â—enders helps in Governments And all this according to the expresse Law of Christ our King recorded in the Scripture as being the most perfect pattern of the Government of his Church for every particular Congregation to be regulated and ordered by So as in truth those Congregations that are thus governed are the onely true Churches of Christ as wherein himselfe his spirit his word doe govern both Minister and people whereas on the other side all Prelaticall Churches are false and Antichristian as wherein not Christ and his spirit and his word do beare rule but Antichristian men by the pride of their spirit and by their Canons doe altogether beare sway thrusting Christ out of his Throne despising his word and puting a yoake of bondage over the necks both of Ministers and people To conclude this point because you are of such a beliefe and so confidently tell us and peremptorily avouch that Christ thought it fitter to govern his Church by Diverse then by One Vice-Roy besides what is already sayd I will a little more presse and present before you Christs own words at full which I doe to put you out of all such beliefe or so much as any such conceit that Christ had ever any such thought Math. 20. upon occasion of those two at that time ambitious bretheren sent to Christ by their Mother to be chiefe about him in his Kingdome Christ first tells them Ye know not what ye aske Then calling his Disciples to him he saith thus unto them Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whâ—so ever wil be great among you let him be your Minister c. Which the Euangelist Luke expresseth thus The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Euergétai Benefactors But ye shall not be so Ye Who Not the Apostles of Christ not the Ministers of Christ in succeding ages Not so How Ye shall not exercise Dominion Lordship Authority one over another you shall not be called Benefactors Patrons Lords Gratious Lords Honourable your Grace your Honour c. Why so For such are the Kings of the Gentiles who exercise Dominion over them and are called Benefactors You shall not be as they in exercising any Authority or Jurisdiction one over another Nor shall ye be called Euergâ—tâ—i My Good lord My Benefactor My Patron My lords Grace or My Gratious lord and the like Thus under those words Christ chaâ—geth his Apostles not to affect not to be ambitious of not to exercise Superiority or Prelacy Iurisdiction and Authority one over another or over Christs Kingdome his Church and 〈◊〉 as Peter saith Not as Lords over Gods heritage where the Apostle useth the same word that Christ his Master used M◠〈◊〉 katakuriéuontes ton kâ—úron not exercising Dominion or 〈…〉 God 's Inheritance or if you will over his Clergy though they be not his onely Inheritance but his people are no 〈…〉 unto him and are kleros Gods lot But now for Christs 〈◊〉 do you not think that Christ spake as he thought and 〈◊〉 as he spake Or can you beleeve any other And do not his 〈◊〉 to his Apostles in them reach to all his Ministers 〈…〉 succeed them in future ages If you say you are the 〈◊〉 onely successors why are you then lâ—rds ovâ—r Goâ—s 〈…〉 why do you exercise â—uâ—hority and Dominion over his 〈◊〉 and peopâ—e as Heathen Kings doe over then people 〈…〉 expresly forbid to his Apostles and to all their Successors But you shew your selves to be none of Christs Disciples and so none of his Apostles successors for you obey not Christs word as the Apostles did What do you answere then to Christs words Or what interpretation can you devise to avoyd them You will answere perhaps with Bellarmine that Christ forbad his Apostles to be like the Heathen Princes in exercising a temporall Government or Authority one over another This is indeed all the evasion Bellarmine hath But how vain Let 's bring it to the Touch. How shall it be tryed What saith Christ Humeis dè ouk outos you shall not be so Now if you be not so all is well you may prove Apostolicall men But if you prove to be like the Heathen Princes in exercising Lordship over the people under your Government and in exercising Authority over them what can you say for your selves why you should not be proclaimed for proud Contemners of Christs word and for usurping Tyrants over his peopl and so for a rebellious Faction and Confederacy against Christs Kingdome Let 's therfore draw our Parallell Those Heathen Powers were called Princes so you call your selves they were Kings and so were Gods Vice-gerents you call your selves Vice-Roys of Christ they were called Benefactors though they never did good so you are styled My lords Grace and when in your Court you condemn poore innocents yet they must confesse the justice and favour of your Court They were called Fathers of their Countrey so you Right Reverend Fatheres Most Reverend Father your Grace c. They were lords so you yea you are temporall lords and so sit in Parliament though styled spirituall they exercised lordship dominion Authority over the people and that with tyranny and without Law so do you And in a word Is not your Pompe and state your Power and Greatnesse your Palaces and