after the Pleasures after the Ease and after the goodly Palaces and Demeanes of your Bishoprickâ— in all which you cannot shew kâ—lòn ' érgon a worthy worke And so indeed these words of the Apostle and elswhere concerning a Bishop do nothing concerne you but onely to convince you that you are none of those Bishops whom the Scripture so styleth Well what be those speciall qualities which the Apostle requireth in a true Bishop set over the Congregation of the Lord It shall suffice to mention for the present purpose but some of them As first He must be Anégkletos unreprovable such as cannot be justly accused of any crime Now none of you come thus cleane to your Bishopricks for you are or may be justly accused of having been Pluralists which is against your Old Canons Non-Residents Idle Dreanes seldome Preaching in their own Cures but by a poore Stipendary Curate flattering Court-Preachers and the like Nay who is capable or heire apparent of a Bishopricke or Prelacie that hath not two or three â—at livings with a Prebend or two and a Deanery that being thus qualified having his Purse well lyned I say not that he may purchase his Bishopricke he may be able at least at his In-coming to defray five or six hundred Pounds or a thousand Markes for Fees and Feasts and Gloves at his Consecration Well secondly He must not be Authádas selfe-willed so our last Translation renders the word And beleeve me this may come neere the proudest of your Coats when you come with your Volumus Iubemus We will and command and that without either Law or Canon And you must have your will ther 's no remedy for that else ye will take the pet or pepper in the nose and cry out of contempt of Authority And the word signifieth also one that is arrogant and proud a selfe-pleaser You may take all these senses if you will Thirdly He must not be Plékges a strikâ—r whether with his own or others hands as delivering over to the secular Power or Sword whereby he so strikes as he sheds the blood of the Innocents He must be none of that society Fourthly he must not be OrgÃlos soon Angry testy or touchy such as Naâ—al that one might not speake to him he was so snappish and curst Fiftly he must not be Aiskrokerdès given to filthy lucre as in exacting Fees he or his Officers of poore Ministers either extraordinary at their Admissions or ordinary at Visitations and a thousand wayes besides Viis modis sine modo in your Bishops Courts Sixtly He must be Philágados a lover of good men not a hater and persecuter of them Seventhly he must be DÃkaies just not oppressing Innocents by a faction and confederacy of voyces forepacked in your Courts before the Cause come to be heard Eightly He must be Osios holy not one that is an enemy to all true holinesse and persecutes the very name of it and suppresse the practise and meanes of it as by crying down the sanctification of the Lords day and the sincere Preaching of the word of God and commending and dispensing with profane sports on that day Ninthly He must be Didáktikos apt to teach not onely sufficient and able for his Scholarship or one that can make a Sermon if he will but he must be diligent in preaching in season and out of season He must hold fast the faithfull Word that he may be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and to convince the Gainsayers So farre must he be from abbetting and countenancing false Teachers and unsound Doctrine and old damned Heresies and forbidding to preach sound Doctrine and punishing those that doe I might reckon up sundry more qualities which Christ requireth in those whom onely he allowes and appoints as fittest to govern and feed his People as becomâ—th good Pastors to doe their flocks as 1 Tim. 3. and Tit. 1. and elsewhere But because Lord Prelates or Diocesan Bishops as I said before are none of those Bishops here which the Apostle requires to be thus qualified therfore I have said enough to convince you that you are none of Christs Bishops if you do but look your selves in this Glasse And if you mark it well these are those that immediately succeded the Apostles and Euangelists in the Ministeriall function As we read Eph. 4.11 where the Pastors and Teachers are those who are elswhere called Presbyters and Bishops such as Paul and Barnabas did Keirotonesi elect ordaine or appoint by imposition of hands Kat ' e'kklesÃan in every Church or particular Congregation A place very remarkable And these Presbyters Bishops Pastors Teachers Preachers Ministers for all is one and the same Office as they succeded the Apostles but with a particular limitation every one to their peculiar charges and Congregations respectively so while the Apostles lived they were still next unto them as we see Act. 15.2.4.6.22 23. And these are those Elders that rule well which especially doe Kopian labour hard in the Ministry of the Word and Doctrine These are those Aristoi those Optimates the best men by whose Aristocraticall Government according both to the thought we may boldly and truly say and to the expresse word of Christ the severall Churches and particular Congregations and flocks of Christ are governed and that not by any their own devised Canons but by the onely Canon of Scripture wherein are expressed all those Laws and Rules by which all true Ministers of Christ doe regulate themselves and govern their severall Congregations For although Christs faithfull and true Ministers are the best men and therfore are but few in comparison and who is fit or sufficient for these things saith the Apostle yet Christ left them not to governe his Churches or flocks as they should thinke best but according to his own Laws as Deputies are to govern the people according to the Kings Laws and no otherwise For such is the Government of Aristocratie it is established upon good Laws of the Common-weale otherwise it should degenerate into the corrupt and bad Government of Oligarchia So as here is no roome for your Diocesan Lord Bishops for you are none of those Aristoi Optimates the best mâ—n whom Christ thought fit for the Aristocraticall Government of his Church sith ye are neither qualified for it as he requires in his true Bishops nor will you confine your Prelaticall Government to the Laws of Christ expressed in his word but will govern by your own Canons and lusts as usurpers use to doe And therfore by the way no mervaile if you speake so contemptibly and basely of the holy Scripture seeing in them you can find no ground either of Precept or Apostolick Precedent for your Antichristian Hierarchy All which considered doth in the second place give us just cause to doubt at least or rather to be well assured indeed that Diocesan Prelates or Bishops as you usurpe the Title are no Vice-Roys under the Great King Iesus Christ because your
all the Ministers in England are but your Curates And suppose you were one of the Popes Bishops and so his Creature what difference would there be between your Governing of your Province under the Pope as it were his Deputy and Governing according to Romes Canons and Customes and as you do now in your own Name And the Pope challenging the whole world for his Diocesse and you the Province of Canterbury for yours all the difference is that he needeth the more Curates which he may have with a wet finger and you the fewer Onely perhaps his Holinesse would now and then fleece your Graces Clergy as he was wont of old to doe But in the mean time both the Pope and your Lordship do much mistake the matter in judgeing or estimating and measuring the latitude and extent of Christs Church For you both measure it according to the extent of your large and Potent Principalities Patriarchall Countries Archiepiscopall Provinces Episcopall Diocesse But you are farre wide in casting your line For though Christs Church is said to be dispersed over the whole earth being confined to no place yet of all this wide world he hath the least number and fewest of all where commonly your Hierarâ—hy is most predominant For those that belong to Christ are a sort of poore Snakes despised in the world and alwayes persecuted and oppressed by your Hierarchy so as they can hardly find so much as a little corner any where in the world much lesse in all the Circuit of your Diocesse or Provinces where they may hide their heads or live in any peace So as of all your full Vintages and fruitfull Fields Christ is glad of the refuse of a few gleanings And so Christs flock alas is so small and so poore and his Kingdome on earth so despised as to set up such Lordly Vice-Roys as the Prelates over it the very Fees of your Courts would eat them out And therfore because Christs sheep are here and there scattered in the world and many times as sheep without a shepheard being driven by your Dogges from their own pasture Christ thought it fitter to place over his small and scattered flocks poore sheheards that should feed their severall flocks respectively with the wholesome food of the word of God and therfore appointed to every particular Congregation a peculiar Pastor of their own that should alwayes be personally resident with his flocks keeping his watch over them night and day and so much the more in regard of so many Wolves and Foxes and wild Beasts which without continuall watching would make a prey of them Neither would Christ permit his shepheards to commit their Flocks to Hirelings or Stipendaâ—y Curates while themselvs should take their pleasure and ease for the Hireling when he seeth the theef or wolfe coming fleeth because he is an Hireling neither careth he for the Sheep Therfore Christ wisely and providently hath appointed to every particular Congregation or flocke of his a shepheard of their own and that after his own heart to feed them with knowledge and understanding And as the shepheard governes and guides his own flocke so every faithfull Minister or Pastor is appointed by Christ to be the Governour of his own Congregation according to the Rule of Christ. So as in this respect Christ thought it fitter to appoint many Governours in his Church namely to each Congregation their own Shepheard rather then a few such as you speake of as one over a whole Countrey or Province Neirther let your Lordship thinke that every such Congregation having a faithfull Pastor over it hath yet need of any your Episcopall Inspection or Trienniall Visitations or your Archdeacons Annuall Visitation wherein you inquire onely whether your owne Canoâ—s be observed and if so Omnia bene All is well onely the poore Ministers paying their Procuration the Visitor never inquiring if the Minister be diligent in preaching to his flocke but whether he hath kept the Order for not preaching in the After-noons on the Lords day and the Order for not Preaching such and such Doctrines and such like so as commonly your visitation is like that of the Plague saving that this is from God immediately and yours from another sourse And Ministers and People too could think themselves happy to be freed from your awfull and terrible viâ—its wherein your maine ayme is to root out all good Ministers for which the omission of one of your Ceremonies is sufficient So as Christs Congregation I say needs not any such Inspection of the Bishops eye over them which is as l' aeil de beuf or the weather gall called the Ox eye which portends a storme to follow For Christ hath promised his perpetuall Presence and residence with his people and his eye watcheth over them night and day least any hurt them As he saith When two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Loe here an intire and compleat body of a Church having Christ as head over them and his Spirit in them and his Word before them and their own shepheard appointed by Christ to feed them so as here is no place left for your Prelaticall Vice-Roys Object Put you say No Bishop no Church so say I too but the Apostles Bishop he must be not your Diocesan Lord Bishop What order then say you wil be in the Church A good and decent order in every Congregation where Christs order and ordinance takes place and where mans presumption breaks not this order And consider here the excellent wisdome and order of Oeconomy that Christ hath appointed every Congregation to be governed by For as that is the most perfect and compleat form of Civil Government which is mixed of all the 3 states as the Monarchiall Aristocraticall and Democraticall when the King governeth by his good Laws using the best men as the noble and most vertuous in the higher places of the Kingdome and the bâ—st and disâ—reetâ—st of the common people in the bearing of inferiour offices such as every one is most fit for a representation whereof we have in the 3 states in Parliament the King the Nobles and the Commons so the Lord Iesus Christ hath established this most compleat form of Government in his Church First himselfe rules as King over all Governing by his Spirit Secondly he hath set over every particular Congregation such as are Aristâ—i the optimates the best and ablest to be Pastors and Teachers each of his own flock And thirdly he hath added also the Denocraty or government of the people appointed to be chosen out of every Congregation the gravest wisest sobriest and discreetest some as Elders some as Deacons to be helpers to the Minister in matter of Discipline of Sacramentall Provision of reliefe of the poore of visiting the sicke and of other Church affaires for that Congregation And these are called by the Apostle Antilâ—pseis kubernâ—seis which our English
non sinit esse sui Some secret sweetnesse in mans native home Draws him to mind it still where ere become L. Ibid. In a corrupt Time or Place 't is as necessary in Religion to deny falshood as to assert and vindicate truth Indeed this latter can hardly be well and sufficiently done but by the former an affirmative verity being ever included in the negative to a falshood P. Then I hope in a corrupt Time and Place is it not necessary in Religion to deny your falshoods and to assert and vindicate the Truth by you so undermined and oppugned And your own Words here are sufficient to leave your Deeds without excuse L. p. 157. If it be a Cause common to both parties a third must judge and that is the Scripture or if there be jealousie or doubt of the sense of the Scripture they must either both repaire to the exposition of the Primitive Church and submit to that or both call and submit to a Generall Councel P. The Scripture That 's honest as I noted before Yea and submit to and rest in that which you say not But of the Scripture the onely Judge of all Controversies we have spoken sufficiently before and so for matters of jealousie or doubt and not either to your Primitive Church or to a Generall Councel For further Answere we shall have further occasion L. p. 171. Pope Urban 2 at the Councel held at Bari in Apâ—lia accounted my Worthy Predecessor S. Augustine as his own compâ—â—â—e and said He was as the Apostolicke and Patriarch of the other world so he then turned this Iland P. As worthy as your predecessor Anselme was and though now one of Romes Saints yet he was against your Priests Marriage But perhaps therfore the more worthy And he was so holy it seems that he said he never repented him of any thing in all his life but about the eating of some Fish one time But if the Pope gave your Worthy Predecessor the Title of Apostolicke and Patriarch of the other world of England why should not the same Title descend to his successors And it seems you are not a little affected with it For you say A Primate is greater then a Metropolitan and a Patriarch then a Primate And none were above Patriarch but Pope If then you succeed Anselme in his Patriarchate of the other world you are in the next degree to succeed him that is Papa totius Orbis But how ever you glory in these titles I assure you for my part I shall ever preferre a good honest Cobler that feares God above them all For he hath an honest calling you none And you all are persecuters of them that truly feare God and so enemies of Christ. And though you would be called Apostolicke yet to be Metropolitan Primate Patriarch Pope are all swelling Titles of pride which the Apostles never knew and which Christ expresly forbids as hath been noted and will be more As followeth L. p. 175. The calling and Authority of Bishops over the Inferiour Clergy that was a thing of known use and benefit for preservation of unity and peace in the Church P. For this you cite Hierome But you omit his other words where he saith That your Diocesan Bishops for of such onely the Question is were brought in but humana praesumptione non Institutione Divina by humane Presumption not by Divine Institution or Gods Ordinance and this as men presumed in Schismata remedia for a remedy of Schisme But it proved to be Schisma magnum the Great Schisme that made up the body of Antichrist the Great Rent from Christ filling up the Mystery of Iniquity as hath been shewed And out of Ieromes Sacerdos Priest where he saith No Priest no Church you conclude in the Margent so even with him No Bishop no Church As if to be a Priest must needs be a Bishop And idid you say This was to settle in the minds of men from the very Infancy of the Christian Church as that it had not been to that time contradicted by any In the very Infancy of the Church But your Prelacy was but an Infant then and Innocent in comparison to the Giants now We shewed before how this Mystery wrought even in the Apostles times which they knockt down yet still Satan kept it afoot The use of it hath great Antiquity but the Apostles condemned it as a meere abuse and Christ as Heathenish And you talke here of use but you are not able to shew us any Authority from Scripture either from Apostolik Ordinance and Example The Apostles indeed before Christs Resurrection were blindly ambitious of being chief in Christs Kingdome and Christ told his two kinsmen Iames and Iohn They asked they knew not what and yet Mark tells us that Christ asking them what they reasoned of by the way they were ashamed to tell him as being selfe-guilty of pride and ambition and still when he had but newly told them of his Passion to be at Ierusalem they not understanding what it meant were still at it afresh who should be the chiefe but after that Christ was risen again and his holy Spirit was breathed into them then they were of another mind they never after contended who should be chiefest but rather who should be â—umblest and hoâ—yest and most painfull and faithfull in the spirituall Kingdome of Christ in the execution of their Apostolicall Charge Which argues plainly that the Prelacy is a meere carnall thing a temporall Kingdome contrary to Christs Kingdome which carnall men voyd of Christs Spirit and Grace are blindly ambitious of calling their Prelacy an Hierarchy or hoâ—y Government or Kingdome but know not what holinesse or Christs Kingdome meaneth And doe we see any men in the world of any ranke whatsoever more Lordly more proud more ambitious more covetous more profane more corrupt then those of the Hierarchy Take the best of them now in England the most learned of them have they any zeale or courage for the truth now when they see Religion and the Faith of Christ turned topsie-turvie Doe they not all seeke their own not that which is Iesus Christs And when your Chapleins gueld their Works have they any virility left in them to maintain the truth of that which they have written If their Metropolitan doe but speake the word is it not with them as in the Comedy of the Parasite Ait quis Aio Negat Nego But what say I of those Prelates that are fallen upon the very Lees and Dregges of the worst and last times Alas in the first Generall Councell of Nece under Constantine in the Infancy of the Church as you call it what hot contentions among the Prelates one against another What bundels and fardels of complaints brought they into the Councel before Constantine Enough to set all in a combustion had not the Emperour the more wisely put all their Bills and mutuall complaints in a combustion by burning them in a faire fire
before him in the view of all the Councel And the maine point of their Contentions was about Precedency which Bishoprick should be before another Oh devout and humble Prelates O holy successors of the Apostles Are these men like to remedy Schisme in the Church that are the Authors of them themselvs How came the great Schisme of Arius but by the Prelates when but one chiefly stood up against him How got Antichrist to be Caput Vniversale Universall Head or Bishop but by the dessent of the Bishops which causing their Appeales to Rome brought the Roman Bishop to that height so as the Prelates being worse divided among themselves then the Presbyters had been before them for remedy of whose Schisme they were by mans prescription erected gave occasion to the two Bishops of the two Imperiall Cities Rome and Constantinople to stickle for one Headship over all to reconcile all And so the Popedome it selfe the Throne of the Beast was erected in Schismatis remedium for the onely Remedy of all Schisme And it is to be noted how these two Prelates strove for this supremacy and both under the veile of humility Iohn of Constantinople becomes a great Faster whereupon he was styled Iohannes Iejunator Iohn the Faster Gregory then of Rome though he thundred against Iohns Ambition calling him that had or affected that Title the forerunner of Antichrist yet seeing Iohn like to prevaile with pretence of holinesse and humility Gregory stiles himselfe servus servorum Dei He thought he would not come behind for humility but indeed therein bewraying his pride when his humility was but in emulation And we see in Gregories Registrum in sundry of his Epistles how low he descends in most base flattery to that Parricide Phocas and his Empres to visit the thresholds of Peter and Paul c. But what will not Episcopall zeale doe for the Hierarchy But thus he kept Iohn off and so made way for his own Prophecy which was Filius superbiae prope est The son of pride that is Antichrist is neere at hand And neerer surely then he was aware For Gregory deceasing and Sabianus succeeding and siting but one yeare Boniface 3. the next successor obtaind this Title of Phocas and so each confirmed other the Emperour the Pope in the Throne of Antichrist which is a Tyranny over mens Soules and the Pope the Emperours Cruelty in a Tyranny over mens Bodyes And thus came that Prophecy of the Angel Revel 17.18 to be fulfilled The Woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigned over the Kings of the Earth As Rome then did in S. Iohns time So as according to Gods word not Constantinople which was not the Imperiall Câ—ty till Constantine so made it but Rome must be the feat of the Beast and of the Whore thus described Thus from Bishops emulation ambition contention one against another for honour precedency and greatnesse in the world came Antichrist to mount upon that Beast which had 7 heads and ten hornes And your selfe confesseth The difficulty was to accommodate the Places and Precedencies of Bishops among themselves And for this you say The most equall and impartiall way was that the Honours of the Church should follow the Honours of the State So that the greater City the greater Bishop And thus Romes Primacy in Order brought him to his supremacy in Authority Againe you say The Calling of Bishops Whence this Calling Not from God And of Aarons Priesthood it was said No man takes this honour upon him but he that is called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5.4 So all the Apostles had a speciall Calling and Commission from Christ to preach c. Paul Called to be an Aposâ—le of Iesus Christ. He stood upon his Calling he had a lawfull Calling wheron his Apostolicke Authority was founded Now you would be accounted Apostolick and the Apostles successors but where 's your Calling We find no such Calling as of Lord-bishops in the Scripture Therfore you have no Authority over the inferiour Clergy not over Gods Ministers I meane Either therfore prove your Calling from God or give us leave to deny your Authority as being an usurped Tyranny If you aledge those Bishops so called Act. 20.28 Phil. 1.1 1 Tim. 3.1 Tit. 1.7 c. Prove they were Diocesan Bishops We prove them by the plain Text to be but Presbyters over the severall Congregations over which the Holy Ghost made them Episkópous Bishops or Overseers as more fully at after If you aledge Timothy and Titus for Bishops that 's soon answered they were onely Euangelists no Bishops Those Epigraphees in the end of that to 2 Tim. and Tit. they are no part of the Text but were added long after at the leasâ— 400. years It behoves you therfore to prove your Calling better before you so presse and oppresse us with your Authority But you adde L. p. 177. Among these to wit Patriarchs Metropolitans Bishops there was effectuall subjection respectively grounded upon Canon and positive Law in their severall quarters P. Here you confesse that all subjection of Metropolitans to the Patriarchs and of Bishops to the Metropolitans was but grounded upon Canon and Positive Law Ergo not upon the Canon of Scripture nor the Law of God As you confessed openly in High Commission that no one Apostle had Authority or Iurisdiction over the Rest or any of their fellows so as though you call your calling Apostolicke yet your Arch-Bishoprick is not Apostolicke in exercising Authority and Iurisdiction over all the Bishops in your Province This you have not from the Scripture I know not from what Papall Canon For as for Positive if you meane the Politick Laws of Princes you will not take your Authority from them And the Judges have declared their judgement in the Kings Edict that your exercising your Authority and keeping Courts in your own Names is now no more a trenching upon the Kings Prerogative then formerly it hath been Where the Judges are to be commended for their Discretion But it is very well Thus you are loose off from the Positive Law of the Prince and we deny you any title either of Authority or Calling over the Ministry and so you may prove to sit between two stooles or as he that hath not one string to his bow But whereas you confesse before that Bishops have no Jurisdiction one over another because the Apostles had not hence it is evident that those who are true Bishops to wit Presbyters have no jurisdiction over one another and so there is no such Order or Calling of Lord Bishops whereby they have Authority over the true Bishops and Pastors of the flocks of Christ. These things are noted sufficiently before but as Augustine writing against the Pelagians saith By these things so often repeated though the importunity of the Adversary will not be repressed yet the Truth shal be the more confirmed and the Faith of Beleevers the more firmly established L. p. 183. The
the Government of the best men it signifieth the Government of a few of the worst men The third is Anarchia that is no Government at all when without Law or Ruler every one doth that which seems good in his own eyes as Jude 17 6. and 21.25 and this is opposed to Democratia a Government of the people by good Laws These things thus plainly layd down we shall the more clearly proceed in our Point Secondly I note here your word Vice-Roy which every man knows doth signifie a Vice-King or one Deputed by the King to governe a Kingdome in his personall absence whereof there is usually but one in a Kingdome as the Vice-Roy of the Kingdome of Naples under the King of Spaine or the Lord Duputy of Ireland under the King thereof But yet every one doth not perhaps understand that among diverse Prelates you make your selfe a Vice-roy But looking more narrowly into your words we shall find that sense easily resulting from them For you say That Christ thought it fitter to governe his Church by Diverse then by One Vice-Roy that is by Diverse Vice-Roys rather then by One. All comes to one reckoning And besides you expresse the word Diverse and the word One with a Capitall to note that both have reference to Vice-Roy So as it runs Currant both wayes whether you say By Diverse rather then by One Vice-Roy or By Diverse Vice-Roys rather then by One. Thus 't is plaine enough Lastly a third word here is of some difficulty that you say Christ thought it fitter Now I never took you to be one of Christs Privy Councel so as to be made Privy to Christs thoughts and that in these things which he hath no where expressed in his word But this is familiar with you as before to tell us Gods thoughts But shew us where Christ hath expressed any such thought of his in his expresse word the Scripture If you cannot as you cannot how presume you to say Christ thought so Certainly my Lord Iesus Christ that onely Potentate and onely wise King useth not to entertaine such as you are to be of his Privy Councel or Cabinet that dare discover his secrets nay dare report that of him which never came into his thought And if ye be so bold with Christ others may be warned hereby how farre to trust you with their secrets and others againe how farre to beleeve your reports of Princes Pleasures or Purposes when perhaps 't is neither so nor so But my Lord your Places and Grace attended with all the Princely Pompe suits not with Christs Privy-Councel-Board He admitted none thither but a company of poore simple Fishermen Those were his Friends to whom he did communicate and impart his councels and secrets As Abraham being the Friend of God God said he would hide nothing from him No nor from any of his true-bred seed The secret of the Lord is with them that feare him and he will shew them his Covenant They are either strangers in the world as Daniel in Babylon or exiles from the world as Iohn in the I le of Pathmos or such as live sub Dio in the wildernesse as Iohn Baptist or dwell in a poore thatcht Cottage or so to whom the Lord Iesus Christ reveales his thoughts and not lightly to those that live deliciously and are in Kings Cours and goe in soft clothing their Traine borne up after them wherewith they draw the third part of the starres of heaven As a Cardinall at the Election of a Pope when there was a solemn Masse sung to call down the Holy Ghost to set the dissenting Factions of the Cardinalls at one and it would not be said Let us uncover the Roofe for the Holy Ghost cannot find a way to passe through so many tyles And my Lord if you tell us this as a revelation what Christ thought we have no more but your bare word as in many other things of like nature so as unlesse in a matter of such moment as this is you can shew us the truth hereof by some Miracle for confirmation as the Romish Priests doe for their Transubstantiation and Purgatory and such like secrets you must pardon us if we doe not give credit to what you so boldly say of Christs thought here But from your words come we to the matter which they import and which I say we still require proofe of which will trouble you worse to find then all the writing of your Book hath done And seeing you compare your Episcopall Government with the Aristocraticall which is the Government Optimatum of the Best men prove unto us to make your comparison good and that in the prime notion of it that Prelates are the Best men in the Church You are MegÃstoi indeed the greatest but are you Aristoi the Best Riches and Honours saith Cicero make a man to be Majorem greater Meliorem verò quomodo but how better I could never beleeve that the Papall Miter could infuse holinesse or an Archiepiscopall Pall Grace Nor could I see any Reason why Prelates should take place in precedency one of another according to the greatnesse of their Principality respectively as if the Pope were ever the more learned vertuous religious holy because he is Bishop of Rome or your Lordship because you are Titled His Grace of Canterbury Whereas precedency of persons should goe by their personall worth and age and inward indowments and not by any Prelaticall outward Prerogatives But this by the way But for your Aristocratie That Prelates are the best men to governe the Church of Christ will ye be tryed by the thoughts of Christ expressed by the Apostle which he had heard in the Third heaven in Christs Privy Chamber There you shall see plainly what both your and our faith may infallibly build upon namely who or what manner of persons they be whom Christ thought fit to Govern his Church You say Bishops So say we too But whether our Bishops be the same with your Bishops and that not onely for their Function yours being Diocesan and ours such as the Apostle speaks of Pastors respectively over their particular Congregations but for their qualities and conditions such as are required in true Bishops indeed let us heare the Apostles words Pistòs ho lógos EÃtis Episkopes o'régetai kalou e'rgou e'pithumei This is a faithfull saying If any man desire the Office of a Bishop he desireth a worthy worke Orégetay signifieth an earnest desire quasi porrectis manibus prehendere arripere the Office of a Bishop perhaps you would translate e'piskopè a Bishoprick but our English hath turned it right The office of a Bishop for 't is called here a worthy worke And therfore it is not one of your Prelaticall Bishopricks which indeed you doe with both hands both o'rexasthai epithumesai reach after with all earnest desire for you reach after the Lordship after the Honour after the Revenues
reward he had in his life time and what he hath now I cannot tell that the Lords Grace of Canterbury is pleased to Grace the late Lord Bishop of Eli by being of the same opinion with him Well what 's the Opinion That there must be some one Church or other continually visible That some one Church or other hath still been visible I shall not grudge you But take my meaning withall Some false Church or other hath been though why must be I see no reason saving that there must be Heresies even among the Churches of God continually visible ever since the Apostles times And the Church of Rome for Instance hath bore the bell away which degenerating into an Antichristian Church hath been still visible though not alwayes in one and the same place but most What at Rome and somtimes at Aninion in France for where the Popes Court is there is the Church in its glorious conspicuity yet somtime without a Head somtime with two Heads somtime with three Heads that a man might say The Porter of Heaven-gates had three Heads as the Poets fained Cerberus the Porter of Hell to have had But for the true Church of God that may somtimes be hid For first as we shewed before there was no true Church visible among the revolted Ten Tribes Secondly not in Ahaz his time when he shut up the Temple and and served Idols in every Corner of Ierusalem and then where was the Church visible the while when the whole publick service and worship of God was suppressed the Temple being shut up Againe also in Ioah his time was the like as ye may reade 2 Chro. 24.17 to 22 c. Lastly when the Temple was burnt and all the people of God dispersed Captives in Babylon where they could not sing one song of Sion Where was then the visible Church the while But you will say They might have Synagogues in Babylon But you cannot prove it And the Prophet Esay saith That they were hid in Prisons As many of Christs deare servants are at this day in your Church of England And what say you for that 30 dayes Interdiction that no man should make any suit to God or man during that space Where was then the Church visible But that was but for 30 dayes But you and Dr. White are for a continuall visibility And it seems you herein jumpe with the Jesuites who stand upon a continuall visibility every day alledging that of Christ And loe I am with you paâ—as tà s e mâ—meras which our English turnes Allwayes but they All the dayes to wit everyday Which they doe to puzzle Protestants in shewing their visible succession every day without fayle since Christs time But you will say perhaps Daniel was found praying in those dayes But he was but one single Man and so not Ecclesiâ a Church or Congregation And if he prayed with his Family it was but in his private house and you will hardly allow that for a visible Church but rather call it a private Conventicle And if with this Family then if at least you had but sent your Pursuivants not onely Daniel but according to the Kings strict Decree his whole Family should have been cast with him into the Lyons denne So during the Aegyptian servitude what conspicuity of a Church in Israel Now and then perhaps in some godly Families there might be two or three assembled Yet this private still visible you will not call it For you will not allow Churches in private Families though they were in the Apostles time And such Churches so visible as two or three are visible when you see them but the world takes no notice of them as Churches Christ never fayles to have in the world And these Congregations in private Families being driven from your publick Idolatrous Superstition in your Churches are so hid many times that your blood-hounds cannot trace them or hunt them out But as for such a Conspicuous Glorious Visibility of succession of such Prelaticall Heads of Hierarchicall Churches though such may be alwayes in some Countrey or other resplendent eminent and apparent yet Christs poore Church the while may be and commonly is hid as little starres especially where such great Luminaria as your Lordships spread out your hot and fiery beames As the Woman the Church as before which here we recapitulate to incounter two such Giants when she fled from the Dragon and his flood of persecution into the Wildernesse who saw her then and there And when the whole world was turned Arian where was the true Church visible And so since Antichrist came to his Xenith or Vereticall point to his Meridian brightnesse how hath Christs Church been hid in corners as among the Merindolians Cabriers Waldensis and others who were still persecuted by that Beast and his Crew As Solomon saith When the wicked rise men hide themselves And so we may truly say When Prelates rise and beare sway and grow most resplendent and predominant in their Potent Principalities then Gods people hide themselves And the Apostle saith of the beleevers in the Old Testament in times of persecution or captivity or of the Maccabees They wandred about in sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented of whom the world was not worthey they wandred in Deserts and in mountains and in dennes and caves of the earth And who were all those trow you but the true Church of God And how was then the Church of God visible but that one might see another But such you will not allow to be visible Churches 1. because you cannot see them 2. because you do not allow to be Churches visible no more then you do the Reformed Churches in Geneva and among the Canâ—oâ—s and those mountains where you cannot see them which is their safety as not to feele you And where was the visibility of Gods true Church in England in Queen Maries dayes in the midst of the black tempest of persecution where you could not discerne one true Professour and Protestant but by the light of that fire which was by the Prelates kindled to burn them for Martyrs Or if you or your Beagles had hunted among the Woods perhaps ye might have found halfe a dozen poore soules under some Tree shading them from the present heat of persecution where they did solace their soules with having among them some few leaves of St. Pauls Epistles which they read to strentghen and arme them against their â—urne came Call you this a visible Church But you will say The Church of England was then visible and conspicuous in the Bishops and the publick Congregations throughout the Churches of the land where Divine service or Masse was sung or sayd every day Then was the Church visible in Edmund of London and Stephen of Winchestr and other their Associates who were as Zealous Champions for the Church of England then as you are now So as that Church
then as now was no lesse sensible then visible when sitting most conspicuous in their Courts they condemned Christs true Church for an Heretiâ—ke delivering it over to the seculer power for a burnt sacrifice And was not this that Church then of which you tell us when you say Our Church was just there then where Romes is nâ—w So as we need make no doubt but your now conspicuous Church of England was one and the same with that in Maryâ—s dayes onely that Church by vertue of a Law burned the Saints of God and you without Law bury them quick You aâ—e all for a conspicuous visibility of a Prelaticall or Hierarchicall Church But Christs true Church as before is otherwise which hath for the Bishop of her soule the Lord Iesus Christ who is no Non Resident Bishop but perpetually resident and present with all his Congregations Yea where but two or three are assâ—mâ—led in his Name there is He in the midst of them He saith not In a Cathedrall or other Church but indefinitely Wheresoever as in a Chamber in a private room as the Apostles were for feare of the High Priests During which time where was the conspicuous visibility of the true Church untill the day of Penticost came when there was a new Church collâ—ctive of all nations under heaven Againe Christ saith not Where there is a multitude but Where two or three nor assembled in a Prelâ—tâ—s name as members of a Prelaticall Church but In may Name saith Christ in the faith of me according to my word then and there am I in the midst of them to rule and protect as King to teach as Prophet as Priest to present their persons and sacrifices to my Father These these are those Churches or Congregations which you scorne and scoffe at and which you persecute and punish as â—alefactors for so assembling as where Christ is present among them which plainly bewrayes your selves to be the false Church which you say must be continually visible L. p. 320. A Church may hold the Fundamentall point literally and as long as it stayâ—s there be without controwle and yet erre grosly dangerously nay damnably in the exposition of it And this is the Church of Romes case For most true it is it hath in all Ages maintained the Faith unchanged in the expression of the Articles themsâ—lves but it hath in the exposition both of Creeds and Councels quite changed and lost both the sense and meaning of some of them So the Faith is in many things changed both for life and beliefe and yet seems the same Now that which deceives the world is that because the barke is the same men thinke this old decayed tree is as sound as it was at first and not wether-beaten in any age But when they can make me beleeve that painting is true beauty I le beleeve too that Rome is not onely sound but beautifull P. First here I must note the perplexed and confused frame of your first sentence You say A Church may hold thâ— fundamentall point literally and as long as it stayes there be without controwle and yet erre grosly dangerously nay damnably in the exposition of it As much as if you had sayd That a Church may hold the fundamentall point literally and erre grosly dangerously nay damnably in the exposition of it and yet be without Controwle As for As long as it stayes there namely in holding the fundamentall point literallâ— how is it without controwle when notwithstanding the holding of the letter it erre grosly dangerously nay damnably in the exposition of it For you joyne and jumble all together the holding of the letter and the overthrowing of the sense and yet want controwle And what 's the letter where the sense is lost What 's the barke when the pith and marrow is gone As Iâ—rome saith Gods word standeth non in verborum cortice sed in medulla sententiarum not in the barke of words but in the pith of the sense Well And this is Romes case say you How Most true it is say you that it hath in all ages maintained the faith unchanged in the expression of the Articles themselves but it hath in the exposition both of Creeds and Councels quite changed and lost the sense and meaning of some of them So the faith is in many things changed both for life and beliefe and yet seems the same Here againe do you not most pittifully enterfere Faith is lost in the exposition and yet kept in the expression of the Articles Have not you lost sense in this expression except you can recover it by a better exposition For you separate the expression from the exposition So you leave the Articles as a dead carcase without a soule For there is no faith kept in the expression of the letter without the true exposition of the sense And if the sense be lost the faith is lost And what expression of faith doe you call that which is abstracted from the sence But Rome hath lost the sense but of some of them Of which And whether of Creeds or Councels For here you shuffle both together too as making Councels of equall Authority with the Creeds I did not thinke before this nor yet that Councels Decrees are to be taken as Creeds Onely I might have learned of you before That Councels Decrees though they be erronious must bind all to obedience and then sure they are little inferiour to Creeds saving that those may be reversed by another Generall Councel but these not But however Rome is the same barke of a Church still Ergo a true Church still Why the Barke is not the Tree no more then a Sheep-skin is a Sheep No nor yet hath Rome so much as the barke of the true Church of Christ left Looke upon her outward hew and habit and there we shall find nothing but the habitements of the great Whore and the Ensignes of Antichrist with his Church Malignant warring against the true Spouse and Church of Christ. And both these we find in that one Chapter where the Woman is set out to the life Her Habilements She fits upon a scarlet coloured Beast full of Names of Blasphemy having seven Heads and Ten Hornes and she is arayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and precious stone and Pearle having a golden Cup in her hand full of abominations and filthinesse of her fornications with a Label on her forehead to know her the Better a Name written Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth and she is drunken with the blood of the Saints And a little after we see her Ensignes set up and those be her ten Hornes the power of Kings which she instigateth to make warre with the Lamb and those on his side the Called and Chosen and Faithfull Now the Whores habit is not the habit of Christs Spouse This is not the barke of the weather-beaten Tree of Gods
