saffron, discolours a painted face; so this blunt sincerity shamed the glorious falsehood of superstition. 66 The proud offenders, impatient of reproof, try what fire and faggot can do for them t. And now, according to the old word, suppressed spirits gather more authority" as the Egyptian violence rather addeth to God's Israel. Insomuch as Erasmus could tell the Rector of Louvaine, that, by burning Luther's books, they might rid him from the libraries of men; not from their hearts. The ventilation of these points diffused them to the knowledge of the world. And, now, upon serious scanning, it came to this; as that Honour of Rotterdam professeth ||: Non defuisse &c: "That there wanted not great Divines, which durst confidently affirm, that there was nothing in Luther, which might not be defended by good and allowed authors." Nothing doth so whet the edge of wit, as contradiction. Now he, who, at first, like the blind man in the gospel, (it is Beza's comparison ¶) saw men like trees; upon more clear light, sees and wonders at those gross superstitions and tyrannies, wherewith the Church of God had been long abused. And, now, as the first Hue and Cry raiseth a whole country, the world was awakened with the noise; and, starting up, saw, and stood amazed to see, its own slavery and besottedness. Meanwhile, that God, who cannot be wanting to himself, raiseth up abettors** to his truth. The contention grows. Books fly abroad, on both parts. Straight, Bulls bellow from Rome ++, nothing but death and damnation to the opposites. Excommunications are thundered out, from their Capitoline powers, against all the partakers of this, so called, heresy. The flashes of public Anathemas strike them down to hell. The condemned reprovers stand upon their own integrity; call heaven and earth to record, how justly they have complained, how unjustly they are censured; in large volumes defending their innocence, and challenging an undeniable part in the True Visible Church of God, from which they are pretended to be ejected; appeal, next to the tribunal of heaven, to the sentence of a free general Council for their right. Proffer is made, at last, of a Synod at Trent ‡‡; but neither free nor general: nor such, as would afford, after all semblances, either * Bapt. Porta. gliscit authoritas. + Leonis Bulla. Anno 1518. Punitis ingeniis, || Non defuisse magnos Theologos, qui non verebantur affirmare, nihil esse in Luthero, quin per probatos authores defendi possit. Eras. lib. Ep. 15. Godes chalco Rosemund, &c, ¶ Theod. Beza contra Andr. &c. Vid. Histor. Conc. Trid. l. i. ** Hulr. Zuinglius, in Eccl. Zurich, opponit se Tratii Sampsoni Mediolan. Francis. Hugo Constantiens. Episcopus opponit se Zuinglio. Ibid. ++ Bulla Secunda Leonis Papæ. An. 1520. Anno 1518. Vid. Histor. Conc. Trid. I. i. safety of access *, or possibility of indifferency. That partial meeting, as it was prompted + to speak, condemns us unheard: right so, as Ruffinus reports it, in that case of Athanasius; Judicandi potestas &c: "The power of judging was in the accusers," contrary to the rule of their own law, Non debet &c: "The same party may not be the judge, accuser, witness;" contrary to that just rule of Theodericus, reported by Cassiodore ; Sententia &c: "The sentence, that is given in the absence of the parties, is of no moment." We are still where we were; opposing, suffering. In these terms we stand: what shall we say, then? If men would either not have deserved, or have patiently endured reproof, this breach had never been. Woe be to the men, by whom this offence cometh. For us, that rule of St. Bernard ¶ shall clearly acquit us, before God and his angels; Cùm carpuntur vitia, &c: "When faults are taxed, and scandal grows, he is the cause of the scandal, who did that, which was worthy to be reproved; not he, that reproved the ill doer." SECT. 3. The Reformed unjustly charged with Novelty, Heresy, Schism. BE it, therefore, known to all the world, that our Church is only Reformed or Repaired; not made new **. There is not one stone of a new foundation laid by us: yea, the old walls stand still; only the overcasting of those ancient stones with the untempered mortar of new inventions, displeaseth us ††. Plainly, set aside the corruptions, and the Church is the same. And what are these corruptions, but unsound adjections to the ancient structure of religion? These we cannot but oppose; and are, therefore, unjustly and imperiously ejected. Hence it is, that ours is, by the opposite, styled an Ablative or Negative Religion ‡‡; forsomuch as we join with all true Christians, in all affirmative positions of ancient faith; only standing Tres