IOHANNES IEWEL S. T. D. Episcopus Sarisburiensis.

THE APOLOGY OF THE Church of England; AND An Epistle to one Seignior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman, Concerning the Council of Trent.

Written both in Latin, By the Right Reverend Father in God, JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of Sarisbury.

Made English by a Person of Quality.

To which is added, The LIFE of the said Bishop; Collected and written by the same Hand.

LONDON, Printed by T. H. for Richard Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1685.

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.

THE ensuing Discourses are all designed for the Good and Service of the Religion by Law esta­blished; and two of them are so ex­cellently adapted to that end by their Author, that if I have not spoiled them by an ill version, there can be no doubt made, but they will be of great use. Of the Third I beg leave to give some­what a larger Account, because I am a little more concerned in it.

[Page] THE Life I have collected from Mr. Humfrey's, who wrote Bishop Jewel's Life at large in Quarto. 2. The English Life put before his Works which was pen'd about the Year 1609. 3. Mr. Fuller's Church History. 4. Dr. Heylyn's Ecclesia Anglica­na restaurata, and others who wrote any thing that related to those times, and fell into my hands in that short time I had to finish it in. Mr. Humfrey's alone would have been sufficient, if he had observed an exact Method in Wri­ting this Life; or been altogether free from Affections. But tho he tell us Bishop Jewel kept a Diary of his Life, and that he had assistance from Dr. Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich, Aegi­dius Lawrence, Mr. John Jewel the Bishops Brother, and one Mr. John Garbrande and others; and Printed his Piece in the Year 1573. Which was not much above two years after the Death of Bishop Jewel, yet he has not ob­served any exact order or method in the [Page] History of his Life: and he no where tells us in what Year he was made a Fel­low, or received Orders; nor from whom, only he tells us Mr. Harding took his Orders at the same time. Nor has he acquainted us when Mr. Harding pu­blished his first or second Antapologies, nor when the Bishop went to Padua, nor how long he staid there, nor who were his Partners in his Visitation for the Queen. Nor has he marked almost any of the principal Actions of his Life when they were done; and tho he mentions a Ser­mon at Paul's Cross, and a Conference with the Dissenters not long before his death, yet he neither tells us the time or occasion of either of them, but instead of these, runs out into Discourses against Harding and others of that Perswasion, which were nothing, or very little to his purpose.

THE English Life before his Works, is only an Extract out of Mr. Humfrey's Latin Work, but yet was helpful to me in many Particulars, being [Page] done by a wise Man, and who doth not seem to have been biassed as the former was; who makes it his business to re­present both the Church of England and Bishop Jewel as wonderous Friends to the Churches of Switzerland, that is, to the Calvinists, because he, Good Man, was one himself, tho not so mad as those that followed; and upon this very account I do suspect he has left out many things that he might have related, and would have afforded great light to the Church History of those times, and especially to Bishop Jewel's Life.

Fuller is barren in his Relations of those times, the Bishop lived after his Consecration, tho he afforded me some good helps: Dr. Burnett has conti­nued his History but a little way in Queen Elizabeths time, and Dr. Heylyn ended his with the beginning of the Year 1566. which was about Five Years be­fore the death of Bishop Jewel, and I have neither time nor leisure, nor In­terest to search the Records of those [Page] times, and compare the Editions of Books and other things by which this Life might have been put into a better Method, as to the timing of things.

And besides all this, it were perhaps indecent to put a long Life before two such small Tractates as I am to entertain my Reader with; but yet I hope the Life, such as it is, will give some light to the Discourses, and raise a venerable Idea of this good Bishop in the Readers mind, which were the things I chiefly aimed at in the Writing of it.

As to the Pieces, the first of these the Apology was written in Latin in the beginning of the Year 1562. or the lat­ter end of the foregoing Year, and was occasioned by Pope Pius the Fourth, his calling the Council of Trent, and send­ing his Nuncio Martiningo to invite the Queen to it, and the interposition of most of the greatest Princes of Christen­dom, who wrote to the Queen to enter­tain the Nuncio and submit to the Coun­cil. Whereupon it was thought but rea­sonable [Page] to give the World an account of what we had done in the preceding Par­liament, and the reasons of it, and to retort the many Accusations brought a­gainst our Church by the Papists. And therefore it was but reasonable that it should be in Latin, that being the most common Language, and understood by the Learned Men of all Nations, and accordingly it found entertainment in all places, and was read in them. Which is more perhaps than can be said of any other Book written for our Church since the Reformation.

Mr. Harding had a great Quarrel against it, because it was not inscribed neither to the Pope nor to the Council. But there being no reason to make them our Judges, and they having no right to claim that Authority over us, it had been a great oversight to have made any such Inscription, which would have been a kind of making them what they had neither right nor reason to expect to be, and from whom we could expect no Justice.

[Page] The Natives had without doubt a great desire to see what was in this Book which then made so great a noise in the World; and the Learned Men being then otherwise imployed, a Lady who was one of the most Learned of the Age, under­took that task, and made a very Faithful and perhaps Elegant Version of it for the time when it was made.

She was then Wife to Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, second Daughter to Sir Anthony Cooke Knight, one of the Tutors to King Edward the Sixth, who being an excellent Scholar, had taken care to improve his Five Daughters so much in Learning, Lloyd's State­worthies p. 374 that they became the Wonders of the Age, and were sought in Marriage by great Men more for their natural and acquired Endowments and Beauty, than for their Portions, tho they did not want that neither. Mil­dred the eldest married William Cecil Lord Treasurer of England; Anne the second was this Lady Bacon; Ka­therine [Page] the third married Sir Henry Killigrew; Elizabeth the fourth married Sir Thomas Hobby; the fifth whose name is lost, married Sir Ralph Rowlet, all three Knights and Men of great Estates and Esteem.

This Version was made soon after the Piece was first printed, tho I cannot tell precisely in what year, for Mr. Hum­frey tells us Mr. Harding answered the English Book, and it is so well done, that I profess I could never have made so good a Version as I have, if I had not been assisted by it; but then our Langu­age is so much refin'd and exalted since that time (which is above an hundred years,) that it was perhaps necessary to put it into a more modish dress, in order to recommend it to the reading of those who do not much admire excellent Sense in a harsh and obsolete stile, and for this reason only have very many Books of late been new turn'd; and they of France who put out the Elegant Mons Version of the New Testa­ment, [Page] give no other Reason for it than this.

The Epistle to Seignior Scipio was written soon after the Apology, and to a private Venetian Gentleman in a more free and friendly way, as not being at all intended for the Publick. It was first Printed in English and Latin at the end of the Council of Trent; who made that Version I know not, but it is a very good one, and if I might have had so much liberty, I would only have altered a very few words in it, and so have Re-printed it again. But not daring to take that liberty with what be­longed to other men, I have done it over again as well as I could, and perhaps the Reader will not be displeased to see it in the same stile with the Apology, in En­glish as well as Latin.

But now who can enough deplore the Blindness, Pride and Partiality of those Men, who being led by Interest, and hood­wink'd by Ignorance, did at first imploy all the disingenuous Arts that spite and [Page] prejudice could furnish them with, to ruine this most Excellent, Apostolical, and Primitive Church; or force her to re­turn back to the State of Corruption, out of which with so much labour, difficulty, and danger, she was then rising.

But there is some allowance to be made for the misinformation of Stran­gers, who being separated from us by the Ocean, were forced to take such Accounts as were given them by others; and 1. being too apt to believe the reports of their own Priests, whose Interest it was to blacken her what they could; And 2. those of our own Fugitives, who made the case much worse than they themselves thought it, that they might obtain the more pity, and consequently the better Relief and Provision abroad, which is wont to be afforded to all those that fly for Religion, amongst those of the same Faith; 3. And also suspecting the Fi­delity of the Relations made by our Ministers in foreign Courts, 4. And of all our Travellers who stuck to, and [Page] imbraced the Religion established by Law.

But then what can be said for those Roman Catholicks (as they will needs be called) who living at home here in En­gland, and consequently having better means of informing themselves concern­ing the truth of things, cannot pretend to excuse themselves by those Topicks Strangers may? It was both their Duty and Interest to inform themselves of the Affairs of their own Country, and to submit to the Laws and Customs of it, whilest Strangers that are not under those Obligations, may excuse themselves if they do not make so diligent an inquiry into things, or happen at last to be mi­staken in them. Besides in the Settle­ment under Queen Elizabeth, All the care imaginable was taken to unite the whole Nation in one Religion, if it were possible; and whatever was in the former Liturgy that might exasperate or offend them, was taken out, by which Comply­ances, [Page] (they are the words of the Learned Dr. Heylyn) and the ex­punging of the Passages before re­membred, the Book was made so passable amongst the Papists, Eccles. Restau­rat. p. 283. that for ten Years they generally repair­ed to their Parish Churches, without doubt or scruple, as is affirmed not only by Sir Edward Coke in his Speech against Garnet, and his charge given at the Assizes held at Norwich, but also by the Queen her self in a Eet­ter to Sir Francis Walsingham, Tortura Torti. p. 130. then be­ing her Resident or Leiger Ambas­sador in the Court of France; the same is confessed by Sanders also in his Book de Schismate. And there is a report recorded by Camden, that the Pope offered to his Envoy Pa­rapalia to the Queen, Liturgiam Anglicam sua Authoritate confir­maturum, & usum Sacramenti sub­utraque specie Anglis permissurum, dummodo illa Romanae Ecclesiae se aggregaret, Romanae (que) Cathedrae [Page] primatum Agnosceret, &c. That he would confirm the English Liturgy by his Authority, and grant the English the use of the Sacrament under both kinds, provided the Queen would unite her self to the Church of Rome, and acknowledge the Primacy of the Roman See. Since that time nothing has been added that might in the least offend them. Why then do they act contrary to their Ance­stors? Why do they pretend more Con­science than either their Fore-fathers or the Pope: ten Years was a sufficient time for them to have found out the Heresie in, if there had been any in the Establishment. And we all know their Separation was not upon any scruple of Conscience they had, but in obedience to the Popes Bull. 1569. 13 Eli. e. a. The Pope in the mean time did what he did purely out of worldly Interest and Policy, to advance his own Grandure and Wealth at their cost and trouble. If he could have secured this, the Liturgy and Do­ctrine of the Church of England should have been own'd for Catholick, and have [Page] been confirm'd by his Holinesses Authori­ty. But what is this to them? Are they bound to promote his Temporal Interest with their Ruine, and the disquiet of their Country? Or how come they to be more obliged to separate from the Church, than to Rebel against the Crown, seeing the same Pope commanded both, and for the same ends, and is as infallible in the one as in the other?

But this is not our only Calamity, about the same time another sort of Men sepa­rated too upon direct contrary Pretences; Why 'tis our Antiquity, our Decency, our too great resemblance to the Church of Rome that offends them. We are not sufficiently purged for these Pure Men to joyn with; we have too little of the Primitive Church cryes the one, too much says the other; too few Ceremo­nies, too much simplicity say the Papists; too many of the first, too little of the lat­ter cry the Dissenters. Thus was truth ever persecuted on both sides, Christ cru­cified betwixt two Thieves, the Primitive [Page] Church persecuted by the Pagans on one side, and the Iews on the other. I ve­nerate thy Truth and Moderation, O dear and Holy Mother, who dost so exactly resemble thy God and Saviour, and the Primitive Church both in thy Truth and Piety, and in thy Sufferings too which are thy Glory!

But what shall I say for our Dissen­ters, who have run into such horrible Crimes as Schism and Rebellion, only on pretence to avoid that Popery, that Super­stition that was only in their own Fan­cies and Prejudices? How can one and the same Church be persecuted justly for being too much and too little Reformed? Why have you separated from her Litur­gy and Rites, who pretend to imbrace her Doctrines? Or if you must needs separate, why yet should you imbrue your hands in the Blood of your Soveraign and fellow Subjects on that account? Supposing you were in the right, this would not justifie you, Christ never propagated his Church by Blood and Treason, but by Sufferings and Obedience.

[Page] The truth is, this Church hath been persecuted because she alone of all the Churches in Europe, has had the Blessing and singular Favour of God to reform with Prudence, Moderation, and an exact and regular Conduct, after great and wise Deliberations, by the consent of our Bi­shops, Convocations, States, and Princes, without Tumults or hasty Counsels; and accordingly here was nothing changed but upon good Advice, after the most irre­sistable Conviction that it was contrary to the Word of God, the Sentiments of the Holy Fathers and Councils, and the Pra­ctice of the truly Primitive and Apostoli­cal Church. So that the Papists them­selves do even envy our Primitive Do­ctrine, Government, and Discipline, and both fear and hate us more than any other of the Reformed Churches. I could be contented (said a great Man of that Perswasion) there were no Priests (i. e. Popish Priess) in England, so there were no Bishops there. This and our excellent Liturgy, our decent Ce­remonies, [Page] and our excellent order moves their envy; they are the same things that have raised the Spleens and Animosities of the other side, with whom whatever is older than Zuinglius and Calvin, is presently Popery and must be destroyed. Tell them that Episcopacy was settled in all Churches in the days of the very Apo­stles, and by them; and they reply the Mystery of Iniquity began then to work, intimating if not affirming, that this Holy Order was a part of it. So that they will rather traduce these Holy Men, who sa­crificed their Bloods for Jesus Christ and his Church, of Pride, Ambition, and a too great Love of Rule, than allow the Establishments of our Church. Nay they will rather root out the Monarchy, because supported by, and upholding Episcopacy, than shew any the least Reverence to the Church, in obedience to our Laws and Princes.

So that leaving these implacable self­condemned Enemies, give me leave, O ye Loyal and Religious Sons of this Holy [Page] and ever persecuted Church, to make my last Address and Application to you. You see by whom the Church has been ever per­secuted; you see the reason of it; you can­not but know also what she has suffered on both sides; you have read the one, and your Eyes have seen the other; rouse up then, and take effectual care of this in­nocent, this persecuted Spouse of Christ. Stretch out your hands to Heaven by humble and fervent Prayers, and implore the Assistance of the most Holy God, for her safety and Protection against all her Enemies.

Let the Virtue, Piety, and Holiness of your Lives, assure the World that you pro­fess this Holy Religion in good earnest, and that you do not dissemble either with God or Man in it, but are sincere and resolved to live and dye in this profession.

Put those Laws we now have in exe­cution duly and regularly, and with Dis­cretion and Mercy, not out of Bitterness and Passion, but out of Conscience and a true fear of God, and care of his Church; [Page] that all the World may see it is nothing but a sense of your Duties, and a Zeal for God, that makes you active and pru­dently severe.

And as far as you shall have oppor­tunity, take further care by new Laws, to secure this great and inestimable Blessing to your Posterity and the Gene­rations to come, that they may rise up and bless God for you; and remember your names with Eulogies and Honour for ever.

And if any thing in these Papers may in any degree be serviceable to, and pro­mote these good ends, I shall for ever be thankful to God and Man for the Fa­vour.

THE LIFE OF THE Right Reverend Father in God DR. JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of SARISBURY.

THO Truth and Reason may justly claim the Priviledge of a kind reception, whoever brings them; yet such is the Nature of Mankind, that the Face of a Stranger is ever sur­veyed with a little more than ordinary At­tention, as if Men thought generally that in it were the most lively Characters of what they seek to know, the Soul and Tem­per of a Man; now because this is not to be expected at the first sight, in Books where [Page 2] yet it is most eagerly desired; Men have at­tempted to supply that defect with Pictures; and (which affords much more satisfaction) by premising the Lives and Characters of the Authors, which gives the Reader a truer and more lasting Idea of Men, than it is possible for Pensils and Colours to attain to.

The Author of the ensuing Tracts ought to be so well known to all English men, that his Name alone should have given a suffi­cient Commendation to any thing that can claim a descent from him: But it be­ing now above an hundred years since his death, and his Works which were for a long time chained up in all Churches, being now superannuated or neglected, it may not be an unseasonable piece of Service to the Church, to revive the Memory of this great Man, the stout and invincible Champion of the Church of England; who losing the opportunity of sacrificing his Life for her in the Reign of Queen Mary, did it with more advantage to us, and pains to himself, under her glorious Successor, when he so freely spent himself in her Service, that having wasted his thin Body by excessive Labour and Study, he died young, but full of good Works and Glory.

He was born the 24 th of May, in the year of our Lord 1522. at Buden in the Parish of Berinber in the County of Devon; and tho a younger Brother, yet inherited his Fathers Name. His Mother was a Bel­lamie, and he had so great an esteem for it and her, that he engraved it on his Signet, and had it always imprinted in his heart; a la­sting [Page 3] Testimony both of her Virtue and kind­ness to him.

His Father was a Gentleman descended rather of an Ancient and Good, than very Rich Family. It is observed that his An­cestors had injoyed that Estate for almost two hundred years before the Birth of this great Man. And yet such was the num­ber of his Children, that it is no wonder if this, when young, wanted the assistance of Good men for the promoting of his Studies; for it is said his Father left ten Children between Sons and Daughters behind him.

This John Jewel proving a Lad of preg­nant Parts, and of a sweet and industrious Nature and Temper, was from his Youth dedicated to Learning; and with great care cultivated by his Parents and Masters, which he took so well, that at the entrance of the Thirteenth year of his Age, about the Feast of St. James, he was admitted in Mer­ton Colledge in Oxon, under one Mr. Peter Burrey, a Man neither of any great Learn­ing, nor much addicted to the Reforma­tion, which then (in the Reign of Henry the Eighth) went on but slowly, and with much irregularity in its Motions. But we are yet beholding to his first Tutor for this, that he committed this Jewel to Mr. John Parkhurst a Fellow of the same Colledge, and afterwards first Minister of Cleave, and then Bishop of Norwich, who was a Man both of more Learning and of a better Faith; and prudently instilled together with his other Learning, those excellent Principles [Page 4] into this Young Gentleman, which afterwards made him the Darling and Wonder of his Age.

DURING his continuance in this Col­ledge, In the English Life before his Works, is call­ed Witney. a Plague happening in Oxon, he re­moved to a place called Croxham, where be­ing lodged in a low Room, and studying hard in the night, he got a lameness by a Cold which attended him to his Grave; ha­ving spent almost four years in this Colledge, the 19 th of August Anno Domini 1539. the One and thirtieth of Henry the Eighth, in the Seventeenth year of his Age, he was, by the Procurement of one Mr. Slater, and Mr. Burrey and Mr. Parkhurst his two Tutors, removed into Corpus Christi Colledge in the same University, where, I suppose, he met with something of an encouragement; but it is much more certain he met with Envy from his Equals, who often suppressed his ingenious Exercises, and read others that were more like their own.

THE twentieth day of October in the fo­lowing year, he took his first Degree of Batchelor of Arts, with a great and general Applause; when he prosecuted his Studies with more vigor than before, beginning them at four in the Morning, and con­tinuing them till ten and night, so that he seemed to need some body to put him in mind of eating.

BEING now attained to a great Repu­tation for Learning, he began to instruct other, and amongst and rest Anthony Park­hurst was committed to his care by Mr. John Parkhurst his Tuto, which was a great Argu­ment of his great Worth and Industry.

[Page 5] BEING thus imployed, he was chosen Reader of Humanity and Rhetorick of his own Colledge, and he managed this place seven years with great Applause and Honor. His Example taught more than any Pre­cepts could; for he was a great admirer of Horace and Cicero, and read all Erasmus his Works, and imitated them too, for it was his custom to write something every day; and it was his common saying, that men acquired Learning more by a frequent exercising their Pens, than by reading many Books. He affected ever rather to express himself fluent­ly, neatly, and with great weight of Argu­ment and strength of Reason, than in hunt­ing after the Flowers of Rhetorick, and the Cadences of Words, tho he understood them, no man better, and wrote a Dialogue in which he comprehended the sum of the Art of Rhe­torick.

THE ninth of February 1544. he com­menced Master of Arts, the Charge of it being born by his good Tutor Mr. Park­hurst, who had then the Rich Rectory of Cleve in the Diocess of Glocester, which is of better value than some of our smaller Bishop­ricks. Nor was this the only instance where­in he did partake of this good mans Bounty, for he was wont twice or thrice in a year to invite him to his House, and not dismiss him without Presents, Money, and other things that were necessary for the carrying on his Studies. And one time above the rest, coming into his Chamber in the Morning, when he was to go back to the University, he seised upon his and his Companions [Page 6] Purses, saying, What Money, I wonder, have these miserable, Beggarly Oxfordians? And finding them pittifully lean and empty, stuffed them With Money, till they became both fat and weighty.

EDWARD the Sixth succeeding his Fa­ther the 28 th of January 1546. the Refor­mation went on more regularly and swiftly, November 1548. and Peter Martyr being by that Prince called out of Germany, and made Professor of Di­vinity at Oxon, Mr. Jewel was one of his most constant hearers; and by the help of Cha­racters which he had invented for his own use, took all his Lectures almost as perfectly as he spoke them.

About this time one Dr. Richard Smith, Predecessor to Peter Martyr in that Chair at Oxon, who was more a Sophister than a Divine, made an insult upon Peter Mar­tyr, and interrupted him publickly and unexpectedly in his Lecture: the German was not to be baffled by a surprize, but extem­pore recollected his Lecture, and defended it with a great presence of mind, the two Parties in the Schools being just upon the point of a Tumult, the Protestants for the present Professor, and the Papists for the old one.

Peter Martyr nettled with this affront, challenged Smith to dispute with him publick­ly, and appointed him a day: But Smith fearing to be called in question for this uproar, This Dispute began the 28 th of May, Anno Christi 1549. and lasted five days. fled before the time to St. Andrews in Scotland. But then Tresham and Chadsy, two Popish Doctors, and one Morgan [Page 7] entered the Lists against Peter Martyr, and there was a very sharp but regular Dispute betwixt them concerning the Lords-Supper. And Mr. Jewel having then a large share in Peter Martyrs affections, was by him ap­pointed to take the whole Disputation in Writing, which was printed in the year 1649. for the regulating this Disputation, the Council sent to Oxon, Henry Bishop of Lin­coln, Dr. R. Cox Chancellor of that Univer­sity, Dr. Simon Haines, Richard Morison Esqe; and Dr. Christopher Nevison Commissioners and Moderators.

In the year 1551. Mr. Jewel took his Degree of Bachelor of Divinity, 1551. whon he preached an excellent Latin Sermon, which is extant almost perfect; taking for his Text the words of St. Peter, Ep. 1. cap. 4. v. 11. If any man speak, Let him speak as the Ora­cles of God, &c. Upon which words he raised such excellent Doctrines, and made such wise and holy Reflections in so pure and elegant a stile, as satisfied all the World of his great Ability and Deserts.

In the same time Mr. Jewel took a small Living near Oxon called Sunningwell, more out of a desire to do good, than for the Sallary which was but small, whither he went once a Fortnight on Foot, tho he was lame, and it was troublesome to him to walk; and at the same time preached frequently both privately in his own Colledge, and publickly in the University.

BESIDES his old Friend Mr. Parkhurst, amongst others, one Mr. Curtop a Fellow of the same Colledge, afterwards Canon of [Page 8] Christ-Church, allowed him Forty shillings a year, which was a considerable sum in those days; and one Mr. Chambers, who was en­trusted with distributing the Charity of some Londoners to the Poor Scholars of Oxon, allow­ed Mr. Jewel out of it six pound a year for Books.

EDWARD the Sixth dying the sixth of July, 1553. Anno Domini 1553. and Queen Mary succeeding him, and being proclaimed the Seventeenth of the same month, Jewel was one of the first that felt the fury of this Tem­pest, and before any Law was made, or so much as any order given by the Queen, was expelled out of the Colledge by the Fellows, upon their private Authority, who had no­thing to object against him, but 1. His fol­lowing Peter Martyr; 2. His Preaching some Doctrines contrary to Popery; 3. And his taking Orders according to the Laws then in force: for as for his Life, it was acknowledged to be Angelical and extreamly honest, Fuller in his Church Histo­ry, saith he was expelled for refusing to be present at Mass. by John Moren a Fellow of the same Colledge; who yet at the same time could not forbear call­ing him Lutheran, Zuinglian, and Heretick. He took his leave of the Colledge in these words, as near as I can render them in English.

IN my last Lectures I have ( said he) imi­tated the Custom of famished Men, who when they see their meat likely to be suddenly and un­expectedly snatch'd from them, devour it with the greater haste and greediness. For whereas I intended thus to put an end to my Lectures, and perceived that I was like forthwith to be si­lenced, I made no scruple to entertain you (con­trary [Page 9] to my former usage) with much unpleasant and ill dressed Discourse, for I see I have incurred the displeasure and hatred of some, but whether deservedly or no, I shall leave to their considera­tion; for I am perswaded that those who have driven me from hence, would not suffer me to live any where if it were in their Power. But as for me, I willingly yield to the times, and if they can derive down to themselves any satisfaction from my Calamity, I would not hinder them from it. But as Aristides, when he went into exile and forsook his Country, pray'd that they might never more think of him; so I beseech God to grant the same to my Fellow Collegians, and what can they wish for more? Pardon me my Hearers, if grief has seized me, being to be torn from that place against my will, where I have passed the first part of my Life, where I have lived pleasantly, and been in some Honour and Imployment. But why do I thus delay to put an end to my Misery by one word? Wo is me, that (as with my extream sor­row and resentment I at last speak it) I must say farewel my Studies, farewel to these beloved Houses, farewel thou pleasant Seat of Learning, farewel to the most delightful Conversation with you, farewel Young men, farewel Lads, far [...]wel Fellows, farewel Brethren, farewel ye beloved as my Eyes, farewel ALL, farewel.

Thus did he take his leave (saith the Author of the English Life before his Works) of his Lecture, Fellow-ship and Colledge; and was re­duced at one blow to great Poverty and Dissertion: but he found for some time a place of Harbour in Broadgates-Hall another Colledge in the same University. Here he [Page 10] met with some short Gleams of Comfort; for the University of Oxon more kind than his Colledge, and to alleviate the Miseries of his Shipwrack'd Estate, chose him to be her Orator, in which capacity he curiously penned a Gratulatory Letter or Address (as the term now is) to the Queen, on the behalf and in the name of the University, Expressing in it the Countenance of the Roman Senators in the beginning of Tiberius his Reign, exquisitely tem­pered and composed, to keep out joy and sadness, which both strove at the same time to display their colours in it; the one for dead Augustus; the other for Reigning Tiberius. And upon the Assurance of several of her Nobles, that the Queen would not change the established Religi­on, expressing some hopes she would so do, which was confirmed then to them by the Promise the Queen had made to the Suffolk and Norfolk Gentry, who had rescued her out of the very Jaws of Ruine. Fuller saith, that the Writing this Letter was put upon him with a design to ruine him, but there is not the least colour for this surmize; he being so very lately, seasonably and kindly chosen Orator. when he was so injuriously expelled out of his own Colledge; but it is much more probable the sweetness, smoothness and briskness of his stile, was both the reason why he was cho­sen Orator first, and then imployed to pen this Letter. The Sum or Heads of which are in Mr. Laurence Humfrey's Life of Jewel: But there is no entire Copy ex­tant.

[Page 11] IT is observed by the last mentioned Au­thor, that whilst Jewel was roading this Let­ter to Dr. Tresham Vice-chancellor, the great Bell of Christ-Church (which this Doctor having caused to be new run a few days be­fore, had christened by the name of Mary, toll'd) and that hearing her pleasant voice now call him to his beloved Mass, he burst out into an Exclamation. O delicate and sweet Harmony! O beautiful Mary, how Musically she sounds, how strangely she pleaseth my Ears! So Mr. Jewel's sweet Pen was forced to give way to the more acceptable tinkling of this new Lady. And we may easily conjecture how the poor man took it.

BEING thus ejected out of all he had, he became obnoxious to the Insolence and Pride of all his Enemies, which he endea­voured to allay by Humility and Compli­ance, which yet could not mitigate their Rage and Fury; but rather in all probability heightened their Malice, and drew more Affronts upon the meek man. But amongst all his Enemies, none sought his ruine more eagerly than Dr. Martial Dean of Christ-Church, who had changed his Religion now twice already; and did afterwards twice or thrice more in the Reign of Queen Eli­zabeth: He having neither Conscience nor Religion of his own, was wondrous desirous to make Jewel's Conscience or Life a papal Sacrifice.

[Page 12] IN order to this, Anno 1553. he sends to Jewel by the Inquisitors a bed-roll of Popish Doctrines to be subscribed by him upon pain of Fire and Faggot, and other grievous Tortures; the poor man having neither Friend nor time allowed him to consult with, took the Pen in his hand, and saying, Have you a mind to see how well I can write? Subscribed his Name hastily, and with great reluctance.

But this no way mitigated the Rage of his Enemies against him, they knew his great love to, and familiarity with Peter Martyr, and nothing less than his Life would satisfie these Blood-hounds, of which Turn-coat Martial was the fiercest: so being forsaken by his Friends for this his sinful Complyance, and still pursued like a wounded Deer by his Enemies; but more exagitated by the in­ward Remorses and Reproaches of his own Conscience, he resolved at last to flee for his Life.

And it was but time; for if he had staid but one night longer, or gone the right way to London, he had perished by their Fury: One Augustin Berner a Switzer, first a Servant to Bishop Latimer, and afterwards a Minister found him lying upon the ground almost dead with vexation, weariness (for this lame Man was forced to make his escape on foot) and cold, and setting him upon an Horse, con­veyed him to the Lady Ann Warcupps a Widow, who entertained him for some time, and then sent him up to London, where he was in more safety.

[Page 13] HAVING twice or thrice changed his Lodgings in London, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton a great Minister of State in those times, fur­nished him with Money for his Journey, and procured him a Ship for his Transportation beyond the Seas. And well it had been if he had gone sooner; but his Friend Mr. Park­hurst hearing of the restoring of the Mass fled forthwith; and poor Mr. Jewel know­ing nothing of it, went to Cleave to beg his advice and assistance, being almost killed by his long Journey on foot in bitter cold and snowy weather, and being forced at last to return to Oxon, more dejected and confound­ed in his thoughts than he went out; which Miseries were the occasions of his fall, as Gods Mercy was the procurer both of his escape and recovery.

FOR being once arrived at Franckford in the beginning of the second year of Queen Mary's Reign, 1554. he found there Mr. Richard Chambers his old Benefactor, Dr. Robert Horne afterwards Bishop of Winchester, Dr. Sands Bishop of London, Sir Francis Knowles a Privy Counsellor, and afterwards Lord Treasurer, and his eldest Son, &c. these received Jewel with the more kindness, because he came unex­pectedly and unhoped for, and advised him to make a publick Recantation of his Sub­scription; which he willingly did in the Pulpit the next Lords-day in these words. It was my abject and cowardly mind, and saint heart that made my weak hand to commit this wickedness. Which when he had uttered as well as he could for tears and sighs, he applied [Page 14] himself in a servent Prayer, first to God Al­mighty for his Pardon, and afterwards to the Church; the whole Auditory accom­panying him with Tears and Sighes, and ever after esteeming him more for his ingenuous Repentance, than they would (perhaps) have done if he had not fallen.

IT is an easie thing for those that were never tried, to censure the frailty of those that have truckled for some time under the shock of a mighty Temptation; but let such remember St. Paul's advice, Let him that stand­eth take heed least he fall. This great Mans fall shall ever be my Lesson, and if this gli­stering Jewel were thus clowded and foil'd, God be merciful to me a Sinner.

Mr. JEWEL had not been long at Franck­ford, before Peter Martyr hearing of it, often sollicited him to come to Strasburgh, Peter Martyr. where he was now settled and provided for; and all things considered, a wonder it is that he did not perish in England; Ecclesia Re­staurata, p. 196 For there was no Person more openly aimed at than he, because none of them had given wider Wounds than he to the Catholick Cause. One Tresham a Senior Canon of Christ-Church, who had held some Points against him at his first coming thither, now took the benefit of the times to be revenged on him, and incited those of Christ-Church and of other Houses to affront him publickly. So that not finding any safety at Oxford, he retired to Lam­beth to Cranmer, where he was sure of as much as the place could afford him. A Consultation had been held by some of the more fiery Spirits, for his commitment unto Prison. But he came [Page 15] thither (as was well known) on the publick Faith, which was not to be violated for the sa­tisfaction of some private Persons. It was thought fit threfore to discharge him of all further imployment, Peter Martyr also helped himself, for he would not go without the Queens Pas­port and leave, and when he had it, concealed him­self fourteen days on the English Coast, then private­ly took Ship and arrived at Antwerp in the night, and before day took Coach and so got safe to Strasbourgh, the 30th of October 1553. and to license him to depart in peace: none being more forward to furnish him with all things for his going hence, than the new Lord Chancellor; Bishop Gardiner, whe­ther in honour to his Learning, or out of a desire to send him packing, shall not now be questioned; but less hu­manity was shewed to him in his Wife, whose Body having been bu­ried in the Church of St. Frideswide, was afterwards by publick order taken out of the Grave and buried in a common Dunghill. But in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth was removed and her bones mixed with St. Francis: And the truth is, the Queen (who was a bigotted Papist, and too much Priest-ridden) breaking not only her promise to the men of Suffolk, who had stood by her in her greatest necessi­ty, and treating them with extream severity for but challenging the performance of her promise; Burnet To. 2. p. 246. Ib. p. 245. one Dobbe who had spoken more boldly than the rest, being ordered to stand three days in the Pillory; but also her more solemn engagement made the Twelfth of Au­gust 1553. in the Council; That altho her Conscience was staid in the Matters of Religion, yet she was resolved not to compel or strain others, otherwise than as God should put into their Hearts, a perswasion of that truth she was in; and this she hoped should be done by the opening his word [Page 16] to them, by Godly, vertuous, and learned Preachers: I say, considering how ill she kept her pro­mise to her own Subjects, it is a wonder she should keep the Faith given to this Stranger in her Brothers Reign, and not by her; and I conceive no reason can be given for this, but the over-ruling Providence of God, who governs the hearts of Princes as he thinks fit.

BUT well it was for Mr. Jewel that there he was, and as much of Mr. Jewel's Suffer­ings in England had been occasion'd by his great respects he had shewn to Peter Martyr whilest he lived at Oxon: So now Peter Martyr never left solliciting him (as I said) to come to him to Strasbourgh till he prevailed, where he took him to his own Table and kept him always with him. And here Mr. Jewel was very serviceable to him in his Edition of his Commentaries upon the Book of Judges, which were all transcribed for the Press by him; and he used also to read every day some part of a Father to him, and for the most part St. Augustin, with which Father they were both much delighted.

AT Strasbourgh Mr. Jewel found J. Poy­net late Bishop of Winchester, Edmund Grindal Arch-bishop of York, Sir Edwin Sands, J. Cheeke and Sir Anthony Coke Kt. and several other great Men of the English Nation, who were fled thither for their Religion. And with these he was in great esteem, which open'd a way for his preferment upon his return into England after the Storm was over.

[Page 17] PETER Martyr having been a long time sollicited by the Senate of Zurick to go thi­ther and take upon him the place of Pro­fessor of Hebrew, and Interpreter of the Scri­ptures in the place of Conrad Pellican, who was almost the first Professor of Hebrew in Christendom, and died about this time near an hundred years of Age; at last accepted the Office, July 13. 1556. and carried Mr. Jewel with him to Zurick, where he lived still with Peter Martyr in his own Family. Here he found James Pilkinton Bishop of Durham, and seve­ral others who were maintained by the Pro­curement of Richard Chambers, but out of the Purses of Mr. Richard Springham, Mr. John Abel, Mr. Thomas Eton Merchants of London, and several others; till at last Stephen Gardiner finding who were their Benefactors, threatned he would in a short time make them eat their Fin­gers ends for hunger: and it was sore against his will that he proved a false Prophet, for he clapt up so many of their Benefactors in England, that after this there came but a small if any Supply out of England to them. But then Christopher Prince of Wittenberg, and the Senators of Zurick, and the foreign Di­vines were so kind to them, that they had still a tolerable Subsistence, and Mr. Jewel stood in need of the less, because he lived with Peter Martyr till his return into England.

SO saith Mr. Humfrey in his Life; Humfrey p. 90. but it is apparent by the first lines of his Epistle to Seignior Scipio, that he studied some time at Padua, and there being no mention of his travelling at any time before his exile, nor [Page 18] indeed any possibility of it, I suppose that whilst he was thus with Peter Martyr at Zu­rick, he made a step over the Alpes to Padua, which was not very distant, and there studied some time, and contracted his acquaintance with the said Venetian Gentleman; for this Journey is no where mentioned by any other Author that I have seen, and I can find no time so likely for it as now.

DURING all the time of his exile, which was about four years, he studied very hard, and spent the rest of his time in consolating and confirming his Brethren; for he would frequently tell them that when their Brethren indured such bitter Tortures and horrible Martyrdoms at home, it was not reasonable they should expect to fare deliciously in Ba­nishment, concluding always: Haec non du rabunt aetatem. These things will not last an Age Which he repeated so very often, and with so great an assurance of mind that it would be so, that many believed it before it came to pass, and more took it for a Prophetick Sentence afterwards.

When the English left their Native Country, English life. they were all of a piece; Dr. Peter Heylyn faith the contrary, and that Witting­ham, Williams, and Goodman were Zunglians before they left England, who were the chief Promoters of the dis­order at Frankford. Ecclesia Restaurata. p. 228. bu [...] some of them going to Geneva an other places which had imbrace the model of Reformation settle by Calvin, they became fond [...] these foreign Novelties, and som [...] of them at Franckford, in the yea [...] 1554. began an alteration of th [...] Liturgy, and did what they could to dra [...] others to them; and to these men Knox th [...] [Page 19] great Intendiary of Scotland afterwards, joyn­ed himself, and not long after one Whitehead a zealous Calvinist, but of a much better tem­per than Knox. Not contented with this al­teration, the fifteenth of November 1554. they writ Letters in open defiance of the English Liturgy to them of Zurick, who de­fended it in a Letter of the 28 th of the same month.

Grindal and Chambers were sent from Stras­burgh to Frankford to quiet these Innovators, but to no purpose; so returning back again, the English at Strasburgh wrote to them the thirteenth of December, all which procured no other regard from them, but only to ob­tain Calvin's judgment of it, which being suitable to their own, as there was no won­der it should; things continued thus till the thirteenth of March following, when Dr. Ri­chard Cox entered Frankford, drove Knox out, and resettled the Liturgy there. Whereupon in the end of August following, Fox with some few others went to Basil, but the main body followed Knox and Goodman to Geneva their Mother City (as Dr. Heylyn stiles it) where they made choice of Knox and Goodman for their constant Preachers; under which Mi­nistry they rejected the whole Frame and Fabrick of the Reformation made in England in King Edward's time, and conformed them­selves wholly to the fashions of the Church of Geneva, &c. Thus far Dr. Heylyn.

Mr. Jewel being then at Zurick, used his utmost endeavour to reclaim these men, and put a stop to this rising Schism; Exhorting [Page 20] them as Brethren to lay aside all strife and emu­lation, especially about such small matters; least thereby they should greatly offend the minds of all good men: which thing (he said) they ought to have a principal care of. And doubtless this good man thought that their gratitude to God for restoring them to their Native Country under the auspicious Reign of Queen Elizabeth of Blessed Memory, had for ever put an end to this dispute, and he seems to speak as much in his Apology for the Church of England; Conclusion, Section 2. p. 141. but within a few years this fury broke loose again, and just about the time of Jewel's death, became more trouble some than ever before, and just about an hundred years after its rise, by a dismal Rebellion overturn'd at once the Church and Monarchy of Great Britain.

BUT to return to Mr. Jewel and our Exiles; the seventeenth of November 1558. God remembred the distressed State of the Church of England, and put an end to her Sufferings, by removing that Bigotted Lady: the news of which flying speedily to our Exiles, they hasted into England again, to congratulate the Succession of Queen Eliza­beth of ever Blessed Memory.

HIS good Benefactor and Tutor Mr. Park­hurst, upon the arrival of this news, made him a visit in Germany; but fearing Mr. Jewel had not chosen the safest way for his return to England, left him and went another way, which seeming more safe, in the end proved otherwise. Mr. Jewel arriving safely in En­gland with what he had, whilst the other [Page 21] was robbed by the way; and so at his land­ing in England, Mr. Jewel (who was here before him) very gratefully relieved his great Benefactor.

THE time of Mr. Jewel's arrival in En­gland, Hiller. C. H. is no where expressed that I can find, The news of the Queens death came to Zurick the last of November. Mart. Letters. but he being then at Zurick in all probability, was for that cause none of the first that re­turned; so that when he came back, he had the comfort to find all things well disposed, for the reception of the Reformation: for the Queen had by a Proclamation of the thirtieth of December 1558. ordered that no man, of what quality soever he were, should presume to alter any thing in the State of Religion, or innovate in any of the Rites and Ceremonies thereunto belonging, &c. until some further order should be taken there­in. Only it was permitted, and with all required, that the Litany, the Lords-Prayer, the Creed and the Ten Commandments, should be said in the English Tongue, and that the Epistle and Gospel should be read in English at the time of the High Mass, which was done (saith Dr. Heylyn) in all the Churches of London, on the next Sunday after being New-Years-day; and by degrees in all the other Churches of the Kingdom: Further than this, she thought it not convenient to proceed at the present, only she prohibited the Elevation of the Sacrament at the Altar of the Chappel Royal: Which was likewise forborn in all other Churches: and she set at liberty all that had been imprisoned for Religion in her Sisters time, and ordered the Liturgy to be revised with great care, and that a Parliament should be summoned to sit at West-minster the 25th of January 1559.

[Page 22] ALL this I suppose at least was done be­fore Mr. Jewel returned into England; for whether he was here at the Coronation is un­certain. He was entertained first by Mr. Ni­cholas Culverwell for almost six months, and then falling into a Sickness, was invited, by Dr. William Thames, to lodge at his House; but this was after the Parliament.

THE Liturgy being then reviewed, and whatever might give the Popish Party any unnecessary Exasperation or Discontent purged out, in order to the facilitating the passing an Act of Parliament for the settling it, and the establishment of other things that were necessary, a publick Disputation was appointed on the Thirtieth of March follow­ing, to be holden in the Church of Westmin­ster in the English Tonguo, in the presence of as many of the Lords of the Council, and of the Members of both Houses, as were de­sirous to inform themselves in the State of the Questions. The Disputation was also to be managed (for the better avoiding of Confu­sion) by a mutual interchange of Writings upon every Point; each Writing to be an­swered the next day, and so from day to day till the whole were ended. To all which the Bishops at first consented, tho they would not afterwards stand to it. The Questions were Three, concerning Prayers in the Vulgar Tongue, the Power of the Church, for the changing Rites and Ceremonies, and the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass for the Living and the Dead.

[Page 23] THE first use that was made of Mr. Jewel after his return, was the nominating him one of the Disputants for the reformed Party; and tho he was the last in number and place, yet he was not the least either in desert or esteem, having made great Additions to his former Learning in his four years Exile and Travel: which is a great improvement to ingenious Spirits. But this Disputation was broken off by the Popish Party, who would not stand to the order appointed; so that Mr. Jewel in all probability had no occasion to shew either his Zeal or Learning.

