our God And therein Peacocke-like doth iett But in De Croys Conformities You may his errours plainely see Where all his foule deformities To life discou'red fully bee Obiection vnto the former SONNET VVHat the Church of Christ may it be sedus't And can it erre and can't so foully faile When Christ himselfe hath said Deuill nor hell Should haue no powr'e the faith though small t'assaile Answere Know that the church two waies may be cōceiu'd The one aptly to speake doth comprehend None but Gods children such as he elects And seales and gratiously will defend The other doth containe both good and bad Is that you see here in the world belowe Which erres so oft as Sathan it doth heare And by an euill life the same doth showe The first doth neuer erre for shee attends The sweete voice of her spouse to vnderstand The last may euer erre and be deceiu'd For in foule blacke blindnesse she loues to stand To those of the Romish CHVRCH YOu Romane Catholicks who sees this work I' st possible that it you can behould And cannot marke that horrible inchaunt Wherein bewitching Sathan doth you hould If the Apostles those most holy men Should now into the world againe returne Would neuer thinke that Christians you were Because al means might teach you truth you shun I speake and pronounce this not bitterly I speake it with a godly louing zeale Your pietie of which you make such bragges No warrant hath your grieuous sinnes to heale For you in humane merits firme your trust And that 's your anchors-hould and not in him Who sets you free from the eternall death And is the onely ransome for your sinne Antichrist by little and little and by craft And subtill shifts into the Church is slid And in Gods holy Temple now at last He sits in pompe trusting there still to byd It was often foretold that he should come And for our sinnes this reuolt was suffr'ed And that there must of meere necessitie Great and most blind errours be permitted Yea so ordain'd by our most puissant God That his most sacred Church should be opprest For a time in the bonds of Papacie For so long time as he would thinke it best But from these crooked and peruersed wayes Full of dreadfull and most deadly darknesse God hath bin pleased through his great bountie Vs for to draw and eke with peace to blisse Euen so Christ our Lord and Ionas were The figures of Gods Church in these last dayes For one was dead the other prisoner Christ in tombe Ionas in the fish he prayes Lift vp your eyes with speed behould this light Which shines in you and Iesus Christ imbrace By liuely faith cast off those euill Sp'rits Which makes you scorne Gods word to your disgrace Christ is the truth the way and onely life The Churches most deare spouse run then amaine And by a constant faith liue chast to him His company brings comfort that 's your gaine THE PREFACE To those of the Romish CHVRCH MY Masters who would discerne true coyne from that which is adulterated will not content himselfe with looking on the superscription the stamp colour roundnesse thereof but going on a little farther will come to the triall of the substance of the mettall will take the touchstone and draw thereon to examine the goodnesse or insufficiencie thereof Euen so to discerne true Religion from false and to know the Church of Iesus Christ in this confusion of so many that are like thereunto we must not be contented with the iudgement of the Church which you call representatiue but we ought to goe straight on to the onely Scriptures which are the foundation and pillers of the true cause in matters that concerne Religion And if we had stayed there we should not see at this day such horrible confusions in Christendome neither yet this mixture of cockle with good corne and there would remaine nothing but pure wheat in the garnar and store-house of the Church And would to God that some of the auncient Bishops could haue contented themselues with the marches established by the holy Ghost the greatest part of the world should not now be wandering in the auncient pathes and footsteps of Gentilisme against which the Apostles and many other infinite numbers of the most excellent and worthie men haue foughten and obtained the victorie through shedding of their bloud Should not this exquisite ballance square and canon of the Scripture this rule of right and veritie haue beene sufficient to teach vs whatsoeuer belongeth to the whole perfection of our beleefe We ought not to haue beene ignorant of these beautifull markes of antiquitie That there is no other proofe of Christian Religion but by the Scriptures if any controuersie arise where to find the bodie that is to say the Church that it ought not to be sought amongst our words but amongst his words who is the truth and knoweth his bodie to wit Iesus Christ. It was thither that the Bishops should haue led the Gentils to teach them to worship one onely God to make them turne from their old superstitions and idolatrous customes by the violence whereof they haue beene forced to worship their false Gods and creatures and should not haue giuen way to so many things which are so farre from hauing any warrant in the holy Scriptures that they are meerly contradictory thereunto It is after this manner that it hath seemed good vnto the wisedome of man to iest and play with the high and holy mysteries of true Religion It is after this manner that thinking onely to winke at things and that through tolerating of the lesser euill to eschew greater inconuenience this holy spring of Christian pietie hath beene infected by the filthie mud of Paganisme from whence those deludges haue proceeded which haue ouerwhelmed some fundamentall points of our saluation And would to God that those zealous ones without knowledge had taught their Neophytes to thinke it abhomination to suffer themselues to be led away by degrees vnto such things as at first seemed pleasant we should not see at this day such pestilent doctrine neither yet those superstitions and ridiculous ceremonies which haue caused as well in times past as in these dayes so many troubles in Christendome But this is their reward who haue chosen to preferre the Church to the Scripture and man to God as if it were more expedient to find out the head by the proofe and testimony of the members then the members by the testimonie of the head I am exceeding sorie to consider that when the time of appearing before the tribunall seate of God shall come the damned Gentiles shall know their markes and liueries on you and that in great aboundance as this present table of your conformities vnto their fashions and customes shall clearely and faithfully beare record But let vs examine how this filthinesse hath corrupted that beautie that was among you Those poore Gentils liuing vnder the Empire of Constantine the
