no such Doctrine was ever preached to Mankind either by our Saviour Christ or by His Apostles For what Probability is there that those Holy Doctors of Former Ages from whose hands Christianity hath been derived down unto us should be Ignorant of any of those things which had been Revealed and Recommended by our Saviour as Important and Necessary to Salvation It is true indeed that the Fathers being deceived either by some False manner of Argumentation or else by some Seeming Authority do sometimes deliver such things as have not been revealed by our Saviour Christ but are evidently either False or Ill grounded as we have formerly shewed in those Examples before produced by us It is true moreover that among those things which have been revealed by our Saviour Christ in the Scripture which yet are not Absolutely Necessary to Salvation the Fathers may have been ignorant of some of them either by reason that Time had not as yet discovered what the sense of them was or else because that for lack of giving good heed unto them or by their being carried away with some Passion They did not then perceive what hath since been found out But that they should all of them have been Ignorant of any Article that is Necessarily Requisite to Salvation is altogether Impossible For after this Account They should all have been deprived of Salvation which I suppose every honest Soul would tremble at the thought of I say then and as I conceive have sufficiently proved in this Treatise that an Argument which concludeth the Truth of any Proposition from the Fathers having maintained the same is very Weak and Ill-grounded as supposing that which is Clearly False namely That the Fathers maintained nothing which had not been Revealed by our Saviour Christ For this would be such a kind of Argumentation as if a man should prove by the General Agreement herein of the Fathers that all the Departed Souls are shut up together in a certain Place or Receptacle till the Day of Judgment or that the Encharist is Necessarily to be administred to Little Infants and the like where every one sees how Insufficient and Invalid this way of Argumentation is And to say the truth such is the Proceeding of the Church of Rome when they go about to prove by the Authority of the Fathers those Articles which they propose to the World and which are rejected by the Protestants I say moreover that to conclude upon the Nullity or Falseness of any Article that is not of the number of those that are Necessary to Salvation from the general Silence of the Fathers touching the same is a very Absurd way of Arguing as supposing a thing which is also Manifestly False Namely that the Fathers must Necessarily have seen and Clearly known All and every of those things which Jesus Christ hath revealed in His Word Such a kind of Argument would it be thought among the Franciscans if any one should conclude against them from the Silence of the Fathers that our Saviour Christ hath not at all revealed that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without Sin But yet I confess again on the other side that in those Points that are accounted as Absolutely Necessary to Salvation an Argument that should be drawn from the General Silence of the Fathers to prove the Nullity or Falseness of it would be very Pertinent and indeed Unanswerable As for example His manner of Argumentation would be very Rational and Solid that should conclude that those Means of Salvation which are proposed by a Mahomet suppose or a David George or the like Sectaries are Null and contrary to the Will of our Saviour Christ how much soever these Men may seem to Honour Him seeing that none of ehe Ancient Christians speak so much as one syllable of it and are utterly ignorant of all those Secrets that these Wretches have preached to their Disciples and delivered as Infallible and Necessary Means of Salvation After this manner did Irenaeus dispute against the Valentinians and other of the Gnosticks who vented their own sensâ—less Dreams and Absurd Issues of their Own Brain saying That the Creator of the World was but an Angelâ— and that there were above Him certain Divine Powers which They called Aeones that is to say Ages some of them making more of these and others fewer and some reckoning to the number of CCCLXV and an infinite number of other the like Prodigies never shewing any Ground for the same either in Reason or out of the Scripture Irenaeus therefore that he might make it appear to the World that this so Strange Doctrine was produced out of their Own Brain only goes about and visiteth the Arohives of all the Churches that had been either Planted or Watered by the Holy Apostles turns over all their Records Evidences and Ancient Monuments and these Aeones Achamot and Barbele of the Gnosticks no where appearing nor so much as any the least Part or Trace of them He concludeth that the Apostles had never delivered over any such thing to their Disciples neither by Writing nor by Word of Mouth as these Impostors pretended they had For certainly if they had done so the memory of it could not have been so utterly lost This is also the Method that Tertullian followed in his Disputations against these very Hereticks and others the like in the 22 Chapter of his Book De Praescriptionibus adversus Haereticos and in other places The Practice of these Great Persons who made use of it themselves will here serve to prove unto us that this Course is Right and Good And thus you see that the Authority of the Fathers is of very great Use in the Church and serveth as an Out-work to the Scriptures for the repelling the Presumption of those who would forge a New Faith But forasmuch as those who broach New Doctrines of their own Head do Ordinarily slight the Holy Scriptures as those very Hereticks did whom Iraeneus confuted who impudently accused Them of not being Right and that they are of no Authority and speak in very Ambiguous Terms and that they are not able to inform a man of the Truth unless they are acquainted with Tradition the Truth having been delivered as These men pretended not in Writing but by Word of Mouth For this Reason I say and for other the like are the Writings of the â—athers of very great Use in these Disputes and I conceive This to be one of the Principal ends for which the Divine Providence hath in despite of So many Confusions and Changes preserved so many of them safe down to our times If therefore the Protestants should propose of their Own Head and should press as Absolutely Necessary to Salvation any Positive Article which doth not at all appear in Antiquiâ—y without all Question this Course might with very good Reason be made use of against Them But it is most Evident that there is no such thing at all in their Belief for
reading of these Books That Time hath by degrees introduced very great Alterations as well in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Ancients as in all other things Our Conclusion therefore shall be That whosoever shall desire to know what the Sense and Judgment of the Primitive Church hath been touching our present Controversies it will be first in a manner as necessary for him as it is difficult exactly to find out both the Name and the Age of each of these several Authors CHAP. IV. Reason IV. That those of the Writings of the Fathers which are Legitimate have been in many Places corrupted by Time Ignorance and Fraud both Pious and Malicious both in the former and later Ages BUt put the case now here that you had by your long and judicious Endeavours severed the True and Genuine Writings of the Fathers from the Spurious and Forged there would yet lie upon you a second Task whose event is like to prove much more doubtful and fuller of difficulty than the former For it would concern you in the next place in reading over those Authors which you acknowledge for Legitimate to distinguish what is the Author 's own and what hath been soisted in by another Hand and also to restore to your Author whatsoever either by Time or Fraud hath been taken away and to take out of him whatsoever hath been added by either of these two Otherwise you will never be able to assure your self that you have discovered out of these Books what the true and proper meaning and sense of your Author hath been considering the great Alterations that by several ways they may have suffered in several Times I shall not here speak of those Errours which have been produced by the Ignorance of the Transcribers Who write as Hierome hath complained of them not what they find but what themselves understand Nor yet of those Faults which necessarily have grown up out of the very Transcribing it being an impossible thing that Books which have been copied out an infinite number of times during the space of ten or twelve Centuries of years by Men of so different Capâ—â—cities and Hands should all this while retain exactly and in every Particular the self-same Juyce the same Form and Body that they had when they first came forth from the Author 's own hand Neither shall I here say any thing of the sufferings of these Books by Moths and a thousand other Injuries of Time by which they have been corrupted while all kind of Learning for so many Ages together lay buried as it were in the Grave the Worms on one side feeding on the Books of the Learned and on the other the Dust defacing them so that it is impossible now to restore them to their first integrity And this is the sad Fate that all sorts of Books have lain under whence hath sprung up so great variety of Readings as are found almost in all Authors I shall not here make any advantage of this though there are some Doctors in the World that have shewed us the way to do it taking advantage from this Consideration to lessen the Authority that the Holy Scriptures of themselves ought to have in the esteem of all Men under this colour That even in these Sacred Writings there are sometimes found varieties of Reading which yet are of very little or no Importance as to the Ground-work If we would tread in these Mens steps and apply to the Writings of the Fathers what they speak and conclude of the Scriptures we could do it upon much better terms than they there being no reason in the Earth to imagine but that the Books of the Ancient Writers have suffered very much more than the Scriptures have which have always been preserved in the Church with much greater care than any other Books have been whatsoever and which have been learnt by all Nations and translated into all Languages which all Sects have retained both Orthodox and Hereticks Catholicks and Schismaticks Greeks and Latins Moscovites and Ethiopians observing diligently the Eye and the Hand one of the other so that there could not possibly happen any remarkable Alteration in them but that presently the whole World as it were would have exclaimed against it and have made their Complaints to have resounded throughout the Universe Whereas on the contrary the Writings of the Fathers have been kept transcribed and read in as careless a manner as could be and that too but by very few and in few Places being but rarely understood by any save those of the same Language which is the cause that so many Faults have both the more easily crept into them and likewise are the more hard to be discovered Besides that the particular Stile and Obscurity of some of them renders the Errours the more important As for example Take me a Tertullian and you shall find that one little Word added or taken away or altered never so little or a Full-point or Comma but out of its place will so confound the Sense that you will not be able to find what he would have Whereas in Books of an easie smooth clear Style as the Scriptures for the most part are these Faults are much less prejudicial seeing they cannot in any wise so darken the Sense but that it will be still easie enough to apprehend it But I shall pass by all these minute Punctilioes as more suitable to the Enquiries of the Pyrrhonians and Academicks whose Business it is to question all things than of Christians who onely seek in simplicity and sincerity of heart whereon to build their Faith I shall onely here take notice of such alterations as have been knowingly and voluntarily made in the Writings of the Fathers purposely by our holding our peace to disguise their Sâ—nse or else to make them speak more than they meant And this Forgery is of two sorts The one hath been made use of with a good intention the other out of malice Again The one hath been committed in Times long since past the other in this last Age in our own days and the days of our Fathers Lastly the one is in the Additions made to Authors to make them speak more than they meant the other in subtracting from the Author to eclipse and darken what he would be understood to say Neither ought we to wonder that even those of the honest innocent primitive Times also made use of these Deceits seeing that for a good end they made no great scruple to forge whole Books taking a much stranger and bolder course in my opinion than the other For without all doubt it is a greater Crime to coin false Money than to clip or a little alter the true This Opinion hath always been in the World That to settle a certain and assured estimation upon that which is good and true that is to say upon what we account to be such it is necessary that we remove out of the way whatsoever may be a hinderance to it
by the Fathers how can they expect that their Authority should pass for Authentick in any one Let us suppose for instance that they held that there was such a Place as Purgatory But by your Favour will the Protestant say if you have found their Belief to be so erroneous touching the State of the Souls of Departed Saints till the Day of the Resurrection why would you impose upon me a Necessity of subscribing to what they held touching Purgatory The Laws of Disputation ought to be equal and therefore if you by examining this Opinion of the Fathers by Reason and by the Scriptures have found it to be Erroneous why will you not give us leave to try that other touching Purgatory by the same Touch-stone Certainly should we but speak the Truth it is the plainest mocking of the World that can be to cry out as these Men do continually The Fathers The Fathers and to write so many whole Volumes upon this Subject as they have done after they have so dealt with them as you have seen And if it be here objected That the Protestants themselves do also reject many of those Articles which we have before set down we answer That this is nothing at all to the purpose forasmuch as they take the Scriptures and not the Fathers for the Rule of their Faith neither do they press any Man to receive any thing from the hands of the Ancients unless it be grounded upon the Word of God And if lastly you say That the Authority of the Fathers hath no place nor is at all considerable in the Points before set down because that the Churcb hath otherwise determined touching the same this is clearly to grant us that which we would have namely That the Authority of the Fathers is not Supreme And as for the Church that is to say how far the Authority of it extends in these things this is a New Question to be disputed of which I shall not meddle withal at this time Only thus much I shall say That what Authority soever you allow it whether Little or Much you will still find that it will very hardly be able to do any thing touching the Decision of our present Controversies forasmuch as you can never be able to make any use or benefit of this Position till such time as you are assured both What and Where the Church is seeing that the Protestants stiffly deny That it is That which appears at this day at Rome and the greatest Difficulty of all consisting in the Demonstrating this unto them For if they did but once believe that the Church of Rome was the True Church they would immediately joyn themselves with it so that there would not henceforth be need of any further Dispute We shall here conclude therefore That the Alledging the Testimonies of the Fathers upon the Differences that are at this day in Religion is no proper Course for the Decision of them seeing it is no easie matter to discover what their Judgment hath been touching the same by reason of the many Difficulties that we meet with in the Writings of the Ancients neither is it of so sufficient Authority in it self as that we may safely build our Belief upon it since the Fathers themselves have been also subject to Errour neither lastly is it of any force either aâ—â—â—nst the one or the other Party seeing that they both regulate and examine the Opinions Ceremonies and Discipline of the Ancients the One by the Rule of the Scriptures and the Other by that of the Church But here I find that upon this Conclusion Two Questions may arise For seeing that the alledging the Fathers is not sufficient for the deciding of those Points that are now in debate amongst us it may be demanded in the first place What other Course we ought to take for the attaining to the Truth in these Controversies And then secondly How and in what Cases the Writings of the Fathers may be useful unto us Now although both these Questions are without the compass of our present Design yet notwithstanding in regard they so nearly border upon it we shall in the last place say a word or two in answer of them As for the First it would be a hard matter in my Judgment to find out a better way for Satisfaction herein than that which one Scholarius a Greek who is very highly accounted of by those who printed the General Councils at Rome hath proposed This Learned Man in a certain Oration of his which he made at the Council of Florence for the facilitating of the Vnion which was then treated of betwixt the Latins and the Greeks and was afterwards concluded on lays down for a Ground first That we ought not to reject all those things which are not clearly and in express Terms delivered in the Scriptures which is a Pretext and Shift that many of the Hereticks make use of but that we ought to receive with equal Honour whatsoever directly followeth from that which is said in the Scriptures and to reject utterly whatsoever shall be found to be coâ—â—trary to those things which are undoubtedly True He says further That In those things wherein the Scripture hath not clearly expressed it self we must have recourse to the Scripture it self as our Guide to give us light therein by some other Passage where It hath spoken more plainly And after all this he requireth That we should use our utmost Endeavour fully to reconcile those seeming Contradictions which we sometimes there meet withal in several Passages to that purpose taking notice of the Diversity of Times Customs Senses and the like And going on he saith That the Fathers of the Council at Nice after this manner concluded by the Scriptures upon the True Belief touching the Son of God and then applying all this to his present purpose he adds That the Scripture saith clearly and expresly that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and that this is agreed upon by both Sides both by the Greeks and the Latins But that It hath not so expresly declared it self whether the Holy Ghost proceed also from the Son or not and that this is the thing now in Question the Latins affirming it and the Greeks on the other side denying it We ought therefore saith he to prove this from some other things which are there more clearly delivered Which he afterwards performeth and indeed in my Judgment very Learnedly and Happily proving this Doubtful Point out of other Passages that are more Clear And this was the Judgment of this Great Person which will not give any offence to those of the Church of Rome because it came from one that was of their Side Neither do I see what could have been spoken more rationally And indeed this is the Course that is observed in all Sciences whatsoever If thy Adversary doubt of the truth of what thou proposest thou art to prove it by such Maxims as are acknowledged and allowed of
