the Philosophers wer not ignoraÌ„t that there can be no lykenesse of God made and therefore not of Christe vnlesse we deny him to be God So that if a Crosse was vsed in his time yet was there no picture of Christe vpon it Last of all that places deputed vnto prayer were only called by the name of the which is the onely meane whereby we apprehende the promises of God and come to true knowledge of him If there were nothing els but Numa hys iudgement whome notwithstanding in all these pointes Cyrillê° doth allow he wer only sufficient to condeÌ„ne youre doctrine No Image of Christ to be made For if Christ be God God can haue no forme or shape what shall we thinke of the pictures of Christ in euery roodeloft and on euery crucifix Are they not things vtterly vnlawfull and suche as wherein Numa shall condemne you Peraduenture ye set a picture of Christ as of onely man but thereby ye runne into a damnable heresie separating his humanitie from his diuinite No Churche to be called by the name of a Sainct making him inferior vnto his father as is proued afore Againe the wisdome of that Romaine king condemneth the foolishe superstition of Christians in giuing worse names vnto their Churches than he did to the temples of his Idols For he called them al the temples of fayth giuing therby the glory vnto God wheras we doe cal them sainct Iohns Church S. Peters Church S. Maries Church and such other like To ioyne issue in the case whether memory be holpen by Imagery If ye speake of Gods matters it is an vngodlye memory that is holpeÌ„ by them Lib. 4. de Imag. ca. 2. Infoelix memoria quae vt Christi memoretur qui nunque à pectore iusti hominis recedere debet imaginariae visionis est indiga An vnhappy memory is the as Charles the great affirmeth which to remember Christ who neuer ought to departe out of the hart of the iust maÌ„ standeth in nede of a sightfull conceite Nor otherwise can haue the presence of Christe within hym vnlesse he haue hys Image paynted on the wall or expressed in some other matter Thys is not only sayd but a reason of the same is brought For sayeth he such a memory as is nourished and kepte by Images procedeth not of harty loue but necessitie of eye sight And sée by thys meanes how little God is beholden to vs. We remember hym as we remember the diuel for when we are not moued of conscience and good wyll A diuelish memory that must be holpen vvith a Crosse to thynke vpon Christe but onely as the eye by occasion is lead then is there no loue but a mere necessitie whiche maketh me remember so oft as I sée it any thing that I hate most So that who are these that must haue their memories quickened with a Crosse Such as if they were blinde belyke would not remember and beyng where no Crosse is wyll forget Christ And sure lyke inough For there are no worse lyuers in the worlde than likers of the Crosse Wherefore sith the minde of man ought so wholy to be desired on hym after whose Image it was firste made that by no creature it oughte to be estraunged from the truthe whiche is Christe DemeÌ„tissimum est eam interpositis materialibus Imaginibus ne eius obliuioneÌ„ patiatur admoneri debere cum videlicet hoc infirmitatis sit vitiuÌ„ non libertatis inditiuÌ„ Moste madnesse it is that oure myndes by the meane of materiall Images must be put in remembraunce leaste we fall to forget hym whereas thys is the faulte of infirmitie no signe of libertie The Apostle Paul sayth that oure conuersation muste be in heauen Philip. 3. Rom. 8. and hope reposed in heauenly thynges Spes enim quae videtur non est spes That hope which is sene is no hope God hath made many creatures of his own wherby his power may be knowen of vs they all notwtstanding in their degrée serue vs shal we now shape out a new creature serue it So dyd the Iewes whoÌ„ the Prophet bitterly reproueth saying To whom wil ye lyke God Esay 40. or what similitude wyl ye set vp vnto hym The workeman melteth an Image or the goldsmith beateth it oute in golde or the goldsmith maketh siluer plates Doth not the poore chose out a trée and so forth Whereby we are giueÌ„ to vnderstande that all Imagery so farre as coÌ„cerneth Gods seruice is condemned not only for the vse and adoration but also for the hauing and erecting of them For as yet he spake not of the worshipping of Images but only of worthying them any place among them To whom wyll ye lyken God sayth he as who shuld say Paint what ye wyll embosse and burnishe yet shal your workemanship haue nothing lyke with God Therefore to aspire vnto the knowledge of hym we muste not take counsell of oure owne folly but follow the wysdome of God herein and betake vs to hys worde whiche is the lyuely Image and perfect couÌ„terfet of himselfe If this suffyse not let vs cast our eyes about vpon hys creatures they wyl tel vs of hym yea the poore and hungry that styll be subiect vnto the Crosse wil leade vs straighter to Christ than any Crosse If you wyl seke for any further ayde I may say vnto you as followeth in the Prophete An nescitis an non audistis an non vobis annuÌ„ciatum est ab initio an non edocti estis a fundameÌ„tis terrae Know ye nothing haue ye not heard hath it not bene tolde you from the beginning haue ye not vnderstode by the foundations of the earth Marke I beseche you what scholemasters Esay doth appoynt vs when he had vsed the generall worde of knowing he inferred .ij. wayes that leade vs to knowledge First is the word which commeth by hearing The seconde is the world which without our workemanship is dayly to be séen If ye fynde any more it is more thaÌ„ the Prophet knewe of it is more then the spirite of God teacheth it is more than a Christien and godly man may vse Wherfore seyng nothyng is described by the Crosse auayleable for vs no piece of cause or effect of Christes passion is represented in it yea the person of Christ as much as in vs lieth disgraced by it and the maiestie of God dishonoured seing by the Scriptures and authority of the Godly such meane of remembraunce is both insufficient and vtterly vnlawfull condemning our selues of too deadly forgetfulnesse and contempte of the order that God hath set vs Finally séeing that it is such a sory scholemaster as speaketh doubtfully teacheth diuelishly is séene daungerously let the signe of the Crosse be cast out of the Church and the Crosse it selfe be preached symply least by suffering the signe of the Crosse to stande the sonne of God crucified be contemned and we fall to worshipping of a Crosse materiall
AN AVNSWERE TO THE TREATISE OF THE CROSSE wherin ye shal see by the plaine and vndoubted word of God the vanities of men disproued by the true and Godly Fathers of the Church the dreames and dotages of other controlled and by lavvfull Counsels conspiracies ouerthrowen Reade and Regarde Si quis diuersam sequitur doctrinam non acquiescit sanis sermonibus Iesu Christi et ei quae secundum pietatem est doctrinae is inflatus est nihil scit Paulê° 1. ad Tim. 6. If any man teach otherwyse and agreeth not to the holesome wordes of Iesus Christ to the doctrine which is according to Godlinesse he is puft vp knoweth nothing IMPRINTED AT LONdon by Henry Denham for Lucas Harryson Anno. 1565. To Iohn Martiall student in Diuinitie Iames Calfhill Bacheler of the same vvisheth the spirit of Truthe and modestie wyth increase of knowledge in the feare of God IT is not very long agoe since the famous report of your Martial affairs came vnto mine eares and treatise of defence vnto my handes In deede as a yong scholler for so ye say ye are and I by your vvorkmanship may vvell coÌ„iecture ye haue sayd for the Crosse so far as your skyl doth serue you or as the honestie of the cause deserueth I suppose it had bene more honesty for you and vvould haue furthered your purpose better if eyther your vveakenesse had vvrestled at the first on a better grouÌ„d or so vveak a cause had got some sturdier champion to defend it Novve that you fight more egerly than vvisely in a Crosse quarrell ye lie so open to be crossebytten that the cause it selfe and your poore credit go to the ground together For though ye vse to face men vvithal such termes and titles of estimacion as rather of some be gotten by continuaunce than giuen by desert as Bacheler of Lavve and student in Diuinitie yet if ye had ioyned more Logique vvith your Lavve your reasons should not haue runne so lavvlesse as they do or if you had remembred your olde humanitie you vvould not haue stayned your nevve diuinitie vvith such slaunders and lies such vaine supposals and idle tales as I am ashamed to heare of any that challengeth to himselfe the name of learning But mans lavve striketh so great a stroke vvith you that Goddes rule coÌ„science is excluded from you and being so depe in your popish diuinitie you haue forgotten al christian humanitie VVherefore the censure of S. Paul vvhich in the beginning I vsed as my vvorde may iustly be applied to you that in asmuch as ye giue no eare to the sounde doctrine 1. Tim. 6. nor coÌ„tent your self vvith that religion vvhich accordeth to pietie ye are but puft vp vvith vaine glorie ye seeke for praise of men vvhich of the vviser sorte ye shall neuer purchas Hovv vvell your poesy serueth against vs vvhom you vvold seeme to touch vvhen the Apostle inueyed against the enimies of the crosse of Christ vvhich you are and not vve shal aftervvarde be seene in the discourse But among you the vvilful vvanderers of one affection of one bringing vp the saying is verified vvhich Horace hath Horatius in Arte Poetica Scribimus indocti doctique PoeÌ„mata passim First came into our stage a gaye disguised gest a sodaine conuert and I feare me greatly least an Apostata M. Doctor Harding he bicause he is right vvorshipfull M. Doctor and hath othervvise some opinion of learning vvordes in deede at vvil he must needes be thought to say something But hovv this somthing in effect is nothing the Byshop of Salisburie aboundantly doth proue Next to the Master came the vvorthy Scholer and yet vvorthy Man he gaue but a Dor. VVe doe easly see in vvhose forge he vvas framed he sauours of the fier that flevve out before and yet neither of them both for all their heate of railing hath any vvarmth of religion His proues I passe to the reproufe published abrode already Onely I am sory M. Novvell had not a more learned aduersarie Then commes in M. Rastal and puts in his Reioynder All againste M. Ievvell Alas I pitie the poore soule he maketh his match so farre amisse Dares Entellum Nay Hinnului Leonem Yet he saith that he vvil but fight vvith a Penknife He vvill ouerthrovv vvith a breath if he can O noble courage He leaueth the bloudy launces and terrible halbardes for Hardy Harding and Doughty Dorman he himself vvil come after and blovve his enimies afore him If I should deale vvith this daungerous bugge I vvould for all that prouide my selfe of a longer svvorde for belike he hath a very strong breath and yet vvith a Bodkin he may be borne ouer I vvill not touch this proud pecockes taile I vvill leaue it at leasure to be pulled of an other To make vp the messe steps out M. Stapleton he vvil not stand by and be but a looker on hauing therefore neuer a vveapoÌ„ of his ovvne he runs to a Ruffian and borrovves his svvord He hath put on a nevv scabbard on it he hath varnished the hiltes The blade it self is al to be hackt It hath bene already in so many frayes and borne avvay so many blovves that it is novve scarcely able to scratch This yong man therefore vvil sight vvith the scabberde But if a man giue him a drie blovv or tvvo as for his vvilfulnesse he vvell deserueth vve shal see hereafter vvhat fence he hath for it There is none of all these but may vvith more ease make .xv. suche bookes as they cuÌ„ber the Printers of Antvverp vvithal than ansvvere xv leaues of sound doctrine The parties be knovven their skil their qualities vve are God vvote to vvell acquainted vvith to be novv abused by Dogs eloquence If your causes vvere better as vvorse they can not be forsoth you should finde of your olde acquaintance ynovve to match you and vnlesse ye vvere sounder to shame you to This aduauntage ye haue God be thancked for it that ye haue nothing else to do but coÌ„mit to vvriting your pieuish fansies and send them into England to set vs a vvorke vvithal VVe our selues are occupied othervvise as freÌ„ds to the flock of christ vvhich vve haue in charge thaÌ„ that vve can or vvill atteÌ„pre our doings to the levvd desert of our contemned enimies or mispende our time in ansvvering of that vvhich in the eares of al indifferent carieth a sufficient confutacion vvith it Notvvithstanding least some more simple than other may be deceued by you and you your selues be fooded in your folly through to much forbearing and silence of ours vve haue humbled oure selues beneath the honestie of our cause vve haue for charities sake vouchsaued to say more than the cause requireth or all the colledge of your coÌ„spiracy can vvith good reason ansvvere As for you good sir vvhich only come to make vp a number and seme to do something choosing to entreate of a plausible matter as your discretion doth
Wherfore to conclude Folio 9. b. Ioan. 4. the only swete water to quench our thyrsts must be fet from the fountayne of Gods eternall wyl There is the well that springeth vp into euerlasting life Beware of the puddle of mens traditions it infecteth ofte féelde it refresheth We must not vse the pretexte of custome but enquire for that which is right and good Chrisost in Gen. cap. 20. Hom. 56. If any thing be good if it profyt and edify the church of Christ let it be receiued yea though it be straunge If any thing be hurtful and preiudiciall to the true simplicitie of the Gospell let it be abandoned though .xv. hundreth yeares custome haue confirmed it For my part I craue no further credit than the christian conscience groūded on the word of God shal of indifferency and good reason graunt me The Lorde directe your hearts in his loue and feare confound Sathan with all hys wickednesse and giue the glory onely to Christ His name be praysed for euer and euer So be it To the first Article HAuing to erecte the house of god wherto we ought to be fellow workers we are bound especially to sée to this that neyther we builde on an euill ground therby to lose both cost and trauail nor set to sale and cōmende to other a ruinous thing or anye waye infectious in steade of a strong defence or holesome place wherevpon to rest The Apostle commending his doctrine to the Corinthians sayth Vt sapiens architectus fundamentum posui 1. Corin. 3. As a skilfull masterbuilder I haue layde the foundation And other foundation can no man laye than that which is layde which is Christ Iesus Christ hath receyued of his father all things he hath conferred vpon vs no lesse he by his death hath made entrance into life for vs he is become our wysedome our righteousnesse our sanctification and redemption By his name we must onely be saued by hys doctrine we must only be directed vpon that rock that fayth of his we must substantially be grounded If any man teach other lessons than of that we must say with Paul Si Angelus è celo Gallath If an Angel from heauen teach otherwise than the Apostles haue preached to vs let him be accursed And with S. Iohn Quod audistis ab initio id in vobis permaneat Let that abide in you which you haue heard from the beginning so shal you continue both in the sonne and in the father And this is the promise that he hath promised vs 1. Ioan. euen eternall life If any man do not bring this doctrine with him do not so much as salute him Ioan. 14. Math. 15. neyther receiue him into your houses For he that loueth God heareth his voyce sayth Christ And they in vayne do worship him that teach the doctrine and preceptes of men Men in God his matters not to be beleued vvithout the vvord Men haue their errors and imperfections though they be the children of God yet they be not guided by his good spirit alwayes Euery man that hath an instrument in his hand can not play on the same nor euery man that hath learned the science can please the eare But if the strings be out of tune or frets disordered there wanteth the harmony that should delite So whensoeuer we swarue neuer so little from the right trade of Gods holy word we are not to be credited we ought not to please Wherefore sith the way is daungerous our féete slippery that we fall oft and are slyding euer no maruell if the best of vs sometime do halte It falleth oft that such as preach professe Christ builde sometime on him euill vnsound and corrupt doctrine Not that the word of God is occasion of heresies but that men lacke right vnderstanding and iudgement of the same which commeth only by the spirit of God And this it is that S. Paule sayth 1. Cor. 5. how some do builde vpon Christ the foundation golde siluer and precious stones But some other timber hay and stubble Yet must we not take the hope of Gods mercy from such euill carpenters as lay so rotten a couering vpon so sure a building where as otherwise they offending in trifles be sound inough in greater matters sticke to Christ the only substantiall and true foundation Yet such their errors and imperfections being brought to the fier of gods spirit De doctrin Christiana li. 2. ca. 9. sequentibus and tried by the word shal be consumed Augustine therfore when he would frame a perfecte preacher willeth him to conferre the places of Scripture together He sendes him not to the Doctours distinctions nor to the censure of the Church nor canons of the Popes nor traditions of the fathers but onely to quiet and content himselfe with the word of God Therfore in the primitiue Church when as yet the new Testament was not written al things were examined according to the sermons and wordes of the Apostles For which cause S. Iohn writeth Qui ex Deo est nos audit 1. Ioan. 4. He that is of of God heareth vs and he that heareth vs not is not of God So farre therfore as men accorde with the holy Scripture and shape their writings after the paterne that Christ hath left them I will not only my self estéeme them but wish them to be had in most renoune and reuerence Otherwise absolutely to trust to mē which may be deceiued gather out of the fathers writings whatsoeuer was wytnesse of their imperfection is neyther point of wisdome nor safety In euery age God raysed vp some worthy instrumētes in his church And yet in no age any was so perfect that a certaine truth was to be builded on him Which thing by example as wel vnder the law as in the time of grace god hath sufficiently by his worke declared Among the Iewes who was euer comparable vnto Aaron Aaron who fell so shamefully he assented for feare vnto the peoples Idolatry Among the ministers of the Gospell who had so great rare gifts as Peter who did offende so fleshely Peter for dreade of a girle he denied his master Which thing was not done without the prouidence of almighty God thereby to putte men in remembraunce of their frailty further to instruct them whence truth in doctrine must only be fetcht Trust not me Pro loco li. 3. de Trinita To. 3. sayth Augustine nor credit my writings as if they were the canonical scripture But whatsoeuer thou findest in the word although thou didst not beleue it before yet groūd thy fayth on it now And whatsoeuer thou readest of mine vnlesse thou knowest it certainly to be true giue thou no certaine assent to it Epist 48. ad Vincent de Vi coer her And in an other place reprouing suche as will bring forth cauils out of mens writings therby to confirme an error he saith that a difference should