salvi-conductus concessi Protestantibus; sed quàm frustrà. Vid. Junii Animadv. in Bellarm. + Vid. Epist. Epi. Quinque Eccles. in Hist. Conc. Trid. Judicandi potestas apud accusatores erat. Ruffin. Hist. 1. i. c. 17. § 2. q. Multo &c. 3. q. 7. Nullus debet &c. Sententia, non præsentibus partibus, dicta, nullius momenti est. Cassiod. de Amicit. c. 5. Nullus, ante rectam cognitionem causa, debet privari suo jure. Rodrig. Cas, Cons. c. 241. Cùm carpuntur vitia, et inde scandalum oritur, ipse sibi scandali causa est, qui fecit, quod argui debet; non ille, qui arguit. Bern. ad Hug. de Sanc. Vict. Ep. 78. **Nos vetera instauramus; nova non prodimus. Eras. Godesch. &c. Hareses non tam docent credere nova, quàm vetera non credere: magis, enim, hæresis in non credendo. Joan. Lensæus Bellidanus de Chr. Libert. 1. xii. upon the denial of some late and undue additaments to the Christian belief. Or, if those additions be reckoned for ruins, it is a sure rule, which Durandus gives concerning material churches, applicable to the spiritual; That, if the wall be decayed, not at once, but successively, it is judged still the same church: and, upon reparation, not to be re-consecrated; but only reconciled. Well, therefore, may those mouths stop themselves, which loudly call + for the names of the professors of our faith, in all successions of times, till Luther looked forth into the world. Had we gone about to broach any new positive truths, unseen, unheard of former times, well and justly might they challenge us, for a deduction of this line of doctrine, from a pedigree of predecessors: now, that we only disclaim their superfluous and novel opinions and practices, which have been, by degrees, thrust upon the Church of God, retaining inviolably all former Articles of Christian Faith, how idle is this plea! how worthy of hissing out! Who sees not now, that all we need to do, is, but to shew, that all those points, which we cry down in the Roman Church, are such as carry in them a manifest brand of newness and absurdity? This proof will clearly justify our refusal. Let them see how they shall once, before the awful tribunal of our Last Judge, justify their uncharitableness; who cease not, upon this our refusal, to eject and condemn us. The Church of Rome is sick. Ingenuous Cassander confesseth so: Nec inficior &c: "I deny not," saith he §, "that the Roman Church is not a little changed from her ancient beauty and brightness; and that she is deformed with many diseases and vicious distempers." Bernard tells us how it must be dieted: profitable, though unpleasing medicines, must be poured into the mouth of it ||. Luther and his associates did this office; as Erasmus acknowledgeth: Lutherus porrexit &c: "Luther," saith he ¶, "gave the world a potion, violent and bitter: whatever it were, I wish it may breed some good health in the body of Christian people; so miserably foul, with all kinds of evils." Never did Luther mean to take away the life of that Church; but the sickness wherein, as Socrates answered to his judges, surely he deserved recompence instead of rage. For, as St. Ambrose worthily **, Dulcior est &c : "Sweeter is a religious chastisement, than a smoothing remission." * Durand. Ration. lib. i. + Fisher contra D. White et D. Featly. Accusatio non debet admitti, quæ non procedit ex charitate. 4. qu. 5. § Nec inficior Rom. Ecclesiam à prisco suo decore et splendore non parùm diTersam; multisque morbis et vitiis deformatam. Cass. de Offic. Boni Viri, &c. || Utilia, verò, et nolenti ingerenda. Bern, de Vit. Solit. Lutherus porrexit orbi pharmacum, violentum et amarum: id quale, quale sit, optarim ut aliquid bonæ sanitatis, &c. Eras. Georg. Sax. Duci. Í. xxi. “Novis morbis novis obviandum medicamentis. Bern. Ep. 161. **Dulcior est religiosa castigatio, quàm blanda remissio. Ambr. in Obit, Theod. Ser. 6. This, that was meant to the Church's health, proves the physician's disease. So did the bitterness of our wholesome draughts offend, that we are beaten out of doors. Neither did we run from that Church, but are driven away; as our late sovereign professeth, by Causabon's hand *. We know that of Cyril † is a true word: "Those, which sever themselves from the Church and communion, are the enemies of God, and friends of devils:" and that, which Dionysius said to Novatus: "Any thing must rather be borne, than that we should rend the Church of God." Far, far was it from our thoughts, to tear the seamless coat; or, with this precious oil of truth, to break the Church's head. We found just faults: else, let us be guilty of this disturbance §. If now, choler unjustly exasperated with an wholesome reprehension, hath