they might crucifie him Now I demaund of our aduersaries what they can require in the outward estate of a Church that was not in this Church here If it be antiquitie they were from Abraham If it were calling they were Priestes and Scribes If it be a place this was the Lordes house If it be a councill this was solemnely holden against Christ in Ierusalem who was there expressely condemned Be it whether they consider the assemblye of the people or of the Prelates this was the visible Church And yet they cannot denie but this Church hath most foullie erred in the matter of saluation crucifying Saluation himselfe vnlesse they will denie that Christ was our saluation But the reason hereof is very apparant which is that they sought him not in the Lawe and the Prophetes but in their traditions Caballs or vnwritten verities For the shepheards in the fields knew him and the pastors of the people set their doggs vpon him This also is the reason that they were likened to an earthly King deuiding the kingdomes of the earth among their owne whereof it came to passe that there was not any one which promised not himself acrowne or the gouernment of some countrey whereas they sawe that the true Christ was poore naked euil intreated not so much as promising to his a place to laye their heads in To be short it is so farre of that they shoulde haue acknowledged him for the true Christ for that as they pretended they were the visible Church that if they had accompted any for such a one this should haue bene an infallible argument to them that had readde the Scriptures that he could not haue bene the Christ forasmuch as it was expressely foretold by the Prophetes that they should not knowe him Behold then what is fallen out to the Iewes sayth Saint Paul To whom be longeth the adoption and the glory the couenauntes and the ordinance of the Lawe and the seruice of God and the promises Of whom also the fathers are descended and of whom also according to the flesh Christ himself came c. To witt that for hauing reiected the Lord of glory their pouertie was made the riches of the Gentiles their reiection the reconciliation of the world In such sort that God in steade of turning away from mankinde for the blindnesse of his owne people hath taken occasion thereby to adopt al peoples for his people Let vs not say therefore any more that the Church cannot erre because that God is firme in his promises but rather that God is truely sure in his promises and constant in his mercies forasmuch as he maketh no diuorce with her albeit she hath abandoned him and strangely played the harlot so inlarging the bowels of his compassion towards mankinde and turning his great wrath into so inspeakeable mercie as at this day we see in our time in the great number which he hath withdrawne and dailye doeth withdrawe from the Swynishe filthe of the Popedome It remayneth then nowe that we see whether that the Christian Church which is vnder grace hath had any more speciall grace not to erre wherin we haue alwaies to call to our remēbrance that the Church at this day is vniuersall that is to say spred throughout the whole world and that the promises of God are not any longer tyed to any one place or to any one people but are stretched ouer all peoples and places where he is serued and worshipped Nowe this vniuersal Church hath goodly great promises I wil make an euerlasting couenant vvith them saith the Lord I vvill put my sanctuarie in the middest of them for euer I vvill be their God and they shal be my people Behold that which Ezech. the Prophete hath foretold of the couenaunt made by the comming of Christ with his vniuersall Church Iesus Christ also saith himselfe I vvill be with you vntill the ende of the world Also I vvill send you my spirit vvhich shal teach you all things c. But to the ende that hereby we do not imagine as the Iewes did our selues to be a visible Church which is alwayes of one sorte whatsoeuer she doe the condition is euermore added If you shall heare my voyce if you be my people if you shall teache that vvhich I commaunde you if you shall loue me and abide in my vvord For if you shal not abide therein saith our Lord you are not my disciples and those which are not his disciples cannot boast that they are taught by his Spirite to the ende not to be deceyued The prerogatiue then that is in the visible Christian Church is not that she cannot erre in her particular parts but rather that being vniuersall when one part doth fall the other doth help it vp and when the one doth goe astray the other may bring it into the way againe yea and the particular members do their dutie when the more apparant leaders of the Church do guide it to destruction Againe on the other side in that she is vniuersal it ought a great deale rather to beat downe this same particular presumption of not being deceyued in the whole Church forasmuch as when there is a temple either ouerthrowne or prophaned that sacrifices as in times past cease not any more but rather of the ruines remainders others may be els where builded vp againe where there was neuer any such S. Paul feared lest that the Serpent which seduced Eue through his subtiltie should turne the Church of the Corinthians from Christ and his simplicitie if she were turned away from his Gospell He meaneth then that she might erre He also chideth the Galathians who after they had Christ drawne as it were liuely before their eyes and crucifyed amōgst them that