head that is her natural one befides her husband shall we therefore say that every married woman is a Monster with two heads To the second I answer as before that a head is taken two ways in relation to the Members first according to the internal influence which proceeds from the head into the other members and so there can be but one head of one body Secondly as to the external Government so there may be two heads of one body so the body of a woman as aforesaid has but one head from which it receives the influence of sensitive spirits but has two as to the Government of her external actions for in the one she is govern'd by her own natural head and in the other by her husband who is her moral head It is just so in the Church which has but one head as to the influx of grac but two as to its Government whereof one supplies the place of the other the first was only Christ is head and all others are members the last way not only Christ but Peter is head who the former way is so far from being a head that he is but a common member When therefore the Apostle tels the Corinthiaus that Christ and his Church make but up one entire mystical body which consist of head and members this must be understood in the former sence for the Apostle speaks plainly there of Christ as he is head of the Church by the internal division of his gifts of grace as is plain by the context and so in that case it cannot be denied but all besides Christ are Members of the Church and none besides him can be head of it But if you speak as to the external Gouernment then Christs Vicar may be head and all others Members as in Kingdoms Govern'd by a Deputy or Vice-king as aforesaid To the third I freely grant what you urge out of the Gospels that Jesus Christ did commend the care of his Church to all his Apostles but I deny that he commanded it equally to all for only to Pater he said Feed my sheep therefore the Supream Pastorship was only committed to Peter and to none of the rest Nor do I understand any force in that argument of yours which follows thus All of them were equally taught and instructed by Christ and all of them received the holy Ghost equally therefore one had no more jurisdiction then another For it is one thing to speak of the Learning and Sanctity of the Apostles and another to speak of their power or jurisdiction It is not necessary that all which have equality of one should have equility of the other Otherwise a King in his Kingdom if he had not more learning and holiness than his Subjects should not have a greater power and authority which you know how absurd it is to say and the reason is plain for power and jurisdiction do not necessarily and of themselves depend upon Learning and Sanctity and suppose we grant that all the Apostles were equal before Christ said to Peter Feed my sheep it does not follow that they were all equal afterwards but that Peter had ever after that his just preheminence To the fourth I grant that Paul did resist Peter and justly for Peter was in an errour and yet not in any Article of faith neither for in that he could not err for Christ assured him that he had askt his Father that his Faith should not fail but his errour was in matter of Fact only because he did unadvisedly dissemble Judaism to the scandall and offence of the Gentiles but from hence it follows not that Peter was not the head of the Church no more then this is a consequence David was rebuked by Joah therefore David was not the Head of his Kingdom Nay all good men will collect rather this from the reprehension that Paul gave to Peter that Superiours when they are in fault may be reproved by Inferiours when they shall do it with due humility and charity Now can this be called perversness or arrogance in St. Paul because he pid it with a good zeal to take away a scandal that was like to rise by the unwary dissimulation of St. Peter Beside this was no more then what belonged to the Apostleship of St. Paul to look to the edification of Faith and as to the duty of Apostleship and the honour of it they were all equal though not in point of power and Government for therein Peter had the Primacy To the fifth Your Inference does not hold that Peter having offended in his person therefore the gares of Hell prevailed against his power so the succession of the just jurisdiction will hold as due to the successors of St. Peter though their persons be never so sinfull For Christ gave the power of the Keys to his Church in the person of St. Peter so St. Peter had the power of the keys as he bore the person of the Church onely Besides all this it is plain that when Peter deny'd Christ the Church was not then founded upon him but to be founded for Christ said upon this Rock I will build my Church that was to be understood after his Resurrection To the Sixth It is most true that Christ himself is the principal Rock and primary foundation of his Church yet he may have Vicars and Substitutes for secundary Rocks for though saint Pauls saying be true that Christ is the only Foundation the saying of saint John must be as true that the Wall of that City had twelve Foundations and in them thennees of the twelve Apostles To the Seventh It would be too long abusinesse and out of the Road that we have proposed to our selves to prove out of antiquity that St. Peter was at Rome which no question is more sure then that you and I were once in London and never was denyed till some upstart Doctors of yours were pleased to make a Question of it I am inform'd that all the Antient Doctors of the Church do understand the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans as sent on purpose to confirm them in that Faith which they had received by the Preaching of St. Peter there and was so famous as to be spoken of throughout the whole World for so he himself implies when he said he writ to them some spirituall gift to the end that that they might be established c. Paul would confirm what Peter had preached that by the Testimony of two Apostles their faith might be strengthned And as for his so late comming to Rome it is as great an errour It is true he was five years in Pontus and Asia and seven years in Antioch before he went to Rome but then he did go and in Eighteen years after Christs Passion he return'd again to Jerusalem to preside in a Councell there which is the groand of your errour in saying that he was eighteen years in and about Jerusalem before he went to Rome But howsoever all that
only but likewise the testimony of the most antient and holy Fathers the invincible evidence of the true mother-Mother-Church and the testimony of divine miracles which are frequently one for the confirmation of our faith But you forsooth as if you were wiser than Christ himself will neither admit or hear of any thing but out of Scripture alone in which you shew your selves like those Jews against whom our Saviour so disputes for the Jews casting off all other testimony would admit onely of Scripture 2 Cor. 3.14.15 â— and yet they neither understood it then nor yet do or ever will as the Apostle tels us when he says but their minds were blinded for untill this day remaineth the same Vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament c. and again when Moses is read the Vail is upon their hearts c. To the third For what you urge so hard out of the Acts you shall find to be to as little purpose as the other if if you but please to examine the Context which tells you That there being a Synagogue of Jews at Thessalonica St. Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures opening and alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead Act. 17.2 3. and that Jesus whom he preacht unto them was Christ c. But the Word so preacht did but little profit those of Thessalonica then follows that they of Berea were more Neble then those of Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readinesse of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so c. Now I would fain know what you wil conclude out of this as to your purpose unless thus Those of Berea searched the Testimonies of Scripture concerning Christ that were quoted by St. Paul therefore Scripture alone must determine faith and be the only Rule and Judge between us That is just as if you would say that one of your Doctors searcheth all the testimonies of St. Austin that are quoted by Bellarmin therefore St. Austin is the only Judge of Controversies Or thus one of your Congregation searcheth all the testimonies which are produced against a great Doctor of yours as they are quoted by a greater of your own therefore that great Doctor is the only judge of Controversies Or thus one of your Doctors searcheth all the Traditions that are alledged in the Councill of Yrent thefefore only Tradition is to be receiv'd for a Judge of Controversies I pray you forbear these pitiful consequences and yet your great Doctors seldommake be tter are not asham'd of them so I may well excuse you andothers seduced by them To the Fourth I say that your Argument if it had any weight at all would serve altogether as well agianst your self as us for if as you understand it every man be a Lyar add may erre it will follow necessarily that Moses with the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists nay that your Friends Luther and Calvin nay all your Preachers to be Lyars and may erre because they are men therefore there is no credit to be given to any of them no confidence to be put in them but all things that are said by them must be taken for suspected and uncertain where then is faith Nor matters it though they say that the Word which they tell us is not their own but Gods Word for if they be Lyars they may as well lye in the delivery of Gods message as in any thing else of their own nothing therefore can be certain But God forbid that any Christian should think so for it is far otherwise First we confesse the Scripture to be certain and infallible because it is the Word of God but we adde that it is so obscure that the true sence and meaning cannot easily appear to every man Therefore of necessity there must be some other Judge that must infallibly determine what is the clear and genuine sence of the Scripture it self Now this infallible Judge cannot possibly be every private man for then there would be so many Judges as there be men and diversities of Opinions and so there would be an utter impossibility to agree to any thing or compose any difference in Religion every one being apt to favour his own opinion It is necessary therefore that there should be a publick Judge agreed upon who should have a power of decreeing defining and determining all things between differet parties Gen. 8.21 Psal 38.6 Then again we says that we must consider men in two respects Num. 11.17 Deut. 17.9 Aug. 2.12 Malac. 2.3 Jerem. 1.7 first as men and the sons of Adam so obnoxions to many naturall corruptious so without doubt they are all prone to lying and falshood In the next place we must consider them as they are directed and goveâ—n'd by the Holy Ghost for the instruction of others so they are infallible and without possibility of lying such as Moses in the Old Testament with bis Congregation of Elders about him So were divers other High Priests that succeeded him such were the Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezechiel Daniel and all the rest Such in the New Testament were the Apostles to whom it was said I wil from the Father send you the spirit of truth and again when the of Spirit of truth shall come he shall teach you all truth Iohn 16.6.13 now where there is all truth there can be no lye Such ever was now is and still must be the Church of Christ which having the perpetuall assistance and government of the same Holy Spirit ha's as it were the heart of it so long therefore as the faithfull Christian shall continue in the unity of the Church and keep close to the Doctrine of the supream Bishop and Councells he shall participate of the assistance and government of the holy Ghost nor can erre in faith but if through any pride or perversity of spirit he shall disagree and depart from that head and heart then he shuts all those passages and Chanels by which that divine assistency and direction is to be derived and so must of necessity be seduced from truth and led into a Labyrinth of errours as we have sadly seen in all the antient and modern Hereticks The next similitude may be drawn from a flock of sheep which indeed is the best representation of the Church Ioh. 10.14 math 28.20 as our Saviour himself is pleas'd to attest in the Gospel for as the whole flock being in one Fold or place collected together has the perpetuall assistance and guard of the Shepherd and so are defended from the malice fierceness of wolves so the Universall Church of the faithfull being collected in one faith and spirit has the perpetuall care and assistance of that divine Shepherd who said I an the good Shepherd and know my Sheep and again and I am always with you to the end of the
