the least three times in the yeare before the Lord in Hierusalem to testifie by their sacrifices their vnion in faith and religion Now after the wall of separation was brokē down which was between the Iewes the Gentiles they both the Iewes I say the Gentiles are brought into one body not only by the preaching of the one gospel of Iesus to them both but also by administring to them the Sacramēts which the lord Iesus hath ordeyned that is Baptisme the sacrament of his body bloud Iesus sayde to his Apostles Matth. 28 Goe teache all nations baptising them in the name of the father the sonne and of the holy Ghoste Here is enioyned both the teaching of the gospel of Iesus also the ministring of the sacrament of Baptisme And with the ministerie of baptisme is the administration of that other sacrament to be ioined which S. Paul did also ioyne in his ministerie 1. Cor. 11 when he did so deliuer the holy supper as he had receiued the same of the Lord. Thus is the church grounded vpō the foundation of the Prophets Apostles that is euen vpon Iesus Christ him selfe who is the verie substance of the doctrine Propheticall and Apostolicall And this is it that S. Paul teacheth when he sayeth that the Church is the piller of the trueth For the worde of God 1. Tim. 3 which is the trueth as Christ sayeth Ioan. 17 doth sustaine vphold the Church as Chrysostom expoundeth that place And to this purpose serueth that which olde father Irene writeth Iren. lib 3 cap. 11. Columna firmamentū Ecclesiae est Euangelium spiritus vitae The piller and the buttresse of the church is the gospell and the spirite of life The gospell is the ground on which the true church is planted and set Likewise the church doeth staye it selfe onely vpon the worde of God is stayed by it without which worde the church could neither be a true churche of Christ nor be stayed in him By the ministerie of the church the trueth is spread abroad vppon the earth among men The true church of Christ doeth truely teach publish the gospell of Christ which is the trueth The trueth worde of God is placed in the church as in a sure well knowen place For God doeth by it shew his power to saue al them which do beleeue Rom. 1. These are therefore the true and infallible markes of the church which is for this cause called the mother of the beleeuers which are engendred and nourished in it by this true and vncorrupted pasture and foode Nowe if there be the saide preaching of the worde of God and syncere administration of the holy sacraments it must needs followe that there are also pastors and teachers to whome this charge of teaching administration is cōmitted And this is the cause why some haue added to these marks this as a third marke of the church that is the ordinarie succession of these pastors and ministers from the time of the Apostles till nowe In deede such a succession is greatly to be liked regarded and embraced but so that this succession be rightly considered examined explicated and applyed to the purpose And so did many of the auncient fathers ayde them selues much against the heretikes which did start vp in their dayes as Irene Tertullian and Augustine did against the Marcionites Manichees and Donatistes But because some men do vse this matter of succession as a weapon against vs as though we were newe heretikes deuisers of newe doctrines therefore you shall knowe what wee doe thinke touching this matter of succession Succession We saye that there are two kindes of succession The one is of doctrine The other is of persons Touching the succession of doctrin we holde that it is an vnfallible rule and marke of the true church But as touching the succession personall wee do allowe it vppon this condition that it be ioyned with the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles in the substanciall pointes thereof Wee speake of doctrine and not of manners For though there be required in a true pastor sound doctrin and godly life yet it may be through some ignorance that a pastor may fayle in some such point of doctrine as is not a substantiall point of the doctrine perteining to our saluation whome we will that notwithstanding accompt as a true pastor so that he holde the foundation sure and soundly Likewise though he doe faile in some point of manners and doe become faultie yet wee will esteeme him as a pastor and teacher if he doe teach soundly Wee are taught thus to doe by the saying of our sauiour Iesus Christe who teacheth vs to heare the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 23. which doe sit in Moses chaire Wee must doe that which they teache but we must not doe that which they do Which sentence Tract 46 Augustine writing vpon the gospell of Saint Iohn openeth thus That it is to bee vnderstanded of hyrelings which do teach sounde doctrine and that it is not to be vnderstanded of false teachers For of them Christ sayde Beware of the leauen of the Pharises They which do sit in Moses chaire sayth