but a Sword 5. WHEREFORE if the Pope does indeed desire we should be reconciled to him he ought first to reconcile himself to God for as St. Cyprian saith Schisms arise from hence that the Head is not sought and a Return is not made to the Fountain of the Holy Scriptures and the Precepts of our Heavenly Master are not kept for else it is not Peace saith he but War neither can any man be united to the Church who is separated from the Gospel But these men with whom we are concern'd do use to make a base gain by the Name of Peace for the Peace they seek is only a Peace of idle Bellies for all these Controversies betwixt us and them might with great facility be ended if Ambition Gluttony and Luxury did not hinder it and from hence proceed all their Tears their Souls are in their Dishes and all their loud Clamors and Noise are only that they may basely and wickedly keep what they have acquired knavishly 6. IN these times the Pardoners Dataries Collectors and Pimps of the Court of Rome make the greatest Complaints against us who with others of their Trade think that great Gain is Godliness and serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies for in the foregoing Ages this sort of men had a very profitable imployment but now whatever is gain'd to Christ turns as they think to their Loss Yea his Holiness too complains sadly that Piety is grown cold and his Revenue is become much smaller than heretofore it was and therefore the good man does his utmost to make us hated loads us with Reproaches and condemns us for Hereticks without any mercy that they who know not the real cause of all this may thereby be induced to believe us the very worst of men and yet in the interim we are not therefore ashamed nor indeed ought we to be so of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because we esteem the Glory of God more than the good Opinion of Men. We know that all we teach is true and we cannot offer Violence to our own Consciences or give Testimony against God for if we deny any part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ before Men he will in like manner deny us before his Father and if there be any that will be offended and cannot bear the Doctrine of Christ they are blind and the Leaders of the Blind but the Truth is still to be preached and owned and we must patiently expect the Judgment of God 7. AND in the interim our Adversaries should do well to bethink themselves seriously of their own Salvation and to put an end to their Raging Hatred and Persecution of the Gospel of the Son of God that at last they may not find him the Vindicator and Revenger of his own Cause for God will not be had in derision and men too now see what is doing that Flame the more it is repress'd with so much the greater Violence doth it break out again and display it self Their Infidelity and Unbelief shall never be able to frustrate or put a stop to the Faith of God and if they shall still persist in the Hardness of their Hearts and refuce to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Publicans and the Harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before them The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ open all their Eyes that they may see that blessed Hope to which they are called that we may altogether glorifie the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent down to us from Heaven to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be rendred all Honour and Glory to all Eternity Amen Amen AN EPISTLE Written by the Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of SARUM TO SEIGNIOR SCIPEO A Venetian Gentleman In Answer to a Letter of his in which he complains of the Kingdom of England for their not appearing in the Council of Trent nor excusing their Absence by Letters SIR YOU are pleased to write to me with much freedom according to the great Acquaintance which hath been between us ever since we lived together at Padua where you were imployed in the publick Service of your Common-wealth and I in the Pursute of Learning that both your self and many others with you in those Parts do much admire that seeing there is at this time a General Council call'd by the Pope at Trent for the composing Controversies in Religion and the extinguishing all Contentions that have arisen on that account and that whereas all other Nations are assembled there the Kingdom of England alone has neither sent any Ambassador thither nor excused their Absence by Envoys or Letters but in the mean time without the Consent of the Council hath chang'd almost the whole Order of their Ancient and Paternal Religion that one of these things hath the appearance of a proud Contumacy and the other of a pernicious Schism for it is a great Wickedness for any man say you to decline the most holy Authority of the Pope of Rome or to to withdraw himself when he is call'd to a Council by him And that Controversies in Religion ought not to be determined any where but in such Conventions for there are the Patriarchs and Bishops and the most Learned of all Orders of Men in the Church at their Mouths the Truth is to be sought there are the great Lights of the Church and there the Holy Ghost is ever present and accordingly pious Princes have in every age referr'd all those Doubts which have happened concerning the Worship of God to such publick Consultations That neither Moses nor Joshua nor David nor Ezechia nor Josias nor any other of the Judges Kings or Priests did ever deliberate of the Affairs of the Church any other way than in a Council of the Bishops That the Apostles of Christ and the Holy Fathers held Councils that so the Truth was discovered so Heresies were suppress'd so Arrius so Eunomius so Eutyches so Macedonius and so Pelagius were overcome and so at this time the Dissentions of the World may be composed and the Ruins of the Church repair'd if Men would be pleas'd to lay by their Animosities and Partiality and come to this Council but without a Council it is utterly unlawful to attempt any Change in Matters of Religion 2. THIS Sir is almost the whole Sum of your Letter and as for me I will not now presume to give you in Answer on the behalf of England an exact Account of the reason of all our publick Transactions nor do I think it is your Will or Expectation that I should the Counsels of Kings are conceal'd and secret and so they ought to be and this you Sir know perfectly well that they are not to be reveal'd at random to every body or any body and yet in compliance with that old and intimate Acquaintance that has been between us because I see you so earnestly desire it I will shortly and friendly tell
horrible Crimes as Schism and Rebellion only on pretence to avoid that Popery that Superstition that was only in their own Fancies and Prejudices How can one and the same Church be persecuted justly for being too much and too little Reformed Why have you separated from her Liturgy and Rites who pretend to imbrace her Doctrines Or if you must needs separate why yet should you imbrue your hands in the Blood of your Soveraign and fellow Subjects on that account Supposing you were in the right this would not justifie you Christ never propagated his Church by Blood and Treason but by Sufferings and Obedience The truth is this Church hath been persecuted because she alone of all the Churches in Europe has had the Blessing and singular Favour of God to reform with Prudence Moderation and an exact and regular Conduct after great and wise Deliberations by the consent of our Bishops Convocations States and Princes without Tumults or hasty Counsels and accordingly here was nothing changed but upon good Advice after the most irresistable Conviction that it was contrary to the Word of God the Sentiments of the Holy Fathers and Councils and the Practice of the truly Primitive and Apostolical Church So that the Papists themselves do even envy our Primitive Doctrine Government and Discipline and both fear and hate us more than any other of the Reformed Churches I could be contented said a great Man of that Perswasion there were no Priests i. e. Popish Priess in England so there were no Bishops there This and our excellent Liturgy our decent Ceremonies and our excellent order moves their envy they are the same things that have raised the Spleens and Animosities of the other side with whom whatever is older than Zuinglius and Calvin is presently Popery and must be destroyed Tell them that Episcopacy was settled in all Churches in the days of the very Apostles and by them and they reply the Mystery of Iniquity began then to work intimating if not affirming that this Holy Order was a part of it So that they will rather traduce these Holy Men who sacrificed their Bloods for Jesus Christ and his Church of Pride Ambition and a too great Love of Rule than allow the Establishments of our Church Nay they will rather root out the Monarchy because supported by and upholding Episcopacy than shew any the least Reverence to the Church in obedience to our Laws and Princes So that leaving these implacable self-condemned Enemies give me leave O ye Loyal and Religious Sons of this Holy and ever persecuted Church to make my last Address and Application to you You see by whom the Church has been ever persecuted you see the reason of it you cannot but know also what she has suffered on both sides you have read the one and your Eyes have seen the other rouse up then and take effectual care of this innocent this persecuted Spouse of Christ Stretch out your hands to Heaven by humble and fervent Prayers and implore the Assistance of the most Holy God for her safety and Protection against all her Enemies Let the Virtue Piety and Holiness of your Lives assure the World that you profess this Holy Religion in good earnest and that you do not dissemble either with God or Man in it but are sincere and resolved to live and dye in this profession Put those Laws we now have in execution duly and regularly and with Discretion and Mercy not out of Bitterness and Passion but out of Conscience and a true fear of God and care of his Church that all the World may see it is nothing but a sense of your Duties and a Zeal for God that makes you active and prudently severe And as far as you shall have opportunity take further care by new Laws to secure this great and inestimable Blessing to your Posterity and the Generations to come that they may rise up and bless God for you and remember your names with Eulogies and Honour for ever And if any thing in these Papers may in any degree be serviceable to and promote these good ends I shall for ever be thankful to God and Man for the Favour THE LIFE OF THE Right Reverend Father in God DR JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of SARISBURY THO Truth and Reason may justly claim the Priviledge of a kind reception whoever brings them yet such is the Nature of Mankind that the Face of a Stranger is ever surveyed with a little more than ordinary Attention as if Men thought generally that in it were the most lively Characters of what they seek to know the Soul and Temper of a Man now because this is not to be expected at the first sight in Books where yet it is most eagerly desired Men have attempted to supply that defect with Pictures and which affords much more satisfaction by premising the Lives and Characters of the Authors which gives the Reader a truer and more lasting Idea of Men than it is possible for Pensils and Colours to attain to The Author of the ensuing Tracts ought to be so well known to all English men that his Name alone should have given a sufficient Commendation to any thing that can claim a descent from him But it being now above an hundred years since his death and his Works which were for a long time chained up in all Churches being now superannuated or neglected it may not be an unseasonable piece of Service to the Church to revive the Memory of this great Man the stout and invincible Champion of the Church of England who losing the opportunity of sacrificing his Life for her in the Reign of Queen Mary did it with more advantage to us and pains to himself under her glorious Successor when he so freely spent himself in her Service that having wasted his thin Body by excessive Labour and Study he died young but full of good Works and Glory He was born the 24 th of May in the year of our Lord 1522. at Buden in the Parish of Berinber in the County of Devon and tho a younger Brother yet inherited his Fathers Name His Mother was a Bellamie and he had so great an esteem for it and her that he engraved it on his Signet and had it always imprinted in his heart a lasting Testimony both of her Virtue and kindness to him His Father was a Gentleman descended rather of an Ancient and Good than very Rich Family It is observed that his Ancestors had injoyed that Estate for almost two hundred years before the Birth of this great Man And yet such was the number of his Children that it is no wonder if this when young wanted the assistance of Good men for the promoting of his Studies for it is said his Father left ten Children between Sons and Daughters behind him This John Jewel proving a Lad of pregnant Parts and of a sweet and industrious Nature and Temper was from his Youth dedicated to Learning and with great care cultivated by his
