A15057:148
An answer to the Ten reasons of Edmund Campian the Jesuit in confidence whereof…An ansvvere to the Ten reasons of Edmund Campian the Iesuit in confidence wherof…
An answer to the Ten reasons of Edmund Campian the Jesuit in confidence whereof he offered disputation to the ministers of the Church of England, in the controversy of faith. Whereunto is added in brief marginal notes, the sum of the defence of those reasons by John Duræus the Scot, being a priest and a Jesuit, with a reply unto it. Written first in the Latin tongue by the reverend and faithful servant of Christ and his Church, William Whitakers, Doctor in Divinity, and the Kings Professor and public reader of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. And now faithfully translated for the benefit of the unlearned (at the appointment and desire of some in authority) into the English tongue; by Richard Stock, preacher in London. ...An ansvvere to the Ten reasons of Edmund Campian the Iesuit in confidence wherof he offered disputation to the ministers of the Church of England, in the controuersie of faith. Whereunto is added in briefe marginall notes, the summe of the defence of those reasons by Iohn Duræus the Scot, being a priest and a Iesuit, with a reply vnto it. Written first in the Latine tongue by the reuerend and faithfull seruant of Christ and his Church, William Whitakers, Doctor in Diuinitie, and the Kings Professor and publike reader of Diuinitie in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge. And now faithfully translated for the benefit of the vnlearned (at the appointment and desire of some in authoritie) into the English tongue; by Richard Stocke, preacher in London. ...
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Cuthbert Burby and Edmund Weaver, 1606London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Cuthbert Burby and Edmund Weauer, 1606
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
A weighty question, (say you) concerning lawful cere•••ies, was cleared in a Council of the Apostles and Fld•rs assembled together. The children believed their Parents, and the Sheep their Shepherd, commanding in this form of speech; It bath pleased the holy Ghost and us. Where you make mention of a Council most excellent, and above all exceptions: in which nothing was done rashly, perversely, and factiously (as sometimes in other Councils ⟨p. 96⟩it hath been accustomed) but all things divinely, and by the authority of the holy Ghost himself. and therefore if we did not believe this Council, we were unworthy of the name, either of children or of sheep. This Council resolved that important question concerning ceremonies, and freed the necks of Christians from that most grievous yoke of Mosaical rites: whereby the greater cause of grief is offered us by you, who have imposed upon the Church, contrary to the express commandment of this Council, another yoke much more intolerable, then that of Moses. For this is clear and manifest, that the ceremonies brought into the Church by you, and imposed upon the consciences of men, are twice as many, as those which in time past Moses by Gods express commandment enjoined unto the people of Israel.1 And this is that of whichc Augustine long agone complained, namely that by the multitudes of ceremonies, the state of Christians, was become worse then the state of the Jews themselves, which if Augustine spake of the ceremonies of his time, how much more would he have thus complained, had he seen the great multitudes, which were afterwards added to them. But if the Apostles and Elders according to the meaning & judgment of the holy Ghost, did determine that those ceremonies which the Lord himself had ordained, were to be abolished, how intolerable is your boldness, who contrary to the decree ⟨p. 97⟩of this spirit, and Council have obtruded, upon Christians your innumerable traditions and needles ceremonies. Did the Lord therefore abolish his own ceremonies, that he might establish yours? did he abroga•• a few, that he might bring in a multitude? did he ease us of lighter, that he might impose heavier. Whereby it appeareth that the divine institution of this Council, which, as it was before all other in time, so above all other in excellency, is most wickedly by you violated.