others till at last Stephen Gardiner finding who were their Benefactors threatned he would in a short time make them eat their Fingers ends for hunger and it was sore against his will that he proved a false Prophet for he clapt up so many of their Benefactors in England that after this there came but a small if any Supply out of England to them But then Christopher Prince of Wittenberg and the Senators of Zurick and the foreign Divines were so kind to them that they had still a tolerable Subsistence and Mr. Jewel stood in need of the less because he lived with Peter Martyr till his return into England SO saith Mr. Humfrey in his Life but it is apparent by the first lines of his Epistle to Seignior Scipio that he studied some time at Padua and there being no mention of his travelling at any time before his exile nor indeed any possibility of it I suppose that whilst he was thus with Peter Martyr at Zurick he made a step over the Alpes to Padua which was not very distant and there studied some time and contracted his acquaintance with the said Venetian Gentleman for this Journey is no where mentioned by any other Author that I have seen and I can find no time so likely for it as now DURING all the time of his exile which was about four years he studied very hard and spent the rest of his time in consolating and confirming his Brethren for he would frequently tell them that when their Brethren indured such bitter Tortures and horrible Martyrdoms at home it was not reasonable they should expect to fare deliciously in Banishment concluding always Haec non du rabunt aetatem These things will not last an Age Which he repeated so very often and with so great an assurance of mind that it would be so that many believed it before it came to pass and more took it for a Prophetick Sentence afterwards When the English left their Native Country they were all of a piece bu◠some of them going to Geneva an other places which had imbrace the model of Reformation settle by Calvin they became fond 〈◊〉 these foreign Novelties and som◠of them at Franckford in the yea◠1554. began an alteration of th◠Liturgy and did what they could to dra◠others to them and to these men Knox th◠great Intendiary of Scotland afterwards joyned himself and not long after one Whitehead a zealous Calvinist but of a much better temper than Knox. Not contented with this alteration the fifteenth of November 1554. they writ Letters in open defiance of the English Liturgy to them of Zurick who defended it in a Letter of the 28 th of the same month Grindal and Chambers were sent from Strasburgh to Frankford to quiet these Innovators but to no purpose so returning back again the English at Strasburgh wrote to them the thirteenth of December all which procured no other regard from them but only to obtain Calvin's judgment of it which being suitable to their own as there was no wonder it should things continued thus till the thirteenth of March following when Dr. Richard Cox entered Frankford drove Knox out and resettled the Liturgy there Whereupon in the end of August following Fox with some few others went to Basil but the main body followed Knox and Goodman to Geneva their Mother City as Dr. Heylyn stiles it where they made choice of Knox and Goodman for their constant Preachers under which Ministry they rejected the whole Frame and Fabrick of the Reformation made in England in King Edward's time and conformed themselves wholly to the fashions of the Church of Geneva c. Thus far Dr. Heylyn Mr. Jewel being then at Zurick used his utmost endeavour to reclaim these men and put a stop to this rising Schism Exhorting them as Brethren to lay aside all strife and emulation especially about such small matters least thereby they should greatly offend the minds of all good men which thing he said they ought to have a principal care of And doubtless this good man thought that their gratitude to God for restoring them to their Native Country under the auspicious Reign of Queen Elizabeth of Blessed Memory had for ever put an end to this dispute and he seems to speak as much in his Apology for the Church of England but within a few years this fury broke loose again and just about the time of Jewel's death became more trouble some than ever before and just about an hundred years after its rise by a dismal Rebellion overturn'd at once the Church and Monarchy of Great Britain BUT to return to Mr. Jewel and our Exiles the seventeenth of November 1558. God remembred the distressed State of the Church of England and put an end to her Sufferings by removing that Bigotted Lady the news of which flying speedily to our Exiles they hasted into England again to congratulate the Succession of Queen Elizabeth of ever Blessed Memory HIS good Benefactor and Tutor Mr. Parkhurst upon the arrival of this news made him a visit in Germany but fearing Mr. Jewel had not chosen the safest way for his return to England left him and went another way which seeming more safe in the end proved otherwise Mr. Jewel arriving safely in England with what he had whilst the other was robbed by the way and so at his landing in England Mr. Jewel who was here before him very gratefully relieved his great Benefactor THE time of Mr. Jewel's arrival in England is no where expressed that I can find but he being then at Zurick in all probability was for that cause none of the first that returned so that when he came back he had the comfort to find all things well disposed for the reception of the Reformation for the Queen had by a Proclamation of the thirtieth of December 1558. ordered that no man of what quality soever he were should presume to alter any thing in the State of Religion or innovate in any of the Rites and Ceremonies thereunto belonging c. until some further order should be taken therein Only it was permitted and with all required that the Litany the Lords-Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments should be said in the English Tongue and that the Epistle and Gospel should be read in English at the time of the High Mass which was done saith Dr. Heylyn in all the Churches of London on the next Sunday after being New-Years-day and by degrees in all the other Churches of the Kingdom Further than this she thought it not convenient to proceed at the present only she prohibited the Elevation of the Sacrament at the Altar of the Chappel Royal Which was likewise forborn in all other Churches and she set at liberty all that had been imprisoned for Religion in her Sisters time and ordered the Liturgy to be revised with great care and that a Parliament should be summoned to sit at West-minster the 25th of January 1559.
IOHANNES IEWEL S. T. D. Episcopus Sarisburiensis THE APOLOGY OF THE Church of England AND An Epistle to one Seignior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman Concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin By the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of Sarisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The LIFE of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand LONDON Printed by T. H. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE ensuing Discourses are all designed for the Good and Service of the Religion by Law established and two of them are so excellently adapted to that end by their Author that if I have not spoiled them by an ill version there can be no doubt made but they will be of great use Of the Third I beg leave to give somewhat a larger Account because I am a little more concerned in it THE Life I have collected from Mr. Humfrey's who wrote Bishop Jewel's Life at large in Quarto 2. The English Life put before his Works which was pen'd about the Year 1609. 3. Mr. Fuller's Church History 4. Dr. Heylyn's Ecclesia Anglicana restaurata and others who wrote any thing that related to those times and fell into my hands in that short time I had to finish it in Mr. Humfrey's alone would have been sufficient if he had observed an exact Method in Writing this Life or been altogether free from Affections But tho he tell us Bishop Jewel kept a Diary of his Life and that he had assistance from Dr. Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich Aegidius Lawrence Mr. John Jewel the Bishops Brother and one Mr. John Garbrande and others and Printed his Piece in the Year 1573. Which was not much above two years after the Death of Bishop Jewel yet he has not observed any exact order or method in the History of his Life and he no where tells us in what Year he was made a Fellow or received Orders nor from whom only he tells us Mr. Harding took his Orders at the same time Nor has he acquainted us when Mr. Harding published his first or second Antapologies nor when the Bishop went to Padua nor how long he staid there nor who were his Partners in his Visitation for the Queen Nor has he marked almost any of the principal Actions of his Life when they were done and tho he mentions a Sermon at Paul's Cross and a Conference with the Dissenters not long before his death yet he neither tells us the time or occasion of either of them but instead of these runs out into Discourses against Harding and others of that Perswasion which were nothing or very little to his purpose THE English Life before his Works is only an Extract out of Mr. Humfrey's Latin Work but yet was helpful to me in many Particulars being done by a wise Man and who doth not seem to have been biassed as the former was who makes it his business to represent both the Church of England and Bishop Jewel as wonderous Friends to the Churches of Switzerland that is to the Calvinists because he Good Man was one himself tho not so mad as those that followed and upon this very account I do suspect he has left out many things that he might have related and would have afforded great light to the Church History of those times and especially to Bishop Jewel's Life Fuller is barren in his Relations of those times the Bishop lived after his Consecration tho he afforded me some good helps Dr. Burnett has continued his History but a little way in Queen Elizabeths time and Dr. Heylyn ended his with the beginning of the Year 1566. which was about Five Years before the death of Bishop Jewel and I have neither time nor leisure nor Interest to search the Records of those times and compare the Editions of Books and other things by which this Life might have been put into a better Method as to the timing of things And besides all this it were perhaps indecent to put a long Life before two such small Tractates as I am to entertain my Reader with but yet I hope the Life such as it is will give some light to the Discourses and raise a venerable Idea of this good Bishop in the Readers mind which were the things I chiefly aimed at in the Writing of it As to the Pieces