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
SO we therefore because we are taken by them for mad-men and are traduced as if we were Hereticks and as if we had nothing to do with Christ nor with the Church of God have thought it not unreasonable or unprofitable to propound openly and freely the Faith in which we stand and all that Hope which we have in Christ Jesus that all may see what we think of every part of the Christian Religion and so determine with themselves whether that Faith which they must needs perceive to be consonant to the Words of Christ and the Writings of the Apostles and the Testimonies of the Catholick Fathers and which is confirmed by the Examples of many Ages be only the Rage of a sort of mad-men and a Combination or Conspiracy of Hereticks CHAP. II. Containing the Doctrine received in the Church of England WE believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine Power which we call GOD and that this is distinguished into three equal Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost all of the same Power of the same Majesty of the same Eternity of the same Divinity and of the same Substance and altho' these three Persons are so distinguished that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Holy Ghost or Father yet there is but one GOD and that this one God created Heaven and Earth and whatever is contain'd within the Circumference of the Heavens 2. WE believe that Jesus Christ the only Son of the eternal Father as it had been decreed before the beginning of all things when the fulness of time came took our Flesh and perfect Humane Nature of that blessed and pure Virgin that he might reveal to Men that hidden and secret Will of his Father which was conceal'd from all former Ages and Generations and that in this humane Body he might finish the Mystery of our Redemption and might nail to his Cross our Sins and the Obligation which lay against us 3. FOR we believe that for our sakes he died was buried descended into Hell and the third day by a Divine Power returned to Life and arose and after forty days in the sight of his Disciples ascended into Heaven that he might fill all things and that the very Body in which he was born in which he convers'd in which he was despised in which he had suffered most grievous Torments and a most direful Death in which he rose and now ascended to the right hand of his Father was placed above all Principalities and Power and every Name which is mentioned not only in this World but in that which is to come in Majesty and Glory And we believe that he doth now sit there and shall sit there till all things are fulfil'd and altho the Majesty and Divinity of Christ is diffused every where yet his Body as St. Augustine saith ought to be in one place we believe that tho Christ added Majesty to his Body yet he took not from it the Nature of a Body nor is Christ to be so asserted to be God that we should deny him to be Man and as the Martyr Vigilius said Christ left us as to his Humane Nature but he hath not left us in his Divine Nature and tho he is absent from us by the Form of a Servant yet he is ever with us by the Form of God 4. AND from thence we believe Christ shall return to exercise a general Judgment as well upon those he shall then find alive as upon all that are then dead 5. WE believe that the Holy Ghost who is the third Person in the Holy Trinity is true God not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding from both that is from the Father and the Son in a way neither known to Mortals nor possible to be expressed by them We believe that it is He who softens the Hardness of Mans Heart when he is received into their Hearts by the saving preaching of the Gospel or by any other way whatsoever that it is He who inlightens them and leads them to the Knowledge of God into all the ways of Truth into a perfect newness of Life and a perpetual hope of Salvation 6. WE believe that there is one Church of God and that not consin'd as it was heretofore to the Jewish People in one Angle or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and so diffused or spread over the Face of the whole Earth that there is no Nation which can justly complain that it is excluded and cannot be admitted into the Church and People of God that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and Spouse of Christ that Christ is the only Prince of this Kingdom that there is in the Church divers Orders of Ministers that there are some who are Deacons others who are Presbyters and others who are Bishops to whom the Instruction of the People and the Care and Management of Religion is committed And yet that there neither is nor is it possible there should be any one man who has the care of this whole Catholick Church for Christ is ever present with his Church and needs not a Vicar or sole and perfect Successor and that no mortal Man can in his mind contain all the Body of the Universal Church that is all the parts of the Earth much less can he reduce them into an exact Order and rightly and prudently administer its Affairs That the Apostles as St. Cyprian saith were all of equal Power and Authority and that all the rest were what St. Peter was that it was said to all alike Feed To all go ye into all the World To all teach ye the Gospel And that as St. Jerome saith All Bishops wheresoever they are setled whether it be at Rome or Eugubium at Constantinople or Rhegium they are of equal Worth and of the same Priesthood And as St. Cyprian saith there is but one Episcopacy and each of them hath a perfect and intire share of it And that according to the Judgment and Sentence of the Council of Nice the Bishop of Rome hath no more Authority in the Church of God than the other Patriarchs viz. the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch That the Bishop of Rome who now endeavours to draw all the Ecclesiastical Authority to himself alone if he doth not his Duty that is if he doth not administer the Sacraments if he doth not instruct the People Admonish and Teach he is not to be call'd a Bishop or indeed a Presbyter for as St. Augustin saith Bishop is the Name of a Work or Office and not a Title of Honour so that he who would usurp an unprofitable Preheminence in the Church is no Bishop But then that the Bishop of Rome or any other Person should be the Head of the whole Church or an universal Bishop is no more possible than that he should be the Bridegroom the Light the Salvation and the Life of the Church for these are the Priviledges and Titles of