whatsoever faith is requisite and necessary to salvation as the beliefe of Scripture to be the word of God as is shewed before And this saving faith is the faith of all them that are heires of salvation to wit of all Gods Elect and all the Saints But it seems with Father Bellarmine you have an Implicit faith for your ignorants and an Explicit for you that are great Clerks or the letter of the Creed for those and the sense for these But I handled this also before Onely you propound a Paradox which is no worke for your pen wherein you are the wiser not to take upon you to read or expound such riddles had you been so wise as not to have propounded â— And yet it is the worke of every good Minister of Chrâ—â—t to teach the people what to beleeve and to exhort them to grow in Grace and knowledge and Faith and so declare unto them the whole Counâ—el of God and to keep nothing backe and to build men up in knowledge more and more unto perfection As the Preacher saith Because the Preacher was wise he still taught the people knowledge yea he gave good heed and sought out and set in Order many Proverbs The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of truth The words of the wise are aâ— Goads and Nayles fastened by the Masters of Assemblies which are given from one shepheard But this is not a patterne for you to follow neither by your tongue nor pen. You have other imployment for them But though we cannot set a bound to faith in respect of perfection of degrees yet we ought to teach the people all the parts of saving faith and knowledge striving unto perfection And besides it is the duty of every good Minister of Christ to limit and set bounds to all the negatives of faith in discovering all manner of sins and errours which are all contrary and enemies to faith and salvation For which end they must open all the ten Commandements as Christ did Mat. 5. and all other points of saving Doctrine in the Scriptures Now though you have not the skill or will to set bounds how farre men shall beleeve yet you want no will nor power to inhibit and restraine Preachers shewing them how little a way they must goe in teaching the people and so consequently how little a way the people must goe in beleeving and saving knowledge as in restraining and forbidding to preach the Doctrines of Grace as before forbidding Lectures and especially all Sermonâ— on the Lords day afternoon forbidding long Preaching at any time forbidding expounding of the Catethisme as many of your Prelates doe and the like Thus you can finely set men bounds how little thy shall beleeve or know of God to their salvation That 's a worke if not for your pen or hand yet for your head and not unlikely of your hand and pen too L. p. 327. The Romanists dare not beleeve but as the Roman Church beleeves And the Roman Church at this day doth not beleeve the Scripture and the Creeds in the sense in the which the ancient Primitive Church received them P Dare they not How then say you there is possibility of salvation in the Roman Church for any when it condemneth and accurseth saving faith and justification thereby with other saving truths For if the Papists dare not beleeve but as their Church beleeves then they are bound to good behaviour they dare not beleeve to their salvation And if they dare not beleeve to their salvation then they cannot be saved And if they cannot be saved what possibility of salvation for them living and dying in that faith And here Why do you noâ— say in the sense of the Scriptures themselves and not of the Primitive Church But you doe not like the Scripture sense except the Church interpret it You allow not Scriptures to speake for or testifie for themselves You are the same man still And as we sayd before you doe wisely in that to stoppe the mouth of Scripture as Ahab did Michaiahs for it never speaks good of you but evil alwayes L. p. 232. I will acknowledge every fundamentall point of faith as proveable out of the Canon as we account it as if the Apochryphall were added unto it P. As if Apocryphalls were any divine proofe at all of the fundamentall points of faith in Scripture or ought any way in that respect to be so much as named with the Scripture Apocryphalls saith Ierome may be read for instruction of manners but not for confirmation of faith as before L. p. 336. I have lived and shall God-willing dye in that faith of Christ as it was professed in the ancient Primitive Church and as it is professed in the present Church of England P. As you handle the matter ther 's a vast difference between the faith of Christ professed in the ancient Primitive Church and that which is now professed in the present Church of England For the Ancient Primitive Church taken properly and strictly as somtime in your Booke as before you put it was that wherein the Apostles lived Now will ye be tryed by the Ancient Primitive Church of the Apostles held and professed What say you my Lord for your faith in this case Will you put your faith and Religion to the tryall of the most intire and upright Jâ—ry the Twelve Apostles Certainly if you decline this tryall 't is a shrewd suspicion that the faith of yours wherein you are so resolute to live and dye is not right Therfore for shame of the world you must at least professe or pretend that you wil be tryed by the the Faith and Religion which the Apostles and the true Church of God in their time as being the most Pure Prime Ancient Primitive Church held and professed First then That Primitive Church neither held nor professed nor practised any Hierarchicall government of Prelates or Bishops but have câ—ndemned it in their writings the Scriptures of the New Testament And yet I are say you resolve to live and dye Primate of Canterbury and Metropolitan of all England Secondly The Apostles and the ancient Primitive Church in their Age and time had no Altars but onely the Lord Iesus Christ Heb. 13.10 as it is formerly proved but you and your Church of England both set up and worship Altars and â—each the people both by your Books and practise to do so too and force Ministers to erect Altars or force them out of their Churches And this Faith and Religion also I dare say you resolve to live and dye in Thirdly The Apostles and the anciciâ—nt Primitiâ—e Church in their time celebrated and sanctified every Lords day in holy duties onely and in preaching as well in the afternoon as in the fâ—â—enoon never forbidding but still exhorting to preach in season and out of season giving no liberty to vaine and profane sports and Pastimes either upon
in his innocent nakednesse then with his devised Fig-leaves how applyed to the Prelaticall Church 103 104. Prelates Service sensuall and heathenish as done to an unknown God fully displayed 104. Prelates pompous Ceremonies like the Cardinals Sumpter 105. No necessity of Prelates Ceremonies sith both Superstitious and Superfluous saving that they are all the Substance of their Religion 106 107. True Reformation ought to have no Ceremonies at all to bind the Conscience 107. Prelates Ceremonies strengthen Superstition and Idolatry and destroy true piety 108. What is that Substance of Religion which Prelates Ceremonies doe fence 106 107. And what strength they adde to his Religion how it is weaknesse not to see 108. Prelates Ceremonies are beggerly Rudiments yea Aegyptian bonds and Babilonish Chaines 108. How by the Prelates Ceremonies so eagrely urged the Jesuites win ground 108 109. Romes Reconciliation hastened by hossing up wodden Altars and hurling down golden Ministers 109. The Jesuites hale in Popery through the Prelates broad Gates he hath layd open ibid. 21. How the Prelate hath layd open the wider-gates of his Catholicke Church by pulling down the walls and bulwarks of Christs true Church 109. The Prelates wider-Gates whither they lead 110. The Prelate hath nothing to doe with the true Faith nor Communion with the true Saints ibid. He perverteth the Scripture Jude 3. falsely applying the Saints Faith to his boundlesse Catholicke Church 110. What Truth the Prelate professeth and with what singlenesse of heart 110 111. And his notorious hypocrisie in deluding the King 111. The Prelate puts all his Book upon the King as published in obedience to his Majesties command ibid. What we may expect from the Prelate who resolves to dye in that Faith wherein he hath lived ibid. And so what hope he can have of Gods favour 112. THE CONTENTS OF THE MAINE POINTS AND PASSAGES IN THIS insuing Reply to the Relation it selfe 2. WHat is that Church whose judgement the Prelate would have the people to depend upon 113. And not to be too busie with Seripture but moderately in things obvious 114. How the Prelate yeelds the Jesuite this that the Church of Rome is a true Church on whose judgement people must depend 115. The Prelate a Subtile underminer of the Truth 116. 4. The papall Church holds no one point of Saving Truth ibid. 23. How the Prelate vants himselfe for the great Champion of the Church of England 117. 29. How the Prelate overthrows Christ while he makes things not Fundamentall in the Faith necessary to some mens Salvation but tells us not who those be 117 118. 31. How the Prelate can bind all men to peace by his Churches Declaration yea though it be not the Churches 118. The dangerous Consequences hereof 119. 32. The Prelate selfe-condemned for adding things contrary and detracting things necessary 120. 35. How against the Prelate things considered in the manner of Beeing onely are fundamentall in the Faith Instanced in sundry particulars 120 121. The many absurd consequences of Popish Reall-presence ibid. 37. How the Prelate makes things which are fundamentall in the Faith not to be so to all men 122. See 117.118 If the Prelate doe at all discerne what the true Faith is what use he makes of it 122. 39. How the Prelate falsifies Lyrinencis and is loth to English some of his words 123. If the Church of Rome be Lupanar Errorum a Stews of Errours 't were good that all should know her in plain English to be so to avoyd her though the Prelate be loth English men should know it ibid. How the Prelate applauds the Iesuite Stapleton in a grosse point of Popery whom Dr. Whitakers in the Chaire at Chambridge confuted 124. How therein the Prelate prefers Stapleton before Bellarmine who comes nearer to the Truth ibid. 40. How the Prelate is justly as an Enemy to Assurance of Salvation and so of true Saving Faith 124. 43. How the Prelate makes it whether for a penny Beliefe of Scripture or the Creed hath the Precedencie of a Prime Principle of Faith 125. 44. The Prelate allows some Traditions for Apostolick though not fundamentall in the Faith ibid. 45. The Prelates Faith of Christs Descent into hell which Article is by the Replyer discussed 126 to 129. 47.48 For default of examining the Articles of the Creed by Scripture the Prelate overthrows two Articles The Catholicke Church and the Communion of Saints 129. 51. Notwithstanding the Prelate we ought boldly and publickly to affirme The Truth against errour 132. 53. The Prelate submits the Faith of the Church of England to the judgement of the Fathers whether her Articles be according to Scripture How by those Fathers he is condemned 132 133. With what limitation the Church within the first 400 or 500. yeares may be sayd to have been at the best 133 134. How the Replyer declines the occasion of entring into a comparison between the truly Reformed Protestant Churches and that within the first 500. years after the Apostles 134. Conformity to Popish Rites a Pretence to bring Papists to Church as the Christians anciently intertained Heathen manners to draw them to be Christians 134. Augustine complained of Ceremonies then when if the Prelate say true the Church was at the best ibid. 62. The Prelates false professed Faith concerning the Catholicke Church in the Creed which he defines to be the Society of all Christians 135. 66. How the Prelate jumpes with Bellarmine for a word of God as well unwritten as written 135 136 137. Baptisme of Infants a Doctrine of Scripture not an unwritten Tradition We ought to repaire to Scripture in all doubts of Faith 137. 72 73. How the Prelates words not well examined may make us beleeve he is no Arminian but Orthodox in the Doctrine of Grace while he abuses the Scripture most palpably and grosly 138 139. 75 76. What the place and office of naturall Reason is in judgeing of Scripture against the Prelate magnifying naturall Reason to the vilifying of Scripture the blindnesse and vanity thereof in judging of Divine things and matters of Faith 140 141 142 143. Vnsanctified Reason how it judges the Scripture to be false 143. How the Prelate is put to his naturall Reasons pregnancy in matters of Faith 1â—2 77. The Prelates extreme blindnesse or malice in saying The Scripture is strengthened with probable Arguments from the light of Nature and humane Testimony to convince men without which it is not so demonstratively evident of it selfe 144. At large confuted 14â— to 149. A secret power in Scripture convincing a naturall man in the reading or hearing of it preached that it is the very word of God 148 149 150. See also A motion of the Replyer to the Prelate how he shall make tryall of the Scriptures powerfull sufficiencie to convince him that it is the word of God 149. A comparison of the Scripture with the Sun 151. Gods word preached and not Church-Tradition the ordinary prime motive and instrument of Faith Illustrated
by pregnant Comparisons ib. 83. How the Prelate hangs the Beliefe of Scripture to be the word of God necessarily upon the Authority of the present Church and other such poore inducements all but meere probabilities which may beget opinion but never beliefe 152 153 154 155. All examined and proved to be meere vanity in all which the Prelate destroyes all Faith and hope of Salvation 156. also 157. In what sense and way onely a Naturall Man being led by the Prelates hand as of the present Church to read the Scripture may be induced to beleeve it is the very word of GOD 154. 84. Further notorious blasphemies of the Prelate in derogating from Scripture as having no light but as a candle in a box of 12 in the pound till Tradition of the present Church doe light it Examined 157 158 159. How the Prelate perverts the Scripture and puts out the light of it 157. Other blasphemies of the Prelate against the Scripture Gods word and the Holy Ghost making his Church-Tradition the eyes inlightner 159 160 161. Gods own voyce in Scripture read and preached begets beliefe that it is Gods word 161. 85. The Prelates prosecution of this Argument in advancing his present Church Authority further confuted 162 163. 85 86. A Subtile and Sly evasion of the Prelate from the Jusuites true objection 164. A pretty tricke of Legerdemain 195. Scriptures full light teacheth a perfect knowledge against the Prelates Evasion 165 166. 87. The Prelates perverting of Scripture in his Babylonish confounding the Historicall with the Saving and justifying Faith as he alwayes doth and another Scripture in confounding the regenerate with the unregenerate 166. to 170. Whereupon the Replyer addes a notable Discourse of the nature of true Saving Faith 170 to 174 as namely of its admirable operations in the severall faculties of the Soule with its excellencie c. The Prelate Contradicts himselfe not knowing wherof he affirmeth Saving that by Faith he ever meaneth a false Faith whereby he destroyeth the true 173. The Sure beliefe of Scripture is a Christians sure comfort in trouble 172 173. 88. Hookers Sensible Demonstration so applauded by the Prelate throughly scanned and soundly proved to be false by most evident Demonstrations proving the Scripture to prove it selfe Gods word 174 to 177. The Prelates Ground from Nature being applyed to Scripture proved false and Christs Saying which the Prelate objecteth cleared 177 178. 89. Hookers stating of the Question commended by the Prelate for Tradition as the Key to open the Entrance to Scripture proved false in the Prelates sense and that Key to be a false pick-lock 178 179. 91. How the Prelate in charging the Pope for usurping Lordship over the world is taken tardy for doing the like himselfe over All England contrary to S. Peters rule alledged by the Prelate 180. 93. What assistance Lawfully sent Pastors and Teachers have ordinarily of God 180.181 95. The Prelate selfe-condemned ibid. 98. The Prelate belyes the Scripture to credit his Church-Tradition 182. Scripture little heholden to the Prelates Church-Tradition ib. His bold belying the Scripture as if that gave Authority to his usurped Church-Tradition ib. The Prelate catcht in his own Delemma or Net ibid. A Solecisme of the Prelate ibid. 100. The Prelate maliciously yoakes the precise party as he calls it with the Jesuite onely making that 10 times worse 183 184. The precise party with the Prelates factious silence Ministers vindicated from his wicked and false reproches 184 185 186. The Prelates 3 marks of his imagined Author of Ipswich Newes 186. The Prelates hypocriticall words and desperate deeds for Preaching how they agree and his cursed hypocrisie cryed shame of by his infamous practises 187. The Prelate knows not what true Preaching meanes 188. Difference between true Sermons and the Preachers for infallibility ibid. The Prelates Diabolicall malice against the true Preachers of Gods word 189. The Replyer at length forced by the Prelate to answre his compari-tween the Ancient Fathers and the best moderne Reformed Dison be vines for Preaching 190 191. Other Cavils of the Prelate answered 192 193. 104. The Prelate perverteth the Fathers to uphold Tradition still which they were against to the Prelates sense 194 195 196. Prelates Popish pretence of Scriptures deepnesse to draw men from them to seek to the Oracles of the present Church Tradition 196 to 199. With the mischiefes that may follow upon it ibid. The Prelates Popish zeale noted by occasion in his forcing all Bibles to be bound with Apochrypha 196 197. How the Prelate overthrows a true Principle and Maxime by a false 198. Grace makes Supernaturall truth more evident then Nature doth the Naturall 199. 106. Another excellent discourse of Saving Faith occasioned by the Prelate bewraying his profound ignorance herein 200 201 202. The Prelats bold belying and blaspheming Gods secret Councels 202. The Prelates broad blind Popish way 203. Fully confuted 203 204. 109. Prelate againe blasphemeth in belying Gods Councels 205. 1â—6 The Prelate hangs the Credit of Scripture upon mans opinions of Gods sufficiencie ibid. Mans opinion of Gods sufficiencie how vaine blind and impotent 206. The Prelate himselfe proved to have a blind opinion of God and of his Sufficiencie and consequently he is an Infidel not beleeving the Scripture to be Gods word 207 108. as which saith he depends on mans opinion of Gods sufficiencie 111. The Prelate still detracts from Scripture all along 208. 113. By the Prelates Doctrine the Faith of all the Apostles Martyrs ancient Fathers and Doctors which know no such Tradition of the present Church as a necessary prime inducement to lead them to the beliefe of Scripture to be Gods word is Hereticall and Schismaticall 206 210. Ergo the Prelaticall Church Schismaticall and Hereticall 115. Most notorious blasphemy of the Prelate against the Holy Ghost making him the Author of falshood as is shewed 211 212 213 214. Sundry probable Reasons layd down by the Replyer why the Prelate should as he doth chuse the light of nature as the Second to his Church Tradition to introduce beliefe of Scripture to be Gods word and of God to be God 212 213. No reverend perswasion of Scripture had till first the Tradition of of the present most Reverend Father commend it as Laudable 212. How the Prelate dallies with Romish Idolatry 211. How the Prelate hangs mans beliefe of God as of Scripture upon his Church Tradition 212. 116 The Prelates good inclination to mans free-will in beleeving The Prelates notorious and grosse hypocrisie pretending respect to the Scripture to be the motive of his tedious vain groundlesse and gracecâ—ssâ— discourse in disgracing and vilifying of it altogether and that as gâ—osly as ever any â—esuiâ—e did 215 216. The Prelaâ—es most wickâ—d perverting and abusing of Scripture 216 Wâ—o are his Christianly dâ—sposed men whom in his Discourse he â—ndâ—avoureth to satisfie ibid. 118. A nimble shift and put off of the Prelates 217. The absurbity of his Comparison of his
Kingdome meerly Temporall 283. Their Government Oligarchicall ibid. Christs Congregations have no need of Prelates to visit them having their own lawfull Pastor to feed them 285. The Govenment of Christs Church is most perfect of all other as consisting of the 3 States of good Politie or Government to wit the Monarchiall the Aristocraticall and the Democraticall 286. Prelates Lordly Tyranny expresly condemned by Christ as Heathenish 287 to 290. 204. The Prelaticall Church in England no lesse Tryumphant then the Prelate taxeth Rome to be 290 291. 205. By the Prelates own allegation nor Kings nor Priests may doe any thing in Reformation of Religion besides Gods prescript Law 291 292. And so by his Confession implicitly where the foundation of Faith and Good Manners are shaken therein Magistrates are not to be obeyed in which respect the Prelate is shrewdly put to it in sundry instances 293 to 297. 210. The Prelate againe blasphemeth Gods Name as if a favourer of the Prelaticall practises in England 297. A blasphemous Article of Faith of the Prelates pinning upon the Church of England ibid. Prelaticall Canons yea and Papall too yoaked and equalled by the Prelate with Scriptures in Governing the Church We must not joyn in Prayer with notorious profane Hypocrites and Enemies of Christ and of his Truth 298. A speciall Prayer for the King in these perillous times ibid. King and State abused and indangered by the Prelates practises and putting forth of this his Booke ibid. The Prelate proves all his Speculations with his bare word 199. What a Polititiant he Ch. of Eng. is grown under such a Primate Prelates no visible Judges of Gods Institution proved at large against the Prelates Blasphemy 399 300 301. Prelates Canons such Law-books as wherewith Christs Law-book cannot consist but is made of none effect They are Antichristian bondage ibid. No more necessity of one Primate over all England then of one pope over All 302. A Speciall duty of Christian Magistrates ibid. 212. How uniny and certainty of Faith is preserved by the Prelates 303. 194. The Prelate makes the Scripture a blind dumb and dead Judge 303 304. Of Generall Councels sundry notable Passages scattered along his Booke and collected by the Replyer and detected to be some of them ridiculous and all of them most impious and detestable from 304 to 324. How by the Prelates Doctrine both himselfe and his Church of England are bound to worship Images and to forbeare the Cup in the Sacrament as being decreed by Generall Councels and not yet reversed by any other equall to those 312 313. The Apostles Assembly Act. 15. no Precedent for Generall Councels in after Ages to be Judges in Controversies of Faith 314 315. and therfore that example not prudently but surreptitiously taken up by the Prelaticall Church The Prelate confesseth that Generall Councels have no Authority by Christs Institution 312 313. How unlike Prelaticall Councels are to that Act. 15. whereof not only the Apostles but the Presbyters and the Brethren the People of God were the Body 313 314. How the Prelate holds the Difinitions of Generall Councels to be infallible and that there is no more question to be made of the assistance of the Holy Ghost in them then that the Holy Ghosts assistance is without errour 325 326. The Prelate boldly professeth that he absolutely maketh a Generall Councel Judge of Controversies 327. Wherein he is abolutely fallen from the Catholick Faith His sundy assertions some ridiculous some contradictorious some blasphemous some darke riddles which he propounds and leaves unresolved and can never Resolve 321 322. He is catcht fast in his own Net And the more he struggleth to unwind himselfe out the mâ—re he is intangled 213. Though the Councel of Trent were not Generall yet it is so Generall as the Decrees thereof do bind all Papists under Anathema 328. 227. Another Reason of the Prelates why a Generall Councel erring yet should stand in force namely for the peace of Christendome confuted He is content to forgoe the Truth for Peace sake 328. The Prelates Heresie in holding it a branch of Heresie to say The Church Militant is without spot or wrinckle according to Ephes. 5. confuted 329 330. The Prelate overthrows an Article of the Faith 331. The Prelates Key of Doctrine primely in the Church wherewith he shuts out Truth and lets in Errour 329. He makes it but a supposition for the Key of Doctrine to let in Truth ibid. The Prelates subtile but futile and vaine Distinction of Transubstantiation confuted 332. He makes Christs Institution not to be cleare against Transubstantiation as against Communion in one Kind Confuted fully 333 334. Romish Adoration of Images minced by the Prelate set forth by the Replyer in its full proportion and shewed to be more grosse Idolatry then that of the Heathen 334 335 336. 280. The Prelates notorious hypocrisie in confessing Images in Churches and other Romish Superstitions to have given great Scandall to many so as to drive them quite away from them detected and selfe-condemned by his practises 337 338. Will-worship in Altar-Service and the like a Service of the Devil 340 341. The Prelates hot zeale in pressing more of Romes Ceremonies makes the old justly suspected as smelling ranke 341. Ilustrated by a similitude ibid. The Prelates Ceremonies condemned by the Same Testimony which he alledgeth 343 344. the By beâ—ng put for the Maine See before 280. The Prelate stands stiffly in this That a silly ignorant Papist living and dying in the Romish Faith may thereby conforming himselfe to his Romish Religious life be saved with his Reasons his so learning of Christ and his Charity not mistaken confuted 345 to 350. That which the Prelate calls Churlishnesse in the Protestants is better then the Prelates Charity ibid. 294 295. The Prelates quoting of 3. Martyrs for the Name of Reall Presence which he would faine have to be brought in use answered 350 351 352 353. Reasons why we ought not to name the Reall Presence in the Sacrament 351. 297. The Prelate dallies with Transubstantiation Purgatory Forbearance of the Cup in saying they are Disputed or Disputable and Improbable Questions 353 354. Romes Tyranny confessed by the Prelate the Image whereof is proved to be in the Prelacy of England 356 357. How he dawbes with the Jesuites about their Salvation 357 358. 299. The Prelate contradicts himselfe and so overthrows his Faith and Charity concerning a silly Papists Salvation in Saying That as a Romanist he cannot be saved 357 358. The Prelates vaine ridiculous and absurd hope of the Salvation of some Papists living in the Church of Rome 358 to 363. The Prelates confession of the Romanists Faith crosseth his hope of their Salvation 372. The Prelate still hath a Reservation for the Salvation of his silly ignorant Papists 302. The Prelates worth misled the greatest misleader 363. The Prelates Rule 'T is safest to beleeve the Article of Christs Descent into hell as both the Churches of England
your own Name This in our poore opinions will mightily take with the vulgar and easily vindicate and set upright your Graces Reputation And because we are not ignorant of your multiplicious and waighty affaires in Court not permitting your thoughts that vacancie which such a worke would require let not that trouble your Lordship our Service shall not be wanting Thus or so your Divines Well now that you heare your friends Counsell what 's your Resolution L· ibid. I confesse I looked round about these men and their motion and at last my thoughts working much upon themselves I began to perswade my selfe that I had been too long diverted from this necessary worke And that perhaps these might be in voce hominum tuba Dei in the still voyce of men the loud Trumpet of God P. And perhaps my Lord and that whereof it may be ye wil be the rather perswaded the unanimous consâ—nt of these Divines might be by the instigation of that same Spirit in which those 400. Prophets by their unanimous vote prevailed to perswade King Ahab to goe up to Ramoth Gilead that so according to Gods own purpose he might there perish But it might be you say Gods loud Trumpet What to hasten you to Judgement Certainly that lying Spirit in those Prophets was sent from GOD to prepare the way of executing vengeance on that Ahab the more speedily as who had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse in sheding Nabaths blood And surely when I look'd into the intrals of this your Booke as the Roman Southsayers of old did into the bowels and entralls of their Sacrifices and found them so exceedingly vicious and corrupt and withall like to Caesars Sacrifice wherein was found no heart which the Astrologers took for a bad signe no heart at all to the true Religion indeed it suggested these conceits into my mind about this very passage of yours But time will try all things And if you will have my poore opinion I am perswaded if you had never put pen to paper it having been super-sufficient to have expressed your mind in your other handy-works or Practises and so had reserved your Apology when requisite to your perswasive Language and powerfull Rhetorick men might have had lesse hold to take off you when you might have put all your other Actions upon a higher moving Cause as usually ye doe But for writing you know Litera Scripta manet Or else it had been better to have reprinted your First Coppy as it was at first without Alteration and in your Chaplains name still for so you should both have vindicated it from obscurity lying hid and lurking in the belly of Dr. Whites Works and also at pleasure have either owned or disclaimed it as you found occasion Or might have excused any thing that might be taken in it as offensive either imputing it to your Chapleins mistake or to want of leasure to revise it or which is the surest and most beaten way to the Printer as was lately done about that notorious Popish Book of Salis his Devotions And hereof if your Lordship knows it not I will tell you a pretty Tale. This Book of Devotion of Salis bearing the Title of Bishop of Geneva although the Church of Geneva have no such Bishops had been so long ago translated into English and being purged from those grosse points of Popery which were in the Originall Coppy was by Authority published in Print and sold well But of late dayes since you came to sit in that Chaire one undertook to translate the Originall anew and intire as it was at first set forth by the Author without altering any thing as the Translator professed in his Epistle Dedicatory to Mris Anne Roper a notorious Recusant This Translation being brought to your Chaplein to license it past for currant as containing nothing in it against Faith and Manners and so was licensed without the least correction of the grossest things in it It came to the Printer who falling aworke upon it began to stumble at some no small Popish blocks that lay in his way insomuch as he was afraid to goe on but went and shewed them to your Chaplein who making a tush at it bad him goe on and he would beare him out in it So Printed it was And coming abroad some began to find fault with it and the stinke of the Booke more and more increasing with stirring it came at length to be smelled by your Lordship Hereupon what serious examination you used about it I know not but there being some Jealousie that some one of those THREE forementioned troublesome bitter men whose Cause was then shortly to be heard might haply among other things might they have been permitted to speake freely cast that Booke in your Lordships dish the next newes we heard of it was that a Proclamation is published for the burning of the Book in Smith-field wherein also all the blame was layd upon the poore Printer for which he must to prison and you and your Chaplein were acquitted and cleared as no way faulty So easie is it with the least breath to blow away the blackest clowds when they threaten a storme either against you or your Chaplein in such cases But now in this your Booke so exactly Reprinted and revised and republished wherein also you have ratified and avowed all in your former Booke for yours you have for ever fast bound your hands that you cannot helpe your selfe at a dead lift Well 't is too late now either to prevent or remedy what is past Yet one thing there is which you may perhaps deem to be operae pretium worth your paines as wherein lyes your maine Confidence of vindicating your Reputation with good men and that is some Large Discourses in your Booke wherein you seeme to be point blanke against the Papists as about the Scripture Transubstantiation c. This indeed might say well to it and passe for currant were there not in some of them so much grosse allay as makes the whole to be reprobate Silver as the Prophet saith and also did you not commit a grosse Solecisme in writing a seeming Truth and practising apparently contrary and did you not overballance seeming Truths with too much Popish Truth throughout your Booke as will all along appeare And you know that if one dead Fly will corrupt a whole box of oyntment how much more a Swarme And a little poyson corrected and infused in a Potion proves medicinall but if uncorrected and of two great a quantity it becomes mortall and so instead of bealing kills the Patient But to proceed L. p. 9. I have thus acquainted your Majestie with all occasions which both formerly and now againe have led this Tract into the Light P. And not without cause needs your Tract to be led into the light I will not here apply that speech of Christ If the blind lead the blind but leave it to the event L. p. 11. GOD forbid I should
that principally They came about him like Bees Who The High Priests the Scribes and Pharisees who also hooked in the secular power Caesar and the Priest these came Swarming about Christ like Bees which they did first in the Garden where they apprehended him then in the High Priests hall where they accused him then in the Praetorium before Pilate where they condemned him as before Herod where they mocked him and last of all they Stung him to the heart with a Roman Speare his hands and feet fast nayled to the Crosse. Thus the Great Master Bee of the Hive was stung to death by the Hierarchies instigation And thus indeed GOD grant it never be our Kings case as it was Christs Thus I hope you see by this time what a Divine you are in your application of Scripture If you heare but the buzzing of a Bee presently that 's the Bee that stings you Whereas in truth you and all such as you who are persecuters of Christ and murtherers of him in his Saints and Servants are those Bees that David and in him Christ complaines of They came about me like Bees But take with you what followes They these Bees are quenched as the fire of thornes For in the Name of the Lord I will destroy them The Second place which I wonder at more and yet I will now cease to wonder at any thing you either doe or dare to speake which you quote is Rev. 22.12 Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his works shal be Now this you apply to your selfe as a medicine to cure that sting which you say the Bees have given you Why what Bees doe sting you If any are they not and that by your own confession the Bees of Gods own Hive his true Church And why doe they sting you Is it not for your slapping of them and smoaking them out of their Hive But how or wherewithall do they sting you Alas poore soules they have no other stings but Prayers and Teares and the sting of Truth which they preach and professe These are their proper stings Perhaps as they have cause enough they pray against you as a most cruell persecuter of the poore painfull Bees of Christ his Ministers and an overthrower of their Hives and a destroyer of the Bees But such stings you little care for as which you are not affraid to provoke more and more against you every day But beleeve it their Prayers like winged darts or arrowes fly swiftly and pierce deep and will deadly wound where they light though as yet ye be not sensible of it But all this while I heare not a word of the Hornets-Selfe stinging Why doe ye not yet cry out of the deadly sting of your own Conscience For all the innocent blood of Gods Servants which you have shed and for all the havock you have made in his Hive Nay rather your heart is so hardned with sinne and blinded with Romish zeale that instead of remorse you look for a reward And a reward you shall have of him whose words you feare not to cite who Saith Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me to give to every man according as his works shal be But you tell us immediately before this that you are stung of the Bees many times for no offence nay sometime for Service done them would they see it Many times for no offence Therfore it seems sometimes it is for offence done them by you But can you name any one time when they sting you without being extreamely provoked by your offence given them Shew it if you can Nay sometimes you say for Service done them Somtimes When And what Service Your oppressing and burthening their Consciences with more and more Romish rites and Ceremonies Your fetching them up to your High-Commission and there undoing of them clipping their wings that they can now no more doe their office and bring any more honey to the Hive and so muzling their mouthes that they cannot dare not so much as humme What other Service can they see you doe them Or do you your selfe know any that you do in private for these Bees Do you now and then whisper a good word for them in the Kings eare That were a good heareing if you did it on the right side But this service we confesse you do them You drive them closser to their GOD make them pray the more earnestly and fervently and to be the more provident in the well husbanding of that poore stock of honey they have got both because you have stocked up all those flowers on which they should gather more and least that which they have you should take from them For a Conclusion of this your similitude of the Bee-hive the Church of Christ upon earth you compare to a Hive of Bees And when the Priest putteth his hand to the Hive he shal be sure to be Stung and there is no Honey for him This Priest is the Prelate an Hierarchicall man And as I noted before the true Bees of Christ his true Church cannot brook such Priests such Hierarchicall men to meddle with them Ergo hence I conclude that the Hierarchy consisting of Priests and such like men as Prelates or an Hierarchicall Church is no true Church of Christ is not this Hive of Bees to which you compare the Church of Christ upon earth How so For your Prelaticall Church is such a Hive of Bees as the Priest may put his hand to the Hive without any feare or danger of stinging at his pleasure For in that Hive all the Bees are so conformable to the Priest their Master-Bee as they yeeld all subjection to his dictates neither doe they or dare they at any time offer to sting him But if this Priest offer to meddle with Christs Bee-hive and to impose his Cannon Law and Ceremonies upon Christs Bees to inforce them to conformity to his Rules the Bees doe no more acknowledge such a Priest or Prelate for a Master then Christs Sheep which will not heare the voyce of a strange Shepheard And if he will needs force them he must not blame them if they sting him For as Christ said to the Jewes Ye are not of my Sheep So such Priests with their Hierarchy are none of Christs Hive Prelaticall Churches therefore are none of Christs true Churches And thus much of the Bee-Hive L. p. 15. The Church of England is in a hard Condition She professes the Ancient Catholick Faith and yet the Romanist condemnes her of Novelty in her Doctrine She practises Church Government as it hath been in all Ages and places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting both in and ever since the Apostles times and yet the Seperatist condemnes her for Antichristianisme in her Discipline P. It matters not so much who they be that thus condemn your Church of England as how true it is whereof you are condemned Doth the
Romanist condemn you of Novelty in Doctrine And what defence have you against this charge You say She professeth the Ancient Catholick Faith Is this your best Apology for your Church of England Is profession sufficient when you are departed from the Ancient Catholick Faith And is not the Ancient Catholick Faith that which Christ and his Apostles taught and have left recorded in the Scriptures Dare you deny this Now in what particular the Romanist condemnes you for Novelty in Doctrine I know not Surely not in those wherein themselves are equally condemned I will instance in two Doctrines wherein both you and they are Apostatized and departed from the Ancient Catholick Faith in your Novelty of Doctrine The first is your Forbidding of Marriage wherein thus farre you goe with the Romanist in forbidding Marriage to all sorts of persons for certain times in the yeare in all amounting to upon 20. weeks wanting not halfe a quarter of halfe of the yeare The Second is Forbidding Certain Meates on certaine dayes and weeks in the yeare And your Zeale in the observation hereof showeth plainly that you make it a matter of Religion as the Romanist doth and not a meere civill thing as the Statute makes it Now let us see what the Adostle saith of both these for he couples them together Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils speaking lyes in hypocrisie and commanding to abstain from Meats which GOD hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which beleeve and know the Truth For every Creature of GOD is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving For it is sanctified by the Word of GOD and Prayer If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good Minister of Iesus Christ nourished up in the words of Faith and good Dâ—ctrine whereunto thou hast attained So the Apostle Where we may observe these particulars First That these two Doctrines Forbidding of Marriage and certaine Meates are Doctrines of Devils Secondly they proceed from lying Spirits Thirdly they are lyes spoken in hypocrisie as if some times were more holy then Marriage it selfe which is honourable amongst all and at all times or as if some meates were holyer then other or some more uncleane then other at some times Fourthly such as teach hold and practise these Doctrines have cauterized or seared Consciences which instead of remorse glory in these Doctrines and stiffely maintain them and out of which your Prerogative Courts and other Episcopall Courts sucke no small advantage making a rich merchandise of them Fifthly That the holding of these Doctrines is a departing from the faith Apostâ—sonta tines some shall apostatise or be Apostates from the faith such as hold these Doctrines And this faith is the true ancient Catholick Faith which they depart from Sixthly These Doctrines are the markes and fruits of the last times perillous times times of Antichrist and Antichristian Apostacie and therfore they are Doctrines of Novelty Seaventhly For the truth and confirmation of all this The Spirit speaketh it expresly So as it admits of no doubting or gainsaying Eightly and lastly That it is the duty of every good Minister of Iesus Christ nourished up in the words of faith and good Doctrine to put the Bretheren in remembrance of these things So as it were to be wished that the Church of England had some good Ministers of Iesus Christ that durst and would cry out against these Doctrines of Divels practised by the Prelates and their Disciples and learned from Antichrist himselfe and upheld by his Canon Law against the expresse word of God Thus then doth not the Church of England justly lie under the Apostles sentence of condemnation for Novelty in Doctrine yea holding Doctrines of Devils and that by the expresse testimony not of Romanists but of Gods Spirit that cannot lye I could give many more instances of novelty in your Doctrine though not as yet generally professed yet practised preached and printed by Authority though if ye be charged home with it either that Book shal be burned and the Printer blamed or they will prove but private mens opinions as you say in your Book As Invocation of Saints Iustification by Charity Erection of Altars with many other Popish Doctrines as also New Arminian Heresies old Pelagianisme newly raked out of hell againe whither they had been long agoe remaunded which to entertaine and maintaine in your Church of England you have made your Articles of Religion and that by an Edict or Declaration prefixed before them to be of a dubious sense and to equivocate having a mentall Reservation of sense for the adverse party while the Orthodox imagineth the letter to be on his side and as it hath ever so been taken till you altered the case But the two former Instances shal be sufficient witnesses against you for the present that you are departed from the Ancient Catholick Faith being justly condemned of Novelty in Doctrine yea Doctrines of Divels So as here ye may have a sounder Answer to stoppe the Romanists mouth charging the Church of England with Novelty in Doctrine then to say She professeth the Ancient Catholick Faith Tell the Romanist by way of Retortion That in some things the Church of England is no more to be condemned of Novelty in Doctrine then the Church of Rome is nor altogether so much We come now to your discipline wherein the Separatist you say condemnes her the present Church of England of Antichristianisme A sore Charge and sufficient if true to seperate from you But what defence have you for this Surely you say She practiseth Church-Government as it hath been in use in All Ages and all Places where the Church of Christ hath taken any rooting both in and ever since the Apostles times and yet the Seperatist condemnes her for Antichristianisme in her Discipline Here you say something indeed and to some purpose could you make it good For to say you professe is nothing but to professe and practise that 's matter of cleare evidence And yet I say could you prove it so it were but to some purpose and not sufficient to acquit you from Antichristianisme which is the maine Point For Some things were in use even in the Apostles times and have continued ever since in all Ages and all Places too where the Church you meane of hath taken now in tract of time a deepe rooting in the Earth yea even there also where Christs true Church hath taken rooting and yet all this is no sufficient Argument or warrant for the true Church of Christ presently to imbrace them For instance The Mystery of Iniquity began to worke in the Apostles time as he affirmeth 2 Thesse 2.7 And an example hereof St. Iohn notes in his third Epistle of Diotrephes who was ambitious of Prelacie hee loved to have The
Preeminence the Bishops Chaire hee prateth against Iohn hee receives not the bretheren and forbids them that would and and throwes them out of the Church by Excommunication just as you and the Pope doe This ambition and erection of Prelacie or Hierarchy was that Mystery of Iniquity which Satan began to brood and hatch even in the Apostles dayes and wherein we have Diotrephes quickly grown up as the first Cocke of the Game of speciall and particular note and name that durst affront even the Apostle himselfe And this Mystery of Iniquity hath continued ever since though at first and in the first Ages it grew up but slowly by reason of a tò katekon à Remora or maine impediment the Roman Empire whose Imperiall Seat being once removed from Rome to Constantinople by Constantine who consopited appeased and put an end to those tenne Persecutions which had been a great hinderance to Antichrists growth then began this Mistery to perke up and the Bishop of Rome Silvester the first could be content to weare a Crown put upon his head by Constantine which upon Boniface the eight his head was multiplyed to a triple Crown one for heaven another for earth and third for purgatory and thus by degrees successively it grew up to that height which we see it now arrived at even its Akmè or full Stature beyond which it cannot goe though it would So as its main care strength and policie is all little enough Parta tueri to maintain what it hath got Now I say in this Mystery of Iniquity I mean the Prelacie or Hierarchy was Antichrist begotten born bred up and at length brought to his full maturity and perfection Now is this Mystery of Iniquity therefore good because it is able to vie and plead Antiquity even as high up as the Apostles owne times and so along downe to ours Though I doe more then suspect that you take it in foule Scorne that I should Anti-christen your Prelacie or Hierarchie with the name of the Mystery of Iniquity But if ye will be patient a while I shall ere I have done give you I hope good Satisfaction And in the meane time the Apostle shall passe his word for it who in the very same place where he speakes of the Mystery of Iniquity doth speake also of the Man of Sin the Son of Perdition who is an Adversary and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped who sitteth as God in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God The very recitall of which words may suffice to stay any reasonable mans stomacke from breaking out into outragious impatience against him that saith The Prelacie is the Mystery of Iniquity But you shall have it God willing at full anon Againe some of your Divines goe about to drive the Antiquity of your holy Lent-Fast from the Apostles very times and so to have continued ever since in all Ages and Places where the Church hath taken any rooting And indeed some Christians even then began to observe Touch not Tast not handle not and to observe Times daies Moneths but the Apostle condemns all such observation and as before brands them for Doctrines of Devils and departing from the Faith and denying of Christ. So as though you could prove your Church-Government to have been in use both in and ever since the Apostles times yet it will not follow that it is such a Government as either was practised or yet approved by the Apostles themselves For your Church-Government is altogether Hierarchicall by Prelates which the Apostles never practised themselves nor yet approved but condemned in others that either began to practise it or were inclined and affected thereto Not as Lords over Gods Heritage saith Peter Not as having dominion over your Faith saith Paul It shall not be so among you saith Christ. Diotrephes loveth to have the Preeminence saith Iohn But of this we shall have occasion to speake more at after In the meane time take this with you Did the Apostles nay for some hundred yeares after them did Prelates keep Courts and Consistories with their Chauncellors Archdeacons Commissaries Officialls Tipstaves Pursuivants Apparators like the Roman Lictors with their rodds for terrour and state Or had they their private Courts to excommunicate whom they pleased and that by a dumbe Priest and for every triviall matter and for no just cause Prove these things my Lord to have been in use in the Primitive Ages at the least for the first 500. yeares or in any place but where Diotrâ—phes was untill Antichrist the Pope set up that frame of Hierarchy with all its Equipage Traine and Rabble the just Image whereof you have set up in the Church of England You speak bigge indeed but you cannot be as bigge as your word If you had leasure to read the Histories of the Church and among the rest the Centuries they will show you what a vast difference there is between your Church-Government as both now and of long time it hath been practised in the Church both of Rome and England and that ancient Government practised by the ancient Prelates in the Primitive Ages And in the Popes Canon Law and other Records à Polidor Virgil De Inventorebus rerum c. you may come to know the Antiquity of your Prelaticall Courts and Consistories Chancellors Archdeacons Officialls Commissaries Registers and all the frie. For beyond that seaven hild City the head-spring of this Seaven-Streamed Egyptian Nilus is not found Hath not then the Seperatist as you call him just cause and ground to charge your Church of England with Antichristianisme whose Church-Government and Discipline is such as the Apostles never approved but expresly reproved and condemned and practised the contrary For if your Church-Government be that which the Apostle brands with the Mystery of Iniquity and of Antichrist then surely you cannot excuse it from Antichristianisme If you say This is rather meant of the Church of Rome and of the Pope the Head thereof who you must needs confesse is very like to Antichrist if he be not the very Antichrist as indeed he is then of the Church of England Why wherein differeth the Church of England from that of Rome in Church-Government Do you not say you are both one and the same Church And wherein one and the same but in Church-Government especially Of which we shall speake more anon Now for Antichristianisme you know it comes of Antichrist and Antichrist is a compound word Anti in the Greek signifying both for and against So as Anti-Christ is one that under pretence of being for Christ is against Christ. Such is the Pope who pretends to be Christs Vicar which is as much to say as Antixristos Antichristus as Anthupatos Pro consul so Antichristus Prochristus or Vice-Christ And yet he is Anti Against Antikeimenos an Adversary to Christ as the Apostle sets him forth So as the Pope is
