A04468:2924
A defence of the Apology of the Church of England containing an answer to…A defence of the Apologie of the Churche of Englande conteininge an answeare to…
A defence of the Apology of the Church of England containing an answer to a certain book lately set forth by M. Harding, and entitled, A confutation of &c. By John Jewel Bishop of Salisbury.A defence of the Apologie of the Churche of Englande conteininge an answeare to a certaine booke lately set foorthe by M. Hardinge, and entituled, A confutation of &c. By Iohn Iewel Bishop of Sarisburie.
Imprinted at London : In Fleetestreate, at the sign of the Elephant, by Henry Wykes, Anno 1567. 27. OctobrisImprinted at London : In Fleetestreate, at the signe of the Elephante, by Henry VVykes, Anno 1567. 27. Octobris
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
But now, ye say, the Church may not be brought to a few. For God hath given to Christ his Son the ends of the world to be his possession. Yet Christ him self, that best knew the reach, and limits of his possession, saith thus, When the Son of Man shall come, 1think you, he shall find Faith in the world? Whereupon S. Ambrose saithe, Tunc Fides rara: Ut ipse, quasi addubitans, Dominus ista dixerit: Then shall Faith be geason: So that our Lord spake these words, as doubting thereof, whether there should be any Faithful left, or no. And S. John in his Revelations saith, Mulier fugit in solitudinem, ubi habet locum paratum à Deo: The woman (whereby is meant, not the Synagogue of the Jews, but the Church of Christ) fleeth into the wilderness: where she hath a place provided of God. By which words is meant, that in time of Ignorance, and Persecution, the Church is without Countenance, 2and unknown. S. Paul saith, Before the Day of the Lord, there shall be a departing from the Faith of Christ. By these it appeareth, that the decay of the Church shall be universal: and that the remanentes shall not be many. 3Therefore Vincentius Lirinensis putteth the case on this wise: Quid si novella aliqua contagio jam non portiunculā tantùm, sed totam pariter Ecclesiam commaculare conetur? Tunc item providebit, ut Antiquitati inhaereat: What if some new corruption go about to invade, not only some portion of the Church, but also the whole universal Church altogether? Then must a Christian man settle him self to cleave to Antiquity: That is to say, to follow the Primitive Church of the Apostles, and Ancient Fathers. This case would he never have moved, onlesse he had thought, the Whole universal Church might happen by some error to be corrupted. Surely S. Chrysostom,4 speaking of the state of the Church, that he saw in his time, saith thus: Videtur Ecclesia hodiè mulieri, quae mansuetudine veteri exciderit, similis: quaeque Symbola tantùm foelicitatis illius quaedam referat: Arcas, & Scrinia rerum pretiosissimarum adhuc retinens, Thesauro destituta. Huic mulieri Ecclesia hodie videtur similis: The Church this day is like unto a woman, that hath quite lost all her old modesty: and that beareth only certain badges, and tokens of her former felicity: