stroyed the Lord's vineyard? How
if Christ say that the same persons, who chiefly ought to have care over
the temple, have made of the Lord's temple a den of thieves? If it be so
that the Church of Rome cannot err, it must needs follow, that the good
luck thereof is far greater than all these men's policy. For such is
their life, their doctrine, and their diligence, that for all them the
Church may not only err, but also utterly be spoiled and perish. No
doubt, if that church may err which hath departed from God's words, from
Christ's commandments, from the Apostles' ordinances, from the primitive
Church's examples, from the old fathers' and councils' orders, and from
their own decrees, and which will be bound within the compass of none,
neither old nor new, nor their own nor other folks', nor man's law nor
God's law, then it is out of all question that the Romish Church hath not
only had power to err, but also that it hath shamefully and most wickedly
erred in very deed.

But, say they, "ye have been of our fellowship, but now ye are become
forsakers of your profession, and have departed from us." It is true; we
have departed from them, and for so doing we both give thanks to Almighty
God, and greatly rejoice on our own behalf. But yet for all this, from
the primitive Church, from the Apostles, and from Christ we have not
departed. True it is, we were brought up with these men in darkness, and
in the lack of the knowledge of God, as Moses was taught up in the
learning and in the bosom of the Egyptians. "We have been of your
company," saith Tertullian, "I confess it, and no marvel at all; for,"
saith he, "men be made and not born Christians." But wherefore, I pray
you, have they themselves, the citizens and dwellers of Rome, removed and
come down from those seven hills, whereupon Rome sometime stood, to dwell
rather in the plain called Mars' field? they will say, peradventure,
because the conduits of water, wherewithout men cannot commodiously live,
have now failed and are dried up in those hills. Well, then, let them
give us like leave in seeking the water of eternal life, that they give
themselves in seeking the water of the well. For the water, verily,
failed amongst them. "The elders of the Jews," saith Jeremy, "sent their
little ones to the waterings; and they finding no water, being in a
miserable case, and utterly marred for thirst, brought home again their
vessels empty." "The needy and poor folk," s