Hercules made it his Business to rid the World of bad Men but saith he you make all the good men you can bad And when the Pharisees boasted of their Succession and Linnage that they were of the Blood of Abraham Christ replied ye seek to kill me a Man that hath told you the Truth which I have heard of God this did not Abraham ye are of your Father the Devil and the Lusts of your Father ye will do But now suppose we should grant something to Successions doth the Pope only succeed St. Peter In what Thing in what Religion in what Function in what part of his Life What one thing ever had St. Peter like the Pope or the Pope like St. Peter unless they will say that when St. Peter was at Rome he never taught the Gospel he never fed the Flock that he took away the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven hid his Lords Treasure that he only sate in the Lateran and with his Finger pointed out all the Spaces of Purgatory and the several sorts of Pains there presently and at his Pleasure dismissed some Souls for Money and sent other miserable Souls into Torture that he taught them the use of private Masses which might be mumbled over in every Corner that he muttered the sacred Mysteries in a low soft Voice and in a strange Language that he hanged up the Eucharist or consecrated Bread in every Church and enshrined it on every Altar and carried it before him whither-ever he went on an ambling Jennet with Lights and Bells That he consecrated Oyl Wax Wooll Bells Calices Temples and Altars with his sacred Breath that he sold Jubilees Graces Immunities Expectancies Preventions first Fruits Palls the use of Palls Bulls Indulgencies and Pardons that he call'd himself the Head of the Church the High Priest the Bishop of Bishops and the only most Holy that he usurp'd Authority over other Churches that he exemped himself from all Civil Power that he made Wars set Discord amongst Princes that he was carried upon the Shoulders of Noble men in a gilded Chair with a Crown full of Labels or Tassils with a Persian Gallantry adorned with a royal Scepter and a golden Diadem glittering with Jewels Did St. Peter heretofore do all these things at Rome and as it were from hand to hand deliver them down to his Successors for all these fine things are now done at Rome and that in such manner as if nothing else ought to be done 21. UNLESS perhaps they would be better pleased with turning the Table and saying that the Pope does all those things which we know heretofore St. Peter did that he travails into all Countries preacheth the Gospel not only publickly but privately from House to House that he insisteth opportunely and inopportunely in season and out of season that he doth the Work of an Evangelist and performs the Ministry of Christ that he is the Watch-man of the House of Israel that he receives the Oracles and Word of God and delivers them as he received them to the People that he is the Salt of the Earth the Light of the World that he feeds not himself but the Flock that he doth not intangle himself with the Civil Affairs of this Life that he doth not exercise Lordship and Dominion over the People of the Lord that he doth not so much seek to have others minister to and serve him but rather that he may serve and assist others that he thinks with St. Peter that all Bishops are his Companions and Equals that he submitteth himself to Princes as to them that are sent by God that he renders to Caesar the things that are Caesars and which all the ancient Bishops of Rome without exception have done calls the Emperor his Lord. Now unless the Popes at this day do all these things or that St. Peter did all the other which we have set forth in the foregoing Paragraph there seems to be no reason why he should so strangely value himself upon the Account either of St. Peters Name or Succession 22. THERE is much less cause for them to complain so dreadfully as they do of our departure from them and to recal us back again to their Society and Faith There is a Story that one Cobilon a Lacedaemonian being sent to make a League with the King of Persia and sinding by chance his Courticrs playing at Dice he return'd forthwith without dispatching or mentioning the Business he came about Being examined upon his return home why he had not executed the publick Commission they had given him he replied that it seemed to him to be a great Dishonour to their Common-wealth if he had made an Alliance with a parcel of Dicers Now if we should return to the Pope and the Popish Errors and make a League not only with Dicers but with men infinitely more debauch'd it would not only bring an ill Report upon our Fame and Reputation but would be pernicious and destructive to us by incensing the Wrath of God against us and burthening and wasting our Consciences for we have only left him who we saw had for many Ages blinded the Nations of the Earth and departed from him who with too much Insolence useth to pretend that he cannot err and that whatever he doth he cannot be judged by any mortal man no not by Kings nor Emperors nor all the Clergy nor all the People tho he should carry a thousand Souls with him to Hell from him who assum'd Dominion not only over Men but over the Angels of God commanding them when he pleased to go and come and carry Souls to Purgatory and bring them back again as his Holiness thought fit Whom Gregory the Great stil'd plainly the Fore-runner and Harbinger of Antichrist and an Apostate from the Faith from whom those Champions who now so vigorously opposed the Gospel and that Truth they are very well satisfied of have every man of them heretofore fallen and would now again freely and willingly leave him if the Note and Shame of being thought too too inconstant and their Credits with the People did not hinder them from it Lastly we have departed from him to whom we were no way bound and who hath nothing to pretend for our Submission to him but I know not what Genius of the Place and the Succession he possesseth 23. AND we of all the Nations in Christendom have had the greatest reason to desert the Pope for our Kings even those who followed the Faith and Authority of the Bishops of Rome with the utmost observance and deference a long time since sufficiently felt the weight of their Yoke and groan'd under the Tyranny of the Papal Kingdom for the Roman Bishops pluckt the Diadem from off the Head of our Henry the 2d and compell'd him to wait upon their Legate in a private Habit without any of the Insigns of Majesty that he might be exposed to the Contempt of all his Subjects And another Bishop of Rome armed
and Men of great Estates and Esteem This Version was made soon after the Piece was first printed tho I cannot tell precisely in what year for Mr. Humfrey tells us Mr. Harding answered the English Book and it is so well done that I profess I could never have made so good a Version as I have if I had not been assisted by it but then our Language is so much refin'd and exalted since that time which is above an hundred years that it was perhaps necessary to put it into a more modish dress in order to recommend it to the reading of those who do not much admire excellent Sense in a harsh and obsolete stile and for this reason only have very many Books of late been new turn'd and they of France who put out the Elegant Mons Version of the New Testament give no other Reason for it than this The Epistle to Seignior Scipio was written soon after the Apology and to a private Venetian Gentleman in a more free and friendly way as not being at all intended for the Publick It was first Printed in English and Latin at the end of the Council of Trent who made that Version I know not but it is a very good one and if I might have had so much liberty I would only have altered a very few words in it and so have Re-printed it again But not daring to take that liberty with what belonged to other men I have done it over again as well as I could and perhaps the Reader will not be displeased to see it in the same stile with the Apology in English as well as Latin But now who can enough deplore the Blindness Pride and Partiality of those Men who being led by Interest and hood-wink'd by Ignorance did at first imploy all the disingenuous Arts that spite and prejudice could furnish them with to ruine this most Excellent Apostolical and Primitive Church or force her to return back to the State of Corruption out of which with so much labour difficulty and danger she was then rising But there is some allowance to be made for the misinformation of Strangers who being separated from us by the Ocean were forced to take such Accounts as were given them by others and 1. being too apt to believe the reports of their own Priests whose Interest it was to blacken her what they could And 2. those of our own Fugitives who made the case much worse than they themselves thought it that they might obtain the more pity and consequently the better Relief and Provision abroad which is wont to be afforded to all those that fly for Religion amongst those of the same Faith 3. And also suspecting the Fidelity of the Relations made by our Ministers in foreign Courts 4. And of all our Travellers who stuck to and imbraced the Religion established by Law But then what can be said for those Roman Catholicks as they will needs be called who living at home here in England and consequently having better means of informing themselves concerning the truth of things cannot pretend to excuse themselves by those Topicks Strangers may It was both their Duty and Interest to inform themselves of the Affairs of their own Country and to submit to the Laws and Customs of it whilest Strangers that are not under those Obligations may excuse themselves if they do not make so diligent an inquiry into things or happen at last to be mistaken in them Besides in the Settlement under Queen Elizabeth All the care imaginable was taken to unite the whole Nation in one Religion if it were possible and whatever was in the former Liturgy that might exasperate or offend them was taken out by which Complyances they are the words of the Learned Dr. Heylyn and the expunging of the Passages before remembred the Book was made so passable amongst the Papists that for ten Years they generally repaired to their Parish Churches without doubt or scruple as is affirmed not only by Sir Edward Coke in his Speech against Garnet and his charge given at the Assizes held at Norwich but also by the Queen her self in a Eetter to Sir Francis Walsingham then being her Resident or Leiger Ambassador in the Court of France the same is confessed by Sanders also in his Book de Schismate And there is a report recorded by Camden that the Pope offered to his Envoy Parapalia to the Queen Liturgiam Anglicam sua Authoritate confirmaturum usum Sacramenti subutraque specie Anglis permissurum dummodo illa Romanae Ecclesiae se aggregaret Romanaeque Cathedrae primatum Agnosceret c. That he would confirm the English Liturgy by his Authority and grant the English the use of the Sacrament under both kinds provided the Queen would unite her self to the Church of Rome and acknowledge the Primacy of the Roman See Since that time nothing has been added that might in the least offend them Why then do they act contrary to their Ancestors Why do they pretend more Conscience than either their Fore-fathers or the Pope ten Years was a sufficient time for them to have found out the Heresie in if there had been any in the Establishment And we all know their Separation was not upon any scruple of Conscience they had but in obedience to the Popes Bull. The Pope in the mean time did what he did purely out of worldly Interest and Policy to advance his own Grandure and Wealth at their cost and trouble If he could have secured this the Liturgy and Doctrine of the Church of England should have been own'd for Catholick and have been confirm'd by his Holinesses Authority But what is this to them Are they bound to promote his Temporal Interest with their Ruine and the disquiet of their Country Or how come they to be more obliged to separate from the Church than to Rebel against the Crown seeing the same Pope commanded both and for the same ends and is as infallible in the one as in the other But this is not our only Calamity about the same time another sort of Men separated too upon direct contrary Pretences Why 't is our Antiquity our Decency our too great resemblance to the Church of Rome that offends them We are not sufficiently purged for these Pure Men to joyn with we have too little of the Primitive Church cryes the one too much says the other too few Ceremonies too much simplicity say the Papists too many of the first too little of the latter cry the Dissenters Thus was truth ever persecuted on both sides Christ crucified betwixt two Thieves the Primitive Church persecuted by the Pagans on one side and the Iews on the other I venerate thy Truth and Moderation O dear and Holy Mother who dost so exactly resemble thy God and Saviour and the Primitive Church both in thy Truth and Piety and in thy Sufferings too which are thy Glory But what shall I say for our Dissenters who have run into such
