onely by vnderstanding and therefore the wise and sages of olde had a greater desire to expresse the felicity of the soule then of the body the which bodely felicity though it were graunted them yet they regarded not neither esteemed it in comparison of the felicitie which is coupled with the principall veritie His loose doctrine of marriages his abuse of fasting and his description of Paradise spoken of before deliuer vnto vs that there is herein small difference between Epicurisme Atheisme Mahometisme The glutton in the gospel that was cloathed in purple fine white and fared delitiously euery day sheweth vnto vs how God fauoureth accepteth of such people The kingdome of God saith the Apostle Is not meate nor drinke but righteousnes and peace and ioy in the holy Ghost for whosoeuer in these things serueth Christ herein the true felicitye consisteth is acceptable vnto God and approoued of men Satan the schoolemaster of Mahomet shewed a glotonous disposition when he would haue had the stones to be made bread His disciple must content himself w t the answer made vnto y e maister Man liueth not by bread onely but by euery worde that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. Our sauiour saith the true worshippers shal worship the father not in corporal delights pleasurs In spirit truth this is y e maner For the father requireth euen such to worship him Again an argumeÌ„t reduced of y e nature of God God is a spirite and they that worshippe him must worship him in spirit truth And y t I maye deliuer the whole vnto you in few wordes perfect felicitie consisteth in knowing of God in beleeuing in God in louing of God and enioying of God warraunted by the wordes of our Sauiour This is life euerlasting that they knowe thee to bee the onely very God and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ. Thirdly y e law of Mahomet was established through wiles deceit subteltie lies therfore y e law of Mahomet is a most wicked religion First he hauing y e falling sicknes perswaded his wife others y t it was the power of God the presence of the Angel Gabriell that fel him Sergius the hereticall Monke was at hande bare false witnes to y e same saith Zonaras He told them y t the tame Doue which hee taught to feede at his eare was sometime an Angell sometime the holy ghost He had three leude companions to deuise face out lies w t him WheÌ„ he perceiued y e meÌ„ gaue eare vnto him he framed that the Angel Gabriell had caried him to Ierusalem and thence to haue lifted him vp to heauen there to haue learned the secrets of his law He made y e Saracens beleeue saith Antoninus y t before God made y e world there was written in the throne of God there is no god but y e god of Mahomet wheÌ„ he had framed his Alcoran bouÌ„d it vp faire he caused secretly a wild Asse to be takeÌ„ the book to be bound about his necke as he preached vnto y e people vpon a sodain he stood amazed as if some great secretie were reuealed vnto him from aboue He brake out tolde y e people Behold god hath sent you a law from heauen go to such a desert there ye shal find an Asse a book tied about his neck The people ran in great hast they found it so as he had said They take the Asse they bring the book they honor the prophet Touching diuorced seperated wiues he tolde y e Saracens he had receiued a paper from heaueÌ„ He vsed south-saying diuination the which at Fessa a Citie of Mauritama vnto this day is called Zarragia He persuaded his folowers that at y e end of y e world he should be traÌ„sformed into the forme of a mightie Ram full of lockes long fleeces of wool And that all that held of his Law shoulde bee as fleas shrooding themselues in his fleeces and that he would iumpe into heauen and so conuay them all thither These and suche like were his sleightes and vntruthes without warrauntize of Gods word without reason and probable shew of truth Satan being coniured to deliuer the truth of the Alcoran of Mahomet saide that therin were comprised twelue thousand lies and the rest was truth by all likelihood very little In the like respect God threatneth Israel saying The Prophet that shall presume to speake a word many name which I haue not commaunded him to speake or that speaketh in the name of other Gods euen the same Prophet shall die And if thou thinke in thine heart how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken When a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to passe that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously If we apply this rightly vnto Mahomet wee shall not finde any one thing in veritie and truth the whiche hee spake that came to passe but whatsoeuer hee wroughte