If you shall say No Why did God plague the King with Leprosie and not the Priest The Priest Azarias in resisting the King and thrusting him out of the Temple in so doing did the Priest play the faithful part of a Subject or no if you answer No why then did God spare the Priest and not spare the King If you answer Yea then it is most manifest Ozia in that he was a King could not be Supream Head of the Church And therefore King David did go before the Ark of God with his Harp making Melody and placed himself amongst the Minstrels and humbly did abase himself being a King as to dance and leap before the Ark of God like as his other Subjects did Insomuch as his Queen Michol King Saul's Daughter beholding and seeing this great Humility of King David did disdain thereat Whereunto King David making answer said Ludam vilior siam plùs quà m factus sûm c. That is I will dance and abase my self more than yet I have done and abjecting my self in mine own eyes I shall appear more glorious with those Handmaids that you talk of I will play here before my Lord which hath chosen me rather than thy Fathers House And whereas Queen Michol was therefore plagued at God's hand with perpetual Sterility and Barrenness King David received a great praise for his Humility Now may it please your Honours to consider which of both these Kings Examples shall be most convenient for your Wisdoms to make the Queens Majesty to follow whether the Example of Proud Ozia moving Her by your perswasions and Councils to take upon her spiritual Government and thereby exposing her Soul to be plagued at the hand of God as King Ozia was or else to follow the Example of the good King David which in refusal of all Spiritual Government about the Ark of God did humble himself as I have declared unto you Whereunto our Sovereign Lady the Queens Highness of Her own nature being well inclined we may assure ourselves to have of Her as Humble as Virtuous and as Godly a Mistress to Reign over us as ever had English People here in this Realm if that her Highness be not by your Flattery and Dissimulation seduced and beguiled Fourthly and Lastly We must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's-Church Seeing that St. Cyprian that Holy Martyr and great Clerk doth say that the Unity of the Church of Christ doth depend upon Peter's Authority and his Successors Therefore by leaping out of Peter's Ship we must be overwhelmed with the Waves of Schisms of Sects and Divisions Because the same Holy Martyr in his Third Epistle to Cornelius testifies That all Heresies Sects and Schisms do spring only from hence that Men will not be obedient to the Head Bishop of God. And how true this saying of St. Cyprian is we may see it most apparent to all Men that list to see both by the Example of the Germans and by us the Inhabitants of this Realm of England And by this our forsaking and flying from the Unity of the Church of Rome this inconveniency amongst many we must grant the Church of Rome to be the True Church of God where Jesus Christ is truly taught and his Sacraments rightly Administred how can we disburthen our selves of our forsaking and flying from that Church which we do confess and acknowledge to be of God we ought to be One and not to admit of any Separation If you Answer the Church of Rome is not of God but a Malignant Church then it will follow that we the Inhabitants of this Realm have not as yet received any Benefit of Christ seeing we have received no Gospel or other Doctrine nor no other Sacrament but that which was sent unto us from he Church of Rome First in King Lucius his days at whose humble Epistle the Holy Martyr Elutherius then Bishop of Rome did send into this Realm two Holy Monks Fugatius and Damianus by whose Doctrine and Preaching we were first brought to the knowledge of the Faith of Jesus Christ of his Holy Gospel and his most Holy Sacraments Then Secondly Holy St. Gregory being Bishop of Rome did send into this Realm two other Holy Monks St. Austin called the Apostle of England and Milletus to receive the very self same Faith that had been before planted here in this Realm in the days of King Lucius Thirdly and Last of all Paulus Tertius being Bishop of Rome did send hither the Lord Cardinal Pool his Grace by Birth a Nobleman of this Land his Legate to restore us unto the same Faith which the Martyr St. Elutherius and St. Gregory had Planted here many years before If therefore the Church of Rome be not of God but a false and Malignant Church then have we been deceived all this while seeing the Gospel the Doctrine Faith and Sacraments must be of the same nature as that Church is from whence it and they came and therefore in relinquishing and forsaking that Church the Inhabitants of this Realm shall be forced