out the eyes of those their Teachers for whom not many years since they would have pulled out their own But enough of this I return to Traditions which while they contend with Scripture or are made as supplements to inch out Scripture thought too short I wholly disallow Though I confess I love ingenuous freedom and I beleeve Religion is not in many things so stiffgirt as some ridgid people suggest while they portray it clubsisted ready to smite every one it meets with nay in a keenness like Peters sword strait out and off with the ear of every opponent yet do I not comply with the judgment of some who rest on a Counsel-Canon as on Gospel and make less difference between them then is almost discernable because I fear it hath somewhat of a popish smatch in it for were not the Popes infallibility and the Popes virtuall presence and authoritative influence in Counsels in part leaned to some of our Profession would be more nice in that kinde then they are I will contest in reverence and duty to holy Counsels and Synods lawfully called and convened with any he that 's most a servant to them God forbid I should depraetiate worth in any man or judge my self fit to censure and not rather to be censured but this I say Da mihi Magistrum Christum Da mihi Regulam S. Scripturam In matters of this weight I 'le to the beam of the Sanctuary no Master will I own as to imperation over my faith but Christ I like not to crave mens pardons as the Sicilian Ambassadors did Pope Martin the fourths blasphemously Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi miserere nobis While they speak according to Scripture I 'le obey them and take heed not to offend them but if they prove illuminates and eccentrically wilde that they tell me Christ is in this Enthusiasm and that new Light which neither I nor they understand nor doth Gods word clear out to me they are to me but as tinkling cymbals I neither care for their Euge's nor fear I their Anathema's Whatever then becomes of other Writings my zeal and vote shall be ever to preserve the renown of the holy Books of the old and new Testament let loose persons call them by those profane nick-names of Lesbiam regulam Evangelium nigrum Theologiam atramentariam nasum cereum and let Atheists deride them they are the Christians Magna Charta for Heaven cursed be he that violates them to profane uses they are the Christians Canaan Let profane worldlings look with bloody Gardner's eyes upon it not endure to see the Book called Verbum Dei yet the sincere Christian values it as his Canaan the milk and honey of which refresheth him against his tedious march in the wilderness of this sinful and sorrowful life accounting all other Books as Egypts garlick and onyons to its Manna and Quails This this is full of the dew of Heaven as was Gideon's Fleece when all other Writings profit nothing but are dry and sapless 't is the Iliads which every devout Alexander who by faith overcomes the world lodgeth in his noblest Cabinet his heart 'T is the Tree of life on which hangs the Fruit of the knowledge of good and evil 't is the Ark of God in which as it were is the pot of Manna and Aaron's rod comfort and correction therein are Gods staves of beauty and bonds his binding and his drawing cords yea therein the whole duty of man both to God and his neighbour is comprized Now judge O man what could God do more for his Vineyard the Church then he hath done In giving her such an Oracle for her doubts such a Light against her darkness such a Touchstone of her Purity and her rivals adulteration And what can the Church do less in return to God then by signal fidelity maintain the honor and authority of this Canon deposited with her Let that blasphemous new light M r Edwards mentions call the Scriptures the golden Calf and brazen Serpent that set at variance King and Parliament and Kingdom against Kingdom that things would never be well till the golden calf and brazen serpent were broken to pieces yet next to heaven I will venter all I have in the holy war for Scripture He that comes to surprize that Capitol shall have my life his sacrifice and my prayers his curse and let all Christian people say Amen Amen This is the first Jewel in Antiquities Crown her zeal for the reverence of the holy Scriptures Secondly The elder Church Christian was express about a Ministry and the right qualification of Ministers according to the holy Institution of our Lord Jesus the great Head Doctor and Bishop of his Church who left her not as common in which every Christian as to the publick use of gifts had alike right but separated some to instruct to exercise power of the Keys to continue succession and to minister the holy things of the Gospel by virtue of an infallible promise of his cooperation with them to the end of the world This separation has been for many hundred yeers declared by Imposition of hands which the Church calls Ordination and has Apostolique practice to warrant it In Acts 6. 