Holy Fathers the Prophets the Apostles against St. Peter St. Paul and even against Christ himself 7. BUT now if they are so ambitious of the Honour of being thought polite and eloquent Slanderers it does so much the less befit us to be mute and careless in the Defence of our most excellent Cause for it is certainly the part only of dissolute Men who can securely and wickedly shut their Eyes when the Divine Majesty is injured to be wholly unconcern'd what is tho' falsly and unjustly said of them and their Cause especially when it is of that Nature that the Glory of God and the Affairs of Religion are at the same time violated for although other and those often very great Injuries may be born and dissembl'd by a modest Christian yet He saith Ruffinus who shall patiently put up the Name of an Heretick does not deserve to be called a Christian Permit us then to do that which all Laws and the very Voice of Nature commands us that which Christ himself did when he was in a like Case assaulted with Reproaches that is suffer us to repel their Defamations and with Modesty and Truth to defend our Cause and Innocence for Christ himself when the Pharisees charged him with Conjuration as if he had entered a Combination with impure Spirits and by their Assistance wrought many Wonders replied I have not a Devil but I honour my Father and ye do dishonour me and St. Paul when he was undervalued by Festus the Proconsul as a Mad-man answered I am not mad most noble Festus but speak forth the Words of Truth and Soberness And the Primitive Christians when they were traduced to the People as Murtherers Adulterers Incestuous Persons and Disturbers of the Government and saw that the Excellence of their Religion might be call'd in question especially if they held their Peace and by their Silence seemed to confess the truth of these Accusations and so the Course of the Gospel might be hindered they thereupon made publick Orations wrote supplicant Books and discoursed before Emperors and Princes in the publick defence of themselves and the Chruch 8. BUT we perhaps may seem not to need any Defence so many thousands of our Brethren in the last twenty years having born testimony to the Truth amidst the most exquisite Tortures and Princes in endeavouring to put a stop to the Progress of the Gospel and to that purpose using several Methods having yet in the end been able to effect nothing and the whole World now beginning to open their Eyes and to see the Light and therefore it may seem as I said that enough hath been spoken and that our Case is sufficiently defended the thing speaking for it self for if the Popes themselves would or indeed if they could consider with themselves the Beginning and Progress of our Religion how theirs without any Resistance without any humane Force hath fallen and in the interim ours hath increased and by degrees been propagated into all Countries and hath been entertained in the Courts of Kings and the Palaces of Princes even whilst it was opposed from the beginning by Emperors by Kings by Popes and almost by all others these things I say are clear Indications that God himself sights for us and doth from Heaven deride and scorn their Projects and Endeavours and that the Power of Truth is so great that no humane Force nor the very Gates of Hell shall ever be able to prevail against it for so many free Cities so many Princes cannot be supposed mad as at this day have fallen from the See of Rome and chosen rather to joyn themselves to the Gospel 9. FOR although Popes have not as yet at any time been at leisure to think attentively and seriously of these things or although other Thoughts may now hinder and distract them or they may think these things light and beneath the Dignity of the Popedom is our Cause therefore to be thought ever the worse or if perhaps they will pretend not to see what indeed they do see and that they choose rather to oppose the Truth even then when they are convinced of it are we therefore presently to be reputed Hereticks because we cannot comply with their Wills If Pope Pius the IIII. had been such a Person as his Name speaks him and as he so much desires to be thought nay indeed if he had but been so good a man as to have esteem'd us as his Brethren or as MEN certainly he would diligently have considered our Reasons and what could have been alledged for and against us and not with so rash and blindfold a precipitancy have condemned without hearing our cause or