Antichrist both as he pretends to be Christs Vicar for Christ or Vice Christ as he practiseth against Christ. And for this reason he is noted to be ho Antikristos That Antichrist by a note of singularity as 1 Iohn 2.22 to distinguish him from other Antichrists of whom there are many as 1 Iohn 2.18 Of which many your Lordship and all Prelates are and especially Arch-Prelates or Patriarchs as the Pope call'd you For you tell us at after that you Prelates are Vice-roys whereby Christ governes his Church So as you being Christs vice-roy over the Church of England you are as vice Christus vice-Christ or in the Greek Antikristos as Anthúpatos Vice-roy under the King Christ. This you confesse and professe And under this Title you practise Antichrist you are an Antikeimenos an Adversary as all your practises proclame you and as we have in part noted and shall yet more set you forth And this is that Mystery of Iniquity For it were not els a Mistery if it were not veiled with a pretence and profession to be for Christ and under that to be against Christ. So as the difinition of Antichrist pertaineth no lesse properly to you then it doth to the Pope onely he is Antichrist with an Ho That Antichrist And you are An Antichrist and no little one neither as being Papa alterius Orbis The Pope or Patriarch of the other world to wit of England as the Pope said of you Now this being so cleare as is without all contradiction and you being Metropolitan of all England and the Church of England under you and the Government thereof being Prelaticall or Hierarchicall and this Hierarchy being that Mystery of Iniquity of such Antiquity for it pretends and professes to be for Christ as the Government of a vice-roy but in practise is against Christ and so is altogether Antichristian can you blame your Seperatist for condemning your Church of England of Antichristianisme and that for that very Church-Governments sake which you Say hath been used both in and ever since the Apostles in all Ages and Places where the Church hath taken any rooting But you will with the Jesuite alledge that place of Iohn to defend you from being an Antichrist as they doe to defend the Pope from being that Antichrist Iohn saith Who is a lyer but he that denyeth that Iesus is the Christ He is Antichrist But you Say you doe not deny Iesus to be Christ therefore you are neither a lyer nor Antichrist 'T is true indeed none is a more devout adorer of the Name JESUS then your selfe but yet I must tell you that for all this you deny the Person Iesus to be the Christ. But you confesse him to be the Christ. In words you doe But what saith the Apostle They professe that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good worke Reprobate So that in words a man may confesse and professe Christ and yet in works deny him And so doe you for all your faire pretences and professed love to Iesus And who was fitter to betray Christ then he that with a Hale Master Saluted him with a Kisse But let us now see what it is to deny Iesus to be the Christ. Iesus in that place is spoken of his Person and Christ is spoken of his Offices So as there is meant not a denyall of Iesus to be the Sonne of God or God-man not a denyall of his Person and two Natures these you doe not deny but a denyall of Iesu◠to be the Christ the Anointed of the Father And this you deny How For Christ is that Anointed King Priest and Prophet which three Offices of his are comprehended and signified in the Title ho Kristòs The Christ as Iohn there sets it down and our English doth well expresse it The Christ That Anointed Anointed above his fellowes namely King Priest and Prophet so as none of his fellowes those foregoing Types or Figures of him were anointed Melchisedech was King and Priest Samuel was Priest and Prophet David was King and Prophet but never any was this ho Kristòs The Christ The Anointed King Priest and Prophet And Christ was anointed solemnly and in a conspicuous and visible manner King Priest and Prophet by the Holy Ghost lighting upon him at his Baptisme whereupon that voyce of the Father from heaven proclamed him King Priest and Prophet This is my Beloved Son there he is King in whom I am well pleased there he is Priest heare him there he is Prophet Now he that denyeth or destroyeth any one of these three Offices of Christ which are inseperably inherent in him and incommunicable to any Creature denyeth Iesus to be the Christ as either denying him to be the onely King or the onely Priest or the onely Prophet of his Church Now 't is no hard matter to prove that you Prelates as Prelates deny and destroy all these three Offices of Christ. And first you deny Iesus to be the Onely Priest and that not onely in taking upon you the Title of Priests but also the Office The Title of Priest you professe and take a pride in And the Office of Priest you Priests of the Church of England doe in part at least usurpe For the Office of Christ as Priest is in two things First to Sacrifice Secondly to forgive Sins Now though you doe not yet openly professe your selves to be sacrificing Priests as the Romish Priests doe yet you take upon you to doe that which never any Priests under the Law did or might by their Office doe namely to forgive Sinnes This I say never any of the Leviticall Priests did This was and is Christs onely Prerogative as he is God and Priest For who can forgive Sins but onely God This the proud Pharisees confessed But this power you Say you have derivatively from Christ by his Authority committed unto you as Priests But first we have before proved that you are no Priests of Christ. Secondly where hath Christ given any such power even to his Apostles and true Ministers of the Gospell to forgive Sins Indeed he saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose Sins ye remit they are remitted and whose Sins ye retaine they are retained Was this by a Priestly Absolution But the Apostles were no such Priests as you professe to be Therefore it was not by any such Priestly Absolution as you practise How then How then Say you You are here at a Non-plus if it was not by a Priestly Absolution It must needs remaine then that it was by the Ministry of the Gospell and by the preaching of Faith and Repentance and pardon of Sinnes to the Penitent Beleevers As He that beleeveth and is baptised into Christ professing his true Faith and Repentance hath his Sinnes remitted but he that beleeveth not hath his Sins still retained And this is that remitting of Sins Declarative the power whereof Christ committed to his Apostles
and their Successors the true Ministers of the Gospell who by their preaching declare who have their sinnes pardoned and who not So as your colouring over your usuall evasion of the Papists about their merits which they say are not absolutely meritorious of themselves but as being dipped and dyed in Christs blood whence they receive the tincture of merit But as the merit of Christ is altogether immanent in himselfe and not transient to us but onely by Imputation through faith and not by any infusion or inherencie as Papists teach So the power of Priestly Absolution is so proper and peculiar to the Person of Christ that it is not communicative or derivative to any Creature No not I say to the Leviticall Priests who otherwise were Types of Christ. They onely offered sacrifices for sinnes but as Types and which could never take away Sinnes as the Apostle speakes And their Office was to discerne and judge of the Leprosie and to pronounce a man cleane or uncleane according to those signes and markes which God himselfe gave Now Leprosie was an Embleme of Sinne. And as those Ministers of the Old Testament did with the Leprosie namely pronounce or declare it onely to be or not to be So the Ministers of the Gospell are to declare unto beleevers the pardon of sinnes by those signes and markes which God hath set in his Word and to impenitent persons condemnation except they beleeve and repent But for power of Absolving men from Sinnes as to Say Thy Sins are forgiven thee that 's Christs voyce alone Never any of the Apostles used this voyce to any Thy Sins are forgiven thee but as Peter said to those that were pricked in their hearts and asked Men and Bretheren what shall we doe Repent saith he and be baptised every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of Sins But to Say I absolve thee from thy Sins or Thy Sins are forgiven thee is onely his who can give Repentance and Faith These two Prerogatives are inseperable in Christ as Peter sheweth Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give Repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of Sinnes and we are witnesses of these things Saith he Now if you can prove that Christ hath made you Such Princes and Saviours as to give you a power which Symon Magus would have bought with his money to give Repentance to any man then I will without any more adoe confesse that you have also a power to forgive Sins Otherwise not till then by your assumed and usurped Priesthood and presumptuous yea blasphemous forgiving of Sins I Absolve thee you deny Iesus to be the Christ the onely Christ to wit the onely Priest who onely hath merit and power as to give Repentance so remission of Sins to whom he will And thus as you take upon you to be a Priest both by your profession and practise you are an Antichrist For who is a lyer but he that denyeth Iesus to be the Christ He is Antichrist Saith the Apostle Iohn Secondly neither were it any great difficulty to prove that you Prelates and that according to your owne Doctrine in many places of your Book do deny Iesus to be the Christ to wit the onely Prophet of his Church For you allow no beliefe that the Scripture is the voyce of Christ the Prophet except the voyce and Tradition of the present Church doe first usher it in And this Church must alwayes be meant of a Prelaticall Church No question of that And for Exposition and Sense of Scripture you deny that the Scripture it selfe and of it selfe hath sufficient light as at after we shall see at large and therefore you referre us either to the Exposition of the Primitive Church or the Decisions of Generall Councels for the right Sense of the Scripture Thus you doe akurōsa as Christ saith or make voyd and of no authority the voyce of Christ by your Tradition Nay you Say also That if a Generall Councel should Conclude and Decree an Errour yet all men ought to yeeld obedience at least externall thereunto till another Generall Councel equall to that shall reverse and correct it And by the way what if it shall make it worse or adde more Errours to it But thus doe you not deny Christ to be the onely Prophet of his Church of whom God Saith Heare Him Him onely His Word onely His Voyce onely when you do not take his Word to be light enough and to be sufficient to interpret it selfe but that you must have recourse to Generall Councels consisting of Prelates as your Oracles to decide all doubts and controversies of Faith Doe you not thus attribute a greater light to men then to the voyce of Christ GOD Saith of Christ that Prophet Heare him in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you but you say In all doubts and controversies of faith heare what a Generall Councel Saith yea though it determine Errours yet all men are bound to yeeld obedience thereunto Thus the expresse voyce and cleare word of Christ that Prophet must depend upon Men and those an Assembly of Prelates or Priests which Christ never ordained in his Church and not men upon It. And so in this respect also denying Christ to be the onely All sufficient Prophet to instruct and establish his Church in all Truth while you deny his word to be Autópistos and Autà rkes of selfe-Credit of it selfe to be beleeved and selfe-sufficient to shew and interpret it selfe you prove your selfe an Antichrist For who is a lyer but he that denyeth that Iesus is the Christ He is Antichrist Your Grace therefore is an Antichrist But I come to the third Instance to which I confesse I thought to have confined my selfe and not to have touched the other two in this place though they be no lesse proper then this which is That you Prelates both by Profession and Practise as you are Prelates doe deny Iesus to be the Christ in that you deny him to be the onely Lord and King of his Church For what is for Christ to be the King of and over and in his Church but as to exercise his Almighty power and Fatherly care and Spouse-like love in protecting and preserving his Church from all evills in comforting her in the midst of afflictions in supplying her with all necessary Graces and Blessings and in vindicating the cause of his People against all their Persecuters and Oppressors So also in bearing a Speciall Kingly Rule in and over their Soules and Consciences in all things concerning Faith in the Worship and Service of God So as the people of God doe and ought to acknowledge Christ herein their onely King and not to suffer their consciences to be captivated and insnared by any ordinance of Man whatsoever in point of faith and ceremonies in Gods service injoyning a necessary conformity thereunto 'T is Christs Prerogative alone in
this case to sit as King in the throne which he hath set up for himselfe in every mans conscience And Christ hath redeemed us from all bondage and subjection to humane devises in Spirituall things as the Apostle saith Ye are bought with a price be not the servants of men So as this Kingly office this Kingdome over his Church Christ hath purchased with a deare price even his precious blood But Prelates â—raâ—ple this blood of Christ under their feet and make this his purchase voyd by setting themselves in his throne by sitting in and over mens consciences making Laws and imposing Rites as absolute Kings over the Church binding the Conscience to a necessary conformity to them in the worship of God And to this purpose this their Kinglike Authority indeed intollerable usurpation and Tyranny comes usually armed with a strong guard of Canons and attended with metà polleÌ„s phantasÃas with a pompous train of Ceremonies ever waiting at their heeles For their Maxime is No Ceremonies no Bishop A Bishop and his Ceremonies are Relatives and can no more be seperated one from the other then an Altar and a Priest But of Ceremonies I shall have occasion to speak more anon and therefore I am the briefer here The Summe is That a Prelate as a Prelate attended with his Ceremonies which he imposeth upon the Consciences of Gods people in the worship of God doth thereby deny Christ to be the onely King of his people and so to be their Redeemer as who hath freed them as from all Leviticall and Legall Rites so from all humane Ordinances and Devices in the worship of God I conclude therefore That a Prelate by his very place profession and practise as a Prelate usurping domination over mens Consciences in Gods worship by imposing his Ceremonies denyeth Christ to be the King of his people denyeth Iesus to be the Christ and so is a Lyer and Antichrist For who is a lyer but he that denyeth Iesus to be the Christ He is Antichrist Thus the Case being so that the Church of England being a Prelaticall and Hierarchicall Church and so for Church-Government and Discipline ruled and Lorded over by the Prelates doth thereby as a Prelaticall Body united to Prelaticall Heads and by subjection and conformity unto their Lordly impositions and injunctions in point of Ceremonies and of the worship of God conspire with the Prelates in denying Christ to be her onely King and so with them denying that Iesus is the Christ is justly condemned of Antichristianisme I should now proceed to some other passage but that one rub here comes in the way and that is concerning the Church of Christ which here ye name For you say The Church of England practises Church-Government as it hath been in use in all Ages and all Places where THE CHRCH OF CHRIST HATH TAKEN ANY ROOTING Why my Lord what say you to all the reformâ—d Churches beyond the Seas Hath your Church-Government in England been in use in all places where thâ—se Churches have been rooted now for the space of at least 100. years What In Geneva In France In Belgia and other places Now therfore you must either plainly confesse this one Clause to be most notoriously false or else that the best Reformed Churches beyond the Seaes are no true Churches of Christ. But for that you passe not much to confesse that those Reformed Churches are no true Churches because they have no Prelates This you Spake openly not long agoe at your High-Commission in Cathedra when your charity called that famous and glorious shining Lamp Mr. CALVIN Rascall when you gave those Churches that doom Had you been a Prelate in Queen Elizabeths time durst you have done so Nay in King Iames his time who with the Church of England gave all those Reformed Churches the right hand of fellowship as true Churches of Christ as in the Councel of Dort durst you have done it And why now tam audax omnia perpeti as that Heathen Poet said And have not these Churches taken rooting How then have they continued so long and flourished so much and put forth so many beautifull and goodly branches godly and learned Divines and brought forth such abundant good fruit Could all this be without taking root yea and a sound rooting too well planted by Gods own hand and watered abundantly with his blessed showers of Grace from heaven and fenced about with the wall of his mighty protection against Stormes and Tempests And I trust they shall stand and flourish when all degenerate plants which our heavenly Father hath not planted shal be plucked up by the roots as bearing no other fruit but the Apples of Sodome without beautifull but all black and rotten within Although it might justly be feared could you effect your so laboured thorow Reconciliation with Rome to become all one as you say you already be you would doe your best to root out all those Reformed Churches as that of the Palatinate now is And 't is true inded that no particular visible Churches can promise to themselves perpetuity of continuance in one place longer then God is pleased But for thee O daughter of Babylon thou Mother of whoredomes God hath particularly designed and marked thee out for destruction so as thou with all thy confederate Lovers shall not escape and the day of thy visitation sleepeth not But for the Kingdome and Church of Iesus Christ it shall abide to triumph over Antichrist and all his accursed Crew And for thee ô Church of England beware of being an Ivie about that old rotten Romish Oake least you both be cut down together and be cast into the same burning Lake for ever beware of grappling thy selfe with that old leaking and sinking Peter-boate as thy Pilate would perswade thee least you both be swallowed up together L. ibid 'T is very remarkeable that while both these the Romanist and Seperatist presse hard upon the Church both of them cry out of Persecution like froward Children c. P. What cause the Romanist hath so to cry I know not especially if the just Lawes against them be suffered to sleepe But for your Seperatists among whom you reckon and ranke godly and zealous Ministers and all good men whom you hunt after and prosecute continually in all your Courts what cause these have to cry out of persecution and that even in the throwing of them out of their Churches and Houses and native Countrey that they can rest no where for you and so what cause they have to cry and complain to their GOD of such persecution as having none on Earth to complaine to both the world may see and you shall one day feele withot speedy repentance which we have as little hope of as you can have of heaven But they being thus persecuted you impute the cause to their hard pressing upon the Church comparing them to froward Children Indeed Children will cry when they are swadled or beaten and misused And
the poore Innocent or Infant being pinched too hard with the swathing bands or pricked with a pin mis-put will cry out and roare till they find ease So as there is cause enough of their crying And is it not trow you your too hard pressing upon your Seperatists with your Canons and Ceremonies and which as with swadling bands you bind them too strait withall and your hard and rough handling of them that gives them just cause to cry But however for all this your hard usage must by no meanes be called persecution Farre be that from your piety and clemencie that you should either perswade to Persecution in any kind or practise it in the least L. p. 16. To the Papists common Objection Where was your Church before Luther Your Answere is It was just there where theirs is now One and the same Church still no doubt of that One in Substance but not one in Condition of State and Purity their part of the same Church remaining in Corruption and our part of the same Church under Reformation The Same Naaman and he a Syrian still but leaprous with them and cleansed with us the Same man Still P. Here you teach us a Point which had the Divines of the Church of England in former Ages known it might have saved them a great deale of puzzle which the subtile Jesuites for diversion and gaining of time put them unto in tracing the footsteps of the Protestant Church and the professors thereof through all ages yeares weeks and dayes ever since the Apostles times Where was your Church Why it was just there where Romes is now This had been a short Cut to find the Protestant Church Like the North-East passage to China or the North-West to the Westeran America could they be found out But you have at length found out a South-East passage to Rome where the present Church of England loosing her selfe may find her selfe Which passage or path had now for a long time through disuse and want of Travailers and Pilgrims thither been grown up with grasse till now again beaten out by your hard and continuall travaile in it Would an English Protestant then know where his Church was before Luther Why goe but to Rome and if you have lost both Church and Religion in England there you may be sure to find it againe no doubt of that Surely I hope Iesuites wil be no longer such fooles as to take such a tedious pilgrimage compassing Sea and Land to the Shrine of Canterbury to aske of the Oracle there where your Church of England was in diebus illis They might have stayd at home and there have found it even in Rome within the Sacred Thresholds of S. Peter or S. Iohn Lateran and that with some favourable Interpretation where and when the Priest is at his Masse So as well might your Lordship call it as you doe an Idle and Impertinent Question Where was your Church before Luther What a jeast is that Iust there where Romes is Now. One and the Same no doubt of that And who shall doubt that what your Lordship è Cathedra defines out of Canterbury Chaire defines But now henceforth I hope you will not so much complaine of Seperatists from your Church of England For you teach them to Seperate from the Church of England as from Rome it selfe as being one and the same Church And you know that all Protestants of that Spirit cannot away with the Church of Rome So as you may expect every day new Companies and that by threaves to get them packing from your Church of England and that according to Christs warning piece Rev. 18.4 Come out of her my people least ye bee partakers of her Sinnes and least ye receive of her Plagues But you distinguish Yours in Purity and under Reformation Romes Church under Corruption yours Naaman cleansed their 's Naaman Leprous yet both one Naaman and be a Syrian the Same man still A paradox indeed A Riddle to pose Oedipus himselfe For riddle me this One and the Same Man both Leprous and Cleansed at the same time Cannot the Priest in the Masse as easily riddle how one and the same numericall body of Christ may be both in heaven and in his Masse-pix or on his Altar at one and the same instant Even as soon But not to stretch your paradox too farre least we teare it and so make the rent wider betwixt you and Rome which in your Book you say you are loth to doe Is your Church of England Cleansed and Romes Leprous Remember your selfe well and Consider Why then doe you not cast out that Leprous woman and Shut the doore upon her Nay why would you so faine be reunited with that filthy and polluted Leper And yet why not For is the Church of England in the Condition of Purity and under Reformation Indeed Solomon saith There is a Generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthinesse And is your Church of England Cleansed from all her Leprosie and pollutions What from the bitter root of the Hierarchy which hath defiled the Land with Idolatrous Altars and Images and Sundry Superstitious Ceremonies and open Profanation of the Lords day by tolerating of Heathenish Sports and Whorish and Drunken meetings Is it cleansed from those Doctrines of Devils forementioned accounting holy Wedlock uncleane at Some times and at Some times the Creatures uncleane Or is England cleansed from the guilt of Innocent blood of the Saints and Servants of Iesus Christ whom she hath cruelly persecuted and oppressed and with whose blood the whole Land is defiled and yet she is not washed from it She repenteth not but goes still on to fill up the measure of her Cruelty How art thou then purified ô Land How reformed How cleansed Nay dost thou not hate and persecute true holinesse and purity and especially in godly and painfull Ministers who preach against thy profanations So as may it not be said of thee as the Lord said of Ierusalem Thou art the Land that is not cleansed Seeing then thou art not cleansed from thy Leprosie but art a Syrian still a Leprous Naaman still well mayst thou be Sayd to be One and the Same Church with Rome even one and the same body even one and the same in Substance For what is that substance wherein you say the Church of England and Rome are one and the same Is it not that which you account the very Essence Forme and Beeing of your Church And what is that Or what be those things wherein the Substance of your Church consisteth as wherein the Church of England and of Rome are both one and the same so as we need make no doubt of that Surely wherein we find you both one and the same we need not doubt but in those things consists the one and onely substance of your one and the same Church For as for other things wherein the Church of England
in a Cloake-bag as most of the rest were was for them and favoured their side And the present Oracle of the Church of England Papa alterius Orbis hath so handled and hammered the matter in his forge that by a Declaration before the Articles of Religion he hath with no great difficulty made those Articles concerning Grace so to speak as to please both the dissenting parties Like to a Picture which each man in the room imagins looks upon him in particular Or as easily I say as if a man should take away the prick of a Hebrew Letter from the right side and place it on the left according to which variation a man pronounceth respectively the word Schiboleth or Sibboleth The false pronounciation of which word cost the Ephraimites their lives Lastly to end as I began The Church of England and of Rome are One and the same in turning Christs Kingdome which is altogether Spirituall and not of this world into an earthly and seculer Kingdome although Styled a Spiritualty and Hierarchy or holy Government and Kingdome whose Governours are temporall Lords calling themselves Christs viceroys whose kingdome glory pompe dignity riches is all earthly not heavenly carnall not spirituall verefying that of the Apostle They are the enemies of the Crosse of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is in their Shame which mind earthly things Here are particulars enough to be silent in the rest to prove your Speech true That the Church of England and the Church of Rome are in Substance one and the Same no doubt of that As for Romes corruptions as you account and call them they are neither so many nor so great So long as they overthrow not the foundation as you not say they doe but that the large Mantle of your Charity is broad enough to cover them So as that need not to break square or greatly hinder your so much desired and attempted Reconciliation wherein I know you will be ready to meet Rome the halfe way or three quarters and more rather then faile to give his Holinesse the kisse of peace so he will be content to leave your Patriarchate or Popedome in England while himselfe enjoyeth the Vicarship of the wider world and at his death leave you his Heir apparent of the triple Crown Yet perhaps for your Reputation sake you would require that some grossenes at least might be payred off the outsides of her fouler corruptions and they a little smoothed over and for your part I dare say you will not be behind hand to bring on the Church of England in such a faire forwardnesse and neernesse as possibly the time will permit to a just conformity in all things fecible But is the Church of England now come to this to be in Statu quo So as a man may find her just there where Rome is now Alas poore England Shall not now all thy brave Worthies that are for the most part dead and gone and Some yet surviving as brands out of the flame rise up and bring their Evidences as witnesses aganst Rome that Shee is a False Hereticall Idolatrous Apostatized Antichristian Church the very Whore of Babylon plainely described in the Revelation And one of the last Bookes written against her to purpose indeed Intituled BABEL no BETHEL which came forth in a good season somwhat before you came to sit in the Chaire of Canterbury and for which you may remember you convented the Author before your High Commission Board at London house out of Terme and committed him to prison Mr. BURTON I mean now a closse prisoner and Exile hath by many impregnable Arguments so strongly proved the Church of Rome to be no true Church of Christ but a meere Antichristian Apostacie from the Faith So as neither his two hot Antagonists your Brothers Champions nor any Jesuites since hath undertaken to Answer it as being indeed unanswerable And so it Stands his Adversaries giving him the Bucklers in the plain Field And yet now is the Case so altered that so suddainly the Church of England is become One and the Same with the Church of Rome So as She may find her selfe just there where Romes is now and that no doubt of that But how doth this appeare Surely you may take it for truth for the Primate and Metropolitan of all England hath so bestirred himselfe and playd his part in Chopping and Changing puting down truth and seting up errour and superstition in the Church of England that she is Sodainly so metamorphosed into another form and in a manner transubstantiated into a new Substance of a Church as now you may find her just there where Romes is now both one and the Same Church no doubt of that If then we may take your word for your Church of England in this Case and considering that the Church of Rome is that notorious Harlot how any true Christian as I said before that will not become the member of a Harlot can hold longer communion with you I cannot see And for my part I doe here ingenuously professe and protest against you againe and againe that I abhorre you and all such Churches as hold communion with Rome as one and the Same Church and doe utterly seperate from you till you seperate from all communion and conformity with that Babylon in all those particulars forementioned And so I have done with you thus farre in this point You proceed L. p. 17. According to Christs Institution the Scripture where 't is plaine should guide the Church and the Church where there 's doubt and difficulty should expound the Scripture P. How Where I pray hath Christ so instituted And who hath bewitched you to dare to utter such a notorious and pernicious untruth as this and to Father it upon Christ and that upon your bare word For What Scripture doe you or can you bring For this Nay if the Scripture Christs own voyce and wherein the Spirit of Christ breatheth be not sufficient to interpret it selfe and that in all more doubtfull and difficult places of it what Man or Men or Church shal be able to doe it For how can any interpret difficult places of Scripture especially such as concerne Faith and Salvation but by the Scripture it selfe But we shall speake more fully of this afterwards And you have told us what the Church is namely a Hierarchy or Kingdome of Prelates who generally Savour the things of the flesh and not of the Spirit And if youâ— Lordship should but stand for a proofe and Say in this Case and that all other Prelates would hazzard their credit upon your Ability in interpreting the Scripture it would quickly appeare what hope the world might have of Prelates helpe at a dead lift for the establishing of our Faith and Consciences in some perplexed Cases O then what brave Prelaticall Glosses should we have As for the purpose Some doubts of late are risen in England
curse them yet can you not doe as that wicked Prophet did in Counselling King Balack to put a stumbling block before the Children of Israel by inticing them to his Idols with his faire Damosels You can tell us that the Church of England and of Rome are one and the Same Church and that her worship of Images is but a trenching or coming neare Idolatry as at after so as none need fear communion with her so he be but ignorant of her Corruptions Of which more hereafter But though you cannot prophesie what is all your practise but a cleare Prognostication and that not onely foretelling but causing and haling in a Deluge of Atheisme and Irreligion flowing in upon you Yea witnesse this your Book which could not spring but from the root of Atheisme and Sourse of all Irreligion and which doth not onely prognosticate nor onely teach the way how Atheisme and Irreligion may gather strength but doth certainly presage and that by necessary consequence most terrible Judgements and Calamities to fall upon the Church of England I would say rather upon the Hierarchy of England and which you doe with both hands in writing and publishing this Book and by all other your practises pull upon your own heads But this your feare of Atheisme and Irreligion to gather strength is say you while the Truth is weakened by an unworthy way of contending What Truth Or what is that unworthy way of contending for the Truth Or what is your Atheisme and Irreligion For all these termes need your interpretation But your prudent modestly therein we will make bold as well as we can to Supply First for Truth it is much in your mouth I meane the name and word Truth But when you name Truth you alwayes mean Falshood as when you Speake of the Church you meane such a Church as is a false Church and when you Speake of Peace you meane such as is a false Peace when your Reconciliation with Rome is a Conspiracie against Christ and his true Church and when you name Priest you meane such as is a false Priest and when you name Devotion you meane such as is a false Devotion of humane devising and when you name Faith as the gift of God you meane not the true Saving Faith whereof the Apostle speakes where he Saith Faith is the gift of God As we shall see at after So as ever under the green leaves of such faire words as Truth Peace Church Devotion Faith c. we may ever Suspect and shal be ever sure to find a false Serpentine Sense to lurke Secondly your unworthy way of contending for the Truth what is it but that which the Apostle exhorts unto that Christians should earnestly contend for the Faith given to the Saints and Paul that we should sunathlein wrastle together as for Mastery or for a Crown for the Faith of the Gospell Now is not this that which you call an unworthy way of contending for the Truth No doubt of thâ—â— As to write Books or preach Sermons proving the Pope to be Antichrist and the Church of Rome to be a false Church or no Church of Christ and no Salvation to be hoped for in that Church and that all true Christians ought to have no Communion with that Church but to abhorre and abandon her as the Lord commandeth and that Prelates are not Jure divino but are Antichristian and their Hierarchy Tyrannicall and that Altars in Churches are a denying of Christ the Onely Altar and that all Ceremonies invented and imposed by men in the Service of God is a will-worship condemned by Christ and his Apostles and many such like This is that unworthy way of contending whereby you say the Truth is weakened No marvaile Thirdly what is that Atheisme and Irreligion which you feare will gather Strength while the Truth is weakened by such an unworthy way of contending This I take it may be taken two wayes Either that by Atheisme you meane the true Faith of Christ which is opposite to the Romish faith wherewith you hold such correspondence for whatsoever is contrary to Romes faith or which is all one your faith is with you branded for Atheisme Or Secondly Atheisme truely and properly taken gathers strength by such an unworthy way of labouring a Reconciliation between the Church of England and the Church of Rome which to make way for you are glad to say that these two Churches are for substance one and the Same Church Now before your time the Church of England though in many things it symbolized with Rome as hath been shewed yet still it renounced all communion with her as being a Strumpet and that great Whore whose Husband is the great Antichrist But now you have so turned the Cat in the pan by making way to bring the Church of England back againe to an union and communion with Rome that you put the people to a stand to a nonplus so as they know not what to beleeve or what to think but are ready to cast off all further thought of God as if there were no God because they see those to flourish and to goe on unpunished who overthrow the faith formerly professed in England seting up the Romish faith againe where it had been cast out and on the other side Preaching and Preachers to be put down and the true Professors to be persecuted and thrown out of all and forced to quit their native Countrey and the like Now where all this is do you but feare that Atheisme gathers Strength Nay is not the root of all your cruely in persecuting Christs Ministers and People meere Atheisme It is noted of the Sadduces that of all other Sects they were the most cruell in their judiciall Censures As Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 2. c. 14. out of Iosephus And no marvaile They denyed the Resurrection and the Last Iudgement So as they were Atheists This made them dare to practise all cruelty and injustice For Maxima peccandi illaecebra impunitatis Spes So how durst you be so unjust and cruell in your oppressions and persecutions did you certainly beleeve that there is a Resurrection and Last Judgement wherein you shall be Judged But this by the way 't is an Item And Irreligion also what 's that That 's soon resolved to wit Obstinacie in not admitting of Altars in some Churches Irreveverence in not bowing to Altars and worshiping towards the East and adoring the name Iesus and the like This is with you Irreligion because your whole Religion is placed in these things For so you tell us in the words following L. p. 19. The externall worship of God in his Church is the GREAT WITNESSE to the world that our hearts stand right in the Service of God Take this away or bring it into contempt and what light is there left to shine before men that they may see our Devotion and glorifie our Father which is in heaven P. Surely were it not
be expected there Can or will the Lord Iesus Christ long suffer such things And what doth England now attempt The recovery of Scotland First ô England be thou thy selfe reconciled to God humble thy selfe for thy fearefull Apostacie revoke and call in all thy ungodly Edicts against Christ and his Word reforme all thy oppressions of Gods People and thine owne maintain not still open warre against the Spirituall Kingdome of Iesus Christ least he destroy thy temporall looke up to God as highly offended with thee and who hath for the present rent a whole Kingdome from thee who hast rent thy selfe from his Kingly Dominion over thee Be no longer rebellious against God stand not upon the confidence of thine own conceited Prudence and Power which unlesse thou hast God on thy side shal be but a snare unto thee and shall stand thee in no stead at thy need except thou dost repent and turn to God unfainedly and refraine thy violent courses and reform all My zeale hath carryed me thus farre for my God and for my King and for my Countrey and for all the People of God and the King in all his Kingdomes my dayly prayer being for Truth and Peace as the Prophet Saith Love the Truth and Peace Truth is both the Mother and Nurse of Peace But to proceed you say No externall action in the world can be uniforme without some Ceremony If you speak of Naturall Actictions nature it selfe doth teach a fit manner in doing of them If of Morall or Civill actions we commonly use such Ceremonies as either humane Lawes Customes or a mans owne reason hath brought in use But if you Speake of Religious actions such as are conversant about the worship of God That 's quite of another nature for point of Ceremony Onely thus farre it holds proportion with the other that as every naturall action hath for its manner of performance and carriage certaine Principles of Nature to guide a Man in the decent and orderly doing of it and as every Civil and Morall action hath for its manner of the decent carriage of it some Rule either intrinsecall within a man and in his own choyce and power or extrinsecall and without him according either to Custome or humane Law even so the externall manner of performing Gods worship hath for its Sole Principle and Rule the will of God himselfe whose service it is and over which he is the Sole Lord whose will for his whole service both internall and externall he hath clearely expressed in his word the holy Scripture And this is a principle which every man that seeth not but by the Spectacles of Natures Light assenteth unto as a firme and universall truth namely That every Master is so to be served as himselfe commandeth And if a Servant presume to serve his Master as himselfe listeth and not as his Master commandeth shall have small thanks for his labour How much more and beyond all comparison is God to be served of us not as we fancie but as himselfe hath expresly commanded in his word And this is a safe obedience wherein a man observing his Rule cannot erre Whereas obedience to Mans command is onely so farre good as the commandement it selfe is good and lawfull But Gods Word and Commandement being every way perfect and given us with a strict charge and under a most severe penalty even a Curse to those that shall either adde to it or detract from it who but Children of the curse will presume to invent what manner of externall service of God his own proud fancie liketh best Such service cannot be called the service of God as wherewith he is served and pleased but the service of Man wherein he pleaseth himselfe Yea when a man hath pleased his own fancie in the invention of this or that Ceremony in religious worship and not content herewith doth withall impose and injoyne it to be of necessity observed of all so as their Conscience is now by humane Law captivated thereunto this service of God becomes Hereticall For what is Heresie in the common use among Divines but an obstinate holding and maintaining of an errour in faith which mans pride hath made choyce of But not onely presumtuously to elect and obstinately and pertinaciously to maintain but to make a Law to enforce others to conform to any such errour in faith this is the highest degree of Heresie that can be And that the inventing holding and imposing of such Ceremonies in Gods worship is an errour in faith and so hereticall is cleare For it is a point and Article of Christian faith to bebeleeve that Christ is the onely Lord and King of his Church and therfore in the Creed we say And in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord. To whom then doth the power of ordaining Ceremonies in Gods holy service appertaine but to the King or Master of this service This power is Christs Prerogative in his Church This is Christs Throne wherein he sitteth raigneth and ruleth in and over the Soules and Consciences of his people as before is touched He is the onely Teletarkes or Master of ordaining Ceremonies in Gods house or family as the learned Budaeus interprets that word out of Dionisius Areopageta so as TeletarkÃa which signifies a Prerogative and Power in GOD incommunicable to ordaine Ceremonies in his worship is used for the Soveraigne Deity or Godhead and so for the Holy Trinity And Christ hath ever from the beginning reserved this power intire and peculiar to himselfe even as his glory not imparting it to any earthly power not to his Church not to his Prophets and Apostles not to the Kings of Israel under the Law nor to the Fathers before the Law For before the giveing of the Law in Mount Sina GOD taught his Church the use of Sacrifices and Altars and other Rites with the difference of Meates cleane and uncleane At the giving of the Law GOD shewed Moses a pattern for the Tabernacle and all things thereunto belonging with a Charge to doe all things according to the Pattern which he had seen Not the least Ceremony no not a pin about the Tabernacle was left in Moses power or choyce to make of his own head So afterward when the Temple was to be built David received the pattern thereof and of all things appertaining to the whole service thereof from God in writing which David delivering to his Son Salomon appointed of God to build the Temple Said All this the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me even all the worke of this Pattern even the Pattern of all that he had by the Spirit So as though David was a King and a Prophet and that of singular eminency a man according to Gods own heart and aboundantly indued with the holy Spirit of God and the Sweet Psalmist of Israel and though King Salomon was indued with admirable and incomparable wisedome yet the Lord
