speaking of Gregory the seuenth commonly called Hildebrand and his proceedings against the Emperour Henry not only to excommunicate him but also to depose him â—ith Lego relego Romanorum regum Imperatorum gesta c. â—read and read againe the acts of the Romane kings and Emperours and yet before this I finde none of them of the Romane â—ishop excommunicated or depriued of his kingdome But 〈◊〉 we read Sigebert Abbas Vrspergensis H. Mutius and others vve shall finde that the same Bishop for this his Antichristiâ—n pride and other faultes that hee had vvas not onely wonderfully vvithstoode and oppugned by that Emperour but â—y councels also then held at Brixia Mentz and Wormes â—harpely rebuked condemned and desposed And though hee hauing thus begunne to encroch vpon the Emperour many of his successours follovved him in his very steps yet we read also in Cronicles that Henrie the fifte Fredericke the first and Fredericke the second Emperours Philip the faire and Carolus Caluus of Fraunce Henry the first and second Richard the second and king Iohn of England with sundry other Emperours and kings did notably and openly resist them therein and that they had alvvaies many learned fathers and Bishops to take their partes But to leaue this matter and to go on to others because the author of this preface and brag that I novv am in aunswering in his brag maketh speciall mention as you haue heard of their order of ceremonies and manner of praying and fasting bosting that for these they haue the holy fathers the consent of all christian nations and prescription of long continuance yea for the tvvo last the very scriptures let vs first see if wee can finde out the originall and vvithall the iust reproofe and condemnation of these First for their ceremonies none that hath but redde Platina or any other story of the liues of their popes but he hath red when how and by whom they were deuised for there is few of them for many hundred yeares together that thought as it should seeme by the vvriters of their liues that they had worthily sate in that place vnles they had deuised some newe rite and ceremony more then was before But if one goe no further then to Polidor de inventoribus rerum there shall hee finde when and by whom they had their originall whereby also it shal appeare that for many of theÌ„ they are of so late devising they cannot pretend either the testimony of ancient fathers or prescriptioÌ„ of any long time for very few of them whatsoeuer he bragges can they truly alleadge consent of all Christian regions for as they haue most of them beene deuised here in these parts of the worlde by bishops of Rome so few of them in comparison haue beene 〈◊〉 yet be receaued in the other parts of Christianity that were vnder the other Patriarches of ConstaÌ„tinople Alexandria Antioch yea euen here in these parts all their rites ceremonies were neuer yet vniuersally receaued of euery cuntry alike no nor yet of euery part of any one cuntry But they being in number so many in nature a number of them so childish and foolish yet hauing beene vrged as they haue to be vsed with such opinion and holines S. Pauls reprehension of those that were in his time so busy with the Colossians in vrging theÌ„ to keepe their ordinances the keeping whereof lay in touch not tast not handle not Coloss 2. is both a bewraying when such like ceremonies as these that he brags of first began and also a iust and a full condemnation of them Read also S. Augustines 119 epistle ad Ianuarium and you shall finde there how earnestly he hath enueied against the multiplying and bringing in so vrging of such vnnecessary rites and ceremonies shewing how few the simplicity of the gospel is contented withal And yet as it is wel known he liued 1000 years ago and that since his time there are 1000. newrites ceremonies deuised in the Romish church that he neuer had heard of yet theÌ„ he complained that there were so many and they so seruilely were vrged that the Iewes state was in that respect far more tolerable what would he haue said then if he had liued in these daies and had seene the curious infinite and foolish rites and ceremonies but of one popish priest formally doing his masse Indeed fasting is a thing and so is prayer that hath countenance of scriptures fathers Christian regions and of all ages and times but so hath not either the popish fasting or praying For their fasting is tyed superstitiously to set daies and also lyeth especially in abstinence from one meat rather then from an other their end therein being not onely to chastise the body that it may be brought the more readily feruently to obey the holy direction of the spirit as the word of God teacheth onely it should but euen thereby to satisfie either for some sin past or to earne or deserue somewhat at the hands of God Such fasting as this was that of the hypocritical pharisies wherof Christ warm â—s disciples Mat. 6.16 the first fathers teachers hereof are â—hose spirits of errour that S. Paul speakes of 1. Tim. 4. and so you â—ay there see both who first in the church of Christ found out â—ractised your kind of fasting who by by spied it condeÌ„â—ed it for hypocritical the doctrine of deuils But if you would â—aue vs to search further we tel you that after Christ his Apoâ—tles times Eusebius reports in his 5 booke 16 chapter out of Aâ—olonius that Montanus the heretique prescribed lawes of fasting he is the first that we read of that tyed fasting by law to preâ—cript daies times which is there reckoned vp by that Apolonius â—s one of his heretical deuises This Montanus was about they eare of the Lord 145. And it appears in Augustines 2. booke 13. cha of the manners of the church of the Manichees that it was the fashioÌ„ theÌ„ of those heretiques to thinke vpon their fasting daies that they fasted excelleÌ„tly though otherwise they had neuer so daintyâ—e so they abstained from flesh wine for the which Augustine doth deride theÌ„ And coÌ„sequently herein Apolonius Augustine haue shewed their dislike of that popish fasting If yet â—t should be replied as it is by some of their side that their fasting is not altogither like the condemned abstinence of these ancient heretiques others for that they abstained froÌ„ flesh vpon an opinion that flesh was an impurer creature then fish how will they theÌ„ excuse Durand li. 6. ca. de ieiunijs who giueth this as a reason of their abstinence vpon fasting daies rather from flesh then from fish because al flesh was accursed in the daies of Noe not all fish Now touching their maÌ„ner of praying for al his brag neither fathers consent of all Christian regions prescription of any long continuaÌ„ce of time
Fredericke the second Emperours Philip the faire and Carolus Caluus of Fraunce Henry the first and second Richard the second and king Iohn of England with sundry other Emperours and kings did notably and openly resist them therein and that they had alvvaies many learned fathers and Bishops to take their partes But to leaue this matter and to go on to others because the author of this preface and brag that I novv am in aunswering in his brag maketh speciall mention as you haue heard of their order of ceremonies and manner of praying and fasting bosting that for these they haue the holy fathers the consent of all christian nations and prescription of long continuance yea for the tvvo last the very scriptures let vs first see if wee can finde out the originall and vvithall the iust reproofe and condemnation of these First for their ceremonies none that hath but redde Platina or any other story of the liues of their popes but he hath red when how and by whom they were deuised for there is few of them for many hundred yeares together that thought as it should seeme by the vvriters of their liues that they had worthily sate in that place vnles they had deuised some newe rite and ceremony more then was before But if one goe no further then to Polidor de inventoribus rerum there shall hee finde when and by whom they had their originall whereby also it shal appeare that for many of thē they are of so late devising they cannot pretend either the testimony of ancient fathers or prescriptiō of any long time for very few of them whatsoeuer he bragges can they truly alleadge consent of all Christian regions for as they haue most of them beene deuised here in these parts of the worlde by bishops of Rome so few of them in comparison haue beene or yet be receaued in the other parts of Christianity that were vnder the other Patriarches of Constātinople Alexandria Antioch yea euen here in these parts all their rites ceremonies were neuer yet vniuersally receaued of euery cuntry alike no nor yet of euery part of any one cuntry But they being in number so many in nature a number of them so childish and foolish yet hauing beene vrged as they haue to be vsed with such opinion and holines S. Pauls reprehension of those that were in his time so busy with the Colossians in vrging thē to keepe their ordinances the keeping whereof lay in touch not tast not handle not Coloss 2. is both a bewraying when such like ceremonies as these that he brags of first began and also a iust and a full condemnation of them Read also S. Augustines 119 epistle ad Ianuarium and you shall finde there how earnestly he hath enueied against the multiplying and bringing in so vrging of such vnnecessary rites and ceremonies shewing how few the simplicity of the gospel is contented withal And yet as it is wel known he liued 1000 years ago and that since his time there are 1000. new rites ceremonies deuised in the Romish church that he neuer had heard of yet thē he complained that there were so many and they so seruilely were vrged that the Iewes state was in that respect far more tolerable what would he haue said then if he had liued in these daies and had seene the curious infinite and foolish rites and ceremonies but of one popish priest formally doing his masse Indeed fasting is a thing and so is prayer that hath countenance of scriptures fathers Christian regions and of all ages and times but so hath not either the popish fasting or praying For their fasting is tyed superstitiously to set daies and also lyeth especially in abstinence from one meat rather then from an other their end therein being not onely to chastise the body that it may be brought the more readily feruently to obey the holy direction of the spirit as the word of God teacheth onely it should but euen thereby to satisfie either for some sin past or to earne or deserue somewhat at the hands of God Such fasting as this was that of the hypocritical pharisies wherof Christ warn◠his disciples Mat. 6.16 the first fathers teachers hereof are those spirits of errour that S. Paul speakes of 1. Tim. 4. and so you may there see both who first in the church of Christ found out practised your kind of fasting who by by spied it condēned it for hypocritical the doctrine of deuils But if you would haue vs to search further we tel you that after Christ his Apostles times Eusebius reports in his 5 booke 16 chapter out of Apolonius that Montanus the heretique prescribed lawes of fasting he is the first that we read of that tyed fasting by law to prescript daies times which is there reckoned vp by that Apolonius as one of his heretical deuises This Montanus was about the yeare of the Lord 145. And it appears in Augustines 2. booke 13. cha of the manners of the church of the Manichees that it was the fashiō thē of those heretiques to thinke vpon their fasting daies that they fasted excellētly though otherwise they had neuer so daintyre so they abstained from flesh wine for the which Augustine doth deride thē And cōsequently herein Apolonius Augustine haue shewed their dislike of that popish fasting If yet it should be replied as it is by some of their side that their fasting is not altogither like the condemned abstinence of these ancient heretiques others for that they abstained frō flesh vpon an opinion that flesh was an impurer creature then fish how will they thē excuse Durand li. 6. ca. de ieiunijs who giueth this as a reason of their abstinence vpon fasting daies rather from flesh then from fish because al flesh was accursed in the daies of Noe not all fish Now touching their māner of praying for al his brag neither fathers consent of all Christian regions prescription of any long continuāce of time nor scriptures giue it any credit or coūtenāce at al. For first whereas now they pray al in Latine a toūg not vnderstood of most that heare vse their prayers it is a kinde of praying flatly condemned because it is without edification to such by Chrysostome Ambrose vpō the 14. of the first to the Corinthians Augustine also de Genesi ad literā li. 12. Cap. 8. ioines with them herein aduouching that no mā is edified by hearing that which he vnderstands not And the descriptions of al the auncient lyturgies in the Church shew that alwaies they were vsed in such a tongue as the people vnderstood aswell as the minister there is such mentiō of intercourse of speech one to the other as any man may see that perused the descriptions thereof yea writers both old new do plainely testify that the ancient long cōtinued vse of the church hath bene to haue
