rule of faith Chap. 9. That priuate spirit cannot be this rule Chap. 10. That the doctrine or teaching of the true Church of Christ is the rule or meanes wherby all men must learne the true faith Chap. 11. That this true Church of Christ of which we must learne the true faith is alwayes to continue without interruption vntill the worlds end Chap. 12. That this same Church must alwayes be visible Chap. 13. How we should discerne or know which company of men is this true visible Church of which we must learne true faith Chap. 14. That those Notes or markes which heretikes assigne to wit true doctrine of faith and right vse of Sacraments be not sufficient Chap. 15. That these foure Vna Sancta Catholica Apostolica One Holy Catholique Apostolique be good markes whereby men may discerne which is the true Church Chap. 16. That these foure markes agree onely to the Romane Church That is to say to that company of men which agreeth in profession of faith with the Church of Rome § 1. That the Romane Church onely is One. § 2. That the Romane Church onely is Holy § 3. That the Romane Church is onely Catholique § 4. That the Romane Church is onely Apostolique Chap. 17. The conclusion of the whole discourse viz. That the Romane Church is the onely true Church of Christ of which all men must learne the one infallible entire faith which is necessary to saluation And that the Protestants Congregations cannot be this true Church THE PREFACE BEing moued by some friends to conferre with one of indifferent good iudgement and of no ill disposition of nature though verie earnest in thaet religion which he did professe I was desirous to do my best endeuors to let him plainely see that the Catholique Romane faith was the onely right A. W. Being requested by some friends to maintaine the truth of Christian religion professed amongst vs against the antichristian cauils of this popish proctor I thought it my best course first to answer in generall to the whole substance of his booke and then to examine euerie particular Chapter In the former I first consider his drift and scope then how he proues that which he intends His drift is to shew That the Catholique Romane faith is the onely right wherein he craftily begs that which is in question That the Romane faith is the Catholique faith which himselfe propounds as the second thing to be proued by him That those onely which professe the Romane faith are the true Catholique Church Neither can it be auouched by the authority of anie ancient writer or by any good reason that it is lawfull or fit to ioyne the terme Catholique as Papists take it to any particular Church whatsoeuer There was great strife about the Catholike Church vpon earth in Austins time which the Donatists would haue confined to Affrica but the true Christians freed it from that bondage and bounded it with no other limits then the compasse of the whole world Let the Papists shew if they can that in this whole cōtrouersie the Catholique Church was euer restrained or coupled to anie one Citie Dioces Prouince or Nation as it is now by them to Rome If they cannot let them acknowledge and renounce this their noueltie A. D. §. 3. For which purpose I did chuse to let passe disputes about particular points and in generall to shew First that it is necessary to admit an infallible authoritie in the true Cathòlique Church by reason whereof euery one is to learne of it onely which is the true faith of Christ Secondly that those onely which professe the Románe faith are the true Catholique Church The which hauing proued I did consequently conclude that the faith and beliefe which the authority of the Romane Church doth cōmend vnto vs ought without doubt to be holden for the true faith A. W. Indeed the best and onely way to auow the doctrine of the Romish Church is to leade men hoodwinckt in ignorance of the particular points it holds many whereof are so palpably false that he that knowes them will easily be perswaded to abhorre them But let vs see what you shew in generall Thus you dispute The faith which the authoritie of the true Catholique Church commends vnto vs ought without doubt to be holden for the true faith But the faith which the authoritie of the Church of Rome commends vnto vs is the faith which the authoritie of the true Catholique Church commends vnto vs. Therfore the faith which the authoritie of the Church of Rome commends vnto vs ought without doubt to be holden for the true faith The conclusion of this syllogisme is set downe by you in plaine words there The which hauing proued I did consequently cōclude that the faith c. The proposition or major is not exprest no more is the assumption or minor but instead of them you haue deliuered the proofes of them thus to be concluded First for the proposition at those words That it is necessary to admit an infallible c. If it be necessary to admit an infallible authoritie in the true Catholique Church by reason whereof euery one is to learne of it onely which is the true faith of Christ then the faith which the authoritie of the true Catholique Church commends vnto vs ought without doubt to be holden for the true faith But it is necessarie to admit such an authoritie in the true Catholike Church Therefore the faith which the authoritie of the true Catholike Church commends vnto vs ought without doubt to be holden for the true faith Onely the assumption of this syllogisme is propounded the rest omitted The proofe of your principall assumption is at those words That those only which professe the Romane c. And as in the former syllogisme the assumption onely is exprest the rest vnderstood Thus If those onely which professe the Romane faith are the true Catholike Church then the faith which the authoritie of the Church of Rome commends vnto vs is the faith which the authoritie of the true Catholike Church commends vnto vs. But those onely which professe the Romane faith are the true Catholique Church Therefore the faith which the authoritie of the Church of Rome commends vnto vs is the faith which the authoritie of the true Catholique Church commends vnto vs. We see now what his drift is how he proues that he intends and by what reason he confirmes his proofe It remaines that we consider in general to what part of his proofe or confirmation thereof euery Chapter in his Discourse appertaineth In the 4. first Chapters he layeth certaine grounds concerning faith in the 13. following he disputeth the matter propounded First he shewes the necessitie of faith Chap. 1. then he deliuereth three properties required to true faith That it is one Ch. 2. That it is infallible Chap. 3. That it is entire Chap. 4. In his dispute the twelue former Chapters from the beginning
therein What art what writing of any man is so bare Are the Scriptures onely that come immediatly from the author of true reason to be barred of that priuiledge which all other writings iustly challenge Is not a necessary consequence according to the rules of logicke and reason to be allowed of in Diuinitie as well as in the Mathematicks where consectaries are as certainly true as the theoremes out of which they are drawne Is it not as certaine by Scripture that there are three persons distinct each from other and all three but one God as if these verie words had bin expresly set downe But we must beare with you in this matter who learned this shift of your great Cardinal Bellarmine We say quoth Bellarmine where he deliuereth the opinion of your Church that the whole doctrine of faith and manners is not expresly contained in the Scriptures Expresly contained To be expressed and to be contained are at the least diuers if not contrary But I pray you who saith otherwise Not the Protestants doubtlesse whose opinion he propoundeth presently after this sort They preach saith Bellarmine speaking of vs that all things necessary to faith and manners are contained in the Scriptures What is become now of expresly For pure shame he was glad to leaue out that word though he had craftily stolen it in before Well this may serue to make good my deniall of your proposition A thing may be determinable by Scripture though the determination be not expresly set downe therein Take not aduantage of my words because I say determinable and you determined For the question is not what is determined that is set downe in plaine words but it is sufficient if the Scripture affoord vs the determination of matters by certain consequēce vpon truth therein deliuered Therefore whereas you adde by onely expresse Scripture onely and expresse are but meere shifts nothing at all against that we affirme who require besides onely expresse words of Scripture the ministery and industry of man to gather and conclude points of doctrine out of that which is written in the Scripture Your assumption is true that there are diuers questions not determinable by expresse Scripture and yet as I haue shewed the Scripture is sufficient for the determining of all points of faith necessary to saluation Concerning the particular question you bring for the proofe of your assumption First you seeme to grant and that grant is as much as we require that it may be gathered out of the Scripture by consequence that those books which we and you acknowledge to be the word of God are so indeed otherwise why say you that we shall not find it expresly set downe in a part of Scripture Secondly I demaund as before who moueth this question Not the Protestants who account it a kind of blasphemie to denie it and of infidelitie to doubt of it Your holy Church of Rome is she that hath buzzed this matter into Christian mens eares so that religion is thereby become a scorne to Atheists while you make no conscience of discrediting the word of God so you may by any meanes increase the reputation of your Apostaticall sea The truth is that this opinion is not a matter now a dayes first set abroach for Atheists such as Iulian haue from time to time obiected it therefore might you haue spared to mention it as a question now a dayes moued But it is new and strange yea almost incredible that Christians and those Diuines yea such as thinke religion resteth on their shoulders as the Poets faine heauen doth vpon Atlas should make a question whether the Scriptures be the word of God or no and so giue men occasion to doubt thereof Thirdly if this matter cannot be resolued of by the Scripture we shall be little the nearer for the infallible authoritie you haue deuised Christians need it not who are already perswaded that the bookes of the old and new Testament are the vndoubted word of God and with Christians onely to speake truly and properly hath the Church to do ordinarily But it falleth out sometimes that amongst those which make profession of Christianitie there are some found who are in doubt of this point If this doubt arise in the heart of a man that maketh conscience of religion he is to be taught that it is but a tentation of Satan and therefore not to be hearkened to Further we must demaund the reasons of his doubting shewing him how absurd and vnreasonable a matter it is to make question of that which generally both Protestants and Papists hold and which hath bene held by the space of 1500. yeares vnlesse he be able to giue very sufficient cause why he may doubt His arguments if he bring any must be answered and the Scriptures auowed by the matter and manner of writing which is such as will certainly if not conuert yet conuince any man in the world that man is not the deuiser of those bookes If he be an Atheist that derideth religion and withall so vnreasonable that the former and many other important proofes will not perswade him what remaines but that the magistrate whom God hath appointed to see true religion established cut off so corrupt a member by lawfull authoritie Where this course is not taken what meanes haue you to helpe the matter Will you tell him of an infallible authoritie in the Church He will laugh at your folly who instead of prouing beg the question I doe not beleeue saith he there is any such Church or authoritie If I doubt of the Scripture you proue it by the Church if I beleeue there is not any such Church or authoritie in the Church you will perswade me by Scripture To say the truth who can be so patient or foolish rather as to suffer himselfe to be led vp downe in a ring as it were a doore turning vpon hinges still in the same place The authoritie of the Church is an argument of such waight as that he is not to be counted either a Christiā or a man of reason that is not much moued therewithall yea so much as that he will not dissent from the continuall iudgement of it vnlesse he be driuen to it by certaine reason but yet this authoritie is not infallible Christ euermore iudgeth truly saith Austin but the Ecclesiasticall iudges as being men are very often deceiued And therefore he saith in another place that he is not bound to giue his consent without libertie to refuse to any thing but the Canonicall Scriptures And in an Epistle to Ierome I haue learned saith he to giue this reuerence and honour onely to those bookes that are called Canonicall that I constantly beleeue that no writer of any of them hath erred But to make an end of this needlesse question where both sides are agreed let vs heare Saint Austin speake to the Manichees If you aske vs saith he how we know that these
Let vs therefore proceede in examining this discourse A. D. §. 1. Hitherto I haue shewed that the rule of faith which all men ought to seeke that by it they may learne true faith is the doctrine of the Church of Christ and that this Church doth continue and is alwayes visible that is to say such as may be found out and knowne Now the greatest question is sith there are diuers companies of them that beleeue in Christ euery one of which challenge to themselues the title of the true Church how euery man may come to know assuredly and in particular which companie is indeed the true visible Church of Christ whose doctrine we must in all points beleeue and follow To this question I answer that euery companie which hath the name of Christians or which challenge to themselues the name of the Church are not alwayes the true Church For of heretickes we may well say as S. Austin doth Non quia Ecclesiae Christi videntur habere nomen idcirco pertinent ad eius consecrationem They doe not therefore pertaine to the consecration of the Church of Christ because they seeme to carry the name of the Church of Christ. For as the same S. Austin saith in another place heretickes are onely whited ouer with the name of Christians when indeed Si haeretici sunt as Tertullian sayth Christiani esse non possunt If they be heretickes the cannot be true Christians The reason whereof the same Tertullian insinuateth to be because they follow not that faith which came from Christ to his Apostles and Disciples and which was deliuered by them from hand to hand to our forefathers and so to vs but they follow that faith which they chose to themselues of which election or choise the name of hereticke and heresie did arise A. W. Hitherto you haue laboured to proue the maior of your maine syllogisme propounded in your preface namely that the faith which the authoritie of the true Catholick Church commends vnto vs is to be held for the true faith What successe you haue had in this proofe let them say that haue compared your arguments and my answers together Now you are to proceed to the proofe of your maine assumption that they onely are the true Church which make profession of the Romane faith Your syllogisme is thus framed They onely are the true Church to whom the certaine marks by which the Church is to be knowne belong But they that professe the Romane faith are they to whom those markes belong Therefore they onely that professe the Romane faith are the true Church The proposition or maior of this Syllogisme is not exprest by you but necessarily implied in this thirteenth Chapter where you say that the way to discerne which is the true Church is first to set downe which be the certain marks whereby all men may easily know the Church The assumption or minor you endeuour to proue in the fiue Chapters following by a Syllogisme thus concluded They onely who are one holy Catholicke Apostolicke Church are they to whom the certaine markes of the true Church belong But they that professe the Romane religion are they who are one holy Catholicke Apostolicke Church Therefore they onely that professe the Romane faith are they to whom the certaine markes of the true Church belong Your proposition or maior is in the two next Chapters your assumption or minor in the sixteenth In handling the proposition first you labour to disproue the markes of a true church which we assigne and that in Chapt. 14. then you assay to propound and confirme other of your owne as we shall see hereafter if God will when we come to Chap. 15. Whereas you expound what you meane by a visible Church viz. such a one as may be found out and knowne you straighten the question and auow that which no man denieth For the question betwixt vs is not whether the Church may be found out or no but whether it be so visible and famous a congregation that it may at all times be knowne of all men If this be not that you should proue what will become of your grand reason that therefore there must alwayes be a knowne Church the doctrine whereof euery must rest vpon in all matters of faith because otherwise it cannot be vniuersally true that God will haue all men to be saued It is indeed a matter worth the enquiring which companies of them that professe Christian Religion are the true Churches of Christ For that all are not it is apparent by your Antichristian Synagogue and that all true Christians are bound as much as lieth in them to become members of some true church of Christ it is manifest because else they cannot ordinarily performe the duties of his true outward worship which are no where done but in his true churches If the choise of any doctrine not receiued from Christ be sufficient to make men heretickes and churches hereticall what may the world thinke of your synagogue which is not ashamed openly to professe that she holdeth many points of doctrine which haue not proofe out of the written word of God For whereas to shift off the matter you come in with deliuerie of I know not what from hand to hand by the Apostles and your forefathers who sees not that this conceit of yours both condemneth the Scriptures of insufficiencie and maketh the reports of men the rule of the true faith and openeth a wide gate to let in all deuices of mans corruption What auailes it to know that all doctrine is heresie which comes not from our Sauiour Christ if we must beleeue that all came from him which your Pope and his Councell tell vs they haue receiued by tradition why should we not rather hearken to your Occham who truly affirmed that heresy is an opinion chosen by a man contrary to the holy Scripture Surely there is great cause to suspect them of heresie who refuse to make triall of their doctrine by Scripture whatsoeuer they talke of tradition from the Apostles by their forefathers A. D. §. 2. The way therefore to discerne which is the true Church is irst to set downe which be the certaine markes by which all men may easily know the Church and then to examine to whom these markes doe agree The which that I may the better performe in the Chapter following here I thinke good first briefly to note what belongeth to the nature of a good and sufficient marke Note therefore that two things are required in euery sufficient marke The first is that it be not common to many but proper and onely agreeing to the thing whereof it is a marke As for example it is no good marke whereby to know any particular man to say he hath two hands or two eares because this is common to many and therefore no sufficient note or marke whereby one may be distinguished or knowne from all other But a marke whereby we may discerne
contradictions if it fall out as sometimes it doth that one man preach contrarie to that which an other hath taught Sixtly the Lord hath imparted the scriptures and enioyned the search of them as well to priuate men as to Pastors and Doctors Seuenthly and last blinde people shall perish euerlastingly with their blinde guides and therefore it cannot be but that God hath giuen them libertie to trie the spirits that they that will not may haue no excuse for their erring but be iustly damned The place you bring out of the epistle to the Ephesians doth not prooue that Pastors Doctors only are to examine spirits though this belong in speciall sort to them whom the holy Ghost hath made ouerseers of the flocke of Christ Gods end in appointing them is that we should not be carried away with euery blast of doctrine but we must needs be so carried if we receiue without choise whatsoeuer is deliuered They are helpers of our faith not Lords ouer it Their dutie it is to teach vs how to discerne of true doctrine and to perswade vs to embrace it not to enforce vs to giue credit to all they say Thus haue I answered all those arguments that you thought good to propound all which notwithstanding our conclusion standeth sound and firme that true doctrine in points fundamentall is a certaine and necessarie marke of a true Church of Christ A. D. CHAP. XV. That these foure Vna Sancta Catholica Apostolica that is to say One Holy Catholicke Apostolicke are good markes by which men may know which is the true Church A. W. The second maine part of your whole treatise is this that they which professe the Romane faith are the true Church Your proofe is that To them onely the certaine markes whereby the Church is to be knowne belong Which that you might make cleare vnto vs you reason in this sort They onely who are One Holy Catholicke Apostolicke Church are they to whom the markes by which the true Church may be knowne belong But they onely that professe the Romane Religion are they who are One Holy Catholicke Apostolicke Church Therefore they onely that professe the Romane Religion are they to whom the markes by which the true Church is to be knowne belong The Maior of this syllogisme you seeke to prooue in this Chapter by shewing that these properties are good markes to know the true Church by Now properties if we shall speake properly according to Logicke are Accidents or Adiuncts agreeing to euery particular of that kinde wherof they are properties and that alwaies neuer at any time to any thing of any other kind Therefore the properties of a true Church must be such as agree to euerie true Church at all times at no time to any other Church or thing but to a true Church only These the Logicians call Propria adiuncta or propria quarto modo Whether these foure alledged by you be such or no taking thē according to your sense we shal see in examining your proofe That in some sense they are certaine markes of a true Church we make no question A. D. §. 1. Sith our Sauiour Christ hath thought good to plant a visible Church vpon earth which he would haue to continue vntill the worlds end for this speciall intent and purpose that all men in all ages by meanes of it may learne the doctrine of the true faith the true worship of God the right vse of the Sacraments the wholsome lawes of good life and generally all good things that appertaine to the glorie of God and the saluation of our soules we haue not any reason to doubt but that the same our Sauiour for the exceeding loue which of his part without exception or respect of persons he beareth to all mankind hath ordained some markes or notes by which all sorts and consequently euen simple men may sufficiently discerne which companie among many which challenge to themselues the title of the true Church is indeed the true Church For sith he would haue euerie one to heare and learne things necessarie to saluation onely of the true Church we must needs thinke his wisedome and goodnesse to haue marked this his Church with such manifest signes and properties that all men may easily know it and discerne it from others whom he knew would take vpon them though falsely the title and profession of the true Church This seemeth to haue bene expresly foretold by the prophet Isaias when he saith Scietur in gentibus semē eorum germen eorum in medio populorū Omnes qui viderint eos cognoscentillos quia isti sunt semen cui benedixit Dominus Their seed shall be knowne in the nations and their of spring in the midst of the people all that shall see thē shall know them because these are that seed which our Lord hath blessed Which is as much as if he should say that the Church shall haue such manifest markes that it shall be easie for euerie one to know them to be the true Church Some of these markes are set downe by Saint Austin who calleth them bands or chaines which do hold a faithfull man in the Catholicke Church although for the slownesse of his wit or for some other cause he doth not euidently see the truth of the doctrine in it selfe A. W. Ere you come to prooue that which you haue propounded you fall into an vnnecessary discourse about the marks of the Church wherein first you prooue as you can that our Sauiour hath left certaine markes whereby all men in all ages may know the true Church Secondly you set downe some names of these markes giuen them according to the effects they worke in men The proofe of your former point lieth thus If our Sauior haue planted a visible Church vpon earth to the end that all mē in all ages might learne of it only all good things appertaining to the glory of God their own saluatiō thē he hath ordained marks by which euery mā may know the true Church But our Sauiour hath to that end planted a visible Church Therfore he hath giuē marks by which euery mā may know c. Though there be nothing in this proofe which hath not bene answered already yet I mull be faine to say something to it I denie the Minor hauing shewed in answer to the fift chapter that it neuer was Gods purpose to haue euery particular man partaker of saluatiō by Iesus Christ Now it is needlesse to adde that our Sauiour being sent by God with perfect knowledge of his purpose would not intend any thing contrarie to the will of his Father or otherwise then he was directed by his commission I pray not for the world but for them that thou hast giuen me out of the world All this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace Therefore visible Churches for to dreame of any one vniuersall visible Church is against
of the fifth to the end of the sixteenth containe the antecedent or first part of his reason and the proofes thereof The seuenteenth addeth and enforceth the maine conclusion The assumption of the second syllogisme That it is necessary to admit c. is handled from the fourth Chapter to the tenth The proposition of the first syllogisme That the faith which the authoritie of the true Catholique Church commendeth to vs ought without doubt to be holden for the true faith is proued by another reason from the ninth Chapter to the thirteenth The assumption of the third syllogisme That those onely which professe the Romane faith are the true Catholique Church is debated from the twelfth Chapter to the seuenteenth This is the generall frame of the whole Treatise as farre as I am able to conceiue of it Now let vs examine the truth therof Wherein that I may proceed the more orderly and plainely I wil first speake a word or 2. of some matters that seeme fit to be vnderstood ere I answer particularly to the seueral propositiōs What the diuerse significations of this word faith are and how many sorts of faith there be I will inquire as farre as it is needfull for this Treatise in my answer to the first Chapter onely we are now to know that by faith and beliefe this Papist vnderstands the matter or doctrine which is to be beleeued This appeares in the rest of this Preface and namely at these words Fourthly because these few plaine points c as also euery where in his Treatise though sometimes as I will shew in due place he take it otherwise The like I say of the word Church which being diuersly taken in Scripture is here to be restrained to a certaine cōpany of men vpon earth as this Author himself shewes in this Preface at the place aforenamed Now then to answer directly to his principall syllogisme I deny the whole antecedent therof Because it takes some things for a knowne truth which are either false or at least full of doubt As for example that the true Catholique Church is a company of men vpon earth whereas who knowes not that the saints that haue bene are and shal be in all ages are members of the true Catholique Church which consists of them all ioyntly That all the seuerall congregations which hold the true doctrine of the Gospell are one and the same Church A doctrine in his meaning without anie warrant of Scripture as it shall be shewed hereafter That there is authoritie in a certaine company of men vpō earth to require that whatsoeuer they deliuer be held for an vndoubted truth vnder paine of damnation to all that wil not so beleeue them whereas God vseth not the authoritie of men but their ministerie to the begetting of faith in them that shall be saued In particular I denie the proposition because all the Churches in the world may erre either in some one point not fundamentall or some in one some in another And therefore some things may be propounded by the true Church of Christ which notwithstanding are not vpon any authoritie of theirs to be held for true To the proofe of the proposition set downe in the second syllogisme I answer by denying the assumption That it is necessary to admit such authoritie in the Church The reasons of my deniall are 1 That God hath giuen no such authoritie to anie companie of men since the Apostles or besides them who had it seuerally euery one in his owne person 2. That there is no necessitie of anie such authoritie for the saluation of the elect or damnation of the reprobate 3. That the Scriptures are left vnto vs for an absolute rule whereby all things that are to be beleeued must be tried I denie also the assumption of the first principall syllogisme and to the proofe of it contained in the third syllogisme I say further that they which professe the doctrine that the Church of Rome now teacheth in many points are members of the Church of Antichrist vnder the Pope the head thereof But if as you say Those that professe the Romane faith are the true Catholique Church how ignorantly and absurdly do your Monkes of Bourdeaux write in their solemne profession of religion where they say that the holy visible catholique and Apostolike Church dispersed ouer the whole world hath communion in faith manners with the Church of Rome If the Catholique Church haue communion with the Church of Rome sure the Catholique Church and the Church of Rome are not all one A. D. §. 4. Vpon which points when he had heard my discourse he desired me for his better remembrance to set downe in writing what I had said The which I had first thought to haue done briefly and to haue imparted it onely to him but by some other friends it was wished that I should handle the matter more at large they intending as it seemed that it might not only do good to him but to others also that should haue need of it as well as he Of which sort of men standing in this need as I could not considering their miserable case but take great pitie so I was easily moued especially at my friends request to be willing to do my endeuour which might be for their reliefe and succour and to take any course which might turne to their helpe and profite A. W. The title of your booke professeth breuitie here you say that you had thought to set downe your discourse briefly but haue handled the matter more at large Either your Title or your Preface is to blame Your Title is iustified afterward where you say that your course of writing is very briefe and compendious Papists talke of pitie who without mercie or conscience wold haue murdred so many thousāds by treason as they thought haue sent them almost quicke to hell soules and bodies together It is not anie pitie of vs but your slauery to the Pope and proud conceit of I know not what merite with hope of making your part strong for rebellion or massacre that drawe from you these goodly treatises A. D. §. 5. Now of all other courses which haue bene and might be vndertaken that which in my speech I did chuse as most expedient for him with whom I did conferre seemed best also for me to prosequute in this my writing for the benefite of him and others and this for foure reasons A. W. I know not what he was with whom as you say you did conferre but I am sure his iudgement was at the most but indifferent good if such a course as begs the question would be any way liked of him You vndertake to shew That it is necessary to admit an infallible authority in the true Catholique Church which you expound to be A companie of men vpon earth VVhat Protestant is there of any knowledge but vnderstands that by Catholique Church we meane ordinarily not any companie in
Ambrose to enquire after the faith of the Church and that especially in which Church if Christ be a dweller it is doubtlesse to be made choise of But if the people be vnfaithful if an heretical teacher deforme the dwelling the communion of heretickes is to be auoided the congregation must be shunned And a little after If there be any Church that refuseth the faith and holds not the foundation of the Apostles preaching it is to be left lest it taint vs with some spot of vnbeliefe or vnfaithfulnesse Neither will it serue the turne that you referre vs to that which is generally holden by the Church for both the generall faith depends vpon the particular beliefe of the Church or Pope of Rome and is not to be taken for truth because it is generally receiued but because it agrees with the Romane faith as we learned before of your Monkes of Bourdeaux who make the Catholique Church to haue communion with the Church of Rome as the fountaine of truth and of greater authoritie in their iudgement then the Catholicke Church But let vs admit that you desire of beleeuing whatsoeuer is generally holden by the Church I am half afraid this conceit be it neuer so strong wil not procure the quietnes you promise vs. The causes of my feare are these two First I may doubt of such a point as is not yet determined by the Church for example I make question of the Popes authority aboue Councels or theirs aboue him How shall I most certainly be instructed in the truth of this question Enquire say you and find what is generally holden by the Church What if the Doctors of your Church cannot agree about this point That they cannot it appeares by your owne doubting where you make it questionable whether the Pope alone or the Pope with a general Councell be free from error And Bellarmine is faine to take a great deale of paines in answering the arguments of diuers Papists some of them equall to himselfe for learning iudgement and authoritie who make the Pope subiect to generall Councels But of this in due place Say it were generally agreed on Could I thereby be most certainly instructed what is truth in this point May not all saue the Pope be deceiued and perhaps he to without the aduice and assent of a general Councell at least if he haue not in his consistory vpon good deliberation resolued of the matter What shall it auaile me then to know that generally it is thought the Pope is aboue any Councell Supposing this point were generally held to be true though indeed as I said before it is denyed both by priuate men by 2. councels that of Basil the other of Constance which deposed two Popes Iohn the three and twentieth and Benedict the thirteenth And Bellarmine saith that to this day it remaines in question euen among the Catholikes Well put case all men thought as Bellarmine and all such Popish parasites would haue it what were I the nearer as long as there can be no certainty of truth in your opinion where nothing is iudicially determined by a Pope Coūcell The second resō of my doubt is that I know not how to find out either easily as you say euery man may or certainly though with some paines what is generally holdē by the Church for truth in al particular points wherof I doubt Shall I looke into the confessions of seuerall Churches Where are they to be found Shall I trauail into euery particular country to learne what they hold of this or that poynt What assurance can I get hereby but from some speciall men And it is a venture but they will not all agree in euery point What remaines Forsooth that which is all in all I must beleeue Watsō or Clarke or Blackwel the archpriest or if al these will not content me Gerrard Tesmond Hall or without all doubting Garnet the superior of the Iesuites who questionlesse is as void of error as the Pope himselfe Haue I not trow you a sound foundation to build my faith vpon when I haue the word of these equiuocating traitours Priests and Iesuits And yet this is the most I can haue in this case if I be a man vnlearned especially vnable to reade Is it possible any man should be so senslesse as to hazzard his euerlasting saluation vpon such an vncertainty to beleeue he knowes not what because a Priest or a Iesuit tels him that the Church generally doth so beleeue But what if it fall out as it may do that the Priests perswade him the Church holds one thing and the Iesuites affirme it maintaines the contrary how shall a poore soule either settle his iudgement or quiet his conscience Quid sequar aut quem Were it not a directer and certainer course to hold nothing for truth in religion but that which is proued to vs by plaine testimonies of Scripture or certaine consequence of reason drawne from principles euidently exprest or apparētly contained in the knowne word of God The difficulties of translation and interpretation shal be handled in their places which also as I shewed ere while accompany al your writings of priuate men Popes or Councels Now then if their be many particular points of cōtrouersies whereof I may doubt which are not resolued of by any iudgement of the Church nor agreed vpon by the learned of your owne side if I cannot certainly know what is generally held for truth by the Church but as I giue credit to the report of a Priest or Iesuit whom I know to be partiall in the matter because he is one of the Popes vassals subiect to erre because he is a priuate man likely enough to lye because he maintaines equiuocation what madnesse were it for me to forbeare searching and studying of the Scriptures where I am sure the truth of God is to be found and to lose my time and labour in seeking what the Church generally holds and that of those men who perhaps vnderstand not what is held but as they haue bene informed by others who may themselues haue mistaken the true meaning of the Church in that it holds A. D. §. 10. Of which points also If they be desirous they may haue sufficient authority and reason yeelded by the learned of the same Church though they should not so desire reason to be yeelded that without reason be giuen they would not beleeue at all or as grounding their faith vpon the reason giuen sith Christian beliefe ought onely to be grounded vpon the authoritie of God speaking by the mouth of the Church who ought to be beleeued in all matters without giuing any reason A. W. There is no sufficient authoritie for a man to ground his faith vpon but the truth of God reuealed Whatsoeuer is taught without that authoritie is as easily contēned as alleadged Therfore Iustine wils him that would be setled in
