An Antilogy, Preface to the reader
The Preface to the Christian Reader.
THE wise man in the Prouerbes sayth, He that medleth with a strife that belongeth not vntounto him, is as one that taketh a dog by the eares. Prou. 26.17. Theagenes was laughed to scorne of all, because he would be medling in eueryevery matter, and trying maisteries with euerie one in running, wrastling, fencing; as though it were not lawfull for any to hauehave the victory where he was present. foreign.Lest therefore I might be thought to be busie in other mens matters, and to intermeddle where I need not, to speake in a cause where I was not retained, and to defend a wrong where I was not iniured: first mine answer is this, that the defence of the truth belongeth to all: as an iniurie offered to the bodie, eueryevery member is readie to propulse; and an enemie inuading the countrey, it is eueryevery mans part to resist. Hierome wel saith: Feci vt hostes ecclesiae, mei quo que hostes fierent; I alwaies endeuored that the enemies of the Church should also become mine enemies. Augustine also saith,August. Hier. Epist. 9. Incomparabiliter pulchrior est veritas Christianorum, quàm Helena Graecorum: The veritie of the Christians is farre more faire then Helene of the Grecians: We ought therefore more to striue for it, then they did for the other. Beside, I hauehave not held vp my shield at a shadow, no man striking me; or made answer, where no man called me; or run forward, no man thrusting me:p. 63. l. 11. p. 88 l. 15. p. 119. l. 15 for in three seuerall places it hath pleased this Popes champion to challenge me: and so hath to my thinking bid me the base, and cast downe his gauntlet for me to take it vp. I considered that it was not fit in this case to do as children,foreign. that being stricken, do lay their hands vponupon the sore place and crie: but to requite him with the like that first gaue the aduēture, & to returne the smart of the blow vponupon his face that first bent his fist.Hieron. ad Theoph. I say therefore with Hierome, Si superbum sit respondisse, multò sit superbius accusasse: If it be thought an insolent part to answer, it is much more to accuse: and he is iudged contentious, not which preuenteth a further mischiefe, but first prouoketh thereunto. Neither can I conceale, that to this enterprise I was incited and stirred vp by the reuerend Lord Bishop of London, by whose aduise and counsell I addressed my selfe thereunto:De 5. Haeres. 1. saying with Augustine, Ad compellendum non potest esse molestus exactor, quando ad reddendum deuotus est debitor: The exactor is not troublesome in requiring, when the debtor is willing in rendring. I hauehave hitherto shewed the motiues that induced me to this worke: now also I will briefly declare what I hauehave done. I hauehave discouered in this treatise aboue two hundred vntruths and slaunders, by this libeller without al conscience forged, & without all modestie vttered: I hauehave answered all the politicke obiections, by him cunningly against the Protestants faith deuised: I hauehave his owne engines, wherewith he would hauehave battered ours, vponupon his owne forts returned. The businesse (I thanke God) was not great, which I found in the vnfolding of this Alogicall (I should say, Apologicall) Epistle. But as Caesar said of a certaine citie, which at the very first view he ouercame, Veni, vidi, vici: I came to it, I saw it, I tooke it: so may I say with Hierome, Sententias eius prodidisse, superasse est: The very laying open of his sayings, is a sufficient confutation. His obiections required no long time to answer: to refell his arguments, it was sufficient to see them: and to ouerthrow his cause, it was enough to open his book. And as Lueullus said of his enemies, that came against him in compleat harnesse:foreign. That it would be more labour to spoyle them, then to foyle them: so had I as much a do to collect his reasons, as to confute thē. The gaining of diuerse peeces of this book which were negligently lost, was more trouble to me, thē the first framing of that which I had carefully writtē.
