they do at least and if they chance for formalitys sake to fall upon any practicall point to speak therof wth no purpos hope or intention of their practise For t is agreed on both sides both preacher people that such practis is popery and nothing requisit to salvation but onely to beleeve Hear a parable Two artificers had each of them an apprentis The first having delivered to his servant exactly all the rules of his art put him presently to work and practis by them assuring him that practis will better his knowledg wch the servant in all singlnesse of heart applying himself to labour according to the dictats of his rule advanced accordingly and so became eminent in the eyes of men and excceedingly beneficiall to the common wealth The other tradesman wth drew from the sight of his prentise all the particular rules and whole method of his art onely deliverd unto him in grosse som experiments and feats thereof by wch notwthstanding he could not perceiv at all either where to begin or how to go on nay he gave his servant one generall caution not to put his hands to any thing his duty being onely once a week to com and sit down before him and hear him discours of the usefulnes and benefit of his trade Onely beleeving in him his work is ended The prentise under such a teacher grew to be a great proficient in works and sentences but never put his hand to any thing either for his own credit or the benefit and service of mankind Nay he mockt at the other apprentis and cald him simple drudg The first of these artificers is the Catholik church the other is the Reformation Do you apply the rest The Catholik Religion is a noble a rational religion well beseeming a complete man to profess well beseeming the Son of God to plant The reformation a vain empty businesse befitting none to receive it but a company of cripples that have neither hands nor feet to use nor none to invent it but dawes and magpies It begins in teaching and ends in preaching Wo to you Pharisees saith our Lord for ye tith mint and rue and all manner of herbs and passe over judgment and justice and the love of God those ye ought to have done and not leave the other undone Luc. 11. Preaching if it be right and pious may be used nay when instructions advise and comfort is necessarily to be applied it ought to be done but the practise wherunton it tends this is not to be left undon The tithing of mint rue and cumin does but figur out under a tipe a consecrating unto God part of the good things we do enjoy from him by fasting almsdeeds and prayer that is to be done these not to be left undone Preaching puts in mind of the works of faith hope and charity that wher is need is to bee used these not to be neglected At one and the same time to preach good things in the pulpet and to cry down the same things by the rules of Reformation is to open a mans mouth and stop his wind pipe All your people go to your Churches wth such a prejudice against the customs of Catholik Church whence they are cut off by the reformation that altho the minister should chance wth singular zeal and eloquence to declaim against sin and cry up the exercises of Christianity yet the auditory is promoted nothing at all therby being aforehand prejudiced by the rules of reformation incorporated and naturalised in their spirit For who can take such words to heart or ever heed them effectually that shall firmly beleev that all we do or can do is sin and wt sin soever we commit we shall sure enough be saved if we do but beleev in Christ. People imbued wth these principles shall never by any Rhetorick either of man or angel be either affrighted from evill wordly pleasures and sin or perswaded to the laborious works of mortification and pennance The sowr grapes of Reformation have so set peoples teeth on edg that they cannot chew good mear T is in vain t is utterly in vain to bid dead men walk or exhort those to the works of life who by the poyson of reformation are made dead and sensles Preaching is to Catholiks a profitable and religious exercise to hereticks if it be orthodox t is a vain work if pseudodox t is a wicked work but to no people nor in no kind is it or can it be the onely work or sole Christian duty LA. Wt be those works Sr Harry you require over and above preaching KN. Even such as the Word of God it self requires The works of faith hope and charity and use of Sacraments prescribed in Gospell a serious and effectuall indeavour against sin according as sacred scriptur prescribes whose precepts must be heeded as obligatory and counsells respected as meritorious offerings We must both beleev in Christ as mediatour and beleev him too as our legislatour Both love him and observ his will and when we do fail reconcile our selves unto him by the means-himself hath ordayned captivating both our will and understanding to his pleasure who is our redeemer and maister and omnipotent Lord. To speak more particularly the works wch Catholiks by their faith are directed and exhorted unto be of two sorts personall and conventuall The personal works be first a constant obedience to the Church in all her dictamens of faith upon this great hinge hangs indeed all true and solid Christianity then an effectuall exercise of homage and piety to God of justice and charity towards our neighbour of sobriety and continence in our selves These things must be done he that does them best shall fare best for it The conventuall a reverent use of Sacraments and a presence at