I. DE RECONCILIATIONIS IMPOSSIBILITATE.

CAP. I.

PROPTER AVERSAM ET OBSTINATATAM PONTIFICIORUM VOLUNTATEM.

Er de primo quidem non magnoperè censeo laborandum. Potest sanè Deus efficere, ut commoretur lupus cum agno, et pardus cum hædo recubet; Is. xi. 6. Quàm facile ipsi est, adamantina hominum pectora consperso Immaculati illius Agni sanguine sic emollire, ut in merum amorem liquefiant! Sed, ut nunc sunt tempora, non minori hercle miraculo foret, charitatem in nos Pontificiam experiri, quàm leones Danieli amicè adblandientes intueri.

Etiam ubi de rebus mediis lis est, conciliandorum animos quádam tenùs conspirare oportet; neque sat est alteram partem, unà cum armis, odium deposuisse. Istoc verò quî tandem ferent Romani? Eteocleum profectò odium, aut Vatinianum, merus amor est præ hôc Pontificio.

Ecce, nos ubi non, quando non conspuimur, ut hæreticissimi Ecclesiæ hostes? Judæos in sinum suum admittit Roma, quorum etiam è manibus Pontifex Legem accipere non dedignatur; Evangelicos non fert. Quod à Theodosio, Synnadorum Episcopo, iniquè susceptum vel erga Macedonianos, queritur Socrates', id ab illis hodie in nos vulgò factum; neque aut Ariani, aut Circumcelliones magis unquam sævierunt; atque idem isti fabulones à nobis erga se indies, factitatum improbè comminis

cuntur.

Ecqua omnium hæresis est, quam rabiosula illa lupa, ejusque assecla verè piλoλoídopoi, nobis impingere non solent? Nunc Simoniani sumus, qui gratiæ semel meminerimus, et salutis"; nam quid nobis illum Magum, si Deo placet, tactio est? Nunc Eunomiani, qui nimium fidei tribuerimus; quantum scilicet hæresiarcha Paulus: nunc Pepuziani, qui mulieribus. Nunc Origenistæ, qui imaginem Dei in homine deleri; nunc Procliani, qui concupiscentiæ peccatum non satis deleri, docueri

4 Sacr. Cerem. 1. i.

Socrat. 1. vii. c. 3.
Possid. in Vitâ Aug.

» Socrat. 1. ii. c. 22; 30. "Bellar. de Notis Eccles. 1. iv. c. 9. Notâ Sextâ, sic accus. Luther. Calv. Brentium.

Bellar. ib. Re ipsá Calvinistis in Angliá mulier quædam est Summus Sacerdos. (Col. 186. edit. Par. 1613.)

lowers of Sabellius; because, I think, we lived in the same age with Servetus: another while, of Eutiches; because we lived in the time of Swinckfeldius; for what business have we ever had else with those branded heretics? We are Pelagians, one while; for holding the wages of sin to be death: then we are Donatists; for admitting none but the just into the Church of the elect. Sometimes we are Manichees; for denying freewill: straight, we are Arians; for refusing traditions: then, Novatians; for taking away penance. Another while, we are Ærians; for rejecting oblations for the dead, and fastings: then, Jovinianists; for not allowing a slippery and varnishing faith: the followers of Vigilantius; for disclaiming the adoration of relics of Nestorius; for disliking the asseveration of the sacramental bread. Now, we are Xenaites; for demolishing of images: then, we are Lampetians; for disallowing the servitude of idle vows.

It matters not, whether the foul mouth of that hired strumpet accuse Timotheus the Presbyter, or Athanasius the Bishop, so that somebody be smitten. It matters not what be spoken, so it be malicious. That is fully resolved of, which Nazianzen hath: "No man shall hold in the reins of a riotous and lawless tongue." For, as Jerome saith well, "It is the pastime of the wicked, to slander the good." That, therefore, which was the solemn fashion of the Lindians, never to do service to their Hercules without railing; the same is too ordinary with these public heralds of our patience. "Our daily furnace," as Austin speaks wittily, "is our adversaries' tongue."

How easily might I here unload whole carts of reproaches, that have been heaped together by the scurrilous parasites of Rome! What rivers of blood, what bonfires of worthy saints, might I here shew my reader! All these the world knows and feels too much.