would not commit to either of them any part of this his Prerogative in appointing what manner of service they thought good or in the fashion of building the Temple Nor yet did the Lord deliver the patterne of these things by tradition but in writing that in nothing they should come short or over shoot their bounds Neither had any of the Kings of Iudah the power afterwards either to adde or alter the least thing but at their perill No not the King and the Priest together as you would now have it So as when in a cafe of necessity no Law or Rule for us to take liberty to doe what we please without warrant from Gods word King Ezechias was to keep the Passeover in the Second Moneth he did it not alone nor with the Priest alone but with the unanimous assent and approbation of all the Princes and People in Ierusalem So as the thing pleased the King and all the Congregation Likewise when King David was to bring the Arke to Ierusalem he did it not alone or with the Priest alone but gathered all the chosen men of Israel together about it And what to doe Not what himselfe and they thought fit but according to the Law and Commandement of the Lord. And is it come to this passe now that the King and the Priest must doe all and that according to their owne Fancie in the worship and service of God When the Priest Vriah had according to the Kings Commandement built an Altar according to the patterne sent him by the King from Damascus on which the King offered Sacrifice did God approve it Is he not branded with this note which sticks upon his name to this day This is that King Ahaz And did not the Lord smite King Vzziah with Leprosie for offering Incense which pertained to the Priest onely And was not Vzzah smitten for but puting his Hand to stay the Arke when the Oxen shook it it not pertaining to him being but a Levite and not a Priest who onely was to meddle with the Arke So dangerous is it for men to take upon them be they Prince or Priest or both to intermeddle in any thing about the service of God which God hath not given them warrant for Now where hath Christ or his Apostles from him left any such power to man Prince or Priest or both as you claim and usurpe or to the Church to ordaine any Ceremonies in Religion to bind the Conscience of his People to the observation of them And if ye have either a pattern or pattent for it from Christ and under black and white in writing not by any unwritten Tradition produce and shew it But none can you shew we are sure I know your usuall places which you use to wrest for this purpose As 1 Cor. 14 4â— Let all things be done Decently and in in Order Hereupon it seemeth your words of decencie and orderly settlement are grounded But what conclude you hence Ergo the King and the Priest although in things of this nature you use the King but as a Cypher to back and countenance the Priest in what he doth may appoint what Ceremonies they please in the service of God But frame your Argument in a Syllogisme All things in the Church are to be done Decently and in Order But for the King and the Priest to prescribe and impose what Ceremonies they please in Gods Service is Decent and Orderly Ergo it is left to the Power of the King and the Priest to prescribe and impose what Ceremonies they please in Gods Service Or thus What is Decent and according to Order is lawfull to be done in the worship of God But for the King and Priest to prescribe and impose Ceremomonies in Gods Service is Decent and according to order Therefore it is lawfull for the King and the Priest to prescribe and impose Ceremonies in the Service of God Now if I have not framed your Argument according to your mind I desire you to mend it But I conceive it is all that can be framed upon that test which you alledge so as if you argue not thus you can make nothing at all of it according to the Rules of Logick Nor for answere First I deny that the Apostle speakes there of the Service of God in Prayer but onely of an Order and Dencie in Prophecying such as was then in use in the Church as first that it should be done one by one and not confusedly Secondly that women should not be permitted to speak in the Church Thirdly that it be not in a strange tongue without an Interpreter And such like And to this hath that of the Apostle particular and immdediate reference Let all things be done decently and in order As for Praying in the Church the Apostle gives no other Rule but this that it be not done in a strange tongue Againe we have before excluded the Priest you speak of from having any thing at all to doe or meddle in Gods service for the Reasons fore-shewed So as if for the King and the Priest you put the Church I answere First your Prelaticall Church is a false Church as hath beed proved and so with your Priest is altogether excluded here from having any such power as to ordain Ceremonies in Gods service to bind the Consciences of Gods people For in so doing you shew your selves to be Antichrists and Tyrants over mens soules as before is shewed Secondly not even the true Churches and Congregations of Christ the King Minister and People put together have power to ordaine and impose any Ceremony in Gods service to bind the Conscience For the Apostles themselves neither had nor exercised any such power We find not any one footstep of it in all the New Testament But in this case Christians were left altogether free And the Apostle admonisheth the Collossians and in them all Christians Saying Beware least any man spoyle you through Philosophy and vaine deceit after the Tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. And v. 16. Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day c. which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. Let no man Judge you that is subject not your Conscience to Mans command and ordinance in these things as matter of Religion And v. 20. If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as living in the world are subject to Ordinances Touch not Tast not Handle not which all are to perish with the using being after the Commandements and Doctrine of men which have indeed a Shew of wisedome in will-worship and humility in neglecting of the body not in any honour to the Satisfying of the flesh The summe of all which is to shew that Christians being freed by Christs death from all humane Ordinances and Traditions in matters of Religion they ought to
of your House-hold Gods With Sacred Corn and savory Salt by oddes Yea and every Schoole-boy knowes that Distich of old Cato Si Deus est animus nobis ut carmina dicunt Hic tibi praecipuè sit pura mente colendus If God as Poems say a Spirit be Then with pure mind let him be serv'd of thee And as the Roman Orator also said Non in Ambrosia Deus c. I doe not think saith he that God is delighted with Ambrosia or Nectar or such like sensuall delights in his Service Tuscul. Quaest. lib. 1. Thus you see how those Heathen even by the glimmering light of nature had a better opinion of God then our modern Prelates have or at least then our present Oracle of Canterbury hath shewed himselfe to have for how neere came they to that truth uttered by Christ God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth c. And if you propound the Jewes for example of State in the service of God first God commanded it and the magnificence of it was a Type of Christ and of his Spirituall Temples all glorious within Those Types are all vanished the truth being come And to revive that Service and those Types or to set up an Image of them you doe with the Jewes deny Christ to be come And for this Ierome shall answere you Si placeat aurum placeat et Iudaei If gold please you so well in the service of God let the Jewes also and Judaisme please you And the Poet Dicite Pontifices in Templo quid facit aurum Tell us you Pontificiall Priests what makes gold in the Temple And tell me whether was Adam and Eve more beautifull in Gods eyes and their own too having no other cloathing or ornaments upon them but their naked Innocencie then in their new devised fashion of Fig-leave-Aprons Although they now seemed gay with their borrowed leaves as the Crow with his borrowed feathers And surely this may be a very fit patterne to Sample your Church by For yours and Romes Church having lost their Primitive and Originall beauty of Innocencie Simplicity and Purity of Christs Spouse as the Love of God Saving Faith Soundnesse of Doctrine Sanctity of Conversation and Purity of his Worship which you have by so many of your Superstitions so miserably corrupted think you now to please GOD with a curious painted Service which serves to no other purpose then to please your owne fancie and other mens carnall senses Is not this a GREAT WITNES to the World of your notorious blindnesse and most grosse and palpable ignorance of the very nature of the Godhead who Is a Spirit and therefore will be worshiped in Spirit and truth And they who thus worship him in Spirit and Truth are the true Worshipers as the same Scripture Speakes and GOD seeketh such to worship him as is noted before So as that Inscription which the Apostle found upon that Altar in Athens Agnósto Theo To the unknowne God may it not be written as well upon your whole service which you dedicate to the unknowne God which being patched up like a Fooles gay Coate of so many diverse coloured shreddes wherein your service being dressed up you think it is wondrous pleasing to God doth not all this bewray that you doe all this service to a God whom you know not as whom your fancie frameth to be some carnall Man whose senses are delighted with such service as his Eares with Organs his Eyes with goodly Images curious wrought Copes rich Palls faire guilded Plate his Smell with sweet Incense his Majesty with siting upon your Stately High Altar as upon his Throne and to keep his Residence in your goodly Cathedrall as in his Royall Court May not then that which the Apostle thereupon Preached to the Athenian Philosophers be hereupon applyed to the Romish Rabbies and blind Prelates of Rome and of the Church of England Ye men of the Church of England I perceive that in all things ye are too Superstitious For as I passed by and beheld your Devotions marke your Devotions I found an Altar for blind Devotion cannot be without an Altar with this Inscription To the unknown God whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him declare I unto you God that made the world and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is worshiped with mens hands as though he needed any thing c. Forasmuch then as we are the Offspring of GOD we ought not to thinke that the Godhead is like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by art and mans devise And the times of this Ignorance GOD winked at but now commandeth all men every where to Repent Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in Righteousnesse c. Now what say you to this all you blind Ceremony-Mongers Are you growne so stupid as not to be sensible how this toucheth you as much yea and much more then those Athenians What Are you so blind and senselesse as for all this to dreame that GOD accepts your ga◠Puppet-play as a Service of Piety done to him Nay GOD tooke so little delight in those Sacrifices and Rites which himselfe ordained in the Law and much lesse when the people rested in the outward performance and observance of them that he Saith Who required these things at your hands to tread in my Courts c. So also Psal. 50.8 I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices to have been continually before me I will take no bullocke out of thy house c. No Who so offereth me thanks and praise honoureth me and to him that ordereth his Conversation aright will I shew the Salvation of God Now consider this ye that forget God least I teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver Yea the consideration hereof brought Christ down from the bosome of his Father to offer up his body as the onely acceptable and All sufficient Sacrifice to put an end to all carnall rites and services If then Gods own Ordinances in the Law did not please him but that he must send his Sonne in the flesh to fullfill all things then what hope can you have that your vaine Superstitious devises should please GOD or that he should otherwise be affected with them but thereby to be provoked to send his Sonne the Second time in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God even all blind worshipers but much more willfully blind such as obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ c. Then shall all your Sumptuous Ceremonies and Solemne Service be discovered and the rotten inside of your hypocriticall formalities be turned out to the view of all the world Like to Cardinall Campeius his Sumpter which with a justle in Cheape-side the girts bursting downe it falls and out fly the old Boots and Shooes and
one of these either expresse word of God or evident consequence â—ut of it And a little before Every wrangling Disputer may neither deny nor doubtfully dispute much lesse obstinately oppose the Determinations of the Church no not when they are Dogmata deposita Deposed Principles P. Now all these Passages weighed together do clearely and distinctly resolve themselves into these Conclusions 1. That the Church may decide and determine some things without any evidence or so much as a probable Testimony of holy Writ and herein you consent and jumpe fully with that notorious Papist and adversary of the once Church of England Stapleton whom the learned Dr. Whitakers publickly confuted in the Divinity Schooles in Cambridge as his Works can yet testifie And yet behold now the Church of England hath got a Champion in the Chaire of Canterbury who pleads for and applauds that in Stapleton which Dr. Whitakers and many other learned Divines in England formerly have refuted And for further Confirmation hereof you tax Bellarmine as of untruth where he confesses that nothing may be certaine by certâ—inty of Faith unlesse it be contained immediately in the word of God or be deduced thence by evident consequence Whereupon you inferre that if nothing can be certaine then certainly no Determination of the Church it selfe wanting expresse word or evident Consequence out of it Thus you condemne Bellarmines true Saying if by the Word of God he understand the Scriptum alone and not his word unwritten and approve and preferre Stapletons false and hereticall sentence before it Secondly That things so decided and determined by the Church without either evident or so much as probable Testimony of holy writ yet are so de fide so firmely to be beleeved as every wrangling Disputer may neither deny nor doubtfully dispute much lesse obstinately oppose Consonant hereunto you â—ay at after pag. 224. The Determination of a Generall Councel â—â—ring is to stand in force and to have externall obedience at least yeelded to it till evidence of Scripture or a Demonstration to the Contrary make the errour appeare and untill thereupon another Councel of equall Authority do reverse it And so also pag. 226. c. Where here I mention for clearer proofe of what you say here but not to anticipate or prevent our fuller Answere when we come to those places where we shall supply our brevity here L. p. 40. I hope A. C. will not tells us there 's any Tradition extant unwritten by which particular men may have assurance of their Severall Salvations P. But what think you of it Will you tell us there is no such thing written in the Scripture That true Beleevers may have assurance of their owne Salvation But if there be why doe you forbid Preachers to meddle with it considering the true and solid comfort which it bringeth to him that hath it As the 17 th Article confesseth might it be suffered to speake out and had you not put a gagge in the mouth of it L. p. 43. Mine is That the beliefe of Scripture to be the word of God and infallible is an equall or rather a preceding prime Principle of Faith wâ—th or rather to the whole body of the Creed P. How The Belief of Scripture to be Gods word and infallible no more but an equall or rather a preceding prime Principle of Faith with or rather to the whole body of the Creed This is yours you say your Saying And I beleeve it to be yours For it is as like to one of your Sayings as may be For here you attribute no more credit to the Scriptures then to the Creed both equall onely differing perhaps in point of some precedencie of time or So with an or rather equall or rather preceding the difference not great if any Thus doe you not equall a Church Tradition with the Divine Scripture For we have it by Tradition that the Apostles compiled the Creed and each his Severall Article And is this or any other Tradition of equall Credit with Scripture And is not the Scripture the Rule whereby the Articles of the Creed are to be interpreted which are no otherwise to be beleeved but as they are agreeable to the Scripture So as for the Purpose if you goe no further for the Sense of the Article of Christs Descent into hell then the very Letter of the Article you can make no Sense of it nor give any reason for it And how then can you give a reason of your Faith in this particular Except you do beleeve it because you do beleeve it and because the words are He Descended into Hell But of this more by and by L. p. 44. Some Traditions I deny not c. to be Apostolicall but yet not fundamentall in the Faith P. You might do well to point out unto us which be those your Apostolicall Traditions that we may distinguish them from those Traditions which Rome calls Apostolicall Or rather perhaps you admit of all those as Apostolicall indeed but yet not Fundamentall Surely if you can prove them to be truely Apostolicall namely that the Apostles delivered them immediately to the Church by word of mouth why are they not fundamentall in the faith Why are not all bound to beleeve them or give as much Credit to them as to the Articles of your Creed which you Say are fundamentall in the faith L. p. 45. The Church of England taketh the words He descended into hell as they are in the Creed and beleeves them without further Dispute and in that Sense which the ancient Primitive Fathers of the Church agreed in P. Here a Question may be moved 1. In generall Whether a man taking up a matter upon such trust as he gives equall beliefe unto it as to the Scriptures themselves doe not therein Sinne damnably As making that a fundamentall ground of his Faith which is not found to be in the Scripture Secondly in particular Whether a man resting in the very Letter of the Article He descended into Hell beleeving thâ—reupon as surely as he beleeves that God is in Heaven that Christs Soule did locally descend into Hell among the damned there having no regard at all to what the Scripture Saith of it whether the Scripture Say any such thing or no doe not hereby make way for his owne Descent into Hell Or thirdly Whteher you do as verily and firmly beleeve Christs Descent into Hell as you doe his Ascent into Heaven Seeing the Scriptures Speakes clearely and expresly of this but not so of that and whether you are aâ— much bound to beleeve his Descent into Hell because you find such words in the Creed as his Ascent into Heaven because you find it in the Scripture Now for Answere to all these together I conceive that to make any thing of the necessity of Faith to Salvation besides what is found in the Scripture is Sinne and in particular to beleeve that because it is Said in the Creed He Descended into Hell therefore Christ
shall set forth to the contrary I must crave pardon if it be not of the same faith with you And thus farre you allow any in the Church of England this liberty for your words are Is it not lawfull for any in the Church of England to say I conceive thus or thus of it c Although you adde L. p. 51. It is one thing to hold an opinion privately within himselfe and another thing boldly and publickly to affirme it P. I doe I confesse boldly and publickly affirme this my faith concerning this Article which my faith I doe assure my selfe is true being grounded upon good and cleare evidence of the Scripture on which my faith is built and not upon any thing of humane Authority And in making open confession of this my faith I doe therin follow the Rule of Scripture which saith Bretheren if any of you doe erre from the Truth and one convert him Let him know that he which converteth a Sinner from the errour of his way shall save a Soule from death and shall hide â— multitude of Sinnes Now what know I that this Declaration of my Faith with Reasons from the Scripture may by Gods grace be a meanes to convert if not your Lordship from your errour yet others or may preserve them from falling into it being dangerously entred into it by such an example as your selfe And however if it be lawfull for you boldly and publickly to affirme such things of beliefe which are not found to be in Scripture why may it not be as lawfull for me boldly and publickly to affirme the Contrâ—ry But the Scope of your Speech as I conceive is to maintaine your practise in punishing in High Commission such as expound this Article by and according to the Scripture L p. 53. For that all the Positive Articles of the present Church of England are grounded upon Scripture we are content to be judged by the joynt and constant beliefe of the Fathers which lived within the first foure or five hundred yeares after CHRIST when the Church was at the best and by the Councels held within those times and to submit to them in all those points of Doctrine P. But first as is before noted as you give accasion why have you made your Articles to be DÃpsucoi of a double sense So as in that respect how can you call them Positive being so perplexed in themselves And againe Whom doe you meane here by Wee I suppose you and your church of England You are contented to be Judged by Fathers and Councels within the first 500. yeares whether your Church-Articles be grounded on Scripture or not Are you contented so indeed Then you must be contented to undergoe the Censure of departing both from the judgement of the Scriptures as disavowing them for the onely rule of Faith and Doctrines to be tryed by and also from the joynt and constant beliefe both of Fathers and Councels within the first 500. yeares For their joynt constant and unanimous beliefe was that nothing besides the Scripture is to be Judge in matters of Faith And if you want leasure to read the Fathers doe but peruse the learned Discourses and Disputes of the Divines of the Church of England before your being a Prelate as Dr. Carleton of the Church De Ecclesia Dr. Whitakers forementioned Dr. White his way to the true Church Dr. Bilson yea and all those that have written of these Controversies and they will abundantly show this that it was ever held as a Principle and therefore not to be denyed nor needfull to be proved and which Dr. Carleton in his said Book proves never to have been altered till in and by the Councel of Trent That the Scripture is the sole rule of Faith But thus you and your Church of England are contented to be one and the Same Church with Rome in refusing the Scripture as the Sole Iudge of your Doctrines But will you be judged by the joynt and constant beliefe of Fathers and Councels within the first 500. yeares whether your Articles about Grace Election Predestination c. bearing as you Declare a double and opposite sense in their Pelagian and Arminian sense be according to the Scriptures or no If I name onely Augustine who was Pelagionorum Malleus that Hammer to knock down the Pelagians both the Fathers and Councels within those first 500. yeares did joyntly and constantly professe that which he writ to be the Beliefe of the whole Church it was so clearely and fully proved out of Scripture In so much as you may read in the Histories of the Councels as in Binius how that some Councels and Bishops of Rome set downe Large Passages in Augustins Tracts against the Pelagians as the Jugement of the Catholick Church and the particular Decrees and Acts of such and such councels If then you will stand to the Judgement of those ancient Fathâ—rs and Councels then you must at their Barre hold up that hand which was a chiefe instrument in drawing up the said Declaration which hath so enigmatized and darkened the Articles as they have no other Light left but a kind of twilight which inclines rather to the night then to the day rather to favour the Pelagian Heresie then the Orthodox verity But this being your language all along that you put not onely your Articles and the Articles of the Creed but the Mysteries also of the Scriptures to the Iudgement of the Primitive Church Fathers Generall Councels we will Supersede from speaking more of it in this place Again where you say that the Church was then at the best if you understand it during the age and time of the Apostles 't is most true but if of the Succeding ages within 500. yeares we may doubt of it or rather resolve the contrary unlesse you meane it comparatively to the ages after that wherein Antichrist and the Mystery of Iniquity began more brightly to shine forth and display themselves in the Roman Sea both in corruption of doctrine and of Gods worship beyond all excesse For you may know that within the space of the first 500. yeares the Church was so overgrown and pestered with the heresie of Arius as the world groaned under it wondering it was become an Arian as Hierome speakes Totus ingemuit mundus miratus se factum esse Arianum And among many corruptions and much unsoundnesse in Doctrine what multitudes of Superstitious devises and heathenish Customes not onely crept but crowded into the service of God Which Heathenish Rites as we find in B. Rhenanus his Annotations upon Turtullian were by the Christians in a kind of carnall policie admitted both because many ancient men being converted to Christianity such as it was could not easily part with their old Customes as also that thereby they might draw other of the Gentiles to become Christians Just such a policie as our new Doctors I meane of your Church of England have used in a pretence at least making us beleeve
your Authority and Commendation should be brought to read the Scriptures and therein should find many Prophecies and among the rest how there should come False Prophâ—ts being Wolves in Sheeps Clothing pretending holinesse but Persecuting Gods Saints pretending Religion but oppessing Gods word pretending to be Christ vicâ—royes but tyrannizing over his people and such as should Apostatise from the Faith and set up Doctrines of Devils as in abstinence from certaine Meates and Marriage at certaine times and how Christ and his Apostles were humble and despised the world being crucified unto it and how they which were proud pompous Lords claiming to be their Successors follow none of their steps neither in diligent preaching nor practise of a holy life are such Antichrists as the Scripture hath foretold and how in the last dayes perillous times should come when men should be Selfe-lovers covetous boastors proud blasphemers unholy without naturall affection implacable covenant-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of them that are good Traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a forme of Godlinesse but denying the power thereof with many other like things which when they come to compare with the State of the present times and especially of the present Church and chiefly of the Prelates themselves and shall find most of these Prophecies fulfilled in these present times they will certainly hereupon conclude that these be those last dayes and perillous times wherin these things so long agoe foretold doe clearely shew that certainly the Scriptures are the word of God The next thing I note here is that you Say a man so probably led must compare the Scripture with it selfe and other writings What other writings I pray you shall he compare the Scriptures with Shall humane writings light him a Candle to shew him the Sun shining at noon day But thus humane testimony comes in for a Second Inducer And for all your previous inducement you must still at last joyne some thing of man with Scripture Well what 's the third Ordinary Grace And this with the Authority of the present Church may beget in a man an ordinary beliefe that Scripture is the word of God As it seemes such ordinary Grace brought King Agrippa to beleeve the Prophets to be the word of God yet for all that he was but almost perswaded to become a Christian. And this Ordinary Grace is it seems that Holy Ghost which you told us of before The Fourth is morall inducement Well admit this bring him to a morall beliefe or opinion The Fifth is a reasonable perswasion by the voyce of the Church Well what theâ— After all this the Scripture gives greater and higher reasons of Credibility to it selfe then Tradition alone could give Here 's then the upshot of all as we noted before you by these steps advance the Scripture to a Credibility So as all this while you have walkt the round and gone in a Circle and end just where you began for you began at Probability and end in Credibility whereas the Scriptures were credible at least that is such as might be beleeved before you taught this new way to come to the beliefe of them So as this your Conclusion comes to just nothing Only you seem to attribute some thing to the Scripture being assisted with those other inducements wherein it surpasseth your Tradition alone Which is such a comparison and commendation as you could not devise the like to abase the Credit of the Scripture But to conclude What a Tedious Dispute you make here with the Jesuite about that which when you have done all you can will never bring a man upon any sure grounds so much as to beleeve that the Scripture is the word of God much lesse to bring him to Saving faith in Christ. But what doe I speake of Saving faith Alas that 's no worke for your pen. You are for a Scholasticall Dispute here which is so jejune and barren that many Scholasticks would hisse it out of their Schooles much more Divines out of the Divinity Schooles as indeed nothing pertaining to true Divinity but to a Spoyling through Philosophy and vaine deceit as the Apostle Speakes But the summe of all your inducements the Prime whereof must necessarily be your present Churches Authority amounts to this That men being by a bond of necessity tyed to this your Church as without which he cannot come to beleeve Scripture to be Gods word and without this beliefe no faith of Salvation and your Tradition with all other helps cannot bring a man to that beliefe when all is done the Conclusion is that according to your Tradition no man can come to be Saved So as thus by this your new Doctrines you overturne the Foundation of Faith by the very roots leaving no footing for faith to stand upon whereby a man may have any hope of Salvation But I shew'd you before a short and sure way for a man to come to this beliefe and not onely so farre as to beleeve the Scripture to be the word of God but to beleeve that he hath his part of Salvation in that word And this way is by hearing the word of God preached For Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God And this faith being the Saving faith in Christ as it apprehends all the Promises of God in the Scripture to be true and to belong to him so it comprehends the beliefe of Scripture to be the word of God And this this word of God preached and heard is that voyce of the Church of Christ or rather Christs owne voyce in the Church calling men yea and instrumentally causing Gods Spirit effectually working in and by the word to beleeve unto righteousnesse and to confesse to Salvation whatsoever is written in the Scripture to be most true as being the word of God himselfe And besides this true Christians in all ages never beleeved and Authority Tradition voyce of men simply to be any necessary prime inducement to beleeve so much as the Scriptures to be the word of God L. p. 84. That divine light which the Scripture no question hath in it self is not kindled till these helps come Thy word is a Light So David A Light Therefore it is as much a manifestation to it selfe as to other things which it shewes but still not till the Candle be lighted not till there hath been a preparing instruction what light it is till Tradition of the Church and Gods grace put to it have cleared his understanding So Tradition of the present Church is the first morall motive to beleeve P. These words confirme your former with a little illustration A divine Light here you confesse to be in the Scripture But you meane some dimme Light At the best not bright enough not sufficient to shew it selfe to be the word of God And here That Light whatever it is is not kindled till these helps come 'T is but a
kind of Light potentially in the Scripture as fire in the flint which must be struck out with the steele Nay you compare it but to the light of a Candle and yet not all that neither for the Candle must first be lighted The Scripture then of it selfe is but as a Candle in the box of 12 in the pound as you Say ibid. which hath no Light till it be lighted And Tradition of your present Church must light the Candle And surely then may not the Tradition of your present Church put out the light of this Candle again after you have lighted it As the Pope crowned the Emperour with his feet and then struck the Crown off again with his foot to teach the Emperour that his Crown was at his Holinesse Devotion to dispose of as he pleased So may you do with the Scripture light the Candle and put it out again As you have don with the Doctrines of Grace with the Sabbath or Lords day with preaching and the like And Thy word is a light So David But not So you For David Said Thy word is a lampe unto my feet and a light unto my pathes So say not you You like not it seems such a lampe and light to your wayes For wayes you leave out as the Devil did when he recited that Scripture Psal. 91.11 He shall keep thee but he left out In all thy wayes as Luk. 4.10 And you could never have the hap hitherto to cite Scripture right And no marvaile if you be out of your way when you come to the Scripture seeing you can find no light in it to give you sufficient direction But you Adde A Light Therefore it is as much a manifestation to it selfe as to other things Even just as much as if you had Said A blind man seeth as much in the darke as in the day So 't is here with the Scripture for the light you allow it And what 's that But none still no light till the Candle be lighted 'T is just so then as I say I guest your meaning right But you adde Not till there hath been a preparing Instruction what light it is till the Tradition of the Church and Gods grace put to it hath cleared his understanding How I am here at a losse except you helpe me out and cleare the understanding of your words For before you must have the Candle first lighted and here you seem to grant some light when 't is once discovered to be a preparing instruction what light it is I pray you my Lord deale plainly with us Speake out Hath the Scripture a light in it or no before the preparing instruction hath shewed what light it is For to shew what light it is doth necessarily presuppose that there is a Light And if there be a Light how is it true that you Say Not till it be lighted by Tradition of the Church Must Tradition doe all both light the Candle and also shew what light it is Or doth Tradition with the same act of lighting the Candle shew also what light it is If so then I begin through this darke lanterne of yours to discerne what light the Scripture hath namely a borrowed light lent it by Tradition For you say The Candle is not lighted till Tradition light it Or if I be out 't is for want of Cleare Light from your darke Lanthorne But here followes a worse perplexity For from the lighting the Candle of Scripture by Tradition you come to the lighting of another Candle namely the Clearing of the naturall mans understanding by the Tradition of the Church and Gods grace put to it 'T was well you put Gods grace to it For if the Tradition of your present Church have but Gods grace put to it it may worke wonders But stay Cannot your Churches Tradition or Authority doe the deed without Gods grace at least doe its office of the fore-horse as the necessary prime leader Or is your Churches Tradition some jade that puts all the brunt upon the next horse that follows Then you should rather give Gods Grace the Precedencie But now I remember this Grace of God is but an ordinary Grace as you told us before which at the most worketh but an ordinary morall and probable beliefe that Scripture is the word of God but not certaine and evident So as the naturall mans undestanding being but thus farre cleared to have a probable opinion of Scripture to be Gods word except you can bring him to beleeve in Christ and forsake his sins his opinion will but aggravate his condemnation so much the more But what evidence can you shew us that your Church Tradition is certainly seconded with so much ordinary Grace For if your Tradition be derogatory from the Credit of the Scripture you cannot hope for the least degree of ordinary Grace to give it either assistance or attendance It behoves you therefore to prove that this your Authority in this point is from God is Gods ordinance and if so you may then easily perswade us that Gods grace will accompany his owne Ordinance But this you will hardly prove But will Say Traditions are Traditions and therefore not to be proved from Scripture and this Church-Tradition is that which the Scripture must be proved and tryed by And so here upon belike it is that you conclude So Tradition of the present Church is the first morall motive to beleeve The Conclusion might serve the turne well enough if you had but good logicall or rationall Premises to bring it in better then yet you bring for the inducing of beliefe That Scripture is the word of God L. ibid. So after Tradition of the present Church hath taught and informed the Soule the voyce of God is plainly heard in the Scripture it selfe And then here 's double Authority and both Divine that confirmes Scripture to be the word of God Tradition of the Apostles delivering it and the internall worth and argument in the Scripture obvious to a Soule prepared by the present Churches Tradition and Gods Grace P. The more you speake the more we come to Sound the depth of your meaning You told us before of the present Churches Tradition and Gods Grace put to it by which the naturall mans understanding is first cleared And here Tradition of the present Church alone doth the deed for you say After Tradition of the present Church hath taught and informed the Soule then the voyce of God is plainly heard in the Scripture it selfe Surely my mind gave me all this while that although for fashion sake and for a colour you named the grace of God in the second place after your Tradition yet your principall ayme was to advance the Credit of your Church-Authority as that alone which does the deed This this is it that cleares the naturall mans understanding this it that teacheth and informeth the Soule Tradition I say of the present Church before the voyce of God is plainly heard in the
Scripture it selfe As if you had Said The Tradition of the present Church does all it openeth the blind eyes of the naturall mans understanding to see and the deafe eares of his Soule to heare for after it hath cleared his understanding and taught and informed the Soule then the voyce of GOD is plainly heard in the Scripture it selfe And besides you tell us here that after Tradition of your present Church hath taught and informed the Soule the voyce of GOD is plainly heard in the Scripture Ergo not till then Ergo your Tradition opens the eares of the deafe And then there 's double testimony and both Divine What Tradition of the Apostles delivering it You meane surely the divine Tradition of your present Church one of your obstruse Apostolick Traditions Otherwise what doth the mention of the Apostles Tradition in this place And thus you acquaint us with the whole Mystery of your new Divinity New I call it because it is contrary to the old For the old is which is not yet antiquated The Commandement of the Lord that is the word of God is pure inlightening the eyes And vers 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soule the testimony of the Lord 〈◊〉 sure making wise the simple And Psal. 119.30 mentioned before The entrance of thy words giveth light it giveth understanding unto the simple Now who is the blind and simple but the naturall man before his Conversion and Regeneration And what is that which inlightens his eyes and cleares his understanding Gods word For The entrance of thy words giveth light it giveth understanding unto the Simple The light of Gods word going forth in the Ministry of it is the first that makes entrance into the Soule Now doth not your Lordship grant all this Yes you cannot but confesse it but alwayes provided that it is ever understood the Tradition of the present Church must prepare the way first that must first cleare the naturall mans blind eyes of his understanding that must first teach and informe his Soule before Gods word can inlighten his eyes and give understanding to the Simple But do you consider what you Say The Scripture you must needs confesse you cannot deny inlightneth the eyes Well but you Say againe your Tradition must first cleare the understanding and light the Candle of Scripture Now to cleare the understanding is to open the eyes How then can Gods word be said to open and enlighten the eyes when they are cleared before Or how can it give understanding to the simple when the Soule is taught and informed before The Tradition of the present Church prevents all and saves the word that labour Unlesse you will say The Tradition of the present Church is a preparing instruction to the opening of the eyes by the Scripture as the anoynting of the blind mans eyes with clay went before his washing in the poole of Siloam whereupon he received his sight Indeed your Church-Tradition in this Case might well be compared to the daubing of a naturall mans blind eyes with Clay to confirme him in his blindnesse that he shall never see so long as he depends upon the necessity of your present Church-Tradition as a preparing instruction to cleare his understanding and to teach and informe his soule as without which he shall never come to have his eyes inlightned by the word of God So as in very truth this Tradition Authority voyce of the present Church which you every where so plead for and presse as a necessary previous inducer yea clearer of the naturall mans understanding and teacher and informer of his Soule before he can plainly heare the voyce of God in the Scripture it selfe is a Doctrine of Damnable Blasphemy against Christ and his holy word For this clearing of the naturall mans understanding this inlightning of the blind eyes of his mind this teaching and informing his Soule is both the proper and prime act of Christ of his Spirit and of his word working together Of the words inlightning David hath sufficiently informed us before And Christ sends us to the Scriptures for search and not to any Church Tradition as bearing witnesse of Christ and so directing us to him for eternall life And Saith Christ No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him and I will rayse him up at the last day As it is written in the Prophets And they shall be all taught of God Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me Heard What The Tradition of the present Church No the preaching of Gods word which is Gods owne voyce as we said before this voyce in the eare being accompanied with Gods learning and teaching within as Augustine hereupon well notes is that which brings us unto Christ Thus the Lord opened the heart of Lydia that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul It was not the Tradition of the present Church but as she was hearing the word the Lord opened her heart both to attend and to beleeve Pauls Doctrin◠And Luke 24.45 Then opened he their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures Away then with your Blasphemous Romish Doctrine of Tradition of your present Church from having any thing to doe in this divine businesse wherein onely God and Christ and the Holy Ghost and the voyce of God in the Ministry of his Word have the whole and sole worke in opening both the eyes and eares of mans Soule to see and heare the wondrous things of Gods Law contained in the Scriptures As David Saith Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law But you adde And then here 's double Authority and both Divine that confirmes Scripture to be the word of God Tradition of the Apostles delivering it and the internall worth and argument in the Scripture obvious to a Soule prepared by the present Churches Tradition and Gods Grace And. Then Sill Then and not before all goes currant Worth in Scripture comes in with their double Divine Authority Then when the Soule is prepared as before with the present Churches Tradition Els all the fat is in the fire Nor Apostles Tradition Nor worth in Scripture are worth a rush in this matter And thus all must depend upon your present Churches Tradition Still But here you bring in againe Gods Grace as a Second to your Tradition But I told you before and tell you againe that your present Churches Tradition hath nothing to doe with Gods Grace nor with any Grace of God not with common and ordinary Grace Gods Grace is a concomitant and Assistant unto his owne Ordinance But for the Authority and Tradition of the present Church to be a necessary inducer to the beliefe of Scripture by clearing a naturall mans understanding and teaching and informing his Soule is none of Gods ordinance but an Antichristian Romish presumption and therefore hath no promise of
and so no title to Gods Grace either to accompany or assist it When Christ tooke his Farewell of the Apostles he left his Commission with them for the Ministry of his Word and Sacraments and thereupon gave a Promise of his continuall assisting grace to them and to all his faithfull true Ministers of his Word successively to the end of the world Goe Saith he and teach all nations baptizing them c. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And Loe I am with you alway even unto the end of the world Now 't is plaine as is both shewed before and will yet more that your present Church being Prelaticall and Hierarchicall is a false and Antichristian Church a Church of Priests of a strange Order not of Christs institution nor your Government of Christs ordinance and so your Church is of no Auhority nor doe you faithfully and truely preach the Word and administer the Sacraments but with the mixture of your owne Superstitious devises nor doe you teach men to observe all things whatsoever Christ commanded in his word and hath left written in the Scripture but on the contrary you suppresse the preaching of his word and oppresse his faithfull Ministers and by publick Authority assumed make voyd Christs eternall Law as before So as Gods people have cause to take up that complaint and prayer of David It is time for thee Lord to worke for they have made voyd thy Law And therefore that promise of Christ to his Apostles and true Ministers of the Gospell pertaines not to you and so not to any of your usurped Authority and pretended Tradition of your present Church But you proceed L. p. 85. After the morall perswasion reason and force of the present Church there is ground enough to move any reasonable man that it is fit he should read the Scripture and esteeme very reverently and highly of it And this once done the Scripture hath then In and home Arguments enough to put a soule that hath but ordinary Grace out of doubt that the Scripture is the word of God infallible and Divine P. The same man Still But what if as with the Church of Rome and the Jesuites your present Church of England doth hold this Paradox so She should take up Romes practise and by your Authority forbid all men the reading of the Scriptures but such onely as shal be thought fit to be dispensed withall to read it We know not what you may doe if once you can obtain voyces in Convocation as what may not you doe to make this your bare assertion and Antichristian opinion an Irrefragable Canon of the present Church of England That men ought not to presume to read the Scriptures till the Authority of the present Church hath made way and her Tradition cleared their understanding and taught and informed their Soules and thereupon very reverently and highly esteeme of it For this is the Cleare Summe of your words here No reading of the Scriptures no esteeming highly and reverently of it no In and home Arguments enough to puâ— a soule out of doubt that Scripture is the word of God Infallible and Divine So as till he be perswaded hereof 't is but vaine and frivolous for a man to read the Scriptures and this perswasion he cannot have till after the morall perswasion reason and force of the present Church And here I note again how you put the Tradition of your present Church single and alone forgetting to Second it with Gods Grace which doth but confirme what I said before that Gods Grace Ordinary Grace when you doe mention it it is but when you stumble upon it and it stands but for a Stale it is your Tradition and Authority of the present Church that is all in all But you proceed L. p. 85 86. Thirdly you to wit A. C. pretend that we make the Scripture absolutely and fully knowne Lumine suo by the light and testimony which it hath in and giveth to it selfe c. We doe not Say that there is such a full light in Scripture as that every man upon the first sight must yeeld to it The Question is onely of such a light in Scripture as is of force to breed Faith not to make a perfect knowledge P. The pretence of A. C. herein was not without just cause onely he considered not what the present Church of England now under your Primacy doth hold So as you should or might have shaped your Answere thus A. C. Distingue tempora Distinguish the times Know you not who sits now in the Chaire of Canterbury True it is that formerly the Church of England or rather some private men all or most of the Divines thereof that have written of this Subject allthough very learned I confesse and of great note place and ranke in the Church in their time held and writ so against you but that was onely their private opinion though all their Bookes were published by Authority But what 's all this to the Church of England now Now you may heare and understand by me who am the voyce of the present Church of England that it is otherwise And what you doe pretend I doe thus interpret We doe not Say c. But what doe you not Say We doe not Say that there is such a full light in Scripture as that every man upon the first sight must yeeld to it How So perhaps not any hath Said Yet this all our Orthodox Divines before you have said That there is such a full light in Scripture as that every man by the thorow and serious reading over of the Scripture hath sufficient evidence therein to convince him as to yeeld it to be the very word of God And if he doe not therupon yeeld the defect is not in the Scripture but in himself But at first sight This is a miserable shift and poore put off to answere fully to the Jesuites pretence or rather true assertion For in this he saith true that we to wit all the Orthodox Divines of the Church of England as aforesaid do hold the Scripture absolutely and fully to be known lumine suo by the light and testimony which it hath in and gives to it self Only we do not make it so as you expresse the Jesuite but we find know and beleeve it to be so But they never said At first sight This is your owne Flam. But what our â—ormer Divines have written hereof they have with such Arguments confirmed as not you with all your Divines of note and worth of which you patch up your present Church of England are able to Answere oudè gru not one word or Syllable But come we to the Question as you State it The Question is say you onely of such a light in Scripture as is of force to breed faith not to make a perfect knowledge And what 's your resolution of this Question of your own Stating Do you yeeld thus much that there
