occasion to admire the little conscience of your late English Doctors in challenging the Fathers of the first fiue hundred yeares wherein if their Aduersaries might come to an indifferent and equall tryall with them the very Titles of the Fathers Books against them were sufficient to ouerthrow them Only in this place I will giue the Reader this short Notandum for the which if he desire sincerely to know and belieue the Doctrine of the Fathers he shall haue cause to thanke me When any of the holy Fathers do censure any poynt of Doctrine taxing it of Heresy or noteth it as the particuler opinion of some Heretike or reproueth it very much or wondreth at it especially if it be such a thing as euery learned Man may easily know or was necessary to be taught and that no other Father did therein oppose himself against him It is an euident Testimony that his Doctrine therein was the generall Doctrine of the Church at that tyme and ought to be so receaued of the Ages that follow Wherefore the Author of that Booke hauing shewed so many poynts of your Doctrine to haue beene so notoriously cēsured and condemned by the Auncient Fathers of the first fiue hundred yeares in the Hetetikes of those tymes besides many other poynts and some of those also condemned by Fathers and Councells in after Ages whereunto you haue not answered a word it is for ought I can see or perceaue a cleare demonstration that the Fathers of those tymes were theirs and that eyther your Professors were none at all or no other then those that were condemned by them Thus all things with them are infallibly certaine easie to be knowne and most conspicuous They follow the streame and current of that Doctrine which by many knowne Successions of holy and learned Men Martyres and Bishops as it were by so many Channells they deriue from Christ and his Apostles They follow the fame and greatnes of that Church which by conuerting Countries and Nations in all Ages is become eminent and apparent aboue all other sortes of Christians like a Citty vpon a Hill aboue the Moale-hills or like the Little Stone in Daniel which growing to be a Mountaine filleth the world with it's greatnes They follow the security of those Letters-Patents which the hand of God hath signed with his owne Seale and cōmended to the world by Attestation of many Myracles in confirmation of their Doctrine And lastly they follow the infallible and powerfull Authority of that Body which by Cēsures of Doctors Decrees of Coūcells from tyme to tyme hath euer confounded all those that opposed themselues against it While you in the meane tyme without any lineall Descente from those whome you pretend to haue beene your Auncestors without the Progenie of any Gentills conuerted by you without any warrant of Gods hand or sentence of his Iudges for you do still remayne in the darcknes of your inuisible Church tossed in the Sea of Error with euery winde of new Doctrine not knowing certainly whome to follow nor what to belieue vntill at the last euen the wisest of you being wearie of seeking and desperate of finding that which they seeke come to hold all opinions probable which is in effect to belieue nothing Good Syr had you produced such a Successiō such cōuersions of Nations such Myracles and Censures in the defence of your Church as that Booke hath shewed in confirmation of theirs all zealous Protestants had been bound to haue fallen at your feete and to haue honoured you for euer But now on the other side against such weighty and massie matters such cleare and conuincing proofes as these not being able to giue in euidence so much as one Professor in euery Age nor in any Age the conuersion of any Nation or the testimony of any Myracle or the Censure of any one Father in fauour of your Religion who seeth not that insteed of reason there is nothing but passion on your part and certainly for the honour of your cause it were better to hold your peace then reply so weakely in a matter of such importance For besides all that hath beene sayd against many other most expresse Sentences of the Auncient Fathers in those very poynts which you haue chosen to touch you haue only produced a few dribling Authorities as it were on the Bye some falsely translated and some falsely cited and some in respect of other expresse words agaynst you plainely falsified that not to accuse you of a bad Conscience though you make profession to be much versed in the Fathers yet the Reader must needes think you neuer saw or read so much as those few places which your selfe haue cited but only tooke them by retaile frō others And howsoeuer though they were admitted and taken as you giue them vp yet in my poore opinion they eyther touch not your Aduersaries at all or being a little considered make rather with them then against them Which sheweth great want of iudgment in you and I verily thinke if you will be pleased to examine them with me I shall make you see it Wherefore as in the former Section soe that you may know in this also how far you are chargable I giue you the summe of your accompt in this manner The Doctrine of that Church which was condemned by the Fathers of the first fiue hundred yeares was condemned by Christ and his Apostles But the Doctrine of the Protestant Church was condemned by the Fathers of the first 500. yeares as the most and best learned Protestants themselues haue also confessed Ergo the Doctrine of the Protestant Church was likewise condemned by Christ and his Apostles Section V. Myracles defended to be a sufficient Testimony of Truth and the Doctrine of the Fathers therein declared WHerefore to begin as you doe with Myracles most certaine it is that no true Myracle can be wrought but only by him Qui facit mirabilia magna solus and therefore whēsoeuer any true Myracle is shewed or sufficiently testified vnto vs in confirmation of any point of Doctrine it is an euident proofe of the truth thereof For a Myracle in that case is the Testimony of God who speaketh by workes as men by wordes sayth S. Aug. Epist 49. quaest 6. and is the subscription as it were of his hand and seale vnto it And certainly if Myracles were no sufficiēt proofes of true Doctrine they would neuer haue beene called Signes and Testimonyes in holy Scripture God would not haue giuen Moyses power of working Myracles Exod. 4. That the People of Israel might belieue he had appeared vnto him Our Sauiour would not haue sayd the Iewes had not sinned in not receauing him if he had not done those workes which no man els had done before him Ioan. 15. And in vayne should he haue promised that Signes should follow those that belieued and haue cooperated and confirmed the Doctrine of the Apostles by them Neyther could he in Iustice haue commaunded the world