allowing the Liberty of a Defence so considerable a part of the World so many learned so many Religious men so many Common-wealths so many Kings and so many Princes as he has sentenced in his Bull concerning his late pretended Council 10. BUT now because We are so publickly in this unjust manner noted by him left by our silence we should seem to confess the Crimes charged upon us and the rather because we could in no manner be heard in any publick Council where he would suffer none to have any Suffrage or propose his Judgment who was not first sworn to him and intirely addicted to his Interest for of this we had too great an experience in the last Council of Trent when the Ambassadors and Divines of the Princes and free Cities of Germany were totally excluded out of the Council nor can we forgot that Julius the III. above ten years since took a mighty care by his Rescript that none of our Men might be heard in the Council except it were one that was disposed to recant and change his Opinion For these causes I say we have thought fit by this Book to give an account of our Faith and to answer truly and publickly what hath been publickly objected against us that the whole World may see the Parts and Reasons of that Faith which so many good men have valued above their Lives and that all Mankind may understand what kind of men they are and what they think of God and Religion whom the Bishop of Rome has inconsiderately enough before they had made their Defence without Example and without Law condemn'd for Hereticks upon a bare report that they differed from him and his in some points of Religion 11. AND though St. Jerome will allow no man to be patient under the Suspicion of Heresie yet we will not behave our selves neither sowerly nor irreverently nor angerly tho' he ought not to be esteemed either sharp or abusive who speaks nothing but the truth no we will leave that sort of Oratory to our Adversaries who think whatsoever they speak although it be never so sharp and reproachful modest and apposite when it is applied to us and they are as little concern'd whether it be true or false but we who defend nothing but the Truth have no need of such base
our Forefathers who first imbraced and professed the Name of Christ that they conspired amongst themselves against the Government and for that purpose met very early whilst it was yet dark that they murthered Male-Infants gorged themselves with Mans Flesh and in a barbarous manner drank humane Blood and at last putting out the Candles perpetrated Incests and Adulteries and that Brothers lay with their Sisters and Sons with their Mothers without any reverence to their Bloods and Families without Difference or Modesty that they were impious destitute of all Religion Atheists the Enemies of all Mankind and unworthy of the Light or Life 3. THESE things were spoken against the Jews the People of God against Christ Jesus against St. Paul St. Stephen and against all those who in the first Ages imbraced the truth of the Gospel and were called Christians a Name then hated by the Many And although none of these things were true yet the Devil thought it sufficient to his Purpose if they were believed true that so the Christians might incur the publick Hatred and be pursued by all to Ruine and Destruction And thus Kings and Princes being deceived slew all the Prophets of God to a Man they condem'd Isaiah to the Saw Jeremia to be ston'd Daniel to the Lions Amos to the Iron Bar Paul to the Sword and Christ to the Cross and all Christians to Prisons to Racks to Crosses to Rocks and Precipices to wild Beasts and Fires and burnt whole Piles of their living Bodies for nocturnal Lights and by way of Sport and Recreation and never esteem'd them better than the most vile Filth of the Earth the Off-scourings and Scorn of the World thus the first Authors and Professors of the Truth were ever treated 4. WHEREFORE all we who have now undertaken the Profession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ought to bear it with the less disturbance of Mind if in the same Cause we are treated after the same manner and as heretofore our Fathers so we in this Age are persecuted also with Reproaches Slanders and Lyes only because we teach and profess the Truth 5. THEY roar out in all Places that we are Hereticks that we have forsaken the true Faith and broken the Union of the Church with new Opinions and impious Doctrines 2. That we fetch from Hell and revive the old and long