Leo faith that is true is a strong bulwarke to which faith nothing may be added by any man from which nothing may be taken because vnlesse it be one it is not faith sith the Apostle saith one Lord one faith one baptisme Is it not euident that he speakes of the points of faith that are to be beleeued For to them may a man adde I speake of power not of lawfulnesse from them may he take wheras the qualitie of faith seated in the soule is free from all such danger The learned father had found by experience that hereticks from time to time tooke vpon them to diminish and augment the faith of the Church that is the articles of religion and therefore denieth them to haue any faith that hold not firmly and onely the truth of doctrine according to the faith of the Church agreeable to Scripture A. D. §. 3. Omni studio saith S. Hierome Laborandum est primùm ocurrere in fidei vnitatem We must labour with all diligence first to meete in the vnitie of faith A. W. Ieroms testimonie wherein either the printer or you reade vnitatem for vnitate which is also the word in the text is to the same purpose that Leos was There are saith Ierome many winds of doctrine and by their blast when the waues are raised men are caried hither and thither in an vncertaine course and with diuers errors then follow the words you alledge Therefore we must labour with all diligence first to meete in the vnitie of faith then in the same vnitie to haue the knowledge of the sonne of God Which last point is added because of Sabellius who denied the distinction of the persons and against whom Ierome speaketh professedly in that chapter as also against Arius Macedonius and Eunomius about the holy Ghost and our Sauiour Christ A. D. §. 4. Hanc fidem saith Irenaeus ecclesia in vniuersum mundum disseminata diligenter custodit quasi vnam domum inhabitans similiter credit ijs quasi vnam animam habens vnum cor consonanter haec praedicat docet cradit quasi vnum possidens os Nam quamuis in mundo dissimiles sint loquelae tamen virtus traditionis vna eadem est This faith the Church spread ouer the whole world doth diligently keepe as dwelling in one house and doth belieue in one like manner those things to wit which are proposed for points of faith as hauing one soule and one heart and doth preach and teach and deliuer by tradition those things after one vniforme manner as possessing one mouth For although there be diuers and different languages in the world yet the vertue of tradition is One and the same Thus saith this Father By whose words we may vnderstand not onely that there is but one faith but also how it is said to be one which might seeme not to be one considering there are so many points or articles which we beleeue by our faith and so many seuerall men who haue in them this faith yet One saith this Father it is because the whole Church doth beleeue those points in one like manner That is to say because the beliefe of one man is in all points like and nothing different from the beliefe of another or because euery faithfull man beleeueth euery point or article for one and the like cause or for mall reason to wit because God hath reuealed it and deliuered it to vs by his Catholicke Church to be beleeued For which reason euery one should beleeue whatsoeuer he beleeueth as a point of Christian faith A. W. Irenaeus as the two former speaketh of the articles of religion many wherof he had recited in the next chapter before whereupon he infers the words you set downe The Church saith he hauing receiued this doctrine or preaching of this faith though it be spread ouer the whole world keepes it diligently c. And this your selfe acknowledge in these words To wit which are proposed for points of faith whereby you expound that which Irenaeus said The Church beleeues those things which is all one with his former words in sense This faith the Church holds So doth Feuardentius one of your learnedst Fryers vnderstand Irenaeus telling vs that he sets the consent of all Churches as a brasen wall that cannot be ouerthrowne against hereticks Of the same things saith Feuardentius they thinke beleeue write and teach the same By this place it is manifest that you take faith as it is a qualitie because you distinguish the points we beleeue from our faith by which we beleeue and so speaking of faith in that sense neuer a one of your proofes is either plaine or certaine But let vs see how you interprete Irenaeus He saith The whole Church doth beleeue alike meaning that all beleeue the same things not that the habit by which they beleeue is of like force like strength in euery particular Church or man which neither belongs to his purpose nor is true The intention or inward strength euen of the Catholick faith may be greater in one mā saith Domingo à Soto then in another and according to that increase our faith Therefore your former reason which you giue why faith is said to be one namely because the beleefe of one man is in all points like the beleefe of another must be vnderstood of likenesse in regard of the articles they beleeue not of any equalitie in the habit or qualitie it selfe and in that sense onely doth Irenaeus say that faith is one Which saith he no man by his eloquence maketh greater no man by his weaknes in speaking of it lesse We see saith Feuardentius that Irenaeus vehemently vrgeth the vnitie of doctrine and consent of faith which we affirmed to be one of the notes of the true Church Therefore whereas you said of Irenaeus that he affirmes faith to be one because the whole Church doth beleeue those things points of faith in one like manner you mistake his meaning and auow that which is vntrue It is great pitie but that such as you are coming in the name and by the authority of the Church should haue absolute credit giuen to that you teach without doubting or examining it at all Your second reason why faith is said to be one neither agrees with Irenaeus meaning as appeares by that which hath bene alreadie said and in the latter part is false too for both it is a fansie of yours that God hath deliuered it to vs by the Catholicke Church since the Prophets Apostles and Ministers are not the Catholicke Church but members of it the last all of them seuerally and ioyntly subiect to many errors though not fundamentall And the reason of beleeuing is simply and onely the authoritie and will of God made knowne to vs by the ministerie of men the holy Ghost enlightening our vnderstanding and enclining our hearts to beleeue But
excused in your iudgement by ignorance concerning any positiue commaundement of God but out of doubt there are many points of truth reuealed by God onely as positiue not as such meanes to saluation that without the beleefe of them a man cannot be saued Adde hereunto that a Christian may be ignorant of many points held by the Church and that by negatiue ignorance because he could neuer come where he might heare that the Church beleeued such and such things It is therefore an vnreasonable thing to condemne all ignorance for heresie and a most vncharitable conceit to cast all into hell fire that beleeue not in euery point as the Church generally doth yea though they know what the Church mainteines be of a contrarie mind Your proofe which is a comparison of likenesse or equality betwixt infidelitie in denying all Christian religion and heresie in not beleeuing some points of it is a great deale too weake Similitudes argue indeed but rather by way of illustration then proofe And there is no equalitie betwixt denying all and doubting of some The former absolutely ouerthrowes true religion the latter onely misconceiues some points leauing the grounds of truth vntouched and beleeuing them as most certaine A. D. § 6. Fourthly I may confirme the same with the testimonie of the ancient Fathers First of S. Athanasius in his creed which is commonly knowne and approoued of all Quicunque saith he vult saluus esse ante omnia opus est vt teneat Catholicam fidem quam nisi quisque integram inuiolatamque seruauerit absque dubio in aeternum peribit Whosoeuer will be saued before all things it is needfull that he hold the Catholicke faith which vnlesse euerie one doe keepe entire and vnviolate without doubt he shall perish euerlastingly A. W. If the ancient writers should affirme a thing so vnreasonable there were good reason for a man to looke for some proofe of it out of the Scriptures But no doubt we shall finde your citations of their writings as much to the purpose as we haue done your former arguments The first you alleadge is Athanasius in his Creed to which I answer that Athanasius speaks not of all points reuealed by God but of those substantiall matters which are there set downe by him and namely of the Trinitie of persons and Godhead of our Sauiour Iesus Christ This appeares by the last verse of the same Creed where he thus concludeth This is the Catholicke faith which except a man beleeue faithfully he cannot be saued But Athanâ—siuâ— hath not comprehended all points of religion in that Creed for he leaueth out the buriall of our Sauiour Christ vnlesse you will say he put his going downe into hell for it neither doth he require in that place any other point as necessary to be beleeued to saluation but those onely that he there reciteth which must be kept entire and vnuiolate of euery man that will be saued A. D. §. 7. Qui sunt in sacris literis eruditi saith Saint Basil ne vnam quidem sillabam diuinorum dogmatum prodi sinunt sed pro istius defensione si opus est nullum non mortis genus libenter amplectuntur Those that are well instructed in holy Writ doe not suffer one sillable of diuine doctrine to be betraied or yeelded vp but for the defence thereof if need be doe willingly embrace any kinde of death A. W. That of Basil is lesse to the purpose For first he saith nothing of any doctrine propounded by the Church or of your vnwritten traditioÌ„s but only of the Scriptures And how makes this for the beleeuing whatsoeuer the Church wil deliuer without which in your iudgement faith cannot be one or entire Secondly he speakes not of all ignorant men whose faith vpon paine of damnation you will haue entire concerning euery point but of those onely that are learned in the holy Scriptures or at the most so farre as they are learned in them I astly what saith he of these but that which we alwaies require that a christian should not suffer any sillable of true doctrine to be betraied This makes against you who rest wholly vpon Popes and Councils and by that meanes oftentimes betray the truth of God manifested in the Scripture yea so farre are you from mainteining euery sillable of it with hazard of your liues that you doe what you can for shame to destroy it all You Papists depriue the people of them altogether at least for their priuate reading howsoeuer your Pope Pius 4. makes a shew of permitting it You haue thrust out the Authenticall copies of Hebrew and Greeke and in steed of them authorised a corrupt Latine translation which no man may refuse vpon any pretence though it haue 8000 places as Isidorus Clarius a great learned man of your owne affirmeth in which the sense of the holy Ghost is changed yea Cardinal Hosius blusheth not to write That it were better for the Church if there were no written Gospell extant I omit your blasphemies against the Scriptures whereof I haue spoken otherwhere A. D. §. 8. Nihil periculosius saith Nazianzen his haereticis esse potest qui cum integrè per omnia decurrant vno tamen verbo quasi veneni gutta veram illam ac simplicem fidem dominicam inficiunt Nothing can be more perilous then these heretickes who when they runne vprightly through all the rest yet with one word as with a drop of poyson doe infect that true and sincere faith of our Lord. A. W. What if Gregorie Nazianzen complaine that heretickes which held most points soundly according to truth as Arius Eutyches Macedonius Nestorius and diuers other did were very pernitious to the Church because they did more easily and secretly poyson the truth of doctrine by their heresies Will it follow hereupon that therefore a man cannot be saued vnlesse he beleeue euerie point of truth reuealed by God or that a man hath no faith because his beleefe agrees not in euery small matter with other Christians Remember I pray you we denie not that faith should be entire but that it cannot be auaileable to saluation if in any one point it misbeleeue Thus haue I examined the first part of this your Treatise of Faith which I know not how I should apply to your maine syllogisme implied in your preface when you shew the vse of it in any part thereof I will giue you answer accordingly A. D. CHAP. V. That there must be some means prouided by almighty God by which all sorts of men may learne this faith which is so necessary to saluatioÌ„ A. W. The title of this Chapter is so propounded that your meaning may easily be mistaken There must be say you some meanes prouided May not a man gather by these words that as yet there are no such meanes prouided where as you would haue vs beleeue that God hath already made prouision of fit meanes to that
and writing Further it is false that a priuate spirit agreeing with the Catholicke Church in doctrine can be in that point of agreement the rule of faith For although the doctrine he teacheth be true yet is it not the rule of faith much lesse is he himselfe because of his authoritie but either as you say by reason of the authoritie of the Church or indeed as we truly affirme for that it is agreeable to the word of God in the Scripture called canonical because it is the rule of faith and manners Now for answer to your Syllogisme I say your Assumption is not simply true but onely so farre forth as the receiued doctrine of the Catholicke Church I speake as you do agreeth with the truth in the Scripture reuealed Neither doth Saint Paul speake of whatsoeuer doctrine receiued by your imagined Catholicke Church of Rome but of that which he himselfe or some other of the Apostles had taught the Galatians to whom he writeth that Epistle This it should seeme you saw well enough and therefore in your crastie discretion for bare to translate the Apostles words which for the most part you set downe alwayes as well in English as in Latine The reason lieth thus He that teacheth contrary to the doctrine which the Galatians had receiued of the Apostles is to be accursed for his preaching so But a priuate spirit that teacheth contrary to the receiued doctrine of the Catholicke Church teacheth contrary to the doctrine which the Galatians had receiued by the Apostles Therefore a priuate spirit teaching contrary to the receiued doctrine of the Catholicke Church is to be accursed for his preaching so Who seeth not that the truth of this Assumption dependeth vpon this point that the Catholicke Church hath receiued no other doctrine then that which the Apostles taught the Galatians But this hath as much need of sound proofe as that for the proofe whereof it is brought and therefore to dispute thus against any man that would hold a priuate spirit to be the rule of faith were to giue him occasion to laugh at you for begging the question in stead of prouing it But to make all men see how small force there is in this your reason for the keeping of a priuate spirit from being the rule of faith I will frame two other syllogismes against a publick spirit or Councel and against the Pope 1. He that must be accursed for his teaching cannot be the rule of faith But a publicke spirit or Councell that teacheth contrary to the receiued doctrine of the Catholick Church must be accursed for his teaching Therefore a publicke spirit or Councell that teacheth contrary to the receiued doctrine of the Catholicke Church cannot be the rule of faith 2. He that must be accursed for his teaching cannot be the rule of faith But the Pope that teacheth contrarie to the receiued doctrine of the Catholicke Church must be accursed for his teaching Therefore the Pope that teacheth contrarie to the receiued doctrine of the Catholicke Church cannot be the rule of faith Haue you not spun a faire threed thinke you to choake the Popes and the Councels authoritie withall Call your wits about you and deuise some cleanly shift for the matter or I can tel you all wil be naught For your Religion is no more able to hold vp head if the Popes authoritie be cast downe then a man that hath neuer a leg is able to stand vpright It will go the harder with you in this matter because if I grant that the Pope cannot erre you are neuer a whit the nearer for the answering of my syllogisme as you may perceiue if you will but assay to apply that point for answer to either part thereof There is no other way but to giue ouer this your first reason against a priuate spirit and to make amends for it in the second if you can A. D. §. 3. Secondly the rule of faith must be infallible plainly knowne to all sorts of men and vniuersall that is to say such as may sufficiently instruct all men in all points of faith without danger of errour as hath bene proued before But this priuate spirit is not such For first that man himselfe cannot be vnfallibly sure that he in particular is taught by the holy spirit For neither is there any promise in Scripture to assure him infallibly that he in particular is thus taught neither is there any other sufficient reason to perswade the same For suppose he haue such extraordinarie motions feelings or illustrations which he thinketh cannot come of himselfe but from some spirit yet he cannot in reason straightwayes conclude that he is thus moued and taught by the spirit of God For sure it is that euery spirit is not the Spirit of God As there is the spirit of truth so there is a spirit of errour As there is an Angell of light so there is a Prince of darknesse Yea sometimes Ipse Sathanas transfigurat se in Angelum lucis Sathan himselfe doth transfigure himselfe into an Angell of light Wherefore he had need very carefully to put in practise the aduise of Saint Iohn who saith Nolite credere omni spiritui sed probate spiritus si ex Deo sint Doe not beleeue euerie spirit but prooue and trie them whether they be of God or no. Neither doth it seeme sufficient that a priuate man trie them onely by his owne iudgement or by those motions feelings or illuminations which in his priuate conceit are conformable to Scripture because all this triall is verie vncertaine and subiect to errour by reason that our owne iudgement especially in our own matters is verie easily deceiued and that Sathan can so cunningly couer himselfe vnder the shape of a good Angell and so colour his wicked designements with pretense of good and so gild his darke and grosse errours with the glistering light of the words and seeming sense of scripture that hardly or not at all he shall be perceiued VVherefore the safest way were to trie these spirits by the touchstone of the true Pastours of the Catholicke Church who may say with S. Paul Nō ignoramus cogitationes Satanae we are not ignorant of the cogitations of Sathan and who may also say with S. Iohn Nos ex Deo sumus qui nouit Deum audit nos qui non est ex Deo non audit nos In hoc cognoscimus spiritum veritatis spiritum erroris VVe are of God he that knoweth God heareth vs he that is not of God doth not heare vs. In this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of errour Now if any will not admit this manner of trying discerning the spirit of truth from the spirit of errour but will trust their owne iudgement alone in this matter feare they may iustly nay rather they may be sure as Cassian saith that they shall worship in their thoughts the Angell of darknesse for the Angel of light to
companie congregatio congregation multitudo multitude turba troope concio assembly exercitus armie But the two Greeke words are best knowne Ecclesia and Synagôga the former whereof commeth of the Hebrew retaining almost the signification and sound thereof In this they all agree that they note vnto vs a companie or assembly But because the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word that most of all concerneth this question let vs enquire of that the more diligently The word for the nature of it signifieth any companie called together generally any assembly lawfully or vnlawfully orderly or disorderly assembled Of lawful assemblies there is no question of vnlawfull we haue an example in the Scripture where the people of Ephesus tumultuously ranne together against Paul and Apollos So doth the Hebrew word signifie in the Psalmes where the Greeke and Latine translate by the same word I haue hated the assembly of the wicked But in the new testament except that one place of the Acts it is alwaies applied to them that make profession of religion In which sense it is sometimes vsed indefinitely God hath ordained some in the Church first Apostles c. So the Apostle Paul saith that he had persecuted the Church of God Thus may we also vnderstād that The house of God which is the Church of the liuing God If we conceiue that the Apostle speaketh to Timothie as to an Euangelist and not as to the Pastor or Bishop of Ephesus Hitherto may those places be referred The Lord added to the Church from day to day And great feare came on all the Church Herode stretched forth his hand to vexe certaine of the Church and such like though they may also be vnderstood of the beleeuers at those times ordinarily abiding in Ierusalem and assembling themselues together in one or which is the likelier in diuers congregations for exercise of religion More particularly and vsually the Church is taken for anie one congregation assembled about matters of religion It seemed good to the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church Not as if the Apostles and Elders had bene no members of that Church but the principall being first named the generall terme is added which comprehended all as if they should haue said The Apostles and Elders and all the rest of the Church at Ierusalem whereof as it was a particular congregation the Apostles at that time were not members And in this meaning may a Councell of diuers parishes prouinces or nations be called by the name of a Church and in the like sort may we call the assemblies congregations in Rome Coriath Ephesus the Churches of Rome Corinth Ephesus because of some common synod or because by the terme Church the beleeuers are signified Most vsually the seuerall congregations in any countrie or Citie are called Churches because of their ordinarie assembling Then had the Churches rest through all Iudea When they had ordained them Elders by election in euery Church VVe haue no such custome nor the Churches of God When the title is applied to particular families it hath no other meaning as I take it then to note them for Christians or beleeuers Greet the Church that is the beleeuers which are in their house And thus much of the Church as it signifieth generally Beleeuers The word Church is vsed in the scriptures and that verie often not for all but onely for some beleeuers namely for such as are indeed true beleeuers in respect of true faith in Iesus Christ and these are alwaies of the elect who are then called the Church when they are brought to the knowledge of the truth and to Iustifying faith Therefore when we say that the Church signifieth the elect or predestinate we meane onely such of the elect as by faith are members of our Sauiours bodie he being the head For howsoeuer in the secret Counsell of God many not yet borne be predestinate to euerlasting life yet they are not to be accounted of this Church before it hath pleased God to call them to beleeue in Christ Examples of the Church thus taken amongst many are these Vpon this rocke I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it God hath giuen Christ aboue all the head of the Church So the Church is called Christs bodie This may serue concerning the meaning of the wotd out of which I obserue this point that since the terme Church is so diuersly taken in the scripture no argument from any place of Scripture can be of force to prooue any question till the signification of the word in that place be euident and certaine And therefore it is not enough for proofe of a matter in controuersie betwixt vs to alledge a text of Scripture where such a thing is spoken of the Church but it stands vs vpon to prooue that in the place we alledge by Church the companie we intend is signified This being vnderstood and remembred I come now to the seuerall points in your Minor A. D. §. 4. The promise of our Sauiour Christ we haue first in the Gospell of Saint Matthew Ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus vsque ad consummationem seculi I am with you all the daies vntill the end of the world in which words is promised the continuall presence of Christ himselfe who is veritas the truth it selfe with his Church not for a while then or for a while now but all the daies vntill the end of the world Secondly we haue an other promise in the Gospell of Saint Iohn Ego rogabo Patrem alium paracletum dabit vobis vt maneat vobiscum in aeternum Spiritum veritatis I will aske my Father and he will giue you an other paraclite the spirit of truth that he may remaine with you not onely for 600. yeares but for euer And againe in the same Saint Iohn to shew vs for what purpose he would haue his holy Spirit remaine among vs for euer he saith Paracletus quem mittet Pater in nomine meo ille vos docebit omnia suggeret vobis omnia quaecunque dixero vobis The paraclite whom my Father will send in my name shall teach you all things and shall put you in minde of all things whatsoeuer I shall say vnto you And againe Cum venerit ille Spiritus veritatis docebit vos omnem veritatem When that spirit of truth shall come he shall teach you all truth A. W. The first point of your Minor is that Christ promiseth his presence and the assistance of his spirit to teach them all truth First I demaund whether our Sauiours presence be for the teaching of all truth or no or whether that be onely the office of the spirit If the former to what purpose is the spirit promised whom our Sauiour hath appointed his vicegerent as it were in that matter as the other places you alledge prooue
If it belong to the spirit how is the presence of Christ applied therunto But to answer directly to the place thus you dispute If Christ haue promised to be with a companie of men till the end of the world then he hath promised it that he might teach the Church all truth But he hath promised to be with a companie of men till the end of the world Therefore he hath promised it that he might teach them all truth Admit all this were granted yet would it not follow hereupon that the Church therefore could not erre because as I answered before perhaps they would not haue care to learne and remember all though our Sauiour were readie to teach them all I denie the consequence of your proposition First because they to whom our Sauiour maketh this promise are not the Church as you vnderstand the Church that is the Cleargie of whose teaching you wholy speake but the faithfull ioyntly and seuerally as well hearers as teachers as well euery one as all together This appeareth by the text Go teach all nations c. and behold I am with you till the end of the world With whom With you that teach only Nay rather with al beleeuers for all which he praied as well as for the teachers So haue the ancient writers expounded and vnderstood this place He doth not say he will be with them onely saith Chrysostome but also with all that shall beleeue after them For the Apostles were not to continue to the end of the world but he speaketh to the faithfull as to one bodie Christ sheweth saith Jerome that he will neuer depart from them that beleeue So doth Cyprian make it common to all beleeuers that confesse the truth of God in time of triall So doth Leo to all that are adopted He that is gone vp into Heauen saith Leo doth not forsake them that are adopted So Beda he remaineth with his elect in this world protecting thē To which purpose S. Austin saith that this promise is fulfilled by our Sauiour in that he is present according to his maiestie according to his prouidence according to his vnspeakable and inuisible grace With all that beleeue saith Gaudentius I will be with you that is saith Denys the Charterhouse monke with you and your successors and with all the faithfull or militant Church And thereupon he gathereth that the faith shall neuer wholy faile but Christian religion shall continue in some till the end of the world The like collection Rabanus maketh Hereby saith he it is vnderstood that there shall neuer be some wanting till the ende of the world who shall be worthie or fit for God to dwell in The Councell of Vienna as Gregorie de Valentia saith expounded the place of Christ being present in the Sacrament which is common to all beleeuers lib. 3. Clement de relique vener sanctorum c. si Dominum Secondly the consequence is naught because the ende of Christs presence is not to teach the Church all truth but to protect and defend them by his power in the profession of the truth So it is applied as we heard before by Cyprian to the comfort of the Christians then imprisoned for religion So doth Austin take it that he is present by his prouidence and diuine Maiestie The same is Haymo his iudgement and exposition But Martialis is most plaine who by this promise exhorteth thē of Tholouse in France to perseuere in the profession of religion because our Sauiour Christ will neuer leaue thē but alwaies be present with them He confirmeth and encourageth them saith Theophylact because he sent them to the Gentiles into dangers and hazards of their liues And Chrysostome thinketh wherein also Theophyl secondeth him that our Sauiour mentioneth the end of the world because he would haue them with more patience and constancy endure what soeuer hard measure for a time vpon earth in regard of the ioyes whereof they should be made partakers in the world to come If then this promise of our Sauiour belong to all euery true beleeuer if it be vttered for the comfort of all such that they may rest vpon his mighty protection who seeth not that an impossibilitie of your Cleargies erring cannot be concluded from it 1 The places of Iohn are thus to be concluded If our Sauiour haue promised the spirit of truth to a certain company of men to abide with thē for euer teach thē all truth then the teaching of these men is an assured ground of faith But Christ hath promised the spirit so to a certain cōpany of men Therfore the teaching of these men is an assured ground of faith First I answer that your conclusion proueth not the point in question because this companie to which the promise is made is not the Church from time to time but that promise belongeth to the Apostles either onely or at the least principally in such a measure of being taught The former may thus appeare because our Sauiour speaketh of another comforter in respect of his owne bodily departure from them which cannot belong to the Church now with which Christ was neuer present in that sort Secondly this spirit promised was to bring all things that Christ had taught to their remembrance whom he should teach But this cannot belong to the present Church nor to any Church since the Apostles Thirdly this sending of the spirit was performed when the holy Ghost came vpon the Apostles which doth not befall the Church now a dayes Fourthly the same spirit was to shew them the things to come either concerning themselues in particular or by giuing them the gift of prophesie which now the Church hath not Thus do Tertullian and Austin vnderstand these places applying them to the Apostles so doth Iansenius bishop of Gaunt so Chrysostome and Theophylact so your ordinary Glosses and Lyra. And whereas this interpretation may seeme to be refuted by the place it selfe because the spirit must abide with them to whom he is promised for euer that is expounded by Chrysostome to signifie his continuance with them euen after death also Which Theophylact sets out more at large His companie with you saith our Sauiour shall not be for a time as mine but shall continue for euer neither shall it faile when you are dead but shall remaine with you and shall make you more glorious He promiseth saith your Glosse that the spirit shall do all not that all is fulfilled in this life This Comforter saith Lyra shall not be taken from you as my humane nature is drawne away by death but shall be with you eternally here by grace but in the world to come by glorie We may perhaps conceiue our Sauiours meaning to be no more but that the spirit which hee would send should not leaue them as he was to do but should abide
contempt Secondly in Saint Mathew the same our Sauiour expresly saith Si Ecclesiam non audierit sit tibi sicut Ethnicus publicanus If he will not heare the Church let him be to thee like an Ethnicke and a Publican Finally in Saint Marke after he had giuen charge and commission to preach the Gospell to euerie creature he pronounceth this threat to those that will not beleeue saying Qui non crediderit condemnabitur He that will not beleeue shall be condemned A. W. This is the last point in your Assumption and thus it is to be concluded He that despiseth our Sauiour that is to be accounted as an heathen or Publican that shall be condemned is greatly threatned in Scripture But he that will not heare the Church and doe in all things according to the saying thereof despiseth our Sauiour c. Therefore he that will not heare the Church and doe in all things according to the saying thereof is greatly threatned in Scripture I denie your Minor and will answer to the seuerall proofes of it To the first whereof I shall need to say little because I spake sufficiently of the former part of that text at the third point The summe is that this threatning as the warrant is not vttered in respect of any Church or companie but of seuerall teachers and preachers and therefore if we may not conclude from hence that he which heareth not euery minister and doth in all things according to his saying is guiltie of these crimes no more is he that performeth not the like dutie to a cōpany of Pastors or bishops assembled together Secondly if it were spokē of the Church yet were not any man to be held faulty in such a measure but he onely that refuseth the ministerie of the Gospell and embraceth not the doctrine thereof as the onely way of saluation Therefore said our Sauiour in the same chapter and matter Into whatsoeuer Citie ye shall enter if they will not receiue you go your waies out into the streets of the same and say euen the verie dust which cleaueth on vs of your Citie we wipe off against you So did the Apostles against the Iewes of Antioch in Pisidia for their contempt of the Gospell They shooke off the dust of their feet against them Thus as I signified before your glosse vnderstandeth it He that despiseth you so that he will not beleeue in Christ Is it all one to despise a man and not to assent to the truth of whatsoeuer he speaketh This may proceed and doth ordinarily from an error of iudgement that commeth alwaies from a resolute determination of the will Thirdly as hearing so despising must be vnderstood not simply but when the parties to be heard or despised preach the truth of Iesus Christ according to his word For there is no commaundement as I shewed in handling of the last point that bindeth vs any farther to obedience or makes vs liable to punishment then the things deliuered are agreeable to the word of God vnlesse we do against our conscience Therefore your speech of your Catholicke Church is but idle there being no speech nor thought of it in this place but onely a charge to heare the Apostles simply because they could not erre other teachers iointly or seuerally though the latter be properly intended so farre forth as they speake agreeably to the Scriptures and so do not erre First I say this place is not to purpose because it speaketh of a man alreadie in the Church a beleeuer by profession whereas your question is of him that is no Christian but to be made a beleeuer by giuing credit to that which shall be preached to him That it is to be vnderstood of beleeuers onely the text it selfe speaketh If thy brother If anie man that is called a brother Thy brother that is a Christian saith Theophylact For our Lord hath appointed no such course to be taken saith Chrysostome with them that are out of the Church But this is meant of him that vnder the name of a beleeuer saith Ierome plaieth the Infidell A brother saith Iansenius is here vnderstood not to be euerie neighbour or euerie man but he that is a Christian of the same religion with vs. His reasons are first because our Sauiour saith Tell the Church but the Church hath nothing to doe in such cases with those that are not members of it What haue I to do saith Paul to iudge them that are without Secondly because an Heathen and Publican are alreadie out of the Church and so the censure here appointed cannot concerne them Secondly by not hearing the Church our Sauiour doth not meane not beleeuing all points of doctrine the Church deliuereth of which there was no occasion for him to speake at that time but refusing to be ordered by the Church and despising the admonition thereof So is hearing and not hearing there to be vnderstood If he heare thee what is that If he beleeue the doctrine thou teachest No such matter But if he take thy admonition in good part and accordingly reforme himselfe So afterwards If he refuse to heare the witnesses This refusall hath a kinde of contempt ioyned with it If he contemne the Church saith Cyprian Despising the commaundement of his prelate saith Lyra. Thirdly by Church no man in this place can reasonably vnderstand a generall Councell either without or with the Pope For questionlesse our Sauiour would neuer speak so obscurely to the Iewes for whom it was impossible to vnderstand his meaning and whom that matter did not concerne But he speaketh either of the gouernours of seuerall Churches or of the congregatiōs gouernors which are properly the Church in those places where they liue In the former sense do Chrysostome and Theophylact take it and your Rhemists by Chrysostomes authority Tell the Prelates and gouernours Tell them saith Bellarmine that are publicke persons in the Church And in an other place Euerie mans Prelate or a companie of Prelates is meant The latter opinion your Bishop Iansenius maintaines He saith tell the Church not tell the Bishops and gouernours of the Church though they especially are to be told the Church is not to be told but in their presence as a company of beleeuers is not to be called a Church if the gouernours thereof be not present He saith tell the Church that he may reuerence the agreement of the multitude That the reproofe by many may correct him To this purpose Ierome saith It must be told to many And therefore if any man thinke that by telling the Church it is meant we should tell the Pope besides the absurdity of the interpretation the Pope being but one and the Church by your owne definition a Company both our Sauiour Christs course is peruerted Tell him alone thē with one or two witnesses lastly tel one againe Iansenins Ierom
