over his deceipt unto his Reader For we doe not say That men have not so much as free will being moved by effectuall grace But That they have not so little as free will For wee hold that the will being moved effectually by grace is more then free will for it is free will fortified actuated and animated by grace So his Reader is deceived by him if he be perswaded by these words that wee doe not allow men actuated by grace so much as free will for we allow them more And indeed wee allow them much more then Romists and they quarrell with us because wee allow them so much Yet the more power and efficacy we allow grace in the will the lesse efficacy hath the Cavaliers objection but the more encouragement have men to good works For the more God helpeth the will the more couragiously may the will go on to working and the more may exhortation call for good works Indeed if God did not worke in us to will and to do but left man to stand only on the motion of his own will exhortations might have but a cold encouragement standing meerly at the mercy of the creature for successe and effect But when God gives what he commands then may exhortations call for the performance of Gods commands As for humane justice in punishing hee may know that our opinion doth not oppose but approve it For even your own Vega in the Councell of Trent acknowledgeth That Protestants affirme a liberty in Philosophicall justice and in externall workes of the Law But of free will I may here say the lesse because I have spoken somewhat of it before and elsewhere is more largely unfolded the truth of the point and the consent of our Church SECT IIII. That the Idolatry and bloud which springs from the Religion of Rome should deterre men from consorting with her BUt here I may give this returne to the Romists Upon the love of God and man depends the whole Law And in the love of God a principall place is given to the worship of God in spirit and truth And in the love of man a chiefe place is given to the preservation of his life Idolatry and murder being contrary to these are maine breaches of this royall Law of love Now Rome permitting the doctrines and practice of idolatry and murder the maine breaches of the Law of God with what face can she require the keeping of other lawes and lesser duties that gives such encouragement to the breach of these greater ones Tertullian proves idolatry alone to be a breach of every Commandement and besides it will not bee hard to prove that Rome jointly with idolatry gives encouragement to the breach of every Commandement but I especially fasten on these two whose eminent guilt is haunted with the continuall out-cry of the Prophets and at length avenged with heavie judgements by the Judge of the whole earth And indeed commonly these sins are twins the same evil spirit first working by idolatry as it were a not being of God in the faith and worship of man and then provoking man to destroy the Image of that God whom he hath formerly abolished But most fearfull sinnes they are and their hideousnesse may be seen in the horrid face of the judgements which have beene the counterparts and representations of them He that would behold painted unto the life the lamentable countenance of these judgements let him with an heart of life and sense read over the Lamentations of Ieremy And he that will see Idols and bloud to have been the maine meritorious causes of these judgements let him reade the words both of other Prophets and the same Ieremy But if for these Jerusalem hath been judged what shall become of Rome For Rome is the mother of spirituall fornications and in her is found the bloud of all that are slaine on earth The power of Rome crucified the Lord Jesus it slew millions of the Martyrs of Iesus under the heathen Emperours it hath added to these millions the multitudes of those who have been slaine under the beast with hornes of a Lamb. And how loud is the cry of all this bloud being united in one voice Wherefore let my counsell be acceptable to you I speake to the children of Rome that they may be saved Heare the voice of Gods Spirit Come out of her my people before God heare the voyce of this bloud and then ye be partakers of her judgements For she that is drunk with the bloud of the Saints shall vomit it up againe and her owne bloud with it shee shall fall and never rise againe for the word of God hath spoken it Wherefore do not joyn with that idolatrous company of Mourners which shall lament for her when they shall see the smoake of her burning but bee found among the heavenly company of Rejoycers which sing Alleluia Salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God For true righteous are his judgments for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication hath avenged the bloud of his servants at her hand And thus the Man of sinne and all the enemies of Christ being made his foote-stoole wee will hope that the kingdome of grace shall bee speedily changed into the kingdome of glory And for the hastening of that glory wee will pray for the speedy subduing of these enemies For this glory being come wee shall by the King of glory and peace bee translated into that peace where we shall be free from the vexations of enmity There shall be no controversies emulations factions and schismes for Religion but without controversie the great mystery of godlinesse shall appear unto us in a perfect discovery light glory Yea there the Church shall be made capable of seeing the highest glory and in this sight shee shall be glorified The Father and Fountaine of glory shall shine into her and in his light she shall see light and by his light shee shall be light And hee that filleth her with light shall also fill her with joy for the light of Gods countenance is the joy of the soule and yet with it will hee powre into the soule the new wine of the kingdome the oyle of gladnesse issuing from his Spirit which shall make up the joyes of a consummate marriage and fill the Spouse with extasies and overflowings of joy unspeakable and glorious And thus tasting how sweet the Lord is in the joies of a most fruitive union these joyes shall enflame her loves and her loves shall kindle her joyes shee shall taste and see God who is the chiefe object of her love shee shall rejoice in seeing and tasting him whom she loveth and shee must needs fervently love him in whom shee findes and feeles such exceeding joy Thus shall shee run in a circle of Love and Joy and this circle of Love and Joy shall bee for all eternity for the
the Church which is the Cavaliers point to be proved by this place for he denyeth many doctrines and fundamentall ones of the Law and the Prophets yea of God himselfe The next place doth much accuse the Cavaliers need of Allegations and yet withall excuseth him not from an indeavour to deceive his Reader The place alledged by him is this Quod apud multos c. That which is found to be one amongst so many is not to be thought to have crept in by errour but to have beene commended by Tradition The place cited is this Quod apud multos unum invenitur non est erratum sed traditum That which is one among so many is not an errour but a thing delivered The question in hand was concerning the rule of Faith or the Creed as the Reader may see by comparing the thirteenth chapter where the Creed is rehearsed and the end of the one and twentieth where he saith That it remained for him to shew whether the doctrine in the former rule came from the delivery or if you will Tradition so it bee not a Tradition beyond that which is written for there is no such in this rule of faith of the Apostles And having refuted these objections That the Apostles delivered not all and that they knew not all he comes after to this objection That the â—hurches did not purely reteine what the Apostles delivered and thus hee refells this objection Age nunc omnes erraverint deceptus sit Apostolus de Testimonio reddendo Nullam respexerit Spiritus sanctus uti eam in veritatem deduceret ad hoc missus à Christo ad hoc postulatus de Patre ut esset doctor veritatis neglexerit officium Dei Villicus Christi vicarius sinens Ecclesias aliter interim intelligere aliter credere quod ipse pâ—r Apostolos praedicabat Ecquid verisimile est ut tot ac tanâ—a in unam Fidem erraverint Nullus inter multos eventus est uâ—us exitus Varâ—asse debuerat error doctrinae Ecclesiarum â—aeterùm quod apud multos unum invenitur non est erratum sed traditum Whereof the summe is this that though the Holy Ghost the Vicar of Christ had not looked to his office of leading the Church into truth yet there is no likelihood that so many Churches had erred into one Faith But the Faith wherein there is such unity among many should not be an errour but a Truth delivered by the Apostles Now this place is so far from saying that all Churches agreed in sin all points beyond and besides the Creed that it speaks onely of their agreement in the rules of Faith and doctrine of the Creed And he saith that such an agreement comes not by errour which commonly is divers but by one uniforme delivery and doctrine of the Apostles So the Cavalier is still to seeke for a necessary unity in every smal doctrine and in points without the Creed Cyrill is mainly for the Protestants even as himselfe alledgeth him For we agreeably affirme That to be the Catholick Church which teacheth without defect all things necessary to salvation And in the doctrine of faith such things necessary to salvation are points fundamentall Cyprian comes or is rather drawne in next against his will and meaning and thus the Author produceth him The Church being stricken through by the light of our Lord doth send her beames throughout the whole world But yet that light which is cast so far abroad is but one and the same Shee spreads her branches over the whole earth after a plentifull manner Shee extends her flowing streames with great aboundance and to a great distance But yet is Shee one Head and one Root and one Mother who is fruitfull by such store of issue Now I thinke it were needlesse to help a Reader to take this place from the Author For it is plaine to every eye that this place speakes not of the unity of the Church in all points of doctrine but of their unity in one Love and one mysticall Body So that this place is not onely unserviceable to the Author but serves much against him and his lady Mother who cuts off noble and excellent members of the Church from her or rather her selfe from the Church if they doe not submit to her universall Tyranny Cyprian it seemes hath not said enough and therefore he must say more but indeed lesse Let us see how the Cavalier rather teacheth him then suffereth him to speake The same S. also speaking of the sin of Core Dathan and Abiram implies that the one Church must not onely be entirely beleeved but followed also in all her doctrines and directions For hee saith that though Core Dathan and Abiram did beleeve and worship one God and lived in the same Law and Religion with Moses and Aaron yet because they divided themselves from the rest by Schisme resisting their Governours and Priests they were swallowed up quick into Hell Here first wee may observe how hee tells his Reader what hee would have Cyprian say for hee saith not that Cyprian doth speake it plainely but the S. implyes and what doth he imply That the Church must not onely bee intirely beleeved but followed also in all her doctrines and directions But did Core Dathan and Abiram differ from Moses and Aaron in doctrine His owne place denyes it which saith They did beleeve and worship one God and lived in Moses his Law and Religion with Moses and Aaron And the place further assignes the true fault Division by Schisme They denyed the authority of those whom God had placed to be Governours over them Just the same sinne into which Pope Pius the fifth drew the English Papists by his Bull so that this place makes exceedingly against Romish doctrine of rebellion against Princes such as those of the North and in Ireland But let me give the Author one question at parting Was Aaron to bee followed in all his doctrines and directions what doth the Author think of this doctrine concerning the Calfe These be thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt Saint Basill is next produced thus speaking in Theod. They who are well instructed in holy writ permit not one syllable of divine doctrine to be betrayed or yeelded up but are willing to embrace any kinde of death for the defence thereof if need require Hereupon the Author thus commenteth That man of God had beene sollicited by some to relent for a time to yeeld though it were but to a little he refused in such sort as you have seene and he did it with much disdaine to be attempted in that kinde Now let the Reader see here the fairenesse of our Author Hee speakes of Basils not yeelding to a little and what was this little Denying the sonne of God to be God of one substance with the Father Is this a little Surely he should be a great Hereticke that should deny