THE Parliament ended the eighth of May 1559. and by virtue of an Act passed in this Parliament, soon after Midsummer the Queen made a Visitation of all the Diocesses in England, by Commissioners for rectifying all such things as they found amiss, and could not be redressed by any ordinary Episcopal Power, with­out spending of more time than the Exigencies of the Church could then admit of. And this was done by a Book of Articles printed for that purpose, and the Inquiry was made upon Oath by the Commissioners. Here Mr. Jewel was taken in again, and made one of these Commissioners for the West. When he vi­sited his own Native Country, which till then perhaps he had not seen since his return from Exile, when also he preached to and dis­puted with his Country-men, and indeavoured more to win them to imbrace the Reforma­tion by good Usage, Civility and Reason, than to terrifie or awe them by that great Authority the Queen had armed him and his fellow Commissioners with.

[Page 24] RETURNING back to London, and giving the Queen a good and satisfactory ac­count of their Visitation, the 21st of January following, Mr. Jewel who was then only Batchelor of Divinity, was consecrated Bi­shop of Sarisbury, which he at first modestly declined, but at last accepted, in obedience to the Queens command. This See had been void by the death of John Capon his imme­diate Predecessor, who died in the year 1557. now near three years. And here the Divine Providence again gave him the advantage in point of Seniority over his Tutor Mr. John Parkhurst, who was not consecrated Bishop of Norwich till the Fourteenth of July after; but then his Tutor had the advantage of him in point of Revenue, for Mr. Jewel's Bishop­rick had been miserably impoverished by his Predecessor; so that he complained after­wards, that there was never a good Living left him that would maintain a Learned Man; for (said he) the Capon had devoured all: because he hath either given away or sold all the Ecclesi­astical Dignities and Livings. So that the good Bishop was forced all his Life-time after to take extraordinary pains in travelling and preaching in all parts of his Diocess, which brought him to his Grave the sooner: where­as his Tutor had a much richer Bishoprick, and consequently more ease, and out-lived his Pupil Jewel three years.

THE Sunday before Easter of this year, March 30. Bishop Jewel preached at Paul's Cross, his famous Sermon upon the 1 Cor. 11. v. 25. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that-the Lord Jesus the same [Page 25] night in which he was betrayed took Bread, &c. This Sermon gave a fatal blow to the Popish Religion here in England, which was become very odious to all men, by reason of the bar­barous Cruelty used by those of that Perswa­sion in the Reign of Queen Mary; but the Challenge which he then made, and afterwards several times and in several places repeated, was the most stinging part of this Sermon, and therefore tho I am concerned to be as short as I can, I will yet insert this Famous Piece at large.

IF any Learned Man of our Adversaries, Heylyn's Eccl. Restaurata. p. 301. ( said he) or all the Learned Men that be alive, be able to bring any one sufficient Sentence out of any old Catholick Doctor, or Father, or General Council, or Holy Scripture, or any one Example in the Primitive Church, whereby it may clearly and plainly be proved during the first six hundred years. 1. That there was at any time any pri­vate Masses in the World. 2. Or that there was then any Communion ministred unto the People under one kind. 3. Or that the People had their Common-Prayer in a strange Tongue that the Peo­ple understood not. 4. Or that the Bishop of Rome was then called an universal Bishop, or the Head of the universal Church. 5. Or that the People were then taught to believe that Christ's Body is really, substantially, corporally, carnally or naturally in the Sacrament. 6. Or that his Body is or may be in a thousand places or more at one time. 7. Or that the Priest did then hold up the Sacrament over his Head. 8. Or that the People did then fall down and worship it with Godly Honour. 9. Or that the Sacrament was [Page 26] then, or now ought to be, hanged up under a Ca­nopy. 10. Or that in the Sacrament after the words of Consecration, there remained only the accidents and shews without the substance of Bread and Wine. 11. Or, that then the Priests divided the Sacrament into three parts, and after­wards received himself alone. 12. Or that who­soever had said the Sacrament is a Figure, a Pledge, a Token, or a remembrance of Christ's Body, had therefore been adjudged for an Here­tick. 13. Or that it was lawful then to have thirty, twenty, fifteen, ten or five Masses said, in the same Church in one day. 14. Or that Images were then set up in the Churches, to the intent the People might worship them. 15. Or that the Lay-People were then forbidden to read the word of God in their own Tongue. 16. Or that it was then Lawful for the Priest to pronounce the words of Consecration closely, or in private to himself. 17. Or that the Priest had then Authority to offer up Christ unto his Father. 18. Or to com­municate and receive the Sacrament for another, as they do. 19. Or to apply the vertue of Christs Death and Passion to any Man by the means of the Mass. 20. Or that it was then thought a sound Doctrine to teach the People that Mass, Ex opere operato (that is, even for that it is said and done) is able to remove any part of our sin. 21. Or that any Christian man called the Sacra­ment of the Lord, his God. 22. Or that the Peo­ple were then taught to believe, that the Body of Christ remaineth in the Sacrament, as long as the accidents of Bread and Wine remain there with­out Corruption. 23. Or that a Mouse or any other Worm or Beast, may eat the Body of Christ, (for so some of our Adversaries have said and taught.) [Page 27] 24. Or that when Christ said, Hoc est Corpus meum, the word Hoc pointed not to the Bread, but to an individuum vagum, as some of them say. 25. Or that the Accidents, or Forms, or shews of Bread and Wine be the Sacraments of Christs Body and Blood, and not rather the very Bread and Wine it self. 26. Or that the Sacra­ment is a sign or token of the Body of Christ, that lieth hidden underneath it. 27. Or that igno­rance is the Mother and cause of true Devotion. The Conclusion is, that I shall then be content to yield and subscribe.

This challenge (saith the Learned Dr. Hey­lyn) being thus published in so great an Au­ditory, startled the English Papists both at home and abroad, but none more than such of our Fugitives as had retired to Lovain, Doway, or St. Omers, in the Low-Country Provinces belonging to the King of Spain. The business was first agitated by the ex­change of friendly Letters betwixt the said Reverend Prelate and Dr. Henry Cole the late Dean of St. Pauls; more violently followed in a Book of Rastal's, Rastal was a common Law­yer, and pu­blished his Book in 1563. who first appeared in the Lists against the Challenger, followed herein by Dorman and Marshall, who severally took up the Cudgels to as little purpose; the first being well beaten by Nowel, and the last by Calfhill, in their Discourses writ against them; but they were only Velitations, or pre­paritory Skirmishes in reference to the main encounter, which was reserved for the Reve­rend Challenger himself, and Dr. John Harding, one of the Divines of Lovain, and the most Learned of the Colledge. The [Page 28] Combatants were born in the same County, bred up in the same Grammar School, and studied in the same University also:—Both zealous Protestants in the time of King Ed­ward, and both relapsed to Popery in the time of Queen Mary; Jewel for fear, and Harding upon hope of Favour and Prefer­ment by it. But Jewel's fall may be com­pared to that of St. Peter, which was short and sudden, rising again by his Repentance, and fortified more strongly in his Faith than before he was: but Harding's like to that of the other Simon, premeditated and resolved on, never to be restored again (so much was there within him of the gaul of bitterness) to his former standing. But some former Differences had been between them in the Church of Sarisbury, Harding was then Preben­dary when Mr. Jewel was elected and gave his vote for him. Humf. p. 140. whereof the one was Prebendary, and the other Bishop, occasion­ed by the Bishops visitation of that Cathedral; in which as Harding had the worst, so was it a Presage of a second foil which he was to have in this encounter. Who had the better of the day, will easily appear to any that con­sults the Writings, by which it will appear how much the Bishop was too hard for him at all manner of Weapons. Whose learned Answers as well in maintenance of his Chal­lenge, as in defence of his Apology (whereof more hereafter) contain in them such a Ma­gazin of all sorts of Learning, that all our Controversors since that time, have furnished themselves with Arguments and Authority from it.

[Page 29] THUS far that Learned man has dis­coursed the event of this famous Challenge with so much brevity and perspicuity, that I thought it better to transcribe his words, than to do it much worse my self.

WHEN Queen Mary died, Paul the Fourth was Pope, to whom Queen Elizabeth sent an account of her coming to the Crown, which was delivered by Sir Edward Karn her Sisters Resident at Rome; to which the angry Gen­tleman replied, Dr. Burnett's History of the Reformation. Tom. 2. That England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See, that she could not suc­ceed being illegitimate; nor could he contradict the Declarations made in that matter by his Pre­decessors Clement the Seventh, and Paul the Third: he said it was a great boldness in her, to assume the Crown without his Consent; for which in reason she deserved no favour at his hands; yet if she would renounce her Pretensions, and re­fer her self wholly to him, he would shew a fa­therly affection to her, and do every thing for her that could consist with the dignity of the Apostolick See. Which answer being hastily and passio­nately made, was as little regarded by the Queen. But he dying soon after, Pius the Fourth an abler man succeeded; and he was for gaining the Queen by Arts and Kindness; to which end he sent Vincent Parapalia Abbot of St. Saviours with courteous Letters to her, dated May the fifth 1560. with order to make large proffers to her under hand; but the Queen had rejected the Popes Authority by Act of Parliament, and would have nothing to do with Parapalia, nor would she suffer him to come into England. In the interim the Pope had resolved to renew the Council at [Page 30] Trent, and in the next year sent Abbot Martiningo his Nuncio to the Queen, to in­vite her and her Bishops to the Council, and he accordingly came to Bruxells, and from thence sent over for leave to come into En­gland: but tho France and Spain interceded for his Admission, yet the Queen stood firm, and at the same time rejected a motion from the Emperor Ferdinando, to return to the old Religion as he called it. Yet after all these denials given to so many and such potent Princes, one Scipio a Gentleman of Venice, who formerly had had some acquaintance with Bishop Jewel when he was a Student in Padua, and had heard of Martiningo's ill suc­cess in this Negotiation, would needs spend some Eloquence in labouring to obtain that Point by his private Letters, which the Nuncio could not gain as a publick Minister; and to that end he writes his Letters of Ex­postulation to Bishop Jewel his old Friend, preferred not long before to the See of Saris­bury. Which Letter did not long remain un­answered; that Learned Prelate (saith my Author) was not so unstudied in the nature of Councils, Dr. Heylyn Eccl. Rest. p. 349. as not to know how little of a General Council could be found at Trent: And therefore he returned an answer to the proposition so elegantly penned, and so ela­borately digested, that neither Scipio himself nor any other of that Party durst reply upon him. Which Letter the Reader will find in this small piece new translated. But this was written some time after the Apology was Printed in England.

[Page 31] IN the year following Bishop Jewel put out The Apology of the Church of England in Latin; 1562. Humfrey's in the Life of Jewel. p. 177. Peter Martyr's Letter to Bi­shop Jewel concerning this Book is dated Aug. 24. 1562. which tho written by him, was pu­blished by the Queens Authority, and with the advice of some of the Bishops, as the Pu­blick Confession of the Catholick and Chri­stian Faith of the Church of England, &c. and to give an account of the reasons of our departure from the See of Rome, and as an answer to those Calumnies that were then raised against the English Church and Na­tion, for not submitting to the pretended Ge­neral Council of Trent then sitting.

SO that it is not to be esteemed as the private work of a single Bishop, but as a pu­blick Declaration of that Church whose name it bears. Mr. Humfrey seems in this place to confound this and the Epistle to­gether, as if they had been written at the same time which it is apparent they were not.

THIS Apology being published during the very time of the last meeting of the Coun­cil of Trent, was read there, and seriously considered, and great threats made that it should be answered; and accordingly two Learned Bishops, one a Spaniard and the other an Italian, undertook that task, but neither of them did any thing in it.

BUT in the mean time the Book spread into all the Countries in Europe, and was much applauded in France, Flanders, Germany, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, Sweden and Scotland; and found at least a passage into Italy, Naples and Rome it self; and was soon after translated into the German, Italian, French, [Page 32] Spanish, Dutch, and last into the Greek Tongue; in so great esteem this Book was abroad: and at home it was translated into English by the Lady Bacon Wife to Sir Nicholas Ba­con, English Life. Before his Works. Hum­frey. p. 234. Lord Keeper of the great Seal of En­gland.

IT very well deserves the Character Mr. Humfrey has given of it, whose words are these. Page 187. It is so drawn, that the first part of it is an Illustration, [...]and as it were a Paraphrase of the Twelve Articles of the Christian Faith (or Creed) the second is a short and solid Con­futation of whatever is objected against the Church; if the Order be considered, nothing can be better distributed; if the Perspicuity, nothing can be fuller of Light; if the Stile, nothing more terse; if the words, nothing more splendid; if the Arguments, nothing stronger.

THE good Bishop was most encouraged to publish this Apology by Peter Martyr (as Heylyn. p. 328. appears by Martyr's Letter of the 24 th of August) with whom he had spent the greatest part of his time in Exile. But Martyr only lived to see the Book which he so much longed for, dying at Zurick, on the twelfth day of November following, 1562. In the LXIII. of his Age. after he had paid his thanks for, and expressed his value of this piece in a Letter which is subjoyned to this Book in all the following Prints. And Mr. Camden also in his Annals expresly saith, this Apology was printed first in the year 1562.

In the year 1564. 1564. Mr. Harding put out a pretended Answer to Bishop Jewel's famous Challenge at Paul's Cross, mentioned above, to which in the year following the Bishop made a very learned Reply, the Epistle before [Page 33] which bears date at London the 27 th of Octo­ber of that year: the Bishop is said to have spent two years in that Piece. The same year the University of Oxon gave him (tho absent) the degree of Doctor of Divinity; and certainly he well deserved to have that extraordinary respect and Honour shewn him, who was so eminently imployed then in the Service and defence of the Church.

HE had no sooner brought this to a Con­clusion, 1567. but Harding was again upon him, and put out an Antapology, or answer to his Apo­logy for the Church of England. A Defence of which the Bishop forthwith began, which he finished, as appears by his Epistle to Mr. Har­ding at the end of it, the 27 th of October 1567.

THE next year after Mr. Harding put out another piece, which he entitled, A detection of sundry foul Errors, &c. which was a cavilling reply to some passages in his defence of the Apology, which not seeming to deserve an answer by it self; he answered rather by a Preface to a new Impression of his former Defence, which he finished the eleventh of December 1569. and dedicated his Works to the Queen; Harding having told the World that she was offended with Bishop Jewel for thus troubling the World. 1569

THE same year Pope Pius the Fourth having published a Bull of Excommunication and Deprivation against the Queen, Bishop Jewel undertook the defence of his Soveraign, 1570. and wrote a learned Examination and Con­futation of that Bull; which was published by John Garbrand an intimate acquaintance of his, together with a short Treatise of the [Page 34] Holy Scriptures, both which, as he informs us, were delivered by the Bishop in his Ca­thedral Church in the year 1570. 1570.

BESIDES these he writ several other large pieces; as 1. a Paraphrastical Interpre­tation of the Epistles and Gospels through­out the whole year. 2ly. Diverse Treatises of the Sacraments and Exhortations to the Readers. 3ly. Expositions of the Lords Prayer, the Creed and Ten Commandments. And also 4ly. An Exposition upon the Epistle to the Galatians; the first of St. Peter, and both the Epistles to the Thessalonians; which I suppose were his Sermons: for he was of opinion that it was a better way of teaching, Humfrey's, p. 111. to go through with a Book, than to take here and there a Text; and that it gave the People a more clear and lasting know­ledge.

IN the beginning of the next year was a Parliament, April 5. 1571. and consequently a Convocati­on, when Tho. Cartwright and others of that Faction, having alarmed the Church by their Oppositions to the established Religion, it was thought fit to obviate their bold attempts, and thereupon command was given by the Arch-bishop, That all such of the lower House of Convocation, who had not formerly subscribed unto the Articles of Religion agreed upon Anno 1562. should subscribe them now; or on their absolute refusal, or delay, be expelled the House: Which occasioned a general and personal Subscription of those Articles. And it was also farther ordered, That the Book of Articles so approved, should be put into Print, by the ap­pointment of the Right Reverand Doctor John [Page 35] Jewel then Bishop of Sarum; which shews he was there, and in great esteem.

IT was in some part of this year also, that he had his Conference, and preached his last Sermon at Paul's Cross about the Ce­remonies and State of the Church, which he mentioned on his Death-bed. But I cannot fix the precise time of either of them, or give any further account with whom that Con­ference was. But however this Holy man sought nothing but the Peace and Welfare of the Church, by these gentle and mild ways of Correption: the Dissenters of those times treated him for it with as little respect as Mr. Harding and his Confraternity had be­fore, as Bishop Whitgift assures us; his words are these. They (the Dissenters) will not stick (saith he) in commending themselves, to deface all others, yea even that notable JEWEL, whose both Labour and Learning they do envy; and amongst themselves deprave, as I have heard with mine own ears, and a number more besides. For further proof whereof, I do refer you to the report, that by this facti­on was spread of him after his last Sermon at Paul's Cross, because he did confirm the Doctrine before preached by a famous and learned man touching obedience to the Prince and Laws. It was strange (saith he) to me, to hear so notable a Bishop, so learned a Man, so stout a Champion of true Religion, so painful a Prelate, so ungratefully and spitefully used by a sort of wavering, wicked and wretched Tongues: but it is their manner, be you never so welll learned, never so painful, so zeal [...]us, so ver­tuous, all is nothing with them, but they will [Page 36] deprave you, rail on you, back-bite you, invent lyes of you, and spread false rumours, as though you were the vilest Persons in the whole earth.

THUS writes that venerable Arch-bishop in his Defence of the Answer to the Admonition, p. 423. upon occasion of a Paper written also about this time by Bishop Jewel, upon certain frivolous Objections against the Government of the Church of England, made by Thomas Cart wright; which the Bishop had confuted, and Cartwright writing against him, Whitgift de­fended them in this place; and by the by shews how ill the good Bishop was treated for his last Sermon at Paul's Cross, by this gene­ration of Vipers; which extorted from him that Protestation he made on his Death-bed, of which I shall give an account hereafter.

BEING naturally of a spare and thin Body, and thus restlesly trashing it out with reading, writing, preaching and travelling, he hastened his death, which happened be­fore he was full fifty years of Age; of which he had a strange Perception a considerable time before it happened, and wrote of it to several of his Friends, but would by no means be perswaded to abate any thing of his for­mer excessive Labours, saying, A Bishop should die preaching.

THO he ever governed his Diocess with great diligence, yet perceiving his death ap­proaching, he began a new and more severe Visitation of it; correcting the Vices of the Clergy and Laity more sharply; injoyning them in some places tasks of Holy Tracts to be learned by heart, conferring Orders more carefully, and preaching oftener.

[Page 37] HAVING promised to preach at Lacock in Wiltshire, a Gentleman who met him go­ing thither, observing him to be very ill by his looks, advised him to return home, assu­ring him it was better the People should want one Sermon, than to be altogether deprived of such a Preacher. But he would not be perswaded, but went thither and preached his last Sermon out of the fifth to the Galat. Walk in the Spirit, &c. which he did not finish without great labour and difficulty.

THE Saturday following being the 22d. of September 1571. he piously and devoutly rendered up his Soul into the Hands of God, having first made a very devout and Christi­an Exhortation to those that were about him, and expressing much dislike of one of his Ser­vants who prayed for his Recovery. He died at Monketon farly, when he had been a Bishop almost twelve years; and was buried almost in the middle of the Quire of his Cathedral Church, and Aegidius Lawrence preached his Funeral Sermon. He was extreamly be­wailed by all men; and a great number of Latin, Greek and Hebrew Verses were made on this occasion by learned men, which are collected and printed by Mr. Lawrence Hum­frey Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxon, in the end of his Life written in Latin by the order of that University; nor has his name been since mentioned by any Man, without such Elogies and Commendations as befitted so great, so good, so learned and laborious a Prelate.

HAVING thus brought him to his Grave, my Reader may be pleased to permit me to [Page 38] collect some particular things which could not so well be inserted into the History of his Life, without breaking the thread of it.

HE had naturally a very strong Memory, Memory. which he had strangely improved by Art. Mr. Humfrey gives several Examples of this, but I will instance in two only, John Hooper Bisop of Glocester, who was burnt in the Reign of Queen Mary, once to try him, writ about forty Welsn and Irish words; Mr. Jewel going a little while aside, and recollecting them in his Memory, and reading them twice or thrice over, said them by heart backward and forward exactly in the same order they were set down. And another time he did the same by ten Lines of Erasmus his Paraphrase in English, the words of which being read sometimes confusedly without order, and at other times in order by the Lord Keeper Ba­con, Mr. Jewel thinking a while on them, presently repeated them again backward and forward, in their right order and in the wrong, just as they were read to him; and he taught his Tutor Mr. Parkhurst the same Art.

THO his Memory were so great and so improved, Industry. yet he would not intirely rely upon it, Common place Books. but entered down into Common place Books, whatever he thought he might afterwards have occasion to use; which, as the Author of his Life informs us, were ma­ny in number, and great in quantity, being a vast Treasure of Learning, and a rich Re­pository of Knowledge, into which he had collected Sacred, Profanne, Poetick, Philoso­phick and Divine Notes of all sorts; and all these he had again reduced into a small piece [Page 39] or two, which were a kind of General In­dexes, which he made use of at all times when he was to speak or write any thing; which were drawn up in Characters for bre­vity, and thereby so obscured, that they were not of any use, after his Death, to any other person. And besides these, he ever kept Diaries, Diaries. in which he entered whatever he heard or saw that was remarkable; which once a year he perused, and out of them ex­tracted what ever was more remarkable.

AND from hence it came to pass, that wh [...]eas Mr. Harding in that great Contro­versie they had, abounded only in Words, Bishop Jewel overwhelm'd him with a cloud of Witnesses and Citations out of the ancient Fathers, Councils, and Church Histori­ans; confirming every thing with so great a number of incontestableo Authorities, that Mr. Harding durst never after pretend to a second perfect and full Answer, but content­ed himself with snarling at some small pieces: the truth is, as Dr. Heylyn observes, all the following Controversies were in this point beholding to the indefatigable Industry of this great Leader.

YET he was so careful in the use of his own Common place Books, that when he was to write his Defence of the Apology, and his Reply, he would not trust intirely to his own Excerpts or Transcriptions, but having first carefully read Mr. Hardings Books, and marked what he thought deserved an Answer, he in the next place drew up the Heads of his intended Answer, and resolved what Autho­rities he would make use of upon each Head, [Page 40] and then by the Directions of his Common place Book, read and marked all those Passages he had occasion to make use of, and delivered them to some Scholars to be transcribed un­der their proper Heads, that he might have them together under his Eye, when he came to write; which Care and Diligence of his speaks at once both his Industry, Fidelity, and Modesty, in that he would not trust his own Transcripts, and is a just reprehension of the Falshood of those who knowingly make false Citations, and of the supine [...]g­ligence of those who take them up upon [...]ust from other men, and use them without any Examination; by which means great Mi­stakes are made, and Cotroversies spring up to the Disturbance of the World. The truth is, a man ought to re-examine his own Thoughts, for what may seem very perti­nent at a first reading to any purpose, may prove otherwise upon second thoughts, and a close Observation of what goes before, or follows after in the Author; and few men are so exact in their first Excerpts, but thro Has, Inadvertence or Mistake, they may more or less err and be deceived; not to say that a mans Intention of Mind is much exal­ted by the fixing it upon one particular Ob­ject, and the expectation of a Conviction from his Adversary, in case he make the least Mistake. This Account of our venera­ble Bishop was given by one Mr. John Garbrand, who was intimately acquainted with him, in an Epistle Dedicatory before some of his Sermons, printed in Octavo, in the year 1583.

[Page 41] HE was an excellent Grecian, Languages. and not unacquainted with the Italian Tongue, and as to the Latin, he wrote and spoke it with that elegance, politeness, purity and fluency, that it might very well be taken for his Mo­ther Tongue; and certainly he took the right course to be Master of it, having made himself in his youth, perfectly Master of Ho­race (upon whom he writ a large Comenta­ry) Tully and Erasmus, all whose voluminous and excellent Works he read over, excerpted and imitated every day he lived, especially during his continuance at Oxon, and he was then wont also to declaim extempore to himself in Latin in the Woods and Groves as he walked.

AND when the Lady Bacon wrote him a Letter in Greek, His Greek Learning. he replied in the same Lan­guage. He was excellently read in all the Greek Poets, Orators and Historians, espe­cially in the Ecclesiastical Historians, and above all other, loved Gregory Nazianzen, and quoted him all on occasions.

His Learning was much improved by his Exile, Travail. in which, besides his Conversation with Peter Martyr and the other learned men at Strasburgh and Zurick, and his Society with Mr. Sands, afterwards Arch-bishop of York, who was his Bedfellow almost all the time they were in exile, his Curiosity led him over the Alps into Italy, and he studied some time in Padua, and by the Acquaintance he contracted with Seignior Scipio a great man, seems to have been very much esteemed there.

[Page 42] HE was of a pleasant debonair Humour, His Humour. extreamly civil and obliging to all; but with­all of great Gravity, and of so severe a Pro­bity and Virtue, that he extorted from his bitterest Enemies a Confession, that he lived the Life of an Angel; and tho he were lame, yet till his being a Bishop, he travailed for the most part a-foot, both at home and beyond the Seas; he was contented in every condition, and endeavoured to make all others so, by telling them when he was in exile, that nei­ther would their Calamity last an Age, nei­ther was it reason they should bear no share of the Cross of Christ, when their Brethren in England fared so much worse.

HE was so extream grateful to all that had done him good, Gratitude. that when he could not express his Gratitude to Mr. Bowin his School-master, he paid it to his Name, and did good to all that were so call'd for his sake, tho they were not related to that good man.

HE was a most laborious Preacher, Preaching. al­ways travelling about his Diocess, and preaching where-ever he came; wherein h [...] laboured to speak to the apprehensions of the People, hating all light gingling Discourse and Phrases, as beneath the Dignity of tha [...] sacred Place, yet he was careful here too i [...] the Choice of his Words, and endeavoure to move the Affections of his Auditory by pathetick and zealous Applications, avoiding all high-flown Expressions, and using a grave and sedate, rather than sweet way of speak­ing, and never venturing in the meanest Au­ditory to preach extempore.

[Page 43] Mr. Humfrys, who was himself a Calvenist, Page III, No friend to the Disenters (as Mr. Camden informs us in his Annals,) has done what he could to represent Bishop Jewell as a favourer of our English [...]enters; but it is certain he opposed them in his Exile, when they began the Stirs at [...]; and the last publick Act he did in all his Life, was to reprehend them severely, in a Sermon preached at Pauls Cross, which I take to be the last Sermon, printed in the Collection of his Works in 1609; and to defend the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church against them; both which he mentioned on his Death-bed in these words. My last Sermon at Pauls Cross in London, and the Conference I held with some Brethren concerning the Ceremonies and present State of our Church, was not undertaken to please any M [...]rtal man, or [...]o exasperate or trouble those that thought otherwise than I did; but last [...] Party should prejudice the other, and that the love of God through the operation of [...] which is given to us, might be shed abroad in [...] hearts. To which he wisely subjoyns his opinion, that these Contentions were kindled and fomented by the Popish Party; as [...] well known now. The truth is, the Schimsm was then in its Rise, and those great Impostors Coleman, Button, and Hallingham, The [...] to the first Tom. of Col. by Dr. [...] which were nothing but Popish Priests in the Masquerade of Puritan Preachers, being severly correct­ed in the year 1568, there was no great motion made by that Party, till the Parlia­ment held in the Thirteenth year of the Queen, April 2. 1570. had confirmed the Ar­ticles of the Church by Act of Parliament; and Subscription thereupon, being [...] [Page 44] urged than before, Fuller's C. H. lib. 9. Sect 3. n. 3. many Dissenters kept their pri­vate Meetings in Woods, Fields, their Friends Houses, &c. as Fuller from Tho. Cartwright's second Reply, p. 38. informs us. These disor­ders in all probability occasioned the Sermon at Paul's Cross, and the Conference at London, which happened not long before his death, and probably after this Session of Parliament, which the Bishop survived but six months. Humfrey's. So that if the Bishop did rarely and unwillingly preach any thing concerning the Rites and indiffe­rent parts or Circumstances of Religion, as our Author tells, us, it was because he had no great occasions given him: but what he thought of these men, will best appear from the Sermon I mentioned above; his words are these. By whose name shall I call you? I would I might call you Brethren: But alas this heart of yours is not Brotherly; I would I might call you Christians: But alas you are no Christians, I know not by what name I shall call you: For if you were Brethren, you would love as Brethren: If you were Christians, you would agree as Christians. So that he could have no good opinion of those whom he every where in that Sermon stiles proud, self-conceited, disobedient, and unquiet men, who did not deserve the title of Brethren or Christians. What would he have said if he had lived in our days?

BESIDES confuting some of the Seditious Do­ctrines of Thomas Car­wright, In a short Paper written by this good Bishop against certain frivolous obje­ctions made against the Government of the Church of England. Printed at Lond [...]n 1641. Bishop Whitgift in the defence of the Answer to the Admo­nition, tells us, Cartwright was the man; and that hereupon the Faction used the Bishop most ungratefuly and de­pitefully, p. 423. who became fa­mous by his Admonition to the Parliament; in the year following the Bishop said, [Page 45] Stultitia nata est in corde pueri, Prov. 22. 15. & virga disci­plinae fugabit illam. Which shews he was no encourager of Faction by Lenity and Tolera­tion; tho he was a man of great moderation otherwise, and expressed a great sense of the Frailties of Mankind in other Instances; as appears by his Letter to Dr. Parkhurst when Bishop of Norwich. Let your Chancellor (saith he) be harder, but you easier; let him wound, but do you heal; let him Lance, do you Plaister; wise Clemency will do more good than rigid severity, one man may move more with an Engine, than six with the force of their hands. And accordingly he would often sit in his own Consistory with his Chancellor, hearing, considering, and sometimes determining Causes concerning Matrimony, Adultery, and Testaments, &c. not thinking it safe to commit all to the sole care and sidelity of his Chancellor and Offi­cials. But tho as a Justice of Peace he often sate in the Courts of Quarter-Sessions, yet judgment were desired concerning some scru­ple of Religion, or some other such-like diffi­culty. So exact was his care, not to entangle himself with secular affairs; and yet not to be wanting to his duty in any case.

THO he came to a Bishoprick miserably impoverished and wasted, Liberality. yet he found Means to exercise a prodigious Liberality and Hospi­tality. For the first, his great Expence in the building a fair Library for his Cathedral Church, may be an instance which his Suc­cessor Dr. Gheast furnished with Books, whose name is perpetuated, together with the Me­mory of his Predecessor by this Inscription. [Page 44] [...] [Page 45] [...] [Page 46] Haec Bibliotheca extructa est sumptibus. R. P. ac D. D. JOHANNIS JEWELLI, quondam Sarum Episcopi; instructa vero libris à R. in Christo P. D. Edmundo Gheast, olim ejusdem Ec­clesiae Episcopo, quorum memoria in Benedictione erit A. D. 1578.

HIS Doors stood always open to the Poor, and he would frequently send his charitable Reliefs to Prisoners, Charity. nor did he confine his Bounty to English men only, but was liberal to Foreigners, and especially to those of Z [...] ­rick, and the Friends of Peter Martyr.

BUT perceiving the great want of learned men in his times, his greatest care was to have ever with him in his House half a dozen or more poor Lads which he brought up in Learning; and took much delight to hear them dispute Points of Grammar-learning in Latin at his Table when he was at his Meal, improving, them, and pleasing himself at the same time.

AND besides these, he maintained in the University several young Students, allowing them yearly Pensions; and when ever they came to visit him, Mr. Hooker. rarely dismissed them without liberal G [...]atuities. Amongst these was the famous Mr. Richard Hooker his Coun­try-man, Dr. Walton [...] Mr. Hooker's Life. whose Parents being Poor, must have been bound Apprentice to a Trade, but for the Bounty of this good Bishop, who allow­ed his Parents a yearly, Pension towards his maintenance well near seven years before he was fit for the University, and in the year 1567, appointed him to remove to Oxford, and there to attend Dr. Cole then President of Corpus Christi Colledge, who according to his [Page 47] Promise to the Bishop, provided him a Tutor, and a Clerks place in that Colledge; which with a Contribution from his Uncle Mr. John Hooker, and the continued Pension of his Pa­tron the Bishop, gave him a comfortable sub­sistence; and in the last year of the Bishops Life, Mr. Hooker making this his Patron a vi­sit at his Palace, the good Bishop made him, and a Companion he had with him, dine at his own Table with him, which Mr. Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude, when he saw his Mother and Friends, whither he was then travelling a Foot. The Bishop when he parted with him, gave him good Counsel and his Blessing, but forgot to give him Mo­ney, which when the Bishop bethought him­self of, he sent a Servant to call him back again, and then told him, I sent for you Ri­chard, to lend you a Horse which hath carried me many a mile, and I thank God with much ease. And presently delivered into his hand a walk­ing-staff, with which he professed he had tra­velled many parts of Germany; and then went on and said, Richard, I do not give but lend you my Horse; be sure you be honest and bring my Horse back to me at your return this way to Ox­ford; and I do now give you ten Groats to bear your charges to Exeter; and here is ten Groats more which I charge you to deliver to your Mother, and tell her, I send her a Bishops Blessing with it, and beg the continuance of her Prayers for me. And if you bring my Horse back to me, I will give you ten more to carry you on foot to the College; and so God bless you good Richard. It was not long after this, before this good Bishop died, but before his death he had so effectually recom­mended [Page 48] Mr. Hooker to Edwin Sandys then Bi­shop of London, and after Arch-bishop of York, that about a year after he put his Son under the Tutelage of Mr. Hooker, and was otherwise so liberal to him, that he became one of the learnedest men of the Age; and as Bishop Jewel soild the Papists, so this Mr. Hooker in his Books of Ecclesiastical Polity, gave the Dissenters such a fatal Defeat, as they never yet could, nor ever shall be able to re­cover from. Nor was Mr. Hooker ungrateful, but having occasion to mention his good Be­nefactor in that Piece he calls him (Bishop Jewel) the worthiest Divine that Christendom hath bred for the space of some hundreds of years.

BUT to return to Bishop Jewel, Lib. 2. §. 6. he had collected an excellent Library of Books of all sorts, not excepting the most impertinent of the Popish Authors; and here it was that he spent the greatest and the best part of his time, rarely appearing abroad, especially in a Morn­ing till eight of the Clock; so that till that time it was not easie to speak with him; when commonly he eat some slight thing for the support of his thin Body; and then, if no Business diverted him, retired to his Study again till Dinner.

HE maintained a plentiful, but sober Ta­ble, and tho at it he eat very little himself, yet he took care his Guests might be well supplied, entertaining them in the mean time with much pleasant and useful Discourse, telling and hearing any kind of innocent and divertsiing Stories: for tho he was a man of a great and exact, both Piety and Virtue, yet [Page 49] he was not of a morose, sullen, unso­ciable Temper, and this his Hospitality was equally bestowed upon both Foreigners and English men.

AFTER Dinner he heard Causes, if any came in; and dispatched any Business that be­longed to him (tho he would sometimes do it at Dinner too;) and answered any Questi­ons, and very often arbitrated and composed Differences betwixt his People, who know­ing his great Wisdom and Integrity, did very often refer themselves to him as the sole Ar­bitrator, where they met with speedy, im­partial, and unchargeable Justice.

AT nine at night he call'd all his Servants about him, examin'd how they had spent their time that day, commended some, and reproved others, as occasion served, and then closed the day with Prayers, as he began it: the time of his publick Morning Prayers seems to have been eight.

AFTER this, he commonly went to his Study again, and from thence to Bed, his Gentlemen reading some part of an Author to him, to compose his Mind, and then com­mitting himself to his God and Saviour, he betook himself to his Rest.

HE was extream careful of the Revenues of the Church, not caring whom he offend­ed to preserve it from impoverishing in an Age, when the greatest men finding the Queen not over liberal to her Courtiers and Servants, too often paid themselves out of the Church Patrimony, for the Services they had done the Crown, till they ru­in'd some Bishopricks intirely, and left others [Page 50] so very poor, that they are scarce able to maintain a Prelate.

THERE is one instance of this mention­ed by all that have written our Bishops Life; a Courtier (who was a Lay-man) having ob­tained a Probendary in the Church of Saris­bury, and intending to lett it to another Lay­person for his best Advantage, acquainted Bishop Jewel with the Conditions between them; and some Lawyers opinion about them. To which the Bishop replied; What your Lawyers may answer I know not; but for my part, to my Power, I will take care that my Church shall sustain no loss whilst I live. What was the event of this, none of them have told us.

NOR was he careful of his own Church only, but of the whole English Church, as ap­pears by his Sermon upon Psalm 69. v. 9. The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up. Which he preached before the Queen and Court, as appears by it in several Addresses to her in the body of that Sermon. In it he hath this ob­servation. In other Countries the receiving of the Gospel hath always been the cause that Learn­ing was more set by; and Learning hath ever been the furtherance of the Gospel. In England, I know not how it cometh otherwise to pass, for since the Gospel hath been received, the maintenance for Learning hath been decayed; and the lack of Learn­ing will be the decay of the Gospel. And a little after he tells us, Those that should be fosters of Learning, and increase the Livings, had no Zeal. What said I, increase? Nay the Livings and Pro­visions which heretofore were given to this use, are (saith he) taken away. And a little after, Whereas all other Labourers and Artificers have [Page 51] their hire encreased double, as much as it was wont to be; only the poor man that laboureth and sweateth in the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, hath his hire abridged and abated. And he applies himself towards the Conclusion thus to the great men. You inriched them which mocked and blinded and devoured you; spoil not them now that feed and instruct and comfort you.

I had not taken the pains to transcribe so much of this excellent Discourse, which may easily enough be read by any that desire it in his Works, but to raise a little consideration if it be possible, in this debauched Age. This good man foretold here, that this Sacrilegious De­vastation of the Church would in time be the ruine of the Gospel, as he calls the Reforma­tion, and so it came to pass: for whereas he observed then, that by reason of the Impropriati­ons, the Vicarages in many places, and in the pro­perest Market Towns were so simple, that no man could live upon them, and therefore no Man would take them, but the People were forced to provide themselves as they might with their own Money; the Consequence of this in a few years was, that these mercenary men becoming Factious, or being such, crept into such places out of hopes of the greater advantage; and so infected the minds of the Trades-men, that as the Church became very much weakened and disquieted by their Factions; so our Par­liaments in a little while became stuft with a sort of Lay-Brethren who were Enemies both to the Church and Crown, which was a great part of the occasion of the Rebellion in 1640. [...]n which many of those Families whose An­cestors had risen by the Spoils of the Church [Page 52] were ruined: and tho much care was taken upon the Restitution of his late Majesty Charles the Second, for the prevention of such Mischiefs for the future, yet no care was taken of these Livings in Market Towns and Corporations; by which means it came to pass, that within about twenty years more, we were very fairly disposed for another change, and nothing but God prevented it. From whence I conclude, that till this leak is stopped, both Church and Crown will be in danger of a Shipwrack.

There is fixed upon the Bishops Grave­stone, a Plate of Brass with the Arms of his Family, and this following In­scription.

D. IOhanni Iewello Anglo Devoniensi ex Antiqua Iuellorum familia Budenae Oriundo, Academiae Oxoniensis Lauda­tissimo Alumno: Mariana tempestate per Germaniam Exuli, Praesuli Regnante Elizabetha Regina Sarisburiensis Dio­coeseos (cui per Annos XI. Menses IX. summa fide & integritate praefuit) Reli­giosissimo: Immaturo fato Monkton-farleae praerepto XXIII. Sept. Anno salutis hu­manae Christi Merito Restitutae 1571. & Aetatis suae 49. Positum est Observan­tiae ergo Hoc Monumentum.

This Epitaph was drawn for him by Mr. Hum­frey, and much more; which in probabi­lity could not be all put upon the Brass: But yet he took care to publish it at large in his Life of the Bishop, from whence I have tran­scribed it, which is in these words.

D. Joanni Juello Anglo, Devoniensi
Ex antiqua Juellorum Familia Budenae oriundo,
Academiae Oxoniensis Laudatissimo Alumno:
Marianae Tempestate per Germaniam Exuli.
Praesuli
Regnante Elizabetha Regina,
Sarisburiensis Dioeceseos.
(Cui per Annos XI. menses IX. summa fide
& integritate praefuit.)
Religiosissimo, viro singulari eruditione,
Ingenio Acutissimo, judicio gravissimo,
Pietate, Humanitate egregie
Praedito,
Theologiae cum primis cognitione
Instructissimo;
Gemmae Gemmarum
Immaturo fato Monkton-farleae Praerepto,
Sarisburiae Sepulto.
Coelorum civi.
Laurentius Humfredus
Hoc Monumentum observantiae ergo
Et Benevolentiae Consecravit,
Anno salutis Humanae
Christi Merito Restitutae
MDLXXIII. ix. Kal. Oct.
Vixit Annos XLIX. menses IV.
Psal. 112.
In memoria aeterna erit Justus.

A Letter written to the Reverend Father in God Dr. John Jewel Lord Bishop of Sarisbury, by Dr. Peter Martyr.

BY the favour of the Bishop of London (most worthy Prelate and my very good Lord) there was brought me one of your Apologies for the Church of England; which neither I nor any others hereabouts before had seen: It is true in your last Letter you rather intimated that it might come out, than signfied that it should; but how­ever it came not hither till about the middle of July. And from hence your Lordship may con­sider how much we suffer from the distance of places. It hath not only given me an intire satis­faction, who approve and am strangely pleased with all you do; but to Bullinger and his Sons, and Sons in Law: And it seems so very wise, ad­mirable and elegant to Gualter and Wolphius, that they can put no end to their Commendations of it, as not thinking there hath been any thing printed in these times of so great a Perfection. I do infinitely congratulate this great felicity of your Parts, this excellent Edification of the Church, and the Honour you have done your Country, and I do most earnestly beseech you to go on in the same way; for tho we have a good Cause, yet the De­fenders of it are few in comparison of its Enemies; and they now seem so awakened, that they have of late won much upon the ignorant Multitude, by the goodness of their Stile, and the subtilty of their Sophistry. I speak this of Staphylus and [Page 55] Hosius, and some other Writers of that Party, who are now the stout Champions of the Papal Errors. But now you have by this your most ele­gant and learned Apology, raised such an hope in the minds of all good and learned men, that they generally promise themselves, that whilst you live, the reformed Religion shall never want an Advocate against its Enemies. And truly I am extreamly glad, that I am so happy as to live to see that day which made you the Father of so illu­strious and eloquent a Production. May the God of Heaven of his goodness grant that you may be blessed in time with many more such.

Zurick, Aug. 24. 1562.

The Reader is desired to amend these few Errata's with his Pen, the rest being gene­rally nothing but literal mistakes, are left to his Candor.

PReface to the Reader, Page 14. Line 19. for to his Envoy, read by his Envoy, Apology p. 10. for Sardus r. Sardis. p. 12. l. 22. for last r. late p. 66. l. 5. r. and because the Gospel. p. 76. l. 3. for or r. for. p. 140. l. 13, & 14. for security p. 151. in Marginal note for August 1560. 4. 1562.

THE APOLOGY OF THE Church of ENGLAND. Written by the very Learned and Reverend Father in God John Jewell, Bishop of Sarisbury.

CHAP. I.
Of the true Religion professed in the Church of England, with a short Account of the Opposition the Truth and truë Religion hath met with in all Ages.

