as there is no true fayth nor charitie nor Christ so also we ought not to seeke any saluation but in her And therefore if a man would speake properly we should call the Churche a company onely of those whom God hath chosen to euerlasting life in al times places which is to man inuisible who can not enter so farre as to knowe Gods will neyther the hart of man himselfe but is only visible to God who knoweth those that are his as the Apostle saith hath sealed them with his owne seale Notwithstanding forasmuch as charitie hath commaunded vs to presume particularlie of all those that are called the Churche of Christ that they are of the nōber of his elect that as they are bodily there assembled together so also that they are there spiritually incorporated albeit on the contrarie part the doctrine of fayth generally teacheth vs that the wicked to the end of the world are mingled with the good the Goates with the Sheepe the chaffe with the graine the tares with the good corne yet will we commit vnto God the searcher of hartes the knowledge of the inuisible Church will content our selues to search for the visible in his word into which all they must retire themselues in this world which wil be gathered into the inuisible Churche in the world to come Notwithstanding by the way we will note the differences that are betwene these two The inuisible Church cōtaineth none but the good The visible Church contayneth both the good and the bad to witte that onelye the electe this all those indifferently which are brought into her by the preaching of the trueth And for this cause S. Augustine saith of that that she tooke her beginning by Abel and not by Caine who was the elder and contrarywise of the other he saith that the self same begate Abel Enoch Simon Peter all Christians c. as one people hauing also begotten Caine and Cham Ismael and Esau and Simon the sorcerer with his cōfederates The inuisible Church is partly considered in heauen partly in earth cōprehending aswell those which triumph already with their head Iesus Christ our Lord as those which yet fight here beneath in the earth for his name against the world against themselues which shal fight in the same church after vs The visible church is considered properly to consist in them who not onely fight here in earth for the name of Christ but as well those that fight vnder his name with false markes standerds ensignes And for this cause that is considered euen from the first faythfull vnto the last bringing all the states ages of the church into one this according to certaine places times forasmuch as she is not vniuersally visible and to be seene at one push but according to the ages and in her degrees In the inuisible there is a great many sheepe which neuer were gathered into the visible and contrarywise in the visible a great many wolues which neuer shal be receiued into the inuisible And therefore S. Augustine sayth that there are a great many sheepe without and a great many woolues within and S. Paul saith also they are not al Israel which are of Israel For to be in the church or rather to say of the church is to be vnited with Christ incorporated in the company of the faithfull through true faith towards God and charitie towards our neighbor And there is no doubt but that many here and there vnder Paganisme it selfe had this desire which yet bodily they could not accomplish the which notwithstanding they are bound to doe with all their power as contrarywise to be separated from the church is not onely to be without the assemblie but to haue no participation of Christ nor vnion of faith and charitie with his faythfull Of the inuisible it is sayd that the gates of hell shal not preuaile against her Of the visible that she shal be so troubled that a mā shall not finde faith on the earth that charitie shal be as it were quenched insomuch that the elect themselues if it were possible should vtterly quaile And therefore it is not without cause that we say in our Creede that we beleeue the church For if we ought to hold nothing for certaine but that which we see with these carnall eyes there is no dout but that in all the states ages of the church there should many times be foūd such a confusion as the good graine should be altogether hid vnder the chaffe without any appearance of the Churche and yet notwithstanding this was then whē God sayd to Elias that he had reserued in the same 7000. whereof the chariot of Israel the Seer of the Lord I say he to whom the good people ought especially to haue beene knowen could not outwardly knowe one and euen then there when the state of the Church was such as God could not be serued visiblye but in Iewrie All these differences notwithstanding we do not beleeue two Churches nor two espouses of Christ but we beleeue one onelye considered diuersely one in the blade and the other in the graine one in the threshing floore another in the garner one in the mine another now already fyned the one inwrapped yet in the minglings of the world the other before her husband without spotte or wrinckle Altogether like as by a familie we properly vnderstand the children only although speaking more generally we comprehend the seruants them selues by a Citie we vnderstand the vnion of Cittizens albeit many times one part be at cōtention considered apart by it selfe deserueth not but to be rooted out Returning then to our purpose we will call the visible church the company of those which make profession to serue the true God in Christ of which we haue presently to intreate This Church hath had three principall states or ages one without the lawe then say some of the auncient Fathers when man was but in some sort corrupted by the sinne of the first when he was notwithstanding in some sort a lawe to him selfe naturally felt himselfe conuinced of his sinne that is to say he felt his euil to seeke for remedy for the same although in very trueth this state and age of the Church found it selfe no lesse corrupted then the rest The second was vnder the lawe when it began in such sort to accustome it selfe to sinne that it grewe into a natural habite through the same and then for to shewe the sinne therof the lawe was giuen as a glasse in which she might consider her filthinesse and how farre of she was from that shee presumed to the ende she might returne again to be clensed The thirde was vnder grace in Iesus Christ promised to our first parents by by after their fal and who when the fulnes of time was come was sent of the Father who brought remedy to all them that
HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE A NOTABLE TREATISE OF THE CHVRCH IN vvhich are handled all the principall questions that haue bene moued in our time concerning that matter BY PHILIP OF MORNAY Lord of Plessis Marlyn Gentleman of Fraunce ¶ And translated out of French into English by Io. Feilde APOCAL. 18.4.5 Goe out of Babylon my people that you be not partakers in her sinnes and that ye receiue not of her plagues For her sinnes are come vp into heauen and God hath remembred her iniquities ¶ Imprinted at London by Christopher Barker Printer to the Queenes Maiestie ANNO. DOM. 1579. THE BRIEFE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF this present treatise 1 WHat the visible Church is and what are the diuers states thereof 2 That of the visible and vniuersall Church some partes are pure and other some impure and what are the infallible markes of the pure Churches 3 That the other markes which our aduersaries alledge are common both to the pure and impure Churches and which are they that most commonly deceiue vs. 4 That the holy Scripture is the vndoubted touchstone to proue the puritie of doctrine which doctrine is the marke of the pure Churches 5 That there can be no other Iudge of the controuersies of this time but the holy Scripture and how euery one may iudge them by it 6 That the visible Church may erre yea and that in matters of Faith and saluation and that is proued in euery of her particular states 7 That the Pope or bishop of Rome is not head of the visible and vniuersall Church by Gods Lawe 8 That the Pope or Bishop of Rome is not head of the visible vniuersal Church by mans law and how he hath vsurped this power 9 That the Pope in calling himselfe head of the Church and not being head is the Antichrist in the Church and that Antichrist cannot be receiued into the Church with any other then the Popish doctrine 10 That euery one is bound to separate himselfe from the communion of Antichrist and that the Romanists are Schismatickes and not they which separate themselues from the same 11 That the Ministers of the reformed Churches haue a lawfull vocation to redresse and reforme the Church 12 The recapitulation or briefe rehearsall of the principall conclusions of this treatise To the right honorable and my very good Lord the Lord Robert Dudley Earle of Leycester Baron of Denbigh Knight of the most noble order of the Garter Master of the Queenes Maiesties Horses and one of her Graces most honorable priuie Councell Io. Feilde wissheth encrease of grace and all spirituall giftes by Iesus Christ our Lord. BEing willing Right Honorable and my very good Lorde in the sight of all the worlde to leaue some publique testimonie of my humble duetie vnfaigned good will towardes your Honor I thought I coulde no better way performe it then by dedicating these poore labours of mine to be shrowded and harboured vnder your good and fauourable protection And albeit I must confesse that my translation is not worthie such a Patrone yet this I must needes say that the worke it selfe both in respect of the Aucthour that wrote it and also of the matter is worthy not onely of your Honors defence but also of the defence of all noble men yea of the greatest Princes in the world if they wil answere their calling and holde of God to maintaine his Church and trueth and will set greatest price vpon thinges that are most precious For concerning the Authour though I be not acquainted with his person yet this is sufficient that I knowe him by his vertue and by this excellent worke who as he is a Gentleman of a noble house and employed in waightie affaires which sufficiently commendeth his credite and wisedome to the worlde so which is a thing to be marueiled at amiddest all his businesse whilest he lay here he set forth this notable treatise wherein he hath shewed such learning and reading with iudgement and sinceritie to the Church of God as I knowe not whether from a man of his place any hath euer bene more learnedly and piththily published and that more may make to the edifying of the Church of God and confuting the aduersarie The Lorde send many such Ambassadours that euermore their policie may be guided by diuinitie And thus much both for the person and the worke Nowe touching the translation In very deede I haue therein studied to be plaine simple keeping my selfe to mine Aucthour both in wordes and meaning so farre foorth as the proprietie of the tongue woulde suffer me Wherefore good my Lorde I most humbly beseech your Honor to accept this my humble and bounden duetie and as by your Honor I dedicate it to the Church of England so I humbly craue that it may be defended for hereunto is your Honor called of God and therefore hath he giuen you your aucthoritie that you shoulde maintaine his Church loue his religion set your selfe against Poperie and liue and die to his glorie He hath honored you that you shoulde honor him and hath set you vp that you shoulde maintaine him And wholly to trust in him and to liue to him is a stay that can neuer faile neither in this worlde nor in the worlde to come All other things shall faile for all flesh is grasse and the glorie of man is as the flower of the fielde but God is euerlasting his worde is euerlasting and they that are begotten to him by the immortall seede of his worde shall liue for euer And this life beginneth and groweth in vs as we growe and encrease in the true knowledge of God to the encreasing of our faith and working in vs as the seale of our adoption that true sanctification that maketh vs to liue vnto God by righteousnesse purely to worship him according to his worde and with brotherly loue deuoyde of all hypocrysie from a pure heart to loue our neighbours This my Lord is true religion whereunto as God in great mercie hath called your Honor so goe cherefully forwarde beware of this vaine worlde and of that vaine trust that wicked men are wont to put in it Leane not vpon it but stoppe your eares against the enchaunting and fawning whisperings of hollowe harted Papists and dissolute professors for there can be no greater trespasse against the Lord then to leane vpon Assyria to rest in the strength of Egypt to goe downe into Ethiopia Cursed is that man that putteth his trust in man and maketh flesh his arme he shal be like the heath that groweth in the wildernesse but contrariwise he that trusteth in the Lord mercie shall embrace him on euery side he shall neuer be confounded he shal be as Mount Sion and shall neuer be remoued For the Lord is his secrete place and is with him therefore who can be against him what is a mans bowe what are his legges what is the swiftnesse of Horses or the strength of an hoaste or the fauour
of all the princes of the worlde in comparison of God in whom is onely the assurance of that euerlasting inheritance It is the God of Iacob that must be our defence our strong tower and rocke the Chariot and horsemen of Israel the testimonie of his presence and fauour that onely can make vs glad Wherefore againe and againe I most humbly beseech your Honor beware of the vaine trust confidence of men in men and in things that are lesse worth then men And as God hath in mercie bestowed vpon your Honor great wisedome so pray that you may haue a discerning spirite that the deceyueable glorie of your prosperitie and high aucthoritie make you not forget your greatest duetie that you may shine in Christes Church to the benefite of the whole body defending Christ his poore members to the vttermost of your power and punishing all his aduersaries that Agag vpon whom God hath giuen sentence may not be spared nor good Ieremie buffeted that Michee may be preferred yea though there be foure hundred false prophets against him O my Lorde God asketh this at your Honors hands and this Church of England craues it that his ministerie may be mainteyned his trueth may be preserued and continued the poore people may be taught and enstructed wicked heretikes may be confuted and abondoned which alas encrease and growe to infinite nombers dayly amongst vs For where through impunitie men may professe what they lyst and no triall and examination is had according to God his worde there is it any maruell if Papists Arrians Anabaptists Libertines and other heretikes of al sortes doe dayly multiphe and encrease Wil they not creepe in there where they may haue greatest rest and quietnesse Who seeth not that after the preaching of the Gospel of Christ so many yeeres amiddest the great peace and blessings God in mercie hath bestowed vpon vs because we haue bene negligent to answere our callings to put in practise that we haue learned with bringing foorth the fruites of faith and true repentaunce and making conscience of our knowledge that the Papists those enemies of God and of her royall Maiestie are nowe more in nomber more obstinate and frowarde more malitious then they were at her Maiesties most ioyfull happie entrance to her scepter crowne Did not many more goe to Church shew their conformitie as they call it sixteene yeres agoe then nowe And whereto may all this be attributed but to