from the Controversies now in hand p. 8. III. The Writings which go under the names of the Fathers are not all truly such but are a great part of them Supposititious and Forged either long since or of later times p. 11. IV. Those of the Writings of the Fathers which are Legitimate have been in many places corrupted by Time Ignorance and Fraud both Pious and Malitious both in the Former and Later Ages p. 34. V. The Writings of the Fathers are hard to be understood by reason of the Languages and Idioms they wrote in the Manner of their Writing which is for the most part incumbred with Figures and Rhetorical Flourishes and nice Logical Subtilties and the like and also by reason of the Termes which they for the most part used-in a far different sense from what they now bear p. 69. VI. When we meet with an Opinion clearly delivered in the Writings of any of the Fathers we must not from hence conclude that the said Father held that Opinion seeing that we often find them speaking those things which themselves have not believed whether it be when they report the opinion of some other without naming the persons as they frequently do in their Commentaries or in disputing against an Adversary in which kind of Writing they take liberty to say one thing and believe another or whether it be that they concealed their own private Opinion purposely as they have done in their Homilies meerly in compliance to such a part of their Auditory p. 100. VII Supposing that we are well assured that a Father hath clearly delivered his Opinion in any Point we ought notwithstanding to enquire into the time wherein he wrote that Opinion of his whether it were before or after he arrived to Ripeness of Judgment For we see that they have sometimes retracted in their old age what they had written when they were young p. 117. VIII But suppose that a Father hath constantly held one Opinion it will nevertheless concern us to inquire How he held it and in what degree of Belief whether as Necessary or Probable only and then again in what degree of Necessity or of Probability he placed it Beliefs being not all equally either Necessary or Probable p. 123. IX After all this we are to examine whether or no he deliver this as his own particular Opinion only for this cannot necessarily bind our faith or whether he deliver it as the Opinion of the Church in his time p. 136. X. In the next place it will concern us to enquire whether he deliver it for the Judgment of the Church Vniversal or of some particular Church only those things which have been received by the Major Part having not always notwithstanding been received by some particular parts of the Church p. â—4â— XI And after all this whether you take the Church for the Collective Body of Christians or only for the body of the Clergy or Pastors it is notwithstanding impossible to know what the Belief of the whole Church in any Age hath been for as much as it frequently so falls out that the Opinions of these Men who have appeared to the World have not only not been received but on the contrary have also been Opposed and Contradicted by thâ—se Members of the same Church who have not at all appeared to the World who notwithstanding both for their Learning and Piety deserved perhaps to have had as much or more Esteem and Authority than the other p. 151. The Second Book THE second Reason namely that neither the Testimony nor the Preaching of the Fathers is altogether Infallible is proved by these following Considerations p. 1. II. The Fathers themselves witness against themselves that they are not to be believed Absolutely and upon their own bare word p. 11. III. It appeareth plainly by their Manner of Writing that they never intended that their Writings should be our Judges p. 40. IV. They have erred in divers Points not only Singly but also many of them together p. 60. V. They have very much contradicted one the other and have maintained different Opinions in Matters of great Importance p. 112. VI. Lastly to say the truth neither Party alloweth them for Judges but reject them boldly and without any scruple both the one and the other maintaining divers things which the Fathers were ignorant of and rejecting others which were maintained by them the Protestants in those things where the Fathers have gone either against or besides the Scripture the Church of Rome where they oppose against them the Resolutions of their Popes or of Councils Seeing therefore that both Parties attribute the Supream Authority to some other Judges the Fathers though perhaps their Resolutions should be grounded on Divine Authority could never be able notwithstanding to clear their Differences and to reconcile the two Parties p. 126. So that it followeth from hence that our Controversies are to be decided by some other means than that of their Writings and that we are to observe the same Method in Religion that we do in all other Sciences making use of those things wherein we all agree for the clearing of those wherein we differ comparing exactly the Conclusions of both Parties with their Principles which are to be acknowledged and granted by both sides whether it be in Reason or Divine Revelation And as for the Fathers we ought to read them carefully and heedfully and especially without any prejudication on either side searching their Writings for their Opinions and not for our own arguing Negatively concerning those things which we find not in them rather then Affirmatively that is to say holding all those Articles for suspected which are not found in them it being a thing altogether Improbable that those Worthies of the Church were Ignorant of any of the Necessary and Principal Points of Faith but yet not presently receiving for an Infallible Truth whatsoever is found in them for as much as being but Men though Saints they may sometimes have erred either out of pure Ignorance or else perhaps out of Passion which they have not been always wholly free from as appeareth clearly by those Books of theirs which are left Vs The Testimonies of the Lord Faulkland Lord Digby Doctor Taylor Doctor Rivet concerning this learned Book Reader THE Translation of this Tract hath been oft attempted and oftner deâ—â—â—ed by many Noble Personages of this and other Nations among others by Sir Lucius Cary late Lord Viscount Faulkland who with his dear Friend Mr. Chillingworth made very much use of it in all their Writings against the Romanists But the Papers of that learned Nobleman wherein this Translation was half finisht were long since involved in the common loss Those few which have escaped it and the press make a very honourable mention of this Monsieur whose acquaintance the said Lord was wont to say was worth a Voyage to Paris Pag. 202. of his Reply he hath these words This observation of mine hath been confirmed by consideration of
and that there can be no great danger either in putting in or at least in leaving any thing in that may yield assistance to it whatsoever the issue of either of these may in the end prove to be And hence hath it come to pass that we have so many ancient Forgeries and also so many strange stories of Miracles and of Visions many taking a delight in feigning as S. Hierome says great Combats which they have had with Devils in Desarts all which things are meerly fabulous in themselves and acknowledged too to be so by the most intelligent of them yet notwithstanding are tolerated and sometimes also recommended to them forasmuch as they account them useful for the setling or encreasing either of the Faith or Devotion of the People What will you say if at this day there are some even of those Men who make profession of being the greatest haters in the world of these subtilties who cannot nevertheless put forth any Book but they must needs be lopping off or falsifying whatsoever doth not wholly agree with the Doctrine they hold for true fearing as themselves say lest such things coming to the eye of the simple Common People might infect them and possess their Heads with new Fancies So firmly hath this Opinion been of old rooted in the Nature of Man Now I will not here dispute whether this proceeding of theirs be lawful or not I shall only say by the way That in my judgment it is a very great shame for the Truth to be established or defended by such falsifications and shifts as if it had not sufficient Weapons both defensive and offensive of its own but that it must be fain to borrow of its Adversary and it is besides a very dangerous course too because that the discovery of any one Cheat oftentimes renders their Cause who practised it wholly suspected insomuch that by making use of such slights as these in Christian Religion either for the gaining to you or confirming the faith of some of the simpler People it is to be feared that you may give distaste to the more understanding sort and so by this means at length may chance to lose the Affections of the simpler sort too But whatsoever this course of Cheating be either in it self or in its Consequences it is sufficient for my purpose that it hath been a long time practised in the Church in matters of Religion for proof whereof I shall here produce some Instances The Hereticks have always been accused of using this Artifice but I shall not here set down what Alterations have been made by the Ancientest of them even in the Scriptures themselves If you would have a Taste of this Practice of theirs go but to Tertullian and Epiphanius and you shall there see how Marcion had clipped and altered the Gospel of S. Luke and those Epistles of S. Paul which he allowed to be such Neither have those other of the Ages following been any whit more conscientious in this Particular as may appear by those Complaints made by Ruffinus in his Exposition upon the Apostle's Creed and in another Treatise written by him purposely on this Subject which is indeed contradicted by S. Hierome but onely in his Hypothesis as to what concerned Origen but not absolutely in his Thesis and by the like Complaints of S. Cyril and divers others of the Ancients and among the Moderns by those very Persons also who have put forth the General Councils at Rome who inform us in the Preface to the First Volume That Time and the Fraud of the Hereticks have been the cause that the Acts of the said Councils have not come to our hands neither entire nor pure and sincere that which hath remained of them and before they grievously bewail that we should be thus deprived of so great and so precious a Treasure Now this Testimony of theirs to me is worth a thousand others seeing it comes from such who in my opinion are evidently interested to speak quite otherwise For if the Church of Rome who is the pretended Mistress and Trustee of the Faith hath suffered any part of the Councils to perish and be lost which is esteemed by them as the Code of the Church what then may the rest have suffered also And what may not the Hereticks and Schismaticks have been able to do And if all these Evidences have been altered by their Fraud how shall we be able by them to come to the knowledge of the Sense and Judgment of the Ancients I confess I am very much amaâ—ed to see these Men make so much reckoning of the Acts of the Councils and to make such grievous Complaints against the Hereticks for having suppressed some of them For if these things are of such use why then do they themselves keep from us the Acts of the Council of Trent which is the most considerable Council both for them and their Party that hath been held in the Christian Church these eight hundred years If it be a Crime in the Hereticks to have kept from us these precious Jewels why are not they afraid lest the blame which they lay on others may chance to return upon themselves But doubtless there is something in the Business that renders these Cases different and I confess I wonder they publish it not the simpler sort for want of being otherwise informed thinking perhaps though it may be without cause that the reason why the Acts of this last Council are kept so close from them is because they know that the publishing of them would be either prejudicial or at least unprofitable to the Greatness of the Church of Rome And they also again on the other side conceive that in those other Acts which they say have been suppressed by the Hereticks there were wonderful Matters to be found for the greater advancing and supporting of the Church of Rome Whatsoever the Reason be I cannot but commend the Ingenuity of these Men who notwithstanding their Interest which seemeth to engage them to the contrary have yet nevertheless confessed That the Councils which we have at this day are neither entire nor uncorrupted But let us now examine whether or no even the Orthodox Party themselves have not also contributed something to this Alteration of the Writings of the Primitive Church Epiphanius reports That in the true and most correct Copies of S. Luke it was written that Jesus Christ wept and that this passage had been alledged by S. Irenaeus but that the Catholicks had blotted out this Word fearing that the Hereticks might abuse it Whether this Relation be true or false I must relie upon the Credit of the Author But this I shall say That it seems to me a clear Argument That these Ancient Catholicks would have made no great scruple of blotting out of the Writings of the Fathers any Word that they found to contradict their own Opinions and Judgment and that with the same Liberty that they inform us
Word and God In which words he seems to intimate That Jesus Christ hath appointed some one of the Angels to hear our Prayers and that by him we ought to present them to God Whereas Origen says the clean contrary namely That we ought to send up to God who is above all things every of our Demands Prayers and Requests by the great High-Priest the Living Word and God who is above all the Angels You have a sufficient discovery also of the Affections of Translators who many times make their Authors speak more than they meant in Jo. Christophorson's Translation of the Ecclesiastical Historians as likewise in most of the Translators of these later Times excepting only some very few of the more moderate sort But we shall not need to insist any longer on this Particular which hath been sufficiently proved already by the several Parties of both Sides discovering the falseness of their Adversaries Translations as every Man must needs know that is any whit conversant in these kind of Writings where you shall meet with nothing more frequent than these mutual Reprehensions of each other Now in the midst of such distraction and contrariety of Judgments how can a Man possibly assure himself that he hath the true sense and meaning of the Fathers unless he hear them speak in their own Language and have it from their own mouth I shall here lay down then for a most sure Ground and undeniable Maxime That to be able rightly to apprehend the Judgment and Sense of the Fathers it is necessary that we first understand the Language they write in and that too not slightly and superficially but exactly and fully there being in all Languages certain peculiar Terms and Idioms familiarly used by the Lâ—arned which no Man shall ever be able to understand throughly and clearly that hath but a superficial knowledge of the said Languages and hath not dived even to the depth and very bottom of them If you would see how necessary the knowledge of an Authors Language is and how prejudâ—cial the want of it do but turn to that Passage of Theodoret where speaking of the Eucharist he saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Protestants and all their Advâ—râ—â—ries before Cardinal Perron interpret this place thus The Mystical Symbols after Consecration do not leave their proper Nature for they continue in their first Substance Figure and Form Now what can be said more expresly against Transubstantiation But yet the above-named Cardinal having it seems consulted those old Friends of his among the Grammarians who had heretofore taught him that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signified to smoak or evaporate will needs perswade us that this Passage is to be interpreted otherwise namely That the Signs in the Eucharist continue in the figure and form of their first Substance which would be tacitely and indirectly to allow Transubstantiation Now it is true that this Exposition is contrary not onely to the Design and purpose of the Author but to the usual way of speaking also among the Greeks But in case you had not exact skill in the Language how should you be able to judge of this Interpretation especially seeing it put upon you with so much confidence and unparallel'd boldness according to the ordinary custom of this Doctor who never affirms or recommends any thing to us more confidently than when it is most doubtful and uncertain It is out of the same rare and unheard of Grammar that the said Cardinal hath elsewhere taken upon him to give us that notable Corrâ—ction of his of the Inscription of an Epistle written by the Emperour Constantine to Miltiaâ—es Bishop of Rome set down in the Tenth Boâ—k of Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History reading it thus Constantinus Augustus to Miltiades Bishop of the Romans wisheth long time or long opportunity whereas all Copies both Manuscript and Printed have it Constantinus Augustus to Miltiades Bishop of the Romans and to Mark fearing I suppose lest some might accuse the Emperour of not understanding himself aright in making this Mark here Companion to the Pope who in all things ought to march without a Copesmate I should never have done if I should but go about to set down all those other Passages in which he hath used the same Arts in wresting the words of the Ancients to a wrong sense which otherwise would seem to make for the Protestants whence it may plainly appear how necessary the knowledge of the Languages is for the right understanding of the Sense of the Fathers So that in my judgment the Result of all this will clearly be that as we have before said it is a difficult thing to come to the right understanding of them For who knows not what pains it will cost a Man to attain to a perfect knowledge of these two Tongues what Parts are necessarily required in this case A happy Memory a lively Conceit good bringing up continual pains-taking much and diligent Reading and the like all which things do very rarely meet in any one Person But yet the truth of this Assertion of ours is clearly proved also by the continual Debates and Disputes of those who though they have referred the Judgment of their Differences to the Decision of the Fathers â—o yet noâ—â—â—thstanding still implead each other at their Bâ—â— and cannot possibly be brought to any Agreement 〈…〉 Many of the Writers of the Church of Râ—me objâ—ct â—gainst the Protestants as an Argument of the obscuâ—â—y of the Scriptures the Controversies that are beâ—â—â—xâ— themselves and the Lutherans against the Calvinists touching the Eucharist and of the Calvinists against the Lutherans and the Arminians in the Point of Predestinaâ—ion If this Argument of theirs be of any force at all who sees not that it clearly proves that which we maintain in this particular For the Greeks and the Latius who both of them make profession of submitting themselves to the Authority of the Fathers and to plead all their Causes before them have not as yet been able to come to any Agreement Do but observe the Passages betwixt these two at the Council of Florence where the strongest and ablest Champions on both Sides were brought into the Lists how they wrangled out whole Sessions about the Exposition of a certain short Passage in the Council at Ephesus and some other the like out of Epiphanius S. Basil and others and how after all their Disputes how clearly and powerfully soever each Party made their vaunts the Business was carried on their Side they have yet left us the Sense of the Fathers much more dark and obscure than it was before their Contestations having but rendred the Business much more perplexed each Side having indeed very much appearance of Reason in what they urge against their Adversaries but very little solidity in what they have said severally for themselves Certainly the Latins who are thought to have had the better Cause of the two and who upon a certain
