Will is you should do and with all your endeavour apply your selves to follow the same First you must have an assured Faith in God and give your selves wholy unto him Love him in Prosperity and Adversity and dread to offend him evermore Then for his Sake Love all Men Friends and Foes because they be his Creation and Image and Redeemed as you are Cast in your Minds how you may do good unto all Men unto your Powers and hurt no Man Obey all your Superiours and Governours Serve your Masters Faithfully and Diligently as well in their absence as in their presence not for dread of Punishment only but for Conscience Sake knowing that you are bound so to do by Gods Commandments Disobey not your Fathers and Mothers but honour them help them and please them to your Power Oppress not Kill not Beat not neither Slander nor Hate any Man but Love all Men speak well of all Men help and Succour every Man as you may yea even your Enemies that hate you that speak Evil of you and that do hurt you Take no Mans Goods nor Covet your Neighbours Goods wrongfully but content your selves with that which ye get truly and also bestow your own Goods Charitably as Need and Case requireth Fly all Idolatry Witchcraft and Perjury Commit no Adultery Fornication or other Unchastness in Will nor Deed And Travelling continually during this Life thus in keeping the Commandments of God wherein standeth the Right Trade and Pathway unto Heaven you shall not fail as Christ hath promised to come to that Blessed and Everlasting Life where you shall Live in Glory and Joy with God for ever 'T is as impossible as any thing can be that they who do these things and continue in them to the end of their Lives should miss of Eternal Glory and Happiness To say that such a Faith such Obedience such a Life as our Church propounds and Teacheth persisted in till they pass out of this World cannot through the Merits of Christ Save Men is to Damn the Blessed Apostles and all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs who if they went to Heaven at all went thither by believing and Living according to the Scriptures and call upon us to follow their Faith their pure or unspotted Lives considering the end of their Conversation the Glories in which they shine in the Blessed mansions above This is the Rock upon which we of the Church of England Build our hopes of a Crown of Glory this is a Guide that cannot deceive but will lead us safely to the Blessed place we aspire after they that walk by this Rule the Rule of the Holy Scripture are in a sure way to Salvation and if they persevere cannot miss of it But if we remove our Thoughts now to the Church of Rome it will be Evident that there is at most but a Possibility of Salvation in the Communion of it because of its disagreement with and repugnancy to the Holy Scriptures So far is this Church from doing them the Right and the Honour as to confess that they comprehend all things necessary to Salvation that it affirms the contrary that they do it not without the help of Traditions which they of that Communion receive and Honour with an equal Devotion and Reverence So saith the Council of Trent expresly Sacrosancta oecumenica generalis Tridentina Synodus in spiritu sancto Session the 4th page 19 Legitimè congregata c. This Holy Oecumenical and general Council of Trent being Lawfully called together in the Holy Ghost having this ever before their Eyes that all Errours being destroyed or taken away the very purity of the Gospel might be preserved in the Church which being promised before by the Prophets in the Holy Scriptures our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God with his own Mouth first publish'd and afterwards Commanded it to be Preach'd to every Creature by his Apostles as the Fountain of all saving Truth and Discipline or Instruction of manners and knowing this Discipline and Truth to be contained in the written Books and in Traditions not written which being received by the Apostles from Christs own Mouth or by the Apostles themselves the Holy Ghost prompting them to it as it were handed down are come to us This Council following the Examples of the Orthodox Fathers doth with equal Devotion and Reverence receive and honour all the Books of the Old and New Testament because the same God is the Authour of them both and the Traditions themselves belonging both to Faith and Manners as deliver'd by Christ by word of mouth or dictated by the Holy Spirit and kept by continual Succession in the Catholick Church So that their Rule of Faith consists of two distinct parts the Scriptures and Traditions the word of God written and the word of God not written but transmitted by word of Mouth from Age to Age from Generation to Genertion Now though it be certain that the word of God be equally true and equally obligatory to all Persons whether it be written or not written which way soever it be propounded or convey'd to them yet how shall it appear or be proved that what they call the Unwritten word of God is really so not a wicked cheat imposture They say it is his word we say it is not the Primitive Church saith nothing at all of it but asserts and maintains the sufficiency or fullness of the Scriptures or written word of God that is that it contains all things necessary to be believed and done to the obtaining Eternal Life and Happiness as is fully proved by many Protestant Writers And when the Ancient and Orthodox Fathers speak of Traditions and call upon any to observe and obey them they either mean by those Traditions the Doctrine of Christ deliver'd to the Christian Church in the Writings of the Apostles or the Ordinances made either by the Apostles themselves or the Bishops that succeeded them in their Apostolical Office for the decent and orderly performance of Gods Worship The first is indeed the Word of God but then it is his written word the other are not the word of God at all but humane Constitutions and no farther Obligatory than they are agreeable to the General Rules the Scriptures give for Conducting the Circumstances of Religion the Church having Power as Ours truly affirms to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority Article the 20. in Controversies of Faith though it be not Lawful for the Church to Ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word written This is all the Ancient Fathers mean by Traditions when they speak of or require the Observation of them but they make no such Distinction as this of the written and unwritten word of God neither do they say that the first is imperfect or doth not sufficiently instruct Mankind to Salvation unless it be supply'd with the other This is a Blasphemy which the Apostate Church only is guilty of but was never heard of in the
