Schooles begun by him about the same periode resisted the Romish idolatry planted in all the West We will likewise obserue an especiall grace which God powred vpon your Ilands realmes during these ages of ignorance idolatry for eueÌ„ as the great men of the former periode disciples to the English Beda who maintained the onely worship of God went out of the Iland euen so God during this fourth periode preserued the same realmes defended them against the tyranny of Rome for Peter of Clugny writing to Bernard saith that the Scotishmen in his time did celebrate their Easter after the Greeke manner which is a testimony they were not yet subiect to the church of Rome which held theÌ„ heretickes that followwed the cerimonies of the Greekes who in the time of the said Bernard had their Lyturgie and seruice of the Church as they haue at this day which is a communion like vnto that of the reformed Church of these times neither did the Greeke Church euer allow of that heathenish worshippe of the Sacrament of the Lordes supper as in the Romish Church which caused Marcus Ephesius who was Orator for the Greekes at the counsell of Florence in a sermon printed at Paris in Greeke and Latine at the ende of the volume of Lyturgies to confute the Masse of the Latines as directly contrary to the institution of Iesus Christ So as the Scottishmen who maintained the ceremonies of the Greeke Churches had not yet receiued the new Romish Masse nor the heathen adoration of the hoast whereby we see that the people of your realmes were the first that made publike profession of Christ and abolished Gentilisme during the cruell persecutions of Romish Emperours and when as the tyranny of the Bishops of Rome brought into the Church about 400. yeares since the worship of the hoast as God the Creator the same British people were also the last of the West part of Europe which receiued the abominable worship of things created insteede of the Creator This heathenish worship began vnder Pope Honorius 3 about the yeare 1225. who commanded all Priestes and Curats to teach the people to kneele at the Eleuation of the hoast in the Masse or when it should be carried to sicke persons yet this idolatry was not long after receiued in the Churches of Germanie and France For Ralfe de Riuo printed a booke at Rome de Can obser propos 22. witnessing that Nicholas 3. about the yeare 1277. tooke the olde missalles out of all Churches of Rome bringing in a new forme of Masse inuented by the Fryers minors or Franciscans At this day saith hee all the bookes at Rome are new after the manner of Saint Francis and meaning to discribe the forme of Masse obserued in those dayes in Germany France other nations hee saith Leauing the manner of the Fryers minoâ—s let vs follow the holy Canons the ancient Scriptures and the generall customes of places and in doubtfull things the most auncient bookes And in the twenty three proposition he describes particularly all the ceremonies of the Masse as it was vsed in his time who liued in the beginning of the foreteenth age of Christianisme at what time it is found that the coniunction of the Bread and Wine was obserued according to the institution of our Sauiour and that both the Priest and people did eate and drinke togeather standing without adoration or inuocation of the Sacramentes and in the ende of the saide proposition hee saithe It is sacriledge to vse bread onely dipt in wine in the Sacrament of the Communion So as there was no difference betwixt the Communion of the reformed Church and the Communion of the Masle in those daies except the signe of the Crosse and some other ceremonies vestaments and incense The Masse therfore of our age is a new fiction of Cordiliers or Franciscan Friars the worship of a pretended God and the priuation of the cup is a plaine sacriledge for if they abuse to vse bread steept in wine instead of following the ful institutioÌ„ of our Sauiour was as they said Rodolphus de Riuo writeth coÌ„demned as sacriledge with greater reason is it a more horrible sacriledge to haue quite taken away the vse of the wine from the people The Romish Church of our age cannot bee called the true Church seeing they haue no Communion of the Cuppe and are fallen from the true Priesthoode as the Arrians and Nestorians by their errours lost the outward markes of Priesthoode During the fift Period of the ages of Christianisme which contains the thirteenth fourteenth and fifteenth ages the Westerne Church was deuided into two parts for in the time of Bernard Peter de Valdo a rich Bourgesse of Lions hauing beene instructed in the onely worshippe of God by the reading of the holy Scriptures had the Romish Idolatrie in such horror as he sould all his goods and caused the Bible and many writings of the auncient fathers to be translated into French he made assemblies at Lions and appointed pensions for religious learned men to set vp Schooles of diuinitie who beeing since persecuted by the Popes and their adherents the said Schooles were dispersed ouer all France and a good part of Spaine Germanie and Bohemia who haue euer since maintained the same articles of the faith which are professed at this day in the Churches of your realmes whereof some were called Albigeois and others Taborites which haue florished and raigned vnto this day notwithstanding all the persecutions fires flames and cruell torments vsed against them by the supporters and fauourers of Rome Out of this Schoole also came