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
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
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
might thereby reap some benefit by it but they that the People may never understand them whisper their Divine Service not only in an obscure and low Tone but also in a strange and barbarous Tongue 10. The old Carthagenian Council forbad any thing besides the Canonical Scriptures to be read in the holy Assemblies of the Church but they read in their Churches what they themselves do not doubt to be meer Lyes and silly Fables And now if any man thinks these things are of no great consideration because they were decreed by Emperors and small Councils consisting of Bishops of less esteem and not in full Councils and therefore are more fond of the Authority and Names of Popes 11. Julius expresly forbad the Priest in the Celebration of the holy Communion to dip the Bread in the Calice but they contrary to this Decree do divide the Bread and dip it 12. Clemens the Pope saith it is not lawful for a Bishop to bear both the Spiritual and Civil Swords and saith he if thou wilt have both thou deceivest thy self and those that hear thee but now the Pope claims both and bears both and therefore the Wonder ought to seem the less if that hath followed which Clement foretold and he hath accordingly deceived himself and those which have heard him 13. Pope Leo saith it is not lawful to celebrate more than one Mass in one Day in one Church they say every day sometimes ten at others twenty and at other thirty and sometimes more in the same Church at the same time so that the miserable Spectator knows not which way to turn him 14. Gelasius the Pope saith that if any man divide the Sacrament and when he has received one part refuseth the other he doth act Wickedly and Sacrilegiously but they contrary to the Word of God and the Decree of this Pope command only one part of the Eucharist to be given to the People and by so doing have made their Priests guilty of Sacriledge 6. BUT now if they shall pretend that all these things are antiquated and worn out of use and so are in a sort dead and do not concern our times yet that men may see what Faith is to be given to these Men and with what Hope they call Councils let us consider in a few instances how well they observe those things which have been ordained of late years and which are fresh in Memory by Councils which they pretend were lawfully called and in which they themselves decreed those things I shall mention to be Religiously observed In the last Council of Trent not much above fourteen years since it was decreed by the common Vote of all Orders there present that two Benefices should not be committed at one time to the same Person Where is that Sanction now Is that so soon antiquated and dead too for they do frequently give not only two Benefices but sometimes also several Monasteries too and sometimes two three or four Bishopricks to one Man and he too sometimes not only unlearned and consequently thereby unfit for them but a Soldier In the same Council it was decreed that all Bishops ought to preach the Gospel but they never Preach nor ever come in a Pulpit nor do they think it in the least any part of their Duty What then is the meaning of all that shew of Antiquity Why do they glory so in the Names of the Fathers and of the ancient and modern Councils Why would they so fain seem to rely upon their Authority whom as occasion serve at their Pleasure they despise 7. BUT I have a great desire to have a little discourse with the Pope himself and to tell him some things to his Face Be pleased then O Holy Father who so often boastest of Antiquity and pretendest that all the Ancients are intirely addicted to thy Service to inform us which of all the ancient Fathers ever call'd your Holiness the chief Pontif or the Universal Bishop or the Head of the Church Which of them ever said that both the Swords were given to thee Which of them ever said that you have the Right and Authority to call Councils that the whole World was your Diocess Which of them ever said that all Bishops had received of your Fulness That all Power both iâ— Heaven and Earth was given to you That you could not be judged by Kings nor by the whole Clergy nor by all the Peopleâ— Which of them ever said that Kings and Emperors by the Command and will of Christ derived Authority from you Which of them ever affirmed with a Mathematical Exactnesâ— and Certainty that your Authority was preâ—cisely seventy seven times greater than that oâ— the greatest Kings Which of them ever saiâ— that you had a greater power than the otheâ— Patriarchs Which of them ever said you werâ— the Lord God or not a meer Man like otheâ— Mortals or stiled you a certain Hotch-potch a Mixture or Concrete of God and Manâ— which of them ever said that you were thâ— fountain of all Law that you had an Empireâ— and Dominion over Purgatory and that yoâ— might at your pleasure command the Angels of God Which of them ever said that you were King of Kings and Lord of Lords And now we are in we may inquire of a fow other things of the same Nature What one Man of all the ancient Bishops and Fathers ever taught you to say a private Mass whilst the People did nothing but look on or to lift the Eucharist above your Head in which you now place all your Religion or to curtail the Sacrament of Christ and contrary to his Institution and express Command to deprive the People of one half of it And that we may conclude what one of all the ancient Fathers taught you to dispence the Blood of Christ and the Merits of the Martyrs and to sell your Indulgences and all the Apartments and Lodgings of Purgatory like Commodities in the Market for Money They are wont often to celebrate their own wonderful secret Learning and their manifold and various Readings Now let your Partizans at last produce something of it if they can or let them at least shew they have read and do know more than or dinary for they have often made hideous Outcries amongst their Hearers that all the parts of their Religion are ancient and approved not only by the number but also by the Continuance and Consent of all Nations and Times 8. WELL then let them at least shew this their boasted Antiquity let them make it appear that what they so much extol is indeed of so vast an Extent let them prove that all Christian Nations have imbraced their Religion But alass as I said before they flee from their own Decrees and have already pluckt up those Canons which but a very few years since they made to last for ever Why then should we trust them in relation to what they pretend concerning the Fathers the
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
