canonicall mo bookes then these In the olde testament saith hée the fiue bookes of Moses that is Genesis Exodus Leuiticus Numbers Deuteronomium After these Iesus Naue of the Iudges togither with Ruth After these foure bookes of the raignes of kings which the Hebrews doo account but two Paralipomenon which is called the booke of dayes and two of Esdras which they doo receaue each by it selfe and the booke of Hester And of the Prophets Esaie Ieremie Ezechiell Daniell bisides these one booke of the xii Prophets Iob also and the Psalmes of Dauid are each of them one booke Salomon also hath giuen vnto the churches thrée bookes the Prouerbs Ecclesiastes and Cantica canticorum In these bookes haue the fathers shut vp the number of the bookes of the old testamēt And of the New testament there are foure Gospelles of Mathew Marke Luke and Iohn The Acts of the Apostles which Luke dooth describe Fouretéene Epistles of Paule the Apostle of Peter the Apostle two of Iames the brother of the Lord an Apostle one Epistle of Iudas one of Iohn thrée and the Apocalyps of Iohn These bée the volumes which the fathers haue shut vp within the canon whereof the father would that the assertions of our faith should consist Notwithstanding it is néedefull to bée knowne that there be other bookes also which are not canonicall but our auncestors haue called them Ecclesiastical That is to say wisdome which is said to bée Salomons And another Wisdome which is said to bée of the sonne of Sirach which is by the Latinists named by the same generall name Ecclesiasticus By which name not the author of the booke but the qualitie of the scripture is named And of the same Order is the booke of Tobias Iudith and the bookes of Machabies Thus far Ruffinus in his creede or confession of beliefe set foorth by saint Hierome And not many liues after this hée writeth thus These volumes haue the fathers deliuered vnto vs which as I haue said it hath séemed to mée méete to note out for the instruction of such as doo take vpon them the first rudimēts of the church of faith that they may know out of what fountaines the cups of the woord of God must bée drawne Now M. Offerer I pray you confer these words of Ruffinus with that decrée that was made by your fathers of the Tridentine councel in their 4. Session wherein they allow for canonicall all those bookes that haue bin are cōtained in that booke which is cōmonly called the Bible With them the bookes of Tobias Hester Iudith Wisdome Ecclesiasticus the two bookes of the Machabies are of as great authoritie as the rest and they doo denounce accursed all such as doo not or shall not receiue for canonicall all those books and euery part of them making no diffrence betwixt these and the other which Ruffinus hath said the fathers haue deliuered vnto vs as fountaines out of which the cups of the word of God must be drawn Let your fathers therfore denounce accursed this Ruffinus and those fathers that he speaketh of for they be of one minde with vs. Let them accursse S. Hierome that hath set foorth this Créede of Ruffinus as a sound confession of the Christian faith Let them excōmunicate S. Gregorie Grego Morali in 29. lib. Cap. 19. Hiero. in praefacio prou that in the 19. of his morall exposition of the 29. Chapter of Iob dooth confesse that the first booke of the Machabies is not canonicall Yea let them accursse S. Hierome as black as a pot for that in his preface to the prouerbes of Salomon he saith thus The church dooth read the bookes of Iudith Tobie the Machabies for th'edification of the people but not to confirme the authority of the doctrines of the Church This Hierome such other were the fathers the Ruffinus saith haue deliuered to vs the other bookes of the Bible not these to bee fountaines for vs to draw the cups of Gods word out of them And with these would wée rather bée accursed then blessed with your popish Catholique fathers in your Tridentine counsell You frame an argument after this maner If the Catholique church had the true spirite of God in discerning iudging the true scriptures of God from the rest not scriptures why should not we belieue the same Catholike church gouerned led by the same spirit in giuing the true sence meaning vnderstanding of the scriptures To this I answere That the romish Catholique church which now is hath continued for the space almost of a thousand yéeres is not neither hath bin led by the true spirit of God either in discerning or iudging the true scriptures of God from the rest c. Nor yet in giuing the true sence c but it hath bin and is still led by the spirite of Antichrist And that neuer more apparantly then at the Tridentyne counsell as by the canons of the same counsell dooth most manifestly appéere to as many as with indifferent iudgement can and will reade them Thus haue I shewed you sufficient reasons whereby you might bée mooued to yeelde and ioyne with vs in religion and no longer to depend vpon the iudgement of that Antichristian church which you call Catholique for that you may sée if you bee not altogither blinded that it is not the true spirite of God that hath and dooth leade your Catholique church but in déede the false spirite of Antichrist The fourth Offer Offerer Fourth Let the Protestants make sufficient proofe by auncient writers of the Ecclesiastiall histories what