Holy Fathers the Prophets the Apostles against St. Peter St. Paul and even against Christ himself 7. BUT now if they are so ambitious of the Honour of being thought polite and eloquent Slanderers it does so much the less befit us to be mute and careless in the Defence of our most excellent Cause for it is certainly the part only of dissolute Men who can securely and wickedly shut their Eyes when the Divine Majesty is injured to be wholly unconcern'd what is tho' falsly and unjustly said of them and their Cause especially when it is of that Nature that the Glory of God and the Affairs of Religion are at the same time violated for although other and those often very great Injuries may be born and dissembl'd by a modest Christian yet He saith Ruffinus who shall patiently put up the Name of an Heretick does not deserve to be called a Christian Permit us then to do that which all Laws and the very Voice of Nature commands us that which Christ himself did when he was in a like Case assaulted with Reproaches that is suffer us to repel their Defamations and with Modesty and Truth to defend our Cause and Innocence for Christ himself when the Pharisees charged him with Conjuration as if he had entered a Combination with impure Spirits and by their Assistance wrought many Wonders replied I have not a Devil but I honour my Father and ye do dishonour me and St. Paul when he was undervalued by Festus the Proconsul as a Mad-man answered I am not mad most noble Festus but speak forth the Words of Truth and Soberness And the Primitive Christians when they were traduced to the People as Murtherers Adulterers Incestuous Persons and Disturbers of the Government and saw that the Excellence of their Religion might be call'd in question especially if they held their Peace and by their Silence seemed to confess the truth of these Accusations and so the Course of the Gospel might be hindered they thereupon made publick Orations wrote supplicant Books and discoursed before Emperors and Princes in the publick defence of themselves and the Chruch 8. BUT we perhaps may seem not to need any Defence so many thousands of our Brethren in the last twenty years having born testimony to the Truth amidst the most exquisite Tortures and Princes in endeavouring to put a stop to the Progress of the Gospel and to that purpose using several Methods having yet in the end been able to effect nothing and the whole World now beginning to open their Eyes and to see the Light and therefore it may seem as I said that enough hath been spoken and that our Case is sufficiently defended the thing speaking for it self for if the Popes themselves would or indeed if they could consider with themselves the Beginning and Progress of our Religion how theirs without any Resistance without any humane Force hath fallen and in the interim ours hath increased and by degrees been propagated into all Countries and hath been entertained in the Courts of Kings and the Palaces of Princes even whilst it was opposed from the beginning by Emperors by Kings by Popes and almost by all others these things I say are clear Indications that God himself sights for us and doth from Heaven deride and scorn their Projects and Endeavours and that the Power of Truth is so great that no humane Force nor the very Gates of Hell shall ever be able to prevail against it for so many free Cities so many Princes cannot be supposed mad as at this day have fallen from the See of Rome and chosen rather to joyn themselves to the Gospel 9. FOR although Popes have not as yet at any time been at leisure to think attentively and seriously of these things or although other Thoughts may now hinder and distract them or they may think these things light and beneath the Dignity of the Popedom is our Cause therefore to be thought ever the worse or if perhaps they will pretend not to see what indeed they do see and that they choose rather to oppose the Truth even then when they are convinced of it are we therefore presently to be reputed Hereticks because we cannot comply with their Wills If Pope Pius the IIII. had been such a Person as his Name speaks him and as he so much desires to be thought nay indeed if he had but been so good a man as to have esteem'd us as his Brethren or as MEN certainly he would diligently have considered our Reasons and what could have been alledged for and against us and not with so rash and blindfold a precipitancy have condemned without hearing our cause or allowing the Liberty of a Defence so considerable a part of the World so many learned so many Religious men so many Common-wealths so many Kings and so many Princes as he has sentenced in his Bull concerning his late pretended Council 10. BUT now because We are so publickly in this unjust manner noted by him left by our silence we should seem to confess the Crimes charged upon us and the rather because we could in no manner be heard in any publick Council where he would suffer none to