from hand to hand and age to age bringing vs vp to the times and persons of the Apostles and our Sauiour himselfe cōmeth to be confirmed by all those miracles and other arguments whereby they conuinced their doctrine to be true Wherefore the ancient Fathers auouch that we must receiue the sacred Canon vpon the credit of Gods Church S. (k) In Synopsi Athanasius saith that only foure Gospels are to be receiued because the Canons of the Holy and Catholique Church haue so determined The third Councell of (l) Can. 47. Carthage hauing set downe the Bookes of holy Scripture giues the reason because We haue receiued from our Fathers that these are to be read in the Church S. Augustine (m) Cont. ep Funaam c. 5. speaking of the Acts of the Apostles saith To which booke I must giue credit if I giue credit to the Gospel because the Catholique Church doth a like recōmend to me both these Bookes And in the same place he hath also these words I would not belieue the Gospell vnles the authority of the Catholique Church did moue me A saying so plaine that Zuinglius is forced to cry out Heere I (n) Tom. 1. fol. 135. implore your equity to speake freely whether this saying of Augustine seeme not ouerbould or els vnaduisedly to haue fallen from him 15. But suppose they were assured what Bookes were Canonicall this will little auaile them vnles they be likewise certaine in what language they remaine vncorrupted or what Translations be true Caluin (o) Instit c. 6. §. 11. acknowledgeth corruption in the Hebrew Text which if it be taken without points is so ambiguous that scarcely any one Chapter yea period can be securely vnderstood without the help of some Translation If with points These were after S. Hierom's time inuented by the persidious Iewes who either by ignorance might mistake or vpon malice force the Text to fauour their impieties And that the Hebrew Text still retaines much ambiguity is apparent by the disagreeing Translations of Nouellists which also proues the Greeke for the New Testament not to be void of doubtfulnes as Caluin (p) Instit. ca. 7. §. 12. confesseth it to be corrupted And although both the Hebrew and Greeke were pure what doth this help if only Scripture be the rule of faith and so very few be able to examine the Text in these languages All then must be reduced to the certainty of Translations into other tongues wherin no priuate man hauing any promise or assurance of infallibility Protestants who rely vpon Scripture alone will find no certaine ground for their faith as accordingly Whitaker (q) lib. de sancta Scriptura p. 523. affirmeth Those who vnderstand not the Hebrew and Greeke do erre often and vnauoydably 16. Now concerning the Translations of Protestants it will be sufficient to set downe what the laborious exact and iudicious Author of the Protestants Apology c. dedicated to our late King Iames of famous memory hath to this (r) Tract 1. Sect. 10. subd 4. ioyned with tract 2. cap. 2. Sect. 10. subd 2. purpose To omit saith he particulers whose recitall would be infinite to touch this point but generally only the Translation of the New Testament by Luther is condemned by Andreas Osiander Keckermannus and Zuinglius who sayth hereof to Luther Thou dost corrupt the word of God thou art seene to be a manifest and common corrupter of the holy Scriptures how much are we ashamed of thee who haue hitherto esteemed thee beyond all measure and now proue thee to be such a man And in like māner doth Luther reiect the Translation of the Zuinglians terming them in matter of diuinity fooles Asses Antichrists deceauers and of Asse-like vnderstanding In so much that when Proscheuerus the Zwinglian Printer of Zurich sent him a Bible translated by the diuines there Luther would not receyue the same but sending it backe reiected it as the Protestant Writers Hospinians and Lauatherus witnesse The translation set forth by Oecolampadius and the Deuines of Basil is reproued by Beza who affirmeth that the Basil Translation is in many places wicked and altogeather differing from the mynd of the Holy Ghost The translation of Castalio is condemned by Beza as being sacrilegious wicked and Ethnicall As concerning Caluins translation that learned Protestant Writer Carolus Molinaeus saith thereof Caluin in his Harmony maketh the Text of the Gospell to leape vp and downe he vseth violence to the letter of the Gospell and besides this addeth to the Text. As touching Beza's translation to omit the dislike had therof by Seluccerus the German Protestant of the Vniuersity of Iena the foresaid Molinaeus saith of him de facto mutat textum he actually changeth the text and giueth further sundry instances of his corruptions as also Castalio that learned Caluinist and most learned in the tongues reprehendeth Beza in a whole booke of this matter and saith that to note all his errours in translation would require a great volume And M. Parkes saith As for the Geneua Bibles it is to be wished that either they may be purged from those manifold errors which are both in the text and in the margent or els vtterly