Old Scripture to shew what a stamp of Majesty and Authority God Almighty fixt upon such assemblies and what respect the people always rendred them So it shall suffice to give you our Saviours own words and so conclude this point We find in St. Matthew thus Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven Matth. 18. v. 18 20. for where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Now I would fain know who can be convinced more evidently not to hear the Church then he that will not hear a Councell there can be no where a greater and more conspicuous consent than in a Council nor can there be any Congregations assembled more in the name of God then generall Councells are and yet you are pleased to cast contempt upon them But give me leave to tell you let the Authority of Councells be once taken away and all things in the Church will bee ambiguous and uncertain First all the antient Heresies that have been condemned by the authority of Councells and cast out of the Church may be reviv'd and reinforced upon Christians with as much reason as any primitive and Catholick Doctrine Then set up the Authority of Scripture alone against that of the Church and Councills and then Scripture it self will be uncertain for thrusting out that authority wich ha's commended sacred Scripture to us and commanded us to recive it what Scripture is it that opinionated men wil not reject and condemn for Apocrypha which will not save their own turns as some of your Doctros have notoriously done and so in fine we can never agree upon the point what is Scripture and what is not Thus must the Church of Christ fall into a most miserable condition for upon the arising of any doubt in matter of faith there can be no way found out to decide it but every particular person according to the proportion of wit in his own pate shall frame to himselfe faith of what form or fashion he pleaseth How then hath Christ provided for his Church a sufficientrule to go by and why should his Evangelioall Law be called the most perfect if he has not otherwise order'd a determination of all emergent coutroversies But thanks be to our most gracious God and Saviour he has abundantly done it for us as I shal more amply shew in my answers and replyes to the following heads of this your Paper which God give you grace with prudence and impartiality to petuse To what you alledge for Scripture to be the only Rule of our faith and against the Authority of the universall Church and it's Traditions I answer thus To the first I say that you are very much mistaken in matter of Scripture so I shall be bold to inlarge a little upon it for your better understanding And first it is to be observed that our Saviour himself writ no book at all neither commanded his disciples or Apostles to write any inso much as being to send them to plant his Church Matth. 28. he said not to them go and write but go and preach to the whole World Therefore we find the Old Law written in Tables of Stone but the Gospell had no other writing then but in the hearts of Christians So St. Paul plainly expresseth it Ye are our Epistle c. again 2 Cor. 3.2 3. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declard to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us not with ink but with the spirit of the living God not in Tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart c. This was before prophesyed by the Prophet Jerem. Behold the days come Jer. 31.31.302 3 saith the Lord that I will make a new Cavenant with the House Israell and with the House of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days saith the Lord I wil put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I wil be their God and they shall be my people c. Again we find that the Church is much ancienter then Scripture for when the Apostles began to preach there was no Evangelical Scripture no Epistle of St. Paul extant and yet the Church was then purchased and sprinkled with the blood of Christ Acts 1. and governed by his unerring Spirit So the Apostles without any authority of the Scripture of the New-Testament proceeded to the election of Matthias and to the ordination or seven Deacons Acts 5.6 c. So Peter proceeded to the sentence against Ananias and Saphira which struck the breath out of their bodies c. Now we know that the Apostles were very diligent in preaching and sowing the word of God and yet we finde but very little that they left us in writing so it must follow that they taught a great deal more then they wrote which must have equal authority with their writings Yet further it is plain that the Scripture it self cannot be authentical without the authority of the Church for the Canonical Writers themselves were but members of the Church and how shall any private man know what Scripture is Canonical and what not but by the Church John 3. Why should any man believe the Gospel of St. Mark to be Canonical who never saw Christ and the Gospel of Nicodemus not to be so who both saw and heard Christ as St. John testifies of him and why should the Gospel of St. Luke the Disciple be receiv'd and the Gospel of St. Bartholomew the Apostle be rejected unless we humbly comply with the power and authority of the Church which hath so ordered it and clearly confess that the Church can judge of Scriptures Thus since it is plain that the Church is ancienter then Scripture and that no Scripture can be thought authentical without the authority of the Church Exod. 20. can any Christian be blamed for saying that he would never believe the Scripture but that the Authority of the Church commanded it over over and above all this the Authority of the Church over Scripture is hugely evident in many particulars of Scripture As first Matth. 28. Act. 15. the Scripture commands thus Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God c. And yet the Church changed the Sabbath into the Lords day by its own authority Matth. 28.19 20. and not only without but against known Scripture Again Christ said to his Disciples in the Mount that he came not to dissolve the Law but fulfill it and yet the Church in the Apostles Councel decreed and pronounced boldly for the Cessation
are something hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction Thus do you see what unhappy mistakes there were upon St. Pauls writings while St. Paul himself was yet alive how much more then must there needs be now upon those grounds that you receive them Niy St. Paul himself tells you that if his Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost Now it is plain it cannot be hidden to us who take the sense and interpretation of the whole Church you had best therefore look to your selves that you be not lost by hiding of it from your selves And if the blessed Fathers of the Church that were so conversant in Scripture yet understood it not in those times so near to the time of Christ himself as some of you say that they did not how can you presume upon your selves and some late Doctors that have dared to give you a contrary Doctrine to what they have delivered to us I have often meditared upon that place in St. Lukes Cospel where it is said of the good Samaritan that when he departed he took out two pence and gave them to the Host and said unto him take care of him and what ever thou spendest more when I come again I will repay thee Just so me thinks our Saviour hast left us two Testaments and whatsoever the Apostles Doctors and Fathers of the Church have added more and we shall humbly observe he when he comes again of his great goodness will repay us Now to summ up all it is plain by this that has been said that some Traditions of the Church must have equal authority with Scripture as the commands of a Prince have equal force and power upon Subjects whether by word of mouth delivered or by writing So the word of God written or delivered is still the word of God and of equal power And if you say that the Apostolical Tradition cannot be the word of God I ask you whether the other part of the Apostles that have left us nothing in writing were not as well inspired of the Holy Ghost as they that did you cannot sure deny it and they were too the greater part of the Twelve Now the Church of Christ still retains many things of their Doctrine thorgh we have none of their writing and sure we are to give as much credit to those that writ not as those that did I ask you again whether it be not a point of faith that the whole Scripture taken together of the Old and New Testament is the word of God and again whether all that Scripture especially in those things which concern Faith and Salvation be not most clear from corruption and again that we have the true genuine and legitimate sense of that Scripture is a point of faith too I believe you will not deny any one of these to be a point of your Faith I am sure they are all of mine so you must first acknowledge that I give as great an honour to Scripture as your self and then if we both admit those three positions as principles of Faith we must necessarily admit of Traditions for we have no Authority but that to justifie them and if we do not admit those for principles our Faith it self is wholly vain Then besides these three principles of Faith there are others also which we have only by Tradition as that the Symbol of our Faith is Canonical and Apostolical Then that Infants are to be baptized Then that those who are baptized by Hereticks are not to be re-baptized Then as is aforesaid that the blessed Mother of God alwayes remained a Virgin Then that in Baptism those words ought to be pronounced I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and that without them there can be no valid Baptisme Then that there is a certain and determinate number of Sacraments and what that number is All these things I say are not clearely to be found in Scripture but we must be beholding to the Authority of Tradition But last of all for Ecclesiastical Rites and Ceremonies it is manifest that we can have no other authority but Tradition and not Apostolicall for all those neither but some of them only from the Primitive Fathers that succeeded the Apostles in the Government of Christs Church and that sure it security enough for the practice and perswasion of any Christian for I have heard that a very ancient and most learned Father said that it was a piece of most insolent madnesse to dispute the doing of that which the Church of Christ throughout the whole world has always frequented and practised so 〈◊〉 you to it There were other wicked and idolatrous Kings as Abaz Manasses Amon and some others wicked though not idolaters but yet the use of the Divine Sacrifice and worship according to the Mosaical Law does appear still to have remained in the Temple