one God have mercy upòn us pleaseth mee not for it wholy tasteâ—h of Barbarisme Said Doctor King further teacheth in these motives that foule dèceipts and sleights and falcifications are practised by Protestant writers that your XXXIX Articles of Protestancy are Heresyes that true Miracles have beene wrought for proof of the Catholick Religion but neuer any for Protestancy that there is unity in Catholick Religion and disagreements in Protestancy that the Doctrin of Catholick Religion tends directly to Vertue of Protestancy to vice and liberty When you shall attentively read this learned mans motius why and wherfore hee quitted the Protestant Religion and became Catholick you must hold your selfe for a madd man for having forsaken the Catholick Religion to become Protestant The last motive the 12. which is most to be considered of all in order to safty is that Salvation may be had in the Catholick Religion even by the Confessions of Protestant Devines and Writers and likely some of them have signed the XXXIX Articles whence hee Derives an undeniable Consequence that the Catholick Religion is the safest hee discourseth to this purpose both the sides and the learnedest of both the sides Confess and agree salvation can be obtained in the Roman Catholick Faith that same faith which hath beene professed and maintaned by Popes Catholick Bishops and Catholick Congregations directed and governed by them in Spiritualibus in Confirmation of which the Catholick Saints in our Littanys are acknowledg'd for Saints by the Protestants but all the Catholick side hould that Protestants cannot be saued in theire Religion the Religion of the XXXIX Articles Ergo saith Doctor King it is Wisdome and the safest way to Imbrace the Catholick Religion acknowledged by both sides for the safest to Salvation I will conclude this discourse in giving you Doctor Kings owne words upon this subject with which hee coucludes his book of motives excellent perswading words But heere doe present unto us saith Doctor King two Porismata or resultancyes out of the premisses of this passage The first that all true reason perswadeth The 12 Motive pag. 165. 166. 167. me to implant and ingraft my selfe in that Church which I finde to be ackowledged for the true Church promising salvation tâ— her members even by her adversarys For if I dye Catholick my life being agreeable thereto both Catholicks and Protestants warrants my Sâ—lvation but dying in the Faith of Protestancy the Protestants alone and this in honour of theire owne Religion assure mee of it for there is neuer a learned Catholick wryter in the world an observation much to be weighed who granteth that a Protestant dying with a positive setled and coutumacious neglect of the Catholick Church and Faith can be saved This then being â—hus shall I in soe great a bussiness leave a certainty for an uncertainty God forbid Wee Protestants expeot to be believed in other our positions and Doctrins why not then in this Since then the Protestants doe teach that Catholicks soe dying are in state of Salvation I am resolued my Brethrens wrytings shall have that powerfull Influence over mee as what themselves doe heerin teach I will through Gods Grace put in Execution And soe my will shall become in this point a ready and seruiceable handmayd to theire Iudgments The second The wrong which wee Protestants commit in afflicting the Catholicks and in unnaturally beâ—rampling upon theire dejected estates only for matters of Religion Alas by our owne Doctrin they are neither Babylonians nor Aegyptians both they and wee being as wee teach Israelits why then should Israel thus persecute Israell Are wee not become the gaze of Christendome thus to fight without an Enemy thus for Kindred to wound its owne Kindred yea often the Father the Sonne soe turning our owne Swordes into our owne Childrens breasts wee still inciting his Majesty to greater severity a Prince of his owne Disposition of the most benigne mercifull and commiserating nature that the world at this day enjoys and all this for the Catholicks living in that Faith and Religion in which our selves teach they may be saved thus doe wee make the confessed hope of theire Salvationâ— to be the sole cause of theire pressures and callamityes Good God! who would think that Christians the chiefest Articles of whose Faith are either reputed but as indifferencyes or which is more believed for true Doctrin by theire oppressours whose Church is acknowledged to be the d D. Morton ubi supra Church of God houlding the foundation of the Ghospell the e M. Hooker ubi supra family of Iesus Christ it being noe severall f M. Bunni ubi supra Church from theirs nor theirs from it houlding g D. Field ubi supra a saving Profession of the truth in Christ in which many h D. Covell with theother doctors ubi supra dying are by their adversaries registred for most glorious Saints Should neuer the less bee persecuted by either Christians of their owne Country yea their owne flesh for theire only persevering in the a foresaid Church with Confiscaâ—ion of goods restraint of body someâ—ymes with sheeding of most innoâ—ent blood and suffering a cruell death Obstupecite e coeli super hoc portae â—jus desolamini vehementer Heere now I will stay my penne making this last motive as a fitting Catastrophe for all Since that Closure i Hierem cap. 2. and end is warrantable enough which evicteth from the ingenious Confessions of the most learned Protestants that I may be saved in that Religion wherein I am resolued to dye I think Sall you can not meet with a stronger argument then Doctor Kings unanswerable discourse for bringing you backagaine to your Mother the Catholick Church V. CHAPTER TO the fourth Quere Who are Ad quartum the Doctors Sall parted from and who those new ones hee imbraced It is easily answered hee hath quitt the four great Doctors of Gods Church holy Saints Gregory Ambrosse Augustin and Ierome and all the ancient Fathers and Catholick Doctors how famous these foure Doctors were for great Sanctity Learning and Authority is sufficiently knowne over all the world They have beene the Lights Pillars Champions and Ornaments of the Church profound in humility flaming with Charity Conspicuous in their Conversation sublime in their Comtemplation zealous in converting Souls and defending the House of God they have beene such as Saint Paule desires Gods Servants to bee Abnegantes impietatem secularia desideria Ad Titum cap. 2. sobrié justé pié viventet in hoc seculo expectantes beatam spem adventum Gloriae magni Dei salvatoris nostri Jesu Christs Cum quo jam triumphant in Caelo That is denying Impiety and wordly desires living soberly justly and Godly in this world expecting the blessed hope of the great God and our saviour Iesus Christ with whome they now tryumph in heaven What more glorious then Gregory and what more humble then hee set on the
1524. Hee did in a speedy acomplishment of his longing desire marry even upon the suddaine Catharin Bore one of the nine Nuns that Leonard Keppen on the 7. day of Aprell 1523. brought to Wittenberg from the Monastery of Nimpisen having in the evening invited to supper Pomeran Luke the Painter and Apelles the Lawyer hee then soe finished the abominable marriage for which by the most ancient and imperiall Lawes soone after the tyme of Constantine the great hee should have lost his head Jovinian the third Christian Emperour after Constantin Zozom Histor Lib 6. Cap. 3. fine published this Edict Vt qui Sacratam Virginem vel ad nuptias contrahendas pellicere conaretur c. Capitis supplicio mulctaretur And the foresaid Law is yet extant God lib. de Episcopis Clericis Where it is said Si quis non dicam rapere sed tentare tantum jungendi causa Matrimonii Sacratissimas Virgines ausus fuerit capitale paena feriatur Oziander and Melancton doe attest Ozean Centure 16. c. 36 pag. 29. Melan. in Epist ad Ioac Camer de D. Lutheri conjugio this marriage of Luther All wanton Monks and Priestes rann after Luther each one with a Nun or a wench Martin Bucer a Dominican fryer and Bernardus Ochynus a Capuchin a complished the like Sacrilegious Marriage with two Nuns Peter Martyr being a Canon Regular of the order of Saint Augustin marryed at Straesburgh Dame Catharin the loose Nun that rann out of her Cloyster of Metz in Loraine yea the Arch-Bishop of Cullen began his Reformation with marrying a Nun. Soe writes Osiander Interea saith hee Osian Centur. 16. L. 4 cap 18 pa. 984 Archiepiscopus Coloniensis Elector Gobardus Baro Truchesius Reformationem Religionis meditabatur Matrimonium Agneti quae monialis fuerat promisit eamque tandem in uxorem duxit That is The Arch-Bishop Elector of Cullen Baron Truches began the Reformation of Religion and promised to Marry Agnes that was a Nun and at length Married her See further there pag. 953. How revolted votarys the Protestant Bishops of England took wives namely the ensuing Hooper of Worcester Barlowe of Chichester Downham of Westchester Storie of Hereford Barkaley of Bathe and Wels Coverdale of Exeter who all of them were professed Monks to whome might be added Sandes of York and Cranmer of Canterbury who still carried a woeman about with him with divers others all of them formerly Catholick Priestes One of the first that begun to live in England scandalously was Iohn Bale of Norwicth a Carmalit Fryer taking to him his Dorathy a lusty wench whome hee called fidelissimam conjugem this Fryer was after made Bishop of Ossery in Ireland Mark it well Sall how all these illuminated Doctors of your Protestant Religion were declared Enemyes to chastity and prophane breakers of theire Vowes and began all of them the great worke of Sanctifying the world and reforming the Church by marrying to Nuns and other dissolute woemen without such Companions they could doe nothing at all Did the holy Missioners sent from the Sea of Rome Saint Patrick to convert the Idolaters of Ireland Saint Austin the Benedictin the Pagans of England in the tyme of the Saxons and other Saints to other Kingdoms to enlighten them and chase away Idolatry did I say these holy Missioners that brought in holy Religion by Miracles