be made betwene the assertions and mindes of men were they eyther Hillarie Ciprian Agrippine or any other and canon of the Scripture Non enim sic leguntur he sayth tanquam ita ex eis testimonium proferatur vt contra sentire non liceat Concio ad Adolesc sicubi forte aliter sapuerint quam veritas postulat In eo quippe numero sumus vt non dedignemur etiā nobis dictū ab Apostolo accipere Et si quid aliter sapitis id quoque deus vobis reuelabit For they are not so red as if a testimonie might be brought forth of them which it were not lawefull for any man to gaynesay if peraduenture they thought otherwise than the truth requireth For we are in the number of them that disdayne not to take this saying of the Apostle to vs If any of you be otherwise minded God shall reueale the same vnto you Wherefore with what iudgement the fathers of the church ought to be redde Basile setteth forth by a propre similitude Iuxta totum apium similitudinem orationum participes nos fieri conuenit Illae enim neque ad omnes flores consimiliter accedunt neque etiam eos ad quos volant totos auferre tentant sed quantū ipsis ad mellis opificiū commodū est accipientes reliquū valere sinunt Et nos sanè si sapiamus quantum sincerum est veritati cognatum ab ipsis adepti quod reliquum est transiliemus We must be partakers of other mennes sayings wholly after maner of the Bées for they flée not alike vnto all flowers nor where they syt they crop them quite away but snatching so much as shall suffise for their hony making take their leaue of the rest Euen so we if we be wise hauing got of other so much as is sound and agreable to truth wil leape ouer the rest Which rule if we kepe in reading and alleaging the fathers words we shall not swarue from our profession the scripture shall haue the soueraine place and yet the Doctours of the Church shall lose no parte of their due estimation None of the Fathers but haue erred There is not any of them that the world both most wonder at but haue had their affections nor I thinke that you aduersaries to vs and to the truth will in euery respecte admitte all that any one of the fathers wrote My selfe were able from the very first after the Apostles time to runne them ouer all and straightly examining their words and assertions finde imperfections in all But I would be loth by discrediting of other to séeme that I sought some prayse of skil or else be likened to Cham Noahs sōne that seing the nakednesse of the fathers Gen. 21. wil in contēpt vtter it But bycause in ceremonies and obseruances wherein they scant agreing with themselues euery one discording from other declined all from simplicity of the Gospell we are onely burdened with the name of fathers giue vs leaue somtime to vse a Regestion let vs haue the liberty toward other which Hierome graunteth against himselfe saying Certe vbicunque Scripturas non interpretor In Apo. pro lib. contra Iouin To. 2. liberè de meo sensu loquor arguat me cui lubet Truely whersoeuer I expound not the scriptures but freely speak of mine own sense let any man that lyst reproue me Not that I wil giue so large raynes to the headdinesse of some whiche either of affection or of singularity wil néedes dissent but that I wil not exempte any from their iuste defence Ioan. 4. from triall of the spirits whether they are of God We must followe the example of them of Berrhea which trusted not to Paule himselfe but searched the scriptures whether they were so Tvvo Iudges of cōtrouersies the vvorde and the spirite But where as this precept is generall all men to iudge all men to try what doctrine they receyue this iudgement and trial to be had by the word is somewhat in dede but yet not all that may be sayde in the matter I graunt the Scripture to be a good Iudge in deede But vnlesse the spirite of wisedome and knoweledge doe lighten our wyttes and vnderstanding it shal auayle vs little or nothing to haue at hand the worde of God whereof we knowe not the sense and meaning Golde is tryed by the touchstone and metalles in the fier yet onely of suche as are experte in the facultie For neyther the touchstone nor yet the fier can any thing further the ignoraunte and vnskilfull Wherefore to be méete and conuenient men to iudge of a truthe when we do reade or heare it by the holy Ghost we must be directed In this behalfe although I knowe that the giftes of God haue their degrées yet dare I say that none is vtterly so voide of grace It is possible to trie a truthe but hath so much conferred on him as shal be expedient for his owne behoofe vnlesse he be vtterly as a rotten member cut of from Christ Vaine it were to commaūd a thing that lies not in vs and vs to deny the possibillitie when we haue a promise of a thing that shall be doth argue our inconstancy and mysbelief Wherefore syth Christ and his Apostles saye often times Videte Cauete Probate which wordes be spoken in the commaunding mode byd vs Sée Beware and Proue I must néedes conclude that we shal not be destitute of the spirit of God so farre as shal be most néedefull for vs if we doe aske the same by fayth And whereas Christ doth affirme that we shal knowe 1. Ioan. 4. And S. Iohn in his epistle doth assure vs that 〈◊〉 doe knowe Spiritum veritatis Spiritum erroris the Spirit of veritie and Spirit of error we must acknowledge and confesse that the truth is not hidde from vs further than we lyst to shut it vp from our selues But here ariseth doubtfull case If euery man shall haue authoritie to giue his verdit vpon a controuersie Tvvo kindes of examination of doctrine Priuate which shall séeme and say that he hath the spirit no certain thing shal be decréed euery man shal haue his own way no stable opinion and iudgement to be rested on Hereto I aunswere againe that there be two kindes of examination of doctrine one priuate another publique Priuate wherby eche man doth settle his owne fayth to staye continually vppon one doctrine which he knoweth stedfastly to haue procéeded from God For consciences shall neuer haue any sure porte or refuge to runne vnto but only God He when he is called vpon will heare our prayers when he is desired wil graunt vs his spirit But he hath prescribed vs a way before hand to attayne the same if we bring vnder all senses of ours vnto his word Ioan. 8. Si patrem habetis Deum quomodo non agnoscitis loquelam meam If ye haue God to your father saith Christ how falleth it
in form likenesse of the other then is it somwhat that you haue sayd But if it were the preaching of the word as most certain it is which did so work in the heartes of men the refusing their errors they became to be faythful then you are a falsefier of the word M. Martial Learne you of me that preaching is that hand of God that standard of his whereby that merciful effect is wrought as wel in vs as in al other to be brought to the truth from blindnesse ignorance And if ye thinke scorne to learne of me learne of God himselfe who in the text before sayth that his mouth is a sharp sweard and that preaching is a chosen shaft had in the quiuer of the almighty For the word in operation is as forcible as a sweard it moueth it rauisheth it renueth men it pearceth to the heart it searcheth the secret places it entreth through as S. Paul sayth Heb. 4 euen vnto the deuiding asūder of the soule and of the spirits of the ioynts of the marowe and is a discerner of the thoughtes and the intentes of the heart neyther is there any creature which is not manifeste in his sight but al things are naked and open vnto his eyes with whome we haue to do This two edged sweard which God hath put in the mouth of man doth trye the force of things set against it It cutteth the corrupt affections from the heart It openeth the festered sores the pestilent impostumes of our ill desires It ouerthroweth the kingdome of Sathan It slayes his host sinne death and hell And as an arrowe which is past the bowe of a cunning archer can not be stayed by hand before it haue his lighting place so doth the word hold stil his constant course it maketh way whersoeuer it goeth it falleth as he willeth which is the onely directer of it But fall where it will it falleth with effect nor any man can withstand the blowe that it giueth If you can iustly ascribe any such piece of operation to the Crosse in your fourth signification then will I gladly giue place vnto you But whereas it is certayn that no work of man can alter the heart or once regenerate it to true pietie the standard that Esay the Prophet speaketh of maketh nothing for your purpose But S. Hierome ye say taketh your part for vpon that place he noteth Fol. 23. b. Vndoubtedly there is meant the banner or signe of the Crosse In dede s Hierome hath these words Haud dubium quin vexillum crucis vt impleatur illud quod scriptum est Laudibus eius plena est terra Which is as much to say as this No doubt but it shal be the ensigne of the Crosse that it may be fulfilled which is written The earth is ful of his prayses Here Hierome doth explicate himself what he doth meane by the ensigne of the Crosse the setting forth of the prayse of God which is not by setting of a Crosse on the altar but by preaching the crucified Christ vnto people The place of Ieremy the .iiij. maketh no more for the Crosse thā it doth for the Candlesticks For when the Prophet had spoken to the inhabitants of Iuda Ierusalem to be circumcised to the Lorde Ieremie 4 and cut of the foreskinnes of their infected heartes ne egrederetur tanquam ignis furor eius et accēderetur nemo extingueret least his wrath should go forth as fier and should be kindled and no man quench it He commeth further to declare the obstinacy of mennes hearts that by no meanes can be brought to goodnesse but seke by al meanes to auoyd the rewarde and plague of wickednesse Wherefore by an Ironye he sayth vnto them Blowe the trumpet in the land crie and gather together and say Assemble your selues and let vs go into strong cities Set vp the standard in Sion c. As if that he had sayde I knowe what you will doe when the wrath of God shall fall vpon you when your ennimies shall oppresse you you will not consider the cause thereof but you wil run to your strong holdes you wil arme your selues and stand at your defence you wil set vp your standard in Sion and thinke that you shall be safe there But it will not be so sayth the Lord Quoniam ego malum accersam ab Aquilone Bicause I wil bring a plague from the North. And truely there is no cause why Hierome in this place should runne to his Allegorie whereas there is so playne and sound a sense in the letter But if his Allegorie should take place let all go togither and it maketh agaynst you For his words be these Ingrediamur ciuitates munitas Haereticorum bella consurgunt Christi monumenta nos teneant Leuate signum Crucis in sublimitate ecclesiae Let vs enter into the walled cities The battayles of the Heretiques doe arise Let the munitions of Christ holde vs Lift vp the signe of the Crosse in the height of the Church Let me nowe aske you this question whether we must runne agaynst heretiques with a Crosse in our hande as I remember a priest of your facultie beat all his parishe with the Crosse staffe If this artillerie beate not downe heresies thinke that S. Hierome meante another thing that it is to say The signe of the Crosse in the toppe of the Church The preaching of the vvord in the prelates of the Church Nowe as for the signe of the sonne of man Math. 24. vvhich shall before the iudgement appeare in heauen Forsoth there is no certayne proufe that it shall be a Crosse For Chrisostome in his second exposition vpon the .xxiiij. Chapiter of Mathewe Hom. 49. sayth Quidam putant Crucem Christi ostendendam esse in caelo Verius autem est ipsū Christū in corpore suo habentē testimonia passionis id est vulnera lanceae clauorum vt impleatur illud quod dictum est Et videbunt in quem pupugerunt Some sayth Chrisostome thinke that the Crosse of Christ shall be shewed in heauen But it is truer that Christ himselfe shall appeare hauing in his body the testimonies of his passion that is to say the wounds of the speare and nayles that it may be fulfilled which was sayd And they shall sée him whome they pearced Nor onely contente with his owne censure he bringeth after a proufe of Scripture that the wordes cannot be spoken of the Crosse but of the body of Christ himselfe bicause the rest of the Euangelistes writing of the same matter doe only say Videbunt filium hominis venientem They shall sée the sonne of man cōming Whervpon he concludeth that al the Euangelists do shewe Signum Christi esse ipsum corpus Christi qui in signo corporis sui cognoscendus est à quibus crucifixus est That the signe of Christ is the body of Christ himself who in the signe of his body shal be knowen of them of
whom he was crucified So that ye challenge more a great deale than we nede to graūt you But you shal sée howe curteously I wil deale with you Admit that the signe of the sonne of man is the Crosse in déede What haue ye gayned nowe Firste it shall be no materiall Crosse made with mannes hande nor yet a signe prynted in his foreheade Therefore ye must runne to a fyfte signification of Crosse in Scripture for this can not serue for the fourth The places that ye cite out of the ninth of Ezechiell and seauenth of the Reuelation where many be sealed into Gods seruauntes out of which order I feare me least a number of my Crossemasters may cry with the Fryer Nos sumus exempti we are exempt I maruel that you can without blushing vtter But if ye haue any shame in you I will make you to blushe Thinke you that the signe of GOD in the foreheades was the signe of a Crosse drawen with a finger Is the spirit of life and liuely fayth which only expresse the true printe of God inspired as sone as a Crosse is figured Is the signe of a Crosse sufficient to discerne the good from the bad the faythfull from the infidels Yet such must the signe of the Crosse be if it be thesame that eyther Ezechiel or Sainct Iohn speaketh of Consider this ye grosse Papiste that he that marked the foreheades in Ezechiell was neyther Caruer Crosser nor Coniurer He was clothed in linnen and had an ynkehorne by his side He bare the type of a Scribe and a Priest The marke that he gaue them was the letter Thau The letter Thau of which I speake more in the next Article signifying the law direction or rule To note that the minister of Gods word must printe the seale He muste ingraue in the very hearte the lawe of God and rule of fayth and then be they safe and sure from all euill The bloude of the Lambe in the olde lawe was not caste behinde the dore but sprinckeled vpon the dore postes The marke of God is not set in the backe but in the foreheade of all the faythfull That as thinges most manifest be sayde to be written in a mannes foreheade and the forehead is the place of shame so should the seruantes of the lyuing God lightened wyth his worde and holy spirite neuer dissemble it or be ashamed of it Agayne the persons sealed as well in Ezechiell as in the Reuelation doe shewe that they had a surer marke than a sory signe of the Crosse can be For in Ezechiell we reade Passe thorowe the Citie of Hierusalem and sette a marke vpon the foreheades of them that mourne and cry for all the abhominations that be done in the myddeste thereof And in the seauenth of the Reuelation Tyll we haue sealed the seruaunts of our God in their foreheads Therefore such as lamente and be sory for abhominable wickednesse such as be in dede the seruants of God they be sealed But all men indifferentely haue the signe of the Crosse many moe than be grieued with the sight of sinne or doe continue in the feare of God Therefore the seale that in these places is spoken of is not the signe of the Crosse Iulian was Crossed Pope Siluester was crossed and yet as it is proued afore neyther of them both did mourne for their sinnes or serued God Sée ye not then howe fondely ye pretende scripture for your crosse There be only fiue places brought and euery one of them doth make agaynst you Wherefore since these be the only ground of the two kindes of Crosses wherevpon in this treatise ye minde to discourse Folio 24. a. and these make nothing for you what shall we thinke not of your slender building but ilfauoured botching whose foundatiō already is shaken vnto naught Ye please your selfe well and thinke ye haue shewed a great piece of wit when ye cal your aduersaries me and such other enimies of the Crosse Folio 24. But I thinke there is no man so mad to beleue you vnlesse ye could tel what the Crosse meaneth Folio 24. Ye say that ye attribute nothing to the signe of the Crosse vvithout special relation to the merites of Christes passion Then why did ye bring in the example of Iulian and the Iewe Why afterward alleage ye Folio 92. a. that mā vsing only the signe of the Crosse putteth avvay all the craft and subtiltie of the Diuell Ye forget your selfe ye should haue one to wring you by the eare But I will beare with your weakenesse although to confirme your better aduisemente ye close vp your tale in the first Article with as vaine a supposal as in your dreaming deuising ye conceyued afore that as God giueth victory in battayle health in sickenesse c. but by the helpe of men as externall meanes So Christ vvorketh all the effectes that shal be but by the holy signe of his Crosse If I might craue so much of your mastership I would be a suiter once to haue you proue that which so often you confidentely affirme I acknowledge you not for any such Pythagoras that it shall suffise me for mine owne discharge to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M. Martiall hath sayd the worde But I rather thinke you to be some scholler of Anaxagoras which haue learned to make Quidlibet ex Quolibet An apple of an oyster Pardon me therefore if I trust you no further than I haue tryall of you To the seconde Article A Foole on a time came to a Philosopher and asked him What is honestie whereto he would make him no aunswere for sayd he thou demaundest me a questiō of that that thou hast nothing to doe withall And sith your wisedome in the seconde Article doth proue nothing else but that which ye professe ye will haue nothing to do withall it may séeme folly in me to make you any aunswere to it In the next side of the leafe before these wordes ye haue Folio 24. a. There be tvvo kindes of signes of the Crosse The one made of some earthly matter to be set vp in Churches and left in the sight of the people The other expressed or made vvith mannes hand in the ayre in form and likenesse of the other and imprinted in mennes foreheads breasts and other partes of the body and vsed as further occasion requireth Of vvhich tvvo signes in this treatise I minde to discourse Nowe if eyther of these signes was prefigured in the lawe of nature foreshewed by the signes of Moses lawe denounced by the Prophetes or shewed from heauen in the time of grace then thinke that you haue sayde something and I haue done you wrong in reprouing of you But the passion of Christ and maner of his death was onely prefigured What is this to the signe And if it were so which you shall neuer proue that the signe it selfe the God of the Roode lofte the Crosse of the altare were prefigured what is
