whose soules it maie be are tormented in Hell as saieth an auncient Doctor and not onely the bones of men but also of beasts which these deceiuers make the poore blockish people worship that they may thereby get money And is it possible thē that you should be come to such blockishnes But what wil you say to that which they make you confesse by the tenth article that men must not onlie haue images of Iesus Christ of the virgin Marie and of al the other saints but also that they must worship and honor thē Know you not that this is contrarie to the expresse commandement of the Lorde and that such honour and worship is abhominable idolatrie Exod. 20. Moreouer haue you so slenderly profited in the knowledge of God and of his holy truth that you haue not learned to abhor and detest that cursed and damnable merchaundize which the Pope maketh of his pardons and indulgēces which he selleth for good roūd summes of readie money to the greate dishonour of the sonne of God to the contempt of his precious bloud and to the hurte of poore soules Haue you euer read eyther in the olde or newe Testament that the bloud and merites of Saintes ought to be coupled with the bloud and merit of Iesus Christ thereby to race out sinnes and to satisfie Gods iustice Haue you euer read that Iesus Christ hath commaunded that of such a mingle mangle should be made a treasure which should be at the disposing of that Antichrist of Rome to bestow it vpon whom soeuer he will or rather to sell it to those that woulde buye it and that such pardons shoulde bee profitable for all Christians that is to say such as should be able to saue them from sinne and from eternall death And yet they are so impudent as to saye so yea to affirme that Iesus Christ is the authour of such abhominations that hath he left them to the church that is according to their interpretation to the Pope that he might be the kéeper and steward thereof And yet you haue bene so blinde as to graunt such an impietie by the eleuenth article O immortal God who would euer haue looked for anie such thinge at your hands And that which worse is you do not onely approue this cursed tyrannie of Antichrist confessing by the twelfth article that the great whore of Babilon which they falselie call the holie Cathotholike and Apostolike Church is the mother and mistresse of all other Churches but you do also withdraw your selues from the obedience and subiection which you owe vnto the onlie and high Bishop of our soules which is Iesus Christ that you maie become slaues and seruants to the tyrannous lordship of the Bishop of Rome yea binding your selues with promise and oth therto who calleth himselfe most impudentlie the successour of Peter But you know that the life and doctrine of th one and other doe plainelie shew that there is as great difference betwéene S. Peter and the pope of Rome as betwéene an Angell of God and an angell of Sathan Which were quickly proued if it were néedfull to enter anie farther into this matter as also that which he saith of this holie Apostle calling him Prince or chiefe of the Apostles to the end he maie establish his own tyranous primacie But you know that this is a faire flat lye for he cannot finde so much as one sillable in the whole scripture whereby he can proue the Iesus Christ appointed Peter to be prince and chiefe ouer his other Apostles much lesse that this holie Apostle did euer exercise anie lordship ouer his companions but rather we see that all of them did faithfully exercise their ministerie there wher God called them with equall athoritie without anie pretence of primacie or superioritie of one ouer another But admit we should graunt the Pope that yet he must proue manie other thinges before he can make this conclusion that he is therefore chiefe of all Bishops and head of the Church Which hee shall neuer be able to do out of the word of God You are not ignorant how vntruly this cursed creature calleth himselfe the vicar of Iesus Christ who ceaseth not to persecute him in his members with desperate rage yea who hath corrupted peruerted and falsifyed the doctrine of the Gospell who oppresseth the Church of Iesus Christ constrayning her with might and main to forsake and renounce her true spouse to commit fornication with Satan in all maner of pollutions profanations abhominable idolatries that he may hale her headlong with him to hell You know that hee is the man of sinne the sonne of perdition which sitteth in the temple of God setting himselfe against God and making himselfe to be worshipped as God yea boasting and vanting himselfe forth as God you know that he is in summe verie Antichrist that is a sworne enimye of Iesus Christ and his doctrine To bee briefe you knowe that hee is the verie lieutenant and vicar of that murtherer of bodies and soules which is the deuill whose commandements and ordinances he executeth most exactly against the poore faithfull children of God and yet you are so besotted that you confesse him to be the vicar of Iesus Christ O what blindnes is this And what brutish blockishnes Finally to the ende you might leaue nothing vndone which might appertain to a full and perfect renouncing of christian religion of the fellowship of Iesus Christ and of his church and to a full approbation and acknowledging of all impieties and abhominations which are