and Sanctity bring a long with them sacrilegious and naughty woemen to acomplish the Conversion of Nations Now good Sall sit downe a little I pray you and ponder with your selfe if God a God of Piety and Sanctity would send soe wicked a man as Luther to denounce his word and Ghospell to the world a man who by a conference with the Devill abollished the Mass threw of his habit of Religion and all modesty and vertue marryed a professed Nun and lived more like a beast then a man who contemned in the highest degree the veneration sanctity and learning of all the Fathers who was possessed with a spiritt of an intollerable pride would God imploy such a man a slave of lust pride and the Devill to give the true light of the Ghospell Think seriously Sall what smale reason Mr. White had to say of Luther Mr. VVhit in his way to the Church printed 168. pa. 428 This was the end of that good man whose memory shall be pretious in the Church for ever and flourishing as the Rodd of Aaron layd up in the Tabernacle After a due ponderation of the premisses touching Luthers impious Doctrin and incontinent and wicked conversation taken out of the writings of Protestants themselves I doe referr to the Readers owne Iudgement whether wee are to joyne in esteeming and terming him a holy man as certaine Protestants doe to the great blemish of theire credit Some of these are English Gabr. Powell in his consideraiion of the Mr. Gabriell Powell calls him holy Saint Luther Mr. Iewell calls him as above was said a most excellent man sent of God to enlighten the world in the midst of darkness Papists Supplication printed 164 pag. 70 †Mr. Fox saith it pleased the Lord to send and set up Luther by his owne mighty Spirit hee alsoe Rubricates him in the highest ranck of his Confessors Mr. Whitaker doth reverence him as the Father of Protestants other Protestant writers of Germany and other Provinces call him Elias Conductor and Chariot of Israell and to be reverenced after Christ and Saint Paul But all these high strange Phanaticall and hyperbolicall prayses given to this wicked man are proved lyes by the plaine uncontroulable alegations and Testimonyes of other learned Protestant Authors who are to be creditted in this Quia res ipsa loquitur X. CHAPTER What frutes followed Luthers Doctrin and Reformation IT has beene a constant observation in all ages and tymes that men sent from God by extraordinary missions as the Apostles and other Saints after them and alsoe those sent from the Sea of Rome with ordinary mission were Saints and holy men and wrought wonders and Miracles and great devotion sanctity pennance prayer and change of mens lives to the better followed these missions whole Provinces amended theire ill manners and lives Saints doe holy things Bona arbor bonos fructus facit Now if wee shall examin the nature and effects of Luthers Reformation wee shall finde neither Miracles nor Sanctity in him or the rest of his Brethren and what fruits did this new Doctrin produce in the people did those that received it become more holy then before more modest just sober or more penitent for theire sinns Was pride vice and dissolution abated or diminished after the pretended zeale of these reformers did any man mortify his body or crucify his flesh with the concupisence and vices therof Noe such matter a change indeed followed theire new Ghospeling and Reformation it changed all to the worst Rapine Vsery Adultery and all kinde of uncleaness and dissolution became greater then before these were the
that the Doctrine of the life to come and of the last Resurrection are meer fables c. Thus farre hee And all this hee setteth downe resolutly as you see without citing any one Author or Authority in the Text or Margent but only noting these words The Athisme of Popes All which is an impudent lying Accusation and Callumny Calvin in his first Book of Institutions writeth resolutly that in the first Calvin lib. 1. Iustit cap. 11. five hundred years after Christ there were neuer any Images in Christian Churches This is a false Callumnie And Mr. Walsengham in his Search into Matters of Religion found it to be soe in Coccius a Catholick Author who cited the words of 21. wittnesses and some of those Fathers that liu'd in som of those five ages and Mr. Walsengham found all those Citations to be true Lastly Calvin in his fourth book of Institutions and 19. Chapter hath these words against the Catholicks for esteeming as hee saith more Chrisme or holy Oyle in Baptisme then water Praeterita aqua saith hee nullo numero habita unum Oleum in Babtismo magni faciunt That is They letting pass and esteeming nothing at all the water in Baptisme doe only magnify theire Oyle or Chrisme Is not this a strange and bould accusation about Baptisme whereas the Protestants themselves doe know wee hold water essentiall and necessary to Baptisme not soe Oyle and that wee hold the Baptisme of Protestants for good and essentiall though they use noe Oyle yea the Councell of Concil Tred Sess 7. caw 2. 4. Trent hath soe expressly determined the Matter that none shall be rebaptized that are baptized by Protestants How then coms this impudent man to tell the world that wee esteeme more the Oyle then Water in Baptisme Even this manifest Callumnie with others of the same kind takes away all creditt and esteem from Calvin and even for this reason Sall you should not rely upon such an open lyer in the bussiness of your Salvation Of Calvins Life and Conversation AS concerning Calvins incontinent and ill life Hierom Bolseck a Doctor of Physick who lived at the same tyme with Calvin in Geneva and was then of the same Religion published the same and confuted Beza that canonized Calvins Sanctity and Vertues but who would believe a Sodomite Beza praising Calvin another Sodomit Bolsick beginns the life of Calvin with this Protestation I am here for the love of truth to refute Theodore Beza his false and shameless lyes in the praise of Calvin protesting before God and all the holy Court of heaven before all the world and the holy Ghost it selfe that neither anger nor envy nor evill will hath made mee speake or write any one thing against truth and my Conscience You are to observe that Bolseck being scandaliz'd with Calvins life became Catholick Then hee relates how Caluin was borne at Noyon in Picardy anno 1509. and was a Priest and branded for Sodomy with a burning Iron upon the shoulder and therefore retyred from his Country and how this punishment was testiyed by the Citty of Noyon under the hand of a publique sworne Notary to Monsieur Berteliet Secretary to the Councell of Geneva which testimony faith Bolseck is yet extant and I and others have seen it hee then tells us of Calvins incontinency with a gentle woeman of Mongis who stealing from her husband at Lausanna made aboad at Geneva with Calvin hee alsoe speaks of his adulterous attempting at Geneva of the Lady Ioland of Bredrode wife to a sickly noble man called Iames Burgoigne Lord of Fallaise in soe much as shee perswaded her husband to leave Geneva and goe to Lausanna where shee revealed the whole matter Then hee discribes his delicate Diet how his wine was choyce and carryed with him in a silver pott when hee dyn'd a broad that alsoe speciall bread was made for Calvin only and the same made of fyne flower wett in Rose-water mingled in Sugar Sinamon Annaiseeds besides a singular kinde of bisquit and this hee affirmeth as a matter knowne to all Geneva This delicasy of Diet was not prescribed to preserve his health but prepared to foment his lust and lewd Conversation with a Gentlemans wife of Lausanna and others This Calvin impious Calvin after hee had broaken and defaced the Images of Christ and Saints in Geneva caus'd his owne picture to bee set up in severall places and used alsoe to give little pictures and Images of himselfe to Gentle-woemen and Gentlemen to carry about theire necks And when one told him that some thought much of this hee answered Qui non potest hoc ferre rumpatur invidia That is Hee that cannot abide it let him burst with envy O prophane Hipocrit that preferd his owne picture to the Image of Christ Hee attempted the working of a miracle to prove his extraordinary Vocation and Mission to augment his owne creditt and to cheate the world with a fained Miracle you shall see how hee came of It happen'd thus Hee agree'd with a poore man called Bruleus a Tayler to faigne himselfe dead promising him great rewards if hee acted his part handsomly in this Trage-comedy and would bee secret none knew of the plot but Bruleus and his wife who upon the day and hower appointed satt in her house lamenting her husbands death Calvin passing by with agreat number of his frinds as it were by chance and hearing the Lamentation of the poore woeman seemed to pitty her sad Condition and moved forsooth with Charity and Compassion fell downe upon his knees with the rest of his Company praying in a loud voyce and beg'd of God that for the manifestation of his Glory and for the Confirmation of his servant Calvins Doctrin and Mission hee would vouchsafe to revive the dead Carcass which hee took by the hand and bid him rise in the name of the Lord. The wife seeing her husband did not move or rise as hee had promised drew neer and preceiving hee who had beene well but halfe an houre before was now dead lamented in good earnest the loss of her husband reviled Calvin as a murtherer cheate Hypocrit heretick c. And related to the whole Company what had past between them Calvin seeing Bruleus had acted his part more naturally then hee wished retired with hast and confusion to his Lodging This is one of the miracles of Heretick Prophets such as an Arian Heretick did worke when hee made a man blinde that saw well before this made Tertulian say Isti Apostoli de mortuis Tertul. de prescrip suscitabant ipsi Heretici de vivis Mortuos faciunt That is The Apostles rayse the dead to life and the Hereticks make those dye that were living Conradus Schlusselburge a man of Principall estimation in the Protestant Church and noe less learned and as great an Enemy to the Pope as Calvin himselfe giveth this publick Testimony of Calvins fearfull end Deus manu Schlusselburge in Theolog Calvin printed
