these as his own tho he would yet he cannot commit Simony But then how well or rationally this is spoken we poor Men cannot see or understand except as the ancient Romans served Victory so they have served Truth for when she once came flying to them they clipt her Wings that she might no more sly from them But what if Jeremias should tell them as we have observed above that these are lying Words And what again if he should say That many Pastors who ought to have dressed have destroyed my Vineyard What if Christ should say that those who should have taken the greatest care of the Temple have made the House of God a Dâ—n of Thieves For if the Church of Rome cannot Err she is more beholding to her own good Fortune than to their Prudence or Care for such are their Lives Doctrines and Diligence that if we are to take our Measures from thence this Church is not only in danger of falling into â—rror but of a total Ruine and Destruction And certainly if that Church can err which hath departed from the Word of God the Commandments of Christ the Institutions of the Apostles the Examples of the Primitive Church and from the Canons and Sanctions of the ancient Fathers and Councils yea and from her own too which will be obliged by neither old nor new Laws by neither her own nor any others by neither Divine nor Humane Laws I say if all this be to err then it is certain that the Church of Rome not only may err but that she hath most wickedly and lewdly erred 11. BUT they say we were once of their Communion but now we are Apostates and have departed from them indeed we have departed from them and we bless the Great and Holy God for it and please our selves mightily in it but then we have not departed from the Primitive Church from the Apostles from Christ we were educated indeed with them in darkness and ignorance of God as Moses was in the Discipline and bosom of the Egyptians We were of your Number saith Tertullian and I confess it but what wonder is there in that Men are made and not born Christians But then I may as well ask them why they have descended from the seven Hills on which the ancient City of Rome stood to dwell in the Plains in the Martian Field to which perhaps they would reply that the Aquaeducts without which they could not conveniently dwell on those Hills have failed Let them then but grant the same liberty in relation to the Waters of Life which they expect we should afford them in regard of the common Family-water The Springs did now fail with them The Elders saith Jeremiah sent their little ones to the Waters they came to the Pits and found no Water they returned with their Vessels empty they were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads Or as Isaiah saith The Poor and the Needy seek Water and there is none and their Tongue faileth for thirst They had broken all their Conduits and Water-courses they had stopped up all the Springs and covered the Fountain of Living Waters with mire and mud and as Caligula by shutting up all the publick Granaries enjoyned the People of Rome to fast so they by stopping up the Fountains of the Word of God had enjoyned the People to undergo the Miseries of a destructive Thirst they have as the Prophet Amos saith brought upon the World a Famine Not a Famine of Bread nor a thirst for Water but of hearing the Words of the Lord. Miserable Men went searching about for a small spark of Divine Light to chear their Consciences but they were all gone out and they could find none this was the miserable Condition and State of their Church men lived wretchedly in it with out the Gospel and without Light or Conslation 12. AND therefore how afflictive soever our departure from them may seem to them yet they ought at the same time to consider how just the cause of it was for if they say in general it is not lawful to leave that Society in which thou wert educated this were in our Persons to condemn the Prophets Apostles and Christ himself for why is it not as reasonable to blame Lot for leaving Sodom Abraham for leaving Chaldea the Hebrews for leaving Egypt Christ for leaving the Jews and St. Paul for leaving the Pharisees For except it be granted that there may be a just cause of departure we can see no cause why these may not in the same manner as we are be accused of Faction and Sedition But if we are to be thought Hereticks because we will not obey all their unjust commands what are they Who or what are they to be thought who have contemned the Commands of Christ and his Apostles If we are Schifmaticks who have forsaken them by what name shall we call them who have forsaken the Greeks from whom they first received the Christian Faith the Primitive Church Christ and the Apostles who were their Spiritual Parents For the Greek Church who at this day profess the Religion and Name of Christ altho they have in many things contaminated it yet they still retain a great part of those things which they received from the Apostles And so they have no private Masses no maimed Sacraments no Purgatory nor Indulgences And as to the Papal Titles and magnificent Names they have this esteem of them that whoever calls himself the universal Bishop and the Head of the whole Church is a proud Man and injurious to all the other Bishops who are his Brethren nor will they scruple on this single account to call him Heretick 13. BUT now seeing it is apparent and cannot be denied that they have made a defection from them from whom they received the Gospel the Christian Faith and Religion yea and the very being of a Church what cause is there to be given why they should not return back to them as to their Original Why should they so much dread the times of the Fathers and Apostles as if they had seen nothing Why do they see more or love the Church better than they who delivered what they have to them for as for us we have forsaken a Church in which we could neither hear the pure Word of God nor administer the Sacraments nor invoke the Name of God as we ought which they themselves acknowledge to be faulty in many things and in which there was nothing to retain a prudent Man who thought seriously of his Salvation Lastly We have departed from a Church which is not now what anciently she was and so we have departed as Daniel did out of the Den of Lyons as the three Children did out of the fiery Furnace or to speak more properly we have not so much departed from them as been cast out by them with Execrations and Curses 14. BUT then we have united our selve to that Church in which if they would
Pietate Humanitate egregie Praedito Theologiae cum primis cognitione Instructissimo Gemmae Gemmarum Immaturo fato Monkton-farleae Praerepto Sarisburiae Sepulto Coelorum civi Laurentius Humfredus Hoc Monumentum observantiae ergo Et Benevolentiae Consecravit Anno salutis Humanae Christi Merito Restitutae MDLXXIII ix Kal. Oct. Vixit Annos XLIX menses IV. Psal 112. In memoria aeterna erit Justus A Letter written to the Reverend Father in God Dr. John Jewel Lord Bishop of Sarisbury by Dr. Peter Martyr BY the favour of the Bishop of London most worthy Prelate and my very good Lord there was brought me one of your Apologies for the Church of England which neither I nor any others hereabouts before had seen It is true in your last Letter you rather intimated that it might come out than signfied that it should but however it came not hither till about the middle of July And from hence your Lordship may consider how much we suffer from the distance of places It hath not only given me an intire satisfaction who approve and am strangely pleased with all you do but to Bullinger and his Sons and Sons in Law And it seems so very wise admirable and elegant to Gualter and Wolphius that they can put no end to their Commendations of it as not thinking there hath been any thing printed in these times of so great a Perfection I do infinitely congratulate this great felicity of your Parts this excellent Edification of the Church and the Honour you have done your Country and I do most earnestly beseech you to go on in the same way for tho we have a good Cause yet the Defenders of it are few in comparison of its Enemies and they now seem so awakened that they have of late won much upon the ignorant Multitude by the goodness of their Stile and the subtilty of their Sophistry I speak this of Staphylus and Hosius and some other Writers of that Party who are now the stout Champions of the Papal Errors But now you have by this your most elegant and learned Apology raised such an hope in the minds of all good and learned men that they generally promise themselves that whilst you live the reformed Religion shall never want an Advocate against its Enemies And truly I am extreamly glad that I am so happy as to live to see that day which made you the Father of so illustrious and eloquent a Production May the God of Heaven of his goodness grant that you may be blessed in time with many more such Zurick Aug. 24. 1562. The Reader is desired to amend these few Errata's with his Pen the rest being generally nothing but literal mistakes are left to his Candor PReface to the Reader Page 14. Line 19. for to his Envoy read by his Envoy Apology p. 10. for Sardus r. Sardis p. 12. l. 22. for last r. late p. 66. l. 5. r. and because the Gospel p. 76. l. 3. for or r. for p. 140. l. 13 14. for security p. 151. in Marginal note for August 1560. 4. 1562. THE APOLOGY OF THE Church of ENGLAND Written by the very Learned and Reverend Father in God John Jewell Bishop of Sarisbury CHAP. I. Of the true Religion professed in the Church of England with a short Account of the Opposition the Truth and truë Religion hath met with in all Ages IT is an old Complaint deriv'd down to us from the very times of the Patriarchs and Prophets and confirm'd by the Evidence of all Histories and the Testimonies of all Ages that Truth is a Stranger upon Earth and doth too easily find Enemies and Defamers because she is not known and although this may seem perhaps incredible to those who have not attentively reflected on it because Mankind by the instinct of Nature without any Teacher doth spontaneously breathe after Truth and Christ himself our Saviour whilst he convers'd with Men chose to be call'd the TRUTH as if that Name did aptly express all the Power and Force of his Divine Nature yet we who are acquainted with the Holy Scriptures and have read and considered what hath happenned to pious men in almost all Ages what befel the Prophets the Apostles the holy Martyrs and Christ himself with what Slanders Curses and Injuries they were vexed whilst they lived only for the sake of Truth We I say see by this that it is no new thing but usual and the Custom of all Ages Indeed it would appear much more wonderful and incredible if the Father of Lyes the Devil that Enemy of all Truth should now of a sudden change his Mind and entertain any other hopes of oppressing the Truth than by Lyes or should now begin to establish his Kingdom by other Arts than those he hath hitherto imployed For in all Ages we shall scarce find any Period of time in which Religion encreased established it self or was reform'd but that at the same time Truth and Innocence were most unworthily and most injuriously treated by men for the Devil knows very well that if Truth doth flourish in safety his Affairs can neither be safe nor prosperous 2. FOR to speak nothing of the Ancient Patriarchs and Prophets no part of whose Lives as I said was free from Reproaches and Slanders We know that of Old there were some who averr'd and publickly told the World that the Ancient Jews who we doubt not worshipped the only true God perform'd their Religious Rites to a Swine or an Ass and that all that Religion was a meer Sacriledge and a Contempt of all Deities We know that the Son of God our Saviour Jesus Christ whilest he taught the truth was reputed an Impostor an Inchanter a Samaritan a Beelzebub a Deluder of the people a Wine-bibber and a Glutton Who knows not what was said of St. Paul that powerful Preacher and Assertor of Truth sometimes he was a seditious man and listed Soldiers and designed a Rebellion and at other times that he was an Heretick a mad man that out of a contentious and perverse Disposition he was a Blasphemer against the Law of God and a Despiser of the Customs of the Fathers Who knows not that so soon as ever St. Stephen had admitted the Truth and suffered it to take Possession of his Soul and thereupon as he ought began freely and stoutly to preach and own it he was immediately call'd in question for his Life as one that had spoken Blasphemy against the Law against Moses against the Temple and God or knows not that the Holy Scriptures have been accused of Vanity and Folly upon pretence that they contain'd things contrary and repugnant one to another and that all the Apostles of Jesus Christ disagreed amongst themselves and that St. Paul differed from all the rest And that I may not trouble you with all the Instances of this nature which are upon Record for they are infinite who knows not what Slanders were of old raised against
