by razing out these euil humours from the body 8. And now your Maiesty hauing seene by the former discourse how many points of ould condemned heresies haue bene reuiued and renewed againe by the Protestants of our tyme and that contrariwise almost twenty seueral positions about principall points of controuersy held by the said Protestants to be Papisticall are asserted by the said ancient Fathers as Catholicke in their dayes euen from the first age after the Apostles with repetition and confirmation of the same in the subsequent ages by the chiefe Doctors that liued therin and that the said positions or assertions were neuer noted or censured by the Church for erroneous hereticall or scandalous This I say is and ought to be your Maiesties prudence and loue of your euerlasting good so waighty an argument and motiue as nothing more For alas dread Soueraigne if the sentence of S. Paul be iust and true that an hereticall man is damned by his owne iudgement and if that of S. Augustine before cited be not false that whosoeuer houldeth any one of those eighty three heresies which he reciteth in his book to Quod-vult-Deus or any other whatsoeuer which shall spring vp hereafter cannot be a Christian Catholick consequently must needes be an hereticke Alas I say my dread Soueraigne and alas againe in what eternall dāger doth your Princely soule consist in that by the euill currēt of the tyme and temerarious course of such as you giue credit vnto your Matie is drawne to hould and defend not only sundry of those positions which S. Augustine and before him S. Epiphamus do recount for condemned heresies by the Church in their dayes but many other also yea all the opposit propositions to the Catholick assertions before mentioned out of the ancient Fathers as namely about Free-will Iustification good workes inuocation of Saints reall Presence Primacy of the Church of Rome and the like 9. And truly to haue such a grand Inquest or rather Parliament of Peeres to beare witnes against a soule for conuincement of heresy at the day of Iudgement as the rankes of these Fathers are in all the first and purest ages of Christian religion maketh my soule to tremble euen in thinking of it For if the cause were temporall that there went therin but only the interest of your Maties temporall and terrene Kingdome yet were the case frightfull to see so many great lawyers and Iudges vpon the one side so resolute as the Fathers shew themselues to be But now for so much as the matter concerneth an euerlasting and heauenly Kingdome and sentence irreuocable in it selfe neuer alterable or to be changed and of such inflexible seuerity as no respect no regard no difference of Prince Potentate or people is to be held it maketh the Consideration more hideous and dreadfull 10. And it may further be added to this Consideratiō that in this publike triall about this point of Protestant Religion your Matie is not only to haue this venerable ranke of forraine Fathers Doctors for aduersaries therin but so many domesticall also as haue bene Catholicks within all your Realmes for these thousand yeares at least I meane Bishops Pastors and Gouernours of those flocks togeather with the flockes that were once subiects of your Ancestors nay all your Maiesties Ancestours themselues which are of most consideration I meane aboue two hundred Kings of both Crowns that haue gone before you and togeather with the discent of their Noble Bloud left also in their inheritance of Catholicke Religion as of their Kingdomes to be defended by your Maiesty which no doubt had bene most Nobly performed if the strangest case that euer perhaps fell out in the world had not happened to hinder it and such a one as all posterity may and will wonder at and this is that being violētly depriued at once as it were in your cradle of both your Parents who should and would haue instilled to your tender eares the most honorable inheritance of Catholick religion the opposite and contrary fects were in place therof powred into your Maiesties Noble Brest by such as had bene Authors or instruments of both their ruynes and meant no doubt also to be of your Maiesty if they should not find you plyable to their designes for ouerturning of that Religion whereof they were enemies 11. This then is the case most dread Soueraigne notorious to the whole Christian world And further that if your Maiestyes noble Grandmother Regent of Scotland had not bene vexed and turmoyled with rebellions tossed and tumbled wearied out and brought to despaire by the first Scottish and English Ghospellers if your Noble Father and Grandfather had not beene horribly murdered if your renowned mother had not beene pursued taken cast into prison driuen out of her Realme and finally made violently away in terra aliena if all these things I say had not beene done your Matie by all likelihood had neuer bene a Protestant And shall we thinke that of such Diabolicall premisses there could ensue any good conclusions or any godly or wholesome effect of so abhominable causes 12. I deny not but that the inscrutable wisdome and prouidence of almighty God doth often times draw out of the counsailes and actions of euill men good effectes as out of the wickednes of the Iewes and Gentils that pursued and murdered our Sauiour he wrought the saluation of the world but neuer doth he this according to the coūsailes and purposes of the wicked that is to say these effectes are neuer intended by the wicked As for example that the redemption of mankind or saluation of the world was neuer intended by the Iewes or Gentils that persecuted our Sauiour and procured his blessed passion 13. But here in our case the matter falleth out quite contrary for that the chiefe and prime intention of those wicked whome I haue mentioned was to effectuate this very point that now we see brought to passe to reuolue that crowne expell Catholicke Religion pull downe Monasteries and Churches driue out or destroy the Princes that then gouerned as also their issue if they should leaue any or els getting the same into their hands the better therby to haue Title of gouerning in the infants name to preserue it so long as it might stand commodious for them after to dispose therof as time should tell them to be best But their chiefest ayme of all was vnto that which out of an infants education they might probably hope for and now haue arriued vnto which is that during the time of that education they might perhaps so inchaunt the mind of the young Prince so change his iudgment and affection from the iudgment and affection of his said parents and other progenitors as when he should come to the yeares of vnderstanding to discerne the merits of mens actions and affections towards him he should approue for good all that was done to his highest hurt to wit in matter of Religion
saluation as S. Augustine that great pillar of the latin Church noteth a sinne the soule guilt whereof nec sanguine abluitur nec passione purgatur to close vp the period with that renowned Martyr S. Cyprian his wordes 4. The last but not the least nay the greatest cause of my comfort was when I really apprehended the candor serenity humility and sincerity of your Noble hart in submitting your selfe by remitting the tryall and decision of the foresaid imputation and suspition of heresie vnto the sacred Canon of holy Writ common Creedes the first foure generall Councels and the blessed Fathers of the first foure or fiue hundred yeares to all which vpon an assured I may rather say a supposed innocency integrity of your cause you appealed for the finall vmpiring and determining of any point in controuersy betwixt the Catholicks and your Maiesty Which impartiall and substantiall grounds as they were very prudētly religiously and with great maturity of iudgment proposed by your Maiesty according to the greatnes and soundnes of your Iudicious Apprehension so if they shall stand inuiolable and irreuocable like to the law of the Medes Persians which could not be altered backed by the word authority of so potent a Prince as your Maiesty is which may not be reuoked for the word is gone forth from the King you shall not only auert and auoid all sinister imputation and suspition whatsoeuer from your Royall Person but withall you shall giue a sufficient testimony by publike declaratiō of your Maiesties gratious disposition for matter of religion And that if ought haue bene exorbitant extrauagant or irregular in matter of your beliefe it is rather to be ascrybed to your violent education then anyway to be imputed to your owne voluntary obduration These things were of wonderfull comfort exceeding solace vnto me 5. But in the midst of this sweet repose whilst my wearied and perplexed thoughts seemed to refresh themselues with some kind of promised hope vpon the forsaid premises behold diuers other pointes of great anxietie sollicitude interposed themselues nay suddainly interrupted my former solace I meane not generally such pointes of your Maiesties Booke as may concerne other Christian Princes people and States how these thinges would be taken amongst them for in this behalfe I might not presume to preiudice your Maiestyes Graue Wisedome and I could not but imagine but that your Maiesty out of the depth of your owne Prouident Iudgement had duely and prudently preponderated all such probable ensuing sequeles and taken farre better counsaile then myne could be but such as particulerly respected and by necessary deduction of a certaine ineuitable consequence reflected properly vpon my selfe For wheras I had with the greatest deliberation that I could possibly imagine grounded vpon my owne peculiar experience of many yeares trauayle in the sacred volumes of Orthodoxe Antiquity made before a firme irreuokable resolution to abandon the Protestant Religion vpon inuincible arguments of great solidity and notorious discouery of execrable blasphemy palpable and detestable heresy against God his Christ his Church his Saints building my foundation vpon the mayne rocke of Auncient Primitiue Church Canonicall Scripture truly sensed by them Creedes and Councels digested collected established by them I now descried that your Maiestie intended to ground the cleane contrary Plea vpon the same heades for vindication of the protestant Religiō from the guilty crime of heresy the very intimation whereof inforced me I confesse before the all-seeing iudge and vnto your Soueraigne Maiesty my supreame terrene Lord next vnder him to looke about me and to enter into a second and more serious consideration and meditation of the foresaid heades againe least I might happily in a matter of the greatest moment and weightiest consequence in this world haue runne awry to the euerlasting wracke and ruine of my soule 6. Now for ought that may concerne your Maiesties Royall Person touching the imputation of heresie let that loud-crying sinne of open Rebellion against the soueraignty of heauen rather light vpon the enemies of God his Christ his Church and the enemies of my Soueraigne then vpon my Lord the King whom the God of Angels make as an Angell of God to discerne betwixt hereticall noueltie and Catholicke antiquity In the meane time I find no difficulty nay I do with all alacrity and sincerity of soule admit the difference betweene an Hereticke and him that giueth credit vnto Hereticks which S. Augustine admitted in the behalfe of his friend Honoratus seduced by the Donatists as your Maiesty is supposed to be mis-led by Protestants It is in that excellent Tract of his de vtilitate credendi written to his said friend Si mihi Honorate vnum atque idem videretur esse Haereticus credens Haereticis homo tam lingua quà m stylo in hac causa conquiescendum esse arbitrarer c. Cùm haec ergo ita sunt non putaui apud te silendum esse c. If I were perswaded O Honoratus that an Hereticke and the man who doth belieue Hereticks were all one and that there were no difference I should suppose that I might spare both tongue and penne in this point But now since there is no small difference betwixt the two forasmuch as he is an hereticke in my iudgement who for some temporall commodity and especially for renowne and soueraignty eyther bringeth forth false and new opinions of himselfe or els adhereth vnto them that are brought forth by others but he that giueth credulity to these kynd of men is such a one as is deluded with a certaine imagination of verity and pietie wherefore these thinges being so I haue thought good not to be silent or to hold my peace with you what my iudgment is concerning the finding out and retaining of truth 7. We then that be your Maiestyes Catholicke Subiects dutifull in mind though different in iudgment do out of the aboundance of our most loyall affection and to mitigate matters what may be vntill Almighty God of his infinite goodnes shall vouchsafe to put further remedy in your vnderstanding hart by a more cleare reuealing of his truth most cheerfully and charitably fasten vpon that pious religious true distinction of S. Augustine not ascribing that hatefull name of Hereticke vnto your Maiesty howsoeuer you seeme for the present to adhere and patronize such opinions of Protestant Religion as we vpon contrary groundes of Catholicke diuinity do hold to be heresies but rather we esteeme your Maiesty for a Prince that from your natiuity and tender infancy after the vnfortunate losse of your thirce Noble Catholicke Mother haue byn misguyded in matters of Religion by such as had your Noble Person in their gouerment whome yow haue belieued and consequently haue byn deceyued imaginatione quadam veritatis pietatis illusus to end the sentence with S. Augustine his wordes 8. And heere in all dutifull submission as a true English-harted man and loyall subiect to
