philosophers and contrarily the trees may bee good as grafte vpon the true Catholique Religion and yet the fruites degenerate from the stocke Be it graunted that Christs meaning was no more generally to be taken in the one then in the other and that it followeth thereupon that euen as sometime a man through hypocrisie may speake well and thinke ill so a good tree may sometimes by some occasion haue some fruite not answering the goodnesse thereof intermingled with the good yet you shall neuer be able to proue but that Christes speech here is so generallie true as that alwaies a good tree bringeth forth good fruite and a bad tree bad fruite as alwaies it is true that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh at one time or other though at sometimes also and in some thinges the mouth be bridled For Christ doeth not deny but that euen of a good tree there may bee founde here and there a rotten apple a worme-eaten one or otherwise not answerable to the naturall fruite of that tree For hee knewe what imperfections there were and would bee alwaies founde in the best men neither doeth hee that saied Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh saie it would alwaies be so For he knewe how through hypocrisie oftentimes the abundance of filthie matter lying in the heart would bee dissembled It is sufficient for the verifying of these two Prouerbes generallie in that sence that Christ meant them that the good tree naturally bringeth forth good fruit and the bad bad fruit and that the abundance of the heart will make the mouth at sometimes bewray that which lieth in the heart let otherwise hypocrisie doe what it can And therefore you conclude more then your premises will beare For though it bee graunted you that the one prouerbe hath some limitations as well as the other yet it must bee onelie in maner as I haue saied Whereupon will neuer more followe that an ill tree may haue sometimes naturallie good fruite growing vpon it and a good tree bad fruite then it will euer be found false that at one time or other out of the abundance of the heart euerie mouth will speake And the examples you haue set downe are both vnfitte For neither were the workes of the heathen philosophers what shewe soeuer they had outwardly of goodnes good workes indeede nor euer will it be graunted you of any that can distinguish betwixt good and euill that a Catholique in your sence with doubtles with you is one of the Popish Religion that now is is a good tree The reason of the one is because howsoeuer the works of those philosophers had in them the matter of good workes in the cōformity they had to the outward actions commanded by the law yet they lacked the forme of good workes in that they neither proceeded from a right fountaine were done to a right ende nor in right maner and you know that forma dat esse rei the forme is that that causeth the thing to bee this or that and that it is writen whatsoeuer is not of faith is sinne Romans 14 and it is impossible to please God without faith Heb. 11. which faith they were without The reasō of the other is that your religiō being naught Antichristian it selfe cannot make any man or woman a good tree but bad like it selfe for qualis causa talis effectus such as the cause is the effect will be Wherefore for any thing you haue saied as yet euery good tree will so bring forth good fruit and euerie bad tree bad fruit as that by their fruit they maie bee discerned And indeed cauill you to the contrary as much as you list this is most certaine all the difficultie is in knowing the good and bad fruit that Christ meant of and how alwaies to discerne the one from the other In my iudgement and I thinke likewise in the iudgement of euerie one that well weigheth Christes words and the circumstances thereof by the good fruit wee are to vnderstand pure religion ioined with an holie life by the bad fruit a bad religion and like life the good tree that beareth the former are onely the children of God whom he hath regenerated and iustified indeede in Christ Iesus the bad tree that beareth the later are those that remaine in their sinnes and vnder the burdē thereof not yet hauing had their eies truely opened to see the trueth nor their hearts effectually touched and taught to beleeue aright in Christ And these trees are to be discerned by sound triall and examination which of their fruites are iustified by the writē and vndoubted word of God and which not The XXXIIII Chapter IF that the sence of this prouerbe be harde for you to disgest I a◠content to staie vntill your stomacke be somewhat better assuring my selfe that you can interprete it no waie vnto your aduantage There is nothing more certaine then the good tree to beare good fruite if one doeth not make him change his owne nature but if one doe grafte vpon it some crabstocke or some other kinde of wilde fruite the tree can beare no other but crabs or wiledings euen so we Christian persons who are the trees of God planted by the pleasant fountaine of his grace and purged with the holy water of Baptisme to beare fruite at our season so that we take euer to prosper withall the dewe of his grace that planted vs I meane the faith of our sauiour Iesus Christ so long we beare good fruite as it is saied before alleadging the a The 5. you would say as before 3. of S. Iohn ill vnderstood by Iouinian he that is borne of God doeth not sinne for the generation of God doeth preserue him and the enemy of our health shall not touch him b If yo◠had lookt into the booke you should not haue found both these testimonies in one chapter for the first is in the fift this in the third And in the saied Chapter he saieth againe all men or euery man that is borne of God doeth not sinne for the seede of God is in him and he cannot sinne because be is borne of God By this it is not meant that Baptisme the which he doeth call the beeing borne c He speaketh of reall not simply of sacramentall regeneratiō of God doeth take awaie from man the power or libertie to doe euill for if he will degenerate from the grace that he hath receaued by the sacrament of regeneration and that in steede of growing graft vpon the stocke of the loue of God which is the true life that he will fructifie towards his death and destruction in this case hee is no more the sonne of God for as Christ saieth * John 8. If yee be the children of Abraham doe the workes of Abraham But as hee doeth continue and hath this good will which was taught by the Angell vnto the sheepheardes and that hee doeth continue
their iust demerits excommunicated and deposed in Africke Cyprian wrote vnto them both to Cornelius in his first booke of Epistles Epistle 3. and to Stephanus in his second booke and first Epistle wherein earnestly he reproueth them for so intermedling in his iurisdiction the iurisdictiō of other his collegues in Africke shewing thē that they ought not so to do for they in Africk had as ful Pishoply autority as they at Rome and therefore were both able and the fittest to heare and determine such cases as fell out amongst themselues But seeing for all this the Bishops of Rome still were too busy in meddling further then they should after this in the counsell of Nice cannon 6. their authority and the Patriarches of Alexandria are made equall about the yeare 320. And yet the better to stay and keepe the Bishops of Rome within their due limits after this in most counsels for 300. yeares after something still was done to bridle them For certaine it is that as it appeares dist 99. the thirde counsell of Carthage helde about the yeare 435. cap. 26. forbad the ambitious and proud tytles of Prince of Priests High-priests such like euen to the Bishops of the first see And Concilio Mileuitano about the yeare 420. in another of Africke held betwixt these two as some write about the yeare 428. cap. 92. appeales vnto them frō the Bishops counsels of Africke were forbidden And the great generall councell of Calcedon held about the yeare 453. when the Bishop of Romes legates had done what they could to the contrary Act. 15.16 canon 28. gaue the Patriarch of Cōstantinople equal priuiledges with the Bishop of Rome And long after this the first generall coūsell being the third as it is noted in the second tome of the coūcelles held at Constantinople in the time of Pope Agatho about the yeare of the Lord 681. renuing a decree before there cōsented vnto in a councell consisting of 150. Bishops cap. 5. and remembring likewise the foresaide 28. cannon of the councell of Calcedon whereas some write there were 630. Bishops cap. 36. ratifieth and enacteth the same And if we go no further then to the former fiue general councels we shall finde them all to haue had a care by their decrees to keepe the bishops of Rome within their due boūds of their owne patriarchall see For proofe whereof let any mā but read the sixt canon of the Nicene the second third of the first of Constantinople the eight of the Ephesme remembring withal the twenty eight of the Calcedon twise now immediatly before mentioned vnderstand that the fift general councell solemnely confirmed those fowre former and their canons decrees and he cannot choose but see this to be most manifest But amongst all the rest notable is that that appeares to this end in that great solemne Africane councel where Zozimus Boniface Celestine three popes on a rew by their Legates vnder one of their hands alleadging a false canon of the councel of Nice all that was determined in former councels to the contrary notwithstāding shewed themselues intolerably ambitious of supremacy thereby most egerly claiming such a preheminēce to be giuen to their see that if any bishop or minister were deposed in any other prouince or Patriarchal see that vpō his appeale to Rome the Bishop of Rome might accept thereof therevpō either write his letters to the next prouince to determine the matter or else to sende his Legate from his side to represent his own person to sit in iudgement with the bishops there to determine the matter For there as it appeares in the 101 102 103 105 chap. of that councell in the first tome of the councels this their allegation was not onely examined by all the copies of the Nicene councell that they had there but also by ancient copies thereof which they sent for thither of purpose to Alexandria Antioch Constantinople thereby in the open face of that councell where 217 Bishops were assembled their forgery was espied therefore that allegation notwithstanding the bishop of Romes dealing concerning Apiarius who then gaue the occasion of that stur was there openly disliked condemned therefore to preuent the like thereafter they in their 92 chapter there determine that whosoeuer should so appeale any more frō the bishops coūcels of Africke beyond the seas should thēceforth neuer after of any in Africke be receaued into communiō Besides as it appears there in the 105. cap. by the common consent of that councell a letter was framed and sent to Celestine about the latter end therof as it should seeme by the stories about the yeare foure hundred and thirty wherein first they admonish him to admit no more such appeales or fugitiues but to send them backe againe alwaies to their owne prouinces and Metropolitans and the rather say they because such order was taken by the Nicene councell And after therein they pleade the equity of that ordinance because the holy ghost is aswell in one prouince as in an other and there the cause is alwayes like best to bee handled where it doeth arise because of the neighnesse of the vvitnesses Wherefore hauing tolde him that they finde no such thing in the truer copies of the Nicene councell as Faustinus sent by him alleadged they flatly forbid him the sending of his agents or legates any more vpon any such occasion amongst them It shoulde seeme for all this that so incident to that see vvas this ambitious humor that in pope Symachus time about the yeare fiue hundred many bishops euen in these parts did accuse him to Theodoricus king of the Gothes because hee tooke vpon him to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is one vvho vvoulde haue his vvill to be a law which is now professed to bee the popes prerogatiue and not to bee controled Dist 40. Si papa In Gregorie his time in the raigne of Mauritius the Emperour the bishop of Constantinople lustely chalenged the title of vniuersall bishop but then Pelagius bishop of Rome in the yeare fiue hundred eighty three as it appears in the ninty nine destinction of your law in Gratian and Gregory also his successor condemned that for an vnlawfull and Antichristian name in him or in any other bishop the bishops of Rome themselues not excepted lib. 4. epist 32.38.39 And vvhereas this notwithstanding Boniface the next but one to Gregory though with somewhat a doe obtained of that murderer and traitor Phocas who hauing cruelly slaine Mauritius succeded him in the Empire this Antichristian title first to be called vniuersal bishop or head of the church witnesse Sabellicus Marianus Scotus Martinus Polonus and others yet as Platina witnesseth in vita Dom the church of Rauēna in Italy complained thereof and vntill pope Donus time which vvas seuenty yeares after it coulde not bee brought to tolerate and like of it Otho Frisingensis lib. 6. Cap. 35. an ancient historiographer
something still was done to bridle them For certaine it is that as it appeares dist 99. the thirde counsell of Carthage helde about the yeare 435. cap. 26. forbad the ambitious and proud tytles of Prince of Priests High-priests such like euen to the Bishops of the first see And Concilio Mileuitano about the yeare 420. in another of Africke held betwixt these two as some write about the yeare 428. cap. 92. appeales vnto them froÌ„ the Bishops counsels of Africke were forbidden And the great generall councell of Calcedon held about the yeare 453. when the Bishop of Romes legates had done what they could to the contrary Act. 15.16 canon 28. gaue the Patriarch of CoÌ„stantinople equal priuiledges with the Bishop of Rome And long after this the first generall couÌ„sell being the third as it is noted in the second tome of the couÌ„celles held at Constantinople in the time of Pope Agatho about the yeare of the Lord 681. renuing a decree before there coÌ„sented vnto in a councell consisting of 150. Bishops cap. 5. and remembring likewise the foresaide 28. cannon of the councell of Calcedon whereas some write there were 630. Bishops cap. 36. ratifieth and enacteth the same And if we go no further then to the former fiue general councels we shall finde them all to haue had a care by their decrees to keepe the bishops of Rome within their due bouÌ„ds of their owne patriarchall see For proofe whereof let any maÌ„ but read the sixt canon of the Nicene the second third of the first of Constantinople the eight of the Ephesine remembring withal the twenty eight of the Calcedon twise now immediatly before mentioned vnderstand that the fift general councell solemnely confirmed those fowre former and their canons decrees and he cannot choose but see this to be most manifest But amongst all the rest notable is that that appeares to this end in that great solemne Africane councel where Zozimus Boniface Celestine three popes on a rew by their Legates vnder one of their hands alleadging a false canon of the councel of Nice all that was determined in former councels to the contrary notwithstaÌ„ding shewed themselues intolerably ambitious of supremacy thereby most egerly claiming such a prehemineÌ„ce to be giuen to their see that if any bishop or minister were deposed in any other prouince or Patriarchal see that vpoÌ„ his appeale to Rome the Bishop of Rome might accept thereof therevpoÌ„ either write his letters to the next prouince to determine the matter or else to sende his Legate from his side to represent his own person to sit in iudgement with the bishops there to determine the matter For there as it appeares in the 101 102 103 105 chap. of that councell in the first tome of the councels this their allegation was not onely examined by all the copies of the Nicene councell that they had there but also by ancient copies thereof which they sent for thither of purpose to Alexandria Antioch Constantinople thereby in the open face of that councell where 217 Bishops were assembled their forgery was espied therefore that allegation notwithstanding the bishop of Romes dealing concerning Apiarius who then gaue the occasion of that stur was there openly disliked condemned therefore to preuent the like thereafter they in their 92 chapter there determine that whosoeuer should so appeale any more froÌ„ the bishops couÌ„cels of Africke beyond the seas should theÌ„ceforth neuer after of any in Africke be receaued into communioÌ„ Besides as it appears there in the 105. cap. by the common consent of that councell a letter was framed and sent to Celestine about the latter end therof as it should seeme by the stories about the yeare foure hundred and thirty wherein first they admonish him to admit no more such appeales or fugitiues but to send them backe againe alwaies to their owne prouinces and Metropolitans and the rather say they because such order was taken by the Nicene councell And after therein they pleade the equity of that ordinance because the holy ghost is aswell in one prouince as in an other and there the cause is alwayes like best to bee handled where it doeth arise because of the neighnesse of the vvitnesses Wherefore hauing tolde him that they finde no such thing in the truer copies of the Nicene councell as Faustinus sent by him alleadged they flatly forbid him the sending of his agents or legates any more vpon any such occasion amongst them It shoulde seeme for all this that so incident to that see vvas this ambitious humor that in pope Symachus time about the yeare fiue hundred many bishops euen in these parts did accuse him to Theodoricus king of the Gothes because hee tooke vpon him to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is one vvho vvoulde haue his vvill to be a law which is now professed to bee the popes prerogatiue and not to bee controled Dist 40. Si papa In Gregorie his time in the raigne of Mauritius the Emperour the bishop of Constantinople lustely chalenged the title of vniuersall bishop but then Pelagius bishop of Rome in the yeare fiue hundred eighty three as it appears in the ninty nine destinction of your law in Gratian and Gregory also his successor condemned that for an vnlawfull and Antichristian name in him or in any other bishop the bishops of Rome themselues not excepted lib. 4. epist 32.38.39 And vvhereas this notwithstanding Boniface the next but one to Gregory though with somewhat a doe obtained of that murderer and traitor Phocas who hauing cruelly slaine Mauritius succeded him in the Empire this Antichristian title first to be called vniuersal bishop or head of the church witnesse Sabellicus Marianus Scotus Martinus Polonus and others yet as Platina witnesseth in vita Doni the church of RaueÌ„na in Italy complained thereof and vntill pope Donus time which vvas seuenty yeares after it coulde not bee brought to tolerate and like of it Otho Frisingensis lib. 6. Cap. 35. an ancient historiographer speaking of Gregory the seuenth commonly called Hild ebrand and his proceedings against the Emperour Henry not only to excommunicate him but also to depose him saith Lego relego Romanorum regum Imperatorum gesta c. 