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A07146 The reliques of Rome contayning all such matters of religion, as haue in times past bene brought into the Church by the Pope and his adherentes: faithfully gathered out of the moste faithful writers of chronicles and histories, and nowe newly both diligently corrected & greatly augmented, to the singuler profit of the readers, by Thomas Becon. 1563. Becon, Thomas, 1512-1567. 1563 (1563) STC 1755; ESTC S101368 243,805 590

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custome ought to geue place to the opē truth Let no mā preferre custome before reason truth for reason and truth doth alwayes put custome to silence We must heare and do that saith Saint Cyprian that Christ hath done that he hath also cōmaunded to be done seing that he sayeth in his Gospell If ye do those thynges that I commaunde you I will call you no more seruauntes but frendes And that Christ alone ought to he heard the father euen from heauen testifieth saying This is my welbeloued son in whom I haue greate delight heare ye hym Wherefore if Christ alone is to be hearde we ought not to attēd marke and take hede what any mā that hath bene before vs thought good to be done but what he did which is before al that is to say Christ. Agayn he saith We may not follow the custome of man but the truth of God seyng that God speaketh by the Prophet Esay sayth They worship me in vaine teaching the commaundementes and doctrines of men Doth not God in his holy worde cōmaūd his people the Israelites that they should not follow the customes neither of the Egyptians nor of the Cananites but rather walke in his ordinaunces fulfill his lawes and statutes Is not this Gods precept Followe not the multitude to do euill Again do not ye those thynges whiche they haue done that were before you neither be ye defiled in them As the custome is not to be reiected but receaued that is agreable to the truth of Gods worde so lykewise is that custome not to be receaued but reiected y t dissenteth from the veretie of Gods pure religion Forasmuch therfore as the greatest parte of the old customes that be frequēted vsed in the popes Church are wicked vngodly manifestly directly cōtrary to the worde of God the obiectiō that our Papistes make in this behalfe is nothing worth neitheer ought it to be vnto thē any let to hinder them frō commynge vnto the vndeceueable truth of Gods worde Some also to defēd their errours heresies maintaine their obstinate blindnesse and blind obstinacie allege for their defence the auncient writers and Doctors of Christes Churche affirming that their doctrine dissenteth greatlye from oures therfore worthy to be hyssed out hated abhorred detested of Gods Church I aunswere If they vnderstand by the auncient writers Doctors of Christs Church Duns Dorbel Thomas Tartaret Biel Brulefer Barnard Bonauenture Petrus de Palude Petrus de Luna Ioannes Capredli Ioannes Holkot Albert Magnus Augustinus de Ancona with Occam Gerson Durande Petrus de Alico Ala●us Herugus Auredlus Ataxanꝰ Pelbertus Car●esius Michael Lochmeir Iacobus de valentia to many such like then we geue thē ouer and consēt vnto thē seyng that these many h●●dreds moe were the popes sworne chaplaynes making him with their fophistrie a God his coūterfaite Religion true Godlynesse But if they meane those aūcient writers Doctors of Christs Church which were before the days of Gregorius Magnus byshop of Rome thē we freely cōfesse that whether they take the Doctors of the Greke or Latin Church they make very little or nothyng for thē for the maintenaunce of their poperie so altogether vnknowē to thē was the supersticion Idolatry whiche is now commōly vsed in the popish Churches although I muste nedes confesse that there is none among the aunciēt writers that hath not his errours his ouersights his faultes that y ● may be found true which is writtē God alone is true but euerye man is a lyar But let it be graunted that there were found in the old writers as who sometime slydeth not Accordyng to the common prouerbe Aliquādo bonus dormitat Homeru● That might seme at the firste blush to confirme stablish to proue approue any part of the popes religious religion is the matter therfore cocke sure But the olde writers Catholike Doctors require no such reuerēce to be shewed nor no such credit to be geuen to their writings as though they could not erre which cōfesse thēselues to erre as their aūcestoures haue done before thē will that nothing should be credited as an vndoubted veritie but only the sacred scriptures whose authoritie to resiste of whose veritie to doubt they alwayes counted a great offence Are not these the wordes of Saint Ambrose We vtterly cōdēne al new things that christ hath not taught for Christ is the way to the faithfull If Christ ●herefore haue not taught that whiche we do teache euen we our selues iudge it detestable and abhominable Are not these the words also of the aūciēt Greke writer Origene We must nedes allege the holye Scriptures for a witnesse For our vnderstandinges and expositions