againe I require the voice of the sheepheard read me this matter out of the Prophets read it out of the Psalms read it out of the law read it out of the Gospel read it out of the Apostles writings in his book de pastoribus c. 14. and so likewise conclude with him I owe my consent without gainsaying onely vnto the canonicall scriptures .. cap. 61. de naturâ gratiâ and according to these bookes of the scriptures we haue learned of him to iudge freely of all other writings lib. 2 cap. 29. contra Cresconium The fathers are full of such places whereby any man may see that by their very good leaue we are not to be pressed to beleeue or receaue any thing not taught in the scriptures vpon their bare authority and therefore these and such like places in them considered if you would haue had their names the places you cite in them to haue in sadnes bred any sound credit to any of these foure points you alleadge them for either should you haue warraÌ„ted them by good proofe out of the scriptures your selfe or haue shewed vs how they proued them consonant at the least to the same Howbeit because you shall not abuse the Reader to make him thinke that the fathers you name for these matters are further of your opinion then they be indeede as I haue not refused to examine your opinion and the places you send vs vnto for your ceremonies so will I for the Christian readers sake take the paines to deale with you for in al your other 3 opinions of confession praier to Saints for the dead with it your seueral quotations set down for the proofe of the same To go on therefore according to my course begun for confession before the receiuing of the sacrameÌ„t you saie first our sauiour Christ doeth teach vs that the ecclesiasticall ministers haue authority to binde and to forgiue sins and for proofe hereof you set in your margent Iohn 20. Mat. 16. I am sure here by confession that you speake of you meane your auricular confession wherof your Tridentine councel taketh such care that that in the 6 7 and 8 Canon thereof touching this matter it solemnely anathematizeth al those that hold auricular confession not to be necessary to saluation by the law of God saying that it is but the deuise of man Which they there haue defined to be a secret reckoning vp vnto the priest of al mortal sins at the least with al their circumstances whereof by due premeditation the party can haue any remembrance whereunto they bind all persons aboue certaine yeares of both sexes at least once in the yeare and that namely in lent before their receiuing at Easter Now this confession your schoolmen and doctours do teach must be made so fullie and exactly that no sin nor circumstance thereof must be coÌ„cealed for then therby al the labour is lost and the absolutioÌ„ frustrated from al the rest Which doctrine cannot chuse but a number of waies proue a needles and a desperate tormenting of coÌ„scieÌ„ces For first it laieth vpoÌ„ them an ineuitable necessity not onelie to doe that which God neuer required at their hands but also that which either is simply impossible vnto theÌ„ to doe for the multitude of their sins and circumstances thereof or else impossible for them to doe in such maner as that they can satisfie themselues that they haue omitted no piece of due premeditation to call all their sins the circuÌ„stances thereof that they should coÌ„fesse to their remeÌ„braÌ„ce which a nuÌ„ber of your owne side most deuoutly giueÌ„ to doe this in the best maner haue bene enforced to confesse Yet this confession before the sacrament though indeed it bee a thing that hath no ground or warrant at all in the Scriptures but was as both Iohannes Scotus libro 4. sententiarum Distict 17. art 3. and Anton part 3. histatit 19 doe confesse first imposed as necessary by the Lateran councel in InnoceÌ„t the thirds time about the year of the Lord one thousand 2 hundred and fifteene you here would seeme to couÌ„tenaÌ„ce by two places of scripture co begin withal But your betters haue thought otherwise of this your kinde of confession For your glosse de paenitentiâ Distinct 5. Cap. in principio confesses plainely that it came in rather by some tradition then either by authority of the olde testament or new which tradition he saieth yet ought to binde the West Church to vse it though not the Greekes East Church which haue it not And Beatus Rhenanus in his notes vpon Tertullians booke of repentance forasmuch as hee findeth not therein anie mention hereof not onely gathered that it was not in vse then but also hee sheweth that he thought it came in after grew of the mislike of the inconueniences of the continuance of publicke confessions made in the publicke assembly in the hearing of al the congregation vsed seuerally in the former times And Soto coÌ„tra BreÌ„tiuÌ„ reckoneth vp both your other two points following of praying to Saints and for the dead this also amongst the things grouÌ„ded but vpon the vnwriten word or