Princes are to be obeyed as Men sent by God and whosoever resists them resists the Ordinance of God These are our Doctrines these Principles shine forth in our Books in our Sermons in our Lives and in the Modesty and dutiful behaviour of our People 18. AND whereas they pretend we have departed from the Uuity of the Catholick Church this is not only odious but tho it is not true yet it hath an appearance and similitude of Truth in it But then not only those things which are true and certain find belief with the ignorant Multitude but those things also which may seem probable and so we shall ever observe that crafty cunning Men who had not the Truth on their sides have ever maintained their Cause with the Resemblances of Truth that those who could not dive into the bottom of things might be taken at least with the shew and probability of their Arguments Because the Primitive Christians our Fore-fathers when they Prayed to God turned their Faces toward the rising Sun there were some that said they worshiped the Sun and that it was their GOD and because they said that as to their eternal and immortal Life they lived on nothing but the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb without spot meaning thereby our Saviour Jesus Christ Envious Men the Enemies of the Cross of Christ whose only business it was to render the Christian Religion by any means hateful did thereupon perswade the People that the Christians were impious Men that they offered Humane Sacrifices and drank Mans Blood and when the Christians said with God there is neither Male nor Female that is that as to the obtaining of Justification there is no distinction of Persons and did salute one another commonly by the Names of Brother and Sister there were not wanting some who slandered the Christians thereupon and said they made no distinction amongst them of Sex or Age but like Beasts promiscuously lay together And when they met frequently in Vaults and secret places to Pray and hear the Gospel which sort of private Places and Meetings had sometimes been made use of by Conspirators against the Government there was thereupon a Rumor spread abroad that they conspired together and had secret Consultations about murthering the Magistrates and subverting the Government And because in celebrating the Holy Communion they made use of Bread and Wine according to the Institution of Christ they were thought by many not to worship Christ but Bacchus and Ceres because those heathen Deities were worshiped by the Pagans with a like Rite with Bread and Wine These things were then believed by many not because they were true for what could possibly be less so but because they had a kind of resemblance of Truth and by that shew of truth were fitted to deceive them 18. SO they traduce us and say that as Hereticks we have departed from the Unity of the Catholick Church and the Communion of Christ not that they believe this to be true nor are they at all concern'd whether it be true or false but because the thing may in some sort seem true to ignorant Men for we have indeed departed not as Hereticks ever have done from the Church of Christ but as good men ought to do from the Contagion of wicked Men and Hypocrites and yet here they insult wonderfully that theirs is the Church the Spouse of Christ the Pillar of Truth the Ark of Noah out of which no Salvation is to be hoped for and in the interim they assert with the same Confidence that we have revolted that we have rent the Coat of Christ and torn our selves from his Body and made a desection from the Catholick Faith And when they have thus left nothing unsaid which can possibly be tho never so falsly and slanderously objected against us yet at last they cannot pretend that we have forsaken the Word of God or the Apostles of Christ or the Primitive Church 19. NOW we have ever thought that the Primitive Church which was in the times of Christ and the Apostles and holy Fathers was the Catholick Church Nor do we doubt but that that Church is the Ark of Noah the Spouse of Christ the Pillar and Foundation of Truth or to place in it all the Hopes of our Salvation It is indeed an odious thing to break off and depart from that Society a Man has long lived in especially if that Society consist of Men who seem to be and are therefore called Christians tho in truth they are none And in reality we do not so contemn their Church as bad as it now is for the Name sake and 〈◊〉 Gospel of Jesus Christ was once truly and purely taught there as that we have willingly departed from it without necessity But what if an Idol be set up in the Church of God and that Desolation appears there which Christ foretold should stand in the holy Place What if some Pirate or Robber possesseth himself of the Ark of Noah certainly as often as these men thus preach to us of the Church they make themselves only to be that Church and ascribe all those glorious Titles to themselves and triumph like those of Old who cryed The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord or like the Scribes and Pharisees when they boasted they were the Children of Abraham 20. THUS do they impose upon silly men by vain and useless Shews and seeâ— to overwhelm us with the meer Name of thâ— Church just as if a Thief having got poâ—â—session of another mans House and havinâ— by force expell'd or slain the true Owneâ— should afterwards claim it as his own anâ— keep the true Heir out or as if Antichrisâ— after he has seized the Temple of Godâ— should afterwards pretend it were his owâ— and that Christ had no right to it For theâ— our Adversaries have left almost nothing liâ— a Church in the Church of God yet theâ— will needs seem the only Patrons and Defeâ—â—ders of the Church just as Gracchus defendeâ— the Roman Exchequer by making such profuse Largesses and such unreasonable Expenses that he quite ruined the Publick Treasury But then there was never any thing yet so absurd or wicked but it might seem easie to be covered and defended by the Name of the Church for Wasps make Combs and impious Men have their Assemblies not much unlike the Churches But they are not presently the People of God who are call'd so nor are they all Israelites who are of Israel The Arrian Hereticks boasted that they only were Catholicks and they call'd all the rest sometimes Ambrosians and at other Athanasians and Johannites And Theodoret tells us that tho Nestorius was an Heretick yet he covered himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Pretence and Cloak of the Orthodox Faith Ebion tho he was of the same Opinion with the Samaritans yet as Epiphaâ—es assures us he would needs be call'd a â—â—hristian The Mahometans at this day tho â—t
has abrogated all the Decrees of a former The Council of Carthage decreed that the Bishop of Rome should not be call'd the highest Priest or the Prince of the Priests or by any other such like Title but the latter Councils have not only call'd him the High Priest but the Great Pontiff and the Head of the Universal Church The Eliberitan Council decreed that it should not be lawful that what was worshipped should be painted on the Walls of the Churches The Council of Constantinople decreed that Images were not to be endured in the Christian Churches on the other side the second Council of Nice did allow them not only to be erected in Churches but also to be worshiped The Laterane Council under Pope Julius the II. was call'd for no other purpose but to rescind the Decrees of the Council of Pisa thus the latter Bishops frequently oppose the forgoing and some Councils damm up the Lights of others and these men will not be bound even by their own Councils any farther than they please and is for their Convenience and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brings Grist to their Mill. The Council of Basil decreed that a Council of Bishops is above the Pope but the Laterane Council under Pope Leo decreed the Pope to be above a Council And the Pope doth not only carry himself so as if he thought so but also if any man is of the Opinion of this Council he commands him to bo reputed a Heretick I pray Sir what would you do here whatever you say or think either the Pope or the Council will make you a Heretick and all the Popes for some Ages have opposed these Truths of the Council of Basil and therefore in the esteem of the Council of Basil all the Popes for all these last Ages are Hereticks The same Council with one Voice deposed Pope Eugenius for Simony and Schism and named Amideus for his Successor But yet Eugenius did not regard the Decree of the Council and altho he was a Simonist and a Schismatick yet he did not cease to be the Successor of St. Peter the Vicar of Christ and the Head of the Catholick Church and in spite of all retaind his former Dignity and was born as before on the shoulders of Noble Men magnificently and loftily And Amideus a simple man like one unhorsed walked upon his Feet and thought himself happy enough that of a Pope he was become a Cardinal The late Council at Trent made a Decree that the Bishops should teach the People and that no one of them should at the same time have two or more Bishopricks they on the other side contrary to the Canon of their own Council enjoy Pluralities and teach nothing and so they make such Laws as they will not be bound by but when they please at this rate have they ever valued their own Councils and Decrees 22. AND now Sir what reason have we to expect at this time a better Event of things for for what cause upon what hope and Expectation is the Council held be pleased Sir to consider with your self but this one thing what kind of Men they are upon whose Fidelity Learning and Judgment the weight of the whole Council the debating all those great Questions and the sum of the whole Affair depends they are indeed call'd Abbots and Bishops grave Men and great Names and as it is thought of great account in the Management of the Church of God but if you strip them of the Names Robes and Personages of such Men what have they that is at all like a Bishop or an Abbot for they are no Ministers of Christ no Dispensers of the Mysteries of God they do not attend the reading nor teach the Gospel nor feed the Flock nor till the Ground nor plant the Vincyard nor light the Fire nor carry the Ark of the Lord nor perform the Ambassie of Christ nor Watch nor do the Work of an Evangelist they do not fulfil their Ministery they entangle themselves in secular Affairs they hide the Treasure of their Lord and take away the Keys of the Kingdom of God they neither go in themselves nor do they suffer others to enter they beat their Fellow Servants they feed themselves and not the Flock they sleep they snore they feast they fare deliciously they are Clouds without Water Stars without Light dumb Dogs slow Bellies and as St. Bernard said they are not Prelates but Pilats not Teachers but Seducers not Pasters but Impostors the Servants of Christ saith he serve Antichrist And these are the only men to whom the Popes will allow a Place and Vote in the Council in their Judgments and Power will they have the whole Care and Administration of the Catholick Church to be Pope Pius hath now chosen these alone to put his Trust in but O good God! what kind of Mortals what sort of Men are these and yet as they think all these Queries are ridiculous for it is not say they one farthing difference whether they be Learned or Pious or no or what they will or think for in truth it is sufficient if they can but ride upon a Mule and with great State and Noise make the publick Cavalcade to the Council and when they cam◠there say nothing If Sir you will not believe me and conceive I have fain'd all this for Diversion and Sport be but pleased to hear the Honorable Judgment and what the most sacred Faculty of the whole Sorbon decreed in this case that say they which our Master have said concerning a legitimate Assembly is That it is to be noted that to the legitimate assembling of a Council it is sufficient that the Solemnity and Form of the Law be solemnly observed for if any man would bring this in question whether the Prelates that sit there have a good Intention and whether they be learned and whether they have the Knowledge of the Holy Scripture and a mind well disposed to sound Doctrine the Process would be infinite for they it seems who sit as mute as the Statues of Mercury and know not in the least what Religion is will yet answer wondrous well and aptly concerning the sum of Religion and whatever they say cannot possibly err 23. AND all these are bound to the Popes Interest not only by their Error and Ignorance but by the Tye and Religion of an Oath so that if they should chance to think right yet unless they will be prejured they must not speak what they think and openly profess and own the Truth so that they must of necessity be false to God or man for they all swear in this very form J. N. Bishop from this hour forward will be faithful to St. Peter and to the Holy Apostolick Church of Rome to my Lord Pope N. and to his Successors canonically entering I will neither be of Counsel nor in any Action whereby he may lose his Life or Limbs or be taken Prisoner that Counsel which he shall impart
