Anglican Communion -- Apologetic works; Church of England -- Apologetic works
But not to tarry about rehearsing all points wherein we and they
differ--for they have well-nigh no end--we turn the Scriptures into all
tongues; they scant suffer them to be had abroad in any tongue. We
allure the people to read and to hear God's Word: they drive the people
from it. We desire to have our cause known to all the world; they flee
to come to any trial. We lean unto knowledge, they unto ignorance. We
trust unto light, they unto darkness. We reverence, as it becometh us,
the writings of the Apostles and Prophets; and they burnt them. Finally,
we in God's cause desire to stand to God's only judgment; they will stand
only to their own. Wherefore, if they will weigh all these things with a
quiet mind, and fully bent to hear and to learn, they will not only allow
this determination of ours, who have forsaken errors, and followed Christ
and His Apostles, but themselves also will forsake their own selves, and
join of their own accord to our side.
PART VI.
But peradventure they will say, it was treason to attempt these matters
without a sacred general council; for in that consisteth the whole force
of the Church; there Christ hath promised He will ever be a present
assistant. Yet they themselves, without tarrying for any general
council, have broken the commandments of God, and the decrees of the
Apostles; and, as we said a little above, they have spoiled and
disannulled almost all, not only ordinances, but even the doctrine of the
primitive Church. And where they say it is not lawful to make a change
without a council, what was he that gave us these laws, or from whence
had they this injunction?
Truly, King Agesilaus did but fondly, who, when he had a determinate
answer made him of the opinion and will of mighty Jupiter, would
afterward bring the whole matter before Apollo, to know whether he would
allow thereof, as his father Jupiter did, or no. But yet should we do
much more fondly, when we hear God Himself plainly speak to us in His
most Holy Scriptures, and may understand by them His will and meaning, if
we would afterward (as though this were of none effect) bring our whole
cause to be tried by a council; which were nothing else but to ask
whether men would allow as God did, and whether men would confirm God's
commandment by their authority.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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