naturall reason Thus If I were alone and should talke with my selfe and say one thing vnderstanding a thing different from that this is not a lie Ergo mentall aequiuocation is iust and true The Answer Of these two most diuine properties whereby man is discerned from beasts Ratio oratio Reason and speech the vse of speech was not ordained for a looking glasse whereby a man might see himselfe but as the Interpreter of the mind whereby he might be knowen of others as the learned Philosopher looking earnestly vpon a Scholar professed in all arts Loquere inquit vt tâ— videam Speake quoth he my friend that I may see thee Now because there is no man of sound braines but he knoweth before he speake what his tongue vttereth there can be no neede that by speech hee should interpret his owne meaning to himselfe no more then a man may be properly said to steale his owne goods or commit adultery with his owne wife because both these are actions ad extra that is without a man and haue relation to others then to our selues Which is yet more apparant heerein seeing that he cannot be said properly to speake vnto himselfe who cannot properly be said to lie to himselfe but whosoeuer can lie to himselfe may also by speech properly deceaue himself because a lie is described to be a false speech to this end To deceiue And can any by any wilfull lie deceiue his owneselfe as thereby be made ignorant of his owne meaning This were to distract a man from himselfe Therefore this naturall reason taken from the speech of man with himselfe might best befit a pure naturall or some person distracted namely such a one as being beside himselfe can best talke with himselfe The second Obiection from Reason The Aequiuocator When there is a mixt proposition the two different parts make one c. The Answer This is already answered and proued that this patch of mixture is no better than a new peece of cloth in an old garment which maketh the rent greater CHAP. X. The Obiections from examples of Scriptures in the Old and New Testament 1. From the old The Aequiuocator THe Scripture telleth vs how Iaacob told his Father Isaac that he was his eldest sonne Esau which was not so in the sense of the Patriarch Isaac c. The Answer First Esau as your Cardinall Caietan saith Which is also the opinion of many learned Doctors being a proper name which Isaac did purposely restraine to that particular person saying Art thou my eldest sonne Esau Iaacob heerein is inexcusable from alie Secondly your Aequiuocators doe prescribe the vse of this your art to be put in practise onely before a iudge or hearer incompetent and shall wethinke that Isaac the blessed Patriarch and father of the promised seede could be an vnfit and incompetent hearer of his sonne now only crauing his blessing This Disputer therefore to speake mildly is incompetent although I must confesse this example is very semblable to your persons in whom we heare Iaacobs dissembling voice but feele the rough hands of Esau who intended the murder of his brother The second example The Aequiuocator Such aequiuocation did the Prophet Ieremie vse Ier. 38. 26. when he tooke aduice of the King The Answer You discernÌ„e nothing in the outward speech of this Prophet but a lie falsely imagining an inward aequiuocation of thought which no man can discerne But your ancient expositour telleth vs that The very outward speech of Ieremy was true as may appeare saith he in that the King swore vnto him that he would not kill him nor deliuer him ouer into the hands of those Princes Neither is it probable that the King did grant any thing to Ieremy which he did not require Which is plaine by the 15. verse Againe if we iudge the outward speech of Ieremy was false yet is it not written for our imitation but for direction that as S. Augustine doth obserue in the like examples Casus maiorum sit cautio minorum the faults and slidings of the stronger might be warnings to the weaker According to the wisedome of the holy Ghost in S. Paul saying Let him that standeth tâ—ke heed lest he fall Howsoeuer for your glosse of mentall resernation shew vs but one Father whether Greeke or Latine one Pope whether Catholicke or Antichristian one Author whether learned or vnlearned who did euer so fancie But now you shall receiue A generall Answer to all examples of the old Testament wherein there may be any scarres of infirmities from Saint Augustine We reade of such kind of examples in holy writ not that because we beleeue they were done we should therefore beleeue they may lawfully be done lest when we would imitate examples of men we transgresse the precepts of God This Answer doth S. Augustine vse against the Heretickes of his time called Prisâ—â—lliâ—…ists who defended lying by the same examples whereby you would defend Aequiuocating yet not so modestly I confesse as you doe for they maintained openly lying in his proper name you couertly vnder an adopted name of Aequiuocation an euident argument that those Heretickes whose best refuge was lying either by ignorance knew not your aequiuocating crotchet or according to the common language of Diuinity in those times called it by his proper name lying And yet your booke for aequiuocating must be intituled A Treatise forsooth against lying CHAP. XI Examples out of the new Testament obiected The principall be foure The first Example The Aequiuocator THe infallible Verity saith to his Disciples Ioh. 11. All things which I haue heard of my Father haue I manifested vnto you Yet in the chapter following affirmeth that he had many things to say vnto them but they were not able to beare them away then Therefore must the first proposition be vnderstood according to his meaning reserued Aequiuocation therefore is euidently conuinced out of thiâ— speech of our Sauiour who is infallible truth The Answer I answer with S. Augustine that Now mans infirmity plaies her part but know that no man learneth of christity to be adulterous or of godlinesse to be impious or of bounty to be iniurious and shall we learne of truth to be liers and periurious God forbid Touching the text your owne Bishop Iansenius answering this obiection saith that These kinds of speeches and all such are to be expounded according to the circumstances either of state place time or condition of the persons speaking or to whom they were spoken as namely that Whatsoeuer you aske my Father in my name he will giue you what any thing absolutely nay but vpon condition it be expedient for you So heere Christ saying I haue manifested all things it is expounded by the circumstance of the present state signifying All that appertaine vnto you to be knowen So then heere is no concealed sense to deceiue the hearer but it is euident