Courts your Traine and Attendants your Fasces and Lictors to wit your Pursuivants and Apparitors your Kinglike Attire in Purple and Scarlet and fine lynen soft rayment of silkes and sattens your Tables overflowing with delicacies of viands and wines in all abundance and variety and what not like that of Kings Thus doe you not beare the Image of the Beast the Dragon the Heathen Emperour who gave power to that other Beast the Pope who in himselfe erected the Image of the first Beast from top to toe namely the Imperiall state and magnificence being fully expressed and limmed out in the Papall though but in somwhat a lower degree in your Episcopall Pontificiall state As Pope Boniface 8. in the first day of his Jubilee came forth pompously arayed in all his Pontificalibus and the next day in the Imperiall Ropes with two Swords caried before him And a lively Image of this is my Lord Bishop a mixt Creature partly temporall and partly spirituall spirituall in name onely and temporall in his whole outward state as the Kings and Princes of the Gentiles were as the Creaâ—ure called Amphibius that lives now in the water and now on the Land and yet is neither good Fish nor Flesh. Now tell us my Lord whose Image you beare Christs or Caesars yea in all things you resemble Caesar but not many one thing the Lord Iesus Christ. I say not in one thing Shew any one thing wherein you instate either Christ oâ— his Apostles after his
non sinit esse sui Some secret sweetnesse in mans native home Draws him to mind it still where ere become L. Ibid. In a corrupt Time or Place 't is as necessary in Religion to deny falshood as to assert and vindicate truth Indeed this latter can hardly be well and sufficiently done but by the former an affirmative verity being ever included in the negative to a falshood P. Then I hope in a corrupt Time and Place is it not necessary in Religion to deny your falshoods and to assert and vindicate the Truth by you so undermined and oppugned And your own Words here are sufficient to leave your Deeds without excuse L. p. 157. If it be a Cause common to both parties a third must judge and that is the Scripture or if there be jealousie or doubt of the sense of the Scripture they must either both repaire to the exposition of the Primitive Church and submit to that or both call and submit to a Generall Councel P. The Scripture That 's honest as I noted before Yea and submit to and rest in that which you say not But of the Scripture the onely Judge of all Controversies we have spoken sufficiently before and so for matters of jealousie or doubt and not either to your Primitive Church or to a Generall Councel For further Answere we shall have further occasion L. p. 171. Pope Urban 2 at the Councel held at Bari in Apâ—lia accounted my Worthy Predecessor S. Augustine as his own compâ—â—â—e and said He was as the Apostolicke and Patriarch of the other world so he then turned this Iland P. As worthy as your predecessor Anselme was and though now one of Romes Saints yet he was against your Priests Marriage But perhaps therfore the more worthy And he was so holy it seems that he said he never repented him of any thing in all his life but about the eating of some Fish one time But if the Pope gave your Worthy Predecessor the Title of Apostolicke and Patriarch of the other world of England why should not the same Title descend to his successors And it seems you are not a little affected with it For you say A Primate is greater then a Metropolitan and a Patriarch then a Primate And none were above Patriarch but Pope If then you succeed Anselme in his Patriarchate of the other world you are in the next degree to succeed him that is Papa totius Orbis But how ever you glory in these titles I assure you for my part I shall ever preferre a good honest Cobler that feares God above them all For he hath an honest calling you none And you all are persecuters of them that truly feare God and so enemies of Christ. And though you would be called Apostolicke yet to be Metropolitan Primate Patriarch Pope are all swelling Titles of pride which the Apostles never knew and which Christ expresly forbids as hath been noted and will be more As followeth L. p. 175. The calling and Authority of Bishops over the Inferiour Clergy that was a thing of known use and benefit for preservation of unity and peace in the Church P. For this you cite Hierome But you omit his other words where he saith That your Diocesan Bishops for of such onely the Question is were brought in but humana praesumptione non Institutione Divina by humane Presumption not by Divine Institution or Gods Ordinance and this as men presumed in Schismata remedia for a remedy of Schisme But it proved to be Schisma magnum the Great Schisme that made up the body of Antichrist the Great Rent from Christ filling up the Mystery of Iniquity as hath been shewed And out of Ieromes Sacerdos Priest where he saith No Priest no Church you conclude in the Margent so even with him No Bishop no Church As if to be a Priest must needs be a Bishop And idid you say This was to settle in the minds of men