they were so suddenly carried awaye to an other Gospell This therefore is not onely a thing possible but a thing I say which heretofore hath come to passe euen whiles the Apostles liued To be short he warneth the Thessalonians that Antichrist that sonne of perdition should sitt in the temple of God that is to say in the Church there to confound al things and that euen in his time this mysterie of iniquitie began to work It could not be then that she erred in light matters onely but euen in the matter of saluation forasmuch as she had receyued imbraced her perdition euen in the middest of her owne bowelles The which thing if we shal marke by experiēce we shal finde that euery where where Iesus Christ sowed the truth and the good graine by the hands of his Apostles the deuill that watcheth whiles that the husbandmen slept sowed there his darnell lying and finally there so besturred himselfe in tilling plowing it that he choked the seede of our Lord in many places vntill that he had brought to passe that he was acknowledged for the master of the haruest The zeale of those of the
his word cherished nourished vp in the faith and she at the first giuing vs sucke and afterwards more fast and strong meate through the Communion of Christ his bodye in the Supper we are more and more vnited to him and by this meane inuested into that heauenly inheritance It followeth then that she is the pure Church and true mother who bringeth foorth vs her children through Baptisme regenerateth norisheth vs through the worde knitteth vs to Christ and so a-amongst our selues one to another through the Sacrament of his Supper that is to saye shee is the true mother in which the worde of God is purely preached and the Sacraments according to the same worde duely administred In the Church of Iuda and Israel Circumcision occupied the place of Baptisme the Passeouer of the Supper the worde of God alwayes keeping his place as the ordinarie nourishment of the children of God and therefore we see that after their entrie into the land of Canaan Iosue being admonished by the Lord to repaire those faults committed in the desert made the people to be circumcised and bound them by an othe if they would be his people to keepe the word of God that is to saye if they would bee his Church Likewise Iosias after so great confusions and mingle mangles when he would reforme the Church in which there was not so much as that visible marke which circumcision had left in the flesh we see that he began there first digging vp as it were the law which had bene buried published the same and made the people to sweare solemnly vnto it And cōsequently he caused a Passeouer to be proclaymed in these woordes Celebrate the passeouer of the Lord your God as it is written in the booke of this couenant that is to say according to the ordināce of the Lord your god Esdras also after he was returned frō Babylon for to reedifie the temple and to restore the Church he began at these foundations he expoundeth the lawe vnto the people and maketh thē to sweare in the forme of that couenant and after to nourish and fortifie them in the hope of their saluation to come he restoreth againe the true vse of the Paschall according to those things sayeth he which were written in the booke of Moses To be short al the true seruants of God after that there came any great scattering of the Church being willing to redresse it they haue alwaies before al other things restored these markes no otherwise then a good Captaine who after a great slaughter confusion raungeth his men into an aray and planteth his standerds in some high place to the end they may shew them selues to all sides Iesus Christ who is the true husband hath giuen vs no other markes to knowe his espouse by For this cause that he calleth the Church his wife he teacheth her her duety which is to obey his worde and not to hearken to the voyce of a straunger not to lose the tokens nor to defile the Iewels and pledges of her mariage but marke how he speaketh in expresse wordes He that is of the trueth heareth my voice And againe My sheepe heare my voice and I knowe them and they followe me and in another place Ye heare not because you are not of god The pure wife and Church then of the trueth is onely she which heareth the voyce of Christ Not a voyce in the ayre or an imaginatiue voyce but that voyce which hath it Echo out of the scriptures and which will resound vntill the end to witte the same that is pronounced by the mouth of his Prophets Apostles vpon which Saint Paul teacheth vs that the Church is founded Christ Iesus being the chiefe corner stone This is the cause why sending foorth his Apostles to erecte the Christian Churches he saith vnto thē Goe and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father c. and teaching them to keepe all that I haue commanded you And in the Actes we reade that the faithfull continued in the doctrine of the Apostles in the Communion breaking of bread in prayers which is no other thing but a briefe description of the true Church of Christ instructed by the worde in true faith and knit together in true charitie through the Communion that is in him The which thing S. Ambrose teacheth vs saying that the Catholique Church is that where God speaketh with his seruāts and S. Augustine also whē he placeth the ministerie of ministers pastors of the Church in the word of God Sacramēts Let vs yet adde hereunto the third mark of this church albeit