what Quacksaluers be you to offer a salue which cannot possibly cure the sore I haue digressed a little but I hope not transgressed for this point was you see pertinent I returne to you our moderate Answerer and we will now ioyne issue in the next Reason CHAP. XV. The Discouerie in the fourth Reason WHen the King is established in his throne by the common consent of the Kingdome whosoeuer shall manackle the hands of his subiects detracting all obedience may iustly by order of lawe be challenged and condemned for a disordred and rebellious person But all popish priests do dissolue the oath of obedience to all Protestant Gouernors Ergo. The Minor proued by Their Positions First one of their Bishops resolueth that As soone as a Christian King becomes hereticall forthwith people are freed from subiection Secondly their Cardinall As long as the Prince continueth excommunicate the subiect is freed from the oath of subiection By whom are they freed By the Pope saith the lesuit who vpon iust cause hath iust power to absolue from oathes both himselfe and all others Sometime the Prince is personallie excommunicate what then Then saith their Lawyer Subiects are freed from their allegiance and all his hereticall Assistants to be rooted out and their land to be exposed to be possessed of Strangers Catholikes But how if he be not excommunicate by name yea what though not excommunicate If saith an other his heresie be publikely knowne there needeth no pronunciation of the sentence of Excommunication So that saith the Iesuite Subiects may lawfullie denie him obedience How so For the euidence of the crime saith their whole schoole doth inferre a sentence of condemnation because as the more common opinion defineth there must we vnderstand the Pope his will is to haue him excommunicate whom vpon the knowledâ—e of his fault he would excommunicate Say Father Creswell is this true It is certaine and of faith auouched by the vniuersall voice of Schooles Satisfie vs yet in one question more Suppose that the Protestant Prince haue a iust quarrell what then No warre can be lawfullie denounced or waged by the Queene being excommunicate by name though otherwise in it seâ—fe it were most iust because her power is vnlawfull The very moderate Answerer This is the first Proposition I grant vnto but how false and standerous his Assumption is I haue proued before Secondly all his Autorities he bringeth are priuate men not able to make a dogmaticall principle or publike position againe they intreate of such as be nominatim excommunicate of which sort there is no Protestant Prince neither can there be any iust feare of the Popes generall proceeding herein except any Protestant Prince should be incited by some such vnchristian spirits as this Discouerer seemeth to be possessed with to exceede all others in persecuting Catholikes and offering indignities to the Church of God The Reply It seemeth you were now in your naturall choller because in this one Answere you do vilifie your friends threaten your Soueraigne traduce your Aduersarie and in conclusion condemne your owne ghostlie fathers Your friends to call these your Doctors Cardinall Tollet Reinolds Symancha Creswell Stapleton Azorius Panormitan Greg of Valentia Bannes and such like and the most of them most publike and eminent Doctors your late Romish Church did glorie in and autorized with the common consent of Ordinaries priuileges of Collegies and your vniuersall schoole to call I say such like priuate men and not be able to oppose one priuate man of that sect against them doth argue a spirit of rare modestie and singular insufficiencie Your Soueraigne If he shall offer as you misconster it to persecute and to cut off the most capitall enemies to his state and gangrenes of their countrey then The Pope c. O sir â—emember your selfe One of his Maiesties loyall Subiects c. This is not modestie but hypocrisie Your Aduersarie The Discouerer forsooth an vnchristian spirit who doth discouer only the hooke of treason whereby sillie soules are catched and herein not chargeable with misieporting his Autors desirous to recall you to the ancient truth of Christian subiection and if it be possible to sauing health And yet is thus censured as an inciter of his Maiestie against Romish Priests whom their owne positions and practises do proclaime publikely to be persons seditious Your Fathers for this proposition Whosoeuer shall manacle the hands of Subiects denying obedience to their established Kings must be iudged a rebellious person you say you Grant now it hath bene proued that not only these aboue named Iesuites but also your Popes haue bene principals in these kinds of Treasons both against the Emperour Henry the fourth and also the mirror of all princely wisedome Elizabeth our late Soueraigne And therefore in your conclusion you infold your Popes in the roote of these rebellions These Popes we haue discouered by their practises as for example CHAP. XVI The Discouerer in the Practise FIrst Pope Gregorie the seauenth alias Hildebrand beginneth his pageant We by