great S. Beda for the latin But for that I will not be prolixe and because I hasten to my second Consideration which is the very maine Conclusiō of all my whole discourse hitherunto I will knit vp all with that goulden admonition of Vincentius Lyrinensis an Author which who so readeth and belieueth it is impossible if he will professe any religion that he should be ought els but a Roman Catholicke well his wordes are these Let vs hould that saith he which hath bene belieued generally of all for that this is truly and properly Catholicke as the very nature signification of the name doth import And then for further explication he giueth a threefold prescription for a more sure and infallible direction and this is vniuersality Antiquity and Consent all which he must as time and occasion serueth adhere vnto that will be accompted truly Catholicke And yet in the beginning of his fourth Chapter he illustrates the first Prescription of Vniuersality most pertinent for our purpose at this time by way of supposition and question moued and answered His wordes are these VVhat then shall a Catholick Christian doe if any parcell of the Church shall cut it selfe of from communion of the vniuersall faith This is the questiō moued the answere followeth VVhat els forsooth should he doe but that he preferre the health of the whole body before any one pestilent and corrupted member thereof 20. And hereupon I began to enter into a serious Cōsideration and a seuere examination of my owne Conscience in a secret recollected and most retired conference betwixt God and my owne soule touching matters of religion as they shall eyther doome me or saue me at the last day First I considered yea and seriously within my owne hart debated demaunding of my selfe whether the Protestants Church and doctrine wherof I then was a reall and formall member and Professor had not cut it selfe of yea departed and separated it selfe from the vnion and communion of the vniuersall faith and from the sauing and conuerting Ghospell of Christ his Kingdome which was first to be preached to all Nations as Christ promised that it should come to passe before the worldes great destruction and generall consummation This was my first demaund and the answere returned vnto me by the Catholicke Church of ancient Fathers vpon view of their doctrine and comparing it c. nay by the spirit of God since it was promised to be the guider and directour of his Church I say the answere returned was that the Protestants Church doctrine had abandoned both Catholick name Catholick faith and therefore as beames cut of from the sunne as boughes violently broken of frō the tree and streames and channels parted and separated from their originall fountaine as S. Cyprian speaketh they were to perish vanish and come to naught And now what course remained for me to take if I regarded at all the welfare of my soule but to follow the sage weighty counsaile of my foresaid authour Vincentius Lyrinensis my Authour indeed being the only meanes next vnder God of my Conuersion from heresy to Catholicke Religion and that is to prefer the health and welfare of the whole body before any one pestered and infested member therof His meaning in plainer termes is that in time of Schisme and Heresy or in particuler Countries Apostacy from the Catholicke Christian faith and religion euery Catholicke Christian that is already in the Church must hoouer vnder the winges of the Church by retyring into her lap and bosome in time of any danger And he that is an Hereticke and of an hereticall Congregation and consequently forth of the Church must endeauour by all means possible to become a Catholicke by returning againe vnto the Communion of Catholick Religion out of which it is impossible there should be any saluation 21. This first Consideration I enlarged yet further extending it by a second supposition to witt if the Protestants Church and doctrine be Catholicke indeed as they would beare the world in hand it is then it hath bene generally reaceaued of Christians ouer all Christendome in that sense as it is now in opposition against the Roman Church then the Protestants can produce visible Churches of theirs that haue bene extant from the Apostles time downwards hitherto that haue held the selfe same points of doctrine the selfe same number of Sacraments other such differences as now Protestant Churches haue in them from the Roman thē according to that most sure prescription of Tertullian they can Edere origines Ecclesiarum suarum euoluere ordinem Episcoporum suorum Declare the beginnings of their Church they can turne ouer and bring forth an orderly succession of Bishops running on as he saith from the very beginning and continuing without any interruption to the Apostles tyme then can they proue that the first Bishop that held these differences was instituted and ordayned by some Apostle or Apostolicall man for so saith Tertullian could the Church of the Smyrneans proue their succession of Bishops from S. Policarpus ordayned by S. Iohn and the Church of Rome proue from S. Clement placed by S. Peters in one word then according to another prescription of Tertullian can they proue that the doctrine of their Church as now it standeth in contradiction with ours conspireth with the doctrine of the originall Apostolicall and mother Churches and that they hold that very doctrine which the Church receiued from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ and Christ from God and that the same hath cōtinued by neuer interrupted succession from that time to this of theirs These things if they shall euer be able soūdly and substantially to proue on their part then shall I acknowledg that they and their Religion are Catholicke indeed and that out of their Church there is no saluation 22. But if these things haue bene by them attempted and could neuer yet be proued by them nay if their affirmatiue haue bene disproued by a negatiue in all the forenamed notes markes prescriptions of the Church and against Hereticks as is already too apparently knowne to the whole Christian world then let them at the last vpon so manifest a conuiction ingenuously confesse that the denomination of Hereticke rather then the appellation of Catholuke doth properly apertaine vnto them 23. And albeit I cannot but vnderstand that the Hereticks of ancient times and all moderne Sectaries in these our vnhappy dayes both in Germany France Holland Scotland and England doe ambitiously affect this renowned name of Catholick to haue it giuen vnto their hereticall Cōgregations nay which is more howsoeuer they do fraudulently sometimes cloath themselues in sheepe skinnes when surreptitiously they inuest thēselues with this high title supreame dignity of a Catholick though in points of doctrine amongst themselues they be neuer so much opposite the one to the other ech condemning other for Hereticks nay damning themselues amongst themselues and
and vniuersall direction Can any rule be more probable and infallible then the rule of the Church And to this do agree both my foresaid Authour in many other places of his workes as also all that succeeded him tooke the like enterprize in hand of writing and prescribing against Hereticks as Tertullian S. Cyprian S. Augustine S. Athanasius Epiphanius Theodoret S. Hierome S. Leo Vincentius Lyrinensis in his goulden booke against the prophane innouations of the Hereticks of his time and diuers others which to auoyd prolixity I omit all these do principally and really prouoke and challenge all the Heretickes of their tyme vnto this only and sure waie of the Catholicke Church in their dayes for the triall of the truth and for discerning what is truly Catholicke and what is Hereticall their seuerall sentences are to prolixe to be conteyned within the strict precinctes and narrow boundes of my briefe intended Confiderations 63. And now to put a period to this my third Consideration least it exceed a due proportion the vpshot is this For asmuch then as this visible Christian Church begun and founded by our Sauiour vnder the Apostles was a visible Church made and consisting of visible men gouerned by visible Pastors hath visibly descended from age to age through the centuries of the Church by all lawfull and ordinary succession of Bishops which Tertullian required of the Hereticks of his time as they would auoid the blot of heresy that haue lineally come downe to our dayes Secondly for asmuch as the authority of his Church was esteemed in euery age to be the same for infallible direction that it was in the former first ages through the assurance of Christ his promise to that effect And lastly for as much as the whole vniuersall Church of the fifteēth age hath in a generall Coūcell examined decyded condēned the doctrine of the Protestants for heresy in more then an hundred maine points by name hath accursed and anathematized both them and all their participants to the pit of hell that according to the very selfe same groūds wherby the ancient Fathers did vse to curse anathematize all ould heresies and Hereticks in former tymes these things when I considered with more attention made a generall reflection thereon a suddaine feare and care astonished yea as it were ouerwhelmed me for that my euerlasting saluation depending vpon this point I had beene so negligent in examining the premises And now I plainely saw as in a perfect glasse of most impartiall iudgment that vnlesse I could imagin with my selfe as diuers others fanatically do that Christes promise had fayled that the first visible Christian and Catholicke Church founded by him and spread ouer the whole world had fayled vanished and perished as being ouercome by hel-gates and ouer growne with the weedes of errour heresy I could neuer haue any hope of saluation as long as I continued in the Protestant Religion And this was the issue of that Consideration The fourth Consideration THERE remaineth now a fourth consideration the subiect wherof which notwithstanding perhaps is of greatest importance of all the rest is this to wit how out of the premisses a man may probably collect nay necessarily conclude whose opinions be Catholicke and whose Hereticall and therevpon may reflect vpon himself in what state or condition he standeth betwixt both as eyther affected to the one or interessed in the other And albeit this hath beene partly discouered by that which hath beene spoken in the first Consideratiō touching the name Catholicke that signifieth Vniuersall and whole and not a part or singularity in opinions by choice of a mans owne will and iudgement for so Hereticke doth signifie as hath beene laid forth in the second Consideration yet shall it be made more manifest by the particular practice of the things themselues when the name shall passe into nature and appellation be turned into application And first to speake to the point in a word the Catholike admitteth all wholy and intierly without addition or detraction which the knowne Catholicke Church proposeth to be belieued of her sonnes as she hath it reuealed vnto her from God her Father But as for the Hereticke and the chooser tamquā Dominus propryiuris as he that will take his owne swing though it be in Schisme and heresy he making himselfe iudge ouer all I meane God the Scripturs and the Church admitteth some and reiecteth the rest as it pleaseth his priuate fancy or displeaseth his peeuish iudgmēt he neither respects the authority of the Church nor regardes his owne obedience due therunto his ground is either Scriptures falsely by him interpreted or a priuat lying spirit such as Micheas the Lords true Prophet prophesied to be in the false Prophets of Baal wherein he is deluded or other arguments of reason nature against faith and the God of nature And thus he is bewitched peruerted contrary to all true and onely sauing Catholicke grounds contrary to that sure certaine and infallible way of triall which erst while we treated of in the third Consideration and purpose now by Gods holy assistance to make vse of all in this 65. Some men I find to intertaine this concepit that English Protestants and Roman Catholickes may liue in their seuerall professions of Religion and be saued togeather and much more they are of opinion that all Protestants of different professions and Sectes as Lutherans and Sacramentaries and much more the different sortes of one and the selfe same sect as Caluinists in England distinguished by the names of Molles and Rigidi moderate Protestantes and feruent Puritans And the reasons for this their opinion are first of doctrine for that euery one of their differences do not make heresies or if they do yet not so grieuous heresies as the Fathers of the Primatiue Church condemned and anathematized they meane such heresies as impugned the persons of the B. Trinity the Natures of Christ God and Man the Incarnation and Passion and the like cōsequently though those ancient heresies were damnable yet are not those of our daies plead the Protestants but that both partes liuing well may be saued as his Matie in this his Premonition to Princes doth testifie that his noble Mother sent him word not long before her Martyrdome by the Maister of her Household a Scotish Gentleman yet liuing that his Matie might persist in his Protestant Religion and yet do well inough if he liued vertuously and gouerned accordingly 66. But surely how farre the credit of that maister of Household being a Protestant as I heare he then was and now is may extend it selfe to be belieued against the mistresse and highest Lady of that Household in a matter of that quality and consequence I know not yet certaine I am of this that the opinion that a man may be so saued is most false and absurd in it selfe and very vnlikely also to proceed from her
all ancient rules and Canons of the Church fayle not is first to admit and reuerence that for Scripture which the vniuersall Catholicke Church hath by lineall descent of tradition deliuered and commended vnto vs for Scripture and that after all doubts and controuersies discussed about the same and not that which Luther or Caluin who could make vnmake Scripture at their pleasure or our owne priuate spirit shall conceipt to be Scripture and secondly for the sense and true meaning of the Scripture if we haue any care of that or imagine that it doth import vs at all we are no lesse to stand to the iudgement of the sayd Church for the exposition and interpretation therof then we did before for the deliuering of Scripture vnto vs. And so much for this Chapter THE THIRD CHAPTER CONCERNING THE SECOND POYNT OR GENERALL HEAD PROFESSED BY HIS MAIESTY Concerning his belieuing of the three Creeds receiued by the CHVRCH AS the former offer so constantly auerred by his Matie of England concerning the belieuing of all Canonicall Scriptures was a signe and liberall token of a Religious inclination Zealous affection and Pious disposition as before hath beene intimated and related euen so no lesse Religious Zealous and Pious is this assertion also here so coÌ„fidently asseuered by his Highnes touching the acceptance and admittance of the Three ancient Creeds and that in the very same sense as the ancient Fathers Councells that made them did vnderstand them For these are his Maties very words which I haue thought good heere to relate wishing them to remaine vpon an euerlasting and time-out-wearing Record And that for these two principall reasons first that I may not vndutiâ—ully forget to deferre and bring the iust descrued honour and the most highly respected commendation vnto my Soueraigne Lord the King most due to his Grace for this his Confession which also out of a true Subiects loue and loyalty towards his Prince I could sincerely wish might neuer by any the least cloud of errour in his Royall vnderstanding be eclipsed or obscured and secondly for that I trust my former brethren of the Protestanticall Church of England will eyther now at last stand to their grounds of Creeds Councells Fathers Scriptures voluntarily chosen by the Lord and Head of their Church that hitherto vpon my knowledg would neuer be confined within the lists and limyts of any euen tryall or els that my Lord the King will easily out of the depth of his iudicious Vnderstanding vnmaske and discouer these men for such as they be euen wolues in sheeps cloathing false Ghospellers Antichrists deceauers seducers impostors And now to come to the words theÌ„selues as they are substantially couched together in his Maties Booke of Premonition they are laid downe as followeth 2. And now for the point of Heretick I will neuer saith he be ashamed to render an accompt of my profession and that hope that is in me as the Apostle prescribeth I am such a CATHOLICK CHRISTIAN as belieueth the three Creedes that of the Apostles that of the Councell of Nyce and that of Athanasius the two later being Paraphrases to the former and I belieue them in that sense as the Ancient-Fathers and Councells that made them did vnderstand them To which three Creedes all the Ministers of England do subscribe at their Ordination And I also acknowledge for Orthodoxall those other formes of Creeds that eyther were deuised by Councels or Particuler Fathers against such particuler Heresies as most raigned in their times Hitherto extend the wordes of his Maiesty And can any thing be spoken more honorably then this This forme of Confession punctually and so substantially deliuered by his Highnes I can neuer sufficiently coÌ„mend for that this is so farre from sauouring of any spice of Heresy as that here is nothing els but true Catholicke Diuinity For what can be more required for more full supplement of a Catholicke Christian mans Confession then to belieue the three Creedes in the very selfe same sense as the holy Apostles ancient Fathers and generall Councells did vnderstand them And now if the Ministers of England that do subscribe vnto them in their Ordination would keepe and confine themselues within that sense which the ancient Christian Church did both constantly and religiously hold and would not of their owne fancy presume to add any other new glosse or priuate interpretatioÌ„ of their own brayne the world should neuer haue seene and heard such breaches and tumultes such vproares and out-cryes such inundations and innouations and all about Religion as now there are 3. But the truth is as S. Augustine affirmeth Quòd fieri potest vt integra quis teneat verba Symboli tamen non rectè credat de omnibus Symboli articulis A man may hold and professe all the wordes of the Creed he meaneth the Apostles Creed and yet not haue a true beliefe of all the articles of the said Creed Nay S. Augustine in his booke de fide Symbolo goeth yet further saying Sub ipsis paucis verbis in Symbolo constitutis plerique haeretici venena sua occultare conati sunt Most part of Heretickes haue gone about and endeauoured vnder these few wordes of the Apostolicall Creed to couer their poysoned heresies So as the belieuing of these Creeds in generall they conteyning but Capita credendorum Vniuersall heades of thinges to be belieued is not sufficient to make a man a Christian Catholick except also we giue our firme asseÌ„t vnto all the particulers that necessarily may be reduced or deduced from those generall heades For better explication wherof I haue thought it conuenient in this place to addresse certayne Considerations that heere ensue The first Consideration AS the skilfull and carefull Phisitian imployeth noe lesse industry sparing neither Counsaile in phisicke nor prescription in dyet for the conseruing and continuing of the bodily health of his patient vntill he haue brought him to former health and full strength then he did bestow paines and trauaile in recouering him of his infirmity and raising him from the bed of his malady euen so the Apostles as so many soueraigne soules best phisitians most painefully and diligently watched ouer the soules of men their sick patients to vphould and continue them in Christian piety and Catholicke verity as well as they had cured them of their spirituall leprosy and raysed their soules which had long laine sick vpon the bed of heathenish infidelity and all that they might recouer full strength in sauing and belieuing faith and grow to be perfect and whole men in Christ Iesus And here you haue the occasion motiue drift reason intention of Christs holy Apostles in compiling the perfect platform of wholsome faith and Christian beliefe I meane this methodicall and Apostolicall forme of Creed which inuolueth in it eyther explicite or implicite in plaine wordes or necessary supply whatsoeuer belongeth to the obiect of our faith And therfore saith S.
