or do deserve not the least notice from men who will seriously contemplate the hand power and wisdom of God in the work accomplished by them The next thing undertaken by our Author is the ingress of Protestancy into England and its progress there The old story of the love of King Henry the Eighth to Ann Bullen with the divorce of Queen Katharine told over and over long ago by men of the same principle and design with himself is that which he chooseth to flourish withall I shall say no more to the story but that English-men were not wont to believe the whispers of an unknown Fryer or two before the open redoubled Protestation of one of the most famous Kings that ever swaid the Scepter of this Land before the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland These men whatever they pretend shew what reverence they have to our present Soveraign by their unworthy defamation of his Royal Predecessors But let men suppose the worst they please of that great Heroick Person What are his miscarriages unto Protestant Religion for neither was he the Head Leader or Author of that Religion nor did he ever receive it profess it or embrace it but caused men to be burned to death for its profession Should 〈◊〉 by way of Retaliation return unto our Author the lives and practices of some of many not of the great or leading men of his Church but of the Popes themselves the Head sum and in a manner whole of their Religion at least so farre that without him they will not acknowledge any he knows well enough what double measure shaken together pressed down and running over may be returned unto him A work this would be I confess no way pleasing unto my self for who can delight in raking into such a sink of Filth as the lives of many of them have been yet because he seems to talk with a confidence of willingness to revive the memory of such ulcers of Christianity if he proceed in the course he hath begun it will be necessary to mind him of not boxing up his eyes when he looks towards his own home That Poysonings Adulteries Incests Conjurations Perjuries Atheism have been no strangers to that See if he knows not he shall be acquainted from stories that he hath no colour to except against For the present I shall only mind him and his friends of the Comaedian's advice Dehinc ut quiescunt porro mâ—neo desinant Maledicere malefactae ne noscant suâ— The declaration made in the days of that King that he was Head of the Church of England intended no more but that there was no other person in the world from whom any Jurisdiction to be exercised in this Church over his Subjects might be derived the Supreme Authority for all exterior Government being vested in him alone That this should be so the Word of God the nature of the Kingly Office and the antâ—ent Laws of this Realm do require And I challenge our Author to produce any one Testimony of Scripture or any one word out of any general Council or any one Catholick Father or Writer to give the least countenance to his assertion of two heads of the Church in his sense an head of Influence which is Jesus himself and an head of Government which is the Pope in whom all the sacred Hierarchy ends This taking of one half of Christs Rule and Headship out of his hand and giving it to the Pope will not be salved by that expression thrust in by the way under him For the Headship of influence is distinctly ascribed unto Christ and that of Government to the Pope which evidently asserts that he is not in the same manner head unto his Church in both these senses but He in one and the Pope in another But whatever was the cause or occasion of the dissention between King Henry and the Pope it 's certain Protestancy came into England by the same way and means that Christianity came into the World the painful pious Professors and Teachers of it sealed its truth with their bloud and what more honourable entrance it could make I neither know nor can it be declared Nor did England receive this Doctrine from others in the days of King Henry it did but revive that light which sprung up amongst us long before and by the fury of the Pope and his adherents had been a while suppressed And it was with the blood of English-men dying patiently and gloriously in the flames that the truth was sealed in the dayes of that King who lived and dyed himself as was said in the profession of the Roman faith The Truth flourished yet more in the dayes of his pious and hopefull Son Some stop our Author tels us was put to it in the dayes of Queen Mary But what stop of what kind of no other than that put to Christianity by Trajan Dioclesian Julian a stop by fire and sword and all exquisite cruelties which was broken through by the constant death and invincible patience and prayers of Bishops Ministers and People numberless a stop that Rome hath cause to blush in the remembrance of and all Protestants to rejoyce having their faith tryed in the fire and coming forth more pretious than Gold Nor did Queen Elizabeth as is falsly pretended indeavour to continue that stop but cordially from the beginning of her Reign embraced that faith wherein she had before been instructed And in the maintenance of it did God preserve her from all the Plots Conspiracies and Rebellions of the Papists Curses and Depositions of the Popes with Invasions of her Kingdomes by his instigation as also her renowned Successor with his whole Regal posterity from their contrivance for their Martyrdom and ruin During the Reign of those Royal and Magnificent Princes had the Power and Polity of the Papal world been able to accomplish what the men of this innocent and quiet Religion professedly designed they had not had the advantage of the late miscarriages of some professing the Protestant Religion in reference to our late King of glorious Memory to triumph in though they had obtained that which would have been very desirable to them and which we have but sorry evidence that they do not yet aim at and hope for As for what he declares in the end of his 10th Paragraph about the Reformation here that it followed wholly neither Luther nor Calvin which he intermixes with many unseemly taunts and reflexions on our Laws Government and Governours is as far as it is true the glory of it It was not Luther nor Calvin but the Word of God and the practise of the primitive Church that England proposed for her rule and pattern in her Reformation and where any of the Reformers forsook them she counted it her duty without reflexions on them or their wayes to walk in that safe one she had chosen out for her self Nor shal I insist on his next Paragraph destined to the advancement of his interest
in the Worship of God according to the mind of Christ before the Relinquishment of the Roman-See by our fore-fathers V. That the First Reformers were the most of them sorry contemptible persons whose Errors were propagated by indirect means and entertained for sinister ends VI. That our departure from Rome hath been the cause of all our evills and particularly of all those Divisions which are at this day found amongst the Protestants and which have been ever since the Reformation VII That we have no Remedy of our Evils no means of ending our differences but by a return unto the Rule of the Roman-See VIII The Scripture upon sundry accounts is insufficient to settle us in the truth of Religion or to bring us to an agreement amongst our selves seeing it is 1. Not to be known to be the Word of God but by the Testimony of the Roman Church 2. Cannot be well translated into our vulgar Language 3. Is in it self obscure And 4. We have none to determine of the sense of it IX That the Pope is a good man one that seeks nothing but our good that never did us harm and hath the care and inspection of us committed unto him by Christ. X. That the Devotion of the Catholicks far transcends that of Protestants nor is their Doctrine or Worship liable to any just exception I suppose our Author will not deny these to be the Principal nerves and sinews of his Oration nor complain I have done him the least injury in this representation of them or that any thing of importance unto his advantage by himself insisted on is here omitted He that runs and reads if he observe any thing that lies before him besides handsome words and ingenious diversions will consent that here lies the substance of what is offered unto him I shall not need then to tire the Reader and my self with transcriptions of those many words from the several parts of his Discourse wherein these Principles are laid down and insinuated or gilded over as things on all hands granted Besides so far as they are interwoven with other reasonings they will fall again under our Consideration in the several places where they are used and improved If all these Principles upon examination be found good true firm and stable it is most meet and reasonable that our Author should obtain his desire And if on the other side they shall appear some of them false some impertinent and the deductions from them Sophistical some of them destructive to Christian Religion in general none of them singly nor all of them together able to bear the least part of that weight which is laid upon them I suppose he cannot take it ill if we resolve to be contented with our present condition until some better way of deliverance from it be proposed unto us which to tell him the truth for my part I do not expect from his Church or Party Let us then consider these Principles apart in the order wherein we have laid them down which was the best I could think on upon the suddain for the Advantage of him who makes use them The first is an hinge upon which many of those which follow do in a a sort depend yea upon the matter all of them Our Primitive receiving Christian Religion from Rome is that which influences all perswasions for a return thither Now if this must be admitted to be true that we in these Nations first received the Christian Religion from Rome by the Mission and Authority of the Pope it either must be so because the Proposition carries its own evidence in its very terms or because our Author and those consenting with him have had it by Revelation