divine psalmody and Sermons according to our occasion and need But the great capitall conventuall work and worship is the venerable and blessed Sacrifice of the Altar every holiday solemnly exhibited every Christian stands obliged to be then present at it tho his devotion may find it each day of the week in our Catholik churches and many thousands of good people serv God every day in this holy rite But this is a free offering of their own not wthout great benefit and comfort to themselvs unto wch Holy church will not oblige This is that great work wch constitutes and essentiates Christian Religion By this it was perfected in its fundamentall worship and duty towards God long before our people had any Scripturs to read and by wch especially seconded wth its other Catholik appurtenancies it would still remain intire altho there were no Scriptures at all either to read or hear For Scriptur as it is expounded by Holy church or rather the traditional doctrin of the church whereof Scripture is a short and compendious coppy is to us Christians a light not to sit idle by but to work by This is the work wch the Disciples and
by men who introduce and receiv them which is all one in human society for amongst men that is the best wch is in use and fashion as may be seen in languages garbs and fashions of attire wch chang continually stil for the best at least in vulgar opinion till the fashions do insensibly wear out one another and that return again by degrees wch afortime was rejected rendring that fashion contemptible by wch it self had been in former times made vile Thus mans thoughts and al the works of his hands run incessantly in a circular motion wearing out one another wth a strang restlesness conveyed into things from the instability of fansy their first contriver wch can never stay or remain in the fame state but likes and dislikes creats and destroyes does and undoes continually and seems to be pleasd wth nothing but variety And so all human workmāships of whatsoever kind they be do meet with severall fansies of men unto all wch they are equally subject and apt at pleasur by them to be contrould alterd varied and subdud according tot he diversity of imaginations they meet withall All this is apparently tru and lively set out by Salomon in his Eccelesiastes where he affirms that ther is nothing new under the Sun and that ther is a season for every thing and a time for very purpos under heaven a tim to break down and a tim to build a tim to rent and a time to soe As if he should have said man now fansyes one thing and then is pleasd wth the contrary now hee l plant an orchard then hee l turn it into a meadow now he will build a hous in one fashion and then alter it into another and the like so that all his works chang and run in a circl till his former rejected fansy perhaps return again and seem to be som new busines but indeed it is not for all that is now brought up has been afortime rejected as that wch is now refused hath been liked of and will be so again so that under the Sun is nihil novi no new thing either in lawes states governments buildings books fashions languages or other thing invented or contrivd by man The very dyet and company wch seven years ago displeasd us hath now lost its tast Finally al that one mā does either himself or som other like himself will undo it again and mould it in another fashion the works of man being totally subject to his humour and not issuing at first from any self-sufficient self-singular self-eternall uncontroulable intellect are apt indifferently to follow the guidance of any thing that pertaks of that reason wch gave them their first being But religion is not thus subject to the understanding or fancy of any one man or all men together For mans understanding and gods do not agree together in the same reason as two individualls in one species and consequently wt is dictated by the one that is infinitely perfect self-singular and incomunicable cannot be contrould by the other wch is infinitely imperfect common and accidentally singularisd A thing is naturally subject to his own caus or some thing at least unto wch that principl it self is subject and nothing els the works and will of man to man the works and will of God to god the thoughts and actions of man both to man and God also to whom man himself is subject but the word and will of God are so his that they can not be in mans power who is a poor vassail both to God and his will and word too What man hath once willed not onely God but man also may frustrat it by willing the contrary but he cannot alter the will of God nor destroy any of his works Towns he can overthrow and Orcards and Gardens wch himself hath planted but where is the man can pull a star out of heaven annihilat one of the elements or add another to those wch God hath made In all reason I think it is apparent to every one that the will and Word of the Allmighty cannot be subjected to such a poore pittifull thing as man is he must be led by it and not draw it to his pleasure by adding or diminishing by chopping and changing as he lists Wherfore our B. Saviour when som upon the doctrin they had heard him deliver doubted and askt him wth a quomodo how can man forgive sins and again others how can he give us his flesh to eat It is very observable that our Lord never went about to satisfy their curiosity or declar to them how or in what manner it might be don it being indeed below the Majesty of God to give his