Iohn Hus and Ierosme of Prage Wickliffe an Englishman Paul Crau a Scottish man who maintained the true and onely worshippe of one onely God and other articles of the faith confessed by the reformed Churches of Europe the which is seene by the articles recited by Aeneas Siluius beeing since Pope which shewes a notable correspondencie betwixt the first Period of Christianisme and the fift for euen as in the first three hundred yeeres the true Christians who worshipped one onely God without mingling the adoration of Creatures had beene persecuted by Pagan Rome euen so the worshippers of this true adoration haue beene cruelly persecuted during the three hundred yeres of the fift Period by Roome disguised with a Christian maske There is an other admirable correspondencie betwixt these and the second Period for euen as in the end of the first Period the God of armies did raise vp that great Constantine to plant his Church by force throughout all the Romaine Empire beeing then Pagan abolishing Idolatrie in the worship of men of Images and of visible and material formes euen so after the end of this fift Period God suffered the restoring of the said true auncient Christian religion to be done by armes We read in the Bohemian Historie of the said Aeneas Siluius that Zisca a great Captaine asseÌ„bled in the yeere 1501. a mightie armie beating downe all
him to persist in the seruice of god not to deuide his worship but to cleaue onely vnto God Thou shalt not saith he haue any other Gods but me The which doth teach vs that those of the Romish corruptiō haue brought in strange Gods for that they haue deuided the adoration and veneration betwixt God and his creatures making three degrees The first they call Latria which they attribute to God and to the Host in the Masse equally The second Hyperdeulia which they yeelde to the blessed virgin And the third Dulia attributed to their other Saints and to their images and reliques abusing with too grosse an ignorance the signification of these Greeke wordes for Deulia signifies a greater seruice then Latria And we learne that in this place Theodoret calles the seruice and adoration of God by the name of Deulia and so doe Athanasius and Chrisostome And Saint Augustine who hath brought in this distinction attributes both vnto God onely In his 84. Question vpon Exod. Iustin Martir who liued vnder Antonius Pius in the second age of this period of Christianity shewes plainely that the Christians did not alow of the worship of any thing inferiour to the Deity and saieth that Iesus Christ had so taught them for speaking to the Emperour in his Apologie for the Christians of his time hee writes thus That God onely is to be worshipped for so Christ doth teach the greatest commandement is thou shalt worshippe the Lorde thy God and him onely shalt thou honour with all thy heart and all thy strength the Lorde God which hath created thee And a little after he saith we worship God onely in other things we willingly serue you for that we do acknowledge you for Kings and Princes of men and we pray vnto God that he will giue you wisedome equall to your royall power So as the Christians in matters of religion did not yeeld any worship to things created neither did they deuide the worship betwixt God his creatures as the Romish Church doth Many Christians of the same time were so exact obseruers of the onely worshippe of God as they would not reuerence the Roman Emperors as the souldiers did in ciuil causes for Theophilus to Apostolicus the sixt Bishop of Antioche who liued in the yeare of our Lord 173. when as Lucius was King of great Brittaine saith I shall honor the Emperour more in praying for him then in worshipping him for it is not lawfull to worship any but God onely The Christians of these three first ages had no Alters no Images nor any materiall crosses of golde siluer wood or stone for Clemens Alexandrinus who was neere the Apostles time saith Wee Christians are expreslye forbidden to vse any arte of deceite for so hee calleth painting and making of Images Thou shalt not saith the Prophet Moses make the likenesse of any thing that is in heauen aboue or on the earth beneath And the same author Strom. Lib. 5. Pythagoras saith he forbids the wearing of rings nor to ingraue in them the images and figures of Gods as Moses had long before forbidden and that we must not make any Image be it grauen molten counterfeite or painted that wee should not bee carryed away with sensible things but should passe vnto those thinges which are comprehended by vnderstanding And soone after he saith To honour the essence by the knowledge of a materiall thing is to contemne it The Doctrine of the Romish Church dooth heerein directly oppugne the Doctrine of Christian antiquitye making a new God of the host of the new Masse giuing it the name of God worshipping it as God and yet their doctors confesse that it is made and created by the wordes of consecration It is therefore euident that they haue brought into the Church a God created which is not contayned in the definition of God before mentioned by Saint Athanasius for the hoast of the Masse is not euerye where which is the property of God onelye neither dooth it containe all things vnder his power but contrarywise the Counsell of Trent saith in expresse wordes that Iesus Christ God and man is contained vnder the visible signes of Breade of Wine which is quite contrarye to the diuine nature which contaynes all things