or it hath been testified to them by others who knew it so to be That the first it doth not is most certain for it is very possible it might have been brought unto us from some other place from whence it came to Rome for as I take it it had not there its beginning Nor do I suppose they will plead special Revelation made either to themselves or any others about this matter I have read many of the Revelations that are said to be made to sundry persons canonized by his Church for Saints but never met with any thing concerning the place from whence England first received the Gospel Nor have I yet heard Revelation pleaded to this purpose by any of his Co-partners in design It remains then that some body hath told him so or informed him of it either by writing or by word of mouth Usually in such cases the first enquiry is Whether they be credible Persons who have made the report Now the pretended Authors of this Story may I suppose be justly questioned if on no other yet on this account that he who designes an advantage by their Testimony doth not indeed himself believe what they say For notwithstanding what he would fain have us believe of Christianity coming into Brittain from Rome he knows well enough and tells us elsewhere himself that it came directly by Sea from Palestina into France and was thence brought into England by Joseph of Ariniathea And what was that Faith and Worship which he brought along with him we know full well by that which was the Faith and Worship of his Teachers and Associates in the work of propagating the Gospel recorded in the Scripture So that Christianity found a passage to Brittain without so much as once visiting Rome by the way Yea but 150 years after Fugatius and Damianus came from Rome and propagated the Gospell here and 400 years after them Austin the Monk Of these stories we shall speak particularly afterwards But this quite spoiles the whole market in hand this is not a FIRST receiving of the Gospel but a second and third at the best and if that be considerable then so ought the Proposition to be laid These Nations a second and third time after the first from another place received the Gospell from Rome but this will not discharge that bill of following Items with is laid upon it What ever then there is considerable in the place or persons from whence or whom a Nation or People receive the Gospel as farr as it concerns us in these Kingdoms it relates to Jerusalem and Jews not Rome and Italians Indeed it had been very possible that Christian Religion might have been propagated at first from Rome into Britany considering what in these dayes was the condition of the one place and the other yet things were so ordered in the Providence of the Lord that it fell out otherwise and the Gospell was preached here in England probably before ever St. Paul came to Rome or St. Peter either if ever he came there But yet to prevent wrangling about Austin and the Saxons let us suppose that Christian Religion was first planted in these Nations by Persons coming from Rome if you will men sent by the Pope before he was born for that purpose What then
c. THe Title of this Chapter was proposed the persuit of it now ensues The first Paragraph is a declamation about sundry things which have not much blame-worthy in them Their common weakness is that they are common They tend not to the furtherance of any one thing more then another but are such as any Party may flourish withal and use to their several ends as they please That desire of honour and applause in the world hath influenced the minds of men to great and strange Undertakings is certain That it should do so is not certain nor true so that when we treat of Religion if we renounce not the Fundamental Principle of it in Self-denyal this consideration ought to have no place What then was done by Emperours and Philosophers of old or by the later School-men on this account we are little concerned in Nor have I either desire or design to vellicate any thing spoken by our Author that may have an indifferent interpretation put upon it and be separated from the end which he principally persues As there is but very little spoken in this Paragraph directly tending to the whole end aimed at so there are but three things that will any way serve to leaven the mind of his Reader that he may be prepared to be moulded into the form he hath fancyed to cast him into which is the work of all these previous Harangues The first is his inâ—â—nuation That the Reformation of Religion is a thing pretended by aemulous Plebeians not able to hope for that Supervisorship in Religion which they see intrusted with others How unserviceable this is unto his Design as applyed to the Church of England all men know for setting aside the consideration of the influence of Soveraign Royal Authority the first Reformers amongst us were persons who as they enjoyed the right of Reputation for the Excellencies of Learning and Wisdom so also were they fixed in those places and conditions in the Church which no Reformation could possibly advance them above and the attempt whereof cost them not only their dignities but their lives also Neither were Hezekiah Josiah or Ezra of old aemulous plebeians whose lasting glory and renown arose from their Reformation of Religion They who fancy men in all great undertakings to be steered by desire of applause and honour are exceeding incompetent judges of those actions which zeal for the glory of God love to the Truth sense of their duty to the Lord Jesus Christ and compassion for the souls of others do lead men unto and guide them in and such will the last Day manifest the Reformation traduced to have been The Second is a gallant commendâ—tion of the Ingenuity Charity Candor and sublime Science of the School-men I confess they have deserved good words at his hands These are the men who out of a mixture of Philosophy Traditions and Scriptureâ— all corrupted and perverted have hammâ—â—ed that faith which was afterwards confirmed under so many Anathemaes at Trent So that upon the matter he is beholden to them for his Religion which I find he loves and hath therefore reason to be thankful to its Contrivers For my part I am as far from envying them their commendation as I have reason to be which I am sure is far enough But yet before we admit this Testimony hand over head I could wish he would take a course to stop the mouths of some of his own Church and those no small ones neither who have declared them to the world to be a pack of egregious Sophisters neither good Philosophers nor any Divines at all men who seem not to have had the least reverence of God nor much regard to the Truth in any of their Disputations but weâ—â— wholly influenced by a vain Reputation of Subtility desire of Conquest of leading and denominating Parties and that in a Barbarous Science barbarously expressed untill they had driven all Learning and Divinity almost out of the World But I will not contend about these Fathers of Contention let every man esteem of them as he seems good There is the same respect in that bitter reflection which he makes on those who have managed differences in Religion in this last Age the Third thing observable That they are the Writers and Writings that have been published against the Papacy which he intends he doth more than intimate Their Disputes he rells us are managed with so much unseemly behaviour such unmanerly expressions that discreet sobriety cannot but loath and abhor to read them with very much more to this purpose I shall not much labour to perswade men not to believe what he sayes in this matter for I know full well that he believes it not himself He hath seen too many Protestant Books I suppose to think this Cenâ—â—re will suit them all This was meet to be spoken for the advantage of the Catholick cause for what there hath been of real offence in this kind amongst us we may say Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra Romanists are Sinners as well as others And I suppose himself knows That the Reviling and Defamations used by some of his Party are not to be paralleld in any Writings of man-kind at this day extant About the Appellatioâ—s he shall think meet to make use of in reference to the Persons at variance we will not contend with him Only I desire to let him know That the reproach of Galilean from the Pagans which he appropriates to the Papists was worn out of the World before that Popery which he pleads for came into it As Roman-Catholicks never tasted of the sufferings wherewith that Reproach was attended so they have no special right to the honour that is in its remembrance As to the sport he is pleased to make with his Countrey-men in the close of this Paragraph about losing their wits in Religious contests with the evils thence ensuing I shall no further reflect upon but once more to mind the Reader that the many words he is pleased to use in the exaggerating the evils of mannaging differences in Religion with animosities and tumults so seemingly to perswade men to moderation and peace I shall wholly pass by as having discovered that that is not his business nor consequently at present mine It is well observed by him in his second Paragraph that most of the great Contests in the world about perishing things proceed from the unmortified lusts of men The Scripture abounds in Testimonies given hereunto St. James expresly From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight and warr yet you have not chap. 4.1 2. Mens lusts put them on endless irregularities in unbounded desires and foolish sinful enterprizes for their satisfaction Neither is Satan the old Enemy of the well-fare of mankind wanting to excite provoke and stir up these lusts by mixing himself