offence that can be committed you thinke that life euerlasting is lost Truely the righteousnesse of the faithfull we answere doth not decay for euery transgression Wee confesse indeed that all sinnes are deadly euen the smallest which the Pelagians would not acknowledge We will not therefore place all manner of sinnes in one degree we are not Stoickes some are more hainous then others And that inequalitie set downe by Christ Iesus in the paines of the reprobate doth it not proceede of the inequalitie of the offences You thinke it strange that we call all sinnes saue that against the holy Ghost veniall that is to say pardonable Betake your selues therefore to the mercy of God who desireth not the death of a sinner What farther A certaine great person and a seruant of God in our age and one whom God endueth daily with more and more graces thought once that there had beene two hypostaticall or personall vnions in Christ the one of the soule with the bodie the other of the diuinitie with the humanitie Shall it not be lawfull for vs to recant and cancell that which through mistaking we haue thought and written amisse as S. Austin did very commendably He yeelded to the admonitions that were giuen him and declared his meaning in his learned treatise of the hypostaticall Vnion of the two natures in Christ Iesus Shall he therefore be accounted a Nestorian that established two persons in Christ And we shall be farre lesse of the Eutichian sect which admitted but one nature as well as one onely person in Christ although Swenckfeldius Smidelinus and others haue written so which we disaduouch We should neuer haue done and this Preface would exceede its bounds if it behoued vs by little and little to follow the footsteps of Alphonsus a Castro of one Prateolus of Bellarmine and others of that kind which haue filled vp therwith huge and great paltrie volumes and set vp trophees of their accusations on this subiect That which we haue sayd shall serue for a proofe that it may be knowne to the posteritie that with the like facilitie we are able to refute the other heresies which we haue not set downe here to the end that we might eschew prolixitie and whereof you accuse vs wherwith we haue refuted the former And this little discourse shall declare how vaine your proiects are by seeking to make vs worthie to be detested among men and that our innocencie shall be a decree of condemnation against you in so farre as you haue shewed your selues false accusers and rebels vnto the truth Those great vants of your huge and large Temples doe nothing but make an Eccho of this word heretickes your cheekes are altogether swelled therewith You can say no worse taking it in that sense wherein it is commonly spoken It seemes that the Eccho of those vast dennes of your Temples taketh pleasure to double and repeate seuen times ouer these iniurious words that they may the better be distilled into the braines of your flockes And who would not easily obtaine the victorie when the enemie doth not appeare Would God that we had libertie to answere you by and by in the same pulpits from which you threaten vs so much I beleeue that within a short time you would become Curats without Parishioners For we should haue iust cause to prescribe against you because of your reuolting for that you are blind leaders for that you agree not with the holy words of Christ Iesus yea and because you are heretickes You will iudge here that I am inciuill and iniurious yet can I not terme a house otherwise then a house and euery thing by the owne name I loue your persons I hate your heresies and errours and it is against them and not against you that I prepare this combate for the safetie both of you and of that poore people whom you haue bewitched This little table shall represent not in small for it were impossible but in great the harmonie and agreement which is betweene your Poperie and old heresies And it were as much as to enter into an Ocean if we would make a Register of the great heapes of your errours sith that the decree of the blessed Trinity being excepted there is nothing sound throughout the whole bodie of the Romish Religion Many with good successe haue laboured to discouer them though to your great griefe and haue manifested that which you would had beene hid for euer in the thickest of Cimmerian darkenesse I beare you no malice God is my witnesse my onely intent is that it may be knowne euidently to which of vs two this loathsome epithet hereticke belongeth Two things do support each other in errour the presuming of the truth before it be knowne and the defending of the presumed falshood after that the truth hath bin manifested vnto vs. We haue accused you yea and haue vanquished both of the one and the other of presumption and obstinacie Heresie proceedeth not from the Scripture but from that it is not rightly vnderstoode it is a crime not of the words but of the sense You erre in both twaine and although it be against your owne consciences yet so it is that you chuse rather to be damned then vanquished by the truth God of his infinite mercy open your eyes and make you see the beames of his graces in his Church where being gathered with vs we may worship together that Pastor and soueraigne Bishop of our soules our Lord Iesus Christ who in the vnitie of the Father and of the holy Ghost liueth and reighneth God eternally So be it THE THIRD CONFORMITIE CHAP. I. Of God YOu are not ignorant Sirs that there is but one maker of all creator of all Moyses speaking vnto the Israelites exhorteth them to giue eare vnto him and saith that the Lord their God is the onely God The principalitie of man hath a certaine analogie and correspondence with the diuine power All things are delighted in this vnitie and in truth S. Hierome bringeth forth some notable examples Yet notwithstanding the Manicheans haue made two infinite beginnings although it be impossible that any other infinite thing can bee together with God in Thought Will Might Goodnesse and Essence If there were two beginnings the one might destroy that which the other had wrought both twaine should possesse each other and by possessing should also borrow one from the other as being imperfect If there be two which of the two hath made this World Who hath gouerned it If the one ruleth what doth the other If the one hath made this world and the other ruleth it how hath this ruler entered into the house which is none of his Wee will conclude therefore that there is but one God but one beginning onely And although the heresie that maintaineth the contrarie is not embraced generally of you all yet Austin Steuchus famous among your Doctors hath written that the Empyreall heauen is