2. booke against Celsus and 5. booke vpon the Romans Eusebius lib. 4. demonst Euang. cap. 12. S. Cyril of Ierusalem Cateches 4. Descendit ad inferos vt iustos inde liberaret Christ descended into hell that he might deliuer his iust from thence S. Athanasius de Incarnatione and in diuers other places of his workes S. Basil vpon the 14. Psalme and 48. S. Gregory Nissen in his first Oration de resurrectione Christi S. Gregory Nazianzen oratione 2. de Paschate Epiphanius in Ancor S. Cyril de recta fide ad Theodosium and Theodoret vpon the 15. Psalme 31. To these Greeke Fathers I may add these latin Tertullian in his booke de anima cap. 31. 32. Hyppolitus the Martyr in oratione de Antichristo S. Cyprian in his sermon de vnctione Chrismatis S. Hilary vpō the Psalme 138. in his 10. booke de Trinitate Philastrius de haeresibus cap. de descensu Christi ad inferos Gaudentius tract 6. de Exod. Prudentius hym 9. 10. S. Ambrose de fide cap. 3. de mysterio Paschae cap. 4. and cap. 10. vpon the Romans and 4. to the Ephesians 3. of Eccles. and vpon the 9. Chap. of Zachary Ruffinus vpon his exposition of the Creed S. Augustine Epist. 47. ad Dardanum the first question and infinite other places of his workes S. Leo sermon the first de resurrectione Fulgentim lib. 3. ad Thrasimundum cap. 23. Vigilius the Martyr in his booke against Eutiches Arator the subdeacō in his first booke vpon the Actes the 2. chapter S. Gregory in the 13. booke of his Morales cap. 20. and 21. vpon the Psalme De profundis Beda in his third booke vpon Iob the 7. chapter All these and many others may be alleaged as all consenting about the litterall meaning of this Article 32. And yet do the Protestants of our vnhappie time differ from all these in the vnderstanding of this Article of Christ his descent into hell though they do professe to admit the whole Creed And amongst the rest the very wordes of this Article of the Creed for some of them by descending into hell vnderstand that he descended into his sepulcher this is the opinion of Bucer that was Regius Professor and publike reader of Diuinity in Cambridge in King Edward the sixt his dayes and the same houldeth Beza in his Commentary vpon the second Chapter of the Actes of the Apostles And Caluin himselfe misliketh not this interpretation in his commentary vpon the 15. Psalme where he interpreteth these wordes Thou shalt not leaue my soule in hell thus Thou shalt not leaue my soule in the graue or sepuscher But how improbable an interpretation this is ech man of common reason will discerne For who euer heard that soules were shut vp in sepulchers 33. But M. Caluin after his fashion persisteth not long in in this but nath another more solemne interpretation in his second booke of Institutions and in diuers other bookes of his and the exposition is this that Christ did suffer the very selfe same paines of hell it selfe and all the torments of the damned in his soule vpon the Crosse as feare despaire distrust horrour and the like by apprehending God his heauenly Father to be angry with him And in this Caluin is so confident that he feareth not to go further and to blaspheme and say that without this his corporall death had beene to no purpose Nihil actum erat saith he si corporea tantùm morte desunctus fuisset Christus Nothing had byn effected if Christ had only dyed a corporall death And so according to this interpretation of Caluin Christes bodily death on the Crosse did not deliuer vs without these paynes of Christes soule and yet saith he the soule went not downe locally to any place of punishment for this doth he not only deride saying there is no such place but especially doth he hould it for a fable as presently we shall see but rather endured as he affirmeth and suffered the paines of hell and of the damned as is before said But the truth is this is a blasphemous speach and quite ouerthroweth the whole mystery of our Redemption For let vs search the Scriptures from the Alpha to the Omega from the beginning of Genesis or booke of Creation to the end of that mysticall booke of S. Iohns Reuelation and we shall not only find not any the like speach to this but the cleane contrary in infinite places all and euery where ascribing the whole mystery of our Redemption to Christ his precious bloudshed and bodily passion And vnto this will euery indifferent Protestant easily subscribe and yeald 34. And now touching his contemptuous censuring of all antiquity in the poynt of Limbus Patrum which was the place where the soules of the ancient Fathers and Patriarches remayned and were detayned vntill Christs Resurrection Haec fabula de Limbo Patrum saith he ad quos liberādos Christum descendisse narrant tametsi magnos habeat auctores nihil tamen aliud quà m fabula est This fable of Limbus Patrum or prison of the Fathers for whose deliuerance they recount Christ to haue descended albeit it hath great authors that make for it yet is it nought els but a fable 35. And who be these authors whom M. Caluin both accompteth great yet reiecteth but those principally whom before we haue named pillars of the Church in the primitiue ages And did euer any man since the first foundation of Christian Religion speake so of all the light learning piety deuotion and Religion of all the whole Christian world togeather this one wretched impostor excepted 36. Thus then we see that Caluin though in words he admit this article of the Creed yet he dissented from all antiquity in the exposition thereof Now as for the Church of England what they hould therein it is hard to say though many and sore conflicts there hath beene amongst Ministers and Preachers of my quality for many yeares togeather about the exposition of the article He descended into hell Only two memorable things I call to mind that passed there in my tyme in diuers partes of that Kingdome and all about the exposition of that article which heere I haue thought good historically as it were to interlace The first was in manner as followeth It happened that some dozen yeares since I light by chance vpon a certaine Exercise for so the brethren call it held by a certayne number of Ministers of the purer straine as vsually these kind of Exercises are The towne where this meeting of Ministers was is called Maxfield in the very vttermost skirt and confines of Cheshire and the text then and there treated vpon by the brethren was the Psalmists Propheticall prediction of Christs descensiō into hell as it is mētioned Psal. 15. v. 8. repeated againe Act. 2. v. 27. Quoniā non relinques animam meam in inferno Because thou shalt not leaue my soule in hell
by razing out these euil humours from the body 8. And now your Maiesty hauing seene by the former discourse how many points of ould condemned heresies haue bene reuiued and renewed againe by the Protestants of our tyme and that contrariwise almost twenty seueral positions about principall points of controuersy held by the said Protestants to be Papisticall are asserted by the said ancient Fathers as Catholicke in their dayes euen from the first age after the Apostles with repetition and confirmation of the same in the subsequent ages by the chiefe Doctors that liued therin and that the said positions or assertions were neuer noted or censured by the Church for erroneous hereticall or scandalous This I say is and ought to be your Maiesties prudence and loue of your euerlasting good so waighty an argument and motiue as nothing more For alas dread Soueraigne if the sentence of S. Paul be iust and true that an hereticall man is damned by his owne iudgement and if that of S. Augustine before cited be not false that whosoeuer houldeth any one of those eighty three heresies which he reciteth in his book to Quod-vult-Deus or any other whatsoeuer which shall spring vp hereafter cannot be a Christian Catholick consequently must needes be an hereticke Alas I say my dread Soueraigne and alas againe in what eternall dāger doth your Princely soule consist in that by the euill currēt of the tyme and temerarious course of such as you giue credit vnto your Matie is drawne to hould and defend not only sundry of those positions which S. Augustine and before him S. Epiphamus do recount for condemned heresies by the Church in their dayes but many other also yea all the opposit propositions to the Catholick assertions before mentioned out of the ancient Fathers as namely about Free-will Iustification good workes inuocation of Saints reall Presence Primacy of the Church of Rome and the like 9. And truly to haue such a grand Inquest or rather Parliament of Peeres to beare witnes against a soule for conuincement of heresy at the day of Iudgement as the rankes of these Fathers are in all the first and purest ages of Christian religion maketh my soule to tremble euen in thinking of it For if the cause were temporall that there went therin but only the interest of your Maties temporall and terrene Kingdome yet were the case frightfull to see so many great lawyers and Iudges vpon the one side so resolute as the Fathers shew themselues to be But now for so much as the matter concerneth an euerlasting and heauenly Kingdome and sentence irreuocable in it selfe neuer alterable or to be changed and of such inflexible seuerity as no respect no regard no difference of Prince Potentate or people is to be held it maketh the Consideration more hideous and dreadfull 10. And it may further be added to this Consideratiō that in this publike triall about this point of Protestant Religion your Matie is not only to haue this venerable ranke of forraine Fathers Doctors for aduersaries therin but so many domesticall also as haue bene Catholicks within all your Realmes for these thousand yeares at least I meane Bishops Pastors and Gouernours of those flocks togeather with the flockes that were once subiects of your Ancestors nay all your Maiesties Ancestours themselues which are of most consideration I meane aboue two hundred Kings of both Crowns that haue gone before you and togeather with the discent of their Noble Bloud left also in their inheritance of Catholicke Religion as of their Kingdomes to be defended by your Maiesty which no doubt had bene most Nobly performed if the strangest case that euer perhaps fell out in the world had not happened to hinder it and such a one as all posterity may and will wonder at and this is that being violētly depriued at once as it were in your cradle of both your Parents who should and would haue instilled to your tender eares the most honorable inheritance of Catholick religion the opposite and contrary fects were in place therof powred into your Maiesties Noble Brest by such as had bene Authors or instruments of both their ruynes and meant no doubt also to be of your Maiesty if they should not find you plyable to their designes for ouerturning of that Religion whereof they were enemies 11. This then is the case most dread Soueraigne notorious to the whole Christian world And further that if your Maiestyes noble Grandmother Regent of Scotland had not bene vexed and turmoyled with rebellions tossed and tumbled wearied out and brought to despaire by the first Scottish and English Ghospellers if your Noble Father and Grandfather had not beene horribly murdered if your renowned mother had not beene pursued taken cast into prison driuen out of her Realme and finally made violently away in terra aliena if all these things I say had not beene done your Matie by all likelihood had neuer bene a Protestant And shall we thinke that of such Diabolicall premisses there could ensue any good conclusions or any godly or wholesome effect of so abhominable causes 12. I deny not but that the inscrutable wisdome and prouidence of almighty God doth often times draw out of the counsailes and actions of euill men good effectes as out of the wickednes of the Iewes and Gentils that pursued and murdered our Sauiour he wrought the saluation of the world but neuer doth he this according to the coūsailes and purposes of the wicked that is to say these effectes are neuer intended by the wicked As for example that the redemption of mankind or saluation of the world was neuer intended by the Iewes or Gentils that persecuted our Sauiour and procured his blessed passion 13. But here in our case the matter falleth out quite contrary for that the chiefe and prime intention of those wicked whome I haue mentioned was to effectuate this very point that now we see brought to passe to reuolue that crowne expell Catholicke Religion pull downe Monasteries and Churches driue out or destroy the Princes that then gouerned as also their issue if they should leaue any or els getting the same into their hands the better therby to haue Title of gouerning in the infants name to preserue it so long as it might stand commodious for them after to dispose therof as time should tell them to be best But their chiefest ayme of all was vnto that which out of an infants education they might probably hope for and now haue arriued vnto which is that during the time of that education they might perhaps so inchaunt the mind of the young Prince so change his iudgment and affection from the iudgment and affection of his said parents and other progenitors as when he should come to the yeares of vnderstanding to discerne the merits of mens actions and affections towards him he should approue for good all that was done to his highest hurt to wit in matter of Religion
most compassionate nay whose bowels burned with compassion within them towards the greatest and grieuous sinners as for example we read in that notable story of S. Iohn the Euangelist who ranne vp and downe the mountaines againe and againe after the first relapse to gaine a yong man that was a theefe as S. Hierome and other Church storyes witnes yet these selfe same men were so seuere against the enemies of Gods truth that they neuer could so much as indure the very sight and conuersation of an Hereticke And so we haue not only S. Iohn counsailing vs not to salute or conuerse with an Hereticke but also the said Apostle practizing the same euen in his owne person in his heroicall factes whensoeuer any iust occasion was offered For S. Irenaeus who liued in the next age after him and recounted it vpon the relation of S. Policarpe that liued with S. Iohn and happily might be present whē the thing was donne recordeth that S. Iohn being in the Citty of Ephesus at a common bath whither many did resort and vnderstanding that an Hereticke of his time named Cerinthus was within the bath he instantly departed againe would not enter into that bath with him who had departed out of the Church from him could not be perswaded to stay any while there affirming that he doubted lest the very foundation of those bathes would fall downe where such an enemy of God was presēt who had as much as in him lay ruinated the very foundation of Christian Religion denying the diuinity of the Sonne of God A notable example of this great Apostle left to all posterity giuing them a sufficient caueat euen by his owne person and example for auoiding of Heresy and hereticall company 41. And the same Irenaeus in the very same place before cited registreth this story of S. Policarpe himselfe to wit how he reiected and defied an Hereticke named Marcion that met with him and spake vnto him calling the said Marcion Primogenitum Diaboli the first begotten of the Diuell and then the Authour endeth his narration with this most graue and memorable Conclusion saying So great feare had the Apostles and Disciples not to communicate in any one word with any of those that haue adulterated and corrupted the truth euen as S. Paul saith Auoid an hereticall mā after one reprehension knowing that such a fellow is peruerted damned of himself So S. Irenaeus 42. And truly this one point ministred vnto me store of matter and exceedingly enlarged my meditation to consider on the one part how carefull and not only carefull but fearefull these ancient Fathers and Apostles were as Irenaeus testifieth to admit any conuersation or to enter into communication with Hereticks flying them as mōsters serpents and Diuels vpon earth and starting affrighted as it were with the bare name of Heresy and Hereticke and on the other side that now in our dayes the name and thing it selfe is growne to be so common and familiar as that we seeme to haue no sense or feeling therof so senselesse and benummed are we in our spirituall vnderstanding But this proceeds from a supine negligence and carelesse inconsideration for such as seriously ponder and earnestly debate the matter more deeply doe apprehend farre otherwise therof especially such as are addicted to the reading of ancient Fathers the surest refuge and pillars for a resolued soule to rely vpon for true direction in religion in these miserable dayes of Schisme Heresy and Apostasy Nulla saith the old holy martyr S. Cyprian cum talibus commercia copulentur nulla c. And let noe trafficke or conuersation be ioyned with such men noe banquets be made no speach had but let vs be as separate from them as they are separated fugitiues frō the Church 43. And after this Father againe that Atlas of his age and great Saint S. Athanasius writing the life of S. Antony the Monke doth set downe the opinion and feeling of them both in this point S. Antony saith he did so detest Hereticks as that he tould all men that they must not so much as come neere them alleaging the authority of S. Paul for the same who often and seriously talking of Hereticks doth inculcate these wordes Et hos deuita and these you must auoid And yet my author goeth further in this relation of S. Antony adding this that when the said holy man was at the point of death ready to breath out his soule into the hands of his Creator whome he had with all fidelity and seuerity so faithfully serued practising ouer and aboue the precepts of the law Christs high counsailes of perfection he exhorted the standers by especially and aboue all other things to beware of Heretickes and Schifmatikes and to auoid their poison Meumque saith he circacos edium sectamini Seitisipsi quod nullus mihi ne pacificus quidem sermo cum eis vnquam fuerit And do you imitate my hatred towardes them For your selues can beare me witnes that I had neuer so much as any peaceable speach with them This was S. Antony his resolution in this point and this was his last charge that this dying Saynt left vnto his lyuing friends 44. And of the same spirit and iudgment were all other Saints and holy Fathers ensuing that euerliued and dyed in the vnion and communion of the Catholicke Church and namely S. Leo the Great first of that name a most compassionate man other wayes as by his charitable workes of piety well appeared yet in this point of Heresie he was so inflamed with the zeale of God his true Religion so rigorous and seuere against the enemies of God his truth that he burst forth into this vehement exclamation against them Viperea Haereticorum vitate colloquia nihil nobis commune sit cum eis qui Catholicae aduersantes fidei solo nomine sunt Christiani Do you auoid the viperous and serpentine speaches and conferences of Heretickes haue you nothing at all to do with them that being aduersaries vnto Catholicke faith are only Christians in name So S. Leo. And in this point that Heretickes be not Christians but only in name and appellation he hath cōmonly all the ancient Fathers concurring with him with vniforme consent as namely S. Irenaeus S. Cyprian and Tertullian before mentioned which Fathers do euidētly proue that Heretickes are worse then Heathens Pagans or Infidels This argument is handled in like manner by S. Chrysostome and that largely in his 50. Homily ad populum Antiochenum and by S. Augustine in his 21. Booke de Ciuitate Dei cap. 25. by many other Fathers after them the reason whereof is set downe by S. Thomas in the beginning of this second Consideration 45. Vpon these groundes then reasons causes and contemplations the whole streame and ranke of Ancient Fathers do with full consent concurre in this one point do inculcate the same often in their writings to wit that it is
very essence of heresy then the first though both of these men being out of the Church must be damned but yet with different measure of punishment 73. This fearefull Conclusion then of damnation standing a foote and remaining in full force to be inflicted vpon all kind of Hereticks we are now and next to cōsider whether the Protestants opinions at this day wherin they differ from the Catholicks be truely heresy being cōpared with the Romā faith and Religion and secondly we are to discusse whether the different sortes sects and professions of the said Protestant religion among themselues especially the principall as Lutherans Sacramentaries in Germany be heresies to the other and the like of Puritans and Protestants in England all originally rising from Martin Luther I say we are to consider whether all these seuerall heades be Hereticks indeed the one to the other or may be saued togeather ech man dying in his owne Religion 74. To proceed then in order vnto the examination of the particulers And first that Protestant Religiō in many great points throughout the mayne corps of controuersies now in hand is truly heresy to those of the Roman fayth and Catholick Religion this point being so cleare needeth no further dispute for asmuch as the Protestants do openly auouch aboue an hundred positions against the same Roman Catholick Church defending the same with obstinate resolution And the late generall Councell of Trent where the flower piety and learning of the whole Catholicke Christian world vnder one spreame Pastour and infallible conduct of God his holy Spirit were assembled hath discussed examined according to ancient grounds of holy Fathers discouered for Hereticall and thereupon hath anathematized 125. points by name and that in so many different Canons enacted concerning the Sacraments only and the controuersy of Iustification Besides all the rest I say the case being thus cleare against them and their conuiction so manifest there needes no further dispute For if by S. Augustine his iudgment euen now alleadged and other Fathers of greatest learning and credit in the Church one only erroneous proposition or assertion held with obstinacy against the doctrine of the knowne Christian Church be conuinced for a point of heresy and held for a matter of most certaine damnation to the houlder for that it casteth a man out of the said Church out of which is no saluation what is to be inferred where so many condēned assertions are held against the knowne Church authority therof 75. To the second also to wit whether Lutherans and Sacramentaries who made the first diuision of Protestants whilst Luther himselfe was yet aliue be truly and properly Hereticks the one to the other and consequently that the saluation of one is the damnation of the other were it possible that any Sectary could be saued This is with as great facility proued as the former and that first by the testimony of Martin Luther himselfe the originall Authour of all these later Sectes and then by the mutuall and concurring consent of all the Lutheran Doctors Pastours and Prelates that succeeded him 76. First I say it is well knowne that Luther himselfe euer reputed the Sacramentaries that comprehend both Zuinglians and Caluinists for dāmnable and intollerable Hereticks Let his owne testification often reiterated and seriously aggrauated in diuers of his bookes be a sufficient cōfirmation of this His first serious Censure denounced against them all is this Haereticos seriò censemus alienos ab Ecclesia Dei Zuinglianos Sacramentarios omnes qui negant Christi Corpus Sanguinem ore carnali sumi in Venerabili Eucharistia We do seriously censure for Hereticks and Aliens from the Church of God the Zuinglians and all other Sacramentaries who do deny that Christes sacred body and bloud is receaued by our carnall mouth in the Venerable Eucharist Can any thing be spoken more clearely or determined more effectually then this Or can any Caluinist with any face hereafter exempt himselfe from out of the number of them that are accursed and condemned by their owne grand Progenitour 77. The same in effect he hath in his Epistle ad Iacobum Presbyterum Ecclesiae Bremensis his wordes are these All Sacramentaries that deny the Reall Presence are Hereticks and for such to be auoided And yet in a third place least any man should thinke he had altered his iudgement de Coena Domini of the supper of the Lord he condemned by name for damned Hereticks the very first Authors of Sacramentary doctrine to wit Carolostadius Oecolampadius and Zuinglius and questionles Caluin had neuer escaped his singers as sly an Hereticke as he was had he bene then either of name or note well his finall and irreuokable doome for it was denounced against thē in his decrepit age was this Ego tamquam alterum pedem iam habens in sepulchro c. I being now ould and hauing as it were one foote in my graue do yet carry this testimony glory with me to the tribunall of Iesus Christ that with all my hart I haue condemned as enemies of the Sacrament Carolostadius Zuinglius and Oecolampadius and all their disciples and followers and haue auoided their company haue no familiarity with them eyther by letters writings wordes or deedes as the Lord hath commanded not to haue with Heretickes Thus much of Luther himselfe 78. And now if we should prosecute the seuerall iudgmentes and Censures of all others the most learned Lutherans against Sacramentaries in this matter of heresy and namely against Caluinistes who were of no reckoning in Luthers daies for that their new heresy was but then a hatching there would be no end and I should rather fill a large volume then cōteine my selfe with in the precincts of my briefe intended Considerations Let one or two of the principall serue for all Matthias Illyricus a great Lutheran Superintendent of Saxony and one of those foure that compiled the lying Centuries doth in a certaine booke intituled Desensio Consessionis Martinistarum or Luther anorum censure Caluinistarum Lyturgiam the Lyturgy or seruice of the Caluinists not only for hereticall but to be Sacrilegious also Et proh dolor saith he innumeras animas aeterno exitio inuoluere And to inuolue alas innumerable soules with euerlasting perdition 79. Franciscus Stancarus also no meane Authour one of the Lutheran side writing to the King of Polonia in his days pronounceth confidently of all those new professors vnder Caluin in Geneua that they were Publici manifesti haeretici notorious and manifest Hereticks And yet as though this were little the same Author in his booke de Trinitate prescribeth this Caueat to the Christian Reader concerning Caluin and would to God it were as well remembred and practised in the Vniuersities of England where yong Deuines are for the most part poysoned with the drugges and dregges of Caluins doctrine my hart bleedeth to thinke of it before they can tast of the pure liquor of