is a fair way to question another which came by the same hand and this a third till the very Authority of the first Revealer be at stake which can no more defend himself then he can his Law For the same Axe and Instrument that cut down the branches can cut up the root too and if his reverence for which all the rest was believed defend not their truth it must needs at length utterly fail in his own for all the Authority they had was purely from him and he fails in them before he falls in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Papists or Roman-Catholicks first brought Christ and his Christianity into this Land is most untrue and I wonder how any one that hath read any story of the Times that are past should so often averre what he cannot but know to be untrue The Gospel might have been brought into England by Romans and yet not by Papists for I cannot find nor can this Gentleman shew that the Romans St. Paul wrote unto were any one of them in any one poynt Papists But neither was it brought hither by Romans but came immediately out of the East from whence also about the same time it came to Rome Nor is it any jot truer That we no sooner heard news of Christianity than Popery with its Crucifixes Monasteries Reliques Sacrifice that is the Mass and the like Apage nugas What do we talk of tother-day things when we speak of the first news of Christianity The first planting and watering of these things was in after-Ages and their growing up to that consistency wherein they may justly be called Popery a work of many Centuries And yet I shall grant that most of them got the start in the World of that Papal Soveraignty whence Popery is peculiarly denominated But the first news we hear of Christianity is in the Gospel where there is not the least tidings of these trifles nor was there in some Ages that next succeeded the publication of it If this Gentleman give any further occasion the particulars shall be evinced to him For my part I know not how nor to whom a Papist is become odious which nextly he complains of I can and do love their persons pitty them in their mistakes hate only their vices But yet certain it is a Papist may be odious that is men may not love those parts of his Religion from whence he is so denominated without the least impeachment of that faith that extirpated Gentilism in the World It is for that faith which ruined Gentilism that we contend against Papists Let us have that and no more and there is an end of all our Contests The things we strive about sprang up since Gentilism was buryed the most of them out of its grave some from a deeper place if there be a deeper place For the practical Truths of the Papists which he complains to be abolished I was in good hope he would not have mentioned them their speculations are better then their practises whether he intends their moral Divinity or their agenda in Worshâ—p I would desire this Gentleman to mention them no more lest he hear that of them which I know he is not willing to do As for the Practical Truths of the Gospel they are maintained and asserted in the Church of England and by all Protestants and about others we are not solicitous What tendency then the Rejection of Popery which had no hand in supplanting Gentilism and which is no part of the Religion of Christ hath to the leading of men into Atheism is as hard to discover as the quadrature of a Circle or a Subterranean passage into the Indies But he gives his reasons If one truth be denyed a fair way is made to question another which came by the same hand and this a third till the very Authority of the first Revealer be at stake which can no more defend himself then he can his Law This first Revealer I take to be the Lord Christ he that grants a thing or doctrine to be taught and delivered by him yet denyes it to be true doth indeed deny his Authority However he will defend himself and his Law let men do what they please But he that denyes such a thing to be truth because it is not revealed by him nor consistent with what is revealed by him doing this out of subjection of soul and conscience to his Authority is in no danger of questioning or opposing that Authority Nay be it that it be indeed a truth which he denyes being only denyed by him because he is perswaded that it is not of Christ the first Revealer and therefore not true there is no fear of the danger threatned But the matter is That all that is brought from Christ by the same hand must be equally received It is true If it be brought from Christ by the same hand it must be so not because by the same hand but because from Christ They that preached Christ and withall that men must be circumcised had put men into a sad condition if in good sooth they had been necessitated to embrace all that they taught the same men teaching Christ to be the Messias and Circumcision to be necessary to life eternal Amongst those that were converted to the Gospel by the Jews that were zealous of the Law how easie had it been for their Teachers to have utterly frustrated St. Paul's Doctrine of Christian liberty by telling them that they could not forgo Circumcision but they must forgo Christ also for all those things they received by the same hand If indeed a man comes and delivers a Systeme of Religion upon his own Authority and Reputation only he that denyes any one point of what he delivers is in a fair way of everting all that he asserts But if he come as sent from another and affirm that this other commanded him to declare that which he delivers for Truth in his Name and produce for that end his Commission wherein all the Truths that he is to deliver are written if he deliver what he hath not received in Commission that may honestly be rejected without the least impeachment of any one Truth that was really committed unto him by him that sent him And this was the way this the condition of them who planted the Gospel in the Name of Christ not being themselves divinely inspired So that if in the second Edition of Christianity in some parts of this Nation by Austine and his Associates any thing was taught or practised that was not according to the Rule and Commission given by Christ it may be rejected without the least impeachment to the Authority of the first Revealer nay his Authority being once received cannot be preserved entire without such rejection I confess I do almost mistrust that by this Revealer of Christianity and his Authority which he discourses about our Authour intends the Pope which if so what we have discoursed of Christ is I confess to
little purpose and it were easie to turn our Reply that way but because I have not clear Evidence for it I will not charge him with so horrid a presumptuous Insinuation when he declares his mind he shall hear more of ours But he further specifies his meaning in an enumeration of Doctrines that were preached by the first Planters of the Gospel in and unto the extirpation of Gentilism If saith he the Institution of Monasteries to the praise and service of God day and night be thought as it hath been now these many years a Superstitious folly If Christian Priests and Sacrifices be things of high Idolatry If the seven Sacraments be deemed vain most of them If it suffice to Salvation only to Believe whatever life we lead If there be no value or merit in Good Works If God's Laws be impossible to be kept If Christ be not our Law-maker and Director of doing well as well as Redeemer from ill If there be no Sacramental Tribunal for our Reconciliation ordained from by Christ on the Earth If the real Body of our Lord be not bequeathed unto his Spouse in his last Will and Testament If there be not under Christ a general Head of the Church who is chief Priest and Pastor of all Christians upon Earth under God whose Vicegerent he is in Spiritual Affairs all which things are now held forth by us manifestly against the Doctrine of the first Preachers of Christianity in this Land then I say Paganism was unjustly displaced by these Doctrines and Atheism must needs succeed for if Christ deceived us upon whom shall we rely and if they that brought us the first news of Christ brought along with it so many grand lies why may not the very story of Christ be thought a Romance I could wish there had been a little more clearness and ingenuity in this annumeration the mixing of what he takes to be Truths with some Negatives that he condemns in the same Series breeds some confusion in the Discourse And I am also compelled to complain of want of candor and ingenuity in his representation of the Protestant Doctrin in every particular wherein he takes occasion to mention it Let us then separate the things that have no place of their own in this Argument than what is ambiguously proposed after which what remains may be distinctly considered 1. What makes that enquiry in our way at this time If it suffice to Salvation to believe whatever life we lead Who ever said so taught so wrote so in England Is this the Doctrine of the Church of England or of the Presbyterians or Independents Or whose is it Or what makes it in this place If this be the way of gaining Catholicks let them that please make use of it Protestants dislike the Way as much as the End 2. What is the meaning of that which follows If there be no value or merit in good Works Who ever taught that there is no value in good Works that they are not commanded of God that they are not accepted with him that they are not our duty to be careful in the performance of that God is not honoured the Gospel adorned the Church and the World advantaged by them Do all these things put no value on them For their merit the expression being ambiguous unscriptural and as commonly interpreted derogatory to the glory of Christ and the Grace of God we shall let it pass as proper to his purpose and much good may it do him with all that he gains by it 3. If saith he God's Laws be impossible to be kept but Who said so Protestants teach indeed that men in their own strength cannot keep the Laws of God That the Grace received in this life extends not to an absolute sinless perfection in their observation which is inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace and mens walking with God therein but that the Laws of God were in their own nature impossible to be observed by them to whom they were first given or that they are yet impossible to be kept in that way of their sincere observation which is required in the Gospel Protestants teach not that I know of He proceeds 4. If Christ be not our Law-maker and Director of doing well as well as our Redeemer