Arts. 12. NOW if we make it appear and that not obseurely and craftily but bona fide before God truly ingeniously clearly and perspicuously that we teach the most holy Gospel of God and that the antient Fathers and the whole Primitive Church are on our side and that we have not without just cause left them and return'd to the Apostles and the antient Catholick Fathers and if they who so much detest our Doctrine and pride themselves in the name of Catholicks shall apparently see that all those Pretences of Antiquity of which they so immoderately glory belong not to them and that there is more strength in our Cause than they thought there was then we hope that none of them will be so careless of his Salvation but he will at some time or other bethink himself which side he ought to joyn with Certainly if a man be not of an hard and obdurate Heart and resolved not to hear he can never repent the having once considered our Defence and the attending what is said by us and whether it be agreeable or no to the Christian Religion 13. FOR whereas they call us Hereticks that is so dreadful a Crime that except it be apparently seen except it be palpable and as it were to be felt with our Hands and Fingers it ought not to be easily believed that a Christian is or can be guilty of it for Heresie is a Renunciation of our Salvation a Rejection of the Grace of God and a departure from the Body and Spirit of Christ But this was ever the Custom and Usage of them and of their Fore-fathers that if any presumed to complain of their Errors and desired the Reformation of Religion they condemn'd them forthwith for Hereticks as Innovators and factious men Christ himself was call'd a Samaritan for no other cause but for that they thought he had made a defection to a new Religion or Heresie And St. Paul the Apostle being call'd in question was accused of Heresie to which he replied After the Way which they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets 14. In short all that Religion which we Christians now profess in the beginning of Christianity was by the Pagans call'd a Sect or Heresie with these words they fill'd the ears of Princes that when out of prejudice they had once possessed their minds with an Aversion for us and that they were perswaded that whatever we said was Factious and Heretical they might be diverted from reflecting upon the thing it self or ever hearing or considering the Cause but by how much the greater and more grievous this Crime is so much the rather ought it to be proved by clear and strong Arguments especially at this time because men begin now adays a little to distrust the Fidelity of their Oracles and to inquire into their Doctrine with much greater industry than has heretofore been imployed for the People of God in this Age are quite of another Disposition than they were heretofore when all the Responses and Dictates of the Popes of Rome were taken for Gospel and all Religion depended upon their Authority the Holy Scriptures and the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets are every where now to be had out of which all the true and Catholick Doctrine may be proved and all Heresies may be refuted 15. BUT seeing they can produce nothing out of the Scriptures against us it is very injurious and cruel to call us Hereticks who have not revolted from Christ nor from the Apostles nor from the Prophets By the Sword of Scripture Christ overcame the Devil when he was Tempted by him with these Weapons every high thing that exalteth it self against God is to be brought down and dispersed for all Scripture saith St. Paul is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction that the Man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished unto all good Works and accordingly the Holy Fathers have never fought against Hereticks with any other Arms than what the Scriptures have afforded them St. Augustin when he disputed against Petilianus a Donatist Heretick useth these words Let not saith he these words be heard I say or thou sayest but rather let us say thus saith the Lord let us seek the Church there let us judge of our Cause by that And St. Jerom saith Let whatever is pretended to be delivered by the Apostles and cannot be proved by the Testimony of the writen Word be struck with the Sword of God And St. Ambrose to the Emperor Gratian Let the Scriptures saith he let the Apostles let the Prophets let Christ be interrogated The Catholick Fathers and Bishops of those times did not doubt but our Religion might be sufficiently proved by Scripture nor durst they esteem any man an Heretick whose Error they could not perspicuously and clearly prove such by Scripture And as to us we may truly reply with St. Paul After the way which they call HERESIE so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets or the Writings of the Apostles 16. IF therefore we be Hereticks and they as they desire to be call'd be Catholicks why do they not do what they see the Fathers and all other Catholicks have done why do they not convince us out of the Holy Scriptures why do they not try us by them why do they not shew that we have made a defection from Christ from the Prophets from the Apostles and from the Holy Fathers Why do they stand Why do they draw back It is the Cause of God Why then should they fear to commit it to the Arbitriment of the Word of God But if we are Hereticks who submit all ouâ— Controversies to the Holy Scriptures and appeal to those very Words which we know were consigned to writing by God himself and prefer them before all other things which can possibly be excogitated by the Wit of Man what are they or by what Name shall they be call'd who fear and shun the Sentence of the Scriptures that is the Judgment of God himself and prefer their own Dreams and silly Inventions before them and have for some Ages violated the Institutions of Christ and his Apostles for the sake of their Traditions There is a Story of Sophocles the Tragedian that when he was very old he was accused before the Judges by his own Sons for a childish and a silly Person as one that had wasted his Estate by ill managery and stood in need of a Guardian in his old Age to take care of him and it the old Man appeared in Court and instead of a Deâ—ence recied a Tragedy which he had very elaborately and elegantly written just in that time the Suit was depending and thereupon asked the Judges if that Poem were the Work of a childish person 16.
SO we therefore because we are taken by them for mad-men and are traduced as if we were Hereticks and as if we had nothing to do with Christ nor with the Church of God have thought it not unreasonable or unprofitable to propound openly and freely the Faith in which we stand and all that Hope which we have in Christ Jesus that all may see what we think of every part of the Christian Religion and so determine with themselves whether that Faith which they must needs perceive to be consonant to the Words of Christ and the Writings of the Apostles and the Testimonies of the Catholick Fathers and which is confirmed by the Examples of many Ages be only the Rage of a sort of mad-men and a Combination or Conspiracy of Hereticks CHAP. II. Containing the Doctrine received in the Church of England WE believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine Power which we call GOD and that this is distinguished into three equal Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost all of the same Power of the same Majesty of the same Eternity of the same Divinity and of the same Substance and altho' these three Persons are so distinguished that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Holy Ghost or Father yet there is but one GOD and that this one God created Heaven and Earth and whatever is contain'd within the Circumference of the Heavens 2. WE believe that Jesus Christ the only Son of the eternal Father as it had been decreed before the beginning of all things when the fulness of time came took our Flesh and perfect Humane Nature of that blessed and pure Virgin that he might reveal to Men that hidden and secret Will of his Father which was conceal'd from all former Ages and Generations and that in this humane Body he might finish the Mystery of our Redemption and might nail to his Cross our Sins and the Obligation which lay against us 3. FOR we believe that for our sakes he died was buried descended into Hell and the third day by a Divine Power returned to Life and arose and after forty days in the sight of his Disciples ascended into Heaven that he might fill all things and that the very Body in which he was born in which he convers'd in which he was despised in which he had suffered most grievous Torments and a most direful Death in which he rose and now ascended to the right hand of his Father was placed above all Principalities and Power and every Name which is mentioned not only in this World but in that which is to come in Majesty and Glory And we believe that he doth now sit there and shall sit there till all things are fulfil'd and altho the Majesty and Divinity of Christ is diffused every where yet his Body as St. Augustine saith ought to be in one place we believe that tho Christ added Majesty to his Body yet he took not from it the Nature of a Body nor is Christ to be so asserted to be God that we should deny him to be Man and as the Martyr Vigilius said Christ left us as to his Humane Nature but he hath not left us in his Divine Nature and tho he is absent from us by the Form of a Servant yet he is ever with us by the Form of God 4. AND from thence we believe Christ shall return to exercise a general Judgment as well upon those he shall then find alive as upon all that are then dead 5. WE believe that the Holy Ghost who is the third Person in the Holy Trinity is true God not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding from both that is from the Father and the Son in a way neither known to Mortals nor possible to be expressed by them We believe that it is He who softens the Hardness of Mans Heart when he is received into their Hearts by the saving preaching of the Gospel or by any other way whatsoever that it is He who inlightens them and leads them to the Knowledge of God into all the ways of Truth into a perfect newness of Life and a perpetual hope of Salvation 6. WE believe that there is one Church of God and that not consin'd as it was heretofore to the Jewish People in one Angle or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and so diffused or spread over the Face of the whole Earth that there is no Nation which can justly complain that it is excluded and cannot be admitted into the Church and People of God that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and Spouse of Christ that Christ is the only Prince of this Kingdom that there is in the Church divers Orders of Ministers that there are some who are Deacons others who are Presbyters and others who are Bishops to whom the Instruction of the People and the Care and Management of Religion is committed And yet that there neither is nor is it possible there should be any one man who has the care of this whole Catholick Church for Christ is ever present with his Church and needs not a Vicar or sole and perfect Successor and that no mortal Man can in his mind contain all the Body of the Universal Church that is all the parts of the Earth much less can he reduce them into an exact Order and rightly and prudently administer its Affairs That the Apostles as St. Cyprian saith were all of equal Power and Authority and that all the rest were what St. Peter was that it was said to all alike Feed To all go ye into all the World To all teach ye the Gospel And that as St. Jerome saith All Bishops wheresoever they are setled whether it be at Rome or Eugubium at Constantinople or Rhegium they are of equal Worth and of the same Priesthood And as St. Cyprian saith there is but one Episcopacy and each of them hath a perfect and intire share of it And that according to the Judgment and Sentence of the Council of Nice the Bishop of Rome hath no more Authority in the Church of God than the other Patriarchs viz. the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch That the Bishop of Rome who now endeavours to draw all the Ecclesiastical Authority to himself alone if he doth not his Duty that is if he doth not administer the Sacraments if he doth not instruct the People Admonish and Teach he is not to be call'd a Bishop or indeed a Presbyter for as St. Augustin saith Bishop is the Name of a Work or Office and not a Title of Honour so that he who would usurp an unprofitable Preheminence in the Church is no Bishop But then that the Bishop of Rome or any other Person should be the Head of the whole Church or an universal Bishop is no more possible than that he should be the Bridegroom the Light the Salvation and the Life of the Church for these are the Priviledges and Titles of