broken forth into a furious persecution of the gainsayers, the sin is not ours. If we have defended our innocence with blows, the sin is not ours. Let us never prosper in our good cause, if all the water of Tiber can wash off the blood of many thousand Christian souls, that hath been shed in this quarrel, from the hands of the Romish Prelacy. Surely, as it was observed of old, that none of the tribe of Levi were the professed followers of our Saviour; so it is too easy to observe, that, of late times, this tribe hath exercised the bitterest enmity upon the followers of Christ. Suppose we had offended in the undiscreet managing of a just reproof; it is a true rule of Erasmus, That generous spirits would be reclaimed, by teaching; not, by compulsion: and, as Alipius wisely to his Augustin," Heed must be taken, lest, while we labour to redress a doubtful complaint, we make greater wounds than we find." Oh, how happy had it been for God's Church, if this care had found any place in the hearts of her governors! who, regarding more the entire preservation of their own honour, than truth and peace, were all in the harsh language of war; xałe, Báλλe; smite, kill, burn, persecute. Had they been but half so charitable to their modern reprovers, as they profess they are to the foregoing, how had the Church flourished in an uninterrupted unity?"In the old catholic writers," say they **, we bear with many errors: we extenuate and ex 66 *Non fugimus, sed fugamur. Causab. ad Peron. ↑ Qui ab Ecclesia et communione, &c. Cyril. Orat. de Exitu Animæ. Oportebat quidem nihil non ferre, ne Ecclesiam Dei scinderes. Dionys. ad Novat. Eus. 1. viii. c. 44. &c. § Qui statum conturbat Ecclesiæ, ab ejus liminibus arceatur. 2. Ep. Alex. Pap. || Ingenia generosa doceri cupiunt; cogi non ferunt: cogere, tyrannorum est; cogi tantùm, asinorum. Eras. Rosumdavo, ubi suprà. Cavendum est, ne, cùm rem dubiam emendare volumus, majora vulnera faciamus. Alip. Aug. Ep. 239. ** Index Expurgat. Belg. jussu Phil. ii. Antwerp. Offic. Plant. In catholicis veteribus alios plurimos, &c. cuse them: we find shifts to put them off; and devise some commodious senses for them." Guiltiness, which is the ground of this favour, works the quite contrary courses against us. Alas, how are our writings racked, and wrested to envious senses! how misconstrued! how perverted! and made to speak odiously, on purpose to work distate, to enlarge quarrel, to draw on the deepest censures! Woe is me, this cruel uncharitableness is it, that hath brought this miserable calamity upon distracted Christendom. Surely, as the ashes of the burning mountain Vesuvius, being dispersed far and wide, bred a grievous pestilence in the regions round about*; so the ashes, that fly from these unkindly flames of discord, have bred a woeful infection and death of souls, through the whole Christian World. SECT. 4. The Church of Rome guilty of this Schism. It is confessed by the President of the Tridentine Council †, that the depravation of discipline and manners of the Roman Church, was the chief cause and original of these dissensions. Let us cast our eyes upon the doctrine, and we shall no less find the guilt of this fearful schism, to fall heavily upon the same heads. For, first, to lay a sure ground, nothing can be more plain, than that the Roman is a particular Church, as the Fathers of Basil well distinguish it; not the universal: though we take in the Churches of her subordination or correspondence. This truth we might make good by authority, if our very senses did not save us the labour. Secondly, no particular Church, to say nothing of the universal since the Apostolic times, can have power to make a fundamental point of faith. It may explain or declare, it cannot create, Articles §. Thirdly, only an error against a point of faith, is Heresy. Fourthly, those points, wherein we differ from the Romanists, are they, which only the Church of Rome hath made fundamental, and of faith. Fifthly, the Reformed, therefore, being by that Church illegally Magdeb. Cent. 2. + Que jamdiu depravata atque corrupta, harum ipsarum hæresium, magná ex parte, causa origóque extitit. Orat. Præs. Conc. Trid. sess. 11. Petrus Oxon. Sum. Concil, sub Sixto iv. Si authoritas quæratur, orbis major est urbe, ubicunque fuerit Episcopus, sive Roma, sive Eugubii. Hieron. Evagrio. Waldens. Doctr. Fid. Tom. 1,1. ii. Pighius. Hierar. Eccl. 1. vi. 3. Turrecremat. et alii. Vid. Mort. appell. 1. iv. c, 2. sect. 6. Answer of the Bishop of St. David's Chaplain to Fisher. § Nec Papa, nec Episcopus, propriè potest propositionem &c. Gers. An liceat in causis fidei, &c. Nil. Thessal. Orat. de Dissens. |