from ill This is a little too open and plain doth he think any man will believe him that Protestants or Presbyterians teach that Christ is not our Law-maker and Director of doing well c. I dare say he believes not one word of it himself what confidence soever he hath taken upon him of imposing on the minds of weak and unstable men Other things mentioned by him are ambiguous as If the seven Sacraments be deemed vain most of them c. Of the things themselves which they term Sacraments there is scarse any of them by Protestants esteemed vain that one of Unction which they judge now useless they only say is an unwarrantable imitation of that which was useful Of the rest which they reject they reject not the things but those things from being Sacraments and a practice in Religion is not presently condemned as vain which is not esteemed a Sacrament There is no less ambiguity in that other Supposition If the real Body of our Lord be not bequeathed to his Spouse in his last Will and Testament which no Protestant ever questioned though there be great contests about the manner of the Sacramental Participation of that real Body the same may be said of some other of his Supposals But I need not go over them in Particular I shall only say in General that take from amongst them what is acknowledged to be the Doctrine of the Papists and as such is opposed by the Church of England or by Presbyterians as Papal Supremacy Sacrifice of the Mass Monasteries of Votaries under special and peculiar Vows and Rules necessity of auricular Confession Transubstantiation which are the things gilded over by our Author and prove that they were the Doctrines all or any of them whereby and wherewith the first Preachers of Christianity in this Nation or any where else in the old known World displaced Paganism and for my part I will immediately become his Proselyte What then can be bound with this Rope of Sand The first Preachers of Christianity preached the Pope's Supremacy the Mass c. By these Doctrines Paganism was displaced If these Doctrines now be decryed as lyes why may not Christ himself be esteemed a Romance For neither did the first Preachers of Christianity preach these Doctrines nor was Paganism displaced by them nor is there any ground to question the Authority and Truth of Christ in case those that do first preach him do therewithal preach somewhat that is not true when they bring along with them an authentick conviction of their own mistakes as was manifested before and might be made good by innumerable other Instances I shall not need to follow him in his declamation to the end of this
for himself without order from any Protestant when he sets up an excuse for this change in them by a relinquishment of their first Principles and re-assuming Popish ones for their defence against the Presbyterians He that set him a work may pay him his wages Protestants only tell him that what was never done needs never be excused Nor will they give him any more thanks for the plea he interposes in the behalf of Episcopacy against Presbyterians and Independents being interwoven with a plea for the Papacy and managed by such arguments as end in the exaltation of the Roman-See and that partly because they know that their Adversaries will be easily able to disprove the feigned Monarchical Government of the Church under one Pope and to prove that that fancy really everts the true and only Monarchical State of the Church in reference to Christ knowing that Monarchy doth not signifie two heads but one and partly because they have better Arguments of their own to plead for Episcopacy then those that he suggests here unto them or then any man in the world can supply them with who thinks there is no communication of Authority from Christ to any on the Earth but by the hands of the Pope So that upon the whole matter they desire him that he would attend his own business not immix their cause in the least with his which tends so much to their weakning disadvantage If this may be granted which is but reasonable they will not much be troubled about his commendation of the Pope pag. 178. as the Substitute of Christ our only visible Pastor the chief Bishop of the Catholick Church presiding ruling and directing in the place of Christ and the like elogium's being resolved when he goes about to prove any thing that he sayes that they will consider of it But he must be better known to them then he is before they will believe him on his bare word in things of such importance and some suppose that the more he is known the less he will be believed But that he may not for the present think himself neglected we will run over the heads of his plea pretended for Episcopacy really to assert the Papal Soveraignty First he pleads That the Christian Church was first Monarchical under one Soveraign Bishop when Christ who sounded it was upon the Earth True and so it is still There is one sheepfold one Shepherd and Bishop of our souls he that was then bodily present having promised That presence of Himself with his Church to the end of the World wherein he continues its one Soveraign Bishop And although the Apostles after him had an equality of power in the Church among themselves as Bishops after them have also yet this doth not denominate the Government of the Church Aristocratical no more then the equality of the Lords in Parliament can denominate the Government of this Kingdom to be so The denomination of any Rule is from him or them in whom the Soveraignty doth reside not from any subordinate Rulers So is the Rule of the Church Monarchical The subversion of this Episcopacy we acknowledge subverts the whole Polity of the Church and so all her Laws and Rule with the guilt whereof Protestants charge the Romanists He addes It will not suffice to say that the Church is still under its Head Christ who being in Heaven hath his spiritual influences over it It will not indeed But yet we suppose that his presence with It by his Spirit and Laws will suffice Why should it not Because the true Church of Christ must have the very same Head she had at first or else she cannot be the same Body Very good and so she hath the very same Christ that was crucified for her and not another But that Head was Man-God Personally present in both his Natures here on Earth But is he not I pray the same Man-God still the same Christ though the manner of his presence be altered This is strange that being the same as he was and being presert still one circumstance of the manner of his presence should hinder him from being the same head I cannot understand the Logick Reason nor Policy of this Inference Suppose we should on these trisling instances exclude Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday to day and for ever from being the same Head of his Church as he was Will the Pope supply his room Is he the same Head that Christ was Is he God-Man bodily present or what would you have us to conclude A visible Head or Bishop if the Church hath not now over her as at first she had she is not the same she was and consequently in the way to ruine This too much alters the Question At first it was that she must have the same Head she had at first or she is not the same Now that she must have another Head that is not the same or she is not the same For the Pope is not Jesus Christ. These arguings hang together like a rope of Sand And what is built on this foundation which indeed is so weak that I am ashamed further to contend with it will of its own accord fall to the ground CHAP. XI Scripture and new Principles THe next Paragraph p. 182. is a naughty one A business it is spent in and about that I have now often advised our Author to meddle with no more If he will not for the future take advice I cannot help it I have shewed my good will towards him It is his debating of the Scripture and its Authority which I intend This with the intertexture of some other gentle suppositions is the subject of this and the following Section And because I will not tire my self and Reader in tracing what seems of concernment in this Discourse backward and forward up and down as it is by him dispersed and disposed to his best advantage in dealing with unwary men I shall draw out the Principles of it that he may know them where ever he meets them though never so much masked and disguised or never so lightly touched on and also what judgment to pass upon them Their foundation being so taken away these Sections if I mistake not will sink of themselves Some of these Principles are co-incident with those general ones insisted on in the entrance of our Discourse others of them are peculiar to the design of these Paragraphs The first I shall only point unto the latter briefly discuss 1. It is supposed in the whole Discourse of these Sections That from the Roman Church so stated as now it is or from the Pope we here in England first received the Gospel which is the Romanists own Religion and theirs by donation from them whom they have here pleased to accommodate with it This animates the whole and is besides the special life of almost every sentence A lifeless life for that there is not a syllable of truth in it hath been declared before nor
