Romes Ruin(1), Answer · Paragraph 19
PARAG. XIX. Concerning the faith of Constantine.
CHALLENGE.
Or lastly, if you desire to go neerer to the times of the apostles, we will joyn with you to prove our faith in the days of Constantine the great, who first built and opened christian churches, and gave freedom for christians to come together, and to know and publish to the world what was held by them, which before could not so well be done, by reason of the perfec…tions in which the church had been … then generally eclipsed.
Answer.
From S. Gregory you step up immediately to Constantine the great, and at once stride over 300 years, in which time the prime and flower of the Greek and Latin fathers lived and dyed; would none of them father your Church? You take an oath, if you be magistri in theologia, to expound scripture, non …isi juxta una… c…sensum patrum, according to the unanimous consent of the fathers; this joynt consent can very hardly be found in the interpretation of the …ures before Constanti…s time, because few before that time commented upon the holy scripture, at least, whose works are come to our hands; and therefore you should have especially instanced in the fathers from Constantines time to S. Grego…s: but as Festus answered Paul, so think I fit to answer you, Ca…em …appell… …d C…sarem ibis, you have appealed to Constantine, and to Constantine you shall go; of whom I may say truely, that which the Fre… sometimes spake before him glo…ingly; tu no… ill… … faci…, … the Britains by …y …; for though Li…, he… not Iustus, goeth about to rob us of this brouch, and brightest lustre of our nation, denying us the honour of his birth, as you do of his faith; yet I doubt not but to make good against him and you, that Constantine is ours, body and soul: and to resolve you in point of his birth and native soyle (which was this our Iland) I refer you to Baronius: for his faith, to Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Arnobius, Lactantius, Minutius Foelix, Athanasius, Epiphanius, and Greg. Nazianzen, and divers others who lived in the same time, or not long after him. Let the faith generally beleeved and received in the age wherein this blessed Emperour lived serve as a touchstone to examine our pure and precious, and your drossie and counterfeit faith: and first let us begin with the ground of all faith, the holy scriptures.
1. We teach, that the canon of the old testament consisteth of 22. books only, excluding the apocryphall which your councell of Trent confoundeth with the canonicall. Let the first quaere then be, whether did the church in Constantines time hold with your canon, or ours? To this let the councell of Laodicea speak, qua autem Can. 59. Non …p…tet in eccles… libros qui s…t extra Ca…ē legere, sed solum Canonic…s veteris & n… vi Testamenti. Qu… autem, &c. A…hanas epist. …v. foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign. Epist. de In…t. verbi. Greg. Nazia…. de veris & … S. Srip. V…o. ul…. I… tina. Nazi…. …. Paris.oporteat legi & in authoritatem recipi, haec sunt, Genesis, Exodus, &c. These books which ought to be read and received as authenticall and canonicall, are these following, Gen. Exod, &c. In which catalogue none of the apocryphall books are mentioned. Let Athanasius inform us, who reckons but 22. books of the old testament, as we do: and after him Greg. Nazian. most expresly brandeth the apocrypha with a note of bastardy.
foreign
foreign,
foreign.
Which Greek verses a wel-willer to your church hath translated into Latin,
At tua ne libris fallatur mens alienis,
Hunc habeas certum numerum a me, lector …ice,
Tot nempe Hebr…, quot sunt elementa, loquelae.
Quicquid pratorea est, hand inter certa loc andu….
The Greek, word for word, is thus to be Englished: I have s… down 22. books of the old testament, agreeable to the number of the Hebrew letters, …d … …e found any besides these, … to be counted among the true and genuine books of the old Testament.T…rtul advers. Hermog. Chrysost. 2. ad Corinth. Hom. 13. foreign. Athanas. cont. Idol. vid Athanas. de Syn. A…m. & de incarnat. Christi. lib. 5. divin. institut. c. 4. Cyprianus raptus eximia eruditione divinarum literarum, vt iis solis contentus ess… quibus fides constat. Theodoret. hist. Eccles. l. 1. c 7. foreign. S…issel. Archi…pis. Tarin, contra wald. Detestantur signum crucis quod nos ad… …d…a…us.