that this Epistle was not truly Pope Julius his but had been put upon him by the false dealing of the Hereticks The case was the same with these Ancient Fathers as it is with a Pilot of a Ship who is to stear his Vessel betwixt two Rocks one only whereof he hath discovered the other lying hid under water so that taking no other care save only to avoid the danger which he seeth before his eyes he very easily falleth into that other which he never so much as suspected so that if he split not his Vessel upon it and so be utterly cast away he will very hardly however avoid receiving a brush at least by it Thus these Fathers saw indeed the Rock of Paulus Samosatenus his Doctrine and that of Nestorius but did not at all observe that of Arius or of Eutyches which lay yet under water and concealed and so imploying their utmost endeavours to avoid the danger of the two former which they then only feared they have very hardly escaped falling into or at least touching very near upon the two latter which they then had no thought of at all Do but imagine then how wâ—rily and carefully it concerneth us to walk amidst these Disputes of the Ancients which are so beset with Thorns and with how much judgment we are to distinguish betwixt what things are Principal and what but Accidental only betwixt the Cause and the Means and betwixt the Excess or Defect in their Expressions and their True sense and meaning and then tell me whether you think it reasonable or not that two or three words only which may perhaps accidentally have fallen from them in their Disputations either against the Valentinians and Marcionites or against the Nestorians or Eutychists should be taken as their Definitive Sentences upon such Points as are now controverted amongst us whether touching Free-will or the Properties of the Body of Christ and the nature of the Eucharist But before we close up this matter we are to take notice that the changing of Customs both Civil and Ecclesiastical especially and the variation of Words in their signification do not a little contribute to this Difficulty of understanding the Writings of the Fathers Who knoweth not and indeed who confesseth not both on the one side and on the other that the outward Face of the World and even of the Church it self too is in a manner wholly changed I speak not here of the Doctrine but only of the upper Garment as I may call it and the outward part of the Church Where is the Ancient Discipline What is become of the rigid and severe Rules of those Ancient Times Where are those so mysterious Ceremonies in Baptism and in the Administration of the Eucharist Where are those Customs then used in the Ordination of the Clergy All these things are now quite forgotten and buried the Church by little and little having apparelled it self in other Colours and in another different Garb. The Books then of the Ancients being full of Allusions to thâ—se things which we are in a manner now wholly ignorant of it must necessarily follow from hence that it will be a hard matter for us to guess at their meaning in any such Passages But yet there ariseth much more confusion out of the words they used which we have still retained though in a different signification We have indeed these words Pope Patriarch Mass Oblation Station Procession Mortal Sins Penance Confession Satisfaction Merit Indulgence as the Ancients had and make use of an infinite number of the like Terms but understand them all in a sense almost as far different from theirs as our Age is removed from theirs Just in like manner as of old under the Roman Emperours the names of Offices and of things for a long time continued the same that had been in use in the time of the old Republick but with a sense clear different from what they had formerly born Thus when we light upon any Passage in the Ancients where the Bishop of Rome is called Papa or Pope we presently begin to fancy him with all his Pontificalibus about him and all the Glory at this day belonging to this Name not bating him so much as his Guard of Switzens and his Light-Horses whereas they that are but indifferently versed in these Books know that the name Papa or Pope was given to every Bishop So likewise when we meet with the word exomologesis or Confession we presently fancy a man down upon his knees before his Confessor shriving himself before him in private of all the sins he hath committed The word Mass likewise makes us prick up our ears as if even from those Ancient Times the whole Liturgy and all the Ceremonies used at the Celebration of the Eucharist had been the very same that they are at this day whereas the Learned of both Parties acknowledge that these Names have since that time lost very much of their old and acquired new significations But this which hath been said is enough if not more than needed for the clearing this Point touching the obscurity in the Writings of the Fathers so that we shall here conclude what we proposed at the beginning namely that it is not so easie a matter as people may imagine to discover by their Writings what the sense of the Ancient Church hath been touching the Points at this day controverted amongst Us. CHAP. VI. Reason VI. That the Fathers oftentimes conceal their own Private Opinions and speak those things which themselves believed not whether it be when they report the Opinion of some others without naming the persons as they frequently do in their Commentaries or in disputing against an Adversary where they make use of whatsoever they can or else whether they have done so in compliance to their Auditory as may be observed in their Homilies THE Writings of the Fathers are for the most part of three sorts that is they are either Commentaries upon the Holy Scriptures or Homilies delivered before the People or else they are Polemical Discourses and Disputations with the Hereticks Now we have formerly seen how much their Ornaments of Rhetorick have darkned and rendred their sense obscure in their Writings of the first and second sort and what their Heats of Disputation and Logical Wranglings have caused in those of the later Let us now see if having drawn the Expressions of the Fathers out of these thick Clouds and attained to a clear and perfect understanding of the sense of them we may be able at length to rest assured that we have discovered what their opinions have been I confess I could heartily wish that it were so but considering what they have themselves informed us concerning the nature and manner of their Writings I am much afraid that we neither may nor indeed ought to reckon our selves in any sure condition even then when we are upon these very Terms For as concerning their Commentaries which we have often occasion to consult upon
corrected by the Hypocrisie or false shew of Reprehension and that by this means both the one and the other might be saved whilst the one who stood up for Circumcision followed S. Peter and those other who refused Circumcision applaud and are taken with S. Paul's Liberty S. Augustine utterly disliking this Exposition of S. Hierome wrote unto him in his ordinary grave and meek way modestly declaring the Reasons why he could not assent unto it which Epistles of his are yet extant The other answers him a thousand strange things but particularly he there protesteth That he will not warrant for sound whatever shall be found in that Book of his And to shew that he doth not do this without good reason he setteth down a certain Passage out of his Preface to it which is very well worth our Consideration For after he hath named the Writings of Origen Didymus Apollinaris Theodorus Herâ—clas Eusebius Emisseâ—us Alexander the Heretick and others he adds That I may therefore plainly tell the truth I confess that I have read all these Authors and collecting together as much as I could in my memory I presently called for a Scribe to whom I dictated either my own Conceptions or those of other Men without remembring either the Order or the Words sometimes or the Sense Do but think now with your self whether or no this be not an excellent rare way of Commenting upon the Scriptures and very well worthy both to be esteemed and imitated by us He then turneth his Speech to S. Augustine saying If therefore thou lightedst upon any thing in my Exposition which was worthy of reprehension it would have stood better with thy Learning to have consulted the Greek Authors themselves and to have seen whether what I have written be to be found in them or not and if not then to have condemned it as my own private Opinion And he elsewhere gives the same answer to Ruffinus who upbraideth him for some absurd Passages in his Commentaries upon the Prophet Daniel Now according to this reckoning if we would know whether or no what we meet with in his Commentaries be his own proper Sense or not we must first turn over the Books of all these ancient Greeks that is to say we must do that which is now impossible to be done seeing that the Writings of the greatest part of them are utterly lost and must not attribute any thing to him as his proper Opinion how clearly and expresly soever it be delivered unless we are first able to make it appear that it is not to be found in any of those Authors out of whose Writings he hath patched up his Commentaries For if any one of them be found to have delivered any thing you here meet with you are to take notice that it belongeth to that Author S. Hierome in this case having been onely his Transcriber or at most but his Translator So that you may be able perhaps by the reading of Books in this manner collected to judge whether the Fathers have had the skill to make a handsom and artificial Connexion and Digestion of those things which they took out of so many several Authors or not but whether or no they believed all that they have set down in their Books you will be no more able to discover than you can judge what Belief any Man is of by the Books he transcribeth or can guess at the Opinions of an Interpreter by the Books he translateth Whence we may conclude that testimonies brought out of such Books as these are of little or no force at all either for or against us And this seemeth to have been the Opinion of Cardinal Bellarmine also where to a certain Objection brought out of one of S. Hierome's Books he makes this Answer That the Author in that place speaketh according to the Opinion of others as he often doth in his Commentaries upon the Epistle to the Ephesians and in other places The like course hath Cardinal Perron taken where the Protestants have urged against the Church of Rome the Authority of S. Hilary touching the Canon of the Scriptures of the Old Testament confidently answering That the Notes cited out of that place of S. Hilary are not his but Origen's in his Commentary upon the First Psalm part of whose Words he had transcribed and put into his own Prologue upon the Psalms and yet S. Hilary neither so much as nameth Origen nor yet gives us any intimation at all whether we are to receive what is there spoken touching the Scriptures as from Origen or from himself And the ground of this Answer of his is taken from what S. Hierome hath testified in divers places namely that S. Hilary hath transcribed the greatest part of his Commentaries out of the said Origen Now if we but rightly consider the account which S. Hierome hath given as we shewed before of all Commentaries in general how can we have any assurance whether that which the Fathers deliver in these kind of Writings be their own proper Opinion or only some other Man 's transcribed And if we can have no assurance hereof how can we then account them of any force at all either for or against us So that it is most evident that this Method which the Fathers have observed in their Expositions of the Scriptures must needs render the things themselves very doubtful how clearly and expresly soever they have delivered themselves But hath it not concerned them to be more careful in their Homilies or Sermons and to deliver nothing there save only what hath been their own proper Opinion and Belief May we not at least in this particular rest assured that they have spoken nothing but from their very soul and that their Tongues have vented here their own Opinions only and not those of other Men Certainly in all reason they should not have uttered any thing in this Sacred Place from whence they taught their People save what they conceived to have been most true And yet besides what we have formerly noted as to this particular namely that they did not always speak out the whole truth but concealed something of it as not so fit for the ears either of the Pagans or of the weaker sort of Christians Cardinal Perron that great and curious Inquirer into all the Customs of the Ancients hath informed us that in regard of the aforesaid Considerations they have sometimes gone further yet For in expounding the Scriptures to the People where the Catechumeni were present if by chance they fell upon any Passage where the Sacraments were spoken of that they might not discover these Mysteries they would then make bold to wrest the Text a little and instead of giving them the true and real Interpretation of the Place which they themselves knew to be such they would only present their Auditory with an Allegorical and Symbolical and as this Cardinal saith an Accidental and Collateral one only to give them some
true than doth the Faith of the Former depend upon a Cause which is not Infallible and consequently is Null Now these Different opinions are reconciled by saying that the Church accounting neither of these Beliefs as necessary to Faith a Man is not presently an Heretick for holding the False opinion of the two nor yet is he to be counted Orthodox meerly for holding the True one Seeing therefore that this Particular concerns the Communion of the Church and our Salvation also which dependeth thereon it will behove us to know certainly in what Degree the Ancients placed those Articles which are at this day so eagerly pressed upon the Protestants and whether they held them in the same or in a Higher or else in a Lower Degree of Necessity than they are now maintained by the Church of Rome For unless this be made very clear the Protestants though they should confess which yet they do not that the Fathers did indeed really believe the same might yet alledge for themselves that notwithstanding all this they are not bound to believe the same for as much as all opinions in Religion are not presently Obligatory and such as all Men are bound to believe seeing that there are some that are indeed necessary but some others that are not so They will answer likewise that these opinions are like to those at this day controverted betwixt the Dominicans and the Franciscans or to those other Points debated betwixt the Sorbonists and the Regulars wherein every one is permitted to hold what he pleaseth They will urge for themselves the Determination of the Council of Trent which in express terms distinguisheth betwixt the opinions of the Fathers where having thundred out an Anathema against all those that should maintain that the Administring of the Eucharist was necessary for little Infants they further declare that this Thunderbolt extended not to those Antient Fathers who gave the Communion to little Infants for as much as they maintained and practised this being moved thereunto upon Probable Reasons only and not accounting it necessary to Salvation Seeing therefore that some Errors which have been condemned by Councils may be maintained in such a certain Degree without incurring thereby the danger of their Thunderbolts by the same reason a Man may be ignorant of and even deny some Truths also without running the hazard of being Anathematized Who can assure us may the Protestants further add that the Articles which we reject are not of this kind and such as that though perhaps they may be true it is nevertheless lawful for us not to believe My opinion therefore is that there is no Man now that seeth not that it concerns the Doctors of the Roman Church if they mean to convince their Adversaries out of the Fathers first to make it appear unto them that the Antients held the said Points not only as True but as Necessary also and in the very same Degree of Necessity that they now hold them Now this must needs prove a business of most extream Difficulty and much greater here than in any of the other particulars before proposed And I shall alledge no other Argument for the proof of this than that very Decree we cited before where the Council of Trent hath declared that the Fathers did not Administer the Communion to Infants out of any opinion that it was necessary to Salvation but did it upon some other probable Reasons only For we have not only very good reason to doubt whether the Fathers held this opinion and followed this practice as probable only but it seemeth besides with all Reverence to that Council be it spoken to appear evidently enough out of their Writings that they did hold it as Necessary For do but hear the Fathers themselves and St. Augustine in the first place who saith That the Churches of Christ hold by an Antient and as I conceive saith he an Apostolical Tradition that without Baptism and the Communicating of the Lords Table no Man can come either into the Kingdom of God or unto Salvation or Eternal Life And afterwards having as he conceives proved this out of the Scriptures he addeth further Seeing therefore that no Man can hope either for Eternal Life or Salvation without Baptism and the Body and Blood of Christ thus doth he call the Sacrament of the Eucharist according to the language of his Time as hath been proved by so many Divine Testimonies in vain is it promised to Infants without the participating of these And some three Chapters before treating of those words of our Saviour in S. John Except you eat my Flesh and drink my Blood you can have no Life in you which words he understandeth both there an◠〈◊〉 where of the Communicating of the Eâ—charist he makes a long Discourse to prove that they extend as well to little Infants as to people of riper Ag◠〈◊〉 there any man saith he that dares affirm that thiâ— spâ—ech belongeth not to little 〈…〉 oâ— that they may have life in them without participating of this Body and of this Bloâ—d And this is this constant manner of speaking in eight or ten other Passages in his Works which are too long to be here inserted Pope Innocent I his Contemporany speaketh also after the same manner proving against the Pelagians that Baptism is Necessary for Infants to render them capable of Eternal Life for as much as without Baptism they cannot Communicate of the Eâ—charist which is necessary to Salvation S. Cyprian also long before them spake to the very same sense and this Maldonate affirmeth to have been the opinion of the six first Centuries These things considered we must needs think one of these two things following namely that either the Council of Trent by its Declaration hath made that which hath been to be as if it never had been which is a Power that the Poet Agathâ— in Aristotle would not allow to God himself or else that the Fathers of this Council either out of forgetfulness or otherwise mistook themselves in this account of theirs touching the opinion of the Ancient Church in this particular which in my judgment is the more favourable and the more probable Conceit of the two and if so I shall then desire no more For if these great Personages who were chosen with so much Care and Circumspection out of all parts of Christendom and sent to Trent to deliberate upon and determine a Business of the greatest Importance in the World and were directed by the Legats of so exquisite a Wisdom and digested their Decrees with a judgment so Ripe and slow-paced as that there is scarcely any one word in them but hath its Design if after all this I say these Men should be â—ound to have erred in this their Inquiry in affirming that the Fathers held only as Probable that which they evidently appear to have held as Necessary If Pope Pius VI. with his whole Consistory consisting of