when he had it concealed himself fourteen days on the English Coast then privately took Ship and arrived at Antwerp in the night and before day took Coach and so got safe to Strasbourgh the 30th of October 1553. Burnet To. 2. p. 246. Ib. p. 245. July 13. 1556. Humfrey p. 90. English life Dr. Peter Heylyn faith the contrary and that Wittingham Williams and Goodman were Zunglians before they left England who were the chief Promoters of the disorder at Frankford Ecclesia Restaurata p. 228. Conclusion Section 2. p. 141. Hiller C. H. The news of the Queens death came to Zurick the last of November Mart. Letters March 30. Heylyn's Eccl. Restaurata p. 301. Rastal was a common Lawyer and published his Book in 1563. Harding was then Prebendary when Mr. Jewel was elected and gave his vote for him Humf. p. 140. Dr. Burnett's History of the Reformation Tom. 2. Dr. Heylyn Eccl. Rest p. 349. 1562. Humfrey's in the Life of Jewel p. 177. Peter Martyr's Letter to Bishop Jewel concerning this Book is dated Aug. 24. 1562. English Life Before his Works Humfrey p. 234. Page 187. Heylyn p. 328. 1562. In the LXIII of his Age. 1564. 1567. 1569 1570. 1570. Humfrey's p. 111. April 5. 1571. Memory Industry Common place Books Diaries Languages His Greek Learning Travail His Humour Gratitude Preaching Page III No friend to the Disenters The 〈◊〉 to the first Tom. of Col. by Dr. 〈◊〉 Fuller's C. H. lib. 9. Sect 3. n. 3. Humfrey's In a short Paper written by this good Bishop against certain frivolous objections made against the Government of the Church of England Printed at Londâ—n 1641. Bishop Whitgift in the defence of the Answer to the Admonition tells us Cartwright was the man and that hereupon the Faction used the Bishop most ungratefuly and depitefully p. 423. Prov. 22. 15. Liberality Charity Mr. Hooker Dr. Walton 〈◊〉 Mr. Hooker's Life Lib. 2. §. 6. Truth ever persecuted Tertul. in Apologia Cor. Tacitus Tertul. in Apolog c. 7. c. Plinius John 8. 9. 10. Mar. 11. Marcion ex Tertullianâ— Aelius â— Lactan. Tertul Apolog. c. 2 3. and 7. 8 9. Tertul. Apolog. â—ap â— Sueton in Nerone Juvenal Sat. 1 Tim. 4. The Accusations of the R. Catholicks John 8. 49. Act. 26. 25. †Quadratus Justinus Melito Tertullian Quadratus a Disciple of the Apostles and Bishop of Athens wrote Books for the Christian Religion and made an Oration in the Defence of it before Hadrian the Emperor by which he put a stop to a furious Persecution then moved against it Anno Christi 128. Spondanus Justinus the Martyr a Christian Philosopher wrote an Apologetick Oration for the Christian Religion with great freedom and truth which he dedicated to Antoninus Pius the Emperor and his adopted Sons Marcus and Lucius and to the very Senate and People of Rome Anno Christi 150. for which he lost his Life Melito Bishop of Sardâ—s wrote an excellent Apology to Aurelius the Emperor for the Christians which he presented to that Emperor in the tenth year of his Reign Anno Christi 172. Baronius Tertullian wrote a very learned and a sharp Apology for the Christian Religion which was some few years since made English It was first published by the Author without his Name in the year of Christ 201. in the very City of Rome and did great service to Christianity which was then most miserably oppressed by the Lies and Defamations of the Pagans which did it more hurt than all their other Fury Acts 24. 14. Tertul. in Apolog 2 Cor. 10. 4. 5. 2 Tim. 3. 16. De Vnitate Eccl. c. 3. contra Max. lib. 3. c. 14. In prim cap. Aggei Acts 24. 14. Coll. 2. 14. Actâ— 3. 2â— Tract 30. in Joan. Epist ad Dardan Fulgentius ad Regem Thrasi mundum De Simpl. Praelatorum Chap. 47. * The Title of Pontifex Maximus was that of the Roman Heathen Priests and cannot properly be rendred into English any other way than by that of Priest it being not of the same nature with the Word Bishop yet have the Popes of Rome usurped this very heathen Title Gregory lib. 4. Ep. 76. 78. 80. lib. 7. Ep. 69. 2 Tim. 3. 13. Math. 23. 13. Luk. 11. 52. Math. 16. 19. In Titum Hom. I. Theoph. ad Titum Euseb lib. 18. c. 5. in Monodia sua super Basilium 1 Tim. 4. 1 * Huldericus Platina in vita Pij secundi Gal. 1. 8. Chrysost ad AEphe Ser. 3. De conser dist 1. cap. Omnes * But now in the Decretum under the Name of Anacletus De consecratione Dist 1. cap. comperimus a In Joan. cap. â— b De Sacra l. q. c. 4. c In Dialo l. 2. d In Sermone ad infantes de Consecratione e In Math. 15. Gen. 2. 23. John 6. 56. In coena Domini In Johan tract 50. Lib. de caerem. Eccl. Rom. Purgatory August in Psal 85. in Enchiriâ—io c. 6. 7. de civitate Dei lib. 21. cap. 26. lib. 11. contra Pelegian lib. Hipognostcon 5. Of Cerâ—monies â— Cor. 1â— 40. Prayer in our own Tongue Mediators and Intercessors Jerem. 2. 28. 11. 13. Original Sin 1 John 2. 2. 4. 10. Col. 1. 20. Heb. 10. 14. John 19. 30. Sacrifice Of good Works Ephes 2. 10. Col. 1. 10. Phil. 2. 12. Distinct 36. Lector in Glossa Distinct 81. Presbyter * George Paris an Arrian was burnt in the Reign of Edward the 6th April the 4th 1551. for Heresie tho he was a German by Nation Godwins Annals * Those who were call'd Zuinglians when this Piece was written afterwards were call'd Calvinists and the other Name is now not commonly known but Zuinglius was the Author of the Doctrine and Calvin of the Discipline of this Sect of turbulent men Steven Gardiner in Sophist Diab Richard Faber Recantatio Berengarii Scholer Glossa Guimundus De Conscoral Dist 2. Ego Berengarius Gardiner De consecratione Dist 2. species Glossa Euseb H. 3 Lib. 4. By Ministers here I suppose the Decons are meant 3. Quest 7. lata ext de Bigamis Quia circa Gen. 38. 14. In Concilio dilectorum Cardinalium To. 3. De consideratione ad Eugenium Paul IIII. In Apol. c. 45. Rom. 2. 13. Math. 22. 21. John 19. 12. Rom. 13. 1. 5. Amos 7. 10. It had been infinitely for the Honor of the Reformation if the same Modesty Loyalty and Duty had ever attended the Professors of it But alas our Author lived and wrote in a critical Moment before the Scotch Tumults the Civil Wars of France and the Revolt of the Netherlands those that have confirm'd the truth of the Popish Objections by ill Principles which they borrowed from them and worse Practises shall do well to consider what Answer they will be able to give in the Day of Judgment for the Sin and Scandal they have brought upon the Reformation but when all is done blessed be God the Church of England and her Children have maintained this Doctrine inviolably and the Honour of that
and Men of great Estates and Esteem This Version was made soon after the Piece was first printed tho I cannot tell precisely in what year for Mr. Humfrey tells us Mr. Harding answered the English Book and it is so well done that I profess I could never have made so good a Version as I have if I had not been assisted by it but then our Language is so much refin'd and exalted since that time which is above an hundred years that it was perhaps necessary to put it into a more modish dress in order to recommend it to the reading of those who do not much admire excellent Sense in a harsh and obsolete stile and for this reason only have very many Books of late been new turn'd and they of France who put out the Elegant Mons Version of the New Testament give no other Reason for it than this The Epistle to Seignior Scipio was written soon after the Apology and to a private Venetian Gentleman in a more free and friendly way as not being at all intended for the Publick It was first Printed in English and Latin at the end of the Council of Trent who made that Version I know not but it is a very good one and if I might have had so much liberty I would only have altered a very few words in it and so have Re-printed it again But not daring to take that liberty with what belonged to other men I have done it over again as well as I could and perhaps the Reader will not be displeased to see it in the same stile with the Apology in English as well as Latin But now who can enough deplore the Blindness Pride and Partiality of those Men who being led by Interest and hood-wink'd by Ignorance did at first imploy all the disingenuous Arts that spite and prejudice could furnish them with to ruine this most Excellent Apostolical and Primitive Church or force her to return back to the State of Corruption out of which with so much labour difficulty and danger she was then rising But there is some allowance to be made for the misinformation of Strangers who being separated from us by the Ocean were forced to take such Accounts as were given them by others and 1. being too apt to believe the reports of their own Priests whose Interest it was to blacken her what they could And 2. those of our own Fugitives who made the case much worse than they themselves thought it that they might obtain the more pity and consequently the better Relief and Provision abroad which is wont to be afforded to all those that fly for Religion amongst those of the same Faith 3. And also suspecting the Fidelity of the Relations made by our Ministers in foreign Courts 4. And of all our Travellers who stuck to and imbraced the Religion established by Law But then what can be said for those Roman Catholicks as they will needs be called who living at home here in England and consequently having better means of informing themselves concerning the truth of things cannot pretend to excuse themselves by those Topicks Strangers may It was both their Duty and Interest to inform themselves of the Affairs of their own Country and to submit to the Laws and Customs of it whilest Strangers that are not under those Obligations may excuse themselves if they do not make so diligent an inquiry into things or happen at last to be mistaken in them Besides in the Settlement under Queen Elizabeth All the care imaginable was taken to unite the whole Nation in one Religion if it were possible and whatever was in the former Liturgy that might exasperate or offend them was taken out by which Complyances they are the words of the Learned Dr. Heylyn and the expunging of the Passages before remembred the Book was made so passable amongst the Papists that for ten Years they generally repaired to their Parish Churches without doubt or scruple as is affirmed not only by Sir Edward Coke in his Speech against Garnet and his charge given at the Assizes held at Norwich but also by the Queen her self in a Eetter to Sir Francis Walsingham then being her Resident or Leiger Ambassador in the Court of France the same is confessed by Sanders also in his Book de Schismate And there is a report recorded by Camden that the Pope offered to his Envoy Parapalia to the Queen Liturgiam Anglicam sua Authoritate confirmaturum usum Sacramenti subutraque specie Anglis permissurum dummodo illa Romanae Ecclesiae se aggregaret Romanaeque Cathedrae primatum Agnosceret c. That he would confirm the English Liturgy by his Authority and grant the English the use of the Sacrament under both kinds provided the Queen would unite her self to the Church of Rome and acknowledge the Primacy of the Roman See Since that time nothing has been added that might in the least offend them Why then do they act contrary to their Ancestors Why do they pretend more Conscience than either their Fore-fathers or the Pope ten Years was a sufficient time for them to have found out the Heresie in if there had been any in the Establishment And we all know their Separation was not upon any scruple of Conscience they had but in obedience to the Popes Bull. The Pope in the mean time did what he did purely out of worldly Interest and Policy to advance his own Grandure and Wealth at their cost and trouble If he could have secured this the Liturgy and Doctrine of the Church of England should have been own'd for Catholick and have been confirm'd by his Holinesses Authority But what is this to them Are they bound to promote his Temporal Interest with their Ruine and the disquiet of their Country Or how come they to be more obliged to separate from the Church than to Rebel against the Crown seeing the same Pope commanded both and for the same ends and is as infallible in the one as in the other But this is not our only Calamity about the same time another sort of Men separated too upon direct contrary Pretences Why 't is our Antiquity our Decency our too great resemblance to the Church of Rome that offends them We are not sufficiently purged for these Pure Men to joyn with we have too little of the Primitive Church cryes the one too much says the other too few Ceremonies too much simplicity say the Papists too many of the first too little of the latter cry the Dissenters Thus was truth ever persecuted on both sides Christ crucified betwixt two Thieves the Primitive Church persecuted by the Pagans on one side and the Iews on the other I venerate thy Truth and Moderation O dear and Holy Mother who dost so exactly resemble thy God and Saviour and the Primitive Church both in thy Truth and Piety and in thy Sufferings too which are thy Glory But what shall I say for our Dissenters who have run into such
Pietate Humanitate egregie Praedito Theologiae cum primis cognitione Instructissimo Gemmae Gemmarum Immaturo fato Monkton-farleae Praerepto Sarisburiae Sepulto Coelorum civi Laurentius Humfredus Hoc Monumentum observantiae ergo Et Benevolentiae Consecravit Anno salutis Humanae Christi Merito Restitutae MDLXXIII ix Kal. Oct. Vixit Annos XLIX menses IV. Psal 112. In memoria aeterna erit Justus A Letter written to the Reverend Father in God Dr. John Jewel Lord Bishop of Sarisbury by Dr. Peter Martyr BY the favour of the Bishop of London most worthy Prelate and my very good Lord there was brought me one of your Apologies for the Church of England which neither I nor any others hereabouts before had seen It is true in your last Letter you rather intimated that it might come out than signfied that it should but however it came not hither till about the middle of July And from hence your Lordship may consider how much we suffer from the distance of places It hath not only given me an intire satisfaction who approve and am strangely pleased with all you do but to Bullinger and his Sons and Sons in Law And it seems so very wise admirable and elegant to Gualter and Wolphius that they can put no end to their Commendations of it as not thinking there hath been any thing printed in these times of so great a Perfection I do infinitely congratulate this great felicity of your Parts this excellent Edification of the Church and the Honour you have done your Country and I do most earnestly beseech you to go on in the same way for tho we have a good Cause yet the Defenders of it are few in comparison of its Enemies and they now seem so awakened that they have of late won much upon the ignorant Multitude by the goodness of their Stile and the subtilty of their Sophistry I speak this of Staphylus and Hosius and some other Writers of that Party who are now the stout Champions of the Papal Errors But now you have by this your most elegant and learned Apology raised such an hope in the minds of all good and learned men that they generally promise themselves that whilst you live the reformed Religion shall never want an Advocate against its Enemies And truly I am extreamly glad that I am so happy as to live to see that day which made you the Father of so illustrious and eloquent a Production May the God of Heaven of his goodness grant that you may be blessed in time with many more such Zurick Aug. 24. 