the first of these the Apology was written in Latin in the beginning of the Year 1562. or the latter end of the foregoing Year and was occasioned by Pope Pius the Fourth his calling the Council of Trent and sending his Nuncio Martiningo to invite the Queen to it and the interposition of most of the greatest Princes of Christendom who wrote to the Queen to entertain the Nuncio and submit to the Council Whereupon it was thought but reasonable to give the World an account of what we had done in the preceding Parliament and the reasons of it and to retort the many Accusations brought against our Church by the Papists And therefore it was but reasonable that it should be in Latin that being the most common Language and understood by the Learned Men of all Nations and accordingly it found entertainment in all places and was read in them Which is more perhaps than can be said of any other Book written for our Church since the Reformation Mr. Harding had a great Quarrel against it because it was not inscribed neither to the Pope nor to the Council But there being no reason to make them our Judges and they having no right to claim that Authority over us it had been a great oversight to have made any such Inscription which would have been a kind of making them what they had neither right nor reason to expect to be and from whom we could expect no Justice The Natives had without doubt a great desire to see what was in this Book which then made so great a noise in the World and the Learned Men being then otherwise imployed a Lady who was one of the most Learned of the Age undertook that task and made a very Faithful and perhaps Elegant Version of it for the time when it was made She was then Wife to Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England second Daughter to Sir Anthony Cooke Knight one of the Tutors to King Edward the Sixth who being an excellent Scholar had taken care to improve his Five Daughters so much in Learning that they became the Wonders of the Age and were sought in Marriage by great Men more for their natural and acquired Endowments and Beauty than for their Portions tho they did not want that neither Mildred the eldest married William Cecil Lord Treasurer of England Anne the second was this Lady Bacon Katherine the third married Sir Henry Killigrew Elizabeth the fourth married Sir Thomas Hobby the fifth whose name is lost married Sir Ralph Rowlet all three Knights
Horse conveyed him to the Lady Ann Warcupps a Widow who entertained him for some time and then sent him up to London where he was in more safety HAVING twice or thrice changed his Lodgings in London Sir Nicholas Throgmorton a great Minister of State in those times furnished him with Money for his Journey and procured him a Ship for his Transportation beyond the Seas And well it had been if he had gone sooner but his Friend Mr. Parkhurst hearing of the restoring of the Mass fled forthwith and poor Mr. Jewel knowing nothing of it went to Cleave to beg his advice and assistance being almost killed by his long Journey on foot in bitter cold and snowy weather and being forced at last to return to Oxon more dejected and confounded in his thoughts than he went out which Miseries were the occasions of his fall as Gods Mercy was the procurer both of his escape and recovery FOR being once arrived at Franckford in the beginning of the second year of Queen Mary's Reign he found there Mr. Richard Chambers his old Benefactor Dr. Robert Horne afterwards Bishop of Winchester Dr. Sands Bishop of London Sir Francis Knowles a Privy Counsellor and afterwards Lord Treasurer and his eldest Son c. these received Jewel with the more kindness because he came unexpectedly and unhoped for and advised him to make a publick Recantation of his Subscription which he willingly did in the Pulpit the next Lords-day in these words It was my abject and cowardly mind and saint heart that made my weak hand to commit this wickedness Which when he had uttered as well as he could for tears and sighs he applied himself in a servent Prayer first to God Almighty for his Pardon and afterwards to the Church the whole Auditory accompanying him with Tears and Sighes and ever after esteeming him more for his ingenuous Repentance than they would perhaps have done if he had not fallen IT is an easie thing for those that were never tried to censure the frailty of those that have truckled for some time under the shock of a mighty Temptation but let such remember St. Paul's advice Let him that standeth take heed least he fall This great Mans fall shall ever be my Lesson and if this glistering Jewel were thus clowded and foil'd God be merciful to me a Sinner Mr. JEWEL had not been long at Franckford before Peter Martyr hearing of it often sollicited him to come to Strasburgh where he was now settled and provided for and all things considered a wonder it is that he did not perish in England For there was no Person more openly aimed at than he because none of them had given wider Wounds than he to the Catholick Cause One Tresham a Senior Canon of Christ-Church who had held some Points against him at his first coming thither now took the benefit of the times to be revenged on him and incited those of Christ-Church and of other Houses to affront him publickly So that not finding any safety at Oxford he retired to Lambeth to Cranmer where he was sure of as much as the place could afford him A Consultation had been held by some of the more fiery Spirits for his commitment unto Prison But he came thither as was well known on the publick Faith which was not to be violated for the satisfaction of some private Persons It was thought fit threfore to discharge him of all further imployment and to license him to depart in peace none being more forward to furnish him with all things for his going hence than the new Lord Chancellor Bishop Gardiner whether in honour to his Learning or out of a desire to send him packing shall not now be questioned but less humanity was shewed to him in his Wife whose Body having been buried in the Church of St. Frideswide was afterwards by publick order taken out of the Grave and buried in a common Dunghill But in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth was removed and her bones mixed with St. Francis And the truth is the Queen who was a bigotted Papist and too much Priest-ridden breaking not only her promise to the men of Suffolk who had stood by her in her greatest necessity and treating them with extream severity for but challenging the performance of her promise one Dobbe who had spoken more boldly than the rest being ordered to stand three days in the Pillory but also her more solemn engagement made the Twelfth of August 1553. in the Council That altho her Conscience was staid in the Matters of Religion yet she was resolved not to compel or strain others otherwise than as God should put into their Hearts a perswasion of that truth she was in and this she hoped should be done by the opening his word to them by Godly vertuous and learned Preachers I say considering how ill she kept her promise to her own Subjects it is a wonder she should keep the Faith given to this Stranger in her Brothers Reign and not by her and I conceive no reason can be given for this but the over-ruling Providence of God who governs the hearts of Princes as he thinks fit BUT well it was for Mr. Jewel that there he was and as much of Mr. Jewel's Sufferings in England had been occasion'd by his great respects he had shewn to Peter Martyr whilest he lived at Oxon So now Peter Martyr never left solliciting him as I said to come to him to Strasbourgh till he prevailed where he took him to his own Table and kept him always with him And here Mr. Jewel was very serviceable to him in his Edition of his Commentaries upon the Book of Judges which were all transcribed for the Press by him and he used also to read every day some part of a Father to him and for the most part St. Augustin with which Father they were both much delighted AT Strasbourgh Mr. Jewel found J. Poynet late Bishop of Winchester Edmund Grindal Arch-bishop of York Sir Edwin Sands J. Cheeke and Sir Anthony Coke Kt. and several other great Men of the English Nation who were fled thither for their Religion And with these he was in great esteem which open'd a way for his preferment upon his return into England after the Storm was over PETER Martyr having been a long time sollicited by the Senate of Zurick to go thither and take upon him the place of Professor of Hebrew and Interpreter of the Scriptures in the place of Conrad Pellican who was almost the first Professor of Hebrew in Christendom and died about this time near an hundred years of Age at last accepted the Office and carried Mr. Jewel with him to Zurick where he lived still with Peter Martyr in his own Family Here he found James Pilkinton Bishop of Durham and several others who were maintained by the Procurement of Richard Chambers but out of the Purses of Mr. Richard Springham Mr. John Abel Mr. Thomas Eton Merchants of London and several
Religion as our Author tells us it was because he had no great occasions given him but what he thought of these men will best appear from the Sermon I mentioned above his words are these By whose name shall I call you I would I might call you Brethren But alas this heart of yours is not Brotherly I would I might call you Christians But alas you are no Christians I know not by what name I shall call you For if you were Brethren you would love as Brethren If you were Christians you would agree as Christians So that he could have no good opinion of those whom he every where in that Sermon stiles proud self-conceited disobedient and unquiet men who did not deserve the title of Brethren or Christians What would he have said if he had lived in our days BESIDES confuting some of the Seditious Doctrines of Thomas Carwright who became famous by his Admonition to the Parliament in the year following the Bishop said Stultitia nata est in corde pueri virga disciplinae fugabit illam Which shews he was no encourager of Faction by Lenity and Toleration tho he was a man of great moderation otherwise and expressed a great sense of the Frailties of Mankind in other Instances as appears by his Letter to Dr. Parkhurst when Bishop of Norwich Let your Chancellor saith he be harder but you easier let him wound but do you heal let him Lance do you Plaister wise Clemency will do more good than rigid severity one man may move more with an Engine than six with the force of their hands And accordingly he would often sit in his own Consistory with his Chancellor hearing considering and sometimes determining Causes concerning Matrimony Adultery and Testaments c. not thinking it safe to commit all to the sole care and sidelity of