Kingdoms of England Scotland Ireland Swedland Denmarke and Norway the most rich and potent Provinces of the Low-Countries the illustrious Cantons of Switzerland a considerable part of France Poland Lithuania Hungary Bohemia Silesia Moravia Austria Transilvania Prussia and Livonia not to reckon those secret and hidden ones who await the time of their Redemption in Italy Spain and other Regions wherein the Light of the Truth hath not as yet scattered the thick Clouds of Popish Darknesse that the greatest part I say of those Kingdoms and Republicks were from that time forward wholly emancipated and disengaged from under the bondage of Papal both Power and Error which amongst many others hath been likewise rejected by a great number of their own authors or abettors sufficient proof that it was the Divine Hand of Omnipotency that gave those signal blows captivating all those thoughts and imaginations under the yoke of his obedience In case our Adversaries alleage 1. That those whom God raised up for this great and glorious work of Reformation were so inconsiderable as that there is no manner of respect due to such abject and inglorious Instruments And 2. being the business which they attempted was of such an extraordinary nature they ought to have wrought Miracles for authorizing of the same It is no hard matter to assoyl those Objections In the first place then for satisfaction to the former We grant indeed that there is but little or nothing at all of excellency in them being considered in and of themselves but if they be eyed with respect to the manutenency of Him who set them to work they are no wise base or contemptible There needs no more but the smart of a silly Insect to quell and confound the pride of Pharoah and extort from him a confession of the Finger of God who that the Power of his Arm and the greatness of his infinite Majesty might become the more obvious and acknowledgeable can at pleasure serve the interests of his Glory upon the most inglorious means even despicable vermine For this reason our Lord Jesus Christ that he might humble and debase the Synagogue confound and baffle the fondness and arrogancy of the Philosophers reduce and defeat the Error and Superstition of Paganism triumph gloriously over the swelling ambition and vanity of the Emperours and cause the whole Earth to bend to the sacred Yock of his Cross would not make use of any of those renowned Worldlings but of poor Fisher-men a Mechanick Tentmaker and an ignominious Publican who yet notwithstanding caught whole Empires and Kingdoms in their Nets assembling the whole World under the Tabernacle of the God of Jacob and making the most obstinate and rebellious Tributaries to his Annointed And after the same method did he proceed in the restauration of the Gospel which he used in the first publication of it as we have seen above where we have noted the marvellous exploits of the chief persons whom he hath imployed in his admirable Conquests Insult therefore no more but rather confess with the Psalmist This is Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Which they also have proclaimed aloud having alwayes in imitation of the Apostles said Such things were not wrought by us but only in the Name and Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ And with the Church in the book of Psalms Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy great Name be rendred all the honour and glory With the like facility we answer to the other Objection urged from the defect of Miracles True it is had those good men taught any other doctrine than that of the Gospel in that case it had been requisite that they should have given some visible testimonies of their Calling besides that according to the Apostles caution he ought to be an Anathema though he were an Angel from Heaven whosoever preacheth any other Gospel than what hath been already evangelized He hath likewise taught us that all those extraordinary gifts which the munificent God did so liberally distribute for authorizing of the Truth of Christian Religion in its infancy should cease and become antiquated And our Lord Jesus Christ hath admonished us that whoever should brag or make ostentation hereof should be very Teachers of lies making such a plausible shew of the same as that they should be able if it were possible to deceive the very Elect And yet notwithstanding what more specious or signal ones can any desire than their very subsistence amidst the raging persecution of their enemies when as they were like unto Moses in Egypt in the hands of Pharaoh's Daughter yet such is the Providence of God they never failed to meet with their true Mother who nourished them upon her chast and untainted breasts that is to say some sound Teachers who caused them to suck the sincere Milk of the sound knowledge of God's Word as the Israelites in the Deserts of Arabia they did still feed upon Manna from Heaven and were furnished with vessels of Gold and Silver which they had taken out of the houses of the Egyptians whereof to make sacred Vessels and stately Ornaments for the service and beauty of the Sanctuary If at any time they have with the Prophet Elijah by means of a persecuting Jezebel been constrained to make a Cave their hiding-place the very Ravens turning Purveyours have furnished them with necessary food When as they were like the Prophet Daniel in the Den of Lyons or like his three Fellow-Captives in Babylon in the fiery Furnace