God to its ancient Purity Why do they presently make an Out-cry that these Princes disturb all things break in upon other Mens Offices and do act ill things and immodestly What Scripture I pray hath excluded Christian Princes from hearing these Causes Who besides these Men ever decreed any such Laws But they will reply that Civil Princes have learned to govern their States and to manage Arms but they understand nothing of the Mysteries of Religion And now what is the Pope at this day but a Monarch or Prince and what are the Cardinals who are now scarcely suffered to be any other but the Children of Kings and Princes What are the Patriarchs and for the most part the Arch-bishops Bishops and Abbots others than Princes Dukes and Earls in the Papal Kingdom and accordingly whithersoever they go they aâ—â— attended with a great Retinue and adorned with Chains and Collers of Gold and otâ—â—â— Ensignes of Honour And they have sometimes also a peculiar Habit belonging to them as Crosses Pillars Hats Myters and Palls which Pomp the ancient Bishops St. Chrysostom St. Ambrose and St. Augustin were not acquainted with but then excepting these outward Ornaments what do they teach what do they speak what do they do and what do they Live so as becomes I will not say a Bishop but a common Christian Is it then of so mighty a Consequence to go under this or that Title and by changing nothing but a Mans Cloaths to be called a Bishop 9. CERTAINLY it is a proud injurious and unjust thing and not to be born by Christian and Prudent Princes to permit the summ of all that concerns Religion to be managed by such Men as these alone who know nothing of the Mysteries of Religion nor care to know any thing more than what belongs to their Bellies and Kitchins and do not value any thing of Religion as worth aâ—rush who are no better than blind men placed in a Watch-tower and that in the interim a Christan and a Catholick Prince should stand like a trunk or a stock and without vote and without giving his judgment only observe what they are pleased to command and impose upon him and as if he had neither Ears nor Eyes nor Mind nor Heart of his own to receive without Exception and with a blind-fold submission do whatever they are pleased to command him altho they are Blasphemous and wicked things yea altho they should command him to extinguish all Religion and to crucisie his Saviour For why Can Caiphas and Annas judge well of Matters of Religion and cannot David and Ezechias Is it lawful for a Cardinal a Martial and a bloody Man to sit in a Council and is it unlawful for an Emperour and a Christian Prince For we attribute nothing more to our Princes than what is allowed them by the Word of God and approved by the Examples of the best Governments For besides that the care of both Tables is committed by God to a Faithful Prince that he may thereby understand that not only the Civil but the Ecclesiastical Polity belongs to him and his Office And besides all this God hath often expresly commanded Princes to cut down the Groves and overthrow the Statues and Altars of Idols to transcribe for himself a Book of the Law and Isaiah saith that Kings should be nursing Fathers to the Church and their Queens her nursing Mothers Besides all these things I say we see by Histories and the Examples of the best times that Pious Princes did never think the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs a thing that was foreign to their Duty 10. MOS ES who was the Civil Magistrate and Leader of the People received from GOD the whole Body of their Religion and the Order of their Sacred Rites and delivered them to the People and severely and sharply chastised Aaron their Bishop for making the Golden Calf and violating the Religion by Law established And Ioshua tho he were no other than a Civil Magistrate yet when he was first inaugurated and set over the People he received express Commands concerning Religion and the Worship of God David the King when their Religion had been miserably disordered by Saul a wicked King brought back the Ark of God that is restored Religion And he was not only present as an Admonisher or Perswader of the Work but he published Psalms and Hymns disposed the Priests and Levites into Classes and Orders and in a sort governed the Priests as a Priest Salomon the King built a Temple to the Lord which his Father David had only designed in his thoughts and after made an excellent Oration to the People concerning Religion and the Worship of God And after this he removed Abiathar the High Priest and substituted Sadoc in his place And when after this the Temple was wretchedly ruined by the Vice and Negligence of the Priests Ezechias the King commanded it to be cleansed of its Rubbish and Dirt the Lamps to be lighted Incense to be offered and the Sacred Rites to be performed according to the ancient Order And caused the Brazen Serpent that was then irreligiously worshipped by the People to be taken away and reduced to Dust Iosaphat the King overthrew and took away all the High Places and destroyed the Groves by which he perceived the Worship of God was hindered and the People by a Private Superstition diverted from attending the Service of God in the publick and common Temple to which they were bound to go three times in the Year out of all Parts of his Kingdom Iosias another King diligently admonished the Priests and Bishops of their duty Jods the King repressed the Luxury and Iâ—â—olence of the Priests Jehu slew the wicked false Propliets And that