it be not of the substance but outward to wit the lawful vocation of pastors ministers of the Church which haue the administration of the things aforesaid For seeing that there is question of preaching be it by the word or by the Sacraments which are vnto vs as a word that may be felt and that to preach it behoueth that the ministers be sent it is very necessary that the Church of God haue an order to send forth their pastors But more shal be seene of this point in another place We wil call then the true pure Churches all those wherein we finde the worde of God and Sacraments purely and lawfully administred that is to say as Cyprian saith according to the institution of the Lorde And we nothing doubt to communicate with them that God is there president howsoeuer in some certaine pointes of doctrine there haue bene some errour and in the outward policie some abuse and corruption and impuritie in maners for it behooueth that alwayes we resort thither when the chiefe pointes of the foundation of our saluation be there truly taught seeing we are men the Churches are compounded of men as speache and language consist of syllables and letters of the qualities of which men as long as the Church is in this world she is alwayes a partaker As concerning the false and impure Churches they are not so easely to be defined Trueth soundnes and right are but of one sort but errors diseases crookednesses are without nomber Againe there are many kindes degrees of impure Churches notwithstanding we can say in one worde that al those Churches are impure in which the word of the Lord and his Sacraments are impurely ministred that is are administred both against the honor of God and the saluation of our neighbour and because that the whole Gospel is nothing else but faith and charitie and whole Christ nothing but head and body we may make two principall kindes thereof calling those Heretikes which erre in the faith doctrine of Christ those schismatikes which sunder themselues from charitie and from the communion of his body which is the Church yea although they agree otherwise to the trueth of doctrine in all pointes Nowe as there are many pointes in the
they who haue nothyng but theyr boasting and vaunting although they haue the greatest titles honors in the world to be on theyr side If therefore our aduersaries aske vs what was the calling of our first Ministers which refourmed the Church in these last times we answere that it was the same vocation and succession whereof they themselues doe bragge but the same vocation which they abused our men haue endeuoured to vse will and to that vaine succession wherewith they decked themselues they haue added the succession of true doctrine which they had corrupted without which all succession is nothing els but a continuing of abuse and error Wickleife Iohn Hus Luther Zwinglius Decolompadius Bucer and others of that schoole from whence the Ministers which haue gathered Churches from vnder Antichrist are descended were Priests as they cal them and doctors in diuinitie As Priests Pastors they had charge to preach the trueth vnto the people to minister the Sacraments vnto them according to the institutiō of our lord As doctors they were called to expound diuinitie in their readings in theyr bookes and they were bounde by the ordinary othe of al vniuersities to declare the trueth vnto the Church to confute al doctrines repugnant against the word of God and what then might to expell it Now in their time they found that the word of God was hid vnto the people that the honor which was due to God alone was turned to men to Images that the blood of Christ was troden vnder foote that the sacrament of the supper was partly turned into Idolatry partly denyed to the poore people To be short that all the holy scripture was prophaned poysoned with the Popes gloses popish interpretations And when they shewed these thinges to the Bishops and Metropolitans according to the order of their Church they made no rekoning of thē they were the first that persecuted thē because they themselues were the infected parte of the Church I aske therefore if theyr vocation commaunded them not to goe farther to witte to preach the trueth vnto the people and purely to administer the holy Sacraments And if they had done otherwyse whether they had not bin forsakers of theyr calling contenmers of theyr othe made vnto God and abusers of the people Both two therefore say I both our aduersaries and our first ministers had one and the same ordinarie outward calling But herein is the difference that that which ours haue followed the other haue forsaken that which ours haue done of duetie by reason of their charge the other haue cōcealed Ours haue ledde their sheepe vpon the mountaines of Israel into good pastures the others haue deuoured them or els left them for a pray to the beastes of the field or els driuen them to the fennes and marishes where they haue starued A magistrate shall be called to the gouernment of a common wealth where he shall finde the good lawes corrupted by the negligence or malice of those that went before his Courts full of iniustice the offices subiect to factions briberies and corruptions and he would reforme all this and bring it to the censure of the lawes He that will further nowe aske him by what right he doth this should he not make him self a laughing stocke because he followeth steppe by steppe his calling He hath not sworne to mainteyne abuses