〈◊〉 read and read againe the acts of the Romane kings and Emperours and yet before this I finde none of them of the Romane Bishop excommunicated or depriued of his kingdome But â—f we read Sigebert Abbas Vrspergensis H. Mutius and others vve shall finde that the same Bishop for this his Antichristian pride and other faultes that hee had vvas not onely wonderfully vvithstoode and oppugned by that Emperour but by councels also then held at Brixia Mentz and Wormes sharpely rebuked condemned and desposed And though hee hauing thus begunne to encroch vpon the Emperour many of his successours follovved him in his very steps yet we read also in Cronicles that Henrie the fifte Fredericke the first and
would be perfect had in anie great reckoning amongst them they were in any case to abstaine from mariage And as we finde that these and other heretiques were the fore-runners of the Papists in this point so we finde that Augustine Epiphanius and others that wrote against them condemned this for a doctrine of deuils in them But I know they will reply that herein we do them wrong in that we resemble them to these for these they say made this the reason and grouÌ„d of their doing that they held mariage it selfe to be an vncleane and filthy estate of life and therefore not fit for them that would serue the Lord to liue in Which they say they doe not hold Indeed thus it is their fashion when for any of their absurd errours they are pressed with our obiections against them then somewhat to avoide the extremity of the foile to set a farre better state of the questioÌ„ then otherwise either their commoÌ„ practise or doctrine will beare but when they finde the chase ended and themselues by such shifting in some sort as they think to haue escaped then hauing recouered their breath againe they fall to their olde flat grosnes in the point in their life and teaching And euen so deale they in this For their whole and generall practise makes it most euident in that they rather tolerate their Priests to haue concubines to run to the stues yea and to commit Sodomitry then to mary that indeed they think mariage is more vncleane and defiles their Priesthoode more then all these And Dist 82. Gratian cites a saying of Pope Siritius wherein in plainer termes he aduouches them that holdes that ministers of the Gospell may mary and beget children as the Priests of the olde testament did to be followers of lusts and therein teachers of vice FroÌ„ which profouÌ„d diuinity it came that the same Siritius would persuade that therefore the ministers of the Gospell might not mary because Saint Paul said they that liue in the flesh cannot please god as though to liue in the fleshe with Paul and to liue in the state of mariage were all one which if it had beene so what meant S. Paul to teach 1. Cor. 7. that he that bestowed his daughter in mariage did well that mariage is honourable Heb. 13. and that they that deny in hypocrisy the lawfulnes thereof are such as haue therein giuen eare vnto doctrines of deuils and thereby shewe that their consciences are burnt as it were with an hote iron and that they are departed from the faith 1. Tim. 4. But they will say perhaps they are now ashamed of this olde Siritius of his doctrine in this point Doubtles if they be not there is iust cause why they should but I haue two reasons why I thinke they are not first because he was Pope of Rome they know then because even of late one Gregory Martin a great learned man as they account him writing against our English translations Chap. 15. sect 2. writeth of this point euen now as though that Popes spirit still directed him flatly that by mariage their Priesthoode is prophaned and made meere laicall and popular Wherefore I see not but that they are and may worthily still of vs herein be saied to be the right schollers successours of the former heretiques Howbeit this I must needes further graunt them that in perusing the writings of ancient fathers and Cronicles of times I find eueÌ„ amongst them that otherwise yet seemed to be Christians and not heretiques and that of very ancient time and so from time to time that haue beene fauorers and vrgers of single life in ministers For I finde by that that Clemens Alexandrinus hath writen of this matter in the 3. 7. booke Stromat who florished within 200. yeares after Christ that theÌ„ some earnestly vrged single life as a life most holy fit for such And I know that in the councell of Nice in Constantines time it was atteÌ„pted that there should bee made a canon to binde ministers vniuersally to liue single without the vse or company of wiues that after that Siritius before spoken of about the yeare 390. after him Gregorie the first ann 600. or thereabout after that sundry other Popes namely especially about 1000. years after Christ after were marueilous eger and busy by their owne authority decrees of councels summoned by their meanes to establish ratify this point Whereupon as in other cuntreies of these westerne parts to please them withal herein England many Bishops as namely Lancfranke DuÌ„stane Anselme Archbishops of CaÌ„terbury were marueilous forward in their times to further this deuice By meaÌ„s whereof many decrees past in smodes and councels and many great things were atteÌ„pted done to this end But yet then vnderstand withall welbeloued that Clemens in the places before quoted confuted withstoode notably these hypocrits both by exaÌ„ples reasons eueÌ„ now vsed by vs against these their successors that one Paphnutius in the couÌ„cell of Nice though vnmaried himselfe did so effectually withstand that atteÌ„pt that it did not there passe that Siritius was by a Bishop of Terragon confuted withstood that Gregory the first vpon the finding of 600. childrens heads after the casting of certaine great ponds neare vnto the aboad of many inforced to that vow of single life reuoked his determinatioÌ„ as it appeareth in an epistle of one Hulricke Bishop of Augusta to Pope Nicolas vpoÌ„ this reasoÌ„ that it was better to let theÌ„ marry theÌ„ to giue occasion of such murder Further in Hildebrands time who after he was Pope was called Gregory the seueÌ„th though we find that he of al that weÌ„t before him was herein most extreame and went furthest yet notwithstaÌ„ding we read in Sigebert H. Mutiê° others that he and his decrees in this point were openly stoutly resisted not onely at ConstaÌ„ce Mentz in Germany but also by the Bishops of France and other cuntreies both by open preaching liuing with their wiues doe what he could and his successors for a great space Hee was the first that bound Bishops Archbishops vpon their oath to admit none into the ministry vnlesse first they would vow a single life yet after he had done what he could Pascalis that succeeded him Anselme also their chaplein here to cause that decree to take place yet as our Cronicles shew Gerhardus Archbishop of Yorke wrote to that Anselme that those that came for orders to him would not vow single life And howsoeuer they preuailed in other places before Polidor saith that the restraint of their mariages began here first to be atteÌ„pted ann 670. hist Ang. l. 6. de inueÌ„toribê° reruÌ„ l. 5. FabiaÌ„ p. 293. writeth that Bishops Priests liued here 1000 years together with their wiues no law being to the coÌ„trary Yea AueÌ„tinus l 5. historiae BioruÌ„ saith speaking of HildebraÌ„ds time which was 40. years at
Ciuill lawe in that you are thus ready euen at the first to cite it For to small force else it serueth for neither is your axiome so general but that it notwithstanding rightly vnderstoode a man may lawfully and orderly proceede and yet first demaūde his right to possession and after timely enough proue his demaūde thereunto to be both honest and iust neither doth Caluin or any of vs claime any right of possession of your massing Priesthoode that you neede bid vs first proue our right thereunto For we detest it as a thing Antichristian and vtterly vnlawfull and we holde that no sound Christian will euer plead for any right thereunto And as for the spoile of your temples and reuenneues that you would haue vs to restore before the suite betwixt vs proceede we say againe that both law and reason tesseth you that before you should so peremptorily call for restitution you should proue the wrong Which neither you nor none of your side though to bewray what grieueth you most namely the parting away from your fat morsels vnlesse your bare accusation were straight a conuiction haue yet once proued against vs and therefore the action may proceede well enough against you for any thing that your Ciuil law can helpe you We are in possession we graūt of Churches and reuennues that heretofore you held in sundry places but herein wee haue not wronged you at al howsoeuer you coūt it a spoiling of you For first through the mercy of God to his Church of his iustice towards you your sins being growen ripe by the light of his word he made it appeare that you were wrong withholders of these things in that they being founded and giuen for the maintenance of a holy Ministery for the sound feeding of peoples soules you vsed thē for the support of an Antichristian Ministery to poison the soules of men with his deuilish doctrine and vsages therefore God secōdly stirred vp the harts of Princes and Christian magistrates orderly to dispossesse you thereof to giue them vnto such as would vse thē better Yea so far of is it that either they or we cā iustly be said herein to haue done you any wrong or spoiled you that wee are able to proue that you getting and keeping them in your handes for the cause aforesaid most sacrilegiously spoiled the true Church of her reuēnues conuerting them to the maintenance of the seruice of Antichrist to the most dāgerous robbing of the peoples soules of the foode of life due vnto them therefore and for this cause you had wrong that you were let alone with the possession of them so long as you were Now whereas before you will proceede to answere Caluins demaūd as a sharpe Logician you say his argument seemeth vnto you very simple to say that if you cānot shew that God is the authour of your Priesthood then you must confesse that it is not of God seeing that without being called you take it vpō you In reciting thus his words you wilfully alter them and frame his argument otherwise then he made it For he saied not you your selfe being witnes in setting downe his words before seeing that without being called yee take it vpō you but seing of their own boldnes saith he speaking of you they haue takē it in hand hauing therein relatiō to the Priesthood it selfe which if you cannot proue as you neuer shal to be instituted of God it must needs follow not only that it is not of God but that you haue taken it in hand of your owne boldnes as he saieth so by most necessary consequent your calling cānot be of God So that he reasoneth not frō your rūning into your priesthood of your selues without a calling as by reciting his argumēt altering his words as I haue saied you would seeme to vnderstand him to proue your Priesthood not to be of God but frō the vnlawfulnes of your Priesthood it selfe For he was not so simple I warrant you but he knew as wel as you that many haue doe and wil hereafter intrude themselues vpon an office of Gods owne ordināce and that notwtstāding their lacke of lawful calling thereūto the office yet remaineth holy lawful and good And therefore he most plainly laboureth to proue your popish calling to your Priesthoode vnlawful whatsoeuer you make of your ordinary calling thereūto because the Priesthoode it selfe is not of God therfore such a thing as you haue taken in hand of your owne heads what ordinary calling soeuer by man you haue thereūto And therefore as plainly as may be he telleth you by warrāt of the 5. to the He. that either you must shew that God is the authour institutour of your Priesthood or els you must confesse that it is not of God but a thing takē in hād or deuised o◠your own boldnes And this to haue beene his purpose and drift vnles your eies be very bad and your wits yet worse you could not chuse but perceiue But this argument belike was to strong for you therefore as in the like case it is a common tricke with the men of your faction you thought best to frame you another weake enough and so fit for your strength which whiles you haue labored to cōfute you haue fought but with your owne shadow slaine a childe of your owne begetting Your exāples therefore of Dathā Abirā Ozias you may take hōe againe keepe thē in store vntil you haue more neede of thē In the meane time remēber that though you haue answered your owne argumēt yet Caluins stādeth in his ful force stil against you For though it follow not you haue entruded your selues therefore the office wherupon you haue intruded is not of God because these which you named intruded themselues vpon the lawful Priesthoode of Aarō yet I hope how simple soeuer and worthily this argument of your owne framing seemed vnto you that you wil graūt that ther is both strength force in this which is Caluins indeed your Priesthoode it selfe is but a bare ordinance and deuise of man and hath not God for the authour thereof therefore whatsoeuer your calling bee thereunto it is vnlawfull and not of God If you would not haue this conclusion verified of your calling it is not enough for you to saie that you came to your Priesthood according to the ordinarie way nay it is not enough to proue it which yet you go not about for commonly not onelie for this but for all thinges els of importance through your booke your bolde assertion is your onelie proofe For if the office it selfe be not of God but a plant which the heauenly father hath not planted then howsoeuer you come vnto it your calling cannot bee of God A vaine thing therefore is it in you here or any where els to spend words and time to shew how you attaine your Priesthood hauing not anie where first proued the Priesthood it selfe to be of God That