DVTIFVLL AND RESPECTIVE CONSIDERATIONS VPON FOVRE SEVERALL HEADS OF PROOFE AND TRIALL IN MATTERS OF RELIGION PROPOSED By the High and Mighty Prince IAMES King of Great Britayne France and Ireland c. in his late Booke of Premonition to all Christian Princes for clearing his Royall Person from the imputation of Heresy By a late Minister and Preacher in England August lib. contrae Iudaeos Pagan Arian cap. 20. You must know deare brethren that true faith sincere peace perpetuall saluation is only by the Catholicke faith for it is not in a corner but euery where all If any man depart from it and deliuer himselfe vp to the errors of Heretickes he shall be iudged and condemned as a fugitiue bond-man Permissu Superiorum M. DC IX THE FOVRE HEADS OF IVST TRIALL mentioned by his Maiesty of England as touching his owne Person 1. THE reuerencing and belieuing of the Canonicall Scriptures as they ought to be and so also the not Canonicall 2. THE admitting of the first three Creeds of the Apostles of the Nicen Councell of S. Athanasius 3. THE acknowledging accepting the first foure generall Councels of Christendome to wit of Nice of Constantinople of Ephesus of Chalcedon 4. THE crediting of the Fathers of the first fiue hundred yeares after Christ eyther iointly or seuerally in points of moderne controuersies Euery head is handled by diuers Considerations as by the sequent Catalogue of Chapters will appeare THE GENERALL CONTENTS OF THIS BOOKE THE Epistle to his Maiesty declaring the motiues which the Author had to write this Treatise THE FIRST CHAPTER Conteining an entrance into this Treatise or Triall how much it importeth to be a Catholicke and no Hereticke And with how great reason his Maiesty endeuoureth to cleare him selfe and his Royall Person from the imputation of heresie FIVE CONSIDERATIONS 1 About the wordes Catholicke and Hereticke and that they can neuer agree in one 2 Of the dreadfull misery of being an Hereticke 3 How a man may certainely and without errour discerne what is Catholicke and what is Hereticall 4 How out of the premisses euery man may iudge in what state he standeth for being Hereticke or Catholicke 5 The Conclusion of all this whole Chapter to his Maiesty THE SECOND CHAPTER THat treateth the first head touched by his Maiesty for tryall of a Christian Catholicke which is the belieuing of holy Scriptures FOVRE CONSIDERATIONS 1 The belieuing of Scripture not sufficient to make a mā a Catholick 2 That Scriptures were not writtē for many yeares after the Church began 3 How to know what is truly Scripture 4 How the true sense of Scripture may be tryed THE THIRD CHAPTER COncerning the secōd point or generall head professed by his Maiesty cōcerning his belieuing of the three Creeds receiued by the Church THREE CONSIDERATIONS 1 How the first three Creeds and why they were ordayned and how greatly they are to be reuerenced 2 That the Ministers of England belieue not wholy entirely the faith of the three Creeds 3 In what particuler articles of the Creeds English Protestants do not agree with vs. THE FOVRTH CHAPTER COncerning the approbation allowance of the first soure generall Councels which is the third generall head of triall offered proposed by his Excellent Maiesty of England THREE CONSIDERATIONS 1 VVhy and how these foure first Councels were gathered and how thereby it is conuinced that the Church cannot erre 2 VVhy the Protestants do not nor can remedy their diuisions by any Generall or Nationall Councell 3 Particuler points of differences between these first foure Generall Councels and the Protestants of our time for doctrine manners THE FIFTH CHAPTER COncerning the admittance acceptance of the anciēt Fathers of the first fiue hundred years after Christ which is the fourth last head of triall offered alledged by his Maiesty of England THREE CONSIDERATIONS 1 The different esteeme that Catholicks Protestāts do make of ancient Fathers when they agree in one 2 How Catholicks Protestants do esteeme of the testimonies of particuler Fathers 3 That the Fathers of euery age for the first fiue hundred yeares did make for Catholicks against Protestants in matters now in controuersy THE SIXT CHAPTER COnteyning a briefe contemplation of what hitherto hath byn said with a Conclusion of the whole to his most Excellent Maiesty TO THE HIGH AND PVISSANT PRINCE MY DREAD LORD AND SOVERAIGNE IAMES BY THE GRACE OF GOD of Great Britayne France Ireland KING c. AFTER I had bent my selfe vnto a serious Suruey and diligent perusall of your Maiesties new Booke bearing the inscription of a Preface or Premonition to all Christian Princes diuers were the apprehensions and impressions it made in the different faculties of my soule Reuoluing therefore and reflecting vpon the premises by a second reuiew I resolued and in fine concluded being now as it were wonderfully affected partly with sollace partly with sollicitude 2. My solace was to consider yea sensibly as it were before the eyes of my soule in the impartiall glasse of my recollectedst vnderstanding and most retyred iudgment to behould so many rare Princely talents of nature literature and other highly esteemed partes in your Maiesty which as they are seldome found in such potent Princes so residing habitually in your Royall breast as in their proper and peculiar subiect they cannot but minister iust matter of meruailous ioy content and comfort vnto all your leige people your loyall and louing subiects especially since they are accompanied and attended yea adorned nay beautifyed with the irradiant lustre of that burning fire of zeale I meane an extraordinary feruour in matters of your Religion Now if these so rare parts of nature literature and zeale wherwith your Noble Person is habitually inuested shall be directed by the singer of God his holy spirit the high hand of heauen vnto the sole-sacred and soule-sauing knowledge of Catholicke Religion which I verily hope in time to see and shall incessantly pray for they will exceedingly aduance his glory and gaine vnto your Maiesty an immarcessible neuer-fading Crowne of eternity 3. My spirit also reioyced within me my hart exulted for ioy my perplexed thoughts retyred reposed themselues in hope whē I tooke but a iust view of that commendable carefull diligence that pious and religious industrie vsed by your Maiesty in vindieating your noble Person from the least imputation of herefy and in remouing the very suspition of such a contagious and soule quessing leprosy since that this loud-crying synne loud-crying in the eares of heauen is the greatest crime that can be committed against God or his Church separating betwixt God and man grace and the soule dissoluing the mysteriall vnion and sacramentall communion betwixt the head the members Christ his spouse reiecting God for Father denying the Church for mother taking away the very name of a Christian as ancient Tertullian speaketh depriuing our expectation of all hope and
Highest euer with his eternall Protection to preserue your Maiesty to his greatest glory and the true comfort of your loyall Subiects So be it Amen THE FIRST CHAPTER CONTEYNING AN ENTRANCE INTO THIS TREATISE OR TRIAL How much it importeth to be a Catholicke and no Hereticke AND With how great reason his Maiestie endeauoureth to cleare himselfe and his Royall Person from the imputation of Heresy IF this short cut of our transitory pilgrimage heere in this vale of misery be but a moment whereupon eternity of saluation or damnation doth necessarily depend according to that of S. Leo the first Ex qualitate temporalium actionum differentiae retributionum pendeant aeternarum from the quality of temporall actions the diuersity of eternall retributions do depend If Gods secret iudgement towardes his Non in compede aut in pileo vertitur sed in aeternitate aut poenae aut salutis as ancient Tertullian auoucheth that is if it be not a matter of bondage or liberty manu-mission or captiuity that commeth in question to be discussed before the heauenly tribunall but endlesse paine or interminable glory If this neuer-dying life or euer-liuing death be eyther awarded or inflicted achieued or incurred according to mans free choice of faith or infidelity Catholicke Religion or Heresy made heere in the Church or out of the Church as euery man is a member of the Church militant or malignāt then singular is the importance and absolute necessary the decison and knowledge of this one mayne question purposely moued to discerne who is the Catholicke who is the Hereticke since the premised eternity of weale or woe blisse or bale is promised to the one and threatned to the other 2. The very consideration of these two weighty precedent circumstances of eternall glory or endlesse paine wrought such an impression in the hart of his royall Maiesty of England yea such care and such feare and such zeale of clearing himselfe to speake in the phrase of the Apostle that in my iudgement he thought that the weighty counsaile of Tertullian worthy of eternall memory of euery one that hath a soule to saue ought to be imbraced and followed of him to wit Cui seueritati declinandae vel liberalitati inuitandae tanta obsequij diligentia opus est quanta sunt ipsa quae aut seueritas comminatur aut liberalitas pollicetur It is in his place before cyted inferred vpon those premises which went before that is for auoyding of which seuerity and inuiting of which liberality our obedience must vse such diligence as the things thēselues are of moment which either the seuerity doth treaten or the liberality doth promise 3. Hence proceedeth that worthy industry vsed by his Maiesty in clearing himselfe from that foule crime of heresy And hence came that voluntary confession concerning his Maiesties religion inforcing him to break forth into that earnest and serious protestation viz. I will neuer be ashamed to render an accompt of my profession and of that hope that is in me as the Apostle prescribeth I am such a Catholicke Christian as beleeueth the three Creeds c. And then do ensue the foure heads before layd downe a sentence contayning in it a cōfession worthy to be stamped in characters of gould and to be written with a pen of iron and with the point of a Diamond that it may be euerlastingly remembred and neuer buried in ashes of obliuion and if wordes can be witnesses of the mind the hart must nedes be well meaning and sincere whence such wordes proceed For I wil neuer imagine that of his Maiestie which is to common now adayes vnum in ore promptum aliud in pectore clausum where wordes passe as coyned to serue the present time and as they shall make for the most aduantage of the speaker Oh what great pitty were it that his Maiesty should be misled in matters of that importance as immediatly concerne his eternall saluation and the soules welfare of all his subiects especially since he is in regard of religion which vnder his authority is there mantayned to render an accompt to God not only for himsefe in particuler but for al his subiects in generall Such is the burthen of all them who by their place and dignity haue highest authority ouer others 4. Now albeit his Matie doth vpon some occasion or other defer the handling of the Scriptures and the credit due vnto them vnto the fourth and last place yet to me it seemeth most conuenient to treat therof in the first of this my discourse according to the dignity and preheminency of the subiect it selfe But yet before I enter into the lists of this argument I haue esteemed it expedient for sundry causes to premise this other Chapter cōcerning the name and attributes nature and circumstances properties and differences prerogatiues and domages of being a Catholick or Hereticke as also to lay downe some way how to try the same to which purpose I haue thought good to addresse certaine seuerall Considerations which do ensue in euery Chapter The first Consideration CONCERNING the wordes Catholicke and Hereticke these being great wordes they do admit a twofold signification the first is generall and naturall the second more speciall and Ecclesiasticall 6. Touching the generall naturall acception of the wordes they import as much as vniuersall or whole or choice or chooser and howsoeuer vpon the first view and superficiall insight they appeare not to be so greatly opposite and contrary the one to the other but that in diuers respects they may agree and stand togeather for that both the thing which is whole or vniuersall may be chosen and that which is chosen by election may in some sense be whole or vniuersall yet in the speciall and Ecclesiasticall appropriation of these words inuented by the holy Ghost and retayned and brought into Ecclesiasticall vse and Canon by the Christian Church there is such an extreme opposition and irreconciliable hostility in respect of their contrary natures and effects as that nothing amongst Christian men can be more opposite and contradictory no not light darknes heauen and hell vertue and vice saluation and damnation God and Beliall For as Isaac and Ismael the sonne of the bond-woman and the heire of promise could not dwell togeather in one house as Iacob and Esau could not agree togeather in one wombe but contended togeather wherupon Rebecca complayned and expostulated with God If the matter be euen so why am I conceaued In one word to shut vp all in a word as the flesh and the spirit continually iarre and are at difference in one and the same man Euen so the Catholicke and the Heretick as another Isaac and Ismael as another Esau and Iacob as the flesh and the spirit they can neuer dwell togeather in Gods house they can neuer agree togeather in one wombe the wombe of the Church one of them must be cast out of the
dore of the Church the one of them must of necessity serue the other so impossible it is that two so contrary the one to the other should stand togeather such is the implacable hostility and extreme opposition betwixt them 7. When Abraham the Father of the faithfull for so the Scriptures style him perceaued that a breach might happily fall out betwixt him and his nephew Lot vpon a dissention already begunne betwixt their heards-men he calleth vnto him consulteth the case treateth and intreateth with him and to perswade him to vnitie vseth this motiue of all the most perswasiue Let there be no dissention betwixt me and thee betwixt my heards-men and thy heards-men for we are brethren c. But it fareth not thus betwixt the Catholicke and the Hereticke no vnion can be made no communion had no condition of peace to be treated and offered betwixt them And if you will haue the reason of this they are no brethren nay which is more they cannot be brethren for the Catholicke in his spirituall birth hath God for his father and the Church for his mother wheras the Hereticke hath an Hethite to his father and an Amonite to his mother that is Sathan is his father and Schisme is his mother he is a stranger to the couenant and a meere alien to the houshould of faith And therefore as Ichu first answered Iehoram his messengers demaunding of peace Quid vobis est paci what haue you to do with peace get you behind me follow me c. And secondly vnto Iehoram himself when he came in person to meet him and demanded Is it peace Iehu what peace whilest the fornications of thy mother Iezabel and her witch-crafts are yet in such aboundance so what peace can the Catholicke make with the Hereticke whilest his heresy worse then the sinne of witchcraft and his spirituall fornications in worshipping of false gods that is intertaining false opinions in religion and dissonant from Catholicke faith continue a terrible caueat to all temporizers that will make a linsey-wolsey of all Religion reconciling Catholicke Religion with Protestants heresy which is as possible as to vnite things most contrary and deadly iarring To these I can giue no other counsaile then such as Elias gaue to the worshippers of Baal when his fiery zeale would admit no diuision betwixt Idolatrous superstition and Gods most pure and vndefiled Religion How long will you halt betwixt two opinions if Baal be God follow him but if God be God follow him c. The application is if hereticall innouation be God his true worship follow it but if Catholicke tradition be the only true and soule-sauing religion then vnder eternall paine hazard of your soules resolue halt no longer betwixt the two God will either haue all or none he careth not for a hart and a hart a deuided hart and the Church will receiue none within her bosome nor help to saue any with her Sacraments but such as are her true-borne children constantly professing her piety abandoning all kind of schisme heresy and securely resting only and truely within her bosome 8. And although I do not affirme that all Catholickes shall be saued for that euill life and matter of fact may condemne as well as bad beliefe and matter of faith yet am I most certaine and I dare pronounce it that all heretickes so liuing and so dying shall be damned agreeing with that so often times reiterated by S. Cyprian Numquam perueniet ad praemia Christi qui relinquit Ecclesiam Christi alienus est profanus est hostis est He shall neuer aspire to heauenly glory that forsaketh the Churches verity and falleth away from Christ by Apostasie he is a forreyner he is profane he is an enemy And as all perished without the Arke and were certainely corporally drowned so assuredly all without the Arke of the Church shall eternally be damned since the Scriptures teach vs that this Arke was a liuely type of the Church And as an Hereticke and a Catholicke can neuer be ioyned togeather in heauen so can neuer the Catholicke and Hereticke Catholicke Religion and heresie in any one point be conioyned vpon earth this is the vniforme and vnanime to vse his Maiesties word consent of all orthodoxe pious and religious Deuines 9. The reason of all the foresaid opposition betwixt a right-beleeuing Catholicke and a misbelieuing Hereticke is this the Catholicke knoweth nay belieueth it as the ground-worke of his faith that Christ our Sauiour hauing left the world in respect of his visible presence continueth inuisible by the immediate assistance of his holy spirit with his Church which is Domus Dei Porta Caeli the house of God and the Gate of Heauen as Iacob spake of the place of his vision Columna firmamentum veritatis the piller and foundation of truth Vnto this Church our Sauiour reuealeth all his secrets that concerne her saluation maketh her of his priuy Counsaile gouerneth her visibly first by his owne person secondly by his Apostles directeth her inuisibly by his immediate spirit the holy Ghost and so continueth her vnder visible gouernment and inuisible direction vnto the worlds generall consummation leading her into all truth such was his promise made vnto her and here is the performance And the reason that the Church is thus neare and deare vnto Christ is this Corpus est shee is his body according to that of S. Augustine Totum quod annunciatur de Christo caput corpus est Caput est filius Dei viui vnigenitus Corpus Ecclesia c. All that can be said and auerred of Christ is his head and his body The head is the onely begotten Sonne of God the body is his Church bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh for Christ hath two bodyes the one natum ex virgine and therefore naturall the other redemptum sanguine and therefore mysticall and the later was more deare vnto him then the former for he wholy bestowed his naturall body to redeeme his mysticall body 10. The Catholicke then knowing this correspondency betwixt Christ and his Church belieueth all wholy and without eyther choice or additiō of his owne which the said Church vniuersally spread ouer the world doth propose vnto him as matter of faith to be belieued conteyning himselfe within that most sure and infallible prescription of Tertullian Nobis verò nihil ex nostro arbitrio licet inducere sed nec eligere quod aliquis de arbitrio suo induxerit It is not lawfull for vs to innouate at our pleasure nor yet may I make choyce of that which another man vpon priuate fancy hath added But as for the Hereticke non sic ille non sic it goeth not so with him for being an Hereticke that is a chooser he according to his name and nature because he will not haue his name for nought maketh choice of what he listeth to belieue
impossible for an Heretick excluded from the Catholicke Church to be saued or to auoid euerlasting damnation and perdition of body and soule though he should liue morally neuer so well giue neuer so great almes do neuer so many good workes suffer neuer so much by the losse of his goods countrey liberty or life it selfe Which point is oftentimes inculcated reiterated and repeated by that renowned Martyr S. Cyprian in that worthie Tract of his de Vnitate Ecclesiae as Nunquam perueniet ad praemiū Christi qui scindit aut diuidit Ecclesiam Christi he shall neuer participate of heauenly felicity that makes a rent and breach in the Church of Christ by the cryme of heresy Againe the same Authour in another place to argue his assured confidence of this poynt addeth and denounceth further Macula ista nec sanguine abluitur this blot of heresy or separating himselfe from the Church of Christ cannot be washed away with bloud inexpiabilis culpa nec passione purgatur It is a fault so inexpiable that it cannot be purged by death it selfe Nay he goeth yet further and saith Non erit fidei corona sed perfidiae poena Such sufferings or death it selfe shall not be vnto them any crown or reward of their faith and right beleeuing but a punishment of their perfidiousnes and false dealing 46. Conforme to S. Cyprian is S. Chrisostome who in his 11. Homily vpon the Epistle to the Ephesians repeateth iustifieth the former words vsed by S. Cyprian which may well be called his last doome that he passed vpon Hereticks And the same is confirmed by S. Pacianus before mentioned in his second Epistle to Sempronianus a Nouatiā Hereticke And after these S. Augustine himselfe whose places I haue noted in the margent doth so fully clearly and with such effectuall wordes treat and auerre the same as that it were labour lost time misspent to add any more in confirmation thereof 47. And now that I may come to the vpshot of all which is the sume and substance of what hath hitherto beene spoken in this Consideration my principall conclusion thereof is this to wit that the greatest misery and calamity that may possibly be imagined in this life to light vpon any and the greatest dereliction I meane departure of Gods sauing grace or punishment that Almighty God for his sinnes can possibly lay vpon a Christian man is to leaue him so far vnto himselfe and to his owne choice and election as to suffer him to become an Hereticke or to admit any participation or communication with Heretickes And surely if God euer punished sinne with sinn as you shall read he did Rom. 1. 24. which is that fearfull falling into the hands of God then surely is sinne punished with sinne in this fearfull sinne of Heresy Which premises being granted as they cannot be denied had not his Matie of England then great reason trow you to endeauour so diligently and prudently as he doth to cleare himselfe of that foule imputation to put of that abhominable and damnable Name of an Hereticke And haue not his Catholick subiects of Englād the greatest motiue reason that possibly may be to stand suffer so costantly as they do for auoyding of all participation with Hereticks or with that Religion which in their opinion grounded vpon the Churches resolution is flat heresy Which being seriously considered of his said Matie and deeply and duely weighed as the weighty importance of the matter craueth at his handes in his vnderstanding hart It may first be hoped for which hope sake we lift vp handes and hartes prayers and teares sighes grones vnto the Highest that he will himself out of his Christian piety separate from his Royall Person all liking of Heresies as farre as the same is separated from God and from his Church And secondly it may be presumed for why should we euer despayre our cause being so iust that out of his Royall Clemency Princely Equity especially vpon a conscionable view of our Innocency that he will deliuer vs from the great rigour of persecutiō which we suffer for that cause And this we verily hope his Maiesty will the rather do for that we follow but the dictamen of our owne Consciences guided by infallible groundes which heere are partly opened and will appeare more fully in the sequele of this discourse The third Consideration IF then the issue and vpshot of all that is premised in the two precedent Considerations to reassume recapitulate the summe of both in a word be in effect but this that the riches honour of being a Catholick on the one side to vse the words of S. Augustine be so inestimable and that on the other side the disreputation misery imminent danger and most certayne damnation in being an Hereticke to be so intollerable and insupportable on the other it is more then probable yea infallible as most consonāt vnto the all-sauing mercy and iust dooming equity of Almighty God the most righteous Iudge of all the world that he hath designed yea as one of the last legacies of his Testament bequeathed vnto vs some eminent and euident way that by better direction and most certaine prescription of the same we may come to know and discerne what is truely Catholicke religion and what hereticall innouation And albeit this may in part be vnderstood by that which already hath byn treated yet shall it be made more perspicuous by that which is to be handled in the ensuing Consideration 49. For first since the knowledg of these things as being of the greatest weight in the world doth so highly import our soules-weale or woe euerlasting it followeth consequently that Christ our Sauiour had not sufficiently prouided for our safty in that behalfe which can be no lesse then open blasphemy against Heauens Maiesty accusing the Wisdome of the Father of imprudency as Caluin blasphemously doth of ignorance if he had not left and commended vnto vs some certaine knowne and infallible way as a sure thred to direct our iudgments aright to the knowledg of these things For if no man can arriue to the designed port the hauen of heauen and there be saued but he that is really a Catholicke nor any escape the soules ship-wrack vpon the seas of this world and vndoubred damnation that is formally an Hereticke or partaker of heresy according to that of Tertullian Quihabent cōsortium praedicationis habeant etiam necesse est consortium damnationis they that with hereticall preachers hold cōmunion must of necessity participate with their damnation to what purpose then was it that Christ should leaue his throne in heauē descend frō his Fathers bosome into the wōb of the euer-blessed Virgin inuest there his glorious Deity with the weaknes frailty of our mortality teach preach expose him selfe to all the world iniuries miseries extremities lastly why should be so plentifully out of so many seuerall
Maties wise and religious hart who with that opinion might haue made herselfe a Protestant therby haue escaped the greatest part of her troubles and perhaps also haue auoided the violent stroake of the Axe which is well knowne to haue bene vrged vpon her especially in respect of her Religion and of the feare that was conceyued least in time she might come to the Crowne and defend the same I meane her Religion with publicke authority 67. And now whosoeuer it was wherein I remit my selfe to his Matie as most interessed therin both in Honour body and soule as her only Child and heyre chiefest Iewell in the world euident it is the opinion cannot stand as now hath bene said eyther in reason or religion and may be presumed to proceed from such as haue little care of any religiō at all onely they would liue quietly enioy their sensuality passe the time without any trouble or scruple or repugnant conscience for any thing touching religion or that whole subiect And this if I take not my ayme amisse commeth very neere to the point of secret Atheisme 68. S. Augustine recordeth the like opinion of many in his daies who thought it did not materially import them whether they were Donatists or Catholicks so as they professed the Christian faith Multi sayth he nihil interesse credentes in qua quisque parte Christianus sit ideo permanebant in parte Donati quia ibi nati erant c. Many beleeuing that it concerned them not in what side or part ech man were a Christian so he were a Christian therefore they remayned on the party or faction of Donatus the Hereticke for that they were borne therein But S. Augustine vehemently confuteth this false pestilent and indulgent perswasion aswell in the place heere cyted as in many other places of his workes confidently teaching and auerring that a man is made an Hereticke by houlding any one errour obstinately against the Church and consequently damned also In Ecclesia Christi saith he qui morbidum aliquid prauumque sapiunt si correcti vt sanum rectumque sapiant resistunt contumaciter Haeretici fiunt foras exeuntes habentur inimici Those who in the Church of Christ are infected with corrupt and naughty opinions if being admonished to belieue wholsome and true doctrine they kicke against it with contumacy then do they become Heretickes and going forth of the Church are held for enemies So he And with the same seuerity holdeth he in his booke of heresies intituled Ad Quod-vult-Deum that the belieuing of any one heresy condemned already by the Church or to be condemned if rising afterwards is sufficient to make the belieuer obstinate defender no Christian Catholicke consequently an Hereticke so impossible to be saued 69. To this opinion subscribeth S. Cyprian who shewing that euery least heresy or schisme is able to damne a man that adhereth vnto it writeth expressely thus Beatus Ioannes Apostolus nec ipse vllam haeresim aut schisma discreuit sed vniuersos qui ex Ecclesia exijssent Antichristos appellauit S. Iohn the Apostle himselfe did not put any difference or exception of any heresy or schisme at all but called them Antichrists whosoeuer were gone forth of the Church for any heresy or schisme whatsoeuer 70. And yet this point is pressed further by many other holy fathers yea strained to euery heresie were it but in one word or sillable And this was the opinion