and the sacrifice; and that propitiation comes to every one by way of faith." And, therefore, agreeably hereunto, we say that the sacraments of Christ do not profit the living without faith, and much less the dead; for as to what they pretend concerning their purgatory, though that is no very late invention, yet it is nothing but a silly old wives' story. St. Augustine 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 publicly and openly sold in every corner, they have turned the churches of God into mere 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 advantageous.*

*

18. We know that St. Augustine grievously complained of the vast number of impertinent ceremonies in his time, and we have cut off a great many of them because we know they were afflictive to the consciences of men, and

* Strype, in his Memorials, III. p. 1. c. xii. gives a description of the Romish priests restored to their cures in the days of queen Mary. He says, "Thus was the church now plentifully furnished with ignorant and scandalous priests. And being placed in their respective parishes, they did not seldom quarrel with their parishioners for chrisoms, candles, purification pence, eggs on Good Friday, the four offerings, dirge groats, and the like. For that (four pence) was the usual reward for singing a mass for a soul. And sometimes in lieu of that groat, they had a peck of wheat, or a cheese, or a pudding given them." Pilkington says, "If there be a trental to be said, or any money to be gotten for masses, dirges, relics, pardons, &c. who then is so ready as they? They can smell it out a great many miles off. But if a man want comfort in conscience, would understand his duty towards God, or God's goodness towards us, they are blind, ignorant, unlearned, and can say nothing, but make holy water, and bid them say a lady psalter."

From some receipts given by priests, for money received for saying masses to deliver souls out of purgatory, printed in the Protestant, III. p. 125, it appears that the price in Ireland not long since was from one to two shillings each mass. In Portugal the price was lower. Difficulties have arisen from the circumstance "that more money may be received for masses in a day than can be said in a month." Gavin, in his Master Key, explains that this was got over by a privi. lege from the pope, by which one mass was made to have as much efficacy as if the service had been repeated an hundred times. "There are no limits to the number of masses which a soul may require, but the limits of the purses of surviving friends." The doctrine of purgatory, it is manifest, was derived from the ancient heathen.

burdensome to the church of God. Yet we still retain and religiously use, not only all those which we know were delivered to the church by the apostles, but some others which it appeared to us might be borne without inconvenience to the church, because, as St. Paul commands, we desire all things in the religious assemblies should be done decently and in order. 1 Cor. xiv. 40. But then, as to all those that were very superstitious, or cold, or base, or ridiculous, or contrary to the Scriptures, or did not seem to befit sober men, an infinite number of which are now to be found among papists; we have rejected all these, I say, without exception, because we would not have the service of God any longer contaminated with such fooleries.

19. We pray, as it is fit we should, in that tongue which our people do all understand, that the people, as St. Paul admonishes, may reap a common advantage by the common prayers, as all the holy fathers, and catholic bishops, not only in the Old, but in the New Testament also, did ever pray, and teach the people to pray, lest, as St. Augustine saith, "We should, like parrots, and other prating birds, seem to sound words which we did not understand."

20. 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, According to the number of thy cities so are thy gods, Jer. ii. 28. xi. 13. and miserable men know not which to apply themselves to-and though 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.

21. We say that man is born in sin and leadeth his life 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 ourselves that he is the propitiation for our sins, by whose blood all our stains are washed out; that he has pacified all 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, he said, IT IS FINISHED; as if by these words he would signify, Now the price is paid for the sins of mankind.

22. If there be any who think that this sacrifice is not sufficient, let them go and find out a better; but 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 enjoin the repetition of it; and because it was full and perfect in all its members and parts, we do not substitute for it the perpetual successions of our own sacrifices.

23. Though 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 therefore say, that men should live loosely and dissolutely, as if to be baptized and profess belief were sufficient for a Christian, and there were nothing more required from him. The true faith is a living faith, and cannot be idle; therefore we teach the people, that God hath not called us to luxury and disorder, but, as St. Paul saith, Unto good works, that we might walk in them, Eph. ii. 10. That God hath delivered us from the power of darkness, that we might serve the living God, Col. i. 13. That we should root up all the relics of sin; that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling, Phil. ii. 12. 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, though 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 shall 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.

THE THIRD PART.

THESE are the horrible heresies for which a considerable part of the world at this day are condemned by the pope, unheard. It had been better to have entered a contest with Christ, the apostles and holy fathers; for it was they, 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 others twenty in one day. Or that Christ and the apostles deprived the people of the cup; or that what they now do, (and with such eagerness, that whoever will not comply with them in it, is by them condemned for a heretic,) is not called sacrilege by Gelasius, one of their own popes. Or that these are not the words of Ambrosius, Augustinus, Gelasius, Theodoret, Chrysostom, and Origen, "That the bread and wine in the sacrament remain what they were before; that what is seen on the holy table is bread; that the substance of the bread does 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 pope's breast; and, as one of his followers and flatterers once said, 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.*

* In his defence of the apology, Jewell quotes many Romish authorities to this effect. One says, "The pope may dispense for any commandment of the Old or New Testament." Another, "The pope, of wrong may make right."

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 heretics, by the great leader and prince of religion. What! have Christ and his apostles, and so many fathers, all erred? What! are Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, Gelasius, and Theodoret, apostates from the catholic faith? Was the consent of so many bishops and learned men nothing but a conspiracy of heretics? Or that which was commendable in them, is it now blameable in us? And that which was catholic 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 displeases them, become false? Let them, then, produce a new gospel; or, at least, set forth their reasons why those things which were so long publicly observed and approved in the church, ought now at last to be recalled. We know that the word which was revealed 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 recalled from the bottom of hell, and pronounce the Arians, Eutychians, 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 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; but we render our unfeigned thanks to God, that the world is 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

* Jewell appears to have estimated some of these sects according to the false accounts given of them by the church of Rome, rather than by their real sentiments, particularly the Novatians. The "severe and serious correction" here spoken of, happily has since been done away. It was a remnant of popery, of which the Reformers found great difficulty in divesting themselves.