil. 2.13 I meane in feare as feare is opposed to carnall security and presumption not as it is opposed to religious confidence and as hee must worke out his salvation with this feare so also with trembling as trembling is taken for an awfull and filiall reverence not for a servile affrighting For the trembling here meant is not onely joyned with assured hope that God will worke both the will and the deede but also with joy rejoyce unto him with trembling Psal 11. To the sixt Though the Iesuit tug hard yet the Knight holdeth him fast in Hales Vasquez and Valentia his net For if it be true that the Sacraments effect what they represent it will follow upon the Iesuits owne confession that in regard the Sacrament is perfecter in both kindes then in one in regard of representation it must needs be more perfect also in the fruit and operation and if so then more safety and comfort in our entire then in their halfe communion To the seventh Bell. de Missa l. 2. c. 10. Negari non potest quin sit magis perfecta et legitima missa ubi cōmunicantes adsunt quā ubi non adsunt Harding art 1. of privat Masse Where the people cō nunicate it is more cō nendable more godly Concil Trent ses 22. cap. 6. more fruitfull and more profitable The Iesuit would faine contradict the Knight but indeede he contradicteth himselfe For in granting that which Bellarmine Harding and the Councell of Trent extorteth from him that it is more profitable for the people to communicate with a Priest at the Masse then to loake on he sayes by consequent that there is more safety in it which is the proper point in controversie in this Chapter For as that which is unprofitable for the soule cannot but be dangerous so that which is profitable to the soule cannot but be safe nothing is profitable to the soule but that which some way tendeth too and furthereth the salvation thereof and is not that safer which more tendeth to salvation To the eight Aeneas Silvius maketh no mention at all of any Law of single life De gestis concil Bafil l. 2. Coss de caelib Sacerd. art 23. Panor de cler conjug c. Quum olim Credo pro bono et salute animarum statutum nunc iri ut non valentes continere possint contrahere but simply saith that It were safer for Priests to marry for that meanes many Priests might be saved in married Priesthood Cass de caelib Sacerd. art 23. Panor de cler conjug c. Quum olim Credo pro bono et salute animarum statutum nunc iri ut non valentes continere possint contrahere which now in barren Priesthood are damned Cassander and Panormitan make mention of the law which tieth Priests to single life and both thinke that the abrogation of it would be good and behoovefull to the foules of many Priests that those who cannot attaine to the first degree of chastity in a single life may be permitted to live in the second degree of chaste marriage And what is it else that we contend for but that it may be left free to the Ministers of the Gospell to marry if they thinke good which liberty implieth two things First that where there is a law restraining them from marriage that law may be abrogated Secondly for the future that no law prohibiting marriage in the Clergie may be enacted Yea but saith the Iesuit all the Doctors all the Fathers all the Councells and the continuall practice of the Church from the very beginning is against Priests marriage of all which you have abundant proofe in Bellarmine I answer of all this nay none of all this as you may see in Chemnitius History de celibatu sacerdotum Iunius and Chaumerus their reply to Bellarmine and most largely and plentifully in Dr. Hall now Bishop of Exon. his three bookes against Coffin intituled The honour of the married Clergy Pag. 392. Yea but saith the Iesuit in the last place the law restraining Priests marriage was never contradicted by any but knowne wicked men What a lowd and Stentorian untruth is here uttered by a foule mouthed Iesuit Was Paphnutius the confessor Spiridion the Saint were all the Fathers of the first generall Councell of Nice together with Pope Pius the second and the Fathers at the Synod at Basill besides infinite others produced by the Authors above named all