proof of the things beleeved How say you then that the maine grounds which prove them are concealed from our view and folded up in the unrevealed Councel of God And what main grounds I pray you be those Can you tell Or doe you speake in the Clouds that you may seem to say something which you understand not For certainly this Mystery of Faith is concealed from your understanding as appeareth by your darke and clowdy words And is that unrevealed councell of God the object of our Faith Cometh not Faith by hearing of the word of God wherein God hath revealed his will to us Or doth the Tradition of your present Church lead you to beleeve such sencelesse speculations Indeed the Apostle saith That in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Hid that is layd up and contained as a Treasure But not hid from his true Church and faithfuâ—l people as the Apostle saith If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that beleeve not least the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them And againe Eye hath not seen nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit But where Search the Scriptures saith Christ for in them ye thinke to have eternall life and they are they which testifie of me so to this purpose the Apostle speaketh excellently Ephes 3.4 5 6. and 1.9.17 18 19 and in many other places But to you it seems these things are hid and folded up and therfore no mervaile you know not what you say nor wherof you affirme As the Apostle saith of some Who were turned aside from Charity out of a pure heart and a good Conscience and of Faith unfained unto vaine â—angling Desiring to be teachers of the Law understanding neither what they say nor wherof they affirme Let therfore the Prophet Esay read you a Lecture Stay your selves and wonder Cry ye out and cry They are drunken but not with wine They stagger but not with strong drinke For the Lord hath powred on them the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes The Prophets and your Rulers the Seers hath he covered And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee And he saith I cannot for it is sealed And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee And he saith I am not learned Wherfore the Lord said Forasmuch as this people draw neere me with their mouth and with their lippes doe honour me but have removed their heart farre from me and their feare towards me is taught by the Precepts of men Therfore behold I will proceed to doe a mervailous worke amongst this people even a marvailous work and a wonder for the wisdome of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shal be hid Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their councel from the Lord and their works are in the darke and they say who seeth us And who knoweth us surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the Potters Clay Loe my Lord I hope this word is not folded up if to you it be you shall one day both see and feele it more clearly and sensibly fulfilled But you goe on God in Christ say you resolving to bring Mankind to their last happinesse by Faith and not by Knowledge What by a blind Faith For by Faith and not by Knowledge is all one as to say by such a Faith as is without Knowledge and so without light in it and so blind Wheras the true saving Faith is a knowing Faith it is the evidence of things not â—een it sees him that is invisible as before is shewed But my Lord if the maine grounds be folded up in the unrevealed counsell of God I wonder by what revelation you come to know his secret That God in Christ hath resolved to bring Mankind to their last happinesse by Faith and not by Knowledge surely God hath no where in Scripture revealed any such resolution of his And if it be not written Timeas 〈◊〉 illâ—d as Tertullian forementioned said to Hermogenes the Heretick Feare that Woe to them that shall adde to the Booke of Scripture But if you had leasure to Read the Scripture it reveales unto us plainly what God in this businesse hath resolved to do and how he will bring Mankind to his last happinesse and that is by a seeing not a blind Faith by a Faith explicit and cleare not implicit and folded up by light and not by darknesse This is Gods way that he hath chalked out unto us in the Scripture as before is fully proved of Faith and therfore we are sure that God in Christ in his eternall councell resolved to bring us this way to heaven and no other way And this way is Christ and Christ is light and in this way we must walke as children of the light and not as children of darknesse And every true beleever as he becomes a new man so of a blind man he becomes a seeing man For this cause Christ came the true light that he might lighten every man that comes to him For this cause was Paul sent to preach to the Gentiles To open their eyes and to turne them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance among them which are sanctified by Faith that is in me saith Christ so that every true Christian in his conversion of blind becomes seeing of darknesse becomes light in the Lord of Satans boâ—dmâ—n Gods serâ—ant and by this way onely through Faith in Christ they receive forgivenesse of sinnes here with sanctification and hereafter the eternall inheritance But as for you my Lord as you have found out another way namely a blind way not by the way of knowledge by which yet you pretend to your last happines so be assured of this that the place you are going unto is just like the way that leads unto it blind and darke yea utter darknesse where the Pit is into which both the blind leader and the blind led shall fall And for your further conviction or else confusion and confutation of your folly and information of your blind Disciples and confirmation of the truth to all the children of truth note what Christ himselfe saith expresly point blanke against you You say God in Christ resolved to bring Mankind to their last happinesse by Faith and not by Knowledge But Christ saith This is the will of him that sent me this God hath resolved on that every one
witnesse to it selfe But this Say you it hath not Ergo not the other Againe you Say pag. 81. Church-Authority must first light the Candle Ergo the Scripture hath no light of it selfe much lesse light enough for faith to beleeve But though it should though it be granted that Scripture had light enough for Faith to beleeve yet light enough it gives not to be a convincing Reason and proofe for knowledge As if you said Neither for Faith for we have proved before that faith and knowledge goe inseperably together true faith being a seeing and knowing faith and not a blind faith The Scripture teacheth no blind faith And why should not Scripture give light enough to be a convincing Reason and proofe for knowledge When it is a sufficient light to discover unto a man the secret thoughts and intents of his heart wherof man himselfe is thorowly convinced and thereby in himselfe condemned of his own Conscience But this knowledge you cannot away withall But you can never put out the eyes of your Conscience though you may for a time fold it or lull it fast asleep Much lesse shall you be able to put out the light of Scripture which is greater then the light of your Conscience As Saith the Apostle If our heart or Conscience condemnes us God is greater then our heart and knoweth all things If therfore the heart or Conscence that is in man be a sufficient witnesse of all his thoughts good and bad and layeth them before him as the Apostle saith much more is Gods word a sufficient witnesse and giveth light enough to be a convincing reason and proofe for knowledge And Solomon Saith The spirit of man is the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly If such then be mans spirit the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly that is all the secrets of mans heart how much more is the Spirit of God in the Scripture his Word such a searcher yea saith the Apostle The Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God And these deep things of God he hath revealed unto us by his Spirit And where but in his word the Scripture is the voyce of this Spirit of God And it was the constant sentence of all the Ancient Fathers whom you would seem so much to adore which Augustine expresseth in these words In Scripturu sacris apertè continentur ea omnia quae necessaria sunt ad Sâ—lutem In the holy Scriptures are clearly contained all those things which are necessary to Salvation Now how should this be true if the Scripture doth not give light enough to be a convincing reason and proofe for knowledge L. p. 113. To prove the Scripture to be the word of God first cometh in the Tradition of the Church the present Church So 't is no Hereticall or Schismaticall beliefe Then the testimony of former Ages c. P. Here at length you come neere the winding up of the long thread of your endlesse Discourse in this your 16 th Section the summe wherof is to prove that the Scripture is of no selfe-credit and Authority And first and last your present Church Tradition must be the Prime hand to lead the blâ—nd to this beliefe that Scripture is the word of God For otherwise the beliefe thereof should be Hereticall or Schismaticall For thus you say To prove the Scripture to be the word of God First comes in the Tradition of the Church the present Church So 't is no Hereticall or Schismaticall beliefe Ergo Beliefe of Scripture to be Gods word comes by any other way as by the word of God it selfe read and heard in the preaching of it and by Gods Spirit speaking in it then wherein the Tradition of the Church the present Church hath been the Prime leader This beliefe is Hereticall and Scismaticall Ergo this beliefe in all the Apostles Martyrs Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Primitive Ages who never knew any such Tradition of the present Church as whereon this beliefe should depend for its necessary prime inducement was Hereticall and Schismaticall They constantly held till Rome and you brought in this your blind guide to tread down under feet the light of the Scripture and to exalt the Authority of your Antichristian Hierarchy that the Scripture was of self-Authority and Sufficiency to prove it selfe to be the word of God and by the hearing of it preached and read to beget and confirme faith in al beleevers without any such inducement of Church Tradition as you speake of And therefore here you passe your sentence of condemnation of this beliefe in all those forementioned for Hereticall and Schismaticall But how justly may this sentence be retorted upon your selfe and your present Church as both Hereticall and Schismaticall Hereticall as in the maintenance of Doctrines of Devils as afore of the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian Heresies under colour of your doubtfull Articles of Religion as you have made them by publik Edict and Declaration and flatly forbidding to preach of the Saving Doctrines of Grace as they are clearly layd down and taught in the Scripture and in seting up and maintaining of your Altars whereby the onely Altar Iesus Christ is denyed and in dâ—spensing with the 4 th Commandement yea destroying and unmoralizing of it and so overthrowing the Lords-day-Sabbath wherein you subvert the whole worke of Redemption with the Resurrection and the like thus your present Church is Hereticall as also in this in holding and stiffly maintaining by you a necessity of your present Church-Tradition for the inducing of beliefe of the Scripture to be Gods word as not sufficient and wanting light of it selfe to doe it and which otherwise is of no credit at all Thus I say you are damnably and desperately Hereticall Secondly your present Church is also Schismaticall being a Seperation from the true Church of Christ in your Hierarchy or Prelacy which being altogether â—ntichristian hath no communion in that respect with Christs Church and therfore is notoriously Schismaticall yea in this also Schismaticall that you account and brand that beliefe of Scripture to be Gods word for Hereticall and Schismaticall which is not first induced by your present Church-Tradition wherein you are Schismaticks from the Faith and so from the Church of the Apostles and Ancient Fathers and succeding Churches which never held any such Hereticalll opinion concerning any such insufficiencie of the Scriptures and Authority of the present Church as you most pertenaciously and pernitiously hold Therfore I Conclude that if the present Church of England approve of your Book and hold as you doe it is both Hereticall and Schismaticall But you conclude L. p. 115. So then the way lyeth thus as farre as it appeares to me The Credit of Scripture to be Divine reduces finally into that which we have touching God himselfe and in the same order For as that So this hath three main Grounds to which
F 6 ly But since this Division say you nothing hath been done by you to discredit this Principle That the Scripture is the word of God No Nothing Not when you say The light which is in Scripture it selfe is not bright enough it cannot beare sufficient witnesse to it selfe Not when you say The Scripture is a light but as a Candle that yeelds no light till first it be lighted by Tradition of the present Church Not when you say That Scripture to be the word of God is not so demonstratively evident à priore that is of and by it selfe primarily as to inforce assent Not when you say Such a full light we doe neither say is nor require to be in Scripture as is in Prime Principles which carry a naturall light with them Is not this point blank against this Principle That Scripture is the word of God Not when you say God doth not require a full Demonstrative Knowledge in us that the Scripture is his word and therfore in his Providence hath kindled in it no light for that Not when you say That the Scripture cannot beare witnesse to it selfe nor one part of it to another And yet in all this and much more hath nothing been done by you to discredit this Principle That Scripture is the word of God Now let the Lord of the Scripture whose Word it is and all the Children of Truth be Judge in this matter against you G. 7 ly Yet you dare say more that you have given it all honour and ascribed unto it more sufficiencie as more then all even to the containing of all things necessary unto Salvation with satis superque enough and more then enough How enough and more then enough What A worke of Superarogation or superarrogancie rather Now fie for shame Will no bounds of Sober Speech contain your lawlesse spirit but that you must cast it in Gods dish That you had ascribed to his Word all honour and more sufficiencie and more then enough Had you yet turned Lyrinensis his word in the margent superque Abundantly it had been both more agreeable to reason and not lesse disagreeing with Grammer Certainly it had become you of all other to have qualified the construction of Satis superque better considering what palpable hand and harsh language you have dasht the Credit of Gods most holy Bible withall Extreames are not good And your Hypocrisie here is too grosly counterfeited Just as some Gentlewomans bad face for want of Art is daubed so much with laying on of Colours that it is ridiculous to every beholder And how say you in the truth of your heart were there any there that the Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation when it doth not containt tha assertion of yours That the Scripture is not known to be the word of God but by the Authority and Tradition of the present Church When yet this That the Scripture is the word of God is by your own expresse Confession one of the greatest Principles of beliefe H 8 ly For your going the same way with the Jesuites partly your whole Booke and partly all your practises doe Satis superque superabundantly witnesse Onely you say you cannot goe so farre in that way with them to make the present Tradition Alwaies an Infallible word of God unwritten No not Alwaies Infallible I hope Onely somtimes perhaps Infallible when you say the word of God And if your present Tradition be not alwaies an Infallible word of God unwritten I pray you is it at any time an unwritten word of God If it be then at such a time especially when its Infallibility is in Season is it not Infallible For Gods word is alwayes Infallible be it written or when he speaks it from heaven But when shall we se the time when you will prove your present Tradition to be a word of God unwritten or to have any Ground at all in written word of God the Scripture But if your present Church Tradition be not alwaies infallible but that somtimes at least it may deceive us certainly I conceive our safest course wil be alwayes to goe immediately and directly the shortest Cut to the Scripture it selfe which I am sure is alwaies Infallible and will never deceive us and not at any time to depend upon your present Tradition which is not alwaies an Infallible word of God unwritten But me thinks I heare you say That you make not the present Tradition An Infallible word of God unwritten No not absolutely not Alwaies We understand English But if you could prove This your present Tradition to be but somtimes an infallible word of God unwritten in the use at least you put it to it were no great Mastery to conclude it to be in that case Alwaies an Infallible word of God unwritten and so you should by this way of the Jesuites come full home to Rome But I hope you will more clearely and fully expresse your selfe in this grand point when to use your own words before It shall fit Time and Place In the meane time if this be not the genuine sense which I have picked but not stollen for the interpretation is Grammaticall and sensible out of your words then I confesse your meaning is more abstruse and mysticall then can be gathered from your manner of expression your words having a tang of that confusion of tongues at the building of that old Tower But the summe of it is Here is the grand difference between you and Rome She makes her Tradition alwayes a word of God unwritten unfallible you yours not Alwayes somtimes therfore and so it is blasphemy But at length pag. 127. the Lady calls you from the point of Church Tradition to heare what you will say of the Church of Rome whether you will Confesse it to be the Right Church And saith the Jesuite the Bishop granted that it was Now if the Lady were not dead as elswhere you tell us I should give her hearty thanks for being an occasion of delivering us out of this Purgatory-lake of your tedious irksome and endlesse Discourse of your present Tradition wherein otherwise it is to be feared you lye so long till you had been drowned in your own puddle or burnt up with your own hot zeale But let us heare your Answere to the Jesuites relation of what you granted L. p. 128. There is a great deale of difference between The Church and A Church and some between a True Church and a Right Church For the Church may import in our language The onely True Church and perhaps the root and ground of the Catholick And this I never did grant of the Roman Church nor never meane to doe But A Church can imply no more then that it is a member of the whole And this I never did nor never will deny if it fall not absolutely away from Christ. That it is a True Church I granted also but not a Right
Rule of Faith the Scripture Implying that to hold the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith is one speciall note of A true Church But now you confesse againe that Rome holds not this Rule but as a partiall and imperfect Rule And therefore denying this Rule of Faith she ceaseth to be a pure Church of Christ And which is the more this the Church of Rome doth ex professo solemni Decreto professedly and by solemne Decrees ratified as irrefragable and that under Anathema to be received of all And this is farre more then to doe it by Practise onely And yet in Practise to destroy and overthrow but onely some speciall Doctrines of Scripture though otherwise the Scripture be professed and confessed in this or that particular Church to be the intire and onely Rule of Faith is de facto to disclaime the whole Scripture and to unmake it the perfect Rule of Faith and so thereby such a Church possessing such and such Errors as are Fundamentall that is against the Foundation is fallen from Christ as hath been formerly proved Now if but any one part of Scripture in this or that Doctrine of Christ be overthrown so as therein it is not made the Rule of Faith and this overthrowing such Doctrines being once professed and maintained generally in any one particular Church makes that Church to cease to be a true Church of Christ as not holding the Scripture intirely but professedly overthrowing it in such and such particulars then how much more the Church of Rome professing and maintaining gumne kephale with a whores forehead that the holy Scripture is not the onely Rule of Faith intire and perfect but partiall and imperfect as your Lordship confesseth doth thereby proclaime her selfe to all the world to be fallen away absolutely from Christ and so ceaseth to be a true Church of God And denying the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith she denyeth the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner stone and so is fallen quite from the Foundation Nor onely thus by Addition of another Rule doth the Church of Rome overthrow the onely Rule of Faith the Scriptures but also by denying the selfe Authority of them as also you doe and withall by tying the sense of Scripture to the interpretation of the Church as also you doe at least in difficult places and by holding and maintaining false Doctrines against the Scriptures which overthrow Christ and wherein they will not be regulated by the Scriptures as you also doe in your Altars and forbidding the Doctrines of Grace to be Preached and other things which if the Church of England hold with the Church of Rome and with you you and both your Churches are fallen absolutely from Christ and so cease to be true Churches of God As also your very Hierarchy makes you to be no true Church of Christ were there nothing else as before is sufficiently proved And if you desire any further proofe that the Church of Rome is no true Church of Christ I still referre you to the forementioned Book Babel no Bethel And though you supprest the Book yet ten to one but one of your Hounds will hunt it out for you Next for the Sacraments which is your second Reason you say The Church of Rome holds both the Sacraments as instrumentall Causes and Seales of Grace though they adde more and misuse these Ergo she cannot but be a true Church in Essence For Answere First she holds them not absolutely to be Sacraments but dependently upon the Priests intention which you mention elsewhere And so hath the Councel of Trent defined of the Sacraments so Vega so Bellarmine Secondly if she be sure the Priests intention be not wanting or going a wool-gathering in his Consesecration then she makes the Sacraments to be not Instrumentall Causes of Graces but aitia kúria Principall and efficient working causes of Grace ex opere operato as they barbarously speake by the immediate vertue of the worke wrought So the Councel of Trent also So as they shut out the Holy Ghost from this worke as the Principall Efficient worker and sealer of Grace Thirdly For Baptisme which you make to be an Infallible Marke of that Church to be Christian besides their infinite corruptions of the Element of water which the Apostle calleth pure water with their spittle salt creame exorcismes or conjurations of the Devils insultations and the like they hang the very beeing not onely the vertue of this Sacrament upon the Priests intention which intention of the Priest is so uncertaine as Vega one of the prime Sticklers in the Councel of Trent as aforesaid in his Booke upon the Councel of Trent especially the sixt Session where he treateth of certainty of Faith in Iustification Confesseth that there can be no certainty of Salvation to a man because he cannot be certain whether he hath true Baptisme or no and that in regard of the Priests intention whereof he cannot be certaine So as by this their own Doctrine no one Papist can be sure that he is a Christian and so consequently neither can all the members of that Church severally nor conjunctly the whole Body it selfe be sure whether they or it be Christian or no and so the Church of Rome upon this very ground cannot resolve certainly whether she be a Church of Christ or no unlesse your Testimony will help her out at a dead lift And that not onely in regard of the Priests intention in the Sacrament of Baptisme but also in their Additionall Sacrament of Orders one of these more which they have added to the two So as for default of the Popes intention in ordering of Prelates or of the Prelates invention in ordering one another and in ordering of Priests and of Priests intention in Consecrating their Sacrament of Baptisme as themselves Vega and others do argue the case they are all put to the stagger whether they have in that Church either Priesthood or Sacraments For all hangs upon that weake pin or haire of the Priests intention So as another of their Primipili a Standard-bearer of the Dominicans in the same Councell Dominicus Soto forementioned in his Book de natura gratia saith that Deus in potestate Sacerdotis posuit Populi salutem GOD hath put the peoples Salvation in the Priests power Now all this considered and withall the time when this was made a Decree in the Councel of Trent a matter of 100 yeares agoe and when it was but new and the Pope and Prelates and Priests could not perhaps of a good while learne their lesson perfectly and so get a habit of it but that in all their Consecration of Prelates and Priests still intention was to seek and where it breakes off as in the Pope and Prelates in their Consecration of Orders there followes a meere nullity in succession of the whole Generation of Priests downwards and so through that whole body no Priesthood now no Sacraments
what evidence can the Church of Rome now give us or what assurance can she have besides the bare name That she is still a Christian Church Onely Vega helps it aswell as he can That in reason and Charity men are not to thinke that the Priest should be so carelesse at the Consecration as not to look to his Intention upon which the Salvation of all menâ— soules dependeth Fourthly for the Sacrament of the Eucharist or of the Altar as they call it First this is in the same Predicament with Baptisme for the Priests intention which if not present at the Consecration of the Host as they call it there is no Transubstantiation no body of Christ and so they worship a wafer instead of Christ and so by their owne Confession in that case they commit materiall Idolatry as a Jesuite confessed in Dispute with Dr Featly But Secondly by the very name of Sacrament of the Altar they destroy the Sacrament that Christ ordained in his last Supper called therfore the Supper of the Lord. For they have turned it from a Supper to a sacrifice yea and that from an Eucharisticall sacrifice as the Fathers called it to a Propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of quick and dead as is noted before And so this Sacrament they have Non sacramented and made of it a whole burnt sacrifice Secondly they have utterly destroyed the materialls or Element in this their Sacrament the bread and wine that no maâ— should so much as dreame or once take it for the Lords Supper For a Supper cannot be without bread and drinke and heâ—e is neither And so it is neither Supper nor Sacrament And thus they have taken away noâ— onely the cup from the people but the bread also altogether So as there is nothing in their Sacrament but a meere lye meere imaginations Phantasmes of Accidents without subject as we said before And so enough of this And lastly the Church of Rome having disanulled the Sacraments of Grace it hath withall disabled them from being seales of Grace For it is the property of a seale to give a sure and certain Impression and thereby a Confirmation of the Covenant But in Popish Sacraments all certainty is taken away as is shewed and so having lost the seales consequently the Covenant of Grace it selfe is of no force unto them And thus in denying the two Testaments to be the onely rule of Faith and overthrowing the two Sacraments the seales of Faith yea having lost and disclaimed the true Saving Faith it selfe what evidence hath Rome left her to shew and prove that she is now a true Church of Christ or hath the Essence of a true Church Let her shew her evidence As he said Let Baal if he be a god plead for himselfe Yet all this is of no Force to your Lordship but that like Ixion imbracing a cloud for Iuno as it is in that Fable so you imbrace but a cloud or rather the shadow of a cloud instead of the once faire Virgin Rome you must needs have her a true Church still She onely say you misuses the two Sacraments A small triviall trifle to speake of Misusing then is nothing with you What say you then to those wicked Princes and Priests of Israel that misused the Lords Prophets Was this nothing They so misused them that they stoned them to death And so the Church of Rome hath so misused the two Sacraments that they have stoned them them to death and left not one alive But they have made amends for it For say you they have added more even no lesse then five which are as the five wounds wherewith the Lord was crucified to death For those five have eaten out the other two of Christs own ordaining both expressing his death the one for ingrafting us into it the other for growth and strength by it as our spirituall food And these five Sacraments fo humane invention they must have their vertue of conferring Grace ex opere operato being all as they use them a meere evacuating of Christs me it s But time permits not a longer discourse of them Enough is said for Answer And for Conclusion the Church of Rome having taken away the Authority of Scripture and added her own Traditions and having taken away and misused the Lords Sacraments and added their own Sacraments what remaines to that Church but that which the Divine Iohn Concludeth the whole Bible withall I testifie unto every man that heareth the words of the Prophecie of this Book If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this Book And if any man shall take away from the Book of this Prophecie God shall take away his part out of the Booke of life and out of the Holy City and from the things which are written in this Booke Out of the Holy City which is the Church of Christ. Here then in this holy City is no place for the Church of Rome L. p. 131.132 The Church of Rome both was and was not a right or Orthodox Church before Luther made a breach from it For in the Primitive times of it it was a most right and Orthodox Church but upon the immediate times before Luther or some Ages before that Rome was a corrupt and tainted Church farre from being right And yet both these times before Luther made his breach P. The Conclusion then of your speech here is this That Luther made his breach from the Church of Rome not onely as it was Corrupt and tainted immediately or in some Ages before but also as it was right and Orthodox in her Primitive Times For you say And yet both these times before Luther as well those wherein the Church of Rome was most right and Orthodox as those wherein after before Luther it was corrupt and tainted made his breach And thus you make the rent on the Protestant party to be not onely from the corrupt and tainted Church of Rome but from the most Right and Orthodox Church of Christ. A pestilent speech bewraying the speaker to be in the very gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity and worhty to be abhorred and abandoned of all that beare the name of Protestants But this agreeth with that which we noted before how you exclude all the Protestant Reformed Churches beyond the Seas where your Prelacie and Hierarchy is not erected nor my Lord Bishops Chaire allowed from being any Churches of Christ or members of the true Catholick Church For here also in Luthers rent from the Church of Rome not onely as corrupt and tainted but as once Right and Orthodox you include all those Reformed present Churches and to exclude them out of the true Church of Christ. But as before we have shewed and proved and shall yet more upon fit occasion ministred upon the same cause for which you exclude all Reformed Protestant Churches beyond the Seas from being Churches of Christ
when men sheere their Goates so in this respect you may safely say That when Romes errours and Superstitions are removed our Protestations and Seperation is ended And so may I. L p. 136. Protestants doe but protest the sincerity of their Faith against the Doctrinall corruption which hath invaded the great Sacrament of the Eucharist and other parts of Religion P. Well were it for you and your present Church of England as you have lately made it or would at least make it if you had such sincerity of Faith to protest against Romes doctrinall corruptions as true Protestants have But why doe you call the Lords supper The Great Sacrament of the Eucharist Is it Great because you give it a Name not known in Scripture Or because it is so grandized in the Church of Rome as it is made like the Great Diana of the Ephesians whom all the Pontifician world worshipeth Or it is Great comparatively to Baptisme because this is celebrated in the Font at the Church doore neere the Belfrey and That upon your high Altar which you have advanced at the chiefe as you esteem it and East end af your Chancels and of your stately Cathedrals Or Great because in your Devotion you bow towards that place whence it seems you look for your help yea so lowly fall down and worship before it as before the Lord your maker Or what is it that your Eucharist is become with you so Great a Sacrament Because it or your selfe is Great with Child of a young new God-Almighty But however For my part I reverence every Ordinance of God but I dare not make nor esteem them greater then God hath made them nor give them other Names and Titles then God hath given them least I either seem to be wiser then my Maker and their Author or should give more honour to them then is due this being as wofull experience hath taught the ready way to rob God of his honour to transferre it to the creature and set it up instead of God But loth you are I know to call the Sacrament the Lords Supper as the Scripture calls it least it might call for the Lords Table as the Scripture also terms it and so your high Altar should have no more Room in the Church But doe the true Protestants protest the sincerity of their Faith onely against the Doctrinall Faith which hath invaded your Great Sacrament of the Eucharist Yes you adde and other parts of Religion What be those That we may know those speciall Doctrinall Corruptions against which you say Protestants do protest the sincerity of their Faith For Rome hath many Doctrinall Corruptions against which true Protestants protest which you do not so much as mention in all your Book and such too as do â—â—atly overthrow the Foundation Christ. As Iustification by works for one which we have touched before Yea and Rome hath many and those most damnable corruptions which you are so farre from accounting corruptions as you make them Essentiall parts of Gods worship I name Altars for one Of which also before And these things we Protestants protest the sincerity of our Faith against But you are none of those Protestants as not professing much lesse protesting the sincerity of any such Faith L p. 138. A right sober man may without the least touch of insolence or madnesse dispute a businesse of Religion with the Roman either Church or Prelate as all men know Irenaeus did with Victor so it be with modesty and for the finding out or confirming of truth free from vanity and purposed opposition against even a particular Church P. This passage I cited before in my Preface to your Lordship yet I here recite it again because perhaps all wil be little enough to put you in mind therof For as I told you before the Greatnesse of the Cause hath caused my stile and Spirit to mount upon the wings of zeale for my Christ and for his Church in a higher degree and strain then ordinary And that for this you Censure me of insolence or madnesse as I feare it wil be the best defence you can make for your Cause alwayes excepted the Bill in Starre-Chamber I have no remedy but patience committing the Cause to him that judgeth rightly And as I have done it for the finding out of the truth so this hath caused me a great deale of moyle in digging and removing away a masse of earth and rubbedge which you had cast to hide this Treasure from us So as a purposed opposition was not it that set me upon this Great taske but yet I oppose you and purpose to detect your falsities so fairly guilded over with hypocrisie that you might not impose too much upon your Credulous Reader You aledge for this purpose the Example of Irenaeus arguing a Case with Victor Bishop of Rome which you say all men know But my Lord I suppose all men do not know it And because it is a matter both worthy and not unnecessary for all men to know it I will take occasion here to speake somthing of it as not impertinent also to our present purpose Towards the end of the second Century there was a difference between the Asian Church and the Roman about the Day of Celebrating the memory of the Lords Resurrection The contention grew hot as commonly men are most eagre in propounding their own devises in matter of Religion so as because the Asian Churches would not conforme to Victor Bishop of Rome he began to fume and to thunder and threaten them all with Excommunication Irenaeus who lived in France for this reproves Victor telling him that he ought not to proceed and deale so with Asian Churches for such differences as were of things at that time accounted Indifferent Some saith he fast one day before Easter some two some more some 40. houres together whereupon by the way it seems that those 40. houres were afterwards turned into forty dayes for your Lent Fast kaì cudèn élatton pà ntes oâ—uioi eirteneusà n tè kaì eireneúomen pròs alluious yet neverthelesse saith he all these lived peaceably together and we also are at peace one with another Kaì he diaphonìn tes nesteÃas tèn homónoian tes pÃstâ—os sunistesi And this difference about Fasting commendeth saith he the unity of Faith And he relates unto him also the examples of sundry of his Predecessors in the Sea of Rome who neither kept it themselves nor command of it to others and yet neverthelesse they that observed it not were at peace with those that came to them from the neighbour Churches or Congregations wherein it was observed Nor were any at any time cast out of the Church about the Manner or Custome But those Presbyters saith he who before you observed it not sent Commendations or kind salutations and greetings as tokens of Charity to those of other neighbouring Churches who did observe it And blessed Polycarpus sojourning at Rome in the time of
so fit as his own Day of Rest which he hath Commanded to be sanctified weekly of us if we be his people and he the Lord our God who hath redeemed us in his holy and eternall Law and in which day we resting do partake and communicate of his holy and eternall rest begun here by Christ and consummate in heaven in that pangúrei solemne Generall Assembly and Congregation of the first borne written in heaven Heb. 12.23 And to conclude if the ten Commandements belong to us Christians under the Covenant of Grace then certainly the 4 th Commandement which commands to keep the Sabbath of the Lord our God which is the Lords day Now by this which hath been spoken you may examine how farre you and your Church of England have erred in the foundation that is in this and other fundamentall points of Faith at least if those Acts â—dicts and Books that have been published against the aforesaid Doctrines shal be avowed for the Doctrines of the Church of England as they are pressed And if with Rome you be thus fallen holy you are not by your own confession nor onely so but Hereticall yea more then that Infidel For in the same page you say If the Church can erre quite from the Foundation then she is nor Holy nor Church but becomes an Infidell Now we have proved that to erre in one or more though not in all fundamentall points of Faith is to fall quite off from the foundation But if you thus cease to be holy how are you the Church of Christ still as you say For holinesse is essentiall unto and so is of the Difinition of the true Church of Christ I beleeve the Holy Catholicke Church And so of every particular Church if it be a true member of the true Catholicke it is holy For Eadem est ratio totius partium If the whole be holy so every member and part But the whole true Church is holy For 't is Christs body mysticall whereof he the Head he the root and we the Branches and if the root be holy so are the branches as the Apostle saith And he saith againe The Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are And I say Christ being the Head and the Church hâ—s body the spirit of holinesse and sanctification flows down from the Head to all the mâ—mbers as the Oyle powred on Aarons head went down to the skirts of his clothing which was a type of the holy anoynting oyle of Christs spirit powred on him which he communicates to all the members of his misticall body even as a mans head communicates of Animal spirits of motion to all the parts of his body as we touched before Except with Bellarmine you will have a dead member to be a true member Indeed a dead member of a dead body is a true member of that body And certainly if a Church cease to be holy it ceaseth to be a Church of Christ any moreâ— But I pray you what should move you to say thus Though the Church ceaseth to be Holy yet ceaseth not to be a Church of Christ. You have it not from the Schoole of Divinity not scarce can you rake it out of the puddle of the Iesuites themselves But haply you might suspect that the Church of Rome might be proved to be fallen quite from the Foundation as hath been already proved before and therfore your Charity would provide one refuge for it that though thus she ceaseth to be holy yet not to be a true Church still But you may doe well to study this point a little better how to make it good How a Church may cease to be Holy becoming Hereticall and yet be a Church of Christ still L. p. 141.142 Those Errors that are dyed in Graine cannot consist with holinesse of which Faith in Christ is the very Foundation And therfore if we will keep up our Creed the whole Militant Church must still be holy P. This confirmes what before I concluded of the Church of Rome as no Church of Chhist because by your own verdict not holy For her Errors and that in the fundamentall points of Faith are all dyed in graine so as they will never change colour nor looke of another hue For both they are of no small antiquity and since their first hatching they have been by sundry Councels confirmed and at last most irrefragably in the Councel of Trent as hath been shewed For as those things which you elswhere instance Worship of Images first erected in the 2 d Councel of Nice the seventh Generall Transubstantiation first Decreed in the Councel of Laterian under Innocent the third and the taking away of the Cup in the Sacrament first decreed in the Councel of Constance so the Title of Antichrist of Vniversall Bishop and Head of the Church obtained first by Boniface 3. above a thousand yeares agoe with many or most or all the Rest of Popery have been ever since their severall erections upon all occasions more and more ratified never any corrected and by generall practice upheld and against all opposition and conviction stiffly maintained Are they not dyed in graine then And if so you confesse they consist not of holinesse But say you if we will keep up our Creed the whole Melitant Church must still be Holy Here you enterfere againe For notwithstanding all that is said or I suppose can be said you will have the Church of Rome to be holy still as being a member of the Church Militant in despight of the Pope But let her be a member of your Church Militant is she therfore holy Say not you your Church Militant may fall into errors so as to cease to be holy And if the Church of Rome hath thus fallen hath she not for her part ceased to be holy But not if she keep up the Creed What call you that To hold the letter of the Creed and to deny the Faith of it so we have proved before She hath lost the Faith of Christ the foundation of Holinesse Ergo she hath lost Holinesse Ergo lost the Essence of a Church Ergo she is not in the compasse of your Creed I beleeve the Holy Catholicke Church L. p. 142. I say it and most true it is That it was ill done if those who ere they were that made the seperation P. It should be most true if you doe but say it Yet we find not all to be most true you say How true this is I know not yet Let us here I remember a little before you performed a thanklesse office for the Protestants in making an Apology for them as not the first in the fault of this seperation Which I answered And here you put the fault on those that made the seperation who ere they were which might be aswell the Protestants as the Papists But speake out L. p. 145. For my part I am of the same opinion for the continuing of the Schisme that I was for