diligently examined are in the end sound to be new and of a very late Original 3. IN truth the Laws and Ceremonies of the Jews altho accused by Haman as new could never be thought so by any man who did well and rightly consider the thing for they were written on most ancient Tables and Christ tho many thought he departed from Abraham and the ancient Fathers and brought in a new Religion in his own name yet answered truly if ye believed Moses ye would believe me also for my Doctrine is not so new for Moses a very ancient Author and of great esteem with you hath spoken of me and St. Paul saith of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which many thought to be new that it had the most Ancient Testimony of the Law and the Prophets And our Doctrine which we may much better call the Catholick Doctrine of Christ is not so new but that it is commended to us by the Ancient of days the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in most ancient Monuments the Prophets and Gospels and the Writings of the Apostles and these cannot now seem new to any man but to him to whom the Faith of the Prophets the Gospel and Christ himself seems new But then as to their Religion if it be so ancient as they pretend why do they not prove it so from the Examples of the Primitive Church from the old Fathers and the antient Councils Why doth so antient a Cause lye desolate and without a Patron so very long Indeed they never want Fire and Swords but then as to the ancient Fathers and Councils there is with them a deep silence But it is the height of Absurdity and Folly to begin with those bloody and brutish Reasons if they could possibly have found out easier and milder Arguments 4. AND again if they do indeed intirely trust to Antiquity and do not dissemble any thing why did one John Clement an English man rend and burn some Leaves of Theodoret a most ancient Father and a Greek Bishop in the presence of several persons of good Worth and Credit believing that another Copy of that Book was no where to be found because this Father had perspicuously and clearly taught that the Nature of the Bread was not abolished in the Eucharist Why doth Albertus Pighius deny that the ancient Father St. Augustin had a true notion of original Sin Or of Matrimony in that he saith that a Marriage made after a Vow entered is a good Marriage and cannot be dissolved upon which occasion Pighius saith Augustin erred and made use of false Logick And why did they in a late Impression of Origen upon the Gospel of St. John omit the whole sixth Chapter in which it is probable or rather certain that Father has delivered many things contrary to their Opinions concerning the Eucharist choosing rather to deface and to mutilate this ancient Father than to suffer any thing to appear in the World which might contradict their Doctrine by printing the Book perfect Is their Rending Suppressing Maiming and Burning the Writings of the ancient Fathers an Argument of their Reliance on Antiquity 5. IT is worth the while to see how rarely these Gentlemen agree in matters of Religion with those antient Fathers of whose concurrence they boast so unmeasurably 1. The ancient Elibertin Council decreed that what was the Object of Worship should not be painted in Churches The old Father Epiphanius saith it is a hâ—rrible wickedness and an insufferable villany for any man to set up the Picture even of Christ in Christian Churches but they have filled all their Churches and every Corner of them with Pictures and Statues as as if there were no Religion without them 2. The ancient Fathers Origen and St. Chrysostom have exhorted the People to the diligent reading of the Scriptures that they would buy Books and discourse amongst themselves of holy things in their Families the Wives with their Husbands and the Parents with their Children but our adversaries condemn the Scriptures as dead Elements and drive the People from them as much as they can possibly 3. The ancient Fathers Cyprian Epiphanius and St. Jerome if any Person who had vowed to live a single Life did afterwards fall into impurity and could not overcome the Rages of his Concupiscence said it was better for him to marry and live chastly in a State of Matrimony and such a Marriage is by St. Augustine another ancient Father adjudged to be valid and good and that it ought not to be recalled or rescinded but they if a man has once bound himself by a Vow although he is afterwards burnt altho he Whores altho he lives never so lewdly and dissolutely yet they will never suffer him to marry or if he does perhaps marry they deny that it is a lawful Marriage and they â—each that it is much more holy to keep a Concubine or a Whore than to live in a state of Matrimony 4. St. Augustin an ancient Father complained of the excessive number of impertinent Ceremonies with which the Minds and Consciences of Men were even then oppressed they as if God regarded nothing else have since swelled the number of them to so immense a quantity that there is scarce any thing else left in their Churches 5. The same ancient Father denies it to be lawful for a Monk to live lazily in idleness and under the Shew and Pretence of Sanctity to live on what is anothers and the ancient Father Apollonius saith such a Monk is no better than a Thief But they have whole Flocks or Herds shall I call them of Monks who do nothing nor do they so much as pretend to any shew of Holiness and yet do not only live by the Labour of others but fare deliciously and luxuriously 6. An ancient Roman Council decreed that no man should be present at that Divine Service which was celebrated by a Priest which he knew kept a Concubine but they permit the Priests to keep Concubines for Money and by force compel men to be present at their Sacrilegious Services 7. The ancient Apostolical Canons command that Bishop to be deposed who shall exercise at the same time the Office of a Bishop and the Function of a Civil Magistrate but these men do and will exercise both or rather indeed totally neglect that which is most of all their Duty and yet there is no man to remove and punish them 8. The ancient Council of Gangra forbid any man to put such difference between a married and a single Priest as to esteem the one more Holy than the other upon that account but they put such a Difference that they think all the Holy Services which are performed by a pious and good man who hath a Wife are prophaned 9. The ancient Emperor Justinianus commanded all things in the Divine Service to be pronounced with an audible loud clear articulate Voice that the People
against King John another of our Princes the Bishops and Monks and some part of the Nobility and absolved all his Subjects from that Oath of Allegiance they had taken to him and at last by the highest Impiety not only deprived him of his Kingdom but his Life and they wounded Henry the VIII a most noble Prince with their Curses and Excommunications and stir'd up against him sometimes the Emperor and sometimes the King of France and as much as in them lay exposed our Kingdom to be a Prey and a Booty to them like a company of silly men as they were to think so great a Prince would be frighted with Vizors and Rattles or that so great a Kingdom could be devoured at one mouthful and as if all this had not been enough they would needs make England a tributary Province and yearly most unjustly exacted a considerable Revenue out of it so much has the Friendship of the City of Rome cost us Now if they extorted these great Advantages from us by Impostures and ill Arts there is no reason why we should not by good Methods and Laws recover them back again but if on the other side our Kings induced by an Opinion of their simulated Holiness in the darkness of those times freely bestowed these things on them upon the account of Religion there is now very good reason that our latter Kings having discovered the Error of their Ancestors should take them away again they being possess'd of the same Power with the former Kings for every Donation becomes void when it is no longer approved by the Will of the Giver but it can never seem a Will which is clouded and impeded by Error The Conclusion THUS I have acquainted thee my Reader that it is no new or strange thing to see the Christian Religion in these days upon its Restitution and Revival in the World entertain'd with Slanders and Reproaches for the same things happened to Christ himself and his Apostles And yet least thou shouldest be misled and imposed upon by these Clamors of our Adversaries we have represented to thee what the whole manner of our Religion is what we believe concerning God the Father concerning his only Son Jesus Christ and concerning the Holy Ghost what our Opinion is concerning the Church the Sacraments the Ministry the Holy Scriptures the Ceremonies of the Church and all the other parts of the Christian Religon We have declared also that we detest as pernicious to the Souls of Men and plagues all those Ancient Heresies that have been condemn'd by the old Councils and Holy Scriptures That we have reduced into practise again as much as we can possibly the Ecclesiastical Discipline which our Adversaries had much weakned and that we punish all Licentious Courses of Life and Debauchery in Manners by our ancient and established Laws and that with as much 〈◊〉 as is fit and possible That we pâ—â—serve all Kingdoms in the same State we found them without any Diminution or Mutation and preserve the Majesty of our Princes intire as much as we can possibly That we have departed from that Church which they had made a Den of Thieves in which they had left nothing sound or like a Church and which they themselves confessed to have erred in many things as Lot left Sodom or Abraham Chaldea not out of Contention but out of Obedience to God and have sought the certain way of Religion out of the sacred Scriptures which we know cannot deceive us and have return'd to the Primitive Church of the ancient Fathers and Apostles that is to the beginning and first Rise of the Church as to the proper Fountain 2. THAT we have not indeed expected the Authority or consent of the Council of Trent in which we saw nothing was manag'd well and regularly where all that entered took an Oath to one Man where the Ambassadors of our Princes were despised and ill treated where none of our Divines could be heard where Partiality and Ambition openly carried all things and according to the Practice of the Holy Fathers and the Customs of our own Ancestors we have reformed our Churches in a Provincial Synod and according to our Duty we have cast off the Yoke and Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome who had no just Authority over us nor was like either Christ or St. Peter or the Apostles or indeed like a Bishop in any thing Lastly we do all agree amongst ourselves in all the Doctrines and Points of the Christian Religion and do with one Spirit and one Mouth worship God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 3. WHEREFORE O Christian and Pious Reader now thou feest the Reasons and Causes of the Reformation of Religion with us and of our Departure from them thou oughtest not to wonder that we should rather choose to obey our Saviour than Men. St. Paul hath admonished us that we should not be carried away with every Wind of false Doctrine and especially that we should mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly and by good Words and fair Speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple Their Impostures accordingly like Batts and Owls do now sometime since begin to flie and steal away before the rising Sun and cannot indure the Light of the Gospel and altho they were in some sense built and heaped almost up to Heaven yet they sink down into Ruins of their own accord For thou oughtest not to think that those things happened accidentally or by chance It was certainly the Will of God that in these times the Gospel of Jesus Christ should in defiance of all opposition be spread abroad in the World and therefore men being moved by the Word of God freely betook themselves to the Doctrine of Christ and as for us we sought neither Riches nor Pleasure nor case by this Change for our Adversaries abound in all these and we had a much larger Share of them whilst we continued with them 4. NOR do we decline Concord and Peace with Men neither but yet we will not continue in a State of War God that we might have Peace with Men. The Name of Peace saith St. Hilary is Pleasant but then Peace and Servitude are not the same thing for if according to their desire the Name of Christ should be supprest the Truth of the Gospel betrayed their wicked Errors be dissembled the Eyes of Christian Men be deluded and a plain and apparent Conspiracy be carried on against God himself this is not saith that great Man Peace but the conditions of a most base Slavery There is saith Nazianzen an unprofitable Peace and there is an useful sort of Discord for we must pursue Peace with Conditions as far as 〈◊〉 lawful and in us lyeth and unless these Limitations may attend it Christ himself came not to bring Peace into the World
pretend we have recall'd from the bottom of Hell and pronounce the Arrians Eutichians Marcionites Ebionites the Valentinians Carpocratians Tatians and Novatians and in one word all those who have thought impiously either of God the Father or of Christ or of the Holy Ghost or of any other part of the Christian Religion all these I say because they are convicted by the Gospel of Christ we pronounce them wicked and lost men and detest them to the Gates of Hell and not only so but if any of those Heresies happen to break out anew amongst us we severely and seriously correct the Revivers of them with lawful and civil Punishments 3. We confess that upon the beginning of the Reformation there arose some new and unheard of Sects as Anabaptists Libertines Menonians and Zwenkfeldians but we render our unfeigned Thanks to God that the World is now well satisfied that we neither brought forth nor taught nor maintained those Monsters Whoever thou art who thinkest otherwise be pleased to read our Books which are every where to be had What is there in them that can fairly be taken to favour the madness of these People Yea there are at this day no Nations so free from these Pests as those in which the Gospel is freely taught Now if they would rightly and attentively consider this thing it is a strong-Argument that the Doctrine we teach is the very truth of the Gospel for neither Tares nor Chaff use to spring up or be found but in Corn. And who knows not what a number of Heresies arose when the Gospel was first propagated in the World in the Times of the very Apostles Who before these Times ever heard of Simon Magus Menander Saturninus Basilides Corpocrates Cerinthus Ebion Valentinus Secundus Marcosius Colorbasius Heracleo Lucian and Severus But why should I mention this contemptible Number Epiphanius reckons LXXX and St. Augustin more distinct Heresies which grew up with the Gospel What then was not the Gospel the Gospel because together with it so many Heresies were produced or shall we therefore say that Christ was not Christ 4. AND yet as I said this cursed Crop has not sprung up in our Fields where the Gospel is freely preached and publickly received and setled Those Plagues have had their Rise in the darkness and blindness of our Adversaries and with them too they have encreased and spread themselves where the Truth is oppressed with Tyranny and Cruelty nor are these things to be heard of any where but in Corners and Conventicles Let them make a Tryal let them grant the Gospel its free Course let the Truth of Jesus Christ freely shine and extend its Rays to all Parts without hindrance and they shall soon see that as the Darkness of the Night vanisheth at the approach of the Sun so will these Shadows disappear before the Light of the Gospel For as for us we daily make it our business to repel