of it yet I cannot deny that hee hath two Errands one to bring forth a jest upon our Fox and his followers under the names of Fox and Geese But if it had pleased this Author duly to follow this Fox in the reading of his Martyrologie he might have found out the true Fox that followes and teares and destroyes those whom our Author by a new Metamorphosis and Romish transubstantiation hath changed into Birds His second Errand he thus expresseth I finde when they are put to name their particular Professors of former ages they doe but muster up those severall single false doctrines which have bin held by other heretiks by Retaile during ten or twelve 〈◊〉 since Christ our Lord many of which doctrines togethâ—r themselves doe now professe in grosse for what other men of former times did they ever or can they ever name as men of their Religion but such as beleeved some one or two of those hereticall doctrines which now themselves embrace and wherein they are contrary to us But all this as it is not very pertinently brought in to excuse Romish uncharitablenesse so it is not very truly objected for wee can prove our doctrines which hee calls heresies by the Fathers and Scriptures and the Scriptures he cannot deny have beene beleeved above twelve ages Besides Popish Authors doe acknowledge that the Waldenses agree with Protestants in more then one or two doctrines for they are said to bee more then twenty wherein wee agree with them And though afterward this Cavalier affirmes it yet hee proves not that for other points these were expresse hereticks in the Protestants opinion neither doe we hide any fundamentall errours in them which we object against Romists But if these had not beene in the world it is most true that the maine point of Popery which is the Popes tyrannicall headship of the Catholick Church the very root of Idolatries errours and divisions hath in all ages been denyed since it was first broached But our Author is still much displeased with fundamentalls because by them wee have unity with those who have heretofore differed in some doctrines from their Papacy for saith he If it were not for this distinction no man could bee of the same Religion with any other that is not wholly of the same Religion so farre forth at the least as that he must not obstinately deny any one doctrine thereof whether it bee important more or lesse when once as hath beene said it is lawfully and sufficiently propounded and commanded to bee beleeved by the true Church as it is true and certaine when Luther rebelled from the Church of Christ our Lord nor in any age before his time there was in the whole world any one Kingdome or Countrey or City or Town or Family of men or Pastours or Flock yea or any one single person so much as of Luthers own much lesse of the now Protestant Religion which is now forsooth so farre refined beyond his Here the Cavaliers true Church being that confederacie whereof the Pope is the head hee would faine dissolve that solid unity which is made by fundamentals in Christ Jesus the true head to mak a fictitious unity in the Pope But if hee should cast off this onely true and substantiall ground of unity which knits together all the sound Churches that are at this day or ever have been through all Nations on the face of the earth since our Saviour to make an unity by agreeing under paine of damnation in all points propounded and commanded by the Pope and his Church of Rome whether important more or lesse hee shall not onely by this meanes breake the unitie of all the true Churches on earth into pieces but of Rome it selfe For to returne almost his owne words Since the Pope who hath rebelled against Christ and usurped the Headship of the Church first coined and established a Religion in Trent neither then nor in any time before there was in the whole world any one Kingdome or Country or City or Towne or Family of men or Pasture or Flocke yea or any one single person who by a supernaturall Faith which this Authour onely approves did imbrace the whole body and every Article of the Trent Religion Yea even at this day it is not received in divers parts that beare the name of the Church of Rome much lesse in Greece Armenia Syria Ethiopia most of which either know not or acknowledge not this Councell nor the Popes Supremacie All these therefore refusing any of these Articles must be torne in pieces from the body of Christ and cast into Hell fire Thus the Scarlet Whore drunke with the bloud of the Saints speaks in the right voice of the Harlot If she may not have the whole childe let it bee cut in pieces Let the Church be distracted and damned if the Pope may not be her Lord and her Tyrant And so whereas Christ was a head that gave himselfe to death to save his body from damnation is not hee an Antichrist that throwes the body of Christ into hell and damnation to make himselfe the head But in a third place hee objecteth not an use of ours but an abuse of his owne For hee abuseth his Reader in saying to him That the making of this distinction betweene Fundamentall and not Fundamentall points of Faith and the resolving not to declare which is which doth save them with a great part of the ignorant world from the imputation of rigour in their proceeding with us For how could they persecute as they doe without extreme note of cruelty But neither the making nor hiding of Fundamentalls is the cause of prosecuting Romists in this Kingdome but the cause of their punishment hath been their owne making of Treasons miraculously revealed by Gods goodnesse notwithstanding their hiding even in the vaults and depths of the earth And though there were no Fundamentalls of Religion but only Fundamentalls of State the Fundamentalls of State are very plain and cannot well be hidden which justifie the execution of Rebells and Traitours But of this some proofe hath been given in the beginning of this Booke and the Authour will call for more towards the end As for that which followes Yea or even how could they dissent without apparent impiety from our beliefe and practice of those Doctrines wherein wee have had and still have prescription of so many ages if the contrary thereof should be confessed by themselves not to be Fundamentall It is so weak that I wish that some childe and not the Cavalier had spoken it to save his reputation For will any man say that it is impiety to dissent from others in ancient errours though these errours be not Fundamentall Tertullian might have taught our Authour much more wisdome who upon the custome of an errour not very Fundamentall thus saith They that have received the holy Ghost preferre truth before custome SECT IIII. Sheweth the differences amongst Popish Divines about their
best is hee who by a fundamentall faith is built upon Christ the true foundation can never be damned by unbeleeving any Article of faith created and coined by the Pope a counterfeit foundation And here while the Authour doth quarrell with the poornesses of the Doctour not being able to maintaine a combate with his richâ—s it seemes hee doth it with a greater poornesse For what a poore quarrelling is it with the Doctour for saying That Papists will not let Protestants to bee saved though they beleeve the same Creed except they will beleeve the same Mathematicks and govern themselves by the same Kalendar when thiâ— Authour knowes his meaning and expressed it himselfe in the words nearly preceding That the Romane Church makes â—oyes fundamentalls And might not the Pharisees thus have taken a poore exception at our Saviour for saying that they strained Gnats whereas they strained not Gnats but payed the tythe of Mint and Cummin Besides he doth not say that it is really so done but premising this When every thing must be called Foundation wee shall never know where to stop where to consist If we should beleeve their Sacrificium incruentum their unbloudy sacrifice in the Masse if we did not beleeve their Sacrificium cruentum too that there was a power in that Church to sacrifice the bloud of Kings wee should be said to be defective in a fundamentall Article If we should admit their Metaphysickes their transcendent Transubstantiation and admit their Chimiques their Purgatory fires and their Mythologie and Poetry their apparitions of soules and spirits they would bind us to their Mathematicks too and they would not let us be saved except we would reforme our Almanackes to their ten daies and reforme our clockes to their foure and twenty houres for who can tell when there is an end of Articles of faith in an arbitrary and occasionall Religion So the Doctour only shewes how such an unlimited making of fundamentalls may goe on in a perpetuall procession it having already made things not so profitable as Clocks and Kalendars Articles of faith and points fundamentall Witnesse the Service in an unknowne tongue the Lords Supper without wine c. But the Cavalier fights in earnest with this supposition and tells us that Romists doe rather governe themselves with the lesse perfect Kalendar which now is used in this place Yea hee gives a morall of this their deed letting the world see thereby how willingly we can accommodate to them in all things which belong not meerly to Religion The controversie of Kalendars I leave to the Critickes of time to bee decided and rectified in their emendatione Temporum But the argument of accommodation taken from our Almanackes is retorted by a greater argument remembred in our Almanackes For when in them wee see the Papists Treason on the fifth of November wee are thereby put in mind that Papists doe not accommodate to Protestants in all things that belong not meerly to Religion For it is not meerly a matter of Religion for a King to sit in Parliament and yet the Papists would have accommodated him by blowing him up with powder thus sitting in Parliament But the Cavalier having thus spoken to ill effect to amend the matter brings not forth the Doctours words but his saying to this effect But that the Reader may be his owne guide and the Doctour the speaker of his owne effect and the Cavaliers faire carriage may more plainly appeare I will here confront the Doctours words with the Cavaliers The Doctours words are these Call not superedifications foundations nor call not the furniture of the house foundations call not ceremoniall and rituall things essentiall parts of Religion and of the worship of God otherwise then as they imply disobedience for obedience to lawfull authority is alwaies an essentiall part of Religion The Cavalier thus repeats him That difference in beliefe in points which are not very important is not to prejudice a mans salvation unlesse by not beleeving them hee commit a disobedience withall For saith he obedience indeed is of the essence of Religion I thinke that the Cavalier seeing his face in this glasse finds that it lookes red with blushing at the mis-reporting of the Doctour The Doctour speakes of ceremonies the Cavalier reports him speaking of differences in beliefe The Doctour speakes of ceremonies commanded by lawfull authority the Cavalier of points of faith commanded by the unlawfull authority of the Pope But if it please him to remember what hath been already told him That the Church much lesse the Pope hath an Inerrability in points of small importance and where she hath no Inerrability she hath no authority Again in respect of the different capacities of the hearers all are not capable of every little point and subtlety of faith and I thinke no Pope hath power to command his disciples to beleeve that which their capacity is not able to understand But lawfull Rites or Ceremonies not being points of faith but of action and being easie to bee understood the obedience to lawfull authority in them may more concerne the essence of Religion then obedience to the Pope in those small points of faith wherein the Pope hath no unerring power and no authority to make a lawfull command for the people doe not sinfully disobey where the Pope hath no lawfull authority to command The Author having thus lost his premisses and proofes yet goes on to a conclusion which cannot but be lost in the losse of his premisses so that his concluding inferences This shall serve for discharge both of what they object against our unity in faith and of what they alledge in the behalfe of theirs And I conceive that I have sufficiently secured these two maine grounds upon which this whole discourse is turned are but commendations of a false conception and of a discourse which is turned upon grounds over-turned For neither is his first ground sufficiently secured That there is but one true Faith and one true Religion and Church out of which there is no salvation the word Out being understood in the sense of the Authour that is That if a man be out of the faith professed in the Church in the least haire part or degree that there can bee to him no salvation Nor more secured is his second ground That Catholicks and Protestants cannot possibly be accounted of that one Religion Church and Faith For as it may be true that Protestants and all Catholickes doe not agree in every small title and mite of faith yet it is most true that true Catholickes and Protestants are so entirely of one saving Faith and Religion that they are also of one Church And from these Catholickes I desire not to exclude all of the Romane Diocesse But indeed Papists whose humane faith is grounded on the Pope as their foundation being ready to beleeve Idolatry Treason or whatsoever the Pope shall decree for a matter of faith these I know not how to account members with us