I may trouble the Reader with no more Examples out of the Scriptures and rather pass to see and consider how the Church has been governed since the Birth of Christ and the Publishing of the Gospel Heretofore Christian Emperors called Councils of the Bishops Constantinus called the Nicene Council Theodosius the First the Constantinâ— stantinopolitan Theodosius the Second the Ephesian Martianus the Chalcedonian and when Ruffinus had alledged a Synod as making for him his Adversary St. Jerome that he might confute him replyed Tell us what Emperor commanded it to be assembled And he also in his Funeral Oration for Paula a Roman Lady cites the Letters of the Emperors who had commanded the Greek and Roman Bishops to meet at Rome for the holding of a Council 11. IT is most certain that for Five hundred Years the Emperor alone took care of calling all the General Councils and Sacred Meetings and therefore we do now the more admire the unreasonableness of the Bishop of Rome who tho he knows that during the subsistence of the Roman Empire in its Greatness this was the sole right of the Emperor and that now Kings have succeeded to part of the Caesarean or Imperial Majesty this
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
escaped the Hatred of Men and the apparent Dangers we have run into by our Departure from them It is not many months since Paul the IV. had some Monks of the Augustine Order in Prison at Rome and many Bishops and a vast number of pious Men for the sake of Religion he exercised his Tortures and his Racks and left nothing untried and at the last how many Adulterers how many Sodomites how many Fornicators how many Incestuous Men did he find amongst them Blessed be God tho we are not what we should be nor what we profess to be yet what ever we are if we be compared with these our very Lives and Innocency will easily confute all these Slanders For we excite the People not only by Books and Sermons but by Example and good Manners to all sorts of Virtues and good Works We teach that the Gospel is not anâ— Ostentation of Knowledge but a Law of Life and that as Tertullian expresseth it â— Christian should not speak great things but live them and that not the Hearers but the Doers of the Law shall be justified before God 8. To all these things they commonly add and amplifie it too with all manner of Reproaches that we are a turbulent sort of Men that we snatch the Scepters out of the Hands oâ— Princes arm the People against them subver their Judicatories and Courts of Justice and endeavour to reduce Monarchies to popular States or Common-wealths dissolve the Laws and retrench the Revenues of Princes and turâ— all things topsie turvy and that in short if wâ— had our Wills there should nothing continuâ— safe in the Governments of the World O how often have they by such Pretences incensed the Minds of Princes against us that so they might crush the Reformation in its first springing up and Princes might be possess'd with an Aversion for our Religion before they knew what it was and that Magistrates might entertain an Opinion that when ever they saw one of us they saw one of their Enemies 9. IT would have been a great Affliction to us to be thus hatefully accused of so great a Crime as Treason but that we know that Christ himself and his Apostles and an infinite number of other pious Christians have been made the Objects of publick Envy on the same Pretence for Christ tho he commanded to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesars yet he was accused of Sedition in that he was said to design a Change in the Government and to affect and intend a Kingdom and so they loudly charged him before the Tribunal of Pilate If thou lettest this man go say they thou art no Friend to Caesar And the Apostles altho they constantly taught that we ought to obey Magistrates and that every Soul should be subject to the Higher Powers and that not only for fear of Wrath and Punishment but also for Conscience sake yet they were said to stir up the People and to incite the Multitude to Rebellion Haman brought the Jews into the disfavour of Assucrus by representing them as a stubborn and rebellious People that despised the Edicts and Laws of Princes The wicked King Ahab charged Elijah the Prophet of God that he troubled Israel Amasias the Priest of Bethel accused Amos the Prophet of a Conspiracy before Jeroboam And behold saith he Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the House of Israel and the Land is not able to bear all his Words In short Tertullian saith this was the general Accusation against all Christians in his times that they were Traitors Plotters and the common Enemies of Mankind And therefore if Truth which is still the same suffers the same Reproaches as it did formerly it may indeed seem troublesome and uneasie but it is not new or unusual 10. IT was easie forty years agon to fiâ— such Slanders upon the then rising and unknown Truth when the first Rays of it burst forth in the midst of so great a Darkness and few men had heard what Doctrines were taught When Martin Luther and Huldericus Zuinglius two excellent Persons who were given by God to enlighten the World began first to preach the Gospel when the Thing was new and the Event uncertain and the Minds of Men surprised and unsetled and their Ears open to all manner of Calumnies and it was not possible to invent thaâ— Defamation of us which would not be believed by the People even upon the Account of the Novelty and strangeness of the thing And