elegantly penned and so elaborately digested that neither Scipio himself nor any other of that Party durst reply upon him Which Letter the Reader will find in this small piece new translated But this was written some time after the Apology was Printed in England IN the year following Bishop Jewel put out The Apology of the Church of England in Latin which tho written by him was published by the Queens Authority and with the advice of some of the Bishops as the Publick Confession of the Catholick and Christian Faith of the Church of England c. and to give an account of the reasons of our departure from the See of Rome and as an answer to those Calumnies that were then raised against the English Church and Nation for not submitting to the pretended General Council of Trent then sitting SO that it is not to be esteemed as the private work of a single Bishop but as a publick Declaration of that Church whose name it bears Mr. Humfrey seems in this place to confound this and the Epistle together as if they had been written at the same time which it is apparent they were not THIS Apology being published during the very time of the last meeting of the Council of Trent was read there and seriously considered and great threats made that it should be answered and accordingly two Learned Bishops one a Spaniard and the other an Italian undertook that task but neither of them did any thing in it BUT in the mean time the Book spread into all the Countries in Europe and was much applauded in France Flanders Germany Spain Poland Hungary Denmark Sweden and Scotland and found at least a passage into Italy Naples and Rome it self and was soon after translated into the German Italian French Spanish Dutch and last into the Greek Tongue in so great esteem this Book was abroad and at home it was translated into English by the Lady Bacon Wife to Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England IT very well deserves the Character Mr. Humfrey has given of it whose words are these It is so drawn that the first part of it is an Illustration â—and as it were a Paraphrase of the Twelve Articles of the Christian Faith or Creed the second is a short and solid Confutation of whatever is objected against the Church if the Order be considered nothing can be better distributed if the Perspicuity nothing can be fuller of Light if the Stile nothing more terse if the words nothing more splendid if the Arguments nothing stronger THE good Bishop was most encouraged to publish this Apology by Peter Martyr as appears by Martyr's Letter of the 24 th of August with whom he had spent the greatest part of his time in Exile But Martyr only lived to see the Book which he so much longed for dying at Zurick on the twelfth day of November following after he had paid his thanks for and expressed his value of this piece in a Letter which is subjoyned to this Book in all the following Prints And Mr. Camden also in his Annals expresly saith this Apology was printed first in the year 1562. In the year 1564. Mr. Harding put out a pretended Answer to Bishop Jewel's famous Challenge at Paul's Cross mentioned above to which in the year following the Bishop made a very learned Reply the Epistle before which bears date at London the 27 th of October of that year the Bishop is said to have spent two years in that Piece The same year the University of Oxon gave him tho absent the degree of Doctor of Divinity and certainly he well deserved to have that extraordinary respect and Honour shewn him who was so eminently imployed then in the Service and defence of the Church HE had no sooner brought this to a Conclusion but Harding was again upon him and put out an Antapology or answer to his Apology for the Church of England A Defence of which the Bishop forthwith began which he finished as appears by his Epistle to Mr. Harding at the end of it the 27 th of October 1567. THE next year after Mr. Harding put out another piece which he entitled A detection of sundry foul Errors c. which was a cavilling reply to some passages in his defence of the Apology which not seeming to deserve an answer by it self he answered rather by a Preface to a new Impression of his former Defence which he finished the eleventh of December 1569. and dedicated his Works to the Queen Harding having told the World that she was offended with Bishop Jewel for thus troubling the World THE same year Pope Pius the Fourth having published a Bull of Excommunication and Deprivation against the Queen Bishop Jewel undertook the defence of his Soveraign and wrote a learned Examination and Confutation of that Bull which was published by John Garbrand an intimate acquaintance of his together with a short Treatise of the Holy Scriptures both which as he informs us were delivered by the Bishop in his Cathedral Church in the year 1570. BESIDES these he writ several other large pieces as 1. a Paraphrastical Interpretation of the Epistles and Gospels throughout the whole year 2ly Diverse Treatises of the Sacraments and Exhortations to the Readers 3ly Expositions of the Lords Prayer the Creed and Ten Commandments And also 4ly An Exposition upon the Epistle to the Galatians the first of St. Peter and both the Epistles to the Thessalonians which I suppose were his Sermons for he was of opinion that it was a better way of teaching to go through with a Book than to take here and there a Text and that it gave the People a more clear and lasting knowledge IN the beginning of the next year was a Parliament and consequently a Convocation when Tho. Cartwright and others of that Faction having alarmed the Church by their Oppositions to the established Religion it was thought fit to obviate their bold attempts and thereupon command was given by the Arch-bishop That all such of the lower House of Convocation who had not formerly subscribed unto the Articles of Religion agreed upon Anno 1562. should subscribe them now or on their absolute refusal or delay be expelled the House Which occasioned a general and personal Subscription of those Articles And it was also farther ordered That the Book of Articles so approved should be put into Print by the appointment of the Right Reverand Doctor John Jewel then Bishop of Sarum which shews he was there and in great esteem IT was in some part of this year also that he had his Conference and preached his last Sermon at Paul's Cross about the Ceremonies and State of the Church which he mentioned on his Death-bed But I cannot fix the precise time of either of them or give any further account with whom that Conference was But however this Holy man sought nothing but the Peace and Welfare of the Church
by these gentle and mild ways of Correption the Dissenters of those times treated him for it with as little respect as Mr. Harding and his Confraternity had before as Bishop Whitgift assures us his words are these They the Dissenters will not stick saith he in commending themselves to deface all others yea even that notable JEWEL whose both Labour and Learning they do envy and amongst themselves deprave as I have heard with mine own ears and a number more besides For further proof whereof I do refer you to the report that by this faction was spread of him after his last Sermon at Paul's Cross because he did confirm the Doctrine before preached by a famous and learned man touching obedience to the Prince and Laws It was strange saith he to me to hear so notable a Bishop so learned a Man so stout a Champion of true Religion so painful a Prelate so ungratefully and spitefully used by a sort of wavering wicked and wretched Tongues but it is their manner be you never so welll learned never so painful so zealâ—us so vertuous all is nothing with them but they will deprave you rail on you back-bite you invent lyes of you and spread false rumours as though you were the vilest Persons in the whole earth THUS writes that venerable Arch-bishop in his Defence of the Answer to the Admonition p. 423. upon occasion of a Paper written also about this time by Bishop Jewel upon certain frivolous Objections against the Government of the Church of England made by Thomas Cart wright which the Bishop had confuted and Cartwright writing against him Whitgift defended them in this place and by the by shews how ill the good Bishop was treated for his last Sermon at Paul's Cross by this generation of Vipers which extorted from him that Protestation he made on his Death-bed of which I shall give an account hereafter BEING naturally of a spare and thin Body and thus restlesly trashing it out with reading writing preaching and travelling he hastened his death which happened before he was full fifty years of Age of which he had a strange Perception a considerable time before it happened and wrote of it to several of his Friends but would by no means be perswaded to abate any thing of his former excessive Labours saying A Bishop should die preaching THO he ever governed his Diocess with great diligence yet perceiving his death approaching he began a new and more severe Visitation of it correcting the Vices of the Clergy and Laity more sharply injoyning them in some places tasks of Holy Tracts to be learned by heart conferring Orders more carefully and preaching oftener HAVING promised to preach at Lacock in Wiltshire a Gentleman who met him going thither observing him to be very ill by his looks advised him to return home assuring him it was better the People should want one Sermon than to be altogether deprived of such a Preacher But he would not be perswaded but went thither and preached his last Sermon out of the fifth to the Galat. Walk in the Spirit c. which he did not finish without great labour and difficulty THE Saturday following being the 22d of September 1571. he piously and devoutly rendered up his Soul into the Hands of God having first made a very devout and Christian Exhortation to those that were about him and expressing much dislike of one of his Servants who prayed for his Recovery He died at Monketon farly when he had been a Bishop almost twelve years and was buried almost in the middle of the Quire of his Cathedral Church and Aegidius Lawrence preached his Funeral Sermon He was extreamly bewailed by all men and a great number of Latin Greek and Hebrew Verses were made on this occasion by learned men which are collected and printed by Mr. Lawrence Humfrey Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxon in the end of his Life written in Latin by the order of that University nor has his name been since mentioned by any Man without such Elogies and Commendations as befitted so great so good so learned and laborious a Prelate HAVING thus brought him to his Grave my Reader may be pleased to permit me to collect some particular things which could not so well be inserted into the History of his Life without breaking the thread of it HE had naturally a very strong Memory which he had strangely improved by Art Mr. Humfrey gives several Examples of this but I will instance in two only John Hooper Bisop of Glocester who was burnt in the Reign of Queen Mary once to try him writ about forty Welsn and Irish words Mr. Jewel going a little while aside and recollecting them in his Memory and reading them twice or thrice over said them by heart backward and forward exactly in the same order they were set down And another time he did the same by ten Lines of Erasmus his Paraphrase in English the words of which being read sometimes confusedly without order and at other times in order by the Lord