without these witnesses are not to be credited nor beleued S. Hierome calleth it garrulitie or pratling whatsoeuer is taught without the authoritie of the holy Scriptures Theophilacte feared not to saye that they whiche bring in any thing into the Church of Christ besides the doctrine of the Apostles bring in slaunders and heresies dissensions Here se we in what estimation the auncient Doctors desyre theyr writtings to be had Uerely so farre to be credited and receaued as they agree with the word of God If they in any point dissent from that then not to be receaued but to be reiected not approued but reproued so farre is it of that they would haue their workes to be the patrōs and defenders of wycked doctrine idolatry superstition c. Some againe pretende an excuse of theyr obstinacie the forefathers which liued before our daies They say they neuer receaued this doctrine neuer beleued as we are taught c. And yet we doubt not they are saued I aunswere If they speake of the forefathers whiche liued of late yeares in the tymes of ignorācie blindnesse in the dayes of Papistrie and false Religion I graunt that they neuer receaued so purely the doctrine of Christes Gospell as we do at this present as people seduced from the way of truth thorow the suttle persuasions and craftye reasons of the fleshely hipocrites and filthy Papistes while they wrapped them in al kinde of blindnesse to the ende that they might see no truth in a manner but seke theyr saluation at theyr handes at theyr prayers fastes masses c. and by this meanes be made the very slaues and captiues of these spirituall Sorcerers although I must nedes cōfesse that they agreed with vs and we with them in the principal articles of the Christen Religion albeit farre out of the way from the true vnderstanding of thē For they knew not the office of Christ nor vnto what ende God the father sent him into this worlde and therfore went they about on begging for their saluatiō to this creature and that creature to this Saint and that Saint to this blocke and that stocke to this pardon
manner Wo and euerlastyng damnation hangeth ouer the heades of those disobedient and shrincking children whiche will begyn a councell without me Wo ▪ be vnto thē that will take a secrete aduice and not out of my spirit and therfore adde they synne vnto sinne Againe Wo be vnto thē ▪ that make vnrighteous lawes and deuise thynges whiche he to harde for to kepe where thorowe the poore are oppressed on euery side and the innocentes of my people robbed of iudgemēt that widowes may be theyr praye that they may robbe the fatherlesse All such councellers with theyr councels are not to be receaued but to be reiected bicause they are against the Lord against his annointed Notable is the sentēce of S. Cyprian How dare they stablish any thing without Christe whose both whole hope and faith power and glory is in Christ. All councels whether they be priuate or publique nationall or generall ought to geue place to the word of God which is a lanterne to our feete and a light to our pathwayes We ought to beleue no mā saith Saint Hierome without the word of God Gersō feareth not to say that we ought more to beleue a mā that is well learned in the holy scripture bringeth forth the Catholike authoritie thā a generall councell The councell hath no authoritie for to stablishe any thing cōtrary to the word of God For it is not truth but errour whatsoeuer is determined against the scripture And we ought not to take hede vnto the trifles fond imaginatiōs of mē but to the doctrine of the holy ghost Abbot Panormi●anꝰ that great Lawyer saith also More faith is to be geuen euen to a lay man that allegeth bringeth forth the scripture than to an whole councell Agayne In matters cōcerning faith the saying of one priuate person ought to be preferred before the Popes saying if he can bring forth better authoritie of the new olde Testamēt than the pope can That is the doctrine of the holy ghost saith s. Hierome which is set forth in the Canonical scriptures against the whiche doctrine if the councels enacte any thing iudge it wicked vnlawfull All good mē euē frō the begynning haue attributed such so great authoritie to the word of God that they haue preferred that before the writtings counsels of al men without exception although neuer so wise neuer so Godly The councels therefore of men ought to be vnto the aduersaries no cloke or shadow of their disobedient obstinacie obstinate disobedience to plucke thē awaye from the truth of Gods worde Furthermore there are an other sort whiche obiecte and bring against vs the multitude and great nūber saying that fewe are they little is the nūber that embrace y e doctrine of y e Gospellers Protestāts but innumerable are theī infinite is the nūber of thē that receaue and embrace their olde auncient Catholike mother holy Churches doctrine whereof it muste nedes follow that where the greatest nūber is there is the most certain truth I aunswere w t our sauior Christ Enter in at the streight gate for the wide is the gate broad is y e way that leadeth