of Solomon til the Babylonish captivity as is evident by several places of Scripture Then for the failing of the Synagogue in the time of Christ which you alledge it is not to be supposed that they failed from the true faith which was before profest but she with her ceremonies and Sacrifices was turned out of dores as was before typified in Abrahams bondwoman it does not therefore follow that the Church the true wife should be so too Then the Synagogue was therefore turned away because it was neither perfect nor sufficient to salvation Heb. 7.19 for so St. Paul tells us that the Law brought nothing to perfection and in that sense the ceremonies and Sacraments of the Synagogue are called by the same Apostle Gal. 4.9 weak and beggarly elements but now the Church of Christ is perfect and sufficient to salvation because it's Sacraments which are instituted by Christ carry with them a vertue of justification and taking away of sinnes the Sacrrments of the old Law only promised a Saviour but the Sacraments of the new give salvation Again the Synagogue contained only the shadow of future things as St. Paul speaks Heb. 10.1 Ioh. 1.9 but the Church contains the light it self which is Christ as St. Iohn assures us now the shadow must necessarily fly before the light the Synagogue therefore with the Mosaical Sacrifices ought to cease when the Church comes with Christ Last of all the Synagogue was instituted for servants the Church for sonnes now servants take wages of their masters for a time and so are dismist by their masters but sonnes succeed in the perpetual inheritance which the Apostles thus insinstates to the Galatians Gast out the bondwoman and her sonne Gal. 4.30 for the sonne of the bondwoman shall not be heire with the sonne of the free woman and so enough of difference I conceive is shewed between the Synagogue and the Church to shew you that the reason is not the same To
Romane from the most noble part the head of it and that she must be that Universal and for ever visible Church of Christ is plain because she ever has been so Let any man shew that any other Church has continued without errour or interruption and I will grant you all that you have said and can more require of me But if it be manifest that no one Church of Christ in the world has continued without errour or interruption but onely she it must follow that she is the onely true Church of Christ First the Jewish Church has been long since more then interrupted quite abrogated The Turkish or Mahumetan has not always been The Liaheran Calvinian and reformed Church of England are all new for they began with pretended reformation which was made by them and other particular Doctors so must of necessity imply novelty The Roman onely has persevered in its own place and ancient profession so must be for ever the Mother and Mistress of our faith as taught by the Spirit of God If any of you will say that your Church or any other their Church has continued visible and without errour I beg the favour onely to know by what name she was called and is what parts of the world she has possest does what pastors and Bishops she has had and still has what Kings and Emperours have adhered to her and still do What Hereticks have been condemned by her What Universities she hath confirmed What Churches and Monasteries built If none of this can be shown you must give me leave to persist in my former perswasion Now though I conceive enough said in my answer before as to the business of the popes being Anti-christ and that no obligation at all lyes upon me to prove a negative yet because that is so great a gudgeon and so vulgarly swallowed I shall undertake the taske a little further That you may better understand this controversie concerning Anti-christ you must know that the name of Anti-christ signifies as I am informed an enemy or adversary to Christ and that must be understood in a two fold manner first generally for any enemy of Christ as all Hereticks are and in that sense we are to understand the Apostle who tells us that even now there are many Antichrists that is many Hereticks that think evilly and maliciously of Christ of whom it follows in the Text They went cut from us but they are not of us and again in another chapter of the same Epistle And every spirit that confesseth not 1 John 4.3 that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist whereof you have heard that it should come and even now already it is in the world Secondly it is taken specially for the principall and grandest adversary of Christ of whom all the rest before spoken of are but forerunners and of this grand Antichrist it is that S. Paul speaks when he says 2 Thess 2 3 4. unless that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God c. Now first I shall prove that this special Antichrist is not yet come at all for it is agreed upon by all the learned that the Antichrist shall not come till after the overthrow and desolation of the Roman Empire and they ground themselves upon those express places in Daniel and the Revelations Dan 2.7 Rev. 17. but now we know that the Roman Empire is not yet over thrown therefore Antichrist cannot be yet come Then we finde in the Revelation Rev. 11.3.6 I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes clothed in sackcloath who shall have power to shut up heaven that it rain not in the dayes of their prophesie and have power over waters to turn them into blood c. but these two witnesses are not yet come fore Antichrist cannot yet be come himself In the second place I am to prove that the Pope is not Antichrist and first as before Antichrist is not to come but after the ruine of the Romane Empire but the Pope came and still is in the flourishing condition of the Romane Empire Then Antichrist is to kill those two witnesses or Prophets before spoken of but this the Pope has not done therefore Then again Antichrist is not to reign above three years and a half Dan. 7.25 Re. 11.2 Rev. 5.3 as first the Prophet Daniel informes us for a time and times and half a time and in the Revelation it is said for forty and two moneths in one place and a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes in another place but now the Pope has raigned for many ages Again the Antichrist is to be received by the Jews for their Messiah John 7.43 2 Thess 10. as both S. John and S. Paul do testifie but the Pope I am sure never yet was and very improbable it is that he will ever be received by them for their Mossiah Lastly Antichrist is to make fire come down from Heaven Rev. 13.13 as we see said in the Revelation but none of this has the Pope ever done therefore he can never be thought to be Antichrist Thus I have been bold to inlarge upon this particular it being so vulgar an errour and the grand pretext of all the schisme and heresie in the whole world for to justifie their defection from the Bishop of Rome and indeed it was a very artificial trick of the Devil and some of your Doctors to fasten that dirt upon him for who will be so mad to keep in communion with that man of sin or the Antichrist as most of your common people do most ignorantly presume him to be And so I have done with all your Papers but I hope I have not yet done with you and presume that you will do me the honour very speedily to see me that we may sit and discourse something further upon these particulars so the Lord give you understanding in all things and enable me to prove more fully that I am Mistress N. your most faithfull friend to serve you M. Postscript I pray you dear Mistress N. do me the favour to come and dine with me to morrow and bring your Husband with you so you shall more obbige your true friend M. So my Lady immediately closed up the Papers into one Packet which she sealed and presently sent it away by her servant FINIS THE DIPPER DROWNED By endeavouring to wade in the unfathomable depths of SCRIPTVRE Whilst the FEMALE DUELLISTS Swim over him 1 Cor. 27. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise London Printed by Peter Lillicrap 1661. THE DIPPER DROWNED By endeavouring to wade in the unfathom'd depths of Scripture c. Mris N. had no sooner received these papers but she went immediately with them to her husband the Doctor imploring his
and yet that use was not universal neither as it appears in the second chapter of the Acts where it is said that the people continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine Acts. 2 4â—.46 and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers and verse 46. And they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread there is no mention made at all of the Cup. But howsoever the use was then and there we are sure in the Western Church the Cup was never permitted to the Laity and that for many reasons First considering the multitude of Communicants some old some young some weak and some strong there would be great danger of spilling that most precious liquour 2. It would be very difficult to finde a commodious Vessel to contain a quantity equal to such a multitude from whence it might be taken without danger of effusion 3. The Sacrament under the species of Wine could not easily be conserv'd for the use of the sick because it would be apt to grow sower and corrupt to the moving of a nauceousness and a vomit in the Receiver 4. Without great danger of effusion it could not be easily carry'd from place to place as it should be to the sick 5. It would happen sometimes that some high irreverencies would be offer'd to that most celestial and worthy Sacrament 6. We have it related and attested from some most holy learned persons that some Religious men though Lay Brothers were importunate to receive in both kindes whilst the Priest was in the action of the Sacrament the Patin or Plate where the sacred Host lay appeared full of blood to the astonishment and satisfaction of all the beholders and the Petitioners gave off the importunity of their former request Over above all this we are to beleeve that it was a most ancient custom in the Primitive Church that the Laity should communicate but under one species Nay that it came from the very Tradition of the Apostles because the beginning of it could never yet bee shew'd nor can by any man Besides we know that there were some amongst the Jews that never did nor could drink Wine and in some Christian Countries there is a great difficulty and at some times almost an impossibility to get any Wine Now as for your inference that if the Church could take away one species it might as well take away both I utterly deny for the whole Christ being no lesse under one species than under both and as much fruit of comfort and spiritual nutriment to be had from one as well as the other the Church neither does nor can deprive any Christian of the Benefit of the whole Sacrament To the fourth and last I grant again that the Priest who is to consecrate does and ought to consecrate both species because he is to perform the representation of our Lords passion therefore the body and blood together are consecrated under both their proper species and the Priest in the person of the whole people present offereth and taketh it under both species and the whole people in the person of the Priest do or ought to beleeve that they receive and drink the very blood of Christ by a spirituall kind of taking which is very sufficient for them so there can be in them no guilt of omission at all Now here again give me leave to return to you some Texts that you may bee pleas'd to consider of and I hope you will receive the same satisfaction that I have done in the full right and reason of the point that it is sufficient for the people to receive the Sacrament under one kind only First be pleas'd to examine throughly the sixth Chapter of Saint Iohns Gospel where our Saviour so often calls himself the bread of life Joh. 6 3â— 33 34. My father