vpon paine of damnation to belieue a thing so incredible as that Christ being Crucified was risen againe in his owne flesh and ascended into Heauen if many other Myracles which the Apostles wrought in confirmation therof had not made it euidently credible as S. Austen disputeth in his booke de Ciuit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 7. and in the former Epist. 49. quaest 6. albeit he well obserued that this kind of proofe was euer lowdly and extremely laught at by the wicked Pagans yet most true it is which there he also affirmeth that we should not belieue Christ to be risen againe frō the Dead if the Fayth of Christians did feare in this point of Myracles the laughter of Pagans Wherefore to answere those places of the Fathers which you obiect not only agaynst so many of their owne Testimonies alleaged by your Aduersary but also against Scripture and against Christian beliefe it selfe grounded vpon Myracles as hath beene noted you must further vnderstand that the world hauing beene once perswaded by myraculous operations and workes of wōder to belieue the Doctrine of the Apostles with this firme promise that it should alwayes remaine with them and their Successors the visible Pastors of the Catholike Church vniuersally spread ouer all the world it ought not to belieue any other Doctrine or any other Myracles pretended to be done in opposition to that Doctrine which by continuall Tradition hath beene receaued frō them For as there can be no after-word of God contrary to that which was first preached soe there can be no latter Myracles contrary to the testimony of those by which the world first belieued but rather as S. Paul saith If an Angell from Heauen should preach otherwise then we haue receaued we should hold him accursed This made Tertullian in the Booke you cite de Praesc cap. 44. to protest against all Myracles supposed to be done against the Tradition of the Church whereof S. Augustine in his Booke de vnit Eccles obiected by you giueth the reason yet more plainly shewing that the Catholike amplitude or vniuersality of the Church by conuersions of Nations in all Ages doth more euidently proue it to be the true Church of Christ then any other worke which is done therein for it is more manifest to sense and human reason that the cleare Prophesies of the true Church in holy Scripture are fullfilled and accomplished only in the Catholike Church which accordingly in all Ages doth visibly spread it selfe ouer all the world then it can possibly appeare that any worke of admiration is truly a Myracle surpassing the force of Nature or power of the Diuell whereof it followeth that the true Church is more manifestly knowne by the accomplishment of those promises then by the wondrous effects of any Myracles and that Myracles doe not soe well and cleerly proue any Church to be Catholike as the Church being visibly Catholike doth manifest those Myracles to be true which are approued by it Whereof it followeth againe that all Myracles which are done against it or agaynst the vnity thereof are as firmely and constantly to be reiected Which is it that he also teacheth lib. 13. cont Faust. cap. 5. and Tract 13. in Ioan. and lib. 22. de Ciuitat Dei cap. 8. obiected by you And heere by the way I beseech you to note how much Saint Ansten esteemeth the former Argument of the conuersions of Nations in all Ages according to the promises therof in holy Scripture which he maketh such an euident marke and such an infallible proofe of the true Church that he preferreth it before Myracles And for the same cause lib. 22. de Ciuit. Dei cap. 8. he spareth not to say That he who seeketh to be confirmed by Wonders now is himselfe to be wondred at in refusing to belieue that which all the world or the visible Church through the world belieueth Which your selfe also hauing obserued you may wōder at your self both in refusing to belieue what you know the visible Catholike Church for a thousand yeares through the world belieued and wherin I also wonder my selfe at your not obseruing that S. Augustine doth wonder at you in that very place wherein you suppose he agreed with you as by and by I shall make it appeare Adde in the meane tyme to that which hath beene sayd that the Myracles whereunto the holy Fathers alleadged by you forbid vs to giue credit as vnto Arguments not sufficient to proue the Truth of Religiō were eyther Myracles in apparence only and such wherewith Heretikes might easily be deceaued or so deceaue as S. Augustine speaketh in the former place vpon Ioan not such as might reasonably induce any prudēt man to belieue thē As Dreames and Visions and exauditions of Prayers like vnto those of the Donatists against whome wrote Saint Augustine lib. de Vnit. Eccl. cap. 16. Or such as were Testimonies of the Iustice and mercy of God in generall and not of Doctrine in particuler as were those whereof S. Hierome speaketh Or finally such as being wrought by wicked men exceeded not the power of the Diuell as S. Augustine obserueth lib. 20. de Ciuit. Dei cap. 19. Tract 13. in Ioan. Or were not sufficiently testified but rather sayd then proued which Tertullian lib. de Praeser derideth and sayth that the power of Heretiks was nothing like but rather contrary to the power of the Apostles for their vertue was not to rayse the Dead but rather to kill the liuing literally fullfilled in Caluin Bolsec in vita Caluini who pretending by his prayer to rayse a counterfaite dead man being then truly aliue was thought to be the cause that he was instantly slaine eyther by God or the Diuell In the same sense also Epiph. lib. 1. de haer cap. 30. vrgeth Ebion to rayse some dead man c. assuring himselfe that he could not doe any true Myracle by meanes of his false Faith yea though he called vpon the name of Christ. Not so the Myracles alleaged by your Aduersary which hauing beene wrought and belieued and most authentically testified by soe many most holy most prudent and learned Witnesses in confirmation of that Doctrine which is professed against you need no more to feare the laughter of Protestants thē the Myracles of former tymes as S. Austen saith had cause to feare the laughter of Pagans And such as belieue them not may iustly feare to be condemned as Pagans for belieuing nothing To deny therefore this Doctrine of Myracles seemeth noe lesse impious then to deny Christianity it selfe and to affirme that myracles haue ceased sithence the tyme of the Apostles were noe lesse vnreasonable then to reiect all humane Testimonies and in particuler the Authority of S. Augustine himsefe in those very places obiected by you For in that very place of S. Aug. de Ciuit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 8. which you alleage against Myracles That they were necessary before the world belieued to induce it to belieue And That he that