vassail a reason of his will but he singly repeated again his owne assertion wthout showing the provability or possibility thereof therby giving us to understand that the institutions and will of God ar not to be subjected to the understanding or man to be admitted or rejected according to that probability they shall carry in it but humbly to be accepted wth all submission and lowlines as the will of that in finit suprem power unto wch mans understanding and the whol creation is subjected And therefore good S. Paul willed that every intellect should be captivated to the obedience of Christ 2. Cor. 10.5 that is to say subject to the dictamens of his faith and Religion as a captive slave to the will of his maister And consequently as a slave cannot controul his maister so neither hath mans reason any right or power at all to chang or alter add or diminish from Gods revealed will holy scripture denounceing therfor anathema to such as should dare to do it against their duty and allegiance All this being assuredly true ther can be no place in religion for new ways of fresher wits for innovations reformations clearings clensings additions subtractions and other such like mouldings and workings upon it as there is in arts and sciences and other such like effects of mans own contrivance In these mans understanding is the workman trades fashions laws languages and the like human inventions ar the matter on wch the fansy understanding works and the matter is naturally subject to the workman the clay to the potter the building to the architect as reason and scripture teaches Rom. 9.21 But in religion mans understanding is the clay and the will and word of God is the workman or potter to fashion and frame it to his pleasur Mans inventions as clay are subject unto mans understanding as the potter and again mans understanding as clay is subject to faith as the artificer and the same reason that makes human inventions receive alteration from man makes mans will to receive impressions from religion So likwise on the other side Religion is no more in the power of man then is the artificer in the hand of his clay but hath absolut and full dominion over him and every created intellect is fully in the
for it and all kind of obscurity contrary to such an end But to conclude If Scriptur be indeed so clear and easy for each capacity to read out of them to cull his faith and by them to frame his religion as sectaries pretend and this be indeed the judgment of all reformers wherfore do they themselves so multiply their catechists interpretours and expositours theron to wt end is all their preaching and weekly teaching this if it be indeed to any end must needs be either to expound faith or promote good works if the faith be clear enough the expounding is in vain as for good works they be long ago exploded bannisht out of the land and the empty preaching for aught I know may go foot it after them for words are in vain that tend to no end In fine whence comes all these diversities of opinions amōgst us here in England about matters of faith and religion and so opposit one to another and yet all grounded upon Scriptur Is that way so uniform and easy that leads men so diversly Nor am I satisfied at all in hearing som answer as they do that this coms not of Scriptur but the disorder and mistakes of men so lōg as I see it may wthout the Churches help be so shreudly mistaken I have reason to suspect mistakes in my self too if I once lean upon mine own spirit and industry as others do being my self no better than my neighbours And therfore I am loth nay I shall never be perswaded to leav the secure footing I now hav in all tranquillity peace uniformity wth the Catholik body of Gods Church by the result of truth delivered us by antiquity consonant to Gods word both written and unwritten and run my self with the confusd rout of disagreeing sectaries upon the rock of the Bible so apt as it appears by the event to be mis-understood and and wrested awry that I am clear of the opinion that no man out of the Church of God nor nobody of meē besides the Church of God understands it right Nor shall I be so mad now in my old age to go to dig my self religion having so fair a one already stamped to my hands wch all the art of men and angels put together can never mend Put him in Bedlam that undertakes both labour and hazard for naught LA. Do you think Sr Harry ever to perswade me that reading the Gospell I do not sufficiently understand the story of Christ his birth and life death and passion resurrection and ascension I fear not to affirm that I understand it perfectly and by your favour as fully as is necessary I do also conceiv well enough nor is it hard so to do wt his doctrin and miracles conduced to mankind I am moved also wth the divine discours of Christ and his Apostles Every Sabboth-day I go to Church and hear the word of God preacht I cannot see wt is more to be done he that reads and hears and beleevs the word of life cannot miscarry VIC And I for my part understand all that ever I either read or hear Alas when I was a young girle I was even then so towardly that I could read the Scripture as I ran up and down the house according as it is written write the vision and make it plane upon Tables that he may run that readeth Hab. 2. My husband and I every Sabboth day go hand in hand to Church together like the beasts that went into the ark by two and by two the Male and his Female Gen. 7.2 Surely this