the precepts of Rhetorick but sure I am that it agreeth ill enough with S. Hierom's rule which we gave you a little before But let us now observe out of some other more clear and express passages of his what the judgment of this great Aristarchus and Censor of Antiquity hath been touching this Point I know saith he writing to Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria that I place the Apostles in a distinct rank from all other Writers for as for them they always speak truth but as for those other they erre sometimes like Men as they were What could he have said more expresly in confirmation of our Assertion before laid down There are others saith he both Greeks and Latins who have erred also in Points of Faith whose Names I need not here set down lest I might seem to defend Origen by the Errors of others rather than by his own Worth How then can we confide in them unless we examine their Opinions by their Reasons I shall faith the same Author read Origen as I read others because I find he hath erred in like manner as they have done And in another place speaking in general of Ecclesiastical Writers that is of those which We now call Fathers and of the Faults and Errors that are found in their Books It may be saith he that either they have erred out of meer ignorance or else that they wrote in some other Sense than we understand them or that their Writings have by degrees been corrupted through the ignorance of the Transcribers or else before the appearing of that impudent Devil Arius in the World they let some things fall from them innocently and not so warily as they might have done and such as can hardly escape the Cavils of wrangling Spirits Which Passage of his is a very excellent and remarkable one and containeth in it a brief yet a clear and full Justification of the greatest part of what we have hitherto delivered in this our Discourse Do but think therefore with how much circumspection we are to read and to weigh these Authors and how careful we ought to be in examining in their Books whether there be not either some fault committed by the Transcriber or some obscurity in the Expression or some negligence in the Conception or lastly some error in the Proposition In another place having set down the Opinions As for their Expositions he resuseth them openly whensoever they do not please him Thus doth he find fault with the Exposition which is given by the greatest part of the Fathers of the Word Israel which they will have to signifie A Man seeing God Notwithstanding that those who interpret it thus are Persons of very great both Authority and Eloquence and whose very shadow saith he in sufficient to bear us down yet cannot we chuse but follow the Authority of the Scriptures and of the Angel and of God who gave this Name of Israel rather than the Power of any Secular Eloquence how great soever it be And in his CXLVI Epistle written to Pope Damasus he saith That there are some who not considering the Text conceive Superstitiously rather than Truly that these words in the beginning of the XLIV Psalm Eâ—â—ctavit cor meum verbum bonum My heart is inditing a good matter are spoken in the Person of the Father And yet the greatest part of those who lived in the time of Arius and a little after him understood these words in the same sense It was likewise the General Opinion in a manner of all Men That Adam was buried upon Mount Calvary and in the very same place where our Saviour Christ was crucified And yet S. Hierome rejecteth this Opinion and which is more he makes himself merry with it without any scruple at all So likewise there were some among the afore-named Ancient Fathers who out of a Pious Affection which they bare to S. Peter maintained That he denied not God but Man and that the sense of the Words of his Denial is I know not him to be a Man for I know that he is God The Intelligent Reader saith the same S. Hierome will easily perceive how idle and frivolous a thing this is to accuse our Saviour as guilty of a Lie by excusing his Apostle For if S. Peter did not deny him our Saviour must necessarily then have lied when he said unto him Verily I say unto thee c. He takes the same liberty also in reprehending S. Ambrose who understands by Gog spoken of in the Prophet Ezechiel the Nation of the Gothes neither do those other Fathers scape his Lash who pleasing themselves too much with their Allegories take Bosra in Isaiah for the Flesh whereas it signifies a Fortress I might here produce very many the like Passages but these few shall now serve as a Taste onely For who seeth not by this time that these Holy Men took not the Fathers who went before them for the Judges or Arbitrators touching the Opinions of the Church and that they did not receive their Testimonies and Depositions as Oracles but reserved the Right which S. Augustine alloweth to every Man of examining them by the Rule of Reason and of the Scripture Neither are we to take any notice at all of S. Hierome when he seems to except out of this number the Writings of Athanasius and of S. Hilary writing to Laeta and telling her That her Daughter Paula might walk securely and with firm footing by the Epistles of the one and the Books of the other and therefore he counselleth her to take delight in these Mens Writings forasmuch as in their Books the Piety of Faith wavereth not And as for all other Authors she may read them but rather to pass her judgment upon them than to follow them For first of all although perhaps there should be some Piece of a Father that should have no Error at all in it as questionless there are many such yet would not this render the Authority of the same Infallible How many such Books are there even of the Moderns wherein neither the one Party nor the other hath been able to discover any the least Error in matter of Faith And yet I suppose no Man will presently conclude from hence that we ought to admit of these Authors as Judges of our Faith A Man may there find of several Authors touching a certain Question that had been proposed unto him that so the Reader might make choice of the best he gives this Reason of his so doing Because saith he we ought not according to the Example of Pythagoras his Scholars to have an eye to the Prejudicated Opinion of the Proposer but rather the Reason of the Thing Proposed Which words of his do sufficiently confirm the Sense which we have formerly given of that Passage of his in the Preface to his second Commentary upon Hosea He presently afterwards adds My purpose is
to read the Ancients to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good and not to depart from the Faith of the Catholick Church according to the Rule which he hath commended unto us in his LXXVI Epistle where he adviseth us to read Origen Tertullian Novatus Arnobius Apollinaris and some other of the Ecclesiastical Writers but with this caution that we should make choice of that which is good but take heed of embracing that which is not so according to the Apostle who bids us prove all things but hold fast onely that which is good And this is the course he constantly takes censuring with the greatest Liberty that may be the Opinions and Expositions of all those who went before him He gives you freely his Judgment of every one of them affirming That Cyprian scarcely touched the Scriptures at all that Victorinus was not able to express his own Conceptions that Lactantius is not so happy in his Endeavours of proving our Religion as he is in overthrowing that of others that Arnobius is very uneven and confused and too luxuriant that S. Hilary is too swelling and incumbred with too long Periods I shall not here set before you what he saith of Origen Theodorus Apollinaris and of the Chiliasts whose professed Enemy he hath declared himself and whom he reproveth very sharply upon all Occasions whensoever they come in his way and yet himself confesseth them all to have been Men of very great Parts giving even Origen himself who is the most dangerous Writer of them all this Testimony That none but the ignorant can deny but that next to the Apostles he was one of the greatest Masters of the Church But that I may not meddle with any but such whose Names have never been cried down in the Church do but mark how he deals with Rhetitius Augustudunensis an Ecclesiastical Author There are saith he an infinite number of things in his Commentaries which in my judgment shew very mean and poor and a little after He seemeth to have had so ill an Opinion of others as to have a conceit that no Man was able to judge of his Faults He taketh the same liberty also in rejecting their Opinions and Expositions and sometimes not without passing upon them very tart Girds too He justifies the Truth of the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament and findeth an infinite number of Faults in the Translation of the LXX against almost the general consent not onely of the more Ancient Writers but also of those too who lived in his own time who all esteemed it as a Divine Piece He scoffs at the conceit of those Men who believed that the LXX Interpreters being put severally into Seventy distinct Cells were inspired from above in the Translation of the Bible Let them keep saith he speaking of his own Backbiters by way of scorn with all my heart in the Seventy Cells of the Alexandrian Pharos for fear they should lose their Sails of their Ships and be forced to bewail the loss of their Cordage perhaps the same Truth as S. Augustine saith a little before but it will not be of equal Authority with that of the Canonical Books Besides as Cardinal Baronius hath observed this last Passage of S. Hierome ought to be understood onely in the Point touching the Holy Trinity concerning which there were at that time great Disputes betwixt the Catholicks and the Arians for otherwise if his words be taken in a General sense they will be found to be false as to S. Hilaries particular who hath had his failings in some certain things as we shall see hereafter In a word although S. Hierome were to be understood as speaking in a General sense as his words indeed seem to bear yet might the same thing possibly happen to him here which he hath observed hath oftentimes befallen to others namely to be mistaken in his Judgment For we are not to imagine that he would have us have a greater Opinion of him than he himself hath of other Men. And S. Augustine told him as we have before shewed that he did not believe that he expected Men should judge any otherwise of him And I suppose we may very safely keep to S. Augustine's Judgment and believe with him that S. Hierome had never any intention that we should receive all his Positions as Infallible Truths but rather that he would have us to read and examine his Writings with the same freedom that we do those of other Men. And if we have no mind to take S. Augustine's word in this Particular let us yet take S. Hierome's own who in his second Commentary upon the Prophet Habakkuk saith And thus have I delivered unto you my sense in brief but if any one produce that which is more exact and true take his Exposition rather than mine And so likewise upon the Prophet Zephaniah he saith We have now done our utmost endeavour in giving an Allegorical Exposition of the Text but if any other can bring that which is more Probable and agreeable to Reason than that which we have delivered let the Reader be swaied by his Authority rather than by ours And in another place he speaketh to the same purpose in these words This we have delivered according to the utmost of our poor Ability and have given you a short touch of the divers Opinions both of our own Men and of the Jews yet if any Man can give me a better and truer Account of these Things I shall be very ready to embrace the same Is this now I would fain ask to bind up our Tongues and our Belief so as that we have no further liberty of refusing what he hath once laid down before us or of searching into the Reasons and Grounds of his Opinions No let us rather make use of that Liberty which they all allow us let us hearken to them but as they themselves advise us when what they deliver is grounded upon Reason and upon the Scriptures If they had not made use of this Caution in the reading of those Authors who went before them the Christian Faith had now been wholly stuffed up with the Dreams of an Origen or an Apollinaris or some other the like Authors But neither the Excellency of the Doctrine nor yet the Resplendency of their Holy Life which no Man can deny to have shone forth very eminently in the Primitive Fathers were able so to dazle the eyes of those that came after them as that they could not distinguish betwixt that which was Sound and True in their Writings and that which was Trivial and False Let not therefore the Excellency of those who came after them hinder us either from passing by or even rejecting their Opinions when we find them built upon weak Foundations You see they confess themselves that this may very possibly be we should therefore be left utterly inexcusable if after this their
so charitable Admonition we should still believe all they say without examining any thing I take it for a Favour saith S. Ambrose when any one that readeth my Writings giveth me an account of what Doubts he there meeteth withal First of all because I may be deceived in those very things which I know And besides many things escape us and some things sound otherwise to some than perhaps they do to me I shall further here desire the Reader to take notice how careful the Ancients were in advising those who lived in their own time to take a strict Examination of their Words As for example where Origen adviseth That his Auditors should prove whatsoever he delivered and that they should be attentive and receive the Grace of the Spirit from whom proceedeth the discerning of Spirits that so as good Bankers they might diligently observe when their Pastor deceiveth them and when he preacheth unto them that which is Pious and True Cyrill likewise in his Fourth Catechesis hath these Words Believe me not saith he in whatsoever I shall simply deliver unless thou find the things which I shall speak demonstrated out of the Holy Scriptures For the Conservation and Establishment of our Faith is not grounded upon the Eloquence of Language but rather upon the Proofs that are brought out of the Divine Scriptures If therefore they would not have those who heard them speak vivâ voce to believe them in any thing unless they had demonstrated the Truth of it out of the Scriptures how much less would they have us now receive without this Demonstration those Opinions which we meet with in their Books which are not onely mute but corrupted also and altered so much and so many several ways as we have formerly shewed Certainly when I see these Holy men on one side crying out unto us that they are Men subject to Errours and that therefore we ought to consider and examine what they deliver and not take it all for Oracle and then on the other side set before my eyes these Worthy Maxims of the Ages following to wit That their Doctrine is the Law of the Church Vniversal and That we are bound to follow it not only according to the sense but according to the Bare Words also and that we are bound to hold all that they have written even to the lest tittle This representation I say makes me call to mind the History of Paul and Barnabas to whom the Lycaonians would needs render Divine Honour notwithstanding all the resistance these Holy men were able to make who could not forbear to rend their garments through the Indignation they were filled with to see that service paid to themselves which was due to the Divine Majesty alone running in amongst them and crying out aloud Sirs why do ye these things We also are Men of like passions with you For seeing that there is none but God whose word is certainly and necessarily True and seeing that on the other side the Word whereon we ground and build our Faith ought to be such who seeth not that it is all one as to invest Man with the Glory which is due to God alone and to place him in a manner in his Seat if we make His Word the Rule and Foundation of our Faith and the Judge of our Differences concerning It I am therefore stedfastly of this Opinion that if these Holy men could now behold from their blessed Mansions where they now live in bliss on high with their Lord and Saviour what things are acted here below they would be very much offended with this False Honour which men confer upon them much against their Wills and would take it as a very great injury offer'd them seeing that they cannot receive this Honour but to the Prejudice and Diminution of the Glory of their Redeemer whom they love a thousand times more than Themselves Or if from out their Sepulchres where the Reliques of their Mortality are now laid up they could but make us hear their sacred voice they would I am very confident most sharply reprove us for this Abuse and would cry out in the words of S. Paul Sirs why do ye these things We also were Men of like Passions with you But yet what need is there either of ransacking their Sepulchers and disturbing their Sacred Ashes or of calling down their Spirits from Heaven seeing that their voice resoundeth loud enough and is heard so plainly in these very Books of theirs which we so imprudently place in that seat which is only due to the Word of God We have heard what the Judgment was of S. Augustine and of S. Hierome the two most eminent Persons in the Western Church touching this Particular let us not then be all afraid having such examples to follow to speak freely our Opinions But now before we go any further I conceive it will be necessary that we answer an Objection that may be brought against us which is that Athanasius S. Cyrill and S. Augustine himself also often times cite the Fathers Besides what some have observed that the Fathers seldom entered into these Lists but when they were provoked by their Adversaries I add further that when we maintain that the Authority of the Fathers is not a sufficient Medium to prove an Article of Faith by we do not thereby presently forbid either the reading or the citing of them The Fathers often quote the Writings of the Learned Heathens the Oracles of the Sibylls and Passages out of the Apocryphal Books Did they therefore think that theâ—e Books were of sufficient Authority to ground an Article of Faith upon God forbid we should entertain so ill an Opinion of them Their Faith was grounded upon the Word of God But yet to evidence the Truth more fully they searched into Humane Records and by this Inquiry made it appear that the Light of the Truth revealed unto Them had in some degree shot its beams also even into the Schools of Men how Close and Shady soever they had been But if they should have produced no other but Humane Authority they would never have been able to have brought over any one person to the Faith But after they had received by Divine Revelation the Matter of our Faith it was very wisely done of them in the next place to prove not the Truth but the Clearness of It by these little Sparks which shot forth their light in the Spirits of Men. And for some the like Reason did S. Augustine Athanasius Cyrill and many other of them make use of Allegations out of the Fathers For after that each of these had grounded upon the Authority of Divine Revelation the Necessity and Efficacy of Grace the Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father and the Union of the Two Natures in Christ they then fell to producing of several Passages out of those Learned Men who had lived before Them to let men see that this Truth was so clear in
