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
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
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
heard the Gospel O my little Children of whom I travel in Birth again until Christ be formed in you For there is no need of speaking how fearfully the Church of Corinth was corrupted And now could the Churches of Galatia and Corinth fall and is the Church of Rome the only Church that can neither fall nor err Certainly Christ long since foretold concerning his Church that there should be a time when the Abomination of Desolation should stand in the Holy Place And St. Paul saith that Antichrist shall sit in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God And the time will come when men will not indure sound Doctrine but in the Church shall be turned unto Fables And St. Peter saith there shall be in the Church false Teachers and Daniel the Prophet saith of the last times the Days of Antichrist the Truth shall be cast down and trodden upon in the Earth And Christ saith there shall be such great Calamities and Confusions upon the Earth that the very Elect if it were possible shall be deceived Now all these things are to come to pass not amongst Pagans and Turks but in the Holy Place the Temple of God in the Church the Assembly and Society of Christians 23. AND altho these things alone are sufficient to forewarn a wise man not to suffer himself easily to be imposed upon by the Name of the Church so as not to examine it by the Word of God yet besides all this many of the Fathers and pious and learned Men have oftentimes grievously complain'd that there Predictions were come to pass in their times For God in the midst of that Darkness would that there should be some men who should as Sparks be observed by Men tho they could not give them a very clear and bright Light Certainly Hilarius when things were in some sort sincere and uncorrupted tells them that they did ill in doating upon Walls that they were mistaken in venerating Houses and Buildings as if they were the Church of God and offering them to us instead of Peace Is it doubtful saith he whether Antichrist shall sit there The Mountains Woods Lakes Prisons and Gulphs to me seem safer because the Prophets of God remaining willingly or being forcibly put into them prophecied by the Spirit of God Gregory the Great as if he then perceived and foresaw the Ruine that was near at hand wrote thus to John Bishop of Constantinople who first commanded himself to be call'd by the Name of the Universal Bishop If the Church should depend upon one man it would certainly fall And who is there that hath not observed that this is come long since to pass It is a great while since the Bishop of Rome would have the whole Church depend upon him only and therefore it is no wonder if it be long since fallen St. Bernard above four hundred years agon said there is nothing sound in the Clergy now therefore there is nothing remaining but the Revelation of the Man of Sin and in his Sermon on the Conversion of St. Paul he expresseth himself thus It may seem perhaps to some that Persecutions are ceased No saith he they now begin from them who have obtained the Primacy in the Church thy Friends and thy Neighbours have approached and stood against thee from the Sole of the Foot to the Crown of the Head there is no Soundness Iniquity is proceeded from thy Elders Judges and Vicars who seem'd to govern thy People We cannot now say as the People are so is the Priest because the People are not so bad as the Priests Alas alas O Lord God! they are the first in persecuting thee who seem to love the Primacy and exercise a Principality in thy Church And upon the Canticles All my Friends and all my Enemies all my Acquaintance and all my Adversaries the Servants of Christ serve Antichrist Behold in my Peace my Bitterness is encreased And Roger Bacon a man of great Name when he had in a sharp Discourse represented the miserable State of his own times concludes thus those many and great Errors require Antichrist as near at hand 24. GERSON complains that in his times all the force of Theology was degenerated into a meer contest of Wit and Sophistry The Lugdunensian Brothers a sort of men which were not ill as to their Lives used to affirm that the Church of Rome from whence alone the Oracles of Faith were then fetched was the Whore of Babylon concerning which such clear Predictions were in the Revelations and that she was the Assembly of Hell I know that the Authority of these Men is in no esteem with them but what now would they say if I should produce Witnesses which are of the highest Value with them What if I say that Pope Adrian ingenuously confessed that all those Mischiefs fell upon the Church from the top of the Papal Power Pighius confesseth that they erred in this that they suffered many Abuses to be brought into the Mass tho they would have it esteemed most Holy Gerson that the multitude of light foolish Ceremonies had extinguished all that Power of the Holy Spirit which should have flourished in us and all that was truly Pious All Greece and Asia complained that the Popes of Rome by their Doctrines of Purgatory and Sales of Indulgences had both offered Violence to the Consciences of Men and robb'd their Purses 25. Laurentius Valla Marsilius Patavinus Franciscus Petrarcha Hieronymus Savanarola Abbas Joachimus Baptista Mantuanus and before them all St. Bernard have very often grievously complain'd of the Tyranny and Persian Pride of the Bishops of Rome and have not obscurely hinted whether true or falsly I will not inquire that the Pope was Antichrist not to mention a number of others who because they have freely and ingenuously reprehended the Vices of the Popes will perhaps be numbred by them amongst their Enemies but all these I have named lived either at Rome it self or under the eyes of these most Holy Fathers and were intimately acquainted with their way of living and did never depart from their Catholick Faith Neither can any man object that these were Lutherans or Zuinglians for they lived not only some few years but some intire Ages before the Names of these Men were heard of in the World and they saw also even then that Errors were crept into the Church and desired they might be amended And where was the Wonder if the Church fell into some Errors in those times in which neither the Bishop of Rome who alone had the chiefest Management of Affairs or almost any other Persons either did or indeed understood what was their Duty for it is not credible that in that time in which they were so idle and drowsie the Devil was perpetually a sleep or idle too For what kind of men they were and with what fidelity they took care of the House of God
Forms of our Publick Rites and Prayers to an exact resemblance with their Institutions or Customs And so we have only done that which we know Christ himself and all pious and good Men have in all Ages ever done for we have brought back Religion which was foully neglected and depraved by them to her Original and first State for we considered that the Reformation of Religion was to be made by that which was the first Pattern of it For this Rule will ever hold good against all Hereticks saith the most ancient Father Tertullian That that is true which is first and that is adulterated and corrupted which is later Irenaeus doth often appeal to the most ancient Churches who were the nearest to Christ and which therefore were not at all likely to have erred And why is not that course now taken also Why do we not return to a Conformity with the most Ancient Churches why cannot that be now heard amongst us which was pronounced in the Council of Nice without the least contradiction or opposition from so many Bishops and Catholick Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LET THE OLD CUSTOMS STAND FIRM When Esdras was to rebuild the Temple he did not send to Ephesus tho there was there a most beautiful Temple of Diana which was adorned most exquisitely and when he was to restore the Rites and Ceremonies he did not send to Rome tho perhaps he might have heard there of Hecatembs c. and the ritual Books of Numa Pompilius he thought it was sufficient for him if he set before him as an example and followed the ancient Temple built by Solomon according to the Prescription of God Almighty and the ancient Rites and Ceremonies which God had expresly commanded Moses When the Temple was rebuilt by Esdras and the People might seem to have a just cause to rejoyce in so very great a Blessing granted to them by the Great and Holy God yet Haggai the Prophet brought Tears from all their Eyes because they that were yet living and had seen the Structures of the former before it was destroyed by the Babylonians did well remember how far this latter was from the splendor of the former Temple But on the contrary they would have thought it excellently restored if it had answered the Model and represented the Majesty of the old Temple 16. St. Paul that he might reform the Abuses of the Lords Supper which the Corinthians began even then to corrupt proposed to them the Institution of it by Christ to follow That saith he have I delivered to you which I received of the Lord. And Christ that he might refute the Errors of the Pharisees in another case sends them up to the beginning In the beginning saith he it was not so And that he might shew the Sordidness and Avarice of the Priests This saith he in the beginning was a House of Prayer that Men might in it pray to God Religiously and Purely and so you ought still to have kept it for it was not built to be a Den of Thieves So all religious and approved Princes in Scripture are especially honoured with this Commendation that they walked in the ways of David their Father that is that they returned to the Original and Fountain and restored Religion to its first Integrity And so we seeing all things perverted by them and that there was nothing left in the Church of God but miserable Ruines thought it was but reasonable to set before us those Churches for our Example which we were sure had not erred and had neither private Masses nor unintelligible and barbarous Prayers nor that Corruption of the Holy Rites or other Fooleries And desiring to restore the Church of God to its first Integrity and Purity we would not seek any other Foundation to build upon than what was laid by the Apostles that is by our Saviour Jesus Christ 17. WHEN therefore we had heard God himself speaking to us in his word and had seen and considered the illustrious Examples of the Ancient and Primitive Church and that the expectation of a General Council was very uncertain and the event that would follow it much more uncertain and especially when we had the utmost certainty what was the Will of God and therefore thought it a Sin to be too sollicitous and anxious what the opinion of Men might be After all this I say we could no longer deliberate with flesh and blood but proceeded and have accordingly done that which may both lawfully be done and which hath already been often done by many pious Men and Catholick Bishops that is to take care of our own Church in a Provincial Synod For so we see the ancient Fathers ever took that course before they came to a General and Publick Council of the whole World and there are still extant the Canons made in Muncipial or Provincial Councils at Carthage under St. Cyprian at Ancyra Neocaesarea and at Gangra also in Paphlagonia all which as some think were held before the name of the Nicene General Council was thought of And in this manner without any General Council by a private dispute they of old opposed the Pelagians and Donatists So when Constantius the Emperor openly favored Auxentius a Bishop of the Arrian Party Athanasius a most Christan Bishop did not appeal to a General Council in which he saw nothing could be done by reason of the Power of the Emperor and the great partiality and stiffness of the Faction but to his own Clergy and People that is to a Provincial Council 18. SO it was decreed in the Nicene Council that twice in the year and in a Carthagenian Council that at least once in a year Meetings of the Bishops should be celebrated in every Province which the Council of Chalcedon saith was done that if any Errors or Abuses arose any where they might presently and upon the spot be extinguished And so when Secundus and Paladius rejected the Council of Aquileja because it was not a Publick and General Council St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan replied that it ought not to seem new or strange if the Bishops of the West assembled in Prâ—vincial Conventions or Synods for it had been not seldom done by the Western Bishops before and was very frequently by the Greek Bishops So Charles the Great Emperor of Germany held a Provincial Council in Germany for the taking away Images out of the Church against the second Nicene Council which had determined for them nor is this thing new and unheard of in England for we have heretofore had many Provincial Synods and have governed our Church by our own domestick Laws without the Interposition of the Popes of Rome or any other foreign Bishops or Churches What need is there of many words Certainly those greatest and fullest Councils of which these Men so often Glory if they be compared with all the Churches which throughout the World own and confess the Name of Christ what I pray can they seem to be