Right is devolved to all Princes in common yet has so unjustly usurpt it to himself alone and thinks it sufficient to communicate his design of holding a Council to the Greatest Prince in Christendom as to his Servant But if the Modesty of Ferdinand the Emperor be so great perhaps because he doth not thorowly understand the Papal Arts that he can digest this Injury yet the Pope who pretends to so much Sanctity ought not to have offered him this Affront and thus to have arrogated to himself another Mans Right 12. BUT some of his Party may reply that the Emperor then called the Councils because the Bishop of Rome was not then arrived to that height of Greatness and yet he did not even then sit with the Bishops or at all interpose his Authority in their Deliberations and Consultations Yes as Theodoret acquaints us Constantine the Emperor did not only sit with the Bishops but admonished them to determine the Controversie then depending out of the Prophetick and Apostolical Writings In this Disputation said the Emperor concerning Divine things there is set before us which we ought to follow the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost for the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles and the Oracles of the Prophets do sufficiently shew us what we ought to think of the Will of God Theodosius another Emperor not only sat amongst the Bishops as Socrates saith but also was Moderator of the Dispute and rent the Papers of the Hereticks and approved the Sentiments and Doctrine of the Catholicks And in the Council of Chalcedon the Civil Magistrate who under the Emperor governed that Council condemn'd three Bishops Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassius by his Sentence for Hereticks and gave judgment that they should be deposed from that degree In the Third the Constantinopolitan Council the Civil Magistrate not only sate with the Bishops but also subscribed the Canons with them We have read said he and subscribed them In the Second Council of Orange the Ambassadors of the Princes being Noble-men themselves sate and not only voted concerning Matters of Religion but also subscribed amongst the Bishops for thus it is written in the end of that Council Petrus Marcellinus and Felix Liberius two Noble and Illustrions Praefecti Praetorio of Gaul and Patricians have consented and subscribed Syragrius Opilio Pantagathus Deodatus Cariatho and Marcellus honourable Men and Magistrates have subscribed But if the Praefecti Praetorio and Patricians or Noble-men could then subscribe the Councils may not Emperors and Kings do it now There were no need to prosecute so plain and apparent a point as this is but that we have to do with a parcel of Men who use to deny the clearest things oven those things which lye plain and open before their Eyes out of a contentious Disposition and a desire of Victory The Emperour Justinianus made a Law for the correcting the Manner and curbing the Insolence of the Clergy and altho he was a most Christian and Catholick Emperor yet he deposed Sylverius and Vigilius two Popes Successors of St. Peter and Vicars of Jesus Christ as they are now called 13. AND now seeing that Princes have imployed their Authority upon Bishops received commands from God concerning Religion brought back the Ark of God composed Sacred Hymns and Psalms governed the Priests made publick Discourses concerning the Worship of God purged the Temple demolished High Places burnt Idolatrous Groves and have admonished the Priests concerning their Office and given them Laws of Living have slain wicked Prophets deposed Bishops called Councils of Bishops and sate with them and taught them what they should do have punished Heretical Bishops have taken cognizance of Religion subscribed Councils and given Sentence in them and done all this not by the command of another but in their own Names and that rightly and piously shall we say after all this that the care of Religion belongs not to them Or that a Christian Prince who is pleased to concern himself in these things acts ill immodestly and wickedly In all these Affairs the most Ancient and most Christian Kings and Emperors have intermeddled and yet were never accused of Impiety or Immodesty for so doing and will any pretend to find either more Catholick Princes or more Illustrious Examples 14. BUT now if they might do all these things tho they were only Civil Princes and governed their several States Wherein have our Princes offended who tho they are in the same Authority may it seems not do the same things Or wherein consists the wonderful force of their Learning Wisdom and Holiness that contrary to the Custom of all the Ancient and Catholick Bishops who have heretofore deliberated with Princes concerning Religion they should now reject and exclude Christian Princes from the cognizance of the Cause now depending and from all Participation and Congress with them in their Councils But yet it cannot be denied they have taken a prudent care for themselves and the upholding their Kingdom which they foresaw otherwise would soon have perished For if they who are placed by God in the highest Station had once seen and understood these Mens Arts that the Commands of Christ are contemned by them that the light of the Gospel is obscured and extinguished by them that they play tricks with and delude them and shut up against them the entrance into the Kingdom of God They would never so patiently have suffered themselves to be so proudly despised and injuriously scorned and abused But now on the other hand they have rendred all Princes obnoxious and subject to them by their blindness and Ignorance 15. WE as I said before have done nothing in the changing of Religion either insolently or rashly nothing but with great deliberation and slowly Nor had we ever thought of doing it except the Will of God undoubtedly and manifestly opened to us in the most Sacred Scriptures and the necessity of our Salvation had compelled us so to do for altho we have departed from that Church which they call the Catholick Church and thereupon they have kindled a great envy against us in them who cannot well judge of us yet it is enough for us and ought to be so to any prudent and pious man who considers seriously of his Salvation that we have only departed from that Church which may enr which Christ who cannot err so long since foretold should err and which we see clearly with our Eyes has departed from the Holy Fathers the Apostles Christ himself and the Primitive and Catholick Church And we have approached as much as possibly we could to the Church of the Apostles and ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers which we know was yet a Perfect and as Tertullian saith an unspotted Virgin and not contaminated with any Idolatry or great and publick Error Neither have we only reformed the Doctrine of our Church and made it like theirs in all things but we have also brought the Celebration of ☞ the Sacraments and the
