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 although we have departed from that church, which they call the catholic 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 err, 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 catholic church. And we have approached, as much as possibly we could, the church of the apostles and ancient catholic bishops and fathers, which we know was yet a perfect, and, as Tertullian saith, an unspotted virgin, and not contaminated with any idolatry or great and public 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 public 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 godly 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 heretics, saith the most ancient father Tertullian, That that is true which is first, and that is adulterated and corrupted which is later. Irenæus doth often appeal

to the most ancient churches who are 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 catholic fathers; non agxala ngareira, Let the old customs stand firm? When Esdras was to rebuild the temple, he did not send to Ephesus, though 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 not send to Rome, though perhaps he might have heard there of hecatombs, &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 expressly commanded Moses. When the temple was rebuilt by Esdras, and the people might seem to have a just cause to rejoice 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 splendour 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 Lord's 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 de

livered 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 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 ruins, 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 words, 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 solicitous 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 done that which may both lawfully be

done, and which hath already been often done by many pious men and catholic 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 public council of the whole world; and there are still extant the canons made in municipal or provincial councils at Carthage under St. Cyprian, at Ancyra, Neocasarea, 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 Constantine the Emperor openly. favoured Auxentius, a bishop of the Arian party, Athanasius, a most Christian 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 Carthaginian 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 Aquileia, because it was not a public and general council, St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, replied, that it ought not to seem new or strange, if the bishops of the West assembled in provincial 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

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images out of the church, against the second Nicene council, which had determined for them; nor is the thing new and unheard of in England; for we have heretofore had many provincial synods, and have verned our church by our own domestic 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 though perhaps Italy, France, Spain, England, Germany, Denmark, and Scotland should meet; yet Asia, Greece, Armenia, Persia, Media, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ethiopia, 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 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 grammarschool 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, or, as St. Paul saith (1 Cor. iv. 3), upon man's judgment. 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