A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux

2. They affirm that this Scripture evidenceth it self by many infallible [Greek or Hebrew], to be so given by Inspiration from God; and besides is witnessed so to be, by the Testimony of the Church of God from the days of Moses, wherein it began to be written, to the days wherein we live; our Lord Christ and his Apostles asserting and confirming the same Testimony; which Testimony is conveyed unto us by uninterrupted Catholic Tradition. The first part of this Position, I confess, some of you deny; and the latter part of it you generally all of you pervert, confining the Testimony mentioned unto that of your present Church, which is a very inconsiderable part of it, if any part at all. But how groundlessly, how prejudicially, to the verity and honour of Christian Religion in general you do these things, I shall briefly show you.

2. They affirm that this Scripture evidenceth it self by many infallible 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, to be so given by Inspiration from God; and besides is witnessed so to be, by the Testimony of the Church of God from the dayes of Moses, wherein it began to be written, to the dayes wherein we live; our Lord Christ and his Apostles asserting and confirming the same Testimony; which Testimony is conveyed unto us by uninterrupted Catholick Tradition. The first part of this Position, I confess, some of you deny; and the latter part of it you generally all of you pervert, confining the Testimony mentioned unto that of your present Church, which is a very inconsiderable part of it, if any part at all. But how groundlesly, how prejudicially, to the verity and honour of Christian Religion in generall you do these things, I shall briefly shew you.

Some of you, I say deny the first part of this Assertion; so doth Andradius Defens. Concil. Trident. ⟨p. 134⟩Lib. 3. Neque enim, saith he, in ipsis Libris quibus Sacra Mysteria conscripta sunt, quicquam inest Divinitatis, quod nos ad Credendum qua illis continentur, religione aliqua constring at; Neither is there in the Books themselves, wherein the holy Mysteries are written, any thing of Divinity, that should constrain us by virtue of any religious respect thereunto, to believe the things that are contained in them. Hence Cocleus, Lib. 2. de Authoritate Eccles. & Script. gathers up a many instances out of the Book of the Scripture, which he declares to be altogether incredible, were it not for the Authority of the Church I need not mention any more of your Leaders, concurring with them; you know who is of the same mind with them, if the Author of Fiat Lux be not unknown to you. Your resolving Universal Tradition into the Authority of your present Church, to which end there is a Book written not long since by a Jesuit under the name of Vincentius Severinus, is no less notorious. Some of you, I confess, are more modest, and otherwise minded, as to both parts of our Assertion. See Malderus Episcop. Antwerp. de Object. Fidei, qu. 1. Vaselius Groningen. de Potestat. Eccles. & Epist. ad Jacob. Hock. Alliacens. in Lib. 1. Sentent. Artic. 3. Gerson Exam. dos. part. 2. Consid. 1. Tom. 1. sol. 105. and in twenty other places. But when you come to deal with Protestants, and consider well the Tendency of this Assertion, you use I confess an hundred rergiversations, and are most unwilling to come to the acknowledgement of it; and rather then suffer from it, deny it downright; and that with Scurrilous reflections, and Comparisons, likening it, as to any characters of Gods truth and Holiness upon it, unto Livy's Story, yea Aesops Fables, or a Piece of Poetry. And when you have done so, you apply your selves