have any Suffrage or propose his Judgment who was not first sworn to him and intirely addicted to his Interest for of this we had too great an experience in the last Council of Trent when the Ambassadors and Divines of the Princes and free Cities of Germany were totally excluded out of the Council nor can we forgot that Julius the III. above ten years since took a mighty care by his Rescript that none of our Men might be heard in the Council except it were one that was disposed to recant and change his Opinion For these causes I say we have thought fit by this Book to give an account of our Faith and to answer truly and publickly what hath been publickly objected against us that the whole World may see the Parts and Reasons of that Faith which so many good men have valued above their Lives and that all Mankind may understand what kind of men they are and what they think of God and Religion whom the Bishop of Rome has inconsiderately enough before they had made their Defence without Example and without Law condemn'd for Hereticks upon a bare report that they differed from him and his in some points of Religion 11. AND though St. Jerome will allow no man to be patient under the Suspicion of Heresie yet we will not behave our selves neither sowerly nor irreverently nor angerly tho' he ought not to be esteemed either sharp or abusive who speaks nothing but the truth no we will leave that sort of Oratory to our Adversaries who think whatsoever they speak although it be never so sharp and reproachful modest and apposite when it is applied to us and they are as little concern'd whether it be true or false but we who defend nothing but the Truth have no need of such base
Horse conveyed him to the Lady Ann Warcupps a Widow who entertained him for some time and then sent him up to London where he was in more safety HAVING twice or thrice changed his Lodgings in London Sir Nicholas Throgmorton a great Minister of State in those times furnished him with Money for his Journey and procured him a Ship for his Transportation beyond the Seas And well it had been if he had gone sooner but his Friend Mr. Parkhurst hearing of the restoring of the Mass fled forthwith and poor Mr. Jewel knowing nothing of it went to Cleave to beg his advice and assistance being almost killed by his long Journey on foot in bitter cold and snowy weather and being forced at last to return to Oxon more dejected and confounded in his thoughts than he went out which Miseries were the occasions of his fall as Gods Mercy was the procurer both of his escape and recovery FOR being once arrived at Franckford in the beginning of the second year of Queen Mary's Reign he found there Mr. Richard Chambers his old Benefactor Dr. Robert Horne afterwards Bishop of Winchester Dr. Sands Bishop of London Sir Francis Knowles a Privy Counsellor and afterwards Lord Treasurer and his eldest Son c. these received Jewel with the more kindness because he came unexpectedly and unhoped for and advised him to make a publick Recantation of his Subscription which he willingly did in the Pulpit the next Lords-day in these words It was my abject and cowardly mind and saint heart that made my weak hand to commit this wickedness Which when he had uttered as well as he could for tears and sighs he applied himself in a servent Prayer first to God Almighty for his Pardon and afterwards to the Church the whole Auditory accompanying him with Tears and Sighes and ever after esteeming him more for his ingenuous Repentance than they would perhaps have done if he had not fallen IT is an easie thing for those that were never tried to censure the frailty of those that have truckled for some time under the shock of a mighty Temptation but let such remember St. Paul's advice Let him that standeth take heed least he fall This great Mans fall shall ever be my Lesson and if this glistering Jewel were thus clowded and foil'd God be merciful to me a Sinner Mr. JEWEL had not been long at Franckford before Peter Martyr hearing of it often sollicited him to come to Strasburgh where he was now settled and provided for and all things considered a wonder it is that he did not perish in England For there was no Person more openly aimed at than he because none of them had given wider Wounds than he to the Catholick Cause One Tresham a Senior Canon of Christ-Church who had held some Points against him at his first coming thither now took the benefit of the times to be revenged on him and incited those of Christ-Church and of other Houses to affront him publickly So that not finding any safety at Oxford he retired to Lambeth to Cranmer where he was sure of as much as the place could afford him A Consultation had been held by some of the more fiery Spirits for his commitment unto Prison But he came thither as was well known on the publick Faith which was not to be violated for the satisfaction of some private Persons It was thought fit threfore to discharge him of