The Four Principal Pillars of Papistry, Preface
❧ The preface to the Christian Reader.
IT is the common and vsuall practise of wrangling and cauilling spirites, who to preuent other mens accusations, doe themselues first begin to accuse and challenge others of the same crimes, which they are guiltie of: Thus Sathan the accuser of the brethren, sometime dealt with Iob, Iob. 1saying vntounto God, that if he would but stretch foorth his hand a little, and touch all he had, hee would not spare to blaspheme God to his face, whereas nothing is more common with that old Serpent, then to curse and blaspheme God. Thus our aduersaries of the Popish religion (which indeed is no religion, but meere superstition) hauehave subtillie sought to vndermine vsus, crying out against vsus, that wee are lyers, Idolaters, blasphemers, and such like, which are titles and epithetes fitter and more proper to themselues. They charge vsus with rayling: Harding Confut. apolog. cap. 16. diuis. 2. with lying: Defens. apolog. pag. 597. with corrupting and altering of scripture: Rhemist. 2. Corinth. 2. sect. 8. with fables. Rhemist. 1. Timoth. 1. sect. 4. with execrations and blasphemies: Iud. 3. with heresies, Bellarm. de notis eccles. lib. 4. cap. 9. They obiect against vsus the weaknes of our proofes, and arguments: Harding. defeus. apolog. p. 625. often innouating and changing of Religion. Rhemist. 2. Corinth. 2. v. 8. Diuisions & dissensions among ourselues: Harding. defens. apolog. p. 239. Yea that wee may see how true their other accusations are, they are not ashamed to charge vsus with Idolatrie, and worshipping of Idols, Rhemist. 1. Corinth. 10. sect. 9. Wherfore that it may appeare to the world, how vniustly they hauehave accused vsus, & how subtilly they would vnburden & exonerate thēselues of those crimes which are theirs & not ours, to this ende I hauehave vndertaken this labour in this treatise, to detect and bewray their guiltines in this behalfe, that we may bee purged from their slaunders, and our cause iustified, and that the shame & blame may fall vponupon them, that hauehave deserued it.
As for vsus, wee raile not, neither vse reuiling speech, yet sometime we tell them roundly their owne, and this may bee done without rayling: vnlesse they will say Christ rayled, when he tolde the Iewes, that they had made his fathers house a denne of theeues. But their rayling, and venemous dartes, which they shoot at vsus, are notoriouslie knowen and cannot be hide. It is the grace of popish writers both old and new, to stuffe their bookes full with cursing & rayling: Stapleton, that blacke-mouthed Sophister of Louaine, hath of late set foorth a booke against D. Whitakers, wherein beside the badnesse of his cause, he hath disgraced his profession, with bitter and filthie tearmes, calling that learned and godly man, Rusticum, fatuum, asinum, asininum professorem, morionem, stolidum: Foole, clowne, asse, doit: yea he is so impudent, that he spareth not to reuile the deade,Lib. 1. cap. …. sect. 8. most shamefully calling Caluine, that worthie Minister of the Gospel, Egregium Nebulonem, a notable knaue: I thinke Stapletons owne friendes and patrones here in England, will blush and be ashamed of him, when they find such stuffe in his booke.
Neither doth Stapleton thus take on in his moode, as carried away with some intemperate heate, but being in his wittes (if in his right wittes) and well aduised, and of purpose he falleth into this cogging vaine: giuing M. Whitakers warning thereof aforehande, age Whitakare …t ad patientiam te compone: willing him to take patiently, whatAdmonit. ad Whi…. he saith. Indeed M. Stapleton your counsell is good, for shoote out your venemous dartes as long, as yee will, wee care not, wee hauehave a sense for them, and a buckler to latch thē, as Augustine saith verie well: Quaeso mi frater, quasi has diaboli sagittas, ad petram, quae est De …alu…. docum, c. 12.Christus, allidens, sume scutum fidei. I giuegive thee counsel (my brother) to rebound these arrowes of Sathan, vponupon the rocke, which is Christ, taking the shield of faith: And such patience is in this case necessarie for M. Whitakers, and the rest of vsus protestantes, as the same father speaketh of else where: Quemadmodum parentes a filis vel pueris, De ser in monto ca. ….vel phreneticis multa patiuntur, donec infantia, vel aegritude transeat, ita Christianus ab impijs tanquam phreneticis multa pati debet: Like as parentsDe ser in monto. cap. 34. do suffer manie things at their sons hands, while they are children or phrentick, til their childishnes or phrensie be past: thus Christians must patiently beare manie things of the wicked, as of men taken with phrensie. Such intemperate and railing speeches then of Papistes, we attribute either to their childish ignorance or phrentike malitiousnes.