they have been in like manner gloriously and miraculously preserved the Son of God being according to his solemn promise made to us in his Gospel ever present with two or three where-ever met together in his Name Finally since they were with a strong hand rescued out of that spiâ—ual captivity what hath not God done â—at continueth he not still to do in their â—half Should our very Enemies their â—nds laid upon their breasts become our â—dges and do us right they should â—ickly acknowledge that had not THIS â—ORK been OF GOD and had not â—r Faith been from Heaven as not being â—ported by Humane means nor as Maâ—metism maintain'd by Blood and Cruelâ— but on the contrary by exasperated â—d implacable Enemies persecuted to the â—most that it had been long ere now utâ—ly subverted and destroyed which yet â—ugre a fierce and open War prosecuted â—ainst it for the space of seven or eight â—ndred years hath been with no less wonâ—r than renown sustained and defended â—e Lord having in performance of his soâ—mn Promises made in his Word never â—t nor forsaken it being ever present for 〈◊〉 succour and relief and wheresoever â—r way lies through the Fire or through â—e Wilderness he will be always with us â—en to the end of the World Surcease then your cavilling about the â—ature of Instrumenâ—s and the quality of â—ose who speak and preach to you True â—deed they
are formed of earth and clay but God hath gifted and inspired theâ— with the breath of a divine and heavenâ—ly life They be the dry Bones in the Proâ—phets Vision which when by the Spirit oâ— God miraculously quickened did in finâ— cover the whole Earth God hath cut anâ— polished them after the manner of Gold Diamonds Pearl and exposed them tâ— open view In case the Sun of Righteousâ—ness should in order to the more accuratâ— elaboration of this same Gold find it fuâ—â—ther expedient to pass it through the fuâ—â—nace this were to put a higher and morâ— considerable value upon it should he in order to the polishing of them Diâ—â—mond-like fasten them to the wheel 〈◊〉 affliction his end herein likewise werâ— to put a more sparkling luster upon theâ— and through the several forms engraveâ— upon them by his Spirit to render theâ— a thousand times more bright and refuâ—â—gent Finally those magnificent Pearâ— of the Orient from on high wherein 〈◊〉 neither spot nor wrinkle are nowhere 〈◊〉 be found but in the Ocean and bottom 〈◊〉 the deep Sea of adversity temptation whereof God who hath whiten'd them 〈◊〉 the blood of his Son hath made a good Chain which he vouchsafes to fasten upâ—â— the Brests of his Compassion or to wear as a noble Bracelet upon the Arm of his Mercies and that he may crown all those Graces likeas as he assureth us he botleth our tears he carefully reposeth and locketh up all those rich Pearls of price in his own Treasury Wherefore we can never enough lament the occecation and blindness of men who not knowing the time of their visitation have loved the darkness of Errour rather than the light of Truth which hath with such a marvellous efficacy shone out towards those who were in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death that after the dawning of those blessed dayes of Reformation until which those poor souls were so miserably entangled through vain Philosophy and the Rudiments of the world which were not after Christ that with them Aristotle was in a manner more esteem'd of than an Apostle that after I say that admirable change the sacred Volume of the Word of God which was to them before a Book sealed with seven seals hard to be understood did through the several Translations of the same into the most part of the vulgar Languages of Europe become general and common It was in like manner after the same time that the Exposition of Divine Books was re-established in the Church instead of fabulous Legends which were formerly the ordinary subject of their Sermons Nor had they come this length but upon design to supplant the simple through the shame and reproach which they sustained to see that we make that sacred Word the very foundation and subject-matter of our Doctrine and Exhortations but that which they have ever offered and still offer such violence unto as that so little inquisitive are they after the establishment of the Truth therein contained their main care and business is to defend and maintain their Errours And upon this very account do they traduce and misapply the Writings of the Ancient Doctors of the Church which being humane and consequently fallible can never serve for a Rule or Judge in matters of Religion insomuch that even they themselves refer us to the sacred Canon of Divine Scriptures But failing of their reckoning as touching the Writings of the Fathers aswell as the Word of God and perceiving that all solid Antiquity doth deposite and testifie in our favours as we have shewed above they suppress and stifle the most goodly and precious Monuments and the Originals of rich pieces of Christian Antiquity or else mangle change and miserably deface them where-ever their own Cause is discountenanced and fearing lest that refuge might also fail them their Doctors have in pursuance of an Order of the Council of Trent fram'd Expurgatory Indices conformably whereunto they exhibit to us the Writings of the Fathers and not contented to pay us in clipt money they also force upon us false and naughty allay obtruding many spurious pieces for the product of Antiquity or of