And so doeth Tertullian de resurrectione carnis Cap. 3. saying Auferantur ab haereticis quae cum aethnicis sapiunt vt de scripturis solis suas quaestiones fistant stare non possunt that is let those things be taken from heretiques which they holde with the heathen that onely by the scriptures they may determine their questions and they cannot stand And nothing was more vsuall and familier with Augustine against the heretiques of his time then to call them for the triall of the question both whither he or they were of the true Church also whither of them had the trueth to this way of triall by the scriptures And therefore de vnitate ecclesiae Nolo humanis documentis sed diuinis oraculis ecclesiam demonstrare I will not make demonstration of the Church by the writings of men but by the diuine oracles saieth he Cap 3. again there also he further addeth pressing the heretiques with whom hee had there to doe sunt libri dominici quoruÌ„ authoritati vtrique consentimus ibi quaeramus ecclesiam ibi discutiamus causaÌ„ nostraÌ„ that is there are certaine bookes of the Lord vnto the authority whereof we both consent there let vs seeke the Church there let vs discusse our cause To the like effect he writeth in the 2 Chapter of that booke and elswhere very often Vnles therfore they wil once bee contented to come to this trial of the controuersies betwixt theÌ„ vs we must needs tel theÌ„ that they are not desirous in earnest euer to haue it appeare which of vs haue the better cause but as men who know in their owne coÌ„science that their cause is bad they labour to maintaine the credit thereof as long as they can by cunning shifts delaies But yet let them assure themselues as long as they shun this trial how cuÌ„ningly colourably soeuer though simple fooles already besotted with superstition bewitched with popish enchantments vpon their bare worde stought bragges that it is nothing but the ancient catholicke faith that they teach may sometimes beleeue theÌ„ that yet withal those that haue any wisdoÌ„ at al by this means they leese quite both the credit of theÌ„selues their cause For faith being as it is not a wauering vncertaine conceyt opinioÌ„ of the thing beleeued but a most certain sure infallible perswasion of the trueth thereof how can any be assured that the doctrine that he beleeues is such as he may soundly firmely rest vpon for vndoubted trueth without euident grouÌ„d thereof out of the writeÌ„ word of the Lord in the canonical scriptures For theÌ„ce onely Peter dare warraÌ„t the sincere milke which caÌ„not deceiue the childreÌ„ of god to be fetched 1. Pet. 2 2. therefore that he would haue theÌ„ to desire as new borne babes doe milk that they may grow vp therby And as for the writings traditioÌ„s of meÌ„ beside hath not doth not experieÌ„ce daily teach that they may not nor caÌ„not chalenge the preeminence prerogatiue alwaies to be free from errour And euery one that is a ChristiaÌ„ hath learned that this prerogatiue al the writers of the canonical scripture had in the writing thereof therein not to haue erred at al. Who therfore caÌ„ be so simple vnles the Lord in his iustice hath blinded him because hee would not see the trueth shyning about him that he should receiue that for the sound catholicke faith that he heares not first froÌ„ point to point proued vnto him so to bee out of this vndoubted certaine word of God the canonical scriptures what shew or colour of proofe soeuer otherwise be made thereof And this Iohn de Albine could not but conceiue yet neuer once going about in this his discourse thus to couÌ„tenaÌ„ce his cause religioÌ„ but as one loth to be brought to this trial he laboureth most earnestly to discourage al meÌ„ froÌ„ appealing vnto it yet almost in euery leafe braggeth and boasteth that both his Church his doctrine and al are souÌ„d catholick Wherin howsoeuer he pleased himselfe in that his vaine any indiffereÌ„t maÌ„ may see he hath rather bewraied the weaknes of his owne cause theÌ„ any way whatsoeuer he haue saied otherwise impaired the credit of ours But how vainly hee hath swet euen to the tyring of himselfe his reader about this point in many chapters That by the scriptures controuersies are not in the church to be tried determined wheÌ„ I come vnto that place I shal god willing shew more fully In the meane time Iohn de Albine to turne my speech to you I hauing thus examined your answere to our demand how you come to your prelacies and offices and hauing found the weaknes and vntruethes thereof such as that your calling or coÌ„ming thereunto can claime no more credit thereby theÌ„ the calling coÌ„ming to their offices amongst the ArriaÌ„s Greekes whoÌ„ you count heretiques and scismatiques caÌ„ doe because they caÌ„ could say as much and that as truly for theirs as you haue here said for yours let vs now proceed to the examinatioÌ„ of the places of scripture in this Chapter quoted by you vrged as you thought stroÌ„gly to your purpose By the Mat. 5. Ye are the light of the world c. by christ spokeÌ„ properly to his Apostles you would seem to proue that therfore right successioÌ„ of Bishops pastors in the Apostolique truth in al ages in diuers partes of the world hath ben euer cleare shining like a light set on a table by that Eph. 4. Esa 62. with your book quoteth Sap. 61. very wisely you would infer that not oÌ„ly alwaies vntil Christs body coÌ„e to ful perfectioÌ„ there should be doctors pastors in the Church to teach the truth which is the most that by those places caÌ„ be proued but also that they and their coÌ„gregatioÌ„s haue euer ben known visible therby doubtles meaning so visible as the rest of your side doe wheÌ„ to this end they alleage these or the like places as that froÌ„ time to time in al ages meÌ„ may be able to naÌ„e theÌ„ and their places WheruÌ„to I answere that you stretch these places and the words therin further theÌ„ their natiue sence wil bear For the first of these is properly to be vnderstood of Christs Apostles onely who in respect of their ministery other graces of the spirit that should be powred bestowed vpoÌ„ theÌ„ to beutifie streÌ„gtheÌ„ their extraordinary ministery withall are there by Christ compâ—â—â—â—â— the light of the world to a lighted candle set vpon a candlesticke not put vnder a bushell lightning all in the house and to a city 〈◊〉 on a hil which could not bee bid all which afterward they in the â—â—ecution of their Apostleship and holy conuersation proued to be â—â—â—tles truely and iustly giuen them This was no prophesie as yoâ— would make it that their should be vntill the second comming 〈◊〉 Christ a visible and
ministers of our Church and Religion and no maruell that they that are not light headed send vs to preach in new found landes c. This in effect you haue often saied and if that will serue you will not sticke with vs to say it in euerie Chapter But this being indeede the question whereupon the determinatioÌ„ of the whole controuersie betwixt you and vs dependeth namely whither our Religion bee not the true ancient Religion taught by Christ and his Apostles for you to passe it ouer thus with bare words and neuer to go about soundly to proue that it is not is but too too childish and ridiculous Well may you in your owne conceite and in the opinion of the simple silly reader seeme herein to haue done a great act but in the iudgement of any of meane witte capacity howsoeuer you may bee counted a wordy man yet you shall neuer be accounted a worthie champion to fight in this greatest question onely with bare wordes The XV. Chapter YOV will saie to me that this argument ought to take place in an ordinarie commission but a Though in such times estates of the Church wherein Luther and some others liued there were iust occasion why God should stirre vp men extraordinarily to serue him yet you know well enough that both he and others whose calling you most cal in question were not without an ordinary outwarde calling of men yours is extraordinary as that was of the Prophets of the olde Testament whom God did sende to correct the Scribes and Pharises and that euen so God hath inspired you and others of your sect to the like effect that is to say to correct the superstitious liues and doctrine of the Papists Idolaters and by this as farre as I can see ye are coÌ„missaries of God in his behalfe yee maie saie wel with S. Paul although yee haue not bene rauished vnto the third heauen * Gal. 1. that ye are not sent by man or of man but by the authoritie of our Sauiour Christ But what would you saie if we should speake against it as a number doe and that to reuenge this quarell we should write against your commission we might well aide our selues with a Sillogisme of our Sauiour Christ if we would come to pleade the matter which is this c* This argument the contrariety betwixt your religioÌ„ Christs being as it is proues neither your Church nor Priests to be of God He that is of God doeth obey *b Joh. 6. b Iohn the eight you would haue saied the word of God but you doe not obey the word of God therefore yee are not of God I knowe that you will denie the Minor and therefore it doeth appertaine to vs to proue it Christ doeth saie * Mat. 22. a In this particuler respect witnes your Popes vsurping ouer Christian Princes none were euer more â—uilâ—y in denying to Cesar that which is Cesars then you Giue vnto Cesar that that appertaineth to Cesar and to God that that appertaineth to God That is to saie to speake familierlie giue Geneua vnto his Lord and the Bishopricke vnto his Bishop Now you doe not obeie this commandement therefore as one that doeth not appertaine vnto God you haue prouided your selfe a new master And because we would not haue some to thinke that we that are not of the cuntrie doe beare false witnes against you or that we doe it without hauing anie interest vnto the matter b Nay the euidence of the matter sheweth that your owne sauage dealings contrary to the publicke edicts of that cuntrey hath caused the stâ—rs there and now of late you haue reuiued them by open treason and rebellion I am sure that all the world doeth know that yee haue set all France in as ill an estate as ye haue done the Dukedome of Sauoy In that that appertaineth to the Church is there anie Bishoprick or Dioces left where ye haue not sought with al your power to preach your holie doctrine where haue ye forgotten that that Saint Paul doth saie which is * Rom. 10. how shal they preach if they are not sent What right haue you to come to reape other mens corne Doe not you remember that that Tertullian doeth write against your elders that did persecute the catholique Church against whom he saieth in his c This TertulliaÌ„ would surely haue saied of you â— he had liued in these daies booke de praescriptione haereticorum What are yee and from whence doe yee come By what right O Marcian doest thou cut downe my woode Why doest thou O Appelles remoue my landes And a little after he sayeth the place is mine I haue beene thus long time in possession and before thee I haue good title and euidence to maintaine my right of those to whom it did appertaine which left it me by inheritaÌ„ce from the Apostles c. Our church of France which is one of the principal members of all the Catholique Church might with good cause saie vnto you the like And I praie what would you answere You cannot denie but that d If this were true as it is false that your religioÌ„ were a thousand yeares olde yet being no elder it is too young by fiue hundreth yeares at the least to be the true religion aboue a thousand yeares before ye were borne that the faith in which yee were baptized and the which you haue falselie denied was planted I doe not saie in this onelie kingdome of France but ouer all Christendome If you pretende any right to the contrarie shew the reason of your possession by the euidence of the e This we can haue often done already ancient doctours and after come to demande it as I haue saied before I meane that you should yeelde the ecclesiasticall gouernment which you haue vsurped in manie places with too great libertie of conscience and licence to doe euill which is the verie death of the soule f S. Augustines words are these quae est pejor mors anima quam libertas erroâ—is as Saint Austine doeth saie Epist 166. And after that yee haue restored France to his olde estate then there will be more apparence of the matter that ye are sent to preach the true word of God then there is now But is this estate that yee are although that God had giuen you commission the which he neuer thought he would haue called it backe because of your noble actes Theodosius and g Areadius I think you ment Arcades which in olde time were Emperours of Rome L. si quis in tantam cod vnde vi did establish or make al Edict that if the true owner or lord of a thing should vse anie force or to seeke by the waie of violence without staying for the senteÌ„ce of the Iudge h Euen thus you and your predecessours got possession of your places therefore by this law you haue but right
to be thrust out as you haue beene to get possession of his own from another man yea although the other had no right to it he should not onelie lose the possession but likewise the propertie but if it were found that he that did enter by force had no right to the Mannor hee should not only be depriued of it but moreouer he shoulde be condemned to giue as much more of his own vnto him against whom he had vsed the force as the thing was valued at that he sought to vsurpe If one should cal you my masters the new reformed Gospellers to such a reckoning ye might wel packe vp your pipes and transport your fidelie into another countreie for you should haue no other remedie but to runne awaie with the goods and preach pouertie The XV. Chapter WHat argument you speake of it is hard to tell seeing as yet for any thing that I cā perceiue you vttered nothing since you entered into this matter to call vs to an account of our vocation worthie the name of an argument Indeed that which losely you haue vttered here and there against it of the necessity of succession of persons and of imposition of handes as you imagine we must say indeede take place in an ordinary calling and not alwaies in an extraordinary But by your speach it should seeme you had relation to some thing which you took to be an argument set downe in the last Chapter before this where in effect you haue saied nothing but onely in your scoffing maner found fault with vs because in setting downe the ill liues of your prelates on the one side of the leafe we set not downe on the other side the good liues thē of our own which how it should seeme to containe an argument either against ordinary or extraordinary vocation I see not For neither they that are called the one way or the other are alwaies bound to obserue that order But to let your pitiful logicke go and to passe ouer your scoffing in calling vs Gods Commissaries not worthy an answere let vs see if you haue hit of any better argument here to proue our ministers not to haue beene extraordinarily by God stirred vp to correct the superstitious liues and doctrine of the papistes Idolaters as you saie we tearme thē then as yet you haue brought to disproue their ordinary calling If we would come to plead this matter with you you say you would aide your selues herein against vs with a Syllogisme of Christ Iohn 8. which is this Hee that is of God doeth obey the word of God but you doe not obey the word of God therefore ye are not of God You suppose that we will denie your minor and therefore in that God commaundeth Matthew 22. to giue vnto Cesar that which is Cesars and vnto God that which is Gods and our ministers doe neither of these but the contrary in deteyning Geneua from the Duke of Sauoy and in being the causes of the stirres in France and spoiling your bishops and Priests of their liuings you thinke that proueth so against them that the conclusion must needs follow Doe you thinke in earnest that whosoeuer can be proued in anie one thing to disobey God streight thereupon it followeth that his commission or calling is not of God What man euer was there either ordinarilie or extraordinarilie called to anie office except the man Christ Iesus but in some one thing or other at one time or other one waie or other hee did not obey God Seeing that all men are sinners and there is not one that can truely say his heart and handes haue alwaies beene free from sinne and transgression of the law of God Take Christes words in this sence and so none no not hee amongst you that is fullest of his workes of Supererogation shall euer escape this conclusion If you had viewed the text you should haue perceiued that Christ vseth that speach against the Scribes and Pharises who blasphemed the doctrine of the Messias and would abide neither to heare nor to obey it and not generallie against all that in anie thing are found at anie time disobedient to God of ignorance or infirmitie And yet though he had ment so and it were graunted that euery man in that hee offendeth or sinneth is not therein of God yet thereupon it followeth not that the same man therefore cannot be a man that hath his cōmission or calling of God Dauid was not of God in that he committed adultery with Bershebah and murdered Vrias yet euen then hee had a commission of God and a calling to bee King ouer his people And therefore though you could proue these thinges to be true that you charge our ministers withal and though also it were graunted that therein they haue done ill yet thereupon necessarily it doeth not follow that therefore they were not extraordinarily stirred vp by God to correct your sins and abhominations For Iehu whom God vndoubtedly stirred vp to chastise the house of Ahab and to correct the Idolatrous priestes of Baal euen with an extraordinarie zeale 2. King 9. 10. yet he departed not from the sins of Ieroboam the son of Nebat which made Israell to sinne as there it appeareth Againe it is strange that you should lay these as faults yea as such faults to our ministers charge as that therefore they cannot be sent of God when as not onely it is a receiued taught printed doctrine amongst you in the 5. Chapter of D. Allines defence of catholiques but also such as hath from time to time beene and yet is most monstrously practised euen amongst your Popes which pretend to haue the best highest and largest commission from God of all other ministers not onely that they may deteine dukedomes from the right owners but also depose Princes and Emperours translate their kingdomes and crownes to whom they please and make warre against them both by forreiners and their owne subiects for the aduancement of their religion when and how it pleaseth them For this your doctrine and practise considered if your argument for the causes by you alleadged supposing that they were true haue any force against our ministers it hath ten times asmuch force against yours whose chiefest meane of late to establish and continue your kingdome hath beene as the stories of all countries for this 600. or 700. yeares at the least doe make it most manifest by force and subtlety to bend and frame Kings and their kingdomes either to be at your deuotion or els to make a spoile of them and their kingdomes for your selues and your frends If therefore there had beene either shame or common discretion in you you would neuer haue vsed this argument against vs which maketh more strongly against your selues But in deed and trueth the things that you ground your argument vpō against vs are partly vntrue and partly maliciously wrested onely against our ministers For neuer shall any of you be able to proue that our