to seek further for another Gospel of Christ other Doctrine other Faith and Sacraments than we have hitherto received Which will breed such a Schism and Error in Faith as was never in any Christian Realm And therefore of your Wisdoms worthy of Consideration and maturely to be ponder'd and be provided for before you pass this Act of Supremacy Thus much touching the First chief Point Now to the Second Deliberation wherein I promised to move your Honours to consider What this Supremacy is which we go about by vertue of this Act to give unto the Queen and wherein it doth consist whether in Spiritual Government or Temporal But if Spiritual as these words in the Act do import Supream Head of the Church of England immediately and next unto God Then it would be considered in what Points this Spiritual Government doth consist and the Points being well known it would be considered Whether this House hath Authority to grant them and her Highness Ability to receive them And as concerning the Points wherein Spiritual Government doth consist I have in reading the Gospel and the whole course of Divinity thereupon as to my Vocation belongeth observed these Four as chief among many others whereof the first is The power to loose and bind sins When our Saviour in ordaining Peter to be Chief and Head-Governour of his Church said unto him Tibi dabo Claves Regni Coelorum c. That is To thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Now it would be considered by your Wisdoms whether you have sufficient Authority to grant unto her Majesty this first Point of Spiritual Government and to say unto Her Tibi dabimus c. To Thee will we give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven If you say Yea then do we require the sight of Warrant and Commission by the Virtue of God's Word And if you say No then you may be well
6. c. 45. Writing to Novatian saith A Man ought rather to endure all things than to consent to the Division of the Church of God since that Martyrdom to which men expose themselves to hinder the Dismembring of the Church is no less Glorious then what a man suffers for refusing to Sacrifice to Idols nay in my Opinion this seems of the two the more Glorious Martyrdom for in the other cause he that suffers is a Martyr upon his own account but in this he is a Martyr for no less than the Body of CHRIST the Church 8. Also St. Cyprian lib. Deunitat Eccles Do they think saith he that Christ is among them when they are Assembled I speak of those which make Assemblies out of the Church of Christ no although they were drawn to Torments and Execution for the Confession of the Name of Christ yet this pollution is not washed away no not with their Blood. This inexpiable and inexcusable crime of Schism is not purged away even by Death it self That a man cannot be a Martyr that is not in the Church 9. And Again he saith He cannot have God for his Father that has not the Church for his Mother 10. So likewise St. Pacianus in one of his Epistles Epistle 2. ad Sempr. Although that Novatian saith he hath been put to Death for Christ yet he has not received a Crown and why because he was separated from the peace of the Church from Concord from that Mother of whom whosoever will be a Martyr must be a Portion To the same purpose also these words of Lactantius are very remarkable It is the Catholick Church only that keeps the true Worship of God. This is the Fountain of Truth this is the House of Faith this is the Temple of God into which if a man enter not or from which if any man goes out he is an Alian and Stranger from the hope of Everlasting Life and Salvation No man must by obstinate Contention flatter himself for it stands upon Life and Salvation St. Cyprian 55. ad Cornel. Num. 3. says The Church never departs from that which she once hath known and St. Irenaus lib. 1. cap. 3. That the Apostles have laid up in the Church as a rich Treasury all Truth It were an infinite labour to recite all that the Fathers say of this matter all counting it a most Pernicious Absurdity to affirm That the Church of Christ may err in Doctrine of Faith. For example How could God glory in the multitude of such as follow his Church if by so doing they should be led into Errour And yet Isaias 2. God seems to Glory in the multitude of those who confidently resort to the Church as to a Mistress of assured Truth to be instructed by her saying v. 3. Let us go up to the Mountain of our Lord and he will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his Paths and he shall judge among the Nations Behold Christ Erecting a Court or Tribunal in his Church to judge among Nations and deside all their Controversies which must needs suppose Obedience to be yielded to this Judgement Yea the same Prophet adds Ch. 54. v. 17. That no Weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every Tongue resisting thee in judgement thou shalt condemn And the Prophet there from the beginning manifestly speaks of Christ's Church Thirdly Isaiah Ch. 60. 