Augustine do teach the lawe of God and God doeth teach the people by them But if they will teach their owne doctrines heare them not do not as they teache The same thing doeth Augustine in an other place handle that is De verbïs Domini Serm. 49. Because false teachers may succeed the true in the teaching place and so the wolues may succede good sheapheardes we do not therfore receiue and allowe all personall succession For this kinde of succession may giue a cloke to falshod if the succession of doctrin be not ioyned to it as the foundation thereof Moreouer those men which will holde the succession personall simply and of it selfe alone to be a true infallible mark of the true church these men must shewe vs some promise of God by which hee hath promised to binde his grace to those certaine seates places and countries that in them shoulde be such a sure and continuall succession of holy men Bishoppes succeeding one an other This promise we finde not in the newe Testament Wee learne there that Christe will alwayes haue his christian catholike and vniuersall church the particular members and partes whereof are dispersed scatered abroade throughout the whole vniuersall worlde as it pleaseth God to exercise his iudgementes vppon them whome either he cutteth off for euer or on them whome he doth chastice and afflict for a time and to enlarge his mercies vpon them whō hee leadeth from good to better or that hee doeth call some of them anewe to the true knowledge of himselfe For sometimes the Lord God shewing foorth his iust vengeaunce doeth so cast downe and cutt of all that hee will not leaue so much as a trace of his true church in a place as sometimes he
the substantiall pointes of trueth touching our saluation shall alwayes be buryed in the whole church but the Lord will haue alwayes some number in it sometime litle sometime great which shal vnderstand that which they ought to vnderstande and follow that which they ought to followe So did it come to passe in the time of the Prophet Eliah in Israel and in the captiuitie of Babylon and also in the time of the comming of our sauiour Christ For euen then was founde a number though but a litle number of them whose hearts were touched with the knowledge and taste of trueth as Zacharie Elizabeth Iohn the Baptist Ioseph the virgin Marie Simeon Anna. These did knowe and had the right and sure vnderstanding of the certein fulfilling of the prophecies of the comming of the promised Sauiour And yet they liued in the midst of the corruptiōs of the Scribes Pharisees Sadduces priestes Such interruptions of open professing the trueth happen in the church of God proceeding of the iniquitie of men as a thick mist which after vanisheth away by the heat of the Sunne of the doctrine I meane of the worde of God when it pleaseth God according to his secrete ordinance iudgement wisedome to suffer the same Sunne of his worde to shine foorth with power maiestie then trueth is seen embraced professed of the elect children of God Thinke you now that we will or that we doe reiect al the old Councels Nay verily but this I say that if all the rules giuen in the eldest best of them were put in execution at this daye they woulde make a greater change in the popish or Romish church called catholike than they would or could doe in the church which is nowe reformed by the gospell of Iesus But let the holy word of God be the touchestone to trye examine all that is sayde or done in the church and then it will be easily seene where the true church is Count not this a straunge thing that I require For it is an olde saying receiued before our times of the most catholike doctors Augustine writing to Maximinus the Arrian Li. 2. ca. 14 Is there any generall Councell more allowed or approued than that first Councell which was holden at Nice I trowe not sayeth he And what is that Councell which was holden at Ariminum It was a Councell reiected condemned for good cause Augustine there handleth a principall point of our Christian faith that is the diuinitie of Christ our Lord Sauiour And yet Augustine saith that for his part he wil not be boūd to the Nicene councell neither wil he haue the Ariā bound to the Councell holden at Ariminum but he wil haue the matter tried by the holy scriptures which are the meetest witnesses for both partes It may be that these Romish mē which doe runne away from the scriptures will say that there is great darknesse in the holy scripture I answere that it is most true which saint Paul saith that the naturall man perceiueth not the thinges of the spirite of God 2. Cor. 2. It is true also that saint Peter sayth 2. Pet. 1. that no prophecie in the scripture is of any priuate interpretation But yet this obscuritie is not so great but that the scriptures can expound them selues And therfore doeth our Lord and chiefe master Iesus send vs to the scriptures to nothing else but to the scriptures Search you the scriptures sayth he Ioan. 5. Luc. 