together To say that this Infallibility lies in the Church though you know not where is to say a Needle lies in a Bottle of Hay and he hath good luck that finds it Nay I think the Church of ROME hath been so modest that notwithstanding all her pretences to infallibility She never hath dared to obtrude a Comment on the Bible as infallible nor did I ever see any Interpretation of the Bible made either by Pope or Council which hath pretended to Infallibility If that Church be infallible why do not their own Divines agree in Interpretation of Scripture if there be an infallible Sense of the Scriptures in that Church then the Members of that Church are mad not to keep to that infallible Sense especially if they know where to fetch it and they offer great injuries and affronts to their Church in differing so much about interpretation of Scripture when their Church can give them an infallible Sense of it For that Church having as they pretend the Holy Ghost to guide them in all things I suppose that Spirit assists her in Interpretation of one place of Scripture as well as in another if they say it doth infallibly assist them in some places and not in all they destroy their own Principle and how shall a man be sure that just in those Points that are in dispute between Us and them they are Infallible Is the Spirit divided Or is he not always the same Or doth not he exert his power upon all occasions Madam who so blind as those that will not see Who sees not that the pretence of Infallibility is nothing but a juggle a device to maintain a tripple Crown and an Engine to carry on a temporal Authority God indeed hath promised that his Church dispersed thro' the World shall last to the World's end and that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her but that promise differs very much from a promise of Infallibility and suppose it did inferr an Infallibility how comes the particular Church of ROME to ingross it to her self that is at the best but a Member and a very unsound one of Christ's Universal Church It is one thing to be secured against being destroyed and another to be free from all possibility of Errour There is no doubt but a sober rational man that prays earnestly for illumination and reads the Scripture much and considers the Circumstances the Holy Writers were in when they writ and the Occasions of their writing and hath the advantage of Learning of Languages and History may give a very true Interpretation of Scriptures such an Interpretation as no man can rationally contradict tho' he hath not recourse to a Visible infallible Guide and tho' himself be not infallible Things may be very certain tho' they are not infallibly so and he that can make things out so that a prudent man cannot but give consent to them and hath no just cause to doubt of their truth may justly challenge belief from other men But I will not insist upon this point because I never heard you speak much of it I will come a little closer to those reasons that moved you to go over to the Roman Church whereof the principal was this that you were troubled in mind upon the account of your Sins could get no satisfaction in Our Church tho' you sought it like Esau with tears whereas you did no sooner confess to a Roman Priest and receive Absolution but you presently found unspeakable comfort And are you sure Madam that the peace and satisfaction you found in that Church was not delusion you tremble at that word but le ts consider the Nature of your peace When you were in our Church either you did truly repent of all your Sins or you did not If you did not most certainly you could have no solid peace but if you did truly repent as you say you did what could hinder you from applying the Promises made to penitent Sinners to your self which are the true grounds of comfort and satisfaction may be you wanted a Voice from heaven to confirm the Promise of the Gospel but have you since heard such a Voice from heaven in the Church of Rome I think not if you truly repented in our Church then certainly by the Word of God you were assured that your Sins were pardoned and if they were pardoned why should you not comfort your self with that pardon That which makes you rejoice now is because you believe your Sins are pardoned but if when you were of our Church you verily believed you truly repented you could not but believe that your Sins were pardoned and consequently you might have taken as much comfort as you do now But the Minister of the Church of England you say gave me no absolution which the Roman Priest did Why Madam did any of our Ministers deny your Absolution when you could assure them that your Repentance was sincere did you ever ask Absolution and were you refused Nay I appeal to your Conscience did not those Ministers you conversed withal assure you over and over that you need not doubt of the pardon of your Sins so long as you did detest and abhor them and watch and strive and pray against them and were sincerely resolved to commit them no more and did avoid the very occasions of Evil and what was this but Absolution which however you might have had performed with greater Ceremony if you had had a mind to it It is no very hard matter to guess at the rise and progress of your peace and satisfaction in the Roman Church All new things please and provided they have but a good face allure our fancy and this being pleased it 's very natural to defend them and having once defended them our Love to them advances and by degrees we think our Honour and Credit is too far engaged to part with them We see how Children are quieted with new trifles pardon the uncourtly comparison I know not how to shun it and the new object they never saw before surprizes and charms them makes them fix their Eyes upon it and cry if they cannot have it In the nature of Children we see our own and embracing new objects which our sickly fancy is roving after is but the Scene of Childrens longing for new play things changed the Novelty of the thing you were venturing upon the new Church new indeed new to you and new to Almighty God which you were to joyn your self to the Stool of Confession in the Church and the Priests new habit and mortified face which perhaps he owes more to his Country than to his Vertue and affected gravity and assuring of you that their absolution had a wonderful Vertue and Efficacy all these together surprized you and raised your expectation and struck some kind of reverence into you Your mind being thus possessed with the Idea's of these new things you never tried before and working upon your affections and moving your
will to confess to this man of Wonders you naturally fell into a fancy that so much Formality and Ceremony different from that you had been used to in our Church had more charms in it than our plain and honest way and then laid the stress of your pardon upon the new Priests absolution in that formal manner wherewith your fancy being impregnated it soon diffused a cheerful air in your countenance and raised some gladness in your heart because you had now done something more than ordinary as an Antidote against your Sin And from hence arose your pretended peace and satisfaction or delusion rather because you laid the stress of your pardon upon the absolution of that Roman Priest and not upon the sincerity of your repentance If a Priest could forgive Sin 's whether men Repent or no Then indeed you might have laid the stress of your Pardon on that forgiveness of the Priest but since by your own Confession that absolution of the Priest signifies nothing except people truly repent for you to build your comfort on that Absolution when it should have been founded upon your sincere Repentance cannot but be a false fire and a counterfeit comfort if you say you did not fetch your Peace from that Absolution but from the sincerity of your Repentance you catch your self for if your true Repentance must be the foundation of it then you might have taken the same comfort in our Church If you still reply you could not you only mean you would not for true Repentance is true Repentance in any Church and if true Repentance causes true comfort it would have caused true comfort in our Church as well as in the Roman and therefore there must be some cheat in this comfort The fancy you have since taken up that the reason why you found comfort in the Church of Rome upon your Confession and Absolution and none in ours must needs be because the Priests of that Church are true Priests and those of ours are not is as solid as your Peace If we have no true Priests in the Church of England then most certainly the Church of Rome hath none The Bishops which in the beginning of our Reformation did ordain Bishops Priests and Deacons among us were ordained by Bishops of that Church and if the