had in suspicion when there is anie question of their profit or authority Heere my Masters it is easie to shewe you that they lead you in a way by which it is altogether impossible you should bee saved for you are taught simply to beleeve the Church of Rome and without farther enquiry to depend entirely upon her authority and yet you are deprived of all means to know whether this Church whereunto you give credit bee pure and teacheth true doctrine For how should you knowe that should it be by the holy Scriptures yea but this book is not permitted you At Rome and in Spaine to read in it is no lesse than burning at a stake or would you knowe it by the Antients those are greek latin books which the people understand not What knowes an artificer or a woman or an husbandman amongst you whether the Church teacheth conformably unto the Scripture or if their church bee such as it was some 12. or 1500. years since or whether of a long list of Popes pictured the first have beleeved as the last and that the times have altered nothing In briefe you have no other proof of the purity of your church but the witnes of your Church it self whose Prelates vanting themselves that they cannot erre in the meane time deprive you of all means to discern of error from truth by hiding from you the rule of truth which is the holy Scriptures But wherfore should the Roman Church rather have this perfection that the Greek or the Syrian more antient and more pure than the Roman founded by Ies Christ himselfe and by his Apostles and who also brag to have Saint Peters chair Doth the Scripture give unto the Roman Church any prerogative above others or doth it give her the priviledge of not erring From hence doe ensue two things as cleere as the day the one that your faith is grounded onely upon the authority of men and by consequent that your religion is a humane religion and not divine Whosoever saith I beleeve the Gospell and the Word of GOD because the Church ordaineth it maketh the Church more credible than God To doubt of Gods truth is a lesse crime than to make it depend upon men The other is that of all humane witnesses you ground your selves upon the worst and most uncertain for you say your Church is good because shee saith it and so doo make her Iudge in her owne cause not considering that by this word Church you understand not Christian people nor the generality of Pastors but the Pope and some fewe Prelates whose rules are called Church-rules although they tend onely to the profit of the Clergie and the advancement of the Empire of the Bishop of Rome And you poor soules whom God hath framed after his owne Image whom hee hath redeemed with the blood of his Son whom God solliciteth by his Word will you languish alwaies in this captivity will you heap up unto your selves the wrath and indignation of the Lord by rejecting the salvation which is proposed you I confesse that the Roman Chur. in certain points alleageth scripture and that between her and us there is strife about the interpretation but we make use of the Scripture in another manner than those which teach you For first they are afraid the people should read the Scriptures but we exhort men thereunto Secondly they perswade you that the Scripture is obscure and ambiguous but we say all things necessary unto salvation are therein layd downe with much clearness Thirdly they say that the Scripture is an unperfect rule they will needs have another unwritten word and traditions of the Church equall in authority to the Scripture wee on the contrary say that the holie Scripture can make us wise unto salvation 1 Tim. 15. 1 and that wee ought not to bee wise beyond what is written 1 Cor. 6. 4 and that in that which is cleare in the Scriptures and needeth no interpretation are cōtained all the doctrines necessary unto salvation Fourthly when wee alleage the Scripture we alleage it as soveraign Iudge and as it that ruleth the Chur. and giveth her her authority but the Romane Church alleageth the Scripture as a doctrine authorized by the Church and that you ought to receive it because the Church hath ordained it Fiftly when wee interpret the Scriptures wee give not out our interpretations for lawes as doth the Roman Church nor call our selves judges or infallible interpreters of the holy Scriptures Finally when wee interpret the Scriptures wee draw our interpretations from the Scripture it self but the Roman Church draw their interpretations from the unwritten word and from tradition For example wee expound those words This is my body He took the bread gave it c. Do this in remembrance of me By the bread which I give you is the commemoration of my body the which expositiō is found in the text it self of the institution of the sacrament or by these words of the Apostle 1. Cor. 10. 16 The bread which wee break is the communion of the body of Christ Your Teachers do not thus interpret the Scriptures for they draw their interpretations from the unwritten word and from tradition When the Lord said to Peter I have prayed that thy faith fail not they say that by these words Saint Peter and the Popes of Rome his successours were promised the vertue that they could not erre but the Scripture speaketh not of Popes or of Bishops of Rome nor grants unto Saint Peter any successor in his Apostleship So Malachie speaketh of a pure oblation which was to bee made in all places Mal. 1. 