is to dread and fly from damnation one way and to run into it another But that their hatred of it is most just appears from the causes of it which are the Errours and Corruptions of the Romish Church in Doctrine and Worship and the intolerable Rapines Exactions and Cruelties of it The Errours and Corruptions of its Doctrine and Worship our People know very well that the Church of Rome locks up the Holy Scriptures which contain that most precious Treasure the words of eternal life in a forreign language which they do not understand and casts the greatest contempt upon them by denying their sufficiency and perfection by inlarging the Faith which they propound by setting up such a way of worship as they forbid and say God abhors and against which they denounce the most dreadful curses and horrible punishments by giving Men Dispensations to do what they condemn and to omit what they require These and their other Errours are such an heap of dirt and rubbish as hath made not only our People but other Nations hate so foul a Church which being often reproved and chidden for it will not reform or cast it out of doors but retains or keeps it as tenaciously as if it were an heap of Silver or pure Gold Our People have no mind to worship Images to creep to a Crucifix to pray to Saints that can neither hear nor help them to kiss and fall down to their mouldy Reliques nor to adore a consecrated Wafer but would fain that they may please God and save their Souls keep themselves from Idols believe and live and worship their Creator as he commands them in the Holy Scriptures and therefore they abominate the Church of Rome because it would not allow them if they were Members of it so to do but would force them to make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience and that which is the result of these Eternal Happiness and Salvation The other things that disgust our People and render them such implacable enemies to the Romish Church are its intolerable Rapines Exactions and Cruelties Our People are not ignorant nor is it possible they should so long as we have so many Records and Histories relating them what spoil and havock the Romish Clergy made of the Estates of their Forefathers cheated them of their Money by selling them Pardons and Indulgences by telling them they might be redeemed if not from Hell yet from Purgatory a Prison of the Popes making and in a manner as disconsolate and uneasy for the time the poor captives stay there as Hell it self if they were to be believed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold How they exhausted the Treasure drain'd away the wealth of the Nation by Peter Pence and First-fruits and Tenths and Fees for Dispensations and investing Bishops and Appeals and I know not how many other ways so that the Kingdom groan'd under their insatiable avarice and beg'd of God and his Anointed to ease them of such an intolerable burthen and oppression not to suffer our Silver Thames as it is called to be the unhappy Channel to carry out the English Treasure and cast it upon the banks of Tyber to support the pride and grandeur of a Forraign Patriarch And indeed the Flux was so violent that if it had not been stop'd in time it would have destroy'd the Body Politick have let out the Bloud and Spirits of the Nation discouraged their industry and thereby beggar'd the People for seeing their land devoured by Strangers and Forreigners reap the fruit of their labours being forced to send great sums abroad and haunted continually with lazy Monks and begging Friars at home the miserable People had no encouragement to imploy their time and labour to get Wealth for such Caterpillers to Devour And if Popery produce such oppressions lay such grievous or heavy burthens upon them 't is no wonder that the People are no fonder of it and being by our Laws freed from such ravening Wolves as the Romish Clergy were when they had the Rule or Authority here have no mind they should return any more lest their long and forced abstinence render them more hungry then formerly and whet their appetites so that a moderate morsel or revenue cannot satisfie them But Mony is not the only thing they thirst after for they delight in Bloud and Cruelty think they do God good service and offer him the most acceptable Sacrifice when they kill those they falsly call Hereticks and root them out of the Land of the Living Men of such a fiery or burning Zeal that when they have Power in any measure equal to it they make Living Bonefires or Burnt Offerings of all that dissent from them and will not truckle to their Superstition Their horrid Massacres in France their savage Executions by Duke Alva and others in the Low Countries their Inhumane Butchering and cutting Peoples Throats in Ireland their Gunpowder Plots their Racks and Inquisitions the Fires they make for the Living and their Damning the dead Saints or Christians as far as the Popes Anathema's or Curses can do it to the everlasting Flames of Hell are sufficient Instances and Monuments of their bitter Zeal and barbarous Cruelty These have enlightened and convinced a great part of the Christian World that they are not of Christ have none of his good Spirit in them who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Their Law against Hereticks as the Learned 1 Epist ad Wading Jesu Ant. Chap. 8 Pag. 126. Episcopis observes is so Cruel Bloudy and Nesarious so contrary to the mild and merciful Genius of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that Royal Law of Charity which he would have extended to our very Enemies that I doubt not to affirm that cannot be the Holy Church as they call and would have it believed to be in which so barbarous a Law so cruel a Discipline so inconsistent with right reason and common humanity is in force and practice These things have created in our People a mighty aversion to and hatred of Popery and if their hatred kept within its due bounds and shewed it self in just and lawful ways they would deserve great honour and commendation for it but to be so inflamed at every discovery of any Popish Plots or Designs or by the impious frauds and artifices of the Seditious who are always spreading false rumours of Popery to do mischief as to cast off the Loyalty Justice and Honesty which our Lord requires of all that profess his Religion this instead of haters of Popery proves them to be the Enemies of Christ and equal Criminals with the worst of Papists for every wise and good man therefore hates Popery because it prompts the Zealots for it to do such evil and wicked things as are destructive of Salvation but if Zeal against Popery put men upon any sinful and therefore damnable Practices these are certainly as bad if not worse then those and both of them
and increase their party to gain every Day new and numerous Converts and Prosselites the ignorant People being exceeding fond of and greatly delighted with their impudent and Enthusiastical way of Praying and Preaching and when the Terrour of the Laws doth not restrain run after them with as much an eagerness as they do the most pleasing pastimes and entertainments till they grow strong enough to overmaster and depose the Prince and therefore they that advise him to grant them Toleration do neither better nor worse then perswade him to be Felo de se to Ruin and Destroy himself But the Mischiefs and Dangers of Toleration are so fully proved by the excellent Author of the late Eccesiastical Dr. parker Polity that I need say no more against it but only desire all that Love the King and have any Authority under him and wish the Peace and Prosperity of the Nation to Read that Learned Eloquent and most Rational Discourse which will convince them if Reason can do it that the Government cannot stand if these People be Tolerated As for those kind and good humour'd Gentlemen that propose Terms of Accomodation and would Unite or bring them to us by removing some of those things which they dislike in our Church This I must tell them is rash and erring Charity for they do not consider the surly peevish and insolent temper of the Dissenters nor mind what their Designs and Perswasions are For is