Apostolicall autoritie do absolâ—e all from their oathes which they haue giuen to persons excommunicate And another Gregorie vseth the like tenor We absolue c. in the same case Lastly Pius Quintus their successor in place but superior in malice We command all Subiects saith he c. and absolue them from the faith they haue plight with Elizabeth their Queene The moderate Answerer First to Gregorie the seauenth who as this man vrgeth absolued all from obedience to Excommunicates I answere for all Catholikes in generall that this nothing concerned Protestants neither any heretikes but only such as he had other quarrels and contentions against The Reply True the histories of those times shew that the Popes were after some 600. yeares after Christ alwayes quarrellous and according to that proper name of Gregory the seauenth now mentioned called Hildebrand the very firebrands of Christendome But how do you satisfie for Hildebrand I grant say you that he that dissolueth the obedience of Subiects to their Soueraignes is iustlie accompted seditious Here you cannot denie but that Pope Gregorie the seauenth absolued all from obedience to excommunicates You know what followeth Ergo the Pope is condemned as one guiltie of high treason This is commendable modestie which is voide of partialitie To the second example you answere The moderate Answere But he vrgeth the Glosse of Gregorie the ninth and citeth the Decret where there is no such matter or any thing like vnto it I commend your diligence and wish you were as modest to acknowledge all my other truths as I am to confesse this my only escape which the importunitie of the time and not the exigence of examples did occasion For besides other examples I might haue insisted vpon that Bull of Paulus the 3. against King Henry the 8. which differeth not from the tenor of the decree alledged Wee
Fundamentorum Caluinianae sectae cum veteribus Arianis Nestorianis communium detectio The Reply That which they did in the spirit of opposition and contention is not much to be regarded especially seeing as it may seeme by their obiections their iudgement hath beene depraued by your malignant Doctors For first concerning Arianisme Caluine saith your Iesuites doth plainely teach Arianisme saying that the Father is by a kinde of excellencie God Whereas both the speach and sence is most orthodoxall and agreeing with the tenor of holy writ and iudgement of all ancient Fathers as your owne learned Iesuits confesse For the words of our Sauiour are plaine Ioh. 14. My Father is greater then I in the true sence Is say your Iesuits and truly The Father is greater not in substance and being but by reason of Birth begetting For their Authority they produce an inquest of Fathers of free Caluine in this point who was so far from Arianisme that your own Bellarmine doth acknowledge that Caluine did impugne the doctrine of the Arians Your Iesuites likewise impute Nestorianisme whereof Caluine doth free himselfe saying We must therefore abandon the heresie of Nestorious who rather distracted then distinguished the nature of Christ against the doctrine of the holy Ghost in Scripture It would therefore become your modestie to haue omitted these imputations but we shall find your moderation immoderate in this kind The moderate Answerer I will next bring in Master Hugh Broughton a man greatly commended by Master Willet who telleth the Bishops of England that their translation of the Scripture is corrupt and that Christianitie is denyed here in England The Reply Master Broughton which I am able truly to witnes was as greatly commended and reuerenced for his learning among your greatest Iesuits at Mentz and the Bishop elector there yet he neuer allowed your Translation but debaseth it more then any other neither did he euer go to Italy or Spaine to learne Christianitie there How you ought to esteeme of our Translation I haue made it elsewhere euident from your owne Romish censures who haue giuen the translation of Tremelius as good an approbation as any Protestant would require Where also may appeare by confession of your most learned Iesuites and others the manifold deprauations of your vulgar falsely intituled S. Hieromes Translation But what modestie can this be in you to obiect vnto vs a man whom you know to be sequestred from vs rather by impotencie of passion then any difference of Religion liuing now among them who maintaine both the same profession and the same Latine Translation so immoderate in speech to confesse that which all that know him can witnesse that the least error he heareth he nameth heresie and the least opposition to his opinion infidelitie This is but the language of passion which no moderate Answerer may mention to preiudice the moderate The very moderate Answerer The Admonition to the Parliament written with no small consent vseth these words That no man in whom there is any sparke of grace or conscience can liue in the Church of England whose inhabitants be all Infidels going to the Churches of Bishops and Arch-bishops whose gouernement is Antichristian and diuelish The Reply This writer and you may both ioyne fellowship You dedicate your booke to the King he to the Parliament He pretendeth the consent of a thousand you No Catholike will say Protestants are Heretikes implie a thousand thousand He with all his consent is not many and you for ought you well pretend but one both inuisible and namelesse neither of both able to make vp any great consent except you multiplie the name of forenamed Aliâs A aliâs B. c. You see what is themaladie of this Admonitor namely to condemne our Religion only because of Bishops as in his illiterate braine an order Popish and therefore Antichristian Say now do you thinke his Admonition tollerable then must you who do defend that Bishop of Rome conclude your selfe an Infidell and an Antichristian hireling Do you thinke it immoderate