wise as you would haue him in your conscience what would you doe to him I thinke that that verie zeale if you coulde that hath mooued you vnder the colour of a reformed Gospell to trouble so much a This you attempt and practise flatly all the world knoweth Looke else to the course that your legers now in France take against their king our state vvould likewise commaunde you to dispossesse those Kings that doe abuse there owne kingdomes euen asvvell as to depriue those Bishoppes that doe abuse their bishoprickes But O Lorde vvhat a Gospell is this if it bee permitted that the people shall call their Princes to accompt or that they maie correct their superiours vnder the colour of a reformed Gospell vvhat seditions troubles and vvarres shall vvee see ouer all Christendome Wee shall see fulfilled to our great harme the prophecie of * Cap. 3. Esay who saieth The people shall seeke to raise one against another euery one against his neighbour the yong man shal disdaine the old and the ignoble the noble c But what colour soeuer ye cloke your new Gospel withal ye run far wide from him that doeth command vs * Rom. 13. to b If this lesson had beene remēbred of your Romish prelats they neither could nor would haue beene so terrible to Kings and Emperours as they haue beene of late obeie al creatures for the loue of God He doeth not regard whether they doe acquite their charge or no for the obedience of the inferiours is not limited by the duetie of the superiours * Rom. 13. Al power doeth come of God saieth the Apostle he that resisteth that power doeth resist the ordinance of God and they that doe with saie it acquire for themselues damnation for euer c The Lord in his word prescribeth obedience to ciuill magistrates and to all such ministers and Chu ch officers as are according to his ordinance but if they be contrary to that as your Popes be hee saieth neuer a word for them but many against them He doeth make no distinction of persons whither it be a Magistrate Ecclesiastical or temporal whither it be a King or a Pope a Bishop or a Lord he doeth talke generally of al powers that are established by God to make vs liue in peace tranquility God had not chosen of his good wil Caesar the Emperour of Rome to be king of Hierusalē as he did chuse Saul Dauid Salomon the rest for of his owne ambition vnsatiable cupidity he had vsurped the kingdom appertaining to the house of Dauid yet our Sauiour did commaund that they should paie him tribute Math. 22. The which commandement he himselfe did fulfill to teach others obedience God did likewise permit that the wicked king Nabuchodonozor should destroie the kingdome of Hierusalem to punish the wickednes of those that dwelt in it And although hee had inuaded the kingdome of Iuda to the which he had no title nor right yet doth God protest that he gaue it him he willeth doeth command that they should obey him euen as if he were the best Prince of the world Beholde saieth God by the Prophet Ieremy Cap. 27. you shall tell your Lordes that I make the earth the men the beastes that walke on the face of the earth through my great strength and mighty arme and I haue giuen it to whom it pleaseth me And so now I haue giuen all these Lands and countreyes to Nabuchodonozor my seruant king of Babylon Besides this I haue giuen him the beastes and the fields to serue him his sonne his sonnes sonne vntill the time of his earth come also of him many people great kings shal come and shal ordaine that the kingdome or the people that shall not serue Nabuchodonozor king of Babylō I wil visit that people saieth the Lord with the sword pestilence and hunger vntil that I consume them in his hands c. But if you my masters the new reformers of the Gospel had beene in those daies what would haue bridled your burning zeale d No◠for your Popes place and office that he challenges is far more vnlawfull then Nabuchodonozors was Could yee not with a little better cause report of Nobuchodonozor that that ye report of the Pope for who is that Nabuchodonozor that we should submit our selues vnto him He is not a king hee is not a tirant hee is not an Emperour but a robber a cutthrote more cruel then anie kinde of wilde beast Is it not by him that the Prophets haue represented the spoiler of nations For God when he would cause * Cap. 14. Esay e Cujus contrarium verum est to talke of the fall of Lucifer he doeth discrie it vnder the person of Nabuchodonozor then how wil you haue vs to submit our selues to be subiect vnto him whom God doeth liken not onelie to a deuill but to the captaine of all the deuils of hell Manie causes doe persuade vs not to obey him First his wicked abhominable life Secondly our religiō for we beleeue in God that created heauen earth but as for him he is more thē a worshipper of Idoles for he is one that called himselfe a God Thirdlie he is not of the line of Dauid by whom God had promised to establish his kingdome for hee was a stranger such a one as got into the kingdome by force making himselfe a king not by righteous election but by violent compulsion so that considering althese things ye might well according to your zeale haue found fault with his raigne but God would haue stopped your mouthes saying as I haue writē aboue I haue created all things I giue thē to whō it pleaseth me Or as he saieth in * Cap. 34. Iob It is I that cause Hypocrits to raign to punish the sins of the people Or as he saieth in the .4 of Daniel I haue the preheminēce ouer the kingdomes of men I giue thē to whō it pleaseth me f True the authority being of it selfe lawful◠as Nabuchodonosors was though he abused it but it is not so when the office it selfe is vtterly vnlawfull as your Pope is And he that speaketh against him that is put in authoritie although he be as euil as Nabuchodonozor hee shall perish thorough the sword famine or pestilence or that that is worse through eternal death These are the very words that God spake by the Prophet therefore saieth Christ Come vnto me learn in my schoole for I am humble and milde of heart I haue obeyed Pylate and Annas Cayphas I haue suffered the sentēce of death haue beene nailed betweene two theeues * Math. 12. and I tooke it paciently for your sakes Learne of me to be my disciples in the schoole of humility and you shall finde rest in your spirits The which true rest indeede is for euerie man to examine diligently his owne conscience and to commit
your doctrine herein then he doth And you know that he lyued 400. yeares after Christ and more In lyke sort your doctrine of iustyficatiō in part by mans owne merits and satisfactions howsoeuer of ancient tyme the scribes and pharises troubled the Apostolicke Churches with the lyke doctrine yet was it a doctrine abhorred of the Church of Christ as blasphemous against the omnisufficient merits satisfaction of Christ Iesus our Lord sauiour ours of iustification freely and fully soly and wholy by fayth onely in Christ allowed and receiued as sound trueth and doctrine in that poynt not onely in the Apostles tymes as it appears Ro. 3. Gal. 2. 5. but also for many 100. years after euen vnto very late dayes For proofe wherof let any man read Origē vpon the 3. 6. of the Romās Ambrose vpon the 3 of the Romās also Hierom in his booke against the Pelagiās vpon the 4 to the Romās vpon the first and 2. to the Gala. Aug. de fide operibus ca. 22. vpon the 88 Psa and in his 22 Chap. of his Manuell and Hilary in his 8 Canon vpon Mathew See also Basils 51. hom de humilitate Paulinus 58. Epistle to Saint August amongst Augustines Epistles Chrysostome vpon the third to the Romans Theodoret vpon the same Chapter Gregory Nazianzens twenty two oration and Ruffinus his exposition of the Creed you shal not onely finde al these fathers in al these places as flatly to teach free ful iustificatiō saluatiō to cōe by faith in Christ alone wtout our works at al cōcurring as any helping cause therunto as any of vs now doe but also further I can doe assure you that who so wil vouchsafe to take the paines to read Bernards 23 61 and 62 Sermons of the Canticles his Sermon the 15 of the Psalme Qui habitat and his seuenty seuen Epistle he shal finde that he though he were aboue 1100 years after Christ was of the same minde For in these places he plainly confesses that he for his saluation rested onely vpon the merits of Christ and not vpon his owne at all counting mans merite to bee nothing else but to trust onely in Christ and in Gods mercy withall plainly testifiyng that he hoped to haue his solâ fide by faith onely in Christ Iesus Yea your owne Thomas Aquine confessed with vs that we are iustified by fayth instrumentally and that no vertue inherent in vs can be of the forme or essence of our iustificatiō Rom. 4 Ephesians 2 and in sundry other places of his commentaries vpon Pauls Epistles And Sadolet vpon the Epistle to the Romans acknowledged doubtles forced therunto by the power of this trueth that Abraham attulit tantùm fidem non sua opera that Abraham brought onely faith not his owne works againe he saieth quātum quisque affert de suâ iustitiâ tantum detrahit de diuinâ beneficentiâ that is how much in this respect a man bringeth of his owne righteousnesse so much he pulleth from Gods bountifulnesse How far likewise the strength of this trueth conquered your great Champion Piggius with griefe Ruard Tapper and others of your side haue noted writē against him for it For in the controuersie of iustificatiō fol. 61. he in playn tearms with vs cōfesses si formaliter propriè loquamur nec fide nec charitate nostrâ iustificamur'sed vnâ Dei in Christo iustitiâ vnâ Christi nobis cōmunicatâ iustitia that is if we speak formally properly we are iustified neither by faith nor by our charity but by the only righteousnes of God in Christ by the onely righteousnes of Christ cōmunicated vnto vs. And hauing with vs before in the controuersie proued confessed fol. 46. y al men euen the most righteous if they should be iudged of God or esteemed according to their own righteousnes by merit and desert they were to be accursed and condemned not onely for the imperfection of our best righteousnes but also for playne vnrighteousnes to be foūd in the best he proceeds concluds fol. 47. that our righteousnes hope of saluatiō with God cōsisteth in the free forgiuenes of our sins in Christ in that the perfect righteousnes of Christ is imputed vnto vs hauing cōmuniō with him And to make his meaning more plain that he meaneth not by the righteousnes of God or Christ any inherēt righteousnes of ours wrought in vs that beleeue by the spirit of Christ as our late Iesuites doe but the righteousnes that was is inherent in Christ he saieth that the righteousnes of Christ wherof he would be vnderstood in this case to speak is his obediēce whereby he fulfilled his fathers wil in al things and he expounds or declares the nature of the faith wherof the Apostle speaketh Rom. 3. saying We are iustified freely by his grace by the redemptiō that is in Christ Iesus whō he hath appointed to be our attonement maker by his bloud to bee fiduciā cōfidentiā in sanguine eius fol. 48. to be a trust and confidence in his bloud thereby alone to be saued so stil aduouching fol. 49. his onely righteousnes imputed vnto vs to be the whereby we shal stand be accoūted righteous before God and him therefore to be vnicū solidū the alone soūd foūdatiō of our saluation To conclude therefore this poynt I say with Iunilius Aphricanus who liued Anno. 440. lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si quis in Christū crediderit remissis peccatis potest per solam fidem seruari that is if any beleeue in Christ his sinnes being forgiuen him he may by fayth alone be saued and with Augustine vpon the 31. Psalm si vis esse alienus a gratia iacta merita tua if thou wilt be voide of grace thē boast of thy merits Your doctrine of auricular confessiō of praying to Saints for the dead I haue at large in my answere to your thirty seuen Chapter shewed to be but new doctrines and of far later stampe then you pretend and in like maner elsewhere I haue shewed diuers other points of your religion to be in this aunswere of mine And I thinke you are not ignoraunt that that worthy bishop bishop Iewel here in England bishop of Salisbury hath most cōfidently protested that for 600. years after Christ you haue no sound groūd for 25. articles whereof the most of them are about your masse whereof you glory most which protestation or chalenge of his he hath hitherto defended sufficiently against all your obiections to the contrary And therefore whatsoeuer you bragge to the contrary so much of your religion as we count it popish for is and will proue when you haue done what you can but as the tares Math. 13 that were by Sathan subtly and secretly sowen in the Lords field long after the good seed was sowen And yet we labouring onely according to our callinges and that knowledge that God hath giuen vs
to the same Psal 119. you must also remember that it is writeÌ„ Wo to him that calleth good euil Esa 5. striue to enter in at the streite gate Luk 13. Al this notwithstanding in your opinion we are like to a false merchant pretending to be the Princes seruant in his masters name demaÌ„ding mony of his debtters hauing neither his haÌ„d nor seale to warraÌ„t his demaÌ„d and all this you say would perswade to be true because we worke no miracles as the Apostles did I deny your argument for we haue our Lord masters hand and seale in his writen word in that therby our doctrin is taught as it appears therby is sealed both by miracles with the pretious bloud of our lord sauiour yea but say you if yee be the Apostles successours in preaching this doctrine why doe ye not confirme your doctrine with signes and wonders and say with the Apostle Paul 2. Corinth 12. the signes of our Apostleship haue beene accomplished amongst you with signes and miracles Hereunto I answere that then it was necessarie for them so to doe and yet now it is not likewise for vs because then for the newnesse and strangenes of diuerse things incident to their ministrie miracles for the first confirmation thereof for a time were necessary whereas now we taking vpon vs only to preach the same doctrine as we doe it being then thereby sufficiently confirmed it is needles now to confirme it againe thereby The XVIII Chapter YOu a And so we may still for any reason that you doe shew to the contrary doe answer vs as the Iewes were answered by Christ when they did demande him to shew some miracles * Mat. 12. The generation adulterous peruerse doeth demaund signes but no signe shal be giuen them c. But this comparison cannot bee applied vnto vs for we are not so hard of beliefe as the Iewes nor you such faithfull messengers of God as Christ was of whom the Iewes did demande some signes of obstinate hatred after they had seene so manie lame healed so manie blinde receiue their sight so manie deafe heare and so manie dispossest that had spirites but as for you b The power of our commission hath stretched so farre as to the harts griefe of al your Synagogue your Romish Babylon is so falne that ye eueÌ„ despaire of euer recouering the glorious pompe of your Babylonish harlot againe we haue seene your coÌ„mission not to haue extended so far as to restore a flie to life againe or to heale a lame goose although that greater matters are required to confirme so strange and so new a reformed Gospell These wordes doe make you mad crying out and preaching in euerie place that your church ought c We say and preach thus and we are well able to stand to it not to be called newe but rather that it is olde Apostolicall that your doctrine is the very same that S. Peter S. Paul did preach And to drawe the simple people to beleeue that that you say you doe declare your faith saying that you doe beleeue doe preach that there is one God in Trinitie of persons and the second which is our sauiour became man from the wombe of the virgin and that he suffered and did rise againe to be briefe you shew that you haue profited in your Religion for you haue beene but fortie yeares which is the time since it began in learning the great creede the Pater noster the which you could not learne in a thousand and fiue huÌ„dred of ours But in all this you say nothing to the purpose for we doe not demaÌ„de of you whether