12. The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish Under pain of perishing the Church must be obeyed Whence Fourthly Ezek. ch 44. v. 23. They that is the Priest shall teach the people what is between a Holy thing and a thing Polluted and the difference between clean and unclean They shall shew them and when there shall be Controversie they shall stand in Judgments This being their Office the peoples Office must needs be not to Judge them but Obey them Fifthly Christ Matth. 18.17 commands to Obey the Church under pain of being held here on Earth as Publicans and Heathens and of having this sentence ratified in Heaven ' Tell the Church saith he And if he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee a Heathen and a Publican and I say unto you whomsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you shall loose upon Earth shall be loosed also in Heaven Here you see obedience to be yielded under pain of being held as a Publican or an Heathen and this Sentence to be ratified in Heaven Now if the Church could Err in teaching for Example that Christ is truly present in the Sacrament and hence obliged all to Adore him therein as much as they Adore him in Heaven and could oblidge them to this under pain of being held as Publicans and Heathens and held so as well in Heaven as upon Earth surely this cannot be an Errour for then in Heaven this Sentence would never be ratified St. Aug. Cont. Epist Fundam c. 5. I would not believe the Gospel unless the Authority of the Church moved me What ways the Church has made use of to settle mens minds in the Doctrin of the Sacrament of the Eucharist or the Lord's Last Supper TO make this appear more fully I will give you a brief Relation of the past Proceedings of the Church in the Decision of the Disputes concerning the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament and in the Substantial Conversion of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This Real Presence and Substantial Conversion Berengarius and some Followers of his long ago denied Who being complained of two Councils were called one after another at Rome and Verseilis Anno Domini 1050 Berengarius Summoned and he not appearing his Heterodox Opinions were condemned He according to the new Protestant Grounds thinking his a Doctrine of great consequence and the Decrees of the two Councils a manifest Error and that himself had manifest Scripture and Demonstration against it judged himself freed from the obedience of silence or noncontradiction of these Councils And so he and his Followers publickly justified his Tenet desiring a reversion by some new Council of the former sentence against it Upon this revived Disturbance of the Church another Council five years after is Assembled at Tours Anno 1055. not far distant from Angiers where he was Archdeacon Here himself with others of his Party were present his Cause pleaded his Demonstrations considered and after all his Opinion again condemned himself also Recanting it The Council dismissed he finds yet other new Reasons and a greater strength in his former and falls again to the abetting maintaining and spreading abroad his old Doctrin A Fourth Council upon these new Troubles of the Church Anno 1059. Four years after the last was called at Rome where himself also was present Some say long Disputation there had his new Plea for it was found too light and rejected And his Opinion opposing Substantial Conversion again condemned both by himself and
assured and persuade your selves that you have not sufficient Authority to make her Highness Supream Head of the Church of Christ here in this Realm The Second Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of these words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 20th Chapter of St. John's Gospel Pasce Pasce Pasce That is Feed my Lambs feed my Lambs feed my Sheep Now whether your Honours have Authority by this Court of Parliament to say unto our Sovereign Lady Pasce Pasce c. That is to say Feed you the flock of Christ you must shew your Warrant and Commission for it An further it is evident that Her Majesty being a Woman by Birth and Nature is not qualified by Gods word to feed the Flock of Christ appears most plainly by St. Paul in this wise Taceant Mulieres in Ecclesus sicut lex dicit Let Women be silent in the Church for it is not Lawful for them to speak but to be in subjection as the Law saith And it followeth in the same place Turpe est enim Mulieris loqui in Ecclesiâ that is for that it is not seemly for a Woman to