against thē saying The Brownists do confidently reproach vs that our Church is no Church our Sacraments no Sacraments our Prince and people Infidells as not being baptized at all our Christiā Congregations prophane multitudes c. Thus write they animated as say these Answerers by the Millenary Puritan Petitioners wherby it may be probably presumed that they also to wit the said thousand Petitioners in most poynts at least are of the same opinion 84. These thinges being so as no man of modesty can deny my demaund is how can these men differing in so mayne a poynt be of the same Church Or how can any man of the meanest vnderstanding so he haue any capacity at all imagine how these and the Protestants can be saued togeather Nay truly the booke intituled The picture of a Puritan licenced to come forth by authority Anno 1605. contayning a comparison of the opinions of the Anabaptists in Germany with those of the Puritans in England in Dialogue wise betweene an English man and a German this booke I say doth pregnantly proue that the Protestants do hold the Puritans not only for Schismatickes and Sectaries but for Heretickes also as the Anabaptists are yea the Author holdeth them farre worse then the Anabaptists Your Ana baptists saith he come not neere to our Puritans in pride and contempt c. And then he proceedeth in comparing and paralleling them as well in their opinions and vse of Sacraments as in many other points of Religion with the said Anabaptists most damned heretickes as all English Protestants themselues generally acknowledge them to be yea this Author called O. O. Emanuel aggrauates the point so much against them that he compareth them with Iewes and other such like Infidells And euery where throughout his whole discourse detecteth and censureth them for obstinate and wicked Sectaries And finally to wast no more labour in a matter so cleare I find them ipso sacto excommunicated by many Constitutions Canons Ecclesiasticall of the Bishops and Protestant Church of England as namely for impugning their Church as also the Rites and Cerimonies established in the said Church for denying the authority of their Archbishops Bishops their consecrating and ordering of the inferiour Clergy for denying of Deanes Collegiate Churches for being Authours of Schisme and separating themselues as Schismatickes for maynteyning of Constitutions made in Conuenticles and the like 75. And to conclude euery where almost throughout the same Constitutions they are sharpely censured for Sectaries and Schismaticks which censure proceeding from the Protestant Church with so full a stroke of authority must of necessity in their owne iudgement depriue the others of all meanes of saluation in that Church they standing out with pertinacy against the same as they doe consequently this doome must needes fall vpon one of their heades that the Protestants and they can in no case be saued togeather The fifth Consideration With the Conclusion of this whole Chapter to his Maiesty NOW therefore to returne with all humble obedience loyalty vnto your Matie conteyning my selfe within all due and iust boundes of duty fidelity obseruance obedience subiection and submission which eyther the law of God of Nature of Nations Reason Religion or of my owne natiue Countrie can require of a subiect towards his Dread Soueraigne I do euen from my innermost and hartiest affections implore this one thing of your sayd Excellency and must euer persist to beg it at your Highnes handes to wit that after these foresaid premised Considerations to the Reader your owne Princely Person would deigne to condescend to enter into some serious Consideration and mature deliberation and that with some earnest attention within the secret closet of your owne most wise iudicious and vnderstanding hart what is and may be the great consequence of all this that hath beene hither so generally discoursed of in the mayne body of the whole as also to weigh ponder the weight and importance of ech particuler treated and inferred in their seuerall passages 87. And first may it please your Highnes to lay togeather and compare the seuerall partes and distinct pertyes of different Professions in Religion all dissenting frō the English Protestant Church and doctrine therein established as before hath beene sufficiently proued The instances we bring for a plenary and particuler confirmation are these As first the ROMAN Catholickes which possesse the greatest part of Europe Secondly the Lutherans professing throughout Saxony Denmarke Suecia and some other States in Germany Thirdly the Sacramentaries Zuinglians and rigid Caluinists tearmed by vs for their moteferuēt supposed zeale Puritans and these be dispersed throughout Suitzerland Sauoy Germany Hungary France Holland Scotland and some parts of England All these I say conioined togeather and compared only with the English Parliament Protestants do make often partes of Christendome nyne at the least which proportion or rather disproportion as indeed it is especially in Religion when I seriously consider and weigh it in the euen and impartiall ballance of an indifferent iudgement I can in all duty do no lesse but most humblie propose vnto the Christiā Prudency and Religious Piety of your Matie to consider of what importance this is in regard of life euerlasting that nine partes of ten should hould the English Protestant religion for damnable heresy by which your Matie expecteth to receaue an eternall neuersading crowne of glory awarded by Almighty God the most righteous iudge of all the world 88. Yf in a sumptuous and Royall banquet prepared of purpose to intertaine the person of a King or potent Monarch there were neuer so many pleasing and alluring dishes neuer such great store of delicate viandes fetched from the sea or prouided by land neuer so great appetite in the Princely party inuited if often learned Phisitions that were then present attending vpon the person of this Prince to consult and prouide for his bodily health and welfare nyne of them should confidently auouch vpon their learning and iudgement nay life it selfe that all those daynties and pleasing dishes were infected with the drugges of some mortall and deadly-killing poyson some one dish only excepted which they could not also well discouer I thinke it would make the party inuited to looke about him to stay himselfe and examine well the matter before he would desperately aduenture to please his palate Or if in a great suite of law concerning the interest to a Princely inheritance pretēded by the plaintife it should be eyther by Parliament or vnder the great Seale or by some other Statute enacted yea and without faile executed that if the plaintife fayled in his suite being either dryuen to non-suite or ouercome in his suite that then he should vndergoe extreme misery be exposed to infinite calamities most certaynely incurre euerlasting bondage and slauery though some one lawyer of ten that were of his counsaile should animate and giue him all the encouragement that possibly he
children and after the said law was written also euery man and woman was not remitted promiscuously hand ouer head to the reading of those bookes but he was sent to take his instruction and institution from the ordinary Superiours Doctors Gouernors of that Church and these were to expound the law vnto him For which direction and tradition we find this warrant and commaunding yea prescribing authority Aske thy Fathers and they will tell thee thy elders and they will declare vnto thee Againe The lipes of the Priest preserue knowledge And yet in a third place I know that Abraham will demaund and teach his sonnes and househould that they walke in my wayes c. 17. And now to come from the law to the Ghospell from Moyses vnto Christ and so to proceed orderly with the history of the Church as God is no changling but euer like himselfe euen so the beginning proceeding establishing of the new Christian faith and Church was not much vnlike if not altogeather resembling the former For first this Church was planted by our Sauiour at Hierusalem and speedily by the industrious ministery of the holy Apostles assisted by the instinct of the holy Ghost spread ouer the face of the earth and yet neyther the Church nor the Apostles the principall pillars of the Church had as at this time any written instruction or methodicall institution deliuered vnto them concerning their teaching preaching or beleeuing except only the articles of the Creed deliuered by tradition in the Church as will appeare in the subsequent Considerations Secondly the institution that they had they receyued it by instruction from our Sauiour his mouth and from the immediate instinct suggestion and inspiration of the holy Ghost who was promised by Christ himselfe who could not lie nor deceaue to assist the Church continually vnto the worldes end and by this institution and inspiration alone they taught and conuerted both Iewes and Gentils instituted Churches establishing lawes and orders of life by word of mouth and tradition only from hand to hand before any thing of the new testament was committed to writing And this was the condition of the Church for some yeares and that in the infancy and purity of Christian Religion as the Protestant must perforce confesse Thirdly when the Wisdome of heauen thought it expedient that somthing should be written the first thing cōmitted vnto writing in the new Testamēt was the Ghospell of S. Matthew and this was collected and digested in that very order as it is now presented to the Church and that some eight yeares after the ascension of our Sauiour then the Ghospell of S. Marke some fiue yeares after that then that of S. Luke written twelue yeares after the former wherin diuers thinges omitted in the other Ghospell of are recorded And last of all was written the Ghospell of S. Iohn conteyning in it many great and important matters which are not found in any of the rest and this was not written of 66. yeares after the first visible Christian Church was planted and established by the comming of the holy Ghost 18. And now as all the rest were written vpon particuler occasions so especially was this famous Ghospell of S. Iohn which is the very key opening the dore vnto the vnderstanding of all the rest and particulerly vpon the occasion of Ebion and Cerinthus their heresy which impugned the Diuinity of the Sonne of God Whereupon I do inferre that for that which concerneth the new Testament the Church was for diuers yeares without any Scriptures at all and for 66. yeares which is the age of a man the points related by S. Iohn more then were vttered in the other Ghospells which are many and most important were receiued and belieued in the Church by tradition onely And now for Conclusion of all I would demaund but one thing of the Protestants that make such shew of appealing vnto Scriptures and the Primitiue Apostolicall Church this was demāded aboue 1400. yeares agoe by S. Irenaus before cyted who liued in the very next age after the Apostles vpon the very like occasion Sineque Apostoli Scripturas reliquissent nobis c. If the Apostles had left vnto vs no Scriptures at all yet ought not we to follow that order of tradition which they left to those to whom they committed their Churches So that holy Bishop and Martyr especially ought we not to follow that order of tradition since the true worship of God and the sauing doctrine of the Ghospell of Christ cōtinued for 2000. yeares in the time of the law and for many other yeares in the dayes of the Ghospell and that in the brest of the Church to be deliuered by tradition only without the help of any word written 19. Wherby we cannot but discerne and must acknowledge that Scriptures or the written word of God were not so absolute necessary for the reuealing of God his will vnto man kind and the continuing of man in that sauing knowledge of him but that his Diuine Maiesty might haue propagated and preserued his doctrine and man in the truth by tradition only of word of mouth without any Scriptures at all if it had so pleased him as he did for many ages and generations togeather both before the first great diluge by water in the dayes of our first Patriarkes vntill Abrabā his time whome he chose for the head of his people as also afterwardes when he directed the same people by like tradition as well in Egipt where they remayned in most cruell bondage for 400. yeares as else where before Moyses wrote his forenamed bookes And the like he might haue done with Christiās to the worlds great generall consummation last inundation by a flood of fire according to S. Irenaeus his sentence if he had listed as hauing instituted a more orderly exact and authorized Church yea and hauing indued it with greater priuiledges according to the perfection of the new law aboue the old then he had done vnto the former of the Iewes Whereupon it must needes follow by force of necessary consequence that the tradition of this Church and pure authority therof both in propounding Scriptures vnto vs and discerning the same which are truly Scriptures and which are not as also for deliuering vnto vs the true sense and meaning therof in their interpretation and exposition is much more to be respected by vs then was that of the Iewes Forasmuch as Christ our Sauiour promised the continuall assistance of his spirit vnto this Church and that in such measure as that it should alone be able to withstand all the infernall power of Sathan and the gates of hell idest the very entrance of all kynd of errour or herely into it whatsoeuer 20. These then that neuer so solemnely and neuer so confidently professe that they for their partes do belieue and follow the Scriptures without due reference or respect to the Church forsomuch as all Sectaries and Heretikcs that
he should protest confesse openly ten thousand times that he admitteth all the words and euery syllable therof 8. It is also to be considered that it is most worthy of a Christian man his obseruation especially if he hath eyther care or make any conscience to preserue himselfe sound in the faith and therby to saue his soule that albeit the ancient Fathers do with vniforme verdict affirme that these articles of the Apostolicall Creed were set downe by the holy Apostles replenished and directed with no small measure of the holy Ghost as now hath bene obserued I will not stand to discusse at this present whether euery seuerall article of the twelue which it conteyneth were set dowue by seuerall Apostles though diuers graue and ancient Fathers do affirme it yet were these articles neuer held for Canonicall Scripture no nor yet are they at this day eyther by Catholicke or Protestant And if any man reply that they are consonant vnto Scriptures and may be thence deduced I deny not that only I say this is nothing to argue that authority that they haue obteyned in the Church since that all other writings of orthodox men are both consonant vnto Scriptures and to be deduced from them and yet they are not held in that esteeme as the Creed but my consequence that hereupon I inferre is this that something must be graunted of necessity besides Canonicall Scriptures to haue bene necessarily belieued in the Christian Catholicke Church and that by tradition only without any other foundaation and that from the very beginning of Christian Religion 9. This appeareth by the former words of S. Augustine that this Creed came down along through the Cēturies of the Church by tradition and Ruffinus saith in his exposition of this Creed Idcirco haec nonscripta funt chartulis atque membranis c. therfore did the Apostles deliuer these thinges not written in paper and parchment but to be retayned in mens hartes to the end it might be certaine that no man should by reading haue the same for that writinges are accustomed to come also into the handes of Infidels aswell as Christians but that it should be sufficient to haue learned the same from the tradition of the Apostles And this is the reason that Ruffinus giueth of the tradition of the Creed 10. The very same hath S. Hierome his wordes are cleare In Symbolo fidei spei nostrae saith he non scribitur in chartis atramento sed in tabulis cordis carnalibus c. In the Creed that conteineth our fayth and hope which being deliuered by tradition from the Apostles is not written in paper and inke but in the fleshly tables of our harts c. And all this doth euidently conuince vnto the iudgement of any vnderstanding man that these articles of the Apostolick Creed were deliuered by word of mouth vnto Christians and the Church was put in trust with them to teach them vnto her children before that any Scripture of the new Testament was committed to writing and that many thinges of great moment about the mysteries of Christian Religion were left to be vnderstood and expounded therin and that according to the wisedome learning and iudgment of the whole Catholick Church especially concerning Sacraments which are not expressed And this is the cause why S. Augustine and other Fathers before him do often reiterate and frequently vse that impsoving kynd of speach Norum fideles the faithful do know what belongeth vnto these matters which purposely they did not reueale vnto the eares of new Christians least infidels might take any aduantage thereby to the disaduantage of the Church So as my conclusion of this must of necessity hould correspondence with that former conclusion touching the argument of Scriptures to wit whosoeuer he be that neuer so opēly plainly professeth that he doth accept admit and belieue this Creed of the Apostles but refuseth the vnderstanding thereof expounded by the Church and deliuered in her sense he belieueth it not at all to saluation neither shall it auaile him any more to admit the words and not receiue the sense then if at once and altogeather he reiected both wordes and sense 11. And here may some demaund But where now shall we be sure to find this exposition of the Church esspecially in these distracted times of schisme whē so many seuerall Sects plead for the Church crying out according to Christ his Propheticall prediction Here is Christ and there is Christ heere is the Church there is the pure Chospell here is the word truly preached there are the Sacraments sincerely administred c To this I answere we shal easily come by this orthodox exposition of the Creed if we haue recourse vnto the publike doctrine of the Church deliuered from age to age euen vntill our time throughout euery Century of the Church and this Church is euer visible vnlesse it be vnto such as are blind as S. Augustine hath already obserued 12. S. Ambrose in his tyme remitted vs vnto the Church of Rome the supreme Pastor whereof was then Siricius for our direction herein Credatur Symbolum Apostolorum saith he quod Ecclesia Rom ana intemeratum semper custodit seruat Let faith be giuen to the Apostles Creed which the Roman Church hath euer kept and preserued inuiolated yet was this vpon the very point of 400. yeares after Christ his Ascension So as in that tyme and in this great Saint and Doctors iudgement the Roman Church was then the best and surest direction to know the true contents and meaning of this Apostolicke Creed and consequently if our English ministry who at their Ordination do subscribe vnto this Creed would follow also the same direction for the true vnderstanding and sense thereof all matters would quickly be reconciled controuersies accorded but in default of this and for that pride and selfe will hath so be witched the minds of many that they cannot in humility stoop downe their priuate censures vnto the publike iudgement of the Church it commeth to passe that this great discord and difference that now is raygneth betwixt Catholicks Protestants and amongst Protestants themselues concerning the exposition thereof And this shall appeare in part in the next ensuing Consideration of this Chapter But yet before we enter into the other Consideration we shall speake a word or two of the other Creedes mentioned here by his Maiesty 13. The other Creedes then are the Nieene concluded as S. Ambrose noteth with the suffrages of 318. renowned Fathers alluding to the iust number of Abrahams souldiers when he rescued Lot and of S. Athanasius And these were written vpon occasion of heresies afterwards arising and impugning some fundamentall poynt consequently were but explications of the former as his Maiesty doth learnedly and excellently obserue and therefore these do principally depend theron This is euident if we reflect a litle vpon the principall subiect of the 2.
