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A07935 The Bishop of London his legacy. Or certaine motiues of D. King, late Bishop of London, for his change of religion, and dying in the Catholike, and Roman Church VVith a conclusion to his bretheren, the LL. Bishops of England. Musket, George, 1583-1645. 1623 (1623) STC 18305; ESTC S102862 100,153 188

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obey the Church in one poynt doth as aboue is said wholy and absolutely contemne all the authority of the Church Againe we fynd the Apostle speaking of the works of the flesh meaning those workes which are committed by wicked men without the assistāce of the Holy Ghost thus to wryte (h) Galat. ● The works of the flesh are Adultery Fornication c. Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Debate Emulations Wrath Contentions Seditions Heresyes c. they which do such things shall not inherit the kyngdome of God where we fynd the word Heresy particulerly set down in our English Bibles though the latin word being Sectae is more remisse and therefore increaseth heere the force of our illation Now from hence I thus argue As the Apostle doth in this place pronounce sentence of condemnation against the Sinne of fornication though but once committed so also against but one sect or Heresy Since he heere maketh no mention of the plurality of tymes in committing any Sinne nor of the number of Heresyes before the workers and defendours of them can deserue damnation And thus farre of our Adiaphorists or Neutralls in fayth for I can tearme them no better who though they beleiue some articles that are true yet beleiue those truths falsly as not relying vpon the grounds of beleife to wit God reuealing and the Church propounding And indeed such men if they be punctually examined are found to beleiue nothing but their Sense at most their Iudgment So they giue credit to the matter but not to the Authour and so much euery man affoards to a discredited and blemished witnes Away then among Christians with this tepidity or cold indifferency in fayth which is of that charitable disposition forsooth as to promise that to all others I meane Saluation of which it selfe is not capable Therefore to conclude my last Arrest and sentence heerin it that indifferently to allow all Religion is to take away all Religion and that Neutralisme in fayth finally discargeth it selfe into Libertinisme in maners I will heere stay my Pen passing ouer many other Positions of like nature breathing such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and impossibilityes which we mantayne Only I say as aboue I touched that if we ballance them with the most abstruse difficultyes to be found in the Catholyke Religion yea with those in the doctryne of the Reall Presence we may conclude that those more easely may become the Obiect of our beleife and so to be beleiued then these and other such lyke exorbitant grosse and absurd Assertions or Connexions of ours Since those former only transcend Reason these manifestly impugne Reason By beleiuing the first we forbeare to be Heathens by beleiuing these other we cease to be Men Those do aduance and magnify in Man the power of God these obliterate and deface in him by giuing assent thereto the Image of God To be short those may be apprehended by the light of fayth these are euen incompatible with the light of our Vnderstanding THE VIII MOTIVE Deceites and sleights practised by Protestant VVryters I HAVE euer beene of mind that matters of Religion are to be proceeded in with a fearefull and innocent pen and that who approacheth thereto ought with (a) Exod. cap. 3. Moyses to put their shooes off their feet the place wherin they stand being holy ground that is ought to cast off al imperfections of intended calumnyes impostures and other fraudes in regard of the venerable subiect to be intreated of I would to God I could not iustly charge my owne brethren with faultines heerein so exempting them out of the number of those who to vse the Prophets phrase Dolosam (b) Ose 12. calumniam diligunt But it falleth out far otherwise to their dishonour and my griefe since if tryall be made we shall find many Babylonians to dwell in our supposed Hierusalem Our owne fraudulent deportements in this great busines of Religion great in that it concerns our soules interminable weale or woe haue much disedifyed me begetting at the first in me a staggering opinion whether that can be Truth which needeth such supporters of deceite and collusion I will exemplify in diuers And to omit our pretence of the Priuate spirit for the auoyding of all authorityes as already discouered aboue The first kind of these shall concerne the English translation of our Bibles The sleight consisteth in translating such texts as mention Traditions and merit of Workes I will heer forbeare to show how the Scripture (c) Ioan. ●ic 1. Thess 2. commandeth vs not to relye only vpon Scripture or how our men haue borrowed our fayth heerein from the old Heretikes Nestorius (d) Vt habetur in sexto Synodo act 1. and Dioscorus so as we receaue by Tradition to reiect Traditions The imposture only in translating it is wherein I now dwell Whereas then the new Testament maketh relation of good traditions and bad wicked and Iewish traditions expressing them both by one and the same greeke word to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifyeth Traditio Now our English translations in such (e) 1. Cor. 2. I pray you Brethren that you be mindfud of m● and as I haue deliuered vnto you you k●ep my Ordināces The l●ke translating of the word Ordinances is in 2. Thess 2. texts wherein are vnderstood good and profitable Traditions doe translate insteed of the word Traditions the word Ordinances But where the texts speake of wicked (f) Matth. 