multis pauca Scripturae patrūque testimonia in hac definitione nostra parcentes sanè copiae ne in longum res protraheretur collocauimus Reliquis enim quae infinita sunt volētes supersedimus vt qui velint ipsi requirant Ex his igitur a Deo in spiratis scripturis beatorum patrum sententijs stabiliti super petram cultus diuini in spiritu pedes confirmantes in nomine sanctae supersubstātialis viuificantis Trinitatis vnanimes eiusdem sententiae nos qui sacerdotij dignitate succincti sumus simul existentes vna voce definimus omnem imaginem ex quacunque materia improba Pictorū arte factam ab Ecclesia Christianorū reijciendam veluti alienā abominabilē Nemo hominū qualiscunque tandē fuerit tale institutum impiū impurum posthac sectetur Qui vero ab hoc die Imaginem ausus fuerit sibi parare aut adorare aut in Ecclesia aut in priuata domo constituere aut clam habere si Episcopus fuerit aut Diaconus deponitor si vero solitarius aut laicus anathemate percellitor imperialibúsque constitutionibus subijcitor vt qui diuinis decretis impugnet dogmata non obseruet The English of which words is this The wicked calling of Images by a false name neither had his beginning by tradition from Christ nor of his Apostles or yet the auncient fathers neither had it any holye prayer where through to be sanctified but it remayneth prophane euen as it is wrought and finished of the Paynter But if certaine deliuered of that errour affirme that we haue Godlily and vprightly said in throwing downe the Image of Christ bicause of the inseparable and inconfusible substaunce of two natures ioyned in one person Yet notwithstanding some occasion of doubt remayneth in them as touching the Images of the virgin most glorious and vndefiled the mother of God of the Prophetes Apostles and Martirs seing that they be only men and no more neyther doe consist of two natures that is to say the diuine and humaine ioyned in one person as before we haue signified to be in Christ and the contrary therof practised in his Images There groweth in déede some matter of doubt as touching the Images of the most glorious and vndefiled mother of God of the Prophets Apostles Martirs seing that they were only men and not framed of two natures what they be able to say to any purpose with reason vnto these The former argumēt ouerthrowen certaynly they haue nothing at all in this case to say But what say we to ouerthrowing Images For as much as oure catholike Church being a meane betwene the Iudaisme and Gentilitie hath receyued neyther of the maner of sacrifices accustomed to thē but hath entred into a newe way and order of Godlinesse and mysticall constitution giuen and deliuered of God for it doth in no wise admit the bloudy sacrifice and burnt offrings of the Iewes it doth vtterly abhorre not only al Idolatry in sacrificing but also multitude of ymages of Gentility for this was the head first most abhominable deuiser of this arte which hauing no hope of resurrection inuented a toy worthy it self wherby alwayes the absent might be shewed as present therefore synce this practise smelleth not of any noueltie doubtlesse let it be remoued most farre of from the Church of Christ as a strange and forren deuise of men possessed with the Diuell Let the tongs then of al such surcesse which spewe forth wicked blasphemous things to the derogation of this our iudgement decrée most acceptable to god As for the holy men who pleased God which were honored by him with the dignity of holynesse although that they be departed hence yet that deade and hatefull practise shal neuer make them agayne alyue But whosoeuer poysoned with the error of the heathen shall attempt to sette vp Images to them he shall be adiudged as one that hath committed blasphemie And how dare the rascall occupation of Gentiles presume to paynt that most prayseworthy mother of God whome the fulnesse of the Godheade hath ouershadowed through whome hath shone vpon vs that lighte which can not be come vnto that mother I say higher than the Heauens holier than the Cherubins Againe why feare they not I say according to the arte of Ethnicks to counterfet them which shall raygne with Christ shall syt on seates wyth him to iudge the world conformed vnto him in glory of whome the world was vnworthy as the Godly miracles affirme Verily it is not lawful for Christians which belieue the resurrectiō to vse the order of worshipping of diuels Neyther yet doth it beseme by vile and deade kinde of matter to reproch them the which shal shine in so great passing glory As for vs we vse not to receyue of strangers demonstrations of our fayth neyther yet in Diuels to require testimony Furthermore our sentence searched and discussed both out of the scripture enspired frō aboue out of the effectuall testimonies of piked fathers agreing with vs and affirming our good intent we wyl exhibite in thys case our resolute determination which he shall not be able to gaynesay which laboreth to call these things in question As for him that is ignorant let him learne and be instructed that these things are takē out of the word of God Fyrst we place before the rest this sentence of gods voice saying God is a spirite whosoeuer wil worship God in spirite and truth let him worship And agayne No man at any time saw God neyther haue ye heard his voyce or séene his shape Blessed are those which haue not sene and yet belieued And in the olde Testament he sayd to Moses and the people Thou shalt not make to thy self any grauen Image neyther the likenesse of any thing in Heauen aboue or in the earth beneath For the which cause you hearde the voyce of his wordes in the mountayne in the middest of fyre but his shape ye saw not but onely heard his voyce And They haue chaunged the glory of the immortall God by an Image framed after the shape of a mortall man and they haue honored and worshipped the things which are created aboue him which hath created And againe For yf we haue knowen Christ according to the fleshe now we knowe hym not For we walke by faith and not by the outward appearance And this also which is moste plainlie spoken of the Apostle Therefore fayth commeth of hearing but hearing commeth by the worde of God For if we haue knowen Christ according to the fleshe nowe we knowe him not For we walke by fayth and not by outwarde appearaunce The very selfe same things our Godly Fathers the schollers and successours of the Apostles doe teache vs. For Epiphanius of Cypres most famous amongst the foremost thus sayth Take héede vnto your selues that ye kéepe the traditions which ye haue receyued Sée ye leane not neyther to the ryght hand nor to the
he doth call it Stolidam arrogantem Synodum A doltish and a proude Synode And the decrée there made touching the adoratiō of Images which you M. Martiall do teach so stoutly Impudentissimam traditionem A most impudent and shamelesse tradition I refer you to the foure bokes of Carolus in which at large is set forth not only the vanity of those reuerend Asses which went about to establish Images but also the effect of the Councel of Frankford not vtterly abolishing which was their imperfection but playnly condemning the adoration and worship of them But in this case where Councell is agaynst Councell and necessary it is that one of them be deceyued which must we trust to I knowe that the latter age hath receyued the worse the seauenth of Nice But we must not follow the authoritie of men were they neuer so many but the directiō of God his spirit truth reuealed in his holy word What moued the faythfull to refuse the second of Ephesus willingly embrace the Councell of Chalcedon but that examining their decrées by Scripture they founde Eutiches heresie confirmed in the one which the other condemned So when the manifeste worde of God shall try where the spirite of God doth rest there must the credite there onely be giuen And to the ende that al readers hereof may vnderstand and sée what vanity there was in the Prelats of Nicene Coūcell what more than vanity is in the magnifiers of so mad a cōpany I wil set forth the allegations of the Image worshippers and the confutation which the seruantes of God made that euery man thereby may iudge so as the spirit of God shall leade him Car. Mag. Li. 1. Cap. 20. To. 2. Cō Concil Nice 2. and as himself shal sée good cause Fyrst of al their generall position was That the Images of Christ the virgin Mary other Saincts were sacred and holy therfore to be worshipped Hereto the Synode answered That the Antecedent the former proposition was false in as much as they are neyther holy in respecte of the matter wherof they be made nor of the colours that be layd vpon them nor yet for any imposition of hands nor by any canonical consecratiō Therfore they be not at al holy much lesse therfore to be worshipped Thē noble Iohn the legate of the Esterlings brought forth another reason God made man after his owne Image likenesse therfore Images are to be worshipped Hereto the catholikes iustly replied that he made a false argument Abignoratione Elenchi by applying that to Imageworshipping which made nothing at all to purpose For both out of Ambrose Augustine they proued that man is called the Image of God not for his externe shape which Images wel ynough may represent but for the inwarde man the minde the reason the vnderstanding vertues consonant to the wyll of God For Ambrose sayth Quod secundum Imaginem est In Psal 118. Ser. 10. non est in corpore nec in materia sed in anima rationabili That which is according to the Image of God is not in the body nor in the matter but in the reasonable soule Likewise Augustine Accedit vtcunque anima humana interior In Psal 99. homò recreatus ad Imaginem Dei qui creatus est ad Imaginem Dei The inwarde soule of man the newe borne man which is made after the Image of God commeth after a sorte néere vnto God his Image But that wheresoeuer a similitude and lykenesse is spoken of there is also an Image to be meant Octog triū quest ca. 74 Augustine disproueth Vbi similitudo non continuo Imago non continuo aequalitas c. Where a similitude or lyknesse is not by and by an Image not by and by equalitie So that the folly of him was great to abuse the scripture to so impertinent a purpose But the Nice masters procéede and say That as Abraham worshipped the sonnes of Heth Gen. 25. Exod. 18. Moses Iethro the priest of Madian so must Images be worshipped of men Hereto the Councell as Charles the president thereof affirmeth answered Dementissimū est Lib. 1. Cap. 9. ab omni ratione seclusum hoc ad astruendā Imaginā adoratione in exemplū trabere quod Abrahā populum terre Moses Iethro sacerdotē Madiā leguntur adorasse It is a thing of most madnesse and vtterly seuered from all reason to bring for example to confirmation of Imageworshipping that Abraham is red to haue worshipped the people of the earth and Moses Iethro the priest of Madian The Sainctes of God in token of their obedience and humilitie sometime haue bowed themselues haue shewed some piece of curtesie to such as pleased them and had authoritie in the earth But what is this for the honour done to a deade stocke Why is this example made to be general extending to all both quicke and deade both good and badde where as the Sainctes themselues sometyme abhorred this worshippe to be gyuen them sometime refused to giue it vnto other Imagines verò nusquam nec tenuiter quidem adorare conati sunt But as for Images they neuer attēpted in any place or in any so slender wise to worshippe them De Doctri Christ Li. 1. Cap. 1. Let them learne of Augustine that Abraham and Moses doing as they did were examples of humilitie not paternes of impietie Let them learne that there is no lesse diuersity betwene the worshipping of an Image and worshipping of a man than is betwene a lyuing man and a man paynted vpon the wall Let them learne howe loue reuerence and charitie towardes men is in the Scripture commaunded ofte The bowing the knéeling the seruice to an Image is in euery place forbydden and accursed The Papistes figure to make the Scripture serue their purpose But a familiar figure the Papists haue to make the Scripture to serue their faustes Acyrologiam which you may call Abusion Impropre speaches As where so euer in the Hebrewe texte they reade any worde that betokeneth Bowing Saluting Blessing they doe full wisely tourne it vvorshipping And is this honeste and vpright dealing Yet howe they dally on this sorte both with the worlde and with the worde of God the nexte allegation of theirs declareth Iacob suscipiens à filijs suis vestem talarem Ioseph Carol. Mag. de Ima li. 1. ca. 12. osculatus est eam cum lachrimis imposuit oculis suis Ergo. c. Which wordes in english according to their translation be these Iacob receyuing of his sonnes Ioseph his long garmente he kyssed it and wyth teares layde it vpon his eyes And therefore Images are to be worshipped And is not this a reason that might haue bene fette out of a Christmas pye Wil any man hereafter finde fault wyth Papists deprauing of the Scripture since they take thē leaue to make what Scripture they lyst Where finde they this texte in all the Bible that Iacob kyssed his sonnes
Roode nor Crucifix nor yet of mysticall signe on the forehead which are the onely matters that you take in hande to proue Loth woulde we be to cite hym for our part inasmuch as we depeÌ„de not vpoÌ„ mens iudgementes vnlesse he spake consonant vnto the Scriptures and brought better reason for other matters wyth hym than you or any other alleage for the Crosse For the trueth of an history we admyt him as a witnesse for vs for establishing of an error we wyl not admyt hym or any other to be a iudge agaynst vs. It suffiseth you to vse the name of Iustinian how small soeuer the matter be to purpose But I wyll bryng you for one two that not in doutful speach but in playne termes and vnder greuous paine haue decréed in all their seigniories and couÌ„treis a direct coÌ„trary order vnto yours Not that there was no Crosse theÌ„ vsed which might wel answere Iustinians case but that there should not be vsed any Petrê° Crinitê° ex libris Augustalibê° De honesta disc lib. 9. cap. 9. Doth make meÌ„tion of the law the same which Valens and Theodosius concluded on His wordes be these Valens Theodosius Imperatores praefecto Praetorio ad hunc modum scripsere Cum sit nobis cura diligens in rebus omnibus superni numinis religionem tueri signam saluatoris Christi nemini quidem concedimus coloribus lapide aliáue materia fingere insculpere aut pingere sed quocuÌ„que loco reperitur tolli tubemus grauissima poena eos mulctaÌ„do qui coÌ„trarium decretis nostris imperio quicquam tentauerint Valens and Theodosius Emperors wrote on thys sorte to their lieftenant Wheras in al things we haue a diligeÌ„t care to maintaine the religioÌ„ of God aboue we grauÌ„t libertie to none to couÌ„terfet engraue or paint the signe of our Sauiour Christ in colors stone or any other matter but wheresoeuer any such be founde we coÌ„mauÌ„de it to be taken away most greuously punishing such as shal atteÌ„pt any thyng coÌ„trary to these our decrées coÌ„mauÌ„demeÌ„t Here is another maner of order taken than out of any wryting of receaued author caÌ„ iustly be alleaged for your part In Cathech suo So that with Erasmus I may iustly say that not so much as mans constitution doth bynde the Images should be in Churches Ye sée M. Martiall I haue not coÌ„celed any one of your authorities I haue omitted no piece of proufe of yours yet authoritie being rightly scaÌ„ned doth make so much against you that your proufes be to no purpose at al. Folio 46. a As for the vse of that which you cal the Church is in dede the Sinagoge of Satan I néede as little to cumber the readers with refuting of as you do meddle with approuing of it Only this wil I say that euer synce Siluesters tyme such filth of Idolatry and superstitioÌ„ hath flowed into the most partes of al Christendom out of the sinke of Rome that he neded in dede as many eyes as Argus that should haue espyed any piece of sinceritie vntyl the tyme that such as your worship wisdom according to your catholike custom when the scalding spirite of scolding comes vpon you cal heretikes nuscreaÌ„tes began to reforme the decaied state Folio 46. b and bryng things to the order of the Church primitiue Apostolike Decr. 1. parte dist 3. parag veritate Wherfore if ye sticke vpon a custom consider your decree Nemo consuetudinem rationi veritati praeponat quia coÌ„suetudineÌ„ ratio veritas semper excludit Let no man prefer custome before reason truth bicause reasoÌ„ truth alwaies excludeth custome Parag. qui contempta And in the same distinctioÌ„ out of Augustine is alleaged thys Qui coÌ„teÌ„pta veritate praesumit coÌ„suetudineÌ„ sequi aut circa fratres inuidus est malignê° quibus veritas reuelatur aut circa deum ingratê° est inspiratione cuius ecclesia eius instruitur NaÌ„ dominus in Euangelio Ego sum inquit veritas noÌ„ dixit Ego sum coÌ„suetudo Itaque veritate manifestata cedat consuetudo veritati quia petrus qui circuÌ„cidebat cessit Paulo veritatem praedicanti igitur cuÌ„ Christus veritas sit magis veritatem quam consuetudineÌ„ sequi dedemus quia consuetudinem ratio veritas semper excludit He that presumâ—â— sayth Augustine to folowe custome the truth contemned either is enuious hatefull agaynst hys brethren De baptis paruulorum to whom the truth is reueled or vnthankfull vnto God by whose inspiration hys Church is instructed For our Lord in the gospell sayd I am the truth He fayd not I am custome Therfore wheÌ„ the truth is opened let custome geue place to truth for euen Peter that circumcised gaue place to Paul when he preached a truth Wherfore since Christ is the truth we ought rather to folow truth than custome bicause reasoÌ„ and truth alwayes excludeth custome Then be not offeÌ„ded good sir I pray you if folowing better reason than you haue grace to coÌ„sider more truth thaÌ„ is yet reueled to you we refuse your catholike scisme impietie Be not spitefull to theÌ„ that know more than your self Be not ingrate to God that in these latter dayes to knowleage of hys word hath sent more aboundaÌ„ce of hys holy spirite dwel not vpon your custome Bring truth I wil thanke you Speake reason I wyl credite you NoÌ„ annoruÌ„ canities est laudanda sed moruÌ„ Ambros. in epi. ad Theo. valent Folio 64. b In orat funebri de chitu Theodo Lib. 5. ca. 20 nullus pudor est ad milior a transire Not the aucieÌ„ty of yeres but of maners is coÌ„meÌ„dable no shame it is to passe to better The tale of the superstitious whom you call vertuous lady Helena I shal speake more of in the eyght Article Certain it is the superstitious she was as is proued afterward in the eight Article who would gad on pilgrimage to visit sepulchres c. Likewise CoÌ„stantinus her sonne was not throughly reformed For as Theodorete Theodoretê° Lib. 5 ca. 20. reporteth after he came to Christianity fana non subuertit he ouerthrew not the places of Idol worshippinges Wherfore it is no meruaile if they building Churches should haue some piece of GeÌ„tilitie obserued a Crosse or a Roode loft Yet where mention is made that Helena dyd fynde the Crosse we fynde not at all that she worshipped the Crosse Ambros. de obitu Theodosij but rather the contrary For Ambrose sayth Inuenit titulum regem adorauit noÌ„ lignum vtique quia hic GeÌ„tilis est error vanitas impiorum She founde the title she worshipped the king not the wood pardie for thys is an error of GeÌ„tilite and vanitie of the wycked And where we reade Euse de vita Const lib. 4. that Constantinus the great for hys miraculous apparition and good successe did greatly estéeme the Crosse graued it in hys