IT is an old Complaint deriv'd down Truth ever persecuted. to us from the very times of the Patriarchs and Prophets, and con­firm'd by the Evidence of all Hi­stories, and the Testimonies of all Ages, that Truth is a Stranger upon Earth, Tertul. in Apo­logia. and doth too easily find Enemies and Defamers, be­cause [Page 2] she is not known: and although this may seem perhaps incredible to those who have not attentively reflected on it, because Mankind, by the instinct of Nature, without any Teacher, doth spontaneously breathe af­ter Truth; and Christ himself our Saviour, whilst he convers'd with Men, chose to be call'd the TRUTH, as if that Name did aptly express all the Power and Force of his Divine Nature: yet we who are acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, and have read and considered what hath happenned to pious men in almost all Ages, what befel the Pro­phets, the Apostles, the holy Martyrs, and Christ himself; with what Slanders, Curses, and Injuries they were vexed whilst they liv­ed, only for the sake of Truth. We ( I say) see by this, that it is no new thing, but usual, and the Custom of all Ages. Indeed it would appear much more wonderful and incredible, if the Father of Lyes, the Devil, that Enemy of all Truth, should now of a sudden change his Mind, and entertain any other hopes of oppressing the Truth than by Lyes; or should now begin to establish his Kingdom by other Arts than those he hath hitherto imployed: For in all Ages we shall scarce find any Period of time in which Religion en­creased, established it self, or was reform'd, but that at the same time Truth and Inno­cence were most unworthily and most inju­riously treated by men; for the Devil knows very well, that if Truth doth flourish in safety, his Affairs can neither be safe nor prospe­rous.

[Page 3] 2. FOR to speak nothing of the Ancient Patriarchs and Prophets, no part of whose Lives (as I said) was free from Reproaches and Slanders. We know that of Old there were some who averr'd and publickly told the World, Cor. Tacitus. Tertul. in Apo­log. c. 7. c. Pli­nius. that the Ancient Jews, who we doubt not worshipped the only true God, perform'd their Religious Rites to a Swine or an Ass, and that all that Religion was a meer Sacri­ledge and a Contempt of all Deities. We know that the Son of God our Saviour Jesus Christ, John 8. 9. 10. Mar. 11. whilest he taught the truth, was re­puted an Impostor, an Inchanter, a Samari­tan, a Beelzebub, a Deluder of the people; a Wine-bibber and a Glutton. Who knows not what was said of St. Paul, that powerful Preacher and Assertor of Truth, sometimes he was a seditious man, and listed Soldiers, and designed a Rebellion; and at other times, that he was an Heretick, a mad man; that out of a contentious and perverse Dispositi­on, he was a Blasphemer against the Law of God, and a Despiser of the Customs of the Fathers? Who knows not that so soon as ever St. Stephen had admitted the Truth, and suffered it to take Possession of his Soul, and thereupon (as he ought) began freely and stoutly to preach and own it, he was imme­diately call'd in question for his Life, as one that had spoken Blasphemy against the Law, against Moses, against the Temple and God? Marcion, ex Tertullian [...]. Aelius, [...] Lactan. or knows not that the Holy Scriptures have been accused of Vanity and Folly, upon pre­tence that they contain'd things contrary and repugnant one to another, and that all the Apostles of Jesus Christ disagreed amongst [Page 4] themselves, and that St. Paul differed from all the rest? And that I may not trouble you with all the Instances of this nature which are upon Record (for they are infinite) who knows not what Slanders were of old raised against our Forefathers, Tertul Apolog. c. 2, 3. and 7. 8, 9. who first imbraced and professed the Name of Christ; that they conspired amongst themselves against the Government, and for that purpose, met ve­ry early, whilst it was yet dark; that they murthered Male-Infants, gorged themselves with Mans Flesh, and in a barbarous manner drank humane Blood; and at last, putting out the Candles, perpetrated Incests and A­dulteries; and that Brothers lay with their Sisters, and Sons with their Mothers, with­out any reverence to their Bloods and Fami­lies, without Difference or Modesty; that they were impious, destitute of all Religion, Atheists, the Enemies of all Mankind, and unworthy of the Light or Life.

3. THESE things were spoken against the Jews, the People of God, against Christ Jesus, against St. Paul, St. Stephen, and against all those who in the first Ages imbraced the truth of the Gospel, and were called Christians, Tertul. Apolog. [...]ap. [...]. a Name then hated by the Many. And although none of these things were true, yet the Devil thought it sufficient to his Purpose if they were believed true; that so the Christians might incur the pub­lick Hatred, and be pursued by all to Ruine and Destruction. And thus Kings and Prin­ces being deceived, slew all the Prophets of God to a Man, they condem'd Isaiah to the Saw, Jeremia to be ston'd, Daniel to the Li­ons, [Page 5] Amos to the Iron Bar, Paul to the Sword, and Christ to the Cross, and all Chri­stians to Prisons, Sueton, in Ne­rone. Juvenal. Sat. to Racks, to Crosses, to Rocks and Precipices, to wild Beasts and Fires, and burnt whole Piles of their living Bodies for nocturnal Lights, and by way of Sport and Recreation; and never esteem'd them better than the most vile Filth of the Earth, the Off-scourings and Scorn of the World; thus the first Authors and Profes­sors of the Truth, were ever treated.

4. WHEREFORE all we who have now undertaken the Profession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, ought to bear it with the less disturbance of Mind, if in the same Cause, we are treated after the same manner; and as heretofore our Fathers, 1 Tim. 4. so we in this Age, are persecuted also with Reproaches, Slanders and Lyes, only because we teach and profess the Truth.

5. THEY roar out in all Places, The Accusati­ons of the R. Catholicks▪ that we are Hereticks, that we have forsaken the true Faith, and broken the Union of the Church with new Opinions and impious Doctrines. 2. That we fetch from Hell, and revive the old and long since condemn'd He­resies, and sow the Seeds of new Sects, and unheard of Broils: that we are already di­vided into contrary Factions and Opinions, and we could never yet in any manner agree amongst our selves. 3. That we are wicked men, and like the Gyants of old, have en­tered into a Rebellion against God himself, and live without the least regard to the Deity, and without any religious Worship. 4. That we despise all good Actions; that we do not use [Page 6] any virtuous Discipline, that we regard nei­ther Laws nor good Manners, nor Right, nor Justice, nor Equity, nor Order; that we let loose the Rein, and suffer all sorts of Villa­nies, and even provoke the People to all the Licentiousness and Luxury that is possible. 5. That our Business and great Design is the subverting Monarchies and Kingdoms, that all States may be reduced under the Domini­on of the ignorant Multitude, and the indis­creet Populace. 6. That we have made a tu­multuous Defection from the Catholick Church, and have shaken the Peace of the World, and disturbed the Quiet of the Church by a detestable Schism; and that as hereto­fore Dathan and Abiram rose up against Mo­ses and Aaron, so we, without any just cause have revolted from the Pope of Rome. 7. That we despise the Authority of the Primitive Fathers and antient Councils: That we have imprudently and insolently abrogated the antient Ceremonies which have been approved for many Ages by our Fathers and Grand­fathers, who had better Manners, and lived in better Times; and that by our own pri­vate Authority, without the Consent of a Holy and General Council, we have intro­duced new Rites into the Church; and that we have not done this for the Sake of Religi­on, but purely out of a contentious Humour; that they on the contrary have changed no­thing, but have retained all things as they were delivered to them by the Apostles; ap­proved by the most antient Fathers, and have been kept ever since, through all the interme­diate Ages to this day.

[Page 7] 6. AND least all this might seem to be only a Calumny, and that managed by se­cret Whispers only, with design to excite an Envy against us, the Popes of Rome have sub­orned eloquent and not unlearned Men to undertake the Defence of this desperate Cause, and to represent it to the World in Books and long Discourses, in the best Co­lours it was possible to give it, to the intent, that being elegantly and copiously pleaded, unskilful men might suspect there was some­thing more than ordinary in it; for indeed they saw that their Cause was every where in a declining Condition; their Arts were now seen through, and so were the less esteemed; their Fortresses were every day undermin'd, and their Case stood in need of a powerful Patronage and Defence. But then as to those things which they have charged us with, some of them are manifestly false, and condemn'd by the Consciences of them that object them against us; others, though in the bottom they are false too, yet they have the shew and similitude of truth, so that an incautious and unthinking Reader may (especially if he be surprised by any of their laboured and elegant Discourses) be easily circumvented and deceived: and others of the things thus charged upon us, are such as we ought to acknowledge and profess, and not decline the owning them, as if they were Crimes, but defend them, as things that were well and rationally done. For to speak in a word, they slander whatever we do, e­ven those Actions of ours, which themselves cannot deny to be rightly and well done; [Page 8] and malitiously deprave and pervert all our Words and Actions, as if it were not possible We should do or speak any thing as we ought. They ought indeed to treat us with more Simplicity and Candor, if they designed truth; but on the other hand, they do not oppose us with truth, nor in a Christan Way or Manner, but with Lyes, in a close and crafty way; and abuse the blindness and ignorance of the Rabble, and the want of Learning in Princes, to the inflaming their Hatred against us and the Oppression of the Truth. This is indeed the Power of Darkness, and the Folly of Men, who trust more in the Stupidity and benighted Minds of the unpo­lished Multitude, than in the Light of Truth; or as St. Jerom expresseth it, This is to contra­dict with shut Eyes, the Truth, when it is most perspicuous. But we bless the great and Holy God, our Cause is such, that though they never so much desire to defame it, yet they can fix no Reproach upon it, which they may not with as much Reason and Justice imploy against the Holy Fathers, the Prophets, the Apostles, against St. Peter, St. Paul, and even against Christ him­self.

7. BUT now if they are so ambitious of the Honour of being thought polite and elo­quent Slanderers, it does so much the less befit us to be mute and careless in the De­fence of our most excellent Cause; for it is certainly the part only of dissolute Men, who can securely and wickedly shut their Eyes when the Divine Majesty is injured, to be wholly unconcern'd; what is (tho' [Page 9] falsly and unjustly) said of them and their Cause, especially when it is of that Na­ture, that the Glory of God, and the Af­fairs of Religion are at the same time violated; for although other, and those of­ten very great Injuries, may be born and dissembl'd by a modest Christian, yet He (saith Ruffinus) who shall patiently put up the Name of an Heretick, does not deserve to be called a Christian. Permit us then to do that which all Laws, and the ve­ry Voice of Nature commands us, that which Christ himself did, when he was in a like Case assaulted with Reproaches; that is, suffer us to repel their Defamations, and with Modesty and Truth, to defend our Cause and Innocence: for Christ himself, when the Pharisees charged him with Conju­ration, as if he had entered a Combinati­on with impure Spirits, and by their As­sistance wrought many Wonders, John 8. 49. replied, I have not a Devil, but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me; and St. Paul, when he was undervalued by Festus the Proconsul, as a Mad-man, Act. 26. 25. answered, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the Words of Truth and Soberness. And the Primitive Christians, when they were traduced to the People as Murtherers, Adulterers, Incestuous Persons, and Disturbers of the Government, and saw that the Excellence of their Religion might be call'd in question, espe­cially if they held their Peace, and by their Silence, seemed to confess the truth of these Accusations, and so the Course of the Gospel might be hindered, they there­upon [Page 10] Quadratus, Justinus, Me­lito, Tertullian. Quadratus a Disciple of the Apostles, and Bishop of Athens, wrote Books for the Christian Religion, and made an Oration in the Defence of it before Hadrian the Emperor, by which he put a stop to a furious Persecution then moved against it. Anno Christi 128. Spondanus. Justinus the Martyr, a Christian Philosopher, wrote an Apologetick Oration for the Christian Religion, with great freedom and truth, which he dedicated to Antoninus Pius the Emperor, and his adopted Sons Marcus and Lucius, and to the very Senate and People of Rome. Anno Christi 150. for which he lost his Life. Melito, Bishop of Sard [...]s, wrote an excellent Apology to Aurelius the Emperor for the Christians, which he presented to that Emperor in the tenth year of his Reign. Anno Christi 172. Baronius. Tertullian wrote a very learned and a sharp Apology for the Christian Religion, which was some few years since made English. It was first published by the Author, without his Name, in the year of Christ 201. in the very City of Rome, and did great service to Christianity, which was then most miserably oppressed by the Lies and Defamations of the Pagans, which did it more hurt than all their other Fury.made publick Orations, wrote suppli­cant Books, and discoursed before Emperors and Princes in the publick defence of them­selves and the Chruch.

8. BUT we perhaps may seem not to need any Defence, so many thousands of our Brethren in the last twenty years having born testimony to the Truth, amidst the most exquisite Tortures; and Princes, in en­deavouring to put a stop to the Progress of the Gospel, and to that purpose using several Methods, having yet in the end been able to effect nothing; and the whole World now beginning to open their Eyes, and to see the Light, and therefore it may seem (as I said) that enough hath been spoken, and that our Case is sufficiently defended, the thing speak­ing for it self; for if the Popes themselves would, or indeed, if they could consider with themselves the Beginning and Progress of [Page 11] our Religion; how theirs without any Re­sistance, without any humane Force hath fallen; and in the interim, ours hath in­creased, and by degrees been propagated into all Countries, and hath been entertained in the Courts of Kings, and the Palaces of Princes, even whilst it was opposed from the beginning by Emperors, by Kings, by Popes, and almost by all others; these things (I say) are clear Indications that God himself sights for us, and doth from Heaven deride and scorn their Projects and Endeavours, and that the Power of Truth is so great, that no humane Force, nor the very Gates of Hell shall ever be able to prevail against it; for so many free Cities, so many Princes cannot be sup­posed mad, as at this day have fallen from the See of Rome, and chosen rather to joyn themselves to the Gospel.

9. FOR although Popes have not as yet at any time been at leisure to think attentively and seriously of these things; or although other Thoughts may now hinder and distract them, or they may think these things light, and beneath the Dignity of the Popedom; is our Cause therefore to be thought ever the worse? or if perhaps they will pretend not to see what indeed they do see, and that they choose rather to oppose the Truth, even then when they are convinced of it; are we therefore presently to be reputed Hereticks, because we cannot comply with their Wills? If Pope Pius the IIII. had been such a Per­son as his Name speaks him, and as he so much desires to be thought; nay, indeed if he had but been so good a man, as to have [Page 12] esteem'd us as his Brethren, or as MEN, certainly he would diligently have consider­ed our Reasons, and what could have been alledged for and against us, and not with so rash and blindfold a precipitancy have con­demned without hearing our cause, or allow­ing the Liberty of a Defence so considera­ble a part of the World, so many learned, so many Religious men, so many Common­wealths, so many Kings, and so many Prin­ces as he has sentenced in his Bull, concerning his late pretended Council.

10. BUT now, because We are so publickly in this unjust manner noted by him, left by our silence we should seem to confess the Crimes charged upon us, and the rather, be­cause we could in no manner be heard in any publick Council; where he would suffer none to have any Suffrage, or propose his Judgment, who was not first sworn to him, and intirely addicted to his Interest (for of this we had too great an experience in the last Council of Trent, when the Ambassadors and Divines of the Princes and free Cities of Germany were to­tally excluded out of the Council; nor can we forgot that Julius the III. above ten years since, took a mighty care by his Rescript, that none of our Men might be heard in the Council, ex­cept it were one that was disposed to recant and change his Opinion.) For these causes (I say) we have thought fit by this Book to give an account of our Faith, and to answer truly and publickly what hath been publickly ob­jected against us, that the whole World may see the Parts and Reasons of that Faith which so many good men have valued above their [Page 13] Lives, and that all Mankind may understand what kind of men they are, and what they think of God and Religion, whom the Bi­shop of Rome has inconsiderately enough, be­fore they had made their Defence, without Example and without Law condemn'd for Hereticks, upon a bare report, that they dif­fered from him and his in some points of Re­ligion.

11. AND though St. Jerome will allow no man to be patient under the Suspicion of He­resie, yet we will not behave our selves nei­ther sowerly nor irreverently, nor angerly, tho' he ought not to be esteemed either sharp or abusive, who speaks nothing but the truth; no, we will leave that sort of Orato­ry to our Adversaries, who think whatsoever they speak, although it be never so sharp and reproachful, modest and apposite, when it is applied to us, and they are as little concern'd whether it be true or false; but we, who de­fend nothing but the Truth, have no need of such base Arts.

12. NOW if we make it appear, and that not obseurely and craftily, but bona fide, be­fore God, truly, ingeniously, clearly and perspicuously, that we teach the most holy Gospel of God, and that the antient Fathers, and the whole Primitive Church are on our side, and that we have not without just cause left them, and return'd to the Apostles and the antient Catholick Fathers; and if they, who so much detest our Doctrine, and pride themselves in the name of Catholicks, shall apparently see, that all those Pretences of Antiquity, of which they so immoderately [Page 14] glory, belong not to them, and that there is more strength in our Cause than they thought there was; then we hope that none of them will be so careless of his Salvation, but he will at some time or other bethink himself which side he ought to joyn with. Certainly, if a man be not of an hard and obdurate Heart, and resolved not to hear, he can never repent the having once consider­ed our Defence, and the attending what is said by us, and whether it be agreeable or no to the Christian Religion.

13. FOR whereas they call us Hereticks, that is so dreadful a Crime, that except it be ap­parently seen, except it be palpable, and as it were to be felt with our Hands and Fin­gers, it ought not to be easily believed that a Christian is or can be guilty of it; for Heresie is a Renunciation of our Salvation, a Rejection of the Grace of God, and a departure from the Body and Spirit of Christ. But this was ever the Custom and Usage of them and of their Fore-fathers, that if any presumed to complain of their Errors, and desired the Re­formation of Religion, they condemn'd them forthwith for Hereticks, as Innovators and factious men. Christ himself was call'd a Sa­maritan, for no other cause, but for that they thought he had made a defection to a new Religion or Heresie. And St. Paul the Apostle being call'd in question, was accused of Heresie, to which he replied. Acts 24. 14. After the Way which they call Heresie, so worship I the God of my Fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law, and in the Prophets.

[Page 15] 14. In short, all that Religion which we Christians now profess in the beginning of Christianity, Tertul. in Apo­log. was by the Pagans call'd a Sect or Heresie; with these words they fill'd the ears of Princes, that when out of prejudice they had once possessed their minds with an Aversion for us, and that they were perswad­ed, that whatever we said was Factious and Heretical, they might be diverted from re­flecting upon the thing it self, or ever hearing or considering the Cause: but by how much the greater and more grievous this Crime is, so much the rather ought it to be proved by clear and strong Arguments, especially at this time, because men begin now adays a little to distrust the Fidelity of their Oracles, and to inquire into their Doctrine with much greater industry than has heretofore been im­ployed; for the People of God in this Age are quite of another Disposition than they were heretofore, when all the Responses and Dictates of the Popes of Rome were taken for Gospel, and all Religion depended upon their Authority; the Holy Scriptures, and the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets are every where now to be had, out of which, all the true and Catholick Doctrine may be proved, and all Heresies may be refuted.

15. BUT seeing they can produce nothing out of the Scriptures against us, it is very in­jurious and cruel to call us Hereticks, who have not revolted from Christ, nor from the Apostles, nor from the Prophets. By the Sword of Scripture Christ overcame the Devil when he was Tempted by him; with these Weapons every high thing that exalteth it self 2 Cor. 10. 4. 5. [Page 16] against God, is to be brought down and dis­persed, 2 Tim. 3. 16. for all Scripture (saith St. Paul) is gi­ven by inspiration of God, and is profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, for Instructi­on, that the Man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished unto all good Works; and ac­cordingly, the Holy Fathers have never fought against Hereticks with any other Arms, than what the Scriptures have afford­ed them. St. Augustin, when he disputed a­gainst Petilianus a Donatist Heretick, De Vnitate Eccl. c. 3. con­tra Max. lib. 3. c. 14. useth these words, Let not (saith he) these words be heard, I say, or thou sayest, but rather let us say, thus saith the Lord, let us seek the Church there, let us judge of our Cause by that. In prim. cap. Aggei. And St. Je­rom saith, Let whatever is pretended to be de­livered by the Apostles, and cannot be proved by the Testimony of the writen Word, be struck with the Sword of God. And St. Ambrose to the Emperor Gratian, Let the Scriptures (saith he) let the Apostles, let the Prophets, let Christ be in­terrogated. The Catholick Fathers and Bi­shops of those times, did not doubt but our Religion might be sufficiently proved by Scripture; nor durst they esteem any man an Heretick, whose Error they could not perspicuously and clearly prove such by Scripture. And as to us, we may truly reply with St. Paul, Acts 24. 14. After the way which they call HERESIE, so worship I the God of my Fa­thers, believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets, or the Writings of the Apostles.

16. IF therefore we be Hereticks, and they (as they desire to be call'd) be Catholicks; why do they not do what they see the Fathers [Page 17] and all other Catholicks have done? why do they not convince us out of the Holy Scrip­tures? why do they not try us by them? why do they not shew that we have made a defection from Christ, from the Prophets, from the Apostles, and from the Holy Fa­thers? Why do they stand? Why do they draw back? It is the Cause of God. Why then should they fear to commit it to the Arbitriment of the Word of God? But if we are Hereticks, who submit all ou [...] Contro­versies to the Holy Scriptures, and appeal to those very Words which we know were con­signed to writing by God himself, and prefer them before all other things which can pos­sibly be excogitated by the Wit of Man; what are they, or by what Name shall they be call'd, who fear and shun the Sentence of the Scriptures, that is, the Judgment of God himself, and prefer their own Dreams and silly Inventions before them, and have for some Ages violated the Institutions of Christ and his Apostles, for the sake of their Tradi­tions? There is a Story of Sophocles the Trage­dian, that when he was very old, he was accused before the Judges by his own Sons, for a childish and a silly Person, as one that had wasted his Estate by ill managery, and stood in need of a Guardian in his old Age, to take care of him and it; the old Man appear­ed in Court, and instead of a De [...]ence, reci­ed a Tragedy, which he had very elaborately and elegantly written, just in that time the Suit was depending, and thereupon asked the Judges if that Poem were the Work of a childish person.

[Page 18] 16. SO we therefore, because we are taken by them for mad-men, and are traduced as if we were Hereticks, and as if we had no­thing to do with Christ, nor with the Church of God; have thought it not unreasonable or unprofitable to propound openly and freely the Faith in which we stand, and all that Hope which we have in Christ Jesus, that all may see what we think of every part of the Christian Religion, and so determine with themselves, whether that Faith which they must needs perceive to be consonant to the Words of Christ and the Writings of the Apostles, and the Testimonies of the Catho­lick Fathers, and which is confirmed by the Examples of many Ages, be only the Rage of a sort of mad-men, and a Combination, or Conspiracy of Hereticks.

CHAP. II.
Containing the Doctrine received in the Church of England.

WE believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine Power which we call GOD, and that this is distinguished into three equal Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all of the same Power, of the same Majesty, of the same Eternity, of the same Divinity, and of the same Sub­stance; and altho' these three Persons▪ are so distinguished, that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Holy Ghost or Father; [Page 19] yet there is but one GOD, and that this one God created Heaven and Earth, and whatever is contain'd within the Circumfe­rence of the Heavens.

2. WE believe that Jesus Christ, the only Son of the eternal Father, as it had been de­creed, before the beginning of all things, when the fulness of time came, took our Flesh and perfect Humane Nature of that blessed and pure Virgin, that he might reveal to Men, that hidden and secret Will of his Father, which was conceal'd from all former Ages and Generations; and that in this hu­mane Body, he might finish the Mystery of our Redemption, Coll. 2. 14. and might nail to his Cross our Sins, and the Obligation which lay a­gainst us.

3. FOR we believe that for our sakes he di­ed, was buried, descended into Hell, and the third day, by a Divine Power, returned to Life, and arose, and after forty days, in the sight of his Disciples, ascended into Heaven, that he might fill all things, and that the very Body in which he was born, in which he convers'd, in which he was despised, in which he had suffered most grievous Tor­ments, and a most direful Death, in which he rose, and now ascended to the right hand of his Father; was placed above all Principa­lities and Power, and every Name which is mentioned, not only in this World, but in that which is to come, in Majesty and Glory. And we believe that he doth now sit there, Act [...] 3. 2 [...]. and shall sit there till all things are fulfil'd; and altho the Majesty and Divinity of Christ is diffused every where, yet his Body [Page 20] (as St. Augustine saith) ought to be in one place; Tract. 30. in Joan. we believe that tho Christ added Maje­sty to his Body, yet he took not from it the Nature of a Body; Epist. ad Dar­dan. nor is Christ to be so as­serted to be God, that we should deny him to be Man: Fulgentius ad Regem Thrasi mundum. and as the Martyr Vigilius said, Christ left us as to his Humane Nature, but he hath not left us in his Divine Nature; and tho he is absent from us by the Form of a Servant, yet he is ever with us by the Form of God.

4. AND from thence we believe Christ shall return to exercise a general Judgment, as well upon those he shall then find alive, as upon all that are then dead.

5. WE believe that the Holy Ghost, who is the third Person in the Holy Trinity, is true God, not made nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding from both, that is, from the Father and the Son, in a way neither known to Mortals, nor possible to be expressed by them. We believe that it is He who sof­tens the Hardness of Mans Heart, when he is received into their Hearts, by the saving preaching of the Gospel, or by any other way whatsoever; that it is He who inlightens them, and leads them to the Knowledge of God, into all the ways of Truth, into a per­fect newness of Life, and a perpetual hope of Salvation.

6. WE believe that there is one Church of God, and that not consin'd as it was hereto­fore to the Jewish People, in one Angle or Kingdom, but that it is Catholick and Univer­sal, and so diffused or spread over the Face of the whole Earth; that there is no Nation [Page 21] which can justly complain that it is excluded, and cannot be admitted into the Church and People of God; that this Church is the Kingdom, the Body and Spouse of Christ; that Christ is the only Prince of this King­dom; that there is in the Church divers Or­ders of Ministers, that there are some who are Deacons, others who are Presbyters, and others who are Bishops, to whom the In­struction of the People, and the Care and Ma­nagement of Religion is committed. And yet that there neither is, nor is it possible there should be, any one man who has the care of this whole Catholick Church, for Christ is ever present with his Church, and needs not a Vicar, or sole and perfect Successor; and that no mortal Man can in his mind contain all the Body of the Universal Church, that is, all the parts of the Earth, much less can he reduce them into an exact Order, and rightly and prudently administer its Affairs. That the Apostles, De Simpl. Praelatorum. as St. Cyprian saith, were all of equal Power and Authority, and that all the rest were what St. Peter was; that it was said to all alike, Feed: To all, go ye into all the World: To all, teach ye the Gospel. And that as St. Jerome saith, All Bishops, wheresoe­ver they are setled, whether it be at Rome or Eugubium, at Constantinople or Rhegium, they are of equal Worth, and of the same Priest­hood. And as St. Cyprian saith, there is but one Episcopacy, and each of them hath a perfect and intire share of it. And that according to the Judgment and Sentence of the Council of Nice, the Bishop of Rome hath no more Au­thority in the Church of God than the other [Page 22] Patriarchs, viz. the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch. That the Bishop of Rome, who now endeavours to draw all the Ecclesiastical Authority to himself alone, if he doth not his Duty, that is, if he doth not administer the Sacraments, if he doth not instruct the Peo­ple, Admonish and Teach, he is not to be call'd a Bishop, or indeed a Presbyter; for as St. Augustin saith, Bishop is the Name of a Work or Office, and not a Title of Honour; so that he who would usurp an unprofitable Preheminence in the Church is no Bishop. But then, that the Bishop of Rome, or any o­ther Person should be the Head of the whole Church, or an universal Bishop is no more possible, than that he should be the Bride­groom, the Light, the Salvation, and the Life of the Church, for these are the Privi­ledges and Titles of Christ alone, and do properly and only belong to him; nor was there ever any Bishop of Rome, who would suffer so insolent and proud a Title to be gi­ven him, before the Times of Phocas the Empe­ror, who as we very well know, aspired to the Empire by a most detestable Villany (the Murther of Mauritius the former Emperor, his Soveraign) that is, till the year of Christ 613. That the Council of Carthage express­ly decreed, Chap. 47. that no Bishop should be called the highest The Title of Pontifex Max­imus was that of the Roman Heathen Priests, and cannot properly be rendred into English any other way, than by that of Priest, it being not of the same nature with the Word Bishop, yet have the Popes of Rome usurped this very heathen Title. P [...]ntiff or chief Priest. But the Bishop of Rome, because he now desires to be so call'd, and usurps a Power which belongs [Page 23] not to him, besides that, he acts directly against the ancient Councils and the Fathers, if he dares believe St. Gregory, Gregory lib. 4. Ep. 76. 78. 80. lib. 7. Ep. 69. one of his own Predecessors, he has taken upon him an ar­rogant, prophane, sacrilegious, antichristian Title, and is therefore the King of Pride, Lucifer, one that sets himself above his Bre­thren, who has denied the Faith, and is thereby become the fore-runner of Anti­christ.

7. WE say that a Minister ought to have a lawful Call, and be duly and orderly pre­ferred in the Church of God, and that no Man ought at his own Will and Pleasure to intrude into the sacred Ministry. So that a very great Injury is done us, by them, who so frequently affirm, that nothing is done de­cently and in order with us, but all things are managed confusedly and disorderly; and that with us all (that will) are Priests, Teachers, and Interpreters.

8. WE say that Christ has given to his Ministers the Power of Binding and Loosing, of Opening and Shutting. And we say that the Power of Loosing consists in this, that the Minister, by the preaching of the Gospel, offers to dejected Minds and true Penitents, through the Merits of Christ, Absolution, and doth assure them of a certain Remission of their Sins, and the hopes of eternal Salvation. Or secondly, reconciles, restores, and receives into the Congregation and Unity of the Faith­ful, those Penitents, who by any grievous Scan­dal or known and publick Offence, have offended the Minds of their Brethren, and in a sort, alienated and separated themselves [Page 24] from the common Society of the Church, and the Body of Christ. And we say, the Minister doth exercise the Power of Binding or Shutting, when he shuteth the Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven against Unbelievers and obstinate Persons, and denounceth to them the Vengeance of God and eternal Punish­ment; or excludeth out of the Bosome of the Church, those that are publickly excom­municated; and that God himself doth so far approve whatever Sentence his Ministers shall so give, that whatsoever is either loosed or bound by their Ministry here on Earth, he will in like manner bind or loose, and con­firm in Heaven: The Key with which these Ministers do shut or open the Kingdom of Heaven, we say with St. Chrysostom, is the Knowledge of the Scripture; with Tertullian, is the Interpretation of the Law; and with Euse­bius, is the Word of God. We say the Disci­ples of Christ received this Power (from him) not that they might hear the private Confes­sions of the People, and catch their whisper­ing Murmurs, as the Popish Priests every where now do; and that in such a manner, as if all the force and use of the Keys consist­ed only in this; but that they might go and Preach and Publish the Gospel, that so they might be a savour of Life unto Life, to them that did believe; and that they might be also a savour of Death unto Death, to those that did not believe; that the Minds of the Pious, who were affrighted with the sense of their former ill Lives and Errors, after they beheld the Light of the Gospel, and believed in Christ, might be opened by the Word of [Page 25] God, as doors are with a Key. And that the wicked and stubborn, who would not be­lieve and return into the Way, might be left, shut up, 2 Tim. 3. 13. and locked, and as St. Paul express­eth it, might wax worse and worse; this we take to be the meaning of the Keys, and that in this manner the Consciences of Men are either bound or loosed. We say that the Priest is a Judge; but then we say with St. Ambrose, that he hath not the Right of any Dominion; and therefore Christ reprehended the Scribes and Pharisees with these words, that he might reprove their Negligence in teaching: Math. 23. 13. Luk. 11. 52. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees, for you have taken away the Key of Knowledge, and shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men. Seeing then the Key, by which a Passage is opened for us into the Kingdom of Heaven, is the Word of the Gospel, and the Interpre­tation of the Law and the Scriptures: where there is no such Word, there is no Key. And seeing the same word was given to all, and the Key which pertains to all, is but one; we say that the Power of all Ministers as to binding and loosing, is one and the same; and we say, that even the Pope himself, not­withstanding his Flatterers, do so sweetly sooth him up with these words, Math. 16. 19. I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; as if they belonged to him, and to no other Mortal under Heaven; except he makes it his Business to bend and subdue the Consciences of Men to the Word of God, we deny that even he (as I said) can either open or shut, or hath at all the Keys; and altho he [...]oth teach and instruct the People (which I [Page 26] wish he would sometimes do truly, and at last be perswaded to believe it is at least some part of his Duty and Office) but yet if he did so, his Key would be neither better nor greater than that of others; for who made that difference? Who taught him to open more learnedly, or absolve more powerfully than his Brethren?

9. WE say that Marriage is Honorable and Holy in all degrees of Men, in Patri­archs, in Prophets, in Apostles, in Holy Mar­tyrs, in the Ministers of the Churches, and in the Bishops, In Titum. Hom. I. Theoph. ad Ti­tum. Euseb. lib. 18. c. 5. in Monodia sua super Basilium. and that as St. Chrysostom saith, it is both lawful and just that he should ascend the Episcopal Throne with it; and we say as So­zomen did of Spiridion, and Nazianzen did o [...] his own Father, that a pious and industriou [...] Bishop is nothing the worse for being married, bu [...] rather much the better, and more useful in his Ministery. And we say that the Law, which by force taketh away this Liberty from Men, an [...] ­ties them to a single Life against their Wills, is as St. Paul stiles it, 1 Tim. 4. 1▪ the Doctrine of Devils▪ and that from hence (as is confessed by th [...] Bishop of Huldericus. Augusta; Faber, the Abbot of Pale [...] ­mo, Latomus, the tripartite Work, which [...] joyned to the second Tome of the Council [...] and other defenders of the Papal Party, and which is apparent from the thing it self, and confessed by all Histories) an incredible im [...]purity of Life and Manners, and horribl [...] Debaucheries in the Ministers of God hav [...] sprung and arisen; so that Pius the second [...] Bishop of Rome was not out, when h [...] said he saw many Causes why the Clerg [...] should be denied Wives; Platina in vita Pij secundi. but then he saw mor [...] [Page 27] and greater Causes to allow them Wives again.

10. WE receive and imbrace all the Ca­nonical Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament; and we give our gracious God most hearty Thanks, that he hath set up this Light for us, which we ever fix our Eyes up­on, lest by humane Fraud, or the Snares of the Devil, we should be seduced to Errors or Fables: We own them to be the heavenly Voices by which God hath reveal'd and made known his Will to us; in them only can the Mind of Man acquiesce; in them all that is necessary for our Salvation is aboun­dantly and plainly contain'd, as Origen, St. Augustin, St. Chrysostom, and St. Cyrill have taught us. They are the very Might and Power of God unto Salvation; they are the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets, upon which the Church of God is built; they are the most certain and infallible Rule by which the Church may be reduced, if She happen to stagger, slip, or err, by which all Ecclesiastical Doctrines ought to be tried; no Law, no Tradition, no Custom is to be received or continued, Gal. 1. 8. if it be contrary to Scripture. No, tho St. Paul himself, or an Angel from Heaven should come and teach otherwise.

11. WE receive also and allow the Sacra­ments of the Church, that is, the sacred Signs and Ceremonies which Christ commanded us to use, that he might by them, represent to our eyes the Mysteries of our Salvation, and most strongly confirm the Faith we have in his Blood, and seal in our Hearts his Grace; [Page 28] and we call them Figures, Signs, Types, Anti­types, Forms, Seals, Prints or Signets, Simili­tudes, Examples, Images, Remembrances and Memorials; with Tertullian, Origen, St. Am­brose, St. Augustin, St. Jerom, St. Chrysostom, St. Basil and Dionysius, and many other Ca­tholick Fathers. Nor do we doubt with them, to call them a kind of visible Words; the Signets of Righteousness, and the Symbols of Grace; and clearly affirm, that in the Sacra­ment of the Lords Supper, the Body and Blood of our Lord, is truly exhibited to Be­lievers; that is, the enlivening Flesh of the Son of God; the Bread that comes from above, the Nourishment of Immortality, the Grace, the Truth, and the Life; and that it is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, by the Participation of which we are quickned, strengthened, and fed to immortality, and by which we are conjoyned, united and incorporated with Christ, that we may remain in him, and he in us.

12. WE acknowledge that there are two Sacraments properly so call'd, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord; for so many we see were delivered to us, and consecrated by Christ, and approved by St. Ambrose, St. Au­gustin, and the ancient Fathers.

13. AND we say that Baptism is the Sacra­ment of the Remission of Sins, and of that Washing which we have in the Blood of Christ, and that none are to be denied that Sacrament, who will profess the Faith of Christ, no, not the Infants of Christians, be­cause they are born in sin, and belong to the People of God.

[Page 29] 14. WE say that the Eucharist is the Sa­crament or visible Symbol of the Body and Blood of Christ, in which the Death and Resurrection of Christ, and what he did in his humane Body, is in a manner repre­sented to our eyes, that we may give him thanks for his Death, and our Deliverance by it; and that by frequenting the Sacrament, we may often renew the Remembrance of it, and that by the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be nourished into the Hope of the Resurrection, and of eternal Life; and that we may be assured that the Body and Blood of Christ hath the same effect in the feeding of our Souls, which the Bread and Wine have in the repairing the Decays of our Bodies. To this great and solemn Feast the People are to be invited, that they may all commu­nicate together, and may publickly signifie and testifie both their Union and Society amongst themselves, and that Hope which they have in Christ Jesus; and therefore, if there was any one heretofore, before the pri­vate Mass was introduced, who would be only a Spectator, and yet would abstain from the Holy Communion, the Bishops of Rome in the Primitive Times, and the ancient Fathers would have excommunicated him as a wicked man and a Pagan: Chrysost. ad AE­phe. Ser. 3. De conser. dist. 1. cap. Omnes. Nor was there any Christian man in those times, who com­municated alone, in the presence of others who were only Spectators. So But now in the Decretum under the Name of Ana­cletus. Calixtus long since decreed, that when the Consecration was finished, all should communicate, if they would not be deprived of the Communion of the Church, and be shut out of it; for so [Page 30] (saith he) the Apostles ordained, and the Holy Church of Rome holds. And we say, that both the Parts of the Sacrament ought to be given to all that come to the Holy Communion, for so Christ commanded, and the Apostles instituted throughout the World, and all the ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops so practised; De consecratio­ne Dist. 1. cap. comperimus. and if any one shall do otherwise (saith Gelasius) he commits Sacriledge; and therefore our Adversaries, who exploding and rejecting the Communion, defend the private Mass, and a multitude of Sacraments, without the authority of the Word of God, without any ancient Council, without any Catholick Father, without any Example of the Primitive Church, and without Reason, and this against the express Command of Christ, and also against all Antiquity in so doing, act wickedly and sacrilegiously.

15. WE say that the Bread and Wine are the Holy and Heavenly Mysteries of the Bo­dy and Blood of Christ, and that in them, Christ himself, the true Bread of eternal Life is so exhibited to us as present, that we do by Faith truly take his Body and Blood, and yet at the same time we speak not this so as if we thought the Nature of the Bread and Wine were totally changed and abolished, as many in the last Ages have dreamt, and as yet, could never agree amongst themselves about this Dream. For neither did Christ ever design that the Wheaten Bread should change its Nature, and assume a new kind of Divinity, but rather that it might change us; and that as In Joan. cap. [...]. Theophylact saith, we might be trans-elemented into his Body: For what can be more [Page 31] perspicuous than what De Sacra. l. q. c. 4. St. Ambrose saith on this occasion, the Bread and Wine are what they were, and yet are changed into another thing? Or what In Dialo. l. 2. Gelasius saith, The Substance of the Bread, and Nature of the Wine do not cease to be. Or then what In Sermone ad infantes de Consecratione. Theodoret, after the Consecrati­on the mystical Symbols, do not cast off their own proper Nature (for they remain in their for­mer Substance and Figure and Species. Or then what St. Augustin saith, that which you see, is Bread, and a Cup, as your Eyes inform you; but that which your Faith desires to be instructed in, is this, the Bread is the Body of Christ, and the Cup is his Blood. Or then that of In Math. 15. Origen, that Bread which is consecrated by the Word of God, as to the Matter of it, goes into the Belly, and is cast out by the Draught. Or then that of Christ himself, who said, not only after the Con­secration, but after the finishing of the Com­munion: Luke 22. 18. I will drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine; for it is certain the Fruit of the Vine is Wine, and not Blood? And yet when we speak thus, we do not so depress the Esteem of the Supper of the Lord, as to teach that it is a meer cold Ceremony, and that nothing is done in it, which many falsly report of us; for we assert that Christ in his Sacraments doth exhibit himself truly present: In Bap­tism, that we may put him on: In his Sup­per, that we may eat him by Faith, and in the Spirit, and that by his Cross and Blood we may have Life Eternal; and this we say is not slightly and coldly, but really and truly done; for although we do not touch Christ with our Teeth and Lips, yet we hold and press him by Faith, Mind, and Spirit. [Page 32] Nor is that Faith vain which imbraceth Christ, nor that Participation cold, which is perceived by the Mind, Understanding and Spirit; for so Christ himself is intirely offered and given to us in these Mysteries as much as is possible, that we may truly know that we are Flesh of his Flesh, Gen. 2. 23. John 6. 56. and Bone of his Bone, and that he dwells in us, and we in him.

16. AND therefore in the Celebration of these Mysteries, before we come to re­ceive the Holy Communion, the People are fitly admonished to lift up their Hearts, and that they should direct their Minds to Hea­ven, for there he is, by whom we are to be fed and live. And St. Cyrill saith, that in partaking of the Holy Mysteries, all gross Imagi­nations are to be excluded. And the Nicen Council, as it is cited by some in Greek, doth expresly forbid us to think only on the Bread and Wine that are set before us. And St. Chry­sostom Writes well, We say that the Body of Christ is the Carcass, and we are to be the Eagles, that thereby we may learn to mount aloft, if we will approach the Body of Christ; for this is the Table of Eagles, and not of Jayes. And St. Cyprian, In coena Domi­ni. This Bread is the Meat of the Soul, and not of the Belly. And St. Augustin, How shall I lay hold on him who is absent? In Johan. tract. 50. how shall I reach my Hand into the Heavens, and touch him who sits there? Send thy Faith thither (saith he) and thou hast him sure.

