The Apologie, Cap. 1. Diuision, 1.
BVt here,* 1.1 I looke, they wil saie, though they haue not the Scriptures, yet it maie chaunce, they haue the Auncient Doctours, and the Holy Fathers with them. For this is a high bragge they haue euer made, howe that al Antiquitie, & a Continual Consent of al ages dooth make on their side: and that al our cases be but Newe, and yester daies woorke, and vntil these fewe late yeeres were neuer hearde of. Questionlesse, there can nothing be more spitefully spoken against the Religion of God, then to accuse it of Noueltie, as a mater lately founde out. For as there can be no chaunge in God him selfe, so ought there to be no chaunge in his Religion.
Yet neuerthelesse, we wote not by what meanes, but we haue euer seene it come so to passe, from the firste beginninge, that as often as God did geeue but somme light, & did open his Truthe vnto menne, though the Truthe were not onely of greatest Antiquitie, but also frō Euerlasting, yet of wicked menne, & of the Aduersaries it was called Newfangled, and of late diuised. That vngraceous, and bloudthirsty Haman, when he sought to procure the kinge Assuerus displeasure against the Ievves,* 1.2 this was his accusation to him: Thou hast here (saithe he) a kinde of people, that vseth certaine nevve Lavves of their ovvne, but stifnecked, and rebellious againste al thy Lavves. When Paule also began firste to preache,* 1.3 and expounde the Gospel at Athenes, he was called a tidinges bringer of Nevve Goddes: as mutche to saie, as of a Nevve Religion. For (saide the Athenians) maie wee not knowe of thee, what Nevve Doctrine this is? Celsus likewise, when he of set pourpose wrote againste Christe, to the ende he might more scornefully scoffe out the Gospel by the name of No∣ueltie, VVhat,* 1.4 saithe he, hath God after so many ages novve at laste, and so late bethought him selfe? Eusebius also writeth, that the Christian Religion from the beginning, for very spite, was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is to saie, Nevve, and Strange. After like sorte, these menne condemne al our maters, as Strange, and Nevve: but they wil haue their owne, whatsoeuer they are, to be praised, as thinges of longe continuance.
M. Hardinge.
They had saide somme what, if they had proued, that the doctrine* 1.5 of Christe had benne called nowe by them, who were the professours, and folowers of it. But nowe reportinge that the Gen∣tils, who knewe not God, as A man, as the Athenians, as Celsus the Ethnike, and suche the like, called the right and true Religion of God, newe: they saie nothing to any purpose. But let them shewe, that before the comminge of Christe, any suche Religion was allowed, that was newe: Or that sithens