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.
tho we are silent they may be pleased to hear their own St. Bernard Those Bishops saith he to whom the Church of God is now committed are not Teachers but Seducers not Pastors but Impostors not Prelates but Pilates Thus St. Bernard wrote then of him that call'd himself the Great Pontiff and of the Bishops who then sate at the Helm He was no Heretick he was no Lutheran he never forsook their Church and yet he never stuck at calling those Bishops they then had Seducers Impostors Pilates And now when the People were openly seduced and Christians imposed upon and Pilate mounted the Tribunal and adjudged Christ and his Members to the Fire and Sword O good God! in what condition was the Church then And now of so many and such gross Errors what one Error have they reformed to this day yea what one Error have they at any time acknowledged and confessed 26. BUT now whereas they pretend to be in Possession of the whole Catholick Church and call us Hereticks because we do not agree with them Let us see what Mark that Church hath of the Church of God Nor is the Church of God very difficult to be found if you seriously and diligently seek for it for it is placed in an high and illustrious Place and built on the top of a Mountain and the Foundations of it are laid upon the Apostles and Prophets There saith St. Augustin let us seek the Church there let us try our Cause and in another place he saith the Church is to be shown cut of the sacred Scriptures and whatever Society cannot derive it self from them is not the Church And yet I know not whence it proceeds whether from Reverence or Conscience or a despair of Victory that these men always dread and shun the Word of God as much as a Thief does the Gallows and in truth it is no Wonder for as they say a Beetle is presently extinguished in Opobalsam altho it is a most fragrant Oyntment So they see their Cause is suffocated and ruined when ever it comes near the Scriptures which are a sort of deadly Poyson to it Therefore they accustom themselves to call the Holy Scriptures which our Saviour Jesus Christ did not only cite on all occasions but at the last sealed them with his Blood that they may drive the People from them as if they were dangerous and destructive with the greater facility these very Scriptures I say they call a cold uncertain unprofitable dumb killing dead Letter which seems to us to be the same thing as if they should wholly deny them to be the Word of God And besides all this they commonly add a no very proper Simile too They are say they a Nose of Wax and may be form'd and set all manner of ways and be made to serve all manner of Purposes Does the Pope not know that that these things are said by his Followers Does he not understand what kind of Patrons he has 27. LET the Pope then be pleased to hear how piously and how holily Hosius a certain Polander and a Bishop as he saith himself certainly an eloquent and not unlearned man and a sharp and violent defender of his Interest writes concerning the Scriptures I believe he will admire a pious man could possibly entertain such impious Thoughts or write so contemptuously of those very words which he knew proceeded from the Mouth of God and above all that he should seem to desire that it might not pass for his Sense alone but the common Opinion of the whole Popish Party We saith he have bid adieu to the Scriptures having seen so many not only different but contrary Interpretations given of them let us then rather hear God himself speak then apply our selves and trust our Salvation to those jejune Elements There is no need of being Skilful in the Law and Scriptures but of being taught by God That Labour is ill imployed that is bestowed on the Scriptures for the Scripture is a Creature and a poor kind of Element Thus far Hosius in his Book of the express Word of God in this place craftily under the Person of another Man tho he speaks the same thing in several other places in the same Book as his own Opinion without any disguise which is said with the same Spirit and Affection as the like things were heretofore by Montanus and Marcion who are reported frequently to have said when they contemptuously rejected the Holy Scriptures that they knew more and better things than either Christ or his Apostles ever knew What then shall I say on this Occasion O ye Pillars of Religion O ye Presidents of the Church of Christ is this the Reverence ye pay to the Word of God Do ye bid an Adieu to the Sacred Scriptures which St. Paul saith are divinely inspir'd which the Holy God hath illustrated by so many Miracles in which the certain Footsteps of Jesus Christ are imprinted which were cited as Testimonies by all the Holy Fathers by the Apostles by Christ himself the Son of God when occasion requir'd it do ye I say bid adieu to these as if they were not worthy of your regard that is do ye impose silence upon God who it is that speaks clearly to you in the Scriptures Or will you call that Word a poor and a dead Element by which only as St. Paul saith we are reconcil'd to God and which as the Prophet David saith is Holy and Pure and shall endure for ever Or will you say that all the Pains we spend in that which Christ commanded us to search diligently and to have ever in our Eye is lost and that Christ and the Apostles when they exhorted the People to a careful Perusal of the Scriptures that they might thereby abound in all Knowledge and Wisdom designed only to delude and abuse Men It is no wonder that these men despise us and our Writings who thus undervalue God himself and his Oracles but it was a most foolish Action to offer so great an Affront to the Word of God that they might do us a small mischief 28. AND now as if all this were too little they commit the Holy Scriptures to the Fire as the wicked King Jehojakim and as Antiochus and Maximinus two Heathen Persesecutors did calling them the Books of Hereticks and they seem altogether disposed to imitate Herod the Great in what he did for the establishing of his Power for he being an Idumaean of another Race and Blood then the Jews were and desiring to be thought a Jews that so he might the better settle that his Kingdom over them which he had obtained from Augustus Caesar he commanded all their Genealogies which they kept in their Publick Register and were carefully preserved from Abrahams times by which without any Error it was easie to find of which Tribe any person was descended to be burnt and abolished that there might be nothing to be found for the
