if we beleeue not at all the traditions of men but the Scripture manifestly doeth Esay 29.13 Matth. 15.3 Colos 2.8 forbid vs to beleue them If you can find one only text of the scripture that willeth and commandeth vs to beleeue in the Romane church as hauing prerogatiue ouer all churches the world throughout I will be on your side to the death But no such place I am certain you can shewe in the whole Bible that the Romane church is the holy Catholique Church which all men of what countrey soeuer they be must acknowledge to be chiefest It is not sufficient to claime succession of place it behoueth vs rather to haue regard to the succession of doctrine Bernard in Concil Rem Bernard sayth Quid prodest si canonice eligantur non canonice viuant What auaileth it if they be chosē in order liue out of order So sayeth Saint Augustine contra Donatistas August lib. 6. 1. q. 3. Vocatur canes Ipsum characterem multi lupi lupis imprimunt The outward marke or right of a Bishoppe many giue to wolues and be wolues them selues Therefore the auncient father Ireneus giueth vs this good counsell Eis qui sunt in ecclesia praesbyteris obedire oportet qui successionem habent ab Apostolis qui cum episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundum beneplacitum patris acceperunt It becommeth vs to obey those Priestes in the church which haue their succession from the Apostles and together with the succession of the Byshoprickes according to the good wil of God the Father haue receiued the vndoubted gyft of the trueth Saint Cyprian being likewise charged for dissenting from his predecessours answereth thus Cyprian lib. 2. Epist 3. Si quis de antecessoribus meis non hoc obseruauit tenuit quod nos dominus exemplo magisterio suo docuit potest simplicitati eius venia concedi nobis vero ignosci non potest qui nunc a Domino admoniti instructi sumus If any of my predecessours haue not obserued and kept the same that our Lord hath taught vs both by his example and commandement his simplicitie may be pardoned but we if we doe the like can hope for no pardon being now admonished instructed of our Lorde Compare the vse order of our churches my brethrē with the Primitiue church of God and you shall easely see the right of our succession S. Cyprian sayeth ad Pompeium contra Epistolam Stephani Si canalis aquae quae copiosè priùs largiter profluebat subitò deficiat nonne ad fontem pergitur c. Hoc nunc facere oportet Dei sacerdotes praecepta diuina seruantes vt in aliquo si mutauerit vacillauerit veritas ad originem Dominicam Euangelicam atque Apostolicam traditionem reuertamur inde surgat actus nostri ratio vnde ordo origo surrexit If the pipes of the conduyte which before ranne with aboundance happen to faile doe wee not vse to search to the head c. The Priestes of God keeping Gods commandements must doe the same that if the trueth haue faynted or fayled in any point wee returne to the very originall of our Lorde and to the tradition of the Gospel of the Apostles that from thence wee maye take the discretion of our doings from whence the order it selfe and originall first began Thus much touching succession of place Now I exhorte you brotherly to be reconciled to the true church of God I meane the Church of England wherein you finde not so many idolaters Necromancers heretikes adulterers Sodomites churchrobbers periured persons mankillers Runnagates mōsters Sicophants Clawbacks slaundering tongues scribes and pharises as you may easely finde in the church of Rome Boast not of the succession of your Pope S. Paul sayth Rom. 10.17 Faith cōmeth not by succession but by hearing and hearing commeth not of legacie or inheritance frō Bishop to Bishop but of the worde of God They are not alwayes godly that succeede the godly Manasses succeeded Ezechias and Ieroboam succeeded Dauid the Prophet By succession the Turke this day possesseth and holdeth the foure great patriarchal Sees of the church Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Hierusalem Dan. 9.25 Matt. 24.15 Mar. 13.14 Luk. 21.20 By succession Desolation shal sit in the holy place and Antichrist shall preasse into the roome of Christ Thus much welbeloued brethren touching succession of place Now I will speake a litle in confutation of your forged myracles wherewith you seeke to oppugne the true church of Christ and defende your wicked church of Antichrist polluted with all maner of detestable idolatrie and cursed superstition There are two maner of myracles Miracles the one true the other false Myracles are counted false when either they be not that which they seeme to bee or if they be they are not supernatural but are done by vertue of nature and that the Angels either good or bad three maner of waies may bring to passe For sometime the force of nature which they best knowe they accommodate to the matter of which coniunction with efficient causes folowe the effects and that suddenly which effectes are of the beholders thought to bee myracles The deuils knowe that