Romanes and your Deifications are still multiplied at this day as it shall be declared in the owne place God willing CHAP. II. Of the antiquitie of Religion WEE approoue the antiquity of the word of God yea it is eternall and wee reproue that which is against the truth seeing that in no wayes she can prescribe or bee preiudiced saith Tertullian The Lord commandeth vs expresly by the Prophet Ezechiel not to walke according to the commandements of our Fathers neither yet to obserue their lawes and statutes or to defile vs with their Idols but to liue according to his lawes and keepe his commandements And who should speake in man Whither the spirit of God or antiquitie And what other rule hath our vnderstanding then the holy Scriptures which enableth vs to iudge of antiquitie The Fathers haue called it an exquisite ballance the square of verity the rule of equity saying that there is no other proofe in the world but by the same S. Cyprian teacheth vs that wee ought not to haue any regard vnto that which our predecessours haue thought fit to bee done but vnto that which Christ hath done who was before all those And wherefore are you so strictly tied to the institutions of your Fathers that you will not yeeld a iot not considering if they speake well or not If any presse to reforme them by the line and rule of the word of God which is the anchor of our faith saith S. Athanasius the foundation and ground of our cause saith Saint Austin immediately they are pulled and drawne to the fire that will once attempt any such holy reformation among you You haue learned this maxime which is become so common among you to wit that no change or innouation ought to be made of the religion of your predecessours and Fathers And who are those Fathers Pythagoras Plato Mecaenas Agrippa and such other Politicians worldly wise which haue taught you that euery man ought to serue God according to the manner of the Countrey and the inueterate custome of his predecessours and that they ought to die the death whosoeuer doe the contrary thereof And for as much as you are in a manner buried in the coffin of antiquitie Antichrist hath found the doore open that he may the more easily snatch and take hold of your decayed Church and not onely crooked but pulled downe to the ground through age of the putrified burden of your traditions and vnwritten word CHAP. III. Of Schoole Diuinitie WHat is more sacred among Sciences then Diuinity You haue prophaned it by bringing in of that which you terme Scholastique gathered out of Lombard Master of the sentences which hath engendred vnto vs the race of the Thomists Scotists Albertists Ocamists Realists Nominalists and such others whose foundation is laid vpon the subtilities of Aristotle Let any man remarke the themes of your Sermons the disputations of your Schooles together with those great and huge volumes of Commentaries vpon the foure bookes of the Sentences Oracles are receiued euery where from the Tripus of this Philosopher and the Vniuersities that ought to be instituted after a Christian manner are changed into the Academies of that heathenish Athens You spend more time in clearing that which seemeth ambiguous and doubtfull in the doctrine of that ingrate disciple toward Plato then in teaching your flockes the law of the Gospell The oathes which the Vniuersities doe exact of their initiates and Batchelours that they shall not controll him and those Hoods or Doctorall caps are witnesses of the truth of that which I speake And your Diuines of Collen haue determined that as S. Iohn Baptist was the forerunner of Christ Iesus in Diuinis in like manner also was Aristotle in Naturalibus CHAP. IIII. Of Diseases THe whole Scripture declareth vnto vs that vnto God onely wee ought to haue recourse in all manner of afflictions aswel of the bodie as of the spirit The Saints according to your iudgement are more fit to impart their fauours vnto you in your diseases Doth it fall out that a woman is in trauell and labour of her childe Behold incontinent S. Margaret in readinesse her ayde and fauour is prayed for of God no newes at all Is not this the verie same which the Gentiles practised who were woont to commit this charge of attending women that were in this case vnto Diana or Iuno surnamed Lucina The examples of this your imitation are so frequent and ordinary that it were but superfluous to repeate them And that olde hagge in time of her sicknesse could tell some newes concerning this purpose which being prostrated before the image of the Virgin Marie and thereafter demanded by one what she was doing answered that shee was praying to this good Lady to the end that shee would make intercession for her at that good Ladies hands that was in heauen which answere being accepted with a little nodding of the head shee thinking to correct her former speach added moreouer that shee was praying to the good Lady in heauen to the intent that shee might recommend her to this holy image before which shee had bowed downe her selfe Pope Pius maketh great account of a certaine Virgine Marie Prunetane in the Countrey of Florence whom the people doe reuerence with a most feruent deuotion for the opinion which they haue conceiued that in time of necessity and drought she is able to send downe raine Her Temple is decored with incredible riches by reason of the propines which are daily sent thither The Gentiles in the like case did call vpon Iupiter whom they named Pluuius And the Athenians as saith Pausanias made an image of Ceres praying to Iupiter that she might obtaine some raine to be a memoriall of a certaine great drought which had grieuously afflicted the countrey The Aegyptians only were voyde of this sort of Paganisme to addresse their prayers to Iupiter seeing that the riuer Nilus ought to performe this taske as Tibullus witnesseth Against the pestilence you haue S. Sebastian and his successour S. Roche who is worshipped in Venice The Romanes had their Ancile that is to say their Buckler and as their tradition beareth fallen downe from heauen in the time of Numa sent from their Gods for the like disease And doe you not recommend your Hogs to S. Antony The Romanes also vowed and promised to their God such beasts as should happen to be borne to them during the time of the Spring which for this reason is named Ver sacrum Diana was the patronesse of Hunters and Dogs she had these in her protection S. Hubert of the Forrest of Ardenne hath succeeded her and is very deuoutly called on against madnesse for which they say that his Masse is a singuler preseruatiue That Iupiter of the Gentiles thundring lightning did send downe as those poore soules