it probable they who believe their Discipline to be the Scepter of Jesus Christ and say all the Kings and Rulers of the Earth must and ought to Obey and Submit to it and if they do not are the Enemies of the Lord Jesus and will not let him Rule over them And that their way of Worship only is agreeable to the Purity and simplicity of the Gospel and are so stiff and peremptory in the belief of these things that no Arguments not all the Reason in the World can perswade them from it Is it probable I may say possible that Men who believe these things with such immovable Resolution will ever be gain'd to our Church which explodes and condemns them as impudent Errours and Lying Pretences by removing a Ceremony Abolishing suppose the use of the Sign of the Cross after Baptism kneeling at the receiving of the Lords Supper the Surplice or any other harmless Rite which the Grandees of the separation are convinc'd to be Innocent things No no this will not do the work they are for a through Reformation the Common Prayer is an Idol an Abominable Idol The Order of Bishops not only a Superfluous or needless thing not only an unprofitable burthen of the Earth but Antichristian and an unlawful Government in the Church which they have solemnly Covenanted or Sworn to Abolish and extirpate and will the shaking off a few Leaves casting away two or three harmless Ceremonies either satisfie or divert them that have laid the Axe to the Root of the Tree because they think it Cumbers the Ground They have the same thoughts of our Church Government as that Famous Scotch Presbyter Mr. Andrew Melvill had of theirs who affirmed That Arch Bishop Spots His Church of Scotland pa. 275. the Corruptions crept into the State of Bishops were so great that unless the same were removed it could not go well with the Church nor could Religion be long preserved in Purity And therefore amongst other things which the Presbyters of that Nation proposed to the Bishops for Reforming the Corruptions of their Order they urged according to their wonted Modesty That the Bishops should be content to be Pastors or Ministers of a Idem pa 303. Flock that is of one particular Congregation and that they should not Empire over Presbyters but be Subject to the same Very good this is it they would have either no Bishops for to confine them to one Congregation is to make them not Bishops but Parish Priests or if any such as will truckle be Subjects and Underlings to them A Blessed Reformation indeed to make the Fathers Submit or be Subject to their Sons them that stand in the Place of St. Paul and possess the degree of St. Peter are that is the undoubted Successors of the Apostles do homage to them that succeed the Seventy Disciples Which is to invert or turn the Ordinance of our Lord upside down You are deceiv'd ye Charitable Souls that think to bring the Dissenters into the Church by casting the Ceremonies they except against out of it 't is not that but the Preheminence and Superiority they contend for they would be uppermost Rule all both in Church and State this is the point they would gain for this they whine and wrangle stir up strife and Sedition Plot Treason from Age to Age from Generation to Generation for this they make Schisms and set up new Churches and scare the People from the Old by declaiming against the Ceremonies and crying cut of Popish Prayers Vestments Rites and Bishops and bawling upon every Occasion as if they would tear their Throats Popery Popery 'T is not Conscience but Interest that puts them upon these extravagant courses they are not so silly I mean the leading Men amongst them as to believe it a Sin to Communicate with our Church in all the parts of its Worship though they are such Knaves as to tell the People so that they may draw them from it and having got a party strong enough destroy the Church and with it the Monarchy that they may Reign as Kings and injoy their so much courted Empire and Soveraignity Wipe off the Paint and Varnish the Colours and pretences with which they endeavour to cover and conceal it till a fit Opportunity and every Eye that is willing to see may discern this to be the great Design they are Ingaged in Another Expedient I find tender'd by a Charitable hand for reducing the straglers to the Church is Instruction that they be shew'd the Innocent and Lawfulness of the things they scruple in our Church and that they be fully Explicated as also the Sinfulness of their Schism or Separation from it together with the mischievous and dangerous consequences of it This is a good way indeed but then the question is how it shall be put in Practice I know but these three ways Preaching Writing and Conferences Preaching cannot do it because they will not hear our Clergy 't is a rare thing to see any of the Dissenters come to our Parish Churches when they may safely go to their own Meeting Houses or if any of them be pleas'd at any time to come if the Sermon tend to justifie the Constitutions of the Church to refute the Cavils and Objections that are made against them to reprove though with all Gentleness and the softest words the Sin and Errour of those that separate from it they are sad nay angry at such sayings go away highly provoked and offended and will not be so civil as to hear
the Preacher out And as Preaching cannot unless they be forced to hear and the just Correction of the Laws drive them from their Conventicles to our Assemblies so Writing hath done no good upon them all the excellent Books that have been written both formerly and of late Years by the excellent Divines of our Church in which all their exceptions against it have been fully answer'd all their scruples satisfi'd all their Pleas and Apologies for their Separation throughly confuted and the Authors of them put to all the shame and silence Men of their Confidence are capable of yet they are never the better but persist stubbornly in their wicked Schism and prove to all the World that they are such as hate to be Reformed the crafty seducers tell their Credulous followers that such are Lewd and ungodly Books and that frights them so that they dare not upon any Terms give them the Reading all that their guides think fit to do in the case is to imploy some Pragmatical Fellow to write an Answer which how silly or impertinent soever is admired and applauded by the whole Faction as an Incomparable piece and the Author hugd and caress'd by the Brethren and Holy Sisters as a very precious Man Nor can any better success be reasonably expected from the other way that of Conference because if they will not hear our Clergy Preach nor Read the excellent Books they have writ in defence of the Church they will be as averse especially when they have their Liberty to private Conference be with great difficulty brought to admit the Charitable Person that comes to undeceive them or if they do they are generally so ignorant and so conceited that it is very hard to make them understand the nature of the things disputed what Schism is and how exceeding Sinful and if this be done they are so highly conceited of their own Gifts and Godliness as to think themselves Wiser and Holyer than he that offers them Instruction Besides they are such Slaves to so wholly at the Command of their own Guides and Teachers that if they tell them their separate Meetings are Innocent and Holy Assemblies and those of the Church so impure or defiled with Popish Prayers Ceremonies and other Humane Inventions