giveth you the true bread from heaven For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world Then again Iesus said unto them I am the bread of life 48. And again I am the bread of life Again 50. this is that bread which came down froâ— heaven that any man may eat thereof and not dye And again I am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eate of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Here our Saviour is pleâ—s'd to mention nothing but Bread Secondly St. Luke assures us Luk. 24.30 that our Saviour gave the Sacrament himself but in one kinde to the two Disciples going to 〈◊〉 And it come to passe as he sate at meat with them he tâ—â—k bread and blessed it and brake and gave to them and inmediately their eyes were opened c. And this was the onely time that our Saviour gave the Sacrament to the Lairy Our Saviour therefore taught us in St. Mat. 6.11 Matthew to pray daily for our substantial Bread no mention at all of Drink Then we find in the Acts of the Apostles immediately after the Ascention of Christ that the people continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread Act. 2.42.46 and in prayers And again They continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking of bread c. Now for a further confirmation of all this St. Paul makes this inference 1 Cor. 5.7 8. For even Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the feast neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth And in the tenth Chapter explains it thus For we being many meaning Priests and people are one Bread and one body 1 Cor. 10.17 for we are all partakers of that one Bread All these Texts as I am inform'd the Holy Fathers of the Primitive Church understood as the Church does now and being at the point of death themselves would never communicate but in one species To the Proofes that you are pleased to produce against the Sacrifice of the Masse I answer thus To the first Those Texts of the Apostle which you urge are clear to another sence than what you propose For you are to understand a twofold offering of Christ yet both reall and true for in both Christ is truly offered and sacrificed The first way of offering is that with which he once offered his living body and blood to God the Father upon the Altar of the Cross for the sinnes of the whole world and salvation of mankinde and of that great offering the Apostle onely speaks there shewing the excellency of that sacrifice above the sacrifices of the Law Of which sacrifice speaking likewise to the Ephesians Ephes 5.2 he saith he hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savâ—n Now this grand oblation is represented by our holy Mother the Church
c. and assures them that that is the will of God In fine it is plain that the true Christian and evangelicall liberty is nothing else but as S. Gal. 5. Paul pleaseth to define it a redemption or absolution of us from the servitude of the law and of sin made for us by Jesus Christ and by which as he says in another place being dedicated to God and righteousness we receive the adoption of sons John 8.36 and of this freedom it was that our Saviour spake in S. Johns Gospel if the son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed and that freedom God of his mercy bestow upon us all Now that Humane Constitutions the commands of Councils and Bishops are to be kept and all Ecclesiasticall rites and ceremonies duely observed I prove by express Scriptures thus S. Luke recites our Saviours words thus speaking to the seventy that he sent out Luke 10.16 He that heareth you beareth me and he that dispiseth you dispiseth me and he that despiseth me dispiseth him that sent me Observe I pray you how he that despiseth the Prelates and Ecclesiasticall constitutions of Christs Church is judg'd by Christ himself to despise him and his holy Gospel S. 1 Thess 4.2 8. Paul speaks home to the Thessalonians in this point first tells them of the commandments that he had given them then afterwards be therefore that despiseth despiseth not man but God who hath also given us his holy Spirit Moses and Aaron when the people murmured against them told them frequently Exod. Levit. Numb Deut. that they heard their murmuring against the Lord and again what are we your murmuring is not against us but against the Lord. Observe what S. John says We are of God 1 John 4.6 he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the spirit of truth from the spirit of errour you had best therefore have a care of your selves Nay S. Paul proceeds a little more terribly in the point Let every soul saith he Rem 13.1 2. be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Now that men have power to make Laws and Statutes to obliedge consciences it is plain by the president of the Apostles Acts 15.19 who commanded the Christians then to abstain from things strangled offerings unto Idols and from blood with divers other Acts which they have left us Then we finde how S. Paul himself made Laws that you will not dare deny obedience to as for the constituting of Bishops concerning widdows and women to be veiled and not to preach in Churches of not for saking the unfaithful husband or wife and of many prophane and meer secular things and judgements as to be seen throughout in his Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles and yet S. Paul himself was but a man Nay it is plain the Priest of the old Law had power of making and altering of Laws Deut. 12. 1 Sam. 7 1 Kings 18. in mater of discipline we finde in Deuteronomy how the Lord commanded that no Altar should be set up but where was the Ark of the Covenant and yet Samuel whilest the Ark remained in Shilo set up an Altar at Masphar and Elias did the same thing in mount Carmel All this is abundantly confirmed by our Saviour Christ himself who bids us Mat. 18.17 if one shall neglect to hear to tell it to the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto then as a heathen man and a Publican Then for Traditions it is altogether as plain that they are to be observed first S. 2 Thess 2 Paul tells us that we must hold fast the Traditions we have received as well by his word as his Epistle Then that the Church of Christ ha's been and is to be governed by custome is playn by-another text of St. Pauls where he saies wee have no such custom nor the Church of God Again to the Philipians he says finally Brethren whatsoever things are true Phil. 4.8.9 whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whotsoeverthings are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any prayse think on these things Those things which ye have both learned and received and hard and seen in me doe c. Now what are all these things but Traditions and ecclesiasticall constitutions Acts 15.41.16 Wee finde in the Acts how Paul and Silas went through Syria and Cylicia confirming the Churches Acts 15.41 and so afterwards wee find how Paul Silas and Timothy passed through cities delivering the Doctrines and ordinances which were decreed by the Apostles Elders that were at Jerusalem observe that ordinances or decrees not one decree onely of the cessation of the legall rites and ceremonies Our Saviour not only gave a power to plant his Church by preaching but also governing which includes the power of making laws Acts 21.28 with out which there can be neither living nor governing and that is plain likewise out of the Acts take heed therefore unto your selses and to the flock over which the Lord hath made you overseers to feed as your translation reads it but ours to govern the Church of God and indeed what is a Bishop or an overseer made for unless to govern the preaching part may be performed by other inferiour priests and Deacons And does not Paul to the Hebrews call them Rulers Heb. 13.7.17 as in one place remember them which have the rule over you and again obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may doe it with joy and not with griefe for that is unprofitabele for you Then the same Apostle requires the Corrinthians that all things de done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14 40. now it is plain that order supporteth a law and rule which the Church of Christ is or ought to be governd by Lastly St. Paul may very well conclude this business and dispute of Tradition which his positive command to the Thessilonians 2 Thess 3.6 Now we command you Bretheren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye with draw your selves from every Brother that walketh dissorderly and not after the Tradi tion which he received of us if this be not cleer I declare for my part that I can see no light To what you Alledge against our days of fasting and abstinence and especially the holy fast of Lent I answer thus To the first I say that our Saviour in the Gospells that you cite says not one word of fasting but endeavouring to take away that Jewish errour and superstition
three full weeks I eat no pleasent bread neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth neither did I anoint my filf at all c. Then said the Lord unto Daniel fear not ver 12. for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and to chasten thy self before thy God thy words were heard c. heer you see how the Prophet Daniel did abstain from meat and wine and God reproved and loved him for it In the like maner I shall prove fasting to be a holy institution for the maceration of the body the explusion of the evil Spirit the imploring of divine grace and the imitation of Jesus Christ by express scripture in S. Math. Gospell thus First our Saviour saith Mat. 9.15 can the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn so long as the Bridegroom is with them but the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them Luke 5.35 36. and then they shall fast and in S. Lukes Gospell he says can ye make the Children of the Bride-chamber fast whilst the Bridegroome is with them but the days shall come c. and then shall they fast in those days And these words of our Saviours were abundantly fullfiled by the Apostles as you may see in the Acts. Acts 13.2.3 first as they ministred unto the Lord and fasted the holy Ghost said c. And again when they had fasted and prayed c. Acts. 14.23 And in the next chapter it is said and when they had Ordained them olders in every Church and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the Lord c. S. Paul declareth to the Corinthians how he and others that were ingaged in the service of the Church should behave themselves thus 2 Coâ— 6.4.5 In all things approving our selves as the ministers of God c. in watchings and in fastings And that this duty of fasting was acceptable to God even before Christianity Jonah 3.5 6 7 8 9 10. we may see in the example of Ninniveh So the people of Ninniveh beleived God that is the word which was preacht to them by the Prophet Jonah and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them and it followes it was decreed by the King and all his Nobles saying let neither man beast heard nor flock tast any thing let them not feed nor drink water but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth c. And God saw their works and that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and be did it not Thus you may see how acceptable to God this solemne fast of the Ninnivits was and yet you will question that duty But to summe up all this in a few words Mat. 6.16 17 18. I pray you observe what our Saviour says in S. Mathews Gospell Moreover when ye fast be not as the Hypoerites of a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast verily I say unto you they have their reward but thou when thou fastest annoint thy bead and wash thy face that thou appear not unto men to fast but unto thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly Heer our Saviour does not onely implicitely commend this duty of fasting to us but prescribes us the