againe I require the voice of the sheepheard read me this matter out of the Prophets read it out of the Psalms read it out of the law read it out of the Gospel read it out of the Apostles writings in his book de pastoribus c. 14. and so likewise conclude with him I owe my consent without gainsaying onely vnto the canonicall scriptures .. cap. 61. de naturâ gratiâ and according to these bookes of the scriptures we haue learned of him to iudge freely of all other writings lib. 2 cap. 29. contra Cresconium The fathers are full of such places whereby any man may see that by their very good leaue we are not to be pressed to beleeue or receaue any thing not taught in the scriptures vpon their bare authority and therefore these and such like places in them considered if you would haue had their names the places you cite in them to haue in sadnes bred any sound credit to any of these foure points you alleadge them for either should you haue warraÌ„ted them by good proofe out of the scriptures your selfe or haue shewed vs how they proued them consonant at the least to the same Howbeit because you shall not abuse the Reader to make him thinke that the fathers you name for these matters are further of your opinion then they be indeede as I haue not refused to examine your opinion and the places you send vs vnto for your ceremonies so will I for the Christian readers sake take the paines to deale with you for in al your other 3 opinions of confession praier to Saints for the dead with it your seueral quotations set down for the proofe of the same To go on therefore according to my course begun for confession before the receiuing of the sacrameÌ„t you saie first our sauiour Christ doeth teach vs that the ecclesiasticall ministers haue authority to binde and to forgiue sins and for proofe hereof you set in your margent Iohn 20. Mat. 16. I am sure here by confession that you speake of you meane your auricular confession wherof your Tridentine councel taketh such care that that in the 6 7 and 8 Canon thereof touching this matter it solemnely anathematizeth al those that hold auricular confession not to be necessary to saluation by the law of God saying that it is but the deuise of man Which they there haue defined to be a secret reckoning vp vnto the priest of al mortal sins at the least with al their circumstances whereof by due premeditation the party can haue any remembrance whereunto they bind all persons aboue certaine yeares of both sexes at least once in the yeare and that namely in lent before their receiuing at Easter Now this confession your schoolmen and doctours do teach must be made so fullie and exactly that no sin nor circumstance thereof must be coÌ„cealed for then therby al the labour is lost and the absolutioÌ„ frustrated from al the rest Which doctrine cannot chuse but a number of waies proue a needles and a desperate tormenting of coÌ„scieÌ„ces For first it laieth vpoÌ„ them an ineuitable necessity not onelie to doe that which God neuer required at their hands but also that which either is simply impossible vnto theÌ„ to doe for the multitude of their sins and circumstances thereof or else impossible for them to doe in such maner as that they can satisfie themselues that they haue omitted no piece of due premeditation to call all their sins the circuÌ„stances thereof that they should coÌ„fesse to their remeÌ„braÌ„ce which a nuÌ„ber of your owne side most deuoutly giueÌ„ to doe this in the best maner haue bene enforced to confesse Yet this confession before the sacrament though indeed it bee a thing that hath no ground or warrant at all in the Scriptures but was as both Iohannes Scotus libro 4. sententiarum Distict 17. art 3. and Anton part 3. histatit 19 doe confesse first imposed as necessary by the Lateran councel in InnoceÌ„t the thirds time about the year of the Lord one thousand 2 hundred and fifteene you here would seeme to couÌ„tenaÌ„ce by two places of scripture co begin withal But your betters haue thought otherwise of this your kinde of confession For your glosse de paenitentiâ Distinct 5. Cap. in principio confesses plainely that it came in rather by some tradition then either by authority of the olde testament or new which tradition he saieth yet ought to binde the West Church to vse it though not the Greekes East Church which haue it not And Beatus Rhenanus in his notes vpon Tertullians booke of repentance forasmuch as hee findeth not therein anie mention hereof not onely gathered that it was not in vse then but also hee sheweth that he thought it came in after grew of the mislike of the inconueniences of the continuance of publicke confessions made in the publicke assembly in the hearing of al the congregation vsed seuerally in the former times And Soto coÌ„tra BreÌ„tiuÌ„ reckoneth vp both your other two points following of praying to Saints and for the dead this also amongst the things grouÌ„ded but vpon the vnwriten word or tradition You had therefore delt both more wisely and more simply honestly if of these and such other great Rabbins of your side you had learned to fetch the ground of this your confession from any where els rather then from the scriptures But seeing you will seeme to haue found that ground for it there which they could not let vs a little consider how fâ—ly now the places you quote serue your turne You meane I am sure both by your words and quotations that Christs doing and saying to his Apostles set downe by Matthew John in the places you quote in these words to thee speaking namely in the first place to Peter I wil giue the keies of the kingdoÌ„e of heaueÌ„ whatsoeuer thou shalt binde in earth shal be bound in heauen whatsoeuer thou loosest in earth shal be loosed in heaueÌ„ And in the other he breathed vpoÌ„ theÌ„ and saied receiue yee the holy Ghost whose sins yee remit they are remitted whose sins yee retaine they are retained Wherby indeed it is euident that our Sauiour first promised to Peter in the name of al the rest after gaue to al his faithful Apostles first the gift of the holy Ghost and then power and authority to vse the â—eies of the kingdome of heauen to binde and loose and to remit retaine sinnes which power and authority they most faithfully and effectually vsed whiles faithfully they preached saluation to the peniteÌ„t beleeuer and denouÌ„ced damnation to the impenitent vnbeleeuers with all duety as they saw cause vsing the censures of the Church of admonition rebuking suspending and excommunicating though they were neuer acquainted with your auricular confession And likewise the same power is exercised by the Lords faithfull ministers in his church still not by the helpe of your
as you are and that hee suffered death to sustaine your Religion Then let vs see what good fruit this did produce vnto vs those that haue writen the stories of Boheme and among others d Your authour you know was a great papist and afterwardes a Pope therfore worthily he is to be suspected as a partiall reporter and yet cap. 35. before he is enforced to coÌ„fesse that the Senate had secretly murdered so many of those that called the Pope Antichrist that the bloud of theÌ„ running out of the gate bewraied it whereupon this and some other extremities followed Aeneas Siluius doe testifie that in the yeare of our Lorde God 1418. there was a certaine monke that became an Hussite in the citty of Prage which is the Metropolitane of that kingdome the which accompanied with a number of companions as zelous as himselfe they did execute so horrible a cruelty that eleuen of the principall magistrates were driuen to flye from the Citty to saue their liues and seuen more for in all they were 18. being taken by them they did cast them out at the windowes of their owne houses and did kill them with their speares as they fell This was done Sigismondus being then Emperour in the time of Martin the first Pope of Rome of that name Vneslaus being then king of Boheme The next yeare after the death of this saied Vneslaus they did spoile a This al is too much and more then either your authour or the euidence of the matter wil beate by far al the monasteries Abbeies and Churches of of the saied kingdome And among others one Iohn Zischa who was their captaine in the Cittie of Prage he made them all passe through the edge of the sworde without sparing man woman or childe And the like was done in another towne of the saied kingdome called Messim the yeare 1423. It were too tedious to write all their cruelties they did not care whither those of their coÌ„pany were of their sect or no b This is your slander for any thing that I can see in your author or any where else but indeed no pâ—ople sâ— barbarous but you caÌ„ finde in your hearts to vsâ— them against good Christians yea he hath bene a Pope of Rome that hath betraied a Christian Emperour into the hâ—ndâ— of the Turkes for so dealt Gregory 9. with the Emperâ—ur Fredericke witnes Caspinian for some were Idumeans some Palestines some Moabites and some other Amelecites euen as of your bountifull goodnesse ye call all those that will not be of your sect Papists Infidels Hypocrites Idolaters and therefore we may iustly saie that you are their right heares apparent although yee haue gone somewhat before them and as our sauiour saied accomplished the measures of your fathers by the heroicall acts that you haue done in this c You may wholy thanke your selues for the desolate estate of France almost desolate kingdome of France there needeth no other witnes to proue it but the testimonie of your owne eies and eares which haue hearde and seene more almost then any man can write Therefore I beseech you not to reproch any more the abuses of our ecclesiasticall ministers for although it be so that they haue neede of some reformation yet I doe thinke it is necessarie to choose some better staied persons then you are d If you may be iudge this wil easily be the sentence for you haue done more harme in fiue yeares then ours haue done in 1500. S. Augustine in the first booke of the cittie of God e Capite 1. you might haue added doeth magnifie in the Christians behalfe the diuine fauour of God for he doeth write that when the Gothes did destroie and spoile the citty of Rome the Romans although they were not Christians did retire themselues for their sauegard into the churches and Temples of the martyrs And the Gothes being but a barbarous nation had that respect to God that they neuer durst nor would enter into those holy places to doe them any displeasure f It is a wonder that yoâ— that haue so openly slaiâ—e thousands in Châ—rches since your most barbarous and faithles massacres of late in France began as it is notoriously knowen not yet beyond the memory of man in Merindall and Cabriers should yet bee so impudent to obiect this to vs as a fault which yet you haue not proued to haue beene committed by vs wherein you glory as a vertue You which make so great profession of the Gospell haue shewed your selues a great deale more cruell then those barbarous people for they did pardon all those that went to the Temples and you haue in manie places spoiled the churches and murdered al those that yee found in them so that one might well saie to you that that Optatus Myleuitanus in his booke con Parm. Donatist the which was that the Donatists ought to be content you likewise to haue wounded the members of the Church and to haue deuided the people of God f If you would haue learned this lesson it had beene well with vs. at the lest you should haue spared the alters and the teÌ„ples not to make warre against the stones The XXXV Chapter NOw in this you craue the keies to enter by into our garden to visite our trees that so you maie see the fruites of our religion hauing gotten in in your owne pleasant conceit after you had cast your eies about you and looked a while vpon our trees first you bid vs read all the stories since Christ and tell vs that so doing wee shal finde that all those sects that haue left your Romish Religion or Church haue done more mischiefe in one yeare being seperated from you then they did in an hundreth before Now doing as you will vs we finde indeed great hurt hath beene done by the ancient heretiques for the space of six hundred yeares that haue seperated themselues from the Roman Church that then was but withall we finde that our Church is farre liker that Church then your Roman Church that now is and since what hurt soeuer hath beene done by one or other that haue seperated themselues froÌ„ you though we challenge not communioÌ„ with euery one that hath so done your owne doings we finde in stories hath far exceeded theirs in al kinde of impiety Thus hauing in these general words set a good face vpoÌ„ it as though you could say very much of the bad fruites which you finde growing of our Religion you beginne at the yeare 1418 with the sturs in Bohemia laying to our charge the murdering of seuen magistrates of Prage by a certaine Monke and his companions sundry other things done by Iohn Zischa and his army in the time of those warres there then you lay to our charge also once againe al the troubles of late in France preferring vs for cruelty before the Goathes that conquered Rome and yet spared their Temples and those that