tradition You had therefore delt both more wisely and more simply honestly if of these and such other great Rabbins of your side you had learned to fetch the ground of this your confession from any where els rather then from the scriptures But seeing you will seeme to haue found that ground for it there which they could not let vs a little consider how fâ—ly now the places you quote serue your turne You meane I am sure both by your words and quotations that Christs doing and saying to his Apostles set downe by Matthew John in the places you quote in these words to thee speaking namely in the first place to Peter I wil giue the keies of the kingdoÌ„e of heaueÌ„ whatsoeuer thou shalt binde in earth shal be bound in heauen whatsoeuer thou loosest in earth shal be loosed in heaueÌ„ And in the other he breathed vpoÌ„ theÌ„ and saied receiue yee the holy Ghost whose sins yee remit they are remitted whose sins yee retaine they are retained Wherby indeed it is euident that our Sauiour first promised to Peter in the name of al the rest after gaue to al his faithful Apostles first the gift of the holy Ghost and then power and authority to vse the â—eies of the kingdome of heauen to binde and loose and to remit retaine sinnes which power and authority they most faithfully and effectually vsed whiles faithfully they preached saluation to the peniteÌ„t beleeuer and denouÌ„ced damnation to the impenitent vnbeleeuers with all duety as they saw cause vsing the censures of the Church of admonition rebuking suspending and excommunicating though they were neuer acquainted with your auricular confession And likewise the same power is exercised by the Lords faithfull ministers in his church still not by the helpe of your
saluation Act. 4. and that none are to be called vpon in whom we beleeue not Rom. 10. you teach vs to beleeue in many thinges and persons besides the Trinity so to be apostataes from our creede forme of baptism And besides whiles you teach vs this doctrine of inuocatiō of saints and Angels cōtrary both to the beginning and ende of the Lords praier you also teach vs to pray vnto them to whō we may neither begin nor ende our praier as thereby we are taught And therefore you dealing with vs in these pointes and diuerse others being so grosse as it is and was if we had had no better warrant to receiue these partes of the Catechisme then your worde we should haue had small courage to haue receiued them as from you But Caluin Beza and other of our famous ministers in the teeth with hauing their education and maintenance at their bookes first with you comparing them in that now they set themselues against your corruptions vnto Camels with reward their masters for their good keeping with yerking and biting Whereas in trueth if you had grace to see it they could no way shew themselues more thankefull vnto you for the same then by carefull and diligent labouring your conuersion and reformation as they haue done S. Paul you know was brought vp at the feete of Gamaliel a notable Pharisee was himselfe at the first by profession a Pharisee and so had his educatiō and maintenance at the first amongst such what then will you resemble him to your yerking Camels because after when it pleased God to open his eies and to conuert him to Christ hee preached and wrote against the errours of the Pharises laboured their reformation why should you then euen for imitating of S. Paul thus vnmanerly compare these men or any other whom it shall please God to stirre vp in like maner to seeke your good Still you call our Religiō new deuises now further you adde that though it haue beene in times past yet it was buried in the very depth of hell we haue raised it vp againe giuen it new colours All this cannot make vs ashamed of the Gospell of Christ which we know to be the power of God to saluatiō to euery one that beleeueth to the Iewe first also to the Greciā Rom. 1.16 For these are but bare words how spitefull malitious soeuer and we know that when it was preached by Christ himselfe and his Apostles it had as hard sentence oft giuen of it by the superstitious and blind Scribes and Pharises and yet for all that it mightily preuailed then and so doeth and will now Yet it is well that in some sorte now you will confesse it hath beene before for very confidētly before in your 4. chapter you set downe that none of vs cā deny but the Luther 1517. began it first but as you did well in this and spoke truely so in adding that it was yet buried c. you speake not onely malitiously and blasphemously as one day though I feare to late you shall be driuē to see but also vntruely For you cannot be ignorant but as it was before Luthers time professed and taught by Petrus Valdus Iohn Wickliffe Iohn Hus so therein they had their followers in Bohemia Calabria Angronia diuers other places and that in great nūbers euen vnto Luthers time and lōg after And as for colours we vse none to countenance this