were it so that by the Ministry of the Roman-Church of old the Faith was first planted in these Nations would that one inch promote our Author's pretensions unless he could prove that they did not afterwards lose or corrupt at least that which they communicated unto us which he knows to be the thing in Question and not to be granted upon request though made in never so handsome words To say then That the Gospel is the Romanists own Religion from them you had it you contend about that which is none of your own hear them whose it is from whom you had it who have the precedency before you is but to set up scare-Crows to fright fools and children Men who have any understanding of things past know that all this bluster and noyse comes from emptiness of any solid matter or substance to be used in the case 2. It is also doughtily supposed That whatever is spoken of the Churnh in the Scripture belongs to the Roman Church and that alone The Priviledges the Authority the Glory of the Church are all theirs as the madd-man at Athens thought all the Ships to be his that came into the Harbour I suppose he will not contend but that if you deny him this all that he hath said besides is to little purpose And I believe he cannot but take it ill that any of his Readers should call him to an account in that which he every where puts out of question But this he knew well enough that all Protestants deny that they grant no one priviledge of the Catholick Church as such to belong to the Roman All that any of them will allow her is but to be a putrid corrupt member of it some say cut off dead and rotten But yet that the Catholick Church and the Roman are the same must be believed or you spoil all his market The Church is before the Gospel gives testimony unto it none could know it but by her Authority nothing can be accepted as such but what she sets her seals unto so that to destroy the Church is to destroy the Gospel What then I pray Suppose all this and all the rest of his Assertions about the Church pag. 199 200 c. to be true as some of them are most blasphemously false yet What is all this to his purpose Why this is the Roman-Church of which all these things are spoken It may be the Roman-Church indeed of which much of it is spoken even all that is sinfully derogatory to the glory of Christ and his Apostles upon whom and whose Authority the Church is built and not their Authority on it Ephes. 2.18 19 20. But what is truly spoken in the Scripture of the Church doth no more belong to the Roman then to the least Assembly of Believers under Heaven wherein the Essence of a true Church is preserved if it belongs unto it at all And yet this rude Pretence and palpable Artifice is the main Engine in this Section applyed to the removal of men from the Basis of the Scripture The Church the Church the Roman-Church the Roman-Church and these forsooth are supposed to be one and the same and the Pope to have Monopolized all the priviledges of the Church contrary to express Statute-law of the Gospel Hence he pretends That if to go out from the Catholick be evil then not to come into the Roman is evil when indeed the most ready way to go out of the Catholick is to go into the Roman 3. Moreover it is taken for granted That the Roman Church is every way what it was when first planted Indeed if it were so it would deserve as much particular respect as any Church of any City in the World and that would be all As it is the case is altered But its unalteredness being added to the former Supposition of its Oneliness and Catholicism it is easie to see what sweet work a witty man as our Author is may make with this Church among good company Many and many a time have the Romanists attempted to prove these things but failing in their attempt they think it now reasonable to take them for granted The Religion they now profess must be that which first entered England and there saith our Author it continued in peace for a thousand years when the truth is after the entrance of their Religion that is the corruption of Christianity by Papal usurpations these Nations never passed one age without tumults turmoils contentions disorders nor many without wars bloud and devastations and those arising from the Principles of their Religion 4. To this is added That the Bible is the Pope's own Book which none can lay claim to but by and from him This will be found to be a doubtful assertion and it will be difficult to conclude aright concerning it He that shall consider what a worthy person the Pope is represented to be by our Author especially in his just dealing and mercifulness so That he never did any man wrong and shall take notice how many he hath caused to be burned to death for having and using the Bible without his consent must need suppose that it is his Book For surely his heavenly mind would not have admitted of a provocation to such severity unless they had stoln his goods out of his Possession But on the other side he that shall weigh aright his vilifying under-valuing of it his preferring himself and Church before and above it seeing we are all apt to set a high price upon that which is our own may be ready to question whether indeed he have such a property in it as is pretended Having somewhat else to do I shall not interpose my self in this difference nor attempt to determine this difficulty but leave it as I find it free for every man to think as he seeth cause 5. But that which is the chief ingredieet of these Sections is the plea that We know not the Scripture to be the word of God but by the Church that is the present Church of Rome which he manageth by urging sundry objections against it and difficulties which men meet withall in their enquiry whether it be so or no. Nor content with that plea alone he interweaves in his discourse many expressions and comparisons tending directly to the slighting and contempt both of its Penmen and Matter which is said to be Laws Poems Sermons Histories Letters Visions several fancies in a diversity of composure the whole a book whereby men may as well prove their negative in denying the immortality of the soul heaven or hell or any other thing which by reason of many intricacies are very difficult if not impossible at all to be understood see p. 190 191 192 c. Concerning all which I desire to know whether our Author be in good earnest or no or whether he thinks as he writes or whether he would only have others to believe what he writes that he may serve his turn upon their credulity If
brought no other Religion with him then what was taught by Peter and Paul and the rest of the Apostles and Evangelists in other parts of the World What Religion men taught vivâ voce in any age is best known by their Writings if they left any behind them No other way have the Romanists themselves nor other do they use in judging what was the Doctrine of the Fathers in the following ages The writings of the Apostles are still extant by them alone can we judge of the Doctrine that they preached That Doctrine then unquestionably taught Joseph in Brittain and that Doctrine blessed be God is still owned and professed amongst us All and only what is contained in their Writings is received with us as necessary to Salvation This Conversion was wholly ours Quod antiquissimum id verissimum Being the first it was certainly the best Our Author indeed tells us of Crosses Shrines Oratories Altars Monasteries Vigils Emberâ— honouring of Saints you must suppose all in the Roman-mode making Oblations and Orisons for the dead and that this was the Religion in those dayes planted amongst us If this be so I wonder what we do to keep the Bible which speaks not one word of that Religion which the Apostles and Apostolical men preached Strange that in all their writings they should not once mention the main parts and duties of the Doctrines and Worship which they taught and propagated that Paul in none of his Epistles should in the least give the Churches any direction in or concerning the things and ways wherein their Worship principally consisted and their Devotion was chiefly exercised but how comes our Author to know that these things in the Roman-mode were brought into England at the first entrance of Christianity Would he would give us a little Information from what Writings or Monuments of those times he acquired his knowledge I know it is unreasonable to put an Historian to his Oath but yet unless he can plead that he received his acquaintance with things that are so long past by inspiration as Moses wrote the Story of the Creation and Ages before the Floud being destitute of any other Monuments or Testimony that might give evidence to what he says I hope he will not be offended if we suspend our belief Solus enim hoc Ithacus nullo sub teste canebat This first conversion then as was said is wholly ours it neither came from Rome nor knew any thing of that which is the present Religion of Rome wherein they differ from us That which is tearmed our second Conversion is the Preaching of Damianus and Fugatius sent hither by Eleutherius Bishop of Rome in the dayes of King Lucius in the year 190. as our Author saith Beda 156. Nauclerus Baronius 178. Henricus de Erfordia 169. in the dayes of Aurelius or Commodus I have many reasons to question this whole Story And sundry parts of it as those about the Epistles of Lucius and Eleutherius are palpably fictitious But let us grant that about those dayes Fugatius and Damianus came hither from Rome and furthered the Preaching of the Gospel which had taking footing here so long before and was no doubt preserved amongst many We know God in his Providence used many various wayes for the propagating of his Gospel Sometimes he did it by Merchants sometimes by Souldiers sometimes by Captives as a poor Maid gave occasion to the Conversion of a whole Province What will hence ensue to the advantage of the pretensions of the Romanists The Religion they planted here was doubtless that and no other which was then professed at Rome and in most other places in the world with some small differences in outward observances wherein each Church took liberty to follow Traditions or Prudential Reasonings of its own When our Author or any for him can make it appear that any thing material in that which we call Popery was in those days taught believed preached or known among the Churches of Christ they will do somewhat to the purpose But the present flourish about the Catholick Faith planted here which no man ever denyed is to none at all It was the old Catholick Faith we at first received and therefore not the present Romish After those dayes wherein this Propagation of Christianity by the Ministry of Fugatius and Damianus in this Province is supposed to have fallen out a sad decay in faith and holiness of life befel Professors not only in this Nation but for the most part all the world over which especially took place after God had graciously in the Conversion of the Emperours to the Faith intrusted them with outward Peace and Prosperity I desire not to make naked their miscarriages whom I doubt not but in mercy God hath long since