Errors And why should Words be multiplied I omit other Witnesses for they are almost infinite many Councils have been held since that time and Bishops assembled and the Synod of Basil was expresly call'd as they then pretended for the Reformation of the whole Clergy but notwithstanding from that time forward Errors increased every where and the Corruptions of the Clergy became twice more than they were before 17. THE Cardinals who were nominated and chosen by Pope Paul the III. to consider the State of the Church gave in this Answer That there were many things faulty in the Church and especially in the Manners of the Bishops and inferior Clergy that the Bishops were lazy and did not teach the People feed the Flock or take care of the Vineyard that they lived in the Courts of Princes and were rarely resident that there was sometimes three and at others four Bishopricks held in commendam by one Cardinal which tended very much to the Dammage of the Church for those multiplied Offices as they said were not compatible or to be held together nor could be well managed by any one person and that all the Cloystered Orders should be banished out of the Church After this there was a Council at Trent but did the Bishops from that time begin to feed the Flock or did they cease from their former Non-residence or abstain from frequenting the Courts of Princes did the Cardinals cease from multiplying Bishopricks or was any care taken that the Church might have no dammage by it were the Conventual Orders diminished is Religion reformed amongst them what occasion then was there that so many Bishops should be assembled from very distant places or should to no purpose deliberate so many years concerning the Reformation of the Church this in truth is just as if the Pharisees should pretend to restore the Temple of God to its former Sanctity 18. THEY confess the errors and Abuses convoke Councils fain a great care of Religion and Piety promise their utmost Labour and Industry for the restitution of whatever is fallen into decay and that they will joyn with us in this Work That is just after that manner as the Enemies of the People of God of old said that they would together with Nehemia help to build the Temple of the Lord for indeed their design was not to promote the building of the Temple of the Lord but to hinder it as much as they could possibly they would willingly make a Peace with us but it is upon the terms offered by Nahash to the Jews of Jabesh if we will suffer them to bore out our right Eyes that is if we will suffer them to deprive us of the Word of God the Gospel of our Salvation 19. FOR have they any concern for Religion do they take any care of the Church of God who never regarded the Wrath of God nor the Salvation of the People nor any part of their Office they say let Pan take care of his Sheep They in the mean time mannage Wars Hunt take their Pleasures and fare deliciously That I may not mention any thing that is more base O immortal God! who can think that these men ever think on the Church of God or Religion when or what Errors will these men ever remove what Light will they afford to us whatever you say tho you could bring the Sun it self in your hands yet they would never the more see They excuse paint and comb as much as ever they can the most manifest Errors as Symachus or Porphyrius heretofore did the Heathen Errors and Follies All their business is to perswade the World that they have not deceived the People and that they have not err'd in any thing or if they sometimes prevail upon themselves to reform any thing which they never or very rarely and sparingly do they imitate Alexander the Roman Emperor who not being totally averse to the Christian Religion is reported to have worshiped Christ and Orpheus in the same Chappel or as the ancient Samaritans retained together the Worship of the true God and the Service of Idols so they will sometimes perhaps receive some part of the Gospel upon condition that they may at the same time retain their Superstition and their doting Errors they receive some Truths upon condition they may hold some other things which are false they do so approve ours as not to disapprove their own and so they do not take away Abuses but colour them over and only new case the old Pillars 20. THIS is their way of reforming the Church of God thus they celebrate Conventions and Councils the Truth is not served but Affection the better part is brought under by the greater the very Name of a General Council is beautiful and glorious but Poison is oftentimes given in a beautiful Cup for it is not sufficient that some Bishops and Abbots meet in one place the efficacy of a Council is not placed in Miters and Purple Robes nor is whatever a Council decrees presently to be taken for an Oracle It was a Council of which the Prophet Isaiah writes thus Wo to the rebellious Children saith the Lord who assemble a Council but not by me take Council saith he and it shall come to nought in another place It was a Council of which the Prophet David saith thus The Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ It was a Council which condemn'd the Son of God Jesus Christ to the Cross it was a Council and celebrated at Carthage under St. Cyprian which decreed that those that were