A Looking Glass for Princes and Peoples Delivered, Preface
The Preface of the Uindication.
REligion is the sacred Bond betweene God and vsus: Papists are better seene by their practise than controvesiesAnd the certaintie of the Trueth professed maketh it stronger. In this litigious age, Contentions hauehave almost buried the Trueth: And the inconsiderate Reader of Controversies, shall neither finde Papists in their diverse and contradictorie opinions, nor himselfe. The best resolution for that certaintie, (next to Scripture) is not so much by the theoricke of controversies, as the practicke of Now-Romes pertinancie: Therefore it shall be a price worth our labour, to consider Rome as now it standeth, and the graduall shifts whereby shee hath driven her selfe to it.
Her present estate is a judiciall hardnesse: In that mostThey are vnderunder a judiciall and hereticall pertinacie. obstinate pertinacie, as Saint aObstinatissima pervicacia Civit l. 2. cap. 1.Austine calleth it, that maketh men defend errour for trueth, and pursue trueth for errour: And all their businesse in wryting, disputing, &c. is that made presumption, (as Patianus bPraesumptionis insanae est Facian ad Sympron.sayeth) whereby they seeke only the victorie in any cause: And like the olde Pagans, they choose rather to obtrude their owne errours impudently, than patiently to heare our Trueth, as Cyprian said to Demetrian: Potius tua impudenter ingerere; quàm nostra patienter audire. As Copernicus in Astronomie, and Paracelsus in Physicke, loathing olde Trueths layed their new Hypotheses, and threw all things by the haire to countenance them; so doe they in their new broached heresies: And like Photinus (c) seeke not to show a reason of their doctrine to their hearers; but draw things that are simply spoken to the colouring of their errour, as Ruffinus Ruff. i… Symbol.speaketh of him, Ut simpliciter ac sideliter dicta, ad argumentum sui dogmatis traheret.
The first Ages delighted to comment Scripture: ButThey hane wedded thē selues to the Trent faith. when Lombard gathered his sentences, their itching ingines loathed Scripture, and commented Lombard: And when Thomas (the floure of the Schoole) had diggested his summes, they were made the Text, for commenting, and reading in Schooles: And the Canons of Trent are more holy than all; not to bee commented, least Trueth breake out amongst their hands, but to bee believed and adored as Oracles: So they stand now in the pertinacious defence of the Antichristian Faith, canonized in Trent.
This is the present estate of the Romish Church,Their miserable shifts. 1 They shift Scripture. wherevnto shee hath drawne her selfe, by seven necessarie (but miserable) shiftings. First, at their great challenge by Luther, they began with Scripture: Though Caietan lurked in the bushes of Schoole-divinitie, and Prierias worbled in his Cases, yet Eccius aHosius. Pighius. L…n…anus.and others appealed to Scripture. But when they had assayed, they found it hurtfull: I herefore they cast it away with contempt, calling it a nose of waxe, a leaden sword, &c. like the olde Hereticks, who (as Irenie (b) sayeth) turned to the accusation of Scripture, when they were convinced by Scripture: Cum à Scripturis arguuntur, in accusationem earum convertuntur. Colloq. Ratis. 16…0.Before the Colloque of Ratisbone, when the Protestant Divines intercommuned by letter with the Iesuits, that they would agree on the places of arguments: The Iesuits in their Preface declared that they would not stand to Scripture, least (say they) we had lost our cause in the verie entrie. I his their distrust of Scripture is a reall confessing that their faith is not Scripturall.
Secondly, they came to Traditions; and because wee2 Traditions sticke to Scripture, they called vsus Scripturarij; to tell vsus, that a… Prateo… ▪ b…resthey are Lucifugae Scripturarum, as Tertullian calleth Hereticks: And againe, Credunt sine Scripturis, v… credant contra Scripturas bTertul. Pr…scrip.. And yet they finde no rest in Traditions: The indefinetnes of their number, the confussion of their kinds, Divine: Apostolicke, Ecclesiasticke, hath confounded them, who expresly laboured to distinguish(c) Lindan Azer. them. But dLactan. l. 5. cap. 20.the first tymes reasoned not from their owne asseveration, but by divine testimonies, as sayeth Lactantius, Non asseveratione propriâ, sed testimonijs Divinis, sicut nos facimus.