impunitie for that they haue beene winked at fauoured and spared which with what meaning soeuer it hath bene done yet how they haue profited thereby al the worlde may see and their treasonable practises may sufficiently witnes And surely had not the only hand of God in mercie bene our defence against them they had long ere this put vs to our shifts if not preuailed against vs And though they haue bene from time to time confuted by such learned and notable workes as this is against which they are not able once to hisse with any colour of reason though they haue bene I say courteously and gently entreated yet are they neuer the better but the worse onely like frogges that keepe a great crooking and sturre against the light of the Sunne so do they against the glorious and comfortable beames of Christ his Gospel Seeing therefore they will not be satisfied with trueth but abuse the mercifull lenitie of their gratious Souereigne it is more then high time my Lord that the Lords discipline be restored that their spreading poyson be restrained least it be to the hazard not onely of the Church of God amongst vs which can not thriue amiddest such pestilent and cōbersome weedes but euē to the endangering which the Lord of glory turne from vs this florishing common weale and her Maiesties most royall person crowne and dignitie Your Lordship I am sure for your wisdome and great experience which you haue had this long time can not but knowe what dangers their cursed practises as Cocatrises haue brought foorth and hatched Their holy league of Trident for the dispatch of all Christians what lamentable effectes it hath wrought in Fraunce Spaine Flaunders and diuers partes in Germanie as also in Scotland and euen in Englande amongst our selues and amiddest our owne bowels I neede not to declare What hath thrust forth vnto vs from our English fugitiues such pestiferous and traiterous bookes defacing Gods holy trueth the Queene her royall Maiestie many of her honorable Councell and sundry of her louing and faithfull subiects but the hope of bringing that to passe which that holy league had before determined Haue they not discharged if their discharge might haue beene credited her highnesse subiects from their loyaltie and obedience to her Maiestie their naturall prince haue not their Bulles pronounced her Maiestie to be no lawfull Queene whom God hath placed ouer vs haue not their attempts beene the seede of rebellion and caused many to practise her Graces destruction Let the rebellion in the North speake for them and seale the trueth hereof Let Felton Story Madder Wodhouse and one Maine lately executed in Deuonshire amongst whose papers mention was made of certaine hallowed graines to be giuen to timeseruing Papists as tokēs for a Passeouer in the day of our general execution when we should haue bene al slaine and murthered beare witnesse I say nothing of their diuinations for their golden day of their sorceries witchcrafts charmes and conferences they haue had with the deuill their great master least I shoulde be to tedious to your Honor onely let this witnesse their loyaltie and fidelitie to their naturall prince that to haue their superstitious idolatrie and cursed religion their pompeous glorie and proud Hierarchie they woulde haue her Maiesties life and aduenture not onely their bodies goodes and lands but euen their soules to bring about their malitious purposes Of Arrians I woulde not willingly write any thing nor of the other Heretikes I meane Anabaptists Libertines which are in deed at this day al shrowded fostered vnder that name of the familie of loue but that I know al these heresies do mischeuously encrease amongst vs But I wil leaue them and their pestilent positions which both by reading their bookes and by the confession of some that haue returned from their errours I haue obserued and gathered and will reserue them to a more fitter treatise praying your Honor by all meanes both to procure me that fauour that I lose not my labours by Satans malice and also specially to be carefull for the preseruation of the Church of GOD that his Gospel hauing a free course amongst vs these Dagons may fall downe and breake their neckes by the power of his presence and your Lordship be discharged before God which if your Honor doe not and that to the vttermost of your power your sinne lyeth before the doore readie to deuoure you The Lord Iesus blesse your Honor and make you zealous and faithful for the Gospel that
the canker of these heresies fret no farther but may in time be stayed that God may be glorified his poore Church preserued and his gracious blessings fealed amongst vs not onely in our dayes but in the dayes of our childrens children after vs Amen Your good Lordships most bounden and faithfull Io. Feilde To the most excellent Prince Henry King of Nauarre Prince and Souereigne Lord of Bearne c. Peere and chiefe Prince of the bloud royall of Fraunce THIS litle booke which I presume to offer to your maiestie my very good Lord belongeth vnto you by a double right First in respect of the matter for it intreateth of the Church whereof it hath pleased God to raise you vp to be a defender in our coutrey of Fraunce Then in respect of the Authour himselfe for seeing that he hath vowed and giuen himselfe to your maiestie with all that by Gods grace he is able to bring foorth the proprietie and right is in you Wherfore if it shall please you to reade you shall finde herein a little after what ought to be the right condition of the Church of God and what now at this present it is vnder the tyrannie of the Pope in the Church of Rome and consequently what honour God hath shewed vnto you in our time choosing you out from amongst so many great Princes to deliuer it from such a bondage The world will make no accompt of these honours neither is it of the worlde But to a Christian Prince who will consider that God doth hold his Church so deare that he hath giuen his dearely beloued sonne to the death and to the contempt of the world for her sake this honour shal be more precious in his sight then the whole world This vndoubtedly is a great work wherin verely there is much toile for the word of God is certaine that the nations and kinges of the earth for the most part will bande themselues together to maintaine and vnderproppe the kingdome of Antichrist But beyonde this as in all great thinges so in this there remaineth at the end of this toyle a most assured victorie For this thing the word of God telleth vs that it must needes be that that kingdome must fall and that Christ must be acknowledged through all to be the King of kings and Lord of lords yea that they themselues which shall haue mainteyned Antichrist shall hewe him in pieces Of this trauel the worst and greatest brunt is already past God hauing for the comfort of his children deuided it amongest so many great and notable personages which in our time haue trauailed therein and nowe haue rested themselues from their trauailes in that same blessed happines And if so be any thing yet remaine it behoueth that you take good courage For God who hath crowned you will also crowne this good worke by you and as for the forces which now they doe seeme to make what are they else but the gryâ—ng wringings of Antichrist And these griping â—â—â—gings are euident and vndoubted tokens that hiâ—â—â—â—â—h draweth neere God hath made you my very good lord to know his trueth euen from your childhoode and he hath employed you in his woorke in your first youth Hee hath beautified you with great gifts to this ende as strength of body quickenes of spirite valiancie of courage And employing these in his seruice he will crowne them in you with happines honour riches and high aduauancements For these are no other then accessories and he who hath giuen you the principall can giue you these and by him alone also it is that kings reigne and that princes Judge the earth And Sir this is that which he requireth of you This is it that Christendome looketh for at your hands This is that which all good men doe promise themselues This then is the alone and onely marke that your maiestie must ame at And therefore Sir as one of your most lowely seruants I make this humble petition that day and night you may liuely represent and keepe before your presence the dignitie and greatnes of this charge to which God hath called you that you may employ those rare gifts which he hath giuen vnto you for the establishing of his kingdome that you may thinke then to reigne most safely when he shall reigne by his worde in the middest of you This is the most sure and short way that your trustie seruantes can direct you in for the establishing of your highnes I beseech God therefore Sir that it will please him to assist you through his spirite in this worke to gouerne your heart and all your actions and to heape vpon you his blessings both spirituall and temporall to his owne glorie and the benefite of his Church Your most humble obedient and faithfull seruant Du Plessis To the Reader I Pray thee gentle Reader to reade this treatise not as hauing alreadie founde the trueth but seeking for it likewise and I pray thee to read it out before thou iudge of it And if it accord as the doctrine of the trueth I adiure thee in the name of God by thine owne saluation that thou openly declare it For it behoueth that we waite no longer to speake seeing once that wincking at the kingdome of Antichrist our kingdome falleth to ruine in the ruine whereof is the danger of vs all If yet there be founde any doubt they shewing it by writing we shall by the grace of God endeuoure to make it cleare But if there be any which will improue the whole I praye them that they wil answere point by point and reason by reason in the spirite of sinceritie and gentlenes seeking in steade of the prise of victorie the saluation of the people and not the glorie of this world For I protest before God that in this treatise I haue aimed at no thing else but their saluation What the visible Church is and what are the sundry states thereof CHAP. I. GOD through his might the Creatour of mankind vouchsauing of his owne good wil to be the Father thereof would that the Church should be honoured acknowledged as mother of all those of whom he vouchsaueth to be Father in his Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord And forasmuch as we are not saued but in this that God hath allowed vs for his children and that he hath allowed none to be such but those that are regenerated and nourished vp in his Church if we desire our saluation it is necessarie that we acknowledge her in whose lappe we haue it And if we will be heires of the Father we must be vnited in the familie of the mother in which it hath pleased him to beget those againe whom he hath ordeined to be hetres of his kingdome and coheires of his dearely beloued sonne Iesus Christ our Lord. All they that are knit and incorporated into this Churche in true faith charitie are partakers of this inheritance because they are members of the body of Christ and without her
before eyther had or presently did feele their euil and sought remedy in his merite Vnder the first the Church was visible amongst men but if you compare those which serued God in puritie with the others we shal finde that they were entangled in a wonderfull confusion Vnder the second the Church was visible in one people issued from the loynes of Abraham to witte the people of Israel but not so eminent if we consider not so much what the countrie as the people themselues were in comparison of the rest of the whole world and the great Empires that florished at that time Vnder the third is comprehended all peoples nations without any exception or acception whatsoeuer being nowe visible in one Countrey or other fewe or many and therefore we call her Catholique or vniuersal to witte which is to â—â—ore tyed to the familie of Iacob nor to Ierusalem as vnder the second estate or age for from all partes it ought to be gathered there but who adopteth for childreÌ„ of Israel of Abraham in all places those that haue the fayth of Abraham and for citizens of Ierusalem all the citizens of the world which serue God in spirite and trueth This is that which Christ hath taught vs when he sent forth his Apostles into all the world and S. Paul when hee sayth that the wall is broken downe that there is no more Iew nor Greek but that al are one in Iesus Christ that which is noted vnto vs in the Apocalypse by the Citie hauing xii gates three into euery quarter of the world In which also after the Prophets and Apostles the auncient doctors of the Church agree that after the vocation of the Gentiles there is not any nation or citie more priuiledged then another but that all the world is the threshing floore the field and inheritance of the lord All peoples is Iuda and Israel all cities Ierusalem all houses the house of God so that he be there worshipped serued so far is it of that at this day any place what soeuer it be may attribute any spirituall prerogatiue more to it selfe theÌ„ to another This vniuersal Church comprehendeth vnder her all the particular Churches gathered together in diuers parts of the world the which likewise we cal the ChristiaÌ„ Churches that is to say assemblies which cal vpon one only God by Iesus Christ as the East Church West Church the Greek Church and the Latine Church the Church of Corinth the Church of Galatia of Ephesus of Rome of Carthage notwithstaÌ„ding to speake properly not Catholike or vniuersal but parts of the Catholique or vniuersall No more then when we speake of some parts of the Ocean sea we call all those the sea as the South sea the North sea the Athlantique sea the Cantabrique sea and the Britannique sea c. and we say of al these it is the Ocean sea And yet notwithstanding we knowe that there is but one Ocean and not many whereof by these names we make many distinctions seeing it is but one body vniforme from which the vnion cannot be seuered but only distinguished as wee ought also to acknowledge in the Church And therefore he that saith that the Church of Rome the Catholique Church is al one he speaketh no lesse improperly theÌ„ he that should say that the Britannique sea were the whole Ocean sea or the Tyrrhene sea it self which yet is but a part of the MediterraneuÌ„ sea Nowe the visible Church is in the worlde and the worlde as we may feele in our selues is an vncleane worlde therefore liuing vnder such an infected ayre it is impossible but that shee shoulde be defiled and drawe vnto her much corruption It is also compounded of men and outwardly gouerned by men and all men are flesh and blood and by a consequent corrupt and imperfect subiect to ignorance and malice It is then possible that sometimes shee be corrupted and impossible that in this world she appeare in any sound perfection Notwithstanding because the Scripture sometymes in speaking hauing regard to that which is reputed vnto her in consideration of Iesus Christ her husband before God and sometimes also not according to that she is but according to that shee ought to be not so much to praise her as to prouoke her to make her selfe worthy of that praise shee is graunted these titles of the Churche to which she is not alwayes conformed be it that we consider her in the men whereof she is composed or the doctrine it selfe that is taught in her She is called the kingdome of heauen or the kingdome of Christ but Christ Iesus which is the king himself that raigneth in her compareth her vnto a net cast into the sea which draweth vp to him both good and bad fishe This then is as much to say as in this kingdome of heauen the deuill hath his subiects which perteyne to his tyrannie Saint Paul also there calleth vs the house of God and exhorteth vs to take heede howe we there behaue our selues but the selfe same Paul would not hide this from vs that in the same house there are not onely vessels of golde and of siluer but also of woode and of earth the one I say to honour and the other to dishonour whereof Saint Augustine hath taken his distinction of those that are in the house and yet are not of the house And this that we confesse in our Creede it selfe that the Church is the Communion of Saints it is not meant that all they which are there assembled are sanctified by the spirite of God in Christ but rather that there is no true Communion no true holinesse but in the Church calling it as we are alwayes accustomed by the best part And thus much of the corruption of the persons Concerning the doctrine she is called his spouse altogether faire and without spotte the faithfull Citie the Citie of righteousnes the temple of God and the piller of trueth By these goodly titles she should be stirred vp to please him who vouchsafeth to call her by these names and to be obedient vnto him In meane time it oftentimes falleth out that the Church gouerned by naughtie Pastors presumeth to be such as her titles set her foorth to be and that she can neuer be any other so that shee dareth to say I am a Queene and can be no widowe and so maketh voide the goodnesse of God through which alone shee is decked with all these titles Shee neglecteth the voice of her husband and maketh lawes at her own pleasure her gouernors will gouerne her after their guise thinking that they are wise ynough of them â—â—ies And hereupon the Prophets haue haue constrayned to change their speach according as shee changeth her gouernement This is the cause why they haue called her strumpet and adulteresse that they haue reproched her that she hath played the harlot vnder euery busshie greene tree that
