to restore the whole to his first integritie Neither did Luther reforme those parts vnto the full by reason of the shortnesse of his life and the greatnesse of the cure which he vndertooke but left somewhat to be reformed after him by Caluin and Beza which as they came after him so they saw more truth then was reuealed vnto him for it did not please God to reueale all truth to one man or in one age So then as a Physition which being not able to cure the whole body cureth some parts and members and yet being preuented by death doeth not so perfectly restore those partes which hee cureth vnto their former strength and agilitie but leaueth his worke to be finished by others so did Luther by the Church The Clergie of England therefore in King Henries dayes established religion and ordered their seruice booke according to that smal portion and measure of knowledge which then they had In the dayes of King Edward and Queene Elizabeth more light was reuealed then before and those errours which were espyed were amended And as it was no shame for vs to reforme our errours when wee espied them so it must needs be vnexcusable to the Church of Rome to continue in their errours now they are layde open before them or to winke at nooneday that they will not see them The Lord of his mercie through Iesus Christ giue them and vs his grace that we may agree together in on truth and as sheep of one fold hearken only to the voice of him which is the great Shepheard of our soules which is Iesus Christ Amen The Conclusion I Thought it requisite to forbeare multitudes of quotations of places and allegations of Doctors and Schoolemen because this Treatise was written for the instruction of the ignorant I haue vpon purpose affected breuitie because my desire was that euery one should reade it Some Latine sentences of Bellarmine I haue produced that the Aduersarie might not charge me as if I had falsified any thing or dealt otherwise than ingeniously I haue alleadged those places only which were so pertinent to this businesse which I haue in hand as they could not be well omitted And I haue refrained to handle some other questions which peraduenture would be very pleasing to the Reader because authoritie hath not iudged it conuenient they should be discussed Let it not seeme strange which I haue written that the learned Papists flie from their ancient defences and cleaue to ours and that Bellarmine the great Golias of Rome in his works which beare a title as if they were written wholy against vs doth in many points hold with vs and in those very points iustifie vs wherein he is thought to condemne vs that in very many things he is a Protestant or at the least not a Papist that the Roman religion is refined for it will plainely appeare to all iudicious and indifferent readers I haue spoken of this argument more at large in mine answere to Bellarmines foure bookes de verbo Dei and his fiue bookes de Christo which had beene published before this time had it not beene for the great difficultie of printing Latine bookes here in London but are now beyond the Seas to be printed and I will obserue the like in the rest of his workes which I do intend to answer if God shal giue me life and health and blesse my labours There be many Iesuites and Seminaries dispersed in this land into whose handes I doubt not but this booke will come which if they will but remember what Vrim and Thummim ought to be in pectore Aaronis in the heartes of Gods Ministers if they will reade without partialitie and that I may vse their owne phrase of speach speake sincerely and in verbo Sacerdotis what they thinke I submit my selfe to their censure whether I haue deliuered a truth or not and I perswade my selfe that it they haue that integritie whereof they make profession they will not deny one truth to gaine many worldes But thus much haue I written at this time for the discharge of my conscience the zeale I beare to the truth and the instruction of them which hitherto haue not vnderstoode themselues I pray GOD my perswasion may perswade His Maiestie hath professed that he will establish the truth if he do not that I may with reuerence and in all duty vse his owne wordes his bookes will witnesse against him at the latter day He may doe it if he be assisting to his Ministers But he cannot do it vnlesse he prouide that there be a learned Ministery through the land that the learned be preferred before the vnlearned they which labor in the word before them which are idle that they be preferred according to their worth that they be sufficiently prouided for that they be countenanced by his Highnesse his Nobles the gentrie but especially by the Iudges the Land that they haue no rights denied vnto them which of dutie they may challenge out of Gods word And this his Maiestie shall neuer effect vnlesse he preferre religion before policie remooue Gehezi out of Elisaeus his seruice abandon flatterie banish simonie out of the Church and briberie out of his house and all his Courts The Lord continue