more than some Private Councils of the Bishops and a sort of Great Provincial Synods For tho perhaps Italy France Spain England Germany Denmark and Scotland should meet yet Asia Greece Armenia Persia Media Mesopotamia Egypt Aethiopia India and Mauritania in all which places there are many Christians and Bishops would yet be absent And how could such a Council as this ever be reputed a General Council by any understanding Man And when so many and such considerable parts of the World are absent how can they pretend to have the Consent of the whole World Or what kind of Council was the last at Trent or how could it in any sense be said to be General when only Forty Bishops met there out of all the Christian Kingdoms in Europe and some of them too were so very Eloquent that it had been fit to send them to the Grammar Schools again and so Learned that they had never in all their Lives read the Bible over But be these things as they will the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ doth not depend upon General Councils or as St. Paul saith upon Mans Iudgment But if they who ought to take care of the Church will not understand and will be wanting to their duty and will harden their hearts against God and against his Christ and still go on to pervert the direct and streight ways of the Lord God will make the stones to cry out and endow Infants with an Oratorical Eloquence that there may ever be some to confute their Shams for God can protect and enlarge his Church not only without the help but against the opposition of Councils There be many Devices in Mans heart saith Solomon but the Counsel of the Lord that shall stand for there is neither Wisdom nor Prudence nor Counsel against the Lord for saith Hilary Those things theâ— are set up by Humane Industry do not continue long the Church was otherwise built and must be preserved by other means for she was built upon the Foundations of the Apostleâ— and Prophets and is fixed and cemented together by one corner stone Jesus Christ 18. VERY elegant and to our times most seasonable are the Words of St. Jerome As often saith he as the Devil lulls any a sleep with the sweet Blandishments of his Sirens the the Holy Scriptures never fail to awaken them with a Surge qui dormis elevare illuminabit te Christus Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Light At the coming of Christ and of the Word of God and of the Ecclesiastical Doctrine when the time of the Ruine of Nineve that beautiful Harlot is come then shall the People awake which had before been lull'd a sleep under their former Teachers and shall pass to the Mountains of the Scriptures there shall they find the Mountains of Moses and Joshua the Son of Nun the Mountains of the Prophets and the Mountains of the New Testament the Apostles and Evangelists and when the People have fled to these Mountains and are exercised in the reading of them tho they find no Teacher for the Harvist shall be great and the Labourers few yet the Industry of the People shall be approved in that they have fled to these Mountains and the Negligence of their Teachers shall be reprehended Thus hath St. Jerome written so very plainly that here is no need of an Interpreter and with so great a Congruity to the Events which have happened in our Times that it looks as if he had designed to foretel and describe to us with a Prophetick Spirit the whole State of our Times the Ruine of that richly adorned Babylonish Harlot and the Reformation of the Church of God the Blindness and Negligence of the Bishops and the Alacrity and Zeal of the People For who can be so blind as not to see that these were the Masters who as St. Jerome saith led the People into Error and stupified them in it or that Rome their Nineve which was once painted with the most lovely Colours is not now better known and less valued or that pious Men being now as it were awakned out of a deep Sleep have not betaken themselves to the Mountains of the Scriptures the Word of God and the Light of the Gospel without ever expecting the Councils of such Teachers as these 19. BUT without the Popes Consent at least some may think these things ought not to have been attempted because he is the Bond that unites the Christ an Society he is that one Priest whom God means in Deuteronomy from whom Counsel was to be expected in all difficult Cases and from whom the Judgment of Truth was to be fetched and if any man should dare to disobey him he was to be put to death in the sight of his Brethren and whatsoever he doth he can be judged by no mortal Man that as Christ reigns in Heaven so he rules on Earth that be can do whatever Christ or God himself can do that his Consistory and Christs are one and the same that without him there is no Faith no Hope no Church that he who forsakes him rejects his own Salvation For thus the Canonists the Flatterers of the Pope write not very modestly of him for they could scarce say more and certainly not greater things of Christ himself As for us we have not forsaken the Pope for any humane Pleasure or worldly Profit and we wish passionately he would behave himself so that there should be no need of a Departure from him but so it was except we left him there was no coming to Christ Nor will he now enter a League with us upon any other terms than those proposed by Nahash King of Ammon to the men of Jabeth-gilead that he may thrust out all our right Eyes for he will deprive us of the Holy Scriptures the Gospel of our Salvation and of all that Hope we have in Christ Jesus for upon other Conditions no Peace with him can be had 20. AND as to that which so many of them accustom themselves to extol so very much that the Pope only is St. Peters Successor as if upon that account he always carried the Holy Ghost in his Bosome and so could not err it is an airy and a silly Pretence The Grace of God is promised to pious Souls and to those that fear God and not affixed to Chairs and Successions Riches saith St. Jerome may render one Bishop more powerful than another but yet all Bishops what ever they are are the Successors of the Apostles But if the Place and Inauguration be it they so much rely on both Manasses succeeded David and Caiaphas Aaron and an Idol hath often stood in the House of God Long since one Archidamus a Lacedemonian made a mighty boasting that he was descended from Hercules one Nicostratus chastised his Insolence by telling him it did not seem probable that he could be descended from Hercules because
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
the Emperor it was then thought a sufficient Excuse that they must attend the Reformation and Care of their own Churches tho they saw that the Arrians then prevail'd every where and that their Presence might have been of a mighty consequence for the abating their Rage 11. WHAT if our Bishops should now make the same Answers that they can spare no time from the sacred Ministry that they are totally taken up in restoring and reforming their Churches that they cannot be spared from home five six or seven years and especially in that place where they can do no good for our Bishops have not the same leisure with those who luxuriously spend their time in Palaces at Rome and depend upon the Cardinals and lye at the catch for rich Preferments for our Churches are so miserably ruin'd and perverted by the ill Management of these men that it is neither a small time nor an ordinary Diligence that can reform them And now we see plainly that they design a Diversion and mis-spending of our times that when there is no need of it we may be drawn from Home and so may neither promote the Reformation at Home nor be suffered by them to do it in the Council 12. For the Pope indeed does but dissemble with the World that you may not be deluded he intends no Council nor are you to think that he acts any thing sincerely and truly He that knows not how to dissemble said Lewis the 11th to Charles the 8th his Successor knows not how to Reign And much more he that knows not how to dissemble and conceal his Counsels under the Gravity of his Looks as things go now will never be able to act the part of a Pope for that See is supported meerly by Hypocrisie and is forced to supply the Defects of a natural Strength with pretended Colours and Shews For if the Popes did indeed think that a General Council was of such wonderful efficacy for the suppressing Schisms why did they so very long delay so necessary a means of it Why did they sit still thirty years and suffer Luthers Doctrine to take root Why did they not presently call a Council Why did they at last call the Council of Trent with great unwillingness and reluctancy and more by the Impulse of Charles the Emperor than by their own free Wills and when the Council had sit almost ten years at Trent why after so tedious a Consultation was nothing brought to an Issue Why did they leave their Business undone Who hindred them Who withstood them Believe me in this my Brother the Pope has no design now that a Council should meet or Religion be reform'd which they perfectly despise All their Business Desires and Contentions aim at nothing but the deluding the Minds of Religious Men and the whole World with the Expectation of a General Council 13. THEY see long since that their Revenues are diminished and ruin'd that their Arts have not the same success they have had heretofore that an Incredible number of men do every day fall off from them there is not now that vast concourse of People to Rome men do neither esteem nor purchase their Indulgences Interdictions Benedictions Absolutions and vain Bulls at the Rate they have done the Sales of their Ceremonies and Masses and all that Whorish Paint is not much valued so that a very great part of their Pomp and Tyranny is fallen their Incoms reduced to a lower Ebb than ever they and their Partizans are become the Scorn of Children so that now their whole Concern is at the Stake Nor is there any wonder that those things should fall which were supported by no roots Our Saviour JESUS CHRIST hath put an end to them not by Arms or the force of Soldiers but by an Heavenly Impulse and the Breath of his mouth and he will intirely consume and abolish them by the brightness of his coming such is the force of the Word of God the Power of the Gospel and these are the Weapons which will bring down every high thing which is built up or exalted against the Knowledge of God This Doctrine shall be preached in spite of all throughout the World and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it the Merit-mongers Shops at Rome do now lye desolate their Wares Like the Goods of Porsenna are cried at a low price and there is scarce any to buy them a poor Dealer in Indulgences does now wander about and rarely finds a Fool that will purchase one This Sir is the great Concern from hence spring the Papal Tears and Cares they see this Light sprung out of one small Spark and what now may be the Event when there are so many Fires kindled every where on the Earth and so many Christian Kings and Princes own and prosess the Gospel for these men do no serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies There goes a Story that when Carneades the Philosopher was at Rome and made that memorable Oration against Justice amongst other things he added this That this Virtue if it was a Virtue was not of less use to any part of Mankind than to the Romans for they by Force and Stealth had subdued those Kingdoms to themselves which of right belonged to other men and by a most flagrant Injustice had arrived to the Empire of the World and that if now they should fall to the Exercise of Justice all these must be restored to the right owners which they possess'd so unjustly and so they should be reduced to their Shepherds Cottages and poor cold Sheds which was all they had at first And so now these if they should lay aside their Dissimulation and act sincerely and do their Duty and give every one what was truly their own they must then return to the Staff and Scrip again to Sobriety and Modesty to the Labours and Duty of a Bishop for they have heard what St. Augustin said Bishop is a Name of Labour and not of Honour and that they were no Bishops who sought more to be over the People than to do them good and therefore they see that the spreading of the Gospel is of less advantage to them than to any other men in the World for if ever they should entertain a thought of reforming they are undone and therefore now they fill the World with Tumults and Disorders as Demetrius the Silver-Smith heretofore did when he saw his Trade was going down And this is the true cause why Councils are now call'd and the Bishops and Abbots are assembled for this seems now the cunningest way to prolong the time for some few years by suspending the minds of men with Expectation and in the interim many things as is usual may happen a War may break out some of the Princes may dye and the strange Inclinations of Men towards the Reformation may be blunted by delays and languish by degrees and in the mean time as one said I hope something will be done 14.