Faith only is sufficient without all Satisfaction and all other works of Pennance Wee have expressly That every man shall be saved according Apoc. cap. 20. to his works You have noe where That men shall be judg'd only according to theire Faith Wee have expressly That it is a holy Cogitation to Prayer for the Dead 2 Mach. cap. 12. Sacrifice for the Dâ—ad 2 Mach. cap. 12. Voluntary Corporall affliction Daniell cap. 10. Almes Tobias cap. 12. Prayer of Saints for those on Earth 2 Mach. cap. 14. pray for the Dead You have noe where It is Superstition or unlawfull to doe the same Wee have an express example Of an holy man that offered Sacrifice for the Dead You have noe example of any good man that ever reprehended it Wee have expressly That the Affliction which Daniell us'd upon his Body was acceptable in the sight of God You have noe where That such voluntary Corporall afflictions are in vaine Wee have expressly That an Angell did present Tobias his good works and Almes-deeds before God You have noe where that Angells cannot or doe not the same Wee read expressly That Ieremias the Prophet after hee was dead pray'd for the People of Israell You have noe where the contrary to this in express Scripture I leave many places more that I might relate but these are enough to prove that express Scriptures are for us and not for you nor can you shew that wee are driven to deny any one book of the byble or to gloss upon plaine places of Scriptures as you are forced to doe I pray you Sall consider well these things for they touch narrowly your new Religion Further-more I dare give you this Challenge that whereas there have been soe many hundred Heresies for the space of one thousand sixhundred and seventy odd years in the Christian Church condemned and Anathematized by her and her Bishops if it can bee shew'd that the Roman Catholicks doe agree or participate in any one point truly and sincerly that was Iudged for an Heresy in old tyme and that the Roman Catholicks doe hold it in that sence and meaning wherin it was condemned that then wee will yield that our Religion is false and our Church noe true Church But on the other side wee Catholicks offer to shew clearly that you Protestants doe hold divers old and evident Heresyes that were condemned openly for Heresyes by the ancient Catholick Church and in the self-same sence and meaning wherin they were condemned as is evident in the Heresyes of Aerius against Fasting days commaunded by the Church and Prayer for the dead as alsoe of the Heretick Vigilantius that denyed Saints to Old heresys held by Protestants be prayd unto and theire Reliques to be honoured of the Heretick Iovinian that compared Matrimony with Virginity and other like for which wee aleage Epiph. Haeres 75. Hier. cont Vigilantium cont Iovin Aug. lib. de Haeresibus Heres 50. defence pag. 15. Doct. Fulke against Bristowes Motius pag. 54. the cleare testimonys of Saint Epiphanius Saint Hierome and Saint Augustin and the matter is soe cleare that Doctor Fulk his words are brought in against Doctor Bristo's motives saying that Epiphanius and Augustin were deceived in recording those for Heresyes which are not And that Ierome rather rayleth then reasoneth and that Vigilantius was a good man and his opinion sound Sall you see Mr. Fulk a grave Doctor in your Church drawne to that extremity in this point that hee is forced to Iudge Epiphanius and Augustin two grave and ancient Doctors and Saints alsoe to have beene deceived and Saint Ierom to have rather railed then reasoned and infine to say that Vigilantius a pestiferious condemned Heretick was a good man and his opinion sound Good Doctor Fulk you sore to high when you dare judge Doctors pillars of Gods Church to haue been deceiued can not wee say to you Fulk Quis te constituit iudicem Upon those eminent Doctors Sall this ought to trouble you in your new Religion that one of the graue Rabbins of your Church hath showd himselfs soe foolish and impious as to preferre Vigillantius a Notorious Heretick's Opinion to the Iudgment of three soe renowned Fathers in a matter concerning faith Speake my Frindâ—â—â— speak truth and shame the Devill is not this an intollerable presumption in your Fulk an obscure man not knowne out of the Iland of Brittain Sall I pray put these things together 1. That hee that houldeth any one Heresie can not be saued soe teacheth Scripture A man that is an Heretick after Ad Titum Cap. 3. the first and second Admonition auoyd knowing that hee that is such an one is subverted and sinneth being condemned by his owne Iudgment 2. It is confessed by both parts that only a true Roman Catholick can be saued as was declar'd aboue in pag. 40. 41. 42. and 43. as Doctor King Bishop of London proves out of your owne learned men and writers and cleare it is that hee that holdeth any Heresie cannot be a true Roman Catholick for that the Names and Natures of the things are repugnant and consequently if any Protestant of the English Church doth hold any one confessed Heresie hee cannot bee saued Now the cited Doctors have evidently showne and prou'd The now Church of England holdeth many Heresyes wherfore it cannot be the true Church and consequently those dying in that Church and Religion can not be sau'd Doctor Fulk saying those learned Fathers Epiphanius Augustin and Hierome were deceived and that Vigilantius the Hereticks Opinion was sound is a weak ground to rely upon in the present Doctrin and points of Faith and none but a madd man or in a fury of blinde zeal will give him creditt against those most holy and learned Fathers This is a high and dangerous point Sall you had need look well unto it The third Advertisment A dissention in Fundamentall points and Articles being between Protestants they must hold on another for Hereticks Ergò Sall if he mindes his Salvation will part from that Church IN the true Church the beleevers in all Countrys and places agree in all Articles of Faith as it is in the Roman Catholick Church and as it was in the Tyme of the Apostles as this Text signify's And the multitud of the beleevers Actor Cap. 4. Irinaeus c. 1. l. 1. had one hart and one Soule Saint Irinaeus excellently teacheth this Quam accepit Praedicationâ—m fidem Ecclesia diligenter custodit quasi unam domum inhabitans similiter credit quasi unam animam habens unum coâ— consonanter haec praedicat docet tradit quasi unum possidens cor That is The Church keeps diligently the Faith and preaching shee received as if the whole Church were dwelling in one House shee likewise beleeveth as if all the beleevers had but one Soule and one hart and shee preacheth and teacheth and delivereth all points of Faith as if all the beleevers had
faith To vanquish a coward that makes noe resistance is but a smale Glory and Victory for a Champion the tentation that mastered you was like to such a Champion Illa tentatio vicit te non quia non potuit ipsa vinci repelli sed quia tu qui victus es nullarum virium fuisti That tentation mastered you not because the tentation was strong and could not be vanquished but because you that was vanquished was of noe force or resolution Tertulian speaks much to the same purpose in those tearms Hereses de quorundam infirmitatibus habent quod valeant non valentes si bene valentes fidem incurrant That is to say Hereses take theire force from the weakeness of some but would have noe force if they encountred men strong in faith You have beene indeed cast downe because you would not stand and fight for I dare affirme there are hundreds of simple honest lay-men Catholicks borne in Ireland would have rather suffered torments and death it selfe then abjure theire faith as you have don for that they would have made good use of the Grace God hath given them as you have not done but like a languishing man hast yielded to that black temptation over which they would have tryumphed It was exellently said of the formentioned Tertulians Nemo saepiens est nisi fidelis nemo major nisi Christianus nemo Christianus nisi qui usque ad finem perseveraverit Behold this Sage Father holds noe man wise but a man strong in his faiih noe man great or noble but a Christian noe man a Christian but hee that continues stout and faithfull to God in Combatts and temtations and more especialy when the storme of persecution rises upon this tryall you fainted and forsooke your Master and your Religion and now of what Religion I beseech you are you I am say you a Protestant a true Child of the Church of England but of what Sect or kind of Protestants are you is a new Queere for under this Notion of Protestant pass Lutherans Calvinist Moderat and Rigid Swinglians Anabaptists Phanaticts or the last Sect which calls themselves Quakers Shall I speak my mind to you having gone out of the Roman Catholick Church and quit the faith therin professed all along from the Apostles tymes till this day you are of noe Religion for all the rest is but Paganisme Judaysme and Heresy This assertion is evident out of the great Doctor of Nations in his Epistle to the Ephesians where hee says plainely Vnus Dominus una Fidos unum Baptisma Ad Ephes cap. 4. One Lord one Faith one Baptisme Ergo there are not two faithes to be sau'd in but one only and that the Roman Catholick Faith that noe man can be sau'd without this sole only faith Saint Paul teacheth clearely in his Epistle to the Hebrewes as thus Sine fide autem imposibele est placere Deo the words following give evidently the reason Credere enim eportet accedentem ad Deum Epist ad Hebr. cap. 11. quia est inquirentibus se remunerator sit But without faith it is imposible to please God for hee that cometh to God must believe that hee is and is a rewarder to them that seek him That the Roman Catholick Faith is that only true faith wherin men are to be saued is evidently confirmed for that it is taught and defended only in the Roman Catholick Church which hath the true signes and propertys of a true Church for that shee is one only and can not be many that shee is visible and visibly dispersed over the whole world and therfore Catholick