church it is that al these fifteene hundreth yeeres past hath continued through out firme and stedfast while all other conuenticles and cōgregations as well of Arians as of the Nestorian Maniches Nouatians Vigilians Iouinians and the rest of Heretikes of all sortes haue decayed bin conuinced and ouerthrowne and that by any other Church then by the common knowne Catholique church of Christ and I shall then yeelde and recant and not before Crowley It is very true that the knowne Catholike church hath bin and still is as for these fiftéene hundreth yéeres last past it hath bin the meane that God hath vsed in the conuinsing ouerthrowing of Arians Nestorians and the rest of the Heretikes that you speake of It is most true also that the same Catholike church hath all this time continued firme and stedfast but how can you prooue that your popish Catholike church is that knowne Catholike church of Christ that you speake of Héerein lieth the difficulty It is not enough for you to say that your romish church is the Catholike church but you must prooue it Your antiquity your vniuersality your vnity with your continuall succession of Bishops will not serue your turne Your antiquity is not so auncient as ours by 4600. yéeres almost For ours began in Adam hath continued euer since yours began to florish in the daies of Phocas the
points contrary to his lawe theyr circumcission therfore dyd profit them nothing but was turned into vncircumcission Rom 2. Rom 2 Euen so batpisme is vnto vs the seale of the new couenaunt which God hath made with vs and with our fore fathers which couenaunt he neither dooth nor can breake But when we breake the condition which is to serue and honour him in spirit and in trueth Ioh. 4. Iohn 4 then is our baptisme made vnprofitable to vs. For as S. Peter hath written 1. Peter 3. 1 Pet 3 The baptisme that saueth vs is not that which putteth away the filth of the flesh but that whereby we are made bolde with a good conscience to stand before God and to call vpon him This is the baptisme of the spirite whereby we are borne from aboue and made the sons and daughters of God and his spirit giuen vnto vs which spirite dooth certifie our spirites that we are Gods children and the same spirite dooth enbolden vs to repaire vnto God as children to a Father and to say vnto him father father Yea and this spirite dooth leade vs as the children of God and maketh vs able in some measure to serue him in obseruing the commaundementes of God Rom 8. Roma 8 How can you say that you doo obserue this condition of honouring and seruing God in spirit and in trueth when in your outward exercise of religion there is scarsely any one thing to bée séene that sauoreth any thing at all of the spirite but altogeather of the flesh yea very fewe thinges that God hath commaunded are to bee séene in your outward professing of Christ but very many things that God hath flatly forbidden Your temples or Churches stuffed full of images and howe dooth the temple of God agree with images 2 Cor 6. 2 Cor 6 your Churches builded and consecrated to the honor of creatures as of Angels and Saints Your solemne festiuall dayes yerely obserued in the honor of creatures Your inuocations and prayers Your burning of incence before dead images and liuing men and before that Sacrament which our Christ ordayned to be receiued in the remembraunce of his death and passion and not to bée worshipped your offering vp of this sacrament as a sacrifice for the sinnes both of the quicke and of the dead your hanging of it ouer your Alters and your carying of it about in your pompous processions your harmonious musicke with the voices of men and children together and the noise of Organes and other loude instruments of Musicke your ringing of Belles your burning of lightes in the open day-light with I wot not how many other toyishe diuises that are vsed by you in your exercise of religiō what one sparke of spirituall seruing and honouring of God can there be in them But your baptisme although you haue diuised manie madde toyes which you doo vse in the ministration therof remaineth the same in substance that our Sauiour Christ dyd commaund to be ministred to such as should beléeue by the preaching of the Gospell Math 28. Math 28. Goe your way and teach all nations baptising them in the name of the father of the sonne and of the holy Ghost You baptise not in the name of Antichrist but in the name of the holy trinity the Father the Son and the holy Ghost The baptisme therefore that we haue receiued amongst you is as effectuall to vs as the Baptisme that we minister to our infantes is to them Now you doo I hope sée that your two horned argument dooth not stand vpon so sure a ground as you séemed to be perswaded that it dyd Wée may say yea to your question and yet not affirme that there is an other way to saluation then by Christ And wée may say no to your question and not be enforced thereby to deny that any of the people that professed Christ for the space of 1000. yeeres were saued Nowe therefore I require you to remember your promise and to recant which you haue hetherto refused to doo The eighteenth Offer Offeter Eighteenth Let the learned Protestant make proofe vnto me how theyr hidde vnknowen and secret Church not hauing in it the Doctrine of Christs Gospell openlie taught no ministration