are professedly against him Fourthly it may be that by the Church our Sauiour vnderstandeth according to the custome of the Iewes in those daies not any assemblie of the Cleargie about Church causes but generally the Councell of the Elders which had power to end diuers matters betwixt parties of their owne nation After which example the Apostle willeth the Corinthians to appoint Iudges amongst themselues that they might not dishonor God the professiō of christianity by going to law one with another vnder infidels If this course take not effect then saith our Sauiour deale with him as thou wouldest mightst deale with an heathen or Publican by following the Law against him in what Court thou thinkest best for thy aduantage And this exposition as farre as I can yet see seemeth agreeable to the text it selfe the purpose of our Sauiour who seemeth to speake onely or especially of priuat abuses and quarrels as might be shewed by diuers reasons and in part hath bene by a learned writer to whom I referre the Reader in this point Fiftly it is more then manifest that our Sauiour speaketh not of hearing or not hearing the word but of some quarell or sinfull action at the most which also is to be determined or corrected in each seuerall congregatiō as the testimonies of Chrysostome Theophylact Iansenius and Bellarmine declare Tell the Church not the vniuersall Church spread ouer the face of the earth but that particular Church in which euery man liueth and to which he is subiect saith Lucas of Bruges There is a treatise that goes vnder Cyprians name wherein the author out of this place concludeth that euery man must seeke to his owne Bishop All these things considered let euery one iudge whether this peece of scripture be fitly applied by you to proue that we must beleeue without doubting whatsoeuer the Church deliuereth But I wil propound the reason that all men may vnderstand and consider it If he that being proceeded withall first by admonition of one man alone then by the like with one or two witnesses lastly by the gouerners of the Church concerning some quarrell or matter of fact will not obey the voyce of the Church must be to vs as an heathen or a Publican then whosoeuer wil not beleeue whatsoeuer the Church teacheth is greatly threatned in the Scripture But he that being so proceeded against in such a matter will not obey is so to be accounted of Therefore he that will not beleeue whatsoeuer the Church teacheth is greatly threatned in the Scripture I haue framed this Syllogisme as euery man may see with the greatest aduantage that can reasonably be taken by this place to your purpose whereas I needed not haue allowed the interpretation on which the reason is grounded Al which notwithstanding who discerneth not the weaknesse of the consequence in the proposition What if such a man be so to be accounted of doth it follow therupon that euery one who beleeueth not the Church in all points is threatned First vnlesse the same course of proceeding be held why should the partie be threatned because where such a course is taken there a man is to be so reckoned of Secondly how doth it follow that if in iudgement concerning a matter of fact the Church must be hearkned to for reformation then in all matters whatsoeuer it is absolutely to be heard by all men Such are your proofes in points of greatest importance I refer the Reader to that which I answered before concerning this place to which I adde vpon the present occasion that our Sauiour sending forth his Ministers to preach the Gospell chargeth them to square their doctrine according to those things which they had receiued in commission from him therfore are they no farther to be obeyed then their preaching is warrantable for the particulars out of our Sauiours instructions giuen them which the Apostles directed by Gods spirit truly and faithfully deliuered first by word of mouth and after by writing to be the pillar as Irenaeus saith and foundation of our faith And if this place conuey any such authoritie to the Church it giueth the same to euery seuerall teacher as it did to euery one of the Apostles seuerally and so euery priest secular or regular must be heard and beleeued whatsoeuer he teach A. D. §. 9. Thus you see our Sauiour Christ hath promised to his Church the continuall presence of himselfe and of his holy Spirit to teach that companie all truth Whereof followeth that it is infallibly taught all truth Moreouer he hath giuen charge and commission to that Church to teach vs and hath warranted and commaunded vs in all points to heare and do according to the saying of this Church which proueth that it appertaineth to this church to instruct vs in all points of faith and that we ought to learne of it in all matters of religion what is the infallible truth and consequently that the doctrine of this Church is the rule of faith A. W. Neither we nor you can see any such thing if we looke no farther then the holy Ghost directeth vs who assureth vs of no more but that the Apostles should be so instructed and guided that they should not erre in their teaching either by word of mouth or by writing by reason of ignorance or any other peruerse affection and that all the childrē of God shall be so taught and protected that they shall neuer fall away from saluation by Christ As for your Church or certaine companie that is your Cleargie and Pope assembled in a generall Councell neither those places of Scripture you haue brought nor any other you can bring once make mention of any such promise to them Therefore haue we no warrant to heare and doe in all points according to the saying of any Church not onely not of yours but so far as that Church teacheth according to the doctrine of our Sauiour Christ in the Scripture which is the rule of faith A. D. §. 10. Worthily therefore doth S. Paul call this Church columnam firmamentū veritatis the pillar and ground of truth Worthily also saith S. Austin Scripturarum à nobis tenetur veritas cum id facimus quod vniuersae placet Ecclesiae quam earundem Scripturarum commendat authoritas vt quoniam Scriptura sancta fallere non potest quisquis falli metuit huius obscuritate quaestionis Ecclesiam de illa consulat quam sine vlla ambiguitate Scriptura sancta demonstrat The truth of the Scriptures is holden of vs when we do that which pleaseth the vniuersall or whole Church the which is commended by the authoritie of the Scriptures themselues that because the holy Scripture cannot deceiue whosoeuer feareth to be deceiued with the obscuritie of this question let him require the iudgement of the Church which without any ambiguitie the holy Scripture doth demonstrate by which words he sheweth plainly that the sentence of
the Church is of infallible and vndoubted truth and that the way not to be deceiued in an obscure question is to aske and follow the iudgement of the Church Wherefore worthily also do we all say Credo Ecclesiam Catholicam I beleeue the Catholicke Church and worthily also may I conclude that neither Scripture alone nor naturall wit and learning nor priuate spirit nor any other thing but onely the teaching of the true Church of Christ is that ordinarie meanes which Almightie God hath prouided whereby all men may learne that one infallible entire faith which I proued to be necessarie to saluation A. W. Saint Paul doth worthily call the Church the pillar and ground of truth but not as you would haue vs beleeue because it is the rule of faith The Greeke Scholiast taketh that speech of the Apostle to be vttered by way of comparison betwixt the Church of Christ and the Iewish Temple Not as the Iewish Temple saith Oecumenius but the pillar and ground of truth for the Temple was the ground of the shadowes of the truth Out of which we may gather that as the Iewish synagogue was the pillar and ground of those shadowes of the truth so is the Church of Christ the pillar and ground of the truth it selfe But that synagogue was not the rule of faith in that point because whatsoeuer it taught was to be held for infallible truth but for that to it were committed the oracles of God and the knowledge and vse of those ceremonies so hath the Church of Christ the truth of doctrine in the scripture and the exercises of Gods worship and religion Therfore is it called the pillar and ground of it because it constantly maintaineth that truth preaching and professing it in despight of all the practises and power of Satan and tyrants of the world As the thighs saith an ancient writer sustaine and beare vp the weight of the whole bodie so also the Apostles like pilars valiantly carry the vniuersall Church of Christians ouer the whole world being for the value of their inuincible courage and stedfastnesse of their holy purpose called marble pillars And a litle after They preached the Gospell with such wisedome and constancie that as if they had bene of marble or adamant they were afraid of no violence nor aduersitie but always continuing firme and inuincible against all the forces of men and diuels shining as it were in the darke by that light of their wisedome by preaching admonishing teaching and glistering with miracles at the last they most happily became conquerors To this effect speake your Glosses The ground of the truth of the Gospell which the Church constantly maintained euen in the greatest persecutions Well vpholding the truth in it self saith another Glosse That it may not fall to the ground though it be afflicted saith Lombard But let vs bring your reason into due frame The pillar and ground of truth is the rule of faith The Church is the pillar and ground of truth Therefore the Church is the rule of faith Your proposition or maior is false vnlesse you restraine it as I haue often said to the truth and then it is so far the rule of faith as it is the pillar and ground of truth Whatsoeuer it holdeth truly according to the scripture is the rule of faith for those points not because of the Churches authoritie but for the truth of the doctrine Yet may it easily come to passe that a Church maintaining the generall truth of the Gospell and all particulars necessary to soluation may faile in many other points of great importance and for all that continue both a true Church and the pillar and ground of truth though not the rule of faith Your minor also as you vnderstand it is vntrue First because the Apostle speaketh not of any such companie as you imagine Pope Bishop Councell but either of the Church of Ephesus in which Timothie to whom he writeth then abode or indefinitely of any and euery Church whatsoeuer where the true Religion of our Sauiour is or shall be professed according to the Gospell If Timothie were as you will not denie Bishop of Ephesus then it is apparent that the Apostle calleth the Church of Ephesus wherein Timothy liued taught and gouerned the pillar and ground of truth yet was it not the rule of faith for then had the rule of faith perished long since with that Church of Ephesus If he speake to him as to an Euangelist who was to follow him from place to place and to establish the Churches which the Apostle had planted then must euery one of those Churches wherein Timothy was to behaue himselfe as he had done in Ephesus be vnderstood to be the pillar and ground of truth and yet neither any nor all of them were the rule of faith which else must haue bene lost with them What remaines then Shall we expound it of all beleeuers in generall I grant it reacheth to all the faithfull but as to them considered in their seuerall Churches because among them so disposed of was Timothy to performe that dutie which the Apostle there enioyneth him But let vs so conceiue of the Church What shall it auaile you or endamage vs All beleeuers are not the companie you pleade for but onely the Pope and your Bishops whom you would haue taken for the rule of faith Secondly I denie your minor in respect of the sense you giue of those words the pillar and ground of truth For you so vnderstand them as if the truth of God depended vpon the verdict of the Church so that nothing may be held for truth but what the Church deliuereth for such and whatsoeuer she so propoundeth must so be receiued vpon paine of certaine damnation How contrary are you in this interpretation and doctrine to the auncient fathers The Apostles saith Irenaeus left vs the Scriptures to be the pillar and ground of our faith Nay say you they left vs the Church to be the pillar and ground of the Scriptures The Gospell and spirit of life saith the same father in the same booke is the pillar and ground of the Church Nay by your leaue reply you the Church is the pillar and ground of the Gospell But Chrysostome handling this place of the Apostle is not afraid to affirme that the truth is the pillar and ground of the Church not as if he would denie that which the Apostle saith for the Church indeed is the vpholder of the truth but to shew that although the Church maintaine and auow the truth yet it is built and founded vpon the truth which as Ierome saith vpholds the building Therfore to make short whē the Apostle saith that the Church is the pillar and ground of truth his meaning is that amongst Christians and among no other sort of men the truth is to be found and amongst and by them it is constantly and worthily
is vnpossible because God doth not reueale this point to men neither are they able to iudge who are truly iustified and sanctified and who are not Secondly the question is whether the catholicke Church spokē off in the Creed can be discerned by the same bodily sight or no we say it cannot because it containeth none but the elect you say it can because it consisteth of all them that make profession of christian Religion vnder the absolute gouernment of the Pope of Rome The onely true meanes to make a full end of this controuersie is to shew what the Church is of which the Creed the Scriptures speak so many and so glorious matters This point you haue not once touched but either ignorantly or craftily concealed that difference betwixt vs and alledge that for the definition of the Church which if it were true as it is euidently false yet is but one priuiledge of the Church and expresseth not the nature of it But let vs leaue these matters and consider what it is that according to your former discourse you are to prooue Now that is say I that there alwaies hath bene since our Sauiours comming is and shall be to the end of the world a companie of men famous and visible in the world so that all men at all times may discerne that they are the true Church of Iesus Christ. For that I may in part vse your owne words as they follow in this chapter if at any time it could not be knowen then the men that liued in that time wanted necessarie meanes whereby they might attaine to the knowledge of true faith and consequently whereby they might come to saluation Giue me leaue to apply that to all men which you speake of all times If there euer were are or shall be any men to whose sight the Church was not so visible that they might discerne and know it then those men wanted necessary means whereby they might attaine to saluation which if it were so say you how is it vniuersally true which is vniuersally said in Scripture God would haue all men to be saued and to come to the knowledge of the truth Do you not perceiue that your reason necessarily requireth to haue it prooued that the Church is visible as at all times so to all men For if it faile in either of these respects your consequence will follow that some men haue wanted necessarie meanes of saluation and so God would not haue all men saued Therefore you propound the question verie insufficiently when you say We inquire whether the Church at any time be inuisible so that no man can see those men c. For though at all times some men may see and know it yet vnlesse all men at all times may you haue prooued nothing to purpose in this whole Treatise A. D. §. 2. In which matter my Assertion is that the Church of Christ of which the places of Scripture afore cited do speake must alwaies be visible This I prooue first by that plaine Prophesie of Isaias in the 61. Chapter Which Chapter to be vnderstood of our Sauiour Christ and his Church we may gather out of Saint Luke where our Sauiour himselfe citeth some words out of that Chapter and expoundeth them to be fulfilled in himselfe The words of the Prophesie are these Foedus perpetuum feriam eis scietur in gentibus semen eorum Omnes qui viderint eos cognoscentillos quoniam isti sunt semen cui benedixit Dominus I will make a perpetuall couenant or league with them and their seede shall be knowen among Nations all that shall see them shall know them that they are the seede which our Lord hath blessed How could he more plainely haue foretolde the visiblenesse of the Church The places of Scripture afore cited speake not all alike some of them concerne the Apostles onely and that not onely as they are a companie but as they are seuerall teachers authorised by our Sauiour Christ with so high and absolute a commission some belong to all true christians as well seuerally considered one by one as taken iointly all together Some appertaine to all Ministers some reach to all professors of the truth of the gospell How then can you truly say that the true Church of Christ of which the places of Scripture afore recited doe speake must alwaies be visible The Apostles haue not bene visible these 1500 yeares The elect that is the Church built vpon a rocke neuer was nor euer shall be visible in this world All Ministers were not nor can be visible to all men All professors neither are the true Church of Christ nor can by any meanes possible be seene of all mē as one church but with the eies of the mind Particulars are subiect to sense but vniuersals are discerned onely by vnderstanding Your assertion then is false but we will take it as it is set downe by you supposing that those places of Scripture speake of the Church in generall Yet we may not forget that the second point must needs be added concerning all men and so your assertion must be this The true Church of Christ must alwaies be visible to all men liuing To make way to your argument out of this prophesie you go about to prooue that the Chapter is to be vnderstood of our Sauiour Christ his Church your proofe lieth thus Our Sauiour himselfe citeth some words out of that Chapter expoundeth them to be fulfilled in himselfe Therefore that Chapter is to be vnderstood of our Sauiour Christ and his Church This consequent doth not follow vpon that Antecedent First because the whole chapter may be written of our Sauiour himselfe and yet not of his Church also Secondly because some part of it may be of our Sauiour and yet not those words you alledge For who is he that knoweth not that one and the same Chapter often times conteineth diuers prophesies belonging to diuers matters and parties But though your proofe be naught your opinion is true For those words that whole chapter concerne our Sauiour and his Church Let vs see how you reason If our Sauiour promise to make a perpetuall couenant with his Church and that their seede shall be knowen among nations and that all that shall see them shall know them that they are the seed which our Lord hath blessed then the Church must alwaies be visible to all men liuing But our Sauiour hath promised to make a perpetuall couenant with his Church that their seed shall be knowen among nations and that all that shall see them shall know them that they are the seed which our Lord hath blessed Therefore the Church must alwaies be visible to all men liuing I denie the consequence of your Maior Though our Sauiuiour made such a promise and indeed hath and doth daily performe it yet it doth not follow thereupon that the Church must alwaies be visible to all men Shall the promise
Christ vpon earth whereof hereafter when I come to speake of the Catholicke Church I denie the consequence of your proposition For it is possible that al the Churches in the world should gloriously professe the true faith and yet many thousands be vtterly ignorant that there are any such Churches Was not your Church of Rome which hath bene famous enough for outward state altogether vnknowne at the least a long time in the Indies and America till within these 100. yeares or thereabouts And yet do you aske If it did outwardly professe how it should not by this profession be made visible and knowne Hath not the kingdome of China if we beleeue the report of your Iesuites and other Friers bene a mightie and rich estate many hundred yeares and yet not heard of till of late in most parts of Christendome If you reply that the Churches must needs be knowne to them amongst or neare whom they are I answer that this proueth not their visibilitie to all men at all times no nor to them in the midst of whom they dwell vnlesse the Churches be setled in some outward peace that the members thereof may freely shew themselues Your minor is false it may come to passe that the Church may cease for a space to make open profession of that faith which in hart it doth beleeue else how could Eliah liuing in the kingdom of Israel haue bene ignorant that there were 7000. true worshippers of God in that countrey Your proofe is insufficient If it might come to passe say you that the Church should cease to professe outwardly then should the gates of hell mightily preuaile against it contrary to our Sauiours promise But the gates of hell shal not mightily preuaile against it contrary to his promise Therefore it may not come to passe that the Church should cease so to professe The consequence of your maior is too weake Our Sauiours promise is neither to the whole Church considered as a companie ioyntly together but to euery true beleeuer as I shewed before nor concerning outward profession against which Peter the head of the Church as you dreame grieuously sinned but of continuing ioyned to Iesus Christ as the head by a true iustifying faith resting on him for saluation In which estate Peter alwayes was preserued by our Sauiour though the diuel preuailed against him to the deniall of his Lord and Master for feate of death But let vs see your proofe If outward profession be a thing necessary to saluation then if the church faile in that the gates of hell mightily preuaile against it contrary to our Sauiours promise But outward profession is a thing necessary to saluation Therfore if the Church faile in outward profession the gates of hell mightily preuaile against it contrarie to our Sauiours promise I denie your minor Such outward profession as you meane is not necessary to saluation For the better clearing whereof we must a little examine what it is for a thing to be necessary to saluation then what profession may be counted necessary For the former that is necessary to the saluation of a man without which he cannot possibly be saued Now these things are either simply necessarie so that the absence of them shuts a man out of heauen or necessarie onely in some sort Simply necessarie on mans part for in that sense we speake now of things necessarie are acknowledgement of sinne faith in Iesus Christ and repentance wheresoeuer any of these is wanting there is no possibilitie of saluation so long as they are wanting Other things there are onely so far necessarie as that the contempt or neglect of them baâ—s a man of saluation Such are the Sacraments and outward profession both in generall by becoming a member of some true visible Church and in particular by witnessing the truth as oft as the Lord shall minister iust occasion Concerning this latter kinde of things necessarie we are to know that if we truly repent our contempt and neglect of these duties and beleeue in Iesus Christ there is mercie for vs with God though for want of oportunitie we can neuer come to the performance of them Touching the latter point of outward profession it is as I signified ere while of two sorts either a ioyning of our selues to some Church professing true Religion or a bearing witnesse of the truth of God which we professe To this latter especially belong the two former places of Scripture alledged by you To the former that text which you set in the last place as it shal appeare by and by You will aske me perchance whether of these two is the profession you speake of Surely to speake plainly and properly neither of them For it is a conceit of your owne deuising without any authoritie or warrant of Scripture and namely of those places you bring for proofe of it yet may it in some sort be referred to the latter as being a meanes whereby we may auouch the truth of God whereof we are professors So then the answer is first that no kinde of outward profession is simply necessary to saluation as if the absence of it were in it selfe damnable though the contempt or neglect of the dutie not repented of brings certaine damnation Secondly that it is not necessary to saluation either simply or in any sort that a whole Church should at all times make open profession to the world of that Religion which they hold and secretly practise This is that outward profession which is meant in your minor by which conceit you shut out of heauen all Churches that is all assemblies of the faithfull which at any time haue for borne to cast themselues wilfully into the mouthes of the bloud-thirstie and rauening persecutors by proclaiming openly their faith in Christ It is too true that an ouer-great zeale of martyrdome caried some men now and then farther then they should haue gone to the endangering and losing of their liues But it is as true that our Sauiour his Apostles and the Churches from time to time haue beene carefull to hide themselues from the sight of Tyrants when the Gospell was persecuted as farre as their callings and other occasions would giue them leaue Indeede they they neuer would neither is it lawfull denie the truth of God or themselues to be professors of it if they were called in question for it yet did they conceale as much as they could from the persecutors their times and places of meeting and also the seuerall members of their Churches To denie Christ or the truth of his religion is alwaies damnable and without repentance bringeth damnation vnauoideably not to make publicke profession of religion is not alwaies so but then onely when the Lord by some speciall occasion according to the generall dutie of a Christian or a mans particular calling thrusteth or draweth him foorth to giue testimonie to the truth by maintaining it or suffering for it Which your selfe also afterward acknowledge by
the iudgement of the learned who teach that profession of faith is sometimes necessarie to saluation Now for answer to your proofes I say as before that the two former concerne especially the denying either of religion in generall or some speciall truth in question when the Lord as it were calleth vs out to professe and auouch it as he did the Apostles in that place by sending them abroad to preach the Gospell If you saith our Sauiour in effect or any other minister shall forbeare to discharge your duties by preaching my truth and maintaining it if you be called in question for it I will neuer acknowledge you for mine in the kingdome of heauen The Apostles calling necessarily required preaching of the word and for them to haue failed in that dutie for feare or shame or otherwise had bene to denie their Lord and master Yet were they not so tied to this dutie that they must needs continue their publicke preaching in those places where persecution was raised against them but they might flee from one Citie to another and yet not be counted to denie the Lord Iesus As for the Churches that were gathered by the Apostles preaching there is neither charge nor reason to be shewed why they should bewray themselues to their persecutors by open practise of religion in the eies of the world Indeed the worship of God is not to be neglected though we cannot performe it without manifest daunger of our liues but there is no necessitie to worship God publickly where the truth is persecuted Therefore did the anciēt Christiās in such places assemble as secretly as they could neither leauing the exercises of religion for feare nor by an incōsiderate zeal hazarding their own liues To denie Christ is not to conceale himselfe frō persecutors but being found by them to renounce his profession and so is the place ordinarily applied by Cyprian the Clergie of Rome and Tertullian men enough fauouring martyrdome Yea Tertullian in that verie booke wherein he labours to prooue that it is not lawfull for a man to flie in time of persecution yet aduiseth men to hold their assemblies for the exercises of religion in the night time if they cannot haue them conueniently in the day Theophylact expoundeth this confession and deniall of acknowledging or denying Christ to be God Brugensis somewhat more particularly He that denieth me to be his Lord and Sauiour that he beleeueth in me that he sticketh fast to me and my doctrine So doth Iansenius vnderstandit though he stretch it also to the denying of Christ by wicked conuersation The denying of Christs name saith Lyra is alwaies a mortall sinne Not to confesse or be silent concerning it is sometimes a mortall sinne As if a man be silent when he is asked of it If he professe it being not asked it is a worke of supererogation Doth any of these or any man else conclude the visibilitie of the Church from these or the like places of Scripture No man is to denie our Sauiour nor to be ashamed of his truth What then Therefore must they that beleeue in Christ openly make profession thereof at all times without any wisedome of the Serpent for their owne preseruation or else can they not be saued A cruell and foolish conceit This proofe is to as little purpose as the former Confession by mouth is required to saluation therefore outward profession of faith is at all times necessarie Who sees not the weaknesse of this cōsequence Doth not he confesse with mouth that ioynes himselfe to some knowen Church of Christ and communicates with them ordinarily in the outward worship of God though all the world know not there are any such beleeuers professors yea though the people among whom they liue be not priuie to their meetings and profession There may be occasion for a man or a Church to manifest themselues vnto the world and they that in such a time shall faile can looke for no mercie at the hands of God without true and earnest repentance But this prooues not that therefore the Churches must make such publicke profession that they may at all times be knowen to all men To perswade vs of the former wherein there is no doubt you tell vs that Learned men autors in the aire as one of your side saith in the like case interprete this place to signifie that profession of faith is sometimes necessarie Who euer denied it But doth any learned man say that therefore the Church must alwaies make such profession That is the point in question and of that you are as dumbe as a fish yea do you not perceiue that your learned men refute that conceit Doth not he that expoundeth that place of necessitie at sometimes denie that it requireth such necessitie at all times It is necessarie saith Frier Soto for a righteous man that he may obtaine euerlasting life to confesse his faith with his mouth wheresoeuer the time necessarily required by this precept offers it selfe Catharin your Bishop speaketh yet more plaine Such confession namely that a man confesse with his mouth that which he beleeueth in his heart as he expounded himselfe a little before is not alwaies required but as Thomas saith according to the time and place And indeed so Thomas saith adding withall that Affirmatiue commaundements binde at all times but require not performance at all times Your interlinear and ordinarie Glosses and Lombard restraine it to the time of persecution or at least when the truth is called in question Caietan makes this when more generall but signifieth that this confession is not at all times necessarie As for the times when it is to be held for necessarie your learned men do somewhat more particularly deliuer the point then you report it Confession of Gods truth quoth Sotus and therein he followth Thomas is necessarie vpon paine of losing saluation either when it is required by a persecutor of the faith which confession the martyrs made with their bloud or when it is necessarie for those that belong to our charge by danger of heresie likely to ensue which dutie of confession properly concerneth Prelates c. These occasions haue many times bene offered and accordingly many professors of that truth which wee now maintaine haue with the shedding of their bloud giuen testimonie of the Gospell against the errours and tyrannie of your Antichristian Prelates Those holy martyrs who from time to time haue bene butchered by your Synagogue of Sathan were of the same Church with vs howsoeuer they saw not the truth of God in many points so clearely as it hath pleased him to reueale it to vs by the ministerie of his seruants in these latter dayes If they vsed their best discretion and endeuours to hide themselues as much as might be from your furie they did no more then the light of nature and