1562. The Reader is desired to amend these few Errata's with his Pen the rest being generally nothing but literal mistakes are left to his Candor PReface to the Reader Page 14. Line 19. for to his Envoy read by his Envoy Apology p. 10. for Sardus r. Sardis p. 12. l. 22. for last r. late p. 66. l. 5. r. and because the Gospel p. 76. l. 3. for or r. for p. 140. l. 13 14. for security p. 151. in Marginal note for August 1560. 4. 1562. THE APOLOGY OF THE Church of ENGLAND Written by the very Learned and Reverend Father in God John Jewell Bishop of Sarisbury CHAP. I. Of the true Religion professed in the Church of England with a short Account of the Opposition the Truth and truë Religion hath met with in all Ages IT is an old Complaint deriv'd down to us from the very times of the Patriarchs and Prophets and confirm'd by the Evidence of all Histories and the Testimonies of all Ages that Truth is a Stranger upon Earth and doth too easily find Enemies and Defamers because she is not known and although this may seem perhaps incredible to those who have not attentively reflected on it because Mankind by the instinct of Nature without any Teacher doth spontaneously breathe after Truth and Christ himself our Saviour whilst he convers'd with Men chose to be call'd the TRUTH as if that Name did aptly express all the Power and Force of his Divine Nature yet we who are acquainted with the Holy Scriptures and have read and considered what hath happenned to pious men in almost all Ages what befel the Prophets the Apostles the holy Martyrs and Christ himself with what Slanders Curses and Injuries they were vexed whilst they lived only for the sake of Truth We I say see by this that it is no new thing but usual and the Custom of all Ages Indeed it would appear much more wonderful and incredible if the Father of Lyes the Devil that Enemy of all Truth should now of a sudden change his Mind and entertain any other hopes of oppressing the Truth than by Lyes or should now begin to establish his Kingdom by other Arts than those he hath hitherto imployed For in all Ages we shall scarce find any Period of time in which Religion encreased established it self or was reform'd but that at the same time Truth and Innocence were most unworthily and most injuriously treated by men for the Devil knows very well that if Truth doth flourish in safety his Affairs can neither be safe nor prosperous 2. FOR to speak nothing of the Ancient Patriarchs and Prophets no part of whose Lives as I said was free from Reproaches and Slanders We know that of Old there were some who averr'd and publickly told the World that the Ancient Jews who we doubt not worshipped the only true God perform'd their Religious Rites to a Swine or an Ass and that all that Religion was a meer Sacriledge and a Contempt of all Deities We know that the Son of God our Saviour Jesus Christ whilest he taught the truth was reputed an Impostor an Inchanter a Samaritan a Beelzebub a Deluder of the people a Wine-bibber and a Glutton Who knows not what was said of St. Paul that powerful Preacher and Assertor of Truth sometimes he was a seditious man and listed Soldiers and designed a Rebellion and at other times that he was an Heretick a mad man that out of a contentious and perverse Disposition he was a Blasphemer against the Law of God and a Despiser of the Customs of the Fathers Who knows not that so soon as ever St. Stephen had admitted the Truth and suffered it to take Possession of his Soul and thereupon as he ought began freely and stoutly to preach and own it he was immediately call'd in question for his Life as one that had spoken Blasphemy against the Law against Moses against the Temple and God or knows not that the Holy Scriptures have been accused of Vanity and Folly upon pretence that they contain'd things contrary and repugnant one to another and that all the Apostles of Jesus Christ disagreed amongst themselves and that St. Paul differed from all the rest And that I may not trouble you with all the Instances of this nature which are upon Record for they are infinite who knows not what Slanders were of old raised against
our Forefathers who first imbraced and professed the Name of Christ that they conspired amongst themselves against the Government and for that purpose met very early whilst it was yet dark that they murthered Male-Infants gorged themselves with Mans Flesh and in a barbarous manner drank humane Blood and at last putting out the Candles perpetrated Incests and Adulteries and that Brothers lay with their Sisters and Sons with their Mothers without any reverence to their Bloods and Families without Difference or Modesty that they were impious destitute of all Religion Atheists the Enemies of all Mankind and unworthy of the Light or Life 3. THESE things were spoken against the Jews the People of God against Christ Jesus against St. Paul St. Stephen and against all those who in the first Ages imbraced the truth of the Gospel and were called Christians a Name then hated by the Many And although none of these things were true yet the Devil thought it sufficient to his Purpose if they were believed true that so the Christians might incur the publick Hatred and be pursued by all to Ruine and Destruction And thus Kings and Princes being deceived slew all the Prophets of God to a Man they condem'd Isaiah to the Saw Jeremia to be ston'd Daniel to the Lions Amos to the Iron Bar Paul to the Sword and Christ to the Cross and all Christians to Prisons to Racks to Crosses to Rocks and Precipices to wild Beasts and Fires and burnt whole Piles of their living Bodies for nocturnal Lights and by way of Sport and Recreation and never esteem'd them better than the most vile Filth of the Earth the Off-scourings and Scorn of the World thus the first Authors and Professors of the Truth were ever treated 4. WHEREFORE all we who have now undertaken the Profession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ought to bear it with the less disturbance of Mind if in the same Cause we are treated after the same manner and as heretofore our Fathers so we in this Age are persecuted also with Reproaches Slanders and Lyes only because we teach and profess the Truth 5. THEY roar out in all Places that we are Hereticks that we have forsaken the true Faith and broken the Union of the Church with new Opinions and impious Doctrines 2. That we fetch from Hell and revive the old and long since condemn'd Heresies and sow the Seeds of new Sects and unheard of Broils that we are already divided into contrary Factions and Opinions and we could never yet in any manner agree amongst our selves 3. That we are wicked men and like the Gyants of old have entered into a Rebellion against God himself and live without the least regard to the Deity and without any religious Worship 4. That we despise all good Actions that we do not use any virtuous Discipline that we regard neither Laws nor good Manners nor Right nor Justice nor Equity nor Order that we let loose the Rein and suffer all sorts of Villanies and even provoke the People to all the Licentiousness and Luxury that is possible 5. That our Business and great Design is the subverting Monarchies and Kingdoms that all States may be reduced under the Dominion of the ignorant Multitude and the indiscreet Populace 6. That we have made a tumultuous Defection from the Catholick Church and have shaken the Peace of the World and disturbed the Quiet of the Church by a detestable Schism and that as heretofore Dathan and Abiram rose up against Moses and Aaron so we without any just cause have revolted from the Pope of Rome 7. That we despise the Authority of the Primitive Fathers and antient Councils That we have imprudently and insolently abrogated the antient Ceremonies which have been approved for many Ages by our Fathers and Grandfathers who had better Manners and lived in better Times and that by our own private Authority without the Consent of a Holy and General Council we have introduced new Rites into the Church and that we have not done this for the Sake of Religion but purely out of a contentious Humour that they on the contrary have changed nothing but have retained all things as they were delivered to them by the Apostles approved by the most antient Fathers and have been kept ever since through all the intermediate Ages to this day 6. AND least all this might seem to be only a Calumny and that managed by secret Whispers only with design to excite an Envy against us the Popes of Rome have suborned eloquent and not unlearned Men to undertake the Defence of this desperate Cause and to represent it to the World in Books and long Discourses in the best Colours it was possible to give it to the intent that being elegantly and copiously pleaded unskilful men might suspect there was something more than ordinary in it for indeed they saw that their Cause was every where in a declining Condition their Arts were now seen through and so were the less esteemed their Fortresses were every day undermin'd and their Case stood in need of a powerful Patronage and Defence But then as to those things which they have charged us with some of them are manifestly false and condemn'd by the Consciences of them that object them against us others though in the bottom they are false too yet they have the shew and similitude of truth so that an incautious and unthinking Reader may especially if he be surprised by any of their laboured and elegant Discourses be easily circumvented and deceived and others of the things thus charged upon us are such as we ought to acknowledge and profess and not decline the owning them as if they were Crimes but defend them as things that were well and rationally done For to speak in a word they slander whatever we do even those Actions of ours which themselves cannot deny to be rightly and well done and malitiously deprave and pervert all our Words and Actions as if it were not possible We should do or speak any thing as we ought They ought indeed to treat us with more Simplicity and Candor if they designed truth but on the other hand they do not oppose us with truth nor in a Christan Way or Manner but with Lyes in a close and crafty way and abuse the blindness and ignorance of the Rabble and the want of Learning in Princes to the inflaming their Hatred against us and the Oppression of the Truth This is indeed the Power of Darkness and the Folly of Men who trust more in the Stupidity and benighted Minds of the unpolished Multitude than in the Light of Truth or as St. Jerom expresseth it This is to contradict with shut Eyes the Truth when it is most perspicuous But we bless the great and Holy God our Cause is such that though they never so much desire to defame it yet they can fix no Reproach upon it which they may not with as much Reason and Justice imploy against the
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
SO we therefore because we are taken by them for mad-men and are traduced as if we were Hereticks and as if we had nothing to do with Christ nor with the Church of God have thought it not unreasonable or unprofitable to propound openly and freely the Faith in which we stand and all that Hope which we have in Christ Jesus that all may see what we think of every part of the Christian Religion and so determine with themselves whether that Faith which they must needs perceive to be consonant to the Words of Christ and the Writings of the Apostles and the Testimonies of the Catholick Fathers and which is confirmed by the Examples of many Ages be only the Rage of a sort of mad-men and a Combination or Conspiracy of Hereticks CHAP. II. Containing the Doctrine received in the Church of England WE believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine Power which we call GOD and that this is distinguished into three equal Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost all of the same Power of the same Majesty of the same Eternity of the same Divinity and of the same Substance and altho' these three Persons are so distinguished that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Holy Ghost or Father yet there is but one GOD and that this one God created Heaven and Earth and whatever is contain'd within the Circumference of the Heavens 2. WE believe that Jesus Christ the only Son of the eternal Father as it had been decreed before the beginning of all things when the fulness of time came took our Flesh and perfect Humane Nature of that blessed and pure Virgin that he might reveal to Men that hidden and secret Will of his Father which was conceal'd from all former Ages and Generations and that in this humane Body he might finish the Mystery of our Redemption and might nail to his Cross our Sins and the Obligation which lay against us 3. FOR we believe that for our sakes he died was buried descended into Hell and the third day by a Divine Power returned to Life and arose and after forty days in the sight of his Disciples ascended into Heaven that he might fill all things and that the very Body in which he was born in which he convers'd in which he was despised in which he had suffered most grievous Torments and a most direful Death in which he rose and now ascended to the right hand of his Father was placed above all Principalities and Power and every Name which is mentioned not only in this World but in that which is to come in Majesty and Glory And we believe that he doth now sit there and shall sit there till all things are fulfil'd and altho the Majesty and Divinity of Christ is diffused every where yet his Body as St. Augustine saith ought to be in one place we believe that tho Christ added Majesty to his Body yet he took not from it the Nature of a Body nor is Christ to be so asserted to be God that we should deny him to be Man and as the Martyr Vigilius said Christ left us as to his Humane Nature but he hath not left us in his Divine Nature and tho he is absent from us by the Form of a Servant yet he is