OF old when the Athenians after they had beaten the Persians out of Greece began to rebuild their Walls which they themselves had levell'd with the Ground during the War And the Lacedemonians that they might still have the Athenians at their Mercy did severely prohibit them not to do it Themistocles the General of the Athenians promised that he would go to Lacedemon and deliberate with them about this Business and accordingly when he had began his Journey that he might gain time first he pretended a Sickness that he might stay a while by the way and when at last he got to Lacedemon he began one Delay after another one while the Articles did not please him another while he must consider of them a while now he must stay for his fellow Ambassadors without whom he could do nothing and soon after he must send Messengers to Athens to know their Pleasures and in the interim whilst he was spinning out the time the Athenians fortified their City that in case any Force were imployed against them they might be in a condition to repel it and just thus our Adversaries by gaining one day after another and pretending to refer all thins to a Council in the mean time build their own Walls whilst we sit still and expect I know not what Wonders from them and in the end when they have taken their Measures and put their Affairs out of danger then they will shut us out of doors and tell us that no Council can be held nor any thing else done 15. FOR it is worth the while to consider their Arts and Stratagems how often have Councils been call'd and yet have not met how often has a small flying Rumour defeated all their Preparations and other mens Expectations How often have the Purple Dons slipt home without doing any thing and adjourn'd the next Session to the ninth or tenth year How often has the Weather Provisions the Place or the Time not suited with their Humors For the Pope alone calls the Councils and dismisseth them when he will if any thing doth not please him or things begin to go cross to his Interest presently you hear his Valete Plaudite Clap your Hands and farewell A Council was call'd at Basil great numbers assembled from all Places many things were seriously debated Pope Eugenius is condemn'd as an Heretick and a Simonaical Prelate by all the Votes and Amideus Duke of Savoy substituted in his place Eugenius as he had reason takes this ill as a thing of bad example to Posterity his Power being very much above all Councils no Council can meet said he but by his Order nor determine any thing against his Will therefore it is a lewd thing to search into his Life in a Conventicle of Bishops So without delay he calls the Council first to Ferrara in Italy and then translates it to Florence What is the matter I pray did Pope Eugenius think the change of Air would produce a change in their Minds or that the Holy Ghost would give Answers more wisely in Italy than he had in Germany No he did not seek Christ in all his Changes but his own dear Interest he saw that in Germany Sigismund the Emperor was his Enemy and that his authority and the Favour he had there was too great and he thought that if these Fathers were transplanted from those cold Climates into Italy they might like trees removed become more mild and their Fruit more pleasant for O immortal God! that is not now any part of the Business of a Council to find out the Truth or suppress Falshood the only Business of Popes in Councils in these latter Ages has been the confirming the Roman Tyranny the promoting Wars the imbroiling the Christian Princes and engaging them one against another the Levying Mony sometimes for Expeditions into the Holy Land at other times for the building St. Peters Church sometimes for I know not what other Uses or rather Abuses which all tended to promote the Luxury and Lusts of a few ill men and these were the only Aims of all the late Councils for as for the Errors and Abuses as if there had been none nothing could ever be handled 16. Petrus Alliacensis complain'd much in the Council of Constance concerning the Avarice and Insolence of the Court of Rome But what did he gain by it What part of their Avarice or Insolence was ever restrain'd by the Authority of any Council and he moved too that the number of Holy Days and the Herds of lazy Monks might be diminished and another in a certain Work which is call'd the Tripartite and is put in the end of the Council of Laterane saith that the whole World is scandalized and speaks against the vast Multitude of begging Fryars and the Fathers in that Laterane Council say We command all men streightly for time to come not to invent any more new Religious Orders From these times to ours what has been done concerning Holy Days I know not but it is highly probable there hath been no diminution of them but the Order of Monks hath been infinitely encreased for the late Popes have added the Jesuits the Capuchins and the Theatins as if we had not had before a sufficient Swarm of Idle â—ellies John Gerson Chancellor of Paris offered to the Fathers of the Council of Constance a Catalogue of LXXV Abuses in the Church of Rome which he earnestly desired might be reformed but now of so great a number what one Abuse have they since reformed Johannes Picus Mirandula writes to Pope Leo that he would diminish the number of vain Ceremonies and curb the Luxury of the Priests After this a great number of Bishops met in the Laterane Council with a mighty expectation of the whole World but what one Ceremony did they cut off What one Priest did they punish for Luxury and Wickendess the Poet Mantuan complained by name of the Manners of the Church of Rome St. Bernard the Abbot wrote thus to Eugenius the Pope your Court sometimes receives good Men but it makes none the bad do there thrive the good are ruin'd And concerning the miserable state in which the Church then was he writes that from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Foot there is no soundness And again where is he that preacheth the acceptable year of the Lord they do not saith he in these times keep but corrupt the Spouse of Christ they do not keep but kill and devour the Lords Flock Pope Adrian the VI. when he sent his Legate into Germany did ingeniously and truly confess that the state of the whole Clergy was extreamly corrupt all we the Ecclesiastical Prelates saith he have declined every one into his way and there is not now one that doth good no not one Albertus Pighius confesseth that in the very Mass which they will have to be most sacred and in which they place the Center of all the Christian Religion there may be found Abuses and
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
Definition of the Fathers and the Decrees of the Nicene Council have most plainly committed both all inferiour Clerks and also all the Bishops to their own Metropolitans for all Affairs may be most prudently and justly ended in those places where they began nor will the Grace and Assistance of the Holy Ghost be wanting to any Province Let this Equity be â—ver of great esteem with all Christian Priests which hath been constantly retained 35. BUT Elutherius Bishop of Rome wrote much better and more pertinently to the thing we have now in hand in his Epistle to Lucius a King in Britain You have saith he desired I would send you the Roman and Caesarean Laws which you have a desire to settle in your Kingdom of Britain We may abrogate the Roman and Imperial Laws when we will but not the Law of God for you have by the Mercy of God received the Law and Faith of Christ in your Kingdom of Britain and you have with you in your Kingdom both Testaments compile out of them by the Assistance of God and the Counsel of your Kingdom a Law and then by it with Gods permission govern your said Kingdom for you are the VICAR OF GOD in that Kingdom according to that of the Psalmist the Earth is the Lords 36. IN short Victor Bishop of Rome held a Provincial Synod at Rome and Justinianus the Emperor commandeth that if need require Synods should be held in each Province and threatned that if this were neglected he would punish those that made default Every Province saith St. Jerome hath its particular Manners Rites and Opinions which cannot easily be removed or changed without a very great disturbance And why should I commemorate the most ancient Municipal Councils that of Eliberis Gangra Laodicea Ancyra Antiâ—ch Tâ—urs Carthage Milevis Toledo and Bourdâ—aux for this is no new thing So was the Church of God governed before the Fathers met in the Council of Nice for they had not presently recourse to a General Council Theophilus held a Provincial Synod in Palestinâ— Palmas in Pontus Irenaeus in Gaul Bachilus in Achaia Origen against Beryllus in Arabia and I omit many other Provincial Synods which were kept in Africa Asia Greece and Egypt which were most â—ious Orthodox and Christian tho the Pope had nothing to do with them For the Bishops then as necessity required and as things fell out presently consulted the Well-fare of their Churches in Domestick Councils and sometimes implored the Assistance of their neighbour Bishops at other they frankly aided each other without asking and if need were did by turns help one the other Nor did only the Bishops but Princes of those times think that the Concerns of the Church pertain'd to their Oâ—â—ice for to omit Nebuchadnezar who published a Capital Edict against all that should blaspheme the God of Israel and David Solomon Ezechias and Josias who did partly build and partly reform the Temple of God Constantius the Emperor without any Council took away the Worship of Idols and put forth a most severe Edict by which he made it capital for any man to offer Sacrifice to any Idol Theodosius the Emperor commanded all the Temples of the Pagan Gods to be razed to the Ground Jovinianus another of them so soon as ever he was declared Emperor made his first Law for the restitution of the Christian Exiles Justinianus was wont to say that his Care of the Christian Religion was as great as that of his Life Joshua so soon as ever he was made the Governour of the People had Precepts concerning Religion and the Worship of God given him for Princes are the nursing Fathers of the Church and the Keepers of both Tables nor was there any one Cause why God setled Governments in the World greater than this viz. That there might be some to preserve Religion and Piâ—ty in safety 37. AND therefore many Princes in this Age do sin the more grievously who being call'd Christians sit idely and enjoy their Pleasures and tamely suffer wicked Rites of Worship and the Contempt of the Deity and turn over all this Care to the Bishops and those very Bishops whom they know to have all Religion in the utmost degree of scorn as if the Care of the Churches and People of God did not at all belong to them or as if they were meer Herds-men of Cattle and to take care of Bodies but not in the least of mens Souls they remember not in the mean time that they are the Ministers of God and chosen for that purpose that they might serve the Lord. Ezechias the King would not go up to his own House until he saw the Temple of God throughly purged And David said I will not give Sleep to my Eyes no Slumber to my Eye-lids until I find out a Place for the Lord a Tabernacle for the God of Jacob. O that Christian Princes would hear the Voice of their Lord and Soveraign Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be learned O ye that are Judges of the Earth I have said saith he that ye are Gods that is men divinely chosen who should take care of my Name Think thou whom I have raised from the Dunghil and placed in the highest degree of Dignity and Honour and set over my People when thou so studiously buildst and adornest thy own House how thou canst despise and neglect my House or how thou canst every day petition me that I would confirm thy Kingdom to thee and thy Posterity What that my Name may for ever be treated unworthily that the Gospel of my Christ may be extinguished that my Servants may for my Sake he butchered before thy Eyes and in thy View that this Tyranny may rage the longer that my People may be imposed upon for ever that the Scandal may be confirm'd by thee Wo to him by whom Scandals come and wo to him by whom they are confirm'd Thou tremblest at the Blood of Bodies how much more shouldest thou abhor the Blood of Souls remember what I did to Antiochus Herod and Julian I will translate thy Kingdom unto thy Enemy because thou hast sinned against me I change Times and Seasons I reject Kings and I set them up that thou mayst understand that I am the most highest and that I rule in the Kingdoms of men and give them to whom I will I bring down and I lift up I glorifie those that glorifie me and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed FIFIS Lloyd's State-worthies p. 374 Eccles Restaurat p. 283. Tortura Torti p. 130. 1569. 13 Eli. e. a. In the English Life before his Works is called Witney November 1548. This Dispute began the 28 th of May Anno Christi 1549. and lasted five days 1551. 1553. Fuller in his Church History saith he was expelled for refusing to be present at Mass Anno 1553. 1554. Peter Martyr Ecclesia Restaurata p. 196 Peter Martyr also helped himself for he would not go without the Queens Pasport and leave and