and confute these Heresies which we are falsly reported to nourish and encourage whilst our adversaries sit still and mind nothing less 5. AND whereas they say we are divided into divers Sects and that some of us have taken the Names of Lutherans and others of Zuinglians or Calvinists and we could never yet agree amongst our selves concerning the Articles of our Doctrines What would they have said if they had lived in the Times of the Apostles and Holy Fathers When one said I am of Paul another I am of Cephas and another I am of Apollo when St. Paul reprehended St. Peter when by reason of a Quarrel Paul and Barnabas separated one from the other and went several ways when as Origen acquaints us the Christians were divided into so many Factions that they had no Name common to them but that of Christian and they agreed in nothing else but that Nane and as Socrates informs us they were derided publickly in the Theaters by the People for their Dissentions and Sects and when as Constantine the Great said there was so many Contentions and Controversies in the Church that this very single Calamity seem'd to exceed the Miseries of the former times of Persecution when Theophilus Epiphanius Chrysostom Augustin Ruffinus and St. Jerome all of them Christians all Fathers and all Catholicks contested each others with most violent and implacable Animosities when as Nazianzen saith the Members of the same Body consumed one another when the Eastern and Western Churches contended about Leavened Bread and the time of keeping Easter things of no mighty consequence when in every Council which were then numerous there was a new Creed and new and contrary Decrees minted What would these men have then said to whom would they have applied themselves from whom would they have fled in what Gospel would they have believed whom would they have esteemed Catholicks and whom Hereticks Now there are only two Names Luther and Zuinglius and what a Noise is made about them But because these two could not agree about some Points shall we therefore think they are both in the wrong that neither of them has the Gospel and that neither has preached well and truly 6. BUT O good God! who are they that so bitterly reflect on us for our Dissentions Do they in the mean time all agree amongst themselves Have there never been any Dissensions and Controversies amongst them Why then do the Scotists and Thomists agree no better concerning the Merit of Congruity and that of Condignity concerning Original Sin in the Virgin Mary and about a solemn and simple Vow Why do the Canonists affirm that Auricular Confession is founded in Humane and Positive Laws and the Schoolmen on the contrary on Divine Institution Why does Albertus Pighius differ from Cajetan Thomas from Lombard Scotus from Thomas Occham from Scotus Alliacensis from Occham and the Nominalls from the Reallists and that I may not mention the Disagreements of the small Brotherhoods and Monks some of which place their admired Sanctity in eating of Fish others in living upon Herbs some in wearing of Shooes others in Sandals some in Linnen Garments and others in Woollen some in black and some in white Cloaths some shave their Heads broad and others narrow some wear Shooes and others go barefoot some are girded and some go loose besides these they should remember that some of their Divines say that the Body of Christ is naturally present in the Sacrament which is again denied by others that then there are some who say that the Body of Christ in the Sacrament is torn and ground with our Teeth and again there are others who deny this there are some who say that the Body in the Sacrament hath quantity others deny it some say Christ did consecrate by a cortain Divine Power others that he did it by his Blessing some that he did it by conceiving the five Words in his Mind others that it was by uttering them there be some that say that of these five Words the
escaped the Hatred of Men and the apparent Dangers we have run into by our Departure from them It is not many months since Paul the IV. had some Monks of the Augustine Order in Prison at Rome and many Bishops and a vast number of pious Men for the sake of Religion he exercised his Tortures and his Racks and left nothing untried and at the last how many Adulterers how many Sodomites how many Fornicators how many Incestuous Men did he find amongst them Blessed be God tho we are not what we should be nor what we profess to be yet what ever we are if we be compared with these our very Lives and Innocency will easily confute all these Slanders For we excite the People not only by Books and Sermons but by Example and good Manners to all sorts of Virtues and good Works We teach that the Gospel is not anâ— Ostentation of Knowledge but a Law of Life and that as Tertullian expresseth it â— Christian should not speak great things but live them and that not the Hearers but the Doers of the Law shall be justified before God 8. To all these things they commonly add and amplifie it too with all manner of Reproaches that we are a turbulent sort of Men that we snatch the Scepters out of the Hands oâ— Princes arm the People against them subver their Judicatories and Courts of Justice and endeavour to reduce Monarchies to popular States or Common-wealths dissolve the Laws and retrench the Revenues of Princes and turâ— all things topsie turvy and that in short if wâ— had our Wills there should nothing continuâ— safe in the Governments of the World O how often have they by such Pretences incensed the Minds of Princes against us that so they might crush the Reformation in its first springing up and Princes might be possess'd with an Aversion for our Religion before they knew what it was and that Magistrates might entertain an Opinion that when ever they saw one of us they saw one of their Enemies 9. IT would have been a great Affliction to us to be thus hatefully accused of so great a Crime as Treason but that we know that Christ himself and his Apostles and an infinite number of other pious Christians have been made the Objects of publick Envy on the same Pretence for Christ tho he commanded to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesars yet he was accused of Sedition in that he was said to design a Change in the Government and to affect and intend a Kingdom and so they loudly charged him before the Tribunal of Pilate If thou lettest this man go say they thou art no Friend to Caesar And the Apostles altho they constantly taught that we ought to obey Magistrates and that every Soul should be subject to the Higher Powers and that not only for fear of Wrath and Punishment but also for Conscience sake yet they were said to stir up the People and to incite the Multitude to Rebellion Haman brought the Jews into the disfavour of Assucrus by representing them as a stubborn and rebellious People that despised the Edicts and Laws of Princes The wicked King Ahab charged Elijah the Prophet of God that he troubled Israel Amasias the Priest of Bethel accused Amos the Prophet of a Conspiracy before Jeroboam And behold saith he Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the House of Israel and the Land is not able to bear all his Words In short Tertullian saith this was the general Accusation against all Christians in his times that they were Traitors Plotters and the common Enemies of Mankind And therefore if Truth which is still the same suffers the same Reproaches as it did formerly it may indeed seem troublesome and uneasie but it is not new or unusual 10. IT was easie forty years agon to fiâ— such Slanders upon the then rising and unknown Truth when the first Rays of it burst forth in the midst of so great a Darkness and few men had heard what Doctrines were taught When Martin Luther and Huldericus Zuinglius two excellent Persons who were given by God to enlighten the World began first to preach the Gospel when the Thing was new and the Event uncertain and the Minds of Men surprised and unsetled and their Ears open to all manner of Calumnies and it was not possible to invent thaâ— Defamation of us which would not be believed by the People even upon the Account of the Novelty and strangeness of the thing And so it was in the more ancienâ— times the first opposers of Christianity Symmachus Celsus Julianus and Porphyrius represented the Primitive Christians as a seditious and rebellious Sect before either Prince or People knew well what the Christians were or what they professed or what they would have But now when our Enemies may see and cannot deny that in all our Words and Writings we diligently admonish the People of their Duty that they should obey their Princes and Magistrates tho they are wicked men which is also confirm'd by Experience and seen and observed by all the World certainly I say it is now a senseless thing to attempt to make us odious by a parcel of superannuated over-worn Lyes when they have no new and fresh Crimes to lay to our Charge 11. WE bless our gracious God whose Cause this is that there hath yet been no Example of any Insurrection or Rebellion in any of those Countries Kingdoms or Common-wealths which have imbraced the Reformation We have not subverted any Monarchy we have not diminished anyâ—Princes Jurisdiction or Rights we have not troubled any Common-wealth The Kings of England Denmark and Sweden the Dukes of Saxony the Counts of the Palatinate the Marquesses of Brandenburgh the Lantgraves of Hessia the Common-wealths of the Switzars the free Cities of Strasbourgh Basil Frankfort Ulm Augsburg and Norimburg are all in the same State they were before the Reformation or rather because the People are now better instructed in the matters of Obedience to their Governours than they were before in a better State Let our Defamers go into those places where the Gospel is setled by the Blessing of God and then tell us where Princes have more Majesty Where there is less Pride and Tyranny Where are Princes treated with more Respect Where the People are less Tumultuous Where the Civil Government or Ecclesiastical was ever in greater Tranquillity 12. BUT you will say the Boors of Germany fell into Tumults and Insurrections upon the first preaching of this Doctrine Be it granted but then Martin Luther the first Divulger of it did with great vehemence and sharpness write against them and reduced them to their Allegiance and Duty 13. AND whereas some ignorant men have objected that the Switzars murthered Leopold the Arch-Duke of Austria and changing the State erected a Common-wealth and so freed their Country this was done as appears by all Histories above two hundred and sixty years since
Princes are to be obeyed as Men sent by God and whosoever resists them resists the Ordinance of God These are our Doctrines these Principles shine forth in our Books in our Sermons in our Lives and in the Modesty and dutiful behaviour of our People 18. AND whereas they pretend we have departed from the Uuity of the Catholick Church this is not only odious but tho it is not true yet it hath an appearance and similitude of Truth in it But then not only those things which are true and certain find belief with the ignorant Multitude but those things also which may seem probable and so we shall ever observe that crafty cunning Men who had not the Truth on their sides have ever maintained their Cause with the Resemblances of Truth that those who could not dive into the bottom of things might be taken at least with the shew and probability of their Arguments Because the Primitive Christians our Fore-fathers when they Prayed to God turned their Faces toward the rising Sun there were some that said they worshiped the Sun and that it was their GOD and because they said that as to their eternal and immortal Life they lived on nothing but the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb without spot meaning thereby our Saviour Jesus Christ Envious Men the Enemies of the Cross of Christ whose only business it was to render the Christian Religion by any means hateful did thereupon perswade the People that the Christians were impious Men that they offered Humane Sacrifices and drank Mans Blood and when the Christians said with God there is neither Male nor Female that is that as to the obtaining of Justification there is no distinction of Persons and did salute one another commonly by the Names of Brother and Sister there were not wanting some who slandered the Christians thereupon and said they made no distinction amongst them of Sex or Age but like Beasts promiscuously lay together And when they met frequently in Vaults and secret places to Pray and hear the Gospel which sort of private Places and Meetings had sometimes been made use of by Conspirators against the Government there was thereupon a Rumor spread abroad that they conspired together and had secret Consultations about murthering the Magistrates and subverting the Government And because in celebrating the Holy Communion they made use of Bread and Wine according to the Institution of Christ they were thought by many not to worship Christ but Bacchus and Ceres because those heathen Deities were worshiped by the Pagans with a like Rite with Bread and Wine These things were then believed by many not because they were true for what could possibly be less so but because they had a kind of resemblance of Truth and by that shew of truth were fitted to deceive them 18. SO they traduce us and say that as Hereticks we have departed from the Unity of the Catholick Church and the Communion of Christ not that they believe this to be true nor are they at all concern'd whether it be true or false but because the thing may in some sort seem true to ignorant Men for we have indeed departed not as Hereticks ever have done from the Church of Christ but as good men ought to do from the Contagion of wicked Men and Hypocrites and yet here they insult wonderfully that theirs is the Church the Spouse of Christ the Pillar of Truth the Ark of Noah out of which no