but a Sword 5. WHEREFORE if the Pope does indeed desire we should be reconciled to him he ought first to reconcile himself to God for as St. Cyprian saith Schisms arise from hence that the Head is not sought and a Return is not made to the Fountain of the Holy Scriptures and the Precepts of our Heavenly Master are not kept for else it is not Peace saith he but War neither can any man be united to the Church who is separated from the Gospel But these men with whom we are concern'd do use to make a base gain by the Name of Peace for the Peace they seek is only a Peace of idle Bellies for all these Controversies betwixt us and them might with great facility be ended if Ambition Gluttony and Luxury did not hinder it and from hence proceed all their Tears their Souls are in their Dishes and all their loud Clamors and Noise are only that they may basely and wickedly keep what they have acquired knavishly 6. IN these times the Pardoners Dataries Collectors and Pimps of the Court of Rome make the greatest Complaints against us who with others of their Trade think that great Gain is Godliness and serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies for in the foregoing Ages this sort of men had a very profitable imployment but now whatever is gain'd to Christ turns as they think to their Loss Yea his Holiness too complains sadly that Piety is grown cold and his Revenue is become much smaller than heretofore it was and therefore the good man does his utmost to make us hated loads us with Reproaches and condemns us for Hereticks without any mercy that they who know not the real cause of all this may thereby be induced to believe us the very worst of men and yet in the interim we are not therefore ashamed nor indeed ought we to be so of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because we esteem the Glory of God more than the good Opinion of Men. We know that all we teach is true and we cannot offer Violence to our own Consciences or give Testimony against God for if we deny any part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ before Men he will in like manner deny us before his Father and if there be any that will be offended and cannot bear the Doctrine of Christ they are blind and the Leaders of the Blind but the Truth is still to be preached and owned and we must patiently expect the Judgment of God 7. AND in the interim our Adversaries should do well to bethink themselves seriously of their own Salvation and to put an end to their Raging Hatred and Persecution of the Gospel of the Son of God that at last they may not find him the Vindicator and Revenger of his own Cause for God will not be had in derision and men too now see what is doing that Flame the more it is repress'd with so much the greater Violence doth it break out again and display it self Their Infidelity and Unbelief shall never be able to frustrate or put a stop to the Faith of God and if they shall still persist in the Hardness of their Hearts and refuce to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Publicans and the Harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before them The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ open all their Eyes that they may see that blessed Hope to which they are called that we may altogether glorifie the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent down to us from Heaven to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be rendred all Honour and Glory to all Eternity Amen Amen AN EPISTLE Written by the Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of SARUM TO SEIGNIOR SCIPEO A Venetian Gentleman In Answer to a Letter of his in which he complains of the Kingdom of England for their not appearing in the Council of Trent nor excusing their Absence by Letters SIR YOU are pleased to write to me with much freedom according to the great Acquaintance which hath been between us ever since we lived together at Padua where you were imployed in the publick Service of your Common-wealth and I in the Pursute of Learning that both your self and many others with you in those Parts do much admire that seeing there is at this time a General Council call'd by the Pope at Trent for the composing Controversies in Religion and the extinguishing all Contentions that have arisen on that account and that whereas all other Nations are assembled there the Kingdom of England alone has neither sent any Ambassador thither nor excused their Absence by Envoys or Letters but in the mean time without the Consent of the Council hath chang'd almost the whole Order of their Ancient and Paternal Religion that one of these things hath the appearance of a proud Contumacy and the other of a pernicious Schism for it is a great Wickedness for any man say you to decline the most holy Authority of the Pope of Rome or to to withdraw himself when he is call'd to a Council by him And that Controversies in Religion ought not to be determined any where but in such Conventions for there are the Patriarchs and Bishops and the most Learned of all Orders of Men in the Church at their Mouths the Truth is to be sought there are the great Lights of the Church and there the Holy Ghost is ever present and accordingly pious Princes have in every age referr'd all those Doubts which have happened concerning the Worship of God to such publick Consultations That neither Moses nor Joshua nor David nor Ezechia nor Josias nor any other of the Judges Kings or Priests did ever deliberate of the Affairs of the Church any other way than in a Council of the Bishops That the Apostles of Christ and the Holy Fathers held Councils that so the Truth was discovered so Heresies were suppress'd so Arrius so Eunomius so Eutyches so Macedonius and so Pelagius were overcome and so at this time the Dissentions of the World may be composed and the Ruins of the Church repair'd if Men would be pleas'd to lay by their Animosities and Partiality and come to this Council but without a Council it is utterly unlawful to attempt any Change in Matters of Religion 2. THIS Sir is almost the whole Sum of your Letter and as for me I will not now presume to give you in Answer on the behalf of England an exact Account of the reason of all our publick Transactions nor do I think it is your Will or Expectation that I should the Counsels of Kings are conceal'd and secret and so they ought to be and this you Sir know perfectly well that they are not to be reveal'd at random to every body or any body and yet in compliance with that old and intimate Acquaintance that has been between us because I see you so earnestly desire it I will shortly and friendly tell
