the signe of the fayth of Abraham wherein the Iewes might and did glory Thys circumcisiō then wherby suche perill miraculously was shunned was done by a stone not that an earthly stone should be the more estemed but Christ the corner stone be signified by whom al sinnes and transgressions be cut of Exod. 7. and by whom the daunger of eternall death only is auoyded The rod of Aaron Aarons rod. was often turned into a serpent often returned into the own nature which in a figure represented Christe from lyfe to death Exod. 15. from death arising vnto lyfe againe or els that as the rod by deuiding the red sea made a passage open into the lāde of promise so Christ through baptisme into hys death hath prepared the way into lyfe for vs shall nowe the rod of Aaron bicause it wrought such miracle be set vp in the Church The vvod of Marah The trée that was cast into the waters of Marah dyd make them swete in token that the bitternesse of the lawe was taken away by the death of Christe and nowe the mindes of the faythfull people be replenished thorow it with spirituall and aboundaunte pleasure shall therefore the signe of that piece of wood now be worthied of honor The Iewes were preserued from the serpentes stinges Num. 14. by loking on the brasen Image representing also the death of Christ which from infection of damned spirites The brasē Serpent Nume 20. The vvater out of the rock saueth hys elect shal now a piece of brasse or signe of a serpēt be set vp in Churches and reuerently adored The Rocke smittē with Moses hande gushed out of water and the streames flowed in the parched fieldes to satisfy the drought of the thirsty people whereby is signified Christ to be the stone cut out of the quarrey Sine manibus precidentium without any workmans hand which by the liuely liquor of his eternal testament quencheth the thirst of incredulitie crying continually Si quis sitit veniat ad me bibat Ioan. 7. If any man thirst let him come to me and drinke Shall nowe for this respect the rock or riuer be exalted set in place of Gods seruice The fléese of Gideon Iud. 7. Gideons fleese was onely moysted with the deawe when al the earth beside was drie agayne it was only drie vpon the fléese when the deawe fell vpon all the ground to note the Gentilitie of all the worlde destitute of grace voyd of that heauenly and spirituall deawe when onely the fléese of Israell the people of the Iewes were comforted with the showers of Gods word promises Agayne that for want of true beliefe the foresayde people should wither wyth the drought of infidelitie when the heathen folke should be all to be sprinckled with the deawe of heauen as nowe we are by preaching of the gospell But where the threshing place of the barne and fleese of Hierobaal were the meanes whereby the miracle was wrought shall any of them both be nowe magnified of vs Sampson with the Iawbone Iud. 15. Sampsōs Iavvbone of an Asse slewe a thousand men and oute of the chéeke tooth thereof the water ranne to asswage his thirste in signification how Christ our aduocate and mediatour hath ouerthrowen the aduersary power hath by one death destroyed all the enimies of life and hath refreshed the drye soules of faythfull people which be the members of his body with the spirituall drinke of affiance in him Shall we now haue Iawebones and chéeke téeth 2. Reg. 2. Elias cloke 2. Reg. 5. in the Church Elias with his cloke deuided the water of Iordā insinuating vnto vs how Christ by hys incarnation hath made a way to baptisme that by faith in him we may walke on the dry land of securitie dreadelesse of the waues of synne Shall therefore a cloke be hanged vp and a candle lighted before it Naaman Naamans vvashing the Syrian by washing himselfe in Iordan was clensed of his leprosie And shall the signe of Iordan be worshipped of vs The hem of Christs garment The shadovve of Peter Paules handkerchefe The hem of Christes garment conferred health vpon the womā touching it And shal the signe of this be had in estimation The shadowe of Peter healed also some that passed by Likewise the kerchefe handkerchefs of Paule cured diseases and droue out euill spirites shall nowe the signe of a shadowe shall a sory clout be so much made of Therefore if miracles of olde time past wrought as I may graunt you though absolutely I am not bounde to beleue all that you doe bring by meane of a Crosse shall be sufficient cause to make the signe thereof or the selfe same thing to be erected and honoured then shall the fyry bushe the Mountayne of the Lorde the Circumcision of Moses the Rodde of Aaron the woode of Marah the brasen serpent the water of the rocke the fléese of Gideon the Iawebone of Sampson Mat. 9. Act. 5. Act. 19. the cloke of Elias the washing of Naaman the hemme of Christes coate the shadowe of Peter the handkerchefe of Paule be set vp in the Church themselues or their signes For by none of these but miracles