what they list Their doctrine also of satisfaction for sinne in that they allow sprinkling of holy water going on pilgrimage doing of this outwarde trifling thing or that which easily may be done of any carnal man to be good satisfactory meane◠to answere God withal for their sinnes how can it be otherwise but the people measuring and iudging of sinne according therevnto must needs thinke sinne that can be satisfied for so easily and lightly to be but a sleight matter Their doctrine also of eare shrist is likewise a meanes to acquaint their single priestes with all the lewd huswiues in their parishees and so an acquainting of them with the trickes waies how and the parties with whom they may commit filthinesse Yea their forced single life as experience notoriously hath taught hath infected earth and aire with monstrous vncleannesse of the flesh both inward and outward naturall vnnaturall with infinite murders of poore infantes the better still to hide their iniquity And while they teach that simple fornication is not so ill in their clergy as to vse a lawfull wife that the first inwarde motions to sinne or concupiscence not consented vnto be no sinnes that manie sinnes euen for their owne littlenes are veniall not worthy of damnation they make men secure for these and so the fitter bolder to go on in the rest Their doctrine and practise of dispēsations and pardons for money for clergy and people almost for any thing is and must needs be the roote and fountaine of wonderful many abhominations Their doctrine of sanctuaries priuiledges exemptiōs and immunities of their clergy others are very great occasions of sinne and impiety Lastly the ambition pride tyranny pompe gluttony wantonnes and insatiable couetousnes of their Popes Cardinals and Prelats makes al whom they bewich with their religion to thinke that they are not to be blamed if in these things they imitate then their holy fathers marueilously are they incouraged to continue and spend their daies in these in al other sinnes when as by their doctrine they are put in hope if they die beleeuing blindly as the church beleeues providing of their goods which they must needs leaue behind them somwhat liberally that masses dirges trentals may be saied and song for them and that such other things done as thē their ghostly father shal appoint them that in the end they shall doe well enough how loosely and lewdly soeuer otherwise they liued before The second point also is many waies cleare and apparent For first by their doctrine of their Popes supremacy where it is in the full force Emperours Kings Queenes are thereby made and marde at their pleasure they must not thinke scorne of most base seruice and subiection to them their subiectes shall be bound to pay them tribute no longer or to yeelde them any maner of other duety further then they list yea it shall be lawfull for them to conspire against their naturall Princes by any meanes they can to deuise to depriue thē both of their liues and kingdome if so the Pope cōmaund them Nay not onely vpon the Popes cōmandement and pardon shall this of them bee counted lawfull and meritorious but if any of his ovvne motion vndertake such a thing of a deuout minde to his holmes and religion the incouragement and absolution of euery Masse-priest shall be sufficient to iustifie the action and to cause the party that hath done it to be canonized a Saint for his labour Further for the establishing of this archpiller of popery their Popes supremacy Princes are depriued of the election of their Prelates and they are by oath so obliged to the Pope and so freed from the iurisdiction of their lawfull Prince that they may and dare beard their Princes and howsoeuer they wil take liberty to enioy great promotions vnder them yet in effect they are no subiectes vnto them but rather altogither stand at the deuotion of this forraine Potentate Secondly by the pretended right of this their supremacy for the better maintenaunce of the swelling pompe thereof to the great weakning of Christian states they haue taken vpon thē and yet doe when they may be suffred by their annates Peeter-pence Paul-fees first-fruits tenths lones oppressions taxations impositions and infinite such other deuises sauoring of nothing else but of insatiable couetousnes to cōuey away the treasure riches and wealth of euery cuntrey from out of it to Rome And by this their supremacy they haue first weakned after rent in two lastly brought in effect to nothing the glorious Roman Empire that so the better they might haue roome to grow vp in and that for their sins in the iustice of God Christendome might the more easily become a pray to the Turke Thirdly by the deuise of their Auricular Cōfession they haue and may haue most perfect intelligence of the secretes of all states where they haue to doe then which can any thing in these outward things bee more dangerous to the safe and good estate of Princes Fourthly by the force of single life they haue caused priuies and ponds such other by corners to swallowe vp and destroy in euery Christian kingdome where they ruled as many infants as might being growen to be men haue beene able in the fielde to defend there Prince and cuntrey against all the enemies thereof vvhich vvhat a vveakning to Christian Princes and their kingdomes it hath beene vvho seeth not These thinges therefore considered it is to bee marueiled that any Christian state can or will tolerate either them or their religion in it And as for the last point that so their religion might fit the title appointed it by the Spirit of God that is that indeede it might proue it selfe to be 2. Thess 2. a very mistery of iniquity euen throughout vnder the shevv of holinesse and deuotion they alvvaies haue hid nourished and maintained grosse iniquity and haue aymed at nothing more then at their owne pompe and aduantage For their doctrines of free-vvill of mans ablenesse to keepe and ouer keepe the law of God of merits satisfaction for our selues or others aliue or dead of the mediation of Saints or Angels and their doctrines that the Pope cannot erre that he hath such supremacy as they giue him and that the scriptures haue their sence and authority from his allowance thereof howsoeuer they paint these things with the goodly shewes of care to prouoke and incourage men to good works and with deuotion to Saint Peter the mother church yet who is so simple or weake sighted but that through these colours hee may and doth discerne God his sonne Christ blasphemously robbed of that which is their right man to be occasioned to swell with a conceyt of his owne ability and that the final marke that all this tēds vnto is by the selling of other folkes ouerplus merits and satisfactions vnder and in the names of pardons to enrich the Pope
they haue for Vrbanus the sixth Pope before this Gregory the ninth hauing caused a Cardinall of his in one day to â—epose rack torment and spoile all the Prelates of Cicilia because they would not aide him according to his minde against his Amipope Clement 7. was by this way easily entreated within a very short time to let into their roomes 32. new Bishops Archbishops Priests how ignorant he cared not so that otherwise they would be of his faction and satisfy his humour as the foresaied authour testifieth And Platina in the life of Siluester the third 300. yeares before either of these to note both the antiquity and dissent of this ordinary way by occasion of Benedict the ninth his selling of his Papacy to Gregorie the sixth for 1500 l. as some write many like tricks that he belike had obserued amongst them through the notorious euidence of the thing is enforced to write that then euen the Papacy it selfe was come to that point that hee that would goe beyond others not in holines of life and learning but in large giuing and ambition he onely the good being oppressed and reiected should attaine to that degree of dignity which fashion I would to God sometimes saieth hee our times had not retained And when hee hath saied thus he addeth but this is but litle we shall vnles god preuent it see hereafter sometimes far worse things This man liued and florished in the time of Paulus 2. who was Pope aboue 400. yeares after Syluester the third surely herein he was al the world knoweth both a true reporter and prophet and since it hath not beeâ— better but rather worse eueÌ„ from the head to the foote in that kingdome of the Pope His testimony cannot but presse them of thâ— Religion and Synogog very much because it is well knowen thâ— hee both for his office and opinion was very partiall of that side Wherefore euen these things considered euery man seeth that thouâ—â— it were grauÌ„ted you that your Bishops Priests haue entred alâ—â— time some ordinary coÌ„moÌ„ way that yet thereby would arise a verâ— slender iustification of their maner of comming to their offices Yâ—â— in this case somewhat further to pose you and to presse you the râ—â—der is further to be aduertised that beside the most ancient and 〈◊〉 pure ordinary way of entring of Church officers vsed and continâ—â—â— in the primatiue Church vntil Constantines time at the least theâ—â— haue since according to the varietie of times and diuersitie of theâ—â— states of the Church bene sundry other things appointed prescrâ—bed by the decrees of sinods councels ordinarily to be obserued 〈◊〉 the election ordinatioÌ„ of such officers which haue most ordinarilâ— bene broken and neglected in the entraÌ„ce vpon their offices of 〈◊〉 of yours now these many years For proofe whereof I refer the reâ—der no further but to the coÌ„sideration first of your maner of coÌ„miâ—â— to your places for these last three or foure hundreth years to thâ—â— canons that your owne frend GratiaÌ„ concerning this matter hâ—â— hudled together dist 61. 62. 63. for going no further thereby shâ—â—â— he finde in that the consent of the Emperour the assent of the people the peaceable and orderly election of the cleargie hath beeâ— a long time wanting in many of yours that indeede you caÌ„not trâ—ly saie that such of your Church officers haue entred by any ancient ordinary way either prescribed by the word or the ancient canons of the Church of a long time Now the election of your Popes is onely by the Cardinals which to be the ordinarie way of their entrance was first deuised and enacted in Nicolas the second time as it is noted dist 23. which was a 1000. yeares and more after Christ and after vnder AlexaÌ„der the third it was further confirmed in a Lateran councell held in his time about the yeare 117â— Nicolas the first began Hadrian the third concluded the quite remouing and shutting out of the Emperour from their election which was about the yeare of the Lord 889. Iohn 19. first shut oâ—â— â—he people about the yeare 1003. And so then about 70. yeares after his decree of Nicolas the second was made If therefore including our Bishops of Rome you meane by the ordinary way of their enâ—rance this decreed by Pope Nicolas the second then they that â—ere before entred not by that ordinary way And if you looke vâ—on his decree well the decrees of others since made to back that â—ou shall finde not halfe the Popes that haue beene since to haue enâ—red orderly Yea in reading of the stories of the Church the deâ—rees of the councels and your owne Canon lawe though I finde â—t the least that there hath beene since Constantine a sixe or seuen â—euerall ordinarie waies decreed and vsed for their entrance yet I â—an hardly finde that three Bishops of Rome succeeding one anoâ—her immediately did orderlie in euery respect enter the ordinarie â—â—aie then in force and vse For whereas I finde that the Empeâ—ours and the Princes of Italy or his deputy in his absence by cuâ—tome their owne right interest and authority therein and after by â—he decrees of Hadrian the first about the yeare 773. and of Leo Clement in three seuerall councels in their times consented vnto â—ore a principall stroke therein a great while yet whiles that was â—ecessary in the ordinarie way of entrance thereunto I finde that many entred not onely without their consent but quite contrary to â—heir mindes as one may reade in the liues of Pelagius the 2. Stephen the 4. HadriaÌ„ the 2. Martin the 2. Hadrian the 3. and diuers oâ—hers And likewise whereas sometimes as in the time of Constantine the 4. by the Emperours owne conseÌ„t other sometime without his consent as by the decree of Pope Stephen the 4. the Emperour was not to meddle therein but onely the cleargy people of Rome yet euen then the stories shew that sundry had their entraÌ„ce not only not without but altogether by the meanes of the Emperours yea after the decree of HadriaÌ„ the 3. many yeares Likewise though for the auoiding of braules contentions in the election of the Roman Prelates Leo the 8. gaue absolute authority to the Emperour to chuse the Pope about the yeare 994. in Clement the 2. time vpon that consideration the Romans themselues also gaue ouer their right therein vnto him insomuch that besides others Leo the ninth and Victor the second had the place by his absolute authority yet euen whiles this stoode as the ordinary waie agreed vpon manie entered otherwise To bee briefe I dare confidentlie set it downe for I am able to proue it by their owne storie writers how often soeuer they haue varied and altered their ordinarie way of entering vnto that place sometimes by admitting the Emperours consent thereunto sometimes by shutting it out quite sometime by giuing him his due right and sometime more and