2. We with Tertullian, adore the ple…tude of scriptures, a…ibing to them this perfection, that they contain in them all things necessary to salvation. You maintain on the contrary, that the written word alone is not a sufficient and perfect rule, and therefore you add unto it the unwritten word which you call crad…ion. Which part did Constantine take and the church in his time? let Athanasius be heard in this case, Sufficiunt per se sacroe & divin… us inspiratae lu…rae ad veritatis indicationem; The holy inspired scriptures are sufficient of themselvs for the declaration of the truth; let …a…tanti… be heard, Cyprian was so ravished with the excellent knowledge of the holy scriptures, that he was content with them alone, upon which faith is built. Let us hear Constantine himself, who sitting in a golden chair as president and moderator in the first and most famous councell of Nice, recommendeth the books of the old and new testament to the fathers assembled in that councell in these words, the books of the evangelists and apostles, and the oracles of the ancient prophets do plainly instruct us what to conceive of divine matters, therefore setting aside all enmity and discord, let us from the words inspired by God, take the resolution of those things that are in question; which most christian direction of this most noble Emperour swayed much with the fathers in that synod: yet cardinall Bellarmin makes light of it, and gives the Emperour a slurr for it, lib. 4. de verbe Dei non scripto cap. 11. Respondeo hoc testimonium non esse tanti faciendum, erat enim Constantinus magnus. Imperator, non magnus ecclesiae Doctor; I answer, that this testimony is not of so great moment, for Constantine was indeed a great Emperour, but not a great Doctor of the church.
3. We teach, that the wood of Christs crosse is not to be worshipped at all, much lesse with divine worship; you teach on the contrary, that the crosse of Christ is to be adored, cultu latria, that is, with the highest kind of worship, which is proper to God; so Aquinas determineth, Par. 3. quaest. 25. …r. 2. Illi exhibemus cultum latriae in quo ponimus …em salutis; clamat enim ecclesia, O crux ave, spes unica hoc passionis tempore auge pi…s justitiam, reisque dona veniam: & ibid. Crux Christi in qua Christus crucifixus est tum propter, representationem, tum propter. Christi membrorum coutactum … adoranda est. We yeeld divine worship to that in which we put our trust, but we repose the trust of our salvation, saith he, on the crosse of Christ; for so the church singeth, all hail, O crosse, our only hope in this time of passion, increase righteousnesse in the godly, and grant sinners pardon; and hereupon concludeth, that the crosse on which Crist was crucified, as well because it representeth Christ, as also because it touched the members of his body, is to be adored with divine worshop: by which reason all christians which then lived were bound to worship with divine worship Malchus his ear, and Iudas his lips, and the asses back on which Christ rode, and the dust in the floor on which he wrote, and the water in which he washed, and the oyntment which was powred upon him, and the souldiers fists that buffered him, and what not that toucht any part of his body? Yet Andradius is not ashamed to follow Aquinas Ort…od…. Aplic. lib. 9.his steps, non diffi…emar nos praeclarissimam Christi cruc…m adorare cultu latriae, we do not deny but that we worshop the most excellent crosse of Christ with divine worship. And Gretzer treads in the same path in his book De Cruce. And Cardinall Bellarmin scorns to follow any of these, he runs before them all in the idolatrots Lib. de Imag. sanct. cap. ….worship, not only of the wood of the crosse, on which Christ hung, but also of all crosses whatsoever made after that fashion, Nos omnes cruces adoramus, quia omnes sunt imagines verae crucis, we adore all crosses, because all crosses are images of the true crosse. Was this the beleef or practice of the church in Constantines time? Let us enquire of S. Ambrose, and he will tell us that S. Helen the mother of Constantine, was far from worshipping the wood of the true crosse which she found by miracle; …enit …itulum, Amb. O…at. de ob… Theod. …mp.Rege… adoravit, non lignum utique; quia hic gentilis error est, & vanitas impiorum, sed adoravit illum qui pep… lig… … she found the title, she adored the king, not the wood verily; that is an heathenish errour and wicked vanity, but she worshipped him who hung on the wood. Let us enquire of M…utius Foelix whether the church in those days worshipped or had crosses in their Dialog. …ctav.oratories. The heathen… indeed, as he there brings them in, objected it to the christians, that they worshipped the crosse, col…nt quod …erentur: to which jear of the heathens Mir…ti… answereth, cruces nec colimus, nec optamns; we …ither worship crosses, nor desire them.