Keeper Bacon Mr. Jewel thinking a while on them presently repeated them again backward and forward in their right order and in the wrong just as they were read to him and he taught his Tutor Mr. Parkhurst the same Art THO his Memory were so great and so improved yet he would not intirely rely upon it but entered down into Common place Books whatever he thought he might afterwards have occasion to use which as the Author of his Life informs us were many in number and great in quantity being a vast Treasure of Learning and a rich Repository of Knowledge into which he had collected Sacred Profanne Poetick Philosophick and Divine Notes of all sorts and all these he had again reduced into a small piece or two which were a kind of General Indexes which he made use of at all times when he was to speak or write any thing which were drawn up in Characters for brevity and thereby so obscured that they were not of any use after his Death to any other person And besides these he ever kept Diaries in which he entered whatever he heard or saw that was remarkable which once a year he perused and out of them extracted what ever was more remarkable AND from hence it came to pass that whâ—â—â—eas Mr. Harding in that great Controversie they had abounded only in Words Bishop Jewel overwhelm'd him with a cloud of Witnesses and Citations out of the ancient Fathers Councils and Church Historians confirming every thing with so great a number of incontestableo Authorities that Mr. Harding durst never after pretend to a second perfect and full Answer but contented himself with snarling at some small pieces the truth is as Dr. Heylyn observes all the following Controversies were in this point beholding to the indefatigable Industry of this great Leader YET he was so careful in the use of his own Common place Books that when he was to write his Defence of
SO we therefore because we are taken by them for mad-men and are traduced as if we were Hereticks and as if we had nothing to do with Christ nor with the Church of God have thought it not unreasonable or unprofitable to propound openly and freely the Faith in which we stand and all that Hope which we have in Christ Jesus that all may see what we think of every part of the Christian Religion and so determine with themselves whether that Faith which they must needs perceive to be consonant to the Words of Christ and the Writings of the Apostles and the Testimonies of the Catholick Fathers and which is confirmed by the Examples of many Ages be only the Rage of a sort of mad-men and a Combination or Conspiracy of Hereticks CHAP. II. Containing the Doctrine received in the Church of England WE believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine Power which we call GOD and that this is distinguished into three equal Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost all of the same Power of the same Majesty of the same Eternity of the same Divinity and of the same Substance and altho' these three Persons are so distinguished that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Holy Ghost or Father yet there is but one GOD and that this one God created Heaven and Earth and whatever is contain'd within the Circumference of the Heavens 2. WE believe that Jesus Christ the only Son of the eternal Father as it had been decreed before the beginning of all things when the fulness of time came took our Flesh and perfect Humane Nature of that blessed and pure Virgin that he might reveal to Men that hidden and secret Will of his Father which was conceal'd from all former Ages and Generations and that in this humane Body he might finish the Mystery of our Redemption and might nail to his Cross our Sins and the Obligation which lay against us 3. FOR we believe that for our sakes he died was buried descended into Hell and the third day by a Divine Power returned to Life and arose and after forty days in the sight of his Disciples ascended into Heaven that he might fill all things and that the very Body in which he was born in which he convers'd in which he was despised in which he had suffered most grievous Torments and a most direful Death in which he rose and now ascended to the right hand of his Father was placed above all Principalities and Power and every Name which is mentioned not only in this World but in that which is to come in Majesty and Glory And we believe that he doth now sit there and shall sit there till all things are fulfil'd and altho the Majesty and Divinity of Christ is diffused every where yet his Body as St. Augustine saith ought to be in one place we believe that tho Christ added Majesty to his Body yet he took not from it the Nature of a Body nor is Christ to be so asserted to be God that we should deny him to be Man and as the Martyr Vigilius said Christ left us as to his Humane Nature but he hath not left us in his Divine Nature and tho he is absent from us by the Form of a Servant yet he is ever with us by the Form of God 4. AND from thence we believe Christ shall return to exercise a general Judgment as well upon those he shall then find alive as upon all that are then dead 5. WE believe that the Holy Ghost who is the third Person in the Holy Trinity is true God not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding from both that is from the Father and the Son in a way neither known to Mortals nor possible to be expressed by them We believe that it is He who softens the Hardness of Mans Heart when he is received into their Hearts by the saving preaching of the Gospel or by any other way whatsoever that it is He who inlightens them and leads them to the Knowledge of God into all the ways of Truth into a perfect newness of Life and a perpetual hope of Salvation 6. WE believe that there is one Church of God and that not consin'd as it was heretofore to the Jewish People in one Angle or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and so diffused or spread over the Face of the whole Earth that there is no Nation which can justly complain that it is excluded and cannot be admitted into the Church and People of God that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and Spouse of Christ that Christ is the only Prince of this Kingdom that there is in the Church divers Orders of Ministers that there are some who are Deacons others who are Presbyters and others who are Bishops to whom the Instruction of the People and the Care and Management of Religion is committed And yet that there neither is nor is it possible there should be any one man who has the care of this whole Catholick Church for Christ is ever present with his Church and needs not a Vicar or sole and perfect Successor and that no mortal Man can in his mind contain all the Body of the Universal Church that is all the parts of the Earth much less can he reduce them into an exact Order and rightly and prudently administer its Affairs That the Apostles as St. Cyprian saith were all of equal Power and Authority and that all the rest were what St. Peter was that it was said to all alike Feed To all go ye into all the World To all teach ye the Gospel And that as St. Jerome saith All Bishops wheresoever they are setled whether it be at Rome or Eugubium at Constantinople or Rhegium they are of equal Worth and of the same Priesthood And as St. Cyprian saith there is but one Episcopacy and each of them hath a perfect and intire share of it And that according to the Judgment and Sentence of the Council of Nice the Bishop of Rome hath no more Authority in the Church of God than the other Patriarchs viz. the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch That the Bishop of Rome who now endeavours to draw all the Ecclesiastical Authority to himself alone if he doth not his Duty that is if he doth not administer the Sacraments if he doth not instruct the People Admonish and Teach he is not to be call'd a Bishop or indeed a Presbyter for as St. Augustin saith Bishop is the Name of a Work or Office and not a Title of Honour so that he who would usurp an unprofitable Preheminence in the Church is no Bishop But then that the Bishop of Rome or any other Person should be the Head of the whole Church or an universal Bishop is no more possible than that he should be the Bridegroom the Light the Salvation and the Life of the Church for these are the Priviledges and Titles of
Blood Or then that of Origen that Bread which is consecrated by the Word of God as to the Matter of it goes into the Belly and is cast out by the Draught Or then that of Christ himself who said not only after the Consecration but after the finishing of the Communion Luke 22. 18. I will drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine for it is certain the Fruit of the Vine is Wine and not Blood And yet when we speak thus we do not so depress the Esteem of the Supper of the Lord as to teach that it is a meer cold Ceremony and that nothing is done in it which many falsly report of us for we assert that Christ in his Sacraments doth exhibit himself truly present In Baptism that we may put him on In his Supper that we may eat him by Faith and in the Spirit and that by his Cross and Blood we may have Life Eternal and this we say is not slightly and coldly but really and truly done for although we do not touch Christ with our Teeth and Lips yet we hold and press him by Faith Mind and Spirit Nor is that Faith vain which imbraceth Christ nor that Participation cold which is perceived by the Mind Understanding and Spirit for so Christ himself is intirely offered and given to us in these Mysteries as much as is possible that we may truly know that we are Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone and that he dwells in us and we in him 16. AND therefore in the Celebration of these Mysteries before we come to receive the Holy Communion the People are fitly admonished to lift up their Hearts and that they should direct their Minds to Heaven for there he is by whom we are to be fed and live And St. Cyrill saith that in partaking of the Holy Mysteries all gross Imaginations are to be excluded And the Nicen Council as it is cited by some in Greek doth expresly forbid us to think only on the Bread and Wine that are set before us And St. Chrysostom Writes well We say that the Body of Christ is the Carcass and we are to be the Eagles that thereby we may learn to mount aloft if we will approach the Body of Christ for this is the Table of Eagles and not of Jayes And St. Cyprian This Bread is the Meat of the Soul and not of the Belly And St. Augustin How shall I lay hold on him who is absent how shall I reach my Hand into the Heavens and touch him who sits there Send thy Faith thither saith he and thou hast him sure 17. BUT then as to the Fairs and Sales of Masses and the carrying about and adoring the Bread and a number of such like Idolatrous and blasphemous Follies which none of them dare affirm to have been delivered to us by Christ of his Apostles our Church will not indure them and we justly blame the Bishops of Rome for presuming without any Command of God without any Authority of the Holy Fathers and without any Example not only to propose the Sacramental Bread to be adored by the People with a divine Worship but also to carry it about before them upon an ambling Nag where-ever they go as the Persian Kings did heretofore their sacred Fire and the Aegyptian their Image of Isis and so have turned the Sacraments of Christ into Pageantry and Pomp that in that very thing in which the Death of Christ was to be celebrated and inculcated and the Mysteries of our Redemption ought to be piously and reverently represented the Eyes of men should only be fed with a foolish shew and a piece of Ludicrous Livity And then whereas they say and sometimes perswade Fools that they can by their Masses distribute and apply to men who very often think of nothing less and never know what is then doing all the Merits of the Death of Christ this Pretencâ— I say is ridiculous heathenish and silly for it is our Faith which applies the Death and Cross of Christ to us and not the Action of a Priest the Faith of the Sacraments saith St. Augustin justifies and not the Sacrament And Origen saith He Christ is the Priest and the Propitiation and the Sacrifice and this Propitiation comes to every one by way of Faith and therefore agreeably hereunto