in it and is not contained in anye thing The God therefore of the Romish Masse is a God created which hath a beginning and ending and is contained in the visible forme of Breade and Wine and containes not in it all things created so as the worshippers of this God of the Masse doe worshippe a newe and strange God contrarye to the first commaundement If the Arrians as Theodoret saith haue broken this first commaundement for that they taught that Iesus Christ according to his deity was a creature and yet he was God with greater reason the Romaines transgresse the same commaundement confessing that the pretended deitie of the hoast of the Masse is a deitie purchased by the consecration and not by the eternall deity without beginning and without ending And the same Theodoret writing against the Greekes in the foresaide passage teacheth vs that by the commaundement which saith Thou shalt haue no other Gods but mee that Moses forbiddes to make anye deuision of the deuine worshippe but to giue all to God onelye The Romaines who haue made three degrees of worshipping cannot denie but they haue broken this first commaundement and brought in a multitude of Gods making as manye Gods as they saye Masses So as their pluralitie of Gods becomes infinite and surpasseth the multitude of the Paynims Gods Minutius Foelix Tertulian Origen and Arnobius vvho liued in the third age of this first Periode of Christianisme testifie that the Gentiles accused the Christians for that they had neither Temples Altars Images nor visible or Materiall Sacrifices and that they did hide from sight that which they did worshippe Cecilius a Pagan Oratour disputing against Octauius a Christian as Minutius doth reporte obiected to the Christians Why haue they no Alters no Temples no knowne Images They did blazon our Christians in the vvorshiping of the Crosse vvhich they sayd they deserued taking the Crosse for a punishment To whom Octauius aunsweres for the Christians We neither worshippe nor desire Crosses but you who haue consecrated Gods of Wood worshiping Crosses of Wood as peeces of your Gods Whereby it appeares that the auncient Christians in the purenesse of Christian religion did neither worship crosses of Gold Siluer Stone or Wood as these doe of the Romish religion How should they I pray you worshippe them seing they had them not which is more would not haue them But the Church of Rome doth quite contrarie running after Gods of Gold and Siluer made as the Psalme◠saieth by mans hand In regarde of that which the Gentiles did obiect vnto the Christians that they did hide and not shew forth what they did worship Octauius aunsweres for the Christians Doe you thinke that we doe hide what we do worship although
read that he did consecrate his Empire to Saint Andrew or Saint George as some of your predecessors in the time of Error and blindenesse But did dedicate his house and familie to one King that is God onely God was his onely patron who recompensed him with all good things and made him Lord and Conquerour ouer all other Princes He commaunded all his armie to call vppon one God as the giuer of victories he appointed that in their praiers they should lift vp their handes to heauen and the eyes of their vnderstanding to the most high king of Heauen Hee also taught them the forme of praying to God as followeth Wee confesse thee to be the onely God wee acknowledge thee to be the onely King wee call vppon thee to aide vs they did not inuoke the virgin Marie by thee wee obtayne victorie ouer our enemies wee giue thee thankes for the benefites wee receiue in this present life hoping for future things by thy meanes wee crye vnto thee with all humilitie that it would please thee to make our Emperour Constantine victorious and preserue his Godly Children in long life and happie health They did not call vpon the Angelles Michael and Gabriel to giue them victory Hereby we see that it is a false and slaundrous thing which the aduersaries of the trueth impute to your Maiesty to haue left the auncient profession of your predecessors and to haue planted a new religion begunne by Martin Luther Iohn Caluin and other most learned men whom God hath stirred vp in our age to abolish the false Romish worshippe as hath beene sufficiently prooued to your Maiesty in the discources of the first periode of the first three hundred yeeres And to shew that the onelye worshippe of the Creatour without mingling the adoration of the Creatures continued vnto this second periode of three hundred yeares in your Iland I will content my selfe with the saying of Sedulius Scotus Hibernensis who lyued in the fift age in these wordes which hee hath drawne out of Origen which I haue before cited It is a sinne of impietye to worshippe anye other but the Father Sonne and holye Ghost Whereunto Saint Augustine speakes very fitly saying Know that the Christians whereof there is a Church in your Towne Worshippe not anye dead thing neyther anye thing that hath beene made by God but God onelye is worshipped who hath made and created all things Our aduersaries dare not affirme that the hoast in the Masse is one of the three parsons of the Trinity as we haue saide which were a greater heresie then that of Arrius who sayde that the Sonne of God was a Creature hauing a beginning beeing not the Sonne of God from all eternitye All their Doctors teach that it is made and created by the pronountiation of the wordes of Iesus Christ taking his beginning by