seeketh to be confirmed by wonders now is himselfe to be wondred at in refusing to belieue that which all the world or the visible Catholike Church through the world belieueth which being well considered maketh little for you In that very place I say you could not choose but read these other words directly against you That now also Myracles are wrought in his Name eyther by his Sacraments or by the prayers and memories of his Saints togeather with the relation of many Myracles done in his owne tyme and of those in particuler wrought by the Reliques of S. Stephen which though not necessary after the World had once belieued as S. Austen there disputeth yet God in his mercy hath euer shewed them in all Ages as well to confound the obstinate that would not belieue the visible vniuersall Church as also to confirme those in their Fayth that already belieued In this place therefore you haue plainely falsified the sense of the Author eyther very fraudulently or very ignorantly choose you whether Section VI. Merits of VVorkes defended according to the Doctrine of the Fathers and Syr Humphry answered IN the next place against the Merit of Workes you obiect many places of the Fathers but none to the purpose You know full well that the Catholikes distinguish betweene works that goe before Faith workes that follow Workes going before Faith and proceeding only from the light of Nature or from the knowledge of the law of Moyses called therefore by S. Paul Rom. 3. The workes of the Law your Aduersaries doe all hold neyther to saue nor to be needfull to saluatio according whereunto S. Paule also saith That a Man is iustified by Faith without the workes of the Law But that workes following a liuely Faith formed with Charity and proceeding from it doe iustifie and are needfull to saluation your Aduersary proueth not only by expresse Scripture Iames cap. 2. Yee see then how that of workes a man is iustified and not of Faith only But also by the lyke Testimonies of all the holy Fathers noting and condemning the contrary opinion of the Protestants as hereticall in Symon Magus in the Gnostickes and in Eunomius as hath beene shewed And further he alleadgeth S. Aug. de fide oper cap. 14. testifiyng of the Apostles themselues that because this opinion of Faith only sprung vp in those dayes by peruerting the words of S. Paules Epistle before related the Epistles of S. Peter S. Iohn S. Iames and S. Iude were principally written vt vehementer astruant vehemently to vrge and contest that Fayth without workes doth profit nothing Agaynst all which manifest proofes you bring only some Authorityes of the Fathers shewing that our owne workes and righteousnes as Basil hom de Humil. or workes of the Law going before Fayth as S. Chrysos with S. Paul Hom. 7. in 3. ad Rom. and before Sinne pardoned as S. Ambrose and forgiuen as Theodoret comment 2. S. Bernard in Cant. Ser. 22. doe not iustifie but only Fayth without them which is nothing to the purpose because therein your Aduersary agreeth with you But you bring not a word to proue that workes following Faith doe not iustify nor are needfull to Saluation which opinion of yours your Aduersary hath shewed to haue beene often tymes condemned by the Apostles themselues by the Auncient Fathers in other Heretikes that haue gone before you Section VII Free-will defended and Syr Humphry answered IN the Controuersy of Free-will you seeme first to suppose your Aduersaries belieue that Man hath Free-will to performe supernaturall actes and workes of Pietie without Grace and then you proceed to dispute against them How can you imagine they are so absurd as to thinke by the power of Nature alone to doe that which they thēseues confesse to be aboue the power of Nature wherin there appeareth not only a great deale of passion in you which hanges lyke to a Cloud betweene the Eye of your minde and the light of truth but also as it seemeth great want of conscience For you know they hold that without grace it is impossible eyther to belieue or to do any other acte which may auayle or so much as dispose to Saluation This also you know to be the Doctrine of Bellarmine euery where in that whole Booke out of which you seeme to cite his words in a contrary sense and the words that immediatly follow in the very place you cite do plainely shew that against your Cōscience you falsify his meaning His words are these A Man before all grace hath Free-will not only to naturall and morall workes but also to workes of piety and supernaturall as you faythfully cite them but then it followeth Thus S. Augustine teacheth l. de Spiritu litera cap. 33. where he sayth That Free-will is a naturall and middle power which may be inclined to fayth and infidelity Thus Bellarmine whereby it is manifest his meaning to be that by Grace Free-will is not made or giuen vnto vs but that we haue the power thereof by Nature which afterward by Grace is inclyned and strengthned to doe those things which by the force of Nature without Grace we are not able so much as to will or to thinke much lesse to performe or perfect according whereunto in the same place he citeth also S. August de Praedest Sanctorum cap. 5. teaching that the Posse or power to haue Fayth and Charity is in man by Nature And in the same Booke cap. 11. he alleageth S. Augustine againe Epist 49. quaest 2. to the same purpose saying Free-will is not taken away because it is holpen by Grace but because it is holpen therefore it is not taken away If it be giuen by Nature and not taken away by Grace most certaine it is that still we haue it In this sense therefore your Aduersaries not only affirming that we haue Freewill by Nature but also teaching that it is so excited and strengthned by Grace as we cannot so much as thinke much lesse accomplish or performe any supernaturall acte without it they would easily graunt with S. Basil con de Hum. that we owe all euen that we liue to the Grace and gift of God but that you falsely translate it They graunt with S. Bernard de Gratia lib. Arbit That to will Good is a gift of Grace And with S. Augustine That it is God who maketh that we worke by adding to our will most efficacious strength That vnlesse he make vs willing and then worke with vs we shall neuer bring to passe any good worke And againe with S. Augustine de correp grat cap. 1. That though we haue Free-will to doe good yet none can be free in will and acte to do it that is to say perfectly or in actu secundo as the Scholmen speake vnlesse he be freed by the grace of God And againe That all is to be giuen to God not the first part vnto our selues the rest vnto God as the Pelagians