his word cherished nourished vp in the faith and she at the first giuing vs sucke and afterwards more fast and strong meate through the Communion of Christ his bodye in the Supper we are more and more vnited to him and by this meane inuested into that heauenly inheritance It followeth then that she is the pure Church and true mother who bringeth foorth vs her children through Baptisme regenerateth norisheth vs through the worde knitteth vs to Christ and so a-amongst our selues one to another through the Sacrament of his Supper that is to saye shee is the true mother in which the worde of God is purely preached and the Sacraments according to the same worde duely administred In the Church of Iuda and Israel Circumcision occupied the place of Baptisme the Passeouer of the Supper the worde of God alwayes keeping his place as the ordinarie nourishment of the children of God and therefore we see that after their entrie into the land of Canaan Iosue being admonished by the Lord to repaire those faults committed in the desert made the people to be circumcised and bound them by an othe if they would be his people to keepe the word of God that is to saye if they would bee his Church Likewise Iosias after so great confusions and mingle mangles when he would reforme the Church in which there was not so much as that visible marke which circumcision had left in the flesh we see that he began there first digging vp as it were the law which had bene buried published the same and made the people to sweare solemnly vnto it And cōsequently he caused a Passeouer to be proclaymed in these woordes Celebrate the passeouer of the Lord your God as it is written in the booke of this couenant that is to say according to the ordināce of the Lord your god Esdras also after he was returned frō Babylon for to reedifie the temple and to restore the Church he began at these foundations he expoundeth the lawe vnto the people and maketh thē to sweare in the forme of that couenant and after to nourish and fortifie them in the hope of their saluation to come he restoreth againe the true vse of the Paschall according to those things sayeth he which were written in the booke of Moses To be short al the true seruants of God after that there came any great scattering of the Church being willing to redresse it they haue alwaies before al other things restored these markes no otherwise then a good Captaine who after a great slaughter confusion raungeth his men into an aray and planteth his standerds in some high place to the end they may shew them selues to all sides Iesus Christ who is the true husband hath giuen vs no other markes to knowe his espouse by For this cause that he calleth the Church his wife he teacheth her her duety which is to obey his worde and not to hearken to the voyce of a straunger not to lose the tokens nor to defile the Iewels and pledges of her mariage but marke how he speaketh in expresse wordes He that is of the trueth heareth my voice And againe My sheepe heare my voice and I knowe them and they followe me and in another place Ye heare not because you are not of god The pure wife and Church then of the trueth is onely she which heareth the voyce of Christ Not a voyce in the ayre or an imaginatiue voyce but that voyce which hath it Echo out of the scriptures and which will resound vntill the end to witte the same that is pronounced by the mouth of his Prophets Apostles vpon which Saint Paul teacheth vs that the Church is founded Christ Iesus being the chiefe corner stone This is the cause why sending foorth his Apostles to erecte the Christian Churches he saith vnto thē Goe and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father c. and teaching them to keepe all that I haue commanded you And in the Actes we reade that the faithfull continued in the doctrine of the Apostles in the Communion breaking of bread in prayers which is no other thing but a briefe description of the true Church of Christ instructed by the worde in true faith and knit together in true charitie through the Communion that is in him The which thing S. Ambrose teacheth vs saying that the Catholique Church is that where God speaketh with his seruāts and S. Augustine also whē he placeth the ministerie of ministers pastors of the Church in the word of God Sacramēts Let vs yet adde hereunto the third mark of this church albeit it be not of the substance but outward to wit the lawful vocation of pastors ministers of the Church which haue the administration of the things aforesaid For seeing that there is question of preaching be it by the word or by the Sacraments which are vnto vs as a word that may be felt and that to preach it behoueth that the ministers be sent it is very necessary that the Church of God haue an order to send forth their pastors But more shal be seene of this point in another place We wil call then the true pure Churches all those wherein we finde the worde of God and Sacraments purely and lawfully administred that is to say as Cyprian saith according to the institution of the Lorde And we nothing doubt to communicate with them that God is there president howsoeuer in some certaine pointes of doctrine there haue bene some errour and in the outward policie some abuse and corruption and impuritie in maners for it behooueth that alwayes we resort thither when the chiefe pointes of the foundation of our saluation be there truly taught seeing we are men the Churches are compounded of men as speache and language consist of syllables and letters of the qualities of which men as long as the Church is in this world she is alwayes a partaker As concerning the false and impure Churches they are not so easely to be defined Trueth soundnes and right are but of one sort but errors diseases crookednesses are without nomber Againe there are many kindes degrees of impure Churches notwithstanding we can say in one worde that al those Churches are impure in which the word of the Lord and his Sacraments are impurely ministred that is are administred both against the honor of God and the saluation of our neighbour and because that the whole Gospel is nothing else but faith and charitie and whole Christ nothing but head and body we may make two principall kindes thereof calling those Heretikes which erre in the faith doctrine of Christ those schismatikes which sunder themselues from charitie and from the communion of his body which is the Church yea although they agree otherwise to the trueth of doctrine in all pointes Nowe as there are many pointes in the
Christian doctrine so also there are many kindes of heresies some in one point and some in another and some in one point more heinous and grieuous then another and furthermore some in one point alone and others in more points then one No otherwise then in a naturall body some sicknesse is in the vitall part thereof another in the instrumentall one a simple heate of the liuer another a burning in all partes of the body alike to be short one a distemperance in some one part another distemperature or euil disposition of al the body Such a Church then as hath plaied the harlot with false gods and hath beleeued the noughtie counsaile of men may be in such sort infected with heresie that euen from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foote a man shall not see one sounde place Notwithstanding these ceasse no more to be the Churches of Christ because they are heretikes then a man that is diseased ceasseth therefore to be a man but in this that they are Heretikes in the doctrine of Christ this sheweth vnto vs that they are yet Churches howsoeuer we distinguish the disease from the body altogether like as we know that a sicke man is a man and not yet the carkasse of a man But then they are not any more Churches when they come to the heresie of infidelitie when Christ who is the soule of the Church is no more accompted for a Sauiour an◠Mediatour when this mediation which ioyneth Christ to his Church as the necke doeth the head to the bodye is cut of as for example When the Christians of Asia in many places of Nestorians became Mahomites that is to say of Heretikes became Infidels what praise soeuer the Alcoran giueth to Iesus Christ because then the soule is out of the body and the winde pipe is cut and the bill of diuorce is published betwixt Christ and them after they haue once openly maried themselues to another and haue sought their happines and saluation without him This is to come againe to that I haue before spoken of that the markes of the true Church are these that of a pure and chaste wife of Christ and the mother of the heires of the father she engender children to God that she nourish them vp vnto him and that she vnite them vnto Christ for one of these points alone maketh her not worthy of this title but all together for she is not a true mother who engendreth children and afterwards leaueth them at randon and yet shee is truely a mother Now such a one was the Church of Samaria or the Church of Israel in which there was remaining circumcision and also the lawe but this was in name only She was saith the Lord an adulteresse and played the harlot with euery one that came that is there was no idolatrie which was not welcome thither and yet a litle after he sayth she engendred children vnto him She engendred I say children to God who accompted them his owne through circumcision although she had deserued by these adulteries to be reiected forasmuch as the diuorce was not yet made with her and they as yet were in the couenant but hauing brought forth children to God she offreth them vp to Moloch she maketh them to passe through the fire she enstructeth them in al idolatrie that is to say she giueth them to the deuill and made them inheritours of hell asmuch as laye in her Now it is said in the selfe same places that Ierusalem sister vnto Aholibah in which also God had chosen his tabernacle had done much worse in such sort that she was made lower thē Sodom This thē is that that Iesus Christ sayth to the Pharises Ye trauel by sea by land to make a proselyte that is to the ende you may circumcise a Painime and bring him into the Church and when this is done ye make a double childe of hell for ye teache him as ill that circumcision is worse to him then vncircumcision because that his knowledge which he hath of the true God turneth to his condemnation That the like shoulde come to passe to the Church of Christ there is no doubt at all for in the beginning there haue bene heresies in the chiefe articles of our faith that is diseases in the principal and vital partes of the body as namely in the doctrine of the God head and eternitie of Iesus Christ The sinne of man deserued death It must needes be then that the mediatour was very God and very man Man for to die the death and God to ouercome death And therefore they which denie the diuinitie of Christ they deny the principall qualitie of the mediatour through which we obtaine saluation Now the diuinitie is made nothing when the eternitie is made void For where we finde the beginning there naturally we neede not doubt of an end This heresie and many such like were scattered throughout many notable Churches Notwithstanding forasmuch as the auncient Church hath iudged that their baptisme ought not therfore to be reiected she hath shewed by consequence that shee hath holden them for Churches for all their deadly diseases forasmuch as Christ from whom true Baptisme and the efficacie thereof is baptizeth not but in the Church shewing thereby that there may be found Christian Churches which bring forth their children as mothers and yet nourrish and instruct their children worse then stepmothers And therfore they adde that this Baptisme which profited them in their infancie falleth out to their further hurt when they come to yeres of discretiō when they come to taste on these heresies whereof they had no sense or feeling The Latine Church as Ierusalem to Samaria set it selfe then very couragiously against such errors and healed many of them whereupon it got great aucthoritie amongst all but afterwards a worse euill came vnto it and that was this that hauing through Gods goodnesse who alwaies preserueth his trueth in some place bene exempted from the foresaide heresie and sickenes she was borne in hand that it came of her owne strength and that shee could not any more be deceyued as he who for hauing his health one yeere giueth him selfe to all disorder thinking that it can nothing hurt him whereupon we say that she is fallen into a generall distemperance and is so laden with heresies that she is not only throughly sicke but she is as it were sicknesse it selfe not feeling her euill at all We say then of her the same that the Prophet Ezechiel said of Ierusalem who was the onely seate of the Lorde Samaria hath not offended to the one halfe of thy sinnes Sodom thy sister hath not done neither she nor her daughters as thou hast done and thy daughters Thou hast iustified thy sisters in all the abominations which thou hast done and therefore I wil bring againe thy captiuitie and thou shalt beare thy villany The worde of God is the only meate which God hath giuen