is sufficient for the salvation of all flesh KN. Madam you have now toucht upon the main busines wherein all sectaries be most pittifully deluded If they do but go to Church and hear a Sermon each one according to his fansy their duty is done and all his safe I will not stand now to examine whether the preaching be orthodox or no. Be it what it will It will not serv the turn I have already to my ability declared that the reading of Scriptur is no sufficient means of finding out our faith tho so much as it is it doth all of it confirm and verify the Churches doctrin I shall now go forward and evince two truths more First that reading or preaching of Gods word or the hearing therof tho it be indeed Gods word and pure and orthodox is not the essentiall or cardinal work of Christian religion Secondly that a man may hear and read it all his life time and yet be lost at the end both for want of grace and truth Our Lord wrote nothing himself as all men know yet notwthstanding he would never have failed either to have done it himself or commanded others to have done it if reading or hearing had been the great work of his religion to be imposed upon mankind For reading you know and expounding of Scriptur presupposes writing and his great work had been no other than to see things written if our great work had been no other than to read or hear them The four Evangelists afterwards put together some few heads of our B. saviours life and doctrin haply to carry about wth them in their bosom and entertain their converts wthall But we do not read that our Lord gave them any command to do so And this is an argument in your principles that he gave them none at all And as he gave them no order to write so neither did the promise them any assistance in their writing for all the concurrence we find promised either them or their successours was onely for the pectorall custody of their traditions orall doctrine and Church government And therfor since you deny the constancy of Christs assistance in the continuall government of his Church internall beleef and externall doctrin unto wch that assistance was promist affirming that the Church of Christ as it is not in it self infallible so hath it gone astray both in practis and doctrin me thinks you might wth as much ease and indeed more plausibility deny the same concurrence to any of the Churches writings whereunto it was never promist at all nor the Scriptur or writing it self so much as commanded by him wthout whose order nothing of force or autority could be done Nor it is to be thought but that Peter James Andrew and others of the Apostles had been both as able and as willing to write Evangells as the other four wherof two of them were but disciples of a far inferiour rank to the Apostles and indeed but companions and attendants upon them as may be seen in the Acts. Nay if writing had been such a capitall work S. Peter would never have neglected to have writ a Gospell himself especially when S. Mark his pupil and companion wrote one But this is an argument they had some greater work in hand and more nearly enjoind than that was Nor can we find by any monument that any of the other ten Apostles who were sent severall waies
for the worlds conversion carried any written Gospell at all wth them wch might be made by themselves much less is it to be thought that they staied to write out theirs having their own breasts so well fraught wth all that and far more than they found ther written especially considering that two of the Evangelists were but their pupills and disciples Nay before those Gospels were written out and completed especially that of S. John the Church of God was spread up and down the world and flourisht in all the duties of Christianity By wch it may appear that even the written Gospell is neither it self necessary to the being of the Church nor the reading or expounding of a text the essentiall work of Christianity As for the Epistles wch be the other part of the new Testament written by S. Paul and others These t is well enough known were pend a long while after the Church of God was perfectly formd and grown up in most parts of the known world in particular after those Churches of Rome Corinth Ephesus Galatia Thessalonica and the rest unto whom they are addrest were perfected in all the essentialls of Christian faith and they were occasiond merely accidentally upon the creeping in of some disorders and errours in those places contrary to the tradition of faith they had received as may soon appear to him that reads and understands the tenour of those spirituall Epistles So then the Church is antecedent to her Scriptur and altogether independant theron either for her being or profession helps of memory as all these writings be do presuppose both the memory and the things to be remembred before those helps were brought to light And so the reading of these Scriptures or hearing them expounded can no wise be the essentiall work of Christian religion or the totall exercise therof but somthing that is altogether independent of them more ancient than they be and that is more intrinsecally a worship homage adoration and service of the most high God than hearing or looking upon words and syllables can be I make no doubt but the whol Scriptur or writing of the new Testament both Epistles and Gospells was merely casuall and accidentall For I find it long ago foretold by the Prophets that the law and government of the Messias should in this