and Universall that shee is infallible and can not be deceived nor deceive depending in her Doctrin upon the infallible Revelation of God being assisted with Christ's promise of the perpetuall presence of the Holy Ghost with her and consequently can neuer faile or fall into error that shee containeth not only the good or the elect in this life but alsoe divers wicked members as the barne doth both wheat and chaff that likewise shee hath continued perpetually visible from Christ to our days by manifest Successions of Popes and Bishops knowne to the world and shall soe to the end that there is noe hope of salvation out of this Church and without this Faith though aman live otherwise neuer soe well or give neuer soe much Almes or give even his blood or suffer neuer soe much for Christ his name Wee know there are some that say and hold that Catholicks and Protestants can be sau'd each in his owne Religion But that is a desperate Opinion and the refuge of a very Carless Conscience if not voyd of all faith Noe Catholick is of this mind they are only Protestants that say soe for wee Catholicks hold with the Fathers of the Church that salvation is only as before was said to be found in the Catholick Church among others Sainct Irenaeus and Tertulian neare the Apostles tyme and after them Epiphanius Theodoret and Saint Augustin doe specially treat of this matter The reason is evident in as much as Catholicks and Protestants doe disagree in substantiall Articles and Theorems of Christian faith theire disagreements being knowne to be in above a hundred points great and small partly about the God-head of Christ his Church head members and Authority therof in his descent to hell remission of sinns all which are Articles of the common Creed partly about the Sacraments both of theire nature number force and efficacy about the Real Presence the effect of Baptisme externall Sacrifices Purgatory and the Invocation of Saints praying for the dead faith and workes manner of Justification and the like All which are knowne to be very substantiall points It is therfore very absurd and plainly tending to a secret kinde of Athisme to uphold the Catholick and Protestant Religion doe not differ in substantiall points and the differrence being supposed as it must be it is an Heresy to hould the Catholicks and Protestants may be sau'd each in his owne Religion and Profession but Catholicks can be sau'd in theirs which can not be said of the Protestant and his for being out of the Arke Debet perire as Saint Jerom says regnante deluvio Consider therfor Sall having departed out of the Catholick Church what Eternity you may wait for an Eternity of Flames darkness and inconsolable lamentation Vbi ignis Sulphur spiritus procellarum pars calicis eorum this shall be your inheritance I must confess learned men unless careless are not soe easily intrapped by Hereticks for all this I see with all your Mastership of Philosophy and Divinity in Spaigne you haue bine deluded and circumvented by the Protestant Arch-Bishop of Cashel who likly is not an unlearned man hee hath not been carless in working your eternall ruine and undoeing and it is usually the principall care of Hereticks to pervert true believers as Tertulian doth excellently teach Studium est saith hee Heriticis
to see or discerne though all the world knew him to be Summersets competitor This crafty man though hee had bin allways a Roman Catholick in his Iudgment yet as many polititians use to doe hee dissembled his belief and soothed the Protectors inclination to the Protestant Reformation and made account those new men for Propagation and Preseruation of theire new Ghospell and Doâ—trin would fix upon himselfe for theire chief Patrone and Director and take with him whome hee would appoint for Soueraigne of the Land and to this purpose hee much humored their madness and zeal while they were intoxicating the people with the liberty and pleasure of the new Religion Dudlay being all in all with the Protector and having gotten the power of the Militia into his owne hand hee began to settle a new Religion in England upon the score of a refined Reformation and to unsettle the goverment and ancient faith and in doeing all this hee gave the world to understand the Protector did all and therby made him soe odious that none could indure to heare his name or to live under his goverment This wicked Earle compassed what hee went about to his owne desire his impious drift was to make his Sonne King who was marryed to my Lady Iane Gray of the Blood-Royall and a Protestant Infine hee contrived the Protectors distruction and had him put to death the young King to be poysoned the Princes Mary afterwards Queen to be excluded and the Lady Iane Gray to be Crowned Queen of England For preparing the way to all those sadd things this cruell impious man by force of the Army which was in his hands against his owne Conscience in the first Parlament and yeare of King Edwards Raigne obtained in favour of Protestancy and these new men an act of indemnity for the new Preachers and Hereticks from pennaltyes inacted by the ancient Lawes of the Land against marryed Priests and Hereticks and a repeal of the English Statutes that had tyme out of memory confirmed the imperiall Edicts and Lawes against Heresies But in the second year and Parlament of Edward VI. it was carryed though by few votes and after along debate of aboue foure months that the Zwinglian or Sacramentarian Reformation should be the Religion of England O tempora ô mores ô exicrabilem Parlamenti Anglicani impietatem ô scelus Cleri Apostatantis Who the Contrivers of the XXXIX Articles and first Reformers of Protestant Religion TRue Faith and all Sanctity being chased out of England by the sinns of the Clergie and the wicked laymen in the Parlament the Charge of framing Articles of this new Religion as alsoe of composing the Liturgie and a Book of Rites Ceremonies and Administration of Sacraments was committed to Thomas Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and to som other Protestant Devines who were all married Fryers and Priests lately come out of Germany with their sweet harts videlicet Hooper and Roger Monks Coverdale an Augustin Fryer Bale a Carmelit all these Englishmen Peter Martir a Chanon Regulare Martin Bucer a Dominican and Bernardus Ochinus a Capucin these three strangers came over with three galloping Nuns invited by the Protector and Cranmer out of Germany and apointed to preach and teach in both Universityes and at London who were to agree with the rest in the new modern forme of Religion which was a matter of great difficulty because the tenets which they untill then had professed were irreconsilable For that Hooper and Rogers were fierce Swinglians that is Puritans or Presbiterians and joyned in faction against Cranmer Ridly and other Prelaticks Hugh Latimer of great regard with the common people hee opposed himselfe to Cranmer and others for their opposing his pretention to the Bishoprick of Worsester Coverdale and Bale were both Lutherans and yet differed because the one was a riged the other a milde or halfe Lutheran Bucer had alsoe professed a kind of Lutheranisme in Germany but in England was what the Protector would have him to be and therfore would not for the space of a whole yeare declare his opinion in Cambrid though pressed to it by his schollers concerning the Real Presence untill hee had heard how the Parlament had decided the Controversy at London and then hee changed his opinion and became wholy a pure Zwinglian The same tergiversation was used by Peter Martir at Oxford and soe ridiculously that coming sooner in the first Epistle of Corinthians which hee undertook to expound to the Words HOC EST CORPVS MEVM then it had bin determined in Parlament what they should signify the poor Monk with admiration and laughter of the University was forced to divert his Auditors with impertinent comments upon the precedent Words Accipite manducate fregit dixit c. Which needed noe explanation At length when the news was com that both houses had ordered these Words HOC EST CORPVS MEVM should be understood figuratiuely and not literally Peter Martir sayd hee wonderd that any man could be of another opinion though hee knew not the day before what would be his owne opinion As for Bucer hee was a concealed Iew joyned in Contriving the XXXIX Articles only to make good days with his Nun and dyed a Iew being asked confidently his opinion of the Sacrament by Dudley Duke of Northumberland in the presence of the Lord Paget then a Protestant who testifyed the same publickly afterwards hee answered that the Real Presence could not be deny'd if men believed that Christ was God and spoke the Words THIS IS MY BODY But whether all was to be believed which the Evangelistes writt of Christ was a matter of more Disputation Peter Martir who came to England to Cherish in pleasures his wanton Nun whose death hee lamented efeminatly was noe Protestant in Iudgment as is cleare by what is said and yet hee joynd in the XXXIX Articles Bernardus Ochinus who loved Woemen soe well as by an express written Book hee affirmeth Polligamy or the lawfullness of having two Wives together dying professed himselfe to be a Iew and soe whilest hee lived in England was but a counterfeit Protestant to make bon-chear with his Nun and for this cause agree'd to the XXXIX Articles Cranmer was a meer contemporiser and of noe Religion at all Henry the eight raised him from Chapline to Sr. Thomas Bullen Ann Bullens Father to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the end hee might divorse him from Queen Catharin and marry him to said Ann Bullin which hee did Afterwards by the Kings Order hee declared to the Parlament that to his knowledg Ann Bullen was never lawfull wife to his Maiesty by which hee let the World know Elizabeth her daughter had noe right title to the Crowne of England After this hee marryed the King to Ann of Cleves and when the King was weary of her Cranmer declared this marriage alsoe null and married and unmarried him soe often that hee seemed rather to exercise the office of a pymp then the function