his Chancellor and Officials But tho as a Justice of Peace he often sate in the Courts of Quarter-Sessions yet judgment were desired concerning some scruple of Religion or some other such-like difficulty So exact was his care not to entangle himself with secular affairs and yet not to be wanting to his duty in any case THO he came to a Bishoprick miserably impoverished and wasted yet he found Means to exercise a prodigious Liberality and Hospitality For the first his great Expence in the building a fair Library for his Cathedral Church may be an instance which his Successor Dr. Gheast furnished with Books whose name is perpetuated together with the Memory of his Predecessor by this Inscription Haec Bibliotheca extructa est sumptibus R. P. ac D. D. JOHANNIS JEWELLI quondam Sarum Episcopi instructa vero libris à R. in Christo P. D. Edmundo Gheast olim ejusdem Ecclesiae Episcopo quorum memoria in Benedictione erit A. D. 1578. HIS Doors stood always open to the Poor and he would frequently send his charitable Reliefs to Prisoners nor did he confine his Bounty to English men only but was liberal to Foreigners and especially to those of Zâ—rick and the Friends of Peter Martyr BUT perceiving the great want of learned men in his times his greatest care was to have ever with him in his House half a dozen or more poor Lads which he brought up in Learning and took much delight to hear them dispute Points of Grammar-learning in Latin at his Table when he was at his Meal improving them and pleasing himself at the same time AND besides these he maintained in the University several young Students allowing them yearly Pensions and when ever they came to visit him rarely dismissed them without liberal Gâ—atuities Amongst these was the famous Mr. Richard Hooker his Country-man whose Parents being Poor must have been bound Apprentice to a Trade but for the Bounty of this good Bishop who allowed his Parents a yearly Pension towards his maintenance well near seven years before he was fit for the University and in the year 1567 appointed him to remove to Oxford and there to attend Dr. Cole then President of Corpus Christi Colledge who according to his Promise to the Bishop provided him a Tutor and a Clerks place in that Colledge which with a Contribution from his Uncle Mr. John Hooker and the continued Pension of his Patron the Bishop gave him a comfortable subsistence and in the last year of the Bishops Life Mr. Hooker making this his Patron a visit at his Palace the good Bishop made him and a Companion he had with him dine at his own Table with him which Mr. Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude when he saw his Mother and Friends whither he was then travelling a Foot The Bishop when he parted with him gave him good Counsel and his Blessing but forgot to give him Money which when the Bishop bethought himself of he sent a Servant to call him back again and then told him I sent for you Richard to lend you a Horse which hath carried me many a mile and I thank God with much ease And presently delivered into his hand a walking-staff with which he professed he had travelled many parts of Germany and then went on and said Richard I do not give but lend you my Horse be sure you be honest and bring my Horse back to me at your return this way to Oxford and I do now give you ten Groats to bear your charges to Exeter and here is ten Groats more which I charge you to deliver to your Mother and tell her I send her a Bishops Blessing with it and beg the continuance of her Prayers for me And if you bring my Horse back to me I will give you ten more to carry you on foot to the College and so God bless you good Richard It was not long after this before this good Bishop died but before his death he had so effectually recommended Mr. Hooker to Edwin Sandys then Bishop of London and after Arch-bishop of York that about a year after he put his Son under the Tutelage of Mr. Hooker and was otherwise so liberal to him that he became one of the learnedest men of the Age and as Bishop Jewel soild the Papists so this Mr. Hooker in his Books of Ecclesiastical Polity gave the Dissenters such a fatal Defeat as they never yet could nor ever shall be able to recover from Nor was Mr. Hooker ungrateful but having occasion to mention his good Benefactor in that Piece he calls him Bishop Jewel the worthiest Divine that Christendom hath bred for the space of some hundreds of years BUT to return to Bishop Jewel he had collected an excellent Library of Books of all sorts not excepting the most impertinent of the Popish Authors and here it was that he spent the greatest and the best part of his time rarely appearing abroad especially in a Morning till eight of the Clock so that till that time it was not easie to speak with him when commonly he eat some slight thing for the support
Holy Fathers the Prophets the Apostles against St. Peter St. Paul and even against Christ himself 7. BUT now if they are so ambitious of the Honour of being thought polite and eloquent Slanderers it does so much the less befit us to be mute and careless in the Defence of our most excellent Cause for it is certainly the part only of dissolute Men who can securely and wickedly shut their Eyes when the Divine Majesty is injured to be wholly unconcern'd what is tho' falsly and unjustly said of them and their Cause especially when it is of that Nature that the Glory of God and the Affairs of Religion are at the same time violated for although other and those often very great Injuries may be born and dissembl'd by a modest Christian yet He saith Ruffinus who shall patiently put up the Name of an Heretick does not deserve to be called a Christian Permit us then to do that which all Laws and the very Voice of Nature commands us that which Christ himself did when he was in a like Case assaulted with Reproaches that is suffer us to repel their Defamations and with Modesty and Truth to defend our Cause and Innocence for Christ himself when the Pharisees charged him with Conjuration as if he had entered a Combination with impure Spirits and by their Assistance wrought many Wonders replied I have not a Devil but I honour my Father and ye do dishonour me and St. Paul when he was undervalued by Festus the Proconsul as a Mad-man answered I am not mad most noble Festus but speak forth the Words of Truth and Soberness And the Primitive Christians when they were traduced to the People as Murtherers Adulterers Incestuous Persons and Disturbers of the Government and saw that the Excellence of their Religion might be call'd in question especially if they held their Peace and by their Silence seemed to confess the truth of these Accusations and so the Course of the Gospel might be hindered they thereupon made publick Orations wrote supplicant Books and discoursed before Emperors and Princes in the publick defence of themselves and the Chruch 8. BUT we perhaps may seem not to need any Defence so many thousands of our Brethren in the last twenty years having born testimony to the Truth amidst the most exquisite Tortures and Princes in endeavouring to put a stop to the Progress of the Gospel and to that purpose using several Methods having yet in the end been able to effect nothing and the whole World now beginning to open their Eyes and to see the Light and therefore it may seem as I said that enough hath been spoken and that our Case is sufficiently defended the thing speaking for it self for if the Popes themselves would or indeed if they could consider with themselves the Beginning and Progress of our Religion how theirs without any Resistance without any humane Force hath fallen and in the interim ours hath increased and by degrees been propagated into all Countries and hath been entertained in the Courts of Kings and the Palaces of Princes even whilst it was opposed from the beginning by Emperors by Kings by Popes and almost by all others these things I say are clear Indications that God himself sights for us and doth from Heaven deride and scorn their Projects and Endeavours and that the Power of Truth is so great that no humane Force nor the very Gates of Hell shall ever be able to prevail against it for so many free Cities so many Princes cannot be supposed mad as at this day have fallen from the See of Rome and chosen rather to joyn themselves to the Gospel 9. FOR although Popes have not as yet at any time been at leisure to think attentively and seriously of these things or although other Thoughts may now hinder and distract them or they may think these things light and beneath the Dignity of the Popedom is our Cause therefore to be thought ever the worse or if perhaps they will pretend not to see what indeed they do see and that they choose rather to oppose the Truth even then when they are convinced of it are we therefore presently to be reputed Hereticks because we cannot comply with their Wills If Pope Pius the IIII. had been such a Person as his Name speaks him and as he so much desires to be thought nay indeed if he had but been so good a man as to have esteem'd us as his Brethren or as MEN certainly he would diligently have considered our Reasons and what could have been alledged for and against us and not with so rash and blindfold a precipitancy have condemned without hearing our cause or allowing the Liberty of a Defence so considerable a part of the World so many learned so many Religious men so many Common-wealths so many Kings and so many Princes as he has sentenced in his Bull concerning his late pretended Council 10. BUT now because We are so publickly in this unjust manner noted by him left by our silence we should seem to confess the Crimes charged upon us and the rather because we could in no manner be heard in any publick Council where he would suffer none to have any Suffrage or propose his Judgment who was not first sworn to him and intirely addicted to his Interest for of this we had too great an experience in the last Council of Trent when the Ambassadors and Divines of the Princes and free Cities of Germany were totally excluded out of the Council nor can we forgot that Julius the III. above ten years since took a mighty care by his Rescript that none of our Men might be heard in the Council except it were one that was disposed to recant and change his Opinion For these causes I say we have thought fit by this Book to give an account of our Faith and to answer truly and publickly what hath been publickly objected against us that the whole World may see the Parts and Reasons of that Faith which so many good men have valued above their Lives and that all Mankind may understand what kind of men they are and what they think of God and Religion whom the Bishop of Rome has inconsiderately enough before they had made their Defence without Example and without Law condemn'd for Hereticks upon a bare report that they differed from him and his in some points of Religion 11. AND though St. Jerome will allow no man to be patient under the Suspicion of Heresie yet we will not behave our selves neither sowerly nor irreverently nor angerly tho' he ought not to be esteemed either sharp or abusive who speaks nothing but the truth no we will leave that sort of Oratory to our Adversaries who think whatsoever they speak although it be never so sharp and reproachful modest and apposite when it is applied to us and they are as little concern'd whether it be true or false but we who defend nothing but the Truth have no need of such base