differ from the Law of Moses that Moses Law was all committed to paper but the doctrin of Iesus should be writ in the heart and entrailes of his Church You may see one place in the Prophet Ieremy c. 31.33 wch the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrewes applies unto Christ our Lords dayes Heb. 10.16 and S. Paul doth not obscurely allude unto it in one of his letters he wrote to Corinth c. 3.3 Indeed to imprint in the churches breast a law from wch she should never deviat is in my judgment a greater argument of divinity than any written Gospell could afford The things wch Solon Numa Lycurgus Draco and other such like men contrived and dictated for the good of their common wealths did much commend their gravity vigilance and wisedome and elevated them above other men not above manhood Moses himself the most profound judicious Lawmaker the world ever had by the excellency of his written Laws hath merited the title of a divine and sacred legislatour but he is known to be a man by his hand-writing and the paper he wrote on He is a God that writes on the velin of the heart characters indelible unto eternity The Law of Christ onely is written not wth ink but wth the spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart I do also verily think that the religion wch the Son of God deliverd to his church was neither commanded by him to be written nor yet ever intended either by the Euangelists or other of those primitiv writers to be totally set down under the notion of a rule of faith altho so much as ther is of it drawn principally for the use of devotion and charity be a rule of faith also What the occasion might be that moved the four Euangelists to write their compendious Gospells by the little learning I have I could never yet assuredly gather altho I remember I have read somthing thereof in a learned latin book made by a friend of mine called Systema fidei put forth some few years ago wherein be very many things of excellent learning worthy of the Authour but I have not now the book at hand Wt occasion moved S. Paul to write his Epistles unto Rome Corinth and other places is manifest enough and I shall afterward declare it when I shall come to discover the religion of the Apostles and Euangelists and make it appear that they were all papists and of the very self same religion Catholiks be of at this day All this put together that Christ himself neither wrote any thing nor comanded any thing to be written yea gave notice that he would use his speciall prerogative of legislatourship and write his law in hearts promising to animate the body of his Church wth his own spirit wch should lead them into all truth and that the church was disperst over the earth before any Christian writting was made wch was afterwards drawn to confirm and strengthen the faith and devotion it found already planted All this being true it follows apparently that hearing or reading or preaching upon a text is not the great capitall work of Christian Religion Indeed t is childishnes to think that God unto whom all prostration adoration all homage service and worship both of the outward inward man is more than due should be sufficiently served wth a little labour of the lips or ears when a man thinks good so to do Preaching is indeed necessarily antecedent to Christian faith yet it onely disposes unto furrher actions as may easily appear both by autority of Scriptures wch exclaime bitterly against such as hear and go no further and also by the very natur of hearing and all kind of exhortation wch ever tends to somthing besides it self For who ever heard onely to hear and no further who but our mad reformers ever preacht onely to be heard And how can speaking on one side and hearing on the other complete the whol duty of man to his God as if one were nothing but tongue and ear or had receivd nothing from him but those two organs Tell me Madam ingenuously Do not you think you have sufficiently done your duty to God if you go but forth once a Sunday to hear a Sermon and if you read a chapter or two in a week day this is nothing else in effect altho by your favour you do not think you self bound under sin to either but if you like the weather or the parson pleases or your clothes be neat and handsom then you will go forth to church if not you will stay at home if you find your self
disposed in the week time to be godly you read a chapter if not you let it alone And this is all you do or ever mean to do And if your preacher do sometimes upon occasion exhort you to the abnegation of worldly desires to the castigation of your body by fasting and discipline that you become not reprobate to hospitality or almsdeeds to a generall abdication of all things for Christ by leaving father and mother wife and lands to follow him in that nakednes himself practised finally to an universall conformity to the Son of God in piety and poverty These and such like things he speaks by cours and out of formality to make a plausible noise in the Church and fulfill his houre But he is not so mad as to think you will ever practise any of these things nor do you hear him wth any such purpos the practise of such things being well enough known by both of you or at least beleeved to be down right popery by all reformations discarded His preaching is a talking to your eares and your hearing a listning to his lips till the sound cease and then the essentiall work of your religion is done But if haply you like the