sometime lesse or howsoeuer in like sort they haue varied both as touching the Clergy and the people that should haue to deale therein wherein they haue had as many diuersities as about the former or finally whatsoeuer concerning other circumstances of their election they haue thought good to adde or detract from the ordinary way before in force they haue neither long continued anie one ordinary waie neither during the time of the continuance thereof haue they followed inviolably that waie And as it hath beene with that chiefe Sea of theirs so hath it bene with other inferiour places so that no constancie hath beene in anie of their ordinarie waies of entrance nor yet anie due care either carefully to obserue the canōs of the scripture the canons of the Church or their owne decrees made for that purpose In their late councell of Trent by sundry canons and Chapters therein set downe it appeares that they there assembled considering what horrible abuses there had beene in the election and ordination of vnfit Bishops and Priests amongst thē thought it most needeful to preuēt the like for the time to come to deuise to enact sūdry holesōe canons to breed a learned preaching ministrie and to procure an election and ordination thence forth for them as free from corruption as in their wisedomes they could conceaue but yet who knows not but that those canōs haue since bine and yet are as carelesly lookt vnto and herein kept amongst them as though they had neuer beene made Wherefore to conclude this point let Albine and neuer so many more of them brag that they enter by the ordinary way vnles thereby he meane a way that ordinarily is naught and corrupt he speaketh more then euer he can proue and so therein hath saied nothing to proue the comming of their Bishops and Priests vnto their places to be lawfull and good And yet if we will beleeue him their Bishops and Priests are right Bishops and Priests but if it be true as it must needes bee that they can not be so who neither haue a lawfull way of entraunce to their offices nor yet their offices are themselues of Gods ordinance then it is apparant euen by that which I haue saied already that neither their Bishops nor Priestes are right Bishops nor Priests Their Bishops from the highest to the lowest by their vsage and practise chalenge and take vnto themselues an office of another essence and nature then the office that Christ and his Apostles haue left and prescribed to true Bishops and so likewise is it with their Priests For one vniuersall and head Bishop ouer all others such as they take their Pope to be Christ neuer ordeined for he made all his Apostles by giuing them all equall one and selfesame commission his officers equallie to beare for their times the generall and vniuersall care of ouersight ruling ordering and directing his Church and to bring it to full perfection ascending into heauen when he was disposed this waie in bestowing Church officers vpon his Church by the ministery of his word and sacraments to consummate it vnto the ende besides these as inferiour ministers hee gaue onely as you may read Ephesians the fourth Euāgelists Prophets Pastours teachers where neither your Popes Cardinals nor Masse-priests are once remēbred The matter wherein the full execution of the off ce of al the ministeries cōsisteth that Christ hath left vnto his Church is duely soūdly to feede Gods people committed vnto them with heauenly foode by painefull and diligent preaching vnto them the word of God and ministring vnto them the sacraments and rightly and oderly to gouerne the Churches of Christ by the administration of ecclesiasticall order and discipline which are things that the greatest and fattest in your Romish Synagog thinke themselues little or no whit at all bound vnto These things are too base matters for your Popes to be occupied about their office consists and therefore they accordingly must busie themselues in other matters as namely in making and marring in setting vp putting downe seculer Princes as they call them in studying by all meanes faire and foule to mainetaine and to enlarge their authority and patrimony in deuising by a thousād waies though neuer so couetously tyrānously insatiably to gather together infinite sums of money to buy or to winne by force of armes great principalities for their bastards nephews and neeces to spend in the persecuting subduing better Christiās thē thēselues to build sumptuous pallaces banquetting houses temples to shroud idolatry idols in costly beutified the better to intice men for their further aduantage to commit spirituall whoardome with them In and about these things your Popes now these many 100. yeares haue spent their wits all these parts of the world and all Croniclers of any credit can and wil testify If they haue any leasure from these affaires then they must shewe themselues not to haue beene idle and fruitlesse in deuising some newe ceremonie in adding some patch or other to their Church seruice in proclaiming the crosse against the Turke for the recouery of the holy land in publishing some Iubile and indulgences in setting vp some new order of Religious men for the better support of their kingdome or at least in plotting and contriuing some conspiracy or trecherous deuise to supplant and murther some Christian Prince that hath drawen or is like to draw his people from their Antichristian Religion And your other Bishops occupation lieth most in blessing with their fingers in consecrating of their vnholy holie Chrisme in christening of belles and Churches in ordering vnorderlie and contrary to their owne canōs of an idolatrous and new found sort of Priests in running vp downe fondly and superstitiously to minister the sacrament as they count it of confirmation scarse the tythe of them euer had either skill or will to preach And as for your Cardinals as they are of an order but of a late deuise so by their behauiour we can not iudge their office to lie in any thing else but to serue the Popes turne for the better setting forth of his magnificence at home and to bee his agents in forraine kingdomes the easelier to contriue his purposes their They are and haue beene a long time their first natiuity considered notable fellowes to haūt and maintaine the stewes at Rome and to deuoure and to consume in ryot vanity and impiety all the Bishopricks and benefices that they could heape together without any care for the good of the people and the vse of them hath beene to brawle and to breede scismes in choosing of Popes and to stur al coales and to moue euery stone as fast as they could one after another to thrust into that place Now to come to your ordinary Priestes though the matter of teaching and ministring of sacraments especiallie was posted ouer vnto them and vnto Friers yet either were they not able to doe it which was
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
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
Now betwixt Iohn Wicklifes tyme and the florishing of Iohn Hus which was about the yeare 1410 very many both here and elsewhere for following Wicklife were persecuted as namely here in England William Swinderley Walter Brute William Sautry Iohn Badby and William Thorpe whereof diuerse were most cruellie burned Then when Iohn Hus and Hierome of Prage had beene burnt at the councell of Constance for taking the like course in Boemia that Iohn Wicklife his fellowes had done before here in England about the yeare 1417 the religion that we now professe began to gather so great strength in Boemia that the professours therof were able not onely to defend themselues by force of armes from the intended oppressions against them by the Bishop of Rome and his adherentes but also to get many glorious victories against the strongest powers that the pope could raise against them Now from the yeare 1410 when Hus began to florish vnto Luthers tyme 1517 wonderful many both there in Boemia here in Englād and elsewhere continually rose vp and stoode forth euen vnto the death against popery in the profession of our religion Amōgst whō here in England at one tyme in the yeare 1413 there were burned in Saint Giles fielde vnder the name of Lollardes 36. Amōgst whom Sir Roger Acton Knight Master Iohn Browne and Master Iohn Beuerley were put to death After 1415 Richard Claydon and Richard Turning were burnt in Smithfield about this tyme 16. of name were persecuted in Kent and very many in other places of this Land Within a while after in the yeare one thousand foure hundred twenty two William Tailor was burnt here and two yeares after that William White was burne and betwixt that time and the yeare 1430 father Abraham of Colchester Iohn Waddon and Richard Houeden were burnt And about that time Paul Crow a Bohemiā was burnt there Thomas Rhodonensis at Rome And ere Luther beganne to preach against the Pope and his doctrine from the yeare one thousand foure hundred and thirty here suffered for the same religion that we now preach and embrace amongst many others Richard Wich Iohn Goose one Babran one Ierome and others with him Iames Marden William Tilsworth one Father Roberts and Sir Iohn Olde-castle the Lord Cobham Now since Luther I hope you will not deny but the nūber of them that are on our side against you euen in these Westerne parts cary such a visible shew that you cannot but heare and see the multitudes thereof round about you at home and abroad to be such that I dare say your harts begin to feare that if the number increase but a while longer as it hath done of late your Romā prelate is like to turne vp his heeles to leese his glory in these westerne parts aswel as hee hath done long ago in the Easterne cuntries And therefore you cannot but likewise thinke that he doth very wisely prouidently to send before hand as he doth his Ihesuits amōgst the sauage and wilde Indians to prepare him there a new kingdome against he hath lost his old here For not onely vnder your owne noses in Italie and Spaine and elsewhere wheresoeuer your antichristian tyranny causeth your religion to haue outward and publicke allowance to your griefe you see doe what you can our religion findeth still many constant confessours euen vnto death and hath done now these many yeares but also you know that so many kingdomes and cuntries haue giuen yet doe open allowance to ours and defyance to yours as antichristian that by this time you cannot but see your old argument of vniuersality groweth fast to be out of date force with you and beginneth a pace to stand on our side For euē in these Westerne parts our doctrine is embraced and professed and hath beene now a good while with the allowance of publicke authority and yours openly defaced writen and preached