in the kingdome of Antichrist you promise and vow to keepe intirely and inuiolablie euen vntill your last breat all that which hath bene determined and concluded by their Canons decrees and councels and principally all the tyrannous and wicked decrées and ordinances of the councell of Trent wherein the pure and true doctrine of Iesus Christ hath bene accursed and condemned as false and erronious and contrariwise wherein all the impieties and abhominations of Antichrtst haue beene confirmed and ratified and all this without anie hearing of the matter and without anie deciding of anie by the word of God but onely vpon a certaine absolute and tyrannous authoritie as appeareth by the articles of the said Councell This is in summe that euill and offence which you haue committed against God and your owne saluation by this wicked and diuelish confession and abiuration there is some difference betwéene that which was imprinted at Lyons which I haue followed and that which is imprinted at Paris first in that the order of the secōde and third articles is chaunged and also in that which is imprinted at Paris there be two other errors the one touching frée will and the other touching iustification by workes vpon refutation whereof I wil not stand anie longer being well assured that you condemne thē aswel as all the rest And therefore you are so much the more blame worthie in that you auouch them contrarie to your owne
tried by the fan of persecutions so to go out of the church but they reuolted of their own accord at sundry times vpon diuers occasiōs either because they could not abide to be reproued for their faults offēces or els bicause they wold not submit their neck to the yoke of Iesus Christ range thēselues according to the order of the church as others did or els bicause they could not addict thēselues to the affaires of the world as hath bin said This was the cause why they stūbled at the first stumbling stone whereon they light in the way nay rather they went purposely to séeke the same Othersome haue takē occasiō at the crosse persecutiō And albeit the most part of these men make a shew that they approue our religion yet to the end they may be counted good Catholikes are more superstitious and addicted to ceremonies then others yet so it is that they be very Epicures Atheists which in their harts deride al religion As for this sort of men we may rather desire it than euer hope for it that they wil euer be brought to a true knowledge of their offence that they may turne vnto the Lord For the Prince of darknesse hath stricken thē with such blindnes through the iust iudgement of God that they are in greater darknes of beastly ignorance as touching the knowledge of their fault then they were before they came to the knowledge of the trueth And it fareth with them as with him that in a dark night cōmeth to put out a candle or light wherewith he was inlightened a while for afterward his eies dazel more he is in worse case than before hee had that light Therfore no maruaile if these men be so turned out of the right way that they cannot returne into the same againe For as the Apostle saith If those which haue once bin illuminated and haue tasted of the heauēly gift haue bin made partakers of the holy ghost and haue tasted of the good worde of God and of the powers of the world to come If these I saie fall away it is impossible that they should be renued to repentance seing they crucifie the son of God afresh so much as in them lieth and make a mocke of him Now then forasmuch as these men are hardened in their wickednesse so consequently incurable it were but lost labour to write to them to exhort thē to acknowledge and amēd their fault wherfore my meaning is not to apply my selfe to them in this my writing saue only to denounce against thē the sentence of the holy ghost speaking by the Apostle to the Hebrues that is that séeing they haue sinned willingly after they knew the truth that is to say séeing that being altogether estranged and cut off from the Church of Iesus Christ they take pleasure in iniquitie contrary to the testimony of their owne conscience doe malitiouslie resist the knowen truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sinne for them but a fearfull looking for iudgement and a consuming fire which shal deuour the aduersaries And this is that which we both can will saie touching these men at this time But as for you my brethren to whō I now speak God wil not haue me to reckō you amōgst those mē for if it were so then would not I take so much pains as to write to you But as I know that in the more part of you there was more frailty thā malice hatred against the trueth so likewise I haue a good hope that after the lord through his goodnes hath beheld you with the same eie wherwith he beheld S. Peter he will make you come out of the house of that wicked Priest Caiphas where Antichrist his ministers pursue Iesus Christ to death spit in his face with mockes railinges and blasphemies most horrible I hope also that after you haue wept bitterlie for your fault you shal be reconciled to God and receiued to mercie Notwithstāding it is verie necessarie that you be awaked vp thorowly touched least you lye sléeping in your sinne and so flatter your selues whether by excusing or lessening your fault or by féeding your selues