since condemn'd Heresies and sow the Seeds of new Sects and unheard of Broils that we are already divided into contrary Factions and Opinions and we could never yet in any manner agree amongst our selves 3. That we are wicked men and like the Gyants of old have entered into a Rebellion against God himself and live without the least regard to the Deity and without any religious Worship 4. That we despise all good Actions that we do not use any virtuous Discipline that we regard neither Laws nor good Manners nor Right nor Justice nor Equity nor Order that we let loose the Rein and suffer all sorts of Villanies and even provoke the People to all the Licentiousness and Luxury that is possible 5. That our Business and great Design is the subverting Monarchies and Kingdoms that all States may be reduced under the Dominion of the ignorant Multitude and the indiscreet Populace 6. That we have made a tumultuous Defection from the Catholick Church and have shaken the Peace of the World and disturbed the Quiet of the Church by a detestable Schism and that as heretofore Dathan and Abiram rose up against Moses and Aaron so we without any just cause have revolted from the Pope of Rome 7. That we despise the Authority of the Primitive Fathers and antient Councils That we have imprudently and insolently abrogated the antient Ceremonies which have been approved for many Ages by our Fathers and Grandfathers who had better Manners and lived in better Times and that by our own private Authority without the Consent of a Holy and General Council we have introduced new Rites into the Church and that we have not done this for the Sake of Religion but purely out of a contentious Humour that they on the contrary have changed nothing but have retained all things as they were delivered to them by the Apostles approved by the most antient Fathers and have been kept ever since through all the intermediate Ages to this day 6. AND least all this might seem to be only a Calumny and that managed by secret Whispers only with design to excite an Envy against us the Popes of Rome have suborned eloquent and not unlearned Men to undertake the Defence of this desperate Cause and to represent it to the World in Books and long Discourses in the best Colours it was possible to give it to the intent that being elegantly and copiously pleaded unskilful men might suspect there was something more than ordinary in it for indeed they saw that their Cause was every where in a declining Condition their Arts were now seen through and so were the less esteemed their Fortresses were every day undermin'd and their Case stood in need of a powerful Patronage and Defence But then as to those things which they have charged us with some of them are manifestly false and condemn'd by the Consciences of them that object them against us others though in the bottom they are false too yet they have the shew and similitude of truth so that an incautious and unthinking Reader may especially if he be surprised by any of their laboured and elegant Discourses be easily circumvented and deceived and others of the things thus charged upon us are such as we ought to acknowledge and profess and not decline the owning them as if they were Crimes but defend them as things that were well and rationally done For to speak in a word they slander whatever we do even those Actions of ours which themselves cannot deny to be rightly and well done and malitiously deprave and pervert all our Words and Actions as if it were not possible We should do or speak any thing as we ought They ought indeed to treat us with more Simplicity and Candor if they designed truth but on the other hand they do not oppose us with truth nor in a Christan Way or Manner but with Lyes in a close and crafty way and abuse the blindness and ignorance of the Rabble and the want of Learning in Princes to the inflaming their Hatred against us and the Oppression of the Truth This is indeed the Power of Darkness and the Folly of Men who trust more in the Stupidity and benighted Minds of the unpolished Multitude than in the Light of Truth or as St. Jerom expresseth it This is to contradict with shut Eyes the Truth when it is most perspicuous But we bless the great and Holy God our Cause is such that though they never so much desire to defame it yet they can fix no Reproach upon it which they may not with as much Reason and Justice imploy against the
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.