was thorough wiles fraude and subteltie let his prophecie of his assention after his death bee a president for all whiche was not performed Fourthly the law of Mahomet was thrust in by secular power force of armes by battels bloudshed therfore the law of Mahomet is a most wicked religion Paulus Diaconus writeth y t he spent ten yeares in Armes subduing to his raigne compelling to his religion thereof writeth Mathew Paris in this sort The law of the Saracens the deuill inditing the same by the ministery of Sergius the Monke heretick Mahomet wrote in the Arabike toÌ„gue taught them A gladio cepit per gladium tenetur in gladio terminatur It began of the sworde it is helde by the sworde it is finished or ended in the sword Mahomets own words vnto y e SaraceÌ„s are these Non sum cuÌ„ miraculis aut indicijs ad vos missê° sed in gladio rebelles puniturus c. I am not seÌ„t vnto you with miracles signs but with the sword to punish suche as resist me If any therefore receaue not my prophecy precept wil not willingly enter into this our faith if he be vnder our iurisdiction he shall die or be coÌ„pelled to pay tribute the price of his incredulity so liue They that are not of this faith dwel in other countries I charge commauÌ„d that opeÌ„ warrs be proclaimed armor taken against them vntill they bee coÌ„strained to turne vnto the faith They that will not consent vnto our doctrine shall die the death their wiues and children shalbee committed to perpetuall slauerie to our Gallies The Scythians from whence these Turkes came are an impatient kind of people WheÌ„ they warred vnder Heraclius the Emperour against the king of Persia they were too too ernest for their pay
his part Sabellicus writeth that to flatter the Christians he was baptized of Sergius and that of these Heretikes hee learned with the Sabellians to denie the Trinitie with the Manichees to establish two beginnings with Eunomius to deny the equal power of the father and the sonne with Macedonius to call the holy Ghost a creature with the Nicolaites to allow the number of wiues and wandering lust Sergius the Monke saith Antoninus perswaded Mahomet in his Alcoran so is the booke of his law tearmed to commend the humilitie of Christian Monks and priests He made him deliuer the Saracens a monks coule which they vse vnto this day Also Instarmonachorum multas genu-flexiones Many duckings and crouchings after the maner of Monks which is seene in their kind of salutation Mathias â Michou addeth that the sect of Mahomet vse also shauing and this no doubt was the Monks doctrine Laonicus the Athenian reporteth that the Turks cōfesse God to be y e gouernour of all thinges and that Iesus was the Apostle of GOD begotten by the Aungell Gabriell vppon Marie the Virgine which neuer knew man and that hee was greater or woorthier then manne Sabellicus addeth they commende the blessed Virgin they allowe the myracles and approoue the Gospell as farre foorth as it agreeth wyth the Alcoran This is but a shadow of Religion and a cloake couering a number of blasphemies In confessing a God they denie the trinity of persons in speaking of Iesus they most wickedly with the Arrians denye his Godhead and that he is the Sonne of God Al that is spoken of the virgin the miracles and the Gospell by those blasphemous Turkes though to seeme a praise yet is it a dispraise when as the truth is not plainely and absolutely deliuered but maymed mingled with falshood The Apostle S. Iames sayth Whosoeuer shall keepe the whole Lawe and yet fayle in one poynt he is guilty of al. The Saracens iest at the Christians for affirming that Iesus the great frende of God would suffer coutumely reproche and endure death by the handes of the Iewes they denie that hee suffered or that hee died but that hee ascended into heauen and that the Iewes tooke an other in his stead executed him which is an olde heresie so write Nauclerus and Antonimus with others Mahomet forgat here to deliuer vnto his people the testimonie of the Prophet Esay which opened the truth of Christ He was oppressed and hee was afflicted yet did he not open his mouth hee is brought as a sheepe to the slaughter as a sheepe before the shearer is dumbe so hee opened not his mouth It followeth And who shall declare his age It passeth mans reach for he is God from euerlasting Our Sauiour testifieth of himselfe the willing minde he had to suffer and to die that sinners might liue The bread which I will giue is my flesh which I will giue for the life of the world Again I am the good shepheard the good shepheard giueth his life for his sheepe I lay down my life for my sheepe Therefore doth the Father loue me because I