to abridge them of their wil and to resist their tyrannicall oppressions then they laboured practised by all meanes to hamper them also in so much that certaine it is that Gregorie the 7. excommunicated Henry the 4. or as some write 3. about the year 1078. gaue his empire to Rodolph who missing of it being slain the Emperour yet to be recoÌ„ciled with the Pope waited 3. daies 3. nights in the winter with his wife and child at the gates of Canossus and within the suburbes thereof barefoote barelegged before he could come to the speech of the Pope when he had obteined that then he was faine to kisse his foote and to yeelde vp his crowne into his hands to take it againe vpon such conditions as it pleased him to prescribe and yet his successour Pascalis raged against the same Emperour againe set vp his owne naturall sonne Henry to depriue his father of his Empire Who when he had got it yet he was in the ende accursed and excommunicated by that Romish see as his father had beene and not preuailing sufficiently that way the Saxons at last were set vp to warre against him and depose him And thus they hauing hampered these two HeÌ„ries vnto Frederick Barbarossa came which was about the yeare 1155. they did what they listed who beganne somewhat againe to abridge them of their vsurped supremacy and so did his sons sonne Frederick the 2. but in the ende Alexander the third brought the necke of the first vnder his feete in S. Marks church in Venice and Pope Adrian controlde him from holding his wrong stirrop excommunicated him for being so saucy as to set his name in writing before his and the other was miserably vexed by Honorius the 3. Gregory the 9. and Innocent the 4. For the first of these interdicted him the second excommunicated him twise raised the Venetians against him and the third did in the end spoile him of his Empire caused him to be poisoned and at length strangled by one MaÌ„fredus Innocent the 3. in the minority of Frederick the second and before he was chosen Emperour dealt in like sort with Philip and Otho the 4. placing them and displacing them at his pleasure Frederick the seconds sonne called Conrade and the next of his line also called Conradine were amongst theÌ„ miserably abused for the first of them was soone dispatched they stirring vp against him the LaÌ„tgraue of Turing who droue him into his kingdome of Naples where he died of poisoÌ„ giueÌ„ him as some write the other claiming but the kingdome of Naples after his death the matter was so handled they stirring vp Charles the French Kinges brother against him that both he Frederick Duke of Austria were takeÌ„ imprisoned in the end beheaded HeÌ„ry the 6. Frederick the firsts son Pope Celestine the 3. crowned at Rome but in such sort that with his foote he put the croune vpon his head therewith he spurned it of againe And the like that happened to Frederick had almost befalleÌ„ Philip the FreÌ„ch king by Pope Boniface the 8. who because he could not haue whatsoeuer commodities he demaunded out of France by his bull denouÌ„ced sentence of deposition against the saied King Philip and gaue the title thereof to one Albertus king of the Romans â—â—t for all the roaring of that bull Philip kept his place still AlexaÌ„der the 3. that trode vpon Frederick the firsts necke at Venice euen here in England so farre abused King Henry the 2. about Thomas Beckets death that he caused him to go for penaunce barefoote in winter with bleeding feete to his tombe And Innocent the third caused King Iohn his sonne after that 7. yeares he had resisted their supremacy tyranny by the meanes of his excommunicatioÌ„s indicements of his land and encouraging of his subiects against him to surrender his croune to the hands of his Legat Pandelphus and so he continued fiue daies before hee receiued it againe and then was glad to take it in farme of him for a rent by indenture Infinit be the villanies that haue bene offered done by that see to Emperours and Kings For did not Gregory the 7. to the great iniury of the Empire set vp Robert Wisard and made him King of Sicilia and Duke of Capua Did not Pope Vrbane the second put downe Hugo an Earle in Italy discharging his subiects from their oath and obedience vnto him Did not Pope Clement the fift most despitefully cause Franciscus Dandalus the VenetiaÌ„ embassadour suing but for absolution of Venice from the Popes curse to lie a long time first tied by the neck in a chaine vnder his table like a dogge before he would harken to his request Furthermore Gelasius the second brought the noble captaine Cintius so vnder that he was glad lying prostrate before him to kisse his feete and by the yeare 1237 the Pope Gregorie the 9. had so cursed king Henry the 3 king here of EnglaÌ„d that he was glad to currie fauour with him to receiue a Legat of his called Cardinal Otho meeting him at the sea side that in most lowly maner bowing downe his head in low curtesie towards his knees And though he yeelded wonderfull submission to the next Pope Innocent the 4. yet he tooke of one Dauid Prince of Northwales 500. marks by the yeare to set him against the King of England exempted him his welshmen from their fealty which they had sworne vnto him before Most intolerable were the exactioÌ„s coÌ„modities that one way other the Popes for theÌ„selues their frends had out of EnglaÌ„d in Henry the 2. king Iohns HeÌ„ry the thirds time they exceeded ofteÌ„ as it appeareth in the stories the ancieÌ„t reuenues of the crowne wonderfully empouerished the land yet wheÌ„ these kings though in neuer so huÌ„ble maner at any time neuer so litle sought to stay these pillages oppressioÌ„s of the laÌ„d the Popes raged most extreamly against theÌ„ did theÌ„ what despite they could vntill they had their will Yea so intolerable hath beene their pride insoleÌ„cy against kings Emperors that they haue brought theÌ„ to lead their horses by the bridle to waite on theÌ„ on foot like lackies they riding like high mighty princes ouer theÌ„ they haue made theÌ„ faine to please theÌ„ withal to hold theÌ„ water to serue at their table And though their power bee not as it hath beene yet 〈◊〉 â—lice and will to trample Princes vnder their feete is as 〈◊〉 as euer it was and therefore not onely haue Pius 5. and Gregory the 13. by their cursed buls roared against our gratious soueraigne Lady Queene Elizabeth that now is thereby labouring her deposition but also both secretely and openly a number of waies they and their fauourits haue gone about both by opeÌ„ hostility and priuy conspiracies to bring that their wicked purpose to passe yea though it were by the shedding of her innocent
must needs be good and lawfull and ours the plaine contrarie Howbeit if we examine this point throughly we shall find that they haue as weake helpe hence as from the other or from any thing else For whither they vnderstand by right succession succession without interruption in place person or office seuerally or iointly togither neither can their Bishops and Priests as they are now truelie saie they haue it nor yet if they could they being gone as they be from the soule and life of right Apostolicke succession namely the Catholicke and Apostolicke trueth are they euer the better And of the contrarie though it were neuer so true that we could not deduce vnto our present Bishops and Pastours downe from the Apostles or their times without interruptiō the line of succession in place person and office yet we being able to shew as wee are that we holde one and selfesame doctrine with them that would iustify our Church and ministers sufficientlie notwithstanding the want of the former This is quickly and easily sayed you will saie but these thinges cannot so readily bee proued I graunt to proue them will cost the more paines otherwise the proofe is readie and pregnant enough and that I doubt not but if with any indifferency that which I shall write to that ende bee marked shall ere it bee long appeare I say therefore first that the Roman Bishops and Priestes as they are now and haue beene a long time whatsoeuer they brag no not their verie Popes vnto whose right succession Stapleton and others trust most haue any right succession either to any Apostle or Apostolick man in place person or office For first they can neuer soundly proue the proofes out of the scripture are so strong to the contrary their proofes out of the stories so disagreeing and variable in all circumstances that Peter the Apostle whose successours their Popes claime to be and from whom al other Bishops and Priests amongst them haue their vocations and authority deriued was either euer at Rome or being there that hauing laied aside his Apostleship which was the greater and higher office he sate there as Bishop Secondly vnto this day they cannot agree of the order of succeeding one another betwixt Linus Cletus Clemēt Anaclet Vrspergensis in the life of Claudius hath notably at large set out both the difference of opinions in this matter and also the vncertainty of the trueth Thirdly none of any learning and reading can be so ignorant in the stories of the Bishops of Rome but he knowes that they haue not succeeded one another frō the Apostles to this day wtout interruptiō alwaies neither in place persō nor office For besids that sūdry times many Popes for some short time haue sate from Rome it is notoriously knowen that Clement the 5. about the yeare 1305. translated the Popes see from Rome into France to Auinion where it continued aboue 70. years And as for immediate orderly successiō of persons amongst them how is it possible truely certainly to define set downe that seing that see hath not onely stoode vacant daies weekes monethes and years somtimes 2. sometimes more but also there hath bene at once so often not only 2. but often 3. sometime more euery one striuing with his fauorers to be accoūted to be the right Pope And lastly by that which I haue said before of the nature of their offices of Popes Cardinalles Bishoppes Priestes their practise prouing daily my words therein to be most true how dare any mā that hath any feare of God once say or think that they in their offices haue any affinity with the Apostles or any Apostolicke man Light darknes are not more differing the one from the other then the offices of Apostles Euāgelists Prophets Pastours Doctours in the ancient primitiue Apostolick Church differeth from these offices of theirs Secondly whereas I sayed though yet they could which now you see they cannot truely say that they succeed the Apostles Apostolicke men in place person and office yet they were neuer the nearer my reasons thereof are these First I finde that wicked people wicked Priests in the scriptures often haue had this kinde of succession to pleade for themselues against the true Prophets and against Christ himselfe as you may see Ierem. 