A Defence of the Appendix OR A REPLY TO CERTAINE AVTHORITIES alleaged in Answere to a Catalogue of Catholike Professors called An Appendix to the Antidote VVHEREIN Also the Booke fondly intituled The Fisher catched in his owne Net is censured And the sleights of D. Featly and D. VVhite in shifting off the Catalogue of their owne Professors which they vndertooke to shew are plainly discouered By L. D. To the R t. VVorshipfull Syr Humphry Lynde Eccles 7. v. 30. Solummodo hoc inueni quod fecerit Deus hominem rectum Et ipse se infinitis miscuerit quaestionibus Permissu Superiorum M.DC.XXIIII TO THE RIGHT VVORSHIPFVLL Syr Humphry Lynde SYR It may be you will take it vnkindly to see vnawares your selfe and your papers thus in print But I was moued to doe it by due cōsideration of that which followeth I receaued them not as secret neyther do I thinke you gaue them to be concealed You wrote against a printed Catalogue of Catholike Professors wherof a deare friend of mine is the Author giuen you vpon a former Conference which your self procured betweene some other of my Friends and your Doctors concerning a Protestant Catalogue which Conference though priuatly intēded was afterwards victoriously printed Wherefore writing them as you did against such a Booke and vpon such an occasion you might easily thinke they would be answered and it is not strāge they should come to be printed As the great opinion which others had of your deepe learning and your owne profession of your great skill and reading in the Fathers made me diligently to peruse those authorityes alleadged by you so hauing well examined them I thought my selfe diuers wayes obliged to giue a large full Reply vnto them And being as you are most extremely and most vehemētly distant in opinion from me no maruell if to be better vnderstood I speak so lowd that all the Land may heare me And for the same cause you must pardon me if I rather choose to expose both you my selfe to the iudgment of others then hauing takē some little paynes in this matter to make you the only iudge of my labours The old Maister Buggs being carried away with Ecce in Penetralibus thinketh to haue found the Messias in your study and was wholy transported with those chosen places and selected authorities contayned in your papers which tending to no lesse then the losse of his soule merited great compassion the like may happen to others which deserueth preuention Your owne Doctors haue already adorned the Pageant of their victory with the publication of your Names Vnto you is giuen the driuing on of the Chariot and the old Maister Buggs is led in Triumph Some perchance haue been taken in the net of the Title and may be freed againe by the net of Christ which therefore should not hange in the Riuers of priuate papers when the other flyeth in the ayre but should be cast into the Sea of the wide World to gather and draw togeather all kind of fishes In this net the Fishers themselues are happily taken and all they that are not taken are lost for euer The other of the Heretikes is but a net to catch flyes which though cūningly wrought must in tyme be swept away togeather with the Spiders They haue printed against vs and renewed an old Decree against our printing if no Reply should be made some of them would thinke that now they might lye by Proclamation What greater signe of falshood thē hauing told your owne tale to seeke to stop the mouthes of your Aduersaries with old Statutes But the State neuer intended to make a Law against God his Word will not be tyed All Princes should serue it and all printing Presses must be subiect vnto it Therfore no maruell if the taking of one Presse do set two more on worke and that your Doctors by seeking to suppresse the Truth do presse it forward You know then what moued me to diuulge your papers giuing the Fathers their due I haue told you your owne but sparingly and if you knew my hart you would see and confesse that I had done it friendly Belieue and you shall vnderstande Belieue the Fathers and you shall vnderstand the Fathers He that heareth not the visible vniuersall Church is no better then a Heathen and belieueth neyther Church nor Fathers but the vnlearned not knowing the doctrine of the Church and the vnstable forsaking that which they haue knowne as they peruerte the Scriptures so also they preuert the Fathers to their owne damnation from the which I beseech God deliuer you praying you likewise to thinke no otherwise of me then as of Your vnfaygned Friend and seruant in Christ L. D. THE AVTHORITIES ALLEADGED BY Syr Humphry Lynde agaynst the Appendix Of Myracles EPIPHANIVS conuinceth not Ebion of false beliefe because neyther he nor any of his faction had the gift of working Miracles but because Ebion lykened himselfe to Christ for his Circumcision and for his Birth and he answers him he could not be lyke to God for that he was but a mortall Man and was not able to rayse Lazarus out of the graue nor heale the sicke c. If he would be lykened to Christ he bid him to doe those things the which things if he had required at Epiphanius hands I thinke noe man but would haue doubted of the performance of them Read the place at large and you shall find it hath no such meaning as is heere alleadged Myracles were necessary before the world belieued to induce it to belieue and he that seeketh to be confirmed by wōders now is to be wondred at most of all himself in refusing to belieue what all the world belieueth besides himselfe De Ciuit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 8. in principio Shewed to be falsified Now we for our parts say not that we must be belieued that we are in the Church of Christ because Optatus or Ambrose hath commended this wherein we are or els because that in all places of the world where our Communiō is frequēted there are so many Myracles wrought of healing diseases c. For all these things that are done in the Catholike Church are approued in asmuch as they are done in the Catholike And not that it is therfore Catholike because such things are done there August de vnitat Eccles cap. 16. Tertullian They will say sayth he to excuse themselues for hauing followed Heresy that their Doctours haue confirmed the Fayth of their Doctrine that they haue raysed vp the dead restored the sicke foretould things to come so as they were worthily taken for Apostles As if sayth he this were not written that many should come working great Myracles to fortify the deceitfullnes of their corrupt preaching De Praescrip cap. 44. S. Hierome The Galathians had the gift of Healing and of Prophesy and yet they were insnared by the false Prophets and it is to be obserued that powers and signes are seene to be wrought in those that
