doctrin and therfore resolved to accomodat the doctrin of the Church of England to his humour Hooper and Rogers agreed vpon an ecclesiastical Government inconsistent with Monarchy which was that over every 10. Churches or Parishes in England there should be a learned Superintendent appointed who should have faithful readers vnder him and that all Popish Priests should clean be put out And to draw all publick matters of state and Religion to them-selves they composed a Treatise to prove That it is lawful for any privat man to reason and writ against a wicked Act of Parliament and vngodly Councel c. see Fox pag. 1357. col 1. num 72. And Hoopers prophecy against the Prelatick protestants for not conforming them-selves to his Puritan and Presbiterian disciplin pag 1356. And of his contention with Cranmer and other Prelatick protestants about the oath of Supremacy c. Fox pag. 1366. Both Cranmer and Ridly made apear to the Protector and Councel that Hoopers Presbiterian disciplin was not consistent with the Constitution of Parliaments and the refusal of the oath of Supremacy to be of dangerous consequence in a tyme that Deuenshir Northfolk and many other Shires had taken arms in defence of the Roman Catholick faith It was further considered that so sudain a change from on extreme to an other in matters of religion as it would have bin from ceremonious Popery to plain Preâ—bitery was against the rules of policy therfore seing the people had bin so long accustomed to the Mass and to Ecclesiastical ceremonies it was judg'd expedient to make the vulgar sort believe the chang was not of Religion but of language that the common prayr was the Mass in English that the substance of the Catholick faith was retained in the Prelatick caps copes and surplises and what alteration there seem'd to be was but of things indifferent or petty circumstances and had bin resolved vpon by the King and Parliament more to preserve vniformity then to promote novelty as may be seen by any that wil observe the words of the statuts confirming the common prayr book administration rits ad ceremonies of the Sacrament 2. Ed. 6.1 and the Councels letter to the Bishops recited by Fox pag. 1184. col 1. Whereof long tyme there had bin in this Realm of England divers forms of common prayer And where the Kings Majesty hath hereto fore divers tyms assayed to stay innovations or new rits To the intent that an vniform quiet and godly order should be had concerning the premises hath appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury should draw and make one convenient and meet order of common Prayer and administration of Sacraments to be vsed in England Wales c. The which at this tyme by the ayde of the holy Ghost with vniform agreement is of them concluded c. in the Statut. But in very deed the whole substance of Catholick Religion was changed and nothing retained but so much therof as seemed necessary to keep the name of Christians and had not bin rejected by most of the ancient condemned hereticks as shal appeare by our obseruations vpon the 39. ensuing articles of Religion of the Church of England SECT V. Of the 39. Articles of the Church of England WHosoever considerâ—â— these 39. Articles of Religion composed by Cranmer and his Divines may easily perceive their drift was rather to humour factions at home and dissenting Protestants abroad to countenance sensuality and grant a liberty of not believing the particulars of Christianity then to instruct men in the doctrin of Christ or to prescribe any certain rule of Faith For their method is to word so the matter of the Articles that where Protestants disagree among themselves every one of the dissenting parties may apply the Text to his own sense In so much that the Presbiterians except not against the doctrins themsel-ves rightly explained that is according to their explanation but against the wording and expressions therof which say they are ambiguous and capable of more senses then one and so may be and are wrested to patronise errors In the mistery of the real presence they speak clearly against it because it was resolved in Parliament That England should be Zuinglian in that point against the Catholick faith of Transsubstantiation Wherfore after Cranmer and the other his Contemporisers had set down in five of their six first Articles the belief of the Trinity Incarnation Passion and Resurrection wherof no Protestants then doubted they dare not declare themselves in the third wheein they speak of Christ descent into Hell whether it was to that of the damned or to a third place for that if they denyed the first they would have offended Calvin Jf they denyed the last they were sure to disoblige some Lutherans that admitted of Lymbus or a third place In the sixt Article they free all men from an obligation of believing any thing that is not read in Scripture or proved therby and make it their ownly rule of faith and themselves the Judges therof wherin they agree with the ancient Hereticks Arians Donatists Eunomians Nestorians c. But for that some Protestant doctrins are expresly reproved by many Parts of Scripture they make those parts Apocrypha because forsooth they were doubted of by some Churches in the primitive tymes And truly if a man will reflect vpon these words of thâ—ir sixt Article We do vnderstand those Canonical Books of the ould and new Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church he may cleerly see that they believe many parts of the new Testament not to be Canonical Scripture because many parts therof have bin doubted of in the Church before the Canon was determined See after part 2. In the 7. they only declare that Christians are not bound to observe the ceremonial but only the moral law of Moyses In the 8. they tel vs of foure Creeds wherof S. Athanasius his symbol is one are to be believed because they may be proved by Scripture and yet S. Athanasius himself declared in â—he Councel of Nice that the doctrin of his Symbol that is the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation could not be proved by Scripture alone or without Tradition In the 9. and 10. Article they follow the heretick Proclus the Messalians Zuinglius Luther and Calvins doctrin concerning Original sin In the 11. Article they teach with some of the Pseudo-Apostles with Eunomius and with the same Zuinglius Luther and Calvin that men are justified by faith alone See herafter of the justification by only faith how inconsistent with any solicitude or care for good works And in the 12. would faine but in vaine free themselves and their Doctrin from the aspersion of neglecting good works though they maintain them not to be necessary for justification In the 13. Article they say all virtuous moral actions of men â—hat are not in grace have the nature of sin And in the 14. they follow Eunomius Vigilantius
Protestancy an infallible mark of a false Church and of Hereticks whose endeavor saith Tertullian Is not to convert Pagans but to pervert Christians Negotium est illis Haereticis non Ethnicos convertendi sed nostros evertendi Their success in that particular is no argument that God approves of their Religion but is only a sign of our human frailty and perverse inclinations to vice and liberty And they who say that the Protestant Reformation needs no other miracle to prove that it is Divine but it's propagations mistake and misapply the argument the miracle consists not in that many embraâ—â— Protestancy but rather in that any at all reject or forsake a Religion so favorable to sensuality of liâ—â— and singularity of judgment Is it not an argument and a miracle of God's special and super-natural grace that any one temporal Catholick Soveraign reject so absolut and advantagious a jurisdiction over these Subjects as the spiritual supremacy That Bishops preferr the Catholick subordination to the Pope before the Protestant equality That Catholick Priests contemn the conveniences and coâ—â—â—nt which Protestant Ministers find in a married life 〈◊〉 â—hat the Catholick laytâ— change not their wives or husbands according to the principles and practises 〈◊〉 Protesâ—â—â—cy and not only contradict their senses in the 〈…〉 Transubstantiation but dis-own the Protestant pretended right of every privat person to judg according to his own sense of 〈…〉 all controversies of Christian Religion A Reformation so indulgent and obliging to every man and woman of what â—â—ate and condition soever could as litle want Proselies as the 〈◊〉 neither is the multitude of believers more a miracle 〈…〉 Pâ—â—â—estant then in the Mahometan or any other popular 〈◊〉 pleasing Religion SECT VIII Protestants mistaken in the consistency of their justifying faith with justice or civil Government Demonstrated in the new setlement of Irland and in the persecution against Catholicks in England and yet the King and his government vindicated from the note of Tyrany or the breach of publick faith because his Ministers are compell'd by a necessity of state to run with the spirit and principles of Protestancy Notwithstanding all which the Irish and English Roman Catholicks are bound in conscience not to attempt the recovery of their right or Religion by arms but rather to submit them-selves to his Majesty and suffer their crosses with Christian patience All Protestants agree in the doctrin of Iustification by only faith but seem to differ in that of good works And though all necessity of good works be in very deed excluded by the pretended sufficiency and efficacy of the Protestant justifying faith for in what need can a man stand of good works if he be sure of his justification and by consequence of his salvation by only faith But the scandal of the world at their dispensing with the observation of the ten Commandments as things not required by Christians and cleerly inferred from their Iustification by only faith was so general that they disguised but never disown'd the doctrin and do yet stick to their principle though they dare not openly allow the consequences They speak so sparingly in favour of good and gracious works that no one Protestant Church will attribute to them any merit congruity or influence vpon either justification or salvation In so much that our Prelaticks who are more modâ—â—at then any other Protestants in this particular will not grant that good works are commanded by God as if they were depending of our liberty or relating to our endeavors but only are commanded as vnavoydable effects flowing necessarily from a Protestant and justifying faith as heat from fire or fruit from the tree The Prelatick Church of England in the 11. Article of it's Religion saith We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by faith and not for our own works or deservings Wherfore that we are justified by faith only is a most wholsom doctrin and very full of comfort And in the 12. Article declares All beit that good works which are the fruits of faith and follow after justification can not put away our sins and endure the severity of God's Judgment yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith in so much that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit This explanation concerning the necessity of good works makâ— men as carless of them as if they had bin impossible or not at all requisit Because we are not solicitous of what we are sure of he who is well clad and sits by a good fire fears not to be starv'd with could neither doth he think it necessary to vse any other exercise or diligence for keeping him-self warm If therfore good works do spring out as necessarily of a true and lively faith as heat from fire or fruit from the tree any Protestant that supposeth him-self hath that faith needs not be solicitous of good works they will spring as a necessary consequent from his faith But because experience doth shew that the Protestant who pretends to a justifying faith hath not always good works and many who are not Protestants exercise moral virtues it is further declared by the Church of England in the 13. Article for the comfort of Protestants and confusion of Papists That even the best moral works and virtues when they spring not of faith in JESUS Christ are no way pleasing to God but rather have the nature of sin Hence it is our English as well as other Protestants hould expressly with Luther That good works take their goodness of the worker and that no work is disallowed of God vnless the Author be dis-allowed before that sin is not hurtfull to him that actually believeth and therfore when the faithfull do sin they diminish not the glory of God all the danger of sin being the evell example to our neighbour That David when he committed adultery was and remained the Child of God that sin is pardoned as soon as committed the believing Protestant having received forgivness of all his sins past and to come And that there is no work better then other to make water to wash dishes to be a Sower or an Apostle all is one to please God That he who doth once truly believe cannot afterwards fall from the grace of God or loose his faith by any sins and therfore faith is either perpetual or no faith What a wide gap is opened by this wicked doctrin to all kind of vice libertinism and rebellion is more visible in it self then considered by well meaning Protestants who may tax the most dissolut of their brethren with being evill Christistians but must withall confess them to be good Protestants as not violating the principles of their Religion by which they are encouraged to justify the most wicked actions by
his religious habit though he had left the Monastery sayd Mass and was much tormented in his Conscience for running so desperat a cours as to appeale from the authority of Popes Fathers Councels and Church upon a punctilio of his mistaken honour How often saith he did my trembling hart beat with in me and reprehending me object against me that must strong argument Art thou only wise do so many worlds err were so many ages ignorant what if thou errest and drawest so many into error to be damned with thee eternally c. And again Dost thou O sole man and of no accounpt take upon thee so great matters What if thou being but one offendest Jf God permitt such so many and all to erre why may he not permit thee to erre Hitherto apartaine those arguments the Church the Church the Fathers the Fathers the Councels the Customs the Multituds and greatness of wise men whom do not these clouds and doutes yea these seas of examples ouerwhelm Being thus tormented and tossed between his passion of pride and a perplexity of mind himself relates at larg tom 7. Wittemb edit an 1558. lib. 1. de Missa angu how vpon a certain tyme he was sudainly awaked about midnight and how sathan began his disputation with him saying Harken right learned Doctor Luther Thou knowest thou hast celebrated priuat Mass by the space of 15. years almost euery day what if such Masses were horrible Idolaty c. The deuill speaking thus to me I burst forth all into a sweat and my heart began to tremble and leap voce forti gravi utitur the deuill had a graue and strong voice c. And then I learned how it came to pass that somtyms early in the morning men were found dead in their beds To the Deuill I answered I am an anoynted Priest receaued consecration from a Bishop and did all things by order of my Superiors In these streights and agony I would fain vanquish the Devill with the armes of Popery and did object the intention and faith of the Church c. But Sathan with greater force and vehemency did pursue Go to shew where it is writen teaching Luther to appeale to Scripture alone that a wicked and incredulous man can assist at the Altar of Christ and consecrate in the Churches faith c. If men have taught it without the express word of God it is altogether vntrue But in this sort are you acustomed to do all things in the dark under the name of the Church and so set to sale your owne abominations for Ecclesiastical doctrin c. After this disputation Luther was so well acquainted with the Devill that him self saith tom 2. Germ. Jen. fol. 77. Believe me J know the Devill very weell for now and then he walketh with me in my Chamber When I am among company he doth not trouble me but when he catcheth me alone then he teacheth me my manners And in Conc. Dom. Reminiscere fol. 19. apud Cochlaeum J am troughly acquainted with the Deuill for I haue eaten a bushell of salt in his company Yea confesseth in Colloq Germ. fol. 275.281 that the Devill was his Bed-fellow and lay with him more frequently and â—loser to him then his beloved Kate the Nun. And in litteris ad Electorem Saxoniae he saith The Devill doth so run to and fro trough my brain that J can neither write nor read And in Colloq Germ. fol. 283. brags thus J have a couple of rare Devills who attend and wait vpon me most diligently they are no petty Fiends but great Devills yea great Doctors of Divinity among the rest of the Devills One of these two great Doctors of Divinity continued his disputation thus against Luther Now I urge this that thou didst not consecrat in thy Mass but didst offer and adore only bread and wine and proposedst the same to be adored by others c. The institution of Christ is that other Christians may communicat in the Sacrament but thou art anointed not to distribute the Sacrament but to sacrifice and against Christs institution thou hast vsed the Mass for a Sacrifice c. And that which Christ did ordain for eating and drinking for the whole Church and to be given by the Priest to other Communicants c. of this thou dost make a propitiatory Sacrifice O! abomination aboue all abomination And after that Zealous and learned Devill had thus exclaimed and argued against the Sacrifice of the Mass the authority of the Church Transubstantiation and adoring of the B. Sacrament he reasons also against the intercession and prayer to Saints his words are set down by Luther in the same place thus We Spirits being rejected do not confide in Christs mercy neither do we look upon him as a Mediator or Savior but feare him as a cruell Judg such was thine and all other Papists faith c. Therfore ye did shun from Christ as a cruell Judg to Mary and the Saints and they were Mediators betvveen you and Christ so is Christ deprived of that glory In this disputation the Devill had so good success that Luther was convinced and resolued to become a Protestant and to preach and print not only against the Mass and the other particulars mentioned in his Disputation but upon these words of the Devill So is Christ deprived of glory did Luther ground his opinions against the necessity of good works in favor of Iustification by only faith against merit satisfaction Purgatory c. and maintained these his Diabolical opinions with so great obstinacy and so litle respect to Scripture Church Councells Fathers Princes and Prelats that such parts of Scripture as did not favor the Devills argument he either rejected them as apocrijphal or altered the words and sence in his Translations and Comments against all exemplars and copies either in Greek Hebrew or Latin And all Princes and Prelats that contradicted his errors he vilified in so virulent and villanous terms that none but a soule directed by the Devil could resolve to print them His Bull against all Bishops is full of most vile stuffe as also against the Duke of Brunzuick the Elector of Mentz c. In so much that his owne Scholler Sleidan acknowledgeth his manner of writing to be unworthy Base Scurilous c. In his Book and answer against K. Henry 8. he calls him an envious mad foole babling with much spittle in his mouth more furious then madness it self more doltish then folly it self indued with an impudent and vvhorish face without any one veine of princely bloud in his body a lying sophist a damnable rotten vvorme a Basilisk and progeny of an Adder a lying scurill couered with the title of a King a clounish wit a doltish head most wicked foolish and impudent Henry All this he says tom 2. Wittenberg fol. 333.334.335 fol. 338.334 he saith The King doth not only lye like a most vaine scurre but passeth a most wicked knave
reasonable subjection Therfore besids many other works in the yeare 1520. Luther writ a book called Praeludium captivitatis Babilonicae wherin he maintayned that Christians are not subject to human Lawes at least in foro Conscintiae Christ hauing made them all equall by the Gospell but that the Pope Prelates and Princes had tyranically usurped a Iurisdiction ouer them and kept them for many years in gross ignorance and wors then in a Babylonian captivity therfore that God had sent him to reforme these abuses and restore vnto all oppressed people the Christian liberty which they had received in Baptisme and by his reformation they might enjoy so fully as to judg and govern all omnia judicemus regamus Then he published his doctrin of justification by only faith so resolutly that he doubted not to preach though mens words be the greatest blasphemies and their works the most damnable villâ—nies If they haue as much confidence to belieue without doubt as impudence to act without scruple they may be sure that God hath receiued them into his fauor and cannot be damned unless they doubt of their saluation This abominable presumption Luther grounded upon the infinitness of Christs merits as if forsooth our Sauiour had suffered to the end we might not only be happy in heauen but by his passion hah waranted our wickedness upon earth grossly mistaking and confounding the sufficiency of Christs merits with the sufficiency of their application none can deny but that the least drop of our Sauiours Bloud is sufficient to redeeme millions of worlds because it is of infinite value but all Catholicks euer held that though his Bloud and merits be infinitly sufficient in themselues yet are they not sufficiently applyed to sinners unless they concurr to their own reconciliation and justification not only by faith but by good works Sacraments and other meanes which God hath appointed for that purpose Yet Luther pretended that faith alone is a sufficient application of Christs merits and that men needed not mortify their bodys nor endeavour to secure their salvation by good works thinking it a diminution of our Redeemers glory and a disrespect to his person that with our free