Scripture warrant to preserue life without denying their faith in the Lord Iesus or refraining to performe true worship to him though they did it secretly And thus much of your argument A. D. §. 5. Fourthly if the Church were not visible we could not fulfill that commaundement of our Sauiour wherein he said Dic Ecclesiae Tell the Church For how can wee tell the Church any thing if we cannot tell where to seeke it neither if we did by chance meete it could we know it to be the Church A. W. If the Church say you be not visible to al men at all times then can we not tell the Church according to our Sauiours commaundement But we must tell the Church according to his commaundement Therefore the Church must be visible to all men at all times That I may answer directly and plainly to your Syllogisme I must vnderstand what you meane by Church and we The Church may signifie in this place either the whole companie of the faithfull or seuerally euerie particular congregation which yet properly is not the Church but a Church So may the other word We be taken for All men whatsoeuer or onely for such as make profession of Religion Taking Church in the former sense I denie the consequence of your Maior We must fulfill that commaundement of our Sauiour though the whole companie of the faithfull be not at all visible For the charge is not to tell the whole company but the seuerall Churches whereof we are members I haue shewed this before I wil onely put you in mind of a learned Papists exposition formerly alledged We are not willed saith Brugensis to tell the vniuersall Church spread ouer the earth but that particular Church to which euery man is subiect and wherein he liues If by we you meane none but professors of Religion as our Sauiour Christ doth and as Brugensis and all other interpreters vnderstand it then howsoeuer you take the Church for the whole companie or the seuerall congregations I denie your consequence in that respect also The faithfull may tell their particular Churches whereof they are members though the Church be not visible to all men at all times It is enough if euery man know his owne Church to which he belongeth though he know not of any other in the world Your minor is vtterly false if as you must needs do according to that you intend you meane either all men or the whole Church For as I said before our Sauiours charge is neither to all men but only to Professors of Religion nor concerning the whole Church but particular congregations And so your fourth reason proouing the visibilitie of the Church at all times to all men by our Sauiours commaundement to tell the Church is of as small force as the former It is sufficient as I noted ere while for the fulfilling of this charge that euerie man know the Church of which himselfe is a member and which he is to tell and in this sort the Churches are alwayes visible A. D. §. 6. Fiftly it is certaine that once the true Church of Christ was visible to wit when it first began in Ierusalem in the Apostles and Disciples of our Sauiour Christ and that companie which by their preaching was conuerted to the faith But there can no reason be shewed why it should be visible then and not now If it were needfull to be visible then because otherwise it could not be a Church that is A Societie of men lincked together in the profession of one faith in the vse of the same Sacraments vnder the gouernment of lawfull Pastours for the same reason it must needs be visible now because as in the last Chapter is prooued there must be a Church now and therefore it must be a societie of men professing the same faith vsing the same Sacraments liuing vnder the gouernment of lawfull Pastours For all this pertaineth to the verie essence of the Church If also it were needfull to be visible then that those offices and functiōs which must be done in the Church might be wel performed to wit as there were in the Church some Pastors some sheepe as Saint Gregory Nazianzene saith some to commaund some to obey some to teach some to be taught some to feed the flocke of Christ some to be fed so that euerie one of these might do what pertained properly to his dutie it was needfull that the Pastors must know their sheepe and the sheepe their Pastours and that those that should teach and rule and minister the Sacraments must see and know them whom they were to teach and rule and to whom they were to giue the Sacraments And on the contrarie side the other had need to haue knowen those of whom they must be taught whom they must obey from whom they were to receiue the wholsome food of the holy Sacraments If I say this reason prooue that it was needfull then that the Church should be visible and knowen for the same reason it will be also needfull to say that the Church must be visible now and at all times For at all times there must be Pastours and sheepe in the Church being the sheepefold of Christ And at all times these Pastours must gouerne instruct and minister the holy Sacraments and the other must receiue gouernement instruction and the foode of the holy Sacraments at their hands And consequently there had need be some visible tokens at all times by which the Pastours may know their sheepe lest for want of this knowledge they may vnawares Dare sanctū canibus proijcere margaritas ante porcos Giue that which is holy to dogs and cast margarites before hogs which our Sauiour commandeth them not to do And on the other side there had need be some visible markes by which the sheepe may know and discerne their lawfull Pastors and true preachers from false teachers and intruding vsurpers For otherwise they could not tell whom to heare obey and whom to repaire to for the Sacraments and contrarie whom to take heed of as of false Prophets whose voice to neglect as of strangers and whose poisoned food of polluted Sacraments to reiect no lesse then a baite laid to kill them by theeues and robbers as it importeth greatly euery one to do If lastly it were needfull to be visible then that those which were out of it might ioyne themselues vnto it and become members of it thereby to participate the graces and benedictions which Christ our Lord communicated onely to it and to escape the deluge of eternall damnation wherewith all was sure to be drowned that were found out of it as it were out of another Noe his Arke this reason also requireth and vrgeth that the Church must be visible now and at all other times For if at any time it were not visible how could men that were out of it come vnto it Or how could they attaine saluation if they
did not enter into it Sith at all times the merits and fruits of Christs passion are inclosed in it and the means of saluation and to escape eternall damnation are onely found in it The Church therefore is visible at all times For at all times that prophecy of Isaias must be true wherein our Lord speaketh thus to the Church Aperiētur portae tuae iugiter die ac nocte non claudentur vt afferatur ad te fortitudo gentium reges earū adducantur Gens enim regnū quod non seruierit tibi peribit Thy gates shal be cōtinually opened day night they shall not be shut that the strength of nations the kings therof may be brought vnto thee for the nation kingdome which shal not serue thee shall perish A. W. This is your fift argument wherein you haue wasted more paper then in all the former Let vs see if your paines be not to as little purpose If the true Church say you was once visible you should adde to all men and no reason can be shewed why it should be so then and not now then it is so now But the true Church was once visible and no reason can be shewed why it should be so then and not now Therefore the true Church is now visible Who denies this conclusion or what do you get by it The question is whether the Church of Christ be alwayes visible to all men or no. You conclude that it is now visible speaking neither of all men nor of all times in which two points the whole controuersie betwixt vs lieth saue that we also denie that there is any such one Church as you fondly suppose without any shew of proofe But that I may let nothing passe which is worth the answering I will apply this argument of yours as directly to the question as I can To speake plaine to euery mans vnderstanding the doubt is whether there be not at all times some one companie of Christians or other that maketh publicke profession of religion so that all men whatsoeuer and wheresoeuer may take notice of them as the true Church of Christ or no. In this question we differ from you in two points First we say that there neuer was any such companie in the world that could be knowne to all men Secondly we adde farther that euery true Church may be so opprest and driuen into a corner that it can be discerned by none but the members of it and yet may continue in the practise of religion by the ministery of the word sacraments and censures Now then I thus frame your reason for proofe of the question If at any time there were a company of mē visible to all the world and no reason can be shewed why there should at that time be such a companie and not at all other times also then there hath bene alwayes is now and shall be for euer such a companie visible to all men But there was once such a companie visible to all men and no reason can be shewed why there should be at any time and not at all times Therefore there alwayes hath bene is and shal be such a company visible to all men I denie the consequence of your maior though there had bin sometime such a company and no man were able to shew sufficient reason why there should be such a companie then and not alwayes yet I say it doth not follow that therefore there must at all times be such a companie The ground of my deniall is that God hath not reuealed to men the reason of all his decrees and actions Your Pope himselfe as presumptuous as he is I thinke dares not vndertake to declare or determine why many things fall out which we see dayly come to passe I presume all this while that you denie this possibilitie of giuing a reason to men onely not to God also for else your minor wil want little of blasphemie Your minor hath two parts and it is false in both For neither was the Church as you speake in the Apostles time visible to all men and there may be some reason why though it had bin so then yet it should not continue so alwayes Of the former I haue said enough heretofore and it is a conceit without truth or likelihood that all the world might take knowledge of the Church when it began in Ierusalem For the other point though I might stand vpon it and put you to proue that there can no reason be giuen yet will I endeuour for your better satisfaction if it may be to shew some reasons why it must needs be visible in the beginning yet was it not then visible to all mē and need not be so at all times But first let vs examine your proofe I will propound your reason in a syllogisme and then answer to it If the Church were in the Apostles time to be visible 1. because otherwise it could not be a Church 2. the offices and functions of the Church could not else be well performed 3. else men could not ioyne themselues vnto it and these reasons why it should be visible still continue then no reason can be shewed why it should then be visible and not alwayes But it was then to be visible for those reasons and they alwayes continue Therefore no reason can be shewed why it should then be so visible and not alwayes I do purposely omit the former part of the Assumption that the Church was visible to all men because I spake sufficiently of it before and it wil but hinder the examining of this syllogisme To which that I may answer orderly and plainly I deny the consequence of the maior Although these three had bin some of the reasons whether they be or no we will consider in the Assumption why the Church at the first must needs be visible and these reasons still continue yet would it not follow that then no reason can be shewed why it should be visible then and not so alwayes For there may and shall be other reasons giuen of the necessitie of visibilitie in those times Your minor also is false Neuer a one of the three alledged by you is any necessary reason of the Churches visibilitie in the Apostles times as shal appeare in the handling of them Wherein first I must speake a word or two of the definition of the Church as it is propounded in this place In the whole course of your treatise as I haue noted in my answer here and there you meane by the Church nothing else but your Clergie or rather your Bb. assembled together in a generall Councell Here belike vpon better aduice you are content to allow the people also for parts of the Church But to let that passe the first fault in your definition is that you fancie to your selfe one visible vniuersall Church consisting of all such as you account true Christians throughout the world whereas you are not
able to bring any place of Scripture in which the holy Ghost so speaketh of the church I deny not that all Christians agreeing in one profession may in some sort be said to be of one church but that the Church whereof the Scripture speaks and of which we therefore must speake if we will speake to any purpose is to be conceiued as any one such societie The same word the same sacraments the same kind of gouerners may be in diuers churches and yet not all these be one societie We may imagine the like in common wealths or kingdomes that seuerall states may haue the same kind of lawes customes and magistrates and yet not be all one kingdome or common wealth Your second fault is that vndertaking to define the true church you content your selfe with the same faith and the same sacraments whereas no company nor man can be of that church but they that hold the true faith of Christ and the right vse of the sacraments The third thing I will obserue is rather by way of explication then of refutation you require the gouernment of lawfull pastors as a thing essentiall to the church If you speake of that church to which our Sauiour makes those goodly promises in the Gospell it may be for a time without such gouerners the promises themselues not concerning the whole bodie in respect of their lawfull Pastors but euery particular in regard of his faith in Iesus Christ And indeed howsoeuer it be true that to the being of a Church as it is commonly taken it is necessary that there be both a pastor and a people yet a people depriued of their pastors by what meanes soeuer and hauing no dependance vpon any other congregation doth not cease to be such a Church as our Sauiour promiseth to protect from spiritual and bodily enemies yea a people so destitute hath power to chuse a pastor for themselues and therefore are still in some sort a Church because that power is no where out of a Church but is appropriated to the companies of beleeuers who make seueral Churches though not properly and fully Churches for want of lawfull gouerners In the last place I may not omit to note your craft in adding to your definition of the Church the gouernment of lawfull Pastors as if you would haue the ignorant imagine that there were certaine Pastors who had some ioynt gouernment of the Church for example perhaps your Pope and his Councell of Cardinals or a Councel of Bishops assembled by his authoritie and gouerned by his direction In this sense we vtterly denie that any gouernment of Pastors is necessary to the being of a Church though we gladly embrace the helpes of Synodall prouinciall nationall and generall Councels All true Churches properly so called are gouerned by their seuerall Pastors but this makes them not one church as long as there are not more or at the least one gouerner cōmō to thē al. This the learned of your side discerning though you cannot or wil not see it neuer define the Church without relation to one generall pastor the Pope of Rome As for the seuerall pastors be they neuer so lawful they do no more make their congregations one Church in respect of their gouernment then the Companies of London because they are gouerned by their Maister and Wardens seuerally make one bodie without respect of their common subiection to the Lord Mayor of that citie You wil then perhaps demand of me whether the Church be not a meere sound onely hauing nothing truly answerable thereunto indeed I answer to this question that the Church is more then a meere sound and hath a thing in nature truly answerable to the name and that in two respects For the Church may be taken for the whole multitude of them that in all places of the world professe the Gospell of Iesus Christ and in this sense it containes all saue the Iewes and the heathen Secondly the Church truly and properly is the companie of the elect that are called to true faith in Iesus Christ More particularly it signifieth such of the elect beleeuers as are liuing in the world And this is that Church to which those glorious and comfortable promises of our Sauiour do appertaine though there be also some promises of outward blessings which are common to all Churches and professors of Christian Religion Now these elect thus called are truly a Church because they are a companie linked together in the sound profession of the same true faith and members of the same mysticall bodie of Iesus Christ vnder the gouernment of the holy Ghost his Vicegerent I do not take vpon me exactly to define the Church but onely to shew in grosse what is necessary to the being of it nor perhaps all that but the especiall point where in you haue failed which is subiection to one and the same Lieutenant and Soueraigne not to diuers of the like kind seuerally as your definition seemeth to require But of this matter enough Now I answer to your minor that there was no necessitie of the Churches visibilitie that it might be such a societie as you imagine For there haue bin and easily may be such societies which may be and haue bin hid from all the world saue those of their owne companie Consider I pray what should hinder this Is it not possible for a companie of men to professe the same religion but other men must needs be priue to that their profession It is like enough that such a company growing to a great multitude and ordinarily holding the exercises of their Religion will in time be discouered as it fell out with the true Christians in the late persecution vnder Queene Marie But this proueth not that therefore there cannot be any such societie but the world must needs take knowledge of it Could your detestable traitors band them selues together in that monstrous plot of treason and murder by gunpowder yea and assemble so often and worke so hard in the diuels seruice without being descried and cannot God by his prouidence keepe his seruants meeting together for his worship but that Satan shall certainly discouer them It is more then manifest how long or short a while soeuer they may keepe themselues vnknowne that they may be such a companie and not by and by be knowne The second point in the first part of your minor is this and thus concluded If the Pastors were to know the sheepe and the sheepe the Pastors and this could not be vnlesse the Church were visible then was this one reason of the Churches being visible But the Pastors were to know the sheepe and the sheepe the Pastors and this could not be vnlesse the Church were visible Therefore this is one reason of the Churches being visible I may graunt you the whole Syllogisme in the termes it is propounded by you and yet neither I lose nor you get any thing For there is no more concluded by it but
Ierome before Poperie was hatched shall alwaies be open to them that desire to be saued that entrance may not be denied either in prosperitie or aduersity to them that will beleeue Thus this place of Esay will not prooue the visibilitie of the Church to all men at all times A. D. §. 7. Sixtly the onely reason and ground by which heretickes hold the Church to be inuisible is because they imagine the Church to consist onely of the elect or onely of the good But this is a false ground as appeareth by the name of Church in Greeke Ecclesia which euen by the Etymology of the word doth signifie the companie of men called now sure it is that moe are called then elected as our Sauiour saith Multi vocati pauci electi Againe this ground is shewed to be false by those parables in which the Church is compared to a floare wherein wheat and chaffe are mixed And to a mariage to which came good and bad And to a net wherein are gathered all sorts of fishes good and bad And to ten Virgins wherof fiue were foolish and excluded from the celestiall mariage This ground is also shewed to be false out of Saint Paule who commaundeth the Corinthians to expell an incestuous person out of the Church Ergo before this expulsion there was such a person in the Church and therefore the Church doth not consist onely of those that be good A. W. Because your owne reasons are not strong enough to proue the point in question you thinke to helpe the matter by ouerthrowing the ground whereupon onely as you confidently auouch we build our deniall of the Churches visibility at all times But neither is that our onely ground and if it were you are not able to shake it Concerning the former we denie the visibilitie of the Church as it is vnderstood in those places where our Sauiour promiseth spirituall graces to it and as it is taken in the Creed because that Church is the mysticall bodie of Christ and therefore can consist of none but those that are truly iustified and sanctified as none but the elect are But we farther denie the same visibilitie because you would haue vs beleeue that the Catholicke Church is visible To which we answer that this Catholicknesse let the Church be what it will maketh it inuisible because that which is Catholicke is generall consisting of many particulars and we haue learned that vniuersals are not subiect to sense but onely to be conceiued by the minde as hauing no outward shape which can be seene or knowen by any of the fiue senses Moreouer if we take the question in the most reasonable sort that may be and so it is verie seldome handled by you Whether there must alwaies be some one or other companie of men that may be famously knowen of all the world to be a true Church of Christ Still we continue in denying that visibilitie First as it is propounded by you for an Article of Faith and an essentiall propertie of the or a true Church Secondly because we are taught in the Scriptures that the true Church that is the professours of Christs true Religion shall be faine to flie into the wildernesse and so must needes be out of the sight of at least the greatest part of the world I am loth to repeate these things so often but you driue me to it my helpe is to do it as shortly as I can All the forces you bring to ouerturne the ground vpon which our denial of the Churches visibilitie stādeth are diuided by you into two bands with the former whereof thus you set vpon vs. The companie of men called consisteth not of the elect onely The Church is the companie of men called Therefore the Church consisteth not of the elect onely I denie your Minor many men are called that are not of the Church which consisteth of such onely as being called are also elect It is true that the word Church is sometimes so generally taken that it compriseth all such as make profession of faith in Christ but this is not the Church of which the Creed speaketh and to which our Sauiours promises apppertaine yea besides this Church there is the true Church of Christ whereof he is head whose bodie hath neuer a rotten or dead member such as ouer many perhaps the greatest part of them that make profession of beleefe commonly are In a word the whole course of your Treatise failes in this point that whereas the word Church is diuersly taken you apply that to it in the generall meaning of the word which was spoken of it by our Sauiour the Prophets and Apostles in that speciall signification by which it containeth none but the elect To your proofe I answer farther First that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the verie nature of it doth not signifie The companie that is any certaine companie called but generally a company that is any such companie whatsoeuer Secondly I adde that the word is also sometimes taken for a companie whether called or not called as I haue hated the companie of the wicked Where the Prophet speaketh not of any companie called together but absolutely of the wicked howsoeuer assembled or not assembled Thirdly I say it is enough in respect of the nature and Etymology of the word that the Church be a companie of men called neither can it any way be enforced from the signification of it in Greeke that the Church must needs comprehend all that are in any sort called Indeed the elect onely may truly be said to be called in an especiall manner because they haue besides the outward sound of the preacher the inward voice of the spirit and are not onely called to beleeue the truth of the Gospell but also to beleeue truly in Iesus Christ to saluation This is your rereward with which you charge vs afresh and that as it were both with foote and horse First you throng together many places of Scripture as if your confidence were greater in your number then in vour valour Let vs encounter you That which is compared to a floare wherein wheat and chaffe are mixed To a mariage to which come good and bad To a net wherein are gathered all sorts of fishes good and bad To ten virgins whereof fiue were foolish and shut out from the coelestiall mariage consisteth not of the elect onely The Church is compared to such a floare marriage net virgins Therefore the Church consisteth not of the elect onely A verie hot assault but your bullets fall a great way short of the marke you do or should aime at For all you prooue by this reason is onely this that the Church taken for the whole companie of them that make profession of the Gospell consisteth not onely of the elect Who euer dreamed it did You are so farre from ouerturning our ground that you neuer once come neare it for all this braue shew
may also thus vnderstand it that Christ appeared to be the word and the truth and wisedome frō the beginning of the creatiō of the world to the last writing of the Apostles that is from Genesis to the Apostles books after which there are none of like authoritie or beleef Or thus that the Law and the Prophets continued till Iohn in whom the brightnesse of truth was The East was the Law the West Iohn the end of the Law Now onely the Church neither takes away the word and sense of this brightnesse nor addes any thing else as propheticall The place you bring lieth thus Euery doctrine professing it selfe to be truth when it is not truth either among the Gentiles or among the Barbarians is in some sort Antichrist going about to seduce as truth and to seuer vs from him that said I am the truth Therefore we must not giue eare to them which say Behold here is Christ but do not shew him in the Church which is full of brightnesse from the East to the West which is full of the true light which is the pillar and ground of truth in which whole Church the whole comming of the Sonne of man is Now the comming of the Sonne of man is before expounded by him to be the word of truth Doubtlesse if you had not taken this proofe vpon Bellarmines or some other mans credit you would neuer haue brought it to proue the visibilitie of the Church to all men at all times What saith Cyprian in the place alledged but that the Church is dispersed ouer the whole world Doth this proue that it is at all times visible to all men Or hath Cyprian any such purpose in that place Is not his whole drift to shew that there is but one Church because the truth they professe is but one The title of his booke is Of the vnitie of the Church The place you bring concludes that howsoeuer the beames are scattered or spread here and there yet the light is but one The Church that is true beleeuers were in this land in the dayes of persecutiō and is now in Spaine Italy and perhaps in Rome it selfe This proues not a perpetuall visibilitie What need we any other answer to this testimonie of Chrysostome then that which your owne exposition affoords vs Chrysostoms meaning is that the Church cannot be quite without light say you What thē Must it needs be visible then to al men The Moone is neuer wholy darkened no not in the greatest eclipse nor in the change but is alwayes in the one halfe light and yet he were mad that would conclude hereupon that therefore it may be seene at all times of all men Indeed Chrysostome speaketh of the continuance of the Church not of the visiblenesse thereof That may appeare by his saying that the Church hath her roote in heauen rather then in the earth This argues stabilitie not visibilitie And what Church hath rooting in heauen but onely the Church of the elect The Church saith Chrysostome in the same place is more honorable then heauen because heauen is made for it not it for heauen Is heauen made for any Church but that of the elect Besides it was not the visibility but the being of the Church against which those tyrants whom Chrysostome there mentioneth so mightily laboured which yet continued in despight of them all These and such like places of Austin shew the flourishing estate of the Churches in those times and conuince the Donatists against whom Augustine writ of wofull blindnesse who would see no church but their owne heretical assembly in a part of Africa But they neither were intended not can with any reason be applied to proue that the church is alwayes visible to all men The former of the two places as I shewed before is interpreted by the Fathers of the Apostles That the Apostles saith Ierome should not hide themselues for feare but freely shew themselues he teacheth them to preach boldly when he saith A citie set vpon an hill cannot be hid But let vs take it to be meant of the Church It must needs be a monstrous hill that can shew a citie set vpon it to the whole world A citie standing on a hill is the easier and the farther to be seene but there is no hill high enough to be seene ouer the whole world I would farther know whether euery particular Church be not a citie vpon an hill or no. And yet is no such Church to be seene of all men Concerning the latter place Austin worthily cals them blind that could not or rather as he truly saith would not see that great mountaine vpon which the Church then stood but would shut their eyes against the light that shined vpon them Yet who is so ignorant that he knowes not or so shamelesse that he will not cōfesse that there were many aliue at that very time which had no knowledge that there was any Church in the world But there neither were nor could be any such among the Donatists or other like heretickes who forsooke the Church to follow their owne fantasies The candle is the Minister or the word shining by his ministery the candlesticke is the particular Church where that ministery is if any liuing in or neare the place where such a candle burneth bright will not see the light of it he may well be called wilfully blind So may not they which are so far that the beames of the light cannot shine vnto them Now the summe of that which hath bene answered concerning the perpetuall continuance and visiblenesse of the church is this that the church to which that continuance is promised is the number of the elect and not any one outward companie of men succeeding one another in a famous and visible profession of Christian Religion Yea farther though we do not vndertake to affirme that there hath not bin at all times some one companie or other of true Christians knowne to them among whom they liued to be professors of the Gospell yet we doubt not to say that there can be no sufficient proofe brought out of the Scriptures that there must of necessitie be alwayes such a company as if our Sauior Christs promises to his church were not performed vnlesse the world might at all times perceiue where such a companie were to be found A. D. CHAP. XIII How we should discerne and know which is the true visible Church of Christ A. W. It may perhaps seeme needlesse that I should proceed any further in the confutation of this treatise because still the maine point that there is such a Church is presupposed and not proued But howsoeuer it be true that there is indeed no one visible church of Christ which may challenge or beare the name of the whole church yet it will be worth the doing to finde out the markes or signes by which we may discerne which congregation is a true church of Christ and which is not
one speciall man from all other must be some one thing or moe which hee hath and others haue not As if hee were longer larger or fairer then the rest or if some others were as long and other some as faire yet none were long and faire both but onely he The second thing required in a good marke is that it be more apparent and easie to be knowen then the thing For example If I were to describe and make knowen a certaine man who were otherwise vnknowen I must not thinke it sufficient to giue the definition of his essence or to assigne the secret disposition of his heart liuer and other inward parts which are commonly harder to be knowen then the man himselfe But I must declare some apparent thing in his face hands or some outward part of his bodie or in his voice apparell behauiour or such like which agreeing onely to that man and being easie to be knowen may be a meanes to make vs know the man we seeke for A. W. He that professeth to set downe certaine markes whereby all men may easily know the true Church that is which Church indeed holdeth the true religion of Iesus Christ vndertaketh that which he will neuer be able to performe For it is a matter not easily to be discerned by naturall men no though we should admit those for sufficient markes of it which are falsely propounded by you to that purpose Bellarmine from whom you tooke this as in a manner all the rest of your Treatise assignes three properties of your markes those two that you name and a third that they must be inseparable from the true Church Now such plaine men as we are haue conceiued by the first and last properties that no marke is to be taken for a note of the true Church but that which cannot be common to it with any other Church But you hauing learned of Gregorie de Valentia or discerned your selfe that the foure marks you giue are not such if we consider them seuerally tell vs here afore hand that we must take them altogether or else we marre all So that whereas afterward you seeme to make a shew of teaching vs foure certaine markes to know the true Church by when all commeth to all we haue but one marke made of those foure botched vp together But let vs take a view of these two things that you require in euerie sufficient marke the former whereof is that it be proper to the thing of which it is a marke This you say is true but not sufficient For some marke may casually be proper to a thing at this time which an other time may neither be proper to it nor belōg to it at all Witnesse your long and faire man who may lose his legs and his beautie or be ouergrowen by some other and so can by no meanes be knowen for the longest and fairest Persecution was sometimes a marke whereby the true Church might be discerned for it was proper to it no men but Christians being killed or punished for religion Yet I thinke no man would giue this for a marke to know the true Church by Once your Cardinall Bellarmine is so farre from it that he maketh the outward prosperitie of the Church one of his fifteene notes whereby he would haue the true Church discerned Therefore euerie sufficient marke of the Church must be such as is alwaies to be had in the Church not now present an other time absent Generally to make a marke truly proper to a thing it is required first that it alwaies agree to the thing Secondly that it neuer agree to any other thing whatsoeuer This second property of a marke that it must be more apparent and easier to be knowen then the thing I acknowledge to be true so you tie not this alwaies to outward sense whereof you bring example For that greater apperancie to sense is there onely required where the thing we seeke for is to be iudged by sense but it is not requisite that in matters which we can not know by any outward token the marke whereby they are to be knowen should be outwardly more apparent it is sufficient if by search and discourse it may more easily be discerned A. D. §. 3. Wherefore when we will assigne some good markes by which all sorts of men may in some sort discerne which particular companie of men is the true Church we must haue speciall regard to assigne those things which in some matters may be apparent to all sorts of men sith all sorts of men had need to seeke out and according to their capacitie discerne which is the true Church we must also assigne those things which agree to no other companie but that which is the true Church to the intent that when a man shall see all those things which be assigned as marks to agree to any companie he may straightwaies conclude that companie to be the true Church as on the contrarie side if he perceiue either all or any one of them to be wanting in any company he may be sure that that companie is not the true Church A. W. In the former part of this chapter you told vs that the way to discerne which is the true Church was to set downe which be the certaine markes by which all men may easily know the Church Here in the conclusion you mince the matter I know not how that All sorts of men may in some sort discerne and in some matters may be apparent to all sorts of men If it be enough to discerne in some sort that is to giue a blind gesse which is the true Church what should certaine marks need or why may not some common signes serue the turne Neither will it fit your purpose that the notes be such as that all sorts of men may by them discerne the Church but they must be so apparent by your doctrine that euerie man of euerie sort may easily and as it were with playing be able to iudge which is the true Church Your last clause that the markes in some matters must be apparent to all sorts of men that I may freely professe my dulnesse passeth my vnderstanding What is the meaning of these words in some matters If they signifie no more but in some sort it had bene good you had spoken plaine and not vexed your Readers with a needlesse labour of gessing at your meaning Especially since for all your faire promise of I wote not what easinesse in discerning which is the true Church all men may see they must be driuen to bestow much time and paines in examining the markes you will set downe because they are such as do not singly euerie one by it selfe shew which is the true Church but must all be ioyned together to breede this knowledge A. D. CHAP. XIIII That those markes of the Church which Hereticke assigne be not good markes A. W. This is a verie generall title implying as a man would