from the very Infancy of the Christian Church as that it had not been to that time contradicted by any In the very Infancy of the Church But your Prelacy was but an Infant then and Innocent in comparison to the Giants now We shewed before how this Mystery wrought even in the Apostles times which they knockt down yet still Satan kept it afoot The use of it hath great Antiquity but the Apostles condemned it as a meere abuse and Christ as Heathenish And you talke here of use but you are not able to shew us any Authority from Scripture either from Apostolik Ordinance and Example The Apostles indeed before Christs Resurrection were blindly ambitious of being chief in Christs Kingdome and Christ told his two kinsmen Iames and Iohn They asked they knew not what and yet Mark tells us that Christ asking them what they reasoned of by the way they were ashamed to tell him as being selfe-guilty of pride and ambition and still when he had but newly told them of his Passion to be at Ierusalem they not understanding what it meant were still at it afresh who should be the chiefe but after that Christ was risen again and his holy Spirit was breathed into them then they were of another mind they never after contended who should be chiefest but rather who should be â—umblest and hoâ—yest and most painfull and faithfull in the spirituall Kingdome of Christ in the execution of their Apostolicall Charge Which argues plainly that the Prelacy is a meere carnall thing a temporall Kingdome contrary to Christs Kingdome which carnall men voyd of Christs Spirit and Grace are blindly ambitious of calling their Prelacy an Hierarchy or hoâ—y Government or Kingdome but know not what holinesse or Christs Kingdome meaneth And doe we see any men in the world of any ranke whatsoever more Lordly more proud more ambitious more covetous more profane more corrupt then those of the Hierarchy Take the best of them now in England the most learned of them have they any zeale or courage for the truth now when they see Religion and the Faith of Christ turned topsie-turvie Doe they not all seeke their own not that which is Iesus Christs And when your Chapleins gueld their Works have they any virility left in them to maintain the truth of that which they have written If their Metropolitan doe but speake the word is it not with them as in the Comedy of the Parasite Ait quis Aio Negat Nego But what say I of those Prelates that are fallen upon the very Lees and Dregges of the worst and last times Alas in the first Generall Councell of Nece under Constantine in the Infancy of the Church as you call it what hot contentions among the Prelates one against another What bundels and fardels of complaints brought they into the Councel before Constantine Enough to set all in a combustion had not the Emperour the more wisely put all their Bills and mutuall complaints in a combustion by burning them in a faire fire
before all the world and therefore that the Reply be published And if it shall be thought fit to be dedicated to the King I wish that mine own hand might present it For to say no more how highly doth the Cause concerne the King and his Kingdome did he but truely know it And how he should come to know it but this way I know not And I hope his Majestie will not refuse it at Charities hand I have said Mother Zeale what sayst thou Zeale Deare Mother can we see our God so highly dishonoured our Christ so belyed his Spirit so despised his Word so disparaged his Worship so depraved his Saints so destroyed his true Spouse unchurched and excommunicated out of the Creed and a false Church fasle Faith false Religion false Gods set up in Christs Throne to be Judges in matters of Faith and proud men to usurpe over the Consciences and Soules of his people and the like and are we not to set a worke all the irons in the fire that may be to arme us against such an all-daring Philistin who dare so desperately defie the Hosts of the living God And blessed be our God who hath raised up and inabled such a Replyer and blessed be the Replyer who ever he be that takes up Davids sting and stone to throw at that Gyant-like Mushrumme And were there an hundred such Replyes let them all be published and all be presented to the King to the confusion of all Babell-builders or Ierecho's rebuilders And if men will willfully close their eyes and stop their eares against the Truth at their perill be it I have sayd Mother Humility what sayst thou Humility Deare Mother I humbly pray that the Reply be published and if my Sister Charity doe present it to the King all my ambition is to waight upon her as her hand-maid to beare up the Traine of her manyfold sin-covering Mantle This is all I can doe or say Mother Prudence what sayst thou Prudence Deare Mother although I accord with all that my Sisters have here said yet seeing it pleaseth you to impose this taske upon me I shall give you a faithfull and just account what I further conceive to be not altogether unworthy our serious consideration about the dedicating and presenting the Reply to the King First we all know what reward others have had