7. vers 4. cap. 8. vers 8. Iohn 8. v. 44. Vriah the Priest in King Ahaz time had this successiō frō Aaron and yet he to please that Idolatrous king set vp cōtrary to the commandement of the Lord an altar according to the patterne that the King had sent him of one that hee had seene at Damascus 2. King 16.10.11 The high Priests that withstoode alwaies Christ his doctrine and in the ende crucified him had this kinde of sucession yet none of these or their doings were any thing the more iustifiable for this Againe though Stapleton lib. 13. doctrinalium principiorū cōfesses that the Greekes haue beene scismatiques and heretiques this 500. yeares yet he all the sort of them of any reading know that not they only but also the Patriarches of Antioch and Alexandria and the Bishops of sundry other famous Churches in the world all which likewise they holde bee scismatiques and heretiques can doe make as great shew of this kinde of succession for the countenancing of their ministery and Churches as they themselues for they knowe that the Patriarch of Constantinople doeth deduce his locall and personall succession from Andrew the Apostle that the Patriarch of Antioch now sitting at Damascus doeth likewise his from Peter which he may doe more certainly then the Popes when they sate at Auinion could for it is euident Gal. 2. ver 11. euen by the scripture it selfe that Peter was at Antioch so is it not that he was at Rome In like maner they knowe that the Patriarch of Alexandria now holding his seate at Alcairum deriues his from the Euangelist Saint Marke And ignorant they are not that the Arrians preuailing as they did and in the ende hauing got the most seats of Bishops to be furnished with men of their dānable opinion that they for that time were able to holde this plea aswell as themselues and yet I am sure they will graūt that none of these were therfore or are therfore to be allowed iustified They will say I am sure for so I finde thē plainly to reply in their writings yea euen Iohn de Albine himselfe afterward Cap. 7. that though these all can and doe plead succession in place person and office that yet it cannot iustifie them because not onelie they haue helde some of them detestable heresies but presently also doe still Indeede I must needs confesse that I read that Macedonius Nestorius and Paulus Sergius abrupted the line of right successiō by their heresies at Constantinople that Paulus Samosatenus did the like at Antioch and that Dioscorus and Petrus Moggus did likewise at Alexanderia And
polluted prophaned Vriah the priest ioyned with the king in the erection of a new altar in coÌ„mitting abhominatioÌ„ before the Lord though he were one that had his calling by the ordinary way of succession of priests froÌ„ AaroÌ„ Againe though Ezechiah succeeding Ahaz for his time did notably rid the Church of the abhominatioÌ„s wherw t his father had defiled it yet wheÌ„ he was dead his son Manasses his son Amon brought it to as il an estate as euer it was in so much that froÌ„ the beginning of Manasses raign vnto the 18 of Iosiahs the booke of the law of the Lord was lost which was wel nigh 80 years for theÌ„ it is noted that Hilkiâ—h the priest found it 2. King 22. In Manasses his time it is euideÌ„t Idolatry opeÌ„ly preuailed the whole Synagogue saue a few prophets their folowers erred If we proceed during the 70 years captiuity in Babylon what visible appareÌ„t shew of any successioÌ„ of Bishops pastors caÌ„ we finde the ioined togither in the exercise of Gods religioÌ„ Was not their teÌ„ple then destroied consequently did not the publick exercise of their religioÌ„ which for the most part was tied theruÌ„to cease as it was prophesied by Hosea Ca. 3. therfore lameÌ„ted by Ieremy Ca. 3. LaÌ„ WheÌ„ Christ our sauiour caÌ„e into the world surely then God had his Church For it is a most certaine article of our faith that since it begaÌ„ it hath neuer ceased nor neuer shal yet what visible succession of pastors and priests was there theÌ„ in possession of souÌ„o religioÌ„ Had not they as euideÌ„tly appeareth by the stories writeÌ„ by the EuaÌ„gelists that were in the visible personal succession corrupted the doctrine of the Messias both concerning his person and office so that they were the deadliest enemies that he had But you wil say perhaps that though these thinges were thus in the Church in the time of the olde Testament yet it may not be so in the Church now in the time of the new And why so Howsoeuer otherwise there be some differeÌ„ce betwixt the Church then and now in respect of the more cleare reuelation now then then of the doctrine of the Messias whereof that Heb. 8.6 is by soÌ„e vnderstood yet in this respect you shal neuer be able by the word writeÌ„ or any true story to proue any necessary difference vnles it be that God had tied then his promises to that peculier people his seruice in great part to their temple and that he had ordained amoÌ„gst them a priesthood to continue by natural succession so that the Church theÌ„ had more right to plead visible succession then now In the meane time thus much is gained by these stories of the Church in the time of the olde testament that this outward clearenes visible succession you talke of is not an inseparable note of the true Church for therby we haue seene it seperated ofteÌ„times from it And vnles men were peeuishly disposed to maintaine a manifest vntruth conuicted so to be both by Scripture and experieÌ„ce you would see grauÌ„t that it is as separable from the Church now since Christ For is it not plainely prophesied 2. Thess 2. that there should come a departing from the faith by the comming of Antichrist and that very great and effectual And least you should babishly foolishly as many of you doe vnderstand this of an Antichrist that towards the end of the world should come and raigne seduce men 3 yeares an halfe marke that here Paul telleth vs in his time that this mistery of iniquity did already worke which it did in that there were false Apostles there that taught men to seeke iustification partly by faith partly by the workes of the law as it appeareth by the Epistle to the GalathiaÌ„s weigh that he attributeth vnto him such things as could not be brought to passe in that space lastly consider that he teacheth that though he should be detected and fal into a consuÌ„ptioÌ„ by the Spirit of Gods mouth yet he should not be fully abolished before Christs second comming All which make it most euident that Paul here prophecieth of a longer lasting Antichristianity which should trouble the Church theÌ„ yours of 3 years an halfe continuaÌ„ce But least yet this notwitstaÌ„ding you should imagine that the fulfilling of this prophecy your faÌ„sie of perpetual clearnes vniuersality of the church may staÌ„d alwaies togither S. Iohn in his ReuelatioÌ„ describing as you al must coÌ„fesse the state of the Church seeth her in a vision by the great 7 headed DragoÌ„ driuen into the wildernes and there glad to be fed for a season Chap. 12. And he seeth the Babilonish harlot the true patterne of your Romish prelacy by which harlot he most notably setteth forth Antichrist his kingdome committing fornication not with a fewe but with the Kings and inhabitants of the earth not ruling or sitting ouer a few but as the Angel there expoundeth the waters whereon she was seene to sit people multitudes natioÌ„s toÌ„gues Apoc. 17 Al which laied togither doe plainly shew that after Christ there should grow such a defection froÌ„ the fayth in the world by the means of Antichrist that during the florishing of his kingdome the true Church and her pastours should be driuen into the wildernes and so for that time should haue in comparison of Antichrists followers small visibility and shew in the eies of the world Which we say and constantly are able to defend hath beene verified in the late florishing of your Romish Prelats Besides view the stories of the church the Cronicles of times and you shal be driuen to confesse that though the Church hath had alwaies her two witnesses Re. 11 to testifie to the trueth that they neuer could be extinguished quite by TyraÌ„ts yet she hath often beene driuen from carying any great shewe of visibility in the world For certaine marble pillers at Salmantike erected in the hill of S. Bartholomew doe witnes that Diocletian Iouius and Maximinianus Herculeus imagined when they caused them to bee erected that they then had quite layed the honour of Christ for euer in the dust and as it should seeme by the circumscriptions that they thereupon caused to bee engraued they set theÌ„ vp euen of purpose to brag that they had like great conquerers quite extinguished as they terme it the superstitioÌ„ of Christ Which they would neuer haue done if either they or their fauorites had then seene a visible succession of Bishops and pastours amongst them and had knowen their names and where to haue found them If wee go on to the time that the Arrians most florished wee shall read that the Emperour Constantius sayed to Liberius Quota pars es tu orbis terrarum qui solus facis cum homine scelerato meaning Athanasius Ecclesiast Hist Theodoreti lib. 2. cap 16. whereby it appeareth that then the