some of the Fathers which yet were never theirs as may easily appear if we compare the Counterfeit with the true Coin which is no other than what the more soberlearned of the Romish Communion themselves have been alwayes constrained to confess Nevertheless we doubt not but that we shall still find even in those mutilous forms matter enough for satisfying of them and for subverting and destroying of Errour by its own weapons Who then will not judge from hence of the goodness and equity of our Cause who can infer the naughtiness or desperacy of that of our party against whom they having commenced so criminal a process would yet notwithstanding be Judges in their own fact and refusing to understand our defences traduce us as guilty and accordingly condemn us in the force and form as the saying is of a proscription of sackage And that we may the better characterize that precipitant spirit by which they are acted perceiving that all Right and Reason fail'd them they for supply of that defect betook themselves to Menaces Violence Torments cruel Punishments Perjuries Massacres c. yea there is no manner of Artifice or Stratagem imaginable which they have not imployed and which they do not still imploy through the sanguinary Consults of their Congregation of the Propagatours of the Faith in order to the utter perverting or subverting of the Truth by us professed But they have sufficiently hammer'd upon that Anvil all their tools will undoubtedly split upon it at last and God out of love to his great Name will render his Truth and the Professors of the same everlastingly triumphant over all its and their combined enemies Let them not alleage that we ought to have continued still in their communion and not to have separated from them since that was a thing which we could not possibly do without a mortal wound to our Consciences in giving to the Creature that which is due to the Creator only and without involving and embruing of our selves into a thousand Superstitions Moreover we never went away from their communion till by themselves chac'd away through their persecuting of us with Fire and Sword It was fairly done of them forsooth after just motives of our Retreat and withdrawment and their cruel and rigid procedure against us to turn the same into our reproach For though after the Councils of Constance Basil and Pisa a Reformation was judged expedient and necessary it being the universal sence of all That the Church behoved to be reformed both in head and members Rome nevertheless ever loth to part with what she hath once got obstinately maintains not only the Doctrinals which were the main ground of our separation but even the most foppish and ridiculous appertinants of her Creed and servile Ceremonies fearing saith
this very reason they began to transport them from one place to another The common People spent the Vigils or Wakes in the cemeteries of the Martyrs thither they carried Victuals that they might be thereby sanctified yea they lighted up Tapers in broad Day light in token said they of joy and triumph But we must likewise note that all those were the procedures of private Persons only and no wise approved of by the Church true it is the Bishops were constrained by the prevailing multitude to connive at those abuses whereof yet they acknowledged the enormity This toleration nevertheless did not forestall their utmost endeavour for stopping of that torrent for at the same time both Doctors and Councils condemned those extravagancies prohibited the lighting up of Torches in honour of the Martyrs interdicted Vigils repressed those who carried victuals to their Sepulchres as having derived that custome from Paganisme and taught that the Reliques of Saints ought to be buried and not transported from place to place that the custome of swearing by the Reliques of the Dead was purely Paganish and that many built Sepulchres for Martyrs meerly out of vain frivolous dreams Anno 380. c. THe original of praying for the dead we have seen in the former age come we now to view the growth and progress of the same This custome sprung originally from a natural affection in the surviving was at length received into the Church and in after time continued therein The Emperour Constantine being dead all the People prayed for his Soul but as we have already noted those Prayers were made in a sense quite other than at present for all the Fathers of the first ages were of an opinion which is at this day rejected by the Church of Rome namely that the Souls of the righteous are reserved in a common Receptacle until the Resurrection and upon this supposition they ground their praying for the dead Now for these reasons did the Church pray for them viz. 1. To the end God might please to glorify them in due time hastening their Resurrection 2. To the end the Judge might upon the last day be propitious to them and not deal with them in rigour 3. It is remarkable that they prayed even for the Patriarchs for the Prophets for the Evangelists for the Apostles for the Martyrs yea and for the Virgin Mary whom yet they believed not to be in Purgatory but their end herein was that it might please God to increase their glory whence we must note by the way how far they were from praying to the Saints since that they prayed for them and the truth is antiquity informeth us that one of the main reasons why they prayed for them was that they might by so doing distinguish them from Christ whom none prayeth