Vincentius should have cleared by this excellent course of his some Point or other which had been controverted he must have thanked the Fire the Water the Moths or the Worms for having spared those Authors which he made use of and for having consumed all those other that wrote in favour of the Adverse Party for otherwise he should have been an Heretick And if we should decide our Differences in Matters of Faith after this manner we should do in a manner as he did who gave Judgment upon the Suits of Law that came before him by the Chances he threw with Three Dice Do but imagine now what an endless labour it would be for a Man either to go and heap up together and run over all the Authors that ever have written one with another or else to distinguish them into their several Ages they wrote in and to examine them by Companies And do but imagine again what satisfaction a Man should be able to get from hence and where we should be in case we should find as it is possible it may sometimes so fall out as we shall shew hereafter that the Sense and Judgment of this Greatest Part should prove to be either contrary to or perhaps besides the Sense and Meaning either of the Scriptures or of the Church And again how senseless a thing were it to make the Suffrages of Equal Authority of Persons that are so Unequal themselves either in respect of their Merit Learning Holy Life and Soundness of Faith and that a Rheticius whom S. Hierome censured so hardly a little before should be reckoned Equal with S. Augustine or a Philastrius be as good a Man as S. Hierome There is perhaps among the Fathers such a One whose Judgment is of more weight than a Hundred others and yet forsooth will this Man have us to make our Doubles and our Sons to go for as much as our Crowns and Pistols And lastly What reason in the World is there that although perhaps the Persons themselves were equal in all things we should yet make their Words also of equal force which are oftentimes of very different and unequal Authority some of them having been uttered as it were before the Bar the Books having been produced both Parties heard and the whole Cause througly examined and the other perhaps having been cast forth by their Authors at all adventure as it were either in their Chamber or else in Discourse walking abroad or else perhaps by the By while they were treating of some other Matter But our Friend here to prevent in some sort this later Inconvenience requires that the Word of this Greatest Part which he will allow to be fit to be Authorised must have been uttered by them Clearly Often and Constantly and then and not till then doth he allow them for Certain and Undoubted Truth And now you see he is got into another Hold. For I would very fain be informed how it is possible for us to know whether these Fathers which we thus have called out of their Graves to give us their Judgment touching the Controversies in Religion affirmed those things which we find in their Writings Clearly Often and Constantly or not If in this his pretended Council of Doctors you will not allow the Right of giving their Suffrage to those of whom it may be doubted that they either expressed themselves obscurely or gave in their Testimonies but seldom or have but weakly maintained their own Opinion I pray you tell me whom shall we have left at last to be the Judges in the Decision of our present Controversies As for the Apostles Creed and the Determinations of the Four First General Councils which are assented unto and approved of by all the Protestant Party I confess we may by this way of Trial allow them as Competent Judges in these Matters But as for all the rest it is evident by what hath been delivered in the First Part of this Treatise that we can never admit of them if they are thus to be Qualified and to have all the afore-mentioned Conditions We may therefore very well conclude That the Expedient here proposed by this Author is either Impossible or else not so safe to be put in practice so that I shall rather approve of S. Augustine's Judgment touching the Authority of the Fathers I should not have insisted so long upon the Examination of this Proposal of his had I not seen it to have been in so high Esteem with many Men and indeed with some of the Learned too For in earnest after S. Augustine and S. Hierome have delivered their Judgments it matters not much what this Man shall have believed to the contrary But yet before we finish this Point let us a little examine this Author both by S. Augustine's and by his own Rule before laid down S. Augustine thinks us not bound to believe the Saying of any Author except he can prove the Truth of it unto us either by the Canonical Scriptures or else by some Probable Reason What Text of Scripture or what Reason hath this Man alledged to prove the Truth of what he hath proposed So that whatsoever his Opinion be he must not take it amiss if according to the Advice and Practice of S. Augustine we take leave to dissent from him especially considering we have so many Reasons to reject That which he without any Reason given would have us to receive And thus you see that according to the Judgment of S. Augustine the Saying of this Vincentius Lirinensis although you should reckon him among the most Eminent of the Fathers doth not at all oblige us to give our Assent unto it And yet you will find that his Testimony would be yet of much less force and weight if you but examine the Man by his own Rule For according to him we are not to hearken to the Fathers except they both Lived and Taught Holily and Wisely even unto the hour of their Death Who is there now that will pass his word for him that he himself was one of this number Who shall assure us that he was not either an Heretick himself or at least a Favourer of Hereticks For is it not evident enough that he favoured the Semipelagians who at that time swarmed in France railing against the very Name and Memory of S. Augustine and who were condemned by the whole Church Who may not easily see this by his manner of Discourse in his Commonitorium tending this way where he seems to intimate unto us under hand That Prosper and Hilary had unjustly slandered them and that Pope Celestine who also wrote against them had been misinformed And may not he also be strongly suspected to have been the Author of those Objections made against Prosper which are called Objectiones Vincentianae Vincent's Objections The great Commendations also which are given him by Gennadius very much confirm this suspicion it being clear that this Author was of the same Sect
as appears plainly by the great account he makes of Ruffinus a Priest of Aquileia who was the Grand Patriarch of the Pelagians saying of him That he was not the least part of the Doctors of the Church Tacitely also taxing S. Hierome his Adversary and calling him A Malicious Slanderer as also by the Judgment which he gives of S. Augustine who was Flagellum Pelagianorum The Scourge of the Pelagians passing this insolent Censure upon him and saying That in speaking so much it had hapned to him what the Holy Ghost hath said by Solomon to wit That in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin So that I cannot sufficiently wonder at the Boldness of Cardinal Perron who when he hath any occasion of alledging this Author ordinarily calleth him Saint Vincent de Lerins Saint Vincent of Lerius thus by a very ill example Canonizing a Person who was strongly suspected to have been an Heretick Since therefore he was such a one why should any one think it strange that he should so much cry up the Judgment and Opinions of the Fathers seeing that there is no Man but knows that the Pelagians and Semipelagians had the better of it by the citing Their Authorities and laboured by this means to bear down S. Augustine's Name and all this forsooth only by reason that the Greatest Part of the Fathers who lived before Pelagius his time had delivered themselves with less caution than they might have done touching those Points which were by him afterwards brought into Question and many times too in such strange Expressions as will very hardly be reconciled to any Orthodox Sense Yet notwithstanding should we allow this Vincentius to have been a Person who was thus Qualified and to have had all those Conditions which he requireth in a Man to render him capable of being hearkned to in this Particular what weight I would fain know ought this Proposal of his to carry with it which yet is not found any where in the mouth of any of all those Fathers who went before him who is also so strongly contradicted both by S. Augustine and S. Hierome as we have seen in those Passages before alledged out of them and who besides is full of Obscllre Passages and Inexplicable Ambiguities So that Hoâ—â— Leâ—â—ned and Holy a Man soever he might be wheâ—heâ— he were a Bishop Confessor or Martyr which yet he was not this Proposal of his according to his own Maxims ought to be excluded from the Authority of Publick Determinations and to be accounted of only as his own Particular Private Opinion Let us therefore in this Business rather follow the Judgment of S. Augustine which is grounded upon evident Reason a Person whose Authority whenever it shall be questioned will be found to be Incomparably Greater than Vincentius Lirinensis his and let us not henceforth give any Credit to any Sayings or Opinions of the Fathers save onely such the Truth whereof they shall have made appear Evidently unto us either by the Canonical Books of Scripture or else by some Probable Reason CHAP. III. Reason III. That the Fathers have Written after such a manner as that it is clear that when they Wrote they had no intention of being our Judges in Matters of Religion Some few Examples of their Mistakes and Oversights WHosoever will but take the pains diligently to consider the Fathers manner of Writing he will not desire any other Testimony for the proof of this Truth For the very Form of their Writings witnesseth clear enough that in the greatest part of them they had no intention of delivering such Definitive Sentences as were to be Obliging meerly by the Single Authority of the Mouth which uttered them but their purpose onely was rather to communicate unto Us their own Meditations upon divers Points of our Religion leaving us free to our own Liberty of Examining them and to approve or reject the same according as we saw good And thus hath S. Hierome expresly delivered his Mind as we shewed before where he speaks of the Nature and Manner of Commentaries upon the Holy Scriptures And certainly if they had had any other Design or Intention they would never have troubled themselves as they ordinarily do in gathering together the several Opinions of other Men. This Diligence I confess is Laudable in a Teacher but it would be very Ridiculous in a Judge Their Stile also should then be quite of another kind than now it is and those Obscurities which we have observed in the Former Part of this Treatise proceeding either from the Rhetorical Ornaments or the Logical Subtilties which they made use of should have no place here For what use would there be of any such thing in pronouncing a Sentence of Judgment or indeed in giving ones bare Testimony only to any thing But that which makes the Truth of this our Assertion more clearly to appear than all the rest is the little care and diligence that they took in composing the greatest part of these Writings of theirs which we now would so very fain have to be the Rules of our Faith If these men who were endued with such exquisite sanctity had had any intention of prescribing to Posterity a true and perfect Tenor and Rule of Faith is it probable that they would have gone carelesly to work in a business of so great importance Would they not rather have gone upon it with their Eyes opened their Judgments setled their Thoughts fixed and every Faculty of their Soul attentively bent upon the business in hand for fear lest that in a business of so great weight as this something might chance to fall from them not so becoming their own Wisdom or so suitable to the Peoples advantage A Judge that had but never so little Conscience would not otherwise give sentence concerning the Oxen the Field and the Gutters of Titius and Moevius How much more is the same Gravity and Deliberation requisite here where the Question is touching the Faith the Souls and the Eternal Salvation of all Mankind It were clearly therefore the greatest injury that could be offered to these Holy Persons to imagine that they would have taken upon them to have passed Judgment in so weighty a Cause as this but with the greatest care and attention that could be Now it is very evident on the other side that in very many of those Writings of theirs which have come down to our hands there seemeth to be very much negligence or to speak a little more tenderly of the business security at least both in the Invention Method and Elocutioâ— If therefore we tender the Reputation either of their Honesty or Wisdom we ought rather to say that their design in these Books of theirs was not to pronounce definitively upon this Particular neither are their Writings judiciary Sentences or final Judgments but are rather Discourses of a far different Nature occasioned by divers emergent Occurrences and are more or less elaborate according
than a Thousand and Twenty five or Thirty years or thereabout So likewise when Epiphanius writeth that Moses was but Thirty years old when he brought forth the Children of Israel out of Egypt whereas the Scriptures clearly testifie that he was Fourscore years of age And so where he affirmeth That the taking of the City of Jerusalem happened sixty five years after the Passion of our Saviour Christ And truly the Chronology of all the Ancients is generally very strange and for the most part very far wide of the truth as hath been observed and also proved at large by all the Moderns as Scaliger Petavius and others But these matters are so very nice and ticklish that oftentimes the most diligent Inquirers into them may chance to mistake I shall therefore forbear to insist any longer upon this Particular and shall now lay before you some examples of another nature and such as shall most evidently discover the security and negligence of these Authors Justin Martyr speaking of the Translation of the LXX Interpreters saith that Ptolemy King of Egypt sent his Ambassadors to Herod King of Judaea Whereas the truth of the story is that he sent to Eleazar the High Priest Two hundred forty and odd years before Herod came to be King of Judaea Epiphanius tells us in two or three places that the Peripateticks and Pythagoreans were one and the same Sect of Heathen Philosophers which yet were as much different one from the other as the Stoicks and Epicureans were as every Child knoweth The same Author confidently affirmeth also though contrary to the saith of all Ancient History that the several Sects and Opinion in Philosophy sprung from some certain Mysteries brought to Athens by Orpheus and others and that the Stoicks believed the Immortality and Transmigration of Souls both which are as false the one as the other and likewise that Nebuchadonosor sent a Colony into the Country about Samaria after the taking of Hierusalem whereas in truth it was Salmanassar who had so done long before the others time What can you think of him when you find him mistaken in such things as happened not many years before he was born as namely when he says that Arius died before the Council of Nice and when he relates the story of Meletius and his Schism clean otherwise than the Truth of it was Justin Martyr likewise assures us for a certain Truth that in the Reign of the Emperour Claudius there was erected at Rome a Statue to Simon Magus in the River Tiber betwixt the two Bridges with this Inscription TO THE HOLY GOD SIMON whereas as our Learned Criticks now inform us it was only an Inscription to one of the Pagan Dâ—miâ—gods in these Words â—SEMONI DEO SANCO which this Good Father mistook instead of Semoni reading Simoni and for Sanoo reading Sancto Eusebius saith and St. Hierome divers times repeateth it after him that Josephus the Jewish Historian reporteth that at the time of our Saviours Passion the Heavenly Powers forsook the Temple of Hierusalem and that there was a great noise heard and a voice saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us depart hence and yet nevertheless the Truth of the story is that Josephus reported this to have happened at the same time when the City was besieged that is to say above Thirty five years after the Death of our Saviour The same Authors and in a manner all others after them have constantly delivered as a certain Truth that Philo Judaeus in that Book of his entituled De Vitâ Contemplativâ describeth unto us the manner of Life of the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Monks and yet that Book of Philo which we have at this day under this Title proclaimeth loud enough that he there speaks not of the Christians but of the Essenes who were one of the three Sects among the Jews as hath been observed by Scaliger and by divers others after him We have touched how St. Ambrose without giving us any Account of his Reasons why he doth so understands by Gog and Magog mentioned in Ezckiel the Nation of the Goths who in his time over-run all Christendom He tells us in another place with the very same confidence that Zacharias the father of John Baptist was the High Priest of the Jews which yet Baronius hath clearly proved to be false Thus you see how little the Later Writers are beholding to those that went before them as to this Particular Epiphanius affirmeth that Pison which was one of the Four Rivers that watered the Terrestrial Paradise mentioned by Moses was the same that the Indians and Ethiopians call Ganges and the Greeks Indus which River passing at length through Ethiopia discharged it self at last into the Ocean at Cales What wonderful strange Geography have we got here if at least we may call it by this name which jumbleth together the East and the West and confoundeth and maketh all one Places which are very near a whole Hemisphere distant from each other St. Basil also who is otherwise an Excellent Author hath mistaken likewise though not so much the course of the River Danubius for he hath only made it to spring out of the Pyrenean Mountains The speaking of these Rivers puts me in mind that all the Fathers do unanimously understand by Gihon one of the Rivers of Paradise the River Nilus which hath so deceived Cardinal Perron also as that he so delivers it to us as the express Text of the Scriptures by this means making it guilty of a manifest absurdity how innocent soever in it self it be and free from intending any such thing seeing that it is evident that neither in the Hebrew Greek nor Latine Text it is ever said that the River Nile watered the Land of Paradise it being only a Dream of the Fathers that one of these Rivers of Paradise must needs have been the Nile though this Fancy of theirs as Scaliger makes it appear and as it is confessed by †Petavius also is built upon no ground or reason at all Neither hath their Philosophy also been sometimes less wonderful than their Geography as for example when Tertullian maintains that Plants are endued both with sense and understanding too So likewise where Epiphanius holds that it is possible for a Dead Man to return to Life again without the Reunion of the Soul to the Body As also where S. Ambrose saith That the Sun to the end he may allay his extreme Heat refresheth himself with the Nourishment which he draweth up from the Waters and that from hence it is that we sometimes see him appear as it were all over wet and dropping with Dew And so again where you have some of them entertaining the Doctrine of the Spherical Figure of the Heavens with very great scorn and maintaining That it is onely as it were an Arch which is
were And whereas it is objected against us by Jovinian saith he that God in the Second Benediction permitted the Eating of Flesh which he did not in the First he is to take notice that in like manner as the liberty to put away a mans wife according to the words of our Saviour was not granted from the beginning but was afterwards permitted to mankind for the hardness of their heart in like manner was the Eating of Flesh unknown until the Flood but after the Flood the Sinews and Virulency of Flesh were thrust into our Mouths as the Quails were given to the People of Israel murmuring in the Wilderness Certainly Divorce is a thing which is evil in it self and is contrary to the Creation of the Man and of the Woman and to Marriage also which was instituted by God in Paradise as is divinely proved by our Saviour disputing with the Jews touching this Point If therefore the Eating of Flesh be like it this also is evil and unlawful in it self Marcion and the Manichees could hardly have said more than this In another place he seems to be of Opinion that our Saviour hath utterly forbidden the use of an Oath to Christians which piece of Doctrine is evidently contrary both to the Scriptures and to Reason It will be a hard matter also to clear him from the suspicion of that Errour some Traces whereof are apparently to be seen in St. Cyprian touching the Efficacy of the Sacraments as we have observed before For do but hear what he says The Priests also saith he who serve at the Eucharist and distribute the Blood of our Saviour to his People commit a great impiety against the Law of Christ in thinking that the Eucharist is made by the Words and not by the Life of the Person that Consecrates it and that the Solemn Prayers only of the Priests are necessary and not their Merits also Touching the state of the Blessed after the Resurrection he says neither but very faintly that they shall live without eating What then will you say these be his own words shall we then eat after the Resurrection I know not that I confess for we find no such thing written Yet if I were to speak my Opinion I do not think we shall eat And to give our Judgment in general of this Author I do not know whether or no we may allow for good and perfectly conformable to the Discipline of our Saviour-Christ the course which he ordinarily observes in his Disputations wresting the words of his Adversaries quite besides the Authors intention and framing to himself such a sense as is not at all to be found in them and then fiercely encountring this Giant of his own making mixing withal strange abusive language and biting Girds and the like tart expressions borrowed from profane Authors in which kind of Learning he was indeed very excellent St. Augustine in the Contestation that he had with him said that the Holy Ceremonies of the Jews though they were abolished by Jesus Christ might yet notwithstanding in the beginning of Christianity be observed by those who had been brought up in them from their Infancy even after they had believed in Jesus Christ provided only that they did not put their trust in them because that that Salvation which was signified by these Holy Ceremonies was imparted unto us by Jesus Christ which Doctrine of his is both godly and consonant also to what is urged by St. Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians and elsewhere touching Christian Liberty by which we both may and ought to use or abstain from such things as are in themselves indifferent according as shall be requisite for the Edification of our Neighbour Now St. Hierome here will needs make him believe that his meaning is that all those who believed among the Jews were subject to the Law and that the Gentiles were the only People whom the Faith in Christ had exempted from this Yoak And then presently doth he hereupon take occasion to pass as tart and as biting a Jear upon him as he could saying that since it was so that all the Believers among the Jews were bound to observe the Law St. Augustine himself who was the most Eminent Bishop in the whole World should do well to publish this his Opinion and to endeavour to bring over all his fellow Bishops to be of his mind But he had then to deal with an able Adversary and one that knew well enough how to make good his words and to clear them from that Interpretation that the other had put upon them and to overthrow whatsoever he had impertinently urged against him as any may see in that Excellent and Divine Answer of his to St. Hierome touching this Point and the whole substance of his Letter The Case was otherwise betwixt him and Ruffinus for there he grappled with one much below his Match and dealt his blows upon an arrant Wooden Statue one that had scarcely any Reason in what he said and yet much less dexterity in defending himself But the sport of it is to see that after he hath handsomly belaboured and pricked this pitiful thing from head to foot and sometimes till the blood followed he at length protesteth at the end of his first Book that He had spared him for the Love of God and that he had not afforded words to his troubled breast and had set a watch before his mouth according to the Example of the Psalmist And in another place he reads him a long Lecture telling him that they were not to use railing Language in their Disputations nor to leave the Question in hand and to labour to bring in what Accusations they could against each other which are more proper at a Bar than in the Church and fitter to stuff a Lawyers Bill than a Church-mans Papers 'T is true indeed that those who have been galled by him are themselves to blame for as much as He out of his own candid disposition courteously gave them warning himself telling them before-hand that Those that meddle with him had to do with a Horned Beast And yet some perhaps may still very much wonder how it should come to pass that all those Watchings and strict Discipline which he endured in Bethlehem and the Desart of Arabia should not have mortified these Horns to which I have no more to say but this that God by a certain secret and wise Judgment hath suffered these Holy men notwithstanding all those excellent Gifts of Charity Patience and Meekness wherewith they were abundantly endued sometimes to let fall such slips as these upon several particular occasions to let us understand that there is nothing absolutely perfect but God alone all men how accomplished soever they can possibly be carrying always about them some Reliques of Humane Infirmity But however it be this Course of St. Hierome's makes me doubt that he hath dealt no better