11 This oblation according to the interpretation of these Masters is the Masse in which they say the body of Christ is really sacrificed But this interpretation is taken out of the unwritten word for the holy scripture speaketh not of any Masse nor of the sacrifice of the body of Iesus Christ nor establisheth any sacrificers in the Church to sacrifice the Son of God So when the Scripture saith Thou shalt worship one God and shalt serve him alone The interpretations of these Masters is that God forbiddeth onely the worship of Latria but not the adoratiō of Dulia which is an inferiour religious service But the Scripture speaketh not of the adoration of Dulia nor of any other religious service then that which is due unto God These are interpretations which the Romane Church draweth from the unwritten word which is at the discretion of the Romish Church nor can bee learned but from her mouth for I doo not think there is any that ever hath seen all the instructions of this unwritten word reduced into one body Bellar. in Barkl c. 3. He thinkes not rightly of the chur of the chur of Christ that admits nothing but what hee reads expresly to have bin alledged or practised in the old chu as if the Church of later time either ceast to be a chr or hath not
the very goodnes of GOD. Nay which is more it was never seene that any of the people did ever forge any Heresie through reading of the Scripture All our Heresiarchs have been persons that have had place in the Church Now if to reade the holy Scripture wee must have speciall leave given us is it not a miserable thing that wee may not obey God but upon sufferance and that God can have no servants without the Bishop of Romes permission Or if they say it is not for ignorant people to read them I answer that all men are ignorant in religion before they read them and that men may not without impiety ascribe any skil unto themselves in religion besides or without the Scripture Shake off then my Masters this scrupulous feare by which God is wronged as if his Word were contagious and a snare laid for weake consciences lest upon you bee accomplished the Prophecy of Esay Esay 5. 13 My people are in captivity because they bee without knowledge and the saying of our Saviour You erre not knowing the Scriptures Let not this pretious treasure bee wrung out of your hands this contract of our spirituall marriage with the Sonne of God hould them as suspected persons who during this night of ignorance do hide this heavenly Light and in the mean time light up their owne candles at high-noon Hope not to bee saved by the faith of others for God declares unto us Hab. 4. 2 that The iust shall live by his owne faith Mat. 15. 14 and that If the blinde lead the blinde they shall both fall into the ditch Now that you may knowe that they take the Scriptures away from you not to keep you in sobriety but to detaine you in ignorance consider that in the Roman Church they read publikely unto you some chapters of the Bible in a tongue which you understand not If in these chapters GOD were spoken unto one might excuse it saying that GOD understands all languages but these chapters are divine Lectures in which God speaketh unto men Tell me in conscience wherefore should God bee a Barbarian unto us and speak to us in an unknowne tongue Wherefore speaks hee unto men but to the end they should understand him Wherefore should those things which every where else would be esteemed ridiculous and against cōmon sense bee thought good and comely in religion But is it not a sleight of the enimy of our salvation that he might make Christianity ridiculous and hinder the Word of God from beeing understood of you to the end likewise that the threatning may be accomplished which God useth to a people with whom hee is angry I will speak to this people by men of other language 1 Cor. 14. 21. in a strange tongue and so they shall not understand mee This evil hath produced another for in taking away from you the holy Scriptures which make men learned they have given you Images which they call the books of ignorant men because they nourish ignorance therewithall they busie the people in stead of instructing them in stead of teaching them they make them passe-time But because that against this same the second of Gods commandements is expresse which forbids in matter of Gods service to make any Image and to fall downe before any representation of anie thing in Heaven or earth and that his Law pronounced with thundering affrighteth even to this day this superstition these Doctours have imposed silence unto this Lawe of God and dare to raze out this commandement out of those books praiers and service-bookes which they appoint them to use A thing wherin wee may suspect our owne eyes and hardly beleeve when wee see it that very wormes of the earth have made so bould as to correct the Law of God pronounced with his owne mouth yea that same Lawe by which they shall bee judged at the last day Vnto such enterprises the holie sacred name of Church serveth as a cloak It is said that the Church cannot erre that she is soveraign Iudge of the points and doubts of faith that shee is the faithfull interpreter of the Scripture By which Church is understood not the Greek nor the Syrian nor the