all further imployment and to license him to depart in peace none being more forward to furnish him with all things for his going hence than the new Lord Chancellor Bishop Gardiner whether in honour to his Learning or out of a desire to send him packing shall not now be questioned but less humanity was shewed to him in his Wife whose Body having been buried in the Church of St. Frideswide was afterwards by publick order taken out of the Grave and buried in a common Dunghill But in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth was removed and her bones mixed with St. Francis And the truth is the Queen who was a bigotted Papist and too much Priest-ridden breaking not only her promise to the men of Suffolk who had stood by her in her greatest necessity and treating them with extream severity for but challenging the performance of her promise one Dobbe who had spoken more boldly than the rest being ordered to stand three days in the Pillory but also her more solemn engagement made the Twelfth of August 1553. in the Council That altho her Conscience was staid in the Matters of Religion yet she was resolved not to compel or strain others otherwise than as God should put into their Hearts a perswasion of that truth she was in and this she hoped should be done by the opening his word to them by Godly vertuous and learned Preachers I say considering how ill she kept her promise to her own Subjects it is a wonder she should keep the Faith given to this Stranger in her Brothers Reign and not by her and I conceive no reason can be given for this but the over-ruling Providence of God who governs the hearts of Princes as he thinks fit BUT well it was for Mr. Jewel that there he was and as much of Mr. Jewel's Sufferings in England had been occasion'd by his great respects he had shewn to Peter Martyr whilest he lived at Oxon So now Peter Martyr never left solliciting him as I said to come to him to Strasbourgh till he prevailed where he took him to his own Table and kept him always with him And here Mr. Jewel was very serviceable to him in his Edition of his Commentaries upon the Book of Judges which were all transcribed for the Press by him and he used also to read every day some part of a Father to him and for the most part St. Augustin with which Father they were both much delighted AT Strasbourgh Mr. Jewel found J. Poynet late Bishop of Winchester Edmund Grindal Arch-bishop of York Sir Edwin Sands J. Cheeke and Sir Anthony Coke Kt. and several other great Men of the English Nation who were fled thither for their Religion And with these he was in great esteem which open'd a way for his preferment upon his return into England after the Storm was over PETER Martyr having been a long time sollicited by the Senate of Zurick to go thither and take upon him the place of Professor of Hebrew and Interpreter of the Scriptures in the place of Conrad Pellican who was almost the first Professor of Hebrew in Christendom and died about this time near an hundred years of Age at last accepted the Office and carried Mr. Jewel with him to Zurick where he lived still with Peter Martyr in his own Family Here he found James Pilkinton Bishop of Durham and several others who were maintained by the Procurement of Richard Chambers but out of the Purses of Mr. Richard Springham Mr. John Abel Mr. Thomas Eton Merchants of London and several
future by which it might be proved he was of another Nation So these men pretending that all their Innovations were consigned to them by Christ and his Apostles and desiring they should be accordingly esteemed lest there should be any thing any where extant which might contradict these Dreams and Shams either burn or suppress the Scriptures and keep them from the People St. Chrysostom has written very well and appositely against such men as these Hereticks saith he shut the Gates of Truth for they know if they be kept open the Church will never be thought theris And Theophylact stiles the Word of God a Candle by the Light of which a Thief may be discovered And Tertullian saith the Scriptures convict the Frauds and Thefts of Hereticks For why else do they hide and suppress the Gospel which Christ commanded his Disciples to publish from the House top Why else do they indeavour to put that Candle under a Bushel which ought to be set in a Candlestick Why do they trust more to the Ignorance Blindness and Folly of the Multitude than to the Goodness of their Cause Do they think their Arts are not disclosed or that as if they had Gyges his Ring they can go undiscovered The World sees now with both Eyes what is so carefully locked up in the Cabinet of the Popes Breast this one Argument is sufficient to prove they do not act well and sincerely that Cause deserves to be suspected which declines a Scrutiny and hates the Light for as Christ saith he that doth Evil seeks Darkness and hates the Light but a mind conscious of what is good willingly comes forth that the Works