ever with us by the Form of God 4. AND from thence we believe Christ shall return to exercise a general Judgment as well upon those he shall then find alive as upon all that are then dead 5. WE believe that the Holy Ghost who is the third Person in the Holy Trinity is true God not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding from both that is from the Father and the Son in a way neither known to Mortals nor possible to be expressed by them We believe that it is He who softens the Hardness of Mans Heart when he is received into their Hearts by the saving preaching of the Gospel or by any other way whatsoever that it is He who inlightens them and leads them to the Knowledge of God into all the ways of Truth into a perfect newness of Life and a perpetual hope of Salvation 6. WE believe that there is one Church of God and that not consin'd as it was heretofore to the Jewish People in one Angle or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and so diffused or spread over the Face of the whole Earth that there is no Nation which can justly complain that it is excluded and cannot be admitted into the Church and People of God that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and Spouse of Christ that Christ is the only Prince of this Kingdom that there is in the Church divers Orders of Ministers that there are some who are Deacons others who are Presbyters and others who are Bishops to whom the Instruction of the People and the Care and Management of Religion is committed And yet that there neither is nor is it possible there should be any one man who has the care of this whole Catholick Church for Christ is ever present with his Church and needs not a Vicar or sole and perfect Successor and that no mortal Man can in his mind contain all the Body of the Universal Church that is all the parts of the Earth much less can he reduce them into an exact Order and rightly and prudently administer its Affairs That the Apostles as St. Cyprian saith were all of equal Power and Authority and that all the rest were what St. Peter was that it was said to all alike Feed To all go ye into all the World To all teach ye the Gospel And that as St. Jerome saith All Bishops wheresoever they are setled whether it be at Rome or Eugubium at Constantinople or Rhegium they are of equal Worth and of the same Priesthood And as St. Cyprian saith there is but one Episcopacy and each of them hath a perfect and intire share of it And that according to the Judgment and Sentence of the Council of Nice the Bishop of Rome hath no more Authority in the Church of God than the other Patriarchs viz. the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch That the Bishop of Rome who now endeavours to draw all the Ecclesiastical Authority to himself alone if he doth not his Duty that is if he doth not administer the Sacraments if he doth not instruct the People Admonish and Teach he is not to be call'd a Bishop or indeed a Presbyter for as St. Augustin saith Bishop is the Name of a Work or Office and not a Title of Honour so that he who would usurp an unprofitable Preheminence in the Church is no Bishop But then that the Bishop of Rome or any other Person should be the Head of the whole Church or an universal Bishop is no more possible than that he should be the Bridegroom the Light the Salvation and the Life of the Church for these are the Priviledges and Titles of
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
not yet asswaged or the Sword diverted from the necks of the Christians in truth it is no wonder that Men are Men tho they are call'd Christians CHAP. IV. Containing an Account of the Rule Lives and Manners of the Popes and Papists who would seem to be the only Head and Members of the Holy Catholick Church BUT whilst these men so bitterly reflect upon us Why do they not sometimes think what they themselves are Are they who have so much leisure to attend what is done at a distance in Germany and England so forgetful or so blind that they cannot see what is done at Rome Are we to be impeach'd by them whose Lives are so dissolute as no honest modest man can without blushing tell their Story 2. WE do not now intend to bring to light all those Villanies which may much better be buried with them it becomes neither our Religion nor our Modesty and Shamefacedness and yet he that will needs be call'd the Vicar of Jesus Christ and the Head of the Church may easily consider with himself what those things are which he hears and sees and suffers to be done at Rome for we will go no further in giving an account what they are Let him make use of his own Memory Let him be pleased to consider that they are his own Canonists who have taught the People that simple Fornication is no Sin as if they had learned from the heathen Comedian this Doctrine that it is not a sin for a young Man to Whore Let him consider they are his own again who have determined that a Priest is not to be deposed for Fornication Let him remember that Cardinal Campejus Albertus Pighius and many others oâ— his Lawyers have taught that the Priest whâ— keeps a Concubine lives much more chastly and holily than he who has a lawful Wife I hope he hath not forgotten that there is at Româ— many thousands of publick licensed Whores and that he levies upon them yearly by way of Tax thirty thousand Duccats He can not forget surely that himself is a publick Pimp and from this base Profit doth as dishonorably and wickedly encrease his Revenues and Pleasures Were all things well and Holy at Rome when Pope Joan a Woman of a dissolute Life was the Head of their Church and when for two years she had in that Holy See prostituted her self to the Lust of others at lenght in a publick Procession in the sight of all the Cardinals and Bishops in the open Street she brought forth a Child 3. BUT why should we mention their Concubines and Pimping for these are common and publick Crimes at Rome and not unprofitable neither for the Misses there do not sit without the Gates with their Faces vailed and covered as in ancient times but they dwell in Pallaces and stately Houses and pass to and fro in the most publick Streets without Masks as if their Trade were not only Lawful but Honorable but why should I use many words their Lusts are sufficiently known to the whole Earth St. Bernard writes thus truly and freely of the Popes Family and of the Pope himself Your Court receives good Men sometimes but it makes none good Evil Men thrive there good Men are ruined And whoever he was who wrote the Tripartite Work which is commonly joyned to the Lateran Council he saith thus There is now so prrvailing a Luxury not only in the inferior Clergy and Priests but also in the Prelates and Bishops that it strikes Horror into the Hearers of it 4. BUT these things are not only usual and even for the sake of the Custom approved as most of their Vices are but they are now become so well known by their long use that they are putid ripe for Iudgment For who has not heard what Petrus Aloisius the Son of Paul the III. designed against Cosmus Cherius Bishop of Fano What Jo. Casa Arch-Bishop of Benevento the Popes Legate at Venice wrote of a Sin to be abhorred whilst with a Iewd Eloquence and abominable Words he commends what ought not to be named Who knows not that Alphonsus Diazius a Spaniard was sent from Rome into Germany of purpose to murther the most innocent and holy Man John Diazius his own Brother only because he had imbraced the Gospel and would not return to Rome which he accordingly did But they may pretend perhaps that such things as these are may sometimes happen in the best constituted Governments and that there is excellent Laws against them 5. Be it so But what Law passed upon these Pests Petrus Aloisius when he had attempted the Villany I have hinted at was ever after in the Bosom of Paul the III. his Father and his Joy Diazius after he had assassinated his Brother was delivered ouâ— of the hands of the Law by the Interposition of the Pope Johannes Casa Arch-Bishop of Benevento is yet alive and at Rome and live under the Eyes and in the Sight of his Holiness They have stain infinite numbers of our Brethren only because they truly and purely believed in Jesus Christ but then of that infinite number of Harlots Sodomites and Adulterers who have they at any time I will not say slain but excommunicated or so much as touched What are Fornications Adulteries Pimping Sodomy Parricides Incests and the like no sins at Rome or if they be why are they so easily born as it they were not Sins in the City of Rome that Bulwark of Sanctity and by the Pope the Vicar of Christ the Successor of St. Peter that most holy Father 6. O Holy Scribes and Pharisees to whom this Sanctity was never known O Sanctity and Catholick Faith St. Peter did never teach these things at Rome nor St. Paul live there at this rate They did not publickly exercise the Trade of Pimping they took no Tribute of the Whores they did not openly and freely tolerate Adulterers and Parricides they did not admit them into their Bosoms their Families their Councils nor into the Congregations of Christian Men. These Men ought not to have aggravated so much the Faults of our Lives it had been much better to have approved their own to the World or at least to have concealed them a little more from the Eyes of Men. 7. FOR as for us we retain and use our ancient Paternal Laws and administer Church Discipline seriously and diligently as far as we possibly can in so much Corruption of all things both as to Manners and Times we have no Stews nor Herds of Harlots and Concubines nor do we prefer Adulteries before Marriage nor do we exercise Pimping nor raise Money from Whore-houses neither do we suffer Incests and flagitious Lusts our Aloise's or our Casa's or our Parricidical murthering Diasio's do not go unpunished for if these things had pleased us there had been no occasion of separating from the Society of those Men where these rare things flourish and are in great esteem and so we had also
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
ancient Councils and the Scriptures They have not O good God! they have not on their sides what they pretend to have they have neither Antiquity nor Universality nor the consent of either all times or all Nations And of this they are not ignorant themselves tho they craftily dissemble their Knowledge Yea at times they will not obscurely confess it and therefore sometimes they will alledge that the Sanctions of the ancient Councils and Fathers are such as may lawfully be changed for different Decrees say they will best suit the different State of the Church in different times And so they hide themselves under the name of the Church and by a wretched sham delude Mankind And in truth it is a great wonder that Men should be so blind as not to see these things or if they do see them so patient as to bear and indure them with that stupidity and unconcernment they seem to have 9. BUT tho they have abrogated the Canons of the ancient Councils as too old and overworn yet perhaps they have settled neâ— and more useful Rules in their place for they have the confidence to say that if Christ himself or his Apostles should arise from the Dead they could not administer the Affairs of the Church of God better or more piously than it is now administered by them Indeed they have put others in the place of the former but as Jeremias saith Chaff instead of Wheat or as Isaiah saith What God never required at their Hands for they have stopped up all the veins of Living Waters and have hewen for the People of God broken and polluted Cisterns being full of mud and dregs which neither have in them any pure Water nor can hold it if it were put into them They have torn from the People the Holy Communion the word of God from which all true Comfort could only be expected the true Worship of God the right use of the Sacraments and Prayers of the Church and they have given us to please our selves withall in the mean time of their own pure invention consecrated Salts Waters Oyls Spittle Palmes Bulls Jubiles Indulgences Crosses Censings and an infinite number of Ceremonies And as Plautus calls others of the like nature Ludos Ludificabiles Shews and Pageants that are very divertising and good for nothing else In these things they have made all Religion to consist and they have taught the People that by these things God is rightly appeased and that by these things Devils are put to flight and the Consciences of Men quieted and confirmed For these are the Paints and Perfumes of Christianity these are the grateful and acceptable things to the All-seeing God these are to be had in honour that Christ's and his Apostles Institutions may be taken away And as heretofore the wicked King Jeroboam when he had taken away the true Service of God and perswaded the People instead of it to accept the Golden Calves for fear they might change their minds and fall from him and return to the Temple of God at Jerusalem made a long Oration to them exhorting them to Constancy saying to them These are thy Gods O Israel thus did your God command you to worship him But it would be very grievous and troublesome for you to take so long a Journey and to go up every year to worship and adore God at Jerusalem Even so our Adversaries when they had once by their Traditions quash'd the Laws of God lest the People should afterwards open their Eyes and fall off from them and seek a better way of assuring their Salvation O how often have they exclaimed that this is the true Worship of God which he is pleased with and hath required of us and by which he will be appeased when he is angry and that it is grievous and troublesome to the People to have recourse to Christ and the Apostles and Fathers and to attend perpetually what they require of them Is this their way of bringing the People of God off from the weak Elements of the World from the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees and from humane Traditions Are the Commandments of Christ and his Apostles to be taken away that these goodly things may succeed them O most righteous Cause why should an old Doctrine which hath been approved for many Ages be antiquated and a new Form of Religion be brought into the Church of God! Ay but say they be it what it will nothing ought to be changed the minds of Men are wonderous well satisfied with these things the Church of Rome has so decreed and she cannot err for Sylvester Prierias saith That the Church of Rome is the Rule and Model of Truth and that the Holy Scriptures have received from her all their Faith and Authority The Doctrine saith he again of the Church of Rome is the infallible Rule of Faith from whence the Holy Scriptures have all their strength For Indulgences were not made known to us by the Authority of Scriptures but they were made known by the Authority of the Church and Popes of Rome which is greater than the Scriptures Pighius doth not fear to say that without the command of the Church of Rome we are not to believe the most clear place of Scripture Which is just as if one of those who cannot speak good and pure Latin and yet by use and custom has got the faculty readily and fluently to blunder on in the Lawyer 's Latin should therefore stand stoutly to it that all others are bound to speak it after the same manner that was many years since in use with Mammetrectus and the Catholicon which they still use in their Pleadings because by that means men might very easily be understood and their Humours might be gratified but on the other side that it were ridiculous to trouble the World now with a new way of speaking and to reduce into practice again the old Purity and Eloquence of the Latin Tongue used in the times of Cicero and Caesar 10. SO much are they indebted to the Ignorance and blindness of the former times that as one saith Many things are often had in great esteem because they were once dedicated to the Service of the Gods So now we see many things are magnified and applauded by them not because they judge them worthy of this Esteem but only because by Custom they were once received and thereby in a sort dedicated to the Service of God But they pretend that their Church cannot Err. I suppose they speak this in the same sense as the Lacedemonians were wont to say there was no such thing as Adultery in their Common-wealth when in truth they were all Adulterers and used an uncertain sort of Marriages and had their Wives in common Or as the Hungry Canonists now say of the Pope that he being Lord of all Benefices altho he sells Bishopricks Monasteries and Livings and suffers nothing to go from him without Money yet because he claims all
more than some Private Councils of the Bishops and a sort of Great Provincial Synods For tho perhaps Italy France Spain England Germany Denmark and Scotland should meet yet Asia Greece Armenia Persia Media Mesopotamia Egypt Aethiopia India and Mauritania in all which places there are many Christians and Bishops would yet be absent And how could such a Council as this ever be reputed a General Council by any understanding Man And when so many and such considerable parts of the World are absent how can they pretend to have the Consent of the whole World Or what kind of Council was the last at Trent or how could it in any sense be said to be General when only Forty Bishops met there out of all the Christian Kingdoms in Europe and some of them too were so very Eloquent that it had been fit to send them to the Grammar Schools again and so Learned that they had never in all their Lives read the Bible over But be these things as they will the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ doth not depend upon General Councils or as St. Paul saith upon Mans Iudgment But if they who ought to take care of the Church will not understand and will be wanting to their duty and will harden their hearts against God and against his Christ and still go on to pervert the direct and streight ways of the Lord God will make the stones to cry out and endow Infants with an Oratorical Eloquence that there may ever be some to confute their Shams for God can protect and enlarge his Church not only without the help but against the opposition of Councils There be many Devices in Mans heart saith Solomon but the Counsel of the Lord that shall stand for there is neither Wisdom nor Prudence nor Counsel against the Lord for saith Hilary Those things theâ— are set up by Humane Industry do not continue long the Church was otherwise built and must be preserved by other means for she was built upon the Foundations of the Apostleâ— and Prophets and is fixed and cemented together by one corner stone Jesus Christ 18. VERY elegant and to our times most seasonable are the Words of St. Jerome As often saith he as the Devil lulls any a sleep with the sweet Blandishments of his Sirens the the Holy Scriptures never fail to awaken them with a Surge qui dormis elevare illuminabit te Christus Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Light At the coming of Christ and of the Word of God and of the Ecclesiastical Doctrine when the time of the Ruine of Nineve that beautiful Harlot is come then shall the People awake which had before been lull'd a sleep under their former Teachers and shall pass to the Mountains of the Scriptures there shall they find the Mountains of Moses and Joshua the Son of Nun the Mountains of the Prophets and the Mountains of the New Testament the Apostles and Evangelists and when the People have fled to these Mountains and are exercised in the reading of them tho they find no Teacher for the Harvist shall be great and the Labourers few yet the Industry of the People shall be approved in that they have fled to these Mountains and the Negligence of their Teachers shall be reprehended Thus hath St. Jerome written so very plainly that here is no need of an Interpreter and with so great a Congruity to the Events which have happened in our Times that it looks as if he had designed to foretel and describe to us with a Prophetick Spirit the whole State of our Times the Ruine of that richly adorned Babylonish Harlot and the Reformation of the Church of God the Blindness and Negligence of the Bishops and the Alacrity and Zeal of the People For who can be so blind as not to see that these were the Masters who as St. Jerome saith led the People into Error and stupified them in it or that Rome their Nineve which was once painted with the most lovely Colours is not now better known and less valued or that pious Men being now as it were awakned out of a deep Sleep have not betaken themselves to the Mountains of the Scriptures the Word of God and the Light of the Gospel without ever expecting the Councils of such Teachers as these 19. BUT without the Popes Consent at least some may think these things ought not to have been attempted because he is the Bond that unites the Christ an Society he is that one Priest whom God means in Deuteronomy from whom Counsel was to be expected in all difficult Cases and from whom the Judgment of Truth was to be fetched and if any man should dare to disobey him he was to be put to death in the sight of his Brethren and whatsoever he doth he can be judged by no mortal Man that as Christ reigns in Heaven so he rules on Earth that be can do whatever Christ or God himself can do that his Consistory and Christs are one and the same that without him there is no Faith no Hope no Church that he who forsakes him rejects his own Salvation For thus the Canonists the Flatterers of the Pope write not very modestly of him for they could scarce say more and certainly not greater things of Christ himself As for us we have not forsaken the Pope for any humane Pleasure or worldly Profit and we wish passionately he would behave himself so that there should be no need of a Departure from him but so it was except we left him there was no coming to Christ Nor will he now enter a League with us upon any other terms than those proposed by Nahash King of Ammon to the men of Jabeth-gilead that he may thrust out all our right Eyes for he will deprive us of the Holy Scriptures the Gospel of our Salvation and of all that Hope we have in Christ Jesus for upon other Conditions no Peace with him can be had 20. AND as to that which so many of them accustom themselves to extol so very much that the Pope only is St. Peters Successor as if upon that account he always carried the Holy Ghost in his Bosome and so could not err it is an airy and a silly Pretence The Grace of God is promised to pious Souls and to those that fear God and not affixed to Chairs and Successions Riches saith St. Jerome may render one Bishop more powerful than another but yet all Bishops what ever they are are the Successors of the Apostles But if the Place and Inauguration be it they so much rely on both Manasses succeeded David and Caiaphas Aaron and an Idol hath often stood in the House of God Long since one Archidamus a Lacedemonian made a mighty boasting that he was descended from Hercules one Nicostratus chastised his Insolence by telling him it did not seem probable that he could be descended from Hercules because
you what my Judgment is but as another saith as far as I know and may which I doubt not will give you an intire Satisfaction 3. WE wonder say you that no Ambassadors from England are come to the Council I beseech you Sir are the English the only Nation who have not come to the Council Have you Sir been at the Council your self Have you taken an exact Account Have you told them exactly by Poll Did you Sir see there all the other Nations come together from all Parts of the World except the English But Sir if you are so mightily in love with Wondering why did you not admire this too that neither any one of the three great Patriarchs of Constantinople Antioch nor Alexandria nor Presbyter John nor the Grecians Armenians Medes Persians Egyptians those of Barbary Ethiopia or the Indies did not come to the Council too for is there not many in those Nations who believe in Christ have they not Bishops are they not by Name and in reality Christians And Sir did Ambassadors come from all these Nations to the Council or will you rather say the Pope did not call them or that they are not bound by your Ecclesiastical Sanctions 4. BUT Sir we have much greater reason to wonder that when the Pope hath beforehand condemn'd us and publickly pronounc'd us excommunicated as Hereticks without ever hearing us make our Defence or alledging any thing against us he should afterwards call us to the Council for to condemn and punish men first and then to call them to Judgment is a very absurd way of Procedure a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cart before the Horses But Sir I would very gladly be inform'd if the Popes Intentions be to consult with us concerning Religion in this Council whom he has condemn'd for Hereticks as I said or if he intends we shall stand at the Bar and be obliged forthwith to change our Minds or be immediately condemn'd again one of these things is new or without Example and stiffly denied to those of our Perswasion by Pope Julius the third and the other is ridiculous if he thinks the English so silly as to come to the Council for no other purpose but to be accused and make their Defence as well as they can and before his Holiness especially who is long since accused himself not only by us but by his own party of many great Crimes 5. BUT Sir if England only seems so stubborn to you where are the Ambassadors of the King of Denmark the Princes of Germany and the King of Sweden of the Switzers of the Grisons of the Hanse Towns of the Realm of Scotland and of the Dukedom of Prussia and now when so many of the Christian Nations are absent from your Council it is a most foolish thing to speak of none but the English but why do I speak of them the Pope himself will not vouchsafe to come to his own Council and did you not wonder at this too for what Insolence is this for any one man at his Pleasure when he will to call together all the Christian Kings Princes and Bishops and to require them to yield Obedience to him in it and in the mean time not meet them there himself Sure I am when the Apostles call'd a Council at Jerusalem St. Peter the Apostle of whose Chair and Succession the Popes glory so infinitely would not be absent But I suppose the Pope Pius the 4th who now sits in that Chair remembers very well what betided John XXII that he had no good Fortune at his Appearance in the Council of Constance for he came thither a Pope but returned a Cardinal and therefore the Popes ever since have very wisely taken care of themselves and kept out of reach and at home and have stoutly withstood all Councils and free Debates for above forty years since when Dr. Martin Luther was assaulted with all manner of Curses and Thunderbolts by the Pope because he had begun to preach the Gospel and reform Religion by the Word of God and with all Humility begged that his Cause might be reserved to the Hearing and Determination of a General Council he could not be heard for Leo the X. saw very well if the thing had been refer'd to a Council that his own Concerns would be brought in danger and that he might hear what he would not 6. THE Name of a General Council sounds well if it be conven'd as it ought and Men would lay by their Passions and refer all things to the Word of God submitting to the Truth only but if Piety and Religion are openly oppress'd if Tyranny and Ambition are confirm'd if Factions Gluttony and Luxury are encouraged there can then be nothing thought of that is of worse Consequence to the Church of God And all this I have said upon a Supposition that there is such a Council somewhere as you mention and yet I heartily believe there is none at last but if indeed there be any where any Council at all it must be a very obscure private Council for tho we are at no very great distance from the Place yet we could never hear what Bishops were met nor what was done nor indeed whether any Bishops at all would meet And about twenty months since when this Council was first call'd by Pope Pius Ferdinandus the Emperor made answer that tho all other things were agreeable yet the Place the Pope had chosen did very much displease him for that tho Trent was a fine City yet it was not convenient for all the Nations and besides could not possibly entertain that great Number of Persons who did usually follow a general Council And almost the same Answer was generally given by all the Christian Princes and some of them answered much more sharply and therefore we thought all these fine Shews would together with the Council end in smoak 7. BUT I pray Sir who call'd this Council and assembled the World together you will say Pope Pius the IV. and why he rather than the Arch-bishop of Toledo by what Authority and Example of the Primitive Church and by what law hath he done this did Peter Linus Cletus or Clemens thus put the World in commotion by their Edicts this during the Integrity and Prosperity of the Roman Empire was a sole Prerogative of the Emperor but now that the Power of the Empire is diminished and that the several Kingdoms in Christendom have shared the Imperial Power amongst them this Power is devolved to all the Christian Kings and Princes Now Sir search all the Annals and gather together all the Memoirs of Antiquity and you shall find that all the ancient Councils as those of Nice Ephesus Chalcedon and Constantinople were call'd by the Emperors of Rome Constantinus Theodosius the First and Second and Martianus and not by the Popes of Rome 8. POPE Leo a Man sufficiently kind to himself and who did not in any thing neglect the Authority of his