6. Stephen is mentioned to be a man full of faith and of the holy Ghost yet did he not execute any Ministerial Office upon account of his gracious qualifications till he was presented to the Apostles they had prayed for him and laid their hands on him a Scripture well to be weighed by men of contrary judgement especially since backed by the general practice of the Church Catholique For if the Churches fidelity in this Gospel Tradition and Universally received Ordinance should be questioned the Canon of holy Writ and all the Doctrines and Practises of Christianity will become litigious since the Church as the pillar and ground of truth is the deliverer and declarer of them And we are not to doubt but that the holy Ghost who leads into all truth hath rightly guided the Catholique Church to this belief since all holy men of all times and Churches how different soever each from other in Rites and situation have agreed upon it and accordingly declared themselves and nothing hath ever been found against it worthy the sway of our assents in contradiction to so Oecumenical an acknowledgment And truly I much wonder any should be of contrary judgement who ought to know the validity of Antiquities consent echoing to Scripture were Scripture silent had the practice of Antiquity no footing therein I should be as unwilling to follow it as any he that is most against it For that of Reverend Calvin is most true Si in sola Antiquitate c. If Antiquity be only the Judge then prodigious heresies which brake out in Apostolique times will become Catholique faith But when the Word of God gives rise to what in this kinde Antiquity embraceth and
them enough Nor will it be usefull to tell the number of their names the times of their regency the severalties of their poysonous tenents these are at large contained in the Church-Stories elder and later My drift only is to be Antiquities Samaritan and to give Bail to that Action brought against her by ignorance which indites her of many guilts which I hope will be easily expiated for and she appear to these later times tanquam inter stellas luna minores And here with the curious Painter I must borrow colours from flints and pibbles and so work them into a compliance as that they may answer the requiries of what I intend a lovely portraiture which when the utmost Art of my pensill is evidenced will be but imperfect and complain that it hath not to its lively depiction a Saint Ierome who might raise a blush in their faces that disparadge and a confidence in their countenances that dare own it I am not ambitious to make this as he did the buckler of Minerva which he made and in which he so cunningly inserted his own name that it could not thence be taken but with injury to the sculpture of that incomparable shield no it is the least part of my thoughts to evidence any thing in this beyond an honest heart which I hope God will give me ever grace to shew towards the Church and State wherein I live and in which I hope to die a true and Christian man This only I to all the world publish that if as 't was said by the Orator of Phydias He was an excellent Artist at any Statue but chiefly about the gods mine Excellency were in any thing I would have it more exact and signall when 't is exercised about ought which concerns the Church for true is that of a great Preacher Our hands if skilful to write should be employed as Sacretaries to the Church our feet as Messengers of the Church our tongues as Advocates for the Church our wisedom and learning as Councellors for the Church our wealth as Stewards and Almoners for the Church And well fare those excellent Christians who made Church-work the labour of their lives and Church-charity their heirs at death and that upon grounds of faith and holy love not merit or hope of supererrogating by them I do not here mean to collect all those severall virtues that those glorious golden ages of the Church excelled in as their diligent reading the Scriptures and hearing the word preached their devout prayers for those in authority their loving and forgiving enemies their modesty and calmness of conversation their fidelity to their relations their ministring to the necessities of the Saints in wants and visitings of such in prison their exact continence their care lest in Habits they gave scandal their courage for the truth their serious observation of Oathes their industry in their callings and those many other excellencies in them though by degrees allayed with much frailty least I should swell my design into an unwelcome greatness my scope is to cull out such of them as most seem to rebuke those bravadoes of men in this age who with Hyper-Pharisaicall pride commend their own piety from the dishonour cast upon elder times and elder Christians who were in no instance of true devotion behind them I know there were blemishes in Antiquity the ancient Fathers tell us of many ridiculous follies in use as vanity in clothing and habit in baths in observation of the nativity of their children in being present at sports and interludes their accompanying with pertinacious Haereticks and sundry other such follies which here I defend not for their virtues I appear against those that mistake Antiquity misnaming it for a pedlars pack in which to one pure Venice glass there are wooden kanns horn cupps trifling rattles and many such ignoble trashes as if it were a Mint of forgeries the womb of Monsters and Sier of Legends terming its Religion policie its charity meritmonging its unity combination its Government a trap to catch men in who were not one with it and it s All a wilderness in which were more beasts of prey then birds of