which come from God may be seen but these Gentlemen are not so blind but they see what will become of their Kingdom if the Scriptures come once to be generally known and as it is said of old all the Idols of the Demons which before gave Oracles suddenly became dumb upon the appearance of Christ upon Earth so now will all their Arts at the approach of the Gospel sink down into Ruins and Rubbish for Antichrist is not to be deposed by any other thing than the Brightness of the coming of Christ 29. WE do not like them presently betake our selves to Fire and Sword but to the Scriptures nor do we assault them with force and Arms but with the Word of God By them as Tertullian saith we nourish our Faith by them we erect our Hope by them we establish our Confidence for we know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Power of God unto Salvation and that in it there is eternal life and as St. Paul admonisheth us we would refuse to hear an Angel of God that came from Heaven if he endeavoured to turn us away from any part of this Doctrine Yea as that most holy man Juastin Martyr said of himself we would not believe God himself if he should teach us another Gospel for whereas they make the Holy Scriptures like silent Masses dumb and useless and appeal rather to God himself speaking in the Church and in Councilâ— that is to their own better Senses and Opiâ—nions that is a very uncertain and dangerouâ— way of finding out Truth and in a sort Phaâ—natical and which was never approved bâ— the Holy Fathers St. Chrysostom saith indeedâ— that many boast of the Holy Spirit but if theâ— they speak what is their own they glory falsly 〈◊〉 what they have not for saith he as Christ denied that he spake from himself when he spake out of the Law and the Prophets so now if anâ—â—thing besides the Gospel is obtruded upon us undeâ— the Name of the Holy Ghost it is not to be believâ—ed for as Christ is the Completion of the Laâ— and the Prophets so the Spirit is the Completion 〈◊〉 the Gospel CHAP. V. Concerning the Answers and Objections out of the Fathers and Councils BUT though they have not the Scriptures on their side perhaps they will pretend they have the ancient Doctors and the Holy Fathers for that they have ever boasted that all Antiquity and the perpetual Consent of all times is for them and that all our Pretences are Novel and were never heard of till within the course of a very few years last past 2. NOW certainly there can nothing of more weight be said against Religion then that it is new We know not how this has come to pass but from the beginning of the World thus it hath ever been for whensoever God hath discovered and restored to Mankind the light of his Truth tho it is not only of the utmost Antiquity but older than time it self and eternal yet it ever seems to wicked men who hate it to be new and of no Antiquity That impious and bloody man Haman that he might bring the Jews into disfavour thus accused them to Assâ—erus Thou O King hast here in thy Dominions a certain People scattered abroad which observeth new Laws but is stubborn and rebellious against thy Laws St. Paul also when he began first to preach the Gospel to the Athenians was said to be a Setter forth of strange Gods that is of a new Religion and accordingly thus they bespeak him May we know what this new Doctrine whereof thou speakest is And Celsus when he wrote expresly against Christ and his Gospel that he might expose it to the scorn of men under the pretence of its Novelty writes thus What saith he has God after so many Ages now at last bethought himself Eusebius also is our Author that from the beginning the Christian Religion was in derision stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new and strange Religion and so our Adversaries condemn all our Doctrines as new and strange but then they desire that all their own without exception should be reputed most ancient just as the Magicians and Conjurers whose business is with the infernal Spirits that their abominable Art may be thought the more sublime and divine as being derived from great Patrons and Inventors and of a very ancient Original do commonly say that they have their Books and all their Rites and secret Mysteries from Athanasius Cyprian Moses Abel and Adam and from the Arch-Angel Raphael So our Enemies that their Religion too which they have not long since patch'd up for themselves may with the more â—ase be recommended to ignorant men and those that rarely consider what themselves or others do pretend that it came down to them just such as now it is from St. Augustin St. Hierom St. Chrysostom and St. Ambrose from the Apostles and Christ for they very well know that there is nothing more popular and of greater esteem with men than those venerable Names But now what if those things they pretend are so new do indeed prove to be most ancient and what if on the other side almost all those things which they extol so very much upon the pretence of Antiquity when they are well and