which time they builded vp scaffolds in the streets and lanes and there did lay vpon tables the Gods whomthey kept in their houses whom they decored with flowers and costly apparrell and in these generall supplications the Priests of the Gentiles had also their heads deckt with Garlands Flowers And this pompe of your God Hercaeus putteth me in mind of that which the Heathen obserued in old times at the feast of Ceres Iuno Mars Isis and others of the like kinde to whom as Ca to saith they offered wine milke and after they had promenied those Gods about the fields in open shew procession they sacrificed vnto them a hog And to shew that I speak not this of my self to authorize that which I say I will haue recourse to that which the Diuines of the Pagans haue written Virgill shall here be placed in the first ranke who in the first of his Georgicks describeth the pompe of Ceres and of that which was obserued at the feasts Ambaruales other Ceremonies Apuleius in his golden Asse nameth it hostiā circumforaneam after the same manner that wee may tearme the God which you carry abroade in as great or rather greater state and triumph then the poore Pagans did when they pulled Isis out of her temple that shee might view the fields and be merry as the Poet Claudian hath learnedly represented it whom you would say had set downe all your Ceremonies in writte Your Hoste is carried by one of your Ptiests the canopie is vpholden by the chiefe inhabitants thereabout Those whom you name Ecclesiasticks are in the first ranke apparrelled in their white surplices and fine linnens musick is not forgotten no more then are the melodious sounds of all kinde of instruments as of drummes pipes trumpets and harpes together with that thundring noise which bombards and canons are accustomed to vomit forth And who would not be afraid of such fearefull crashes and noyses Hereunto may bee applied Lucans verses And Bellona neuer heard any such tempests during her feast as the God Elicius worketh when he is drawn out of his sacred habitation We may insert here that which Apuleius writeth of the pompe of Diana which is a place worthy to bee remarked for the true and manifest declaration of the conformities which are betweene the procession that was obserued then and that which is vsed in your Church vpon the day mentioned whether it be in the ornaments of the streetes in the ornaments of men and womans apparrell and in the order which was obserued That which is said already shall suffice to declare how you are inuolued in the like crime of Idolatrie that the Pagans your predecessors were who if they were now aliue should haue cause to bee astonished for as much as of a Christian you haue made a Polyphemus eater of men And the opinion that you haue concerning your transubstantiation and corporal eating is it not mocked by nature What to worship a creature yea an insensible creature in stead of the liuing God What yea and to eate God substantially Beware of Cicero his verdict and of that mocke of Auerroes as like wise of that Satyrick who by mocking of you as well as of the Aegyptians hath said O sanct as gentes quibus haec nascuntur in hortis Numina CHAP. XXX Of Processions TErtullian conuinceth of Gentilisme the processions that are vsed in our dayes And I beseech you in what schoole haue you learned these Processions Amburbiales Ambaruales Ambecclesiales with the pompes Lectisternia Puluinaria or pillowes with other circumstances as well of necessitie as of decencie but in the schoole of the Gentiles If there be any difference it shall not be in the thing but in the name seeing the Romanes called them supplications And you cannot deny the conformitie that is betweene your processions and the supplications of the auncient Idolaters It is but folly to attribute the inuention thereof to Agapetus Bishop of Rome and further to pretend that the Fathers of the Primitiue Church haue made any mention thereof as they wold haue vs to beleeue of Tertullian because he vsed these Latin words Procedere Processio in a certaine place of his workes For it is as much as if we would say that the Romane Emperours raigned in the time of the common-wealth the consulship or tribuneship because the captaines that commanded ouer the armies were named Imperatores Numa Pompilius was the inuentor thereof more then a thousand yeeres before and the vse of this statute tended either to pacifie their Gods or to enioy peace or to the preseruation of the fruites of the ground Apuleius describeth the order and ceremonies thereof Trebellius Pollio doth in like manner Who doubteth therefore but you haue learned all these ceremonies of the Pompilian religion Let vs see how they marched We haue made mention hereof in the title of the feast of Corpus Christi wherefore to bee briefe we shall say onely that they sung responsarie Letanies with their little verses and Peans in honour of their Gods and carried lights with them I haue often remarked in Paris the chiefe citie of this kingdome those solemne processions where the reliques of all the Churches were carried and chiefely those of the holy Chappell and amongst others were also the chests and cabinets of S. Marcell and S. Geneuiefue the goddesse of the Parisians and in truth I called to remembrance at that time the reliques of Iupiter and Anubis which were caried solemnely by the Heathenish Priests hauing garlands on their shauen heads like vnto the Monkes of S. Geneuiefue And this honour was so highly valued that Commodus Antoninus the great Romane Pontife to the end that he might become worthy both of that garland of flowers and to touch the chest wherein Anubis was carried caused his head to bee shauen after a round fashion The Senators made vp the last part of the pompe and sometimes the common people was mingled with them indifferently Sometimes the Matrons when any perill or dangerous warre was like to inuade the common-wealth enuironed their temples marched about them in procession sweeped the altars with veruen prayed on their knees lifted vp their hands towards heauen called vpon their Gods with as feruent deuotion as you doe vpon your Saints There was many lights resting places were made to serue for stations where the Chest-bearers might take breath a little the streets were hung and couered and at such time as the procession was to passe by it was not permitted to looke downe from the windows aboue as I haue seene this obserued in some places The trumpets brayed as the sound of your belles doth now the altars and images were perfumed with incense the shops palaces of iustice were shut vp and such deuotion was among them that