so it was in the more ancienâ— times the first opposers of Christianity Symmachus Celsus Julianus and Porphyrius represented the Primitive Christians as a seditious and rebellious Sect before either Prince or People knew well what the Christians were or what they professed or what they would have But now when our Enemies may see and cannot deny that in all our Words and Writings we diligently admonish the People of their Duty that they should obey their Princes and Magistrates tho they are wicked men which is also confirm'd by Experience and seen and observed by all the World certainly I say it is now a senseless thing to attempt to make us odious by a parcel of superannuated over-worn Lyes when they have no new and fresh Crimes to lay to our Charge 11. WE bless our gracious God whose Cause this is that there hath yet been no Example of any Insurrection or Rebellion in any of those Countries Kingdoms or Common-wealths which have imbraced the Reformation We have not subverted any Monarchy we have not diminished anyâ—Princes Jurisdiction or Rights we have not troubled any Common-wealth The Kings of England Denmark and Sweden the Dukes of Saxony the Counts of the Palatinate the Marquesses of Brandenburgh the Lantgraves of Hessia the Common-wealths of the Switzars the free Cities of Strasbourgh Basil Frankfort Ulm Augsburg and Norimburg are all in the same State they were before the Reformation or rather because the People are now better instructed in the matters of Obedience to their Governours than they were before in a better State Let our Defamers go into those places where the Gospel is setled by the Blessing of God and then tell us where Princes have more Majesty Where there is less Pride and Tyranny Where are Princes treated with more Respect Where the People are less Tumultuous Where the Civil Government or Ecclesiastical was ever in greater Tranquillity 12. BUT you will say the Boors of Germany fell into Tumults and Insurrections upon the first preaching of this Doctrine Be it granted but then Martin Luther the first Divulger of it did with great vehemence and sharpness write against them and reduced them to their Allegiance and Duty 13. AND whereas some ignorant men have objected that the Switzars murthered Leopold the Arch-Duke of Austria and changing the State erected a Common-wealth and so freed their Country this was done as appears by all Histories above two hundred and sixty years since
heard the Gospel O my little Children of whom I travel in Birth again until Christ be formed in you For there is no need of speaking how fearfully the Church of Corinth was corrupted And now could the Churches of Galatia and Corinth fall and is the Church of Rome the only Church that can neither fall nor err Certainly Christ long since foretold concerning his Church that there should be a time when the Abomination of Desolation should stand in the Holy Place And St. Paul saith that Antichrist shall sit in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God And the time will come when men will not indure sound Doctrine but in the Church shall be turned unto Fables And St. Peter saith there shall be in the Church false Teachers and Daniel the Prophet saith of the last times the Days of Antichrist the Truth shall be cast down and trodden upon in the Earth And Christ saith there shall be such great Calamities and Confusions upon the Earth that the very Elect if it were possible shall be deceived Now all these things are to come to pass not amongst Pagans and Turks but in the Holy Place the Temple of God in the Church the Assembly and Society of Christians 23. AND altho these things alone are sufficient to forewarn a wise man not to suffer himself easily to be imposed upon by the Name of the Church so as not to examine it by the Word of God yet besides all this many of the Fathers and pious and learned Men have oftentimes grievously complain'd that there Predictions were come to pass in their times For God in the midst of that Darkness would that there should be some men who should as Sparks be observed by Men tho they could not give them a very clear and bright Light Certainly Hilarius when things were in some sort sincere and uncorrupted tells them that they did ill in doating upon Walls that they were mistaken in venerating Houses and Buildings as if they were the Church of God and offering them to us instead of Peace Is it doubtful saith he whether Antichrist shall sit there The Mountains Woods Lakes Prisons and Gulphs to me seem safer because the Prophets of God remaining willingly or being forcibly put into them prophecied by the Spirit of God Gregory the Great as if he then perceived and foresaw the Ruine that was near at hand wrote thus to John Bishop of Constantinople who first commanded himself to be call'd by the Name of the Universal Bishop If the Church should depend upon one man it would certainly fall And who is there that hath not observed that this is come long since to pass It is a great while since the Bishop of Rome would have the whole Church depend upon him only and therefore it is no wonder if it be long since fallen St. Bernard above four hundred years agon said there is nothing sound in the Clergy now therefore there is nothing remaining but the Revelation of the Man of Sin and in his Sermon on the Conversion of St. Paul he expresseth himself thus It may seem perhaps to some that Persecutions are ceased No saith he they now begin from them who have obtained the Primacy in the Church thy Friends