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
our Forefathers who first imbraced and professed the Name of Christ that they conspired amongst themselves against the Government and for that purpose met very early whilst it was yet dark that they murthered Male-Infants gorged themselves with Mans Flesh and in a barbarous manner drank humane Blood and at last putting out the Candles perpetrated Incests and Adulteries and that Brothers lay with their Sisters and Sons with their Mothers without any reverence to their Bloods and Families without Difference or Modesty that they were impious destitute of all Religion Atheists the Enemies of all Mankind and unworthy of the Light or Life 3. THESE things were spoken against the Jews the People of God against Christ Jesus against St. Paul St. Stephen and against all those who in the first Ages imbraced the truth of the Gospel and were called Christians a Name then hated by the Many And although none of these things were true yet the Devil thought it sufficient to his Purpose if they were believed true that so the Christians might incur the publick Hatred and be pursued by all to Ruine and Destruction And thus Kings and Princes being deceived slew all the Prophets of God to a Man they condem'd Isaiah to the Saw Jeremia to be ston'd Daniel to the Lions Amos to the Iron Bar Paul to the Sword and Christ to the Cross and all Christians to Prisons to Racks to Crosses to Rocks and Precipices to wild Beasts and Fires and burnt whole Piles of their living Bodies for nocturnal Lights and by way of Sport and Recreation and never esteem'd them better than the most vile Filth of the Earth the Off-scourings and Scorn of the World thus the first Authors and Professors of the Truth were ever treated 4. WHEREFORE all we who have now undertaken the Profession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ought to bear it with the less disturbance of Mind if in the same Cause we are treated after the same manner and as heretofore our Fathers so we in this Age are persecuted also with Reproaches Slanders and Lyes only because we teach and profess the Truth 5. THEY roar out in all Places that we are Hereticks that we have forsaken the true Faith and broken the Union of the Church with new Opinions and impious Doctrines 2. That we fetch from Hell and revive the old and long since condemn'd Heresies and sow the Seeds of new Sects and unheard of Broils that we are already divided into contrary Factions and Opinions and we could never yet in any manner agree amongst our selves 3. That we are wicked men and like the Gyants of old have entered into a Rebellion against God himself and live without the least regard to the Deity and without any religious Worship 4. That we despise all good Actions that we do not use any virtuous Discipline that we regard neither Laws nor good Manners nor Right nor Justice nor Equity nor Order that we let loose the Rein and suffer all sorts of Villanies and even provoke the People to all the Licentiousness and Luxury that is possible 5. That our Business and great Design is the subverting Monarchies and Kingdoms that all States may be reduced under the Dominion of the ignorant Multitude and the indiscreet Populace 6. That we have made a tumultuous Defection from the Catholick Church and have shaken the Peace of the World and disturbed the Quiet of the Church by a detestable Schism and that as heretofore Dathan and Abiram rose up against Moses and Aaron so we without any just cause have revolted from the Pope of Rome 7. That we despise the Authority of the Primitive Fathers and antient Councils That we have imprudently and insolently abrogated the antient Ceremonies which have been approved for many Ages by our Fathers and Grandfathers who had better Manners and lived in better Times and that by our own private Authority without the Consent of a Holy and General Council we have introduced new Rites into the Church and that we have not done this for the Sake of Religion but purely out of a contentious Humour that they on the contrary have changed nothing but have retained all things as they were delivered to them by the Apostles approved by the most antient Fathers and have been kept ever since through all the intermediate Ages to this day 6. AND least all this might seem to be only a Calumny and that managed by secret Whispers only with design to excite an Envy against us the Popes of Rome have suborned eloquent and not unlearned Men to undertake the Defence of this desperate Cause and to represent it to the World in Books and long Discourses in the best Colours it was possible to give it to the intent that being elegantly and copiously pleaded unskilful men might suspect there was something more than ordinary in it for indeed they saw that their Cause was every where in a declining Condition their Arts were now seen through and so were the less esteemed their Fortresses were every day undermin'd and their Case stood in need of a powerful Patronage and Defence But then as to those things which they have charged us with some of them are manifestly false and condemn'd by the Consciences of them that object them against us others though in the bottom they are false too yet they have the shew and similitude of truth so that an incautious and unthinking Reader may especially if he be surprised by any of their laboured and elegant Discourses be easily circumvented and deceived and others of the things thus charged upon us are such as we ought to acknowledge and profess and not decline the owning them as if they were Crimes but defend them as things that were well and rationally done For to speak in a word they slander whatever we do even those Actions of ours which themselves cannot deny to be rightly and well done and malitiously deprave and pervert all our Words and Actions as if it were not possible We should do or speak any thing as we ought They ought indeed to treat us with more Simplicity and Candor if they designed truth but on the other hand they do not oppose us with truth nor in a Christan Way or Manner but with Lyes in a close and crafty way and abuse the blindness and ignorance of the Rabble and the want of Learning in Princes to the inflaming their Hatred against us and the Oppression of the Truth This is indeed the Power of Darkness and the Folly of Men who trust more in the Stupidity and benighted Minds of the unpolished Multitude than in the Light of Truth or as St. Jerom expresseth it This is to contradict with shut Eyes the Truth when it is most perspicuous But we bless the great and Holy God our Cause is such that though they never so much desire to defame it yet they can fix no Reproach upon it which they may not with as much Reason and Justice imploy against the
Christ alone and do properly and only belong to him nor was there ever any Bishop of Rome who would suffer so insolent and proud a Title to be given him before the Times of Phocas the Emperor who as we very well know aspired to the Empire by a most detestable Villany the Murther of Mauritius the former Emperor his Soveraign that is till the year of Christ 613. That the Council of Carthage expressly decreed that no Bishop should be called the highest Pâ—ntiff or chief Priest But the Bishop of Rome because he now desires to be so call'd and usurps a Power which belongs not to him besides that he acts directly against the ancient Councils and the Fathers if he dares believe St. Gregory one of his own Predecessors he has taken upon him an arrogant prophane sacrilegious antichristian Title and is therefore the King of Pride Lucifer one that sets himself above his Brethren who has denied the Faith and is thereby become the fore-runner of Antichrist 7. WE say that a Minister ought to have a lawful Call and be duly and orderly preferred in the Church of God and that no Man ought at his own Will and Pleasure to intrude into the sacred Ministry So that a very great Injury is done us by them who so frequently affirm that nothing is done decently and in order with us but all things are managed confusedly and disorderly and that with us all that will are Priests Teachers and Interpreters 8. WE say that Christ has given to his Ministers the Power of Binding and Loosing of Opening and Shutting And we say that the Power of Loosing consists in this that the Minister by the preaching of the Gospel offers to dejected Minds and true Penitents through the Merits of Christ Absolution and doth assure them of a certain Remission of their Sins and the hopes of eternal Salvation Or secondly reconciles restores and receives into the Congregation and Unity of the Faithful those Penitents who by any grievous Scandal or known and publick Offence have offended the Minds of their Brethren and in a sort alienated and separated themselves from the common Society of the Church and the Body of Christ And we say the Minister doth exercise the Power of Binding or Shutting when he shuteth the Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven against Unbelievers and obstinate Persons and denounceth to them the Vengeance of God and eternal Punishment or excludeth out of the Bosome of the Church those that are publickly excommunicated and that God himself doth so far approve whatever Sentence his Ministers shall so give that whatsoever is either loosed or bound by their Ministry here on Earth he will in like manner bind or loose and confirm in Heaven The Key with which these Ministers do shut or open the Kingdom of Heaven we say with St. Chrysostom is the Knowledge of the Scripture with Tertullian is the Interpretation of the Law and with Eusebius is the Word of God We say the Disciples of Christ received this Power from him not that they might hear the private Confessions of the People and catch their whispering Murmurs as the Popish Priests every where now do and that in such a manner as if all the force and use of the Keys consisted only in this but that they might go and Preach and Publish the Gospel that so they might be a savour of Life unto Life to them that did believe and that they might be also a savour of Death unto Death to those that did not believe that the Minds of the Pious who were affrighted with the sense of their former ill Lives and Errors after they beheld the Light of the Gospel and believed in Christ might be opened by the Word of God as doors are with a Key And that the wicked and stubborn who would not believe and return into the Way might be left shut up and locked and as St. Paul expresseth it might wax worse and worse this we take to be the meaning of the Keys and that in this manner the Consciences of Men are either bound or loosed We say that the Priest is a Judge but then we say with St. Ambrose that he hath not the Right of any Dominion and therefore Christ reprehended the Scribes and Pharisees with these words that he might reprove their Negligence in teaching Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees for you have taken away the Key of Knowledge and shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men. Seeing then the Key by which a Passage is opened for us into the Kingdom of Heaven is the Word of the Gospel and the Interpretation of the Law and the Scriptures where there is no such Word there is no Key And seeing the same word was given to all and the Key which pertains to all is but one we say that the Power of all Ministers as to binding and loosing is one and the same and we say that even the Pope himself notwithstanding his Flatterers do so sweetly sooth him up with these words I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven as if they belonged to him and to no other Mortal under Heaven except he makes it his Business to bend and subdue the Consciences of Men to the Word of God we deny that even he as I said can either open or shut or hath at all the Keys and altho he â—oth teach and instruct the People which I wish he would sometimes do truly and at last be perswaded to believe it is at least some part of his Duty and Office but yet if he did so his Key would be neither better nor greater than that of others for who made that difference Who taught him to open more learnedly or absolve more powerfully than his Brethren 9. WE say that Marriage is Honorable and Holy in all degrees of Men in Patriarchs in Prophets in Apostles in Holy Martyrs in the Ministers of the Churches and in the Bishops and that as St. Chrysostom saith it is both lawful and just that he should ascend the Episcopal Throne with it and we say as Sozomen did of Spiridion and Nazianzen did oâ— his own Father that a pious and industriouâ— Bishop is nothing the worse for being married buâ— rather much the better and more useful in his Ministery And we say that the Law which by force taketh away this Liberty from Men anâ—ties them to a single Life against their Wills is as St. Paul stiles it the Doctrine of Devils and that from hence as is confessed by thâ— Bishop of Augusta Faber the Abbot of Paleâ—mo Latomus the tripartite Work which 〈◊〉 joyned to the second Tome of the Councilâ— and other defenders of the Papal Party and which is apparent from the thing it self and confessed by all Histories an incredible imâ—purity of Life and Manners and horriblâ— Debaucheries in the Ministers of God havâ— sprung and arisen so that Pius the secondâ— Bishop of Rome was not out when