of Sacramentes no spirite of Prophesieng no discipline or rod of correction no ordering of Bishops Preestes and Ecclesiasticall ministers nor yet any other spirituall function executed in the same for the space of a thousand yeres together Let hym prooue their hidde and vnknowen Church with the lacke of all these thinges to be the true spouse and Catholique Church of Christ and I will recant and not before Crowley I haue already prooued sufficiently that although our Catholique Church was by Antichristian tirannie verie sore oppressed and by Popish supersticion and by blasphemous idolatrie meruailously ouercountenaunced yet in all that time of a thousand yéeres that this Offerer speaketh of it was neuer so hidde so vnknowen or so secret but that it was still the Cittie on the hill the Candle on the candlesticke the salt and the light of the world euen as it was in the time of Christs being on earth in our nature and vnder the first ten horrible persecutions The doctrine of the Gospel of Christ was taught and the sacramentes of Christ were ministred in it as openly as the Tiranny of Antichriste would suffer It had the spirite of prophecie in as large mesure as our head Christ Iesus knew to be méete for vs. The rodde of correction or discipline was as much exercised as it might bée by them that had the power of the sworde taken from them and continually vsed against them They lacked neyther Bishops Préestes nor other ecclesiasticall ministers such as the heauenly father knewe to bée necessarie for them These although they were not ordered after the Antichristian manner by receiuing the marke of the beast had theyr lawfull calling from God by man and dyd execute theyr function faythfully and shewed therin no slacknesse but such as was enforced by open and bloodie Tirannie These thinges haue béene sufficiently prooued before and that our Church was not so hydde vnknowen and secret in the tyme that is past of the .1000 yéeres that this Offerer speaketh of neyther is it at this day in any part of the world so hidde c. As this Offerer would beare vs in hand that it was and is in places where it is persecuted and shal be till the whole time of the deuils libertie shal be complet and ended I doo not therefore sée wherefore you should not recant as you haue promised The ninteenth Offer Offerer Nineteenth Againe on the other side let the learned Protestant prooue that it is not the true Church of Christ that hath in the face of the world for the space of fifteene hundred yeeres past exercised preaching the conuersion of nations to the obedience of the Gospell that hath alwaies had the administration of Sacramentes the hearing of matters in controuersie the
last by Gods mercifull prouidence wée gate a sight of them and had them translated into such languages as wee our selues doo vnderstand But this was full sore against your willes as by Hystories it dooth appeere Wee haue therefore no cause to thanke you for them but wée doo giue most heartie continuall thanks to our heauenly father that hath prouided them for vs and hath giuen the vse of them to vs. Yea and finding in the first chapter of S. Iames Epistle Iacob 1. that if any man lack wisdome hee must aske it of God who giueth to all men indifferently and dooth not vpbrayde any man with his giftes wée haue and doo still begge of God his holy Spirite to direct vs both in the discerning of the Bookes of the Scriptures and in the finding out of the true sense of the same And wee doo finde the saying of our Sauiour Christ written by Saint Luke chapter 11. very true Luc 11. Si vos cum sitis mali nostis c. If you being euill doo know how to giue good giftes to your children how much more shall your heauenly Father giue the holy Spirite to them that craue it of him wee haue craued that holy spirite and doo still craue it of our heauenly Father Wee haue receyued it and doo still receiue it in some measure Wée are thereby made able to iudge the spirits and according to the counsell of S. Iohns first Epistle 1 Iohn 4. and fourth chapter Wée belieue not euery spirite but wée doo trie the spirites And finding that the holy spirite of God did mooue them that first wrote the bookes of the Bible to write as they did write therefore wée doo thankfully receiue those bookes as holy scripture and doo reuerendly vse them as a Lanterne to our feete and a light vnto our pathes After this maner did the Catholique men that haue liued before vs endeuor to know the canonicall Scriptures from such as are pro haue And as S. Augustine writeth vpon the last Psalme August in Psalm 150. Tom 5. Tom. 8. Sunt etiam qui vniuersas omnino scripturas canonicas vnum librum vocent quod valde mirabili diuina vnitate concordent There bée some men also saith S. Augustine that doo name all the canonicall scriptures but one booke bicause they doo agree in a very merueilous and heauenly vnity S. Augustine in his second booke of christian Doctrine August de doct Christ lib. 2. Ca. 5. writeth thus Cap. 8. Totus autem canon scripturarum in quo istam considerationem versandam dicimus his libris continetur In déede the whole canon of the Scriptures wherein wee doo affirme this consideration is to bee vsed is conteined in these bookes And then hée maketh rehersall of those 44. bookes which are contained in that booke which both you