For the Marble stones be annoynted wyth it and a verse of the Psalme Psalm 45. song The Lord hath annoynted thée with the oyle of gladnesse aboue thy fellowes O stony hearts To apply the words which the spirite of God properly spake of Salomon vnder Salomons person of Christ to a greasy stone that euery man doth treade on euery dog berayes Then doth the quire sing Erexit Iacob lapidem Genes 28. Psalm 67. Iacob reared vp a stone whereof they knowe not the signification Also they bleate out wyth wyde throtes Ibi est Beniamin adolesceÌ„tulus in mentis excessu There is little Beniamin out of hys wyttes as they translate it And thinke ye that they were well in their wittes which for Dominator eorum would put in Mentu excessu Wheras they should haue sayd There is little Beniamin their gouernoure To saye There is yong Beniamin rauished of his wittes But this is scripture of Church hallowing This is the purpose These be the textes The prayers are the same that Salomon vsed when he was commaunded to make the temple saue that they wyll haue a crop of Colocyntida to marre a whole pot full of pottage For they adde vnto these Inuocation of Saintes derogation to God abuse of hys creatures When thys is done the rotten bones and reliques are halowed with like ceremonies and soleÌ„nities as they had before And then they put on their masking coates come lyke blinde fooles with candels in their handes at none dayes and so procede to the holy masse with renting of throtes and tearing of notes chaÌ„ting of priests howliÌ„g of clarkes flinging of coales and piping of organes Thus they continue a long while in mirth and iolyty many mad partes be played But wheÌ„ the vice is come from the altare and the people shall haue no more sport they conclude theyr seruice with a true sentence Terribilis est locus iste This place is terrible And haue they not faire fysht think you to make such a doe to bryng in the diuel O blynde beastes O senselesse hipocrites whom God hath geuen ouer vnto themselues that they shall not sée their own folly yet bewray their shame to all the world beside And is not thys youre Church halowing that ye talke of Thys is it that youre Church hath ordayned Now that ye may proue in particularitie that which generally ye did auouch before The signe of the Crosse to be vsed in all Sacramentes ye come to an enumeration of them all And I dare say ye be glad to catch such occasion to treate of the vii Sacramentes yet dout I not but before I haue done with you I shall make ye contented to cut of .v. of them First as touching the vse of baptisme ye begyn with Dionisius Dionisius Areopagita Folio 52. b Euseb Eccl. Hist li. 3. ca. 4. lib. 4. cap. 21. to whom ye geue the surname of Areopagita and honorable title of Saint Paules scholer Eusebius in dede maketh mention of such a one and sayth that he was the first byshop of Athens and thys he speaketh of the report of an other Dionisius of Alexandria But as for any writing of hys he hath no worde at all And doutlesse if it had bene true which you affirme he would not haue suppressed it S. Hierome maketh mention of two In catal Scripit Eccles of that name One that was at Corynth in the raygne of Marcê° Antoninus verus and Lucius Commodus An other that was scholer somtyme to Origene and byshop afterwarde of Alexandria in the raygne of Galienus But not a worde yet among all their writings which he moste diligeÌ„tly doth rehearse eyther of the heauenly or ecclesiasticall hierarchie out of which ye cite all your authorities Wherfore it is a bastarde booke vniustly fathered vpon S. Paul his Dionise wheras the style it selfe and matter there intreated of do argue that it is of no such antiquitie For to go no further thaÌ„ to those wordes that you do alleage of hys Folio 52. hovv the bishop assigneth some man to be godfather to hym that is to be baptised here is a playne lye For the vse of godfathers was not inuented forty yeare after It is euident by consent of all men yea the decrée it selfe beareth witnesse with me De Cons Dist 4. Cap. In catechismo Platina in vita Higini that Hyginus was first founder of Godfathers and among all the receaued writers of that age ye shall not lightly reade of any gossipping But suppose it be true that our recordes haue that Hyginus hatched thys egge he lyued at the least an hundreth and forty yeare after Christ And how can S. Paul hys scholer whose lyfe your selfe can stretch no longer than to the .96 yeare after Christ speake of that which he neuer thought on In the names of the authors alleaged by Martiall whiche was so long deuised after But to the matter I know ryghte well that within CC. yeare after Christ there were crept into the Church many idle Ceremonies and the simplicity of Christ hys ordinaÌ„ce refused Eche maÌ„ as he had either credite or authority presumed of hymselfe to adde somewhat to Christes institution and the fleshe deliting in hir own deuises deliuered the same with as straight a charge as if that Christ hymselfe had taken order for it notwithstaÌ„ding if ought beside the authoritie of Scripture were so auncient in dede as I last spake of admitted at any time into God his seruice yet were we no more bouÌ„d to obserue the same thaÌ„ the fathers themselues haue yelded to it For if they haue repelled the traditions TraditioÌ„s no grouÌ„d of doctrine TraditioÌ„s vary of their elders and after established some other of their own their example proueth no vse Apostolique or necessitie to haue bene in the one their president authoryseth that we may as lawfully dysanull the other Enforce not therefore a doctrine of a custome traditions alwayes haue varyed and many such as Cyprian Tertullian Augustine with other haue thought to be necessary for saluation the Church of Rome it selfe hath not thought expedient to be vsed for instruction Christ gaue commaundemente Baptisme to be ministred Math. 28. in the name of the father and of the sonne and of the holy ghoste Actes 10. The Apostles continued in the same order Ceremonies or circumstances we reade of no more in Scripture saue only the water without all coniuratioÌ„ consecration Luc. 3. or insufflation the persons Baptised the preaching of God hys promises and fayth in Christ and prayer of the faythfull Nowe come ye bowne to Tertullians tyme and ye shall fynde many straunge inuentions Thrée dyppynges in the water Tasting of mylke and hony Lib. de Cormil Abstaynyng from all other washing for a seuen nyght after In Hieromes tyme Lib. 15. Com. in Esaiam Epist 72. Epi. ad Bonifacium De pec mer. remis cap. 20. there was no hony vsed but in
as supply theyr roumes For if it be presumed to be otherwyse let it be voide and of no effect But how came that bishops by thys prerogatiue How chaunce that euery priest may minister baptisme the supper of the Lord but only byshops may confirme Only the Apostles dyd in their tyme minister these Sacramentes and therfore by that reason onely byshops should haue that office nowe But are onely byshops the Apostles successors when ye inhibite any of the lay fée to take the host in hys hande thys cause ye alleage that it was deliuered only to the Apostles Papistes contrarye to themselues In thys case ye admytte euery poore priest a successor vnto them But why not in the other Bicause if any be lesse successors to the Apostles thā other they be your bishops But to make a deuise of your own brayne although in matters of religion it be not sufferable yet to make a lye of the holy ghost to falsify the Scripture is more intolerable And is it not a straunge case that the holy father writing the law Gratian collecting it so many seraphicall doctors commenting of it Papistes beelye the Scripture so long vse in all realmes confirming it it should there be written and suffered to remayne that in the Apostles tyme it was neuer red or knowen that imposition of handes was done by any but by the Apostles themselues Why what dyd Ananias He layed hys handes vpon Saul Acte 9. wherby he receyued hys syght was indued with the holy ghost What bishop was he No bishop forsoth In glosa preced Dist Monkes Apostles vicegerentes But a Monke by all lykelyhode For by the cannon law they be alwayes the Apostles vicegerentes Sée you not by thys tyme youre own shame Shal this notwithstanding your cōfirmation be styll a Sacrament hauing nothing else but mans deuises and a sort of impudent lies to support it If it had bene a truth that only the Apostles had layd on hands if it were a good order that only bishops should do the lyke how falleth it out that the popes themselues haue dispensed with the matter Gregory wryteth thus Vbi episcopi desunt Decr parte 1. Dist 95. ca peruenit vt presbyteri etiam in frōtibus baptizatos chrismate tangere debeant concedimus Where bishops want we graunte that priestes also may annoynt in the foreheades suche as be baptised How is thys presumption auoyded howe doth the Sacrament now stande in force But who wyll seke for any reason constancy or truth in popery The example of Christe is pretended Yet Christ neuer bad it Nor the facte of Christ can be drawen to imitation nor their selues wyll sticke vnto it Christ neuer vsed oyle They make it necessary Christe promised indifferently to all the faithfull hys holy spirite They do restrayne it to their owne ceremonies Christ for our behoofe instituted baptisme that we myght dye to synne and lyue to ryghteousnesse They by confirmation haue cutte awaye halfe the effecte thereof The Apostles withdrawe vs from the elementes of thys world they wyll haue vs seke our saluatiō in an oyle box The Apostles vsed imposition of handes which had effect when miracles were in place they wyll haue the same order although they can not haue the same ende The Apostles layed handes but onely vpon some which had the gyft of the holy ghost withall they without respect or differences of persons confirme euery body Therfore it is but a mere tradition and the same neither Christian nor Apostolique In the order of it they be contrary to themselues They wyll haue it necessary to saluation and yet they let many dye without it They say that only bishops are the Apostles successors and yet in other cases they graunt that euery priest is a successor too They affirme that the Apostles gaue them only their president and yet Ananias that was no Apostle is proued to haue done the same They teach that a byshop must only minister it and yet they dispence for a priest to do it And may not we biblers be bold to cal you bablers If only these heresies lyes absurdities were in your proufes of Confirmation they only were sufficient to confirme you fooles But sée a fouler matter of all Christian eares to be abhorred Whyle ye go about to auaunce your inuention ye deface the ordinance of almighty God and ouerthrow the grounde work of our saluation Confirmation a Sacramēt yea a Sacrament worthier thā baptisme For the master of the sentence sayeth Lib. 4. Dist 7. Cap. 2. Sacramentum confirmationis dicitur esse maius baptismo The Sacrament of Confirmation is sayd to be greater thā the Sacrament of Baptisme And afterwarde the cause is added Quia à dignioribus datur in digniore parte corporis bicause it is giuen of worthier persons and in the worthier part of the body For only bishops as is sayd confirme but euery priest may minister baptisme And in baptisme oyle is layd vpon the head but in Confirmation vpon the forehead Where fyrst is to be noted Papistes attribute more to oyle in baptisme than to vvater that ye sticke in one myre styll ascribing more to the oyle your inuention than to the water which is Gods element It suffiseth vs to haue as Christ and his Apostles had fayre water in our baptisme your oyle is better for a sallet than a sacrament Then also by the way ye fall into another heresie For when ye decrée the byshopping of children to be greater sacramente than baptisme is bycause euery priest may christen but only byshops may confirme shewe ye not therein your selues to be very Donatistes Papistes are Donatistes esteming the dignitie of the sacraments of the worthinesse of the minister Yet not only the master of the sentence but also the decrée confirmeth that doctrine Melchiades an author of yours and a Pope sayth Sacramentum manus impositionis De con dist 5. cap. de his vero sicut nisi à maioribus perfici non potest ita maiori veneratione venerandum est et tenēdum The sacrament of laying on of hands as it cā not be made but only of the greater so is it to be worshipped with greater reuerence and so to be defended But O God Diffinition of Popish by-shopping what a strange religion is this A droppe of grease infected and filed with the stinking breath of a sorcerous priest inchaunted and coniured with a few fumbled words to be compared to Christes holy sacrament preferred to the water sanctified by the word of God But this is your maner to depraue the scriptures in euery point corrupt the sacramentes with your owne leauen and let nothing that good is stand in due force for your spirituall pollicies and fresh inuentions Gyue ouer therefore at length the breast of fornication leaue sucking of the dregs of superstition and poperie whereto I persuade my self that rather fond nurses haue inured you than
herein applied vniustly vnto the priest the word Aspergam super vos aquam mundam Ezech. 36. I wil sprinckle cleane water on you which God peculiarly promiseth of himselfe Then also to inforce a necessity of oyle that baptisme can not cōsist without it whereas Christ did not appoint it nor Apostle vse it passed his cōmission Vt ne quid grauius But to attribute more vnto the oyle mans own inuention than to baptisme it self the ordinance of Christ I must nedes say was proud blasphemous Yet Cyprian so did for he sayde that vnlesse they were on his wyse annoynted they could not be true Christians To haue the annoynted of the father Iesus Christ within them was not ynough vnlesse a little oyle had also besmeared them A pitifull case that so good a father so faythful a martyr should haue so fowle a blotte to blemish his authoritie But as I sayd we must not gather out of the fathers writings what soeuer was witnesse of their imperfection Yet do I maruel most what mad conceyte ye had to bring this place for the vse of the Crosse in byshopping of children Onely S. Cyprian in all that Epistle and diuers other goeth aboute to proue that heretiques should be baptised And this is farre from Confirmation full little doth it confirme your crosse Agaynst the assertion of seuenfold grace Folio 57. a. Chapt. 11. Nowe to speake a worde of your Seuenfolde grace which you say is conferred at byshopping I besech you shew me the ground of your deuise I know that you delite in the odde number as al inchaunters haue done of olde And therfore vij sacraments vij kindes of graces of the holy ghost But wherefore .vij Bicause Esay numbreth but .vij And this is the reason of all the Papists that euer wrote But I might byd them tell them Esay 11. as Tom foole did his géese Esay numbreth but syx and the seauenth is their owne Therfore stil I proue that Papistes are falsefiers of the worde of God Papistes falsefiers of Scripture And yet if the Prophet had rehearsed seauē as it is of euery man to be sene he did not to gather out of that a seauēfold kinde of grace were to absurd in asmuch as other places attribute of diuerse effectes diuerse other titles to the holie ghost nor the faithful are only partakers of those that Esay doth speake of which are Wisdome Vnderstanding Counsel Strēgth Knowlege Feare of God but also of other as Chastity Sobriety Truth Holinesse which in like maner do flowe from the same spring Then also to thrust the power of Gods spirit into such a corner that it shall haue but seauen holes to start to is to straight a compasse can not contayne him But this I may excuse you as the Painter did himselfe who being reproued that he had left out a cōmaundement whereas he was bydden to write them all in a table answered There is more than ye will kepe So you in rehearsall of your seauenfolde grace speake of syxe more than you are partaker of Wherfore to make my Apostrophe to the readers as you do seing Dionisius is iustly disproued Folio 57. b. to be of no such authority and antiquity as the Papists pretend seing S. Augustine is depraued of them S. Cyprian alleaged where he defendeth an heresy The example of Christ and his Apostles most falsly drawen to proufe of Confirmation I trust you wil more esteme and better regarde the authoritie of auncient Fathers in dede whose playne assertions I haue brought to the contrary you wil more reuerence the word of God the bread of life by them abused to most impietie than the stinking leuen of these lying hipocrites who speake of scripture but esteme it not who lay the fathers for them but vnderstande them not who pretend antiquity but are caried about with euery winde and puffe of new doctrine being as S. Ciprian saith Epistola ad Nouatianos beginners of schismes authors of dissention destroyers of faith betrayers of the church Antichristes in dede who going about to deface the catholike religiō cōmanded by Christ taught by the Apostles continued in the church by the holy ghost haue defaced as it were the truth of Christs ordināce to place their own dreames deuises as it apeareth by the nūber of their sacraments by declining in al points from the order of Christ his Apostles by oyle creame salt spittle candels such like added vnto baptisme by preferring byshopping of children afore it by making oyle of their own addition of more effect vertue than the element of water sanctified by the word of God Finally ascribing perfection of Christianitie which consisteth in the spirit to the outward work of coniuring and Crossing Now M. Martial to come to your holy orders which among your sacraments ye put in the third place I maruell that ye are so barren in the ground which of it self is so fruitfull that wheras ye nūber but .vij. sacraments this one hath begotten by spiritual generation six moe For the master of the sentence whome ye and al your faction do follow maketh .vij. degrées of orders Lib. 4. Dist. 24. Cap. 1. Et hij ordines sacramenta dicuntur these orders saith he be called sacraments He saith not that they do al concur to make a sacrament So by this meanes we haue now .xiij. sacraments A plentiful increase And to set forth the more the dignity of their calling in euery one of these holy orders they haue Christ himself a cōpanion with them But whereas sacraments must haue a promise annexed to thē a promise immediatly from God if any of these orders or they altogether should make a Sacrament some piece of Scripture shuld be brought for proufe of it Neyther Angels nor men can make a sacrament Therfore they lie when they do cal their orders sacraments in as much as they which are called among thē ordines minores the inferior orders by their own cōfession were neuer knowē in the primitiue church but long deuised after In confess Polonica Cap. 51. Hosius himself out of whome you toke your authorities as well of Augustine as of Leo to proue your orders a Sacramente confesseth in the same place that of olde time Ordines ij minores inter sacros non numerabantur These inferior orders were not rekened among the holy ones But now they be holy all and Sacramentes al. If I should rehearse the ydle ceremonies that are obserued in euery one of them The Iewish disagrements of the doctors themselues when eche man hath a sere assertion of his owne defended with toth and nayle The clouted religion of olde patches of Iudaisme Paganisme and Christianitie together wherby they commend this their sacrament to the worlde I should cumber the readers to long with vnfruitfull matters and busy my selfe more a great deale than néeded to confute that which you M. Martiall such is your modesty are ashamed
order Sainct Iames will haue all to be anoynted if they be sycke you onely anoynt in case of mortalitie and daunger of death when one foote is in the graue already If oyle be your sacrament the promise of grace be annexed to it The absurdities to heale both bodyly ghostly as you say then what harde heartes haue you that suffer so many to languish in extremitie that come not by your wils before the last gaspe S. Iames will haue the sick to be anoynted of many you wil admit but one alone with his head in his sleue muffled as an Ape with a bell before him as a batfowler for an owle S. Iames will haue the elders to be called to this office which were not onely of the ministerie but also of the lay sée You will haue a rable of shorne priestes and none but them S. Iames is content with simple oyle you will haue none but such as a byshoppe hallowed with many a stinking breath warmed with many a sorcerous word inchaunted with many a beck many a knée to the ground Idoled S. Iames wil haue vnction the signe of Gods spirit and prayer of the faythfull to concur together noting that it is not the oyle that healeth but good mennes prayers are alwayes auayleable you most blasphemously doe ascribe remission of sinnes vnto your oyle boxe Now brag of your vnction goe sell your kitchin stuffe Trye it and ye lose it It is to stale to make a sacramente It stinketh I tell you For where as in a sacrament two things be required first that it be a ceremonie instituted of God then that it haue a promise of grace in it In the first we respect that the ceremonie be deliuered vnto vs in the seconde that the promise also concerne vs. And for asmuch as neither the ceremonie was coÌ„maunded vs nor the promise appertayneth to vs both being temporall long agoe surceassed I may wel coÌ„clude that Extreme vnction is no sacrament What soeuer in the Councell of Florence or in the late Synode of Trent hath bene decréed to the contrary shall not preiudice my truth For I hauing reason and Scripture for me with the learned and sounde determinations of moe fathers of the Church than these will not be prescribed by conuenticles and conspiracies You pretende authoritie we bring the scripture You call vs heretiques we proue you no lesse And which shal take place Gods worde or mens willes A talke or a proufe If all the fat bulles of Basan did drawe together and the diuel their carter dyd dryue them to Trent there to fede and stande fast for their prouender shall the Lordes shepe therfore be starued shal hys worke be neglected If ten thousande of your affinitie bewitched with the sorcery of Romish Circe should holde a councell and cal al men to the trough of your own draffe should not I acknowledge and coÌ„fesse with Grillus in whoÌ„ bearing the figure of a reasonable creature inchauntmeÌ„t could take no place that reason and religion should be preferred to the belly What reason is in thys their sentence to holde who be the parties accused and yet iudges of the cause What religion is in thys that for filthy lucre mannes idle ordinaÌ„ce shall displace the coÌ„maundement of almighty God Wheresoeuer I sée thys shame and disorder as in al your popish councels it is I appeale from them 1. Cor. 4. I say with Paul Mihi pro minimo est vt à vobis iudicer I passe very little to be iudged of you As for the place of Hilariê° against Auxentius the Arrian how fitly it may be applyed vnto you and not to vs whom you would seme to touch al they that haue eyes do sée For you can say nothing Fol. 71. 