of those words Except yee eat the flesh of the son of mā c. killeth therefore he teacheth vs there spiritually to vnderstand them Who vpon these wordes of Christ gathereth that no wicked man can eate the flesh of christ vpon Mat. c. 15. as for the other part he granteth the wicked may eat that when it hath beene eatē in the end it is auoided into the place of easement Hom 15. vpon Mat. Athanasius noteth the christ made mention of his ascension Iohn 6. to wtdraw thē from corporall fleshly vnderstāding of his words vpon these words whosoeuer speaketh a word against the son c. But Chrys goeth plainly to work saith in his 11. Hom vpon Mat. that the very body of christ himselfe is not in the holy vessels but the mistery sacrament thereof is therin conteined And therefore in his 46. Hom. vpon Iohn sheweth vs the christ saying the flesh profiteth nothing Iohn 6. therby warned vs to take heede of carnall and fleshly vnderstanding of his words which is to vnderstand them saieth he simply and in his 4. Homil vpon the 4. to the Corinth he telleth vs that the body of Christ is the carion where the Eagles will bee he nameth eagles saieth he to shew that who so will approch to his body must mount aloft haue no dealing with the earth nor be drawē downward but must euermore fly vp c. For this is a table of Eagles saieth he that fly on high not of Iaies that creepe beneath Christ tooke bread which cōforteth mās hart that he might represēt therby his body bloud saith Hier. vpō the 26. of Mat. As thou hast in baptism receued the similitude of death so likewise dost thou in this sacramēt drīk the similitude of christs bloud saieth Ambrose in his 4 booke 4 c. of the sacraments Ciprian de vnctione chrismatis writeth thus Christ in his last supper gaue vnto his Apostles bread wine which he called his body bloud but on the Crosse hee gaue his very body to be wounded with the hands of the souldiers that the Apostles might declare vnto the world how in what maner the bread may be the flesh bloud of Christ And the maner straight way he declareth thus that those things which do signifie those things which be signified by thē may be both called by one name Fulgētius in his booke to King Thrasimund hath these words This cup or chalice is the new Testamēt that is to say doth signifie the new Testament Theodoret in his first Dialogue most plainely writeth that Christ honoured the signes and representatiōs which are seene with the name of his body and bloud not changing their natures but adding grace to nature and yet more plainely in the 2. Dialogue he writeth thus the mystical signes after sanctification go not from their nature for they tary in their former substance figure and forme Yea euen Gelasius a Pope about the yeare 500. against Eutiches is as plaine saying in the Eucharist the substāce and nature of bread and wine cease not For the image and similitude of the body and bloud is celebrated in those mysteries And Bertram in his treatise of this matter writen in the time of Carolus Caluus laboureth by many proofes testimonies to shew that bread and wine remaine still and that we are here to followe Christ in a figure and mistery And Bede vpon Luke 22. saith because bread doeth comfort mans heart and wine doeth make good bloud in his body therefore the bread is mystically compared to Christs body and the wine to Christs bloud The like saying hath Haymo in his 5. booke De sermonum proprietate Emissenus de consecrat Dist 2. cap. Quia corpus compareth the conuersion in the Sacrament to the conuersion in a man regenerated which we all know is in quality and not in substance There are two Epistles yet extant in the Saxon tongue made by one Alfricke in King Etheldreds time about the yeare of the Lord 996 being then as some write Bishop of Canterbury wherein he teacheth the bread and wine to be no otherwise the body and bloud of Christ then manna and the water of the rocke was Christ who also translated 80 sermons out of latin into the Saxon tongue whereof 24. were appointed to be read for homilies and in that which was to be read on Easter day there is much direct matter against Transubstantiation and your reall presence And since these times you know well inough wee haue had many from time to time yea mo thē you well like of that haue beene as flat and direct against your kinde of reall presence as we are now This Master Foxes booke of Actes and Monuments hath made euident to all the world And it is famously knowen that before your Lateran Councel vnder Innocent the 3. in the yeare 1215. it was not decreed to bee as you now hold It appeareth also by the last session of the councell of Florence which is not much aboue 140. yeares ago that the Greeke Church vntill then stoode against your doctrine of transubstantiation which is the ground of your reall presence And Tonstall though otherwise a great man on your side yet in his booke of this sacrament saieth perhaps it had beene better to leaue euery man that would be curious concerning this matter of the maner how Christ is present to his owne coniecture as by his confession before the councel of Lateran it was left at libertie And Iohn Duns a frend of yours vpon the 4. booke of the sentences saieth that the wordes might haue beene expounded more plainely then by Transubstantiation if it had pleased the Church Gabriel Biell another great doctour vpon the canon of the masse in his 40. reading plainely confesseth that it is not expressed in the canon of the Bible how the body of Christ is there whither by Trāsubstantiatiō or Consubstantiation Euen so your great Bishop Iohn Fisher writing against Luthers booke of the captiuity of Babylō is enforced to confesse that he findeth not in Mathew nor any where els in the scripture any thing to proue that there is thereby the reall presence of Christ in your masse nor that whensoeuer a Priest shall go about that matter hee maketh the bread wine the body and bloud of Christ and so concludeth that he thinketh that euery man vnderstandeth that the certaintie of that matter dependeth not so much of the Gospell as it doeth vpon the vse tradition and custome of the Church These testimonies forasmuch as directly they are against your literall exposition of Christs words your new deuise of transubstantiation the onely piller and buttresse of your real presence and against your grosse and carnal eating of him with the bodily mouthes of all receiuers good and bad they may not bee denied to bee forcible against your reall presence For the cause thereof denied and taken away the effect must cease and if the
seede and then is he taught how to liue in his vocation wherein lieth the sum of that Religion which wee now teach and preach For first we teach men how to serue God according to his owne reuealed wil not according to their owne fansie as you doe Secondly finding men many waies to decline from this rule wee labour to make them see their sins and the danger thereof which wheÌ„ we haue done we send theÌ„ only to Iesus Christ for help and comfort In both with you also offend first whiles you keepe men froÌ„ seeing the multitude and grieuousnes of their sinnes by extenuating the power of original sin by making maÌ„ beleeue that the fulfilling of the law is now possible vnto him that many sins of their owne nature for their littlenes are veniall and that the first motions of sinne arising from the corruption of our owne hearts not consented vnto are no sin and then you go from this most ancient order of God in that you send men for their recouerie not only to Iesus Christ but to their owne freewill merits and satisfaction to a nuÌ„ber of thinges very trifling and ridiculous by vse and doing whereof you would perswade them they shall purchase to themselues remission of their sinnes In the 3. point also we follow the patterne of our heauenly father calling vpon euery man according to his calling to get his liuing in an honest vocation with the sweate of his browes and shewing woman that in lawfull wedlocke if by nature or otherwise she haue not the gift of continencie though to her paine sorrow she is for the encreasing of Gods kingdome and the common weale wherein shee liueth to conceaue and beare children whereas you drawe both the one and the other herefrom into Hermitages Cloisters and Nunries there to liue an idle life out of all vocation profitable to the Church or common weale And we are perswaded that this Religion and consequently a Church to holde and embrace it hath euer since vnto these daies continued And we graunt you also that though God for the sinnes of his people doe afflict his Church diuers times and that grieuously as he did the Isralites with the 70. yeares captiuity yet then he doeth not leaue them without teachers to comfort them and therefore in all ages and times doe constantly beleeue in one place or other that this our ReligioÌ„ and Church hath had some such Yet you must take this with you that in such times of the afflictioÌ„ of the Church the ordinary state of the ministrie thereof hath often failed For you haue heard Azariah the prophet tel king Asa in respect of such times as were before his time that Israell a long season had beene without the true God without prophet to teach and without lawe 2. Chron. 15. And in the 3 of Hosea you may reade prophecied that the children of Israell shall remaine many daies without a King without a Prince without an offring without an image without an Ephod and without Teraphim by which wordes the Prophet plainely foresheweth an interruption should be of their outward ordinary visible ministry And euen in respect of the time that you meÌ„tion it appeareth in the 2. of the Imâ—â—â—ntat that the like was fulfilled in the Church in respect of that time of their captiuity in Babylon For there Ieremie lamenting the state of the Church then saieth The Lord hath caused the feastes and Sabbothes to be forgotten in Sion and hath despised in the indignation of his wrath the King and the Priests the Lord hath forsaken his altar hath abhorred his sanctuary And when those prophecies of the florishing of Antichrist 2. Thes 2. and Reuel 17. and that of the Churches being driued into the wildernes and there remaining for a time Reuel 12. should be fulfilled who seeth not that it is no strange thing but a thing plainly foreshewed should be that neither the church herselfe nor her teachers should be very visible and apparent And therefore speaking of those times when indeede those prophesies were verified as you doe you doe our church and her ministers great double wrong first in thus chasing theÌ„ into the wildernes there to saue themselues from your fury and then yet in exacting at our handes the names of them whom God by thus hiding of them preserued to continue his church And yet as I haue shewed you before cap. 4. in the mercie of God wheÌ„ your AntichristiaÌ„ Synagogue florished most in Bohemia other places the Christians called WaldeÌ„ses were many and has diuers assemblies schools churches and ministers Why theÌ„ say you haue you not or do you not run to theÌ„ that by theÌ„ you may haue your ministers ordeined or confirmed if you haue tell vs their names that did it I answere you we haue thought it needles seeing as I haue shewed otherwise both our former later ministers nearer home had both ordinatioÌ„ confirmation that well enough serued their turnes Besides I am sure you caÌ„not be ignoraÌ„t but it hath ben an ordinary thing with God wheÌ„ the ordinary ministers of the church consequently the outward face couÌ„tenance thereof hath bene corrupted gon froÌ„ y truth waies of the lord to raise extraordinarily prophets and others to seeke procure the reformatioÌ„ thereof as it appeareth by raising vp from time to time Prophets amongst the Israelites in the ruins and corruptions of his church who should haue had wrong offred if they should not haue bene receiued as the Lords ministers vntill either they could get ordinary admission of the Prelates then to reform whose corruptions they were seÌ„t or vntil they could shew the names of some other prophets that had ordinarily succeeded others also ordeined them Which is the very case of the Lords faithful ministers whom he hath vsed first in any nation without the ordinary calling of the daies immediatly going before to detect lay opeÌ„ the horrible corruptioÌ„s thrust vpon the Church by the papacy For they fouÌ„d that the word of God was concealed hid froÌ„ the people that insteede thereof they were fed with the inuentions and traditions of men y the honour that was due to God alone was turned vnto meÌ„ vnto images that the bloud of Christ was ineffect trodeÌ„ vnderfoot in that so many by waies were sought to atteine to heaueÌ„ by besides Christ that the sacrament of his body bloud was turned into grosse Idolatry the vse quite peruerted To be short they found al the holy scripture prophaned poisoned which the Popes glosses false interpretatioÌ„s These things therfore being thus the lord reueling vnto theÌ„ his truth because the time was come that Antichrist must be detected the lord gaue vnto theÌ„ the spirit of courage and boldnes first to notifie these corruptions to the Prelates of your church and to craue at their haÌ„ds the reformation thereof but finding that that would not be because sathaÌ„ will