Paradise S t Jerom spake of such long since The world saith he produceth many Monsters Centaurs Syrens Owls Stymphalidae birds whose nature is to darken the Sunne rayes the Eremanthean Boar Nemaean Lyon the Chimaera and many headed Hydra and he tells us Spain produceth some of them only Gallia hath no Monsters but abounds with most eloquent and warlike men and happy had it been if Vigilantius had been Dormitantius and never been born rather then prove a scar in that face which before it produced him was lovely It was the fault of that Pern Vigilantius to turn every way and at last to break out against the inoffensive honour of Church reliques then in account and not abused to superstition as since they have shamefully been And it shall be mine endeavour with Gods blessing to bespeak due veneration of such things as are fit to be respected and retained in Gospel times and to be defended by Christian Magistrates I mean not herein to revive that Interim of Charls the fift by making a medley of differences nor will I take upon me to deal with men of all sides least that befalls me which usually trips up the heels of such endeavours all agree to oppugne and every one rests more obstinate in defending his own party Nor will I approve nay I do sadly lament the preposterous folly of those who make men hereticks and blazon them enemies to Christ for every difference almost though not in Points essentiall but circumstantiall and rituall as if they picked quarrels with their brethren out of choice The ancient Church in England did not so for Bede tells us Sese invicem venerabantur licet dissimiles caeremoniaes observarunt sic Aidam Episcopus quamvis more Scotorum Pascha celebraret tamen ab Hâ—norio Cantuariensi Felice Orientalium Anglorum Episcopis in honore est habitus Cent. 7. c. 7. p. 119. This Cachexie hath been the Churches trouble and pest too long thanks to those hot heads who cry out Curse ye Meroz against all that crow not to the same tune with them these have made more hereticks and disloyall sonnes to the Church then ever gained sober and submiss children to these that of Baro the Dalmatian to the Emperour Tyberius is applicable when having asked Why his Countrytrymen had been long and so desperate enemies to the Romans he replied Ye your selves are in fault who send to your flocks not Sheepheards and Doggs to keep them but Wolves I wish it were well weighed by some for as Albergatus that great Polititian wrote to the Cardinal Nephew to Pope Greg. 13. Sometimes the heat and precipitances of men exasperate small and composeable breaches into great and uncloseable gapps by which ill offices of simplicity if not design hoped and prayed for Peace and
Ark been taken by the Philistims the glory had been departed from the Israel of Gods Church How much prophane mirth would the sonnes of Error have made with these Songs of Zion had God given them up into their power But blessed be God the Church hath ever had ane held the Scriptures in high value though not admitted all parts of it for Canon at one and the same time sometimes they found parts of it not in good hands as they thought other parts by Hereticks were corrupted and handed to them not as they were in the autographon but with emendations to which were added many spurious and rejectitious Gospels Prophecies and Epistles fitted to answer the lying divination Satan had no foot other parts of Scripture not primariò authenticae the ancients allowed to be read sub regulâ morum but not as a rule of faith but such only as were received from Prophets and allowed by Christ Jesus his Apostles and their Scribes and Schollers and their successors hath the Church owned and adhered to and those are the Books in the Canon of our holy Mother the Church of England not that all mouthes have been stopped or all Christians agreed in the harmony no all have not beleeeved Gods testimony in the Churches report and traditional fidelity S t Jerom tells us that it was usual with hereticks to corrupt Catholick Authors the Eunomians dealt thus with Clemens the elder and Ruffinus is not behind-hand for this trick while he prefixed the Name of a holy Martyr to a book of Arrianisme and Evagrius charges them of entitling their hereticall books with the Names of Holy Orthodox men such as Athanasius Gregorius Thaumaturgus and Julius in brief Theodoret is round with them telling us they cared not what Law they broke what boldness and freedom they took for maintenance of their wickedness nay oftentimes they made it the master-piece of their blasphemy to violate the holy Law of God As men in groves cut this stick and that wand they like and leave the rest so pick erroneous men this book and that passage here and there and leave the rest as useless Whatever is contrary to their device and casts dirt in their face they reject and disown their darkness and the light of Scripture agrees not Light is au ill guest to an ill conscience and because Scripture troubles their Owle eyes and dismantles their impostry they cannot away with it Tertullian perstringes the Valentinians for their clucking into corners and their sculking up and down and sayes Our Doves-coat hath no guile is open and visible to all comers who have liberty to see and hear what we do And 't is a Note unimprobated that patrons and professors