lay downe my life that I may take it againe No man taketh it from mee but I lay it downe of my selfe S. Paule yeeldeth testimony also to the truth saying Hee offered vp himselfe without spotte to God When Peter went about to withstand such as came to apprehende him he forbadde him saying What thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father and hee will giue me moe then twelue legions of Angels how then shal the scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so Heere hee sheweth his yeelding and consenting mind That another suffred in his stead is an old damned heresie which Mahomet reuiued after the death of Cerinthus Basilides He hath forbidden his followers al pictures images in their temples mingling saith Mathew Paris some hony with his poison y t rather to deceiue the drinker He receiueth the old testament correcting therin so presumptuous is this spirit certain errors hee alloweth after his manner of three Prophets Moses Christ Mahomet whome he calleth Razales Yet immediately he is found contrary to himself The Christians pray toward the East the Iews saith Iacobus de Voragine towards the West Mahomet cōmandeth his people to pray toward y e south he might haue turned himself for al his religiō to y e deuil towards y e north The christiās haue sunday for their sabaoth the Iews Saturday Mahomet Friday as Laonicus writeth to dissent frō y e Hebrews Christians as Volateran writeth for y t he was made king vppon that day or as Antoninus writeth in y e honour of Venus the Goddesse of Arabia therby the rather to win that country people and so it may verie well be for most of his religion standeth vppon venerie as I shal deliuer vnto you anō He taught Circumcisiō although saith Antoninus it is not found y t he himself was circumcised He forbad y e eating of swines flesh bloud strangled he commaunded washings purifyings ad similitudinem Iudaeorum after the maner of the Iews He called himself a Prophet that he was sent of God to supply y e imperfection of al lawes to lace y e remisse to mittigate the seuere lawe The Iews hearing the name of Moses y e abādoning of pictures y e receiuing of y e old testament y e using of purifications y e doctrine of circumcisiō swines flesh that he said vnto them as Flores historiarum writeth he was y e promised Messias they flocked about him 10 of thē continued w t him to his dying day as Paulus Diaconus writeth When they had heard his doctrine seen y e maner of his diet conuersatiō they espied that he eate Camels flesh therby perceiued he was not the man they looked for Then they imagined what was to be done to bee driuen to forsake him his religion for altogether y t they iudged a disgracing vnto them They kept him company fearing least the Christian religion by the meane of Sergius should take much root after their olde maner shewing whose children therein they were they continually pricke him forwards against the Christians Ther are six points chiefly wherein the Iews differ from the Christians Ludouicus Carettus a Iew conuerted to the christian faith shall indifferently reporte them for both sides for there-upon hee stood afore hee was throughly perswaded in the truth The first is the trinity which they denye acknowledging one God but denying y e three persons The seconde the incarnation of the worde which is the diuinitie of Christ which they confesse not Thirdly the manner of Christs cōming as they dreame to destroy kingdoms to raigne here vpō earth but he came poore meek riding vpō an Asse accounted among the wicked whose sins he bare for his kingdom was not of this
space of 300. yeares vntill the late councell of Basill where there was but a colourable reconciliation Germanus Archbishop of Constantinople telleth Gregorius 9. the cause of their departure in this sort That great discord contrarietie of doctrine ouerthrow of Canons alteration of rites which the fathers deliuered are causes of this particion which seperateth those things which at first were vnited and ioyned with the coniunction of peace and concord let the whole world being made one language confesse c. A little after And that we may touche the marrowe of the truth Many mighty and noble parsonages would obey you vnlesse they feared your vniust oppressions your insolent exactions of riches your vnlawfull seruitude the which you extort of them that are subiect vnto you Here hence are crueel battailes one against the other desolation of Cities sealing vp of Church-dores schisme of the brethren the priestly function ceasing and a stay that God according vnto our duetye bee not praised vnder the Climate of the Grecians Hee writeth the like vnto the Cardinalls