demonstrative Pronoun THIS shewed the Wheaten Bread others say no but it relates to a certain Individuum vagum a no Man knows what there be some who say Dogs and Mice may truly and really eat the Body of Christ but then there are others who stoutly deny this there be some who say the Accidents of the Bread and Wine can nourish and others say the Substance returns again But why should I add any more It is a long and troublesome Business to count up all their Divisions the whole Form of this Religion and Doctrine is to this day controverted and uncertain amongst them who first gave being and entertainment to it for they scarce ever agree except it be as the Pharisees and Saducees or as Herod and Pilate did of old against Christ 7. LET them go then and put an end to their own Quarrels Vnity and Agreement do excellently become Religion yet it is no certain and proper sign of the Church of God for there was a wonderful Agreement amongst them who worshipped the Golden Calf and amongst those who with one Voice cried out against our Saviour Crucifie him crucifie him Nor are we presently to determine because there was some Dissentions in the Church of Corinth or because St. Paul differed with St. Peter or Barnabas with St. Paul or that the Christians in the Infancy of the Church disagreed amongst themselves concerning some things that therefore there was no Church of God amongst them Those very men whom they contemptuously call Lutherans and Zuinglians are both of them Christians and Friends each to others and Brethren they do not disagree about the Principles and Foundations of our Religion concerning God or Christ or the Holy Ghost not concerning the manner of our Justification or of eternal Life it is only about one Point and that of no great consequence nor do we despair or rather we do not so much as doubt but that in a small time an Agreement will be made betwixt them and tho there are some who now think otherwise than they ought we hope that laying aside all Passions and Factious Names and Reproaches God will reveal to them what they now know not and having better considered and searched into the thing as it happened heretofore in the Council of Calcedon all the Causes and Fibers of Dissentions shall be pluck'd up by the Roots and buried in eternal Oblivion Amen 8. BUT the most insufferable of all their Slanders is their Pretence that we are impious Men and have cast off all care of Religion But this is the less to be regarded because they who make this Objection do themselves know that it is contumelious and false And Justin Martyr writes also that when the Gospel was first published and the Name of Christ discovered to the World that all Christians were then stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Men without a God or Atheists And when the Holy Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna stood before the Tribunal the Rabble incited the Proconsul to the Slaughter and Destruction of all those who professed the Gospel with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is exterminate out of the World those wicked men who have no God Not that the Christians had indeed no God but because they would not adore the Stones and Blocks which were then worshipped as Gods But the World now sees plainly what we and ours have suffered from them for the Sake of God and our Religion They have cast us into Goals and Fire and Water and have rol'd themselves in our Bloods not because we are Adulterers or Thieves or Murtherers but purely because we imbrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ and put our whole Trust only in the living God and O good God! because we truly and justly complain that they have for their most impertinent Traditions violated the Laws of God and that these Enemies of ours who knowingly and willingly despise the Commandments of God are the haters of the Gospel and the Enemies of the Cross of Christ 9. NOW these Men when they saw they could six no Slanders upon our Doctrine then they began to declaim against our Manners that we hated all good Works that we made way for Disorder and Luxury and did drive the People off from all Care and Exercise of Virtue And certainly the Lives of all Men even those of the most Holy and Christian Men now are and ever were even in the best and most chast state of things liable to some exceptions on that account and such is the Propensity of men to do Ill on the one side and the Proneness of all to Suspition on the other that many things which were never done nor thought of have yet been pretended to be heard and have obtained a Belief too and as a small Spot is easily seen in a very white Garment so in the purest course of Life the slightest Note of Turpitude or disorder is easily taken notice of Nor do we think our selves or all those who have imbraced the Reformation to be Angels and to live without the least Speck or Unevenness or that those who hate us are so blind that they cannot observe whatever is blameable in us even through the smallest Chink or that they are so candid as that they will put a mild Sense upon any thing or so ingenious that they will at any time turn their Eyes upon themselves and estimate or compare our Manners with their own But then if we should here run the thing up to the Fountains head we know that in the Apostles times there were Christians who made the Name of God to be blasphem'd and evil spoken of amongst the Gentiles 10. CONSTANTIUS the Emperor complains in Sozomen that many after they entered the Christian Church became worse than they were before And St. Cyprian in a mournful Oration describes the Corruptions of his own times Ease and a long Peace saith he had destroyed that Discipline which the Apostles delivered to us Men were intent upon the enlarging their Estates and forgetting what Believers did under the Apostles and what they ever ought to do they applied themselves with an insatiable Appetite to the Improvement of their Fortunes There is not now that devout Piety in the Priests that sincere Faith in the Ministers that Compassion in Works of Mercy that Restraint in Mens Manners Men colour their Beards and Women paint their Faces And before him Tertullian O wo to us who are now call'd Christians for we live the Lives of Heathens under that venerable Title 11. To conclude and not to trouble the Reader with many Authors Gregory Nazianzen speaks thus of the deplorable State of his own times We are said he hated by the Heathens now for our Vices and we are made a Spectacle not only to Men and Angels but to the wickedest of Men. This was the State of the Church of God when the Light of the Gospel began first to shine upon it when the Fury of Tyrants was
escaped the Hatred of Men and the apparent Dangers we have run into by our Departure from them It is not many months since Paul the IV. had some Monks of the Augustine Order in Prison at Rome and many Bishops and a vast number of pious Men for the sake of Religion he exercised his Tortures and his Racks and left nothing untried and at the last how many Adulterers how many Sodomites how many Fornicators how many Incestuous Men did he find amongst them Blessed be God tho we are not what we should be nor what we profess to be yet what ever we are if we be compared with these our very Lives and Innocency will easily confute all these Slanders For we excite the People not only by Books and Sermons but by Example and good Manners to all sorts of Virtues and good Works We teach that the Gospel is not anâ— Ostentation of Knowledge but a Law of Life and that as Tertullian expresseth it â— Christian should not speak great things but live them and that not the Hearers but the Doers of the Law shall be justified before God 8. To all these things they commonly add and amplifie it too with all manner of Reproaches that we are a turbulent sort of Men that we snatch the Scepters out of the Hands oâ— Princes arm the People against them subver their Judicatories and Courts of Justice and endeavour to reduce Monarchies to popular States or Common-wealths dissolve the Laws and retrench the Revenues of Princes and turâ— all things topsie turvy and that in short if wâ— had our Wills there should nothing continuâ— safe in the Governments of the World O how often have they by such Pretences incensed the Minds of Princes against us that so they might crush the Reformation in its first springing up and Princes might be possess'd with an Aversion for our Religion before they knew what it was and that Magistrates might entertain an Opinion that when ever they saw one of us they saw one of their Enemies 9. IT would have been a great Affliction to us to be thus hatefully accused of so great a Crime as Treason but that we know that Christ himself and his Apostles and an infinite number of other pious Christians have been made the Objects of publick Envy on the same Pretence for Christ tho he commanded to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesars yet he was accused of Sedition in that he was said to design a Change in the Government and to affect and intend a Kingdom and so they loudly charged him before the Tribunal of Pilate If thou lettest this man go say they thou art no Friend to Caesar And the Apostles altho they constantly taught that we ought to obey Magistrates and that every Soul should be subject to the Higher Powers and that not only for fear of Wrath and Punishment but also for Conscience sake yet they were said to stir up the People and to incite the Multitude to Rebellion Haman brought the Jews into the disfavour of Assucrus by representing them as a stubborn and rebellious People that despised the Edicts and Laws of Princes The wicked King Ahab charged Elijah the Prophet of God that he troubled Israel Amasias the Priest of Bethel accused Amos the Prophet of a Conspiracy before Jeroboam And behold saith he Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the House of Israel and the Land is not able to bear all his Words In short Tertullian saith this was the general Accusation against all Christians in his times that they were Traitors Plotters