Salvation is to be hoped for and in the interim they assert with the same Confidence that we have revolted that we have rent the Coat of Christ and torn our selves from his Body and made a desection from the Catholick Faith And when they have thus left nothing unsaid which can possibly be tho never so falsly and slanderously objected against us yet at last they cannot pretend that we have forsaken the Word of God or the Apostles of Christ or the Primitive Church 19. NOW we have ever thought that the Primitive Church which was in the times of Christ and the Apostles and holy Fathers was the Catholick Church Nor do we doubt but that that Church is the Ark of Noah the Spouse of Christ the Pillar and Foundation of Truth or to place in it all the Hopes of our Salvation It is indeed an odious thing to break off and depart from that Society a Man has long lived in especially if that Society consist of Men who seem to be and are therefore called Christians tho in truth they are none And in reality we do not so contemn their Church as bad as it now is for the Name sake and 〈◊〉 Gospel of Jesus Christ was once truly and purely taught there as that we have willingly departed from it without necessity But what if an Idol be set up in the Church of God and that Desolation appears there which Christ foretold should stand in the holy Place What if some Pirate or Robber possesseth himself of the Ark of Noah certainly as often as these men thus preach to us of the Church they make themselves only to be that Church and ascribe all those glorious Titles to themselves and triumph like those of Old who cryed The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord or like the Scribes and Pharisees when they boasted they were the Children of Abraham 20. THUS do they impose upon silly men by vain and useless Shews and seeâ— to overwhelm us with the meer Name of thâ— Church just as if a Thief having got poâ—â—session of another mans House and havinâ— by force expell'd or slain the true Owneâ— should afterwards claim it as his own anâ— keep the true Heir out or as if Antichrisâ— after he has seized the Temple of Godâ— should afterwards pretend it were his owâ— and that Christ had no right to it For theâ— our Adversaries have left almost nothing liâ— a Church in the Church of God yet theâ— will needs seem the only Patrons and Defeâ—â—ders of the Church just as Gracchus defendeâ— the Roman Exchequer by making such profuse Largesses and such unreasonable Expenses that he quite ruined the Publick Treasury But then there was never any thing yet so absurd or wicked but it might seem easie to be covered and defended by the Name of the Church for Wasps make Combs and impious Men have their Assemblies not much unlike the Churches But they are not presently the People of God who are call'd so nor are they all Israelites who are of Israel The Arrian Hereticks boasted that they only were Catholicks and they call'd all the rest sometimes Ambrosians and at other Athanasians and Johannites And Theodoret tells us that tho Nestorius was an Heretick yet he covered himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Pretence and Cloak of the Orthodox Faith Ebion tho he was of the same Opinion with the Samaritans yet as Epiphaâ—es assures us he would needs be call'd a â—â—hristian The Mahometans at this day tho â—t
future by which it might be proved he was of another Nation So these men pretending that all their Innovations were consigned to them by Christ and his Apostles and desiring they should be accordingly esteemed lest there should be any thing any where extant which might contradict these Dreams and Shams either burn or suppress the Scriptures and keep them from the People St. Chrysostom has written very well and appositely against such men as these Hereticks saith he shut the Gates of Truth for they know if they be kept open the Church will never be thought theris And Theophylact stiles the Word of God a Candle by the Light of which a Thief may be discovered And Tertullian saith the Scriptures convict the Frauds and Thefts of Hereticks For why else do they hide and suppress the Gospel which Christ commanded his Disciples to publish from the House top Why else do they indeavour to put that Candle under a Bushel which ought to be set in a Candlestick Why do they trust more to the Ignorance Blindness and Folly of the Multitude than to the Goodness of their Cause Do they think their Arts are not disclosed or that as if they had Gyges his Ring they can go undiscovered The World sees now with both Eyes what is so carefully locked up in the Cabinet of the Popes Breast this one Argument is sufficient to prove they do not act well and sincerely that Cause deserves to be suspected which declines a Scrutiny and hates the Light for as Christ saith he that doth Evil seeks Darkness and hates the Light but a mind conscious of what is good willingly comes forth that the Works which come from God may be seen but these Gentlemen are not so blind but they see what will become of their Kingdom if the Scriptures come once to be generally known and as it is said of old all the Idols of the Demons which before gave Oracles suddenly became dumb upon the appearance of Christ upon Earth so now will all their Arts at the approach of the Gospel sink down into Ruins and Rubbish for Antichrist is not to be deposed by any other thing than the Brightness of the coming of Christ 29. WE do not like them presently betake our selves to Fire and Sword but to the Scriptures nor do we assault them with force and Arms but with the Word of God By them as Tertullian saith we nourish our Faith by them we erect our Hope by them we establish our Confidence for we know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Power of God unto Salvation and that in it there is eternal life and as St. Paul admonisheth us we would refuse to hear an Angel of God that came from Heaven if he endeavoured to turn us away from any part of this Doctrine Yea as that most holy man Juastin Martyr said of himself we would not believe God himself if he should teach us another Gospel for whereas they make the Holy Scriptures like silent Masses dumb and useless and appeal rather to God himself speaking in the Church and in Councilâ— that is to their own better Senses and Opiâ—nions that is a very uncertain and dangerouâ— way of finding out Truth and in a sort Phaâ—natical and which was never approved bâ— the Holy Fathers St. Chrysostom saith indeedâ— that many boast of the Holy Spirit but if theâ— they speak what is their own they glory falsly 〈◊〉 what they have not for saith he as Christ denied that he spake from himself when he spake out of the Law and the Prophets so now if anâ—â—thing besides the Gospel is obtruded upon us undeâ— the Name of the Holy Ghost it is not to be believâ—ed for as Christ is the Completion of the Laâ— and the Prophets so the Spirit is the Completion 〈◊〉 the Gospel CHAP. V. Concerning the Answers and Objections out of the Fathers and Councils BUT though they have not the Scriptures on their side perhaps they will pretend they have the ancient Doctors and the Holy Fathers for that they have ever boasted that all Antiquity and the perpetual Consent of all times is for them and that all our Pretences are Novel and were never heard of till within the course of a very few years last past 2. NOW certainly there can nothing of more weight be said against Religion then that it is new We know not how this has come to pass but from the beginning of the World thus it hath ever been for whensoever God hath discovered and restored to Mankind the light of his Truth tho it is not only of the utmost Antiquity but older than time it self and eternal yet it ever seems to wicked men who hate it to be new and of no Antiquity That impious and bloody man Haman that he might bring the Jews into disfavour thus accused them to Assâ—erus Thou O King hast here in thy Dominions a certain People scattered abroad which observeth new Laws but is stubborn and rebellious against thy Laws St. Paul also when he began first to preach the Gospel to the Athenians was said to be a Setter forth of strange Gods that is of a new Religion and accordingly thus they bespeak him May we know what this new Doctrine whereof thou speakest is And Celsus when he wrote expresly against Christ and his Gospel that he might expose it to the scorn of men under the pretence of its Novelty writes thus What saith he has God after so many Ages now at last bethought himself Eusebius also is our Author that from the beginning the Christian Religion was in derision stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new and strange Religion and so our Adversaries condemn all our Doctrines as new and strange but then they desire that all their own without exception should be reputed most ancient just as the Magicians and Conjurers whose business is with the infernal Spirits that their abominable Art may be thought the more sublime and divine as being derived from great Patrons and Inventors and of a very ancient Original do commonly say that they have their Books and all their Rites and secret Mysteries from Athanasius Cyprian Moses Abel and Adam and from the Arch-Angel Raphael So our Enemies that their Religion too which they have not long since patch'd up for themselves may with the more â—ase be recommended to ignorant men and those that rarely consider what themselves or others do pretend that it came down to them just such as now it is from St. Augustin St. Hierom St. Chrysostom and St. Ambrose from the Apostles and Christ for they very well know that there is nothing more popular and of greater esteem with men than those venerable Names But now what if those things they pretend are so new do indeed prove to be most ancient and what if on the other side almost all those things which they extol so very much upon the pretence of Antiquity when they are well and
might thereby reap some benefit by it but they that the People may never understand them whisper their Divine Service not only in an obscure and low Tone but also in a strange and barbarous Tongue 10. The old Carthagenian Council forbad any thing besides the Canonical Scriptures to be read in the holy Assemblies of the Church but they read in their Churches what they themselves do not doubt to be meer Lyes and silly Fables And now if any man thinks these things are of no great consideration because they were decreed by Emperors and small Councils consisting of Bishops of less esteem and not in full Councils and therefore are more fond of the Authority and Names of Popes 11. Julius expresly forbad the Priest in the Celebration of the holy Communion to dip the Bread in the Calice but they contrary to this Decree do divide the Bread and dip it 12. Clemens the Pope saith it is not lawful for a Bishop to bear both the Spiritual and Civil Swords and saith he if thou wilt have both thou deceivest thy self and those that hear thee but now the Pope claims both and bears both and therefore the Wonder ought to seem the less if that hath followed which Clement foretold and he hath accordingly deceived himself and those which have heard him 13. Pope Leo saith it is not lawful to celebrate more than one Mass in one Day in one Church they say every day sometimes ten at others twenty and at other thirty and sometimes more in the same Church at the same time so that the miserable Spectator knows not which way to turn him 14. Gelasius the Pope saith that if any man divide the Sacrament and when he has received one part refuseth the other he doth act Wickedly and Sacrilegiously but they contrary to the Word of God and the Decree of this Pope command only one part of the Eucharist to be given to the People and by so doing have made their Priests guilty of Sacriledge 6. BUT now if they shall pretend that all these things are antiquated and worn out of use and so are in a sort dead and do not concern our times yet that men may see what Faith is to be given to these Men and with what Hope they call Councils let us consider in a few instances how well they observe those things which have been ordained of late years and which are fresh in Memory by Councils which they pretend were lawfully called and in which they themselves decreed those things I shall mention to be Religiously observed In the last Council of Trent not much above fourteen years since it was decreed by the common Vote of all Orders there present that two Benefices should not be committed at one time to the same Person Where is that Sanction now Is that so soon antiquated and dead too for they do frequently give not only two Benefices but sometimes also several Monasteries too and sometimes two three or four Bishopricks to one Man and he too sometimes not only unlearned and consequently thereby unfit for them but a Soldier In the same Council it was decreed that all Bishops ought to preach the Gospel but they never Preach nor ever come in a Pulpit nor do they think it in the least any part of their Duty What then is the meaning of all that shew of Antiquity Why do they glory so in the Names of the Fathers and of the ancient and modern Councils Why would they so fain seem to rely upon their Authority whom as occasion serve at their Pleasure they despise 7. BUT I have a great desire to have a little discourse with the Pope himself and to tell him some things to his Face Be pleased then O Holy Father who so often boastest of Antiquity and pretendest that all the Ancients are intirely addicted to thy Service to inform us which of all the ancient Fathers ever call'd your Holiness the chief Pontif or the Universal Bishop or the Head of the Church Which of them ever said that both the Swords were given to thee Which of them ever said that you have the Right and Authority to call Councils that the whole World was your Diocess Which of them ever said that all Bishops had received of your Fulness That all Power both iâ— Heaven and Earth was given to you That you could