and how great praises he extolleth a man, though holy and learned, yet not to be compared unto the authority of the canonical Scripture," And therefore, advance the learning and holiness of these worthy men as much as you list, other answer you are not like to have from us, than that which the same St. Augustine maketh unto St. Hierome. "This reverence and honour have I learned to give to those books of Scripture only, which now are called canonical, that I most firmly believe none of their authors could any whit err in writing. But others I so read that, with how great sanctity and learning soever they do excel, I therefore think not any thing to be true, because they so thought it: but because they were able to persuade me, either by those canonical authors, or by some probable reason, that it did not swerve from truth."

Yet even to this field also do our challengers provoke us; and if the fathers' authority will not suffice, they offer to produce good and certain grounds out of the sacred. Scriptures, for confirmation of all the points of their religion which they have mentioned: yea, further, they challenge any protestant to allege any one text out of the said Scripture, which condemneth any of the above written points. At which boldness of theirs we should much wonder, but that we consider that bankrupts commonly do then most brag of their ability, when their estate is at the lowest perhaps also, that ignorance might be it, that did beget in them this boldness. For if they had been pleased to take the advice of their learned council, their canonists would have told them touching confession, which is one of their points, that "it were better to hold that it was ordained by a certain tradition of the universal church, than by the authority of the New or Old Testa

y Solis eis Scripturarum libris, qui jam canonici appellantur, didici hunc timorem honoremque deferre, ut nullum eorum authorem scribendo aliquid errasse firmissime credam, &c. Alios autem ita lego ut, quantalibet sanctitate doctrinaque præpolleant, non ideo verum putem, quia ipsi ita senserunt: sed quia mihi vel per illos authores canonicos, vel probabili ratione, quod a vero non abhorreat, persuadere potuerunt. Augustin. ep. 82. op. tom. 2. pag. 190.

Gloss. in Gratian. de pœnit. dist. 5. cap. 1. In pœnitentia.

ment." Melchior Canus" could have put them in mind, that it is no where expressed in Scripture, that "Christ descended into hell, to deliver the souls of Adam, and the rest of the fathers which were detained there." And Dominicus Bannes, "that" the holy Scriptures teach, neither expresse, nor yet impresse et involute, that prayers are to be made unto saints, or that their images are to be worshipped." Or, if the testimony of a Jesuit will more prevail with them, "That images should be worshipped, saints prayed unto, auricular confession frequented, sacrifices celebrated both for the quick and the dead, and other things of this kind," Fr. Coster would have to be reckoned among divine traditions, which be not laid down in the Scriptures.

Howsoever yet the matter standeth, we have no reason but willingly to accept of their challenge; and to require them to bring forth those good and certain grounds out of the sacred Scriptures, for confirmation of all the articles by them propounded; as also to let them see, whether we be able to allege any text of Scripture, which condemneth any of those points: although I must confess it will be a hard matter to make them see any thing, which beforehand have resolved to close their eyes; having their minds so preoccupied with prejudice, that they profess before ever we begin, they hold for certain, that we shall never be able to produce any such text. And why, think you? because, forsooth, we are neither more learned, more pious nor more holy, than the blessed doctors and martyrs of that first Church of Rome: as who should say, we yielded at the first word, that all those blessed doctors and martyrs expounded the Scriptures every where to our disadvantage; or were so well persuaded of the tenderness of a Jesuit's conscience, that, because he hath taken an oath never to interpret the Scripture, but according to

a Can. lib. 3. loc. theolog. cap. 4.

b Bann. in. 22. qu. 1. artic. 10. col. 302.

c Coster. in compendiosa orthodoxæ fidei demonst. propos. 5. cap. 2. pag. 162. edit. Colon. ann. 1607.

the uniform consent of the fathers, he could not therefore have the forehead to say, "I do not deny, that I have no author of this interpretation: yet do I so much the rather approve it, than that other of Augustine's, though the most probable of all the rest, because it is more contrary to the sense of the Calvinists; which to me is a great argument of probability:" or as if lastly a man might not dissent from the ancient doctors, so much as in an exposition of a text of Scripture, but he must presently make himself more learned, more pious and more holy, than they

were.