wise as you would haue him in your conscience what would you doe to him I thinke that that verie zeale if you coulde that hath mooued you vnder the colour of a reformed Gospell to trouble so much a This you attempt and practise flatly all the world knoweth Looke else to the course that your legers now in France take against their king our state vvould likewise commaunde you to dispossesse those Kings that doe abuse there owne kingdomes euen asvvell as to depriue those Bishoppes that doe abuse their bishoprickes But O Lorde vvhat a Gospell is this if it bee permitted that the people shall call their Princes to accompt or that they maie correct their superiours vnder the colour of a reformed Gospell vvhat seditions troubles and vvarres shall vvee see ouer all Christendome Wee shall see fulfilled to our great harme the prophecie of * Cap. 3. Esay who saieth The people shall seeke to raise one against another euery one against his neighbour the yong man shal disdaine the old and the ignoble the noble c But what colour soeuer ye cloke your new Gospel withal ye run far wide from him that doeth command vs * Rom. 13. to b If this lesson had beene remēbred of your Romish prelats they neither could nor would haue beene so terrible to Kings and Emperours as they haue beene of late obeie al creatures for the loue of God He doeth not regard whether they doe acquite their charge or no for the obedience of the inferiours is not limited by the duetie of the superiours * Rom. 13. Al power doeth come of God saieth the Apostle he that resisteth that power doeth resist the ordinance of God and they that doe with saie it acquire for themselues damnation for euer c The Lord in his word prescribeth obedience to ciuill magistrates and to all such ministers and Chu ch officers as are according to his ordinance but if they be contrary to that as your Popes be hee saieth neuer a word for them but many against them He doeth make no distinction of persons whither it be a Magistrate Ecclesiastical or temporal whither it be a King or a Pope a Bishop or a Lord he doeth talke generally of al powers that are established by God to make vs liue in peace tranquility God had not chosen of his good wil Caesar the Emperour of Rome to be king of Hierusalē as he did chuse Saul Dauid Salomon the rest for of his owne ambition vnsatiable cupidity he had vsurped the kingdom appertaining to the house of Dauid yet our Sauiour did commaund that they should paie him tribute Math. 22. The which commandement he himselfe did fulfill to teach others obedience God did likewise permit that the wicked king Nabuchodonozor should destroie the kingdome of Hierusalem to punish the wickednes of those that dwelt in it And although hee had inuaded the kingdome of Iuda to the which he had no title nor right yet doth God protest that he gaue it him he willeth doeth command that they should obey him euen as if he were the best Prince of the world Beholde saieth God by the Prophet Ieremy Cap. 27. you shall tell your Lordes that I make the earth the men the beastes that walke on the face of the earth through my great strength and mighty arme and I haue giuen it to whom it pleaseth me And so now I haue giuen all these Lands and countreyes to Nabuchodonozor my seruant king of Babylon Besides this I haue giuen him the beastes and the fields to serue him his sonne his sonnes sonne vntill the time of his earth come also of him many people great kings shal come and shal ordaine that the kingdome or the people that shall not serue Nabuchodonozor king of Babylō I wil visit that people saieth the Lord with the sword pestilence and hunger vntil that I consume them in his hands c. But if you my masters the new reformers of the Gospel had beene in those daies what would haue bridled your burning zeale d No◠for your Popes place and office that he challenges is far more vnlawfull then Nabuchodonozors was Could yee not with a little better cause report of Nobuchodonozor that that ye report of the Pope for who is that Nabuchodonozor that we should submit our selues vnto him He is not a king hee is not a tirant hee is not an Emperour but a robber a cutthrote more cruel then anie kinde of wilde beast Is it not by him that the Prophets haue represented the spoiler of nations For God when he would cause * Cap. 14. Esay e Cujus contrarium verum est to talke of the fall of Lucifer he doeth discrie it vnder the person of Nabuchodonozor then how wil you haue vs to submit our selues to be subiect vnto him whom God doeth liken not onelie to a deuill but to the captaine of all the deuils of hell Manie causes doe persuade vs not to obey him First his wicked abhominable life Secondly our religiō for we beleeue in God that created heauen earth but as for him he is more thē a worshipper of Idoles for he is one that called himselfe a God Thirdlie he is not of the line of Dauid by whom God had promised to establish his kingdome for hee was a stranger such a one as got into the kingdome by force making himselfe a king not by righteous election but by violent compulsion so that considering althese things ye might well according to your zeale haue found fault with his raigne but God would haue stopped your mouthes saying as I haue writē aboue I haue created all things I giue thē to whō it pleaseth me Or as he saieth in * Cap. 34. Iob It is I that cause Hypocrits to raign to punish the sins of the people Or as he saieth in the .4 of Daniel I haue the preheminēce ouer the kingdomes of men I giue thē to whō it pleaseth me f True the authority being of it selfe lawful◠as Nabuchodonosors was though he abused it but it is not so when the office it selfe is vtterly vnlawfull as your Pope is And he that speaketh against him that is put in authoritie although he be as euil as Nabuchodonozor hee shall perish thorough the sword famine or pestilence or that that is worse through eternal death These are the very words that God spake by the Prophet therefore saieth Christ Come vnto me learn in my schoole for I am humble and milde of heart I haue obeyed Pylate and Annas Cayphas I haue suffered the sentēce of death haue beene nailed betweene two theeues * Math. 12. and I tooke it paciently for your sakes Learne of me to be my disciples in the schoole of humility and you shall finde rest in your spirits The which true rest indeede is for euerie man to examine diligently his owne conscience and to commit
then to lay to the charge of the Christians that they conspired amongst themselues against the state of the common weale and the ciuill and supreme magistrates thereof And therefore we can the more patiently abide this your dealing with vs in that herein we see we are no otherwise dealt withall by you then Gods people Christ his Apostles and other his faithfull seruants haue beene dealt withall in ancient time by your predecessours But the Lordes name be praised for it howsoeuer it hath pleased you in thus charging vs to intende the deposition and displacing of ciuill magistrates to conforme your selues to the ancient enemies of Gods people our doings in those places where our Religion hath beene longest settled doeth euidently in the eies of the world acquite vs hereof For in such places who seeeth not that the ciuill magistrates togither with it haue alwaies and yet doe honourably and quietly enioy their places and dignities Yea this wee dare bee bolde to say that the Christian Kings Princes and magistrates that haue giuen best entertainment vnto it finde by most manifest experience that both it and the professours therof haue better established them in their thrones and more aduanced them in their dignities then euer they were or could be by yours For now they are absolute Kings and Princes according to their right where as yours made thē to hold their kingdomes as the Popes vassals and so but at the curtesie and deuotion of a forrainer and of an intollerable proud and vnsatiable vsurping Prelate and now their treasure is kept at home to the strengthening greatly of their kingdomes and dominions which by your Romish Religiō gouernment was woont a 1000. waies most insatiably in infinit quantity yearly to the wonderfull weakning thereof to be conueied to Rome And whereas then by meanes of your auricular confession the secrets of euery Prince where that was vsed was often to the great peril of their states made knowen to many vndiscreet blabs by them their means to their forreine head the Pope and so he was thereby alwaies the better inabled for the furtherance of his owne deuises to preuent crosse theirs by the banishing of that Romish stratageme Princes coūsels secrets are kept at home in secret as they should to the great good of thē their cuntries And lastly by our Religion according to the examples of Dauid Salomō Asa Iehosaphat Ezechias Iosiah Constātine Theodosius they are in possession of their full authority to cōmāde for Religiō in matters ecclesiastical aswel their subiects of the clergy as the rest whereas by your Religion they were supreme gouerners vnder God for matters ciuil only had their cleargy so exēpted from them and their iurisdiction that howsoeuer they had their bodies in their kingdomes to enioy the promotions thereof they had neither their bodies nor soules in further subiection then would stand with the pleasure and profit of the forraine potentate the Pope By meanes whereof Anselme Stephē Lanckton Thomas Becket and sundry other proude prelates of this land haue so stucke to the Pope against their soueraigne kings at home here in England that in comparison of the Pope they haue set their King at naught to the wonderfull trouble and disquiet of the whole land as notoriously appeares in our Cronicles Which things considered I thinke you may long tell Princes that you and your religion is frendly to them and that we and ours is hurtful vnto them before any of them that be wise beleeue you Truely I cannot but wonder at your grosse hypocrisie in this Chapter in that you are so earnest and busie not onely to proue it vnlawful and mōstrous how bad soeuer they that be in authority be to refuse to yeelde duety submission vnto them but also to lay to our charge that we haue an intention to place and displace ciuill magistrates at our pleasure For I cannot perswade my selfe that your skill in diuinity was so small but you were resolued for all this that the obedience and subiection taught in these places here quoted by you or any where else in the scriptures is not so infinite and absolute as that thereby subiects are bound to doe whatsoeuer by higher powers be it good or bad they are commanded to doe For how could it be possible that a man of your place should forget the vsual limitation in the Lord or that you should not remember that God must be obeied before man Neither yet can I thinke that you were ignorant but that the very same thing which here you charge vs with as with a grieuous fault hath bene and yet is openly practised and taught publickly to be very lawfull in your Church of Rome Hereof I am sure D. Allen a great man of your side in his 5 Chapter of his defence of English catholicks reckōs vp in a great brauery and bragge sundry Kings and Emperours by force deposed by the Pope And indeed it appears most euidently in sundry Chronicles that at their pleasure a long time they haue most shamefully misused Christian Princes potentates of the world For though they were and are beholden to the Christian Roman Emperours for their first aduancement from the state of poore persecuted bishops to the state of patriarches in these westerne parts yet in processe of tyme when the seat of the empire was remooued to Constantinople these westerne parts were gouerned by an exarch at Rauenna they through the help of certaine Kings of the Lombards and others in tokē of thankefulnesse to the ancient Emperours of Rome quite extinguished their Empire and authority in these west parts And in the ende not contented with that which they had incroched by the ruine of the Empire through the helpe of the Goths Vandals Lombards others seeking thereby their further aduācement Pope Zachary about the yeare 743. found the meanes to cause Childericke then King of France to bee deposed and he set vp Pipine in his roome whom he his successour Stephen the 2. aduanced to the Empire and therefore this Pipine Charles the great and Lodouicke his sonne which three immediatly succeeded one another in the new Empire thus translated vnto them by the Pope to gratify the Pope for the same they brought the Lombards and others that before beganne to be somewhat to sausie with the Popes vnder and bestowed vpon his see as Blondus Volateran note very many rich and great Ilands cities countries shires townes and prouinces whereby he was mightely aduanced Yet for all these great benefits receaued by the line of Pipine when his successours began not to be pliable enough as they thought to their becke in making warre against the Princes of Italy which began to pinch them for their wrong-gotten goods Gregorie the fifth about the yeare 1002. practiseth with the Germans to bring the Empire to them from the line of France and so Otho was set vp Emperour But when these German Emperours began
