tho we are silent they may be pleased to hear their own St. Bernard Those Bishops saith he to whom the Church of God is now committed are not Teachers but Seducers not Pastors but Impostors not Prelates but Pilates Thus St. Bernard wrote then of him that call'd himself the Great Pontiff and of the Bishops who then sate at the Helm He was no Heretick he was no Lutheran he never forsook their Church and yet he never stuck at calling those Bishops they then had Seducers Impostors Pilates And now when the People were openly seduced and Christians imposed upon and Pilate mounted the Tribunal and adjudged Christ and his Members to the Fire and Sword O good God! in what condition was the Church then And now of so many and such gross Errors what one Error have they reformed to this day yea what one Error have they at any time acknowledged and confessed 26. BUT now whereas they pretend to be in Possession of the whole Catholick Church and call us Hereticks because we do not agree with them Let us see what Mark that Church hath of the Church of God Nor is the Church of God very difficult to be found if you seriously and diligently seek for it for it is placed in an high and illustrious Place and built on the top of a Mountain and the Foundations of it are laid upon the Apostles and Prophets There saith St. Augustin let us seek the Church there let us try our Cause and in another place he saith the Church is to be shown cut of the sacred Scriptures and whatever Society cannot derive it self from them is not the Church And yet I know not whence it proceeds whether from Reverence or Conscience or a despair of Victory that these men always dread and shun the Word of God as much as a Thief does the Gallows and in truth it is no Wonder for as they say a Beetle is presently extinguished in Opobalsam altho it is a most fragrant Oyntment So they see their Cause is suffocated and ruined when ever it comes near the Scriptures which are a sort of deadly Poyson to it Therefore they accustom themselves to call the Holy Scriptures which our Saviour Jesus Christ did not only cite on all occasions but at the last sealed them with his Blood that they may drive the People from them as if they were dangerous and destructive with the greater facility these very Scriptures I say they call a cold uncertain unprofitable dumb killing dead Letter which seems to us to be the same thing as if they should wholly deny them to be the Word of God And besides all this they commonly add a no very proper Simile too They are say they a Nose of Wax and may be form'd and set all manner of ways and be made to serve all manner of Purposes Does the Pope not know that that these things are said by his Followers Does he not understand what kind of Patrons he has 27. LET the Pope then be pleased to hear how piously and how holily Hosius a certain Polander and a Bishop as he saith himself certainly an eloquent and not unlearned man and a sharp and violent defender of his Interest writes concerning the Scriptures I believe he will admire a pious man could possibly entertain such impious Thoughts or write so contemptuously of those very words which he knew proceeded from the Mouth of God and above all that he should seem to desire that it might not pass for his Sense alone but the common Opinion of the whole Popish Party We saith he have bid adieu to the Scriptures having seen so many not only different but contrary Interpretations given of them let us then rather hear God himself speak then apply our selves and trust our Salvation to those jejune Elements There is no need of being Skilful in the Law and Scriptures but of being taught by God That Labour is ill imployed that is bestowed on the Scriptures for the Scripture is a Creature and a poor kind of Element Thus far Hosius in his Book of the express Word of God in this place craftily under the Person of another Man tho he speaks the same thing in several other places in the same Book as his own Opinion without any disguise which is said with the same Spirit and Affection as the like things were heretofore by Montanus and Marcion who are reported frequently to have said when they contemptuously rejected the Holy Scriptures that they knew more and better things than either Christ or his Apostles ever knew What then shall I say on this Occasion O ye Pillars of Religion O ye Presidents of the Church of Christ is this the Reverence ye pay to the Word of God Do ye bid an Adieu to the Sacred Scriptures which St. Paul saith are divinely inspir'd which the Holy God hath illustrated by so many Miracles in which the certain Footsteps of Jesus Christ are imprinted which were cited as Testimonies by all the Holy Fathers by the Apostles by Christ himself the Son of God when occasion requir'd it do ye I say bid adieu to these as if they were not worthy of your regard that is do ye impose silence upon God who it is that speaks clearly to you in the Scriptures Or will you call that Word a poor and a dead Element by which only as St. Paul saith we are reconcil'd to God and which as the Prophet David saith is Holy and Pure and shall endure for ever Or will you say that all the Pains we spend in that which Christ commanded us to search diligently and to have ever in our Eye is lost and that Christ and the Apostles when they exhorted the People to a careful Perusal of the Scriptures that they might thereby abound in all Knowledge and Wisdom designed only to delude and abuse Men It is no wonder that these men despise us and our Writings who thus undervalue God himself and his Oracles but it was a most foolish Action to offer so great an Affront to the Word of God that they might do us a small mischief 28. AND now as if all this were too little they commit the Holy Scriptures to the Fire as the wicked King Jehojakim and as Antiochus and Maximinus two Heathen Persesecutors did calling them the Books of Hereticks and they seem altogether disposed to imitate Herod the Great in what he did for the establishing of his Power for he being an Idumaean of another Race and Blood then the Jews were and desiring to be thought a Jews that so he might the better settle that his Kingdom over them which he had obtained from Augustus Caesar he commanded all their Genealogies which they kept in their Publick Register and were carefully preserved from Abrahams times by which without any Error it was easie to find of which Tribe any person was descended to be burnt and abolished that there might be nothing to be found for the