Errors And why should Words be multiplied I omit other Witnesses for they are almost infinite many Councils have been held since that time and Bishops assembled and the Synod of Basil was expresly call'd as they then pretended for the Reformation of the whole Clergy but notwithstanding from that time forward Errors increased every where and the Corruptions of the Clergy became twice more than they were before 17. THE Cardinals who were nominated and chosen by Pope Paul the III. to consider the State of the Church gave in this Answer That there were many things faulty in the Church and especially in the Manners of the Bishops and inferior Clergy that the Bishops were lazy and did not teach the People feed the Flock or take care of the Vineyard that they lived in the Courts of Princes and were rarely resident that there was sometimes three and at others four Bishopricks held in commendam by one Cardinal which tended very much to the Dammage of the Church for those multiplied Offices as they said were not compatible or to be held together nor could be well managed by any one person and that all the Cloystered Orders should be banished out of the Church After this there was a Council at Trent but did the Bishops from that time begin to feed the Flock or did they cease from their former Non-residence or abstain from frequenting the Courts of Princes did the Cardinals cease from multiplying Bishopricks or was any care taken that the Church might have no dammage by it were the Conventual Orders diminished is Religion reformed amongst them what occasion then was there that so many Bishops should be assembled from very distant places or should to no purpose deliberate so many years concerning the Reformation of the Church this in truth is just as if the Pharisees should pretend to restore the Temple of God to its former Sanctity 18. THEY confess the errors and Abuses convoke Councils fain a great care of Religion and Piety promise their utmost Labour and Industry for the restitution of whatever is fallen into decay and that they will joyn with us in this Work That is just after that manner as the Enemies of the People of God of old said that they would together with Nehemia help to build the Temple of the Lord for indeed their design was not to promote the building of the Temple of the Lord but to hinder it as much as they could possibly they would willingly make a Peace with us but it is upon the terms offered by Nahash to the Jews of Jabesh if we will suffer them to bore out our right Eyes that is if we will suffer them to deprive us of the Word of God the Gospel of our Salvation 19. FOR have they any concern for Religion do they take any care of the Church of God who never regarded the Wrath of God nor the Salvation of the People nor any part of their Office they say let Pan take care of his Sheep They in the mean time mannage Wars Hunt take their Pleasures and fare deliciously That I may not mention any thing that is more base O immortal God! who can think that these men ever think on the Church of God or Religion when or what Errors will these men ever remove what Light will they afford to us whatever you say tho you could bring the Sun it self in your hands yet they would never the more see They excuse paint and comb as much as ever they can the most manifest Errors as Symachus or Porphyrius heretofore did the Heathen Errors and Follies All their business is to perswade the World that they have not deceived the People and that they have not err'd in any thing or if they sometimes prevail upon themselves to reform any thing which they never or very rarely and sparingly do they imitate Alexander the Roman Emperor who not being totally averse to the Christian Religion is reported to have worshiped Christ and Orpheus in the same Chappel or as the ancient Samaritans retained together the Worship of the true God and the Service of Idols so they will sometimes perhaps receive some part of the Gospel upon condition that they may at the same time retain their Superstition and their doting Errors they receive some Truths upon condition they may hold some other things which are false they do so approve ours as not to disapprove their own and so they do not take away Abuses but colour them over and only new case the old Pillars 20. THIS is their way of reforming the Church of God thus they celebrate Conventions and Councils the Truth is not served but Affection the better part is brought under by the greater the very Name of a General Council is beautiful and glorious but Poison is oftentimes given in a beautiful Cup for it is not sufficient that some Bishops and Abbots meet in one place the efficacy of a Council is not placed in Miters and Purple Robes nor is whatever a Council decrees presently to be taken for an Oracle It was a Council of which the Prophet Isaiah writes thus Wo to the rebellious Children saith the Lord who assemble a Council but not by me take Council saith he and it shall come to nought in another place It was a Council of which the Prophet David saith thus The Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ It was a Council which condemn'd the Son of God Jesus Christ to the Cross it was a Council and celebrated at Carthage under St. Cyprian which decreed that those that were baptized by Hereticks when they returned to the Church should be rebaptized which Error was afterwards forc'd to be repeal'd by so many Councils and Writings of the Fathers And what need is there of so many Words The second Council of Ephesus was openly for Eutyches that the Humane Nature of Christ was changed into the Divine The second Council of Nice decreed a manifest Idolatry in the Worship of Images The Council of Basil as Albertus Pighius saith decreed against all Antiquity against Nature against Reason and against the Word of God The Council of Ariminium wickedly decreed for Arrius that Christ was not God and to conclude many other Councils afterwards erred too as the Selucian and the Syrmian which did both condemn the Homousians or Catholicks and also subscribed to the impious Heresie of the Council of Ariminium Why do you doubt the very Council of Chalcedon which was one of the four which Pope Gregory compar'd to the four Evangelists Pope Leo made no Scruple to accuse that very Council of Temerity of Rashness 21. THUS we see some Councils to have been contrary to other Councils and that as Pope Leo quash'd the Acts of Adrian Stephen of Formosus John of Stephen and that as Pope Sabinian commanded all the Writings of Pope Gregory to be burnt as perverse and wicked so very often a latter Council
to me by Letters or by Messengers I will discover to man to his Damage I will be a Helper to defend the Papacy of the Church of Rome and the Canons of the Holy Fathers and to retain them against all men Of old when the Priests of Apollo Pythius spoke plainly in favour of Philip King of Macedonia there were some who facetiously said that Apollo began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Philippize And now we see plainly that nothing is decreed in the Council but by the Will and Consent of the Pope why may we not say that the Oracles of the Councils do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Papize that is speak nothing but what the Pope please Verres of old acted wisely of whom it is reported that being plainly guilty of many Crimes he would not commit his Reputation and Fame to any but confiding men of his own Flock and Party But yet the Pope is many degrees wiser for he will not have any Judges but such as he knows will not determine any thing against his Will because they have the same Interest he hath and esteem all things by the relation they have to their Pleasures and Bellies and yet if they would they could not do otherwise because they are bound to him by an Oath too indeed they place the Bible in the midst of the Council because they would seem not to act any thing against the Prescription thereof and yet they only look upon it at a good distance but never read one word of it in truth they bring with them a prejudicated Sentence and never attend what Christ saith or determine any thing but as it best pleaseth them 24. AND thus is all that Liberty which ought to be in all Consultations and especially in those which concern holy things and which doth best befit the holy Spirit and the Modesty of Christian Men wholly taken away St. Paul saith that if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his Peace but these men command him to be forthwith taken and hurried to Prison and burnt who shall but mutter any thing to the contrary as the cruel Death of the two holy and stout men John of Hus and Jerome of Prague is an excellent Witness against them which two men they murthered contrary to the publick Faith and were thereby false both to God and Man So the false Prophet Zedechias when he had made himself a pair of iron Horns smote Micaiah the Prophet of the Lord and said hath the Spirit of the Lord left me and come to thee thus having now excluded all others they reign in Councils alone and have the sole Right of Suffrages and so make and divulge such Laws as the Ephesians did of old Let no man said they who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiser than the rest presume to live here upon pain of Banishment and Transportation for these men will hear none of us About ten years since in the late Council at Trent the Ambassadors of the Princes of Germany and of the free Towns who came thither that they might be heard were excluded out of the Assembly and denied the Liberty of Speech for the Bishops and Abbots said they would suffer no free Debate of the Cause nor would they determine the Controversies by the Word of God and that those of our Side were not to be heard except they would recant which if they refused they were to expect no other terms in the Council but to be condem'd for Julius the III. in his Brief by which he call'd that Council publickly declared that if they did not change their Minds they should be condemned for Hereticks without ever hearing their Cause And Pius the IV. who hath now resolved to call again that Council hath by the prejudice of his own single Judgment commanded all those who have made defection from the Authority of the Church of Rome that is the greatest part of Christendom without ever seeing or hearing them to be taken and reputed Hereticks They are wont to say and that upon all occasions that all things are well and that they will not suffer the least part of their Doctrine and Religion to be altered Albertus Pighius saith that without the Command of the Church of Rome the most plain place of Scripture is not to be believed Now is this their way to restore the Church to her Integrity Is this their seeking Truth Is this the Liberty and Moderation which beâ—its a Council 25. AND altho these things are most unjust and most contrary to the Practice of the ancient Councils and the Usage of modest and good Men in their Deliberations yet it is much more unreasonable that whereas the whole World complains of the Ambition and Tyranny of the Pope of Rome and is perswaded that until he is reduced to a better Order all their Labours for the Reformation of the Church of God will be in vain and nothing will be done yet at last all things are referred to him alone as to the most equal Arbiter and Judge But O good God! to what Man I will not now say any of these things against him that he is an Enemy of the Truth an Ambitious Covetous Proud Man who is already become intolerable to his own But I say that it is the utmost pitch of Folly and Injustice to make him the sole Judge of all Religion who commands all his Dictates to be had in the self same Honour and Esteem as the Words of St. Peter are and saith that in case he should Mislead a thousand Souls and carry them with himself to Hell yet no man ought to reprehend him for it Who saith he can make Injustice to become Justice Whom Camotensis confesseth to have corrupted the Scriptures that he might have a Plenitude of Power And why should I use more words whom his own Companions and Ministers Joachimus Abbas Petrarcha Marsilius Patavinus Laurentius Valla and Hieronymus Savanarola have not obscurly hinted to be the Antichrist To the Judgment and Will I say of this one Man are all things submitted that this very Criminal may be both the Party accused and the Judge of his own very Case that this guilty man may sit aloft upon a Throne and his Accusers stand beneath whilst he gives Sentence for himself for Pope Julius had given us these just and reasonable Laws There is saith he no Council which is valid nor ever shall be unless supported by the Authority of the Church of Rome And Bonifacius the VIII saith that every Creature ought to be subject to the Church of Rome and that as they tender their Salvation And Pope Pascal useth this Expression as if any Councils had given Laws to the Church of Rome when in truth all the Councils have been held and received their Force from the Authority of the Church of Rome and in all their Statutes the Authority of the Pope of Rome is plainly and apparently excepted And another saith