the Prince of Arabia pag. 20. In the fourth Age the Bessites Dacians Getes and Scythians pag. 26. In the fifth Age the Sarazens the Scots the Irish pag. 32. In the sixt Age the Pictes the Gothes the Bauarians the English pag. 36. 38. In the seauenth Age diuers Sweuians the Westphalians and many of our Nation People of Teisterbandia of Westphalia of Holland the King and Queene of Persia with forty thousand Percians pag. 42 44. In the eight Age Saxons Borucluatians the Frisians the Hassits the Thuringians the Catti the Erphordians two Saxon Dukes pag. 48. In the ninth Age the Danes Swethens and people of Aquitania the whole Iland of the Rugians the Bulgarians the Ruthens or Russians pag. 52. 54. In the tenth Age Worziuous the last Pagan Duke in Bohemia the King of Norway the Polonians the Sclauonians and Hungarians Heraldus King of the Danes and Sueno his Sonne pag. 60. In the eleuenth Age the Prussians the Vindians also Pannonians and Transiluanians the lapsed Hūgarians pag. 64. 68. In the twelfe Age the Pomeranians the people of Norway Magnus King of the Gothes pag. 70. 72. In the thirteenth Age the Liuonians the Lituanians innumerable Tartarians pag. 76. 78. In the fourtenth Age the Canary Ilandes the Chumans the Lipnensians Bosnians Patrinians and other Sclauonian Nations pag. 84. In the fifteenth Age Samogessians the Kingdomes of Bentomine Guinaea Angola and Congo Zerra Iacob Emperour of the Abissyns pag. 90. In the sixteenth Age the Kingdome of Manicongo in Africa the Kings of Amanguntium and Bungo innumerable Indians Iaponians Brasilians and other Westerne and Orientall people more Countries and Kingdomes then all Christendome before In the seauēteenth Age the King of Sarra Leaena in the East Indies with his Brethren and Children besides many other in China Iaponia Persia and other Nations This Argument taken from the great increase of fruit which continueth and abideth among them Ioan. 15. 16. and from the wonderfull propagation of their Religion not only in the first fiue hundred yeares after Christ but also much more in the Ages following to this present tyme is surely a most forcible and strong perswasion that they alone among all other sortes of Christians are the company and people whome God had blessed Haue Idolaters been chosen and preserued by Almighty God before his owne Seruants to perswade in the force of his word innumerable people from tyme to tyme to renoūce and tread vnder their feete the Auncient Gods of their Forefathers in whome they so much confided and to receaue him for their true and only God who whipped and crowned with thornes was nayled to a Crosse in the sight of the world and so dyed Haue all these seuerall Countries and Kingdomes so extremely different in clymats in tongues in affections in customes and in natures beene voluntarily reduced to the vnity of one and and the same Fayth in Christ and to the obedience of one Pastor vnder Christ by the followers of Antichrist Haue the limmes of the Diuell reformed the sauage brutish and wicked manners of so many People and Nations changing their hartes and bringing them vpō their knees to serue their Creator with piety and humility and in exercise of all kind of vertue Then I must needes confesse it seemeth vnto me that eyther God himselfe must be in loue with Idolatry or Christ himselfe must become Antichrist or the Diuell himselfe hauing forsaken his malice is now changed to be a seruant of Christ Neyther do I see how possibly you can deny these innumerable Nations to haue beene conuerted by the true Church recommended vnto vs in holy Scripture vnlesse we deny both Church and Scripture For by these Conuersions of Nations in all Ages your Aduersaries doe manifestly proue themselues to be that Church which must in the end conuert all Nations and was therefore surnamed Catholike or Vniuersall And thereby it cannot be denyed they make it most apparent the promises thereof in the Law Gen. 22.17 Gal. 3. In the Psalmes 2. 71.6 21. 28. In the Prophets Isa 2.2 11. 60. 61. 62. Hier. 33. Ezech. 33.22 Dan. 2.44 c. In the old and new Testament Matth. 24.14 28.19 Luc. 24.47 being so euidently performed by thē that they alone are the spirituall seede of Abraham Rom. 4.13 Gal. 3. The inheritance of the Sonne of God Psalm 2. 47. The Mountaine on the toppe of Mountaines Isa 60.12 The Mountaine filling the world Dan. 2.44 The glorious Citty Psal 86. whose gates must be alwayes open that the strength of the Gentiles their Kings may be brought vnto it and the Nation and Kingdome that will not serue it must perish Isa 60.11.12 That blessed Company Isa 61.9 whome our Sauiour promised to assist all dayes or euery day teaching and baptizing all Nations vnto the end of the world Matth. 28. 24. Heere againe as in the end the former Section if they should argue Syllogistically against your Doctors in this manner though you had the strength of Hercules I think you would hardly be able to defend them That Church which conuerted Nations in all Ages is the true Church of Christ and his Apostles recommended vnto vs in holy Scripture But the Catholike and not the Protestant Church hath conuerted Nations in all Ages Ergo the Catholike and not the Protestant Church is the true Church of Christ and his Apostles recommended vnto vs in holy Scripture Section III. In reference to a third point of the Appendix shewing their Religion to haue byn confirmed by Myracles in all Ages HAd you giuen vs a view of so many Nations reduced to the Faith of Christ by your Professors as he hath named conuerted by theirs that your Church might not appeare altogeather inferior to theirs you should haue shewed some points of your Religion confirmed by Myracles against them as that Booke hath declared many points of theirs in all Ages miraculously authorized and as it were subscribed by the hand of God against you those so euidētly testified not only by Auncient Histories but also by the holy Fathers themselues not liable to any exception in the first fiue hundred yeares downewards as they seeme to enforce all good Christians to belieue them As for Example in the second Age Narcissus Bishop of Hierusalem turned water into Oyle for the vse of the Church Eusebius lib. 6. Cap. 8. 9. S. Balbina and her Father restored to health by touching the Chaynes wherwith with Pope Alexander was bound Baron An. 132. n. 2. Cures wrought by the Bodies and Sepulchers of Martyrs Iustin. quast 28. In the third Age the Myracles of S. Gregorie the wonder-worker some of thē wrought by the signe of the Crosse Nissen in vita Greg. Thau And S. Basil de Sp. Sanct. cap. 29. Also Myracles confirming the Eucharist Reall Presence Cyp. ser de Lapsis Also S. Cecily shewed to Valerian the Angell Guardian of her virginitie Metaphrastes and Surius in her life In