gesse by the words that you meant to refute all marks that euer were set downe by any Heretickes But if we should take your meaning in that sense your discourse would not answer our expectation Besides if all markes assigned by heretickes be naught yours cannot possibly be good which are brought by the grand hereticks of the world the vowed vassals of the great Antichrist the Pope of Rome A. D. §. 1. Out of that which in the former chapter I briefely noted about the nature of a good marke we may easily gather that those markes which some heretickes assigne to wit the true doctrine of faith and the right vse of the Sacraments are no good markes by which all sorts of men may come to know which is the true Church but are meanes as Heretickes vse them to cast a mist ouer the whole matter when as they know that they can most easily conuert all the Sacraments and holy words of Scripture Ad imagines phantasmatum suorum vnto their owne imaginations and phantasticall opinions as out of Saint Austin we may gather that the manner of heretickes is especially when the authoritie of the Church which should correct those deprauations and false expositions is not first by other markes knowen and admitted A. W. You would seeme to haue an especiall gift of making things easie by your markes the Church may easily be discerned out of the former Chapter we may easily gather But I thinke it wil prooue to be so easily gathered that a weake man may easily make you lose your labour in gathering That place of Austin doth so fit you Papists as if he had spoken it of you by name For to go no farther then the matter in hand who euer wrested the Scriptures more to their phantasies then you Papists who are not ashamed nor afraid to apply the most gracious and comfortable promises of our Sauiour Christ to his mystical bodie the Church to an heape of prophane misbeleeuers so they make outward profession of the Gospel in obedience to the Pope of Rome It is enough by your doctrine to make a man a true member of the mysticall bodie of the Sonne of God if he professe as I before said though he haue no part of the life of Iesus Christ in him A. D. §. 2. The doctrine of faith therefore I say and the right vse of Sacraments be not good markes whereby men may discerne which is the true Church This I prooue First for that by the true doctrine of faith which they assigne for a marke of the Church either they meane true doctrine in some points onely or in all True doctrine in some points onely is no good marke because the heretickes teach the truth in some points This therefore being not proper to the Church but agreeing rather to heretickes can be no good marke of the true Church because it wanteth the first condition of a marke which is to be proper and agreeing onely to the thing whereof it is a marke True doctrine also in all points although it be proper if we ioyne to it the right vse of Sacraments with obedience to lawfull Pastors and agree onely to the true Church yet it is no good marke because it faileth in the second condition which is requred in a good marke that is to say it is not apparent or easie to be knowen of all those who should seeke out the true Church As I may easily prooue because to know which companie teacheth the truth in all points requireth first learning whereby one may vnderstand the tearmes and state of the question or controuersie besides iudgement to discusse and weigh prudently the worth and sufficiencie of the authorities and reasons of both parts that vpon this pondering of reasons he may prudently conclude which is the better part Moreouer one had need to haue a supernaturall light of Gods grace and assistance of his spirit whereby he may discerne and see those things which be aboue all naturall rules and reasons Ad haec quis idoneus Who can say that himselfe is sufficiently furnished with these helpes Who can be infallibly sure that he hath all these in such sort as is requisite for obtaining by his owne industrie true and infallible faith in all points Surely at least the vnlearned must needs confesse that in diuers mysteries they do not so much as vnderstand the tearmes state of the question much lesse are they able to examine sufficiētly the worth of euery reason neither are all such as can perswade themselues that they are singularly inlightened and immediately taught of Gods spirit neither if they did thus perswade themselues could they be vnfallibly sure that in this their perswasion they were not deceiued sith it is certaine that some of them that most strongly perswade themselues to be thus taught are in this their perswasion deceiued neither can the vnlearned sufficiently know the truth in euerie particular point by giuing credit to some one or other learned man or any companie of the learned vnlesse that company be first knowen to be of the Church and consequently to be guided in their teaching by the holy Ghost as I prooued before So that it is most hard or rather vnpossible for a man and especially for an vnlearned man in all points Liquidam à tot erroribus discernere veritatem to discerne the plaine truth from so many errours as S. Austin saith It is also most hard for a man of himselfe to iudge which vse of Sacraments is right if he be not first taught by the Church sub this is a principall point of the true doctrine of faith which is as I said verie hard or rather vnpossible to be perfectly knowen by a mans owne selfe But to know first which companie is the true Church and then by giuing credit to it to learne which is the true faith and which vse of Sacraments is right there are not so many things required nor any great difficultie as shall be declared For the Church is that direct way which Isaias speaketh of when he saith Haec erit vobis directa via ita vt stulti non errent per eam This shall be to you a direct way so that euen fooles to wit simple and vnlearned men may not erre in it A. W. These are the two onely marks whereby the true Church may be knowen or to speake more plainely whereby we may iudge of any companie of men professing Christian Religion whether they be a true Church of Christ or no. For the better vnderstanding whereof we must know that howsoeuer we ioyne the Sacraments with the word in this matter yet we do not thinke them to be absolutely of equall necessitie with it to the being of a true Church The true preaching of the word is so simply necessarie that whersoeuer it is it maketh the Church in which it is a true Church of Christ and whersoeuer it is not there is no true visible Church We denie not
not perceiue those things which are of the Spirit of God For sith none by the onely power of naturall wit which in vnderstanding vseth the helpe of outward senses can obtaine the supernaturall knowledge of diuine mysteries which we beleeue by our faith neither doth the Spirit of God who as the principall cause infuseth this gift of faith into our soules ordinarily instruct any man in the knowledge of true faith immediatly by himselfe alone or by an Angell sent from heauen we must needs if we will haue true faith seeke first for that which it pleaseth Almightie God to vse as the ordinarie instrument and as a necessary meanes by which men may learne true faith the which is no other but the preaching and teaching of the true church according to that saying of S. Paul Quomodo credent ei quem non audierint quomodo audient sine praedicante quomodo praedicabunt nisi mittantur How shall they beleeue him whom they haue not heard how shall they heare without a Preacher how shall they preach vnlesse they be sent Therefore the true Church which only hath preachers truly sent of God must first be found out that by it we may heare and know which is the true faith Therefore of the two the true Church is rather a mark whereby we may know the true preaching and consequently the true doctrine of faith then contrarie that as heretickes say the doctrine should be a marke whereby all men must know which is the true Church A. W. Belike as you had good cause you suspected your abilitie to proue simply that the true preaching of the word in all matters fundamentall and the right administration of the sacraments are not a good marke of a true Church And therefore you rather chose to proue by way of comparison that the true church is rather a marke to know true doctrine then true doctrine a marke to know the true Church by For so runs your conclusion directly If the end of seeking the true Church say you be principally that we may by it as a necessarie and infallible meanes learne true doctrine in all points to which otherwise we cannot attaine then the true Church is rather a marke to know true doctrine then true doctrine a marke to know the true Church by But the end of seeking the true Church is principally that we may by it as a necessarie and infallible meanes learne true doctrine in all points which otherwise wee cannot attaine to Therefore the true Church is rather a marke to know true doctrine then true doctrine a marke to know the Church by Though the conclusion as I said be not directly to the question which is not comparatiue but simple whether true doctrine be a good mark to discerne a true Church by or no yet I will take it as it is and answer to the parts of it Your maior in the antecedent may haue a double meaning First that we cannot in any point learne true doctrine but by the Church and then I denie the consequence For true doctrine in the fundamentall points of Religion may be a good marke of the true Church though we seeke the true Church because there are many points which we cannot learne without it But howsoeuer you vnderstand the maior the minor is euidently false First because the principall end of seeking the true Church is that we may truly worship God in the assembly of his children to his greater glorie and our farther assurance of his loue to vs as we may see euery where in the booke of the Psalmes Secondly because we are not to learne of the true Church as a necessarie and infallible meanes but of the ministers thereof who are appointed by God to giue vs knowledge of the meanes of saluation by expounding the word of God to vs not to binde vs to beleefe by their authoritie Your minor you offer to proue in this maner If no man without faith can obtaine the supernaturall knowledge of diuine mysteries and faith be not to be had but by the teaching of the true Church then the end of seeking the true Church is principally that we may learne by it as a necessarie and infallible meanes true doctrine in all points to which otherwise we cannot attaine But no man without faith can obtaine the supernaturall knowledge of diuine mysteries nor faith be had but by the teaching of the true Church Therefore the end of seeking the true Church is principally that we may by it as a necessary and infallible meanes learne the true faith in all points to which otherwise we cannot attaine The consequence of your maior is naught It doth not follow that we seeke the true Church to learne of it as a necessary and infallible meanes because we cannot know the mysteries of Religion without faith which commeth by the teaching of the true Church For there may well be teaching and learning without any such authoritie in the Church that teacheth Your minor is very doubtfull as I will shew in answering seuerally to the parts of it First then whereas you say that no man without faith can obtaine the supernaturall knowledge of diuine mysteries if you meane that a man cannot acknowledge the truth of such mysteries without faith your minor in that part is true but if your meaning be that a man cannot vnderstand what the meanes of saluation appointed by God are without faith I take your minor to be false For though those meanes be indeed such as no discourse of man euer could deuise or thinke on being vtterly supernaturall yet it is possible for a meere naturall man to learne what they are out of the Scriptures and that without faith because the Scriptures may be vnderstood by such helpes of the tongues and arts as humane learning doth affoord vs though to the sauing knowledge thereof the especiall grace of God be absolutely necessarie The other point that faith cannot be found but by the teaching of the true Church may also haue a double sense The first that faith cannot be wrought in any mans heart but by the preaching of some man authorized to that purpose by the true Church and this as I shewed before is not alwayes true for faith may be and hath bene begotten in some by the reading of the Scriptures where the ministery of the word was not to be had and by the teaching of ordinarie Christians not set apart to preach the Gospell The other meaning is this that faith cannot be attained to but by our hearkning to the voyce of such a Preacher as we alreadie know to be sent by the true Church And this indeed specially fits your purpose but hath no likelihood of truth in it For they that came to faith by the Apostles preaching did not beleeue them as men autorized for their instruction by the true church but as being conuinced in their consciences by the euidence of the truth they deliuered without
or happinesse This done thou shalt be sure to find by the euidence of truth manifested in those bookes that they are sent from God and not deuised by man If thou liue in such a place as affoordeth the interpretation of these bookes by the ministery of men vse that singular blessing of God with reuerence and care to vnderstand and thou shalt by the mercifull teaching of God acknowledge these books to be the word of God ordained for the saluation of thy selfe and other This will some man say may perhaps breed a perswasion that these bookes are from God but how shall we come to be infallibly sure of it How else but by the worke of the spirit of God in thy heart What say you must we runne to reuelations Who knowes the secrets of God but the spirit of God The truth it selfe discerned by that light which the spirit kindleth in our hearts worketh assurance of beleefe to which the testimonie of the spirit is added for our further confirmation Neither is this any other reuelation then you Papists require in this case For according to your doctrine no man can be perswaded infallibly of the truth of the Scripture either for the text or the interpretation but by the especiall teaching of the spirit otherwise he hath not faith but opinion of these matters Onely herein stands the difference betwixt vs that you say the argument whereby the spirit perswades vs to acknowledge the Scripture is the authoritie of the Church we affirme it is the euidence of truth which he makes vs to discerne by our vnderstanding enlightened and to approue by our will thereto inclined through his mightie and gracious worke vpon our soules The second part of your minor is that we could not haue knowne the Gospels of the foure Euangelists to be canonicall Scripture rather then those of Nicodemus and Thomas if we had not the testimonie of the Church Of the falsnesse of which opinion I shall need to say little because it is refuted in my answer to the former part For this knowledge is not bred in vs by resting vpon the Churches authoritie but by yeelding to the euidence of the truth discouered to our hearts by the teaching of the holy Ghost Concerning the authoritie of the Church in this point it were a presumptuous and vnreasonable thing for any man without very good proof or great likelihood of reason to deny or doubt of that which hath bin auouched so many yeares by the whole Christian world But to make question of the bookes of Scripture whether they be the word of God or no and to denie that there is any meanes to know them for such but the authoritie of the Church is the next way to open a gap to Atheisme to lay open Religion to the scorne of the world Can I not know the Scripture to be of God but by the authoritie of the Church How shal I then know it at all since it is not reasonable to beleeue there is any Church that hath such authoritie but by the warrant of the Scripture They do all they can to turne reasonable creatures into beasts who teach vs that we must beleeue the Church cannot erre because the Scripture saith so and yet denie that we can know there is any Scripture but by beleeuing it because the Church saith so This is to dance in a circle as if a man were coniured that he could not get out of it How shall I know there is a Church by the Scripture How shall I know there are any Scriptures by the Church Would your proud Clergie thus make fooles of Christian men if they did not despise them as voyd of all reason I wonder how your Pope Cardinals Bishops and the rest of your Cleargie can for beare laughing when they looke one vpon another and remember how they cosen and if I may vse the word in a matter of such importance gull the world with such palpable fooleries But your strumpet of Babylon hath made the Kings of the earth and all nations drunke with the cup of her fornications exalting her selfe aboue all that is called God and making her selfe the God of her slauish vassals But the Lord is iust who according to the Apostles prophefie hath sent the world strong delusions that they should beleeue lies that all they might be damned which beleeued not the truth but had pleasure in vnrighteousnesse And certainly if there were not a great measure of 12. blindnesse and sottishnesse in the hearts of men that Gods purpose might take effect it were vnpossible that reasonable men should so be lead by the nose to errour and destruction A. D. §. 5. Fourthly if the true doctrine of faith in all particular points must be foreknowne as a marke whereby to know the true Church then contrarie to that which hath bin proued the authoritie of the Church should not be a necessarie meanes whereby men must come to the knowledge of the true faith For if before we come to know which is the true Church we must by an other meanes haue knowne which is the true faith what need then is there for getting true faith already had to seeke or bring in the authoritie of the same Church A. W. This fourth reason and the next labour to proue that part of your first assumptiō in this Chapter which we deny not that the true doctrine of faith in euery particular point is not a good marke of the Church It would therefore be but lost labour to spend much time in the examining of them yet somewhat I must say and first to the former If the true doctrine of faith in all particular points must be foreknowne as a marke to know the true Church by then is not the autoritie of the true Church a necessary meanes to know the true doctrine of faith by But the authoritie of the true Church is a necessary meanes to know the true faith by Therefore the true doctrine of faith must not be foreknowne in all particular points as a marke to know the true Church by Your conclusion is no more then we grant the consequence of your maior about which you take some paines needs not your helpe for the proofe of it Your minor is false That which you brought before to prooue it before was answered A. D. §. 6. Fiftly if before we giue absolute and vndoubted credit to the true Church we must examine and iudge whether euery particular point of doctrine which it holdeth be the truth with authoritie to accept that onely which we like or which seemeth in our conceit right and conformable to Scripture and to reiect whatsoeuer we mislike or which in our priuate iudgement seemeth not so right and conformable then we make our selues examiners and iudges ouer the church and consequently we preferre our liking or disliking our iudgement and censure of the interpretation and sense of Scripture before the iudgement and censure of the
Church of God But it is absurd both in reason and religion to preferre the iudgement of any priuate man be he neuer so wittie and learned or neuer so strongly perswaded in his owne minde that he is taught by the Spirit before the iudgement and definitiue sentence of the Church of God the which is a companie of men many of which both are and alwayes haue bene vertuous wise and learned and which is chiefe is such a companie as according to the absolute and infallible promises of our Sauiour hath vndoubtedly the holy spirit among them guiding them and teaching them all truth and not permitting them to erre as before hath bin proued A. W. There is the same fault in this fift argument which was in the former that it is brought to proue a proposition which we denie not If before we giue absolute credit to the Church we must iudge whether euery particular point it holdeth be true or no then we may make our selues iudges ouer the true Church But we may not make our selues iudges ouer the true Church Therefore we must not iudge whether euery particular point the Church holdeth be true or no before we giue absolute credit to the Church This conclusion supposeth that which can neuer be proued that we are first or last to giue absolute credit to the Church whereof in this Chapter there is no question The point you vndertake to disproue is that the true doctrine of faith in euery particular point is a good marke of a true Church This therfore you should haue concluded though indeed it make nothing against our opinion who require not for a marke of the true Church truth of doctrine in euery point but in all points fundamentall Your proposition is deceitfully propounded as if we granted a companie to be the true Church and yet would take vpon vs to receiue and reiect what we list whereas we hold that we cannot acknowledge any true Church but we must withall yeeld that it maintaineth all substantiall points of Religion from which we may not vary Secondly for a man to make himselfe iudge ouer the Church is to take authoritie vpon him to censure reproue and condemne the Church wheras all that we desire is that it may be free for vs to discerne that the doctrine held by this or that Church is agreeable to the Scriptures before we acknowledge it to be a true Church It is meere absurd and vnreasonable to prefer any priuate mans iudgement before the definitiue sentence of the church of God But it is agreeable both to reason and Religion that euery priuate man whose saluation lieth vpon his true or false beleeuing should consider whether that which he is enioyned by men to beleeue be warrantable by the word of God or no. The Scribes and Pharises were the leaders of the people in the matters of Religion yet were they blinde guides and the blind people by depending vpon their iudgement were caried headlong into the same pit of destruction with them Were not the men of Beroea commended by the holy Ghost for searching the Scriptures that they might see whether the doctrine deliuered by Paul were agreeable thereto or no And yet shall it be a fault in vs to enquire of the same Scripture concerning the doctrine of your Apostaticall synagogue I say farther it is against reason and Religion to prefer any one mans iudgement before the definitiue sentence of many wise vertuous and learned men such as the Church hath vsually some amongst the members thereof But it is most reasonable and religious to prefer the truth of God manifested by one simple man before the contrary determination of all that euer haue bin or shal be of the Church though neuer so wise vertuous and learned This is that which we teach concerning this matter First that no man is bound to take any thing for a matter of faith but that which is proued to him by the Scriptures the rule of faith Secondly that no man is to condemne any thing held by the Church vnlesse he haue euident proofe on his side out of the Scriptures Thirdly that euery man in matters not determinable by Scripture none of which are necessarie to saluation should yeeld to the iudgement of the Church whereof he is a member and euery Church to the iudgement of the Christian Churches other where vnlesse there be some good reason to the contrary It is very possible for wise vertuous and learned men to erre for your priuiledge of not erring hath bin found to be counterfait who oftentimes follow the opinion of some one man whose learning and pietie they cannot chuse but admire Domingo à Soto affoords vs an example of this matter where hauing alledged a sentence out of Austin he addeth these words By reason of this saying of Austin quoth Soto all the Fathers afterward and the whole multitude of Diuines haue by good right deliuered it as a truth that the glorious Virgin neuer committed any actuall sinne though Chrysostome auncienter then he were of another opinion Let it be then vnlawfull as it is for a priuate man to prefer his owne opinion before the iudgement of a whole Church and in this sense I graunt your minor yet is it not vnlawfull for him to examine what any or all Churches teach or to dissent from it if he haue the Scripture for his warrant A. D. §. 7. But you may perhaps say that in Scripture we are willed not to beleeue euery priuate spirit but to trie spirits whether they be of God or no and that therefore we must examine and trie the spirit of the Church by looking into euery particular point of doctrine which it teacheth I answer that in that place of Scripture it is not meant that it belongeth to euery particular man to trie all spirits but in generall the Scripture giueth the Church warning not to accept euery one that boasteth himselfe to haue the Spirit and willeth that they should trie those spirits not that euery simple or priuate man should take vpon him to trie them but that those of the Church to whom the office of trying spirits doth appertaine to wit the Doctors and Pastors which Almightie God hath put in his Church of purpose Vt non circumferamur omni vento doctrinae that we may not be caried away with euery wind of doctrine and Vt non simus paruuli fluctuantes that we may not be little ones wauering with euerie blast of those that boast themselues to be singularly taught by the spirit So that this trying of spirits is onely meant of those spirits of which men may well doubt whether they be of God or no and then also this triall belongeth to the Pastors of the true church But when it is certaine that the spirit is of God we neither neede nor ought doubtfully to examine or presumptuously to iudge of it but submitting obediently the iudgement of our owne sense
and reason we must beleeue the teaching of it in euery point Now it is most certaine that the spirit of the true visible Church is of God as out of holy Scripture hath bene most euidently prooued And therefore our onely care should be to seeke out those markes by which all men may know which particular companie of men is the true Church of Christ whose doctrine we neither need nor lawfully may examine and trie in doubtfull manner but must obediently and vndoubtfully in all points beleeue as the onely assured and infallible truth A. W. For the better strengthening of your minor you assay to make and answer an argument which our Diuines vse to alledge against it and this it is They that are willed in Scripture not to beleeue euery spirit but to trie the spirits whether they be of God or no may iudge whether euery particular point the Church holdeth be true or no. But euery Christian is willed in Scripture not to beleeue euerie spirit but to trie the spirits whether they be of God or no. Therefore euery Christian may iudge whether euery particular point the Church holdeth be true or no. The Assumption of this Syllogisme we proue by that place of Iohn Dearly beloued beleeue not euery spirit but trie the spirits whether they are of God To this our proofe you answer two wayes First concerning the spirits to be tried then concerning them that are to make triall Of the former your answer is that this trying of spirits is onely meant of those spirits of which men may well doubt whether they be of God or no. First this answer cannot be warranted by the text which is generall Trie the spirits that is all spirits that come to preach vnto you if we apply it to the teachers rather then to the doctrine they deliuer And surely if the Apostle had meant as you expound him he would not haue said Trie the spirits but trie some of them Beleeue not euery spirit but trie those of which you may well doubt but he saith generally the spirits Secondly what may we imagine to be a cause of doubting If want of lawfull sending which is the great point you alwayes vrge either we must know the spirits we may doubt of to be vnlawfully sent and then by your doctrine we must vtterly reiect them without any farther triall or else the triall we are to make if we doubt is whether they be lawfully sent or no for till that appeare we may not heare them But our Apostle appointeth vs to make triall by their doctrine Thirdly the reason and end of this exhortation is that we might take heede of false Prophets and false Apostles which were crept into the Church Many false Prophets were stirred vp by the diuell faining that they had Apostolicall doctrine to deliuer Therefore saith Didymus the gift of discerning spirits is necessary Now these false apostles were not such as came without any calling for the diuell must needs haue knowne if he had bene then acquainted with your doctrine that it was not possible for him to preuaile by men not authorised by the Church but as the Apostle teacheth vs they were such as had gone frō amongst the true Christiās not by schisme in refusing communion with them so much as by heresie in departing from the truth of doctrine in maine points of religion Fourthly false teachers do so nearely resemble true and come many times with such shew of holinesse that a man cannot tell whom he should trust or suspect but as he findes his doctrine to be sutable or contrarie to the word of God Therefore Ferus a writer of your owne and one of no meane account vnderstandeth by spirit doctrine The Apostle warnes vs saith Ferus that we beleeue not euery spirit that is euery doctrine and perswasion To which purpose he alledgeth also that of Saint Paul Trie all things hold fast that which is good alledged by Thomas in the same matter To make this your answer the more likely you tell vs that when it is certaine that the spirit is of God we neither need nor ought doubtfully to examine or presumptuously to iudge of it as if we thought any such doubtfull or presumptuous course lawfull Yet in this case there is a difference to be obserued If we know the preacher to be sent of God in such sort as the Apostles were that he cannot erre then euery least doubt of that which he deliuereth is presumption and sinne But otherwise though it appeare to vs that he be authorised by God we may safely take liberty to examine whatsoeuer he teacheth without any presumption to iudge or needlesse doubting of that he deliuereth In a word if we heare such a man it is our dutie not to suspect his doctrine but where we haue some good apparence of Scripture for our suspicion In which case we are to search the word of God and to open our doubts to him that we may be satisfied If the matter be such as we cannot clearely prooue to be false by Scripture we are with all reuerence and humilitie to suspect our owne iudgement rather then his whom God hath appointed and authorised to be our teacher so farre must we be from presumption Your second exception is against them that are to trie the spirits who are not say you euerie simple or priuate man but the Pastors of the Church to whom the office of trying spirits doth appertaine as being put by God in his Church of purpose that we may not be carried away with euerie winde of doctrine That this exhortation belongeth to all Christians it may appeare by these reasons First we haue the like generall admonitions in other places of Scripture to all Christians not onely to Pastors and Doctors Beware of false Prophets saith our Sauiour to all men which come to you in sheeps cloathing Trie all things saith the Apostle and hold fast that which is good which latter place as before I noted is brought by Thomas of Aquin and Ferus to expound this text of Saint Iohn Secondly the whole Epistle is written to all in generall without any particular instruction or exhortation to this or that kinde of Christians as teachers learners masters seruants or such like Thirdly it is the course of the Apostles where they descend from generals to particulars to giue some speciall notice of that change by naming seuerally the estates to which they speake and not continuing onely the common titles of beloued or brethren as the Apostle in this place doth Fourthly himselfe professeth that his Epistle is written in generall to all men yea euen to young men and babes in Christ Neither doth he in this exhortation restraine his words to them that are teachers Fiftly if it be not lawfull for priuate men to trie the spirits then are they to receiue whatsoeuer is taught by any particular Doctor or Pastor and so be bound to beleeue meere
thy name prophecied and by thy name cast out diuels and by thy name done many great workes And then will I professe to them I neuer knew you depart from me ye that worke iniquitie But it is strange that you should make true inward sanctitie the marke of the true Church and so confidently affirme that no doubt in the Church there are alwaies some holy when as you maintaine that it is enough to make a man a true member of the true Church that he professe outwardly though he haue no one vertue within him at all If all the members of the Church may be void of holinesse how is holinesse a good marke of the Church Certainly it is at the most but accidentall and such as the Church may haue or lacke without being or ceasing to be a Church thereby He is well holpe vp no doubt that must learne how to know the true Church of such teachers You haue prooued after your fashion that the Church is holy now you will prooue that no companie but the Church is holy No sect of heretickes is truly holy All companies of Christians besides that of the true Church are sects of hereticks Therefore no companie of Christians besides that of the true Church is truly holy If by hereticks you vnderstand onely those that erre in some fundamentall points of religion I grant your Maior and Minor As for the conclusion I am resolued of the truth thereof without any proofe from you But if you acount all hereticks who in the error of their iudgement dissent from other Churches of Christ in matters not fundamentall though true I denie your said Maior and affirme that diuers Churches may differ in opinion one from another and continue in that difference maintaine it confidently so they do it not against their knowledge and conscience and yet all of them be true Churches of Christ and truly holy For as long as the opinions a man holds do not cut him off from being a true member of the mysticall bodie of Iesus Christ they make him not cease to be a true Christian truly iustified and sanctified But he that beleeueth truly in Iesus Christ and holds no fundamentall error continues by faith a member of our Sauiours mysticall bodie For as the iust liues by faith so wheresoeuer there is true faith there is life also but there is no life out of the bodie of Christ because the spirit of Christ is not to be had but in his bodie And therefore he that by faith remaineth a member of Christs bodie is a true Christian truly iustified and sanctified though not perfectly holy Here we haue the proofe of your Maior such as it is If the doctrine it selfe of euerie heresie be opposite to true Christian faith and humilitie the rootes of true sanctitie then no sect of heresies is truly holy But the doctrine it selfe of euerie heresie is opposite to true Christian faith and humilitie the roots of true sanctitie Therefore no sect of hereticks is truly holy If by true Christian faith you meane any particular truth as a Christian ought to beleeue euerie truth of God though not so as that ignorance or misbeleeuing of euerie point can make him cease to be a true Christian I denie the consequence of your Maior I denie your Minor Not euerie heresie but that which is against the foundation onely is opposite to true Christian faith humility vnderstanding by Christian faith such a faith as is necessarily required that a man may be a true Christian by which onely he liues not by beleeuing euerie truth though that be required of him as a dutie of sanctification And so your proofe also is answered A man may haue that faith by which a Christian must liue though he be ignorant or misinstructed in diuers points of doctrine I haue seuered this part concerning humilitie from the former because it seemeth you tooke it to be of more importance and therefore labour more in the proofe of it He that doth not humble himselfe to euerie humane creature for Gods sake but proudly opposeth himselfe against the vniuersall Church cannot be holy But no hereticke doth so humble himselfe and euerie hereticke so oppose Therefore no hereticke can be holy I shewed before that there is no such vniuersall Church as you often name but neuer prooue and therefore this argument grounded vpon opposing against that which is not in regard of such a commaundement as God neuer gaue is idle and vaine More particularly I answer concerning your Maior that although pride be alwaies a sinne yet it may sometimes be found in in a man truly sanctified that in opposition against men in a matter of doctrine But your proposition in regard of the former part of it as you vnderstand it is vtterly false For it is no way against holinesse for a man not to beleeue euery doctrine that men will propound If I or an Angell from Heauen preach any otherwise to you then we haue preached let him be accursed Trie the spirits whether they be of God or no. As for that place of the Apostle which you alledge your owne interpreters expound it not of the Church but of the ciuill Magistrate He cals the office of a King a humane creature saith Caietan because a King is created by the voices or consent of men and he addeth euery that he might take away all distinction betwixt Heathen and Christian kings in respect of obedience to them The Rhemists are yet more against you So he calleth the temporall magistrate say they elected by the people or holding their soueraigntie by birth and carnall propagation ordained for the Worldly wealth power and prosperitie of the subiect to put a difference directly against your interpretation betwixt the humane superioritie and the spirituall Rulers and regiment guiding and gouerning the people to a higher end But what need we any other expositor since the Apostle in the next words directeth vs how to vnderstand it Whether it be vnto the King as vnto the superiour or vnto gouernours as vnto them that are sent of him for the punishment of euill doers and for the praise of them that do well But let vs take it as generally as you will if it be against humilitie not to be subiect to the Church it is also against it not to be subiect to the King Yet I hope no man is so mad as to say that he refuseth to be subiect to him that doth not absolutely obey him in all things How then can this place proue that it is against true Christian humilitie not to beleeue the Church whatsoeuer she propound to be beleeued None but hereticks do so humble themselues and many dissenting from their brethren in diuers opinions neither deserue to be counted hereticks though they cannot be reclaimed from their errors nor to be held for schismaticks as long as they breake not off communion