of S. Hierome His wordes are these Propter vnum verbum aut duo quae contraria essent fidei multas haereses eiectas esse ab Ecclesia we shall read that many heresies haue beene cast out of the Church for one or two words that were contrary to the receyued faith 71. To this purpose conduceth that of S. Basill registred by Theodoret to wit that a good man ought to loose his life if neede require for the defence of one only sillable pro desensione vnius syllabae diuinorum dogmatum The reason whereof is touched as well by S. Athanasius in his Creed where he saith That he shall most certainely be damned that houldeth not entirely and inuiolably the whole Catholicke faith as also by Nazianzen when he saith That heresy consisteth sometimes in one word His wordes are these Nothing can be more perilcus then Heretickes who running wholy ouer all do notuill standing in some one word as by a drop of poyson infect the sincere simple faith of our Sauiour comming downe by Apostolicall tradition This was the iudgment of Antiquity so seuere Censurers were all those holy Fathers of the least dram of Heresy 72. Thus then you apparently see that for making of an errour or heresie damnable it is not required of absolute necessity that it deny some thing of the blessed Trinity directly or some maine article of the Creed c. as many of the first ould heresies did when the doctrine therof was not so well explaned as now it is though this be a desperate shift of the Protestant and most miserable euasion and yet it will not serue his turne he being guilty of heresy in all those high pointes yea of misbeliefe almost in euery article of the Creed for that as before hath beene touched in the third Consideration the greatnes of the sinne of heresy dependeth more of malice and malignity of the sinner then of the materiall obiect about which the Hereticke erreth for that he sinneth of obstinacy and contumacy by his owne choice and therefore is said by S. Paul to be damned by his owne iudgement quia eligit sibi in quo damnatur saith Tertullian he chooseth to himselfe wherin to be damned or els as S. Leo doth more largely giue the glosse Propria pertinacia perit sua à Christo discedit in sania qui eam impietatem per quam multos ante se scit perusse sectatur religiosum atque Catholicum putat id quod sanctorū Patrum iudicio damnatum esse constat That is he perisheth by his owne pertinacity and through his owne peculiar madnes departeth from Christ who imbraceth that impiety which he knoweth hath beene the destruction of many houlding that for religious and Catholick which manifestly appeareth to be condemned by vniforme iudgment of ancient Fathers So blessed Leo expoūds the place the reason followeth for that such a one preferring himselfe by pride and vanity before the whole visible and Catholicke Church he chooseth to hould that which his owne iudgment and fancy doth lead him vnto VVhence it may come to passe that one man erring with lesse pride and obstinacy about some pointes of the blessed Trinity may sinne lesse damnably then another that erreth in points of lesser moment but with more malice as about the doctrine of the Sacraments or other pointes of the like nature And the reason therof is for that this second erreth with more obstinacy and malice which corroborateth the
against thē saying The Brownists do confidently reproach vs that our Church is no Church our Sacraments no Sacraments our Prince and people Infidells as not being baptized at all our Christiā Congregations prophane multitudes c. Thus write they animated as say these Answerers by the Millenary Puritan Petitioners wherby it may be probably presumed that they also to wit the said thousand Petitioners in most poynts at least are of the same opinion 84. These thinges being so as no man of modesty can deny my demaund is how can these men differing in so mayne a poynt be of the same Church Or how can any man of the meanest vnderstanding so he haue any capacity at all imagine how these and the Protestants can be saued togeather Nay truly the booke intituled The picture of a Puritan licenced to come forth by authority Anno 1605. contayning a comparison of the opinions of the Anabaptists in Germany with those of the Puritans in England in Dialogue wise betweene an English man and a German this booke I say doth pregnantly proue that the Protestants do hold the Puritans not only for Schismatickes and Sectaries but for Heretickes also as the Anabaptists are yea the Author holdeth them farre worse then the Anabaptists Your Ana baptists saith he come not neere to our Puritans in pride and contempt c. And then he proceedeth in comparing and paralleling them as well in their opinions and vse of Sacraments as in many other points of Religion with the said Anabaptists most damned heretickes as all English Protestants themselues generally acknowledge them to be yea this Author called O. O. Emanuel aggrauates the point so much against them that he compareth them with Iewes and other such like Infidells And euery where throughout his whole discourse detecteth and censureth them for obstinate and wicked Sectaries And finally to wast no more labour in a matter so cleare I find them ipso sacto excommunicated by many Constitutions Canons Ecclesiasticall of the Bishops and Protestant Church of England as namely for impugning their Church as also the Rites and Cerimonies established in the said Church for denying the authority of their Archbishops Bishops their consecrating and ordering of the inferiour Clergy for denying of Deanes Collegiate Churches for being Authours of Schisme and separating themselues as Schismatickes for maynteyning of Constitutions made in Conuenticles and the like 75. And to conclude euery where almost throughout the same Constitutions they are sharpely censured for Sectaries and Schismaticks which censure proceeding from the Protestant Church with so full a stroke of authority must of necessity in their owne iudgement depriue the others of all meanes of saluation in that Church they standing out with pertinacy against the same as they doe consequently this doome must needes fall vpon one of their heades that the Protestants and they can in no case be saued togeather The fifth Consideration With the Conclusion of this whole Chapter to his Maiesty NOW therefore to returne with all humble obedience loyalty vnto your Matie conteyning my selfe within all due and iust boundes of duty fidelity obseruance obedience subiection and submission which eyther the law of God of Nature of Nations Reason Religion or of my owne natiue Countrie can require of a subiect towards his Dread Soueraigne I do euen from my innermost and hartiest affections implore this one thing of your sayd Excellency and must euer persist to beg it at your Highnes handes to wit that after these foresaid premised Considerations to the Reader your owne Princely Person would deigne to condescend to enter into some serious Consideration and mature deliberation and that with some earnest attention within the secret closet of your owne most wise iudicious and vnderstanding hart what is and may be the great consequence of all this that hath beene hither so generally discoursed of in the mayne body of the whole as also to weigh ponder the weight and importance of ech particuler treated and inferred in their seuerall passages 87. And first may it please your Highnes to lay togeather and compare the seuerall partes and distinct pertyes of different Professions in Religion all dissenting frō the English Protestant Church and doctrine therein established as before hath beene sufficiently proued The instances we bring for a plenary and particuler confirmation are these As first the ROMAN Catholickes which possesse the greatest part of Europe Secondly the Lutherans professing throughout Saxony Denmarke Suecia and some other States in Germany Thirdly the Sacramentaries Zuinglians and rigid Caluinists tearmed by vs for their moteferuēt supposed zeale Puritans and these be dispersed throughout Suitzerland Sauoy Germany Hungary France Holland Scotland and some parts of England All these I say conioined togeather and compared only with the English Parliament Protestants do make often partes of Christendome nyne at the least which proportion or rather disproportion as indeed it is especially in Religion when I seriously consider and weigh it in the euen and impartiall ballance of an indifferent iudgement I can in all duty do no lesse but most humblie propose vnto the Christiā Prudency and Religious Piety of your Matie to consider of what importance this is in regard of life euerlasting that nine partes of ten should hould the English Protestant religion for damnable heresy by which your Matie expecteth to receaue an eternall neuersading crowne of glory awarded by Almighty God the most righteous iudge of all the world 88. Yf in a sumptuous and Royall banquet prepared of purpose to intertaine the person of a King or potent Monarch there were neuer so many pleasing and alluring dishes neuer such great store of delicate viandes fetched from the sea or prouided by land neuer so great appetite in the Princely party inuited if often learned Phisitions that were then present attending vpon the person of this Prince to consult and prouide for his bodily health and welfare nyne of them should confidently auouch vpon their learning and iudgement nay life it selfe that all those daynties and pleasing dishes were infected with the drugges of some mortall and deadly-killing poyson some one dish only excepted which they could not also well discouer I thinke it would make the party inuited to looke about him to stay himselfe and examine well the matter before he would desperately aduenture to please his palate Or if in a great suite of law concerning the interest to a Princely inheritance pretēded by the plaintife it should be eyther by Parliament or vnder the great Seale or by some other Statute enacted yea and without faile executed that if the plaintife fayled in his suite being either dryuen to non-suite or ouercome in his suite that then he should vndergoe extreme misery be exposed to infinite calamities most certaynely incurre euerlasting bondage and slauery though some one lawyer of ten that were of his counsaile should animate and giue him all the encouragement that possibly he
could to proceed in his suite yet if the nyne other of equall worth and weight with him should be of contrary opinion disswade him frō the suite assuring him vpon their learning that he would be cast in the same yea and condemned if he proceeded therein would not this man now beginne to consider more seriously of his suite intended Of his right pretended Would he not view ouer and ouer his writings examine all his euidences againe and againe least in aspiring to be made for euer he chance for euer to be vndone Euē so the case standeth in the point we haue in hand Here is a royall banquet prouided for your Princely Maiesty here is a Princely inheritance indeed an incorruptible Diademe of glory prepared for your Excellency this banquet is not to continew for an hundred and fourescore dayes as that of Assuerus did to set forth the maiesty of an earthly Monarch but it endureth for euer and euer throughout all eternity to disclose the honour and power and glory and riches of the heauenly Diety diuine Omnipotency the food of this banquet is neither earthly nor materiall but heauenly and spirituall Agnus occisus ab origine mundi It is the lambe slaine from the beginning of the world that is to be set and serued on this table nay Deus est qui nobis futurus est omnia in ommbus It is Almighty God himselfe who will then as S. Paul teacheth become vnto vs all in all that is all in the eye for our vision and all in the tast for our refection and all in the touch for our fruition all in the eare of our consolation and all in our smell for delectation in a word all in the senses of our body and all in the faculties of our soule Deus omnia in omnibus for our plenary perfection 89. Besides this banquet there is a Princely Inheritāce and an incorruptible Crowne of glory prepared for your Matie and this Crowne so farre excelleth all earthly Crownes as immortall exceeds mortall incorruptible corruptible in a word as farre as God excelleth man and a thing infinite surmounteth a thing finite betwixt all which there can be no proportion and is there not cause now that your Matie should beware of the poison of Heresy that killeth both body and soule And will not your zealous and religious Hart hereafter peruse ouer all forged writings and neuer cease searching vntill you haue found the euidences of the Catholicke Church wherby your Matie can only lay clayme to this Crowne of immortality 90. And this is all that we your Maiestyes humble subiects and seruants do in our dayly sighes teares and prayers to Almighty God begge at his handes to wit that our gratious God would of his mercifull goodnesse vouchsafe so to inspire your Princely hart with the principall spirit that you may once at the least come to make this reflection vpon the course that you are in now concerning Religion Then should you easily discouer the fraudes and impostures of the Protestant cause Then should you disclose the poysoned and inuenomed druggs of their erroneous opinions wherby they would insect both the body and the soule of your Princely Person suspecting no guile fearing no such treachery and that to your euerlasting destruction Lastly then should you desery how false and counterfait their euidences are concerning Religion and that they can neuer hould plea for the foresaid Princely inheritance wherunto your Noble Person is interessed 91. Your Maiesty was borne amongst the Protestāts as S. Augustine compassionately complained of diuers borne amongst the Donatists therby you could not but receaue that impression that was infused and instilled into you by your first educators and therby you haue bene made as I trust rather credens Haereticis then Haereticus as the same Father said of his friend Honoratus Your Maiesty is earnest now against the Catholicke Romā faith and professors therof and so was I my selfe too once and so was S. Augustine whilst he was a Manichean and soe was that great Apostle S. Paul perswading himselfe no doubt that he ought yea that he should do God good seruice persecuting that way of Christian profession vntill God had opened his eyes inlightened his mind to see the erroneous course wherin he then was 92. And now may it please your Matie to consider of this one reasō which though it be the last yet is it not the least viz. that so many of your Maties loyall Subiectes men of considerable birth worth and quality yea