Character of Orders by their own confession be indelible then it was not all the Thunders and Lightnings of Excommunication at Rome could annul it It 's true your ghostly Father very confidently tells you a Quality incident to that sort of Men That our first Protestant Bishops never received Orders from Bishops of the Church of Rome but one would admire what Spirit doth possess these Men that they dare contradict all the publick authentick Records we have of their being consecrated by Bishops of the Church of Rome they might as well deny that there were no such Kings of England as Henry VII and Henry VIII for we have nothing but publick Records to shew for it as deny that the Bishops of the Reformation were never consecrated by Bishops of the Roman Perswasion I am perswaded that if any Papist should come into trouble about the title of an Estate he hath and did but know that the name of his Ancestors the manner of the Conveyance and his just Title were in some publick Record or Register he would soon make use of it alledge it as a sufficient proof and thank God for preserving a Record that is so much for his advantage I know not what can be a better Testimony in matters of fact next to Revelation than publick Records and Registers and we dare venture our Reputation upon it that in the Authentick Registers of the respective Arch-bishops of Canterbury where fear of being counted Knaves and Fools for putting in things contrary to what was publickly known may justly be supposed to have kept the publick Notaries from asserting things notoriously false In these Registers I say it will be found what Succession our first Protestant Bishops had how Arch-bishop Parker the first Arch-bishop of Canterbury under Queen Elizabeth to go no higher was consecrated December 17. 1559. by four persons then actually Bishops and who had formerly been Ordained by Bishops of the Church of Rome viz. William Barlow in Henry the Eighth's days Bishop of St. Davids under Edward the sixth Bishop of Bath and Wells under Queen Mary driven into Exile and returned under Queen Elizabeth John Story formerly Bishop of Chichester Miles Coverdale formerly Bishop of Exeter and John Hodgkins Bishop Suffragan of Bedford Not to mention that the Queen's Letters Patents in case any of the other should be sick or forced to be absent were directed to three Bishops more that had formerly been Popish Bishops and were turned Protestants viz. Anthony Bishop of Landaff John Bishop Suffragan of Thedford and John Bale Bishop of Ossery But all this hath been so clearly demonstrated out of the publick Records first by Mr. Mason and since by Arch-bishop Bramhal that he that writes of it can only transcribe out of them and those that deny these Records must be Men of strange Foreheads and of the greatest Disingenuity From these Men that had their Priesthood from the Church of Rome our Priesthood is lineally derived so that if our Priesthood be not valid theirs cannot be and if Heresie doth not make the Episcopal Office void nor disable a Man from conferring Episcopal Order on other Men as is evident from the second Council of Nice with your Church an Oecumenical Council which received Bishop Anatolius though consecrated by Dioscorus a Heretical Bishop if I say Heresie doth not make the Episcopal Order void then suppose we were Hereticks our Priesthood which is derived from Popish Bishops that turned Protestants must be a true Priesthood still and to this purpose I remember one of your Church said lately Once a Priest for ever a Priest Madam if you desire to know the Truth be honest and sincere you should act like a Person that hath a mind to be satisfied and search the publick Records and till then believe not every Tale that 's told you The common plea of your Priests that our Records are sophisticated and that we have put in what we please argues only Boldness and Ignorance when they can shew neither where nor when nor by whom they were corrupted Those that talk so seem neither to understand what a publick solemn thing the Consecration of a Bishop is in England nor to reflect how difficult it is to fill a publick Register with Falsities as to matters of fact when there are so many hundred Men that know what is done at such a time and view the Records and would most certainly speak of it if they found a flaw in the Relation But if we should deal thus with the Church of Rome question all their Registers in the Vatican and say which we might do with far greater reason that they are things packed and invented by Men that
FOUR TRACTS I. A Discourse against Revenge shewing the Exorbitant Passions in Man from Mat. V. 21 22. II. Questions and Answers concerning the Two Religions Viz. That of the Church of England and the other of the Church of Rome Intended for the Use and Benefit of the Younger Sort of People III. An Account of an Evening-Conference with a Jesuite in the Savoy Jan. 22. IV. A Disswasive from Popery being a Letter to a Lady to preserve her from Apostacy from the Communion of the Church of England By A. HORNECK D. D. late Prebendary of Westminster and Preacher at the Savoy With a Preface by Mr. EDWARDS London Printed for S. Lownds at the Savoy W. Hinchman at Westminster-hall S. Keble in Fleet-street and D. Browne without Temple Bar. 1697. THE PREFACE HAD I attempted my self to have published any thing of this nature which I now would only recommend I should then have had too great reason to have made an Excuse and indeed too just fears not to have obtain'd it but since the Goodness Authority and Piety of the deceased Author are so very deservedly valued by the World I shall only concern my self to let the Reader know that the following Tracts were his own writing as I was desired by the Bookseller to do and which piece of Service I could not well deny him having compared the Sheets with some Manuscripts that are in my hands and with some occasional Notes of his upon the Bible and Common Prayer-Book which were lately sold with his other Books and indeed after their resolution to publish them under his name it was but reason that the Reader should be satisfied they were such as they were represented And besides the Authority that they may have the Usefulness of the first to restrain the Provocations and Revenges which this Age as moral as it pretends to be is so very full of and of the other to dispel the Carelessness and Indifferency of the World towards any Worship at all as full of Religion or rather pieces of it as at present it is may now add to its recommending For first the Sinfulness of Revenge is so very great and the pretended occasions for it so very many that the fatal forerunners of it Anger and Malice can't be too many ways nor indeed by any too severely exploded For though it 's certain that the Courage of the present Age does not any more than the Piety come up to the Excellency of the Antient and Primitive time yet that which is call'd Courage no better it may be than an ill tim'd and ill manag'd Resentment will fly oftner in their Faces than their Conscience still and raise the Concern for an affected Reputation much above the care for their truly real and eternal Safety For a mistaken Resentment quickly forgets all Obligations of Nature Country Religion and the same Flesh and Blood too sometimes in the heighth of an encourag'd Passion and unthinking fury and the frequent repeating it serves only to harden the most recommending Tenderness of our Natures to another Person and at length it may and does too sometimes make a Man forget that self preserving Care that is so unquestionably due to his own Whereas the excusing a Provocation may include the having a Power to revenge it and besides this here is the Credit of the most difficult and recommending Mastery gain'd that of a Mans self and thus a Man is most likely to secure that Dominion which he would be assuming even over his Neighbour whose Pride and Resentment when too provokingly urg'd may prove as great as his If Men would therefore comply with this agreeable restraint upon such ungovernable Passions of their Nature Revenge would be left to God who was always pleas'd to reserve it to himself who can best right our injur'd Innocence with an hand whose Correction he can withdraw at his Pleasure which command of our selves we to be sure can't pretend to so shall we be freed from the indecencies of Revenge that can never be amended if the sinfulness of it should be repented of unless a Man once provok'd were as willing to forget as the Almighty though never so incensed is to forgive upon the Submission of a repenting Offender Thus much may serve to prepare the Reader to attend to the following Discourse with a true Intention not to resist such influence as by the Blessing of God it may have upon him as that