purpose vnlesse he had first beene forced by some adiuration so your Bishop of Rome obserueth the same method of proceeding in our time in such criminall actions as are intended against the children of God CHAP. V. Of the Church Representatiue ANd what shall we say of your Church which you name representatiue and of your whole Ecclesiasticall hierarchy You teach that like as vnder the Law there was many Leuiticall sacrificers which had the charge of the ordinary sacrifices by turnes so also in the church there must be Priests whose office is to consecrate the true and naturall body of Christ Iesus and to make his mysticall bodie perfect who doe all affirme that they are of the generation and tribe of Leui as it is to be seene in your decrees The Deacons you write haue succeeded vnto the Leuites the Subdeacons vnto the Nathinneans the Porters vnto those which had the same charge in Salomons temple the Readers vnto the Prophets and concerning the Exorcists and Virgers you do attribute the beginning of these vnto the Kings Dauid and Salomon And what is this else but to play the Iewes We confesse that the Romish Clergie hath succeeded vnto false Iudaisme but with a smaller pretence and farre greater corruption whether it be in the doctrine or in the externall forme of the Church Goe to as I find three sort of people in Ierusalem through whose hands the Redeemer of the world passed to wit the Iewes bearing the name of Gods people in the meane time open enemies and exceeding great persecutors of the sonne of God the Romanes poore infidels without God and finally Herod and his followers as middle ones betweene these two extremities halting on both sides so also may the like number be found in your Church of those that haue plotted against Iesus Christ. Your Clergie men which vnder the name of the people of God stirred vp kindled the persecution among the members of Christ Iesus Next the poore ignorant ones who with their implicite or intricate faith differ not much from those Romane Pagans finally those of the middest who would baptise a marriage betweene the Gospell and the Masse as the Herodians did with Gentilisme and Iudaisme And like as the false Prophets and sacrificers among the Iewes did bragge themselues that they had the Law and the key of knowledge so doe you say that the Pope hath all manner of knowledge inclosed within his breast That it belongeth vnto him to giue authoritie to the holy Scripture That the Decretals are in the same rancke with the Scripture and that if any person doth attempt against them his sinnes shall neuer be remitted vnto him That d we ought deuoutly to leane and rest vpon the constitutions and determinations of Councels which are composed of the Doctors and sophists whom your Bishops carrie at their arses That the Bishops are not Counsellers but Iudges of the Scripture to be briefe That the Pope is Caput you will know your owne babling omnium Pontificum à quo illi tanquam à capite membra descendunt de cuius plenitudine omnes accipiunt Hic est ille Melchisedech cuius sacerdotium non est caeter is comparatum And when will you leaue off doting CHAP. VI. Of ceremonies YOu brag and boast your selues so much of the reading of the Fathers and why doe you not call to remembrance that which S. Hierome writeth That such as obserue the Iewish ceremonies haue fallen into the snare of the Deuill And the greater part of your Popish ceremonies are they not from the Iewes They are so much reuerenced that it were a mortall sin to reiect the smallest of them howbeit your owne Canons teach that ceremonies may be changed That it must be holden for a thing indifferent that is not against the Catholicke faith neither yet against good manners That such customes as haue beene brought in according to the diuersitie of times of wits or of places ought to be cut away whensoeuer opportunitie is offered the reason being annexed thereunto which is because they oppresse religion with a seruile burden which the mercy of God will haue to be free in the celebration of a few sacraments the same being most perspicuous and euident Wherefore then doe you ouerlode the Church with this burden so weightie Wherefore I say doe you restore againe those Iewish ceremonies already suppressed by the truth of the Euangell Why doe you not content your selues with the Apostolicke simplicitie How well did S. Gregorie Nazianzene say That God ought not to be honoured by outward ceremonies but by the puritie of the soule by the ioy of the Spirit by heauenly meditations which are the lampes that giue light vnto the whole body of the church And what would S. Austin say if he were aliue againe and did behold this great masse of ceremonies wherewith the poore soules are ouerburdened and smoothered Truly he should haue cause to renew his complaints which while he was yet aliue he left vnto vs in his admirable writs And would to God that S. Bernards wish were in your hearts and mouths who desired to see a good Councell wherein ceremonies and traditions might not be stubbornely defended nor superstitiously obserued But let vs returne to your Church representatiue CHAP. VII Of Cardinals AND from whence shall we say that your Cardinals are come Those Cardinals I say who being pickt out of the order of great Lords doe exhaust and emptie Kingdomes through their vanities and superfluities You shall peruse that which the venerable Cardinall of Cambray and one of your French men to wit Nicolas de Clemang is haue written as likewise the Councell of Constance which proponed a reformation I will be content here to produce onely Andreas Barbatius who in a little Treatise-that he compiled of the beginning of Cardinals doth attribute the same vnto that which is written Domini enim sunt cardines terrae posuit super eos orbem which was said before by the Canonist Ostiensis And what is it to corrupt the Scripture if this be not Behold then your Church replenished with Sacrificers with Leuites and other officers who keepe their ranckes in the Chauncels of your Temples and sing their course about one after another a manner of doing which they attribute to King Dauid although the primitiue Christians did sing together CHAP. VIII Of Sacrifices and Altars WHat doe you lacke more but sacrifices and altars We say indeed that our Lord being Sacrificer after the order of Melchisedech hath left no sacrifice to be reiterated for the remission of sinnes hath ordained no Sacrificers after him to offer him vp but Bishops and Pastors indeed to minister his Word and Sacraments vnto vs the seales of the promises contained in the same who by a translation but not properly may be termed Sacrificers and their charges and offices sacrifices but after the same manner that S. Paul