and the common Enemies of Mankind And therefore if Truth which is still the same suffers the same Reproaches as it did formerly it may indeed seem troublesome and uneasie but it is not new or unusual 10. IT was easie forty years agon to fiâ— such Slanders upon the then rising and unknown Truth when the first Rays of it burst forth in the midst of so great a Darkness and few men had heard what Doctrines were taught When Martin Luther and Huldericus Zuinglius two excellent Persons who were given by God to enlighten the World began first to preach the Gospel when the Thing was new and the Event uncertain and the Minds of Men surprised and unsetled and their Ears open to all manner of Calumnies and it was not possible to invent thaâ— Defamation of us which would not be believed by the People even upon the Account of the Novelty and strangeness of the thing And so it was in the more ancienâ— times the first opposers of Christianity Symmachus Celsus Julianus and Porphyrius represented the Primitive Christians as a seditious and rebellious Sect before either Prince or People knew well what the Christians were or what they professed or what they would have But now when our Enemies may see and cannot deny that in all our Words and Writings we diligently admonish the People of their Duty that they should obey their Princes and Magistrates tho they are wicked men which is also confirm'd by Experience and seen and observed by all the World certainly I say it is now a senseless thing to attempt to make us odious by a parcel of superannuated over-worn Lyes when they have no new and fresh Crimes to lay to our Charge 11. WE bless our gracious God whose Cause this is that there hath yet been no Example of any Insurrection or Rebellion in any of those Countries Kingdoms or Common-wealths which have imbraced the Reformation We have not subverted any Monarchy we have not diminished anyâ—Princes Jurisdiction or Rights we have not troubled any Common-wealth The Kings of England Denmark and Sweden the Dukes of Saxony the Counts of the Palatinate the Marquesses of Brandenburgh the Lantgraves of Hessia the Common-wealths of the Switzars the free Cities of Strasbourgh Basil Frankfort Ulm Augsburg and Norimburg are all in the same State they were before the Reformation or rather because the People are now better instructed in the matters of Obedience to their Governours than they were before in a better State Let our Defamers go into those places where the Gospel is setled by the Blessing of God and then tell us where Princes have more Majesty Where there is less Pride and Tyranny Where are Princes treated with more Respect Where the People are less Tumultuous Where the Civil Government or Ecclesiastical was ever in greater Tranquillity 12. BUT you will say the Boors of Germany fell into Tumults and Insurrections upon the first preaching of this Doctrine Be it granted but then Martin Luther the first Divulger of it did with great vehemence and sharpness write against them and reduced them to their Allegiance and Duty 13. AND whereas some ignorant men have objected that the Switzars murthered Leopold the Arch-Duke of Austria and changing the State erected a Common-wealth and so freed their Country this was done as appears by all Histories above two hundred and sixty years since
diligently examined are in the end sound to be new and of a very late Original 3. IN truth the Laws and Ceremonies of the Jews altho accused by Haman as new could never be thought so by any man who did well and rightly consider the thing for they were written on most ancient Tables and Christ tho many thought he departed from Abraham and the ancient Fathers and brought in a new Religion in his own name yet answered truly if ye believed Moses ye would believe me also for my Doctrine is not so new for Moses a very ancient Author and of great esteem with you hath spoken of me and St. Paul saith of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which many thought to be new that it had the most Ancient Testimony of the Law and the Prophets And our Doctrine which we may much better call the Catholick Doctrine of Christ is not so new but that it is commended to us by the Ancient of days the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in most ancient Monuments the Prophets and Gospels and the Writings of the Apostles and these cannot now seem new to any man but to him to whom the Faith of the Prophets the Gospel and Christ himself seems new But then as to their Religion if it be so ancient as they pretend why do they not prove it so from the Examples of the Primitive Church from the old Fathers and the antient Councils Why doth so antient a Cause lye desolate and without a Patron so very long Indeed they never want Fire and Swords but then as to the ancient Fathers and Councils there is with them a deep silence But it is the height of Absurdity and Folly to begin with those bloody and brutish Reasons if they could possibly have found out easier and milder Arguments 4. AND again if they do indeed intirely trust to Antiquity and do not dissemble any thing why did one John Clement an English man rend and burn some Leaves of Theodoret a most ancient Father and a Greek Bishop in the presence of several persons of good Worth and Credit believing that another Copy of that Book was no where to be found because this Father had perspicuously and clearly taught that the Nature of the Bread was not abolished in the Eucharist Why doth Albertus Pighius deny that the ancient Father St. Augustin had a true notion of original Sin Or of Matrimony in that he saith that a Marriage made after a Vow entered is a good Marriage and cannot be dissolved upon which occasion Pighius saith Augustin erred and made use of false Logick And why did they in a late Impression of Origen upon the Gospel of St. John omit the whole sixth Chapter in which it is probable or rather certain that Father has delivered many things contrary to their Opinions concerning the Eucharist choosing rather to deface and to mutilate this ancient Father than to suffer any thing to appear in the World which might contradict their Doctrine by printing the Book perfect Is their Rending Suppressing Maiming and Burning the Writings of the ancient Fathers an Argument of their Reliance on Antiquity 5. IT is worth the while to see how rarely these Gentlemen agree in matters of Religion with those antient Fathers of whose concurrence they boast so unmeasurably 1. The ancient Elibertin Council decreed that what was the Object of Worship should not be painted in Churches The old Father Epiphanius saith it is a hâ—rrible wickedness and an insufferable villany for any man to set up the Picture even of Christ in Christian Churches but they have filled all their Churches and every Corner of them with Pictures and Statues as as if there were no Religion without them 2. The ancient Fathers Origen and St. Chrysostom have exhorted the People to the diligent reading of the Scriptures that they would buy Books and discourse amongst themselves of holy things in their Families the Wives with their Husbands and the Parents with their Children but our adversaries condemn the Scriptures as dead Elements and drive the People from them as much as they can possibly 3. The ancient Fathers Cyprian Epiphanius and St. Jerome if any Person who had vowed to live a single Life did afterwards fall into impurity and could not overcome the Rages of his Concupiscence said it was better for him to marry and live chastly in a State of Matrimony and such a Marriage is by St. Augustine another ancient Father adjudged to be valid and good and that it ought not to be recalled or rescinded but they if a man has once bound himself by a Vow although he is afterwards burnt altho he Whores altho he lives never so lewdly and dissolutely yet they will never suffer him to marry or if he does perhaps marry they deny that it is a lawful Marriage and they â—each that it is much more holy to keep a Concubine or a Whore than to live in a state of Matrimony 4. St. Augustin an ancient Father complained of the excessive number of impertinent Ceremonies with which the Minds and Consciences of Men were even then oppressed they as if God regarded nothing else have since swelled the number of them to so immense a quantity that there is scarce any thing else left in their Churches 5. The same ancient Father denies it to be lawful for a Monk to live lazily in idleness and under the Shew and Pretence of Sanctity to live on what is anothers and the ancient Father Apollonius saith such a Monk is no better than a Thief But they have whole Flocks or Herds shall I call them of Monks who do nothing nor do they so much as pretend to any shew of Holiness and yet do not only live by the Labour of others but fare deliciously and luxuriously 6. An ancient Roman Council decreed that no man should be present at that Divine Service which was celebrated by a Priest which he knew kept a Concubine but they permit the Priests to keep Concubines for Money and by force compel men to be present at their Sacrilegious Services 7. The ancient Apostolical Canons command that Bishop to be deposed who shall exercise at the same time the Office of a Bishop and the Function of a Civil Magistrate but these men do and will exercise both or rather indeed totally neglect that which is most of all their Duty and yet there is no man to remove and punish them 8. The ancient Council of Gangra forbid any man to put such difference between a married and a single Priest as to esteem the one more Holy than the other upon that account but they put such a Difference that they think all the Holy Services which are performed by a pious and good man who hath a Wife are prophaned 9. The ancient Emperor Justinianus commanded all things in the Divine Service to be pronounced with an audible loud clear articulate Voice that the People
