made in their former Councils, and especially in this their last Council of Trent, ought to be wholly, and inviolately, undoubtedly, and devoutly professed, taught, preached, and received, as the true Catholic Faith, out of which none can be saved."

But all these new traditions, as they have no ground in Scripture, so have they as little testimony of antiquity to be brought for them; out of both which we prescribe against them all.

For it is but a vain pretence of antiquity, and a mere abusing of the world, when they go about to make simple people believe, that all which they profess, and believe, hath the consent of all ages for them, and that all the ancient Fathers and Bishops of the Church never taught, nor believed, otherwise than they now do.

The truth and strength of which their assertion, in one of their peculiar and prime traditions, first set forth in their late assembly at Trent, I examine in this History: whereby I trust it will be made manifest to the reader, that those men, who do now so busily endeavour to seduce the sons and daughters of the Church of England from the grounds. and truth of our Religion, which is no other than what we have received from Christ and His Universal Church, termed nevertheless by them a new Church, and a new Religion, that began in the days of King Henry the Eighth; (which is as true, as if they should say a sick person began then first to live, when he recovered from the disease and distemper that was before upon him : for we are the same Church still, (as he the same person,) that we were before, though in a better estate and health of our souls, in a greater soundness and purity of Religion, than indeed we were before, when they had to do with it, and infected us :)-that these men, I say, who untruly term us novelists, are in truth themselves the

Conc., et præcipue a Sacrosancta Trid. Synodo tradita, definita, et declarata, indubitanter recipio atque profiteor; simulque contraria omnia ... damno, rejicio, atque anathematizo. Hanc ve

ram Catholicam Fidem, &c. . . . integram et inviolatam [immaculatam] veraciter teneo, ... et ab aliis teneri, &c. . . . me curaturum juro.

greatest novelists of any in the world besides; and must be content, (both in this peculiar article of their religion, which we now set forth and examine through the several ages of the Church, and likewise in others, which we may, by the grace of God, examine in the like manner hereafter,) to come behind in time, after divers of those novelists, and disturbers of true religion, that now bear vogue among us.

It is a matter of fact this, that is here tried, which may be put to a jury of twelve men, that have no lawful exception to be taken against them; but I give them more, and put it to many such, one after another, that there may be no want: which, in such cases as this is, will be the fairest way of trial, to find out the truth, and leave the reader to judge of it, on whose side it standeth.

In the gathering of my witnesses together, and collecting this Scholastical History, I must acknowledge to owe somewhat unto those learned men, that have heretofore taken pains in this behalf, as well at home in our own Church, as abroad in others. Yet, (let it be said without derogation from any of them,) this book hath been judged by him, that first requested me to make it a part of my employment, (though he was a person well able to have more perfectly done it himself,) and by other men of knowledge, (professors of true religion and learning, who have read it after him, and many times moved him to commit it to the press,) that it would give more ample satisfaction, and clear the passages in antiquity from the objections, that some late authors on the Roman side bring against us, than those other writings of home or foreign divines have done, that are extant in this kind. For, besides the whole frame and order of the book,— insisting upon the right and best way of enquiry into this matter by an historical disquisition of the universal tradition

e Mr. P. Gunning: (now, the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Chichester, and Regius Professor of Divinity in Cambridge.-[Ed. 1672.]) [In the Barlow collection of MSS. in the Library of Queen's College, Oxford, is a

copy of part of a Letter from Gunning to Cosin, on the subject of this Scholastical History, in which Gunning excuses himself from writing a Preface to it.

and testimony of God's Church herein unanimously delivered in all ages from the Apostles' times (and before) to ours,-my observations, as I pass along both through the ancient and later writers that have said any thing of this subject, are many of them new; and, where I have followed others, even there also I have added much of my own, to advance and manifest the truth that is in them: having no other aim, than herein to be serviceable to the Truth of God, set forth and professed by the Church of England; which Truth we endeavour, in these wavering and lapsing times, to preserve entire and upright among us.

My discourse is continued, and not interrupted with quotations of authors; which I have diligently searched and placed all the way in the margin. The language, that I use, is familiar, clear, and inoffensive, (which I trust will make it the more acceptable:) for I neither affect, nor approve any other.

But, if I may unwittingly have said any thing, that shall be found to disagree either with any passage in the Holy Scriptures, or with the consent of antiquity in the sense and interpretation of those Scriptures, (which yet, I hope well, will not be found,) I do here beforehand revoke and unsay it already.

At my retirement in Paris,

the 17th of Feb., 1657.

JOH. COSIN.

AN ADDITION OF CERTAIN TESTIMONIES TO BE NOTED FOR THE CLEARER UNDERSTANDING OF DIVERS PLACES IN THIS BOOK.

AD NUM. I.

S. Augustinus, de Civit. Dei, lib. xi. cap. 3. [tom. vii. col. 273.] (FILIUS Dei) prius per Prophetas, deinde per Seipsum, postea per Apostolos, quantum satis esse judicavit, locutus, etiam Scripturam condidit, quæ canonica nominatur, eminentissimæ auctoritatis, cui Fidem habemus de his rebus, quas ignorare non expedit, nec per nos [met] ipsos nosse idonei sumus.

Alph. Tostatus, præfat. in Matth. q. v. [tom. ix. fol. 5.]

Magna, imo maxima omnium auctoritatum, quæ sub cœlo esse potest, est auctoritas S. Scripturæ.

AD NUM. II.

Thom. [Aquin.,] Prima [Pars Summæ Theol.] q. i. in corp. art. x. [art. viii. tom. x. fol. 8.]

Innititur Fides nostra Revelationi Apostolis et Prophetis. factæ, qui canonicos libros scripserunt; non autem revelationi, si quæ fuerit [fuit] aliis doctoribus facta.

AD NUM. VIII.

Joh. Gerson. de Vita Sp. [Animæ,] lect. 2. [corollar. 7.-tom. iii. col. 183, ed. Par. 1606.]

His aperitur modus intelligendi illud Augustini (dictum :) "Ego Evangelio non crederem, nisi Ecclesiæ (Catholica) me commoveret [compulisset] Auctoritas."—[S. Aug.] contr. Ep.