qualified for the making of a Church of God for certainly they are neither lawful Abbots nor genuine Bishops But suppose they are the Church suppose they are to be heard in Councils and that they have the sole Right of Voting yet in ancient time when the Church of God was well governed especially if it be compared with their Church as St. Cyprian acquaints us the Presbyters and Deacons and some part also of the Laity were then call'd to assist at the hearing of Ecclesiastical Causes 4. BUT what now if those Abbots and Bishops know nothing What if they know not what Religion is nor what they ought to believe of God What if the Law hath perished from the Priests and Counsel from the Elders What if as Micah saith the Night be unto them instead of a Vision and Darkness instead of a Divination What if as Isaiah saith the Watchmen of the City are all blind they are all ignorant and what if the Salt as Christ saith hath lost its Force and Savour and is become good for nothing not fit even to be cast upon the Dunghil for they defer all to the Pope who cannot err but then this in the first place is ridiculous that the Holy Ghost should be sent by a Carrier from the Holy Council to Rome that if any Doubt or Stop happens which he cannot expedite he may take better Instruction and Counsel from I know not what more learned Spirit for if it must come to this at last what need is there that so many Bishops should with such great Expence be called from very distant places at this time to Trent It had certainly been more prudent and much better a shorter and an easier way to have at first turn'd over all this Business to the Pope and have gone directly to the Oracle of his sacred Brâ—ast besides it is unjust to devolve our Cause from so many Bishops and Abbots to the Judgment of any one man and above all others to the Judgment of the Pope who is accused by us of many very great Crimes and though he hath not answered for his own Misdemeanors yet hath presum'd to condemn us before we were call'd and that without any Tryal Now do we invent all this or is it not now the manner of our late Councils Are not all things referr'd to the Pope by the Council so that as if nothing were done by so many Sentences and Subscriptions he alone may add diminish abrogate approve relax and restrain whatsoever he please Whose Words are these Why did the Bishops and Abbots in the end of the late Council at Trent put in these words as a part of their Decree Saving in in all things the Authority of the Apostolical See Or why did Pope Pascal write thus insolently of himself as if saith he any Councils could prescribe a Law to the Church of Rome when all Councils are held by the Authority of the Church of Rome and derive their Force from it too and whereas they do patiently in their Decrees except the Authority of the Pope of Rome If they will confirm and approve these things why are Councils call'd but if they are indeed repeal'd and abrogated why are they still left in their Books as if they were in force 5. WELL but suppose in the next place that the Pope tho one is above all Councils that is that he is a part greater than the whole has more Power yea and more Wisdom too than all his Party besides and that in spite of St Jeroms Judgment the Authority of this one City is greater than that of the whole World What if he has seen none of these things and has neither read the holy Scriptures nor the ancient Fathers nor so much as any of his own Councils What if like Pope Liberius of old he becomes an Arrian or like Pope John who lived not many years since thinks very leudly and wickedly of the Immortality of the Soul and of the Life to come or as Pope Zosimus heretofore corrupted the Council of Nice so he for the enlarging of his own Power should corrupt the other Councils and aver that those things were deliberated and constituted by the holy Fathers in them which were never so much as thought off and that as Camotensis saith the Popes do frequently he should offer Violence to the holy Scriptures that he may thereby possess himself of a Plenitude of Power What if he renounce the Christian Faith and becomes an Apostate as Lyranus saith many Popes have done What will the holy Spirit for all these things knock at the Cabbin of his Breast and obtrude such a Light upon him contrary to his Inclinations and against his Will that he shall not err though he would Or shall such a Pope as this be the Fountain of all Laws and all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge be notwithstanding found in him as in a Cabinet Or if these things be not in him can he nevertheless judge well and conveniently of things of this great weight Or if he be not qualified to judge of them does he yet desire that all these things should be refer'd to him alone What now if the Popes Advocates the Abbots and Bishops dissemble nothing but declare themselves openly to be the Enemies of the Gospel and will not see what they do see but wrest the Scriptures and knowingly and willingly deprave and adulterate the Word of God and do foully and impiously transfer to the Pope what is perspicuously and properly spoken of Christ and cannot be applied to any other Mortal What if they say the Pope is all and above all or that he can do all those things which Christ can do or that the Tribunal and Consistory of the Pope is the same with Christs or that the Pope is that Light which came into the World which Christ spake of himself only and that he that doth Evil hateth that Light and fleeth from it or that all other Bishops have received of his Fulness Or lastly what if they do without dissimulation or obscurity clearly and manifestly determine contrary to the Word of God Shall whatever they say nevertheless presently become Gospel Shall such as these be the Army God Will Christ be present with such Men Will the Spirit of God move upon their Tongues or may they say truly it seems good to the Holy Ghost and to us 6. Pâ—trus a Soto and his Voucher Hosius make no sâ—ruple to affirm that that very Council which condemn'd our Saviour to death had then the Spirit of Prophesie and Truth and the Holy Ghost with them and that what those High Priests said was not false or vain when they said 〈◊〉 have a Law and by that Law be ought to die that in this according to Hosius they gave a true Judgment and that their Decree was perfectly just by which Christ was adjudged worthy of Death It is a wonder in
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
ancient Councils and the Scriptures They have not O good God! they have not on their sides what they pretend to have they have neither Antiquity nor Universality nor the consent of either all times or all Nations And of this they are not ignorant themselves tho they craftily dissemble their Knowledge Yea at times they will not obscurely confess it and therefore sometimes they will alledge that the Sanctions of the ancient Councils and Fathers are such as may lawfully be changed for different Decrees say they will best suit the different State of the Church in different times And so they hide themselves under the name of the Church and by a wretched sham delude Mankind And in truth it is a great wonder that Men should be so blind as not to see these things or if they do see them so patient as to bear and indure them with that stupidity and unconcernment they seem to have 9. BUT tho they have abrogated the Canons of the ancient Councils as too old and overworn yet perhaps they have settled neâ— and more useful Rules in their place for they have the confidence to say that if Christ himself or his Apostles should arise from the Dead they could not administer the Affairs of the Church of God better or more piously than it is now administered by them Indeed they have put others in the place of the former but as Jeremias saith Chaff instead of Wheat or as Isaiah saith What God never required at their Hands for they have stopped up all the veins of Living Waters and have hewen for the People of God broken and polluted Cisterns being full of mud and dregs which neither have in them any pure Water nor can hold it if it were put into them They have torn from the People the Holy Communion the word of God from which all true Comfort could only be expected the true Worship of God the right use of the Sacraments and Prayers of the Church and they have given us to please our selves withall in