these as his own tho he would yet he cannot commit Simony But then how well or rationally this is spoken we poor Men cannot see or understand except as the ancient Romans served Victory so they have served Truth for when she once came flying to them they clipt her Wings that she might no more sly from them But what if Jeremias should tell them as we have observed above that these are lying Words And what again if he should say That many Pastors who ought to have dressed have destroyed my Vineyard What if Christ should say that those who should have taken the greatest care of the Temple have made the House of God a Dâ—n of Thieves For if the Church of Rome cannot Err she is more beholding to her own good Fortune than to their Prudence or Care for such are their Lives Doctrines and Diligence that if we are to take our Measures from thence this Church is not only in danger of falling into â—rror but of a total Ruine and Destruction And certainly if that Church can err which hath departed from the Word of God the Commandments of Christ the Institutions of the Apostles the Examples of the Primitive Church and from the Canons and Sanctions of the ancient Fathers and Councils yea and from her own too which will be obliged by neither old nor new Laws by neither her own nor any others by neither Divine nor Humane Laws I say if all this be to err then it is certain that the Church of Rome not only may err but that she hath most wickedly and lewdly erred 11. BUT they say we were once of their Communion but now we are Apostates and have departed from them indeed we have departed from them and we bless the Great and Holy God for it and please our selves mightily in it but then we have not departed from the Primitive Church from the Apostles from Christ we were educated indeed with them in darkness and ignorance of God as Moses was in the Discipline and bosom of the Egyptians We were of your Number saith Tertullian and I confess it but what wonder is there in that Men are made and not born Christians But then I may as well ask them why they have descended from the seven Hills on which the ancient City of Rome stood to dwell in the Plains in the Martian Field to which perhaps they would reply that the Aquaeducts without which they could not conveniently dwell on those Hills have failed Let them then but grant the same liberty in relation to the Waters of Life which they expect we should afford them in regard of the common Family-water The Springs did now fail with them The Elders saith Jeremiah sent their little ones to the Waters they came to the Pits and found no Water they returned with their Vessels empty they were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads Or as Isaiah saith The Poor and the Needy seek Water and there is none and their Tongue faileth for thirst They had broken all their Conduits and Water-courses they had stopped up all the Springs and covered the Fountain of Living Waters with mire and mud and as Caligula by shutting up all the publick Granaries enjoyned the People of Rome to fast so they by stopping up the Fountains of the Word of God had enjoyned the People to undergo the Miseries of a destructive Thirst they have as the Prophet Amos saith brought upon the World a Famine Not a Famine of Bread nor a thirst for Water but of hearing the Words of the Lord. Miserable Men went searching about for a small spark of Divine Light to chear their Consciences but they were all gone out and they could find none this was the miserable Condition and State of their Church men lived wretchedly in it with out the Gospel and without Light or Conslation 12. AND therefore how afflictive soever our departure from them may seem to them yet they ought at the same time to consider how just the cause of it was for if they say in general it is not lawful to leave that Society in which thou wert educated this were in our Persons to condemn the Prophets Apostles and Christ himself for why is it not as reasonable to blame Lot for leaving Sodom Abraham for leaving Chaldea the Hebrews for leaving Egypt Christ for leaving the Jews and St. Paul for leaving the Pharisees For except it be granted that there may be a just cause of departure we can see no cause why these may not in the same manner as we are be accused of Faction and Sedition But if we are to be thought Hereticks because we will not obey all their unjust commands what are they Who or what are they to be thought who have contemned the Commands of Christ and his Apostles If we are Schifmaticks who have forsaken them by what name shall we call them who have forsaken the Greeks from whom they first received the Christian Faith the Primitive Church Christ and the Apostles who were their Spiritual Parents For the Greek Church who at this day profess the Religion and Name of Christ altho they have in many things contaminated it yet they still retain a great part of those