hate the seven thousand that doe not bow their knees to Baal though dispersed among seven millions of Idolaters wee may not hate Israel though in bondage under Pharaoh But to the true Israel even to the pure in heart and those who in Christ Jesus are new creatures and walke according to this rule peace the prayers of peace the true fruits of love doe belong the divine Apostle being herein our guide and example And while thus wee enjoy and imbrace this universall love with the universall body of Christ great is our safety for hereby wee know and may assure our hearts that wee belong to that universall body which alone loveth it selfe with this universall love That is the truly catholick Church which is indued with this catholick love that is a living Church which is a loving Church Our Church therefore imbracing and exercising this catholick love is a Church truly catholick and our Church being a Church of love is a Church of life Let therefore Cassander a Doctor of the Church of Rome conclude for us Qui rectâ sententiâ de Christo capiti injunguntur c. They that by a right beliefe concerning Christ are joyned to the head and by the hand of love and peace are joyned to the bodie of the Church howsoever they may differ in some opinions and rites are by no meanes to bee accounted Schismaticks or separated from the Church though they seeme rejected and excomunicated by some other part of the Church more mighty and possessing the Government CHAP. II. Wherein is declared that Rome wants this catholick love 1. By her separation from other Churches 2. By her hatred to Protestants manifested in the cruell persecutions and massacres practised against them in Popish countries and by the rebellions treasons open hostilitie stirred up against this Kingdome All which prove her to bee uncharitable and un-catholick IT hath been shewed that love and peace must bee catholick and universall that so they may be capable of a catholick and universall Church for as wide and as large as the Church is so large must the love of the Church be The body of Christ is the measure of this love and this love must bee no jot shorter then the body of Christ the body of Christ then extending to all Nations and so being a catholick body must be followed through all Nations with no lesse then a catholick love but love as much as it is short of loving this catholick body of Christ so much is it short of being a catholick love and so much it is indeed uncatholick Now the Romish Church which according to the Church of England is to be understood of the Pope and his adherents doth not make this body of Christ the measure of her love but the body of the Papacie not Christs Kingdome but the Popes Kingdome is the measure of Romish love As much then as the Popes Kingdome is short of the Kingdome of Christ so much is Rome short of a catholick love and so much is shee uncatholick Now wee know that the Kingdome of Christ spreads it selfe much farther then the Kingdome of the Pope yea Christ is known and beleeved where there is neither knowledge nor faith of the Pope Accordingly Cassander thinketh not onely the Westerne Churches of Protestants but the Easterne and Southerne also and by name the Russian Syrian AEthiopian and Armenian that beleeve the Apostles Creed and doe not by schisme divide themselves from the communion of other Churches to bee members of the true and catholick Church of Christ. And these parts of the Church are so great and large that a Countrey-man of ours in his diligent Inquiries gives this judgement of the Greek Church alone If wee should collect and put together all the Christian Regions hitherto intreated of which are all of the Greek Communion and compare them with the parts professing the Roman religion wee should finde the Greek farre to exceed if wee except the Roman new and forraine purchases made in the West and East Indies Now to these if wee shall add the Christians in Syria Cyprus Mesopotamia Babylon and Palestine which are by the least computation 50000. families and by the greatest 60000. And if againe we joine with these the Armenians who are under two Patriarchs of their owne whom they terme Catholickes and are esteemed to exercise jurisdictions over 70000. families And if yet further wee shall increase this number by those innumerable Christians of AEthiopia that are spread far and wide in the vaste Dominions of Prester Iohn And lastly if to these wee adde the no little number of Protestant Christians in the West wee may see that the Kingdome of the Pope is far short of the Kingdome of Christ and consequently that the love of Rome at least so much is short of catholick love But if wee leave those other famous and farre dispersed parts of Christs body whom Rome leaves without true catholick love and more particularly and punctually examine Romes want of love to Protestants whereof especially is our present inquirie all the paper in the world were scarce sufficient to containe the words that might be written for the proofe of it with the bloud of Protestants shed by the Romists So that the ancient parable of Iotham hath been fulfilled in our dayes If indeed yee annoynt mee King over you then come and put your trust in my shadow and if not let fire come out of the bramble and devoure the Cedars of Lebanon The fire and lightning of the Popes excommunications fly out against the denyers of his universall Kingdome and Supremacy and that fire is too often seconded with materiall fire For the maintenance of his pride Christians must bee hated spoyled and butchered of Christians There is a method of cruelty set forth against such who are Romes Hereticks and the true Churches Christians This wee finde thus summed up by Azorius the Jesuite 1. Excommunication 2. Irregularity 3. Confiscation of goods 4. Dissolving of all bands bee they oathes fealty service or any other covenant and promise 5. Deprivation of all dignities and honours 6. Losse of Ecclesiasticall buriall 7. Infamy 8. Uncapacitie of all dignities and offices Ecclesiasticall to themselves their favourers receivers and children to the second generation by the fathers side yea though the children were borne before the heresie 9. Losse of life And even Bellarmine himselfe whom learning which once had a name of emollit mores and seeming devotion should have made somewhat milder drinks deeply if not pleasantly in this cup of bloud and delivers it to his Disciples that they may pledge him Solum remedium est mittere illos maturè in locum suum The onely remedy is to send them betimes to their owne place which place though indeed it be heaven it seems yet the good Fathers charitable meaning was by a first death speedily to send Protestants to hell the place of the second
whereof this wretched man discoursed amply learnedly and too subtly against himselfe Hee said that hee did acknowledge the severity of Gods judgement who had chosen him to make him a spectacle rather then any other and to admonish all by one mans mouth to abstaine from all impiety confessing that there was no reproach nor punishment which hee had not deserved by reason of his foule offence After hee had discoursed gravely of the Divine Justice hee said That they should not account strange this his speech for that oftentimes God doth wrest out of the mouth of Reprobates most assured testimonies of his Majestie his Justice and his fearefull Vengeance as wee see in Iudas confessing his owne sin and justifying his Master Many testimonies of Scripture being alledged to divert him from this fearfull apprehension and being exhorted to receive into his heart a hope and a trust of salvation by Iesus Christ hee said even in that whereby you doe exhort mee to gather some hope I see all meanes of health and pardon taken from mee For if the Testimonies of the holy Scripture have any authority as they have doe you thinke that Iesus Christ said in vaine that he which renounceth him before men hee will renounce him before his heavenly Father Doe you not see that this concerns mee and that it is as it were particularly verified in my person What shall become of him whom the Sonne hath disavowed before his Father when as you say wee must hope for no salvation but in Iesus Christ It cannot bee beleeved with what gravity and vehemency his words were delivered neither was there ever man heard pleading better for himselfe then Spira against himselfe Hee said That God did set the precious bloud of Iesus Christ and the dignity of his obedience as an high and strong Rampart that sinners repenting them might not bee drowned with the overflowing of their sinnes and offences As for himselfe seeing hee had renounced our Saviour Iesus Christ hee had as one should say overthrown this strong Rampart with his owne hands so as the deluge of the waters of vengeance had covered and swallowed up his soule One of his most familiars said unto him that his great torment proceeded from abundance of Melancholy which troubled his braine Spira remembring that hee had many times refuted this opinion said You may thinke what you please but God in truth hath troubled my spirit seeing it is impossible for me to have any hope of salvation Thus hee continued and withall refused to eate any more meate and so being carried from Padua to his owne house in this despaire hee died CHAP. V. Against the Cavaliers third Chapter First it is proved That although unitie bee necessary in the true Church yet doth not this discharge the Papists from uncharitablenesse in damning Protestants SECT I. Wherein is declared first the weakenesse of his Grounds and Deductions Secondly what kinde of unity is required in the Church WEe are past the Champions unproved and indeede disproved improbability of this assertion That Rome wants charity in casting damnation upon Protestants Now we are com to his untruth It is untrue saith hee that Romists want charity in thus damning Protestants And by what reason doth hee prove it to bee untrue Because there is but one Church a strange kinde of reasoning that this should bee an untruth that Rome is uncharitable in damning Protestants because there is but one Church when even hence appeares the truth of her uncharitablenesse For if there be but one Church and Protestants be members of this one Church how is it not most true that it is uncharitable to damne the true members of this one Church Now that Protestants are members of this one Church is a truth already proved which nothing that this Author saith in this booke or can say will ever disprove but much rather his grounds or rules by which hee would oppugne our truth doe prove it and make against himselfe and his untruth His grounds are these There is but one Church and one Religion out of which there is no salvation Secondly the unity of the members of this Church is broken betweene Papists and Protestants Thirdly that both Papists and Protestants are not saveable in their severall Religions But what doth all this prove but that Protestants first may bee members of the true Church with whom secondly Papists doe breake unity therefore thirdly Papists are not saveable His owne proofes make not against us but make against him and his owne fellowes But the inference sowed hereunto is most miserable That no one is to be blamed if conceiving his owne to bee the onely true Religion hee declares the dangerous estate wherein hee takes any other man to bee who communicates and agrees not with him but rather that hee is obliged to let him know it An inconsequent untruth except consequent because deduced from untruths and so it must either accuse the premisses or it selfe Doth the Author himselfe beleeve what hee saith or can it come into his judgement that if two hold two contrary opinions whereof one is true and the other false that he which holds the false is not to be blamed if he declare to the other that the truth is falsehood and thereupon tell him that hee is in danger to be damned by beleeving the truth so to terrifie him out of the truth into his owne falsehood If there be no fault in this then how can any man blame a Turk for telling a Christian that hee cannot well bee saved except he turne Turke Surely whatsoever this Cavalier may thinke of this kinde of doctrine I beleeve that if the same were maintained in false titles to a Crown the Law would call it treason For if a Subject conceiving his false title to bee good should tell his Prince that he were an Usurper were not such a Subject to be blamed Surely whatsoever a Romist may thinke of such a one I doubt not but the Law would thinke him worthy of a capitall Sentence And it is likely the abbetters of him by such doctrines would not bee freed from blame and danger But if this Champion had sought advice his own Doctors could have holpen him out of his error For they can tell him that an erroneous conscience doth not binde to the doing of that which it erroneously thinkes should be done the proper Guide of our Actions should be Light and Knowledge not darknesse and error Neither is the Will bound to obey other then the rectified Understanding And therefore if the conscience being deceived do prescribe that to be done which is unlawfull the true and onely remedy is to cleere the conscience from the errors not to follow it in errors For this were to double the fault which before was single for the errour in the conscience was one and now the following of that errour is another And if the Cavalier know it not there is also a Romish Doctor that can tell him a cause