17. BUT then as to the Fairs and Sales of Masses, and the carrying about and adoring the Bread, and a number of such like Idola­trous and blasphemous Follies, which none [Page 33] of them dare affirm to have been delivered to us by Christ of his Apostles; our Church will not indure them, and we justly blame the Bishops of Rome for presuming, without any Command of God, without any Authority of the Holy Fathers, and without any Ex­ample, not only to propose the Sacramental Bread to be adored by the People with a di­vine Worship, but also to carry it about be­fore them upon an ambling Nag where-ever they go, Lib. de caerem. Eccl. Rom. as the Persian Kings did heretofore their sacred Fire, and the Aegyptian their Image of Isis, and so have turned the Sacra­ments of Christ into Pageantry and Pomp, that, in that very thing in which the Death of Christ was to be celebrated and in­culcated, and the Mysteries of our Redemp­tion ought to be piously and reverently repre­sented, the Eyes of men should only be fed with a foolish shew, and a piece of Ludicrous Livity. And then, whereas they say, and sometimes perswade Fools, that they can by their Masses distribute and apply to men (who very often think of nothing less, and never know what is then doing) all the Me­rits of the Death of Christ; this Pretenc [...] ▪ I say, is ridiculous, heathenish and silly; for it is our Faith which applies the Death and Cross of Christ to us, and not the Acti­on of a Priest: the Faith of the Sacraments (saith St. Augustin) justifies, and not the Sacra­ment. And Origen saith, He (Christ) is the Priest, and the Propitiation, and the Sacrifice, and this Propitiation comes to every one by way of Faith; and therefore agreeably hereunto we say that the Sacraments do not profit the Living without [Page 34] Faith, and much less the Dead; for as to what they pretend concerning their Purgato­ry, Purgatory. tho that is no very late Invention, yet it is nothing but a silly old wives Story. St. August in Psal. 85. in Enchiri [...]io c. 6. 7. de civita­te Dei. lib. 21. cap. 26. lib. 11. contra Pelegi­an. lib. Hipog­nostcon. 5. Augustin sometimes saith there is such a place, sometimes he doth not deny but there may be such a Place, sometimes he doubts if there be, and at other times he positively denies there is any such place at all, and thinks that men, out of humane kindness to the Dead, are deceived in that point. And yet from this one Error there has sprung such a Crop of small Priests, that Masses being publickly and openly sold in every corner, they have turn'd the Churches of God into meer Shops, and deluded poor Mortals into a Belief that there was no Commodity more useful; and certainly, as to those small Levites, these Masses were very advantagious.

18. Of Cer [...]mo­nies. WE know that St. Augustin grievi­ously complain'd of the vast number of im­pertinent Ceremonies in his time, and therefore we have cut off a great many of them, be­cause we know they were afflictive to the Consciences of Men, and burthensome to the Church of God. Yet we still retain, and re [...]igiously use, not only all those which we know were delivered to the Church by the Apostles, but some others which we saw might be born without any inconvenience▪ because, as St. Paul commands, we desire al [...]things in the Religious Assemblies, [...] Cor. 1 [...]. 40. should be done decently and in order; but then as to al [...]those that were very superstitious, or base, or ridiculous, or contrary to the Scriptures, or did not seem to be [...]it sober men, an infinite [Page 35] number of which, are still to be found amongst Papists; we have rejected all these, I say, without excepting any one of them, be­cause we would not have the Service of God any longer contaminated with such Fooleries.

19. Prayer in our own Tongue. WE pray (as it is fit we should) in that Tongue our People do all understand, that the People, as St. Paul admonisheth, may reap a common Advantage by the com­mon Prayers; as all the Holy Fathers and Catholick Bishops, not only in the Old, but in the New Testament also did ever pray, and teach the People to pray, least, as St. Augustin saith, We should like Parrots, and other prating Birds, seem to sound Words which we did not un­derstand.

20. Mediators and Intercessors. WE have no Mediator and Intercessor, by whom we approach to God the Father, but Jesus Christ, in whose name only all things are obtained. But that which we see done in their Churches, is base and heathen­ish; not only because they have set up an in­finite number of Intercessors, without any Authority of the Word of God; so that as Jeremiah saith, Jerem. 2. 28. 11. 13. According to the number of thy Cities, so are thy Gods; so that miserable men know not which to apply themselves to, and tho they are innumerable, yet they have ascribed to each of them their Office, and what was to be obtained, had, and received from each of them; but also because they have not only impiously, but impudently soli­cited the Virgin Mary, that she would remember she is a Mother, that she would be pleased to command her Son, and that she would make use of the Au­thority she hath over him.

[Page 36] 21. Original Sin. WE say that Man is born, and does live in Sin, and that no man can truly say his Heart is clean; that the most holy Man is an unprofitable Servant: that the Law of God is perfect, and requires of us a full and perfect Obedience, and that we cannot in any way keep it perfectly in this Life; and that there is no Mortal who can be justified in the sight of God by his own Deserts; and therefore our only Refuge and Safety, is in the Mercy of God the Father by Jesus Christ, and in the assuring our selves that he is the Propitiation for our Sins, 1 John 2. 2. 4. 10. Col. 1. 20. Heb. 10. 14. by whose Blood, all our Stains are washed out; that he has pacified things by the Blood of his Cross; that He, by that only Sacrifice which he once offered upon the Cross, hath perfected all things; and therefore when he breathed out his Soul, said IT IS FINISHED; John 19. 30. as if by these words he would signifie, now the Price is paid for the Sins of Mankind.

22. Sacrifice. NOW if there be any who think not that this Sacrifice is sufficient, let them go and find out a better; but as as for us, be­cause we know this is the only Sacrifice, we are contented with it alone, nor do we expect any other; and because it was only once to be offered, we do not injoyn the Repetition of it; and because it was full, and in all its Numbers and Parts perfect, we do not substitute to it the perpetual Successions of our own Sacrifices.

23. Of good Works. THO we say there is no trust to be put in the Merits of our Works and Actions, and place all the Hopes and Reason of our Salvation only in Christ, yet we do not [Page 37] therefore say that men should live loosely and dissolutely, as if Baptism and Faith were sufficient for a Christian, and there were nothing more required; the true Faith is a living Faith, and cannot be idle; therefore we teach the People, that God hath not call'd us to Luxury and Disorder, but as St. Paul saith, Ephes. 2. 10. Col. 1. 10. Unto good Works, that we might walk in them. That God hath delivered us from the Power of Darkness, that we might serve the living God: that we should root up all the Re­liques of sin; Phil. 2. 12. that we should work out our Sal­vation with fear and trembling; that it might appear that the Spirit of Sanctification was in us, and that Christ himself dwelleth in our Hearts by Faith.

24. To conclude, We believe that this Bo­dy of ours in which we live, tho after Death it turns to Dust, yet in the last day it shall return to Life again, by the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth in us; and that then, what­ever we suffer for Christ in the interim, he will wipe away all Tears from our Eyes, and that then through him, we shall enjoy ever­lasting Life, and be always with him in Glo­ry, AMEN.

CHAP. III.
Containing a plain Demonstration of the Causes why, and whence Heresies arose in the Church, with Instances of all sorts, in all Times.

THESE are the horrible Heresies for which a considerable part of the World at this day are condemn'd by the Pope un­heard; it had been better to have entered a Contest with Christ, the Apostles and holy Fathers; for they it was, who did not only give a beginning to these Doctrines, but commanded them; unless they of the Church of Rome will say (as perhaps they will) that Christ did not institute the Holy Communi­on, that it might be distributed amongst the Faithful; or that the Apostles of Jesus Christ, or the ancient Fathers said private Masses in all the corners of their Churches, some­times ten, and at other twenty in one day; or that Christ-and the Apostles deprived the People of the Cup; or that That which they now do, and that with that eagerness, that whoever will not comply with them in it, is by them condemn'd for an Heretick, is not call'd Sacriledge by one of their own Popes, Gelasius; or that those are not the Words of Ambrosius, Augustinus, Gelasius, Theodoret, Chri­sostom, and Origen. ‘That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament remain what they [Page 39] were before; that that which is seen on the Holy Table is Bread; that the Substance of the Bread doth not cease to be, nor the na­ture of the Wine; that the Substance and Nature of the Bread is not changed; that this very Bread, as to what concerns the Matter of it, goes down into the Belly, and is cast out by the Draught:’ or that Christ and his Apostles and the Fathers did not pray in that Tongue which was understood by the People; or that ‘Christ by that one Oblation which he once offered, hath not perfected the Work of our Redemption; or that this Sacrifice was so imperfect, that we need another.’ Either they must say all these things, or else they must aver, which perhaps they had rather say, that all Right and Justice is inclosed in the Cabinet of the Popes Breast; and as one of his Followers and Flatterers once said, Distinct. 36. Lector in Glos­sa Distinct. 81. Presbyter. that he may dispense against the Apostles, against the Councils, and against the Apostolical Canons, and that he is not bound by those Examples, Institutions and Laws of Christ.

2. THUS we have been taught by Christ, by the Apostles and Holy Fathers, and we do faithfully teach the People of God the same things, and for so doing, we are called Here­ticks, by the great Leader and Prince of Re­ligion. O immortal God! What have Christ and his Apostles, and so many Fathers all erred? What, are Origen, Ambrose, Augustin, Chrysostom, Gelasius and Theodoret Apostates from the Catholick Faith? Was the Consent of so many Bishops and Learned men, no­thing but a Conspiracy of Hereticks? or [Page 40] that which was commendable in them, is it now blameable in us? And that which was Catholick in them, is it by a Change in the Wills of Men, become schismatical in us? Or that which was once true, is it now, because it displeaseth them, become false? Let them then produce a new Gospel, or at least, set forth their Reasons, why those things which were so long publickly observed and approv­ed in the Church, ought now at last to be recall'd. We know that the Word which was reveal'd by Christ, and propagated by the Apostles, is sufficient to promote our Sal­vation and all Truth, and to convince all Heresies: Out of it alone we condemn all sorts of ancient Heresies (which they pre­tend we have recall'd from the bottom of Hell) and pronounce the Arrians, Eutichians, Marcionites, Ebionites, the Valentinians, Carpo­cratians, Tatians, and Novatians; and in one word, all those who have thought impiously, either of God the Father, or of Christ, or of the Holy Ghost, or of any other part of the Christian Religion; all these (I say) because they are convicted by the Gospel of Christ, we pronounce them wicked and lost men, and detest them to the Gates of Hell; and not only so, but if any of those Heresies hap­pen to break out, anew amongst us, we se­verely and seriously correct the George Paris an Arrian, was burnt in the Reign of Ed­ward the 6th. April the 4th. 1551. for He­resie, tho he was a German by Nation. Godwins An­nals. Revivers of them with lawful and civil Punishments.

3. We confess, that upon the beginning of the Reformation, there arose some new and unheard of Sects, as Anabaptists, Libertines, Me­nonians, and Zwenkfeldians; but we render our unfeigned Thanks to God, that the World is [Page 41] now well satisfied, that we neither brought forth, nor taught, nor maintained those Monsters. Whoever thou art who thinkest otherwise, be pleased to read our Books, which are every where to be had. What is there in them that can fairly be taken to fa­vour the madness of these People? Yea, there are at this day no Nations so free from these Pests, as those in which the Go­spel is freely taught. Now if they would rightly and attentively consider this thing, it is a strong-Argument, that the Doctrine we teach is the very truth of the Gospel; for neither Tares nor Chaff use to spring up or be found but in Corn. And who knows not what a number of Heresies arose when the Gospel was first propagated in the World, in the Times of the very Apostles? Who be­fore these Times, ever heard of Simon Magus, Menander, Saturninus, Basilides, Corpocrates, Ce­rinthus, Ebion, Valentinus Secundus, Marcosius Colorbasius, Heracleo, Lucian, and Severus? But why should I mention this contemptible Num­ber? Epiphanius reckons LXXX. and St. Augu­stin more distinct Heresies which grew up with the Gospel. What then? was not the Gospel the Gospel, because, together with it, so ma­ny Heresies were produced? or shall we there­fore say, that Christ was not Christ?

4. AND yet (as I said) this cursed Crop has not sprung up in our Fields, where the Gospel is freely preached, and publickly re­ceived and setled. Those Plagues have had their Rise in the darkness and blindness of our Adversaries, and with them too they have encreased and spread themselves where the [Page 42] Truth is oppressed with Tyranny and Cruelty, nor are these things to be heard of any where but in Corners and Conventicles. Let them make a Tryal, let them grant the Gospel its free Course, let the Truth of Jesus Christ free­ly shine and extend its Rays to all Parts with­out hindrance, and they shall soon see, that as the Darkness of the Night vanisheth at the ap­proach of the Sun, so will these Shadows disap­pear before the Light of the Gospel. For as for us, we daily make it our business to repel and confute these Heresies, which we are falsly reported to nourish and encourage, whilst our adversaries sit still and mind nothing less.

5. AND whereas they say we are di­vided into divers Sects, and that some of us have taken the Names of Lutherans, and o­thers of Those who were call'd Zuinglians when this Piece was written, after­wards were call'd Calvi­nists, and the other Name is now not commonly known, but Zuinglius was the Author of the Doctrine, and Calvin of the Discipline of this Sect of turbulent men. Zuinglians (or Calvinists) and we could never yet agree amongst our selves concerning the Articles of our Doctrines. What would they have said if they had lived in the Times of the Apostles and Holy Fa­thers? When one said I am of Paul, another, I am of Cephas, and another, I am of Apollo; when St. Paul reprehended St. Peter; when by reason of a Quarrel, Paul and Barnabas separated one from the other, and went se­veral ways; when as Origen acquaints us, the Christians were divided into so many Facti­ons, that they had no Name common to them, but that of Christian, and they agreed in nothing else but that Nane; and as Socra­tes informs us, they were derided publickly in the Theaters by the People, for their Dissen­tions and Sects; and when, as Constantine the [Page 43] Great said, there was so many Contentions and Controversies in the Church, that this very single Calamity seem'd to exceed the Miseries of the for­mer times (of Persecution;) when Theophilus, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Augustin, Ruffinus, and St. Jerome, all of them Christians, all Fathers, and all Catholicks, contested each others with most violent and implacable Animosi­ties; when, as Nazianzen saith, the Members of the same Body consumed one another; when the Eastern and Western Churches contended a­bout Leavened Bread, and the time of keep­ing Easter, things of no mighty consequence; when in every Council (which were then nu­merous) there was a new Creed, and new and contrary Decrees minted. What would these men have then said? to whom would they have applied themselves? from whom would they have fled? in what Gospel would they have believed? whom would they have esteemed Catholicks, and whom Hereticks? Now there are only two Names, Luther and Zuinglius, and what a Noise is made about them! But because these two could not agree about some Points; shall we therefore think they are both in the wrong, that neither of them has the Gospel, and that neither has preached well and truly?

6. BUT O good God! who are they that so bitterly reflect on us for our Dissenti­ons? Do they in the mean time all agree a­mongst themselves? Have there never been any Dissensions and Controversies amongst them? Why then do the Scotists and Thomists agree no better concerning the Merit of Con­gruity, and that of Condignity; concerning [Page 44] Original Sin in the Virgin Mary, and about a solemn and simple Vow? Why do the Canonists affirm, that Auricular Confession is founded in Humane and Positive Laws; and the Schoolmen on the contrary, on Divine Insti­tution? Why does Albertus Pighius differ from Cajetan; Thomas from Lombard, Scotus from Thomas, Occham from Scotus, Alliacensis from Occham, and the Nominalls from the Re­allists? and that I may not mention the Dis­agreements of the small Brotherhoods and Monks, some of which, place their admired Sanctity in eating of Fish, others in living upon Herbs, some in wearing of Shooes, o­thers in Sandals; some in Linnen Garments, and others in Woollen; Steven Gar­diner, in So­phist. Diab. Richard Fa­ber. Recanta­tio Berengarii Scholer Glossa. Guimundus. De Conscoral. Dist. 2. Ego Berengarius. some in black, and some in white Cloaths; some shave their Heads broad, and others narrow; some wear Shooes, and others go barefoot; some are girded, and some go loose; besides these, they should remember that some of their Di­vines say, that the Body of Christ is naturally present in the Sacrament, which is again deni­ed by others; that then there are some who say, that the Body of Christ in the Sacrament is torn and ground with our Teeth; and again, there are others who deny this; there are some who say, that the Body in the Sacra­ment hath quantity, others deny it; some say Christ did consecrate by a cortain Divine Power, others that he did it by his Blessing; some that he did it by conceiving the five Words in his Mind, others that it was by ut­tering them; there be some that say, that of these five Words, the demonstrative Pro­noun, THIS, shewed the Wheaten Bread, [Page 45] others say no; but it relates to a certain In­dividuum vagum (a no Man knows what;) Gardiner. there be some who say Dogs and Mice may truly and really eat the Body of Christ? but then there are others who stoutly deny this; there be some who say the Accidents of the Bread and Wine can nourish, De consecratio­ne Dist. 2. spe­cies Glossa. and others say the Sub­stance returns again. But why should I add any more? It is a long and troublesome Busi­ness to count up all their Divisions; the whole Form of this Religion and Doctrine, is to this day controverted and uncertain a­mongst them who first gave being and enter­tainment to it; for they scarce ever agree, except it be as the Pharisees and Saducees, or as Herod and Pilate did of old, against Christ.

7. LET them go then, and put an end to their own Quarrels, Vnity and Agreement do excellently become Religion; yet it is no certain and proper sign of the Church of God; for there was a wonderful Agreement amongst them who worshipped the Golden Calf, and amongst those, who with one Voice cried out against our Saviour, Crucifie him, crucifie him. Nor are we presently to determine, be­cause there was some Dissentions in the Church of Corinth; or because St. Paul differ­ed with St. Peter, or Barnabas with St. Paul; or that the Christians in the Infancy of the Church, disagreed amongst themselves con­cerning some things, that therefore there was no Church of God amongst them. Those very men whom they contemptuously call Lutherans and Zuinglians, are both of them Christians, and Friends each to others, and Brethren; they do not disagree about the [Page 46] Principles and Foundations of our Religion, concerning God or Christ, or the Holy Ghost, not concerning the manner of our Justification, or of eternal Life; it is only about one Point, and that of no great con­sequence; nor do we despair, or rather, we do not so much as doubt, but that in a small time an Agreement will be made betwixt them; and tho there are some who now think otherwise than they ought, we hope that laying aside all Passions and Factious Names and Reproaches, God will reveal to them what they now know not, and having better considered and searched into the thing, as it happened heretofore in the Council of Calcedon, all the Causes and Fibers of Dissen­tions shall be pluck'd up by the Roots, and buried in eternal Oblivion. Amen.

8. BUT the most insufferable of all their Slanders, is their Pretence that we are impi­ous Men, and have cast off all care of Religi­on. But this is the less to be regarded, be­cause they who make this Objection, do themselves know, that it is contumelious and false. And Justin Martyr writes also, that when the Gospel was first published, and the Name of Christ discovered to the World, that all Christians were then stiled [...]; that is, Men without a God, or Atheists. And when the Holy Polycarp, Bishop of Smyr­na, stood before the Tribunal, Euseb. H. 3: Lib. 4. the Rabble in­cited the Proconsul to the Slaughter and De­struction of all those who professed the Go­spel, with these words, [...], that is▪ exterminate out of the World those wicked men who have no God. Not that the Chri­stians [Page 47] had indeed no God, but because they would not adore the Stones and Blocks which were then worshipped as Gods. But the World now sees plainly what we and ours have suffered from them, for the Sake of God and our Religion. They have cast us into Goals, and Fire, and Water, and have rol'd themselves in our Bloods, not because we are Adulterers, or Thieves, or Murtherers, but purely because we imbrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and put our whole Trust only in the living God; and, O good God! because we truly and justly complain, that they have for their most impertinent Traditions, viola­ted the Laws of God; and that these Enemies of ours, who knowingly and willingly de­spise the Commandments of God, are the haters of the Gospel, and the Enemies of the Cross of Christ.

9. NOW these Men, when they saw they could six no Slanders upon our Doctrine, then they began to declaim against our Manners; that we hated all good Works, that we made way for Disorder and Luxury, and did drive the People off from all Care and Exercise of Virtue. And certainly the Lives of all Men, even those of the most Holy and Christian Men, now are, and ever were, even in the best and most chast state of things, liable to some ex­ceptions on that account; and such is the Propensity of men to do Ill on the one side, and the Proneness of all to Suspition on the other, that many things which were never done nor thought of, have yet been pretend­ed to be heard, and have obtained a Belief too; and as a small Spot is easily seen in a [Page 48] very white, Garment, so in the purest course of Life, the slightest Note of Turpitude or disorder, is easily taken notice of. Nor do we think our selves, or all those who have imbraced the Reformation, to be Angels, and to live without the least Speck or Uneven­ness; or that those who hate us, are so blind, that they cannot observe whatever is blame­able in us, even through the smallest Chink; or that they are so candid, as that they will put a mild Sense upon any thing; or so in­genious, that they will at any time turn their Eyes upon themselves, and estimate or compare our Manners with their own. But then if we should here run the thing up to the Fountains head, we know that in the Apostles times, there were Christians who made the Name of God to be blasphem'd and evil spoken of amongst the Gentiles.

10. CONSTANTIUS the Emperor complains in Sozomen, that many after they en­tered the Christian Church, became worse than they were before. And St. Cyprian, in a mournful Oration, describes the Corruptions, of his own times. Ease and a long Peace ( saith he) had destroyed that Discipline which the Apostles delivered to us. Men were intent upon the enlarging their Estates, and forgetting what Believers did under the Apostles, and what they ever ought to do; they applied themselves with an insatiable Appetite to the Improvement of their Fortunes. By Ministers here, I sup­pose the Decons are meant. There is not now that devout Pi­ety in the Priests, that sincere Faith in the Mi­nisters, that Compassion in Works of Mercy, that Restraint in Mens Manners; Men colour their Beards, and Women paint their Faces. And [Page 49] before him, Tertullian. O wo to us who are now call'd Christians! for we live the Lives of Heathens under that venerable Title.

11. To conclude, and not to trouble the Reader with many Authors, Gregory Nazi­anzen speaks thus, of the deplorable State of his own times. We are (said he) hated by the Heathens now for our Vices, and we are made a Spectacle, not only to Men and Angels, but to the wickedest of Men. This was the State of the Church of God, when the Light of the Gospel began first to shine upon it, when the Fury of Tyrants was not yet asswaged, or the Sword diverted from the necks of the Christians; in truth, it is no wonder that Men are Men, tho they are call'd Chri­stians.

CHAP. IV.
Containing an Account of the Rule, Lives, and Manners of the Popes and Papists, who would seem to be the only Head and Members of the Holy Catholick Church.

BUT whilst these men so bitterly reflect upon us, Why do they not sometimes think what they themselves are? Are they who have so much leisure to attend what is done at a distance in Germany and England, so forgetful or so blind, that they cannot see what is done at Rome? Are we to be im­peach'd [Page 50] by them whose Lives are so dissolute, as no honest modest man can without blush­ing tell their Story?

2. WE do not now intend to bring to light all those Villanies which may much bet­ter be buried with them; it becomes neither our Religion nor our Modesty and Shame­facedness: and yet he that will needs be call'd the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and the Head of the Church, may easily consider with himself what those things are, which he hears, and sees, and suffers to be done at Rome; for we will go no further in giving an account what they are: Let him make use of his own Me­mory. Let him be pleased to consider that they are his own Canonists who have taught the People, that simple Fornication is no Sin; as if they had learned from the heathen Co­median, this Doctrine, that it is not a sin for a young Man to Whore. Let him consider they are his own again, 3. Quest. 7. la­ta ext. de Bigamis Quia circa. who have determin­ed, that a Priest is not to be deposed for Fornica­tion. Let him remember that Cardinal Cam­pejus, Albertus Pighius, and many others o [...] his Lawyers, have taught, that the Priest wh [...] keeps a Concubine, lives much more chastly and holily than he who has a lawful Wife. I hope he hath not forgotten that there is at Rom [...] many thousands of publick licensed Whores and that he levies upon them yearly, by way of Tax, thirty thousand Duccats. He can not forget surely that himself is a publick Pimp, and from this base Profit, doth as disho­norably and wickedly encrease his Revenues and Pleasures. Were all things well and Ho­ly at Rome, when Pope Joan, a Woman of a [Page 51] dissolute Life, was the Head of their Church, and when for two years she had in that Holy See prostituted her self to the Lust of others; at lenght, in a publick Procession, in the sight of all the Cardinals and Bishops, in the open Street she brought forth a Child?

3. BUT why should we mention their Concubines and Pimping? for these are com­mon and publick Crimes at Rome, and not unprofitable neither; for the Misses there do not sit without the Gates with their Faces vailed and covered as in ancient times, Gen. 38. 14. but they dwell in Pallaces and stately Houses, In Concilio di­lectorum Car­dinalium. To. 3. and pass to and fro in the most publick Streets without Masks, as if their Trade were not only Lawful but Honorable; but why should I use many words, their Lusts are sufficiently known to the whole Earth. St. Bernard writes thus truly and freely of the Popes Fa­mily, and of the Pope himself. De considerati­one ad Eugeni­um.. Your Court receives good Men sometimes, but it makes none good. Evil Men thrive there, good Men are ru­ined. And whoever he was who wrote the Tripartite Work, which is commonly joyned to the Lateran Council, he saith thus: There is now so prrvailing a Luxury, not only in the inferior Clergy and Priests, but also in the Pre­lates and Bishops, that it strikes Horror into the Hearers of it.

4. BUT these things are not only usual, and even for the sake of the Custom approv­ed (as most of their Vices are;) but they are now become so well known by their long use, that they are putid ripe for Iudgment. For who has not heard what Petrus Aloisius, the Son of Paul the III. designed against Cosmus [Page 52] Cherius, Bishop of Fano? What Jo. Casa Arch-Bishop of Benevento, the Popes Legate at Ve­nice wrote of a Sin to be abhorred; whilst with a Iewd Eloquence and abominable Words, he commends what ought not to be named. Who knows not that Alphonsus Dia­zius a Spaniard, was sent from Rome into Ger­many of purpose to murther the most innocent and holy Man John Diazius his own Brother, only because he had imbraced the Gospel, and would not return to Rome, which he ac­cordingly did? But they may pretend per­haps that such things as these are, may some­times happen in the best constituted Govern­ments, and that there is excellent Laws against them.

5. Be it so, But what Law passed upon these Pests? Petrus Aloisius, when he had at­tempted the Villany I have hinted at, was ever after in the Bosom of Paul the III. his Father, and his Joy. Diazius, after he had assassinated his Brother, was delivered ou [...] of the hands of the Law, by the Interposition of the Pope. Johannes Casa, Arch-Bishop of Benevento, is yet alive, and at Rome, and live, under the Eyes, and in the Sight of his Holi­ness. They have stain infinite numbers of our Brethren, only because they truly and purely believed in Jesus Christ; but then of that in­finite number of Harlots, Sodomites and A­dulterers, who have they at any time, I will not say slain, but excommunicated, or so much as touched? What are Fornications Adulteries, Pimping, Sodomy, Parricides, Incests and the like, no sins at Rome? or if they be, why are they so easily born, as it [Page 53] they were not Sins, in the City of Rome, that Bulwark of Sanctity; and by the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, the Successor of St. Peter, that most holy Father.

6. O Holy Scribes and Pharisees, to whom this Sanctity was never known! O Sanctity and Catholick Faith! St. Peter did never teach these things at Rome, nor St. Paul live there at this rate. They did not publickly exercise the Trade of Pimping, they took no Tribute of the Whores; they did not openly and freely tolerate Adulterers and Par­ricides; they did not admit them into their Bosoms, their Families, their Councils, nor into the Congregations of Christian Men. These Men ought not to have aggravated so much the Faults of our Lives; it had been much better to have approved their own to the World, or at least, to have concealed them a little more from the Eyes of Men.

7. FOR as for us, we retain and use our ancient Paternal Laws; and administer Church Discipline seriously and diligently as far as we possibly can, in so much Corrupti­on of all things, both as to Manners and Times; we have no Stews nor Herds of Harlots and Concubines; nor do we prefer Adulteries before Marriage, nor do we exer­cise Pimping, nor raise Money from Whore­houses; neither do we suffer Incests and fla­gitious Lusts; our Aloise's, or our Casa's, or our Parricidical murthering Diasio's do not go unpunished; for if these things had pleas­ed us, there had been no occasion of sepa­rating from the Society of those Men, where these (rare) things flourish and are in great [Page 54] esteem, and so we had also escaped the Ha­tred of Men, and the apparent Dangers we have run into by our Departure from them. It is not many months since Paul the IV. had some Monks of the Augustine Order in Prison at Rome, Paul IIII. and many Bishops, and a vast num­ber of pious Men for the sake of Religion; he exercised his Tortures and his Racks, and left nothing untried, and at the last, how many Adulterers, how many Sodomites, how many Fornicators, how many Incestuous Men did he find amongst them? Blessed be God, tho we are not what we should be, nor what we profess to be, yet what ever we are, if we be compared with these, our very Lives and In­nocency will easily confute all these Slanders For we excite the People, not only by Books and Sermons, but by Example and good Manners, to all sorts of Virtues and good Works. We teach that the Gospel is not an [...] Ostentation of Knowledge, but a Law of Life; and that as Tertullian expresseth it, [...] Christian should not speak great things, In Apol. c. 45. Rom. 2. 13. but live them, and that not the Hearers, but the Doers of the Law shall be justified before God.

8. To all these things they commonly add and amplifie it too with all manner of Re­proaches, that we are a turbulent sort of Men that we snatch the Scepters out of the Hands o [...] Princes, arm the People against them, subver their Judicatories and Courts of Justice, and endeavour to reduce Monarchies to popular States or Common-wealths, dissolve the Laws and retrench the Revenues of Princes, and tur [...] all things topsie turvy, and that in short, if w [...] had our Wills, there should nothing continu [...] [Page 55] safe in the Governments of the World. O how often have they by such Pretences in­censed the Minds of Princes against us, that so they might crush the Reformation in its first springing up, and Princes might be pos­sess'd with an Aversion for our Religion, be­fore they knew what it was? and that Magi­strates might entertain an Opinion, that when ever they saw one of us, they saw one of their Enemies?

9. IT would have been a great Affliction to us, to be thus hatefully accused of so great a Crime as Treason, but that we know that Christ himself and his Apostles, and an infi­nite number of other pious Christians have been made the Objects of publick Envy on the same Pretence; for Christ, tho he com­manded to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesars, Math. 22. 21. yet he was accused of Sedition, in that he was said to design a Change in the Government, and to affect and intend a Kingdom; and so they loudly charged him before the Tribunal of Pilate, John. 19. 12. If thou lettest this man go (say they) thou art no Friend to Caesar. And the Apostles, altho they con­stantly taught that we ought to obey Magi­strates, and that every Soul should be subject to the Higher Powers, Rom. 13. 1. and that not only for fear of Wrath and Punishment, but also for Conscience sake; yet they were said to stir up the People, and to incite the Multitude to Rebellion. 5. Haman brought the Jews into the disfavour of Assucrus, by representing them as a stubborn and rebellious People, that despised the Edicts and Laws of Princes. The wicked King Ahab, charged Elijah the [Page 56] Prophet of God that he troubled Israel. A­masias the Priest of Bethel, accused Amos the Prophet, of a Conspiracy before Jeroboam. And behold, Amos 7. 10. saith he, Amos hath conspired a­gainst thee in the midst of the House of Israel, and the Land is not able to bear all his Words. In short, Tertullian saith this was the general Accusation against all Christians in his times, that they were Traitors, Plotters, and the common Enemies of Mankind. And there­fore if Truth, which is still the same, suffers the same Reproaches as it did formerly, it may indeed seem troublesome and uneasie, but it is not new or unusual.

10. IT was easie forty years agon, to fi [...] such Slanders upon the then rising and un­known Truth, when the first Rays of it burst forth in the midst of so great a Darkness and few men had heard what Doctrines were taught. When Martin Luther, and Hulderi­cus Zuinglius, two excellent Persons, who were given by God to enlighten the World, began first to preach the Gospel; when the Thing was new, and the Event uncertain and the Minds of Men surprised and unsetled and their Ears open to all manner of Calum­nies; and it was not possible to invent tha [...] Defamation of us which would not be be­lieved by the People, even upon the Ac­count of the Novelty and strangeness of the thing. And so it was in the more ancien [...] times; the first opposers of Christianity, Sym­machus, Celsus, Julianus, and Porphyrius, re­presented the Primitive Christians as a sediti­ous and rebellious Sect, before either Prince or People knew well what the Christians [Page 57] were, or what they professed, or what they would have. But now when our Enemies may see, and cannot deny that in all our Words and Writings, we diligently admo­nish the People of their Duty; that they should obey their Princes and Magi­strates, tho they are wicked men, which is also confirm'd by Experience, and seen and observed by all the World; cer­tainly (I say) it is now a senseless thing to at­tempt to make us odious by a parcel of su­perannuated over-worn Lyes, when they have no new and fresh Crimes to lay to our Charge.

11. WE bless our gracious God, It had been infinitely for the Honor of the Reforma­tion, if the same Mode­sty, Loyalty, and Duty had ever attended the Professors of it. But a­las, our Au­thor lived and wrote in a critical Mo­ment, before the Scotch Tumults, the Civil Wars of France, and the Revolt of the Netherlands; those that have confirm'd the truth of the Popish Objections by ill Prin­ciples which they borrowed from them and worse Practises, shall do well to consider what Answer they will be able to give in the Day of Judgment, for the Sin and Scandal they have brought upon the Refor­mation; but when all is done, blessed be God, the Church of England and her Children have maintained this Doctrine inviolably, and the Honour of that Church thereby unspotted to this day, though she has suffered very much for her Fidelity and Loyalty. whose Cause this is, that there hath yet been no Ex­ample of any Insurrection or Rebellion in any of those Countries, Kingdoms or Com­mon-wealths which have imbraced the Re­formation. We have not subverted any Mo­narchy, we have not diminished any [...]Princes Jurisdiction or Rights, we have not troubled any Common-wealth. The Kings of En­gland, Denmark and Sweden, the Dukes of Saxony, the Counts of the Palatinate, the Mar­quesses of Brandenburgh, the Lantgraves of Hessia, the Common-wealths of the Switzars, [Page 58] the free Cities of Strasbourgh, Basil, Frankfort, Ulm, Augsburg, and Norimburg are all in the same State they were before the Reformati­on; or rather, because the People are now better instructed in the matters of Obedience to their Governours than they were before, in a better State. Let our Defamers go into those places where the Gospel is setled by the Blessing of God, and then tell us where Prin­ces have more Majesty? Where there is less Pride and Tyranny? Where are Princes treat­ed with more Respect? Where the People are less Tumultuous? Where the Civil Go­vernment or Ecclesiastical was ever in greater Tranquillity?

12. BUT you will say the Boors of Ger­many fell into Tumults and Insurrections up­on the first preaching of this Doctrine. Be it granted, but then Martin Luther, the first Di­vulger of it, did with great vehemence and sharpness write against them, and reduced them to their Allegiance and Duty.

13. AND whereas some ignorant men have objected that the Switzars murthered Leopold the Arch-Duke of Austria, and chang­ing the State, erected a Common-wealth, and so freed their Country; this was done, as appears by all Histories, above two hundred and sixty years since, under Boniface the 8th. when the Papal Power was at the highest, about two hundred years before Huldericus Zuinglius began to preach the Gospel, or in­deed was born. But from that time to this, all things there have been in the greatest Tranqui­lity and Quiet that was possible, not only in re­lation to foreign Wars, but intestine Commo­tions; [Page 59] so that if it were a sin to deliver their Country from a foreign Dominion, which op­pressed them with great Insolence and Tyran­ny, yet it is unjust and absurd to load the Reformation with the Crimes of others, or them with those of their Fore-fathers.

14. BUT O immortal God! Shall the Bishop of Rome accuse us of Treason? Will he pretend to teach the People Subjection and Obedience to Magistrates? Or has he any regard to Majesty? Why then does he suffer himself to be call'd by his Flatterers the LORD OF LORDS, which none of the ancient Bishops of Rome ever did; as if he would have all Kings and Princes whoever they were, and wheresoever, be no better than his Vassals and Slaves? Augustus Steu­chus Anto. de Rosellis. Why does he boast that he is the KING OF KINGS, and that he has the Right of commanding them as his Subjects? Why does he force Emperors and Monarchs to swear Obedience to him? Why does he boast that his own Majesty is seventy seven times greater than the Majesty of the Emperor, and that for­sooth, because God made two great Lights in Heaven, De major & obed solit. and because the Heavens and the Earth had not two several, but one single Be­ginning? Why have he and his Followers in that, De major & obed. Ʋnam Sanctam. like the Anabaptists and Libertines, sha­ken off the Yoke, and exempted themselves from the Jurisdiction of all Civil Powers, that they might with the greater liberty and secu­rity plague the World?

15. WHY has he his Legats, that is, a crafty sort of Spies, as it were in ambush, in the Courts, Councils and Chambers of all [Page 60] Kings? Why doth he (as his Interest requires) set Princes at variance amongst themselves; and at his pleasure, fill the Earth with Sediti­ons? Why does he proscribe and take for an Heathen and Pagan, whatever Prince withdraws himself from his Dominion, and promise his Indulgences so freely, if any man will by any means whatsoever assassi­nate his Enemys? Doth he preserve Empires and Kingdoms, or at all consult and desire the Publick Peace? You ought, O pious Reader! to pardon us, if these things seem a little more sharp and eager than becomes a Divine; for so great is the Provocation, so great and so impotent with all is the Ambiti­on of the Popes, that it cannot be expressed in other or milder Words. For he had once the Insolence to say in a publick Council, that all the Authority of all the Kings in the World depended upon him. Clement. 5. in Concil Vien­nensi Leo papa. He, out of Am­bition and Desire to Rule, distracted the Ro­man Empire, and tore in pieces the Christian World; he absolved the Italians, and amongst them, himself, from the Oath wherein they were obliged to the Emperor of Greece, with great perfidy; and solicited his Subjects to revolt from him, and call'd Charles Martell the Great out of France into Italy; and after a new and till then unheard of manner, made him Emperor. Zacharias Pa­pa. He deposed Chilperick King of France, an innocent Prince, only because he did not like him, and set up Pipin in his Place. He would, if he had been able, have cast out Phillip the Fair, another King of France, and have adjudged the Kingdom of France to Albert King of the Romans. He broke [Page 61] the Power of Florence, Clemens Pa­pa. 7. tho his own Country, which was then a most flourishing City, and changing its free and peaceable State, he de­livered it up to the Lust of one man. He made all Savoy to be torn in pieces by the Emperor Charles the 5th. on the one side, and Francis the First, King of France on the other, The same Clemens. scarce leaving to the miserable Duke, one City to shelter himself in.

16. I am weary of Examples, and indeed there is nothing more troublesome than to enumerate the great Actions of the Popes of Rome of this nature. I pray of whose Party were they, who poisoned the Emperor Henry the 7th. in the Eucharist? and they who did the same to Pope Victor in the holy Chalice? Who exercised the same Art upon our King John of England, in a common Table Cup? whoever they were, and of what Party soe­ver, this is certain, they were neither Luthe­rans nor Zuinglians. Who is it, that at this day permits the greatest Kings and Monarchs to kiss his Feet? Who is it that commands the Emperor to hold his Bridle, and the King of France his Stirrup? Who was it that cast Francis Dandalus, Sabellicus. Duke of Venice, and King of Crete and Cyprus under his Table, to gnaw the Bones with the Dogs? who crowned Henry the 6th. Coelestinus Papa. the Emperor at Rome, not with his Hands, but with his Feet; and then with his Foot kicked his Crown off again; adding, that he had power to create Emperors and to depose them? Who armed Henry the Son against Henry the 4th. his Father; Hildebrandus Papa. and caused the Son to take his Father Prisoner, and having shaven and treated him ignomi­niously, [Page 62] to cast him into a Monastery, where he pined away with Hunger and Sor­row? who was it that trod insolently upon the Neck of the Emperor Frederick; and as if this had not been a sufficient Affront, sub­joyned out of the Psalms of David, Psal. 91. 13. Thou shalt walk upon the Asp, and the Basilisk, and shalt tread the Lion and the Dragon under thy Feet. Where is there such another Example of despised and injured Majesty, in all Hi­story, except in Tamberlane the Scythian, a fierce and a barbarous Prince, and in Saphores, King of Persia? All these were Popes, all of them Successors of St. Peter; all most Ho­ly Men, whose Words were every one of them to be Gospel to us.

17. IF we be guilty of Treason, who re­verence our Princes, who submit to them in all things as far as the Scriptures will permit us; what then are these Men, who have not only done all these base things, but have also extol'd them as generous Actions? Do they thus teach the People to revere Magistrates? or can they with any Modesty, accuse us of being Seditious Men, the Disturbers of the Publick Peace, and Contemners of the Ma­jesty of Princes? For as for us, none of us shake off the Yoke, nor imbroil Kingdoms, nor dispose of Empires; nor do we reach Poison to our Kings, nor put out our Feet to them to kiss, nor do we insultingly tread up­on their Necks. No, our Profession, our Doctrine is this, Chrysostomus 13. ad Rom. That every Soul, whose ever it is, whether it be a Monk or an Evangelist, or a Prophet, or an Apostle, it ought to be subject to Kings and Magistrates; and so the Pope him­self, [Page 63] except he affect to seem greater than the Evangelists, Prophets and Apostles, ought to acknowledge and call the Emperor his Lord, as the ancient Popes in better times ever have done. Gregorius saepe in epist. Rom. 13. 2. We publickly teach, that Princes are to be obeyed as Men sent by God, and whosoever resists them, resists the Ordinance of God. These are our Doctrines, these Prin­ciples shine forth in our Books, in our Ser­mons, in our Lives, and in the Modesty and dutiful behaviour of our People.

18. AND whereas they pretend we have departed from the Uuity of the Catholick Church, this is not only odious, but tho it is not true, yet it hath an appearance and similitude of Truth in it. But then, not only those things which are true and certain find belief with the ignorant Multitude, but those things also which may seem probable; and so we shall ever observe, that crafty cunning Men, who had not the Truth on their sides, have ever maintained their Cause with the Resemblances of Truth; that those who could not dive into the bottom of things, might be taken at least with the shew and probability of their Arguments. Tertul. in Apolog. cap. 16. Because the Primitive Christians, our Fore-fathers, when they Prayed to God, turned their Faces to­ward the rising Sun; there were some that said they worshiped the Sun, and that it was their GOD; and because they said, that as to their eternal and immortal Life, they lived on nothing but the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb without spot, meaning thereby our Saviour Jesus Christ: Envious Men, the Ene­mies of the Cross of Christ, whose only bu­siness [Page 64] it was, Tertul. in Apolog. cap. 7. 8, 9. to render the Christian Religi­on by any means hateful, did thereupon per­swade the People that the Christians were impious Men; that they offered Humane Sacrifices, and drank Mans Blood; and when the Christians said with God, there is nei­ther Male nor Female, that is, that as to the obtaining of Justification, there is no distincti­on of Persons, and did salute one another commonly by the Names of Brother and Sister; there were not wanting some who slandered the Christians thereupon, Idem. cap. 39. and said, they made no distinction amongst them of Sex or Age, but like Beasts, promiscuously lay together. And when they met frequently in Vaults and secret places to Pray and hear the Gospel, which sort of private Places and Meetings, had sometimes been made use of by Conspirators against the Government; there was thereupon a Rumor spread abroad, that they conspired together, and had secret Consultations about murthering the Magi­strates and subverting the Government. And because in celebrating the Holy Communion, they made use of Bread and Wine, accord­ing to the Institution of Christ, they were thought by many not to worship Christ, but Bacchus and Ceres, because those heathen De­ities were worshiped by the Pagans with a like Rite, with Bread and Wine. These things were then believed by many, not because they were true (for what could possibly be less so?) but because they had a kind of resem­blance of Truth, and by that shew of truth were fitted to deceive them.