good Man doubtless pray'd it might when he writ it and as I heartily desire it may to all that read it In Relation to the other Tracts they may without doubt be very serviceable not only to the Younger in years but to those too whose neglect of their time may in this respect have shamefully levell'd them with those whose smaller Time and Judgment have not yet impower'd them to attend it for I 'm afraid it is too great a Truth that many of our own Church apprehend as little of the Articles of that Faith they pretend to be of and the Object of our Worship as the generality of the other Church do of the Language of their's and we are not only willing but concern'd too that they should understand them both So that if the first Tract should any ways contribute to restrain the troublesome and uneasie disorders of Anger and Malice and the dismal procedure of double returning Revenge and the other should furnish any unapprehending Person with a reason of the hope he has of his Salvation whenever it should be demanded or any attempt made to remove him from it which the distance of it don't seem to secure more than the Dissatisfactions Controversies and Carelessnesses may threaten And if the Account that is here given of the Absurdities Impieties and Vanities that are in that Worship should convince any Person that he ought to decline it and retain his own the Church would be serv'd No Person that I know of injured and the Reader I hope as well as my self very well pleas'd in it London May 27th 1697. W. EDWARDS A DISCOURSE against Revenge c. Mat. V. 21 22. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of the Council but whosoever shall say thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell fire FAlse Teachers without doubt are very dangerous Men. The Murtherer kills the Body these the Soul and by the false Doctrines they sow in Mens Heads and Minds they not only obstruct their Salvation but lead them into Perdition Indeed if the Errors be light and trivial the hurt that 's done is not great and while the erroneous Doctrine reaches no farther than Speculation it can deserve no very severe Censure but when it spoiles and sullies
Fury and reviling Language And being kept within these bounds I find no fault with this Anger But this is not the Anger my Text speaks of and against which Christ levells his Commination here for that 's anger without sufficient cause even Anger because our worldly Interest is not promoted as we expected or because our Honour and Reputation is touch'd or because something which gratifies our Lusts is with-held from us or because our vain Desires are not cocker'd and flatter'd or because such a Person hath not given us the Title and Respect we look'd for or because we cannot digest a Reproof or because we are cross'd in our Designs or because such a Man is not of our Opinion or because he will not conform to our Humour These are the things which commonly provoke to Passion and this Anger the farther it goes the worse it grows if from thoughts and secret grudges it proceeds to contumelious reproachful and reviling Language to calling the party ill Names Fool and Rogue and Villain and Rascal and Knave and Cheat and Hypocrite and such other Titles as modesty will not suffer us to name it becomes greater and if from Words and Expressions it goes farther yet even to Actions of Revenge and settles in Hatred in Rancour and inveterate Malice it then shuts out the righteousness of God and lets in the Devil and invites evil Spirits to come and Lodge in that house and the last Estate of that Man grows worse than the first And is not this the Case of abundance of you Do not you see something in this Glass that 's very like you and resembles your Temper And do but consider what weakness what impotency of Reason and Spirit you betray and discover by such doings Is not this an inlet to confusion and every evil work Jam. III 16. Is this the Christian Spirit is this to know what manner of Spirit you are of Is this treading in your Masters steps Is this following his Example Who when he was reviled reviled not again Dare you appear before the Son of Man in the last day with such a Disposition of Soul never yet seriously repented of Is this to resist the Devil Is this to purifie your Hearts Have you so learned Christ Is this to be Children in Malice as you are bound to be by your Profession Is this to crucifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts upon the least Provocation presently to be in a huff presently to let your Tongues loose and to break forth against your Brethren in Language fitter for Turks and Indians than for Christians Is this to be meek as Doves Is this to Love one another with a pure Heart fervently Is Hell-fire nothing but painted Flames Hath our great Master threatned it and do we make light of it Can you seriously reflect upon this Commination and be unconcerned And is not this threatning a Call to Repentance What a mercy is it that God will accept of a sincere Repentance after such Provocations But how can you repent of your Passion if you do not mortifie it How can you mortifie it if you do not conquer it How can you conquer it if you do not strive How can you strive if ye do not use the proper means and weapons God hath appointed in the Gospel How can you profess sorrow for this Sin when you fall willfully into the same Sin again Do you call a mock Repentance godly Sorrow Or do you take that to be Repentance which is separated from actual Reformation Ecclesiastical History tells us of two Bishops that fell out and proceeded even to reviling Language and so parted toward night one of them sent the other word Brother the Sun is going down with that the angry Man remembred St. Pauls saying Let not the sun go down upon your wrath and made haste and found out his offended Brother and fell on his Neck and kissed him The Pythagoreans though Heathens did the like for if they had quarrell'd one with another in the day time they would not go angry to Bed but shak'd hands before Sun-set Did Heathens do so and shall Christians be strangers to this Practice Flatter not your selves with this that you kill no body in your Anger so did the Pharisees but must ye therefore act against the Law of Reason and Religion because you do not run stark Mad Do you own your selves Disciples of the Lord Jesus and will not you believe what he saith in the Text Hath he peremptorily forbid you all Bitterness and Wrath and speaking evil one of another and will not you obey him Doth he assure you that it renders you obnoxious to Hell-fire and do not you think what if I should fall into that Fire in my anger Are you sure you shall not Hath God told you that he will not strike you dead in a Fit Do not you express all that 's terrible by Hell-fire and is not the possibility of falling into it a sufficient Defence against this inordinate Passion Do you hope for Christ's Rewards and will you deprive your selves of them by your willful disobedience Did you go about mortifying that bitterness of Spirit like Men in good earnest how could ye fail of Success Did ye pray fervently against it watch against it chide your selves frequently for it shun the occasions of it check it when ye find it rising set before you the danger and believe it Call to mind the meekness of your great Master and the wonderful Patience of the Holy Apostles in their private Injuries how could your undertakings miscarry Doth anger according to Solomon's Verdict rest in the bosom of Fools and do you take your selves to be wise Men for it O be better advised and if the Mercy the Patience the Clemency the Compassion of God toward you cannot melt down your angry your wrathful Constitution stand in awe however of your Ruin of your everlasting Ruin and remember who it is that said and protested and will Act according to his Protestation Whosoever shall be angry with his Brother without a Cause c. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CONCERNING The Two Religions VIZ. That of the CHURCH of ENGLAND And the other of the CHURCH of ROME Intended for the Use and Benefit of the Younger Sort of People LONDON Printed in the Year 1697. Questions and Answers concerning the Two Religions c. Quest. 1. HOW doth the Church of England differ from the Church of Rome Answ. The Church of England keeps close to the Antient Creeds commonly call'd the Apostles the Nicene and that of Athanasius The Church of Rome hath added new Articles of Faith to these Antient Creeds which we reject Quest. 2. When did the Church of Rome add these new Articles Answ. In the Council of Trent not much above a hundred years ago for it began in the year 1545 and ended in the year 1563. Quest. 3. What 's the reason the Church of England doth not receive those new Articles of Faith Answ. 1.