Concerning the other accusations, of heresie, blasphemie, lying, corruption of scriptures and such other, it shal appeare, I trust, in this discourse, that they are the men, & none other, that are faultie herein. As for fables, they do vsus great wrong to cast them vponupon vsus: their owne legend of lies and infinite fabulous stories, do plaintie tell vsus, that poperie is fuller of fables, then the heresies of the Valentinians or the Manichees. Their other charge concerning iunouation and dissention is returned vponupon themselues: for who knoweth not, that the Iesuites of these daies, hauehave innouated and changed in the most pointes, the old popish profession, and hauehave cast it into a newe mould, and brought in a new forme of Pope catholike doctrine: But we in substance retaine the same Religion, which at the first reuiuing of the Gospel was maintained 40. yeares ago by the Protestants. As for dissensions in fundamental pointes and articles concerning faith, we hauehave none. In other matters, there hauehave bene some contentions among vsus, more we graunt then needed, & more hotely pursued of some then was requisite: yet they are neither in weight so great, or in number so many, nor so egerly prosecuted, as dissentions among papistes hauehave beene, for anno. 1509. wee reade that the Franciscane friers pursued the poore Dominicks to death: and the contention began about the conception of the Virgin Marie. Fox. pag. 802. Such rigour and fiercenes hath not yet beene seene among protestantes, neither I trust, shall.
But in saying that Protestants are Idolaters, they make too lewd a lie, for it is wel knowen vntounto thē, that we hauehave no Images or Idols of brasse, woode, stone, siluer, at all in our Churches, as they hauehave nor any pictures, carued, painted or grauen, set vp to bee worshipped: If two men shoulde bee set before vsus: the one lifteth vp his, eyes to heauen, and calleth vppon the name of God, hauing no similitude or resemblance before him, the other praieth before a stocke or stone Image: is anie man so senseles, as to say the other is an Idolater, rather then this? But thus blinde and sottish are the papistes in their iudgement. Take heede ye English pope catholickes, doe ye not see, how your ghostly fathers goe about to make fooles of you?
Now then, to the intent our aduersaries slaunderous mouthes should be stopped, and their falsehoode descried, I hauehave giuen a seuerall taste in this worke, in euerie kinde of their fraudulent dealing with vsus, and of their vnseemely behauiour, & vngodlie shifts, which they vse in oppugning of the trueth, and defense of their bad cause. The whole booke I hauehave deuided into 4. partes, shewing the foure principall pillers of papistrie, and euerie piller conteineth diuerse partes beside, as it is set foorth in the title of this booke: I trust, throughout this treatise, that our aduersaries shall not iustly challenge me for dealing vntruely or deceiptfullie with them, seeing I hauehave set downe their sayings and opinions, as I find them, quoting the places, and citing the authors, whence I hauehave them: so that I doubt not to say with Augustine, Ego omnia, quòd bona fide coram deo dixerim, sine vllo studio contentionis, sine aliqua dubitatione veritatis, sine aliquo praeiudicio diligentioris tractatus exposui: I trust I may say, with a goodLib. 2. de genes cap. 29. conscience before God, that I hauehave set downe all things without desire of contention, or doubting of the trueth, and without preiudicing other mens more exact labours herein. If sometime I shall seeme to speake somewhat roundlie or sharply, I hope the discreete reader will iudge it to bee done, not without cause, & to say, as that good father in the like case: Noui fratrem meum, si quid in disputatione August. epist. 14▪pro side sua dixit feruētius, non illa contumacia, sed fiducia dicenda est: I know if our brother bee sometime seruent and hote, in the defence of saith, that it proceedeth not of contumacie, but his full resolution in the trueth.