we say that the Sacraments do not profit the Living without Faith and much less the Dead for as to what they pretend concerning their Purgatory tho that is no very late Invention yet it is nothing but a silly old wives Story St. Augustin sometimes saith there is such a place sometimes he doth not deny but there may be such a Place sometimes he doubts if there be and at other times he positively denies there is any such place at all and thinks that men out of humane kindness to the Dead are deceived in that point And yet from this one Error there has sprung such a Crop of small Priests that Masses being publickly and openly sold in every corner they have turn'd the Churches of God into meer Shops and deluded poor Mortals into a Belief that there was no Commodity more useful and certainly as to those small Levites these Masses were very advantagious 18. WE know that St. Augustin grieviously complain'd of the vast number of impertinent Ceremonies in his time and therefore we have cut off a great many of them because we know they were afflictive to the Consciences of Men and burthensome to the Church of God Yet we still retain and reâ—igiously use not only all those which we know were delivered to the Church by the Apostles but some others which we saw might be born without any inconvenience because as St. Paul commands we desire alâ—things in the Religious Assemblies should be done decently and in order but then as to alâ—those that were very superstitious or base or ridiculous or contrary to the Scriptures or did not seem to beâ—it sober men an infinite number of which are still to be found amongst Papists we have rejected all these I say without excepting any one of them because we would not have the Service of God any longer contaminated with such Fooleries 19. WE pray as it is fit we should in that Tongue our People do all understand that the People as St. Paul admonisheth may reap a common Advantage by the common Prayers as all the Holy Fathers and Catholick Bishops not only in the Old but in the New Testament also did ever pray and teach the People to pray least as St. Augustin saith We should like Parrots and other prating Birds seem to sound Words which we did not understand 20. WE have no Mediator and Intercessor by whom we approach to God the Father but Jesus Christ in whose name only all things are obtained But that which we see done in their Churches is base and heathenish not only because they have set up an infinite
might thereby reap some benefit by it but they that the People may never understand them whisper their Divine Service not only in an obscure and low Tone but also in a strange and barbarous Tongue 10. The old Carthagenian Council forbad any thing besides the Canonical Scriptures to be read in the holy Assemblies of the Church but they read in their Churches what they themselves do not doubt to be meer Lyes and silly Fables And now if any man thinks these things are of no great consideration because they were decreed by Emperors and small Councils consisting of Bishops of less esteem and not in full Councils and therefore are more fond of the Authority and Names of Popes 11. Julius expresly forbad the Priest in the Celebration of the holy Communion to dip the Bread in the Calice but they contrary to this Decree do divide the Bread and dip it 12. Clemens the Pope saith it is not lawful for a Bishop to bear both the Spiritual and Civil Swords and saith he if thou wilt have both thou deceivest thy self and those that hear thee but now the Pope claims both and bears both and therefore the Wonder ought to seem the less if that hath followed which Clement foretold and he hath accordingly deceived himself and those which have heard him 13. Pope Leo saith it is not lawful to celebrate more than one Mass in one Day in one Church they say every day sometimes ten at others twenty and at other thirty and sometimes more in the same Church at the same time so that the miserable Spectator knows not which way to turn him 14. Gelasius the Pope saith that if any man divide the Sacrament and when he has received one part refuseth the other he doth act Wickedly and Sacrilegiously but they contrary to the Word of God and the Decree of this Pope command only one part of the Eucharist to be given to the People and by so doing have made their Priests guilty of Sacriledge 6. BUT now if they shall pretend that all these things are antiquated and worn out of use and so are in a sort dead and do not concern our times yet that men may see what Faith is to be given to these Men and with what Hope they call Councils let us consider in a few instances how well they observe those things which have been ordained of late years and which are fresh in Memory by Councils which they pretend were lawfully called and in which they themselves decreed those things I shall mention to be Religiously observed In the last Council of Trent not much above fourteen years since it was decreed by the common Vote of all Orders there present that two Benefices should not be committed at one time to the same Person Where is that Sanction now Is that so soon antiquated and dead too for they do frequently give not only two Benefices but sometimes also several Monasteries too and sometimes two three or four Bishopricks to one Man and he too sometimes not only unlearned and consequently thereby unfit for them but a Soldier In the same Council it was decreed that all Bishops ought to preach the Gospel but they never Preach nor ever come in a Pulpit nor do they think it in the least any part of their Duty What then is the meaning of all that shew of Antiquity Why do they glory so in the Names of the Fathers and of the ancient and modern Councils Why would they so fain seem to rely upon their Authority whom as occasion serve at their Pleasure they despise 7. BUT I have a great desire to have a little discourse with the Pope himself and to tell him some things to his Face Be pleased then O Holy Father who so often boastest of Antiquity and pretendest that all the Ancients are intirely addicted to thy Service to inform us which of all the ancient Fathers ever call'd your Holiness the chief Pontif or the Universal Bishop or the Head of the Church Which of them ever said that both the Swords were given to thee Which of them ever said that you have the Right and Authority to call Councils that the whole World was your Diocess Which of them ever said that all Bishops had received of your Fulness That all Power both iâ— Heaven and Earth was given to you That you could not be judged by Kings nor by the whole Clergy nor by all the Peopleâ— Which of them ever said that Kings and Emperors by the Command and will of Christ derived Authority from you Which of them ever affirmed with a Mathematical Exactnesâ— and Certainty that your Authority was preâ—cisely seventy seven times greater than that oâ— the greatest Kings Which of them ever saiâ— that you had a greater power than the otheâ— Patriarchs Which of them ever said you werâ— the Lord God or not a meer Man like otheâ— Mortals or stiled you a certain Hotch-potch a Mixture or Concrete of God and Manâ— which of them ever said that you were thâ— fountain of all Law that you had an Empireâ— and Dominion over Purgatory and that yoâ— might at your pleasure command the Angels of God Which of them ever said that you were King of Kings and Lord of Lords And now we are in we may inquire of a fow other things of the same Nature What one Man of all the ancient Bishops and Fathers ever taught you to say a private Mass whilst the People did nothing but look on or to lift the Eucharist above your Head in which you now place all your Religion or to curtail the Sacrament of Christ and contrary to his Institution and express Command to deprive the People of one half of it And that we may conclude what one of all the ancient Fathers taught you to dispence the Blood of Christ and the Merits of the Martyrs and to sell your Indulgences and all the Apartments and Lodgings of Purgatory like Commodities in the Market for Money They are wont often to celebrate their own wonderful secret Learning and their manifold and various Readings Now let your Partizans at last produce something of it if they can or let them at least shew they have read and do know more than or dinary for they have often made hideous Outcries amongst their Hearers that all the parts of their Religion are ancient and approved not only by the number but also by the Continuance and Consent of all Nations and Times 8. WELL then let them at least shew this their boasted Antiquity let them make it appear that what they so much extol is indeed of so vast an Extent let them prove that all Christian Nations have imbraced their Religion But alass as I said before they flee from their own Decrees and have already pluckt up those Canons which but a very few years since they made to last for ever Why then should we trust them in relation to what they pretend concerning the Fathers the
qualified for the making of a Church of God for certainly they are neither lawful Abbots nor genuine Bishops But suppose they are the Church suppose they are to be heard in Councils and that they have the sole Right of Voting yet in ancient time when the Church of God was well governed especially if it be compared with their Church as St. Cyprian acquaints us the Presbyters and Deacons and some part also of the Laity were then call'd to assist at the hearing of Ecclesiastical Causes 4. BUT what now if those Abbots and Bishops know nothing What if they know not what Religion is nor what they ought to believe of God What if the Law hath perished from the Priests and Counsel from the Elders What if as Micah saith the Night be unto them instead of a Vision and Darkness instead of a Divination What if as Isaiah saith the Watchmen of the City are all blind they are all ignorant and what if the Salt as Christ saith hath lost its Force and Savour and is become good for nothing not fit even to be cast upon the Dunghil for they defer all to the Pope who cannot err but then this in the first place is ridiculous that the Holy Ghost should be sent by a Carrier from the Holy Council to Rome that if any Doubt or Stop happens which he cannot expedite he may take better Instruction and Counsel from I know not what more learned Spirit for if it must come to this at last what need is there that so many Bishops should with such great Expence be called from very distant places at this time to Trent It had certainly been more prudent and much better a shorter and an easier way to have at first turn'd over all this Business to the Pope and have gone directly to the Oracle of his sacred Brâ—ast besides it is unjust to devolve our Cause from so many Bishops and Abbots to the Judgment of any one man and above all others to the Judgment of the Pope who is accused by us of many very great Crimes and though he hath not answered for his own Misdemeanors yet hath presum'd to condemn us before we were call'd and that without any Tryal Now do we invent all this or is it not now the manner of our late Councils Are not all things referr'd to the Pope by the Council so that as if nothing were done by so many Sentences and Subscriptions he alone may add diminish abrogate approve relax and restrain whatsoever he please Whose Words are these Why did the Bishops and Abbots in the end of the late Council at Trent put in these words as a part of their Decree Saving in in all things the Authority of the Apostolical See Or why did Pope Pascal write thus insolently of himself as if saith he any Councils could prescribe a Law to the Church of Rome when all Councils are held by the Authority of the Church of Rome and derive their Force from it too and whereas they do patiently in their Decrees except the Authority of the Pope of Rome If they will confirm and approve these things why are Councils call'd but if they are indeed repeal'd and abrogated why are they still left in their Books as if they were in force 5. WELL but suppose in the next place that the Pope tho one is above all Councils that is that he is a part greater than the whole has more Power yea and more Wisdom too than all his Party besides and that in spite of St Jeroms Judgment the Authority of this one City is greater than that of the whole World What if he