The defense of the aunsvvere to the Admonition against the replie of T.C. By Iohn VVhitgift Doctor of Diuinitie. In the beginning are added these. 4. tables. 1 Of dangerous doctrines in the replie. 2 Of falsifications and vntruthes. 3 Of matters handled at large. 4 A table generall.

T. C. Pag. 38. Sect. 1.

Indeede if you put such darke colours vpon the Apostles Church as this is, it is no maruell if it ought not to be a patrone to vs of framing and fashioning our Church after it. But O Lorde who can paciently heare this horrible disorder, ascribed to the Apostles Church, whiche heere you attribute vnto it, that euery one hand ouer head preached, baptised, and expounded the scriptures, what a window, nay, what a gate is opened heere to(a) 1.1 Anabaptists, to confirme their fantasticall opinion, wherein they hold that euery man whome the spirite moueth may come, euen from the plough tayle, to the pulpit, to preach the word of God. If you say it is Ambrose saying & not yours, I answer, vnlesse you allow it why bring you it, and that to proue the difference betweene the A∣postles times and these? For if it be false (as it is most false) then there is no difference heere be∣tweene the Apostles times and ours. Doth not the whole course of the scriptures declare, and hath it not bin proued, that there was none that tooke vpon him the ministerie in the church, but by law∣full calling? what is this but to cast dust and dirt of the fairest and beautifullest image that euer was, to make a smokie, disfigured, euill proportioned image to seeme beautifull, to ouerthrow the A∣postles buildings of golde and siluer, and precious stones, to make a cotage of wood, strawe, and stubble, to haue some estimation, which could haue none the other standing. For in effect so you do, when to vphold a corrupt vse that came in by the tyrannie of the Pope, you go about to discredite the orders and institutions whiche were vsed in the Apostles times, and that with suche manifest vntruthes.

Io. Whitgifte.

This is a very slender answer to Ambrose, whose authoritie both for his excellent* 1.2 learning, and vertue, and also for his antiquitie, is not to be so contemptuously reiec∣ted. The selfesame word and to the same effect doth Georgius maior in his commen∣taries vpon the first to the Philip. recite out of one Rabanus Byshop of Moguntia, who also borowed them as it should séeme, of Ambrose. Maior alloweth well of them, and maketh no suche exclamations as you do, and yet a man knowne to be learned, and sound in religion, as his works declare. Likewise the authors of the Centuries. 4. Cent. cap. 7. alledge this same place of Ambrose, and allow of it: and therefore the mat∣ter is not so heynous as you make it.* 1.3

The Anabaptists glory of the same calling that you nowe contend for, as it appea∣reth in the. 3. booke of M. Bullinger aduer. Anabap. cap. 4. whose words be these, suam verò

vocationem &c. They affirme that their calling is iust, bycause they be called and sent of their* 1.4 Churches: but our vocation to be vnlawful, which is made of the magistrate, and therefore, that they are sent of God, but we of the world and of men. You know that this was one of the first things that the rusti〈1 line〉〈1 line〉all Anabaptists moued sedition for, and that they requi∣red it of the magistrates, as Sleydan declareth li. 5. ex his postulatis, saith he, primū erat, vt* 1.5 ipsis liceret ecclesiae ministros eligere, qui verbum dei purè doceant: Of those requests, the firste was, that they might choose ministers of the Church, which might teach the worde of God purely. You sée therefore that the Anabaptists many of them, require a vocation, and one not much vnlike that which you striue for in this place, and at this time. When Ambrose saith that it was permitted to euery man to preach the Gospell. &c. he dothe not say that it was permitted vnto them withoute some kinde of calling: if you will vewe the place well, and consider it at large, as it is in Ambrose, your heate will be something quenched I doubt not.

It is no derogation at all from the Apostolicall Church, to haue the orders of it in diuers points altered: for though suche were most conueniente then for that state, time, and persons, yet are they not so now in respect of this state, time, and persons, so that the forme of the Apostolicall Churches was then perfyte, and absolute, though now it admitte (in the respect of diuers circumstances) alteration.

Notes

• (a) 1.1

  The Anabap¦tists glory of the same calling that you c〈…〉〈…〉 for.
• * 1.2

  Ambrose vn∣worthyly r〈…〉〈…〉¦ted. by T. C.
• * 1.3

  Anabaptistes pretende a kind of calling by the ••eople.
• * 1.4

  〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.5

  〈◊〉〈◊〉.