4. We teach with the apostle, that marriage is honourable among all men, and that it is the doctrin of devils to prohibit marriage in any condition of men, be they of the clergy, or of the laity. You maintain the contrary both in your doctrin and practice: Iohan. Epist. ad Dracon. multi ex epis. matrimonium non in iet unt. Monachi contra parentes liberorū facti sunt: queē admodum vicissim episcopos filiorū pat…es & Monachos generis potestatem non quae sivisse animadvertas.priests among you are tyed to a single life, and some of you bl…sh not to say, that a clergy man had better keep a concubine than his married wife, praestat concubinam alere, quam uxerem. Was this the judgement or the practice of the church in Constantines age? did not bishops and priests then marry? Let Athanasius inform us, who in his epistle ad Dracontium, writeth thus, you may observe many unmarried bishops among us, and many married monks; and again, many married bishops, and unmarried monks. By which testimony of Athanasius it appears that in his time, not only bishops, but monks also might and did marry. Sozomen maketh mention (hist. lib. 1. cap. 11.) of Spiridion the bishop of Cyrus, his wife and children, foreign. He was married and had children, and it was no disparagement unto him in his ecclesiasticall function (word for word,) but he was not therefore Bapt. Mant. in Fast. Ecclesiast hist. lib. 3. cap. …0. Hist. eccles. l. 1. cap. 8. iuxta lat. version. et in Grac. c. 11.worse or inferiour in those things which belong to God. No more was Hilary the famous bishop of Poictou. Nor the father of Nazianzen, who lest his bishoprick to his son Gregory, the flower of all the Greek fathers, of whom thus Mantuan
Praesule patre satus, …a… tune id jura sinebant,
Pastorale pedum gessit post funera patris.
We see the practice in Constantines time, let us now hear the foreign.judgement of the church touching the practice: Eusebius brings in Clemens inveighing against the despisers and contemners of marriage, in this manner. foreign; that is, what will these (marriage haters) condemn the apostles? for Peter and Philip gate children. And Socrates hath a remarkable story to this purpose; there being a motion made in the councell of Nice, to deprive married priests of society and conversation with their wives, old Papnutius, though himself an unmarried man, yet mainly opposed that motion, disswading the fathers of the councell from laying such a heavie yoak upon the clergy, alledging, that marriage is honourable among all men, and the bed undefiled. That all men could not bear such a restraint: that too much strictnesse in this kind would be hurtful to the church: that the company of a man with his lawfull wife, is chastity.
