Protestant Revolt in Switzerland a?id England 125 us to confess it to be schismatical, which moveth war against the Church, or that the true Church hath lain dead through the many ages in which no such thing hath been heard of. Last of all, they say that they need no arguments, for (say they) it may be judged by its fruits of what sort it is, which, namely, hath bred so big a heap of sects, so many turmoils of sedition, so great licentiousness of vices. Truly, full easy it is for them to triumph over a forsaken cause among the credulous and ignorant multitude, but if we might also have our turn to speak, verily this sharp haste would soon be cooled wherewith they do, licentiously and with full mouth, foam against us. First, whereas they call it new, they do great wrong to God, whose holy word deserves not to be accused of new- ness. To them indeed I nothing doubt that it is new, to whom Christ is new, and his gospel is new. But they that know the preaching of Paul to be old, and that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification, shall find nothing new among us. Secondly, that it hath long lain hidden, unknown, and buried, — that is the fault of the ungodliness of men. Sith it is by the bountifulness of God restored to us, it ought at least, by right of full restitution, to receive the title of ancienty. They may mock at the uncertainty of our teachings, but if they were driven to seal their own doctrine with their own blood and with the loss of their lives, men might see how much they set by it. Far other is our faith, which dreadeth neither the terrors of death nor yet the very judgment seat of God. . . . As for the dilemma into which they would drive us, to compel us to confess that either the Church hath lain dead a certain time, or that we have controversy against the real Church : truly the Church of Christ hath lived and shall live so long as Christ shall reign at the right hand of the Father. . . . But they err not a little from the truth when they acknowledge no church but that which they see with the present eye, and when they affirm that the form of the Church is always to be seen ; for they set the true form of the Protestants do not assert that the true Church ceased to exist during the Middle Ages.