you can well your Catechisme d If we had had no better catechisers then you we should neuer aright haue vnderstoode either Creed the Lords praier or the coÌ„mandements the which you hauing learned of vs you teach to others And as Sampson saied Iud. 15. If you had not laboured with my cowe ye would neuer haue hit my riddle That is to saie that if that our Church had not nursed or taught you which are her rebellious children you would haue knowen nothing for it is of our Church that you haue learned the principles of your faith e Howsoeuer these had tâ—â—ir bringing vp and maintenance for a time amongst you they had their learning true knowledge no more froÌ„ you then Paul had of the Pharises She is the Cowe that hath nourished Caluin in a Canonrie of Noyon Theodore de Beza in the Priorie of Louinnam hard by Paris and consequentlie all the other ministers which haue learned all that they know at the conuent of S. Francis S. Dominick S. Augustine and of S. Bennet where ye were nourished spirituallie as touching your doctrine and temporallie as touching the mainteining of your studie at the charge of that church against the which ye doe now so striue f These others haue sought to be thankful to you for these things as Paul sought to be thankfull for the like to the Pharisees and Iews in seeking their reformation and conuersion as the camels which sometime reward their masters for their good keeping with yerking biting so that colour it how you list ye cannot deny but that ye set forth new deuises For although it is so that your heresies which to please the eares of the vnlearned yee call the reformed Gospell pure word of God haue beene in times past g This is but your spitefull vaine of popish railing without either trueth honesty or reasoÌ„ yet they were buried in the verie depth of hell you haue raised them againe cloked with new colours But although it were so that your doctrine were not new but verie olde h If either our office or errand were extraordinary you say somewhat but both being ordidinary there is no like reason that miracles should bee wrought by vs as by them yet ought not you to be more priuiledged then Moses and the Prophets whose simple and plaine wordes the world would not beleeue although they preached no new doctrine no more then you saie that you doe Moses did shew manie miracles in Egypt and why was the principall cause to deliuer the children of Israell out of the captiuitie of Pharao No surelie for to what purpose I praie you should God shew such great power and might against a simple worme of earth Is it like to be true that he should mooue the whole heauens with such great darkenesse * i Exod. 19. to sende so manie notable plagues to bring him to yeelde which had confessed his wickednesse for the torment that he suffered with the flies the frogs and Grashoppers Surelie no he himselfe doeth shew the cause it is to the end that my name be knowen ouer all the earth that is to saie that men should know that he is God If we come to the Apostles wee shall finde likewise that
our ReligioÌ„ to be the true ancient Catholicke faith taught by the Apostles and euer since continued in Christes true Church namely first for that by the Canonicall scriptures we can proue it to be the same that they preached seeing it caÌ„not be denied but their preaching and writing agreed and secondly because our Religion in all points agreeth with the ancient groundes of the Catechisme the ten coÌ„mandemeÌ„ts the articles of the faith the Lords praier c. And for these causes indeede we most confidently say and aduouch that you doe vs extreame wrong the trueth soundnes of these two reasons notwithstanding either to call our Church or ReligioÌ„ new or thus to call for miracles to confirme it now as though it had neuer beene confirmed thereby before But in all this with you we say nothing to the purpose yet with the indifferent Reader I hope it is to good and great purpose seeing hereby we labour to proue that our church and Religion is not new and but of 40. yeares continuance as here most vntruly you charge it but olde ancient because it agreeth in euery point with the principles of the ancient Christian Catechisme All you say to confute this argument of ours is that we haue learned our Catechisme of you otherwise we should not or could not haue come by it Whereunto I answere that if wee had had no better Catechisers then you we had yet beene but badly Catechised and this further you may be sure of your credit was by your long and manifold lewd dealing so crackt with vs if we had not found these parts of the Catechisme either flatly expressed or sufficiently confirmed and grounded in the Canonicall scriptures vpon your credit we had not receiued them besides as I haue plentifully shewed in the 4. Chapter we haue had in all ages from Christ downe to our owne very manie of our owne Religion that haue continued and from hand to hand deliuered vnto vs these partes of the Catechisme more soundly and faithfully then you haue done so that if you had neuer beene we should farre better and sooner haue learned these things But in the most wise prouidence of God these were in some sort also continued amongst you that so you might be the more without excuse in that notwithstanding the light that migh haue shined vnto you thereby you yet chused rather to walke in grosse and palpable darknesse then in the light thereof And therefore sathan the Prince of darknesse in your Synagogues through the helpe of his vicar generall your Pope and his Chaplaines neuer ceased vntill by one blinde and hellish perswasion or other whatsoeuer Paul had taught to the contrarie 1 Corint 14. he brought to passe not onely that all your Lyturgie and seruice should bee in Latin and rather lying legends permitted to be read in the Churches publickly in the mother tongue then the Scriptures of God but also that these portions of the Catechisme should either not bee learned at all or else onely in the Latin and vnknowen tongue which he knew was all one in effect Otherwise then thus by your good wils how little soeuer we had vnderstoode the latin tongue wee should not nor could not bee suffered to learne them and therefore this learning being altogether wtout edification neither is there any cause why you should brag that we haue learned our Catechismes of you nor why we should accouÌ„t our selues any thing in your debte for the same Further to make it yet more appeare how little beholden we are to you for teaching vs the Catechisme let vs but a little consider euen your most diligent Catechising of men in these three partes thereof here named by you the ten commandements the creede and the Lordes prayer First concerning the ten commandements in steede of one God which there we are commanded to haue you in teaching vs to worshippe Saints Angels your breaden God and your Pope as you doe haue taught vs to worship so many more Gods then one and secondly that your images and idols might staÌ„d to the enritching of your cleargy with the idolatrous offrings vnto theÌ„ it was and is a common trick with you in setting down the commandements in your Catechismes and elsewhere to leaue the second commandement quite out which is directly both against the making and worshipping of them and yet least you should of euery one be spied in finding them but 9. you deuide the tenth into two And as for the other 2. coÌ„mandements of the first table by your ordinary most coÌ„mon practise the people were taught whatsoeuer is there to the coÌ„trary that it very well becommeth them of your schoole vsually to sweare by a number of things that are no Gods and to season all their common talke with oathes of all sortes and to turne the day which should bee kept holy to the Lorde to a daie of the greatest vanitie and impiety of al the daies of the weeke And to proceede to the second table neuer did the Iewes more make the 5. commandement of none effect for loue of their Corban then you haue done to maintaine your infinit orders of monks friers nuns in all contempt and neglect of duety to their pareÌ„ts if once you could entise them into those cloisters How pretious soeuer bloud be yet so small a matter hath it bene with you that your Synagogue is drunke with the bloud of Gods saints and euery varlet is not only easily dispensed withall with you but also often much commended if hee can though neuer so traiterously embrue his haÌ„ds for the furtherance of your kingdome in the bloud of subiect or Prince brother or of whoÌ„ soeuer else And as for adulterie or fornication yea for sinnes against nature not to be named your great Catechisers neuer haue seemed to make reckoning of in that notwithstanding they know that these haue followed in such infinite measure vpon their inforced single life in euerie corner that the stench thereof hath long ago reached vp vnto heauen to pul downe Gods fearce vengeance against you yet rather then they would let go this tricke of hypocrisie they are contented that this â—ench increase stil Your infinite and open sacriledges in building founding your cloisters and Prelacies in spâ—â—â—ing the seuerall parishes of their ordinarie maintenance for their ministers other your innumerable vnsatiable pillings polings of Gods Church your decree and practise in not keeping any faith with those whom you couÌ„t heretiques and your ordinary doctrine that bare concupiscence â—s no sinne shew what Catechisers you are for the rest And whereas in the creede we be taught indeede to beleeue onely in the Trinitie in that you vsually teach vs to trust yea in the matter of saluation to a number of things besides and to praie vnto saints and Angels it being plainly taught vs in the word that beside God there is not sauiour Esa 43. and that Christs name is the onely name of
gentiles namely to Augustus Cesar which profes though they were granted to be of sufficient force to proue that the gentiles had thereby some knowledge of the cōming maner of cōming office of such a Messias yet they proue not but that it was notwithstāding a thing newe and not vnderstoode to most of thē neither doe they at all proue but that still the doctrine concerning the particuler person of that Messias namely that Iesus the sonne of the virgin Mary whom the Iewes crucified was he no other was a new doctrine both to Iew and gentile and therefore in that respect it was necessary for the Apostles for all these thinges to confirme that by miracle whereas now amongst vs that beare any waie the name of Christians that doctrine is not newe neither anie thing else that wee preach but to those to whom the ancient doctrine taught in the Scriptures is newe and therefore as yet there remaineth cause sufficient why the Apostles should worke miracles and not wee This also I cannot but tell you of that howsoeuer the Sybilles are reported to haue prophecied of Christ your comparison is verie odious when you saie they did it as fully and as plainelie as anie of the Prophets and that you wrong Augustine too too much in making your Reader beleeue that hee either in the place quoted by you or anie where else ioyneth with you in that malaperte comparison But these comparisons of yours argue the profanenesse of the spirite that directeth your pennes The XX. Chapter THVS you see that Iesus Christ was anounced among the Gentiles before the comming of the Apostles who notwithstanding this did not let to set forth the doctrine that they were sent to preach vvith manie notable miracles although they did not teach but that doctrine that was verie ancient And although that their doctrine vvas newe and vnknowen to the Gentiles yet you cannot alleadge that it vvas so a Yes it is evident that the true doctrine both of his person and office was new and strange vnto thē vnto the Iewes for they beeing studied and learned in Moses lawe they hearde nothing of the Apostles but had beene prophecied by the Prophets Doeth not Saint Paul saie at the beginning of his Epistle to the Romanes that hee was seperated to preach the Gospell the which God promised by the holie Scriptures * Act. 3. Saint Peter talking with the Iewes doeth giue them plainelie to vnderstande that his vvas no newe doctrine because that hee did preach Iesus Christ of vvhom Moses had prophecied long before saying thus * b Deut. 16. God shall raise a Prophet among your brethren b Deut. 18. you would saie you shall obey him as you doe me and hee that doeth refuse it shal be put to death Saint Peter saieth afterwarde All the Prophets that haue beene from Samuel vnto this time doe announce vnto you these daies that is to saie the doctrine that wee doe preach That that the Apostles did preach vnto the Iewes that is to wit the remission of their sinnes by the death and passion of Christ it was no newe thing for as * Act. 10. Saint Peter saied vnto Cornelius All the Prophets haue vvitnessed that those that beleeue in him shall obtaine remission of their sinnes for it had beene so prophecied by Esay c 53 you should haue saied cap. 55. vnto the people aboue eight hundreth yeares saying that hee had laied vpon his sonne all our iniquities as it doeth appeare in his booke in the vvhich he doeth shew himselfe more an Euangelist then a Prophet for there hee doeth vvrite the tormentes of our Sauiour euen as if hee had beene present at his passion Dauid likewise doeth talke of the like where hee doeth mention the extreame affliction of our Redeemer and of the Gall and Isope and the Vinager Daniel did not onelie discrie the death of our Sauiour but therewithall the verie time that he should come And to bee briefe all the Prophets haue announced vnto the Iewes that that the Apostles did preach vnto them Now if wee desire to knowe why this olde doctrine preached aswell to the Gentiles as to the Iewes by the Apostles was confirmed vvith manie miracles vvhich they did in the name of God vvho sent them the cause is this the Deuill had so obscured and hidden the trueth ouer all nations that superstitious Idolatrie had taken place in steede of the true seruice of God so that the poore Painims did not put their trust in one God but in a multitude of Gods And in like maner the true Religion giuen by God to the Israelites had beene troubled and almost cleane abolished by the traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees in the vvhich they did trust for the iustification and remission of their sinnes d And in your owne consciences you cannot but see we haue iust cause The like doe you report of vs and of your great curtesie yee are contente to match vs vvith the superstitious Iewes and Idolatrous Paynims placing your selues in the degree of the pure Gospellers and the true children of God taking vpon you the succession of the Apostles and calling your congregation the true Catholicke and Apostolical Church This sounds notablie well but seeing that your cause is absolutely to reforme the Church as they did preaching the ancient doctrine of God as they did and dealing with superstitious Idolaters that cleaue more to the traditions of men thē vnto the pure word of God as the Iewes Seing then that our case is reported vnto the similitude of the Iewes and yours to the Apostles and Prophets how comes it to passe that you doe not as they did seeing that you are sent frō one master Why e Because our doctrine being the very same that theirs was their miracles serue sufficiently to confirme it to take away al excuse from them that will not beleeue it to the worldes ende doe ye not make your commission appeare by signes and miracles seeing that God hath euer done the like heretofore when he hath sent the like Commission to yours The XX. Chapter I haue shewed you my reason in the former Chapter why you must stay for all your premises from the conclusion that you beginne withall in this For howsoeuer some few of them thē heard in some sort that such a Messias either should come or was come yet the particuler person who that same was was first preached by the Angel Gabriel secondly by Zacharie and Elizabeth his wyfe Luke 1. before he was borne then by the Angels to the shepheards the day of his birth after by Simeon and Anna Iohn Baptist the Apostles of Christ and the rest as it followeth set downe in the story Luke 2. c. But you say yet further that though their doctrine concerning Iesus Christ the Messias was vnknowen to the Gentiles yet it was not so to the Iewes for the Apostles preached nothing but that which