pardoned but it cannot be denyed that the Stories of those dayes are full of nothing more then the oppressions luxury and sloth of Rulers the Pride Ambition and unseemly scandalous contests for preheminence of Sees and extent of Jurisdiction among Bishops the sensuality and ignorance of the most of men In this season it was that the Bishop of Rome advantaged by the Prerogative of the City the antient Seat and Spring of the Empire began gradually to attempt a Super-intendency over his Brethren according as any advantages for that end which could not be wanting in the intestine Tumults and Seditions wherewith Christians were turmoyled offered themselves unto him Where-ever an opportunity could be spyed he was still interposing his Umpirage and Authority amongst them and that sometimes not without sinful Arâ—ifices and down-right forgeries wherein he was alwayes accepted or refused according as the Interest of them required with whom he had to do What the lives of Priests and People what their knowledge and profession of the Gospel of the poor Brittains especially in those dayes were our own Countrey-man Gildas doth sufficiently testifie and bewail Salvianus doth the same for other parts of the world And generally all the pious men of those ages whilst the Priests strove for Soveraignty and Power the people perished through ignorance and sensuality Neither can we possibly have a more full conviction of what was the state of Christians and Christianity in those dayes in the world than may be seen and read in the horrible Judgments of God wherewith he punished their wickedness and ingratitude When he could no longer bear the provocations of his people he stirred up those swarms of Northern Nations Goths Vandals Hunnes Franks Longobards Alans Saxons c. Some few of them Arians the most Pagans and poured them out upon the Western Empire to the utter ruine of it and the Division of the Provinces amongst themselves After a while these fierce cruel and barbarous Nations having executed the Judgments of God against the ungodliness of men seating themselves in the warmer Climates of those whom they had in part subdued in part exstirpated as is the manner of all persons in transmigration from one Countrey to another began to
unlearn their antient Barbarism and to encline to the Manners Fashions and Religion of the people to whom they were come and with whom after their heats were over and lusts satisfied they began to incorporate and coalesce Together I say with their manners they took up by various wayes and means the Religion which they did profess And the Bishop of Rome having kept his outward Station in that famous City during all those turmoils becoming venerable unto them unto him were many Applications made and his Authority was first signally advanced by this new race of Christians The Religion they thus took up was not a little degenerated from its Primitive Apostolical purity and splendor And they were among the first who felt the effects of their former barbarous inhumanity in their sedulous indeavour to destroy all Books and Learning out of the World which brought that darkness upon mankind wherewith they wrestled for many succeeding generations For having themselves made an intercision of the current and progress of studies and learning they were forced to make use in their entertainment of Christianity of men meanly skilled in the knowledg of God or themselves who some of them knew little more of the Gospel then what they had learned in the outward observances and practises of the places where they had been educated Towards the beginning of this hurry of the world this shuffling of the Nations was the Province of Brittain not long before exhausted of it stores of Men and Arms and defeated by the Romans invaded by the Saxons Picts Angles and others out of Germany who accomplishing the will of God exstirpated the greatest part of the British Nation and drove the remainders of them to shelter themselves in the Western Mountainous parts of this Island These new Inhabitants after they were somewhat civilized by the Vicinity of the Provincials and had got a little breathing from their own intestine feuds by fixing the limits of their Leader's Dominions which they called Kingdoms began to be in some preparedness to receive impressions of Religion above that rude Paganism which they had before served Satan in These were they to whom came Austine from Rome a man as farr as appears by the story little acquainted with the mystery of the Gospel yet one whom it pleased God gratiously to use to bring the Scripture amongst them that inexhaustible Fountain of Light and Truth and by which those to whom he preached might be infallibly freed from any mixture of mistakes that he might offer to them That he brought with him a Doctrine of Observances not formerly known in Brittain â—s notorious from the famous Story of those many Professors of Christianity 〈◊〉 which he caused to be murdered by Pagans for not submitting to his power and refusing to practise according to his Traditions whose unwillingness to the â—â—ain if they could have otherwise chosen is that which I suppose our Author call's their disturbing good St. Austine in his pious work But you neither will this Conversion of the Saxons begun by Austine the Monk at all advantage our Author as to his pretensions The Religion he taught here as well as he could was doubtless no other than that which at those dayes was profest at Rome mixtures of humane Traditions worldly Policies Observances trenching upon the Superstitions of the Gentiles in many things it had then revived but however it was farr enough from the present Romanism if the Writers and chief Bishops of those dayes knew what was their Religion Papal Supremacy and Infallibility Transubstantiation religious veneration of Images in Churches with innumerable other prime fundamentals of Popery were as great strangers at Rome in the dayes of Grâ—gory the great as they are at this day to the Church of England After these times the world continuing still in troubles Religion began more and more to decline and fall off from its pristine purity At first by degrees insensible and almost imperceptible in the broaching of new opinions and inventing new practises in the worship of God At length by open presumptuous transgressions of its whole rule and genius in the usurpation of the Pope of Rome and impositions of his Authority on the neâ—ks of Emperours Kings Princes and people of all sorts By what means this work was carried on what advantages were taken for what instruments used in it what opposition by Kings and learned men was made unto it what testimony was given against it by the blood of thousands of Martyrs others have at large declared nor will my present design admit me to insist on particulars What contests debates tumults warrs were by papall pretensions raised in these nations what shameful intreating of some of the greatest of our Kings what absolutions of subjects from their Allegiance with such like effluxes of an abundant Apostolical piety this nation in particular was exercised with from Rome all our Historians sufficiently testify Tantaemolis erat Romanam condere gentem The truth is when once Romanism began to be enthroned and had driven Catholicism out of the world we had very few Kings that past their days in peace and quietnesse from contests with the Pope or such as acted for him or were stirred up by him The face in the mean time of Christianity was sad and deplorable The body of the people being grown dark and profane or else superstitious the generality of the Priests and Votaries ignorant and vitious in their conversations the oppressions of the Hildebrandine faction intolerable Religion dethroned from a free generous obedience according to the rule of the Gospell and thrust into cells orders self-invented devotions and forms of worship superstitious and unknown to Scripture and antiquity the whole world groaned under the Apostacy it was fallen into when it was almost too late the yoak was so fastned to their necks and prejudices so fixed in the minds of the multitude Kings began to repine Princes to remonstrate their grievances whole Nations to murmure some learned men to write and preach against the superstitions and oppressions of the Church of Rome Against all which complaints and attempts what means the Popes used for the safe-guarding their Authority and opinions subservient to their carnal worldly interests deposing some causing others to be murdered that were in supream power bandying Princes and Great men one against another exterminating others with fire and sword is also known unto all who take any care to know such things what ever our Author pretends to the contrary This was the state this the peace this the condition of most Nations in Europe and these in particular where we live when occasion was administred in the providence of God unto that Reformation which in the next place he gives us the story of Little cause had he to mind us of this story little to boast of the primitive Catholick faith little to pretend the Romish Religion to have been that which was first planted in these Nations His concernments lye not in