and thy Neighbours have approached and stood against thee from the Sole of the Foot to the Crown of the Head there is no Soundness Iniquity is proceeded from thy Elders Judges and Vicars who seem'd to govern thy People We cannot now say as the People are so is the Priest because the People are not so bad as the Priests Alas alas O Lord God! they are the first in persecuting thee who seem to love the Primacy and exercise a Principality in thy Church And upon the Canticles All my Friends and all my Enemies all my Acquaintance and all my Adversaries the Servants of Christ serve Antichrist Behold in my Peace my Bitterness is encreased And Roger Bacon a man of great Name when he had in a sharp Discourse represented the miserable State of his own times concludes thus those many and great Errors require Antichrist as near at hand 24. GERSON complains that in his times all the force of Theology was degenerated into a meer contest of Wit and Sophistry The Lugdunensian Brothers a sort of men which were not ill as to their Lives used to affirm that the Church of Rome from whence alone the Oracles of Faith were then fetched was the Whore of Babylon concerning which such clear Predictions were in the Revelations and that she was the Assembly of Hell I know that the Authority of these Men is in no esteem with them but what now would they say if I should produce Witnesses which are of the highest Value with them What if I say that Pope Adrian ingenuously confessed that all those Mischiefs fell upon the Church from the top of the Papal Power Pighius confesseth that they erred in this that they suffered many Abuses to be brought into the Mass tho they would have it esteemed most Holy Gerson that the multitude of light foolish Ceremonies had extinguished all that Power of the Holy Spirit which should have flourished in us and all that was truly Pious All Greece and Asia complained that the Popes of Rome by their Doctrines of Purgatory and Sales of Indulgences had both offered Violence to the Consciences of Men and robb'd their Purses 25. Laurentius Valla Marsilius Patavinus Franciscus Petrarcha Hieronymus Savanarola Abbas Joachimus Baptista Mantuanus and before them all St. Bernard have very often grievously complain'd of the Tyranny and Persian Pride of the Bishops of Rome and have not obscurely hinted whether true or falsly I will not inquire that the Pope was Antichrist not to mention a number of others who because they have freely and ingenuously reprehended the Vices of the Popes will perhaps be numbred by them amongst their Enemies but all these I have named lived either at Rome it self or under the eyes of these most Holy Fathers and were intimately acquainted with their way of living and did never depart from their Catholick Faith Neither can any man object that these were Lutherans or Zuinglians for they lived not only some few years but some intire Ages before the Names of these Men were heard of in the World and they saw also even then that Errors were crept into the Church and desired they might be amended And where was the Wonder if the Church fell into some Errors in those times in which neither the Bishop of Rome who alone had the chiefest Management of Affairs or almost any other Persons either did or indeed understood what was their Duty for it is not credible that in that time in which they were so idle and drowsie the Devil was perpetually a sleep or idle too For what kind of men they were and with what fidelity they took care of the House of God
more than some Private Councils of the Bishops and a sort of Great Provincial Synods For tho perhaps Italy France Spain England Germany Denmark and Scotland should meet yet Asia Greece Armenia Persia Media Mesopotamia Egypt Aethiopia India and Mauritania in all which places there are many Christians and Bishops would yet be absent And how could such a Council as this ever be reputed a General Council by any understanding Man And when so many and such considerable parts of the World are absent how can they pretend to have the Consent of the whole World Or what kind of Council was the last at Trent or how could it in any sense be said to be General when only Forty Bishops met there out of all the Christian Kingdoms in Europe and some of them too were so very Eloquent that it had been fit to send them to the Grammar Schools again and so Learned that they had never in all their Lives read the Bible over But be these things as they will the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ doth not depend upon General Councils or as St. Paul saith upon Mans Iudgment But if they who ought to take care of the Church will not understand and will be wanting to their duty and will harden their hearts against God and against his Christ and still go on to pervert the direct and streight ways of the Lord God will make the stones to cry out and endow Infants with an Oratorical Eloquence that there may ever be some to confute their Shams for God can protect and enlarge his Church not only without the help but against the opposition of Councils There be many Devices in Mans heart saith Solomon but the Counsel of the Lord that shall stand for there is neither Wisdom nor Prudence nor Counsel against the Lord for saith Hilary Those things theâ— are set up by Humane Industry do not continue long the Church was otherwise built and must be preserved by other means for she was built upon the Foundations of the Apostleâ— and Prophets and is fixed and cemented together by one corner stone Jesus