A46876:295
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 6
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.
CHAP. VI.
Of the Great Value we have for Councils, and of the little regard the Papists have for them.
BUT in the next place they pretend that it is altogether unlawful to attempt any of these things, without the consent of a General Council; because in that is lodged all the Power of the Church; and Christ hath promised that there he will never fail to be present. But as I said they have violated the Commandments of God, the Decrees of the ⟨p. 105⟩Apostles, and almost all the Institutions and Doctrines of the Primitive Church, without ever expecting any such Sacred Council.
2. AND whereas they pretend that it is not Lawful for any Church to change any thing without a General Council; who imposed these Laws upon us, or from whence had they this Edict? That King acted very ridiculously, who when he was assured by an Oracle,1 of the Will and Pleasure of Jupiter the Great Heathen God, referred the thing again to Apollo, that he might see whether he were of the same mind with his Father Jupiter. But we should act much more imprudently, if when we have heard God himself speaking to us in the Scriptures, and thereby know his Will and Pleasure, as if all this were nothing, we should after all refer the thing to a Council, which is nothing better than to try whether God and Man are both of one mind; and whether Men will please to approve and enforce the Laws of God by their Authority. For what, shall not truth be truth, except a Council is pleased to will and require it? Or shall not God be God without their consent? If Christ at the beginning would have acted thus, and would neither have taught nor spoken any thing without the consent of the High Priests, and if he had referred his whole Doctrine to Annas and Caiaphas, where had the Christian Faith been now? Or who had ever heard of the Gospel? And St. Peter, whom the Pope mentions more frequently, and with greater Elogies than he doth Jesus Christ himself, confidently withstood the Sacred Council,