and in that manner you see me do it exercising before your eye my Priestly Function according to the order of Melchisedech with which power I do also invest you and appoint you to do the like even unto the Consummation of the world in commemoration of my Death and Passion exhibiting and shewing forth your Lords Death until he come This Protestants do not and we are mad-angry that the Papist does what his Redeemer injoyned him I fear his Readers which shall consider this odd medly will begin to think that they are not only Protestants who use to be mad-angry This kind of Writing argues I will not say both madness and anger but one of them it doth seem plainly to do For setting aside a far-fetched false notion or two about Melchisedech and the Doctrine of the Sacrament here expressed is that which the Pope with Fire and Sword hath laboured to exterminate out of the world burning hundreds I think in England for believing that our Lord instituting his blessed Supper commanded his Apostles to do the same that he then did and in the same manner even to the Consummation of the world in the commemoration of his Death and Passion exhibiting and shewing forth their Lord's death until he come a man would suppose that he had taken these words out of the Liturgie of the Church of England for therein are they expresly found and why then have not Protestants that which he speaks of Yea but Christ did this in the exercise of his Priestly Function and with the same power of Priesthood according to the order of Melchisedech invested his Apostles Both these may be granted and the Protestants Doctrine and Faith concerning this Sacrament not at all impeached but the truth is they are both false The Lord Christ exercised indeed his Priestly Function when on the Cross he offered himself to God through the Eternal Spirit a Sacrifice for the sins of the world but it was by vertue of his Kingly and Prophetical power that he instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud and taught his Disciples the use of it commanding its Observation in all his Churches to the end of the world And as for any others being made Priests after the Order of Melchisedeck besides himself alone it 's a figment so expresly contrary to the words and reasoning of the Apostle that I wonder any man not mad or angry could once entertain any approving thoughts of it That our Author may no more mistake in this matter I desire he would give me leave to inform him that setting aside his proper Sacrificing of the Son of God and his hideous figment of Transubstanatition both utter strangers to the Scripture and Antiquity there is nothing can by him be named concerning this Sacrament as to its honour or efficacy but it is all admitted by Protestants He pretends after this loose Harangue to speak to the thing it self and tells us that the consecrated CHALICE is not ordinarily given to people by the Priest in private Communion as though in some cases it were given amongst them to the body of the people or that they had some publick communion wherein it was ordinarily so given both which he knows to be untrue So impossible it seems for him to speak plainly and directly to what he treats on But it is a thing which hath need of these artifices If one falsity be not covered with another it will quickly rain through all However he tells us that they should do so is neither expedient nor necessary as to any effects of the Sacrament I wish for his own sake some course might be found to take him off this confidence of setting himself against the Apostles and the whole primitive Church at once that he might apprehend the task too difficult for him to undertake and meddle with it no more All expediency in the administration of this great Ordinance and all the effects of it depend solely on the institution and blessing of Christ If he have appointed the use of both elements what are we poor worms that we should come now in the end of the world and say the use of one of them is not expedient nor necessary to any effects of Communion Are we wiser then he Have we more care of his Church then he had or Do we think that it becomes us thus arbitrarily to chuse and refuse in the institutions of our Lord and Master What is it to us what Cavils soever men can lay that it is not necessary in the way of Protestants nor in the way of Catholicks we know it is necessary in the way of Christ. And if either Protestants or Catholicks leave that way for me they shall walk in their own wayes by themselves But why is it not necessary in the way of Protestants Because they place the effect of the Communion in the operation of faith and therefore according to them one kind is enough nay if we have neither kind there is no loss but of a Ceremony which may be well enough supplyed at our ordinary Tables This is prety Logick which it seems our Author learned out of Smith and Seaton Protestants generally think that men see with their eyes and yet they think the light of the Sun necessary to the exercising of their sight and though they believe that all saving effects of the Sacrament depend on the operation of faith and Catholicks do so too at least I am sure they say so yet they believe also that the Sacrament which Christ appointed and the use of it as by him appointed is necessary in its own kind for the producing of those effects These things destroy not but mutually assist one another working effectually in their several kinds to the same end and purpose Nor can there be any operation of faith as to the special end of the Sacrament without the administration of it according to the mind and will of Christ. Besides Protestants know that the frequent distinct Proposals in the Scripture of the benefits of the death of Christ as arising sometimes from the suffering of the body sometimes from the effusion of the bloud of their Saviour leads them to such a distinct acting of faith upon him and receiving of him as must needs be hindred and disturbed in the administration of the Sacrament under one kind especially if that Symbol be taken from them which is peculiarly called his Testament and that bloud wherewith his Covenant with them was sealed So that according to the Principles of the Protestants the Participation of the Cup is of an indispensible necessity unto them that intend to use that Ordinance to their benefit and comfort and what he addes about drinking at our ordinary tables because we are now speaking plainly I must needs tell him is a prophane piece of scurrility which he may do well to abstain from for the future What is or is not necessary according to their Catholick Doctrine we shall not trouble our selves knowing that
first from Superstition and the latter from being highly derogatory to the mediation of Christ both or either to have been known or practised in the first Churches he shall be attended unto To tell us fine Stories and to compare their invocation of Saints to the Psalmists Apostrophe's unto the works of the Creation to set forth the praise of the Lord which they do in what they are without doing more and to deny direct praying unto them is but to abuse himself his Church his Reader and the Truth and to proclaim to all that he is indeed ashamed of the Doctrine which he owns because it is not good or honest as the Orator charged Epicurus In the practice of his Church very many are the things which the Protestants are offended with Their Canonization framed perfectly after the manner of the old Heathen Apotheosis Their exalting men into the Throne of religious Worship some of a dubious existence others of a more dubious Saintship their Dedication of Churches Altars Shrines Dayes to them Their composing multitudes of Prayers for their people to be repeated by them Their divulging faigned ludicrous ridiculous Legends of their lives to the dishonour of God the Gospel the Saints themselves with innumerable other things of the like nature which our Author knoweth full well to be commonly practised and allowed in his Church These are the things that he ought to defend and make good their Station if he would invite others to a fellowship and Communion with him Instead of this he tells us that his Catholicks do not invocate Saints directly when I shall undertake what he knows can be performed to give him a Book bigger then this of his of Prayers allowed by his Church and practised by his Catholicks made unto Saints directly for help assistance yea grace mercy and heaven or desiring those things for their merit and upon their account which as I shewed are the two main parts of their doctrine condemned by Protestants I can quickly send him Bonaventure's Psalter Prayers out of the course of hours of the blessed Virgin our Ladies Antiphonies of her sorrows her seven corporeal joys her seven heavenly joyes out of her Rosary Prayers to St. Paul St. James Thomas Panoratius George Blase Christopher Who not all made directly to them and that for mercies spiritual and temporal and tel him how many years of indulgences yea thousands of years his Popes have granted to the saying of some of the like stamp and all these not out of musty Legends and the devotion of private Monks and Fryers but the Authentick Instruments of his Churches worship and Prayers Let our Author try whether he can justifie any of these opinions or practices from the words of the Lord in Jeremy Though Moses and Samuel should stand before me yet is not my Soul unto this people declaring his determinate counsel for their destruction not to be averted by Moses or Samuel were they alive again who in their dayes had stood in the gap and turned away his wrath that his whole displeasure should not arise or from the words of Moses praying the Lord to rememâ—er Abraham Isaac and Jacob his Servants which he immediately expounds as they are also in a hundred other places by remembring his Covenant made with them and the Oath he sware unto them these are pitiful poor Pillars to support so vast and tottering a Superstruction And yet they are all that our Author can get to give any countenance to him in his work which indeed is none at all Neither do we charge the Romanists with the particular fancies of their Doctors their Speculum Trinitatis and the like no nor yet with the grosser part of the people's practise in constituting their Saints in special presidentships one over Hoggs another over Sheep another over Cows and Cocks like the ruder sort of the antient Heathen which we know our Author would soon disavow but the known doctrine and approved practice of his whole Church he must openly defend or be silent in this cause hereafter This mincing of the matter by praying Saints not praying to them praying to them indirectly not directly praying them as David calls on Sun Moon and Stars to praise the Lord so praying to them as it is to no purpose whether they hear us or no is inconsistent with the doctrine and practise of his own Church to which he seemeth to draw men and not to any private opinion of his own And a wise piece of business it is indeed that our Author would perswade us that we may as well pray to Saints