then are you no moderate Answerer to condemne vs by that Admonition which your selfe doth condemne Let vs heare something else which may proue Protestants guilty of the imputation of Turcismes and Atheismes The very moderate Answerer The deniall of Christ to be God which Master Willet and Doctor Fulke do denying Christ to haue receiued the substance of his Father or that he is Deus de Deo God of God as the first generall Councels defined The Reply Deny Christ to be God God forbid but to be God of God only in a particular sence this indeed they do but can you finde no more Protestants of this opinion Your lesuite reckneth vp Caluin and Beza and I thinke he saith truly I would either he or you did as truly vnderstand them But yet we wish to heare what your Doctors thinke of this Protestants opinion your Campion calleth it monstrous your Genebrard Lindan Canisius name it Heresie your Stapleton and Feuardentius do aggrauate it by an epithet Heinous heresie your Possiuinus noteth it of Atheisme and your Colledge at Rhemes of Blasphemie And now belike this is that doctrine which deserueth your generall clamors which being examined with the eye not ouercast with the web of preiudice Doth in the iudgement of your famous Bellarmine seeme Catholicall because they denie not the Sonne to be from the Father but they denie the essence of the godhead to haue any generation This likewise is not the part of common modestie to blind-fold your selfe and strike you know not whom To the former inuectiues I must adde another of the same die euen deepe black mallice Looke vpon England saith your french Rabsacah and you shal find it to be an I le of men who cate mens flesh and who haue not among them yet they professe Iesus Christ and the Apostles creed the least footstep to Catholike Religion This we see written which giueth vs cause to beleeue that which is reported by our Trauellers who affirming that in our last Embassage into Spaine the people there gazed vpon our English Nobles and Gentlemen with that eye which Pope Gregory a thousand yeares since beheld them when they were Pagans and admiring the comely feature of their personages and the fairenes of their complexions asked Who they were and hearing they were named English they may well be called Anglish quoth he as it were Angels But alas what faire faces doth the vgly feend and Prince of darknesse now possesse Thus the vulgar in Spaine are said in their Christian charitie to haue bewailed the miserie of the English Alas that these men haue not the knowledge of Christ Being perswaded by their Monkes that we worship the diuels which is more probable by their writings as Caluinists are Heretikes detesting our Lord Christ Caluinish heresie is more detestable then
he may iudge depose and kill Herein giuing vs a speciall argument of your singular modestie whereas being ashamed to giue the Pope Direct Soueraigntie ouer Kings haue closely conueyed vnto him the same power by the other tearme called Indirectly It were to be wished you would leaue that subtill modestie and learne honest simplicitie It may be we shall perceiue some dragme thereof in your fourth-ly The moderate Answerer Fourthly the maintainers of this doctrine do not vrge greater indignitie or defend any sentence more offensiue in equall iudgement to any Pralate sheepe or shepheard then to the chiefest Shepheard vnder Christ the Pope himselfe for they all with one consent affirme that in case of heresie now in question he is either actually and really deposed or to be deposed The Canonists do hold that he is ipso facto deposed if he fall into heresie with whom Turrecrem Castrâ— and others do consent The Reply Wherein I dare appeale to any equall or almost any vnequall iudgement of my greatest aduersaries to determine whether this your answer be not absurdly false in two degrees First Those you say who vrge this opinion of deposing Princes in case of heresie offer no more indignitie to any sheepe then to the chiefe shepheard vnder Christ the Pope and yet in the same Chapter I Answer say you if any man hold that opinion of such power ouer Princes in Popes yet they will pleade it more tolerable in the authoritie of one supreme Pastor in the Church whereof Princes be sheepe c. The argument then of these men as you confesse and is hereafter shewed is this As the shepheard to the sheepe so the Pope to Kings but shepheards haue power ouer sheepe and not sheepe ouer shepheards Ergo Popes may depose Princes and Princes may not remoue Popes This is your Popish and as it is after proued your sheepish conclusion wherein whether there be not offered greater indignitie to Princes then to Popes let the equall Reader iudge Secondly the Authors of the doctrine of deposing of Kings in case of heresie do professe concerning Popes That they cannot possibly be Heretikes as Popes and consequently cannot be deposed Not saith Bellarmine by any power whether Ecclesiasticall or temporall no not by all Bishops assembled in a Councell Not though saith Carerius he should do any thing preiudiciall to the vniuersall statâ— of the Church Not though saith Azorius he should neglect the Canons Ecclesiasticall or peruert the lawes of Kings Not though saith your Gratianus Glosse he should carrie infinite multitudes of soules headlong with him into hell And these forenamed Authors do auouch for the confirmation of this doctrine the vniuersall consent of Romish Diuines and Canonists for the space of an hundred yeares Whether therefore to affirme that Kings may be Heretikes and for that cause deposed and that Popes cannot be deposed because as Popes they cannot be Heretikes be equall indignitie to Popes and Kings let if you will your vnequall Reader iudge And now not to stand vpon other transparent absurdities of these Authors your modestie is to be put in mind not to appeale vnto equall iudgement in that wherein you manifest your