manner of it and assures us it is meritorious for he saith that God shall reward it openly I think this should be enough to satisfy any reasonable Christians Why then should our lenten fast so much offend you when it is so ancient in the Church as I have been informed ever since the Apostles times and ordained in humble imitation of our Saviour who as the scripture tells us when he had fasted forty days and forty nights Mat. 4.2 he was afterwards an bungred can we performe think you a more Christian duty Deut. 9. than to follow so great an example so far as we can Again we finde that Moses fasted fourty days and fourty nights And that the Prophet Elijah did the same 1 Kings 16. Nay how much this duty of fasting is pleasing to the Lord we may finde in the Prophet Joel who crys out Joel 2.15 16 18. blow the Trumpit in Sion fanctify a fast call a solemn assembly gather the people sanctify the congregation assemble the elders gather the Children and those that suck the breast let the Bridegroom goe forth of his chamber and the Bride out of her closet c. Then will the Lord pitty his people c. The Prophet David frequently acknowledgeth that he did humble his soul with fasting Psalms and the Scripture throughout is full of nothing more then that God did accept of that humiliation still when it was hearty 1 Kings 21. Tob. 12. Luke 2. as Abab Hezekiah Tobiah Judith Hester Daniel the Niunivites Ann the widdow and agreat many more that would be infinite to recount So for a close of all I shall onely put you in minde that there were a sort of Devills of whom our Saviour himself says Mark 9.29 that that kinde is not to be east out but by prayer and fasting who then shall cast out Devils from them that are enemies Profest against that great and holy duty of fasting To what you alledge against our Vows especially those of Chastity and single-life though in one Priests themselve To the First I answer that I grant indeed that Vows do reduce us into Bondage but it is only to Christ and such a slavery is the nighest libercy It is such a servitude as the Apostle speaks of being freed from sin ye are made the servants of Righteousnesse and to God and to serve God is to Raign with him from whence it is plain that our obligation to pay our Vows does in nothing repugne or Streighten our Christian liberty no more then our obligation to keep the Commandements does and just so as the Transgression of the Commandements throws us into the servitude of sin so does the breach or not observance of our Vows It is true the Evangelicall Counfells are at first free but after a promise is once made they become Obligatory shall we make a conscience to observe our Contracts with men and violate our Covenants with God God forbid The Lord commands us not to make Vows but to pay and render them when they are made as Matrimony before a Contract is free but when the Contract is once made it is then firm and indissolveable and therefore impossible unlesse in our Saviours case to procure a Divorce At first every man hath in his Free-Will to vow or not to vow but to pay the vow being once made is so necessary that a man cannot recede from it without hazard of his salvation Our Saviour says That no man setting his hand to the Plow and looking
not onely a power over all Bishops but Princes That it is not in the power of the Pope neither by himself nor with all his Cardinalls and councells to determine any matter of faith I prove thus by Scripture 1 We finde in Isay that we are commanded to the law and to the Testimony Isay 8.20 if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them as the Jews were commanded to their law and to their Testemony Luke 16.29 so are we Christians to our Scripture for our judge of all things in difference so our Savior brings Abraham in the Gospell saying that they have Moses the Prophets let them hear them woe are not therefore to have recourse for any matter of faith to Pope or any power else whatsoever 2 Again our Saviour commands us thus Starch the Scriptures for in them ye thinke ye have eternall life and they are they which testify of me John 5.39 Christ therefore remits us to Scripture onely for a judge of controversie 3 Again we finde in the Acts of the Apostles how those of Berea were commended acknowledgeed to be more noble than those of Thessalonie Acts 17.11 in that they received the word with all redyness of minde and Searthed the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Heer we finde I say that those of Berea did not overhastyly beleive what the Apostles themselves delivered to them but did examine all things by the Rule of Scripture is it not therefore fit that we should follow their example and acknowledge nothing but Scripture for our Rule and judge 4 It is manifest by reason that the judge of all controversie in matter of faith ought to be infallible for if the judge should erre all that follow his judgement must erre likewise now it is plain on tone side that Scripture is infallible being the word of God which cannot erre and on the other side that all men are lyars and subject to errours as we finde in the Romans Rom. 3.4 Psal 111 God is true but every man is a lyar Now the pope is but a man all the Cardinalls are but men nay councells themselves are but collections of men no man therefore that builds himself upon their judgement in point of faith can have any security at all but onely by depending upon the infallible and true Pâ—â—le of Scripture 5 Counsels we know have erred in matters of faith and made decrees one against another at least altered one anothers constitutions and if that any such things as councells are to be why should not lay men be made a part of them since they are a part of the Church as well as any preists or Bishops and their salvation as much concerned in those decrees as any Clergy men whatsoever it should be therefore as necessary for them to be present there That the Scripture it self is and ought to be the entire Rule of faith and that neither your whole Church nor all the Traditions of it have any power to prescribe to to us in matter of Faith I prove thus The authority of Scripture is greater then the Authority of the Church for the Church ought to be govern'd by Scripture the Word of God we know is to yield to no man nor is it lawfull for any man or power of men whatsoever to oppose or diminish it 2. We find expresly in Deuteronomy Ye shall not adde unto the Word which I command you neither shall you diminish out from it Deut. 4.8 that ye keep thn Comandements of the Lord your God which I command you all your tradition therefore are to cast away for they adde to the written Word of God 3. Again We read in another place of the same Book thus Deut. 1â— 32 Whatsoever thing I command you observe to do it thou shalt not adde thereto nor diminish from it That therefore is to be done onely which God commands what men require or adde of their own is unlawfull and not to be obey'd 4. St. Paul declares his mind in this particular very freely to the Galatians thus but though we or an Angell from Heaven preach any other Gospell unto you then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed and presently repents As we said before so say I now again If any man preach any other Gospel unto you Gallat 1. thaâ— that ye have received let him be accursed I say therefore that we are to admit of no Traditions nor any thing else besides the Gospell Again We have most solemnly said in the Revelation of St. John Revel 22.18.19 That if any man shal take away from the Words of the Book of that Prophesie God shal take away his part out of the Book of Life And so if any man shall add unto these things God shall adde unto him the plague that are written in that Book Therefore it is not lawfull to adde your Traditions 6. 2 Tim. 3.16 17. St. Paul assures Timothy that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousnesse that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works Therefore we have no need of Traditions Our Saviour tells such Observers of Traditions as you are Mat. 15.6 Thus have you made the Commandements of God of none effect by your traditions and the Apostle gives the like caution to the Colossians Col. 2.8 beware least any man spoil you through Phlosophy and vain deceit 1 Pet. 1.18 after the tradition of men after the rudiaments of the World and not after Christ And St. Peter puts the whole World in mind how they were redeem'd from their vain conversation receiv'd by Tradition from their Fathers Thus you see how much Jusus Christ and his Apostles were carefull to forewarn and forbid us and yet you will restore to us the vanity of those very Traditions 8. Again Rom. 1.17 how can that be said to be determined by the whole Church which the Pope with his Cardinals Gal. 7.11 and it may be his Bishops assembled in Councell does determine Heb. 10.38 when the Church is a Congregation of all the faithfull and a connexon of them in the true saith by which the just man lives as the Apostle tells us It is not therefore what all the Popes Cardinalls Bishops or Councills tell us though backt with all the strength of your Traditions which is to be believed for they can be at most but a part of the Church not the whole Church 9. Then Lastly when you speak of the whole Church you speak of what you no ways understand for it is a spirituall thing and hidden from the eyes of men it cannot be visible for if it were then it could not be an Article of faith as wee know it is so I would fain know what obligation can possibly come from such an
unknown thing Apostles Creed and that is impossible for the eyes of men to discover or no find it out where it is That not onely your Church which I take to be but a part but the whole Church of Christ may and must erre sometimes in faith I prove thus The Jewish Synagouge where was the true Church of God and which was the true Type of the Church of Christ made often saylings in â—â—â—ch as first in the time of Moses when Aaren with all the people worshipt a Calf Exod. 32.4 Again in the time of Elias when there remain'd none faithfull but himself as he himself complains I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts because the Children of Israell have forsaken thy Covenant thrown down thy Altars 1 Kings 19 14. slain the Prophets with the sword and I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away Then in the time of the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremy Isai 1.7 when we see there was an universall revolt of the people from the Lord. And Isay complains how the Ox knew his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib But Israel ha's not known me c. And the Prophet Jeremy complains thus for my people have committed two evills Jer. 3.13 they have forsaken me the fountains of living waters and heat'd them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water c. And yet more plainly we may see in the Chronicles 2 Chro. 15.3 how Azariah the Prophet says that for a long season Israell was without a true God and without a teaching Priest and without Law And then last of all the Synagogue was seen to fail when it felf and all it's devises were abolisht by Jesus Christ And I hence conclude that if the Jewish Church did so grosly fail then the Christian Church may for the reason is the same of one and th' other Again that the Church shall fail in the time of Antichrist is rertain 2 Thes 2. for so the Apostle foretells thus Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sins be revealed the Son of Pertution c. that is agreed on all sides to be Antichrist Dan. 9.27 but now Antichrist is revealed long time to the Bishop of Rome therefore your which you pretend to be universall ha's fail'd in faith long since We find it says again in Daniell that he shall cause the sacrifice and the Oblation to sence and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate c. Here is a plain Prophets of the fayling of the Church 4. The Church is frequently compar'd to the Moon in the Scripture Cant. 10. Revel 12.1 now the Moon we know is often fayling therefore the Church is not amiss compar'd to it and it's failings we have manifestly seen by the oppositions that some one or two honest and godly men have ever made to it as of Late John Wickliffe John Huss Luther Calvin and others to this very day 3. Lastly that your Church may and must erre I shall adde but this one Argument to prove out of Scripture that your Pope is Antichrist therefore your whole Church must be Antichristian and by consequence the most failing Church in the World The first not of Antichrist is that he must fall away from the faith 2 Thes 3. and that hee ha's done wee in defending of Purgatory invocation of Sauls sacrifice of the Mass c. vers 3. The second Note is that he shal sit in the Temple of God so the Pope sits in Rome as the Head Church of Christ vers 4. The third mark is that he shall shew himself as God and this the Pope plainly does when he makes himself the visible head of Christs Church The fourth mark is to exalt and oppose himself to and above all that is called God This the Pope does whilst he exalts himself above all Ecclesiasticall and civill power All these marks we have of him in that Chapter of the Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians 1 John 2.23 Then a fifth mark we have of him out of St. Iohn that he must deny Jesus Christ This we know by the corruption of the Doctrine that concerns the mediation of Christ and introducing of new Mediators The sixth mark we have again that he is a Lyar and a worker of false miracles and that we see your Pope to do still at Lorettoy and other places The seventh and last is plainly set down by the same St. John in his Revellation that he causeth all both small and great Rich and poor free and bound to receive a mark in their Right-hands or in their Fore heads and the Pope plainly does when he imposeth his Character upon some and marks upon all when by the unction of his Chrisme hee signs the Fore heads of Christians when they take your Sacrament of Confirmation Revel 13.16 c. If this be not enough to prove your Pope to be the great Beast that leads you all into perdition I must profess I know not what is so I shal forbear to offer any further Arguments My Lady had no sooner read this Paper but she fell to work upon it as formerly and she was the rather encouraged being promis'd to be the last of her troubles upon this occasion So she proceeds To what you alledge against our Pope or Bishop of Rome that he neither is nor can be head of the Church of Christ or St. Peters Successor or have any power over other Bishops I answer thus To the first I answer that the Apostle there in that Chapter to the Romans speaks of Christ only as he is head of the Church by the internal influencies of his gifts of grace and so it is true that all the faithfull are fellow members as well Saint Peter himself and the Pope too as any other Christians nor in this sense can the Pope be thought to be head at all for all are to receive grace from Christ the head not from Saint Peter or the Pope But if you speak of Christ as he is head of the Churrh by his eternal Government of it then not only he himself but Peter also is the head for though to him Primarily and in his proper power the Government belongeth so secondarily it belongs to the other and by a power derived from him And whereas I know here you will be ready to reply that the Church has two heads which is monstrous I answer that a Kingdom is not to be said to have two heads when the King is absent and a Vice-king present with it for one is subordinate to another so the Church may have two heads one primary and the other secondary as aforesaid I le give you another example out of the Apostle who tels us that the man is the head of the woman yet the woman has another
plain in this particular as we see it is for St. Peter and his Successors the very Analogy of reason would induce that Jesus Christ should appoint somebody for that great charge to govern his whole Church First let us look upon the Anology of the Christian Church and that of the Jews The Mosaicall synagogue was but a Type or shadow of the Church of Christ but the Synagogue was always govern'd by one visible head Namely the High Priest to whom all others were subject as is apparent out of the Books of Exod. Levit. Deut. Therefore the Church of Christ ought to be so governed For it is not fit that the more perfect government which by all is acknowledg'd to be Monarchy should be over the shadow that we know is more imperfect then the substance and and not over the substance it self which is the Church of Christ And as the Jewish Synagogue was the Type of our Church so undoubtedly their High Priests were the Types of our Popes and as they presided over the whole Jewish Nation as to the externall government so our Popes in like manner do over all Christian people Now I ask you how it can stâ—â— with reason That Moyses Peut 17.8 9. who was a Type of Christ too should provide for the Synagogue that if there should arise a matter of difficulty that they should come unto the Priests and Levites and to the Judge that shall be in those dayes and enquire and they shall shew thee the sentence of Judgement which are his own words and that Jesus Christ should neglect to provide in the same manner for his own beloved Spouse his Church Since then Monarchical Government both in Church and state is the best of Governments and was the practis'd government of the Synaogue and amongst the jews and is the only government in the triumphant Church in heaven why should not the same provision be made by Iesus Christ for his poor Militant Church upon Earth Or why should you or any body else oppose that happiness of ours which Christ has appointed for us unless it be out of a design to bring your selves and the whole Church to confusion and to do as was done in those days when there was no King in Israel when every one did what seem'd good in his own eyes which unhappy licence that you call liberty shall be ever part of my Litany Judg. 17.6 Judg. 21.25 that God would please to deliver me and all his faithfull servants from To what you alledge against the power of the Pope that he can neither by himself nor with all his Cardinalls and councills about him he able to determine any matter of Fath. I answer thus To the First I say that you are clearly in a great errour to think thiâ— the Law and the Testimony or any written thing was or could be judge of any controversie or difficulty whatsoever but the High Priest as appears by the Text aforecited out of Deuteronomy Then those words to the Law and to the Testimony are to be understood far otherwise than you imagine as is plain by the precedent words which are these and when they shall say unto you seek unto them that have familiar spirits and to wizards that peep and that mutter should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead then immediatly follows to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them c. Now it is plain that the Prophet speaks here only against those who were wont to consult witches wizards and Sorcerers about future events and therefore they were remitted partly to the Law Deut. 18.9 1 Kings 22 7. which did expresly prohibit all that and partly to the Testimony of the Prophets who were appointed by God to foretell futurities to them The sense therefore of those words to the Law and to the Testimony 1 Sam. 28.7 is this if you will be inform'd of future events you ought not to consult witches wizards or sorcerers as Saul did because God had forbidden that by his Law to which I therefore remitted you but consult ye the Prophets of God whose office it is to foretell all future things that ye ought to know What does this make to the derision of difficult controversies or determination of matters of Faith Nothing at all sure unless you can think this Argument to be good It is not Lawful to consult Witches Wizards and Sorecters therefore onely Scripture is to be the Judge of controversies This sure is a very pitifull Argument and yet such as that do your great Rabbins and principall Doctors make use of to abuse you and themselves To the second I grant that Jesus Christ disputing with the Jews who denyd him to be the Son of God does remit them to the Scriptures but not to them only neither for he proves himself to be so by other Testimonies First he appeals to the Testimony of John the Baptist saying you sent to John and he gave witnesse to the truth Joh. 1.34 now his Testimony was this Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the World and again I have given witnesse to the truth Joh. 5.36 because this is the Son of God Secondly he refers them to the Testimony of the miracles that he wrought amongst them But I saith he have greater witnesse then that of John for the Works which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that I do Mat. 3.27 Luk. 9.35 Joh. 5.39.40 bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me Thirdly he refers them to the Testimony of God the Father saying And the Father that sent me he hath given Testimony of me that was when he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him Fourthly and Lastly hee refers them as you urge to the Testimony of the Scriptures saying Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternall life So much as to say if you will not accept of the three first Testimonies of me which sure are most efficatious ones otherwise I had never produced them yet at least ye cannot reject the Testimony of the Scriptures in which you glory so much they themselves if you search and examine them as you should do give Testimony of me that Jame the Messias promis'd by God Why therefore will ye not believe c. Thus in my Opinion your Argument retorts it self upon you more then oppugneth us For you contend that only Scripture is necessary for the decision of controversies and difficulties in faith and yet you see that Christ himself does not so but remits us to those other Testimonies as well as Scripture now the Catholick Church does in this as in all things else imitate our blessed Lord and Saviour for in those controversies which she hath with all Adversaries she does not use the testimony of Scriptures