And, as for those honest and good natured men, which would needs undertake to be sticklers of these strifes, as Cassander, Fricius, the Interimists, and that nameless Apologist of the French; how ill have they sped on both parts! With whom it hath no otherwise fared, methinks, than with some fond shepherd, that thrusts himself betwixt two furious rams, running together in their full strength, and abides the shock of both. Neither may it ever succeed better to those kind Philistines, which will be bringing this ark of God into the house of Dagon!

Y Bellar.

Anno 1532. Test. Surio apud Bell. 1. i. de Christo.

a Bellar. de Notis Ecclesiæ. Hæres. 16. Zuingl. et Bucer.

b Ibid. Hær. 9. Calv. Instit. 1. iv. c. 1. sect. 7.

Aug. Conf. art. 7.

d Ibid. Hæres. 8. Luth. art. 36. Calv. Inst. 1. ii. c. 2.

Ibid. Hæres. 10.

f Ibid. Hæres. 6. cit. Calv. Inst. 1. iv. c. 19.

Hæres. 11. Calv. Inst. 1. iii. c. 5.

mus. Nunc Sabelliani, qui Serveti ævo vixerimus'; nunc Eutychiani, qui et temporibus Swinckfeldii: quid enim nobis ultra cum illis hæreticis commercii? Nunc Pelagiani", qui peccati

ávia mortem statuerimus; nunc Donatistæ, qui solos justos admiserimus in Ecclesiam electorum: nunc Manichæi, qui liberum arbitrium sustulerimus; nunc Ariani, qui traditiones; nunc Novatiani', qui poenitentiam: nunc Arianis, qui oblationes pro mortuis et jejunia; Jovinianistæ, qui fidem lubricam et evanidam; Vigilantiani', qui reliquiarum adorationem; Nestoriani*, qui asseverationem panis Eucharistici; Xenaita', qui imagines; Lampetiani", qui votorum servitutem.

Parum hercle refert, Timotheumne Presbyterum, an Athanasium, incuset foedum os meretriculæ. Certum est illud Nazianzeni, Οὐδεις ὑφέξει τῆς γλωσσῆς αὐτονομίαν. Etenim, “Bonos carpere, malorum solatium est;" verè Hieronymus". Quod ergo Lindiis olim solenne erat, sacra non peragere Herculi absque convitiis, illud idem patientiæ nostræ præconibus Pontificiis nimio quàm familiare est°. "Quotidiana fornax nostra," ut ingeniosè Augustinus ", "adversariorum lingua."

Quæ hîc convitiorum plaustra, à scurris Romæ trivialibus passim congesta, exonerare liceret! Quæ sanguinis effusi flumina, quæ sanctorum busta, vivi comburio crudeliter damnatorum, commemorare! Novit hæc orbis, et sensit jam nimis.

Sed et qui tantarum litium sequestros agere maluerunt, benigni homines, Cassander, Fricius, Interimistæ, et Apologus ille Gallorum avóvvμos', quàm malè utrinque audierunt! Quibuscum non aliter mihi videtur agi, quàm fatuo quopiam pastore, qui se arietibus, summo impetu concursantibus, medium interposuerit. Neque fœliciùs unquam obveniat blandioribus illis, quicunque demûm fuerint, Philistæorum, qui arcam Domini in Dagonis ædem inferre molientur.

Hæres. 12. Calv. Inst. 1. iv. c. 12.

1 Hæres. 13. Luth. Serm. de Sanctâ Cruce, et de Abrog. Missâ. Hæres. 16. Bucer. Melancth. in Locis.

1 Hæres. 18. Calv. Inst. 1. i. c. 11.

Hæres. 19. Luth. de Votis Monast. Ruffin. 1. i. c. 17. Epist. Bas. 35. "Hier. ad Theop. advers. Joh. Hierosol.

• Chrysost.

P Aug. Confess. 1. x. c. 37.

And. Fricius Modrevius, lib. de Emendandâ Repub.
Examen Pacifique de la Doctrine des Huguenots.

And, for us, since we must needs be put to it, we shall not here, as it often falls out in other quarrels, strive to our loss. Abraham fared well, by the dissentions of Lot: all the milk and honey of whole Palestine hereupon befell to him; whereof he should else have shared but the half. Doubtless, these contentions, through the goodness of God, shall enrich us with a great increase both of truth and glory.

CHAP. II.

BECAUSE A CONFESSION OF THE SAME CREED IS NOT SUFFICIENT.