Because they are not to be found in the Word of God 2. They are many of them contrary to the Word of God 3. No Church in the World hath Power to make New Articles of Faith Quest. 4. What are the New Articles of Faith the Church of Rome hath added to the Antient Creeds Answ. They are these following I. That the Traditions of the Church are to be received with the same Faith and Veneration we owe to the Holy Scriptures II. That there are seven Sacraments Baptism Confirmation the Eucharist Pennance Extreme Unction Orders and Marriage and that these confer Grace III. That among the Ceremonies used in the Roman Church the Publick Service in Latin or an unknown Tongue is a commendable Service IV. That in the Mass there is offered to God a true Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead V. That in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the Bread and Wine are changed into the very Substance of Christ's Body and Blood VI. That Laymen need not receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist in both kinds and that it 's sufficient for them to communicate in one VII That there is a Purgatory or a Place after Death where good Mens Souls are tormented for smaller Sins and relieved by the Alms and Prayers of the Living VIII That the Saints departed this Life may and must be pray'd to and invoked and that their Reliques must be worshipp'd IX That the Images of Jesus Christ and of the Virgin Mary and of other Saints may and ought to be worshipp'd X. That Indulgences or Dispensations of the redundant Merits of Saints are very useful things XI That Auricular Confession or Confession of all our mortal Sins with the Circumstances of them to a Priest is necessary to Salvation XII That the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church and Mistress of all other Churches Quest. 5. Why must not Traditions be received with the same Faith that is due to the written Word of God Answ. 1. Because the written Word of God is perfect containing all things necessary to Salvation And that does not direct us to Traditions but rather warns us against them 2. Because the Traditions of the Church of Rome many of them are false and many uncertain 3. Their Traditions are not Traditions which have been receiv'd in all Ages by all Churches and in all Places for such only are the true Apostolical Traditions 4. That they are not absolutely necessary their own Practice shews in that they reject Authentick Traditions and particularly that of Communicating Infants And here you may note The Reason why they fly to Tradition is because they cannot prove their New Doctrines by the Word of God Quest. 6. Why do not you believe seven Sacraments Answ. 1. The Holy Ghost in Scripture hath no where declared such a number 2. This precise number of Seven Sacraments was not heard of in the Christian Church till twelve hundred years after Christ. 3. There are but Two Sacraments mention'd in the New Testament I mean such as are true and proper Sacraments viz. Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. 4. The Council of Trent was the first that made this Number an Article of Faith Quest 7. Why do not you allow of Publick Service in Latin or in a Tongue not understood by the People Answ. 1. Because St. Paul writes a whole Chapter against it 1 Cor. 14. 2. Because the Publick Service ought to be for the Edification of the People and Service in an unknown Tongue cannot edifie 3. The Practice of the Primitive Church is against it 4. Some of the wiser Men in the Church of Rome themselves find fault with this Publick Service in an unknown Tongue 5. This Practice in the Church of Rome is only to serve some Worldly Ends. Quest. 8. Why do not you admit of the Sacrifice of the Mass Answ. 1. Because the Church of Rome tells us that they do sacrifice Christ every day in the Mass which is directly contrary to the 9th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 9. 25 26 27 28. 2. Because there can be no true and proper Sacrifice without Death and it founds dreadful to a Christian Ear that the Priest kills Christ every day or which is all one puts his God to Death 3. It destroys the end of a Sacrifice which is to testifie our Subjection to God but in this Sacrifice of the Mass the Offerer who is the Priest must be greater than the Offering 4. The Lord's Supper is only a Commemoration or Representation of Christ's Sacrifice and a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving but no proper or true Propitiatory Sacrifice Quest. 9. Why do not you believe a Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Answ. 1. It is against all Sense for we may see and feel and hear and taste and smell that the Bread and Wine after Consecration are Bread and Wine still 2. It is against Reason that Christ's Body and Blood should be in a thousand places at once 3. It is against Scripture for Christ protests that his flesh profits nothing Joh. 6. 63. 4. It is against the Nature of a Sacrament which is an outward visible Sign of something Spiritual and Transubstantiation destroys the Sign 5. Christ himself explains what he means by saying This is my Body when he adds Do this in remembrance of me which remembrance supposes the absence of his Natural Body 6. It is against that Article of our Faith which saith That Christ is to continue in Heaven till the Restitution of all things And there is no necessity we should take the words literally any more than the words in Jo. 10. 7. I am the door c. 7. This is my Body is a Phrase or Form of Speech exactly like that of the Lamb in the Passover This Lamb is the Passeover i. e. the Memorial of it 8. These words This is my Body do not naturally infer a substantial change by the Confession of some Papists themselves 9. They themselves cannot be sure of this Change because they say it depends upon the Intention of the Priest 10. The Absurdities that flow from the Doctrine of Transubstantiation are innumerable for then Christ must have eaten himself the Disciples must have eaten up their Master Christ's Body may be lockt up in a Box for half a year together and longer c. Whereas the Doctrine of the Church of England that the Bread represents Christ's Body and upon that account is his Body hath no Inconveniency in it 11. Transubstantiation is against the Doctrine of the Primitive Church which calls the Bread the Figure of Christ's Body Quest. 10. Why do not you think it lawful for Laymen to receive the Communion in one kind only Answ. 1. Because Christ saith expresly to the Disciples Drink ye all of this 2. The Practice of the universal Church of Christ for a thousand years together is against it 3. The Council of Constance in the year 1416. was the first that durst venture
used as a means to get Money 5. By these Indulgences men are hindred from a true Repentance for they pretend to release Men by them both from Sin and Punishment at least the People are suffer'd to think so if they do but say so many Prayers or go in Pilgrimage to such a place or fast so many days from some kinds of Meats or give a large sum of Money for the building of a Church or go to War against Infidels c. Quest. 15. Why do not you think Auricular Confession to a Priest necessary to Salvation Here you must Note That we are not against Confession in the Church of England nay our Church presses it both publick and private to God and Confession to a pious and able Minister if the Conscience be burden'd and upon a Death-bed but we dare not say as they do in the Church of Rome that a Man cannot be pardon'd or saved except he Confesses to a Priest 1. We allow not of it in the sense of the Church of Rome Because there is nothing in the Word of God that makes the neglect of it Damnable 2. The Confession used in the Primitive Church was made by scandalous Sinners publickly in the Congregation and therefore is not the same with that practis'd in the Church of Rome which commands the Confessing all mortal Sins with their Circumstances into the ear of a Priest at set times and before the receiving of the Sacrament 3. Since it is not of Divine but Ecclesiastical Institution it cannot be absolutely necessary to Salvation 4. It cannot be a Sacrament as they make it in the Chuch of Rome because it wants Christ's Institution 5. This Confession to a Priest as it is managed in the Church of Rome is no Check but rather an Encouragement to Sin Quest. 16. UUhy do not you believe that the Church of Rome is the only Catholick Church and the Mistriss of all other Churches Answ. I can never believe that the Church of Rome is the only Catholick Church 1. Because there are vast multitudes of Christians in the World which are not in actual Communion with the Church of Rome and yet are Members of the Catholick or which is the same of Christ's universal Church dispersed all the World over 2. To say That the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church is to say That a part is the whole or that a House is a whole City or that one Member is the whole Body 3. The Primitive Christians did not take the Church of Rome for the only Catholick Church 4. God hath no where in Scripture declared so much 5. To say the Church of Rome is the only Catholick Church is a most uncharitable Doctrine and to Damn the greater part of the Christian World 6. All Churches that do hold the ancient Faith contain'd in the three Creeds are Members of the Catholick Church 7. The Church of Rome is so far from being the only Catholick Church that her strange Doctrines make her at the best but a very unsound Member of the Catholick Church I do not believe That the Church of Rome is the Mistress of all other Churches in the World 1. Because there is no such Authority given her in the word of God 2. The Superiority she Claims is nothing but Usurpation 3. The Asian and African Churches heretofore rejected her Authority 4. The Eastern Churches at this day despise her Pride and pretended Authority 5. The Church of England was a free Church from the beginning and therefore justly maintains her Freedom and how should that Church be Mistress of all other Churches that takes Liberty to change Christ's Institutions and Commands and contradicts the Word of God Quest. 17. Doth the Church of Rome differ from the Church of England in any other Points Answ. Yes for she holds 1. That Extreme Unction is a Sacrament necessary to Salvation 2. That it is unlawful for Priests to Marry 3. That she is infallible 4. That the Scripture is not to be read in a vulgar Language by the common People 5. That the Books call'd Apocrypha are Canonical Scripture 6. That the Church of England had no Power to Reform her self All which we deny as contrary to Scripture and Reason Quest. 18. Why do not you believe that Extreme Unction is a Sacrament necessary to Salvation Ans. 1. Because that Unction or anointing sick Persons Jam. 5. 14 15. was a miraculous Gift and therefore not necessary to be continued 2. Christ did never institute this miraculous Unction as a Sacrament 3. The Unction they use in the Church of Rome hath no miraculous effects 4. The Apostles an̄ointed sick Persons that they might recover In the Church of Rome they anoint dying Persons who are past Recovery 5. In that place of St. James the saving of the sick Person is ascribed to the Prayer of Faith not to the anointing 6. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is sufficient to comfort the dying Man Quest. 19. Why do you look upon their forbidding Priests to marry as unlawful Answ. 1. Because St. Paul permits a Bishop and indeed all Clergy-men to marry 1 Tim. 3. 2. 8. 11. Tit. 1. 6. 2. The same Apostle saith to all Men in general It is better to marry than to burn 1 Cor. 7. 9. 3. The same Apostle calls forbidding to marry a Doctrine of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1. 3. 4. St. Peter himself an Apostle and a Priest was a married Man 5. Several of the Bishops in the Primitive Church were married Men such as Spiridion Chaereman Phileas Gregory Nyssen Gregory Nazianzen both Father and Son Hilary and others 6. It was Pope Hildebrand or Gregory VII the same that first presumed to depose Soveraign Princes that made the Clergy renounce their Wives contrary to Scripture a Man guilty of the greatest Crimes imaginable Quest. 20. Why do not you believe the Church of Rome infallible Answ. 1. Because it is only a Pretence founded neither in Scripture nor Antiquity 2. It is a Church that hath err'd both in Doctrine and the Worship of God most notoriously 3. God hath no where promis'd to make any one Church infallible 4. Themselves are not agreed where this Infallibility lies whether in the Pope or in a general Council or in the diffusive body of Christians 5. The Word of God is the only infallible Rule to walk by 6. There is no need of a visible infallible Judge for deciding of Controversies For 1st Controversies may be decided without such a Judge as they were in the Primitive Church the Bishops meeting in Council and arguing against Hereticks from the Word of God 2d A meek humble peaceable and charitable Temper would decide Controversies better than all the pretended infallible Judges in the World 3d. We do not find that when there were infallible Judges here on Earth such as Christ and his Apostles that all Controversies did cease Notwithstanding their presence there were Schisms and Heresies even among the Christians 1 Cor. 11. 19.