these as his own tho he would yet he cannot commit Simony But then how well or rationally this is spoken we poor Men cannot see or understand except as the ancient Romans served Victory so they have served Truth for when she once came flying to them they clipt her Wings that she might no more sly from them But what if Jeremias should tell them as we have observed above that these are lying Words And what again if he should say That many Pastors who ought to have dressed have destroyed my Vineyard What if Christ should say that those who should have taken the greatest care of the Temple have made the House of God a Dâ—n of Thieves For if the Church of Rome cannot Err she is more beholding to her own good Fortune than to their Prudence or Care for such are their Lives Doctrines and Diligence that if we are to take our Measures from thence this Church is not only in danger of falling into â—rror but of a total Ruine and Destruction And certainly if that Church can err which hath departed from the Word of God the Commandments of Christ the Institutions of the Apostles the Examples of the Primitive Church and from the Canons and Sanctions of the ancient Fathers and Councils yea and from her own too which will be obliged by neither old nor new Laws by neither her own nor any others by neither Divine nor Humane Laws I say if all this be to err then it is certain that the Church of Rome not only may err but that she hath most wickedly and lewdly erred 11. BUT they say we were once of their Communion but now we are Apostates and have departed from them indeed we have departed from them and we bless the Great and Holy God for it and please our selves mightily in it but then we have not departed from the Primitive Church from the Apostles from Christ we were educated indeed with them in darkness and ignorance of God as Moses was in the Discipline and bosom of the Egyptians We were of your Number saith Tertullian and I confess it but what wonder is there in that Men are made and not born Christians But then I may as well ask them why they have descended from the seven Hills on which the ancient City of Rome stood to dwell in the Plains in the Martian Field to which perhaps they would reply that the Aquaeducts without which they could not conveniently dwell on those Hills have failed Let them then but grant the same liberty in relation to the Waters of Life which they expect we should afford them in regard of the common Family-water The Springs did now fail with them The Elders saith Jeremiah sent their little ones to the Waters they came to the Pits and found no Water they returned with their Vessels empty they were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads Or as Isaiah saith The Poor and the Needy seek Water and there is none and their Tongue faileth for thirst They had broken all their Conduits and Water-courses they had stopped up all the Springs and covered the Fountain of Living Waters with mire and mud and as Caligula by shutting up all the publick Granaries enjoyned the People of Rome to fast so they by stopping up the Fountains of the Word of God had enjoyned the People to undergo the Miseries of a destructive Thirst they have as the Prophet Amos saith brought upon the World a Famine Not a Famine of Bread nor a thirst for Water but of hearing the Words of the Lord. Miserable Men went searching about for a small spark of Divine Light to chear their Consciences but they were all gone out and they could find none this was the miserable Condition and State of their Church men lived wretchedly in it with out the Gospel and without Light or Conslation 12. AND therefore how afflictive soever our departure from them may seem to them yet they ought at the same time to consider how just the cause of it was for if they say in general it is not lawful to leave that Society in which thou wert educated this were in our Persons to condemn the Prophets Apostles and Christ himself for why is it not as reasonable to blame Lot for leaving Sodom Abraham for leaving Chaldea the Hebrews for leaving Egypt Christ for leaving the Jews and St. Paul for leaving the Pharisees For except it be granted that there may be a just cause of departure we can see no cause why these may not in the same manner as we are be accused of Faction and Sedition But if we are to be thought Hereticks because we will not obey all their unjust commands what are they Who or what are they to be thought who have contemned the Commands of Christ and his Apostles If we are Schifmaticks who have forsaken them by what name shall we call them who have forsaken the Greeks from whom they first received the Christian Faith the Primitive Church Christ and the Apostles who were their Spiritual Parents For the Greek Church who at this day profess the Religion and Name of Christ altho they have in many things contaminated it yet they still retain a great part of those things which they received from the Apostles And so they have no private Masses no maimed Sacraments no Purgatory nor Indulgences And as to the Papal Titles and magnificent Names they have this esteem of them that whoever calls himself the universal Bishop and the Head of the whole Church is a proud Man and injurious to all the other Bishops who are his Brethren nor will they scruple on this single account to call him Heretick 13. BUT now seeing it is apparent and cannot be denied that they have made a defection from them from whom they received the Gospel the Christian Faith and Religion yea and the very being of a Church what cause is there to be given why they should not return back to them as to their Original Why should they so much dread the times of the Fathers and Apostles as if they had seen nothing Why do they see more or love the Church better than they who delivered what they have to them for as for us we have forsaken a Church in which we could neither hear the pure Word of God nor administer the Sacraments nor invoke the Name of God as we ought which they themselves acknowledge to be faulty in many things and in which there was nothing to retain a prudent Man who thought seriously of his Salvation Lastly We have departed from a Church which is not now what anciently she was and so we have departed as Daniel did out of the Den of Lyons as the three Children did out of the fiery Furnace or to speak more properly we have not so much departed from them as been cast out by them with Execrations and Curses 14. BUT then we have united our selve to that Church in which if they would
Right is devolved to all Princes in common yet has so unjustly usurpt it to himself alone and thinks it sufficient to communicate his design of holding a Council to the Greatest Prince in Christendom as to his Servant But if the Modesty of Ferdinand the Emperor be so great perhaps because he doth not thorowly understand the Papal Arts that he can digest this Injury yet the Pope who pretends to so much Sanctity ought not to have offered him this Affront and thus to have arrogated to himself another Mans Right 12. BUT some of his Party may reply that the Emperor then called the Councils because the Bishop of Rome was not then arrived to that height of Greatness and yet he did not even then sit with the Bishops or at all interpose his Authority in their Deliberations and Consultations Yes as Theodoret acquaints us Constantine the Emperor did not only sit with the Bishops but admonished them to determine the Controversie then depending out of the Prophetick and Apostolical Writings In this Disputation said the Emperor concerning Divine things there is set before us which we ought to follow the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost for the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles and the Oracles of the Prophets do sufficiently shew us what we ought to think of the Will of God Theodosius another Emperor not only sat amongst the Bishops as Socrates saith but also was Moderator of the Dispute and rent the Papers of the Hereticks and approved the Sentiments and Doctrine of the Catholicks And in the Council of Chalcedon the Civil Magistrate who under the Emperor governed that Council condemn'd three Bishops Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassius by his Sentence for Hereticks and gave judgment that they should be deposed from that degree In the Third the Constantinopolitan Council the Civil Magistrate not only sate with the Bishops but also subscribed the Canons with them We have read said he and subscribed them In the Second Council of Orange the Ambassadors of the Princes being Noble-men themselves sate and not only voted concerning Matters of Religion but also subscribed amongst the Bishops for thus it is written in the end of that Council Petrus Marcellinus and Felix Liberius two Noble and Illustrions Praefecti Praetorio of Gaul and Patricians have consented and subscribed Syragrius Opilio Pantagathus Deodatus Cariatho and Marcellus honourable Men and Magistrates have subscribed But if the Praefecti Praetorio and Patricians or Noble-men could then subscribe the Councils may not Emperors and Kings do it now There were no need to prosecute so plain and apparent a point as this is but that we have to do with a parcel of Men who use to deny the clearest things oven those things which lye plain and open before their Eyes out of a contentious Disposition and a desire of Victory The Emperour Justinianus made a Law for the correcting the Manner and curbing the Insolence of the Clergy and altho he was a most Christian and Catholick Emperor yet he deposed Sylverius and Vigilius two Popes Successors of St. Peter and Vicars of Jesus Christ as they are now called 13. AND now seeing that Princes have imployed their Authority upon Bishops received commands from God concerning Religion brought back the Ark of God composed Sacred Hymns and Psalms governed the Priests made publick Discourses concerning the Worship of God purged the Temple demolished High Places burnt Idolatrous Groves and have admonished the Priests concerning their Office and given them Laws of Living have slain wicked Prophets deposed Bishops called Councils of Bishops and sate with them and taught them what they should do have punished Heretical Bishops have taken cognizance of Religion subscribed Councils and given Sentence in them and done all this not by the command of another but in their own Names and that rightly and piously shall we say after all this that the care of Religion belongs not to them Or that a Christian Prince who is pleased to concern himself in these things acts ill immodestly and wickedly In all these Affairs the most Ancient and most Christian Kings and Emperors have intermeddled and yet were never accused of Impiety or Immodesty for so doing and will any pretend to find either more Catholick Princes or more Illustrious Examples 14. BUT now if they might do all these things tho they were only Civil Princes and governed their several States Wherein have our Princes offended who tho they are in the same Authority may it seems not do the same things Or wherein consists the wonderful force of their Learning Wisdom and Holiness that contrary to the Custom of all the Ancient and Catholick Bishops who have heretofore deliberated with Princes concerning Religion they should now reject and exclude Christian Princes from the cognizance of the Cause now depending and from all Participation and Congress with them in their Councils But yet it cannot be denied they have taken a prudent care for themselves and the upholding their Kingdom which they foresaw otherwise would soon have perished For if they who are placed by God in the highest Station