72 but these nevve ministers are heretiques they are Caluinistes and therfore diuels Proufe bryng ye none but the same is reproued I trust therfore ye haue credite according But to you I say Ye be fallen with Auxentius ye do participate with Arrius heresy Who is the diuels Angel thaÌ„ Who is to be auoided Nor I am contented onely to say it as you do though in thys respect my worde were aswell to be accepted as yours but I proue it too For when ye make an Image of God the worde Creaturam facitis eum qui omnia creauit as Epiphanius sayeth Ye make a creature of hym Lib. 2. tom 2 Her 96. the created all thinges Wherfore if ye would assente to the decrées of the first Nicene councell and go no further these wordes neded not betwixte you and me Fol. 72. b But when ye take away the name of Nicene and put Florence or Trente in place therof ye are as true a maÌ„ as he that stale a goose and sticked down a feather For al couÌ„cels are not a lyke Nor al they that bragge of the holy ghost are by and by inspired with hys grace For Hilarius your own author whoÌ„ to no purpose ye brought forth last hath to good purpose thys Multi sunt qui simulantes fidem Hilarius Li. 8. de Trinit non subditi sunt fidei sibique fideÌ„ ipsi potius constituunt quam accipiunt sensu humanae inanitatis inflati dum quae volunt sapiunt nolunt sapere quae vera sunt cum sapientiae haec veritas sit ea interdum sapere quae nolis Sequitur vero hanc voluntatis sapientiaÌ„ sermo stulticiae Quia necesse est quod stulte sapitur stulte praedicetur Many there are sayth he which fayning a fayth are not subiecte to fayth and rather do appoynt themselues a fayth than receiue it puffed vp with the sence of mans vanitie whyle they vnderstande those thinges that they lust but wyll not vnderstande those thinges that be true whereas the truth of wisdome is sometyme to vnderstande those thynges that thou wouldest not But the talke of folly commeth after thys wyll wysedome for necessary it is that foolishly it be vttered that foolishly is vnderstode To the fifth Article ALthough ye bende your selfe in all thys Article and stretch euery vaine of your feble skyl to proue a matter which although it be in part vntrue yet beyng grauÌ„ted dyd not hurt my cause that the Apostles and fathers of the primitiue Churche blessed theÌ„selues vvith the signe of the Crosse Fol. 73. a. and counselled all ChristeÌ„ meÌ„ to do the same and that in those dayes the Crosse vvas set vp in euery place conuenient for it yet bicause ye styll appeare in your lykenesse and it is so requisite ye be knowen to the world a clouter of a patch of troth vpoÌ„ a whole cloke of lyes I wyll not disdayne to make an easy proufe of your thrée taglesse poyntes for any greater stresse they wil not abyde And first of all the terme of blessing is ill applyed to signing in the forehead For what it is to blesse To blesse I declared in the Article before to speake wel
fathers bring an inuention of their owne do I otherwise deny them the right sense of scripture The fathers may haue sometime their fansies and yet besyde the word Then if their fansies be misliked is their exposition of the word condemned whereas they meddle not with the worde Apelles shoomaker was worthily checkt when he would be busy aboue the knée but that did not set but he might haue iudgement good ynough of the shooe Yet in a shooe made on anothers last the best shoomaker for al his skil may chaunce be deceyued In déede good cause we haue only to depend vpon the word of God and not be ruled ouer by time or custome bycause in matters of our religion as Christ hath taken perfecte order therein so hath he commaunded vs to go no further but him obey August de Consen Euā Li. 1. Cap. 18. Socrates was wont to say Vnumquemque Deum sic coli oportere quomodo seipsum colendum esse praecepisset That euery God was so to be serued as he himselfe had commaunded to be serued And this was the cause why the Romaines would neuer receyue the God of the Hebrewes For grounding vpon this foresayd principle they saw it necessary that eyther al their ydols shuld be excluded and onely the true God entertayned or he only not admitted the rest be honored For by the worde of God they found that they could not agrée together and cōtrary to his word they would not séeke to serue him If they had this affect as Augustine declareth gathered by morall reason and by no further insight of faith Shal we that professe more knowledge and perfection be folisher than they hearing continually Christ and his Apostles inueighing agaynst wilworshippers Therefore I say we aske for the worde you answere vs by wyl we cal for Scripture you reache vs custome Epig. lib. 6. Martiall a mery man a poet of your name a man of more learning and wit than you had some tyme to do with such a lawyer as you For a neighboure of hys had stolen .iij. goates The matter was called into the courte the party should come to proue the inditement He gat hym a counsailler to declare the case When the iudge was ready to heare it his counsailer fel a discoursing of the fight at Cannas the battayl wyth Mithridates the wrōges and iniuries sustayned by the Africanes Thus whē he had filled their eares a great whyle with dyn thūping on the barre and squekyng in hys smal pipes Martiall tenderyng hys own cause more than the babbling of his vaine aduocate at length pulled hym by the sléeue and sayd And please your worship I gaue ye my fée to talke of .iij. goates And thus had I néede to put you in remembrance For where ye appointed to speake of Gods seruice ye tell vs a tale of thys man and that man what he dyd and they dyd And yet not a worde what God hath commaunded Fol. 82. Ye call vs curious when we require Scripture We can get at your handes nothing else but custome And speakyng of custome accordyng to your custome ye make a lye and falsefie Tertulliā Martiall corrupteth Tertullian For these are your words We say vvith Tertullian that custome increser confirmer and obseruer of fayth taught thys vse of the Crosse c. As if the increase confirmatiō and obseruing of Fayth proceded of custom Hys wordes are otherwise For speakyng of hys traditions he sayth S. legem expostules scripturarū nullā reperies traditiō tibi praetendetur auctrix consuetudo confirmatrix fides obseruatrix If thou demaunde a law of Scripture for these thou shalt fynd none Traditione shal be pretēded to thée as increaser custom confirmer and faith obseruer of them Where you may sée that custome is not made increaser and confirmer of fayth but fayth obseruer of custome Notwithstanding I must still beare with you For ye be driuen to narrowe shyftes fayne would ye say something But it is a foule shyft to make a lye Thys custome ye proue came of tradition For as Tertulliā Tertulian de corona millitis sayth how can a thing be vsed if it were not first deliuered To graunt it a tradition I wil not sticke with you But Tertulliā wyll haue the same to be builded vpon reason or els he refuseth it He maketh the Antithesis not betwene written and vnwritten but betwene written and reasonable And so he thynketh a Tradition not writtē to be admitted so it be reasonable Therfore he sayth Rationem traditioni consuetudini fidei patrocinaturā perspicies Martial is still by his ovvne authors ouerthrovven Ye shall sée that reason wyll defende tradition custome and fayth And afterwarde Non differt scriptura an ratione consistat quando legem ratio commendet It is no matter whether custome consist of writing or of reason inasmuch as reason also commendeth law So that reasonable must be the tradition And how shall thys reasonable be defined Tertulliā hymselfe doth tel you limiting how a mā maye make a custome if he conceue decrée duntaxat quod Deo cōgruat quod disciplinae conducat quod saluti proficiat Only that is agreable to God furthering vnto discipline and profitable to saluation If the tradition of the Crosse signe may be proued to be such I wyll yelde vnto you with all my hart Consider the reasōs and the examples that the Doctor vseth First of the Lordes authorite who sayd Cur non a vobis ipsis quod iustū est iudicatis Vt nō de iuditio tantum sed de omni sētentia rerum examinandarum Why do you not of your selues iudge that that is rightuous that it be not onely vnderstode of iudgement but of euery sentence of things to be examined And it followeth Dicit Apostolus Si quid ignoratis Deus vobis reuelabit Solitus ipse cōsilium subministrare cum praeceptum domini non habebat quaedā edicere à semetipso sed ipse spiritū dei habens deductorē omnis veritatis Itaque consiliū edictū eius diuini iā praecepti instar obtinuit de rationis diuinae patrocinio Hanc nunc expostula saluo traditionis respectu quocunque traditore censetur necl authorem respicias sed authoritatem c. And the Apostle sayth If ye be ignoraunte of any thyng God shall reueale it to you He hymselfe when he had not a commaundemente from the Lorde was wonte to giue counsell and prescribe some thinges of hymselfe but as one that had the spirit of God directer of all trueth Wherefore hys counsell and edict hath now obtayned to be as it were the commaundement of God through supportation and defēce of the reason diuine Thys reason inquire for sauing the respect of tradition whosoeuer be the deliuerer therof nor respect the author but the authoritie So farre Tertulliā And in hys wordes In a custome maker the spirite of God In custōe commoditie and
adore and vvorship it These are youre wordes yours I may call them for they be furthest of frō Athanasius meaning And in the margēt the place is quoted Quaest 39. ad Anti. Here be thrée lyes together Fyrst by suppressing a piece of Athanasius saying of the speare réede sponge that they are holy as the Crosse Where the author hath that they are as holy as the Crosse Thē remēber thys as Also by corrupting of the texte putting in the wordes of Adore vvorship whiche are not in the boke Last of all referring vs to the .xxxix. question wheras there are not so many in all In dede Quaestione 16. Quest 16. ad Antio these are hys words Quare credentes omnes ad crucis imaginem cruces facimus lanceae vero sanctae aut arundinis aut spongiae figuras nullas conficimus cum tamen haec tam sint sancta quam ipsa crux Responsio Figuram quidem Crucis ex duobus lignis compingentes conficimus vt si quis infidelium id in nobis reprehendat quod veneremur lignum possimus duobus inter se disiunctis lignis crucis dirempta forma ea tanquam inutilia ligna reputare infideli persuadere quod non colamus lignū sed quid Crucis typum veneremur in lancea vero aut spongia vel arundine nec facere hoc nec ostendere possimus which in englishe are these Why do all beleuers make Crosses after the Image of the Crosse but make no figures or likenesses of the speare the réede or the sponge where as notwithstanding these are as holy as the Crosse it selfe The aunswere We make in déede the figure of the Crosse by putting of two stickes together that if any of the infidels reproue that in vs that we worship wood we may by separating two pieces of wood and taking away the forme of a Crosse accompt them as vnprofitable sticks and persuade the infidell that we worship not wood but the thing represented by the Crosse which in the speare sponge or réede we neyther can doe nor shewe Here first it is euident that the réede or speare is as holy as the Crosse and therefore as wel to be worshippped as the Crosse although the word of comparison you would fayne suppresse Then that there is not any worde or halfe worde for worshipping yea the whole sequele of the matter doth conuince the contrary Yet your honesty is such as to put in of your owne vnder name of Athanasius Adore and Worship By the Popes owne lawe for being such a falsarie ye should haue your crowne pared be made an Abbey lubber Dist. 50. ca. Si Episcopus as long as ye liue And may not I vse the words of your zealous spirite and say Ah see good readers vvhat a sotte vve haue to doe vvithall Bicause ye reade or heare say at the leaste that a Crosse was made therefore ye conclude Folio 84. b. it was set in the Roodeloft for no man say you maketh him a veluet coat to lay it vp in his presse or his frends picture to be put in the colehouse But doth any wiseman whē he hath a new garment proclaime it in the market place or hang the counter fet of his friend vpon a pole to be sene By your owne slender reason as ye iudge of the one so ymagine of the other Now to come to the ecclesiasticall history where mention is made of the Idol Serapis I wold the readers shuld wel consider it For Roodes Crosses Images haue bene nothing else but coūterfets of Serapis Roodes Crosses Images coūterfets of Serapis Ruffinus Ecclesias hi. lib. 2. cap 23. The priests of Egipt the votaries of those dayes for Ruffinus calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as had made themselues and God wyll chaste set me vp in their temple a monstrous Idoll reaching from one syde of the wal to the other To purchase more credit to it they had made a little windowe eastwarde where the morning sunne might glimmer in taking the iust heyght of their idol shuld shine no lower nor higher than they wold but that when their God was shrined might be full in his face and vpon his lippes And so by this meanes a miracle was wrought the sunne with a kisse bad him welcome to Church Agayne where the nature of the Lodestone is to draw iron to it they made as curiously as workmanship could deuise the Image of the sonne in iron that whereas the sunne was in the vawte the Image directely vnderneath it the Image sometime might rise and hang in the ayre But least the ponderositie of the metall might come to his course agayne they conueyed it away and sayde The sunne hath now taken his leaue of Serapis and gone to his businesse These and such other inuentions they had to deceyue the people Such hayes they pitched to purchas their profit But these were but grosse in respect of the finenesse of our parish priests and popish Chaplens For they haue made Roodes with rowling eyes sweating browes with speaking mouth and walking féete I report me to the Roode of grace the Roode of Winchester the very Crosse of Ludlow and Iacke knacker of Witney Nor maruel if the Crosse be so déepe in your bokes that can stand a hielone and walke on the altare that can runne in the night time from S. Iohns Chappel into our Ladies and will not for ielousy abide frō hir But I would the world should vnderstand that as the Egiptians Christians Serapis and the crosse signe in name do differ so the priests of them both be of one religion Ruffinus Eccl Hist lib. 2. cap. 25. like conuersation Tirānus a chauntrey priest seruing at Saturnus altare had a way to créepe into his Gods belly for he was hollow as most part of our Images are mete for to make swines troughes when so euer any gentlewomans deuotion serued hir to come to make hir oraisons if the priest liked hir parson answere was made frō within that she must abide there all that night in pryuie contemplatiōs The silly husband was glad that he had any thing to do his God a pleasure therfore would deck hir trim hir vp in hir holyday aray and to Church she goeth with penny in hir purse taper in hir hand to offer for hir sinnes The priest before al the people shuts the Church dore he leaues the woman within and home he goeth But afterward by a priuy vawt vnderneath the ground he conuoyes himself into the body of the ymage while the lampes be burning she praying he roareth somewhat out of his trunk partly to feare hir partly also to make hir wel apayde that she should be worthied to haue a God to talk to hir But whē he had wrought what soeuer he thought good eyther to astony hir or entise hir to folly then sodainly by a vice all the candels goe out he playeth the priest
signing them with a Crosse nowe is it not according to your position medicineable against al Coniuration Enchauntment Sorcerie and Witchcrafte but rather dayly vsed in all these Wherefore your proues be to weake your miracles to no purpose Your Doctoures much like your selfe The Heathen the nevv Indians the Ievve the Apostata Folio 108. These are desirous of the signe of a Crosse These signed themselues vvith a Crosse on the forehead Therefore the signe of the Crosse must be vsed and honoured As lyke as if I sayd These were Idolaters they knewe no true worship the diuel deluded them and therfore we must follow them May I not therfore wyth iuster cause than you complaine and say as you do O tempora O miserable daies O times too licentious when euery Erostratus may become famous by burning of Dianaes temple when euery insolent and ydle brayne if he can inuey agaynst the state of his countrey defame them that in learning and vertue be farre vnlike himselfe shal presume to write and be suffered to print his ignorant allegations and impudent vntruthes to deface the Gospell to set a gogge seditious and newe fangled heads You would haue men iudge no better of vs but that we go about to ouerthrovv the religiō of Christ take avvay the memory of his passiō Fol. 109 a. b. say that there is no Christ at al. This do ye set forth by an example of Andrew Lampugnā which gat an audacitie to slay the duke of Millain by striking ofte his Image and by a similitude of a chambre of presence wherein who so commeth and pulleth downe the cloth of estate or otherwise breaketh Princes armes in pieces he is no loyall and faythfull subiecte Let the world iudge betwixt you and vs who seke lesse the defacing of Christ and his Gospel who would more abolishe the memorie of his death We by continuall preaching of it or you by often paynting of it We by referring al glory vnto God or you by transferring all prayse vnto your selues We by setting forth our state of saluation so as Christ himself hath taught vs saying Search ye the scriptures or you by following the diuels doctrine and peruerting the word affirming That we dayly must gaze vpon pictures There be other meanes to remembre Christ as in the Preface I haue at large declared than by laying .ij. stickes a Crosse or breaking the ayre with a thumb on my forehead Papists deny Christ Nor they deny Christ which affirme him to be God and therefore in Heauen seke him but such as make an Image of him seuering thereby his diuinity from humanitie and only as man vpon earth honour him Wherfore your history is yll applyed Galeatius Maria as your owne authour sayth being duke of Millain Paradinus in symbolis was a wicked tirant a common rauisher of all honest women a violent oppressor of al his subiects therfore God stirred the heartes of some to conspire his death And for the same cause the worde of that armes is vel in ara that God in euery place yea to the altare it selfe pursueth the reuenge vpon the vngodly And therefore the man which otherwise stode in dreade of the Prince was by another meane heartened But God stirreth the hart of none to work any vengeance on Christ his sonne therefore the comparison is not like Agayne Lampugnā gat him the liuely Image of the duke we haue the Image I wote nere of whom sure the Image of Christ it is not but in respect of the abuse a damnable Idoll Then if the striking at the Image of Christ be signe that Christ himselfe is hated consider with your selfe who is more faulty who is more despitefully set herein You or we We pecke at a stone or a piece of wood which hath no likenesse in the world of Christ you burne and butcher the liuely members of Christs owne body the perfect counterfets of him departed hence We pull downe the dumbe and the deafe Idols the instruments of abuse you murder the saincts you destroy the Prophets you spite that any liueth honester than your selues Who nowe I beseche you be more enimies of Christ Who be more like to fall into Apostacie the ouerthrowers of Idols or destroyers of sainctes the myslikers of a dead stocke or stone or murtherers of quicke and liuing men You request me to tell you Folio 109. b. if a man come into a chambre of presence and plucke dovvne the cloth of estate and breake the Princes armes in pieces is it not his intent to haue the Prince deposed In déede sir if the Prince haue set it vp and giue commaundement that it shall there stande it is too great an offence to breake it But if the Prince haue proclaymed the contrary that none shall presume to drawe his armes or set vp any cloth of estate for him and yet notwithstanding some in despite or mockerie shall hang vp a beggerly and stinking clout or in steade of his royall armes erecte some monument of reproufe and shame if I came in place I would pull it downe and be the faythfuller subiecte for that And this is the very state of our cause Christ and his Apostles as I haue proued before haue vtterly forbidden Images there is no Crosse that hath any likenesse of our redemer on it Christ hath taken order onely by his worde to be set forth vnto vs. Therefore the Crosse of woode stone or metall may wythout offence be remoued of vs. For it is not the cloth of estate of his the armes and recognisance of his kingdome It is a wicked inuention of the Papistes a crafty delusion of the diuell to supplant Christ to take away the knowledge and true seruice of him Alexander as Horace sayth Edicto vetuit Episto lib. 1. ne quis se praeter Apellem pingeret aut alius Lysippo duceret aera fortis Alexandri vultum simulantiae gaue charge that but Apelles none in colours should him dresse Or but Lysippus should in brasse his countenance expresse Then if a simple botcher had attempted to draw him contrary to his commaundement should he not haue committed pety treason trowe you On like sorte Christ hath gyuen out his worde whereby he hath witnessed of himselfe Ioan. 4. he hath strayghtly enacted that whosoeuer worship him Ioan. 5. in spirite and veritie they shall worshippe they shall not more symplie conceyue of him than of the Maiestie of a God the seconde person in Trinitie wyth our fleshe caryed vp into Heauen with him Nowe commeth the workeman with his tooles and maketh a corporall and lying shape to bring an outwarde and earthly worship Alexander the Coppersmyth cryeth out for his aduauntage Rom. 1. Epi. 1. ca. 5. Simon Magus the Sorcerer contendeth for hys share S. Paul is against it S. Iohn condemneth it What shall we nowe doe goe to the lying Image and forsake the true forbyd the worde and bring in a picture haue our heartes here
