A DISCOURSE About the Charge of NOVELTY Upon the Reformed Church of England MADE By the PAPISTS asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before LUTHER LONDON Printed for Robert Horn at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange and Fincham Gardiner at the White Horse in Ludgate-street 1683. A DISCOURSE About the Charge of NOVELTY Upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists c. THe Christian Doctrin was once by the way of trust delivered by Christ and his Apostles unto the Saints Men of Care and Honesty and who should preserve it in its first purity and Spiritual intention only to prescribe methods unto Men by Faith and an Honest Conversation how they might arrive at Heaven that this Religion might make a deeper impression upon their minds and memories and be more faithfully kept it was set down in plain and significant Terms and reduced into short summaries called a Form of sound Words that good thing that Form of Doctrin a depositum or trust and by the Church afterwards a Creed That it might be believed and valued it was in its own Nature of the greatest importance confirmed with variety of the best of arguments miracles prophecies innocent carriage and Death of its numerous Disciples and severe Curses denounc't against any that should add to or take from it till their great Master and its Author Jesus should come from Heaven again Yet notwithstanding all this by the Malice and Subtilty of the Devil the Designs and Passions of Men the Ignorance and Negligence of some the Cunning and Industry of others this plain and simple Religion began by degrees to be Corrupted by the mixtures of Philosophy and niceness by the Rules of State Craft and Policy by idle Traditions and Inventions by the Melancholy of some and the gayety of others and the natural Face of it was so strangely changed that it seem'd another Gospel and you might seek Christianity in the Christian World and yet scarce find it Many Kingdoms and People were to blame in this being Treacherous to their Master and false to their trust suffering so Pure and Chast a Religion to be Corrupted or Stolen away but the Church of Rome seems the most Guilty of them all especially upon her own grounds her Bishop being the Infallible Vicar of Jesus to whom are committed the Oracles of God once indeed renowned for her Faith and Pious Governours but now as famous for their Degeneracy as well in Religion as in their lives Whose Ambition or Interest prostituted the Faith to those Designs and made it Earthly and Sensual or their Negligence and Stupidity suffered the Enemy in the night of Ignorance to sow the tares which so grew up and choakt the Wheat that Faith was turn'd into Fables and Lyes Foppery and Superstition were nicknam'd Devotion Ridiculous Gestures and Habits past for Repentance and Mortification the Bible was shut up and contemned and the Legends open'd and praised Honest and Good Men were butchered and unknown Persons and Malefactors Canonized Saints with their Pictures and Reliques were made Rivals to Christ in Mediation and Intercession Good Works were spoil'd by Merit and Arrogance or done by way of composition for vices the fear of Hell was abated by the invention of Purgatory Christ was fetcht from Glory by the Magick of a Priest and put into a Wafer or into a more sordid place riddles and quirks of their Schools were made Articles of Faith in short old truths were rooted up or new errors grafted on them Power and Profit were Stiled the Church the Court of Rome was brought into the Temple and called the Holy of Holies Such errours as these in the Christian Faith came from Rome and infected our Ancient British Church not at first planted by the Labours of the Romish Bishops of old but Corrupted by their later Emissaries and lasted a long time among us being supported by Power twisted with Interest sutable to the pleasures and vices of Men incorporated into the Government having put out Mens reason to try and discern between Truth and Error and at length became Fashionable Legal Terrible with Fires and Censures which made us Sick unto Death absolute almost and beyond recovery Such was our condition here of Slavery and Ignorance but it pleased him that dwells between the Golden Candlesticks to dispel our Darkness and restore the Ancient light of Primitive Christianity His Wisdom and Goodness improving the passions and inclinations of the some in temporal changes and concerns to Spiritual purposes encouraging the secret groans and desires of others putting many more upon search and enquiry after Truth and infusing courage for it at length came to a resolution of Arguing and Debating the Errors of the Romish Faith and manners of reforming the abuses in Discipline and Devotion and to call back True Christianity again and being dispossest of the Spirit of