will we should cooperat with his passion and help our selues and vpon this ground do Protestants raise all their batteries against Indulgences Purgatory Pilgrimages praying to Saints Confession of sins Penance Satisfaction Merit austerity of Monastical life Works of supererogation c. A reformation so indulgent to liberty and sensuality could not want Proselits and in a short tyme appeared the effects therof the Peasants of Germany rebelled against their Princes and Lords in defence of that Euangelical liberty which Luther had preached and in the space of one summer were on both sides a hundred thousand men slain Some Princes to make themselues considerable by heading the multituds which ran to Luther professed his Religion and protected his person and he layd for the foundation of his reformation the ensuing principles SVBSECT I. The fundamentall principles of Protestancy THe first principle and foundation of Luthers and of all Protestant reformations is a supposition that the whole visible Church fell from that primitiue pure doctrin and true meaning of Scripture which Christ our Sauior and the Apostles had planted and the first Christians had professed All râ—formed Churches do and must agree in this supposition the very name of a Doctrinal reformation implies a change and decay of doctrin though they disagree in the tyme and other circumstances of the change Untill Luther had conferred with the Devill he durst not vent this principle he appealed indeed from the Pope to a generall Councell and from a generall Councell when he perceiued one was summon'd to the Church diffusiue but after his conference with Satan he ventured to say Lay aside all the armes of orthodox antiquity Schooles of Diuinity authority of Councells and Popes consent of so many ages and all Christian People we receiue nothing but Scripture yet so that we must haue the certain authority to interpret the same Our interpretation is the sence of the holy Ghost that which others bring though they bee great though many proceedeth from the spirit of Sathan and from a distracted mind The reasons why Luther and all Protestants run this desperat course is because hauing examined and found that orthodox antiquity was Roman Catholik and not one Church parish or person ever Protestant before 1517. they are inforced to maintain by mis-interpreting Scripture that the whole visible Church erred and that God sent them to reform it The second principle of Protestancy is to admit of no rule of faith but only Scripture of no other infallible Judg of the letter or sence of Scripture or of any controversies in Religion but every particular Church and person interpreting Scripture according to their best endeavors and discretion This is expressly declared in the last mentioned words of Luther and inculcated by the Devill to him in his Conference and though few are willing to speake the same words yet is there not one Protestant in the world that doth not practise the very same doctrin and defend it when the matter is argued It necessarily followeth from the first principle Because if the whole visible Church fell from the pure faith and from Gods meaning of Scripture the belief tradition and testimony of that visible Church Councell and Fathers can be no true rule of faith nor themselves fit Iudges of Religion or of the sense of Scripture Therfore every privat Protestant must be his own Guide and Iudg in matters of saluation and Scripture For though Luther Calvin or any Protestant Congregation should pretend that their sense and interpretation of Scripture is that of the holy Ghost and the interpretation of others Diabolical yet no privat Protestant doth look even upon their own reformers or Churches as infallible in this or in any other particular but in as much as he Iudges it agreeth with Scripture and therfore every one that supposeth the fall of the Roman Catholik and visible Church and the fallibility of the Reformers and reformations as all Protestants do will deny that him-self hath any obligation to submit his Iudgment in controversies of Religion to any interpretation of Scripture or decision of doctrin besids his owne and so becoms his owne Guide and his owne Iudg of controversies and makes his owne interpretation of Scripture his only rule of faith The third principle of Protestancy is that men are justified by only faith and that he who hath once justifying faith can neither loose it nor be damned This tenet is cleerly professed as the doctrin of all Protestant Churches in the Catholik doctrin of the Church of England art 11. pag. 5â— seqq And pag. 54. The Papists are declared heretiks for holding that men are to remain doubtfull whether they shall be saved or not From these principles flow that infinit variety of Protestant Religions
were censured in these four first Councels with the Protestant exceptions and objections against the Councel of Trent especily if they wil pervse but the very first leaves of Cardinal Palavicino his confutation of Fr. Paulo Suarez or Servita his history wherin they wil find above tree hundred lyes and calumnies of that Apostata Friar in matter of fact so notorious and vndeniable that our English Prelatick Clergy wil or ought to be ashamed of the Preface they have set before it and of abusing King Iames and his Subjects with such impostures by their extolling so improbable and infamous a Libel Seing therfore the supposed change and fall from primitive Protestancy to popery hath bin from presumption and pride of a privat and censorious judgment against the publick testimony and sense of the visible Church to submission and humility of an obsequious and prudent belief from notorious rebellion against spiritual and temporal superiours to religious and dutifull obedience from gluttony to abstinence from incontinency to chastity from sincerity to flattery from Cloysters and austerity to Sacrilege and liberty from a pretence of faith alone to the Christianity of faith and good works c. It must be concluded that either Protestancy was not the pure and primitive Religion or if it was that the change therof into popery hath bin for the better and by consequence that the first Papist introduced into the world a more sacred and sincere profession then had bin taught by Christ and his Apostles But this being impious and as impossible as it is that men abandoned by God should exceed God's servants in piety or that they should establish and practice more Godly principles and more zealously promote virtue when they fel from God and the way of salvation then when they were in the same it must be granted that Popery is the pure and primitive Religion taught by Christ and his Apostles and that only weak brains or such tender plants as in their infancy received strong impressions of the possibility and existence of an invisible Christian Church vpon earth can fancy an insensible change of it's doctrin profession and ceremonies into so remarkable and different a worship of God as Popery is compared with Protestancy Congregations of Protestants living in the same Provinces Citties and Parishes with Papists and dissenting from them in the outward and oral profession of faith if they did not profess protestancy which they suppose was Christ's faith with the mouth they were dissemblers and could be no part of the true Church in the Canon and sense of Scripture in the administration and number of Sacraments in Rites and Ceremonies in the substance and language of the Liturgy in adoring the B. Sacrament in worshiping of Images in receiving of the Communion c. such Protestant Congregations I say to be invisible and never heard of in 1500. or 1000. years nor observed nor persecuted by the prevailing Papists among whom they lived is not a thing possible or intelligible much less prudently credible We see by experience in these Kingdoms how impossible it is for a Recusant not to be discerned and discovered Papists are known though not convicted Many of them through the mildn'ss and prudence of the government escape the penalties and rigour of the Law but none the observation of their neighbours and very few the menaces of both ecclesiastical and civil Courts The invisibility therfor of the Protestant Church and the insensibility of it's change to Popery is a fitter subject to ground ther-vpon a ridiculous Romance then a religious reformation Perhaps it wil be sayd that Protestants were vntil the last age among the ten tribes as the Jews of whose appearance ther hath bin of late so much talk but we heare not of Protestants among them neither did Luther Zuinglius Cranmer or Calvin pretend that they came from those Israelits or from Terra australis incognita they were born and bred neerer and they brag'd that them-selves were the first Reformers Now to their Scripture SECT III. Protestants mistaken in the Canon of Scripture maintained by the Church of England and by Doctor Cousins Bishop of Duresme OUr second Argument against the probability or possibility of Protestancy being the word or work of God is taken from the Protestants mistake of Scripture and their altering of the Canon And wheras our learned Adversaries do agree with vs in saying that neither the Scripture it-self nor the privat spirit can determin which parts of Scripture are Canonical or holy but confess that this controversy must be decided by the Testimony and authority of the Church and that above 300. years after the Apostles some of their writings were not held by all orthodox Catholicks to be Canonical which now are comprehended in the Canon and admitted as the word of God by many Protestants it foloweth 1. That the Canon of Scripture was not so sufficiently proposed to the whole Church for the three first ages as to make the denial or doubt therof Heresy 2. That the 6. Article of the Prelatick-Religion of England which admitted only such books of Scripture for Canonical of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church is false and the ground therof fallible For as all men vers'd in the Ecclesiastical History wel know and learned Bilson the Protestant Bishop of Winchester doth acknowledg in his survey of Christ's sufferings c. printed 1604. pag. 664. The Scripturs were not fully received in all places no not in Eusebius his time which was above 300. years after the Apostles he saith the Epistles of Iames Iude the second of Peter the second and third of John are contradicted as not written by the Apostles the Epistle to the Hebrews was for a while contradicted c. The Churches of Siria did not receive the second Epistle of Peter nor the second and third of Iohn nor the Epistle of Iude nor the Apocalips c. The like might be sayd for the Churches of Arabia Wil you hence inferr that these parts of Scripture were not Apostolick or that we need not receive them now because they were formerly doubted of This Argument of Bishop Bilson we apply to the Machabees and to the other books declared by the Church of England to be Apocryphal Doctor Cousins writ a book caled a Scholastical History of the Canon of Scripture for which him-self and his friends think he wel deserved the Bishoprick of Duresme that he now enjoys in defence of the Prelatick Protestant Canon and of the 6. article of the Church of England And because he tels us in his Preface that men of knowledg pressed him to publish it as a piece that would give more ample satisfaction and cleere the passages in antiquity from the objections that some late Authors in the Roman side bring against Protestants then those other writings of home or foreign Divines have don that are extant in this kind I thought fit to give Protestants a proof of the soundness of