wit of the preacher and give him your applaus then you have both of you your finall expectation and the whole work of religion both essentiall and accidentall is accomplisht This kind of hearing and preaching tending to no further end is so far from being the sole act religion that t is no religion at all nay t is a mere mockery and abuse of religion condemnd by the Scriptures both of the old and new Testament where t is concluded that not hearers but doers are justified VIC I could wish you would remember Sr that Christ said more than once he that hath ears to hear let him hear but he never said he that hands to work let him work or he that hath knees to kneel let him kneel or he that hath meat to eat let him fast Leave your talking Sr Harry and read the bible MIN. The acts of the Apostles will make it manifest that after Pentecost Peter and Iohn and Paul and others of the Apostles were wholly taken up in preaching as the sole act of Christian religion KN. Christian preaching is of two sorts The first is absolutly necessary the other onely expedient The first is made to Paynims and such as have not yet heard of Christ or respect him not as they ought to convert them to his religion and faith the other to Christians to put them in mind of the practis and end therof the first is the parent and productiv power of faith the second a mistres and overseer of works Of the first kind of peaching is often mention both in the Acts of the Apostles and other parts of the new Testament For both in Gospell when our saviour sent out his Apostles to preach unto all nations and when they exercised this their mission in the Acts preaching before Iewes and Pagans and when S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans and elswhere speaks so much of preaching t is every where meant of this preaching unto Gentils Paynims and unbeleevers for their conversion But concerning the second kind of preaching made unto Christians ther is no news or mention at all therof in the whole book of the Acts nor did ever any of those primitiv beleevers come together to hear a Sermon but onely to supplication and prayer and fraction of bread wch is the Catholik Masse Indeed on the day of Pentecost after the Holy Ghost had visibly descended upon the Catholik church congregated together in one place and made them all speak wth strang tongues Upon noise herof all sorts of people both Iews and Gentils came flocking in to behold the wonder then S. Peter took the occasion to make a Sermon to those strangers who stood amased at the sight Act. 2. but that speech was not directed at all to the Christians as may appear by the very matter and tenour therof and all the Christian service was ended before the people unto whom he addrest his speech came in Nor for some hundred years after do we find or hear tell of any preaching made to Christians nor were they ever accused by the Roman prefects for other than for meeting together and breaking of bread wheras Sermons if they had had any made had afforded a more plausible accusation against such as already tho wthout any desert of theirs bore the name of seditious As soon as any person or nation had embraced his Christian faith he then wthout expecting further preaching fell presently to those works his faith dictated to him and according to his obligation applied himself to the rule he had received as may be seen in the book of the Acts. And doubtles all prelats who had care of soules held forth unto beleevers that great dictamen of perfection and justice wch S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We will and comand that all who have once beleevd in God do make it their care to attend unto good works Tit. 3.8 Tho indeed in after times when that first fervour of Christian charity grew cold and especially upon times of singular mortification and fasts as in Lent and Advent as also upon high solemnitys the Catholik Church hath ever made use of this secondary preaching wch is made unto Christians for the incitement of works of piety This secondary peaching is indeed a religious exercise profitable to distrest and slack spirits for comfort and advice But no good Christian ever lookt upon it as the great work of his religion or ever thought his duty to be don when the Sermon was ended In a word the Catholik church uses both these kinds of preaching the one to infidels for their conversion the other to Christians for their exhortation But she places the sum of her religion in neither of them but in the performance of those things wherunto people are converted and exhorted And a third kind of preaching wch is to no further end at all but onely to spend time was never thought of by Christians till this wretched heresy invented it For your preaching is not Mr Parson to convert your auditours who have already received their faith and be as good Christians as your self nor yet to excite them to good works wch be in both your judgments justly casherd long ago as popish But your preacher he preaches till for his livelihood he has stood his howr and the hearers hear till they have sat their hour and then all hasten home and the work of God is ended This is all your holocaust an ear-offering and he that wants his ears or has them stopt by cold may stay at home as unfit for service In my judgement t is pure non sens and no religion at all to be still preaching faith as reformers do unto people wch already understand their faith as well as their teachers or think