Christ 18. VERY elegant and to our times most seasonable are the Words of St. Jerome As often saith he as the Devil lulls any a sleep with the sweet Blandishments of his Sirens the the Holy Scriptures never fail to awaken them with a Surge qui dormis elevare illuminabit te Christus Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Light At the coming of Christ and of the Word of God and of the Ecclesiastical Doctrine when the time of the Ruine of Nineve that beautiful Harlot is come then shall the People awake which had before been lull'd a sleep under their former Teachers and shall pass to the Mountains of the Scriptures there shall they find the Mountains of Moses and Joshua the Son of Nun the Mountains of the Prophets and the Mountains of the New Testament the Apostles and Evangelists and when the People have fled to these Mountains and are exercised in the reading of them tho they find no Teacher for the Harvist shall be great and the Labourers few yet the Industry of the People shall be approved in that they have fled to these Mountains and the Negligence of their Teachers shall be reprehended Thus hath St. Jerome written so very plainly that here is no need of an Interpreter and with so great a Congruity to the Events which have happened in our Times that it looks as if he had designed to foretel and describe to us with a Prophetick Spirit the whole State of our Times the Ruine of that richly adorned Babylonish Harlot and the Reformation of the Church of God the Blindness and Negligence of the Bishops and the Alacrity and Zeal of the People For who can be so blind as not to see that these were the Masters who as St. Jerome saith led the People into Error and stupified them in it or that Rome their Nineve which was once painted with the most lovely Colours is not now better known and less valued or that pious Men being now as it were awakned out of a deep Sleep have not betaken themselves to the Mountains of the Scriptures the Word of God and the Light of the Gospel without ever expecting the Councils of such Teachers as these 19. BUT without the Popes Consent at least some may think these things ought not to have been attempted because he is the Bond that unites the Christ an Society he is that one Priest whom God means in Deuteronomy from whom Counsel was to be expected in all difficult Cases and from whom the Judgment of Truth was to be fetched and if any man should dare to disobey him he was to be put to death in the sight of his Brethren and whatsoever he doth he can be judged by no mortal Man that as Christ reigns in Heaven so he rules on Earth that be can do whatever Christ or God himself can do that his Consistory and Christs are one and the same that without him there is no Faith no Hope no Church that he who forsakes him rejects his own Salvation For thus the Canonists the Flatterers of the Pope write not very modestly of him for they could scarce say more and certainly not greater things of Christ himself As for us we have not forsaken the Pope for any humane Pleasure or worldly Profit and we wish passionately he would behave himself so that there should be no need of a Departure from him but so it was except we left him there was no coming to Christ Nor will he now enter a League with us upon any other terms than those proposed by Nahash King of Ammon to the men of Jabeth-gilead that he may thrust out all our right Eyes for he will deprive us of the Holy Scriptures the Gospel of our Salvation and of all that Hope we have in Christ Jesus for upon other Conditions no Peace with him can be had 20. AND as to that which so many of them accustom themselves to extol so very much that the Pope only is St. Peters Successor as if upon that account he always carried the Holy Ghost in his Bosome and so could not err it is an airy and a silly Pretence The Grace of God is promised to pious Souls and to those that fear God and not affixed to Chairs and Successions Riches saith St. Jerome may render one Bishop more powerful than another but yet all Bishops what ever they are are the Successors of the Apostles But if the Place and Inauguration be it they so much rely on both Manasses succeeded David and Caiaphas Aaron and an Idol hath often stood in the House of God Long since one Archidamus a Lacedemonian made a mighty boasting that he was descended from Hercules one Nicostratus chastised his Insolence by telling him it did not seem probable that he could be descended from Hercules because
against King John another of our Princes the Bishops and Monks and some part of the Nobility and absolved all his Subjects from that Oath of Allegiance they had taken to him and at last by the highest Impiety not only deprived him of his Kingdom but his Life and they wounded Henry the VIII a most noble Prince with their Curses and Excommunications and stir'd up against him sometimes the Emperor and sometimes the King of France and as much as in them lay exposed our Kingdom to be a Prey and a Booty to them like a company of silly men as they were to think so great a Prince would be frighted with Vizors and Rattles or that so great a Kingdom could be devoured at one mouthful and as if all this had not been enough they would needs make England a tributary Province and yearly most unjustly exacted a considerable Revenue out of it so much has the Friendship of the City of Rome cost us Now if they extorted these great Advantages from us by Impostures and ill Arts there is no reason why we should not by good Methods and Laws recover