the consecration whereby we inferre that they are worshippers of visible formes and therfore Idolaters in worshipping it seeing it is no eternall creature nor consubstantiall with God the Father For Athanasius Theodoret Cyrillus and all the ancient Fathers booth Greeke and Latine of the second periode of three hundred yeares of Christianity teach that if the Sonne of God had beene created or had had any beginning that he had not beene worshipped for that the Creature dooth not worshippe the Creature God onely is to be worshipped if the Sonne had beene a creature he had not beene worshipped God forbidde we should worshippe the Creature this madnesse fittes best with the Pagans and Arrians And in another place hee saithe that the Christians worshippe not the body of Iesus Christ deuided from the deity Neither when wee worshippe the worde saith hee doe we seperate the worde from the flesh but knowing that the worde hath beene made flesh acknowledge that which is in the flesh to bee God And a little after speaking of the Leaper he saith Hee worshipped the Lord in his body and did acknowledge him for God And the same Athanasius teacheth vs that the bodye of our Lorde is not consubstantiall with the Father and therefore not to bee worshipped alone with greater reason the hoast which cannot bee saide consubstantiall with the Father is not to bee worshipped For if the deitye of Iesus Christ had not beene consubstantiall with the Father and without beginning as the Father is it had not beene lawfull to worshippe him And this SIRE hath beene represented vnto you in the first periode the which I repeate heere to shew the continuance of the worship of one onely God It is therefore manyfest that the Christians of this second periode ending in the sixe hundred yeare of Christianity did beleeue that it was a Pagan Idolatry to worshippe any Creature which had a beginning restraining all adoration but to the Trinitye alone worshipping nothing vnderneath it the which is comprehended by Gregorys Nazianzene in few words where he saith that we must worshippe nothing aboue or beneath the Trinity For saith hee it is impossible to worshippe any thing aboue God and to worshippe anye thing vnderneath God is meere impietye Let vs adde heere unto what Theodoret saith who liued in the fift age touching the adoration of the Sacrament of the Lordes supper for that the Romains corrupting his writings attribute vnto him the worship of the Simbols of the body bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ which he neuer dreampt of for besides that which wee haue before alledged that hee condemned the Arrians for that they worshipped the deity which they say de was created Hee saith in the fifty fiue question vppon Genesis that God did allowe to eate the flesh of beastes to restraine the people from worshipping of them foreseeing that men should fall into that blindenesse and superstition as they should worshippe beastes as wee reade of the worshippe of the Golden Calfe like vnto the Egyptians where Theodoret concludes that it is a meere madnesse to worshippe that which wee eate So as according vnto Theodoret the priests should bee madde to worshippe that which they eate Athanasius against the Arrians teacheth that the deity is not to be eaten and yet the Romaines maintaine that their hoast is God himselfe and they sinne that they eate that which is present in the hoast which in effect is to make the deity edible Our Sauiour before he left this world would leaue vnto all men that should beleeue in him a perpetual comemoration of his true incarnation and passion to the end this memoriall should bee as it were a Simbole of the presence of his humaine nature hereon earth He might as well after the manner of the Greekes and Romaines haue left his portraite liuely drawne to serue for a representation and commemoration vnto such as should beleeue in him yea they should make infinite numbers of pictures like vnto the starres of heauen to be in all assemblies of Christians and to shewe that he had put on a bodie like vnto those pictures but he
formes wee will therefore conclude our discourse of the proofe of the true and onely adoration of God obserued throughout all the habitable world during the first periode of three hundred yeares with the testimonye of Arnobius writing against the Gentiles obiecting to the Christians that they would not worshippe any but the first and the greatest of all the Gods and not the inferiour Gods according to the manner in those dayes to whome hee aunswereth saying And wee may say in that which concernes the worshippe and honour of the diuinity that it sufficeth vs to haue one onelye God God I saye the father of all things who hath created and gouerneth all things In worshipping of him wee worshippe all that we ought to worshippe when wee honour him wee honour in him that which hee requires at our handes what the duety of worshippe dooth exact that we performe by our worshippe For seeing wee holde the chiefe of all diuinitye of whome all diuine thinges depend wee thinke it superfluous to seeke to priuate persons And a little after hee saithe As in earthlye kingdomes wee are not constrained to worshippe and honour euerye priuate man of the Kings house but in the honour wee doe vnto Kings those which belong vnto them are sceretly honored with them So the Christians of that perfect age did not worshippe nor call vpon any thing vnder God as the Romanistes of our age doe which