number of Intercessors without any Authority of the Word of God so that as Jeremiah saith According to the number of thy Cities so are thy Gods so that miserable men know not which to apply themselves to and tho they are innumerable yet they have ascribed to each of them their Office and what was to be obtained had and received from each of them but also because they have not only impiously but impudently solicited the Virgin Mary that she would remember she is a Mother that she would be pleased to command her Son and that she would make use of the Authority she hath over him 21. WE say that Man is born and does live in Sin and that no man can truly say his Heart is clean that the most holy Man is an unprofitable Servant that the Law of God is perfect and requires of us a full and perfect Obedience and that we cannot in any way keep it perfectly in this Life and that there is no Mortal who can be justified in the sight of God by his own Deserts and therefore our only Refuge and Safety is in the Mercy of God the Father by Jesus Christ and in the assuring our selves that he is the Propitiation for our Sins by whose Blood all our Stains are washed out that he has pacified things by the Blood of his Cross that He by that only Sacrifice which he once offered upon the Cross hath perfected all things and therefore when he breathed out his Soul said IT IS FINISHED as if by these words he would signifie now the Price is paid for the Sins of Mankind 22. NOW if there be any who think not that this Sacrifice is sufficient let them go and find out a better but as as for us because we know this is the only Sacrifice we are contented with it alone nor do we expect any other and because it was only once to be offered we do not injoyn the Repetition of it and because it was full and in all its Numbers and Parts perfect we do not substitute to it the perpetual Successions of our own Sacrifices 23. THO we say there is no trust to be put in the Merits of our Works and Actions and place all the Hopes and Reason of our Salvation only in Christ yet we do not therefore say that men should live loosely and dissolutely as if Baptism and Faith were sufficient for a Christian and there were nothing more required the true Faith is a living Faith and cannot be idle therefore we teach the People that God hath not call'd us to Luxury and Disorder but as St. Paul saith Unto good Works that we might walk in them That God hath delivered us from the Power of Darkness that we might serve the living God that we should root up all the Reliques of sin that we should work out our Salvation with fear and trembling that it might appear that the Spirit of Sanctification was in us and that Christ himself dwelleth in our Hearts by Faith 24. To conclude We believe that this Body of ours in which we live tho after Death it turns to Dust yet in the last day it shall return to Life again by the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth in us and that then whatever we suffer for Christ in the interim he will wipe away all Tears from our Eyes and that then through him we shall enjoy everlasting Life and be always with him in Glory AMEN CHAP. III. Containing a plain Demonstration of the Causes why and whence Heresies arose in the Church with Instances of all sorts in all Times THESE are the horrible Heresies for which a considerable part of the World at this day are condemn'd by the Pope unheard it had been better to have entered a Contest with Christ the Apostles and holy Fathers for they it was who did not only give a beginning to these Doctrines but commanded them unless they of the Church of Rome will say as perhaps they will that Christ did not institute the Holy Communion that it might be distributed amongst the Faithful or that the Apostles of Jesus Christ or the ancient Fathers said private Masses in all the corners of their Churches sometimes ten and at other twenty in one day or that Christ-and the Apostles deprived the People of the Cup or that That which they now do and that with that eagerness that whoever will not comply with them in it is by them condemn'd for an Heretick is not call'd Sacriledge by one of their own Popes Gelasius or that those are not the Words of Ambrosius Augustinus Gelasius Theodoret Chrisostom and Origen That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament remain what they were before that that which is seen on the Holy Table is Bread that the Substance of the Bread doth not cease to be nor the nature of the Wine that the Substance and Nature of the Bread is not changed that this very Bread as to what concerns the Matter of it goes down into the Belly and is cast out by the Draught or that Christ and his Apostles and the Fathers did not pray in that Tongue which was understood by the People or that Christ by that one Oblation which he once offered hath not perfected the Work of our Redemption or that this Sacrifice was so imperfect that we need another Either they must say all these things or else they must aver which perhaps they had rather say that all Right and Justice is inclosed in the Cabinet of the Popes Breast and as one of his Followers and Flatterers once said that he may dispense against the Apostles against the Councils and against the Apostolical Canons and that he is not bound by those Examples Institutions and Laws of Christ 2. THUS we have been taught by Christ by the Apostles and Holy Fathers and we do faithfully teach the People of God the same things and for so doing we are called Hereticks by the great Leader and Prince of Religion O immortal God! What have Christ and his Apostles and so many Fathers all erred What are Origen Ambrose Augustin Chrysostom Gelasius and Theodoret Apostates from the Catholick Faith Was the Consent of so many Bishops and Learned men nothing but a Conspiracy of Hereticks or that which was commendable in them is it now blameable in us And that which was Catholick in them is it by a Change in the Wills of Men become schismatical in us Or that which was once true is it now because it displeaseth them become false Let them then produce a new Gospel or at least set forth their Reasons why those things which were so long publickly observed and approved in the Church ought now at last to be recall'd We know that the Word which was reveal'd by Christ and propagated by the Apostles is sufficient to promote our Salvation and all Truth and to convince all Heresies Out of it alone we condemn all sorts of ancient Heresies which they
not yet asswaged or the Sword diverted from the necks of the Christians in truth it is no wonder that Men are Men tho they are call'd Christians CHAP. IV. Containing an Account of the Rule Lives and Manners of the Popes and Papists who would seem to be the only Head and Members of the Holy Catholick Church BUT whilst these men so bitterly reflect upon us Why do they not sometimes think what they themselves are Are they who have so much leisure to attend what is done at a distance in Germany and England so forgetful or so blind that they cannot see what is done at Rome Are we to be impeach'd by them whose Lives are so dissolute as no honest modest man can without blushing tell their Story 2. WE do not now intend to bring to light all those Villanies which may much better be buried with them it becomes neither our Religion nor our Modesty and Shamefacedness and yet he that will needs be call'd the Vicar of Jesus Christ and the Head of the Church may easily consider with himself what those things are which he hears and sees and suffers to be done at Rome for we will go no further in giving an account what they are Let him make use of his own Memory Let him be pleased to consider that they are his own Canonists who have taught the People that simple Fornication is no Sin as if they had learned from the heathen Comedian this Doctrine that it is not a sin for a young Man to Whore Let him consider they are his own again who have determined that a Priest is not to be deposed for Fornication Let him remember that Cardinal Campejus Albertus Pighius and many others oâ— his Lawyers have taught that the Priest whâ— keeps a Concubine lives much more chastly and holily than he who has a lawful Wife I hope he hath not forgotten that there is at Româ— many thousands of publick licensed Whores and that he levies upon them yearly by way of Tax thirty thousand Duccats He can not forget surely that himself is a publick Pimp and from this base Profit doth as dishonorably and wickedly encrease his Revenues and Pleasures Were all things well and Holy at Rome when Pope Joan a Woman of a dissolute Life was the Head of their Church and when for two years she had in that Holy See prostituted her self to the Lust of others at lenght in a publick Procession in the sight of all the Cardinals and Bishops in the open Street she brought forth a Child 3. BUT why should we mention their Concubines and Pimping for these are common and publick Crimes at Rome and not unprofitable neither for the Misses there do not sit without the Gates with their Faces vailed and covered as in ancient times but they dwell in Pallaces and stately Houses and pass to and fro in the most publick Streets without Masks as if their Trade were not only Lawful but Honorable but why should I use many words their Lusts are sufficiently known to the whole Earth St. Bernard writes thus truly and freely of the Popes Family and of the Pope himself Your Court receives good Men sometimes but it makes none good Evil Men thrive there good Men are ruined And whoever he was who wrote the Tripartite Work which is commonly joyned to the Lateran Council he saith thus There is now so prrvailing a Luxury not only in the inferior Clergy and Priests but also in the Prelates and Bishops that it strikes Horror into the Hearers of it 4. BUT these things are not only usual and even for the sake of the Custom approved as most of their Vices are but they are now become so well known by their long use that they are putid ripe for Iudgment For who has not heard what Petrus Aloisius the Son of Paul the III. designed against Cosmus Cherius Bishop of Fano What Jo. Casa Arch-Bishop of Benevento the Popes Legate at Venice wrote of a Sin to be abhorred whilst with a Iewd Eloquence and abominable Words he commends what ought not to be named Who knows not that Alphonsus Diazius a Spaniard was sent from Rome into Germany of purpose to murther the most innocent and holy Man John Diazius his own Brother only because he had imbraced the Gospel and would not return to Rome which he accordingly did But they may pretend perhaps that such things as these are may sometimes happen in the best constituted Governments and that there is excellent Laws against them 5. Be it so But what Law passed upon these Pests Petrus Aloisius when he had attempted the Villany I have hinted at was ever after in the Bosom of Paul the III. his Father and his Joy Diazius after he had assassinated his Brother was delivered ouâ— of the hands of the Law by the Interposition of the Pope Johannes Casa Arch-Bishop of Benevento is yet alive and at Rome and live under the Eyes and in the Sight of his Holiness They have stain infinite numbers of our Brethren only because they truly and purely believed in Jesus Christ but then of that infinite number of Harlots Sodomites and Adulterers who have they at any time I will not say slain but excommunicated or so much as touched What are Fornications Adulteries Pimping Sodomy Parricides Incests and the like no sins at Rome or if they be why are they so easily born as it they were not Sins in the City of Rome that Bulwark of Sanctity and by the Pope the Vicar of Christ the Successor of St. Peter that most holy Father 6. O Holy Scribes and Pharisees to whom this Sanctity was never known O Sanctity and Catholick Faith St. Peter did never teach these things at Rome nor St. Paul live there at this rate They did not publickly exercise the Trade of Pimping they took no Tribute of the Whores they did not openly and freely tolerate Adulterers and Parricides they did not admit them into their Bosoms their Families their Councils nor into the Congregations of Christian Men. These Men ought not to have aggravated so much the Faults of our Lives it had been much better to have approved their own to the World or at least to have concealed them a little more from the Eyes of Men. 7. FOR as for us we retain and use our ancient Paternal Laws and administer Church Discipline seriously and diligently as far as we possibly can in so much Corruption of all things both as to Manners and Times we have no Stews nor Herds of Harlots and Concubines nor do we prefer Adulteries before Marriage nor do we exercise Pimping nor raise Money from Whore-houses neither do we suffer Incests and flagitious Lusts our Aloise's or our Casa's or our Parricidical murthering Diasio's do not go unpunished for if these things had pleased us there had been no occasion of separating from the Society of those Men where these rare things flourish and are in great esteem and so we had also