5. We teach, that the elements of bread and wine are types-and figures of the body and bloud of Christ, which we truly receive in the sacrament of the Lords supper spiritually by saith, not carnally with the mouth. You on the contrary, that the bread and wine are turned by transubstantiation into the true body & blood of Christ, which you beleeve that you receive with the mouth and chew with the teeth. Did the church of Christ in Constantines time beleeve transubstantiation, or carnall manducation? Let us heat what Ser… in … quis di…rit v… b….Athanasius, and Eusebius, and Greg. Nazianzen, and S. Ephrem have delivered touching this point: Athanasius illustrating those words of our Saviour in the 6. of Iohn, it is the spirit which quickneth, the flesh profiteth nothing, &c. saith. Hic de utroque, …ar… si…ct P…s in bib…. …. …0. E…. …eo… patri…: foreign.& spiritu suo locutus est, & spirit… a c…r…e discrim…n a vit. ut: non solum in eo quod oculis apparebat sed naturam quoq… invisi…le… credentes, disceremus ea quae loqueretur non car…lia esse, sed spiritualia: quot enim hominibus corpus ejus suffecrffe… ad …bu…, ut universi mundi alimonia fieret? Sed propterea ascensio… s… in c…lum mentionem fecit, ut eos a corporals intellect… abstraheret, ac deinde carnem suam de qua locutus erat, cibum è supernis …lestem & spiritualem alimoniam & ab ipso donanda… intelligerent; quae enim loquutus sum vobis, inquit, spiritus & vit… su…. Quod perinde est ac si diceret, corpus meum quod ostenditur & datur pro mundo in cibum; dabitur, ut spiritualiter unicuique tribuatur & fiat singulis tutamen praeservatioque ad resurrectionem vitae aeternae. Here he speaketh both of his flesh & spirit, & distinguisheth his spirit from the flesh, that beleaving not only that which appeared to outward sense, but also his invisible nature, we might learn that those things which he sp…ke were not carnall, but spirituall: for to how many men would his body have sufficed for meat, that it might be the food of the whole world? But therefore he maketh mention of his ascension into heaven, that he might withdraw them from the corporall understanding of his words, and that they might understand, that the flesh of which he spake was a supernal meat, a celestiall and spirituall food to be given by him unto them. The words (saith he) which I have spoken unto you, are spirit and life, which is all one as if he had said, my body which is given for the world, shall be given for meat, that every man may receive it spiritually, and that it may be made to each a strengthning and preserving them to the resurrection to eternall life. Eusebins writeth thus of the sacrament, Christus cum Dem…. …. vang. lib. 1.se…sum singulare sacrificium patri obtulisset, statuit foreign foreign, quam memoria… foreign in mensa ejus celebramus. Christ when he had offered himself once for all a sacrifice to his father, appointed us to offer the memory of that sacrifice to God: which memory we celebrate by the sacred signs foreign.or symbols of his body and …loud upon his table, and in like man…r in his 8. book he saith, that Christ delivered to his dis…iples the sy…bol… of his divine dispensation, viz. bread and wine, that is, co…ding them to make an image or representation of his own body. S. Basil, and S. Greg. Naz…anz. accord with Eusebius: S. Basil in his Liturgy calleth the sacrament all bread foreign co…poris domini, that is, a type … figure resembling Christs …ody, or answering unto it. And Greg. N… z…a…z. Ep…tap. soror. Gorgon. foreign.pleaseth himself with the same word foreign, If her hand treasured up at any time any part of the holy signs or antityp… of the precious body and blood of Christ, that she mingled with her tears, &c▪
Out of these and the like phrases of the fathers, thus I frame an argument against you: no types, figures, images, representations of Christs body, are …is very body. But the church in Constanti… age beleeved the elements of bread and wine to be images, as Eusebius▪ types or anti-types, as S. Basil and Nazianzeu calleth them; to whom Bellarmin adjoyneth Theodoret in his first dialo…ne. A… ▪ carius Egyptius in his Homilies, and Dionysius in his Hierar…h… ▪ B…lla…. lib. 2. de sacramentis cap. 16.and confesseth that they spake of the elements of bread and win… after consecration, therefore the elements of bread and wine after consecration are not the very body and blood of Christ. The mi… in this syllogism is confessed, the major is strongly …ounded on tha… axiom. Opposit… … cide… …imul attribui …equeunt; that is, opposite things cannot be affirmed at the same time of one and the same thing, but a shadow and a body, an image and a face, … …gn and the thing signified by it are among the rank of those opposites which Logicians call relative opposita, and therefore as it i… a good argument, this is Alexanders picture, therefore it is not Alexander himself; this is Nebuchadnezz…r… image, therefore it is not Nebuchadmezz… himself; this is a shadow, therefore it is not a body▪ so likewise it followeth necessarily, the bread and wine after consecration in the judgements of Eusebius, Ba…, Na…. …, D…us, Theodoret, and others of that ag…, are types, images, shadows, figures of Christs body and bloud▪ the…ore they are not turned into the very body & bloud of Christ.