not be judged by Kings nor by the whole Clergy nor by all the Peopleâ— Which of them ever said that Kings and Emperors by the Command and will of Christ derived Authority from you Which of them ever affirmed with a Mathematical Exactnesâ— and Certainty that your Authority was preâ—cisely seventy seven times greater than that oâ— the greatest Kings Which of them ever saiâ— that you had a greater power than the otheâ— Patriarchs Which of them ever said you werâ— the Lord God or not a meer Man like otheâ— Mortals or stiled you a certain Hotch-potch a Mixture or Concrete of God and Manâ— which of them ever said that you were thâ— fountain of all Law that you had an Empireâ— and Dominion over Purgatory and that yoâ— might at your pleasure command the Angels of God Which of them ever said that you were King of Kings and Lord of Lords And now we are in we may inquire of a fow other things of the same Nature What one Man of all the ancient Bishops and Fathers ever taught you to say a private Mass whilst the People did nothing but look on or to lift the Eucharist above your Head in which you now place all your Religion or to curtail the Sacrament of Christ and contrary to his Institution and express Command to deprive the People of one half of it And that we may conclude what one of all the ancient Fathers taught you to dispence the Blood of Christ and the Merits of the Martyrs and to sell your Indulgences and all the Apartments and Lodgings of Purgatory like Commodities in the Market for Money They are wont often to celebrate their own wonderful secret Learning and their manifold and various Readings Now let your Partizans at last produce something of it if they can or let them at least shew they have read and do know more than or dinary for they have often made hideous Outcries amongst their Hearers that all the parts of their Religion are ancient and approved not only by the number but also by the Continuance and Consent of all Nations and Times 8. WELL then let them at least shew this their boasted Antiquity let them make it appear that what they so much extol is indeed of so vast an Extent let them prove that all Christian Nations have imbraced their Religion But alass as I said before they flee from their own Decrees and have already pluckt up those Canons which but a very few years since they made to last for ever Why then should we trust them in relation to what they pretend concerning the Fathers the
God to its ancient Purity Why do they presently make an Out-cry that these Princes disturb all things break in upon other Mens Offices and do act ill things and immodestly What Scripture I pray hath excluded Christian Princes from hearing these Causes Who besides these Men ever decreed any such Laws But they will reply that Civil Princes have learned to govern their States and to manage Arms but they understand nothing of the Mysteries of Religion And now what is the Pope at this day but a Monarch or Prince and what are the Cardinals who are now scarcely suffered to be any other but the Children of Kings and Princes What are the Patriarchs and for the most part the Arch-bishops Bishops and Abbots others than Princes Dukes and Earls in the Papal Kingdom and accordingly whithersoever they go they aâ—â— attended with a great Retinue and adorned with Chains and Collers of Gold and otâ—â—â— Ensignes of Honour And they have sometimes also a peculiar Habit belonging to them as Crosses Pillars Hats Myters and Palls which Pomp the ancient Bishops St. Chrysostom St. Ambrose and St. Augustin were not acquainted with but then excepting these outward Ornaments what do they teach what do they speak what do they do and what do they Live so as becomes I will not say a Bishop but a common Christian Is it then of so mighty a Consequence to go under this or that Title and by changing nothing but a Mans Cloaths to be called a Bishop 9. CERTAINLY it is a proud injurious and unjust thing and not to be born by Christian and Prudent Princes to permit the summ of all that concerns Religion to be managed by such Men as these alone who know nothing of the Mysteries of Religion nor care to know any thing more than what belongs to their Bellies and Kitchins and do not value any thing of Religion as worth aâ—rush who are no better than blind men placed in a Watch-tower and that in the interim a Christan and a Catholick Prince should stand like a trunk or a stock and without vote and without giving his judgment only observe what they are pleased to command and impose upon him and as if he had neither Ears nor Eyes nor Mind nor Heart of his own to receive without Exception and with a blind-fold submission do whatever they are pleased to command him altho they are Blasphemous and wicked things yea altho they should command him to extinguish all Religion and to crucisie his Saviour For why Can Caiphas and Annas judge well of Matters of Religion and cannot David and Ezechias Is it lawful for a Cardinal a Martial and a bloody Man to sit in a Council and is it unlawful for an Emperour and a Christian Prince For we attribute nothing more to our Princes than what is allowed them by the Word of God and approved by the Examples of the best Governments For besides that the care of both Tables is committed by God to a Faithful Prince that he may thereby understand that not only the Civil but the Ecclesiastical Polity belongs to him and his Office And besides all this God hath often expresly commanded Princes to cut down the Groves and overthrow the Statues and Altars of Idols to transcribe for himself a Book of the Law and Isaiah saith that Kings should be nursing Fathers to the Church and their Queens her nursing Mothers Besides all these things I say we see by Histories and the Examples of the best times that Pious Princes did never think the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs a thing that was foreign to their Duty 10. MOS ES who was the Civil Magistrate and Leader of the People received from GOD the whole Body of their Religion and the Order of their Sacred Rites and delivered them to the People and severely and sharply chastised Aaron their Bishop for making the Golden Calf and violating the Religion by Law established And Ioshua tho he were no other than a Civil Magistrate yet when he was first inaugurated and set over the People he received express Commands concerning Religion and the Worship of God David the King when their Religion had been miserably disordered by Saul a wicked King brought back the Ark of God that is restored Religion And he was not only present as an Admonisher or Perswader of the Work but he published Psalms and Hymns disposed the Priests and Levites into Classes and Orders and in a sort governed the Priests as a Priest Salomon the King built a Temple to the Lord which his Father David had only designed in his thoughts and after made an excellent Oration to the People concerning Religion and the Worship of God And after this he removed Abiathar the High Priest and substituted Sadoc in his place And when after this the Temple was wretchedly ruined by the Vice and Negligence of the Priests Ezechias the King commanded it to be cleansed of its Rubbish and Dirt the Lamps to be lighted Incense to be offered and the Sacred Rites to be performed according to the ancient Order And caused the Brazen Serpent that was then irreligiously worshipped by the People to be taken away and reduced to Dust Iosaphat the King overthrew and took away all the High Places and destroyed the Groves by which he perceived the Worship of God was hindered and the People by a Private Superstition diverted from attending the Service of God in the publick and common Temple to which they were bound to go three times in the Year out of all Parts of his Kingdom Iosias another King diligently admonished the Priests and Bishops of their duty Jods the King repressed the Luxury and Iâ—â—olence of the Priests Jehu slew the wicked false Propliets And that I may trouble the Reader with no more Examples out of the Scriptures and rather pass to see and consider how the Church has been governed since the Birth of Christ and the Publishing of the Gospel Heretofore Christian Emperors called Councils of the Bishops Constantinus called the Nicene Council Theodosius the First the Constantinâ— stantinopolitan Theodosius the Second the Ephesian Martianus the Chalcedonian and when Ruffinus had alledged a Synod as making for him his Adversary St. Jerome that he might confute him replyed Tell us what Emperor commanded it to be assembled And he also in his Funeral Oration for Paula a Roman Lady cites the Letters of the Emperors who had commanded the Greek and Roman Bishops to meet at Rome for the holding of a Council 11. IT is most certain that for Five hundred Years the Emperor alone took care of calling all the General Councils and Sacred Meetings and therefore we do now the more admire the unreasonableness of the Bishop of Rome who tho he knows that during the subsistence of the Roman Empire in its Greatness this was the sole right of the Emperor and that now Kings have succeeded to part of the Caesarean or Imperial Majesty this
OF old when the Athenians after they had beaten the Persians out of Greece began to rebuild their Walls which they themselves had levell'd with the Ground during the War And the Lacedemonians that they might still have the Athenians at their Mercy did severely prohibit them not to do it Themistocles the General of the Athenians promised that he would go to Lacedemon and deliberate with them about this Business and accordingly when he had began his Journey that he might gain time first he pretended a Sickness that he might stay a while by the way and when at last he got to Lacedemon he began one Delay after another one while the Articles did not please him another while he must consider of them a while now he must stay for his fellow Ambassadors without whom he could do nothing and soon after he must send Messengers to Athens to know their Pleasures and in the interim whilst he was spinning out the time the Athenians fortified their City that in case any Force were imployed against them they might be in a condition to repel it and just thus our Adversaries by gaining one day after another and pretending to refer all thins to a Council in the mean time build their own Walls whilst we sit still and expect I know not what Wonders from them and in the end when they have taken their Measures and put their Affairs out of danger then they will shut us out of doors and tell us that no Council can be held nor any thing else done 15. FOR it is worth the while to consider their Arts and Stratagems how often have Councils been call'd and yet have not met how often has a small flying Rumour defeated all their Preparations and other mens Expectations How often have the Purple Dons slipt home without doing any thing and adjourn'd the next Session to the ninth or tenth year How often has the Weather Provisions the Place or the Time not suited with their Humors For the Pope alone calls the Councils and dismisseth them when he will if any thing doth not please him or things begin to go cross to his Interest presently you hear his Valete Plaudite Clap your Hands and farewell A Council was call'd at Basil great numbers assembled from all Places many things were seriously debated Pope Eugenius is condemn'd as an Heretick and a Simonaical Prelate by all the Votes and Amideus Duke of Savoy substituted in his place Eugenius as he had reason takes this ill as a thing of bad example to Posterity his Power being very much above all Councils no Council can meet said he but by his Order nor determine any thing against his Will therefore it is a lewd thing to search into his Life in a Conventicle of Bishops So without delay he calls the Council first to Ferrara in Italy and then translates it to Florence What is the matter I pray did Pope Eugenius think the change of Air would produce a change in their Minds or that the Holy Ghost would give Answers more wisely in Italy than he had in Germany No he did not seek Christ in all his Changes but his own dear Interest he saw that in Germany Sigismund the Emperor was his Enemy and that his authority and the Favour he had there was too great and he thought that if these Fathers were transplanted from those cold Climates into Italy they might like trees removed become more mild and their Fruit more pleasant for O immortal God! that is not now any part of the Business of a Council to find out the Truth or suppress Falshood the only Business of Popes in Councils in these latter Ages has been the confirming the Roman Tyranny the promoting Wars the imbroiling the Christian Princes and engaging them one against another the Levying Mony sometimes for Expeditions into the Holy Land at other times for the building St. Peters Church sometimes for I know not what other Uses or rather Abuses which all tended to promote the Luxury and Lusts of a few ill men and these were the only Aims of all the late Councils for as for the Errors and Abuses as if there had been none nothing could ever be handled 16. Petrus Alliacensis complain'd much in the Council of Constance concerning the Avarice and Insolence of the Court of Rome But what did he gain by it What part of their Avarice or Insolence was ever restrain'd by the Authority of any Council and he moved too that the number of Holy Days and the Herds of lazy Monks might be diminished and another in a certain Work which is call'd the Tripartite and is put in the end of the Council of Laterane saith that the whole World is scandalized and speaks against the vast Multitude of begging Fryars and the Fathers in that Laterane Council say We command all men streightly for time to come not to invent any more new Religious Orders From these times to ours what has been done concerning Holy Days I know not but it is highly probable there hath been no diminution of them but the Order of Monks hath been infinitely encreased for the late Popes have added the Jesuits the Capuchins and the Theatins as if we had not had before a sufficient Swarm of Idle â—ellies John Gerson Chancellor of Paris offered to the Fathers of the Council of Constance a Catalogue of LXXV Abuses in the Church of Rome which he earnestly desired might be reformed but now of so great a number what one Abuse have they since reformed Johannes Picus Mirandula writes to Pope Leo that he would diminish the number of vain Ceremonies and curb the Luxury of the Priests After this a great number of Bishops met in the Laterane Council with a mighty expectation of the whole World but what one Ceremony did they cut off What one Priest did they punish for Luxury and Wickendess the Poet Mantuan complained by name of the Manners of the Church of Rome St. Bernard the Abbot wrote thus to Eugenius the Pope your Court sometimes receives good Men but it makes none the bad do there thrive the good are ruin'd And concerning the miserable state in which the Church then was he writes that from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Foot there is no soundness And again where is he that preacheth the acceptable year of the Lord they do not saith he in these times keep but corrupt the Spouse of Christ they do not keep but kill and devour the Lords Flock Pope Adrian the VI. when he sent his Legate into Germany did ingeniously and truly confess that the state of the whole Clergy was extreamly corrupt all we the Ecclesiastical Prelates saith he have declined every one into his way and there is not now one that doth good no not one Albertus Pighius confesseth that in the very Mass which they will have to be most sacred and in which they place the Center of all the Christian Religion there may be found Abuses and