had once seen and understood these Mens Arts that the Commands of Christ are contemned by them that the light of the Gospel is obscured and extinguished by them that they play tricks with and delude them and shut up against them the entrance into the Kingdom of God They would never so patiently have suffered themselves to be so proudly despised and injuriously scorned and abused But now on the other hand they have rendred all Princes obnoxious and subject to them by their blindness and Ignorance 15. WE as I said before have done nothing in the changing of Religion either insolently or rashly nothing but with great deliberation and slowly Nor had we ever thought of doing it except the Will of God undoubtedly and manifestly opened to us in the most Sacred Scriptures and the necessity of our Salvation had compelled us so to do for altho we have departed from that Church which they call the Catholick Church and thereupon they have kindled a great envy against us in them who cannot well judge of us yet it is enough for us and ought to be so to any prudent and pious man who considers seriously of his Salvation that we have only departed from that Church which may enr which Christ who cannot err so long since foretold should err and which we see clearly with our Eyes has departed from the Holy Fathers the Apostles Christ himself and the Primitive and Catholick Church And we have approached as much as possibly we could to the Church of the Apostles and ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers which we know was yet a Perfect and as Tertullian saith an unspotted Virgin and not contaminated with any Idolatry or great and publick Error Neither have we only reformed the Doctrine of our Church and made it like theirs in all things but we have also brought the Celebration of ☞ the Sacraments and the
but a Sword 5. WHEREFORE if the Pope does indeed desire we should be reconciled to him he ought first to reconcile himself to God for as St. Cyprian saith Schisms arise from hence that the Head is not sought and a Return is not made to the Fountain of the Holy Scriptures and the Precepts of our Heavenly Master are not kept for else it is not Peace saith he but War neither can any man be united to the Church who is separated from the Gospel But these men with whom we are concern'd do use to make a base gain by the Name of Peace for the Peace they seek is only a Peace of idle Bellies for all these Controversies betwixt us and them might with great facility be ended if Ambition Gluttony and Luxury did not hinder it and from hence proceed all their Tears their Souls are in their Dishes and all their loud Clamors and Noise are only that they may basely and wickedly keep what they have acquired knavishly 6. IN these times the Pardoners Dataries Collectors and Pimps of the Court of Rome make the greatest Complaints against us who with others of their Trade think that great Gain is Godliness and serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies for in the foregoing Ages this sort of men had a very profitable imployment but now whatever is gain'd to Christ turns as they think to their Loss Yea his Holiness too complains sadly that Piety is grown cold and his Revenue is become much smaller than heretofore it was and therefore the good man does his utmost to make us hated loads us with Reproaches and condemns us for Hereticks without any mercy that they who know not the real cause of all this may thereby be induced to believe us the very worst of men and yet in the interim we are not therefore ashamed nor indeed ought we to be so of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because we esteem the Glory of God more than the good Opinion of Men. We know that all we teach is true and we cannot offer Violence to our own Consciences or give Testimony against God for if we deny any part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ before Men he will in like manner deny us before his Father and if there be any that will be offended and cannot bear the Doctrine of Christ they are blind and the Leaders of the Blind but the Truth is still to be preached and owned and we must patiently expect the Judgment of God 7. AND in the interim our Adversaries should do well to bethink themselves seriously of their own Salvation and to put an end to their Raging Hatred and Persecution of the Gospel of the Son of God that at last they may not find him the Vindicator and Revenger of his own Cause for God will not be had in derision and men too now see what is doing that Flame the more it is repress'd with so much the greater Violence doth it break out again and display it self Their Infidelity and Unbelief shall never be able to frustrate or put a stop to the Faith of God and if they shall still persist in the Hardness of their Hearts and refuce to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Publicans and the Harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before them The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ open all their Eyes that they may see that blessed Hope to which they are called that we may altogether glorifie the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent down to us from Heaven to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be rendred all Honour and Glory to all Eternity Amen Amen AN EPISTLE Written by the Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of SARUM TO SEIGNIOR SCIPEO A Venetian Gentleman In Answer to a Letter of his in which he complains of the Kingdom of England for their not appearing in the Council of Trent nor excusing their Absence by Letters SIR YOU are pleased to write to me with much freedom according to the great Acquaintance which hath been between us ever since we lived together at Padua where you were imployed in the publick Service of your Common-wealth and I in the Pursute of Learning that both your self and many others with you in those Parts do much admire that seeing there is at this time a General Council call'd by the Pope at Trent for the composing Controversies in Religion and the extinguishing all Contentions that have arisen on that account and that whereas all other Nations are assembled there the Kingdom of England alone has neither sent any Ambassador thither nor excused their Absence by Envoys or Letters but in the mean time without the Consent of the Council hath chang'd almost the whole Order of their Ancient and Paternal Religion that one of these things hath the appearance of a proud Contumacy and the other of a pernicious Schism for it is a great Wickedness for any man say you to decline the most holy Authority of the Pope of Rome or to to withdraw himself when he is call'd to a Council by him And that Controversies in Religion ought not to be determined any where but in such Conventions for there are the Patriarchs and Bishops and the most Learned of all Orders of Men in the Church at their Mouths the Truth is to be sought there are the great Lights of the Church and there the Holy Ghost is ever present and accordingly pious Princes have in every age referr'd all those Doubts which have happened concerning the Worship of God to such publick Consultations That neither Moses nor Joshua nor David nor Ezechia nor Josias nor any other of the Judges Kings or Priests did ever deliberate of the Affairs of the Church any other way than in a Council of the Bishops That the Apostles of Christ and the Holy Fathers held Councils that so the Truth was discovered so Heresies were suppress'd so Arrius so Eunomius so Eutyches so Macedonius and so Pelagius were overcome and so at this time the Dissentions of the World may be composed and the Ruins of the Church repair'd if Men would be pleas'd to lay by their Animosities and Partiality and come to this Council but without a Council it is utterly unlawful to attempt any Change in Matters of Religion 2. THIS Sir is almost the whole Sum of your Letter and as for me I will not now presume to give you in Answer on the behalf of England an exact Account of the reason of all our publick Transactions nor do I think it is your Will or Expectation that I should the Counsels of Kings are conceal'd and secret and so they ought to be and this you Sir know perfectly well that they are not to be reveal'd at random to every body or any body and yet in compliance with that old and intimate Acquaintance that has been between us because I see you so earnestly desire it I will shortly and friendly tell
Definition of the Fathers and the Decrees of the Nicene Council have most plainly committed both all inferiour Clerks and also all the Bishops to their own Metropolitans for all Affairs may be most prudently and justly ended in those places where they began nor will the Grace and Assistance of the Holy Ghost be wanting to any Province Let this Equity be â—ver of great esteem with all Christian Priests which hath been constantly retained 35. BUT Elutherius Bishop of Rome wrote much better and more pertinently to the thing we have now in hand in his Epistle to Lucius a King in Britain You have saith he desired I would send you the Roman and Caesarean Laws which you have a desire to settle in your Kingdom of Britain We may abrogate the Roman and Imperial Laws when we will but not the Law of God for you have by the Mercy of God received the Law and Faith of Christ in your Kingdom of Britain and you have with you in your Kingdom both Testaments compile out of them by the Assistance of God and the Counsel of your Kingdom a Law and then by it with Gods permission govern your said Kingdom for you are the VICAR OF GOD in that Kingdom according to that of the Psalmist the Earth is the Lords 36. IN short Victor Bishop of Rome held a Provincial Synod at Rome and Justinianus the Emperor commandeth that if need require Synods should be held in each Province and threatned that if this were neglected he would punish those that made default Every Province saith St. Jerome hath its particular Manners Rites and Opinions which cannot easily be removed or changed without a very great disturbance And why should I commemorate the most ancient Municipal Councils that of Eliberis Gangra Laodicea Ancyra Antiâ—ch Tâ—urs Carthage Milevis Toledo and Bourdâ—aux for this is no new thing So was the Church of God governed before the Fathers met in the Council of Nice for they had not presently recourse to a General Council Theophilus held a Provincial Synod in Palestinâ— Palmas in Pontus Irenaeus in Gaul Bachilus in Achaia Origen against Beryllus in Arabia and I omit many other Provincial Synods which were kept in Africa Asia Greece and Egypt which were most â—ious Orthodox and Christian tho the Pope had nothing to do with them For the Bishops then as necessity required and as things fell out presently