And the place is very pregnant for prouing the point The bench being set the Ministers ech in time and order spake but God knoweth how few wise and true words were spoken amongst them The first starts vp and expounds it of Christ his suffering vpon the Crosse a second vnderstands it of the Graue a third extended it to Christ his sufferings of hell torments in soule and the fourth yet added and interpreted it of Christs being in the state of the dead The Moderator for such a one they haue in all their Exercises he as wise as the rest insteed of mending all he marreth all for he commendeth all approueth all and receiueth all and then falleth out into a wonderfull admiration of the diuersity of the gifts of the spirit that euery one of his fellow labourers in the Ghospell should haue his seuerall exposition and yet all to agree and all to be intended by the holy Church But this is iust according to Tertullian his prescription Nihil interest haereticis licèt diuersa tractantibus dum ad vnius veritatis expugnationem conspirent it importeth not amongst hereticks though so many men be of so many mindes whilst they can conspire to impugne one truth And do not so many seuerall and erroneous expositions banded against one true meaning of the article forcibly make good this prescription and note of Tertullian 37. And for my part as then so now I am of absolute opinion that if all my brethren and their Moderator with them had bene as farre out of the towne as they were euery one of them from the truth of the text and meaning of the holy Ghost in that place they would neuer more haue returned either to wiues or Cures or made such an other fanaticall exposition tending only to the ouerthrow of the Article 38. But yet my second obseruation goeth farre beyond all this and for the nouelty and absurdity of the exposition it deserueth to be registred in the record of eternall memory that all the world may take notice of the palpable blindnesse of heresy and it is of diuers stipendary Preachers who as they seuerally succeeded one the other in a very eminent place of that Kingdome so they diuersly expounded the article one of them expounded it of hell torments in Caluins sense a second succeding of the graue in Beza his meaning the third and last because he would be sure to proue himselfe an hereticke addidit de suo he found out such an exposition as was neuer heard of before vnlesse it were by one Iacob a turbulent and Schismaticall spirit that opposed himselfe against the Bishop of VVinchester impar congressus I say no more touching this article His exposition in plaine words was this Christ descended into hell that is sayth he he ascended into heauen and this he thought he proued substantially out of the Greeke wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which said he signifieth no more thē that Christ went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is said he to an inuisible place and this must be proportioned according to the dignity of the person and consequently must be heauen For what place can be fit for the Sonne of God being thus in the state of the dead but heauen And so as before his conclusion for a full and perfect exposition of this article was he descended into hell that is he ascended into heauen And is not this as Luther merily gibeth at the Canonicall exposition of Hoc est corpus meum as if a man taking vpon him to interpret this text God created heauen and earth should interpret it thus acroked staffe was made a kite or the cuccow did eat vp the kitling bones and all For certaine I am there is as much truth and correspondency betwixt the one as the other Oh miserable Preachers o thrice miserable people that thus suffer their eyes to be put out and their soules to be deluded beguiled and betrayed by such hereticall impostors 39. And now to proceed forward and to see what the Church of England doth hould in this point M. Thomas Rogers Minister of Horninger and Chaplaine to the Lord of Canterbury hauing taken vpon him to set forth in print of late The faith doctrine and religion prosessed and protected in England for so are his wordes in 36. articles agreed vpon as he saith by the Bishops and Clergy of England when he commeth vnto this article he seemeth not to know what to say for hauing laid forth this article of Christs descent into hell he hath these wordes That Christ went downe into hell saith he all sound Christians both in former times and now liuing do acknowledge howbeit in the interpretation of the article there is not that consent that were to be wished And so after he hath set downe diuers opinions of others forgetting to put downe his owne he passeth and posteth the matter ouer in such sort as that no man can tell what they of England do hold or what it is that is agreed vpon by the Bishops or whether they hold any thing at all though in the title of his booke he doth promise to set downe 39. Articles vniformely agreed vpon by the said Bishops and Clergy belike he found no concord or agreement in this behalfe only he recounteth the aduerse opiniōs which he holdeth for opposite erours and aduersaries to the truth and then going on futher he sayth But vntill we know the natiue and vndoubted sense of this article and mystery of Christian Religion we persist aduersaries vnto them that say that Christ descended not into hell at all or that Christ descended into the place of euerlasting tormentes or indured in soule the paynes of damned spirits c. which opinions you haue heard now to haue bene partly of Caluin partly of other Protestants so as with them the Church of England holdeth not nor yet with the Papists sayth he for that presently he addeth for an opposite errour vnto them That Christ in soule went downe into Limbo lake to fetch from thence the soules of our forefathers which soules saith he before Christs death as Papists dreme were shut vp in the close prison of hell Now then to reflect vpon the premises and out of them to inferre the conclusion the illation must needes be this Though all partes do in wordes admit this article of Christ his descent into hell yet do they greatly differ in the sense and the ministers of England as it seemeth haue no certaine faith therin at all neither do they ascribe so much assistance of the holy Ghost to their Church which the true Church could neuer want as to be able to explaine the natiue and vndoubted sense of this article and Mystery of Christian Religion to vse M. Rogers wordes so as their beliefe herein is only negatiue as their whole Religion is which is to belieue that all others are deceiued besides themselues and yet do they affirme nothing in particular And let
to make good against them in the particuler carriage and passage of this present busines of Councells let vs but leaue the barky rind and outward corke and enter into the inward marrow and substance that is let vs giue no credit to their words but looke into their deedes and we shall easily discerne yea the matter will disclose it selfe For to set their wordes aside whome we haue euer found contrary in their deedes if the Church of England do sincerely imbrace and receaue for Catholicke and Orthodoxe these foure first generall Councells which did resemble comprehend and present the whole Primitiue Church for more then foure hundred and fifty yeares togeather after Christ then must it follow if they meane as they say and that their wordes shall not proue wind that the English Church and our lay Parlaments must acknowledge and admit also that doctrine for Catholick and Orthodoxe which without impeachment controllement or contradiction of any can be substantially proued to haue bene taught and held in this visible vniuersall Church whereof these foure Councelles collectiuely represented the whole body for all that tyme. Which foresaid doctrine that both it and euery point therof passed for so many ages vncontrolled this one reason may suffice to proue insteed of all for that the said doctrines should otherwise haue bene noted espied out reprehended and censured by some of these Councells els had they not done their duties neither had they bene so vigilant for the good of the whole body as they ought to haue bene if hauing condemned some heresies as they did they had winked at others Which once to imagine of an Ambrose an Augustine a Hierome for the latin Church a Basill a Chrysostome and an Athanasius for the Greeke nay to suppose it and that confidently though most impudently of all the great Saints and learned Doctors in the world togeather this cannot be no lesse then senselesse absurdity grosse stupidity yea heathenish impiety when as the least of these which I haue named was for learning able to haue resisted the whole Christian world and for their zeale would haue spared none in a point of errour or heresie as I may instance and proue by Tertullian Origen and S. Cyprian were any of these though neuer so great by the rest spared VVere any former merits though neuer so many respected if once they presumed to innouate the least errour whatsoeuer And therefore to strike at the poynt I ayme at in the period of the Conclusion doth the English Church and Parlament admit all the doctrines that were taught in the Church and that continued without the impeachment of any notwithstanding all the zealous vigilant Pastours in the Church I thinke it will make great difficulty and let it reiect them or any of them there needes no more to proue that Church to be hereticall let it admit them it proues it selfe by departure from them and their doctrines to be Apostaticall for that it houldeth not the same points of faith with these foure first Councells which it maketh shew to receiue and imbrace In a word let it admit them or reiect them they shall neuer be able to wipe away the blot and blemish imputation and innouation of damnable errour from their Church For better vnderstanding whereof as also of some other particulers thereto belonging and hereupon necessarily depending I haue thought good to decipher out these ensuing Considerations The first Consideration MY first Consideration which I promise as the very ground-worke and foundation of all the rest must of necessity be this that the Parlament and Church of England admitting these foure first generall Councells of Nyce Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon for Orthodoxe and truly Catholicke as representing in their Bishops the complete and entyre body of the Catholicke Church in their seuerall ages must needes acknowledge in like manner that for these first foure hundred and fifty yeares or rather fiue hundred for that it is not probable nay possible that within the compasse of fifty yeares the same should now faile which had allready by vertue of Christ his promise continued foure hundred and fifty yeares the true Catholick Church of Christ consisted not only of the elect and consequently was invisible but of good and bad and therupon was visible vnder visible heades And this was figured by the Parables of the net that caught both good and bad fish and by the field that brought forth good corne and weedes And further that this visible externall Church in those dayes was the very same wherof Christs wordes were to be vnderstood when he gaue this in charge to one vpon occasion and supposal of a complaint made against his brother which if he succeeded not then Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church as also that other of S. Paul that the Church is Columna firmamentum veritatis the Pillar and foundation of truth so as if a man in those dayes would haue had any controuersy in Religion debated and resolued if he would haue knowne what Scriptures the Apostles and Euangelists had committed vnto the custody of the Church for Canonicall Authenticall and further if he desired to know which they were how they might be knowne from counterfait how they might be truly sensed and rightly vnderstood what and how many Sacramēts were left by Christ vnto his Church which they were what were their effects operations how they were to be administred and such other like And if he were a Iew or Gentill that thus demaunded questioning these doubts and would vpon the resolution therof become a Christian but being vnlearned would be instructed in all these cases and the like he was to haue made his repayre and recourse vnto this externall visible Church and to haue stood in all points whatsoeuer vnto her finall determination decision direction instruction and perpetuall gouerment in all these first fiue ages without malepart repugnancy or obstinate reply if he euer intēded to be saued And if vpon any animosity or peruicacity any mā were cast out of that Church in all that time eyther for interpreting Scriptures in his owne sense according to a priuate spirit or for peruerting or innouating de nouo de suo of his owne head or braine in any the least poynt of faith and mystery of Christian religion as the Protestants do both his damnation was by all held and concluded for certaine except he repented and listened yea and obeyed the voice of the Church his mother that sought to reclaine him for that the authority of this Church was euer held for God his highest tribunall vpon earth and therfore irrefragable since the tribunall of heauen standeth expecting what is here done by the Church vpon earth being euer ready to loose or bynd to deliuer ouer vnto Sathan or to release from the bandes of sinne errour and heresy according vnto the former passed doome and sentence of the Church as among other Fathers S. Iohn Chrysostome in his
Ecclesiasticall power piety purity sanctity the rest I would aske first how this so visible a Church so conspicuous for maiesty so illustrious for sanctity so adorned and beautified with all sorts of heauenly grace and eclestiall verity should or could afterwards grow to be inuisible be spoiled of her dignity bereaued of her authority be robbed of her sanctity and loose all her graces and verity Or how of the spouse of Christ is it possible that she should become the enemy of Christ of the Church of God the Sinagogue of Sathan Protestants principles may imagine this but this ouer throweth the very principles of all Christian Religion For how can the later be preserued inuiolably if the former be so vnstable Or from whome can we sucke the pure milke of Christian Religion or receaue the stronger food of the high mysteries of Diuinity if it be not from the breasts of the Church If it be not from the hand of our mothers learning wisdome and tradition And now to follow this heathenish and irreligious principle of the Protestāts a little further if the Church I meane the former mentioned visible Catholicke Church of these generall Councells if this I say haue thus fallen by false doctrine as the Protestants imagine then this Apostacy and defection must eyther beginne first from all or from one or from a few only To the parts then if from all how is it possible that so great a body nay Christes owne body mysticall for so S. Augustine calleth it founded by the bloud of Christ propagated by the mynistery of the Apostles watred continually with the bloud of many millions of Martyrs dispersed ouer the visible face of the whole world I say and demaund how is it possible that this Church should be corrupted all at once and that by willing corruption of affection and iudgment 12. But if this defection vainely and ydlely supposed by the Protestants did beginne eyther from one or arise from a few priuate men contrary to the mayne current of the Churches doctrine and tradition which had continued and lineally succeeded in the Centuries of the Church from Christs time to the Councell of Chalcedon then would no doubt the Prelates of the Church which now were in possession of the Ecclesiasticall keyes and practice of the power and authority of the same by censuring and condemning Archbishops Abbots Patriarches as hath bene seene haue resisted seuerally punished these supposed noueltyes and new fangles in religion And truly albeit we should set aside the promise and prouidence of our blessed Sauiour for cōseruing this his Church which he had bought with so great a pricc as his owne pretious bloud and brought vnto such eminent greatnes at this very time of the Councell of Chalcedon which was more then foure hundred yeares after his Ascension yet in all humane reason setting the light of religion apart it cannot be so much as imagined how such a body Christ his body with such a vigilant Senate and head ouer it should by secret stealth or little and little be infected corrupted poysoned and consumed as their phrase is with Popery heresy superstition or innouation and all without sense or feeling resisting and complayning or any record left therof in Authour of Antiquity And yet if we will giue credit vnto the Protestants and suffer their religion to set the least footing in the Church we must against all sense reason faith and religion imagin and belieue all this and much more to wit that such and so potent a body so fortified with defences by our Sauiour was so stolen away frō it selfe and from God also as that it was lost peruerted corrupted conquered by the gates of hell made Babylon the seat of Antichrist and Citty of Sathan before any man was aware of it and are not these positions of Protestants monstrous Paradoxes strange Idea's Chymera's which no man of perfect sense can belieue 13. I read in the ancient Fathers that were inlightned with so great a measure of Gods holy spirit very earnest reprehensions and seuere inuectiues against the absurdity of these imaginations Let S. Augustine one that was wont to be full of reuerence in some of the Protestantes mouthes speake for all Illa Ecclesia saith he quae fuit omnium gentium iam non est periji Hoc dicunt qui in illa non sunt ô impudentem vocem illa non est quia tu in illa non es Vide ne tu ideo non sis nam illa erit etiamsi tu non sis That Church which was propagated and spread ouer the world consisting of all nations as now at the time of Chalcedon is it now no more Is she perished or vanished away So say those that are not in her O impudent voyce Is not she because thou art not in her See lest therefore thou be not for she will be though thou be not 14. Thus S. Augustine in his dayes argued against the Donatists who said then iust as our Protestants do now when they were pressed with the authority of the Catholicke visible Church that indeed that had bene for a time the true Church but that afterwardes it perished it fayled and fell into Apostasy Apostatauit perijt it did apostatate and perish except onely in the people who onely in their owne iudgment made the true Church indeed 15. And can any thing in the world be more like then this to our case Doe not the Protestants and the Donatists so conspire togeather that a man cannot distinguish them by their voice The Protestants acknowledgeth the whole body of the Christian Catholicke Church vnder these foure Councells for the space almost of fiue hundred yeares togeather neyther can he chose but confesse since the poynt hath ben so often extorted from him the outward lustre Hierarchy Gouerment and Authority thereof But if you aske him fiue hundred yeares after then he will answer with the Donatist suit non est it was the true Church but it is not now or at least wise not in that perfection of authority as then it was And if you demaund of him fiue hundred yeares after that againe about the time that Luther sprang vp he will not stick flatly to blaspheme with the same Donatist Apostatauit perijt it hath fallen into Apostacy it hath perished which speach you haue heard S. Augustine before call impudentem vocem an impudent voice but presently after in the very same place he termeth it by farre worse Epithetons as blasphemous to the holy Ghost which though I haue touched before yet will I repeate it heere againe for the better impression of it in our memory and the greater detestatiō of the like sinne 16. Hanc vocem saith he abominabilem detestabilem praesumptionis falsitatis plenam nulla veritate suffultam nulla sapientia illuminatam nullo sale conditam vanam temerariam praecipitem perniciosamp raeuidit Spiritus Dei The spirit of God in the 101.