most auncient of all For this is alwaies a ryght rule and to be receiued that those thinges which are nought worth in the beginning are no whit better in the continuāce of time and if a mā cannot prescribe against kings and against the Church in their possessions much lesse he can doe it against God and against the trueth which is the only treasure of the Church Nowe let vs come to multitude it is saide expressely thou shalt not follow a multitude to do euill Also the gate is wide that leadeth to perdition Cōtrary wise feare not my little flocke for it is my fathers pleasure to giue you a kingdome Moreouer we see that all the worlde was brought to one onely Noah and afterwards to Abraham Then God chose one people of Israel the least as he hath said of al peoples and finally of all peoples the least part to wit Christendome which for this cause he calleth a litle flocke According to which S. Austin saith that the Church was sometimes in one Abel and in one Enoch Multitude then shoulde be rather a presumption of the false then of the true Church of impuritie rather then of puritie for asmuch also as man in all things is prone by nature to euill and tendeth not vnto good vnlesse he be as it were drawen by force vnto it If we looke to the number of Painims they will set against vs in al nations almost many against one and againe all nations against one only nation yea and in that nation it selfe all the families of one time against one or two as namely in the time of Noah those which were called the childrē of God mocked him his religion Likewise amongst this chosen people of God the Samaritans bare themselues against Iuda for there were ten tribes against two and in Iuda Israel the idolaters gained against the people of God for Elias cōplaineth that he was left alone against the good Prophet Micheas there arose vp foure hundred false the Prophets crie that all the people were deceiued euen from the Kings to the Priests Prophets In the Christian Church also there shall be as fewe in that place for euen at the beginning it was saide Who hath beleeued our word to whom hath the arme of the Lord bin reueiled we read that it was brought to a small number of persons the schoolemen themselues hold that after the death of our Sauiour in one instant it consisted in the virgine Marie alone In the greatest floure of it we reade that after the death of Constantine his sonne being of the same name fauoring the Arrians there were so few sounde professors amongst the Christians that the Emperour reproched thē that foure or fiue persōs with their Athanasius would trouble the peace of the whole worlde to whom Liberius the Byshop of Rome answered that his solitude or fewenesse did no whit diminish the word of faith In the end we are aduertised that when that sonne of man shall come before which that sonne of perdition must seduce the worlde he shal finde neither faith nor charitie on the earth and that those daies shall be as the daies of Noah Lot c. The eclipse thē of this Moone shal be as it were vniuersall all the whole earth being put betweene the Church and the Sunne therefore if we haue no other direction in these darkenesses then the multitude we shall haue no part with that little number Moreouer the Christians which reiect the Pope in Asia and in Affrica are a great many moe in number then the others If the Pope hold them for pure Churches then is the Romaine Church an heretike for she condemneth them and excōmunicateth them for diuers points of doctrine If not then multitude which is a common argument to the impure Churches themselues can not be alledged for a marke of puritie And yet for all this we cease not to praise GOD for the blessing which he hath giuen vnto his woorde making the same to fructifie and encrease to hundreds and to thousandes likewise we pray that as he hath already drawen a part of Christendome frō vnder the yoke of Antichrist so it wil please him to continue it more more But we say that if in certayne places it seeme that God do retire but few as the Pastor that saueth from the mouth of the Lion an eare of his sheepe as saith the Prophet Amos or according to Ieremie taking one of one towne two of one tribe for to retire them into the restauratiō of his Church yet for this cause we must not cal the trueth into doubt for asmuch as the selfe same trueth hath foretolde vs this the great number is no marke of puritie veritie nor the litle number of falshood and heresie Nowe followeth the succession of place and of persons which they alledge against the succession of true doctrine which we require in the Church As concerning the place there is no doubt but that this is to play the Iewes to enclose Orbem in Vrbe that is the whole worlde in one citie For the Church is not any longer tyed to Ierusalem but we see euery day that God calleth his people euen those which seemed not to be his people and contrarywise he hath permitted by his righteous will that many Christian Churches haue bene turned into the Temples of the Turkes as that of Ephesus foūded by S. Paul and S. Iohn and that of Bōne in Barbary wher S. Austin preached c. And further that is said expressely that the Church of God for a long time by reason of the persecution of Antichrist shall retire her selfe into the wildernes as the common glose it selfe doth expound Moreouer the Church is a citie that is to say one vniō of Citizens vnder the iust gouernement of Christ Now betweene a citie and a towne there is this difference that the one cōsisteth in walles the other in the vnion of the people gouerned vnder the same lawes therefore the citie of Rome was at Veies with Camillus being a banished man though the towne of Rome was in the hand of the enemie And Themistocles saide that Athens was in shippes which the Romanes had taught the poore Carthagians to their cost when they made their Citie to be caried out of their towne To be short the Popes thē selues haue maintayned for lxxx yeeres together that the Romish Church had her sea in Auigniō although they had forsaken Rome Moreouer this argument is common to the Churches Greekes Syrians Armenians Ethiopians c. whom the Pope condemneth in many poynts of doctrine To conclude if euer there were Church that might alledge succession of place it was Ierusalem For of it was said The Lord wil euermore dwel in this Temple Also I haue chosen and sanctified this house to the ende that my name may
the pure Church Concerning miracles if a man speake of those which were wrought either in the publication of the lawe by Moses or in the confirmation of the Gospel by Iesus Christ his Apostles it is certaine that they were generally wrought aswel for the Samaritans as for the Iewes for heretikes as for sincere sound professours for the pure churches as for the impure forasmuch as the onely question is towards one to shewe the true God giuing forth the lawe towards the others the true Christ promised in the lawe whom both the one the other make profession to receiue worship And therefore this argumēt is common to both two Concerning the other which they alledge specially in that same state in which we say Antichrist heareth dominiō I say they are false in effect because they heare witnesse to falshood but if they had any true yet they are not therefore sure testimonies of the trueth The heathen had their deuilish miracles in the temples of their false gods some in effect true as may appeare by all their histories Simon Magus who would be ack nowledged for Christ wrought miracles So likewise did Apollonius Tianeus and Apuleus of Madaure But these for the most part might be illusiōs the which the deuil wrought to abuse fooles hauing nothing as S. Augustine saith more agreeable to this then their outward senses But God wrought those great miracles among the Samaritanes in their strongest Idolatrie as when he made the Assyrians to be eaten of Lyons for to reuenge his contēpt among his enemies not to authorize the faultes abuses of the people He wrought some in the time of those heresies next before the cōming of Christ to shewe the power of his name to al nations Yea it should not seeme straunge when he will worke such in lands newly found for to vāquish the deuils which reigned there Al this then is too litle to be a marke of the pure Church vnlesse the churches of the Samaritans the heretikes of the former times had bene pure churches This is that which S. Augustine answered to the Donatists which would proue their doctrine by miracles You alledge sayth he miracles in which a man is not to be heard in respect of the place but in regard of his desire We wil not proue our church neither by succession of Bishops neither by the authoritie of councels nor by the nūber of miracles nor by visions nor dreames All such things are to be allowed so farre foorth as they are done in the Catholike Church but they proue not that the Church is Catholike for that dependeth vpon the scriptures Our Sauiour Christ hideth not this from vs that he wil cast into euerlasting fire those that haue wrought miracles in his name This is not then as our aduersaries say a gift that sanctifieth them that do them It is also foretold vs that many false Christes shall come with miracles to seduce if it were possible euen the elect And S. Paul saith that Antichrist shal come according to the efficacie of Sathan in all power signes miracles of deceit This then is as litle a gift of the spirit sāctifying and purifying the Church This is more for some of these miracles shal not be altogether false in effect but onely in their end that is because they tend to a false end to establish the seate of Antichrist as saint Augustine hath taught vs vpon this place and Saynt Iohn Chrysostome when hee saith that there are miracles not onely of illusion but true and effectuall tending to bring in falshood Now if miracles approue the puritie of the Church and the trueth of doctrine then Antichrist hath gained his cause if not it is so farre of that the miracles wrought vnder the Papall sea ought to be alledged for confirmation of puritie that rather quite contrary seeing that no other miracles are promised before the comming of Christ but his owne we should suspect that the Romane Sea is that prodigious sea of Antichrist which was before foretolde vs Let vs folow thē amiddest these difficulties the instruction that Iesus Christ hath giuen to all Christians in the person of his Disciples There were miracles wrought before his birth but none were nere accōpanying his owne birth therfore there could be no abuse in it In his life time there were an infinit sort wrought of which they were made eye witnesses he being fastened to the crosse dead buried afterwardes they sawe him eate and drinke with them But of al those famous Magiciās their inchantments died with them neither was there euer one raysed vp againe For it was inough for him to say vnto them at his departure You haue seene the singular miracles which I haue wrought You ought therefore no more to doubt that I am that same anoynted which was promised vnto you Contrariwise he sendeth them to the Prophetes to Moses to the Psalmes and to be short to the holy Scriptures to the ende they may there marke what they haue seene and what was therefore told them by the Spirite of God and that what he had foretold them was now also accomplished Touching reuelations and visions which are a kinde of miracles we haue the plaine text which decideth this matter If there shall arise saith the Lorde amiddest thee a false propher or a dreamer of dreames and that the signe or miracle which he hath told thee come to passe saying Let vs followe straunge gods c. hearken not to the words of this Prophet c. There are then both Prophets and visions true in effect and yet false in theyr ende and triall which triall is doctrine as is to be seene in this place Lykewyse when Saint Iohn to the ende to keepe vs from false prophetes exhorteth vs to proue the Spirites by and by he addeth Hereby shall you knowe the Spirit of God Euery Spirite that confesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the fleshe is of God c. that is to say proue the spirites by the doctrine which they preach Therefore Saul Cayphas haue prophecied but as S. Augustine saith as Balaās Asse once spoke and yet for all that they myght haue once spoken the trueth For the deuil him selfe to couller his lying some times speaketh trueth We conclude then that all the foresaide markes are not the infallible markes of the sounde and pure Church First because they be not substantial but outwarde Secondly because they are common aswell to falsehood as to trueth But that they may be markes they ought to put a difference Thirdly they neede to be proued and approued by another marke to witte doetrine to be short seeing it is said that in the ende Antichrist shall come and seduce the greatest part of the people and that he shall sitte in the Temple of GOD that is to saye in the Churche it selfe and in one of the
most famous places and that be shall worke strange signes and wonders we conclude on the contrary part that antiquitie multitude succession and miracles are rather at this day the markes of the seat of Antichrist of that whore then of Christ and of his chaste spouse of whome Christ hath giuen vs this one marke He that is of the trueth heareth my voyce He that is my Disciple abideth in my word That the holy scripture is the vndoubted touchstone to try the puritie of doctrine which is the marke of the pure Churches CHAP. 4. OVr aduersaries doe therevpon obiect vnto vs that doctrine as a common argument and that euery one saith that he hath the pure doctrine on his side and therefore that it can not be alledged as a mark of the pure Churches I answere that this is in deede a common bragge of all heretikes but it is not alwaies a common marke but peculiar and proper to the pure Churches For both the true Christians and heretikes may haue antiquitie multitude succession and miracles as we haue already proued but there is none but the sound and Catholike Church that can haue trueth true doctrine which consisteth in faith and charitie forasmuch as she is one and if the other boast of it they haue nothing else but the sound the which by and by vanisheth if it be once put to the touch Likewise we see commonly that they which pleade together pretende euery one that ryght is on their side In meane time who wil say that seeing both twaine saye they haue right that there is no question to dispute of the right but only that he which is in possession should keepe it He that should say so he should make him selfe a laughing stocke should often times giue authoritie title to the vniust possessor against the right owner For besides the opiniōs of parties there are aduocates to debate the right lawe that must iudge thereof Now for to decide the matter wherof there is questiō thanks be to God we haue a good Iudge The question betweene vs is of the pure seruice of god Now it is not in mans power to iudge howe God must be serued much lesse for a poore pesaunt to make bookes how Princes should be dutifully serued For betweene man man there is alwaies a proportion but betweene man and God there can be none For it is God alone which ought only to be heard in this matter not men whose ordinances of the seruice towards god is for their own turne serue only for their owne phantasies This is the cause why God himselfe would be the onely law giuer vnto his people giuing thē a law which containeth whatsoeuer he requireth of men aswel in general as in particular And to cut of al mans inuētiōs he expressely forbiddeth thē to adde any thing thereto or to take any thing therefro for he saith that he will be serued according to his pleasure and not according to that which is good in mens eyes which he hath knit vp for vs in one worde I will obedience not sacrifice The Priests were men very oftentimes they could not content themselues with this but the example of the sonnes of Aaron may be an horrour vnto euery one who for offering straunge fire vnto the Lord not being commaūded they were consumed with fire sent from heauē And whilest men haue loued their owne inuentions