baptized by Hereticks when they returned to the Church should be rebaptized which Error was afterwards forc'd to be repeal'd by so many Councils and Writings of the Fathers And what need is there of so many Words The second Council of Ephesus was openly for Eutyches that the Humane Nature of Christ was changed into the Divine The second Council of Nice decreed a manifest Idolatry in the Worship of Images The Council of Basil as Albertus Pighius saith decreed against all Antiquity against Nature against Reason and against the Word of God The Council of Ariminium wickedly decreed for Arrius that Christ was not God and to conclude many other Councils afterwards erred too as the Selucian and the Syrmian which did both condemn the Homousians or Catholicks and also subscribed to the impious Heresie of the Council of Ariminium Why do you doubt the very Council of Chalcedon which was one of the four which Pope Gregory compar'd to the four Evangelists Pope Leo made no Scruple to accuse that very Council of Temerity of Rashness 21. THUS we see some Councils to have been contrary to other Councils and that as Pope Leo quash'd the Acts of Adrian Stephen of Formosus John of Stephen and that as Pope Sabinian commanded all the Writings of Pope Gregory to be burnt as perverse and wicked so very often a latter Council
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
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
horrible Crimes as Schism and Rebellion only on pretence to avoid that Popery that Superstition that was only in their own Fancies and Prejudices How can one and the same Church be persecuted justly for being too much and too little Reformed Why have you separated from her Liturgy and Rites who pretend to imbrace her Doctrines Or if you must needs separate why yet should you imbrue your hands in the Blood of your Soveraign and fellow Subjects on that account Supposing you were in the right this would not justifie you Christ never propagated his Church by Blood and Treason but by Sufferings and Obedience The truth is this Church hath been persecuted because she alone of all the Churches in Europe has had the Blessing and singular Favour of God to reform with Prudence Moderation and an exact and regular Conduct after great and wise Deliberations by the consent of our Bishops Convocations States and Princes without Tumults or hasty Counsels and accordingly here was nothing changed but upon good Advice after the most irresistable Conviction that it was contrary to the Word of God the Sentiments of the Holy Fathers and Councils and the Practice of the truly Primitive and Apostolical Church So that the Papists themselves do even envy our Primitive Doctrine Government and Discipline and both fear and hate us more than any other of the Reformed Churches I could be contented said a great Man of that Perswasion there were no Priests i. e. Popish Priess in England so there were no Bishops there This and our excellent Liturgy our decent Ceremonies and our excellent order moves their envy they are the same things that have raised the Spleens and Animosities of the other side with whom whatever is older than Zuinglius and Calvin is presently Popery and must be destroyed Tell them that Episcopacy was settled in all Churches in the days of the very Apostles and by them and they reply the Mystery of Iniquity began then to work intimating if not affirming that this Holy Order was a part of it So that they will rather traduce these Holy Men who sacrificed their Bloods for Jesus Christ and his Church of Pride Ambition and a too great Love of Rule than allow the Establishments of our Church Nay they will rather root out the Monarchy because supported by and upholding Episcopacy than shew any the least Reverence to the Church in obedience to our Laws and Princes So that leaving these implacable self-condemned Enemies give me leave O ye Loyal and Religious Sons of this Holy and ever persecuted Church to make my last Address and Application to you You see by whom the Church has been ever persecuted you see the reason of it you cannot but know also what she has suffered on both sides you have read the one and your Eyes have seen the other rouse up then and take effectual care of this innocent this persecuted Spouse of Christ Stretch out your hands to Heaven by humble and fervent Prayers and implore the Assistance of the most Holy God for her safety and Protection against all her Enemies Let the Virtue Piety and Holiness of your Lives assure the World that you profess this Holy Religion in good earnest and that you do not dissemble either with God or Man in it but are sincere and resolved to live and dye in this profession Put those Laws we now have in execution duly and regularly and with Discretion and Mercy not out of Bitterness and Passion but out of Conscience and a true fear of God and care of his Church that all the World may see it is nothing but a sense of your Duties and a Zeal for God that makes you active and prudently severe And as far as you shall have opportunity take further care by new Laws to secure this great and inestimable Blessing to your Posterity and the Generations to come that they may rise up and bless God for you and remember your names with Eulogies and Honour for ever And if any thing