rest of the Chapter there is nothing but scoffing at Luther and Sleydan ioyned with malitious slaundering of the one to haue bred not onely Coralstadius Zuinglius and Oecolampadius whereof he needed not to be ashamed if it were so but also Muncer the Anabaptist and the other to be a partiall Cronicler which are things easie for you to speake but impossible for you to proue and therefore therein vntil you bring further proofe you are worthy no further answere And therefore as yet for any thing you haue saied you were best follow our counsell and receiue the Gospel which we preach vnto you least the dust we shake off of our feete against you proue a witnesse against you in earnest at the day of iudgement The XXII Chapter ALthough that by the testimonie of your owne doctours ye are condeÌ„ned yet you doe stil maintaine your ill cause saying that ye ought to be receaued to preach the Gospel a Still herein you flatly bely slander vs. extraordinarilie b If the ordinary way be thus by Pastours and Bishops then few or none of your Priests haue entred the ordinary way from whose ordering Pastours haue beene and be vsually shut out that is to saie without the commission of the Pastors Bishops being those that are sent vs by the permission ordinance of God And you saie to maintaine your commission extraordinarie that you haue the holie scriptures which you doe alleage c This obiection you will neuer be able to answere the which alone ought in this behalfe to be of more credit then al the miracles that euer the Apostles did For it mate so chauÌ„ce that by subtle deuises impostures of the deuil miracles maie be falselie counterfâ—â—ted but not the scripture which is the touchstone of the trueth as it shal be seene by experieÌ„ce wheÌ„ the childe of perditioÌ„ otherwise called Antichrist shal come For he to confirme his saying shall shew such great signes and Miracles that the verie elect should be seduced if it were possible Now to answere vnto this which is a notable waie to deceiue the simple and vnlearned d Nay we take not our cause iustified because we alleadge scriptures but because by the rule of right interpreting we be able to shew that the true sence thereof is of our side which heretiques cannot doe therfore we standing vpon this as vpon the foundation of our cause and we being alwaies ready to yeelde vnlesse we can proue we truely alleadge them all that you say in sundry chapters following to proue that heretiques haue alleaged them is needelesse and beside the point I saie that if the alleaging of Scriptures should maintaine you and fauour your cause so much as you doe saie our side were driuen to hard shiftes for then we might bee blamed before the seat of God not onelie for not receiuing your Gospell but likewise for refusing the Gospell of diuers heretikes that haue beene manie hundred yeares before you vvere borne vvhich did al alleage the Scriptures as it doeth appeare by the three passages vvriten vnto the * Cap. 6.10 12. Hebrewes aboue mentioned By the vvhich the Nouatians did pretende to verifie that the mercie of God vvas denied vnto him that did offende after his Baptisme ioined with that that is writen in the first booke of the Kings If man saied the good Helye doeth sinne agaynst man hee maie agree with him agayne but if hee come to offende God who shall hee bee that shall pray for his sinne Did not the Arrians alleage Scriptures to maintaine that Christ vvas not God and man Yes surelie e How or which proue you this as manie places or more then the Catholikes Saint Augustine doeth vvrite in his booke De haeresibus ad quod vult deum That there vvas in his time a certaine sect of heretikes that taught that for a man to be saued hee ought to be gelded And they did alleage the nineteenth Chapter of S. Mat. where Christ doeth praise the Eunuches which haue gelded themselues for the kingdome of heauen And if a man were disposed to forge another heresie like this hee might soone finde scripture to maintaine it beeing ill interpreted for he doeth commande that wee should pull out our eies and to cut off our handes and feete euerie time that through them we are scandalizated for saieth he it were better for one to enter blinde or lame into the kingdome of heauen then to be condemned hauing all our members so that taking these words as they are plainlie writen we ought to cut the members from our bodie f It seemes you haue beene brought vp in this trade of misalleadging the Scriptures you are so cunning in matching herein wicked heretiques Besides this he that would forge an heresie somewhat more pleasant and easie one might soone doe it the which is that for to goe to Paradise we haue no neede of hose shooes or money because that our Sauiour did so commaund it to his Apostles One maie likewise proue by the Gospell that we haue no neede of Magistrates nor other Superiours forasmuch as our Sauiour hath saied that one is your Lord and master namelie Christ Moreouer a man maie proue by scripture that one ought to retaine nothing vnto himselfe if anie other demaunde it forasmuch as it is writen If one demaund of you your coate you ought not onelie to giue it but your dublet also and if one giue vs a box on the eare it is not inough to take it patientlie but we must turne the other cheeke also g And to this heresie you come maruellous neare in your cap. 34. Iouinian a great heretike did teach that a Christian after his baptisme doeth no more offend God yea that hee could not although he would Who would not hate such a blasphemous errour as this yet if the alleaging of the Scriptures ought to suffise he maie be preferred before Master Caluin as more ancient for hee doeth alleage Saint Iohn in his first * Cap. 5. Epistle vvho saieth Wee knowe that hee that is borne of God doeth not sinne for the generation of God doeth preserue him and the ill spirit shall not touch him And in the same h That is a curled glosse that corrupts the text Iohn speaks not of the sacramentall regeneratioÌ„ but â—f effectuall regeneration by the spirit which alwaies accompanies not the other Euery man that is borne of God that is to saie baptized hee doeth not sinne for the seede of God doeth dwell in him and hee cannot sinne for he is borne of God Saint Augustine doeth write in his eightie nine Epist ad Hilarium that the Pelagians and Manichees among other heresies that they did maintaine they saied that it vvas impossible for rich men to enter into Paradise vntill they had solde all their goods and giuen them to the poore and that all things ought to be commoÌ„ The which doctrine is easilie to be maintained
spirit and whosoeuer amongst vs come vnto the scriptures trusting to their owne wittes and so puft vp with ignorance as you speake we vtterly mislike thē as much as you But that you shoulde giue forth this sentence of yours in such general tearmes against simple poore men amongst vs that trauell in the Scriptures you had neither reason nor charity in so doing Commonly such rash iudging of others proceedeth from a minde euen so qualified as you charge theirs to be and from no other fountaine And who so considereth their grosse ignorance and errors that remaine in your great Clerkes euerie where notwithstanding these scriptures what other learning soeuer they pretend he hath most iust occasion thereby to iudge that either they study the scriptures verie little or els that they come to them with the mindes you talke of And if you woulde tell vs plainelie what you meane by humility of spirit which in this case you speake of wee should soone perceiue that thereby you vnderstand not true Christian humilitie which through a base conceite that it breedeth in the owner stirreth him vp the more earnestlie to craue assistance of Gods spirit and by diligent search of the Scriptures and more carefull vse of all good meanes to compasse the right vnderstanding of them but a popish and slauish kinde of humilitie which must breede in the owner such a seruile depending vpon your Popes will and Churches tradition for the sence thereof as that he admit no sence at al of them though thrust vpon him neuer so plainelie by the euidence of the place that will not fullie agree therewith Which breedeth in all of your side either a flat giuing ouer all reading of them or els such a reading of them as that they must bring a sence vnto them from the tradition of your Church and so enforce that vpon them whither they will or no for howsoeuer the scripture speake the Churches tradition maie not be contraried This is your humblenes of spirit when you haue brought Gods spirit speaking in the Scriptures in subiection vnto your popish spirit but this is a proud humilitie and a cursed meekenes You doe but malitiouslie slander vs in that you would perswade your reader that how bad and simple soeuer the man were before assoone as a bishop hath made him minister we say streight hee hath the holy Ghost and no Scripture is to harde for him if hee can with all say the Lorde and rayle vpon the Pope c. And yet I must tell you that wee thinke it not vnlawfull but very necessarie to paint out your Pope with the colours that are due vnto him that men may the better beware of him and yet wee count that no rayling but wee neither tie the holie Ghost to the imposition of the Bishops handes nor place anie such matter in these things here mentioned by you as you woulde leade your reader to imagine we doe You know we might as easily and sute I am with far more trueth saie that with you how lewd vnlearned soeuer the man bee yet when one of your bishops hath priested him thē if he can cal the Pope most holie father speake reuerētly of your Cardinals bishops other prelates saie fi◠on these heretiques these Lutherans and Zuinglians he is straight a famous and worthie catholique Priest with you But wheras amongst other things you obiect that as a fault to their disgrace that they say the ancient doctours were men and that the generall Councels haue erred it is but to discredit them with the simple For you know that the learned knowe that both fathers and councels haue erred that you your owne selues when they write or determine any thing which you like not wil and doe as plainelie as we acknowledge the same For which point let a man read Andrad first booke writen in defence of the Tridentine faith and but what Pighius hath writen of purpose for such cause to discredit the sixt and seuenth Sinods and hee shall most plainelie perceiue that councels are of no further credit with you then they shall be found to say nothing to your mislike But to make it cleare that it is no absurditie to say or hold that coūcels and fathers may erre and haue erred it is wel knowen that as the first Nicean councell and sundry after accordingly decreed a right against the Arrians for the trueth of Christs manhood so the Tyrian the Sirmiense the Ariminense the Sebucian and the Antiochē councels determined with the Arrians against the Nicean and the trueth The second councel of Nice Act. 5. agreed that Angels and mens soules are bodily and circumscriptible and yet this councel notwithstanding this grosse errour was confirmed by the 6 councel held at Constantinople which Pope Agatho hath allowed for a general councell The 3. councell of Carthage cap. 23. determined that all praiers at the altar should onelie be made to the father The 2 councell of Ephesus was on Eutyches the heretiques side and decreed for him Your late councels of Constance and Basil decreed a dangerous errour in your conceit I am sure whē they decreed the authoritie of the general councell to be aboue the Popes For your holy father could not be quiet vntill he got the contrary decreed in other two Synods at Ferraria and Florence And in the 6 of Constantinople mentioned before there was a perilous heresie agreed on I am sure in your iudgement Canonthirty six against your Popes title namelie that the Bishops of Constantinople shoulde enioy and haue equall priuiledges with them of Rome See also the twenty two Chapter of the Mileuitan councell Ca. the 26. of the 3 councell at Carthage and the 92 Chapter of the African the Epistles of the same to Boniface Caelestine and you shal finde plaine direct Canōs against the Supremacy that now your Popes callēge You were best therfore not onely to be cōtēt that we say general coūcels may er but to learne to say so aswel as we your selues al the sort of you or els you see you are not frēds to your holy father You may doe it I warrāt you without any discredit For August a great doctor in his 2. booke 3. Chap against the Donatists saieth that the very general councels are often corrected the former by the later as often as by triall experience the thing is opened that before was shut And therfore disputing against Maximinus li. 3. ca. 14. he calleth him frō the coūcels to the touchstōe of the scriptures And as for the doctors the same Aug. being one of the chiefe of thē in his 2. booke 2. Chap. against Cresconius plainly cōfesseth that the iudges or doctors of the Church as being mē are oftē deceiued therfore in his 2 booke of one baptisme he writeth that we may argue doubt of the writings of any bishop whosoeuer he be but we may not so doe of the holy scriptures If he had
pulled downe and they cast out and those that did offer sacrifice vnto theÌ„ grieuously punished then saieth he the iustice is not certaine through the pâ—ssion or for hauing suffered death but the death and passion is glorious when it is for the sustaining of the true faith And therefore saieth he our sauiour because he would not haue the simple deceiued vnder this colour of trueth he did not onely say blessed are those that suffer but hee added for iustice But this can in no wise be attributed vnto those heretiques that suffer to seperate the vnion and concorde of the Catholique church c In that booke it appears these Donatists did indeed complaine and yet brag of their persecutioÌ„s but thus much I finde not there testified against them or of theÌ„ In his booke de haeresibus ad quod vult Deum he writeth to this effect of them And in his booke de vnitate Ecclesiae contra Epistolam Petiliani he doeth write that the Donatists which were a sect of heretiques that raigned in his time to confirme their doctrine they did not attende that others should put them to death but they did cast them selues downe from high places others did burne themselues in the fire to be honoured after their death as Martyrs and that is more they did threaten men if they would not kill them d He writes in that epistle no such thing you had the worst lucke in quoting of your testimonies that euer had aâ—y for 3. for one you cite wrâ—ng S. Cyprian in like maner doeth write in the first booke of his Epistles in the first Epistle that though an heretique suffer death for Christ that doeth not confirme him as a Martyr but that his death is the very punishment of his errourâ— and that he cannot go to heauen which is the mansion of the humble for seeing that he doeth seperate himselfe froÌ„ the house of peace which is the church yee know well of what church he doeth speake that he cannot be receaued into heaueÌ„ c. All those that haue writen the histories of the BohemiaÌ„s doe say that in the time of e Zischâ— was a famouâ— souldier captain but minister he was none one Zischa a martial minister of the heresie of the Heborits or Hussites there were a certaine sect of heretiques called Adamites like vnto the olde heresie of the Nicholaites for they did saie as these doe that mens wiues should bee common and they vvent all naked euery one taking the woman hee liked best whom hee did carie vnto their minister and before him hee did saie the holie ghost doeth inspire me to lie with this person then the saied reuerent father did giue him his blessing saying Increase and multiplie and so they went awaie This aboue named Zischa although hee had done a number of wicked deedes yet hee determined to abolish and take awaie this sect f And therefore popish traytours that are executed amongst vâ— for high treason though they seeme to take their death neuer so patiently we lawfully couÌ„â— call tâ—aitours though you â—anonize them for Saints and so he caused two women to be burnt for this abhomination the which two notwithstanding the torment of the fire did sing and giue thankes to God for that it had pleased him to permit them to die for so holy so iust a quarrell Did not Michael Seruet who was once master Caluins dearling rather desire to suffer at Geneua then he would confesse that Christ was God and yet notwithstanding his great patience or to saie the trueth diuilish obstinacy cannot be sufficient to make him a Martyr nor to perswade you to beleeue his doctrine g What need all these seing none of vs euer stande vpon the bare sufferings of meÌ„ no more then you you should yet haue named the places where these things are writen and not thus haue sent vs to seeke we cannot tell where There is a certaine minister of the Lutherans called Ioachim Westphall who in a worke of his doeth mocke at Caluin who did vaunt that within these fiue years aboue an hundred had suffered death to sustaine the Gospell of Geneua and he doeth answere him at large prouing that the sect and doctrine of the saied place ought not to bee approued for the multitude of false martyrs for the Anabaptists whoÌ„ he doeth iustly coÌ„deÌ„ne haue had of their sect a great many more for in lesse theÌ„ three years there haue suffered a great number more then euer there did suffer of Caluinists in fifteene And to conclude this matter the saied Westphal doeth say that the deuill hath his Martyrs euen as well as God with whom like a good sergeant he doeth march giuing the vauÌ„tward vnto the martyrs of the Caluinists that haue suffered at Geneua h The more to blame are they if they should say so but though heat of contentioÌ„ caused Westphalê° to write so bitterly I thinke very few will ioyne with him in this iudgemeÌ„t sure I am they whom you cal Caluinists doe not iudge so of them because of that 1. Co. â— v. 15 So that if one demaund of the Lutherans whither go those that die in the Religion of Caluin of Beza or of the Anabaptists they saie to the Diuell And if one demande of the Caluinists in like maner whither go the Anabaptists and the Lutherans they saie likewise to the Diuell And who would put the like question to the Anabaptists I am assured they would saie at the others to the Diuell For my part I beleeue you I assure you all three i This argueth a most diuelish and profane spirit in the writer And seeing that yee agree so well that one serue for an others harbenger we were very fooles if wee should stay your passage but let you go all to the Diuell for company for I thinke if you were all gone our debates would cease and hell would be so full that the deuill would long for no more The XXXI Chapter YOu neede not to tell vs that Augustine and Chrysostome haue taught that it is not the death but the cause that maketh a martyr For we know that to be a most certaine trueth and the generall doctrine of all good writers both olde and new and therefore you might haue spared your paines bestowed in the proofe of this And therefore most willingly wee acknowledge as Christ hath taught vs that onely they are blessed martyrs that suffer for righteousnes sake Mat. 5. and none to be martyrs howe patientlie soeuer they seeme to suffer their deathes that by for an il cause either in life or doctrine And yet we are not ignorant that many haue died in lewde and for lewd opinions who yet haue seemed to die willingly and cherefully and therefore wee deny not but that it may be true that some such wicked women of that beastlie heresie of the Adamites were put to death in Zischaes time in Bohemia died as you write and