were done and as good reason in this respecte to set vp in the Church any one of these as otherwise the Crosse As I haue shewed you the effecte and ende of other miracles reported in the Scripture So when it pleased almighty God to bring moe nations to one fayth in Christ and vsed the Crosse as a meane to worke the lyke by you must as well vnderstande the meaning not to bring the woode into an admiration not to teach vs the seruice of a signe but to confirme the fayth in the crucified and due obedience to him that was signified Fol. 108. a. A Ievvell you saye a precious stone of some straunge vertue if a man haue it muste be kepte vvarely nor the stone be suffered to be broken And shall vve Christen men breake the Crosse of Christ c. An hearbe in the garden medicinable for this or that dysease muste not be rooted out And shall vve roote out of our gardens the holy signe of the Crosse and so forth Well M. Martiall let me aske you this question If ye haue but a glasse and repute it a diamond doth your estimation bring vertue to the thing If ye had a good hearbe and the same be nowe withered wyll ye make as much of it as if it were in the prime The Crosse that ye make so greate accompte of that ye couet to haue set vp in Churches hath not the vertue and power that ye talk of It can not heale It can not preserue It can not daunt the affections of the fleshe It can not driue the wicked spirites from vs. As the meane is gone of the foresayd effectes so are the effectes themselues ceassed Possible it is that in time paste men dyd some good by
of humaine wisdome but in the shewing of the spirite and power The droppes of rayne that fell vpon Iulian made a printe of the Crosse in his garment and the rests Therefore say you it is necessary for euery man to be signed marked vvith the crosse But the Crosse noted them to be persecutors Ergo it is necessary for vs to be noted as persecutors Ye sée howe your owne examples kill you there is nothing that ye bring but maketh against you Ecclesi hist lib. 5. Oap 1. In dede Sozomenus writeth that some did interprete the Crosses on that sorte Christianorum doctrinam esse caelestem oportere omnes Cruce signari That the doctrine of christians was heauenly and that all men ought to be signed with the Crosse But God forbyd we should haue such occasion to be so marked For none were marked but such as had reueged their fayth So that the Crosse doth not alwayes portende goodnesse nor is the signe peculiar vnto Christians If the signe had bene of such force as ye make it Iulian the Apostata would not haue gone forwarde with his attempted mischiefe But forwarde he went though the Crosse continued on his coate styll Wherefore the Crosse is no proufe of vertue Folio 35. The same may be confirmed by the story that followeth For the glittering signe of the Crosse in the element the crossing of the Iewes coates when they would haue reedified their Hierusalem was but a token of Gods wrath and vengeaunce and although it was Signum salutaris Crucis the signe of the healthfull Crosse yet was it not healthfull to them that ware it but rather a testimonie of Gods iust iudgement agaynst them Wherfore as God miraculously did worke and vsed this signe to contrary effectes sometime for comforte sometime to dispeire sometime for the godly sometime to the wicked So muste we not contrary to reason gather an vniuersall onely of the one side and contrary to his will abuse it at our pleasure If it had bene alwayes graunted to the godly and to none but them If it had bene alwayes a signe of succour and not of destruction your argumente then should haue had some apparance of troth or likelyhode Nowe by your owne examples where the wicked onely be signed with the Crosse where the Crosse doth worke nothing but confusion the groundwork of your cause is miserably shaken and you be turned ouer in your owne trip Of all your examples ye inferre your owne fansy what you do thinke Gods meaning was to shew such signes of the Crosse both vnder the law and in the time of grace but of your meaning ye bring no proufe at all eyther out of Scripture or Doctours that ye bragge of Onely for vs your ydle supposall as you thinke may serue Louain hath licenciate you Goddes vvord the ground of religion to make what lies ye lust The substantiall groūd that I spake of before whervpon we ought to builde our religion is the worde of God without the which no facte of man no particular example can proue any thing Then if ye would haue the signe of the Crosse receyued into Gods seruice ye should as well proue Gods will therein and bring his direct authoritie to vs. It suffiseth not to say This vvas once so but rather to shewe This vvas vvel so nor any one example can binde vs now without expresse cōmaundement in Gods boke for it extending to vs during for euer But you deale with gods boke as Epiphanius reporteth of heretiques Qui multos