to destructiō many they be which go in thereat But streight is the gate narow is the way which leadeth vnto life fewe they be that find it Again many are called few are cho●ē The holy Apostle s. Paule saith Lord who hath beleued our preaching If we consider either y e sētēces or histories of the holy Bible we shal easly perceaue that the greatest nūber is alway the worste the most wicked When the whole worlde was drowned eight persōs only except Did not the lesser nūber excel the greater in goodnes Godlinesse God by his mightie hande outstretched arme deliuered out of Egipt aboue .600 thousād mē of the which .ii. onely that is to say Iosua Caleb entred into the land of promise bicause they beleued the promise of God the other were vnfaythful and inconstante In the tyme of wicked King Achab and of hys most wicked wife Queene Iezabel there were aboue .400 false Prophetes besides the Nobilitie and Comunaltie whiche resisted the wayes of the Lord and in sight but one alone that stoutly defended the Lordes truth agaynst the wicked and Idolatrous multitude About the number of .400 false Prophetes told king Achab that he should prosper in his warres returne home safe agayne whiche deceaued him Micheas alone tolde him the cōtrary so came it to passe When Christ was borne fewe receaued hym and embraced hym knowledging him to be the promised Messias Sauiour of the world as Mary his Mother Ioseph her husbād Zacharie the priest Elizabeth his wife the wise mē that came out of the East partes the shepeheardes Simeon Anna with fewe other but innumerable thousandes hated him set nought hy him persecuted hym and sought all meanes possible to murther hym When Christ toke vpon him the office of preaching at the commaundemēt of his father who embraced his doctrine but a fewe poore people vyle and of no estimation in the sight of the galant and wyse worldlyngs As it is written Not many wise men after the fleshe not many mighty not many of hye degree are called And as the Pharesees said to theyr ministers when they came home from Christs Sermon Are ye also deceaued Doth any of the Rulers or of the Pharesees beleue on him But this cōmon people whiche know not the lawe are cursed Did not the sede as we reade in the Gospell that was sowen fall into .iiii. partes and one parte onely brought forth good frute Did not a certaine man make a supper and called many and yet there came none but a fewe poore people halte lame feble blynde c. Bishop Cayphas gathered a councell where were present a great rable of bloudy hypocrites to condemne Christ no mā at all taking Christes part Against the Apostles of Christ assembled and gathered thē selues together the priestes the Rulers of the temple the Saduces the Pharesees the Scribes the Lawyers and Annas the chief priest and Cayphas and Iohn and Alexander and as many as were of the kinred of y e high priests but who rose vp to take their partes and to defend y e innocēcie of their cause What a swarme of helhoundes flocked together to condēne blessed Stephen and to stone hym vnto death no man once speakyng one worde for hym What multitudes from tyme to tyme came agaynste Paule as we may see in the Actes of Apostles to accuse him and to make hym out of the way and howe fewe or rather none toke his parte After the Apostles tyme what swarmes of tyrauntes and beastly hypocrites rose vp againste the poore little company of the faythfull Christians murthering thē without al pitie or mercy As it is written For thy sake are
Christe in his members than he was in tymes paste The aduersaries of Gods truth haue no delight nor pleasure in heauenly and spirituall thyngs but like bellie beastes only borne to consume the good frutes of the earth they desire and seke after nothyng but the thynges of this world that their sonnes as the Psalmographe sayth may grow vp as the younge plantes and that their doughters maye be as the polyshed corners of the temple that their garners maye be full and plenteous with all manner of store ▪ that their shepe may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in their stretes that their Oxen may be strong to labour that there be no decay no leding into captiuitie and no complayning in their stretes If all thinges go well and prosperously with them then are they mery and diligently offer sacrifice to to their God the belly But if any aduersity come then knitte they the forehead and worke their malice vpon Gods word and the faithfull professours of the same The worde they call heresie erroure doctrine new and straunge seditious and cause of rebellion of all other plages wherwith the commō weale is afflicted The professoures of thys worde they blaspheme they ●aile vpon they curse with booke bell candle they excommunicate they apprehende they accuse they condemne they stocke they cheane they manacle ▪ they racke and in fine they most cruelly with sweard fyre and halter brynge them vnto an ende so farre is it of that these Epicures and bellygods do as they ought render thankes to God for his corporall benefites so richely poured vpon them and