has seen none of these things and has neither read the holy Scriptures nor the ancient Fathers nor so much as any of his own Councils What if like Pope Liberius of old he becomes an Arrian or like Pope John who lived not many years since thinks very leudly and wickedly of the Immortality of the Soul and of the Life to come or as Pope Zosimus heretofore corrupted the Council of Nice so he for the enlarging of his own Power should corrupt the other Councils and aver that those things were deliberated and constituted by the holy Fathers in them which were never so much as thought off and that as Camotensis saith the Popes do frequently he should offer Violence to the holy Scriptures that he may thereby possess himself of a Plenitude of Power What if he renounce the Christian Faith and becomes an Apostate as Lyranus saith many Popes have done What will the holy Spirit for all these things knock at the Cabbin of his Breast and obtrude such a Light upon him contrary to his Inclinations and against his Will that he shall not err though he would Or shall such a Pope as this be the Fountain of all Laws and all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge be notwithstanding found in him as in a Cabinet Or if these things be not in him can he nevertheless judge well and conveniently of things of this great weight Or if he be not qualified to judge of them does he yet desire that all these things should be refer'd to him alone What now if the Popes Advocates the Abbots and Bishops dissemble nothing but declare themselves openly to be the Enemies of the Gospel and will not see what they do see but wrest the Scriptures and knowingly and willingly deprave and adulterate the Word of God and do foully and impiously transfer to the Pope what is perspicuously and properly spoken of Christ and cannot be applied to any other Mortal What if they say the Pope is all and above all or that he can do all those things which Christ can do or that the Tribunal and Consistory of the Pope is the same with Christs or that the Pope is that Light which came into the World which Christ spake of himself only and that he that doth Evil hateth that Light and fleeth from it or that all other Bishops have received of his Fulness Or lastly what if they do without dissimulation or obscurity clearly and manifestly determine contrary to the Word of God Shall whatever they say nevertheless presently become Gospel Shall such as these be the Army God Will Christ be present with such Men Will the Spirit of God move upon their Tongues or may they say truly it seems good to the Holy Ghost and to us 6. Pâ—trus a Soto and his Voucher Hosius make no sâ—ruple to affirm that that very Council which condemn'd our Saviour to death had then the Spirit of Prophesie and Truth and the Holy Ghost with them and that what those High Priests said was not false or vain when they said 〈◊〉 have a Law and by that Law be ought to die that in this according to Hosius they gave a true Judgment and that their Decree was perfectly just by which Christ was adjudged worthy of Death It is a wonder in
against King John another of our Princes the Bishops and Monks and some part of the Nobility and absolved all his Subjects from that Oath of Allegiance they had taken to him and at last by the highest Impiety not only deprived him of his Kingdom but his Life and they wounded Henry the VIII a most noble Prince with their Curses and Excommunications and stir'd up against him sometimes the Emperor and sometimes the King of France and as much as in them lay exposed our Kingdom to be a Prey and a Booty to them like a company of silly men as they were to think so great a Prince would be frighted with Vizors and Rattles or that so great a Kingdom could be devoured at one mouthful and as if all this had not been enough they would needs make England a tributary Province and yearly most unjustly exacted a considerable Revenue out of it so much has the Friendship of the City of Rome cost us Now if they extorted these great Advantages from us by Impostures and ill Arts there is no reason why we should not by good Methods and Laws recover them back again but if on the other side our Kings induced by an Opinion of their simulated Holiness in the darkness of those times freely bestowed these things on them upon the account of Religion there is now very good reason that our latter Kings having discovered the Error of their Ancestors should take them away again they being possess'd of the same Power with the former Kings for every Donation becomes void when it is no longer approved by the Will of the Giver but it can never seem a Will which is clouded and impeded by Error The Conclusion THUS I have acquainted thee my Reader that it is no new or strange thing to see the Christian Religion in these days upon its Restitution and Revival in the World entertain'd with Slanders and Reproaches for the same things happened to Christ himself and his Apostles And yet least thou shouldest be misled and imposed upon by these Clamors of our Adversaries we have represented to thee what the whole manner of our Religion is what we believe concerning God the Father concerning his only Son Jesus Christ and concerning the Holy Ghost what our Opinion is concerning the Church the Sacraments the Ministry the Holy Scriptures the Ceremonies of the Church and all the other parts of the Christian Religon We have declared also that we detest as pernicious to the Souls of Men and plagues all those Ancient Heresies that have been condemn'd by the old Councils and Holy Scriptures That we have reduced into practise again as much as we can possibly the Ecclesiastical Discipline which our Adversaries had much weakned and that we punish all Licentious Courses of Life and Debauchery in Manners by our ancient and established Laws and that with as much 〈◊〉 as is fit and possible That we pâ—â—serve all Kingdoms in the same State we found them without any Diminution or Mutation and preserve the Majesty of our Princes intire as much as we can possibly That we have departed from that Church which they had made a Den of Thieves in which they had left nothing sound or like a Church and which they themselves confessed to have erred in many things as Lot left Sodom or Abraham Chaldea not out of Contention but out of Obedience to God and have sought the certain way of Religion out of the sacred Scriptures which we know cannot deceive us and have return'd to the Primitive Church of the ancient Fathers and Apostles that is to the beginning and first Rise of the Church as to the proper Fountain 2. THAT we have not indeed expected the Authority or consent of the Council of Trent in which we saw nothing was manag'd well and regularly where all that entered took an Oath to one Man where the Ambassadors of our Princes were despised and ill treated where none of our Divines could be heard where Partiality and Ambition openly carried all things and according to the Practice of the Holy Fathers and the Customs of our own Ancestors we have reformed our Churches in a Provincial Synod and according to our Duty we have cast off the Yoke and Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome who had no just Authority over us nor was like either Christ or St. Peter or the Apostles or indeed like a Bishop in any thing Lastly we do all agree amongst ourselves in all the Doctrines and Points of the Christian Religion and do with one Spirit and one Mouth worship God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 3. WHEREFORE O Christian and Pious Reader now thou feest the Reasons and Causes of the Reformation of Religion with us and of our Departure from them thou oughtest not to wonder that we should rather choose to obey our Saviour than Men. St. Paul hath admonished us that we should not be carried away with every Wind of false Doctrine and especially that we should mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly and by good Words and fair Speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple Their Impostures accordingly like Batts and Owls do now sometime since begin to flie and steal away before the rising Sun and cannot indure the Light of the Gospel and altho they were in some sense built and heaped almost up to Heaven yet they sink down into Ruins of their own accord For thou oughtest not to think that those things happened accidentally or by chance It was certainly the Will of God that in these times the Gospel of Jesus Christ should in defiance of all opposition be spread abroad in the World and therefore men being moved by the Word of God freely betook themselves to the Doctrine of Christ and as for us we sought neither Riches nor Pleasure nor case by this Change for our Adversaries abound in all these and we had a much larger Share of them whilst we continued with them 4. NOR do we decline Concord and Peace with Men neither but yet we will not continue in a State of War God that we might have Peace with Men. The Name of Peace saith St. Hilary is Pleasant but then Peace and Servitude are not the same thing for if according to their desire the Name of Christ should be supprest the Truth of the Gospel betrayed their wicked Errors be dissembled the Eyes of Christian Men be deluded and a plain and apparent Conspiracy be carried on against God himself this is not saith that great Man Peace but the conditions of a most base Slavery There is saith Nazianzen an unprofitable Peace and there is an useful sort of Discord for we must pursue Peace with Conditions as far as 〈◊〉 lawful and in us lyeth and unless these Limitations may attend it Christ himself came not to bring Peace into the World
you what my Judgment is but as another saith as far as I know and may which I doubt not will give you an intire Satisfaction 3. WE wonder say you that no Ambassadors from England are come to the Council I beseech you Sir are the English the only Nation who have not come to the Council Have you Sir been at the Council your self Have you taken an exact Account Have you told them exactly by Poll Did you Sir see there all the other Nations come together from all Parts of the World except the English But Sir if you are so mightily in love with Wondering why did you not admire this too that neither any one of the three great Patriarchs of Constantinople Antioch nor Alexandria nor Presbyter John nor the Grecians Armenians Medes Persians Egyptians those of Barbary Ethiopia or the Indies did not come to the Council too for is there not many in those Nations who believe in Christ have they not Bishops are they not by Name and in reality Christians And Sir did Ambassadors come from all these Nations to the Council or will you rather say the Pope did not call them or that they are not bound by your Ecclesiastical Sanctions 4. BUT Sir we have much greater reason to wonder that when the Pope hath beforehand condemn'd us and publickly pronounc'd us excommunicated as Hereticks without ever hearing us make our Defence or alledging any thing against us he should afterwards call us to the Council for to condemn and punish men first and then to call them to Judgment is a very absurd way of Procedure a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cart before the Horses But Sir I would very gladly be inform'd if the Popes Intentions be to consult with us concerning Religion in this Council whom he has condemn'd for Hereticks as I said or if he intends we shall stand at the Bar and be obliged forthwith to change our Minds or be immediately condemn'd again one of these things is new or without Example and stiffly denied to those of our Perswasion by Pope Julius the third and the other is ridiculous if he thinks the English so silly as to come to the Council for no other purpose but to be accused and make their Defence as well as they can and before his Holiness especially who is long since accused himself not only by us but by his own party of many great Crimes 5. BUT Sir if England only seems so stubborn to you where are the Ambassadors of the King of Denmark the Princes of Germany and the King of Sweden of the Switzers of the Grisons of the Hanse Towns of the Realm of Scotland and of the Dukedom of Prussia and now when so many of the Christian Nations are absent from your Council it is a most foolish thing to speak of none but the English but why do I