shew your selfe to bee not onely one that dare write any thing how grosse a lie soeuer it be but as malitious in your iudgement as euer was any First you set downe not onely that the Anabaptists condemne thē that die in Luther Caluins religion to hell which is likely inough because they were franticke heretiques haue denied the foundation but also the Lutherans and Caluinists will doe giue that iudgement one of another and yet I am sure you are not able truely to say that euer any of Caluins iudgement saied or wrote so Secondly though your owne iudgement be short yet so it is set downe that you shew that you beleeue that all the three sorts go thither And such care compassion your catholique heart had of it whē you had done that you iest at it accounting your selues fooles if you should stay their passage thither For if we were al gone for company you thinke you should be at quiet you say hel would be so full that the deuil would long for no more companie Is this your popish diuinity to make sport at the damnation of men And hold you this for a principle that it is folly to stay men from running togither to hel Indeed it may be For I haue read that it is a rule amongst you that if your Pope lead headlong with him multitudes by heapes to hell yet no man may be so hardie as to say vnto him why doest thou so Distinct 40. Cap. Si Papa But howsoeuer you account this diuinity certaine I am you wil finde it that in no two things more the deuils shew themselues deuils then in these In laughing and reioicing in the damnation of the soules of men and in letting them go freely for company to hell without stoppage as many as will Truely truely God must take from you this profane and deuilish spirit of yours and giue you grace to repent of it or els you may be sure how many soeuer die and go to hel before you hell wil long for you and you shal finde place and roome inough there I warrant you The XXXII Chapter THere is a certaine minister of the Lutherans called a What will not a passionate aduersary say to disgrace them that he writes against If like testimonies of men of your Religion writing yet in some points one against another wil be admitted it is an easy matter thus to discredit your whole faction Heshusius the which within these three yeares hath made a booke against Caluin Peter Boquin Theodore de Beza Gulielmus Elcimalcius he saieth amongst other things that Carolstadius Zuenfeldius Caluin Beza doe shew well the vncertainty of their faith by the diuersities of opinions that there is amongst thē the which fault saieth he doeth proceede of this that they haue forsaken the true sence of the scripture to follow the opinions of their owne heades b And yet in truth lyeth therein himselfe And in that very booke the saied authour doeth giue the lie to Caluin because that in that hee wrote against the aboue named Westphal hee saieth that Martin Luther and his adherents did acknowledge him as their brother the which thing he maintaines to be false c Greater more disagreement◠there are amōgst you papists and therefore these conclusions presse you rather then vs. Thus seeing yee agree togither like dogs and cattes that all these sects haue confirmed their false doctrine with the shedding of their owne bloud it is best to conclude as we haue saied before that it is not the paine nor the tormēt that doeth make the righteous martyr except we should saie that diuerse contrary messengers are sent from one master the which is notoriously false for that good king frō whom the trueth doeth come indeede hath so good a memory that he doeth neuer send contrary messengers but rather his faithfull seruāts doe all with one voice and one accord honour him as the father of our sauiour Iesus Christ The XXXII Chapter HEre againe as in the former Chapter you labour to discredit Caluin Beza and others onely with the testimony of Heshusius an vtter enemy of theirs about the quarrel of the cōtrouersie of the Sacrament whom heat of contention and a desire therefore to disgrace his aduersaries rather then iust cause led thus to write For what reason had he there to ioyne Zuenfeldius with Caluin and Beza with whom they helde no more communion and fellowshippe then hee himselfe and Corolstadius who was a doctour in Wittenberge in Luthers time and an associate to him in disputatiō against Ecchius he might with more reason haue ioyned with Luther himselfe and his partners then with these And howsoeuer the intemperate heate of contention emboldened Heshusius to giue Caluin the lie most certaine yet it is that Melancthon a great frende of Luthers whom Heshusius cannot deny was an adherent of Luther accounted of Caluin as of a good brother For in an Epistle which he wrote to him he calleth him Charissim◠fratrem most deare brother it is the 187. Epistle in the booke of Caluins Epistles And I am perswaded that what Caluin wrote he was able to iustify in this behalfe how rudely soeuer angry Heshusius gaue him the lie This obiection of our disagreement hath beene oft enough vrged and answered alreadie It seemeth that you haue great penurie of arguments against vs when this must come in thus often especially seeing as I haue shewed greater contentions haue beene amongst your selues In which cases would you haue thought a mā should haue dealt wel with you if the bitter speeches of the one side had alwaies beene taken as sufficient argumentes to disgrace the other Or would you haue liked that thereupon a man should inferre as you doe that you agreed no better then dogges and cattes and that therefore you so differing amongst your selues came not both from one master God who vseth not to sende contrary messengers this had beene an harde conclusion against a number of you in the time of your schismes betwixt your Popes and Antipopes and in the times of the contentiōs of your Friers with your other Prelates and also amongst themselues whereof I haue put you in remembrance before Chapter twenty eight And yet if you will needes meate this measure vnto vs vpon occasion of this one controuersie about the maner of Christs reall presence you must bee contented that vpon moe and greater contentions amongst you wee sende you home as good measure againe As for your conclusion that it is not the paine but the cause that maketh a true martyr wee graunted it you at the first but where to make way to bring it in here againe you insinuate not onely that the Donatists Adamites Seruetus and the Anabaptistes of whom you haue spoken in your former Chapter haue died to confirme their false Religion which we graunt you but that these also that you spake of last Lutherans and Zuenfeldians haue
now honour them it was no errour at al in him and if it had beene that he had held but so I am fully persuaded that rather Hierom would haue commended him for it then otherwise But indeed your grosse honouring of them was not then so much as thought of Vigilantius his fault as it seemeth by Hieroms charging of him was that hee woulde not allowe that there should such cost be bestowed vpon their tombes and burials or that any such estimation or reuerend regard should bee had of their graues and sepulchers as then of loue towardes them and to stirre vp others to imitate them beganne to be vsed Wherein if he went too far wee ioine not with him For wee very well allow that there should be a decent and comelie buriall of them and we esteeme of their graues and other certaine monumentes of them as of thinges that appertaine to the deare children of God But with you to tie vertue either to the place of their buriall or to any such thing that they left behinde and that in such grosse maner as you haue done wee account it both folly and blasphemous impiety It may bee when you named Arrians you meant Aerians in whom you oft tell vs that to pray for the dead was condemned for an heresie But if that were your meaning wee tell you that Epiphanius writing of them saieth flatlie howsoeuer they were so accounted of some that praier for the dead hath no manifest ground in the Scriptures but rather leaned to the fashion and traditions of men as both of this and almost of all the pointes in controuersie betwixt you and vs Soto cōtra Brentium Lind. li. 4. suae panopliae towards the end thereof two great champions of your side haue also plainely confessed and so long you shall neuer be able to proue it an heresie Againe here you must be admonished that euery thing that an heretique is reported to haue held is not by by heresie For many sound opinions often times such haue retained and by that meanes haue the easilier preuailed to seduce men by their errours And therefore you and your fellowes also doe your readers wrong in making thē to thinke that because such an hereticke such an hereticke held this and that which we hold therfore we are heretickes For if you should speake to the purpose you should first proue the opinions that wee hold to be heresies and thē shew vs that they were held and cōdēned in such and such or at the least that the things that we hold were in them heretofore condemned for heresies But to be briefe you say if our Religion be the trueth thē there hath beene neuer a Christiā Doctour in the Church since Christ for all haue taught the contrary c. These are but your words and the falshood of this I haue made to appeare in sundry points already And I would to god the poor simple people could read their works indeede for then howsoeuer it please you here to brag to the contrary they should and would perceiue that you haue in this wounderfullie abused them For they should see that for the most and greatest questions betwixt you and vs they are flat on our side in those things wherein they seeme most to fauour you that yet euen therein there was and is very great difference betwixt you and them Wherfore your vehement exhortation that men should not follow vs to condemne all Christians that haue beene since Christ which taught alwaies yours condēned ours as heresy is sutable to the foūdation that is nothing but false vaine In like maner where you bring vs here as men to auoide your argument of the condemnation of forefathers that are so driuen to our shifts that we haue nothing to say for appeasing the people but this that their errours shall not bee imputed vnto them for that they did holde them of simple ignorāce hauing no better instruction in confuting this excuse you might haue spared your paines For you may remember that otherwise I haue blunted the edge of that argument And for my part I most willingly acknowledge that ignorance shall not nor cannot exēpt any from condemnation that know not if they be of yeares and otherwise capable of knowledge the Lord Iesus Christ aright to their saluation For I know it is writen that Christ shall come in flaming fire rendering vengeance vnto them that know not God and which obey not the gospell of Iesus Christ 2. Thes 1. and that howsoeuer by strong delusion vnder Antichrist mē shall be carried to beleeue lies yet in the iust iudgement of God because they receaued not the loue of the trueth they shal be damned for not beleeuing the trueth 2. Thess 2. But you say some haue vsed that excuse of them in conference with your selfe I warrant you not simply to excuse such as liued and died in an Antichristian faith that is looking to be saued not onely through the mercie of God in Christ Iesus but by other meanes also which can not stand together with a sound faith in Christ but such onely as either amongst the fathers were preserued from euer falling into this foūdamental errour or hauing fallen into it had growen to detest it to imbrace a faith seeking and finding in Christ alone the full cause of their saluation ere they died of which two sortes besides those whom God did cleane preserue from the infection of popery as hee did the 7000. in Elias his time from the idolatry of Baal euen in the greatest florish of poperie the Lord no doubt of it had infinite numbers For I my selfe in my daies haue knowen diuers in whom the leauen of popery hath beene so rooted that notwithstanding neuer so good meanes haue beene vsed in their health and prosperity to reforme them yet they haue perseuered in an opinion that they should either not be saued or that partly they should be saued for their own merits who yet in time of sickenes or some other misery hauing therby beene brought as it were before Gods presence and so to see the infinitenes of his iustice haue straight renounced all confidence in their owne works with wōderful detestation of their owne blasphemous and foolish conceit that euer they trusted in them or in any thing but onely in Christ Iesus who now when they knew them selues they would confesse was he that alone must saue them by that which he had done himselfe or else it would neuer be And if the Lord thus mercifully reclaimed some that wilfully and peeuishly a long time had resisted the trueth shining as it doeth now why should wee not much more conceiue that hee shewed that mercy vpon a number of our forefathers who dwelt in that errour of simplicity and ignorāce That therein in a number of things else they erred not you say but you shal neuer be able to proue Neither can you vpon our holding that they did erre conclude that either
defy detest theÌ„ their frantick opinions as much as any and of all men we haue beene the forwardest in writing against them And therefore they doe vs the more wrong when at any time they aggrauate this obiection against vs by charging vs to haue such amongst vs whom thus we shunne and mislike aswell as they Thus much therfore let suffice for answere to this fourth signe and now let vs proceede to the next The next is not to obey but resist the Prelates of the Church which hee would proue so to bee by Pauls saying 2. Tim. 3. like as Iannes and â—ambres resisted Moses so doe these resist the trueth being men of corrupt mindes reprobates in faith of which fault when the learned protestant can proue them guilty and vs cleare he promiseth to recant It seemeth the man in alleadging this text did trust his memory too much for twise he hath writen MaÌ„bres for IaÌ„bres but if that were all his fault here it were a small matter But here againe according to his old woont he must haue it freely giueÌ„ and granted him for he bringeth nothing at all to proue it that their Bishops and Prelates are all such as Moses Paul was that is faithfull in teaching only Gods people the truth For vnles this be yeelded him it neither may be granted him that he rightly applieth his text nor this signe against vs. But he knoweth well enough and so doe all the packe of theÌ„ that we are so far from being so prodigall in our gifts vnto them that we hold their prelates bishops Priests to be very IaÌ„nes Iambres in resisting our Bishops and ministers in teaching the same truth that they haue learned of Moses Paul and that therefore we thinke no better of them then of men of corrupt mindes reprobate in the faith For which cause we are sure we both may and ought to disobey them and resist them as we doe For so we finde that Esay Hieremy Amos Michaiah Christ and his Apostles in their times refused to obey and resisted the false doctrine of the false Prophets and high Priests that theÌ„ were What a vanity is it therefore in this man to trouble his reader with such colde and poore stuffe as this is And truely hee hath no better happe in the last then in any of the former For setting it downe that ficklenesse and slipperinesse of errours and heresies is a signe and sure token to bewray the authors thereof and that the catholique faith or trueth is likewise to be knowen by the constant stability thereof he saieth that which we grant to be very true as willingly as he or any of his side Insomuch that coÌ„monly it is one of the principall reasons that we vse to proue their opinions that we striue against them for