[Page 65] 18. SO they traduce us, and say, that as Hereticks we have departed from the Unity of the Catholick Church, and the Commu­nion of Christ; not that they believe this to be true (nor are they at all concern'd whe­ther it be true or false) but because the thing may in some sort seem true to ignorant Men; for we have indeed departed, not as Hereticks ever have done, from the Church of Christ; but, as good men ought to do, from the Con­tagion of wicked Men and Hypocrites; and yet here they insult wonderfully, that theirs is the Church, the Spouse of Christ, the Pil­lar of Truth, the Ark of Noah, out of which, no Salvation is to be hoped for; and in the interim, they assert with the same Confi­dence, that we have revolted, that we have rent the Coat of Christ, and torn our selves from his Body, and made a desection from the Catholick Faith. And when they have thus left nothing unsaid, which can possibly be (tho never so falsly and slanderously) ob­jected against us, yet at last they cannot pre­tend that we have forsaken the Word of God, or the Apostles of Christ, or the Primitive Church.

19. NOW we have ever thought, that the Primitive Church which was in the times of Christ and the Apostles and holy Fathers, was the Catholick Church. Nor do we doubt, but that that Church is the Ark of Noah, the Spouse of Christ, the Pillar and Foundation of Truth; or to place in it all the Hopes of our Salvation. It is indeed an odious thing to break off and depart from that Society a Man has long lived in, especi­ally [Page 66] if that Society consist of Men who seem to be, and are therefore called Christians, tho in truth they are none. And in reality, we do not so contemn their Church, as bad as it now is, (for the Name sake, and [...] Gospel of Jesus Christ was once truly and purely taught there) as that we have willing­ly departed from it without necessity. But what if an Idol be set up in the Church of God, and that Desolation appears there, which Christ foretold should stand in the ho­ly Place? What if some Pirate or Robber possesseth himself of the Ark of Noah? cer­tainly, as often as these men thus preach to us of the Church, they make themselves only to be that Church, and ascribe all those glo­rious Titles to themselves, and triumph like those of Old, Jerem. 7. 4. who cryed The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord; or like the Scribes and Pharisees, John 8. 39. when they boasted they were the Children of Abraham.

20. THUS do they impose upon silly men, by vain and useless Shews, and see [...] to overwhelm us with the meer Name of th [...] Church; just as if a Thief having got po [...]session of another mans House, and havin [...] by force expell'd or slain the true Owne [...] should afterwards claim it as his own, an [...] keep the true Heir out; or as if Antichris [...] after he has seized the Temple of God [...] should afterwards pretend it were his ow [...] and that Christ had no right to it. For the [...] our Adversaries have left almost nothing li [...] a Church, in the Church of God, yet the [...] will needs seem the only Patrons and Defe [...]ders of the Church; just as Gracchus defende [...] [Page 67] the Roman Exchequer, by making such pro­fuse Largesses, and such unreasonable Expen­ses, that he quite ruined the Publick Treasu­ry. But then there was never any thing yet so absurd or wicked, but it might seem easie to be covered and defended by the Name of the Church; for Wasps make Combs, and impious Men have their Assemblies not much unlike the Churches. But they are not pre­sently the People of God who are call'd so, nor are they all Israelites who are of Israel. The Arrian Hereticks boasted that they only were Catholicks, Augustin. Ep. 48. ad Vin­centium. and they call'd all the rest, sometimes Ambrosians, and at other Atha­nasians, and Johannites. And Theodoret tells us, that tho Nestorius was an Heretick, yet he covered himself [...], with the Pretence and Cloak of the Ortho­dox Faith. Ebion, tho he was of the same Opinion with the Samaritans, yet, as Epipha­ [...]es assures us, he would needs be call'd a [...]hristian. The Mahometans at this day, tho [...]t is clear from all Histories, and they them­ [...]elves cannot deny it, that they are descend [...]d from Hagar; yet, as if they were the Chil­dren of Sarah the free Woman, the Wife of Abraham, they will needs, for the Name and Race sake, be call'd Saracens.

21. SO the false Prophets in all times, who [...]pposed themselves to the true Prophets of God, to Isaiah, to Jeremias, to Christ and [...]is Apostles, boasted of nothing so much as [...]f the Name of the Church: Nor did they so [...]ercely persecute them, and call them Do­ [...]erters and Apostles upon any other account [...] much, as because they departed from their [Page 68] Society, and would not observe the Customs of their Ancestors. And if we be obliged to submit to the Judgment of those Men, who then governed the Church, and will regard neither God nor his Word, nor any thing else, it cannot be denied, but that the Apo­stles made Defection from the High Priests and Priests, that is, from the Catholic [...] Church, and without, and against thei [...] Wills, innovated in many things which per­tained to Religion, and consequently wer [...] rightly condemned according to the Law [...] And so as they say, Antaeus was to be lifte [...] by Hercules from the Earth his Mother, befor [...] he could be conquered by him: So our A [...]versaries are to be lifted up from that Mothe [...] of theirs, the vain Pretence and Shadow [...] the Church, or else they will never yield [...] the Word of God. So as Jeremiah saith, [...] not so much boast that you have the Temp [...] of God with you, that Con [...]idence is Vain [...] for these are (saith he) lying Words. Jeremiah 8. 4. Revel. 2. 9. And th [...] Angel in the Apocalyps; they say that they [...] Jews, but they are the Synagogue of Sathan. A [...] when the Pharisees boasted that they were [...] the Stock and Blood of Abraham, Chr [...] told them they were of the Devil their Fath [...] John 8. 44. for you do not resemble Abraham your [...] as if he should have said, you are [...] what you so much desire to be call'd, [...] impose upon the People by vain Titles; an [...] abuse the Name of the Church to the Rui [...] of the Church; and therefore they ought [...] the first place to prove this truly and plain [...] to us, viz. that the Church of Rome, as it [...] now managed by them, is the true and O [...]thodox [Page 69] Church of God, and that it agrees with the Primitive Church of Christ and his Apostles, and of the Holy Fathers; which Primitive Church, we doubt not was the Catholick Church. We indeed will readily grant, that there is no cause why we should forsake their Society, if we could once per­swade our selves that Ignorance, Error, Su­perstition, the Worship of Idols, the Inventi­ons of Men, and they very often quite con­trary to the Holy Scriptures, did either please God, or sufficiently promote our Salvation; or if we could once believe that the Word of God were only written for some years, and after that were to be abrogated; or that the Words and Laws of God, were intirely to be submitted to the Wills of Men; so as what­ever he saith or commandeth, except the Bi­shop of Rome wills and commands the same too, it were to be esteemed void and not spoken. But in that we have departed from a Church, whose Errors are attested and ma­nifest, and which has apparently departed from the Word of God; and whereas we have not so much departed from her as from her Errors, and that not turbulently and in­juriously, but quietly and modestly; in all this, we say we have done nothing contrary to Christ and his Apostles: For the Church of God is not of that nature, that it cannot pos­sibly be darkned with any Spots, or sometimes not need a Reformation; for if it were so, what need were there of all those Councils and great Meetings, without which, as Ae­gidius saith, In Lateran. Concil. sub [...] ­lio. the Christian Faith cannot stand? for (saith he) as often as Councils are [Page 70] intermitted, so often is the Church left by Christ. Or if there be no danger, that the Church can take dammage; what need is there of the insignificant (as they have ordered the Matter) Name of Bishops? Why are they call'd Pastors, if there be no Sheep that can go astray? Why are they call'd Watch-men if there be no City that can be betrayed▪ Why Pillars, if there be nothing that can sink down into Ruine, when not supported by them? In the very beginning of the World the Church of God was begun, and she was then instructed by a heavenly Word, which God sent out of his own Mouth; She was furnished with Ceremonies, taught by th [...] Spirit of God, by the Patriarchs and Prophets and so she was preserved and brought down to those times, in which Christ shewed him­self in the Flesh.

22. BUT O immortal God! How ofte [...] was She in the mean time, and how horrible darkned and diminished? For where w [...] She when all Flesh had corrupted their wa [...] upon the Earth? Where was She when then was only eight Persons, and not all those nei­ther Chast and Pious, whom God was plea [...] ­ed to rescue out of a common Ruine, and preserve alive in a general Destruction? Whe [...] Elijah so bitterly and mournfully complain'd that he only was left of all the Earth, 2 Kings 19. wh [...] did truly and rightly worship God. Whe [...] Isaiah said, Isaiah 1. 22. the Silver of the People of God that is, the Church, was become Dross, and the once Faithful City was become an Harl [...] and that in her, from the Head, to the Sole [...] the Foot, there was no soundness in her whol [...] [Page 71] Body; or when Christ said, Math. 21. 13. that the House of God, was by the Scribes and Pharisees turn'd into a Den of Thieves? for the Church of Christ, like a Corn-field, if it be not ploughed and broken, tilled and dressed, in­stead of Wheat it will bring forth Thistles, Darnel, and Nettles. And therefore God from time to time, sent Prophets and Messengers, and at last Christ himself, to reduce the Peo­ple into the right way, and to restore the sinking Church to her former Strength and Beauty. And now let no man say these things could only happen under the Law, when the Church was under the Shadow, and in her Infancy; when Truth was covered with Figures and Ceremonies, and nothing was yet brought to perfection; when the Law was not written on the Hearts of Men, but on Tables of Stone: (tho this Pretence is very ridiculous) for there was then the same God, the same Christ, the same Spirit, the same Do­ctrine, the same Faith the same Hope, the same Inheritance, the same Covenant, and the same efficacy in the Word of God. Lib. 1. c. 1. HsE. And Eusebius faith, that all the Faithful from A­dam were indeed Christians (tho they were not so call'd.) Let no man I say, speak thus, for St. Paul the Apostle found the same Errors and Defects under the Gospel, in the highest Per­fection and the greatest Light; so that he was forced to write thus to the Galatians, whom he had just before setled, I am afraid of you, Cap. 4. v. 11. least I have bestowed upon you Labour in vain, and that you have to no purpose heard the Gospel; O my little Children, V. 19. of whom I travel in Birth again, until Christ be formed in you! [Page 72] For there is no need of speaking how fearful­ly the Church of Corinth was corrupted. And now could the Churches of Galatia and Co­rinth fall, and is the Church of Rome the only Church that can neither fall nor err? Cer­tainly Christ long since foretold concerning his Church, Math. 24. 15. that there should be a time, when the Abomination of Desolation should stand in the Holy Place. And St. Paul saith, 2 Thes. 2. 4. that Antichrist shall sit in the Temple of God, 2 Tim. 4. 3. 4. shewing himself that he is God. And the time will come, when men will not indure sound Do­ctrine, but in the Church, shall be turned unto Fables. 2 Pet. 2. 1. And St. Peter saith, there shall be in the Church false Teachers; and Daniel the Prophet saith of the last times, the Days of Antichrist, the Truth shall be cast down and trodden upon in the Earth. And Christ saith, there shall be such great Calamities and Con­fusions upon the Earth, Math. 24. 24. that the very Elect (if it were possible) shall be deceived. Now all these things are to come to pass, not amongst Pagans and Turks, but in the Holy Place, the Temple of God, in the Church, the Assem­bly and Society of Christians.

23. AND altho these things alone are sufficient to forewarn a wise man, not to suf­fer himself easily to be imposed upon by the Name of the Church, so as not to examine it by the Word of God, yet besides all this, many of the Fathers and pious and learned Men have oftentimes grievously complain'd that there Predictions were come to pass in their times. For God, in the midst of that Darkness, would that there should be some men, who should as Sparks be observed by [Page 73] Men, tho they could not give them a very clear and bright Light. Certainly Hi­larius, when things were in some sort sincere and uncorrupted, tells them, Contra Maxen­tium. that they did ill in doating upon Walls; that they were mistaken in venerating Houses and Buildings, as if they were the Church of God, and offering them to us in­stead of Peace. Is it doubtful (saith he) whether Antichrist shall sit there? The Mountains, Woods, Lakes, Prisons and Gulphs to me seem safer, be­cause the Prophets of God remaining willingly, or being forcibly put into them, prophecied by the Spirit of God. Gregory the Great, as if he then perceived and foresaw the Ruine that was near at hand, wrote thus to John Bishop of Constantinople, who first commanded him­self to be call'd by the Name of the Universal Bishop, Epistola ad Mauricium lib. 4. Epist. 32. If the Church should depend upon one man, it would certainly fall. And who is there that hath not observed that this is come long since to pass? It is a great while since the Bishop of Rome would have the whole Church de­pend upon him only, and therefore it is no wonder if it be long since fallen. St. Ber­nard above four hundred years agon said, there is nothing sound in the Clergy now, there­fore there is nothing remaining but the Revelation of the Man of Sin; and in his Sermon on the Conversion of St. Paul, he expresseth himself thus. It may seem perhaps to some, that Perse­cutions are ceased: No (saith he) they now be­gin from them who have obtained the Primacy in the Church; thy Friends and thy Neighbours have approached and stood against thee, from the Sole of the Foot to the Crown of the Head; there is no Soundness; Iniquity is proceeded from thy [Page 74] Elders, Judges and Vicars, who seem'd to govern thy People. We cannot now say, as the People are, so is the Priest, because the People are not so bad as the Priests. Alas, alas, O Lord God! they are the first in persecuting thee, who seem to love the Primacy, and exercise a Principality in thy Church. Sermon 33. And upon the Canticles, All my Friends, and all my Enemies, all my Acquain­tance and all my Adversaries, the Servants of Christ; serve Antichrist. Behold in my Peace, my Bitterness is encreased! And Roger Bacon, a man of great Name, when he had in a sharp Discourse represented the miserable State of his own times, In libello de idiomate Lin­guarum. concludes thus, those many and great Errors require Antichrist as near at hand.

24. GERSON complains, Gerson. that in his times all the force of Theology was degenerated into a meer contest of Wit and Sophistry. The Lugdu­nensian Brothers, Fratres Lug­dunenses. a sort of men which were not ill as to their Lives, used to affirm, that the Church of Rome, from whence alone the Oracles of Faith were then fetched, was the Whore of Babylon; concerning which, such clear Predictions were in the Revelations, and that she was the Assembly of Hell. I know that the Authority of these Men is in no e­steem with them; but what now would they say if I should produce Witnesses which are of the highest Value with them? What if I say that Pope Adrian ingenuously confessed, Adrian in Pla­tina. that all those Mischiefs fell upon the Church from the top of the Papal Power? Pighius. Pighius confesseth that they erred in this, that they suffered many Abuses to be brought into the Mass, tho they would have it esteemed most [Page 75] Holy. Gerson, Gerson. that the multitude of light foolish Ceremonies, had extinguished all that Power of the Holy Spirit which should have flourished in us, and all that was truly Pious. All Greece and Asia complained that the Popes of Rome, by their Doctrines of Purga­tory, and Sales of Indulgences, had both of­fered Violence to the Consciences of Men, and robb'd their Purses.

25. Laurentius Valla, Marsilius Patavinus, Franciscus Petrarcha, Hieronymus Savana­rola, Abbas Joachimus, Baptista Mantuanus, and before them all, St. Bernard, have very often grievously complain'd of the Tyranny and Persian Pride of the Bishops of Rome, and have not obscurely hinted (whether true or falsly, I will not inquire) that the Pope was Antichrist; not to mention a number of o­thers, who, because they have freely and in­genuously reprehended the Vices of the Popes, will perhaps be numbred by them amongst their Enemies; but all these I have named, lived either at Rome it self, or under the eyes of these most Holy Fathers, and were inti­mately acquainted with their way of living, and did never depart from their Catholick Faith. Neither can any man object that these were Lutherans or Zuinglians, for they lived not only some few years, but some in­tire Ages before the Names of these Men were heard of in the World; and they saw al­so even then, that Errors were crept into the Church, and desired they might be amended. And where was the Wonder if the Church fell into some Errors in those times, in which neither the Bishop of Rome, who alone had [Page 76] the chiefest Management of Affairs, or al­most any other Persons either did; or indeed understood what was their Duty; for it is not credible, that in that time, in which they were so idle and drowsie, the Devil was per­petually a sleep or idle too. For what kind of men they were, and with what fidelity they took care of the House of God; tho we are silent, they may be pleased to hear their own St. Bernard. Those Bishops (saith he) to whom the Church of God is now committed, are not Teachers, but Seducers; not Pastors, but Im­postors; not Prelates, but Pilates. Thus St. Ber­nard wrote then of him that call'd himself the Great Pontiff, and of the Bishops, who then sate at the Helm. He was no Heretick, he was no Lutheran, he never forsook their Church, and yet he never stuck at calling those Bishops they then had, Seducers, Impostors, Pilates. And now when the People were openly seduced, and Christians imposed upon, and Pilate mounted the Tribunal and adjudged Christ and his Members to the Fire and Sword; O good God! in what condition was the Church then? And now of so many and such gross Errors, what one Error have they reform­ed to this day? yea, what one Error have they at any time acknowledged and confessed.

26. BUT now, whereas they pretend to be in Possession of the whole Catholick Church, and call us Hereticks, because we do not agree with them. Let us see what Mark that Church hath of the Church of God: Nor is the Church of God very diffi­cult to be found, if you seriously and dili­gently seek for it; for it is placed in an high [Page 77] and illustrious Place, and built on the top of a Mountain, and the Foundations of it are laid upon the Apostles and Prophets. Ephesians 2. 20. There (saith St. Augustin) let us seek the Church, there let us try our Cause; De Ʋnitate Eccl. cap. 3. Ib. cap. 4. and in another place he saith, the Church is to be shown cut of the sacred Scriptures, and whatever (Society) cannot derive it self from them, is not the Church. And yet I know not whence it proceeds, whether from Reve­rence or Conscience, or a despair of Victory, that these men always dread and shun the Word of God, as much as a Thief does the Gallows; and in truth it is no Wonder, for as they say, a Beetle is presently extinguished in Opobalsam, altho it is a most fragrant Oyntment: So they see their Cause is suffocated and ruined when ever it comes near the Scriptures, which are a sort of dead­ly Poyson to it. Therefore they accustom themselves to call the Holy Scriptures, which our Saviour Jesus Christ did not only cite on all occasions, Our Saviour resigned up his Soul to his Father in the Words of Da­vid. Luk. 23. 46. Psal. 31. 5. but at the last, sealed them with his Blood: that they may drive the Peo­ple from them, as if they were dangerous and destructive, with the greater facility; these very Scriptures I say, they call a cold, uncer­tain, unprofitable, dumb, killing, dead Letter, which seems to us to be the same thing as if they should wholly deny them to be the Word of God: And besides all this, they commonly add a no very proper Simile too. Pighius in Hie­rarchia. They are (say they) a Nose of Wax, and may be form'd and set all manner of ways, and be made to serve all man­ner of Purposes. Does the Pope not know that that these things are said by his Followers? Does he not understand what kind of Pa­trons he has?

[Page 78] 27. LET the Pope then be pleased to hear how piously and how holily Hosius a certain Polander, and a Bishop, as he saith himself, cer­tainly an eloquent and not unlearned man, and a sharp and violent defender of his In­terest, writes concerning the Scriptures. I believe he will admire a pious man could possibly entertain such impious Thoughts, or write so contemptuously of those very words which he knew proceeded from the Mouth of God; and above all that, he should seem to desire that it might not pass for his Sense a­lone, but the common Opinion of the whole Popish Party. We (saith he) have bid adieu to the Scriptures, having seen so many, not only diffe­rent, but contrary Interpretations given of them; let us then rather hear God himself speak, then apply our selves and trust our Salvation to those jejune Elements: There is no need of being Skilful in the Law and Scriptures, but of being taught by God: That Labour is ill imployed that is bestowed on the Scriptures, for the Scripture is a Creature and a poor kind of Element. Thus far Hosius, in his Book of the express Word of God, in this place craftily, under the Person of ano­ther Man, tho he speaks the same thing in several other places in the same Book, as his own Opinion without any disguise: which is said with the same Spirit and Affection, as the like things were heretofore by Montanus and Marcion, who are reported frequently to have said, when they contemptuously rejected the Holy Scriptures, that they knew more and better things than either Christ or his Apostles ever knew. What then shall I say on this Occasion? O ye Pillars of Religion! O ye [Page 79] Presidents of the Church of Christ! is this the Reverence ye pay to the Word of God? Do ye bid an Adieu to the Sacred Scriptures, which St. Paul saith are divinely inspir'd, 2 Tim. 4. 16. which the Holy God hath illustrated by so many Miracles, in which the certain Foot­steps of Jesus Christ are imprinted, which were cited as Testimonies by all the Holy Fathers, by the Apostles, by Christ himself the Son of God, when occasion requir'd it? do ye (I say) bid adieu to these, as if they were not worthy of your regard? that is, do ye impose silence upon God, who it is that speaks clearly to you in the Scriptures? Or will you call that Word a poor and a dead Element, by which only, as St. Paul saith, we are reconcil'd to God, 2 Cor. 5. 19. and which, as the Prophet David saith, Psal. 19. 8. is Holy and Pure and shall endure for ever? Or will you say, that all the Pains we spend in that which Christ commanded us to search diligently, and to have ever in our Eye, is lost? and that Christ and the Apostles, when they exhorted the People to a careful Perusal of the Scriptures, that they might thereby abound in all Knowledge and Wisdom, designed only to delude and abuse Men? It is no wonder that these men despise us and our Writings who thus undervalue God himself and his Oracles; but it was a most foolish Action to offer so great an Affront to the Word of God, that they might do us a small mis­chief.

28. AND now, as if all this were too lit­tle, they commit the Holy Scriptures to the Fire, as the wicked King Jehojakim, and as [Page 80] Antiochus and Maximinus, two Heathen Perse­secutors, did, calling them the Books of Here­ticks; and they seem altogether disposed to imitate Herod the Great, in what he did for the establishing of his Power; for he being an Idumaean of another Race and Blood then the Jews were, and desiring to be thought a Jews, that so he might the better settle that his Kingdom over them, which he had ob­tained from Augustus Caesar, he commanded all their Genealogies which they kept in their Publick Register, and were carefully preserved from Abrahams times, (by which, without any Error, it was easie to find of which Tribe any person was descended) to be burnt and abolished, Euseb. lib. 1. c. 7. that there might be nothing to be found for the future, by which it might be proved he was of another Nation. So these men, pretending that all their Inno­vations were consigned to them by Christ and his Apostles, and desiring they should be accordingly esteemed, lest there should be any thing any where extant, which might contradict these Dreams and Shams, either burn or suppress the Scriptures, and keep them from the People. St. Chrysostom has written very well and appositely against such men as these; In opere im­perfecto. Hereticks (saith he) shut the Gates of Truth, for they know if they be kept open, the Church will never be thought theris. And Theophylact stiles the Word of God a Candle, by the Light of which, a Thief may be discovered. And Tertullian saith, the Scriptures convict the Frauds and Thefts of Hereticks: For why else do they hide and suppress the Gospel, which Christ commanded his Disciples to publish [Page 81] from the House top? Why else do they in­deavour to put that Candle under a Bushel, which ought to be set in a Candlestick? Why do they trust more to the Ignorance, Blindness, and Folly of the Multitude, than to the Good­ness of their Cause? Do they think their Arts are not disclosed? or that, as if they had Gyges his Ring, they can go undiscovered? The World sees now with both Eyes, what is so carefully locked up in the Cabinet of the Popes Breast; this one Argument is suffi­cient to prove they do not act well and sin­cerely: that Cause deserves to be suspected, which declines a Scrutiny, and hates the Light; for as Christ saith, John 3. 20. he that doth Evil seeks Darkness and hates the Light, but a mind conscious of what is good, willingly comes forth, that the Works which come from God may be seen; but these Gentle­men are not so blind, but they see what will become of their Kingdom, if the Scriptures come once to be generally known; and as it is said of old, all the Idols of the Demons, which before gave Oracles, suddenly be­came dumb upon the appearance of Christ upon Earth; so now will all their Arts, at the approach of the Gospel, 2 Thes. 2. 8. sink down into Ruins and Rubbish, for Antichrist is not to be deposed by any other thing than the Brightness of the coming of Christ.

29. WE do not, like them, presently be­take our selves to Fire and Sword, but to the Scriptures, nor do we assault them with force and Arms, but with the Word of God. By them, as Tertullian saith, we nourish our Faith, by them we erect our Hope, by them [Page 82] we establish our Confidence; for we know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Power of God unto Salvation, and that in it there is eternal life, and as St. Paul admonisheth us, we would refuse to hear an Angel of God that came from Heaven, if he endeavoured to turn us away from any part of this Do­ctrine. Yea, as that most holy man, Jua­stin Martyr said of himself, we would not believe God himself, if he should teach us another Gospel; Galat. 1. 8. for whereas they make the Holy Scriptures like silent Masses, dumb and useless, and appeal rather to God himself speaking in the Church, and in Council [...] that is to their own (better) Senses and Opi [...]nions, that is a very uncertain and dangerou [...] way of finding out Truth, and in a sort Pha [...]natical, and which was never approved b [...] the Holy Fathers. St. Chrysostom saith indeed [...] that many boast of the Holy Spirit, but if the [...] they speak what is their own, they glory falsly [...] what they have not; for (saith he) as Christ de­nied that he spake from himself, when he spake out of the Law and the Prophets; so now, if an [...]thing besides the Gospel is obtruded upon us unde [...] the Name of the Holy Ghost, it is not to be believ [...]ed; for as Christ is the Completion of the La [...] and the Prophets, so the Spirit is the Completion [...] the Gospel.

CHAP. V.
Concerning the Answers and Objections out of the Fathers and Councils.

BUT though they have not the Scriptures on their side, perhaps they will pretend they have the ancient Doctors and the Holy Fathers; for that they have ever boasted, that all Antiquity, and the perpetual Consent of all times is for them, and that all our Pre­tences are Novel, and were never heard of, till within the course of a very few years last past.

2. NOW certainly there can nothing of more weight be said against Religi­on, then that it is new. We know not how this has come to pass, but from the beginning of the World, thus it hath ever been; for whensoever God hath discovered and restor­ed to Mankind the light of his Truth, tho it is not only of the utmost Antiquity, but older than time it self, and eternal; yet it ever seems to wicked men, who hate it, to be new and of no Antiquity. That impious and bloody man Haman, that he might bring the Jews into disfavour, thus accused them to Ass [...]erus: Thou, O King, Esther 3. 8. According tothe vulgar La­tin. hast here in thy Domi­nions, a certain People scattered abroad, which observeth new Laws, but is stubborn and rebelli­ous against thy Laws. St. Paul also, when he began first to preach the Gospel to the Athe­nians, [Page 84] was said to be a Setter forth of strange Gods, Act. 17. 18. that is of a new Religion; and ac­cordingly thus they bespeak him, May we know what this new Doctrine whereof thou speakest is? And Celsus, Origen contra Celsum. when he wrote ex­presly against Christ and his Gospel, that he might expose it to the scorn of men, under the pretence of its Novelty, writes thus, What (saith he) has God after so many Ages, now at last bethought himself? Eusebius also is our Author, that from the beginning, the Chri­stian Religion was in derision, stiled [...], the new and strange Religion; and so our Adversaries condemn all our Doctrines as new and strange; but then they desire that all their own, without exception, should be reputed most ancient; just as the Magici­ans and Conjurers, whose business is with the infernal Spirits, that their abominable Art may be thought the more sublime and divine, as being derived from great Patrons and In­ventors, and of a very ancient Original, do commonly say, that they have their Books and all their Rites and secret Mysteries from Athanasius, Cyprian, Moses, Abel and Adam, and from the Arch-Angel Raphael. So our Enemies, that their Religion too, which they have not long since patch'd up for themselves, may with the more [...]ase be recommended to ignorant men, and those that rarely consider what themselves or others do, pretend that it came down to them ( just such as now it is) from St. Augustin, St. Hierom, St. Chrysostom and St. Ambrose, from the Apostles and Christ, for they very well know, that there is nothing more popular, and of greater [Page 85] esteem with men, than those venerable Names. But now, what if those things they pretend are so new, do indeed prove to be most anci­ent? and what if on the other side, almost all those things which they extol so very much upon the pretence of Antiquity, when they are well and diligently examined, are in the end sound to be new and of a very late Ori­ginal.

3. IN truth, the Laws and Ceremonies of the Jews, altho accused by Haman as new, could never be thought so by any man, who did well and rightly consider the thing, for they were written on most ancient Ta­bles; and Christ, tho many thought he de­parted from Abraham and the ancient Fa­thers, and brought in a new Religion in his own name, yet answered truly, John. 5. 46. if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me also, for my Do­ctrine is not so new, for Moses, a very anci­ent Author and of great esteem with you, hath spoken of me: and St. Paul saith, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which many thought to be new, that it had the most Ancient Te­stimony of the Law and the Prophets. And our Doctrine, which we may much better call the Catholick Doctrine of Christ, is not so new, but that it is commended to us by the Ancient of days, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in most ancient Monuments, the Prophets and Gospels, and the Writings of the Apostles; and these cannot now seem new to any man, but to him to whom the Faith of the Prophets, the Gospel, and Christ himself seems new. But then as to their Re­ligion, if it be so ancient as they pretend, [Page 86] why do they not prove it so from the Exam­ples of the Primitive Church, from the old Fathers and the antient Councils? Why doth so antient a Cause lye desolate and without a Patron so very long? Indeed they never want Fire and Swords; but then as to the ancient Fathers and Councils, there is with them a deep silence. But it is the height of Absurdity and Folly to begin with those bloody and brutish Reasons, if they could possibly have found out easier and milder Ar­guments.

4. AND again, if they do indeed intirely trust to Antiquity, and do not dissemble any thing, why did one John Clement, an English man, rend and burn some Leaves of Theodo­ret, a most ancient Father, and a Greek Bi­shop, in the presence of several persons of good Worth and Credit, believing that ano­ther Copy of that Book was no where to be found, because this Father had perspicuously and clearly taught, that the Nature of the Bread was not abolished in the Eucharist? Why doth Albertus Pighius deny that the ancient Father St. Augustin had a true notion of ori­ginal Sin? Or of Matrimony, in that he saith that a Marriage made after a Vow entered, is a good Marriage, and cannot be dissolved; upon which occasion Pighius saith, Caus. 27. 9. 1. Nuptiarum bo­num in contro­versiis. This Book is every where to be had thus imperfect. Augustin erred and made use of false Logick? And why did they in a late Impression of Origen, upon the Gospel of St. John, omit the whole sixth Chapter, in which it is probable, or rather certain, that Father has delivered many things contrary to their Opinions, concern­ing the Eucharist, choosing rather to deface [Page 87] and to mutilate this ancient Father, than to suffer any thing to appear in the World which might contradict their Doctrine, When this piece was written, the design of a general Index Expurgatorius upon all the printed Fa­thers was not known, which is an undeniable Argument under their own hands, that the ancient Fathers are not in their Interest; the first of these Indexes was found at the Sack of Cales in Spain, Anno Domini 1596. many years after this Apology was published. by printing the Book perfect? Is their Rending, Suppressing, Maiming and Burning the Writ­ings of the ancient Fathers, an Argument of their Reliance on Antiquity?

5. IT is worth the while to see how rare­ly these Gentlemen agree in matters of Re­ligion with those antient Fathers, of whose concurrence they boast so unmeasurably. 1. The ancient Elibertin Council decreed, Cap. 3. that what was the Object of Worship should not be painted in Churches. The old Father Epiphanius saith, it is a h [...]rrible wickedness, Images. and an insufferable villany, for any man to set up the Picture, even of Christ in Christian Churches: but they have filled all their Churches and every Corner of them with Pictures and Statues, as as if there were no Religion without them. 2. The ancient Fathers, Scripture. Origines in Leviticum. cap. 16. Chryso­stom in Math. 1. Hom. 2. in Johan. Hom. 3. Origen and St. Chry­sostom, have exhorted the People to the dili­gent reading of the Scriptures, that they would buy Books, and discourse amongst themselves of holy things in their Families, the Wives with their Husbands, and the Parents with their Children; but our adversaries condemn the Scriptures as dead Elements, and drive the People from them as much as they can possib­ly. 3. The ancient Fathers, Cyprian, Epipha­nius [Page 88] and St. Jerome, Marriage. Epist. 11. lib. 1. cont. Ap. Haerct. 61. de virginitate ser­vanda ad De­metriadem. if any Person who had vowed to live a single Life, did afterwards fall into impurity, and could not overcome the Rages of his Concupiscence, said, it was better for him to marry, and live chastly in a State of Matrimony; and such a Marriage is by St. Augustine, another ancient Father, adjudged to be valid and good, and that it ought not to be recalled or rescinded; but they, if a man has once bound himself by a Vow, although he is afterwards burnt, altho he Whores, altho he lives never so lewdly and dissolutely, yet they will never suffer him to marry; or if he does perhaps marry, they deny that it is a lawful Marriage; and they [...]each, that it is much more holy to keep a Concubine or a Whore, than to live in a state of Matrimony. 4. St. Augustin, an ancient Father, complained of the excessive number of impertinent Ceremonies. Ceremonies, with which the Minds and Consciences of Men were even then oppressed; they, as if God regarded nothing else, have since swelled the number of them to so immense a quantity, that there is scarce any thing else left in their Churches. 5. The same ancient Father denies it to be lawful for a Monk to live lazily in idleness; and under the Shew and Pretence of Sancti­ty, Monks. to live on what is anothers; and the an­cient Father Apollonius saith, such a Monk is no better than a Thief: But they have whole Flocks or Herds shall I call them of Monks, who do nothing, nor do they so much as pretend to any shew of Holiness, and yet do not only live by the Labour of others, but fare deliciously and luxuriously. Cap. 3. 6. An an­cient [Page 89] Roman Council decreed, that no man should be present at that Divine Service which was celebrated by a Priest which he knew kept a Concubine; Concubines. but they permit the Priests to keep Concubines for Money, and by force, compel men to be present at their Sacrilegious Services. Magistracy. Cap. 8. 7. The ancient Apostolical Canons command that Bishop to be deposed, who shall exercise at the same time the Office of a Bishop, and the Function of a Civil Magistrate; but these men do, and will exercise both, or rather indeed totally neg­lect that which is most of all their Duty, and yet there is no man to remove and punish them. 8. The ancient Council of Gangra, Married Priests. forbid any man to put such difference be­tween a married and a single Priest, as to esteem the one more Holy than the other up­on that account; but they put such a Diffe­rence, that they think all the Holy Ser­vices which are performed by a pious and good man who hath a Wife are prophaned. 9. The ancient Emperor In Novellis Const it. 23. and 146. Divine Ser­vice to be per­formed in an audible Voice. Let those Clergy men of the Church of England con­sider this, who read the Ser­vice so low, that no man can hear it. Justinianus, com­manded all things in the Divine Service to be pronounced with an audible, loud, clear, ar­ticulate Voice, that the People might thereby reap some benefit by it; but they, that the People may never understand them, whisper their Divine Service, not only in an obscure and low Tone, but also in a strange and bar­barous Tongue. 10. The old Only the Canonical Scriptures to be read in Churches. Carthagenian Council forbad any thing besides the Cano­nical Scriptures to be read in the holy Assem­blies of the Church; but they read in their Churches, what they themselves do not doubt to be meer Lyes and silly Fables. And [Page 90] now if any man thinks these things are of no great consideration, because they were de­creed by Emperors and small Councils, con­sisting of Bishops of less esteem, and not in full Councils, and therefore are more fond of the Authority and Names of Popes. 11. Julius expresly forbad the Priest in the Celebration of the holy Communion, to dip the Bread in the Calice; but they, contrary to this Decree, do divide the Bread and dip it. 12. Clemens the Pope saith, it is not law­ful for a Bishop to bear both (the Spiritual and Civil) Swords; and (saith he) if thou wilt have both, thou deceivest thy self and those that hear thee; but now the Pope claims both, and bears both, and therefore the Wonder ought to seem the less, if that hath followed which Clement foretold, and he hath accordingly deceived himself and those which have heard him. 13. Pope Leo saith, it is not lawful to celebrate more than one Mass in one Day, in one Church; they say every day sometimes ten, at others twen­ty, and at other thirty, and sometimes more in the same Church, at the same time, so that the miserable Spectator knows not which way to turn him. 14. Gelasius the Pope saith, that if any man divide the Sacrament, and when he has received one part, refuseth the other, he doth act Wickedly and Sacrile­giously; but they, contrary to the Word of God, and the Decree of this Pope, com­mand only one part of the Eucharist to be given to the People, and by so doing, have made their Priests guilty of Sacriledge.

[Page 91] 6. BUT now if they shall pretend that all these things are antiquated and worn out of use, and so are in a sort dead, and do not concern our times, yet that men may see what Faith is to be given to these Men, and with what Hope they call Councils, let us consider in a few instances, how well they observe those things which have been ordain­ed of late years, and which are fresh in Me­mory, by Councils which they pretend were lawfully called, and in which they them­selves decreed those things I shall mention, to be Religiously observed. In the last Coun­cil of Trent, March 3d. 1547. not much above fourteen years since, it was decreed by the common Vote of all Orders there present, Pluralities. that two Benefices should not be committed at one time to the same Person. Where is that Sanction now? Is that so soon antiquated and dead too? for they do frequently give not only two Benefices, but sometimes also several Monasteries too, and sometimes two, three or four Bishop­ricks to one Man, and he too sometimes not only unlearned, and consequently thereby unfit for them, but a Soldier. In the same Council it was decreed, that all Bishops ought to preach the Gospel; but they never Preach, nor ever come in a Pulpit, nor do they think it in the least any part of their Duty. What then is the meaning of all that shew of Antiquity? Why do they glory so in the Names of the Fathers, and of the ancient and modern Councils? Why would they so fain seem to rely upon their Authority, whom, as occasion serve, at their Pleasure they despise?

7. BUT I have a great desire to have a [Page 92] little discourse with the Pope himself, and to tell him some things to his Face. Be pleas­ed then, O Holy Father! who so often boastest of Antiquity, and pretendest that all the Ancients are intirely addicted to thy Ser­vice to inform us; which of all the ancient Fathers ever call'd your Holiness the chief Pon­tif, or the Universal Bishop, or the Head of the Church? Which of them ever said that both the Swords were given to thee? Which of them ever said that you have the Right and Authority to call Councils, De Major & Obed. Ʋnam Sanctam in Ex­travag. Boni­fac. 8. Durand. Concil. Lat. sub Julio 2 [...]. that the whole World was your Diocess? Which of them ever said that all Bishops had received of your Fulness? That all Power, both i [...] Heaven and Earth was given to you? That you could not be judged by Kings, nor by the whole Clergy, nor by all the People [...] Which of them ever said that Kings and Em­perors, Distinct. 9. In­nocentii de ma­jor in obed. so­lite in Extra­vag. John 22. c. cum inter nonnullos. in glossa finali, in impressa Edi­tione Parisiis. 1503. by the Command and will of Christ derived Authority from you? Which of them ever affirmed with a Mathematical Exactnes [...] and Certainty, that your Authority was pre [...]cisely seventy seven times greater than that o [...] the greatest Kings? Which of them ever sai [...] that you had a greater power than the othe [...] Patriarchs? Which of them ever said you wer [...] the Lord God, or not a meer Man like othe [...] Mortals, or stiled you a certain Hotch-potch a Mixture or Concrete of God and Man [...] which of them ever said that you were th [...] fountain of all Law? that you had an Empire [...] and Dominion over Purgatory; Antonius de Posellis. and that yo [...] might at your pleasure command the Angels of God? Which of them ever said that you were King of Kings and Lord of Lords? And [Page 93] now we are in, we may inquire of a fow o­ther things of the same Nature. What one Man of all the ancient Bishops and Fathers ever taught you to say a private Mass, whilst the People did nothing but look on; or to lift the Eucharist above your Head, in which you now place all your Religion; or to curtail the Sacrament of Christ, and contrary to his Institution and express Command, to deprive the People of one half of it? And that we may conclude what one of all the ancient Fa­thers taught you, to dispence the Blood of Christ, and the Merits of the Martyrs, and to sell your Indulgences and all the Apart­ments and Lodgings of Purgatory, like Com­modities in the Market for Money? They are wont often to celebrate their own wonderful secret Learning, and their manifold and va­rious Readings. Now let your Partizans at last produce something of it if they can, or let them at least shew they have read, and do know more than or dinary; for they have often made hideous Outcries amongst their Hear­ers, that all the parts of their Religion are ancient, and approved, not only by the num­ber, but also by the Continuance and Con­sent of all Nations and Times.

8. WELL, then let them at least shew this their boasted Antiquity; let them make it appear, that what they so much extol is indeed of so vast an Extent; let them prove that all Christian Nations have imbraced their Religion. But alass! (as I said before) they flee from their own Decrees, and have already pluckt up those Canons which but a very few years since they made to last for [Page 94] ever. Why then should we trust them in relation to what they pretend concerning the Fathers, the ancient Councils, and the Scri­ptures? They have not, O good God! they have not, on their sides, what they pretend to have; they have neither Antiquity, nor Universality, nor the consent of either all times, or all Nations. And of this they are not ignorant themselves, tho they craftily dissemble their Knowledge: Yea, at times they will not obscurely confess it; and there­fore sometimes they will alledge, that the Sanctions of the ancient Councils and Fa­thers, are such as may lawfully be changed, for different Decrees (say they) will best suit the different State of the Church in different times And so they hide themselves under the name of the Church, and by a wretched sham de­lude Mankind. And in truth it is a great wonder that Men should be so blind, as not to see these things; or if they do see them so patient, as to bear and indure them with that stupidity and unconcernment they seem to have.

9. BUT tho they have abrogated the Ca­nons of the ancient Councils, as too old and overworn, yet perhaps they have settled ne [...] and more useful Rules in their place; for they have the confidence to say, that if Christ him­self, or his Apostles, should arise from the Dead, they could not administer the Affairs of the Church of God better or more piously than it is now administered by them: Indeed they have put others in the place of the for­mer: XXIII. 28. I. 12. but as Jeremias saith, Chaff instead of Wheat, or as Isaiah saith, What God never re­quired [Page 95] at their Hands; for they have stopped up all the veins of Living Waters, and have hewen for the People of God, broken and polluted Cisterns, being full of mud and dregs, which neither have in them any pure Water, nor can hold it if it were put into them. They have torn from the People the Holy Com­munion; the word of God from which all true Comfort could only be expected; the true Worship of God; the right use of the Sacraments and Prayers of the Church; and they have given us to please our selves withall in the mean time, of their own pure inventi­on, consecrated Salts, Waters, Oyls, Spittle, Palmes, Bulls, Jubiles, Indulgences, Crosses, Censings, and an infinite number of Ceremonies. And as Plautus calls others of the like nature, Ludos Ludificabiles, Shews and Pageants, that are very divertising, and good for nothing else. In these things they have made all Religion to consist; and they have taught the People that by these things God is rightly appeased, and that by these things Devils are put to flight, and the Consciences of Men quieted and confirmed. For these are the Paints and Perfumes of Christianity, these are the grate­ful and acceptable things to the All-seeing God; these are to be had in honour; that Christ's and his Apostles Institutions may be taken away. And as heretofore the wicked King Jeroboam when he had taken away the true Service of God, and perswaded the Peo­ple instead of it to accept the Golden Calves, for fear they might change their minds, and fall from him, and return to the Temple of God at Jerusalem, made a long Oration to [Page 96] them, ‘exhorting them to Constancy, say­ing to them, These are thy Gods O Israel; thus did your God command you to wor­ship him. But it would be very grievous and troublesome for you to take so long a Journey, and to go up every year to wor­ship and adore God at Jerusalem.’ Even so our Adversaries when they had once by their Traditions quash'd the Laws of God, lest the People should afterwards open their Eyes and fall off from them, and seek a better way of assuring their Salvation. O how often have they exclaimed that this is the true Worship of God, which he is pleased with, and hath required of us, and by which he will be ap­peased when he is angry! and that it is grie­vous and troublesome to the People to have recourse to Christ, and the Apostles and Fa­thers, and to attend perpetually what they require of them. Is this their way of bring­ing the People of God off from the weak Ele­ments of the World, from the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees, and from humane Tra­ditions? Are the Commandments of Christ and his Apostles to be taken away, that these goodly things may succeed them? O most righteous Cause, why should an old Doctrine which hath been approved for many Ages, be antiquated, and a new Form of Religion be brought into the Church of God! Ay (but say they) be it what it will, nothing ought to be changed, the minds of Men are won­derous well satisfied with these things; the Church of Rome has so decreed, and she can­not err; for Sylvester Prierias saith, That the Church of Rome is the Rule and Model of Truth; [Page 97] and that the Holy Scriptures have received from her all their Faith and Authority. The Doctrine (saith he again) of the Church of Rome, is the infallible Rule of Faith, from whence the Holy Scriptures have all their strength. For Indulgen­ces were not made known to us by the Authority of Scriptures; but they were made known by the Authority of the Church, and Popes of Rome, which is greater than the Scriptures. Pighius doth not fear to say, that without the command of the Church of Rome, we are not to believe the most clear place of Scripture: Which is just as if one of those who cannot speak good and pure Latin, and yet by use and custom has got the faculty readily and fluently to blun­der on in the Lawyer's Latin, should therefore stand stoutly to it, that all others are bound to speak it after the same manner, that was many years since in use with Mammetrectus and the Catholicon, which they still use in their Pleadings; because by that means men might very easily be understood, and their Humours might be gratified: but on the other side that it were ridiculous to trouble the World now with a new way of speaking, and to reduce into practice again the old Purity and Elo­quence of the Latin Tongue used in the times of Cicero and Caesar.

10. SO much are they indebted to the Ig­norance and blindness of the former times, that as one saith, Many things are often had in great esteem, C. Plinius. because they were once dedicated to the Service of the Gods. So now we see many things are magnified and applauded by them, not because they judge them worthy of this Esteem; but only because by Custom they [Page 98] were once received, and thereby in a sort de­dicated to the Service of God. But they pre­tend that their Church cannot Err. I suppose they speak this in the same sense as the Lace­demonians were wont to say, there was no such thing as Adultery in their Common-wealth, when in truth they were all Adulterers, and used an uncertain sort of Marriages, and had their Wives in common. Or, as the Hungry Canonists now say of the Pope, that he being Lord of all Benefices, altho he sells Bishop­ricks, Monasteries, and Livings, and suffers nothing to go from him without Money: yet because he claims all these as his own, tho he would, yet he cannot commit Simo­ny: But then how well or rationally this is spoken, we poor Men cannot see or under­stand; except as the ancient Romans served Victory, Plutarch. so they have served Truth, for when she once came flying to them, they clipt her Wings that she might no more sly from them. But what if Jeremias should tell them, as we have observed above, that these are lying Words? And what again if he should say, XII. 9. That many Pastors (who ought to have dressed) have destroyed my Vineyard? What if Christ should say, that those who should have taken the greatest care of the Temple, have made the House of God a D [...]n of Thieves? Mat. XX. 13. For if the Church of Rome cannot Err, she is more be­holding to her own good Fortune, than to their Prudence or Care; for such are their Lives, Doctrines, and Diligence, that if we are to take our Measures from thence, this Church is not only in danger of falling into [...]rror, but of a total Ruine and Destruction: [Page 99] And certainly if that Church can err which hath departed from the Word of God, the Commandments of Christ, the Institutions of the Apostles, the Examples of the Primitive Church, and from the Canons and Sanctions of the ancient Fathers and Councils, yea, and from her own too, which will be obliged by neither old nor new Laws, by neither her own nor any others, by neither Divine nor Humane Laws; I say if all this be to err, then it is certain that the Church of Rome not only may err, but that she hath most wickedly and lewdly erred.

11. BUT they say we were once of their Communion, but now we are Apostates, and have departed from them; indeed we have departed from them, and we bless the Great and Holy God for it, and please our selves mightily in it; but then we have not de­parted from the Primitive Church, from the Apostles, from Christ; we were educated in­deed with them in darkness and ignorance of God, as Moses was in the Discipline and bo­som of the Egyptians. We were of your Number (saith Tertullian) and I confess it, but what won­der is there in that, Men are made, and not born Christians. But then I may as well ask them why they have descended from the seven Hills on which the ancient City of Rome stood, to dwell in the Plains in the Martian Field; to which perhaps they would reply, that the Aquaeducts, without which they could not conveniently dwell on those Hills, have failed. Let them then but grant the same liberty in relation to the Waters of Life, which they expect we should afford them in regard of the [Page 100] common Family-water. The Springs did now fail with them: XIV. 3. The Elders (saith Jeremiah) sent their little ones to the Waters, they came to the Pits and found no Water, they returned with their Vessels empty; they were ashamed and con­founded, XLI. 17. and covered their heads. Or, as Isaiah saith, The Poor and the Needy seek Water, and there is none, and their Tongue faileth for thirst. They had broken all their Conduits and Wa­ter-courses; they had stopped up all the Springs, and covered the Fountain of Living Waters with mire and mud; and as Caligula, by shutting up all the publick Granaries, en­joyned the People of Rome to fast: so they by stopping up the Fountains of the Word of God, had enjoyned the People to undergo the Miseries of a destructive Thirst; they have (as the Prophet Amos saith) brought upon the World a Famine; VIII. 11. Not a Famine of Bread, nor a thirst for Water, but of hearing the Words of the Lord. Miserable Men went searching about for a small spark of Divine Light to chear their Consciences, but they were all gone out and they could find none; this was the miserable Condition and State of their Church, men lived wretchedly in it with out the Gospel, and without Light or Con­slation.

12. AND therefore how afflictive soever our departure from them may seem to them, yet they ought at the same time to consider how just the cause of it was; for if they say in general, it is not lawful to leave that Socie­ty in which thou wert educated; this were in our Persons to condemn the Prophets, Apostles, and Christ himself; for why is it [Page 101] not as reasonable to blame Lot for leaving Sodom, Abraham for leaving Chaldea, the He­brews for leaving Egypt, Christ for leaving the Jews, and St. Paul for leaving the Pharisees? For except it be granted that there may be a just cause of departure, we can see no cause why these may not in the same manner as we are, be accused of Faction and Sedition. But if we are to be thought Hereticks because we will not obey all their unjust commands, what are they? Who or what are they to be thought, who have contemned the Commands of Christ and his Apostles? If we are Schif­maticks who have forsaken them, by what name shall we call them who have forsaken the Greeks, from whom they first received the Christian Faith, the Primitive Church, Christ, and the Apostles, who were their Spiritual Pa­rents? For the Greek Church who at this day profess the Religion and Name of Christ: The Grecian Church. altho they have in many things contaminated it, yet they still retain a great part of those things which they received from the Apostles. And so they have no private Masses, no maimed Sacraments, no Purgatory nor Indulgences: And as to the Papal Titles and magnificent Names, they have this esteem of them, that whoever calls himself the universal Bishop, and the Head of the whole Church, is a proud Man, and injurious to all the other Bishops who are his Brethren, nor will they scruple on this single account to call him Heretick.

13. BUT now seeing it is apparent, and cannot be denied, that they have made a de­fection from them, from whom they received the Gospel, the Christian Faith and Religion, [Page 102] yea, and the very being of a Church; what cause is there to be given, why they should not return back to them as to their Original? Why should they so much dread the times of the Fathers and Apostles, as if they had seen nothing? Why, do they see more, or love the Church better than they who delivered what they have, to them? for as for us we have forsaken a Church in which we could neither hear the pure Word of God, nor ad­minister the Sacraments, nor invoke the Name of God as we ought; which they themselves acknowledge to be faulty in many things, and in which there was nothing to retain a pru­dent Man, who thought seriously of his Sal­vation. Lastly, We have departed from a Church which is not now what anciently she was; and so we have departed, as Daniel did, out of the Den of Lyons, as the three Chil­dren did out of the fiery Furnace; or to speak more properly, we have not so much departed from them, as been cast out by them with Execrations and Curses.

14. BUT then we have united our selve to that Church, in which if they would spea [...] their minds truly and freely, they themselve cannot deny but that all things are purly and reverently administred, and as far as we can possibly, according to the Example and Man­ner of the ancient times. Let them compare their Church and ours together, and they will soon see that they have most basely departed from the Apostles, and we have most justly and reasonably departed from them; for we, with Christ and the Apostles, and Primitive Fathers, give the intire and whole Eucharist [Page 103] to the People; but they contrary to the Practice of all the Fathers and Apostles, and of Christ himself, divide that Sacrament with an high Sacrilege, as Gelasius expresseth it, and deprive the People of one half of it. 2. We have recalled the Lords Supper to its first In­stitution, and have made it common to as many as was possible, that it might be as it is called a Communion: But they, contrary to the Institution of Christ, of a Holy Com­munion have, made it a private Mass; and so we give the People the Lords Supper, they entertain them with a vain Show. 3. We affirm with the ancient Fathers, that the Body of Christ is eaten by none but Holy and Faith­ful Men, who are endowed with the Spirit of Christ; but they say that the very Body of Christ may be truly and indeed, or as they express it, really and substantially eaten, not only by impious and unbelieving Men, but which is abominable to be spoken, by Mice and Dogs. 4. We pray so in our Churches, 2 Cor. XIV. that according to St. Paul's Admonition, the People may know what is prayed, and un­derstandingly answer Amen to the common Prayers: They like tinkling Brass pour out in the Church unknown and strange Words, without Understanding, Sense, or Meaning; and take all the care they can that the Peo­ple may understand nothing. 5. And that we may not mention all the differences, be­cause they are almost infinite, we have turned the Holy Scriptures into all Languages, and they will scarce allow them to be extant in any Tongue: We invite the People to read and hear the Word of God, they drive them [Page 104] away from it: We desire the Cause in Con­troversie should be understood by all, but they fly from Judgment: We trust to Know­ledge, they to Ignorance; We trust to the Light, and they to Darkness; We venerate, as it is fit we should, the Words of the Apo­stles and Prophets; they burn them. Lastly, in the Cause of God we desire to stand or fall by the Judgment of God alone; and they would stand only by their own. Now therefore if they would consider all these things with a sedate and quiet mind, well dis­posed to hear and learn, they would not only approve our design, who having left their Errors, have applyed our selves to follow Christ and his Apostles; but they would likewise fall off from themselves, and cer­tainly unite with us in our way.

CHAP. VI.
Of the Great Value we have for Councils, and of the little regard the Papists have for them.

BUT in the next place they pretend that it is altogether unlawful to attempt any of these things, without the consent of a Ge­neral Council; because in that is lodged all the Power of the Church; and Christ hath pro­mised that there he will never fail to be pre­sent. But as I said they have violated the Commandments of God, the Decrees of the [Page 105] Apostles, and almost all the Institutions and Doctrines of the Primitive Church, without ever expecting any such Sacred Council.

2. AND whereas they pretend that it is not Lawful for any Church to change any thing without a General Council; who im­posed these Laws upon us, or from whence had they this Edict? That King acted very ridiculously, who when he was assured by an Oracle, Agesilaus. of the Will and Pleasure of Jupiter the Great Heathen God, referred the thing again to Apollo, that he might see whether he were of the same mind with his Father Jupiter. But we should act much more im­prudently, if when we have heard God him­self speaking to us in the Scriptures, and thereby know his Will and Pleasure, as if all this were nothing, we should after all refer the thing to a Council, which is nothing bet­ter than to try whether God and Man are both of one mind; and whether Men will please to approve and enforce the Laws of God by their Authority. For what, shall not truth be truth, except a Council is pleased to will and require it? Or shall not God be God without their consent? If Christ at the beginning would have acted thus, and would neither have taught nor spoken any thing without the consent of the High Priests, and if he had referred his whole Doctrine to Annas and Caiphas, where had the Christian Faith been now? Or who had ever heard of the Gospel? And St. Peter, whom the Pope men­tions more frequently, and with greater Elogies than he doth Jesus Christ himself, confidently withstood the Sacred Council, [Page 106] and replied, Acts 4. 19. it is better to obey God than Man. And St. Paul, when he had once throughly imbibed the Gospel, and that neither from man nor by man, Gal. 1. 12. 16. but only by the Will of God, de­liberated not with Flesh and Blood; nor did he refer the thing to his Kinsmen and Brethren, but straight way went into Arabia, that he might there publish the Divine Mysteries which he had learned of God himself.

3. WE do not despise Councils, nor the Meetings and Consultations of Bishops and learned Men; nor have we done what we have done without Bishops and a Council; the thing was debated along time in a full Assembly of the States. In the fourth year of Pius the IV. Anno Christi 1563. in the sixth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, was an end put to the Council of Trent, which is so often mentioned by this Author. But what we may expect from that Council which is now pre­tended to be held by Pope Pius the IV. in which men are with such facility condemn'd, uncall'd, unheard, and unseen, is not mighty difficult to conjecture. When Nazianzen in his times, Nazian. ad Procopium. saw men in these Meetings so blind and obstinate, that they were wholly lead by their Affections, and that they sought Victory more than Truth, he confidently said, that he never saw a good end put to any of the Councils. What would he now say if he were living and un­derstood their Transactions? for then, altho there was some Faction and Partiality, yet Causes were heard and considered, and ma­nifest apparent Errors were taken away by their united Suffrages. But our Adversaries will not so much as suffer the Cause to be freely debated, nor will they suffer any [Page 107] one of the many Errors that are crept into the Church to be changed; for they are wont frequently and impudently to boast that their Church cannot Err, that there is not the least fault in it, that nothing was to be yielded to us, or that if any thing were granted, it was to be at the Discretion of the Bishops and Abbots; that they were the sole Moderators of Affairs, and that they were the Church of God. Aristotle saith, that Bastards cannot make a Civil Society or State, and they may consider whether they be any better qualified for the making of a Church of God; for certainly they are nei­ther lawful Abbots, nor genuine Bishops. But suppose they are the Church, suppose they are to be heard in Councils, and that they have the sole Right of Voting, yet in ancient time, when the Church of God was well governed, especially if it be compared with their Church; as St. Cyprian acquaints us, the Presbyters and Deacons, and some part also of the Laity, were then call'd to assist at the hearing of Ecclesiastical Cau­ses.

4. BUT what now, if those Abbots and Bishops know nothing? What if they know not what Religion is, nor what they ought to believe of God? What if the Law hath pe­rished from the Priests, and Counsel from the Elders? What if, as Micah saith, Micah. 3. 6. the Night be unto them instead of a Vision, and Darkness instead of a Divination? What if, I. VI. 10. as Isaiah saith, the Watchmen of the City are all blind, they are all ignorant? Math. 5. 13. and what if the Salt (as Christ saith) hath lost its [Page 108] Force and Savour, Luke 14. 35. and is become good for no­thing, not fit even to be cast upon the Dunghil? for they defer all to the Pope, who cannot err, but then this in the first place is ridiculous, It was a common Proverb in the time of the Council of Trent, that the Holy Ghost was sent from Rome to the Council in a Cloak-Bag, which was spoken in derision of the Councils de­pending too much upon the Directions sent them ve­ry frequently from thence by Carriers, as Father Paul acquaints us in his History of that Council; and to this Proverb our Author in this place alludes: The same Proverb is mentioned by the Bishop of Quinque Ecclesiae; in a Leter print­ed in the end of the Coun­cil of Trent in English. that the Holy Ghost should be sent by a Carrier from the Holy Council to Rome; that if any Doubt or Stop hap­pens which he cannot expedite, he may take better Instruction and Counsel from I know not what more learned Spirit; for if it must come to this at last, what need is there that so many Bi­shops should with such great Ex­pence be called from very distant places at this time to Trent? It had certainly been more prudent, and much better, a shorter and an easier way, to have at first turn'd over all this Business to the Pope, and have gone directly to the Oracle of his sacred Br [...]ast; besides, it is unjust to de­volve our Cause from so many Bishops and Ab­bots, to the Judgment of any one man, and above all others, to the Judgment of the Pope, who is accused by us of many very great Crimes; and though he hath not an­swered for his own Misdemeanors, yet hath presum'd to condemn us before we were call'd, and that without any Tryal. Now do we invent all this? or is it not now the man­ner of our late Councils? Are not all things referr'd to the Pope by the Council; so that as if nothing were done by so many Senten­ces and Subscriptions, he alone may add, [Page 109] diminish, abrogate, approve, relax, and re­strain whatsoever he please? Whose Words are these? Why did the Bishops and Abbots in the end of the late Council at Trent, put in these words as a part of their Decree: De electione & electi potestate. ca. significa. Saving in in all things the Authority of the Apostolical See? Or why did Pope Pascal write thus in­solently of himself: as if (saith he) any Coun­cils could prescribe a Law to the Church of Rome, when all Councils are held by the Authority of the Church of Rome, and derive their Force from it too, and whereas they do patiently in their Decrees except the Authority of the Pope of Rome? If they will confirm and approve these things, why are Councils call'd? but if they are in­deed repeal'd and abrogated, why are they still left in their Books, as if they were in force.

5. WELL, but suppose in the next place, that the Pope, tho one is above all Councils, that is, that he is a part greater than the whole, has more Power, yea, and more Wisdom too, than all his Party besides; and that in spite of St Jeroms Judgment, the Au­thority of this one City, Ad Evagrium. is greater than that of the whole World. What if he has seen none of these things, and has neither read the holy Scriptures, nor the ancient Fathers, nor so much as any of his own Councils? What if like Pope Liberius of old, he becomes an Ar­rian, or like Pope John, who lived not ma­ny years since, thinks very leudly and wick­edly of the Immortality of the Soul, and of the Life to come; or as Pope Zosimus, heretofore corrupted the Council of Nice, so he, for the enlarging of his own Power, should cor­rupt the other Councils, and aver, that those [Page 110] things were deliberated and constituted by the holy Fathers, in them which were never so much as thought off; and that, as Camotensis saith, the Popes do frequently, he should of­fer Violence to the holy Scriptures, that he may thereby possess himself of a Plenitude of Power? What if he renounce the Christian Faith, and becomes an Apostate, as Lyranus saith, many Popes have done? What, will the holy Spirit for all these things knock at the Cabbin of his Breast, and obtrude such a Light upon him, contrary to his Inclinations, and against his Will, that he shall not err though he would? Or shall such a Pope as this, be the Fountain of all Laws, and all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge be notwithstanding found in him as in a Cabi­net? Or if these things be not in him, can he nevertheless judge well and conveniently of things of this great weight? Or if he be not qualified to judge of them, does he yet de­sire that all these things should be refer'd to him alone? What now, if the Popes Advo­cates, the Abbots and Bishops dissemble no­thing, but declare themselves openly to be the Enemies of the Gospel, and will not see what they do see, but wrest the Scriptures, and knowingly and willingly deprave and a­dulterate the Word of God, and do foully and impiously transfer to the Pope, what is perspicuously and properly spoken of Christ, and cannot be applied to any other Mortal? What if they say the Pope is all, and above all, Host. ca. quan­to Abas Panor. de elect. ca. Venerabilis. or that he can do all those things which Christ can do; or that the Tribunal and Consistory of the Pope is the same with [Page 111] Christs? or that the Pope is that Light which came into the World, which Christ spake of himself only, and that he that doth Evil hateth that Light, and fleeth from it; Cornelius E­piscopus in Con­cilio Tridenti­no. Durandus. or that all other Bishops have received of his Fulness? Or lastly, what if they do, without dissimulation or obscurity, clearly and manifestly determine contrary to the Word of God? Shall whatever they say, nevertheless presently become Gospel? Shall such as these be the Army God? Will Christ be present with such Men? Will the Spirit of God move upon their Tongues, Acts 15. 28. or may they say truly, it seems good to the Holy Ghost and to us?

6. P [...]trus a Soto and his Voucher Hosius, make no s [...]ruple to affirm, that that very Council which condemn'd our Saviour to death, had then the Spirit of Prophesie, and Truth, and the Holy Ghost with them, and that what those High Priests said was not false or vain, when they said, [...] have a Law, and by that Law be ought to die; that in this (according to Hosius) they gave a true Judg­ment, Hosius contra Brentium. lib. 2. and that their Decree was perfectly just, by which Christ was adjudged worthy of Death. It is a wonder in the mean time these men cannot defend themselves, and propagate their own Cause, except at the same time they undertake the Patronage of Annas and Caiaphas. For what Council will these men ever acknowledge to be vicious and erronious, who say that was a lawful and good Council, in which the Son of God was most ignominiously condemn [...]d to the Death of the Cross [...] and yet considering what almost all their Councils have been, it was necessary for them thus to pronounce of [Page 112] the Council held by Annas and Caiaphas. But are they ever like to be the Men which are to reform the Church, who are at once the Judges and the Criminals? Will they ever lessen their Pride and Ambition? Will they depose themselves, and give Judg­ment against themselves, that the Bishops shall not be unlearned, slow Bellies, multi­ply Benefices, carry themselves like Princes, nor bear Arms? Will the Popes beloved Sons the Abbots decree, that that Monk who doth not earn his Bread with the Sweat of his Brows, is a Thief? or that it is not Lawful for them to live in the City, or in a Crowd of Men, or of that which belongs to another; that a Monk ought to lye upon the bare Ground, to live hardly with Herbs and Pease; to study hard, dispute, pray and la­bour to prepare himself for the Service of the Church? It is as reasonable to expect that the Scribes and Pharisees will reform the Tem­ple, and of a Den of Thieves, will again make it become a House of Prayer.

7. THERE were some amongst them, who observed that many Errors were crept into the Church. Pope Adrian, Aeneas, Sylvius, Cardinal Pool, Pighius, and others [...] as we have said: After which, they had a Council at Trent, in the same place where there is one now indicted. Many Bishops and Abbots, and others who ought to be in a Council met; they were alone, and there was no body to disturb them whatever they did; for they had taken care to exclude all that were for the Reformation, and there they sate with a great Expectation six years; [Page 113] in the first six months they decreed many things concerning the Holy Trinity, the Fa­ther, Son and Holy Ghost, which were pious, but no way necessary for those Times; and yet of all these clear, manifest, confessed Er­rors which had gotten into the Church, what one single Error or Corruption have they reformed? From what kind of Idolatry have they reclaim'd the People? What Super­stition have they taken away? What part of their Tyranny and Pomp have they abated or diminished? as if the World were so blind that it could not see and observe that this is a Conspiracy rather than a Council, and that all the Bishops which the Pope have there call'd together, are sworn and addicted to his Interest, and resolved before hand, not to do any thing but what shall please him, and en­crease his Power, and which they see he de­sireth; or that Votes there are not numbred rather than considered and weighed; or that the wiser and better part of the Council, is not often overborn by the greater, but worse part of it. And therefore we know perfectly well, that many good Men and Catholick Bishops, when such Councils were indicted, and they saw clearly that Parties and Facti­ons were served by them, and that they should lose their Pains, and harden the Minds of their Adversaries by their Oppositi­ons, without doing the least Good, have wisely staid at home, and refused to be pre­sent in them. Theodorer. lib. 1 [...]. 2 [...]. Athanasius would not come to the Council at Caesarea, when he was call'd by the Emperor, seeing he should there meet an enraged parcel of Enemies; and after­wards [Page 114] when he came to the Council at Syr­mium, and in his mind foresaw from the Fu­ry and Malice of his Enemies, what the E­vent would be, he pack'd up his Carriages, and went away immediately. Tripart. lib. 10. cap. 13. St. Chrysostom, tho he was call'd four times by Letters from Arcadius the Emperor, to an Arrian Council, yet staid at home. When Maximus, Bishop of Jerusalem sate in a Council in Palestine, the old Paphnutius took him by the hand and led him out of it, and then told him, ' tis not law­ful for us to consult about these things with wicked men. Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 17. The Bishops of the WEST would not be present at that Council at Syrmium, from which Athanasius departed. St. Cyril, by Letters appealed from the Council of the Patropassians, Soz. lib. 5. c. 15. as they were call'd. Paulinus, Bishop of [...]reves, and many others, would not come to the Council of Milan, when they saw the Power and Intrigues of Auxenti­us; for they saw it was to no purpose to go thither, where Faction and not Reason would he heard, and were Causes would be cer­tainly determined by Affection and Passion, and not by Judgment. But then all these, tho they were to deal with inraged and ob­stinate Adversaries, yet if they had come, they should have been freely heard in the Council.

8. BUT now no man need wonder, when none of us are permitted, not only not to sit, but not so much as to be seen in their Council, so far are we from being freely heard, when the Popes, Legats, and all the Patriarchs, Arch-Bishops, Bishops and Abbots are in a Conspiracy, and united by their [Page 115] common Crimes, all sworn in the same Oath, only sit, and have alone the Power of voting: and as if all this were not enough, have sub­mitted all their Judgments to the Will and Humour of the Pope alone: That he who ought to answer for his own Faults, shall give Sentence in his own Cause upon himself, when that ancient Christian Liberty, which it is absolutely necessary should be very great in Councils, is totally taken away. (I say) after all this, wise and good Men ought not to wonder, if we do now, that which they have seen done before in the like case, by so many Fathers and Catholick Bishops: That is, that seeing we cannot be heard in the Council, and that the Ambassadors of Princes are had in Contempt and Scorn there; and that as if the thing were already determined and agreed, we are condemned before we are heard: if after all this we had rather sit at home and commit the business to God, than to go thither, where we shall have no place nor effect any thing. But tho we can pati­ently and quietly bear our own Injuries; yet why should they shut Christian and Pious Princes out of their Councils? Why do they so rudely and insolently put them out, and not suffer them to hear the business of Reli­gion debated; or to understand the State of their own Churches, as if they were not Chri­stians, or could not judge well of it; or if these Princes interpose their Authority, and do that which they may, are commanded, and ought to do, and which we know David and Solomon, and other good Princes have done; that is, if they restrain the Luxury of [Page 116] the Priests, and compel them to do their duty, and keep them to it. If they pluck down Idols, extirpate Superstitions, and re­store the Worship of God to its ancient Pu­rity. Why do they presently make an Out­cry, that these Princes disturb all things, break in upon other Mens Offices, and do act ill things and immodestly? What Scripture (I pray) hath excluded Christian Princes from hearing these Causes? Who besides these Men ever decreed any such Laws? But they will reply, that Civil Princes have learned to go­vern their States, and to manage Arms, but they understand nothing of the Mysteries of Religion. And now, what is the Pope at this day, but a Monarch or Prince, and what are the Cardinals (who are now scarcely suffered to be any other but) the Children of Kings and Princes? What are the Patriarchs, and for the most part the Arch-bishops, Bi­shops and Abbots others than Princes, Dukes and Earls, in the Papal Kingdom? and ac­cordingly whithersoever they go, they a [...] attended with a great Retinue, and adorned with Chains and Collers of Gold, and ot [...] Ensignes of Honour. And they have sometimes also a peculiar Habit belonging to them, as Crosses, Pillars, Hats, Myters and Palls; which Pomp the ancient Bishops, St. Chry­sostom, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustin, were not acquainted with; but then excepting these outward Ornaments, what do they teach, what do they speak, what do they do and what do they Live, so as becomes, I will not say, a Bishop, but a common Christian Is it then of so mighty a Consequence to go [Page 117] under this or that Title; and by changing nothing but a Mans Cloaths, to be called a Bishop?

9. CERTAINLY it is a proud, injuri­ous, and unjust thing and not to be born by Christian and Prudent Princes, to permit the summ of all that concerns Religion, to be man­aged by such Men as these alone, who know nothing of the Mysteries of Religion, nor care to know any thing more than what belongs to their Bellies and Kitchins, and do not va­lue any thing of Religion as worth a [...]rush, who are no better than blind men placed in a Watch-tower; and that in the interim a Christan and a Catholick Prince should stand like a trunk or a stock, and without vote, and without giving his judgment, only observe what they are pleased to command and im­pose upon him, and as if he had neither Ears, nor Eyes, nor Mind, nor Heart of his own to receive without Exception, and with a blind-fold submission, do whatever they are pleased to command him, altho they are Blasphemous and wicked things, yea, altho they should command him to extinguish all Religion, and to crucisie his Saviour: For why? Can Caiphas and Annas judge well of Matters of Religion, and cannot David and Ezechias? Is it lawful for a Cardinal, a Martial, and a bloody Man to sit in a Council, and is it unlawful for an Emperour and a Chri­stian Prince? For we attribute nothing more to our Princes, than what is allowed them by the Word of God, and approved by the Ex­amples of the best Governments. For besides that, the care of both Tables is committed [Page 118] by God to a Faithful Prince, that he may thereby understand, that not only the Civil but the Ecclesiastical Polity belongs to him and his Office: And besides all this, God hath often expresly commanded Princes to cut down the Groves, and overthrow the Statues and Altars of Idols, to transcribe for himself a Book of the Law; XLIX. 23. and Isaiah saith, that Kings should be nursing Fathers to the Church, and their Queens her nursing Mothers. Besides all these things, I say we see by Histories and the Examples of the best times, that Pious Princes did never think the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs, a thing that was foreign to their Duty.

10. Exod. 12. MOS ES who was the Civil Magistrate, and Leader of the People, received from GOD the whole Body of their Religion, and the Order of their Sacred Rites, and deliver­ed them to the People, and severely and sharp­ly chastised Aaron their Bishop, for making the Golden Calf, and violating the Religion by Law established. Ioshua 1. And Ioshua, tho he were no other than a Civil Magistrate, yet when he was first inaugurated and set over the People, he received express Commands concerning Religion and the Worship of God. David the King, 2 Chron. XIII. when their Religion had been miserably disordered by Saul a wicked King, brought back the Ark of God, that is, restored Religion. And he was not only present as an Admonisher or Perswader of the Work, but he published Psalms and Hymns, disposed the Priests and Levites into Classes and Orders, and in a sort governed the Priests as a Priest. 2 Chron. VI. Salomon the King built a [Page 119] Temple to the Lord, which his Father David had only designed in his thoughts; and after made an excellent Oration to the People con­cerning Religion and the Worship of God: And after this he removed Abiathar the High Priest, 1 King. VIII. and substituted Sadoc in his place. And when after this the Temple was wretch­edly ruined by the Vice and Negligence of the Priests, 2 Chr. XXIX. Ezechias the King commanded it to be cleansed of its Rubbish and Dirt, the Lamps to be lighted, Incense to be offered, and the Sacred Rites to be performed accor­ding to the ancient Order: And caused the Brazen Serpent that was then irreligiously worshipped by the People, to be taken away and reduced to Dust. 2 King. XVIII. 2 Chr. XVII. Iosaphat the King overthrew and took away all the High Places, and destroyed the Groves, by which he per­ceived the Worship of God was hindered, and the People by a Private Superstition, diverted from attending the Service of God in the pub­lick and common Temple, to which they were bound to go three times in the Year out of all Parts of his Kingdom. 2 King. XXIII. Iosias ano­ther King diligently admonished the Priests and Bishops of their duty. 2 King. X. Jods the King repressed the Luxury and I [...]olence of the Priests. Jehu slew the wicked false Pro­pliets. And that I may trouble the Reader with no more Examples out of the Scriptures, and rather pass to see and consider how the Church has been governed since the Birth of Christ and the Publishing of the Gospel. Heretofore Christian Emperors called Coun­cils of the Bishops; Constantinus called the Nicene Council, Theodosius the First the Con­stantin [...] [Page 120] stantinopolitan, Theodosius the Second the Ephe­sian, Martianus the Chalcedonian; and when Ruffinus had alledged a Synod as making for him, his Adversary St. Jerome, that he might confute him, replyed, Tell us what Emperor commanded it to be assembled. And he also in his Funeral Oration for Paula a Roman Lady, cites the Letters of the Emperors, who had commanded the Greek and Roman Bishops to meet at Rome for the holding of a Coun­cil.

11. IT is most certain that for Five hun­dred Years the Emperor alone took care of calling all the General Councils and Sacred Meetings, and therefore we do now the more admire the unreasonableness of the Bishop of Rome, who tho he knows that during the sub­sistence of the Roman Empire in its Greatness, this was the sole right of the Emperor, and that now Kings have succeeded to part of the Caesarean or Imperial Majesty, this Right is de­volved to all Princes in common, yet has so unjustly usurpt it to himself alone, Pius IV. In bulla sua ad Im­peratorem Fer­dinandum. and thinks it sufficient to communicate his design of holding a Council to the Greatest Prince in Christendom as to his Servant. But if the Modesty of Ferdinand the Emperor be so great, perhaps because he doth not thorowly under­stand the Papal Arts, that he can digest this Injury; yet the Pope who pretends to so much Sanctity, ought not to have offered him this Affront, and thus to have arrogated to himself another Mans Right.

12. BUT some of his Party may reply, that the Emperor then called the Councils, because the Bishop of Rome was not then ar­rived [Page 121] to that height of Greatness; and yet he did not even then sit with the Bishops, or at all interpose his Authority in their Delibera­tions and Consultations: Hist. Eccl lib. 1. cap. 5. Yes, as Theodo­ret acquaints us, Constantine the Emperor did not only sit with the Bishops, but admo­nished them to determine the Controversie then depending, out of the Prophetick and Apostolical Writings. In this Disputation (said the Emperor) concerning Divine things there is set before us, which we ought to follow, the Do­ctrine of the Holy Ghost; for the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles, and the Oracles of the Prophets do sufficiently shew us what we ought to think of the Will of God. Socrates Hist. Eccl. l. 5. c. 10. Theodosius another Emperor not only sat amongst the Bishops, (as Socrates saith) but also was Moderator of the Dispute, and rent the Papers of the He­reticks, and approved the Sentiments and Do­ctrine of the Catholicks. And in the Coun­cil of Chalcedon the Civil Magistrate (who un­der the Emperor governed that Council) con­demn'd three Bishops, Dioscorus, Juvenalis, and Thalassius by his Sentence for Hereticks, Act. 2. and gave judgment that they should be deposed from that degree. In the Third, the Constan­tinopolitan Council, the Civil Magistrate not only sate with the Bishops, but also subscribed the Canons with them: We have read (said he) and subscribed them. In the Second Coun­cil of Orange, the Ambassadors of the Princes being Noble-men themselves, sate and not only voted concerning Matters of Religion, but also subscribed amongst the Bishops; for thus it is written in the end of that Council. Petrus Marcellinus and Felix Liberius two No­ble [Page 122] and Illustrions Praefecti Praetorio] of Gaul, and Patricians have consented and subscribed. Syragrius, Opilio, Pantagathus, Deodatus, Cariatho and Marcellus honourable Men (and Magistrates) have subscribed. But if the Prae­fecti Praetorio, and Patricians, or Noble-men could then subscribe the Councils, may not Emperors and Kings do it now. There were no need to prosecute so plain and apparent a point as this is, but that we have to do with a parcel of Men who use to deny the clearest things, oven those things which lye plain and open before their Eyes, out of a contentious Disposition and a desire of Victory. The Emperour Justinianus made a Law for the correcting the Manner, and curbing the In­solence of the Clergy, and altho he was a most Christian and Catholick Emperor, yet he deposed Sylverius and Vigilius two Popes, Successors of St. Peter, and Vicars of Jesus Christ, as they are now called.

13. AND now seeing that Princes have imployed their Authority upon Bishops, re­ceived commands from God concerning Re­ligion, brought back the Ark of God, com­posed Sacred Hymns and Psalms, governed the Priests, made publick Discourses con­cerning the Worship of God, purged the Temple, demolished High Places, burnt Ido­latrous Groves, and have admonished the Priests concerning their Office, and given them Laws of Living, have slain wicked Pro­phets, deposed Bishops, called Councils of Bishops, and sate with them, and taught them what they should do, have punished Hereti­cal Bishops, have taken cognizance of Reli­gion, [Page 123] subscribed Councils, and given Sen­tence in them, and done all this, not by the command of another, but in their own Names, and that rightly and piously; shall we say after all this, that the care of Religi­on belongs not to them? Or that a Christian Prince, who is pleased to concern himself in these things acts ill, immodestly and wicked­ly? In all these Affairs the most Ancient and most Christian Kings and Emperors have intermeddled, and yet were never accused of Impiety or Immodesty for so doing; and will any pretend to find either more Catho­lick Princes, or more Illustrious Examples.

14. BUT now if they might do all these things, tho they were only Civil Princes, and governed their several States? Wherein have our Princes offended, who tho they are in the same Authority, may (it seems) not do the same things? Or wherein consists the wonderful force of their Learning, Wisdom, and Holiness, that contrary to the Custom of all the Ancient and Catholick Bishops, who have heretofore deliberated with Princes con­cerning Religion; they should now reject and exclude Christian Princes from the cogni­zance of the Cause now depending, and from all Participation and Congress with them in their Councils? But yet it cannot be denied they have taken a prudent care for themselves and the upholding their Kingdom, which they foresaw otherwise would soon have pe­rished. For if they who are placed by God in the highest Station, had once seen and understood these Mens Arts, that the Com­mands of Christ are contemned by them, [Page 124] that the light of the Gospel is obscured and extinguished by them; that they play tricks with, and delude them, and shut up against them the entrance into the Kingdom of God: They would never so patiently have suffered themselves to be so proudly despised, and injuriously scorned and abused. But now on the other hand, they have rendred all Princes obnoxious and subject to them by their blindness and Ignorance.

15. WE (as I said before) have done no­thing in the changing of Religion, either in­solently or rashly; nothing but with great deliberation and slowly; Nor had we ever thought of doing it, except the Will of God undoubtedly and manifestly opened to us in the most Sacred Scriptures, and the necessity of our Salvation had compelled us so to do; for altho we have departed from that Church which they call the Catholick Church, and thereupon they have kindled a great envy a­gainst us in them, who cannot well judge of us yet it is enough for us, and ought to be so to any prudent and pious man, who considers seriously of his Salvation, that we have only departed from that Church which may enr, which Christ who cannot err, so long since foretold should err, and which we see clearly with our Eyes has departed from the Holy Fa­thers, the Apostles, Christ himself, and the Pri­mitive and Catholick Church. And we have approached as much as possibly we could, to the Church of the Apostles, and ancient Ca­tholick Bishops and Fathers, which we know was yet a Perfect, and as Tertullian saith, an unspotted Virgin, and not contaminated with any [Page 125] Idolatry or great and publick Error. Neither have we only reformed the Doctrine of our Church, and made it like theirs in all things, but we have also brought the Celebration of☞ the Sacraments, and the Forms of our Publick Rites and Prayers to an exact resemblance with their Institutions or Customs. And so we have only done that which we know Christ himself and all pious and good Men have in all Ages ever done; for we have brought back Religion, which was foully neg­lected and depraved by them, to her Original and first State; for we considered that the Re­formation of Religion was to be made by that which was the first Pattern of it: For this Rule will ever hold good against all He­reticks, saith the most ancient Father Tertulli­an, That that is true which is first, and that is adulterated and corrupted which is later. Irenaeus doth often appeal to the most ancient Churches who were the nearest to Christ, and which therefore were not at all likely to have erred. And why is not that course now taken also? Why do we not return to a Conformity with the most Ancient Churches? why cannot that be now heard amongst us, which was pronounced in the Council of Nice, without the least contradiction or op­position from so many Bishops and Catholick Fathers; [...]. LET THE OLD CUSTOMS STAND FIRM? When Esdras was to rebuild the Temple, he did not send to Ephesus, tho there was there a most beautiful Temple of Diana, which was adorned most exquisitely; and when he was to restore the Rites and Ceremonies, he did [Page 126] not send to Rome, tho perhaps he might have heard there of The Author mentions in this place Hecatombae, Soli­taurilia, Lectisternia, and Supplications, Heathen Rites that cannot be supposed to be easily understood by an English Reader, and are not worth the while to expound them at length. Hecatembs, &c. and the ritual Books of Numa Pompilius; he thought it was suffi­cient for him, if he set before him as an example, and followed the ancient Temple built by Solomon according to the Prescription of God Almighty, and the ancient Rites and Ceremonies which God had expresly commanded Moses. When the Temple was rebuilt by Esdras, Hagg. II. 3, 4, &c. and the People might seem to have a just cause to rejoyce in so very great a Blessing granted to them by the Great and Holy God; yet Haggai the Prophet brought Tears from all their Eyes, because they that were yet living, and had seen the Structures of the former before it was destroyed by the Babylonians, did well remem­ber how far this latter was from the splendor of the former Temple. But on the contrary, they would have thought it excellently re­stored, if it had answered the Model, and represented the Majesty of the old Temple.

16. St. Paul, that he might reform the Abuses of the Lords Supper, which the Corinthians began even then to corrupt, pro­posed to them the Institution of it by Christ to follow. That (saith he) have I delivered to you which I received of the Lord. And Christ, that he might refute the Errors of the Pharisees in another case, sends them up to the beginning. In the beginning (saith he) it was not so. And that he might shew the Sordidness and Avarice of the Priests. This, saith he, in the beginning, was a House of [Page 127] Prayer, that Men might in it pray to God Religiously and Purely; and so you ought still to have kept it, for it was not built to be a Den of Thieves. So all religious and appro­ved Princes in Scripture, are especially hon­oured with this Commendation, that they walked in the ways of David their Father; that is, that they returned to the Original and Fountain, and restored Religion to its first Integrity. And so we seeing all things per­verted by them, and that there was nothing left in the Church of God but miserable Ru­ines, thought it was but reasonable to set be­fore us those Churches for our Example, which we were sure had not erred, and had neither private Masses, nor unintelligible and barbarous Prayers, nor that Corruption of the Holy Rites, or other Fooleries. And de­siring to restore the Church of God to its first Integrity [and Purity] we would not seek any other Foundation to build upon, than what was laid by the Apostles, that is, by our Saviour Jesus Christ.

17. WHEN therefore we had heard God himself speaking to us in his word, and had seen and considered the illustrious Examples of the Ancient and Primitive Church, and that the expectation of a General Council was very uncertain, and the event that would follow it much more uncertain; and especi­ally when we had the utmost certainty what was the Will of God, and therefore thought it a Sin to be too sollicitous and anxious what the opinion of Men might be: After all this I say we could no longer deliberate with flesh and blood; but proceeded and have according­ly [Page 128] done that which may both lawfully be done, and which hath already been often done, by many pious Men and Catholick Bishops, that is, to take care of our own Church in a Provincial Synod. For so we see the ancient Fathers ever took that course, before they came to a General and Publick Council of the whole World; and there are still extant the Canons made in Muncipial or Provincial Councils at Carthage under St. Cyprian, at Ancyra, Neocaesarea, and at Gangra also in Paphlagonia; all which, as some think, were held before the name of the Nicene General Council was thought of. And in this manner without any General Council by a private dispute they of old opposed the Pelagians and Donatists. So when Constantius the Emperor openly favored Auxentius a Bi­shop of the Arrian Party, Athanasius a most Christan Bishop did not appeal to a General Council, in which he saw nothing could be done, by reason of the Power of the Em­peror, and the great partiality and stiffness of the Faction; but to his own Clergy and Peo­ple, that is to a Provincial Council.