anxiety which I attribute more to Religion then ignorance See also Pelicanus a learned Protestant writer his great prayses of the Translation of the Psalmes in the vulgar Latin edition in praef in Psalterium an 1584. See also Doctor Covell acknowledging in his answer to Burges pag. 94. The antiquity of the vulgar translation to be so great that it was used in the Church a thousand three hundred years agone and concluding pag. 91. That the most approved Translation authorised by the Church of England is that which cometh neerest to the vulgar and is commonly called the Bishops Bible And Doctor Whitaker in his answer to Mr. Reynolds pag. 141. was pleased to moderat his former rayling against our vulgar Translation revewed by St. Hierom at the request of St. Damasus Bishop of Rome saying St. Hierom J reverence Damasus I commend and the work I confess to be Godly and profitable to the Church The reason that moved the Protestants not to accept or acquiesce in our vulgar Latin Translation so much commended by them-selves and the ancient Fathers is because they would have as much liberty to reject the true letter as the true sence of Scripture their new doctrins being condemned by both For had they granted that any one ancient Translation is authentik how could Luther have had the impudence to thrust into the Text the word alone to assert his justification by only faith Rom. 3.28 or how could he omitt 2. Petr. 1. where it is sayd wherfore brethren labour the more that by good works you may make sure your vocation this particle by good works How could Zuinglius have translated for this is my body this signifies my Body to maintain his figurative signification of the words and cry down Christ's real presence in the B. Sacrament And so of all other Protestants Translations wherof every one hath words added and omitted in the Text which cannot be justified or excused by any ancient copy of Scripture extant in any language whatsoever No mervaile therfore if the Lutherans reject the Calvinists Translation and the Calvinists that of Lutherans the TransTranslation Translation of the Divines of Basile is reproved by Beza who says respon ad defens Cast. that it is in many places wicked and altogeather differing from the mind of the holy Ghost And Molinaeus in Testam part 20.30 c. saith of Beza that in his Translation he actualy changed the Text and of Calvin in Translation Testam nov fol. 110. That he maketh the Text of the Ghospel to leap up and down and that he vseth violence to the letter of the Ghospel and besids this addeth to the Text. As for the English Translation we have King James his true censure in the sume of the conference before his Majesty pag. 46. that he could never yet see a Bible well translated into English His Royall judgment is confirmed by Mr. Carlile of Christ's dessent into Hell pag. 116. where he says of the English Translators that they have depraved the sence obscured the truth and deceived the ignorant that in many places they do detort the Scripturs from the right sence c. The Ministers of Lincoln Diocess in their abridgment of a book delivered to his Majesty the first of December pag. 11. seq say that the English Translation taketh away from the Text addeth to the text and that somtyms to the changing or obscuring of the meaning of the Holy Ghost Also Mr. Burgâ—s in his Apology sect 6. saiâ—h how shal I approve vnder my hand a translation which hath many omissions many additions being somtyms sensless somtyms contrary Other precise and learned Protestants in a Treatise intituled A petition directed to his most excellent Majesty c. pag. 76. say Our Translation of the Psalmes comprised in our book of common prayer doth in addition subtraction and alteration differ from the truth of the Hebrew in 200. places at least And make this the ground of their scruple to make vse of the common prayer And these corruptions are so vndenyable that Dr. Whitaker hath nothing to answer to Dr. Reynolds pag. 255. who objected them against the Church of England but these words What Mr. Carlile with some others hath writen against some places translated in our Bibles maketh nothing to the purpose I have not sayd otherwise but that some things may be amended These corruptions in the English Protestant Bibles are so many and so notorious that Doctor Gregory Martin composed a whole book of them and therin discovers the frauds wherby the Translators pretend to excuse them somtyms they recurred to the Hebrew Text and when that spoke against their new doctrin and translation then to the Greeck when that favoured them not to some copy acknowledged by them-selves to be corrupted and of no credit and when that no copy at all could be found out to cloke their corruptions the book or Chapter of Scripture that contradicts them is declared Apocryphal and when that cannot be made probable they fall down right upon the Prophets and Apostles that writ them and say they might and did err even after the comming of the holy Ghost This is not only Luther's shift all Protestants follow their first reformer in this point having the same necessity imposed vpon them by their own reformations and translations so contrary to the known letter of Scripture Luther being told by Zuinglius tom 2. ad Luther l. de Sacram. pag. 412. seq Thou dost corrupt the word of God thou art seen to be a manifest and common corrupter and perverter of the holy Scriptures how much are we ashamed of thee who have hitherto esteemed thee beyond all measure and now prove thee to be such a man Luther knowing all this to be true had no way left to defend his impiety but by impudency preferring him-self and his own Spirit before that of them who writ the holy Scriptures therfore tom 5. Wittemberg an 1554. fol. 290. in ep ad Galat. cap. 1. after the English Translation fol. 33. 34 he saith Be it that the Church Austin and other Doctors also Peter Paul yea an Angel from heaven teach otherwise yet is my doctrin such as setteth forth God's only glory c. Peter the chief of the Apostles did live and teach extra verbum Dei besides the word of God and against St. James his mentioning the Sacrament of Extreme Unction de Capti Babyl cap. de extrem vnct in tom 2. Wittemberg fol. 86. But though this were the epistle of James I would answer that it is not lawful for an Apostle by his authority to institute a Sacrament this apertaineth to Christ alone As though thas blessed Apostle would publish a Sacrament without warant from Christ. See also what he says of Moyses his writings tom 3. Wittemberg in Psalm 45. fol. 432. 422. tom 3. Germ. fol. 40.41 in Colloq mensal Germ. fol. 152. 153. The Century Writers of Magdeburg follow this doctrin of Luther
their sole belief in Christ without any regard to the morality of good works or to the alleigance and obedience due to Majesty or Magistrasy That which makes most men carefull in God's service is the vncertainty of their saluation and feare of his displeasure by their dayly sins but Protestants are rid of all those perplexities and troubles by their assurance of being justified and saved by only faith which makes adulteries Murthers rebellions c. either no sins at all in them or so venial that they are no sooner committed then pardoned by a more plenary Jndulgence and Jubilee then ever the Pope pretended to have power to grant and without obligation of any satisfaction almes fasting or prayer for past offences or any purpose of future amendment that purpose being rendred not only superfluous by their faith but ridiculous by their doctrin either of the impossibility of keeping God's Commandments or by their Tenet of the necessary springing of good works from faith And because this their Evangelical liberty and indemnity is not consistent with the words of St. Peter 2. Pet. 1. Brethren labour the more that by good works you may make sure your vocation They either make that Epistle apocryphall or leave out of the Text in their Translations those two words good works It is commonly sayd that though many stats-men be Atheists yet they will never permit Atheism to be made the legal Religion of the state because they know that men who do not believe there is a God or providence cannot be kept in awe of the government or brought to observe any other laws but their own appetits seing they neither feare punishment nor expect rewad in an other life for vice or virtue and without this feare and hopes the multitude cannot be govern'd in this world The same reason concludeth that Protestant Politians ought not to make Protestancy the Religion of the state civil government being rendred as difficult and contemptible by an indulgent and over-confident belief as by non at all He who persuads himself that faith alone is sufficient assurance of his saluation and that such a faith once possess'd can not be lost will not avoyd the occasion or resist the temptation of finning for his pleasure or profit nor omit the oportunity of rebelling whensoever it is offered with probability of success so he be cautious in his vices and villanies his justifying saith makes all his designs and devices conscientious and if he can save him-self from being hang'd his Protestant belief will secure him from being damn'd or droun'd in Hell How impossible it is to govern a multitude where this is the Religion not only permitted but promoted is evident by our late distempers Could Tanners Tinkers Taylors Coblers and Bruers domineer and possess peacebly these tree Kingdoms and murther our lawfull and innocent King by a formality of Religion laws and justice had not their wicked practises bin countenanced by the Protestant principles and look't vpon as a restauration of Protestancy vnto it's primitive purity It is credibly reported of their Ring-leader and Regicide Cromwell that he dyed without remors of conscience or signs of repentance for his monstruous villanies because sayd he to his Protestant Divine that assisted him in his last sickness I am sure to be saved seing I had once justifying faith and could never loose it Every resolut Rogue may attempt the most horrid crimes with hopes of prevailing amongst men whose principles are so presuming vpon mercy and so applyable to mis-chief I know it will be answered by them in whom education hath created zeale for the protestant religion or interest hath rendred obstinat in maintaining the same that the principles and articles of protestancy are mistaken and misapplyed not only by vs Catholiks but even by those protestant Authors last quoted in the margents To which we reply 1. That nothing is more preiudiciall to the soule and good government then a religion subiect to so many