to be errours or heresies theÌ„selues for now holding them so obstinatly as they doe heretiques for that we are able to shew how by stealing and soft paces stily they began first to creepe in and so went on froÌ„ worse to worse vntill to vse his owne tearme they came ad prosuÌ„dum maloruÌ„ that is euen to the depth of all euill that they are now growen vnto therein Who so readeth my answere to Albines publishers preface and the 37. Chapter of my answere to Albine himselfe shall finde that in a good sort of their opinions I haue shewed this But to proue this that it is the property of heretiques to be fickle and mouing and so soone to perish passe away he alleadgeth S. Peter saying that lying masters doe bring vpoÌ„ theÌ„selues swift daÌ„nation their destruction sleepeth not which he spake of gods iudgements yâ— vndoubtedly should ouertake such meÌ„ not as he vnderstandeth him to shew that their opinions alwaies should soone passe away and vanish In the former sence it is alwaies fouÌ„d true that S. Peter writeth either here or els where or both but take it in the later sence then Peter shall often be found to haue prophecied of such vntruly For who knoweth not that the grosse errours of Turcism are of very long continuance that the errour of the Aethiopians for circumcision is far more ancients and that yet it continueth And must not of necessity the errours and heresies of Antichrist be of very long continuance seeing Paul as we haue heard confesseth that the mystery of that iniquity beganne to worken in his time aboue 1500. years ago and that it should not quite be abolished before Christs second comming who then should yet by the brightnesse of his comming abolish it 2. Thess 2 The trueth of whose prophecy in that place is the very true ground of the antiquity vniuersality and continuance of the popish and Antichristian Religion So that howsoeuer it hath fallen out in some heresies that they haue in Gods most wise prouidence euen quickely brought themselues to an ende by their ficklenes moouing yet it appeareth in that place the sinne of not beleeuing the trueth so notably taught and confirmed by Christ and his Apostles in the iust iudgement of God by Antichristianity is so seuerely to be punished that therewith euen from the Apostles daies to the ende of the worlde they that commit that sinne shall bee in danger to bee deluded and seduced most dangerously Which I say and sure I am I can proue it hath beene and yet is most notoriously verifyed by popery to the wonderfull hurt and destruction of soules Howbeit this man would faine apply this signe vnto vs for that amongst vs as it pleaseth him to write here in England for the loue we beare to the doctrine of the Zwinglians Oecolampadians and Caluinists the Lutherans haue takeÌ„ their iust ouerthrow and for that now here Precisians and Puritans as he saith through the affection of the common people and so winking at them by some magestrates haue brought the Zwinglians and Caluinists to be ready to yeeld vp the ghost and to tilt vp their heeles But these are but vaine words and proue not his purpose For all these howsoeuer in other matters of lesser moment they too much disagree yet as I haue saied before and as it is notoriously knowen for the principall articles of religion coÌ„cerning faith or maners they are in constant vnity holding the same all of them that they haue learned in these points out of the Canonical scriptures as the harmony of their confessions extant to the world in print make it euident As for the seuerall and priuate opinions of Luther and his too earnest followers which we now mislike we haue likewise alwaies misliked and therefore in that respect they haue no other ouerthrow amongst vs then they alwaies since we first heard of them haue had and howsoeuer in these points we rather prefer Zuinglius and Caluins iudgement then theirs yet certaine it is that we build not our faith of them nor of them or by them delight we to be called we protest and professe our selues
confute them and to confirme the trueth as it appeareth by Christes answere to Sathan Mat. 4. and by the writings of the ancient fathers against these heretiques And the hardnesse that it hath pleased God to leaue in the Scriptures is not such but as that notwithstanding the simplest may reade and trauell in the Scriptures with great profit howsoeuer it pleaseth you to insinuate in your taunting maner ca. 26. that artificers may not haue the spirit of God and bee profitable readers and vnderstanders thereof For euery one that would be blessed is to take delight in the lawe of god and to shew that his delight by meditating therein day night Psalm 1. and Christ hath commanded all his hearers indifferently to search the scriptures Iohn 5. And for all the hardnes that is in them we reade Psal 19. that the testimonie of the Lord giueth wisedome vnto the simple and his commandements giue light vnto the eies And therefore the holy ghost in Dauid speaking of the scriptures of the olde Testament which were then harder then they be now being so opened as they be now by the accesse of the new Testament saieth thus Thy word is a lanterne vnto my feete and a light to my paths Psal 119. Wherefore Peter in his 2. Epist 1. cap. calleth the writings of the Prophets a light that shineth in a darke place and therefore much more he accounted the scriptures of the new testament lightsome which it seemeth in the verie same place he had an eie vnto adding that they did well to attend to the former vntill the day dauned and the day starre arose in their harâ—â— which by meanes of the Scriptures of the newe Testament might bee though I forget not that the same Peter in the same Epist chap. 3. wrote also that amongst the things writen by Paul in his Epistles concerning the later daies there are some things hard to be vnderstoode For I remember also that yet he noteth to whom they are so saying which they that are vnlearned and vnstable peruerte as they doe the other Scriptures vnto their owne destruction for to such nothing is plaine inough to preserue or keepe them from thus doing Vpon which groundes howsoeuer you and your fellowes with such like discourses as this would discourage the simple and vnlearned from reading the scriptures Origen wisheth that al would doe as it is writen Search the Scriptures in his 2. Hom. vpon Esay And Hierom noteth vpon these wordes Colosse 3. Let the word of God dwell in you plentifully c. that euen laymen ought to haue the word of God not onely sufficiently but also abundantly dwelling in them And therefore Augustine in his 55. sermon de tempore saieth generally vnto his hearers It is not sufficient that yee heare the deuine scriptures in the Church but also in your houses either reade them your selues or els desire some other to reade them and giue you diligent eare to them And Chrysost likewise in his 9. Homil vpon the Coloss is verie earnest to perswade seculare men as you call them to get them the Bible or at the least the new Testament to be their continuall teachets and in his 3. Homil vpon Mat. he saieth plainely that this as a plague marreth or infecteth all that some thinke that the reading of the Scriptures pertaineth onely to monkes And these exhortations tooke such place in the ancient time that Hierom vpon the 133. Psalm saieth that both maried men and their wiues then had this contention and not monkes onely who could learne most Scriptures Whereof came such profit that howsoeuer your gibing spirit can not digest the like in these daies Theodoret in his 5. booke of the nature of man writeth that men in his time might commonly see that their doctrine was not only knowen of them that were doctours of the Church and masters of the people but also euen of Tailers Smithes Weauers of al artificers yea and not onely of learned women but also of labouring women as Sewsters Seruants and Handmaides yea he goeth further saying that not onely citizens vnderstoode the same but also cuntrie people and amongst them Ditchers Deluers Cowherdes and Gardiners and that in such sorte as that you should then heare them disputing of the Trinity and of the creation of all thinges And as for the obiection that you terrifie them so much withal of the hardnes therein the ancient fathers haue met with that also and would not haue them thereby in any case discouraged from following this counsell whereby they are stirred vp to heare 〈◊〉 them And therefore Origen in his 20. Homil vpon Iohn saieth It may be saied the scriptures are harde yet notwithstanding iâ— thou reade them they shall doe thee good and Hierom noâ—â—th that it is the fashion of the Scripture after harde thinges to 〈◊〉 other things that be plaine in his 19. Homil vpon Esay But Augustine belike meeting in his time with your forefathers of whom yee haue learned this obiection hath these wordes in his 5. books against Iulian yee enlarge and lay out with many wordes aâ— nothing is more vsuall with you how harde a matter the knowledge of the scripture is and meete onely for a fewe learned men and therefore in his 3. booke and 26. cap. of Christian doctrine hiâ— giueth vs this rule to expound darke places by more plaine places which saieth hee is the surest way of declaring the scriptures to expounde one scripture by another in his 2. booke and 3. chap. of the same matter he writeth that in those which are conteined euideÌ„tly in the scriptures are found al things that conteine fâ—â—th maners hope and loue But Irenaeus in his 1. booke chap. 3 â—â—â—teth simply that the scriptures are plaine And Chrysost in his first Homil vpon Math. and vpon the 2. Thess 2. writeth that the scriptures are easie to the slaue husbandman widow children and that all things be plaine and cleare therein And yet I 〈◊〉 needes adde with Epiphanius onely to the children of the holy ghost are the scriptures plaine and cleare in his 2. booke and with Solomon knowledge is easy to him that will vnderstand Prou. 14.6 For the naturall man perceiueth not the thinges of the spirit for they are foolishnes vnto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1. Cor. 2.14 Of whom that S. Peter 2. Epist 3. might giue vs to vnderstaÌ„de hee onely meant he calleth theÌ„ to whom those thinges in S. Pauls Epistles whereof he speaketh are harde and whose fashioÌ„ it is to misunderstaÌ„d not only those things but also the rest of the Scriptures how plaine soeuer both vnlearned also vnstable which is an argumeÌ„t of waÌ„t of the spirit of God of all true desire indeede to finde knowledge wheresoeuer it be And it may be this is the cause why the scriptures seeme hard vnto you of the church of Rome because you are led by the spirit of your Pope
which is but a mā often times an ignorant wicked man to vnderstand the scriptures and haue indeede no true acquaintance with the spirit of God nor any true desire after knowledge but rather after ignorāce because that is the best foūdation of your Religiō And therefore as the fashiō is you measuring another 〈…〉 by your owne happily iudge them to be as hard to all others as to your selues and thereupon by the hardnes thereof discourage them from reading them as much as you cā I am sure whatsoeuer you or any of your fellowes prate hereof that therein is conteined the will and testament of our heauenly father and that this pertaineth to simple and vnlearned artificers as well as to the great learned men of this world For therein and thereby I know that God is no accepter of persons and therefore so far of is it that any hardnes of tearmes or phrases therein conteined to expresse vnto thē or bequeath vnto them their heauenly fathers behestes and bequestes should driue them from the reading and studying of thē that so much the more paines and diligence they ought to vse to atteyne to the right sence thereof For we see in our earthly fathers will the harder the tearines and phrases be wherein he hath giuen vs any thing or willeth vs to doe any thing nature reason hath taught vs not therefore to take and bestow lesse paines cost but a great deale more to seeke to vnderstand the same how much more ought it to be so in this case And I am perswaded that oure heauenly father hath so tempered hardnes with plainenes plainenes with hardnes in the scriptures that the plainenes might allure and encourage euery simple man to reade study them with hope to vnderstand them that the other might admonish him to be no negligent but a careful wise peruser of them so both together make euery one a willing and studious reader of them Which it should seeme both Fulgentius in his sermon of the confessours Gregory in his epist to Leander had obserued in noting that God had so ordred the scriptures as the therein he had prouided for the strong man meate for the weakling milke and that there both the Elephāt might swimme and the lambe safely wade These things notwithstāding whatsoeuer else might be saied further to this purpose I perceiue that you in this your lōg discourse of the hereticks abusing and wresting the scriptures cared not how litle otherwise that which you wrote was to the purpose so the thereby you might gaine thus much as by such experiments to withdraw the mindes of men from the loue study of the scriptures For I know they greatly comber you stād in your way and therefore by your wils you cared not if the people neuer hearde of them wherof you haue giuen an inuincible demonstration in that you haue kept them hidden and shut vp from them as long as you 〈◊〉 vnder the close bushell of an vnknowen tongue And your goodwill towardes thou hath otherwise beene sufficiently bewrayed by the vnreuerent and disgracing speeches vttered by your chiefe great Champions against them as it is well knowen too too often For first for their authority though now some of your side would seeme in that point to speake more modestly not long ago Piggins a great man in his time with you in the first booke and second Chapter of his Hierarchie hath flatly writen that all authority of scripture now necessarily dependeth vpon the authority of the Church For otherwise we could not beleeue them but because we beleeue the Church that giues testimony vnto them adding further that Marke and Luke were not of themselues sufficient witnesses of the gospell and that the gospels were not writen that they might be aboue our faith and Religion but rather to be subiect thereunto And Ecchius another great doctour of yours of the same time in his Enchiridion writing of the authority of the church saieth that the scriptures were not of authenticke authority but through the authority of the Church and therefore he boldly affirmeth that to say that greater is the authority of the scriptures then of the Church is hereticall and the contrary is Catholicke And whereas it was obiected by Brentius in the confession of Wittingberge that one of your crue meaning thereby one Herman had not beene ashamed to say that the scriptures should haue had no greater estimation or credit then AEsops fables but for the testimony of the church Hosius a Bishop and Cardinall of yours writing against the saied Brentius in his third booke being of the authority of the scripture defends it as well inough spoken for saieth he vnles the church had taught vs which is scripture Canonicall it could haue had small authority with vs. Likewise teacheth Melchior Canus in his second book seuēth Chapter of his places of diuinity that it appears not to vs that the scriptures are of God but by the testimony of the Church insomuch that she must determine saieth he what bookes be Canonicall and her authority is a certaine rule whereby either to receiue or to reiect bookes into or out of the Canon Of the same iudgemēt is Canisius in his Catechisme ca. 30. sect 16. and Stapleton in his first Chapter of his ninth booke of the principles of doctrine with a great rabble moe of your writers of greatest account since Luther And this position so liked Ecchius that in the place before cited he writes of the margent Achilles against this position to insinuate that this is a speciall tried captaine of yours And yet when all comes to all your meaning all this while is by the Church to vnderstand onely the Pope forasmuch as none but hee hath the tongue of the Church in weelding For Catherin in Epistolam ad Galatas cap. 2. holdeth that it is the Popes proper priuiledge to canonize or to reiect from the Canon scriptures which is also Canus fift proposition in effect in the Chapter before named This being your meaning Leo the tenth being one of your Popes what Canonicall authority haue you left the scripture if it be true that is writen of him that he talking with Bembus then a Cardinall cōtemptuously saied speaking of the Gospell that that fable of Christ had beene very profitable vnto them And as for the vncertainty of the sēce insufficiēcy of thē who knoweth not what cost vsually alwaies vpon euery light occasion you are ready to bestow in amplifying the hardnes of them in either preferring therefore or equalling the vnwritē word with you call the liuely practise of the church before thē both for plainnes sufficiency Whē you are in this vaine both the fathers of Colen shall be iustified and Piggius also by your Andradius Orthodox Epl. li. 2. p. 104. though they cōpared the scriptures to a nose of waxe he to a leaden lesbian rule and to their further