Thirdly from Traditions of an vncertaine Author, they come to Fathers, and with a froggish and laterane coaxation, 3 Fathers.doe cry Patres, Patres. But Protestants hauehave driven them from that retreate also; for though in the Fathers some Liturgicall ceremonie may bee found, yet in Dogmaticke poynts they are all for vsus: Neither can they make Lirinensis aLyrinens commonitor.triple tryall, to fitte their Tenets, that they were receaved ab omnibus, semper & vbique. Fathers are worthie of respect, when they speake according to our Heavenly Father: They gaue that respect to their Ancestors, and craved no more to themselues. Who ever shall reade these things, let him not imitate mee erring, but growing to the better: Non me imitetur errantem, (a) Proleg. retract.sed in melias proficientem, sayeth Augustine, even of his retractations bDur. fol. 140.. And they themselues condemne the Fathers, except they speake to their sense.
Fourthly, from Fathers a-part, they come to Fathers mette together in Councells: So Bellarmine everie where4 Counsells. thinketh it enough, In hoc conveniunt omnes Scholastici propter Conciliorum authoritatem. But when these Councells are searched, they are but late Conventicles gathered for their purpose, as Dioscorus did at Ephesus▪ Irene at Neece The Laterane Councells: of Florence, Constance, Basile. And lastly, their Trent Councell by a preposterous order, giving authoritie to the former. They contemne ancient and lawfull Councells, as Vives remarketh, Reliqua Vives in August.non pluris aestimant, quam conventus muliercularum in textrina vel thermis: These are Councels to them (sayeth hee) which serue their turne, as for other they count no more of them Conventions of Women, &c.5 Popes. testimonie.
Fifthly, they muster the Testimonies of their Popes, as the last and greatest ground of their Faith: A matter more ridiculous than serious, to judge a malefactor by his Popes iudge and partie▪owne testimonie: If they thinke them infallible, why giuegive they them not the first place? They are neither as Primipili or Triarij, but rather Rorarij and Ferentarij amongst the Legions, more for number than for weight: But the wiser …ort are ashamed to vse these shaddowes in disputs.
Sixtly: When they finde no safetie in all these refuges,6. Philosophie they come to humane learning: And for this cause, the Iesuits (seeing their Cleargie ignorant) affected a Monarchie of Letters: As Ierome aHieron in Esay 19.said of the Hereticks, who called themselues Reges Philosophorum, Kings of the Philosophs. They are destitute of Scripture, and runne to the supplie of Nature & Arte. These olde Hereticks boasted of the furniture of humane learning: So Novatian bVenenata eloquenti… …acula contorquens. Cypr. Epist. 57.threw the darts of poysoned eloquence, and was more hard by the perversenesse of secular Philosophie, &c. In like manner Aponius cApo… in Cantic….descryveth them, that they turned the trueth in a lie by sharpe words and syllogismes. And Ierome (d) telleth, that the Htreticke, propter acumen ingenij discurrit per testimonia Scripturarum, and laboureth by Sophistrie to oppresse the Trueth▪ And againe, the good Christian, veritatis simplicitate contentus, Haereticorum suppellectilem argumentorumque divitias non requirit: Hee is Comment. in Amos. Ibid.content with the simplicitie of trueth, & seeketh not the furniture of Hereticks Papists cōfesse a sympathizing with Pagans.