then to Iudas the Standard-bearer of that troope that came to apprehend Christ for Iudas came to Christ with Hale Master and kissed him and with this kisse as by the signall given betrayed him And is not your Ordine primus by this very Character known to be Antichrist while pretending to be Apostolick and a Successor of the Apostles he doth the more easily betray Christ in his Word and Members into the hands and bands of men Object But Peter was Ordine primus What such as to avoyd confusion As a head uniting all the members and governing all the body as your Ordine primus to avoyd confusion necessarily imports Did Peter at any time convent the Apostles Was he that Ordine primus that struck the stroke and gave the Difinitive sentences in that first Generall and Apostolicall Councel Act. 15. Did not Iames determine and the whole Church assented And Gal. 2.9 Is not Iames set before Peter And was not Peter and Iohn sent by the rest of the Apostles to Samaria When was this necessity then of an Ordine primus to avoyd confusion And what confusion is avoyded this day in the Church of England by your being Ordine primus nay prim-as both in honour and Authority and Iurisdiction Have you not by that your Ordine primus brought a confusion upon Religion Upon the Doctrinall Articles Upon the Consciences and Faith of men not knowing what to beleeve or what to doe or how to live in any peace inward or outward But you thinke to shift well enough for one so long as you put an other Ordine primus before as before is noted upon whose back you may lay all your burthens So as if any thing be amisse or succeed not well you are not then the Ordine primus Lastly one thing I observe more from your Ordine primus and that is the necessity of it which say you some one must be What one soever this is whether the Patriarch of the greater world or he of the lesser or other World but Rome rather must be she there 's a necessity for this that one be Ordine primus What 's this By the necessity of this Ordine primus is brought in a necessity of your new Catholicke Militant Church consisting of the Prelacy or Hierarchy which is so one as one must be Ordine primus as generall of the whole Army as the Dragon and his Angels to warre against Michael and his Angels So as here is an indissoluble and inseparable combination and confederacy of Prelates throughout the world making up that one Militant or Malignant Church whereof one must 〈◊〉 the chiefe to order the battel that there be no disorder but that every one keep his ranke and fight in his station against the true Militant Church of Christ as was before noted L. p. 182. Let Rome reduce it selfe to the observation of Tradition Apostolicke to which it held in Irenaeus his time and I will say as he did That it will be then necessary for every Church and for the faithfull every where to agree with it P. Let Rome reduce it selfe to the rule of the Scripture in all things which the faithfull there held in Pauls time when he was prisoner yet Preacher in Rome and then I will say and wil be the first that will doe it I wil be one of the faithfull that will agree with it But for Tradition Apostolicke I know not what you meane and therfore I dare not say as you doe But still you hold with Ordine primus I am sure of it You hold fast together for your Hierarchy wherein you place the Pope your Ordine primus Which while you doe Whatsoever Tradition Apostolicke Rome shall reduce it selfe to it wil be most perillous and pernicious too for any of the faithfull to agree with it And I am sure the Hierarchy and our Ordine primus in that was no Tradition Apostolicke So for that ther 's no talke of reducing either for Romes or Canterbury And could you perswade the world to agree with with the Ordine primus at Rome then that speech of yours pag. 182. would easily take place in these our times as well as Irenaeus his time Very great reason was there in Irenaeus his time that upon any difference arising in the Faith Omnes undique fideles all the faithfull or if you will all the Churches round about should have recourse that is resort to Rome being the Imperiall City and so a Church of more powerfull Principality then any other at that time in those parts of the world But the meaning of A.C. is we must so have recourse to Rome as to submit our faith to hers And should I grant them their own sense that all the faithfull every where must agree with Rome which I may give but can never grant yet were not this saying any whit prejudiciall to us now For first here 's a powerfull Principality ascribed to the Church of Rome so you Here are many words conningly woven and packt up together that to discover your full meaning you had need to unâ—old your whole pack Now all round about Rome is a large compasse for the whole world lyes round about Rome it being also at least there the Imperiall City and so a Church of more powerfull Principality then any other which might therfore challenge resort of all unto it as to the onely Oracle for resolving all your faithfull every where in doubts of Faith Yea and if you should grant too that all must submit their faith to Rome you say it were no whit prejudiciall to us now And should you not grant it how should it agree with your necessity of having one Ordine primus For to what purpose should there be one Ordine primus to avoyd confusion iâ— to his Call Summons and Judgement all your faithfull resorting they should not rest this their faith in his Determination Otherwise how should Confusion be avoyded For then to what one Ordine primus should they goe But do you yeeld it or no You say you may give it but can never grant it I pray you whether shall your affirmative giving or your negative granting be of more force Or if you give it how do you not grant it too Yea giving is more then granting If therfore you give it you doe more then grant it But suppose you restrain it onely to Irenaeus his time Had Rome then an Infallible Oracle in the Popes brest Or was his Iudgement the more infallible because his Chaire was in the Imperiall City Or his sentence of the more credit because his Church had the more powerfull Principality Then why in all doubtfull cases of Faith should not all the faithfull in England resort to the Chaire of Canterbury as which hath the most powerfull Principality of all the Prelates in England Why should not the thresholds of your Palace be as much worne with the footsteps of those that come to your Oracle for resolution
in matters of faith as the Shrine of your Predecessor S. Thomas of Canterbury with the keyes of his blind votaries And so much the more in these dayes as wherein you have put all England to a stand and stagger what to beleeve in point of Faith considering that the Articles of Religion like Meteors hang in suspense in the ayre no man knowing what to make of them whether they be white or blacke or what such Comets portend untill to that Edict of the Court that binds up the sense of the Articles fast asleep or in a slumber between Hawke and Buzzard or as a speaking in a dreame you shall superadde the Definitive Decree of the Chaire of Canterbury to interpret unto us what they have dreamed all this while But I suppose the Board calling you so much away from your Chaire you are the more willing and that in such a case of necessity to send all the faithfull to your Ordine primus at Rome and to Peters Chaire there if any such thing be there which may like Iunoes three footed stoole resolve all their doubts And so as you say to A C. Rome may thanke you for it But alwayes provided tha◠Rome first reduce her selfe as you say to the Observation of Tradition Apostolicke and then you will say Latinè plainly That it wil be then necessary for every Church and for the faithfull every where to agree with it to have recourse to Rome and to rest their Faith there where is the most Powerfull Principality And thus as well as I could I have pickt up your meaning wherein if I have come short you must pardon me and blame your selfe for your being no more perspicuous in matters of such moment as about consulting of Oracles considering that that of Apollo and Delphos was long agoe put to silence But to proceed L. p. 199. The Bishop of Rome hath no power from Christ over the whole Church to be Iudge in Controversies nay out of all doubt 't is not the least reason why de facto he hath so little successe because de Jure he hath no power given P. Not over the whole Church This seems to imply that the Bishop of Rome hath a power from Christ to be Iudge in Controversies over all the Churches at least within his own more powerfull Principality And consequently that the Primate of Canterbury hath the like power from Christ to be Judge in Controversies over the whole Church of England If you have yet it wil be some ease to the English that they have an Oracle so neare home to resolve them in all doubts so as they need not as formerly go trudge to Rome for the matter But neither to the Pope in his Powerfull Principality nor to you in your Primacy hath Christ given any power at all to be Judge in Controversies of Faith And because you have no Calling nor Commission from Christ therfore 't is true you say in this that the Pope hath no better successe And I pray you what successe have you had since you took upon you to sway the Crosier staffe of Canterbury and to be Judge in Controversies of Faith making and raysing controversies there where there was none before as namely in the Articles of Religion 'T is true you have put many a good Minister to Silence thrust many a one out of his Cure and Countrey levied your way for an universall Conformity to Rome prevailed much in your Designes that way but yet have you any great cause to boast of your successe all things Considered I say no more Verbum sapienti you understand me well enough And certainly when you cast up your reckoning you will find your selfe to be as much behind hand for successe as you do the Pope And your Reason is true because you have no power no Authority no Calling no Commission from Christ either to possesse such a place or to execute such an Office For as the Lord saith in Ieremie speaking of false Prophets I sent them not neither commanded them therfore they shall not profit this people at all saith the Lord. So neither have you reason to thinke that because you may do what you list in turning things upside down in seting up your Altars in suppressing Gods word in oppressing Gods Ministers in advancing your Arminian and Popish faction and you hitherto prosper therein while there is never a man left that dare so much as mutter a word against these your practises so great is your Power and so terrible your Cruelty and Ministers so Cowardly so as by this meanes your Cause and Course seems to prosper while you can crush any that shall interpose himselfe or lawfully in his place oppose your violent courses therfore Christ hath given you this power thus to tyrannise wherein you doe so prosper True it is that Christ hath given way to Satan to rage in these times because he knows he hath but a short time and hereby Christ will try and humble his people that he may doe them good and be glorified in their deliverance and in the destruction of all such Papall and Antichristian Tyranny L. p. 200. The Church being as large as the world Christ thought it fitter to governe it Aristocratically by Divers rather then by One Viceroy And I beleeve that this is true For all the time of the first 300. yeares and somwhat bettter it was governed Aristocratically to wit by the Bishops c. P. Here you give us occasion further to launch into the Deep of this Mystery that we may sound the bottome of it and so discerne what ground it floats upon mudde or sand or both although we have in part discovered it before Here you say and you say you beleeve it too it is an Article of your Creed that Christ thought it fitter to govern the Church Aristocratically by diverse rather then by one Viceroy And you give the Reason The Church being as large as the world We will first take an Assay of your words and then of your Reason For to a vulgar Reader some of your words are somwhat obscure and some also very finely couched that every eye cannot at the first discerne the Mystery of them And first for Aristocratically Aristotle the famous Philosopher and no meane statesman in his Politicks layes down 3 kinds of Civil Government taken in the better part The first is Monarchia which is a government by One the second is Aristocratia which is a Government of the Best Men the third is Democratia which is a Government Popular or of the People Opposite to these three he sets three sorts of bad Government the first is Tyranny which is opposed to Monarchy Tyranny ruling either without or contrary to the good Laws established but a Monarchy governing according to the established good Laws of the State Kingdome or Common-weale The second is Oligarchia which signifies the Government of a few and this standing in opposition to Aristocratia
Government is nothing according to our Great Kings Laws but according to your own devised Canons and in nothing in Nothing I say agreeable to the Laws of Christ in the Scripture for the right Government of his Church Nay that Government which Christ hath prescribed in his word and which is practised in the best Reformed Churches beyond the Seas you doe utterly and openly condemn and the Churches themselves that doe practise the Discipline of Christ and his Apostles while you deny them to be any Churches of Christ at all Againe Every Kingdome as it hath but one King over it so it is capapable of no more then onely one Vice-Roy so as by that Title he that is your Ordine Primus and hath a more Potent Principality the Pope had he but a good Title would carry that honour from you all if you value the worth and Dignity of that Vice-Royship after the value of your Bishopricks and not after vertue Either then you must acknowledge the Pope to be the sole Vice-Roy which you are loth to doe For why should not the Patriarch of the other world be as capable of that honour as he or you must give us leave to find out the onely true Vice-Roy of Christ in his Church and that is The Holy Ghost For when our Great King went into his Celestiall Kingdome to his Church Tryumphant leaving his Militant here on Earth under the Kingdome of Grace as touching his bodily presence he sent the Holy Ghost to be his Vice-Roy or Vice-Gerent to be perpetually resident in his Kingdome of Grace here for the Governing of his Church Militant and that according to the Law of Christ in his written word leading the People of Christ into all truth by revealing unto them all the Mysteryes of Christs will contained in the Scripture As Christ saith He shall gâ—orifie Me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you And v. 13. When the spirit of Truth is come whom v. 7. I will send unto you he will guide you into all Truth for he shall not speake of himselfe but whatsoever he shall heare that shall he speake Loe here then a faithfull Vice-Roy indeed And will or dare you deny this Spirit of God to be an All sufficient Vice-Roy who doth execute Christs Kingly Office in his Church in all things just so as Christ himselfe willâ—th And therfore except you can prove that Christ hath many Kingdomes of Grace here on earth or any more Churches Militant then one onely here is no Rome for any such Vice-Roys as you pretend to be For here we see it plain that of Christs one and onely Kingdome of Grace here on earth the Holy Ghost is the onely Vice-Roy And who is fit to be Christs Vice-Roy in his spirituall Kingdome but the Spirit of God and of Christâ— Ye are therfore no Vice-Roys because you are altogether carnall and your Kingdome is of this world And therfore Thirdly how can you Prelates pretend to be Vice-Roys over Christs Church whenas as is noted before ye are not so much as any members at all of Christs Kingdome For you are the Members of Antichrists Kingdome and so you are or may be Antichrists Vice-Roys over his severall Provinces 'T is true you style your selves spirituall Lords spirituall and your Courts spirituall and you are an Hierarchy as much to say as a Holy Kingdome or Government but it is not spirituall of Christs spirit but of that spirit that ruleth in the ayre that gave you all that Authority So as you do with Bellarmine turne those words of Christ to Peter Pasce oves meas Feed my Sheep to Regio more Impera Rule as a King And what similitude is there between Christ and you that you should be his Vice-Roys in his Church-Militant When he was here in person he was among his own as a servant and Minister He had no staâ—ely and Princely Palaces he kept no such Pontificiall house nor Court he governed not his Church by Chancellors Arch Deacons Deanes Chapters Commissâ—â—â—â—s Offiâ—ialls Pursuivants Apparitors and all that Rabble Christ had no such face of a Kingly Government So as you have altogether perverted the Kingdome of Christ which is altogether spirituall and holy into a meere temporall and carnall Kingdome wherein therfore you are none of Christ Vice-Roys but Viâ—ious Roys and Tyrannicall Lords O Antichâ—istian Generation O notorious Hypocrites O proud and blind Guides How shall you escape the vengeance to come that dare thus impiously abâ—se the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ and so impose upon the world by your bold usurpations Vsurpations indeed You call your selvs Vice-Roys Apostolicke Bishops Spirituall Church Grace Holinesse meere Nominalls which you have usurped and patched together to become a veile to cover your deep hypocrisie and to seem glorious in the eyes of the world and all to hold up your earthly Kingdome which consists altogether of earthly things honours riches pleasures But blind world that suâ—ferest thy selfe to be thus guld and befoold with such glittering stuffe and to be made a slave to such Lords and to be cheated of thy salvavation by these Antichristian Mountebanks And yet they pretend and professe that this their carnall pompous and Pontificiall Kingdome is Christs spirituall Kingdome here in the state of Grace Let them then cleare themselves herein from that damned Heresy of that old Heretick â—erinthus who lived in S. Iohns time His Heresy was That Christs Kingdome after his Resurrection was earthly and that now the flesh conversing in Ierusalem was to serve lusts and pleasures See Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib 3. cap. 22. Now is not the Prelates Kingdome just that in practise with Cerinthus his Heresy If so As S. Iohn forsook the Bath wherein Cerinthus was what cause have Christians to fly from that roofe where such an Antichristian Hierarchy domineereth But in the next place let 's consider of your Reason How stands it good that because Christs Church is as large as the world therfore he thought it fitter to governe it by Diverse then by One Vice-Roy Now we have proved your Hierarchy not to be an Aristocrasie a Government of the Best men and that by good Laws seeing therfore you must needs be some Government then it must be an Olegarchie that is the Government of a few of the worse men such as rule by their lusts and not by any good Laws either of God or Man But now tell me my Lord if you argue upon this ground that because the Militant Church is as large as the world therfore 't is fitter it be governed by many Vice Roys then by one why may not aswell one Prelate as the Pope be sole Vice-Roy over the whole world as my Lord of Canterbury be a Vice-Roy over all England For doth not the Pope and you Governe your Churches by substitutes Why then may not the Pope Governe the whole by his Curates as you doe all England by your Curates For
â—enders helps in Governments And all this according to the expresse Law of Christ our King recorded in the Scripture as being the most perfect pattern of the Government of his Church for every particular Congregation to be regulated and ordered by So as in truth those Congregations that are thus governed are the onely true Churches of Christ as wherein himselfe his spirit his word doe govern both Minister and people whereas on the other side all Prelaticall Churches are false and Antichristian as wherein not Christ and his spirit and his word do beare rule but Antichristian men by the pride of their spirit and by their Canons doe altogether beare sway thrusting Christ out of his Throne despising his word and puting a yoake of bondage over the necks both of Ministers and people To conclude this point because you are of such a beliefe and so confidently tell us and peremptorily avouch that Christ thought it fitter to govern his Church by Diverse then by One Vice-Roy besides what is already sayd I will a little more presse and present before you Christs own words at full which I doe to put you out of all such beliefe or so much as any such conceit that Christ had ever any such thought Math. 20. upon occasion of those two at that time ambitious bretheren sent to Christ by their Mother to be chiefe about him in his Kingdome Christ first tells them Ye know not what ye aske Then calling his Disciples to him he saith thus unto them Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whâ—so ever wil be great among you let him be your Minister c. Which the Euangelist Luke expresseth thus The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Euergétai Benefactors But ye shall not be so Ye Who Not the Apostles of Christ not the Ministers of Christ in succeding ages Not so How Ye shall not exercise Dominion Lordship Authority one over another you shall not be called Benefactors Patrons Lords Gratious Lords Honourable your Grace your Honour c. Why so For such are the Kings of the Gentiles who exercise Dominion over them and are called Benefactors You shall not be as they in exercising any Authority or Jurisdiction one over another Nor shall ye be called Euergâ—tâ—i My Good lord My Benefactor My Patron My lords Grace or My Gratious lord and the like Thus under those words Christ chaâ—geth his Apostles not to affect not to be ambitious of not to exercise Superiority or Prelacy Iurisdiction and Authority one over another or over Christs Kingdome his Church and 〈◊〉 as Peter saith Not as Lords over Gods heritage where the Apostle useth the same word that Christ his Master used M◠〈◊〉 katakuriéuontes ton kâ—úron not exercising Dominion or 〈…〉 God 's Inheritance or if you will over his Clergy though they be not his onely Inheritance but his people are no 〈…〉 unto him and are kleros Gods lot But now for Christs 〈◊〉 do you not think that Christ spake as he thought and 〈◊〉 as he spake Or can you beleeve any other And do not his 〈◊〉 to his Apostles in them reach to all his Ministers 〈…〉 succeed them in future ages If you say you are the 〈◊〉 onely successors why are you then lâ—rds ovâ—r Goâ—s 〈…〉 why do you exercise â—uâ—hority and Dominion over his 〈◊〉 and peopâ—e as Heathen Kings doe over then people 〈…〉 expresly forbid to his Apostles and to all their Successors But you shew your selves to be none of Christs Disciples and so none of his Apostles successors for you obey not Christs word as the Apostles did What do you answere then to Christs words Or what interpretation can you devise to avoyd them You will answere perhaps with Bellarmine that Christ forbad his Apostles to be like the Heathen Princes in exercising a temporall Government or Authority one over another This is indeed all the evasion Bellarmine hath But how vain Let 's bring it to the Touch. How shall it be tryed What saith Christ Humeis dè ouk outos you shall not be so Now if you be not so all is well you may prove Apostolicall men But if you prove to be like the Heathen Princes in exercising Lordship over the people under your Government and in exercising Authority over them what can you say for your selves why you should not be proclaimed for proud Contemners of Christs word and for usurping Tyrants over his peopl and so for a rebellious Faction and Confederacy against Christs Kingdome Let 's therfore draw our Parallell Those Heathen Powers were called Princes so you call your selves they were Kings and so were Gods Vice-gerents you call your selves Vice-Roys of Christ they were called Benefactors though they never did good so you are styled My lords Grace and when in your Court you condemn poore innocents yet they must confesse the justice and favour of your Court They were called Fathers of their Countrey so you Right Reverend Fatheres Most Reverend Father your Grace c. They were lords so you yea you are temporall lords and so sit in Parliament though styled spirituall they exercised lordship dominion Authority over the people and that with tyranny and without Law so do you And in a word Is not your Pompe and state your Power and Greatnesse your Palaces and Courts your Traine and Attendants your Fasces and Lictors to wit your Pursuivants and Apparitors your Kinglike Attire in Purple and Scarlet and fine lynen soft rayment of silkes and sattens your Tables overflowing with delicacies of viands and wines in all abundance and variety and what not like that of Kings Thus doe you not beare the Image of the Beast the Dragon the Heathen Emperour who gave power to that other Beast the Pope who in himselfe erected the Image of the first Beast from top to toe namely the Imperiall state and magnificence being fully expressed and limmed out in the Papall though but in somwhat a lower degree in your Episcopall Pontificiall state As Pope Boniface 8. in the first day of his Jubilee came forth pompously arayed in all his Pontificalibus and the next day in the Imperiall Ropes with two Swords caried before him And a lively Image of this is my Lord Bishop a mixt Creature partly temporall and partly spirituall spirituall in name onely and temporall in his whole outward state as the Kings and Princes of the Gentiles were as the Creaâ—ure called Amphibius that lives now in the water and now on the Land and yet is neither good Fish nor Flesh. Now tell us my Lord whose Image you beare Christs or Caesars yea in all things you resemble Caesar but not many one thing the Lord Iesus Christ. I say not in one thing Shew any one thing wherein you instate either Christ oâ— his Apostles after his
Resurrection Indeed you inatate â—he Apostles in their Philâ—â—â—ikÃâ— emulation and contention which should be the greatest which Christ condemneth and utterly forbiddeth in them But this was in them onely before they knew the Mystery of Christs Kingdome aright They dreamed of a Temporall Kingdome but after Christs Resurrection when they had received the Holy Ghost they were of another mind no such emulation then who should be the chiefest there but who should shew greatest love and fidelity to Christ in preaching the Gospell and building up spirituall Temples to God But you I say imitate them in their carnall estate wherein that which they blindly imagined you have erected an Image of namely a Temporall Kingdome like that of Heathen Kings and Princes and other Temporall Lords Which shews that you are none of Christs Disciples I say or the Apostles successors and that you have not Christs Spirit but are altogether carnall and sensuall as the Apostle saith For had you Christs Spirit you would be truly spirituall as the Apostles were But you are sâ—nsuall having not the Spirit And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the sâ—me is none of his And in that you veile your hypocrisie and all your sensuality and carnall state which you call your Hierarchy under the specious termes and Titles of spirituall Holy Grace Church Bishops Christs Vicars or Vice-Roys Apostoliâ—ke successors oâ— the Apostles wherewith you gull the blind world this is that very Mystery of Iniquity the Apostle speaks of which began to work even in his dayes as we noted before you being those false Prophets that come in Christs Name in sheeps clothing but are inwardly ravening Wolves You may think my language sharpe but it cannot be too sharpe against such a cursed proud Generation as you Prelates are usurping Tyrants Rebells against Christ Perverters of all truth and faith corrupters of all true honesty holinesse Religion and the worship of God who are made to be destroyed with that Beast of Rome whose Image you beare and with whom the false Prophets such as you are and all those that in you do worship the Image of the Beast and receive his marks shall goe into the bottomlesse pit and burning lake L. p. 204. Now it the Church of Rome must be a Tryumphant Church here Militant no longer P. I hope then if Rome be here as she is a Church Triumphant and no more Militant but in warring against Christ and his Saints for she saith in her heart I sit a Queen and am no Widow and shall see no sorrow And in her Decretalls she hath made a firme Decree for her perpetuall tranquility and felicity here in all pleasures and prosperity free from all incursions and invasions which is an estate Tryumphant there also you and your Hierarchicall Lady Church of England will not be farre behind your Sister Queen at Rome For you are both one and the same Church and one in that especially which makes you a Church Tryumphant and that is your Kingly Hierarchy and Lordly Prelacy and therfore if that Queen be tryumphant at Rome your Lordship and your Churches Ladyship must be tryumphant in England as indeed you are in all your Ruffe and Gallantry And as Rome hath now a long time tryumphed over the poore Saints of God and Martyrs of Iesus martyring and massacring them and garrowsing full cups of their blood even unto drunkennesse and surfet so your Tryumphant Chariot marcheth after her apace trampling the Saints under your feet and tryumphing over them in shedding their innocent blood and so glorying in your Bestiall and Diabolicall cruelty in oppressing and tyrannizing over Gods people and that so fiercely as if you would outstrippe your Elder Sister in all her bloody barbarisme and therein exalt your tryumph above hers For wherein else should the Glory and magnificence of your Prelaticall Princes and Heroicall Vice-Roys shine forth but in being mounted on Horsebacke while the true Princes lacky it by them on the earth And thus you ride in tryumph as the Heathen Kings were wont to doe Oh how you tryumphed when you looked through one of your Court-windowes when you passed your tryumphall Censure to behold those THREE looking through your Pillory-windowes whose blood you had before how justly your own Conscience can tell you condemned there to be shed But the wonder was that they even theâ—e as in their tryumphall Chariot tryumphed over your Barbarous cruelty But thus you are a Tryumphant Church too and in nothing Militant but as is noted before in your warring against and persecuting the poore Saints of God But your tryumph shall end in your shame and confusion verifying that which shall be fulfilled in your Sister or Mother Rome Reward her even as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works in the Cup which she hath filled fill to her double How much she hath gâ—â—rified her selfe and lived delicioutsly so much torment and sorrow gâ—ve her for she saith in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Therfore shall her plagues come in one day c. L. p. 205. The Kings under the Law but sâ—ill according to it did proceed to necessary Râ—formations in Church-businâ—sses and therin commanded the very Priests themselves as appeares in the Acts of â—lesechiah and Iosiah 2 Chro. 29.4 and 4 King â—â— 2 P. All this is true you here affirme so as iâ— confirmes what we said before of Christian Kings in matters oâ— Religion that they ought to doe nothing but still according to the Law of God All Allways in All things not varying in the least Circumstance or Ceremony All this is well But what makes this for your Priest What saith your practise This Ergo the King giving way to the Priest or Prelate of Canterbury he may of his own head appoint and impose what Ceremonies his Romish Devotion thinks fit in the worship of God This is your usuall Logicke This your usuall perverting and abusing of Scripture Well What more A little before ibid. you tell us Omnis anima Every soule All spirituall men even to the highâ—st Bishop and in spirituall Causes so the foundations of Faith and good Manners be not shaken must be subject to the Higher Powers And where they are shaken there ought to be Prayer and Patience there ought not to be opposition by force Now for your highest Bishop and all spirituall men we have done withall That all Obedience is due from all men to Kings and Princes in all things where the foundations of Faith and Good Manners be not shaken we all acknowledge with you and where they are shaken there ought to be Prayer and Patience of every particular and private Christian without his opposition by force when he is pressed to doe that which is against Gods word and his own Conscience Now here by the way I pray you resolve me as in a Case of
to defend their ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be countod Rebells So he But this by the way But I have somthing more to say about the shaking of the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners though I mentioned it before but now upon this occasion And that is concerning Ceremonies of humane ordinance in Gods worship which being imposed upon mens Consciences is not onely a shaking of the Founâ—ation of Faith but an overthrowing of it for thereby Christ is denyed to be the onely King of his Church And therfore as the Kings of Israel did nothing in reforming of Religion and the worship of God but what was expresly commanded and prescribed in Gods Law so Christian Kings and Magistrates ought not to doe any thing no not to impose any one humane Ceremony or Ordinance in Gods service besides that which is written in Gods word otherwise the Foundations of Faith is overthrown Of such moment is the least Ceremony in Gods service that it is of the substance and Foundation of Faith L. p. 210. But 't is time to return For A.C. in this Passage hath been very carefull to tell us of a Parliament and of living Magistrates and Iudges besides the Law books Thirdly therfore The Church of England God be thanked shines happily under a Gratious Prince and well understands that a Parliament cannot be called at All times and that there are visible Iudges besides the Law-books and one supreme long may he be and be hapâ—y to settle all Temporall Differences which certainly he might much better perform if his Kingdome were well ridde of A. C. and his Fellows And she beleeves too that our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-books the Scripture Visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops under a Gratious King to governe both for Truth and Peace according to the Scripture and her own Canons and Constitutions as also those of the Catholicke Church which Crosse not the Scripture and the Iust Laws of the Realme But she doth not beleeve there is any Necessity to have one Pope or Bishop over the whole Christian world more then to have one Emperour over the whole world P. It were time indeed for you to return from your Course when once there is mention of a Parliament For thriving If you mean that your Church of England hath of late dayes well thriven in her prevailing for the seting up of Images and Altars for bringing in more Superstitions into your Service for puting down sincerity Purity and power of the true Religion and of the Preaching of Gods word for suppressing the Doctrines of Grace forementioned for hampering the Puritans as you call them by puting down suspending and silencing of Godly and painfull Preachers and by crying down both the Doctrine and Practise of the sanctification of the Sabbath or Lords day and by smothering in the birth all sound and Orthodox Books against Popery and other Heresies not suffering them to be Printed and by licencing of Popish Books to be Printed and Publâ—shed and the like and if this be the way of the well thriving of your Church whomsover you have cause to thanke yet surely you have small cause to thanke God whose Name herein you doe abuse and blaspheme as perhaps your own Conscience may tell you as if he favoured such practises of yours because for a time he patiently suffers and winks at them and that in judgement to a sinfull Land and for tryall of his own servants and people and for a preparative to your certaine ruine if speedy repentance prevent it not For God is not mocked with such thanks though he be mocked but whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reape How then doth it concerne all Christian Magistrates to look to it least if they suffer Christs Kingdome to be betrayed into the hands of Antichristian Usurpers by giving way unto them to doe what they list while themselvs seem to sleep they provoke God too much For as Samuel sayd to the People If ye doe wickedly you shall perish both you and your King For my part though I will not joyne in Prayer with such a Profane Hypocrite as you are and an enemy of Iesus Christ and his Truth no more then the Apostle Iohn would be in the same Bath with that Heretick Cerinthus yet my dayly Prayer is and shall be that God would more and more let the King see how miserably he is abused and the Peace and safety of his Kingdome distracted and indangered both by the late violent practises which have been held in Church-affaires and now by the publishing of such a Book as this so notoriously perillous or rather most pernicious and so much the more in these times of troubles about Religion lately sprung up in the Iland of Great Britaine Which Book though it make many faire pretences for Peace yea Peace and Truth yet in truth it will prove the greatest troubler of Israel and the falsest friend to true Truth that the light hath seen these many yeares This I speake not by conjecture much lesse out of malice to the Authors Person but from the cleare evidence of the word of Prophecy in Scripture in such cases But how comes your Church of England to be so well seen in State-Mysteries I pray you as so well to understand that a Parliament cannot be called at all times Or by the Church of England doe you not meane the the Chaire of Catnterbury as the Church Collective or representative of England For you should better understand such State-matters especially for the not calling of Parliaments at all times or suppose it were at Notime or Nevermas least perhaps it might prove as a Frost to nippe your thriving and overforward spring then your Lordship For my part I am no States-man and so I leave State matters to States-men who should best understand them But if your A.C. and his Fellows be such troublesome fellows why doe you trouble your selves with them when a good honest Parliament might ease the King and Kingdome â—oo of that trouble provided that good Laws already enacted and by the next Parliament if ever there shal be any quickned by a new Law to put them in better execution there may be also a good season to bring forth such Visible Iudges as without straining the strings either of their Purses or Consciences coming clearly to their Benches and not making them as Banks but siting Rectè in Curia they may without feare of any Prepotent Prelate or Partiality in respect of Persons do Justice I passe now from the understanding of your Church of England to her Beliefe which you also tell us of She beleeves too What doth she beleeve That our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-books the Scriptures visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops How Is this come already to be an Article of the Faith of the Church of
England because her Great Metropolitan a little before beleeves it Or because Ipse dixit he said Christ thought it fitter to governe his Church by Divers Vice-roys then by One Is there such an Infallibility in your bare word as for the Church of England to establish her beliefe upon Certainly this is an Addition to the Articles of the Faith of the Church of England which in her former dayes she was not acquainted with Well for your Arch-bishops and Bishops we have said I hope enough and perhaps you will say too much and desire no more to be troubled with them Yet I see we must whether we will or no. For first here againe you doe most impiously ne dicam impudenter ye blasphemously bely the Lord Iesus Christ as before you have done more then once or twice and are not yet ashamed but rather hardned in your Habit as being reserved to be confounded Secondly as before you would make Christ to be the Author of such Governours and Vice-Roys as Arch bishops and Bishops so here Besides his Law-Books the Scripture he hath you say made you visible Magistrates and Iudges Surely That is besides the Scripture indeed yea not onely praeter but contra not onely besides but against the expresse Scripture as is but a little before proved that Arch-bishops and Bishops though they have gotten a degenerate Beeing as Mules in Rerum natura yet should have any Beeing at all in the Church of Christ much lesse that they should be Iudges at all in spirituall matters being themselves altogether carnall And For arch-Arch-Bishops it hath not so much as a Name in Scripture as your Bishops have usurped that Title from Scripture and you confesse the Apostles were all equall in what night then grew up this Mushrum And we have before given a touch and tryall what kind of Iudges you would prove would men but pin their faith on your White sleeve But except you can bring some better Authority then your own blasphemous speech that Christ hath left such visible iudges to his Church your Church of England will have but a cold pull of it when she shal be put to give a reason of this her beliefe that Christ did so Or what Or why For truth and peace These words are with you as Mel in ore verba lactis honey in the mouth words of milke but we can discerne by them Fel in Corde fraus in factis Gall in the heart and fraud in actions But by what means will you procure us truth and peace By governing How or by what Law or Rule According to the Scripture say you Stay there and govern according to that for that is the onely way were your Prâ—laticall Government according to the Scripture both to procure and preserve truth and peace But unlesse you can prove which you never can by the Scripture and not by your own single-soled bold affirmation that Christ hath made you Governours of his Church you shall never perswade us to beleeve or hope that you will ever Govern according to the Scriptures But yet is this all Will you be such honest Governours as you will not go beyond Christs Law-books the Scriptures Nothing lesse For there follows immediately a dangerous Conjunction Copulative And. According to the Scriptures And. And what I hope you have no other Law-books to adde to Christs Law-books Have you Produce them And her own Canons and Constitutions Nay then Farewell Christs Law-Books Christ may put up his Pipes as it is said When your Canons and Constitutions come in Place And then farewell Truth and Peace your own Canons and Constitutions can make no Room for them For he that shall hold the truth never so right and firm and shall transgresse but one of your Canons what peace He shal be put to read the Canon that is he shal be shattered to pieces with your shooting off of your Canon And he that comes under the command of your Canon is ipso facto brought under the Babylonian and Antichristian yoak so as not onely his peace is destroyed but the truth power and verture of Christs death which hath freed his people from the bondage of all humane ordinance as hath been shewed in Gods worship and service is overthrown As also your selfe elswhere saith That Peace and Truth are rent by superstitious deâ—iâ—es from which I hope all your Canons and Constitutions are not altogether free How much lesse can that Church be free from most miserable slavery that puts her neck under the yoak and her shoulders under the intollerable burthen of your Canons and Constitutions Nay I will say more If you be the visible Magistrates and Iudges of the Church as the High Priests and Pharisees were although the High-Priests office was grounâ—ed upon Divine Ordinance and Authority and had Christ himselfe to stand at your Barre to be judged though you had not as the Jews said they had a Law to put him to death yet you would find Church-Canons and Constitutions enough or some new devise though not to condemn him to be Crucified yet to Censure him to be Pillorified and to have his Eares closse cropt and his blood shed in a great measure and stript naked and perpetually Imprisoned and exiled as being the Arch-enemy of your Hierarchy Tyranny Hypocrisie and all Impiety And all this you would do by vertue of your Canons and Constitutions which yet were never ratified by any Law of the Land or Act of Parliament But yet seeing you must have your Church-Canons and Constitutions besides Christs Law-Books to govern by yet the Church of England may think her selfe well appayd and in some tolerable though intollerable case if she have but her own Canons such as her selfe hath constituted and assented to For volenti non fit injuria If the Church of England be willing to be an Asse to her Prelates as once she was to the Pope she may And so she hath her amends in her own hands If the yoak of Canons pinch her she may thank her selfe for putting her neck under I but this is not all There be other Canons besides that are not hers that she must be governed by What more Bonds and Fetters yet for thee poore Church of England Yes As well her own Canons and Constitutions as Those also of the Catholicke Church What are those Alas your Church of England is an Ignoramus in all such Canons as you call Catholicke And your Church Catholike you know and tell us doth Comprehend that of Rome and Rome hath innumerable Canons Consâ—itutions and Decretalls so as under the Canons of the Catholicke Church you may bring upon the Church of England all the Canons and Decrees of Trent all the Popes Decretalls and the whole body of the Popes Canon Law so large a field is your Canons and Constitutions of the Catholicke Church But you qualifie the matter in adding Which crosse not the Scripture and the just Laws of the Realme That 's somthing
But who shal be Judge of that Alas we are never the nearer if you Prelates be the visible Iudges For then what Canons or Constitutions shall crosse either Scripture or Positive Law of the Land which you shall define and determine to be fit for you to govern the Church by What Laws of the Realme shal be just which crosse one of your Canons Did not in a Cause pleaded in your High-Commission the Popes Canon aledged by the Advocate on the one party preponderate a Statute of Edw. 6. alledged by the Advocate of the adverse party so as the Popes Canon carryed the Cause So as while you will be the visible Iudges you will lead us all in a Circle and make us so turne round as we should not know where we are imagining that all the world went upon wheels Yea but there is yet one qualification may help at a pinch For you say Archbishops and Bishops under a Gratious Keng to governe c. 'T is true indeed that under the shadow of a Gracious King to you you are imboldened to do all you do Lastly you say the Church of England doth not beleeve there is any necessity to have one Pope or one Bishop over the whole Christian world And are there not trow you many thousands in the Church of England which doe not beleeve there is any necessâ—y of having One Pope or Arch-Prelate over the whole Church of England the other world as before And I beleeve there is no more necessity of the one then of the other but that they might be well spared as Christ will one day not spare them And as I said before the Pope by as good a Title may argue a necessity of his being uneversall Bishop over the whole Christian world as you can setting the Law of England aside for your being Pope over the whole Church of England And that upon your own Ground for you say The Church of England and the Church of Rome is one and the same Church no doubt of that and The Church of England may find her selfe where Romes is now just there then if so that both are one and the Popes Principality more powerfull then that of Canterbury and if there be a nccessity that Canterbury be over the whole Church of England which is but a part of the Catholicke and that for order and unity why not the like necessity for the Pope to be supreme over all for preserving order and unity seeing your Militant Church is but one and to make many heads many Vice-Roys is to divide the body and Kingdome and so make rents in it which you like not of But to conclude I beleeve and with me all true Beleevers who have their judgements rightly informed wherever they be in any part of the world that there is a necessity of duty lying upon all Christian Magistrates to exterminate and exterpate the whole Hierarchy and Prelacy as Antichristian enemies of Iesus Christ and of his Kingdome yea and the band of Civil States and people out of the world For so we read Rev. 17.16 17. A place worthy to be written in the hearts of all Kings Christian. And it is the duty of all true Christians to rowse up the Spirit of prayer in them and to stirre up the coals of zeale to flame forth in offring up of pure Incense of fervent Prayer especially in these times wherin Satan so rageth and his Instruments grow so malapert and mischievous that God would hasten the accomplishment of Antichrists Kingdome that so the Kingdome of Iesus Christ may be exalted and inlarged and he alone rule and raigne in his Church L. p. 212. Somwhat may be done by the Bishop and Governours of the Church to preserve the unity and certainty of Faith and to keep the Church from renting or for uniting it when it is rent And this pag. 198 one Pope cannot doe P. Somwhat Why you tell us immediately before that the Pope or a Bishop may perhaps despense in some cases with the Decrees of a Generall And this I hope is somwhat more then somwhat Or perhaps at least And we have shewed before how you Prelates do either preserve the Church from renting or when it is rent make up the breaches of it namely by an uniting and confederating against Christ and his true Church and by labouring tooth and nayle to support and keep safe and sound your Antichristian Hierarchy which is not truly and properly an unity but a conspiracie against Christ from whose true Mysticall body you have made the Great and unreconciliable Rent And therfore you to preserve the unity and certainty of Faith intire which even as you are Prelates you are altogether Apostates from and enemies unto Or is the spirit of Infallibility intayld to the Prelates Chaire For doth not this necessarily imply either an Infallibility or at least a greater dexterity and a more excellent and Divine spirit to be in Prelates qua Praelati Infulati as they are Mitred Bishops then in all those that are no Prelates when onely by Prelates though but somwhat to this purpose may be done But we have shewed before what ability or soundnesse of judgement in divine spiritual matters we may expect to be in Prelates in comparison of others who are both learned pious judicious Divines L. p. 194. To draw all together to settle Controversies in the Church there is a visible Iudge and Infallible but not living and that is the Scripture pronouncing by the Church and there is a visible and living Iudge and that is a Generall Councel P. Here I goe backe a little to fetch in this passage as fiâ— here to usher in a many other Passages scattered here and there in your Book which is hard to reduce to any order or forme But we must do as we may And I shall not wittingly offer violence to any part in the least though somtimes here and there I am faine to pull them in by the head and shoulders And here you doe with the Papists make the Scripture to be but a dead letter for say you it is not a living Iudge no nor yet a speaking Iudge but as it is pronounced by the Church Wheras the Apostle saith of it Zonâ—o lógos tou Theou The word of God is living or lively nor onely so but e'nergès effectuall as it is before noted And if you will apply this to the Word preached that 's true too Although you will not confesse preaching of Gods word to be the Scripture or yet the word of God But it must be pronounced by the Church as the onely mouth of Scripture and that must be also in the Churches sense Of which sufficiently before Yet this you adde to all your other indignities you put upon the Scripture that you make it a dead Iudge and so indeed no Iudge at all as before you plainly tell For if it be blind as wanting light and if it be mute or dumb