horrible Crimes as Schism and Rebellion only on pretence to avoid that Popery that Superstition that was only in their own Fancies and Prejudices How can one and the same Church be persecuted justly for being too much and too little Reformed Why have you separated from her Liturgy and Rites who pretend to imbrace her Doctrines Or if you must needs separate why yet should you imbrue your hands in the Blood of your Soveraign and fellow Subjects on that account Supposing you were in the right this would not justifie you Christ never propagated his Church by Blood and Treason but by Sufferings and Obedience The truth is this Church hath been persecuted because she alone of all the Churches in Europe has had the Blessing and singular Favour of God to reform with Prudence Moderation and an exact and regular Conduct after great and wise Deliberations by the consent of our Bishops Convocations States and Princes without Tumults or hasty Counsels and accordingly here was nothing changed but upon good Advice after the most irresistable Conviction that it was contrary to the Word of God the Sentiments of the Holy Fathers and Councils and the Practice of the truly Primitive and Apostolical Church So that the Papists themselves do even envy our Primitive Doctrine Government and Discipline and both fear and hate us more than any other of the Reformed Churches I could be contented said a great Man of that Perswasion there were no Priests i. e. Popish Priess in England so there were no Bishops there This and our excellent Liturgy our decent Ceremonies and our excellent order moves their envy they are the same things that have raised the Spleens and Animosities of the other side with whom whatever is older than Zuinglius and Calvin is presently Popery and must be destroyed Tell them that Episcopacy was settled in all Churches in the days of the very Apostles and by them and they reply the Mystery of Iniquity began then to work intimating if not affirming that this Holy Order was a part of it So that they will rather traduce these Holy Men who sacrificed their Bloods for Jesus Christ and his Church of Pride Ambition and a too great Love of Rule than allow the Establishments of our Church Nay they will rather root out the Monarchy because supported by and upholding Episcopacy than shew any the least Reverence to the Church in obedience to our Laws and Princes So that leaving these implacable self-condemned Enemies give me leave O ye Loyal and Religious Sons of this Holy and ever persecuted Church to make my last Address and Application to you You see by whom the Church has been ever persecuted you see the reason of it you cannot but know also what she has suffered on both sides you have read the one and your Eyes have seen the other rouse up then and take effectual care of this innocent this persecuted Spouse of Christ Stretch out your hands to Heaven by humble and fervent Prayers and implore the Assistance of the most Holy God for her safety and Protection against all her Enemies Let the Virtue Piety and Holiness of your Lives assure the World that you profess this Holy Religion in good earnest and that you do not dissemble either with God or Man in it but are sincere and resolved to live and dye in this profession Put those Laws we now have in execution duly and regularly and with Discretion and Mercy not out of Bitterness and Passion but out of Conscience and a true fear of God and care of his Church that all the World may see it is nothing but a sense of your Duties and a Zeal for God that makes you active and prudently severe And as far as you shall have opportunity take further care by new Laws to secure this great and inestimable Blessing to your Posterity and the Generations to come that they may rise up and bless God for you and remember your names with Eulogies and Honour for ever And if any thing in these Papers may in any degree be serviceable to and promote these good ends I shall for ever be thankful to God and Man for the Favour THE LIFE OF THE Right Reverend Father in God DR JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of SARISBURY THO Truth and Reason may justly claim the Priviledge of a kind reception whoever brings them yet such is the Nature of Mankind that the Face of a Stranger is ever surveyed with a little more than ordinary Attention as if Men thought generally that in it were the most lively Characters of what they seek to know the Soul and Temper of a Man now because this is not to be expected at the first sight in Books where yet it is most eagerly desired Men have attempted to supply that defect with Pictures and which affords much more satisfaction by premising the Lives and Characters of the Authors which gives the Reader a truer and more lasting Idea of Men than it is possible for Pensils and Colours to attain to The Author of the ensuing Tracts ought to be so well known to all English men that his Name alone should have given a sufficient Commendation to any thing that can claim a descent from him But it being now above an hundred years since his death and his Works which were for a long time chained up in all Churches being now superannuated or neglected it may not be an unseasonable piece of Service to the Church to revive the Memory of this great Man the stout and invincible Champion of the Church of England who losing the opportunity of sacrificing his Life for her in the Reign of Queen Mary did it with more advantage to us and pains to himself under her glorious Successor when he so freely spent himself in her Service that having wasted his thin Body by excessive Labour and Study he died young but full of good Works and Glory He was born the 24 th of May in the year of our Lord 1522. at Buden in the Parish of Berinber in the County of Devon and tho a younger Brother yet inherited his Fathers Name His Mother was a Bellamie and he had so great an esteem for it and her that he engraved it on his Signet and had it always imprinted in his heart a lasting Testimony both of her Virtue and kindness to him His Father was a Gentleman descended rather of an Ancient and Good than very Rich Family It is observed that his Ancestors had injoyed that Estate for almost two hundred years before the Birth of this great Man And yet such was the number of his Children that it is no wonder if this when young wanted the assistance of Good men for the promoting of his Studies for it is said his Father left ten Children between Sons and Daughters behind him This John Jewel proving a Lad of pregnant Parts and of a sweet and industrious Nature and Temper was from his Youth dedicated to Learning and with great care cultivated by his