and increase his zeale that he may raigne ouer vs like Ezechias to Gods glory the aduancement of the Gospel our happinesse the comfort of his owne soule which he shall one day feele to be more precious vnto him than al his kingdomes To the Protestant Reader Be it very farre from the seruants of God that they should mistake me or conceiue any sinister opinion of my indeuors as if I dealt too fauorably with the Papists For they ought to consider of mine intent purpose which is not to exasperate and prouoke them to anger but to perswade thē which I cannot do by bitter speeches neither yet by burdening them with any vntruths The spirit of meeknes doth best become Christ his ministers and the worde of God hath taught me to deale charitablie with all men but especially to restore them which haue fallen by gentlenesse not to breake the brused reede nor to quench the smoaking flax That I am not of their mind this booke testifieth sufficiently enough That I do not make more fauourable constructions of their Doctrine than truth and veritie doth require their doctrine it selfe doth shew How much I discent from them my Sermon doth witnesse which I preached at S. Paules Crosse about eight yeares since and published in print wherein I shewed that the state of the Papacie was Antichrist In it I set downe as I hope though a briefe yet a full and perfect state of the question what was wanting in words by reason of the shortnes of time was supplied in substance I answered all obiections out of Bellarmine and Sanders which were of moment that it might be an helpe to others which should aferward deliuer the same againe in more wordes and larger volume The God of al wisdome and knowledge direct their harts and mindes to the true knowledge of his worde through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS
commaunded to doe wee are but vnprofitable seruants and therefore we will relie vpon the merits of Christ alone renouncing our selues and our workes Let them iudge then who are safest they or we Our difference is not concerning the worke it selfe but only concerning the opinion which we ought to conceiue of the worke they thinke honourably wee basely of our owne workes but worke the same And certainely the worthinesse of workes doth not consist in the excellent opinion which we conceiue of them but in the true and faithfull working not in the pleasing of our selues with our selues or any thing which procedeth from vs. Of Free will THis question hath bred some difference betweene vs in the schooles and yet if we do vnderstand each other we may be easily reconciled For the scriptures speake so plainely that they take away doubts We are say they not of our selues sufficient to thinke a good thought as of our selues but all our sufficiencie is of God The way of man is not in himselfe neither is it in man 1. Corint 3. Ierem. 10 to walke and direct his steps No man commeth to Christ vnlesse the Father draw him Draw me and wee will runne after Iohn 6 Cant. 1 Rom. 7 thee What good I would doe that doe I not the euill which I would not doe that doe I saith the Apostle To conclude therefore there are three sorts of agents the one working of his meere will and pleasure which is God the other of necessitie which is nature a third betweene both these extreames partly of willingnesse and partely of necessitie which is man And as no man is good against his will so no man hath power to will any thing that is good vnlesse God giueth him that will So saith the Apostle It is God which worketh in you euen the wil and deede Phil. 2 of his owne good will and pleasure And this will may be compared to the eye which being in darkenesse yet is not blinde neither doth it see without the especiall grace of God Of Prayer WE inuocate God alone who we are sure doth heare vs and they confesse that in so doing wee doe well why then will they not ioyne with vs in well doing But as for Saints departed when they pray to them to be prayed for by them they are not certaine that they doe heare them because it cannot be sufficiently prooued why then will they not pray with vs whose prayers they confesse to be voyde of exception They denie not but that it is better to pray to God then to Saints why then had they not rather be sure of the first place then doubt of the second Their prayer to Saints may breede a scruple in their conscience whether they do well or no. For if they heare them not their praiers are idle words but they must answere at the day of iudgement Matth. 