of a Priest which to requite one curtesy for another made the King connive at his keeping a Woeman and at some of his Opinions though som what contrary to the statute of the six Articles In King Henry the eight's days Cranmer professed to be Catholick and writt a book for the Real Presence In King Edward the sixt days hee professed Protestancy and writt another book against the Real Presence Bishop Bonner produced both those books against him in Iudgment Hee conspired with the Protector Summerset to overthrow K. H. will and testament and afterwards conspired with Dudlay of Northumberland to ruine the Protector hee joyned with Dudlay and the Duke of Suffolk against Queen Mary for the Lady Iane Gray and immediatly after with Arondell Shrewsbury Pembrook Paget ane others against the same Duke finally when hee was condemned in Queen Mary's tyme for treason and Heresie and his Treason being pardoned hopeing the same favour might be extended to his Heresie hee recanted and abjur'd the same but seeing the temporall Lawes reserved noe mercy for relapsed Hereticks who are presumed not to be truly penitent or converted hee was soe exasperated therby that at his death moved more by Passion then Conscience hee renounced the Roman Catholick Religion to which hee had soe lately conformed These were the Godly men who framed the XXXIX Articles of the Religion of the English Church the Liturgie and the book of Sacraments Rites and Ceremonies of the Protestant Church and though it may seem incredible that an Athist a Iew a Contemporiser or meer Pollitian a Presbiterian a riged Lutheran a halfe Lutheran and an Anty Lutheran or Sacramentarian should all make one Religion yet when men doe but dissemble and deliver opinions to please others and profitt themselves and have noe Religion at all they may without difficulty concurr in some generall poynts of Christianity framing negative Articles such as many of the XXXIX Articles are Impugning the particular truthes of Orthodox faith This was the case of the Church of England and men disagreeing in opinions made up one religion such as it was The Fabrick of those Articles being rays'd as was said let any Christian be Iudge whether it be more safe and more rationall to rely in matter of faith upon the Tradition of the whole Catholick Church and ancient Liturgy's and Rites and upon the Testimony of all the holy Fathers and Counsells since the Apostles tymes then to take the bare Word of Cranmer a man of slippery life and Religion Let any Christian man I say bee Iudge whether this man together with Ochinus a Iew Buzer an Athist or at the best a Iew Peter Martir of the Religion the Parlament would have him to be of Hooper and Latimer and Rogers stubborn discontented Presbiterians Bale and Coverdale Lutherans two lew'd and runagate Fryers whether hee that cares for his owne soule should rather believe these wicked impious men in points of Faith and marters of Salvation then all the ancient Fathers and the holy Councells Let us now see after Dudlay and his faction of Protestant Religion and the Citty of London had crowned Iane Gray what became of them and how long they were in the roofe and prosperity Queen Marys courage and resolution and her owne good right Protestancy being not as yet soe deeply rooted at once with those loyall Catholicks that waited on hervertue and fortune quashed Dudlays Rebellion and designe those lewd Apostate Monks and Priests that coyned the XXXIX Articles then vanished away like smoke and brought Dudlay to his distruction hee was put to death for treason and Rebellion Upon the scaffold hee declared that hee had never been a Protestant in his Iudgment and only made use of its principels and Profession for temporall ends as to raise his family and make his Sonne marryed to Lady Gray King c. Hee advertised the people of the new Religions in consistency with peace and quiet that its Clergie were but ungodly men and trumpets of sedition The substance of his speech is set downe by Doctor Heylin a Protestant in Doct. Heil Eccls Restau Queen Mary pag. 19 these-words Hee admonished the Spectators to stand to the Religion of theire Ancesters rejecting that of latter date which had occationed all the misery of the foregoing 30 years and that for prevention for the future if they desired to present theire soules unspotted in the sight of God and were truly affected to theire country they should expell those tempests of sedition the preachers of the reformed Religion that for himselfe what soever had otherwise been pretended hee professed noe other Religion then that of his fathers for testimony wherof hee apealed to his good frind and Ghostly Father the Lord Bishop of Worcester and finally that being blinded with ambition hee had been contented to make wrake of his conscience by temporising for which hee professed himselfe seriously repentant and soe aeknowledged the Iustice of his death A Declaration saith Doctor Heyling very vnseasonable whether true or false as that which rendered him less pittied by the one side and more scorned by the other This is a more politick then pious obseruation of Doctor Heylin would hee not haue men confess theire faults and profess theire faith when they are dying and would hee haue them preferr the vanity of the pitty or scorne of the World when they are to bid the whole World adieu before the Satisfaction and Salvation of the Soule Sall hath there been soe much as one man of your first Doctors and Reformers and of all those that contriu'd the XXXIX Articles hath there been I say soe much as one just man before God walking in all the Commaundements and Iustifications of our Lord without blame one vertuous soule that mortify'd his body and loved Chastity one Priest or Monk amongst them all that was bonus odor Christi Noe but all of them lew'd dissolute infamous Priests and Religious men that broak theire holy vowes Rebells against God and against his annoynted on earth Kings and. Magistrats rayfing tumults and seditions in all the countrys they liu'd in such kinde of men they have been though Iohn Fox a ridiculous man canonized many of them for great Saints of which wee shall treat more at large in the ensuing Chapter They haue beene Cores that have rent the Coat and garment of Christ and made a great Scisme in Gods Church like Ballaaems they have cheated Gods People for gaining Wordly Comodityes and Pleasures like Gains they have murthered millions of innocent Abells with Hereticall Doctrine and pestiferous manners and Conversation You are not ignorant Sall of what Saint Paul writes to Timothy And 2. ad Tim. cap. 3. thus know thou that in the last days shall aproatch perilous tymes And men shall be lovers of themselves covetuous hauty proud blasphemous wicked without affection Incontinent unmercifull traitours stubern puffed up and lovers of voluptuousness more then of God Lay your hand upon your hart
but one mouth Can this be said of the English Church Noe but all is truly verifyed of the Roman Catholick Church Saint Cyprian doth likewise confirme this Unity of beleefe in the Church Exordium Ecclesiae S. Cypr. de Vnitate Ecclesiae ab unitate profisiscitur primatus Petro datur ut una Christi Ecclaesia Cathedra una Monstretur That is The beginning of the Church proceedeth from Unity and concord primacy is given Peter that the Church of Christ may be proved to be one and the Chaire one Let Saint Pauls Words give undenyable weight and creditt to what is said One To the Ephesians cap. 4. Body saith th' Apostle and one Spiritt as you are called in hope of your Vocation One Lord one Faith one Baptisme One God and Father of all which is over all and by all and in all us The Devines of England would faine perswade us there is noe contention or difference in Fundamentall Points or Articles of Faith between Protestants as for example between Lutherans and Calvinists soe teacheth Docter Charke saying in his reply to the defence of the Censure that in Principall points of Faith the Lutherans and Calvinists agree and are bretheren And Doctor Whitaker signify's the same saying wee reverence Luther as a Father and the Lutherans and Zwinglians our very deare Bretheren in Christ See above page 83. This hee would not say if hee held they disagree'd in Principall points of beleefe But the matter is otherwise as will appeare to those will examine the great contentions between Lutherans and Zwinglians Luther holds the Zwinglians for Hereticks being Sacramentarians the same Iudgement hee gives of Calvinists saying of them Hereticos serio Censemus alienos ab Ecclesia Dei c. That is Wee doe seriously censure them for Luther contra Artic. Lovan Thes 27. Hereticks and aliens from the Church of God As alsoe hee affirmeth that theire first Author Zwinglius Latro mortuus est That hee dyed a theefe and in his Iudgment was damn'd Which Iudgment hee saith Christ doth commaund us to pronounce upon such as deny him in this life as Zwinglians did in denying the Real-Presence of whome hee says further that hee held him not in the number of Christians Quia totum Christum amiserat for that therby hee had lost Christ all together And furthermore hee said that hee held said Zwinglius his books and Doctrin for nothing else but for venenum tartarei daemonis That is The poyson of the Deuill of hell and that hee would never have more conversation either with him or with those of his sect how doth Chark tell us that Lutherans and Zwinglians are bretheren in Christ agreeing in fundamentall points of Doctrine seeing Luther holds all Zwinglians and Calvinists Hereticks for denying the Real-Presens and damned Soules and theire Doctrin for poyson of the Deuill Surely the Protestants of England if they hold Luther for a holy man and true Doctor and reverence him for a Father haue great cause to tremble and feare seeing hee holds them all for Hereticks in a fundamentall Article of Faith that of the Real-presence whose Faith in this point is that of Zwinglius censured as was now said for an Heresy There are other pâ—incipall points of Religion in which Lutherans differ from Calvinists Franciscus Stancarus a Stanca Lib. contra Calvin