with others than he hath with St. Augustine wresting their words much further than he ought to have done But sometimes he goes further yet and speaks even of the Pen-men of the Old and New Testament in so disrespectful a manner as that I am very much unsatisfied with these his doings As for example where he says in plain Terms without any Circumlocution that the Inscription of the Altar at Athens was not expressed in those very words which are delivered by St. Paul in the Acts Chap. 17. TO THE UNKNOWN GOD but in other Terms thus To the Gods of Europe Asia and of Africk to the Vnknown and Foreign Gods So likewise where he tells us and repeats the same too in many several places that St. Paul knew not how to speak nor to make a Discourse hang together and that he makes Soloecisms sometimes and that he knew not how to render an Hyperbaton nor to conclude a Sentence and that he was not able to express his own deep Conceptions in the Greek Tongue and that he had no good utterance but had much ado to deliver his mind And again in another place he tells us that It was not out of modesty but it was the plain naked truth that he told us when the Apostle said of himself that he was Imperitus Sermone Rude in Speech because that the truth is He could not deliver his mind to others in clear and intelligible Language And he says moreover which is yet much worse than all the rest that the Apostle disputing with the Galatians counterfeited ignorance as knowing them to be a dull heavy People and that he had let fâ—ll some such Expressions as might possibly have offended the more intelligent sort of people had he not before hand told them that he spake after the manner of men Whosoever shall have had but the least taste of the force and vigour and of the Candor of the Spirit and Discourse of this Holy Apostle can never see him thus used without being extremely astonished at it especially if he but consider that these kinds of speeches although they had perhaps some Ground which yet they have not must needs scandalize and give offence to the weaker sort of People and therefore ought not to have been uttered without very much Qualification and sweetning of the business St. Augustine I confess is much more discreet in this particular every where testifying as there is very great Reason he should the great Respect he bare to the Authors of the Books of the Holy Scriptures and never speaking of any of them whether it be of their Style or of their Sense but with a singular admiration But as for his own private Opinions and those of other men which he embraceth he is not without his Errours also Such is that harsh Sentence of his which he hath pronounced upon all Infants that dye before Baptism whom he will have not only to be deprived of the Vision of God which is the punishment that the ordinary Opinion of the Church condemns them to but he will further have them to be Tormented in Hell fire wherein he is also followed by Gregorius Armininensis a Famous Doctor in the Schools where he is called by reason of this Rigour of his Tormentum Infantium He maintaineth also that the Eucharist is necessary for little Infants as we have formerly noted to another purpose To which we must also add that other Opinion to which he evidently inclines namely that the Soul is derived from the Father to the Son and is engendred of his Substance as well as the Body and is not immediately Created by God which is the Common Opinion at this day There is no man but knows that He every where attributes to the Angels a Corporeal Nature and also that he conceives against all sense and reason that the whole World was created all in an instant of time and refers the six days space of time wherein the Creation is said to have been perfected to the different degrees of the knowledge of the Angels He believed also with the most of the Ancient Fathers that the Souls of Men departed are shut up into I know not what secret dark Receptacles where they are to remain from the hour of their departure till the Resurrection But we need not trouble our selves any further in proving that he also might erre in matters of Religion seeing that himself hath made so clear and so Authentick a Confession hereof in his Books of his Retractations where he correcteth many things which he had formerly written either besides or against the Truth I must here confess also that in my Opinion it would have added very much to the great and high Esteem which we generally have of his Parts and Worth if he had been more positive and more resolved in the Decision of things which he hath handled for the most part after the manner of the Academicks doubtingly and waveringly all the way insomuch that he leaveth undecided not only whether the Sun and the other Stars be endued with Reason but also whether the World it self be a Living Creature or not He that will but exactly and carefully read the rest of the Fathers may very easily observe in their Writings divers Errours of the like nature and a man shall scarcely meet with any one Father of any Note or Repute from whom some such thing or other hath not escaped As for my own part who have taken upon me this troublesom Business very unwillingly I shall content my self with these few Instances already set down seeing they do in my Judgment make this Business very clear the discovery whereof I have been necessitated to undertake though I wish rather they might have been concealed For seeing that these so eminent Persons who were of the greatest Repute amongst all the Ancients have through Humane Infirmity fallen into such Errors in Point of Faith what ought we to expect from others who come very much behind these both in respect of their Antiquity Learning and Holiness of Life Since Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Cyprian Lactantius Hilary Ambrose Hierome Augustine and Epiphanius that is to say the most Eminent and most Approved Persons that ever were have yet stumbled in many places and have quite fallen in some other what hath Cyril Leo Gregorius Romanus and Damascene done who have come after them and in whom hath appeared both much less Gallantry of Spirit and Sanctity than in the Former Besides if these Men have been mistaken in matters of so great Importance some of them for Instance in the Point touching the Nature of God some touching the Humanity of our Saviour Christ others touching the Quality of our Soul and some touching the State and Condition thereof after Death and touching the Resurrection why for Gods sake must they needs be Infallible when they speak of the Points now debated amongst us Why may
not the same thing have hapned to them in the one that hath so manifestly befallen them in the other It is not very probable as we have said before that they so much as ever thought of our Differences and it is much more improbable that ever they had any intention of being our Judges in the Decision of them as we have before proved But now put the Case that they were acquainted with the Business and that they did intend to clear our Doubts and to give us their Positive Determination touching the same in their Books who shall assure us that they have had better success here than they had in so many other things wherein we have before heard them give their Verdict so utterly against all Justice and Reason He that hath erred touching the Point of the Resurrection is it not possible that he should be in an Errour touching the State of the Soul after this Life He that could be ignorant what the Nature of Christ's Body was must he Necessarily have a Right Judgment touching the Eucharist I do not see what solid Reason of this Difference can possibly be given It cannot proceed but from one of these two Causes neither of which have yet any place here For it happens sometimes that he who is deceived in one Particular hath yet better fortune in another by reason perhaps of his taking more heed to and using more Attention in the Consideration of the Later than he did in the Former or else by reason that one of the Points is easier to be understood than the other For in this Case though his Attention be as great in the one as in the other yet notwithstanding he may perhaps be able to understand the easie one but shall not be able to master the hard one But now neither of these Reasons can be alledged here For why should the Ancients have used less Care and Attention in the Examination of those Points wherein they have erred Or why should they have used more in those Points which are at this day controverted amongst us Are not those Ancient Points of Religion of as great Importance as these Latter Is there less danger in being ignorant touching the Nature of God than touching the Authority of the Pope or touching the State of the Faithful in the Resurrection than touching the Punishment of Souls in Purgatory the Real Qualities of the Body of Christ than the Nature of the Eucharist the Cup of His Passion than the Cup of His Communion Is it more Necessary to Salvation to know Him Sacrificed upon the Altar than Really Suffering upon the Cross Who sees not that these Matters are of equal Importance or if there be any Difference betwixt them that those Points wherein the Fathers have erred are in some sort more Important than those which we now dispute about We shall therefore conclude That if they had had both the one and the other before their eyes they would questionless have used as much Diligence at least and Attention in the Study of the one as of the other and consequently in all probability would have been either as successful or else have erred as much in the one as in the other Neither may it be here objected That those Points wherein they have failed are of more difficulty than those other wherein these Men will needs have them to have been Certainly in the Right for whosoever shall but consider them more narrowly he will find that they are equally both easie and difficult or if there be any difference betwixt them in this Particular those which they have erred in were the easier of the two to have been known For I would fain have any Man tell me what he thinks in his Conscience whether it be not as easie to judge by Reason and by the Scripture whether or no the Saints shall dwell upon the Earth after the Resurrection as it is to determine whether after they are departed this Life they shall go into Purgatory or not Is it a harder matter to know whether the Angels are capable of Carnal Love than it is to judge whether the Pope as he is Pope be Infallible or not And if it be answered here That the Church having already determined these Latter Points and having not declared it self at all touching the other hath taken away all the Difficulty of the one but hath left the other in their former Doubtful State this is to presuppose that which is the main Question or rather it is manifestly False the Church in the First Ages having not that we know of passed any Publick and Authentick Judgment touching the Points now in controversie as we have before already proved Forasmuch therefore as these Holy Men if at least they had any thought at all of these our Quarrels had an equally Clear Insight in these things both according to all Reason and all Probability they would have also come unto them with an equal both Attention and Affection And I believe that there is no Man but sees that if they might erre in the Decision of the one it is altogether as Possible that they might be mistaken also in their Judgment upon the other Now those Books of theirs which are left us proclaim aloud and openly enough as we have seen by those few Testimonies which we have but just now produced out of them that they have erred and sometimes also very grievously touching those First Questions it remaineth therefore that we say That their Judgment is not any whit more Infallible in our present Controversies I could be content that you had demonstrated to any Protestant by clear and undeniable Reasons that S. Hilary in those Passages which are produced out of him for the same purpose hath Positively taught the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and I could be well contented that he should grant you the same which yet perhaps he will never do However after all he hath this still to put you in mind of namely that this is the self-same S. Hilary who in the same Book maintains That the Body of Christ felt no Pain at all upon the Cross And if he were in an Error in this Particular why must he Necessarily be in the Right in the other The Question touching the Body of Christ is of as great Importance as that of the Eucharist and it is besides much more Clearly decided in the Scriptures where there is nothing in the Earth that obligeth in the least degree to fancy any such thing of the Body of Christ as S. Hilary hath done but where on the contrary there seems to be some kind of Ground for the Opinion which he is pretended to have had touching the Eucharist Forasmuch therefore will the Protestant say as that in a thing which is of equal Importance and of much less Difficulty he hath manifestly erred who can assure me that in this Point here which is both less Necessary and more Difficult he may not also
all this it hath not only be called in Question but hath been even utterly condemned also who seeth not that the Consent of many Fathers together although any such thing were to be had upon all the Points now in Debate would yet be no sufficient Argument of the Truth of the same But I shall pass on to the rest We have before heard how that Tertullian St. Cyprian who was both a Bishop and a Martyr Firmilianus Metropolitan of Cappadocia Dionysius Patriarch of Alexandria together with the Synods of Bishops both of Africk Cappadocia Cilicia and Bithynia held all that the Baptism of Hereticks was invalid and null St. Basil who was one of the most Eminent Bishops of the whole Eastern Church held also in a manner the very same Opinion and that a long time too after the Determination of the Council of Nice as appeareth by the Epistle which he wrote to Amphilochius which is also put in among the Publick Decrees of the Church by the Greek Canonists And yet this Opinion is now confessed by all to be Erroneous Many in like manner of the Fathers as namely Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus Lactantius and Africanus believed that our Saviour Christ kept the Feast of the Passeover but once only after his Baptism And yet notwithstanding this Consent of theirs the Opinion is known to be very false as Petavius also testifieth and besides is expresly contrary to the Text of the Gospel I shall not here say any thing of the Opinion of St. Chrysostom St. Hierome St. Basil and the Fathers of the Council held at Constantinople under the Patriarch Flavianus who seem all to have held that an Oath was utterly unlawful for Christians under the New Testament Neither shall I take any notice in this place of that Conceit of Athanasius St. Basil and Methodius as he is cited by John Bishop of Thessalonica who all believed that the Angels had Bodies to whom we may also add as we have shewed before St. Hilary Justin Martyr Tertullian and very many more of the Fathers who would all of them have the Nature of Angels to be such as was capable of the Passions of Carnal love of which number is even St. Augustine also Whosoever should now conclude from hence that this Fancy of theirs which yet is of no small importance is a Truth would he not be as sharply reproved for it by the Romanists as by those of Geneva But I must not forget that besides St. Cyprian St. Augustine and Pope Innocent I. whose Testimonies we have given in before all the rest of the Doctors in a manner of the first Ages maintained that the Eucharist was necessary for young Infants if at least you dare take Maldonat's word who affirms that this Opinion was in great Request in the Church during the first Six Hundred years after our Saviour Christ Cassander also testifieth that he hath often observed this Practice in the Ancients as indeed is also witnessed by Carolus Magnus and by Ludovicus Pius who lived a long time after the Sixth Century both of which assure us that this Custom continued in the West even in their time as they are cited by Cardinal Perron and the Traces of this Custom do yet remain to this day amongst those Christians who are not of the Communion of the Latine Church For Nicolaus Lyranus who lived somewhat above three hundred years since observed That the Greeks accounted the Holy Eucharist so necessary as that they administred it to little Children also as well as Baptism And even in our Fathers time the Patriarch Jeremias speaking in the name of the whole Creek Church said We do not only Baptize little Children but we also make them partakers of the Lords Supper And a little after we account saith he both Sacraments to be necessary to Salvation for all persons namely Baptism and the Holy Communion The Abyssines also make their Children in like manner Communicate of the Holy Eucharist as soon as ever they are Baptized Which are most evident Arguments that this false Opinion touching the Necessity of the Eucharist hath been of old maintained not by three or four of the Fathers only but by the Major part and in a manner by all of them For we do not hear of so much as one among all the Ancient Fathers who rejected it in express Terms as the Council of Trent hath done in these later Times To conclude the Jesuit Pererius hath informed us and indeed the observation is obvious enough to any man that is never so little conversant in the Writings of those Authors who lived before St. Augustines time that all the Greek Fathers and a considerable part also of the Latines were of Opinion that the Cause of Predestination was the Fore sight which God had either of Mens Good Works or else of their Faith either of which Opinions he assures us is manifestly contrary both to the Authority of the Scriptures and also to the Doctrine of St. Paul So that I conceive we may without troubling our selves any further in making this envious Inquiry into the Errours of the Fathers conclude from what hath been already produced that seeing the Fathers have Erred in so many Particulars not on singly but also many of them together Neither the private Opinion of each particular Father nor yet the unanimous Consent of the Major part of them is a sufficient Argument certainly to prove the Truth of those Points which are at this day controverted amongst Us. CHAP. V. Reason V. That the Fathers have strongly contradicted one another and have maintained Different Opinions in Matters of very Great Importance BEssarion a Greek born who was honoured with the Dignity of Cardinal by Pope Eugenius IV. as a Reward of his earnest desires to and the great pains he took in endeavouring a Reconciliation betwixt the Eastern and the Western Church in a Book which he wrote upon this Subject to the Council of Florence will have the whole Difference betwixt the Greek and Latine Churches to be brought before the Judgment Seat of the Fathers And for as much as he knew that unless the Judges did all agree and were of one Opinion the Cause especially in Matters of Religion necessarily remains undecided he strongly labours to prove that he hath all the Fathers consenting not only with him but which is yet much harder to prove that they are all of the same Opinion also among themselves insomuch that he commands us when ever there appeareth any contrariety in their Writings that we should accuse our own ignorance rather than blame them for contradicting each other We may conclude therefore from what is here laid down by this Author who was both as acute and as Learned a man as any was at this Council that to render the Fathers capable of being the Judges of our Controversies it is necessary that they should be