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
number of Intercessors without any Authority of the Word of God so that as Jeremiah saith According to the number of thy Cities so are thy Gods so that miserable men know not which to apply themselves to and tho they are innumerable yet they have ascribed to each of them their Office and what was to be obtained had and received from each of them but also because they have not only impiously but impudently solicited the Virgin Mary that she would remember she is a Mother that she would be pleased to command her Son and that she would make use of the Authority she hath over him 21. WE say that Man is born and does live in Sin and that no man can truly say his Heart is clean that the most holy Man is an unprofitable Servant that the Law of God is perfect and requires of us a full and perfect Obedience and that we cannot in any way keep it perfectly in this Life and that there is no Mortal who can be justified in the sight of God by his own Deserts and therefore our only Refuge and Safety is in the Mercy of God the Father by Jesus Christ and in the assuring our selves that he is the Propitiation for our Sins by whose Blood all our Stains are washed out that he has pacified things by the Blood of his Cross that He by that only Sacrifice which he once offered upon the Cross hath perfected all things and therefore when he breathed out his Soul said IT IS FINISHED as if by these words he would signifie now the Price is paid for the Sins of Mankind 22. NOW if there be any who think not that this Sacrifice is sufficient let them go and find out a better but as as for us because we know this is the only Sacrifice we are contented with it alone nor do we expect any other and because it was only once to be offered we do not injoyn the Repetition of it and because it was full and in all its Numbers and Parts perfect we do not substitute to it the perpetual Successions of our own Sacrifices 23. THO we say there is no trust to be put in the Merits of our Works and Actions and place all the Hopes and Reason of our Salvation only in Christ yet we do not therefore say that men should live loosely and dissolutely as if Baptism and Faith were sufficient for a Christian and there were nothing more required the true Faith is a living Faith and cannot be idle therefore we teach the People that God hath not call'd us to Luxury and Disorder but as St. Paul saith Unto good Works that we might walk in them That God hath delivered us from the Power of Darkness that we might serve the living God that we should root up all the Reliques of sin that we should work out our Salvation with fear and trembling that it might appear that the Spirit of Sanctification was in us and that Christ himself dwelleth in our Hearts by Faith 24. To conclude We believe that this Body of ours in which we live tho after Death it turns to Dust yet in the last day it shall return to Life again by the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth in us and that then whatever we suffer for Christ in the interim he will wipe away all Tears from our Eyes and that then through him we shall enjoy everlasting Life and be always with him in Glory AMEN CHAP. III. Containing a plain Demonstration of the Causes why and whence Heresies arose in the Church with Instances of all sorts in all Times THESE are the horrible Heresies for which a considerable part of the World at this day are condemn'd by the Pope unheard it had been better to have entered a Contest with Christ the Apostles and holy Fathers for they it was who did not only give a beginning to these Doctrines but commanded them unless they of the Church of Rome will say as perhaps they will that Christ did not institute the Holy Communion that it might be distributed amongst the Faithful or that the Apostles of Jesus Christ or the ancient Fathers said private Masses in all the corners of their Churches sometimes ten and at other twenty in one day or that Christ-and the Apostles deprived the People of the Cup or that That which they now do and that with that eagerness that whoever will not comply with them in it is by them condemn'd for an Heretick is not call'd Sacriledge by one of their own Popes Gelasius or that those are not the Words of Ambrosius Augustinus Gelasius Theodoret Chrisostom and Origen That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament remain what they were before that that which is seen on the Holy Table is Bread that the Substance of the Bread doth not cease to be nor the nature of the Wine that the Substance and Nature of the Bread is not changed that this very Bread as to what concerns the Matter of it goes down into the Belly and is cast out by the Draught or that Christ and his Apostles and the Fathers did not pray in that Tongue which was understood by the People or that Christ by that one Oblation which he once offered hath not perfected the Work of our Redemption or that this Sacrifice was so imperfect that we need another Either they must say all these things or else they must aver which perhaps they had rather say that all Right and Justice is inclosed in the Cabinet of the Popes Breast and as one of his Followers and Flatterers once said that he may