18. SO it was decreed in the Nicene Coun­cil, that twice in the year, and in a Cartha­genian Council, that at least once in a year Meetings of the Bishops should be celebrated in every Province, which the Council of Chalcedon saith was done, that if any Errors or Abuses arose any where, they might presently and upon the spot be extinguished. And so when Secundus and Paladius rejected the Council of Aquileja, because it was not a Publick and General Council, St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan [Page 129] replied, that it ought not to seem new or strange, if the Bishops of the West assembled in Pr [...]vincial Conventions or Synods; for it had been not seldom done by the Western Bishops before, and was very frequently by the Greek Bishops. So Charles the Great, Emperor of Germany, held a Provin­cial Council in Germany, for the taking away Images out of the Church against the second Nicene Council, which had determined for them; nor is this thing new and unheard of in England, for we have heretofore had many Provincial Synods, and have governed our Church by our own domestick Laws, with­out the Interposition of the Popes of Rome, or any other foreign Bishops or Churches. What need is there of many words? Certainly those greatest and fullest Councils, of which these Men so often Glory, if they be compared with all the Churches which throughout the World own and confess the Name of Christ, what I pray can they seem to be, more than some Private Councils of the Bishops, and a sort of Great Provincial Synods? For tho perhaps Italy, France, Spain, England, Germany, Denmark and Scotland should meet: yet, Asia, Greece, Armenia, Persia, Media, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Aethiopia, India and Mauritania, in all which places there are many Christians and Bishops would yet be absent: And how could such a Council as this ever be reputed a Ge­neral Council by any understanding Man? And when so many and such considerable parts of the World are absent, how can they pretend to have the Consent of the whole World? Or what kind of Council was the last at Trent, or how could it in any sense [Page 130] be said to be General, when only Forty Bi­shops met there, out of all the Christian Kingdoms in Europe; and some of them too were so very Eloquent, that it had been fit to send them to the Grammar Schools again; and so Learned, that they had never in all their Lives read the Bible over. But be these things as they will, the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ doth not depend upon General Councils, 1 Cor. 4. 3. or as St. Paul saith, upon Mans Iudgment. But if they who ought to take care of the Church will not understand, and will be wanting to their duty, and will harden their hearts against God and against his Christ, and still go on to per­vert the direct and streight ways of the Lord, God will make the stones to cry out, and endow Infants with an Oratorical Elo­quence, that there may ever be some to con­fute their Shams; for God can protect and enlarge his Church, not only without the help, but against the opposition of Coun­cils: Prov. 19. 21. There be many Devices in Mans heart (saith Solomon) but the Counsel of the Lord, that shall stand; for there is neither Wis­dom, nor Prudence, nor Counsel against the Lord; In Psalm 126. for saith Hilary, Those things the [...] are set up by Humane Industry, do not continue long: the Church was otherwise built, and must be preserved by other means; for she was built upon the Foundations of the Apostle [...] and Prophets, and is fixed, and cemented toge­ther by one corner stone Jesus Christ.

[Page 131] 18. VERY elegant, and to our times, most seasonable are the Words of St. Jerome, In Prophet. Nahum. cap. 3. As often (saith he) as the Devil lulls any a sleep with the sweet Blandishments of his Sirens, the the Holy Scriptures never fail to awaken them with a Surge qui dormis, Eph. 5. 14. elevare, & illumi­nabit te Christus. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the Dead, and Christ shall give thee Light. At the coming of Christ, and of the Word of God, and of the Ecclesiastical Doctrine; when the time of the Ruine of Nineve, that beautiful Harlot is come; then shall the People awake, which had before been lull'd a sleep under their former Teachers, and shall pass to the Moun­tains of the Scriptures; there shall they find the Mountains of Moses and Joshua the Son of Nun; the Mountains of the Prophets, and the Mountains of the New Testament, the Apostles and Evangelists; and when the People have fled to these Mountains, and are exercised in the reading of them, tho they find no Teacher (for the Har­vist shall be great, and the Labourers few) yet the Industry of the People shall be approved, in that they have fled to these Mountains, and the Negligence of their Teachers shall be reprehended. Thus hath St. Jerome written so very plainly, that here is no need of an Interpreter; and with so great a Congruity to the Events which have happened in our Times, that it looks as if he had designed to foretel and de­scribe to us, with a Prophetick Spirit, the whole State of our Times, the Ruine of that richly adorned Babylonish Harlot, and the Re­formation of the Church of God, the Blindness and Negligence of the Bishops, and the Ala­crity and Zeal of the People. For who can [Page 132] be so blind, as not to see that these were the Masters, who, as St. Jerome saith, led the People into Error, and stupified them in it; or that Rome, their Nineve, which was once painted with the most lovely Colours, is not now better known and less valued; or that pious Men being now as it were awakned out of a deep Sleep, have not betaken them­selves to the Mountains of the Scriptures, the Word of God, and the Light of the Gospel, without ever expecting the Councils of such Teachers as these?

19. BUT without the Popes Consent at least (some may think) these things ought not to have been attempted, because he is the Bond that unites the Christ an Society; he is that one Priest whom God means in Deuteronomy, from whom Coun­sel was to be expected in all difficult Cases, and from whom the Judgment of Truth was to be fetched; and if any man should dare to disobey him, he was to be put to death in the sight of his Brethren; and whatsoever he doth, he can be judged by no mortal Man, that as Christ reigns in Heaven, so he rules on Earth; that be can do whatever Christ or God himself can do; that his Consistory and Christs are one and the same; that without him there is no Faith, no Hope, no Church; that he who forsakes him, rejects his own Salva­tion. For thus the Canonists the Flatterers of the Pope, write not very modestly of him, for they could scarce say more, and certain­ly not greater things of Christ himself. As for us, we have not forsaken the Pope for any humane Pleasure or worldly Profit, and we wish passionately, he would behave himself so, that there should be no need of a [Page 133] Departure from him; but so it was, except we left him, there was no coming to Christ. Nor will he now enter a League with us up­on any other terms than those proposed by Nahash King of Ammon, 1 Sam. 11. 2. to the men of Jabeth-gilead, that he may thrust out all our right Eyes; for he will deprive us of the Holy Scriptures, the Gospel of our Salvation, and of all that Hope we have in Christ Jesus, for upon other Conditions no Peace with him can be had.

20. AND as to that which so many of them accustom themselves to extol so very much, that the Pope only is St. Peters Suc­cessor, as if upon that account, he always carried the Holy Ghost in his Bosome, and so could not err; it is an airy and a silly Pretence. The Grace of God is promised to pious Souls, and to those that fear God, and not affixed to Chairs and Successions. Riches (saith St. Jerome) may render one Bishop more powerful than another; but yet all Bishops, what ever they are, are the Successors of the Apostles. But if the Place and Inauguration be it they so much rely on, both Manasses succeeded David, and Caiaphas, Aaron, and an Idol hath often stood in the House of God. Long since one Archidamus a Lacedemonian, made a mighty boasting that he was descended from Hercules; one Nicostratus chastised his Insolence, by telling him it did not seem pro­bable that he could be descended from Hercules, because Hercules made it his Business to rid the World of bad Men, but (saith he) you make all the good men you can bad. And when the Pharisees boasted of their Succession and Lin­nage, [Page 134] that they were of the Blood of Abra­ham, John 8. 40. 44. Christ replied, ye seek to kill me, a Man that hath told you the Truth which I have heard of God; this did not Abraham— ye are of your Father the Devil, and the Lusts of your Father ye will do. But now suppose we should grant something to Successions, doth the Pope only succeed St. Peter? In what Thing? in what Religion? in what Function? in what part of his Life? What one thing ever had St. Pe­ter like the Pope, or the Pope like St. Peter? unless they will say, that when St. Peter was at Rome he never taught the Gospel, he never fed the Flock; that he took away the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, hid his Lords Treasure; that he only sate in the Lateran, and with his Finger, pointed out all the Spa­ces of Purgatory, and the several sorts of Pains there; presently, and at his Pleasure, dismissed some Souls for Money, and sent other miserable Souls into Torture; that he taught them the use of private Masses, which might be mumbled over in every Corner; that he muttered the sacred Mysteries in a low soft Voice, and in a strange Language; that he hanged up the Eucharist or consecra­ted Bread in every Church, and enshrined it on every Altar, and carried it before him whither-ever he went on an ambling Jen­net, with Lights and Bells. That he consecra­ted Oyl, Wax, Wooll, Bells, Calices, Tem­ples and Altars with his sacred Breath: that he sold Jubilees, Graces, Immunities, Expe­ctancies, Preventions, first Fruits, Palls, the use of Palls, Bulls, Indulgencies and Pardons▪ that he call'd himself the Head of the Church [Page 135] the High Priest, the Bishop of Bishops, and the only most Holy; that he usurp'd Autho­rity over other Churches; that he exemped himself from all Civil Power; that he made Wars, set Discord amongst Princes; that he was carried upon the Shoulders of Noble men in a gilded Chair, with a Crown full of Labels or Tassils, with a Persian Gallantry; adorned with a royal Scepter and a golden Diadem glittering with Jewels. Did St. Pe­ter heretofore do all these things at Rome, and as it were from hand to hand deliver them down to his Successors? for all these fine things are now done at Rome, and that in such manner, as if nothing else ought to be done.

21. UNLESS perhaps they would be better pleased with turning the Table, and saying, that the Pope does all those things which we know heretofore St. Peter did; that he travails into all Countries, preacheth the Gospel, not only publickly, but privately from House to House; that he insisteth oppor­tunely and inopportunely, in season and out of season; that he doth the Work of an E­vangelist, and performs the Ministry of Christ; that he is the Watch-man of the House of Israel; that he receives the Oracles and Word of God, and delivers them, as he received them, to the People; that he is the Salt of the Earth, the Light of the World; that he feeds not himself, but the Flock; that he doth not intangle himself with the Civil Af­fairs of this Life; that he doth not exercise Lordship and Dominion over the People of the Lord; that he doth not so much seek to have others minister to, and serve him, but [Page 136] rather that he may serve and assist others; that he thinks with St. Peter, that all Bishops are his Companions and Equals; 1 Peter. 5. 1. He stiles him­self [...]; that is, your Fellow Pres­byter, or Co­priest, which is not so plain­ly rendred in our English Version as it might be. that he sub­mitteth himself to Princes, as to them that are sent by God; that he renders to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and (which all the ancient Bishops of Rome without exception have done) calls the Emperor his Lord. Now unless the Popes at this day do all these things, or that St. Peter did all the other which we have set forth in the foregoing Pa­ragraph, there seems to be no reason why he should so strangely value himself upon the Account, either of St. Peters Name or Succession.

22. THERE is much less cause for them to complain so dreadfully as they do, of our departure from them, and to recal us back again to their Society and Faith. There is a Story that one Cobilon a Lacedaemonian, being sent to make a League with the King of Persia, and sinding by chance his Courti­crs playing at Dice, he return'd forthwith, without dispatching or mentioning the Busi­ness he came about. Being examined upon his return home why he had not executed the publick Commission they had given him, he replied, that it seemed to him to be a great Dishonour to their Common-wealth, if he had made an Alliance with a parcel of Di­cers. Now, if we should return to the Pope and the Popish Errors, and make a League, not only with Dicers, but with men infinite­ly more debauch'd, it would not only bring an ill Report upon our Fame and Reputation, but would be pernicious and destructive to [Page 137] us, by incensing the Wrath of God against us, and burthening and wasting our Consci­ences; for we have only left him, who we saw had for many Ages blinded the Na­tions of the Earth, and departed from him, who with too much Insolence, useth to pre­tend that he cannot err, and that whatever he doth, he cannot be judged by any mortal man, no, not by Kings nor Emperors, nor all the Clergy, nor all the People, tho he should carry a thousand Souls with him to Hell; from him who assum'd Dominion, not only over Men, but over the Angels of God, commanding them when he pleased to go and come, and carry Souls to Purgatory, and bring them back again as his Holiness thought fit. Whom Gregory the Great stil'd plainly the Fore-runner and Harbinger of An­tichrist, and an Apostate from the Faith; from whom those I suppose by this Expressi­on, he means the several English Bi­shops who had been Protestants in the Reign of Edward the 6th. and turn­ing Papists a­again in the Reign of Queen Mary, were ashamed to take a third turn now in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, and so not only sliffly persisted now in Popery, but were more clamorous against the Reformation than others were. Heylin, his Ecclesia Restaurata, Anno primo Eliz. pag. 286. Champions, who now so vigorously opposed the Gospel, and that Truth they are very well satisfied of, have every man of them heretofore fallen, and would now again freely and willingly leave him, if the Note and Shame of being thought too too inconstant, and their Credits with the People did not hinder them from it. Lastly, we have departed from him, to whom we were no way bound, and who hath no­thing to pretend for our Submission to him; but I know not what Genius of the Place and the Succession he possesseth.

[Page 138] 23. AND we of all the Nations in Chri­stendom have had the greatest reason to de­sert the Pope; for our Kings (even those who followed the Faith and Authority of the Bishops of Rome, with the utmost obser­vance and deference) a long time since, suf­ficiently felt the weight of their Yoke, and groan'd under the Tyranny of the Papal Kingdom; for the Roman Bishops pluckt the Diadem from off the Head of our Henry the 2d. Henry the 2d. and compell'd him to wait upon their Legate in a private Habit, without any of the Insigns of Majesty that he might be exposed to the Contempt of all his Subjects. And another Bishop of Rome armed against King John, John. another of our Princes, the Bishops and Monks, and some part of the Nobility, and absolved all his Subjects from that Oath of Allegiance they had taken to him, and at last, by the highest Impiety, not only de­prived him of his Kingdom, but his Life; and they wounded Henry the VIII. a most noble Prince, with their Curses and Excom­munications, and stir'd up against him some­times the Emperor, and sometimes the King of France, and as much as in them lay, ex­posed our Kingdom to be a Prey and a Booty to them; like a company of silly men as they were, to think so great a Prince would be frighted with Vizors and Rattles, or that so great a Kingdom could be devour­ed at one mouthful; and as if all this had not been enough, they would needs make Eng­land a tributary Province, and yearly, most unjustly exacted a considerable Revenue out of it; so much has the Friendship of the City [Page 139] of Rome cost us. Now if they extorted these great Advantages from us by Impostures and ill Arts, there is no reason why we should not by good Methods and Laws recover them back again: but if on the other side, our Kings induced by an Opinion of their simu­lated Holiness, in the darkness of those times freely bestowed these things on them, upon the account of Religion, there is now very good reason that our latter Kings, having discovered the Error of their Ancestors, should take them away again, they being possess'd of the same Power with the former Kings; for every Donation becomes void, when it is no longer approved by the Will of the Giver; but it can never seem a Will, which is clouded and impeded by Error.

The Conclusion.

THUS I have acquainted thee, my Rea­der, that it is no new or strange thing to see the Christian Religion in these days up­on its Restitution and Revival in the World, entertain'd with Slanders and Reproaches, for the same things happened to Christ him­self and his Apostles. And yet, least thou shouldest be misled and imposed upon by these Clamors of our Adversaries, we have represented to thee what the whole manner of our Religion is; what we believe concern­ing God the Father, concerning his only Son Jesus Christ, and concerning the Holy Ghost; what our Opinion is concerning the Church, the Sacraments, the Ministry, the [Page 140] Holy Scriptures, the Ceremonies of the Church, and all the other parts of the Chri­stian Religon. We have declared also, that we detest, as pernicious to the Souls of Men, and plagues, all those Ancient Heresies that have been condemn'd by the old Councils and Holy Scriptures. That we have reduced into practise again, as much as we can possib­ly, the Ecclesiastical Discipline, which our Adversaries had much weakned; and that we punish all Licentious Courses of Life, and Debauchery in Manners, by our ancient and established Laws, and that with as much [...] as is fit and possible. That we p [...] ­serve all Kingdoms in the same State we found them, without any Diminution or Mutation, and preserve the Majesty of our Princes intire as much as we can possibly. That we have departed from that Church which they had made a Den of Thieves, in which they had left nothing sound or like a Church, and which they themselves confes­sed to have erred in many things, as Lot left Sodom, or Abraham Chaldea, not out of Con­tention, but out of Obedience to God; and have sought the certain way of Religion out of the sacred Scriptures, which we know can­not deceive us, and have return'd to the Pri­mitive Church of the ancient Fathers and Apostles, that is, to the beginning and first Rise of the Church, as to the proper Foun­tain.

2. THAT we have not indeed expected the Authority or consent of the Council of Trent, in which we saw nothing was ma­nag'd well and regularly, where all that en­tered [Page 141] took an Oath to one Man; where the Ambassadors of our Princes were despi­sed and ill treated; where none of our Di­vines could be heard; where Partiality and Ambition openly carried all things, and ac­cording to the Practice of the Holy Fathers, and the Customs of our own Ancestors, we have reformed our Churches in a Provincial Synod, and according to our Duty, we have cast off the Yoke and Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, who had no just Authority over us, nor was like either Christ or St. Peter, or the Apostles, or indeed, like a Bishop in any thing. Lastly, This Apology was pen'd be­fore the Puri­tan Schism in in the Church of England broke out. As Fuller in­forms us, they first began to appear in 1563. which was the year after this Apology was written, but it came not to an open Rupture till the year 1570. Fuller. we do all agree amongst ourselves in all the Doctrines and Points of the Christian Religion, and do with one Spirit and one Mouth worship God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. WHEREFORE, O Christian and Pious Reader, now thou feest the Reasons and Causes of the Reformation of Religion with us, and of our Departure from them, thou oughtest not to wonder that we should rather choose to obey our Saviour than Men. St. Paul hath admonished us, that we should not be carried away with every Wind of false Doctrine, Rom. 16. 17. 18. and especially, that we should mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have learned, and avoid them; for they that are such, serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own Belly, and by good [Page 142] Words and fair Speeches deceive the Hearts of the simple. Their Impostures accordingly, like Batts and Owls, do now sometime since begin to flie and steal away before the rising Sun, and cannot indure the Light of the Go­spel; and altho they were in some sense built and heaped almost up to Heaven, yet they sink down into Ruins of their own accord. For thou oughtest not to think that those things happened accidentally or by chance. It was certainly the Will of God, that in these times the Gospel of Jesus Christ should, in defiance of all opposition, be spread abroad in the World; and therefore men be­ing moved by the Word of God, freely be­took themselves to the Doctrine of Christ; and as for us, we sought neither Riches nor Pleasure, nor case by this Change; for our Adversaries abound in all these, and we had a much larger Share of them whilst we con­tinued with them.

4. NOR do we decline Concord and Peace with Men neither, but yet we will not continue in a State of War God, that we might have Peace with Men. The Name of Peace (saith St. Hilary) is Pleasant, but then Peace and Servitude are not the same thing; for (if according to their desire) the Name of Christ should be supprest, the Truth of the Gospel betray­ed, their wicked Errors be dissembled, the Eyes of Christian Men be deluded, and a plain and ap­parent Conspiracy be carried on against God him­self; this is not (saith that great Man) Peace, but the conditions of a most base Slavery. There is, saith Nazianzen, an unprofitable Peace, and there is an useful sort of Discord; for we must [Page 143] pursue Peace with Conditions, as far as [...] lawful, and in us lyeth; and unless these Limi­tations may attend it, Christ himself came not to bring Peace into the World, but a Sword.

5. WHEREFORE, if the Pope does indeed desire we should be reconciled to him, he ought first to reconcile himself to God; for as St. Cyprian saith, Schisms arise from hence, that the Head is not sought, and a Return is not made to the Foun­tain of the Holy Scriptures, and the Precepts of our Heavenly Master are not kept, for else it is not Peace (saith he) but War; neither can any man be united to the Church, who is se­parated from the Gospel. But these men, (with whom we are concern'd) do use to make a base gain by the Name of Peace, for the Peace they seek, is only a Peace of idle Bellies; Tit. 1. 12. for all these Controversies betwixt us and them might with great facility be ended, if Ambition, Gluttony and Luxury did not hinder it; and from hence proceed all their Tears; their Souls are in their Dishes, and all their loud Clamors and Noise, are only that they may basely and wickedly keep what they have acquired knavishly.

6. IN these times the Pardoners, Data­ries, Collectors and Pimps of the Court of Rome make the greatest Complaints against us, who with others of their Trade, think that great Gain is Godliness, and serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own Bellies; for in the foregoing Ages, this sort of men had a very profitable imployment; but now, [Page 144] whatever is gain'd to Christ, turns as they think, to their Loss. Yea, his Holiness too complains sadly that Piety is grown cold, and his Revenue is become much smaller than heretofore it was; and therefore the good man does his utmost to make us hated, loads us with Reproaches, and condemns us for He­reticks (without any mercy) that they who know not the real cause of all this, may there­by be induced to believe us the very worst of men, and yet in the interim we are not therefore ashamed, nor indeed ought we to be so, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because we esteem the Glory of God more than the good Opinion of Men. We know that all we teach is true, and we cannot offer Vio­lence to our own Consciences, or give Testi­mony against God, for if we deny any part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ before Men, he will in like manner deny us before his Fa­ther; and if there be any that will be offend­ed, and cannot bear the Doctrine of Christ, they are blind, and the Leaders of the Blind; but the Truth is still to be preached and owned, and we must patiently expect the Judgment of God.

7. AND in the interim, our Adversaries should do well to bethink themselves seriously of their own Salvation, and to put an end to their Raging Hatred and Persecution of the Gospel of the Son of God, that at last, they may not find him the Vindicator and Re­venger of his own Cause; for God will not be had in derision; and men too, now see what is doing; that Flame, the more it is repress'd, with so much the greater Violence doth it [Page 143] break out again and display it self. Their Infidelity and Unbelief shall never be able to frustrate or put a stop to the Faith of God; and if they shall still persist in the Hardness of their Hearts, and refuce to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Math. 21. 31. The Publicans and the Harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before them.

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ open all their Eyes, that they may see that blessed Hope to which they are called, that we may altogether glorifie the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent down to us from Heaven; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be rendred all Honour and Glory to all Eternity. Amen. Amen.

AN EPISTLE Written by the Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL, Lord Bishop of SARUM, TO SEIGNIOR SCIPEO A Venetian Gentleman.
In Answer to a Letter of his, in which he complains of the Kingdom of England, for their not appearing in the Council of Trent, nor excusing their Absence by Letters.

SIR,

YOU are pleased to write to me with much freedom, according to the great Acquaintance which hath been between us (ever since we lived together at Padua, where you were im­ployed in the publick Service of your Com­mon-wealth, [Page 146] and I in the Pursute of Learn­ing) that both your self, and many others with you, in those Parts, do much admire, that seeing there is at this time a General Council call'd by the Pope at Trent, for the composing Controversies in Religion, and the extinguishing all Contentions that have arisen on that account; and that, whereas all other Nations are assembled there, the Kingdom of England alone, has neither sent any Ambassador thither, nor excused their Absence by Envoys or Letters; but in the mean time, without the Consent of the Council, hath chang'd almost the whole Order of their Ancient and Paternal Religi­on; that one of these things hath the ap­pearance of a proud Contumacy, and the other of a pernicious Schism; for it is a great Wickedness for any man (say you) to decline the most holy Authority of the Pope of Rome; or to to withdraw himself, when he is call'd to a Council by him. And that Controversies in Religion ought not to be determined any where but in such Conventions, for there are the Patriarchs and Bishops, and the most Learned of all Orders of Men in the Church; at their Mouths the Truth is to be sought, there are the great Lights of the Church, and there the Holy Ghost is ever present, and ac­cordingly, pious Princes have in every age referr'd all those Doubts which have happen­ed concerning the Worship of God, to such publick Consultations. That neither Moses, nor Joshua, nor David, nor Ezechia, nor Jo­sias, nor any other of the Judges, Kings or Priests, did ever deliberate of the Affairs of [Page 147] the Church any other way, than in a Council of the Bishops. That the Apostles of Christ and the Holy Fathers held Councils; that so the Truth was discovered, so Heresies were suppress'd, so Arrius, so Eunomius, so Eutyches, so Macedonius, and so Pelagius were overcome, and so at this time the Dissentions of the World may be composed, and the Ruins of the Church repair'd, if Men would be pleas'd to lay by their Animosities and Partiality, and come to this Council; but without a Council it is utterly unlawful to attempt any Change in Matters of Reli­gion.

2. THIS Sir, is almost the whole Sum of your Letter, and as for me, I will not now presume to give you in Answer, on the be­half of England, an exact Account of the reason of all our publick Transactions; nor do I think it is your Will or Expectation that I should; the Counsels of Kings are con­ceal'd and secret, and so they ought to be, and this you Sir know perfectly well, that they are not to be reveal'd at random to eve­ry body, or any body; and yet in compli­ance with that old and intimate Acquain­tance that has been between us (because I see you so earnestly desire it) I will shortly and friendly tell you what my Judgment is; but as (another saith) as far as I know and may, which I doubt not, will give you an intire Satisfaction.

3. WE wonder (say you) that no Ambas­sadors from England are come to the Council. I beseech you Sir, are the English the only Nation who have not come to the Council? [Page 148] Have you Sir been at the Council your self? Have you taken an exact Account? Have you told them exactly by Poll? Did you Sir, see there all the other Nations come to­gether from all Parts of the World, except the English? But Sir, if you are so mightily in love with Wondering, why did you not admire this too, that neither any one of the three great Patriarchs of Constantinople, Anti­och, nor Alexandria, nor Presbyter John, nor the Grecians, Armenians, Medes, Persians, E­gyptians; those of Barbary, Ethiopia, or the Indies, did not come to the Council too? for is there not many in those Nations who be­lieve in Christ? have they not Bishops? are they not by Name, and in reality Christians? And Sir, did Ambassadors come from all these Nations to the Council? or will you rather say the Pope did not call them, or that they are not bound by your Ecclesiasti­cal Sanctions?

4. BUT Sir, we have much greater rea­son to wonder, that when the Pope hath be­forehand condemn'd us, and publickly pro­nounc'd us excommunicated as Hereticks, without ever hearing us make our Defence, or alledging any thing against us, he should afterwards call us to the Council; for to condemn and punish men first, and then to call them to Judgment, is a very absurd way of Procedure, a meer [...], a Cart before the Horses. But Sir, I would very gladly be inform'd if the Popes Intentions be to con­sult with us concerning Religion in this Coun­cil, whom he has condemn'd for Hereticks, as I said, or if he intends we shall stand at [Page 149] the Bar, and be obliged forthwith to change our Minds, or be immediately condemn'd again? one of these things is new or with­out Example, and stiffly denied to those of our Perswasion, by Pope Julius the third; and the other is ridiculous, if he thinks the English so silly, as to come to the Council for no other purpose but to be accused, and make their Defence as well as they can, and before his Holiness especially, who is long since accused himself, not only by us, but by his own party, of many great Crimes.

5. BUT Sir, if England only seems so stubborn to you, where are the Ambassadors of the King of Denmark, the Princes of Ger­many, and the King of Sweden, of the Swit­zers, of the Grisons, of the Hanse Towns of the Realm of Scotland, and of the Dukedom of Prussia? and now when so many of the Christian Nations are absent from your Council, it is a most foolish thing to speak of none but the English; but why do I speak of them? the Pope himself will not vouchsafe to come to his own Council; and did you not wonder at this too? for what Insolence is this, for any one man at his Pleasure, when he will, to call together all the Chri­stian Kings, Princes and Bishops, and to re­quire them to yield Obedience to him in it, and in the mean time, not meet them there himself? Sure I am, when the Apostles call'd a Council at Jerusalem, St. Peter the Apostle of whose Chair and Succession the Popes glory so infinitely, would not be ab­sent. But I suppose the Pope Pius the 4th. who now sits in that Chair, remembers very [Page 150] well what betided John XXII. that he had no good Fortune at his Appearance in the Council of Constance; for he came thither a Pope, but returned a Cardinal; and therefore the Popes ever since have very wisely taken care of themselves, and kept out of reach, and at home, and have stoutly withstood all Councils and free Debates for above forty years since; when Dr. Martin Luther was as­saulted with all manner of Curses and Thun­derbolts by the Pope, because he had begun to preach the Gospel, and reform Religion by the Word of God and with all Humility; begged that his Cause might be reserved to the Hearing and Determination of a General Council, he could not be heard; for Leo the X. saw very well, if the thing had been refer'd to a Council, that his own Concerns would be brought in danger, and that he might hear what he would not.

6. THE Name of a General Council sounds well, if it be conven'd as it ought, and Men would lay by their Passions, and refer all things to the Word of God, submitting to the Truth only; but if Piety and Religion are openly oppress'd, if Tyranny and Ambi­tion are confirm'd, if Factions, Gluttony and Luxury are encouraged, there can then be nothing thought of that is of worse Conse­quence to the Church of God. And all this I have said upon a Supposition, that there is such a Council somewhere as you menti­on, and yet I heartily believe there is none at last; but if indeed there be any where any Council at all, it must be a very obscure pri­vate Council; for tho we are at no very [Page 151] great distance from the Place, yet we could never hear what Bishops were met, nor what was done, nor indeed whether any Bishops at all would meet. 29th. of No­bemb. 1560. So that this Letter was writ about August 1560. And about twenty months since, when this Council was first call'd by Pope Pius, Ferdinandus the Empe­ror made answer, that tho all other things were agreeable, yet the Place the Pope had chosen did very much displease him, for that, tho Trent was a fine City, yet it was not convenient for all the Nations, and besides, could not possibly enter­tain that great Number of Persons who did usu­ally follow a general Council. And almost the same Answer was generally given by all the Christian Princes, and some of them answer­ed much more sharply; and therefore we thought all these fine Shews, would, toge­ther with the Council, end in smoak.

7. BUT I pray Sir, who call'd this Council, and assembled the World together? you will say Pope Pius the IV. and why he, rather than the Arch-bishop of Toledo? by what Authority and Example of the Primi­tive Church, and by what law hath he done this? did Peter, Linus, Cletus or Clemens thus put the World in commotion by their Edicts? this, during the Integrity and Pro­sperity of the Roman Empire, was a sole Pre­rogative of the Emperor; but now that the Power of the Empire is diminished, and that the several Kingdoms in Christendom have shared the Imperial Power amongst them, this Power is devolved to all the Chri­stian Kings and Princes. Now Sir, search all the Annals, and gather together all the Memoirs of Antiquity, and you shall find [Page 152] that all the ancient Councils, as those of Nice, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople, were call'd by the Emperors of Rome, Con­stantinus, Theodosius the First and Second, and Martianus, and not by the Popes of Rome.

8. POPE Leo, a Man sufficiently kind to himself, and who did not in any thing neg­lect the Authority of his See, did yet most humbly supplicate Martian the Emperor, that he would be pleas'd to call a Council in Ita­ly, because that Country did then seem most convenient for that purpose; his Words are these: All the Priests do most earnestly beseech your Clemency, that You would be pleased to com­mand a General Synod to be celebrated in Italy. But this Emperor, that he might shew that he had the Right of calling Councils, and none but he; commanded the Council to meet at Chalcedon in Bithynia, and not in Ita­ly, where the Pope did most violently desire it should have been held. And when Ruffi­nus, in the Contest which he had with St. Je­rome, alledged a Synod, tell us (said St. Je­rome) what Emperor commanded it to meet; St. Jerome did not think a General Council of any great Validity, except some of the Em­perors call'd it. Now I do not inquire what Emperor commanded the Bishops to meet now at Trent; but only whether the Pope (who takes so much upon him) hath consulted with the Emperor about holding this Council, and what Christian King or Prince has he prae-acquainted with his Will? Now to break in upon the Rights of another, and to assume to a mans self what belongs to another man [Page 153] by Fraud or Force is injurious, and for him to abuse the Clemency of Princes, and to command them as if they were his Servants, is a superlative and intolerable piece of Inju­ry and contumely, and it would be an equal Injustice in us to confirm and allow that In­jury and Insolence of his by our Compliance; and therefore if we should only reply, That this Council of yours at Trent is not lawfully call'd, and that nothing relating to it has been rightly and orderly managed by Pope Pius, no man can with any Justice blame our Absence.

9. I shall not here trouble you with an ex­act account of the Injuries our Nation hath received from the Popes of Rome; that they have snatch'd the Scepters out of the Hands, and plucked the Diadems from off the Heads of our Kings; that they pretend that this Kingdom is theirs, that it is possess'd in their Right, and that our Kings are their Benefici­aries of Homagers: These are old Injuries; but of late years, they have stir'd up at one time the King of France, and at another the Emperor; and what this Pope Pius has con­sulted, spoken, done, contrived and threat­ned against us, need not be remembred here, for his Words and Actions are not so close and secret, but they may be known, and his Will thereby be discovered. And as to the means by which he acquired the Popedom, and the steps by which he climb'd to that heighth of Dignity, I shall say nothing. I do not say that he corrupted the Cardinals, by purchasing their Votes, and by Bargain and Purchase, as by Mines and Ambushes [Page 154] aspired to the Popedom. I do no say nei­ther, that very lately, when he was not able to pay the Cardinal Caraffa, by whose As­sistance he purchased the Votes of the other Cardinals, and to whom, upon that Score, he ow'd a very considerable Sum of Money, he cast the poor man into Prison, and there basely murthered him. I leave these, and such other things as these are, rather to you, who being nearer to them, must needs see them more clearly, and understand them bet­ter than we do at this distance. And now Sir, do you wonder that we should not come to this bloody man, this Purchaser of Votes, this Bankrupt, and this Simonaical Heretick? It becomes not a wise man (believe me) to throw himself into the Chair of Pestilence, and to consult concerning Religion with the Enemies of all Religion. My Mother (said one) commanded me not to approach to the Infa­mous; and St. John the Apostle, durst not remain in the same Bath, and wash himself with one Cerinthius a Heretick, lest he should perish with him by a Thunder Clap from Heaven. I have not sat (said David) in the Council of the Wicked▪ neither have I walked with the Workers of Iniquity.

10. WELL, but be it so, for this time let it be granted, that the Right of calling Councils belongs to the Pope, and that he can (in this point) command the World; and let whatever we have said concerning the Power of the Emperor, and the Right of Kings be taken for false and vain, and let Pi­us be supposed too to be a good man; that he was rightly and lawfully chosen Pope, that [Page 155] he has not sought the Life of any man, that he has not murthered Caraffa in Prison; yet it is fit that Councils should be free after all this, and that who pleaseth may be there, who cannot conveniently, may on the other side be absent; this was the equity and mo­deration of better men: Princes then were not treated with so much Violence and Rude­ness, so that if any person happened to stay at Home, or did not send Ambassadors to the Council, he should presently be noted by the Eyes and Fingers of all men. I be­seech you Sir, what Observer kept count who was absent from the Councils of Nice, Ephesus, Constantinople and Chalcedon? but there was in none of these any Ambassadors from England, Scotland, Poland, Hungary, Spain, Denmark, nor any part of Germany. See, read and consider the Subscriptions, and you will find what I say is true. And why do you not rather wonder that the Britans did not come to those full, famous, celebrated and frequented Councils? Or that the Popes then were so wonderful patient, that they did not presently censure them for Contuma­cy? But this Papal tyranny was not then grown up, it was then lawful for Pious Bi­shops and the Holy Fathers, without any Prejudice, to stay at Home. Paul the Apo­stle, would not trust himself to the Council of Jerusalem, but appealed unto Caesar; and tho St. Athanasius the Bishop was call'd to the Council at Caesarea by the Emperor, yet he would not come; and he also, when he per­ceived the Arrian Party the strongest in the Council of Syrmium, would not stay, but [Page 156] presently withdrew and went away; and the Bishops of the West following his Exam­ple, refused to come to that Council. St. John Chrysostom did not come to an Arrian Coun­cil, tho he was invited both by Letters and Messengers sent by Arcadius the Emperor. When the Arrian Bishops in Palestine were met together, and had the greatest part of the Votes on their side, Paphnutius an old man, and Maximus Bishop of Jerusalem de­parted out of the Convention and went away. Cyrillus a Bishop, appealed from the Council of the Patropassians; Paulinus Bishop of Treves, would not come to the Council of Millan, because he saw, by reason of the Fa­vour and Power of Constantius the Emperor, every thing plied under, and was over-rul'd by Auxentius an Arrian Bishop. The Bishops who came to the Council at Constantinople, would not afterwards come to that which was holden at Rome, to which they were call'd also, which yet was no prejudice to them, tho they were commanded to attend there by Letters from the Emperor; it was then thought a sufficient Excuse, that they must attend the Reformation and Care of their own Churches, tho they saw that the Arrians then prevail'd every where, and that their Presence might have been of a mighty consequence for the abating their Rage.

11. WHAT if our Bishops should now make the same Answers, that they can spare no time from the sacred Ministry, that they are totally taken up in restoring and reforming their Churches, that they cannot be spared from home five, six, or se­ven [Page 157] years, and especially in that place where they can do no good? for our Bishops have not the same leisure with those who luxuri­ously spend their time in Palaces at Rome, and depend upon the Cardinals, and lye at the catch for rich Preferments; for our Churches are so miserably ruin'd and per­verted by the ill Management of these men, that it is neither a small time nor an ordinary Diligence that can reform them. And now we see plainly that they design a Diversion and mis-spending of our times, that when there is no need of it, we may be drawn from Home, and so may neither promote the Reformation at Home, nor be suffered by them to do it in the Council.

12. For the Pope indeed does but dissem­ble with the World (that you may not be de­luded) he intends no Council: nor are you to think that he acts any thing sincerely and truly. He that knows not how to dissemble (said Lewis the 11th. to Charles the 8th. his Succes­sor) knows not how to Reign: And much more he that knows not how to dissemble, and conceal his Counsels under the Gravity of his Looks, as things go now, will never be able to act the part of a Pope, for that See is supported meerly by Hypocrisie; and is forced to supply the Defects of a natural Strength with pretended Colours and Shews. For if the Popes did indeed think that a General Council was of such wonderful efficacy for the suppressing Schisms, why did they so very long delay so necessary a means of it? Why did they sit still thirty years, and suffer Lu­thers Doctrine to take root? Why did they [Page 158] not presently call a Council? Why did they at last call the Council of Trent with great unwillingness and reluctancy, and more by the Impulse of Charles the Emperor, than by their own free Wills? and when the Council had sit almost ten years at Trent, why after so tedious a Consultation, was nothing brought to an Issue? Why did they leave their Business undone? Who hindred them? Who withstood them? Believe me in this my Brother, the Pope has no design now that a Council should meet, or Religion be reform'd, which they perfectly despise. All their Business, Desires and Contentions, aim at nothing but the deluding the Minds of Re­ligious Men, and the whole World, with the Expectation of a General Council.

13. THEY see long since that their Re­venues are diminished and ruin'd, that their Arts have not the same success they have had heretofore, that an Incredible number of men do every day fall off from them; there is not now that vast concourse of People to Rome; men do neither esteem nor purchase their In­dulgences, Interdictions, Benedictions, Absolutions, and vain Bulls at the Rate they have done; the Sales of their Ceremonies and Masses, and all that Whorish Paint is not much valu­ed; so that a very great part of their Pomp and Tyranny is fallen, their Incoms reduced to a lower Ebb than ever; they and their Par­tizans are become the Scorn of Children, so that now their whole Concern is at the Stake: Nor is there any wonder that those things should fall, which were supported by no roots. Our Saviour JESUS CHRIST [Page 159] hath put an end to them, not by Arms or the force of Soldiers, but by an Heavenly Im­pulse, and the Breath of his mouth; and he will intirely consume and abolish them by the brightness of his coming: such is the force of the Word of God, the Power of the Gospel; and these are the Weapons which will bring down every high thing which is built up or exalted against the Knowledge of God. This Doctrine shall be preached in spite of all throughout the World, and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it; the Merit-mon­gers Shops at Rome do now lye desolate; their Wares (Like the Goods of Porsenna) are cried at a low price, and there is scarce any to buy them; a poor Dealer in Indulgences does now wander about, and rarely finds a Fool that will purchase one. This Sir, is the great Concern; from hence spring the Papal Tears and Cares; they see this Light sprung out of one small Spark, and what now may be the Event when there are so many Fires kindled every where on the Earth, and so many Christian Kings and Princes own and prosess the Gospel? for these men do no serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own Bellies. There goes a Story, that when Carneades the Philosopher was at Rome, and made that me­morable Oration against Justice, amongst other things, he added this, That this Virtue, if it was a Virtue, was not of less use to any part of Mankind, than to the Romans; for they, by Force and Stealth had subdued those Kingdoms to themselves, which of right belonged to other men, and by a most flagrant Injustice had arriv­ed to the Empire of the World; and that if now [Page 160] they should fall to the Exercise of Justice, all these must be restored to the right owners, which they possess'd so unjustly; and so they should be re­duced to their Shepherds Cottages, and poor cold Sheds, which was all they had at first. And so now these, if they should lay aside their Dis­simulation, and act sincerely, and do their Duty, and give every one what was truly their own, they must then return to the Staff and Scrip again, to Sobriety and Modesty, to the Labours and Duty of a Bishop; for they have heard what St. Augustin said, Bishop, is a Name of Labour, and not of Honour: and that they were no Bishops who sought more to be over the People, than to do them good, and therefore they see that the spreading of the Gospel is of less advantage to them than to any other men in the World; for if ever they should entertain a thought of reforming, they are undone, and therefore now they fill the World with Tumults and Disorders; as Demetrius the Silver-Smith heretofore did, when he saw his Trade was going down. And this is the true cause why Councils are now call'd, and the Bishops and Abbots are assembled; for this seems now the cunningest way, to prolong the time for some few years, by suspending the minds of men with Expectation: and in the interim, many things (as is usual) may happen, a War may break out, some of the Princes may dye, and the strange Inclinations of Men towards the Reformation, may be blunted by delays, and languish by degrees, and in the mean time (as one said) I hope something will be done.

[Page 161] 14. OF old, when the Athenians (after they had beaten the Persians out of Greece) began to rebuild their Walls, which they themselves had levell'd with the Ground dur­ing the War. And the Lacedemonians, that they might still have the Athenians at their Mercy, did severely prohibit them not to do it: Themistocles the General of the Athenians, promised that he would go to Lacedemon, and deliberate with them about this Business; and accordingly, when he had began his Journey, that he might gain time, first he pretended a Sickness, that he might stay a while by the way; and when at last he got to Lacedemon, he began one Delay after ano­ther, one while the Articles did not please him; another while, he must consider of them a while; now he must stay for his fel­low Ambassadors, without whom he could do nothing; and soon after, he must send Messengers to Athens, to know their Plea­sures, and in the interim, whilst he was spinning out the time, the Athenians fortified their City, that in case any Force were im­ployed against them, they might be in a con­dition to repel it: and just thus our Adversa­ries, by gaining one day after another, and pretending to refer all thins to a Council, in the mean time build their own Walls, whilst we sit still and expect I know not what Wonders from them, and in the end; when they have taken their Measures, and put their Affairs out of danger, then they will shut us out of doors, and tell us that no Council can be held, nor any thing else done.

