lost too; tho I can easily excuse this in you as a Sin of Ignorance, yet I must needs say of the Cardinal and Others, that they have herein greatly injured those Holy Men; who were neither so lazie nor fearful as they have represented them to have been.
86. For not to say any thing of the foundation of all our Religion, the Holy Scriptures, which were written within this pe∣riod; how large a Catalogue has Eusebius alone preserved of the works of those Holy Fathers: And yet how many of the Latin Church has he omitted: Look into his History, and there you will find those great names, Clemens Romanus, Papias, Quadra∣tus, Aristides, Hegesippus, Justin Martyr, Dionysius of Corinth, Pi∣nytus, Apollinarius, Melito, Modestus, Irenaeus, Theophilus, Tatian, Bardesanes, Clemens Alexandrinus, Rhodo, Miltiades, Apollonius, Se∣rapion, Heraclitus, Moscarinus, Candidus, Sextus, and Arabien; all to have been Writers of the Second Century: Tertullian, Judas, Beryllus, Hippolytus, Caius, Africanus, Dionysius Alexandrinus, Nepos, Cyprian, Origen; in the Third. And the Writings of which last Author only were said to have amounted to Six Thousand Vo∣lumes; and which tho St. Jerome retrench'd to a third part, yet still he left Two Thousand to him.
87. In what sort of Writings were these Holy Men defective? Some publish'd Apologies for our Religion; Others disputed a∣gainst the Heathens, the Jews, the Heretick's of those times. Some wrote of the Discipline of the Church; Others moral Dis∣courses, for the direction of Mens Lives and Manners. Their Histories, their Accounts of the Holy Men, who suffer'd for the Faith; their Comments on the holy Scripture, their Sermons are yet upon Record: And when such was their diligence, why should it be insinuated as if living under persecution they wrote but little; and therefore that it is unreasonable to appeal to them?
88. Nor is your next pretence any better: that their Writings are lost and destroyed: For tho it be indeed in great measure true, that in respect of what they wrote there is but a small part brought down to us (and we have some reason to believe that the Opposition they made to your Corruptions has been in some measure the Cause of it;) yet have we still enough to shew us what the Faith of those times was, and how vastly you have de∣clined from it. And when both the Writings of Holy Scripture, and of those Fathers that do remain speak so plainly against you, we have no great reason to believe that those which are lost were at all more favourable to you.