African although more ancient more pure than the Romane but onely the Romane Church which having never been but a particular Church cals herself the Vniversall By this meanes the Church of Rome is becomne Iudge in her own cause The Greek Chur. more ancient than the Roman complaineth that the Roman Church is revolted and separated from her producing against her her chaires her succession her antiquity In this contestation the Romane Church vanteth herself to bee Iudge and so will bee both Iudge and Party In the question whether the Romane Church can erre shee herselfe will be Iudge and which is more whē there is question of deciding what the Churches duty is the Romane Church will bee soveraigne Iudge to the end shee may have no other lawes but of her owne establishing and what shee will carve out for her owne self And moreover when the sense and interpretation of the Lawe of God lieth at the stake shee esteemeth herself the infallible expounder and reputes her owne interpretation of equall authority with the Law of God yet is it certaine that by this Law shee shall bee judged at the later day Now there is no rashnes so extravagant as to put sinners for infallible judges of the sense of the Lawe by which their sinnes are to be judged What obedience think you is the Soveraign Master to look for if his servants may say unto him Thou hast indeed commanded us that same but wee interpret it thus and doo judge that thy commandement ought thus to bee understood and thou knowest that wee are undoubted judges in such matters and that our interpretations are of equal authority to thy commandements By this reckoning it were better to bee servant than Master By which of these two thinke you shall the Prelates of the Church of Rome be judged at the last day whether by the Law of God or by their owne interpretations I referre this to the judgement of any man that hath but the remainder of common sense left him or any spark of free and unpreocupate conceipt which of the two ought rather to be supream Iudge in religion whether God ruling and teaching the Church by his Word or the church that ought to receive this Word and obey him Who shall rather be Iudge the scripture which cōmands there should be a Church and giveth it lawes or the Church which onely giveth attestation that that is the Scripture specially considering that even this testimony may be given by a corrupt Church and disobedient to this Scripture Who shall bee rather Iudge the Scripture which is one and judgeth without passion or the Church which is divided into cōtrary churches which cannot bee assembled and whose Pastors are subject to ambition and avarice and fitter to bee
works are necessary unto salvation for men goe not to Heaven by the way of hell nor unto the Kingdome of God by serving the divell 2. Our religion teacheth that the predestinated unto salvation are also predestinate to live holily To say I may abandon my self unto evill seeing I am elected it is the language of a reprobate who will be bad because God is good and who makes of the grace of God which is a spurre unto vertue a pillow to sleep upon in all vice 3. Our religion beleeveth that God rewardes good works but with a salary freely given 4. We beleeve that God constraineth not our wills but bendeth them and causeth them to give themselves willingly unto good 5. We esteem it not a thing unjust that God should demand at mans hands that which hee cannot when man doth owe it and when his unablenesse commeth of his owne default fault 6. We honor the Saints as they honoured the Saints that were before them 7. For the understanding of the Scriptures wee content our selves with that which we finde clear in them and leave particular inspirations to frantick persons 8. Wee deny not the omnipotency of God in the Eucharist but rule our selves according to his will wee use the Sacrament of the Communion not to make Iesus Christ but to honor him not to make his body descend unto us but to elevate our hearts to him Wee undertake not to take GOD in this life but content our selves that hee take us at our deaths Wee feare not that God can fall to the ground or be stolne away or gnawn by mice or eaten by his enemies We beleeve not that the Son of God and the divell could enter both together into Iudas nor that Iesus Christ did eat himself seeing it was nothing necessary for our salvation Our religion is a religion which acknowledgeth no other head of the Church but Iesus Christ nor other rule of faith then his Word nor other propitiatory sacrifice then his Death nor other purgatory then his Blood nor other merit than his Obedience It is a religion which would have the people to read the word of God because we fear not to finde our condemnation therein and which speaketh in a knowne tongue for that it is not ashamed of her beleef It is a religion which holdeth fasting to bee in abstinence and not in distinction of meats wee fast for exercise of humility and not in opinion of merit or satisfaction wee borrow not other mens satisfactions but wee beleeve with the Apostle That every one shall bear his owne burden It is a religion which distrusting her owne works beleeveth in Gods promises which preacheth the assurance and not the doubt of her salvation recommendeth an humble assurance and not an arrogant perplexity by which they