is clear from all Histories and they themâ—elves cannot deny it that they are descendâ—â—d from Hagar yet as if they were the Children of Sarah the free Woman the Wife of Abraham they will needs for the Name and Race sake be call'd Saracens 21. SO the false Prophets in all times who â—pposed themselves to the true Prophets of God to Isaiah to Jeremias to Christ and â—is Apostles boasted of nothing so much as â—f the Name of the Church Nor did they so â—ercely persecute them and call them Doâ—erters and Apostles upon any other account 〈◊〉 much as because they departed from their Society and would not observe the Customs of their Ancestors And if we be obliged to submit to the Judgment of those Men who then governed the Church and will regard neither God nor his Word nor any thing else it cannot be denied but that the Apostles made Defection from the High Priests and Priests that is from the Catholicâ— Church and without and against theiâ— Wills innovated in many things which pertained to Religion and consequently werâ— rightly condemned according to the Lawâ— And so as they say Antaeus was to be lifteâ— by Hercules from the Earth his Mother beforâ— he could be conquered by him So our Aâ—â—versaries are to be lifted up from that Motheâ— of theirs the vain Pretence and Shadow 〈◊〉 the Church or else they will never yield 〈◊〉 the Word of God So as Jeremiah saith 〈◊〉 not so much boast that you have the Tempâ— of God with you that Conâ—idence is Vainâ—â— for these are saith he lying Words And thâ— Angel in the Apocalyps they say that they 〈◊〉 Jews but they are the Synagogue of Sathan Aâ— when the Pharisees boasted that they were 〈◊〉 the Stock and Blood of Abraham Chrâ—â— told them they were of the Devil their Fathâ—â— for you do not resemble Abraham your 〈◊〉 as if he should have said you are 〈◊〉 what you so much desire to be call'd 〈◊〉 impose upon the People by vain Titles anâ— abuse the Name of the Church to the Ruiâ— of the Church and therefore they ought 〈◊〉 the first place to prove this truly and plainâ— to us viz. that the Church of Rome as it 〈◊〉 now managed by them is the true and Oâ—â—thodox Church of God and that it agrees with the Primitive Church of Christ and his Apostles and of the Holy Fathers which Primitive Church we doubt not was the Catholick Church We indeed will readily grant that there is no cause why we should forsake their Society if we could once perswade our selves that Ignorance Error Superstition the Worship of Idols the Inventions of Men and they very often quite contrary to the Holy Scriptures did either please God or sufficiently promote our Salvation or if we could once believe that the Word of God were only written for some years and after that were to be abrogated or that the Words and Laws of God were intirely to be submitted to the Wills of Men so as whatever he saith or commandeth except the Bishop of Rome wills and commands the same too it were to be esteemed void and not spoken But in that we have departed from a Church whose Errors are attested and manifest and which has apparently departed from the Word of God and whereas we have not so much departed from her as from her Errors and that not turbulently and injuriously but quietly and modestly in all this we say we have done nothing contrary to Christ and his Apostles For the Church of God is not of that nature that it cannot possibly be darkned with any Spots or sometimes not need a Reformation for if it were so what need were there of all those Councils and great Meetings without which as Aegidius saith the Christian Faith cannot stand for saith he as often as Councils are intermitted so often is the Church left by Christ Or if there be no danger that the Church can take dammage what need is there of the insignificant as they have ordered the Matter Name of Bishops Why are they call'd Pastors if there be no Sheep that can go astray Why are they call'd Watch-men if there be no City that can be betrayed Why Pillars if there be nothing that can sink down into Ruine when not supported by them In the very beginning of the World the Church of God was begun and she was then instructed by a heavenly Word which God sent out of his own Mouth She was furnished with Ceremonies taught by thâ— Spirit of God by the Patriarchs and Prophets and so she was preserved and brought down to those times in which Christ shewed himself in the Flesh 22. BUT O immortal God! How ofteâ— was She in the mean time and how horrible darkned and diminished For where wâ—â— She when all Flesh had corrupted their waâ— upon the Earth Where was She when then was only eight Persons and not all those neither Chast and Pious whom God was pleaâ—ed to rescue out of a common Ruine and preserve alive in a general Destruction Wheâ— Elijah so bitterly and mournfully complain'd that he only was left of all the Earth whâ— did truly and rightly worship God Wheâ— Isaiah said the Silver of the People of God that is the Church was become Dross and the once Faithful City was become an Harlâ—â— and that in her from the Head to the Sole 〈◊〉 the Foot there was no soundness in her wholâ— Body or when Christ said that the House of God was by the Scribes and Pharisees turn'd into a Den of Thieves for the Church of Christ like a Corn-field if it be not ploughed and broken tilled and dressed instead of Wheat it will bring forth Thistles Darnel and Nettles And therefore God from time to time sent Prophets and Messengers and at last Christ himself to reduce the People into the right way and to restore the sinking Church to her former Strength and Beauty And now let no man say these things could only happen under the Law when the Church was under the Shadow and in her Infancy when Truth was covered with Figures and Ceremonies and nothing was yet brought to perfection when the Law was not written on the Hearts of Men but on Tables of Stone tho this Pretence is very ridiculous for there was then the same God the same Christ the same Spirit the same Doctrine the same Faith the same Hope the same Inheritance the same Covenant and the same efficacy in the Word of God And Eusebius faith that all the Faithful from Adam were indeed Christians tho they were not so call'd Let no man I say speak thus for St. Paul the Apostle found the same Errors and Defects under the Gospel in the highest Perfection and the greatest Light so that he was forced to write thus to the Galatians whom he had just before setled I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you Labour in vain and that you have to no purpose
ancient Councils and the Scriptures They have not O good God! they have not on their sides what they pretend to have they have neither Antiquity nor Universality nor the consent of either all times or all Nations And of this they are not ignorant themselves tho they craftily dissemble their Knowledge Yea at times they will not obscurely confess it and therefore sometimes they will alledge that the Sanctions of the ancient Councils and Fathers are such as may lawfully be changed for different Decrees say they will best suit the different State of the Church in different times And so they hide themselves under the name of the Church and by a wretched sham delude Mankind And in truth it is a great wonder that Men should be so blind as not to see these things or if they do see them so patient as to bear and indure them with that stupidity and unconcernment they seem to have 9. BUT tho they have abrogated the Canons of the ancient Councils as too old and overworn yet perhaps they have settled neâ— and more useful Rules in their place for they have the confidence to say that if Christ himself or his Apostles should arise from the Dead they could not administer the Affairs of the Church of God better or more piously than it is now administered by them Indeed they have put others in the place of the former but as Jeremias saith Chaff instead of Wheat or as Isaiah saith What God never required at their Hands for they have stopped up all the veins of Living Waters and have hewen for the People of God broken and polluted Cisterns being full of mud and dregs which neither have in them any pure Water nor can hold it if it were put into them They have torn from the People the Holy Communion the word of God from which all true Comfort could only be expected the true Worship of God the right use of the Sacraments and Prayers of the Church and they have given us to please our selves withall in the mean time of their own pure invention consecrated Salts Waters Oyls Spittle Palmes Bulls Jubiles Indulgences Crosses Censings and an infinite number of Ceremonies And as Plautus calls others of the like nature Ludos Ludificabiles Shews and Pageants that are very divertising and good for nothing else In these things they have made all Religion to consist and they have taught the People that by these things God is rightly appeased and that by these things Devils are put to flight and the Consciences of Men quieted and confirmed For these are the Paints and Perfumes of Christianity these are the grateful and acceptable things to the All-seeing God these are to be had in honour that Christ's and his Apostles Institutions may be taken away And as heretofore the wicked King Jeroboam when he had taken away the true Service of God and perswaded the People instead of it to accept the Golden Calves for fear they might change their minds and fall from him and return to the Temple of God at Jerusalem made a long Oration to them exhorting them to Constancy saying to them These are thy Gods O Israel thus did your God command you to worship him But it would be very grievous and troublesome for you to take so long a Journey and to go up every year to worship and adore God at Jerusalem Even so our Adversaries when they had once by their Traditions quash'd the Laws of God lest the People should afterwards open their Eyes and fall off from them and seek a better way of assuring their Salvation O how often have they exclaimed that this is the true Worship of God which he is pleased with and hath required of us and by which he will be appeased when he is angry and that it is grievous and troublesome to the People to have recourse to Christ and the Apostles and Fathers and to attend perpetually what they require of them Is this their way of bringing the People of God off from the weak Elements of the World from the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees and from humane Traditions Are the Commandments of Christ and his Apostles to be taken away that these goodly things may succeed them O most righteous Cause why should an old Doctrine which hath been approved for many Ages be antiquated and a new Form of Religion be brought into the Church of God! Ay but say they be it what it will nothing ought to be changed the minds of Men are wonderous well satisfied with these things the Church of Rome has so decreed and she cannot err for Sylvester Prierias saith That the Church of Rome is the Rule and Model of Truth and that the Holy Scriptures have received from her all their Faith and Authority The Doctrine saith he again of the Church of Rome is the infallible Rule of Faith from whence the Holy Scriptures have all their strength For Indulgences were not made known to us by the Authority of Scriptures but they were made known by the Authority of the Church and Popes of Rome which is greater than the Scriptures Pighius doth not fear to say that without the command of the Church of Rome we are not to believe the most clear place of Scripture Which is just as if one of those who cannot speak good and pure Latin and yet by use and custom has got the faculty readily and fluently to blunder on in the Lawyer 's Latin should therefore stand stoutly to it that all others are bound to speak it after the same manner that was many years since in use with Mammetrectus and the Catholicon which they still use in their Pleadings because by that means men might very easily be understood and their Humours might be gratified but on the other side that it were ridiculous to trouble the World now with a new way of speaking and to reduce into practice again the old Purity and Eloquence of the Latin Tongue used in the times of Cicero and Caesar 10. SO much are they indebted to the Ignorance and blindness of the former times that as one saith Many things are often had in great esteem because they were once dedicated to the Service of the Gods So now we see many things are magnified and applauded by them not because they judge them worthy of this Esteem but only because by Custom they were once received and thereby in a sort dedicated to the Service of God But they pretend that their Church cannot Err. I suppose they speak this in the same sense as the Lacedemonians were wont to say there was no such thing as Adultery in their Common-wealth when in truth they were all Adulterers and used an uncertain sort of Marriages and had their Wives in common Or as the Hungry Canonists now say of the Pope that he being Lord of all Benefices altho he sells Bishopricks Monasteries and Livings and suffers nothing to go from him without Money yet because he claims all