for the like service and that of fresh memory as a Minister appealing from the Prelates to the King for a just and equall hearing of his Cause which was about the discharge of his Ministry in Preaching was delivered over to the Censure of a Court wherein his maine Adversary sate a Judge and the Censure was accordingly so terrible as no age can parallell And Secondly the same Adversary that was the Prime instigator to inflict the said Censure continues still in the same power and favour in Court so as if my Sister Charity her selfe together with Humility should present the Reply I know not what security she can have from the like Censure of being both Schismaticall and Seditious because she thus appeares against a most notorious Adversary of CHRIST and his Word but such whose power and favour in Court can so farre prevaile to the abusing of the sweet and unsuspicious nature of Princes as to make them beleeve that they cannot possibly be misled by such a Leader although the Prelate himselfe confesse that Worth once misled proves of all other the greatest Misleader and the Replyer hath detected and proved him the most notorious blind Leader that ever sate in Canterbury Chaire And Thirdly who sees not the maine worke that so many arrowes of persecution against Gods Ministers and people and so the Gospell it selfe as appeares too palpably by the Prelates usuall practises doe ayme at As namely the rooting out of the Gospell and the erecting of all Popish Superstition and Idolatry and so the bringing in of Atheisme and Infidelity with Antichristian Tyranny and all to reduce England to a Reconciliation with Rome as also the Relation it selfe doth unblushingly discover And the Merchants doe tell us from abroad how the Priests and Fryers can tell them upon occasion of the Scots first standing out that this course was by the Prelaticall Faction reaching as farre as Rome resolved on before yesterday And Fourthly when we looke upon the hideous outrages of the Prelates against which no complaint can take place nor find better successe then as when a man casts stones upward which fall down againe upon his own head doth it not argue the Estate of things to be desperate and at the height when such men as the Prelates are mounted on a throne of iniquity framing mischiefe as by a Law But yet Lastly notwithstanding all this when I consider how mercifully God hath heard the earnest prayers of his people in moving the Kings heart to such an accord with Scotland as of late although those bitter Roots which GOD never planted and which poâ—son the very ground they goe on the Prelates I meane so fast are they rooted in the earth are left still unplucked up and that the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the Rivers of waters and that if he were once rightly possessed of the State of things wherein he hath been by the Prelates extreamly abused and his State exposed to the wrath of heaven we should be in good hope of Reformation so as what lawfull meanes may be most likely and probable to conduce hereunto is worth the putting in practise though full of hazzard saving that the same GOD who mightily and mercifully moved the Kings heart so farre to yeeld to his Scottish Subjects as to enjoy in a good measure the Prelates onley excepted their liberty of Conscience can also perswade him to doe as much and more for his Subjects Christs people in England And therefore my conclusion is I am so farre from Sacrificing to humane discretion or carnall reason in this point that I could be content to accompany my Sisters Charity and Humility in presenting the Reply resolving with Hester And if I perish I perish And this is all I have to say for the present Mother Piety what sayst thou Piety Deare Mother I owe a duty as to GOD principally and in the first place so to the King Gods vicegerent in the second place and therefore what may conduce to the happinesse and well-fare of the King in this kind I would for it hazzard all And I am for the pubilshing and presenting of the Reply to the King in hope he may possibly read and understand the true State of things being of such high importance as in the world there cannot be a greater And if this be not done things going on as they have done there wil be no longer abiding for us in this place I have said Mother Patience what saist thou Patience Deare Mother what your selfe and my loving Sisters here do or shall resolve of my office is to prepare my backe to beare whatsoever