Now I hauehave also the more willingly thrust my selfe into this businesse, to make knowne to the people of God, the Lords vnspeakeable goodnesse towards vsus, who hath giuen vsus a Prince resolued to professe in himselfe and protect in vsus the same faith of the Gospell, which was by Q. Elizabeth maintained: that still we may exercise our pens against the common aduersarie. Of his Maiesties raigne we may truly pronounce, as the Prophet of Salomons: In his dayes shall the righteous flourish. Psal. 72.7. All those shall be sure, we verily trust, to liue in peace and enioy his fauour, that louelove the truth and follow righteousnes. God hath sent vsus another Theodosius, of whō Ambrose saith: Cùm omnes homines vobis militent, tum ipsi vos omnipotenti Deo, & sacrae fidei militatis: As al men do war & fight for you, so you for Almightie God and the sacred Faith. Ambros. existit. 30. ad. Theodos.Phocion being asked of the Orators, what benefit he had bestowed vponupon the city: None but this (saith he) that while I was gouernor, none of you had cause to make a funeral Oratiō :foreign. So I trust, that Religion hath gotten such an honourable patron, that Preachers the Orators of Christians, shall hauehave no cause to mourne for the persecution, trouble and imprisonment of such as professe the Gospell, as in former times of persecution vnderunder Popish tyranny, but to reioyce in the peaceable fruition of the Gospel. And how much are we to ioy in so Christian a Prince, who doth not onelyonly publickely professe himselfe to be no Papist:foreign. p. 10. but hath declared so sound a iudgement in some questions controuersed among Protestants, that we may all frō his princely mouth take out a new lesson, and learne to reforme our erroneous conceits? Our kingly Ecclesiastes saith, That all that is necessarie to saluation, is contained in the Scriptures, foreign. p. 19: otherwise then some hauehave affirmed, that the light of nature and the light of Scripture ioyntly, not seuerally, are compleat to saluation: for hence it followeth, that the Scripture seuerally and alone is not compleate to saluation.
We are taught to vse onelyonly Scripture for interpretation of Scripture, Medit. in 20. c. Reu. p. 3. ar. 7if we would neuer swarue from the analogie of faith in expounding: as Scripture is interpreted by Scripture, so the Scripture is drawne by Scripture, not by the authoritie of the Church. Beware to beleeue with the Papists the Churches authoritie, better then your owne knowledge. foreign. p. 18.How say some then, that the word cannot possibly assure vsus, that we do well to thinke that it is the word of God?
No man is able to keepe the law or any part thereof, as the Apostle saith:foreign. p. 7. That which was impossible to the law, inasmuch as it was weake because of the flesh, &c. how then, is it not impossible (in any sense) to be preserued frō all sin in this life? How can a man do more, and God approue more then is commaunded (as some hauehave taught) if we come farre short of that which is commaunded?
If Faith onelyonly iustifieth, as Protestants hold, and since we could not be saued by doing, we might at the least be saued by beleeuing: foreign. p. 8. how then can our workes be any meanes to blot out sinne, or to procure pardon?
If it be the property of faith to apply the promises: (for faith is a sure perswasion and apprehension of the promises of God, applying them to our soule. p. 11. as the Apostle saith: By grace are ye saued through faith. Eph. 2.8.) how can the Sacraments giuegive grace, and be causes of Iustification, and as necessarie in their place as beliefe it selfe?
If whatsoeuer is not of faith, is sinne▪ Rom. 14.23. foreign. p. 13. how can naturall workes be acceptable to God?
Medita. in 20. Reu. par. 1.If we cānot think any thing as of our selues *2. Cor. 3.5.: and if al that do good, are inspired of God therto: how is mās wil apt naturally to take or refuse any particular obiect whatsoeuer?
Medita. in …0. Reu. par. 2.If the Pope be Antichrist, and the head of a false & hypocritical Church: how then cā the Church of Rome be the family of Christ? I hope Antichrist the head of that false Church, is no member of the Church of Christ, or belonging to his family.
Thus in these and diuers other such questions, wherein we hauehave bin distracted, our princely Ecclesiastes, as another Constantine, that decided the controuersies betweene the Christian Bishops, hath taken vp the strife: like as Archidamus being chosen an vmpire betweene two, brought them to the temple, charging them not to depart till they were agreed. If there yet be remaining any question or controuersie in our Church, let his Maiestie iudge betweene vsus: his Catholicke and Christian iudgement may reduce vsus to vnitie and consent in religion. I say then with S. Paul: Philip. 3.1….Let vsus therefore as many as are perfect be thus minded; and if we be otherwise minded, God shal reueale the same vntounto vsus. Augustine saith wel to Hierome: Quiescamus ab his cōtētionib. nostre vitae saluti que parcamus; minus certè assequatur illa, quae inflat, dum nō offendatur illa, quae aedificat: Let vsus cease from these contentions, and fauour our life and health; let that which puffeth vp be amended, while that which edifieth be not offended.