dispense against the Apostles against the Councils and against the Apostolical Canons and that he is not bound by those Examples Institutions and Laws of Christ 2. THUS we have been taught by Christ by the Apostles and Holy Fathers and we do faithfully teach the People of God the same things and for so doing we are called Hereticks by the great Leader and Prince of Religion O immortal God! What have Christ and his Apostles and so many Fathers all erred What are Origen Ambrose Augustin Chrysostom Gelasius and Theodoret Apostates from the Catholick Faith Was the Consent of so many Bishops and Learned men nothing but a Conspiracy of Hereticks or that which was commendable in them is it now blameable in us And that which was Catholick in them is it by a Change in the Wills of Men become schismatical in us Or that which was once true is it now because it displeaseth them become false Let them then produce a new Gospel or at least set forth their Reasons why those things which were so long publickly observed and approved in the Church ought now at last to be recall'd We know that the Word which was reveal'd by Christ and propagated by the Apostles is sufficient to promote our Salvation and all Truth and to convince all Heresies Out of it alone we condemn all sorts of ancient Heresies which they
these as his own tho he would yet he cannot commit Simony But then how well or rationally this is spoken we poor Men cannot see or understand except as the ancient Romans served Victory so they have served Truth for when she once came flying to them they clipt her Wings that she might no more sly from them But what if Jeremias should tell them as we have observed above that these are lying Words And what again if he should say That many Pastors who ought to have dressed have destroyed my Vineyard What if Christ should say that those who should have taken the greatest care of the Temple have made the House of God a Dâ—n of Thieves For if the Church of Rome cannot Err she is more beholding to her own good Fortune than to their Prudence or Care for such are their Lives Doctrines and Diligence that if we are to take our Measures from thence this Church is not only in danger of falling into â—rror but of a total Ruine and Destruction And certainly if that Church can err which hath departed from the Word of God the Commandments of Christ the Institutions of the Apostles the Examples of the Primitive Church and from the Canons and Sanctions of the ancient Fathers and Councils yea and from her own too which will be obliged by neither old nor new Laws by neither her own nor any others by neither Divine nor Humane Laws I say if all this be to err then it is certain that the Church of Rome not only may err but that she hath most wickedly and lewdly erred 11. BUT they say we were once of their Communion but now we are Apostates and have departed from them indeed we have departed from them and we bless the Great and Holy God for it and please our selves mightily in it but then we have not departed from the Primitive Church from the Apostles from Christ we were educated indeed with them in darkness and ignorance of God as Moses was in the Discipline and bosom of the Egyptians We were of your Number saith Tertullian and I confess it but what wonder is there in that Men are made and not born Christians But then I may as well ask them why they have descended from the seven Hills on which the ancient City of Rome stood to dwell in the Plains in the Martian Field to which perhaps they would reply that the Aquaeducts without which they could not conveniently dwell on those Hills have failed Let them then but grant the same liberty in relation to the Waters of Life which they expect we should afford them in regard of the common Family-water The Springs did now fail with them The Elders saith Jeremiah sent their little ones to the Waters they came to the Pits and found no Water they returned with their Vessels empty they were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads Or as Isaiah saith The Poor and the Needy seek Water and there is none and their Tongue faileth for thirst They had broken all their Conduits and Water-courses they had stopped up all the Springs and covered the Fountain of Living Waters with mire and mud and as Caligula by shutting up all the publick Granaries enjoyned the People of Rome to fast so they by stopping up the Fountains of the Word of God had enjoyned the People to undergo the Miseries of a destructive Thirst they have as the Prophet Amos saith brought upon the World a Famine Not a Famine of Bread nor a thirst for Water but of hearing the Words of the Lord. Miserable Men went searching about for a small spark of Divine Light to chear their Consciences but they were all gone out and they could find none this was the miserable Condition and State of their Church men lived wretchedly in it with out the Gospel and without Light or Conslation 12. AND therefore how afflictive soever our departure from them may seem to them yet they ought at the same time to consider how just the cause of it was for if they say in general it is not lawful to leave that Society in which thou wert educated this were in our Persons to condemn the Prophets Apostles and Christ himself for why is it not as reasonable to blame Lot for leaving Sodom Abraham for leaving Chaldea the Hebrews for leaving Egypt Christ for leaving the Jews and St. Paul for leaving the Pharisees For except it be granted that there may be a just cause of departure we can see no cause why these may not in the same manner as we are be accused of Faction and Sedition But if we are to be thought Hereticks because we will not obey all their unjust commands what are they Who or what are they to be thought who have contemned the Commands of Christ and his Apostles If we are Schifmaticks who have forsaken them by what name shall we call them who have forsaken the Greeks from whom they first received the Christian Faith the Primitive Church Christ and the Apostles who were their Spiritual Parents For the Greek Church who at this day profess the Religion and Name of Christ altho they have in many things contaminated it yet they still retain a great part of those things which they received from the Apostles And so they have no private Masses no maimed Sacraments no Purgatory nor Indulgences And as to the Papal Titles and magnificent Names they have this esteem of them that whoever calls himself the universal Bishop and the Head of the whole Church is a proud Man and injurious to all the other Bishops who are his Brethren nor will they scruple on this single account to call him Heretick 13. BUT now seeing it is apparent and cannot be denied that they have made a defection from them from whom they received the Gospel the Christian Faith and Religion yea and the very being of a Church what cause is there to be given why they should not return back to them as to their Original Why should they so much dread the times of the Fathers and Apostles as if they had seen nothing Why do they see more or love the Church better than they who delivered what they have to them for as for us we have forsaken a Church in which we could neither hear the pure Word of God nor administer the Sacraments nor invoke the Name of God as we ought which they themselves acknowledge to be faulty in many things and in which there was nothing to retain a prudent Man who thought seriously of his Salvation Lastly We have departed from a Church which is not now what anciently she was and so we have departed as Daniel did out of the Den of Lyons as the three Children did out of the fiery Furnace or to speak more properly we have not so much departed from them as been cast out by them with Execrations and Curses 14. BUT then we have united our selve to that Church in which if they would
the mean time these men cannot defend themselves and propagate their own Cause except at the same time they undertake the Patronage of Annas and Caiaphas For what Council will these men ever acknowledge to be vicious and erronious who say that was a lawful and good Council in which the Son of God was most ignominiously condemnâ—d to the Death of the Crossâ— and yet considering what almost all their Councils have been it was necessary for them thus to pronounce of the Council held by Annas and Caiaphas But are they ever like to be the Men which are to reform the Church who are at once the Judges and the Criminals Will they ever lessen their Pride and Ambition Will they depose themselves and give Judgment against themselves that the Bishops shall not be unlearned slow Bellies multiply Benefices carry themselves like Princes nor bear Arms Will the Popes beloved Sons the Abbots decree that that Monk who doth not earn his Bread with the Sweat of his Brows is a Thief or that it is not Lawful for them to live in the City or in a Crowd of Men or of that which belongs to another that a Monk ought to lye upon the bare Ground to live hardly with Herbs and Pease to study hard dispute pray and labour to prepare himself for the Service of the Church It is as reasonable to expect that the Scribes and Pharisees will reform the Temple and of a Den of Thieves will again make it become a House of Prayer 7. THERE were some amongst them who observed that many Errors were crept into the Church Pope Adrian Aeneas Sylvius Cardinal Pool Pighius and othersâ— as we have said After which they had a Council at Trent in the same place where there is one now indicted Many Bishops and Abbots and others who ought to be in a Council met they were alone and there was no body to disturb them whatever they did for they had taken care to exclude all that were for the Reformation and there they sate with a great Expectation six years in the first six months they decreed many things concerning the Holy Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost which were pious but no way necessary for those Times and yet of all these clear manifest confessed Errors which had gotten into the Church what one single Error or Corruption have they reformed From what kind of Idolatry have they reclaim'd the People What Superstition have they taken away What part of their Tyranny and Pomp have they abated or diminished as if the World were so blind that it could not see and observe that this is a Conspiracy rather than a Council and that all the Bishops which the Pope have there call'd together are sworn and addicted to his Interest and resolved before hand