Humane learning is Gods gift indeede, but should notPolid. invent▪ lib 5. 1. Lactan. 3. 1 bee abused to impugne the Trueth: And it is Gods will that naked and simple Trueth bee cleerely proponed, because it is sufficiently decored of it selfe, sayeth Lactance: And to that same sense Ierome, Nolim Philosophorum argumenta sectari, sed simplicitate Apostolicae acquiescere aHieron▪ ad Ctesiph. And Basile likewise,(b) Basil C…nc in Ma… Mar …y… … Nuda est veritas pa…rono non egens, ipsa seipsam defendens: Though with Nazianzen hee profited wonderfully in Philosophie at Athens, yet hee calleth it an hyding of the Trueth, to trouse it vp in humane farding, ne contegamus veritatem verborum fuco.Their new Philosophie
But they acknowledge their distrust of this refuge also: For Transubstantiation is so contrare to sound Philosophie,(a) Scot. 4 distinct. 10. that Scotus doubtes against it, are neither solved by himselfe, nor any other, as Quantum futurum cum quanto: Quantum fine modo quantitativo: Partem extra partem; & tamen in qualibet parte totum: Therefore they hauehave devised a bastard Philosophie, to colour their bastard Divinitie: That there is a penetration of Dimensions; that one body of a numericall vnitie, may bee in innumerable places at once: that many compleete bodies may bee couched vnderunder Monsters in Philosophiethese same Speces; that they may bee consumed, and yet abide; that in their consumption they neither feele, nor are felt of the consumer; that one bodie is continued, and discontinued in Heaven and Earth at once; that it hath a localitie and illocalitie; that an Accident can subsist without a Subiect; that a dimensiue Quantitie is a Subiect of the Speces; that there is a mixed proposition, whereof one part is in the mouth, and another in the mynde, &c. If Aristotle, and olde Philosops were in the world, and heard these monstruous opinions in Philosophie, they would misknow their owne Art.
With these weapons they hauehave long mustered, andTheir disputs are many. their Armies are led with two Goliaths, Baronius and Bellarmine; from whose first syllabs some hauehave wittily found out BA-BELL: They hauehave done what Nature and Sophistry can, to oppresse the Trueth, and colour heresie. Bellarmine dogmatickly in great volumes laboureth in the perpetuall Elench of the authoritie of the Church. Baronius practickly in his Anachronismes, Suppressions, Inversions of Order, Anticipations, laboureth in the perpetuall …l…nch facti pro …ure: And all of them fill the world with large volumes,Irene…. vt stupefaciant ignaros literarum, as sayeth …r…neus Suarez with his tedious Disputs hath gotten the rewarde Cens. Paris. Val. Analys.of fire to his treasonable Booke. Ualentia thinketh his Analysis can not bee loosed, and yet it is but a petition of the principle of the Churches pretended authoritie. Gretzer hathBut now tastlesse and hurtfull to themselues. Vasq de adorat. 409. casten himselfe off the stage by his scalding Uasquez with his blasphemous worshipping of Sathan is abhorred. Becane with his affected brittle subtilities is tastlesse; hee delighteth in his lame and pithlesse dilemmes, and like a Con in a Cage moveth much, but promoveth nothing, &c. If a man shall cast over their Volumes, with Martiall hee shall offend at Homers foreign: Nothing but triviall iuff…ing, a thousand tymes refuted by Protestants, and as oft reponed by Papists: Some new quirk of humane Invention, and some new forme or lustre put vponupon olde damned heresies and exsibilate Paradoxes.