Cyprian which Bellarmine himselfe lib. 2. de Euch. cap. 9. holdeth to be none of Cyprians Wherein you must giue me leaue to tell you that your selfe much more deserue to be accused For first albeit Bellarmine doth say he thinketh that Sermon de Coena Domini not to be S. Cyprians yet he addeth immediatly in the same place that it is The Sermon of some auncient most holy and most learned Man as the Aduersaries meaning Protestants do confesse which words that you might with more shew eleuate and auoyd the former Authority were fraudulently concealed by you It is the worke of some learned Man of that Age sayth Erasmus in his annotations vpon the workes of S. Cyprian In tyme not much inferior to Cyprian sayth Fulke in 1. Corinth cap. 11. Wherefore doe we reuerence the Authority of S. Cyprian but because he was an Auncient holy and learned Father If therefore the Author of this Sermon was a most holy and learned Man as Bellarmine sayth the Protestants themselues confesse and of the same Age with S. Cyprian or in tyme not much inferior vnto him as I haue shewed that the Protestants themselues doe likewise witnesse why should any Protestant reiect him Besides though Bellarmine thinketh this Sermon to be none of Cyprians yet many other Deuines of great name Cypriano tribuunt doe iudge it to be the worke of S. Cyprian as well for the likenesse of the stale as for the dignity of the matter sayth Gaulortius a learned Protestant in his annotations thereupon Why then may not your Aduersarie follow heerein the iudgment of many other great Deuines In fine your Aduersary may alleage for himselfe in this matter the testimony of S. Augustine cont Donat. lib. 4. cap 22. his words are these From that Theefe to whome not being baptized it was sayd This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise the same S. Cyprian tooke no sleight document that passion or death or Martyrdome doth sometyme supply the place of Baptisme According whereunto both in sense and words in the same Sermon de Coena Domini it is sayd and therefore according to S. Augustine by S. Cyprian That our Lord c. deferred not his benefit but with the same speedy Indulgence he gaue presently aswell a document as also an example thereof saying vnto the Theefe This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise He had his condemnation and punishment for robery but his contritioÌ„ of hart changed his payne into Martyrdome and his bloud into Baptisme Why now may not your Aduersary cite that Sermon as Saint Cyprians which Saint Augustine himselfe so long a goe alleadged vnder the name of Cyprian First therefore heerein you deserue both blame and shame insimulating your Aduersary of fraud for misalleaging S. Cyprian by the testimony of Bellarmine and fraudulently coÌ„cealing those words of Bellarmine in the same place which euen the testimonyes of Protestants themselues do shew the words alleaged by your Aduersary out of Cyprian to be of no lesse Authority then the words of Cyprian Secondly you deserue the more blame heerein because you alleage agaynst it another place out of S. CypriaÌ„ which according to the opinioÌ„ of Bellarmine in the same place in the same Chapter is none of Cyprians And plaine it is that the Sermon of the Supper of our Lord alleaged by your Aduersary and the other of Chrisme alleadged by your selfe are both the Sermons of the same Author for the whole Booke contayning 12. Sermons is intituled Of the Cardinall workes of Christ and dedicated to Pope Cornelius the Martyr who liued in the tyme of Cyprian And therefore he that denyeth the one hath no reason to affirme the other to be the worke of Cyprian How then out of the same mouth could you breath both hoat and cold And how out of the same Bellarmine could you proue the Sermon alleadged by your Aduersary to be none of Cyprians and affirme agaynst Bellarmine the other alleaged by your selfe to be the worke of Cyprian Thirdly the like foule fraude coÌ„mitted by you appeareth yet more grossely in the words which you cite out of the same Author who when you take him to be with you is Cyprian but not Cyprian when he speaketh against you The words of the Author are these Our Lord therefore at that Table wherein he made his last Feast to his Aâ—ostles with his owne hands gaue Bread and Wine but at the Crosse he gaue his Body to be wounded by the hands of his Enemie that sincere verity and true sincerity being more secretly imâ—â—inted in the Apostles might expound to Nations how the Wine and the Bread was Flesh and Blood and after what manner tâ— causes agreed with their effects That diuers shapes might brought to one Essence and the things signifiyng and the things signified might be called and knowne by the same names Thus S. Cyprian But not thus Syr HuÌ„phry for hauing alleaged the words which seemed to make for him he gaue Bread and Wine to his Apostles but his Body to his Enemies he chopt off with an c. the words following That sincere verity and true sincerity being more secretly imprinted in the Apostles might expound to Nations how the Wine and Bread was flesh and Blood which as euery man may see are expressely against him and serue to expound the meaning of the Author in the rest of that Sentence which though otherwise beeing a little obscure yet being a little considered may be thus explained Our Lord sayd to his Apostles This is my bodie which shall be giuen for you when at the table he gaue to them visibly Bread and Wine but at the Crosse he visibly gaue his owne Body that his Apostles thereby might visibly see he had giuen them inuisibly his owne Body because he gaue them the same Body into their owne hands which was giuen for them into the hands of their Enemies 1. That the sincere verity and true sincerity heereof being thus secretly imprinted in the harts of the Apostles they might confidently expound to all Nations how the Bread and Wine of that table was truly and sincerely Flesh and Blood 2. How the causes agreed with their effects the words of our Sauiour which were the causes going before agreed with their effects both at the Table and at the Crosse that followed after 3. How vnder diuers â—hapes of Bread and Wine at the Table was contained but one the same Essence because the same shapes remayning the Natures of Bread and Wine by the omnipotency of the Word were changed oâ— reduced into the Nature of his Body as before you haue heard â—ut of his former sermon 4. How the thinges signifying which were the shapes of Bread and Wine remayning and the things signified which were the Body and Blood of our Sauiour came both to 〈◊〉 called by the same names because the one did signify exhibit and coâ—aine the other By all which it appeareth the Author hauing his right brought backe againe and his owne
breath being restored againe vnto him which you had thought to steale and smother that he plainely confesseth the Bread and Wine to be Flesh and Blood and that the Nature of the one being changed into the Nature of the other they are both reduced into one Essence which is the same Doctrine that your Aduersary professeth and maintayneth against you Your Aduersaries affirme the Bread to be made a Sacrament and the Body of Christ by the words of Consecration for the which cause they not only adore it before they receaue it but also they haue euer held that it might be lawfully giuen to Infants and that which remaines thereof they are wonte to reserue to be giuen afterward to the sicke or to others that come to receaue as occasiō requireth You Protestāts affirme on the other side that it becōmeth a Sacrament and a Seale of the Body of Christ vnto you without any change in the thing by the liuely Faith of the Receauers and consequently you giue it not to Infants because they cannot receaue it with that Faith which makes it a Sacrament and that also which remaineth thereof after the whole Action