Now to such as hauehave a long time stood out, and refused to cō municate with the Church of England, I would exhort them now at the length to be wiser, and not to suffer themselues any longer to be abused by that Romish generation, of whom that saying of the Prophet is true: Qui ducunt, seducunt vos; They that guide you, beguile you. Isay. 3.12. The variance and enmity that hath bin of late between your false teachers, the ignatian Friers and Seminary priests, doth shew that they seeke not you, but themselues: you may say of them as Tully of Pompey and Caesar, that were fallen out: Nosse se quem fugere, ignorare quem sequi debeat; That he knew whom to shun, but not whom to follow. Hieronym. ad Ctesiphont.I would they did embrace Hieromes counsel: In mentem tibi veniat, tunicam Saluatoris non à militibus fuisse conscissam; fratrum inter se cernis iurgia & laetaris: imitari Ionam, & dicito, Si propter me ista est tēpestas, tollite me, &c. Remember that our Sauiours coate was not rent of the souldiers; but you see the falling out of brethrē, & reioyce at it: imitate Ionas & say, If this tēpest be because of me, take me and cast me into the sea. I do not wish these seditious sect-masters of Rome to be cast into the sea; but I wold hauehave them cast out of the land, and sent ouer the sea, that our Church be no more troubled with them. England would do full well without them, it hath no neede of their Phisicke:foreign. as Pausanias answered a certaine Phisitian, that sayd he ayled nothing: Because (sayth he) I vse not you for my Phisitian.
Come then Gentlemen and louing countrimen, let vsus go vp to Gods house together; beware hereafter of the Pharisies leauen: Let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind. Mat. 13.14. Why should you pin your faith vponupon the Popes sleeue? hath not the Apostle said: Ye are bought with a price, be not the seruants of men. 1. Cor. 7.23? See you not how that Caiphas of Rome seeketh his owne glorie and dignitie: and would make kings and Princes his vassails and subiects? Hierome said well: Si pacem habere non potest cum fratre, nisi cum subdito, ostendit se non tam pacem cupere, Hieronym. ad Theophil.quàm sub pacis conditione vindictam; If he wil no peace with his brother, but as with a subiect, he sheweth that he desireth not peace, but vnderunder the colour of peace, reuenge: this may better be pronounced of the proud Pope of Rome, then of the ambitious Patriarke of Ierusalem, of whom it was first vttered.
Thanke God, which hath sent a Prince that wil reforme your error, & not nourish you in your superstitiō stil: & God be blessed that hath raised vsus vp so Christian a king, that is as able by reason to perswade to the truth, as by law to enforce: for his constant resolution for religion we can neuer sufficiently be thankeful. He shall neuer need with Constantius that fauored the Arrians, to repent,Theodor. 33. In Ant. Valentinian. fidem à se immutatā, that he had changed his predecessors faith: but as Ambrose saith of Valentinian: A fratre nollet se pietate superari; he would not be exceeded of his brother Gratian in pietie: so his Maiesty is not inferior, for care of religion, to his late renoumed sister Q. Elizabeth. God giuegive vntounto his Christian Maiesty long continuance, and strength to proceed in his happy course, and constancy to hold out his godly purpose to the end:Psal. 72.6. that he may still come downe like the raine vponupon the mowē grasse, & as the showers that water the earth; to be a comfort to his subiects, & a refreshing to the Church: that as we find him a carefull Gouernor, a godly Prince, a louing father, an example of all vertue and goodnesse better then the rest (as Leonidas king of Sparta said,foreign. I had not bene your King, if I had not bin better then you:) so we again may shew our selues obedient and dutiful subiects, to pray for him continually, and dayly blesse him. Psal. 72.15. That we neuer be vnthankful to God, or vndutiful to him; nor vnmindful of these great blessings of peace, continuance of religion, administration of iustice; nor weary of so happy a gouernment, as is expected; as the inconstant Athenians were of Themistocles, foreign.to whom he well said: Are you wearied in receiuing of so many benefits frō one man? but that it may truly be said of vsus, and all the faithfull subiects of the land: They shall feare thee as long as the Sunne and Moone endureth, from generation to generation. Pal. 72.5. That his Maiestie now, and his royall posteritie ouer vsus, may raigne in all happinesse, godlinesse and peace, from generation to generation; which God graunt.