these as his own tho he would yet he cannot commit Simony But then how well or rationally this is spoken we poor Men cannot see or understand except as the ancient Romans served Victory so they have served Truth for when she once came flying to them they clipt her Wings that she might no more sly from them But what if Jeremias should tell them as we have observed above that these are lying Words And what again if he should say That many Pastors who ought to have dressed have destroyed my Vineyard What if Christ should say that those who should have taken the greatest care of the Temple have made the House of God a Dâ—n of Thieves For if the Church of Rome cannot Err she is more beholding to her own good Fortune than to their Prudence or Care for such are their Lives Doctrines and Diligence that if we are to take our Measures from thence this Church is not only in danger of falling into â—rror but of a total Ruine and Destruction And certainly if that Church can err which hath departed from the Word of God the Commandments of Christ the Institutions of the Apostles the Examples of the Primitive Church and from the Canons and Sanctions of the ancient Fathers and Councils yea and from her own too which will be obliged by neither old nor new Laws by neither her own nor any others by neither Divine nor Humane Laws I say if all this be to err then it is certain that the Church of Rome not only may err but that she hath most wickedly and lewdly erred 11. BUT they say we were once of their Communion but now we are Apostates and have departed from them indeed we have departed from them and we bless the Great and Holy God for it and please our selves mightily in it but then we have not departed from the Primitive Church from the Apostles from Christ we were educated indeed with them in darkness and ignorance of God as Moses was in the Discipline and bosom of the Egyptians We were of your Number saith Tertullian and I confess it but what wonder is there in that Men are made and not born Christians But then I may as well ask them why they have descended from the seven Hills on which the ancient City of Rome stood to dwell in the Plains in the Martian Field to which perhaps they would reply that the Aquaeducts without which they could not conveniently dwell on those Hills have failed Let them then but grant the same liberty in relation to the Waters of Life which they expect we should afford them in regard of the common Family-water The Springs did now fail with them The Elders saith Jeremiah sent their little ones to the Waters they came to the Pits and found no Water they returned with their Vessels empty they were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads Or as Isaiah saith The Poor and the Needy seek Water and there is none and their Tongue faileth for thirst They had broken all their Conduits and Water-courses they had stopped up all the Springs and covered the Fountain of Living Waters with mire and mud and as Caligula by shutting up all the publick Granaries enjoyned the People of Rome to fast so they by stopping up the Fountains of the Word of God had enjoyned the People to undergo the Miseries of a destructive Thirst they have as the Prophet Amos saith brought upon the World a Famine Not a Famine of Bread nor a thirst for Water but of hearing the Words of the Lord. Miserable Men went searching about for a small spark of Divine Light to chear their Consciences but they were all gone out and they could find none this was the miserable Condition and State of their Church men lived wretchedly in it with out the Gospel and without Light or Conslation 12. AND therefore how afflictive soever our departure from them may seem to them yet they ought at the same time to consider how just the cause of it was for if they say in general it is not lawful to leave that Society in which thou wert educated this were in our Persons to condemn the Prophets Apostles and Christ himself for why is it not as reasonable to blame Lot for leaving Sodom Abraham for leaving Chaldea the Hebrews for leaving Egypt Christ for leaving the Jews and St. Paul for leaving the Pharisees For except it be granted that there may be a just cause of departure we can see no cause why these may not in the same manner as we are be accused of Faction and Sedition But if we are to be thought Hereticks because we will not obey all their unjust commands what are they Who or what are they to be thought who have contemned the Commands of Christ and his Apostles If we are Schifmaticks who have forsaken them by what name shall we call them who have forsaken the Greeks from whom they first received the Christian Faith the Primitive Church Christ and the Apostles who were their Spiritual Parents For the Greek Church who at this day profess the Religion and Name of Christ altho they have in many things contaminated it yet they still retain a great part of those things which they received from the Apostles And so they have no private Masses no maimed Sacraments no Purgatory nor Indulgences And as to the Papal Titles and magnificent Names they have this esteem of them that whoever calls himself the universal Bishop and the Head of the whole Church is a proud Man and injurious to all the other Bishops who are his Brethren nor will they scruple on this single account to call him Heretick 13. BUT now seeing it is apparent and cannot be denied that they have made a defection from them from whom they received the Gospel the Christian Faith and Religion yea and the very being of a Church what cause is there to be given why they should not return back to them as to their Original Why should they so much dread the times of the Fathers and Apostles as if they had seen nothing Why do they see more or love the Church better than they who delivered what they have to them for as for us we have forsaken a Church in which we could neither hear the pure Word of God nor administer the Sacraments nor invoke the Name of God as we ought which they themselves acknowledge to be faulty in many things and in which there was nothing to retain a prudent Man who thought seriously of his Salvation Lastly We have departed from a Church which is not now what anciently she was and so we have departed as Daniel did out of the Den of Lyons as the three Children did out of the fiery Furnace or to speak more properly we have not so much departed from them as been cast out by them with Execrations and Curses 14. BUT then we have united our selve to that Church in which if they would
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
has abrogated all the Decrees of a former The Council of Carthage decreed that the Bishop of Rome should not be call'd the highest Priest or the Prince of the Priests or by any other such like Title but the latter Councils have not only call'd him the High Priest but the Great Pontiff and the Head of the Universal Church The Eliberitan Council decreed that it should not be lawful that what was worshipped should be painted on the Walls of the Churches The Council of Constantinople decreed that Images were not to be endured in the Christian Churches on the other side the second Council of Nice did allow them not only to be erected in Churches but also to be worshiped The Laterane Council under Pope Julius the II. was call'd for no other purpose but to rescind the Decrees of the Council of Pisa thus the latter Bishops frequently oppose the forgoing and some Councils damm up the Lights of others and these men will not be bound even by their own Councils any farther than they please and is for their Convenience and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brings Grist to their Mill. The Council of Basil decreed that a Council of Bishops is above the Pope but the Laterane Council under Pope Leo decreed the Pope to be above a Council And the Pope doth not only carry himself so as if he thought so but also if any man is of the Opinion of this Council he commands him to bo reputed a Heretick I pray Sir what would you do here whatever you say or think either the Pope or the Council will make you a Heretick and all the Popes for some Ages have opposed these Truths of the Council of Basil and therefore in the esteem of the Council of Basil all the Popes for all these last Ages are Hereticks The same Council with one Voice deposed Pope Eugenius for Simony and Schism and named Amideus for his Successor But yet Eugenius did not regard the Decree of the Council and altho he was a Simonist and a Schismatick yet he did not cease to be the Successor of St. Peter the Vicar of Christ and the Head of the Catholick Church and in spite of all retaind his former Dignity and was born as before on the shoulders of Noble Men magnificently and loftily And Amideus a simple man like one unhorsed walked upon his Feet and thought himself happy enough that of a Pope he was become a Cardinal The late Council at Trent made a Decree that the Bishops should teach the People and that no one of them should at the same time have two or more Bishopricks they on the other side contrary to the Canon of their own Council enjoy Pluralities and teach nothing and so they make such Laws as they will not be bound by but when they please at this rate have they ever valued their own Councils and Decrees 22. AND now Sir what reason have we to expect at this time a better Event of things for for what cause upon what hope and Expectation is the Council held be pleased Sir to consider with your self but this one thing what kind of Men they are upon whose Fidelity Learning and Judgment the weight of the whole Council the debating all those great Questions and the sum of the whole Affair depends they are indeed call'd Abbots and Bishops grave Men and great Names and as it is thought of great account in the Management of the Church of God but if you strip them of the Names Robes and Personages of such Men what have they that is at all like a Bishop or an Abbot for they are no Ministers of Christ no Dispensers of the Mysteries of God they do not attend the reading nor teach the Gospel nor feed the Flock nor till the Ground nor plant the Vincyard nor light the Fire nor carry the Ark of the Lord nor perform the Ambassie of Christ nor Watch nor do the Work of an Evangelist they do not fulfil their Ministery they entangle themselves in secular Affairs they hide the Treasure of their Lord and take away the Keys of the Kingdom of God they neither go in themselves nor do they suffer others to enter they beat their Fellow Servants they feed themselves and not the Flock they sleep they snore they feast they fare deliciously they are Clouds without Water Stars without Light dumb Dogs slow Bellies and as St. Bernard said they are not Prelates but Pilats not Teachers but Seducers not Pasters but Impostors the Servants of Christ saith he serve Antichrist And these are the only men to whom the Popes will allow a Place and Vote in the Council in their Judgments and Power will they have the whole Care and Administration of the Catholick Church to be Pope Pius hath now chosen these alone to put his Trust in but O good God! what kind of Mortals what sort of Men are these and yet as they think all these Queries are ridiculous for it is not say they one farthing difference whether they be Learned or Pious or no or what they will or think for in truth it is sufficient if they can but ride upon a Mule and with great State and Noise make the publick Cavalcade to the Council and when they cam◠there say nothing If Sir you will not believe me and conceive I have fain'd all this for Diversion and Sport be but pleased to hear the Honorable Judgment and what the most sacred Faculty of the whole Sorbon decreed in this case that say they which our Master have said concerning a legitimate Assembly is That it is to be noted that to the legitimate assembling of a Council it is sufficient that the Solemnity and Form of the Law be solemnly observed for if any man would bring this in question whether the Prelates that sit there have a good Intention and whether they be learned and whether they have the Knowledge of the Holy Scripture and a mind well disposed to sound Doctrine the Process would be infinite for they it seems who sit as mute as the Statues of Mercury and know not in the least what Religion is will yet answer wondrous well and aptly concerning the sum of Religion and whatever they say cannot possibly err 23. AND all these are bound to the Popes Interest not only by their Error and Ignorance but by the Tye and Religion of an Oath so that if they should chance to think right yet unless they will be prejured they must not speak what they think and openly profess and own the Truth so that they must of necessity be false to God or man for they all swear in this very form J. N. Bishop from this hour forward will be faithful to St. Peter and to the Holy Apostolick Church of Rome to my Lord Pope N. and to his Successors canonically entering I will neither be of Counsel nor in any Action whereby he may lose his Life or Limbs or be taken Prisoner that Counsel which he shall impart