trueth but the natiue naturall colours which the scriptures allow it for we thinke it most sincerely preached when it is most simply set forth onely in these colours other colours we leaue to you to decke vp the garish whore of Babylō withall At last so earnest a procter or crier are you for miracles that you are contented to ioine with vs vpon this point that though our doctrine were not new but very old yet we must ought to confirme it by miracles And this you labour to proue because the doctrine that Moses the Apostles were sent to preach was not new but old yet they were furnished with power to worke miracles to cōfirme that old ancient doctrine For Moses wrought his miracles you say especially to this ende the Gods name might be knowen ouer all the earth that is to say that men should know that he is God the Apostles as you say at their first preaching preached not Iesus Christ vnto the Gētils but that there was but one God which by a number of testimonies you labour to proue was no new doctrin to the heathen Painims but a thing which by the light of nature left in them and by the view of Gods works many of them atteined vnto all might in such sort as that they are without excuse for that they worshipped not God as God This is I confesse directly to the matter and some shew these things cary I graunt of proofe of that which you toke in hande thereby to proue But if we examine well those things and weigh the weight of this argument wee shall finde small or rather no force at all therein to proue indeede the thing intended thereby For though God saie Exod. 9. not 19. as your quotation is that for this cause hee had set Pharaoh vp to shew his power in him and to declare his name throughout the whole world as in working of all miracles at all times that is an especiall ende that the Lord hath And though that bee no newe doctrine that hee is God and but one and that both Moses and the Apostles taught this yet this proueth not but that otherwise both Moses and they had newe and strange matters giuen them in commission for confirmation and effecting whereof it was necessarie for them to worke miracles For Moses especially was called and appointed by God as it appeareth Exod. 3.4 and 5. Chapters to this ende to signifie vnto Pharaoh that it was the pleasure of God that he should dismisse his people Which because the Lord had purposed notwithstanding the harde heart of Pharaoh to bring to passe therefore Moses was by his direction to worke the miracles hee wrought So that the next ende of working of them was to confirme this his newe and strange message to Pharaoh and to cause it to take place though therein the Lord had another further ende namely thereby to get himselfe a name for euer So in like maner though the Apostles preached the God that made heauen earth to be the only true God as it appeareth they did Act. 14. 17. which was no new doctrine indeede in it selfe considered yet it appeareth in the same places that it was newe there For in the one place they worshipped Iupiter and Mercurie for Gods and in the other an vnknowen God And besides it is euident that not onely their office was extraordinarie in that immediately they had their calling frō God and their charge without limitation but also
that within the compasse of their coÌ„mission they had to doe many new and straÌ„ge things namely to call the Gentils to the fellowship of the Church to preach the abrogation of Moses ceremonies to administer new sacrameÌ„ts to ordeine new officers in the Church as Euangelists pastours and doctours and especially to preach Iesus Christ to be the person of the Messias god and man the onely and sole Sauiour of the world for which things sake it was needfull for them to worke miracles howsoeuer it was needeles in respect of the other old doctrine concerning the one true God And therefore to make it appeare that their miracles were wrought especially for the confirmation of this point that Iesus was the Christ the person of the Messias alwaies they worke their miracles in his name whereas wee doe not preach some one point of olde doctrine onely but altogether from point to point our doctrine is olde and hath beene sufficiently by Christ and his Apostles already confirmed by miracles neither haue we any newe but the olde ordinary offices of pastours and doctours to publish it and indeede wee take vpon vs no newe or strange thing but labour as nigh as possibly we can to conforme our selues euerie waie to the patterne shewed vs of ancient time by Christ and his Apostles Wherefore vnlesse as you haue shewed that Moses and the Apostles taught this one olde lesson that there is but one God and that he is he that made heauen earth so ye could haue shewed also that they wrought al their miracles to confirme that that otherwise besides that they had no new strange things to doe teach for confirmation whereof miracles were needeful therefore done by theÌ„ this that