speak of them the Pope himself will not vouchsafe to come to his own Council and did you not wonder at this too for what Insolence is this for any one man at his Pleasure when he will to call together all the Christian Kings Princes and Bishops and to require them to yield Obedience to him in it and in the mean time not meet them there himself Sure I am when the Apostles call'd a Council at Jerusalem St. Peter the Apostle of whose Chair and Succession the Popes glory so infinitely would not be absent But I suppose the Pope Pius the 4th who now sits in that Chair remembers very well what betided John XXII that he had no good Fortune at his Appearance in the Council of Constance for he came thither a Pope but returned a Cardinal and therefore the Popes ever since have very wisely taken care of themselves and kept out of reach and at home and have stoutly withstood all Councils and free Debates for above forty years since when Dr. Martin Luther was assaulted with all manner of Curses and Thunderbolts by the Pope because he had begun to preach the Gospel and reform Religion by the Word of God and with all Humility begged that his Cause might be reserved to the Hearing and Determination of a General Council he could not be heard for Leo the X. saw very well if the thing had been refer'd to a Council that his own Concerns would be brought in danger and that he might hear what he would not 6. THE Name of a General Council sounds well if it be conven'd as it ought and Men would lay by their Passions and refer all things to the Word of God submitting to the Truth only but if Piety and Religion are openly oppress'd if Tyranny and Ambition are confirm'd if Factions Gluttony and Luxury are encouraged there can then be nothing thought of that is of worse Consequence to the Church of God And all this I have said upon a Supposition that there is such a Council somewhere as you mention and yet I heartily believe there is none at last but if indeed there be any where any Council at all it must be a very obscure private Council for tho we are at no very great distance from the Place yet we could never hear what Bishops were met nor what was done nor indeed whether any Bishops at all would meet And about twenty months since when this Council was first call'd by Pope Pius Ferdinandus the Emperor made answer that tho all other things were agreeable yet the Place the Pope had chosen did very much displease him for that tho Trent was a fine City yet it was not convenient for all the Nations and besides could not possibly entertain that great Number of Persons who did usually follow a general Council And almost the same Answer was generally given by all the Christian Princes and some of them answered much more sharply and therefore we thought all these fine Shews would together with the Council end in smoak 7. BUT I pray Sir who call'd this Council and assembled the World together you will say Pope Pius the IV. and why he rather than the Arch-bishop of Toledo by what Authority and Example of the Primitive Church and by what law hath he done this did Peter Linus Cletus or Clemens thus put the World in commotion by their Edicts this during the Integrity and Prosperity of the Roman Empire was a sole Prerogative of the Emperor but now that the Power of the Empire is diminished and that the several Kingdoms in Christendom have shared the Imperial Power amongst them this Power is devolved to all the Christian Kings and Princes Now Sir search all the Annals and gather together all the Memoirs of Antiquity and you shall find that all the ancient Councils as those of Nice Ephesus Chalcedon and Constantinople were call'd by the Emperors of Rome Constantinus Theodosius the First and Second and Martianus and not by the Popes of Rome 8. POPE Leo a Man sufficiently kind to himself and who did not in any thing neglect the Authority of his
hâ— said he saw many Causes why the Clergâ— should be denied Wives but then he saw morâ— and greater Causes to allow them Wives again 10. WE receive and imbrace all the Canonical Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament and we give our gracious God most hearty Thanks that he hath set up this Light for us which we ever fix our Eyes upon lest by humane Fraud or the Snares of the Devil we should be seduced to Errors or Fables We own them to be the heavenly Voices by which God hath reveal'd and made known his Will to us in them only can the Mind of Man acquiesce in them all that is necessary for our Salvation is aboundantly and plainly contain'd as Origen St. Augustin St. Chrysostom and St. Cyrill have taught us They are the very Might and Power of God unto Salvation they are the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets upon which the Church of God is built they are the most certain and infallible Rule by which the Church may be reduced if She happen to stagger slip or err by which all Ecclesiastical Doctrines ought to be tried no Law no Tradition no Custom is to be received or continued if it be contrary to Scripture No tho St. Paul himself or an Angel from Heaven should come and teach otherwise 11. WE receive also and allow the Sacraments of the Church that is the sacred Signs and Ceremonies which Christ commanded us to use that he might by them represent to our eyes the Mysteries of our Salvation and most strongly confirm the Faith we have in his Blood and seal in our Hearts his Grace and we call them Figures Signs Types Antitypes Forms Seals Prints or Signets Similitudes Examples Images Remembrances and Memorials with Tertullian Origen St. Ambrose St. Augustin St. Jerom St. Chrysostom St. Basil and Dionysius and many other Catholick Fathers Nor do we doubt with them to call them a kind of visible Words the Signets of Righteousness and the Symbols of Grace and clearly affirm that in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Body and Blood of our Lord is truly exhibited to Believers that is the enlivening Flesh of the Son of God the Bread that comes from above the Nourishment of Immortality the Grace the Truth and the Life and that it is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ by the Participation of which we are quickned strengthened and fed to immortality and by which we are conjoyned united and incorporated with Christ that we may remain in him and he in us 12. WE acknowledge that there are two Sacraments properly so call'd Baptism and the Supper of the Lord for so many we see were delivered to us and consecrated by Christ and approved by St. Ambrose St. Augustin and the ancient Fathers 13. AND we say that Baptism is the Sacrament of the Remission of Sins and of that Washing which we have in the Blood of Christ and that none are to be denied that Sacrament who will profess the Faith of Christ no not the Infants of Christians because they are born in sin and belong to the People of God 14. WE say that the Eucharist is the Sacrament or visible Symbol of the Body and Blood of Christ in which the Death and Resurrection of Christ and what he did in his humane Body is in a manner represented to our eyes that we may give him thanks for his Death and our Deliverance by it and that by frequenting the Sacrament we may often renew the Remembrance of it and that by the Body and Blood of Christ we may be nourished into the Hope of the Resurrection and of eternal Life and that we may be assured that the Body and Blood of Christ hath the same effect in the feeding of our Souls which the Bread and Wine have in the repairing the Decays of our Bodies To this great and solemn Feast the People are to be invited that they may all communicate together and may publickly signifie and testifie both their Union and Society amongst themselves and that Hope which they have in Christ Jesus and therefore if there was any one heretofore before the private Mass was introduced who would be only a Spectator and yet would abstain from the Holy Communion the Bishops of Rome in the Primitive Times and the ancient Fathers would have excommunicated him as a wicked man and a Pagan Nor was there any Christian man in those times who communicated alone in the presence of others who were only Spectators So Calixtus long since decreed that when the Consecration was finished all should communicate if they would not be deprived of the Communion of the Church and be shut out of it for so saith he the Apostles ordained and the Holy Church of Rome holds And we say that both the Parts of the Sacrament ought to be given to all that come to the Holy Communion for so Christ commanded and the Apostles instituted throughout the World and all the ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops so practised and if any one shall do otherwise saith Gelasius he commits Sacriledge and therefore our Adversaries who exploding and rejecting the Communion defend the private Mass and a multitude of Sacraments without the authority of the Word of God without any ancient Council without any Catholick Father without any Example of the Primitive Church and without Reason and this against the express Command of Christ and also against all Antiquity in so doing act wickedly and sacrilegiously 15. WE say that the Bread and Wine are the Holy and Heavenly Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ and that in them Christ himself the true Bread of eternal Life is so exhibited to us as present that we do by Faith truly take his Body and Blood and yet at the same time we speak not this so as if we thought the Nature of the Bread and Wine were totally changed and abolished as many in the last Ages have dreamt and as yet could never agree amongst themselves about this Dream For neither did Christ ever design that the Wheaten Bread should change its Nature and assume a new kind of Divinity but rather that it might change us and that as Theophylact saith we might be trans-elemented into his Body For what can be more perspicuous than what St. Ambrose saith on this occasion the Bread and Wine are what they were and yet are changed into another thing Or what Gelasius saith The Substance of the Bread and Nature of the Wine do not cease to be Or then what Theodoret after the Consecration the mystical Symbols do not cast off their own proper Nature for they remain in their former Substance and Figure and Species Or then what St. Augustin saith that which you see is Bread and a Cup as your Eyes inform you but that which your Faith desires to be instructed in is this the Bread is the Body of Christ and the Cup is his