according to the Laws of a legitimate Disputation to alledge for the proof of any Point in debate any other Principles than what they do allow of it is evident that they attribute to the Fathers nothing less than such an Authority For in the Confessing of Faith they declare in the very beginning of it That they hold the Scriptures to be the Rule of their Faith and as for all other Ecclesiastical Writings although they account them to be useful yet nevertheless do they not conceive that a man may safely build any Article of Faith upon them And indeed seeing that they believe as the tell you immediately after that the Scripture containeth all things necessary both for the service of God and the Salvation of mens Souls they have no need of any other Judge and should in vain have recourse to the Writings of the Ancients the Authority whereof how great soever it be is still much less both in it self and also in respect of us than that of the Bible In the next place they seriously profess that their intent is to reform the Christian Doctrine according to this Rule and to retain firmly what Articles of Faith soever are therein delivered and to reject constantly all those that are not there found laid down how high and eminent soever the Authority be that shall resciâ—d the one or establish the other in the Belief of Men. It is not Lawful say they for Men nor yet for the Angels themselves either to add to or to diminish from or to alter it neither may Antiquity nor Customs nor Multitude nor Judgments nor Humane Wisdom nor Definitive Sentences nor Edicts nor Decrees nor Councils nor Visions nor Miracles be brought in opposition to it but on the contrary rather all other things ought to be examined regulated and reformed by it These be their own Words If therefore they will not depart from this their Belief which is as it were the Foundation and Key of their whole Reformation they cannot receive the Fathers who lived in the Second Third and Fourth and so in the following Centuries as Judges nor yet Absolutely and Simply as Witnesses in the Points of Faith For they all hold That that Pure Simple and Holy Doctrine which was taught and preached by the Apostles at the beginning of Christianity and delivered over unto us by themselves in the New Testament hath been by little and little altered and corrupted Time which changeth all things continually mixing among it some Corruption or other sometimes a Jewish or a Heathenish Opinion and sometimes again some Nice Observation otherwhiles some Superstitious Ceremony or other whilst one building upon the Foundation with Stubble another with Hay a third with Wood the Body seems at length by little and little to have become quite another thing than it Anciently was we having in stead of a Palace of Gold and of Silver a House built up of Plaister Stone Wood and Mud and the like pitiful Stuff In like manner say they as we see that Brooks of Water the farther distant they are from their Springs the more Filth they contract and the more doth their Water lose of its first Purity And as a Man the more he groweth in years the more doth that Native Simplicity which appeared in him in his Infancy decay his Body and his Mind are changed and he is so much altered by little and little through Study Art and Cunning that at length he seemeth to be clean another Man In like manner say they hath it â—ared with Christianity And here they presently urge that notable Passage out of S. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians where he speaks of a Great Falling away which then in his time began already to work secretly and insensibly but was not to break forth till a long time after as you see it is in all Great Things whether in Nature or in the Affairs and Occurrences that happen to Mankind which are all conceived and hatched slowly and by degrees and are sometimes a whole Age before they are brought forth Now according to this Hypothesis which as I conceive is equally common to us of France and all other Protestants whatsoever the Doctrine of the Church must Necessarily have suffered some Alteration in the Second Age of Christianity by admitting the Mixture of some New Matter into its Belief and Policy and so likewise in the Third Age some other Corruption must necessarily have got in and so in the Fourth Fifth and the rest that follow the Christian Religion continually losing something of Its Original Purity and Simplicity and on the other side still contracting all along some new Impurities till at length it came to the highest Degree of Corruption in which condition they say they found it and have now at last by the Guidance of the Scriptures restored it to the self-same State wherein it was at the Beginning and have as it were fixed it again upon its true and proper Hinge from whence partly by the Ignorance and partly by the Fraud of Men during the space of so many Ages together it had by little and little been removed This therefore being their Opinion they cannot admit of as the Rule of all their Doctrine the Writings of any of the Fathers who lived from the Apostles time down to ours without betraying and contradicting themselves For according to what they maintain touching the Progress of Corruption in Religion there hath been some Alteration in the Christian Doctrine both in the Second Third and all the following Ages And then again according to what they conceive and believe of their own Reformation their Doctrine is the very same that was in the time of the Apostles as being taken immediately out of their Books If therefore they should examine it by what the Fathers of the Second Century believed there must necessarily be something found in the Doctrine of the Fathers which is not in theirs and the Difference will be much greater if the Comparison be made betwixt it and the Doctrine of the Third Fourth and the following Ages in all which according to their Hypothesis the Corruption hath continually encreased For if their Doctrines were in every respect conformable to each other and had in them neither more nor less the one than the other there must necessarily then follow one of these two things namely That either this Corruption which they presuppose to be in the Belief and Politie of the Church is not that Secret which worked in S. Paul's time or else That their Reformation is not the Pure and Simple Doctrine of the Apostles the Members of which Division are contradictory to those two Positions which as we have said they all of them unanimously maintain So that to avoid this Contradiction it concerns them constantly to persevere in that which they profess is their Belief in their Confession of Faith to wit That there are no Ecclesiastical Writings whatsoever that are of so sufficient Authority as
that a Man may safely build upon them and make them the Judges of Faith and That the Holy Scripture is the onely Rule by which all these things are to be examined And this is that which they All agree upon as far as I have either read or known as any Man may see in the Books of Calvin Bucer Melancthon Luther Beza and the rest who all relie upon the Authority of the Scriptures onely and admit not of any part of the Authority of the Fathers as a sufficient Ground whereon to build any Article of their Belief It is true I confess that some of their First Authors as namely Bucer Peter Martyr and J. Jewell Bishop of Salisbury and in a manner all the Later Writers also alledge the Testimonies of the Fathers but if you but mark it it is onely by way of Confutation and not of Establishing any thing They do it onely to overthrow the Opinions of the Church of Rome and not to strengthen their Own For though they hold That the Doctrine of the Fathers is not so Pure as that of the Apostles yet do they withal believe that it is much Purer than that which is at this day taught by the Church of Rome the Purity of Doctrine having continually decayed and the Impurity of it encreased in such sort as that the further they are removed from the Time of the Apostles the nearer they approach as they say towards the afore-mentioned Falling away spoken of by S. Paul Although the Protestants therefore allow the Scriptures onely for the True Foundation of their Faith yet notwithstanding do they account the Writings of the Fathers to be Necessary also and of good use unto them first of all in the Proving this Decay which they say hath hapned in Christianity and secondly for the making it appear that the Opinions which their Adversaries now maintain were not in those days brought into any Form but were as yet onely in their Seeds As for example Transubstantiation was not as yet an Article of Faith notwithstanding that long ago they did innocently and not foreseeing what the Issue might prove to be believe some certain things out of which being afterwards licked over by passing through divers several Languages Transubstantiation was at length made up So likewise the Supremacy of the Pope had at that time no place in the belief of Men although those small Threds and Root-strings from whence this Vast and Wonderful Power first sprung long since appeared in the World And the like may be said of the greatest part of those other Points which the Protestants will not by any means receive And that this is their Resolution and Sense appears evidently by those many Books which they have written upon this Subject wherein they shew Historically the whole Progress of this Decay in Christianity as well in its Faith as in its Polity and Discipline And truly this their Design seemeth to be very sufficient and satisfactory For seeing that they propose nothing Positively and as an Article of Faith Necessary to Salvation which may not easily and plainly be proved out of the Scripture they have no need to make use of any other Principle for the Demonstration of the Truth Furthermore seeing that those Positive Articles of Faith which they believe are in a manner all of them received and confessed by the Church of Rome as we have said before in the Preface to this Treatise there is no need of troubling a Mans self to prove the same those things which both Parties are agreed upon being never to be proved but are always presupposed in all Disputations Yet notwithstanding if any one have a mind to be informed what the Belief of the Fathers hath been touching the said Articles it is an easie matter for them to make it appear that they also believed all of them as well as themselves as for Example That there is a God a Christ a Salvation a Sacrament of Baptism a Sacrament of the Eucharist and the like Truths the greatest part whereof we have formerly set down in the Beginning of this Discourse And as for those other Articles which are proposed to the World besides all these by the Church of Rome it is sufficient for them that they are able to answer the Arguments which are brought to prove them and to make it by this means appear that they have not any sure Ground at all and consequently neither may nor ought to be received into the Faith of Christians And this is the Vse that the Protestants make of the Fathers evidently making it appear to the World out of them that they did not hold the said Articles as the Church of Rome doth at this day So that their alledging of the Fathers to this purpose onely and indeed their Whole Practice in these Disputes declare evidently enough that they conceive not the Belief of the Church of Rome to be so perfectly and exactly conformable to that of Antiquity especially of the Four or Five First Ages which accords very well with their Hypothesis touching the Corruption of the Christian Doctrine But yet no Man may conclude from hence That they do allow of the Authority of the Fathers as a sufficient Foundation to ground any Article of Faith upon for this is repugnant both to their Doctrine and to the Protestation which they upon all occasions make expresly to the contrary So that I cannot but extremely wonder at the Proceeding of some of our Modern Authors who in their Disputations with the Protestants endeavour to prove the Articles of their Faith by Testimonies brought out of the Fathers whereas the Protestants never go about to make good their own Opinions but onely to overthrow those of their Adversaries by urging the Fathers Testimonies For seeing that they of the Church of Rome maintain That the Church neither hath nor can possibly err in Points of Faith and That its Belief in Matters of Faith hath always been the same that it is at this day it is sufficient for the Protestant to shew by comparing the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers with that of the Church of Rome that there is great Difference betwixt them neither doth this in any wise bind them to believe throughout whatsoever the Fathers believed it being evident according to their Hypothesis that there may have some Errors crept into their Belief though certainly not such nor so gross ones as have been since entertained by the Church in the Ages succeeding We shall conclude therefore That the Protestants acknowledge not neither in the Fathers nor in their Writings any so Absolute Authority as renders them capable of being received by us as our Supreme Judges in Matters of Religion and such from whom no Appeal can be made Whence it will follow That although the Fathers might really perhaps have such an Authority yet notwithstanding could not their Definitive Sentence put an end to any of our Controversies and therefore it concerns the Church of Rome to have
recourse to some other way of Proof if they intend to prevail upon their Adversaries to receive the aforesaid Articles But what will you say now if we make it appear to you that the Church of Rome it self doth not allow that the Fathers have any such Authority I suppose that if we are able to do this there is no Man so perverse as not to confess That this Proceeding of theirs in grounding their Articles of Faith upon the Sayings of the Fathers is not onely very Insufficient but very Inconvenient also For how can it ever be endured that a Man that would perswade you to the Belief of any thing should for that purpose make use of the Testimony of some such Persons as neither you nor himself believe to be Infallibly True and so fit to be trusted Let us now therefore see whether those of the Church of Rome really have themselves so great an Esteem of the Fathers as they would be thought to have by this their Proceeding or not Certainly several of the Learned of that Party have upon divers occasions let us see plain enough that they make no more account of them than the Protestants do For whereas these require That the Authority of the Fathers be grounded upon that of the Scripture and therefore receive nothing that they deliver as Infallibly True unless it be grounded upon the Scripture passing by or rejecting whatsoever they propose either besides or contrary to the Sense of the Scripture the other in like manner will have the Judgment of the Fathers depend upon that of the Church in present being in every Age and approve pass by or condemn all such Opinions of theirs as the Church either approveth passeth by or condemneth So that although they differ in this That the one attributeth the Supremacy to the Scripture and the other to the Present Church of their Age yet notwithstanding they both agree in this That both the one and the other of them equally deprive the Fathers of the same Insomuch that they both of them spend their time unprofitably enough whilst they trouble themselves to plead their Cause before this Inferiour Court where the wrangling and cunning Tricks of the Law have so much place where the Judgments are hard to be got and yet harder to be understood and when all is done are not Supreme but are such as both Parties believe they may lawfully appeal from whereas they might if they pleased let alone these troublesom and useless Beatings about and come at the first before the Supreme Tribunal whether it be that of the Scriptures or of the Church where the Suits are not so long and where the Subtilty of Pleading is of much less use where the Sentences also are more clear and express and which is the Chiefest thing of all such as we cannot appeal from But that we may not be thought to impose this Opinion upon the Church of Rome unjustly let us hear them speak themselves Cardinal Cajetan in his Preface upon the Five Books of Moses spâ—â—king of his own Annotations upon the same saith thus If you chance there to meet with any New Exposition which is agreeable to the Text and not Contrary either to tbe Scriptures or to the Doctrine of the Church although perhaps it differ from that which is given by the whole Current of the Holy Doctors I shall desire the Readers that they would not too hastily reject it but that they would rather censure charitably of it Let them remember to give every man his due there are none but the Authors of the Holy Scriptures alone to whom we attribute such Authority as that we ought to believe whatsoever they have written But as for others saith St. Augustine of how great Sanctity and Learning so ever they may have been I so read them as that I do not believe what they have written because they have written it Let no man therefore reject a new Exposition of any Passage of Scripture under pretence that it is contrary to what the Ancient Doctors gave but let him rather diligently examine the Text and the contexture of the Scripture and if he find that it accordeth well therewith let him praise God who hath not tyed the Exposition of the Scriptures to the sense of the Ancient Doctors but to the whole Scripture it self under the censure of the Catholick Church Melchior Canus Bishop of the Canary Islands having before declared himself according as St. Augustine hath done saying that the Holy Scriptures only are exempt from all error he further adds But there is no man how holy or learned soever he be that is not sometimes deceived that doth not sometimes dote that doth not sometimes slip And then alledging some of those examples which we have before produced he concludes in these words Let us therefore read the Ancient Fathers with all due Reverence yet notwithstanding for as much as they were but Men with Choice and Judgment And a little after he saith That the Fathers sometimes fail and bring forth Monsters besides the ordinary course of Nature And in the same place he saith that To follow the Ancients in all things and to tread every where in their steps as little Cbildren use to do in play is nothing else but to disparage our own Parts and to confess our selves to have neither Judgment nor Skill enough for the searching into the Trutâ— No let us follow them as Guides but not as Masters It is very true saith Ambrosius Catharinus in like manner that the Sayings and Writings of the Fathers have not of themselves any so absolute Authority as that we are bound to assent to them in all things The Jesuits also themselves inform us sufficiently in many places that they do not reckon themselves so tyed to follow the Judgment of the Fathers in all things as people may imagine Petavius in his Annotations upon Epiphanius confesseth freely That the Fathers were men that they had their failings and that we ought not maliciously to search after their Errors that we may lay them open to the world but that we may take the liberty to note them when ever they come in our way to the end that none be deceived by them and that we ought no more to maintain or defend their Errors than we ought to imitate their Vices if at least they had any and again That many things have slipped from them which if they were examined according to the exact Rule of Truth could not be reconciled to any good sense and that Himself hath observed That they are out sufficiently whensoever they speak of such Points of Faith as were not at all called in question in Their time And to say the truth He often rejects both Their Opinions and Their Expositions also and sometimes very Uncivilly too as we have touched before speaking of his Notes upon Epiphanius And in one place the Authority of some of the