Blood Or then that of Origen that Bread which is consecrated by the Word of God as to the Matter of it goes into the Belly and is cast out by the Draught Or then that of Christ himself who said not only after the Consecration but after the finishing of the Communion Luke 22. 18. I will drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine for it is certain the Fruit of the Vine is Wine and not Blood And yet when we speak thus we do not so depress the Esteem of the Supper of the Lord as to teach that it is a meer cold Ceremony and that nothing is done in it which many falsly report of us for we assert that Christ in his Sacraments doth exhibit himself truly present In Baptism that we may put him on In his Supper that we may eat him by Faith and in the Spirit and that by his Cross and Blood we may have Life Eternal and this we say is not slightly and coldly but really and truly done for although we do not touch Christ with our Teeth and Lips yet we hold and press him by Faith Mind and Spirit Nor is that Faith vain which imbraceth Christ nor that Participation cold which is perceived by the Mind Understanding and Spirit for so Christ himself is intirely offered and given to us in these Mysteries as much as is possible that we may truly know that we are Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone and that he dwells in us and we in him 16. AND therefore in the Celebration of these Mysteries before we come to receive the Holy Communion the People are fitly admonished to lift up their Hearts and that they should direct their Minds to Heaven for there he is by whom we are to be fed and live And St. Cyrill saith that in partaking of the Holy Mysteries all gross Imaginations are to be excluded And the Nicen Council as it is cited by some in Greek doth expresly forbid us to think only on the Bread and Wine that are set before us And St. Chrysostom Writes well We say that the Body of Christ is the Carcass and we are to be the Eagles that thereby we may learn to mount aloft if we will approach the Body of Christ for this is the Table of Eagles and not of Jayes And St. Cyprian This Bread is the Meat of the Soul and not of the Belly And St. Augustin How shall I lay hold on him who is absent how shall I reach my Hand into the Heavens and touch him who sits there Send thy Faith thither saith he and thou hast him sure 17. BUT then as to the Fairs and Sales of Masses and the carrying about and adoring the Bread and a number of such like Idolatrous and blasphemous Follies which none of them dare affirm to have been delivered to us by Christ of his Apostles our Church will not indure them and we justly blame the Bishops of Rome for presuming without any Command of God without any Authority of the Holy Fathers and without any Example not only to propose the Sacramental Bread to be adored by the People with a divine Worship but also to carry it about before them upon an ambling Nag where-ever they go as the Persian Kings did heretofore their sacred Fire and the Aegyptian their Image of Isis and so have turned the Sacraments of Christ into Pageantry and Pomp that in that very thing in which the Death of Christ was to be celebrated and inculcated and the Mysteries of our Redemption ought to be piously and reverently represented the Eyes of men should only be fed with a foolish shew and a piece of Ludicrous Livity And then whereas they say and sometimes perswade Fools that they can by their Masses distribute and apply to men who very often think of nothing less and never know what is then doing all the Merits of the Death of Christ this Pretencâ— I say is ridiculous heathenish and silly for it is our Faith which applies the Death and Cross of Christ to us and not the Action of a Priest the Faith of the Sacraments saith St. Augustin justifies and not the Sacrament And Origen saith He Christ is the Priest and the Propitiation and the Sacrifice and this Propitiation comes to every one by way of Faith and therefore agreeably hereunto we say that the Sacraments do not profit the Living without Faith and much less the Dead for as to what they pretend concerning their Purgatory tho that is no very late Invention yet it is nothing but a silly old wives Story St. Augustin sometimes saith there is such a place sometimes he doth not deny but there may be such a Place sometimes he doubts if there be and at other times he positively denies there is any such place at all and thinks that men out of humane kindness to the Dead are deceived in that point And yet from this one Error there has sprung such a Crop of small Priests that Masses being publickly and openly sold in every corner they have turn'd the Churches of God into meer Shops and deluded poor Mortals into a Belief that there was no Commodity more useful and certainly as to those small Levites these Masses were very advantagious 18. WE know that St. Augustin grieviously complain'd of the vast number of impertinent Ceremonies in his time and therefore we have cut off a great many of them because we know they were afflictive to the Consciences of Men and burthensome to the Church of God Yet we still retain and reâ—igiously use not only all those which we know were delivered to the Church by the Apostles but some others which we saw might be born without any inconvenience because as St. Paul commands we desire alâ—things in the Religious Assemblies should be done decently and in order but then as to alâ—those that were very superstitious or base or ridiculous or contrary to the Scriptures or did not seem to beâ—it sober men an infinite number of which are still to be found amongst Papists we have rejected all these I say without excepting any one of them because we would not have the Service of God any longer contaminated with such Fooleries 19. WE pray as it is fit we should in that Tongue our People do all understand that the People as St. Paul admonisheth may reap a common Advantage by the common Prayers as all the Holy Fathers and Catholick Bishops not only in the Old but in the New Testament also did ever pray and teach the People to pray least as St. Augustin saith We should like Parrots and other prating Birds seem to sound Words which we did not understand 20. WE have no Mediator and Intercessor by whom we approach to God the Father but Jesus Christ in whose name only all things are obtained But that which we see done in their Churches is base and heathenish not only because they have set up an infinite