TO THE

NOBLE LADY ANNE MORNAY,

LADY OF TABARRIERE, BARONESS OF ST. HERMINE, &e.

MADAM,

It is now nearly four years since your son, the late Baron of St. Hermine, acquainted me with what kind of discourse he was usually entertained at court by those who laboured to advance the Romish religion, rather to excite his disgust against the Reformed; and told me that the chief argument which they urged against him was Antiquity, and the General Consent of all the Fathers of the first ages of Christianity. Although he himself understood well enough the vanity of this argument of theirs, yet, notwithstanding, for his own fuller satisfaction, he requested that I would discover to him the very depth of this matter. This therefore I did, as minutely as I possibly could, and gave him my judgment at large in this particular. This treatise of mine he was pleased so much to approve, that he conceived some hopes from thence, that it might also happily be of use to others.

Shortly afterwards I put pen to paper, and digested it into the treatise you now see. It having therefore been composed at first for his service, I had resolved also with myself to have dedicated it to his name; purporting, by this small piece of service, to testify to

the world the continuation of the affection I bare to his progress in piety. But that deadly blow which snatched him from us in the flower of his age, about two years since, at the famous siege of Bosleduc, having left us nothing of him now, save only the spoils of his mortality, and the memory of his virtue, together with our great sorrow for having enjoyed him here so short a time, I am constrained, Madam, to change my former resolution. For to dedicate my book to him, in the state wherein he now is, in heaven, (following the example of many both ancient and modern writers, who have not hesitated to direct their discourses from hence below to those whom God has taken into heaven,) I cannot persuade myself that the practice is either lawful or becoming. For, besides the vanity of the thing, should we hold discourse with one, who, being at so great and almost infinite a distance from us, cannot possibly hear what we say, I should account it also, if he could hear us, a point of extreme inhumanity, I had almost said impiety, to disturb that perfect rest his blessed soul now enjoys; which has now no more to do with our debates or discourses here below; but sees the truth now in a most pure light, and enjoys that everlasting bliss wherewith our Saviour has out of his mercy crowned his faith and perseverance in the fear of his name. I shall therefore content myself with cherishing and preserving, whilst I live, the precious memory of his worth, the excellency of his wit, the soundness of his judgment, the sweetness of his nature, the fairness of his carriage, and those other choice parts, wherewith he was accomplished; but, above all, his singular piety, which clearly shone forth in his words and actions, till the hour of his death.

As for this small treatise, Madam, which was at

first conceived and composed for him, I thought I could not, without being guilty of a piece of injustice, present it to any other but yourself: seeing it has pleased God, notwithstanding the common order of nature, to make you heir to him to whom it belonged. This consideration only has emboldened me to present it to your hands; knowing that the nature of this discourse is not so suitable to that sorrow which has of late cast a cloud over your house; it having pleased God, after the death of the son, to deprive you of the father; and to the loss of your children, to add that also of your noble husband. But my desire to avoid being unjust has forced me to be thus uncivilly troublesome seeing

I accounted it a kind of theft, should I have any longer withheld from you that which was your right, by this sad title of inheritance. Be pleased therefore, Madam, to receive this book, as a part of the goods of your deceased son; which I now honestly restore, in the view of the whole world, after concealment of it for some time in my study. This name, I know, will oblige you to afford it some place in your closet, which is all that I can at present desire. For as for the reading of it, besides that your exquisite piety (which is built upon infinitely much firmer grounds than these disputes,) has no need at all of it; I know also that your present condition is such, that it would be very troublesome to you. And if you shall chance to desire to spend some hours in the perusal of it, it must be hereafter, when the Lord, by the efficacy of his Spirit, shall have comforted yours, and shall have allayed the violence of your grief; to whom I pour out my most earnest prayers, that he would vouchsafe powerfully to effect the same, and to shed forth his most holy grace upon you and yours; and that he would by his great mercy

preserve, long and happily, that which remains of that goodly and blessed family, which he has bestowed upon

you.

This, Madam, is one of the most hearty prayers of

Your most humble

And obedient servant,

DAILLE'.

ON THE

RIGHT USE OF THE FATHERS.

BOOK THE FIRST.

CHAPTER I.

REASON I.-ON THE DIFFICULTY OF ASCERTAINING THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS IN REFERENCE TO THE PRESENT CONTROVERSIES IN RELIGION,

DEDUCED

FROM THE FACT THAT THERE IS VERY LITTLE OF WRITINGS EXTANT OF THE THREE FIRST

THEIR

CENTURIES.

If we should here follow the same course of argument, which some writers of the Church of Rome pursue against the Holy Scriptures, it would be very easy to bring in question, and render very doubtful and suspected, all the writings of the Fathers; for when the Old or New Testament is quoted, these gentlemen instantly demand, how or by what means we know that any such books were really written by those prophets and apostles whose names they bear? If therefore, in like manner, when these men adduce Justin, Irenæus, Ambrose, Augustine, and others, we should at once demand of them, how and by what means we are assured that these Fathers were the authors of those writings which at this day bear their names, there is little doubt but that they would find a harder task of it than their adversaries would, in justifying the writings of the sacred volume; the truth whereof is much more easy to be demonstrated than of any human

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