prohibited All which confirmeth your Maiesties graue and learned Censure in your thinking the Geneua translation to be worst of all and that in the Marginall notes annoxed to the Geneua translation some are very partiall vntrue seditious c. Lastly concerning the English Translations the Puritanes say Our translation of the Psalmes comprized in our Booke of Common Prayer doth in addition subtraction and alteration differ from the Truth of the Hebrew in two hundred places at the least In so much as they do therefore professe to rest doubtfull whether a man with a safe conscience may subscribe thereto And M. Caerlile saith of the English Translators that they haue depraued the sense obscured the truth and deceiued the ignorant that in many places they do detort the Scriptures from the right sense And that they shew themselues to loue darknes more then light falshood more then truth And the Ministers of Lincolne Diocesse giue their publike testimony terming the English Translation A Translation that taketh away from the Text that addeth to the Text and that sometime to the changing or obscuring of the meaning of the Holy Ghost Not without cause therefore did your Maiesty affirme that you could neuer yet see a Bible well translated into English Thus far the Author of the Protestants Apology c. And I cannot forbeare to mention in particuler that famous corruption of Luther who in the Text where it is said Rom. 3. v. 28. We accompt a man to be instified by faith without the works of the Law in fauour of Iustification by faith alone translateth Iustified by faith A LONE As likewise the falsification of Zuinglius is no lesse notorious who in the Gospels of S. Mathew Mark and Luke and in S. Paul in place of
Rome and such as agreed with her We must conclude that whosoeuer opposeth himself to her definitions or forsaketh her Cōmunion doth resist God himselfe whose spouse she is and whose diuine truth she propounds and therefore becomes guilty of Schisme and Heresy which since Luther his Associates and Protestants haue done and still continue to doe it is not Want of Charity but aboundance of euident cause that forceth vs to declare this necessary Truth PROTESTANCY VNREPENTED DESTROYES SALVATION The End of the first Part. THE SECOND PART THE PREAMBLE SINCE I haue handled the substance of our present Controuersy ansvvered the chiefe grounds of D. Potter in the First Part I may vvell in this Second be more briefe referring the Reader to those seueral places vvherin his reasons are confuted and his obiections ansvvered And because in euery Section he handleth so many different points that they cannot be ranged vnder one Title or Argument my Chapters must accordingly haue no particular Title as they had in the First Part but the Reader may be pleased to conceiue and yet do me no more then Iustice therein that the Argument of euery one of my seauen Chapters is an Ansvvere to his Seauen Sections as they lye in order But let vs novv addresse our speach to D. Potter CHAP. I. YOV pretend and professe in your Preface to the Reader that you haue not omitted without Answer any one thing of moment in all the Discourse of Charity Mistaken and yet you omit that which very much imported to the Question in hand namely the moderate Explication of our doctrine that Protestancy vnrepented destroyes Saluation and that you must say the same of vs if you belieue your owne Religion to be true and Ours to be false which points are prudently deliuered by Charity Mistaken in his second Chapter which togeather with his First you vndertake to answere in this your First Section And wheras he shewed by diuers arguments that it is improbable that the Church should want Charity your Answere to that point is superficiall and vntrue in some things and none at all in others as will easily appeare to any that shal reade Charity Mistaken in his first Chapter 2. You tell vs in very confident manner that hardly (a) Pag. 33. any Age in former times may compare with this of Ours since this Church was happily purged from Popery for publike expressions of Charity but you doe it in so generall termes as if you were afrayd of being confuted For I beseech you D. Potter are the Churches which Protestants haue built any thing comparable to thē which haue been erected by Catholiques Doe your Hospitalls so much deserue as to be named Haue you any thing of that kind in effect of particular note sauing the fow meane Nurseries of idle beggars and debauched people except perhaps Suitons Hospitall which as I haue beene informed was to take no profit at all till he was dead He who as I haue also vnderstood dyed so without any Children or Brothers or Sisters or knowne kindred as that peraduenture it might haue eschetead to the King He who liued a wretched and penurious life and drew that masse of wealth together by Vsury in which case according to good conscience his estate without asking him leaue was by the Law of God obnoxious to restitution and ought to haue been applyed to pious vses Whereas both anciently in this Countrey and at all tymes and