frogs wormes or serpents bee ingendred of putrefacted and rotten things so that there be put heate in certain degrees in consideration whereof seeing that it is not a hard thing for them to do these things which by nature maye bee wrought it is the easier to deceiue the weake of beliefe And by this meanes S. August de Trin. lib. 3. Augustine thought as he writeth in his third booke of Trinity Pharaos Magicians sometime to haue done the same Moreouer the coniunctions of the spirits of bloud and of humors do much disquiet mens bodies from whence proceede the sights or visiōs of things which are in those things conserued in the same motion before they come into the phantasie or imaginatiō and by the same reason and order wherewith the spirit is troubled it ioyneth them together which thing appeareth in such as be Phrentique Wee are not bound of necessitie to beleeue all such myracles whatsoeuer without exception Alexander of Hales sayeth Par. 4. quaest 53. Mem. 4. ar 3. solut 2. In sacramento apparet caro interdum humana procuratione interdum operatione diabolica In the Sacrament it selfe there appeareth flesh sometyme by the conueyance of men sometime by the woorking of the deuill Likewise saith Nicholaus Lyra Lyr. in 14. Dan. Aliquando in ecclesia fit maxima deceptio populi in miraculis factis a Sacerdotibus vel eis adhaerentibus propter lucrum Sometime euen in the church the people are shamefully deceiued with feigned miracles wrought either by the Priestes or els by their companions for lucres sake Miracles be not euermore vndouted proofes of true doctrine therfore Saint Augustine saith vnto the Manichees Miracula non facitis Aug. lib. 13. quae si
therein euen vnto the ende of my life that I may neuer swarue from his heauenly trueth vnto blindnesse and errour Psal 125.5 wherewith once seduced by false prophets I was holden captiue But nowe hauing the assistance of Gods holy Spirit the trueth of his sacred worde and perfect loue of the faithfull on my side I passe not what wicked Papistes speake or do against me their immoderate and vnciuill bitternesse proceeding from the furious and stormie passions of their poysoned heartes I may well lament but restraine I can not therefore I say Let the Papists here in England fret and fume and say of my name what euill or slaunder they can deuise let them write their letters to Rheims in Fraunce and from thence to Rome with the poste and certifie all the English Scholers there that the Popes scholer their owne companion and fellow student is reuolted from papistrie hath left the Pope in plaine fielde and quite denyed him protested against his blasphemies and renounced the deuilish dregges of all his Idolatrie So soone as these letters shal come to viewe Robert Parsons sometimes of Bailyol Colledge in Oxford they will name one Father Parsons Iesuite a Prophet or Southsayer for that he at Rome in the English Seminarie in a certaine exhortation made to the schollers prophecied that one or other of that company my selfe being then present amongest them shoulde degenerate from their faith and be the ouerthrowe of that colledge he confirmed also the profe thereof by example beginning with Christ and his Apostles Mat. 26.16 Luk. 22.4 Ioh. 6.71 pyking out Iudas one of the colledge of Christ that forsooke his master and then from the colledge of the Apostles he named Nicholaus that reuolted Actes 6.5 Apoc. 2.6 Nowe will their diuines declayme in the refectory pulpit of my sudden sequestration and estranging from their brotherly societie The triall and experience of their rash iudgement hatred and enuie mocking scoffing had pronounced against others giueth me sufficient notice that I shall incurre their like rayling and misreport I knowe that I cannot be voyde of their imagined slaunders in iudging me to be the first begotten sonne of the deuil I cannot escape their sinister exposition of all things to the worst wherefore I must arme my selfe with patience and seeing through Gods goodnesse I am reduced from the miserable captiuitie of blindnesse and errour to the true vnderstanding and knowledge of Gods holy trueth I neede take no great thought for their conceiued choller slaunderous speach and rayling wordes of Sathans prompting sithens they haue dealt so maliciously with my betters And as for their holy father the Popes curse with booke bell and candell it shall not grieue me at all neither will I take one vnquiet nappe for al his banning and cursing and seeing I haue renounced his Popish church wherein I neither heard the worde of God syncerely taught the Sacraments rightly administred nor the Name of God duely called vpon Seeyng that I say I forsooke the idolatrous church of Rome and haue so gone from it Dan. 6.23 3.26 as Daniel went out of the lyons denne and the three children out of the furnace and am come to that Church wherein the most earnest Papistes them selues can not deny if they will say truely and as they thinke in their owne conscience but all things be