they haue loden the people with traditions ceremonies and gloses and whereas the lawe was giuen to conuince them of sinne to the ende they might seeke mercie in Christe they haue founde out other meanes for their saluation But God by his Prophets which he hath sent from time to time betweene the publishing of the law the Gospel hath alwaies helde them to the lawe To the lawe and the testimonie saith Esai hide my lawe amongst my Disciples And if they speake not according to this worde the morning light shall not be giuen vnto them And because they obserued not this sacrifice it was turned to them into a curse God was readie to make a diuorce with his people therefore to cutte of at one blowe all their madnesses Malachi recommendeth to the Church the obseruation of the law and the ordinances giuen from Moses vntill the comming of Elias that is of Iohn the forerunner of Iesus Christ See then the lawe of the Church euen vntill the Gospel of grace was giuen whereof the Prophetes were expositers by which a man may distinguishe the false seruice from the true without hauing anye recourse to the long possession thereof which had but small authoritie to giue power to Ismael him selfe agaynst Israel To be short he of whom it is only said Heare him to teach vs by his example hath giuen so great authority to the lawe that he will haue the people thereby to iudge whether he be Christ or no Search saith he diligētly the Scriptures for you thinke that by thē you shal haue euerlasting life and they are they which beare witnes of me The iudge of the world attributeth so much to the lāw that he wil haue the world to iudge by the same law whether he be the true Messias a deceiuer of the people or the sauiour of the world And why so because it is not the word of Moses nor of Esai nor of any men but euen his who sent him Nowe by the comming of our Sauiour Christ the holy scriptures haue lost nothing but rather haue the greater authority God which hath spoken to our fathers sayth the Apostle sundry times in diuers maners hath in these last times spoken vnto vs by his owne sonne This sōne is God himselfe this is that essētial word this is he by whose cōming the Church waiteth for the manifestation of al things The word then that proceedeth frō him ought to haue an infinite absolute authority therūto must mē adde nothing For it is the infinite wisedome of the infinite father and can teach vs whatsoeuer is necessarie for our saluation And seeyng he hath so loued vs that he came into the world to dye for vs he would not then hide from vs the worde of life To be short he came to lighten vs in darkenesse and hath promised neuer to forsake vs He hath then left vs some light to guide vs and seeing he is that same light it selfe it is such a light as we following it we cannot be deceiued Nowe this then is that same written word of God which is the true image of that essentiall worde in which he hath imprinted all that is necessarie for vs to the glorie of God and all that is expedient for our saluation The Apostles receyued this worde from his mouth to preache the same to all the worlde and herein they were true and faithfull Ambassadors Agayne the spirite of God through which they preached indited it and taught them what they
by this argument as much or more aucthoritie ouer the Scriptures then it I aske of the indifferentest amongest them who shal iudge but the Scriptures And if they iudge the Scriptures who shall pronounce sentence ouer them If the Easte Churches shall then the Romishe Churche hath loste her Cause If the Church of Rome then thys shall hee in another respecte then of keeping the Scriptures If they saye it bee by their pretended prerogatiue of Saynt Peters Seate it is meete that they prooue it by the Scriptures And therefore marke Peters Sea which doeth take vpon it to iudge the Scriptures beyng yet subiecte to the Scripture it selfe Furthermore I praye euerye man to examine this conclusion The Church of GOD hath kept the Scripture The Church beareth witnesse of the Scripture Ergo shee is aboue the Scripture The edictes of a Prince are registred in all his Countries The lawes are gathered together and written by Clarkes All Contractes and bargaines are subsigned by witnesses And yet for all that he that woulde saye that they were aboue the Kinges aboue the lawes contracts hee shoulde make him selfe a laughing stocke If they say that the Lawes of God haue no place neyther more nor lesse then edictes of some Princes except they be agreeable to the worde of God I answere them that it is not the Church of God that hath this priuiledge for shee is the Spouse of Christ and hath learned to obey her husbande without anye examination of his commaundement and must by and by holde her peace assoone as shee heareth his woord For she knoweth also that the wisedome of her husband whose will is the rule of doctrine is not like that of Princes which it is necessarye to examine whether it bee honest and profitable Ciuile or vnciuile but if they be so stiffe for the obteyning of this priuiledge yet let them agree with mee herein that this is that assemblie which hath lyfted vp it selfe aboue all that is called GOD which fearing to bee discomfited by the Spirite of his mouth woulde therefore moussell and stoppe vp hys mouth all that it might The place of Saynt Augustine which they alledge maketh nothing agaynst that which hath bene sayde before I woulde not sayeth hee beleeue the Gospell vnlesse the aucthoritye of the Church constrained or moued me Ni me Ecclesiae Catholicae commoueret authoritas where it is specially to be noted that according to the style of Affricke Commoueret is taken for commouisset that is to say I had not beleeued the Gospell vnlesse the consent of the vniuersall Church had moued mee thereto hee meaneth not that the holy Ghost had not such a style as myght make it selfe sufficientlye knowen from other wrytings of men For he him selfe instructeth vs in this matter in many places Much lesse meaneth hee that the Church shoulde be aboue the Gospell For it is by the Gospell that hee examineth all the Churches of his tyme but rather that the vniuersall consent of the Churches the which receiued such such bookes for the Gospels of Christ made that he could not doubt but that they were so and that the apostles whose names thei did beare were true authours of them No otherwise then as the consent of manye ages acknowledging such and such bookes to be Ciceroes Hippocrates and Platoes doe assure vs that they were theirs These were his very words against the Manichees themselues who denyed part of the holy scriptures in another place Oh vnhappie enemies saith he of your owne soules What Scriptures shal be had in price if the Euangelicall and Apostolicall bee not Of what booke shall men hold the certaine authour if a man doubt that those holy books which the Church holdeth were of the Apostles shoulde not be theirs Who shall knowe whether the bookes of Plato Hippocrates Aristotle Cicero were theirs vnles it be for that frō their time euen vnto ours alwayes mē haue bene perswaded that they came frō hand to hand c. Like as then I beleeue that the books of Manichee are his because men haue beleeued that they came thence frō hand to hand so also I beleeue the booke of S. Matth. because euē vntil vs the church hath so held The questiō is not thē in this place whether the writings of the Apostles haue any voice to determine matters in the church for as we haue already shewed S. Aug. teacheth vs that in a M. places but only whether such and such scriptures were the Apostles yea or no. For the heretikes denied not but that the books of the Apostles had such authority as they must be obeyed but they denyed that they were theirs because that if they had once allowed thē they knew that they must of necessity rest in them And yet they pretēded that they were neuer a whitte lesse the church then the Romane church doth For they helde that Manichee the chiefe of their secte was the holy Ghoste him selfe But this was a blasphemie not yet knowen to the most damnablest heretikes that euer were that the holye Scripture was subiect to the Church and that without her as one of the Popes Chāpions of our time saith it hath no more aucthority thē Esops fables The Iewes haue taught the Gentiles that the Olde Testament was the worde of God and manye of the Gentiles beleeued it better thē the Iewes The Gentiles haue kept for the Christians many good and auncient bookes and haue taught them that such and such were the authours of them and yet for all that they haue not giuen anye credyte vnto them The bookeseller will teach vs that such a booke is Hippocrates woorke and yet for all that hee shall not be a physitian as Hippocrates was For it is one thing to beleeue the word of any some man an other thing to be the authour of a booke This is that which was saide long agoe by a great learned man That the Church is true or vndouted but as we say by occasiō because she beleeueth the trueth of the Scripture but the holye Scripture is simplie true of it selfe For it is the trueth it self There foloweth another argument that the Church is before the Scripture Ergo it is aboue the Scripture When we speake of the Scripture we vnderstand the word of God the which at the first was not written and afterward was written aswell by Gods owne finger as by the pennes of his seruants inspired by his holy spirite as we haue before declared But now I would demaund of them from whence they fetch the beginning of the Church If from the creation of man and before sinne entred immediatly after they were created God gaue them a commaundement that they should not touche the tree of knowledge of good and euill and we must not dispute whether they had authoritie aboue this word for why they hauing disobeyed it all the world from man to beastes sighes and grones for it But will they not
both the name the person the which our text plainely sheweth vs the which he would neuer haue done if it ought to haue bene vnderstoode of Peter not of the confession of Peter Againe I leaue it to the iudgement of euery Christiā whether it be more agreeable to the faith more healthful for the Church either that the Church be founded vpon Christ or vpon Peter vpon the Sonne of the liuing God whom Peter cōfessed or vpon Peter who a litle while after denyed the sonne of the liuing God vpon him that vanquished Satan or vpon him whom Christ himselfe in the very same Chapter calleth Satan himselfe vpon him who is called the chiefe corner stone of the building or vpon him who was an offēce vnto him that is to say a stone of great stumbling None sayth S. Paul can laye any other foundation but that which is layde which is Christ Also S. Peter saith You are as liuing stones built vpon the chiefe corner stone in whom whosoeuer beleeueth he shal not be confounded that is to saye in that confession of Christ which he called the rocke and foundation of his Church It appeareth then by this place that Christ hath builded it vpon himselfe not vpon Simon Peter and vpon the confession of fayth which Peter made and not vpon the fayth of Peter which was too much wauering and vnstedfast And in very deede where Saint Iohn recyteth this story he resteth wholly vpon Peters confession But to the ende they abuse not the people vnder the visard of antiquitie we must see what the auncient Doctors haue taught vpon this place Chrysostome vpon Saynt Matthewe Vpon this stone that is to saye vpon the fayth of this confession Also he hath sette our feete vpon the rocke that is to saye vpon fayth For fayth in Christe by good right is called a rocke that cannot be broken and therefore when Saint Peter had confessed Thou art Christ the sonne of the liuing God Christ added Thou art Peter vpon this rocke that is to say vpon this fayth which thou hast cōfessed c. Saint Ambrose Iesus Christ hath sayd vnto Peter and vpon this rocke c. that is to say vpon the confessiō of the Catholike faith I will establish the faythfull vnto euerlasting life Saynt Augustine Peter was founded vpon the rocke to the ende he should suffer death for the loue of him whom through feare he had thrise denyed Also the Church likewise is founded vpon the rocke whereof also Peter had his name For a rocke or stone commeth not of Peter but rather Peter of the rocke as Christian commeth of Christ and not Christ of Christian And because Peter had sayde Thou art Christ c. Our Sauiour added vpon this rocke which thou hast confessed will I build my Church Christ then is the rocke vpon which S. Peter himselfe was founded builded For none can lay any other foundatiō then that which is already layd to wit Christ Againe he wil not say vpō this Peter I wil build my Church but vpon this faith vpon that which he had saide Thou art Christ the sonne of the liuing God c. Here vpon this rocke saith he I wil found my Church Also Vpon this rocke which thou hast cōfessed vpō this stone which thou hast acknowledged wil I build my church I wil build my Church vpō me not vpō thee but thee vpō me The mē that will build vpō men they wil say I hold of Cephas that is to say of Peter of Paul and of Apollo but they who wil not be builded vpon Peter but vpon the rocke they wil say I holde of Christ This is the interpretatiō of S. Augustine repeated in many places of his bookes of the citie of God euery where where he handleth this matter Saint Hierome vpon this place By the rocke we vnderstande Christe whom Peter confessed For if we take Peter for a stone of the foundation all the Apostles shall be alike according to that which we see in the Apocalypse And this is the verie opinion of Cardinall Cusan in his booke of the Catholike Concorde presented to the counsell of Constance who proueth it euen by the Canon lawe it selfe and maintaineth it against the Pope Saint Bernard The rocke is in heauen In the same is stedfastnesse and assurance And in deede where else can it be but in our Sauiour The world roareth the flesh oppresseth me the world doggeth and hangeth vpon me and yet for all this I fall not for I am founded vpon a sure rocke To be short let them reade their owne common glose Super hanc Petram vpon this rocke that is to say vpon Christ in whom thou beleeuest and the interlineall glose Thou art Peter but frō me which am the rocke and alwaies in such sort as I reserue to my selfe the dignitie of the foundation of the Church Beholde then that by the interpretation of the auncient fathers none neede to dashe against this stone Nowe if our aduersaries reply that some of the auncient fathers interpret it as they doe and namely Saint Augustine in some place I aunswere that if a man reade those places he shall finde that it was but by the way and as it were in handlying another thing And in deede Saint Augustine in his booke of retractations hath retracted it in these wordes It fell out that I sayd in a certaine place that in the Apostle Saint Peter the Church was buyled as vpon a rocke but for the most part I haue expounded it of him whome Peter confessed I was abused by an Hymne of Saint Ambrose common ynough where he saith that at the crowing of the Cocke the rocke wept This is a Poeticall maner of speaking and therefore Christ saide not vnto hym Tu es Petra but Tu es Petrus For the rocke is Christe whome Simon had confessed Besides he is so farre of from taking Peter for the foundation of the Church that in another place he sayeth that Iames Peter and Iohn seemed to be the pillars of the Church but that in trueth they were not And Saint Hierome sayth that the Apostles are pillars of the Church principally Peter Iames and Iohn but that all they which ouercome the Deuill by fayth may be so aswell as they But here they run to their ordinary distinction That it is certayne that Christ is the essentiall head of the Church but yet that Peter is the Ministeriall head that is to say that he is likewise called so by reason of his ministerie But we demaunde in what place either of the Scriptures or of the fathers them selues they finde this And we haue alreadie proued that there can be had no ministeriall head which is the selfe same thing But againe let them answere vs whether Peter had any other Ministerie besides his Apostleshippe If he had any other let them take it and shewe