16. Abraham beeing required by the damned rich man to sende some one frō the dead to admonish his brethren which yet liued in his old house answered thus They haue sayth Abraham Moses and the Prophets If they will not beleeue them they will not beleeue any that shall come to them from the dead And howe did all those moste auncient and godly Christians before vs which had among them only the scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles before that any commentarie or explication was written vppon any of them by the olde writers did they not then fetche all their light of the holy scripture onely A Romish man will here drawe vs to receiue the traditions Apostolicall for a moste sure interpretation of the holy scripture Traditions And by Apostolicall traditions he wil meane that which hath beene always receiued in the church through all the church and by them all which haue beene of the church But nowe who can assure vs that these three pointes are to be founde in any of these traditions which they do call Apostolicall traditions I doe not knowe who can doe it There is great diuersitie to be founde in the bookes and writings of the auncient fathers and that in some pointes touching faith And againe touching these wordes alwayes and of all let the Romish men tell vs at what time wee shall begin the account of this alwayes If wee will do well wee must fetch the beginning of this time euen at the church Apostolike And who shall be the firste in this account verily the Apostles them selues must be the first that shal begin this account the historie of whome is faithfully written by S. Luke and by their owne writings wee must take knowledge of them their doctrine and their doings All trueth commeth of God And God hath chosen his Prophets and Apostles to speake in his name vnto vs all that trueth which doeth appertaine to our saluation Therefore wee must alwayes haue and make our recourse to the holy scriptures And yet wee doe not vtterly cast away the aduice of Councels nor of the auncient fathers Wee doe proue that which they do saye by the holy scriptures The which holy scriptures as Augustine doeth saye truely are so tempered by the holy spirite of God that that which is obscurely spoken in one place is clearely expressed in another place of them Some of the Romish rout haue sayd that the whole wil of God touching all that which doeth appertaine to our saluation is not all written by the Apostles and Euangelists By this wicked false saying they make an open way to bring in al that falsehood error vntrueth which men list to deuise And it is the way by which Satan hath entred to destroy the vineyard of the Lorde to sowe therein his darnell of damnation and cockle choking true doctrine and Christian faith I graunt that before the time of Moses God gouerned his church by heauenly visions inspirations and reuelations But the Apostles planted the churches of God by his holy worde written And the malice of men growing with the number of them and the better sort of men decaying together with goodnes it was the good pleasure of the Lorde our God that this doctrine shoulde be written in a tongue common and knowen by which plaine trueth Gods children might receiue all that doctrin which concerneth saluation and might also withstand all subtilties creeping in vnder the couler of traditions or reuelations or custome or other
faithfull man and who hath on his side better authoritie reason than is to be giuen to the whole Councell or to the Pope him selfe And in that great and first Councel of Nice it was long of one poore Paphnutius that the lawe of sole life which since that time hath brought much filthinesse into the church was not then established Againe when shall there so generall a Councell be assembled in which a great number of learned holy men are not left out of the Councell And who can assure vs but that they which are absent may not sometime haue more vnderstanding of a trueth than they all which are present at the Councell It is also wel known how long time now an horrible confusion hath reigned in the church that chiefely in the greatest dignitie of the prelacie So that the greatest desolation in the house of god hath ben is by the means of them by whome it should haue been best furnished Which hath caused some bishops churchmen to cast foorth many grieuous sighes cōplaints most cleare and so lowde that wee do yet heare the sound of them It is knowne also that complaints hereof haue passed the penne of the Pope himselfe at sometimes Pope Hadrian 6. haue slipped out of the mouthes of Popish Bishops at many times as the bookes of the Councels doe testifie Bernard also in his bookes of Consideration in his sermon which he made vpon the conuersion of saint Paul speaketh both openly and truely Alas Lorde saith he they which do loue the first chiefe places in the church and to beare the chiefe rule in it are the first which do persecute thee They haue taken the