but rather to mainteyne the lawes and to prouide euery way that he can for the good and preseruation of the Common wealth Nowe contrarywise if he wincke at that which is euil he should doe directly contrary to his calling Euen so likewise haue our first Ministers done first requiring reformation and afterwards putting to their handes according to their duetie And if we could aske of the Apostles who are their true successors they would not tel vs Such as haue a triple crowne or such a cope or such a miter but those that preach the word of God after our example For so had they learned of the true master That he which doth the wil of God his father is his mother his sister and his brother At the preaching of these first men the pastors of the Churches were awakened in England in Bohemia in Germanie in Scotland in Denmarke in Swedenland and afterwardes many in Fraunce in Spaine and in Italie it selfe and these were sent to bethinke them of their duetie Consequently some whole Realmes were reformed the bishops themselues that there had preached lyes preached the trueth in the selfe same Church pulpit Of these for the most part if our aduersaries will demaund succession it is on their side for they haue succeeded from bishop to bishop frō the first which preached there the Gospell If they aske a vocation why it is euen their owne for they were called to be bishopps and pastors and they haue performed the office which they had forsaken The difference therefore as we haue said is in this onely point that they feede the people with pescod shales and the others in the pasture of life they defile their flockes with the filthinesses of Antichrist and these wash them in the blood of Iesus Christ Beholde then concerning the calling of our first Ministers which hath whatsoeuer may be good in the pretended calling of our aduersaries and this point further That our men lawfully exercise it and the other do but withhold it in vnrighteousnesse And although some of our men as in so corrupt a state of the Church as we haue seene it in our time without wayting for their calling or allowance of them that vnder the title of pastors oppressed the Lords flocke were called by those Churches to which they vowed their ministery yet this ought no more to be thought straunge then in a free common wealth where the people without wayting either for the consent or voyces of those that playe the tyrants shal haue chosen according to the lawes good and lawful magistrates Concerning the vocation of Ministers which were sent by the former and since by vs we haue herein obserued the example of the Apostles and the canons of the primitiue Church If the question be of their persons we haue lawfully examined both their doctrine and maners And this is the rule of Saint Paul That a bishop must be apt to teach and blamelesse If of the persons which make this examination why it was not one man alone but many ministers bishops and elders duely called before to this Church that is to say the Presbyterie or eldershippe as Saint Paul calleth it or as Saint Cyprian calleth it the ecclesiasticall Senate During this examination whereupon dependeth the election the Church continueth in prayer and fasting as we reade in the ordeining of elders in the Acts. Being found meet they are published to the people to the end that if any man hath ought to say against their election he might repaire before the assemblie as we reade was practised
in the olde Church euen by the testimony of Paynims Finally by the cōsent of al the people they lay their hands vpon thē they giue thē aucthoritie to preach which is the only ceremonie that the Apostles vsed by imitation of the Church of the Iewes after which they began to administer the word sacraments in the Church This is that the auncient Canons saye That the minister of the Church must be ordeined by the election of the Clergie by the consent of the people That a Bishop should not be chosen vvithout a nomber of bishops c. At the request of the Clergie that is to say of the elders vvith the consent of the people Againe that they which are come to a bishopricke by mony or fauour they should not be holden for Bishops neyther haue any right to ordeyne others Nowe wee report our selues to the church of Rome it selfe who are more canonically elected they or we whether these canons haue not bene altogether contemned amongst them for the space of more then these 800. yeres If the questiō be of bishops either ordeyning or ordeyned they come to their Byshoprickes eyther through fauor of the princes court or else by the subtilties of the court of Rome or by paying of mony And there be who are made bishops for the seruice of theyr predecessors before they were borne at that time when it was doubtful whether they should be male or female man or womā The thing it self speaketh euery man seeth it knoweth it before I can speake of it If of the examination which is made by this a mā may iudge what it is like to be whē he seeth a great part of the bishops of the church of Rome that know not whether their Masse be in Greke or Latine their liues are so knowē I touch not those few that behaue thēselues better that theyr Cardinals chosen in the time of Pope Paul the thyrd for a reformation confesse in theyr articles that for theyr wicked liues and horrible outrages the name of God was blasphemed throughout all nations If of the consent of the people which S. Cyprian so much requireth which we