and root of this very errour which damneth men that shall bee saved And indeed it is a vice not beseeming a Cavalier which hee calleth Pusillanimity An errour of â—onscience is caused by pusillanimity of heart whereby a man fears that which should not be feared according to the right judgement of reason and such a conscience is too strict and therefore to bee avoided because it causeth three evills whereof the third is this It damnes him that should be saved But thus this errour of the Cavalier being taken from him by which he thinkes he may follow his erroneous conscience in denouncing damnation to those that are saved the very sinnew and bond of his discourse is cut assunder and all his ensuing labour lost by which hee strives to prove that Protestants and Romists are divided and cannot both bee saved For though they be thus divided a Papist cannot charitably tell a saved Protestant that hee is damned because hee doth erroneously beleeve it Yet will he needs goe on to his proofes of unity though altogether unprofitable and unable to excuse Rome from the charge of being uncharitable to Protestants yea it rather aggravates his charge and makes her more uncharitable in not holding unity with so good Christians as Protestants Yet hee is resolved to goe on and to utter that which hee gathered upon this head or rather upon this word of Unity for the places which hee brings forth it seemes please him well if they doe speake of the word Unity or something neere to the sound of it though the meaning bee nothing of that unity which it concernes him even in this his walke of impertinency and wandering to pursue and prove For sometimes his Allegations seeme to prove that there should bee in the Church one Head and sometimes one Heart and Affection somtimes one Spirit But if the Author would bee pleased to remember his owne businesse he might consider that his worke is to prove that there is in the Church such an entire unity in all points of Doctrine that there can be no difference or dissent in any one point though never so small but that by this difference the unity of the Church and salvation is lost For wee deny not but there must bee one heart and one affection and one spirit in the Church and all this in and under the unity of one Head Christ Iesus Againe we acknowledge that God did found but one Church and one Religion and that without these two there is no salvation But except the Author prove that the unity of this one Church and of this one Religion consists in this that the beliefe of all must be one and the same in all points under paine of Damnation the former words of unity are meere words and not pertinent to this end neither will they make up his taske For when hee comes to his next point that this unity is broken betweene Protestants and Romists wee will presently deny that wee have any way broken that unity of faith which holds us in unity with the Church and consequently wee are still in the state of salvation and so all his errand is lost Therefore the most places being impertinent as proving that which wee deny not and indeed make nothing for him being granted hee hath two or three which by screwes are wrested toward this full unity in points of beliefe though they reach not home to it This perchance hee aymed at in other places but they would not joyne with him SECT II. The argument drawne from the authority of the High Priest among the Iewes answered A First of his unproving and impertinent places is that of Deut. 17. where as our Author saith his whole people should be subject to the determination of the High Priest for the time being and this upon no lesse then paine of death In which sentence there was to be no appeale And a little after The great authority and power which was cast upon the individuall Person of one Iudge But first if wee will reade the words of God himselfe we may see that He speaks of more then one individuall Person For Hee speakes of the Levites the Priests and the Judge And if a man will not hearken to the Priest or to the Judge that then he should dye But secondly it must bee remembred that that which the Priest or the Judge must pronounce must bee the sentence of the Law For even the Prophet must dye which shall presume to speak a word which God hath not commanded Yet thirdly wee well know That this speaking according to the Law was often neglected by the Priests and therefore they brake the Covenant of Levi and led the people into errors as hereafter more fully may bee proved And I hope this Champion will not say that the people lost their salvation if they did not hold unity with the errors of the Priests And whereas hee addeth That there could bee no Religion or Church that did not agree with this Wee take not this to bee the present Question but Whether all beleevers Proselites or Jewes did in every point by the Priests decision hold an unity of beliefe and did in no point differ Now this I thinke will never bee both affirmed and proved For not only humane Testimonies but the Scriptures themselves doe shew us that there were divers sects and opinions among them and yet they joyned together in externall unity not dividing themselves into two Religions and Churches But to put this Author out of trouble in regard of his individuall High Priest the mention of whom seemes to looke asquint on the Pope as his shadow let him remember That the High Priest was himselfe a shadow of Christ and when Christ came this shadow was abolished and when this shadow dyed it left not the Pope either heire or executor and so hee can be at best but the counterfeit of an abolished shadow And thus all this Authors labours for the High Priest are left to the Pope But see how yet it fals out more unhappily against him for after hee had made mention of the individuall High Priest his next proofe ariseth from Korah Dathan and Abiram punished for Schisme and not for Heresie and difference in Doctrine against two individuall persons Moses and Aaron SECT III. It is declared 1. That the unity of the Church may be preserved without an exact agreement in all points of doctrine 2. That the Papists exalt the Pope above God in that they hold all differences from the Popes determination to bee mortall and yet some breaches of Gods Law to bee veniall ANother place of his very impertinent to his purpose is taken or racked out of the Psalmes which differently from the originall and corrected Translations hee thus paraphraseth Hee makes them to bee all after one manner and to bee endued with the same affections and dictamens concerning Gods service But the word dictamens we leave to this Author as
that abides not in Christs doctrine and faith But in all this hee doth not say that the Protestants are not in the Church neither that they remaine not in Christs Doctrine and Faith but it may rather concerne the Papacie which hath made a new Church against the Church of Christ and a new Faith by adding twelve Articles more to the former It doth also plainely shew them that they suffering for Treasons of Powder Rebellion c. cannot expect thereby a Crown of faith but a punishment of perfidiousnesse Saint Augustine is next alledged and hee useth the like or very same words and so the like or the same answer might serve But indeed Augustine so punctually speaketh against the Papacie and pierceth it through that no one place can well bee lost because every one is serviceable against the Papacy for which it is produced These are the words first alledged out of Saint Augustine Would you have men so blinde and deafe as not to heare or reade the Gospel where they may know that faith our Lord left to his Apostles concerning his Church Now what the Papists will answer to this I know not who make many men so blinde as not to reade at all and so deafe as not to heare the Gospel but in Latin And secondly hee sayes that Saint Augustine puts himselfe to shew That this is that Church of Christ which is spread over the whole world Who can more plainly say that the Roman Papacie is not this Church whose universall power and extent is denyed by other Patriarchs and is unbeleeved yea and unknowne in a great part of the Christian world The last place out of Augustine seconded with the consent of Cardinall Perron hee turnes to this use That Catholick is not onely a name of beleefe and faith but of charitie and communion which whosoever should want should also want salvation But withall I must say that long before I knew this opinion of Perron I beleeved this truth and I also beleeved that it did make mightily for us and mightily against the Papacie That it makes mightily for us I have shewed in the first Chapter who doe imbrace a catholick love with the whole body of Christ which is his Church That it makes mightily against the Papacie I have shewed in the second Chapter because it excludes from love and communion many eminent parts of the Church even so much of the Church and body of Christ as extends beyond subjection and obedience to the Papacie And indeed this Champions allegations doe so fight for us against his owne Papacie that a suspicious Reader may doubt hee hath been hired by us But by the next allegation perchance hee thinkes his suspicion may be somewhat cleered where thus hee commenteth in the behalfe of his mother Saint Hierome writing to Pope Damasus saith not onely of the catholâ—ck Church indefinitely but denoting that to bee the Roman that that Church is the Arke out of which whosoever liveth shall bee drowned in the deluge and that that Church is the House out of which whosoever should eate the Lambe were a profane person But doth Hierome here denote the catholick Church both for breadth and length to be Roman and no Church to be catholick which was not Roman that is under the Roman subjection this was farre from his meaning Hee meant that at that time the Roman Church was by one faith the same with the catholick Church anâ— in union with it as a member of the body and that out of this one Church wherewith Rome was then one in faith there was no salvation Secondly Hee did not say that that Church shall bee the Arke out of which shall bee no salvation but that Church is the Arkâ— shewing what it then was and not what it shall be Indeed the Papacie even the Man of sinne the Head and his members in the Mystery of iniquity now call themselves the Church of Rome But Rome at the best had never Religion and the Church faster tyed to it then Jerusalem and therefore we may take leave to say of Rome as it was said of Jerusalem How is the faithfull Citie become an Harlot It hath been manifestly proved that this Mysterie of iniquitie or Papacie is farre different from the ancient Church of Rome and Saint Hierome himselfe hath taught us that Rome should bee the seate of Antichrist and hee did not meane that when Rome is the seate of Antichrist shee should bee taken for the Arke out of which no man should bee saved Therefore this place that made for Rome then while shee was a pure part of the catholick Church makes against her now when she is the seate of the Man of sin or Antichrist and they that might be invited to come to her then as an eminent part of the Arke and catholick Church may now bee driven out from her by a voice from heaven Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues There follow two places out of Lactantius whereof the first indeed saith for us and against these Romists that are divided from us and our Church That they that enter not into the Temple of God or depart out of it shall bee deprived of the hope of salvation But the second place I know not how it may serve for the point in hand but it otherwise is an wholesome exhortation for Romists and I wish it may doe good to the Author No man must flatter himselfe with an obstinate kinde of contention for the questions here about salvation and life which if it bee not watchfully and diligently provided for it will be extinct and lost The Cavalier ends in a tempest which he puls downe on his own head S. Fulgentius hath this dreadfull saying wherewith I will conclude this point c. where he brings in Fulgentius saying That neither Baptisme nor Almes nor Martyrdome can be of any benefit towards his salvation that holds not unity with the Church A place indeed that ought to be dreadfull to the Romists for their Schism described in the second Chapter but no way dreadfull to us for our catholick Charity expressed in the first SECT III. The Cavaliers indeavour to prove that the Protestants and Papists cannot bee both members of this one Church doth not absolve the Papists from uncharitablenesse ANd having thus concluded the Allegations hee thus gives a reason of his conclusion Nor will I so much distrust either the attention or the discretion of my Reader as to thinke that I need presse this point any further A saying good at last but much better at first for if there had bin at first no distrust of the Readers discretion there had beene no neede of any one of those Allegations which have beene brought forth to prove a point not denyed There is but one Church out of which there is no salvation But let us see what immediatly followes So that now in the