against as antichristian in the kingdomes of England Ireland Scotland Denmarke Sweden and France likewise in Bohemia and in Polonia in diuers whole territories Dukedomes in Holand and Zeland and in the Prince of Russia his dominions And besides who knoweth not that in like maner it is now hath beene long in the Dukedome of Saxonie and of Brunswicke in the dominions of the Palsgraue of Rhene the Dukedome of Wittenberg in the territories of the Lantgraue of Hessia and the Marques of Brandeburge besides the great common weals of Heluetia Rhetia Vallis Tellina and the cuntries of diuers other noble men in other places of Germany and elsewhere But they that hereby sufficiently doe not perceiue the folly falshood of your saying that before Luther we can name none to haue beene of this mind I refer them for further confutation of that your shamelesse vntrueth vnto Illiricus Catalogue of the witnesses of the trueth to the Centuries of them of Magdeburge and to master Foxes Actes and monumēts of the Church where they shal finde not onely much of these thinges here briefly touched by me more at large set down but also further proofe out of good authors that this religion which wee nowe professe hath had alwaies since Christ to these dayes in once place or other both embracers and teachers of it And therefore though it hath not alwayes had so visible and glorious a succession of pompous ambitious and proud prelates as yours hath had for these later tymes since Antichrist grew to his pride and height yet it hath neuer beene without flockes and sheepheardes one going before another in the profession of our religion euen vp from our dayes vnto Christ But when for very shame conuicted with the force of the trueth you are driuen to confesse that in some parte it may be true that there were alwaies some that ioyned with vs yet to driue vs from alleadging their names and succession against you you say they yet helde so many different and lewde opinions that we cannot fetch any continuance to our faith or religion from them Whereunto I answer first that we are not to beleeue your reportes of them but their owne Apologies and writings whereby it appeareth that it hath bene alwaies your fashion the more thereby to discredit thē to charge them to holde a number of absurd opinions which they neuer held Besides I say though it may be in some points we and they differ yet as long as we they agree in the foūdation we haue learned to account them our brethren 1. Cor. 3. and so to ioyne with them in that which they hold well And lastly to driue you from this shift we tell you that if you will countenance your religion and Church with none but with those that agree with you fully in all pointes there is neuer an ancient father for 600 yeares no not any writer or pastour in the Church of any good credit for 1000 yeares that you may make any reckoning of that which then wil go very neare you euen
of himselfe For now in effect you tell vs that he came and did those thinges which hee did in his owne person not thereby in and by himselfe to beginne and finish our saluation but to merit by his doings and sufferings that these thinges done by vs and others for vs should bee the formall cause of our righteousnesse and so of our iustification and saluation So that now Christ is onely a Sauiour in meriting that these thinges which otherwise should neuer haue had that force and efficacy should haue a power to deserue and procure our saluation Is not this now a trimme office that you haue deuised for Christ that hee should bee a Sauiour onely in procuring habilitie to these thinges to saue What one iote of Scripture haue you for this Nay as the Scripture doeth manifestly take from workes yea euen from the morall and most righteous workes done by the faithfull after regeneration the office of iustifying as it may appeare in that Abrahams workes and Pauls when they were in that state though they were neuer so full of them are disallowed to haue any such effect Rom. 4.2 Phil. 3.8.9 so doeth it teach vs that Christ came not to make other persons or things to haue the office of sauing mens soules but to beginne and go thorowe that worke so himselfe as that no part of that glory shal be cōmunicated to any other person or thing For therein we reade that his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne body on the tree that by his stripes wee are healed 1. Pet. 2.24 so perfectly that it is writē Heb. 10.14 we are sanctified by the offring of the body of Iesus Christ once made with one offering hath he cōsecrated for euer thē that are sanctified Whereupon he calleth himselfe Alpha Omega Reuel 1.11 that is the first beginner and last accomplisher of our saluation or as it is saied Hebr. 12. the authour and finisher of our faith Whereas by this newe Iesuiticall diuinity in the matter of iustification and saluation Christ hath but so borne our sinnes in his owne bodie and offered himselfe to death for vs that howsoeuer thereby hee hath begunne to heale and cure vs the ending and finishing it must be by those other thinges and he hath done all this to no purpose vnles his worke begunne be ended by these things following in our selues and others O what intollerable blasphemie is this and into what a bottomles pitte of desperation doe these men the authours of this doctrine wilfully cast themselues For if the case stand so as they say how is it possible for any man at any time euer to haue a faith without wauering which kinde of faith S. Iames determineth to be fruitles Iam. 1. For when can any mā tell that he hath hit of all those things that are left besides Christs merits to accomplish the full merit for his saluation Or how can the soule of man stāding before the iudgement of God without any warrant from God and contrary to all reason perswade it selfe that it shall haue heauen for these things so full of imperfection and vanity if not impiety Further to proue that you deny Christ his owne office and pinne vpon him an office of your owne deuising it appeareth also in this that you will not let him be King Prophet Priest to his Church as the scriptures teach him to bee For neither will you suffer him to gouerne his kingdome according to his owne orders neither to teach his people onely with his own word nor to saue them onely by his own obedience and merits But in all these you crosse him in bringing in a number of fashions lawes and ordinances yea officers and offices into his house that he neuer saied Amen vnto in teaching men rather the traditions and inuentions of men then doctrine onely that hath warrant from his mouth and in setting vp a number of meanes to saluation besides him Now as for vs wee neither with the ancient heretiques nor yet with you hold any heresie concerning either his person or office For concerning the one we holde and beleeue that he is perfect God and perfect man and yet but one person consisting of those two natures and concerning the other that he is such a Sauiour as that he hath begun and finished whatsoeuer was necessary to merite or deserue our full saluation by And therefore when we haue done al the good workes that possibly by his grace we can yet though we know and beleeue that God will both accept of vs of those our good workes for his Christes sake for feare of robbing him of any part of that office that he tooke vpon him we dare not thinke that therby we haue any maner of way merited any part of our saluation That onely we seeke at his hands and through him and his merits alone we looke for it This doctrine in euery point hath warrant from the Scriptures and from all sound antiquity And this and the rest of our whole doctrine tendeth greatly to aduaunce the glory of God both in setting forth the seuerity of his iustice against sin euen to the least sin and the infinitenes of his free mercy in Christ and altogither to throw downe man vnder the burden of his sinnes both original and actual that he may seeke to rise againe not at all by any strength of his owne but onely by the grace of God in Christ Iesus Whereas yours contrarily tendeth to this end to lift vp man in a conceit of himselfe and to abscure both the iustice and the mercy of God As your doctrines of free will mans ability to keepe and ouerkeepe the law of veniall sinnes euen for the littlenes of them and of mans owne iustifying of himselfe may make most euident to them that consider of them And therfore seeing it is writen that God resisteth the proude giueth grace to the humble Iames. 4.6 and that it is his property to send away the rich empty and to fill the hungry with good thinges Luk. 1.53 to iustifie the publican to sende the pharisie home without Luk. 15. a great signe this is yea a good proofe that we rather then you are led by the spirit of God And as for these olde heretiques you are bound to beleeue vs rather then them because our doctrine not onely by the testimony of the Scriptures but also I dare say euen in your owne consciences is sounder both concerning the person and office of the Messias then theirs and thus you are answered both to your first and second question which you put vnto vs in this Chapter But yet you go on and say they alleadged Scriptures as well as we that we denie for they alleadged them corruptly to proue their heresies and would not be drawen to expound one Scripture by another but peeuishly vrged the literall or wrong sence of some hard places against the circumstances both of the same places and that which
is manifestly taught in others which is your fashion altogether and we alleadge them truely to confirme onely the trueth and therefore are very well contented that our interpretations should be tried by all soūd and good rules of interpreting Whereas you adde If we say they were heretiques and abused the scriptures c. the like report you say is of vs I say the more is their fault that so report of vs for they can neuer proue it Howbeit to make your report seeme the more probable you cōpare our dealings with theirs which by your saying are very like But the reader must be aduertised that you frame their speeches doings here without booke I meane without warrant of any good authour that reporteth these things of them euen of your owne head that so you may the better make their speeches and ours alike I praie you in what good authour did you euer reade and yet here you confidently aduoutch it that the Palagians Nouatians Nestorians c. who were long dead and buried before your Pope was hatched preached that the Pope was Antichrist It may be true that you write that some of them railed against the Roman Church that then was But alas what is this for your Romish Church now which is no more like that then then an apple is like an oister Indeede this is one of your trickes wherewith you coosen the poore simple people For it is the fashion of you all when you finde in any ancient father anie thing that soundeth to the credit of the Catholique church or to the commendation of the Roman Church in their daies to alleadge it as spoken in the commendation of your Romish church now a 1000. yeares after their death whereas there is more difference betwixt yours and that which they speake of in weighty materiall points of doctrine and discipline then in yeares If your Romish Church now would returne to the state of the ancient church of Rome and grow once like that you and we should soone agree For that is the thing that we will stand vpō with you that it is you in your railing vpon our churches that according to the fashion of these ancient heretiques raile vpon the church of Rome that then was rather then we For our churches are 1000. times more like it indeed thē yours as it is now Nether are you able to produce your authours to proue that these heretiques did at euery word alleadge scripture or appeal onely thereunto For the contrary is euident both in Epiphanius Tertullian Irenaeus August and others that wrote against them For they testifie that many of them shunned the triall of the Scriptures onely and fled euen as you doe to traditions succession of fathers visions other such like motiues as councels fathers antiquity consent c. as I haue shewed cap. 3. as appeareth euidently in diuers of these fathers writings as in Tertul in praescrip contra haeret Epiphanius in many places de haeresibus Chrysost in Math 4. Irenaeus libro 3. cap. 2. August Contra Maxim lib. 1. de Baptismo contra Donatist lib. 3. cap. 2. in Ioan Tract 13. de vnitate Ecclesiae cap. 15. Epist 165. ad Generosum