you say of theÌ„ is nothing to binde vs to worke miracles doing nothing or teaching nothing otherwise then was done and taught 1500. yeares ago and more by Christ and his Apostles and so you might haue spared all that you haue saied or can say to proue that this is an old and no new doctrine that there is a God that he is but one The XIX Chapter LActantius Firmianus in his book of his diuine institutions cap. 5. vvriting against the GeÌ„tiles doeth proue that there is but one God he doeth alleadge as witnesses all the olde learned Philosophers such as Thales Milesius Pythagoras Anaxagoras Cleanthus Anaximeus Crysippus Heno Plato Aristotle Seneca and others Octauius likewise a Christian Oratour disputing against Cecilius as theÌ„ a Gentle doeth alleage likewise to confound these olde Philosophers and he doeth adde more Xenophon Spensippus Demaritus Strato Theophrastus many more * a Act. 12. S. Paul likewise preaching to the Athenians doeth protest a Act. 17. you should haue said that he doth teach them no new thing but rather him vvhom they did vvorship did not know By the vvhich it is plainelie to be seene that the Apostles did not announce vnto the people anie new law for it vvas verie olde and notwithstanding they did confirme it vvith miracles And if you saie that although those learned Philosophers had aknowledge of God as it doeth appeare by their vvorkes yet there is fouÌ„d in them no mention of Iesus Christ and therefore that it vvas necessarie to approue that doctrine vvith signes and miracles But contrarivvise that you in your new reformed Gospell doe preach the olde Apostolicall lawe I doe answere you to this that the 9. Sybilles b Though it was foreseene that such a one shuld come yet that Iesus the sonne of Mary was he was new and needed such coÌ„firmation by miracles did speake of his comming and birth euen as plainelie as anie of the Prophets and amongst other Sybilla Erithrea did as fullie Prophesie of the comming of our Sauiour to iudge the quicke and the dead as anie other Prophet at S Augustine doeth testifie c Ther is nothing once sounding that way In other places I graunt he speaketh hereof but he no where thâ—s matcheth them with the Prophets Lib. 1. de ciui dei cap. 23. Likewise of his death and passion and of the miracles he should doe before his death The Oracles of the false Gods haue likewise declared vnto the Gentiles the coÌ„ming of Christ as Lactantius Firmianus doeth vvrite * Liâ— 1. cap. 15. li. 4. cap. 15. in his booke of the diuine institutions Nicephorus in like maner doeth vvrite how Augustus Cesar sacrifising to the God Apollo Pithius in his temple could get no other but a verie briefe answere then Cesar did demaund why hee could not make him then as fullie answere as he did at other times Apollo vvas constrained to saie the trueth the vvhich was that a young Hebrewe childe borne of late did commaunde him to retire himselfe into his hell d You text and your margent agree â—oâ—y our margent is right and the other wrong vnto vvhom he was forced to yeelde obediently forasmuch as he was God and gouernour of the other Gods therefore that he did couÌ„sell the saied Cesar quietlie to retire himselfe to make no more adoe the verses are these Me puer Hebraeus diuos deus ipse gubernans Cedere sede â—ubet tristemque redire sub orcum Aris ergo dehinc tacitus abscedito nostris The XIX Chapter YOur proofes in this Chapter out of Lactantius and Octauius that the doctrine of one God is olde and ancient in that they induce the olde learned Philosophers as witnesses thereof and that which you alleadge to the same ende spoken by S. Paul Act. 17. and not as your quotation is Act. 12. might well inough haue beene omitted For as it is a thing not in question so also as you may perceiue by that which I haue saied in mine answere to your former Chapter it proueth not the thing you intend for that both Moses and the Apostles had other matters in their commission that were new and strange for confirmation whereof they wrought their miracles and not for this purpose only But foreseeing that we would in some part answere as I haue shewed that the doctrine of Iesus to be the person of the Messias yet was new in respect whereof it was necessarie for them to approue their doctrine by miracles you would proue that that was not new neither and so your meaning is that the oldnes of our doctrine caÌ„not proue miracles to be vnnecessary But let vs heare how you proue this In this Chapter you proue it by the testimony of the nine Sibils especially of Sibilla Erithrea the rather for Augustines testimony of her in his 1. booke of the citty of God c. 23. though indeede there be no mention at al of her in that place who you say did speake as plainely fully of his comming birth miracles death comming to iudgement as any of the Prophets out of Lactantius 1. booke 15. c. of diuine institutions out of Nicephorus by the oracle that Apollo gaue of him to the