receive them But if that Expression to thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven be to be understood as spoken to all the rest as well as to Peter why then should not all that was spoken as well what went before as what follows after tho spoken to St. Peter yet be common to all the Apostles There is saith Hillary one happy Rock of Faith which Peter confessed with his Mouth and again upon this Confession of Peter's is the Church built and not much after this Faith is the Foundation of the Church And after the same manner the other Fathers also Jerome Cyril and Bede say the Church is built not upon Peter but upon the Faith of Peter that is on Jesus Christ the Son of God whom Peter by an Heavenly instinct confessed Peter saith St. Augustin was so call'd from the Rock not the Rock from Peter nor did Christ say I will build my self upon thee but I will build thee upon me And Nicholas Liranus tho he is not always a good Author for you know in what Age he lived yet he rightly took this upon this Rock saith he that is upon Christ and therefore the Church cannot depend upon any man by reason of his Dignity and Ecclesiastical Power for many Popes have proved Apostates 28. IN what then is this Papal Authority placed In Teaching but they teach nothing in administring the Sacraments but they do not administer them in feeding but they feed none Now this is all the Power which Christ bestowed upon the Apostles Go ye said he into all the World and preach the Gospel c. hence forward ye shall be Fishers of Men and as the living Father sent me so I send you But as to these whither go they what do they teach what do they preach what do they fish for from whence go they or by whom are they sent their 's is nor Apostolick Authority but Pride and an intolerable Lordship usurped by Force and Tyranny None of us saith Cyprian calls himself Bishop of Bishops or compells his Partners to a necessitated Obedience by a Tyrannical Terror Seeing every Bishop may use his Liberty and Power according to his own Discretion as he cannot be judged by another so neither can he judge another And as the other Apostles saith he were the same which Peter was so all Bishops are endowed with this equal Partnership both of Honour and Power And St. Jerome saith greater is the Authority of the World than that of any City Why then do you produce to me the Custom of one City Why do you vindicate that Paucity from which this Pride arose against the Laws of the Church Where-ever a Bishop is setled whether at Rome or Eugubium whether at Constantinople or Rhegium he is of the same Worth and of the self same Priesthood the greatness of Riches and the Humility of Poverty makes not one Bishop superior or inferior to another And St. Gregory saith Peter was a principal Member in the Body John Andrew and James were the Heads of particular People and yet all of them are Members of the Church in one Head yea the Saints before the Law those under the Law and those under Grace and all those who make up the Body of our Lord the Church are to be accounted Members and no man ever yet desired to be call'd an UNIVERSAL 29. THIS is that Power which some men defend so stoutly in this Age so that whatever they think of the Popes Life or Religion yet they would have this Authority Sacred and untouched as if the Church of God could not be safe without it or as if without the Popes Will and Consent a Council could be no Council and that if the whole World should think contrary to what he doth it would be nothing And therefore when you see Sir that these things are thus ill managed you ought not to wonder that when nothing is now sincerely and truly acted in Councils our Men had rather stay at home than travail so far to no purpose to a Place where they are sure to lose their Labour and their Cause too 30. BUT Sir you say in the next place it is a Sin to change any thing in Religion without the Consent of the Pope and a Council Why Sir the very Popes themselves have changed almost the whole State of the Primitive Church without any Council and tho this is indeed a very specious and winning Proposition yet it is made a Cover and Defence for most foul Errors for they only seek to delay the Minds of Men with a tedious Expectation that by lingring and weariness they may take off their Edge and Keenness and so by degrees make them cast off all Hopes of a Reformation For what would they have the People of God be deceived err be deluded and involved in Error and in the Ignorance of God and be led into eternal Ruine and Destruction whilst the Pope calls a Council and the Abbots and Bishops meet debate settle things and then return home Is it not lawful for any of us to believe in Christ to prosess the Gospel to worship God rightly and truly to fly from Superstitions and Worship of Idols except these men please to give us leave In truth the state of the Church of God were very deplorable if in the midst of so many far spread gross blind foul apparent and manifest Errors so that our very Enemies themselves cannot deny them nothing could be done for her Relief without the Concourse of the whole World and a General Council or at least of such a Council as we cannot hope for with any certainty and the event of which if we now had it is much more uncertain When of old the Persians invaded Greece and began to destroy all before them and the Lacedemonians whose valour was then much famed amongst the Grecians and therefore it was but reasonable they should have been the first in the defence of their Country yet because they had an ancient Custom and a Superstitious conceit that had possessed them from the time of Lycurgus that it was ominous and unfortunate to begin a Martial Expedition at any other time than that of the full Moon therefore they sat still and suffered their Enemies to plunder and burn their Country whilst they were foolishly expecting that period of the Moon which was most opportune and fitting to begin their defence in But at last they bethought themselves and cried There is equal danger in the delay The safety of the Church is in danger the Devil like a ramping and a roaring Lyon goes about seeking whom he may devour simple men are easily drawn into the snare and tho they are very often touched with a Zeal for God yet out of Ignorance and Misperswasion they persecute the Son of God And as Nazianzen saith When they think they are in Arms for Christ they do really fight against him And the Bishops who ought in the first place to
take care of these things either like vain Night-Spirits throw every things into Disorder and Confusion or that I may tell the truth without disguise encrease the Errors and double the darkness Now Sir after all this should we have sit still and expected the determination of these Fathers with our Arms folded together and doing nothing No St. Cyprian saith There is but one Episcopacy in the whole Church a solid and intire part of which is enjoyed by every Bishop and every one shall surely give an account to the Lord for his own part Their blood will I require at thy hand saith the Lord. And if any man puts his hand to the Plough and looketh back and is solicitous what others may think of him and expects the Authority of a General Council and in the mean time hides his Lords Treasure he shall hear thou sloathful and wicked Servant Take him and cast him into outer darkness Suffer saith Christ the dead to bury their dead but come thou and follow me The truth of God depends not upon men In Humane Counsels it is the part of a wise man to stay for the judgment and consent of men but in the Affairs of Religion the voice of God ought to supercede the need of all others which as soon as a devout Soul has heard he yeilds presently submits and neither stands off nor expects any other for he knows that then he ought neither to believe the Pope nor Council but the Will of God thus revealed And this voice is to be obeyed tho opposed by all men The Prophet Elija immediately obeyed God tho he did believe that he was alone Abraham upon the Admonition of God went out of Caldea Lot went out of Sodom and the three Children made a publick Confession of their Religion and openly detested Idolatry without expecting a General Council Go out of her saith the Angel and be not partakers of her sins that ye partake not of her Plagues he doth not say stay for a Synod of the Bishops Thus the true Religion was at first published and so it must be now restored The Apostles at first taught the Gospel without any publick Council and without any such Council it may now be called back and reinstated But if Christ himself or his Apostles in the beginning would have delayed and put off the whole business till a future Council When should the 〈◊〉 of them have gone out into all Lands How should the Kingdom of God have suffered force and the violent have taken it by a kind of Invasion Where had the Gospel now been Where would the Church of God have been In truth we neither fear nor fly from a Council but rather wish for and desire it so it may be free genuine and Christian and may be conven'd after the pattern of that of the Apostles provided that the Abbots and Bishops may be discharged of their Oath by which they are now bound to the Popes of Rome and that whole Combination now on foot may be dissolved provided those of our Party may be freely and modestly heard provided they be not condemned before they are heard And lastly upon condition that if any thing be done no one man may weaken or rescind all again But now whilst we saw that the present manners and times would not allow us thus much and that the most absurd silly ridiculous superstitious and wicked things were most stifly defended only because they had been heretofore received and purely for custom sake We judged it to be our duty to provide for and take care of our own Churches in a National Council 31. FOR we know that the Spirit of God is neither bound to any place or number of men Tell it said Christ to the Church To wit not to the universal Church which is spread all over the World but to the particular which may meet in some one place Wheresoever saith he two or three of you are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of you So St. Paul that he might reform the Churches of Corinth and Galatia did not command them to stay for a General Council but wrote to them that they would forthwith cut off all Errors and Disorders And so heretofore whilst the Bishops slept and did nothing or rather defil'd and polluted the Temple of God God by extraordinary ways excited others who were great men and of generous minds to reform whatever was amiss 32. BUT then Sir we have done nothing rashly nor without very great reason nothing but what we saw was lawful at all times to be done and which had often been done by the Holy Fathers without any blame And thus calling together the Bishops and a very full Synod by the common consent of all our States We cleansed the Church of those Dregs and Corruptions which either the carelesness or malice of Men had brought in and purged it as the Augean Stable And as far as it was possible we have reduced all things to their ancient Splendor and the resemblance of the Apostolical times and Primitive Church And all this as we might lawfully do it so for that cause have we done it confidently 33. THAT which Pope Gregory the First wrote about these Affairs please me and the more because he wrote about the Institution of the English Churches to Augustin Bishop of the English He exhorts him then not that he should refer things to a Council but that according to his Discretion he should appoint such things as he saw did most tend to the encrease of Piety You know saith he my Brother the Custom of the Church of Rome in which you were brought up but I am best pleased with this Course that where-ever you find any thing which is most pleasing to Almighty God whether it be in the Church of Rome or that of France or in any other Church you would carefully pick and choose the principal things and settle them in the Church of England which is yet new and to be setled in the Faith and that in the Constitution thereof you should instill those things which you have thus collected from many several Churches ◠for Customs are not to be loved for the sake of the Places but the Places for their Sakes 34. After the same manner the Fathers in the Council of Constantinople wrote to Damasus Pope of Rome and the rest of the Western Bishops Ye know the ancient Sanction and Definition of the Council of Nice was ever in force that as to the Care of the Administration of particular Churches the Clergy in every Province taking their Neighbours if they thought fit should confer Ecclesiastical Dignities upon those they believed would manage them profitably And the Affrican Fathers wrote thus to Pope Celestinus Your Holiness may be pleased to reject the unjust Appeals or Recourses of our Presbyters and the inferior Clerks of our Church as becomes you for this was never denied to the Church of Affrica by any