water your crosses your reliques your puppets and such like trash being forged dreamed according to your good intentions And what is that to make a den of theeues of that which ought to be addicted vnto the true seruice of the Eternall So like as when robberies surprised the place of prayer vnder the Synagogue Christ Iesus thought it no scorne to returne into the wildernes and enter into priuate houses so likewise are we pleased to serue God in caues and Church-yards as the primitiue Christians did rather then to pollute our selues by frequēting those places so much prophaned CHAP. XI Of Reliques THe Pharisies garnished the sepulchers of the Prophets so doe you in decking the shrines and tombes of the Apostles of Martyrs and other Saints And when your Popes builded the Sancta sanctorum at Rome in the Church of Lateran did they not restore againe the holy place which God in old times had ordained in his Temple of Ierusalem called in the Hebrew language Kodech Kadaschim Truth it is that the God of hosts the Holy of Holy did there shew forth his Maiestie to the intent that he might instruct his people in the knowledge of his will and did appoint the propitiatorie to be kept therein which was a type of Christ and the tables of the Law which the Lord commanded Moses to close therein together with the rod of Moses and a glasse full of the Manna of the Desert in token of the fauour which he had shewen vnto them for Christ Iesus his sake who is the true propitiatorie In stead of all these you haue locked within your Sancta sanctorum of Rome a place whereinto women are not admitted the fore-skinne of our Sauiour with his slippers and his nauell Aarons rod a glasse of Manna with another arke of the couenant CHAP. XII Of holy Water LEt vs come to your holy water Is it not grounded vpon the imitation of that holy water which God ordained by Moses namely to iudge of the guiltinesse or innocencie of the woman that was accused of adultery But let vs hearken vnto that which your Durandus sayth This lustrall water according vnto the testimonie of Pope Cyprian hath power to sanctifie according to that which is written by the Prophet Then will I powre cleane water vpon you and you shall be cleane yea from all your filthinesse and from all your idoles will I cleanse you A new heart will I giue you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your bodie and I will giue you an heart of flesh And I will put my spirit within you And a little after the water of aspersion cleanseth And from thence he concludeth it appeareth therefore that the aspersion of this water is a washing vnto saluation and is fit to wipe away the ordinarie sinnes of men euen as the ashes of the Cow were in the old Testament Is not this well concluded And from whence should Pope Alexander the first of that name haue learned this whom they make the author of the consecration of this water but from that which was practised in old times by Gods commaundement among the people of Israel He had read that Moses had taken away the bitternesse of the waters of Mara and had made them sweete by causing wood to be throwne therein That God healed the Leprosie of Naaman the Syrian by the waters of Iordan at the prayer of Eliseus the Prophet That he had giuen to the poole of the sheepe at Ierusalem the propertie to make him recouer of any diseases whatsoeuer that first stepped thereinto after the Angel had troubled the water This sillie man thought that his enchanted water should haue the like force And although the lustrall water wherewith the Leuites were purified was a type of Christ Iesus his bloud yet notwithstanding as if this bloud were not sufficient for the purging of the faithfull he hath ordained this water with the application of the same vertue witnesse this ryme Aqua benedicta sit nobis salus vita And let vs see how this iollie Pope doth frame his argument if the ashes of the dead Cow sayth he being sprinkled among the people did sanctifie and cleanse them how much more the coniured water being mingled with salt and hallowed by godly prayers ought to haue this power to purge and sanctifie the people So in stead of the bloud of Christ Iesus they offer coniured water vnto the Church The Iesuite Richeome sayth that you haue the custome of holy water from the Apostolicke institution yet doth not cite any one place of Scripture His fellow Bellarmine is against him in that for he saith Nil deesse ad aquam benedictam nisi diuinam institutionem quominus sit sacramentum And in the table of the same Booke at the letter A. Aqua benedicta sayth he non a Deo instituta est sed ab Ecclesia ideo non est Sacramentum Seeing therefore that he doth freely acknowledge that this water hath not beene instituted by God it remaineth to goe and search out the first authors the rather seeing that the true Church of God hath kept her selfe well from authorising so great a blasphemie Now they are made manifest vnto vs by Epiphanius Bishop of Salamis to wit either the Samaritanes among whom the vse of lustrall water was verie frequent or the Hemerobaptists whom he rancketh in the fourth sect of the Iewes so termed because they washed themselues euery day with hallowed water wherewith notwithstanding you are content to sprinkle your selues onely abusing immediately thereafter the verse of the good penitentiall Psalme which Dauid made in detestation of his adulterie Purge me with hysope and I shal be cleane wash me and I shall be whiter then snow Wherein he meaneth of the ceremonies of the Law And what likenesse hath that with your aspersions CHAP. XIII Of the Creame and anointing MOreouer you teach all with one accord that the glorie and luster of your Chrismes and annointings wherwith the whole Hierarchie of your Priests is greased proceedeth from no other origine but from the shaddows and figures of the Iewish Law notwithstanding that Christ Iesus had alreadie abolished them through his comming I suspect you will alledge Denys called Areopagite who will haue the composition of the Chrisme to be peculiar vnto Bishops onely but we say that it was not many ages after which long after it was brought in was common to all Priests The vse of this Chrisme is frequent in your greatest mysteries and chiefly in the benediction of your Agnus Deis as this braue poesie testifieth Balsamus cera munda cum Chrismatis vnda Conficiunt agnum quod munus do tibi magnum Fronte velut natum per mystica sanctificatum Fulgura desursum depellit omne malignum Peccatum frangit vt Christi sanguis