piece of Service in your Lordship to his Majesty to study how the State may be reduced and that in the most peaceable and safe way that may be Will you be pleased to take a Fooles Counsell Would you purchase to your selfe an immortall name and become a Mirrour and Miracle of this age and an example to all posterity the King having past his word and so do the best service to the King that ever any of his Subjects hath done Do no more but this Cast away your Rochet and Miter Divest your self of all Episcopall Ornaments and Titles Utterly renounce and relinquish your Hierarchy as being not onely against Christs word and Kingdome as afterwards shall by Gods Grace appeare but also as being most pernicious to the Peace and Welfare of Civill States most Antichristian and one particular cause expresly of the defection of a whole Kingdome from his Majesty Now show hereby that you so love the King that rather then he shall loose one of his Kingdomes thus you will utterly and voluntarily depose your selfe from your Hierarchicall throne And I know your Lordship doth every where professe your love to peace and tell us very much of it in your Book Now can there be a more peaceable way then this to reconcile Scotland and reduce them under the Kings Government And as for ceremonies if they stand in the way I assure my selfe were your Hierarchy but once removed out of the way either his Majesty would take an Order for them or they would even sponte sua of their own accord fall as having now no more Masters to waite upon But enough of this It shall be my dayly prayer in the mean time that GOD would establish his Majesties Kingdomes with the Gospel of peace and the Peace of the Gospel in our dayes and to our Posterity till the coming of Iesus Christ. You proceed L. p. 13. 'T is truth I must tell it 't is the Gospel I must preach it 1 Cor. 9.16 P. 'T were well if you told nothing but Truth and that not onely of necessity with a must but of love and of a ready mind But your Book will further show what truth you tell And for the Gospel when doe you preach it Or how What As the Apostle did whom you quote And if you must preach it why doe you restrain others from it That your selfe onely might preach Why then preach you no oftner Surely your restraining of others from preaching puts the greater necessity upon your selfe if indeed you be a Minister of the Gospel and not a dumb Priest to preach the more frequently For indeed you Prelates take upon you to be as so many Popes or universall Pastors over all the Churches in your Diocese respectively though you seldome or never preach in any and the Ministers must be but your Curates So as they also must preach no more nor oftener nor otherwise then you their good Lords and Masters doe prescribe and limit them by vertue of their oath of Canonicall obedience Thus have you taken away the Key of knowledge and hangd it at your owne girdle so as neither ye goe into heaven your selves and those that would enter ye hinder But what doe I say Have you and your Prelates reserved to your selves as one of the Papall Reserved Cases the power of preaching the Gospel My Lord under correction you forget your selfe Do you not remember the Kings Order for preaching or rather for not preaching that no Ministers of what degree or ranke soever they be Archbishop Bishop and all under them shall not preach of the Doctrines of Election Predestination Redemption of the Elect onely Effectuall vocation of the Elect onely Iustification of the Elect onely Assurance of Salvation to the Elect onely in Grace all which Doctrines are the maine and sole Doctrines of Grace and of the Gospel So as for Ministers not to preach of these and maintaine them against the Adversaries thereof and especially in these times of opposing and undermining the truth of Grace and of the Gospel is to cease to be Ministers of the Gospel According to which reckoning if the said Order be strictly observed as you Prelates in all your Visitations doe charge the Ministers inquiring of those that be Delinquents in this kind to suspend or admonish them you have no preachers of the Gospel left in the Church of England And doe you not remember that one Lent after the said Order was come forth two of the learnedst and most Orthodox Prelates of the Church of England for preaching before the King of such points were both checked for it since which time I doe not heare they have transgressed the said Order And therefore I conceive that his Grace of Canterbury is by the same Order inhibited to preach the Grace of the Gospel or the Gospel in these dayes King Iames indeed gave out an Order inhibiting all inferiour Ministers onely to preach of those points but reserved a liberty to Prelates and Deanes to preach of them as being men of more discretion then ordinary But now Bishops nay Archbishops and all are involved Therfore had not your Lordship forgot your selfe I suppose you would not have told the King to his face That the Truth you must tell and the Gospel you must preach Therfore correct that word my Lord. L. ibid. And when the Foundations of Faith are shaken be it by Superstition or Profanenesse he that puts not to his hand as firmely as he can to support them is too wary and hath more care of himselfe then of the cause of Christ. P. A Speech Surely which without any more adoe were sufficient to vindicate your Reputation with all good men had your words but a right meaning But your Foundations of Faith are layd so low in the Earth in Generalibus that no man can come clearely to discerne them or what you meane by them And besides did you in this place meane the true Foundations of Faith indeed yet being not constant to this in other of your passages and much lesse in