of the first fiue hundred yeares which his sayd Maiesty most Royally offereth to follow For opening the window vnto which light I haue thought it my bounden duty both before God and man to take this small labour and to lay these few heades of Considerations before the eyes of his Highnes most wise Iudgment and vnderstanding THE SIXT CHAPTER CONTEYNING A BRIEFE CONTEMPLATION of what hath beene hitherto sayd with the Conclusion of the whole to his most Excellent Maiesty AND now hauing handled these points at some more length then at the beginning I had purposed I hope the benignity and Clemency of his Maiestie will take in good part that leauing the Reader I do returne vnto him againe as vnto my most dearly beloued reuerenced and dread Soueraigne to lay before the eyes of his Prudent Consideration the summe of that which hitherto hath beene considered of 2. First then the point of being a true Catholicke according vnto the name and nature of the word is of such importance necessity and consequence as hath beene shewed in the first Chapter that no riches in this world no wealth no treasure no state no power no policy no human felicity may be compared with it as rightly S. Augustine doth intimate And for that your Maiesties eternall weale after the briefe and transitory passage of this life dependeth therof I cannot but most humbly most hartily and most dutifully falling prostrate at your feet beseech you to giue some serious attendance and attention to this high and mayne point of euerlasting saluation to seeke out what is truely Catholicke both in the Church for whose Epitheton the Name was first by the Apostles inuented as also in particuler men who is a true Catholicke and who followeth the rule which the Name describeth to wit he that in Christian Religion followeth vniuersality and not singularity the whole and not a part ancienty and nouelty that which hath bene deliuered and conserued from time to time and not inuented framed and set sorth in later times 3. And for that on the other side heresy is the opposite and contradictory vnto Catholicke Religion for that it maketh choyce of a part to it selfe and therby is held to be the highest sin in the sight of Almighty god that is or can be committed vpon earth for that it ouerthroweth the very foundation of fayth vnder pretence to establish and reforme fayth My desire is so ardent in this point that your Matie should enter into due consideration therof as almighty God beareth wirnesse vnto my soule and spirit that nothing in this life stādeth more neere my hart considering the eternity of the next world the immutable weale or woe therof the vae or euge that ech man is to receaue as well Princes as others and that these earthly Princedomes will seeme but shadowes at that day and not worthy one houre of that glory or misery that is to be gotten or lost by Catholick Religion or heresy in this life And this is my first contemplation and I shall pray Almighty God that it may be also your Maiesties 4. The second is about those foure wayes proposed by your Maiesty for auerring Catholicisme and clearing frō heresy which are the admitting and belieuing of all Canonicall Scriptures the receauing of the three Creedes the approuing the foure first Councells and the acceptance of the Ancient Fathers of the first foure or fiue hundred yeares In all which if with the admitting in words there be also a true Catholicke sense no doubt but they do make a man to be a Catholicke and do condemne heresy But the importance of all standeth in the exposition for to belieue the Scriptures in the sense that I thinke best my selfe or to acknowledge them for Canonicall or not Canonicall as I or some few with me of later times shall please to prescribe or to admit the three Creedes with that exposition of the articles as I and mine shall best allow or the first foure Councells in some thinges and not in other or the first foure hundred yeares of Fathers so farre forth as they in my censure do agree with Scriptures is to reduce all to my owne iudgment a thing most opposite to Catholicisme and proper to heresy as we haue at large declared 5. Wherefore vpon my knees I do most humbly supplicate your Maiesty to consider well of this and especially of the last poynt concerning the ancient Fathers which doth in effect cōtaine all the rest for that these men deliuered vnto vs the Scriptures togeather with the true vnderstāding therof according to the sense of the Church in their dayes these men deliuered vnto vs the three Creedes the first as from the Apostles the other as from the Church the third as from a priuate man but yet approued by the Church these men deliuered vnto vs the first foure generall Councells wherein diuers of themselues sate as Iudges and Bishops and had voyees and suffrages in the same these men were they that examined the controuersies determined the Catholicke doctrine condemned heresies an athematized hereticks and cleared the coastes of all these wicked and turbulent incumbrances which seditious and headstrong spirits had raysed in the Christian world by their contentions 6. And finally these were they whom our Sauiour Christ did vse as sannes to winnow his corne to purge the flore of his Church separating the chaffe from the wheat and eroneous doctrine from the truth wherin they were so zealous and diligent labourers as not the least weed could spring vp in this field of the Church but that these carefull good watchmen and faithfull gardeners did presently note and pursue the same vntill it was eyther rooted out or condemned by the Church and therby as branches cut of from the body of the vine suffered to wither away and to consume of themselues For proofe wherof we may alleadge as many examples as there haue bene different heresies and hereticks in the Christian Church for the space of fifteene hundred yeares which albeit they ruffled much mightily for the time and had often great Princes Kinges Emperors and Potentates to fauour and patronize them as the Protestants haue now your Matie yet are they so consumed in tyme and by vertue of the holy Ghost as the very names of many of them are now scarce remembred and much lesse their arguments reasons proofes and Scriptures which they brought for the same and were it not that in these Fathers bookes who were their enemies some mention is made therof we should scarce know that there had bin such men in the world 7. But on the contrary side the Church that condemned these men and the Fathers and Doctors liuing therin remayned euer both then and after victorious and shal do to the worlds end and still by succession and continuatiō the same Church hath come downe frō age to age one age giuing testimony to another of the purity of the said Church
Highest euer with his eternall Protection to preserue your Maiesty to his greatest glory and the true comfort of your loyall Subiects So be it Amen THE FIRST CHAPTER CONTEYNING AN ENTRANCE INTO THIS TREATISE OR TRIAL How much it importeth to be a Catholicke and no Hereticke AND With how great reason his Maiestie endeauoureth to cleare himselfe and his Royall Person from the imputation of Heresy IF this short cut of our transitory pilgrimage heere in this vale of misery be but a moment whereupon eternity of saluation or damnation doth necessarily depend according to that of S. Leo the first Ex qualitate temporalium actionum differentiae retributionum pendeant aeternarum from the quality of temporall actions the diuersity of eternall retributions do depend If Gods secret iudgement towardes his Non in compede aut in pileo vertitur sed in aeternitate aut poenae aut salutis as ancient Tertullian auoucheth that is if it be not a matter of bondage or liberty manu-mission or captiuity that commeth in question to be discussed before the heauenly tribunall but endlesse paine or interminable glory If this neuer-dying life or euer-liuing death be eyther awarded or inflicted achieued or incurred according to mans free choice of faith or infidelity Catholicke Religion or Heresy made heere in the Church or out of the Church as euery man is a member of the Church militant or malignāt then singular is the importance and absolute necessary the decison and knowledge of this one mayne question purposely moued to discerne who is the Catholicke who is the Hereticke since the premised eternity of weale or woe blisse or bale is promised to the one and threatned to the other 2. The very consideration of these two weighty precedent circumstances of eternall glory or endlesse paine wrought such an impression in the hart of his royall Maiesty of England yea such care and such feare and such zeale of clearing himselfe to speake in the phrase of the Apostle that in my iudgement he thought that the weighty counsaile of Tertullian worthy of eternall memory of euery one that hath a soule to saue ought to be imbraced and followed of him to wit Cui seueritati declinandae vel liberalitati inuitandae tanta obsequij diligentia opus est quanta sunt ipsa quae aut seueritas comminatur aut liberalitas pollicetur It is in his place before cyted inferred vpon those premises which went before that is for auoyding of which seuerity and inuiting of which liberality our obedience must vse such diligence as the things thēselues are of moment which either the seuerity doth treaten or the liberality doth promise 3. Hence proceedeth that worthy industry vsed by his Maiesty in clearing himselfe from that foule crime of heresy And hence came that voluntary confession concerning his Maiesties religion inforcing him to break forth into that earnest and serious protestation viz. I will neuer be ashamed to render an accompt of my profession and of that hope that is in me as the Apostle prescribeth I am such a Catholicke Christian as beleeueth the three Creeds c. And then do ensue the foure heads before layd downe a sentence contayning in it a cōfession worthy to be stamped in characters of gould and to be written with a pen of iron and with the point of a Diamond that it may be euerlastingly remembred and neuer buried in ashes of obliuion and if wordes can be witnesses of the mind the hart must nedes be well meaning and sincere whence such wordes proceed For I wil neuer imagine that of his Maiestie which is to common now adayes vnum in ore promptum aliud in pectore clausum where wordes passe as coyned to serue the present time and as they shall make for the most aduantage of the speaker Oh what great pitty were it that his Maiesty should be misled in matters of that importance as immediatly concerne his eternall saluation and the soules welfare of all his subiects especially since he is in regard of religion which vnder his authority is there mantayned to render an accompt to God not only for himsefe in particuler but for al his subiects in generall Such is the burthen of all them who by their place and dignity haue highest authority ouer others 4. Now albeit his Matie doth vpon some occasion or other defer the handling of the Scriptures and the credit due vnto them vnto the fourth and last place yet to me it seemeth most conuenient to treat therof in the first of this my discourse according to the dignity and preheminency of the subiect it selfe But yet before I enter into the lists of this argument I haue esteemed it expedient for sundry causes to premise this other Chapter cōcerning the name and attributes nature and circumstances properties and differences prerogatiues and domages of being a Catholick or Hereticke as also to lay downe some way how to try the same to which purpose I haue thought good to addresse certaine seuerall Considerations which do ensue in euery Chapter The first Consideration CONCERNING the wordes Catholicke and Hereticke these being great wordes they do admit a twofold signification the first is generall and naturall the second more speciall and Ecclesiasticall 6. Touching the generall naturall acception of the wordes they import as much as vniuersall or whole or choice or chooser and howsoeuer vpon the first view and superficiall insight they appeare not to be so greatly opposite and contrary the one to the other but that in diuers respects they may agree and stand togeather for that both the thing which is whole or vniuersall may be chosen and that which is chosen by election may in some sense be whole or vniuersall yet in the speciall and Ecclesiasticall appropriation of these words inuented by the holy Ghost and retayned and brought into Ecclesiasticall vse and Canon by the Christian Church there is such an extreme opposition and irreconciliable hostility in respect of their contrary natures and effects as that nothing amongst Christian men can be more opposite and contradictory no not light darknes heauen and hell vertue and vice saluation and damnation God and Beliall For as Isaac and Ismael the sonne of the bond-woman and the heire of promise could not dwell togeather in one house as Iacob and Esau could not agree togeather in one wombe but contended togeather wherupon Rebecca complayned and expostulated with God If the matter be euen so why am I conceaued In one word to shut vp all in a word as the flesh and the spirit continually iarre and are at difference in one and the same man Euen so the Catholicke and the Heretick as another Isaac and Ismael as another Esau and Iacob as the flesh and the spirit they can neuer dwell togeather in Gods house they can neuer agree togeather in one wombe the wombe of the Church one of them must be cast out of the
vseth his owne election siue ad instituendas siue ad suscipiendas haereses whether it be to be an authour of Heresy or a follower as Tertullian speaketh in the place before cyted and all this he doth according to his owne iudgment and fancy ascribing litle or rather nothing at all to the authority of the Church in any thing that misliketh his owne iudgment so that in conclusion these two men are most opposite the one to the other 11. The first cleare knowledg that euer the Church had of this peculiar and Ecclesiasticall appropriation of these two words Catholicke Hereticke was from the holy Ghost inspirer of all truth as hath byn formerly noted and to beginne first with the last the very first intimation giuen of that odious and pestiferous appellation of Heresy or Hereticke was by the Apostles theÌ„selues as namely S. Paul to the Corinth There must be heresies that those who be approued may be manifested amongst you which manifestation Tertull. saith is meant aswel of those tam qui in persecutionibê° steterint quaÌ„ quiad haereses exorbitauerint who haue remained constaÌ„t in persecutions as they who haue not declined out of the right path to follow heresies So he Secondly the same Apostle in his Epistle to Titus writeth thus Auoid an Hereticall man after one or two reprehensioÌ„s knowing that such a one is subuerted and sinneth as daÌ„ned by his owne proper iudgement Id non tam infirmitate ac ignorantia quà m spontanea malitia de obstinata industria peccat For so I may well expound it that is he sinneth not so much of infirmity and ignorance as he doth of voluntary malice and obstinate industry or els eligit sibi in quo damnatur as Tertullian giueth the sense his owne election maketh good his owne daÌ„nation And as S. Paul inueighed thus against Heresy Hereticks so did S. Peter as you shall read 2. Pet. 2. branding them for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 damnable heresies and the teachers of them for such as brought vpon themselues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swift damnation or as it is rendred in another place immediatly following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their damnation sleepeth not Can any thing be spoken more terrible to forwarne vs of heresy and hereticks then this Excellent therefore is the counsaile of Tertullian wishing vs to auoid an hereticke post vnam correptionem non post disputationem adeo interdixit disputationem correptionem designans causam haeretici conueniendi hoc vnam scilicet quia non est christianus ne more Christiani semel iterum sub duobus aut tribus testibus castigandus videretur cum ob hoc sit castigandus propter quod non sit cum illo disputandum After one reprehension and not after a disputation for that the Apostle did therefore forbid disputation because the speaking with an Heretick should be for his reprehension and this onely once because he is no Christian least after the manner of a Christian he should seeme to be chastised once and againe and that by two or three witnesses when for this cause he is to be chastised because there is no disputation to be had with such a one 12. And although the word Heresy be vsed two or three times in the Actes of the Apostles where the sectes of the Scribes and Pharisies be called Heresies and though S. Paul himselfe speaking out of the opinion of the Iewes most willingly vndergoeth the imputation where Christian Religion was branded with the termes of Sect or Heresy yet was not the word taken in such a heynous signification here in these places as in the other places of the Apostles before mentioned for that of no kind of sin or sinner did they euer pronounce so grieuous a sentence as namely that he was to be fled from as subuerted and damned by his owne iudgment that they brought in daÌ„nable Heresies that they brought vpon themselues swift damnation and that their damnation slept not which they feared not to pronounce nay they bouldly pronounced of an hereticall man they bring vpon themselues swift damnation Here is nothing but damnation and all to giue vs a terrible admonition to beware them and auoid them And thus much I thought good to say of this dreadfull name for stirring vp my former brethren of the Ministry to beware therof but much more to decline the cause and occasion of the same 13. As for the word Catholick it came from heauen and was first reuealed from the holy Ghost by the mouth of all the Apostles in their common Creed For being assembled togeather to compose a perfect platforme of true and sauing-beliefe and to keepe out Heresy whilest they dispersed themselues abroad to sow the sacred seed of EuaÌ„gelicall verity they being at this time and for this purpose assembled and their tongues being the pennes of a ready writer when they came vnto that article which concerned the Church they by the instinct of the neuer-erring spirit laid downe the forme thus Credo in Spiritum Sanctum SanctaÌ„ Ecclesiam Catholicam I beleeue in the holy Ghost the holy Catholicke Church where they did not thinke it sufficieÌ„t to say they belieued the holy ChristiaÌ„ Church but they thought the word Catholicke to be more eminent significant and effectuall for the purpose Neither could this be done without the singuler care prouideÌ„ce wisdome of that all-seing spirit that vndoubtedly inspired theÌ„ guided theÌ„ For as Tertull. obserueth that S. Paul forseeing that heresies would afterwardes spring vp in the Church as the weedes vsually do amongst the purest and rankest corne foretold and forewarned them to come yea pointeth out as it were with the finger to some heresies particulerly euen so the Apostles foreseeing that all heresies were to shroud themselues vnder the names of Christian Churches Assemblies and Congregations they thought it most conuenient for preseruation of vnity and verity to set this remarkable stamp of Catholick vpon the Church for the more manifest conuincing and detecting of all heresy which badge or cognisance being once set vpon the sleeue of the Church impossible it was that any Hereticke that euer was is or hereafter shall be can euer fasten vpon this title And since it is more then apparant that the genuine description of Catholicke requireth more particulers and more easie to be discouered then doth the name of Christian in generall most pertinent if not necessary is the imposition of this name vpon Christes Church for the better excluding and keeping forth of all hereticall and particuler Sectaries whatsoeuer 14. From these two fountaines then of sacred Scripture and common Creed originally flowed the knowledge and vse of these two wordes of Catholick and Heretick both of them came from heauen both were particulerly inspired by the holy Ghost breathed into the Church for her better preseruation as hath beene formerly noted the very consideration wherof