Arke of Sion they haue taken the castell and afterward haue set the whole citie on fire By this wee may see that they which then had the highest and most principall places in the church were farre out of order The same men doe holde and will holde the same places still Now surely the generall Councels at the time which were haue ben gathered of such persons so euill qualified haue not ben so conducted by the holy ghost but that they might erre And euen so the whole vniuersitie of Paris did think iudge of the Councell holdē at Rome by Pope Leo the tenth of the name therfore they apealed frō him his said Councel Againe if a generall Councell hath receyued this priuiledge that it can not erre in doctrine let vs knowe of what date this priuiledge is and when it was giuen There was yet neuer but one true faith But there haue beene many errours For euen in the church which was in the olde testament the Prophets doe tell vs plainly and the histories of that time do proue that there were errours and foule faults among them which should haue beene the teachers of the trueth Isay 56.10 All their watchmen sayth the Prophete I say are blinde they knowe not thing Iirm. 6.13 they are all dumme dogges The Prophet Iirmiah sayth From the Prophet to the Priest all do deale falsely And because these reproofes should not be restrained to the particular liues and manners of men he sayeth plainly Iir 14.14 They do prophesie false things a lying vision Isai 29.14 Againe Isay sayth that the wisedome of the wise shall perish and the vnderstanding of the prowde shall vanish and that God will stop the eyes of the Prophets euen of the chiefe of them The Prophet Ezechiel sayeth Ezech. 7. that the lawe shall perish through the Priest that is through the fault of the Priest And in deede who did condemne the true Prophets and seruants of the liuing God Iirmiah Micheah and other yea euen the verie sonne of God him self and after him his Apostles who did this but the assemblies Councels of the prelats which were in those dayes If you will saye These things happened in the olde Testament that cannot warrant our times 2. Pet. 2. For first the time of the newe Testament is not priuiledged from hauing of such false teachers Saint Peter telleth vs plainly that as there were false Prophets in the olde time so there should be in the time after him Furthermore of the time of the newe Testament S. Paul speaketh plainly Act. 20. that euen in our time of the newe Testament Wolues shall come out of the midst of the pastors And in another place That the child of perdition shall sit in the temple of God 2. Thess 2. And in conferring the Councelles together the one with the other wee shall finde such contrarieties in them that it will easily appeare that they did not alwayes heare and obey the holy ghost but that Satan transforming him selfe into the forme of an Angel of light hath ruled and ouerruled in some generall Councels Aug. lib. 2. de baptis contra Donatist cap. 31. Augustine saith that the Epistles of particular Bishoppes are corrected by prouinciall Councels and that prouinciall Councels are corrected by the generall The former amended by the later when as by more experience had of things that which was before secret and vnknowen is made more knowen and that which was hidden is brought to light Neither is this rule to be restrained to such exterior things as may be altered changed as the necessitie of the time doth require This worde Emendari which Augustine doeth vse presupposeth a fault committed and afterwarde amended be it in doctrine or maners And Augustine doth not speake there of any external policie but of a point of doctrine that is of the opinion of Ciprian of the Councel of Afrique touching rebaptising If you wil say that our Sauiour Iesus hath promised to be in the midst of two or three which are gathered together in his name therfore he wil be in the midst of a general Councel This may wel be presumed but there is a difference between a presumption a necessary conclusion For since the malice of men proceedeth so farre often times euen to abuse the most holy name of God to fortifie falshod such mē may haue God in their mouth which are his enimies in their hearts The weaknesse of the vnderstanding of men is such that it is often seene howe corrupt affections do blinde their eyes and mindes so that hee which hath none other foundation but the aduise of men is more often in danger to be deceiued than otherwise Is then the doctrine of the church vncerteine will ye saye or can the church erre Of the erring of the church I haue alreadie spoken therfore vnto the first question I answere thus The doctrine which the Lorde our God hath deliuered to be the doctrine of his church is moste certeine and sure But because men do yet knowe but in parte as Saint Paul sayeth in this respect somtime errour is mingled with the trueth in the knowledge of men This is true that the Lorde our God will not suffer that