gouerned purely and reuerently in this true Church of Christ I haue a desirous minde to profit my louing countreymen according to the Talent which God of his bountifulnesse shall giue vnto me in preaching vnto them his holy word in exhorting them vnto watchfulnesse and prayer against Romish doctrine which is builded vpon false miracles and traditions of men beeing the fantasticall deuises of their busie braine for lucre and ambition sake fynally in warning them vnto amendement of life that both by their faith and conuersation Gods name may be glorified If thou art a member of that church the spouse of Christ whereof he is head and not Antichrist the Bishop of Rome it needeth not then good christian Reader much to entreat thee to take in good part this vnlearned declaration of my reconcilement made as it were ex tempore my selfe being in prison and wanting bookes to the great impediment and hinderance of this my discourse The beneuolence of the Papistes I seeke not for if I shoulde it were but in vaine I can not obteine it for that I haue with vpright conscience made a true rehearsall of such thinges as I haue seene at Rome yet not all nor the twentyeth part thereof but here one thing and there another and so fewe thinges in all and this I adde in the ende if they can not afforde one good worde by mee yet for good fellowshippe sake let them then say Requiescat in pace but let it be a solemne dirge for Aristotles soule who neuer knew the true God but euer liued in gentility blindnes of the trueth that he may be deliuered out of Purgatory where they hold him to be so that we may haue conference with him know of him whether it be substantiall true diuinitie such as he taught and set forth in writing or els whether it be Plato his diuinitie who was an Heathen or Gentile and which of them is best and as for the diuinitie which Christ preached and was deliuered by the Apostles and receiued of the faithfull they are not acquainted with God euermore enflame and direct me with his holy Spirit that the zeale of his trueth may throughly pearce and possesse my heart that I may safely walke in the wayes of righteousnes holines al the dayes of my life vtterly abandon detest all hypocrisie idolatrous superstition I. N. A declaration of Gods benefites towardes me a wretched sinner HOwe prouident a patrone and bountifull a father the Lorde of life hath bene vnto me his vnthankeful and rebellious childe his sundry and manifolde benefits doe testifie and this my vnfeyned reconciliation to the true Church doeth verefie the same yea the continuance of his louing kindenesse was herein principally declared for whereas mine owne natural corruption wrought dayly in me the banishment out of his fauour and the danger of reprobation he notwithstanding in consideration of my frailtie neuer withstoode to helpe me in all dangers both bodily and ghostly and to plucke me out of the pit of perdition whereinto the haynousnesse of my offences haled me by violence Oh gratious God howe shall I a sinner conceiued in sinne and brought vp in iniquitie worthily aduance the excellencie of thy loue who shal giue me a heart to conceiue this thy kindnesse whence shal I haue vtterance to sound out thy mercie Of my self because I am a vessell of wrath subiect to sinne death hel condemnation I can not conceiue so perfect a worke thou therefore which art the euerlasting fountaine of all goodnesse Ier. 2.13 Iam. 1.17 giue it me oh giue
of the Arrians sayd That foure or fiue persons with their Athanasius woulde trouble the peace of the world To whom Liberius the Bishop of Rome answered That his solitude or fewnesse did not any whit diminish the worde of faith As for the declining estate of the Church wee are giuen to wit That when the sonne of man shall come before whose coÌ„ming Antichrist shall seduce the world Neque fides Matt. 24.12 37. neque charitas inuenta erit in terra isti dies erunt tanquaÌ„ dies Noah Lot There shall neither faith nor charity be found on the earth and those dayes shal be as the daies of Noah Lot c. The Eclipse then of this Moone shal be as it were vniuersal al the whole earth being put betweene the Church the sunne And therefore if we shall finde no other direction in such darknes then the multitude we shall haue no part with that litle nomber So much for multitude whereof the Papists make great account Nowe will I speake a litle of Succession which you my brethren take to bee a very substantiall argument of the trueth But Christ saith in the 23. of Matthewe In cathedra Mosis sedent Scribae Pharisaei By order of Succession the Scribes and Pharises sit in Moses chaire Annas and Caiphas touching Succession were aswel Bishops as Aaron and Eleazar Of Succession S. Paul saith to the faithfull at Ephesus Scio quod post discessum meum intrabunt lupi rapaces ex vobis ipsis exurgent viri peruersa loquentes I knowe that after my departure hence rauening wolues shall enter and succeede mee and out of yourselues there shall by Succession