with thē which yet may be done by ignorance without pride If many heathen men haue so demeaned themselues as that they could hardly or not at all be charged with any grosse outward fault doubtlesse it is possible for hereticks to do the like At the least what a gay marke of the Church is this holinesse which for a long time may be for ought men can discerne in an hereticke who all that while may be taken for a true Christian Besides if truth of religion be to be iudged of by holinesse of conuersation as a certaine marke for that within cannot otherwise be seene why may not a man change his conceit of anie religion when he seeth any notable professor thereof fall into any grieuous sinne as Dauid and Peter did As for vs whom you terme hereticks at your pleasure if our worst Protestants be not farre past in villanie by your Papists for treasons murthers and generally all kinde of vncleannesse I will confesse that you liue better then the grounds of your religion require and we worse then ours But I leaue this point till I come to examine your Assumption concerning the holinesse of your Church of Rome A. D. §. 5. The true Church is prooued also to be Catholicke that is to say vniuersall first in time by most plaine prophecies and promises of the Scripture as I haue alreadie shewed in the eleuenth chapter vnto which here I will onely adde those words of Isaias Hoc foedus meum cum eis dicit Dominus Spiritus meus qui est in te verba quae posui in ore tuo non recedent de ore tuo de ore seminis tui de ore seminis seminis tui dicit Dominus amodò vsque in sempiternum This is my couenant with them saith our Lord my Spirit which is in thee and my words which I haue put in thy mouth shall not depart from thy mouth and from the mouth of thy seed and from the mouth of the seed of thy seed saith our Lord from henceforth for euer It may also be easily prooued to be vniuersall in respect of place by these plaine testimonies of holy Scripture Conuertentur ad Dominum vniuersi fines terrae all the bounds of the earth shall be conuerted to our Lord. Dominabitur à mari vsque ad mare à flumine vsque ad terminos orbis terrarum He to wit Christ shall rule and haue dominion from sea to sea and from the flood vntil the furthermost limits of the earth Omnes gentes seruient ei All nations shall serue him Vpon all which places and some other see Saint Austin in his exposition of the Psalmes and among other things which he speaketh to the purpose note his interpretation of those words à flumine vsque ad terminos orbis terrarū Which words saith he do signifie that the dominion of Christ began à flumine Iordano from the floud of lordan where he being baptised was made manifest by the descending of the holy Ghost the sound of his Fathers voice from whence he began to chuse his Disciples from hence saith he Doctrina eius incipiens dilatatur vsque ad terminos orbis terrae cū praedicatur Euāgeliū regni in vniuerso orbe in testimoniū omnibus gentibus tunc veniet finis His doctrine beginning is dilated or spread abroad vnto the furthest parts of the earth when the Gospell of the kingdome is preached ouer the whole world for a testimony to all nations after which done the end of the world shall come See also the same S. Austin in his booke de vnitate Ecclesiae especially in the ninth tenth chapters where he eiteth vrgeth that place of S. Luke where our Sauiour saith Necesse est impleri omnia quae scripta sunt in lege Prophetis Psalmis de me c. quoniā sic scriptum est sic oportebat Christum pati resurgere à mortuis praedicari in nomine eius poenitentiā remissionem peccatorū in omnes gentes incipientibus ab Ierosolyma It is needfull that all things should be fulfilled which are written of me in the Law the Prophets and Psalmes c. for so it is writtē and so it was needfull that Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that penance and remission of sinnes should be preached in his name throughout all nations beginning frō Ierusalem By which place and diuers others he sheweth plainly that the true Church of Christ cannot be contained in a corner of the world but must be vniuersall that is diffused and spread throughout the whole world as the same S. Austin beside his other proofes gathered out of the very name Catholica the which name saith he was imposed on the Church by our forefathers vt ex ipso nomine ostenderent quia per totum est secundum totum enim Catholon Graecè dicitur that by the very name they might shew that the Church is throughout the whole world For saith he the word Catholon in Greeke wherupon Catholik is deriued signifieth a thing which is generall or agreeing to the while But we must note here that when we say the true Church is Catholick or diffused throughout the whole world it is meant that at least by succession of time it hath bene or shall be dilated more and more in euery nation till it haue gone throughout the whole world Moreouer it is termed Catholicke not onely because it shal be spred ouer the whole world in processe of time but also because euen in euery age it hath bin and shall be alwayes in very many nations and indeed in euery natiō where any Christiā religiō is which is in a sort to be spread ouer the whole world This doth S. Austin in his booke de vnitate Ecclesiae most diligently proue out of the Scriptures themselues The effect of his argument is this The Church must be such as it is described in Scripture But in Scripture it is described to begin at Ierusalem and to proceed into all Iewrie and to go forward into Samaria and to stretch it selfe further and further vsque ad vltimum terrae euen vnto the vttermost of the earth And saith he the seed of the Gospell once sowne in the field of the world fructificat crescit doth not vniuersally or for the most part perish but fructifie and grow or increase in omni mundo in the whole world and doth continue to grow or increase vsque ad messē vntill the haruest of the consummation of the world as our Sauiour signifieth the which consummation will be when this seed is come to the full growth praedicabitur Euangelium in vniuerso mundo in testimonium omnibus gentibus saith our Sauiour tune veniet consummatio the Gospell shall be preached in the whole world for a testimonie to all nations and then the consummation shal
come This is S. Austins discourse by which he proueth that the true Church of Christ is not contained in a corner of the world but must be dilated and spread in a sort ouer the whole world On the contrary side the congregation of hereticks is not Catholicke neither in time nor place And first for time it is euident because true doctrine was first preached and beleeued as the good seed was first sowne in the field and afterward the cockle that is false doctrine was ouer sowed Saint Paul did for three yeares space teach the Ephesians the true doctrine of faith and had conuersed among them like a lambe seruiens Domino cum omni humilitate seruing our Lord with all humilitie but after his departure he said he knew that rauenous wolues would enter in among them not sparing the flocke and that euen out of their owne company there would arise viriloquentes peruersa vt abducant discipulos post se men speaking peruerse things that they may leade away disciples after themselues And as this happened at Ephesus so doubtlesse in all other places where there hath bin any alteration of Christian doctrine first the true faith was planted by some Apostle or Apostolicke man and afterward the contrary was brought in by some speaking peruerse things thereby leading away disciples after themselues So that it is certaine that no heresie is so auncient as the true faith neither is any one of them of so long continuance for the time to come as S. Paul signified when hauing described heretickes of the latter dayes he addeth sed vltra non proficient insipientia enim eorū manifesta erit omnibus but they shall prosper no further for their folly shall be manifest to all The same doth S. Austin aptly expresse expounding those words of the Psalme Ad nihilum deuenient tanquam aqua decurrens Non vos terreant fratres saith he quidam fluuij qui dicuntur torrentes hyemalibus aquis implentur nolite timere post paululum transit decurrit aqua ad tempus perstrepit mox cessabit diu stare non possunt Multae haereses iam emortuae sunt c. My brethren let not certaine floods called land-brookes terrifie you they are filled with winter waters feare them not after a while the water doth passe and runne downe for a time it maketh a noise but it will cease by and by those flouds cannot stand long Many heresies are now already dead c. Now if we will haue respect of place it is certaine that no heresie is by processe of time to spread it selfe absolutely ouer the whole world as I haue proued that the true Church shall do and the reason hereof may be assigned because as S. Austin saith diu stare non possunt they cannot continue so long as were needfull to get them so vniuersally spred ouer the whole world especially considering that as S. Paul saith when they haue continued a while Insipientia earum manifesta fit omnibus their foolishnesse is made manifest to all and so no maruel si vltra non proficiant if they prosper not nor make no further progresse Neither ordinarily in any one age is heresie so vniuersall in place as the true Catholick religiō but for the most part it is cōtained in one or two countries as it were in a corner of the world So that of hereticks we may wel say as S. Austin doth that they are those which say Ecce hic est Christus ecce illic Behold Christ is here behold he is there that is to say the true doctrine of Christ is onely truly preached in this countrey or that countrey of which kind of people our Sauiour giueth vs warning and biddeth vs saying nolite credere beleeue them not We may wel say also of these as the same S. Austin doth Quaecunque congregatio cuiuslibet haeresis in angulis sedet concubina est non matrona Whatsoeuer congregation of what heresie soeuer sitteth in corners that is to say is but in few prouinces and in the rest of the Christian world either is not at al or at the least is not manifestly knowne to be is a concubine not a matron to wit it is not the spouse of Christ nor the lawfull mother of the children of God Wherefore sith there is this difference betwixt heresie and true Christian religion that as the same Saint Austin saith Singulae haereses in multis gentibus vbi Ecclesia est non inueniuntur Ecclesia autem quae vbique est etiam vbi illae sunt inuenitur Heresies are not found in many nations where the church is but the Church which is euery where is found in those nations where heresies are This difference I say being betwixt heresie and the true religion we need not doubt but that to be Catholicke or vniuersally receiued in the Christian world especially at all times is a note of the truth And that therfore the companie which professeth the faith which at all times and in a sort in all places hath bin receiued of Christians is vndoubtedly the true Church of Christ A. W. What if the true Church be proued to be Catholicke will it follow therupon that therfore it is alwayes Catholick so that a man cannot know which is the true Church but by knowing which Church is Catholick For such must euery good mark be proper to and al times present with that wherof it is a mark But let vs see a little better what Catholicknesse this is which you deliuer for a marke of the Church If you meane by the name Catholicke as if that were the true Church which cals it selfe the Catholicke Church what is more easie then for any false church to take vnto it selfe that name Did not Theudas and Iudas professe themselues to be the Messiah Hath not our Sauiour forewarned vs that there should arise false Christs and false Prophets Yea the Donatists who shut vp the church in a corner of Africa were not ashamed to call themselues the Catholicke Church And as Austin saith All hereticks would be called Catholicks If you vrge the thing signified by the name first not one of your Papists among a thousand vnderstands what this word Catholicke meanes but onely that it is the name of euery one that holdeth of the Church of Rome Secondly if by Catholick Church you meane such a church as hath bin euer since the comming of our Sauiour Christ and shall be at all times and ouer all the world as you expound your selfe how can it be a good marke of the true Church when as it is an impossibilitie that euery man should be able to search and know which church hath alwayes bin which hath not which hath bin euery where which onely in some places and much more vnpossible is it if there be degrees of impossibilitie that euery either learned or vnlearned man shold certainly know which church shal alwayes continue till the end of
haue noted did not accuse the Catholicks of any error against the foundation whereby they might prooue they had ceased to be of the Church but onely vrged verie absurdly a dreame of their owne that all but they of Donatus part were fallen away What is this to the question betwixt you and vs We shew euidence of Scripture to prooue that there was to be a defection that Antichrist the head of that defection is to be the chiefe gouernour of the Ecclesiasticall state that his seat is to be at Rome yea we manifestly conuince your Apostaticall Church of many and grosse heresies some of them directly ouerthrowing the foundation of our Sauiour Christs mediatorship for the whole punishment of all our sinnes and the loue of God in choosing vs to euerlasting life without respect of any thing on our part wherby we not he make difference of our selues from other that is we prooue that the doctrine of your Church is vtterly false in the maine points of predestination iustification without the true beleefe whereof there can hardly be any true religion because the greatest part of Gods glory which is the end of all religion is ouerthrowne or hidden by such errors as your Church maintaines in these matters of iustification and predestination But to the matter This generall ground of Austins disputation we acknowledge to be good and sound as for that which he addeth and you especially vrge I answer with Austins good leaue that the place he brings prooues not a continuall increase of the Church from time to time but onely that when the Apostle writ there had bene a good growth of the seed of the Gospell as among the Colossians so in the whole world And whereas he doth assay to prooue that there must be an increase of the Gospell till the end of the world because our Sauiour in the Parable saith that the good seed must grow till that time we craue leaue to dissent from him till it be prooued that the Parable is so to be vnderstood and that the Apostle so intended that speech of his For Parables Austin himselfe hath taught vs in this verie question against the Donatists that no man may apply any thing out of a Parable to prooue his purpose by vnlesse he can shew euident and cleare reason for his interpretation But this euidence seemes to be wanting in this exposition of the Parable For the scope of the Parable is not to prooue that the Church shall continually increase till the end of the world but to shew that in the outward congregations good and bad shall be alwaies mingled together and so doth Austin himselfe euery where expound the place And surely if from hence we may prooue such a continuall growth of the Church may we not from the same place conclude the like of heresies Let them both grow together vntill the haruest saith the text But what should I make many words about this Parable Our Sauiour himselfe expounds it afterward and makes no such collection of the Churches increase til the worlds end And Ierome willeth vs not to be ouer hastie to gesse at the meaning of the Parable because the expositiō of it in the text is deferred from the 13. verse to the 37. but to wait til our Sauiour giue vs the interpretatiō who hath giuen vs to vnderstand that the good seed are the children of the kingdome not as in the Apostle the Gospel how then are they all one Beside the Parable speaketh not of the outward Church that is of all professors all which are mēbers of your Church if they hold of your Pope but of the true Church indeed the elect of God called the children of the kingdome all the good seed saith our Sauiour are iust men and shall shine as the Sunne in the kingdome of their Father So shall not all your Church do many of your number by your owne confession being wicked and reprobate neither iust nor to haue any place in heauen But the decay of your owne Popish Church me thinketh should sufficiently refute this conceit The other place alledged to prooue that the propagation of the Gospell must increase till the end of the world is neither rightly vnderstood nor of any force to the matter in question To speake of the latter point in a word Let vs grant that by the end the end of the world is signified What of that Our Sauiour doth not say that the Church shall grow greater and greater till the end of the world but that the Gospell shall be preached in all places before the world haue an end so may it be though after it is once preached for some few yeares it be out of the world for many yeares together and afterward be againe begun and this may befall it oftentimes for all that prophecie Let vs further yeeld that it shall alwaies continue in the world as doubtlesse it shall yet is there not hereupon any such necessitie of this growth to be inferred For it may be preached in all places and yet lose more in one countrie then it getteth in three passing along with a small retinew from one land to another Now for the other point it is apparent that our Sauiour at the least in that former part of the Chapter prophecieth of the destruction of Ierusalem before which saith he the Gospell shall be preached through the whole world The end saith Chrysostome namely the end of Ierusalem And he prooueth that the Gospell was so preached by two places of Scripture the one whereof is that out of the Epistle to the Colossians Of the same opinion is Theophylact and your ordinarie Glosse and Lyra who vndertaketh to shew that the Gospell had bene preached in the three knowne parts of the world Africa Asia and Europe before Ierusalem was destroyed by Titus and Vespasian Iansenius Bishop of Gaunt disputeth the point and concludeth for all Austins authoritie and reasons that it seemeth we are rather to hold with Chrysostome that our Sauiour speaketh of the end of Ierusalem Which saith he is euidently gathered from this that after our Lord had said Then commeth the end he presently addeth when therefore you shall see the abhomination of desolation c. For the bringing in of this signifieth that he obserueth the order of things to come and teacheth what was to be done when the end whereof he spake should come All this part of your discourse to prooue that heresies are not Catholicke either from time or place might verie well haue bene spared For who ever imagined that error was before truth when as it is nothing else but a straying from the truth Yet haue some heresies bene of long continuance as Arianisme for a great while which was also so vniuersall for a time that as Ierome saith the world wondred at it selfe that it was become an Arian But what should I waste time and labour
about these things wherein we are of one minde Let it be enough for me againe to put you in minde that this Catholicknesse can be no good marke to discerne the Church by from heretiks because it wanteth your secōd propertie of plainnesse and easinesse to be knowne yea there is a meere impossibilitie that any man should know that any heresie shall haue an end before the end of the world or that it shall not spread far and neare ouer the world yea it passeth the reach of ordinary men to know certainly that any heresie hath not bene since the beginning of the Gospell because this matter requireth some speciall knowledge of storie whereof most men are ignorant The Church in Saint Austins time by the blessing of God was so inlarged that it had possession of many parts of the world and in comparison of it heresies yea the Arian heresie was but in corners In this goodly estate continued it for the most part till as before I obserued Antichrist brake out and ouerthrew the very foundation of faith But if any man will so far presse Austins authoritie as to make vniuersalitie a certaine marke of the church how will he credit the holy Ghost affirming by Saint Paul that there must be a generall falling away and by Saint Iohn that the church must flie into the wildernesse and there lie hidden a long time The other testimonie out of Austin you translate falsly to make it serue your turne the better For Austin saith not that Heresies are not found in many nations but that euery seuerall heresie is not found in many nations where the Church is But admit there were some churches without any heresie for a time and neuer any heresie but where there is also a true church yet doth not Augustine say that euery man may easily discerne the true church from hereticall assemblies because it may fall out as it hath done that heresie as Arianisme shall be more generall then true Religion Let vs father grant that whatsoeuer hath vniuersally bin receiued in the Christian world especially at all times is true yet cannot this Catholicknesse be a good note of the church because if I shall make bold to repeate the same again it is hardly possible for any man to vnderstand what points haue bin so receiued But you forget your selfe very much for by this rule you appoint them that will iudge which is the church to enter into such a maze as they shall neuer get out of if they shall not acknowledge any church for true but that which holdeth all things that haue euer generally bene held in the Christian world But of Catholicknesse this may suffice A. D. §. 6. Lastly the true Church is also Apostolicke that is to say such as hath her foundation from the Apostles according to that saying of the Apostle S. Paul Non estis hospites aduenae sed estis ciues sanctorum domestici Dei superae dificati supra fundamentum Apostolorum Prophetarum ipso summo angulari lapide Christo Iesu You are not strangers and forreiners but you are citizens of the saints and the domesticals of God built vpon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the highest corner stone This we may gather out of that which is already said For if the Apostles were they which were appointed by our Sauior to be vnder him the founders of his church which by their preaching began at Ierusalem and from thence by them and those that receiued authoritie from them tanquam vitis crescendo vbique diffusa est as S. Austin speaketh like a vine by growing was spred abroade euery where and being thus first planted and spred abroad was afterwards by the ministery of lawfully succeeding Pastors and Doctors continued without interruption till now and shall be also continued till the worlds end there is no doubt but that this companie descending thus lineally from the Apostles and depending of them as their lawfull progenitors and being built vpon them as after Christ himselfe vpon principall foundations may well be called Apostolicke that is to say such as deriue their pedegree from no other author or founder later then the Apostles themselues All this doth Tertullian briefly but pithily comprehend in this short sentence Apostoli apud vnamquamque ciuitatem Ecclesias condiderunt ab his autem ciuitatibus seu Ecclesijs ab Apostolis constitutis traducem fidei semina doctrinae caeterae exinde Ecclesiae mutuatae sunt quotidie mutuantur vt Ecclesiae fiāt ac per hoc ipsae Apostolicae deputabuntur vt soboles Apostolicarum Ecclesiarum The Apostles to wit either immediatly by themselues or by meanes of others founded Churches at euery citie from which cities or Churches being thus founded by the Apostles other Churches afterward did borrow and do daily borrow the ofspring of faith and the seeds of doctrine that they may be made Churches and by this meanes these also shall be accounted Apostolicke as being the issue of the Apostolicall Churches Contrariwise no conuenticle of heretickes can be Apostolicke by reason that heresie being an vpstart noueltie contrarie to the former receiued faith of the Church cannot haue any Apostle or Apostolick man for author and founder but is forced to acknowledge some other of whom as it receiued the first being so most commonly either the doctrine or the men that follow it or both receiue also their name as of Arius came Arianisme and the Arians of Montanus came the Montanists and Montanisme and there was neuer yet hereticke which could deriue the pedegree of his congregation by vninterrupted succession from the Apostles which maketh Tertullian to vrge them so earnestly saying Edant haeretici origines Ecclesiarum suarum euoluant ordinem Episcoporum ita per successiones decurrentes vt primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolicis viris qui tamen cum Apostolis perseuerauerit authorem habuerit antecessorem Let the heretickes shew the beginning of their Churches or as they had rather say of their congregations let them vnfold the order of their Bishops or superintendents so running downe by successions that the first of them shall haue for his author in doctrine and predecessors in place any Apostolicke man who did perseuere and did not forsake the Apostles Thus did Tertullian vrge them because he knew well that they could neuer make this proper note of the true Church to agree to their companie A. W. This last part of your discourse should proue the fourth point of your former assumption that to be Apostolicke is a propertie belonging onely to the true Church and not hard to be discerned in any companie wheresoeuer it is If all this were proued yet were your syllogisme nothing worth because I iustly excepted against the consequence of your proposition which remains stil without any confirmation But to let that passe how idle is this proof of yours wherein
Catholicke and Apostolicke agree onely to the true Church and sith it is no hard matter for any to see or know which companie of Christians hath these properties as in the next Chapter I shall declare it is also plaine that these foure One Holy Catholicke Apostolicke being proper to the true Church and apparent enough are good notes or markes by which men may discerne which companie of those which haue the name of Christians and which professe as euerie companie professeth themselues to teach the true doctrine of Christ is indeed the true Church which doubtlesse teacheth in all points the true doctrine of Christ A. W. Nay rather it hath euidently appeared that neuer an one of these nor all of them together as you vnderstand them are any good markes of the true Church because euerie one of them is such as that either a true Church may be without them or at the least that no ordinarie man is able to iudge which Church hath these properties in it and which hath not Whereupon I may safely conclude that your grand syllogisme in this Chapter which any man may gather out of this last part of it is neither rightly applied to that which you were to prooue as I shewed in the beginning nor true it selfe either for the Maior or Minor as by my answer to it hath bin prooued And wheras you adde in the end that the true Church doubtlesse teacheth in all points the true doctrine of Christ we haue had too much triall of your weaknesse in iudging and boldnesse in affirming to beleeue this Cuckowes song of yours though you chaunt it ouer neuer so often A. D. CHAP. XVI That the Romane Church is One Holy Catholicke Apostolicke and therefore the true Church A. W. Although the Romane Church were One Holy Catholicke Apostolicke in such sense as you vnderstand these titles yet were it not therefore the true Church because there is neuer an one of these properties except it be holinesse which can be a marke of the Church to no man because no man can iudge of it but may for the nature of it agree to some hereticall assembly A. D. §. 1. Thus farre my discourse hath gone along all in generalities in shewing the necessitie of true faith and that this faith is to be learned of the true Church and that this Church continueth alwaies and is visible as being a visible company of men professing the true faith of Christ partaking his Sacraments and liuing vnder the gouernment of lawfull Pastors his substitutes and that whereas diuers companies of men take vpon them the title of this Church whereby same do stand in doubt which companie is the true Church there be certaine markes by which the true Church may be certainly knowne and discerned from all other companies or congregations and finally that these markes be those foure One Holy Catholicke Apostolicke which are certainly knowne to be the properties of the true Church both by the Nicene Creed and also by plaine testimonies of Scriptures and Fathers A. W. This generall discourse of yours hath bene generally so weak and so little to purpose that you are now as new to begin as you were at the first Shall I runne ouer these particulars here mentioned True faith is necessarie to saluation But not such a faith as you require which must be entire whole and sound in all points so that the misbeleeuing of any one should be damnable 2. This faith is to be learned ordinarily of the ministers of the true Church but not to be taken vpon their credit without any examination of that they deliuer by the word of God 3. There is no such Church and much lesse any such continuance and visibilitie of it as you imagine though it may be said there is one Church because all true Churches agree in the same doctrine of the Gospell as farre as is necessarie to saluation so that none of them ouerthroweth the foundation There are also certaine markes by which true Churches may be discerned from false but those you name as you vnderstand them neither are to be found in euerie true Church and to the vttermost of mans iudgemēt may be in heretical Churches Now whereas you say that those foure One Holy Catholicke Apostolicke are certainely knowne to be the properties of the true Church there is no certaine knowledge which are good markes either by the Nicene Creed or by the Fathers but onely by the Scriptures and neither that Creed nor the Fathers do approoue of these for markes of a true Church in such sense as you vrge them A. D. §. 2. Now it will be good to see if we can by these generall grounds conclude which particular company of men is the true Church of Christ a conclusion of exceeding great consequence as touching all matters in controuersie concerning the doctrine of faith as may appeare by the drift of all my former discourse For the framing of which conclusion we shall not need to bring in comparison all the companies or sects of diuers religions that haue bene and are in the world because euerie one can easily discerne of themselues and especially by the helpe of that which hath bene said that neither Turks nor Iewes nor whatsoeuer other infidels can be the true Church of Christ because these neither haue the name of Christians neither do they professe to haue the name of Christ Neither am I now to meddle with heretickes and schismatickes of former ages the which as they haue bin condēned by the generall consent of the Church so in continuance of time they haue bin worne out by the same Church in so much that euen the memorie of them God be thanked seemeth to be perished with them A. W. Out of all doubt if your generall grounds be true it is possible to conclude by them which particular companie or rather companies are true Churches of Christ For neither can the markes of a true Church agree to a false neither are they such as cannot be discerned where they are Of Iewes and Turkes indeed there can be no question but what say you to the Greeke Churches and their Patriarckes who pleade all these points for themselues as well as you do and are able to make as good proofe of their Vnitie Holinesse Catholicknesse and Apostolicknesse Yet are you farre from acknowledging these to be true Churches of Christ because forsooth they will not come vnder the slauish yoake of your Romish Antichrist Concerning the heretickes and schismaticks of former ages I would to God Christian Churches were as free of them as we desire But Sathan who in the beginning of the Gospell laboured p to choake the good seed with his cockle and darnell though for a time he continued in securitie and like a strong man armed at all points possessed his house in peace hauing procured a generall subiection to his eldest sonne Antichrist your Pope yet when in this as it were second birth of
the Gospell he saw his kingdome againe in hazard he betooke himselfe to his former shifts and spread abroad the poyson of heresie in diuers countries that he might giue you his vassals occasion to slaunder the doctrine of the Gospell as if from it these heresies had risen This is one of his delusions wherby he deceiues and misleades many to damnation though the children of God perceiue his subtilty and rest vpon the manifest truth of the Scripture for all Sathans practises to discredit it by this and such other inconueniences with which he endeauours to haue the preaching of the Gospell accompanied for the disgrace thereof This course also he tooke in the first beginning of the Gospell as it is manifest by the multitude and grossenesse of those heresies which brake out within the first 400 yeares and were neuer since equalled for number or haynousnesse in twice so long a time that the likenesse of Sathans dealing may be an argument of the like truth he now laboreth to ouerthrow or discredit A. D. §. 3. My chiefe question and comparison therefore shall be betwixt the Romane Church that is to say that companie which communicateth agreeth in profession of faith with the Church of Rome and liueth vnder the obedience as touching spirituall matters of the Bishop of Rome and other Bishops and Pastours vnder him and the Protestants that is to say that companie which from Luther his time hitherward haue opposed themselues against the Romane Church either all or any one sect of them my question I say or comparison shal be to which of those two the foure forenamed marks agree and consequently which of them is the true Church A. W. Here you propound the matter and argument of this chapter which you call a comparison as if the question were whether of the Churches be beautified with those foure properties consequently whether of them is the true Church But to speak properly there is no comparison intended therein For our question is not whether your Synagogue or our congregations come nearer the state of true Churches which seemeth to be implied in making a comparison betwixt them but whether of them are indeed true Churches If I should compare your Church of Rome with the Synagogues of the Iewes the profession of the Mahometans or the companies of Anabaptists or other Hereticks I might finde that your doctrine came nearer to the truth in many points and so were more likely to shew me the true Church or that these foure properties agreed better to you then to them But this comparison would not settle me in the knowledge of a true Church The point is as before I shewed the proofe of your Minor that the Church of Rome is she to whom those properties belong For the further confirmation whereof you vndertake to prooue that our congregations haue no interest to these titles and this you do not by way of comparison but by an argument of contraries But let vs take it as it is and fall to the examination of your proofes yet still with this prouiso that the Church of Rome cannot be concluded to be the true Church nor our congregations false Churches though you had and we wanted all these markes as you vnderstand them A. D. §. 4. § SECT I. That the Romane Church onely is one First I finde that the Protestants Church is not perfectly One or vniforme in dogmaticall points of faith but variable according to the varietie of times and persons now holding one thing then an other and that the learned men thereof are so much at iarre among themselues in matters of faith that it is hard to finde three in all points of one opinion and which is chiefely to be pondered as principally appertaining to the marke of Vnitie they haue no meanes to end their controuersies so to returne to Vnitie and to continue therein For while as they admit no rule of faith but only Scripture which scriptures diuers men expoūd diuersly according to the diuers humours and affections opinions and phantasies of euerie one neuer one admitting any one head or chiefe ruler infallibly guided by the holy Ghost in his doctrine to whose censure in matters of faith euerie one should of necessitie submit themselues Vt capite constituto schismatis tollatur occasio that as Saint Ierome speaketh a head or chiefe ruler being ordained occasion of schisme or diuision may be taken away Whilest they do thus as they all doe thus all proclaiming to be ruled by onely Scripture and yet almost in euerie one in one point or other expounding Scripture diuersly and one contrarie to an other according to the diuers seeming of euerie ones sense and neuer one admitting any one superiour infallibly guided by the holy Ghost to whose definitiue sentence he and the rest will be bound to submit their doctrine and expositions whilest I say they doe thus it is vnpossible that they should In fidei occurrere vnitatem meet as Saint Hierome counselleth in the vnitie of faith The which vnitie in profession of faith notwithstanding is one principall thing pertaining to the vnitie of the Church and vnitie of the Church is one chiefe marke by which we must discerne which is the true Church Contrariwise the Romane Church is alwaies one and vniforme in faith neuer varying or holding any dogmaticall point contrarie to that which in former times from the beginning it did hold The learned men thereof though sometimes differing in opinion in matters not defined by the Church yet inmatters of faith all conspire in one And no marueile because they haue a most conuenient meanes to keepe vnitie in profession of faith sith they do acknowledge one chiefe Pastor appointed ouer them to wit the successour of Saint Peter to whose definitiue censure in matters concerning religion they wholly submit themselues knowing that to Saint Peter and his successours Christ our Sauiour promised the keyes of the kingdome of Heauen and that he would vpon him and his successours as vpon a sure rocke build his Church Knowing also that the same our Sauiour did specially pray for Saint Peter and euerie one his lawfull successour that this faith should not faile at least so farre as to teach the Church a false faith to the intent that he might be alwaies able to confirme his brethren if at any time they should faile in the doctrine of faith Knowing lastly that to Saint Peter and his successours which word I adde not without sufficient authoritie and reason Christ our Lord gaue most ample power ouer his vniuersall Church saying Pasce oues meas feed my sheepe that is to say Rule or gouerne as chiefe Pastour vnder me my sheepe that is all those that pertaine to the sheepfold which is the Church giuing him and his successours charge to feed them with the food of true doctrine of faith and consequently binding these his sheepe to receiue obediently this food of true doctrine of faith at