World And just as each single Sheep so long as it remains in the society and Communion with the Flock and under the aare and custody of the Shepherd is safe and secure from the mouths of wolves so is each single Christian so long as he remains joyned and tyed up in the unity of the Church that is submits to the sence and doctrine of the whole Church is never err'd yet in matter of faith nor ever can now I presume you may require to know of me whether all and every one of this Church hath this great assistance and direction of the Holy Spirit that he cannot erre in matter of Faith I do readily answer that every one of the faithfull has it but by way of dependance upon the Church and from it So long therefore as any man remains in conjunction with the Church he cannot erre if he separates or dissents from it he must needs of necessity fall into an errour which I 'le thus explain to you by two Examples or similitudes The one may be taken from the proportion of a humane body in which we see that all the members do jointly and severally paticipate of the vitall and sensitive spirits by which life is preserved in them all but yet they have these spirits derivatively from and by way of dependency upon the head and heart for it is from them as from a double Fountain those spirits are derived into the other members so that when the Channells and passages by which that derivation and distribution is made are stopt or intercepted it must follow necessarily that the other Members must be left destitute of spirits and be rendred incapable of performing their Office but being open all will be well So likewise in the Church all the faithfull which are as it were Members of it have a certain assistancy and direction from the holy Ghost but by way of dependency upon the Pope who is as the head of the Church and from Councils which are safe and secure from all danger of errour and infidelity In the last place as sheep that go astray from the flock are out of the protection of the Shepherd and by consequence must fall into the danger of Wolves so Christians which depart from the common sence and doctrine of the Church must of necessity fall into millions of errours for want of the assistance of the holy spirit which is the Judge and Guardian of that I pray you good Mistriss N. have a care how you expose your self to this terrible danger To the Fifth I utterly deny that generall Councells have er'd in matters of faith it is possible that some particular Councells might or some false Councells more truely call'd conventicles Then that some councills have determined variously as to discipline and Ecclesiasticall government I grant for variety of times requires diversity of Laws and God himself gives the president of that who changed many things in the new Testament that were commanded in the Old And as for Lay-men to be present in Councels we do not at all deny so they be as witnesses defenders Counsellors Suggestors or Executioners of their decrees but never as to have a Voyc in any Councill or Church businesse and this is plain by those Gouncils that we find in the Acts celebrated by the Apostles and so clearly in every Age since and why should Lay-men have to do more now Now give me leave to reply something to you and I 'le be short in my proof having been so long in my answers That the Pope with a generall Council may detrmine what is of Fath and what is not I pove by expresse Scripture thus We find in Scripture some Councils celebrated by the Apostles that have actually made such determinations As first for the taking off the burthen of Circumcision and other Indaicall obligations we find the result thus For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Act. 15.28 29. to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things that they abstein from meats offered to Idols and from blood and from things strangled and from Fornication from which if ye keep your selves ye shalde well See here the form of an Apostolical Councell First the Text tells us that the Apostles and Elders came together and that St. Peter was President and Prolocutor then they issued out their decrees with this authoritative preface It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Now do you find that any faithfull Christians then did question their authority ver 6.7 as you do now that of other Conncells assembled in like manner and assisted by the same spirit Thus you see that Councell did decree somethings to be necessary for a time which were not simply and of themselves matters of faith and to take off from the Jews many things that were to them before matters Faith as circumcision and other mosaicall Statutes Why should not I say the Church now have the same power when the same necessity shall require we have I 'm sure the same Christ the fame holy spirit the same faith the same Church why not the fame power in Councills We read again of another Council celebrated by the Apostles when they wer to part one from another Apostles Creed and to go preach the Gospel as the Lord had commanded them over the whole World when they met together and upon a large debate delivered to us the Creed which you your selves and I 'm sure the whole Church of Christ submits to as as points of faith and is to this day called the Apostles Creed and for some of those Articles we have no Scripture at all nor any other authority but this that they were so delivered by the Apostles and I conceive it a duty incumbent upon all good Christians what the wise Man adviseth Prov. 22.28 not to remove the antient Land-marks which our Fathers have set In what respect a Councill or Convocation of Elders was with God and ever taken for the representative body of the Church is plain in many places of Exodus Exod 19.3 7 8. especially that where God commands Moses to say to the House of Jacob and tell the Children of Israell c. And yet afterwards it is said of Moses that he came and call'd for the Flders onely of the people and laid before their faces all these Words which the Lord commanded him c. And though it is plain that the Elders of the people onely answered with whom Moses was talking Deut. 32.7 yet the Text tell us That all the people answered together and said c. Which could dot be â—nless onely so representatively by their convocation of Elders How well therefore does the same Moses express this in his fong when he saith Remember the days of old confider the years of many generations Ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee c. I should be infinite to run through all the
the second I deny that there shall be an universal falling away of the faithfull in the time of Antichrist but of some onely And in that methinks you contradict your self for you say that Antichrist is already come and yet you affirm that there are some faithfull lest Then it is a great dispute as I have understood amongst the learned whether the Apostle out of whom you take your proofe speaks there of a falling away from the faith for many of the most learned are of opinion that he only speaks of a falling away from the Romane Empire But that euriosity I shall not further meddle withall it being out of our road and above our pitch To the Third In truth methinks it is a very sad course of arguing that most of your Church are pleased to use that is if you can find any one Text that is never so obscure if it can be fashioned at all for your turn you will entirely insist upon it though there be hundreds of clear Texts to the contrary As for example This Text you urge out of Daniel is very dark That he shall cause the Sacrifice and oblation to cease I am sure these Texts are very clear That the gates of hell shall not prevail against it again I am alwayes with you to the end of the world and again I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and again The Church is the pillar and foundation of truth These Texts I say are clear and need no Interpreter the other that you quote is so obscure that the greatest learning in the world may be at a stand to understand it For most understand that place of the failing of the Synagogue and the cessation of the Jewish Sacrifices not at all of the Christian Church And those that do interpret it of the Christian Church make it to be the cessation of publick worship only not of the Christian faith To the Fourth I grant that the Church is frequently compared to the Moon but never as to her failings but in these respects following First as the Moon in the beginning of the moneth is very litle and so by litle and litle encreaseth till she grow full andperfect so the Christian Church in the beginning of its rise took up but very litle room afterward encreased and spead it self by degrees that at last it should diffuse it self over the face of the whole world Secondly as the Moon receives corporeal light from the Sun so the Church receives its light of faith and holiness from the Sun of righteousness that is Christ Thirdly as the Moon is subject to changes so is the Church in this life for sometimes she flourisheth in the splendor of peace sometimes is oppressed with persecutions but never totally fayles it may be clouded for a while but never quite extinguished You see then in what the similitude between the Moon and the Church consists and no similitude as I am informed is obliged to run upon four feet The Church cannot at all be like the Moon in her failings but more resembles the earth as she is likewise called in Scripture for her firmness stability unmoveableness Then why should you bring that similitude to the prejudices of the Church when there are so many to the favour and honour of her throughout the sacred Scripture where you may find that she is as frequently called the Sun as the Moon an enclosed Garden a Fountain a Paradise a fair Dove the City of God the Land of the living the woman cloathed with the Sun the Queen in a vesture of gold c. and many more such honorable titles as those you cannot but your own reading find out in Scripture and those methinks all dutifull children should be more ready to give to their Mother then to throw dirt in her face or to asperse her with calumnies as for the honesty goodness of Wicklif Huss Luther and Calvin I will not meddle but only ask you who were the one or two honest and godly men that in the ages before them did ever so contradict the Church if you know not any such why do you so rashly affirm it if you do I should desire you to name them and let us know whereabouts they lived Howsoever by your argument you make the Church of Christ to be in a worse condition then the Synagogue of the Jews Gal. 4.11 when we know the Church is our Mistress and the Synagogue but a servant but the Synagogue was never so deserted that but two onely were to be found in it Nay in the time of Elias Rom. 9.4 when it was thought to be most forsaken yet there were found in it seven thousand how can you possibly think the Church of Christ should be ever left so desolate as but two honest and godly men should be found in it when we find it so clear said in the Prophesie of Isay Isay 54.1 that the Church should be of a far larger extent and more fruitfull in its children than ever the Synagogue was so I pass to your last and grand concluding argument which proves the Pope to be Antichrist and then I hope I shall make an end with you To your last argument and that which you presume will conclude me as you have layed it I look upon it to be the weakest and least signifycant that you have alledged yet for truly all those markes of Antichrist that you produce upon the Pope are meer trifles and tricks of some of your Doctors invention and truly would agree better in the application to themselves than to his holiness and how imposible it is that they should be applicable to him I 'le pass through every particular The first note that you give of Antichrist is that he must fall away from the faith now defending of purgatory invocation of saints and sacrifice of the Mass cannot be called falling from the faith because the most ancient fathers of the Church have allways been of that opinion Your Doctors therefore are most manifestly fallen from the faith that so expressly oppose those received Doctrines The second mark you give of the Beast is that he shall sit in the Temple of God and that you say the Pope does as the head of the Church at Rome Truly I doe humbly conceive the case to be very different between sitting in the Temple of God at Hierusalem and sitting in the Church of Christ at Rome Antichrist shall sit in the Temple of Hierusalem and be adored of the Jews the Pope sits in the Church of Christ at Rome which all you have most unhappyly forsaken The third marke you say is that he shall shew himself as God and that the Pope plainly does you say whilst he makes himself the visible head of Christs Church but sure that is not all one as to shew himself as God For Peter himself shewed himself as visible head as we have proved already but onely Antichrist shall shew himself as God The