concludeth that the Aethiopians Syrians Hyberians Lazians Alanians Gothes Chazarians all Russia Bulgary hold with the Greeke-church and because of the aforesaide enormities haue did Rome farewell The Archbishop of Antioch about the same time calling vnto him a great number of Bishoppes of Greece excommunicated the Pope and the Clergye of Rome The Patriarch of Constantinople complained at the councell of Lions to Innocentius 4. face what a great number of Churches there were in Greece that reiected the Churche of Rome for the abhominations thereof Papa tacuit The Pope said not a word Hee might bee iustly ashamed who glorying in the keyes locketh vp all shutteth out suche as would come and receaue the christian faith but he will neither enter neither suffer others by reason of y e shamefull sinnes and wickednes there raigning If either Heathen or Iew or Saracen speake of the christian faith immediately he hath Rome in his mouth Rome cannot be excused And for that they knowe not the puritie of religion in the reformed Churches beeing corners pingles of Christendome with open mouth they reuile and speake ill of al to the great dishonor of God and hinderance of the preaching of the Gospel There are many nations no doubt that if the truth were opened vnto them they would most willingly receaue the christian faith many hungring thirsting after the knowledge of the true God In Turkie they may not call into question the incertainty of Mahomets law it is death vnder the dominion of the Pope they may not professe what they know for truth much like them of whō Augustine speaketh that being among the schismatickes and heretickes they durst not confesse the Catholique faith least they and their houses should be destroyed Many doe heare and see yet are they stopped with staines misliking the water for the puddle of Rome O what blessinges hath God poured vppon England blessed bee his name therefore We maye saye as it is in the Gospell Many Prophets and Kinges haue desired see those things which Englād hath seen and haue not seene them It is to be feared least the vnthankfulnes of the people the rechlesnesse in Gods seruice and the want of Christian lights and works will cause God to remooue the candlesticke out of his place and the light of the Gospell from among vs and deliuer it to such a nation according vnto the parable in the Gospell as will bring foorth fruits accordingly God of his infinite goodnesse shewe mercie vnto his Church continue the Gospell purge all blemishes open the eyes of all Infidels Iewes Turkes and Saracens bring into the folde all lost and wandering sheepe make of all nations one sheepefolde vnder the head shepheard and Bishoppe of our soules Iesus Christ to whome with the Father and the holy Ghost bee all honour and glorie nowe and for euer Amen FINIS ¶ After the Sermon ended the Turke confessed in the Spanish tongue before the face of the congregation the Preacher out of Pulpit propounding the questions and receiuing the answers by skilfull Interpretors in summe as followeth INprimis that hee was verie sorie for the sinful life which he had lead in times past in ignorance and blindnes and hoped to obteine pardon in Iesus Christ Secondly hee renounced Mahomet the false Prophet of the Moores Saracens and Turkes with al his abhominations and blessed GOD which had opened his eyes to beholde the truth in Iesus Christ Thirdly hee confessed there was but one God he beleeued the Trinitie of persons the Father the Sonne the holy Ghost and the same to bee one God in vnitie which is to bee blessed for euer Fourthly hee confessed and affirmed that hee beleeued verily that Iesus Christ was and is the sonne of God God from euerlasting the onely true Messias sauiour of the worlde that he suffered for the sinnes of al that beleeue in him and that there is no way to be saued but onely by the merits of the death and passion of Iesus Christ Lastly he desired hee might be receiued as one of the faithfull Christians bee baptized in the faith of the blessed Trinitie promising from henceforth newnes of life and fruits according vnto this profession ¶ In the middest of the congregation there was a comely Table set couered with a faire linnen cloth and thereon a Basen with water After the congregation had blessed God for his great mercies and after sundry godly Praiers and Collects according vnto the reuerend order of holye Church suche as broght him thither desired his name might be William so was he baptized In the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holie Ghost Praise be to God Fulgent lib. 1. ad Trasimund Ephes 2. 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