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
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
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
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
demonstrative Pronoun THIS shewed the Wheaten Bread others say no but it relates to a certain Individuum vagum a no Man knows what there be some who say Dogs and Mice may truly and really eat the Body of Christ but then there are others who stoutly deny this there be some who say the Accidents of the Bread and Wine can nourish and others say the Substance returns again But why should I add any more It is a long and troublesome Business to count up all their Divisions the whole Form of this Religion and Doctrine is to this day controverted and uncertain amongst them who first gave being and entertainment to it for they scarce ever agree except it be as the Pharisees and Saducees or as Herod and Pilate did of old against Christ 7. LET them go then and put an end to their own Quarrels Vnity and Agreement do excellently become Religion yet it is no certain and proper sign of the Church of God for there was a wonderful Agreement amongst them who worshipped the Golden Calf and amongst those who with one Voice cried out against our Saviour Crucifie him crucifie him Nor are we presently to determine because there was some Dissentions in the Church of Corinth or because St. Paul differed with St. Peter or Barnabas with St. Paul or that the Christians in the Infancy of the Church disagreed amongst themselves concerning some things that therefore there was no Church of God amongst them Those very men whom they contemptuously call Lutherans and Zuinglians are both of them Christians and Friends each to others and Brethren they do not disagree about the Principles and Foundations of our Religion concerning God or Christ or the Holy Ghost not concerning the manner of our Justification or of eternal Life it is only about one Point and that of no great consequence nor do we despair or rather we do not so much as doubt but that in a small time an Agreement will be made betwixt them and tho there are some who now think otherwise than they ought we hope that laying aside all Passions and Factious Names and Reproaches God will reveal to them what they now know not and having better considered and searched into the thing as it happened heretofore in the Council of Calcedon all the Causes and Fibers of Dissentions shall be pluck'd up by the Roots and buried in eternal Oblivion Amen 8. BUT the most insufferable of all their Slanders is their Pretence that we are impious Men and have cast off all care of Religion But this is the less to be regarded because they who make this Objection do themselves know that it is contumelious and false And Justin Martyr writes also that when the Gospel was first published and the Name of Christ discovered to the World that all Christians were then stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Men without a God or Atheists And when the Holy Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna stood before the Tribunal the Rabble incited the Proconsul to the Slaughter and Destruction of all those who professed the Gospel with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is exterminate out of the World those wicked men who have no God Not that the Christians had indeed no God but because they would not adore the Stones and Blocks which were then worshipped as Gods But the World now sees plainly what we and ours have suffered from them for the Sake of God and our Religion They have cast us into Goals and Fire and Water and have rol'd themselves in our Bloods not because we are Adulterers or Thieves or Murtherers but purely because we imbrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ and put our whole Trust only in the living God and O good God! because we truly and justly complain that they have for their most impertinent Traditions violated the Laws of God and that these Enemies of ours who knowingly and willingly despise the Commandments of God are the haters of the Gospel and the Enemies of the Cross of Christ 9. NOW these Men when they saw they could six no Slanders upon our Doctrine then they began to declaim against our Manners that we hated all good Works that we made way for Disorder and Luxury and did drive the People off from all Care and Exercise of Virtue And certainly the Lives of all Men even those of the most Holy and Christian Men now are and ever were even in the best and most chast state of things liable to some exceptions on that account and such is the Propensity of men to do Ill on the one side and the Proneness of all to Suspition on the other that many things which were never done nor thought of have yet been pretended to be heard and have obtained a Belief too and as a small Spot is easily seen in a very white Garment so in the purest course of Life the slightest Note of Turpitude or disorder is easily taken notice of Nor do we think our selves or all those who have imbraced the Reformation to be Angels and to live without the least Speck or Unevenness or that those who hate us are so blind that they cannot observe whatever is blameable in us even through the smallest Chink or that they are so candid as that they will put a mild Sense upon any thing or so ingenious that they will at any time turn their Eyes upon themselves and estimate or compare our Manners with their own But then if we should here run the thing up to the Fountains head we know that in the Apostles times there were Christians who made the Name of God to be blasphem'd and evil spoken of amongst the Gentiles 10. CONSTANTIUS the Emperor complains in Sozomen that many after they entered the Christian Church became worse than they were before And St. Cyprian in a mournful Oration describes the Corruptions of his own times Ease and a long Peace saith he had destroyed that Discipline which the Apostles delivered to us Men were intent upon the enlarging their Estates and forgetting what Believers did under the Apostles and what they ever ought to do they applied themselves with an insatiable Appetite to the Improvement of their Fortunes There is not now that devout Piety in the Priests that sincere Faith in the Ministers that Compassion in Works of Mercy that Restraint in Mens Manners Men colour their Beards and Women paint their Faces And before him Tertullian O wo to us who are now call'd Christians for we live the Lives of Heathens under that venerable Title 11. To conclude and not to trouble the Reader with many Authors Gregory Nazianzen speaks thus of the deplorable State of his own times We are said he hated by the Heathens now for our Vices and we are made a Spectacle not only to Men and Angels but to the wickedest of Men. This was the State of the Church of God when the Light of the Gospel began first to shine upon it when the Fury of Tyrants was