speak in the Church And in his Second Epistle to Timothy Dominari in virum sed esse silentes that is to say I allow not that a Woman be a Teacher or to be above her Husband but to keep her self in silence Therefore it appears likewise as your Honours have not Authority to give her Highness this second Point of Spiritual Government to feed the Flock of Christ So by St. Pauls Doctrine her Higness may not intermeddle her self with the same And therefore She cannot be Supream Head of the Church here in England The Third chief Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of those words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 22th Chapter of St. Lukes Gospel Ego rogavi pro To ut non deficiat fides Tua Tu aliquando conversus confirma fratres Tuos That is I Prayed for Thee that thy Faith shall not fail and thou being converted Confirm thy Brethren and ratifie them in wholesome Doctrine and Administration of the Sacraments which are the Holy Instruments of God so Instituted and Ordained for our Sanctification that without them his Grace is not to be received But to Preach or to administer the Sacraments a Woman may not be admitted to do neither may she be Supream of Christ's Church The Fourth and Last chief point of Spiritual Government which I promised to Note unto you doth consist in Excommunication and Spiritual Punishment of all such as shall approve themselves not to be the Obedient Children of Christ's Church Of which Authority our Saviour Christ speaks in St. Matthew's Gospel in the 18th Chapter saying If your Brother offending will not hear your charitable admonition whether secretly at first or yet before one or two Witnesses then we must complain of him to the Church and If he will not hear the Church let him be taken as an Heathen or Publican So the Apostle did Excommunicate the notorious Fornicator that was amongst the Corinthians and by the Authority of his Apostleship unto which Apostles Christ Ascending into Heaven did leave the whole Spiritual Government of his Church as it appears by those plain words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians Chap. 4th saying Ipse dedit Ecclesiae suae c. He hath given to his Church some to be Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Doctors for consummation of the Saints to the work of the Ministry for edifying of the Body of Christ But a Woman in the degrees of the Church is not called to be an Apostle nor Evangelist nor to be a Pastor as much to say a Shepheard nor a Doctor or a Preacher Therefore she cannot be Supream Head of Christ's Militant Church nor yet of any part thereof For this high Government God hath appointed only to the Bishops and Pastors of his People as St. Paul plainly witnesseth in these words in the 20th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles saying Attendite vohis universo gregi c. And thus much I have here said right Honourable and my very good Lords against this Act of Supremacy for the discharge of my poor Conscience and for the Love and Fear and Dread that I chiefly owe unto God to my Sovereign Lord and Lady the Queens Majesties Highness and to your Honors All. Where otherwise without mature consideration of all these Premises your Honors shall never be able to shew your faces before your enemies in this matter being so strange a spectacle and example in Christ's Church as in this Realm is only to be found and in no other Christan Realm Thus humbly beseeching your Honors to take in good part this my rude and plain Speech which here I have used out of much Zeal and fervent good will And now I shall not trouble your Honors any longer Thus at to this Speech But notwithstanding this Speech or whatever else could be said against it the Act passed and this Supremacy was granted to the Queen A further Prosecution of the Settlement of this Change of Religion Established by Parliament and of the Opposition of the Catholick Clergy against this strange Innovation By which my dear Country-men may see as is prov'd by their own Histories how you are seduced into Erronious Religions endangering thereby no less than their Salvation Dr. Heylyn pag. 108. NOw for the better exercising and enjoying the Jurisdiction thus acknowledged in the Crown there was this Clause put into the Act That it should be Lawfull for the Queen to give Power to such as she thought fit to exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and to vist reform redress order correct and amend all kind of Errors Heresies Schisms c. With this Proviso notwithstanding that nothing should from henceforth be accounted Heresie but what was so adjudged the Holy Scripture or in one of the four four General Councils or in any other National or Provincial Council determining according to the word of