Rome which oft tore them and rent them till they foamed again are now cloth'd and in their Wits once more upon this account the Friends of Rome call us Hereticks Schismaticks and Innovators Discharge Censures and Excommunications and Eternal Damnation against us are full of Wrath and Indignation and to shew a little Wit in their Anger And pretended reason pertly ask the Question where was our Religion before Luther This is the common and trite Objection against our Religion very frequent not only in the Mouths of their more Ordinary Disciples but also of their more Learned Writers who whatever strength they really Fancy may be in the Argument it self think it a very proper Weapon to attempt the vulgar and the Weak withal to amuse and dazle the less discerning Eye at least when backt and set off with the stately names of Infallibility Succession Antiquity and the like and they tell us roundly our Faith was but yesterday our Religion is new and upstart as only Henry the Eighths and Cromwells contrivance they may truly say as much as their Treason was Cecils Plot. That our Faith began only in the year 1517. in Saxony by one Martin Luther an Apostate Fryar who for the Sake of a faire Nun and other designs renounc't the Ancient Faith and set up his new Device of Protestantism at Spires which did not quietly last much above seven years for in the year 1525. starts up Zuinglius and after two years more the Anabaptists who change and correct Luther's Religion and draw great numbers of his Disciples from him and himself for his reward dyed a strange Death great Noises and Crackings were heard in his Tomb which being opened neither Body nor Bones were found and the smell of Brimstone was ready to stifle the standers by And therefore they say we ought to look from whence we are faln to repent of our Heresy and return to our first Love and not stick so close to our Religion the new invention of so ill a Man That we may therefore keep those firm that are members
the late inventions of the Romish Bishop and is known to be the Spouse of Christ by her first Features and Complexion though She hath cast off the new Italian dress For was the Christian Church the House of God Irregular in its building wanting of Beams and Pillars the Essentials of Religion till Romes curious and careful builder cast it into a new model and compleated it 2. This Question supposeth that the Christian Church ought always to be Visible which is not so strictly true For Visible or Invisible make not two Churches but different States Conditions or Respects of one and the same 'T was designed by Christ that all that are Baptiz'd into the Communion of his Faith and Church should make an Outward and Visible Profession of it by their Religious Assemblies and Worship by their Sacraments Discipline and Government whereby being United among themselves and to Christ their Head they should Constitute one Body call'd the Catholick-Church in whose Communion they must Live and Dye But so it came to pass that the number of Christian People so professing and owning the Faith of Jesus was lesser or greater more conspicuous or obscure as Persecutions or Heresies grew and prevail'd among them which like raging Plagues wasted whole Countries destroying some perverting others and making many Fly into remoter Kingdoms and only some Scattered and Solitary Christians living in Caves and Wildernesses remain'd behind or only the Face of a distressed Christian Church as it hapned to the seven Asian and the African Churches which now labour under a Mahometan Pride and Superstition But as it lost in one Country it gain'd in another the Jewish Presecution and others driving several Colonies of Christians into remoter Countries where they spread and enlarged their Religion and many times the distress or triumph of the Church follow'd the changes and revolutions in the Civil State suffering or flourishing with it And often the abuse of Religion Prostituting of it to Hypocrisy and secular ends the Wicked lives of its Disciples or want of courage or resolution in its defence hath tempted Providence to permit pestilent Heresies worse then that in these Northen parts to prevail and Paganism to return again But still the promise of Christ to his Church was firm and the Gates of Hell did not prevail against her And though she was forc't sometimes to Travail from Country to Country and lookt small and obscure in the number of her followers yet still some or other parts and corners of the World and True and Zealous Christians in them made up the little flock and shall never fail while the World endures Popery like the Egyptian darkness had overspread this and other Nations yet here and there was an Israelite that had light in his dwellings and a countercharm against the enchantments of Egypt the Gospel that at length did prevail