Ther Expurging Indices are Evidencies of their evill conscience in an evill cause: they distrust all, and adde, delete, change in bookes what maketh against them: They destroyExpurging Indices a mar…yring of Bookes. Sixti Biblioth. praefat. genuine bookes, as Bertrame calling it Oecolampadius forgerie: And set out supposititious Treatises without number, and rase Scripturall sentences out of the Indices of all Wryters: Yet they stand not at these Purgations: Sixtus did it with more iudgement. Possevine with more diligence, and yet they are not content with them: The purging of Doway and Spaine, are not enough, but the Vaticane must bee added: And when Angelus Rocha hath revised all, Ioannes Maria must purge out more: But Bellarmine aThuan continuat.latelie vrged a further purgation of Bookes against the Iesuits. Their new faith is so ambulatorie, that No ende of their purging.it knoweth not where to consist. They are convicted by the testimonies of their owne writers, and therefore reject them, as Tertullian bTertul, de Test▪ A… ▪ cap 1.said of the Pagans. But let them purge Bookes as they will, their faith is damned▪ and stobbed by so manie testimonies, as they in revenge doe pearce with the Popes obeliske. It were good service to God and his Church, to gather in one all these sentences which they hauehave purged. And a worke worthie of the Church of England, who is most able for it. How ever they deale with Authours, wee say as S. Austine did toAugust. Epist. 156. Donatists, Constantinus quidem defunctus est, sed eius Testimonium contra vos vivit. These men are dead, yet their Testimonie is quicke against you.
Men would thinke, that with all this furniture theyThey shift disputs. would bee bold to dispute; But they are come now to shift disputs. So Salmeron aSalmeron. Tom. 8 Tractat. 1.condemneth disputing with Protestants: So Becan bManual. l. 5. cap. 12.and Scioppius in the foundations of peace. cSciop. pag. 122.Iansenius dAlexipharm. 12.giveth vsus a floorish out of Tertullian, Wee neede not to bee curious after Christ, nor to inquire after the Gospel. And Baronius eMartyrol. praefat.before him abusing Ambrose, That wee neede not accuse the Apostolicke faith of noveltie. But this wee craue, is not a curious inquiring after Christ, but a tryall of their faith, if it bee that Faith that Christ delivered to his Apostles. They confesse reallie, that it is not that same faith, while they eschew the try all of Scripture.
This their shifting of Disputs is contrare to the auncients Contrare to their former practise.practice, as may bee seene in Athanasius against the Arrians: Cyrillus against the Nestorians: Augustine against the Pelagians and Donatistis. &c. And most against their owne Practice; for first when the Iesuits arose, they made disputs their sacrum Asylum, or sacram Anchoram, and for this cause glutted themselues with humane learning: But now in end they finde their furniture as stubble before the fire: For one place of Scripture rightlie vrged against them, burneth vp all their baggage. This shift commeth first of experienced weaknesse in disputes, and next, of a confidence in bloodie massacring: So Austine noted these two: The first in the Donatists (e) Sed quia bonam (a) August. praefat. ad Brevic. collat.causam &c. Because they knew they had not a good cause, they first did what they could, that there should bee no Dispute, and that their cause should not bee handled all. The confidence(b) Contra Faust. l 14. cap. 12. in other meanes hee noteth in the Manicheans (g) Non enim disputare amant, for they louelove not to dispute, but pertinatioustie to overcome any wayes. In like manner Mahomet cSalmer vbi supra.discharged all disputing in his Religion: And the Iconolaters (the Papists fathers) refused to dispute with Orthodoxes. But if they bee forced to dispute, they fill all with clamours as Cyprian dClamosis vocibus personantesnoteth of the Pagans, and boast of victorie, though they bee overcome, as Pascentius and Maximus, two Arrian Bishops did boast, that they overcame Augustine ePossid. Vita August. c. 17.in disputs. Yet they like some sort of disputs, such as they had with Iohn Hus, and Ierome of Prage, whom they burnt at Constance, and the like latelie with Padre Fulgentio, and Abbas Sylvius at Rome, thogh incōstant Spalato could not be wise by their example. This they hauehave learned of the Arrians. For when King Hunnericus called a dispute at Carthage, hee began it with burning an Orthodoxe Bishop,fCent. Luc. 5. col 30.
Lactance aNeque congredi audeut, quia sciunt se facile superari▪ Lactant l. 5. c. 1.shall close this point, and lead mee to their last refuge. Novi hominum pertinaciam, I know the mens pertinacie—They feare least they be convicted and forced to yeeld, vn to vsus: Therefore they close their eyes, least they should see the light wee offer to them: Wherein they shew the diffidence of their damned reason, while they will neither vnderstand, neither dar dispute, because they know they will bee easilie over-come.