God or finally which should be adjudg'd for the time to come by the Court of Parliament This was the first Foundation of the High-Commission Court And from hence issued that commission by which the Queens ministers proceeded in that visitation in the first year of her Reign for rectifying all such things as they found amiss There also pass'd another Act for recommending and imposing the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of Sacraments according to such Alterations and Corrections as were made therein by those that were appointed to review it In performance of which service there was great care taken to expunge out of all such passages in it as might give an Scandal or Offence to the Papists or be urg'd by them in excuse for their not coming to Church In the Litany first made and published by King Henry the Eighth and afterwards continued in the two
to preach justification by Faith alone finding the Text said but Man is justified by Faith he added the word Alone and made the Text very clear against Popery which formerly was somewhat obscure Zuinglius being to teach the figurative presence of Christ in the Sacrament found the Text This is my Body to be too pat against his doctrine and instead of Is put in This signifieth The Church of England being to preach up the Kings Spiritual Supremacy could not convince the obstinate Papists by the Original Text which said 1 Pet. 2. submit your selves anto every humane creature for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as excelling or to c. But in King Edwards time they altered one word and made the Text thus submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man whether it be to the King as being the chief head and the following impressions of the Bible in the year 1557. and 79. say To the King as Supream And so the true Doctrine is clearly made out from Scripture as also the lawfulness of Priests Marriages for the Text before the Reformation said 1 Cor. 9. Have we not power to lead about a woman or a sister and now our Bibles say Have we not power to lead about a Wife being our Sister Hence it 's evident according to the Doctrine and practice of our Reformation that when you have a mind to establish a Doctrin which you judge to be true you may change the Text and make it speak your sense and meaning provided you judge your sense to be true Does Faith alone justify us It is the Doctrin of the Reformation that without Charity it cannot because St. Paul says 1 Cor. 13. If I have Faith so as to move Mountains and no Charity I am nothing It is also the Doctrine of the Reformation that it is impious and wicked to say Faith alone without Charity does not justify this is Scripture as interpreted by Luther a Man of a sound judgement l In cap. 2 ad Gal. serm Aug. pag. 204. Who say quoth Luther that Faith alone though perfect it be cannot justify without Charity say impiously and wicked because Faith alone without any good works doth justifie Believe which Doctrine you please both are of the Reformation As to St. Pauls Doctrine Luther answers m In Epist ad Gal. c. 1 2. Tom. 5. Wittemb an 1554. fol. 29. Be it says he that the Church Augustine or other Doctors also Peter and Paul nay and an Angel from Heaven should teach otherwise than I teach yet my doctrine is such that it sets forth Gods Glory I know I teach no humane but divine doctrine It is the doctrine of the Reformation that Faith alone without any good Works notwithstanding all sins you are guilty of doth justifie you This is Scripture as Interpreted by Luther who says nothing can damn you but Incredulity as nothing but Faith can save you so Whitaker Wotton Fulk and Beza whose Words I related which I believe you remember and I need not repeat It is also the doctrine of the Reformation that Good Works are meritorious of Grace and Glory n Lib. 5. de Eccl. Polit. sect 72. Hooker and Harmonia confess o pag. 495. 273 say it 's the doctrine of Scripture and what any person of sound judgement judges to be the doctrine of Scripture he may believe it for this is our Rule of Faith. It 's likewise the doctrine generally of all our Church that good Works are not at all meritorious Tindal called by Fox p Acts and Mon. pag. 514. a man of God and a constant Martyr judges this to be so true that in his Treatise de Mammona iniquitatis he says Christ himself did not by all his good works merit Glory And though the Scripture says expresly he did Calvin q Lib. 2. Inst c. 17. affirms that it is a foolish curiosity to examine and a rash proposition to say Christ did Merit It is the doctrine of the Reformation that though good Works be not meritorious nor have not the least influence in our Justification or Salvation yet they are absolutely needful for both in as much as true