to loue God with our whole heart Syluester Prierias holdeth that this commandement is not of necessitie but of honestie Which is the very same opinion of Molanus and this is as much as if they had taught that it were not needfull to loue God most perfectly but that it should be sufficient for vs to know that he ought to be loued so Let vs reason briefely vpon euery one of the commaundements and let vs see the antithesis which is betweene them the Popes Thou shalt haue no other God but me The Pope is called God not hyperbolically but effectually Dominùs Deus noster Papa Thou shalt not make vnto thee any grauen image Contrariwise the Pope commandeth that all manner of images and representations be affixrd and set vp in the Temples and Churches of Christians that they may be honoured apparelled lighted and that we may bow downe our selues before them in all reuerence as it may be seene in your Canons and the Bookes of your chiefest Doctors Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vaine sayth the Eternall The Pope absolueth subiects from the oath which they haue made to their naturall Prince Honour thy father and thy mother The Pope dispenseth with his Priests and Fryers yea and with all those that be on his side Thou shalt not kill Our Fraunce hath made triall in the parricide that was practised on the person of the most Christian King Henry the third what dispensation is graunted in this case Thou shalt not commit adulterie but Hildebrand a Fryer of the order of the Clumacenses called Gregorie the seuenth forbade mariage neuerthelesse it is well knowne after what manner he behaued himselfe with Mehant Countesse of Mantua And who knoweth not that the Pope approueth whordome sith he receiueth tribute from the whores of Rome Robberies and false witnesses are but childrens sport And touching concupiscence you are of the opinion that it is not forbidden and that it is no sinne vnlesse the fact be ioyned therewith What shall I say farther In the Romish Church they take away change diminish and adde to the Law what pleaseth those best that haue the charge thereof They haue taken away the knowledge of the word of God from the people reseruing the same for great Doctors They haue forbidden to read the holy Bible which is against Gods ordinance Enniche the mother of Timothie shall rise vp in iudgement and condemne them They haue bin so bold as to stretch forth their sacrilegious hands vnto the sanctuarie of God that they might pull away from thence the second commandement of the first Table They haue changed their Priests into Sacrificers the Euangiles into Masses the preaching into ringing of Bels singing lights and such like trash They haue changed the breaking of the bread in the holy Supper into hostes altogether round They haue diminished to wit the cup contenting themselues with a part onely They haue added namely the commandements which they call of the Church Christ comwaunded vs to loue our enemies and pray for them Yet notwithstanding your Molanus denieth that God hath commaunded vs to pray chiefly for our enemies and that we ought to salute them louingly You vpbraid vs with the debates that are among vs. We are at one together praised be God But make Torrensis agree with Catherin to whom he reprocheth that he hath written that the law of Moyses is not the Law of God and that the commaundements of the Apostle S. Paul are not the commandements of Iesus Christ. CHAP. VIII Of Predestination THis Doctrine of Predestination is of great importance S. Austin hath written whole Treatises thereof Through it we know that without Christ there is no saluation It is a refuge in time of temptation to perswade vs more and more of the assurance of our saluation which we beleeue to be grounded on the sonne of God that we may cast away farre from vs all manner of desperation It is a spurre to pricke vs forward to the studie of good works which are the effects of our election It is a bridle to containe our insolencie and bragging within the limites of Christian modestie that we may not attribute to our selues that which proceedeth of the grace of God All the holy antiquitie doth send vs vnto the pure free mercy of God through Iesus Christ vnto iustification by faith vnto our infirmitie and wretchednes of our workes And neuerthelesse you are not contented with this simplicitie contrariwise you doe attribute predestination vnto good workes that are foreseene as the Pelagians haue done The common opinion of the greater part of your Schoolemen is bent that way as Catharin can well reproch vnto your Diuines his fellowes CHAP. IX Of the Scripture IS it not true that the theefe abhorreth nothing so much as the Law nor the heretick any thing so much as the Scripture May I not liken you to the Owles that cannot endure those glistering beames of Gods word Vnto those betelles that aboue all things hate the balme of those celestiall decrees You say that it is imperfect obscure doubtfull ambiguous a dead letter that killeth a matter of debate and riddles Your whole refuge is vnto homilies trophonaries passions legends lectures antiphonas graduaries breuiaries fermologues and Missals And for the Scriptures you beleeue them no more then the fables of Aesope vnlesse they be authorised by the Pope Eusebius sayth that the holy auncient Fathers accused and that with very good reason Samasatenus because that by departing from the Canonicall bookes he had beene the author of an hereticall Doctrine in so farre as he had not followed the Apostolicke Doctrine And to whom belongeth this censure more then to you Ought you to speake not onely when the holy Scripture is silent but also when you are flatly condemned therby Would to God we had not this right to blame you of that which S. Austin sayd in old times vnto those that were like you That you ayme at no other thing but that the whole authoritie of the holy Scripture may turne to nothing Bellarmine hath laboured much for his part when of purpose he hath made a whole Chapter of the insufficiencie of the Scripture the Scripture I say which is the true rule of our vnderstanding and the solide anchor of our saluation Tertullian in his time fought against your fellowes who denied the Scriptures to be perfect And likewise the heretickes would neuer graunt them to be the true rule of faith notwithstanding that Ireneus did send them backe vnto this doctrine of the Apostles which S. Chrysostome and Basill in diuers places of their workes haue called the exquisite balance the rule of equity and the canon of veritie Your Eckius your Pighius yeeld no more authoritie vnto the holy Scripture then that which your Church is pleased to bestow theron And in that