N. 4. famous Protestant Preacher in Polonia hath particularly written against Calvin Cave Christiane Lector c. That is Beware Christian Reader of the Books of Calvin especially in the Articles about the Blessed Trinity Incarnation of Christ and his Mediation about the Sacrament of Baptisme and Predestination Continent enim Doctrinam impiam blasphemias Arianas That is For that they containe impious Doctrine and Arian Blasphemyes Another famous Protestant writer of the Lutheran party called Conradus Conradus de Theol. Calrin Lib. 1. Art 18 Schlusselburgius writeth thus Albeit saith hee in the beginning the Controversy of the Sacramentaryes was only about one Article yet by theire naughty Disputations the Calvinistes are passed now soe farre as they have brought into doubt noe small number of cheefe Articles of Christian Faith for now is the Contention between us and them of the Omnipotency of God of the Vnion personall of two Natures in Christ de Comunicatione Idiomatum of the Comunication of Names in the Blessed Trinity of the glorious Body of Christ of his Assention into heaven of the differrence of Sacraments of the old and new Testament of the force and efficacy of Baptisme of the prerogative of Infants borne of Infidels of the supper of our Lord of Predestination c. Noe man will deny these to be great Controversyes and Articles of Religion in all which the Lutherans and Calvinists disagree and how then will Charke prove them to agree in fundamentall points of Religion as Bretheren in Christ The said Conradus hath written three whole Books principally to prove this point that Lutherans and Sacramentaryes but especially Calvinistes are Irreconsilable in the very chief Controversyes of Religion And in his second Book and thirteenth Article hee hath these Words Nos negamus inter nos Calvinistas in Doctrinae fundamento esse consensum That is Wee deny that there is betwixt us and Calvinistes any consent or agreement in fundamentall points of Doctrine And hee further in the very Title of his Book affirmeth his cheefe purpose to be to demonstrate to the eye as in a Table that the Calvinistes De nullo ferè Christianae sidei Articulo Rectè sentiunt have noe right Faith allmost in any one Article of Christian Religion Likewise one Samuell Huberinus writt Samuel Hube rinus in Antith a Book whose Title was Antithesis Lutheranae Calvinisticae Doctrinae in praecipuis fidei Articulis That is The Contradiction or contrariety between Lutheran and Calvinian Doctrin in the principall Articles of Faith Yet was this Huberinus a zealous Protestant I will conclud with the Iudgment of Doctor Aegidius Hunnius publick Reader of Divinity in the Lutheran University of Wittembergh of Calvins writing upon the Scriptures his Book was printed in the same place Anno Domini 1594. In the beginning of his Book hee hath this Assertion that hee will shew most clearly and evidently Quod Ioannes Calvinus Illustrissima Scripturae sacrae loca Testimonia de gloriosa Trinitate Deitate Christi Spiritus Sancti in primis autem vaticinia Prophetarum de adventu Messiae nativitate ejus Passione Resurrectione Ascensione in caelos sessione ad dexteram Dei detestandum in modum corrumpere non exhorruit That is That Iohn Calvin in his commentarys upon the bible was not afrayd to corrupt most detestably the most clearest places and testimonys of holy Scripture concerning the Glorious Trinity the God-head of Christ and of the Holy Ghost and Principally the forretellings of Prophets of the coming of the Messias his nativity passion Resurection Ascention into heaven and his sitting at the right
hand of God All which Articles saith this Doctor doth Calvin willfully corrupt in his expositions in the favour of Iewes Arians and other such enemyes of Christ which hee proveth by alleadging above forty or fifty places citing Calvins owne words and commentaryes therupon soe clearly and perspicuously against sence and expositions of all holy Fathers that if his commentaryes therin were to bee admitted those foure named points or Articles of Christian Religion can not be defended against the force and adversaryes of Christes name And is not this a brotherly agreement between Lutherans and Calvinistes in Principall points and misteryes of Religion but the Lutherans have the best of it for wheras Luther and his followers to this day condemne the Calvinists as Hereticks especially for not beleeving the Body of Christ to bee realy and substantially present in the Sacrament of the Altar the Protestants of England who are Calvinists and deny the Real-presence hold Luther for a holy man and theire Father and hold all the Lutherans theire very deare bretheren in Christ as Doctor Whitaker above cited doth averre To leave Germany and to speak of the Professors of Protestanisme in England Scotland doe not many of them entertaine quarrells and falings-out among themselves about Principall Articles of Religion doe not the greatest part by much of the Protestants in England hold the King is supreme head of the Church all of one opinion with the Bishops maintaine this as an Article of Religion in that Protestant Church but the Protestants of Geneva and all depending upon theire Doctrin in France and elswhere doe not hold this Kingly supremacy for an Article of Faith and are not Catholicks punished by Law and somtymes put to death for denying this supremasy which would be a meer murthering of them and the greatest cruelty in the World if those that put them to death did not hold that supremecy to be an Article of Faith Now if you will be pleas'd to demaund what those Protestants in England and Scotland caled Presbiterians or Puritans say to this Article they flattly deny this supremacy to be an Article of Faith though none of them did ever suffer death for denying the same nay they are esteemed not with standing theire opinion in this to be of the Protestants communion A gaine all Protestants that follow the Bishops hold the dignity and superiority of Arch-Bishops and Bishops to be agrecable to Gods word and as the Devines speak de Iure Devino and what say the Presbiterians to this By theire Champion Martin Mar-Prelate and his mutenous moke-bates that band under his cullors cry all of them in the Name of the Lord as Thomas Rogers doth attest That the calling of Bishops is In his Sermon printed by Iohn windet 1590. pa. 13. unlawfull that they be Ministers of Antichrist worss then Fryers and Monks Deuills Bishops and Deuills In-carnate Sall you must grant mee these dissentions between Protestants and Protestants in England and Scotland about the Kings supremacy and the Order and Dignity of Bishops are not Triueall but Fundamentall and they have been now many years contending in theire Writings and Conferrences and still are about these points and others that are the very sinews and Soule of theire Religion in endless quarrells and Contensions If that were my Business I could sett downe many and great differrences quarells and contensions between these two kinde of Protestants In this place I think it pertinent to say somthing particularly of the Protestants called Presbiterians who were neuer by any act of Parlament that wee could heare of proscribed from the Communion of the Protestants that stick to the Religion of the King and the Bishops Impiety Fury and Rebellion gave beginning to this Sect and Religion in Scotland as hath been aboue said in Page 164. and 165. They had two Reformations the first was begun by Iohn Knox an Apostata Priest and though his Reformation was ungodly and unreasonable the second was farre more unreasonable and ungodly A Presbiterian that was converted to the Catholick Faith describes the Presbiterian Piety in this kinde There was among us a pretext of Piety but wee had not the substance of it wee had indeed much preaching praying fasting and such like exercises but our long preachings were nothing but continuall prayses of the Covenant the solemne League which they cry'd up to the heavens butt wee omitted as our Saviour observed of the Pharisies the weighty Matters of the Law as Iudgment Mercy and Faith Our Ministers told us wee were the happiest People of the World for they said wee only of all Nations had the honour to be Covenanters with God and that wee had the truth of the Ghospell in greater purity then Geneva it selfe that wee had soe cleare a light that the like had not shined to any Nation since the tymes of the Apostles yea one who was esteemed a principall Apostle among us did not stick to say in the pulpitt amidst the many Miserys Confusions and Troubles which then lay upon this Church and Nation That the Angells and Saints of heaven if they could leave the sight of God would be glad to come downe and see the admirable beauty of the Presbiterian Church of Scottland Soe farre this new Catholick And was not this ridiculous preacher with the beauty of his Scottish Kirck a great Hipocrite and Pharisie It was much observed that shortly after solemne fastes of Presbiterians the country and state was allways sure of some unhappy claps the puritan fast was still fatal and ordinarily a preparation to some violence or evill worke that was intended this made many understand what Queene Mary Stuart meant by that famous saying That shee was as much affraid of a fast of the Ministers as of an Army of Souldiers for experience taught her that those fasts were prognostick signes of ensuing tempests theire long prayers alsoe did not prove them to be Saints more then the like did sanctify the Pharasyes they bragged much of the spiritt but shew'd noe fruites therof these bee the fruites of the spiritt which Saint Paul recounts to the Galatians The fruite of Ad Galat. cap. 5. the spiritt saith hee is love joy peace long suffering Gentelnesse goodness Faith meekness c. This second Presbiterian â—eformation beganne with a prodigious abolishment of all holy things Mala arbor Malos fructus faciâ— 1. They condemned and cast downe Episcopacy this they doe whersoever they have power quite contrary to the Law of God for Episcopacy is de Iure Divino This order and degree they abhor'd as Tyrannicall and Anti-Christian yet Saint Paul writing to Timothey saith If a man desireth a Bishops Office hee desireth 1. Tim. cap. 3. a good thing The Apostle likewise affirmeth that Bishops are to Order Priests and Iudge them wherfore hee saith in his Epistle to Titus That hee left Ad Titum Cap. 1. him in Cret to Order Priestes by Cittys By this it is plaine and evident that