Faith cannot be without good Works because they are the marks and signs of a living Faith by which alone we are Saved this is the judgement of the Church of England expressed in the 11 and 12 Articles of the 39 and of Melancthon in locis Commun de Bonis operibus and you may believe it You may also believe and it is the doctrine of the Reformation that good works are so far from being needful that they are prejudicial and hurtful to our Salvation and the best way to be Saved is to do no good Works at all this is Scripture as Interpreted by Illyricus Amarsdortius quoted in Act. Colloq Aldeburg pag. 205. and 299. and Luther r In comment in cap. 2. ad Gal. was deeply perswaded of this truth though Christ said If thou will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven keep the Commandments Luther says It is an obstacle to our Salvation to keep them Where it is said quoth he that Faith in Christ doth indeed justify us but that it is necessary also to keep the Commandments there Christ is denied and Faith abolish'd because that which is proper to Faith alone is attributed to the Commandments And again f To 1 Proposit 3. says he If Faith be accompanied with good Works it is no true Faith that it may justifie it must be alone without any good Works This is Scripture as interpreted by such sound Men and consequently the Doctrine of the Reformation and who doubts but that any Doctrine of the Reformation may be believed For our Rule of Faith is Scripture as each person of sound judgement understands it and in believing those Tenets because they judge them to be the Doctrine of Scripture they stick fast to and follow our Rule of Faith Why is the Figurative Presence and the Kings Supremancy the Doctrine of the Reformation though denied by Papists Lutherans and Presbyterians but because the Protestants judge it's the Doctrine of Scripture If therefore those great Authors I quoted and any other with them judge those Tenets to be the Doctrine of Scripture they may be justly called the Doctrine of the Reformation Must Protestants be forced against their judgements to deny real Presence and Supremacy because Lutherans say it's wicked Doctrine And why must Luther Flaccius Illiricus and others be forced to deny those Tenets though Protestants or Papists judge them to be damnable Let each one believe what he thinks to be the Doctrine of Scripture and he will still be a true Reformed Child Does our Reformation teach that 't is possible to all Men assisted with Gods Grace to keep the Commandments This is the Doctrine of the Church of England and consequently of the Reformation It is also the Doctrine of the Reformation delivered out of Scripture as
if you can whether your noble Progenitors almost for the space of a Thousand years were zealous Papists Cast your eyes then upon their Wisdom known by the Government and Laws which they established Upon their Piety blazon'd by the goodly Churches by the stately Monasteries by the renowned Colledges which they Erected and Endowed and censure them not to have been so stupid so ungodly that with so great zeal and costs they would have embraced honoured and established Papistry had it been so absurd so ungrounded so Superstitious and Idolatrous and so dangerous to Princes and their States as divers of your deceived or deceiving Teachers do give you to understand Neither think your Neighbours who live Papists amongst you so blockish that they would forsake the easie and flesh-pleasing Religion of Luther Calvin and other new Teachers to embrace with so great loss and hazards the austere Profession of Papists if the same were such as you are made to believe Let not therefore any prejudicate conceits defraud you of this fit opportunity to free your selves from the most dangerous mistakes and consequently from the fruitless pangs of too late Repentance where with every one will be fearfully afflicted that departs this life culpably in a wrong and false Religion when the judging light of Christ shall lay open to him how naked he is through his own willfull negligence of Divine Faith of Heavenly Charity and of other Coelestial Vertues absolutely necessary to Salvation Because divers Protestant Teachers endeavours to make their followers believe that the Fathers of the Primitive Church were Protestants which Followers know no otherwise but let them take notice that those Ancient Worthies and Lights of the Church of Christ were either Monks or Founders of Monastical Discipline or at least Approvers and Praisers of the same St. Anthony was a Monk and St. Athanasius his Praiser St. Basil the Great a Monk and the Founder of a Monastical Institute which in the Eastern part of the World is yet practised St. Gregory the Divine was a Monk St. Chrisostom a Monk