decipiunt Contra Her Lib. 1. To. 2. per malè compositam dominicorum verborum adaptatorum sapientiā Which deceiue many by the wisedome of the Lords words ilfauouredly applied As if a man should take an Image of some notable personage liuely set forth and adorned wyth pearle stone and afterward shuld deface the counterfet of a man in it make a dog or a fox of it Then if he should remoue the iewels and garnishing of the one to the picture of the other and say to them that loke vppon it This is the picture of suche a man or suche and for proufe thereof would bring the pearle and stone so cunningly cowched would ye not think him to be a crafty fellowe and yet beleue him neuer a whitte the soner Euen so fare you For in steade of the texte ye bring forth a contrary misseshapen glose and then ye apparell it with a fewe pearles of Scripture applyed as wel as a precious Diamond to the picture of a grinning dogge And yet a dogge is but a dogge although he had a byshops beste Myter on his heade no more are you but leude liars for all the patch of truth sowed on your cloke of fables Bleare not therefore the peoples eyes deceiue not your selues learne the true seruice of God out of his worde and goe no further The Crosse of Christ is necessary for vs his death and passion is onely our ioy and comforte our life and our redemption but the materiall or mysticall signe thereof is more than nedeth to daungerous to be vsed We haue the worde the ordinary meane to leade vs into all truth we must not beside the word séeke signes tokens We haue the bodies what grope we after shadowes The ende of Ceremonies Ceremonies were giuen vnto the Iewes to be a mound as it were betwene the Gentiles and them to seuer the people of God from other not onely by inward things but also by outward that the people of God should be with in that inclosure the other without and these outward rytes and obseruaunces were an assurance vnto the Iewes that they were lawefull heires of the promise and not the Gentiles But Christ came into the worlde to gather one Church of both peoples and therefore pulled downe the wall that was betwene them Decretae ceremonialia The Decrées of Ceremonies Christ followed herein the pollicy of Princes which if they will gather into societie of one kingdome as it were diuers peoples they will take away the thinges that made the difference before diuersities of coynes and lawes So Christ minding to make one people of the Iewes and Gentiles vtterly did abolish all legall ceremonies And Paul compareth them to a hande writing whereby we be bounde to God that we can not stand in argument agaynst him and deny our debt But by Christ this debte is so remitted that the obligation is cancelled that hand-writing is put out as the Apostle sayth now whē the instrumentes are cut in pieces the obligations cancelled Colos 2. the debter is set frée which we haue purchased by Christes death Wherefore we reade that the vayle of the temple tare to the ende the people might vnderstand therby that their sinnes were remitted and they discharged from burden of the lawe But when the wicked and faythles nation continued after Christes death to exercise in the temple ceremonies which had their ende before and would thrust
chapel erected for hym Ep. Iude. ◠In dede the diuel dyd attempt no lesse then to make it a matter of superstition for we reade that there was a stryfe betwixt hym and Michaell about Moses body but the Angell of the Lord withstode it And although peraduenture by some instructiō ye shall hap vpon the story of Ioseph Iosephes body who required hys brothers to cary hys bones into the lande of Canaan yet doth it not make for your reliques nother For who kneled euer to Iosephes tumbe who brought it euer into the sāctuary who lyghted euer any candell to it Only to assure them of hys fayth in Gods promises and to confirme them that the lande of promise they should enioy he wylled thē as a witnesse to take hys body with them Next vnto Moses amōg the Prophetes were Samuel and Elias Samuel 1. Samu. 25. dyed as the Scripture sayth and all Israell assēbled and mourned for hym and buried hym in hys own house more we haue not Elias was rapt in a fyry charet 2. Reg. 2. hys body was translated not into the Church but into heauen both to testifie the rewarde of immortalitie prepared for the faythful and to cut away occasion of mens Idolatry Furthermore Elisha dyed they buried him And certaine bandes of the Moabites came into the lande that yeare 2. Reg. 13. and as they were burying a man beholde they saw the soldiors therefore they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha and whē the mā was down and touched the bones of Elisha he reuiued and stode vpon hys féete Yet after so great a miracle hys bones were not trāslated there was no pilgrimage appointed to hym there was no chappel erected for hym Ecclesi 48. While he lyued sayeth Iesus the sonne