things which they received from the Apostles And so they have no private Masses no maimed Sacraments no Purgatory nor Indulgences And as to the Papal Titles and magnificent Names they have this esteem of them that whoever calls himself the universal Bishop and the Head of the whole Church is a proud Man and injurious to all the other Bishops who are his Brethren nor will they scruple on this single account to call him Heretick 13. BUT now seeing it is apparent and cannot be denied that they have made a defection from them from whom they received the Gospel the Christian Faith and Religion yea and the very being of a Church what cause is there to be given why they should not return back to them as to their Original Why should they so much dread the times of the Fathers and Apostles as if they had seen nothing Why do they see more or love the Church better than they who delivered what they have to them for as for us we have forsaken a Church in which we could neither hear the pure Word of God nor administer the Sacraments nor invoke the Name of God as we ought which they themselves acknowledge to be faulty in many things and in which there was nothing to retain a prudent Man who thought seriously of his Salvation Lastly We have departed from a Church which is not now what anciently she was and so we have departed as Daniel did out of the Den of Lyons as the three Children did out of the fiery Furnace or to speak more properly we have not so much departed from them as been cast out by them with Execrations and Curses 14. BUT then we have united our selve to that Church in which if they would
number of Intercessors without any Authority of the Word of God so that as Jeremiah saith According to the number of thy Cities so are thy Gods so that miserable men know not which to apply themselves to and tho they are innumerable yet they have ascribed to each of them their Office and what was to be obtained had and received from each of them but also because they have not only impiously but impudently solicited the Virgin Mary that she would remember she is a Mother that she would be pleased to command her Son and that she would make use of the Authority she hath over him 21. WE say that Man is born and does live in Sin and that no man can truly say his Heart is clean that the most holy Man is an unprofitable Servant that the Law of God is perfect and requires of us a full and perfect Obedience and that we cannot in any way keep it perfectly in this Life and that there is no Mortal who can be justified in the sight of God by his own Deserts and therefore our only Refuge and Safety is in the Mercy of God the Father by Jesus Christ and in the assuring our selves that he is the Propitiation for our Sins by whose Blood all our Stains are washed out that he has pacified things by the Blood of his Cross that He by that only Sacrifice which he once offered upon the Cross hath perfected all things and therefore when he breathed out his Soul said IT IS FINISHED as if by these words he would signifie now the Price is paid for the Sins of Mankind 22. NOW if there be any who think not that this Sacrifice is sufficient let them go and find out a better but as as for us because we know this is the only Sacrifice we are contented with it alone nor do we expect any other and because it was only once to be offered we do not injoyn the Repetition of it and because it was full and in all its Numbers and Parts perfect we do not substitute to it the perpetual Successions of our own Sacrifices 23. THO we say there is no trust to be put in the Merits of our Works and Actions and place all the Hopes and Reason of our Salvation only in Christ yet we do not therefore say that men should live loosely and dissolutely as if Baptism and Faith were sufficient for a Christian and there were nothing more required the true Faith is a living Faith and cannot be idle therefore we teach the People that God hath not call'd us to Luxury and Disorder but as St. Paul saith Unto good Works that we might walk in them That God hath delivered us from the Power of Darkness that we might serve the living God that we should root up all the Reliques of sin that we should work out our Salvation with fear and trembling that it might appear that the Spirit of Sanctification was in us and that Christ himself dwelleth in our Hearts by Faith 24. To conclude We believe that this Body of ours in which we live tho after Death it turns to Dust yet in the last day it shall return to Life again by the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth in us and that then whatever we suffer for Christ in the interim he will wipe away all Tears from our Eyes and that then through him we shall enjoy everlasting Life and be always with him in Glory AMEN CHAP. III. Containing a plain Demonstration of the Causes why and whence Heresies arose in the Church with Instances of all sorts in all Times THESE are the horrible Heresies for which a