mistakes and so generally and plausibly mistaken by it's own greatest Doctors 2. We say that our being mistaken is but their privat opinion which opinion though it were back't by a publick Act of their Church can pretend at most but to probability and so much they must also grant to our contrary censure and Judgment of their justifying faith and seing that of two probable opinions the generality of men follow that which favors most their particular inclinations and interests very few protestants will vary from the most favorable explanation of iustifying faith or will wave the comfort that the 11. Article of the Church of England affords to them in that particular calling or canonising it a most wholsom doctrin and very full of comfort K. James was a wise and fore-seing Prince and in the conference at Hampton-Court did countenance the Dean of Pauls and the Bishop of London disputing against Doctor Reynolds and others that maintained the assurance of salvation or predestination by the protestant justifying faith and yet not withstanding the King's dislike noless politik then religious of a principle so damnable to the soule and dangerous to the state it would not be condemned nor censured unless the 39. Articles of religion and the whole frame of English protestancy were overthrown as Doctor Reynolds made appeare And indeed Mr. Perkins doth demonstrat in his reformed Catholick pag. 39. the necessary connexion and continuance of the assurance of salvation with the protestant doctrin of justifying faith in these words If vpon every aboad in sin the party be again vncertain of his salvation then was the former certainty no certainty at all For his sin notwithstanding he yet remembreth his former supposed certainty and therfore if he was once truly assured he can not during every his aboad in sin forget how that he was so assured which his only remembrance therof suffiseth to continue and preserve his former supposed certainty even during his aboad in sin So that if Cromwel by his justifying faith was once sure of his salvation or predestination Protestants must believe he could never loose that assurance and must grant that he went to heaven without any punishment even in Purgatory for his murthers periury hypocrysy adulteries c. Such a belief must needs raise other Cromwells for who will not venture his life for a Crown by the most vnjust means when he is sure to be cron'd in God's glory though he miss of his ayme in this world and perish in the attempt As it cannot be denyed but that these and the like dangerous consequences do naturally flow from this principle of Protestancy so we must acknowledg and admire the extraordinary skill and constancy of them who sit at the helme and steer the ship of this great Common-wealth so stedily in so turbulent a sea and stormy weather against the most violent currents of perverse inclinations and principles long may they continue their prosperous course but surely them-selves do apprehend that at long running
by faith in Christ not by good works which they in no wise did affect We Catholicks do not pretend to have no evill-livers in our Church but this we may say with truth and I hope without offence that the difference between Protestant and Catholick â—â—â—ll-livers is that when Protestants sin they do nothing but what they are encouraged vnto by their justifying faith and the other principles of their Religion but when Catholicks sin they go against the known Tenets of their faith and profession Even our Pardons and Jndulgences how-ever so plenary are so far from encouraging vs to a continuance or relapse of sinning that they involue as a precedent and necessary condition a serious and sincere repentance of our former offences and afirm purpose and resolution of never returning to the like crimes and after all is don we pretend to no such vndoubted certainty of being pardon'd either by confession or Indulgences because we are not certain whether we do al as we ought as Protestants presume to have of their justification and saluation by only faith The nature of this justifying faith and of other Protestant principles considered We Catholicks have reason to thanck God that the prudence â—f the Prince and moderation of his Ministers is so extraordinary that it keeps the indiscreed zeal of a multitude so strangly principl'd if not as much with in the limits of Christianity and civility towards their fellow subjects as were to be wished yet so that the execution of the sanguinary and penal statuts is not altogeather so distructive as the Presbiterians and others endeavor Untill the generality of these Nations reflect vpon the impiety of the first Reformers and vpon their own mistakes in preferring the mad fancies of a few dissolute Friars concerning the nature of Christian faith before the constant Testimony and doctrin of the whole visible Church we cannot expect that they who govern so mistaken a multitude can make justice the rule of the publick Decrees which depend of the concurrence and acceptance of men whose greatest care is to promote Protestancy and persecute Popery SECT IX Protestants mistaken in the consistency of Christian faith humility Charity peace either in Church or state with their making Scripture as interpreted by privat persons or fallible Synods or fancied general Councells composed of all discenting Christian Churches the rule of faith and Iudg of Controversies in Religion How every Protestant is a Pope and how much also they are overseen in making the 39. Articles or the oath of Supremacy a distinctive sign of Loyalty to our Protestant Kings LVther Zuinglius Calvin Cranmer and all others that pretended to reform the doctrin of the Church of Rome seing they could not prove their new Religions or Reformations by testimonies from antiquity or by probability of Reason were inforc't to imitat the example of all Heretiks who as S. Austin says l. 1. de Trin. c. 3. endeavour to defend their falls and deceitfull opinions out of the Scriptures If on shall ask any Heretick saith that ancient Father Vincentius lyr l. 1. cons. Haer. c. 35. from whence do you prove from whence do you teach that I ought to forsake the vniuersal and ancient faith of the Catholik Church Presently he answereth scriptum est It is written and forthwith he prepareth a thousand testimonies a thousand examples a thousand authorities from the law from the Apostles from the Prophets This shift is so ordinary and notorious that Luther him-self postill Wittemberg in 2. con 8. Dom. post Trin. fol. 118. Dom. post Trin. fol. 118. affirmeth the sacred Scripture is the book of Heretiks because Heretiks are accustomed to appeale to that book neither did there arise at any time any heresy so pestiferous and so foolish which did not endeavor to hide it self under the vaile of Scripture And yet Luther Calvin Cranmer c. finding nothing to say for them-selves either in History or Fathers and seing Tradition so cleerly bent against them that they could not name as much as on Parish or person which ever professed their protestant doctrines they appeal'd from the word of God proposed by the visible and Catholick Church and Counâ—â—ls to their own Canon and Translations of Scripture and from that sense of Scripture which the Church and Councells had follow'd for 1500. years to that which their own privat spirit temporal interest or fallacious reason diâ—â—â—ted to them-selves and so did others that followed their examples making every privat Protestant or at least every reforâ—â—d Congregation Judg of Scripture Church Councells and Fathers In so much that Luther tom 2. Wittemberg cap. de Sacram. fol. 375. setteth down this rule for all Protestants to be directed 〈◊〉 The Governors of Churches and Pastors of Christ's sheep 〈◊〉 indeed power to teach but the sheep must judge whâ—â—â—er they propose the voice of Christ 〈◊〉 of strangers c. Wherfore let Popes Bishops Councells c. decree order enact what they please we shal not hinder but we who are Christ's sheep and heare his voice will judge whether they propose things true and agreable to the voice of our Pastor and they must yeeld to us and subscribe and obey our sentence and censure Calvin though contrary to Luthâ—â— in many other things yet in this doth agree as being the ground wherupon all protestant Reformations must rely in his lib. 4. Institut cap. 9. § 8. he says The definitions of Councels must be examined by Scripture and Scripture interpreted by his rules and Spirit The same is maintained by the Church of England as appears in the defence of the 39. Articles printed by authority 1633. wherin it is sayd pag. 103. Authority is given to the Church and to every member of sound judgment in the same to judg controversies of faith c. And this is not the privat opinion of our Church but also the judgment of our godly brethren in foreign Nations And by Mr. Bilson Bishop of Winchester in his true difference c. part 2. pag. 353. The people must be Discerners and Judges of that which is taught How inconsistent this doctrin is with Christian faith is evident by the pretended fallibility and fall of the visible Church which all Protestants do suppose and must maintain to make good the necessity and lawfullness of their own interpretations and Reformations For if the Roman Catholik and ever Visible Church may and from time to time hath erred as the Church of England declares in the 39. Articles no reformed Congregations whether Lutheran Presbiterian or Prelatick can have infallible certainty but that them-selves have fallen into as great errors as those which they have pretended to reform in the Roman Church And if they have not infallible certainty of the truth of their reformed doctrin they can not pretend to Christianity of faith that involves an assurance of truth which assurance is impossible if that the Church can be mistaken in it's proposall So that Christianity of faith including