[Page 162] 15. FOR it is worth the while to consi­der their Arts and Stratagems; how often have Councils been call'd, and yet have not met? how often has a small flying Rumour defeated all their Preparations, and other mens Expectations? How often have the Purple Dons slipt home, without doing any thing, and adjourn'd the next Session to the ninth or tenth year? How often has the Weather, Provisions, the Place, or the Time not suited with their Humors? For the Pope alone calls the Councils, and dismisseth them when he will: if any thing doth not please him, or things begin to go cross to his Inter­est, presently you hear his Valete & Plaudite, Clap your Hands and farewell. A Council was call'd at Basil, great numbers assembled from all Places, many things were seriously debated: Pope Eugenius is condemn'd as an Heretick and a Simonaical Prelate by all the Votes; and Amideus, Duke of Savoy substituted in his place. Eugenius, as he had reason, takes this ill, as a thing of bad example to Posteri­ty; his Power being very much above all Coun­cils: no Council can meet (said he) but by his Order, nor determine any thing against his Will, therefore it is a lewd thing to search into his Life in a Conventicle of Bishops. So without delay, he calls the Council first to Ferrara in Italy, and then translates it to Florence. What is the matter I pray? did Pope Eugenius think the change of Air would produce a change in their Minds, or that the Holy Ghost would give Answers more wisely in Italy, than he had in Germany? No, he did not seek Christ in all his Changes, but his [Page 163] own dear Interest; he saw that in Germany, Sigismund the Emperor was his Enemy, and that his authority, and the Favour he had there, was too great; and he thought that if these Fathers were transplanted from those cold Climates into Italy (they might like trees removed) become more mild, and their Fruit more pleasant: for (O immortal God!) that is not now any part of the Business of a Council to find out the Truth, or suppress Falshood; the only Business of Popes in Councils in these latter Ages, has been the confirming the Roman Tyranny, the promot­ing Wars, the imbroiling the Christian Princes, and engaging them one against another; the Le­vying Mony, sometimes for Expeditions into the Holy Land, at other times for the building St. Peters Church; sometimes for I know not what other Uses, or rather Abuses, which all tended to promote the Luxury and Lusts of a few ill men: and these were the only Aims of all the late Councils, for as for the Errors and Abuses, as if there had been none, no­thing could ever be handled.

16. Petrus Alliacensis complain'd much in the Council of Constance, concerning the Ava­rice and Insolence of the Court of Rome: But what did he gain by it? What part of their Avarice or Insolence was ever restrain'd by the Authority of any Council? and he moved too that the number of Holy Days, and the Herds of lazy Monks might be diminished; and another (in a certain Work which is call'd the Tripartite, and is put in the end of the Council of Laterane) saith, that the whole World is scandalized, and speaks against the vast [Page 164] Multitude of begging Fryars, and the Fathers in that Laterane Council say, We command all men streightly for time to come, not to invent any more new Religious Orders. From these times to ours, what has been done concerning Holy Days I know not, but it is highly probable there hath been no diminution of them: but the Order of Monks hath been infinitely encreas­ed; for the late Popes have added the Jesuits, the Capuchins, and the Theatins, as if we had not had before a sufficient Swarm of Idle [...]el­lies. John Gerson, Chancellor of Paris offer­ed to the Fathers of the Council of Constance a Catalogue of LXXV. Abuses in the Church of Rome, which he earnestly desired might be re­formed; but now of so great a number, what one Abuse have they since reformed? Johan­nes Picus Mirandula writes to Pope Leo, that he would diminish the number of vain Cere­monies, and curb the Luxury of the Priests. Af­ter this, a great number of Bishops met in the Laterane Council, with a mighty expecta­tion of the whole World; but what one Cere­mony did they cut off? What one Priest did they punish for Luxury and Wickendess? the Poet Mantuan complained (by name) of the Manners of the Church of Rome. St. Ber­nard the Abbot wrote thus to Eugenius the Pope, your Court sometimes receives good Men, but it makes none: the bad do there thrive, the good are ruin'd. And concerning the misera­ble state in which the Church then was, he writes that from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Foot there is no soundness. And a­gain, where is he that preacheth the acceptable year of the Lord? they do not (saith he) in these [Page 165] times keep but corrupt the Spouse of Christ; they, do not keep, but kill and devour the Lords Flock. Pope Adrian the VI. when he sent his Legate into Germany, did ingeniously and truly con­fess that the state of the whole Clergy was ex­treamly corrupt: all we, the Ecclesiastical Pre­lates (saith he) have declined every one into his way, and there is not now one that doth good, no, not one. Albertus Pighius confesseth, that in the very Mass, which they will have to be most sacred, and in which they place the Center of all the Christian Religion, there may be found Abuses and Errors. And why should Words be multiplied? I omit other Witnesses, for they are almost infinite; ma­ny Councils have been held since that time, and Bishops assembled; and the Synod of Ba­sil was expresly call'd, as they then pretended, for the Reformation of the whole Clergy; but notwithstanding, from that time for­ward, Errors increased every where, and the Corruptions of the Clergy became twice more than they were before.

17. THE Cardinals who were nominated and chosen by Pope Paul the III. to consider the State of the Church, gave in this Answer, That there were many things faulty in the Church, and especially in the Manners of the Bishops and inferior Clergy; that the Bishops were lazy, and did not teach the People, feed the Flock, or take care of the Vineyard; that they lived in the Courts of Princes, and were rarely resident; that there was sometimes three, and at others, four Bishopricks held in commendam by one Cardi­nal, which tended very much to the Dammage of the Church: for those multiplied Offices (as they [Page 166] said) were not compatible or to be held together (nor could be well managed by any one person) and that all the Cloystered Orders should be banished out of the Church. After this, there was a Council at Trent; but did the Bishops from that time begin to feed the Flock? or did they cease from their former Non-residence, or abstain from frequenting the Courts of Princes? did the Cardinals cease from multiplying Bishop­ricks? or was any care taken that the Church might have no dammage by it? were the Conventual Orders diminished? is Religion reformed amongst them? what occasion then was there that so many Bishops should be assembled from very distant places, or should to no purpose deliberate so many years concerning the Reformation of the Church? this in truth is just as if the Pharisees should pretend to restore the Temple of God to its former Sanctity.

18. THEY confess the errors and Abu­ses, convoke Councils, fain a great care of Religion and Piety, promise their utmost Labour and Industry for the restitution of whatever is fallen into decay, and that they will joyn with us in this Work. That is, just after that manner as the Enemies of the People of God of old said, that they would, together with Nehemia, help to build the Temple of the Lord; for indeed their design was not to promote the building of the Temple of the Lord, but to hinder it as much as they could possibly: they would willingly make a Peace with us, but it is upon the terms offer­ed by Nahash to the Jews of Jabesh, if we will suffer them to bore out our right Eyes; that [Page 167] is, if we will suffer them to deprive us of the Word of God, the Gospel of our Salvation.

19. FOR have they any concern for Re­ligion? do they take any care of the Church of God, who never regarded the Wrath of God, nor the Salvation of the People, nor any part of their Office? they say, let Pan take care of his Sheep. They in the mean time mannage Wars, Hunt, take their Pleasures and fare deliciously. That I may not mention any thing that is more base. O immortal God! who can think that these men ever think on the Church of God or Religion? when or what Errors will these men ever remove? what Light will they afford to us? what­ever you say, tho you could bring the Sun it self in your hands, yet they would never the more see. They excuse, paint, and comb as much as ever they can, the most manifest Errors, as Symachus or Porphyrius heretofore did the Heathen Errors and Follies. All their business is to perswade the World that they have not deceived the People, and that they have not err'd in any thing; or if they sometimes prevail upon themselves to reform any thing, which they never, or very rarely and sparingly do, they imitate Alexander the Roman Emperor, who not being totally averse to the Christian Religion, is reported to have worshiped Christ and Orpheus in the same Chappel; or as the ancient Samaritans re­tained together the Worship of the true God, and the Service of Idols; so they will some­times perhaps receive some part of the Gospel upon condition that they may at the same time retain their Superstition and their doting [Page 168] Errors; they receive some Truths, upon condition they may hold some other things which are false; they do so approve ours, as not to disapprove their own; and so they do not take away Abuses, but colour them over, and only new case the old Pillars.

20. THIS is their way of reforming the Church of God, thus they celebrate Conventi­ons and Councils; the Truth is not served, but Affection, the better part is brought under by the greater; the very Name of a General Coun­cil is beautiful and glorious, but Poison is of­tentimes given in a beautiful Cup: for it is not sufficient that some Bishops and Abbots meet in one place; the efficacy of a Council is not placed in Miters and Purple Robes; nor is whatever a Council decrees, presently to be taken for an Oracle. It was a Council of which the Prophet Isaiah writes thus, XXX. I. ac­cording to the Septua­gint version. Chap. 8. v. 10. Psal. 2. 2. Wo to the rebellious Children, saith the Lord, who assem­ble a Council, but not by me; take Council, saith he, and it shall come to nought, in another place. It was a Council of which the Prophet David saith thus, The Kings of the Earth stand up, and the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord, and against his Christ. It was a Council which condemn'd the Son of God Jesus Christ to the Cross; it was a Council, and celebrated at Carthage under St. Cyprian, which decreed that those that were baptized by Hereticks, when they returned to the Church should be rebap­tized; which Error was afterwards forc'd to be repeal'd by so many Councils and Writings of the Fathers. And: what need is there of so many Words? The second Council of E­phesus was openly for Eutyches, that the Hu­mane [Page 169] Nature of Christ was changed into the Di­vine. The second Council of Nice decreed a manifest Idolatry in the Worship of Images. The Council of Basil, as Albertus Pighius saith, decreed against all Antiquity, against Na­ture, against Reason, and against the Word of God. The Council of Ariminium wickedly decreed for Arrius, that Christ was not God; and to conclude, many other Councils afterwards erred too, as the Selucian, and the Syrmian, which did both condemn the Homousians or Catholicks, and also subscribed to the impious Heresie of the Council of Ariminium. Why do you doubt? the very Council of Chalce­don, which was one of the four which Pope Gregory compar'd to the four Evangelists; Pope Leo made no Scruple to accuse that very Council of Temerity of Rashness.

21. THUS we see some Councils to have been contrary to other Councils; and that as Pope Leo quash'd the Acts of Adrian, Stephen of Formosus, John of Stephen; and that as Pope Sabinian commanded all the Wri­tings of Pope Gregory to be burnt as perverse and wicked; so very often a latter Council has abrogated all the Decrees of a former. The Council of Carthage decreed, that the Bishop of Rome should not be call'd the highest Priest, or the Prince of the Priests, or by any other such like Title: but the latter Councils have not only call'd him the High Priest, but the Great Pon­tiff, and the Head of the Universal Church. The Eliberitan Council decreed, that it should not be lawful, that what was worshipped should be painted on the Walls of the Churches. The Council of Constantinople decreed, that Images [Page 170] were not to be endured in the Christian Churches; on the other side, the second Council of Nice did allow them not only to be erected in Churches, but also to be worshiped. The Late­rane Council under Pope Julius the II. was call'd for no other purpose but to rescind the Decrees of the Council of Pisa: thus the lat­ter Bishops frequently oppose the forgoing, and some Councils damm up the Lights of o­thers; and these men will not be bound, e­ven by their own Councils, any farther than they please and is for their Convenience, and [...], brings Grist to their Mill. The Council of Basil decreed, that a Council of Bishops is above the Pope; but the Laterane Council under Pope Leo, decreed the Pope to be above a Council. And the Pope doth not only carry himself so as if he thought so; but also if any man is of the Opinion of this Council, he commands him to bo reputed a Here­tick. I pray Sir, what would you do here? whatever you say or think, either the Pope or the Council will make you a Heretick, and all the Popes for some Ages, have op­posed these Truths of the Council of Basil; and therefore in the esteem of the Council of Basil, all the Popes, for all these last Ages, are Hereticks. The same Council with one Voice, deposed Pope Eugenius for Simony and Schism, and named Amideus for his Suc­cessor. But yet Eugenius did not regard the Decree of the Council, and altho he was a Simonist and a Schismatick, yet he did not cease to be the Successor of St. Peter, the Vi­car of Christ, and the Head of the Catholick Church, and in spite of all, retaind his former [Page 171] Dignity, and was born as before on the shoulders of Noble Men magnificently and loftily. And Amideus, a simple man, like one unhorsed, walked upon his Feet, and thought himself happy enough, that of a Pope he was become a Cardinal. The late Council at Trent made a Decree, that the Bi­shops should teach the People, and that no one of them should at the same time have two or more Bishopricks: they on the other side, contrary to the Canon of their own Council, enjoy Pluralities, and teach no­thing, and so they make such Laws as they will not be bound by but when they please; at this rate have they ever valued their own Councils and Decrees.

22. AND now (Sir) what reason have we to expect at this time a better Event of things? for, for what cause, upon what hope and Expectation is the Council held? be pleased Sir, to consider with your self but this one thing, what kind of Men they are, up­on whose Fidelity, Learning and Judgment the weight of the whole Council, the debat­ing all those great Questions, and the sum of the whole Affair depends? they are indeed call'd Abbots and Bishops grave Men, and great Names, and, as it is thought, of great account in the Management of the Church of God; but if you strip them of the Names, Robes, and Personages of such Men, what have they that is at all like a Bishop or an Abbot? for they are no Ministers of Christ, no Dispensers of the Mysteries of God; they do not attend the reading, nor teach the Gospel, nor feed the Flock, nor till the [Page 172] Ground, nor plant the Vincyard, nor light the Fire, nor carry the Ark of the Lord, nor perform the Ambassie of Christ, nor Watch, nor do the Work of an Evangelist; they do not fulfil their Ministery, they entangle them­selves in secular Affairs; they hide the Trea­sure of their Lord, and take away the Keys of the Kingdom of God; they neither go in themselves, nor do they suffer others to enter; they beat their Fellow Servants; they feed themselves and not the Flock; they sleep, they snore, they feast, they fare deliciously; they are Clouds without Water, Stars with­out Light, dumb Dogs, slow Bellies, and as St. Bernard said, they are not Prelates but Pi­lats; not Teachers, but Seducers; not Pasters, but Impostors: the Servants of Christ (saith he) serve Antichrist. And these are the only men to whom the Popes will allow a Place and Vote in the Council; in their Judgments and Pow­er will they have the whole Care and Admi­nistration of the Catholick Church to be: Pope Pius hath now chosen these alone to put his Trust in; but O good God! what kind of Mortals, what sort of Men are these? and yet as they think, all these Queries are ridi­culous: for it is not, say they, one farthing difference, whether they be Learned or Pi­ous or no, or what they will or think; for in truth it is sufficient if they can but ride upon a Mule, and with great State and Noise make the publick Cavalcade to the Council, and when they cam [...] there say nothing. If Sir you will not believe me, and conceive I have fain'd all this for Diversion and Sport, be but pleased to hear the Honorable Judg­ment, [Page 173] and what the most sacred Faculty of the whole Sorbon decreed in this case; that, say they, which our Master have said con­cerning a legitimate Assembly, is, That it is to be noted, that to the legitimate assembling of a Council, it is sufficient that the Solemnity and Form of the Law be solemnly observed: for if any man would bring this in question, whether the Prelates that sit there have a good Intention, and whether they be learned, and whether they have the Knowledge of the Holy Scripture, and a mind well disposed to sound Doctrine, the Process would be infinite; for they it seems who sit as mute as the Statues of Mercury, and know not in the least what Religion is, will yet answer wondrous well and aptly concerning the sum of Religi­on, and whatever they say, cannot possibly err.

23. Bound by Oath. AND all these are bound to the Popes Interest, not only by their Error and Ignorance, but by the Tye and Religion of an Oath; so that if they should chance to think right, yet, unless they will be prejured, they must not speak what they think, and openly profess and own the Truth; so that they must of necessity be false to God or man, for they all swear in this very form: The Form of the Bishops Oath to the Pope. J. N. Bishop, from this hour forward will be faithful to St. Peter, and to the Holy Apostolick Church of Rome; to my Lord Pope N. and to his Successors canonically entering: I will neither be of Counsel nor in any Action whereby he may lose his Life or Limbs, or be taken Prisoner; that Counsel which he shall impart to me by Letters or by Messengers, I will discover to man to his Damage: I will be a Helper to defend the Papacy of the Church of Rome, and the Canons of the Holy Fathers, and to retain [Page 174] them against all men. Of old, when the Priests of Apollo Pythius spoke plainly in favour of Philip King of Macedonia, there were some who facetiously said, that Apollo began [...], to Philippize. And now we see plainly, that nothing is decreed in the Coun­cil but by the Will and Consent of the Pope; why may we not say that the Oracles of the Councils do [...], Papize, that is, speak no­thing but what the Pope please? Verres of old acted wisely, of whom it is reported, that being plainly guilty of many Crimes, he would not commit his Reputation and Fame to any but confiding men of his own Flock and Party. But yet the Pope is many degrees wi­ser, for he will not have any Judges but such as he knows will not determine any thing a­gainst his Will, because they have the same Interest he hath, and esteem all things by the relation they have to their Pleasures and Bel­lies; and yet if they would they could not do otherwise, because they are bound to him by an Oath too: indeed they place the Bible in the midst of the Council, because they would seem not to act any thing against the Prescrip­tion thereof, and yet they only look upon it at a good distance, but never read one word of it: in truth they bring with them a prejudi­cated Sentence, and never attend what Christ saith, or determine any thing, but as it best pleaseth them.

24. AND thus is all that Liberty which ought to be in all Consultations, and especial­ly in those which concern holy things, and which doth best befit the holy Spirit, and the Modesty of Christian Men, wholly taken a­way [Page 175] St. Paul saith, 1 Cor. 14. 30. that if any thing be re­vealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his Peace; but these men command him to be forthwith taken and hurried to Prison and burnt, who shall but mutter any thing to the contrary: as the cruel Death of the two holy and stout men John of Hus, and Jerome of Prague is an excellent Witness against them; which two men they murthered contrary to the publick Faith, and were thereby false both to God and Man. So the false Prophet Zedechias, 1 Kings 22. 11. when he had made himself a pair of iron Horns, smote Micaiah the Prophet of the Lord, and said, hath the Spirit of the Lord left me, and come to thee? thus having now excluded all others, they reign in Councils alone, and have the sole Right of Suffrages, and so make and divulge such Laws as the Ephesians did of old. Let no man (said they) who [...] wiser than the rest, presume to live here, upon pain of Banishment and Transportation: for these men will hear none of us. 1551. About ten years since, in the late Council at Trent, the Ambassadors of the Princes of Germany and of the free Towns who came thither, that they might be heard, were excluded out of the Assembly, and denied the Liberty of Speech: for the Bishops and Abbots said they would suffer no free Debate of the Cause, nor would they determine the Controversies by the Word of God; and that those of our Side were not to be heard, except they would recant; which if they refused, they were to expect no other terms in the Council, but to [Page 176] be condem'd; for Julius the III. in his Brief, by which he call'd that Council, publickly declared, that if they did not change their Minds, they should be condemned for Hereticks without ever hearing their Cause. And Pius the IV. who hath now resolved to call again that Council, hath by the prejudice of his own sin­gle Judgment, commanded all those who have made defection from the Authority of the Church of Rome (that is, the greatest part of Christendom) without ever seeing or hearing them to be taken and reputed Hereticks. They are wont to say, and that upon all occasions, that all things are well, and that they will not suffer the least part of their Doctrine and Religion to be altered. Albertus Pighius saith, that without the Command of the Church of Rome, the most plain place of Scripture is not to be be­lieved. Now is this their way to restore the Church to her Integrity? Is this their seek­ing Truth? Is this the Liberty and Modera­tion which be [...]its a Council?

25. AND altho these things are most un­just, and most contrary to the Practice of the ancient Councils, and the Usage of mo­dest and good Men in their Deliberations; yet it is much more unreasonable, that whereas the whole World complains of the Ambition and Tyranny of the Pope of Rome, and is perswaded, that until he is reduced to a better Order, all their Labours for the Re­formation of the Church of God will be in vain, and nothing will be done; yet at last, all things are referred to him alone, as to the [Page 177] most equal Arbiter and Judge. But (O good God!) to what Man? I will not now say any of these things against him; that he is an Enemy of the Truth, an Ambitious Co­vetous Proud Man, who is already become intolerable to his own: But I say that it is the utmost pitch of Folly and Injustice, to make him the sole Judge of all Religion, who commands all his Dictates to be had in the self same Honour and Esteem as the Words of St. Peter are; and saith, that in case he should Mislead a thousand Souls, and carry them with himself to Hell, yet no man ought to repre­hend him for it: Who saith, he can make In­justice to become Justice: Whom In Corn. A­gripp. de Va­nitate Scient. Camotensis confesseth to have corrupted the Scriptures, that he might have a Plenitude of Power. And why should I use more words? whom his own Companions and Ministers, Joachi­mus Abbas, Petrarcha, Marsilius Patavinus, Lau­rentius Valla, and Hieronymus Savanarola have not obscurly hinted to be the Antichrist. To the Judgment and Will (I say) of this one Man are all things submitted, that this very Criminal may be both the Party accused, and the Judge of his own very Case; that this guilty man may sit aloft upon a Throne, and his Accusers stand beneath, whilst he gives Sentence for himself: for Pope Julius had given us these just and reasonable Laws. There is (saith he) no Council which is valid, nor ever shall be, unless supported by the Authori­ty of the Church of Rome. And Bonifacius the VIII. saith, that every Creature ought to be sub­ject [Page 178] to the Church of Rome; and that as they ten­der their Salvation. And Pope Pascal useth this Expression, as if any Councils had given Laws to the Church of Rome, when in truth, all the Councils have been held, and received their Force from the Authority of the Church of Rome; and in all their Statutes, the Authority of the Pope of Rome is plainly and apparently excepted. And another saith, whatever the Pope approves or disapproves, we ought also to approve or disap­prove: and what the Pope allows, no other man may disallow. And another Flatterer, who has lost all Modesty, saith, that altho the whole World should contradict the Opinion of the Pope in any thing, yet it seems but reasonable to stand to the Iudgment of the Pope. And ano­ther no less impudently saith, it would be a sort of Sacriledge to dispute concerning an Action of the Pope; who, tho he is not a good man, is yet ever presumed to be such. And another more impudently, The Pope (saith he) hath a Hea­venly Will, and therefore in those things which he wills, his Will is instead of a Reason to him; nor is there any man who may say to him, why dost then act thus? And that I may pass by many other things which might be alledged here, because they are without number, and at length come to a Conclusion, Pope Innocentius the IX. more impudently than any other, useth these words, This Judge (the Pope) may neither be judged by the Emperor, nor by Kings, nor by the while Chrgy, nor yet by all the people. O immortal God! how little is wanting of the Pride of Luciser. [...] 14. 14. I will ascend above the [Page 179] North, and I will be like the most highest. If all these things are true, and the Popes have not belyed the World, what need is there of a Council? or if they will hold a sincere and free Council, let all these things be con­demn'd as dishonest and insolent Lyes, and let them not only be laid aside, as to the court, and use of them, but be razed out of all Books, that the sum of Affairs may never more be left to the Will and Lust of one man; and he too for many most just causes suspected. But now on the contrary, the Popes say they cannot err, and that the Word of God is to be regulated according to their Prescrip­tion; and besides all this, before they enter upon their Papal Dignity, they take an Oath that they will maintain the Faith of many late Councils (in which all things are most fearfully depraved) and they promise most religiously, that they will not change any thing: and therefore what wonder is it, that no good is done by Councils, that Errors and Abuses are not taken away; that the Ambas­sadors of Princes are to no purpose call'd to­gether, from such distant places, out of all Lands? and yet I hear that there are some good men at this time, who not well consi­dering what they say, tho they condemn the Pride of the Pope and his Persian State and Magnificence, and his Epicurean Con­tempt of all Religion, yet they would pre­serve for all that, his Authority safe and in­tire; and tho sometimes they confess him to be Antichrist, yet for all that, as soon as he [Page 180] ascends that Chair, they do not question but he is the universal Bishop, and the Head of the universal Church of Christ; and here they please themselves, as if the Holy Ghost were necessarily fixed to the Pope Court in the Adrian Mole; but there is a Proverb, that the Place doth not sanctifie the Man, but the Man the Place. And St. Jerome, as he is cited by them, saith, they are not the Children of the Saints, who hold their Places, but those who imitate their good Actions; for otherwise, as Christ said, the Scribes and Pharisees sate in Moses his Chair, and he commanded his Disciples to ac­knowledge and submit to their Authority, so far as they answered out of the Word of God. What (saith St. Augustin) hath Christ said more here, than that the Voice of the Shepherd was heard out of the Mouth of a mercenary Servant? for sit­ting in that Chair, they teach the Law of God, therefore God teacheth by them; but if they will teach their own things, do not hear them, do not do them; for St. Paul saith, Antichrist the Man of Sin shall sit in the Holy Place; and therefore St. Jerome doth well admonish us, thou dost attend St. Peter, but then consider Judas; thou submitest to Stephen, but cast an Eye towards Nicholas as the same time; Church Dignity doth not make a Christian. Thus St. Jerome, and certainly it is said that Marcellinus the Pope did sacrifice to Idols: Pope Liberius was an Arrian, Pope John the XXII. was a Heretick, in the point of the immortality of the Soul; Pope John the VIII. was a Woman, and in her Pope­dom, by a lewd Lust, committed Adultery, and [Page 181] in a Procession, in the midst of the Pomp, before the Eyes of the Bishops and Cardinals, she brought forth a Child; and Liranus saith, that many Roman Popes apostized from the Faith of Christ; and therefore we must not trust too much to Places, Successions, and vain Titles of Dignity. The impious Nero was descended from Metellus the Pious, and Annas and Caia­phas succeeded to Aaron, and an Idol hath often been put in the place of God.

26. BUT Sir, I beseech you, what is that vast Power and Authority that they so very insolently boast of? Or from whence had they it? from Heaven or from Men? Christ (say they) said to Peter, upon this Rock will I build my Church: in these words the Pa­pal Power is confirm'd, for the Church of Christ is placed upon Peter as upon its Foundation; but Christ in these words gave nothing to St. Pe­ter apart from the rest of the Apostles, nei­ther did he here make any mention of the Pope or City of Rome. Christ▪ is that Rock, Christ, is that Foundation: No man (saith St. Paul) can lay another Foundation, than that which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

27. And St. Augustin, upon this Rock ( saith he) I will build my Church: by the Words, upon this Rock ( saith he) is understood the Con­fession made by Peter, saying, thou art Christ the Son of the living God; for (saith he) it is not said thou art a Rock, but thou art Peter, but the Rock was Christ. And St. Basil, upon these words, upon this Rock, that is ( saith he upon this Faith I will build my Church. And the most ancient [Page 182] Father Origen, the Rock ( saith he) is every Dis­ciple of Christ, after he hath drunk of the Spi­ritual Rock which follows; and upon every such Rock is all the Churches Doctrine built. Now (Sir) if you will suppose that the whole Church is built only upon Peter, what will you say of John the Son of Thunder, and all the rest of the Apostles? Or shall we dare to say that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against Peter only, but against the rest of the Apostles and Heads of the Church those Gates may prevail? or rather is that Saying, that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail, to be un­derstood of all and every one of them of whom it was spoken? and so is that other Expression to be taken too, upon this Rock will I build my Church. And are the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven given only to Peter by Christ, or was no other of the blessed (Apostles) to receive them? But if that Ex­pression, to thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, be to be understood as spoken to all the rest as well as to Peter, why then should not all that was spoken, as well what went before, as what follows after, tho spoken to St. Peter, yet be common to all the Apostles? There is ( saith Hillary) one happy Rock of Faith, which Peter confessed with his Mouth; and again, upon this Confession of Peter's is the Church built; and not much after, this Faith is the Foundation of the Church. And after the same manner the other Fathers also Jerome, Cyril and Bede say, the Church is built not upon Peter, but upon the Faith [Page 183] of Peter, that is, on Jesus Christ the Son of God, whom Peter, by an Heavenly instinct, confessed, Peter ( saith St. Augustin) was so call'd from the Rock, not the Rock from Peter; nor did Christ say, I will build my self upon thee, but I will build thee upon me. And Nicholas Liranus, tho he is not always a good Author, for you know in what Age he lived, yet he rightly took this; upon this Rock ( saith he) that is, upon Christ: and therefore the Church can­not depend upon any man, by reason of his Dignity and Ecclesiastical Power, for many Popes have proved Apostates.

28. IN what then is this Papal Autho­rity placed? In Teaching, but they teach nothing; in administring the Sacraments, but they do not administer them; in feed­ing, but they feed none. Now this is all the Power which Christ bestowed upon the Apostles; Go ye (said he) into all the World and preach the Gospel, &c. hence forward ye shall be Fishers of Men; and as the living Fa­ther sent me, so I send you. But as to these, whither go they? what do they teach? what do they preach? what do they fish for? from whence go they? or by whom are they sent? their's is nor Apostolick Autho­rity, but Pride, and an intolerable Lordship usurped by Force and Tyranny. None of us (saith Cyprian) calls himself Bishop of Bi­shops, or compells his Partners to a necessitated Obedience by a Tyrannical Terror. Seeing every Bishop may use his Liberty and Power accord­ing to his own Discretion, as he cannot be judg­ed [Page 184] by another, so neither can he judge another. And as the other Apostles (saith he) were the same which Peter was; All Bishops equal. so all Bishops are endow­ed with this equal Partnership both of Honour and Power. And St. Jerome (saith, greater is the Authority of the World, than that of any City. Why then do you produce to me the Custom of one City? Why do you vindicate that Paucity, from which this Pride arose against the Laws of the Church? Where-ever a Bishop is setled, whe­ther at Rome, or Eugubium, whether at Con­stantinople or Rhegium, he is of the same Worth, and of the self same Priesthood; the greatness of Riches, and the Humility of Poverty makes not one Bishop superior or inferior to ano­ther. And St. Gregory (saith, Peter was a prin­cipal Member in the Body; John, Andrew, and James were the Heads of particular People, and yet all of them are Members of the Church in one Head; yea, the Saints before the Law, those under the Law, and those under Grace, and all those who make up the Body of our Lord (the Church) are to be accounted Members, and no man ever yet desired to be call'd an UNIVERSAL.

29. THIS is that Power which some men defend so stoutly in this Age; so that whatever they think of the Popes Life or Re­ligion, yet they would have this Authority Sacred and untouched, as if the Church of God could not be safe without it: or as if, without the Popes Will and Consent, a Council could be no Council; and that if the whole World should think contrary to [Page 185] what he doth, it would be nothing. And therefore when you see (Sir) that these things are thus ill managed, you ought not to won­der; that when nothing is now sincerely and truly acted in Councils, our Men had rather stay at home, than travail so far to no pur­pose, to a Place where they are sure to lose their Labour and their Cause too.

30. BUT Sir, you say in the next place, it is a Sin to change any thing in Religion, without the Consent of the Pope and a Council. Why Sir? the very Popes themselves have changed almost the whole State of the Primitive Church without any Council; and tho this is indeed a very specious and winning Propo­sition, yet it is made a Cover and Defence for most foul Errors; for they only seek to delay the Minds of Men with a tedious Expectation, that by lingring and wea­riness, they may take off their Edge and Keenness, and so by degrees, make them cast off all Hopes of a Reformation. For, what would they have the People of God be deceived, err, be deluded and involved in Error, and in the Ignorance of God, and be led into eternal Ruine and Destruction, whilst the Pope calls a Council, and the Abbots and Bishops ( meet, debate, settle things) and then return home? Is it not lawful for any of us to believe in Christ, to prosess the Gospel, to worship God rightly and truly, to fly from Superstitions and Worship of Idols, except these men please to give us [Page 186] leave? In truth, the state of the Church of God were very deplorable, if in the midst of so many far spread, gross, blind, foul, apparent and manifest, Errors, so that our very Enemies themselves cannot de­ny them; nothing could be done for her Relief, without the Concourse of the whole World and a General Council, or at least, of such a Council as we cannot hope for with any certainty, and the event of which, if we now had it, is much more uncertain. When of old, the Per­sians invaded Greece, and began to destroy all before them, and the Lacedemonians whose valour was then much famed amongst the Grecians, and therefore it was but reasonable they should have been the first in the defence of their Country; yet because they had an ancient Custom and a Superstitious conceit that had possessed them from the time of Ly­curgus, that it was ominous and unfortunate to begin a Martial Expedition at any other time than that of the full Moon, therefore they sat still and suffered their Enemies to plunder and burn their Country, whilst they were foolishly expecting that period of the Moon, which was most opportune and fit­ting to begin their defence in. But at last they bethought themselves and cried, There is equal danger in the delay. The safety of the Church is in danger, the Devil like a ramping and a roaring Lyon goes about seeking whom he may devour; simple men are easily drawn into the snare, and [Page 187] tho they are very often touched with a Zeal for God, yet out of Ignorance and Misperswasion, they persecute the Son of God: And as Nazianzen (saith, When they think they are in Arms for Christ, they do really fight against him. And the Bishops who ought in the first place to take care of these things, either like vain Night-Spi­rits throw every things into Disorder and Confusion; or (that I may tell the truth without disguise) encrease the Errors, and double the darkness. Now Sir, after all this should we have sit still and expected the determination of these Fathers with our Arms folded together, and doing no­thing? No, St. Cyprian (saith, There is but one Episcopacy (in the whole Church) a solid and intire part of which, is enjoyed by every Bishop: and every one shall surely give an ac­count to the Lord for his own part. Their blood will I require at thy hand, saith the Lord. And if any man puts his hand to the Plough, and looketh back, and is solicitous what others may think of him, and expects the Authority of a General Council; and in the mean time hides his Lords Trea­sure he shall hear, thou sloathful and wicked Servant: Take him and cast him into outer darkness. Suffer (saith Christ) the dead to bury their dead, but come thou and follow me. The truth of God depends not upon men. In Humane Counsels it is the part of a wise man to stay for the judgment and consent of men; but in the Affairs of [Page 188] Religion, the voice of God ought to super­cede the need of all others; which as soon as a devout Soul has heard, he yeilds presently, submits, and neither stands off, nor expects any other; for he knows that then he ought neither to believe the Pope nor Council, but the Will of God thus revealed. And this voice is to be obeyed, tho opposed by all men. The Prophet Elija immediately obeyed God, tho he did believe that he was alone. Abraham upon the Admonition of God went out of Cal­dea, Lot went out of Sodom, and the three Children made a publick Confession of their Religion, and openly detested Ido­latry, without expecting a General Coun­cil. Go out of her (saith the Angel) and be not partakers of her sins, that ye partake not of her Plagues; he doth not say stay for a Synod of the Bishops. Thus the true Re­ligion was at first published, and so it must be now restored. The Apostles at first taught the Gospel without any publick Council, and without any such Council it may now be called back, and reinstated. But if Christ himself or his Apostles in the beginning would have delayed and put off the whole business till a future Council. When should the [...] of them have gone out into all Lands? How should the Kingdom of God have suffered force, and the violent have taken it by a kind of Invasion? Where had the Gospel now been? Where would the Church of God have [Page 189] been? In truth we neither fear nor fly from a Council, but rather wish for and desire it, so it may be free, genuine, and Christian, and may be conven'd after the pattern of that of the Apostles: pro­vided that the Abbots and Bishops may be discharged of their Oath, by which they are now bound to the Popes of Rome; and that whole Combination now on foot may be dissolved; provided those of our Party may be freely and modestly heard, pro­vided they be not condemned before they are heard: And lastly upon condition that if any thing be done, no one man may weaken or rescind all again. But now whilst we saw that the present manners and times would not allow us thus much; and that the most absurd, silly, ridiculous, superstitious, and wicked things were most stifly defended, only because they had been heretofore received, and purely for custom sake. We judged it to be our duty to provide for, and take care of our own Churches in a National Council.

31. FOR we know that the Spirit of God is neither bound to any place or number of men. Tell it (said Christ) to the Church: To wit, not to the universal Church which is spread all over the World, but to the particular, which may meet in some one place. Wheresoever (saith he) two or three of you are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of you. So St. Paul, that he might reform the Churches of Co­rinth [Page 190] and Galatia, did not command them to stay for a General Council, but wrote to them that they would forthwith cut off all Errors and Disorders: And so heretofore whilst the Bishops slept and did nothing, or rather defil'd and polluted the Temple of God, God by extraordinary ways ex­cited others who were great men, and of generous minds, to reform whatever was amiss.

32. BUT then, Sir, we have done no­thing rashly, nor without very great rea­son, nothing but what we saw was law­ful at all times to be done; and which had often been done by the Holy Fathers without any blame. And thus calling to­gether the Bishops, and a very full Synod, by the common consent of all our States, We cleansed the Church of those Dregs and Corruptions which either the careles­ness or malice of Men had brought in, and purged it as the Augean Stable: And as far as it was possible, we have reduced all things to their ancient Splendor, and the resemblance of the Apostolical times, and Primitive Church. And all this, as we might lawfully do it, so for that cause have we done it confidently.

33. THAT which Pope Gregory the First wrote about these Affairs please me; and the more because he wrote about the Institution of the English Churches to Au­gustin Bishop of the English. He exhorts him then, not that he should refer things [Page 191] to a Council, but that according to his Discretion, he should appoint such things as he saw did most tend to the encrease of Piety. You know (saith he) my Brother, the Custom of the Church of Rome, in which you were brought up; but I am best pleased with this Course, that where-ever you find any thing which is most pleasing to Al­mighty God, whether it be in the Church of Rome, or that of France, or in any other Church, you would carefully pick and choose the principal things, and settle them in the Church of England, which is yet new and to be setled in the Faith, and that in the Con­stitution thereof, you should instill those things which you have thus collected from many se­veral Churches [...] for Customs are not to be loved for the sake of the Places, but the Places for their Sakes.

34. After the same manner the Fathers in the Council of Constantinople wrote to Damasus Pope of Rome, and the rest of the Western Bishops. Ye know the ancient Sancti­on and Definition of the Council of Nice, was ever in force; that as to the Care of the Ad­ministration of particular Churches, the Clergy in every Province taking their Neighbours, if they thought fit, should confer Ecclesiastical Dignities upon those they believed would ma­nage them profitably. And the Affrican Fa­thers wrote thus to Pope Celestinus. Your Holiness may be pleased to reject the unjust Appeals or Recourses of our Presbyters, and the inferior Clerks of our Church, as becomes [Page 192] you; for this was never denied to the Church of Affrica by any Definition of the Fathers; and the Decrees of the Nicene Council have most plainly committed both all inferiour Clerks, and also all the Bishops to their own Metropo­litans: for all Affairs may be most prudently and justly ended in those places where they began, nor will the Grace and Assistance of the Holy Ghost be wanting to any Province. Let this Equity be [...]ver of great esteem with all Christian Priests, which hath been constantly retained.

35. BUT Elutherius Bishop of Rome wrote much better, and more pertinently to the thing we have now in hand in his Epistle to Lucius, a King in Britain. You have (saith he) desired I would send you the Roman and Caesarean Laws, which you have a desire to settle in your Kingdom of Britain: We may abrogate the Roman and Imperial Laws when we will, but not the Law of God; for you have, by the Mercy of God, re­ceived the Law and Faith of Christ in your Kingdom of Britain; and you have with you in your Kingdom both Testaments; compile out of them, by the Assistance of God, and the Counsel of your Kingdom, a Law, and then by it, with Gods permission, govern your said Kingdom, for you are the VICAR OF GOD in that Kingdom, according to that of the Psalmist, the Earth is the Lords.

36. IN short, Victor Bishop of Rome, held a Provincial Synod at Rome, and Justinianus the Emperor commandeth, that [Page 193] if need require, Synods should be held in each Province, and threatned, that if this were neglected, he would punish those that made default. Every Province (saith St. Jerome) hath its particular Manners, Rites and Opinions, which cannot easily be removed or changed without a very great disturbance. And why should I commemorate the most ancient Municipal Councils, that of Eliberis, Gangra, Laodicea, Ancyra, Anti [...]ch, T [...]urs, Carthage, Milevis, Toledo, and Bourd [...]aux, for this is no new thing. So was the Church of God governed before the Fathers met in the Council of Nice; for they had not presently recourse to a General Council. Theo­philus held a Provincial Synod in Palestin [...], Palmas in Pontus, Irenaeus in Gaul, Bachilus in Achaia, Origen against Beryllus in Arabia; and I omit many other Provincial Synods which were kept in Africa, Asia, Greece and Egypt, which were most [...]ious, Orthodox and Christian, tho the Pope had nothing to do with them. For the Bishops then, as necessity required, and as things fell out, presently consulted the Well-fare of their Churches in Domestick Councils, and some­times implored the Assistance of their neighbour Bishops, at other, they frank­ly aided each other without asking, and if need were, did by turns help one the other. Nor did only the Bishops, but Prin­ces of those times, think that the Concerns of the Church pertain'd to their O [...]ice; for to omit Nebuchadnezar, who published [Page 194] a Capital Edict against all that should blaspheme the God of Israel; and David, Solomon, Ezechias, and Josias, who did part­ly build, and partly reform the Temple of God. Constantius the Emperor, without any Council, took away the Worship of Idols, and put forth a most severe Edict, by which he made it capital for any man to offer Sacrifice to any Idol. Theodosius the Emperor, commanded all the Temples of the Pagan Gods to be razed to the Ground. Jovinianus, another of them, so soon as ever he was declared Emperor, made his first Law for the restitution of the Chri­stian Exiles. Justinianus was wont to say, that his Care of the Christian Religion was as great as that of his Life. Joshua, so soon as ever he was made the Governour of the People, had Precepts concerning Reli­gion and the Worship of God given him; for Princes are the nursing Fathers of the Church, and the Keepers of both Tables; nor was there any one Cause why God setled Governments in the World greater than this, viz. That there might be some to preserve Religion and Pi [...]ty in safety.

37. AND therefore many Princes in this Age do sin the more grievously, who be­ing call'd Christians, sit idely and enjoy their Pleasures, and tamely suffer wicked Rites of Worship, and the Contempt of the Deity; and turn over all this Care to the Bishops, and those very Bishops whom they know to have all Religion in the utmost degree of [Page 195] scorn; as if the Care of the Churches and People of God did not at all belong to them, or as if they were meer Herds-men of Cattle, and to take care of Bodies, but not in the least of mens Souls; they remember not in the mean time, that they are the Ministers of God, and chosen for that purpose, that they might serve the Lord. Ezechias the King would not go up to his own House until he saw the Temple of God throughly purged. And David said, I will not give Sleep to my Eyes, no Slumber to my Eye-lids, until I find out a Place for the Lord, a Tabernacle for the God of Jacob. O that Christian Princes would hear the Voice of their Lord and Soveraign. Psal. 2. 11. Be wise now therefore, O ye Kings; be learned, O ye that are Judges of the Earth. I have said (saith he) that ye are Gods, that is, men di­vinely chosen, who should take care of my Name. Think thou whom I have raised from the Dunghil, and placed in the highest degree of Dignity and Honour, and set over my People, when thou so studiously buildst and adornest thy own House, how thou canst despise and neglect my House; or how thou canst every day petition me, that I would confirm thy Kingdom to thee and thy Posterity. What, that my Name may for ever be treated unworthily? that the Gospel of my Christ may be extinguished? that my Servants may, for my Sake, he butchered before thy Eyes, and in thy View? that this Tyranny may rage the longer? that my Peo­ple may be imposed upon for ever? that the [Page 196] Scandal may be confirm'd by thee? Wo to him by whom Scandals come; and wo to him by whom they are confirm'd. Thou trem­blest at the Blood of Bodies, how much more shouldest thou abhor the Blood of Souls? remember what I did to Antiochus, Herod, and Julian, I will translate thy Kingdom unto thy Enemy, because thou hast sinned against me. I change Times and Seasons, I reject Kings, and I set them up, that thou mayst understand that I am the most highest, and that I rule in the Kingdoms of men, and give them to whom I will; I bring down and I lift up; I glorifie those that glorifie me, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

FIFIS.

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