in the Roman-Mode as Paul desired the Saints that were then alive to pray for him We know it is the duty of living Saints to pray for one another we know a certain way to excite them to the performance of that duty in reference unto us we have Rule President and Command in the Scripture to do so the requests we make to them are no elicite acts of Religion we pray to them neither directly nor indirectly but desire them by vertue of our Communion with them to assist us in their prayers as we might ask an Alms or any other good turn at their hands I wonder wise men are not ashamed thus to dally with their own and others eternal concernments After all this at one breath he blows away all the Protestants as childish just as Pyrgopolenices did the Legions of his Enemies they are all childish Let him shew himself a man and take up any one of them as they are managed by any one learned man of the Church of England and answer it if he can If he cannot this boasting will little avail him with considering men I cannot close this Paragraph without marking one passage toward the close of it Laying down three Principles of the Saints Invocation whereof the first it self is true but nothing to his purpose the second is true in the substance of it but false in an addition of merit to the good works of the Saints and not one jot more to his purpose then the other the third is That God cannot dislike the reflexions of his divine Nature diffused in the Saints out of the fulness of his Beloved Son when any makes use of them the easier to find mercy in his sight These are good words and make a very handsome sound Wilt thou Reader know the meaning of them and withall discern how thy pretended Teacher hath colluded with thee in this whole Discourse The plain English of them is this God cannot but approve our pleading the merits of the Saints for our obtaining mercy with him A Proposition as destructive to the whole tenour of the Gospel and mediation of Jesus Christ as in so few words could well be stamped and divulged CHAP. XXI Purgatory SECT 28. WE are at length come to Purgatory which is the Pope's Indies his Subterranean Treasure-house on the Revenues whereof he maintains a hundred thousand fighting men so that it is not probable
this matter with him before any competent Judges Tu dic mecum quo pignore How else to end this matter I know not I see not then any Ground my Countrymen have to alter their thoughts concerning the Pope for any thing here tendred unto them by this Author yea I know they have great reason to be confirmed in their former apprehensions concerning him For all that truly honour the Lord Jesus Christ have reason to be moved when they hear another if not preferred before him nor set up in competition with him yet openly invested with many of his Priviledges and Preâ—ogatives especially considering that not only the person of Christ but his word also is debased to make way to his exaltation and advancement Thence it is that it is openly averred that were it not for his infallibility we should all this time have been at a loss for truth and unity Of so small esteem with some men is the wisdom of Christ who left his Word with his Church for these ends and his Word its self All is nothing without the Pope If I mistake not in the light and temper of my Countrymen this is not the way to gain their good opinion of him Had our Author kept himself to the general terms of a good Prince an universal Pastor a careful Guide and to general stories of his wisdom â—aâ—e and circumspection for publick good which discourse makes up what remains of this Paragraph he might perhaps have got some ground on their affection and esteem who know nothing concerning him to the contrary which in England are very few But these Notes above Ela these transcendent Encomiums have quiâ—e marred his Marker And if there be no medium but men must believe the Pope to be either Christ or Antichrist it is evident which way the general vogue in England will go and that at least until fire and faggot come which blessed be God we are secured from whilest our present Soveraign swayes the Scepter of this Land and hope our posterity may be so under his Off-spring for many Generations CHAP. XXIII Popery SECT 30. OUR Author hopes it seems that by this time he hath brought his Disciples to Popery that is the Title of the last Paragraph to his business not of his Book for that which follows being a parcel of the excellent speech of my Lord Chancellor is about a matter wherein his concernment lies not This is his close and farewell They say there is one who when he goes out of any place leaves a worse favour at his departure then he gave all the time of his abode and he seems here to be imitated The disingenuity of this Paragraph the want of care of truth and of common honesty that appears in it sends forth a worse favour then most of those if not than any or all of them that went before The design of it is to give us a parallel of some Popish and Protestant Doctrines that the beauty of the one may the better be set off by the deformity of the other To this end he hath made no Conscience of mangling defacing and defiling of the latter The Doctrines he mentions he calls the more plausible parts of Popery Such as he hath laboured in his whole discourse to gild and â—rick up with his Rhetorick nor shall I quarrel with him for his doting on them only I cannot but wish it might suffice him to enjoy and proclaim the beauty of his Church without open slandering and defaming of ours This is not handsome civil mannerly nor conscientious A few instances will manifest whether he hath fail'd in this kind or no. The first plausible piece of Popery as he calls it that he presents us in his Antithesis is the Obligation which all have who believe in Christ to attend unto good works and the merit and benefit of so doing in opposition whereunto he sayes Protestants teach that there be no such things as good works pleasing unto God but all be as menstruous raggs filthy odious and damnable in the sight of Heaven That if it were otherwise yet they are not in our power to perform Let other men do what they please or are able for my part if this be a good work to believe that a man conscientiously handles the things of Religion with a Reverence of God and a regard to the account he is to make at the last day who can thus openly calumniate and equivocate I must confess I do not find it in my power to perform it It may be he thinks it no great sin to calumniate and falsly accuse Hereticks or if it be but a venial one Such a one as hath no respect to Heaven or Hell but only Purgatory which hath no great influence on the minds of men to keep them from vice or provoke them to vertue Do Protestants teach There are no such things as good works pleasing to God or that those that believe are not obliged to good works In which of their Confessions do they so say In what publick writing of any of their Churches What one individual Protestant was ever guilty of thinking or venting this folly If our Author had told this story in Rome or Italy he had wronged himself only in point of Morality but telling it in England if I mistake not he is utterly gone also as to reputatioÌ„ But yet you 'l say That if there be good works yet it is not in our power to perform them No more will Papists neither that know what they say or are in their right wits That it is so without the help of the grace of God and the Protestant never lived that I know of that denyed them by that help and assistance to be in our power But they say They are all as filthy raggs c. I am glad he will acknowledg Isaiah to be a Protestant whose words they are concerning all our righteousness that he traduceth we shall have him sometime or other denying some of the Prophets or Apostles to be Protestants and yet it is known that they all agreed in their doctrine and Faith Those other Protestants whom he labours principally to asperse will tell him that although God do indispensibly require good works of them that do believe and they by the assistance of his grace do perform constantly those good works which both for the matter and the manner of their perforance are acceptable to him in Jesus Christ according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace and which as the effect of his grace in us shall be eternally rewarded yet that such is the infinite purity and holiness of the great God with whom we have to do in whose sight the Heavens are not pure and who charges his Angels with folly that if he should deal with the best of our works according to the exigence and rigour of his Justice they would appear wanting defective yea silthy in his sight so that our workâ— have need of acceptation in Christ no less then our persons and they add this to their faith in this matter that they believe that those who deny this know little of God or themselves My pen is dull and the Book that was lent me for a few dayes is called for Ex hoc uno by this instance we may take a measure of al the rest wherein the same ingenuity and conscientious care of offending is observed as in this that is neither the one or other is so The residue of his Discourse is but a commendation of his Religion and the Professors of it whereof I must confess I begin to grow weary having had so much of it and so often repeated and that from one of themselves and that on principles which will not endure the tryal and examination Of this sort is the suffering for their Religion which he extols in them Not what God calls them unto or others impose upon them in any part of the world wherein they are not to be compared with Protestants nor have suffered from all the world for their Papal Religion the hundredth part of what Protestants have suffered from themselves alone for their refusal of it doth he intend but what of their own accord they undergo Not considering that as outward affliction and persecution from the world have been alwayes the constant lot of the true Worshippers of Christ in all Ages so voluntary Self-macerations have attended the wayes of false-worship among all sorts of men from the foundation of the world FINIS