specially in this last age men see aboundance of heroicall actions of this kind performed in forrayne parts And if it were not for feare of noting many other great Citties as if there were any want of most munificent Hospitalls in them wherein they abound I could tell you of one called the Annunciata in the Citty of Naples which spends three hundred thousand Crownes per annum which comes to about fourescore thousand pounds sterling by the yeare which euer feeds and cures a thousand sicke persons and payes for the nursing and entertayning of three thousand sucking children of poore people and hath fourteene other distinct Hospitals vnder it where the persons of those poore creatures are kept and where they are defrayed of all their necessary charges euery weeke I could also tell you of an Hospitall in Rome called S. Spirito of huge reuenewes but it is not my meaning to enter into particulars which would proue endles In the meane time it is prety entertainment for you to belieue no more then you see which is not much and to talke in generall termes by comparing that which comes in your way with those which are in other Countries wherof you seeme to know very little And where I pray you can you verify that which Charity Mistaken sayth of our Church in these words pag. 7. Persons sicke of all diseases are serued and attended after the example of Christ our Lord by the owne hands of great Princes and Prelates and of choyce and delicate Ladies and Queenes in the Communion of the holy Catholique Church Would to God the first Head of your Church had not destroyed those innumerable glorious monumēts of Charity which he found But because our present question about the Saueablenes of Protestants belongeth rather to Faith then Charity out of your owne hyperbolicall affirmation I will infer That seeing the Monuments of Charitable workes performed by Catholiques do incomparably exceed those of yours and yet that time for time your Charity as you affirme surpasseth ours it followes very cleerly that our Fayth and Church is far more ancient then yours and consequently that yours cannot be Catholique for all Ages So that by exaggeration of your Charity you haue ouerthrowne your Fayth and Charity also which cannot subsist without true Catholique Fayth 3. But yet you are so ingenuous that you do not so much as pretend to compare your Charity in conuerting soules to that of the Catholiques nor do you so much as once venture to insinuate that the Protestant Ministers leaue their Countrey and Commodities and the howses of rich and louing friends to transport themselues into barbarous Nations with the sufferance of all cruell inconueniences and very many times of death it selfe for the conuersion of soules to Christ our Lord. For of this you were expressely tould and consequently how improbable it was that Catholiques should seare the daungerous state of Protestants through meere want of Charity wheras yet for the only exercise of that vertue they were content with so much courage and ioy to cast away their liues that therfore when we made that iudgment of you it was rather through our zeale and cordiall desire of your good and feare of your losse then for want of charity or compassion But of this as I was saying you were so wise as not to speake a word For that glorious marke of the Dilatation and Amplitude of Gods Church by the Conuersion of Nations Kings and Kingdomes so manifestly foretold by the holy Prophets and ordained in the Gospell
forget that Charity Mistaken among other instances alledges this to proue that all points of fayth are not contained in the Creed to which you giue no answere at all but only tell vs what your owne opinion is And that it may appeare how you comply with your promise not to omit without Answere any one thing of moment heare what Charity Mistaken sayth to this purpose in these words S. Peter sayth that S. Paul in his Epistles had written certaine things which were hard to be vnderstood and which the vnlearned and vnstable did peruert to their owne destructions S. Austen declares vpon this place that the places misvnderstood concerned the doctrine of Iustification which some misconceiued to be by fayth alone And of purpose to countermine that error he sayth that S. Iames wrote his Epistle and proued therin that good works were absolutely necessary to the act of Iustification Heereupon we may obserue two things the one that an error in this point alone is by the iudgment of S. Peter to worke their destruction who imbrace it and the other that the Apostles Creed which speakes no one word therof is no good rule to let vs know all the fundamentall points of fayth Did not all this discourse deserue some answere from one who professes to omit nothing 7. But now you come to a new busines and say If the (f) Pag. 239. Romane Church be not guilty of Manicheisme why is single life called Chastity and commended as an eminent degree of sanctimony As if forsooth Marriage must be ill because a single lyfe is better Why doe you not lay the same aspersion vpon our Sauiour Christ who proposed