see so wel put in practise in the person of Eradius that was S. Augustines successor they present their bishops to the people not to haue their consent to approue thē but to cause thē to worship them for fashion sake only and not altogether in good earnest Now if we come to the simple priestes the ignorant bishops do yet make them of the most ignorant and of the most vitious worse then themselues so that the time whereof the Prophet complayneth hath endured a long time in the Church that whosoeuer would might consecrate his hand We ministers therefore at this day haue the same succession that their bishops had For from the first that reformed the Churches no man could take it away vnto this they haue further added the continuall successiō of the true doctrine But their vocation is farre better and more canonical for besides that they were ordeined by those that the church of Rome had ordeined they are ordeined according to the example of the Apostles and auncient canons which Antichrist and his mainteyners haue vtterly disanulled wheras examining the election of the Romish bishops you shal haue much a do to find one that may rightly be called a bishop Against this which hath bene said nothing can be alledged vnlesse it be that these first reformers of the Church Iohn Hus Luther Zwinglius Decolompadius others from whom ours are descēded they were not bishops but onely priestes doctors To this we answere That a Minister a Bishop in the primitiue Church were al one and that if there be any difference at this day in their titles and myters yet that in their essentiall dignitie they differ not a whitte S. Paule sayeth to Titus I left thee in Candie to the end thou shouldest ordeyne elders in euery citie And afterwards willing to shew him howe he shoulde gouerne there he addeth For it behoueth that a Bishop be faultlesse c. Also it is sayd in the Actes That he sent to seeke the Elders or Seniors of Ephesus But marke the waighty exhortation he maketh to them Take heede sayth he to your selues to the vvhole flock ouer vvhich the holy Ghost hath made you Bishoppes or ouerseers In the Epistle to the Philippians he saluteth the Deacons and Bishoppes of that citie that is to saye the auncients S. Peter also exhorting the Bishops or elders Feede saith he the flock vvhich is committed vnto you hauing an eye ouer them as Bishoppes or ouerseers c. And in deede where Saint Paul rekoneth vp the names of all the degrees in the Church he maketh no mention of bishops but onely of pastors and doctors to the elders it is said Feede teach doe the duetie of Bishops It is then most apparent that elders whome you call priests Bishops were all one And Ireneus also calleth Anicetus Pius Hyginus Bishops of Rome no otherwise then by the name elders This is that S. Hierom saith in a certayne Epistle handling this matter Among our ancients Bishop elder vvere both one but the one is the name of age the other of office or dignitie as the Apostle hath plainly shevved vs. And in another place Before one sayd I hold of Cephas I of Apollo c. all things vvere gouerned in the Church by the cōmon aduise of the Seniors or elders Aftervvardes to auoyde Schismes aduise vvas giuen that one should be chosen aboue others But as on the one side the elders are subiect vnto him so on the other side they must knovv in that that he is aboue the elders it is by custome and not by the Lords ordināce S. Ambrose expoūding the 4. of the Ephe. where the degrees of the Church are largely handled The Bishops sayeth he vvere called at the first Elders vvherupon one succeeded another c. And vpon Timoth. A Bishop is none other but a chief elder S. Gregory in his epistles calleth the Bishops Elders Cardinalles that is to saye the chiefe and Iustinian the Emperour in his Deconomical lawes calleth them Reuerende because they differ nothing from Elders in their essential dignitie but only in this that they kept the first place in the administratiō of Gods seruice that is to saye in order and Ceremonie Gratian in his decretals saith plainly That the superioritie of the Bishop and the distribution of his dioces is from mans lavve not from the institution of the Apostles Peter Lombarde repeateth it in the same wordes And M. Iohn of Paris a doctor of the Sorbonists of the order of Iacobins in his booke of the kingly papal power which the whole facultie of diuinitie approued at that time goeth further For concerning the essentiall
dignitie of the ministerie which he calleth the power of the ecclesiastical gouernmēt ouer the people he maintayneth that the priests are equal to the Popes thēselues he proueth it because in their orders they vse the same words that they vse in the orders of bishops Apostles Receiue the holy Ghost vvhatsoeuer ye bind on earth shal be boūd in heauen c. To be short Cardinall Cusan himselfe maintaineth that the popedome the state of Bishopricks that is to say al their degrees both great smal they are not ordeyned of God but of men That all Priestes according to the ordinance of our Lord are equal that they were likewise ordeined of men for the better to wit to auoyde diuision But whē this better was turned into worse this which men had ordeyned to bring m̄e to God serued to turne thē away frō God then the cause ceasing these positiue lawes should also cease mē should be brought to the first institution And therfore marke saith he that in time of necessitie whē the Pope hath excōmunicated with an euill