Church I beseech you be pleased to make your own application Over and above all this I shall prove that the Church is not only incapable of errour because it is the Spouse of Christ his body and called the Kingdome of Heaven but because she is governed by the perpetual presence power and authority of the Holy Ghost who is never to forsake her Joh. 14. and first our Saviour promiseth that be will ask the Father and he shall send another comforter and so accordingly he did not long after in the same Gospell Holy Father Joh. 17.11 keep through thine own name those that thou hast given me c. and he explains himself in the same chaâ—ter that he prayes not for them onely meaning his Apostles but for them who were afterwards to believe in him through their preaching 1 Tim. 3.15 Does not S Paul tell his Disciple Timothy how he is to behave himself in the house of God which is the Church of God the pillar ground of truth how then can it possibly erre Then S. John tells us that our Saviour said that he had many things to say unto them but that they could not bear them then but when the spirit of truth should come he should teach them all truth Again the same S. John in his Epistle General tells us 1 John 2.20 that we have an unction from the holy one and that we know all things and that we shall be alwaies capable to distinguish a lye from truth it must be therefore the unction of the holy Ghost that alwaies teacheth the Church In fine Matth. 28.20 S. Matthew makes them the concluding words of his Gospel Go yet herefore teach all Nations c. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you alwaies even to the end of the world Christ who is the way the truth and the life said this to his Disciples it is plain therefore that this Church which is the pillar and ground of truth that has him for its leader and the Holy Ghost for its teacher can never erre how probable is it then that it should be in an errour for above a thousand years together as you fondly imagine Then as the Church is but one so it is necessary that unity should be in the Church I prove out of the express words of S. 1 Cor. 1.10 Paul Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there he no divisions amongst you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement and then in another place in the same Epistle sayes 1 Cor. 14.33 that God is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all Churches of the Saints What then will you say for your selves that have nothing but confusions amongst you nay is it not more probable that God will rather inspire his own body that is the concord and unity of his Church than any private Doctors whatsoever that teach a dissent from it Nay how much this unity of his Church is desired by God himself is evident by what the same S. Paul writes to the Romanes Rom. 15.4 5 6. for whatsoever things are written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Again the same Apostle in the same Epistle laies an injunction upon the Romanes Rom. 12.16 whose faith he acknowledged before was celebrated over the whole world that they should be of the same mind one towards another not to mind high things but condescend to men of low estate and not to he wise in their own conceits which all they are and must be that are out of the Church Observe I pray you the most pathetical exhortation of S. Paul to this purpose Phil. 2.1 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowells of mercy fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one wind Nay the breach of this peace unity and unanimity in Gods Church is most passionately if it be lawfull to say so Jerem. 2.12 13. bewailed by God himself as the Prophet Jeremy expresseth it nay proposeth it as a matter of amazement to Heaven it self be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord foy my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water I pray you seriously examine with your self whether you do lesse by leaving off the Church the true and living fountain and digging to your selves broken cisterns out of Wicklif Huss Luther Calvin c. In vain sure hath God sent his Son in vain the Holy Ghost and yet more in vain hath he sent Apostles Martyrs Confessors Doctors in all ages to perpetuate the truth of his Church to us when a few of such precious persons as those of yours would have served the turn Here are only two things now as I conceive left to be cleared the one is that the Prelates and principal Persons of Christs Church assembled together do make the representative body of the whole Church the other is that the Romane Catholick Church is that universal Church disperst over the whole world As to the first it is sufficiently clear by many such Scriptures as thse And he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice c. And the King and all Israel with him offered Sacrifice before the Lord now that this must be onely meant of the body representative of Israel is plain to sense and particularly exprest in the beginning of the Chapter Then Solomon assembled the Elders of Israel and all the heads of the Tribes the chief of the Fathers of the Children of Israel unto King Solomon in Jerusalem 1 Kings 8.58.62.1 Thus it is plain that the heads of the Church assembled represent the body of the whole Church Then as to the clearing of the next point I must tell you a great mistake amongst you for you commonly speaking of the Church of Rome take it only for the particular Church which formerly was and still is there and so it is no more indeed than particular But if you take it for the collection of all the faithfull who being disperst over all the world did in old daies alwaies adhere and still do to the Bishop of Rome so it is called Catholick or Universal because diffused over the whole world and it is called
latter end of the Text would have answered the begining for we graunt as aforesayd that the Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is worshiped with mens hands as though he needed any thing that you are pleased I say to leave out and we deny as well as you that God is so to be worshipt in our Churches as if he stood in need of any help of ours To the Third What you urge again out of S. Paul we grant that we are to pray in all places that is to be understood sure of all places of convenience and what place can be more convenient than that which is dedicated consecrated and devoted to that onely use Besides S. Paul said that onely to refute a vulgar errour which was that it was not lawfull to pray any where but in the Church To the Fourth We do not deny but the Temple of the Jews was so destroyed as our Saviour prophesied and that so it ought to be but that signifies nothing to our Churches for as the Evangelical Law succeeded the Jewish Law so the Evangelical Priesthood succeeded the Jewish Priesthood and our Churches their Temple and our unbloody Sacrifice their bloody ones To the fifth We freely grant all that our Saviour sayes as you urge and that the true worshippers of him shall do it in spirit and in truth and we pray you what hinders but that we may do that in our Churches and what is in the text more reougnant to our Churches than to your woods caves and nasty conventicles To the Sixth The Prophet Jeremy whom you urge does most expresly testifie there that the Temple was his most choice and beloved place and addes those words and I will dwell with you in that place Notwithstanding he tells them in the Text you quote that they are not to trust in that for the sanctity of the Temple should not be a priviledge to them if they took wicked courses This is all the scope of the Text and the context To the Seventh We grant it to be true that God is in every place and hears sinners every where does it therefore follow that we must have no Churches This was Jaroboaws argument sure to the Israelites to keep them from their going up to the Temple at Jerusalem when he told them how impertinent a piece of worship it was to take so long a journey to so little purpose You Anahaptists therefore may be very properly in this point called Jerohoites going about to disswade Christians from the use of Churches as he did there the Israelites from their Temple but because we perceive you are a Latinist we shall refet you to a learned Jew to teach you a more Christian religion Joseph lib. 8. c. 12. and that is Josephus who will tell you Deus est ubique sed in uno loco vult orari honorari plusquam in alio God is every where but in one place he wil be prayed to and honored more than another and what you seem to fling against tho riches ornaments of our Churches is nothing to the purpose supposing that we must have Churches at all consecrated to divine use sure common reason tells us that they are not then to be like Burnes nor our Priests to go like Beggars who serve in them what you produce out of Persius is little to the purpose and you shew your self to be a true imitater of your grand Patriarch Martin Luther who when he went about to prove that all things in this world came by a fatal absolute and inevitable necessity produceth a Heathen Poet for his Authority certa stant emnia lege so when we bring clear Scriptures and you are pleased to produce Ethnick Poets we conceive our selves not bound to answer to their authority how valid soever you take it to be for we know they knew not God therefore they are not to be received by us as any authority But of this we shall tell you more hereafter To the Eight I say you have done very bravely to make all Christian Princes and Magistrates to be Pilates and Herodes and whereas you say that Christ asserted Pilates power the contrary is plain out of the Text for our Saviour there clearly taxeth him of sin when he sayes that he that betrayed him into his hands had the greater sin Now that Pilate had a power given him from above our Saviour sayes it but in reference to God that is permissively onely that God did permit to him onely that power for we know it was his own will to offer himself if the Text be understood as in reference to Cesar and the supream civil power you then gain nothing by your argument To the Ninth We will grant you that all saithfull Christians are Priests as they are also Kings that is to be understood spiritually because God reigneth in them by his free grace and they by the unction of his holy spirit do play the Kings over and govern the powers and faculties of their souls and senses hut yet besides those Kings which may be beggars there are and were alwaies Kings and external external Governours In like manner all the faithfull who offer to God their faith and faithfull prayers c. may be said to be spiritual Priests and that Priesthood needs no ceremonies but it is plain that besides this internall Priesthood there is and must be an external one in the Church Take for example every faithfull Christian is the Temple of God for so S. Paul sayes to the Corinthians ye are the holy Temple of God but yet besides those Temples there must be external Temples affixt to certain places in which do meet the Congregations of the faithfull Then as to the words of the Text you quote you may as well infer out of another that all the Jewes were Priests too Enod 19.5 6. for we find in Exodus how God tells them Now therefore if ye will obey my vaine indeed and keep my Covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all peoples and ye shall be unto me a Kingdome of Priests and a holy Nation c. This was said to all Israel and yet you will not deny but there were particular Kings and Priests besides In fine you know well enough the difference between a Priest of your making and a Priest of Gods making a Lay-Priest and a Hierarchical one but you are willing to let your selves be cheated by that sophisme of equivocation that you may do again as Jeroboam did set up your Lay-Priests to hinder people from going to Rome as he did to hinder the Israelites from going to Jerusalem So here again you are Jeroboites To the Tenth We say that you torment and turn that Text of the Apostle to the Corinthians to a most heretical sense for though we are all one body in Christ yet sure it is a most sottish inference to say that therefore we are all the hand or