that set forth their merits make a profession to doubt of their salvation It is a religion wherein men confesse they have often don that which God hath forbidden farre from having done more than hee hath commanded so farre from dooing overmuch as that they faile even of that which is necessary they pretend not to make God a debter by their works of supererogation but confess themselves debters through their disobedience It is a religion which in stead of forming of stones to the likenesse of man endeavoureth to reforme man unto the image of God which in stead of adoring a wooden crosse adoreth the crucified trusteth in his passion and glorieth in his reproach It is a religion which beleeves not that God taketh pleasure to torment the soules of his children in burning fire and to punish them for faults already ready pardoned and for which Iesus Christ hath fully satisfied by punishment which serveth not to amend the sinner but to content the Iustice of God It is a religion which maketh not her praiers by count nor placeth the power of it in the number of the repetition of one the self same praier but in the faith and disposition of the heart It is a religion which holdeth that faith consisteth not in ignorance but in knowledge which equally distributeth holy things to rich and poor not like as in the Romane Church whose dispensations letters of absolution are sold and particular Masses never said for him that hath nothing to give Briefly it is a religion which hath lesse splendour without but more solidness within which will endure narrow sifting which ordaineth few ceremonies but giveth much instruction You wil heer say But these things are new How new seeing Iesus Christ and his Apostles have thus taught Indeed these are new to persons brought up in an inveterate errour and you knowe that healing is alwaies newer than sicknes but wee must alwaies goe up to the spring-head of truth in comparison of which all ould errour is new Never did any man oppose himselfe to any rooted errour settled by long custome who hath not been accused of novelty And this reproach of novelty is very unseemly in their mouthes who hide from the people the true Antiquity which is the holy Scriptures and who to this day maintaine that the Church can make new ordinances touching faith and by the Church understand no other but the Roman who in the very first time after the Apostles cannot shewe one man of their religion who knowe that in all Antiquity there is no mention made of excluding the people from the cup nor of forbidding from the reading of the Scriptures nor of reading the Scriptures unto them in an unknowne tongue which they understand not nor of picturing the Trinity nor of adoring Images nor the Hoste with the adoration of Latria nor of private Masses nor of the Bishop of Romes Court nor of his Indulgences and Church-Treasure nor of his power to depose Kings draw soules out of Purgatory nor of many other new corruptions which they plaister over with the fraudulent title of Apostlique traditions as if they came from the Apostles The themselves who thus vaunt of Antiquity are those which use the antient Doctours most coursely censuring and condemning them upon slight occasion who will that the Fathers should be interpreters of the Scriptures in case they themselves alone may be the fathers interpreters and the Iudges of Antiquity who not only condemn every Father personally but also whole Councels where the Fathers speake in common Three universall Coūcels did condemn Honorius Bishop of Rome for Cotton in the preface of his Catholique institution speaks thus of these two universall Councels an heretique but at this day they maintain that those Councels mistook themselves Greece began in the year 388. to rebell against the holy Sea to thwart the Bishop of Rome giving him the Bishop of Constantinople for a Second At the first Councell of Constantinople in the yeare 381. there were a hundred and fiftie Orthodox Bishops and 630. in the Councell of Chalcedon the yeare 450. Neither this great number nor their great Antiquity hindreth our
adversaries from condemning all those Fathers for equalling the Bishoppe of Constantinople to him of Rome in ecclesiasticall matters And it is marvelous how these men dare speak of Councels Afterwards in the year 450. they said they had the same priviledges seeing they knowe the day night are not more contrary than the ancient Councels and the new in which the Pope ruleth and ordaineth all but the other bishops give their opinion only with bowing of the head in signe of approbation At the beginning of which they lay down the holy Scripture at the Popes feet in witnes that the Word of God is subject unto him where the Pope is seated on a high Throne having the Emperor sitting at his feet In brief wee may see by the practice of these later Councels and above all by the Councel of Florence and the last of Lateran and by the book of sacred ceremonies that a Councell now within these few Ages is no other than a papal consistory though with more soleminity whereas in the antient Councels the bishop of Rome durst not be present and his deputies ordinarily had no precedencie there nor authority far from ordaining that no book shall be canonicall without the Popes authority and that all Kings should kiss his feet and to declare that there is no other name under Heaven but that of the great Bishop Annal. Baron which are the decrees of the Roman Councell under Gregory the seventh Anno. 1078 the yeare 1076. Briefly it is certain that they which buzze in your eares the Fathers and Councels do it not because the Antients are favourable unto them but because they knowe that the people can knowe nothing of them and that they must needs in those things referre themselves unto them But as for the Scripture which you ought to knowe and which ruleth all the Fathers it is that which is forbidden you In summe yeares are no rules and lying is ever since the beginning of the world The Church is not in a Countrey of custome but where the written truth is There is no prescription against divine truth yea even in the time of the Apostles the mystery of iniquity was a-brewing how far ought it now then to bee advanced And indeed as wel the people as the pastors of the Ro. Church have these many Ages cried out that their Church had need of reformation In the Councell of Pysa held in the yeare 1411 Pope Alexnder the fift in the twentieth Session promised solemnly to intend the reformation of the Church and to assemble for that purpose the most learned of all Nations A while after was held a Councell at Senes the yeare 1423. where the proposition of the reformation of the Church was revived and then put off to another time for they saw they could not stir this stone without shaking the papall seat That which the great ones would not doo God hath performed by the hands of little ones using unhoped for means to expose unto the view of the world the doctrine of salvation maugre al the machinations of Satan Vnto those that have endeavored and do yet endeavour to perfect this work you are thus much beholding as that the holy Scripture which the people saw not heertofore is now translated into the vulgar tongue and that the Spirit of God speakes it so as none can be ignorant of the Word of God but he that hood-winks himself lest hee should see the light You are also thus much more beholding unto them that the Pope doth lesse tyrannize over you than he did some foure or five hundreth yeares since and that your servitude is by a quarter lesse burdensome Such Buls are found in Math. Paris and in the 3. Tome of Councels at the end of the Councell of Lateran vnder Innocent the third For in those daies the Pope gave to the French which armed themselves for him and at his commandement besides the remission of all their sins a degree of glory in Paradise above others whereas now if he should send them to goe into a farre Countrey upon a Croysada to fight against Hereticks or to take-in some Townes of their neighbours to the Popes use as was done not very long since you your selves would mock at his commandement In former times when any King angred him his custome was to interdite his Kingdome and so put as far as in him lay many millions of persons out of the communion of the Church cause all divine service to cease in a large Countrey cause the Bels to bee still hinder Burialls and to expose the Countrey in preie to him could first conquer it England was six years and a half in this estate in the time of King Iohn but now-a-daies he drawes no more that weapon lest bestirring himselfe too hard hee overturne his owne chair which the doctrine of the gospell hath already much shaken You owe them moreover this obligation that you see not as in the time of Boniface the ninth and Leo the tenth Pardoners to run from house to house through France who for half a crown sould every one remission of all their sins and deliverance of a soule out of Purgatory The time hath bin that in France there was no speech but of miracles and of Saint Anthonies fire and of the apparition of damned soules or others returning from Purgatory of which illusions the greater part is vanished at the Sunne-rise of the holy Scriptures which the night of ignorance had hidden And if now they doo any petty miracles it is in secret and never in our sight for before a man that feareth God and knoweth him Satan is as it were afflicted and loseth his fense-play yea even your owne Magistrates have punisht these deceivers There bee but a few amongst you that doo wholly beleeve your owne religion but doo finde some fault in the Romish Church for indeed it would be a hard matter to endure the decrees and glosses which say that a Tit. 8 de Praebend cap. Proposuit According to the fulness of our power we may lawfully dispense above law Where the Glosse also The Pope doth dispense against the Apostle as also against the old Testament as also in another Glossa dist 34. can lector The Pope can dispense against the Apostle Et causa 23. qu. 1. can Sunt quidam The Glosse hath it thus Hee the Pope dispenseth in the Gospell by interpreting it the pope is above law and right and that he can dispense against the Apostle and against the gospell and which cals b Glossa extrav Cū inter Our Lord god the Pope the Pope god and c Concil Lat. ultimum sess 9. The countenance of thy divine Majesty Bellarm. in Barkl c. 31. Christ gaue to Peter in a good sense power to make of sinne no sinne and of no sinne sinne the divine majesty or those fabulous Legends which compare and equall in many things S. Dominick and S. Francis with Iesus Christ or the