Who but one of your Religion would euer thus grossely abuse his simple poore Reader You yet as a man that had saied all this while nothing but that you might truely say proceede on with your comparison tell vs that they were condēned by generall Councels so are we they were found cogging knaues and so shall we Whereunto I answere that those which you call generall Councels were but late Conuenticles of your owne since the apostasie of your Church from the ancient Roman Church wherein there was indeede no freedome of a lawfull Councell enioyed and therefore whose condemnation we neede care no more for then Christ and his Apostles needed to care for the sentence of condemnation that in their times the high Priestes Scribes and Pharisees gaue of them and their doings in their councels And as for your vnmanerly prophecie we neede not esteeme it For neither is your mouth any slander nor yet doe we take you to be a true Prophet But seeing say you they and you be thus like why should they be condemned for heretiques you absolued receiued I answere the likelihood is denied and the reason I haue giuen you alreadie As for Augustines probleme you talke of it is impertinent and toucheth vs not For we doe not with the Donatists shut vp Christs inheritance within the compasse of any place as they did in Africke neither say we that Christ at any time hath lost his in heritance but we say that Christ hath had alwaies and hath still his Church without restraint of place wheresoeuer it pleaseth him neither doeth it remaine now onely with a fewe rude Switzers and in two or three corners besides as it pleaseth you to speake For it is well seene that diuerse whole kingdomes as England Scotland and Denmarke haue receiued our Religion and that indeede it groweth so mightily in most places that it maketh the stoutest of you greatly feare that ere it be lōg your kingdome of the Pope will be greater in the west Indies then in these parts Hauing done with vrging this probleme which indeede fitteth you Papists better then vs in that you tie Christes inheritance to your Popes girdle you tell your Reader but you meane to proue it at leasure that these heretiques that you haue talked on all this while haue fortified their campe with as manie moe places as wee alleadge and therefore once againe you would haue a reason why that notwithstanding they should bee counted heretiques and not we You make vs answere because they did interpret them contrarie to the Churches doctrine which you suppose is the onely answere we can giue But I haue tolde you that because when there is questiō of truth there is cōmonly also questiō of the church our answere is that their alleadging of them was hereticall ours true and right as may be proued by the scriptures themselues and by the right rules of interpreting of them But be it that we answere as you imagine what haue we lost or you gained thereby This say you that you haue no more right then they to be counted Catholiques because you alleadge them also contrarie to the Churches doctrine Here againe you deceiue both your selfe and your Reader with the ambiguity of the word Church For if wee answere that we reiect their allegations for that they alleadged them contrarie to the Churches doctrine that then was we by the Church vnderstand a sound and sincere church of Christ in possession of sound Religion and not whatsoeuer Synagogue will entitle it selfe with the name of the Church and so vnder the name of the Church warre against the true church In which sence onely your Church against whose doctrine wee alleadge them hath the name of a church And yet you as though it
fathers as you herein take it for granted on your side For in trueth you haue none of these on your sides but the onely grounds of your religion are your owne priuate and singular interpretations traditions of men without warrant either from the Scriptures indeed soundly vnderstood or from generall Councels or ancient fathers that are worthy to bee of credit in Gods Church For as we haue made appeare in infinite discourses against you al these are farre more strong on our side then with you And therfore you rather are the fooles that seeme wiser theÌ„ all these in your owne conceit and so labour to draw vs from the ancient catholique faith and Christs true Church by your corrupt glosses allegations of these by your vaine vncertaine traditions of mortal men Wherof let the reader take for a tast these few proofes amoÌ„gst infinite others vsed by vs. The Scripture with vs teacheth iustification freely by faith in Christ without workes Rom. 3.24.25 Ephes 2.8.9 and you condeÌ„ne theÌ„ as heretiques that teach so The scriptures with vs teach that Christs offering himselfe once for al hath made perfect all them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 and you coÌ„trarily teach that they must be perfected by the iteration of his sacrifice in your masse by a number of other things done by themselues and others for them The Scriptures with vs teach that Christ is ascended into heauen Coloss 3.1 Act. 1.9 c. and that the heauens must containe him vntill the restitution of al things Act. 3.21 and you contrarily wil haue him as oft as you consecrate to come downe to hide himselfe vnder the formes of bread and wine The scriptures with vs say concerning the cup in the Sacrament to all Christians rightly prepared Drinke yee all of this Matth. 26.22 and you say it is heresie to holde that the lay people must drinke thereof To proceed a little further the same Scripture in the 2. Commandement Exod. 20.4 forbiddeth as we doe both the making and worshipping of Images to represent God the father the sonne or the holy Ghost withal and you allow both these The scriptures prefer as we doe the speaking of fiue words in the Church that may bee vnderstoode before ten thousand in a tongue not vnderstoode 1. Cor. 14.19 and your Church as it appeareth in hauing all your seruice in lat in preferreth fiue words spoken there iâ— an vnknowen tongue before ten thousand spoken in the vulgar tongue of the people to their edification Lastly the Scriptures as we doe account mariage honourable among al men in al estates and the mariage bed vndefiled Heb. 13.4 insomuch that they aduouch the forbidding of it though vnder pretence of holines to bee a doctrine of Deuils 1. Tim. 4.1.2.3 yet you condemne it in your priestes as a filthie life In like maner is there a plaine contrariety betwixt your religion and the decrees of ancient and general councels In my answere to your 17. Chapter I haue shewed you already that the ancient famous first general Councel of Nice in the 6. Canon thereof is directly against that preheminence that now you giue to the Bishop of Rome ouer all Churches There also you haue heard the councell of Gangra pronounce you accursed for your doctrine against the mariage of ministers I haue also shewed you before that the 6. generall councell holden at Constantinople in the 36. Decree hath flatly determined against the principall article of your religion your Popes supremacy in determining that the Bishop there should haue equal priuiledges with your Pope or Bishop of Rome The councels also of Constance and Basil against your receiued opinion now preferred the authority of a generall Councel before the authority of your Pope And certaine it is that in the time of Charles the great there was a councel called at Franckeforde whereat the Bishops of France Germany Italie were assembled about the year as Regin writeth in his 2 booke 794 where the making and worshipping of Images allowed of by the false Synode of the Greekes as he tearmeth it was condemned And Hickmaâ—e Archbishop of Rheames writing against another bishop of that 〈◊〉 Chap. 20. somewhat about these times calleth this a general couÌ„cel called by the wil coÌ„maÌ„demeÌ„t of the Pope Emperor Charles witnesseth that not onely there the false Synode of the Greeks that made for Images was confuted reiected but also a great booke made thereof then sent to Rome As for fathers and ancieÌ„t doctors I haue plentifully shewed to be against you already for the sufficiency authority of the Scriptures Chap. 3. 5. against your real presence Chap. 11. against your doctrine of IustificatioÌ„ other points of your religion Chap. 16. And it were as easie a matter to shew theÌ„ so to be against you with vs in almost al the rest of the pointes in controuersie betwixt vs. At least this most confidently I doe aduouch that for 600. yeares you shall neuer proue them al nor halfe to be on your side in the third part of the questions betwixt you and vs and therfore you doe but too shamefully deceiue the simple people in this case with a shew bragge of that with you are of al other furthest froÌ„ The XXX Chapter OVr Sauiour Christ did approue his vocation after another sort then you doe yours a But in another place you know he saieth that the word that he had spokâ—n should iudge them at the last day Iohn 12. Search saieth * Ioh. 5. he the scriptures for they heare witnes of me he doeth not say that they are Iudges as you say for you wil haue none other arbitrator but the word of God You know that they are two different thinges to beare witnes and to be a Iudge and yet the scriptures of the old Testament doe coÌ„taine not only the verity of the doctrine of our Sauiour Christ but therewithal the very sufficient probation of his person to teach vs the true word of God to ouerthrowe destroy the whole kingdome of Sathan as it is plainely seene by those that list to looke vpon the oracles of the olde patriarches Prophets It is writeÌ„ in the third of Gen. that God saied vnto the womaÌ„ that her seede should breake downe the serpeÌ„ts head And likewise in the saied * Gen. cap. 12.15.19.22 24. booke there is mentioÌ„ made of this diuine seede of Abraham in the 15. 53. Chapters of Esay in the 2. Psalme Dauid doeth talke of it And in like maner Daniel Moses AaroÌ„ withal the rest of the prophets in their sacrifices haue very perfectly painted the coÌ„ming passioÌ„ of our Sauiour Moses left writeÌ„ in the prophecy of Iacob that the Messias should come when the roial scepter and the administration of it should be taken from the line of Iuda Daniel was not content to say as the rest that he should come b There
fled thither and this is al that you spied at this your view saue that most vntruelie as most clearely it appeares in Master Foxes booke of them by the way you would seeme to haue espied that we place Iohn Hus as the first martyr of our Church I answere therefore to that which you now obiect that both those sturres of antient time in Bohemia these of late in France began first of your selues and so it clearely appeareth both by the stories and other circumstances of these broiles For howsoeuer you out of your Aeneas Siluius a writer far more partial then Sleidan whom you charged before with that fault report that murder of seueÌ„ Magistrates in Prage by a Monke to our discredit and the rest of the sturs there that after followed certaine it is that when all was laied against Iohn Hus in the councel of Constance that might bee deuised any way to hurt him his cause and amongst other things he was charged with sedition and stur that had beene before in Prage he openly in the face of the whole councel cleared himselfe thereof and all his followers and sheweth indeed that they did arise first from a letter sent from the Colledge of Cardinals to the king of Bohemia requiring him that togither with them he would renounce forsake his obedieÌ„ce vnto Pope Gregory the 12 which he did for the which cause the Cleargy were against the king so begaÌ„ the stur And as for Zischaes wars it appears in the stories that the nobles of Bohemia Morauia hauing vnder their hands and seals to the number of 54 entreated the councel of Constance as they had sundry times done before for the safety of Iohn Hus HieroÌ„ of Prage and yet vnderstaÌ„ding that that councel to the perpetual infamy therof proceeded contrary to the Emperours safe conduict giuen to Hus to burn theÌ„ both and to make most wicked decrees there against the kingdom of Bohemia partly for the loue they bare vnto these two meÌ„ and partly prouoked by the monstrous crueltie shewed vpon them by the couÌ„cel to preuent the mischiefe intended further therby against themselues and infinite numbers of that nation they rose in armes and banded themselues togither rather to roote Papistry out of Bohemia then to suffer the Gospell to bee rooted out from thence