A08483:12
An exposition of the Symbol of the ApostlesAn exposition of the Symbole of the Apostles
An exposition of the Symbol of the Apostles, or rather of the articles of faith In which the chief points of the everlasting and free covenant between God and the faithful is briefly and plainly handled. Gathered out of the catechising sermons of Gasper Oleuvian Trevir, and now translated out of the Latin tongue into the English for the benefit of Christ his Church. By John Field.An exposition of the Symbole of the Apostles, or rather of the articles of faith In which the chiefe points of the euerlasting and free couenant betweene God and the faithfull is briefly and plainly handled. Gathered out of the catechising sermons of Gasper Oleuvian Treuir, and now translated out of the Latine tongue into the English for the benefite of Christ his Church. By Iohn Fielde.
London: printed by H. Middleton for Thomas Man, 1581
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.
This only is the difference, that whereas they were wont to speak in their own language and like themselves, now they speak in an other dissembling voice, and being in case to couch for fear of the whip, ⟨p. 8⟩they have turned their rusty roughness into some smoothness, and like Angels of light, that they may have some entertainment amongest us: and to the end they may infect the land again with their idolatries, and turn upside down the quiet peace the blessing of the Gospel hath brought us, and drink up our blood, (as together with Antichrist their head they have done in times past, and in the countries, where they have had entertainment round about us;) with strong flattery, they prepare even to creep into our bosoms. And hence are those speeches used by Parsons Howlet, in that fraudulent and doubling Epistle, that he of late hath presumed to whoop in the ears of her Sovereign Highness, wherewith because I have dealt more fully in another place, now I do but touch it. But as there is greatest danger when foes begin to feign, so have we greatest cause to distrust these enemies of God and of the common weal, when they have made their tongues most glib and smooth to deceive withal,1 that as one saith very ⟨p. 9⟩well, they may bind mens souls in their sins. For a sinner delighteth to do those things, wherein not only the reprover is feared, but also the praiser is heard. There are therefore more dangers under the tongue of a flatterer, then under the hand of a persecutor. For where as the hand reacheth but to the body, the false praise and feigned love of a flatterer, turneth mens hearts from the sincerity of the truth. And therefore we ought to take heed of these flattering Papists, as of the enemies,2 not of our bodies, but of our souls, whose softest speeches and glavering praises, which they pounce out to the uttermost, to steal in upon us, & to gain against the truth, are so many swords & darts to our souls. They corrupt light minds with their feigned praises, & in the minds of those that are light of credit, they give gentle wounds. They cover their poison with honey. And this vice hath so increased in this our age, that it stands at the last stint & cannot be increased: every man applieth this study, & giveth himself wholly to follow this school, that he may deceive & be deceived.