time to time howe they are groūded vpon mans lawe and that which wee call positiue They holde that S. Peter was crucified vnder Nero in the yeere of our Lorde 69 and that Clement succeeded him Others say that Linus succeeded him then Saint Iohn yea and Iames himselfe If we beleeue those bookes supposed to bee Clements they shoulde haue obeyed Clement as head of the Church for he succeeded as they saye in Peters Authoritie he ought to haue no lesse authoritie then the popes at this daye who can dispense with Paules epistles A wonderfull case that the primitiue Church when they made the Canon of those bookes that should haue authoritie in the Church that they should rather put in those bookes of Iames and Iohn then of Clement the principall heire and successour of the holy ghost by the vertue of Saint Peters chaire A wonderfull matter further that this Clemēt made so smal accompt of succession so necessary in the Church seeing that in his epistle which he writeth to Iames Bishop of Ierusalem he calleth him our Lordes brother the Bishoppe of Bishops and gouernour of the Church of Ierusalem and of all others throughout all the worlde But yet a more wonderfull matter that they shoulde bee found so impudent in the light of good learning that at this day shineth as to foūd the papacie vpon those gaye bookes of Clement in which there are so many falsehoodes Clement writeth to Saynt Iames after Peters death and teacheth him the institution of our Lorde when as the Scripture witnesseth that S. Iames was martyred long before in Ierusalem and that as long as hee liued he was to teach Clement such matters and not to learne them of him And yet this is one of the notablest authors that they can alledge But let vs proceede We holde the Apostles Creede from the beginning of the Christian Church And we there finde the Catholike church But this article of the faith that pope Boniface the eight made is not therein That if we will be saued we must acknovvledge the pope to be the soueraigne Lord. Saint Cyprian saith That there is but one Bishoppricke of vvhich euery Bishop holdeth his parte vvholy vvithout any diuision Also that none of his time either called or made him selfe Bishoppe of Bishops eyther made through tyrannie his companions subiect to his obedience Also he complaineth that certaine prophane men and Schismatikes vvith drevve them selues to the bish of Rome who saith he hath none but certaine desperate wicked fellovves that stay vpon him making thē selues beleeue that the Bishops of Affricke haue lesse povver then the Bishops of Rome And in very deede he calleth not Stephen Cornelius bishops of Rome other thē brethren cōpanions handleth Stephen rudely enough in manye places To be short a litle after his death the church of Affricke decreed in the councill of Carthage that none should be called the prince or chiefe of ministers or the first Bishoppe but onely according to the dignitie of Cities the Bishoppe of the first See. Irenee very liuely reproueth Victor the Bishop of Rome who through a certaine shamelesse ambition had excommunicated the Churches of Asia for disagreeing about the Passeouer The Ministers saith he vvhich haue helde the eldershippe of the Church ouer vvhich thou novv doest gouerne Anicetus Pius Higinus c. haue not done as thou hast done neither they also vvhich vvere vvith them Tertullian who otherwise is wont to attribute verye much to Saint Peter scorneth the Bishop of Rome his great ambition which then began to shew it selfe albeit in a certaine place he maketh a long narration of the praises of the Church of Rome yet he teacheth not neither neere nor farre of that which is the principall to wit that it was the infallible seat of the holy Ghost by Peters successiō And yet these are for all that the very firste of all antiquitie and in whose time the Church of Christ more florished then at any time In the time of Constātine as the church had more liberty so it had also more ambition then Bishops begā first to think on miters that before time thought nothing els but to be martyrs That same famous Council of Nice was then called together by Constantine the Emperour to the ende to decide the matter of Arrius The B. of Romes deputies were there but they sate onely in the fourth place Yea one decree was there made by which certaine limits were attributed to euerie patriarke ouer which the Canon gaue them equall authority which the Bishop of Rome was wont to haue ouer the neighbour Churches of his citie They went about by infinite meanes to corrupt the canons of this councill as the histories do witnesse vnto vs But Cusan the Cardinal alledging this Councill acknowledgeth the trueth in these words By this we see saith he how much authoritie the Pope hath gotten in our time against the sacred auncient constitutions and altogether through the lēgth of time and custome of a slauish subiectionall obedience And yet in meane time Iulius with standeth it not neither doe his Legates alledge to the fathers of the Councill their Tibi dabo I will giue vnto thee nor their Pasce oues meas Feed my sheep for as yet they were not studyed so deeply therin but they rested onely in the ordinance of the Councill which afterwardes was confirmed by the Councils of Antioche and of Constantinople And this was about the time that they woulde deuise the donation of Constantine to pope Syluester confuted by so many learned men so long time agoe that none but such as are ignorant will beleeue it But if they will beleeue the original which is kept in Vaticā in the popes library in goldē letters let thē also beleeue these words which are written added in the end Quam fabulā longi tēporis mēdacia finxit that is to say in the proper words of ill latine This is a fable which an old lye hath forged Or if they wil therin beleeue the legend of Pope Syluester then let them also beleeue that which it sayeth that then was hearde a voyce from heauen saying Hodie effusum est venenum in Ecclesiam that is to say At this day poyson is shedde into the middest of the Church In the first and seconde Councill of Ephesus Cyrillus and Dioscorus Patriarches of Alexandria did gouerne there though the Bishoppe of Rome there had his deputies And it forceth not to saye that the seconde was not lawfull For this can not be knowen but by the yssue but it sufficeth that in the beginning and then when men thought that it was verye lawfull and that in such a time as the ceremonies were kept there Leo the Bishoppe of Rome neyther his deputies did not there striue for the chiefe place because they thought it to haue no good grounde In the Councill of Chalcedon
the dignitie of the citie but that all that was more was from the deuill and by vsurpation Whereupon it followeth that in regard of the ministerial head of the Church he could not pretend to be lesse subiect to error then other bishops and patriarkes neither the latine Church lesse then those of Greece others of the East And so we returne notwithstanding their exception to our former cōclusion That the articles grounded vpon the authoritie of the Pope and the church of Rome are ouerthrowne and al their traditions inuentions subiect to the examination of the holy Scripture as are the doctrines of all other Churches That the Pope in affirming himselfe to be head of the Churche and not being so in deede is the Antichrist in the Church and that he cannot be receiued vvith any other then the papistical doctrine CHAP. IX THE Pope not being head of the Church as he saith he is and hauing no other titles to prooue this generall Lieutenant shippe which he so proudly exerciseth we saye that he is the plague of the whole body a tyraunt in the common weale Antichrist in the church And for to prooue this I will not enter into the particular explication of those predictions which are in Daniel in the epistle to the Thessalonians in the Apocalypse which in times past were darckened but now are made cleere For also many learned men not onely of our time but 300. yeres agoe haue made those bookes plaine amiddest the ignorance of the world crueltie of the Pope But I saye that although he were not so liuely painted out vnto vs as he is in those foresaid places yet his doctrine ought to make vs knowe that he is the very Antichrist with whom the Church was threatned and that there could not be in Christēdome any thing more pernicious then that doctrine which he hath brought in First to take away al doubt the Scripture speaketh vnto vs of many Antichrists For euery hereticke which setteth himselfe against the truth he is in very deed an Antichrist but it speaketh vnto vs of one amongst others who shall haue his seate in the Church of God and shall vsurpe Gods place who as Origen saith must be the great Antichrist among other Antichrists This is he of whom we haue now to speake Secondly when the Scripture speaketh of Antichrist it saith that it shal be an Apostacie or a falling backe from the faith Also that that mysterie of iniquitie began to worke in Paul his time and that it should no otherwise be destroyed but by the comming of Iesus Christ Againe that he must builde his greatnes vpon the ruine of the Romane Empire and giue life to that lost beast that is to say as all the auncient fathers haue expounded to this Empire and namely S. Augustine in the xx booke of the citie of God Chrysostome vpon that place where S. Paul handleth this matter And we knowe that the Romane Empire fell by litle litle and peece by peece It foloweth then that Antichrist is not one man alone which must come at one instant of time but is an estate seat and succession of men an Empire lifted vp against Iesus Christ as we see the Scripture vnder the name of certaine beastes to describe Empires And this also is the interpretation of S. Augustine vpon that place Thirdly Antichrist is called that false prophet vomiting out blasphemies against the most highest His Empire therefore consisteth in false doctrine not in armes he is called a woman an whore he shall therefore wind in himselfe and come in by pleasaunt wayes sleightes and flatteries deceyuing men through his crafte drawing them to his spiritual whordome which is idolatrie He is also called the sonne of perdition as Iudas Againe he shall not assayle the Church by open force but he shall betray her with a kisse and shall not enter by the breach or by a strong scaling ladder but by counterfaiting the keyes by painted Emblemes and secretly like a thiefe And in very deede the Empires which consisted in forces and armes they are figured in the scriptures vnder the name of Wolues Lyons Beares and such other rauening beastes whereas for this ye haue but women whoredomes cuppes drinckings enchantments that is to say deceipts crafts and subtilties whereupon the schoolemen themselues haue concluded that this chiefe Antichrist which is here described can neither be Mahomet nor the Empire of the Turkes Fourthly he is properly called Antichrist and not Antithee that is to say contrary to Christ the Mediator and not simply against God therefore particularly he shal be against Christ Iesus our Lorde And all the doctrine of Christ consisteth in the office of the Mediatorship in the benefit of his death and passion This then shall be the speciall doctrine that he will chiefely labour to abolish It is oftentimes saide that he shall sitte in the Church of God being there acknowledged as god Nowe it is certaine that if he shoulde say that he were Christ or shoulde preach directly against Christ the Church would not suffer this in the middest of her nor suffer him to raigne It is likewise said That he shall haue tvvo hornes like to the lambe speaking notvvithstanding as the Dragon that is to say he shall counterfaite the doctrine and holinesse of Christ although he speake nothing but impieties as Satan doeth It foloweth therefore to make these markes to agree together that it must be that Antichrist of whom nowe the controuersie is that he must speake in shewe as Christ but in deede and in effect against Christ and honoring him in wordes and yet as much as lieth in him robbing him of his glorie And that he is the true Antichrist of whom the question is who vnder the shadowe of Christ shall ouerthrowe his doctrine and put him selfe in Christ his place Saint Augustine handling this matter doeth no otherwyse vnderstande it Let vs not regarde saith he the tongue but the deede Antichrist is a lyer which maketh profession of Christ and yet denieth him in effect And a litle after Howe sayest thou that I denye him in effect Because Christ sayth he is come in the flesh to the ende that he should die for vs. Chrysostome sayth That he must be knowen by his doctrine and neyther by titles miracles nor wordes of holinesse Saint Hilary sayth That Antichrist shal be contrary to Christ vnder opinion of an hypocriticall and faigned godlinesse And in another place O ye fooles who are mooued and rauished and caught in loue with woordes and gorgeous seelinges of Churches Doe ye doubt that this shall one day be the seate of Antichriste It behooueth vs nowe therefore to consider who it is that sitteth in the Church who speaketh more of Christ and leaste esteemeth him who more honoureth him with trayterous kysses and blasphemeth more against his cōming who in the chaire of Christ is
more health nor soundnesse therein and had bin altogether the death of the bodie had not God of his singular mercie opened the same vnto vs. Thirdly we say that this empoysoner with his complices hath cast into the fountaine of life that is to say into the doctrine of saluation in Iesus Christe all the poyson he coulde deuise and that he hath infected with his venime the most dainty meates which God had giuen for the nourishment of his people But that GOD hath giuen grace to some to absteine from it to some in tyme to vomit it vp againe to others to mingle it with the meate and to certaine to ouercome it by the soundnes of their complexion in such sort that many haue dayly escaped it notwithstanding his accursed intention and purpose For example we knowe that the most part of the people haue byn ignorant of those mischieuous doctrines which the schoolemen haue left by writing that is to say of the principal blasphemies of the papacie Also that the more parte haue neuer beleeued that they coulde merite euerlasting life by their owne workes whatsoeuer men preached vnto them thereof Againe albeit that through custome and ignorance they went to Saints and Images and frequented Masses and pylgrimages yet notwithstanding in their conflictes of death they alwayes principally claue to the Crosse of Iesus Christ and al the Franciscans preaching in their eares the habite vanishing toyes of S. Frauncis could not pull it away from them We haue an example in S. Bernard himselfe and we haue seene many more in our tyme S. Bernard in certaine places sauoureth of the contagion of his time as it was hard he should doe otherwise But see his refuge when he was tempted of the Deuill in his last dayes I confesse sayth he that I am not worthie of it I know that I cannot by mine ovvne workes obtaine the kingdome of heauen But my Lord hath obtained it by a double right by inheritance from the Father and by the merite of his passion Novve he is contented vvith the one and giueth mee the other And vvhen I attribute it to my selfe by the gift vvhich he hath made vnto me thereof I cannot be confounded And in another place My merite is the mercie of the lord And I am not poore in merits because he is riche in his mercies I haue greatly sinned but I vvill comfort my selfe in the stripes of my Lord. Euen so likewise we assure our selues in the mercy of God that a great nōber held the foūdation in Iesus Christ wherof the Apostle speaketh albeit Antichrist shooke it as it were endeuored to ouerturne it in thē all that he might Finally we say with S. Cyprian That if my predecessors either by ignorance or by simplicitie holding notvvithstanding the foundation haue not kept and holden that which our Lord hath taught them by his exāple aucthoritie as it is most certaine they did not that the mercie of our Lord might pardon thē But as this good Doctor addeth That we cannot hope for the like beyng admonished at this day and instructed by him But this matter shall be for the chapter following That euery one is bound to separate himselfe from the Communion of Antichrist and that the Romanists are Schismatikes and not they which separate themselues from them CHAP. X. THe matters beyng as wee haue before proued there shall be no great neede now that we render a reason for that we haue withdrawen our selues frō the cōmunion of the Pope frō those false worshippes which he hath foysted into the Church For seeing that he is Antichrist of whom the Church is warned threatned his synagogue is that same Babylō of idolatry out of which we haue an expresse cōmādemēt to come if we wil not be partakers of her sins plagues drinke of the cup of the wrath of God which is prepared for her we should be iustly charged with a very vile abominable faulte if we shoulde vse our selues otherwise And in deede if it were lawfull for the true citizens of Rome the citie being vnder the power of the Gaules to retire themselues into the litle towne of Veies with Camillus and if all the auncientes haue iudged that then the common weale was at Veies albeit the walles were still about Rome by a stronger reason wee ought to retire from the Temple which Antichrist hath inuaded and prophaned with so many pollutions not beyng able at the first dashe to dryue him awaye so that hauing gathered together the true seruaunts and champions of Iesus Christ from vnder his clawes we shall by the grace of God be strong ynough to dryue him from thence and there to place againe the true seruice of god And if he be to be holden for a traitor and to be accompted guyltie of hie treason that followeth the armie and ensigne of a Vicegerent or generall Lieutenant which is reuolted from his Prince much more shoulde we be traitors against the honour of our God and to him who hath vouchsafed to saue vs by his owne blood if we should fight against him vnder Antichrist who hath inuaded his place and shoulde any maner of way take his part yea seeing that it is a false title they are false ensignes that he vsurpeth of generall lieutenantship he beyng nothing more in Christendome then the least Bishops But notwithstanding to satisfie all the doubtes that may arise about this matter I am content to hādle it more largely When it pleased God to giue vs grace to know the false Cōmission of the Pope by vertue whereof he made himselfe head of the Church and that by examination aswell of his doctrine as of those markes which he ought to haue we found euidently that this is the Antichrist none other they who were called to preach the trueth haue preached in the Church they which had charge to teache haue declared published it by bookes and many to whome God gaue zeale courage haue protested it alowde and clearely euen amiddest the flaming fire Some haue shewed it to the people and common weales Some cryed it out in the eares of princes Some haue offered to verifie the impietie of his doctrine in a free generall Councill In the Councill in stead of disputing by the holy Scriptures they haue refused the Scriptures in stead of hearkening to their quick reasons according to faith they haue burned them quicke against the faith And to the ende they shoulde neuer haue occasion to hope for a free Councill and should not dare vnder the safe conduits of any to come thither they haue passed therein an article That faith and promise is not to be kept with heretikes Afterwardes all this notwithstanding we haue alwayes required a free Council where they haue condemned vs without euer calling for vs Some haue answered vs for all That these were matters done long ago whereof we should not speake any more They
haue cut vs quite of from the Church of Rome haue proceeded agaynst vs by fire and fagot by the sworde by warres by massacres cruell murthers Finally we see that they will giue no place to our worde that they will not giue vs audience in a Council that they excōmunicate chase vs from the Church of Rome Therfore following the example of the Apostles when they were excōmunicated from the Iewish synagogue for hauing preached Christ we haue begun to gather our selues together to serue the Lord first secretly in corners afterwardes more freely neither can we communicate with those Idolatries brought in by Antichrist nor at the first dash driue him from his seat for that the Princes of the earth with their power vpholde him therefore we are enforced to deliuer our selues all those that wil hearken vnto vs from his seruitude bondage Nowe I aske what our aduersaries can finde fault with in this our doyng either in the matter it selfe or in the maner of our proceeding If they looke vpon the matter we separāt our selues not for light matters but for manifest idolatrie for making voyd the crosse of Christ for perditiō which reigneth in the place of saluatiō To be short we withdraw our selues from this prince of cōfusion who is reuolted back against our lord And we report vs euen to their own iudgement whether they thinke it not lawful to separate our selues frō the cōmunion of Antichrist sitting in the chayre of Iesus Christ For if euery one wynke therat who shal discouer him and if euery one cleaue vnto him who shal chase him away and if all the world hold their peace where is the spirit of the mouth of the Lord which shal destroy him Nowe if they shall deny that he is Antichrist we wil submit our selues to proue it then there is no questiō of our separation but of our doctrine If they will reproue vs for the maner of our proceeding therein condemning vs they condemne the Apostles who hauing ouerrunne all Israel ran into a thousande dangers to the end they might make Christ to be receyued into his owne house in the middest of the temple finally perceyuing thēselues to be stopped euery way by open force by excōmunications imprisonments c. they receyued him secretely into their priuate houses and did preach him in smal assemblies till at last they brought all the worlde into his subiection But notwithstanding this they crie out that wee haue broken the Communion of the Church that we haue set altar agaynst altar that we are Schismatikes c. which were the outcries of the Pharises against the Apostles You violate the Temple the altar the lawe c. And hereupon kings and nations haue armed themselues on all sides against vs This therefore is the thing that we must presently make answere vnto First the Communion of the Church doeth not consist in a locall vnion neyther the separation in remouing of places For there are a great many without if we looke to the place who yet are within according to charitie and many againe in place that yet if we consider faith are without but the true Christian Communion consisteth in the vnion of faith and in the vnion of charitie which S. Augustine calleth the nerenesse or rather the neyghbourhoode and dwelling together as I may say of hearts and agreement in doctrine and the true separation in the diuersitie or contrarietis of the selfe same things Nowe concerning the vnion of faith it consisteth in that heauenly doctrine which is comprehended vnto vs in the olde and new Testament tending onely to this poynt to make vs feele our sinne and to shewe vs a remedie therfore in one onely Iesus Christ crucified And this is that for which according to the example of all the auncient seruants of God we suffer and are killed and for withdrawing our selues from vnder the yoke of Antichrist that shamefully treadeth it vnder his feete we are persecuted excommunicated and murthered We are therefore vnited in the faith with the Patriarkes Prophetes Apostles Martyrs auncient Doctors and generally with the whole Church that was before the lawe vnder the lawe and vnder Grace yea and vnder the tyrannie of Antichrist If they will denie it we wil submitte our selues to proue it There is not therefore any more question to cauill at our separation which is nothing else but as an escape to the ende to resort to true doctrine and if they confesse it denying vs to be vnited with them they confesse then that they are not vnited with the ancient fathers and therfore they ought not to thinke it straunge that we renounce the communion of the Papacie Concerning the Communion of charitie or loue which consisteth in suffering and bearing the euilles one of another in not lightly condemning one another we holde all them for the true members of Christ which worship one God in spirit in trueth and hope for their saluatiō in one Iesus Christ alone the sonne of God come in the fleshe and crucified for the sinnes of the worlde which is the foundation of saluation to all men We desire all vnion and agreement with them in whatsoeuer countries and regions they are and whatsoeuer corruptions may be yet remaining amōgst them not onely in maner but also in certayne poyntes of doctrine bewayling the bodyly seruitude which they endure and praying the Father of lyght that it wyll please him to enlighten them more more by his holy spirit Contrary wise euery mā knoweth that the Popes Consistorie hath excōmunicated al the East Churches 600 yeres agone only for this that they would not submit themselues to the Bishoppe of Rome which is an article that concerneth only but his ambition and that the Pope hath left them to be inuaded of the Turke in despite whereof they had rather endure all extremitie then to acknowledge him to be head of the Church And concerning the vnion of charitie amongst them which yet cleaue to the Pope there is nothing more deare vnto them then their own liues we haue bene put to the fire water sword for opening the trueth vnto them praying God euery day that he wil enlighten them by his spirit On the other side the Romish Consistory doth pursue vs by al meanes to death and that by the space of these three score yeeres and more and so many people continually groning for a free generall Council they haue not had onely so much charitie as to grant vs eyther generall or nationall to deliuer vs from the error they pretend vs to be in answering for al that to so many princes who haue iudged it necessary That these matters are already decided and ought not any more to come in question this is euery way a friuolous answere as wee haue shewed before But I demaunde what Parliament is it yea euen amongst the heathen so barbarous and so farre from humanitie
as Athanasius also a fewe of the best sort with him at Rome during the time that the Arriās beeing fauoured of Constantius the Emperor spoyled and infected his Church of Alexandria And euē so likewise we at this daye in right are of the poore Church of Fraūce of Italie and other places which Antichrist holdeth by the throte to cause thē to abandon their saluation And assoone as Antichrist and his mayntainers shal be gone with al the infection which they haue brought into the church we shal be altogether ready to draw neere vnto thē to ioyne with them as nye as euer wee did and to runne to the Churches with them there to reioyce together for their deliuerance Let the wolfe be gone out of their fold behold vs al ready to enter in In meane time we wil pray vnto god to driue him away that it wil please him to deliuer thē from vnder his claw will shew thē this mercie we wil enforce our selues all that we can to deliuer thē To be short we are kuit with them in doctrine if they haue regard to the aunciēt doctrine of the Church of Rome but we cōdēne that of the popes where with he oppresseth their consciences Also we are in true charitie for what greater charity cā there be in the world thē to rid the world of such a one But we renounce that Tyranne which strangleth their soules and seeing that God by his singular grace hath deliuered ours frō him we proclayme opē warre against him for their sakes with all our heartes These things beeing wel considered it is very easy for vs to distinguish who are schismatikes that is to say the aucthors of that separation which was made in our time in the west churches either we or our enemies The canon lawe sayeth that Schisme must not be considered neither in the nomber nor place but by the cause that he is a schismatike which is the cause of schisme not he which beginneth the separation euen altogether like as he which denyeth the lawe is the cause of processe and not he which first beganne Now we haue required the pope and his prelates to reforme the Church according to the Scriptures and to the auncient forme desiring to remaine vnited with our brethren and in steade of agreeing vnto vs they haue excommunicated vs without euer hearing vs The prelates therefore of the Romaine Church are the Schismatikes and not we who demaunde nothing else but Reformation to make vs at one Also the Canon sayeth that the essentiall and materiall cause of all Schisme is want of charity Nowe for our parts we haue offred our liues to death to recouer our brethren from errour and contrariwise the prelates of Rome to drawe vs frō that they say we are what earnest request soeuer we could make they would yet neuer graunt vnto vs a free Councill But when they haue called vs to their assemblies it was to burne vs and not to teach vs and all their Councils were but conspiracies to kill vs and not consultations to heale vs And therefore the lacke of charitie is in them and so consequently the cause of Schisme Also the Canon lawe teacheth vs that is to saye the Pope him selfe That the Pope which suffreth a controuersie to waxe olde in the church concerning saluation he is one that seeketh after deuision heresie And that if he be required to helpe it by a generall Councill and do it not of Apostolique which he should be he maketh him selfe an Apostata and Schismatike That as from such a one the Cardinalles Prelates Priestes peoples and prouinces ought to separate them selues for that asmuch as lyeth in him he suffreth the people children that are borne to growe vnder two heads into two churches That all those that winke in that matter specially hauing a charge and a calling to withstand it they are partakers with his faulte and are schismatikes as well as hee notwithstanding all their othes homages obligations which they haue made vnto him And in deede by the counsell of the diuines of Paris folowing the foresaid coūsell king Charles the sixte declared him selfe his realme all his subiects to be separated from the cōmunion of pope Iohn the 22. afterwards by the same counsell cut of him selfe from the obedience of Benedict