next place it will onely remaine to be considered and resolved whether or no both the Catholickes and the Protestants can bee truly said to bee parts and members of this one and selfe same Church For if they cannot the case in question is already judged and there will be no colour of Reason why either of us should hereafter be charged with want of charity for affirming that the other is not saveable without repentance of his Religion Behold a knot of strange things knit together by an invisible cohaerence or a visible incohaerence For first whereas he saith that in the next place It will onely remaine to be considered whether the Protestants and Romists may bee truly said to be parts and members of this one Church For my part I am utterly of opinion that this doth neither in the next place nor at all remaine to bee considered toward the Authors end which is the saving of Rome from uncharitablenesse in damning Protestants For Protestants may bee members of the true Church wherein is salvation and Romists may be out of it and yet Romists may bee uncharitable for damning Protestants who are in the Church wherein is salvation But since hee is out of the way I will thus shew it to him His way of cleering Rome from this charge of uncharitablenesse hath been hitherto by proving it an untruth and his way of proving it an untruth by proving that Protestants are truely in the way of damnation And to prove this againe hee hath shewed that there is but one Church in which is salvation and from which men are excluded by Heresie and Schisme Now as I thinke in the next place to goe on in his way hee should prove that Protestants are guilty of such Heresie and Schisme as separate them from this one Church and so from salvation For then had hee slaine them out-right with a true damnation and had saved his mother Rome from S. Iohns truly mortall uncharitablenesse But it seemes wee are cleere in these points and therefore the Author would not goe against his conscience in a false accusation wherefore let his silence bee taken for a consent and confession But then it seemes the question is at an end we are absolved and Rome is condemned And indeed so it should bee but hee is resolved still to say on though not to the purpose For to what purpose is this that the Protestants and Romists are not one Church toward proving Protestants to bee in the state of Damnation whereby onely Rome can save her selfe from uncharitablenesse in damning us Surely this is so far from proving Protestants to bee in the state of damnation that it is more likely to prove them to bee in the state of salvation and Romists in damnation For Protestants being parts of the true Church by true faith and love are sure to be saved and Romists not being of this Church wherein Protestants are saved are by his owne Allegations in danger to be damned So Romists are both brought into the danger of damnation and the charge of uncharitablenesse layd on the Romists may still stand true because they falsely damne Protestants for being in the state of salvation A second strange position is this That if the Protestants and Romists bee not of one Church then there will be no colour of reason why either party should be charged with want of charity for affirming that the other is not saveable without repentance of his Religion For there is neither reason verity nor charity in affirming that Protestants who may be saved by their Religion are not saveable without repentance of the same Religion But this vanity if not impiety hath beene blowne away in the answer to his third Chapter But if this unreasonable position bee taken out of the way which is made the ground and reason of the future discourse concerning Protestants and Romists being of two Religions then the discourse built on it falls to the ground for indeede to what purpose is it to prove that Protestants and Romists are of two Religions except the Author may hereby save Romists from uncharitablenesse in falsly condemning the Protestants for being in a good religion different from their owne bad Popery For that is his errand and this errand hath hee lost in losing this last monstrous position which hee made for a bridge to his errands end So for ought I see this Cavalier is at the end of his journey in the midst of his way and the rest of his walke is a wandring and this voyage a sayling up and downe from his harbour CHAP. VIII Wherein the sixth Chapter of the Cavaliers is brought to examination which hath this title that Protestants and Catholickes meaning Papists cannot bee of one Religion Faith and Church in two Sections SECT I. First divers untruths of the Cavaliers are discovered touching the difference of Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline which are betweene Protestants and Papists Secondly an objection taken away that Protestants have made a reformation without ordinary Mission and Miracles Thirdly the censures of Lutherans against other reformed Churches not sufficient to prove either of them out of the Church ROme is left bleeding in her uncharitablenesse the bridge being broken down by which the Authors suppy should have come to her rescue so the businesse seems to be ended and therefore as of the tumult at Ephesus so of the throng of words that follow it may be said There can be no cause given of this concourse For though the Author have his purpose and Protestants and Romists bee not of one religion yet Rome may bee uncharitable for condemning Protestants who are of the true religion Yea Rome by the Author being cast out from the Church if Protestants bee in it may be in the state of damnation for the Authors owne title and ground even because there is but one Church and salvation whereof Protestants and Romists cannot be both partakers And now what would this Cavalier have his Antagonist and Answerer to doe would hee have him to prove for Romists that they are in the Church when himselfe proves that they are not surely I confesse that though there bee some untruthes by which hee would prove that Romists are not of the same saved Church which Protestants yet there are some truthes that I cannot answer but must confesse that they prevaile against me in putting Romists out of this Church I will first take notice of his untruths To make a Religion so intire as may make men to bee of one Church saith the Cavalier they must beleeve the same doctrine partake the same sacraments and be obedient to the same discipline and Prelates Here first I deny that there must bee an entirenesse in all points of doctrine and if hee will looke backe hee may see that hee hath laboured to prove it but hath lost his labour Againe hee hath been told that if all have not just seven sacraments yet they may bee saved Thirdly if they bee not under
the Pope and in that regard not under the same prelates they may bee of a very good religion and of the one saved Church For so are the Greek Armenian and Abissine Christians A second untruth is his inference upon a catalogue of differences For saith hee wee differ in prime points c. Hereupon his looke tells us he would inferre that we are in some danger for differing in these points But I referre him for the proofe of our safety to one that sheweth himselfe a far truer Roman Catholick then this Cavalier whose businesse is cleane contrary to this Cavaliers even to prove that Protestants are not damnable nor of a different Church for their differences from Romish Catholickes And untill the Cavalier have refuted his Arguments I shall hold these his objections of differences to bee but dead words already vanquished and slaine And let him take this with him as a note that the title of the first chapter of that Booke is the plaine affirmative whereof the title of this chapter is theâ— Negative The truth is the points which this Champion nameth are Popish errours and bring the danger on their side and wee are the more safe for differing from them and they the more unsafe for differing from us and withall unsafe againe for uncharitable censuring us And indeede their danger is so great in the point of justification one of these prime points and making their workes their Saviours that they who hold this errour and thereby withdraw their trust from Christ Iesus if they be in that which is called the Church they are but in it as chaffe in the Barne mixt with the corne but to bee blowne away with the fanne into an unquencheable fire And whereas hee expresseth this difference thus We differ about the justification of soules and the value which the death and grace of Christ our Lord hath imparted to the works of the Children of God Hee is here againe chargeable with an untrue and an unsound expression For wee differ from right Papists about the disvalue and unworthinesse which our persons and our corruptions impart to the works which have otherwise some goodnesse in them as they come from the grace of Christ so that in regard of the imperfection which they have from our corruption wee dare not stand upon them before the Justice and Judgement of God for our justification But we think it most safe to set betweene Gods Justice and our soules a perfect Righteousnesse even the Righteousnesse of Christ Jesus our Head For Christ is the end of the Law and a true commensurate Satisfier of the Divine Justice for every one that beleeveth And in regard of our owne workes wee may say with one that had more good works and works more good then the best of the Romists Enter not into judgement with thy servant O Lord for no flesh is righteous in thy sight this Saint was Gods servant yet he desired that God would not enter into judgement with him These then that will have God to enter in judgement with them it is very likely they are not the servants of God but whatsoever they be they may be sure by this Text they shall not be justified in his sight He comes to a third point and therein hee hath also many and manifest untruths His point is this That it is the Pride of the man in his disobedience to the Church and not the importance or weight of the doctrine that makes the Heresie And this he would prove because Saint Augustine accounts some things heresies which are points of small importance and because the Donatists are accounted hereticks for that which in S. Cyprian was not heresie and againe because Saint Cyprian saith nothing to the Cavaliers purpose that the doctrine of Novatianus was not worth the inquiring because he was not of the Church Here are divers untruths met together a first is the Position it selfe That it is Pride and Disobedience to the Church that makes the heresie A second that if it were disobedience to the Church yet it is not disobedience to the Cavaliers Church the Pope and his Adherents Thirdly It is not true that those places and proofes produced by him doe prove his point of Pride to bee heresie But before I come to a more exact consideration of these particulars I cannot but deliver him backe againe his scornefull objection which hee threw at us in passing to this point as nothing accusing us but him that gave it without reason That the Protestants have taken upon themselves to bee the Reformers of the world without ordinary Mission or Miracles That our Ministers have not ordinary Mission is an untruth so strongly refuted that there needs a great deale of impudence or ignorance to affirme it without new and more proofe And for Miracles to make good a Reformation I never heard that the very Priests of Baal did require them of Iehu nor the idolatrous Jewes of Hezekiah and Iosiah And indeed they might well think there should bee no absolute need of new Miracles to them that brought in no new Law but reformed the Church according to the old which at first was delivered as it were in a cloud of Miracles Neither is it necessary that our Reformation not bringing in a new Gospel but reforming according to the Gospel once delivered to the Saints and at first confirmed by signes should be now again confirmed by Miracles But we leave Romish Miracles to bee the marks of the Man of sinne and his deformation of the Church whose comming must bee with signes and lying wonders and accordingly wee think when Lipsius wrote a Booke of the wonders of Montague and Hall hee did by that Booke prove That the Pope is Antichrist But now to come to his false Position That it is pride and disobedience to the Church that makes the heresie I must tell him that hee hath divers of his owne Romish Doctors and those not ignoble that hold the contrary and therefore hee must not blame his Reader if hee beleeve them before a Cavalier for some hold That not the pride of the person makes the heresie but that an heresie may properly bee called any error contrary to faith considered in it selfe without any respect to the deliverer of it And for this opinion are brought forth these great ones Turrecremata Castro Simancas Couarruncas Gabriel Corduba Secondly a Proposition may be hereticall as some Romists say though the contrary hath not beene decided and decreed by the Church Accordingly wee reade againe That those are not onely hereticall assertions which are defined by Counsels or the Pope but many others which is plaine because this Proposition God is not Three and One was hereticall before the condemnation of Arrius The like hee affirms of the heresie of Nestorius yet again to make the matter more plaine hee saith Whatsoever is expressely contained in Scripture so that no obscurity bee in the sense of the words