which they saw was the intention of that councel Euen your owne authour confesseth that the iniuries done by this councell to these two men to the great dishonour of the kingdome of Bohemia caused Zischa to doe as he did cap. 36. de historiâ Bohemicâ So that your owne selues and your bloudy tiranny was the cause of al the sturs there You father also more vpon your authour to amplifie the matter withall then he reporteth namelie that they spoiled al the Monasteries Abbies and churches of the kingdome and that Iohn Zischa made al to passe through the edge of the sword without spaâ—ing man woman or childe this all is your addition and it is contrary to the trueth both of the story and euidence of the thing And howsoeuer the trueth were concerning the death of those seueÌ„ magistrates that you speake of certaine it is that your saied author telleth of certaine men he was ashamed belike to name how many by the magistrates of Prage before that secretly and treacherously murdered in their councel-house not concealing that they that were so priuily made away were fauourers of the religion of Hus and that they that so dispatched them were of yours cap. 35. and 37 whereupon he saieth that that matter comming to light there was great sturre in the Citty wherupon for that and other intollerable iniuries before that offered them not concealed by your owne authour cap. 36. it may be that some such outrage in reuenge thereof was committed by some of their frends and fauourers as you note out of him Which I rather beleeue was or might be so because I reade in an other Historiographer that in Zischa his time the Consuls of Prage beeing grieued with the sturs that then were called for Iohannes Premonstratensis and nine of his adherents into their councel-house as though they would haue coÌ„ferred with them of the common wealth and when so they had got them thither that there they secretly slue them which after being perceiued by some bloud noted to haue come from thence into the chanels that authour denieth not but that thereupon there grewe such stur and tumult that the people ouerthrew the Councel-house and diuerse other houses and slue eleuen principall Citizens whom they iudged the authours thereof Whereby yet any man may see that your side gaue the first example thereof and that they therefore are as iustly to be blamed as the other But what maruell is it to heare that such outrages fell out in such turbulent times especially when they that in respect of their place should haue giuen example onely of iust and orderly dealing behaued them selues so tyrannically and wickedly as they then there of your faction did when euer hath it beene otherwise in such times and vpon such occasions but that some things haue fallen out of both sides not iustifiable Indeede I graunt it had beene farre better that the Bohemians had takeÌ„ some peaceabler course and lamentable it was of both sides that there was such shedding of bloud but yet when men are prouoked as they were and can conceiue no hope of better but rather of worse such is the infirmity of man that we see it commonly falles out so As for your ciuill warres and the mischiefs that thereupon haue fallen out in France you must meet with a very meane man and simple reader if notwithstanding the fresh remembrance thereof and the stories therof writen you can make him beleeue that the fault therof is wholy ours Nay euery man seeth and vnderstandeth that your side are they that beganne first those troubles that haue burned and with sword most monstrously consumed whole congregations men women and children assembled to exercise themselues in praier and hearing of the word according as by your kings edicts they were permitted that your side it was that vnder pretence of an honourable mariage betwixt the king of Nauar and the kinges sister drew into Paris all the protestants of name and otherwise as many as you could and when you had them there most tiraÌ„nously and trecherously made a most bloudy massacre of them And your friers or frends they were that of late most villanously slew the French king And the principals and accessaries to that most treasonable murder are they that yet are vp in armes against his lawfull successor the king of Nauar. This and a number of such other dealings of yours are so famouslie knowen abroad that you come to late to buzze these things in the eares of men that the ruins and desolation of that kingdome is to be imputed vnto vs or that wee haue beene the men that are worse then the Goathes and
and ceremonies noted by him to haue bene in the churches of Christ insomuch that in the 21. Chapter not onely he writeth that altogither truely and in al obseruances of godly praiers two churches could not be found that did fully agree amongst themselues but also that this notwithstāding the vnity of faith christiā peace was preserued maintained amōgst them The like may be seene in Zozomens 7. booke 29. Chapter Your owne Tridentine Catechiser of your parish Priests could see as I noted before that touching dipping the party to be baptized in water pouring it vpon him or sprinkling him with it so that euery one follow therein that order that hee seeth in vse in the Church wherein hee is it is not materiall which way be vsed for which of them soeuer be vsed so saieth he this sacrament may rightly be ministred So much the stranger is it that both you here and he there your whole Tridentine councel should so peremtorily seeke to bind all churches and persons to the strict keeping and obseruing of all your foresaied rites and Ceremonies in the ad ministring of the same Further cōcerning this point I must tell you that for your pleasure I hauing turned to these places which you quote for this purpose as I finde by comparing of yours with them that they mētiō you haue many that they speake neuer a word of in these places as namely your consecrating of your water and Chrisme so lōg before your dealing with the party at the church dore your putting of salt into his mouth your dressing his nostrels and eares withspettle and your giuing him a waxe cādle burning into his hand so thereby and by view of some other places in them I plainely see that you haue now giuen ouer the vse of some which then were vsed vpon the like ground that the rest were which you would seeme to haue from them For first Tertullian in his booke de coronâ militis which is the second place you quote as there he mentions thrise dipping renouncing of the Deuill his pompe and Angels which you would seeme to allow and vse with him so he saieth that being taken from out of the water we tast before hand the temper of milke and honie and from the time of our baptisme for a weeke we absteine frō daily washing and all these doeth he ground a like saying Harum aliarum disciplinarum c. that is of these disciplines if thou requirest the law of the scripture thou shalt finde none tradition shall be pretended to be the authour custome the confirmer and faith the obseruer yet you haue left these two last long ago for any thing that I can learne And Augustine an other of your authours in this case in three of the places named by you mentiōs exufflation which you haue giuen ouer as he doeth some other that you retaine And the same authour vpon the 65. Psalme shewes that in their exorcisme they vsed fire because it is writē in the Psalm passing through fire and water thou shalt come to a refreshing and in his 4. booke ad cathecumenos de Symbolo lib. 4. cap. 1. he saieth that before baptisme was vsed beside the Catechisme exorcisme praier and canticles in sufflation sackcloth bowing of the neck humility of the feet And Hierom vpon the 55. of Esay and against the Luciferians shewes further that then was vsed the tasting of wine and hony Wherefore if the doctours and fathers mentioning of some of your ceremonies binde you to thinke the vse thereof lawfull and necessarie still why should not their authoritie bee of as great force for these which you see they ground aswell as they doe the other And if their mentioning and thus grounding of these notwithstanding you will be at liberty to leaue these why may not we aswell be at our libertie to leaue off some of the other that we finde most needles and most to haue beene abused by you to obscure and darken the simple institutiō of this sacramēt Wil you follow the fathers as farre as you list and leaue them when you list and may no body but you doe so Moreouer in looking vpon this occasion into the monuments of antiquity and the writings of the ancient fathers I must needes aduertise thee Christian reader that I finde great variety in the enumeration of ceremonies about this sacrament in them and likewise great oddes betwixt the opinion and conceite that some of the fathers shewe they had of them from that that others of as good credit as they had whereby it is euident not only that they were not vsed alike al in euery place but in some places and times more and in some lesse but also that some vsed them to one ende and some to another So that no certaine rule either for the ceremonies themselues or for the maner or ende of the vse of them can be deduced from thence Whereupon it must needes follow that for any thing writen by the ancient fathers hereof so that the essentiall parts and things belonging hereunto which haue expresse warrant from the institution thereof be obserued first and then next according to the practise and example of the Apostles and the times next after them necessary instruction and explanation to and of the right vse thereof with conuenient praiers and thankesgiuing meete to be vsed in such an action bee vsed and that also in due time and place by to before fit persons any Church of Christ in any kingdome by the prouinciall authority that it hath may freely reiect so many of the other rites ceremonies as it shall thinke good and likewise reteine so many of them as she findeth may fitly bee reteyned for order and comelinesse without placing any opiniō of necessity holinesse or of merit in them And therefore forasmuch as our Churches carefully haue taken this course in these three points and follow the same in trueth there is nothing that these fathers that you haue named consent vpon about the administring of this sacrament but we fully doe obserue the same And here in Englād especially what fault can you find Of the 5. things your fathers mentiō we reteine vse though not with any superstitious intentiō as you do 2 of thē the rest we haue cut of according both to S. August aduise your pope Stephanus iudgement before noted because the multitude before was too great for the time of the Gospel they were growen into grosse abuse amongst you No essential or necessary thing to bee done is omitted with vs and wee haue besides fully inough for the time of the new Testament wherin we liue in which time it is more likely in such ceremonies rites and fashions for vs to erre rather in retaining too many then in abolishing too many But because neither you shal say nor your reader thinke y these fathers whose names you bring vs to countenance al your ceremonies which you vse about baptisme