Princes are to be obeyed as Men sent by God and whosoever resists them resists the Ordinance of God These are our Doctrines these Principles shine forth in our Books in our Sermons in our Lives and in the Modesty and dutiful behaviour of our People 18. AND whereas they pretend we have departed from the Uuity of the Catholick Church this is not only odious but tho it is not true yet it hath an appearance and similitude of Truth in it But then not only those things which are true and certain find belief with the ignorant Multitude but those things also which may seem probable and so we shall ever observe that crafty cunning Men who had not the Truth on their sides have ever maintained their Cause with the Resemblances of Truth that those who could not dive into the bottom of things might be taken at least with the shew and probability of their Arguments Because the Primitive Christians our Fore-fathers when they Prayed to God turned their Faces toward the rising Sun there were some that said they worshiped the Sun and that it was their GOD and because they said that as to their eternal and immortal Life they lived on nothing but the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb without spot meaning thereby our Saviour Jesus Christ Envious Men the Enemies of the Cross of Christ whose only business it was to render the Christian Religion by any means hateful did thereupon perswade the People that the Christians were impious Men that they offered Humane Sacrifices and drank Mans Blood and when the Christians said with God there is neither Male nor Female that is that as to the obtaining of Justification there is no distinction of Persons and did salute one another commonly by the Names of Brother and Sister there were not wanting some who slandered the Christians thereupon and said they made no distinction amongst them of Sex or Age but like Beasts promiscuously lay together And when they met frequently in Vaults and secret places to Pray and hear the Gospel which sort of private Places and Meetings had sometimes been made use of by Conspirators against the Government there was thereupon a Rumor spread abroad that they conspired together and had secret Consultations about murthering the Magistrates and subverting the Government And because in celebrating the Holy Communion they made use of Bread and Wine according to the Institution of Christ they were thought by many not to worship Christ but Bacchus and Ceres because those heathen Deities were worshiped by the Pagans with a like Rite with Bread and Wine These things were then believed by many not because they were true for what could possibly be less so but because they had a kind of resemblance of Truth and by that shew of truth were fitted to deceive them 18. SO they traduce us and say that as Hereticks we have departed from the Unity of the Catholick Church and the Communion of Christ not that they believe this to be true nor are they at all concern'd whether it be true or false but because the thing may in some sort seem true to ignorant Men for we have indeed departed not as Hereticks ever have done from the Church of Christ but as good men ought to do from the Contagion of wicked Men and Hypocrites and yet here they insult wonderfully that theirs is the Church the Spouse of Christ the Pillar of Truth the Ark of Noah out of which no Salvation is to be hoped for and in the interim they assert with the same Confidence that we have revolted that we have rent the Coat of Christ and torn our selves from his Body and made a desection from the Catholick Faith And when they have thus left nothing unsaid which can possibly be tho never so falsly and slanderously objected against us yet at last they cannot pretend that we have forsaken the Word of God or the Apostles of Christ or the Primitive Church 19. NOW we have ever thought that the Primitive Church which was in the times of Christ and the Apostles and holy Fathers was the Catholick Church Nor do we doubt but that that Church is the Ark of Noah the Spouse of Christ the Pillar and Foundation of Truth or to place in it all the Hopes of our Salvation It is indeed an odious thing to break off and depart from that Society a Man has long lived in especially if that Society consist of Men who seem to be and are therefore called Christians tho in truth they are none And in reality we do not so contemn their Church as bad as it now is for the Name sake and 〈◊〉 Gospel of Jesus Christ was once truly and purely taught there as that we have willingly departed from it without necessity But what if an Idol be set up in the Church of God and that Desolation appears there which Christ foretold should stand in the holy Place What if some Pirate or Robber possesseth himself of the Ark of Noah certainly as often as these men thus preach to us of the Church they make themselves only to be that Church and ascribe all those glorious Titles to themselves and triumph like those of Old who cryed The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord or like the Scribes and Pharisees when they boasted they were the Children of Abraham 20. THUS do they impose upon silly men by vain and useless Shews and seeâ— to overwhelm us with the meer Name of thâ— Church just as if a Thief having got poâ—â—session of another mans House and havinâ— by force expell'd or slain the true Owneâ— should afterwards claim it as his own anâ— keep the true Heir out or as if Antichrisâ— after he has seized the Temple of Godâ— should afterwards pretend it were his owâ— and that Christ had no right to it For theâ— our Adversaries have left almost nothing liâ— a Church in the Church of God yet theâ— will needs seem the only Patrons and Defeâ—â—ders of the Church just as Gracchus defendeâ— the Roman Exchequer by making such profuse Largesses and such unreasonable Expenses that he quite ruined the Publick Treasury But then there was never any thing yet so absurd or wicked but it might seem easie to be covered and defended by the Name of the Church for Wasps make Combs and impious Men have their Assemblies not much unlike the Churches But they are not presently the People of God who are call'd so nor are they all Israelites who are of Israel The Arrian Hereticks boasted that they only were Catholicks and they call'd all the rest sometimes Ambrosians and at other Athanasians and Johannites And Theodoret tells us that tho Nestorius was an Heretick yet he covered himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Pretence and Cloak of the Orthodox Faith Ebion tho he was of the same Opinion with the Samaritans yet as Epiphaâ—es assures us he would needs be call'd a â—â—hristian The Mahometans at this day tho â—t