of error and none but such have ever dishonoured Scripture or questioned its authority nor have ever any who had a grounded hope of Heaven by Gods mercy held themselves above Ordinances as the means of attaining it nor have they ever pick'd and choos'd cull'd and refus'd this and not that Ordinance but had respect to all Gods commands and equally adored all his dispensations Charge an holy soul with queaziness in this kind object to it that it loves not to be limited and enlarged by the word not to humble it self to God in prayer not to obey Authority for the Lord and for conscience sake and it answers in Hazael's word Am I a dog that I should do this No this spot is not the spot of Gods people 't would be a sully which mountains of niter could not cleanse 'T is true indeed in the interpretation of this or that particular Scripture there hath been yet is and ever will be to the end of the world different opinions and many passions have lathered so high that charity hath often layen in the suds as is the Proverb even amongst men otherwayes without exception as between S t Augustine and S t Jerom in the Exposition on the second Chap. of the Galatians yea and in many things and under many temptations some of you have lived and spoken somewhat against the majesty and authority of the holy Scripture as Origen by Name who therefore confessed his errors and publikely retracted them as appears in his Epistle to Fabian and as S t Jerom testifies in his Epistle to Pammachius and Oceanus And therefore Legends Canons and Traditions brought into some Churches as grounds of belief and made obligatory to the conscience as onely the holy Scriptures ought to be held are but of late date in the Christian Church for S t Jerom or Epiphanius in him writes thus to Theophilus That thou mindest us of Church-Canons we thank thee but know this that nothing is so antique as the Laws and rights of Christ And Father Marinarus in the Counsel of Trent denied that the Fathers made Traditions to stand in competition with Scripture but good man he was born down with the many voices that decried his sound assertion as that which better beseemed a Colloquie in Germany then a Counsel of the universal Church but what he said was nevertheless true because disliked by those vipers for as they then so their predecessors long before cried up Traditions and perhaps they had it from the Jews or rather from the devil the author of it both in Jews and others Our Lord Jesus arraigns the Jews for making void the Commandements of God by mens traditions and transgressing the Commandements of God by traditions yea of rejecting the Commandements of God to fulfill them and the Apostle S t Paul reproves this and cautions against it Beware saith he least any man spoyl you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ Where the Apostle doth not simply dehort from traditions in affirmance of Scripture or civil custom but from such use of traditions as tends to the eclipse of the testimony of truth in the word written which is transcendently above the witness of man and therefore I cry out to all those New-lights as S t Jerom did Spare your pains hug not the cloud of your conceits instead of the Juno truth Why do you bring that to sale which the primitive Church for four hundred years never heard of Why take you upon your shoulders that task which Peter and Paul never taught nor were they now alive would own untill this day the Christian world hath been without this Doctrine and I in mine old age will profess that faith in which I was born and into which baptized Would S t Jerom have been stanch had he lived to these times wherein old and sound Religion is like wormeaten lumber cast into the outhouses or like unfashionable furniture turned out of the chambers of note to adorn the Nursery or the Chaplains lodgings I trow he would and had he he must have reproached many professors who now would pull
forth 122 blowings and amongst Roses gilly-flowers and Pionies incredible varieties So out of the glorious and pure Doctrines of Faith which the Apostles and their Followers comprised in repent and believe there is put forth such an ocean of points of Religion and all of them pressed on the people to be believed that it is hard to finde truth in the crowd of contests about her and easie to mistake as Mary did the gardiner for Christ error for truth both pretending their Jus divinum's their authoritative confidences as their just Titles to mens beliefs and blaming men as restive and sottish if they resigne not themselves to a sensless and universal credulity In the mean time things of greater concernment are neglected and the things God slubbered over and made to run counter one to another disuse of Church-Government hath made every man a Micah an appointer to himself of whatsoever likes him best and a neglecter of those services that the Christian Church thorow out the world imbraced there are many that make preaching like the lean Kine in Pharaoh's dream to eat up all other Church-Ordinances though never so beauteous and well-favoured publick Prayers and publick Confessions of Faith even that which our Lord Jesus taught us in the Gospel as the Form of Prayer of his own dictation hardly passes current no nor is that Creed which bears the name of the Apostles Creed which