against corruptions and made its followers Visible and Numerous They ask us where was our Religion before Luther As though it was not because it did not Visibly appear or no where in the World because not here in England or in other parts where Popery did domineer and the Romish Faction was all and whole Christianity in the World the Catholick-Church which implies contradiction and absurdity Christianity here indeed was obscur'd and like the Sun under the cloud but still the Sun was the same and at length conquer'd the mists 't is a fine Question to ask Where was the Sun before Noon day We will suppose her followers to be few yet Christ is True though others are Lyars for he never promist that the Members of the True Catholick-Church should be always famous for their numbers or that multitudes should always follow Truth nor ever directed Men to follow the multitude in search of Truth which is found otherways not by Votes and Polling for her Did not our Saviour ask the Question when he should come again whether at the Destruction of Jerusalem or at the Judgment day whereof the other was a Type and Prefiguration whether he should find Faith on Earth or no did not the Prophet sadly complain in the Reigns of Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Judah that the good Man is perished out of the Land and there is none Righteous among Men they could not then reckon up of the Tribe of Judah twelve thousand and yet there was True Faith and a Church of God though little and obscure Doth not King David cry out Help Lord for the Godly Man ceaseth for the Faithful fail from among the Children of Men corruption in Faith and manners usually going together And Elijah tells a sad Story of the Children of Israel that they had broken their Covenant and destroy'd the Altars and the Prophets and he only was left alive that they sought his life also God tells him that yet for all that he had seven thousand Knees that had not bowed to Baal still there was a small Church not infected with Idolatry though obscure and unknown to Elijah Have not some of the Romish Writers told us that at Christ Passion the Church was only left in the Virgin Mary all them forsaking Christ but the Holy Mother The Shepherd was Smitten and the Sheep disperst And they further confess that in the times of Antichrist there shall be neither Pope Monk nor Mass if this be all that Monster is not so Terrible as he is Painted and their Annalists complain of such sad things as these in the tenth Century And certainly they have read of the Woman in the Wilderness and the Witnesses Slain and of Hay and Stubble covering the Foundation which describe the deplorable condition of the Christian Church and Fopperies Niceties and Inventions of Men obscuring the Essentials of the Christian Faith Should a revolt happen which God divert from the reformed Church of England to Romanism again might not others ask them the same Question where was your Religion before eighty three or eighty four before such a time Would they not Answer at Rome and in England also only kept under and obscur'd by Hereticks and Tyrannical Princes Ours was also here lockt up in Bibles own'd by some numbers desire'd by more only frighted from a Visible profession of it by the torments that did attend it And Christianity though not so Visible yet was purer when it and its professors dwelt in Rocks and Mountains and Dens places of privacy and obscurity in the Reigns of Nero and Dioclesian then when some Kings were its Nursing Fathers and Queens its Nursing Mothers and took possession of the seven Hills And there was a True Church of God though overlay'd and groaning under Arrianism as before Persecution and in Cyprians time as ours once under the Popish Yoke And the Truth of Christianity like the Truth and Essence of other things depends not upon splendid entertainment or Judgment of others nor the Church upon the Visible number of its Members but it may be a
of Christ and his Apostles and therefore were to be amended and weeded up notwithstanding the common question where was our Harvest of Wheat before the Weeders our Reformers came for the Church of England finding old Christianity strangely over-grown with the new Doctrines and Creeds of Rome contrary to the Offices of Christ the design of his undertaking for Mankind and the True Spirit of his Religion it became a Duty as much as they lov'd their Souls and would be True and Loyal unto Christ to shake off these New and Sinful Impositions and restore True and Primitive Christianity Had our differences with Rome consisted only in things less fit and proper used by them in their Religious offices or in Rituals or Gestures not so decent they might have had some pretence to roar against us for breaking off Communion with her but when they Plow up the very Foundation as one of her Pagan Captains