the mean time of their own pure invention consecrated Salts Waters Oyls Spittle Palmes Bulls Jubiles Indulgences Crosses Censings and an infinite number of Ceremonies And as Plautus calls others of the like nature Ludos Ludificabiles Shews and Pageants that are very divertising and good for nothing else In these things they have made all Religion to consist and they have taught the People that by these things God is rightly appeased and that by these things Devils are put to flight and the Consciences of Men quieted and confirmed For these are the Paints and Perfumes of Christianity these are the grateful and acceptable things to the All-seeing God these are to be had in honour that Christ's and his Apostles Institutions may be taken away And as heretofore the wicked King Jeroboam when he had taken away the true Service of God and perswaded the People instead of it to accept the Golden Calves for fear they might change their minds and fall from him and return to the Temple of God at Jerusalem made a long Oration to them exhorting them to Constancy saying to them These are thy Gods O Israel thus did your God command you to worship him But it would be very grievous and troublesome for you to take so long a Journey and to go up every year to worship and adore God at Jerusalem Even so our Adversaries when they had once by their Traditions quash'd the Laws of God lest the People should afterwards open their Eyes and fall off from them and seek a better way of assuring their Salvation O how often have they exclaimed that this is the true Worship of God which he is pleased with and hath required of us and by which he will be appeased when he is angry and that it is grievous and troublesome to the People to have recourse to Christ and the Apostles and Fathers and to attend perpetually what they require of them Is this their way of bringing the People of God off from the weak Elements of the World from the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees and from humane Traditions Are the Commandments of Christ and his Apostles to be taken away that these goodly things may succeed them O most righteous Cause why should an old Doctrine which hath been approved for many Ages be antiquated and a new Form of Religion be brought into the Church of God! Ay but say they be it what it will nothing ought to be changed the minds of Men are wonderous well satisfied with these things the Church of Rome has so decreed and she cannot err for Sylvester Prierias saith That the Church of Rome is the Rule and Model of Truth and that the Holy Scriptures have received from her all their Faith and Authority The Doctrine saith he again of the Church of Rome is the infallible Rule of Faith from whence the Holy Scriptures have all their strength For Indulgences were not made known to us by the Authority of Scriptures but they were made known by the Authority of the Church and Popes of Rome which is greater than the Scriptures Pighius doth not fear to say that without the command of the Church of Rome we are not to believe the most clear place of Scripture Which is just as if one of those who cannot speak good and pure Latin and yet by use and custom has got the faculty readily and fluently to blunder on in the Lawyer 's Latin should therefore stand stoutly to it that all others are bound to speak it after the same manner that was many years since in use with Mammetrectus and the Catholicon which they still use in their Pleadings because by that means men might very easily be understood and their Humours might be gratified but on the other side that it were ridiculous to trouble the World now with a new way of speaking and to reduce into practice again the old Purity and Eloquence of the Latin Tongue used in the times of Cicero and Caesar 10. SO much are they indebted to the Ignorance and blindness of the former times that as one saith Many things are often had in great esteem because they were once dedicated to the Service of the Gods So now we see many things are magnified and applauded by them not because they judge them worthy of this Esteem but only because by Custom they were once received and thereby in a sort dedicated to the Service of God But they pretend that their Church cannot Err. I suppose they speak this in the same sense as the Lacedemonians were wont to say there was no such thing as Adultery in their Common-wealth when in truth they were all Adulterers and used an uncertain sort of Marriages and had their Wives in common Or as the Hungry Canonists now say of the Pope that he being Lord of all Benefices altho he sells Bishopricks Monasteries and Livings and suffers nothing to go from him without Money yet because he claims all
Horse conveyed him to the Lady Ann Warcupps a Widow who entertained him for some time and then sent him up to London where he was in more safety HAVING twice or thrice changed his Lodgings in London Sir Nicholas Throgmorton a great Minister of State in those times furnished him with Money for his Journey and procured him a Ship for his Transportation beyond the Seas And well it had been if he had gone sooner but his Friend Mr. Parkhurst hearing of the restoring of the Mass fled forthwith and poor Mr. Jewel knowing nothing of it went to Cleave to beg his advice and assistance being almost killed by his long Journey on foot in bitter cold and snowy weather and being forced at last to return to Oxon more dejected and confounded in his thoughts than he went out which Miseries were the occasions of his fall as Gods Mercy was the procurer both of his escape and recovery FOR being once arrived at Franckford in the beginning of the second year of Queen Mary's Reign he found there Mr. Richard Chambers his old Benefactor Dr. Robert Horne afterwards Bishop of Winchester Dr. Sands Bishop of London Sir Francis Knowles a Privy Counsellor and afterwards Lord Treasurer and his eldest Son c. these received Jewel with the more kindness because he came unexpectedly and unhoped for and advised him to make a publick Recantation of his Subscription which he willingly did in the Pulpit the next Lords-day in these words It was my abject and cowardly mind and saint heart that made my weak hand to commit this wickedness Which when he had uttered as well as he could for tears and sighs he applied himself in a servent Prayer first to God Almighty for his Pardon and afterwards to the Church the whole Auditory accompanying him with Tears and Sighes and ever after esteeming him more for his ingenuous Repentance than they would perhaps have done if he had not fallen IT is an easie thing for those that were never tried to censure the frailty of those that have truckled for some time under the shock of a mighty Temptation but let such remember St. Paul's advice Let him that standeth take heed least he fall This great Mans fall shall ever be my Lesson and if this glistering Jewel were thus clowded and foil'd God be merciful to me a Sinner Mr. JEWEL had not been long at Franckford before Peter Martyr hearing of it often sollicited him to come to Strasburgh where he was now settled and provided for and all things considered a wonder it is that he did not perish in England For there was no Person more openly aimed at than he because none of them had given wider Wounds than he to the Catholick Cause One Tresham a Senior Canon of Christ-Church who had held some Points against him at his first coming thither now took the benefit of the times to be revenged on him