with them especially, as far as equity requireth; and further we maintain it not. For men to be tied and led by authority, as it were with a kind of captivity of judgment, and though there be reason to the contrary not to listen unto it, but to follow like beasts the first in the herd, they know not nor care not whither, this were brutish. Again, that authority of men should prevail with men either against or above Reason, is no part of our belief. Companies of learned men,' be they never so great and reverend, are to yield unto Reason; the weight whereof is no whit prejudiced by the simplicity of his person which doth allege it, but being found to be sound and good, the bare opinion of men to the contrary must of necessity stoop and give place." Thus Mr. Hooker in his 7th §. book 25, which place because it is far distant from that which is alleged by you, the oversight of it might be excusable, did you not impute it to Dr. Potter as a fault, that he cites some clauses of some books without reading the whole. But besides, in that very section out of which you take this corrupted sentence, he hath very pregnant words to the same effect; "As for the orders established, sith equity and reason favour that which is in being, till orderly judgment of decision be given against it, it is but justice to exact of you, and perverseness in you it would be to deny thereunto your willing obedience. Not that I judge it a thing allowable, for men to observe those laws, which in their hearts they are steadfastly persuaded to be against the law of God: but your persuasion in this case ye are all bound for the time to suspend; and in otherwise doing, ye offend against God, by troubling his church without just and necessary cause. Be it that there are some reasons inducing you to think hardly of our laws; are those reasons demons Vol. i. p. 407. Oxf. edit. 1836.

strative, are they necessary, or but mere probabilities only? An argument necessary and demonstrative is such, as, being proposed to any man, and understood, the mind cannot choose but inwardly assent. Any one such reason dischargeth, I grant, the conscience, and setteth it at full liberty. For the public approbation given by the body of this whole church unto those things which are established, doth make it but probable that they are good. And therefore unto a necessary proof, that they are not good, it must give place.” This plain declaration of his judgment in this matter, this express limitation of his former resolution, he makes in the very same section which affords your former quotation; and therefore what apology can be made for you, and your storehouse Mr. Brerely, for dissembling of it, I cannot possibly imagine.

111. Dr. Potter, p. 131, says, "that the errors of the Donatists and Novatians were not in themselves heresies, nor could be made so by the church's determination but that the church's intention was only to silence disputes, and to settle peace and unity in her government; which because they factiously opposed, they were justly esteemed schismatics. From hence you conclude, that the same condemnation must pass against the first reformers, seeing they also opposed the commands of the church, imposed on them, for silencing all disputes, and settling peace and unity in government." But this collection is deceitful; and the reason is, because, though the first reformers, as well as the Donatists and Novatians, opposed herein the commands of the visible church, that is, of a great part of it; yet the reformers had reason, nay necessity to do so, the church being then corrupted with damnable errors; which was not true of the church when it was opposed by the Novatians and Donatists. And therefore though

they and the reformers did the same action, yet doing it upon different grounds, it might in these merit applause, and in them condemnation.

112. Ad §. 43. The next section hath in it some objections against Luther's person, "and none against his cause, which alone I have undertaken to justify, and therefore I pass it over. Yet this I promise, that when you, or any of your side, shall publish a good defence of all that your popes have said and done, especially of them whom Bellarmine believes, in such a long train, "to have gone to the Devil," then you shall receive an ample apology for all the actions and words of Luther. In the mean time, I hope, all reasonable and equitable judges will esteem it not unpardonable in the great and heroical spirit of Luther, if, being opposed and perpetually baited with a world of furies, he was transported sometimes, and made somewhat furious. As for you, I desire you to be quiet, and to demand no more, "whether God be wont to send such furies to preach the gospel?" unless you desire to hear of your killing of kings, massacring of people, blowing up of parliaments; and have a mind to be asked, "Whether it be probable, that that should be God's cause, which needs to be maintained by such devilish means?"

113. Ad §. 44, 45. In the two next particles, which are all of this chapter that remain unspoken to, you spend a great deal of reading, and wit, and reason against some men, who pretending to honour and believe the doctrine and practice of the visible church, (you mean your own,) and condemning their forefathers, who forsook her, say they would not have done so, yet remain divided from her communion. Which men, in my judgment, cannot be defended: for if they believe the doctrine of your church, then must they beh but none Oxf.

lieve this doctrine, that they are to return to your communion. And therefore if they do not so, it cannot be avoided but they must be αυτοκατάκριτοι, and so I leave them; only I am to remember you, that these men cannot pretend to be protestants, because they pretend to believe your doctrine, which is opposite in diameter unto the doctrine of protestants; and therefore, in a work which you profess to have written merely against protestants, all this might have been spared.

CHAP. VI.

That Luther and the rest of Protestants have added Heresy unto Schism.

1. " BECAUSE vice is best known by the contrary virtue, we cannot well determine what heresy is, nor who be heretics, but by the opposite virtue of faith, whose nature being once understood, as far as belongs to our present purpose, we shall pass on with ease to the definition of heresy, and so be able to discern who be heretics. And this I intend to do, not by entering into such particular questions as are controverted between catholics and protestants, but only by applying some general grounds, either already proved, or else yielded to on all sides.

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2. " Almighty God having ordained man to a supernatural end of beatitude by supernatural means, it was requisite that his understanding should be enabled to apprehend that end and means by a supernatural knowledge. And because if such a knowledge were no more than probable it could not be able sufficiently to overbear our will, and encounter with human probabilities, being backed with the strength of flesh and blood; it was further necessary, that this supernatural knowledge should be most certain and infallible; and that faith should believe nothing more certainly than that itself is a most certain belief, and so be able to beat down all gay probabilities of human opinion. And because the aforesaid means and end of beatifical vision do far exceed the reach of natural wit, the certainty of faith could not always be joined with such evidence of reason as is wont to be found in the princi