totall eclypse of iudgement Hitherto haue we disputed of the power of people and of the Pope considered as it were intensiuely Now we approach to examine both of them in their extent and execution CHAP. XIII The Discouerie in the third Reason WHosoeuer vpon any pretended supremacie whether of Pope or people do denie the necessarie right of Election or of succession of Protestant Princes are to be holden amongst all Protestants seditious But all Popish Priests do vtterly abolish the title of Succession in all Protestant Princes by pretended prerogatiue of Pope and people Ergo The Minor proued by their Positions In Election 1. The Romish Cardinall There is no election whether of King or Emperor of any force if he that is elect such as they esteeme all Protestants be excommunicate In Succession Reinalds The right of Kings Christian must depend rather vpon their Religion then vpon order of Succession and therefore all Christians are bound to cut off all hope lest that any such speaking of Protestants may aspire to the throne Otherwise saith Stapleton what do people else but euen preferre man before God Hereupon doth Simancha conclude that The Kingdome of an Heretike departed doth lineally descend vpon his sonne but if the sonne in the race Royall be hereticall the Catholike Common-weale may chuse him a Prince but if also the Kingdome be hereticall then the choice of the King belongeth to the Pope and so the Kingdome may be taken by Catholikes And lest peraduenture any should consent to the lawfull Succession father Parsons doth pronounce sentence Whosoeuer shall consent to the succession of a Protestant is a most grieâ—ous and damnable sinner Thus farre of the Position Now behold their Practise 1. In France Reinalds doth forewarne the French Will you proclaime Nauarre a Caluinist King of Fraunce What is this else then to aduance a dogge to be Soueraigne ouer men Shall Catholikes pray God saue that King whom they may not admit into their houses For suppose saith Father Creswell that he professe to bring in a more sound Religion what is this to the purpose he is bound to defend the Romish faith From France we will returne home where father Parsons busieth himselfe to disable the title of Succession of our most dread Soueraigne King Iames with intent to aduance the Infanta of Spaine thereunto Thus much of Successors now of Possessors The moderate Answerer Let all be true which he citeth and that they so teach yet if fiue particular men could make a generall Councell and their sentence be tearmed a publike Position yet they speake onely of a Prince excommunicate before his Election which case is not now in rerum natura much lesse in England as this vniust Accuser would proue The Reply Vniust not so your selfe will acquit me I haue instanced in sixe of your Priests and Iesuites whereof foure be our owne countrimen and therefore by your owne iudgement Best able to iudge of our country cause And you answer Let all be true which he citeth when you could not answer that one testimonie was vntrue Secondly you start backe If say you fiue particular men could make a Councell or their sentences be tearmed a publike Position as if we may not rather vnderstand your publike Positions by these fiue your best learned Clearkes then by onely you who by that your Yet if would onely seeme to take exception vnto fiue and bring instance to the contrarie from none In all which you testifie that I am not an vniust Accuser but that you are now an idle Disputer But if these fiue should be thought priuate whose bookes are priuiledged with the most publike and ordinarie approbation of your Church I could
by circumstance of speech Whereby you may perceiue that not that infallible Verity but your owne infirmity and vanity hath deceiued you in so peruerting the truth to patronize your lie The second place obiected The Aequiuocator Our Sauiour said to his Disciples that he himselfe knew not the day of iudgement but his father only which by consent of holy Fathers is to bee vnderstood that hee knew it not vt significaret eis Thus Ambrose Chrysostome Theophilus and Basil expound it And Garnet at his arraingment obiected S. Augustine and wholly depended vpon his iudgement in the same exposition The Answer It will not be pertinent to oppose the other exposition of Fathers Who were many saith your Maldonate expounding this text thus that Christ as he was man knew not the daie and houre c. but the question is whether the former exposition of S. Augustine and others doth imply any mentall equiuocation And because Garnet did select onely S. Augustine of all the Fathers we will appeale to S. Augustine for answer to them all By whose testimony it doth appeare that when our Sauiour said I know not the daie signifying vt dicam vobis this clause whereby he meant to conceale the time was not concealed from them who though they were by the sense of the speech held in ignorance not to know the day yet were they not ignorant of the sense of the speech which was I may not let you know it For he maketh the sense of the word Nescio I know it not to be a figuratiue speech and by the emphasis of pronunciation to signifie so much to his Disciples as you shall not know His examples When it is written Deut. 13. The Lord your God trieth you that he may know whether ye loue him These words That he may know do not signifie that God may receiue knowledge who knoweth all things before they be but the sense is this That he may make you to know how much you haue profited in his loue So Christ speaking to his Disciples saying The Sonne of man knoweth not the day of iudgement had this meaning to make his Disciples that they should not know it Now therefore as the people of God vnderstood the figure of the phrase Vt sciat Deus in his id est vt scire vos faciat so did his Disciples by circumstance or emphasis of Christ speech vnderstand his Nescio in