considerable part of the World at this day are condemn'd by the Pope unheard it had been better to have entered a Contest with Christ the Apostles and holy Fathers for they it was who did not only give a beginning to these Doctrines but commanded them unless they of the Church of Rome will say as perhaps they will that Christ did not institute the Holy Communion that it might be distributed amongst the Faithful or that the Apostles of Jesus Christ or the ancient Fathers said private Masses in all the corners of their Churches sometimes ten and at other twenty in one day or that Christ-and the Apostles deprived the People of the Cup or that That which they now do and that with that eagerness that whoever will not comply with them in it is by them condemn'd for an Heretick is not call'd Sacriledge by one of their own Popes Gelasius or that those are not the Words of Ambrosius Augustinus Gelasius Theodoret Chrisostom and Origen That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament remain what they were before that that which is seen on the Holy Table is Bread that the Substance of the Bread doth not cease to be nor the nature of the Wine that the Substance and Nature of the Bread is not changed that this very Bread as to what concerns the Matter of it goes down into the Belly and is cast out by the Draught or that Christ and his Apostles and the Fathers did not pray in that Tongue which was understood by the People or that Christ by that one Oblation which he once offered hath not perfected the Work of our Redemption or that this Sacrifice was so imperfect that we need another Either they must say all these things or else they must aver which perhaps they had rather say that all Right and Justice is inclosed in the Cabinet of the Popes Breast and as one of his Followers and Flatterers once said that he may dispense against the Apostles against the Councils and against the Apostolical Canons and that he is not bound by those Examples Institutions and Laws of Christ 2. THUS we have been taught by Christ by the Apostles and Holy Fathers and we do faithfully teach the People of God the same things and for so doing we are called Hereticks by the great Leader and Prince of Religion O immortal God! What have Christ and his Apostles and so many Fathers all erred What are Origen Ambrose Augustin Chrysostom Gelasius and Theodoret Apostates from the Catholick Faith Was the Consent of so many Bishops and Learned men nothing but a Conspiracy of Hereticks or that which was commendable in them is it now blameable in us And that which was Catholick in them is it by a Change in the Wills of Men become schismatical in us Or that which was once true is it now because it displeaseth them become false Let them then produce a new Gospel or at least set forth their Reasons why those things which were so long publickly observed and approved in the Church ought now at last to be recall'd We know that the Word which was reveal'd by Christ and propagated by the Apostles is sufficient to promote our Salvation and all Truth and to convince all Heresies Out of it alone we condemn all sorts of ancient Heresies which they
pretend we have recall'd from the bottom of Hell and pronounce the Arrians Eutichians Marcionites Ebionites the Valentinians Carpocratians Tatians and Novatians and in one word all those who have thought impiously either of God the Father or of Christ or of the Holy Ghost or of any other part of the Christian Religion all these I say because they are convicted by the Gospel of Christ we pronounce them wicked and lost men and detest them to the Gates of Hell and not only so but if any of those Heresies happen to break out anew amongst us we severely and seriously correct the Revivers of them with lawful and civil Punishments 3. We confess that upon the beginning of the Reformation there arose some new and unheard of Sects as Anabaptists Libertines Menonians and Zwenkfeldians but we render our unfeigned Thanks to God that the World is now well satisfied that we neither brought forth nor taught nor maintained those Monsters Whoever thou art who thinkest otherwise be pleased to read our Books which are every where to be had What is there in them that can fairly be taken to favour the madness of these People Yea there are at this day no Nations so free from these Pests as those in which the Gospel is freely taught Now if they would rightly and attentively consider this thing it is a strong-Argument that the Doctrine we teach is the very truth of the Gospel for neither Tares nor Chaff use to spring up or be found but in Corn. And who knows not what a number of Heresies arose when the Gospel was first propagated in the World in the Times of the very Apostles Who before these Times ever heard of Simon Magus Menander Saturninus Basilides Corpocrates Cerinthus Ebion Valentinus Secundus Marcosius Colorbasius Heracleo Lucian and Severus But why should I mention this contemptible