Yet their great Tostatus might have taught them, that this argument holdeth not: "Such a one knoweth some conclusion, that Augustine did not know; therefore he is wiser than Augustine, because, as a certain skilful physician said, the men of our time, being compared with the ancient, are like unto a little man set upon a giant's neck, compared with the giant himself. For as that little man placed there seeth whatsoever the giant seeth, and somewhat more; and yet, if he be taken down from the giant's neck, would see little or nothing in comparison of the giant even so we being settled upon the wits and works of the ancient, it were not to be wondered, nay it should be very agreeable unto reason, that we should see whatsoever they saw, and somewhat more. Though yet (saith he) we do not profess so much." And even to the same effect speaketh friar Stella: that, though it be far from him to condemn the common exposition given by the an

d Non nego me hujus interpretationis authorem neminem habere: sed hanc eo magis probo quam illam alteram Augustini, cæterarum alioqui probabilissimam; quod hæc cum Calvinistarum sensu magis pugnet: quod mihi magnum est probabilitatis argumentum. Maldonat. in Johan. cap. 6. ver. 63.

e Sed nec ista argumentatio valet, sc. Iste homo scit aliquam conclusionem, quam nescivit Augustinus; ergo est sapientior Augustino.-Et, sicut quidam peritus medicus dixit, homines nostri temporis ad antiquos comparantur, sicut pusillus homo positus collo gigantis ad ipsum gigantem. Nam pusillus ibi positus videt quicquid videt gigas, et insuper plus; et tamen, si deponatur de collo gigantis, parum aut nihil videbit ad gigantem collatus. Ita et nos firmati super ingenia antiquorum et opera corum, non esset admirandum, immo foret valde rationabile, si videremus quidquid illi viderunt, et insuper plus: licet hoc adhuc non profiAbulens. 2. part. defensor. cap. 18.

teinur.

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cient holy doctors, yet he knoweth full well, that pygmies, being put upon giants' shoulders, do see further than the giants themselves." Salmeron addeth, that "by the increase of time divine mysteries have been made known, which before were hid from many: so that to know them now is to be attributed unto the benefit of the time; not that we are better than our fathers were." Bishop Fisher: that it cannot be obscure unto any, that many things, as well in the Gospels as in the rest of the Scriptures, are now more exquisitely discussed by latter wits, and more clearly understood, than they have been heretofore, either by reason that the ice was not as yet broken unto the ancient, neither did their age suffice to weigh exactly that whole sea of the Scriptures; or because in this most large field of the Scriptures, even after the most diligent reapers, some ears will remain to be gathered, as yet untouched." Hereupon cardinal Cajetan, in the beginning of his commentaries upon Moses, adviseth his reader, "not to loath the new sense of the holy Scripture for this, that it dissenteth from the ancient doctors: but to search more exactly the text and context of the Scripture; and, if he find it agree, to praise God, that hath not tied the exposition of the Scriptures to the senses of the ancient doctors."

But, leaving comparisons, which you know are odious,

f Bene tamen scimus, pygmæos, gigantum humeris impositos, plusquam ipsos gigantes videre. Stella, enarrat. in Luc. cap. 10.

Per incrementa temporum nota facta sunt divina mysteria, quæ tamen antea multos latuerunt: ita ut hoc loco nosse beneficium sit temporis, non quod nos meliores simus quam patres nostri. Salmeron, in epist. ad Rom. lib. 2. disput. 51.

Neque cuiquam obscurum est, quin posterioribus ingeniis multa sint, tam ex evangeliis quam ex Scripturis cæteris, nunc excussa luculentius, et intellecta perspicacius, quam fuerant olim. Nimirum, aut quia veteribus adhuc non erat perfracta glacies, neque sufficiebat illorum ætas totum illud Scripturarum pelagus ad amussim expendere: aut quia semper in amplissimo Scripturarum campo, post messores quantumvis exquisitissimos, spicas adhuc intactas licebit colligere. Roffens. confut. assert. Luther. artic. 18.

Nullus itaque detestetur novum sacræ scripturæ sensum, ex hoc quod dissonat a priscis doctoribus; sed scrutetur perspicacius textum ac contextum Scripturæ et, si quadrare invenerit, laudet Deum, qui non alligavit expositionem scripturarum sacrarum priscorum doctorum sensibus. Cajet. in Genes. cap. 1.

the envy whereof notwithstanding your own doctors and masters, you see, help us to bear off, and teach us how to decline; I now come to the examination of the particular points by you propounded. It should indeed be your part by right to be the assailant, who first did make the challenge: and I, who sustain the person of the defendant, might here well stay, accepting only your challenge, and expecting your encounter. Yet do not I mean at this time to answer your bill of challenge, as bills are usually answered in the chancery, with saving all advantages to the defendant: I am content in this also to abridge myself of the liberty which I might lawfully take, and make a further demonstration of my forwardness in undertaking the maintenance of so good a cause, by giving the first onset myself.