his id est vt vobis dicam which is yet more perspicuous by that which S. Augustine doth adde Such kind of speeches saith this holy Father are ordinary in the common speech of men as when we say It is a pleasant or a drowsie day signifying that the day maketh vs pleasant or drowsie I would desire the Reader to compare this Nescio of Christ with S. Augustines Nescio in his former example and hee shall easily interpret S. Augustine by S. August to vnderstand that Nescio cannot admit a concealed sense Now what man of common sense doth not know the sense of such speeches plainly shewing that the Apostles did then know the sense of that Nescio the day of iudgement onely that they might not know it Can then your vnknowen Reseruation haue approbation by S. Augustine fie no his Christian haâ—t was â—o diuinely precise in this point that the did not admit of dissimulation for preseruation of the glory of woman-hood womans chastity no not for the preseruation of another mans life no not of our owne life no not for gaining a mans soule And will you make him guilty of more than Heathenish Aequiuocation Secondly consider but the vse of your imagined Reseruation which you prescribe to be then only requisite when the hearer is incompetent and vnfit to vnderstand the clause reserued but shall any imagine that the Apostles were not fit to vnderstand the only reason of your imagined Reseruation that they were vnfit to know the day of iudgement senselesse for our Sauiour elsewhere saith It is not for you to know the times and seasons And why was not that vt vobis significem at this time also seasonable for them to vnderstand Yes doubtlesse if that were the meaning of his wordes they vnderstood it and then it was no concealed reseruation if it were not his meaning there was no aequiuocation Thirdly the purpose of the Aequiuocator is by his secret reseruation To delude his hearer And will you say now therefore that Christ did aequiuocate that is delude and deceiue his Disciples This were blasphemy Fourthly this exposition Vt vobis significem is either deriued from the circumstances of Christ his speech whether of time or place or persons c. Or else it is idlely imagined to say that the Fathers doted dreaming vpon a sense without light of some circumstance would be iniurious to reuerend Antiquity and prooue the subuersion of your owne cause but if the Fathers collected this by circumstances and consequents of Christs speech then was it not the sense concealed except you will say S. Augustine and S. Ambrose did vnderstand better the meaning of our Sauiour then his prime chosen and concerning the tenor of Christs speeches his familiar Disciples Lastly we will conclude this point by the testimony of your Genesius who will tell you that this sense which you conceit is not only contrary to the sentence of all Fathers but also against all common sense We may not suffer saith he those who relie vpon this interpretation to bring in speaking of purpose against your Aequiuocation any doctrine amongst men which is not onely contrary to the common consent of ancient Fathers but also common sense The Aequiuocator Our Sauior Christ in going to Emmaus did faine as though he would go further Ergo it is lawfull to aequiuocate The Answer The Greek word saith your Doctor might haue been more securely and conueniently translated as one doth it He made as though he would go forward But Aequiuocatours delight in faining will you therfore behold your own visage The Heretickes called Priscillianists as appeareth in S. Augustine saith your Iesuite from this text did labour to prooue a lie lawfull And in reading S. Augustine you shall finde that neuer either Catholickes or Heretickes could discerne in your mixt proposition any thing but a lie But to the text the Fathers shall be our Iudges and your Authours our witnesses First Saint Augustine as your Bishop relateth saith that Christ did seeme to go further but not with any purpose to deceiue those Disciples How then your Aquinas will tell you S. Augustine saith that Christ made as though he would go further to signifie figuratiuely that he was ready to go into heauen but that for a while he was in a sort retained by earthly hospitality Pope Gregory likewise and Bede saith your Iesuite hold that Christ did it not to deceiue them but rather to shew how they were deceiued He cannot be said to he saith
Gregory who vseth words which are not intended to deceiue another but to shew that he is deceiued as the Prophet Michaiah dealt with Ahab 1. Reg. 22. The story is plaine when King Ahab was bent to go to fight against Ramoth Gilead all the false Prophets promised him a prosperous warfare the King calleth for Micheas and asketh Shall we go vp against Ramoth Gilead or no the Prophet answered Go vp and prosâ—er When notwithstanding he knew that the King should perish but this was an irony and in a sense knowen to the King himselfe who therefore charged him to speake seriously Therefore the Prophet spoke these words now according to the meaning of the false Prophers in scorne as When a sicke man shall take water died with a red colour which he is perswaded to be wine we would say in iesting manner well drinke your wine thereby to tell him his errour and not to cause him to erre so here these disciples not perswaded that Christ was risen from death but held him as a stranger and passenger feined himselfe a passenger to go forward Come to the literall and historicall sense He made as though he would go furder and they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is did compell or constraine him saying Abide with vs and he abode with them And now it appeareth he meant as he seemed to goe further but after was ouercome by their curteous importunity to yeeld vnto them as the Angell of God was by the vrgent request of holy Loth heereby teaching vs a double instruction in respect of man not