did the Walls of Jerusalems Temple and lay all waste before them their new additions Eating out the very Heart of old Religion to thunder out Damnation against us because we renounce her Communion in this is to add Uncharitableness and other gross Vices to their former Sin as though they could not preserve Christianity but by defacing of it more Our Prince being constituted by God a Nursing Father of the Church and our Bishops in their Episcopal Power being coordinate with him of Rome or any other in the Christian World ought under the penalty of Damnation and did accordingly Reform the Romish Corruptions which had tainted the Vitals of Christianity an indispensable Duty it was to preserve the Primitive Faith like a chast Virgin and not suffer it to be longer prostituted to the Designs and Passions of Men by a Solemn Vow and our Souls were at stake we had engag'd to preserve it pure and undefil'd and therefore with all just and proper ways and methods we were bound earnestly to contend for it In Duty therefore to our Lord and Masters Command at such a time we began our reformation but wish that it had been promoted and compleated many years before though the same Question would have been as fitly asked then or any other time except they think that errors must be immortal and the Gates of Heaven shall not prevail against them The Goodness and Wisdom of our Reformation would be readily acknowledg'd and imitated did not Fame and Ambition Power and Secular Interest infect the Eye and change the Natural shape and colour of things and 't is a sign the cause of Rome wants strength when such a trifling only popular Objection against our Reformation is made so powerful to preserve their Disciples in their Communion and amuse our own And we need say no more against it but this and 't is no Roman Uncharitableness and rigor That if Rome notwithstanding all the clear evidence against her new and upstart opinions shall obstinately defend them and contemn a Wise and Pious Reformation let her suffer the just punishment of her wilful errors He that will prefer an Old Disease before a New Cure let him be for ever Sick For we have Healed Babylon and She was not Healed FINIS 2 Tim. 1.13 14. Rom 6.17.1 Tim. 6.20 Gal. 1.8 9. Rev. 22.18 2 Cor. 11.2 Cyp. Epist Ox. Edit p. 5 6. Rom. 18. Platina vitâ Bon. 7. p. 159. vide quaeso quantum degeneraverint c. Bellarm. Campian Smith Bellar. Tom. lib. 4. p. 287. Acts. 11.26 Mat. 13.4 6. 2 Chron. 30. ◠Baren Tom. 10. p. 256. Luke 18.8 Micha 7.2 Ps 12.1 1. Kings 19.10 Ver. 18. Rev. 12.6.11.7 1 Cor. 3.12 Cypr. Epist p. 59. Ox. Edit aspice totum orbem pene vastatum c. Mat. 16.18 John 16.13 Mat. 28.20 Mat 18.20 Archbish Laud against Fisher 272. Fowlis Hist Preface p. 1. Vrbs aeterna immobile saxum Grot. in Apoc. c. 17. Isaiah 41.2 Psalm 79.6 Josh 24.15 Heb. 9.10 Acts. 24.14 Acts. 28.22 Beliar Tom. 2. p. 286. Eph. 4.14 Mat. 13.24 25. Jude 4. 2 Cor. 11.2
would scarce know it to be the True Joseph's and would not trouble themselves so much to ask the time when this came to pass as lament the sadness of the change And the Apostles did not take so much care to tell the punctual time to the Disciples when Antichrist should discover himself as to make them stand vpon their guard to defend that Faith which he would invade where and whensoever he should come or whosoever he was 2. The difficulty of knowing the precise and punctual times when errors first began In many sorts of changes or Innovations 't is hard to know the nice time of their beginning but some latitude of Judging is allow'd and why not in things especially relating to Religion Are there not wild Opinions left upon Record among the Pagan Writers whose Authors are either unknown or which are falsly Father'd upon others and as hard to be known as the head of Nile Can the nicest Romanist tell us what Rabbi and in what Place and Age first superinduc't the several false glosses and senses to the Law of Moses yet our Saviour though he knew them well thought it sufficient to tell them that in the beginning it was not so and by comparing the Mosaick Religion it plainly appears they were new additions to the good old way And how many errors sprung up in the times of Christianity of whose original and other circumstances both the Romanists and our selves are yet uncertain And how many things of this Nature more near our own times are we puzled about and the difficulty of knowing them ariseth principally from this twofold account 1. From the subtilty of the contrivers of errors Which many times are the cunning and the Wise in their Generation which the necessity of their cause requires Truth being strong and error naturally weak and that Sly Deceiving Spirit lends it his utmost assistance to serve the design Such Men know how to disguise new falshoods in the old habits of Truth to make them