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
tho we are silent they may be pleased to hear their own St. Bernard Those Bishops saith he to whom the Church of God is now committed are not Teachers but Seducers not Pastors but Impostors not Prelates but Pilates Thus St. Bernard wrote then of him that call'd himself the Great Pontiff and of the Bishops who then sate at the Helm He was no Heretick he was no Lutheran he never forsook their Church and yet he never stuck at calling those Bishops they then had Seducers Impostors Pilates And now when the People were openly seduced and Christians imposed upon and Pilate mounted the Tribunal and adjudged Christ and his Members to the Fire and Sword O good God! in what condition was the Church then And now of so many and such gross Errors what one Error have they reformed to this day yea what one Error have they at any time acknowledged and confessed 26. BUT now whereas they pretend to be in Possession of the whole Catholick Church and call us Hereticks because we do not agree with them Let us see what Mark that Church hath of the Church of God Nor is the Church of God very difficult to be found if you seriously and diligently seek for it for it is placed in an high and illustrious Place and built on the top of a Mountain and the Foundations of it are laid upon the Apostles and Prophets There saith St. Augustin let us seek the Church there let us try our Cause and in another place he saith the Church is to be shown cut of the sacred Scriptures and whatever Society cannot derive it self from them is not the Church And yet I know not whence it proceeds whether from Reverence or Conscience or a despair of Victory that these men always dread and shun the Word of God as much as a Thief does the Gallows and in truth it is no Wonder for as they say a Beetle is presently extinguished in Opobalsam altho it is a most fragrant Oyntment So they see their Cause is suffocated and ruined when ever it comes near the Scriptures which are a sort of deadly Poyson to it Therefore they accustom themselves to call the Holy Scriptures which our Saviour Jesus Christ did not only cite on all occasions but at the last sealed them with his Blood that they may drive the People from them as if they were dangerous and destructive with the greater facility these very Scriptures I say they call a cold uncertain unprofitable dumb killing dead Letter which seems to us to be the same thing as if they should wholly deny them to be the Word of God And besides all this they commonly add a no very proper Simile too They are say they a Nose of Wax and may be form'd and set all manner of ways and be made to serve all manner of Purposes Does the Pope not know that that these things are said by his Followers Does he not understand what kind of Patrons he has 27. LET the Pope then be pleased to hear how piously and how holily Hosius a certain Polander and a Bishop as he saith himself certainly an eloquent and not unlearned man and a sharp and violent defender of his Interest writes concerning the Scriptures I believe he will admire a pious man could possibly entertain such impious Thoughts or write so contemptuously of those very words which he knew proceeded from the Mouth of God and above all that he should seem to desire that it might not pass for his Sense alone but the common Opinion of the whole Popish Party We saith he have bid adieu to the Scriptures having seen so many not only different but contrary Interpretations given of them let us then rather hear God himself speak then apply our selves and trust our Salvation to those jejune Elements There is no need of being Skilful in the Law and Scriptures but of being taught by God That Labour is ill imployed that is bestowed on the Scriptures for the Scripture is a Creature and a poor kind of Element Thus far Hosius in his Book of the express Word of God in this place craftily under the Person of another Man tho he speaks the same thing in several other places in the same Book as his own Opinion without any disguise which is said with the same Spirit and Affection as the like things were heretofore by Montanus and Marcion who are reported frequently to have said when they contemptuously rejected the Holy Scriptures that they knew more and better things than either Christ or his Apostles ever knew What then shall I say on this Occasion O ye Pillars of Religion O ye Presidents of the Church of Christ is this the Reverence ye pay to the Word of God Do ye bid an Adieu to the Sacred Scriptures which St. Paul saith are divinely inspir'd which the Holy God hath illustrated by so many Miracles in which the certain Footsteps of Jesus Christ are imprinted which were cited as Testimonies by all the Holy Fathers by the Apostles by Christ himself the Son of God when occasion requir'd it do ye I say bid adieu to these as if they were not worthy of your regard that is do ye impose silence upon God who it is that speaks clearly to you in the Scriptures Or will you call that Word a poor and a dead Element by which only as St. Paul saith we are reconcil'd to God and which as the Prophet David saith is Holy and Pure and shall endure for ever Or will you say that all the Pains we spend in that which Christ commanded us to search diligently and to have ever in our Eye is lost and that Christ and the Apostles when they exhorted the People to a careful Perusal of the Scriptures that they might thereby abound in all Knowledge and Wisdom designed only to delude and abuse Men It is no wonder that these men despise us and our Writings who thus undervalue God himself and his Oracles but it was a most foolish Action to offer so great an Affront to the Word of God that they might do us a small mischief 28. AND now as if all this were too little they commit the Holy Scriptures to the Fire as the wicked King Jehojakim and as Antiochus and Maximinus two Heathen Persesecutors did calling them the Books of Hereticks and they seem altogether disposed to imitate Herod the Great in what he did for the establishing of his Power for he being an Idumaean of another Race and Blood then the Jews were and desiring to be thought a Jews that so he might the better settle that his Kingdom over them which he had obtained from Augustus Caesar he commanded all their Genealogies which they kept in their Publick Register and were carefully preserved from Abrahams times by which without any Error it was easie to find of which Tribe any person was descended to be burnt and abolished that there might be nothing to be found for the