with I cannot tel what vaine hope and so fall finallie into the same hardnesse and obstinacie whereinto manie are fallen who when they first began to fal awaie made none account alwaies to continue in the filthie sinke but did hope yea persuade themselues to come out thence in time notwithstāding they haue suffred thēselues to be lulled fast asléep by the world in the bed of their tender delicate flesh they driue off frō daie to daie waiting for some golden world wherein the Gospel of Iesus Christ might be preached without contradiction and the profession of religion should no longer bring with it the crosse afflictions But what They sée that in stéede of hauing an ende these afflictions continue naie are redoubled contrarie to their hope forasmuch as they neuer as yet learned this lesson which Iesus Christ teacheth all those which wil followe him that is Mat. 16 that they forsake thēselues and take vp their crosse that they maye beare it during their whole life and that being thus prepared they follow him Forasmuch thē as these men see thēselues deceiued by their vain hope and that they neuer tooke any time to bethinke themselues and to ponder their fault and to marke and consider the iudgements of God vpon those that are so slacke and disloiall as to flie from their ensigne at suche time as they are to enter the battaile they are resolued to forsake all and to lie tumbling in their filth that they may perish miserably yea eternally rather than they will suffer euen a little with Iesus Christ that they may raigne and be glorified with him eternally And now my brethren to the ende you may make your profite of their follie and that by other mens harmes you may learne to be wise you must beware that you take not the same way which they haue taken but cōtrariwise enter you rather into your selues and examine your conscience throughly without flatterie giuing the same iudgement of your fault and pronouncing the same sentence of condēnation against your own selues which you somtimes gaue vpō these which had vsed the like slacknes disloialty to the end that iudging your selues you may not bée iudged of the Lord as saith the Apostle And that you may the better do this you must rather hearken to the voice of God and to the witnesse of your owne conscience which accuseth you then to the enchaunting voice of that olde Serpent who to the ende he may seduce you as he hath alreadie made too great a beginning ceaseth not to whisper into the eare of your conscience that which he sometimes said to our first parents and hath God said you shall not eate of euerie tree of the Garden c. And if he cannot bring
his matters so about that hee can take from you all feeling of your offence and all perceiuing and vnderstanding of the iudgement and vengeance of God he wil suggest vnto you by the flesh and the world diuers excuses wherewith you may cloake and lessen the same making you beléeue if possibly he can that it is not so horrible as men say it is or els he will giue you his accustomed cuppe of slumbering besméered with some hope to returne to God againe when the tyranny is ouerpast but he will beware that he do not tel you that all that which he doth tendeth to draw you awaie by little little from the obedience of God your father that he maie hale you to eternall destruction but on the contrarie he wil perswade you if he can that hereby you prouide for your good and comfort Notwithstanding you know that he is a lier and disceiuer for when he went about to blind the eies of our first parēts he told them your eies shal be opened and when he sought to make them deuils like to himselfe he said vnto them you shal be Gods and intending to make them subiect to the first and second death he promised them immortalitie and life saying you shall not die Beware then how you giue eare to his deceitfull and wicked counsels to the inticements and inchauntments of this inchaunter who is an enimie to your saluation but rather hearken to the voice of that Soueraigne Phisition who will not onelie make you feele and knowe your griefe the daunger wherein you are and the meanes whereby you maie prouide for your curing but will also heale you him selfe if your selues be not a stop and hinderance to it First of all then my brethren I moste earnestlie beseech and beseech you againe in the name of this great God and father of mercy that you will earnestlie consider how many waies your fault deserueth condemnation before God You know that the most vile vice and that which both most of all deserue to bee punished by all lawes both diuine and humaine is this to wit if a childe do so degenerate that he withdraw himself from submitting himselfe to a good father and mother yea denyeth them to be his parents and doth become a seruaunt and slaue to a straunger that is euen their verie deadly enimie and in whose house he shall be constrayned to heare a thousand speeches tending to their dishonor and reproche or if a subiect bee so vnthankefull vnfaithfull disloyall and trecherous to his natural Prince at whose handes he had receiued manie benefites and great honour as to reuolt from his obedience and to band himselfe with his mortall enimie which maketh open war against him And yet you haue dealt thus For the Lorde had sometimes graunted you such fauour as to drawe you out of Sathans