Apostolicale will you heare these holy men speake in theire owne Cathechisme Albe it say they the substance of the Doctrine comprised Catebhisme VVest infine in the abridgment commonly called th' Apostles Creed be fully sett forth in each of the Cathechismes soe as there is noe necessity of incerting the Creed it selfe Yet it is here anexed not as though it were composed by the Apostles What new masters or rather Monsters are these What ungodly pestiferrous Doctrin is this to say and teach the Creed is a human Collection and not made by the Apostles this they declared as was said and after such Declaration they did not say it neither did they require it to be said any more of others as the custome was formerly at Babtising infants all this they did to put the Creed out of Estimation and use now this Innovation calling the Creed in question the beleevers therafter could be sure of nothing Thus the Presbyterians indeavered to dash th' Authority of the Cymbol the principall foundation of Religion O abomination of furious zealots that would change the Apostolicall Creed which was taught for such and soe beleeved and esteemed in all ages by the consent of all Christian Nations and said dayly by all the Servants of God young and old But against the Impiety of those men wee have the Authority and Testimony of all the ancient Fathers for the Credit and Estimation of the Creed Cardinall Barronius in the first tome of Baron Tom. 1. Annal. an 44. N. 15. seq his Annals doth shew by the Testimony of the holy and ancient Fathers that the Creed was composed by the holy Apostles a little before they were to part and goe into severall Countryes to preach the Ghospell unto the Gentils to the end there might bee a certaine short cleare rule of Faith in which they all agreed wherin they were to instruct all persons and by which as by a certaine badge all Christians might be knowne Be pleased now to heare the Fathers speak of the Symbol Saint Ambrose saith Let us beleeve the Symbol S. Amb. Serm. 18. Epist 81. of the Apostles which the Roman Church doth ever preserve and keepe inviolate Saint Hierom saith The Symbol of our Faith and hope which was delivered by th' Apostles is not written in Paper or Ink but in the fleshly Tables of the hart Saint Augustin speaks thus The comprehension Aug. Serm. 42. de trad and perfection of our Faith is the Creed It is simple saith hee short and full That its simplicity might serve the rudeness its shortness the Memory And its fullness the Instruction of the hearers Else where hee saith this is a Symboll brief in words but large in Misteryes for whatsoever is declared in the Scriptures or foretold by the Prophets c. is contained and briefly confessed in it To show the excellency of the Creed which is therfore to be often sayd Saint Augustin speaks thus Render Aug. homil fortitu your Symboll render it unto the Lord be not weary to rehearse it the repitition of it is good least forgetfullness creep one thee doe not say I sayd it yesternight I sayd it to day I say it every day I have it well Remember thy Faith Behold thy selfe let thy Creed be a mirrour unto the there see thy selfe if thou beleeve all that thou confessest thy selfe to beleeve and rejoyce dayly in thy Faith Let it be thy Riches the dayly apparell of thy Soule Doe you not cloath your selfe when you rise Soe by remembring thy Creed cloath thy Soule least per-adventure forgetfullness make it naked Saint Ambrose cales this the Seale of our Ambr. lib. 3. de Virgin Tom. 4. hart which wee ought dayly to review and the Watch-word of a Christian which should bee in a readiness in all dangers Wee have the Creed by an assured Tradition and Testimony of the Church which Saint Augustin holds of noe less certainty then the Scriptures as is signifyed by these words I would not have beleeved saith the Saint Aug. Cont. Epist fund Cap. 5. the Ghospell unless the Authority of the Catholick Church had moved mee c. And that Authority being once weakned neither can I beleeve the Ghospell Seeing these Presbiterians have abollished the Authority of the Crâ—ed saying it is not Apostolicall what in Gods-name have these Doctors given to the People in place of the Symboll The holy Covenant and as the Creed is denyed by these men to be Apostolicall soe is the Covenant cry'd up to be Divine for they call it Gods Covenant and the Confession of the Scottish Kirck This was truly a rare exchange to deny the Creed to be Apostolique and to cry up the Covenant to be devine To Rob us of a most ancient clear briefe positive sacred Confession of Faith made by the holy Apostles famous in all ages and Universally received throughout the whole world full of great Misteryes and divine Expressions and to give us in place of it a new long obscure negative Confession or rather noe Confession of Faith full of terrible oathes Execrations and Combinations devised by some few discontented heads and by cunning and force obtruded upon the Nation much suspected at the beginning to bee nothing but a meere pretence of Religion as it was notoriously known to be a humane Invention and as it 's now at length after all its disguises manifested for such unto the World It 's good fame hath not lasted long neither at home nor a broad It gott some footing in England by cunning and worldly interest but these soone failing it was quickly detected and rejected The Christian Mediator sayth to this purpose That the last Reformation Christ Mod. pag. 2. settled with soe solemne a Covenant and carryed on with soe furious a zeal is already by better lights discovered to be meerly humane and therfor deseruedly layd aside These are the words of the converted Presbyterian Sall I would now faine know what is your Iudgement of these kinde of Protestants perhaps you will say they are noe Protestants but Geneva the acknowledged school of English and Scottish Protestants will tell you that Presbiterians are the purest Protestants of all and for ought I could ever learne the Church of England held and holds them soe according to Doctor Whitakers manner of speaking Tell mee Sall have you ever seen any act of Parlament in England declaring that Presbiterians are not Protestants or any penal lawes enacted against them noe such thing though they differ as was said from the Episcopall or Royall Protestants in fundamentall points of Religion that of the order and dignity of Episcopacy which they hold to bee Anti-Christian and Tyranicall and noe way de Iure Divino The other of the kings supremacy in Spiritualibus which they flatly deny they alsoe differ from the Kings Protestants in abollishing the Lords prayer and the Hymne of Glorification to the B. Trinity and in denying the Greed to be Apostolicall
fellow in one of the Oxford Colledges it is one of the rarest and most learned Books ever saw light of that kinde the argument of the worke is by way of Paralel to compare the Religion of a Calvinist and that of a Turke This man Reading the sleights Shufflings Lyes Falsifications and corruptions of Mr. Iewell pretended Bishop of Salsbury one of the falsest men that ever set pen to Paper forsook the Protestant Religion saying it could not bee a sauing and true Religion that used Falsifications and sleights for a support of keeping it up hee went in the yeare of Iubily to Rome and submitted himselfe with his writings and works to the Iudges of th'Inquisition who received with all joy soe pretious a man Father Persons the Iesuit accompanied him came afterward to France there lived a holy life and there dyed a happy Death 4 ' th Author THe Legacy of Doctor King Bishop of London or his Motives for his change of Religion written by himselfe and delivered over to a Frind in his lifetyme A most rationall moving piece printed Anno 1622. 5 ' th Author THree Conversions of England penn'd by the very vertuous Father Persons one of the best works ever was set out in English All in this Book is strong here you will finde Iewell and Fox two pillars of the English Church tottering and cast downe and bruesed like a Dagon Both are evidently convinced to have beene the most infamous Lyers ' Shuflers and Falsificators that ever lived of the English Nation or I think of any other 6 ' th Author A Search made into Matters of Religion by Francis Walsingam Deakon of the Protestant Church before his change to Catholick Religion a Book full of prudent Observations printed Permissu Superiorum Anno 1609. 7 ' th Author REdargutio Scismatis Anglicani ' Authore Alexandro White a Confutation of the XXXIX Articles of the Confession of England See above pag. 13. 14. 15. Printed at Lovain Anno 1661. 