hauing the grace that was inspired in him by the holie ghost at his baptisme so long he doeth not sinne vnto eternall death d Yea the Apostle to the great comfort of them that are once truely regenerat teacheth in these places that such by the power of that grace shall be so preserued that they shall neuer sin as the vnregeneraâ— do with their whole man vnto death for the generatioÌ„ of God that is to saie the grace receiued by this holy sacrament doeth so defend him that the Deuill cannot persecute him to death being not able to preuaile against him and as long as this good seede which is the word of God doeth dwell in him he cannot sinne and if he did sinne the seed would no loÌ„ger remain in him The holie ghost saith * Sap. 1. the wisemaÌ„ shall refuse the hypocrite and dissembler and shall depart from the vaine and crafty cogitations and therefore the grace of God and sinne can not dwell togither nor we ought not thinke S. Iohns wordes strange in that he saieth that he that is borne of God doeth not sinne for it is as much to say as that one can not serue two masters and that he that serueth God can not serue the Deuill For. S. Paul saieth * 1. Cor. 10. You cannot assist at the table of God and of the Deuill altogether for what communication is there betweene iustice and iniquity or betweene Iesus Christ and Belial And hee that doeth loue this world declareth himselfe an enemie vnto God And a little before he had saied he that doeth commit sinne is the sonne of the Deuill the which doeth not affirme that a sinner cannot be the sonne of God if he repent and doe penance but in the meane while a If this assertion be true â—â—en as often as the regenerate either actually sinneth or hath but a minde to sinne he is not the childe of God I would gladly know theÌ„ h w often the authour hath coÌ„tinued a moreâ—h the child of God togither or any man else he that is in actuall sinne or hath a minde to doe euill is as then not the sonne of God but the sonne of the Deuill The good tree doeth not beare ill fruite for although the fruit doe rot or perish vpon the tree that corruption doeth not proceede of the tree but of the wormes birdes or of some other kinde of vermine and therefore when they say that by the fruit we shall knowe the tree and by the workes the faith this ought to be vnderstood when the fruite doeth ripe in season and that it hath the naturall humour and property of the tree And in a man that he haue the influeÌ„ce of the true faith not otherwise for euen as the rotten fruit hanging vpon the tree doeth digresse nothing from the good stocke euen so the ill workes of vs that are Christians ought not to staine our holy and Catholique religion b Thus we also answere the obiection that you make against our religion froÌ„ the lewd liues that you see in some which seeme to be of our profession It is a good defence for you you thinke why should you not graunt â— then so to be to vs For the corruption of our ill fruites coÌ„meth of our selues and not of our religion the which doeth defende vs from doing that we doe I meane to sweare to blaspheme to commit adulterie to doe anie man wrong or to offend God anie waie He that doeth desire then by the fruit to know whither the tree of our Religion bee good hee ought not to bende his eies to looke vpon the rotten fruit as if that were sufficient to disproue the goodnesse of the tree but let him looke vpon the good fruites c You shall finde that you farre oueâ—shot your se fe in your reckoning when you compare indeed their religion exp essed in their writiâ—gs with yours such are all the Doctours aswell of the Greeke as Latin church so manie good Emperours and vertuous Kinges Princes Dukes and Earles which haue raigned in France Spaine Germany and England and ouer all the worlde and haue died in the faith leauing their workes to beare witnes of their good fruites d Many Kings Quâ—enes Nobles and others of our religion haue done these things also The which haue builded so manie faire hospitals to helpe releeue the poore so many goodly Colledges to entertaine fatherles children at their bookes so manie foundations and workes for the common wealth and that haue builded so manie sumptuous e The first pulling of them dowâ—e here in England came euen from your Cardinals and great bishops vnder the pretence therwith to found colledges and so hauing giuen the king an example wheâ— he was disposed to follow it they easily consented indeed the abhominaâ—ions therin committed was their ouerthrow Abbeies and houses of Religion the which you with your godlie zeale haue not onely robbed and spoiled but that that is more odious you haue pulled them cleane downe to deface the memorie of our ancesters to acquite all these which are notable monuments you brag of the good deedes that your good Christians doe which are much like vnto the gaines of those that vse to cog at dise for although they win much it is neuer seene or like the Iewes which to colour their horrible crueltie in putting our sauiour vniustly to death they weÌ„t bought with the monie that they gaue to Iudas a field to bury the dead k As deepe and grounded papists were lickorish of Abbey lands as any other and as greedily and securely they enioy them still amongst vs. Cardinall Woolsey and the Bishop of Rochester your great Martyr first began that course here And so you hauing robbed spoiled froÌ„ the religious houses and Abbeies more then you are able to restore you thinke to acquite it al with giuing a little to the poore No no these deuises are but vaine if by the fruit the tree be knowen as Christ saieth let them that haue anie iudgement looke vpon the fruit of our trees then iudge whither they be good or no. The XXXIIII Chapter PArtly in the former Chapter but more plainly in this you shew that you vnderstand by the trees that Christ spake of good Religion and bad But if you view the place you will at least I am sure you should rather thereby vnderstaÌ„d the persons of men effectually called as I haue saied or not called at all or at least yet vneffectually called that sound religion is one of the principall fruits that he meant should grow vpoÌ„ the former to discerne him from the later For his scope was not there to teach vs how to discerne religions but how to discerne the children of God from the children of sathan And thus it will proue that the sence of this prouerbe will not proue hard at all to vs to digest but to you who what shew soeuer you caÌ„ make with
insomuch that I dare bee bolde to say it is as much to the good of this Church and common wealth as if an other such Vniuersity as one of these had beene now founded built and endued as richly as either of these now is And though our Cleargy men now be not able to builde so many Colledges as yours were yet those things that they doe that way though they match not yours in quantity they yet may ouermatch yours quickely in quality For you know in the Gospell the widowes two mites which she threw into the treasury for the poore of the little that shee had wel gotten was in Christs account a greater almes then theirs which threw in farre greater summes of their superfluities Marke 12. And well knowen it is that the richest and greatest of ours are for their places but beggers to them that haue beene of like or the same place amongst you whereof the reason is not onely that they lacke a number of deuises that yours had to encrease their gaine but also that they haue not your Romish consciences which with your Popes dispensation could make them wide enough to swallow vp the commodities not onely of as many benefices but also Bishopricks and other offices ciuill or ecclesiasticall as they could possibly get Whereof it came that of their very superfluities vnlesse they had beene prouder then Lucifer and more wastfull in belly cheare then euer was the rich glutton some thing might well be spared and of a number of them so much as might haue procured the building of many moe then they left behinde them Hospitals and Colledges though you would so insinuate we haue pulled downe none but haue increased the number of them And as for your Abbies other â—loisters of religious houses you had for the inriching and building of them vnder pretence of your requiting of them with your Masses Dirges and trentals deuoured so many widowes houses robbed so many heires and fatherlesse children spoiled so many Parishes of the ordinary maintenance for their ministers and since the liuers in them were growen to such height of sinnes not to be named as that in the iust iudgement of God there could no lesse punishment come vpon them then the vtter defacing and ouerthrowing of them lest if they had beene left easie to haue beene set in their former state againe they should too easily and too quicklie haue beene shoppes and sties for the like filthinesses and abhominations againe And yet here with vs in EnglaÌ„d Cardinall Woolsey by the Popes authority pulled downe the first and to the suppression of the rest many of your bishops and Cleargy vnder king Henry consented and in diuers other places they haue beene also by lawfull and sufficient authority orderly for these causes defaced and doubtles though not turned to so good vses as they might perhaps haue beene if the wrath of God against them for the foresaied causes woulde haue suffered it yet I am fully perswaded to a better vse by farre yea infinite degrees then they were before And therefore these things considered this rather may be counted a good worke in vs thus to haue defaced them and conuerted their vse then a fault whereof wee need repent vs And consequently vaine is your charging of vs with seeking to make amends with giuing a trifle to the poore This is a fault that rather toucheth your kingdome then vs for wee account all almes and other outward good workes whatsoeuer to be vnprofitable to the doer vnlesse they be done with goods gotten with a good conscience which wil ouerthrow most of the glory of the gay works that you most brag of you