not to do any thing but what shall please him and encrease his Power and which they see he desireth or that Votes there are not numbred rather than considered and weighed or that the wiser and better part of the Council is not often overborn by the greater but worse part of it And therefore we know perfectly well that many good Men and Catholick Bishops when such Councils were indicted and they saw clearly that Parties and Factions were served by them and that they should lose their Pains and harden the Minds of their Adversaries by their Oppositions without doing the least Good have wisely staid at home and refused to be present in them Athanasius would not come to the Council at Caesarea when he was call'd by the Emperor seeing he should there meet an enraged parcel of Enemies and afterwards when he came to the Council at Syrmium and in his mind foresaw from the Fury and Malice of his Enemies what the Event would be he pack'd up his Carriages and went away immediately St. Chrysostom tho he was call'd four times by Letters from Arcadius the Emperor to an Arrian Council yet staid at home When Maximus Bishop of Jerusalem sate in a Council in Palestine the old Paphnutius took him by the hand and led him out of it and then told him ' t is not lawful for us to consult about these things with wicked men The Bishops of the WEST would not be present at that Council at Syrmium from which Athanasius departed St. Cyril by Letters appealed from the Council of the Patropassians as they were call'd Paulinus Bishop of â—reves and many others would not come to the Council of Milan when they saw the Power and Intrigues of Auxentius for they saw it was to no purpose to go thither where Faction and not Reason would he heard and were Causes would be certainly determined by Affection and Passion and not by Judgment But then all these tho they were to deal with inraged and obstinate Adversaries yet if they had come they should have been freely heard in the Council 8. BUT now no man need wonder when none of us are permitted not only not to sit but not so much as to be seen in their Council so far are we from being freely heard when the Popes Legats and all the Patriarchs Arch-Bishops Bishops and Abbots are in a Conspiracy and united by their common Crimes all sworn in the same Oath only sit and have alone the Power of voting and as if all this were not enough have submitted all their Judgments to the Will and Humour of the Pope alone That he who ought to answer for his own Faults shall give Sentence in his own Cause upon himself when that ancient Christian Liberty which it is absolutely necessary should be very great in Councils is totally taken away I say after all this wise and good Men ought not to wonder if we do now that which they have seen done before in the like case by so many Fathers and Catholick Bishops That is that seeing we cannot be heard in the Council and that the Ambassadors of Princes are had in Contempt and Scorn there and that as if the thing were already determined and agreed we are condemned before we are heard if after all this we had rather sit at home and commit the business to God than to go thither where we shall have no place nor effect any thing But tho we can patiently and quietly bear our own Injuries yet why should they shut Christian and Pious Princes out of their Councils Why do they so rudely and insolently put them out and not suffer them to hear the business of Religion debated or to understand the State of their own Churches as if they were not Christians or could not judge well of it or if these Princes interpose their Authority and do that which they may are commanded and ought to do and which we know David and Solomon and other good Princes have done that is if they restrain the Luxury of the Priests and compel them to do their duty and keep them to it If they pluck down Idols extirpate Superstitions and restore the Worship of
the Emperor it was then thought a sufficient Excuse that they must attend the Reformation and Care of their own Churches tho they saw that the Arrians then prevail'd every where and that their Presence might have been of a mighty consequence for the abating their Rage 11. WHAT if our Bishops should now make the same Answers that they can spare no time from the sacred Ministry that they are totally taken up in restoring and reforming their Churches that they cannot be spared from home five six or seven years and especially in that place where they can do no good for our Bishops have not the same leisure with those who luxuriously spend their time in Palaces at Rome and depend upon the Cardinals and lye at the catch for rich Preferments for our Churches are so miserably ruin'd and perverted by the ill Management of these men that it is neither a small time nor an ordinary Diligence that can reform them And now we see plainly that they design a Diversion and mis-spending of our times that when there is no need of it we may be drawn from Home and so may neither promote the Reformation at Home nor be suffered by them to do it in the Council 12. For the Pope indeed does but dissemble with the World that you may not be deluded he intends no Council nor are you to think that he acts any thing sincerely and truly