which we pleade not guiltie and looke to heare what euidence commeth against vs to proue the enditement But you rather like the foreman of the grand enquest then the plaintiffe that endites vs instead of prouing come in with I find that the Protestants Church is not perfectly one This will not serue the turne we must know how you finde it or at least be assured that you haue found it Who would not laugh at such an euidence But though you leaue the two former points to the credulousnesse of your Popish followers yet you attempt the proofe of the last by this Syllogisme They that admit no rule of faith but onely Scriptures and allow no infallible interpreter thereof to whose iudgement they will stand haue no meanes to end their controuersies and returne to vnitie But the Protestant Churches admit no rule of faith but onely Scriptures and allow no infallible interpreter thereof to whose iudgement they will stand Therefore the Protestant Churches haue no meanes to end their controuersies and returne to vnitie I denie your maior for the Scripture alone containes all truth necessarie to be beleeued and that so plainly that without any such soueraigne iudgement of any man it is possible for a reasonable man to discerne truth from falshood But if any man will be contentious we haue the sword of the magistrate and the censure of excommunication to bring him into order or to cut him off if he be incurable that the vnitie of our Churches be not dissolued either by heresic or schisme But to confirme your proposition you alledge Ieromes authoritie that there must be a head or chiefe ruler that occasion of schisme may be taken away The danger of schisme that Ierome speakes of in his first booke against Iouinian not as your Printer quotes it in the second was not in respect of doctrine but of outward peace Neither was this course held from the beginning as Ierome saith but in discretion appointed vpon occasion Before that by the malice of the diuell saith Ierome the Church was deuided into factions and one man held of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas Churches were gouerned by common consent of the Presbyters but after that euery man began to thinke that those which hee had baptized were his and not Christs it was decreed ouer all the world that one chosen from among the Presbyters should be set ouer the rest to whom the whole care of the Church should appertaine and that the seeds of schismes might be taken away Out of which sentence of Ierome we may obserue these points First that this meanes of procuring vnitie belongeth not necessarily to the nature of the Church for then it must needs haue bene as auncient as the Church But Ierome telleth vs that there was a time when the Church was without it and that in her best estate while the Apostles liued By little and little saith Ierome afterward that the plants of dissention might be plucked vp the whole care was layed vpon one Secondly whereas in the place alledged by you Ierome acknowledgeth such a superioritie in Peter aboue the other Apostles in respect of age for which as he saith he was preferred before Iohn yet there is more heede to be taken to his iudgement in this place where he disputes the question without all passion then to that which hee speakes in the heate of disputation against Iouinian But what neede we any better proofe of this point then Saint Paul affoords vs He blameth the Corinthians because some held of Paul some of Apollos some of Cephas Cephas or Peter is the last why not the first rather if he were as you say the head Or why should the Corinthians be reproued for cleauing to him especially if he were appointed to be the chiefe It might be a fault to depend on Paule or on Apollos who were in your iudgement vnderlings but it was a great vertue to hang vpon Cephas the head How forgetfull was the Apostle Paul both of his dutie to Peter his head and of so readie a meanes to end that schisme that would not tell them that Peter was appointed head to the end all occasion of schisme might be taken away Thirdly we are not so to vnderstand Ierome as if he had said that there was one head appointed ouer the whole world but that in all places where there were multitudes of Presbyters order was taken that some one chosen from among the rest should be chiefe and principall in that Diocesse as I may speake and ouer all them which were in some sort accounted to be but one bodie This agreeth with the practise of those times and with that of Cyprian Here of spring heresies and schismes arise that the Priest of the Lord is not obeyed Which Cyprian speakes of euery seuerall Bishop in his Diocesse Whereunto also belongs that of Ierome There be seuerall Bishops of Churches seuerall Archbishops and seuerall Archdeacons and all the Ecclesiasticall order is stayed by the gouernours Whereby saith the Glosse Ierome proueth that there may not be two or more Bishops in one Church but that there must be a seuerall Bishop in euery seuerall Church To which purpose I may farther alledge another place of Ierome Vnlesse saith Ierome the Bishop haue a speciall power aboue other there will be as many schismes in the Church as there be Priests This course then of authorizing some one of the Presbyters aboue the rest was for the preseruing of order and keeping out of schisme not for the determining of controuersies in Religion as if all must haue stood to one mans iudgement in questions of Diuinitie which either may be ended by the authoritie of the Scriptures if they be necessary to be determined or if they be not may be forbidden to be proceeded in without any danger to the Churches libertie So that the Protestant Churches fully agree in matters of substance and want not meanes to settle peace in questions of lesse importance or if they did might easily haue as good meanes as your Church by appointing a Pope ouer themselues as in policie you haue done But as yet they finde no such need especially where the remedie is worse then the disease as it must needs be in so lawlesse a tyrannie Is it not more for the glory of God good of the Church as I haue said otherwhere that there should be continuall disagreement in some matters of Religion then that all should beleeue maintain false doctrine Were not our Sauiour Christ better haue a troubled church thē none at all Honorable war is to be preferred before dishonorable peace in the iudgement of any wise states-man And can it be more glorious to God to haue outward quietnesse in the Church with heresy yea with Antichristianisme then truth with contention True Christian vnitie consists principally in truth of religion without which the greatest agreement is but a conspiracy against God
We are now come to the principall point of your Minor wherein it stands you vpon to play the man and to make good those foure properties on the behalfe of your Church of Rome I must needs say it would grieue a man to take so much paines to so little purpose because if you prooue all that now you vndertake all that is as good as nothing till your Maior and your former syllogismes be better confirmed But yet if you quit your selfe well in this your Church shall be more beholding to you then it was euer yet to any of your fellowes in this question To begin withall you propound the question somwhat fauorably that the Romane Church holds not any dogmaticall points contrary to that which in former times frō the beginning it did hold It were much indeed your Church should teach contrarie doctrines to those it hath heretofore taught I think you can hardly name me any heresy so grosse as to fall frō one contrary to an other Your schoolmen haue set vp a mint wherin they coine vs euery day new distinctions to colour matters in such sort that your new opinions shall neuer appeare to be cōtrary to your old doctrine Hauing thus pitcht the state of the question it seemeth you thought there needed no proofe therof once it is apparent you offer not directly to bring any in this whole discourse but rather endeuour to shew vs the reason of this their agreement because forsooth they acknowledge that the definitiue sentence of the Pope either alone or at least with a generall Councell must needs be alwaies an vnfallible vndoubted truth Of which in due place But to take your matter as it lies That Church say you which holdeth no dogmaticall point contrarie to that which informer times from the beginning it did hold is alwaies one But the Church of Rome holdeth no dogmaticall point contrarie to that which informer times from the beginning it did hold Therefore the Church of Rome is alwaies one The question is not which Church is alwaies one in regard of not varying from that which first it held but which is alwaies one according to the meaning of the Nicene Creed that is which Church continueth in the truth of the Gospell For otherwise an hereticall Church might be acknowledged to be one and so a true Church because it remaineth obstinate in that heresie which at first it embraced Therefore your Maior is not true simply but onely vpon this supposition that your Church at the first held the truth But because we gladly acknowledge that the Church of Rome was at the first sound in faith I will leaue your Proposition and come to your Assumption Your Minor is excepted against by vs as you cannot choose but knowe in verie many points and some of them concerning the foundation of Christian Religion For triall whereof we appeale to the Epistle to the Romanes about matters of Faith Grace Iustification Free will Predestination and other that necessarilie depend vpon these Here are you as dumbe as a fish and like a man that had neither eares nor eies passe by this exception without taking any knowledge of it Is this a direct way according to your promise in your title to settle mens minds in all doubts questions and controuersies concerning matters of faith You might as well without all this ado haue told them in one word that the Church of Rome is the true Church and cannot erre For in effect what do you else when after many circumstances the question is brought to this issue whether the Church of Rome hold the same doctrine which in the Apostles time she professed You tell vs she doth without any proofe of that you say or answer to our manifold exceptions I will not enter into particulars as well because I see my answer growes greater then I intended or like of as also for that the seuerall controuersies betwixt you and vs are so many seuerall exceptions against this Assumption For verie pure shame you are driuen to confesse that there are differences of opinion among the learned of your side But to helpe the matter withall you qualifie it with sometimes Sometimes say you Either your reading must be verie little or your boldnesse exceeding great that you mince the matter in this sort with sometimes Answer my former challenge if you can concerning the warres among your schoolemen or doe but look into Cardinall Bellarmines controuersies and then tell me whether these differences be but sometimes or no. What learned writer almost is there of any fame on your part whom Bellarmine doth not dissent from in one point or other I might giue many instances but there is no man that reads him ignorant of that I say and you haue found a shift for this matter by interpreting dogmaticall points of Faith to be matters defined by the Church Wherein we are first to consider how absurdly you limit matters of faith Secondly to shew that euē in these matters so limited there is not alwaies agreement amongst your writers The vse and office of faith as it is onely an assent is to giue vndoubted credit to the whole truth of God by acknowledging it both to be from God and to be true For proofe of this if any man desire it I referre him to the third and forth Chapters of this treatise where you speake of the infalliblenesse and entirenesse of faith But though this be the dutie of faith it hath pleased God to deale graciously with men touching the meanes of their saluation and not to exact vpon absolute necessitie an acknowledging or knowledge of euery particular point of his truth Some things are such as I shewed before as that without them there is no possibilitie of saluation but that whosoeuer is ignorant of them either by neglecting the meanes of knowledge or by hauing no possibility to attaine vnto it he is vtterly shut out for ought we know from the kingdome of heauen Other points there are which euerie man must labour to know and beleeue because they are to that end reuealed by God but yet the simple ignorance of them so it be without contempt or carelesnesse doth not depriue a man of saluation by Christ The former of these two kindes are more properly matters of faith being absolutely necessarie to saluation You speake of matters of faith as though not the points in thēselues but the determination of the Church should make a necessitie of them to saluation So that the not beleeuing of the least matter of ceremonie enioyned by the Church shall be more damnable then the ignorance of the greatest point of Diuinitie being not so determined But I would faine know of you how I shall vnderstand what is to be accounted determined by the Church You confesse afterward that it is questionable whether the chiefe Pastor that is the Pope alone or he with a generall Councel be the Church which cannot erre Doubtlesse if it be
as you taught vs before of necessitie to saluation that we beleeue entirely all points of faith without misbeleeuing any one what hope of saluation shall be left to any Papist who cannot by any meanes know what is determined by the Church and what is not Or if he may be sure that matters defined by the Pope and a Councell are decided by the Church yet since it is not so determined whether the Pope alone be sufficient to determine of points in controuersie he may refuse to obey some constitutions of the Pope or to beleeue some questions decided by him and thereby shut himselfe out of heauen for not giuing credit to the determination of the Church if that authoritie of determining be in the Pope and he commaund men so to beleeue But if this determination of the Church be ioyntly in the Pope and Councels and that nothing is a matter of faith but that which is so determined to be then was there almost no matter of faith at all in the Church till within these last 800 yeares For it is more then euident to any man that will not be wilfully contentious that the Pope neuer bare any extraordinarie sway in Councels till he had proclaimed himselfe vniuersall Bishop which was by the grant of the murtherer Phocas six hundred yeares after the beginning of the Gospell What shall we thinke of the Churches in the Apostles times and so forward till the Councell of Nice in which the Popes supremacie was not heard of Had Christians then no matters of faith to beleeue How should they if all depend vpon the Pope and a general Councel Let me grant that those Councels in the Acts were generall what was there determined but that the Gentiles were to abstaine from things offered to Idols and bloud and that which is strangled and from fornication VVas nothing a matter of faith but these few points which also till this time were not matters of faith Either shew some good reason why matters of faith were not at this time of the Apostles liuing to be tied to generall Councels and the Pope yet now must be or confesse the truth to the glorie of God that matters of faith haue their authoritie to be matters of faith from the word of God and not from the determination of Pope or Councell or both Neither thinke to shift of the matter by saying they are indeed matters of faith in themselues but not to vs. For so it will come to passe that we shall say the first Christians had no points that were matters of faith to them because they had none determined by the Church in a Councell which opinion is I know not whether of more absurditie or impietie Now that you agreement in matters of faith after the determination of the Church is not so great as you would make the world beleeue it may appeare by the verie ground of religion the Canon of the Scripture which was determined of by your iudgement in the Councell of Carthage wherein the Apocryphall bookes say you were allowed for Canonical yet saith Bellarmine Nicholas Lyra Denys the Carthusiā Hugo de sancto victore Thomas de Vio both these at least the last Cardinals follow Ierom in reiecting thē as Apocryphal But if this Councel may be excepted against sure in your iudgment the Councell of Trent may not which hath receiued those books into the canō of the scripture Yet for all that Sixtus Senensis keeper of the Popes library maketh bold to deny thē such authority euen since that Coūcel as Bellarmine himself confesseth And Arias Montanus since that time doubteth not to say that the Orthodoxe or true Church following the Canon of the Hebrewes accounteth those bookes of the old Testament written in Greeke to be Apocryphal What say you to your Bishop Catharin who being one of the Councell of Trent after the determination of the Councell against assurance of saluation defendeth that such assurance notwithstanding that decree of the Councell may ordinarily be had by them that beleeue You would perswade vs that it is a ruled case of your Church long ago that the Scriptures are not sufficient without tradition What saith Scotus in this case Whatsoeuer pertaineth to heauenly and supernaturall knowledge and is necessarie to be knowne of men in this life is sufficiently deliuered in the holy scriptures The holy scripture saith Gerson is sufficient for the gouernment of the Church or else was Christ an vnperfect Lawgiuer I might runne on in the like course touching other points but these shal serue for a tast and so I passe ouer to your proofe that the learned on your side cannot possibly dissent one from another They which acknowledge that the definitiue sentence of the Pope is to be rested vpon as an vndoubted truth cannot possibly dissent in matters of faith But all Catholick learned men acknowledge that the Popes sentence is such Therefore no Catholicke learned men can possibly dissent in matters of faith All you conclude is that in matters determined by the Pope and a Councell your learned men cannot disagree because they hold that such a determination is certainly true yet for all this as I haue shewed your Church may be rent in peeces with contrarie opinions in matters of as great moment as most are in religion if for all this it cease not to be a true Church why should not the Protestants haue the like priuiledge who haue the same opinion of the Scriptures that you haue of the Pope Be not so iniurious to reason or blasphemous against God as to auouch that no controuersie can be ended by the word because diuers men will expound it diuersly For it is contrarie both to religion and sense to imagine that the Lord would giue his people such a Scripture as cannot be certainely vnderstood in all points necessarie to saluation but by I know not what reuelation to some one man More particularly I denie your Maior They that acknowledge such an authoritie in the Pope may yet differ in opinion about matters of faith I bring you example in that point of assurance wherein Catharin disputed against that doctrine which Sotus and your writers generally since the Councell of Trent affirme to haue bene the certaine decree of the Councell Yet were they both present in the Councell and none of the meanest there assembed The reason of that their dissent and the possibilitie of the like betwixt other men ariseth from this that decrees of Councels and Popes being set downe in writing may be diuersly interpreted and so the meaning of them mistaken as Catharin saith that he foresaw some men would misunderstand the Councell of Trent in that point This is all the inconueniences you can alledge in admitting the Scripture for Iudge and this followeth the decrees of Councels and Popes at the least as much as the writings of the holy Ghost
we said as you slaunder vs that whatsoeuer we do is sin are there therefore no degrees in sinne or is it all one to sin by infirmitie and wilfulnesse What if a sicke man cannot by any meanes recouer his perfect health againe shall he therefore refuse to keepe a good diet and grow to as much strength as for his weaknesse he can attaine to But what Protestant euer said that whatsoeuer we do is sinne It is one thing to say as we do that sinne by our corruption cleaues fast to our best works another thing to auouch as you falsly charge vs that all we do is sinne Neither is it foolishnesse to feare that which cannot be auoided if by our feare we can make it lesse hurtfull to vs. Yea it is a point of great discretion to labour all we can against sinne though we cannot wholly rid our selues of it because by this meanes our actions shall be free from the imputation of those sins and receiue an vndeserued reward at the hands of God our mercifull Father in Iesus Christ You vndertooke to proue that the doctrines of our Church are vnholy now you tell vs that some Protestants hold this and that Is this to make good that you propounded But what Protestants can you name that euer taught that God moueth men effectually and forcibly not onely to good workes but in the same sort to the act of sinne Is it your ignorance or your malice that maketh you charge vs with that which we alwayes denie and refute We say there is no force or coaction either in good or euil actions and distinguish betwixt necessitie and constraint All things come to passe necessarily in regard of the euent according to the prouidence and predestination of God But this hinders not the working of secundary causes according to their seuerall natures Besides though we hold that there is a necessitie of infallibilitie as well in good actions as in sinnes so that whatsoeuer God hath decreed and he hath decreed all things that come to passe shall certainly fall out according to his decree yet we make a great difference betwixt good and euill actions by teaching that the one are done by the worke of Gods spirit in our hearts the other by the corruption of our nature without any warrant or motion in vs from God Further in those good actions which we performe the Lord doth not onely worke by vs as by instruments without sense or reason but according to our nature enlightening our vnderstanding and sweetly inclining our affection without any force against our nature to the approuing of that which he would haue vs do and following vs by the perswasion of his spirit till he haue brought vs ineuitably to the performance of that which he hath decreed So that wee doe nothing but willingly but to good we are made willing by God both for the power and act to euill we need no assistance but the corruption of our owne hearts and the temptations of the diuell Lo whither the malice of Antichrists vassals driues them both to auouch that for truth against the Church of God which is vtterly false and to gather leud consequences of true doctrin and consider whether they haue cause to brag of holinesse who will do nothing that is good but for hope of hire and aduance their owne deseruings aboue Gods bountie and then tell me if you can perswade your conscience that such a companie of Pharisaicall merit-mongers are likely to be the true Church of God You confesse there be some sinfull folke in the Romane Church but your confessions if a man might haue the hearing of them would testifie that there are none but sinfull folk amongst you It is rehearsed by the secretary of Sixtus 5. for a singular commendation of Pius the fift that the Cardinall of Theano and the Bishop of Bagnarea who had bin his confessors many yeres affirmed that he neuer accused himselfe in confession of any mortall sinne And do you come out with There are some sinfull folke and all in it are not good Call to minde what I alledged before out of Bernard against your whole Cleargie that is as you count your whole Church Or let that passe and heare him speake more generally From the head to the foote saith Bernard of your Church there is no part whole And againe The whole multitude of Christian people hath conspired against Christ In another place he saith that a filthy contagion had spred it selfe ouer the whole Church The law saith Breiden bachius is departed from the Priests iustice from the Princes counsell from the auncient faith from the people loue from parents reuerence from subiects charitie from prelates religion from Monks good order from yong men Neither was it thus onely in places farre distant from your holy Fathers sight but in his court vnder his nose in his bed chamber and studie There saith Bernard of your Popes palace the wicked grow forward the godly grow backward Whatsoeuer perfidiousnesse and deceit saith Petrarke who liued in Rome perhaps secretary to the Pope whatsoeuer vnmercifulnesse and pride whatsoeuer impietie and leudnesse of behauiour the world hath or hath had scattered here and there all that you may see and find heaped vp together in the citie of Rome Iohn Boccace who liued at the same time complaineth that not onely the courtiers but also the Pope Cardinals and Prelates liued most filthily and sinned not onely by naturall lust but by that too which is against nature without bridle remorse of conscience or shame I forbeare to set downe any particulars whereof Platina and other that write the liues of your Popes are full because I take no pleasure in laying open your shame and it is alreadie performed in diuers of our writers Only I must needs say that I cannot sufficiently wonder at your boldnes who talke to Englishmen of your holinesse when there is no man of our nation so yong or so ignorant but is able to conuince the Pope himselfe and his Priests and Iesuites of horrible rebellions and treasons against our late Queene of blessed memory and our whole estate But what shall I need to seeke far off Was there euer the like monstrous and vnnatural example of treason murder among the most sauage of the heathen to that incredible attempt of your holy ones for the destruction of King Queene Prince Nobilitie Counsell Iudges Gentrie and Commons all at one blow Barbarous and bloudie Nero is abhorred by all men because he did wish that all the Senators of Rome had but one necke that he might cut them all off at once But your sauagenesse iustifies his crueltie he was but a pidler to your Iesuites and Papists who with one cracke would haue taken away both Senate and people There is more cause of feare that posteritie will neuer beleeue the true report of this execrable attempt it is so like rather to a
vpon the answerer whose person in this case I sustaine Besides I bring you the same proofe that Bellarmine bringeth for himselfe that is I say they were all of our Church If it be absurd to do so let your Cardinall learne to dispute better It were long to enter into particulars yet if I had brought the argument I would for shame haue said some what in proofe of it but let it passe as it comes for this once Against whom make you all this discourse to prooue that it is not possible to know certainly who are holy and who are not Surely not against the Protestants who confesse as much If hereupon you conclude that our Church hath had none holy because it hath had none certainly knowne to be holy the Maior of your syllogisme will be false as before viz. That Church which hath had no members of it reuealed to be holy by miracle or anie other certaine way from God hath had no members of it holy and I will answer to your Minor as I did that the Patriarkes Prophets and Apostles were members of our Church certainly knowne to be holy by reuelation from God But whereas you say that no man can tell whether himselfe be truely sanctified or no you affoord me proofe of that which before I affirmed that the Apostles were of our Church Prooue your selues saith the Apostle Paule whether you be in the faith examine your selues know ye not your owne selues that Iesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates And how doth the spirit of God beare witnesse to our spirit that we are the children of God if it be not possible to discerne his voice from the delusion of Sathan God hath giuen saith Bernard certaine manifest signes and tokens of saluation that it cannot be doubted but that he is in the number of the elect in whom those signes continue And in an other place whatsoeuer soule among you sath the same man hath at any time felt in the secret of his conscience the spirit of the Sonne crying Abba Father let that soule presume that he is loued with a fatherly affection which feeleth himselfe indued with the same spirit which the Sonne had Be confident whosoeuer thou art be confident nothing doubting By the spirit of the Sonne know thou art the daughter of the Father the spouse and sister of the Sonne Do you name Bernard for a principall Saint of your Church and go so directly against his doctrine As for that place of Ecclesiastes what prooueth it but onely that no man can truly iudge whether he be in Gods fauour or no by the outward things of this life or at the most that an ordinarie naturall man can giue no true iudgement of the matter This place saith Alfonsus Salmero no meane Iesuite doth not prooue that which some men draw from it that a man knoweth not the loue of God toward him because it followeth in the text he knoweth not whether he be worthie of hatred But the wicked know that they are most worthie of Gods hatred by reason of their grieuous sins The other place that No man can say his heart is cleane maketh nothing against the point you would disprooue For what though euerie man be tainted with naturall corruption which hath euen the nature of sinne in it may be not haue withall assurance according to his measure of Gods loue in Christ Yet if want of a pure heart be all the hindrance your doctrine teacheth vs that the partie baptised before he fall into some deadly sinne is wholly cleane originall sinne hauing lost in him the nature of sinne But the knowledge of the fauour of God dependeth not vpon the measure of our holinesse but vpon the truth of it Wheresoeuer the spirit of God hath begotten true faith there he hath begun true sanctification which according to his diuine power and pleasure be will in time bring to full perfection As if our Church had bene begun with Luther and not rather with Adam and the world continued in the Patriarches and Prophets and at last shewed most gloriously in the Apostles and Disciples of our Sauiour Christ As long as God hath giuen testimonie of the holinesse of these worthies our Church cannot be said to haue had none certainly knowne to be holy But though we builde not vpon any such ground tel me what it wanted of amiracle that a poore Frier should set himselfe against the Pope and the whole state of your Church and for all the malice persecution of the Pope the Emperor and generally all the estates of these westerne parts as well ciuill as Ecclesiasticall except a Prince or two in Germany conuerted by him continue and grow so many yeares and leaue behind him after a peaceable and godly death so many heires of his doctrine daily increasing and multiplying It is enough that the word of God beareth witnesse to the truth of his doctrine though we haue neither miracle nor reuelation of his holinesse But you would make the world beleeue that he and Caluin attempted to worke miracles If it had bene so it was not to breed an opinion of their holinesse but to auow the truth of their doctrine But to whom can it seeme likely that they which denied that any miracles were to be looked for and taught that Antichrist should come with signes and wonders would go about such a needlesse and doubtfull peece of worke What tell you vs of the Apostata Bolsec or Staphylus who solde themselues to lie for the Popes aduantage At the least name some likely men though partiall and not such knowne enemies and Sycophants I maruell you prooue not this point of holinesse by the examples of your Popes in whose persons holinesse is inuested and from them deriued to all other as honour is in and from temporall Princes If the Popes holinesse be not extraordinarily holy what should a man looke for of inferiour Papists Who would not rather name the Sunne then any starre of the first magnitude or the Moone her selfe to prooue that there is light in the skie But you knew how filthie that fountaine of your holinesse is Well let them go as they are you haue named vs three the ancientest of whom is not yet six hundred yeares old What say you of them First that they were certainly knowne to haue bene professors of that same Religion which was then and is now professed at Rome To whom is this certainly knowne How many of our men haue shewed that the Religion of the Church of Rome is altered in diuers points since Bernards time The Councell of Trent is the pit out of which the religiō of your present Church is digged I referre the Reader for this point to a Treatise lately written by a learned Diuine wherein many particulars to this purpose are deliuered Bernard was indeed a member of the Church of Rome as then it was yet either he dissented from