that it is not safe for them to venture their precious Souls in them they believe such lying words as firmly as if they were Divine Truths and adhere to them in spight of all the Scripture and Reason that can be brought against them These therefore and all other vain projects laid aside the Government if it will be safe and happy must with great and earnest care endeavour to reduce them to the Church which can be effected no other way but by a strict Executing the Laws upon all Dissenters an unwearied persisting in it letting them see that if they dare be so impudent as to Affront Transgress the Laws and defie Authority that both will and dares do Justice upon such bold Offendors This in time will make them leave their Fooling to give it no worse Title Teach the People to shun the Meeting-Houses with the same caution and waryness as they do the Dreadful and Disconsolate Places where Misery and Ruin dwell This will put them upon serious Thoughts and Considerations Oblige them strictly to Examine the Cause for which they Suffer prompt them to ask themselves such questions as these what harm or venom is there in the Ceremonies of the Church that we should be so affraid of them as to run from the Communion of it Do not our own Guides and Teachers confess the Doctrine of it to be pure or agreeable to the Scriptures Are there not abundance of Learned Pious and Holy Men that Live and Dye in the Communion of it and can we think that such Men are not Saved And if they be Why will not the same Faith the same Doctrine the same Prayers and Holyness carry us to Heaven Are not the Doctrine Government and Worship the same that were Taught exercis'd and used by those brave and Holy Men that with such admirable zeal and courage suffer'd Martyrdom in the Reign of Queen Mary How can that be Popery now which was practic'd by them who would rather burn at a Stake then turn Papist and are we Wiser or more Conscientious than they The Wise Merciful Correction of the Laws will by degrees bring the Offendors to a sight and abhorring of their Errours and produce in them such good Thoughts as these and consequently ingage them to return from whence they are fallen I mean to our Holy and Excellent Church which will put an Happy end to all our Schisms and Divisions and the People by coming constantly to our Pious Loyal Assemblies will in a little time Learn to Fear God and the King and meddle no more with them that are given to change But if this great means of reducing them be waved or neglected or coldly prosecuted such a Blessed and desirable Revolution can never be attained but our fewds and contentions will be Immortal and we shall be as the scorn of so the most Miserable and Distracted Nation in the World Without this nothing can reduce them but in Conjunction with and Subordination to it there are other things that will contribute very much to it as the Exemplary Piety and strict Conformity of the Clergy and the putting them into such a Condition that they may not depend upon the Benevolence of the People for their Maintenance Their Exemplary Piety that none be suffer'd to Dishonour our most pure and holy Church by their Evil and unsuitable Lives for though 't is certain we have the most Learned Pious Unblamable and therefore Excellent Clergy in the World yet if there be any irregular Persons amongst them as 't is possible there may in such a great Body of Men be here and there one that forgets himself that care be taken and means used to Reform them that they give no Offence Minister no Occasion to any to Reproach the Church or to speak Evil of our most Holy and Undefiled Religion We see how cautious and careful the Schismatical Preachers are to seem Holy that they may gain the Esteem and Veneration of the People and lead them by the Noses whether and to what they please and if the shadow in them to be sure the Substance of Holiness a Vertuous and unblamable Life in all our Clergy will gain them great Authority with the People and convince them that must needs be an Holy Church that hath so Pious Regular and Excellent a Clergy The next is their strict Conformity that all of them be compell'd to observe all the Orders and Constitutions of the Church Unless this be done the People can never be drawn off from their prejudices against and misperswasions concerning them but will think them unlawful Impositions because some of the Clergy do not observe them and they will admire applaud and follow those that do not observe them as
that he cannot Err in the doing of it is to say that which all the World can never Prove for how doth it appear that God hath Constituted or Commission'd him to be the Sole Expounder of Scripture more than any other Bishop or Doctor of the Church Doth not our Lord say to all the Apostles nay to the seventy Disciples He that heareth you heareth me Did not he speak to them all when he said Go ye into all the World and Preach the Gospel to every Creature How then came his Holyness to have the Monopoly or Sole power of Interpreting Scripture Did it descend to him from St. Peter that cannot be because he never claim'd never pretended to it never had it Solely himself and the Successor cannot without Usurpation chalenge a greater Power nor plead a larger Commission than he had whom he pretends to Succeed 'T is certain that all the Apostles received an equal Authority and the same Commission from Christ and therefore all Bishops now being the undoubted Successors of the Apostles have an equal Power and Right to Interpret Scripture and there is by Divine Right no difference at all between them what is is either by Humane Constitution or by Usurpation and Incroachment And if he connot shew a Patent from God to prove him to be the only Authoritative Interpreter of his Laws how will he make good the other proud Word which he prefixes before it That he is the only and Infallible Expounder of Scripture He knows very well that a great and the wisest part of the World deny his Infallibility and Laugh at him for pretending to it How then will he convince them that he hath it by Reason no no! that gives no Testimony to such a gross and palpable Absurdity Reason says to be a Man and to be Exempt from all Possibility of Errour are Inconsistent Will he prove it by Scripture some Texts are brought from thence for fashion sake to colour the business as those that contain the promise of our Lord to his Apostles to send them the Holy Ghost to guide or St. John 16. 13. lead them into all Truth but this promise either proves too little or too much to do the feat for either it is a Peculiar promise belonging to the Apostles only who needed an Extraordinary Assistance from Christ that they might Transmit his Doctrine full and intire to Succeeding Ages and then was Personal and Expired with them and so doth not concern his Holyness for though the Holy Ghost guided them into all Truth yet he either not having the Holy Ghost or Refusing to follow his guidances may run into all Errour Or if it was not a Personal or Peculiar promise belonging to the Apostles only but Equally to their Successors then it proves more than he would have it That all the Bishops in the World are Infallible for the promise was made not to St. Peter only but to all the Apostles and therefore what nonsense and Ridiculous Partiallity is it to Restrain a general promise made to the whole Colledg of Apostles to the Successours of one of them for if they that Succeed St. Peter be Fully and Perfectly lead into all Truth then the Successors of all the Apostles are so and consequently all the Bishops in the World are Infallible and then his Holiness will have but a bad Market for his Expositions of Scripture for few People will be at the trouble to go to Rome for them because they may have them from their own Bishops Well but doth not our Lord say to St. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will Build my Church and the Gates St. Mat. 16. 18. of Hell shall not Prevail against it These are certainly the Words of Christ but they confer no peculiar Priviledg or Prerogative upon St. Peter nothing but what was equally given to all the Apostles for the Rock Signifies either his Confession Thou art Christ the Son of the living God which is the Rock the great and Vers 16. Fundamental Article of the Christian Faith upon which the Church is Built or if it concern his Person that he should be an Excellent Instrument as the other Apostles were and therefore are also called Foundation Stones to bring in Converts and Disciples unto Christ and to raise or Build him up a Church in the World which the Gates of Hell all the Power and Policy of the Devil should never be able Totally to ruin or destroy These Words then speak nothing for the pretended Infallibility And indeed the greatest Champions for it are so far from thinking it fully proved in Scripture that they are not agreed about it To fix it in the Popes Person they dare not because the many and gross Errours of his Life would confute and shame them and therefore as a Man they confess he can and may and doth Err To ascribe it to his Chair either to his Office or Dignity as Bishop or to him as Bishop of Rome and Successor to St. Peter in that Patriarchal See is silly for if he could Err before he can do so still because his being made Bishop doth not change his Nature but his Office and being the same Man why may he not be the same falliable or erring Man he was before The place he is Bishop of can make no Difference in the case because no reason can be given why the Bishop of Rome should be more Exempt from Errour than the Bishop of Munster To place the Infallibility in the Pope and a general Council is as unreasonable because if they can Err apart they may united and they confess that a general Council may Err if it be not Confirmed by the Pope and t is plain they think the Pope without it may Err or else t is idle to add a general Council to him but the uniting or putting two Erring parties together cannot make them Infallible To say that a General Council Confirm'd by the Pope cannot Err is unanswerably confuted by this argument of a great and excellent person The Pope never Confirms a Council till it be finish'd Arch-Bishop Laud against Fisher pa. 274. when it is finish'd before the Popes Confirmation be put to it either it hath Erred or not Erred if it hath Erred he ought not to confirm it or if he do it is a voyd Act because no power can make Errour or falsehood to be Truth if it hath not Erred then it was True before he Confirmed it and so his Confirmation signifies nothing And not withstanding all the stir they make about the Popes Infallibility they do not believe it themselves for the School-Men and Writers of Controversies as that Author observes put the case whether the Pope coming to be an Heritick Pa. 269. may not be Deposed and the Common Law as he adds says expresly That he may be Deposed for Heresie now if he can fall into Heresie and may be Deposed for it then he cannot be Infallible And
Primitive times Besides the Holy Scriptures or written word of God as I remarked before call upon us to search and study and meditate in them nay to believe and obey or Live according to them and Promise Eternal Happiness and Salvation to all that do these things but they make no mention of the word of God not written do not Command any to enquire or search after or trouble their Heads about any such thing as the Unwritten word of God 'T is true indeed St. Paul praises the Obedient Members of the Church of Corinth that kept 1 Cor. 11. 2. the Traditions or Ordinances which he deliver'd to them But these were no part of the word of God either written or not written but things in their own nature Indifferent That the Men should Pray in publick with their Heads uncover'd and the Women with their Heads cover'd Verses 4th and 5th He gives this charge also to Timothy hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of 2 Tim. 1. 13. me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Which form of sound words was either the Creed which the Apostles agreed upon as a summary of the Chief things that were to be believed and profess'd by all Christians or else the whole Doctrine of Christ containing all things to be done as well as believed to Salvation which if not then were before the Apostles left the World intirely written for the Instruction of all that should Imbrace the Christian Religion But doth not Christ tell his Apostles I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now By which saith the St. John 16. 12. Church of Rome it appears That Christ spoke many things that were not written and it is not credible that the Apostles would not deliver these by word of mouth to the Church To which a Reverend Bishop of ours gives this Satisfactory Answer that Christ doth not say Bishop Davenane de judice norma fidei page 18. Multa habeo quae non potestis in posterum scribere I have many things to say unto you which you cannot hereafter write but which you cannot now bear Postea autem Spiritu sancto illuminati portare ea potuerunt praedicare mundo ac demum scriptis toti Ecclesiae Commendare but afterwards being inlightned by the Holy Ghost they could both bear them themselves and Preach them to the World and at last in their writings Commend and Transmit them to the whole Church But let us grant saith he that these things were such as are not written yet who is so impudent and rash as to dare to specifie or assign what those things were This is such Transcendent Presumption that none but the Church of Rome dares venture on which takes the boldness to Father all her Dreams Fables and Errours upon God calling them his Traditional or Unwritten word As for those words of St. John which they insist so much upon There are also many other things which Jesus did the which if they should be Chap. 21. 25. written every one I suppose that even the World it self could not contain the Books that should be written These neither prove the necessity nor Authority of their Traditional or Unwritten word of God Fatemue enim multa esse quae fecit Jesus quae tamen ab Evangelistis scripta non fuerunt for we Page 18. confess saith that Learned Authour that there were many things which Jesus did that are not written by the Evangelists but these many things were not Doctrines necessary to Salvation but Miracles or sayings which we may be ignorant of without any detriment to Religion or Salvation so St. John himself tells us And many other Signs truly did Jesus in the Chap. 20. 30. 31. presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name Which utterly destroys the necessity of their Unwritten word of God for if what is written be enough to perswade Men to believe in Christ and that believing be sufficient to save or bring them to Eternal life that do it then no more can be necessary but St. John affirms both these therefore the Romish Traditional or Unwritten word of God is at best a needless or superfluous thing Besides it is and must be with all thinking Men a mighty Objection against this Unwritten word of God as they call it that the Church of Rome hath the sole Custody or keeping of it the Primitive Church after the Canon of the Scriptures was compleated says nothing at all of it for all the Fathers cry up and maintain the Perfection and Sufficiency of the written word of God and all the Reformed Churches adhere to this in Opposition to that Unwritten Word How then came Rome by it Is God so partial such a Respecter of Persons as to Communicate it to that Church and not to others Or is it a Cheat or Artifice of the nequam ingeniosi the witty or Crafty Deceivers to help at a dead lift This is the very Truth Many of their Doctrines and Practices they plainly perceiv'd did openly clash with and contradict the Holy Scriptures or written word of God and therefore there was no way to defend them to acquit their Church from Errour and Impiety but to cry up Tradition and make it of equal Authority with the Scriptures But this will not do it for doth God use to contradict himself There are that say he hath two Wills the one secret the other reveal'd and that the one is contrary to the other which is neither better nor worse than downright Blasphemy the Church of Rome with equal Blasphemy affirms that God hath two Laws or Words the one contained in the Scriptures the other transmitted by Oral Tradition and they plead this in Defence of those Doctrines which are contrary to that being beaten from the Scriptures and having no shelter or protection for their Errours there they Fly for refuge to Tradition as if that could bear them out or support their Cause and so they make the infinitely Wise and Righteous God contradict himself which he must needs do if he hath declared his will to Mankind two several ways that is by Scritpure and Oral Tradition and this affirms things which that deny's and gainsays They had rather if they could do it prove the points in controversy by the Scriptures as the most satisfactory and convincing proof but not being able to do that they are constrained either to confess their Errours or to pretend Tradition to vouch and countenance them That they will not do because it is against their Worldly Interest inconsistent with their Honour and Profit This they had better not do because the Cheat is so Evident that none but weak Persons will be gull'd and deluded by it for we know that must
Accusation of Herisie which they may easily do because they are the Judges of it and may call every thing they please so yet they will be sure to do it with the charge of unprofitableness he is no longer useful to the Church that is his Holiness is weary of him and that with them is a Just and Sufficient cause of Deposition and when they pronounce that Sentence upon him they only take from him the Name or Title of King because they had Rob'd him of all the Power and Authority before for how can he be a King that doth not Rule and Govern his People and if the Pope Commands the Clergy and they Rule the People for Gods Sake who doth the Prince Govern or what Authority hath he none none at all his Empire is but Imaginary a meer Chimera or faigned thing I appeal then to all the Wise and Rational World whether the Romish Clergy deserve the Name of Subjects much less of Loyal Subjects that neither Obey the Prince themselves if he refuse to be a Subject to the Pope nor suffer the People to do it any longer than he is constant to be their fellow Subject to the Pope his Throne must needs totter and his Authority be a poor and precarious trifle that is sure of the Obedience neither of the Clergy nor People And if it be a Princes Happiness to have a Loyal Obedient People as undoubtedly it is 't is against the Dukes Interest to leave our Church all the true Members of which are eminently so and to join himself to the Papists who are Notoriously known not to be so this being to exchange Sheep for Wolves Doves for Vultures and consequently to underdo and make himself miserable if he come to the Crown I confess indeed there is a Generation of Men amongst us that call themselves Protestants and would be thought the best and purest part of the Reformation that have equal'd if not outvy'd the Jesuits themselves in their Treasons Seditions and Rebellions against Kings these were they that took Arms against and Murder'd that Incomparable Prince King Charles the First of Glorious and never Dying Memory These abjured and exiled our Present most Gracious Soveraign and since his Happy Restauration have Created him so great Vexation Trouble and Disturbance These too with the new Converts and Proselites they have gain'd from the Church and poyson'd with their Seditibus Principles Headed by some of the Great Men that either had cast off Religion or being Male-content because they had not all the Honours and great Offices they desired or being promoted to them did not injoy them as long as they would have done but for their Misdemeanours were justly deprived of them that they might be confer'd upon more deserving Persons with others Alarum'd by the late Popish Plot and Excited by their hatred of the Romish Religion are the Enemies of the Royal Family known Authors and Promoters of the Bill and the late more damnable and accursed intended Exclusion But then I desire it may be consider'd that these are not of the Church of England but Fugitives and Runnagates that have withdrawn and separated themselves from it they renounce the Church and the Church renounceth them they will not own her for their Mother nor she them for her Children they are so far from being Members that they are the Sores and Ulcers the pest of the Church as well as of the Crown and that they are equally hateful to them is Evident because they destroy'd the King and the Church together or rather the Church first that this being taken away which was the support of it they might more easily and readily overthrow the Monarchy and verifie that which King James in his great Wisdom foresaw would certainly be No Bishop No King And therefore none can with any appearance of Justice charge the Insolencies Mutinies Seditions Teasons and Misdemeanours of that Stubborn Generation upon our Church this being to blame it for the Crimes and Offences of those that are profess'd Enemies to and open Dissenters and Separatists from it nor in Reason expect Loyalty and true Obedience from them so long as they continue such for how should they Learn to Reverence and Obey their Prince that refuse to come into our Assemblies where such great and useful and concerning Duties are Preach'd to and press'd upon the Hearers Or if at any time they vouchsafe to be present at our Churches 't is never till the Loyal as well as most Pious Prayers of our Liturgy are over and then too if either the Text or the Sermon have any smatch of malignancy so they called Loyalty in the Days of old or as the new Word is Toryism away they run as if they were frighted out of their Wits or the Preacher had vented some damnable Heresy which their Ears tingle and their Souls are astonish'd at These are Duties that are never taught in their Conventicles if they had any mind to it the Apostles of the Separate Churches have not the face to put their Hearers in mind of Obeying their Prince because their Preaching and the People coming to hear in those Places are