Concerning our aduersaries, I would hauehave them thinke, that I hauehave vndertaken these labours for their good, if they could so construe it, that seeing now the nakednes of their cause, they may at the length be better aduised: We hauehave not cast off all louelove and care of our enemies: We say of them, as Augustine did sometime of Pelagius the heretike, Nos non solum diligimus, sed dileximus eos, sed aliter Aepist. 1…6.vunc diligimus, aliter aliquando dileximus, tunc, quia nobis rectae fidei videbantur, nunc vt ab errore liberentur: Wee both louelove them now, and loued them before, but otherwise now then before, then we loued them, because we thought they were of a right faith, but now we louelove thē, to the end they might bee deliuered from errour. Now vntounto my brethren of the same faith and religion, thus much I say, that whatsoeuer blasphemies, heresies, absurdities, they reade here to bee affirmed and maintained by papistes, they would take no offence thereby, nor seeme to stumble thereat: Sed facite inde quod fecit dominus, Aug. tract▪ in Ioh. 6.cum illi obtulerunt amarum potum, gustauit, & respuit, sic vos audite & abijcite: But doe ye as Christ did, when they offered him vineger to drinke, he tasted and refused it, so giuegive you the hearing and reading of these things, but in iudgement cast them away, and reiect them.
Thus I hauehave, by the Lords assistance finished my taske, & ended my trauell for this time: I will now sit me downe a while and rest my wearie penne, and giuegive place to others. This I hauehave done, partly to discharge my duetie to God, and debt to his Church; partly to prouoke others by this example to put foorth their talent: who for skill are more able, for their leasure more fit, for outwarde helpes hauehave better incouragement, & in respect of their reward are more bound: I would we might now at the length spare our selues at home, and forbeare to prouoke one another by writing, and ioyne our strength against the common aduersarie. If our wittes want whetting, our pennes exercise, our bodies labour, our aduersaries abroad can and may afford vsus worke enough: we need not hew one at another. Let vsus do as Moses did, slay the Aegyptian, it is not seemely for one Hebrew to striue with another. The timber, that must make the house, should be prepared and hewen in the fielde, Prouerb. 24. 27. when it commeth to be set together, not so much as the noise of an hammer should be heard, as we read of Salomons temple: so we should labour to hew and cut off popish superstition & corruption of manners as in the field abroad, but we ought to build peaceably, & without noyse among our selues. One saith well, Omnia alia bona, aurum, argentum, diuitiae diuidi possunt; non potest diuidi (pacem meam do vobis:) Al other goods, gold, siluer, riches, may be deuided; this inheritāce onelyonly cannot be deuided, my peace I leaue with you. And therefore, saith he, Christus noluit fiers iudex ad diuisionem: Christ refused to be a iudge or deuider of the inheritance. God grant, that we may at the length, learne, as carefull children, or faithfull stewardes, to keepe whole Christes inheritance lent vntounto vsus, that rich patrimonie of brotherly louelove and peace: that we may one yeeld to another in the trueth, euerie one to studi… to amend what is amisse, and all ioyne together to seeke Gods glorie.
Thus shall we be sure to imbrace and enioy peace: for what else is the cause of contention among vsus: Nisi (as one saith) quia displicet mortalibus angelica illa partitio, qua gloria deo, pax hominibus nuntiatur: quonam Bernard. epist. 127.modo stabit pax hominum coram deo, si deo apud homines non potest tuta esse sua gloria? Because mortall men like not that Angelical partition, whē they pronounced glorie vntounto God, and peace in earth: for howe can the peace of men stand in force before God, when Gods glory is not kept safe and sound amongst men? This then is the way to procure peace, and to nourish it, to remoue and auoid dissention, eueryevery one in his seuerall place and calling to labour to amend what is amisse, to restore what is decayed, to supplie what is wanting, and to redresse what is out of order, and so to seeke chiefly to aduance Gods glorie. Thus shall we hauehave peace at home, & peace abroad, our dissensions shall slacke within, and by our peace our strength and courage shall increase against our enemies without. We shal runne vponupon them, as one man: ten shall chase an hundred, and an hundred a thousand. Thus the Gospell by Gods grace shall still florish in this land, superstition shall decrease and weare away, and poperie shall bee weeded and rooted out, which God grant for his welbeloued and onelyonly begotten Sonnes sake Iesus Christ our Lord, to whom bee praise for euer,
Amen.