Ir is not Cassander's speech only, but every wise and honest man's, that the Creed is the common cognizance of our faith; and we all do, with one voice, willingly profess it.

Surely Theodoret, when he would, by a favourable report, allay the bitter contentions of those ancient Christians of Antioch, writes thus: "Both parts," saith he, "made one and the same confession of their faith; for both maintained the Creed of the Nicene Council." And yet this position is spitefully handled by Cardinal Bellarmin; and can scarce draw breath, since his last stripes: "What care we," saith he, "for the same Creed? Faith is not in words, but in the sense."

And, indeed, I remember what Ruffinus reports done by Arius. That worthy, Constantine, had charged him to write what faith he held: he delivered him a Creed; in words, ours; in sense, his own. And how right his wicked brood took after their father, in the ensuing times of the Church, let histories witness. Sure I am, whosoever shall read the Creeds of their several sects, shall hardly fetch out any thing, which an orthodox censurer would think worthy of reproof. How oft do they yield Christ to be God; yea, God of God; and yet perfidiously reserve to themselves, in the mean time, that absurd conceit, that he was created ex non entibus!

As, therefore, Severianus, the Syrian, in Theodoret, spake Greek as a Grecian, but pronounced it like a Syrian: so there may be many, which may speak truths, but pronounce them heretically. "For all heresies," saith Irenæus; "talk of one God, but mar him with their misconceits." "Yea, for the most part, all heresies," saith Chrysologus, "set a face of the Trinity." To little purpose. It was not ill said of Gratian, "That no man is to care for words, since that not the meaning should serve the words, but the words rather the meaning."

Neque enim istic, quod alibi sæpè solet, damnis desudascitur. Bene cessit Abrahæ Loti dissidium; integra hinc illi obtigit lactea ac mellea Palestinæ regio, quam alioqui fortè dimidiatam possedisset. Ditabunt nos, Dei virtute, lites istæ magno fœnore veritatis ac gloriæ.

CAP. II.

QUIA NON SUFFICIT EJUSDEM SYMBOLI CONFESSIO.

AT omnium illud, non unius Cassandri3, in ore est: Communis fidei tessera Symbolum est; idemque nos uno ore omnes lubentissimè profitemur.

Certè Theodoretus, cùm Antiochenorum acerrimè contendentium inimicitias stylo minuere vellet: "Erat," inquit, "utriusque partis una eademque fidei confessio, quòd ambæ Nicenam Synodum propugnarent." Quod tamen etiam adhuc à Bellarmini lacertis et languet, et calet. "Quanti enim est," inquit", "idem Symbolum? Non in verbis, sed in sensu, fides est."

Et sanè memini quod olim ab Ario factum narrat Ruffinus*. Jusserat illum scilicet Constantinus manu suâ scribere, quid de Fide sentiret is Fidem, verbis nostram, sensu suam, exarâsse dicitur. Et quàm benè patrissârint ejus nepotes, proximis Ecclesiæ seculis, loquantur historiæ. Quisquis certè 'EgovKOVΕξουκονTiv et Homoiusiastov Symbola pellegerit, vix quid inde eruet, quod orthodoxi censores meritò reprehendendum censeant. Quoties illi Christum Deum appellant, etiam de Deo; creatum tamen interea ex non entibus, sibi perfidiosè servant!

Ut, ergo, Severianus ille Syrus, apud Theodoretum, Græcè quidem locutus est ut Græcus, sed ut Syrus pronunciavit: ita plerique orthodoxa loquuntur, pronuntiant interim hæreticè. "Omnes enim Hæreses," inquit Irenæus", "Deum unum dicunt, sed per sententiam malam immutant." "Et omnes Hæreses," inquit Chrysologus", "Trinitatem mentiuntur vocabulis"." Docuit ergo nos non malè Gratianus", " Verba nemini curæ esse debere, cùm non intentio verbis, sed verba intentioni debeant inservire."

Theod. Hist. 1. iii. c. 4.
* Ruff. Hist. 1. iii. c. 19.
Petr. Chrysol. Serm. 109.

Lib. de Offic. Boni Viri. "Bell. de Laicis. lib. iii. c. 19. y Iren. 1. i. c. 9. This quotation from Chrysologus, Bishop of Ravenna, (A. D. 433-451,) is supplied in the text from a note appended to the original edition of the Latin.-H.

b Decr. 22. q. 5. Humana.