under Boniface the 8th when the Papal Power was at the highest about two hundred years before Huldericus Zuinglius began to preach the Gospel or indeed was born But from that time to this all things there have been in the greatest Tranquility and Quiet that was possible not only in relation to foreign Wars but intestine Commotions so that if it were a sin to deliver their Country from a foreign Dominion which oppressed them with great Insolence and Tyranny yet it is unjust and absurd to load the Reformation with the Crimes of others or them with those of their Fore-fathers 14. BUT O immortal God! Shall the Bishop of Rome accuse us of Treason Will he pretend to teach the People Subjection and Obedience to Magistrates Or has he any regard to Majesty Why then does he suffer himself to be call'd by his Flatterers the LORD OF LORDS which none of the ancient Bishops of Rome ever did as if he would have all Kings and Princes whoever they were and wheresoever be no better than his Vassals and Slaves Why does he boast that he is the KING OF KINGS and that he has the Right of commanding them as his Subjects Why does he force Emperors and Monarchs to swear Obedience to him Why does he boast that his own Majesty is seventy seven times greater than the Majesty of the Emperor and that forsooth because God made two great Lights in Heaven and because the Heavens and the Earth had not two several but one single Beginning Why have he and his Followers in that like the Anabaptists and Libertines shaken off the Yoke and exempted themselves from the Jurisdiction of all Civil Powers that they might with the greater liberty and security plague the World 15. WHY has he his Legats that is a crafty sort of Spies as it were in ambush in the Courts Councils and Chambers of all Kings Why doth he as his Interest requires set Princes at variance amongst themselves and at his pleasure fill the Earth with Seditions Why does he proscribe and take for an Heathen and Pagan whatever Prince withdraws himself from his Dominion and promise his Indulgences so freely if any man will by any means whatsoever assassinate his Enemys Doth he preserve Empires and Kingdoms or at all consult and desire the Publick Peace You ought O pious Reader to pardon us if these things seem a little more sharp and eager than becomes a Divine for so great is the Provocation so great and so impotent with all is the Ambition of the Popes that it cannot be expressed in other or milder Words For he had once the Insolence to say in a publick Council that all the Authority of all the Kings in the World depended upon him He out of Ambition and Desire to Rule distracted the Roman Empire and tore in pieces the Christian World he absolved the Italians and amongst them himself from the Oath wherein they were obliged to the Emperor of Greece with great perfidy and solicited his Subjects to revolt from him and call'd Charles Martell the Great out of France into Italy and after a new and till then unheard of manner made him Emperor He deposed Chilperick King of France an innocent Prince only because he did not like him and set up Pipin in his Place He would if he had been able have cast out Phillip the Fair another King of France and have adjudged the Kingdom of France to Albert King of the Romans He broke the Power of Florence tho his own Country which was then a most flourishing City and changing its free and peaceable State he delivered it up to the Lust of one man He made all Savoy to be torn in pieces by the Emperor Charles the 5th on the one side and Francis the First King of France on the other scarce leaving to the miserable Duke one City to shelter himself in 16. I am weary of Examples and indeed there is nothing more troublesome than to enumerate the great Actions of the Popes of Rome of this nature I pray of whose Party were they who poisoned the Emperor Henry the 7th in the Eucharist and they who did the same to Pope Victor in the holy Chalice Who exercised the same Art upon our King John of England in a common Table Cup whoever they were and of what Party soever this is certain they were neither Lutherans nor Zuinglians Who is it that at this day permits the greatest Kings and Monarchs to kiss his Feet Who is it that commands the Emperor to hold his Bridle and the King of France his Stirrup Who was it that cast Francis Dandalus Duke of Venice and King of Crete and Cyprus under his Table to gnaw the Bones with the Dogs who crowned Henry the 6th the Emperor at Rome not with his Hands but with his Feet and then with his Foot kicked his Crown off again adding that he had power to create Emperors and to depose them Who armed Henry the Son against Henry the 4th his Father and caused the Son to take his Father Prisoner and having shaven and treated him ignominiously to cast him into a Monastery where he pined away with Hunger and Sorrow who was it that trod insolently upon the Neck of the Emperor Frederick and as if this had not been a sufficient Affront subjoyned out of the Psalms of David Thou shalt walk upon the Asp and the Basilisk and shalt tread the Lion and the Dragon under thy Feet Where is there such another Example of despised and injured Majesty in all History except in Tamberlane the Scythian a fierce and a barbarous Prince and in Saphores King of Persia All these were Popes all of them Successors of St. Peter all most Holy Men whose Words were every one of them to be Gospel to us 17. IF we be guilty of Treason who reverence our Princes who submit to them in all things as far as the Scriptures will permit us what then are these Men who have not only done all these base things but have also extol'd them as generous Actions Do they thus teach the People to revere Magistrates or can they with any Modesty accuse us of being Seditious Men the Disturbers of the Publick Peace and Contemners of the Majesty of Princes For as for us none of us shake off the Yoke nor imbroil Kingdoms nor dispose of Empires nor do we reach Poison to our Kings nor put out our Feet to them to kiss nor do we insultingly tread upon their Necks No our Profession our Doctrine is this That every Soul whose ever it is whether it be a Monk or an Evangelist or a Prophet or an Apostle it ought to be subject to Kings and Magistrates and so the Pope himself except he affect to seem greater than the Evangelists Prophets and Apostles ought to acknowledge and call the Emperor his Lord as the ancient Popes in better times ever have done We publickly teach that
Right is devolved to all Princes in common yet has so unjustly usurpt it to himself alone and thinks it sufficient to communicate his design of holding a Council to the Greatest Prince in Christendom as to his Servant But if the Modesty of Ferdinand the Emperor be so great perhaps because he doth not thorowly understand the Papal Arts that he can digest this Injury yet the Pope who pretends to so much Sanctity ought not to have offered him this Affront and thus to have arrogated to himself another Mans Right 12. BUT some of his Party may reply that the Emperor then called the Councils because the Bishop of Rome was not then arrived to that height of Greatness and yet he did not even then sit with the Bishops or at all interpose his Authority in their Deliberations and Consultations Yes as Theodoret acquaints us Constantine the Emperor did not only sit with the Bishops but admonished them to determine the Controversie then depending out of the Prophetick and Apostolical Writings In this Disputation said the Emperor concerning Divine things there is set before us which we ought to follow the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost for the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles and the Oracles of the Prophets do sufficiently shew us what we ought to think of the Will of God Theodosius another Emperor not only sat amongst the Bishops as Socrates saith but also was Moderator of the Dispute and rent the Papers of the Hereticks and approved the Sentiments and Doctrine of the Catholicks And in the Council of Chalcedon the Civil Magistrate who under the Emperor governed that Council condemn'd three Bishops Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassius by his Sentence for Hereticks and gave judgment that they should be deposed from that degree In the Third the Constantinopolitan Council the Civil Magistrate not only sate with the Bishops but also subscribed the Canons with them We have read said he and subscribed them In the Second Council of Orange the Ambassadors of the Princes being Noble-men themselves sate and not only voted concerning Matters of Religion but also subscribed amongst the Bishops for thus it is written in the end of that Council Petrus Marcellinus and Felix Liberius two Noble and Illustrions Praefecti Praetorio of Gaul and Patricians have consented and subscribed Syragrius Opilio Pantagathus Deodatus Cariatho and Marcellus honourable Men and Magistrates have subscribed But if the Praefecti Praetorio and Patricians or Noble-men could then subscribe the Councils may not Emperors and Kings do it now There were no need to prosecute so plain and apparent a point as this is but that we have to do with a parcel of Men who use to deny the clearest things oven those things which lye plain and open before their Eyes out of a contentious Disposition and a desire of Victory The Emperour Justinianus made a Law for the correcting the Manner and curbing the Insolence of the Clergy and altho he was a most Christian and Catholick Emperor yet he deposed Sylverius and Vigilius two Popes Successors of St. Peter and Vicars of Jesus Christ as they are now called 13. AND now seeing that Princes have imployed their Authority upon Bishops received commands from God concerning Religion brought back the Ark of God composed Sacred Hymns and Psalms governed the Priests made publick Discourses concerning the Worship of God purged the Temple demolished High Places burnt Idolatrous Groves and have admonished the Priests concerning their Office and given them Laws of Living have slain wicked Prophets deposed Bishops called Councils of Bishops and sate with them and taught them what they should do have punished Heretical Bishops have taken cognizance of Religion subscribed Councils and given Sentence in them and done all this not by the command of another but in their own Names and that rightly and piously shall we say after all this that the care of Religion belongs not to them Or that a Christian Prince who is pleased to concern himself in these things acts ill immodestly and wickedly In all these Affairs the most Ancient and most Christian Kings and Emperors have intermeddled and yet were never accused of Impiety or Immodesty for so doing and will any pretend to find either more Catholick Princes or more Illustrious Examples 14. BUT now if they might do all these things tho they were only Civil Princes and governed their several States Wherein have our Princes offended who tho they are in the same Authority may it seems not do the same things Or wherein consists the wonderful force of their Learning Wisdom and Holiness that contrary to the Custom of all the Ancient and Catholick Bishops who have heretofore deliberated with Princes concerning Religion they should now reject and exclude Christian Princes from the cognizance of the Cause now depending and from all Participation and Congress with them in their Councils But yet it cannot be denied they have taken a prudent care for themselves and the upholding their Kingdom which they foresaw otherwise would soon have perished For if they who are placed by God in the highest Station had once seen and understood these Mens Arts that the Commands of Christ are contemned by them that the light of the Gospel is obscured and extinguished by them that they play tricks with and delude them and shut up against them the entrance into the Kingdom of God They would never so patiently have suffered themselves to be so proudly despised and injuriously scorned and abused But now on the other hand they have rendred all Princes obnoxious and subject to them by their blindness and Ignorance 15. WE as I said before have done nothing in the changing of Religion either insolently or rashly nothing but with great deliberation and slowly Nor had we ever thought of doing it except the Will of God undoubtedly and manifestly opened to us in the most Sacred Scriptures and the necessity of our Salvation had compelled us so to do for altho we have departed from that Church which they call the Catholick Church and thereupon they have kindled a great envy against us in them who cannot well judge of us yet it is enough for us and ought to be so to any prudent and pious man who considers seriously of his Salvation that we have only departed from that Church which may enr which Christ who cannot err so long since foretold should err and which we see clearly with our Eyes has departed from the Holy Fathers the Apostles Christ himself and the Primitive and Catholick Church And we have approached as much as possibly we could to the Church of the Apostles and ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers which we know was yet a Perfect and as Tertullian saith an unspotted Virgin and not contaminated with any Idolatry or great and publick Error Neither have we only reformed the Doctrine of our Church and made it like theirs in all things but we have also brought the Celebration of ☞ the Sacraments and the
