A46876:291
The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…
The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio a Venetian gentleman, concerning the Council of Trent written both in Latin / by ... John Jewel ... ; made English by a person of quality ; to which is added, The life of the said bishop ; collected and written by the same hand.
London: printed by T. H. for Richard Chiswell, 1685
THE APOLOGY OF THE Church of ENGLAND. Written by the very Learned a… › Chapter 5
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.
I say if all this be to err, then it is certain that the Church of Rome not only may err, but that she hath most wickedly and lewdly erred.
11. BUT they say we were once of their Communion, but now we are Apostates, and have departed from them; indeed we have departed from them, and we bless the Great and Holy God for it, and please our selves mightily in it; but then we have not departed from the Primitive Church, from the Apostles, from Christ; we were educated indeed with them in darkness and ignorance of God, as Moses was in the Discipline and bosom of the Egyptians. We were of your Number (saith Tertullian) and I confess it, but what wonder is there in that, Men are made, and not born Christians. But then I may as well ask them why they have descended from the seven Hills on which the ancient City of Rome stood, to dwell in the Plains in the Martian Field; to which perhaps they would reply, that the Aqueducts, without which they could not conveniently dwell on those Hills, have failed. Let them then but grant the same liberty in relation to the Waters of Life, which they expect we should afford them in regard of the ⟨p. 100⟩common Family-water. The Springs did now fail with them:1 The Elders (saith Jeremiah) sent their little ones to the Waters, they came to the Pits and found no Water, they returned with their Vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, 2and covered their heads. Or, as Isaiah saith, The Poor and the Needy seek Water, and there is none, and their Tongue faileth for thirst. They had broken all their Conduits and Water-courses; they had stopped up all the Springs, and covered the Fountain of Living Waters with mire and mud; and as Caligula, by shutting up all the public Granaries, enjoined the People of Rome to fast: so they by stopping up the Fountains of the Word of God, had enjoined the People to undergo the Miseries of a destructive Thirst; they have (as the Prophet Amos saith) brought upon the World a Famine;