consulted the Well-fare of their Churches in Domestick Councils and sometimes implored the Assistance of their neighbour Bishops at other they frankly aided each other without asking and if need were did by turns help one the other Nor did only the Bishops but Princes of those times think that the Concerns of the Church pertain'd to their Oâ—â—ice for to omit Nebuchadnezar who published a Capital Edict against all that should blaspheme the God of Israel and David Solomon Ezechias and Josias who did partly build and partly reform the Temple of God Constantius the Emperor without any Council took away the Worship of Idols and put forth a most severe Edict by which he made it capital for any man to offer Sacrifice to any Idol Theodosius the Emperor commanded all the Temples of the Pagan Gods to be razed to the Ground Jovinianus another of them so soon as ever he was declared Emperor made his first Law for the restitution of the Christian Exiles Justinianus was wont to say that his Care of the Christian Religion was as great as that of his Life Joshua so soon as ever he was made the Governour of the People had Precepts concerning Religion and the Worship of God given him for Princes are the nursing Fathers of the Church and the Keepers of both Tables nor was there any one Cause why God setled Governments in the World greater than this viz. That there might be some to preserve Religion and Piâ—ty in safety 37. AND therefore many Princes in this Age do sin the more grievously who being call'd Christians sit idely and enjoy their Pleasures and tamely suffer wicked Rites of Worship and the Contempt of the Deity and turn over all this Care to the Bishops and those very Bishops whom they know to have all Religion in the utmost degree of scorn as if the Care of the Churches and People of God did not at all belong to them or as if they were meer Herds-men of Cattle and to take care of Bodies but not in the least of mens Souls they remember not in the mean time that they are the Ministers of God and chosen for that purpose that they might serve the Lord. Ezechias the King would not go up to his own House until he saw the Temple of God throughly purged And David said I will not give Sleep to my Eyes no Slumber to my Eye-lids until I find out a Place for the Lord a Tabernacle for the God of Jacob. O that Christian Princes would hear the Voice of their Lord and Soveraign Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be learned O ye that are Judges of the Earth I have said saith he that ye are Gods that is men divinely chosen who should take care of my Name Think thou whom I have raised from the Dunghil and placed in the highest degree of Dignity and Honour and set over my People when thou so studiously buildst and adornest thy own House how thou canst despise and neglect my House or how thou canst every day petition me that I would confirm thy Kingdom to thee and thy Posterity What that my Name may for ever be treated unworthily that the Gospel of my Christ may be extinguished that my Servants may for my Sake he butchered before thy Eyes and in thy View that this Tyranny may rage the longer that my People may be imposed upon for ever that the Scandal may be confirm'd by thee Wo to him by whom Scandals come and wo to him by whom they are confirm'd Thou tremblest at the Blood of Bodies how much more shouldest thou abhor the Blood of Souls remember what I did to Antiochus Herod and Julian I will translate thy Kingdom unto thy Enemy because thou hast sinned against me I change Times and Seasons I reject Kings and I set them up that thou mayst understand that I am the most highest and that I rule in the Kingdoms of men and give them to whom I will I bring down and I lift up I glorifie those that glorifie me and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed FIFIS Lloyd's State-worthies p. 374 Eccles Restaurat p. 283. Tortura Torti p. 130. 1569. 13 Eli. e. a. In the English Life before his Works is called Witney November 1548. This Dispute began the 28 th of May Anno Christi 1549. and lasted five days 1551. 1553. Fuller in his Church History saith he was expelled for refusing to be present at Mass Anno 1553. 1554. Peter Martyr Ecclesia Restaurata p. 196 Peter Martyr also helped himself for he would not go without the Queens Pasport and leave and
when he had it concealed himself fourteen days on the English Coast then privately took Ship and arrived at Antwerp in the night and before day took Coach and so got safe to Strasbourgh the 30th of October 1553. Burnet To. 2. p. 246. Ib. p. 245. July 13. 1556. Humfrey p. 90. English life Dr. Peter Heylyn faith the contrary and that Wittingham Williams and Goodman were Zunglians before they left England who were the chief Promoters of the disorder at Frankford Ecclesia Restaurata p. 228. Conclusion Section 2. p. 141. Hiller C. H. The news of the Queens death came to Zurick the last of November Mart. Letters March 30. Heylyn's Eccl. Restaurata p. 301. Rastal was a common Lawyer and published his Book in 1563. Harding was then Prebendary when Mr. Jewel was elected and gave his vote for him Humf. p. 140. Dr. Burnett's History of the Reformation Tom. 2. Dr. Heylyn Eccl. Rest p. 349. 1562. Humfrey's in the Life of Jewel p. 177. Peter Martyr's Letter to Bishop Jewel concerning this Book is dated Aug. 24. 1562. English Life Before his Works Humfrey p. 234. Page 187. Heylyn p. 328. 1562. In the LXIII of his Age. 1564. 1567. 1569 1570. 1570. Humfrey's p. 111. April 5. 1571. Memory Industry Common place Books Diaries Languages His Greek Learning Travail His Humour Gratitude Preaching Page III No friend to the Disenters The 〈◊〉 to the first Tom. of Col. by Dr. 〈◊〉 Fuller's C. H. lib. 9. Sect 3. n. 3. Humfrey's In a short Paper written by this good Bishop against certain frivolous objections made against the Government of the Church of England Printed at Londâ—n 1641. Bishop Whitgift in the defence of the Answer to the Admonition tells us Cartwright was the man and that hereupon the Faction used the Bishop most ungratefuly and depitefully p. 423. Prov. 22. 15. Liberality Charity Mr. Hooker Dr. Walton 〈◊〉 Mr. Hooker's Life Lib. 2. §. 6. Truth ever persecuted Tertul. in Apologia Cor. Tacitus Tertul. in Apolog c. 7. c. Plinius John 8. 9. 10. Mar. 11. Marcion ex Tertullianâ— Aelius â— Lactan. Tertul Apolog. c. 2 3. and 7. 8 9. Tertul. Apolog. â—ap â— Sueton in Nerone Juvenal Sat. 1 Tim. 4. The Accusations of the R. Catholicks John 8. 49. Act. 26. 25. †Quadratus Justinus Melito Tertullian Quadratus a Disciple of the Apostles and Bishop of Athens wrote Books for the Christian Religion and made an Oration in the Defence of it before Hadrian the Emperor by which he put a stop to a furious Persecution then moved against it Anno Christi 128. Spondanus Justinus the Martyr a Christian Philosopher wrote an Apologetick Oration for the Christian Religion with great freedom and truth which he dedicated to Antoninus Pius the Emperor and his adopted Sons Marcus and Lucius and to the very Senate and People of Rome Anno Christi 150. for which he lost his Life Melito Bishop of Sardâ—s wrote an excellent Apology to Aurelius the Emperor for the Christians which he presented to that Emperor in the tenth year of his Reign Anno Christi 172. Baronius Tertullian wrote a very learned and a sharp Apology for the Christian Religion which was some few years since made English It was first published by the Author without his Name in the year of Christ 201. in the very City of Rome and did great service to Christianity which was then most miserably oppressed by the Lies and Defamations of the Pagans which did it more hurt than all their other Fury Acts 24. 14. Tertul. in Apolog 2 Cor. 10. 4. 5. 2 Tim. 3. 16. De Vnitate Eccl. c. 3. contra Max. lib. 3. c. 14. In prim cap. Aggei Acts 24. 14. Coll. 2. 14. Actâ— 3. 2â— Tract 30. in Joan. Epist ad Dardan Fulgentius ad Regem Thrasi mundum De Simpl. Praelatorum Chap. 47. * The Title of Pontifex Maximus was that of the Roman Heathen Priests and cannot properly be rendred into English any other way than by that of Priest it being not of the same nature with the Word Bishop yet have the Popes of Rome usurped this very heathen Title Gregory lib. 4. Ep. 76. 78. 80. lib. 7. Ep. 69. 2 Tim. 3. 13. Math. 23. 13. Luk. 11. 52. Math. 16. 19. In Titum Hom. I. Theoph. ad Titum Euseb lib. 18. c. 5. in Monodia sua super Basilium 1 Tim. 4. 1 * Huldericus Platina in vita Pij secundi Gal. 1. 8. Chrysost ad AEphe Ser. 3. De conser dist 1. cap. Omnes * But now in the Decretum under the Name of Anacletus De consecratione Dist 1. cap. comperimus a In Joan. cap. â— b De Sacra l. q. c. 4. c In Dialo l. 2. d In Sermone ad infantes de Consecratione e In Math. 15. Gen. 2. 23. John 6. 56. In coena Domini In Johan tract 50. Lib. de caerem. Eccl. Rom. Purgatory August in Psal 85. in Enchiriâ—io c. 6. 7. de civitate Dei lib. 21. cap. 26. lib. 11. contra Pelegian lib. Hipognostcon 5. Of Cerâ—monies â— Cor. 1â— 40. Prayer in our own Tongue Mediators and Intercessors Jerem. 2. 28. 11. 13. Original Sin 1 John 2. 2. 4. 10. Col. 1. 20. Heb. 10. 14. John 19. 30. Sacrifice Of good Works Ephes 2. 10. Col. 1. 10. Phil. 2. 12. Distinct 36. Lector in Glossa Distinct 81. Presbyter * George Paris an Arrian was burnt in the Reign of Edward the 6th April the 4th 1551. for Heresie tho he was a German by Nation Godwins Annals * Those who were call'd Zuinglians when this Piece was written afterwards were call'd Calvinists and the other Name is now not commonly known but Zuinglius was the Author of the Doctrine and Calvin of the Discipline of this Sect of turbulent men Steven Gardiner in Sophist Diab Richard Faber Recantatio Berengarii Scholer Glossa Guimundus De Conscoral Dist 2. Ego Berengarius Gardiner De consecratione Dist 2. species Glossa Euseb H. 3 Lib. 4. By Ministers here I suppose the Decons are meant 3. Quest 7. lata ext de Bigamis Quia circa Gen. 38. 14. In Concilio dilectorum Cardinalium To. 3. De consideratione ad Eugenium Paul IIII. In Apol. c. 45. Rom. 2. 13. Math. 22. 21. John 19. 12. Rom. 13. 1. 5. Amos 7. 10. It had been infinitely for the Honor of the Reformation if the same Modesty Loyalty and Duty had ever attended the Professors of it But alas our Author lived and wrote in a critical Moment before the Scotch Tumults the Civil Wars of France and the Revolt of the Netherlands those that have confirm'd the truth of the Popish Objections by ill Principles which they borrowed from them and worse Practises shall do well to consider what Answer they will be able to give in the Day of Judgment for the Sin and Scandal they have brought upon the Reformation but when all is done blessed be God the Church of England and her Children have maintained this Doctrine inviolably and the Honour of that