Primitive Church and Generall Councels is the Iudge of Controversies whereunto you professe to submit in all humility Thus these 12 Conclusions be as the 12 Articles of your Faith But now let 's a little examine what Truth or Force there is in all these I confesse some of them are somwhat coincident and like Brookes fall one into another but all have their Confluence into your Generall Councel as one maine Ocean But we will take a say of each as they run along For the first and so the rest which have any generall concurrence with it I deny that a Generall Councel is a sufficient and competent Iudge of Controversies in matters of Faith My Reasons are these First Because Generall Councels consisting of Prelates and more especially in these latter times are so much the unabler to judge of the sense of Scripture where 't is deep or doubtfull As Nicolaus de Clemangus in his Tract De Concilus Generalibus discourseth very largely and pregnantly of this very Circumstance shewing that Prelates are none of those to whom God doth reveale the mysteries of his will in his Word which are altogether spirituall but Prelates are carnall proud ambitious covetous minding the things of the world His whole Discourse is worth the Reading And Arelatensis Arch-Bishop of Arles in France in the Councel of Basil said that they had no zeale nor love nor knowledge of the Truth but every one would be of his Kings Religion and was ready to say as his King would have him and that the poore Priests were those by whom the Truth was upholden And not to goe farre from home If a Generall Councel were assemblâ—d of such Prelates as you are who have no savour of and lesse favour to the Truth having bewrayd in this your Book besides your usuall practises how contrary your spirit is to Christs spirit and wisdome Certainly asmuch as in you were you would bring utter confusion upon the world in seting up and establishing your Babilonish Faith and Religion And I have noted before how the poore in spirit such as feare the Lord are those Eagles Christ speaks of whose eyes are sharpest to pierce into the Mysteries of the Scriptures as having Gods holy Spirit to guide them into all Truth Heare what the wiseman saith The rich man is wise in his own conceit but the poore that hath understanding searcheth him out I leave it to your Application And Christ rejoycing in Spirit saith I thanke thee ô Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for it seemed good in thy sight Againe Prelates especially such as your selfe are taken up with State-matters and all of them generally with their worldly affaires and great Revenues so as they have little leasure so much as to thinke of Divine matters or to care for the state of mens soules or to seek to advance Christs Kingdome as being a'pellotriomenoi tes politeÃas tou Israèl as the Apostle speakes Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel Yea even those that have good learning and judgement in Divinity which they had before they were Prelates after they come once to be Prelates they are so choked with the world and so over-awed with the servile feare of man that they dare doe nothing for the Truth especially in a time wherein it is openly opposed and oppressed but are willing to sleep in a whole skin and to let Religion and Faith sinke or swimme so they may injoy their Lordships and fill their Coffers Againe suppose a Generall Councel of Prelates were called for the purpose to judge and determine of the Controvesie about the Calling of Prelates whether it be Iure divino by Divine Authority or no as it was in Question and agitation in the Councel of Trent would not such a Councel trow you be Partiall in their own Cause and Define with one voyce That Prelates are an Order and of a Calling Jure divino and that Christ thought it fittest to governe his Church by such visible Iudges and Vice-roys Or if the Controversie were whether the Church alwayes collective in the Prelates have power to ordaine Ceremonies in Gods service to the Obedience and conformity whereof all mens Consciences are bound by which Imposition Gods people come to loose that liberty which Christ hath purchased for them and Christ should lose his Royall soveraignty as King in his Church as before is shewed it is not easie to Divine what the Difinition of such a Councel would be Or is there any Question to be made but that without any more adoe they would Order Determine Define and Conclude that Prelates the Church Collective have power to ordaine what Ceremonies they please in the worship and service of God which shall bind all mens Consciences to the necessary obedience and observation therof Would they herein have any respect to Christian liberty or Christs Prerogative Would they not with the Scribes and Pharisees and High Priests in their Councel condemn Christ for his Title of King of the Iews And because you are so much for a Generall Councel as Iudge in Controversies What say you to the first Generall Councel of Nice wherein there were above 300 Prelates as I remember Had they not all consented to the making of a Decree for the establishing of a Doctrine of Devils to wit forbidding Marriage to all Ecclesiasticall Persons had not one man Paphnutius and he an unmarried man too stood up and withstood such a Decree shewing by many Reasons and Arguments from Scripture and otherwise how wicked and cruel such a Decree were So early began the Mystery of Iniquity to bud forth and that in the most Ancients and in the very Prime or first Generall Councel wherein these Fathers the Prelates were so piously zealous though ignorantly to lay the foundation of a generall Aposticie from the Faith in establishing such a Doctrine of Devils as the Apostle calls it of which suffciently before Yet by your Doctrine If that Generall Councel of so many Prelates had determined it and ratified it by Decree all Priests then were bound to obedience untill another Generall Councell equall to that should reverse it which should have been long enough when every Age grew successively worse then other And thus in the very first and best Generall Councel after the Apostles a Doctrine of Devils should have been ratified and therein an Apostacie from the Faith and all men must have yeelded obedience at least externall enough to keep all your Priests from Marriage and so all Prelates and Priests should so quickly have proved a Generation of Apostates from the Faith Againe if you have a Generall Councel you must not according to the Councel of Frier Franciscus à S. Clara admit of any Puritans or the precise Party of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas no not such as you call Puritan Bishops For you see
sufficient Images and Crucifixes which when you doe honour and homage to your Altar canâ—ot but participate of it And againe the Councel of Constance being a Generall Councel and the Decree therof for the Cup being not yet reversed by another Councel equall to that And seeing your Church of England is one and the same with the Catholick Church when it was represented in that Councel why doe you not presse your Doctrine unto Practise in your Church of England telling them that they are all bound to the obedience of that Decree of the Councel of Constance for the taking away of the Cup in the Sacrament at least they are bound to externall obedience not to drinke of that Cup till another Councel equall to that shall reverse that Decree which hath not yet been but on the contrary the Generall Councel of Basill since that hath ratified that Decree of Constance notwithstanding all the Bohemians supplications and demonstrations to the contrary But you will say you have here in your Book made a demonstration both against worship of Images and the taking away of the Cup. But this will not free you from externall obedience to the Decrees of the said Councels till another Councel thereupon equall to those shall reverse them Therefore by your own Doctrine you have put upon your selfe and Church a necessity of externall obedience to the said Decrees from which because you cannot otherwise be exempted how doth it concerne you and your Church of England too if indeed you desire to be freed from the obedience of those Decrees to use all meanes for the expediting and speedy calling of a Generall Councel to reverse the said Decrees And so much the rather now when you have made such Demonstrations against those said Decrees as being against Truth which therfore you cannot obey without offering manifest violence to your Conscience And if your Protestants of the Church of England shall aledge that these Errours Heresies Idolatries Sacriledges have been cryed down by one unanimous voyce of all Protestants and in particuler by the established Doctrines of the Church of England yet your Doctrine tells them still that being never yet reversed by a Generall Councel equall to those wherein they were Decreed and seeing that the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas are no true Churches for fault of Prelates And the Doctrines of the Church of England are declared to be doubtfull therfore your Doctrine stands in force still that externall obedience at least must be yeelded of all Otherwise it cannot stand with any Government as you tell us here But how stands it with Faith with Conscience with Scripture with the Apostle that a man is bound knowingly to obey an Errour in the Faith For the Apostle saith whatsoever is not of Faith is sinne that is whatsoever a man doth against his Conscience is sinne So as you hereby teach men directly to sinne against their Consciences and all to uphold the Credit of your Prelaticall Government and Decrees Thus the Church of England may see what an Oracle she hath got in the Chaire of Canterbury To the Fift A Generall Councell hath not power from Christ immediately to be Iudge in Controversies Imediately No nor mediately neither nor any way at all For it is denyed that your Generall Councel of Prelates are lawfull seeing all the members of the Councel are neither visible Iudges nor Vice-Roys appointed and allowed by Christ to Governe his Church as hath been proved Now if all the members of your Generalâ— Councel be of no Authority Divine then neither your Generall Councel it selfe with all the Decrees of it For there is â—he same reason of the whole and of all the Parts Christ then will not have his truth to receive Testimony much lesse subject his word to the Judgement of those who are usurping Tyrants and enemies of his word and especially since Antichrist hath prevailed Christ would not receive testimony from the Devils that they knew him No more doth he allow any of Sathans Ministers false Apostles to be Iudges in Controversies of Faith And you confesse A Generall Councel hath no power from Christ Immediately at least to be Iudge in Controversies Whence then hath your Generall Councels this power Thâ— Church say you prudently tooke it up from the example of the Apostles Acts 15. Prudently tooke it up Nay surely rather you craftily stole it You took it up where it was not layd down for you to take up and so to abuse But you have Prudently that is Politickly and presumptuously taken up that is usurped that power which was never given you nor yet by any Apostolicke Legacy left unto you seeing you are neither their hâ—ires nor successors nor Executors nor Administrators nor Assignes of the Apostles but in one word for all meere Usurpers Yea though by the Name of Church we should understand which you doe not the true Church of Christ successively after the Apostles in all Ages yet she hath learned another gates Prudence then to take up such an example from the Apostles as is neither warrantable for her to doe nor imitable For the Apostles aâ— they had their Immediate Calling from Christ so by him they were immediately inspired with the Holy Ghost so as then judgement in all matters of Faith was infallible But the succeeding beleevers had not the like fullnesse and abundant measure of the Spirit as to make them competent and sufficient Judges in matters of Faith on whose judgement men might infallibly rest their faith and settle their Conscience Yea it pleased the wisdome of Christ to give that fullnes of his Spirit to his Apostles that being thereby led into all Truth they might not onely preach that truth to that present age wherein they lived but also leave the same truth written to all succeeding Ages of the Church of Christ to be guided and directed by that Truth in the Scripture as the sole competent and every way sufficient and compleat Iudge in all controversies and matters of faith whatsoever Againe that particular Example of the Apostles Acts 15. was an A per se. It was a particular Act proper onely to that present occasion and not to be stretched to aftertimes when the Church should be settled For that very determination of the Apostles was but proskairos for that very season to compose some Differences arising between the Iews and Gentiles newly converted to Christianity And the Apostle Iames layes this for the ground of the Determination or Decree Moses saith he of old time hath in every City those that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Here is the occasion of this Assembly the mixture of the Iews living amongst the Gentiles And though the Gentiles converted were free from Jewish ordinances yet the Iews being offended at it and not yet strong enough in the faith and pressing the Gentile Christians with Circumcision hereupon the Assembly met and by the speciall and immediate assistance and
larger Commentary let him but read the words over againe To the Eighth I answere It is not in it selfe pride not to obey Councels Difinitions and much lesse when a man knows them to be erronious Nor is it against any Iust and Godly Government but onely against that which is Papall Antichristian Tyrannicall And is it not high and Antichristian pride to impose Difinitions of Generall Councels of Prelates yea even when they are erronious and known apparently to be so yet to be as Gods own holy Commandements necessarily obeyed of all This is the highest and most Diabolicall Tyranny in the world thus to bring into bondage the faith soule and conscience of men to a necessary subjection to errour and falshood Yea thus not to obey you call it also unlawfull Unlawfull By what Law Or what Law either of God or of any lawfull Authority of Man or of Civil state is here broken Are mens lufts a Law Or are your Prelaticall Councels any true Generall Councels Generall they may be in respect of Prelates but Generall they are not in respect of the true Catholicke Church of Christ the Body whereof is not represented in your Generall Councels as is shewed before No nor is your Generall Councel Generall in respect of the Catholicke Church whereof you call your selfe the representative body For the lay-people are not admitted into your Councel nor any to represent them therfore it is not Generall therfore not to obey the difinitions of it is it unlawfull And suppose the Councel were lawfull are the Decrees therof to be obeyed when erronious To the Ninth That Christ intended not to leave an Infallible certainty in his Church to satisfie either contentious or curious or presumptuous spirits Here is one thing expressed and another implyed the thing expressed is negative Christ intended not c. the thing implyed is affirmative That Christ intended to leave an Infallible certainty in his Church And sutable hereunto are your precedent words There is there can be no necessity of an infallible certainty in the whole Catholicke Church and much lesse in a Generall Councel of things not absolutely necessary in themselves Which words imply this Affirmative That there is a necessity of an infallible certainty in the whole Catholicke Church of things absolutely necessary in themselves So as here also it is all one as if you had said thus Christ intended to leave an infallible certainty in hiâ— Church but not to satisfie either contentious or curious or presumptuous spirits Oney you doe still in such things of this naâ—ure prudently avoyd the plainer and least deceitfull way of expressing your selfe Now what Christ intended he certainly performs and makes good But to that your Imaginary Catholicke Church Prelaticall I deny that Christ ever intended to leave an infallible certainty For to such he never made any such promise And therfore you cannot say and say truly That Christ intended that For you are no part of his true Church as having no calling from Christ as before is proved And you your selfe confesse in many places of your Booke that the Authority of your Church is not Divinely infallible And for instance you make your present Church Authority in inducing beliefe of Scripture to be Gods word to have a primâ— place in things absolutely necessary in themselves and yet you confesse that this Authority is not Divine and infallible So here is a Contradiction which I leave with you to reconcile Againe you tell us before that our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-books the Scripture visible Iudges to wit arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops And of such are made your Generall Councels Ergo of necessity Christ must intend to leave unto you an Infallible Certainty in judging Controversies of Faith For the Scripture you deny to be a compleat and sufficient Iudge in doubtfull cases and that in such cases the visible Iudges the Prelates in a Generall Councel are to determine Now if you have not certain infallibility of Judgement in what case is the Church Then it may be said as Bellarmine and other Jesuiâ—es say Christ hath provided very ill for his Church if he had not left a visible Iudge and withall a certaine infallibility unto him to determine controversies of Faith This he speakes of the Pope and upon the very same ground that you doe for all Prelates in a Generall Councel And the ground is that you and they both deny the Scripture to be sole Iudge in Controversies of Faith Well then what say you Doe you confesse this that you have this Infallible certainty If you say you have it not as you do and yet you will be the true Church of Christ then you bely Christ both here saying He intended to leave it and before in saying He hath left you to be visible Iudges For had he intended to leave such an Infallibility certain to such a Church as you speake of and to leave such to be visible Iudges as are Archbishops and Bishops then certainly he would have given you such an Infallible certainty as wherby you should have been qualified and furnished to be sufficient and competent Iudges whose Judgement should be such in matters of Faith as men might secretly and safely rely and rest their Faith upon For otherwise if you have not this Infallibility but that somtimes at least and that in weighty Controversies you might erre in Judgement then men should have no more ground whereon to settle their Faith then the Dove in the Deluge had to set her foot upon you have so covered the Scripture as with a Deluge of Criminations as to be no sufficient Judge in Controversies of Faith And you confesse ibid That a Generall Councel which is an Universall Assembly of Prelates and Grand Bench of visible Iudges is not of infallible credit but that they may erre yea and possibly manifestly too against fundamentall verity as pag. 226. So as if the Scripture be though Infalâ—ible yet not living but a dead Iudge that cannot speake or pronounce the sentence And if the Prelates the visible living Iudges have not infallible certainty nor a Generall Councel infallible credit in their Decrees you leave the Church in a most perplexed case Whither shall she goe in all her doubts To what Judge or Oracle for resolution To the Scriptures That 's dead and cannot say Mum· To a Generall Councel of Prelates That 's of no certain credit their Judgement is not infallible yea not in fundamentall Truths Alas poore Church what wilt thou doe What wilt thou doe Why surely beleeve none of all these false Prophets no not all of them together when assembled in a Generall Councel for they may and will miserably deceive and seduce you if you trust to their Judgement Whither then To the Scripture But it is dead say they They are false Prophets and blind guides beleeve them not follow them not Search the Scriptures as Christ bids you To the Law and
they shall interpret the same unto you And so I leave you to your faith wherein you declare your selfe to be quite from the true Catholicke Church of Christ whose Faith is built upon the onely foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ being the Chiefe corner stone without any depending upon humane testimony and Authority And so here an end of your Generall Councels But yet one thing remains unresolved on your part for you have told us that Generall Councels may erre even in fundamentall truths but whether at any time they doe actually so erre you resolve us not Nay in some places you make it so ambiguous whether they can erre or no that we know not what to make of it fish or flesh For pag. 223. you propound the Question saying whether a Generall Councel may erre or not is a Question of great consequence in the Church of Christ. To say it cannot erre leaves the Church not onely without remedy against an errour once determined but also without sense that it may need a remedy and so without care to seeke it which is the mystery of the Church of Rome at this day To say it can erre seems to expose the members of the Church to an uncertainty and wavering in the Faith to make unquiet spirits not onely to disrespect former Councels of the Church but also to slight and contemn whatsoever it may now determine into which errour some opposes of the Church of Rome have fallen Thus you Now this Question of so great consequence and that in utramque partem on both sides pro con you seem in your last words here to resolve and determine as if to say it can erre were an errour into which some opposers of the Church of Rome have fallen Now the Church of Rome hath had many opposes many Protestant Learned and Judicicious Divines of former times in the Church of England who have clearly proved that Generall Councels can erre as we have shewed before Now then do you prove they erred in so saying Or which is all one how do you prove that a Generall Councel cannot erre For if it be an errour to hold they can erre 't is no errour in you to hold they cannot erre Thus I find you fast upon the hooks get off and quit your selfe as well as you can But pag. 239 you distinguish which in summe is That all those Popish Authors alledged by Bellarmine for Generall Councels not erring either speake of the Church including the Apostles as all of them doe and then all grant the voyce of the Church is Gods voyce and infallible Or also they are Generall unlimited and appliable to private Assemblies as well as Generall Councels which none grant to be infallible but some madde Enthusiasts Or else they are limited not simply into all truth but all necessary to salvation In which I shall easily grant a Generall Councel cannot erre suffering it selfe to be led by this spirit of Truth in the Scripture and not taking upon it to load both the Scripture and the spirit Thus there Now here I would aske the most perspications and Judicious Reader that reads these lines and ponders them well'-what certain conclusions or resolutions he can picke or deduce out of your words either for Infallibility or not First That all grant The voyce of the Church is Gods voyce divine and infallible if you speake of the Church including the Apostels Whence your conclusion should be this That Generall Councels being the Church representative are infallible their voyce is Gods voyce divine and infallible understanding the Church whereof they are the Representative to include the Apostels Ergo by vertue of the Apostles understood to be included in the Church wherof Gen. Councels are the Representative their voyce is Gods voyce divine and infallible and so can not erre in any age unto the end of the world still understanding that in the name of the Church the Apostles are included can any rationable man or reasonable creature make hereof any other conclusion Secondly In all truth necessary to salvation you easily grant a Generall Councel cannot erre suffering it selfe to be led by the spirit of Truth in the Scripture This is just as Arminius said in answere to that place in Iohn for the certaine Perseverance of Gods Saints Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sinne for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sinne because he is borne of God Now how doth that Heretick avoyd so cleare a Testimony and evidence That is saith he so long as the seed of God remaineth in him but it may depart But the Apostle gives this as a reason why the Saints cannot fall away Because seed of God abideth in them being Regenerate Ergo it ever abideth in them and therfore they cannot fall away And as he so you here A Generall Councel is infallible while it suffers it selfe to be led by the spirit of Truth in the Scripture As if you said A Generall Councel while it doth not erre it doth not erre but in that iâ— infalliblepunc as you told us before But what if a Generall Councel doe not suffer it selfe to be led by the spirit of Truth in the Scripture That is what if a Generall Councel have not this spirit of Truth in it to keep it that it suffer it selfe to be led by the spirit of Truth in the Scripture What is your Resolution here you leave us still upon uncertainties concerning Generall Councels infallibility And you seem to grant that a Generall Councel may take upon it to lead both the Scripture and the spirit O miserable perplexities of a man whose spirit itcheth to speak somthing which he dare not But tell us ingeniously and plainly if there be any ingenuity in you Hath a Generall Councel this spirit of Truth in the Scripture alwaies to make it Infallible in all necessary Truths or not That 's the point But this you doe not dare not grant Yet thus much you are bold to say That the Assistance of the Holy Ghost is without Errour That 's no Question and as little there is that a Councel hath it How Is there as little Question to be made that a Councel of Prelates hath the Assistance of the Holy Ghost as That the Assistance of the Holy Ghost is without errour No more Question I Question whether a Generall Councel have the Assistance of the Holy Ghost will you therfore as well question whether the Assistance of the Holy Ghost is without errour Nay I am so farre from making question that I am confident and that upon cleare evidence that your Generall Councels of later times especially under Antichrist neither have had â—or have beene capable of the Assistance of the Holy Ghost to preserve them from errour For they have been still assembled against Christ and his Truth and the true Church and Children of God and either for the decreeing of wicked errours in in Faith or
the end of the world Whereas by saying Peter represented the Person of the Church you must meane that the Church is wholly contained in the Ministers For you usually call your Clergy the Church as if you had no Church but that whereas the Congregation or society of all the Faithfull is the Church of God as is shewed before So as in no respect did Peter receive the Keys in the person of your Priest and Prelaticall Church L. p 258. Where 't is said That Christ makes to himselfe a Church without spot or wrinckle Eph. 5. That is not understâ—â—d of the Church Militant but of the Church Tryumphant And to maintain the contrary is a brand of the spreading Heresie of Pelagianisme P. That speech of the Apostle includes as well the truâ— Church Militant as the Tryumphant both which containe and consist of all the Elâ—ct onely And these Elect that in the Church Militant live by Faith though they have enoikouâ—an kì euperÃstton aâ—mratÃan as the Apostle saith sinne dwelling in them and easily besetting them yet they are in Gods sight through Faith in Christs blood that fountaine set open for Israel washed from all the spotâ— of sinne being in Christs imputed Righteousnesse and holynesse presented and accepted in Gods sight as most pure without spot or wrinkle As the the Apostle Iohn saith The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sinne And Christ saith to his Spouse his Church Militant Thou art all faire my Love there is no spot in thee Concerning that place which you cite out of Augustine where he saith The whole Church prayeth forgive us our debts 'T is true speaking there of the visible Church quae in toto terrarum orbe clamat ad deum which over all the earth crys to God And if he meane it of the Elect onely which are the onely true Spouse of Christ in all the world their praying forgive us our debts hinders not nor interrupteth their perpetuall purity in Gods sight notwithstanding For we may be and are through faith in Christ accepted for pure in Gods eyes when in our own eyes through sin and manifold corruptions still dwelling but not raigning in us we are impure And therfore we pray forgive us our debts because we have dayly failings and infirmities whereof our Consciences accuse us and the confession of them with deprecation is a meanes to have that stain and guilt cleaving to our Conscience and corrupt nature wiped off Faith still renewing the application of Christs merits as a Balme to heale our wounds and to assure us that our sinnes are blotted out in his blood For as Iohn saith If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnes Now as for the Pelagians One of their errours was in Arrogating purity to their own sect and that they had no Originall sinne but that they were Justi by a selfe-Righteousnesse calling those of their own sect Justi Righteous as Augustine tells us But where you name the spreading Heresie of the Pelagians I know none to whom that is more beholden then to him your selfe I meane who hath given it a footing and rooting too in the Articles of the Doctrines of the Church of England and under whom it hath shot forth its branches both in height and breadth that it dare both overtop and overdrop the Truth without controule But I had almost forgot one thing and that is this you allow not Purity in your Church Militant in this life If therfore there be not a full purgation of the Church and her Children here in this world where will you have her purged Purged she must be and that thorowly that she be without spot or wrinkle before she come into heaven For in thither no unclean thing entâ—eth Me thinks then I smell here the smoke of some Purgatory fire after this life which must purge away all the reliques of sins spots And upon this very ground that you goe on it is that the Papists have very prudently as in a case of necessity devised their Purgatory to cleanse all after this life seeing here they say there is no Perfection of Purity But perhaps you thought not of this consequence when you writ those words That the Church Militant is not without spot or wrinkle But so how will you avoyd the consequence of Purgatory So as while you pretend to avoyd the Pelagian Rocke you fall into the Roman fiery Phlegetom or Purgatory-Gulfe According to the old Proverbe Incidit in Scyllam dum vuâ—t vitare Charâ—â—â—in But you seem afterwards not to allow of Purgatory telling some stories of it but bringing not one Argument from Scripture against it as That the blood of Christ doth cleanse a true beleever from all sinne in this life and the like But hereof in its place Againe In saying That Christ doth not make the Church Militant in this life to be without spot or wrinkle you doe 〈◊〉 overthrow that Article of Faith I beleeve the holy Catholicke Church Now doth not the holy Catholicke Church 〈…〉 Church Militant Is not the Church Militant 〈…〉 if holy is it not then without spot or wrinkle 〈…〉 But this is no Article of your Faith because your Catholicke Church is not thus holy without spot or wrinkle L. p. 275. In and by the Councel of Trent the Pope 〈…〉 of Saints and Adoration of Images to the 〈…〉 of Christianity and as great hazzard of the weake P. What no more but so First In the Councel â—f 〈…〉 the Pope teach no more but these two And these two he could teach long before the Councel of Trent There they had the Pâ—pâ— confirmation but not their Christendome But you tell us not â— word in all your Booke of the Popes teaching of 〈…〉 mans works and merits and of his Anathematizing of 〈…〉 by Faith onely which the Scripture teacheth Nor a 〈…〉 teaching the Masse to be a Propitiatory sacrifice for 〈…〉 quicke and dead Nor how he teacheth a New order of sacriâ—â—â—cing Priests Nor That Originall sinne is no sinne saying Although the Apostle define it to be sinne yet the holy Councel of Trent decreeth it not to have the nature of sinne And all these and many more such the Pope teacheth in the Councel of Trent Secondly Are Invocation of Saints and Adoration of Images no more but a great hazzard to the weake Are they not so also to the strong while they make the strongest to stoope to them and therfore so much the more hazardous Except you meane that to the strong they are damnable not onely dangerous But is plaine Idolatry in both these both adoration of Images and Invocaâ—iâ—n of Saints onely hazardous to the weake Is not Idolatry damnable Nay is it not damnation to Idolaters Doth it not shut them out of heaven For no Idolaters shall inherit the Kingdome of God Know ye it not saith the Apostle
Church of Rome and of the Church of England And that the greatest too And I am perswaded the Church of England since it professed the Gospell never had such a monstrous and Bayeyard-like bold misleader as this Great worth of Canterbury hath proved to be or will certainly proove in effect if it find as blind Disciples to deale witthall as it selfe is a Master Although it is much hoped that if any Man hath conceived such an high Opinion of your worth as to account you for the most Profound Divine the most Pregnant Politician and the most potent Champion of the Church of England the very Reading of this your Book with a corrected judgement will either convert him from this errour or at least prevent that this errour of your Doctorship shall not Commence or Proceed to the degree of Heresie L. p. 303. 'T is safest to beleeue the Article of Christs Descent into hell as both the Churches of England and of Rome do agree upon that is That he descended into the place of the damned And this is the truth P. Surely if this be the truth that Christ descended locally into hell the place of the damned it were safest to beleeve it whether you and Rome consent in the beliefe of it or no. But because you beleeve as the Church of Rome beleeves will you thereupon conclude This is the truth Certainly we have the more cause to suspect that truth for a falshood wherein you and Rome doe both agree But how true your beliefe with Rome is and how true this Truth we have before sufficiently discovered But will this hold for a good Rule that in what you and Rome agree it is safest to beleeve it You agree in Altars Priests Sacrifice all manner of wil-worship Antichristianisme and many things more forespecified Ergo is 't safest to beleeve these things Or for whom safest safest for all those that affect to be of your Church Tryumphant here and would not come under your persecution But how agrees this with that which you adde ibid. that Rome will not indure this that Christ descended into the place of the damned but onely in Limbum Patrum a Region in the upper part of Hell Ergo rather then faile if Rome will not beleeve as you doe That Christ discended into the place of the damned you will beleeve as she beleeves that he dâ—scended in Limbum Patrum For agree you must and that 's the safest beliefe L. p. 307. I my selfe have heard some Iesuites confesse that in the Liturgie of the Church of England ther 's no positive errour P. 'T is a signe then your Liturgie agrees pretty well with the Romish Messal as is noted by the way before For surely such a Testimony from a Jesuites mouth gives us the more cause of suspicion that all is not so well in your Liturgie as it should be As Diogenes sayd when the people applauded him he began to suspect himselfe that he had committed some absurdity or other saying Wherein have I miscarryed my selfe that this people doth so commend me L. p. 318. Though Dr. White late Bishop of Ely was more able to answere for himselfe yet since he is now dead and is thus drawn into this Discourse I shall as well as I can doe him the right which his learning and paines for the Church deserved And I grant as well as he that there must be some one Church or other continually visible P. First for Dr. White he being now dead which he was long before I will say no more but this For his deserving pains for the Church the Church of England you meane as now it stands the same Church with that of Rome and of the same Faith with her and of which Faith he also declared himselfe to be when he told a Minister that the Difference between the Church of Rome and of England in the Doctrines of the sixt Session of Trent and by name of Grace and Justification was little or nothing how great it was his Works extant can witnesse as namely his Approbation prefixed to your now Brother of Chichester his Appeale to Caesar wherein is maintained the whole Body of your Arminian Heresie together in all or most of the grossest points of Popery as worship of Images at least with Doulia and the like and assaying to prove the Pope not to be Antichrist as if he would solem è coelo tollere also Dr. Whites Book of the Sabbath to prove no Sabbath to Christians and the fourth Commandement not to be Morall for the keeping of one day in the weeke as the Lords Day allowing also of vaine sports and profane pastimes on that Day and commending of praying towards the East where your Altar is placed and such like stuffe in all which he so well deserved of your Church of England as he scarce had his fellow onely if he were now living againe he would yeeld the Bucklers to your Lordship as the bravest Champion of the now Chuch of England that hath risen up in this latter Age or yet succeeding times may hope to produce But let us now heare the right which your Lordship does him and which his paines for the Church deserved But first let me tell you you forget here to give him his Title of Lord Bishop which you indeed gave him in the very first page of your Booke But now his Lordship is dead let not Lord and Bishop be separated in any case no not by death it selfe For indeed Lord-Bishop is a peculiar Title differencing you from all true Bishops indeed as the Scripture commendeth for the onely Bishops as is shewed before yet I know not how it is come to passe that in the best Reformed Churches beyound the Seas the Pastors are never called Bishops I suppose it is because as Kings of old were stiled Tyranni and that in meliorâ—m partem untill degenerating into Lawlesse Tyrants indeed good Kings would thereupon never after be called Tiranni but Kings so the Reformed Churches seeing how the name of Bishop grâ—w to be odious the Office and Calling of it being changed 〈◊〉 that of a Parochiall Pastor into a Diocesan Lordship and so 〈◊〉 have for this cause layd aside the Name of Bishop though otherwise the Name is good as it pertaines to the true 〈◊〉 and Presbyters over particular Congregations as is before shâ—wed so as the Reformed Churches doe herein as the Ancient Romans did who when their Kings turned Tyrants the lâ—st wheâ—of was Tarquinius surnamed Superâ—us for his extreme 〈◊〉 they for ever banished both the name of Kings and 〈◊〉 out of their Commonweale But let us see how you recompense the omission of this Lordly Title in this place to such a well deserving man You adde And I grant as well as he that there 〈◊〉 be some one Church or other continually visible Aâ— well aâ— he This then may seem to be some recompense by way of honour and 〈◊〉 some doing of him Right for indeed his main
that day or any other day but admonishing Christians to abhore them as Heathenish and is this the faith and practise of the present Church of England at this day wherein you resolve to live and dye Fourthly The Apostles and ancient Primitive Church in their dayes taught held and professed all chose excellent saving Doctrines of Election Predestination Redemption of the Elect their Effectuall vocation and conversation by Gods saving and Omnipotent Grace their assurance of Salvation by Faith and their certaine perseverance in Grace unto Glory and none of these Doctrines were forbid to Ministers to be preached but they were commanded of God to declare the whole Councel of God to his people Is this your faith and practise of the Church of England wherein you resolve to live and dye Fiftly The Apostles and the ancient Primitive Church in their dayes taught professed and practised that Discipline which was according to Christ forbidding all wâ—ll-worship and imposition of humane Ordinances as snares upon mens Consciences whereby that Christian liberty is overthrowne which Christ purchased for his people with his own blood Is this the Faith which you and the present Church of England professeth and practiseth and wherein you resolve to live and dye Sixtly The Apostles and the ancient Primitive Church in their time condemned the forbidding of Marriage and of Meates as a Doctrine of Devils taught by seducing spâ—riâ—s and a departing from the faith of Christ Is this that faith and Religion which you and the present Church of England hold professe and practise and wherein you resolve to live and dye O ye Prelates O thou Church of England blush and be ashamed of that Faith Profession and Practise of yours so 〈◊〉 contrary to that Faith which the holy Apostles taught and that pure and Primitive Church in their times imbraced and professed and be not so desperately bent as being so clearly convinced of these thy foule practises to professe and vow notwithstanding to live and dye in them least herein your condition prove as it must doe infinitly more desperate and damnable then that of the Jesuites themselves whose knowledge by your own confession of their wicked and damnable Fâ—â—ours with their obstinate persisting in them and resâ—sting the truth yea even the Holy Ghosts Testimony therein leaves them as without excuse so without all hope of salvation as to whom nothing remaines as the Apostle upon the like occasion saith but a fearefull expectation of Iudgement and of fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries L. p. 338. Yea but he saith againe That I acknowledge there is but one Saving Faith and that the Lady might be saved in the Roman Faith which was all the Iesuite tooke upon his soule Why but iâ— this be all I will confesse it againe The first that there is but one Faith I confesse with St. Paul Eph. 4. And the other That the Lady might be saved in the Roman faith or Church I confesse with that Charity which St. Paul teacheth me namely to leave all men especially the weaker sex and sort which hold the foundation to stand or fall to their own Master Rom. 14.4 And this is no mistaken Charity P. This you confesse that as there is but one saving faith so this faith is in the Church of Rome as in and by which the Lady may be saved And of this one faith with the Church of Rome you and your Church of England are if you hope to be saved with Rome by her saving faith This is the All and summe of your Confession Now we have clearly proved before that the faith of the Church of Rome is not that one saving faith of Gods Saints and Elect which the Scripture every where speaks of For first Romes faith is in its kind and nature and that by their own confession a dead faith but the saving faith is a living faith Secondly they confesse that with their faith they may goe to hell as they say of their Fidâ—les Fornicarii Adulteri c. therfore Romes faith is no saving faith for the saving faith is so called because it effectually perfectly and certainly saveth all those that have it as Christ saith Joh. 5.24 Thirdly The Romish â—aith is a doubting wavering uncertaine faith or raâ—her opinionâ— and wan hope as the Councel of Trent defineth accuâ—sing certainâ—y of beleeving whereas the saving faith is a certainâ— assurance and cleare evidence a plerophoria as Heb 10.22 Rom. 4 21.â— a full assurance or perswasiâ—n in the truth of beleeving though not in fullnesse of degrees of perfection in all and at all times the operation of it being many times hindered by corruptions and infirmities of the flesh and manifold temptations Fourthly Romes faith is and may be without hope and charity but true saving faith is never without hope and charity for it is the sure foundation of things hoped for and it worketh by Love Fifty The Roman faith is not the Iustifying faith for the Councel of Trent saith Faith justifieth not till Hope and Charity come to it and then all 3 together and that as inherent Graces and works in us do justifie whereas true saving faith is therfore called the Iustifying faith because it is that onely Grace whereby as an Instrument applying Christ and his righteousnesse and not as works in us the beleeving sinner is justified Rom. 3.28 so as though this saving justifying faith be never without hope and charity no more then fire is without light and heat yet hope and charity have no hand at all with faith in justification so as not even faith it selfe as it is a Grace inherent with hope and charity doth justifie but onely as it is considered as a hand or instrument applying Christ as before But the Roman Faith as the Councel of Trent confesseth justifieth not as an instrument or hand applying Christ whereby his Righteousnesse is of God imputed to the beleever which Imputation the Councel in plain termes accurseth but onely as a Grace and worke inherent with hope and charity Sixtly saving faith is not onely a justifying faith whereby we stand righteous in Gods sight having Christs Righteousnesse imputed but also a sanctifying faith as Act. 26.18 called therfore a holy Faith Jude 20. as wherby a man is regenerate borne againe made a member of Christ and partaker of his Spirit and lives and dyes in holinesse but the Roman Faith doth not sanctifie for they confesse that wicked ungodly and profane persons may have it and goe to hell with it as before Lastly saving and justifying faith is a spirituall worke and gift of Grace wrought in the soule by the spirit of God and it is his sole worke without the concurrence or mans Will which is not free untill Grace hath given it both life and freedome but the Roman Faith is confessed by them in the Councel of Trent not to be a meere worke of Grace nor at all of sanctifying and saving Grace