Errors And why should Words be multiplied I omit other Witnesses for they are almost infinite many Councils have been held since that time and Bishops assembled and the Synod of Basil was expresly call'd as they then pretended for the Reformation of the whole Clergy but notwithstanding from that time forward Errors increased every where and the Corruptions of the Clergy became twice more than they were before 17. THE Cardinals who were nominated and chosen by Pope Paul the III. to consider the State of the Church gave in this Answer That there were many things faulty in the Church and especially in the Manners of the Bishops and inferior Clergy that the Bishops were lazy and did not teach the People feed the Flock or take care of the Vineyard that they lived in the Courts of Princes and were rarely resident that there was sometimes three and at others four Bishopricks held in commendam by one Cardinal which tended very much to the Dammage of the Church for those multiplied Offices as they said were not compatible or to be held together nor could be well managed by any one person and that all the Cloystered Orders should be banished out of the Church After this there was a Council at Trent but did the Bishops from that time begin to feed the Flock or did they cease from their former Non-residence or abstain from frequenting the Courts of Princes did the Cardinals cease from multiplying Bishopricks or was any care taken that the Church might have no dammage by it were the Conventual Orders diminished is Religion reformed amongst them what occasion then was there that so many Bishops should be assembled from very distant places or should to no purpose deliberate so many years concerning the Reformation of the Church this in truth is just as if the Pharisees should pretend to restore the Temple of God to its former Sanctity 18. THEY confess the errors and Abuses convoke Councils fain a great care of Religion and Piety promise their utmost Labour and Industry for the restitution of whatever is fallen into decay and that they will joyn with us in this Work That is just after that manner as the Enemies of the People of God of old said that they would together with Nehemia help to build the Temple of the Lord for indeed their design was not to promote the building of the Temple of the Lord but to hinder it as much as they could possibly they would willingly make a Peace with us but it is upon the terms offered by Nahash to the Jews of Jabesh if we will suffer them to bore out our right Eyes that is if we will suffer them to deprive us of the Word of God the Gospel of our Salvation 19. FOR have they any concern for Religion do they take any care of the Church of God who never regarded the Wrath of God nor the Salvation of the People nor any part of their Office they say let Pan take care of his Sheep They in the mean time mannage Wars Hunt take their Pleasures and fare deliciously That I may not mention any thing that is more base O immortal God! who can think that these men ever think on the Church of God or Religion when or what Errors will these men ever remove what Light will they afford to us whatever you say tho you could bring the Sun it self in your hands yet they would never the more see They excuse paint and comb as much as ever they can the most manifest Errors as Symachus or Porphyrius heretofore did the Heathen Errors and Follies All their business is to perswade the World that they have not deceived the People and that they have not err'd in any thing or if they sometimes prevail upon themselves to reform any thing which they never or very rarely and sparingly do they imitate Alexander the Roman Emperor who not being totally averse to the Christian Religion is reported to have worshiped Christ and Orpheus in the same Chappel or as the ancient Samaritans retained together the Worship of the true God and the Service of Idols so they will sometimes perhaps receive some part of the Gospel upon condition that they may at the same time retain their Superstition and their doting Errors they receive some Truths upon condition they may hold some other things which are false they do so approve ours as not to disapprove their own and so they do not take away Abuses but colour them over and only new case the old Pillars 20. THIS is their way of reforming the Church of God thus they celebrate Conventions and Councils the Truth is not served but Affection the better part is brought under by the greater the very Name of a General Council is beautiful and glorious but Poison is oftentimes given in a beautiful Cup for it is not sufficient that some Bishops and Abbots meet in one place the efficacy of a Council is not placed in Miters and Purple Robes nor is whatever a Council decrees presently to be taken for an Oracle It was a Council of which the Prophet Isaiah writes thus Wo to the rebellious Children saith the Lord who assemble a Council but not by me take Council saith he and it shall come to nought in another place It was a Council of which the Prophet David saith thus The Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ It was a Council which condemn'd the Son of God Jesus Christ to the Cross it was a Council and celebrated at Carthage under St. Cyprian which decreed that those that were baptized by Hereticks when they returned to the Church should be rebaptized which Error was afterwards forc'd to be repeal'd by so many Councils and Writings of the Fathers And what need is there of so many Words The second Council of Ephesus was openly for Eutyches that the Humane Nature of Christ was changed into the Divine The second Council of Nice decreed a manifest Idolatry in the Worship of Images The Council of Basil as Albertus Pighius saith decreed against all Antiquity against Nature against Reason and against the Word of God The Council of Ariminium wickedly decreed for Arrius that Christ was not God and to conclude many other Councils afterwards erred too as the Selucian and the Syrmian which did both condemn the Homousians or Catholicks and also subscribed to the impious Heresie of the Council of Ariminium Why do you doubt the very Council of Chalcedon which was one of the four which Pope Gregory compar'd to the four Evangelists Pope Leo made no Scruple to accuse that very Council of Temerity of Rashness 21. THUS we see some Councils to have been contrary to other Councils and that as Pope Leo quash'd the Acts of Adrian Stephen of Formosus John of Stephen and that as Pope Sabinian commanded all the Writings of Pope Gregory to be burnt as perverse and wicked so very often a latter Council
has abrogated all the Decrees of a former The Council of Carthage decreed that the Bishop of Rome should not be call'd the highest Priest or the Prince of the Priests or by any other such like Title but the latter Councils have not only call'd him the High Priest but the Great Pontiff and the Head of the Universal Church The Eliberitan Council decreed that it should not be lawful that what was worshipped should be painted on the Walls of the Churches The Council of Constantinople decreed that Images were not to be endured in the Christian Churches on the other side the second Council of Nice did allow them not only to be erected in Churches but also to be worshiped The Laterane Council under Pope Julius the II. was call'd for no other purpose but to rescind the Decrees of the Council of Pisa thus the latter Bishops frequently oppose the forgoing and some Councils damm up the Lights of others and these men will not be bound even by their own Councils any farther than they please and is for their Convenience and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brings Grist to their Mill. The Council of Basil decreed that a Council of Bishops is above the Pope but the Laterane Council under Pope Leo decreed the Pope to be above a Council And the Pope doth not only carry himself so as if he thought so but also if any man is of the Opinion of this Council he commands him to bo reputed a Heretick I pray Sir what would you do here whatever you say or think either the Pope or the Council will make you a Heretick and all the Popes for some Ages have opposed these Truths of the Council of Basil and therefore in the esteem of the Council of Basil all the Popes for all these last Ages are Hereticks The same Council with one Voice deposed Pope Eugenius for Simony and Schism and named Amideus for his Successor But yet Eugenius did not regard the Decree of the Council and altho he was a Simonist and a Schismatick yet he did not cease to be the Successor of St. Peter the Vicar of Christ and the Head of the Catholick Church and in spite of all retaind his former Dignity and was born as before on the shoulders of Noble Men magnificently and loftily And Amideus a simple man like one unhorsed walked upon his Feet and thought himself happy enough that of a Pope he was become a Cardinal The late Council at Trent made a Decree that the Bishops should teach the People and that no one of them should at the same time have two or more Bishopricks they on the other side contrary to the Canon of their own Council enjoy Pluralities and teach nothing and so they make such Laws as they will not be bound by but when they please at this rate have they ever valued their own Councils and Decrees 22. AND now Sir what reason have we to expect at this time a better Event of things for for what cause upon what hope and Expectation is the Council held be pleased Sir to consider with your self but this one thing what kind of Men they are upon whose Fidelity Learning and Judgment the weight of the whole Council the debating all those great Questions and the sum of the whole Affair depends they are indeed call'd Abbots and Bishops grave Men and great Names and as it is thought of great account in the Management of the Church of God but if you strip them of the Names Robes and Personages of such Men what have they that is at all like a Bishop or an Abbot for they are no Ministers of Christ no Dispensers of the Mysteries of God they do not attend the reading nor teach the Gospel nor feed the Flock nor till the Ground nor plant the Vincyard nor light the Fire nor carry the Ark of the Lord nor perform the Ambassie of Christ nor Watch nor do the Work of an Evangelist they do not fulfil their Ministery they entangle themselves in secular Affairs they hide the Treasure of their Lord and take away the Keys of the Kingdom of God they neither go in themselves nor do they suffer others to enter they beat their Fellow Servants they feed themselves and not the Flock they sleep they snore they feast they fare deliciously they are Clouds without Water Stars without Light dumb Dogs slow Bellies and as St. Bernard said they are not Prelates but Pilats not Teachers but Seducers not Pasters but Impostors the Servants of Christ saith he serve Antichrist And these are the only men to whom the Popes will allow a Place and Vote in the Council in their Judgments and Power will they have the whole Care and Administration of the Catholick Church to be Pope Pius hath now chosen these alone to put his Trust in but O good God! what kind of Mortals what sort of Men are these and yet as they think all these Queries are ridiculous for it is not say they one farthing difference whether they be Learned or Pious or no or what they will or think for in truth it is sufficient if they can but ride upon a Mule and with great State and Noise make the publick Cavalcade to the Council and when they cam◠there say nothing If Sir you will not believe me and conceive I have fain'd all this for Diversion and Sport be but pleased to hear the Honorable Judgment and what the most sacred Faculty of the whole Sorbon decreed in this case that say they which our Master have said concerning a legitimate Assembly is That it is to be noted that to the legitimate assembling of a Council it is sufficient that the Solemnity and Form of the Law be solemnly observed for if any man would bring this in question whether the Prelates that sit there have a good Intention and whether they be learned and whether they have the Knowledge of the Holy Scripture and a mind well disposed to sound Doctrine the Process would be infinite for they it seems who sit as mute as the Statues of Mercury and know not in the least what Religion is will yet answer wondrous well and aptly concerning the sum of Religion and whatever they say cannot possibly err 23. AND all these are bound to the Popes Interest not only by their Error and Ignorance but by the Tye and Religion of an Oath so that if they should chance to think right yet unless they will be prejured they must not speak what they think and openly profess and own the Truth so that they must of necessity be false to God or man for they all swear in this very form J. N. Bishop from this hour forward will be faithful to St. Peter and to the Holy Apostolick Church of Rome to my Lord Pope N. and to his Successors canonically entering I will neither be of Counsel nor in any Action whereby he may lose his Life or Limbs or be taken Prisoner that Counsel which he shall impart