Their seventh and last refuge is crueltie: The Ignatian7 Refuge is crueltie. fierie temper of the Iesuits: This Lactance (a) noteth Disceptatione sublatâ pelliturè medio sapiētia, vigeriturres: They lay aside all reasonable dealing, and take them to violence. And that because sententiam quam defendere nequeunt, [c] Omnia in gladium resolvis. Cusan. Cribrat. Alcor 3. 8.mutare erub…scunt, bAugust. civit. l 3. c. 18they thinke shame to change that opinion which they cannot defend. This they hauehave o… Mahumet, and Cusane objecteth, that the sword was his greatest argument wherein hee resolved all (d) And Baronius Macta and Manduca, kill and eate. So Paul the fifth at his death recommended the inquisition to the Cardinals, quo vno niti affirmabat Apostolicae sedis authoritatem eOnuph. Vit. Paul. 4.(a bloody pillar of a bloodie Kingdome,) and not content to kill vsus by Inquisitions, they draw on Princes to be their Burrioes: This is the fruite of their fornication with the whoore, in giving their power to the beast against the Lambe. France serveth them at turnes, but when shee openeth her eyes to see the Butcheries of her owne to bee the vantage of Spaine, shee relenteth, till a new deceite set her on againe: And yet because the trueth shineth greatlie in her, they incline more to the Bigotisme of Austria, and the wilfulnesse of Spaine, as bloodie in zeale, as pertinatious in errour. Their rysing (at the least in the Ambition of a fifth Monarchie) is a fitte support for staggering Rome. The Pertinacie of Heresie and furie of blind zeale, can hauehave no other arguments of defence, but Ureseca, burne and cut, as an absurde man wanting reason, turneth to passion and furie.
This proues the Pope to bee his first-borne, who was a lyar and murtherer from the beginning. The credulitie ofThe Pope a lyar & murtherer Iohn 8. 44. his pretended Omniscience; hath long misled the world: Now when they see, and would refuse his lyes, hee vseth the crueltie of his pretended Omnipotence, to destroy them. Hee is now Abaddon, the authour of bloodshed in Europe for many ages.
Thus wee hauehave traced them in their degrees to their present hight, in the hight of their Apostafie and crueltie,See the Treatise Chap. 30. 31 they seeke the quenching of the light and destruction of the Church that caries it: But in vaine; For their malice shall stay them, and their mischiefe shall fall on their owne head: Their Apostafie killeth themselues; for everie errour craveth another errour to confirme it: And everie invention of a new errour, worketh in the inventer a new impression of falshood, and a further degree of departing from the trueth. Aristotle most properlie calleth the parts of timeArist. Phis. lib. 4. foreign Apostasies or distances from the present instant. So they with time depart more & more from God, & the primitiue truth. This is the proper notion of their Apostasie.
But thogh they both desert and impugne the truth theyThey shall never destroy the truth, or the Church. Hilar. Psa. 63 shall never destroy it, for (sayth Hilarie) Quid ad Deum humana perversitas? For what is humane perversnesse to God? And going on, What can the ingyne doe against the Authour of it? Albeit they seeke the ruine of the truth omnibus argumentationis quaestunculis, yet their falshood shall faile by the clearnesse of the trueth. And thereafter: Let them search the secrets of Nature—yet in the intention of their work, they shall faile being refuted by spirituall Doctrines. And Cyprian giveth like reason on the passiue part, that a false and deceived Deficient, doctrin…s spiritu… albius refutati. Ibid.minde is confounded by sincere truth. And Hilarie in another part, The force of the trueth is great, and is daylie the stronger the more it is assaulted. For this is proper to the Cypr. de ietum.Church, that it overcommeth when it is hurt. Hoc enim Ecclesiae proprium est, ut tum vincat, cum laeditur. And weeHilar. Trin. L. 7. say to them as Theophilus did to the Appollinarists: Tendant quantumlibet syllogismorū suorum retia, & sophismatù decipulas: Let them bend as much as they wil, the nets of theirTheoph. Epist Paschal. 1. Syllogismes, and grines of their Sophismes, they but insnare themselues. And we advise them with him in that same place. Tandem desinant dialecticae artis strophis, simplicia Eccliasticae fidei decreta evertere. That they would at least desist to pervert the simplicitie of faith by their Sophistrie.