them back again but if on the other side our Kings induced by an Opinion of their simulated Holiness in the darkness of those times freely bestowed these things on them upon the account of Religion there is now very good reason that our latter Kings having discovered the Error of their Ancestors should take them away again they being possess'd of the same Power with the former Kings for every Donation becomes void when it is no longer approved by the Will of the Giver but it can never seem a Will which is clouded and impeded by Error The Conclusion THUS I have acquainted thee my Reader that it is no new or strange thing to see the Christian Religion in these days upon its Restitution and Revival in the World entertain'd with Slanders and Reproaches for the same things happened to Christ himself and his Apostles And yet least thou shouldest be misled and imposed upon by these Clamors of our Adversaries we have represented to thee what the whole manner of our Religion is what we believe concerning God the Father concerning his only Son Jesus Christ and concerning the Holy Ghost what our Opinion is concerning the Church the Sacraments the Ministry the Holy Scriptures the Ceremonies of the Church and all the other parts of the Christian Religon We have declared also that we detest as pernicious to the Souls of Men and plagues all those Ancient Heresies that have been condemn'd by the old Councils and Holy Scriptures That we have reduced into practise again as much as we can possibly the Ecclesiastical Discipline which our Adversaries had much weakned and that we punish all Licentious Courses of Life and Debauchery in Manners by our ancient and established Laws and that with as much 〈◊〉 as is fit and possible That we pâ—â—serve all Kingdoms in the same State we found them without any Diminution or Mutation and preserve the Majesty of our Princes intire as much as we can possibly That we have departed from that Church which they had made a Den of Thieves in which they had left nothing sound or like a Church and which they themselves confessed to have erred in many things as Lot left Sodom or Abraham Chaldea not out of Contention but out of Obedience to God and have sought the certain way of Religion out of the sacred Scriptures which we know cannot deceive us and have return'd to the Primitive Church of the ancient Fathers and Apostles that is to the beginning and first Rise of the Church as to the proper Fountain 2. THAT we have not indeed expected the Authority or consent of the Council of Trent in which we saw nothing was manag'd well and regularly where all that entered took an Oath to one Man where the Ambassadors of our Princes were despised and ill treated where none of our Divines could be heard where Partiality and Ambition openly carried all things and according to the Practice of the Holy Fathers and the Customs of our own Ancestors we have reformed our Churches in a Provincial Synod and according to our Duty we have cast off the Yoke and Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome who had no just Authority over us nor was like either Christ or St. Peter or the Apostles or indeed like a Bishop in any thing Lastly we do all agree amongst ourselves in all the Doctrines and Points of the Christian Religion and do with one Spirit and one Mouth worship God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 3. WHEREFORE O Christian and Pious Reader now thou feest the Reasons and Causes of the Reformation of Religion with us and of our Departure from them thou oughtest not to wonder that we should rather choose to obey our Saviour than Men. St. Paul hath admonished us that we should not be carried away with every Wind of false Doctrine and especially that we should mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly and by good Words and fair Speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple Their Impostures accordingly like Batts and Owls do now sometime since begin to flie and steal away before the rising Sun and cannot indure the Light of the Gospel and altho they were in some sense built and heaped almost up to Heaven yet they sink down into Ruins of their own accord For thou oughtest not to think that those things happened accidentally or by chance It was certainly the Will of God that in these times the Gospel of Jesus Christ should in defiance of all opposition be spread abroad in the World and therefore men being moved by the Word of God freely betook themselves to the Doctrine of Christ and as for us we sought neither Riches nor Pleasure nor case by this Change for our Adversaries abound in all these and we had a much larger Share of them whilst we continued with them 4. NOR do we decline Concord and Peace with Men neither but yet we will not continue in a State of War God that we might have Peace with Men. The Name of Peace saith St. Hilary is Pleasant but then Peace and Servitude are not the same thing for if according to their desire the Name of Christ should be supprest the Truth of the Gospel betrayed their wicked Errors be dissembled the Eyes of Christian Men be deluded and a plain and apparent Conspiracy be carried on against God himself this is not saith that great Man Peace but the conditions of a most base Slavery There is saith Nazianzen an unprofitable Peace and there is an useful sort of Discord for we must pursue Peace with Conditions as far as 〈◊〉 lawful and in us lyeth and unless these Limitations may attend it Christ himself came not to bring Peace into the World