and some of them such that haue spent much pretious time and haue bene content to exhaust their Patrimonies in your Noble Vniuersities and all in the pursuite of learning and truth of Christian Religion these men I say hauing now iust reason to expect some preferment with other their equalls after their long wearisome labours endeauours would not so suddenly change their minds as they do daily in this point of Religion forgo all future hopes and fortunes abandon Countrey kith and kinne expose themselues to all temporall difficulties and losses and that without constraint of any euen voluntarily and after all this to be ready to shed their blond and sacrifice their innocent liues for their Resolution made concerning Religion all which they could neuer do were it not that a higher hand than humaine euen the hand of heauen leadeth them into the bosome of the Church were it not vpon the force and efficacy of euident truth when it pleaseth almighty God so to inlighten their vnderstanding as in the middest and thickest of the darknes of heresy to shew them the only and alone sauing Catholicke Truth and Church as also to frame their wills and inflame their affections to yield all obedience therunto notwithstanding any obstacles whatsoeuer 93. Alas my dread Soueraigne what is Rome to vs English men that we should so mind it Or the Church of Rome that we should much affect it Or the Pope of Rome that we should so highly honor him were it not that Rome euer was is and shall be the Chaire of S. Peter the present faith of Rome the former faith of S. Peter were it not that this conuerted our Iland this Church first planted the Christian faith in our Iland this Bishop from time to time repayred renewed and continued the decaying faith in our Iland In a word were it not that all that separate themselues from this head and origen of vnity in the Christian Church are as beames cut of from the sunne as boughes violently broken downe from the tree as channels streams deuided from their fountaine which must needes dry vp wither and consume to nothing This is the sole cause my Liege Lord that Rome is so neare and deare vnto vs the Bishop of Rome so honored by vs the faith of Rome so receaued of vs. This is may it please your Matie the only cause of our suddaine change and constant resolution in
Region 94. And in all this we haue not iustly offended the King our Soueraigne let heauens Tribunall be witnesse of our innocency and we must against all detractions and calumniations of our vniust aduersaries plead yt also before your Matie And this same change in like manner will I hope and pray for in your Maiesty and with this hope will I for this time againe dutifully depart frō your Highnes and passe to the Christian Reader to examine now in particuler the foure heades most Prudently and Religiously proposed and resolued vpon by your Matie The God of Salomon inspire into your Princely breast the wisdome of Salomon and make your Matie as an Angell of god that you may discerne betwixt the right hand the left the right and the wronge Catholicke Religion and Hereticall innouation that you may be able to put a difference betwixt those of your Subiects that serue God and such as feare him not THE SECOND CHAPTER THAT TREATETH THE FIRST HEAD TOVCHED BY THE KINGS MAIESTY for try all of a Christian Catholicke which is the belieuing of holy Scriptures AMONGST those principall groundes seriously acknowledged and confidētly yet religiously auerred by his Excellent Matie of England for testifying conuincing himselfe to be a Christian Catholicke King and no Hereticke the first in place and order of method if we duly respect the inestimable weight of the diuine heauenly subiect was zealously asseuered by his Royall Person in these very wordes following to wit As for the Scriptures no man doubteth I will belieue them but euen for the Apocrypha I hold them in the same accompt that the Ancients did Which pious assertion of his Matie I for my part belieue with all my hart and be it euer farre from me to imagin otherwise of my Soueraigne in intertayning any the least sinister opinion or suspition but that He giueth his full consent and assent vnto all God his sacred Writ which He esteemeth to be Canonicall Scriptures and that He reuerenceth in like manner the other as heere he sayth distinguishing them by the names of Apocripha as writinges compiled by good and holy men but yet for such as are secundae lectionis or ordinis and not Canonicall or sufficient for so are his Maiesties wordes wherupon alone to ground any article of faith except it be confirmed by some other place of Canonicall Scripture So his Maiesty doth piousty I doubt not and with great discretion in his sense auerre 2. But yet I must ingenuously confesse that imploying my selfe somewhat seriously in my priuate meditatiōs and most secret silence about this subiect many difficulties occurred diuers were the Considerations that presented themselues vnto me as my mind began to be somewhat earnesty bent about this busines and these I haue thought good to impart vnto the Christian Reader in this place as they ensue The first Consideration AND first if this were all that on Scriptures behalfe there were no more to be required to proue make a man a Christian Catholicke but a franke and ingenious acknowledgement to assent vnto and to belieue all those Scriptures which we deeme for Canonicall in our opinion and for the sense to iudge it agreeable and correspondent to our own priuate imaginations I say if this were all all controuersies of Religion betwixt all parties neuer so opposite different in opinion might easily no doubt surcease and speedily without either further delay or difficulty be accorded for that all sides and parties do freely and voluntarily offer to professe this point and that as I verily thinke from their hartes 4. But alas this is neyther all nor any sound part of all all is but we deeme and we iudge this is Scripture and this is the sense here is nothing in all but that which marreth all that in the very maine point which should make all and that is proper choice priuate election which we know by that which hath bene formerly treated and sufficiently proued must needes be heresy and consequētly this mayne ground of Scripture it selfe thus from our selues taken and thus laid for auoiding of heresy openeth the very mayne gap vnto all heresy And yet I must here though now with no small griefe and vexation of spirit I do remember it liberally acknowledge that for some yeares togeather when I framed Religion in the shop of my owne brayne proper inuention and priuate glosses as all Sectaries vsually do I was so hartily affected sincerely as I thought delighted yea as it were rauished with this alluring consideration and best pleasing perswasion of Sacred Scriptures alone whose sole authority I seemed to my selfe then to follow and no other humane or terrene motiue whatsoeuer no not so much as once reflecting backe vpon the authority of the Church whence as I receaued the Scriptures themselues so much more ought I to haue receaued the sense as I thought my selfe more then halfe in heauen when God knoweth I was ready to tumble into the pit of hell thinking this way of the Scriptures alone of all other waies the most infallible and so certaine as that I could not possibly erre therby 5. And being in this peremptory presuming veine and straine of Scriptures to adde as it were fuell vnto the fire of this my strong conceipted imagination I often tymes remembred and with wonderfull admiration repeated yea reiterated againe and againe that animous couragious heroicall sentence and speach of Apostolicall and Propheticall fortitude as to me it then seemed of Luther himselfe who alleadging Scriptures for his cause and contemning all other proofes thus triumphantly insulted ouer King Henuy the eight Hic sto hic sedeo hic glorior hic triumpho hic insulto c. Here I stand here I sit here I do glory here I do triumph here I do insult ouer Papists Thomists Henricistes and Sophistes and all the gates of hell much more ouer the sayings of men be they neuer so holy God his word is aboue all the diuine Matie maketh for me so as I passe not if a thousand Augustines a thousand Cyprians and a thousand King Henries Churches should stand against me God cannot erre nor deceiue but Augustines and Cyprians may erre and haue erred So he 6. And truely this bould kind of free speach affected me very much as then for that it seemed to me simply to proceed out of the exceeding great confidence of his cause and me thought that I felt and perceiued some part and measure of the same spirit in my selfe at that time which brought me also to this peremptory resolution to wit that whatsoeuer I spake forth of Scriptures or could make but the least shew of wordes and warrant for out of Gods holy booke that must nedes be true certaine and infallible in the very selfe same sense that I speake it and could not possibly no not by men or Angells be controlled The same spirit also did I obserue in many others of
with a chast shamefastnes and loue So S. Cyprian in that excellent Tract of his devnitate Ecclesiae which Tract alone though it be but a very short one yet is it sufficieÌ„t to be the bane of all heresies and to keepe any man desirous of truth within the bosome of Catholicke vnity 23. With S. Cyprian agreeth S. Hilary writing to the same effect in expresse wordes affirming Hoc Ecclesiae proprium est vt tum vincat cùm laeditur tum intelligatur cùm arguitur tum obtmeat cùm deseritur This is peculiar vnto the Church that when she is hurt by persecutions then she winneth and ouercommeth when she is reprehended by heretickes then is she perceiued that is to say when she is misconceiued she maketh her selfe in her doctrine to be better vnderstood by declaration of matters called into question when she is forsaken eyther by rebellious children that go out from her or by Gods permission exercising her by tribulation then doth she obteine the victory and gloriously triumph So as here you see that they spake not only of the Church of their time but of all other ensuing ages that it cannot perish or be corrupted And with these agree S. Ambrose saying Haec ergo nauis Ecclesia est quae si quotidiè saeculum istud tamquam aliquod pelagus sortitur insestum numquam eliditur ad saxum numquam mergitur adprofundum So speaketh S. Ambrose in his booke intituled de Salomone the 4. chapter that is to say This ship therefore of the Apostles that was tossed vpon the seas of this world as the true Church of Christ which albeit it do dayly find and feele the world to be troblesome vnto it as a certaine tempestuous and stormy sea yet doth it neuer dash and split in peces by striking against any rock nor yet is it euer dryuen and drowned to the bottome All which priuiledges could not be verified of the said Church if it were possible that the spouse of Christ could become a harlot or fall away from Christ by intertayning any damnable errour or heresy 24. And as S. Ambrose so speaketh S. Hierome in his commentary vpon the fourth chapter of Isay his wordes be these Super petram sundatur Ecclesia nulla tempestate concutitur nullo turbine ventisque subuertitur The Church being founded vpon a rock is shâ—uered with no tempest is ouerwhelmed and ouerthrowne by no fury violence of windes whatsoeuer And the same holy Father in another place putting a reall distinction betwixt the Synogogue of the Iewes the Christian Church but especially betwixt the promises of God made vnto both assumeth the speach of Christ and speaketh to the Iewes in the person of our Sauiour Linquetur domus vestra deserta your house your Church your Synagogue shal be left desolate and empty vnto you But as for the Christian Church saith he aeternam habebit possessionem for that Christ promised vnto his disciples behould I will be with you or as other Readings haue it I am with you to the consummation of the world And the same speaches are reassumed and reiterated by him in his Commentaries vpon the ninth of the Prophet Amos and vpon the 28. of the Ghospell of S. Matthew 25. And here I might tyre out both the reader and my selfe also with alleadging the vnamine consent of all the ancient Fathers to proue that the visible Catholicke Church of their dayes could neuer perish Apostatate or fall away from Christ to the end of the world in regard of Christ his promise made vnto it and yet the contrary hereticall tenent is a common receiued doctrine in the Protestants schooles in this last worst age of the world For do not the Protestants pro aris focis as though it were a matter of the life or death of their Religion as in very deed it is no lesse stifly peremptorily defend that the visible Church that held these foure generall Councells which are admitted by his Matie and the Church and Parlament of England and fourteene other no lesse Generall from that of Chalcedon to the last of Trent this Church say I descending by succession of Christian people and by lawfull and Ecclesiasticall ordination of Prelats Pastours and Bishops for gouernement of the same hath after the aforesaid Councell of Chalcedon by little little say the Protestants Apostated from Christ and his true doctrine and hath left their roome and place for Protestants to enter and supply their defects And this is iust like the allegations and pretences of the Donatists in S. Augustines time And no maruaile that Protestants and Donatists thus conspire against the true Church for surely the right of the Donatists is as good to lay clayme thereunto as the interest of the Protestants for ought that I can see to the contrary And let this suffice for my first Consideration The second Consideration MY second Consideration concerning this present subiect of the foure first Generall Councells receaued by the Protestants lay Parlament as is already premised shal be this that for as much as this Ecclesiastical deuise and inuention of calling generall Councels and this spirituall authority in erecting this great consistory and supreame tribunall of the Church for the deciding and determining of all doubts and controuersies that may possibly arise therein eyther by the friendes or rather enemyes of the Church must be presumed to haue come peculiarly and proceeded originally from the holy Ghost partly for that the first forme origen and practice therof was prescribed by the Apostles themselues as you shal read Act. 15. according to that which we haue formerly noted and partly and especially in regard of the infallible assistance of the said holy Ghost that euer-blessed and neuer erring spirit of truth testified by the words of high and soueraigne commaunding authority vsed by the Apostles in that first Councels decree visum est Spiritu Sancto nobis it seemeth good to the holy Ghost and vs why I say this being so haue the Protestants in our dayes hauing now almost had a full age since their defection from Catholicke Roman Religion neuer as yet called a generall Councell amongst themselues to repaire their owne breaches reconcile their owne emnities determine and decide their owne controuersies which as before I haue shewed are both many and waighty implacable and irreconciliable Truly it seemeth vnto me that if they had beene of the same spirit with the ancient Apostolicke Church that gathered these foure first generall Councels to hould all in one vnion and communion nay if they had not bene led or rather misled with a contrary spirit of schisme heresy and diuision they would haue troden in the steeps of these ancient Fathers and haue imitated them in applying the soueraigne remedies of generall Councells for curing the woundes of their owne home-bred diuisions and damnable dissentions at least wyse they would without faile in a whole age haue called some one forasmuch as