Number Epiphanius reckons LXXX and St. Augustin more distinct Heresies which grew up with the Gospel What then was not the Gospel the Gospel because together with it so many Heresies were produced or shall we therefore say that Christ was not Christ 4. AND yet as I said this cursed Crop has not sprung up in our Fields where the Gospel is freely preached and publickly received and setled Those Plagues have had their Rise in the darkness and blindness of our Adversaries and with them too they have encreased and spread themselves where the Truth is oppressed with Tyranny and Cruelty nor are these things to be heard of any where but in Corners and Conventicles Let them make a Tryal let them grant the Gospel its free Course let the Truth of Jesus Christ freely shine and extend its Rays to all Parts without hindrance and they shall soon see that as the Darkness of the Night vanisheth at the approach of the Sun so will these Shadows disappear before the Light of the Gospel For as for us we daily make it our business to repel and confute these Heresies which we are falsly reported to nourish and encourage whilst our adversaries sit still and mind nothing less 5. AND whereas they say we are divided into divers Sects and that some of us have taken the Names of Lutherans and others of Zuinglians or Calvinists and we could never yet agree amongst our selves concerning the Articles of our Doctrines What would they have said if they had lived in the Times of the Apostles and Holy Fathers When one said I am of Paul another I am of Cephas and another I am of Apollo when St. Paul reprehended St. Peter when by reason of a Quarrel Paul and Barnabas separated one from the other and went several ways when as Origen acquaints us the Christians were divided into so many Factions that they had no Name common to them but that of Christian and they agreed in nothing else but that Nane and as Socrates informs us they were derided publickly in the Theaters by the People for their Dissentions and Sects and when as Constantine the Great said there was so many Contentions and Controversies in the Church that this very single Calamity seem'd to exceed the Miseries of the former times of Persecution when Theophilus Epiphanius Chrysostom Augustin Ruffinus and St. Jerome all of them Christians all Fathers and all Catholicks contested each others with most violent and implacable Animosities when as Nazianzen saith the Members of the same Body consumed one another when the Eastern and Western Churches contended about Leavened Bread and the time of keeping Easter things of no mighty consequence when in every Council which were then numerous there was a new Creed and new and contrary Decrees minted What would these men have then said to whom would they have applied themselves from whom would they have fled in what Gospel would they have believed whom would they have esteemed Catholicks and whom Hereticks Now there are only two Names Luther and Zuinglius and what a Noise is made about them But because these two could not agree about some Points shall we therefore think they are both in the wrong that neither of them has the Gospel and that neither has preached well and truly 6. BUT O good God! who are they that so bitterly reflect on us for our Dissentions Do they in the mean time all agree amongst themselves Have there never been any Dissensions and Controversies amongst them Why then do the Scotists and Thomists agree no better concerning the Merit of Congruity and that of Condignity concerning Original Sin in the Virgin Mary and about a solemn and simple Vow Why do the Canonists affirm that Auricular Confession is founded in Humane and Positive Laws and the Schoolmen on the contrary on Divine Institution Why does Albertus Pighius differ from Cajetan Thomas from Lombard Scotus from Thomas Occham from Scotus Alliacensis from Occham and the Nominalls from the Reallists and that I may not mention the Disagreements of the small Brotherhoods and Monks some of which place their admired Sanctity in eating of Fish others in living upon Herbs some in wearing of Shooes others in Sandals some in Linnen Garments and others in Woollen some in black and some in white Cloaths some shave their Heads broad and others narrow some wear Shooes and others go barefoot some are girded and some go loose besides these they should remember that some of their Divines say that the Body of Christ is naturally present in the Sacrament which is again denied by others that then there are some who say that the Body of Christ in the Sacrament is torn and ground with our Teeth and again there are others who deny this there are some who say that the Body in the Sacrament hath quantity others deny it some say Christ did consecrate by a cortain Divine Power others that he did it by his Blessing some that he did it by conceiving the five Words in his Mind others that it was by uttering them there be some that say that of these five Words the