6. We teach with the apostle to the Hebrews that now (to wit) since Christs offering himself upon the altar of the crosse for the redemption of the whole world, there remains no more sacrifice for sin. You teach on the contrary, that there is daily offered in the masse, a true, reall, and properly so called propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead. Whether did the church in Constantines time celebrate your masse, or our communion? I am sure Minutius Foelix implyeth, that in his time the christians had no altars. Putas (saith he) nos occultare quod col…mus, si delubra & aras non habemus? Dost thou think what we conceal what we worship, because we have no images nor altars? And as they had no materiall altars in his time, so neither corporall sacrifices. Hostias domino offeram (saith Minutius) cum sit lita…ilis, &c. *Hostias domino offeram, cum …it litabilis hostia bonus animus? qui innocentiam colit, Deo supplicat; qui …ustitiam, D…o libat, qui hominem periculo surripit, optimam victimā cedit; haec nostra sacrificia, haec Dci sacra sunt.Shall I offer sacrificeto God, to whom▪ good mind is an acceptable sacrifice? he that keeps innocencie supplicates to God; he who doth justice, offers to God; he who saves a man from danger, slayeth the best sacrifice: Lactan. lib. 6. divinar. Institut. cap …. Rep…diata victimarū legalium mult…tudint, unam requirit Hostiam: ni…rū, ut quisque se concil…et & offerat Deo seipsum sistens Deo in hostiam … ventem per rationale obs… q…ium immolans sacr…ficum l…dation is, quandoquid…m multitudo illarūle…alium victimarum …xp…osa f…i… un… in h…c s…culo… fine app…obata est semel oblata in abolitionem peccati.these are our sacrifices. I wonder how he forgot the sacrifice of the masse: certainly if Christ be there really offered, he is opti… a victima, the best sacrifice that ever was offered. Lactantius enameleth the former golden sentence of Minutius; Hic verus cultus est in quo mens colentis seipsam Deo immaculatam victimam sistit: this is the true worship wherein the mind of the worshipper offereth it self as an …spotted sacrifice to God. If these testimonies are not of strength enough to demolish your materiall altars, and abolish your sacrifice of the masse; behold, Eusebius, Saint Chrysostome, and Saint Basil offer us, as it were, axes and hammers to beat them down. Saint Basil on the 1. of Isay writeh thus; refusing the multitude of the legall sacrifices, he requires this one, that every man should reconcile himself, and offer up himself to GOD as an holy and lively sacrifice by his reasonable service, offering unto God the sacrifice of praise; forasmuch as the multitude of those legall sacrifices is now abolished, one sacrifice in this end of the world is approved, once offered for the abolishing of sin. Eusebius Demonst. Evang. l. 1. interpreteth the clean obla…ion fore-spoken by the prophet Malachy (which all papists take for the sacrifice of the masse) to be our hearts purified by faith, and the incense there mentioned to be the foreign foreign, incense of prayer, and the sacrifice of the new testament to be a contrite spirit, and speaking of the Lords supper; he saith that therein we offer foreign, a memoriall of Christs sacrifice; Homil. 17. in epist. ad Heb.and S. Chrysostome, we offer the true sacrifice of Christ, foreign foreign, or rather we offer a commemoration of that sacrifice. I… S. Chrys…stome had beleeved, as you now do, that the true body of Christ is properly offered, and his blood truely shed in the daily sacrifice of the masse, he should have corrected his former correction of himself, and said, what said I, we rather offer a memoriall of Christs sacrifice? nay rather we offer the very sacrifice it self, Christs body and blood, and that truely and properly.