and incited those of Christ-Church and of other Houses to affront him publickly So that not finding any safety at Oxford he retired to Lambeth to Cranmer where he was sure of as much as the place could afford him A Consultation had been held by some of the more fiery Spirits for his commitment unto Prison But he came thither as was well known on the publick Faith which was not to be violated for the satisfaction of some private Persons It was thought fit threfore to discharge him of all further imployment and to license him to depart in peace none being more forward to furnish him with all things for his going hence than the new Lord Chancellor Bishop Gardiner whether in honour to his Learning or out of a desire to send him packing shall not now be questioned but less humanity was shewed to him in his Wife whose Body having been buried in the Church of St. Frideswide was afterwards by publick order taken out of the Grave and buried in a common Dunghill But in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth was removed and her bones mixed with St. Francis And the truth is the Queen who was a bigotted Papist and too much Priest-ridden breaking not only her promise to the men of Suffolk who had stood by her in her greatest necessity and treating them with extream severity for but challenging the performance of her promise one Dobbe who had spoken more boldly than the rest being ordered to stand three days in the Pillory but also her more solemn engagement made the Twelfth of August 1553. in the Council That altho her Conscience was staid in the Matters of Religion yet she was resolved not to compel or strain others otherwise than as God should put into their Hearts a perswasion of that truth she was in and this she hoped should be done by the opening his word to them by Godly vertuous and learned Preachers I say considering how ill she kept her promise to her own Subjects it is a wonder she should keep the Faith given to this Stranger in her Brothers Reign and not by her and I conceive no reason can be given for this but the over-ruling Providence of God who governs the hearts of Princes as he thinks fit BUT well it was for Mr. Jewel that there he was and as much of Mr. Jewel's Sufferings in England had been occasion'd by his great respects he had shewn to Peter Martyr whilest he lived at Oxon So now Peter Martyr never left solliciting him as I said to come to him to Strasbourgh till he prevailed where he took him to his own Table and kept him always with him And here Mr. Jewel was very serviceable to him in his Edition of his Commentaries upon the Book of Judges which were all transcribed for the Press by him and he used also to read every day some part of a Father to him and for the most part St. Augustin with which Father they were both much delighted AT Strasbourgh Mr. Jewel found J. Poynet late Bishop of Winchester Edmund Grindal Arch-bishop of York Sir Edwin Sands J. Cheeke and Sir Anthony Coke Kt. and several other great Men of the English Nation who were fled thither for their Religion And with these he was in great esteem which open'd a way for his preferment upon his return into England after the Storm was over PETER Martyr having been a long time sollicited by the Senate of Zurick to go thither and take upon him the place of Professor of Hebrew and Interpreter of the Scriptures in the place of Conrad Pellican who was almost the first Professor of Hebrew in Christendom and died about this time near an hundred years of Age at last accepted the Office and carried Mr. Jewel with him to Zurick where he lived still with Peter Martyr in his own Family Here he found James Pilkinton Bishop of Durham and several others who were maintained by the Procurement of Richard Chambers but out of the Purses of Mr. Richard Springham Mr. John Abel Mr. Thomas Eton Merchants of London and several
Christ alone and do properly and only belong to him nor was there ever any Bishop of Rome who would suffer so insolent and proud a Title to be given him before the Times of Phocas the Emperor who as we very well know aspired to the Empire by a most detestable Villany the Murther of Mauritius the former Emperor his Soveraign that is till the year of Christ 613. That the Council of Carthage expressly decreed that no Bishop should be called the highest Pâ—ntiff or chief Priest But the Bishop of Rome because he now desires to be so call'd and usurps a Power which belongs not to him besides that he acts directly against the ancient Councils and the Fathers if he dares believe St. Gregory one of his own Predecessors he has taken upon him an arrogant prophane sacrilegious antichristian Title and is therefore the King of Pride Lucifer one that sets himself above his Brethren who has denied the Faith and is thereby become the fore-runner of Antichrist 7. WE say that a Minister ought to have a lawful Call and be duly and orderly preferred in the Church of God and that no Man ought at his own Will and Pleasure to intrude into the sacred Ministry So that a very great Injury is done us by them who so frequently affirm that nothing is done decently and in order with us but all things are managed confusedly and disorderly and that with us all that will are Priests Teachers and Interpreters 8. WE say that Christ has given to his Ministers the Power of Binding and Loosing of Opening and Shutting And we say that the Power of Loosing consists in this that the Minister by the preaching of the Gospel offers to dejected Minds and true Penitents through the Merits of Christ Absolution and doth assure them of a certain Remission of their Sins and the hopes of eternal Salvation Or secondly reconciles restores and receives into the Congregation and Unity of the Faithful those Penitents who by any grievous Scandal or known and publick Offence have offended the Minds of their Brethren and in a sort alienated and separated themselves from the common Society of the Church and the Body of Christ And we say the Minister doth exercise the Power of Binding or Shutting when he shuteth the Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven against Unbelievers and obstinate Persons and denounceth to them the Vengeance of God and eternal Punishment or excludeth out of the Bosome of the Church those that are publickly excommunicated and that God himself doth so far approve whatever Sentence his Ministers shall so give that whatsoever is either loosed or bound by their Ministry here on Earth he will in like manner bind or loose and confirm in Heaven The Key with which these Ministers do shut or open the Kingdom of Heaven we say with St. Chrysostom is the Knowledge of the Scripture with Tertullian is the Interpretation of the Law and with Eusebius is the Word of God We say the Disciples of Christ received this Power from him not that they might hear the private Confessions of the People and catch their whispering Murmurs as the Popish Priests every where now do and that in such a manner as if all the force and use of the Keys consisted only in this but that they might go and Preach and Publish the Gospel that so they might be a savour of Life unto Life to them that did believe and that they might be also a savour of Death unto Death to those that did not believe that the Minds of the Pious who were affrighted with the sense of their former ill Lives and Errors after they beheld the Light of the Gospel and believed in Christ might be opened by the Word of God as doors are with a Key And