speaâ— their minds truly and freely they themselve cannot deny but that all things are purly and reverently administred and as far as we can possibly according to the Example and Manner of the ancient times Let them compare their Church and ours together and they will soon see that they have most basely departed from the Apostles and we have most justly and reasonably departed from them for we with Christ and the Apostles and Primitive Fathers give the intire and whole Eucharist to the People but they contrary to the Practice of all the Fathers and Apostles and of Christ himself divide that Sacrament with an high Sacrilege as Gelasius expresseth it and deprive the People of one half of it 2. We have recalled the Lords Supper to its first Institution and have made it common to as many as was possible that it might be as it is called a Communion But they contrary to the Institution of Christ of a Holy Communion have made it a private Mass and so we give the People the Lords Supper they entertain them with a vain Show 3. We affirm with the ancient Fathers that the Body of Christ is eaten by none but Holy and Faithful Men who are endowed with the Spirit of Christ but they say that the very Body of Christ may be truly and indeed or as they express it really and substantially eaten not only by impious and unbelieving Men but which is abominable to be spoken by Mice and Dogs 4. We pray so in our Churches that according to St. Paul's Admonition the People may know what is prayed and understandingly answer Amen to the common Prayers They like tinkling Brass pour out in the Church unknown and strange Words without Understanding Sense or Meaning and take all the care they can that the People may understand nothing 5. And that we may not mention all the differences because they are almost infinite we have turned the Holy Scriptures into all Languages and they will scarce allow them to be extant in any Tongue We invite the People to read and hear the Word of God they drive them away from it We desire the Cause in Controversie should be understood by all but they fly from Judgment We trust to Knowledge they to Ignorance We trust to the Light and they to Darkness We venerate as it is fit we should the Words of the Apostles and Prophets they burn them Lastly in the Cause of God we desire to stand or fall by the Judgment of God alone and they would stand only by their own Now therefore if they would consider all these things with a sedate and quiet mind well disposed to hear and learn they would not only approve our design who having left their Errors have applyed our selves to follow Christ and his Apostles but they would likewise fall off from themselves and certainly unite with us in our way CHAP. VI. Of the Great Value we have for Councils and of the little regard the Papists have for them BUT in the next place they pretend that it is altogether unlawful to attempt any of these things without the consent of a General Council because in that is lodged all the Power of the Church and Christ hath promised that there he will never fail to be present But as I said they have violated the Commandments of God the Decrees of the Apostles and almost all the Institutions and Doctrines of the Primitive Church without ever expecting any such Sacred Council 2. AND whereas they pretend that it is not Lawful for any Church to change any thing without a General Council who imposed these Laws upon us or from whence had they this Edict That King acted very ridiculously who when he was assured by an Oracle of the Will and Pleasure of Jupiter the Great Heathen God referred the thing again to Apollo that he might see whether he were of the same mind with his Father Jupiter But we should act much more imprudently if when we have heard God himself speaking to us in the Scriptures and thereby know his Will and Pleasure as if all this were nothing we should after all refer the thing to a Council which is nothing better than to try whether God and Man are both of one mind and whether Men will please to approve and enforce the Laws of God by their Authority For what shall not truth be truth except a Council is pleased to will and require it Or shall not God be God without their consent If Christ at the beginning would have acted thus and would neither have taught nor spoken any thing without the consent of the High Priests and if he had referred his whole Doctrine to Annas and Caiphas where had the Christian Faith been now Or who had ever heard of the Gospel And St. Peter whom the Pope mentions more frequently and with greater Elogies than he doth Jesus Christ himself confidently withstood the Sacred Council and replied it is better to obey God than Man And St. Paul when he had once throughly imbibed the Gospel and that neither from man nor by man but only by the Will of God deliberated not with Flesh and Blood nor did he refer the thing to his Kinsmen and Brethren but straight way went into Arabia that he might there publish the Divine Mysteries which he had learned of God himself 3. WE do not despise Councils nor the Meetings and Consultations of Bishops and learned Men nor have we done what we have done without Bishops and a Council the thing was debated along time in a full Assembly of the States But what we may expect from that Council which is now pretended to be held by Pope Pius the IV. in which men are with such facility condemn'd uncall'd unheard and unseen is not mighty difficult to conjecture When Nazianzen in his times saw men in these Meetings so blind and obstinate that they were wholly lead by their Affections and that they sought Victory more than Truth he confidently said that he never saw a good end put to any of the Councils What would he now say if he were living and understood their Transactions for then altho there was some Faction and Partiality yet Causes were heard and considered and manifest apparent Errors were taken away by their united Suffrages But our Adversaries will not so much as suffer the Cause to be freely debated nor will they suffer any one of the many Errors that are crept into the Church to be changed for they are wont frequently and impudently to boast that their Church cannot Err that there is not the least fault in it that nothing was to be yielded to us or that if any thing were granted it was to be at the Discretion of the Bishops and Abbots that they were the sole Moderators of Affairs and that they were the Church of God Aristotle saith that Bastards cannot make a Civil Society or State and they may consider whether they be any better
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
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
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
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