ought effectually to moue vs to make great esteeme of their knowledg to intertaine them as we ought and that is highly to reuerence and sincerely to affect the one since out of the confines of this there can be no saluation as also to detest and fly from the other as from a serpent yea as from Sathan that first seducing serpeÌ„t since this bringeth with it assured daÌ„nation 15. For these and the same causes the Ancient Fathers of the Primitiue Church so much commended by his Maiesty as that he referreth himselfe in matter of ReligioÌ„ to their decision as soone as euer these wordes and their mysteries were reuealed in the Church least in time they should be buried in obliuion did presently with their pennes aduance the most high commendations of the one as the only ordinary high way to euerlasting saluation as also by many detestations and execrations depresse the other as the very path to eternall perdition 16. Amongst which Worthies and famous Pillars of the Church the ancient Father Pacianus so highly commeÌ„ded by S. Hier. for his holines aboue 1200. yeares agone wrote a learned Epistle to one Sempronianus a Nouatian Hereticke of the excellency of this name Catholicke for that those heretickes as ours also of this day do made very little accompt of this Name But the holy Father describeth at large how necessary it was for the holy Ghost to leaue vnto vs this Name or rather Syr-name for distinguishing all faithfull Christians from misbelieuers his wordes are very effectuall for this purpose Ego sortè ingressus populosam Vrbem hodie saith he cùm Marcionitas c. I bechance entring this day into a populous Citty and finding there some called Marcionites some Apollinarians some Cataphrigians some Nouatians and others of like Sectes all calling themselues Christians I did not know by what Syr-name I should find cut the Congregation of my people except by the name of Catholickes So he And then proceeding further Certè non ab homine mutuatâ—m est quod per tantae saecula non cecidit Certainely this Name was neuer taken or borrowed of man that hath not fallen or decaied for so many ages And then he alleageth the authority of Catholick antiquity and vniuersall Church namely the authority of S. Cyprian in particuler for the vse of that name against all heresies whatsoeuer concluding thus Quaere ab haeretico nomine noster populus hac appellatione diuiditur cùm Catholicus nuncupatur c. Wherfore our people is distinguished by this appellation from all hereticall names when it is called Catholicke and yet further he saith Christianus mihi nomen est Catholicus verò cognemen me illud nuncupat istud ostendit hoc prober illo significor Christian is my name but Catholicke is my Syrname the first doth name me onely the second doth point me out by the name of Christian I am fignified only but by the Syrname of Catholicke I am tried and examined whether I be a Christion or no. So he 17. This was that high accompt and esteeme wherein that ancient Father of the Primitiue Church S. Pacianus held the word Catholicke after that the Christian Church had appropriated assumed this distinctiue appellation setting it as a most certaine badge or cognisance vpon the breast of the Church in generall and vpon the sleeue of euery member of this Church in particuler and the reason reassumed in the Conclusion is in effect this Appellatio Catholici congregat homogenia dissâ—pat heterogenia that is in plaine termes this name Catholicke maketh a coniunction vniting her owne and it noteth a disiunction separating all Sectaries from her society And here is the wisdome of Salamon euen the wisdome of Almighty God discerning betwixt the true mother and the false this is the true naturall mother of euery child of the Church she will admit no diuision of her child she will haue all or none for Catholicke is her name But to leaue S. Pacianus and to passe to others since that the Scripture requireth that in the mouth of two or three witnesses euery thing should be established where we may note by the way that if the testimony of two or three ordinary witnesses may stint the strife in matter of controuersy and tend to reconciliation in foro saeculi how much more then the vniforme consent of extraordinary witnesses witnessing iudges and iudging witnesses greater then all exception ought to compromise and finally decide the question now in hand in foro Caeli in foro Ecclesiae 18. These witnesses consenting with Pacianus in the premised point of Catholicke were all the ancient Fathers which liued eyther before or after him in the Centuries of Christian religion within the vnity and bosome of their mother the Catholicke Church as namely before him S. Cyprian whome he expresly mentioneth and before him againe old Tertullian one of the most ancient Fathers of the Latin Church whome S. Cyprian the martyr so highly reuerenced and when he would read him he pointed him out thus Da mihi Magistrum And after these two S. Augustine who ascribed so much and that as he thought worthily vnto this name Catholicke as that he feareth not to say that it was one speciall motiue both to draw him to it and to hold him in the visible vniuersall Church of his daies Neyther doth this great Doctor barely affirme it vpon his word and credit which had beene sufficient for vs to haue belieued the same but he yeeldeth a substantiall reason therof in the wordes following Quod non sine causa inter tam varias haereses ista Ecclesia sola obtinuit which very name of Catholicke not without cause this only Church hath obteined among so many heresies as haue sprong vp Againe the same Father positiuely and boldly affirmeth in another place that the word Catholicke was so appropriate to this Church euer since the Apostles in their Creed gaue that Name vnto it as that no Conuenticle of Heretickes whatsoeuer could once fasten vpon the Name themselues or procure the same to be giuen vnto theÌ„ by others And hereupon he concludeth that the very possession of the Name and common opinion of men was a sufficient coÌ„uincing proofe against all Aduersaries that this Church was the true Catholicke Church indeed 19. Hitherto S. Augustine Now if we descend lower to succeding ages of the Church I meane vnto those Fathers that liued after S. Augustine his time we shall find such harmony in vnity such vniforme consent in iudgement touching the true explication of this name Catholick as also the very right explication of that vnto the visible vniuersall Church of their daies that we must hence necessarily inferre that one spirit breathed in all one the same spirit directed all And here I might produce a whole cloud of witnesses to speake in the phrase of the Apostle as namely S. Damascen Oecumenius Theophilact for the greeke Pâ—lgentius S. Gregory the
that to the pit of hell Yet notwithstanding let the Catholick but pursue them and arrest them of sacrilegious Church-theft for stealing this title they dare not stand to try the issue before the Tribunall of the Church but presently as guilty they fly away renouncing their stolne tytle and so it returneth to the right owner And is it any meruaile that maugre their heades they are inforced to this restitution when they are at such opposition amongst themselues as is formerly noted which very opposition it selfe setting all other arguments of the Catholick a part doth euidently shew and demonstratiuely conuince vnto their faces that they cannot be Catholicks indeed because Catholicum vbique vnum as the foresaid Father Pacianus noteth that is Catholicke in Christian Religion which is euery where one and the selfe same For as Christs seamelesse coat was whole intyre and vndeuided it is S. Cyprian his comparison and it is well worthy our obseruation euen so must the spouse and Church of Christ figured by this coate be whole intyre vndeuided and one in it selfe and thereupon saith S. Syprian Possidere non potest indumentum Christi qui scindit et diuidit Ecclesiam Christi He can neuer possesse the coate of Christ who renteth and teareth the Church of Christ. 24. But alas Catholicke Communion and Catholicke Vnion cannot be found much lesse verified in and of Protestant religion not only in those old imagined times ages of their supposed Primitiue Church which they ridiculously and impudently contra scientiam contrae conscientiam do challenge vnto themselues but neither in these very ages wherin they haue peeped out of Chymerian nay out of Infernall darknes and bene knowne to the world by the names of Protestants Lutherans Caluinists and the like I say not in these times can they shew Vbique vnum amongst themselues in mayne and many articles of Christian beliefe And this I can partly speake vpon my owne experience had amongst them for many yeares during which time I could neuer yet God I take to witnes as righteous Iudg find any two of thē agreeing togeather in all points of faith and partly I can proue yt by infinite bookes written by themselues wherin they fall togeather by the eares discouer their owne shame vpon their owne skirts Ephraim against Manasses Manasses against Ephraim both against Iudah that is Lutherans against Caluinists Caluinists against Lutherans yet both like Simeon Leui Fratres in malo in the euill of Schisme and Heresy they can ioyne handes and conspire against Catholicks and Catholick verity And this conuinced my vnderstanding that Protestants could not be Catholicks and therfore I passed to the other syde where I found indeed vbtque vnum euery where one in all points of their beliefe throughout the world togeather with that vniuersality antiquity consent and succession which the foresaid Vincentius Lyrinensis that good old Monke Professour of Euangelical Coūsailes of perfection that liued in S. Augustine his time setteth downe in the name of the whole Catholicke Church in his time as the certaine signes markes and tokens of the true Catholick Church indeed And this much shall suffice for this first Consideration about the wordes Catholicke and Hereticke Let vs passe vnto the second The second Consideration YF the changing of Abraham his name from Abram into Abraham was full of mysticall consolation because it confirmed him in the promyse of the Messias and for that he should be the father of many nations Genes 17 5. if Iacob his name being turned into Israel was fraught with comfort and that for these two especiall reasons first because he had preuailed with God secondly because he should preuaile against men Genes 32. 28. O then how comfortable and how amiable how full of solace heauenly delight ought this glorious through the whol Christiā world renowned name of Catholicke to be vnto vs since it confirmeth vs nay assureth and sealeth vnto vs all Gods promises made vnto the Church it is the Father of many nations comprehending all true beleeuing Christians within the lap and bosome of the Church it preuaileth with God procuring his heauēly benediction and neuer departing without a blessing and it preuaileth against men distinguishing betwixt wolues and sheepe separating all false worshippers from the true belieuers 26. And now as this Name of Catholick began to be vnto me most amiable and comfortable conteyning in it so many priuiledges and prerogatiues and being so highly reputed esteemed and commended by all sacred Antiquity euen from the Apostles dayes downwards vnto our times though Sempronianus the Nouatian Heretick obiected to the forenamed Father Pacianus as the Hereticks do to vs in these dayes that sub Apostois nemo Catholicus vocabatur no man was called Catholicke vnder the Apostles so on the other side comparing contraries together quae iuxta seinuicem posita magis illucescunt which being opposit are the clearer reuealed I considered with all possible attention that the Name of Hereticke was most dreadfull aboue all other names vpō the earth as before I haue noted at large And therfore if euer there were a Cham accursed of his Father as you shall read there was Genes 9. 25. then the Hereticke is this Cham accursed of God the Father and anathematized of the Church his mother This is Benoni that sonne of the mothers sorrow as Rachael pronounced of Beniamin the byrth of this sonne would be the death of his mother he came from her wombe but he will not abide in her bosome agreeing with that of the Apostle Prodierunt ex nobis sed non erant ex nobis nam si fuissent ex nobis permansissent nobiscum Sed vt manifesti sint quod non sunt omnes ex nobis They wēt forth from vs but they were not of vs for if they had beene of vs they would haue remayned with vs. But here by they are manifested not to be all of vs. And therfore to expresse if it be possible in a word the horror of this Name as the childrē of the prophets cried vnto Elizcus the prophet after they had tasted the potage Mors in olla vir Dei mors in olla death is in the pot o man of God death is in the pot Euē so may I more iustly take vp this cōplaint cry out vnto euery man of God that is a true mēber of the Catholick Church that against all Heresy the very name Heretick Mors in nomine Mors in nomine there is nothing but death destruction desolation dānation in this very Name 27. And heere we shall be inforced as it were to ponder vpon this point somewhat more at large and to extend the bondes of this ensuing Consideration especially for so much as concerning vs so neare as it doth this matter cannot be but worthy of our weightiest ponderation and the rather will we the more deliberately consider of this point for
so much as we heare on the one side the terrible horrour of the said Name and on the other side we see the common and to much vsed familiaryty therof in these our vnhappy tymes later and worser dayes which are so replenished with all kind of Sects and Sectaries as that each one commonly calleth the other Hereticke and that with as great facility and with as litle regard as if the accustomable practice of calling Hereticke had taken away the true sense and reall feeling of an Hereticke or as though he called him good fellow or witty inuentor of new opinions which amongst the Sectaries of our age is rather reputed for a pleasant iest and ingenious cōmendation then for that which in sober sadnes setting all Atheisticall scoffing and iesting in matters of such momēt a part it is to wit a terrible accusation and dreadfull charge of a most high and Capitall crime committed against God his Church his Sauiour and all to the destruction of his owne soule 28. But alas who doth not now adaies delight and esteeme himselfe the more for his sharpnes of wit subtile ingeny for inuenting finding out deuising framing new positions new translations new interpretations and that coyned stamped in the shop of his own braine therby of set purpose to impugne and of desperate malice to withstand some Catholick points of ancient Churches doctrine And if you tell him that he must keep him to the traditiō of the Church deliuer that to the sonnes of the Church which he hath vniformly receiued frō the Fathers of the Church that he must not remoue ancient bands in matters of beliefe for feare of a curse that he must reddere depositum as S. Paul chargeth Timothy and that with a vehement asseueration and what is that reddere depositū that is as Vincentius Lyrinensis excellently expounds it Quod tibi creditum est non quod à te inuentum quod accepisti non quod excogitasti rem non ingenij sed doctrinae non vsurpationis priuatae sed publicae traditionis rem ad te perductam non a te prolatam in qua non author esse debes sed custos non institutor sed sectator non ducens sed sequens that which is committed vnto thee not any thing inuented of thee that which thou hast receaued not deuised a matter of doctrine not of wit not of priuat vsurpation but of publicke tradition a matter brought vnto thee not brought forth of thee wherin thou must be no author but a keeper no maister but a scholler no guider but a follower Lastly tell him that he must content himselfe with being a relator only not presuming to be an author otherwise his position will proue innouation priuate inuention erroneous election and consequently heresy I say tell him all this and what more you can deuise and he will laugh at you for your simplicity in going about to terrify him with such buggs and in tying his spirit to any rule of Church-authority since the wind bloweth where it listeth c. which he fanatically applieth vnto his spirit presuming it to be inspired from aboue And with that spirit if you will belieue him vpon his bare word is he so inspired that he needeth no other direction no further instruction And this is all the accompt that he maketh of being a Catholicke or a choosing Hereticke But reflecting vpon the other syde of the Roman Religion which may truely and only be called Catholicke I experimentally found another kind of reckoning made of both these wordes Catholicke and Hereticke most highly esteeming the one as hath bene formerly spoken and fearfully declining the other as the origen and ofspring of all calamity 26. And first I found in the common doctrine of their Schooles they assigning Heresy for one of the three species or members of infidelity opposite to Christian Religion they hould it to be the worst most heinous of all three in respect of the extreame and desperate malice therof to wit that it is in a degree of euill and sinne worse and more damnable then either Paganisme or Iudaisme not for that all heresie denyeth more parts of Christian doctrine then do the Pagans or Iewes for in this the Pagan sinneth more then a Iew and a Iew commonly more then an Hereticke but because they do corrupt and impugne the Catholicke Christian faith which once they receiued and from which they are now wilfully departed which implieth more malice then can be ascribed to eyther Iew or Gentile that neuer receyued the same In which respect their sinne and damnatiō is more grieuous say Catholicke Doctors then is eyther of the other two Wherupon is inferred by S. Thomas and it is the common opinion that an Hereticke is in worse state then a Iew or Gentile for the life to come 30. Againe for further aggrauation and exaggeration of the horror of this Name and loud-crying sinne therby signified the Catholicke Deuines in a more particuler explication do constantly and with vniforme consent auerre that an Hereticke discrediting or not belieuing as he should any one article of the Catholicke faith doth loose his whole faith and habit thereof in all the rest And the reason herof is assigned by the Schoole Doctors for that the chiefe motiue or formall reason why a man doth belieue any thing in Christian Religion is because it is reuealed by God and propounded by the Church without which Churches propounding and approuing nothing can be securely belieued And therefore when an Hereticke in any one article discrediteth and detracteth from the authority of this Church which is necessary and primary condition in beliefe denying it thereby to be an infallible rule of beliefe in this one article he denieth the same in all the rest As for example if a man should aske a Protestant why he belieueth the Scriptures and S. Matthews Gospell to be S. Matthews Gospell he can answere no otherwise but that God hath reuealed the same vnto vs by the Church which propoundeth these books for Scripture Here then the proposition of the Church appertaineth to the formall reason or cause of beliefe as Deuynes doe tearme it which if once it be denyed or discredited in any one article as the Protestants do when we alledge it against them for Purgatory Prayer for the dead Sacrifice inuocation of Saints and the like then can it not hold in the former about Scriptures or any other article and consequently Hereticks haue no diuyne faith at all about Scripture or any other article but are meere Infidels in all and consequently shal be damned say they not only as chusing Heretickes beleeuing one thing and reiecting the other but as vnbelieuing Infidells deuoid of all faith Which seemed to me to be a very terrible commination and fearfull distriction and yet did I see it substantially grounded and so orderly deduced as that I must ingenuously confesse it so conuinced my vnderstanding and
places of his body as there were seuerall wounds in the same shed his most pretious bloud for the sinnes of the world and redemption of mankind if after all this done and suffered for man he should haue left him no certayne meanes or infallible way for his obteyning the fruites therof by discerning betweene heresy and Catholicke religion 50. Furthermore since heresy as all ancient and moderne Orthodoxe Deuines notify is nothing els but to choose or make choice that is yet more plainly to adhere obstinately to a mans owne priuate opinion and proper election when soeuer different points of religion are proposed vnto him if thē there be not some perspicuous apparant rule and reason left by Christ to conuince vnto ech mans conscience and vnderstanding or at least to make a sufficient conuiction which is truth and which is not which is Heresy and which is Verity which to be imbraced and which is to be abandoned I say if this way rule and reason be not most clearely left in the Church whereby a man may guide him selfe then why may not a man make his proper choice and vse that benefit of his owne election in spirituall matters which God hath bestowed vpon him in morall and ciuill affaires permitting therin a choice to his free will Why may he not choose or be a chooser which in our sense and the Churches acception and appropriation of the word importeth an Hereticke without so greiuous and damnable a sinne as Heresie is by vs already disclosed to be Why should a man be damned by his owne iudgment be left inexcusable for that no plea of pretended ignorance will serue his turne since being such a chooser or hereticall man as S. Paul calleth him and brandeth him for he cannot say Nemo corripuit as S. Chrysostome S. Ambrose Theophilact Oecumenius ioyntly expound the place For if the meanes and way of conuiction decision be not infallible it should seeme that man may make his choice but this particuler choice and election out of a mans owne head and priuate iudgment which makes a choosier or Hereticall man is seuerely prohibited and condemned and that by the iudgment of S. Paul as you haue heard at large therfore it must follow by force of necessary and ineuitable consequence that Almighty God out of the depth of his mercy wisdome equity and piety hath left vnto vs some euident vniuersall certaine and infallible way for deciding of all doubts and controuersies in Religion For so he promised when Isay prophesied thus saying That at the comming of Christ there shal be a holy path and a way and it shall be vnto you a direct way so as fooles may not erre therin Thus he prophesied And is there any doubt that he performed it Hath he promised and shall not he make it good Hath he spoke it shall he alter the thing that is gone out of his lippes Atheisme Heresy and Infidelity may question it but all religion piety and Christianity will vndoubtedly belieue the same 51. Wherfore this ground being presupposed and granted as a chiefe principle in Christian Religion that there is some such way left vnto vs whither we must haue recourse in all doubtfull causes and controuersies of Religion the Question then is betwixt the Protestants and those of the Catholicke Roman Religion where and what this way is how we may come to the notice of it and in what manner it is to be followed after it is once found out The Protestant commonly of what Sect or faction soeuer he be auerreth that the written word of Canonicall Scripture is this infallible way directory-guid and this he doth not in my conscience so much for any honour and reuerence that he beareth vnto the oracles of Gods sacred Writ as he would falsely beare the world in hand he doth but only vpon an hereticall intent that he may auoid therby the iudgement of the Church And no meruaile for Qui malè agit odit lucem the guilt of his Heresy flyeth the censure of the Church Some others do add that when the Canon of Scripture is not perspicuous and obuious vnto euery man then for explication of the word they may inquire of the spirit of God which inspireth ech man and that will instruct him and lead him vnto all truth But now this falsely supposed and imaginary spirit can be no infallible rule of direction For that S. Iohn hath giuen vs a Caueat touching these false spirits Beloued belieue not euery spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false Prophets are gone sorth into the world And was not this the common tricke of all condemned Heretickes and heresies Did they not all of them plead the spirit of God against the liuely authority and speaking voice of the Church Doth not the whole ranke of ancient Fathers that wrote against thē thunder out that terrible comminatiō threatning a fearefull woe and vengeance vnto all priuate lying and deceyuing spirits Vae illis qui sequuntur spiritum suum Woe be vnto them that follow their owne spirit Lastly haue not all ancient Heresies and Heretickes Arians Nestorians Pelagians c. beene vniustly condemned and therefore must not their heresies be raked out of the ashes of Hell againe and set fresh footing in the Church if the rule of interpreting Scripture be ech man his priuate spirit It cannot be denyed for that all of them vaunted of the spirit as the Sectaries do at this day Well then the conclusion is that this vaunting of the spirit is nothing else but a horrible belying and presumptuous blaspheming of the spirit of God making that spirit of vnited verity a spirit of distracted heresy And therfore this their priuate spirit can be no rule to direct them any longer And so much of this way in following euery man his owne spirit 52. And now for the former way of following Canonicall Scriptures for this only rule and sure direction though this be euer to be graunted as most true that the holy Scriptures breathed by the instinct of the spirit be diuine and of infallible truth and direction when they are by the Church both known to be Scriptures rightly interpreted by the assistance of the spirit in the Churches voice sense yet forasmuch as the Scriptures sublimity fitteth not with euery meane and ordinary capacity for the most part of people are vnlearned and cannot read or vnderstand what they read much lesse those learned tongues wherein the Scriptures were originally written It followeth euidently that the Scriptures alone can be no sure vniuersall infallible way for the discerning of Catholicke Religion and discouering of heresie Or at least wise this rule is not generall to all as it ought to be for as much as all must haue sufficient meanes left for their saluation 53. But here me thinketh I heare the Protestāt obiect that howsoeuer the Scripture is no way for the