Papae vobis recitatis sanctae Ecclesiae membra sanctis vestrisvocibuspijque preconijs sancto vestro Capiti vos exhibueritis Non enim ignara est vestra Beatitudo totius fidei ceterorumque omnium Apostolorum Caput beatum Petrum Apostolum extitisse c. We yeld thankes vnto this holy and venerable Synod that vpon the reading of the letters of our most holy and most blessed Pope Celestine you haue exhibited and shewed your selues by your holy applause and prayses as holy members of the Church vnder your holy head For your Beatitude is not ignorant that S. Peter was head of the whole Christian fayth and of all the rest of the Apostles c. This much more spake he to this effect which I pretermit for breuities sake in the assembly of all those great Bishops that were present and yet not one of all those zealous and learned Bishops opposed himselfe against his vsurped Supremacy as the hereticks slaunder it a point very considerable and remarkeable in my opinion and farre different from the groundes of Protestant religion 49. Out of the 4. Councell gathered at Chalcedon vnder the authority of Pope Leo the first surnamed the Great a man of singuler holines wonderfull learning famous for miracles renowned through the whol ChristiaÌ„ world about this Councell I say I might produce many thinges of great ponderation especially about the said Supremacy of the Sea of Rome professed challenged practized most euidently as may appeare in that Councell For first Lucentius Legate and one of the three sent from S. Leo in that Councell vttered freely these wordes Iudicij sui ipsum nempe Dioscorum necesse est reddere rationem quia cùm nec personam iudicandi haberet subrepsit Synodum ausus est facere sine auctoritate Sedis Apostolicae quod ritè numquam factum est nec licuit Dioscorus must needes render an accompt of hys iudgment because when he was not personally inuested with any lawfull power of iudging and vmpiring he crept and stole in durst gather a Synod without authority of the Sea Apostolicke which was neuer rightly nor could be lawfully done 50. And Paschasius another Legate in the same Councell addeth Sed de his esse regulas Ecclesiasticas Patrum instituta But of these thinges he meaneth the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome there are Ecclesiasticall Canons and decrees of Fathers So farre he 51. Secondly I obserued that euery where almost throughout this CouÌ„cell Pope Leo is there stiled Vniuersalis Episcopus et Patriarcha Magnae Romae vniuersall Bishop Patriarch of the great citty of Rome Also he is called vniuersalis Ecclesiae Episcopê° Bishop of the vniuersal Church And againe in the same third action it is said to one of Pope Leo his Legats NuÌ„c vestra Sanctitas primatuÌ„ tenet SaÌ„ctissimi Leonis c. Now your Holines hath the Primacy of most holy Leo and yet againe Petimus Vestram Sanctitatem qui habes magis autem qui habetis locum sanctissimi Papae Leonis promulgare in eum regulis insitam contra cum proferre sententiam We do request your Holines which haue or rather who haue for they were three Legates to wit Paschasius Lucentius and Caelius Bonifacius that you will in the place of most holy Pope Leo promulgate against him and pronounce the sentence that is conteyned in the Canons And afterwardes when they came to subscribe against Dioscorus for his condemnation first of all the foresaid three Legates of S. Leo do subscribe in these wordes Paschasius Episcopus Ecclesiae Lylibetanae vice Beatissimi atque Apostolici vniuersalis Ecclesiae Papae vrbis Romae Leonis sanctae Synodo praesidens in Dioscoridamnationem consensu vniuersalis Concilij subscripsi I Paschasius Bishop of Lylibaeum in Sicilia in behalfe or steed of the most blessed and Apostolicall Pope of the vniuersall Church and Citty of Rome Pope Leo presiding ouer this holy Synod haue subscribed by consent of the vniuersall CouÌ„cell to the condemnation of Dioscorus So he And after him subscribed immediatly the other two Roman Legates and then againe the Patriarches of Constantinople Antioch and the rest and the same is repeated and obserued in many other places as particulerly in the 4. and sixt actions where the Bishops names and Bishops are recorded being aboue six hundred as hath bene said my conclusion of all is this and wil the Protestants allow this for sound doctrine when they take vpon them to receiue this Councell with the rest 52. But besides this point of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome in this Councell I fell vpon sundry other thinges that inforced me to reflect vpon them as namely in the Canons themselues The 16. Canon hath these words Virginem quae se Domino Deo dedicauit similiter Monachos non licere matrimonio coniungi Si autem hoc secisse inuentifuerint sint excoÌ„municati c. It is not lawfull for a virgin that hath dedicated her selfe to God as neither for Monks to marry And if by chance they should be found to haue done so let theÌ„ be excommunicated And is this currant doctrine in England Or is this receiued togeather with the CouÌ„cell 53. Another poynt that I cast my eyes and bent my mind somewhat seriously vpon was the 24. Canon of the same foresaid Councell and it lieth thus Quae semel voluntate Episcopi consecrata sunt monasteria res ad â—as pertinentes seruari ipsis Monasterijs decreuimus neque vlterius ea posse fieri saecularia habitacula qui verò permiserint haec fieri subiaceant his condemnationibus quae per Canones constitutae sunt The monasteries that are once consecrated by the will of the Bishop must perpetually remayne monasteries and all things belonging to the same we haue decreed that they be preserued to the vse of the said monasteries and that they cannot any more be made seculer habitations that they which shall permit such thinges to be done shall vndergo the condemnations that are appoynted to be inflicted according to the Canons So that Canon And this seemeth also to me very hard to stand with the Doctrine and moderne practice of England where monasteries are turned into seculer vses without the feare of the threat heere set downe by the spirit and authority of this generall Councell as euery one will confesse Wherfore heere also we must imagine that albeit the Church of England and ParliameÌ„t do admit this Councell yet will they not easily yeald to obey the commaundement of restoring the Monasticall landes and houses vnto those religions vses againe wherunto they were instituted and so it seemeth that they will remaine with the name and curse of the Councell Let vs passe ouer to the last head of his Maiesties offer THE FIFTH CHAPTER CONCERNING THE ADMITTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE ANCIENT FATHERS OF the first fiue hundred yeares after Christ which is the fourth and last head
of Triall offered and alledged by his Maiesty of England HAVING discoursed at large of the three generall heades to wit Scriptures Creedes Councells in the three precedent Chapters we are now according to order and method both offered vnto vs and accepted of vs to treat of the last generall head in this subsequent Chapter And the subiect we haue how in hand is touching the high esteeme credit and authority to be giuen to the ancient Fathers vnto which his Matie doth appeale in this last place saying thus I do reuerence the ancient Fathers as much and more then the Iesuites do and asmuch as themselues euer craued For what euer the Fathers of the first foure hundred yeares did with an vnanime consent agree vpon to be belieued as a necessary poynt of saluation I eyther will belieue it also or at least wil be humbly silent not taking vpon me to condemne the same But for euery priuate Father his opinion it byndes not my conscience more then Bellarmines euery one of the Fathers vsually contradicting others I will therefore in that case follow S. Augustine his rule in iudging their opinions as I shall find them agree with the Scriptures what I find agreeable thereunto I will imbrace what is otherwise I will with their reuerence reiect So the King And that his Maiesty for his part hath also a good meaning in this as farre as his education and instruction can possibly permitt and further that he is perswaded that he speaketh and meaneth like a good Catholicke and orthodox Christian I do with all diligence and due respect of loyall duty vnto his Royall grace endeauour to perswade myselfe 2. And yet neuerthelesse it is more then euident and apparant yea obuious vnto the eye of any discreet indifferent iudicious and vnderstanding man that his Excellent Grace hath bene notoriously abused and very sinisterly an erroneously informed in sundry passages of this poynt and mayne head concerning the reuerence respect and authority due to the Fathers of Gods Church and that by such Statizing and temporizing Ministers that being no longer able to sustaine their weake false cause quaeipsissimo suo ruit pondere would deriue the shame blame and burden of their now present tottering Religion vpon the person of his Princely Maiesty ingaging him thus in their hereticall quarrell and therefore they suggest from time to time such particulers out of euery generall as serue rather for their owne sinister respects then eyther for the preuention of errour or decision of truth or preseruation of the honour and soueraigne reputation of his Princely Person whence it commeth to passe that they impressionate his Princely hart with their owne particuler humorous passions exagitate his grace with their odious and malitious calumniations bent against the vpright and the innocent in a word they rather auert his affection from ancient Catholicke verity and peruert his iudgement by their erroneous fancy and late vpstart nouelty then lay forth the playne and simple truth vnto his Maiesty though they professe themselues to be Ministers of simple truth eyther in sound substance or sincere circumstance And this God willing we shall discouer by many particuler passages in this present busines and poynt of ancient Fathers that we haue now in hand 3. And first to proceed in order and to beginne with the accusation and imputation laid vpon the lesuits for that they are here charged according to that which hath bene suggested vnto his Maiesty for I will neuer lay this imputation and false accusatioÌ„ vpon his Princely Person that they do not reuerence the authority of the ancient Fathers indeed not so much as his Maiesty doth who saith here as you haue heard That when the Fathers of the first soure huÌ„dred years do with an vnanime consent agree vpon any thing to be belieued as a necessary poynt of saluation his Highnes will belieue it also or at least wil be humbly silent and not condemne the same But he that will peruse and read ouer the learned and manifould laborious volumes of the Iesuites shall find theÌ„ to go much further in this point teaching and constantly asseuering with Vincentius Lyrineusis and with the ioynt agreement of antiquity that the vnanime consent of Fathers vpon any point maketh it an infallible truth Quod Patres Doctores saith Gregorius de Valentia vnanimi consensu circa religionem tradunt infallibiliter verum est VVhatsoeuer the Fathers and Doctours deliuer with one consent about religion that is infallibly true And the same do hold all other Iesuites which also Vincentius Lyrinensis more then a thousand yeares before them doth confirme in these wordes Hos ergo in Ecclesia Dei diuinitus per tempora loca dispensatos quisquis in sensu Catholici dogmatis vnum aliquid in Christo sentientes contempserit non hominem contemnit sed Deum These therefore he meaneth the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church giuen and granted by God throughout all ages and places whosoeuer shall contemne them agreeing vpon any one point in Christ in the sense of Catholick Doctrine he contemneth not man but God 4. And this is grounded and proued as the said Valentia noteth vpon that discourse of S. Paul Ephes. 4. where he sheweth how Christ ascending into heauen left his Church furnished and fenced with all kynd of necessary furniture for her present instruction future direction and perpetuall prescruation as with Apostles Prophets Euangelists Pastors Doctors and this vnto the worldes end And the reason of this is that which the foresaid Authour obserueth out of the Apostle himselfe Vt non circumferamur omni vento Doctrinae that we should not be carried hither and thither and tossed vp and downe with euery blast of Doctrine 5. And finally he confirmeth the same by shewing that this great absurdity would otherwayes follow that if the whole consent of Fathers may erre then may they induce the whole Church to erre yea inforce her therunto for that the Church is bound to follow and belieue the vnamine consent of her Pastours Doctors Gouernours and teachers and that throughout all ages of the Church 6. This is the doctrine which I find amongst the Iesuites concerning the accompt and reckoning that is to be made of the vniforme and vnamine consent of Fathers For with Gregory de Valentia as now I haue said doe agree all the most eminent and principall writers of that Society as for example Doctor Petru Canisâ—us in his later Catechisme Cap. 11. Cardinall Bellarmine in his fourth booke de verbo Dei cap. 9. Vasquez tom 1. in primam part Disp. 12. Cap. 1. Maldonatus in 6. Ioan. Tolet vpon the 6. Chapter of S. Iohn and many others which as I take it is a great deale more then here is granted by ProtestaÌ„ts vnto the Fathers since there is no more yet promised and professed then eyther to belieue them or to be humbly silent and not condemne them 7.
