The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

10. IT was easy forty years ago, to fi• such Slanders upon the then rising and unknown Truth, when the first Rays of it burst forth in the midst of so great a Darkness and few men had heard what Doctrines were taught. When Martin Luther, and Huldericus Zuinglius, two excellent Persons, who were given by God to enlighten the World, began first to preach the Gospel; when the Thing was new, and the Event uncertain and the Minds of Men surprised and unsettled and their Ears open to all manner of Calumnies; and it was not possible to invent tha• Defamation of us which would not be believed by the People, even upon the Account of the Novelty and strangeness of the thing. And so it was in the more ancient times; the first opposers of Christianity, Symmachus, Celsus, Julianus, and Porphyrius, represented the Primitive Christians as a seditious and rebellious Sect, before either Prince or People knew well what the Christians ⟨p. 57⟩were, or what they professed, or what they would have. But now when our Enemies may see, and cannot deny that in all our Words and Writings, we diligently admonish the People of their Duty; that they should obey their Princes and Magistrates, tho they are wicked men, which is also confirmed by Experience, and seen and observed by all the World; certainly (I say) it is now a senseless thing to attempt to make us odious by a parcel of superannuated over-worn Lies, when they have no new and fresh Crimes to lay to our Charge.

10. IT was easie forty years agon, to fi• such Slanders upon the then rising and unknown Truth, when the first Rays of it burst forth in the midst of so great a Darkness and few men had heard what Doctrines were taught. When Martin Luther, and Huldericus Zuinglius, two excellent Persons, who were given by God to enlighten the World, began first to preach the Gospel; when the Thing was new, and the Event uncertain and the Minds of Men surprised and unsetled and their Ears open to all manner of Calumnies; and it was not possible to invent tha• Defamation of us which would not be believed by the People, even upon the Account of the Novelty and strangeness of the thing. And so it was in the more ancien• times; the first opposers of Christianity, Symmachus, Celsus, Julianus, and Porphyrius, represented the Primitive Christians as a seditious and rebellious Sect, before either Prince or People knew well what the Christians