that the wicked and stubborn who would not believe and return into the Way might be left shut up and locked and as St. Paul expresseth it might wax worse and worse this we take to be the meaning of the Keys and that in this manner the Consciences of Men are either bound or loosed We say that the Priest is a Judge but then we say with St. Ambrose that he hath not the Right of any Dominion and therefore Christ reprehended the Scribes and Pharisees with these words that he might reprove their Negligence in teaching Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees for you have taken away the Key of Knowledge and shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men. Seeing then the Key by which a Passage is opened for us into the Kingdom of Heaven is the Word of the Gospel and the Interpretation of the Law and the Scriptures where there is no such Word there is no Key And seeing the same word was given to all and the Key which pertains to all is but one we say that the Power of all Ministers as to binding and loosing is one and the same and we say that even the Pope himself notwithstanding his Flatterers do so sweetly sooth him up with these words I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven as if they belonged to him and to no other Mortal under Heaven except he makes it his Business to bend and subdue the Consciences of Men to the Word of God we deny that even he as I said can either open or shut or hath at all the Keys and altho he â—oth teach and instruct the People which I wish he would sometimes do truly and at last be perswaded to believe it is at least some part of his Duty and Office but yet if he did so his Key would be neither better nor greater than that of others for who made that difference Who taught him to open more learnedly or absolve more powerfully than his Brethren 9. WE say that Marriage is Honorable and Holy in all degrees of Men in Patriarchs in Prophets in Apostles in Holy Martyrs in the Ministers of the Churches and in the Bishops and that as St. Chrysostom saith it is both lawful and just that he should ascend the Episcopal Throne with it and we say as Sozomen did of Spiridion and Nazianzen did oâ— his own Father that a pious and industriouâ— Bishop is nothing the worse for being married buâ— rather much the better and more useful in his Ministery And we say that the Law which by force taketh away this Liberty from Men anâ—ties them to a single Life against their Wills is as St. Paul stiles it the Doctrine of Devils and that from hence as is confessed by thâ— Bishop of Augusta Faber the Abbot of Paleâ—mo Latomus the tripartite Work which 〈◊〉 joyned to the second Tome of the Councilâ— and other defenders of the Papal Party and which is apparent from the thing it self and confessed by all Histories an incredible imâ—purity of Life and Manners and horriblâ— Debaucheries in the Ministers of God havâ— sprung and arisen so that Pius the secondâ— Bishop of Rome was not out when
hâ— said he saw many Causes why the Clergâ— should be denied Wives but then he saw morâ— and greater Causes to allow them Wives again 10. WE receive and imbrace all the Canonical Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament and we give our gracious God most hearty Thanks that he hath set up this Light for us which we ever fix our Eyes upon lest by humane Fraud or the Snares of the Devil we should be seduced to Errors or Fables We own them to be the heavenly Voices by which God hath reveal'd and made known his Will to us in them only can the Mind of Man acquiesce in them all that is necessary for our Salvation is aboundantly and plainly contain'd as Origen St. Augustin St. Chrysostom and St. Cyrill have taught us They are the very Might and Power of God unto Salvation they are the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets upon which the Church of God is built they are the most certain and infallible Rule by which the Church may be reduced if She happen to stagger slip or err by which all Ecclesiastical Doctrines ought to be tried no Law no Tradition no Custom is to be received or continued if it be contrary to Scripture No tho St. Paul himself or an Angel from Heaven should come and teach otherwise 11. WE receive also and allow the Sacraments of the Church that is the sacred Signs and Ceremonies which Christ commanded us to use that he might by them represent to our eyes the Mysteries of our Salvation and most strongly confirm the Faith we have in his Blood and seal in our Hearts his Grace and we call them Figures Signs Types Antitypes Forms Seals Prints or Signets Similitudes Examples Images Remembrances and Memorials with Tertullian Origen St. Ambrose St. Augustin St. Jerom St. Chrysostom St. Basil and Dionysius and many other Catholick Fathers Nor do we doubt with them to call them a kind of visible Words the Signets of Righteousness and the Symbols of Grace and clearly affirm that in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Body and Blood of our Lord is truly exhibited to Believers that is the enlivening Flesh of the Son of God the Bread that comes from above the Nourishment of Immortality the Grace the Truth and the Life and that it is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ by the Participation of which we are quickned strengthened and fed to immortality and by which we are conjoyned united and incorporated with Christ that we may remain in him and he in us 12. WE acknowledge that there are two Sacraments properly so call'd Baptism and the Supper of the Lord for so many we see were delivered to us and consecrated by Christ and approved by St. Ambrose St. Augustin and the ancient Fathers 13. AND we say that Baptism is the Sacrament of the Remission of Sins and of that Washing which we have in the Blood of Christ and that none are to be denied that Sacrament who will profess the Faith of Christ no not the Infants of Christians because they are born in sin and belong to the People of God 14. WE say that the Eucharist is the Sacrament or visible Symbol of the Body and Blood of Christ in which the Death and Resurrection of Christ and what he did in his humane Body is in a manner represented to our eyes that we may give him thanks for his Death and our Deliverance by it and that by frequenting the Sacrament we may often renew the Remembrance of it and that by the Body and Blood of Christ we may be nourished into the Hope of the Resurrection and of eternal Life and that we may be assured that the Body and Blood of Christ hath the same effect in the feeding of our Souls which the Bread and Wine have in the repairing the Decays of our Bodies To this great and solemn Feast the People are to be invited that they may all communicate together and may publickly signifie and testifie both their Union and Society amongst themselves and that Hope which they have in Christ Jesus and therefore if there was any one heretofore before the private Mass was introduced who would be only a Spectator and yet would abstain from the Holy Communion the Bishops of Rome in the Primitive Times and the ancient Fathers would have excommunicated him as a wicked man and a Pagan Nor was there any Christian man in those times who communicated alone in the presence of others who were only Spectators So Calixtus long since decreed that when the Consecration was finished all should communicate if they would not be deprived of the Communion of the Church and be shut out of it for so saith he the Apostles ordained