for but all pray to 4. But which is yet more strange they went so far as to pray for the very damned to the end they might procure for them said they some allay and mitigation of their pain for in as much as misguided zeal is no where bounded they affected to extend their charity even as far as Hell it self being strongly opiniated that the Prayers of the Church in the behalf of the damned might be available for qualifying and asswaging of their torments and rendering of their infernal state more supportable thus did they inconsiderately kindle strange fire upon the Altar and made their censors smoak through the superstitious flames of a preposterous devotion But behold an innovation of a lamentable sequel The primitive Christians had not as yet received any Images this the Pagans upbraided them with as a notorious defect The Church had condemned the Gnosticks famous Hereticks who used Images even that of Christ himself Eusebius saith in his Ecclesiastical History that this usage was derived from Pagans who were accustomed to honour the memory of their Deliverers with Portraits and Images which that they might cloath their Idolatry with a specious pretext they yet further alledged to be as so many Books representing Divine things The Emperour Constantine caused the Image of the good Shepheard to be made but not with any intent of having it placed in a Church The Statue of Daniel in Brass was also erected in the middle of the Market-place of Constantinople The same Historian Eusebius writing to the Emperess Constance tells her that Christ even as he is Man cannot be represented by the Pensil True it is at the same time there was a Statue shewen in Cesarea which they said was that of Jesus Christ erected before that in a private House where the Woman was cured of the bloody flux mentioned in the Gospel was also represented and fron that Statue undoubtedly the Portrait 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ in Nicephorus was drawn and afterwards imitated by Statuarie and Painters Now for as much as Juid◠the Apostate had caused it to be defaced and the Pagans in despight to Christ ha◠broken it into pieces the Christians recollected all the fragments and placed them in the Church But about the year 380. they began to embellish the Churches wherein they assembled with Pictures whereby they represented the sufferings of the Martyrs rendering them more palpable and affective to the beholders as also some Scripture-Histories as Abraham's Sacrifice Christ's Miracles c. And for as much as the Agapes or Feasts of their Assemblies were as yet practised by Christians the objects there presented before their Eyes were of use to preven◠intemperancy We must therefore remark that those Images were only Historical serving for commemoration only not for veneration Likewise that the same were no other than plain Pictures For Statues were not received into Churches till a long time after But briefly that which was most remarkable herein was the opposition then banded up against this novelty there having been even Councils which expresly prohibited the use of Pictures in the Church Moreover such was the Devotion of many even after this innovation that they would not endure any Image in their Churches Epiphanius one of the most famous Men of those times relates this passage that being in a certain Village in Palestine he observed at the Church-entry a painted Cloath having like the Picture of Christ or some Saint upon it Now when that I beheld saith he that they had as it were under colour of Scripture-authority placed the Image of a Man in the Church of Christ I cut that Cloth and councelled them much rather to wrap up the dead Corps of some poor Person therein Anno 386. THe Celibacy of Ecclesiasticks was hitherto used more through private devotion than by vertue of any publick suffrage and determination of the Church But about the Year 386. Syricius Bishop of Rome was the first that did by publick Decree provided there be nothing of forgery in the case prohibit marriage to the Clergy of the Churches within his Jurisdiction
the same It was exactly conformable to that of Bertram and John Erigine by the relation of his Adversaries amongst whom Lanfranck then Abbot and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury writing against him in his Book of the Eucharist represents it to us thus The Sacrifice of the Church saith Berenger is compounded of two things the one visible the other invisible of the Sacrament and the thing signified in the Sacrament which thing signified that is to say the Body of Christ if it were presented before our eyes were visible but being exalted to Heaven and sitting on the right-hand of the Father until the restitution of all things as the Apostle Peter speaks it cannot be brought back from Heaven where in the person of Christ it consists of God and Man Now the Sacraments of the Lords Table to wit the consecrated Bread and Wine are not in the least changed or altered but remain in their proper substances having a resemblance of the things whereof they are Sacraments c. This he taught till the year 1091 wherein he died with so great reputation that Hildebert who was afterwards Bishop of Mentz in an Epitaph which he made upon him called him The Pillar of the Church the Glory and Hope of the Clergy The Doctrine which he opposed being at that time so little rooted that Pope Gregory VII who came to the Popedome in the year 1073 did by