Councells Fathers that lived within five or six hundred years after Christ. And pag. 264. it is most notoriously evident that for the grossest points of popery as Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Mass worshiping of Images Iustification by works the supremacy of the Pope prohibition of Priests marriage they Papists have no shew of any evidence from Fathers within five hundred years after Christ. And yet this very man being pressed with St. Augustin and the Church in his time holding of popish doctrin doth grant it and says that can not prejudice protestancy for that the pure time of the primitive Church extended not much beyond the age of the Apostles So that he whom before you heard take God to witness that the Church was so pure for the first five or 6. hundred years that Papists had no colour for their Tenets in Fathers or Councells now doth confess not only that St. Austin but the whole Church was infected with popery not long after the age of the Apostles The honest Willet divideth his book of answer and satisfaction into foure several parts in the first he setteth down 13. vntruths objected by his adversary as notoriously wilfull in the second as many objected contradictions in the third the like number of falsifications of Authors and in the fourth thirteen corruptions of Scripture I will mention but two or three and leave my Reader to judge of the man's honesty by his answers pag. 29. his adversary doth object against him these words of his taken out of his Synopsis pag. 609. The Mass promiseth sufficient redemption to the wicked that have spent their life in drunkeness adultery c. if they come to the Church and hear Mass and take holy Bread and holy water c. though they never pray nor repent nor hear the word preached Which words being confessed by Mr. Willet to be his his adversary doth accuse him of willfull lying or intolerable ignorance for that in no Roman Catholick writer in the world shall he find this proposition or the parts therof Willet answers not to the particular charge but taketh occasion for more then a dozen pages together to prove that the Roman doctrin doth not favor virtue or good manners more then the Protestant nor yet so much alledging for his proof that to hold the Commandements to be impossible and that the first motions of concupiscence be sin without consent and that a man is sure of his predestination by faith and the like Protestant doctrins are causes of much virtue among them as the contrary doctrins held by Papists are causes of wicked life on their parts So he answereth to his accusation with so manifest an absurdity as to say that men are inclined to observe God's Commandments by holding it impossible to keep them wheras if they be not mad that principle must dissuade them from attempting any such observation seeing it is a madness to endeavor an impossibility and to believe that God doth command things impossible Of their assurance of predestination and justification we have proved heretofore how inconsistent it is with good works moral virtue the salvation of the soul and tranquillity of the state And as for their making the first motions of concupiscence a sin without consent it is the sink and source from whence Protestants suck most of their errors From hence they inferr that all the best actions of man are infected with mortal crime because they pass through the stinking Channell of human corruption hence they deny the merit of good works wrought by grace hence the impossibility of fulfilling God's Commandments for that every action of the just is of it 's own nature a transgression of his Laws Hence no inherent but a vain imputative Justice hence the justification by faith alone hence no freedom of will to perform any morall good no liberty in man to cooperat with God when he first moveth awaketh and calleth him out of the state of sin c. But let 's return from Willet's absurdities to his falsifications I let pass his falsifying S. Bernard to make him say that the Pope is Antichrist by applying the words of the Apocalyps The beast to which a mouth was given speaketh blasphemies doth sit in Peter's Chaire it being evident that Saint Bernard applyed those words not to any true Pope but to an Anti-Pope called Petrus Leonis because he entred by violence into that Sea I likewise pretermit his fraud and folly in saying your doctrin in prohibiting and restraining marriage to your Clergy how it helpeth to holiness 〈◊〉 Bernard wâ—ll 〈◊〉 saying Tolle de Ecclesia 〈…〉 c. Wheras S. Bernard speaks in defence of the 〈…〉 against 〈◊〉 Hereticks of his time 〈…〉 never dreamed 〈…〉 marry himself having bin a votary and vnto 〈◊〉 Monk Letting 〈◊〉 I say thâ—se I will only mention how he accuseth all Catholicks of heresy for defending the lawfulness of the vow of voluntary 〈…〉 against vs that it was the heresy of the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 to persuade men to cast away their riches S. Austin and all other Authors tell vs that the sayd Pelagians and Manicheâ—s were not condemned of 〈◊〉 for persuading men to give away their riches but for maintaining that all rich men were bound to forsake all their riches 〈◊〉 that otherwise they could not go to heaven But now 〈…〉 shew the sincerity of the English Protestant Clergy since the beginning of King Iames his reign vntill this present SECT VII Falsifications and frauds of the prelatick English Clergy to maintain protestancy since the begining of King Iames. SVBSECT I. Their corruptions of Scripture for maintaining their caracter continued in the Bible though commanded by King Iames it should be reviewed and corrected THe English Protestant Translations of Scripture had bin so cryed down as fals and corrupt by Catholicks and acknowledged such by many learned Protestants that King Iames commanded a review and reformation of those Translations which had passed for God's word in King Edward 6. and Qveen Elizabeths days the work was vndertaken by the Prelatick Clergy not so much for zeale of truth as for a shew of compliance with his Majesty who protested in the Conference at Hampton-Court he never had seen an English Bible truly translated And because the Catholicks insisted much vpon two main points in their former Controversies wherin they observed the illiterat sort of people had bin most abused by the English Translators of Scripture to wit by their translating Jmages for Idols and Ordination by Election for Ordination by imposition of hands by the first wherof the Roman Catholick Religion was generally held by the simple sort to be Idolatry and by thâ— second the Protestant Prelatick Clergy were mistaken for Priests and Bishops 〈…〉 never had received any Episcopal Ordination but what they challenged by the Queenes 〈…〉 election and by an act of Parliament 8. Eliz 1. because I say these two â—â—â—sifications were so palpably fraudulâ—nt and
as his Majesty was going to the Chappel vpon Good friday in the morning in the yeare 1604. Deane 〈…〉 difficulties 〈…〉 Book MY 〈…〉 the Author's complaint that Catholiks â—â—ving 〈…〉 offers of some jâ—st tryall of their and 〈…〉 Religion in England either by publick disputation free writing or printing they could never yet be admitted vnto any which made me much to mervaile vpon what cause or ground this should be so long denyed for that supposing our Protestant Religion to be true as I was persuaded I could not see why this pâ—â—blick tryall might not be and ought not to be granted Moreover I saw and considered that wheras his Majesty soon after his coming into England was resolved gratiously to heare the differences that were between his own subjects and to that effect yeelded for three or four days most honorable audience in his own person to heare and Iudge the contentions between the Protestants and puritans yet notwithstanding in this conference the Papists had no place at all which was marked by many and divers also spoke therof Wherfore vpon these considerations I was much troubled doubting lest this straitness vsed in not admitting Papists to any kind of this equal offered tryall might have some mystery in it and that all things went not so cleere indeed on our side as I had hitherto believed My second difficulty was about the tryall of spirits whether they be of God or no the Author of the Defence joyning roundly with M. r Chark offered to stand to all lawfull tryall whatsoever and therupon taketh in hand to prove that Protestants have no sure ground or way to try an heretical or Catholick spirit and that Catholicks have many wherof he setteth down nine shewing first that the only way offered by Protestants of only Scripture is no way at all and that for divers reasons one among the rest that all heretickâ— both old and new have professed this way c. which 〈◊〉 it were admitted to be the best and that Scripture 〈◊〉 neither corrupted in the letter nor perverted in the 〈◊〉 by Protestants yet could not that way of tryall advance 〈◊〉 advantage their cause because the Catholicks have express 〈◊〉 of Scripture for themselves and Protestants no express 〈…〉 for their Tenets As for example Catholicks have 〈◊〉 This is my Body for Transubstantiation Mat. 26. 〈◊〉 man is justifyed by workes and not by faith only Jacob. 2. for â—â—â—tification by Good workes Whose sins you forgive are forgiâ—â—â— c. Joan. 20. for absolution The doers of the Law 〈◊〉 be justified Rom. 2. for the possibility of observing the Commandements vow ye and render your vowes Psalm 75. for votaries Keep the traditions which you have learned either by word or epistle â— Thess. 2. for vnwritten Traditions c. Protestants have not one express text in all Scripture for their Tenets My third difficulty was about the first beginners of our Protestant doctrin to wit Luther with his schollers Zuinglius Câ—â—oldstadius Oecolampadius Calvin Beza c. for that albeit Religion is not to be measured by the life of the Teacher yet I considered that whensoever God did send any men extâ—â—ordinarily to reform his Church they were alwayes comâ—only of more eminent virtue in their lives then others as 〈◊〉 seen by all the Patriarchs and Prophets by St. John Baptiâ—â— and others in succeeding ages But now for these men before named Luther and the rest this writer of the Defence doth shew by very great testimonies that they were men far inferiour vnto the common sort of honest men that Luther had his reformation against the Mass Intercession of Saints c. from the Devill from whom also Zuinglius received his opinion against the real presence and Transubstantiation that Calvin followed therin Zwinglius and we in England embrace the same That Hierom Bolseâ— Doctor of Physiâ— many yeareâ— in Geneua and other places round â—bout in 〈◊〉 time when himself was a 〈…〉 things both of 〈…〉 his falshood might be so easily 〈…〉 As that Iohn Calvin was 〈…〉 with a burning â—â—â—ron for 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 who preserved 〈…〉 and that 〈◊〉 was testifyed by publick record of the said Citty of Noyâ—â—â— and that this was registred by Monsieur Bertilier Secretary of the Councell of Geneva vnder a publick and sworn 〈◊〉 hand he relates many things of Calvin's excessive ambition intollerable hypocrisy delicat niceness and lascivious carnaâ—â—â— As for Beza who lived when Bolsek's book was written he reporteth many enormous things as that he kept both a boy and a Queane Andebertus and Candida that he ran away with a Taylor 's wife that dwelt in Calenâ—â—r street in Paris â—he robbing her husband to accompany him and that he continued the like life after keeping an harlot called 〈◊〉 together with his own wife and killing his own Child begotten vpon her to cover the sin by letting her blood above measure and many other soul things which I avoyd to name for loathsomness My fourth difficulty was thaâ— the Defence of the Censâ—â—â— sheweth how our Church of England doth receive and 〈◊〉 for Brethren such as could never agree nor cannot at the day in sundry substantial points of doctrin as the book proves by their confessions protestations and writings one against the other as also by sundry Synods and Protestant Councells wherin the one hath condemned the other And namely he citeth this saying of Luther among many other I do protest before God and the world that I do not agree with them the Sacramentarians which is our Religion of England 〈…〉 will while the world standeth but will have my hand◠〈…〉 the blood of those sheep which these hereticks do drive 〈…〉 and kill 〈…〉 it was possible that Luther 〈…〉 with God's holy spirit 〈…〉 so manifestly condemn us 〈…〉 for 〈◊〉 hereticks that hold him for 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 very same doctrin as doctrin 〈…〉 for pernitious heresy This 〈…〉 I might have some 〈…〉 〈◊〉 fifth difficulty was M. r Fulk and our Protestant 〈◊〉 contempt of the holy Fathers and of Traditions 〈…〉 I fell vpon this account whether it were more 〈…〉 me to adventure my soul with Fulk and our 〈…〉 or with the antient Fathers and whether it 〈…〉 probable that they should know what passed in 〈…〉 Church better then St. Cyprian St. Austin c. 〈…〉 troubled me as I thought every day a year 〈…〉 〈…〉 was about M. r Chark against whom 〈…〉 was written who seemed to me 〈…〉 very 〈…〉 impugning the same for that 〈…〉 not 〈◊〉 to any of the difficulties as to 〈◊〉 seemed and much less in his reply to the defence 〈◊〉 afterward I 〈◊〉 to see The substance of Dean Walsingham's memorial to the King 〈◊〉 a certain memorial as I may call it wherin I 〈◊〉 comprehended as compendiously as then I could some chief 〈◊〉 principal causes of my doubts and difficulties before 〈◊〉 and contained in that book desiring his Highness 〈…〉 Mr. Doctor Covell told me