absolution if they doe the pennaunce appoynted by their ghostly Father they are as free from all their sinnes as when they were newly baptised Now concerning our doctrine though we teach men that assurance is to be had yet we withall instruct them that it is neuer in this life absolutely without doubting at all times and that no man can be assured that his sinnes are forgiuen but he that with feare and trembling maketh conscience of falling into sinne which are especiall meanes prouided by God to keepe men from sinning and without which sinne will so ouertake vs and the sense of Gods wrath so follow vexe vs that a man were better frie a yeare in your Purgatory knowing that he shall one day get out of it then lie one moneth vnder the heauie hand of God pressing him with the remembrance of his sinne and for the time hiding his gracious countenance from him If you neuer fealt this offer not to iudge of the extremitie thereof for you will neuer come to giue any reasonable gesse of the terriblenesse of it To prescribe lawes of fasting and praier as you do that A man refraine vpon such and such daies from flesh or patter ouer a number of Paternosters Aues and Creeds is so farre from teaching men to auoid sinne that it thrusts them necessarily into it For both the opinion and doing of it as a seruice of God is a grieuous sinne as if the Lord hated flesh more then fish or cared for such vaine lip-labour and also the verie conceit that men haue of doing such extraordinarie seruice maketh them presume that God will beare with them though they chance to sinne against him The like I say of confession but of these two I spake before in defence of our doctrine With what fitnesse your remedies are applied or rather penance is inioyned the veriest child may see when for the most part they are such as I named ere while abstaining from flesh mumbling vp a certaine number of praiers going on pilgrimage to some shrine or such like As for true comfort in affliction of conscience or good direction in time of temptation or wise instruction for a mans spirituall behauiour few of your ordinarie Priestes Sir Iohns Lacke-Latine haue any knowledge or care of them This last point concerneth you no more then vs. For who knoweth not that we continually teach that God hath called Christians to holinesse whereof they make profession and wherein if they do not daily exercise themselues they can haue no sufficient assurance nor reasonable perswasion that they are iustified by the bloud of Christ Because as many as haue any part of redemption by him haue receiued his spirit and If the spirit of him that raised vp Iesus from the dead dwell in vs our mortall bodies shall be quickened by the spirit dwelling in vs. Onely it may seeme that your disgrace and danger should be the more if you liue not holily because you brag that you are able perfectly to keepe the Law and your Plea for heauen is the desert of your good works together with the inward grace of faith hope and charitie Because there is nothing in this glorious conclusion but a heaping vp of those false assertions which I haue alreadie confuted I will neuer make the Reader more worke then needs by repeating of that which hath bene formerly deliuered A. D. §. 6. § III. That the Romane Church onely is Catholicke Thirdly I finde that the Protestants companie is not Catholicke that is to say vniuersall neither in time nor in place for it came vp of late and is but in few places of Christendome neither in points of doctrine for their doctrine consisteth chiefely of negatiues that is to say in denying diuers points which haue bene generally held in former ages as appeareth by the Chronicles of the Magdeburgenses their owne Doctors who confesse that the ancient Fathers held this and that which they now denie And there is no learned Protestant vnlesse he be too too impudent but he will confesse that there cannot be assigned a visible companie of men professing the same faith which they do euer since Christ his time continuing without interruption till now And therefore will he nill he he must confesse that the Protestants Church is not vniuersall and therefore not Catholicke as out of Scripture I shewed Christs true Church must be But the Romane Church is Catholicke For first it hath bene continually without ceasing since Christ and his Apostles time still visibly though sometimes in persecution professing the same faith which is receiued from the Apostles without change till this day It is therefore Catholicke or vniuersall in time It hath also had and hath at this day some in euerie countrey where there are any Christians which is almost if not absolutely euerie where that communicateth and agreeth with it in profession of faith Therefore it is also Catholicke or vniuersall in place It teacheth also an vniuersall and most ample vniforme doctrine of God of Angels of all other creatures and specially of man of mans first framing of his finall end of things pertaining to his nature of his fall by sinne of his reparation by grace of lawes prescribed vnto him of vertues which he ought to embrace of vices which he ought to eschew of Christ our Redeemer his Incarnation life death resurrection ascension and comming againe to iudgement of Sacraments and all other things that any way pertaine to Christian religion Neither doth it at this day denie any one point of doctrine of faith which in former times was vniuersally receiued for a veritie of the Catholicke Church The which if any man will take vpon him to gainesay let him shew and prooue if he can what point of doctrine the Romane Church doth denie or holde contrarie to that which by the Church was vniuersally held before as we can shew diuers points that the Protestants so hold or denie Let him I say shew and prooue by setting downe the point of doctrine the author the time the place and what companie did oppose themselues against it and who they were that did continue as the true Church must still continue in the profession of the former faith lineally without interruption till these our daies as we can shew and prooue against them Let him also shew what countrey there is or hath bene where Christian faith either was first planted or afterwards continued where some at least haue not holden the Romane faith as we can shew euen at this day diuers places where their religion is scarce heard of especially in the Indian Iaponian and China countries which were not long since first conuerted to the Christian faith onely by those who were members of the Romane Church and chiefly by Iesuites sent thither by the authoritie of the Pope And to go no further then our deare countrie England we shall finde in the Chronicles that it was conuerted by Augustine a Monke sent
by Saint Gregorie the Pope and that it cōtinued in that faith without knowledge of the Protestants religion which then and for diuers hundred yeares after was neuer heard off as being then vnhatched The like record of other countries conuerted by meanes of those onely who either were directly sent by the Pope or Bishop of Rome or at least communicated and agreed in profession of faith with him we may finde in other Histories Lastly let him shew some space of time in which the Romane Church was not since Christ and his Apostles time or in which it was not visible knowne as we can shew them many hundred yeares in which theirs was not at all Let him I say therefore shew and prooue which neuer any yet did or can prooue that euer the Romane Church did either faile to be or to be visible or being still visible when the profession of the ancient faith which it receiued from the Apostles did faile in it and when and by whom the profession of a new faith began in it As we can shew whē where by whom this new no faith of theirs began Certaine it is that once the Romane Church had the true faith and was a true Church to wit when Saint Paule wrote to the Romanes saying Vestra fides annunciatur in vniuerso orbe your faith is renowned in the whole world When therefore I pray you as the learned and renowned Master Campian vrgeth when I say did Rome change the beleefe and profession of faith which once it had Quo tempore quo Pontifice qua via qua vi quibus incrementis vrbem orbem religio peruasit aliena Quas voces quas turbas quae lamenta ea res progenuit Omnes orbe reliquo so piti sunt dum Roma Roma inquam noua Sacramenta nouum sacrificium nouum religionis dogma procuderet Nullus extitit Historicus neque Latinus neque Graecus neque remotus neque citimus quirem tantam vel obscurè iaceret in commentarios At what time vnder what Pope what way with what violence or force with what augmentatiō or increase did a strange religion ouerflow the Citie and the whole world What speaches or rumors what tumults or troubles what lamentations at least did it breed Was all the rest of the world asleepe when Rome the Imperial and mother Citie whose matters for the most part are open to the view of the whole world when Rome I say did coine new Sacraments a new sacrifice a new doctrine of faith religion Was there neuer one Historiographer neither Latin nor Greeke neither farre off nor neere who would at least obscurely cast into his commentaries such a notable matter as this is Certainly it is not possible if such a thing as this had happened but that it should haue bene resisted or at least recorded by some For suppose it were true which the Protestantes imagine that some points of the faith and religion which Rome professeth at this day were as contrarie to that which was in it when Saint Paule commended the Romane faith as black to white darknesse to light or so absurd as were now Iudaisme or Paganisme as one of their Historiographers accounteth it worse saying that indeed Augustine the Monke conuerted the Saxons from Paganisme but as the prouer be saith saith he bringing them out of Gods blessing into the warme Sunne Suppose I say this were true Then I would demaund if it were possible that any Prince in any Christian Citie and much more that the Pope in Rome the mother Citie could at this day bring in any notable absurd rite of Iewish or Paganish religion for example to offer vp an Oxe in sacrifice or to worship a Cow as God and not onely to practise it priuately in his owne Chappell but to get it publickely practised and preached in all Churches not onely of that Citie but also in all the rest of the Christian world and that none should in Christian zeale continually oppose themselues that no Bishop should preach no Doctor write against this horrible innouation of faith and the author thereof that none should haue constancie to suffer martyrdome which Christians haue bene alwaies most readie to endure rather then to yeeld to a profession and practise so contrarie to their ancient faith that there should be no true hearted Christians who would speake of it or at least lament it nor no Historiographer that would so much as make obscure mention of it Could all be so asleepe that they could not note or so cold and negligent in matters concerning their soules good as generally without any care to yeeld vnto it No certainly though there were no promise of Christ his owne continual presence no assurance of the infallible assistāce of his holy spirit yet it is not possible that such a grosse error should arise among Christiās ouerwhelme the whole world without some resistance The Bishops and Pastors could not be so simple or so vnmindfull of their duetie but they would first note such an euident contrarietie to the ancient and vniuersally receiued faith and noting it they would doubtlesse with common consent resist contradict and finally according to Saint Paule his rule accurse it If therefore this could not happen now nor euer heretofore was heard that any such absurd errour or heresie did or could arise without noting or resisting what reason can any man haue to say that this hath happened at Rome Not being able to alledge any writer that did note the thing the person the time and what opposition was made and continued against it as in all heresies that haue sprung vp of new we can do If there could not a little ceremonie be added to the Masse but that it was set downe in historie when and by whom how could the whole substance of the Masse which consisteth in consecration oblation and consumption of the sacred Hoast be newly inuented and no mention made when or by whom or that euer there was was any such new inuention at all If also Historiographers were not afraid to note personall and priuate vices of the Popes themselues which they might well thinke Popes would not willingly haue made open to the world why should they haue feared to haue recorded any alteration in religion Which if it had bene had bene a thing done publikely in the view of the whole world or if there were any feare or flatterie which might tie the tongues and pennes of those that liled neare hand that they durst not or would not mention such a matter yet doubtlesse others which liued in places further off should not haue had those causes and consequently would not haue kept secret such an open and important a thing as this If lastly the histories which make mention of these priuate vices of Popes and other Christian Princes could not onely first come out but also continue without touch till these latter times what reason can any haue to doubt
if it were the wages of seruants and not the inheritance of children The vniuersal Church as you speake of it is a meere name without any thing answerable to it in nature That which was generally held while the Churches of Christ were not subiect to Antichrist concerning the substance of Religion by which true and false Churches are to be iudged we gladly and constantly maintaine The errors which some men defended and corrupted the Churches withall we refute and reiect But it is no marke of the true Church to hold all that hath bene generally maintained in true Churches but the dutie of it to acknowledge for true whatsoeuer was taught by the Apostles and is recorded in Scripture How far our Church is spread it passeth your skill truly to affirme and we may with good reason perswade our selues that it is in all places where the Gospell is preached and the Scriptures knowne because dayly experience sheweth that it hath some members in those countries where your bloudie and tyrannous butchery of Inquisition doth most rule and vnder the nose of your grand Antichrist in the citie of Rome But it is enough to make it Catholicke that it acknowledgeth it selfe to be common both to Iew and Gentile not tied to any country people or person whatsoeuer as yours is to the Pope and Rome We are not ashamed of Martin Luther whom it pleased God to vse admirably if not miraculously to rake from vnder the ashes the light of the Gospell couered and choked with your errors and superstitions Not as if it had bin al that while out of the world but as one of your owne fellowes speakes of it as being in the eclipse ouershadowed and darkned with the thicke mist of your Popish decrees decretals and schoolmens trickes and other such leud trumpery Our Church that is the true Church of Christ was all that time in the world but not to be seene of euery man though from time to time there were still found some who durst maintaine the truth of Christ against your Antichristian heresies Luthers writings words deeds and manner of death were such as might manifest to all men both his true zeale of the glory of God and Gods especiall fauour to him whatsoeuer such lying sycophants as Prateolus faine If we would stand vpon Apostolicknesse in succession what haue you that we want saue onely that you continue in succession of error longer then we do But it is an idle plea to auouch personall succeeding where there is manifest contrarietie in doctrine by which as we heard out of Tertullian howsoeuer you brag of Apostolicknesse you may be proued not to be Apostolicall We differ not in doctrine touching the fundamentall points of Religion from any true holy Catholicke and Apostolicke Church neither doth your synagogue agree with any such Therfore wheras you demand how we can brag that we haue true faith which is not to be found out of the true Church we answer you as oft we haue done that we are sure the faith we hold is true because it is agreeable to the Scriptures and being so we cannot be out of the true Church as long as we are in the true faith True faith cannot be had by any light or discourse of nature but onely by reuelation from God For neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor the heart of man can imagine what the meanes are whereby God decreed in himselfe to saue those whom he hath chosen to glory Now it was not the purpose of God in these latter times as in the first before the law to reueale his will immediatly from heauen but he sent his Son in the nature of man and that Sonne his Apostles to giue knowledge of those means of saluation both by preaching for that present age wherein they liued and also by writing for that age and all that were to succeed till the end of the world This is all that the Apostle teacheth in the place alledged by you Yet we denie not that the principall ordinary means to bring men to faith is the ministery of man by word of mouth expounding the word wil of God according to the Scriptures First then all men to whom the Scriptures are vouchsafed haue meanes of hearing For in them they may if they will heare men appointed by God speake to their instruction and saluation Secondly the same God hath ordained that besides the former teaching there should be certaine men set apart and deputed for the ministery whose dutie it is to preach in their seuerall charges the word of truth This setting apart deputing is that sending which is now required and is to be performed by such as are shall be authorized to that purpose Thirdly for our particular case we are to vnderstand that Luther and these other worthies by whose ministery it pleased God to reuiue the knowledge of the Gospell decayed were authorized to preach by your congregation which was at that time in apparence the true Church of God Therefore were they sent if your church haue any sending and according to their calling they labored in opening the truth of God as it is reuealed in the Scriptures Thus by the gracious mercie of God it came to passe that they teaching the word of truth found diuers both men and women whose hearts the Lord by his spirit opened so that they embraced the loue of the truth deliuered by them and accepted them for their pastors and submitted themselues to become their flockes By this meanes they had both a generall authoritie to preach from that companie which by profession was the Church and also a particular charge of those who were now become indeed in regard of their professed faith a true Church of God We haue then in our Churches for the late reforming of them first your calling such as it was and secondly the approbation of true Christians of which true Churches consist Therefore by your owne rule since we haue some amongst vs that are sent we may also haue faith and true faith though we abhor your Antichristian heresies To what purpose is this idle discourse but to shew your owne errors We neither looke for nor allow any opinion of extraordinary sending from God because we haue no warrant for any such in the Scriptures But wee say the restorers of the Gospell in this last age had ordinary allowance of that Church which bare the shew of the true Church and professed the beleeuing of the Gospell which is the foundation of the Church But you require peculiar consecration because it pleased God to appoint such a course for the Priesthood of the Law Do you not know that the consecrating and annointing of Aaron was a part of the ceremoniall law signifying the annointing of the spirit which our Sauiour was to receiue to whom according to those shewes the Lord gaue the spirit without measure The consecration that now remaines is nothing but the setting a part
man should beleeue them but he that is giuen vp by God to strong delusions that he may beleeue lies Bethinke your selues and returne ere it be too late The Lord will be mercifull to your former ignorance if at the last you embrace the loue of the truth Leauing those euident proofes you speake of proofes indeed of your manifold errours you assay to draw vs by reason because it is more likelie that the vniuersall companie of Catholickes deserueth credit then any particular man or his followers First you beg that which is in question No true Catholicke euer held all the errours that your Antichristian Church maintaineth nor any one of those whereby you cast downe the foundation of religion Secondly the comparison is not betwixt the authoritie of a multitude or a few wherein number may either helpe or hinder but the reasons of each side are to be weighed all other respects whatsoeuer set apart And yet if we looke to reason are not the greatest number for the most part the worst Christs true flocke is a little one Feare not little flocke Not many wise men after the flesh not many mightie not many noble Was not the voice of the people euen of Gods people Make vs Gods to go before vs The voice of God is to be heard in the Scriptures One man that speaketh according thereunto is to be preferred before the whole world speaking otherwise Those obiections made to Luther in his priuate meditations proceeded from the same spirit by which the Pharisies spake to Nicodemus in their Councell Doth any of the Rulers or of the Pharisies beleeue in him This was that communicating with flesh and blood which the Apostle would not once hearken to Luther in his weaknesse was drawne into it and had perished in it if the Lord of his infinite mercy had not drawne him out of it with a worthie and admirable resolution VVith the like that it may appeare whose schollers you are you Iesuits and Priests set vpon simple people ticing them on in their ignorance your owne though the broad way that leadeth to destruction But let vs consider this your fleshly eloquence and answer to it You aske if we onelie be wise and all the rest in former ages were fooles As if we did not acknowledge that it is the mercie of God and not our wisedome that hath giuen vs the abilitie and will to vnderstand his truth We are not wiser then any other but haue found more mercy then many haue done at the hands of God for our saluation Many in former times haue bene partakers of the like mercie and bene made wise to saluation by the same truth we now professe yea it was generally held many hundred yeares til your master Antichrist draue it into holes and deserts After the reuealing of his pride and tyrannie the true way to heauen ceased not to be found though not so commonly till it pleased God to scatter those clowdie mists of ignorance and idolatrie by which you had hidden it that it could very hardly be knowne Diuers heretofore and more now adaies finde fauour with God to discerne and walke through it to the certaine and euerlasting saluation of their soules and bodies So iudge we as it becommeth vs in charitie of our forefathers that he which hath looked in compassion vpon vs their seed did not faile to shew mercy vnto them who neuer vnderstood the mysterie of your iniquitie but in the singlenesse of their hearts embraced the generall doctrine of the Gospell concerning saluation by faith in Christ This is the onely way by which all men haue gone that euer came to heauen and in this way we trauell with danger of the liues of our bodies as you speake because we are continually in hazard by reason of your conspiracies treasons massacres vnderminings and fier-works but with assurance of the saluation of our soules if we hold fast the shoot-Anchor of our hope and renouncing our owne righteousnesse repose our selues by faith vpon the gracious mercy of God our Father in Iesus Christ This doing we haue better certificate both for the securitie of our way and the end of our iourney out of the Scriptures and by the witnesse of the Spirit of God in our hearts then that lying Carier the diuel can bring by any shew of your counterfeit miracles whatsoeuer I must needs perswade my selfe sith that Apostolicall Romish Synagogue is as I haue shewed the seducer of the world by shew of authority without reason the ouerthrow and destruction of truth by denying the sufficiency of the Scripture and taking the vse of it from the people of God that all you which cleaue to it plunge your selues in hellish darknesse by refusing to see the light of Gods word and by drinking of the cup of abhomination presented to you by that strumpet of Rome loose the taste of truth and runne forward in wilfull ignorance to most certaine damnation The Lord is my witnesse whom I serue weakly as I can in the Gospell of his Son Iesus Christ that if it were possible and lawfull for me I could be content to procure your saluation by pouring out my heart bloud for euerie one of you that Iesus Christ my master might haue the glory of your true conuersion To that purpose and for the establishing of them which alreadie beleeue I first vndertooke and haue now at the last by the mercifull assistance of God finished my answer to this subtill Treatise Let me now earnestly intreat you by the care of your owne saluation by the zeale you haue in ignorance to glorifie God by the infinite loue of Iesus Christ by the vndeserued mercy of God the Father by the continuall gracious motions of the holy Ghost and by whatsoeuer is or ought to be deare vnto you that you would vouchsafe seriously in the sinceritie of your hearts without preiudice to consider whether it be not more ageeable both to the Scriptures and the light of reason to giue the whole glorie of our saluation to the mercie of God in Iesus Christ then to ascribe the enabling of vs to saue our soules to God and the vse or imploying of this abilitie to the choise of our owne free-will If your opinion be true euerie man that is saued is more beholding to himselfe then to God for his saluation For though he haue power from God to be saued if he will yet neither hath he this power but vpon preparation depending on his free-will and when he hath it the vsing of it well is from himselfe and not from God You will say he could not vse it well vnlesse he were assisted continually by the grace of God I answer that for all this assistance by that grace to vse it well the well or ill vsing of it when God hath done all he will do ariseth from the choise of a mans owne will That it was possible for me to be saued it was Gods doing that
this possibilitie tooke effect in me I may thanke my selfe more then God so that by this doctrine the glorie of euerie particular mans saluation is more due to the partie saued then to God the Sauiour Now on the contrarie side if that we teach be true the losse falles on mans part and not vpon Gods Is any man drawne out of the Iawes of hell and damnation The whole glorie redounds to God It was he that prouided meanes of saluation it was he that gaue me in particular knowledge of that meanes It was he that when I was as vntoward and vnwilling to be saued as the most damned reprobate wrought me to beleeue can I euer be vnmindfull or vnthankfull by inclining my heart to like and accept of his grace and faith in Christ But in the meane while I loose the commendation and the glory of vsing the grace of God well by my free-will O Adam Adam earth and ashes how fast doth that pride of nature whereby thou wast destroyed in thy selfe though in thee it were not naturall cleaue to euerie one of thy posteritie We had rather be thought able to gouerne our selues then be gouerned by God It is more pleasing to vs to hazard our saluation vpon the nice choise of our owne free-will then to be assured of it by the mercie of God working in vs this choise to will O that as we are all partakers of Adams pride so we might also partake with his repentance and faith Would Adam trow ye if it might be put to his choise againe venture vpon his owne free-will though he were as pure as euer he was rather then rest secure vpon Gods almightie and most certaine protection No no blessed soule he knoweth by wofull experience though by Gods vnspeakable goodnesse to his and our greater glorie that he and he only is out of danger who resignes himselfe into Gods hands to be disposed of at his gracious pleasure Why refuse we to be like to Adam in this Will we follow him in that onely of which onely he is ashamed Is it not more glorie to arise with him then to haue fallē with him O why do we euery day renew the memorie of his fault by committing the like Doth the brightnesse of the truth in these points dazle your eies Me thinks I see many of you offering to presse forward as it were to take the kingdome of heauen the doctrine of the Gospell by violence why recoile you Why quaile you on a sodaine The bare name of the Church not onely stayeth you but beateth you backward The Romish Church cannot erre VVho telleth you so Surely they that can erre your Priests and Iesuits Giue me leaue I pray you to question with you a little and for a minute of an hower be content to make vse of that reason and knowledge which God hath giuen you without forestalling your iudgements by preiudice of the authoritie of the Church Doth it not appeare to you by the light of naturall reason that the maine end of all religion is the glorie of God Do not your owne consciences testifie in the simplicitie of your hearts that it maketh more for the glorie of God that men should be beholding to his Maiestie for their saluation then that they should procure it to themselues Is it not also apparent to you in the secret of your owne soules that our doctrine by beating downe the pride of mans free-will aduanceth the glorie of Gods mercie and yours by hoysing vp the conceit of mans good choise presseth downe the estimation of Gods vnspeakable goodnesse And shall an idle sound weigh more with you then sound reason Consider I beseech you what weake grounds you build this opinion of the Church vpon I will point at that which in my answer I haue handled Can you in any sort compare the opinion of the Churches authoritie with the euidence of those matters wherewith before I pressed you Is it as cleere that there are certaine men whom I must beleeue whatsoeuer they teach as it is that I must seeke the aduancing of Gods glory more then of mine owne pride Are you as sure that these Priests and Iesuits which are your teachers be sent by the true Church and deliuer nothing but the doctrine of the true Chruch as you are that they who perswade you to rest wholy vpon God and not at all vpon your selues shew you the right way to procure Gods glory and your owne saluation Tush say you all is nothing vnlesse I beleeue it vpon the credit of the Church Alaste how did the first Christians who neuer thought on the authoritie of the Church when they heard and beleeued the Apostles doctrine Looke ouer all the Historie of the Actes peruse the Sermons of Peter and Paule and tell me whether you finde that euer they pleaded the authoritie of the Church to procure beleefe of their doctrine After men are conuerted the authoritie of the Church hath her due place and must beare sway in matters in different but for the auowing of truth her bare word is neuer of sufficient importance It was the doctrine of the Apostles that wrought vpon the hearts of men by the cleare euidence of it through the power of the Spirit wherewith it was accompanied What that doctrine was where should we learne but in the scriptures wherein they haue written what they preached These you say giue such authoritie to the Church This were somewhat if you made not their authoritie in respect of vs to depend vpon the Church The scriptures say your Doctors haue in themselues authoritie as being from God but they are not of authoritie to vs but onely by the authoritie of the Church I perceiue you are ashamed of these absurdities The Church must be beleeued vpon her word Why so The Scripture saith so How shall I know that these bookes are scripture The Church saith so The Church and the scripture prooue each other by their mutuall testimonie they giue each of other I beleeue the Church because the scripture biddeth me I beleeue the scripture because the Church biddeth me If these things seeme to be absurd as indeed they are most absurd blinde not your selues any longer with such mists of errour but come out of them to the cleare light of the scriptures reade them diligently meditate in them carefully call vpon God for his grace earnestly resigne your selues and your free-will to him sincerelie and the Lord that is most readie to blesse them that vse the meanes of knowledge and faith in humilitie and singlenesse of heart will assuredly enlighten your vnderstanding and incline your affections that you shall discerne like of and embrace the true doctrine of Iustification by faith in Iesus Christ and shall renounce your owne righteousnesse and free-will to the glorie of his grace and the present comfort and euerlasting saluation of your bodies and soules through the same his sonne to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all
not all one but diuers p. 156. Credere Deum Credere in Deum differ very much p. 156. The perpetuall couenant p. 178. Christians how called Saints p. 349. What makes a man cease to be a Christian p. 273. There is no constraint vsed toward the will either in good or in euill pag. 344. How Constraint and Necessitie differ p. 344. 345. Councels may erre p. 260. Are hard to be vnderstood and may be misunderstood p. 11. 12. 323. Are bound to vse all meanes of disputation to find out the truth p. 13. Deliuer some things as probable coniectures p. 12. The course that hath bene and must alwayes be held by Popish generall Councels p. 330. Whether the Councell be aboue the Pope or no it is not determined p. 14 15. 375. The Councell hath often deposed the Pope 324. 325. The Councell of Constance makes the Pope subiect to the decrees of Councels p. 325. The Councell of the Elders among the Iewes p. 148. D What it is to denie Christ p. 190. 191. Alwayes damnable p. 190. Most deuotion in Popery where there is least vnderstanding p. 27. Disputation about points of Diuinitie necessary p. 13. Dissention among Papists about matters of faith p. 321. 322. 324. Bellarmine dissents in one point or other from almost all learned Papists before him p. 319. Euery dissent in opiniō makes not churches cease to be churches or holy p. 273. Dissention is better then maintaining of false doctrine or worship p. 319. Doubting of some points how it ouerthrowes not religion p. 50. How farre the doctrine of one that is lawfully sent may be examined pa. 253. E 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth p. 128. Any assembly pag. ead Especially about matters of religion p. ead Generally all beleeuers p. 129. 201. 210. Particularly seuerall congregations p. 129. How arguments may be drawne from those places where the word is vsed p. 129. 130. Ecclesiasticall gouernours to be obeyed when they commaund that which is right p. 37. The Elect before the coming of Christ were chosen ordinarily out of the Iews since out of the Gentiles p. 207. The Elect onely are truly called p. 210. 211. May fall into grieuous sin and yet not cease to be elect p. 211. England not conuerted but peruerted by Austin the monke p. 377. Popish errors crept in by little and little vnperceiued p. 382. 383. 387. F Diuers significations of faith p. 6. 22. 28. Faith is absolutely necessary to saluatiō p. 22. 25. 26. Faith for assent to the truth what it is p. 35. 319. May be had without the autoritie of the Church p. 104. 113. Is in some greater in some lesse p. 31. Goeth before iustifying faith p. 33. Is accompanied with doubting p. 32. 33 Perfection thereof is to be labored for p. 32. Is tied to the Scripture not to y e church p. 46. May come by the preaching of the schismaticks or heretickes p. 34. Not to be built on the testimonie of man p. 329. How it is one p. 30. 31. 47. 51. Entire and infallible faith necessarie to saluation p. 73. How faith may be begotten p. 25. 26. 33 34. 60. 66. 75. 76. 113. 114. 235. Is to be learned of the Ministers not of the Church p. 234. Matters of faith according to Poperie 311. 320. Are indeede to be proued by scripture p. 250. 319. 320. Fundamentall points of faith p. 40. 239. Obstinately not beleeuing them damnable p. 40. No matter of faith according to Poperie till within these last 800 yeares 320. 321. All popish faith dependeth vpon the authoritie of the Church p. 25. The rule of faith what properties it must haue p. 61. 63. 64. 94. 108. Easinesse to be vnderstood no propertie of the rule p. 74 94. How farre the rule need be vnderstood p. 65 94. All truth must be prooued by the rule p. 84. 87. 115. What points the rule must resolue and how farre p. 84. Naturall wit and learning cannot be the rule of faith p. 98 99 100. No priuate spirit can be the rule of faith 105. The teaching of the Catholicke Church the rule of faith p. 61. 122. 42. He that hath Popish faith may be damned p. 23. Iustifying faith what it is p. 24. It is in the wil. p. 33. The iust liues by faith and where there is faith there is life p. 273. Liuely faith may be in him that is ignorant or misinstructed in many points p 274. The foundation of the Apostles doctrin is ouerthrowne by Poperie p. 375. Fasting not condemned but especially commended by Protestants p. 342. A Popish fast may be kept with gluttonie and drunkennesse p. 342. 366. The interpretations of the Fathers reuerenced by the Protestants p. 80. Frieries and monasteries p. 357. Saint Francis fiue wounds p. 358. G God calleth all men from damnation p. 56. Decreed all things that are or shal come to passe p. 345. Worketh not alike in good and euill actions p. 345. The glorie of God is the end of all religion p. 290. 296. The heathen had one soueraigne God aboue all the rest p. 387. To whom the rest were mediators of intercession for their fauorites as the Popish Saints are p. 387. How we may know that there is a gospell p. 245. The doctrine of the Gospell is simply necessarie to saluation not the books of the foure Gospels p. 243. The Gospell hung about the necke for a preseruatiue p. 78. Many nations in Austins time had not heard the Gospell p. 55. The Fathers thought the world should end presently after the preaching of the Gospell in all places p. 55. Many thousands died in the Apostles time ere they could by any meanes heare of the Gospell p. 181. 182. 183. H Herefie what it is p. 220. A worke of the flesh p. 52. 118. May be more generall for a time then true religion p. 293. No man can certainly know how long any heresie shall continue p. 293. Heresies spring from misunderstanding the Scripture p. 119 300. May by it be conuinced p. 119. Great hereticks haue had lawfull calling to the ministerie p. 36. 411. Hereticks pleade all for themselues that Papists do p. 119. They that refuse to make triall of their doctrine by Scripture are hereticks p. 220. Some hereticks haue continued a long time in one and the same doctrine p. 263. Hereticks may be free from all grosse outward sinne p. 275. The first 400. yeares were most fruitfull in monstrous heresies p. 305. Some hereticall Churches may be true Churches p. 219. Some heretickes could pleade personall succession from the Apostles p. 299. Any hereticall Church may haue as good meanes to end controuersies as the Church of Rome hath p. 313. Holinesse whence it springeth p. 21. 360. Onely true inward holinesse can make a man a true Christian p. 269. Holinesse is resident onely in seuerall persons not in a companie p. 270. 249. Is inuested in the Popes person p. 356. I Comparison betwixt heathenish Popish Idolatrie p. 386. 387. Distinction