Maties wise and religious hart who with that opinion might haue made herselfe a Protestant therby haue escaped the greatest part of her troubles and perhaps also haue auoided the violent stroake of the Axe which is well knowne to haue bene vrged vpon her especially in respect of her Religion and of the feare that was conceyued least in time she might come to the Crowne and defend the same I meane her Religion with publicke authority 67. And now whosoeuer it was wherein I remit my selfe to his Matie as most interessed therin both in Honour body and soule as her only Child and heyre chiefest Iewell in the world euident it is the opinion cannot stand as now hath bene said eyther in reason or religion and may be presumed to proceed from such as haue little care of any religiō at all onely they would liue quietly enioy their sensuality passe the time without any trouble or scruple or repugnant conscience for any thing touching religion or that whole subiect And this if I take not my ayme amisse commeth very neere to the point of secret Atheisme 68. S. Augustine recordeth the like opinion of many in his daies who thought it did not materially import them whether they were Donatists or Catholicks so as they professed the Christian faith Multi sayth he nihil interesse credentes in qua quisque parte Christianus sit ideo permanebant in parte Donati quia ibi nati erant c. Many beleeuing that it concerned them not in what side or part ech man were a Christian so he were a Christian therefore they remayned on the party or faction of Donatus the Hereticke for that they were borne therein But S. Augustine vehemently confuteth this false pestilent and indulgent perswasion aswell in the place heere cyted as in many other places of his workes confidently teaching and auerring that a man is made an Hereticke by houlding any one errour obstinately against the Church and consequently damned also In Ecclesia Christi saith he qui morbidum aliquid prauumque sapiunt si correcti vt sanum rectumque sapiant resistunt contumaciter Haeretici fiunt foras exeuntes habentur inimici Those who in the Church of Christ are infected with corrupt and naughty opinions if being admonished to belieue wholsome and true doctrine they kicke against it with contumacy then do they become Heretickes and going forth of the Church are held for enemies So he And with the same seuerity holdeth he in his booke of heresies intituled Ad Quod-vult-Deum that the belieuing of any one heresy condemned already by the Church or to be condemned if rising afterwards is sufficient to make the belieuer obstinate defender no Christian Catholicke consequently an Hereticke so impossible to be saued 69. To this opinion subscribeth S. Cyprian who shewing that euery least heresy or schisme is able to damne a man that adhereth vnto it writeth expressely thus Beatus Ioannes Apostolus nec ipse vllam haeresim aut schisma discreuit sed vniuersos qui ex Ecclesia exijssent Antichristos appellauit S. Iohn the Apostle himselfe did not put any difference or exception of any heresy or schisme at all but called them Antichrists whosoeuer were gone forth of the Church for any heresy or schisme whatsoeuer 70. And yet this point is pressed further by many other holy fathers yea strained to euery heresie were it but in one word or sillable And this was the opinion of S. Hierome His wordes are these Propter vnum verbum aut duo quae contraria essent fidei multas haereses eiectas esse ab Ecclesia we shall read that many heresies haue beene cast out of the Church for one or two words that were contrary to the receyued faith 71. To this purpose conduceth that of S. Basill registred by Theodoret to wit that a good man ought to loose his life if neede require for the defence of one only sillable pro desensione vnius syllabae diuinorum dogmatum The reason whereof is touched as well by S. Athanasius in his Creed where he saith That he shall most certainely be damned that houldeth not entirely and inuiolably the whole Catholicke faith as also by Nazianzen when he saith That heresy consisteth sometimes in one word His wordes are these Nothing can be more perilcus then Heretickes who running wholy ouer all do notuill standing in some one word as by a drop of poyson infect the sincere simple faith of our Sauiour comming downe by Apostolicall tradition This was the iudgment of Antiquity so seuere Censurers were all those holy Fathers of the least dram of Heresy 72. Thus then you apparently see that for making of an errour or heresie damnable it is not required of absolute necessity that it deny some thing of the blessed Trinity directly or some maine article of the Creed c. as many of the first ould heresies did when the doctrine therof was not so well explaned as now it is though this be a desperate shift of the Protestant and most miserable euasion and yet it will not serue his turne he being guilty of heresy in all those high pointes yea of misbeliefe almost in euery article of the Creed for that as before hath beene touched in the third Consideration the greatnes of the sinne of heresy dependeth more of malice and malignity of the sinner then of the materiall obiect about which the Hereticke erreth for that he sinneth of obstinacy and contumacy by his owne choice and therefore is said by S. Paul to be damned by his owne iudgement quia eligit sibi in quo damnatur saith Tertullian he chooseth to himselfe wherin to be damned or els as S. Leo doth more largely giue the glosse Propria pertinacia perit sua à Christo discedit in sania qui eam impietatem per quam multos ante se scit perusse sectatur religiosum atque Catholicum putat id quod sanctorū Patrum iudicio damnatum esse constat That is he perisheth by his owne pertinacity and through his owne peculiar madnes departeth from Christ who imbraceth that impiety which he knoweth hath beene the destruction of many houlding that for religious and Catholick which manifestly appeareth to be condemned by vniforme iudgment of ancient Fathers So blessed Leo expoūds the place the reason followeth for that such a one preferring himselfe by pride and vanity before the whole visible and Catholicke Church he chooseth to hould that which his owne iudgment and fancy doth lead him vnto VVhence it may come to passe that one man erring with lesse pride and obstinacy about some pointes of the blessed Trinity may sinne lesse damnably then another that erreth in points of lesser moment but with more malice as about the doctrine of the Sacraments or other pointes of the like nature And the reason therof is for that this second erreth with more obstinacy and malice which corroborateth the
could to proceed in his suite yet if the nyne other of equall worth and weight with him should be of contrary opinion disswade him frō the suite assuring him vpon their learning that he would be cast in the same yea and condemned if he proceeded therein would not this man now beginne to consider more seriously of his suite intended Of his right pretended Would he not view ouer and ouer his writings examine all his euidences againe and againe least in aspiring to be made for euer he chance for euer to be vndone Euē so the case standeth in the point we haue in hand Here is a royall banquet prouided for your Princely Maiesty here is a Princely inheritance indeed an incorruptible Diademe of glory prepared for your Excellency this banquet is not to continew for an hundred and fourescore dayes as that of Assuerus did to set forth the maiesty of an earthly Monarch but it endureth for euer and euer throughout all eternity to disclose the honour and power and glory and riches of the heauenly Diety diuine Omnipotency the food of this banquet is neither earthly nor materiall but heauenly and spirituall Agnus occisus ab origine mundi It is the lambe slaine from the beginning of the world that is to be set and serued on this table nay Deus est qui nobis futurus est omnia in ommbus It is Almighty God himselfe who will then as S. Paul teacheth become vnto vs all in all that is all in the eye for our vision and all in the tast for our refection and all in the touch for our fruition all in the eare of our consolation and all in our smell for delectation in a word all in the senses of our body and all in the faculties of our soule Deus omnia in omnibus for our plenary perfection 89. Besides this banquet there is a Princely Inheritāce and an incorruptible Crowne of glory prepared for your Matie and this Crowne so farre excelleth all earthly Crownes as immortall exceeds mortall incorruptible corruptible in a word as farre as God excelleth man and a thing infinite surmounteth a thing finite betwixt all which there can be no proportion and is there not cause now that your Matie should beware of the poison of Heresy that killeth both body and soule And will not your zealous and religious Hart hereafter peruse ouer all forged writings and neuer cease searching vntill you haue found the euidences of the Catholicke Church wherby your Matie can only lay clayme to this Crowne of immortality 90. And this is all that we your Maiestyes humble subiects and seruants do in our dayly sighes teares and prayers to Almighty God begge at his handes to wit that our gratious God would of his mercifull goodnesse vouchsafe so to inspire your Princely hart with the principall spirit that you may once at the least come to make this reflection vpon the course that you are in now concerning Religion Then should you easily discouer the fraudes and impostures of the Protestant cause Then should you disclose the poysoned and inuenomed druggs of their erroneous opinions wherby they would insect both the body and the soule of your Princely Person suspecting no guile fearing no such treachery and that to your euerlasting destruction Lastly then should you desery how false and counterfait their euidences are concerning Religion and that they can neuer hould plea for the foresaid Princely inheritance wherunto your Noble Person is interessed 91. Your Maiesty was borne amongst the Protestāts as S. Augustine compassionately complained of diuers borne amongst the Donatists therby you could not but receaue that impression that was infused and instilled into you by your first educators and therby you haue bene made as I trust rather credens Haereticis then Haereticus as the same Father said of his friend Honoratus Your Maiesty is earnest now against the Catholicke Romā faith and professors therof and so was I my selfe too once and so was S. Augustine whilst he was a Manichean and soe was that great Apostle S. Paul perswading himselfe no doubt that he ought yea that he should do God good seruice persecuting that way of Christian profession vntill God had opened his eyes inlightened his mind to see the erroneous course wherin he then was 92. And now may it please your Matie to consider of this one reasō which though it be the last yet is it not the least viz. that so many of your Maties loyall Subiectes men of considerable birth worth and quality yea and some of them such that haue spent much pretious time and haue bene content to exhaust their Patrimonies in your Noble Vniuersities and all in the pursuite of learning and truth of Christian Religion these men I say hauing now iust reason to expect some preferment with other their equalls after their long wearisome labours endeauours would not so suddenly change their minds as they do daily in this point of Religion forgo all future hopes and fortunes abandon Countrey kith and kinne expose themselues to all temporall difficulties and losses and that without constraint of any euen voluntarily and after all this to be ready to shed their blond and sacrifice their innocent liues for their Resolution made concerning Religion all which they could neuer do were it not that a higher hand than humaine euen the hand of heauen leadeth them into the bosome of the Church were it not vpon the force and efficacy of euident truth when it pleaseth almighty God so to inlighten their vnderstanding as in the middest and thickest of the darknes of heresy to shew them the only and alone sauing Catholicke Truth and Church as also to frame their wills and inflame their affections to yield all obedience therunto notwithstanding any obstacles whatsoeuer 93. Alas my dread Soueraigne what is Rome to vs English men that we should so mind it Or the Church of Rome that we should much affect it Or the Pope of Rome that we should so highly honor him were it not that Rome euer was is and shall be the Chaire of S. Peter the present faith of Rome the former faith of S. Peter were it not that this conuerted our Iland this Church first planted the Christian faith in our Iland this Bishop from time to time repayred renewed and continued the decaying faith in our Iland In a word were it not that all that separate themselues from this head and origen of vnity in the Christian Church are as beames cut of from the sunne as boughes violently broken downe from the tree as channels streams deuided from their fountaine which must needes dry vp wither and consume to nothing This is the sole cause my Liege Lord that Rome is so neare and deare vnto vs the Bishop of Rome so honored by vs the faith of Rome so receaued of vs. This is may it please your Matie the only cause of our suddaine change and constant resolution in
Region 94. And in all this we haue not iustly offended the King our Soueraigne let heauens Tribunall be witnesse of our innocency and we must against all detractions and calumniations of our vniust aduersaries plead yt also before your Matie And this same change in like manner will I hope and pray for in your Maiesty and with this hope will I for this time againe dutifully depart frō your Highnes and passe to the Christian Reader to examine now in particuler the foure heades most Prudently and Religiously proposed and resolued vpon by your Matie The God of Salomon inspire into your Princely breast the wisdome of Salomon and make your Matie as an Angell of god that you may discerne betwixt the right hand the left the right and the wronge Catholicke Religion and Hereticall innouation that you may be able to put a difference betwixt those of your Subiects that serue God and such as feare him not THE SECOND CHAPTER THAT TREATETH THE FIRST HEAD TOVCHED BY THE KINGS MAIESTY for try all of a Christian Catholicke which is the belieuing of holy Scriptures AMONGST those principall groundes seriously acknowledged and confidētly yet religiously auerred by his Excellent Matie of England for testifying conuincing himselfe to be a Christian Catholicke King and no Hereticke the first in place and order of method if we duly respect the inestimable weight of the diuine heauenly subiect was zealously asseuered by his Royall Person in these very wordes following to wit As for the Scriptures no man doubteth I will belieue them but euen for the Apocrypha I hold them in the same accompt that the Ancients did Which pious assertion of his Matie I for my part belieue with all my hart and be it euer farre from me to imagin otherwise of my Soueraigne in intertayning any the least sinister opinion or suspition but that He giueth his full consent and assent vnto all God his sacred Writ which He esteemeth to be Canonicall Scriptures and that He reuerenceth in like manner the other as heere he sayth distinguishing them by the names of Apocripha as writinges compiled by good and holy men but yet for such as are secundae lectionis or ordinis and not Canonicall or sufficient for so are his Maiesties wordes wherupon alone to ground any article of faith except it be confirmed by some other place of Canonicall Scripture So his Maiesty doth piousty I doubt not and with great discretion in his sense auerre 2. But yet I must ingenuously confesse that imploying my selfe somewhat seriously in my priuate meditatiōs and most secret silence about this subiect many difficulties occurred diuers were the Considerations that presented themselues vnto me as my mind began to be somewhat earnesty bent about this busines and these I haue thought good to impart vnto the Christian Reader in this place as they ensue The first Consideration AND first if this were all that on Scriptures behalfe there were no more to be required to proue make a man a Christian Catholicke but a franke and ingenious acknowledgement to assent vnto and to belieue all those Scriptures which we deeme for Canonicall in our opinion and for the sense to iudge it agreeable and correspondent to our own priuate imaginations I say if this were all all controuersies of Religion betwixt all parties neuer so opposite different in opinion might easily no doubt surcease and speedily without either further delay or difficulty be accorded for that all sides and parties do freely and voluntarily offer to professe this point and that as I verily thinke from their hartes 4. But alas this is neyther all nor any sound part of all all is but we deeme and we iudge this is Scripture and this is the sense here is nothing in all but that which marreth all that in the very maine point which should make all and that is proper choice priuate election which we know by that which hath bene formerly treated and sufficiently proued must needes be heresy and consequētly this mayne ground of Scripture it selfe thus from our selues taken and thus laid for auoiding of heresy openeth the very mayne gap vnto all heresy And yet I must here though now with no small griefe and vexation of spirit I do remember it liberally acknowledge that for some yeares togeather when I framed Religion in the shop of my owne brayne proper inuention and priuate glosses as all Sectaries vsually do I was so hartily affected sincerely as I thought delighted yea as it were rauished with this alluring consideration and best pleasing perswasion of Sacred Scriptures alone whose sole authority I seemed to my selfe then to follow and no other humane or terrene motiue whatsoeuer no not so much as once reflecting backe vpon the authority of the Church whence as I receaued the Scriptures themselues so much more ought I to haue receaued the sense as I thought my selfe more then halfe in heauen when God knoweth I was ready to tumble into the pit of hell thinking this way of the Scriptures alone of all other waies the most infallible and so certaine as that I could not possibly erre therby 5. And being in this peremptory presuming veine and straine of Scriptures to adde as it were fuell vnto the fire of this my strong conceipted imagination I often tymes remembred and with wonderfull admiration repeated yea reiterated againe and againe that animous couragious heroicall sentence and speach of Apostolicall and Propheticall fortitude as to me it then seemed of Luther himselfe who alleadging Scriptures for his cause and contemning all other proofes thus triumphantly insulted ouer King Henuy the eight Hic sto hic sedeo hic glorior hic triumpho hic insulto c. Here I stand here I sit here I do glory here I do triumph here I do insult ouer Papists Thomists Henricistes and Sophistes and all the gates of hell much more ouer the sayings of men be they neuer so holy God his word is aboue all the diuine Matie maketh for me so as I passe not if a thousand Augustines a thousand Cyprians and a thousand King Henries Churches should stand against me God cannot erre nor deceiue but Augustines and Cyprians may erre and haue erred So he 6. And truely this bould kind of free speach affected me very much as then for that it seemed to me simply to proceed out of the exceeding great confidence of his cause and me thought that I felt and perceiued some part and measure of the same spirit in my selfe at that time which brought me also to this peremptory resolution to wit that whatsoeuer I spake forth of Scriptures or could make but the least shew of wordes and warrant for out of Gods holy booke that must nedes be true certaine and infallible in the very selfe same sense that I speake it and could not possibly no not by men or Angells be controlled The same spirit also did I obserue in many others of
proue that this Catholicke visible Church doth not consist of the good and elect only which is another erroneous position of Protestant Religion and proued largely by S. Augustine to haue bene the heresy of the Donatists and Pelagians their bretheren but of good and bad togeather vnto the worlds end and for confirmation thereof he doth produce interpret those Parables vsed by our Sauiour Matth. 3. to wit of the good corne and chaffe in the floore and of the net cast into the sea that brought vp both good and bad fish and lastly of the weedes and good corne commaunded to be permitted to grow togeather Vpon which place S. Leo the first giueth the glosse thus In extremo iudicio sunt quaedam vrenda flammis sunt alia condenda horreis In the last iudgement some things are to be burned with the flames of dānation other thinges are to be gathered into Gods granary All these places and many more both S. Augustine S. Leo many of the Fathers do interprete of the good and bad that are promiscuously mixed in the Church togeather Do our Protestants follow these expositions 57. Thirdly my foresaid Authour goeth yet further for prouing of a third assertion as contrary to the Protestants as they are opposite vnto truth to wit that this publike and visible Church granted once by Protestants themselues to haue bene the true Church could neuer faile or euer fall away to the worlds end For prouing of which assertion he alleageth sundry passages of holy Writ farre different for interpretation from the Protestants sense His wordes be That Church saith he that was once of all Nations he meaneth the Catholicke is it not now Hath it perished They say so that are not in her O impudent voice Is not she because thou art not in her This abominable and detestable voice full of presumption and falsity susteined by no truth illuminated by no wisedome seasoned with no salt vaine temerarious precipitate and pernicious is preuented and refuted by the holy Ghost c. And then doth he cyte seuerall places of Scripture to proue that notwithstanding all exposition and contradiction of Hereticks that the said visible Church bring once collected of all Nations and placed vpon the open hill and mount of this world and conspicuous vnto the eyes of al could neuer possibly vanish away againe or fall frō Christ as Protestants do falsely charge the Mother Romā Church and consequently they would neuer agree to expound these Scriptures as S. Augustine did But whom shall we rather belieue VVhether is a Luther or a Caluin or S. Augustine to be followed Or which Church his or this of the Protestants is likest to go neare the truth and to light vpon the true meaning of the holy Ghost in expoūding these Scriptures For certaine I am their expositions vary and are repugnant one to the other 58. And in this manner might I proceed in disclosing this great Doctor and famous pillar of the Church S. Austine his iudgement for the exposition of Scriptures concerning all controuersies or the most of them betweene the Catholickes and the Protestants at this day wherein the sayd Father is no lesse perspicuous and copious then as if being an eye-witnesse and an eare-witnesse of all poynts now controuerted he had written in these very dayes of sirife amongst vs. And eyther this is or I know not what can be a manifest demonstration that the holy Ghost guided the pen of this worthy Doctor to taxe and prescribe against the manifould heresies of our times As for example touching the doctrine of Purgatory whome Doctor Field out of a fanaticall spirit and spirit of heresie surchargeth and falsely traduceth of heresy what writer of this time can deliuer and set downe his opinion more resolutely then he doth his prouing the same irrefragably both by the allegation and exposition of sundry passages of holy Scripture as namely by those wordes of our Sauiour Matth. 12. It shall not be remitted vnto him eyther in this life or in the next Whereupon this great Doctor inferreth that some sinnes are remitted in the next consequently there must be a Purgatory And so that place of S. Paul 1. Cor. 3. Euery mans worke shal be tryed by the fire of what sort it is S. Augustine doth also apply to proue the same purging fire to remaine for some sinnes or bad workes in the next life And these expositions of Scripture confirming Purgatory deliuered by S. Augustine and oftentimes reiterated in his workes were neuer reprehended by any as false nor the Father taxed as teaching any erroneous doctrine dissonant from the doctrine and beliefe of the Catholicke Church which doubtlesse he could neuer haue escaped had his assertion of Purgatory bene erroneous liuing in the age of S. Ambrose S. Hierome and other learned Fathers who wanted neyther learning nor zeale to haue both matched him and confuted him had he swarued in ought from sound faith and the doctrine of their present Church and consequently Purgatory was then held for no errour or heresy And the like I might aboundantly proue in many other pointes both out of S. Augustine and sundry other of like antiquity learning and sanctity 59. Finally the conclusion of all this mayne Chapter and Treatise of sacred Scriptures must of necessity fall out to be this that not all belieuing of Scriptures nor appealing vnto Scripture nor sensing of Scriptures nor presuming of the spirit is sufficient to make a man a Christian Catholick for that as hath beene formerly noted forth of S. Bernard many men presume of Gods spirit when it is not but their owne spirit or rather the spirit of Sathā and consequently take or rather mistake their owne spirits expositions for the interpretation of the holy Ghost Againe some when they erre in expounding Scriptures are notwithstanding of opinion that they follow Scriptures when indeed they follow their owne errours So S. Augustine obserueth 60. Thirdly others by a peruerse interpretation make of Christs Ghospell mās Ghospell or that which is worse the Diuells Ghospell as S. Hierome noteth and yet all these with the Diuell and all former heretickes pretend to vrge and build vpon Scripture But no meruaile if all these appeale vnto Scriptures vpon a false confidence thinking that the word of God maketh for them when it maketh against them For let these Scripturians be but marked let them be vnmasked that is as Vincentius Lyrinensis excellenly deliuereth the obseruation against them let not only their sayings but their meanings not their wordes but their senses of Scripture be noted then their bitternes shall be detected their madnes disclosed their new poyson vented forth their prophane nouelties reuealed then the hedge shal be cut then the boundes of Fathers shall be translated then Catholicke faith shall be violated and the Churches position cancelled Hitherto Vincentius 61. The only way then to make a man a true Christian Catholicke indeed if