confess a fault in the maintenance wherof their fortunes are concerned and by consequence how accomptable the protestant layty is to God for not mistrusting and examining the truth and sincerity of their own Clergy being so indigent and so interessed persons and so confidently charged and so frequently caught with falshoods what fraud can be more visible then to make men believe that so infamous and dissolute persons as Luther Zuinglius Calvin Cranmer and Beza c. were Saints sent by God to restore his Church vnto it's primitive doctrin and spirit or that they and all protestants do agree in all matters of faith against Papists Their dissentions vices and wickedness are so manifest that they can not be denyed without impudency and without giving the lye to the whole world and contradicting their own writings And yet the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and his Junta of Divines would face down Mr. Walsingham that there was no such matter and because the poore man humbly petitioned to have the matter decided by comparing their own books which were in the next roome with his notes he was censured and called a foolish bold Knave impudent fellow sâ—â—cy Companion c. and threatned with prison and pillary And for that they durst not betray the weakness of their cause by so publick and violent proceedings against a known protestant who desired to continue one of themselves if protestancy did not prove to be a mistake of Christianity the Arch-bishop to be shut of him sent him to the Commissary of St. Albans to be resolved forsooth whether Luther acknowledged in his Books that he began the protestant Reformation and impugned the Mass adoration of the Sacrament Invocation of Saints c. moved therunto by the devill 's arguments in a real conference between himself and sathan as if this passage and others of Luther's and Calvin's works were not to be found in London or in his Graces Library at Lambeth as well as at St. Albans And after that by his own importunity Mr. Walsingham had obtained of Doctor Covell to shew him Luther's book wherin he acknowledged this conference and conviction of the Devill 's arguments that the Doctor should interrupt him and divert the whole discourse with a rush you see I have this book and many such like 3. Reflexion By what particular indirect means cavills and Calumnies the Arch-bishop himself endeavored to maintain the protestant Religion and discredit the Catholick delivering to Mr. Walsingham Mr. Bell's libell against the Iesuits as an invincible fortress against the Roman faith and his other book full of corruptions and falsifications as a very sincere and solid piece which falsifications being shewed to them all sitting in their Junta and Iudgment about that affaire the Arch-bishop durst not send into his study for the Fathers works that were affirmed by Mr. Walsingham to have bin corrupted by Bell and Calvin c. His Lordship 's confessed practise also of burning Catholick Books argues the weaknes of the protestant cause and proves how much they are afraid their own false dealing and the impiety of their principles should be discovered 4. Reflexion That Mr. Walsingham's case hath bin and is revived and practised now every day when any conscientious protestant begins to doubt of the safety and sincerity of his Religion The protestant Clergy tells him that he is in a sure way of salvation and yet this assertion is against one of their articles of faith to wit that which acknowledgeth their Church is fallible in proposing Christ's doctrin and the true sense of Scripture and by consequence for all they know themselves may be in damnable errors Then they tell him the Papists are Jdolaters worship Anti-Christ c. that our Books of Controversyes are full of lyes and fables and to make good these their impostures they not only corrupt our Authors but translate into English all infamous libells though they treat not of controversies as the Jansenists Letters Palafox his relations and for the renegat Fr. Paulo his history of the Councell of Trent they swear it is the most exact and sincere work of this age wheras Cardinal Palavicino in his answer to the same and in the very begining hath set down 300. of Fr Paulo's vntruths in matter of fact so palpable that they seem inexcusable in him and render others guilty of vnpardonable rashness and obstinacy who credit so mistaken or malicious an Author and preferr his bare word before the vnanimous Testimony of all Christendom that hath accepted the definitions of the Councell as Catholick truths which they would never have don had they bin such as Fr Paulâ— describes Js it likely that the Bishops Embassadors and Prelats of so different nations and subjects to Princes of so contrary Interests who were present at the Councill and recommended to their flocks and friends the decrees of Trent as sacred would conspire to cheat and damne their Souveraigns relations and neighbors Or that they knew not better how matters went in the Councill or were not more impartial in relating them then one Apostâ—ta Friar or those persons from whom he pretends to have received his papers and intelligence with such pittifull frauds and fashoods are many poor protestant soules deluded and seduced into eternal damnation which they deserve for believing their own Clergy without any further examination of the scruples and doubts which common sense and natural reason doth raise in every one of them that converseth with Roman Catholicks or observeth the incoherency and inconstancy of protestancy together with it's singularity and pride of Spirit contemning the primitive true sense of Scripture declared by vniversal Tradition and the vnanimous consent of all orthodox Fathers and Councills Perditio tua ex te Jsrael 5. Reflexion One of my Lord of Canterburyes reasons to Mr. Walsingham against crediting the Popish book was do you not know when two men go to law together one will speak the worst he can by the other And though this ought not to be practised in law suites much less in controversies of Religion yet seeing my Lord would have protestants read our books with that prejudice reason doth dictat that theirs ought not to be read without caution especially Seeing every protestant â—eader makes himself supreme Judge of Controversies of Religion and no Judge ought to give sentence before both sides be heard Suppose therfore that the protestant and Catholick Clergy are engaged not only in a dispute of Religion but in a suit of Law to wit whether the revenues of the Church of the three Kingdoms belong of right rather to the present possessors then to the ancient proprietors neither party say you ought to be Iudge in his own cause who then must decide the business The Layty Content let my Lord Chancellor of England notwithstanding his known Jnclination to favor and promote protesâ—â—â—cy be named head of a Committee for examining and deciding the question Let it be tryed in publik Court which
the tendernes of her conscience was satisfied there could be no scruple of Sacriledge in applying with consent of the true owners ecclesiastical livings to pious and publick vses And now I hope I may conclude this Treatise with humbly desiring a Conference or examination of Protestant and Catholick books at least of one for each side let the quotations of Doctor Taylors Dissuasive be viewed and that book or any other writ against the Roman Religion stand for the Protestants sincerity t is like he writ nothing carelesly or rashly his declared drift being to make a whole Nation Protestants and professing himself to be only Amanuensis to a prelatick Convocation of reformed Bishops which in his Preface he compares with that Assembly of the Apostles wherin choyce was made of Iudas his Successor and sayes the lot of St. Mathias fell vpon himself and that some other like himself was Barnabas the just Jf this holy Convocation of Protestant Apostles should set forth a Book that hath more lyes then leaves I hope men may advise their friends to consider whether a Religion that cannot be maintained but by such men and means and a Clergy that practiseth such frauds and falsifications ought to be preferred before a Religion and Clergy that not only professeth as all others do to write truth but presseth to come to a publick trial therof in a â—egall way and rather then fail herein are content that the controversy be decided by them that are known to be most zealously devoted to Protestancy I do not instance Bp. Taylors Dissuasive from Popery for the Trial as if his falsifications to maintain Protestancy were more numerous or more enormous then those of other writers that have defended the same cause No. He is more waâ—y then many and more moderat then most of his predecessors or equalls But I instance his book to give my adversaries all the advantages that the learning of the Author and the Authority of a Convocation can afford Jf they have a better opinion of the sufficiency of Bishop Jevell then of Bp. Taylor they may fix rather vpon his Apology for the Church of England then vpon Doctor Taylors Dissuasive from Popery authorized by the Church of Ireland To Jevells Apology we oppose Harding Stapleton and Rastalls Answers To Taylors Dissuasive Worsley Lengar and Sergeants Annotations But if they refuse this offer as pointing but at two particular Doctors of their Church let them be pleased to have the truth of their Reformation and the sincerity of their whole Clergy examined by answering to the frauds and falsifications wherwith I charge their whole Church and calling in this book FINIS The Summe of this Treatise Containing the Substance of every Section THE FIRST PART Containing the Matter of Fact of the Beginning Progress Principles and effects of Protestancy SECTION I. HOw necessary a rational religion is for a peaceable government and wherin doth