in these Papers may in any degree be serviceable to and promote these good ends I shall for ever be thankful to God and Man for the Favour THE LIFE OF THE Right Reverend Father in God DR JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of SARISBURY THO Truth and Reason may justly claim the Priviledge of a kind reception whoever brings them yet such is the Nature of Mankind that the Face of a Stranger is ever surveyed with a little more than ordinary Attention as if Men thought generally that in it were the most lively Characters of what they seek to know the Soul and Temper of a Man now because this is not to be expected at the first sight in Books where yet it is most eagerly desired Men have attempted to supply that defect with Pictures and which affords much more satisfaction by premising the Lives and Characters of the Authors which gives the Reader a truer and more lasting Idea of Men than it is possible for Pensils and Colours to attain to The Author of the ensuing Tracts ought to be so well known to all English men that his Name alone should have given a sufficient Commendation to any thing that can claim a descent from him But it being now above an hundred years since his death and his Works which were for a long time chained up in all Churches being now superannuated or neglected it may not be an unseasonable piece of Service to the Church to revive the Memory of this great Man the stout and invincible Champion of the Church of England who losing the opportunity of sacrificing his Life for her in the Reign of Queen Mary did it with more advantage to us and pains to himself under her glorious Successor when he so freely spent himself in her Service that having wasted his thin Body by excessive Labour and Study he died young but full of good Works and Glory He was born the 24 th of May in the year of our Lord 1522. at Buden in the Parish of Berinber in the County of Devon and tho a younger Brother yet inherited his Fathers Name His Mother was a Bellamie and he had so great an esteem for it and her that he engraved it on his Signet and had it always imprinted in his heart a lasting Testimony both of her Virtue and kindness to him His Father was a Gentleman descended rather of an Ancient and Good than very Rich Family It is observed that his Ancestors had injoyed that Estate for almost two hundred years before the Birth of this great Man And yet such was the number of his Children that it is no wonder if this when young wanted the assistance of Good men for the promoting of his Studies for it is said his Father left ten Children between Sons and Daughters behind him This John Jewel proving a Lad of pregnant Parts and of a sweet and industrious Nature and Temper was from his Youth dedicated to Learning and with great care cultivated by his
Pietate Humanitate egregie Praedito Theologiae cum primis cognitione Instructissimo Gemmae Gemmarum Immaturo fato Monkton-farleae Praerepto Sarisburiae Sepulto Coelorum civi Laurentius Humfredus Hoc Monumentum observantiae ergo Et Benevolentiae Consecravit Anno salutis Humanae Christi Merito Restitutae MDLXXIII ix Kal. Oct. Vixit Annos XLIX menses IV. Psal 112. In memoria aeterna erit Justus A Letter written to the Reverend Father in God Dr. John Jewel Lord Bishop of Sarisbury by Dr. Peter Martyr BY the favour of the Bishop of London most worthy Prelate and my very good Lord there was brought me one of your Apologies for the Church of England which neither I nor any others hereabouts before had seen It is true in your last Letter you rather intimated that it might come out than signfied that it should but however it came not hither till about the middle of July And from hence your Lordship may consider how much we suffer from the distance of places It hath not only given me an intire satisfaction who approve and am strangely pleased with all you do but to Bullinger and his Sons and Sons in Law And it seems so very wise admirable and elegant to Gualter and Wolphius that they can put no end to their Commendations of it as not thinking there hath been any thing printed in these times of so great a Perfection I do infinitely congratulate this great felicity of your Parts this excellent Edification of the Church and the Honour you have done your Country and I do most earnestly beseech you to go on in the same way for tho we have a good Cause yet the Defenders of it are few in comparison of its Enemies and they now seem so awakened that they have of late won much upon the ignorant Multitude by the goodness of their Stile and the subtilty of their Sophistry I speak this of Staphylus and Hosius and some other Writers of that Party who are now the stout Champions of the Papal Errors But now you have by this your most elegant and learned Apology raised such an hope in the minds of all good and learned men that they generally promise themselves that whilst you live the reformed Religion shall never want an Advocate against its Enemies And truly I am extreamly glad that I am so happy as to live to see that day which made you the Father of so illustrious and eloquent a Production May the God of Heaven of his goodness grant that you may be blessed in time with many more such Zurick Aug. 24. 