are they that care not so your Church be inriched if it be with the farming of concubines dispensation for any sin with the rentes yearly for the open stewes that with the which they get by whoring during their liues so you haue it when they die For ther was nothing more coÌ„moÌ„ theÌ„ for your priests to farme coÌ„cubines though they might not be suffred to haue lawful wiues experieÌ„ce hath taught that there was no sin but ther might be marchaÌ„dise made of it in your romish court faire the your Popes a long time haue takeÌ„ rent for the stewes in Rome that yearely a good round summe that they haue bene glad to take the goods of those harlots when they died for their Churches vse it is most notoriouslie knowen And what hath beene more vsuall both in practise and doctrine with you then to teach much satisfaction for sinne and redemption of former faultes to bee performed by almes giuing especially so it were to your Priestes and Clergy men neuer caring so you might come by it of their goods aliue or dead whether euer it was well gotten or no For in trueth this hath beene the policy that hath brought your Clergy to so infinite wealth as they were of and made all other but beggers in comparison of themselues Therefore now let them that haue any iudgement as you wish looke vpon the fruite of your trees whether they bee so good or no as you here make bragges of The XXXV Chapter NOw seeing that you haue visited our garden if a man maie bee so bold I pray lend vs the keies that we may in like maner visite yours that we may see the fruits of your religion Read al the histories writeÌ„ froÌ„ the passion of Christ to our daies you shal find that al those sects that haue left our Roman Church haue done more mischiefe in one yeare a Your Romish Church that now iâ— is as farre gone from the ancient pure Roman Church as euer any heretiques went froÌ„ it and of you especially your saying is tâ—ue being seperated from the saied Church then they did in an huÌ„dred years before But because our meaning is not to recite all the acts of your predecessors enemies to the Catholique Church it shall suffise to make a short discourse of those that haue bene of late daies I meane the Bohemians or Hussites whose followers you doe affirme your selues to be for in your godly booke of Martyrs b This is vntrue as euery one that wil view the â—ct and monumeÌ„ts of the Church writen by master Fox may see you haue placed Iohn Hus as the first Martyr of your ancieÌ„t Church who was burnt for an heretique about an 120. years agone eueÌ„ as we accoÌ„pt c Your religion and Stephens agree â—o wel that if hee were aliue again you would be as ready as euer were the Iewes to stone him whatsoeuer you say of him now he being deade S. StepheÌ„ to be the first Martyr of our Church Now to know whither yeâ—e of the opinioÌ„ of the Hussites or no that I leaue for some other time and for this present I am content to condescende to that that you haue writen I meane that Iohn Hus did preach your Gospell and made a number of such faithfull persons
of such vayne wordes as these aboue twenty times I am sure without any proofe at al therein repeated Indeed if in al your life you could proue but halfe so much as confidently here you set downe then you were a notable fellow indeede and then truely we would striue no longer with you But in the meane time seeing we know your speeches are such as you can neuer proue and that we are able against you both to proue the falshoode of yours and the trueth of our owne blame vs not if wee esteeme not your words Yet lest you should saie that these likewise are but words in vs as the former haue beene in you though I see no reason to the contrary but that our words containing a iust and true denial of yours were sufficient confutation thereof I say and will proue it that you shew your selfe a man past al shame in writing here as you doe that all the ancient Catholicke Church which hath continued visible since the comming of Christ vnto this day al the doctours of all the vniuersities all the Empires kingdomes priuate states throughout al the world are against vs for they haue al receiued honoured that doctrine that we count papisticall For first such is the newnes thereof as I haue plentifully shewed in diuers places already of this booke that none of all these for sundry 100. yeares were once euer acquainted therwith yea that diuers of your assertions which are the very principallest of your opinions as namely your dotcrine of Transubstantiation of your Popes being in authority aboue generall Councels and of denying the cuppe to the lay people are not yet of 400. yeares age and continuance And it is notoriously knowen that in the daies of Gregory the 9 about the yeare of Christ 1230 by occasion of iniury and oppression offered by the Pope to that Church that the Greeke Easterne Churches departed quite from the Church of Rome and neuer since though it hath beene oft attempted could be brought to hold communion therewith againe insomuch that in your conuenticle at Trent you haue condemned them for schismatical and heretical Churches And these Churches as it is noted in an ancient record in the Church of Herford differ from yours at the least in 29 articles And they holde yours excommunicate and an Apostata Church vnto this day And vnlesse your reading be very small you cannot be ignorant that Math Paris writeth that the Patriarch of Constantinople at the Councell of Lyons shortly after this breach shewed that of 30. bishoprickes in Greece the Pope had not three that then held communion with him and that all Antioch and the Empire of Romania to the gates of Constantinople was gone quite from him There is also extant in print in ancient record an Epistle writen about seuen yeares after this breach began in the yeare 1237 by one Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople vnto the Pope wherein not only he laboureth to make him see that the occasion therof was that he tooke more vpon him ouer those Churches then he should but amongst other argumēts to persuade him to see his folly he sheweth him that not onely the Greeke Churches themselues but that al so the Aethiopians Syrians Hiberians Alani Gothi Charari with innumerable people of Russia and the mighty kingdome of the Vulgarians held communion with his Church of Constantinople and so by occasion of this schisme had forsakē felowship with the Roman Church And the Cosmographers write that the iurisdiction of the Patriarch of Canstantinople reacheth so farre that all Greece Misia Belgaria Thrasia Walachia Moldauia Russia Muscouia the iles of the Aegaean sea and Asia the lesse bee vnder the same It is also reported by authours of good credit that at this day vnder the other Patriarchs of Antioch Alexandria Hierusalem and vnder the other in the dominions of Presbyter Iohn in Africa there be infinit numbers of Churches and Christians differing from yours and ioining with ours in manie thinges So that Churches also both in the East North and South and that of very great amplitude within the time that you speake of haue professed Christ and yet haue neuer beene acquainted with most or many at the least of the pointes for the which your religion is counted of vs Papisticall in all which there haue beene some doctours vniuersities Empires Princes and priuate men no doubt since Christ before you wrote that neither honoured nor receiued your papistical religiō Yea but that merueilously you ouershot your selfe you might haue remembred that within the time limited by you in these Westerne partes there haue beene euen vnder your Popes nose and in his greatest ruffe many doctours vniuersities and some Emperours kings and priuate estates that haue neither receiued nor so honoured your religiō which we cal papistical as here you would beare your reader in hand For euen in these parts and within the compasse of these times haue bene you know Wickliffe Hus and Luther vniuersities kingdomes good store haue had both your religion Church in defiance long before you wrote He that readeth but the stories of Philip Lodovicke the last French kings of Henry the 4 5. of the 2. Fredericks the 1 2 Emperours and the Cronicles of king Iohn here in England and of 2 or 3 of his successours he shal easily perceiue that much within the compasse of time that you speake of both Empires and Kingdomes with their Emperours and Kings haue beene far from making that reckoning of your popish Church and religion that you here bragge of or else doubtlesse you must needs confesse that your Popes haue beene vnreasonable creatures that haue so cursed and banned these men as they haue and which besides haue caused such infinite Christian bloud to be by warre shed to hamper them These things considered euen children may see not onely the vanity but grosse falshood of these your wordes For howsoeuer either here or else where in this your booke you would cause your reader to beleeue that your Romish Church is the catholicke Church of Christ euery one indeed may see that in trueth it is but a particuler and a petty Diocesse in comparison of the catholicke Church of Christ For the reader must vnderstand that the Church of Christ is called catholicke first because the religion that shee imbraceth is that which hath beene at al times will be to the end the true religiō of God secondly because the same Church in respect of the mēbers therof especially since the calling of the Gentiles is not to be limited or shut vp within the compasse of any particuler countries but may vniuersally be dispersed amongst all nations and in al countreyes where it pleaseth the Lord. In neither of which sences can the Romish Church be truly accounted catholick For neither is her doctrine that which the true Church of Christ embraced was in possessiō of for 4000 years more neither are the
something still was done to bridle them For certaine it is that as it appeares dist 99. the thirde counsell of Carthage helde about the yeare 435. cap. 26. forbad the ambitious and proud tytles of Prince of Priests High-priests such like euen to the Bishops of the first see And Concilio Mileuitano about the yeare 420. in another of Africke held betwixt these two as some write about the yeare 428. cap. 92. appeales vnto them froÌ„ the Bishops counsels of Africke were forbidden And the great generall councell of Calcedon held about the yeare 453. when the Bishop of Romes legates had done what they could to the contrary Act. 15.16 canon 28. gaue the Patriarch of CoÌ„stantinople equal priuiledges with the Bishop of Rome And long after this the first generall couÌ„sell being the third as it is noted in the second tome of the couÌ„celles held at Constantinople in the time of Pope Agatho about the yeare of the Lord 681. renuing a decree before there coÌ„sented vnto in a councell consisting of 150. Bishops cap. 5. and remembring likewise the foresaide 28. cannon of the councell of Calcedon whereas some write there were 630. Bishops cap. 36. ratifieth and enacteth the same And if we go no further then to the former fiue general councels we shall finde them all to haue had a care by their decrees to keepe the bishops of Rome within their due bouÌ„ds of their owne patriarchall see For proofe whereof let any maÌ„ but read the sixt canon of the Nicene the second third of the first of Constantinople the eight of the Ephesine remembring withal the twenty eight of the Calcedon twise now immediatly before mentioned vnderstand that the fift general councell solemnely confirmed those fowre former and their canons decrees and he cannot choose but see this to be most manifest