12. for euery idle word which they shall speake As we pray not to Saints departed so wee pray not for Saints or any other deceased If they be in heauen they neede not our prayers if in hel no prayers can helpe them and we dare not say they are in purgatory sith purgatory by the confession of Bellarmine is a tradition not containd in the scriptures He writes that there be many things necessary to be known which are not contained in the scriptures he doth reckon them vp in order and he placeth them so first that women were purged from sinne though vncircumcised secondly that children that died before the eight day were also purged from originall sinne thirdly many Gentiles in the old testament were saued fourthly that of necessitie there be some books which are the holy scriptures fiftly that it must be knowne which bookes are the holy scriptures sixtly that the bookes which wee haue in our hands are the holy scriptures seauenthly that the scriptures are to be vnderstood eightly that Mary was a perpetuall Virgine ninthly that Easter is to be celebrated on the Lordes day tenthly that Infants are to be baptized eleuenthly purgatory But marke his words he saith many things are necessary to be knowne which are not contained in the scriptures among those he maketh purgatory to be the eleuenth therefore he affirmeth that purgatory is a thing necessary to be knowne and not in the scriptures and yet as a man that would halte betweene two religions to please vs and not displease the Papists doth lay it vpon Luther saying Credit Lutherus purgatorium esse tamen asserit purgatorium non posse probari in sacris literis Luther saith he belieueth that there is a purgatory and yet saith it cannot be prooued out of the scriptures The question is whether Bellarmine doth not say so as well as Luther If he do not first why doth he not expresse his owne minde to the contrary in that place secondly why doth he in that long catalogue of such things as are not contained in the scriptures reckon purgatory to be the eleuenth He sheweth that the tenth tradition or vnwritten veritie is the baptisme of Infants that Luther and Caluin hold it lawefull and yet his selfe doth not refuse that opinion which they doe hold and the like must be vnderstood concerning purgatory that as Luther denieth purgatory to be contained in the scriptures so doth Bellarmine or else he doth contradict himselfe which said before that Pargatorium est vndecimum eorum quae ignorari non possunt tamen in scripturis non continentur Purgatory is the eleuenth of these things whereof we may not be ignorant and yet are not contained in the scriptures Sith therefore Bellarmine repeating many things which are not contained in the scripture of which one to be purgatory and yet before as I haue shewd granteth all things to be contained in the scriptures which are necessary for our saluation that we should know them ye must beare with vs De verbo Dei lib. 2. cap. 11. if we doe not belieue purgatorie being no matter of saluation to vs to belieue it We pray in our mother tongue what exception doe they take against it Their priuate prayers are in English as it appeareth by their Iesus psalter their Manuall of Meditations and sundry other prayer books which they haue printed I would know why it might not be as lawfull to pray publikely in the same tongue Which is more I haue seene the Masse by them set forth in Spanish the Spanish being in one page of the booke and the Latine in the other In times past the English testament was printed with the English in one page and the Latine in the other and licensed to be printed and publikely sold by King Philip and Qu. Mary And now of late our English Seminaries of Rhemes haue published the New Testament in English with promise also to set forth the old why may not the English Bible be published by vs as well as by the Seminaries and as well be read publikely in our Church
which is the Bishop of Rome and that being seperated from the head we cannot be liuing members of that mysticall body My answere is The head of the Church is Christ 1. Cor 11. and we as members are conglutinate and ioyned vnto that head and to them which obiect that our Sauior Christ in his absence must haue his Deputie that the Deputy or Vicar generall of Christ is the Holy-Ghost which hath the gouernement of the Church Euen as Elias ascending vp let his mantle downe vpon Eliseus to be with him in his steade so our Sauiour departing 2. Reg. 2 Act. 2 Matth. 28. Act. 20. from vs sent downe the Holy-Ghost to possesse his roome and to abide with vs vntill the end of the world Take heede saieth the Apostle to your selues and to all the flocke whereof the holy-ghost hath made you ouer-seers so then the Holy-Ghost hath the gouernement of the Church But say they a visible body must haue a visible head proportionably to the body and therefore some one man must be ouer the Church I deny not but weake men desire a visible obiect still before their eies as the Israelites when Moses was out of their sight but a few dayes Exod. 32. would make a calfe to be their gouernour rather than they would want one to be visibly resident among them And therefore our Sauior because we should not in his absence committe the like idolatry did leaue the visible Sacrament of the Eucharist among vs saying This is my body But yet I do answer that a similitude must not as the Schoolemen say Currere quatuor pedibus agree in all things First therefore it is not simply necessarie that the visible bodie should still haue a visible head in