7. We teach, that images may not be set up in churches to worship Epiphan▪ Io Hierosol. …p…st. ex tat inte… opera sancti Hieron Tom. …. Cum venissem ad villam quae dicitur Anabla…ra, vidissem que ibi pr…teriens lucernā …rdentem, & intrassem ut o…arem, in ven… ibi velum pendens in …ibuse…usdem ecclesiae tinctū at que d…p…ctum, & habens imaginē quasi Christi vel sancti cujusdam: cum …go hoc vidissē in ecclesia Christi contra au…oritatem scripturarum hominis pendere imagine…, scidi illud velum; & magis, dedi consilium custodibus ejusd…m loci ut paupere… m…rtuum obvolverent, & deinceps pr…cepi in ecclesia Christi istiusmodi v…la quae contra relig…onem nostram veniunt non appendi. In epist. ad Constant. Augus…. …ds igitur glori… …j…smodi, & dignitatis splendores lucentes & f…lgur…tes eff…giare m…t…is & inanima…s coloribus & …bratili pictura possit? Di…log… Octavius.God by thē, much lesse to worship the images themselvs; you on the contrary maintain the erecting, censing, clothing, kissing, kneeling before, and worshipping of images. From which idolatry & superstition, how fat the church was in Constantines age, appears by the canon of the councell of Eliberis, the act of Epiphanius▪ the judgement of Eusebius, and the joynt testimony of Minutius Felix, and Lactantius. The 36 canon of the councell of Eliberis is very expresse against images and pictures in churches, placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur aut adoratur, in parictibus depingatur. It seemed good to us, or we have determined, that no images or pictures be in churches, lest that which is worshiped and adored be painted on the walls. When S. Epiphanius saw that canon neglected▪ and the law of God violated in that poynt, his zeal kind…ed within him▪ & he tare down a v…il & rent it in the middle, which he found hanging on the church walls at Anablathra, because it had on it an image as it had bin of Christ or some saint. More▪ over, he gave charge to those of that place, not to hang up any more such veils against the expresse command of God. Eusebius was no better affected to images then Epiphanius; for in his epistle to Constantia, who desired him to send her an image of Christ, he contendeth by many arguments, that no true image of Christ may be drawn, neither according to his divine nature, nor according to his humane: not according to his divine, because no man hath …ver seen or can see that▪ not according to his humane, because we have learned that his humane nature or form of a servant is …ingled with, or Lib. 2. de origerroris cap. 19. Quare …on est dub…um quin religio nulla sit, ubicunq simullac…um est; nam si religio ex divinis rebus est, divini autem nihil ni…in coelest…us; carent ergo religone simulac…a▪ quia nihil potest esse coeleste in ea re quae …it …x t…rra▪ Dei autem cujus spiritus & num…n ubique diffusum, abesse nunq…a… po…e… semper utique im▪ go su…ervacan…a. lib 6. de ver… Cultu. cap. 2. Accendunt lum…na Deo ve…ut in teneb…is agenti. Num mentis comp…s p…tandus est qui auctori & datori l…mi…is candelarum a… cereorum lumen offert pr… muncr…? Concil. Elib. ca…on …7. Probib…ndu… ne Lucerna… publice acce… dant: si sacere contra interdictum vol…erint, ab…inca… a comm…ni…united to the glory of his divine dignity: and who will undertake with dead colours to expresse the brightnesse of that glory and dignitie? Minutius Felix, upon another reason, dislikes the dedicating of any image to God: put a… nos occultare quod credimus si delubra & ar as non habemus? quod enim simulacrum Deo fingam, eum, si recte existimes, sit dei homo ipse simulacrum? Dost thou think that we conceal what we worship, because we have no place for images nor altars? I pray what images shall I make to God, seeing if we judge rightly, man himself is Gods image? Lactantius is warmer in the cause, he concludes peremptorily, that religion and images cannot stand together: wherefore out of doubt there is no religion where there is an image, (therefore out of doubt none in your church where there are so many images) for if religion be a divine thing, and there is nothing divine but in things that are heavenly, images therefore are voyd of religion, because there can be nothing▪ hea…enly in that thing which is of the earth. The same Lactantius, lib. 2. divinarum institut. cap. 2. excludes all images, even of the true God, as needlesse and super…uous; the image of a man seems then to be needfull when the man himself i… away, but it is of no use when