But amongst all the rest notable is that that appeares to this end in that great solemne Africane councel where Zozimus Boniface Celestine three popes on a rew by their Legates vnder one of their hands alleadging a false canon of the councel of Nice all that was determined in former councels to the contrary notwithstaÌ„ding shewed themselues intolerably ambitious of supremacy thereby most egerly claiming such a prehemineÌ„ce to be giuen to their see that if any bishop or minister were deposed in any other prouince or Patriarchal see that vpoÌ„ his appeale to Rome the Bishop of Rome might accept thereof therevpoÌ„ either write his letters to the next prouince to determine the matter or else to sende his Legate from his side to represent his own person to sit in iudgement with the bishops there to determine the matter For there as it appeares in the 101 102 103 105 chap. of that councell in the first tome of the councels this their allegation was not onely examined by all the copies of the Nicene councell that they had there but also by ancient copies thereof which they sent for thither of purpose to Alexandria Antioch Constantinople thereby in the open face of that councell where 217 Bishops were assembled their forgery was espied therefore that allegation notwithstanding the bishop of Romes dealing concerning Apiarius who then gaue the occasion of that stur was there openly disliked condemned therefore to preuent the like thereafter they in their 92 chapter there determine that whosoeuer should so appeale any more froÌ„ the bishops couÌ„cels of Africke beyond the seas should theÌ„ceforth neuer after of any in Africke be receaued into communioÌ„ Besides as it appears there in the 105. cap. by the common consent of that councell a letter was framed and sent to Celestine about the latter end therof as it should seeme by the stories about the yeare foure hundred and thirty wherein first they admonish him to admit no more such appeales or fugitiues but to send them backe againe alwaies to their owne prouinces and Metropolitans and the rather say they because such order was taken by the Nicene councell And after therein they pleade the equity of that ordinance because the holy ghost is aswell in one prouince as in an other and there the cause is alwayes like best to bee handled where it doeth arise because of the neighnesse of the vvitnesses Wherefore hauing tolde him that they finde no such thing in the truer copies of the Nicene councell as Faustinus sent by him alleadged they flatly forbid him the sending of his agents or legates any more vpon any such occasion amongst them It shoulde seeme for all this that so incident to that see vvas this ambitious humor that in pope Symachus time about the yeare fiue hundred many bishops euen in these parts did accuse him to Theodoricus king of the Gothes because hee tooke vpon him to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is one vvho vvoulde haue his vvill to be a law which is now professed to bee the popes prerogatiue and not to bee controled Dist 40. Si papa In Gregorie his time in the raigne of Mauritius the Emperour the bishop of Constantinople lustely chalenged the title of vniuersall bishop but then Pelagius bishop of Rome in the yeare fiue hundred eighty three as it appears in the ninty nine destinction of your law in Gratian and Gregory also his successor condemned that for an vnlawfull and Antichristian name in him or in any other bishop the bishops of Rome themselues not excepted lib. 4. epist 32.38.39 And vvhereas this notwithstanding Boniface the next but one to Gregory though with somewhat a doe obtained of that murderer and traitor Phocas who hauing cruelly slaine Mauritius succeded him in the Empire this Antichristian title first to be called vniuersal bishop or head of the church witnesse Sabellicus Marianus Scotus Martinus Polonus and others yet as Platina witnesseth in vita Doni the church of RaueÌ„na in Italy complained thereof and vntill pope Donus time which vvas seuenty yeares after it coulde not bee brought to tolerate and like of it Otho Frisingensis lib. 6. Cap. 35. an ancient historiographer speaking of Gregory the seuenth commonly called Hild ebrand and his proceedings against the Emperour Henry not only to excommunicate him but also to depose him saith Lego relego Romanorum regum Imperatorum gesta c. 〈◊〉 read and read againe the acts of the Romane kings and Emperours and yet before this I finde none of them of the Romane Bishop excommunicated or depriued of his kingdome But â—f we read Sigebert Abbas Vrspergensis H. Mutius and others vve shall finde that the same Bishop for this his Antichristian pride and other faultes that hee had vvas not onely wonderfully vvithstoode and oppugned by that Emperour but by councels also then held at Brixia Mentz and Wormes sharpely rebuked condemned and desposed And though hee hauing thus begunne to encroch vpon the Emperour many of his successours follovved him in his very steps yet we read also in Cronicles that Henrie the fifte Fredericke the first and
alwaies demonstrable succession of such â—â—â—â—sters in the Church without interruption as these metaphorâ—â—â—â—scribe And yet I deny not but that alwaies in one place or ot◠〈◊〉 the Church hath had from the beginning thereof and shall haue 〈◊〉 the ende of the world such and so many ministers whereby the L◠〈◊〉 hath alwaies and will continue the life thereof but that this plâ—â—â— of Matthew proueth so much which is yet far lesse then you 〈◊〉 enforce vpon it I deny Notwithstanding I graunt that all 〈◊〉 faithfull pastours and teachers according to the nature of their â—â—ling and measure of their gifts so far forth as they therein haue â—â—â—thing common with the Apostles and are found like vnto theÌ„ 〈◊〉 also in some sort haue these things applied vnto them vnderstâ—â—â— of them but then withall it must be noted and alwaies remembrâ—â— that as there was and is diuersity of gifts and offices in sundry â—â—spects betwixt the Apostles and common pastours and teachers 〈◊〉 it must follow that there is proportionable difference betwixt the apparent light and visiblenes of the one and the other The Apostles were by their office appointed to preach to all nations Math. 28. 〈◊〉 therefore worthely called in that respect the light of the world and by their extraordinary giftes they were set vp as burning lampes and mighty cities to be seene discerned a farre off whereas Bishops Pastours Doctours haue charges limited vnto them but of final compasse and giftes but such as if they giue true light and be seene of those that be about them and neare vnto them it is well Howsoeuer certaine it is as I saied before that Christ doeth not there prophecy or foreshew how visible lightsome his Pastours teachers should be from time to time to the worlds end but he teacheth his Disciples and Apostles what by his grace they should be and so others succeeding them in the office of teaching what they ought according to their place to striue to bee And I would haue this marked also that euen they to whom Christ spake properly were but tolde that there light should lighten those of the house and that a citty built on a hill though it be not hid to those that are â—eare vnto it yet to those that dwell in another cuntrey farre of it may bee hid and that therefore though this place were as properly to be vnderstood of al true Pastors as of the Apostles that yet â—t inferreth not that their persons and light should bee seene and â—iscerned but of them that be nigh them or ioined with them in the â—ame house or communion of religion And as for that in the 4 to the Eph. though it proue that there shall be teachers in the Church to gather togither the Saintes and to edifie the body of Christ vntill it be brought to perfection yet it proueth not therefore your visibility of them neither doeth that in the 62 of Esay For it onely sheweth that God would blesse his Church with watchfull and discreet pastours which accordingly after he performed But there is nothing saied to proue that they and their succession in the truth should be so visible apparent as you dreame of But to awake you out of this dreame you must heare and vnderstand that though it be as certaine that neither the trueth nor teachers thereof hath at any time or shal hereafter vtterly faile or cease to be in the Church as it is that the Church if selfe coÌ„tinueth euer neuer quite ceaseth yet thereupon it followeth not that therefore both the trueth and teachers thereof haue so continued a personall succession one vnto another or one immediatly after another and are withal so visible and apparent that their names and places may straight not onely then but alwaies after of euery one as you vpon these places would infer be pointed and painted out And for the confirmation proofe hereof let vs briefely take a view of the state of the Church froÌ„ time to time as it is set downe vnto vs in the holy Scriptures And in this point let vs beginne with the Church when in respect of all the former times it was best setled began to haue the most visible apparence namely when vnder the conduict by the seruice of Iosua God had placed it in Canaan After this though God therein had established a Priesthood tied it Leuit. 10. by his ordinaÌ„ce promise to the tribe of Leui though the Church theÌ„ had most notable promises of Gods presence fauour towards it Psal 68.2 Chro. 33.2 Chr. 7. Esa 60.62.63 yet for al this for the sinnes iniquities of the people it was driueÌ„ ofteÌ„ into those streights that successioÌ„ of priests pastors was interrupted of the teachers of the professors of the trueth there could hardly be made demoÌ„stration For in the time of the iudges that followed Iosua as it appeareth in the booke of theÌ„ Cap. 10.13 c. it had many such ecclipses that we read ther of their general Idolatry other sinnes therefore of their slauery vnder heatheÌ„ princes in Gods iustice laied vpoÌ„ theÌ„ diuers times for many yeares togither in the meane time we finde little mention either of priest or people that feared God aright And in Elies time 1. Sa. 2. the priesthood al grew so corrupt that therefore by Samuel Elie is threatned that the priesthood notwithstanding Gods promise Leu. 10. should be traÌ„slated froÌ„ his house after we read Cap. 4. that the very Arke of God was lost takeÌ„ of the Philistines And it canot be denied but the God had his church in Israel in king Achabs time For Obadiah had theÌ„ hid 100 prophets in two caues 1. King 18. God himselfe told Eliah that he had 7000 there that had not bowed their knees vnto Baal Cap. 19. yet Eliah though there theÌ„ a prophet was so far froÌ„ being able to name theÌ„ to point out who they were what they were the he thought himselfe in that kingdome to be left alone And in the kingdome of Iudah where in coÌ„parison of the kingdome of the ten tribes the Church vsually had a more visible estate yet in the latter end of Salomons raigne RehobohaÌ„s Ahiiahs the estate thereof was so growen out of order that the prophet Azariah saied vnto king Asa their next successour there hauing relatioÌ„ to the state of the Church in the kingdoÌ„ as suÌ„dry good interpreters take his words now for a long seasoÌ„ Israel hath bene without the true God without priest to teach without law 2. Chr. 15. Be like then their successioÌ„ their naÌ„es were not so visible as you seeme to imagin alwaies they must be in the Church And though by Asa his son Iehosaphat the church was wel reformed again yet in king Ahaz time as appeareth 2. Chr. 28.2 King 16. grosse Idolatry ouerspred the kingdoÌ„e so that the teÌ„ple was