you take to be no better then common Bread and soe you vse it As custome is the best interpreter of the law so the practise of the Church is the best interpreter of her owne Doctrine Wherefore to know what S. Cypriā with the Church of God in the secōd Age after Christ belieued at that tyme concerning this point of the B. Sacrament there can be no surer way then to examine what is practized in communicating the same to Infants and in reseruing of it to be taken as need required Which S. Cyprian in his sermon De Lapsis his owne vndoubted worke hath not obscurely recorded for he relateth Teste meipso sacrificantibus nobis my selfe being witnes and we our selues offering sacrifice that an Infant hauing beene fedde with a sopp of wine before an Idoll and being afterward brought to Church was much tormented during the tyme of the Sacrifice and when it 's turne came to receaue it resisted so vehemently that the Deacon was faine perforce to open it's mouth and to power in somewhat of the Sacrament that was in the Chalice but sayth S. Cypriā The drinke sanctified into the Bloud of Christ brake out of her polluted bowels c. In which Sermon he likewise testifieth That a certaine Woman when she would with vnworthy hands haue opened her coffer wherein was reserued the Holy Thing of our Lord there sprung vp fire from thence wherewith she was so terrified that she durst not touch it And That another defiled Person presuming to receaue with others could not eate nor touch the Holy Thing of God for in his opened hands insteed thereof he found Ashes By Document whereof sayth S. Cyprian it is shewed that the Lord doth depart when he is denyed By which Documents of reseruing the Eucharist and giuing it to Infants they who will not be obstinate may also learne out of S. Cyprian that the Eucharist after the words of Consecration was belieued to be really the Body of Christ and not figuratiuely by Fayth only to him that doth worthily so receaue it Wherefore to conclude this Dispute concerning the Testimony of S. Cyprian for Transubstantiation and Reall Presence as it was false that your Doctors claymed him in the former Conferēce so being plaine agaynst them in this point besides many other of no lesse importance it was fondly done of you to say they claymed him Section IX S. Augustine falsly alleadged by Syr Humphry against the Reall Presence FYnally against the Reall Presence you obiect other places of the Fathers affirming the Sacrament to be a figure of Christs body which your Aduersaries deny not For they define all Sacramēts to be signes and figures according whereunto they also holde that as the Sacrament of the Eucharist is a figure in respect of the Shape or externall accidents therof so it is the Body of Christ in respect of the thing contained in them But now that the Eucharist is only a figure or that it is not the Body of Christ which you should haue proued against them or els you proue nothing none of the places alleaged by you do shew neyther is it possible in all the Fathers to find so much as one place that doth sufficiently proue it While they in the meane tyme besides many most expresse Scriptures Matt. 26. Marc. 14. Luc. 22. Ioan. 6. 1. Cor. 11. confuting also your principall obeiction that the Body of Christ cannot be in two places Act. 9.5.22.8.23.11 1. Cor. 15.8 They I say on the other side produce so many superabūdant Authorities from the Fathers Councells in all Ages conuincing the holy Eucharist to be the Body of Christ that I must needs say they haue discouered more bouldnes if not impudency thē learning or conscience who eyther in bookes or in Pulpits haue pretended to shew that the Fathers in this point are plainely against them To make this appeare it may suffice at this tyme briefely to set down the beliefe only of those Fathers in particuler which your selfe in your papers haue produced for you Tertullian S. Austen S. Ambrose S. Hierome and Gelasius shewing how euidently they teach the cōtrary Doctrine aswell in their writing elswhere as in those very places which your selfe haue cited First therefore let vs begin with Saint Augustine who in his Workes making often mention of the Sacrament giueth vs these particulers of his Doctrine therein That before the words of Consecration that which was offered is called Bread but after the words of Christ haue beene pronounced now it is not called Bread but it is called the Body Serm. 28. de verb. Domini That if Children had neuer seene the likenes of those thinges but only when it is offered and giuen in the Celebration of the Sacrament and that it should be tould vnto them with most graue Authority whose Body and Bloud it is they would belieue nothing els but that our Lord had neuer appeared to the eyes of Men saue only in that likenes lib. ◠de Trin. cap. 10. That Childrē were wont to receaue it apud Bedā in 1. Cor. 10. Who haue not the mouth of Faith to receaue it That it pleased the Holy Ghost was vniuersally obserued that our Lords body enter into the mouth of a Christiā before other meates in the honor of so great a Sacrament Epist 118. cap. 6. which must needes be meant of the mouth of the Body That we receaue with our hart and mouth the Mediator of God and Man Iesus Christ Man giuing vs his Flesh to be eaten and his Bloud to be drunke although it seeme more horrible to eate Mans flesh then to kill it and to drinke Mans bloud then to spill it lib. 2. cont Aduersaer legi◠Prophet That we doe not eate dead flesh dilaniated and cut in peeces as the Capharnaites vnderstood it for this
which being discouered were better found then Mynes of gold For vnlesse by some such meanes the Professors of your Ghospels may be brought to light your Church cannot long continue aboue ground but the former Question alone will suffice to coniure it downe againe into her auncient darkenes 2. What can be more vnworthy thē whē Priests Iesuites other Religious men execute the cōmādemēt cōmissiō of our Sauiour in carrying his Ghospel to the ends of the Earth as their Auncestors haue done in all Ages before them thereby prouing themselues their true Successors whome our B. Sauiour according to his promise Matt. 28. hath euer assisted and will alwaies accōpany Teaching and baptizing all Nations Omnibus diebus vsque ad consūmationem saeculi all dayes or euery day vnto the end of the world that your wiued Ministers in the meane tyme fatned with their benefices should only execute their owne malice in rayling vpon those laborious men and deprauing their Christian endeauours thereby shewing themselues to be that peruerse and bastard generatiō which insteed of cōuerting Infidells doth labour only to subuert belieuers insteed of planting the faith of Christ only indeauor to extirpate that Faith which they found to be already planted insteed of sowing the first corne only scatter cockle and darnell vpon that corne which was first sowed by others Rather set forth whole fleets of