future by which it might be proved he was of another Nation So these men pretending that all their Innovations were consigned to them by Christ and his Apostles and desiring they should be accordingly esteemed lest there should be any thing any where extant which might contradict these Dreams and Shams either burn or suppress the Scriptures and keep them from the People St. Chrysostom has written very well and appositely against such men as these Hereticks saith he shut the Gates of Truth for they know if they be kept open the Church will never be thought theris And Theophylact stiles the Word of God a Candle by the Light of which a Thief may be discovered And Tertullian saith the Scriptures convict the Frauds and Thefts of Hereticks For why else do they hide and suppress the Gospel which Christ commanded his Disciples to publish from the House top Why else do they indeavour to put that Candle under a Bushel which ought to be set in a Candlestick Why do they trust more to the Ignorance Blindness and Folly of the Multitude than to the Goodness of their Cause Do they think their Arts are not disclosed or that as if they had Gyges his Ring they can go undiscovered The World sees now with both Eyes what is so carefully locked up in the Cabinet of the Popes Breast this one Argument is sufficient to prove they do not act well and sincerely that Cause deserves to be suspected which declines a Scrutiny and hates the Light for as Christ saith he that doth Evil seeks Darkness and hates the Light but a mind conscious of what is good willingly comes forth that the Works which come from God may be seen but these Gentlemen are not so blind but they see what will become of their Kingdom if the Scriptures come once to be generally known and as it is said of old all the Idols of the Demons which before gave Oracles suddenly became dumb upon the appearance of Christ upon Earth so now will all their Arts at the approach of the Gospel sink down into Ruins and Rubbish for Antichrist is not to be deposed by any other thing than the Brightness of the coming of Christ 29. WE do not like them presently betake our selves to Fire and Sword but to the Scriptures nor do we assault them with force and Arms but with the Word of God By them as Tertullian saith we nourish our Faith by them we erect our Hope by them we establish our Confidence for we know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Power of God unto Salvation and that in it there is eternal life and as St. Paul admonisheth us we would refuse to hear an Angel of God that came from Heaven if he endeavoured to turn us away from any part of this Doctrine Yea as that most holy man Juastin Martyr said of himself we would not believe God himself if he should teach us another Gospel for whereas they make the Holy Scriptures like silent Masses dumb and useless and appeal rather to God himself speaking in the Church and in Councilâ— that is to their own better Senses and Opiâ—nions that is a very uncertain and dangerouâ— way of finding out Truth and in a sort Phaâ—natical and which was never approved bâ— the Holy Fathers St. Chrysostom saith indeedâ— that many boast of the Holy Spirit but if theâ— they speak what is their own they glory falsly 〈◊〉 what they have not for saith he as Christ denied that he spake from himself when he spake out of the Law and the Prophets so now if anâ—â—thing besides the Gospel is obtruded upon us undeâ— the Name of the Holy Ghost it is not to be believâ—ed for as Christ is the Completion of the Laâ— and the Prophets so the Spirit is the Completion 〈◊〉 the Gospel CHAP. V. Concerning the Answers and Objections out of the Fathers and Councils BUT though they have not the Scriptures on their side perhaps they will pretend they have the ancient Doctors and the Holy Fathers for that they have ever boasted that all Antiquity and the perpetual Consent of all times is for them and that all our Pretences are Novel and were never heard of till within the course of a very few years last past 2. NOW certainly there can nothing of more weight be said against Religion then that it is new We know not how this has come to pass but from the beginning of the World thus it hath ever been for whensoever God hath discovered and restored to Mankind the light of his Truth tho it is not only of the utmost Antiquity but older than time it self and eternal yet it ever seems to wicked men who hate it to be new and of no Antiquity That impious and bloody man Haman that he might bring the Jews into disfavour thus accused them to Assâ—erus Thou O King hast here in thy Dominions a certain People scattered abroad which observeth new Laws but is stubborn and rebellious against thy Laws St. Paul also when he began first to preach the Gospel to the Athenians was said to be a Setter forth of strange Gods that is of a new Religion and accordingly thus they bespeak him May we know what this new Doctrine whereof thou speakest is And Celsus when he wrote expresly against Christ and his Gospel that he might expose it to the scorn of men under the pretence of its Novelty writes thus What saith he has God after so many Ages now at last bethought himself Eusebius also is our Author that from the beginning the Christian Religion was in derision stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new and strange Religion and so our Adversaries condemn all our Doctrines as new and strange but then they desire that all their own without exception should be reputed most ancient just as the Magicians and Conjurers whose business is with the infernal Spirits that their abominable Art may be thought the more sublime and divine as being derived from great Patrons and Inventors and of a very ancient Original do commonly say that they have their Books and all their Rites and secret Mysteries from Athanasius Cyprian Moses Abel and Adam and from the Arch-Angel Raphael So our Enemies that their Religion too which they have not long since patch'd up for themselves may with the more â—ase be recommended to ignorant men and those that rarely consider what themselves or others do pretend that it came down to them just such as now it is from St. Augustin St. Hierom St. Chrysostom and St. Ambrose from the Apostles and Christ for they very well know that there is nothing more popular and of greater esteem with men than those venerable Names But now what if those things they pretend are so new do indeed prove to be most ancient and what if on the other side almost all those things which they extol so very much upon the pretence of Antiquity when they are well and
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