4th For all the pretences of Infallibility in the Church of Rome they cannot decide the Controversies that are among their own Members 5th Both Popes and General Councils have contradicted one another and therefore neither of them can be infallible 6th The pretence of Infallibility in the Church of Rome is nothing but a device to uphold their Temporal Grandeur and Dominion Quest. 21. Why do you think the Church of Rome is in an Error in forbidding the reading of the Bible to the Common People Answ. 1. Because Christ commands all sorts of Men to read the Scriptures Joh. 5. 39. 2. The Berrhaeans are commended for searching the Scriptures Acts 17. 11. 3. The Fathers in the Primitive Church exhorted the People to the frequent reading of the Scriptures 4. St. Paul charges the Thessalonians to take care that his Epistle be read to all the holy Brethren 1 Thess. 5. 27. 5. In the Jewish Church every Family was to have the Law in their Houses and to teach it their Children diligently Deut. 6. 7. 6. The pretence of the Obscurity of the Scripture in many places is insignificant since the Scripture is plain enough in things necessary to Salvation 7. The Church of Rome in forbidding the Bible to the Laity discovers her fear and the weakness of her Cause least the People should see her Errors and forsake her Quest. 22. UUhy do not you believe that the Books call'd Apocrypha are Canonical Scripture Answ. 1. Because the Oracles of the Old Testament were delivered to the Jewish Church Rom. 3. 2. and these were not 2. The Christian Church receiv'd from the Jews no other Books of Canonical Scripture but what are own'd as such by the Church of England 3. The Apocrypha were not written by Men inspired by the Holy Ghost and what is Scripture must be by Inspiration 2 Tim. 3. 16. 4. Some of the Authors beg the Readers pardon for their Mistakes which is not the Language of the Holy Ghost 5. The Antient Councils have rejected these Apocrypha as not Canonical particularly the Council of Laodicea 6. In the Primitive Churches they read these Apocrypha only for the Instruction of Mens Manners but did not resolve their Faith into them no more do we Quest. 23. UUhy do you find fault with the Church of Rome for asserting that the Church of England once a Member of her Communion had no power to reform her self Answ. 1. Because every Church hath a natural right to shake off the Abuses and Corruptions which are contrary to the Word of God 2. It is God's Command to private Men not to suffer themselves to be deluded by the slight of Men and cunning Craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive and therefore much more is a National Church concern'd to do so 3. In vain was any Reformation hoped for from the Bishop and Clergy of the Roman Church 4. It 's the proper Office of the Bishops of a National Church to take notice what Errors creep into their Churches and oppose them 5. And that they have right to do so appears from the Examples the Church of Judah had in the times of Jehoshaphat or Hezekiah or Josiah 6. In throwing off the power of the Pope of Rome we did not throw off Obedience to a lawful Soveraign but Subjection to an Usurper 7. We did no more than what the Orthodox Churches did after the Arian Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia in setting up the Nicene Faith again which those powerful Councils had banish'd 8. We made no new Religion but restor'd the old and built no new House but only swept out of the old the Rubbish which made it unwholesom and uninhabitable The End An Account of the Conference betwixt a Jesuit of the Savoy and my Self the 2d of January Present Mr. Stephens on my side Mrs. Chamberlain and Mr. Chamberlain and the Book-binder about whom the Conference was held he having been six years of the Church of Rome but somewhat unsatisfied and Mr. Lamb. About Seven of the Clock at Night THE first thing Discoursed was about the Doctrine of Calvinists which the Jesuit said made God the Author of Sin I told him that there are several Expressions which if a favourable Construction be put upon them will appear to be otherwise Next he fell upon Luther who should say that no Man could be damned if he would but for his Infidelity I said it was true that God condemned no Man that professed himself a Christian but for his Infidelity The Jesuit asked whether if a Man committed Theft he may be call'd an Infidel I said he acted like an Infidel and in that Act was so because he acted contrary to his Belief Mr. Chamberlain putting in something about that place 1 Tim. 2. about one Mediator The Jesuit argued he wonderd we should talk of one Mediator when every Man that pray'd for the other was a Mediator I told him in a large Sense he might be called so but in the Controversie before us were meant Mediators which are religiously worshipped Here happened a great rambling Discourse about Faith As distinguished from all good Works but I told them that by Faith I did not mean the bare Assent to the Doctrine but a practical Belief as it takes in the whole Word of God and living according to it The Book-binder was gone to call Mrs. Chamberlain and coming again by this time The Jesuit said they were come to satisfie Persons under some Doubts and therefore must fall upon some more material Points and since we Protestants sent people to the Scripture it was necessary we should begin to talk of the Rule of Faith and therefore he desired to know how we knew the Scripture to be the Word of God and from whom we had received our Bible I told him we had received it from the Catholick Church whose Testimony was very considerable in this Case He ask'd hereupon when we went off from the Church From what Church we did immediately receive it I answered him both from the Western or Roman and from the Churches of the East However I told him I would fairly grant him that we had received it immediately from the Church of Rome and I desired him to make the best of it Here he asked how we could receive the true Bible from a corrupt Church I asked him whether I might not receive a Pearl from a Chimney Sweeper He said we looked upon them for Rogues and Rascals Whereupon I told him we give them no such Language However sinc he used these Names whether a Man might not receive a 100 l. in very good Money from Rogues and Rascals He then argued That we look'd upon the Church of Rome as a corrupt Church and how can we be sure that we have the true Bible since we cannot be sure that a corrupt Church had not corrupted it I told him that they confessed themselves they had not corrupted it and besides they could not corrupt it for the Cheat
would have been found out by the comparing of ancient and modern Copies He then asked again what we counted the Rule of Faith I told him the Scripture He asked whether with a true Interpretation or without it I told him the Scripture with true Interpretation He then replied how we should know the true Interpretation I told him things necessary to Salvation needed no great Interpretation and the words are deliver'd so plainly that any one that runs may Read it He then asked whether every Man was a true Interpreter of Scripture I said every Man had a Judgment of Discretion but there was no Question there were several Persons that might mis-interpret it but if a Man went this way to work read the Scripture pray for Illumination and go to it with a pure Intention he might understand things necessary and he could not err damnably and in things more difficult consult by his Guides He said this would establish every Man in his Religion and a Mahometan ought to be directed by his Guide and why must we follow the Guides of our Church and not the Guides of the Roman Church I told him that People bred and born and baptized in this Church had greater reason to consult their own Guides than others because they had greater Obligations to them Still he urged no Man could be ascertain'd of the true Interpretation of the Scripture without some Judge I desired him to name that Judge over and over but could not bring him to it I know not how the Discourse came in here about different Interpretations and I said the Writers of their Church differ'd in their Interpretation He said none of their Writers differ'd from one another in the Interpretation of places relating to Articles of Faith I asked him what he thought of Extreme Unction He said it was an Article of Faith Very well said I then I 'll prove that Cajetan interprets that place of St. James of another Unction and saith contrary to the Council of Trent that Extreme Unction cannot be proved from that place He said the Council of Trent did not denounce Anathema to him that should interpret that place of St. James of another Unction I then fetcht him down out of my Study the Council of Trent and shew'd him that Sess. 14. it did denounce Anathema to them that should not believe So then he said they laid not the strain upon that place but St. Peter and St. Paul had spoken of it too I challeng'd him to shew me any place in St. Paul or Peter that had spoken of this Unction He then turn'd it off and said he did not mean it of any express mention but only that the Apostles did not use to contradict themselves After this either the Jesuit or Mr. Stephens moved it that there might be another Meeting and that we should write