wee onely are saued or they al condemned For I haue shewed how a nuÌ„ber yea infinite numbers of them might be saued this notwithstanding As for your iudgement that they neuer erred so much as our disciples it is not material For you are no competent iudge in this matter And the reason of your iudgement that we condemne the faith that the Catholique Church hath held this 1500. yeares and maintaine the olde rotten condemned heresies is a thing which by begging after this sort at our hands though therein you be neuer so impudent and shamelesse a begger as that way in this your book your greatest skill hath appeared you shall neuer get And therefore set your hearts at rest your words though they be neuer so lowde stout shall neuer make vs yeelde you this for an almes You must therefore proue your words true and so make vnto vs euident demonstration thereof which you shall neuer be able to doe before we may yeeld vnto you that you haue any right at all to this The XXXIX Chapter IF that by a good and a right title your disciples cal themselues the children of God this maketh me beleeue that the saying of our Sauiour is fulfilled in them the which is * Luc. 16. The childreÌ„ of this world are wiser in their generation then the children of light To proue this true wee see this dailie experience for a wise worldly man when he doeth put out his money to gaine he vvill not trust the promise so soone of one or two or three as hee vvill doe the bondes of a vvhole Towne or Cittie that should warrant or assure his gaine But you nor your disciples haue not done thus but rather the contrarie It had beene better for you to haue first put your faith and trust in God beleeuing that he hath giuen his holie spirit and declared the meaning as touching the Scriptures vnto the Catholique Church a We build not our faith religion or hope of saluatioÌ„ of these meÌ„s credits but vpoÌ„ the credit of the vndoubted worde of God set down in the scriptures which is for credit to be preferred before the credit of all men speaking beside or contrary vnto them and not to hazard the hope of your saluation putting it into the hands of Luther Zuinglius Oecolampadius and three or foure other such pelting merchantes vvhich haue newlie set vp shoppes at Wittemberge Geneua Losane vvhich one of these daies we shal see bankeroutes as their predecessours haue beene before them the vvhich after that they had deceiued the poore simple Catholiques b Beware of dogs Phil. 3. ergo take heed of this Romish barker the best is hee is but one that barketh to bite hurt he hath small or no power and gained some of their soules for the deuill they haue at the last sold al their honestie and credit so that at this daie except that it be those that reade the ancient histories no bodie else doeth remember that euer they liued in the world You are come now last of all to make vp their merchandise but your credit can hardlie be good before God c Will you neuer haue done with this bare vaine brag Shew this but once to bee true and then we yeelde and then brag and spare not for you shall haue against you all the ancient Catholicke Church which hath continued visible since the comming of Christ vnto this day all the Doctours of all the vniuersities all the Empires Kingdomes and priuate state thoroughout al the worlde which haue receiued and honoured this doctrine that you call Papisticall And if you saie that you will not trust meÌ„ but the verie word of the Lord we agree to the like that we ought al to beleeue the Scripture but we varie about the interpretation for you interpret it after one sort and we after another you expound it after a new sort and the Catholicke Church doeth follovv d When it commeth to the trial it will be found that our interpretation rather then yours hath continuance froÌ„ all the sound ancient Doctours and the vndoubted Apostolicall â—raditions the olde exposition of the ancient Doctours traditions which you haue forsaken or to saie the trueth your Ministers haue led the sheepe astraie froÌ„ the old flocke at the departing froÌ„ the which they haue beene al scattered abroad some following Luther some Caluin some the Anabaptists so forth for the which the Popes kings others that haue had the gouernment of the Church shall answere at the last daie of iudgement for as much as while e Ergo you haue had sleepy Popes they slept you haue come sowedweeds among the good corne Then seeing you are the sheepe that rome astraie what excuse can they make before God that wilfully follow your steps We confesse that we are the poore sheepe of God that haue continued with our old flocke stedfast whole as touching our religion but very weake and sickely f Amend them for shame as touching our maners that is to say g But your wounds sores sicknes is grown so desperat that you will account none such but them that wil tel you you are sound and in health where you are most sicke full of sins vices attending some sage phisitions to heale vs good pastors to keepe vs casting out the chaffe froÌ„ the corne I meane cutting off those abuses that are offensiue not to such scrupulous consciences as you haue but vnto him that doeth threaten theÌ„ for the carelesse liues of their sheepe so to continue in that h Proue this once some of you or else for shame neuer say it almost in euery leafe for lack of matter as you doe ancient faith that by succession of pastours we haue receiued from the Apostles The XXXIX Chapter In this Chapter there is nothing but your old great words stout begging the maine questioÌ„ that your Church is the true ancient Catholicke Church that al the ChristiaÌ„s great small since Christ haue bene flat on your side that you are the only men that follow the sound sence of the scriptures deliuered vnto you by the ancient doctors and true pastors of the Church that we are but two or three in coÌ„parison of you sprung vp yesterday such as you prophesie wil shortly grow banckerout both of credit and honesty This bladder ful of nothing but winde is sufficiently I hope prickt and let out already by that which I haue saied in sundry places before Howsoeuer I hope the reader is not so simple as that seeing in you neuer so great store of these swelling wordes as long as he knoweth your aduersaries denie them as stoutly of the other side and he seeth you bring nothing but bare wordes without proofe he wil any whit be mooued therewith And yet as not able a discourse as this booke of yours is accounted the greatest stuffing that it hath is onelie
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
that which he should this marke is euident vpon them and not vpon vs. But if by the common knowen catholicke church of Christ that hee talketh of here and alwaies else he vnderstand as it is apparent that hee doeth their Roman church that now is most beggerly still hee beggeth that almes that neuer an honest and wise man in the world would giue him For in all these points here named by him that Synagogue a long time hath taught and doeth still so contrary to the true and chast spouse of Christ that though nether seditiously nor contentiously yet vehemently and earnestly it is the part of all skilfull painfull and faithfull ministers of the Lord to cry out against her and her so doing And thus onely haue we and doe we labour to manifest vnto the world their corruptiō in doctrine in these points least thereby to their perdition they should be seduced by them Otherwise whatsoeuer he saieth neither he nor all his faction shall euer he able to proue against vs that we either deny any thing or hold otherwise of any point here reckoned vp by him then we haue most sound and good warrant for both out of the scriptures and out of the ancientest and soundest monuments of antiquity But where as he saith that we flatly deny that Christ hath here vpon earth any spouse or visible church to bee heard speake perceaued or seene hee shamefully and vntruely reporteth y◠of vs. Onely cōcerning the visibility or not visibility of Christs church this wee holde and teach that who be the right members thereof whereof properly she doeth consist it is not discerneable by humane sence but knowen onely vnto God and vnto those to whom God giueth spirituall sences to discerne it withall but if otherwise by the church of Christ here vpon earth be vnderstoode generally all those that by outwarde profession seeme vnto men to be thereof then we hold and confesse that Christ hath alwaies had here vpō earth since the beginning and wil haue to the ende a visible spouse and church to be both heard speake perceiued seene though not alwaies alike nor of al sorts kinde of men as I haue shewed at large in the first and fourth chapters of my answere to Albine The onely thing that we deny is that it alwaies hath beene and euer must be so visible and apparent both for multitude and gouernment that euery one should be able therby not only to discerne it but frō time to time downe frō Christ to the ende of the world to name the principall persons by whose orderly succession one to another wtout interruption it hath bene cōtinued in one place or other Now hereupon to infer that wee simply deny it to be heard seene or perceiued argueth that they that doe so are growen so grosse that they can neither heare see nor perceiue that there is any difference betwixt the maner of being of a thing the simple being therof Iohn that neuer taught that the Church of Christ here vpō earth should neither be heard seen or perceiued yet teacheth Re. 12. that she would be driuē by persecution of the dragō into the wildernes where for a time in cōparison that she was before she should be hiddē Christ that hath taught vs that hel gates shal neuer preuaile against his church Mat. 16. yet foresheweth that towards his secōd cōming true faith should hardly be found vpō earth Luke 18. And doe we not read 2 Thessalonians 2. and 1. Timothy 4. to that end that before that day there shall be a great departing from the faith which by that which we read Reuelations 17 and 18. we may vnderstand shal be so great and so farre preuaile that the whore of Babylon there figuring vnto vs Antichrist and his kingdome shall haue vniuersality and all outward pompe that may be so on her side that shee shall make kings and people yea all nations drunke with the wine of her fornications During the fulfilling of which prophesies if it bee hard for some either to heare or see the Church or to vnderstand where shee is so that they cannot name the persons successiuely that she consisteth of no maruell For distance of time and place and ignorance or vnfaithfulnesse in Croniclers ioyned with a speciall care that Antichrist would alwaies by all likelyhoode haue to keepe from men all meanes to make thē to haue knowledge of these things least therby in the end he should fall into his cōsumption in respect of sundry former times and vs that liue now might make this impossible And yet he that should say so doeth not simply say as he here chargeth vs. But Gods name be blessed for it the Church yet was neuer so driuen into the wildernesse by the dragon or oppressed by Antichrist but as I haue shewed in my fourth Chapter of my foresaied answere to Albine some haue so heard seene and perceiued where she was and who were her true mēbers at al times that there was neuer time or state of the Church so bad but that we are able to nāe some of her frēds and where they liued or died in the profession of her trueth against antichristian abhominations As for the other points here reckoned vp by him gētle reader though he would make thee beleeue that they are such as in euery point as they teach thē now haue alwaies before beene taught of the true Catholicke church of Christ it is nothing so as in great part I haue shewed in answering of Albine as others thorowly vniuersally haue shewed of them all in seueral bookes writen against them for their Antichristiā doctrine therein Howbeit least by his words in the meane time whiles thou gettest leasure to peruse what we haue writen cōcerning these points thou shouldest cōceiue worse of our doctrine thē in any shew we deserue vnderstand that we preach against none of Christs sacraments neither doe we deny any sacrament of his in that sence to be a sacrament that he appointed it neither doe we deny Christs reall true most certain presence in the eucharist to the soule of the right receiuer onely a grosse presence of his body to the mouth of euery receauer fancied by thē cōtrary both to scripture the nature of a sacramēt of Christ himselfe is the presence that there we deny Indeed we as zealously as we can preach against their masse denying it to be any propitiatory sacrifice either for quicke or dead much lesse for both because we haue learned out of the epistle to the Hebrewes that only Christ is cōsecrate of his father as the fit Priest of the new testament in his owne person once for all to offer propitiatory sacrifice for the redemption of mankind that we learne by the words of the institution of this sacrament that it was neuer instituted to repeate that but with faith and thankesgiuing to make a commemoration thereof and rather to offer and deliuer Christ to vs thē