not grounded on the Scripture And how should they be so seeing that for the most part they were inuented more then a thousand yeares after the death of the Apostles such as monasticall rules and others of that sort are Truly you cannot deny either that they haue beene vnknowne or else haue beene kept backe for the knowledge of the posteritie to wit of you my Masters the Prelates that haue the keys to draw whole bags full of them out of your Councels either generall or prouinciall and out of the determinations of your Sorbonists or Iesuites Let vs see farther what is the chiefe foundation of your traditions the most beautifull plants and roses of the garden of the Romish Church Behold it is here That the Apostles knew not all things or if they haue knowne all things and none of them hath preached otherwise then the rest did that they haue not taught all things to all persons Is not this to accuse those great Stewards of the Church of ignorance of cowardlinesse and that they haue not dealt vprightly in their calling That they haue not beene faithfull obseruers of the Couenant or new Testament whereof the preaching was committed vnto them The Ambassador hath no power to dispense with his Masters will It is the dutie of a seruant to discharge things faithfully in their fulnesse and as he hath beene commaunded to doe In the making of our contracts or testaments we would not suffer the notarie and witnesses to keepe backe a part thereof and not to beare ful testimony of our will vnlesse they would incurre the danger of punishment and can that be tolerated in a matter of so great moment to wit in the Testament which the sonne of God hath ratified by his death The Apostles hauing declared faithfully the whole will of their maister and hauing discharged their businesse very well it were sacriledge and an intollerable blasphemie to accuse them either because they knew not or were not able or would not beare witnesse of the kingdome of God as they were enioyned to doe I could here insert that ample discourse which Tertullian maketh in answering to the arguments of the heretickes as also what infallible prescription he vseth against them but to be briefe I will send you backe to that which himselfe hath written and hath spoken to you as well as to the heretickes of his time Ireneus that was a disciple of the disciples of the Apostles writing in expresse termes of the true iustifying faith which the Church receiued from the Apostles and hath deliuered from hand to hand vnto their children is no other thing then the Gospell that we haue receiued from the Apostles themselues for as much as they first preached the same with their mouth and thereafter penned it to the end that it might be the foundation the pillar and proppe of our faith Then without the Gospell we cannot imagine any doctrine of saluation what name or title so euer it haue For Christ and the Apostles haue left vnto vs by writ all whatsoeuer is necessarie vnto true pietie and honest conuersation Why then doe you alledge vnto vs the insufficiencie of the written word Truely it must needs be that those famous men Hierome Cyprian and the Fathers that were assembled in the Councell of Laodicea had a beame in their eye when they could not perceiue that which you say is more cleare to you then the Sunne is in the noone-day to wit that the holy and canonicall Bookes were not sufficient to proue matters concerning faith and charitie and that we must haue recourse vnto traditions and the vnwritten word And for this cause when we goe about to conuict you by the proofes of the Scripture that we may declare what harmonie and agreement is betweene you and the Marcionists the Valentinians the Ebioneans the Apellians by imitating of them you couer your selues with this buchler to wit that the Scripture is obscure and that the truth cannot be fully collected from thence vnlesse we helpe our selues with the vnwritten traditions which the Apostles deliuered from their owne mouth without Scripture And what manner of things are they which they would haue vs to embrace vnder this pretence The forbidding of certaine meates on certaine dayes the forbidding of a certaine order of persons to marrie Lent chastitie and such like things that belong not to faith but to a simple custome which is diuers in diuers places according to the humour of such as beare rule in the Church These are the things of so great weight as you will haue them to be which Bellarmine sayth that the Apostles did not preach to the common people to whom they ministred simply that which was necessarie and profitable vnto them but concerning other things to wit those weighty matters before mentioned they taught them apart and in priuate vnto those that were of greatest vnderstanding that therafter they might deliuer them from hand to hand vnto those that should be found most capable of them Are not these goodly reasons Reasons that are so pertinent that it hath seemed expedient vnto you to make vp huge Tomes thereof that haue bin published wherunto notwithstanding our writers haue not failed to answer reasōs I say that are so vnreasonable that you cannot deny that by the meanes thereof you collude and agree with the auncient heretickes The chiefe argument of those of Ireneus and Tertullians time which was ordinarie in their mouths was grounded on that which our Sauiour saith to his Apostles That he had yet many things to say vnto them but that they could not beare them Of this did S. Austin complaine in his time and chiefly in two places of his workes In the first he vseth these termes All the madder sort of heretickes who will be called Christians doe labour to shadow the boldnesse of their inuentions which the vnderstanding of man doth euen abhorre by taking hold of these words of the Gospell where the Lord sayth I haue yet many things to say vnto you but you cannot beare them now In the second he writeth thus And sith our Lord hath made no mention of them which of vs will say they are such or such like things Or if he were so bold as to say so how could he be able to proue it For who will be so foolish or so rash when he hath sayd all that he listeth to whom pleaseth him best although it be true as to affirme without any diuine proofe that he hath spoken those things which our Lord would not reueile at that time And if S. Austin hath written after this manner against the heretickes of his time If Ireneus and Tertullian could not endure the Gnostiques and others to abuse the same why may not we doe after the same manner with you to the end that we may exclude all the fansies of men We will adde further to that which is said before how that