Acts of great Scandalous and Sinful Disoobedience And if the seeds of Obedience be not sowed in their Hearts by Learned and Constant Preaching how should Loyalty as the precious Fruit thereof grow up in their Lives and Actions They that prefer the Opinion of that Scotch Villain David Blake who said all Arch-Bishop Spots Woods Hist Church of Scotland pa. 423. Kings were the Devils Bearns before that Affirmative of God I have said ye are Gods and you are all the Children of the most High and that assertion of St. Paul who writ by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost There is no Power but of God the Powers Kings that be are Ordain'd of God and neither desire to be nor care to come where they may be better inform'd and Preach'd out of such Damnable Principles cannot possibly be good Subjects Do Men gather Grapes of Thrones or Figs of Thistles As unreasonable is it to expect Loyalty from these People who have not hitherto been Taught and have still no mind or desire to Learn any and do therefore cast off all Obedience to the King and do all they can to tear or rend the Government from him because like the Bramble they would fain be so that is Govern all themselves 'T is then apparently the Interest and consequently ought to be the Care of the Government to reduce or bring back to the Church these People that are gone from it because whilst they continue separated or divided from it they are open and profess'd Enemies to the Government and there is no other way to make them good Subjects To grant them Toleration is a sure way for the Government to Ruin and undo it self because it is to give them not only opportunity but Licence and Commission to Preach Treason and dissiminate their Seditious Principles with Impunity to strengthen
as the Scriptures give no testimony of it so neither reason nor any thing else can prove his Holiness to be Infallible because he is not and there is no need that either he or any other Bishop should be so because God hath fully and clearly propounded to us in the Scriptures all things necessary to Salvation as I have already Prov'd and for that part of them that is obscure we are certain we may be Saved without the knowledg of it otherwise the Merciful God that loves us and desires our Salvation would have made it plain to us Now to bring this Discourse home to the great Point in hand if Eternal Happiness and Salvation be the kind offer or Proposal of God and this cannot be had but upon certain Terms or Conditions which must be determin'd and reveal'd by him determin'd because that is his Right and none but he hath Authority to do it reveal'd because unless he declare upon what Terms he will save them Mankind can never know them nor consequently obtain the proposed happiness and those Terms or Conditions be fully and intirely plainly and intelligibly deliver'd in the Scriptures then that and none but that is the true Church in which Salvation may certainly be had that adheres or cleaves to the Scriptures and follows them as the great and only Rule of Faith and Manners of all things that is necessary to Salvation This is the only sure Mark of the true Church that may be rely'd upon without this all other Signs are false Fires and deceitful Lights that mislead their unwary followers but he that chuses his Church by its Profession of the Christian Faith and Doctrine contained in the Scriptures is safe and in such a Society where nothing is wanting to Salvation but if he leaves that he may wander up and down the World in vain seeking Rest but finding none All then that will be necessary to make good my Assertion in both the parts of it that there is a certainty of Salvation in the Church of England and at most but a Possibility of it in the Church of Rome is briefly to shew the agreement of ours and the Repugnancy of theirs to the Scriptures That Church which affirms that the Holy Scriptures Comprehend all things necessary to Salvation and that nothing but what is contained in them is to be press'd or requir'd as such and receives them as its sole or intire Rule agrees fully and perfectly with them but our Church affirms those and doth this therefore it adheres or keeps close to the Scriptures Holy Scripture it saith containeth all things necessary Article the 6. to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation Unto a Christian it declares there can be nothing either more necessary or profitable than the knowledg of Holy Scripture forasmuch as in it is Homily the 1. contained Gods true word setting forth his Glory and also Mans Duty and there is no Truth nor Doctrine necessary for our Justification and Everlasting Salvation but what is or may be drawn out of that Fountain and Well of Truth In Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do and what to eschew what to believe what to Love and what to look for at Gods hands at length This is as full a Declaration of the perfection sufficiency of the Scriptures as can be made and that our Church receives them as the sole or intire Rule of Faith is so Evident that the Church of Rome confesseth it by making it an Accusation or Objection against it though this be to upbraid it with that which is its Glory I mean its strict adherence to the Scriptures and if they did not confess it it might be unanswerably proved by comparing the Doctrine of our Church with those Sacred Writings which whosoever doth will find a most perfect Union or agreement between them that it observes and follows and adheres to them in all things as if the same good Spirit that Inspir'd the Holy Prophets and Apostles to Pen them did in a more than ordinary manner guide and direct our Reformers to the same Faith or Sum of things to be believed the same Rule of Life or Paths of Piety and Holiness the same Object and way of Worship the same Sacraments and all other things which they propound to Mankind either as the Terms and Conditions upon which God will save them or Dr. Potter Answer to Charity mistaken pa. 13. Page 14. as helps and means to inable them to perform those Conditions So that no Church as a Learned and excellent Person speaks doth afford more Plentifully the means of Grace nor more abound with all helps and advantages of Piety than this of ours The word of God is diligently Preach'd amongst us the Sacraments of Christ Reverently Administred Abuses in both are removed the two Extremes of Religion Superstition and Prophaneness are avoided The Ignorant are Instructed the Disorderly admonish'd Comforts are applyed to the Afflicted Terrours to the Impenitent Censures and Punishments to the Obstinate In our Liturgy Policy and Ceremonies in the Government of our Prelates in the Diligence of Inferiour Pastours in the whole Face of our Doctrine and Discipline we have a most near and fair Resemblance of Reverend Antiquity All tending to the gaining of Souls to Christ and to guide them in the way of Peace As great Assurance Assurance then as any Christian hath that the Scriptures are true so full and absolute a certainty is there of Salvation in our Church because it teaches and requires all those things and no other that the Scriptures teach and require as necessary to Salvation and to the Performers of which they promise Eternal Life and Happiness and therefore if the Scriptures say true as all Christians acknowledg they do there can be no doubt or question at all of being saved in the Church of England unless Men will either not believe and Live as it teacheth and Commands them or if they do it will not persevere or continue in so believing and Living to the end of their Lives And therefore that none who are Members of this most Holy and Excellent Church may deprive themselves of so great a good as that Immortal Happiness is by their Evil and Unsuitable Living I shall conclude this Discourse with that admirable Exhortation which their Mother the Church gives them to obey or keep the Commandments of God their Father which is this Wherefore as ye have any Zeal to the Right and Pure Honouring of God as you have any Regard to Homily of Good Works Part. 3. p. 35. your own Souls and to the Life that is to come which is both without Pain and without End apply your selves chiefly above all things to Read and hear Gods word mark diligently therein what his