look Ancient and Venerable they feel and know the temper of the Age and fit their Opinions to the Interest and Pleasure of it They prepare their errors to be received by degrees and one part must draw on the other and the whole must be insensibly swallow'd down So it hapned in the Adoration and Invocation of Saints and Images and the whole Structure of the Romish Religion which by several steps and in many Ages advanc't to its mighty bulk The cunning knew the consequences of their own positions how far they would reach which the Vulgar eye discern'd not they well foresaw how their Hey and Stubble variety of Phrases and changes of Syllables would at length fire the Foundation of Religion yet being invented at first by the Angelical Doctors and leaders of an Age for fame and reputation sake they and their followers first defended them for bare Truths afterwards for Sacred and Fundamental ones and things at first only Piously believ'd soon after have been adopted into a Creed And Men of rashness and Superstition only great in Place and Office have vented opinions whose fatal conclusions they at first we hope did not know yet the Cunning many times have hatcht what they left and improv'd in fatally to Religion the greatness of the Man whether an Innocent or an Hildebrand gave the error its first reputation and the cunning of others its Strength and Argument Many of the great and knowing heads of the World being corrupted unto the Roman side to defend those errors which had got footing in the Church But how can we unlock the secret methods of Rome or describe the ways and Policies by which the Mystery of Iniquity works Yet we are sure it 's carri'd on by the windings and turnings of the Serpent and Men that he imploys upon design to ruine truth for when the Apostle describes the sad Apostacies and Defections from the Faith they are said to be wrought by Men of Skill and Art who lye in wait to deceive 2. From the Passions and Infirmities of other Men. These give the false and busy deceiver and easy Victory When Opinions are so contriv'd as to serve the designs of Pride and Covetousness Ambition and Lust and other Vices they easily pass for mighty Truths their Original is not enquir'd into the Judgment is brid'd and they bear the Title of Ancient and Primitive or what the Deceiver pleaseth For these Passions have effeminated the mind made it soft and sluggish and any bold error shall slip down rather than be at the charge of a further search and enquiry to know whether these things be so or no. The Roman Religion being so well cut out in its different Doctrines to hit Mens Vices and Passions Gayety or Melancholy Enthusiasm or Fury Power or Design it 's no wonder it did prevail in a sly and silent manner interest having put out their Eyes this Kingdom came not with observation and the approaches of the Enemy in the Night of Ignorance viz. the darkness that could be felt of the ninth tenth and eleventh Century when all good Learning and Manners too were fast asleep the time when many of the new Devices of Rome were hammering out and the noise not heard were not discover'd till they had taken Possession and then by virtue of Power and great Names defended their title And their own Writers confess that many of the great Guardians of Faith the Popes of Rome were very Vicious and Illiterate Persons whose Vice and Ignorance kept them nodding while the little Thieves the Notions and Speculations of Men of Wit and Interest set open the Churches doors for the greater errors to come crowding in Our Saviour confirms the Truth of this when he compares his Church to a Field which had been sown by him and his Apostles with very good seed Wheat or some other Grain but while Men slept when Christians were grown Wicked and Careless Ignorant or Factious comes the Enemy and scatters the Tares and a new Harvest of Weeds Heretical Doctrines Superstitious Practices Foppish and Phantastick rites over-ran and choakt the purer Grain And the Apostle tells his Disciples that Men of dangerous principles abusing the Grace of God speaking Evil of Dignities and despising Dominions and denying Christ that bought them had crept in unaawares being well disguiz'd with Fine Names and Pretences while good Men were careless and sleepy And when most begin to broach new Errors and spread their Inventions for mighty Truths they do it with all the skill and artifice that so bad a design can possibly require Error and Innovation necessarily calling for the utmost Cunning and Slyness to its aid and assistance Religion therefore may easily suffer a considerable change yet good Men know not how neither the time nor Authors of it It being therefore only absolutely necessary for us to know that whensoever and howsoever these errors in the Church first sprung up that they were contrary to the Primitive Faith