to me by Letters or by Messengers I will discover to man to his Damage I will be a Helper to defend the Papacy of the Church of Rome and the Canons of the Holy Fathers and to retain them against all men Of old when the Priests of Apollo Pythius spoke plainly in favour of Philip King of Macedonia there were some who facetiously said that Apollo began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Philippize And now we see plainly that nothing is decreed in the Council but by the Will and Consent of the Pope why may we not say that the Oracles of the Councils do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Papize that is speak nothing but what the Pope please Verres of old acted wisely of whom it is reported that being plainly guilty of many Crimes he would not commit his Reputation and Fame to any but confiding men of his own Flock and Party But yet the Pope is many degrees wiser for he will not have any Judges but such as he knows will not determine any thing against his Will because they have the same Interest he hath and esteem all things by the relation they have to their Pleasures and Bellies and yet if they would they could not do otherwise because they are bound to him by an Oath too indeed they place the Bible in the midst of the Council because they would seem not to act any thing against the Prescription thereof and yet they only look upon it at a good distance but never read one word of it in truth they bring with them a prejudicated Sentence and never attend what Christ saith or determine any thing but as it best pleaseth them 24. AND thus is all that Liberty which ought to be in all Consultations and especially in those which concern holy things and which doth best befit the holy Spirit and the Modesty of Christian Men wholly taken away St. Paul saith that if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his Peace but these men command him to be forthwith taken and hurried to Prison and burnt who shall but mutter any thing to the contrary as the cruel Death of the two holy and stout men John of Hus and Jerome of Prague is an excellent Witness against them which two men they murthered contrary to the publick Faith and were thereby false both to God and Man So the false Prophet Zedechias when he had made himself a pair of iron Horns smote Micaiah the Prophet of the Lord and said hath the Spirit of the Lord left me and come to thee thus having now excluded all others they reign in Councils alone and have the sole Right of Suffrages and so make and divulge such Laws as the Ephesians did of old Let no man said they who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiser than the rest presume to live here upon pain of Banishment and Transportation for these men will hear none of us About ten years since in the late Council at Trent the Ambassadors of the Princes of Germany and of the free Towns who came thither that they might be heard were excluded out of the Assembly and denied the Liberty of Speech for the Bishops and Abbots said they would suffer no free Debate of the Cause nor would they determine the Controversies by the Word of God and that those of our Side were not to be heard except they would recant which if they refused they were to expect no other terms in the Council but to be condem'd for Julius the III. in his Brief by which he call'd that Council publickly declared that if they did not change their Minds they should be condemned for Hereticks without ever hearing their Cause And Pius the IV. who hath now resolved to call again that Council hath by the prejudice of his own single Judgment commanded all those who have made defection from the Authority of the Church of Rome that is the greatest part of Christendom without ever seeing or hearing them to be taken and reputed Hereticks They are wont to say and that upon all occasions that all things are well and that they will not suffer the least part of their Doctrine and Religion to be altered Albertus Pighius saith that without the Command of the Church of Rome the most plain place of Scripture is not to be believed Now is this their way to restore the Church to her Integrity Is this their seeking Truth Is this the Liberty and Moderation which beâ—its a Council 25. AND altho these things are most unjust and most contrary to the Practice of the ancient Councils and the Usage of modest and good Men in their Deliberations yet it is much more unreasonable that whereas the whole World complains of the Ambition and Tyranny of the Pope of Rome and is perswaded that until he is reduced to a better Order all their Labours for the Reformation of the Church of God will be in vain and nothing will be done yet at last all things are referred to him alone as to the most equal Arbiter and Judge But O good God! to what Man I will not now say any of these things against him that he is an Enemy of the Truth an Ambitious Covetous Proud Man who is already become intolerable to his own But I say that it is the utmost pitch of Folly and Injustice to make him the sole Judge of all Religion who commands all his Dictates to be had in the self same Honour and Esteem as the Words of St. Peter are and saith that in case he should Mislead a thousand Souls and carry them with himself to Hell yet no man ought to reprehend him for it Who saith he can make Injustice to become Justice Whom Camotensis confesseth to have corrupted the Scriptures that he might have a Plenitude of Power And why should I use more words whom his own Companions and Ministers Joachimus Abbas Petrarcha Marsilius Patavinus Laurentius Valla and Hieronymus Savanarola have not obscurly hinted to be the Antichrist To the Judgment and Will I say of this one Man are all things submitted that this very Criminal may be both the Party accused and the Judge of his own very Case that this guilty man may sit aloft upon a Throne and his Accusers stand beneath whilst he gives Sentence for himself for Pope Julius had given us these just and reasonable Laws There is saith he no Council which is valid nor ever shall be unless supported by the Authority of the Church of Rome And Bonifacius the VIII saith that every Creature ought to be subject to the Church of Rome and that as they tender their Salvation And Pope Pascal useth this Expression as if any Councils had given Laws to the Church of Rome when in truth all the Councils have been held and received their Force from the Authority of the Church of Rome and in all their Statutes the Authority of the Pope of Rome is plainly and apparently excepted And another saith
whatever the Pope approves or disapproves we ought also to approve or disapprove and what the Pope allows no other man may disallow And another Flatterer who has lost all Modesty saith that altho the whole World should contradict the Opinion of the Pope in any thing yet it seems but reasonable to stand to the Iudgment of the Pope And another no less impudently saith it would be a sort of Sacriledge to dispute concerning an Action of the Pope who tho he is not a good man is yet ever presumed to be such And another more impudently The Pope saith he hath a Heavenly Will and therefore in those things which he wills his Will is instead of a Reason to him nor is there any man who may say to him why dost then act thus And that I may pass by many other things which might be alledged here because they are without number and at length come to a Conclusion Pope Innocentius the IX more impudently than any other useth these words This Judge the Pope may neither be judged by the Emperor nor by Kings nor by the while Chrgy nor yet by all the people O immortal God! how little is wanting of the Pride of Luciser I will ascend above the North and I will be like the most highest If all these things are true and the Popes have not belyed the World what need is there of a Council or if they will hold a sincere and free Council let all these things be condemn'd as dishonest and insolent Lyes and let them not only be laid aside as to the court and use of them but be razed out of all Books that the sum of Affairs may never more be left to the Will and Lust of one man and he too for many most just causes suspected But now on the contrary the Popes say they cannot err and that the Word of God is to be regulated according to their Prescription and besides all this before they enter upon their Papal Dignity they take an Oath that they will maintain the Faith of many late Councils in which all things are most fearfully depraved and they promise most religiously that they will not change any thing and therefore what wonder is it that no good is done by Councils that Errors and Abuses are not taken away that the Ambassadors of Princes are to no purpose call'd together from such distant places out of all Lands and yet I hear that there are some good men at this time who not well considering what they say tho they condemn the Pride of the Pope and his Persian State and Magnificence and his Epicurean Contempt of all Religion yet they would preserve for all that his Authority safe and intire and tho sometimes they confess him to be Antichrist yet for all that as soon as he ascends that Chair they do not question but he is the universal Bishop and the Head of the universal Church of Christ and here they please themselves as if the Holy Ghost were necessarily fixed to the Pope Court in the Adrian Mole but there is a Proverb that the Place doth not sanctifie the Man but the Man the Place And St. Jerome as he is cited by them saith they are not the Children of the Saints who hold their Places but those who imitate their good Actions for otherwise as Christ said the Scribes and Pharisees sate in Moses his Chair and he commanded his Disciples to acknowledge and submit to their Authority so far as they answered out of the Word of God What saith St. Augustin hath Christ said more here than that the Voice of the Shepherd was heard out of the Mouth of a mercenary Servant for sitting in that Chair they teach the Law of God therefore God teacheth by them but if they will teach their own things do not hear them do not do them for St. Paul saith Antichrist the Man of Sin shall sit in the Holy Place and therefore St. Jerome doth well admonish us thou dost attend St. Peter but then consider Judas thou submitest to Stephen but cast an Eye towards Nicholas as the same time Church Dignity doth not make a Christian Thus St. Jerome and certainly it is said that Marcellinus the Pope did sacrifice to Idols Pope Liberius was an Arrian Pope John the XXII was a Heretick in the point of the immortality of the Soul Pope John the VIII was a Woman and in her Popedom by a lewd Lust committed Adultery and in a Procession in the midst of the Pomp before the Eyes of the Bishops and Cardinals she brought forth a Child and Liranus saith that many Roman Popes apostized from the Faith of Christ and therefore we must not trust too much to Places Successions and vain Titles of Dignity The impious Nero was descended from Metellus the Pious and Annas and Caiaphas succeeded to Aaron and an Idol hath often been put in the place of God 26. BUT Sir I beseech you what is that vast Power and Authority that they so very insolently boast of Or from whence had they it from Heaven or from Men Christ say they said to Peter upon this Rock will I build my Church in these words the Papal Power is confirm'd for the Church of Christ is placed upon Peter as upon its Foundation but Christ in these words gave nothing to St. Peter apart from the rest of the Apostles neither did he here make any mention of the Pope or City of Rome Christ is that Rock Christ is that Foundation No man saith St. Paul can lay another Foundation than that which is already laid which is Jesus Christ 27. And St. Augustin upon this Rock saith he I will build my Church by the Words upon this Rock saith he is understood the Confession made by Peter saying thou art Christ the Son of the living God for saith he it is not said thou art a Rock but thou art Peter but the Rock was Christ And St. Basil upon these words upon this Rock that is saith he upon this Faith I will build my Church And the most ancient Father Origen the Rock saith he is every Disciple of Christ after he hath drunk of the Spiritual Rock which follows and upon every such Rock is all the Churches Doctrine built Now Sir if you will suppose that the whole Church is built only upon Peter what will you say of John the Son of Thunder and all the rest of the Apostles Or shall we dare to say that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against Peter only but against the rest of the Apostles and Heads of the Church those Gates may prevail or rather is that Saying that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail to be understood of all and every one of them of whom it was spoken and so is that other Expression to be taken too upon this Rock will I build my Church And are the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven given only to Peter by Christ or was no other of the blessed Apostles to