and the Holy Church of Rome holds And we say that both the Parts of the Sacrament ought to be given to all that come to the Holy Communion for so Christ commanded and the Apostles instituted throughout the World and all the ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops so practised and if any one shall do otherwise saith Gelasius he commits Sacriledge and therefore our Adversaries who exploding and rejecting the Communion defend the private Mass and a multitude of Sacraments without the authority of the Word of God without any ancient Council without any Catholick Father without any Example of the Primitive Church and without Reason and this against the express Command of Christ and also against all Antiquity in so doing act wickedly and sacrilegiously 15. WE say that the Bread and Wine are the Holy and Heavenly Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ and that in them Christ himself the true Bread of eternal Life is so exhibited to us as present that we do by Faith truly take his Body and Blood and yet at the same time we speak not this so as if we thought the Nature of the Bread and Wine were totally changed and abolished as many in the last Ages have dreamt and as yet could never agree amongst themselves about this Dream For neither did Christ ever design that the Wheaten Bread should change its Nature and assume a new kind of Divinity but rather that it might change us and that as Theophylact saith we might be trans-elemented into his Body For what can be more perspicuous than what St. Ambrose saith on this occasion the Bread and Wine are what they were and yet are changed into another thing Or what Gelasius saith The Substance of the Bread and Nature of the Wine do not cease to be Or then what Theodoret after the Consecration the mystical Symbols do not cast off their own proper Nature for they remain in their former Substance and Figure and Species Or then what St. Augustin saith that which you see is Bread and a Cup as your Eyes inform you but that which your Faith desires to be instructed in is this the Bread is the Body of Christ and the Cup is his
speaâ— their minds truly and freely they themselve cannot deny but that all things are purly and reverently administred and as far as we can possibly according to the Example and Manner of the ancient times Let them compare their Church and ours together and they will soon see that they have most basely departed from the Apostles and we have most justly and reasonably departed from them for we with Christ and the Apostles and Primitive Fathers give the intire and whole Eucharist to the People but they contrary to the Practice of all the Fathers and Apostles and of Christ himself divide that Sacrament with an high Sacrilege as Gelasius expresseth it and deprive the People of one half of it 2. We have recalled the Lords Supper to its first Institution and have made it common to as many as was possible that it might be as it is called a Communion But they contrary to the Institution of Christ of a Holy Communion have made it a private Mass and so we give the People the Lords Supper they entertain them with a vain Show 3. We affirm with the ancient Fathers that the Body of Christ is eaten by none but Holy and Faithful Men who are endowed with the Spirit of Christ but they say that the very Body of Christ may be truly and indeed or as they express it really and substantially eaten not only by impious and unbelieving Men but which is abominable to be spoken by Mice and Dogs 4. We pray so in our Churches that according to St. Paul's Admonition the People may know what is prayed and understandingly answer Amen to the common Prayers They like tinkling Brass pour out in the Church unknown and strange Words without Understanding Sense or Meaning and take all the care they can that the People may understand nothing 5. And that we may not mention all the differences because they are almost infinite we have turned the Holy Scriptures into all Languages and they will scarce allow them to be extant in any Tongue We invite the People to read and hear the Word of God they drive them away from it We desire the Cause in Controversie should be understood by all but they fly from Judgment We trust to Knowledge they to Ignorance We trust to the Light and they to Darkness We venerate as it is fit we should the Words of the Apostles and Prophets they burn them Lastly in the Cause of God we desire to stand or fall by the Judgment of God alone and they would stand only by their own Now therefore if they would consider all these things with a sedate and quiet mind well disposed to hear and learn they would not only approve our design who having left their Errors have applyed our selves to follow Christ and his Apostles but they would likewise fall off from themselves and certainly unite with us in our way CHAP. VI. Of the Great Value we have for Councils and of the little regard the Papists have for them BUT in the next place they pretend that it is altogether unlawful to attempt any of these things without the consent of a General Council because in that is lodged all the Power of the Church and Christ hath promised that there he will never fail to be present But as I said they have violated the Commandments of God the Decrees of the Apostles and almost all the Institutions and Doctrines of the Primitive Church without ever expecting any such Sacred Council 2. AND whereas they pretend that it is not Lawful for any Church to change any thing without a General Council who imposed these Laws upon us or from whence had they this Edict That King acted very ridiculously who when he was assured by an Oracle of the Will and Pleasure of Jupiter the Great Heathen God referred the thing again to Apollo that he might see whether he were of the same mind with his Father Jupiter But we should act much more imprudently if when we have heard God himself speaking to us in the Scriptures and thereby know his Will and Pleasure as if all this were nothing we should after all refer the thing to a Council which is nothing better than to try whether God and Man are both of one mind and whether Men will please to approve and enforce the Laws of God by their Authority For what shall not truth be truth except a Council is pleased to will and require it Or shall not God be God without their consent If Christ at the beginning would have acted thus and would neither have taught nor spoken any thing without the consent of the High Priests and if he had referred his whole Doctrine to Annas and Caiphas where had the Christian Faith been now Or who had ever heard of the Gospel And St. Peter whom the Pope mentions more frequently and with greater Elogies than he doth Jesus Christ himself confidently withstood the Sacred Council and replied it is better to obey God than Man And St. Paul when he had once throughly imbibed the Gospel and that neither from man nor by man but only by the Will of God deliberated not with Flesh and Blood nor did he refer the thing to his Kinsmen and Brethren but straight way went into Arabia that he might there publish the Divine Mysteries which he had learned of God himself 3. WE do not despise Councils nor the Meetings and Consultations of Bishops and learned Men nor have we done what we have done without Bishops and a Council the thing was debated along time in a full Assembly of the States But what we may expect from that Council which is now pretended to be held by Pope Pius the IV. in