Проповеди и лекции

r appealing to a higher authority, or deriring Trom ahigherantiqnicy: the council of Trent, in the end ^H of the sixtt^i^iutU century, finit dared to canoruze ^^^ the Apocrypha, which wc have dared with gree^ ness CO circulate, did also canonise all abuses which hcrci<>for<^ had afl:ainKt them the testimony of the great and good in all q^cs, and make it im- perative upon every enUghtened I'apist to serer from bis church, wherein he had no longer any room to breathe hi^ Pr^^e convictions, save in the dungeons of the inquisition, or upon the rack, or in the flames. For I am not ashamed, dearly beloxtd bretbrco, to confef^a and avow, with Luther and other holy servants of the Lord^lliat I have been muchholpeo in ClAistiatt doctrine by the divines of the church of Rome, in every age from the lime of Augustine downwards, amongst whom, no less than amongit ^^ IheCuldees.and the Waldonscs, and the Albigensea^ ^^ and the Lollards, and the Picard% am) the Thabo- n riles, you arc to look tor the raithful ami true wit- Qcnesof the Lord Jesus. When 1 contcmplalc thi^ lai^tygiant^which c^auic forth from Uie Papacy at t!ieReromku(ion»&rulcomparelliemwiibthedi^urt« which have come forth from the Protestant church in ihe revival of the last haif cenlurv, I am free to confess, aiKi ovow morcoTcr, that I believe the soil of the Papacy in l^titherV time was of a fttniD^T iund l>ett«;r mold, iiltor to bcrar forcat treefi atid cedars of God, than the soil of the Protenlant cliurch in the time of Romaine and We>icy, which, though fiowQ with Ihe same word and impreg- nated by the ttame quickening Spirit, hath brought forth not one iorc&t tree or cedar of God, but stunted under- growths and creepini; bniikhwuod, hardly worUiy of iiiort; honour than to sweep the courts ofihe house of the Lord. Whence it iJi^ mani- fest to my mind, believing as I do that the word is tbc 6&mc indestructible seed, and the Spirit the same mighty quickenen that the faith of the Pro- testant church in Britain had come to a lower tbb, and is even now at a lower ebb tlian was the faith of the Papal church when the Spirit of the Lord wag able to quicken in it, and draw forth of it, such men as Luther, and Mclancthon. and Bul< linger, and Calvin, and Latimer, and Itidley, and KnojCt and a thousand others whom I might iiariiL\ every one a host in comparison with >^uch uk we. Which arose from the p^reamesa of iheir faith ; for Yorily I never will admit that tt depends upon times and circumstances to produce great men and great Christians, as if any thing ii»