of Syrach he was not moued for any prince neyther could anythyng bryng hym into subiection nothing could ouercome after hys death hys body prophecied he dyd wonders in hys lyfe and in death were hys workes meruellous Yet for al thys the people repented not So that thys miracle confirming the doctrine and calling of Elisha serued as a preaching of penāce to them and not to enforce a worshipping of the body For which cause it is plainly sayd hys body prophecied Whē zelous good Iosias 2. Reg. 23. had taken the bones of the false Prophetes out of their graues and burned them vpon the altare seeyng the sepulchre of the man of God he sayde let hym alone let none remoue hys bones Great cause in appearaunce why they shoulde haue bene remoued thence where so many wycked had lyen buried but suffered they were and honored they were not In the new testamente what shal we thynke the cause that so little mention is made eyther of the buriall or else assumptiō of the Virgin Mary whose vndefiled body was the worthy temple of the holye ghost but that the wysdome of God foresaw what michiefe and Idolatry would soone haue risen of it Mat. 14. Of Iohn Baptist we reade that after he was slayne hys disciples came and toke vp hys body Act. 8. and buryed it Likewise of Stephē whē he was stoned that certayne men that feared God caryed hym among them to be buryed and made great lamentation for hym but of their bones reseruing or bodies trāslating not a word at al. Doubtlesse if such reliques had bene thought profitable to the church of Christ there should not haue ben such silence of them Notwithstanding afterwarde vpon aboundaunce of zeale not onely the memories of the faythfull martyrs but also some parcels of their māgled bodyes began to be kept to little vse of them and ill example to their posteritie Wherefore me thynke they made a ryght good excuse that denying the body of Polycarpus to thē that sued for it sayd Ne Christo relicto hunc colere inciperent It should not be deliuered lest Christ forsaken Euse Eccel His Li. 4 cap. 16. they shoulde begin to serue hym None of the Saincts but haue left behynde them a better memoriall than a scull or a carcase in writing or in doing Let their writings thē be perused of vs the vertuous conuersatiō of their lyfe be followed and they no doubt wil be beste contented In Euchir can 5. Erasmus intreating of such superstitions as you do moste embrace sayde very wisely to the soldior of Christ Veneraris diuos gaudes eorum reliquias contingere sed contemnis quod illi reliquerunt optimum puta vitae purae exempla Nullus cultus gratior Mariae quam si Mariae humilitatem inuteris Nulla religio sanctis acceptior magisque propria quam si virtutem illorum exprimere labores Vis tibi demereri Petrum Paulum Alterius fidem alterius imitare charitatem plus feceris quam si decies Romam cursitaris That is to say Thou worshippest the Saintes thou arte glad to touche their reliques but the beste thyng that they haue lefte behynde them whiche is the examples of a pure lyfe thou contēnest No seruise more acceptable vnto Marye than if thou imitate the lowlinesse of Mary No religion more welcome and more proper vnto Saintes thā if thou study to expresse their vertue Wilt thou procure the fauor of Peter and of Paul follow and resemble the fayth of the one and charitie of the other and thou shalt do more than if thou shouldest gad ten tymes to Rome So much as touching Anastasius reliques Now that I haue proued the Crosse of Chrisostome to make nothing for you the lawes of Iustinian not to prescribe me the example of Augustine the Monke not to bynde me the trāslating of reliques not to be estemed of me it remayneth that your proufes for hauing of a Crosse at singing or saying Letany are insufficient I haue shewed you by the way whose deuyse were Letanyes whence came processyons howe farre we swarue both in the one and in the other from those wylworshippers that first inuented them I haue declared no lesse the fonde abuse of tapers and shameful superstition of Reliques in the Churche both by Gods worde and testimony of good men condemned Wherfore let vs forsakyng vanities of mens deuises seke God and seruyse of hym in Scripture Let vs walke before hym in innocency of lyfe let vs be followers of Sainctes as they were of Christ let vs in hūblenesse of our heart make our prayers vnto hym although we haue no Crosse in procession before vs. But for auoyding of the Crosse the plage of God due for our desertes let vs often vse our Godly Letanie let vs instantly alwayes say From the tyranny of the bishop of Rome and all hys detestable enormities from all false doctrine and heresie from hardnesse of hart frō contempt of thy worde and commaundement good Lord deliuer vs. To the eight Article That many straunge and vvonderfull miracles vvere vvrought by the signe of the Crosse IF signes and miracles which in these latter dayes haue