spring vp men speaking peruersly Therfore S. Hierome saith Non sanctorum filii sunt qui tenent loca sanctorum They bee not alwayes the children of holy men that by succession haue the places of holy men Notwithstanding the Pope himselfe will say as it is before alledged In Papasi desint bona acquisita per meritum sufficiunt quae a loci praedecessore praestantur If the Pope want good things by his own merits the good thinges which hee hath by SuccessioÌ„ of Peter his predecessor are sufficient And the glose vpon Petrus fecit Papas haeredes bonitatis suae Peter made the Popes heires of his goodnes by Succession And againe Papa recipit a cathedra sanctitateÌ„ The Pope receiueth his holines by succession of his chaire Such affiance sometime had the Scribes and Pharises in their succession therefore they sayde Ioh. 8.33 53. We are the children of Abraham Vnto vs hath God made his promises art thou greater then our father Abraham Iohn 9.29 As for Christ we know not from whence hee came or what can he shewe for his succession And when our Sauiour went about to reforme the abuses and errors they sayde vnto him Matt. 21.23 Iohn 2.18 By what power doest thou these things and who gaue thee this authoritie where is thy succession Vpon which wordes Beda saith Beda in Matth. 21. Intelligi volunt diaboli esse quod fecit They woulde haue the people vnderstand for that he had no solemne succession that al that he did was of the deuill Cyrillus Carena in Luc. 39. And Cyrillus frameth their words in this sort Tu ortus ex Iuda commissos nobis fasces vsurpas Thou beeing of the tribe of Iuda and therefore hauing no right vnto the priesthoode takest vpon thee the office that is committed vnto vs. Likewise Chrysostom imagineth the Pharises thus to say Chrysost in Mat. Hom. 39. Tu de sacerdotali familia natus non es Senatus tibi hoc non concessit Caesar non donauit Thou art not of the house of priests the Councill hath not graunted it thee the Emperour hath not giuen it thee Thus to mainteine themselues in credit for that they had succession and continuance from Aaron and sate in Moses chaire they kept Christ quite out of possession Matt. 23.2 and sayd vnto him then euen as you my brethren saye nowe vnto vs Who euer taught vs this pernitious doctrine before what ordinary succession of persons and vocation haue we what Bishop admitted vs who confirmed vs who allowed vs Therefore good christian hearers let not these the Papistes great wordes much abash vs. The Scribes Pharises in the like cases vsed the like language long ago But let me aske you a question Howe can you shewe any demonstration or probabilitie that the succession of your church is lawfull If there were any church that could alledge succession of persons it were the church of the Iewes for they were of the house of Aaron from the father to the sonne and besides them none might sacrifice Moreouer to them it was promised that they should continue so for euer And in deed when the Prophets exhorted them to reformation they had no other thing in their mouth but this Lex a Sacerdote non peribit neque consilium a sapiente neque verbum a propheta The lawe shall not perish from the priest nor the counsell from the wise nor the word from the Prophet But the spirit of the Lorde answered them Quomodo dicitis SapieÌ„tes sumus Iere. 8.8 lex Iehouae penes nos est vtique ecce ad falsitateÌ„ operatur stylus ad falsitatem operantur legis periti fecerúntne sapientes vt erubescerent consternatÃne sunt capti ecce verbum Iehouae spernunt eccuius rei sapientia inesset eis Howe say ye We are wise and the lawe of the Lord is with vs For it is in vaine that the pen is made and that there is a scribe wise men are confounded and seeing that they haue reiected the worde of the Lord what shal be their wisdome any more In like maner when the Iewes boasted to Iesus Christ that they were of the seede of Abraham Iohn 8.44 I know it wel saith he but the deuil is your father And in very deede this successiue and hereditarie wisdome crucified Christ and reiected saluation offred vnto them as also this self same successioÌ„ although it be only pretended worshippeth Antichrist and interteyneth her owne perdition Moreouer I demande what these alledgers of succession would haue answered to the Arrians Samosetans Nestorians c. who had their beginning continued from the first Bishops euen to themselues and namely to Nestorius and Samosetanus both which were lawfully called to the patriarchal churches the one to Constantinople and the other to Antioch Also what will you answere to the succession alledged by al the Greeke and east churches To be short to the reformed churches of England DeÌ„mark SwetheÌ„ a great part of Almaigne through all which there is at this daye this succession from Bishop to bishop from Pastor to Pastor If you wil alledge the Popes succession wee deny it you it is another question If simply succession you haue lost your cause If your doctrine then we gaine this poynt that the simple