he is present, therefore the image of God is ever superfluous and of no use, because his spirit and deity being every where present, can never be absent from us. You see he layes hard at your images, and he endeavours as vehemently to blow out your wax lights. They light candles to God as if he were in the dark: can he be thought well in his wits who offers candles or wax lights to God for a gift, who is the author and giver of all light? If this strong breath of Lactantius, being but single, cannot blow out the lights that burn continually in your churches: yet methinks the joynt and conspiring breath of all the fathers assembled in the councell at Eliberis cannot but puff them quite out. It is to be forbidden that candles be publikely lighted; if any do presume to do otherwise, let them keep from the communion. In fine, to draw the arrow you have put into Constantines bow to the head against the errors and superstitions of your present Romish church, prove to me by any good and uncontrolable testimony, that publike service in an unknown tongue, or masses without communicants, or communion of the laity without the cup, or making images of the three persons of the Trinity, or worshipping images, or crosses, or selling pardo… for the release of souls out of purgatory, or elevation, or circumgestation of the host in pompous procession, or praying upon beads or hallowing meddals, and Agnus Dei's, or blessing salt, spittle, water, &c. or christening bells, and gallies, or going on pilgrimage to the images of Christ, our Lady, and other saints, or whipping themselvs in penance for their own sins, or the sins of others, or such like customs and fites of your now Romish church were in practice in Constantine his time. Prove that the treasury of saints merits, and works of supererogation, or unwritten traditions in matter of faith, or justification before God by inherent righteousnes or any sin in its own nat…re veniall, and not against the law of God but only beside it, or esteeming the Apocryphall books of the old testament for canonicall scriptures, or equalizing the Latin vulgat translation of the old and new testament to the originalls in Hebrew & Greek, or seven sacraments properly so called, or the Popes infallibitie, or his transcendent authority, to gratifie or disannull the acts of generall councells, to canonize saints, to dispence with oaths and vows, to depose kings, and dispose of their kingdoms, or the suspending the effect of the sacrament upon the intention of the priest, or accidents without subjects, or rats and mice eating Christs body, or the putting it in many thousand places at once, or any the like assertions of your Romish doctors were any part of Constantines beleef, and the day shall be yours.
In the mean time, if, as your challenge, and the promise of your friends deeply engage you, you shall think of a reply to this my answer, I require three things of you.
First, that according to our Saviour his rule, you mete the same measure to me which I mete to you, by setting down my whole answers in my own words, that the reader may see what you answer to each particular, and what you balk, as also how direct and pertinent your replyes shall be.
Secondly, that you be not guilty of that which Pythagoras Contra sole… n… l…quitor▪ ne de pelle & Hydra labores, Herculem omittas.strictly forbad his schollers, viz. speaking against the sun, that is, gain-saying most clear and evident truth.
Thirdly, that you forget not Tully's caveat, that you spend not your skill, and waste your colours upon the lyons skin, and omit the pourtraying the bodie of Hercules; that is, that you spend not your pains and paper in carping at circumstantiall passages on the by, and leave the main unto…ched.
If you duly observe these conditions, I doubt not but that God in the farther search into these points will an…int your eys with th… eye-salv… of th… spirit, as he did the eys of Albertus Pighius, in perusing the works of Calvin; which Minutius Feli… in Dial. Oct…vius. vicimus uter que , n… ut ille …e… v… ctor est, ita …g… triump…ates …r…ris.though he read with set purpose to resute them, yet he was himself refuted by them and reclaimed from d…verse errors, especially in the main point of justification, and thereby being conquered by his adversarie, obtained the noblest victorie of all over himself, in conquering his own errors.
Deo laus sine fine.
FINIS.
End of the text · Daniel Featley, Romes Ruin(1) (1644)