15 VVhy doe you transgresse the Commandmēts of God by your Traditions and friuolous Traditions there they remember precisely to set downe in their translations the right word Traditions and not the word Ordinances or any other word in lieu of it as may be seene in these Textes quoted But this I feare was done in dislike of Apostolical traditions that so the ignorant Reader should neuer find the word tradition in Scripture in a good sense but alwayes in a bad and disallowed Though now in our last translation but not in any former for the better plaistering of the matter we put in the margent of such texts speaking of godly Traditions the word Traditions The like course we take in translaring the greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying dignus in english worthy and the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be made worthy for in those Texts (g) Luc. 21. watch at al●ry●as praying that you may be accounted worthy to stand befor the sonne of God The like i● done in the Greeke verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Luc. 20. 2. Thess 1. which concerne merit of workes wherein these forsayd wordes are vsed we translate them to seeme to be worthy and to seeme only to be made worthy therby to weaken such texts for the prouing of merit of Workes But in other Texts (h) O how much forer punishment shall he be worthy which tredeth vnder foot the son of God not touching the doctrine of merit we can be content to
see D. Bancrofts suruey pag. 219. verbum Deiprouoco But to resume my former heads Since then this reuealing spirit is not afraid to expunge out of the sacred Canon of Scripture such bookes as Apocriphall wherin it owne Religion is euidently impugned since it alloweth only such expositions of confessed Scripture as best sort to the supporting of it owne errours since it betrampleth all authorityes of Councells and Fathers who expound Gods word differently from it Since it hath beene the custome of all Heretikes to withdraw themselues to the weake retyre of only Scripture and their owne spirit interpreting the Scripture thus making a circular motion where from point to point there is a true progression but from the first point no progression at all since this Spirit engēdreth contrarieties in doctrine in the enioyers of it through ech mans misconstruction of Scripture Since the Scripture it selfe is of that abstruse sublimity as that Man without Gods directing grace cannot lay any true leuell thereto To conclude since the exorbitancy pride and petulancy of this Spirit is such as it expecteth in the end that all men should receaue from it as from a second Moyses the tables of our Euangelicall Law Non * Tert. de Orat. agnosei poterit à Spiritu sancto spiritus inquinatus What then remaineth but that my selfe carefull of my saluation should for euer after become iealous of the truth of that Religion which I find to be seated vpon those groundes and only those grounds which euery heresy promiscuously challengeth to it selfe And that relying on Gods holy visible Church vpon which he hath (p) Matt. 18. ● Tim. 3. entayled his spirit of Truth I may interpose her infallible authority as an Isthmos or firmeland to stop the entercourse of the two mayne Oceans I meane the Scriptures abysmall profoundity and this Priuate spirits floating and boundles vncertainty But inough of this subiect of which as potentially inuoluing all other Controuersyes within it selfe I haue drawne I confesse for my fuller satisfaction certaine notes in some few scattered Papers THE II. MOTIVE That the Prophesyes of Scripture confirme the Catholike Religion and refute Protestancy PROPHESYES are diuine and infallible Predictions of thinges future future in respect of vs who measure all actions with the yard of Tyme but present in the eyes of God with whome there is neither tyme past nor tyme to come both being confounded in the depth of his owne Eternity Infallible as proceeding only from him who by his power disposeth all thinges as shall best please him by his Prescience forseeth distinctly all things so disposed as things present in the cleare glasse of his own essence And by his Will vouchsafeth that men shall warrant the certainty of his foreknowledge Prescientia Dei (a) Tert. l. 2 contr Marcion tot habet testes quot fecit Prophetas Now of the Prophesyes recorded in the old Testament I will take into my consideratiō only two The inditers of which according to the iudgment of (b) In Psal 3● conc 2. S. Augustine as foreseeing Controuersyes and doubts in fayth to