family whose slaues you were by nature that he might adopt you in his sonne Iesus Christ that hée might make you sit at his own table and traine you vp as his owne children and make you inheritours of his kingdome but you are departed out of his house and hauing denyed him to bee your father you haue quite forsaken him that you might become slaues to Sathan in whose Synagoge your eares shall bée polluted with infinite and horrible blasphemies against the Maiestie of God You had a good mother which is the Church of Iesus Christ which had conceiued you in her wombe by the incorruptible séede of the word of God which had brought you forth not without great panges and thrals of afflictions and persecutions had giuen you sucke with her two breasts which are the olde and new testament and which had brought you vp and noursed you with great care bearing your infirmities and couering and wiping awaie your filth and in lieu of all this you haue forsaken her denying her to be your mother and haue euen as it were throwne your selues into the armes of a straunge strumpet or rather of that great whore of Babilon which in stéed of giuing you good and wholesome nourishment giueth you to drinke the poison of her vncleannes and abhominable whoredomes that your soules maie thereby be infected and destroied and she ceaseth not to make deadlie war against your chast mother the spouse of Iesus Christ and to murther all her children Furthermore you had a good king and Soueraigne Lord euen Iesus Christ the eternal sonne of God who loued you so dearelie that he gaue himselfe vp to death for your sakes which were his enimies who had deliuered you from the tirannie and slauerie of the deuill who had redéemed you not with gold or siluer or anie other corruptible thing but by his own pretious bloud which he shedde for you and not onelie so but had ouer and besides graunted you so great honor as to make you his fellowes that hee might make you partakers of his graces of his glorie and of his celestial kingdome and yet for all this as soone as hee summoned you to the combate of the crosse that he might make you go the selfe same way which he had gone before you to the ende that after the victorie hée might giue you the crowne of glorie and immortalitie you turned your backes and forsooke him yea you renounced him if not al at least the greater part of you by the most execrable abiuration which that infernall Dragon did euer spue out of his stinking mouth against the Maiestie of God and that which more is you haue inrolled your selues vnder the captaine of all impietie which is Antichrist of Rome the sworne enimie of the sonne of God and of your saluation Sée what an heape of backslidinges disloyalties and most vile vnthankefulnes here is But now I do wel perceiue that those which will not giue glorie to God nor giue eare to his worde but take counsell of Sathan to confirme themselues in their errour will not bee vnprouided of replies and will not bee ashamed some such there bee to séeke to couer or lessē their fault alleadging that olde saying of time seruers and of certaine backsliders which knowe ful wel yea in their hearts condemne the abuses impieties superstitions and Idolatries of Poperie and are constrained to confesse the truth to wit that that is the verye true religion which we professe through the grace of God Notwithstanding because they are afraid to beare the blows they will not march on vnder the banner of Iesus Christ but to the end they maye applye themselues to the worlde they follow the banner of Antichrist Moreouer if a man come to admonish them and to tell them their duetie they replye that albeit they serue the deuill with their bodies yet they cease not to be Christians and children of God forasmuch as they reserue him the chiefe which is the Spirite wherewith they serue and honour him and though they haue forsaken the church of Iesus Christ and are fallen from their profession of the Gospell and haue renounced religion
cal al these filthy and stinking dregs which haue infected the Church traditions obseruations and ordinances of the Apostles But you know full wel that they agrée aswell with the doctrine of Christ his Apostles as darknes with light and falshood with truth For where can they finde that Iesus Christ or his Apostles did ordain the masse together with the furniture trappings thereof which are full of foolishe toies Wher can they finde that filth wherewith they haue corrupted holie baptism as creame salt spittle coniured water lights and such like thinges Where cā they finde the baptizing of Belles holie water Processions Praier for the dead and a thousand such bables toies trifles as were too long to rehearse But chieflie an infinite number of errors contained in the masse and in al the rest of their booke of ceremonies Of which sort is that execrable idolatrie which they cōmit in worshipping a morsell of Bread the inuocation and intercession of saints the adoring and worshipping of the images and reliques of dead Saints the fire of Purgatorie the Popes pardons indulgences and such like impieties condemned by the worde of God And yet for al this like séelie soules you haue miserablie bound your selues to receiue and approue al these thinges O eternal God is it possible that you should haue bin so vndiscrete Is it possible that