8 ' th Author PRotestancy without principles or Sectaryes unhappy fall from infallibility to Fancy layd forth in foure Discourses by E. W. printed at Antwerp by Michael Cnobbaert 1668. This Author shewes playnly to the Eye Protestant Religion sinking downe for want of Principles as a House layd upon a very weak Foundation t is one of the most learned pieces of this kind and convincing that I ever handled There is another Book of the same Author intiteled The Infalibility of the Roman Catholick Church and her Miracles defended against Doctor Stillingfleets Cavills c. printed at Antwerp 1674. An excellent worke the Preface therof is a Pearl Sall I pray you read with Attention these two Books if you are able you have some kind of Obligation to answer the last having denyed Infallibility to the Roman Catholick Church I think you will finde this E. W. hath read as much as you have done if not som-what more and that hee is a subtile School-man I have reason to know what mettle is in the man and partly what in you 9 ' th Author A Book that lately came out stiled a Treatice of Religion and Goverment the Argument which is learnedly handled whether Protestancy bee less dangerous to the soule or more advantagious to the state then the Roman Catholick Religion The conclusion that Piety and Policy are mistaken in Promoting Protestancy and Persecuting Popery by penall and Sanguinary statutes This man gives a perfect Anatomy of the English Church shewes clearly to the eye the Falsifications Iuglings Corruptions Shuflings absurd lyes and artifices of Protestant writers and Doctors Hee expounds briefly and soundly the XXXIX Articles of your English Creed and Confession and declares them to bee Pernitious Finally hee doth as it were demonstrat the Church of England to be without Sacraments Priest and Sacrifice and consequently noe Church and where there is noe Church there is noe true Religion This Book is not Easily had but I am ready to furnish you with one you will finde I assure you the discourse learned and worth your reading Sixt Advertisment 3. Weighty Points offered to be considered by Sall. MOre then twenty years agoe I lighted upon a Book written by a learned Protestant in the days of the Usurper caled the Christian Moderator wherin hee shew'd a great kindness and tenderness of hart toward us Catholicks then much afflicted hee spake much good of us and said wee were a People of a tender Conscience shy in taking oathes but Religious Observers of them once taken hee maintained our Religion was not inconsistent with Obedience to the Prince and Magistrate and that the farr greater part of us were commendable in our manners and Conversation and honest in our dealings hee wyp't away an envious Callumny objected to us to wit that wee held as a constant Doctrin in our Schooles and Practises in our Proceedings Fidem non esse servandam Hereticis which hee shew'd to bee most false out of Catholick Authors especially out of Paulus Layman a Iesuit Hee likewise indeavoured to persuade by good Arguments that Persecution of Religion was not lawfull nor could be warranted by the Law of God Law of Nature nor the ancient Lawes of the Land Among many good things this Author said I took speciall Notice of three remarkable Points which I will express the best I can in my owne words having not his Book at hand Primum Punctum HEe said it was observed that Roman Catholicks who turnd Protestants commonly became worse liuers then before great libertins dissolute in theire manners and careless of Salvation especially Priests and Religious men who breaking theire Vowes took Wives and wenshes and ever after lived in Sensuality and Sinn without all shame and feare of God giving Scandall to all kinde of men and that many of them came to an Obduration of hart and dy'd in Dispaire I will give you here a true and lamentable Narration of two fearfull Examples in this kind of two Apostata's Priests that marryed and had Children whome I knew very well One of them having studyed in the University of Salamaâ—â—a was made Priest in Spaine had a rich Benefice in those parts I liu'd in but was borne in the Province of Sall hee was sufficiently learned and audatious in the highest degree and had sometymes preacht before the State in Dubblin as latly Sall hath done In his Conversation hee was a meer Publican and most vaine lying vapering insolent debaust and Drunkenest Companion that was knowne in those parts As soon as the Rebellion began in England hee bid a Deiu to his Loyalty went to England and stuck to those then in Rebellion thinking therby to make a great Fortune came over with Crumwell and was a meer scourge and plague to the Catholick Clergy bringing Souldiers and wicked men to the Houses of all the Priests hee knew Infine hee dyed of the plague in a Ditch deserted of all of both Religions crying as they say for a Priest but found none The
sharpely for your fale from holy Faith and the Scandall you have given be not like a dead man but shew you have life and feeling and greefe for what you have done be not I say hard harted but give way to the grace of God to make a breach on the wales of your obstinate will help thy selfe man and God will helpe thee and never dispaire of Gods mercy The condition of a dispairing man is the worst that can bee for hee Iudgeth teste Augustino that God wants either power or love to save him to say either of God were a blasphemy Look upon History's Ecclesiasticall and prophane look upon Scripture the booke of life all are full of faire Examples of Gods mercy hath not Christ healed Magdalen possessed of 7. Diuells 7. Deadly sinns hath hee not pardoned Peeter that deny'd him hath hee not made Paul that did persecute him a vessel of election and Doctor of Nations hath hee not given heaven to the good theefe for one â—ct of contrition and love This theef's owning of Christ to bee the sonne of God when all the world seem'd to abandon him was a most Heroick Confession Harken Sall to the Comfortable words of great Saint Iohn Chrisostem to an afflicted sinner inclining to dispaâ—re Si Publicanus es potes fieri Evangelista si Blasphemus potes fieri Apostolus si latro Caeli civis ne dic peccavi qui habes medicum Potentiorem agritudine tua That is If you are a publican you may become an Evangelist if you are a Blasphemer you may become an Apostle if a theefe a cittizen of heaven say not I have sinned seeing you have a Phisitian able to master your disease Heare the words of God himselfe to a Soule that had committed many Fornications which are full of Consolation Tu fornicata es cum multis amatoribus Icrem Cap. 3. tamen revertere ad me reciptam te Who would not fly out of Babilon to adore soe loving a God come then out of that accurssed mantion and place the Ship of your Soule in the Haven of safty by returning to the Catholick Faith and State of Religion you were formerly of and walking with your devout and Religious Bretheren between the mountain of Mythe and Hill of Frankincense There can bee nothing more safe and happy then the life of a good Religious personne whose occupation during life is an incessant voyaging between the odoriferous Mountaine of Myrh and Hill of Frankincense What is Myrh Mortification of the Body hayre Cloath Fasting and Pennance And what is Frankincense but fervent and humble Prayer In this Myrh and Frankincense consisteth the Soule of Religion and Godly Soules mortifying theire Bodys and elevating theire harts and mindes to heaven in the Contemplation of holy things and sincerely contemning for the love of God all Pomp Riches Pleasures Vanityes and glory of the World enjoy perfect and neuer decaying delights wheras the greatest Pleasures of the Potentates and Minions of this World vanish away like smoke and only leave the sting of a tormenting mind behind them But the greatest Joy of a perfect Religious Soule is crowned when her louing spouse Iesus finding her perfum'd and sanctify'd with Myrh and Frankincense calls upon her in this amorous Language Tota pulchra es amica mea macula non est Cant. Cap. 4. in te Veni de Libano sponsa mea veni de Libano vent coronaberis That is Thou art faire my love there is not a spott in thee come from Libanus my spouse come from Libanus come thou shalt be crowned I wonder Sall your hart is not brooken to see you have lost those heavenly delights and are not like to tast of them any more I pray returne returne with Pennance and teares that you may enjoy them againe be not ashamed to confesse the errour that rob'd you of those innocent pleasurs Saint Augustin a great Saint and witt did not stick to confess his errours in the Sect of the Manichtes and with much humility retracted his Opinions doe what hee did and think seriously on these words of Saint Bernard to one that had gone a stray Turpe est tibi falsitate seduci veritate non reduci That is It is a shamefull thing to bee seduced with falsity and not reduced with verity Sall I am forced here to put a period to this my unpolished though wel meant discourse drawne to a farre greater length then I expected and truly decaying age with sharpe panges of severall Infirmityes God is pleased to vissit mee with all scarce gave mee leave to finish what is done The shining Sunne of my happier years if any of them have been soe is now setting And though I count two years a bove 70. I must say what the Patriarch Iacob said to King Pharao The King demaunded his age saying Quot sunt dies annorum Genes cap. 47. vitae tuae That is How many be the days of the years of thy life Iacob answered Dies peregrinationis meae Centum triginta Annorum sunt parvi mali That is The days of the Pilgrimage of my life are an hundred thirty yeares few and evill A great part of my life hath beeâ—e spent in Pilgrimage and motion from Kingdome to Kingdome and that by necessity and not by election they forced mee to wander that persecuted Christ and true Religion but theire power is now at an end though not theire evill will because my tyme of liuing is neare ended and alas though neare my end and the upshot of my life I am forced to use Iacobs language Dies Annorum meorum parvi mali The days of my years are few and euill Mali having in my life tyme done little good and much euill by offending the infinit goodness of my God Parvi The days before mee being to few to lament my sinns and apease the anger of God Oh that I were in such a state and tranquility of conscience that I could with confidence and flaming desires cry out with S. Paule Cupio dissolut esse cum Christo But I am farre from that Sanctity and my sinns Delicta inventutis mea make mee tremble and feare What then remaines to be done by an inconsolable sinner such as I am This only that my care and feare in the little tyme I have to live be wholy imploy'd for a good goeing out of this Babilon of pride Iniquity and vanity O deare Iesus grant for thy mercy to Sall and mee a holy and happy Houâ—e of our departure out of this World In delating the Argument of this little Book I have said much against the way Sall hath taken and his flight out of the House of God but all with true Charity and a pure Intention And now Sall let mee speak to you in Saint Bernards Language to one that was dangerously erring Iactavi semen Dominicum deprecant Deum uâ— non revertatuâ— vacuum That is I have soed the heavenly seed begging God it