your practises this is of the lesse credit to obtain even of Charity it selfe any favourable interpretation And having read over your Book we come to be so well acquainted with your Foundations of Faith that we may say truely It no more belongs to you to put to your hand to support the true Foundations then it did to Vzzah to stay the Arke when the Oxen shooke it For which his meddling the Lord smote him And I feare little better will be your reward Nay what reward shall you expect who instead of supporting the Foundations of Faith doe put your heart and head and hand and all you can to supplant them As we shall see all along And I am perswaded the more you speake in this kind the more you rubbe and gall your owne Conscience and make it so tender in this respect that the least touch of conviction goes to your heart But stay
to a Hive of Bees you say Now the King and the Priest more then any other are bound to look to the Integrity of the Church in Doctrines and Manners and that in the first place And a little after Now in this great and busie worke the King and the Priest must not feare to put their hands to the Hive though they be sure to be stung The Kings case as King Davids is to be stung with Bees but when it comes to the Priest the case is altered they come about him like Waspes or like Hornets rather All sting and no honey there And all this for no offence nay sometimes for service done them would they see it c. P. However you may please your selfe in your conceits in playing with this your similitude of Bee-hive yet perhaps upon a review of all circumstances you will begin to discerne no small incongruity except you can salute it with Similitudo non currit quatuor pedibus A Similitude runs not upon all foure For first A Hive of Bees you know is a kind of compleat Common-weale within it selfe Such is Christs true Church The Chiefe and great Master-Bee in this Hive is Christ and his holy Spirit A Christian King who is in and of the Hive is under Christ a kind of Subordinate Master-Bee whose Office it is to see that the expresse voyce and Law of Christ and that alone both touching Doctrines and Manners be duely observed both by the Ministers and People and that the Delinquents and Offenders be either reformed or punished according to the same Law of Christ. As for the Priest whom you name and set Cheeke by Jowle with the King and that twice here for fayling let me tell you that the New Testament and so the true Christian Church knoweth not neither acknowledgeth any Priest besides Christ who is as the onely Altar so the onely Priest of his Church as is noted before And did not I say That Altar and Priest would ever goe together Here you are up with your Priest And who is this Priest Even no lesse then the Metropolitan of all England Poore humble Priest But a Priest however Otherwise what should you doe with your Altar we spake of if you had not a Priest to it And having an Altar and Priest you must needs have a Sacrifice too els all would be lame As Isaack said to his Father My Father here is fire and wood but where is the Sacrifice So you may Say we have here an Altar and Priest we must have a Sacrifice too But I say the true Church of GOD acknowledgeth no Priest but Christ as no Altar no Sacrifice but Him Onely indeed all true beleevers are called and made of GOD Kings and Priests and a royall Priesthood as were also the beleeving Jewes under the Old Testament to whom Moses saith Ye shal be unto me saith God a Kingdome of Priests and an holy Natiâ—n As for Aarons Priesthood it is abolished and swallowed up in our onely High Priest Iesus Christ made a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Yet every beleever is a Priest to offer up Spirituall Sacrifices to God by Iesus Christ. Which shews a plain difference between Christs Priesthood and our royall Priesthood For We offer up Spirituall Sacrifices to God by Iesus Christ but he by himselfe offered the Sacrifice of himselfe to GOD for us So as not even Ministers of Gods word are otherwise Priests but as they are beleevers onely in their publick Ministry they are the mouth of Gods people in offering up to GOD Spirituall Sacrifices of Prayer and thanksgiving by Iesus Christ. But your Priesthood my Lord is a new Order of humane Ordinance and Ordination not found in nor founded upon Gods word and therefore a false and unlawfull Priesthood For no man takes this honour upon him but he that is called of GOD as was Aaron But your Priesthood hath no calling from GOD. Nor doth the New Testament once call a Minister of the Gospell hierùs Sacerdos Priest It calls them Presbutèrous indeed Presbyters or Elders but never hiereis Sacerdotes Priests for hiereùs is properly such a Priest as offereth a slaine Sacrifice as hiereion is a Sacrifice that is slaine And thus are you Priests in Sacrificing either Christs body as in the Masse or els the Bodies of his Saints who are in this respect accounted as Sheep for the Slaughter Rom. 8.36 Let therefore the Church of Rome and yours of England if ye will have her Priests Altars Sacrifices as for the true Church of