come spake more clearely of the Church then of Christ himselfe The first shall concerne the propagation of the Church of Christ and the conuerting of Kinges heathen and kingdomes to it faith touching which I will insist in those places of Scripture whose true sense and interpretation is acknowledged for such both by the Catholikes and by our Protestants Priuate spirit the alleadging of which texts is the more forcible since the confessed sense of Scripture is the soule as it were which informeth the body of the Letter Of this first point the Prophet I say thus speaketh The (c) 60. Iles shall waite for thee meaning the Church their Kinges shall minister vnto thee and thy gates shal be continually open neither day nor night shall they be shut that men may bring to thee the riches of the Gentils c. And againe speaking of and to the Church he further thus sayth Thou (d) Ibid. shalt sucke the milke of the Gentils and the breasts of Kinges Kings shal be thy noursing Fathers and Queenes thy Mothers And further Enlarge (e) 54. the place of thy tents spread out the curtaines of thy habitation for thou shalt increase on the right hand and on the left thy seed shall possesse the Gentils and inhabite the desolate Cittyes To the truth of which conuersions of Heathen Kinges and Countreyes to the fayth of Christ the Kingly Prophet speaking in the person of God to the Church thus accordeth I (f) Psalm 2. will giue thee the Heathens for thy inheritance and the ends of the earth for thy pessession That these places besides diuers others are vnderstood of the enlargment of Christs Church and the conuersions of Kingdomes and Nations vnto it is warranted by the marginall annotations of our own English (g) Frinted in the yeare 1576. Bibles no lesse agreeable to the particuler iudgments of (h) Vpon Ieremy Oecolampadius that learned Protestant D. Whitguift (i) In his defence p. 466. late Archbishop of Canterbury D. (k) In his answere M. VVilliam Reynolds Whitaker and all other graue Writers The next point which heere presenteth it selfe to be wayghed is to consider whether the foresayd predictions of the dilatation of the fayth of Christ and conuerting to it Kinges and kingdomes haue beene accomplished in the Protestants Church or in the Catholike and Roman Church for the clearing of which point we will begin with the tymes from Luthers first change of Religion and so ascend by degrees to the age of the Apostles in the discouery whereof we are to recurre to Ecclesiasticall Writers And thus the ground of beliefe touching this point is heere remoued from Scripture to man yet man is heere belieued to wit in relating whether the true or false fayth was then taught and brought in by reason of the Scripture And first that these Conuersions propagation of the Church any tyme for the space of these last thousand yeares euen vp to the dayes of Boniface the third and Gregory Bishops of Rome were not performed in the Protestant Church is ouer euident from all Ecclesiasticall historyes and records and from the voluntary confessions of learned Protestants so as to find the cōtrary in any approued Authors we may wel make the subiect of our desire but not of our expectation And first for Historyes we Protestants cannot produce any one authenticall history or narration notwithstāding some late effectles attempts of our own Nation in that nature being still in labour of that which I feare will neuer be borne intimating so much And which is more the Protestant Ecclesiasticall Writers do euen particulerly set downe and relate the conuersion of many Countryes made by catholiks euen to their own mayn preiudice heerin But the better to enleuen our discourse with examples where I will omit the subiecting of many vast Countryes to
Subiect and Syr Edwin (b) In his relation of Religion Sands his words a man of great eminency among vs shall seale vp all the Premisses of this chapter The Protestant Wryters in relation of things haue abused this present age and preiudiced Posterity Loue and Dislyke haue so dazled their eyes that they cannot be beleiued But heer I must take leaue to vse a kynd of introuersion vpon our former deportments When I first noted diuers of these peculiar deliueryes of our owne Brethren I confesse I was moued to a vertuous anger O how often sweet Iesus did I demand in silence of spirit Can that Religion be true which for the supporting of it self is forced to flye to these Collusions and Deceits as to it strongest Sanctuary Must the light of the Ghospell be needs thus blemished for it own maintenance with such works of darknes Cannot true fayth be preached and planted in Mens soules but by such deceauable meanes Yes Different Centers haue euer in their Orbes different motions and truth and falshood cannot run one and the same lyne of proceeding Poore man then that I am haue I so many yeares in my sermons and speaches so much laboured to perswade to that Religion which otherwyse then by these base and ignoble meanes cannot be vpholden But mercifull Lord looke vpon me with the eye of Pitty I acknowledg my fault and do confesse in the words of Ieremy that perhaps euen from my tongue and pen at vnawares