Definition of the Fathers and the Decrees of the Nicene Council have most plainly committed both all inferiour Clerks and also all the Bishops to their own Metropolitans for all Affairs may be most prudently and justly ended in those places where they began nor will the Grace and Assistance of the Holy Ghost be wanting to any Province Let this Equity be â—ver of great esteem with all Christian Priests which hath been constantly retained 35. BUT Elutherius Bishop of Rome wrote much better and more pertinently to the thing we have now in hand in his Epistle to Lucius a King in Britain You have saith he desired I would send you the Roman and Caesarean Laws which you have a desire to settle in your Kingdom of Britain We may abrogate the Roman and Imperial Laws when we will but not the Law of God for you have by the Mercy of God received the Law and Faith of Christ in your Kingdom of Britain and you have with you in your Kingdom both Testaments compile out of them by the Assistance of God and the Counsel of your Kingdom a Law and then by it with Gods permission govern your said Kingdom for you are the VICAR OF GOD in that Kingdom according to that of the Psalmist the Earth is the Lords 36. IN short Victor Bishop of Rome held a Provincial Synod at Rome and Justinianus the Emperor commandeth that if need require Synods should be held in each Province and threatned that if this were neglected he would punish those that made default Every Province saith St. Jerome hath its particular Manners Rites and Opinions which cannot easily be removed or changed without a very great disturbance And why should I commemorate the most ancient Municipal Councils that of Eliberis Gangra Laodicea Ancyra Antiâ—ch Tâ—urs Carthage Milevis Toledo and Bourdâ—aux for this is no new thing So was the Church of God governed before the Fathers met in the Council of Nice for they had not presently recourse to a General Council Theophilus held a Provincial Synod in Palestinâ— Palmas in Pontus Irenaeus in Gaul Bachilus in Achaia Origen against Beryllus in Arabia and I omit many other Provincial Synods which were kept in Africa Asia Greece and Egypt which were most â—ious Orthodox and Christian tho the Pope had nothing to do with them For the Bishops then as necessity required and as things fell out presently consulted the Well-fare of their Churches in Domestick Councils and sometimes implored the Assistance of their neighbour Bishops at other they frankly aided each other without asking and if need were did by turns help one the other Nor did only the Bishops but Princes of those times think that the Concerns of the Church pertain'd to their Oâ—â—ice for to omit Nebuchadnezar who published a Capital Edict against all that should blaspheme the God of Israel and David Solomon Ezechias and Josias who did partly build and partly reform the Temple of God Constantius the Emperor without any Council took away the Worship of Idols and put forth a most severe Edict by which he made it capital for any man to offer Sacrifice to any Idol Theodosius the Emperor commanded all the Temples of the Pagan Gods to be razed to the Ground Jovinianus another of them so soon as ever he was declared Emperor made his first Law for the restitution of the Christian Exiles Justinianus was wont to say that his Care of the Christian Religion was as great as that of his Life Joshua so soon as ever he was made the Governour of the People had Precepts concerning Religion and the Worship of God given him for Princes are the nursing Fathers of the Church and the Keepers of both Tables nor was there any one Cause why God setled Governments in the World greater than this viz. That there might be some to preserve Religion and Piâ—ty in safety 37. AND therefore many Princes in this Age do sin the more grievously who being call'd Christians sit idely and enjoy their Pleasures and tamely suffer wicked Rites of Worship and the Contempt of the Deity and turn over all this Care to the Bishops and those very Bishops whom they know to have all Religion in the utmost degree of scorn as if the Care of the Churches and People of God did not at all belong to them or as if they were meer Herds-men of Cattle and to take care of Bodies but not in the least of mens Souls they remember not in the mean time that they are the Ministers of God and chosen for that purpose that they might serve the Lord. Ezechias the King would not go up to his own House until he saw the Temple of God throughly purged And David said I will not give Sleep to my Eyes no Slumber to my Eye-lids until I find out a Place for the Lord a Tabernacle for the God of Jacob. O that Christian Princes would hear the Voice of their Lord and Soveraign Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be learned O ye that are Judges of the Earth I have said saith he that ye are Gods that is men divinely chosen who should take care of my Name Think thou whom I have raised from the Dunghil and placed in the highest degree of Dignity and Honour and set over my People when thou so studiously buildst and adornest thy own House how thou canst despise and neglect my House or how thou canst every day petition me that I would confirm thy Kingdom to thee and thy Posterity What that my Name may for ever be treated unworthily that the Gospel of my Christ may be extinguished that my Servants may for my Sake he butchered before thy Eyes and in thy View that this Tyranny may rage the longer that my People may be imposed upon for ever that the Scandal may be confirm'd by thee Wo to him by whom Scandals come and wo to him by whom they are confirm'd Thou tremblest at the Blood of Bodies how much more shouldest thou abhor the Blood of Souls remember what I did to Antiochus Herod and Julian I will translate thy Kingdom unto thy Enemy because thou hast sinned against me I change Times and Seasons I reject Kings and I set them up that thou mayst understand that I am the most highest and that I rule in the Kingdoms of men and give them to whom I will I bring down and I lift up I glorifie those that glorifie me and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed FIFIS Lloyd's State-worthies p. 374 Eccles Restaurat p. 283. Tortura Torti p. 130. 1569. 13 Eli. e. a. In the English Life before his Works is called Witney November 1548. This Dispute began the 28 th of May Anno Christi 1549. and lasted five days 1551. 1553. Fuller in his Church History saith he was expelled for refusing to be present at Mass Anno 1553. 1554. Peter Martyr Ecclesia Restaurata p. 196 Peter Martyr also helped himself for he would not go without the Queens Pasport and leave and
when he had it concealed himself fourteen days on the English Coast then privately took Ship and arrived at Antwerp in the night and before day took Coach and so got safe to Strasbourgh the 30th of October 1553. Burnet To. 2. p. 246. Ib. p. 245. July 13. 1556. Humfrey p. 90. English life Dr. Peter Heylyn faith the contrary and that Wittingham Williams and Goodman were Zunglians before they left England who were the chief Promoters of the disorder at Frankford Ecclesia Restaurata p. 228. Conclusion Section 2. p. 141. Hiller C. H. The news of the Queens death came to Zurick the last of November Mart. Letters March 30. Heylyn's Eccl. Restaurata p. 301. Rastal was a common Lawyer and published his Book in 1563. Harding was then Prebendary when Mr. Jewel was elected and gave his vote for him Humf. p. 140. Dr. Burnett's History of the Reformation Tom. 2. Dr. Heylyn Eccl. Rest p. 349. 1562. Humfrey's in the Life of Jewel p. 177. Peter Martyr's Letter to Bishop Jewel concerning this Book is dated Aug. 24. 1562. English Life Before his Works Humfrey p. 234. Page 187. Heylyn p. 328. 1562. In the LXIII of his Age. 1564. 1567. 1569 1570. 1570. Humfrey's p. 111. April 5. 1571. Memory Industry Common place Books Diaries Languages His Greek Learning Travail His Humour Gratitude Preaching Page III No friend to the Disenters The 〈◊〉 to the first Tom. of Col. by Dr. 〈◊〉 Fuller's C. H. lib. 9. Sect 3. n. 3. Humfrey's In a short Paper written by this good Bishop against certain frivolous objections made against the Government of the Church of England Printed at Londâ—n 1641. Bishop Whitgift in the defence of the Answer to the Admonition tells us Cartwright was the man and that hereupon the Faction used the Bishop most ungratefuly and depitefully p. 423. Prov. 22. 15. Liberality Charity Mr. Hooker Dr. Walton 〈◊〉 Mr. Hooker's Life Lib. 2. §. 6. Truth ever persecuted Tertul. in Apologia Cor. Tacitus Tertul. in Apolog c. 7. c. Plinius John 8. 9. 10. Mar. 11. Marcion ex Tertullianâ— Aelius â— Lactan. Tertul Apolog. c. 2 3. and 7. 8 9. Tertul. Apolog. â—ap â— Sueton in Nerone Juvenal Sat. 1 Tim. 4. The Accusations of the R. Catholicks John 8. 49. Act. 26. 25. †Quadratus Justinus Melito Tertullian Quadratus a Disciple of the Apostles and Bishop of Athens wrote Books for the Christian Religion and made an Oration in the Defence of it before Hadrian the Emperor by which he put a stop to a furious Persecution then moved against it Anno Christi 128. Spondanus Justinus the Martyr a Christian Philosopher wrote an Apologetick Oration for the Christian Religion with great freedom and truth which he dedicated to Antoninus Pius the Emperor and his adopted Sons Marcus and Lucius and to the very Senate and People of Rome Anno Christi 150. for which he lost his Life Melito Bishop of Sardâ—s wrote an excellent Apology to Aurelius the Emperor for the Christians which he presented to that Emperor in the tenth year of his Reign Anno Christi 172. Baronius Tertullian wrote a very learned and a sharp Apology for the Christian Religion which was some few years since made English It was first published by the Author without his Name in the year of Christ 201. in the very City of Rome and did great service to Christianity which was then most miserably oppressed by the Lies and Defamations of the Pagans which did it more hurt than all their other Fury Acts 24. 14. Tertul. in Apolog 2 Cor. 10. 4. 5. 2 Tim. 3. 16. De Vnitate Eccl. c. 3. contra Max. lib. 3. c. 14. In prim cap. Aggei Acts 24. 14. Coll. 2. 14. Actâ— 3. 2â— Tract 30. in Joan. Epist ad Dardan Fulgentius ad Regem Thrasi mundum De Simpl. Praelatorum Chap. 47. * The Title of Pontifex Maximus was that of the Roman Heathen Priests and cannot properly be rendred into English any other way than by that of Priest it being not of the same nature with the Word Bishop yet have the Popes of Rome usurped this very heathen Title Gregory lib. 4. Ep. 76. 78. 80. lib. 7. Ep. 69. 2 Tim. 3. 13. Math. 23. 13. Luk. 11. 52. Math. 16. 19. In Titum Hom. I. Theoph. ad Titum Euseb lib. 18. c. 5. in Monodia sua super Basilium 1 Tim. 4. 1 * Huldericus Platina in vita Pij secundi Gal. 1. 8. Chrysost ad AEphe Ser. 3. De conser dist 1. cap. Omnes * But now in the Decretum under the Name of Anacletus De consecratione Dist 1. cap. comperimus a In Joan. cap. â— b De Sacra l. q. c. 4. c In Dialo l. 2. d In Sermone ad infantes de Consecratione e In Math. 15. Gen. 2. 23. John 6. 56. In coena Domini In Johan tract 50. Lib. de caerem. Eccl. Rom. Purgatory August in Psal 85. in Enchiriâ—io c. 6. 7. de civitate Dei lib. 21. cap. 26. lib. 11. contra Pelegian lib. Hipognostcon 5. Of Cerâ—monies â— Cor. 1â— 40. Prayer in our own Tongue Mediators and Intercessors Jerem. 2. 28. 11. 13. Original Sin 1 John 2. 2. 4. 10. Col. 1. 20. Heb. 10. 14. John 19. 30. Sacrifice Of good Works Ephes 2. 10. Col. 1. 10. Phil. 2. 12. Distinct 36. Lector in Glossa Distinct 81. Presbyter * George Paris an Arrian was burnt in the Reign of Edward the 6th April the 4th 1551. for Heresie tho he was a German by Nation Godwins Annals * Those who were call'd Zuinglians when this Piece was written afterwards were call'd Calvinists and the other Name is now not commonly known but Zuinglius was the Author of the Doctrine and Calvin of the Discipline of this Sect of turbulent men Steven Gardiner in Sophist Diab Richard Faber Recantatio Berengarii Scholer Glossa Guimundus De Conscoral Dist 2. Ego Berengarius Gardiner De consecratione Dist 2. species Glossa Euseb H. 3 Lib. 4. By Ministers here I suppose the Decons are meant 3. Quest 7. lata ext de Bigamis Quia circa Gen. 38. 14. In Concilio dilectorum Cardinalium To. 3. De consideratione ad Eugenium Paul IIII. In Apol. c. 45. Rom. 2. 13. Math. 22. 21. John 19. 12. Rom. 13. 1. 5. Amos 7. 10. It had been infinitely for the Honor of the Reformation if the same Modesty Loyalty and Duty had ever attended the Professors of it But alas our Author lived and wrote in a critical Moment before the Scotch Tumults the Civil Wars of France and the Revolt of the Netherlands those that have confirm'd the truth of the Popish Objections by ill Principles which they borrowed from them and worse Practises shall do well to consider what Answer they will be able to give in the Day of Judgment for the Sin and Scandal they have brought upon the Reformation but when all is done blessed be God the Church of England and her Children have maintained this Doctrine inviolably and the Honour of that