purpose the least priest may absolue him whosoeuer he be frō his excōmunication Behold therefore that in that the B. is aboue an elder it is but frō mans lawe for order which is no longer order when it is the cause of disorder Consequently we saye that those elders haue power to laye on their handes and to ordayne pastors That they had so in the Apostles tyme it is most cleare Neglect not sayth Saint Paul the gift that is in thee which is giuen to prophecie with the imposition of the handes of the Eldership that is to say of the assemblie of Seniors or elders And againe Timothie ordeined him selfe forasmuch as a Bishop elder were al one if by the scripture the Byshops take this power to themselues aswel might the Ministers Elders if they deny it to the ministers elders they deny it to themselues In deede in the olde time this argument was cōmon in the Church He might baptize he might minister the Lordes body ergo he might lay on his hands Also when they ordeined an elder the B. holding his hand ouer his head al the other elders drew neere layd on their hands together held them vpō the head of him whō they so ordeyned as it appeareth in many places of Gratians decretals which was to keepe their right in giuing of orders to shew that although the Bishop had the charge of this action that notwithstanding it was equall amōgst thē that he could not do it of himselfe alone And certaine of their owne haue disputed this same question 300. yeres since And if the ambition of Bishops the negligence of the Ministers Elders haue confoūded all thinges abolished the order of the church we must labour as much as wee can to bring it in againe And if the Bishoppe of a companion which he ought to be is become a tyrant ouer the ministers elders why it belongeth to those that are true ministers and elders to exercise the duetie which is left vnto them And if the primacie of the Bishop brought in by men haue led men to perdition which order we do not altogether disalowe if it be rightly obserued why then by the equalitie of ministers and Elders instituted of God they must bee brought againe to saluation To be short the first Bishops of the Christian Church were but elders and our first ministers were elders the elders by the institutiō of the Apostles had authoritie to lay on their hādes according to which also ours were ordeined ministers therefore ordeined by them are well ordained and their vocation can not in any wise be cauilled at or slaundered Nowe if any thinke them contemptible in comparison of the great prelates of the Church of Rome Caiphas in deede was reuecenced of the worlde whereas Cephas had neither golde nor siluer Paul being a persecuter was in great credit and Paul being an Apostle gotte his liuing with his owne hands Also God is wont to confoūd the great and mightie things of the world through thinges which seeme small And many of ours followe the pouertie of Christ which might be honoured yea and were so sometimes amōgst the chiefe vpholders of Antichrist It is not therfore to the purpose to aske miracles of vs for the approuing of our calling For if we must shew some then must they also for that is ordinarie But if by vertue of their calling they haue taken vpon them to preache newe doctrine why then let them suffer vs by vertue of the same to restore the auncient And if they say it is ours that is newe and not theirs why then there is no more question of our calling but of our doctrine and therefore we must passe through all these suburbes and come directlye to the conference of these two In meane time these were the goodlye fetches that hyndered the fruite of the conference at Poissy from whence all Fraunce wayted for some singular good thing yet this is that vpon which at this day the Iesuites do ground their principall defence When any say vnto them Shew me purgatorie and transubstantiation and the inuocation of Sayntes or any thing which draweth neere to the Scriptures they saye vnto vs Worke miracles Euen so likewise Satan said vnto Iesus Christ If thou be the sonne of God cast thy selfe downe from the toppe of the pinacle c. being as ready to haue turned vnto him if he had done it as if he had done nothing But our Sauiour who could haue done greater things confuted him onely by the scriptures So likewise the Pharises aske him for signes albeit he wrought inow those wonderful But if he cast out deuils this was say they by the power of the deuil If he did thē in earth they aske thē frō heauen if the heauen it selfe should speake to giue authoritie to his vocatiō thē they said What thūder is this Likewise they say vnto him vpon the Crosse If thou be the sonne of God helpe thy selfe c. and when he stept out of the Sepulchre ouerth wart those gross-headed watchmen they said that he was stolne away To be short euen so in asking miracles of vs nowe they are wholy bent to say if we should do them that we were the Antichrists which should deceyue the worlde by signes miracles that therfore we ought not to be beleeued But as the Pharises whē Christ suffered vpon the Crosse in steade of asking him miracles had done a great deale better to meditate vpon this place of Isaie He was wounded for our transgressions he was smitten for our iniquities and with his stripes were we healed So should it be much better for our masters to searche out of the holy scriptures the true markes of Antichrist and deepely to thinke vpon this great miracle which God hath wrought in our