any man But that fayth alone without any Crosse is right auayleable the Scripture in euery place witnesseth Now where ye contende Fol. 117. a. that a Crosse is necessary notvvithstanding that men may haue Godly instructions by reading the Scriptures And hearing good preachers bycause euery man can not reade Scripture nor vnderstande it vvhen he readeth it euery man cannot at all times so conueniētly heare a good preacher as he may see the signe of the Crosse And things seene do moue more affection than those that be heard or red As your aunswere to this obiection agaynst your selfe contayneth thrée pretended causes so wyll I in order consider of them First that all men cannot reade Scripture or vnderstand it when they reade it I besech you be Images and Crosses such bookes as al men can reade vnderstand Images do speake doubtfully Did not I tell you how Stephen Gardiner a learned man made a false construction out of such a boke taking the Image of the king for S. George on horsebacke The countenance the proportion the apparel of them is as pleaseth the workman to deuise the vertue the power and the qualities of them is as pleaseth the lokers on to ymagine And let them reade in Images that lust They teach Diuelishly let them vnderstande as they may nothing doubtlesse is to be readde or vnderstode in them but the leude lessons of grosse Idolatrie penned by the diuell tending to damnation They be read vnlawfully And if there were not apparantly such perill in them the contrary whereof can not be auoyded yet were we bound not only to suspecte but also to refuse such scholemasters as they being not authorised by Gods commission but as I haue proued alwayes inhibited If Christ as the Gospell telleth vs twice in one place together be the only doctor and guide of his Math. 23. If God hath spoken in these last dayes by his sonne vnto vs in whose person all wonted wayes of instruction all reuelations doe ceasse Hebr. 1. we must nowe goe no further than to hys word we must seke no teacher but his holy spirite Ipse nos inducet in omnem veritatem that same wyll induce vs into all truth And although I knowe that the gyftes of God haue their degrées yet dare I say Ther can be no such ignorance as shall driue vs to seeke a knovveledge in an Image that none is vtterly so voyde of grace but hath for vnderstanding so much conferred on him as shall be expedient for his owne behoufe vnlesse he be vtterly as a rotten member cut of from Christ But if the skyll of reading or gyfte of vnderstanding be denyed vnto any shall he be driuen to séeke it where it is not Then shall he finde what he would not If our heauenly father refuse to teach vs a vile creature can not instruct vs. If God wythdrawe his decréed meane whereby he may win vs an extraordinary matter a stock or a stone cānot conuert vs. If God do not suffer vs a preaching parson the diuel doth send vs such dūb vicares If man be not worthied to direct vs in a truth an Image or a Crosse wil peruert vs with a lye Posuit thesaurum suum in vasis fictilibus He hath put his treasure in frayle vessels sayth S. Paule speaking of the worke of Gods exceding mercy in sending vs men of our owne nature by whome his wil may be reuealed to vs. But if your order assertion did holde then had he put his treasure in dumbe dead and senslesse creatures and shoulde stande to discretion of the Carpenter or smyth where he should best conferre his grace A strange case That vvhich al the creatures of God can not teach a Crosse can that where all the workes of God be insufficient to teach humilitie to persuade pacience to conuert from errour and comforte in despaire the vile worke of mannes wicked hande is able as you say to procure and compasse the same for vs. The worlde it selfe is a certayne spectacle of thinges inuisible for that the order and frame of it is a glasse to beholde the secrete working and hydden grace of God The heauenly creatures and spheres aboue haue a greater marke of his diuinitie more euident to the worlds eye than eyther can be vnknowen or dissembled Which thing S. Paule declareth to the Romains Rom. 1. saying that so much was opened vnto men as was requisite to be knowē of God in that his inuisible powers yea till ye come to his eterne vertue and diuinitie being vnderstode from the very beginning and creation of the world be dayly séene amongst vs. Notwithstanding such a knowledge as this being growen and gathered by such circumstaunces as be common vnto all alyke is naturall as it were and onely enforceth this that no excuse no cloke of ignoraunce can be pretended But to alter the heart to make a new minde to regenerate it to true pietie is the worke of another instrument and effecte of another cause For the principall and chiefe poynt wherevpon dependeth our health and saluation is not onely to know Gods absolute and vniuersall authoritie whereof both Heauen and earth is full and all the worlde is wytnesse but also to fynde out hys secrete counsayles to consyder his iudgementes to marke the mysteries of our saluation in Christ our Lorde which is hidden from the worlde Then if the maruellous workes of God be not sufficient to directe our wayes considering howe frayle we are and if it hap that through them sometime we fall into any deper consyderation of the heauenlie nature strayght wayes we are pulled from the thoughte thereof to our owne leudenesse and ymaginations slyding to the dotages and dreames of the fleshe whereby it commeth to passe that if perhappes any true instincte doe sparckle in vs it is out agayne before we can get any warmth of it What shall we thincke of a syllie Crosse that sorrie wormes and canker doth corrupte that neuer God nor good man deuised Shall we runne to so wicked and vnweldy succour shall we séeke so blinde a guide to bring vs out of darkenesse God neuer hath no not from the beginning dealt otherwise wyth hys electe but that he would strengthen and relieue their weakenesse with a stronger remedie For he hath vsed to their instruction the mysterie of his worde Illuminantis oculos Psal 18. intellectum dantis paruulis That lighteneth the eyes and giueth vnderstanding vnto the méeke Therefore the goodman and master of the house sayd in the Gospell Negotiemini donec veniam Occupy til I come Luke 19. When he intending to goe abrode himselfe gaue eche of his seruauntes his portion to bestowe What portion was it What was the talent What was the marchandize that they should trafficke with Not wyth the marchants of Tyrus to lade their shippes wyth precious wares nor with the Mariners of Ahasias séeke straunge countreyes to get golde But his
forefathers monuments had more occasion of pryde than cause of prayse giuen hym Notwithstanding if in worldly things for speciall pollicy such order be tollerable to kepe in memory the noble factes of other if affections at home may be stirred with counterfetes of our absent frendes yet in Gods matters whose presence is at no tyme denyed vs In Gods matters no Imagery admitted whose person can not be truly counterfeted whose factes are more lyuely described in hys worde than all the workemen of the world can imitate this point of diuels rhetorique thys mouing of affections is not to be yelded to For the mynds of the faythfull be only styrred vp by the spirite of God which inwardly worketh in the hart and outwardly by hys worde and Sacramentes Wherefore Erasmus would not admit that a preacher should bryng an Image to the pulpit he woulde not haue suche bokes as those Yet then I am sure they might be best red and affectiōs if euer would most be moued then Hys wordes be these Li. 3. Eccle. Quidam per imagines mouent affectus aut per ostensas sanctorum relliquias quorum neutrum conuenit grauitati loci in quo consistit Ecclesiastes No Imagery vvith preaching muche lesse vvithout Neque enim legimus vnque tale quicque factum vel à Christo vel ab Apostolis Some sayth he do moue affectes by Images or shewing of Saincts reliques wherof neyther agréeth to the grauitie of the place that a preacher standeth in For we reade not that euer any such thing was done of Christ or hys Apostles Then if religion will admit no president but onely of Christ and hys Apostles If Images with tonges to tell what they are be not alowable shal tonglesse thinges by mans deuise be erected in euery place to serue God with al I told you before what Images do teach what affectiōs they moue is euident to al. As Cherea when he saw paynted in a table how Iupiter in fourme of an in got of gold came through the tiles fel into hys Ladyes lap reioysed with hymselfe and sayd if the thundering God played such a part Ego homun cio hòc non facerem should not I poore wretch do thys So whē a gorgious and golden God shal stande vpon the altare wil not the couetous wish it in his purse wyll not he gather if God delite to be made adorned with thys precious metal am not I bounde to make much of mine When a man is portrayde in the church hanging on a gybbet and another foole is crowching to it the cause not considered and circumstaunce vnknowen wil not the carelesse and desperate person thinke with himselfe what shame is it for me to hang since our God was so serued This is the least harme that can come of it The wicked adoration the damnable Idolatry I wittingly omit In the next Article I shall intreate of it Images not to be admitted for helpe of memory Folio 119. b. Now for the calling vnto remembrance of the which hath bene taught or occasioning to learne that which is vnknowen ye say that Images if for no other cause yet bicause they quickē the memory vvhich in many is fickle helpe ignoraunce vvhich in some is lurde I knowe not what ye meane by the terme but so ye haue sent it vs vncorrected stirre vp loue vvhich is vvaxen colde help hope vvhich is almost deade moue deuotion vvhich in all men decayeth reuiue fayth vvhich in all men fayleth they might right vvell be suffred among Christen men For proofe of which pointes ye bring two places one as out of Augustine an other out of Cyrill To the place of Augustine I aunswere according to the iudgement and censure approued by the Parisiens set before the work that ye cite Quod Sermo de visitacione infirmorū A vayne fansy fathered vpon Augustine locutuleij cuiusdā est nec docti nec diserti Quid habuerunt vel frontis vel mentis qui talia scripta nobis obtruserunt nomine Augustim that the Sermon entituled of the visiting of the sicke is some bablers doyng that hath neyther learning nor eloquēce What shamefastnesse or honesty was in them which haue dashed vs in the téeth with such writinges in the name of Augustyne To Cyrillus I say that he had to do with Iulian the Apostata to whom it was expedient Foli 120. to excuse the order of Christians in hys tyme and therefore he sayd the healthful vvod doth make vs remember c. In dede in comparison of the Gentiles Idols Iupiter Ganymedes Daphne Apollo of which he there discourseth the signe of the Crosse was to be preferred and to the enimy Cyrillus li. 6. contra Iu lianum we must not exaggerate the fault of our frende but couer it what we can So dyd Cyrillus But that he was not in the same heresie with you see what presidentes he bryngeth against you In the selfe same booke wheras you bryng your authoritie these wordes he hath Honestus bonus erat sicut ipse dicit Numa splēdida preditus intelligentia etiam plurimas sacerdotum constituit leges Diligenter ergo inquiramus quem hahuerit ille cultus modum Scripsit igitur de illo Dionisius Halicarnasseus qui Romanorū historiam diligenter composuit quod templa quidem delubra extruxerit simulachrum autem in illis erat nullū Nam quia Pythagorae philosophiam commēdahat cuius dogmata sequebatur cognouerat deum omnino specie forma tali carere affirmabatque illum gaudere mentalibus non carnalibus sacrificijs Iccirco constructa tēpla fidei nominabat qua sola deus ab hominibus quantum capaces sunt videtur subditis praecipiebat vt per fidem iurarent Numa sayth Cyril in answere vnto Iulian as the enimy hymselfe affirmeth was honest and good and indued with notable vnderstanding made many lawes for the Priestes Let vs inquire therfore diligently what maner of seruise he had Dionise of Halicarnassus which wrote well the history of the Romaines reporteth that he made temples and oratories but ther was no Image in the world in them For bicause he commended the wisedome of Pythagoras whose doctrine also he followed he knew that God was destitute of such foorme and shape and affirmed that he toke pleasure in sacrifices of the mynde and not of the fleshe Therfore the temples that he builded he called the temples of fayth by which only God is séen of men so farre as they are able to reache vnto hys sight and he commaunded hys subiectes to take their othe by fayth In which wordes many thynges may frutefully be obserued First that where Iulian layed Numa hys religion to the Christians charge Cyrill is contented with hys authoritie but he vseth it to the condemnation of hethenish Idolatry Cyrill alovveth no Images in Churches Then that he alloweth no Images to be in Churches bringing a reason as out of nature it selfe whereof
God alone now will ye haue an inferiour reuerence And what is that Forsoth you can not tel But it hath bene declared of other I know what other in this behalfe haue babbled making their distinction betwene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They put .ij. horses into one stable to eate at one racke and reach to one manger yet they be not serued alike bycause they haue a barre betwixt them I could speake more of the absurditie hereof but that I must lay my finger on my line treads the onely steppes of you that full crookedly haue gone before me If you voutchsaue to tell me what that inferior reuerence shuld be which now by silence ye vtterly suppresse ye shal then know further of my minde It only remayneth that I aunswere your Paradox your straunge your incredible proposition Fol. 129. that there can be no mystruste nor feare of Idolatrie in Christen men vvorshipping and adoring the Crosse To come to Worship and Adore againe where the nexte line before ye would haue but an inferiour reuerence maketh me thinke that you be very fickle and not settled as yet on any certayne ground But worship a Gods name adore deifie say you for certayne it is there can be no perill of Idolatrie Ye do very wisely to put men in security for otherwise they would be very loth to vēture Greate is the leape and the water déepe But howe shall we passe Ye haue deuised a bridge as it were of a bulrush Your argument is this A strange proufe that no man may feare Idolatry in a Papist All that be Christiās are baptised And if they be baptised then haue they receyued the fayth of Christ and beleue in one God father almighty and so forth and haue learned that commaūdement of his Thou shalt haue no other Gods but me If then by baptisme they haue receyued the fayth of Christ and beleue in one God father almighty c. and haue learned that commaundement of his that they shall haue no other Goddes but him Then beleue they in no other God but in him then serue they no other God but him then make they to themselues no other God but him But vvhensoeuer they pray vvhersoeuer they knele vvhatsoeuer gestures they vse they giue all honour and prayse to God they haue their heartes and mindes fixed vpon him nor vve may iudge the cōtrary for they are Christians and so are vve also expresly forbed to iudge of other mens consciences or to be curious or suspitious of other mens doings To answere with modestie to so impudent an assertion is hard reasonably to deale with so vnreasonable a creature is more than couenant to vse many wordes where a wand is deserued is more a great deale than néedeth for your reason vnlesse ye were purged first For doubtlesse there is some mad humour raygning that bringeth forth so absurde reasoning Th' effect of Martials argument First ye haue proued that all Protestants be good Christians for they be baptised they haue receyued the fayth c. Then that your selfe are very much to blame in déeming amysse of them For in asmuch as they haue learned the commaundements they also of necessitie muste obey the commaundementes Thirdely that all subiectes in the realme of Englande all Christians beside are in right good ease for they can not synne This is your reason M. Martiall and not mine For thus ye say They haue learned the commaundement to haue no other God but him then beleue they no other God but him then serue they no other God but hym By the same reason I may reply The man that is baptised The absurdities thereof hath receyued the fayth doth knowe the commaundement Thou shalt not steale Thou shalt not committe adulterie Therfore there is none that is baptised that can be a théefe or adulterer The Iewes were circumcised they had the lawe they knewe that they ought to haue no other Goddes but him Therfore no Iewe that euer was Idolatrer But notwythstanding our Christendome and fayth receyued many be théeues and murtherers notwithstanding the lawe deliuered to the Israelites they worshipped some of them the brasen serpent and the scripture sayth they were Idolatrers therein Therefore notwithstanding that men outwardly professe one God yet do they not worship alway one God nor serue him on such sorte as they are cōmaunded So that it bydeth still for all your blinde reason that a man may feare Idolatrie in such as doe pretende a worshipping of God And we doe not offend in affirming you Idolatrers Folio 129. b. For althoughe as you saye one kinde of Idolatrie be beste knowen vnto God alone who searcheth the heart yet hath he left a way to try it a iudge to discerne it And therfore indefinitely and absolutely to say that Idolatrie is a sinne lurking and lying secret in the heart is an inconuenience Remembre howe Christ at the first entraunce into his schole gaue out this lesson Quemeunque puduerit mei coram hominibus Luc. 6. pudebit me illius coram patre meo et sanctis Angelis Whosoeuer shall be ashamed of me before men I wyll also be ashamed of him before my father and his holy Angels A profession of Christ is requisite in a Christian Rom. 10. So that God is not herewith contented if a man inwardly wyth hart acknowledge him but also seuerely doth exact that by our outward profession we testify to the world that his disciples we are For vpō none other condition but this he doth admit vs into the societie fellowship of his kingdome Truly doth Paul say Corde creditur ad iustitiam ore confessio fit ad salutem With heart we beleue to righteousnesse with mouth we confesse to saluatiō Out of which words it is playnly to be gathered that there is no true fayth before God but the same engēdreth a confession before men That euery man according to his calling grace giuen him do further by al meanes as occasiō is giuen him 1. Pet. 3. the glory of his God Therefore Peters precept is general to be ready alwayes to giue an answere to euery man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in vs. This reason ye refuse ye kepe a byrd in the bosome but it berayes the nest For impossible it is that a good cōscience in seruise of his God shal in apparance do one thing in effect another And although the seruise acceptable vnto god consist in spirit in truth Ioan. 4. as Christ himself pronounceth yet wil he not only be truly serued but also be knowē that he is so serued For which purpose these extern actions are right necessary to be witnesses to the world of our affecte within vs. Vnderstand ye therfore that as .ij. kindes of honor be due to God one spiritual resting in the heart another corporal consisting in outward gesture So are there also .ij. kindes of Idolatry The fyrst