to offer him againe to his father If by penance he vnderstand repentance we neither preach against it nor against any worthy fruit thereof For we most earnestly call for both but if by penance be vnderstood either voluntary or enioyned penance as they commonly take it ioyned with an opinion thereby either to satisfie for sinnes past or to merit at Gods hand because we know that such penance and all the fruits thereof are abhominable before God because thereby Christ is robbed of that honour of a ful and perfect sauiour in by himselfe alone that is due vnto him then we graunt as we haue iust cause we preach against it Otherwise fasting straightnes of life watching and lawfull vowes to make vs more ready feruent in holy prayer we commend and vrge Indeed praying to Saints because we haue neither example coÌ„mandement nor promise in Gods book to encourage vs thereunto but all to the contrary we condemne as grosse idolatry and likewise prayer for soules departed as they vse it to relieue foules in purgatory for the same reasons and sundry other we preach against But what we teach of these two points and what not and what reasons we haue for our so doing and how quite voide they be of all ground for theirs I refer thee to the 37 Chapter of my answere to Albine where I haue at large shewed these things And thus much therfore for this 3 signe The next is to bring a schisme into the Church coÌ„trary to Pauls exhortation 1. Cor 1. and that such a schisme as wherby not onely one member shall be seperated from an other but the whole mystical body from the true head Christ Iesus which we to haue done in seperating our selues from their Church not they hee assumeth and so concludeth when the learned protestant can shew the coÌ„trary that he wil recant and not before Still thus thou maiest see good reader that this man is no changling For vnles that be graÌ„ted him which is the maine point betwixt vs that their Church is the true Church of Christ their doctrine the sound catholicke faith and religion he hath no ground or foundation for any thing he saieth For he cannot be so ignorant as to imagine that euery one straight is authour of such a schisme as he here speaketh of that by doctrine draweth others from euery society or company inuesting themselues with the name of the Church and bragging that they haue the trueth For what would he then make of Christ and his Apostles who in their time drew so many after them from holding any longer coÌ„mâ—â—tion with the Synagogue of the Iewes that then I am sure bragged as confidently of both these as this man and his fellowes doe now Or what would he say to those ancieÌ„t catholicks after Liberius time that when Arrianisme had in great part ouer run the world and the Arrians for many yeeres togither bragged theÌ„selues to be the onely 〈◊〉 catholicks disgracing theÌ„ that were so indeed with the name of Omousians that yet though they had got both bishops and emperours so many and so fast of their opinion that they had in ten seuerall councels goe sentence of their side ceased not labouring and traueling vntill they had drawen men againe to breake from them and to ioine with the poore persecuted contempt the number that then yet persecuted in the trueth I am sure they 〈◊〉 not for shame for all this count either Christ and his Apostles or these ancient catholicks antichristian heretickes or schismatiques And our drawing of meÌ„ by our doctrine now in these later daies from them is nothing else in trueth but an imitating as nigh as we can these renoumed and vndoubted good presidents examples that so the kingdome of Antichrist according to Saint Pauls prophesie might fal into consumption 2. Thessalonians 2 and that great Babylon might yet at leÌ„gth as it was reuealed vnto Ioh. Reuelations cap. 14. fall and come downe For not onely we saw that the Church of Rome had made a schisme but such an apostasie euen in the fundamentall points of Christian religion from Christ and his Church that there was no remedy but that we must breake of from her as we did or else we could neuer haue communioÌ„ indeed in Christ with his true Church Though therefore we know and at the first knew that peace vnity and concord were pretious things and by al lawfull meanes to be laboured for yet knowing withall as we doe did that it is vnity in verity and not in errour impiety with Christ not with Antichrist that is so much to be set by blame vs not for chusing rather according to these good exaÌ„ples to haue war with men then with God discord with Antichrist and al hes bread then with Christ and his members We grauÌ„t them therfore that to bring into the Church such a schisme as shal make diuision not onely amoÌ„gst Christs meÌ„bers but also of the body from the head is indeed an vndoubted signe of antichristian heretickes but wheras he taketh this for grauÌ„ted that this we haue done in departing froÌ„ theÌ„ as we haue that we deny For we teach men to hold hold our selues that faith religion as we are alwaies ready to proue by the canonical scriptures of the old and new testament that alwaies the true Church of Christ hath held and therfore which when hardly both holdeth the liuely members amongst themselues is vnity and also knitteth theÌ„ and their head Christ so fast together as that no popish or antichristian tiranny shall euer be able to seuer them And howesoeuer this proude challengeâ— thought wtâ—â— impossible thing for the learned protestant to proue that they haue brought into the Church such a schisme as hee speaketh of I the vnlearnedst often thousande doubt not that I am very well able to doe it For this is most certaine and cleare Iesus Christ the Sauiour of the worlde indeede is at this point beeing euery waie so able and willing as he did in his owne person and by himselfe alone to go through with the office of a most perfect Sauiour of mankinde that either so hee must bee beleeued in and trusted vnto for that matter or else hee taketh himselfe antichristianlie robbed of that 〈◊〉 and glory that is due vnto him and therefore wil be no part of a sauiour at all to such That this is most true appeareth because it is writed that God is so iealouse of his owne honour and glory that hee wil not abide that any should therein bee pertaker with him or rob him of any ioâ—t therof Esay 42. that in him all thinges are already prepared Matthew the twenty two that his name is the onely name whereby commeth saluation Actes 4. that hee is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reu. 1. that he is the authour finisher of our faith Heb. 12. that by one offering he hath consecrated for
to be christians and of him onely and of his vndoubted spirit speaking vnto vs in the canonicall scriptures haue we learned our religion with which as far as we finde any man to agree we reuerence him as it becommeth vs in the Lord further we take not our selues bound to follow any man whatsoeuer he be That Puritans and Precisians haue brought the ancient Protestants of this land of all sortes to any such point by any such meanes as he speaketh of he speaketh both vntruely and slanderously For such as for their preposterous zeale and factious turbulent spirits amongst vs deserue so to be called and accounted neither are for number so many nor for credit so affected of the common people nor wincked at of the magestrats as he pretendeth But if ther were as many fond sectaries that haue arisen vp amongst vs these late yeares as this man and other of his fellowes sometime would haue men to beleeue as long yet as we for all that continue constant not onely in the very same religion that we were of when we first broke of from them but also in that which hath plentifull and most playne warrant both from the canonicall scriptures and al sound antiquity as we haue a thousand times shewed and yet still are willing and ready alwaies to doe why should they thus odiously be obiected against vs to disgrace either vs or our religion especially seeing wee are sory for it and shew our mislike thereof as wee doe May any man iustly disgrace the Apostles and the Apostolique churches for that euen in their times there arose so many sectaries and heretiques amongst the Churches planted by them as both by their owne writings and other Ecclesiasticall histories it is notoriously knowen there did Hath not Christ euen of purpose to preuent all offence taking hereat compared his kingdome Matth. 13. to a field wherein the good seeds-man hauing sowen good wheat the enuious man so soweth his tares that they come vp togither with the wheat and so will doe vnto the haruest To let vaine words and brags go let thē proue but once any of them or all of them togither either that their religion is the plaine way of saluation beaten by our forefathers for these 1500. yeares past or that ours is not that very trueth that Christ and his Apostles taught as a perpetual trueth for the true church constantly to hold to the worlds end and we will striue with them no lōger But as this is a matter too hard heauy for them so they are content to let it alone and with fallacies vaine words to trie if they can beguile the simple people and bring them to a misliking of that which to mislike indeede they are not able to giue them one sound reason And therefore to conclude that both beginning ending and alwaies this mā may be like himselfe he taketh it for graunted that their religion is the sound catholique faith that the martyr Sebastian meant by his loafe which broken and broken againe after it was once well made and baked by sectaries heretiques as he told Genserichus the tyrant would neuer become better and that ours is but a breaking of it to make it better againe which will neuer be Whereas we constantly hold affirme that we may iustly say to all papists euen as Sebastian saied to that tyrant For the loafe that we feed on and would haue all others to feed on with vs we are able to proue is that the graine whereof Christ himselfe by his faithfull seruants hath sowen in the sound field of the canonical scriptures which he himselfe hath ground kneaden baked for vs and for all his children And likewise we are able to proue that this fine white loafe of the Lords own preparing alwaies lying ready in the storehouse of his writen word the Romish church hath a long time doth stil as much loath as euer the children of Israel did Manna And therefore as they preferred in their conceits garlicke leekes onions the flesh-pots of Egypt before that heauēly food so hath she and doeth she a massiue loafe the corne whereof must not come onely out of the foresaied field of the Lord for then it would haue no fauour with them but in great part out of the rotten field of mens traditions inuentions before the pure white loafe of the lords own making Wherefore to conclude all his speech or exhortation groūded vpon this story out of Victor de persecutione Vandalorum any man may see we might farre more iustly vse against thēselues of the Romish Church to persuade them as they regard their owne saluation c. to content themselues with vs with this Sebastians loafe of the first and best making I haue thus thou seest good reader but briefly past ouer these things and the rather I haue so done first because I found no matter in them but grounded vpon shameles begging of that which is most in question and secondly because in my answere to Albine I had vpon occasion giuen me by him already answered al or most of his assumptions against vs in the applying of these signes vnto vs. But lastly by view of an answere made at large by master Crowley both to the 22. demaunds and these six signes also that came to my hands since my finishing of this answere of mine I see if it had beene vndone I might well haue spared al my labour herein If therefore thou desirest any further answer concerning any of these I refer thee to him And thus I take my leaue of thee beseeching the Lord now and euer to blesse both thee and me and heartily praying thee to remember me alwaies in thy godly prayers to God to whom be all glory praise and dominion now and euer Thine in the Lord Thomas Sparke A Table whereby readily to finde out the principal matters contained in the former answere to Albine or any of his fauourers wherein because vntill thou commest to the answere to Albine himselfe the pages are not figured in the top as in the rest for any thing before handled the page of the letter in the bottome of those leaues whereof there are 16 for euery letter is noted for thy direction A. Abbeyes why and how suppressed pa. 287. Albine conuicted of blasphemy p. 95. 96. 186. 375. 378. Albine sheweth himselfe to haue beene of a profane spirit 269. Albines publishers methode in his epistle to the reader discouered b. p. 11. 12. 13. Albines owne methode and the folly thereof laied open E. 4 5. 6 Albines cunning in running from the question 6 7 9. 10. 11. c. Albine notorious in abusing scriptures 2. 3. 36. 37. Albine worthy to be famous for abusing of fathers 47. 51. 85. 86. 119. c. 126. c. 131 134 156. ca p. 37. through out Antiquity protestants rather haue then papists and true antiquity protestants stand vnto 102. 158. c. Auricular confession dangerous E. p.