the report of Cardinal Benno and Matthew Paris appoint a Fast to three Cardinals to the end that God might please to reveal whether of the two opinions was Truth that of Berenger or that of the Church of Rome and upon what account soever it was certain it is that be threw the holy Sacrament into the fire in the presence of the Cardinals as appears by the relation of Cardinal Benno himself who was contemporary with this Pope so that it is more than probable that he believed not the same to be the real Body of Christ. Anno 1120. HOnorius Bishop of Alton now flourished who wrote with no lesse Learning than Truth of Free-will and Predestination according to the exact judgment of those who rejected the determinations of the Roman Church in whose face such was his Zeal and Valour he feared not to call her and her creatures in one of his Dialogues which he composed the grand Apocalyptick Beast and Babylon And indeed none should account it strange that any acted with the least motion of true Piety did declaim at this rate being that none for the most part mounted the Papal Chair other than abominable Letchers Murderers Necromancers and other Monsters insomuch that Cardinal Benno who as hath been said lived in the time of Pope Gregory VII in his Treatise of the Lives of Popes averreth That from Sylvester II until then which was the space of an hundred years even â—ll that time the prime study in the Papal Court was that of the execrable knowâ—edge of Magick with whom William of Malmsbury doth well accord who said That damnable Art which came from Spain was become so general even in France that publick Schools were kept wherein it was taught And Glaber a Monk of Clugny saith expresly that about the 1000 th year of our Lord the Christian Faith began much to decay and degenerate from its primitive vigour men generally addicting themselves to Divination and Sorcery And hence Cardinal Baronius himself speaketh thus What face had the Roman Church how much was she polluted when as Whores not less potent than beastly bore sway in Rome by whose means their Paramour-mock-Popes were intruded into St. Peter's Chair Christ saith he was asleep in the Ship and there was none to awaken him He further adds that the Cardinals Priests and Deacons preferred by means of those Monsters did imitate them treading in their very steps and coveted nothing more than that the Lord might be overtaken with an everlasting sleep It was under the covert of those thick darknesses that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation took deep root and the greatest part of the other abuses in the Church of Rome was firmly established Anno 1136. PEter de Bruis a Priest and his Disciple Henry of Tholouse who had been once a Monk Arnold Hot one Joseph and one Esperon filled all parts of France with their Fame and Doctrine They held the same Opinions with those of Bertram Erigene and Berenger touching the Eucharist and rejected as those did who are a little after called Waldenses all the erroneous Doctrines and Superstitions of Popery St. Bernard informs us that Alphonsus Count of St. Giles did protect them and permitted them to preach publickly at St. Giles and Tholouse where they gained a great many Proselytes yea that many Princes Bishops and Persons of quality countenanced held a correspondence with them Yet notwithstanding listening to the representations of Calumny he joyns to what he alledgeth concerning the truth of their Belief all that they were charged with by the Vulgar to wit that they prohibited the use of Meats like as the Manichees did and perpetrated amongst themselves execrable acts and villanies which yet are no other accusation than what are common to them with the primitive Christians yea and all such even till the time of the last Reformation as have set themselves against the Church of Rome which hath ever impeached with Heresie and branded with some notorious crime all that have refused to own her or have endeavoured by the Word of God to reprove her and reduce her to duty After this very manner dealt they in this Age by Teuchelin or Tudem Peter de Blois John Roscelin a learned person and one of the repairers of the University of Paris the most learned Peter Abelard one named Arnoul whom they put to death at Rome mentioned by Platina Arnold de Bresse with many others Anno 1160. PEter de Valdo of Lyonois a person of an inculpable life and well skill'd in the knowledge of the holy Scriptures full of good works alms-deeds whose house was a very sanctuary to the distressed poor to whom he not onely distributed of his temporal good things which God had given him in abundance but likewise imparted of the true and better substance that is to say the knowledge of the Heavenly Truth wherewith God had honoured him This good man did vigorously oppose the Romish Errors and Abuses and being that he taught the very same Doctrine with that of Peter de Bruis and his Associates he had in conjunction with them a great number of Proselytes who were scattered in Piedmont Daulphine Provence Languedock and other places of France and England as also in the Kingdom of Naples in Germany Bohemia Moravia Hungaria Sclavonia Poland and other places of Europe where divers names were given them as the Poor of Lyons Paterins Humilists and others hateful and infamous taken from the Heresies or horrid crimes charged upon them But the chief that were in France were those of the Waldenses and Albigenses the