receive them But if that Expression to thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven be to be understood as spoken to all the rest as well as to Peter why then should not all that was spoken as well what went before as what follows after tho spoken to St. Peter yet be common to all the Apostles There is saith Hillary one happy Rock of Faith which Peter confessed with his Mouth and again upon this Confession of Peter's is the Church built and not much after this Faith is the Foundation of the Church And after the same manner the other Fathers also Jerome Cyril and Bede say the Church is built not upon Peter but upon the Faith of Peter that is on Jesus Christ the Son of God whom Peter by an Heavenly instinct confessed Peter saith St. Augustin was so call'd from the Rock not the Rock from Peter nor did Christ say I will build my self upon thee but I will build thee upon me And Nicholas Liranus tho he is not always a good Author for you know in what Age he lived yet he rightly took this upon this Rock saith he that is upon Christ and therefore the Church cannot depend upon any man by reason of his Dignity and Ecclesiastical Power for many Popes have proved Apostates 28. IN what then is this Papal Authority placed In Teaching but they teach nothing in administring the Sacraments but they do not administer them in feeding but they feed none Now this is all the Power which Christ bestowed upon the Apostles Go ye said he into all the World and preach the Gospel c. hence forward ye shall be Fishers of Men and as the living Father sent me so I send you But as to these whither go they what do they teach what do they preach what do they fish for from whence go they or by whom are they sent their 's is nor Apostolick Authority but Pride and an intolerable Lordship usurped by Force and Tyranny None of us saith Cyprian calls himself Bishop of Bishops or compells his Partners to a necessitated Obedience by a Tyrannical Terror Seeing every Bishop may use his Liberty and Power according to his own Discretion as he cannot be judged by another so neither can he judge another And as the other Apostles saith he were the same which Peter was so all Bishops are endowed with this equal Partnership both of Honour and Power And St. Jerome saith greater is the Authority of the World than that of any City Why then do you produce to me the Custom of one City Why do you vindicate that Paucity from which this Pride arose against the Laws of the Church Where-ever a Bishop is setled whether at Rome or Eugubium whether at Constantinople or Rhegium he is of the same Worth and of the self same Priesthood the greatness of Riches and the Humility of Poverty makes not one Bishop superior or inferior to another And St. Gregory saith Peter was a principal Member in the Body John Andrew and James were the Heads of particular People and yet all of them are Members of the Church in one Head yea the Saints before the Law those under the Law and those under Grace and all those who make up the Body of our Lord the Church are to be accounted Members and no man ever yet desired to be call'd an UNIVERSAL 29. THIS is that Power which some men defend so stoutly in this Age so that whatever they think of the Popes Life or Religion yet they would have this Authority Sacred and untouched as if the Church of God could not be safe without it or as if without the Popes Will and Consent a Council could be no Council and that if the whole World should think contrary to what he doth it would be nothing And therefore when you see Sir that these things are thus ill managed you ought not to wonder that when nothing is now sincerely and truly acted in Councils our Men had rather stay at home than travail so far to no purpose to a Place where they are sure to lose their Labour and their Cause too 30. BUT Sir you say in the next place it is a Sin to change any thing in Religion without the Consent of the Pope and a Council Why Sir the very Popes themselves have changed almost the whole State of the Primitive Church without any Council and tho this is indeed a very specious and winning Proposition yet it is made a Cover and Defence for most foul Errors for they only seek to delay the Minds of Men with a tedious Expectation that by lingring and weariness they may take off their Edge and Keenness and so by degrees make them cast off all Hopes of a Reformation For what would they have the People of God be deceived err be deluded and involved in Error and in the Ignorance of God and be led into eternal Ruine and Destruction whilst the Pope calls a Council and the Abbots and Bishops meet debate settle things and then return home Is it not lawful for any of us to believe in Christ to prosess the Gospel to worship God rightly and truly to fly from Superstitions and Worship of Idols except these men please to give us leave In truth the state of the Church of God were very deplorable if in the midst of so many far spread gross blind foul apparent and manifest Errors so that our very Enemies themselves cannot deny them nothing could be done for her Relief without the Concourse of the whole World and a General Council or at least of such a Council as we cannot hope for with any certainty and the event of which if we now had it is much more uncertain When of old the Persians invaded Greece and began to destroy all before them and the Lacedemonians whose valour was then much famed amongst the Grecians and therefore it was but reasonable they should have been the first in the defence of their Country yet because they had an ancient Custom and a Superstitious conceit that had possessed them from the time of Lycurgus that it was ominous and unfortunate to begin a Martial Expedition at any other time than that of the full Moon therefore they sat still and suffered their Enemies to plunder and burn their Country whilst they were foolishly expecting that period of the Moon which was most opportune and fitting to begin their defence in But at last they bethought themselves and cried There is equal danger in the delay The safety of the Church is in danger the Devil like a ramping and a roaring Lyon goes about seeking whom he may devour simple men are easily drawn into the snare and tho they are very often touched with a Zeal for God yet out of Ignorance and Misperswasion they persecute the Son of God And as Nazianzen saith When they think they are in Arms for Christ they do really fight against him And the Bishops who ought in the first place to
take care of these things either like vain Night-Spirits throw every things into Disorder and Confusion or that I may tell the truth without disguise encrease the Errors and double the darkness Now Sir after all this should we have sit still and expected the determination of these Fathers with our Arms folded together and doing nothing No St. Cyprian saith There is but one Episcopacy in the whole Church a solid and intire part of which is enjoyed by every Bishop and every one shall surely give an account to the Lord for his own part Their blood will I require at thy hand saith the Lord. And if any man puts his hand to the Plough and looketh back and is solicitous what others may think of him and expects the Authority of a General Council and in the mean time hides his Lords Treasure he shall hear thou sloathful and wicked Servant Take him and cast him into outer darkness Suffer saith Christ the dead to bury their dead but come thou and follow me The truth of God depends not upon men In Humane Counsels it is the part of a wise man to stay for the judgment and consent of men but in the Affairs of Religion the voice of God ought to supercede the need of all others which as soon as a devout Soul has heard he yeilds presently submits and neither stands off nor expects any other for he knows that then he ought neither to believe the Pope nor Council but the Will of God thus revealed And this voice is to be obeyed tho opposed by all men The Prophet Elija immediately obeyed God tho he did believe that he was alone Abraham upon the Admonition of God went out of Caldea Lot went out of Sodom and the three Children made a publick Confession of their Religion and openly detested Idolatry without expecting a General Council Go out of her saith the Angel and be not partakers of her sins that ye partake not of her Plagues he doth not say stay for a Synod of the Bishops Thus the true Religion was at first published and so it must be now restored The Apostles at first taught the Gospel without any publick Council and without any such Council it may now be called back and reinstated But if Christ himself or his Apostles in the beginning would have delayed and put off the whole business till a future Council When should the 〈◊〉 of them have gone out into all Lands How should the Kingdom of God have suffered force and the violent have taken it by a kind of Invasion Where had the Gospel now been Where would the Church of God have been In truth we neither fear nor fly from a Council but rather wish for and desire it so it may be free genuine and Christian and may be conven'd after the pattern of that of the Apostles provided that the Abbots and Bishops may be discharged of their Oath by which they are now bound to the Popes of Rome and that whole Combination now on foot may be dissolved provided those of our Party may be freely and modestly heard provided they be not condemned before they are heard And lastly upon condition that if any thing be done no one man may weaken or rescind all again But now whilst we saw that the present manners and times would not allow us thus much and that the most absurd silly ridiculous superstitious and wicked things were most stifly defended only because they had been heretofore received and purely for custom sake We judged it to be our duty to provide for and take care of our own Churches in a National Council 31. FOR we know that the Spirit of God is neither bound to any place or number of men Tell it said Christ to the Church To wit not to the universal Church which is spread all over the World but to the particular which may meet in some one place Wheresoever saith he two or three of you are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of you So St. Paul that he might reform the Churches of Corinth and Galatia did not command them to stay for a General Council but wrote to them that they would forthwith cut off all Errors and Disorders And so heretofore whilst the Bishops slept and did nothing or rather defil'd and polluted the Temple of God God by extraordinary ways excited others who were great men and of generous minds to reform whatever was amiss 32. BUT then Sir we have done nothing rashly nor without very great reason nothing but what we saw was lawful at all times to be done and which had often been done by the Holy Fathers without any blame And thus calling together the Bishops and a very full Synod by the common consent of all our States We cleansed the Church of those Dregs and Corruptions which either the carelesness or malice of Men had brought in and purged it as the Augean Stable And as far as it was possible we have reduced all things to their ancient Splendor and the resemblance of the Apostolical times and Primitive Church And all this as we might lawfully do it so for that cause have we done it confidently 33. THAT which Pope Gregory the First wrote about these Affairs please me and the more because he wrote about the Institution of the English Churches to Augustin Bishop of the English He exhorts him then not that he should refer things to a Council but that according to his Discretion he should appoint such things as he saw did most tend to the encrease of Piety You know saith he my Brother the Custom of the Church of Rome in which you were brought up but I am best pleased with this Course that where-ever you find any thing which is most pleasing to Almighty God whether it be in the Church of Rome or that of France or in any other Church you would carefully pick and choose the principal things and settle them in the Church of England which is yet new and to be setled in the Faith and that in the Constitution thereof you should instill those things which you have thus collected from many several Churches ◠for Customs are not to be loved for the sake of the Places but the Places for their Sakes 34. After the same manner the Fathers in the Council of Constantinople wrote to Damasus Pope of Rome and the rest of the Western Bishops Ye know the ancient Sanction and Definition of the Council of Nice was ever in force that as to the Care of the Administration of particular Churches the Clergy in every Province taking their Neighbours if they thought fit should confer Ecclesiastical Dignities upon those they believed would manage them profitably And the Affrican Fathers wrote thus to Pope Celestinus Your Holiness may be pleased to reject the unjust Appeals or Recourses of our Presbyters and the inferior Clerks of our Church as becomes you for this was never denied to the Church of Affrica by any