Papae vobis recitatis sanctae Ecclesiae membra sanctis vestrisvocibuspijque preconijs sancto vestro Capiti vos exhibueritis Non enim ignara est vestra Beatitudo totius fidei ceterorumque omnium Apostolorum Caput beatum Petrum Apostolum extitisse c. We yeld thankes vnto this holy and venerable Synod that vpon the reading of the letters of our most holy and most blessed Pope Celestine you haue exhibited and shewed your selues by your holy applause and prayses as holy members of the Church vnder your holy head For your Beatitude is not ignorant that S. Peter was head of the whole Christian fayth and of all the rest of the Apostles c. This much more spake he to this effect which I pretermit for breuities sake in the assembly of all those great Bishops that were present and yet not one of all those zealous and learned Bishops opposed himselfe against his vsurped Supremacy as the hereticks slaunder it a point very considerable and remarkeable in my opinion and farre different from the groundes of Protestant religion 49. Out of the 4. Councell gathered at Chalcedon vnder the authority of Pope Leo the first surnamed the Great a man of singuler holines wonderfull learning famous for miracles renowned through the whol ChristiaÌ„ world about this Councell I say I might produce many thinges of great ponderation especially about the said Supremacy of the Sea of Rome professed challenged practized most euidently as may appeare in that Councell For first Lucentius Legate and one of the three sent from S. Leo in that Councell vttered freely these wordes Iudicij sui ipsum nempe Dioscorum necesse est reddere rationem quia cùm nec personam iudicandi haberet subrepsit Synodum ausus est facere sine auctoritate Sedis Apostolicae quod ritè numquam factum est nec licuit Dioscorus must needes render an accompt of hys iudgment because when he was not personally inuested with any lawfull power of iudging and vmpiring he crept and stole in durst gather a Synod without authority of the Sea Apostolicke which was neuer rightly nor could be lawfully done 50. And Paschasius another Legate in the same Councell addeth Sed de his esse regulas Ecclesiasticas Patrum instituta But of these thinges he meaneth the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome there are Ecclesiasticall Canons and decrees of Fathers So farre he 51. Secondly I obserued that euery where almost throughout this CouÌ„cell Pope Leo is there stiled Vniuersalis Episcopus et Patriarcha Magnae Romae vniuersall Bishop Patriarch of the great citty of Rome Also he is called vniuersalis Ecclesiae Episcopê° Bishop of the vniuersal Church And againe in the same third action it is said to one of Pope Leo his Legats NuÌ„c vestra Sanctitas primatuÌ„ tenet SaÌ„ctissimi Leonis c. Now your Holines hath the Primacy of most holy Leo and yet againe Petimus Vestram Sanctitatem qui habes magis autem qui habetis locum sanctissimi Papae Leonis promulgare in eum regulis insitam contra cum proferre sententiam We do request your Holines which haue or rather who haue for they were three Legates to wit Paschasius Lucentius and Caelius Bonifacius that you will in the place of most holy Pope Leo promulgate against him and pronounce the sentence that is conteyned in the Canons And afterwardes when they came to subscribe against Dioscorus for his condemnation first of all the foresaid three Legates of S. Leo do subscribe in these wordes Paschasius Episcopus Ecclesiae Lylibetanae vice Beatissimi atque Apostolici vniuersalis Ecclesiae Papae vrbis Romae Leonis sanctae Synodo praesidens in Dioscoridamnationem consensu vniuersalis Concilij subscripsi I Paschasius Bishop of Lylibaeum in Sicilia in behalfe or steed of the most blessed and Apostolicall Pope of the vniuersall Church and Citty of Rome Pope Leo presiding ouer this holy Synod haue subscribed by consent of the vniuersall CouÌ„cell to the condemnation of Dioscorus So he And after him subscribed immediatly the other two Roman Legates and then againe the Patriarches of Constantinople Antioch and the rest and the same is repeated and obserued in many other places as particulerly in the 4. and sixt actions where the Bishops names and Bishops are recorded being aboue six hundred as hath bene said my conclusion of all is this and wil the Protestants allow this for sound doctrine when they take vpon them to receiue this Councell with the rest 52. But besides this point of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome in this Councell I fell vpon sundry other thinges that inforced me to reflect vpon them as namely in the Canons themselues The 16. Canon hath these words Virginem quae se Domino Deo dedicauit similiter Monachos non licere matrimonio coniungi Si autem hoc secisse inuentifuerint sint excoÌ„municati c. It is not lawfull for a virgin that hath dedicated her selfe to God as neither for Monks to marry And if by chance they should be found to haue done so let theÌ„ be excommunicated And is this currant doctrine in England Or is this receiued togeather with the CouÌ„cell 53. Another poynt that I cast my eyes and bent my mind somewhat seriously vpon was the 24. Canon of the same foresaid Councell and it lieth thus Quae semel voluntate Episcopi consecrata sunt monasteria res ad â—as pertinentes seruari ipsis Monasterijs decreuimus neque vlterius ea posse fieri saecularia habitacula qui verò permiserint haec fieri subiaceant his condemnationibus quae per Canones constitutae sunt The monasteries that are once consecrated by the will of the Bishop must perpetually remayne monasteries and all things belonging to the same we haue decreed that they be preserued to the vse of the said monasteries and that they cannot any more be made seculer habitations that they which shall permit such thinges to be done shall vndergo the condemnations that are appoynted to be inflicted according to the Canons So that Canon And this seemeth also to me very hard to stand with the Doctrine and moderne practice of England where monasteries are turned into seculer vses without the feare of the threat heere set downe by the spirit and authority of this generall Councell as euery one will confesse Wherfore heere also we must imagine that albeit the Church of England and ParliameÌ„t do admit this Councell yet will they not easily yeald to obey the commaundement of restoring the Monasticall landes and houses vnto those religions vses againe wherunto they were instituted and so it seemeth that they will remaine with the name and curse of the Councell Let vs passe ouer to the last head of his Maiesties offer THE FIFTH CHAPTER CONCERNING THE ADMITTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE ANCIENT FATHERS OF the first fiue hundred yeares after Christ which is the fourth and last head
they do interpret Irenaeus his meaning that he vnderstandeth onely by tradition written Doctrine But by this we may see how they are incumbred with the writinges of Fathers euen in this very first age after the Apostles when these and all other the like doctrines of Christian Catholick Religion were sealed with the fast shedding bloud of her Martyrs and Doctors 51. Another poynt also offendeth them much which is the excellency and great merit of Martyrdome which the Fathers of this age do in all their writings exalt De Martyrio say they nimis honorificè sentire coeperunt The Fathers of this age began to think too gloriously of Martyrdome belike these same good fellowes neuer meant that their finger should ake for Christ or Christian religion and then they say of holy S. Ignatius that constant Martyr Ignatius in epistolis valde periculosè loquitur de martyrij merito Ignatius in many of his epistles doth speake very dangerously of the merit of martyrdome Also they do check the same Saint and holy Martyr for that in his epistle vnto the Romans whē he was going vnto martyrdome to be deuoured of wild beastes in the Amphitheater of Rome he crieth out Sinite me vt bestiarum esca sim per quam possim Christum promereri Suffer me that I may be the food of beastes and thereby promerit to enioy God himselfe And what so great perill is there I pray you in this doctrine For that throughout the whole Fpistle it appeareth that he ascribed vnto Christ his grace all the fortitude which he expected for this combate and consequently all his merit of enioying God proceeded principally from the said grace of his Maister And so do the Catholicks at this day hould in the doctrine of merit if malice and enuy could suffer the Protestants to see it and acknowledg it 52. But they are very angry with him for frequent vsing of another phrase in three distinct Epistles to wit to those of Antioch of Ephesus and to Policarpe Pro animabus vestris ego afficiar quando Christum meruero adipisci I shall be come an intercessor for your soules when I shall deserue to obtaine the fruition of Christ. In which words as you see is not only expresse mention made of the singular merit of martyrdome but also insinuated the intercession of martyrs departed vnto the next life for their friends left behind them vpon earth as hauing not aspired vnto the heauenly blisse 53. And finally not to go any further they quarrell also with the said Ignatius about the merit and praise of Virginity as diuers hereticall Caluinists haue lately done in Oxford Ex Ignatij Epistolis apparet say they homines iam tum paulò impensiùs coepisse amare venerari Virginitatis statum it appeareth out of Ignatius his Epistles that euen then men beganne more earnestly to loue and reuerence the state of Virginity wherfore they giue sundry examples as namely in his Epistle ad Antichenos Virgines videant cui se consecrarint let Virgins consider vnto whome they haue consecrated themseleues and in his Epistle ad Tharsenses Eas quae in Virginitate sunt honorate sicut sacras Christi Honour those that liue in Virginity as the sacred of Christ. So excellent an opinion had this holy Father martyr in those first dayes of thè primitiue Church concerning the state of Virginity so little esteemed now by Protestants 54. All these points of controuersy then betwixt vs and the Protestants at this day to wit of Free-will good works possibility of the commandements externall Christian sacrifice tradition and rites the Primacy of the Church of Rome merit of Martyrdome and state of Virginity to pretermit sundry other articles as ouerlong to be handled here we see to haue bene auouched by the principall Fathers of the second age and that in our defence against the Protestants 55. And howsoeuer the Magdeburgians go about to discredit these Doctrines togeather with their Authours calling them incommodas opiniones naeuos stipulas errores patrum incommodious opinions blots stubble and errours in the Fathers yet seemeth this only reason and Consideration to be sufficient to conuince them of hereticall insolency in their condemning these Fathers for that it cannot be shewed and if it can let the Protestant speake that the said Fathers were euer taxed or condemned for these Doctrines by the Church or other Doctors of that age or of any age afterwards for the space of fourteene or fifteene hundred yeares togeather vntill Luthers prophane and vncleane spirit brake forth of the Cloyster and made way for hereticall insolency to barke against orthodoxall antiquity And this shall suffice for this second age Let vs now passe to see how conforme and agreeable the third age was vnto the second for by this lineall and personall descent of Doctors and Centuries we shall euidently and infallibly discouer how in all times ages and persons the busines and doctrine of the Church was still carried by tradition from hand to hand The third Age. 56. Concerning this third age wherein were Doctors Tertullian Origen Dionysius Alexandrinus Cyprianus Methodius and many others which for breuities sake I am inforced to pretermit the Magdeburgians do beginne with this Preface both complaining and taxing Quò longiùs ab Apostolorum aetate recessum est eòplus stipularum doctrinae puritate accessit The further of that we go from the age of the Apostles the more chaffe did grow into the purity of doctrine And yet you see we haue gone but one age from thence for the last was the first after the Apostles and this is the second and in the last you haue heard what chaffe they complayned of But now we shall see that they complaine not only of the same poynts of chaffe reiterated and confirmed againe by the Fathers of this age to wit about free will and good workes perfection of life possibility of Commaundements Sacrifice Tradition rytes Supremacy merit of martyrdome and Virginity for all these heads they do shew in their seuerall titles of doctrin to haue bene continued repeated and confirmed againe by the Fathers of this age but furthermore they do also shew and complayne of other articles explayned by the Fathers of this third age in behoofe of the moderne Catholicke religion much more aboundantly then before As for example they shew that it was an opinion of this age Angelosinuocandos esse that Angells are to be prayed vnto according vnto the doctrine of Origen who setteth downe also a certaine forme of praying and inuocating vpon Angells to wit Veni Angele suscipe sermone conuer sum ab errore pristino c. Come Angell and receaue him that is conuerted from his errour by the word preached Neither was this euer reprehended in Origen or numbred amongst his errours and consequently this may be presumed to haue bene the forme of praying in the publike Church at that day according to the rule before
appertayning to his euerlasting saluation to the ruine and destruction of his parents to the reuolution of his Kingdome the like And shall we thinke that God would euer concurre with such men to such designements God hath permitted theÌ„ for our sinnes for the sinnes of thousands els that haue perished and are to perish therby but any concourse of his to such mens intentions no pious mind can yield vnto 14. For if this should be granted that God did concur with the actions of these seditious men in drawing his Maties infancy by so turbuleÌ„t wicked meanes from the vnion of that faith and religion which all his parents and predecessours professed for so many ages togeather then must it follow that the same God neuer concurred with the other I meane his noble Auncestours by whom notwithstanding he did worke and achieue throughout all those ages so many notorious workes of Christian piety as perhaps by no Nation more And to thinke that all this notwithstanding they liued out of his fauour depriued of true faith infected with erroneous doctrine deceiued with false Sacraments were no members of his true Church but rather cast out from his face and deliuered ouer to the delusion scorne and power of Sathan were no doubt temerarious impiety to imagine or affirme 15. Wherefore most Noble and renowned Prince and Soueraigne I do not onely out of the dutifull zeale of a louing deuoted subiect exhibite this humble Petition to your Maiesty but also on the behalfe of our Sauiour Iesus Christ intreat that it may please your Highnes if not to entertaine and cherish yet not to persecute that Religion wherein your Ancestours haue liued so honourably and piously for that this would be to persecute them in their religioÌ„ And your Maties Princely nature I know cannot but abhorre the hatefull name of persecution and violent proceeding as well knowing out of your owne great Prudence that nothing is more durable or more subiect to hatred and malediction in the world especially the cause being so vniuersall and common to so many other great Princes and some of them the neerest of your Royall bloud as all men see it is 16. But the very fundameÌ„tall reason indeed is that this Catholick Religion is no nouelty or innouatioÌ„ but that whereunto your Maiesties realmes were first coÌ„uerted from Paganisme when they were made ChristiaÌ„ wherunto they yielded their obedieÌ„ce promised subiectioÌ„ submitted the regimeÌ„t of their soules professed coÌ„stancy therin to the worldes end And now then in any iustice can they be punished for houlding that which was so solemnely sowne rooted and so generally admitted so long and faithfully contiued so firmely grounded so deliuered and soe commended by our Fathers to this their posterity If all our great Grandfathers and ancient Predecessors were aliue againe might they not as lawfully be pursued and persecuted for their religion as we are now for the same If they should looke vpon the Churches which themselues builded to the honour of Christ for diuine seruice and especially for the vse of the publike Sacrifice vsed throughout Christendome at that day and should see the same not only taken away but penall Statutes also made against the fame by imprisonment vexatioÌ„ paymeÌ„ts of money and other tribulations would they not complaine of great iniustice done vnto them in that so sharpe persecution should be laid vpon their children for keeping their depositum or pledg receiued as the Apostle saith and for obseruing their fidelity both to God and them 17. Wherefore most noble Prince let this be as farre from your action or permission as it is from your Royall InclinatioÌ„ and disposition to be a persecutor of those that stand only in defence of their consciences and these not framed vpon wilfull fancy as all those of Sectaries and Innouators are but necessarily laid vpon them by obligation of religion left vnto them by tradition of Gods whole Church and by the Church of England in those dayes as a principall member thereof whose Communion in religion if these men do breake and leaue now for what cause soeuer eyther of feare flattery ambition worldy fauours and preferments perills or persecutions then must they consequently breake of for euer that eternall band and lincke of being saued togeather or euer enioying more the one the other in the next life for that no association can be for eternity in the life to come but by obseruing one and the selfe same religion in this world Which cogitation doth strongly worke with your Highnes Catholick subiects and they do hartily pray our Sauiour Iesus that it may no lesse worke with your Maiesty in like manner FINIS De praescript c. 16. De vnitate Ecclesiae contra Petil Donatist c. 2. De vnitate Ecclesiae Dan. 6. 17. Leo seriâ— 1. de resurrectione Lib. de paientia c. 4. 2. Cor. 7. 11 Lib. de patientia 1. Petr. 3. 15 His Maiesties protestation Iob. 19. 23 24. Salust About the words Catholick and Heretick and that they can neuer agree Gen. 21. 9. 14. The implacable hostility betweene heresie Catholick religion Gen. 26. 22 Gen. 13. 9. â— 4. Regum 9. 18. 19. 22. Dogmata noua Dij alieni Deut. 13. VinceÌ„tius Lyrinensis contra baeres c. 15. â— Reg. 18. De vnitate Eccles. cap. 5. Gen. 28. 17 1. Tim. 3. 15 Matt. 28. 20. De vnitate Ecclesiae The Catholicke cannot be a chuser but admitteth that which is deliuered Psal. 1. 5. Tertull. de praescript The 1. Ecclesiasticall vse of the word Heretick Cor. 11. 1. 9. De praescript aduers haer cap. 4. Tit. 3. 10. 11. Iibd c. 6. Ibidem Ibid. v. 31 De praescript c. 16. Act. 5. 17. 15. 5. 24. 14. Concerning the word Catholicke how eminent it is De praescript cap. 4. 5. 6. c. The Fathers iudgments about the words Heretick Catholick In Catal. Virorum illust Pacian Epist ad Sempr. 3. Reg. 3. 15. 19. Matt. 18. 1â— 2. Cor. 13. De praescript c. 26. Aug. lib. coÌ„tra Fundament in Epist. c. 4. Hebr. 12. 1. Lib. aduers. haeres c. 5. The couÌ„sell direction of Vincentius Lyrinensis about being a Catholicke Matt. 24. 14. The Consideration and consultation of the writer about his chang in religioÌ„ De vnit Eccles. De praescript cap. 32. What is required to prooue the Protestant Church Catholick Ibid. c. 32. Lib. de praescript cap. 21. 22. De vnit Eccles. Cyprian de vnit Eccles. Of the dreadfull misery of being an Hereticke Apud Pacian Epist. 1. Gen. 35. 18. Ioan. 1. 2. 1â— 1. Tim. 6. 20. 27. Cap. CoÌ„menit aduers. haereses Vincent in praf Iohn 3. 8. D. Thom. 2. 2. quaest 10. art 6. Heresy is worse theÌ„ Iudaisme or Paganis me Ratio formalis credâ—â—di An hereticke hath no diuine faith at all and why Matth. 7. 15. 16. The description of Heretickes by Christ our Sauiour De praescript c. 4. aduers. haeres c. 36. A notable interpretation of Vincentius Lyrinensis