and wée doo call the holy Bible concluding thus His quadraginta quatuor libris veteris testamenti terminatur authoritas In these foure and forty bookes is the authority of the olde testament ended Then hée maketh rehersall of the bookes called the New testament which are in number 27. and they are the same that wee haue in our bookes called the New testaments both in gréeke in latine Of al these bookes togither which are in number 71. S. Austen writeth thus In his omnibus libris timentes Deum pietate mansueti quaerunt volūtatem Dei In all these bookes they that feare God are by godlines made modest doo séeke for the will pleasure of God And in the beginning of this 8. chap. of this second booke of christian Doctrine S. Austen dooth instruct euery christian after this maner Erit igitur diuinarum scripturarum solertissimus indagator qui primo totas legerit notasque habuerit si non dum intellectu iam tamen lectione duntaxat eas quae appellantur canonicae He therefore shal be the wisest searcher of the holy scriptures which will first read them through and will haue a perfect knowledge of them although not in vnderstanding as yet but yet already in reading those scriptures onely which are called Canonicall And going forward in this instruction hée saith thus Jn Canonicis autem scripturis Ecclesiarum catholicarum quam plurimum authoritatem sequatur inter quas sane illae sunt quae Apostolicas sedes habere Epistolas accipere meruerunt Let him as much as may bée follow the authority of the Catholike churches in the canonicall scriptures amōgst which churches vndoubtedly those churches are which haue deserued to haue Apostolical seates to receiue Epistles By these woords of S. Augustine it appeareth what was ment in S. Augustins time by these words the Catholique church the canicall scriptures The scriptures were called canonicall that doo containe the rule of faith of maners And the churches were planted by the preaching of the doctrine amongst which those were accounted for the chiefe that had bin planted by the Apostles them selues had had some one of the Apostles resiant amongst them for a time and therefore the places were called Apostolicall seates And these were the congregations that the Apostle Paule did direct his Epistles vnto And heere I doo by the way note that as Rome was Sedes Apostolicae an Apostolike seate so was Corinth Galatia Ephessus Colossa Philippos Thessalonica Wherefore these later were of like authority with the first S. Austen therefore addeth further and saith thus Tenebit igitur hunc modum in scripturis canonicis vt eas quae ab omnibus accipiuntur Ecclesijs catholicis praeponat eis quas quaedā non accipiunt Let him therfore that is a searcher of the scriptures kéepe this meesure in the canonicall Scriptures that hee prefer those scriptures that be receiued of al Catholike churches before those scriptures which certaine Catholike churches doo not receiue By all these words of S. Austen written in the 8. chap. of his second booke De christiana doctrina it appeareth manifestly that the church of Rome although it were then Catholique accounted so to be yet it was not as now you doo account it to be the onely Catholique church of Christ For the other Churches which had bin Apostolike seates had receiued Epistles were Catholique as well as the church of Rome was yea and that all those churches were but particuler churches and none of them vniuersall but members of that vniuersall Church which consisteth of all the particuler churches that are haue bin or shal be vpon earth Yea and it appeareth that some of those Catholique churches did not receiue as canonicall all those bookes that are contained in the Bible although they did in some sorte account them canonicall as containing rules necessary for maners though not for faith In Tom. 4. Tom. 4. of S. Hieroms works it appeareth the Ruffinus a learned Priest and such a one as S. Hierome liked well of liuing about 400. yéeres after Christes ascention did not alow for
yéeres and more But to let this Offerer and his fellowes see wherein they be disceiued I will adde some thing to the which I haue written there making it manifest that this Offerer and his fellowes did depart from vs and from our Church before wée did depart from them and their church They departed from vs and our Church without cause but we did departe from their Church for iust cause When S. Iohn wrote these woords Ex nobis prodierunt c. 1. Ioh. 2. They went out from vs but they were not of vs c the church of Rome was Catholique Christian Holy and Apostolike They therefore that did then depart from them were Antichristian and Schismaticall and were not of them whilse they were amongst them and therefore they did not tarie with them And you and men of your sorte are they that in the daies of Phocas the Emperor did openly departe from our Catholique church became a schismaticall Antichristian church or rather Synagogue of Satan persecuting the true Catholique church of Christ continually from that day to this Wée therefore being amongst you till it pleased God to open the eyes of our vnderstanding so that wée might see the abhominations of your Antichristian religion were not of you and therefore wee did departe from you not leauing our Faith and Religion wherein wée were baptized for wée were baptized in