dare and vvil ioyn issue vvith you Let the doctrine of the receyued fathers for you make fathers of friers legēd lies lavves decise the cōtrouersy that is betvvixt vs. If I bring not more soūd antiquitie to cōfirme my truth than you cā auouch for maintenance of your error If the self same fathers direct me not in the right vvay vvhich you misconster for the crosse vvay Let our Theodosia deale as she lusteth vvith me the shame to be mine Othervvise if it be Gods vvill the amendment to be yours Amen THE PREFACE to the Readers IF neyther experience of elder age nor present authoritie of Scripture were to put vs in minde of the sleyghtes of Sathan howe he continuallie doth bend his force against the forte of our afflicted soules yet the subtile conspiracies of these yonger dayes the practise of the Papist that Martials now the Diuels hoste and marcheth forward with a forged Ensigne appearing outwardly to be the frend of Christ whose fayth religion he vtterly subuerteth may serue as a warning piece out of the watch tower to make vs runne to the walles of fayth betaking our selues eche man to his defence in the certaine truth of Gods eternal testamēt For if the groundwork be shaken once whervpon we builde our health and saluation which is the affiaunce in Christ our God and credite to his worde then enters our ennimy with banner displayed and beateth vs downe to the pit of damnation Wherefore he séeking to supplant Christ and pul our hearts from seruice of him cōpasseth by al meanes to winne him selfe some credite with vs and the knowledge of God reuealed in his worde by a little and a little to be taken frō vs. But he hath of him selfe to ill a name to be estéemed so and therefore vnder viser of that that he is not he winnes men to yelde to that that they should not He becommeth therefore in all his workes an Ape of God to imitate and resemble after his hellish maner to the vtter ouerthrowe and destruction of our soules that which our heauenly father hath prouided for our health saluation and blysse Herein hath he handled himself so workmanly that he lokes very narrowly that can discerne the difference Yea the eyes of his heart must be better cleared than by the light of reason or else he shal be blinded in the myst We sée that euen from the beginning after Gods spirit had moued Abell and the holy Patriarks to offer sacrifice vnto him that should be figures all of that one sacrifice which Christ according to the prefixed pleasure of the eterne Deitie should at his time on the Crosse perfourme The Diuel in worshipping of his Idols did come so néere the same that the self same did séeme to be doone in both Yea generally in all the superstitions and detestable rytes of the heathen folke he toke his paterne out of the ordinaunce of the Hebrewes and maners of the Christians Which thing Tertulian among the Latin writers the most auncient and chiefe right well declareth De Prescriptionibus ad uers Heret Ipsas quoque res Sacramentorum diuinorum in Idolorum mysterijs emulatur c. Yea the very matter and substance of the diuine Sacraments he counterfeyts in his Idol seruice He hath his baptisme whereby such as do beleue in him haue forgiuenesse promised them He marketh his men with signes in the forehead he hath his offrings his sacrificers his virgins and his votaries That if we loke on the supersticiōs of Numa Pompilius the badges the priuileges the offices of his priestes the vessels the ceremonies the furniture of his sacrifices we shal sée how the Diuell Morositatem illam as Tertullian termeth it Iudeae gentis imitatus est did imitate the fansies and selfe wilnesse of the Iewes As Moses went vp into the mount Syna and there receyued the Law tables whereof the author God him self should be So Minos afterward among the Grecians hyding him selfe a while in Iupiters caue came forth at length and gaue them lawes from mighty Ioue as he pretended And to the ende the people might the more be bounde in obedience the lyke practise had the Romaine King of whom I spake before saying that in the night time he had secrete conference with Aegeria and she deliuered him such holesome lawes as the mighty Gods had decréed on Whereby what other thing was attempted of the Diuell but that all credite should be denied to Moses in asmuch as Minos and Numa to did alleage the like authoritie for themselues yet it was euident they were but fables Will ye go to the circūstances of place and persons Then as God ordayned his seruice to be had first in the tabernacle then in the temple at Hierusalem so would the Diuell haue his hilles and groues As God did raise vp his holy men and Prophetes that being inspired with the holy Ghost might declare his will and by force of miracles winne the more credite So hath the Diuell his coniurers his witches his figure flingers and his sorcerers with the spirite of illusion to worke straunge effectes As we haue a place of eternall rest so haue they their heauen Elisios campos et amaena vireta fortunatorum nemorum the swéete pleasant Paradise and places of good hap As we haue hell euen so haue they that if we preach the blessednesse of the faythful by the merits and mercies of Christ our Sauiour then step the godlesse out take it as a tale of the Poets Paradise If we threaten vengeance to the misbeleuers and extreme torment of hell fier the Diuels limmes laugh vs to scorne againe and doe resemble it to Plato his Purgatorie or to the scalding of Pyriphlegeton a riuer so deuised by the heathen folke to burne in hell wyth flames vnquenchable Such sleights hath Sathan to put vs in securitie of any further payne to pull vs from the hope of perfecter estate that here we may liue as the Diuell would haue vs in the ende to receiue as the Diuel can rewarde vs. And he hath not wanted his instrumentes of olde He hath made himself ministers from time to time that in the worlds eye were most worthy reuerence and likelier than the rest to compasse his desire Among them all to the Diuels behoofe neuer so faythfull seruaunts to the destruction of the people neuer so pestilent instruments as the Papists are for what haue they not done to the vtter subuersion of al true religiō As Christ cōmaunded the beleuers in his name to be baptised So they in the Diuels name haue baptised Bels with the same ceremonies solēnities that they would vse in Infants christening saue that the Diuel would haue in his sacramēt a certaine more Maiesty than God in his Therfore the Papistes by the spirite of the Diuel ordained that a byshop must needes christen a Bell where as euery poore priest may christē a childe And bycause that through water consecrated by the word of
God sinnes are remitted not by the force of water but power of the spirit therefore the Diuell would haue his consecration of water and of salt De Consecr Dist. 3. qua cuncti sanctificentur ac purificentur aspersi as it is written in the Popes decrées that whosoeuer are sprinkled therewith are by and by sanctified purified made cleane and holy go no further than to their Portesses and you shal sée how they approue it Aqua benedicta deleantur tua delicta Aqua benedicta sit tibi salus vita By the holy vvater so be thy offences put the fro Let the holy vvater be saluation and life to thee These words were in their daily seruice But O blasphemous mouthes to attribute that to their inuentions which is the work of God alone the price of the bloud of Christ our sauiour Yet wil they haue as their father had when he came forth with Scriptum est the Scripture for them applied I promise you to as good a purpose as when the Witch by hir Pater noster made hir payle goe a milking For why should I not compare the Priests that consecrate Crosses and ashes water and salte oyle and creame bowes and bones stockes and stones that christen bels that hang in the stéeple that coniure wormes that créepe in the fielde that giue S. Iohns gospels to hang about mens neckes to the vilest Witches and Sorcerers of the earth Eche Prince hath his people deliuereth his lawes to be obserued of them which if they kepe they shew they are his And God that his seruants might be knowen to the world by walking according to his wil ordayned some works wherin he would haue vs to exercise our selues As the feare the faith the loue to Godwarde the repentance of our euils the profession of the Gospel the furtherance of the same praier thankesgiuing praise of God pacience perseuerance iustice charity and such other like What doth the diuell now To seale his seruants into league with him he deuiseth ordinaunces to make theÌ„ to be knowen by As strange attire difference of meates refusal of mariage rising at midnight shutting vp in a cloyster erecting of Images worshipping of saincts seruice in latin gadding on Pilgrimage making of vowes most wilful beggery most vile hipocrisy Hereby the simple haue bene so deluded that they thought gods seruice to consist herein and so the diuel for God was honored Hereby the diuels children haue so magnified themselues that Gods law neglected their beastly fansies haue ben had in reuerence For prouse whereof go no further than to this Sole life is not by God coÌ„mauÌ„ded The diuel doth exact it in his ministers Genes 26. Exod. 20. 1. Cor. 6. Heb. 13 Adultry is by god condemned The diuell in his ministers makes a trifle of it That filthy vice which by the testimony of the Apostle Paule doth quite exclude vs from the kingdome of heauen they make but a game of or a sinne veniall If ye credit me not read the the decrée of Alexander the .iij. of the name Cap. At si Clerici paragra de Adult there he affirmeth that as for adultery such other faults which he accompteth by expresse word crimina leuiora trifling offences the bishop may dispeÌ„se with And yet some good fellowes wil say that we preach liberty We or the Papists Iudge ye Dist. 24. cap. Fraternitatis Pelagiê° the Pope as we read in a certain decretal of his when I speake of decrees decretals think that I speake of no other matter than that which the papists haue in as souerain a price as the bible giues a worthy ceÌ„sure in the like case A man that had ben maried wold nedes after the decease of his wife become a priest sued for his orders The Prelates fell of examining the matter whether he were Bigamus or no that is to say whether his wife was a maid when he maried hir or whether he himselfe had maried a second wyfe For if eyther of these had bene found in hym he had bene vnméete to enter into orders But found he was to be an adulterer who after his wiues death had a childe by an other woman Nowe what sayth the holy father In as much as he is not found to be Bigamus but yet proued incontinent vve hope vvel of him let him haue his orders As for his lechery vve beare vvith him in respect of the vveaknesse of this our age Sée the religion of Poperie If it had bene his hap to haue maried a wydowe or the second time to haue entred into the holy state of matrimonie this man shuld haue had no orders Nowe that he is become a whoremaster he hath them Here coÌ„mes in place the famous iudgemeÌ„t of him that makes the gloze not in mockery but in good earnest Ecce casus vbi plus valet Luxuria quam Castitas Beholde a case where Incontinence hath a more priuilege than Chastitie Thus I suppose ye sée how the Diuel doth aduaunce his workes and by the ministerie of the Papists set vp himselfe in place of God Nowe that his religion should in all points to the worldes eye be as perfect as Gods and the men should not want helpes ynowe to hel As God appointed the prayers vnto him to be made through Christ our mediatour So when the Diuell will be serued best he deputeth sainctes to be intercessors and euery one of them hath his charge lymitted One to deliuer vs from the feuer Quartane another to preserue vs from the daunger of the sea One to restore the goods that we haue lost another to defeÌ„de our foldes from the Fox One for the plague another for the purse One for our selues another for our swyne And is not this mere Gentilitie Yet is it right Poperie As they had Iuno for womeÌ„ in childbed so we the blessed virgin in hir place with vs. As they had Esculapius to saue them from diseases so had we S. Roke to supply that rome As they had Mars to help them in warfare so had we S. George to make vs win the fielde Finally least there should want any thing to please the wanton world As God of his mercy did make man after the image and likenesse of himselfe so the Diuel hath put in the minde of man to make Images after the likenesse of God and so to transferre his honor vnto creatures The blockish Images the dead crosses haue bene crept to bene worshipped The liuely Images of Christ himselfe haue bene brought to the crosse and burned cruelly May I not therefore wyth Clement the Apostles successor say Quis est iste honor dei per lapideas ligneas formas discurrere atque exanimes figuras venerari Recog li. 5. hominem in quo vera Dei Imago est spernere What honor of God is this to runne about the counterfets of tymber and of stone to worship the shapes that are without soule and despise maÌ„ in
the enterprise alwayes assist me Wherfore I can not but greatly be moued at the sight of him to whome I owe my duetye and seruice Thus God deliuered his people then Thus God appeared to Alexander the great in a priests attire Now if it be lawfull to vse your ordre and of euery particular and priuate case to gather a generall and like rule I may as well conclude that the vision of Alexander instructeth vs in all our troubles and distresses to haue the signe of a Priest in hys masking garments as the vision of Constantine to haue the signe of a Crosse For God vsed the one meane aswell as the other and no more coÌ„maundemeÌ„t is of the one then of the other Gregory reporteth a notable history Dialog Li. 3 cap. 1. how God somtime deliuered a sort of poore prisoners out of the hands of barbarous aliens not by the signe of a Crosse nor yet by secret vision as before but by a straunger fact of his prouidence When the Vandales had spoyled Italie and caried from thence many captiues into Africk with them Paulinus a godly man and Byshoppe in those parties gaue the pore soules whatsoeuer he had for their reliefe And when he could extende his charity no further but al was gone a wydowe on a day came to him lamenting hir estate that hir sonne was caried away prisoner and by the kings sonne in lawe wherfore she besought him to giue hir somewhat for his raunsome if happely his Lord and taker would accept it But the good man deuising with him selfe what he might gyue for hir comfort founde nothing but his owne person and therefore he saide good wife I haue nothing for thée saue onely my selfe Take me say I am thy seruaunt and giue me vp for a bondman in thy sonnes stéede The woman hearing this of so great a personage thought rather that he mockt hir then pitied hir But he perswaded hir to do after his aduise forward they went the wydowe as the misteris the Byshop as the bond man To Affrick they came They mette wiih the kings sonne in law The wydow makes hir humble sute to haue hir soÌ„ne restored to hir But he doth not onely refuse to assent but disdaine to here such a caytiffe as she was At length she besought him so much to tender hir as to accept for her sonnes exchaunge a seruaunt that she had brought him presenting the byshop When the gentleman had beheld his swéete face and fatherly countenaunce he asked him of what occupation he was No occupation ê™ he but I can kepe your garden wel whervpon he was wel contented to accept the seruaunt and the onely sonne was giuen vp vnto the mother Thus was the pityfull wydowe gladded The reuerende Father became a gardiner Nowe when the kings sonne in lawe shoulde vse to resort into hys garden he questioned often with him and finding him verye prudent in his aunsweres forsooke the company of others his familiers and rather chose to talke with his gardiner Paulinus then accustomed euery day to bring sallads to his Lordes table and hauing hys dinner with him go to his worke againe When thus he had continued a certaine season it fell out on a day that as his Maister was in secret talke with him he saide on this sort Sée what ye doe make good prouision how the kingdome of the Vandales may be disposed and gouerned For the King sooner than ye are ware and very shortly shall dye When this he heard bycause he was beloued of the king more than the rest he conceled it not but vttered all that he vnderstoode by his gardiner whom he reputed to be very wyse When the king heard it he aunswered I would fayne sée the man that you talke of Then saide hys sonne in lawe Paulinus Maister He vseth to prepare mée sallades for my dynner and to the ende ye may know him I will take order that hée shal bring them vnto the table where your highnesse shall sitte And euen so he did whom as sone as euer the king had espyed he began to tremble and calling aside his sonne in law reuealed hys secret vnto him saying True it is that thou haste heard For this night in my dreame I saw certaine iudges sitting in the place of iudgement against mée among whom this man was also one and they awarded the scourge from me which I sometime tooke in hande againste other But aske what he is for I think him not to be any common person as he semeth but rather a man of great worthinesse and estimation Then secretely the kings sonne in lawe did call Paulinus to him and enquired earnestly what he was To whom the good man aunswered I am thy seruaunt whome thou diddest take a substitute for the wydowes sonne But when more instantly he lay vpon him to vtter not who he nowe was but what condition and estate he was of in his owne countrey at length with much a do he confessed that he was a Byshop When his master and Lord heard it he was stricken in a great feare and aske ê™ he what soeuer thou wilt that thou mayst retourne into thine owne countrey bountifully rewarded of me To whome Paulinus answered One benefite there is whereby thou mayste moste gratifie me if thou release all the prisoners of my citie Which thing was accomplished and the captiues sought throughout all the countrey were sente home agayne and ships full of grayne with them Thus God for deliuery of his seruants vsed the ministery of a captiue Byshop And shall we gather of this that in like extremities we muste haue a byshop to become a gardiner and with sallets in hys hande wayte at his masters table Yet as good reason for this as for the vse of the Crosse grounded on Constantines apparition A wise man of this and such lyke examples would haue gathered an other maner of rule generall and sayd that by this we learne how God neuer forsaketh his but by secret meanes vnknowen to the world worketh their comforte and deliuery The Crosse was commaunded to Constantine to be set vp and vsed in his warres Therefore say you his pleasure is at this present day Folio 34. b. to haue the signe of the crosse made set vp in open places vsed in vvarres c. How proue ye this M. Martiall Forsoth ye say Quia Iesus Christus heri et hodie vsque in secula Bicause Iesus Christ is yesterday to day and he for euer By the same reason I proue that we néede not at this day the signe of the Crosse for Christ is able otherwise to defend vs his power is not abated he is thesame that he was before a thousand wayes he hath beside to helpe vs. But I gladly conclude with you that the signe was shewed from heauen at Hierusalem to declare that the fayth and doctrine of the Christians was both preached by men and shewed from heauen and that it consisteth not in the persuasible words