1562. The Reader is desired to amend these few Errata's with his Pen the rest being generally nothing but literal mistakes are left to his Candor PReface to the Reader Page 14. Line 19. for to his Envoy read by his Envoy Apology p. 10. for Sardus r. Sardis p. 12. l. 22. for last r. late p. 66. l. 5. r. and because the Gospel p. 76. l. 3. for or r. for p. 140. l. 13 14. for security p. 151. in Marginal note for August 1560. 4. 1562. THE APOLOGY OF THE Church of ENGLAND Written by the very Learned and Reverend Father in God John Jewell Bishop of Sarisbury CHAP. I. Of the true Religion professed in the Church of England with a short Account of the Opposition the Truth and truë Religion hath met with in all Ages IT is an old Complaint deriv'd down to us from the very times of the Patriarchs and Prophets and confirm'd by the Evidence of all Histories and the Testimonies of all Ages that Truth is a Stranger upon Earth and doth too easily find Enemies and Defamers because she is not known and although this may seem perhaps incredible to those who have not attentively reflected on it because Mankind by the instinct of Nature without any Teacher doth spontaneously breathe after Truth and Christ himself our Saviour whilst he convers'd with Men chose to be call'd the TRUTH as if that Name did aptly express all the Power and Force of his Divine Nature yet we who are acquainted with the Holy Scriptures and have read and considered what hath happenned to pious men in almost all Ages what befel the Prophets the Apostles the holy Martyrs and Christ himself with what Slanders Curses and Injuries they were vexed whilst they lived only for the sake of Truth We I say see by this that it is no new thing but usual and the Custom of all Ages Indeed it would appear much more wonderful and incredible if the Father of Lyes the Devil that Enemy of all Truth should now of a sudden change his Mind and entertain any other hopes of oppressing the Truth than by Lyes or should now begin to establish his Kingdom by other Arts than those he hath hitherto imployed For in all Ages we shall scarce find any Period of time in which Religion encreased established it self or was reform'd but that at the same time Truth and Innocence were most unworthily and most injuriously treated by men for the Devil knows very well that if Truth doth flourish in safety his Affairs can neither be safe nor prosperous 2. FOR to speak nothing of the Ancient Patriarchs and Prophets no part of whose Lives as I said was free from Reproaches and Slanders We know that of Old there were some who averr'd and publickly told the World that the Ancient Jews who we doubt not worshipped the only true God perform'd their Religious Rites to a Swine or an Ass and that all that Religion was a meer Sacriledge and a Contempt of all Deities We know that the Son of God our Saviour Jesus Christ whilest he taught the truth was reputed an Impostor an Inchanter a Samaritan a Beelzebub a Deluder of the people a Wine-bibber and a Glutton Who knows not what was said of St. Paul that powerful Preacher and Assertor of Truth sometimes he was a seditious man and listed Soldiers and designed a Rebellion and at other times that he was an Heretick a mad man that out of a contentious and perverse Disposition he was a Blasphemer against the Law of God and a Despiser of the Customs of the Fathers Who knows not that so soon as ever St. Stephen had admitted the Truth and suffered it to take Possession of his Soul and thereupon as he ought began freely and stoutly to preach and own it he was immediately call'd in question for his Life as one that had spoken Blasphemy against the Law against Moses against the Temple and God or knows not that the Holy Scriptures have been accused of Vanity and Folly upon pretence that they contain'd things contrary and repugnant one to another and that all the Apostles of Jesus Christ disagreed amongst themselves and that St. Paul differed from all the rest And that I may not trouble you with all the Instances of this nature which are upon Record for they are infinite who knows not what Slanders were of old raised against
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
Arts. 12. NOW if we make it appear and that not obseurely and craftily but bona fide before God truly ingeniously clearly and perspicuously that we teach the most holy Gospel of God and that the antient Fathers and the whole Primitive Church are on our side and that we have not without just cause left them and return'd to the Apostles and the antient Catholick Fathers and if they who so much detest our Doctrine and pride themselves in the name of Catholicks shall apparently see that all those Pretences of Antiquity of which they so immoderately glory belong not to them and that there is more strength in our Cause than they thought there was then we hope that none of them will be so careless of his Salvation but he will at some time or other bethink himself which side he ought to joyn with Certainly if a man be not of an hard and obdurate Heart and resolved not to hear he can never repent the having once considered our Defence and the attending what is said by us and whether it be agreeable or no to the Christian Religion 13. FOR whereas they call us Hereticks that is so dreadful a Crime that except it be apparently seen except it be palpable and as