the thirtenth from Gregory the 12. admonishing and requiring all princes to do the like For that saith he in his protestation they will mainteine diuisions in the Churche by their tretcheries and vvill not submit themselues to the ordinarie meane of a free councill and to the determination of the church Now it was eight score yeeres agoe that this strife began in the Church after threescore yeres or thereabouts it was spread ouer all Europe The princes and people called still for a free councill and alwayes sometimes by one meane sometimes by another the Popes went scot free During all which time they sought all the wayes they could for their liues ordinary extraordinary to make an end of vs They therefore their mainteiners though the saluation of Christendome was not in controuersie as now it is are by their own canons foūd schismatikes they who haue winked at it fautors of schisme they who haue with drawē themselues frō their obedience admit that their Popes had bene sometime heads of the Church no Antichrists are grounded in the trueth exempted from all suspicion of schisme and blamelesse of all the mischiefes and disorders which through schisme haue arisen in Christendome Now cōtrariwise if as we hold the Pope be Antichrist the papall doctrine contrary to saluatiō in Iesus Christ and al the seruice that they do in al the churches that acknowledge him which they cal the church of Rome polluted with idolatrie thē there needs no longer disputatiō whether men do well to separate thēselues from him or no but rather to conclude ful and wholly That we are traitors to God who hath created vs to Christ who hath saued regenerated vs to the Church who hath borne vs to be short to our brethren to our selues if we protest not against his blasphemies if we withdraw not our selues from his obedience if we renounce not his cōmunion to be shorte if we do not our vttermost to make him knowē to euery one and to deliuer the world from his tyrannie Hereupon thei obiect vnto vs that Moses for the idolatry cōmitted amongst the people of Israel to the golden Calfe separated not himself I graūt it But they must adde that Moses chid Aaron chastised the people ground the golden calfe into powder and cast it into the water There was no cause then that he should flye Idolatrie because hee coulde driue it out Nowe wee will not bee more scrupulous then Moyses Let them suffer vs to beate their Idols to powder to cast Idolatrie out of their Church and
frō the tēple but from the idolatry cōmitted in the temple nor from the cōmon weale but frō the tyrāny which oppresseth the cōmon wealth nor from the city but from the pestilence which infecteth the city nor frō the cōmunion fellowship of the people to whō we wish al happines saluatiō but frō the conspiracie of Antichrist of his mainteiners we therefore renounce not their baptisme but we ratifie it By the same we are bound to serue God to renounce the deuil following the same we seeke to serue God according to his word renounce all idoles By these letters of natural birth we are bound to mainteine the lawes of the ancient christian cōmon wealth which is the church folowing thē we set vp againe before vs the law of God the only lawgiuer of the church would deliuer the church frō al new impositions burdens which Antichrist hath laid vpon their consciences By baptisme we haue made an oth vnto christ the pope would turne our seruice from Christ to his idols to him selfe we therfore set Christ against Antichrist and the church against his cōspiracy And this is that for which by the grace of God we haue bin baptized into the Church how tyrannicall and disordered soeuer it hath bene But the ministers therof whō you pretēs to be of Antichr they haue baptized you In deed they haue put water on my head but Christ hath baptized me The tyran or his officers which he hath established after his fashion haue made me lift vp my hande giue him an oth but they haue made me to make it to the cōmon welth not to the tyran in the name of Christ not in the name of Antichrist The forme of the othe hath remained entire sound albeit the estate were chāged To folow therfore the tenor of mine oth I will retire my selfe into the army of true citizēs I wil seek out the true church in the place wherunto it hath withdrawen it self I will renounce the communion of Antichrist who vnder colour of mine oth maketh me to breake mine othe To conclude this point It is sayde vnto vs Preach the trueth We haue done it but they haue excommunicated vs It is said consequently vnto vs Flye from idoles and departe out of Babylon We haue done it but yet then when the obstinacie of men against the trueth hath compelled vs Finally after the example of the Apostles beeing shut out of Churches by the magistrate we haue gathered together the faithful into houses and haue builded the true Ierusalem at Pella If men marke this deede in it selfe they cannot finde faulte with it For wee stande grounded vpon the expresse woorde of god Nowe if anye man further saye howsoeuer it ought to be done that yet it belonged not vnto our Ministers to do it There is no farther question but of their vocation and calling which shal be handled in the chapter next following That the Ministers of the reformed churches haue a lawfull calling to reforme the Church CHAP XI FOrasmuch as our aduersaries cā neither deny the corruption which is entred into the Church nor the tyranny of Antichrist with other things depending therof from the which we go about by the word of God to set it free to the end to hold vs from entring to the groūd of this matter from ripping it vp againe they at lēgth vse this pretty shift aske vs whatcalling our ministers haue to reforme the church to preach in it This is euen the same that Zidkiiah the false prophet saide vnto Micheas What way went the spirit of the Lord frō me to speake to thee And the Pharises to Iesus Christ Thou art a Carpēters sonne who hath sent thee To whō we may answere in one word with Iesus Christ The words which we preach beare witnes of vs. They likewise cast in our teeth their long succession That they are the children of Abraham S. Peters heires c. To whō Iesus Christ hath answered for vs Ye are Abrahās seede but the deuil is your father from whō ye are come s Paul Brethrē be not deceiued for Antichrist shall sit be vvorshipped in the tēple of God. But forasmuch as hertofore they haue made whole books vpon this point it is needefull to handle this more largely When fire shall take holde of any Citie or towne or an enemie shall scale it in the night if the least Burgesse shall giue an alarme yea admitte it be but a straunger whiles the watchmen sleepe no man will demaund by what tytle he did it and much lesse punish him for it but rather men wyll runne to the water and to the walles they will see where it is and euery one accepteth him thankfully that warned them When contrariwyse we discouer Antichrist sitting in the Church whō we haue submitted our selues to conuince before the face of a Councill and in his owne presence in steade of hearing vs of examining our reasons of going to the holy Scriptures where he is liuely painted out they fall to examine vs of our condition and by what authoritie we aduertise them yea they put vs to a worse death then if we had betraied the common wealth If the gouernours of some places shoulde doe the like when men giue them aduertisements what place shoulde not soone fall into the handes of the enemies And what prince is there that would not hold them for traitors and iudge that they had conspired with his enemies There is no question here of our condition qualities but of the qualities of Antichrist of his doctrine It standeth with the duetie of those that warne vs and it concerneth the saluation of all and of our selues If the aduertisement and warning be true it is the saluation of the Church if it be false it is ours The questiō is then to examine the circumstaunces of the warning and not the qualities and condition of those that warne vs In the conspiracie of Catiline the Senate lent theyr eare to a base woman agaynst the greatest And when the Gaules would by night haue inuaded the Capitole of Rome the watchmen spake not a worde and the dogges were dumbe there was nothing but the Geese that cryed and yet euery man ranne thither and made accompt therof and had not this gagling bin this notable Citie which afterwardes conquered the whole world had byn lost When therefore we shal be the most vile contemptiple of the Church we deserue to be heard yea seeing we desire not to speake in the eare as slaunderers but in the face of the Church yea in the eare of himself that hath accused vs not frō our selues but frō god Cōcerning the reformatiō of the Church after the scattering which the Pope his haue made in it we knowe that there must be a lawful callyng but we maintayne our selues to be therein better warranted and grounded then
they who haue nothyng but theyr boasting and vaunting although they haue the greatest titles honors in the world to be on theyr side If therefore our aduersaries aske vs what was the calling of our first Ministers which refourmed the Church in these last times we answere that it was the same vocation and succession whereof they themselues doe bragge but the same vocation which they abused our men haue endeuoured to vse will and to that vaine succession wherewith they decked themselues they haue added the succession of true doctrine which they had corrupted without which all succession is nothing els but a continuing of abuse and error Wickleife Iohn Hus Luther Zwinglius Decolompadius Bucer and others of that schoole from whence the Ministers which haue gathered Churches from vnder Antichrist are descended were Priests as they cal them and doctors in diuinitie As Priests Pastors they had charge to preach the trueth vnto the people to minister the Sacraments vnto them according to the institutiō of our lord As doctors they were called to expound diuinitie in their readings in theyr bookes and they were bounde by the ordinary othe of al vniuersities to declare the trueth vnto the Church to confute al doctrines repugnant against the word of God and what then might to expell it Now in their time they found that the word of God was hid vnto the people that the honor which was due to God alone was turned to men to Images that the blood of Christ was troden vnder foote that the sacrament of the supper was partly turned into Idolatry partly denyed to the poore people To be short that all the holy scripture was prophaned poysoned with the Popes gloses popish interpretations And when they shewed these thinges to the Bishops and Metropolitans according to the order of their Church they made no rekoning of thē they were the first that persecuted thē because they themselues were the infected parte of the Church I aske therefore if theyr vocation commaunded them not to goe farther to witte to preach the trueth vnto the people and purely to administer the holy Sacraments And if they had done otherwyse whether they had not bin forsakers of theyr calling contenmers of theyr othe made vnto God and abusers of the people Both two therefore say I both our aduersaries and our first ministers had one and the same ordinarie outward calling But herein is the difference that that which ours haue followed the other haue forsaken that which ours haue done of duetie by reason of their charge the other haue cōcealed Ours haue ledde their sheepe vpon the mountaines of Israel into good pastures the others haue deuoured them or els left them for a pray to the beastes of the field or els driuen them to the fennes and marishes where they haue starued A magistrate shall be called to the gouernment of a common wealth where he shall finde the good lawes corrupted by the negligence or malice of those that went before his Courts full of iniustice the offices subiect to factions briberies and corruptions and he would reforme all this and bring it to the censure of the lawes He that will further nowe aske him by what right he doth this should he not make him self a laughing stocke because he followeth steppe by steppe his calling He hath not sworne to mainteyne abuses but rather to mainteyne the lawes and to prouide euery way that he can for the good and preseruation of the Common wealth Nowe contrarywise if he wincke at that which is euil he should doe directly contrary to his calling Euen so likewise haue our first Ministers done first requiring reformation and afterwards putting to their handes according to their duetie And if we could aske of the Apostles who are their true successors they would not tel vs Such as haue a triple crowne or such a cope or such a miter but those that preach the word of God after our example For so had they learned of the true master That he which doth the wil of God his father is his mother his sister and his brother At the preaching of these first men the pastors of the Churches were awakened in England in Bohemia in Germanie in Scotland in Denmarke in Swedenland and afterwardes many in Fraunce in Spaine and in Italie it selfe and these were sent to bethinke them of their duetie Consequently some whole Realmes were reformed the bishops themselues that there had preached lyes preached the trueth in the selfe same Church pulpit Of these for the most part if our aduersaries will demaund succession it is on their side for they haue succeeded from bishop to bishop frō the first which preached there the Gospell If they aske a vocation why it is euen their owne for they were called to be bishopps and pastors and they haue performed the office which they had forsaken The difference therefore as we haue said is in this onely point that they feede the people with pescod shales and the others in the pasture of life they defile their flockes with the filthinesses of Antichrist and these wash them in the blood of Iesus Christ Beholde then concerning the calling of our first Ministers which hath whatsoeuer may be good in the pretended calling of our aduersaries and this point further That our men lawfully exercise it and the other do but withhold it in vnrighteousnesse And although some of our men as in so corrupt a state of the Church as we haue seene it in our time without wayting for their calling or allowance of them that vnder the title of pastors oppressed the Lords flocke were called by those Churches to which they vowed their ministery yet this ought no more to be thought straunge then in a free common wealth where the people without wayting either for the consent or voyces of those that playe the tyrants shal haue chosen according to the lawes good and lawful magistrates Concerning the vocation of Ministers which were sent by the former and since by vs we haue herein obserued the example of the Apostles and the canons of the primitiue Church If the question be of their persons we haue lawfully examined both their doctrine and maners And this is the rule of Saint Paul That a bishop must be apt to teach and blamelesse If of the persons which make this examination why it was not one man alone but many ministers bishops and elders duely called before to this Church that is to say the Presbyterie or eldershippe as Saint Paul calleth it or as Saint Cyprian calleth it the ecclesiasticall Senate During this examination whereupon dependeth the election the Church continueth in prayer and fasting as we reade in the ordeining of elders in the Acts. Being found meet they are published to the people to the end that if any man hath ought to say against their election he might repaire before the assemblie as we reade was practised