of humaine wisdome but in the shewing of the spirite and power The droppes of rayne that fell vpon Iulian made a printe of the Crosse in his garment and the rests Therefore say you it is necessary for euery man to be signed marked vvith the crosse But the Crosse noted them to be persecutors Ergo it is necessary for vs to be noted as persecutors Ye sée howe your owne examples kill you there is nothing that ye bring but maketh against you Ecclesi hist lib. 5. Oap 1. In dede Sozomenus writeth that some did interprete the Crosses on that sorte Christianorum doctrinam esse caelestem oportere omnes Cruce signari That the doctrine of christians was heauenly and that all men ought to be signed with the Crosse But God forbyd we should haue such occasion to be so marked For none were marked but such as had reueged their fayth So that the Crosse doth not alwayes portende goodnesse nor is the signe peculiar vnto Christians If the signe had bene of such force as ye make it Iulian the Apostata would not haue gone forwarde with his attempted mischiefe But forwarde he went though the Crosse continued on his coate styll Wherefore the Crosse is no proufe of vertue Folio 35. The same may be confirmed by the story that followeth For the glittering signe of the Crosse in the element the crossing of the Iewes coates when they would haue reedified their Hierusalem was but a token of Gods wrath and vengeaunce and although it was Signum salutaris Crucis the signe of the healthfull Crosse yet was it not healthfull to them that ware it but rather a testimonie of Gods iust iudgement agaynst them Wherfore as God miraculously did worke and vsed this signe to contrary effectes sometime for comforte sometime to dispeire sometime for the godly sometime to the wicked So muste we not contrary to reason gather an vniuersall onely of the one side and contrary to his will abuse it at our pleasure If it had bene alwayes graunted to the godly and to none but them If it had bene alwayes a signe of succour and not of destruction your argumente then should haue had some apparance of troth or likelyhode Nowe by your owne examples where the wicked onely be signed with the Crosse where the Crosse doth worke nothing but confusion the groundwork of your cause is miserably shaken and you be turned ouer in your owne trip Of all your examples ye inferre your owne fansy what you do thinke Gods meaning was to shew such signes of the Crosse both vnder the law and in the time of grace but of your meaning ye bring no proufe at all eyther out of Scripture or Doctours that ye bragge of Onely for vs your ydle supposall as you thinke may serue Louain hath licenciate you Goddes vvord the ground of religion to make what lies ye lust The substantiall groūd that I spake of before whervpon we ought to builde our religion is the worde of God without the which no facte of man no particular example can proue any thing Then if ye would haue the signe of the Crosse receyued into Gods seruice ye should as well proue Gods will therein and bring his direct authoritie to vs. It suffiseth not to say This vvas once so but rather to shewe This vvas vvel so nor any one example can binde vs now without expresse cōmaundement in Gods boke for it extending to vs during for euer But you deale with gods boke as Epiphanius reporteth of heretiques Qui multos decipiunt Contra Her Lib. 1. To. 2. per malè compositam dominicorum verborum adaptatorum sapientiā Which deceiue many by the wisedome of the Lords words ilfauouredly applied As if a man should take an Image of some notable personage liuely set forth and adorned wyth pearle stone and afterward shuld deface the counterfet of a man in it make a dog or a fox of it Then if he should remoue the iewels and garnishing of the one to the picture of the other and say to them that loke vppon it This is the picture of suche a man or suche and for proufe thereof would bring the pearle and stone so cunningly cowched would ye not think him to be a crafty fellowe and yet beleue him neuer a whitte the soner Euen so fare you For in steade of the texte ye bring forth a contrary misseshapen glose and then ye apparell it with a fewe pearles of Scripture applyed as wel as a precious Diamond to the picture of a grinning dogge And yet a dogge is but a dogge although he had a byshops beste Myter on his heade no more are you but leude liars for all the patch of truth sowed on your cloke of fables Bleare not therefore the peoples eyes deceiue not your selues learne the true seruice of God out of his worde and goe no further The Crosse of Christ is necessary for vs his death and passion is onely our ioy and comforte our life and our redemption but the materiall or mysticall signe thereof is more than nedeth to daungerous to be vsed We haue the worde the ordinary meane to leade vs into all truth we must not beside the word séeke signes tokens We haue the bodies what grope we after shadowes The ende of Ceremonies Ceremonies were giuen vnto the Iewes to be a mound as it were betwene the Gentiles and them to seuer the people of God from other not onely by inward things but also by outward that the people of God should be with in that inclosure the other without and these outward rytes and obseruaunces were an assurance vnto the Iewes that they were lawefull heires of the promise and not the Gentiles But Christ came into the worlde to gather one Church of both peoples and therefore pulled downe the wall that was betwene them Decretae ceremonialia The Decrées of Ceremonies Christ followed herein the pollicy of Princes which if they will gather into societie of one kingdome as it were diuers peoples they will take away the thinges that made the difference before diuersities of coynes and lawes So Christ minding to make one people of the Iewes and Gentiles vtterly did abolish all legall ceremonies And Paul compareth them to a hande writing whereby we be bounde to God that we can not stand in argument agaynst him and deny our debt But by Christ this debte is so remitted that the obligation is cancelled that hand-writing is put out as the Apostle sayth now whē the instrumentes are cut in pieces the obligations cancelled Colos 2. the debter is set frée which we haue purchased by Christes death Wherefore we reade that the vayle of the temple tare to the ende the people might vnderstand therby that their sinnes were remitted and they discharged from burden of the lawe But when the wicked and faythles nation continued after Christes death to exercise in the temple ceremonies which had their ende before and would thrust
chapel erected for hym Ep. Iude. ◠In dede the diuel dyd attempt no lesse then to make it a matter of superstition for we reade that there was a stryfe betwixt hym and Michaell about Moses body but the Angell of the Lord withstode it And although peraduenture by some instructiō ye shall hap vpon the story of Ioseph Iosephes body who required hys brothers to cary hys bones into the lande of Canaan yet doth it not make for your reliques nother For who kneled euer to Iosephes tumbe who brought it euer into the sāctuary who lyghted euer any candell to it Only to assure them of hys fayth in Gods promises and to confirme them that the lande of promise they should enioy he wylled thē as a witnesse to take hys body with them Next vnto Moses amōg the Prophetes were Samuel and Elias Samuel 1. Samu. 25. dyed as the Scripture sayth and all Israell assēbled and mourned for hym and buried hym in hys own house more we haue not Elias was rapt in a fyry charet 2. Reg. 2. hys body was translated not into the Church but into heauen both to testifie the rewarde of immortalitie prepared for the faythful and to cut away occasion of mens Idolatry Furthermore Elisha dyed they buried him And certaine bandes of the Moabites came into the lande that yeare 2. Reg. 13. and as they were burying a man beholde they saw the soldiors therefore they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha and whē the mā was down and touched the bones of Elisha he reuiued and stode vpon hys féete Yet after so great a miracle hys bones were not trāslated there was no pilgrimage appointed to hym there was no chappel erected for hym Ecclesi 48. While he lyued sayeth Iesus the sonne of Syrach he was not moued for any prince neyther could anythyng bryng hym into subiection nothing could ouercome after hys death hys body prophecied he dyd wonders in hys lyfe and in death were hys workes meruellous Yet for al thys the people repented not So that thys miracle confirming the doctrine and calling of Elisha serued as a preaching of penāce to them and not to enforce a worshipping of the body For which cause it is plainly sayd hys body prophecied Whē zelous good Iosias 2. Reg. 23. had taken the bones of the false Prophetes out of their graues and burned them vpon the altare seeyng the sepulchre of the man of God he sayde let hym alone let none remoue hys bones Great cause in appearaunce why they shoulde haue bene remoued thence where so many wycked had lyen buried but suffered they were and honored they were not In the new testamente what shal we thynke the cause that so little mention is made eyther of the buriall or else assumptiō of the Virgin Mary whose vndefiled body was the worthy temple of the holye ghost but that the wysdome of God foresaw what michiefe and Idolatry would soone haue risen of it Mat. 14. Of Iohn Baptist we reade that after he was slayne hys disciples came and toke vp hys body Act. 8. and buryed it Likewise of Stephē whē he was stoned that certayne men that feared God caryed hym among them to be buryed and made great lamentation for hym but of their bones reseruing or bodies trāslating not a word at al. Doubtlesse if such reliques had bene thought profitable to the church of Christ there should not haue ben such silence of them Notwithstanding afterwarde vpon aboundaunce of zeale not onely the memories of the faythfull martyrs but also some parcels of their māgled bodyes began to be kept to little vse of them and ill example to their posteritie Wherefore me thynke they made a ryght good excuse that denying the body of Polycarpus to thē that sued for it sayd Ne Christo relicto hunc colere inciperent It should not be deliuered lest Christ forsaken Euse Eccel His Li. 4 cap. 16. they shoulde begin to serue hym None of the Saincts but haue left behynde them a better memoriall than a scull or a carcase in writing or in doing Let their writings thē be perused of vs the vertuous conuersatiō of their lyfe be followed and they no doubt wil be beste contented In Euchir can 5. Erasmus intreating of such superstitions as you do moste embrace sayde very wisely to the soldior of Christ Veneraris diuos gaudes eorum reliquias contingere sed contemnis quod illi reliquerunt optimum puta vitae purae exempla Nullus cultus gratior Mariae quam si Mariae humilitatem inuteris Nulla religio sanctis acceptior magisque propria quam si virtutem illorum exprimere labores Vis tibi demereri Petrum Paulum Alterius fidem alterius imitare charitatem plus feceris quam si decies Romam cursitaris That is to say Thou worshippest the Saintes thou arte glad to touche their reliques but the beste thyng that they haue lefte behynde them whiche is the examples of a pure lyfe thou contēnest No seruise more acceptable vnto Marye than if thou imitate the lowlinesse of Mary No religion more welcome and more proper vnto Saintes thā if thou study to expresse their vertue Wilt thou procure the fauor of Peter and of Paul follow and resemble the fayth of the one and charitie of the other and thou shalt do more than if thou shouldest gad ten tymes to Rome So much as touching Anastasius reliques Now that I haue proued the Crosse of Chrisostome to make nothing for you the lawes of Iustinian not to prescribe me the example of Augustine the Monke not to bynde me the trāslating of reliques not to be estemed of me it remayneth that your proufes for hauing of a Crosse at singing or saying Letany are insufficient I haue shewed you by the way whose deuyse were Letanyes whence came processyons howe farre we swarue both in the one and in the other from those wylworshippers that first inuented them I haue declared no lesse the fonde abuse of tapers and shameful superstition of Reliques in the Churche both by Gods worde and testimony of good men condemned Wherfore let vs forsakyng vanities of mens deuises seke God and seruyse of hym in Scripture Let vs walke before hym in innocency of lyfe let vs be followers of Sainctes as they were of Christ let vs in hūblenesse of our heart make our prayers vnto hym although we haue no Crosse in procession before vs. But for auoyding of the Crosse the plage of God due for our desertes let vs often vse our Godly Letanie let vs instantly alwayes say From the tyranny of the bishop of Rome and all hys detestable enormities from all false doctrine and heresie from hardnesse of hart frō contempt of thy worde and commaundement good Lord deliuer vs. To the eight Article That many straunge and vvonderfull miracles vvere vvrought by the signe of the Crosse IF signes and miracles which in these latter dayes haue
bene ofter wrought by power of the diuel then by spirite of God should be brought to confirme a doctrine in the Churche no vayne Idolatrye of the Gentiles no wycked worshippinges amoÌ„g the ChristiaÌ„s but by the same reason shal be authorised WheÌ„ Acciê° Nauius the great wisserde had dehorted Tarquin the olde froÌ„ inuocating any thing vntil he had bene stalled by hym and receyued at his handes certayne obseruaÌ„ces Liuius Deca 1. Lib. 1. the kyng scorning hys occupation wylled hym to aske couÌ„sel of hys byrdes whether it myght come to passe that he had coÌ„ceyued or no when answere was made that it might he deliuered hym a whetstone and coÌ„mauÌ„ded hym to cut it with a rasour in twoo which thing he did and therevpon the sorcerers Image was erected When the Veij were ouerthrowen their city takeÌ„ a soldior was sent Liuius Dec 1. lib. 5. to fetch away Iuno Moneta from them and when in sport he asked her whether she would go to Rome the Image answered That she would When the mother of the Gods according to Sibillaes oracle was brought froÌ„ Pessinuns and the ship beyng set on the sandes in Tyber Decadis 3 lib. 9. could by no force or policy be moued Claudia which otherwise was of suspected fame besought the Goddesse that if she thought her to be a mayde she would suffer the ship to be drawen to the shore by her girdell and so it was When Rome was afflicted with a mortall plage and euery where some dyed of the pestileÌ„ce Esculapius coÌ„ueyed from Epidauro purged the ayre conferred them health When Appius Claudius Decad. 1. li. 9 contrary to diuine responsall would haue transferred the sacrifices of Hercules to common seruauntes he had by miracle his eyes put out for it When Pyrrhus had spoiled the reuestry of Proserpina and taken away all the treasure that he found sone after he was drowned and nothing saued but onely the good Ladyes money Infinite such examples I could alleage wherby the heathen were blinded in Gentilitie as you be now in Popery But shall we gather of those that witches and wisserdes muste be consulted with that Iuno Berecynthia Esculapius Hercules and Proserpina muste haue sacrifice and seruise done them If this ye admitt not I wyll as little graunt the signe of the Crosse to be admitted for any miracle that hath bene wrought by it Iupiter and Diana with the whole rable of Ethnike Idols dyd heale many of their diseases Miracles are vvrought by the diuell And hovv and straungely deliuered them Wherof S. CypriaÌ„ doth make a feate discourse You wyll graunt I dare say that thys was done by power of the diuell And can the diuell then do such déedes CaÌ„ he heale can he restore He can when Gods pleasure is and he doth amonge them that are subiecte to hys tyranny that wyll walke in a popish blyndnesse before whose eyes he casteth such a mist that they thynke themselues in the meane while to be worshippers of God and to be ayded of hym For the diuell hymselfe hath so ill a name that if he were neuer so déere to men yet they would not professe hym openly nor call vpon hym by expresse wordes Wherefore he doeth so daze the myndes of them that he hath gotten vnder hys rule that they thynke with themselues they serue no man lesse than the diuell when he in dede puls them cleane awaye from the worshipping of God and saluatioÌ„ that is in him to make them partakers of hys vnhappy state and condemnation Therfore these wicked spirites do lurke in shrines in roodes in Crosses in Images and first of all peruerte the priestes which are easiest to be caught with bayte of a little gayne Then worke they miracles They appeare to men in diuerse shapes dysquiete them when they are awake trouble them in their slepes distorte their members take away their health afflicte them with diseases only to bryng them to some Idolatry Thus wheÌ„ they haue obtayned their purpose that a leude affiaunce is reposed where it should not they enter as it were into a new leage and trouble them no more What do the simple people then verely suppose that the Image the Crosse the thyng that they haue kneled and offered vnto the very diuell in dede hath restored them health whereas he dyd nothyng but leaue of to molest them Hac est enim as S. Cyprian saith ipsorummedela cum cessat ipsorum iniuria Thys is the helpe and cure that the diuels giue when they leaue of their wrong and iniury Nor truly we can not iustly alleage that such thynges were done among the Gentiles only nor yet only among the Iewes as we do reade it was Deu. 13. But among the Christians it both hath bene and shal be so S. Paul hath a notable place in his seconde Epistle to the Thessalonians 2. Thes 2. the seconde Chap. The wycked man sayth the Apostle shal be reuealed whose comming is by the workyng of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders And in all deceauablenesse of vnrighteousnesse among them that perishe Wherby it is euident that signes and wonders shal be wrought in the tyme of Antichrist that shal be able to seduce if it be possible the very elect Haue we not warning in the gospell that some shall come to Christ after suche a sort in the latter day saying Domine domine Math. 7. non ne per nomen tuum prophetauimus Et per non tuum daemonia eiecimus Et per nomen tuum multas virtutes praestitimus Lorde Lorde haue we not by thy name prophecied and by thy name caste oute diuels and by thy name done many greate workes To whome God shall answere notwithstanding Nescio vos I knowe you not So that it is not a sufficiente proufe to make the thing good to say that miracles were wrought by it God doth abhorre adultery yet by the acte of it sometyme doth he suffer a miracle to be done in the conception the generation the brynging of the childe into lyfe God is offended with theft yet doth he suffer stollen bread to fede vs whiche is onely the power of hys miraculous and secrete working Nowe if ye gather that the vse of the Crosse is commendable bicause of miracles done by it by the same reason the adulterer and théefe maye defende and mayntayne theyr vnlawfull doings bicause as great and greater miracles are wrought by theÌ„ Notwithstanding I know some miracles are better than other some and great difference there is betwixte them Christ and hys Apostles wrought miracles so dyd Symon Magus and other sorcerers But as Gods glory was furthered by them so priuate gaine was soughte for in these As for the heauenly doctrine of Christ a confirmation was fet from miracles so is there no diuelish superstition but the same hath had straunge woÌ„ders for it Wherefore S. Augustine Augustinê° de ciuitat dei li. 10. Cap. 16. hath a goodly rule