needs be an Abominable Cheat which they call the Unwritten word of God because by this they evacuate or make the other voy'd and of no Effect Command what in the Scripture God forbids and forbid what he Commands condemn what he allows allow what he condemns make that necessary which he leaves Arbitrary or Indifferent and that Indifferent which he makes necessary using the Scriptures as one Procustes a Theevish Inn-keeper in Germany is said to have Treated his Guests who having but one Bed for all Comers if he that was to lye in it was too long for the Bed he would cut off his Feet or Legs till he had made him of an equal length for it if too short he would rack and stretch him out till he had made him of a fit size for it Thus doth Rome by her Traditions inlarge and alter add to and take from pervert and wrest the Scriptures to her own and the Destruction of Multitudes of those that give up themselves to her Conduct For I desire it may be considered what an horrid injury and affront it is to the Laws of God to those Sacred Books that contain so Choice and most Precious a Treasure as the Words of Eternal Life which they propound to us must needs be to use them thus Nay what abominable insolence and contempt of God it is to accuse them of Inperfection to affirm they do not give Men sufficient Instruction to Salvation which they say they do Is there any thing that Princes do more highly resent or more severely Punish than the contempt of their Laws and Royal Edicts when instead of paying a ready and cheereful Obedience to them any Persons censure and carp at them Falsly call them obscure and defective Institutions that do not reach the ends or designs they were made for and take upon them to forge new ones to put out Counterfeit Edicts and Mandates in the Princes name which he knew nothing of and gave no consent to Just thus doth the Church of Rome treat the Great Lord and Ruler of all the World accuses his Laws contained in the Scriptures of Imperfection say's they are obscure and defective dark and unintelligible Institutions in themselves and forges new ones which it calls his Traditional or Unwriten Laws and is Fonder of or Prefers them before the other which must needs provoke his Anger and bring down his most fearful Judgments upon it even all the Woes Plagues and Curses denounc'd in Scripture against them that commit so Insolent and Hainous a Wickedness And as they affront and dishonour the Scriptures by receiving Traditions with equal reverence and devotion so in defiance to them they have Inlarged the Faith Multiply'd the Sacraments Chang'd all the Principal parts of Religion which they propound to the Christian Church They neither Believe nor Worship God according to the Scriptures but to the Faith once delivered to the Saints they have added new and false Propositions and instead of the Pure and Holy Worship God requires disgrace and provoke him with their Images and leaving the old Paths and the good way of his appointing they have invented new means and conditions of Salvation For all the points Controverted between Them Us are plainly and evidently Repugnant to the Scriptures as would appear by a particular Examination of them But this is not proper to the Subject I have in hand and hath been so fully and Unanswerably proved by many Eminent Divines of our Church Famous in their Generations Men of Renown the excellent Bishop Jewel Dr. Feild the two Whites the Arch-deacon in his way to the true Church and his Brother the Bishop of Ely in his Defence of it By Arch-Bishop Laud in his admirable Book against Fisher by the Reverend Bishop of Down in the Defence of his Disswasive from Popery to the Learned and Excellent labours of which worthy Men I refer the Reader that it is needless for me to do it again But if any of the Church of Rome think I wrong their Mother by charging her with forsaking the Scriptures I am ready to make it good when they require it of me and will prove the points in Debate between the Church of England and theirs to be contrary to Scripture and therefore most dangerous Errours and Innovations And if they depart from the Scriptures as t is certain they do which only are able to make Men wise unto Salvation and by which all Christians shall be judged at the last and great Assize of the World there must needs as all the Reformed Churches truly believe and teach be great peril of Damnation in the Communion of that Church They are out of the way which God commands all Men to walk in that would obtain the Immortal Glories and Felicities of his Heavenly Kingdom and therefore if they be Saved it must be by extraordinary ways or means 'T is possible that God whose Mercies are Infinite may save the Ignorant and well meaning People amongst them that follow the Romish Guides in the Dr. Potter Answer to Charity mistaken page 78 79. Simplicity of their Hearts Who either have not as a learned Person of our Church observes sufficient means to find the truth or else after the use of the best means they can have find not Sufficient motives to convince their Conscience that they are in Errour 'T is possible also that they who lived all their days in the Communion of the Church of Rome may repent at their Death humbly beseech God to pardon all their Sins and Errours known and unknown and so find Mercy from him who is not extreme to mark what is done amiss But if that Ignorance or this Repentance do not help them though we take not on us to pass the Dreadful doom upon them yet our Charity to their Souls obliges us to tell them their Condition is exceeding Dangerous 'T is therefore great Uncharitableness to himself for any Man that Considers what a Blessed and Desirable thing Eternal Happiness is that thinks what it is to live with God his Angels and Saints in Glory unconceivable in joys unspeakable and endless to venture his Soul in the Romish Communion where there is the greatest hazard of losing it and at most but a poor Possibility of saving it A Church which I cannot better describe than in the Words of the Person I last mentioned who was a learned and a moderate Man She brings forth Children unto God by their Baptism but then Poysons them in their Breeding Dr. Potter pages 14 15 16. When they ask for Bread she gives them a Stone and Serpents instead of Fishes To the Word of God she adds and equalls her own Traditions she reads unto them that Word but in an unknown Tongue teaches them to Pray but in Latin which they understand not directs them to call upon God but withal upon Saints and Angels to Worship God but also dumb Blocks and Images She sends them to Legends and Pictures for much