calumniam sustinuerunt filij Israel (e) Iere●● cap. 50. The Catholyks and their religion I haue wronged and depraued so iustly are thy owne words verifyed in my weaknes Quod natum (d) Ioan. cap. 3. est ex carne caro est flesh and bloud were the motiues which for some yeares past sealed vp my lips from deliuering and preaching the Truth THE IX MOTIVE That the doctrine of Catholike Religion tendes directly to vertue of Protestancy to vice and Liberty THE Propheticall King deliuereth this Encomion or prayse of the kingdom of Christ which is his church That it is Lex (a) Psalm 18. Domini immaculata testimonium fidele praeceptum Domini illucidum Meaning heereby that the doctrine of the Ghospell of Christ contayneth nothing that is false in respect of fayth nothing vniust or wicked in regard of manners The former point being in part already discussed in this other I will a little insist briefly running ouer some few articles both of the Catholike and Protestant Religion and so will referre to the indifferent Reader which is that fayth which leadeth to the broad way (b) Matt. 7. of destruction and which to the narrow strait (c) Luc. 1● Matth. 7. way of life And first touching our Protestant doctrine of Iustification by only fayth what liberty breedeth it in mans soule Since by it we are taught that notwithstanding our perpetrating of the most facinerous crimes one naked act of fayth in belieuing that Christ dyed for our sinnes washeth away all our ordure and stench This fayth assureth vs that Confession of sinnes is needles that all satisfaction and Almesdeeds are bootles that instantly vpon our deaths without suffering any temporall punishment in Purgatory we flye vp to heauen And all this because Christ hath suffered and payed for vs all so little we belieue that saying Satisfactio (*) Tert. l. de poeni●●nt Confessione disponitur Confessio poenitentia nascitur poenitentia Deus mitigatur Now doth not this open the sluce to all licenciousnes May not a man reply vpon this ground that we need not either to pray or fast at all since Christ hath prayed and fasted for vs Our doctrine of depriuing man of Freewill how preiudiciall is it to a vertuous life Since it deadeth and blunteth all our endeauours in seeking to liue vertuously For it teacheth to deliuer it in Luthers (d) Serm. de Moyse wordes That the ten Commandments appertaine not vnto Christians or in M. Foxe his phrase That the ten Commandments were giuen vs not to doe them but to know our damnation and to call for mercy to God And heereupon one Thesis or Conclusion of our fayth is The impossibility of keeping the Commandments taught by vs all and particulerly by D. Willet (f) Synop. pa●ism p. 〈◊〉 in these wordes The law remayneth still impossible to be kept by vs through the weaknes of our flesh Neither doth God giue vs ability to keep it but Christ hath fullfilled it for vs. Now if we want Free-will to what end should we striue to obserue the Commandments by mortifying our passions or by for bearing the actions prohibited by them Or to what end are admonitions to vertue or threats deterring from vice to be vsed either by God in his holy write or by man in humane lawes In like sort this doctrine of want of Freewill teacheth vs that we haue not the guift of Chastity a doctrine most (*) M. Perkins in his reformed Cath. pag. 161. say●h The vow of continen●y is not in the power of him that voweth dangerous to all men and women vnmarryed and also to those in state of Wedlocke when the one party either through absence or impotency cannot discharge the due of Mariage And out of this puddle streamed that filth of Luthers wordes It (g) Tom. 5 VVittemberg s●rm de Matrimo is not in our power to be without a woman c. It is as necessary as to eate drinke purge make cleane the nose c. And againe If the wife will not let the maid come What flesh-diuinity is this Thus doth our first Euangelicall Prophet who vaunted euer much of the spirit like a good peace-maker ioyne those two thinges togeather I meane the Spirit and the Flesh which the Scripture (h) Matt. 1● Rom. 8. Cala● 1. euer deuydeth and opposeth Our doctrine of the diuision of sinnes teacheth that to the faythfull professours of the Ghospel all sinnes though in others most heinous and grieuous are but (i) Musculus in loc comm de pe●cat se●t 5. and D. Pulke against the Rhemish Testament in epist Ioan. veniall Now what encouragement to sinne doth this doctrine affoard to all those who are perswaded they haue true fayth Since by this their doctrine commit they what sinnes they will they learne their sinnes shall not be imputed vnto them And heereto euen D. Whitaker (k) De Eccles cōt Bellarm. contro 2. quast 5. p. 301. accordeth in these wordes Si quis actum fidei habet eipectata non nocent Sinne doth not hurt him who actually belieueth And Luther No (l) In his Sermons englished printed anno 1578. pag. 126. worke is disallowed of God vnles the Authour thereof be disallowed And M. Wetton To (m) In his answere to the late popish arti●ies pag. 91. 41. the faythfull sinne is pardoned as soone as it is committed they hauing receaued forgiuenes of all their sinnes past and to come strange and dangerous