that it was plaine madnes in the hereticke to make so small accompt of them Nay he further resolued and with mature deliberation concluded that the dogma ticall faith and belief of all these Fathers conspiring and agreeing togeather in one was to be defended against him and against all other such like hereticks as he was no other waies then Christs Ghospell was to be defended against Infidels His words are these 20. Aduersus hanc autem miserabilem quam deus auertat insaniam sic respondendum video libris tuis vt fides queque aduersus te desendatur istorum sicut contra impios Christiprofessos inimicos etiam ipsum defendetur Euangelium Against this miserable desperate madnes of thine which God turne from thee I do see that I must so answere to thy bookes that the faith of these Fathers be defended against thee as the very Ghospell it selfe of Christ is to be defended against impious men and as against the very professed enemies of Christ. So he And yet in another place pressing againe the authority of the said Fathers he doth intreat his aduersary Iulian to belieue these holy Fathers and by them to be made friendes with him yea to be reconciled vnto him and to the Catholicke Church from which he stood as yet separate And is not this the very same offer we make to the Protestants at this day And then S. Augustine going on forwardes in ratifiing their authority saddeth presently for further corroboration of the Doctrine and tradition of antiquity Quod credunt credo quod tenent teneo quod docent doceo quod praedicant praedico istis crede mihi credes acquiesce istis quiesces à me c. What these fathers do belieue I do belieue what they hould I hould what they teach I teach what they preach I preach yeald vnto these and you will yeald vnto me haue peace with these and you will haue peace with me And last of all saith he If you will not by them be made friendes with me at least wise be not you by me made enemy vnto them a goulden sentence and then he goeth forward saying shall Pelagius and Celestinus the Authours of your heresy be of such authority with you that you for their society will leaue the fellowship and company of so many and so great Doctors of the Catholicke faith and Church dispersed from East to West frō North to South and those both ancient and neare vnto our age partly dead and yet partly liuing So he 21. Which speach of S. Augustine doth seeme vnto me so fitly and properly to touch and concerne the Protestants of our dayes who for the loue of Luther Caluin Authors of their nouelties do forgo all the Doctors of the Catholicke Church not only ancient but moderne also as that nothing in my iudgment can be produced of nearer affinity to hould greater correspondency or be more like or more semblable 22. Neither yet doth S. Augustine determine only that the Doctors of the Church are absolutely the best witnesses and iudges in matters of Controuersy that arise and spring vp after their dayes but togeather with his authority which had bene alone sufficient he yealedeth a very substantiall and conuincing reason for the same and it is this that the Fathers could not be partiall iudges of such causes as came into Controuersy after their deaths for that they gaue forth their verdict and iudgment before any controuersy was stirred or moued about the same And thus much do his wordes import as they follow 23. Tunc de ista causa iudicauerunt saith S. Augustine quando cosnemo dicere potest perperà m quicquam vel aduersari velsauere potuisse Nondum enim extiteratis c. The Fathers did iudge of this cause at that time when no man can say that they did wrongfully fauour or disfauour any party For that you Pelagians were not then in the world with whome we might haue contention about this question c. They did not attend vnto any friendship eyther with vs or with you they did not exercise amity or emnity with eyther of vs they were angry neyther with you nor with vs neyther yet had they commiseration towards any of our partes that which they found in the Church they held that which they learned they taught that which they recyued and learned from their Fathers by tradition they taught and left vnto their children We did not as yet plead with you before these Iudges yet by them was our case decided and determined nor you nor we were knowne vnto them and yet do we out of their workes produce their sentences against you VVe had as yet no strife with you nor pleaded any cause and yet haue we conquered you by their verdicts Hitherto are the wordes of S. Augustine 24. VVhich when I had considered pondered well with my selfe as also reflected vpon all S. Augustine his former sentences compared them all togeather and conferred them with the state of our present time and manners of men therein I seemed to behold as in a cleare glasse before the eyes of my vnderstanding the very person and selfe same cause of S Augustine to be in the Catholicke writers of our dayes as contrariwise also that of the Pelagians and of other old heretickes to be in the Protestants the one and the other making like accompt of the ancient Fathers I meane the Catholickes esteeming them highly and standing to their iudgment the others reiecting them where they make against them which as it hath bene sufficiently proued before so might I here adioyne also many other proofes therof if I would spend more time in alleaging their sentences Let M. VVhitakers assertion speake for all who of this matter writeth thus If you argue from the witnes of men be they neuer so learned and ancient we yeeld no more to their wordes in cause of sayth and religion then we perceaue to be agreeable to Scripture Neyther thinke you your selfe to haue proued any thing although you bring against vs the whole consent swarme of Fathers except that which they say be iustified not by the voyce of men but of God himselfe The second Consideration AS my first consideration was wholy conuersant about the iust deserued credit of ancient Fathers agreing to geather in generall eyther in the full voice of all or in the greatest part and consent of them so was my second imployed about the same credit authority of particuler Fathers eyther one or two or more auerring any thing which was not reprehended by others in matters of religion About which poynt I saw lesse ascribed in his Maties Booke vnto their promerited estimation then Catholickes do hold in their Orthodox assertions and much lesse then I my selfe had purposely read and obserued in the former mentioned holy Father S. Augustine concerning that poynt For as his Maiesty yealded lesse to the common consent of Doctors which must
of necessity make the visible Catholicke Church if euer Christ left behind him any Church at all to continew when he writeth that he would eyther belieue them or at least wise would be humbly silent and not condemne them as before hath bene shewed So in this very second point of particuler Fathers I find it thus written by his Maiesty 26. But for euery priuate Fathers opinion saith he it bindeth not my conscience more then Bellarmines euery one of the Fathers vsually cōtradicting of others The first part of which sentēce to wit that euery priuate opinion of euery Father bindeth not a mans conscience in matter of religion is so cleare that it needeth no proofe at all for it cannot be denyed For if the opinion be indeed priuate then is it not truly Catholicke and consequently being not the opinion of the true Church it bindeth no man 27. But for the later period of the sentence being wholy derogatory from the credit of Antiquity that is to say that euery one of the Fathers do vsually contradict others in matters concerning religion this must needes presubpose to haue some fauorable interpretation affoarded it to free it from open iniuring and wronging of the Fathers and so my hope is that this is the meaning of his Excellent Matie to wit that these contradictions supposed to be a mongst the Fathers are only diuersities of iudgment in matters that are not determinately de fide or that do not concerne any articles of beliefe but eyther such matters as S. Augustine saith that may without breach of vnion or charity be diuersly disputed of amongst Catholicke men or els when diuers Fathers do giue diuers senses of Scripture some the literall others the allegoricall and all true all intended by the holy Ghost as we haue formerly noted Now the rule that we must heere obserue concerning these poyntes wherein consent of Fathers is and must necessarily be had is that which Vincentius Lyrinensis an Authour that I can neuer sufficiently commend hath excellently laid downe in his 37. Chapter contra haereses his wordes are these Antiqua Patrum consentio Sanctorum non in omnibus diuinae legis quaestionibus sed solùm in fidei regula magno nobis studio inuestiganda sequenda est The ancient consent of holy Fathers is with great care and study to be both searched out and followed of vs not in all their questionings of holy Writ but only in the rule of fayth 28. And vnto this S. Augustine alludeth where he writeth thus Alia sunt in quibus interse aliquando etiam doctissimi atque optimi regulae Catholicae defensores salua fidei compage non consonant alius alio de vna re melius aliquid dicit veriùs There are some thinges wherein sometimes the most learned and the best defenders of the Catholick rule do not agree amongst themselues but one speaketh better and more truly then another of the selfe same thing but yet without breach of the linke of faith 29. But forasmuch as particuler Fathers do often times set downe and deliuer the publike beliefe of the Church and not any priuate opinions though they seeme to speak priuately and not in name of the whole Church when they mention this or that point concerning religion some certaine rule or note for our better direction and distinction must be set downe and the surest rule to discerne how farre forth priuate Fathers opinions ought to be esteemed or may bind a man in conscience is for a man to consider vprightly in the impartiall iudgment betwixt God and his owne conscience whether that opinion of his if he be but one or theirs if they be many haue bene withstood or gainesaid contradicted or impugned by any other Father or Fathers Synod or Councell Prouinciall Generall or Nationall of the same or other precedent or subsequent ages For if this cannot be made good against any one particuler Fathers opinion then may it more then probably be inferred that forsomuch as this particuler Father was generally reputed for a Catholicke Doctor in his time neuer reprehended taxed noted condemned for this opinion as false doubtfull or erroneous it must needes be I say necessarily inferred and concluded that that very opinion of his was the opinion iudgment and doctrine also of the Catholicke Church in the age and time wherein he liued and of which he himselfe was then a Father and Doctor For if this were not so it cannot be so much as with any probability imagined that this Father could haue taught this opinion in his dayes or diuulged it in his writings vnto posterity without some note or memory of controlment or taxation of the same eyther whilst he liued or after his death 30. And hereby it followeth that albeit this Doctrine should haue but one or two ancient Fathers that do expresly mention it in their dayes other Fathers of the same tyme either not hauing occasion to speake therof or els busied and incumbred about other as weighty poynts yet were this alone sufficient to make vs vnderstand that in their dayes that mention the same the forsaid opiniō of that Father or Fathers was held for Catholick Doctrine throughout the vniuersall Church for that otherwise without all doubt it would thē or afterwardes haue bene descried censured by the carefull vigilant watchmen of Gods Church Neyther can any instance as I imagine be giuen to the cōtrary for that frō the very first infancy of Christianity vnto our dayes it cannot be shewed that any Father or Doctor though otherwise neuer so renowned for wit and learning piety or sanctity did euer beginne any new doctrine or erroneous opinion different from the Catholicke beliefe but that presently the same was excepted against by others And this is more then euident in the particuler cases and slippes of Tertullian Origen Cyprian Lactamius and other ancient Fathers of the Church and yet when any of these transgressed the anciēt boundes innouating any thing frō the receyued faith they were all of them excepted and cryed out against noted taxed for such their priuate erroneous opiniōs as dissenting from publick vnion and Catholick Communion 31. Neyther doth any man in my iudgment explaine this point better then S. Augustine himselfe and therefore as I serued my selfe principally of him in the precedēt Consideration soe do I meane also in this For as on the one side when many Fathers do agree in their opinion against one or few as in the case of S. Cyprian about the rebaptizing of hereticks yt fell out the greater part is there to be preferred before the lesse as the said Father doth often affirme so notwithstanding when no such opposition and contradiction is of the maior part S. Augustine himselfe maketh high and singular accompt of euery priuate Fathers opinion as namely when he extolleth the authority O. S. Hilarius against lulian saving Ecclesiae Catholicae aduersus haereticos acerrimum
tamen liberum arbitrium in rebus spiritualib us etiam statuunt Albeit the Fathers sometymes speake well and soundly yet at length they affirme that man hath free-will euen in spirituall things And then they beginne with S. Chrysostome alleadging many plaine places out of his workes at large saying Chrysostomus passim liberi arbitrij patronum agit S. Chrysostome doth euery where play the aduocate for free-will From S. Chrysostome they passe vnto S. Augustine and from S. Augustine to S. Cyril and from them to Theodoret Hesichius Thalassius Faustus Marcus Eremita and Ioannes Cassianus all Fathers and Doctors of this fifth age and the same they do in the sixt age alleadging many places out of S. Gregory the first as also out of Euodius Olympiodorus and others 81. Then passe they vnto the article of Iustification shewing that the Fathers of these ages did not ascribe Iustification vnto onely fayth but required also workes for which they alleage large sentences out of S. Chrysostome S. Cyril S. Augustine though more contractedly and out of S. Leo the Great who offendeth them much by saying recta fide bonis operibus peruenitur ad regnum Dei by right fayth and good workes we come to the Kingdome of God And from him they passe to S. Prosper Hesichius Sedulius Primasius Theodulus all of the forenamed Fathers houlding the same erroneous opinion as it pleaseth their Maisterships to call it for that workes are by them euer ioyned with faith and that in the last iudgement Christ shall question with them not so much what they haue belieued as what they haue practized 82. And the same doe they in the next hundred yeares after alleadging for it the writings of Cassiodorus Olympiodorus Andraeas Hierosolymitanus and aboue all and more largely they alleadge aboue a dozen places out of S. Gregory the Great who sayth Vita aeterna ex piae vitae actionibus comparatur Life euerlasting in the next world is prepared and gotten by pyous actions in this life 83. From this article they skip vnto another of the excellency and merit of good workes which article they beginne thus Nimiùm haec aetas bonis operibus adscripsit This fifth age did ascribe to much vnto the good workes of men which they declare largely first out of Chrysostome his writinges saying that he was immodicus Encomiastes bonorum operum an immoderate commender of good workes And from him they passe vnto S. Augustine shaking him also by the sleeue and taking him vp for halting and saying Augustinus etiam nimiùm interdum operibus tribuit Augustine also attributeth some tims too much to good workes Then they passe vnto Pope Leo and shew the same excesse out of him And from these they come vnto S. Prosper to Saluianus to Maximus to Salonius to Thalassius to Theodulus to Eucherius to Paulinus and some others all Doctors and Fathers of this fifth age 84. And then in the sixt age following the same methood vnder their article de bonis operibus they reprehend for ascribing to much therunto S. Gregory the great Euodius Cassiodorus Olympiodorus Fortunatus and Iustus Fathers of the Church and doctors of those dayes 85. There followeth the article of Pennance wherewith they beginne thus Consessioni ieiuniijs alijs ritibus nimiùm vendicat Chrysostomus Chrysostome doth ascribe to much vnto Confession fasting and other rytes of pennance And of the same errours do they condemne Hesichius for that lib. 2. in cap. 6. Leuit. he saith that true pennance doth consist in fasting watching haire-clothes teares prayers and almes-deedes