saved who avoyd the mortall infection of these points and what caution must be used to preserve this Charity from crossing with Truth HAving discovered many Untruths in at least foure maine points of this Chapter wee are come to a fifth point whose truth is so powerfull that it overcomes mee and makes mee to acknowledge with the Author That it divides Protestants and right Romists so farre as salvation and damnation And I must cleere either side from uncharitablenesse in saying that these who faile in this point are in a state of damnation And it is very true that hee promiseth That this Reason strikes at the roote which is taken from the nature and propertie of Faith The point is this That whosoever doth give his faith and assent to all the Articles of Christian doctrine yet if hee doe it not upon the right and infallible motive hee hath no saving Faith Now hereunto wee subjoyne That true and right Papists or Romists doe not beleeve upon the true and infallible motive Therefore they can have no saving Faith And indeed though they have many and pernitious errors yet this is the great and generall error that makes up the Mystery of iniquity which wee call the Papacie and the Papists call the Church For the ordinary motive of faith in those who are the right and naturall members of the Head of that Mysterie is to beleeve the Articles of Faith because the Church whose mouth head and spirit is the Pope propounds and commands them to bee beleeved And this Author saith that the onely true and infallible ground is The Revelation of Almighty God and the proposition and direction of the Church Wherein first hee joyneth the Church with God in this ground of Faith and so gives as it were halfe of the ground of Faith to the Church from God and makes it halfe unsafe and damnable But even this halfe hee seemes elsewhere wholly to take away and so to leave men wholly to bee damned by a Faith wholly grounded on a motive which cannot raise a saving and supernaturall Faith for hee saith That if the Church hath not decided propounded and commanded a doctrine to bee beleeved by her children a man may thinke and doe as hee sees cause without incurring the crime of heresie Thus wee see that the Revelation of God is not a motive of Faith of it selfe but the Church is the motive of beleeving Gods Revelation so first wee see the Church to put God aside and to take place of him and knowing who is the Head Heart if not the Whole of this Church wee finde him just in his owne place and that is lifting himselfe up above all that is called God And secondly wee see the deadly motive and ground of Faith proposed by Papists to Popish soules even the word of a man and a Man of sinne on whom whatsoever Faith is finally grounded it can give nothing but damnation Neither are wee put by other Papists to lay pieces together to prove this their damning motive of Faith for besides the common voice of the people that they beleeve as the Church beleeves wee have before heard that the Rhemists acknowledge the Popes to bee an Order of Governors to whom wee are bound to cleave in Religion and to obey in all things And thereupon they infer that A Papist is a Christian man a childe of the Church and subject to Christs Vicar So the Christianity of a Papist and his being a child of the Church depends on his cleaving to the Pope and obeying him in all things But yet againe we may see it more acknowledged in their Writers Lorca brings forth Medina affirming that The Testimonie of the Church doth so farre partake of being the formall object or motive of faith that the utmost resolution of faith is into the authoritie of the Church and the proofes produced for it are to bee heard in the common language of Romists If it bee asked why thou beleevest the Trinity in Unity and thou answer Because God saith it It will then bee demanded of thee how thou knowest that God saith it thou hast no other Answer left but this Because the Church saith it and so are they taught in the Catechisme and so answer both the learned and unlearned Behold the common answer and common faith of Romists Now this object of faith being man and not God it cannot raise that supernaturall and saving faith whose object is the prime Veritie even God speaking to the soules of his servants And seeing this humane faith hath so possessed Romists that their Prophets doe make the obeying and cleaving to the Pope in his doctrine the very Character of a Christian and childe of the Church this Church consisting of these children thus adhering to the Pope is against such truely affirmed not to bee the Church and so may the Homily of our Church clearely bee interpreted which denyeth the Church of Rome that is the Pope and his Adherents to bee the true Church for thus to adhere unto the Pope and to lay beliefe on him is so farre from making a true childe and member of the Church that it makes a member of the Papacie and so of Antichrist it makes a Synagogue for Sathan and Hell and not a Church for Christ and salvation And whereas this Author both in this Chapter and the beginning of the eighth objects it to us that wee condemne their doctrines and account the Church of Rome to bee the Seate of Antichrist and the Synagogue of Sathan Hee hath here seene one reason of it and it is a reason of his owne and his fellowes even because the Romish Doctors and Champions tell us that the Church of Rome is made of those children which beleeve in the Pope And this faith being humane cannot make a Church to Christ but to the Pope and thus the Pope stands in the place of Antichrist for putting Christ out of his place and stepping into it whiles thus hee makes his sheepe to heare his voice before Christs yea both herein and often otherwise against Christ. But a second Reason may bee given of their calling the Church of Rome the Synagogue of Sathan the Church of Rome being taken in a larger sense even for all those parts of mankinde that have reference to Rome For they finde this Church of Rome overspred not onely with this false and Antichristian faith but with other mortall errours and abhominations such are grosse and almost universall Idolatry in the worship of Images and especially of the Sacrament confidence in workes for justification and merit and a grosse ignorance even a not knowing of Christ which before hath beene touched Now many seeing a field overcome with these deadly and killing weeds and so overcome that they seemed to cover the face of the field they tooke it to bee a field of Weeds and not of Corne And because the usuall manner of speaking is to say that a horse is blacke and
the Man of sinne Secondly for that Idolatry which giveth divine worship to Images though it be an evill that hath too largely overspread the Romish dominions and the denyall of it in Spaine hath beene censured for heresie Yet there are divers of the Romish communion that have not thus bowed to Baal in so much that Papyrius Massonus thus writes in his Preface before Agobardus and of him Hee manifestly discovers the errors of the Greeks concerning Images and Pictures and denyeth that they ought to be worshipped which opinion all Catholicks doe approve So it seemes hee thought it a Catholick opinion not to worship Images and those not Catholicks which doe approve this worship And Pamelius dares tell the Pope himselfe That if the question bee proposed concerning the use of Images How they are forbidden in the Decalogue which is that they bee not worshipped Tertullian sheweth it in his Booke against Marcion and after in his Notes upon Tertullian's Apologetick Tertullian saith not that Christians did hate Statues and Images but that they did not worship them which certainly as the Fathers of the seventh Synode Damascen and Jonas doe often inculcate none of us ever attempted I meane not with the worship of latria which is due to God alone But though his speech be somewhat too large when hee excludeth all Romists from giving this worship as hereafter in another Chapter will more plainely appearâ— yet it is possible that this all might 〈…〉 lâ—â—arned ones wherewith hee 〈…〉 for I doubt the common 〈…〉 understood the distinction betweene doulia and latria yet thus it is likely wee may finde some at least of the Learned that are cleere also of this pestilence In this ranke also of Idolatry may bee mentioned the worship and adoration of the Sacrament which is likely to bee the more universall because it seemes back'd with a Councell which some thinke universall But indeede all doe not take it to be universall as the Author of the Examen Pacifique doth plainely shew And of this Idolatry wee may well beleeve that there are some free in the Romish Territories For wee finde that because without the Priests Intention Romists doe acknowledge that the Bread is still but Bread and withall that the worship of bread is abominable Idolatry It hâ—th been thought safest by some to direct all the Sacramentall worship to Christ Jesus sitting at the right hand of God where hee is sure to be found This is the doctrine of Vasques and I could name a Lady in England who professed so to worship Christ in the Sacrament and I hope shee is not without followers Another Romish Idolatry is turning merits into Saviours This we have seen is too common among the vulgar yet by some they are removed from this office and especially at the time of death for even persecuting Gardiner thought it good doctrine for them that were dying to put their whole trust in the merits of Christ. And Cardinall Bellarmine in his last will desires to bee crowned by God not as a Regarder of merits but as a Giver of mercy And Bernard Thomas de Kempis Cassander and Ferus who have many Readers and I hope herein some beleevers appeare sound in their Writings both from this and other Idolatries Briefly the catholick Apologie brings forth divers Authors of theirs that have taught their Readers Doctrine contrary to the mortall and damnable errors which wee complaine of for massacring soules in the Kingdome of the Pope So that though a pestilence hath generally over-run his Territories yet there are some healthy and living soules therein though there may bee millions that bowe unto their many Baals yet there may bee thousands that bow not unto them And though wee bee not of one Religion with the Idolaters yet with those that serve God in spirit and truth and keep themselves from Idols wee have one Religion in Essentialls and Fundamentalls and so both may be saved Let us conclude in the words of one of them upon the conclusion of S. Iohns Epistle and in him see what saving Religion is taught and I hope learned by some of them Babes keep your selves from Idols This Corollary S. John not unfitly nor without cause annexed to this Epistle For seeing he had taught that there is one onely God who hath manisted himselfe in his Sonne and hath taught us by him that the true worship of God consisteth in faith hope and love and in purity and sanctity of life hee doth now necessarily admonish us that we remaine in that faith and true worship of God and beware of all Idolatry So John in this whole Epistle would teach us two things That there is but one true God And one true Religion Iesus Christ with the Father and the Holy Ghost is that and one true God and Christian Religion is the onely true worship of God For this Religion gâ—veth all glory to God by Christ and by the same Christ bringeth to us life and salvation Behold that one Religion which we all so professe Yet for a caution to be annexed to the conclusion I thinke that true zeale and charity though they take such for living soules which are safe in fundamentalls yet they pity other grosse errours which make the soule sick though they kill not and a true lover of soules resembles the head both of soules and of love and desires to present unto God soules without spot and blemish And because they love them as on the one side they acknowledge the life that is in them so they desire to add growth to this life and to bring it onward toward perfection They doe not tell them that they are well enough because they live for that is rather to build their contentment on their owne safety then on the full pleasing and serving of their Saviour Therefore they call on them for the washing away of other errours which are blemishes in the eye of the Heavenly Bridegroome that thus the Bride being all glorious within may bee ready and prepared for the day of her gladnesse even her marriage in eternall and consummate felicity CHAP. IX Wherein divers objections are re-inforced against the Romists concerning those divisions amongst them which the Cavalier in vaine seekes to reconcile in his seventh Chapter SECT I. Wherein is shewed First that Protestants in submitting to the holy word and spirit of God have therein a true ground of unity actually in those things wherein they agree intentionally in other things wherein they differ Secondly that their Romish submission to the Pope though it produce a seeming unity in many points yet it leaves divers irreconcileable differences amongst them THe Cavalier in his last chapter hath rid on much out of his way and in this he rides apace and the faster the more out of the way He was out of his way when hee travelled to free Romists from want of charity by proving Protestants and Romists not to have one saving faith seeing Protestants