vpon other his creatures Now as touching the spiritual benefites and heauenly giftes of the minde as the knowledge of the holy scriptures the vnderstanding of the Lordes blessed will the preaching of the Gospel the true administration of the Sacramēts the abolishment of all false worshippings superstitions c. wherwith God in this our age hath most mercifully blessed vs ▪ far passing many other nations that be vnder the heauens as these wise wicked worldlinges knowledge not the benefits of the body nor yet are thanckfull to God for them so likewise are they altogether vnthanckfull for the gifts of the minde whiche do so far excel the other as gold surmoūteth coper or siluer tynne For lyke as Owles cā not abyde the golden and glysteryng beames of the Sunne nor the light of y e day so in lyke māner cā not these bellygods and Antichristes slaues suffer the glorious and pleasaunt light of Christes most glorious and pleasaunt Gospel They crye out with the wicked of whō the Prophet maketh mētion on thys manner Se not Loke not out right thynges for vs but speake fayre wordes vnto vs. Loke out erroures Get you out of this way Depart out of this pathe and turne the holy one of Israel frō vs. In the trifling traditiōs ▪ croked constitutions idle inuētiōs drousy dreames deuilish decrees false fables fond fantasies of mē is theyr whole delight as for the sincere pure religion of God that they vtterly neglect set at nought cōtēne despise And if for shame they seme to approue alowe any part therof yet they do so māgle it bring it in captiuitie to the traditiōs of mē that it looseth the sincere simplicitie simple sinceritie whiche it receaued of the holye Ghost Some of thē are not ashamed so to diminish the authoritie of Gods sacred scriptures that they affirme the word of God to be so far the worde of God as the Church doth allowe it meaning the pope his spiritual shauelinges as though God gaue vs in his holy Scriptures an vnperfecte doctrine and not sufficiently authorised of him without the consent of Antichrist of hys broode Is not this to set God to schole and to make him a Nouice So should it follow that the word of God is grounded on the Church not the Churche on the worde of God Is not this right Antichrist that should turne y e rootes of trees vpwarde Christ saith speaking of his Church My shepe heare my voyce Againe he that is of god heareth the wordes of god Itē Euery one that is of y e truth heareth my voice And the holy Apostle saith speaking to the faithfull congregation of God Ye are no straungers and forreyners but citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built vpon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophetes Iesus Christe hymselfe beyng the head corner stone in whome what buyldyng soeuer is coupled together it groweth vnto an holye temple in the Lorde The worde of God is not buylte vpon men althoughe neuer so holye and perfect neyther receaueth it any authoritie of mā although of neuer so greate excellencie wysedome and power but such as are the congregation of God are built vpon the worde of God whatsoeuer authoritie they haue euerye one in their degree and office they haue it altogether of Gods worde without the whiche word there can be no Church for asmuch as there cā be no faith as the Apostle saith Faith cōmeth by hearing and hearing commeth by the worde of God so farre is it of that either pope or Cardinall or anye other person hath any power to geue authoritie to the worde of God whiche already is authorized by the most hygh and supreme power euen God himselfe Some obiect olde and aūcient customes affirming that this our religion as they terme it new and straunge dissēteth in order and vsage greatly from the manner heretofore practised in our temples I graunt neither can the sinceritie of Gods worde suffer and abyde such olde vnsauory croked customes as heretofore haue bene vsed in the popish Religion as the coniuring of salte water bread bowes flowers fire ashes cādles c. creping to the crosse worshipping of Images calling vpon dead Sainctes sensing of altares Idols praying in a straūge tong offering the missall sacrifice for the quicke and for the dead receauyng of the Sacrament vnder one kind with a thousand moe errours and heresies and other greuous abuses which of longe vsage and custome in tymes past haue bene exercised among vs taken for true Godlynesse But who knoweth not ▪ that custome ought to geue place to reason and truth for reason and truth exclude alwaye put out of place custome be it neuer so olde and auncient laudable and commendable Christ is the truth therfore ought we rather to followe the truth than the custome If thou lay to our charge custome sayth S. Gregorye Thou must marke what the Lorde saith I am saith he the way the truth and the life He sayd not I am the custome but I am the truth Custome without truth saith Saint Cyprian is nothing els thā an olde errour Therfore leauing the error let vs followe the truth When the truth is once come to light saith Saint Austen let custome geue place For who doubteth that