down all I told him I agreed to it and accordingly we appointed Wednesday next the 4 th of January at Four a Clock in the Afternoon and so they departed the Jesuit and Mr. Lamb The Bookbinder and Mr. Chamberlain and his Mother and another young Woman And the Bookbinder and Mr. Stephens and my self and Chamb. and his Mother staid a while when I fell in discourse about Invocation of Saints and fetcht him down the Office of the Virgin Mary The Contempt of the Glories of the Virgin Mary and shew'd him that they did not only pray to Saints to pray for them but begg'd the same Blessings of them they did of God The Bookbinder said the Contemplations of the Glory of the Blessed Virgin was not allow'd of in their Church He said if they did more than pray to Saints to pray for them he did not righly understand his Church The End A DISSWASIVE FROM POPERY BEING A LETTER TO A LADY TO Preserve her from Apostacy from the Communion of the Church of ENGLAND LONDON Printed for W. Hinchman S. Keble and D. Brown 1697. A DISSWASIVE from Popery being a Letter to a Lady to preserve her from Apostacy from the Communion of the Church of England Madam AND are you indeed got into the only Catholick Church And are you sure the Men you have lately believed have not deceived you as you fancy we have done for tho' you may be so charitable as to think that we have not intentionally cozened you yet since you cannot suppose us to be both in the Right you must necessarily conclude that we have at least ignorantly abused and imposed upon you and did you ever rightly consider what a truly Catholick Church does mean Men of Sense and Reason always believed that a Church which holds the truly Catholick Faith is a true and sound Member of the Catholick Church and dares Malice it self say that we do not hold the Apostles the Nicene and Athanasius's Creed The Church of Rome her self confesses that these Creeds contain the truly Catholick Faith And most certainly when the Nicene Council was celebrated and in Athanasius's time that Church was counted a sound Member of the Catholick Church that held that Catholick Faith which is expressed in those Creeds and do we not hold that Faith Do we not stand up at it to express our Readiness to defend it And what have we done that we must not be counted a Catholick Church Is it because we will not receive things which the Church of Rome hath since added to the Catholick Faith Is it because we will not admit of the Doctrines which that Church was first induced to believe by the Darkness and Ignorance of the Ages it lived in and at last loath to part withal for fear they should be thought to have been so long in an Error Is it because we will not yield to things which we apprehend to be directly against the Word of God and destructive to that Catholick Faith the Christian World hath professed in all Ages Is it because we will not deceive the People of the Cup in the Blessed Sacrament which Christ intended as a mighty comfort to them Is it because we will not believe the Miracle of Transubstantiation against four of our Senses and Reason and Scripture to boot Is it because we will not suffer the Worship of God or that which is very like it to be given to Creatures because of the very appearance of the evil of Idolatry which we are commanded to shun as much as Idolatry it self Is it because we will not believe a Purgatory Fire which cleanseth little but Peoples Purses of their Money Is it because we will not indulge the Pride and Arrogance of a Man at Rome who having first wheedled the Christian Princes out of their Means and Power hath at last made that Power and Riches hereditary to his Successors under a pretence of a Legacy from Christ Is it because we will not believe contrary to the Apostles Rule that publick Prayers which are intended for the benefit and understanding of the Multitude must be said in a Tongue unknown to the
Bible among prohibited Books for should the People have liberty freely to peruse it the Church of Rome would grow very thin and despicable I am sensible your Priests find fault with our Translation of the Bible and cry out that there are great defects in it but when they talk so they had need talk to Women not to Men of Learning and that undestand Greek and Hebrew the Languages in which the Word was originally written The Honesty of our Translators appears sufficiently from hence because if any Sentence in the Bible be capable of a double Sense they express the one in the Text and the other in the Margin and where they do but in the least vary from the Original they either discover it by the Italick Character or give you notice of it in the Margin than which there can be nothing more honest And let any Papist of you all shew us wherein any thing in our Bibles is ill translated out of Malice or Design or expressed in words which the Original will not bear If we examine Translations by the Original then sure I am there is few Translations go further from it than the Vulgar Latin or the Rhemist Testament as were an easie matter to prove if I intended more than a Letter You are much taken with their Mortifications and Penances which you say we have not in our Church But it 's a sign Madam you did not rightly understand our Religion We are so far from condemning Mortification and Severity of Life that we do commend it provided it be in order to subdue the body of Sin and to raise our selves to a greater pitch of Vertue provided these Severities be separated from all opinion of Merit and from an opinion of their being satisfactory and expiatory and used only as helps to work in us a perfect Detestation of Sin And I will assure you there are more in the Church of England that use Severities in this humble holy way than you are aware of We indeed do not ordinarily inflict them on all persons because we know not there Constitution nor what their nature will bear nor have we any command for it in the Word of God but these things we leave to every Man's Discretion urging that where Sins require stronger Remedies there Men ought to make use of them and if their Corruptions will not be gone by Reasonings and Arguments that there they must inflict Mulcts and Penalties on themselves to drive the Unclean Spirit out Though I must say still that Religious Severities and Austerities are not certain signs of a true Religion for Heathens do use them as much as Christians nay more than Christians witness the Brahmanes in the Indies and the Religious Pagans dispersed through all the Eastern parts and if you conclude that therefore the Church of Rome must be in the right because they inflict great Pennances and Severities and make daily use of them I am afraid you only forbear turning Turk or Heathen because you never saw their far greater Severities in Religion than the Church of Rome can boast of But still the Protestant Church hath not the real Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Sacrament which the Church of Rome hath And are you sure the Church of Rome hath it I am perswaded you did never taste it nor see it nor feel it nor smell it and how do you know it What because the Priests of that Church do tell you so No say you it is because Christ saith in express terms this is my Body And here I confess I stand amazed that Men with Learning and Reason about them can sink into an opinion so contradictory that if all the consequences of it be considered there is nothing in nature can be more absurd or irrational and the Church of Rome had need oblige Men to deny both their Reason and Senses to believe a Transubstantiation Here indeed a Faith is necessary strong enough to remove Mountains and though never any Miracles were wrought but were wrought on purpose to convince our Senses yet here we must believe one which neither Sense nor Reason can discover When Christ gave the Sacrament to his Disciples saith the Apostle 1 Corinth 11. 24. He brake the Bread and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you It is a wonderful thing that the word is in the first Sentence this is my Body should have a literal Sense and in the very next Sentence pronounced with the same breath cannot admit of a literal Sense for the word is in the second Sentence must necessarily stand for shall be because Christ's Body when he gave the Bread was not yet broken If it will not admit of a literal Sense in the very next Sentence because of the Absurdity that would follow that Christ was crucified before he was crucified why should we understand it in the first Sentence literally when the Absurdity is far greater Nay that the word is should not be capable of being understood literally in the second essential part of the Sacrament This Cup is the New Testament that here I say it should import and can import nothing else but signifies or is a sign of the New Testament and yet must not be understood so in the first part of the Sacrament is a thing we cannot comprehend And when the Apostle speaking of Lord's Supper or Eucharist 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ and the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ Let the rigidest Papist that hath not quite banished his Reason tell me how he will make Sense of the word is here except he understand it figuratively most certainly it cannot be understood literally for the Cup is not that Communion but is a sign of it One would admire how Men can be so obstinate in a thing as clear as the Sun and you might as well conclude that Christ is a Door made of Boards and Nails because the Scripture saith he is a Door and that he is a real Vine with green Leaves and Grapes about him because the Scripture saith he is a Vine But suppose the word is in these words This is my Body must be understood literally how doth this make for Transubstantiation Are the words is and is transubstantiated all one A thing may be said to be a thousand ways and yet without Transubstantiation so that if by the word is you understand Transubstantiation you your selves must go from the literal sense and assume a sense which is not expressed in that saying All the Jews are so well versed in the sense of Sacramental Expressions that by the word is they understand nothing but signifies or represents and therefore it 's a horrid shame that Christians meerly for fear of being laughed at for departing from an absurd opinion and losing the credit of a pretended Infallibility should make themselves ignorant in that
