Answer to a Popish Antichristian Catholic, Offer 15
The fifteenth Offer.
Offerer.
Fifteene. Againe, I do demande of the learned proteſtant whether the Lutherans, Zuinglians, Illirians, Caluinists, Confeſsioniſts, Svvinkfildians, Anabaptists, and ſuch like, be all of one church and congregation or no? And if he be able to prooue theſe ſects, being of ſuch diuerſity in faith and religion, to make one church, and that eueryevery one of them may giuegive ſaluation to their fellowes, being ſo diſagreeable one with another in high pointes of faith and religion, or that I ought to belieue all thoſe, rather then the one true Catholike church of Chriſt: or yet any of theſe, more one then another, all of them making ſuch a bolde challenge of the truth of Gods word and goſpell. When the learned Proteſtant ſhalbe able by good reaſon, or drift of argumēt to ſatiſfie theſe my requeſts: then I ſhall yeelde and recant, and not before.
Crowley.
If I did not knowe that this Offerer is paſt all ſhame: I could not meruell enough to ſée that he would demaunde of the learned Proteſtant, a proofe by good reaſon and drift of argument: that Luther, Zuinglius, Illiricus, Caluin, the Confeſſioniſts, Swinkfild, and the Anabaptiſts, ſhould bée members all of one church. For the darkneſſe is no more contrary to the light, neither falſhoode to the truth, nor the deuill to God: then the doctrine of Swenkfield and of the Anabaptiſts, is to the doctrine of Luther, Caluin, and Zuinglius.
But this is the drift of this Offerer. To beare the world in hand, that wée Proteſtants, doo holde & maintaine eueryevery point of doctrine, that is contrarie to, or diffreth from that Antichriſtian doctrine, which hée & his fellowes doo call Catholike: and that wée hauehave none other authors of our religion, but theſe whom hee hath héere named, & ſuch like.
Vndoubtedly, hée is heerein very much diſceiued. For although wée doo for good cauſe, like very well of the iudgment of ſome of theſe men that bee heere named: yet wée hauehave not ſworne to belieue all that they hauehave written, neither yet anie one woorde, that they hauehave written, further then they hauehave by the ſcriptures made proofe of that which they hauehave affirmed in writing. Wée are not Lutherans, Zuinglians, nor Caluiniſts: but wée are Chriſtians, as (in our opinion) Luther, Zuinglius, and Caluin were. They were of one minde with S. Auſten: that deſired no credit, further then hée prooued his aſſertions, by ſcripture. I pray you therefore (good M. Offerer) offer vsus not ſuch diſcurtiſie, as to cauſe the world to conceiue ſuch an opinion of vsus, that wée holde and maintaine, wée care not and knowe not what. Wée thanke the Lord our God, wée are not ignoraunt what wée doo, and what Chriſtians ought to belieue: and wée are ready and able to render an account of the hope that is in vsus. And our God hath made vsus able to iudge of the ſpirites, and to diſcerne the ſpirite of truth, from the ſpirite of errour. And by that gifte of our God, wée are made able to ſée that your ſpirite, is the ſpirite of Antichriſt, and your religion Antichriſtian. And that the religion that wée doo profeſſe, is Catholique, and the ſame that was profeſſed and practized, euen in Rome, for the ſpace of 300. yeeres and more, next after the aſcention of our Sauiour Chriſt.
And where as you require the learned Proteſtant to prooue that theſe ſectes, being ſo diuers, &c. or any of them do giuegive ſaluation to theyr fellowes, and that you ought to béeléeue them all, or any one of them: we leaue to your ſelfe, to be diſcuſſed at your leaſure. For we knowe that no companie or ſocietie of men, hath any power to giuegive any ſaluation neither to others, or to themſelues: & that no man is bound to beléeue another, farther then hée dooth knowe, that the ſame hath and dooth ſpeake and write the trueth. I ſée no cauſe therefore, why you ſhould not yéeld and recant, although the learned Proteſtant, neither can prooue, nor will take vponupon him to prooue the thing that you hauehave ſo impudently required him to prooue.