you should continue so blockish as to haue no remorse of conscience in you But let vs procéede you haue béene taught out of the word of God that Iesus Christ hath for the continuall vse of his Church instituted onelie two Sacraments to wit Baptisme and the holie Supper to represent vnto vs the holie mysteries of our saluatiō that is to saie our regeneration and the spirituall life which we drawe from Iesus Christ our head in as much as wée are most strictly vnited and coupled together with him and to seale vp in our heartes the promises of saluation and eternal life which are there made vnto vs by the Lorde You know moreouer that the Church of God must content it self with these two not onelie because they are sufficient to represent vnto vs all the benefites of Iesus Christ and to assure vs of his grace fauour but also because it is not lawful for mortal mā no not for the verie Angels to ordaine any sacramēts or to establish any thing in the seruice of God forasmuch as this right belōgeth to god alone Notwtstanding mark what you confesse by the fourth article of this tyrānous abiuration you ackowledge that there bee 7. sacramēts in the law of grace instituted by Iesus Christ which is most false We confesse indéed that that which they cal Cōfirmation which is nothing els but a receuing of such as are instructed catechised in the church catechisms into the church that is to say of those which hauing bin catechised and instructed in the doctrine of Christ were receiued into the felowship of the faithful with praier to recōmend thē to God is an holy thing which hath bin practised in the Primitiue Church euen in the Apostles time also we do not deny but that repentāce which is nothing else but the acknowledging of our faults the misliking of the same the amēdment of our life is a good wholsome thing ordained cōmanded of God we confesse also that that which they cal the order of Priesthoode that is to say the laying on of hands which was vsed in the Church in old time which is vsed at this daye in many reformed Churches when Pastors Elders Deacons other ecclesiastical persons are to be admitted vnto the publike charges of the church we confesse I say that this is a laudable holy ceremonie ordained practised by the Apostles As for marriage we know also that it is an holie institution of the Lord that the custome of blessing the same in the Church is Christian We graunt I say that al these things are good and holy are grounded vppon the worde of God but we deny them to be Sacramentes First of al because Iesus Christ hath not instituted them to be suche and secondlie because they haue not those thinges that are required necessarily in true Sacraments for then they must haue been ordayned by Iesus Christ to continue in the Church vntill the consummation of the worlde and for the vse of the whole Churche in generall and of euerie member thereof in particular Furthermore there shoulde haue beene visible signes to represent the inuisible graces of God and the promises of saluation and eternal life which things we sée to be in baptisme and in the holie supper onelie As for extreame vnction as they cal it we doe not denie but that the oile wherewith the Apostles did annoint the sicke was an outward signe which did represent the grace of God euen in that time of the said Apostles who had the gift of healing but this Sacrament lasted but for a time and had an ende together with the gift of healing working miracles We conclude then that there be but two Sacraments in the Church of Christ and that the other fiue were inuented by men And yet you confesse that al that was instituted by Christ Iesus that which is worse you auouch an horrible blasphemie whē you graunt that the Sacraments conferre grace for by this you attribute not onelie to the true Sacramentes but also to mens inuentions that which belongeth to the holie Ghost who alone conferreth the grace signified by them and that to the true faithfull alone And the Sacramēts as also the word are onelie instrumēts which he vseth to this end so that we receiue by them nothing appertaining to our saluation vnlesse the spirite of God worke inwardly in vs and vnlesse wée haue a true and liuely faith You haue also learned by the same word of God that the said Sacramentes must be ministred with the same puritie simplicity wherwith they were instituted by our soueraigne Doctor maister Iesus Christ Deut 4. 12. Pro. 30. Apo. 22. and that it is an intollerable boldnes to adde any thing therto and detestable sacrilege to take any thing therfrō how litle soeuer it be forasmuch as this were to séek to be more wise than he who is the eternal wisedome of the father And yet neuerthelesse you approue by the first article all those ceremonies which these men haue annexed to the administration of the Sacraments which they haue wickedly and vngodlily profaned and polluted Also you allow al those things which they vse in the administration thereof which they themselues haue inuented and ordained how foolishe superstitious and wicked soeuer they be as you know that the more part of thē do rather resēble iuglers trickes and toies or the superstitious prophane fashiōs of the heathen then the simplicity grauity of Christiās Moreouer you approue by the same article two horrible sacrileges which amongest others they cōmit