to be peruerse but when our occasions may suffer vs to yeeld to the sweet violence of curtuous humanity in respect of God Who loueth an importunate beggar to be instant in praier knowing that God who in our remisnesse will by withdrawing his graces seeme to go from vs yet condescendeth in mercy to our importunity and will abide with vs. If therefore we consider the figuratiue sense then in this fiction there could not be your aequiuocation for it was done to instruct them and not to deceiue them If we imbrace the literall then it was no fiction but a plaine and familiar humane practise as any one who departeth from his friends is truely said to depart What reason or religion then shall we call this which thus from an action of sensible instruction would prooue an aequiuocating dissimulation a reseruation insensible that is to say a deceitfull delusion turning by this meanes the Oracle of the sonne of God Christ Iesus authour of the truth into the Oracle of Delphos the professed diuellish schoole of Sophisticall aequiuocations The fourth place The Aequiuocatour Iesus said to his Disciples I will not go vp to the feast at Hierusalem and yet afterward went meaning as Bellarmine in his Dictates doth expound not as the Messias but in secret or as S. Cyrill doth interpret not to solemnize it publickely or as S. Augustine will haue it not to manifest my glory or else not the first or second day but in the middest of the weeke Thus haue wee from Scriptures and Fathers sufficiently proued our mixt proposition The Answer You haue bestowed many leaues in Commenting vpon this text to euince from hence your reserued conceit let me borrow a little leaue to pleade aswell for truth as you do for a lie and shew you how expounding this place you blinded with the loue of your Thais had rather snatch at any meaning then take that which is meant for those words I will not go vp in the Greeke are I will not go vp yet and then as your Iesuite Maldonate well obserueth He who saith he will not go vp yet doth not denie that he will not go vp at all and therefore going ap afterwards that act doth not contradict his former speech and so all doubt and question is easily assoiled But your Helena the Latin vulgar text must be imbraced for Albeit saith our Aequiuocator in all the Greeke coâ—ies it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nondum not yet yet all Catholickes are bound to admit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non not because it is so in the vulgar edition How farre they erre from Catholickes heerein I haue elsewhere shewed how wee are to esteeme of the Greeke translation in this present text may appeare by the testimony of your forenamed Iesuit saying Almost innumerable Greeke copies haue I will not yet ascend and in that most ancient Vatican copie vniuersally commended throughout the world it is soreâ—d which reading many graue and learned Fathers do fellow Yet we will not so strictly challenge our right in this equity approoued by all antiquity which is that as in discerning pure water rather to examine it by the fountaine then the riuer so we iudge of the truth of texts by the Originall rather then by the translation For your Latin text doth sufficiently betoken the same sense of the Greeke Not yet so do two of the principall Doctors of your Church paraphrase the first is your some-time Iesuite and late Cardinall Tollet I will not go up that is saith he not yet because my time when I must goe vp is not yet fulfilled which being fulfilled then I will goe vp lest that his Disciples should haue beene offended at his absence from the solemne feast at 〈…〉 rusalem because the obseruation of Iewish rites was not yet abolished Christ did not absolutely denie to goe but did signifie that after a while he would go vp For the word Not in the Latin is the same with not yet in the Greeke as appeareth in the words following For my time is not yet fulfilled Our next witnesse is your bishop Iaâ—senius who from the sound light of the text concludeth that Not signifieth plainly not yet and that this is the proper expositioÌ„ of the place Adding ouâ— of Erasmus That many ancient Latin translations follow the Greeke hauing not yet Therefore this text admitteth no reseruation What shall we then say to the other expositions obiected only this that whatsoeuer exposition they vnderstand did thinke that the same was aswell vnderstood of the Apostles as of themselues For if the Apostles haâ— not tâ—… that Christ would haue gone at all to the feast they should haue beene scandalized saith your Iansenius But your coined Reseruation is alwaies supposed of you to be a clause concealed and not vnderstood Therefore in all these expositions alledged there appeareth not the least haire of your foxtaile you call Aequiuocation Scriptures forsake you or rather you them now you will haue recourse vnto Fathers CHAP. XII Obiections from Fathers The Aequiuocator SAint Gregorie lib. 26. moral cap. 7. teacheth that we ought not to respect wâ—rds but the intent of the speaker Ergo the intent maketh the Proposition true The Answer You roue from the marke your learned Doctor will direct you to vnderstand the meaning of S. Gregory as thus Gregory doth in