Christ she admitteth none of all these And though you yoak your Priest or as at after your very aliâs the Archbishop of Canterbury with the King yet we must put kasma méga a vast difference and disparity between them For first a Christian King or Magistrate Supream is as we touched before both within and of the Hive but the Priest you speake of is quite without the Hive and none of the Hive no Priest of Christs true Church but an intruder Droane Waspe or Hornet Secondly good Christian Princes executing their office aright are Nursing Fathers to the Church and helpe to bring in supply to the Hive and guard it from vermine and weather but your Priest even the whole Generation and swarme of them are Step-fathers to the Bees and are Droanes eating up the Honey as you confesse here of some if not Waspes and Hornets also Stinging and Killing the Bees or chasing them out of the Hive into some hollow tree in the Desert Lastly the King doing his office in and to the Hive is loved reverenced and obâ—yed by the Bees and they yeeld him a Tribute of their Honey But when your Priest puts his rough hand to the Hive the Bees are ready to fly about his eares as not acknowledging any such Usurper And have you never read nor heard that if one that is chaste come among the Bees not offering violence unto them they will never offer to sting him but if an adulterous person come amongst them they will quickly smell him out and be all about his eares And be sure Christs Bees cannot brooke such Priests as smell of the whore of Babels Smocke and commit spirituall whoredome with her or have any hankering affection after her And therefore mervaile not if as you say when it comes to the Priest the Bees come about like Waspes or Hornets all sting and no honey for your Priest there And you seem to speak it feelingly Surely if you deale roughly with the Bees and begin to lay about you they wil be about your Eares Therefore be not curst unto them least you make them as angry as a Bee Thus by your patience I have truely and genuinely applyed your Similitude As for the occasion what ever it be or may be whereupon you bring it in and so apply it so much complaining of the Bees for their stinging as if you felt the present
be expected there Can or will the Lord Iesus Christ long suffer such things And what doth England now attempt The recovery of Scotland First ô England be thou thy selfe reconciled to God humble thy selfe for thy fearefull Apostacie revoke and call in all thy ungodly Edicts against Christ and his Word reforme all thy oppressions of Gods People and thine owne maintain not still open warre against the Spirituall Kingdome of Iesus Christ least he destroy thy temporall looke up to God as highly offended with thee and who hath for the present rent a whole Kingdome from thee who hast rent thy selfe from his Kingly Dominion over thee Be no longer rebellious against God stand not upon the confidence of thine own conceited Prudence and Power which unlesse thou hast God on thy side shal be but a snare unto thee and shall stand thee in no stead at thy need except thou dost repent and turn to God unfainedly and refraine thy violent courses and reform all My zeale hath carryed me thus farre for my God and for my King and for my Countrey and for all the People of God and the King in all his Kingdomes my dayly prayer being for Truth and Peace as the Prophet Saith Love the Truth and Peace Truth is both the Mother and Nurse of Peace But to proceed you say No externall action in the world can be uniforme without some Ceremony If you speak of Naturall Actictions nature it selfe doth teach a fit manner in doing of them If of Morall or Civill actions we commonly use such Ceremonies as either humane Lawes Customes or a mans owne reason hath brought in use But if you Speake of Religious actions such as are conversant about the worship of God That 's quite of another nature for point of Ceremony Onely thus farre it holds proportion with the other that as every naturall action hath for its manner of performance and carriage certaine Principles of Nature to guide a Man in the decent and orderly doing of it and as every Civil and Morall action hath for its manner of the decent carriage of it some Rule either intrinsecall within a man and in his own choyce and power or extrinsecall and without him according either to Custome or humane Law even so the externall manner of performing Gods worship hath for its Sole Principle and Rule the will of God himselfe whose service it is and over which he is the Sole Lord whose will for his whole service both internall and externall he hath clearely expressed in his word the holy Scripture And this is a principle which every man that seeth not but by the Spectacles of Natures Light assenteth unto as a firme and universall truth namely That every Master is so to be served as himselfe commandeth And if a Servant presume to serve his Master as himselfe listeth and not as his Master commandeth shall have small thanks for his labour How much more and beyond all comparison is God to be served of us not as we fancie but