vnto you: and therefore beleeuing them, I must needs not beleeue thee. If thou say, Beleeue not the Catholikes: it is not the right way, by the Ghospel to driue me to the faith of Manichæus, because I beleeued the Ghospel it-self by the preaching of Catholikes.
Againe li. de utilit. credend. cap. 14.
I see that concerning Christ himself, I haue beleeued none, but the confirmed and assured opinion of Peoples and Nations: and that these Peoples haue on euery side possessed the Mysteries of the Catholike Church. Why should I not therfore most diligently require, specially among them, what Christ commanded, by whose authoritie I was moued to beleeue, that Christ did command some profitable thing? Vvilt thou (O Heretike) tel me better what he said, whom I would not thinke to haue been at al, or to be, if I must beleeue, because thou saiest it. What grosse madnes is this, to say, Beleeue the Catholikes, the Christ is to be beleeued: and learne of vs, what he said.
Againe cont. Faustum li. II. cap. 1.
Thou seest then in this matter what force the authoritie of the Catholike Church hath, which euen from the most grounded and founded Seats of the Apostles, is established vntil this day, by the line of Bishops succeeding one another, and by the consent of so many peoples. Wheras thou saiest, This is Scripture, or, this is such as Apostles, that is not; because this soundeth for me, and the other against me. Thou then art the rule of truth. Whatsoeuer is against thee, is not true.
3. No heretikes haue right to the Scriptures, but are vsurpers: the Catholike
Church being the true ovvner and faithful keeper of them. Heretikes
abuse them, corrupt them, and vtterly seeke to abolish them,
though they pretend the contrarie.
Tertullian li. De præscriptionibus, bringeth in the Catholike
Church speaking thus to all Heretikes.
Who are you, when, and from whence came you? What doe you in my possession, that are none of mine? By What right (Marcion) doest thou cut downe my wood? Who gaue the licence (O Valentine [1] ) to turne the course of my fountaines? By what authoritie (Apelles) doest thou remoue my bounds? And [2] you the rest, why doe you sow and seed for these companions at your pleasure? It is my possession, I possesse it of old, I haue assured origins therof, euen from those Authours whose the thing was. I am the heire of the Apostles. As they prouided by their Testament, as they committed it to my credit, they adiured me, so doe I hold it. You surely they disherited alwaies and haue cast you off as forainers, as enemies.
Againe in the same book.
Encountering with such by Scriptures, auaileth nothing, but to ouerturne a man's stomake or his braine. This heresie receiueth not certaine Scriptures: and if it doe receiue some, yet by adding and taking away, it peruerteth the same to serue their purpose: and if it receiue any, it doth not receiue them wholy: and if after a sort it receiue them wholy, neuertheles by diuising diuers expositions, it turneth them cleane another way, &c.
4. Yet do they vaunt themselues of Scriptures exceedingly, but they are neuer
the more to be trusted for that.
S. Hierom aduersus Luciferianos in fine.
Let them not flatter themselues, if they seeme in their owne conceit to affirme that which they say, out of the chapters of Scripture, wheras the Diuel also spake some things out of the Scriptures, and the Scriptures consist not in the reading, but in the vnderstanding.
Vincentius Lirinensis li. cont. prophanas hæresum Nouationes.
Here perhaps some man may aske, whether Heretikes also vse not the testimonies of diuine Scripture. Yet indeed do they, and that vehemently. For thou shalt see them flie through euery one of the Sacred books of the Law, through Moyses, the books of the Kings, the Psalmes, the Apostles, the Gospels, the Prophets. For whether among their owne fellowes, or strangers: whether priuatly, or publikely: whether in talke, or in their books: whether in bankets, or in the streets: they (I say) alleage nothing of their owne, which they endeauour not to shadow with the words of Scripture also. Read the workes of Paulus Samosatenus, of Priscillian, of Eunomian, of Iouinian, [3] of the other plagues and pestilences: thou shalt find an infinit heap of examples, no page in a manner omitted