in the first act of beleeving but after the Will of man is but a little stirred and moved by a certaine Grace which they call the first Grace which they confesse not to be the saving and sanctifying Grace then thereupon they have the merit of Congruity to receive the second Grace whereby hope and charity come to be added to faith And this is the expresse Doctrine of Trent The Conclusion then is That neither the Lady nor any Papist living and dying in the Roman Faith nor your selfe nor any in the Church of England that hold and professe no other Faith then the Roman Faith can possibly be saved living and dying in that Faith and though you tell us againe with great confidence as a most certaine Truth that it is no mistaken Charity to grant a 〈◊〉 of salvation to a Papist living and dying in the Roman Faith yet we have so discovered this your Charity before as I Hope your Charity wil be no more so mistaken Onely here I must tell you withall that as you either wilfully or most ignorantly and 〈◊〉 rather mistake that one saving faith of the Apostle so doe you also that Charity which you say he teacheth you Doth the Apostle teach you such a Charity as teacheth you to beleeve and affirme that which is contrary to the cleare Truth of the Scripture is it your Charity to attribute a saving faith to the Church of Rome which without all Charity accurseth the onely true faith and the truly faithfull of Iesus Christ which professe that onely saving faith Whereas you must know that Charity which the Apostle there teacheth Rom. 14.4 alledged by you is in judgeing Charitably of your Brethren in the use of things indifferent For there the Apostle speaks of eating or not eating of observing a day or not observing whereupon he inferreth Who art thou that judgest anothers servant To his own Master he standeth or falleth so as in such cases Christians must judge Charitably and not rashly censure others that do not as themselves doe in things simply indifferent This is then the Charity which there the Apostle teacheth But have you learned this Charity of the Apostle You tell us This Charity the Apostle teacheth me The Apostle teacheth you true Charity but it doth not thereupon follow that you have learned that Charity of the Apostle Doe you deale so with your Brethren in the use of things indifferent as not to judge them this way or that way in the using or not using of them Doe you leave them to their own Master Christ to stand or fall Nay do you not cause them necessarily to fall by the stumbling blocks of your Ceremonies which you say are things indifferent and yet you impose such a necessity upon the observation of them as they altogether cease to be indifferent and become a yâ—ake of bondage to the People of God And if they be so strong that they will not thus fall down to your Ceremonies no more then the 3 Children would to the Kings Image what then What Charity use you then towards them Doe you leave them to their own Master to stand or fall Not such thing But you take upon you to be ther Master and Lord and to be their Judge and to Judge them while sitting in your High Commission Chaire you convent them censure them as by Suspâ—nding Silencing Depriving Degrading Dispossessing or Fining Imprisoning undoing of their wives and children and without all hope of remedy or mercy from you till they shall acknowledge the Justice yea and perhaps the Clemencie of your Court in dealling so mercifully with them This This is that Charity which you have learned and which you dayly put in practise so as in this kind never any was more zealously and fervently Charitable then your selfe But this Charity you never learned of the Apostles nor did he or Christ or any of the Apostles ever teach you any such Charity No sure This wisdome This Charity of yours as Iames speakes cometh not from above but is Earthly sensuall and Divelih If you have no other Charity but this the Lord deliver us from your Charity And so I leave you to your mistaken Charity Onely for Conclusion hereof Immediately before you tell us you will dye as you live in that faith professed in the Church of Engdand Here you say Rome holds the same faith Ergo as you live so you will dye in the Roman faith And secondly Ergo The Faith of the Church of England and of Rome is one and the same Faith as before you tell us they are one and the same Church and at after as pag. 3â—7 they are of one and the same Religion not different Thus you have made a fine Confusion and this you meane to make your finall Conclusion Such is your Faith such your Religion such your Charity all mistaken The foulest and fearefullest mistaken that ever any man was overtaken with L. p. 339. The truth is you doe hold new Devises of your own which the Primitive Church was never acquainted with And some of those so farre from being conformable as that they are little lesse then contradictory to Scripture P. And is it not as true that in holding new devises which the the Primitive Church of which we spake but now was never acquainted with you may shake hands with Rome and her Jesuites who may therfore retort upon you that of the Poet Parcius ista viris tamen objicienda memento Novimus et qui te Be sparing such things to us to object Who know the like do on your selfe reflect And we have shewed before how both Romes new devises and yours for they are all one and the same are not onely as you still mince the matter little lesse then contradictory to Scripture but doe directly overthrow the cleare and evident truth 〈…〉 and that also even in fundamentalls And what say you to Romes new-old devise of worshiping Images to instance in no more though I might in many yea in all Romes Popish Doctrines as Popish as before is it but little lesse then contradictory to Scripture Doth not the Scripture say Thou shalt not worship any graven Image And what saith Rome I pray you Or if you or she for modesty sake will not tell us or if she dare not say in plain and expresse termes and in form of a Precept Thou shalt worship Images yet aske her whorish practises and her pretty devises wherewith she allures her children to the adoration of them and that even to dotage as by promising them preâ—ty lakons and new-nothings as pardon of sins for so many yeares for praying so many Avies and Pater nosters before such a 〈◊〉 or Image is not this Equipollent to a Commandement yea their very setting up and adâ—ring these their gaâ— Gods in their Churches the place of worship is it not an inviting and silent whispering in the Peoples eares worship and fall down before these sacred Images and Reliques giving them
And Virgil also a heathen Roman Poet did afterwards take and borrow this from Plato expressing it in his Aeneads And so from these two might Origen borrow his Purgatory and the Church of Rome from them all three might out of this lake of Plato or Pluto if you will borrow so much Bitumen or Pitchy matter and so casting into it the stone Asbestos which being once kindled is not quenched againe it became the hot-burning lake of Purgatory as namely for the purging of Indifferent men such as are neither hot nor cold neither Beleevers nor Infidels neither Christians nor Heathen neither good fish nor flesh Indifferent between Papists and Protestants halfe for Christ and halfe or rather All for Belial Reconcilers of light and darknesse of Truth and Errour or as the Papists say such as had onely veniall sinnes not throughly purged with holy-water in this life and therfore must be purged with fire what water could not doe untill after a Venal Masse chanted for their soules they should be delivered and so passe the Pikes into the Elâ—sian Fields And this is both Authority and Antiquity sufficient for your Purgatory though you bestow much sweat in this hot Stove and in pursuing this Ignis fatuus yet haply it may purge youâ— Reputation of that venial opinion which men have of you L. p. 375. Rome but with all other particular Churches and no more then other Patriarchall Churches was and is radix existentiae the root of the Churches existence And The uniâ—ersall Nature and Beeing of the Church hath no actuall â—xistence in all her particulars And this I say for her existence onely not the purity or forme of her existence which is not here considered P. These words confirm what you have said before of your Catholicke Church consisting of particular Patriarchall Prelaticall or Hierarchicall Churches throughout the world all of them visible and conspicuous in these it existeth as in the root this existence may be without the consideration of purity as a Church may be a true Church of Christ and yet not be holy Having then answered these things before it is sufficient for this And this still confirmes what I have said of Christs true and onely holy Catholick Church which is a matter of faith in the Creed This true and onely holy Catholick Militant Church of Christ hath for its prime Radix or Root Christ in whom it existetth subsisteth and hath its beeing Then it is diffused into all the members of Christs mysticall body all the Elect over the world or in any corner thereof to the end of the world and hath no existence at all in the Hierarchy or Prelacie or in any one visible Church or particular place or Countrey but it lyes hid as the sappe in the root in all the Persons of the Elect onely and the substance and life thereof is hid with Christ in God the Prime root And the existence of this Catholicke Church cannot be considered possibly without Purity and Holinesse for it exists no where but in purity and holynesse so as every person is holy in whom it existeth And so much for this L. p. 370 371. But if she be not the Catholicke nor the root of the Catholicke Church yet Apostolick I hope she is Indeed Apostolicke she is as being the sea of one and he a Prime Apostle But then not Apostolicke as the Church is called in the Creed from the Apostles no nor the onely Apostolicke Visible I may not deny God hath hitherto preserved her but for a better end doubtlesse then they turne it to The Church of Rome indeed Apostolicke Why so As being the sea of one and he a prime Apostle That was Peter you mean sure He was a Prime Apostle though not the Prime 〈◊〉 somtimes Iames is placed before him Gal. 2.9 And Paul was no whit inferiour to those 3. Iames Peter and Iohn who were Pillars and seemed to be somwhat And in this respect may you not possibly meane Paul rather then Peter for Paul we are sure was in Rome and there preached though in prison But we read no where in Scripture that Peter was at Rome much lesse that he sate there Bishop of Rome and so fixed his Chaire there If therfore you mean Peter and pitch upon him though the Popes are faine to use somtimes two strings to their bow and to challenge their succession both from Peter and Paul and some stories speake both of Peter and Paul as Bishops there I say if you pitch upon Peter how doe you prove that Peter was at Rome and if at Rome whether Bishop there and if a Bishop there why consequently must that Sea be still Apostolicke seeing non sedes sed fides not the seat but the Faith makes Apostolicke But there be many reasons and arguments from Scripture some that Peter was not at Rome others and those more demonstrative that he was never Bishop of Rome as Pontifex or Prelate such a Bishop as you meane I have seen a Booke Printed in English by Authority which proveth that Peter was never at Rome And this he doth by computing and comparing the times and other Circumstances in the Acts and Pauls Epistles with those Histories which say he was there and Bishop there which stories neither agree with the Scripture nor with themselves nor with other Histories profane And if Peter were at Rome how cometh it that Paul being there doth not in all his Epistles make mention of him Was Peter either so obscure as Paul should not know him to be at Rome Or so proud of his new Prelacie as not to acknowledge his fellow Apostle now a Prisoner Or what was it that Paul doth not so much as mention him Because Peter being for the Circumcision should a'llotrtoepiskopoin take Pauls Bishoprick over his head who was for the Uncircumcision whereof Rome was the Metopolis Or had Peter with Demas forsaken Paul imbracing this present world in a Lordly Bishopricke But let it be given you that Peter was at Rome and Lord Bishop of Rome what then Ergo is the Church of Rome indeed Apostolicke Did Peter leave his Apostolick Bishopricke by an Intayle â—o all his successors in Rome Are â—hey Apostolicke when they are become Apostates from the faith Alas alas your words utter your spirit but no truth Onely one thing you deliver as doubtlesse where you say Visible I may not deny God hath hitherto preserved her but for a better end doubtlesse then they turne it to Visible Ergo the Pope is Peters successor Ergo the sea of Rome is indeed Apostolicke Ergo a true Church of Christ. For visible it is It is indeed that visible and conspicuous City on its seven tops or hils whereon it stood in Iohns time and now that Woman that sits and rides mounted on her seven-headed ten-horned Beast Visible with a witnesse otherwise all her pompe would loose the Grace if it wanted spectators as her Scarlet and Purple and Pearle and
Precious stones metà polles phantasÃas with her great pompe Visible no question and so visible and sensible too as otherwise we could not know her to be the Great Whore Thus she was shewed first to Iohn in a visible representation by which we also come to know her to be the same Woman when we doe but looke upon her Well visible we all grant her to be What more God hath hitherto preserved her That 's true too For even the wickedest men upon earth and the most Tyrannicall states that they are for a time yea and a long time too preserved in life and doe prosper also they owe it to God But to what end are the wicked preserved Their finall end is destruction to which they are râ—served as Peter speaks and Paul too Cain and his Posterity whose Family was a type of Antichrists succession continued and were preserved and grew great for almost two thousand yeares till at last the Flood swept them all away But of Rome you have better hopes doubtlesse For you say God hath preserved her for a better end doubtlesse then they have turned it to Now doubtlesse I will shew you what that better is for which God hath hitherto preserved that Woman which hath been made drunke with the blood of the Saints Whom saith the Apostle the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightnesse of his coming And Rev. 14.8 Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City because she made all Nations drinke of the wine of the wrath of her fornication And Rev. 18. read the whole Chapâ—er of Romes ruine Yea and all that partake with Rome shall drinke of the wine of the wrath of God c. Rev. 14 9 10. What the Scripture hath spoken of Romes fall would fill a Volume And is not this the best end that God is pleased to preserve her for when he shal be glorified in executing his justice and judgements upon her for all her abominations and for all the blood of his Saints which she hath shed And in her confusion God will magnifie and exalt the Honour and Kingdome of Iesus Christ which thaâ— Woman and her Crew had oppressed and the Saints shall tryumph over her Yea saith the Lord Rejoyce over her thou heaven and the holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her And Chap. 19.1 2. I heard saith Iohn a great voyce of much people in heaven that is in the true Church of Christ saying Alleluja salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God For true and righteous are his Iudgements for he hath judged the great Whore which did corrupt the Earth with her fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand Behold here for what a glorious end the Lord hath preserved that Great Whore But it seemeth you do not mean to make one of that Company either to sing Alleluja or to say Amen when the Lord shal be magnified in that day For you hope doubtlesse for better then all this And so I am perswaded you have the like hopes that God hath preserved and prospered you thus long for no lesse then to be after scores of yeares in a flourishing estate here Canonized for a Saint in heaven for all the blood of the Saints both of their soules and bodies which you have shed Wherein you may have as much hope for your selfe as for old Mother Rome and all one But I leave you to the Righteous Judge who knows how and when to glorify himselfe as well upon the wicked his enemies by destruction as in his own Saints and servants by deliverance Here is the Patience of the Saints L. p. 375. Truly I say the same thing with him Neither may a Protestant that is resolved in Conscience that the profession of the true faith is in the Church of England goe to the Romish Church there and in that manner to serve and worship God P. Thus you jumpe with the Jesuite in this that as he saith 'T is not lawfull for one affected as the Lady was that is for one that is resolved of the truth of the Roman Church to goe to the Church of England there and in that manner to serve and worship God so c. Why will you let the Jesuite run away with it so Do you not know that the Law of England injoynes all Papists under penalty to come to your Church Now doth the Law injoyne that which in it selfe is unlawfull for a man to doe that is otherwise resolved in Conscience Nor is this Law repeald though as before it be a â—leep and grown justly in the sheath Now reconcile these two And what say you then in the Case of Conscience touching your Ceremonies There be some Ceremonies which the Law prescribes to be observed in your Church Now a poore soule is not in Conscience perswaded that he ought to conforme to such Ceremonies of necessity imposed as being agâ—inst Christian â—â—â—erty and Christs Prerogative royall in being sole King over his Church ruling in the Conscience of his People Well you say in this case such a man is bound against his Conscience to observe such Ceremonies And if he be not bound why doe you so severely and terribly punish him for not daring to doe that which is against his Conscience Wheras the Papist otherwise resolved in Conscience you hold not bound to come to your English Church And so of your Protestant for going to the Romish Church being against his Conscience Will you not allow to the Conscience of the first as good Law as you doe to the two last Againe you allow a greater and larger liberty of Conscience to your Protestant to go to the Romish Church then the Jesuite doth to his Romanist to come to your English Church For he allows not his Romanist to come to your English Church that is resolved in Conscience of the truth of the Roman Church that it is a true Church and that the truth is there whereas you doe not allow your Protestant to goe to the Romish Church that is onely resolved in Conscience that the profession of the truth is in the Church of England Now there is great difference between the truth and the profession of the truth So as he that is resoled in Conscience that the truth is onely professed in the Church of England and is not withall resolved that the truth it selfe is in the Church of England may with more liberty goe to the Romish Church then the Romanist may come to yours that is resolved of the truth of and in the Romish Church So as herein also the Jesuite hath the advantage of you Againe if the Jesuite did meane by the truth of the Roman Church the profession of the truth in that Church he therein comes no whit behind you For the Church of Rome as well makes a false profession of the truth as your Prelaticall Church
professed in the Church of England is nearest of any Church now in Beeing to the Primitive Church Therfore not a Religion known to be false And thus I both doe and can prove were not the deafnesse of the Aspe upon the eares of seduced Christians in all humane and divided Parties whatsoever P. You doe wisely to put it to the judgement of the indifferent Reader who unlesse he be a most indifferent man between your Church of England and that of Rome and so undifferent from you both in judgement and affection to whom this which you say shall appeare to be true For no such thing can appeare to any Reader that is not so affected as to beleeve your bare word so soon as ever it sounds in his eare or whose eyes doe not looke through the false glasse of your Perspective Indeed you have proved to all men sufficiently both by this your Discourse and by your Practises that you and Rome do not set up a different Religion We all beleeve it And consequently we beleeve that herein you come full as neare to the Primitive Church as Rome doth alwayes excepted Romes lineall Pedegree from Peter and you know you are a Degree once removed And how neare you both come to the Primitive Church of the Apostles especially the primest and purest we have before shewed sufficiently And if you come nearest who I pray you are furthest off Surely the most pious the most religious the most zealous the most painfull and faithfull preachers of the Gospel the greatest contemners of the world the most humble and meeke the most patient in suffering persecution for the truth the most pure and precise in their life and conversation the most exact conformist to the onely Rule of Faith and true Religion the word of God such as are not ambitious covetous carnall and worldly minded envious malicious cruel haters and persecuters of Gods word of his Ministers and people Such such I say must be furthest off from the Doctrine and practise of the Apostles and of the most pure and Primitive Church in their time if you the Prelates and Churches of England and Rome come the nearest unto them L. p. 377. But is there no superstition in Adoration of Images None in Invocation of Saints None in Adoration of the Sacrament P. Yes and grosse Heathenish Idolatry too yea and infidelity to boote though you would mince it never so small into a matter of superstition onely And may not I say to you But is there no superstition yea no Idolâ—try in your Adoration of Altars yea and worse then that of the Papisâ—s for they worship their God you the Altar None in your Adoration of the Name IESVS None in bowing before your Crucifixes over your Altars No inducement at least to Idolatry in your goodly Images erected in your Churches No 〈◊〉 smell of Popish superstition and Idolatry in yâ—ur Adorations in the presence of such Imâ—geâ— The Iewes would not â—o much as stoop to tye the latchet of their shooe in the place where an Image was least their bowing might seem to be to the Image And who knoweth with what mind you do your humble and lowly Dâ—votion before such sacred Reliques And to summe up all together is there no superstion yea no Idolatry in all that will-worship of yours and of the Church of Rome attended with so many Rites and Ceremonies of mans invention For what is all Will-worship but Idolatry yea and the highest kind of Idolatry As Vincentius saith What are strange Gods but strange errours for that Hereticks reverence their Opinions no lesse then the Gentiles doe their Gods And Augustine saith It is the vilest and 〈◊〉 kind of Idolatry when mâ—n worship their own fancies observing that for a Religion which their erronious and swelling minds imagine Thus we see as a learned Divine of the Church of England and of great Eminencie said that a corrupt and vicious Religion such as Popery is and such as you have made yours of the Church of England not a different Religion 〈◊〉 an inward and ghostly worship of Idols which saith he Prince ought not to 〈◊〉 at or tolerate seeing no man and therfore no Prince can 〈◊〉 two Masters For saith he if God be truth they which presume to worship him with lyes as in contrary faith must needs come to passe serve now not God but the Devil a lyer himselfe and the faâ—her of 〈◊〉 whose service no Christian Prince may so much as 〈◊〉 so he Thus our Divines of the Church of England in former ages shall 〈◊〉 up as witnesses to condemn you in the day of Judgement who teach and maintain things contrary to that truth which they delivered L. p. 378. What not prove any superstition any errour at Rome but by pride and that intolerable Truly I would to God A.C. saw my heart and all the pride that lodgeth in it P. This you speake to A.C. as to a Jesuite or some Frier or some Priest All is one such a one being a Ghostly Father you may safely sub sigillo Confâ—ssionis or sub stola under the seale of Confession or under the Friers frocke under the Rose as we say open the windows of your Brest and let him look in and view all the Roomes and corners of your heart to see what pride hath taken up her lodging there and so the world shal be never a whiâ— the wiser for it But you need not to wish any such thing The pride of your heart cannot so easily be hid as that you need wish with Momus if there were a glasse window in your Brest for men to look in and see it much lesse a subtile prying Jesuite Alas though the glaring light of it blind your own eyes that you cannot see it your selfe yet any other that is but purblind may through the Glasse or spectacles of this your Book see the monstrous multiformious shape of it had they not seen it before expressed in the Capitall Characters of your most insolent and all daring practises And that you yet see it not there is not a more infallible argument or signe of a more monstrous proud heart which is ever selfe blinded But look to it What saith Ieremie The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked who can know it I the Lord search the heart and try the reynes even to give every man according to his wayes and according to the fruit of his doingâ—s L. p. 379. I hope God hath given the Lady mercy P. Namely that same Lady who formerly had been either brought unto or confirmed in that Romish Religion by that which you resolved her in namely That she might be saved living and dying in the Roman faith and Religion wherein it seems as she lived so she dyed Now truly my Lord If God did give her mercy it is little God hamercy to you But what ground have you for this your hope Even as much as for
of the meeting of Truth and Peace And not content herwith he must needs make God and his free Grace the Author of all this Mystery of Iniquity and deep hypocrisie which here he veileth under the name of a single heart But stay before I begin is there no hope of doing good upon you It is not impossible but that the greatnesse of your zeale for this Peace hath been so strong in you as whereby you have been perswaded whatsoever you either have done or yet can further doe for the effecting thereof be it by throwing down of Gods word casting out his Ministers chasing away Gâ—ds people howting out all power of holynesse out of the Land and so removing all such impediments as you thought stood in your way and that per â—as aut nefas by right or wrong all waâ— and is well yea very well done Haply the lovely and amiable name of an Imaginary Truth and deceitfull Peace and counterâ—et Câ—urch and the strength of your beliefe that Rome was yet a true Church and so true that England and she were and are one and the same Church no doubt of that did so wholly possesse you that â—o bring England and Rome together againe you thought even 〈◊〉 of the Truth it selfe to be true piety and the 〈◊〉 of the peace of all to be an establishment of unity and confusion of light with darknesse to a perfect Reconciliation Yet this I must say wiâ—hall as Christ said If the light that is in thee be darknesse how great is that darknesse And if in all that you have done for the advancing of this your maine Project you have not wilfully 〈◊〉 against the â—ight of your Conscience and so gone on in that 〈◊〉 course with a high hand certainly it seems to me a 〈…〉 highest admiration and so much the more 〈…〉 have long lived in the midst of such a cleare 〈…〉 as no Age since the Apostles hath seen a greater though now of late it hath suffered and that since your elevation especially no smal Eclipse But if my words shall have no better effect with you then onely to convince you and discover your damnable Hypocrisie jam liberaui animam meam I have now freed mine own soule And now to your words 'T is time for me say you to end And I say as I sayd before it had been in my judgement much better for you if you had never begun this worke But 't is well that at length as Iob speaks vaine words have an end Though it be not for this reason that you make an end But you alledge those many things of weight lying upon you What what weighty things hath this mighty Apostolicall Man lying upon him Such as the Apostle had The care of all the Churches That you pretend too while you would so faine have Altars up in all the Churches in England But the Apostle addes there Who is weake and I not weake Who is offended and I burn not Can you say so You can say Who is offended at my Cerimonies and I burn not with zeale against that man till I have consumed But why do I name the Apostle Your many things of weight lying upon your shoulders are State-matters high and deep State-mysteries the burthen of a vast Iland heavier then Etna it selfe What such so weighty so many things lye upon your weake shoulders Enough to presse you down as low as hell What doe not you professe to be a Priest a Clergy man And is not the Charge of that one Profession being rightly executed had you ever felt the weight of it a burthen heavy enough to breake your backe which as one said the shoulders of Angels would tremble under And the Apostle speaking of a Ministers office saith No man that warreth intangleth himselfe with the affaires of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a souldier But it seemeth you are none of those whom Christ hath chosen to be his souldier except he chose you for such a purpose as he did but one man of the twelve For you are one that warreth and as Iudas the Captain of the rout against Christ in his Ministers and members But you intangle your selfe with the affaires of this life And by this means you have the more power to warre against Christs Kingdome So as Ieromes speech may take place here Negotiaâ—orem Clericum ex inope divitem ex ignobile gloriosum tanquam quandam pestem â—uge A negotiating or Polypragmaticall Clerke or Clergy man and who of poore bcomes rich of base vain-glorious fly from him as from a kind of Plague But who hath compelled you to take the burthen of so many and great things upon you What did the Pillars of the State shake and tremble and threaten a fall and therupon 〈…〉 in and put under your shoulder to stay it up As the Pope at the Councel of Lateran dreamed that the Lateran shooke and was ready to fall but that Dominicus came in the nicke and upheld it wherupon the next day the Pope made Domiâ—iâ—us the Father of his Order And so well may you prove a supporter of the Popes Lateran but how a supporter of Civil States I know not nor meddle with but negatively shewing a disparity and incongruity between your Profession and that saâ—ing that you are rather a Civilian then a Divine as having proceeded Doctor not in Divinity but of the Civil Law But suppose you had been compell'd to it Christ would not be made King when they would have forced him For his Kingdome was not of this world But yours is And your shoulders are able to beare two such intolerable burthens as never any man in the world could beare one of them well and as he should doe Well I will say no more but this To whom much is committed of him shall much be required But you adde also another reason why 't is time for you to end as bearing now the burthen of 65. yeares compleat A great age and yet I suppose you feele it not to be a burthen If you doe then as the Poet saith Solve senescentem maturè sanus equum ne Peccet ad erremum ridendus ilia ducat And you say it draws on apace to the Period set by the Ppophet David Psal 90. You mistake the Pen-man for it was Moses But to let that passe as a common mistake and as a Law which it seems you have imposed your selfe and observed throughout your Book not to cite any Scripture without perverting of it Doth your Lordship hope to reach the period of three-score and ten Alas should you live out but one Lustrum of five yeaâ—es more what would become of I say not the Civil state but the poore Church of God yet in England But our comfort is The Lord Iesus Christ is both against you and above you In the meane time were it not safer for you to think of
Rome What thankes the Church of England may returne you I know not But thus did not any of your Predecessors ever And have you more Charity or more Devotion then they had And for the hope in you whereof you give account to the world and your faith testified wherein you have lived and resolve to dye I will say as Ierome said to the Pelagians Sententias vestras prodidisse Superasse est The discovery of your opinions is our victory So thus to give account of your hope and testifie your faith to all the world as that wherein you have lived and resolve to dye Let 's see by your own testimony now irrevocably upon Record what to judge of you formerly namely as of one Qui cum Lacte nutricis errorem Suxisse videatur who seemeth to have sucked in Errour with his Nurses Milke As the Orator Speakes of all naturall men and what to expect of you hereafter that as you have lived a most notorious Persecuter of the truth of Christ and of his Saints So we must look for it Still so long as you live And this is our victory that we have to deale with one who is not now any longer a disguised but unmasked Enemy of the true Faith and Religion of JESUS CHRIST And however you may flatter your selfe in regard of the World and favour in Court yet if you repent not of your former life but dye as you have lived you can have neither hope nor faith in expecting Gods blessing or favour And so I passe from your Dedicatory to your Discourse as followeth THE REPLIE TO THE RELATION OF THE CONFERENCE L. p. 2. IT is very fit the People should look to the Iudgement of the Church before they be too busie with particulars But yet neither the Scripture nor any good Authority denyes them some moderate use of their own understanding and judgement especially in things familiar and evident which even ordinary Capacities may as easily understand as read And therefore some particulars a Christian may judge without depending P. What you meane by Church you have told us before namely that wherein your Church of England and that of Rome are one and the same one Prelaticall and Hierarchicall Church out of which are excluded all those Reformed Churches which neither have nor acknowledge Prelates to be of divine Institution We have also made a Say of the difficulties So as it is no difficulty to divine what Christians we are like to prove in understanding and judgement in the mystery of Faith and Salvation when we must be limited to that narrow Scantling of some moderate use of our owne understanding and Iudgement and that but in things familiar and evident to every ordinary Capacity O poore Christians that for Understanding in the Scripture must be at the allowance of Antichristian Lords who would bring into bondage Gods people by Chaining them up in Darknesse and Ignorance and doe with them as Nahash the Ammonite answered the men of Iabeth Gilead On this condition will I make a Covenant with you that I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel But the Apostle exhorts Christians Saying Be not children in understanding howbeit in malice be children but in understanding Téleio ginesthe be perfect And Leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Let us goe on unto perfection And Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their Senses exercised to discerne both good and evill But you allow Christians onely some moderate use of their owne understanding and that in things familiar and evident which men of ordinary Capacities may as easily understand as read So as what they read except with the very reading they doe as easily understand it as they read it they must not meditate further of it but in what they presently upon the reading understand not they must depend upon your Churches judgement So as you would exclude your Christians from being of those blessed men of whom David Speakes which delight in the Law of the Lord and in his Law to meditate day and night You would not have them with use to exercise their wits and Senses to discerne 〈◊〉 good and evill Yea the Apostle useth a word very emphaticall diâ— tò exin by an habituall use or long custome have their Senses gegumnasmâ—na exercised the word properly signifieth such an exercise as Wrastlers or such as contend for victory doe use which is with all their might and strength being train'd up unto it by long exercise So as the Scripture doth not onely not forbid but Commands and exhorts Christians to all diligence in the Study of the Scriptures That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the aknowledgement of the Mystery of God as the Apostle speakes And Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisedome teaching and admonishing one another c. And the Bereans are Said to be dugenésteroi more noble then those of Thesselonica in that they received the word with all readinesse of mind and searched the Scriptures dayly whether those things were so which Paul taught Loe â—ere they examined Pauls Doctrine by the Scriptures they depended not upon his bare word and therefore the Holy Ghost markes them forth for men of a more noble spirit But you would have your Christians to be poore and beggerly in the knowledge of the mystery of Christ and to be so base-minded as in all things which are not obvious to every Capacity to depend meerely upon your Church-Authority and Judgement So as what you meane hereby except to bring into your Church of England the Iesuiticall blind obedience captivating the peoples senses to your Dictates that they might pinne their Salvation and Faith upon your Priests Sleeve I cannot imagine Which will appeare yet more clearely at after Againe these words of yours are in Answere to the Jesuit's words namely That it was not for the Lady or any other unlearned Persons to take upon them to judge of Particulars without depending upon the Iudgement of the true Church To which all your Answere in full is as before Wherein you easily let the Jesuite slip and run away with this that the Church of Rome is that true Church on whose Iudgement for Particulars all unlearned Persons must depend But you understand the true Church to be that wherein you told us before your Church of England and of Rome are one and the Same And so for Rome to be a true Church you plainly confesse at after But your words here may stand you in very good Stead to be a faire Item to all the Readers of your Booke not to be too busie with the Particulars of it but first to look to the Iudgement of the Church of England whose mouth you seem to be in this
your whole Discourse So as I may see my Doom already set down in black and white that I must be Censured as one too busie or AllotroepÃoskopos playing the Bishop in anothers Diocese in our English Translation a busy body But I must beare it off with Head and Shoulders And as the Proverbe is Over Shooes over Bootes I have already waded through the Fords of your Dedicatory and now I must launch into the Deep of your Discourse And there 's now no returning Nor have I put my hand to the Plough to turn up your weeds by the roots to look backe or desist for feare to be censured as one too busie Yea all my businesse is about particulars and namely such as summed up together in the totall conclude you to be though not a profest Invader yet a most subtile and pragmaticall Enginer and underminer of that Truth of Christ in the Scripture which yet the Gates of Hell shall never prevaile against L. p. 4. Bellarmine of very great ability to make good any truth which he undertakes for the Church of Rome P. What one thing I pray which Bellarmine undertakes to make good for the Church of Rome as the Church of Rome is a truth I say as the Church of Rome For what he undertakes to make good for the Church of Rome properly must needs be some point of Popery or Popish Doctrine Otherwise he undertakes not to make it good as for the Church of Rome Now the Church of Rome as it is the Church of Rome namely the Papall Church holds not any one Saving Truth I say againe it holds not any one Saving Truth I shall prove this more particularly at after Yet you seem to intimate here that either all or most things so undertaken by him are truth But the contrary will appeare So as what things are in themselves false and erronious can by no humane ability either of that Champion of Rome Bellarmine or of the great Champion of the present Church of England be so made good as to deserve the name of Truth L. ibid. After Bellarmine hath distinguished â—o expresse his Meaning in what sence the particular Church of Rome cannot Erre in things which are de Fide of the Faith he tells us this Firmitude is because the Sea Apostolicke is fixed there And this he saith is most true P. Your last words here are somewhat darke whether we should take them for Bellarmines words he saith or for your owne assent therein And this he saith is most true This Later is the Likelier And then againe here is another doubt whether And this he saith is very true it be referred to the whole Sentence going before and alledged by you or onely to the Last Clause If to the whole Sentence then in Saying And this he saith is most true you assent that Romes infallibility consists in the Firmitude of the Sea Apostolicke fixed there Which you seem afterwards more expresly to contradict But if onely to the Last Clause your Speech hath reference And this he saith is most true then first you should have expressed it more Clearely and punctually as in some things you doe But taking it in the best sense you confesse it is most true that the Sea Apostolicke is fixed there thus you give occasion of Dispute about Peters being at Rome and of his being Bishop of Rome and if so whether consequently Rome be yet the Sea Apostolicke But because your words here are not Cleare enough and at after you declare your selfe herein more plainly what we have to say of this we will reserve to a fitter place L. p. 23. I shall ever be glad that the Church of England may have farre more able Defendants then my selfe P. Certainly the Church of England her selfe may be glad hereof to vindicate her Reputation which you by this your Defence have layd flat in the dust But May have seems to import that now she hath not at least now that Dr. White is dead Nor hath the Church of England any great cause to glory in either of you both as Defendants unlesse by the Church of England you understand that new Start-up Faction of Arminianized and Iesuited Atheists whose Standard-beares you have been and are to bring the whole Land backe againe to Rome and so to make a full League and Confederacie against the true Church of Iesus Christ. L. p. 29. Things not Fundamentall yet to some mens Salvation are neâ—essary P. How prove you this Seeing what is necessary to some mens Salvation is necessary to all and every mans Salvation And Fundamentalls onely to wit Such things as are de Fide of Faith are the onely things necessary to every mans Salvation According to the Athanasius his Creed Whosoever will be Saved it is necessary that he hold the Catholicke Faith which Faith unlesse a man keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly For the Catholicke Faith comprehends all Fundamentalls which to violate in any one particular overthrowes the Faith and cuts a man off from Salvation But your adding of other things besides and unto the Fundamentalls as necessary to Some mens Salvation doth necessarily inferre this Consequence that there be other things besides Christ which are necessary to Some mens Salvation And so you make Christ an insufficient Saviour to some men at least as to whose Salvation things not Fundamentall are necessary For things not Fundamentall are extra Christum out of or without Christ. Whereas the Scripture Saith of CHRIST That there is no Salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given whereby Dei sothenai emas we Must be Saved which words doe plainly evince that besides Christ nothing under heaven is necessary to any mans Salvation But give us some one particular instance of such things as being not fundamentall yet are necessary to some mens Salvation You tell us of certain I wot not what Deductions from the Articles of Faith which you make to be your Not-Fundamentall and yet necessary to some mens Salvation but for our better Information you particularize in nothing neither in the things nor in the persons for whose Salvation they are necessary but leave all in the Cloudes the fittest manâ—le to foldâ—up such foule and blind errours in L. p. 31. The Churches Declaration can bind us to peace and externall obedience where there is no expresse Letter of Scripture and Sense agreed upon P. By the Latitude of this Sentence you or your Church of England may as you have done by your Declaration prefixed to your Articles of Religion as before bind Ministers not to preach of those Doctrines of Grace as Election Predestination c. because though there be expresse Letter of Scripture for them yet the Sense is so farre from being agreed upon by your present Church as that you Say plainly they may be taken in two opposite Senses So as upon this your Churches Declaration of the ambiguities of your Articles you
confirming of them and establishing of the throne of the Beast and power of Antichrists Kingdome against Iesus Christ. Nor were it a hard matter to demonstrate this by many instanecs which for the present I omit In the meane time How prove you here your As little Question Or how come you to name This spirit of Truth in the Scripture What after all that you have said before of the Scripture that it is not bright enough that it hath no light till it be lighted by the Authority of the present Church and the like come you now to confesse that The spirit of Truth is in the Scripture Told you us not a while agoe That the Scripture is no living Iudge What not living when the spirit of Truth breaths in it Is not the spirit in the Scripture living And is not a Iudge a living Iudge when and while his spirit is in him What nothing but absurd and sencelesse contradictions with you Nothing but Babilonish language But thus we may see into what gulfes of perplexities they plunge themselves that presume and undertake to exalt their high imaginations against the Truth of God And you say againe A Generall Councel hath not this Assistance to Infallibility but as it keeps to the whole Church and Spouse of Christ whose it is to heare his word and determine by it As it keeps closse Why is it not your Catholicke Churches Representative How can it then but keep closse being of the same Body and spirit with your Church Secondly speaking here of the whole Church the Spouse of Christ you doe equivocate applying that to a false Church which is univocè univocally proper and peculiar to the misticall body of Christ. For your whole is Prelaâ—icall that of the Hierarchy and none other which we have before proved to be the Synagogue of Antichrist which heareth not Christs voyce but as your Church is pleased to interpret it and to give it Authority And that which you say of your Generall Councâ—ls may be truly said of any particular Assembly two or three met in Christs name which doth not erre being led by the spirit of Truth in the Scripture Christ himselfe according to his Promise being in the midst of them No nor yet any particular single Beleever erreth being so led So as you speake to no purpose when you say A Generall Councel cannot erre in that wherin it hath already determined according to the Scripture the vanity wherof we shewed before But the conclusion is you still leave the the Infallibility of your Generall Councel unresolved upon yea and nay sometimes affirming somtimes denying except your negative be according to that Rule in Logicke That one Negative is of more Force then a thousand Affirmatives L. p. 213. Sect. 27. My Answere was That the Councel of Trent was not onely not legall in the necessary conditions to be observed in a Generall Councel but also that it was no Generall Councel P. Though this be true you say yet the Councel of Trent was so legall according to Romes own Law that it wanted no conditions observable to make it in that behalfe not onely a legall but a Generall Councel too And secondly so Generall for the Romane Catholicke Church of Rome that all the Decrees thereof doe bind all Papists to a necessary obedience and conformity unto them and that under Anathema And your Rule is That a Generall Councells Decrees and Canons bind all Christians and a Provinciall Councels Decrees bind all of that Province And therfore I hope you will grant that the Papall Councel of Trent is of force to bind all Papists who acknowledge and accept the Pope for their Head or Primate So as though it were not a Generall Councel in the largest sense yet it was a Generall Councel for the Roman Catholicke Church which say they is the onely Catholicke Church And with which say you the Church of England is one and the same Now this I doe here touch by the way as whereof I shall have occasion to make some use anon though perhaps your thus Arguing against the generallity of Trents Councels is one of those Passages which you think may be an ingredience of the salve of your Reputation But this I say by the way L. p. 227. It may seem very fit and necessary for the Peace of Christendome that a Generall Councel thus Erring should stand in force till evidence of Scripture or c. P. This passage I cited before upon occasion among sundry other of like nature and now I repeat it onely for this to shew how your zeale for Peace made you forget Truth For still you are telling us of Peace and Truth or Truth and Peace But here your Peace stands single without Truth What Peace without Truth For you say It may seem very fit and necessary for the Peace of Christendome that a Generall Councell erring should stand in force What will you force a Peace against Truth by an Authorised errour O blush for shame L. p. 254. Suppose they Key of Doctine be to let in Truth and shut out errour and suppose the Key rightly used infallible in this yet this infallibility is primeâ—y in the Church in whose person not strictly in his own S. Peter received the Keys P. Suppose Do you make it but a supposit on that the key of Doctrine is to let in Truth and shut out Errour So it seems with you when you use that Key of your Doctrine to shut out Truth and let in errour as both your Practises and writings do shew But what is this Key of Doctrine Is it not the sincere Preaching of Gods word And then this Key is rightly used and here is the use therof Infallible But say you this Infallibility is primely in the Church How Can we get no other language from you Still all Primely in the Church Certainly not at all in your Antichristian Church where the spirit of errour raigneth and where the whole bunch of Keys hangeth at the Prelates gâ—râ—le As Pope Paschall 2. when he rode in Pompe had his seven Keys hanging at his girdle the Chiefe wherof was to open and shut Paradise to whom he pleased But we say still that this infallibility is primely in the Scripture and not in the Church not in Christs own Church For the Scripture containes that infallible Truth which the Ministeriall key Christs own ordinance and voyce openeth to the Church or Congregation of Gods people And this Ministeriall key Christ committed to Peter not simply as sustaining the person of the whole Church but chiefly and properly as he was an Apostle and Minister of Christ to preach the Gospel in which respect also he might represent the person of all faithfull Ministers of the Gâ—spel rightly and truly called to the Function to whom Christ did in Peter as afterward he did in all the Apostles commit and entrust the key of knowledge of the Doctrine of Christ to be used and imployed to that end to