this Church hath ever received and her Martyrs in Queen Mary's days by name Bishop Farrar Hooper the Bishops of Worcester and Glocester Taylor Philpot Bradford Cromt Rogers Saunders Lawrence Coverdale owned as that they believed generally and particularly censuring those to erre from the truth who do otherwise and judicious Calvin says was the form of Confession which all Christians had in common amongst them as writ from the mouths of the Apostles or faithfully collected out of their Writings This Creed I say many think unfit to be rehearsed in Congregations and some are suspected to villifie it yea the Sacraments of Christ are almost obsoleted amongst us in some Parishes neither Sacrament in others but one and if that so restrained to particular persons that there seems to be a tacite reproach laid on those who are not of the number of Communicants who therefore become enemies to Ministers and their Messages because they are in a kinde cut off from the Congregation I confess it is fit that holy things should be given to holy men and it were to be wished all the Congregation were holy but if perfection be reserved for hereafter Ministers must bear with the imperfections of their people as well as people with the over-rigidness of their Ministers If people be not scandalous the Church never denied them the benefit of Sacraments and if Ministers be not over-scrupulous they will not begrudg men their Saviours allowance In my opinion it seems but reasonable that people should give a sober free account of their faith to their lawfull Pastor in a loving and unimperious way desiring it of them but then Churchmen should be advised what is competent knowledge in a Christian and propose such questions to them as argue not a design rather to blunder them then satisfie themselves of their understanding Ministers are fathers and must bear with the infirmities of their flocks They must not be brambles rending and tearing the people committed to their charge but fig-trees vines and olive-trees yeelding them fatness sweetness and fruitfulness To such as these I am perswaded no sober Christian dare deny an account of his faith For if the Apostles charge be to be always ready to give answer to every man that askoth you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear then much more to the Embassadors of Christ his Ministers His Ministers I say by Church Mission and Canonique Authority not presumers who come unsent for as the Civilians well observe Non sunt successores in officio qui ad officium accedunt alio modo quam institutum est to such Ministers as are truly called no man ought to deny a declaration of his faith as competently he is able And with such discoveries I think Ministers ought to rest satisfied and the ignorance of their Parishioners to pity pray for and by their best instruction to amend And those Ministers whom a Parishioners sober account and inoffensive conversation will not convince to admit as worthy to communicate may be feared to have somewhat more in their design then the glory of God and the good of souls and if they will not give testimony of their candor while they live their death-beds will tell tales to the world little to their credit or comfort Learned D r Reynolds reports that Luther when he lay upon his death-bed acknowledged to Melancthon In negotio coenae nimium esse factum yet saith the learned Sir Simon D'ewes taking counsel rather of men theu Gods Word for fear lest if he retracted them the people would suspect the rest and so return to Popery he accounted it best to declare his judgement in private Thus he Well fare the ancient Fathers who valued truth above credit yea conscience above life Ruffinus tells us that S t Clement in his Apostolique Epistle counsels all his fellow Christians rather to forsake him then to part with the peace of the Church and to incur the danger of division And S t Aug. tells us That in his time by the turbulencies of some in the Church many Orthodox and excellent Bishops and Presbyters were cast out of the Church and separated from their charges yet they bore the disgrace and persecution patiently never making Schism or starting up heresie to annoy Christianity therby Docebunt homines quam vero affectu quanta sinceritate charitatis Deo serviendum sit hos coronat in occulto pater in secreto videns Rarum hoc videtur genus sed tamen exempla non desunt immo plura sunt quam credi potest These mens demeanours quoth he teach the world What the power of grace and sincerity is in the soul and how God is to be waited upon even while he hides his face from the seed of Jacob. But though these quoth the Father be rare examples of self-deniall yet such presidents there are and those more then can be almost believed For as the same Father proceeds true Religion is neither to be found in the confusions of Pagans nor in the purgings of hereticks nor in the feebleness of schismaticks nor in the blindness of Jews but amongst those who are Orthodox and Catholick Christians And therefore the differences in this Church upon these small grounds that appear to us were in no sort worth owning by sober men especially to the degrees they are ascended to but rather are to be deplored with tears of blood for those that have true Christian charity would sooner part with much of their own