Fathers which contradicted His Opinion touching the Exposition of a certain passage in St. Luke being objected against Him He never taking the least notice at all of their Testimonies answers That we ought to Interpret and expound the Fathers by St. Luke rather than St. Luke by Them because that They cannot herein say any thing but what they have received from St. Luke Which in my Judgment was very Judiciously spoken of him and besides Exactly agrees with what St. Augustine said before and which may very well be applied to the greatest part of our Differences in all which the Fathers could not know any thing save what they learnt out of the Scriptures so that Their Testimonies in these Cases ought according to the Opinion of this Learned Jesuit to be expounded and interpreted by the Scriptures and not the Scriptures by Them And this is the language of all the rest of them Maâ—donate who was a most bitter enemy of the Protestants as ever there was any having delivered the Judgment of some of the Fathers who were of Opinion that the sons of Zebedee answered not so rightly when being asked by our Saviour whether or no they were able to drink of his Cup and to be Baptized with the Baptism that he was Baptized with they said unto him that they were able adds That for his part he believes that they answered well And in another place expounding the 2 Verse of the 19 Chapter of St. Matthew having first brought in the Interpretations of divers and indeed in a manner of all the Fathers he says at last That he could not be perswaded to understand the place as they did And here you are to note by the way that the meaning of that place is still controverted at this day How then can this man conceive that the Protestants should think themselves bound necessarily to follow the Judgment of this Major part of the Fathers which themselves make so light of In another place where he hath occasion to speak of those words of our Saviour which are at this day in debate amongst us The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it He is yet much more down-right and says The sense of these words is not rightly given by any Author that I can remember except St. Hilary So likewise upon the 11 Chapter of St. Matthew vers 11. where it is said The least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John Baptist The Opinions of the Fathers upon this passage saith he are very different and to speak my mind freely none of them all pleaseth me In like manner upon the sixth Chapter of St. John Ammonius saith he St. Cyril Theophylact and Euthymius answer that all are not drawn because all are not worthy But this comes too near to Pelagianism Salmeron a famous Jesuit says thus Our Adversaries bring Arguments from the Antiquity of the Fathers which I confess hath always been of more esteem than Novelties I answer That every Age hath yielded unto Antiquity c. But yet we must take liberty to say that the later the Doctors are the more quick sighted they are And again Against all this great multitude which they bring against us we answer saith he out of the Word of God Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment Michael Medina disputing at the Council of Trent touching the superiority of a Bishop above a Priest the Authority of St. Hierome and of St. Augustine being produced against him who both held that the difference betwixt them was not of Divine but only of Positive and Ecclesiastical Right answers before the whole Congregation That it is no marvel that they and some others also of the Fathers fell into this Heresie this point being not as then clearly determined of And that no man may doubt of the honesty of the Historian who relateth this do but hear Bellarmineâ— who testifieth That Medina assureth us that St. Hierome was in this point of Aerius his opinion and that not only be but also St. Ambrose St. Augustine Sedulius Primasius Chrysostome Theodoret Oecumenius and Theophylact maintained all of them the same Heresie We need not bring in here any more Examples do but read their Commentaries their Disputations and their other Discourses and you will find them almost in every page either rejecting or correcting the Fathers But I must not pass by the Testimony of Cornelius Mussus Bishop of Bitonto who indeed is more ingenuous and more clear than all the rest O Rome saith he to whom shall we go for Divine Counsels unless to those persons to whose trust the Dispensation of the Divine Mysteries hath been committed We are therefore to hear him who is to us instead of God in things that concern God as God himself Certainly for my own part that I may speak my mind freely in things that belong to the Mysteries of Faith I had rather believe one single Pope than a thousand Augustines Hieromes or Gregories that I may not speak of Richards Scotusses and Williams For I believe and know that the Pope cannot Erre in matters of Faith because that the Authority and Right of determining all such things as are at all Points of Faith resides in the Pope This Passage may seem to some to be both a very bold and a very indiscreet one but yet whosoever shall but examine the thing seriously and as it is in it self and not as it is in its outward appearances only which are contrived for the most part only to amuse the simpler sort of people I am confident he will find that this Author hath both most ingenuously and most truly given the world an account what Esteem the Church of Rome hath of the Fathers For seeing that these men maintain that the Pope is Infallible and they confess withall that the Fathers may have erred who seeth not that they set the Pope very much above the Fathers Neither may it be here replied that they do not all of them hold that the Pope is Infallible For besides that those among them who do contradict this Opinion are both the least and the least considerable part also of the Church of Rome these very men attribute to the present Church in being in every Age this Right of Infallibility which they will not allow the Pope insomuch that a Council now called together is according to their account of much greater Authority than the ancient Fathers So that there is no more difference at all betwixt these men and the fore-mentioned Italian Bishop save only that whereas they will have the Authority of the ancient Fathers to submit to the whole Body of Modern Bishops assembled in a General Council He will have their Authority to be less than that of a single Pope alone All that can be found fault with in that speech of his is
by him making good that which is Doubtful by that which is Certain and clearing that which is Obscure by that which is Evident And this is the Rule that I conceive we ought to walk by in the Disputes that are betwixt us at this day The Word of God is our Common Book let us therefore search into It for that upon which we may ground our own Belief and by which we may overthrow the Opinion of our Adversary As for example it is there said clearly and expresly That that which our Saviour Christ took at his Last Supper was Bread and herein we All agree But it is not at all there expressed whether this Bread were afterward changed or annihilated or not And this is now the Question in Dispute amongst us We ought therefore according to the Counsel of Scholarius to prove this by some other things which are there delivered clearly And if thou dost this thou hast got the Victory If not I do not at all see why or how thou canst oblige any one to believe it In like manner the Scripture telleth us in as express Terms as may be That our Saviour Christ commanded His Apostles to Take and Eat and to Drink that which He gave them in Celebrating the Eucharist But It doth not at all say that he commanded them to Offer the same in Sacrifice either Then or Afterwards And this is now the Question which it concerns those of the Church of Rome if they will have us believe it to prove by some other things which are clearly and expresly delivered in the Word of God The Scripture in like manner saith expresly That Jesus Christ is the Mediator betwixt God and Man and That He is the Head of the Church and That He purgeth us by His Blood from our Sins Now in all this both Sides are fully agreed But it is not at all there expressed That the Departed Saints are Mediators and That the Pope is the Head of the Church and That our Souls are in part cleansed from their Sins by the Fire of Purgatory And herein lies the Controversie betwixt us The Learned Scholarius his Opinion herein would now be that certainly those who propose these Points as Articles of Faith deduce and collect them from some things which are clearly delivered in the Scriptures for otherwise they are not to be pressed as Truths And although that in matters of Religion or indeed in any other things of Importance a Man may very well be excused for not believing a thing when there appears not any such Reason as may oblige him to believe it yet notwithstanding if those who reject the Articles now debated betwixt us have a mind to go further yet and to prove positively the Falseness of them you see this Author hath laid them down the way by which they are to proceed He accounteth those very absurd that require at your hands that you should shew them all things expresly delivered in the Scripture and this ought principally to be understood of Negative Propositions of which no Science giveth you any certain account forasmuch as to go about to number them all up would be both an infinite and also an unprofitable useless piece of Work It is sufficient to deliver the Positive Truth For as whatsoever rightly followeth thereupon is True in like manner whatsoever clasheth with or contradicteth the same is False wouldst thou therefore demonstrate those Propositions that are pressed upon thee to be False Do but compare them with those things that are clearly and expresly delivered in the Scripture And if thou findest them contrary to any thing there set down receive them not by any means As for example If a Protestant not contenting himself with having answered all those Reasons which are brought to prove that there is such a Place as Purgatory shall yet desire to go further and to make it appear that the Opinion is False he is in this case to have recourse to the Scriptures and to examine it by those things which are there clearly and expresly delivered touching the State of the Soul after it is departed this Life and touching the Cause and Means of the Expiation of our Sins and the like And if the Opinion of Purgatory be found to contradict any thing there delivered then according to Scholarius it ought not to be received by any means But the brevity which we proposed to our selves in this Discourse permitteth us not to prosecute this Point any further As for the Second Question it is no very hard matter to resolve it For although we do not indeed allow any Supreme and Infallible Authority to the Writings of the Fathers yet do we not therefore presently account them Vseless If there were nothing of Vse in Religion saving what was also Infallible we should have but little good of any Humane Writings Those who have written in our own Age or a little before are of no Authority at all either against the one or the other Party Yet notwithstanding do we both read them and also reap much benefit from them How much more advantage then may we make by studying the Writings of the Fathers whose Piety and Learning was for the most part much greater than that of the Moderns S. Augustine believed them not in any thing otherwise than as he found what they delivered to be grounded upon Reason and yet notwithstanding he had them in a very great esteem The like may be said of S. Hierome who had read almost all of them over notwithstanding that he takes liberty sometimes to reprove them something sharply where he finds them not speaking to his mind Though you should deprive them not onely of this Supremacy which yet they never sought after but should rob them also of their Proper Nomes yet notwithstanding would they still be of very great Vse unto us For Books do not therefore profit us because they were of such or such a Man 's Writing but rather because they instruct us in those things that are Good and Honest and keep us out of Errour and make us abhor those things that are Vicious Blot out if you please the Name of S. Augustine out of the Title of those excellent Books of his De Civitate Dei or those other which he wrote De Doctrinâ Christianâ His Writings will instruct you never a whit the less neither will you find any whit the less benefit by them The like may be said of all the rest First of all therefore you shall find in the Fathers very many earnest and zealous Exhortations to Holiness of Life and to the Observation of the Discipline of Jesus Christ Secondly you shall there meet with very strong and solid Proofs of those Fundamental Principles of our Religion touching which we are all agreed and also many excellent things laid open tending to the right understanding of these Mysteries and also of the Scriptures wherein they are contained In this very particular their Authority may be of
good use unto you and may serve as a Probable Argument of the Truth For is it not a wonderful thing to see that so many Great Wits born in so many several Ages during the space of Fifteen hundred years and in so many several Countries being also of so different Tempers and who in other things were of so contrary Opinions should notwithstanding be found all of them to agree so constantly and unanimously in the Fundamentals of Christianity that amidst so great diversity in Worship they all adore one and the same Christ preach one and the same Sanctification hope all of them for one and the same Immortality acknowledge all of them the same Gospels find therein all of them Great and High Mysteries The exquisite Wisdom and the inestimable Beauty it self of the Discipline of Jesus Christ I confess is the most forcible and certain Argument of the Truth of it yet certainly this Consideration also is in my Opinion no small proof of the same For I beseech you what Probability is there that so many Holy Men who were endued as it appeareth by their Writings with such Admirable Parts with so much strength and clearness of Understanding should all of them be so grosly overseen as to set so High a Price and Esteem upon this Discipline as to suffer even to Death for it unless it had in it some certain Heavenly Virtue for to make an Impression in the Souls of Men What likelyhood is there that Seven or Eight Dogs and as many Atheistical Hogs that Bark and Grunt so Sottishly and Confusedly against This Sacred and Venerable Religion should have better luck in lighting upon the Truth than so many Excellent Men who have all so Unanimously born Testimony to the Truth As for Atheists their Vicious Life ought to render their Testimony suspected to every one notwithstanding they may be otherwise as indeed they conceive themselves to be Able Men. For I beseech you what wonder is it if a Whoremaster or a Bawd or an Ambitious person cry down that Discipline that condemneth these Vices to Everlasting Fire that he that drowneth himself every day and at length vomiteth up his Soul in Wine should hate that Religion which forbiddeth Drunkenness upon pain of Damnation The great Reason that these men have to wish that it were False must needs make any man cease to wonder at their pronouncing it to be False To take any notice of what such wretched Things as these say is all one as if you should judge by taking the Opinion of Common Strumpets of the Equity or Injustice of the Laws that enjoin people to live Honest But the case is clean otherwise with these Holy Men who have so Constantly and so Unanimously taught the Truth of the Christian Religion For seeing they were Men born and brought up in the very same Infirmities with other men we cannot doubt but that they also Naturally had strong Inclinations to those vices which our Saviour Christ forbiddeth and very little Affection to those Virtues which He commandeth For as much therefore as notwithstanding all this They have yet all of them Constantly 〈◊〉 intained that His Doctrine is True Their Testimony certainly in this case neither can nor ought in any wise to be suspected So that although They had not any of those Great and Incomparable Advantages of Parts and Learning above the Enemies of Christianity Their â—are word however is much rather to be taken than the Othersâ— seeing that these men are manifestly carried away by the force of their own vile Affections of which the other cannot possibly be suspected Guilty And as for those Differences in Opinion which are sometimes found amongst Them touching some certain Points of Religion some whereof we have formerly set down these thing are so far from taking off any thing from the weight of Their Testimonies as that on the Contrary they add rather very much unto the same For this must acquit their Consenting of all suspicion that some perhaps might have that it proceeded from some Combination or some Correspondence and Mutual Intelligence When thou findst them so disagreeing among themselves touching so many several Points it is an evident Argument that they have not learnt their knowledge from one another nor yet have all agreed upon the same thing by common Deliberation but have all of them collected it out of a serious Examination and Consideration of the things themselves And if we received no other Benefit by the Writings of the Fathers than this yet were this however very much But now that the Benefit and Contentment which we shall receive from this Consideration may not be interrupted and disturbed by our meeting with so many several Private Opinions of theirs we are to take notice that Christianity consisteth not in Subtilties nor in the great number of Articles The Efficacy of them is much more Considerable than the Number A great part of these Points of Faith and the end of all the â—est is Sanctification that is to say A pure worship of God and A Hearty Charity towards Men. Thou maist therefore boldly conclude That Man to be a true Observer of This Discipline that thou shalt find to have a True and Right Sense and Apprehension of these Two Points Though perhaps he be ignorant of those Other that lie rather in Speculation than in Practise thou oughtest not to reject him for that And if being carried away with his own Curiosity or some other reason he chance to err in some of those other Articles bear with him notwithstanding As God forgives us our Sins so doth He also forgive us our Errours The Hay and the Stubble and the Chaffe shall be consumed But yet He that buildeth therewith shall be saved if so be He but hold fast to the Foundation Neither oughtest thou to be troubled if thou now and then meetest with some Ignorant or perhaps some Erroneous Passages in the Fathers touching these Points They are never a whit the less Christians for this and may for all this have been most Faithful Servants of Jesus Christ There is not any Face in the World so Beautiful but that it hath some Speckle or Blemish in it Yet is it not either the less esteemed or the less beloved for this The Natural condition of Mortal Men and Things is to have some Mixture in it of Imperfection But now besides what hath been hitherto said we may in my opinion make another very Considerable Vse of the Fathers For there sometimes arise such troublesome Spirits as will needs broach Doctrines devised of their own Head which are not at all grounded upon any Principle of the Christian Religion I say therefore that the Authority of the Ancients may very Properly and Seasonably be made use of against the Impudence of these Men by shewing that the Fathers were utterly Ignorant of any such Fancies as these men propose to the World And if this can be proved we ought then certainly to conclude that