Suppose our Religion did but begin then why must people be always in an Error Must they never reform when they have done amiss if there were monstrous Errors in the Church of Rome which the aforesaid Persons saw would be the Death of Christianity and which they could not subscribe to without debauching their Reason or wronging both their own and other Mens Consciences was it not rational they should protest against such things to give their fellow Christians warning When the House is on fire would you have no body awake to alarm the Neighbours to look to themselves did they see so many thousand Men ready to be drown'd and would you have had them hold their Tongues and barbarously suffered them all to be drown'd Did they see the Christian Religion like to be swallow'd up by Darkness and Ignorance and was it not time to rouze the slumbering World But however that these Men were the first broachers of our Religion is notoriously false First because long before them there were Men that lived in the external Communion of the Church of Rome but dislik'd the Errors as they crept in and grew dangerous and though they were over-aw'd and silenc'd many times by the higher Powers of the Roman Court yet they both detested those Corruptions and as they had opportunity protested against them as were an easie matter to prove from age to age if it had not been done already over and over by Divines of our Church so that though these Men that lived long before Luther and whom God still rais'd to vindicate his Truth as it grew more and more polluted were not call'd Protestants by the People yet in effect they were so and consequently there were Protestants many years before Luther and Zwinglius And though they were not suffered by the Ignorant and imperious Ecclesiastical Powers to meet and assemble themselves in publick yet they made a Church as much as the followers of Holy Athanasius did when the whole World was turned Arian as much as Elijah and those seven thousand the Oracle mentioned made a Church when the whole Country was over-run with Idolaters These seven thousand we read lay hid and durst not appear in publick being oppress'd by the Idolatrous powers that sat at the Stern and thought there was no good fishing but in troubled waters And indeed in this manner our Church was dispers'd long before Luther among the greater multitude of the followers of the corrupted Roman Church as a handful of wheat lies scatter'd in a bushel of Chaff and though it it did not appear in Pomp and Grandeur yet that external Splendour is not essential to the truth of a Church your own men may be convinced by the aforementioned examples Secondly if your Champions speak strictly of the Religion which we profess in the Church of England they are under a mistake when they make Luther or Zwinglius the Authors of it for our Reformation began some time after and was both begun and carried on with great deliberation and consideration under Edward the 6th by publick Authority whose proper province it is to take notice of what is amiss in a Kingdom or Commonwealth whether it be in Church or State and to reform and mend it It 's no great matter when a Reformation begins so the Reformation be but just and if such a Reformation had begun but yesterday that would not have made it unlawful and that our Reformation was just and necessary hath been prov'd by our Divines beyond all reasonable contradiction and how could it but be just when the Decrees of the Church of Rome controll'd the Word of the Living God and vyed with the Oracles of the Gospel How and when the several Errors crept into that Church is not material to determine it 's enough we found them there and it was God's mercy not to give all the learned Men of that age over to believe a lye But it 's pretty to hear your Church-men talk of the novelty of our Religion when it is evident to all the understanding World that our first Reformers began no new Religion but desired only to keep to the Old All their endeavour was to keep to the Religion of the Bible and to cut off all superfluities and things prejudicial to Salvation and was there any hurt in that They saw that many things then in use in the Church of Rome were diametically opposite to the Doctrines and practises of the Primitive Church and they justly thought it their Duty to reduce the Church to the antient Pattern the prouder Clergy of the Roman Church would not yield to it but would have all their new fangles and all their additions to the antient Symbols received as Articles of Faith though all perish'd and the coat of Christ were rent into a thousand pieces the more humble and more moderate of the Clergy saw the pride and insolence of the other and trembled and thus we and they parted we kept to the old Religion and your Men chose the new and much good it may do you with it and pray Judge by this which is the Schismatick Church we or they we that would have healed Israel or they that would not be healed so that it is not our Religion that began so lately as 150 years ago about Luthers time but it 's yours that commenced then for you then embraced the new additions to the antient Catholick Creeds with greater greediness and were resolv'd to maintain that by Bravado's which you were not able to defend with Arguments It 's a very ordinary thing for people who once incline to the Communion of the Roman Church to demand of us before they go over whither a person may be saved in that Church The Charity and moderation our Divines usually express in their answer to this Query I am sensible hath done our Church some harm whereas the Roman Priests being bold in their uncharitableness and damning all that are out of their Communion make some weak people believe that they must be in the right because they are more daring in their Asseverations We have far greater reason to be peremptory in excluding the Members of the Church of Rome from Salvation than they have to exclude us for if that Church be guilty of Idolatry as I see your Divines find it a very hard task to answer the Arguments of our learned Men that prove it Those that are guilty of this Crime may soon be resolved by the Apostle what their lot is like to be in another World for No Idolater saith St. Paul meaning one that lives and dies so shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9. yet we are modest and whatever the principles of that Church may lead Men to we hope there may be many in that Church that either while they live in the Communion of that Church have an aversion from the dangerous and Idolatrous practices of it or sometimes before they die do heartily repent of the absurd and unreasonable
Doctrines and Worship they have too long asserted and complied with and of such we cannot but entertain a very favourable opinion and indeed I could name you some very famous Men both in France and Italy who though they have continued in the Communion of that Church i. e. have not joyn'd themselves to any particular publick Protestant Church yet have not approv'd of such things in the Roman Church as manifestly obstructs Mens Salvation and though like Nicodemus they have not dared openly to avow their dislike of such Errors for fear of danger yet in their hearts they have abhorr'd them and declared so much to their Friends and intimate Acquaintance And though their seeming Communion with a Church so Erroneous cannot be totally excused because it looks like a tacite approbation of her Errors yet since we read of Joseph that he was a Disciple of Christ secretly and notwithstanding his not confessing Christ publickly accepted of God we hope such Mens continuing in the external Communion of the Roman Church is not a willful Error but rather a pardonable Infirmity a timorousness which hath nothing of malice in it and therefore will not hinder them from Salvation We know not what mercy God may shew to many poor people in that Church who are invincibly Ignorant and never saw a Bible from whence they might rectifie their mistakes and do live honestly in this present World but we must withal confess that the Servant who hath known his Masters will and hath not done it shall be beaten with many stripes and whether those that have been enlightened in our Church and have tasted the good Word of God and cannot but see our Agreement with the Gospel and after all this embrace the Errors of the Roman Church whether these will be excusable at the last day we justly doubt of to live in great Errors is to live in Sin but where that living in Errors is joyn'd with resistance of great light and knowledge there the Sin becomes all Crimson which was but of a faint red before and if this be the Character of Christ's Friends to do whatsoever he commands us then the inference is very easie that those cannot be Christ's Friends nor reign with in Heaven that willfully leave undone what they know he hath commanded and set up a new Worship which he hath no where commanded Madam had you never seen such a thing as the Scripture your going over to that Church might have deserved some Apology but when you were surrounded with the beams of that light which shines in darkness as St. Peter calls the Word with all those rayes about you to shut your eyes and desperately to venture upon the Church which enjoyns Men to live against some of Gods Laws as against Exod. 20. 