The same errour they ascribe to Maximus Ioannes Cassianus Eucherius Doctors of this fifth age And in the sixt Century they lay the same imputation vpon Cassiodorus and S. Gregory especially chiding him for that he saith Poenitentiam agere est perpetrata mala plangere plangerda non perpetrare This is to do pennance to moane and bewaile our sinnes we haue committed and not to commit againe thinges worthy of bewayling What can be spoken more diuinely by this heauenly Doctor And would a man iudge these men to be Christians daring thus to open their mouthes and publikely to blaspheme 86. I might passe further to alleage much more out of these Magdeburgian Centuriators which they produce out of euery age most manifestly against themselues and their owne cause with this onely fond confidence that all authority and credit of the venerable testimonyes of the ancient Fathers are shifted of by saying only that they are incommodious opinions blots stubble and errours of the Fathers as though the very gleanings of the Fathers were not better then their whole vintage and these blots and stubble and falsely supposed errours were not to be preferred before their best truth But who tould these good fellowes that these were errours VVhat Church euer held them so What Generall Councell euer concluded them so Nay what one Father or one ancient writer the grand heretickes their ancient predecessours excepted did once open his mouth to speake against eyther all or any one of these doctrines If they can disproue any one of these doctrines according to any one of the forenamed challenges Church Councells one Father or many we do faithfully promise to renounce them all as stubble and errours as they speake But if none of these thinges can be made good against any one the least and weakest supposed doctrine then must these doctrines as hitherto they haue stood in the Church for Orthodoxe so must they hereafter continue Catholicke and they themselues for confessing the Fathers to hould them and we withall vrging antiquity that do deny consent of Fathers in any point of doctrine generally receiued by the Church in their dayes can be no lesse then great and rash presumption 87. And yet for full conclusion I must aduertise the Reader to note this one point which in my iudgement is very remarkeable for these Magdeburgians doe scarcely alleadge one place of ten of these that are to be found in the Fathers workes themselues for proofe of the Roman Catholicke Religion as euery man may easely discerne if he please to read the Catholicke writers that make profession purposely to alleadge the places of ancient Fathers as namely Canisius in his large Catechisme Cardinall Bellarmine throughout all his workes Cardinall Baronius Coccius in his Thesaurus Catholicus and others but yet these that the Magdeburgians please to cite are sufficient to daunt the English Protestant his confidence in the ancient Fathers since that they alone of themselues confute and confound both him and his religion With what face then can the English Protestants vaunt that the ancient Fathers are for him And further these few places of many that might be heaped togeather may as I hope suffice to giue his Excellent Maiesty our Soueraigne satisfaction or at leastwise sufficient light by these to passe further and to seeke more sound information of the true faith and beliefe of the ancient Fathers
of the first fiue hundred yeares which his sayd Maiesty most Royally offereth to follow For opening the window vnto which light I haue thought it my bounden duty both before God and man to take this small labour and to lay these few heades of Considerations before the eyes of his Highnes most wise Iudgment and vnderstanding THE SIXT CHAPTER CONTEYNING A BRIEFE CONTEMPLATION of what hath beene hitherto sayd with the Conclusion of the whole to his most Excellent Maiesty AND now hauing handled these points at some more length then at the beginning I had purposed I hope the benignity and Clemency of his Maiestie will take in good part that leauing the Reader I do returne vnto him againe as vnto my most dearly beloued reuerenced and dread Soueraigne to lay before the eyes of his Prudent Consideration the summe of that which hitherto hath beene considered of 2. First then the point of being a true Catholicke according vnto the name and nature of the word is of such importance necessity and consequence as hath beene shewed in the first Chapter that no riches in this world no wealth no treasure no state no power no policy no human felicity may be compared with it as rightly S. Augustine doth intimate And for that your Maiesties eternall weale after the briefe and transitory passage of this life dependeth therof I cannot but most humbly most hartily and most dutifully falling prostrate at your feet beseech you to giue some serious attendance and attention to this high and mayne point of euerlasting saluation to seeke out what is truely Catholicke both in the Church for whose Epitheton the Name was first by the Apostles inuented as also in particuler men who is a true Catholicke and who followeth the rule which the Name describeth to wit he that in Christian Religion followeth vniuersality and not singularity the whole and not a part ancienty and nouelty that which hath bene deliuered and conserued from time to time and not inuented framed and set sorth in later times 3. And for that on the other side heresy is the opposite and contradictory vnto Catholicke Religion for that it maketh choyce of a part to it selfe and therby is held to be the highest sin in the sight of Almighty god that is or can be committed vpon earth for that it ouerthroweth the very foundation of fayth vnder pretence to establish and reforme fayth My desire is so ardent in this point that your Matie should enter into due consideration therof as almighty God beareth wirnesse vnto my soule and spirit that nothing in this life stādeth more neere my hart considering the eternity of the next world the immutable weale or woe therof the vae or euge that ech man is to receaue as well Princes as others and that these earthly Princedomes will seeme but shadowes at that day and not worthy one houre of that glory or misery that is to be gotten or lost by Catholick Religion or heresy in this life And this is my first contemplation and I shall pray Almighty God that it may be also your Maiesties 4. The second is about those foure wayes proposed by your Maiesty for auerring Catholicisme and clearing frō heresy which are the admitting and belieuing of all Canonicall Scriptures the receauing of the three Creedes the approuing the foure first Councells and the acceptance of the Ancient Fathers of the first foure or fiue hundred yeares In all which if with the admitting in words there be also a true Catholicke sense no doubt but they do make a man to be a Catholicke and do condemne heresy But the importance of all standeth in the exposition for to belieue the Scriptures in the sense that I thinke best my selfe or to acknowledge them for Canonicall or not Canonicall as I or some few with me of later times shall please to prescribe or to admit the three Creedes with that exposition of the articles as I and mine shall best allow or the first foure Councells in some thinges and not in other or the first foure hundred yeares of Fathers so farre forth as they in my censure do agree with Scriptures is to reduce all to my owne iudgment a thing most opposite to Catholicisme and proper to heresy as we haue at large declared 5. Wherefore vpon my knees I do most humbly supplicate your Maiesty to consider well of this and especially of the last poynt concerning the ancient Fathers which doth in effect cōtaine all the rest for that these men deliuered vnto vs the Scriptures togeather with the true vnderstāding therof according to the sense of the Church in their dayes these men deliuered vnto vs the three Creedes the first as from the Apostles the other as from the Church the third as from a priuate man but yet approued by the Church these men deliuered vnto vs the first foure generall Councells wherein diuers of themselues sate as Iudges and Bishops and had voyees and suffrages in the same these men were they that examined the controuersies determined the Catholicke doctrine condemned heresies an athematized hereticks and cleared the coastes of all these wicked and turbulent incumbrances which seditious and headstrong spirits had raysed in the Christian world by their contentions 6. And finally these were they whom our Sauiour Christ did vse as sannes to winnow his corne to purge the flore of his Church separating the chaffe from the wheat and eroneous doctrine from the truth wherin they were so zealous and diligent labourers as not the least weed could spring vp in this field of the Church but that these carefull good watchmen and faithfull gardeners did presently note and pursue the same vntill it was eyther rooted out or condemned by the Church and therby as branches cut of from the body of the vine suffered to wither away and to consume of themselues For proofe wherof we may alleadge as many examples as there haue bene different heresies and hereticks in the Christian Church for the space of fifteene hundred yeares which albeit they ruffled much mightily for the time and had often great Princes Kinges Emperors and Potentates to fauour and patronize them as the Protestants haue now your Matie yet are they so consumed in tyme and by vertue of the holy Ghost as the very names of many of them are now scarce remembred and much lesse their arguments reasons proofes and Scriptures which they brought for the same and were it not that in these Fathers bookes who were their enemies some mention is made therof we should scarce know that there had bin such men in the world 7. But on the contrary side the Church that condemned these men and the Fathers and Doctors liuing therin remayned euer both then and after victorious and shal do to the worlds end and still by succession and continuatiō the same Church hath come downe frō age to age one age giuing testimony to another of the purity of the said Church
appertayning to his euerlasting saluation to the ruine and destruction of his parents to the reuolution of his Kingdome the like And shall we thinke that God would euer concurre with such men to such designements God hath permitted theÌ„ for our sinnes for the sinnes of thousands els that haue perished and are to perish therby but any concourse of his to such mens intentions no pious mind can yield vnto 14. For if this should be granted that God did concur with the actions of these seditious men in drawing his Maties infancy by so turbuleÌ„t wicked meanes from the vnion of that faith and religion which all his parents and predecessours professed for so many ages togeather then must it follow that the same God neuer concurred with the other I meane his noble Auncestours by whom notwithstanding he did worke and achieue throughout all those ages so many notorious workes of Christian piety as perhaps by no Nation more And to thinke that all this notwithstanding they liued out of his fauour depriued of true faith infected with erroneous doctrine deceiued with false Sacraments were no members of his true Church but rather cast out from his face and deliuered ouer to the delusion scorne and power of Sathan were no doubt temerarious impiety to imagine or affirme 15. Wherefore most Noble and renowned Prince and Soueraigne I do not onely out of the dutifull zeale of a louing deuoted subiect exhibite this humble Petition to your Maiesty but also on the behalfe of our Sauiour Iesus Christ intreat that it may please your Highnes if not to entertaine and cherish yet not to persecute that Religion wherein your Ancestours haue liued so honourably and piously for that this would be to persecute them in their religioÌ„ And your Maties Princely nature I know cannot but abhorre the hatefull name of persecution and violent proceeding as well knowing out of your owne great Prudence that nothing is more durable or more subiect to hatred and malediction in the world especially the cause being so vniuersall and common to so many other great Princes and some of them the neerest of your Royall bloud as all men see it is 16. But the very fundameÌ„tall reason indeed is that this Catholick Religion is no nouelty or innouatioÌ„ but that whereunto your Maiesties realmes were first coÌ„uerted from Paganisme when they were made ChristiaÌ„ wherunto they yielded their obedieÌ„ce promised subiectioÌ„ submitted the regimeÌ„t of their soules professed coÌ„stancy therin to the worldes end And now then in any iustice can they be punished for houlding that which was so solemnely sowne rooted and so generally admitted so long and faithfully contiued so firmely grounded so deliuered and soe commended by our Fathers to this their posterity If all our great Grandfathers and ancient Predecessors were aliue againe might they not as lawfully be pursued and persecuted for their religion as we are now for the same If they should looke vpon the Churches which themselues builded to the honour of Christ for diuine seruice and especially for the vse of the publike Sacrifice vsed throughout Christendome at that day and should see the same not only taken away but penall Statutes also made against the fame by imprisonment vexatioÌ„ paymeÌ„ts of money and other tribulations would they not complaine of great iniustice done vnto them in that so sharpe persecution should be laid vpon their children for keeping their depositum or pledg receiued as the Apostle saith and for obseruing their fidelity both to God and them 17. Wherefore most noble Prince let this be as farre from your action or permission as it is from your Royall InclinatioÌ„ and disposition to be a persecutor of those that stand only in defence of their consciences and these not framed vpon wilfull fancy as all those of Sectaries and Innouators are but necessarily laid vpon them by obligation of religion left vnto them by tradition of Gods whole Church and by the Church of England in those dayes as a principall member thereof whose Communion in religion if these men do breake and leaue now for what cause soeuer eyther of feare flattery ambition worldy fauours and preferments perills or persecutions then must they consequently breake of for euer that eternall band and lincke of being saued togeather or euer enioying more the one the other in the next life for that no association can be for eternity in the life to come but by obseruing one and the selfe same religion in this world Which cogitation doth strongly worke with your Highnes Catholick subiects and they do hartily pray our Sauiour Iesus that it may no lesse worke with your Maiesty in like manner FINIS De praescript c. 16. De vnitate Ecclesiae contra Petil Donatist c. 2. De vnitate Ecclesiae Dan. 6. 17. Leo seriâ— 1. de resurrectione Lib. de paientia c. 4. 2. Cor. 7. 11 Lib. de patientia 1. Petr. 3. 15 His Maiesties protestation Iob. 19. 23 24. Salust About the words Catholick and Heretick and that they can neuer agree Gen. 21. 9. 14. The implacable hostility betweene heresie Catholick religion Gen. 26. 22 Gen. 13. 9. â— 4. Regum 9. 18. 19. 22. Dogmata noua Dij alieni Deut. 13. VinceÌ„tius Lyrinensis contra baeres c. 15. â— Reg. 18. De vnitate Eccles. cap. 5. Gen. 28. 17 1. Tim. 3. 15 Matt. 28. 20. De vnitate Ecclesiae The Catholicke cannot be a chuser but admitteth that which is deliuered Psal. 1. 5. Tertull. de praescript The 1. Ecclesiasticall vse of the word Heretick Cor. 11. 1. 9. De praescript aduers haer cap. 4. Tit. 3. 10. 11. Iibd c. 6. Ibidem Ibid. v. 31 De praescript c. 16. Act. 5. 17. 15. 5. 24. 14. Concerning the word Catholicke how eminent it is De praescript cap. 4. 5. 6. c. The Fathers iudgments about the words Heretick Catholick In Catal. Virorum illust Pacian Epist ad Sempr. 3. Reg. 3. 15. 19. Matt. 18. 1â— 2. Cor. 13. De praescript c. 26. Aug. lib. coÌ„tra Fundament in Epist. c. 4. Hebr. 12. 1. Lib. aduers. haeres c. 5. The couÌ„sell direction of Vincentius Lyrinensis about being a Catholicke Matt. 24. 14. The Consideration and consultation of the writer about his chang in religioÌ„ De vnit Eccles. De praescript cap. 32. What is required to prooue the Protestant Church Catholick Ibid. c. 32. Lib. de praescript cap. 21. 22. De vnit Eccles. Cyprian de vnit Eccles. Of the dreadfull misery of being an Hereticke Apud Pacian Epist. 1. Gen. 35. 18. Ioan. 1. 2. 1â— 1. Tim. 6. 20. 27. Cap. CoÌ„menit aduers. haereses Vincent in praf Iohn 3. 8. D. Thom. 2. 2. quaest 10. art 6. Heresy is worse theÌ„ Iudaisme or Paganis me Ratio formalis credâ—â—di An hereticke hath no diuine faith at all and why Matth. 7. 15. 16. The description of Heretickes by Christ our Sauiour De praescript c. 4. aduers. haeres c. 36. A notable interpretation of Vincentius Lyrinensis