the name of Christ and not of Antichrist For though God haue suffered you to diuise many toyes which you doo vse in the ministration of baptisme yet hee would neuer suffer you to alter the institution of that Sacrament for you doo still baptise in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost And therefore wee seeke not to bee rebaptized knowing that the baptisme which wee receiued at your hands is as effectuall as that which wée our selues doo minister to our Infants Wee are not therefore departed from the true Catholique church of Christ but from your Antichristian church and wee are returned againe to that true Catholique church from which your sorte departed when Boniface the third tooke vpon him that Antichristian name of vniuersall bishop And vs that were borne amongest you yee haue kept from our deere mother and haue enforced vs to taste of the poysoned mylke of the dugs of that purple clothed Whore your Damme of Rome But our louing Father hath in his good time by his good meanes brought vs out from amongst you and restored vs againe to our good mother his deerely beloued spouse the true Catholique Holy and Apostolike church out of whose plentifull Dugs wee doo daily sucke the swéete pleasant healthsome mylke that feedeth vs vnto euerlasting lyfe This mother that wee are returned to is that romish Catholique church that was in the dayes wherein Saint Iohn wrote those woordes that you take holde of From hir did you departe bicause you were not hir naturall chyldren but Bastards borne in hir house but not of hir housholde and therefore like a Bastardly broode you went out of hir house and became most bloodie persecutors of hir children and so you haue continued for the space now of a thousand yeeres almost yea and so you doo continue still By the mercifull goodnes of our Father working in vs by his holy spirite wée doo now belieue as the children of our mother then in Rome did belieue They belieued then that there is but one God the hath made all creatures and him they glorified in the vse of his creatures and they gaue thanks to him alone for those creatures and studied to serue him onely in spirite and with spirituall seruice flying from th' example of the Heathen nations that presumed to counterfaite his maiestie by Images Ro. 1. Rom. 1. and so doo wée They belieued and confessed that all men are sinners that no man can iustifie him selfe before God bicause no man can so kéepe the law of God but that his owne conscience shall condemne him as a transgressor therefore they did cleaue to the mercie of God and so doo wée They belieued that they were iustified that is discharged of their sinnes fréely by faith without the déedes of the law and yet they thought themselues bound to doo all that God had and should make them able to doo in obseruing fulfilling of the law and so doo wée Rom. 2.3.4.5.6.7 Rom. 2.3.4.5.6.7 They belieued that God making choise of them had in mercie made them his owne children by adoption inheritors of his kingdome heires annexed with his onely begotten sonne Christ Iesus and hereof they were assured by the spirite of Christ which was giuen vnto them cried in their hearts Abba-pater Father Father so doo wée Ro. 8. Rom 8. They belieued that this election choise was made in the fore knowledge and purpose of God before they themselues were and so consequently before they either had or could doo good or euill and so doo wée Rom. 9. Rom. 9. They belieued that as they were by the free mercie of God Adopted Predestinated called iustified and acquited of their sinnes and in Gods predestination glorified and made like to the Image of his onely begotten sonne Christ Iesus Rom. 8. Rom 8. so their dutie was to bée carefull to leade a righteous life before men and not to bee bolde to commit sinne bicause God had in mercie discharged them of sinne but to liue in a reuerend awe and feare of his iustice as they that would shew them selues continually thankfull for his mercie in making their owne bodies a Sacrifice to God liuing holy and acceptable to God as their reasonable seruing of God Rom. 10.11.12 Rom. 10.11.12 and euen so doo wée They belieued that their duetie was to submit them selues to all such as God had set ouer them in authoritie to obay them not only for feare of punishment but for conscience sake also knowing that who soeuer resisteth the powre resisteth the ordinaunce of God dooth purchase to him selfe damnation And they belieued that their duetie was to giue euerie man his owne and to vse louing behauiour towards all men knowing that loue is the fulfilling of the law And that being baptized they had apparelled them selues with Christ and that they ought to walke and continue their liues in holinesse and in honestie not making prouision for the flesh to satisfie the lusts thereof Rom. 13. Rom. 13. and euen so doo wée They belieued that although God had giuen them libertie in the vse of all his creatures yet their duetie was to haue a continuall regarde to the infirmitie of their bretheren and not to vse any of those creatures to the offence of any of them Rom. 14.15 Rom. 14.15 and euen so doo wée They belieued that they togither with all other Christians els where in any parte of the worlde were fellowe members of one bodie in Christ and vnder Christ alone acknowledging no vniuersall head of