Sathan knowes their approaching destruction, and leastSathan blind…th them to their destruction. the thoughts of it cast them in the dumps▪ either to repent, or relent, hee hardeneth them against it by 4. speciall meanes. The first is by delaying to the last day, as Vega aIn Apoc. 14. 17 18.Ribera, Suarez. Next by a simple denying as Malvenda bde Antic. Lib. 4. c. 5.who reproveth the former for their opinion. Thirdlie, by an odde conceat of Alcaser cIn Apoc. 18 19.the …esuite, turning their destruction in her conversion to Christ, & that she is Christs Bride to be espoused to him at the last day. Fourthlie, by a fleshlie policie, which was suggested by Cardinall Soderinus dHistor. Con. Trid. lib. 1.to Hadrian the sixt. They resolute to hold all fast as it stands, both in heresie and tyrannie, and to waite vponupon the end. So they are gone on in duritiem cordis, as Bernard eBernard. con. lib. 1.speaketh, and whereas the dolour of their felt decay should bring out sanitatem, as he calleth it, yet it bringeth out nothing but insensibilitatem a senselessenesse: For (as Aponius fCan. l. 4. Theophil. ubi▪ supra.sayeth) Victi & convicti ad salutem non redeunt: And as was said of, old Apollinarists, they wil not amend after manie admonitions but cōtemne the medicens of Scripture, and dow not open their eyes to the cleare light, This is like their proxima dispositio ad ruinam.
If any doe aske: How can they abide in darknesse in They are as blind as their idoles?the aboundance of so great a light: Let him know they are not taught of God, but of men: They hauehave wedded them to their prejudices, and hold the Tenets of their erring Church as divine Conclusions: God hath given them over to a reprobat minde, because willfullie they will winke, and not receiue the louelove of the trueth. All religious adoration con… formeth the worshipper to that hee worshippeth. They hauehavePsal. 115. gotten the fruite of their idolatrie in conformitie to their idoles. They hauehave eyes and see not, &c. Even so are all that worship them.
They hauehave purposelie multiplied controversies, to make Bloodie Rome shall perish in blood.simple wits stand gazing at them as the people did at Amazaes corps: But wiser spirits petunt rei iugulum, they goe through their questions to their policie: They see falshood in their tenets; sillie evasions in their answeres: And Crambe repetita in their proponing. VnderUnder all these is a fleshlie policie, Revel 17. 6. Revel. 18. 4.which their deepe Politickes hide from their controversers: They set them ever to worke to dispute and write &c. And in the meane time laugh in their bosome to see them so earnest in that which they know is but a cousening of the world: They hauehave turned Religion in a policie, and themselues in Politickes: Olde Heretickes stroue onelie for opinions, but they hauehave a worldlie state to defend. They hate the true Religion as darkenesse doth light, and are irreligious in their own superstition: They vse it not as a Religion but as a worldlie state, wherein (if they can be secured) they care not what Religion prevaile. To take vp their present state otherwise, is to bee blind with them.
These are their graduall shifts which an evill cause Their Apostasie.and consceince finding want of reason, and wanting will of repentance hath driven them to; They are drunke with the blood of the Saints, and thirst more till God destroy them. Hee hath some Elect lurking among them whom hee calleth: Come out of her my people: And in due time they will obey. As for others, let them alone, they Revel. 18. 4 Matth. 15. 13are blind guides of the blind: And everie plant that my Father hath not planted, shall bee plucked vp. Antichrist is planted by Sathan in the efficacie of delusion, and God will plucke him vp in his finall destruction. AMEN.
FINIS.