106 ANIMADVERSrONS ON A TREATISE
up to a cursed, blasphemous supposition of ravishing the blessed Virgin; so cocksure he made of the forgiveness of any thing beneath it, provided the price were paid that was set upon the pardon. Sober men beinfT much amazed and grieved at these honible impieties, one ]\Iartin Luther, a professor of divinity at Wittenberg, an honest, ■warm, zealous soul, set himself to oppose the friar s blasphemies ; •wherein his zeal was commended by all, his discretion by few, it be- ino- the joint opinion of most that the pope would quickly have stopped his mouth by breaking his neck. But God, as it afterward appeared, had another work to bring about, and the time of entering upon it was now fully come. At the same time that Luther set him- self to oppose the pardons in Germany, Zuinglius did the same in Switzerland. And both of them taking occasion, from the work they first engaged in, to search the Scriptures, so to find out the truth of religion, which they discovered to be hoiTibly abused by the pope and his agents, proceeded farther in their discovery than at first they were aware of Many nations, princes, and people, multitudes of learned and pious men, up and down the world, that had long groaned un- der the bondage of the papal yoke, and grieved for the horrible abuse of the worship of God which they were forced to see and endure, hearing that God had stirred up some learned men seriously to oppose those corruptions in religion which they saw and mourned under, speedily either countenanced them or joined themselves with them. It fell out, indeed, as it was morally impossible it should be other- wise, that multitudes of learned men, undertaking, without advising or consulting one with another, in several far distant nations, the dis- covery of the papal errors and the reformation of religion, some of them had different apprehensions and persuasions in and about some points of doctrine and parts of worship, of no great weight and im- portance. And he that shall seriously consider what was the state of things when they began their work, who they were, how educated, what prejudices they had to wrestle with, and remember withal that they were all men, will have ten thousand times more cause to admire at their agreement in all fundamentals than at their difference about some lesser things. However, whatever were their personal failings and infirmities, God was pleased to give testimony to the uprightness and integrity of their hearts; and to bless their endeavours with such success as answered, in some measure, the primitive work of planting and propagating the gospel. The small sallies of our author upon them, in some legends about what Luther should say or do, de- serve not the least notice from men who will seriously contemplate the hand, powei', and wisdom of God in the work accomplished by them.
The next thing undertaken by our author is the ingress of Protest-
ENTITLED FIAT LUX. 107
aiicy into England, and its progTess there. The old story of the love of King Henry the Eighth to Anne Bullen, with the divorce of Queen Katharine, told over and over long ago by men of the same principle and design with himself, is that which he chooseth to flourish withal. I shall say no more to the story, but that Englishmen were not wont to believe the whispers of an unknown friar or two, before the open redoubled protestation of one of the most famous kings that ever swayed the sceptre of this land, before the union of the crowns of England and Scotland. These men, whatever they pretend, show what reverence they have to our present sovereign, by their unworthy defamation of his royal predecessors. But let men suppose the worst they please of that great heroic person, what are his mis- carriages unto Protestant religion ? for neither was he the head, leader, or author of that religion, nor did he ever receive it, profess it, or embrace it; but caused men to be burned to death for its profession. Should I, by way of retaliation, return unto our author the lives and practices of some, of many, not of the great or leading men of his church, but of the popes themselves, the head, sum, aiid, in a manner, whole of their religion, at least so far that without him they will not acknowledge any, he knows well enough what double measure, "shaken together, pressed down, and running over," may be returned unto him. A work this would be, I confess, no way pleasing unto myself; for Avho can delight in raking into such a sink of filth as the lives of many of them have been ? Yet, because he seems to talk with a confidence of willingness to revive the memory of such ulcers of Christianity, if he proceed in the course he hath begun, it will be necessary to mind him of not boxing up his eyes when he looks towards his own home. That poisonings, adulteries, hicests, conjura- tions, perjuries, atheism, have been no strangers to that see, if he knows not, he shall be acquainted from stories that he hath no colour to except against. For the present, I shall only mind him and his friends of the comedian's advice : —