first there hath beene shewed a sore called difference in points defined and points de fide And by the Authors rule they that hold any one point of faith contrary to Romish definition are not of Romish faith nor Church therefore if they bee of a divers faith or Church their Altar is against the Romish Altar Secondly for their peace notwithstanding these differences I dâ—sire to know whether that should be called peace when a Dominican is burned by Franciscans and a Canon in Sevill is condemned as an Heretick for a point either not defined or defined for him by the second Councell of Nice And againe what peace is that betweene the Priests and Jesuits when the Priests call them Hereticks Traytors c. Surely hereby it seemes the peace that is among such is but a warre under the name of peace and this name or title is forced by feare of the forged but fiery and burning head of unity for even the infernall kingdome it selfe hath some bond of unity though not of verity and charity And accordingly the Papacy agreeth under a head called Abaddon and Apollyon And indeede this Author himselfe hath shewed us that where there is a difference in any point of faith upon such a difference one should be to another as Cerinthus to Saint Iohn So that if they hold communion still it seemes by his rule it is not a spirituall but a carnall communion not a communion of Saints but a communion that is faulty and whose fault is this that it is a communion But I say againe to this Author that his owne Answer will be turned against him as an unanswerable objection For if Romists being at such differences in opinions can yet hold communion one with another why do they not hold the like communion with other Christians that maintaine the like differences But herein lies a mystery and it is the mysterie of iniquity And if the Reader know it not I will bring him one that shall teach him Lorca plainly tels him that he is no heretick that beleeves contrary to any Article of faith so he do not rebell against the Church So the Pope the Church vertuall is the whole matter of Popish religion and Popish unity Beleeve the Pope and obey him in what hee saith upon his word and though you beleeve not Christs word in any Article of faith you have both faith and unity Disobey Christs command of beleeving the very Article of Christs Incarnation if you beleeve the Pope and bee the Popes good subject you shall not be an heretick Accordingly it is said of the Divines of Coleine they held an hereticall opinion in that point which the Cavalier magnifies by calling it the Justification of souls yet they were not hereticks but godly Catholicks And of Catharinus he held contrary to the Councell in the point of assurance yet was a catholick Bishop And others before named by Bellarmine contrary to the Councell of Nice in the point of Image-worship yet in being good Papists they are good Catholicks So the Pope is the summe of Popish religion and unity And is it our unhappinesse that because we beleeve not in the Pope but beleeve in Christ our beliefe in Christ will not serve our turn for religion unity and salvation But now in his Answer to the second objection somewhat like a right Cavalier of Rome he runs at Tilt against Calvin and thus he breaks his Lance on him The next objection is yet more stupid then the former and I wonder how Calvins rage against the Church could put him so farre out of his wits as that hee would ever take it into his mouth For it is hee who being pricked with our noting their want of unity towards their fellow Brethren thinks to retort it back upon us by saying that wee are not in case to object any such thing against them for asmuch as that forsooth wee have as many Sects among us as we have severall Orders of religious men and then hee reckons up Benedictines Carmelites Dominicans Franciscans and whom he will Wicked man who well knew that none of these holy Orders doth differ in any point of doctrine from any of the rest and are so farre from breaking communion with them as that still they prevent one another in all honour and good respect All this wee must take upon his bare word and his title also which he giveth to Calvin wicked Calvin yet well fare the honest Belgicks purgers for when Calvin was named they in stead of Calvin did put in studiosus so upon the matter they called him not wicked but studious Calvin But why wicked Calvin because he knew that no one of those Orders doth differ in any point of doctrine Did Calvin know this or doth any man yea the Author himselfe yet know it We come but now from the differences of Jesuites and Priests Dominicans and Franciscans c. And this Authour himselfe confesseth there that each opposeth the contrary opinion by all arguments that occurre Besides it is no new nor strange objection that divers covents have their severall Masters whom they follow Againe look on the Jesuites doctrine of killing Kings doe all Friers agree in these doctrines upon which much more justly may be cryed out wicked Mariana wicked Friar Clement wicked Barradius wicked Garnet doctrines in my opinion plainly contrary to the faith since the faith is plainly taught by the Scripture in this point And I think more hereticall it is to deny and contradict such a point being thus plainely taught in the Scripture by David Solomon Peter and Paul then to deny what the Pope hath decided by letters sent from Rome unto Trent But will you see this Authors ingenuity hee accuseth Calvin but produceth not the place whence hee taketh his accusation the neerest place that I finde is not for the Authors purpose for there Calvin retorts not the want of unity of faith among the Friars by the diversity of Sects among them But Calvin shewes That the Friars by dividing themselves from others in the Sacraments and publick Assemblies did dissolve the Communion of the Church and depart from it and excommunicate themselves And he saies that so many Ministeries as there be of this kinde so many Assemblies of schismaticks he saies not hereticks as differing in faith which troubling the Order of the Church are cut off from the lawfull fellowship of the faithfull And that this departing should not bee secret they have given to themselves divers names of Sects Neither were they ashamed to boast of that which S. Paul doth so much detest In stead of Christians wee heare some called Benedictines some Franciscans some Dominicans So that here we find neither mention of Carmelites nor indeed of differing in points of faith but of a schismaticall separation from other Christians by different sects expressed by different names And to them hee might have added Jesuits who by a more neer separation have
others doe and therefore doe exact a more explicite beliefe and consequently may bee accounted in some respects more fundamentall This I desire the Reader to observe because this confirmeth that which hath beene formerly spoken concerning the agreement between Fundamentals and Explicites and must serve hereafter for a Confutation of his owne objections against Fundamentals In the meane time that which paines him for the present is this That wee doe not beleeve every Decree or Errour of the Pope as well as these important grounds of Christianitie for thus hee presently subjoyneth There is no doctrine at all concerning Religion the beliefe whereof is not fundamentall to my salvation if the catholick Church propound and command mee to beleeve it So the Cavaliers quarrell against us is this That wee doe not make the worship of Images kindred of Gossips and such popish vanities fundamentall to our salvation as the Articles of the Trinity and Christs Incarnation A fearfull blasphemy and which should make his heart hate his hand for writing it but they well deserve to bee given up to the beliefe of such impious errours who receive not the love of the truth revealed in the word with duâ— estimation For such will easily equall the word of Man to the word of God and will not suffer the word of God to stand for a sufficient saving verity nor a sufficient ground of unity except man give his word for the word of God and Man add his word to the word of God For if the Pope give his word for a doctrine contained in Gods word then his Popish disciples must receive it and untill that they may without heresie not beleeve it and if the Pope adde his word to the word of God Gods word is not a sufficient ground of unity but the unity made by that word is to be torne in pieces if withall we do not joyne the word of the Pope in one beliefe with it Thus is the Pope made Christs Rivall and takes the faith of the spouse from her husband to himselfe And so whereas he would accuse us of an high craft our craft is no other then that simplicity of S. Paul by which hee did labour to espouse the Church as a chaste Virgin to one Husband which was Christ But this Romish doctrine is the very craft of the old Serpent and Dragon which goes about to seduce Eve the patterne of the Church from her Husband and to marry her to the Pope or rather to make her his Adulteresse But let him remember Whoremongers and Adulterers especially such great ones God will judge Yet this would hee approve by that which followes For there is no errour in faith which may not bee made damnable by the manner of holding it when it is done so obstinately as that in defence thereof a man denyes the authority of the Catholick Church But briefly I answer First that the Church cannot make a point of faith of that which is none Secondly Stapleton tells us that the Church hath no promise to bee infallibly directed in the decision and resolution of small or light points and so the Church not having this infallible direction cannot have authority to make such points fundamentall nor to command faith to them where she hath no infallible direction in them Thirdly the Church in these lesser points not having this authority hee doth not disobey the authority of the Church who beleeveth not these points which she hath no authority to command as points of faith Fourthly if the Church were this foundation and could make a point fundamentall yet the Pope and his confederacy for whom this Author fights is not the Church Fifthly the same Popish Church hath taught and propounded many grosse errours and untruths for points of doctrine which are so farre from being fundamentall to salvation that they shake the very foundation and so are rather fundamentall to damnation But here I cannot but complaine of this Author in that hee useth craft which himselfe accuseth for while he goes about to lay the Pope the Chimera of Rome for a foundation of faith hee names him not in his whole booke but still tells us of the catholick Church let him come forth plainly out of his Covert and shew us his catholick Church even the Pope and his adherents if he be not ashamed of them and not thus draw disciples to a fancy and a piece of Poetry under the reall and reverend name of the catholick Church But this may serve as a caveat to the Reader that the Cavalier tells us of the Church when the Pope is his errand Another point whereof he seemes to be ashamed is the worship of Images which he never reckons among the doctrines of difference but if it please him he may now fitly conjoyne them together and then his discourse may runne thus If the Pope decree the worship of Images it may be fundamentall to salvation if with the deniall of Idolatrie the Popes authority bee denyed Yet our Author having spoken that which is proved to be fearfully untrue in his sense that what the Pope and his conspiracy under the name of the catholick Church doe propound and command to be beleeved is fundamentall he is bold to say This untruth is unanswerably proved by the meere catalogues of heresies which have beene made by severall Fathers of the Primitive Church and especially by S. Austin in his Treatise ad quod vult Deum which I have toucht before and which I earnestly exhort my Reader to peruse at large This is so farre from being unanswerable that it hath beene answered and our Author can never make it good that those points which hee acknowledgeth to be of little importance in themselves were there declared to bee fundamentall for being obstinately maintained against the decision command of the Pope and his Councell eâ—ther private or publick so that the Author onely makes up with boldnesse and undertaking what hee wants in evidence and proofe And as in the following piece hee preferres his Reader to the sixth and fifth Chapters so I also referre him to the answer of those Chapters and there besides other solutions hee may see that the example of Saint Cyprian makes mightily against the Popes authority since it plainly appeares that Saint Cyprian did hold the Popes fallibilitie when he plainly held the contrary to that which the Pope had decided And thus being put besides his premisses hee is also deprived of his conclusion The distinction of points of faith into fundamentall and not fundamentall doth stand still in such full truth and power that the unbeliefe of points not fundamentall doth not presently forfeit salvation though the same points bee decided by the Pope and his conspiracy much lesse doe worship of Images Prayer in an unknowne tongue salvation by merits the Popes supremacy especially taken for a foundation of faith though decided and commanded by the Pope cause damnation by being unbelieved but rather by being believed