5 6. and Matth. 26. 27. c. and consequently obliges them to prepare for God's displeasure this I confess is an Action which as it savours of great willfulness so I question if you die in 't without serious repentance whether the Joys you hope for will ever fall to your share If your Church-men do mean honestly and do truly aim at the Peace of Christendom and in good earnest design the Union of Men that profess the Name of Christ why will not they part with those Doctrines that are so great an offence not only to all Protestants but to Jews and Mahometans too If that worshipping of Saints and Images be not necessary but only useful why will not they quit that Worship which by their own pretences is needless especially when they might do so much good by it If the Cup was formerly given to the Laity why will not they to effect the aforesaid Union restore it to the Laity If the substance of the Sacrament and the comfort arising from it may remain entire without obliging Men to believe a Transubstantiation or Adoration of the consecrated Wafer why will not they for peace sake lay aside such Doctrines which neither themselves nor any Creature understands If Heaven and Hell are sufficient motives to a Holy Life why will not they for quietness sake renounce their Doctrine of Purgatory which by their own confession hath no ground in Scripture Madam I have that charitable opinion of you that if you had but taken a view of the Worship of the Church of Rome as it is practic'd beyond Sea in places where there is no fear of contradiction from any Hereticks where they may freely and securely act according to their principles had you seen the mode of worshipping the Virgin Mary at Rome or in Spain or Italy the sight of it would have certainly discourag'd you from embracing that Religion which now you seem to be mainly delighted with for indeed the Religion of the Church of Rome at this time if a Man were to guess from that which hath the greatest outward Veneration is little else than a Worship of the Virgin Mary The very Beggers beyond-Sea in begging of Alms beg more for the Virgin Mary's sake than for Christ's sake This Madam I know to be true who am no stranger to Foreign parts and I will assure you that in those Cities or Towns where both Papists and Protestants have the free exercise of their Religion you shall live Twenty years in a Town before you hear that any Protestant is turned Papist so few charms are there in the Exercise of their Religion beyond Sea but you shall not be above a year or two in such a Town before you hear that several Papists are turned Protestants such a force hath truth The Religion of the Church of Rome as it is practis'd in England looks harmless Now and then upon some great Festival they shew you a Picture of the Virgin Mary or of some other Saint and the honest Priest qualifies every Doctrine makes the Errors soft and plausible and they dare not living in a Protestant Country serve the Host of Heaven I mean Saints and Angels with all their Appertenances as they do in places where there are no Protestants to watch them Here their Religion seems to be without a sting and is clad in the fleece of Sheep but if you could but make a Voyage into Spain or Italy I doubt not but you would see the Venome of it and avoid it and the only way not to be of the Church of Rome would be to go to Rome provided you do not go without your Bible In good truth that Church hath turn'd Christianity into a meer outward Pomp and Splendor which ravishes the eye but can never content a Man's reason The glistering Gold in their Temples the curious Images of Saints and Angels the numerous and stately Altars the mighty Silver Statues the rich and glorious Vestments you see up and down in their Churches strike the Senses into a kind of extasie and it must be Sense only for a considerate mind that searches the inside of things as well as the outside cannot be so easily gull'd and deceiv'd and
this outward Pomp they make not the least sign of the truth of their Church not remembring that if this be a good sign the idolatrous People in Japan and China whose Temples are infinitely more shining and glorious will have a better Title to the true Church than they I must confess that in Policy and Worldly Craft and Cunning the Church of Rome exceeds ours for they have not only turn'd the Spiritual Worship of the Gospel into a Sensual Service into outward Religious Formalities a thing strangely pleasing to flesh and blood but they have Shooes that will fit all sorts of Feet great and small and have Remedies for all Distempers and you may go to Heaven in that Church either through the straight way or through the broad which you please they can fit the Melancholy Person and the Jovial they have Monasteries and Nunneries and Severities to content the one and know how to allow greater liberty to the other they can either send a Man to Happiness through a tedious task of Mortification if he likes that method best or help him thither by a quicker dispatch by Confession Attrition and Absolution upon a Death-bed when the Man can hold Sin and the World no longer Live or die you cannot do amiss in that Church for living you may be forgiven and after Death you may be pray'd out of Purgatory sooner or later according as you will spend Money upon Masses for Gold doth strangely quicken these Supplications Such a Church Madam you have espoufed and divorced your self from one that prefers the Wisdom of God and of the Gospel before the Wisdom of the Flesh and glories in dealing plainly and honestly with all Men that keeps close to the Scriptures and yet is not against those pious Customes of Antiquity which are not contradictory to the Scriptures that generously maintains the Prerogative of God and gives no other Honour to Saints and Angels but what may consist with the Glory of her Creator that hath made no new Articles of Faith but keeps to the old and thinks it Rebellion against God to enjoin things as necessary to Salvation which God never made so that urges the strictest Life and encourages nothing but what may promote true Piety and Devotion that hath no more Ceremonies but what are decent and labours to free Religion at once from Slovenliness and Superstition that secures the Right of Soveraign Princes and teaches her Children to live like good Subjects and good Christians and though it be her misfortune that too many of her pretended Members live like Enemies of Christianity yet that 's not long of her Doctrines and Constitutions but long of the Stubbornness of Men who will not be reform'd by her Precepts As no Man blames Christ or his Apostles because Judas was a Hypocrite or because Simon Magus profess'd their Religion so they betray great Ignorance and Simplicity that for the monstrous Impieties of many that profess themselves Members of our Assemblies despise and slight our Church which in her Principles is most averse from all such practices a Church which as for mine own particular I have deliberately and premeditately embraced and chosen so I hope I shall never be so much for saken of God or of my Reason as to quit it to become a Papist I have not been altogether a careless Observer of the several Christian Churches dispers'd through the World Desire of mine own Salvation hath made me take particular notice what Corruption there is in them and what Affinity they have with the Primitive Professors of Christianity And I must freely confess upon a serious Examination of the Scripture and the Fathers of the three first Centuries after Christ that from my Heart I think there is no Church this day in all the Christian World be it Eastern or Western that in her Principles and Constitutions bears so much of the Image of the truly Primitive Church or comes so near it as the Church of England a Church which as your Fore-fathers had courage to burn for so I verily believe that he understands not her Innocent Designs and excellent Rules that dares not die a Martyr in her cause Once more your Faithful Friend to serve you A. Horneck FINIS i. e. Contradictions In the New Confession of Faith compiled and published by Pope Pius IV. a little above a hundred years ago Under one kind only