it were to be felt with our Hands and Fingers it ought not to be easily believed that a Christian is or can be guilty of it for Heresie is a Renunciation of our Salvation a Rejection of the Grace of God and a departure from the Body and Spirit of Christ But this was ever the Custom and Usage of them and of their Fore-fathers that if any presumed to complain of their Errors and desired the Reformation of Religion they condemn'd them forthwith for Hereticks as Innovators and factious men Christ himself was call'd a Samaritan for no other cause but for that they thought he had made a defection to a new Religion or Heresie And St. Paul the Apostle being call'd in question was accused of Heresie to which he replied After the Way which they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets 14. In short all that Religion which we Christians now profess in the beginning of Christianity was by the Pagans call'd a Sect or Heresie with these words they fill'd the ears of Princes that when out of prejudice they had once possessed their minds with an Aversion for us and that they were perswaded that whatever we said was Factious and Heretical they might be diverted from reflecting upon the thing it self or ever hearing or considering the Cause but by how much the greater and more grievous this Crime is so much the rather ought it to be proved by clear and strong Arguments especially at this time because men begin now adays a little to distrust the Fidelity of their Oracles and to inquire into their Doctrine with much greater industry than has heretofore been imployed for the People of God in this Age are quite of another Disposition than they were heretofore when all the Responses and Dictates of the Popes of Rome were taken for Gospel and all Religion depended upon their Authority the Holy Scriptures and the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets are every where now to be had out of which all the true and Catholick Doctrine may be proved and all Heresies may be refuted 15. BUT seeing they can produce nothing out of the Scriptures against us it is very injurious and cruel to call us Hereticks who have not revolted from Christ nor from the Apostles nor from the Prophets By the Sword of Scripture Christ overcame the Devil when he was Tempted by him with these Weapons every high thing that exalteth it self against God is to be brought down and dispersed for all Scripture saith St. Paul is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction that the Man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished unto all good Works and accordingly the Holy Fathers have never fought against Hereticks with any other Arms than what the Scriptures have afforded them St. Augustin when he disputed against Petilianus a Donatist Heretick useth these words Let not saith he these words be heard I say or thou sayest but rather let us say thus saith the Lord let us seek the Church there let us judge of our Cause by that And St. Jerom saith Let whatever is pretended to be delivered by the Apostles and cannot be proved by the Testimony of the writen Word be struck with the Sword of God And St. Ambrose to the Emperor Gratian Let the Scriptures saith he let the Apostles let the Prophets let Christ be interrogated The Catholick Fathers and Bishops of those times did not doubt but our Religion might be sufficiently proved by Scripture nor durst they esteem any man an Heretick whose Error they could not perspicuously and clearly prove such by Scripture And as to us we may truly reply with St. Paul After the way which they call HERESIE so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets or the Writings of the Apostles 16. IF therefore we be Hereticks and they as they desire to be call'd be Catholicks why do they not do what they see the Fathers and all other Catholicks have done why do they not convince us out of the Holy Scriptures why do they not try us by them why do they not shew that we have made a defection from Christ from the Prophets from the Apostles and from the Holy Fathers Why do they stand Why do they draw back It is the Cause of God Why then should they fear to commit it to the Arbitriment of the Word of God But if we are Hereticks who submit all ouâ— Controversies to the Holy Scriptures and appeal to those very Words which we know were consigned to writing by God himself and prefer them before all other things which can possibly be excogitated by the Wit of Man what are they or by what Name shall they be call'd who fear and shun the Sentence of the Scriptures that is the Judgment of God himself and prefer their own Dreams and silly Inventions before them and have for some Ages violated the Institutions of Christ and his Apostles for the sake of their Traditions There is a Story of Sophocles the Tragedian that when he was very old he was accused before the Judges by his own Sons for a childish and a silly Person as one that had wasted his Estate by ill managery and stood in need of a Guardian in his old Age to take care of him and it the old Man appeared in Court and instead of a Deâ—ence recied a Tragedy which he had very elaborately and elegantly written just in that time the Suit was depending and thereupon asked the Judges if that Poem were the Work of a childish person 16.