But this Champion while hee liveth will never be able to prove that the Papacy or the Pope and his faction is the Church And yet untill he prove this all his booke is but a carkasse meere dead paper without strength and life In the meane time they are most guilty of detractions slanders and reproaches of the whole Church of God that lay the title of damnable Heretickes or Schismatickes on all the members of the whole Catholick Church that are not subject unto the Man of sinne which sits as God in the Temple of God SECT II. An absurd complement of the Cavaliers attended with three grosse slanders of the Protestants Religion That it is a profession suted to the pleasure of superiours Secondly that the ground of it is sense and appetite Thirdly that they labour more for conformity then unity are all answered ANd now after his bitter pill of dissention to take away the offence of it and that at parting hee may flatter the taste of his Reader with a farewell of sweetnesse he puts this sugar to it All which I have not said either by way of aggravating their sinnes or of alienating men from their persons which I esteeme and love and desire to serve with my whole heart If the Reader will make a due conjunction of this with the former and make a right construction of the whole he may see it runne into this confusednesse The Romish faction must bee rigorous to Protestants and avoid them as Saint John did Cerinthus c. Yea they must fall foule upon them though holding lesser heresies and call them Dogs they must take them for cruell Robbers of the living and the dead for slanderers and detracters and all this is well done and may bee done without being alienated from their persons But doth this Authour thinke that there will bee a separation a falling foule and an accounting of us for Dogs without alienating of affections from our persons Or would hee have such a not alienating from our persons as upon meeting with us to part presently from us or to fall foule upon us and to call us Dogs Surely whatsoever this Authour afterwards speakes of his intent his former words teach such a separation division and hatred that these later words doe not take them away but onely make a faire shew by a mannerly distinction teaching a counterfeit art of falling foule upon men without being alienated from their persons But will any wise man thinke it a charitable speech if Catesby should say unto Faulx Be not alienated from the person of the King nor of his royall issue nor of the Nobility but onely fall foule upon them and blow them up with gun powder As for that following profession towards their persons so diversly expressed which I esteeme and love and desire to serve with my whole heart I acknowledge them to be faire words and of a very good countenance But perchance by some other way there might have been given to a doubtfull Reader more solid satisfaction For a scrupulous Reader may possibly say that these words by Travellers are vented often but as the froth of complement and by Romists are often eluded by a latent equivocation or mentall reservation and may now bee doubted because they doe come in suspiciously with very bad company even as attendants on exhortations and incentives to separate from Protestants to esteeme them as Dogs and to fall foule upon them yea not to hold the Reader in doubt but to let him see there is no soundnesse in your distinction of not hating our persons you have in this booke before taught that hee who doth not obey your Church bee taken for no other then a Pagan or a Publican that is a meere Idolater in his Religion and for a most infamous and base person in his conversation The Reader might have been more soundly satisfied if in stead of all these verbs esteeme love and serve the Cavalier had onely said this single sentence with one adverb I have heartily taken the oath of Allegiance As for his good intent in shewing us what Heresie is and how odious we thank him for it and doe make this use of it That because Heresie is so odious therefore we abhorre the Papacy which hath in it sundry Heresies Idolatries and Doctrines of Divels and is not the Church but a faction in the Church and desire by grace to continue true and lively members of the Church truly Catholick consisting of all Kinreds Tribes and Nations over the face of the whole earth whereof Christ Jesus is the onely and unquestionable Head And if by the Authours mis-perswasions wee should remove from this truly universall Church to become members of the Papacie wee should remove from the Church truely Catholick to a piece and portion in the Church and that not so much a piece of the Church as a faction and disease in the Church whereof the taking away and not the increase is a speciall if not only preservation of the unity and health of the Church truly catholick And towards this let the Pope hear his better even a better Pope then any since him making a question which he cannot well answer but by removing his universall Headship What wilt thou answer to Christ the Head who goest about to subjugate all his members to thee And elsewhere he saith that such a one is the fore-runner of Antichrist But such a one was the Pope within twenty yeers after this was written And if the Pope a thousand yeers since was the fore-runner of Antichrist we may well thinke that Antichrist is not all this time behind his fore-runner And now if the Popes universall Headship bee an Antichristian errour and an errour unanswerable at the last day it were good that the Authour himselfe being moved by his owne motives would withdraw his faith from this Antichristian hereticall Headship and become a right childe of the Church truely Christian and Catholick wherein and not in the Papacy is salvation But how farre from verity this is which followeth I thinke hee cannot but see when he comes to himselfe his words or insimulations are these What indeed doe they but shew by their whole course that they desire and resolve to beleeve and professe according to the occasion and to comply with the superiour powers of this world But doth the Authour beleeve when hee is awaked what hee spake in this dreame Have the Protestants done thus or doth not this Authour know that they have not thus done Whom doe Papists esteeme a superiour Power in the world above the Popes Therefore they have blasphemed him into a King of kings and Lord of lords And did Luther and the first Protestants comply with this superiour Power of the world Hee neglected both the threatnings of Cajetane and the faire promises of Vergerus Againe in Queene Maries dayes did those whom you burned here comply with the superiour powers in point of Religion Yea looke through
Christendome and your owne fires which you have kindled to consume a world of Protestants will flash into your faces blast them and make them look red with the shame of this scandall And that which followes is a like empty of Truth but indeed that emptinesse is againe filled up with malice They desire to obey appetite and sense without being ever so much as told if they can chuse that they must lose heaven for their labour You have had Scriptures Fathers and Reasons for our Religion which never yet were nor never can bee answered and with these hath Popery beene battered into pieces Why then talke you of appetite and sense when your owne smart and shame can tell you that wee have had stronger weapons which have beaten you with sound blows Rather speake of sense and appetite when you see a Papist in his â—at dayes before Ashwednesday to make worke for the Priest or speak of sense and appetite when a King is moved to goe to the dames of Paris and then offered to have a Cardinall a man of sense and appetite to be his Confessor as Lewis the eleventh at the enterview told Edward the fourth rather speake of sense and appetite among the stalled Monks the fleshly Cardinals the luxurious Popes that may draw a world of soules into hell both by doctrine and example and who of you durst say to such a one What dost thou or in our Authours words tell them that they must have hell for their labour But indeed wee justly take it ill that Papists should tell us that when wee are going to heaven we should lose heaven for our labour onely because wee give not up our soules to this Man and Head of sinne by schisme and errour leading millions of soules from heaven to hell Hee goes on and sayes The children in this are as like their Mother as they can looke For who perceives not that the Protestant Church doth rather carry a respect to outward conformity then to reall unity in matter of Religion and that indeed they are but as in jest when there is speech of saving soules in any one Church rather then in another A large scandall cast on a whole Church and I doubt once this Authours Mother yet without proofe and against proofe for no proofe doth hee bring that our Church is in jest in matters of Religion or accounts all Religious alike and even his owne words next following might have holpen him to disprove his owne false witnesse It is true that they make both Lawes and Canons whereby they obliged men under a world of penalties to frequent their Churches and to receive their Sacraments For the Lawes and Canons which hee mentions doe expresse a care for the beleeving her doctrine since they command a subscription to it a teaching and preaching of it and preaching Saint Paul saith is the meanes of beleeving and lastly Excommunication against those that affirme the contrary But the Authour having spoken a broad scandall against the whole Church brings in a very narrow tax of some Ministers for a proofe of it For I put the case If a man who were knowne to be wholly affected in his heart of the Catholick faith should yet for the saving of his lands or goods resolve to comply with their Lawes by going to their Churches and by receiving their Communion yea and withall should declare in company the day before that hee was resolved to doe so the day after for the onely saving of his estate and for the shewing of obedience to the Kings Lawes though yet withall hee were perswaded that their Sacraments were unlawfull and their Church impure Would that Minister refuse to let him goe to his Service and for to communicate with the rest Infallibly hee would not and wee see daily that they doe not in like occasions for that Church as I said aspires not to unity but uniformity But here first let the Reader take notice That the Cavalier brings in sons of Rome as like the mother as they can looke and just the same which hee reproved before For hee speakes of a man who is wholly affected in his heart to the Romish faith and yet for saving his goods will come to the Church and receive our Communion Now let me borrow the Cavaliers words and see how his owne words doe fit with his owne Catholicks They professe according to the occasion and comply with the superiour Powers of this world and obey the motions of appetite and sense and are as like their mother Rome as they can looke who for a long time hath fitted Religion to temporall ends if wee may beleeve judicious and truth-telling Guicciardin But now for the admitting of such a one to receive as shall professe his beleeving our Church to bee impure and our Sacraments unlawfull I can hardly thinke that this Authour beleeves that our Church doth allow it For the Canons do excommunicate ipso facto those that say our Church is not true and maintaineth the Apostles doctrine or affirme part of the Articles is erroneous now the doctrine of our Sacraments is a part of the Articles Besides the Rubrick before the Communion doth order That if any have done any wrong to his neighbor by word or deed the Curate having knowledge thereof shall call him and advertise him in any wise not to presume to come to the Lords Table untill hee have openly declared himself to have truly repented Now I think our Church is a very neer and honourable neighbour and that hee who professeth that hee holds her impure doth also professe that hee exceedingly wrongs her and then you may see what doth follow But that I may somewhat speak for Romists Though Rome which is called an Harlot cannot but have a Whores forehead yet I professe that I know no Romist so impudent I never heard of one in charity I can hardly think there is such a one that will openly professe our Sacrament to bee unlawfull and yet receive it presently upon the saying of it for my part if I were a Romist though I indeed knew such Romish Catholicks I should not boast of their shame to the Protestants it shewing an extreme need of scandalous objections when a man must first cast the filth of a scandall at his owne wholly affected for so he termes them Catholicks that it may rebound from their faces and light on Protestants And for our aspiring to unity it is far more reall and solide then such a single and slight objection can dissolve or dissever for we have those mighty bonds of unity One God the Father of all one Lord and one Spirit one Baptisme and one saving Faiht Neither is our faith leâ—t loose to Libertinisme but the doctrine of it is contained in Articles agreed and subscribed to by the Clergy and enacted by the State and as hath been shewed there is Authority and Law for the punishment of those that cast scandals upon it SECT III.