St. Hierom a Monk the Great St. Augustine the Founder of a Monastical course of Life St. Martin a Monk St. Benedict a Monk and Founder of the famous Order of Monks which does yet flourish in the Western Church St. Gregory the Great was a Monk and by the labours of Forty Monks did first plant Christianity amongst the English Let any Man judge how likely or how true it is that these Men were Protestants Secondly take notice that these ancient and most Learned Fathers were great Praisers Practisers of Austere and Penitential Works consisting in frequent Prayer in much Watching in severe Fasting in hard Lodgings in course and spare Dyet in wearing of Hair-Cloath and the like they lived single lives many of them bestowed their Wealth upon the Poor and other Pious Uses and professed voluntary Poverty following therein the Counsel of Christ given Matth. 19.21 and they not only allowed of but also most highly extolled the observing of perpetual Chastity and Virginity preferring the same far above Matrimony Were not these men then strange Protestants Thirdly take notice that these Ancient Worthies even by the Confession of all Protestants were men of accute Wits of excellent Learning If then they had found in the Word of God as Protestants say they find that only Faith does justifie that good Works are not Meritorious That in Works of Grace men have not Free-will That they are not able to keep the Commandments That it is not in the power of man or woman to live perpetually Chaste that Virginity is not more pleasing to God than Matrimony that to give all to the Poor to Fast Pray and watch much and to undergo other Austerities and Mortifications of the Body doth not profit and enrich the Soul that there is no Purgatory no Pennance to be done no satisfaction to be made for Sin no punishment to be inflicted upon the Faithful for them after this Life If I say the Ancient Fathers had found these and the like Doctrines of Protestants in the Scriptures and why should they not have found them there if there they had been they being so wise so learned and so industrious searchers of the Word of God as they were If there I say they had found these things and had believed them as Protestants do they would have lived as Protestants do for why should they not If these pleasing Doctrines which are light and easie to flesh and the blood and the sweet liberty of the new Gospel has as feelingly pierced and as strongly possessed the Hearts of those Ancients as it did and doth the Breasts and Bowels of Luther Zuinglius Bucer Peter Martyr Beza and their followers the Teachers of the Protestant Religion they would without all doubt with these have preferred Pleasures before Pennance Feasting before Fasting the delights of the Conjugal Life before the continent and single and in a word Riches Honours Pleasures before Labours and smart of a Penitential and Mortified Life before voluntary Poverty and the vexing Attire of Hair-cloth or else they had been mad had they believed as most Protestants do that such exercises as these are needless fruitless yea and superstitious Toys But the truth is that those ancient and shining Lamps of Wisdom and Sanctity did not believe as Protestants do and therefore they liv'd not as they do for they were otherwise instructed in the School of Christ they read and learned another Lesson in his Divine Gospel even the same that Papists now do and therefore they instituted their Lives as they did and were in very deed as much Protestants as the Pope and His Priests and Fryars now are and no more most certainly unless we will have them to have been Sots and mad-men Let not then my noble and dear Country-men the mis-reports of some of your Teachers so far prevail with you as to make you believe the better to keep and quiet you in Protestantism that the Fathers of the Primitive Church were Protestants For certainly those blessed Servants of Christ were as far from being Protestants as the most zealous of your Teachers are from being Papists yea from being Monks or Fryars and from leading their Lives as those Ancients did If then you truly prize the Learning and Sanctity of the Primitive Church and Christianity become of that Belief which their Lives and Practises do preach unto you If you think them saved be not so hardy as to seek a new way to Heaven for the safety of your Souls is of greater moment than so to be exposed to hazard being there can be but one saving Faith Eternal Glory is not easily to be set upon the Dice when you may take secure way to it Become then of the Communion of the Church in which the Fathers lived and died that therein seconding your belief with a vertuous Life you may assuredly attain to Everlasting Happiness beseeching God to prosper your Reading Considering