worship the blessed virgin the Angelles Michael and Gabriel Saint Iohn Baptist the Apostles and Martyrs their reliques Sepulchers and Images So as it is most apparent that the Religion planted at this present in the Ilandes of great Brittaine is the true auncient Religion and the only worship of one God incōmunicable to the Creatures the which hath continued during the first periode of the three hundred yeares of Christianity So as it is a meere slander what the aduersaries of the trueth saye that your Maiestye hath banished the true auncient Christian Religion out of your Realmes to plant a newe Religion pretended to bee begunne by Martin Luther Iohn Caluin and other great Personages in the puritye of the true Christian Doctrine But contrarywise it is an immortall glorye which shall increase in your raigne and continue to posterity seeing that your Maiesty is the author of the restoring of the true Christian religion in your realmes hauing restored it I saye to that beauty and sincerity as it was in oulde time planted by Lucius your fore-runner the first Christian King of great Brittayne who became so affectionate and zealous of the aduancement and propagation of the trueth and so great an enemie to Idolatrie and the worship of Creatures and visible formes that of a King he became a Preacher as some Histories say And as during the persecutiō of the Christians vnder Dioclesian and Maxentius which were the most bloudie of all God vsed your Ilands and kingdomes as a refuge for the true Christians which fled from the saide persecutions Euen so the same God hath made your most happie raigne to be a safe harbour for the Christians of our age who haue been forced to abandon houses goods and inheritances rather then to bow to the Romish worship God the protector of his true Church hath continued his admirable graces ouer your Ilands in the second Period of Christianisme the which begun with the most happie Empire of Constantius Chlorus for during the last persecution God raysed vp this wise and warlike Emperour in the westerne parts of Europe in the which England Scotland and Ireland are conteyned where the saide Emperor tooke to wife Hellen borne in your said realmes who receiued into his protection all the Christians which fled from other prouinces to auoyde the cruell persecution which was made against them by his other associates in the Empire SIRE we must here obserue a notable pollicie of this wise Emperour to trie the fidelitie of his seruants and ministers in the gouernment of his Empire which will much auaile for the preseruation of your royall estate He did publish a fayned edict commaunding all the subiects of his Empire to sacrifice to the false Gods and whosoeuer should refuse so to doe to departe out of his armies and Empire This proclamation beeing made a great number of Christians did sacrifice vnto the false Gods to preserue their estates dignities and goods but the true Christians desired rather to leaue all then to serue them wherevpon the Emperour discouered himselfe presently and discharged all such as had worshiped these false Gods saying How can they be faithful vnto the Emperour that are faithlesse vnto God And as for the true Christians which had left all hee called them home and made them guardiens both of his person and estate as Eusebius saith I desire not your Maiestie should make such counterfeite proclamations but that the same God which hath made you successor to Constantius Chlorus will giue you the grace to make such an election of your subiects as in your most important affaires you admit not any but such as are knowne to be well grounded in the true Christian religion For euen as a modest woman ought not onely to be chast but free from all suspition euen so those which are imployed in the affaires of true Christian Princes as your Maiestie is should be free from all suspition of false religion The said Constantius died at Yorke in England after that hee had instituted Constantine the great his sonne the which was an other especiall grace which God hath poured vppon your realmes And euen as vnder King Lucius It was the first part of the world which did banish the Pagan Idolatrie euen so God hath raised out of the same Iland the said Constantine the great who expelled the same Romish Idolatry out of all the other Prouinces of the habitable world whereof your Maiestie hath a familiar example to imitate in this restorer of the Christian religion This great Constantine your predecessor and countrieman in the beginning of his Empire Hee studied what God he should choose as the same Eusebius saith that his Father had condemned the Error of Idolatrie and al his life had worshiped one onely God the protector guardien of the Empire the free giuer of all good Vppon this resolution he made choise of the true God to serue beleeuing that the onely cause of Kings and Emperours felicitie proceeded from him alone as the same Authour saith He worshiped the same God that is aboue all things And in his ordinarie praiers beeing alone he spake to God alone Whereby it appeareth that the religion which your Maiestie hath established in your realmes is conformable to that of your predecessour Constantine who worshiped as I haue saide but one onely God the Creator of all things and not the Crosse and Images of Iesus Christ In his ordinarie praiers hee did not call vppon the blessed Virgin Saint Peter Saint Paul nor the other Apostles and Martires neyther haue we