Chastity as one of the Euangelicall Councells vpon S. Paul who sayth that (h) 1. Cor. 7. he who doth not marry melius facit doth better vpon the Ancient Fathers who so highly extoll a single life You cannot be ignorant but that among diuers degrees of Chastity Catholique Deuines do also place Coniugall Chastity which they hold to be good and meritorious though yet inferiour to the other 8. You goe on and aske why Marriage is sayd to be incompatible with (i) Innocent Papa dist 82. can Proposuisti holines or with (k) Idem Gods fauour nay counted a (l) Bell. de Clericis cap. 19. §. I am verò pollution worse then (m) Coster Enchirid c. de Caelib whoredome With better reason we may say why doe you peruert and corrupt Authours agaynst your owne conscience Innocentius whome you cite sayth only It is not lawfull that they should be admitted to sacred functions that is holy Orders who liue with their wiues because it is written Be holy because I am holy sayth our Lord. Is this to say absolutely that Marriage is incompatible with holines because it is incompatible with that holines which by the Churches Ordination is required in Priests S. Paul sayth that an vnmaried woman (n) I. Cor. 7. and a Virgin thinkes of things belonging to God that she may be holy in body and soule Will you hence inferre that the Apostle affirmes Marriage to be incompatible with holines because it is incompatible with that peculiar holines which Virginity is apt to breed Those words Be holy because I am holy are taken out of Leuit. chap. 11. vers 44. where the Iewes are forbidden to touch certaine beasts and yet I hope you will not accuse God of Manicheisme as if the eating of such beasts were incompatible with holines The other words alledged by Innocentius Those who are in flesh cannot please God are vnderstood as I said of that particular holines and pleasing of God which is required in those that take holy Orders To proue that Bellarmine accounts Marriage a pollution you alleage out of him these words (o) De Clericis cap. 19. §. Iamverò Not only the Marriage of Priests which is sacriledge not marriage but euē the Marriage of holy persons is not exercised without a certaine pollution turpitude But why doe you take pleasure in alledging Authours against their owne meaning Bellarmine to proue how cōgruous conueniēt it is that Priests should lead a single lyfe after many Authorities of Scriptures Councels Fathers proues it also by reason it selfe in regard that Marriage is a great impediment to Ecclesiasticall functions and beginning with the action of sacrificing he sayth Matrimony as Saint Hierome saith lib. 1. in Iouinian hinders the office of sacrificing because there is required most great purity and sanctity therein as S. Chrysostome in his sixt Booke of Priesthood doth declare and it cannot be denyed but that in the act of Marriage there is mingled a certaine impurity and pollution not which is sinne but which arose from sinne For though Caluin exclayme against Pope Siricius who is so ancient that he sate an 385. because he called the Marriage of Priests Pollution yet that not only the Marriage of Priests which is not marriage but sacriledge but also the Martrimony of holy persons is not exercised without a certayne pollution and turpitude appeares by the rebellion of nature and the shamefastnes of men in that act who alwayes seeke to be hidden as S. Augustine hath obserued lib. 14. de Ciuitate Dei cap. 17. Thus Bellarmine and indeed S. Augustine in the next Chap. expresly speakes de pudore Concubitus non solum vulgari sed etiam coniugali And now what but malice can reprehend any one tittle in this doctrine of Bellarmine or rather in the doctrine of the Fathers by him cited which containes against you Sacrifice single life of Priests Moreouer you falsify both Innocētius and Bellarmine who speake not of Marriage in it selfe of which you make them speake in your Text but of the act thereof and therfore Innocentius sayth Qui exercent cum vxore carnale consortium And Bellarmine sayth Non exercetur sine pollutione quadam c. Which is not euen so much as to say the act it selfe is pollution but only Non exercetur sine pollutione c. and this also not absolutely but with a limitation non sine pollutione quadam c. For Matrimony of it selfe may stand with most perfect Chastity yea with Virginity as appeareth in the most Immaculate Mother of God And at this day a married man may be made Priest if his wife consent and other Conditions prescribed in the holy Canons be obserued And wheras you say It seemes by S. Augustine they the Manichees did not forbid meates or marriage as absolutely impure or to all only their choyce Elect ones must obstaine the other vulgar their Auditors were lefte at their liberty This obiection taken out of Peter Martyr is answered by Bellarmine in the Chapter next to that which you cited that S. Augustine lib. 30. contra Faustum cap. 6. writes that the Manichees did absolutly forbid Marriage because though they did permit it to their Auditors yet it was only for that they could not do otherwise