which men are with such facility condemn'd uncall'd unheard and unseen is not mighty difficult to conjecture When Nazianzen in his times saw men in these Meetings so blind and obstinate that they were wholly lead by their Affections and that they sought Victory more than Truth he confidently said that he never saw a good end put to any of the Councils What would he now say if he were living and understood their Transactions for then altho there was some Faction and Partiality yet Causes were heard and considered and manifest apparent Errors were taken away by their united Suffrages But our Adversaries will not so much as suffer the Cause to be freely debated nor will they suffer any one of the many Errors that are crept into the Church to be changed for they are wont frequently and impudently to boast that their Church cannot Err that there is not the least fault in it that nothing was to be yielded to us or that if any thing were granted it was to be at the Discretion of the Bishops and Abbots that they were the sole Moderators of Affairs and that they were the Church of God Aristotle saith that Bastards cannot make a Civil Society or State and they may consider whether they be any better
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
Right is devolved to all Princes in common yet has so unjustly usurpt it to himself alone and thinks it sufficient to communicate his design of holding a Council to the Greatest Prince in Christendom as to his Servant But if the Modesty of Ferdinand the Emperor be so great perhaps because he doth not thorowly understand the Papal Arts that he can digest this Injury yet the Pope who pretends to so much Sanctity ought not to have offered him this Affront and thus to have arrogated to himself another Mans Right 12. BUT some of his Party may reply that the Emperor then called the Councils because the Bishop of Rome was not then arrived to that height of Greatness and yet he did not even then sit with the Bishops or at all interpose his Authority in their Deliberations and Consultations Yes as Theodoret acquaints us Constantine the Emperor did not only sit with the Bishops but admonished them to determine the Controversie then depending out of the Prophetick and Apostolical Writings In this Disputation said the Emperor concerning Divine things there is set before us which we ought to follow the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost for the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles and the Oracles of the Prophets do sufficiently shew us what we ought to think of the Will of God Theodosius another Emperor not only sat amongst the Bishops as Socrates saith but also was Moderator of the Dispute and rent the Papers of the Hereticks and approved the Sentiments and Doctrine of the Catholicks And in the Council of Chalcedon the Civil Magistrate who under the Emperor governed that Council condemn'd three Bishops Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassius by his Sentence for Hereticks and gave judgment that they should be deposed from that degree In the Third the Constantinopolitan Council the Civil Magistrate not only sate with the Bishops but also subscribed the Canons with them We have read said he and subscribed them In the Second Council of Orange the Ambassadors of the Princes being Noble-men themselves sate and not only voted concerning Matters of Religion but also subscribed amongst the Bishops for thus it is written in the end of that Council Petrus Marcellinus and Felix Liberius two Noble and Illustrions Praefecti Praetorio of Gaul and Patricians have consented and subscribed Syragrius Opilio Pantagathus Deodatus Cariatho and Marcellus honourable Men and Magistrates have subscribed But if the Praefecti Praetorio and Patricians or Noble-men could then subscribe the Councils may not Emperors and Kings do it now There were no need to prosecute so plain and apparent a point as this is but that we have to do with a parcel of Men who use to deny the clearest things oven those things which lye plain and open before their Eyes out of a contentious Disposition and a desire of Victory The Emperour Justinianus made a Law for the correcting the Manner and curbing the Insolence of the Clergy and altho he was a most Christian and Catholick Emperor yet he deposed Sylverius and Vigilius two Popes Successors of St. Peter and Vicars of Jesus Christ as they are now called 13. AND now seeing that Princes have imployed their Authority upon Bishops received commands from God concerning Religion brought back the Ark of God composed Sacred Hymns and Psalms governed the Priests made publick Discourses concerning the Worship of God purged the Temple demolished High Places burnt Idolatrous Groves and have admonished the Priests concerning their Office and given them Laws of Living have slain wicked Prophets deposed Bishops called Councils of Bishops and sate with them and taught them what they should do have punished Heretical Bishops have taken cognizance of Religion subscribed Councils and given Sentence in them and done all this not by the command of another but in their own Names and that rightly and piously shall we say after all this that the care of Religion belongs not to them Or that a Christian Prince who is pleased to concern himself in these things acts ill immodestly and wickedly In all these Affairs the most Ancient and most Christian Kings and Emperors have intermeddled and yet were never accused of Impiety or Immodesty for so doing and will any pretend to find either more Catholick Princes or more Illustrious Examples 14. BUT now if they might do all these things tho they were only Civil Princes and governed their several States Wherein have our Princes offended who tho they are in the same Authority may it seems not do the same things Or wherein consists the wonderful force of their Learning Wisdom and Holiness that contrary to the Custom of all the Ancient and Catholick Bishops who have heretofore deliberated with Princes concerning Religion they should now reject and exclude Christian Princes from the cognizance of the Cause now depending and from all Participation and Congress with them in their Councils But yet it cannot be denied they have taken a prudent care for themselves and the upholding their Kingdom which they foresaw otherwise would soon have perished For if they who are placed by God in the highest Station had once seen and understood these Mens Arts that the Commands of Christ are contemned by them that the light of the Gospel is obscured and extinguished by them that they play tricks with and delude them and shut up against them the entrance into the Kingdom of God They would never so patiently have suffered themselves to be so proudly despised and injuriously scorned and abused But now on the other hand they have rendred all Princes obnoxious and subject to them by their blindness and Ignorance 15. WE as I said before have done nothing in the changing of Religion either insolently or rashly nothing but with great deliberation and slowly Nor had we ever thought of doing it except the Will of God undoubtedly and manifestly opened to us in the most Sacred Scriptures and the necessity of our Salvation had compelled us so to do for altho we have departed from that Church which they call the Catholick Church and thereupon they have kindled a great envy against us in them who cannot well judge of us yet it is enough for us and ought to be so to any prudent and pious man who considers seriously of his Salvation that we have only departed from that Church which may enr which Christ who cannot err so long since foretold should err and which we see clearly with our Eyes has departed from the Holy Fathers the Apostles Christ himself and the Primitive and Catholick Church And we have approached as much as possibly we could to the Church of the Apostles and ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers which we know was yet a Perfect and as Tertullian saith an unspotted Virgin and not contaminated with any Idolatry or great and publick Error Neither have we only reformed the Doctrine of our Church and made it like theirs in all things but we have also brought the Celebration of ☞ the Sacraments and the