Ministers with their numerous families both for the East and for the West to bring those miserable Nations vnto the liberty and light of the Ghospell that haue layne so long captiue vnder the foule bondage and execrable Tiranny of the Prince of darknes Then it would be quikly tryed whether in those parts the diuells would submit themselues and fly before them or Whether like the strōger party Luc. 11.18 as hitherto in Virginia they haue shewed thēselues they would be able to keepe in peace the soules and vessells which they haue there soe long possessed vntill there come others stronger thē your Ministers that may be able to bind them 3. What can be more impious then whereas your Aduersaries like true Christiās confirme their doctrine in all Ages by those signes myraculous operations which were promised to follow the true belieuers Marc. 16.17 you on the other side should haue nothing to answere but only like Iewes and Pagans to laugh at them and at the holy Fathers themselues that were so simple as eyther to testify or to belieue them Rather ioyne your harts and your hands togeather that once in your tyme you may see a Generall Councell from all Protestant Prouinces meete togeather where out of so many Religions sprūg vp amongst you hauing chosen one by Lot to be generally professed beseech him who heareth all those that with a true Fayth doe call vpon him to confirme that chosen doctrine by some ostension in the Sunne or in the Moone or with some such notorious signe from Heauen as might no lesse exceed the former Myracles of the Papistes then the wondrous workes of Moyses confounded the magicall practises of the Egiptian Sages 4. And lastly what can be more voyde of shame and conscience then to clayme those Fathers of the first 500. yeares for yours that haue so impartially censured so many seuerall points of your Doctrine in the Heretikes of their tymes for the which I refer me to the fourth Sectiō of this Treatise as he that considereth them may iustly esteeme the body of your Religion to be almost nothing els but only a confarcination or bundle of old Heresies condemned by them Rather ioyne all in prayer that if your Cause be true as Almighty God vouchsafed in his owne person to iustify Iob against his friends so that our Sauiour would be pleased with a voyce from Heauen to iustify you agaynst the Fathers But ouer Shooes ouer Head and Eares sayth the Prouerbe according whereunto if being once entred into a bad cause it be resolued that still you must needes goe forward ceasing to falsify the words and to peruert the meaning of those holy Fathers least God in his iustice double your punishment as you double your iniquity hold your selues to the Scripture alone and to your owne interpretation of Scripture with M. Luther and M. Caluin and those learned Protestants of your owne Nation for so many yeares togeather not fearing to reiect the Fathers that were but men and directly refuting their errors for in so doing though you should want verity yet God might be pleased at the length to haue mercy vpon you for your sincerity O Mercifull God the Author of all truth If you be in the truth why should you defend it by fraud and falshood And how can it stand with his good will and pleasure that against so many powerfull Arguments and euident demonstrations to the contrary you should any longer thus contentiously hold it And obstinately so continue to professe it Certainly those 4. Considerations before remembred and reported more at large in the 4. first Sections of this Treatise do make it so euidēt vnto me that theirs not yours is the only true visible vniuersall Church ordayned and founded by Christ and his Apostles to teach the world that I wonder in my hart how any learned Protestant can be so blinde as not to see it or so voyd of honesty as not to confesse it Neyther if I were now a Protestant should any thing with-hold me from ioyning my selfe vnto them vnlesse it were only in honor of that Religion wherein I was bred to expect a little Whether the foresayd Catalogue of the Names of your Professors in all Ages and especially in the Ages before Luther might be found and produced The Question is now very happily set on foot I hope it wil be soundly followed and it were to be wished that no other Controuersy might be imbraced before this which is but matter of fact and the key of all the rest be fully cleared If Satisfactiō may be giuen in this poynt you may the better hope to be satisfied in the rest But if not so much as one man can be produced in 500. yeares before Luther that held not some maine points of Popery against you or some other grosse errors condemned by you if when Luther first began not one Protestant can be named that did not first fall from the Religion wherein he was bred or which he had first receaued then certainly it is not to be marueiled if thousands and thousands ere it be long doe renounce abandone with prayer for those to come after thē whom they shall leaue behind them that vpstart Fayth which was new when Luther began and none at all before Luther ALmighty God inspire the hart of his Majesty whom it importeth noe lesse then our selues that whereas the Catholike Recusants were neuer as yet accused of heresy according to forme of Ecclesiasticall iustice much lesse sommoned and called to make their answere or iuridically condēned that their Enemies formerly cēsured by Generall Coūcells according to the Aunciēt Law and receaued custome of the Church haue notwithstanding beene hitherto admitted not only as accusers but also as witnesses and iudges against them whereby the people of the Land being constrained to heare the one party and restrained from hearing the other haue been morally compelled to loue the one and hate the other to magnify the one and detest the other his Maiesty would be pleased to grāt vnto all his louing subiects for the saluation of their poore Soules committed to his charge that now at the lēgth they might be allowed both their eares to heare both sides indifferently to weigh and ponder both causes and well to cōsider of both Religions Left vnder the plausible name of spirituall liberty they be cunningly held in miserable captiuity being flattered with the shew of light they be insnared in dubble darkenes being deluded with presumption of knowlege they be bound and buried in most dredfull ignorance A request soe fauorable both in the sight of God and Man and so agreable to the principles of Protestant Religion as I thinke it can be vngratefull to none who doe wish vnfainedly that only falshood may be suppressed and the truth maintained For the which all those that sincerely desire to serue God vprightly shall be infinitely obliged to pray for his Maiesty not only as for their Gratious King but also as for their deliuerer from the thraldome of conscience wherein he found them and for the Author of their chiefest liberty wherin he should place thē FINIS