come to want The woman is asked Solde you the land but for so much her answer is Yea but for so much and yet this dissimulation is called a lie When she answered For so much meaning but one halfe concealing the other halfe it was not possible but in that dissimulation your reserued clause must haue come into her minde to thinke But for so much vt in commune bonum conferamus or vt alijs largiamur or your owne crotchet Vt vobis significemus Let any but enter into the meditation of such a dissimulation and he shall finde it vnpossible but some such conceit will be flittering like a butter-flie in his mind and like one of the false spirits of Satan delude his soule as not to discerne of a lie but S. Peter calleth it a Satanicall lie This is the first example of lying we reade of in Christianity wherein the actours by the visible vengeance of God were strucke dead suddenly and perished in their sinne and should therefore teach you that though you may delude man who only iudgeth the mouth therefore S. Peter sayd of it Thou hast not lied vnto men yet for feare of the all-seeing iust God not any more thus To tempt the spirit of the Lord. CHAP. VIII Examples out of ancient Fathers SAint Augustine vseth many especially two The first Suppose there is a man so dangerously sicke sayth this holie Father that if he should but heare of the death of his deare and only sonne his strength cannot beare the griefe of it but he must presently die thou knowing his child is dead and being asked of him whether he be dead or aliue what wouldest thou answer Thou must either say he is dead or he liueth or I know not but these two he liueth and I know not are both false the only true is He is dead But thou wilt say then truth shall be a murtherer why if an impudent woman shall soliicite thy chastity and thou denie she in the rage of her passion shall shortly die wilt thou say that chastity is a murtherer Me thinke I heare our Aequiuocators say what no true answer but only he is dead simple S. Augustine for both of the other might haue beene made good as either to say I know not inwardly vnderstanding Vt narrem tibi or nescio calcibus or nescio cras and such like the second viâ—it he is aliue might haue stood for currant intending in the mind Viuit in Purgatorio or in coelo or vitam spiritualem or sibi or Deo and an hundred such qualifications reseruatiues both to free the answerer from lying and the man from dying Well S. Augustine his simplicity made him a Saint what your double-harted subtilty may make you I had rather you should duly consider than I vtter His second example There was a certaine Bishop by name Firme but firmer by the constancy of his will who being asked where the man was whom he had hid from the hands of the persecutor answered the seruants and officers of the Emperour thus I quoth he may neither â—…e nor yet betray my brother and lest he should do either he suffered many torments of these persecutors What answer could haue beene giuen more resolute and honest than this Thus resolueth S. Augustine euen vpon the case in question only differing heerein that the example which the Father propoundeth is of a Bishop for the safetie of a Christian the answer which our Aequiuocator teacheth is especiallie directed to lay-men for preseruation of Priests viz. themselues S. Augustine resolued that the Bishops answer was most honest what wil our Aequiuocators iudge surely their subtilty teacheth that it was most sottish by ignorance of another meane of euasion through this backdoore of Reseruation Vt tibi reuelem Therefore the Catholicke Bishop might seeme foole-hardie to expose himselfe to torments when by aequiuocation he might haue kept his knowledge as inuisible for that time as Christ did his person by his almighty diuine power amongst the persecuting Iewes But S. Augustine could not finde that passage because it was not heard of in those daies therefore doth resolue thus that the answer of the godlie Bishop was honest Because it is written he that lieth slaieth his owne soule therefore it were peruersnesse to say that one should choose to die spiritually that another may be saued bodily for man it is who may kill the body but God can take body and soule and cast them both headlong into hell But the example of Rahab saith he will be obiected whether she had not done well if she had not shewed mercy vnto her guests the seruants of God when inquisition was made by their enemies to know whether they were there She might haue said I know where they be but I feare God and therefore will not tell you to betray them thus should she haue answered if she had beene then a true Israelite in whom there is no guile But you will say that then they would haue slaine her and haue sought out the strangers doth it therefore follow that they should find them But suppose she had lost her life a life which must be lost yet had her death beene right deare and pretious in the eies of God and the benefit to her guests had not beene in vaine You will furthermore obiect that they by this meanes might make more diligent search for her guests and haue found them out and what I pray you if they would not haue beleeued that leud woman Howsoeuer who are we that we should censure or limit the power of God For he that preserued them after by this womans lie might haue preserued them without her lie except we can forget his power against the Sodomites they sought the guests of Lot but were strucke blind and not able to find the doore This S. Augustine his Scio our Aequiuocators turne into Nescio they can spie out a bench-hole to hide the persecuted by her answer Vt tibi reuelem which was neuer reuealed to S. Augustine nor yet to the holy Popes of ancient time for S. Gregory and Innocentius in the same cause of preseruing the life of a brother was of the same mind Neither is there one in all antiquity who euer knew the Nescio of your mixt proposition no not for any cause of danger to be free from them there is no greater Tyrant than a lie which slaieth the soule There remaineth the third example deriued from Paganisme and also other two arguments the one deduced from comparisons the otherfrom effects which will follow in their conuenient order In a conflict we know it is required that the Souldier be prouided as well defensiuely to ward as offensiuely to impugne his Enemy Let vs a while trie the forces of our aduersaries in CHAP. IX The Obiections which our Aequiuocators vrge for their mentall Reseruation from Reasons Scriptures Fathers 1. Reason WE will prooue our mentall Aequiuocation by