He that knows not how to dissemble said Lewis the 11th to Charles the 8th his Successor knows not how to Reign And much more he that knows not how to dissemble and conceal his Counsels under the Gravity of his Looks as things go now will never be able to act the part of a Pope for that See is supported meerly by Hypocrisie and is forced to supply the Defects of a natural Strength with pretended Colours and Shews For if the Popes did indeed think that a General Council was of such wonderful efficacy for the suppressing Schisms why did they so very long delay so necessary a means of it Why did they sit still thirty years and suffer Luthers Doctrine to take root Why did they not presently call a Council Why did they at last call the Council of Trent with great unwillingness and reluctancy and more by the Impulse of Charles the Emperor than by their own free Wills and when the Council had sit almost ten years at Trent why after so tedious a Consultation was nothing brought to an Issue Why did they leave their Business undone Who hindred them Who withstood them Believe me in this my Brother the Pope has no design now that a Council should meet or Religion be reform'd which they perfectly despise All their Business Desires and Contentions aim at nothing but the deluding the Minds of Religious Men and the whole World with the Expectation of a General Council 13. THEY see long since that their Revenues are diminished and ruin'd that their Arts have not the same success they have had heretofore that an Incredible number of men do every day fall off from them there is not now that vast concourse of People to Rome men do neither esteem nor purchase their Indulgences Interdictions Benedictions Absolutions and vain Bulls at the Rate they have done the Sales of their Ceremonies and Masses and all that Whorish Paint is not much valued so that a very great part of their Pomp and Tyranny is fallen their Incoms reduced to a lower Ebb than ever they and their Partizans are become the Scorn of Children so that now their whole Concern is at the Stake Nor is there any wonder that those things should fall which were supported by no roots Our Saviour JESUS CHRIST hath put an end to them not by Arms or the force of Soldiers but by an Heavenly Impulse and the Breath of his mouth and he will intirely consume and abolish them by the brightness of his coming such is the force of the Word of God the Power of the Gospel and these are the Weapons which will bring down every high thing which is built up or exalted against the Knowledge of God This Doctrine shall be preached in spite of all throughout the World and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it the Merit-mongers Shops at Rome do now lye desolate their Wares Like the Goods of Porsenna are cried at a low price and there is scarce any to buy them a poor Dealer in Indulgences does now wander about and rarely finds a Fool that will purchase one This Sir is the great Concern from hence spring the Papal Tears and Cares they see this Light sprung out of one small Spark and what now may be the Event when there are so many Fires kindled every where on the Earth and so many Christian Kings and Princes own and prosess the Gospel for these men do no serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies There goes a Story that when Carneades the Philosopher was at Rome and made that memorable Oration against Justice amongst other things he added this That this Virtue if it was a Virtue was not of less use to any part of Mankind than to the Romans for they by Force and Stealth had subdued those Kingdoms to themselves which of right belonged to other men and by a most flagrant Injustice had arrived to the Empire of the World and that if now they should fall to the Exercise of Justice all these must be restored to the right owners which they possess'd so unjustly and so they should be reduced to their Shepherds Cottages and poor cold Sheds which was all they had at first And so now these if they should lay aside their Dissimulation and act sincerely and do their Duty and give every one what was truly their own they must then return to the Staff and Scrip again to Sobriety and Modesty to the Labours and Duty of a Bishop for they have heard what St. Augustin said Bishop is a Name of Labour and not of Honour and that they were no Bishops who sought more to be over the People than to do them good and therefore they see that the spreading of the Gospel is of less advantage to them than to any other men in the World for if ever they should entertain a thought of reforming they are undone and therefore now they fill the World with Tumults and Disorders as Demetrius the Silver-Smith heretofore did when he saw his Trade was going down And this is the true cause why Councils are now call'd and the Bishops and Abbots are assembled for this seems now the cunningest way to prolong the time for some few years by suspending the minds of men with Expectation and in the interim many things as is usual may happen a War may break out some of the Princes may dye and the strange Inclinations of Men towards the Reformation may be blunted by delays and languish by degrees and in the mean time as one said I hope something will be done 14.