the reasonableness of Religion consist How dangerous for a temporal Soveraign to pretend a spiritual supremacy over his subjects Heathen Princes durst not assume it without a persuasion in their subjects that it was due by descent from some Deity or that the Gods signified their approbation therof by prodigies and miracles The great Turk notwithstanding his tyranny thinks it not policy to pretend a spiritual jurisdiction over his subjects though slaves The ground of policy piety and peace consists in establishing by law a Religion confirmed by miracles that such a Religion will make the Prince powerfull and popular the Prelats respected the people willing to obey and pay taxes It takes away all pretexts of rebellion vpon the score of a tenderness of conscience How necessary it is for the Government to have a devout Clergy and that Clergy at the Soveraigns devotion and Some of them emploied in State affairs Therby all disputes between the spirituall and temporall jurisdictions are prevented With how much reason Statesmen dread such disputes For the space of 1500. years the Catholick world believed that the Bishop of Rome had the supreme spiritual jurisdiction over souls as being Christ's Vicar vpon earth and that only such as were of his Communion and vnder his obedience were members of the Catholick Church and therfore the Greeks for exempting the Bishop of Constantinople and themselves from that obedience were declared Schismaticks others were condemned as Hereticks for teaching and professing doctrin contrary to the Roman Both the doctrin and authority of the Roman Bishops and Clergy hath been confirmed by vndeniable true miracles even here in England Jt was held to be the only Catholick doctrin in St. Gregory the great his time That faith which wee Roman Catholicks now profess is the same in every particular with that of St. Gregory and of all Orthodox Christians of his time and for confirmation wherof true miracles have been wrought SECT II. OF the Author and beginning of Protestancy The first Preacher therof was Martin Luther an Augustin Friar who from his youth had bin lianted by the Devil and presumed to have bin possessed He resolved to preach and write against the Mass praying to Saints and other Catholick Tenets after that the Devil had appeared to him and convinced him by Protestant arguments How weakly the Protestant writers endeavour to excuse Luthers disputation instruction and familiarity with the Devil Others acknowledge it and maintain that the Devils doctrin ought to be believed when it agrees with the Protestant interpretation of Scripture that is with every privat interpretation contrary to the sense of the whole visible Church How much it is against piety and policy to make the Protestant or any other privat interpretation of Scripture the Religion of the State or to preferr it before that of the Church and of the holy ancient Fathers quoted subsect 1. passim SECT III. OF the principles ad propagation of Protestancy How Luther begun his reformation by gaining Poets Players Painters and Printers to discredit by their Poems Pamphlets pictures and ballads the Roman Catholick Religion and its Clergy How he drew also many dissolute Friars and Priests to his side and married nine of them to so many Nuns in one day taking also one to himself How he made his reformation plausible to Libertins by teaching that only Faith was necessary for Salvation without troubling themselves with good works and popular by preaching that no Christian ought to be subject to an other and how therupon the Clowns and Tenants of Germany rebelled against their Princes and Landlords The three fundamental principles of Protestancy are 1. That for many ages the whole visible Church had bin in damnable errors and so continued vntill Luthers reformation 2. That there is no rule of faith but Scripture as Protestants are pleased to interpret it 3. That men are justified by only faith How from these principles have issued innumerable Protestant Religions contrary one to the other Luther did see his own reformation divided into 130. disagreing sects of
of England Of his design to reform the principles and liberty of Protestancy intending therby to render it less dangerous to lawfull Soveraigns and Monarchy How K. Charles 1. pursued his Fathers design but his sufferings and death demonstrat the impossibility of confining the Protestant liberty within the rules of Government or reason By the fundamental principles of Protestancy every particular person is a Supreme Iudge in spiritual affairs and may more easely apply and abuse that prerogative to the prejudice of his Soveraign then the Pope can his papal Supremacy Therfore it s a great providence of God when any Protestant King of England escapes to be judged and deposed by his Subjects THE SECOND PART OF the vnreasonableness of Protestancy and of the inconsistency of the principles of Protestancy with Christian piety and peaceable government SECT I. THe vnreasonableness and inconsistency of Protestancy with Christian piety or policy proved by the very fundamental principle of all Protestant reformations which principle is a supposition of the fallibility and fall of the visible Catholick Church from the pure and primitive doctrin of Christ to damnable errors and notorious superstition Such a change is demonstrated both incredible and impossible SECT II. THe Protestants proof of such a change is their pretended cleerness of Scripture It is demonstrated that their Sense of Scripture is not clear in any texts controverted between Catholicks and Protestants That the principles of Protestancy incline to vice the Catholick principles to vertue proved in many particulars The invisibility of the Church a ridiculous comment SECT III. THe Protestant letter and Sense of Scripture is not the word of God Doctor Cossins his Scholastical History of the English Canon of Scripture confuted as also his exceptions against the authority of the Roman Catholick Canon The Lutheran Churches of Germany agree not with the English Canon of Scripture SVBSECT I. DOctor Cossins now Bp. of Duresme his exceptions against the Councel of Trent answered The legality of a Councel as well as of a Parliament may stand with the absence of many members if they were summoned and expected The absurdity of Protestant writers excepting against the want of Bishops in the Councel of Trent wheras themselves made new Religions and reformations by a Single voice of Luther Zuinglius Calvin c. and in England by the vote of the major part of twelve persons named by the Parliament to determin matters of faith and Sacraments seaven men were thought sufficient to do the work and cast the Roman Catholick Religion Protestant Bishops can no more pretend to sit and define in a general Councel then proclaimed rebells can pretend to vote in a lawful Parliament It s as reasonable the Bishop and Church of Rome should condemn hereticks and judge all controversies of faith as it is that a King and Parliament condemn rebells and judge suites in law A new definition of Pope or Councel is no new article of faith it is only a declaration of our obligation to believe that which formerly had bin revealed but not sufficiently proposed Doctor Cossins his egregious falsification of Belarmin his wresting words of St. Austin and St. Hierom. SECT IV. THe Protestant translations of Scripture are fraudulent and fals no certainty of Christian faith can be built vpon them Protestants admit no Coppy or translation to be authentick to the end they may be at liberty to reject what they do not fancy of the letter of Scripture as well as of the sense The vulgar Latin is authentick Scripture How corrupt are all English Bibles How in K. Edward 6. his reign Cranmer and the first Apostles of English Protestancy changed the very text of Christs words This is my body three several times Protestants make the Apostles fallible in doctrin even after receiving the holy Ghost and by consequence must hold their writings or Scripture to be fallible SVBSECT I. MAny particular instances of Protestant corruptions in the English Bibles to asert the Protestant and prelatick doctrin of the Church of England Against images Against Ordination by imposition of hands Against the single life of Priests Against the Sacrifice of Masse Against vowes of chastity To favor the Kings Supremacy How fondly these corruptions are excused by Whitaker and how absurdly Scripture is made speak according to the Protestant translations What small hopes there are that a Clergie which corrupts Scripture or continueth and countenanceth corruptions of Scripture will repent or recant their errors and how little reason the Protestant layty hath to rely vpon their Clergys sincerity or vpon their English Scripture SECT V. THe Protestant interpretation is not the true Sense of Scripture The principal part of Gods word is the sense he delivered to the Church together with the letter It s against reason to believe that the Church would be more carefull of preserving the letter then of preserving the sense of Scripture and therfore Protestants are vnexcusable for taking the letter from the Roman Church and rejecting the sense The holy Fathers bid us receive the Sense of Scripture as well as the letter from the Church An infallible mark of heresy to do the contrary It is at least 16. to one that the Roman Catholick Sense of Scripture is true and the Protestant fals SECT VI. NO Protestant Church hath a true Ministery Miracles Succession of doctrin or Sanctity of life Their extraordinary vocation is ridiculous and incredible it being impossible that God should send Ministers to contradict doctrin confirmed with so many signs of his own authority and approbation as the Roman Catholick is God never sent such vitious men as the Protestant reformers were to reform his Church either in the old or new Testament If the Protestant doctrin had bin true God would have wrought miracles to confirm it for the conversion of the seduced Papists as Protestants confess he doth for the conversion of the Jndians Iaponians and China What wicked men were Luther Zuinglius Calvin Beza Cranmer and the rest of his Camerades that framed the Religion and Liturgy of the Church of England and how little credit in matters of faith deserves the Parliament that confirmed the same Calvins miracle at Geneva foretold by Tertullian SECT VII THe conversion of pagan Kings and Kingdoms to Christianity foretold in Scripture is a more cleer sign of the true Church then any other miracles and not to be found in any other Church but in the Roman Catholick acknowledged by learned protestants Of Barlows three-score invisible Queens converted by protestants No greater an absurdity then their invisible Church The vain endeavors of Calvin and other protestants to convert Heathen nations Bezas despair of Success in that Ministery and his advice to protestants to leave that labor to the Jesuits and rather busy themselves at home Tertullians saying that its a sign of hereticks to pervert Christians not convert pagans may be properly applyed to Protestants Their success in propagating their new Ghospel no