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
against King John another of our Princes the Bishops and Monks and some part of the Nobility and absolved all his Subjects from that Oath of Allegiance they had taken to him and at last by the highest Impiety not only deprived him of his Kingdom but his Life and they wounded Henry the VIII a most noble Prince with their Curses and Excommunications and stir'd up against him sometimes the Emperor and sometimes the King of France and as much as in them lay exposed our Kingdom to be a Prey and a Booty to them like a company of silly men as they were to think so great a Prince would be frighted with Vizors and Rattles or that so great a Kingdom could be devoured at one mouthful and as if all this had not been enough they would needs make England a tributary Province and yearly most unjustly exacted a considerable Revenue out of it so much has the Friendship of the City of Rome cost us Now if they extorted these great Advantages from us by Impostures and ill Arts there is no reason why we should not by good Methods and Laws recover them back again but if on the other side our Kings induced by an Opinion of their simulated Holiness in the darkness of those times freely bestowed these things on them upon the account of Religion there is now very good reason that our latter Kings having discovered the Error of their Ancestors should take them away again they being possess'd of the same Power with the former Kings for every Donation becomes void when it is no longer approved by the Will of the Giver but it can never seem a Will which is clouded and impeded by Error The Conclusion THUS I have acquainted thee my Reader that it is no new or strange thing to see the Christian Religion in these days upon its Restitution and Revival in the World entertain'd with Slanders and Reproaches for the same things happened to Christ himself and his Apostles And yet least thou shouldest be misled and imposed upon by these Clamors of our Adversaries we have represented to thee what the whole manner of our Religion is what we believe concerning God the Father concerning his only Son Jesus Christ and concerning the Holy Ghost what our Opinion is concerning the Church the Sacraments the Ministry the Holy Scriptures the Ceremonies of the Church and all the other parts of the Christian Religon We have declared also that we detest as pernicious to the Souls of Men and plagues all those Ancient Heresies that have been condemn'd by the old Councils and Holy Scriptures That we have reduced into practise again as much as we can possibly the Ecclesiastical Discipline which our Adversaries had much weakned and that we punish all Licentious Courses of Life and Debauchery in Manners by our ancient and established Laws and that with as much 〈◊〉 as is fit and possible That we pâ—â—serve all Kingdoms in the same State we found them without any Diminution or Mutation and preserve the Majesty of our Princes intire as much as we can possibly That we have departed from that Church which they had made a Den of Thieves in which they had left nothing sound or like a Church and which they themselves confessed to have erred in many things as Lot left Sodom or Abraham Chaldea not out of Contention but out of Obedience to God and have sought the certain way of Religion out of the sacred Scriptures which we know cannot deceive us and have return'd to the Primitive Church of the ancient Fathers and Apostles that is to the beginning and first Rise of the Church as to the proper Fountain 2. THAT we have not indeed expected the Authority or consent of the Council of Trent in which we saw nothing was manag'd well and regularly where all that entered took an Oath to one Man where the Ambassadors of our Princes were despised and ill treated where none of our Divines could be heard where Partiality and Ambition openly carried all things and according to the Practice of the Holy Fathers and the Customs of our own Ancestors we have reformed our Churches in a Provincial Synod and according to our Duty we have cast off the Yoke and Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome who had no just Authority over us nor was like either Christ or St. Peter or the Apostles or indeed like a Bishop in any thing Lastly we do all agree amongst ourselves in all the Doctrines and Points of the Christian Religion and do with one Spirit and one Mouth worship God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 3. WHEREFORE O Christian and Pious Reader now thou feest the Reasons and Causes of the Reformation of Religion with us and of our Departure from them thou oughtest not to wonder that we should rather choose to obey our Saviour than Men. St. Paul hath admonished us that we should not be carried away with every Wind of false Doctrine and especially that we should mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly and by good Words and fair Speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple Their Impostures accordingly like Batts and Owls do now sometime since begin to flie and steal away before the rising Sun and cannot indure the Light of the Gospel and altho they were in some sense built and heaped almost up to Heaven yet they sink down into Ruins of their own accord For thou oughtest not to think that those things happened accidentally or by chance It was certainly the Will of God that in these times the Gospel of Jesus Christ should in defiance of all opposition be spread abroad in the World and therefore men being moved by the Word of God freely betook themselves to the Doctrine of Christ and as for us we sought neither Riches nor Pleasure nor case by this Change for our Adversaries abound in all these and we had a much larger Share of them whilst we continued with them 4. NOR do we decline Concord and Peace with Men neither but yet we will not continue in a State of War God that we might have Peace with Men. The Name of Peace saith St. Hilary is Pleasant but then Peace and Servitude are not the same thing for if according to their desire the Name of Christ should be supprest the Truth of the Gospel betrayed their wicked Errors be dissembled the Eyes of Christian Men be deluded and a plain and apparent Conspiracy be carried on against God himself this is not saith that great Man Peace but the conditions of a most base Slavery There is saith Nazianzen an unprofitable Peace and there is an useful sort of Discord for we must pursue Peace with Conditions as far as 〈◊〉 lawful and in us lyeth and unless these Limitations may attend it Christ himself came not to bring Peace into the World
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