sight as if it could not stand without such an head For God had his Church visible vpon the earth before the Papacie and before the Incarnation of Christ but Christ the head of the Church before his incarnation could not be a visible head So therefore as Christ in his Godhead alone before hee was borne was the head of his Church though inuisible likewise is he now in his Godhead and Manhoode vnited together head of the church visible although vpon the earth not to be seene Secondly the time hath beene when there was a long vacancie of the Popedome by reason of ciuill dissention yet the Church then stood without such an head Thirdly no sinfull man is able to discharge such an office as to be ouer-seer of the vniuersal church Fourthly there must be such an influence of necessitie from the head to the body as cannot possibly be from any man to the Church Fiftly the Pope neuer was reputed as head of the whole Church for the East part of the world that is the Greeke Church was euer so auerse from the Sea of Rome that it could neuer yet be brought either to obedience to the Pope or to ioyne in rites and ceremonies with his Church or to be incorporated into that body or to vse the same leiturgie and forme of prayer which that Church vseth All appellations amongst them haue bin to the Patriarch of Constantinople as to the highest Bishop Sixtly what authoritie soeuer the Pope hath had ouer the Latine Church and West part of the world it hath beene giuen him by humane constitutions onely and generall consent of Princes and States which they suffered him to enioy during their owne good liking and no longer And last of all our owne experience can enforme vs that the Catholike princes which are most of all deuoted to the Sea of Rome will be so farre subiect as they thinke fit and no further Charles the fift late Emperor and King of Spaine tooke prisoner Clement the Pope when hee resisted his proceedings in Italie and Queene Mary made her Cosin Cardinall Pole Arch-Bishop of Canterburie though the Pope withstood it neither doe the Kings of France though of the Romish religion euer suffer the Popes to beare any stroke in the election of their Bishops I wish therefore that they would be better aduised before they lay scisme vnto our charge Chap. V. Of Discord and Inconstancie THe vsuall obiections against vs were wont to be that wee haue sects and diuisions among vs. But so had they oftentimes Eckius against Pighius Thomas against Scotus so had the Apostles Peter against Paul and Paul against Barnabas some were of Paul some of Apollo and some of Cephas We contend about white and blacke round and square but in matters of religion we agree That concerning the booke of common prayer when the masse was first put downe king Henry had his English Leiturgie and that was iudged absolute without exception but when King Edward came to the Crowne that was condemned and other in the place which Peter Martyr and Bucer did approoue as very consonant to Gods word When Queene Elizabeth beganne hir raigne the former was iudged to be full of imperfections and a new was deuised and allowed by the consent of the Clergie But about the middle of her raigne wee grew weary of that booke and great meanes haue beene wrought to abandon that and establish an other which although it was not obtained yet we doe at the least at euery change of Prince change our booke of common prayers we be so wanton that we know not what we would haue I answer they haue done the like they cannot denie it for proofe whereof I referre them to the preface which is set before their owne Breuiary wherein it is specified how many times their owne Breuiary hath beene altered It is no discredit either to them or vs to alter for the better and to correct that which we finde amisse All faults are not espied at once neither is all truth reuealed at once But it is damnable to perseuere and continue in an error after it is found out and not to imbrace a truth after it is reuealed The Church had a time of growing three hundred yeares after Christ being then watered and made fruitefull by the bloud of Martyrs then the religion of Rome was found according to that which Saint Paul doth testifie in his Epistle to the Romanes the Bishops thereof Rom. 1. continued zealous and were commonly martired The Church had a time of florishing three hundred yeares which beganne when Constantine the great granted peace vnto the gospel and persecution ceased so long found doctrine was preached But the Church afterward beganne to decay and so went backeward vntill Gregory the great in whose time corruption began to creepe in and so ranne ouer the whole body of the Church and euery christian Kingdome which were members of that body so that the whole visible Catholike Church through the world was mightily deformed Then Luther in his time beganne a reformation againe though he reformed not the whole yet he reformed some partes like a Phygtion which finding a mans body full of sores healeth some members although he be not able