reverently administered, and, as far as we can possibly, according to the example and manner of the ancient times. 1. 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 entire and whole eucharist to the people; but they, contrary to the practice of all the fathers and apostles, and of Christ himself, divide that sacrament, with a high sacrilege, as Gelasius expresses it, and deprive the people of one half of it. 2. We have recalled the Lord's 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 Lord's supper, but 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, that according to St. Paul's admonition, 1 Cor. xiv. 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 scarcely allow them to be extant in any tongue. We invite the people to read and hear the word of God; they drive them away from it. We desire the cause in controversy 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 the 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 applied ourselves to follow Christ and his apostles; but they would likewise fall off from themseves, and certainly unite with us in our way.

THE SIXTH PART.

1. 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 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 (Agesilaus) acted very ridiculously, who, when he was assured by an oracle 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 authority of the high priests, and if he had referred his whole doctrine to Annas and Caiaphas, where had the Christian faith been now? or who had ever heard of the gospel? St. Peter, whom the pope mentions more frequently, and with greater eulogies, than he doth Jesus Christ himself, confidently withstood the sacred council, and replied, It is better to obey God than man,

Acts iv. 19. And St. Paul, when he had once thoroughly imbibed the gospel, and that neither from man, nor by man, but only by the will of God, deliberated not with flesh and blood, Gal. i. 12, 16. nor did he refer the thing to his kinsmen and brethren, but straightway 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 a long time in a full assembly of the states. But what we may expect from that council which is now pretended to be held by pope Pius IV.* in which men are with such facility condemned, uncalled, unheard, and unseen, is not very difficult to conjecture. When Nazianzen in his times saw men in these meetings so blind and obstinate that they were wholly led 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, although 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 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 are 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 in 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

*The later sessions of the council of Trent, which terminated in 1563. See Jewell's letter to Scipio.

part also of the laity, were then called to assist at the hearing of ecclesiastical causes.

4. But what now if these 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, iii. 6. the night be unto them instead of a vision, and darkness instead of a divination? What if, as Isaiah saith, lvi. 10. the watchmen of the city are all blind, they are all ignorant? and what if the salt, as Christ saith, Matt. v. 13. hath lost its force and savour, and is become good for nothing, not fit even to be cast upon the dunghill? For they defer all to the pope, who cannot err; but this would be absurd. It would be to suppose 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 expense 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 turned over all this business to the pope, and have gone directly to the oracle of his sacred breast; 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 presumed to condemn us before we were called, and that without any trial. Now, do we invent all this? Or is it not now the man

* The church of Rome would have it believed that the determinations of the general council at Trent were immediately influenced by the Holy Spirit. It however was notorious that no decision was made, excepting by the immediate directions of the pope. Several profane jests upon this assumption of the influences of the Holy Spirit upon its decrees were then current.

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 council's 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.

Jewell adds in the Defence, "We JEST NOT AT GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT. We know that it is the same Spirit of Wisdom that hath renewed the face of the world and discovered the multitude of your follies."

ners of our late councils? Are not all things referred to the pope by the council; so that as if nothing were done by so many sentences and subscriptions, he alone may add, 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 of Trent, put in these words as a part of their decree: "Saving in all things the authority of the apostolical see?" or why did pope Pascal write thus insolently of himself, "As if any coun cils 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 called? but if they are indeed repealed 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, though 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 Jerome's judgment, the authority of this one city 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 Arian? or, like pope John, who lived not many years since, thinks very ignorantly 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 things were deliberated and constituted by the holy fathers in them which were never so much as thought of? and that, as Camotensis saith the popes do frequently, he should offer violence to the Holy Scriptures, that he might thereby possess himself of a plenitude of power?-What if he renounce the Christian faith, and become an apostate, as Lyra saith many popes have done? What! will the Holy Spirit, for all these things, knock at the cabin 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

* See Jewell's Reply to Harding's Answer.