Forms of our Publick Rites and Prayers to an exact resemblance with their Institutions or Customs And so we have only done that which we know Christ himself and all pious and good Men have in all Ages ever done for we have brought back Religion which was foully neglected and depraved by them to her Original and first State for we considered that the Reformation of Religion was to be made by that which was the first Pattern of it For this Rule will ever hold good against all Hereticks saith the most ancient Father Tertullian That that is true which is first and that is adulterated and corrupted which is later Irenaeus doth often appeal to the most ancient Churches who were the nearest to Christ and which therefore were not at all likely to have erred And why is not that course now taken also Why do we not return to a Conformity with the most Ancient Churches why cannot that be now heard amongst us which was pronounced in the Council of Nice without the least contradiction or opposition from so many Bishops and Catholick Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LET THE OLD CUSTOMS STAND FIRM When Esdras was to rebuild the Temple he did not send to Ephesus tho there was there a most beautiful Temple of Diana which was adorned most exquisitely and when he was to restore the Rites and Ceremonies he did not send to Rome tho perhaps he might have heard there of Hecatembs c. and the ritual Books of Numa Pompilius he thought it was sufficient for him if he set before him as an example and followed the ancient Temple built by Solomon according to the Prescription of God Almighty and the ancient Rites and Ceremonies which God had expresly commanded Moses When the Temple was rebuilt by Esdras and the People might seem to have a just cause to rejoyce in so very great a Blessing granted to them by the Great and Holy God yet Haggai the Prophet brought Tears from all their Eyes because they that were yet living and had seen the Structures of the former before it was destroyed by the Babylonians did well remember how far this latter was from the splendor of the former Temple But on the contrary they would have thought it excellently restored if it had answered the Model and represented the Majesty of the old Temple 16. St. Paul that he might reform the Abuses of the Lords Supper which the Corinthians began even then to corrupt proposed to them the Institution of it by Christ to follow That saith he have I delivered to you which I received of the Lord. And Christ that he might refute the Errors of the Pharisees in another case sends them up to the beginning In the beginning saith he it was not so And that he might shew the Sordidness and Avarice of the Priests This saith he in the beginning was a House of Prayer that Men might in it pray to God Religiously and Purely and so you ought still to have kept it for it was not built to be a Den of Thieves So all religious and approved Princes in Scripture are especially honoured with this Commendation that they walked in the ways of David their Father that is that they returned to the Original and Fountain and restored Religion to its first Integrity And so we seeing all things perverted by them and that there was nothing left in the Church of God but miserable Ruines thought it was but reasonable to set before us those Churches for our Example which we were sure had not erred and had neither private Masses nor unintelligible and barbarous Prayers nor that Corruption of the Holy Rites or other Fooleries And desiring to restore the Church of God to its first Integrity and Purity we would not seek any other Foundation to build upon than what was laid by the Apostles that is by our Saviour Jesus Christ 17. WHEN therefore we had heard God himself speaking to us in his word and had seen and considered the illustrious Examples of the Ancient and Primitive Church and that the expectation of a General Council was very uncertain and the event that would follow it much more uncertain and especially when we had the utmost certainty what was the Will of God and therefore thought it a Sin to be too sollicitous and anxious what the opinion of Men might be After all this I say we could no longer deliberate with flesh and blood but proceeded and have accordingly done that which may both lawfully be done and which hath already been often done by many pious Men and Catholick Bishops that is to take care of our own Church in a Provincial Synod For so we see the ancient Fathers ever took that course before they came to a General and Publick Council of the whole World and there are still extant the Canons made in Muncipial or Provincial Councils at Carthage under St. Cyprian at Ancyra Neocaesarea and at Gangra also in Paphlagonia all which as some think were held before the name of the Nicene General Council was thought of And in this manner without any General Council by a private dispute they of old opposed the Pelagians and Donatists So when Constantius the Emperor openly favored Auxentius a Bishop of the Arrian Party Athanasius a most Christan Bishop did not appeal to a General Council in which he saw nothing could be done by reason of the Power of the Emperor and the great partiality and stiffness of the Faction but to his own Clergy and People that is to a Provincial Council 18. SO it was decreed in the Nicene Council that twice in the year and in a Carthagenian Council that at least once in a year Meetings of the Bishops should be celebrated in every Province which the Council of Chalcedon saith was done that if any Errors or Abuses arose any where they might presently and upon the spot be extinguished And so when Secundus and Paladius rejected the Council of Aquileja because it was not a Publick and General Council St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan replied that it ought not to seem new or strange if the Bishops of the West assembled in Prâ—vincial Conventions or Synods for it had been not seldom done by the Western Bishops before and was very frequently by the Greek Bishops So Charles the Great Emperor of Germany held a Provincial Council in Germany for the taking away Images out of the Church against the second Nicene Council which had determined for them nor is this thing new and unheard of in England for we have heretofore had many Provincial Synods and have governed our Church by our own domestick Laws without the Interposition of the Popes of Rome or any other foreign Bishops or Churches What need is there of many words Certainly those greatest and fullest Councils of which these Men so often Glory if they be compared with all the Churches which throughout the World own and confess the Name of Christ what I pray can they seem to be