as himselfe hath expresly commanded in his word And this is a safe obedience wherein a man observing his Rule cannot erre Whereas obedience to Mans command is onely so farre good as the commandement it selfe is good and lawfull But Gods Word and Commandement being every way perfect and given us with a strict charge and under a most severe penalty even a Curse to those that shall either adde to it or detract from it who but Children of the curse will presume to invent what manner of externall service of God his own proud fancie liketh best Such service cannot be called the service of God as wherewith he is served and pleased but the service of Man wherein he pleaseth himselfe Yea when a man hath pleased his own fancie in the invention of this or that Ceremony in religious worship and not content herewith doth withall impose and injoyne it to be of necessity observed of all so as their Conscience is now by humane Law captivated thereunto this service of God becomes Hereticall For what is Heresie in the common use among Divines but an obstinate holding and maintaining of an errour in faith which mans pride hath made choyce of But not onely presumtuously to elect and obstinately and pertinaciously to maintain but to make a Law to enforce others to conform to any such errour in faith this is the highest degree of Heresie that can be And that the inventing holding and imposing of such Ceremonies in Gods worship is an errour in faith and so hereticall is cleare For it is a point and Article of Christian faith to bebeleeve that Christ is the onely Lord and King of his Church and therfore in the Creed we say And in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord. To whom then doth the power of ordaining Ceremonies in Gods holy service appertaine but to the King or Master of this service This power is Christs Prerogative in his Church This is Christs Throne wherein he sitteth raigneth and ruleth in and over the Soules and Consciences of his people as before is touched He is the onely Teletarkes or Master of ordaining Ceremonies in Gods house or family as the learned Budaeus interprets that word out of Dionisius Areopageta so as TeletarkÃa which signifies a Prerogative and Power in GOD incommunicable to ordaine Ceremonies in his worship is used for the Soveraigne Deity or Godhead and so for the Holy Trinity And Christ hath ever from the beginning reserved this power intire and peculiar to himselfe even as his glory not imparting it to any earthly power not to his Church not to his Prophets and Apostles not to the Kings of Israel under the Law nor to the Fathers before the Law For before the giveing of the Law in Mount Sina GOD taught his Church the use of Sacrifices and Altars and other Rites with the difference of Meates cleane and uncleane At the giving of the Law GOD shewed Moses a pattern for the Tabernacle and all things thereunto belonging with a Charge to doe all things according to the Pattern which he had seen Not the least Ceremony no not a pin about the Tabernacle was left in Moses power or choyce to make of his own head So afterward when the Temple was to be built David received the pattern thereof and of all things appertaining to the whole service thereof from God in writing which David delivering to his Son Salomon appointed of God to build the Temple Said All this the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me even all the worke of this Pattern even the Pattern of all that he had by the Spirit So as though David was a King and a Prophet and that of singular eminency a man according to Gods own heart and aboundantly indued with the holy Spirit of God and the Sweet Psalmist of Israel and though King Salomon was indued with admirable and incomparable wisedome yet the Lord
did they speake this out of any disesteem of those Fathers but when they were I say so urged to defend the truth against the Adversaries of it by the evidence whereof they were able to make good what they sayd that those Fathers were but men and might erre Now for this who is more apt then your Lordship to cast in the dish of this precise party as you call them that they should upon just cause speake thus of your antient Fathers What would you say then if all this party should as one Man rise up and openly professe against you as a notorious enemy of the truth and of the Church of God in England and elswhere and of all pious sincere and zealous Preachers of the Gospell and that under the Name of the precise party which you so yoake with the Jesuites you doe maliciously not onely seek to undermine but even professedly to invade and oppugne the whole Kingdome of Iesus Christ as also your practises and this your Book can witnesse And how doe you come to know the thoughts of this precise party so well that you say they think their own preachings were infallible Surely you do but think so You might therfore judge more charitably But as I said of those Fathers so do I of these what they have a good and sure ground in Scripture for to preach and teach they may be sure and they know it to be the truth and so infallible As for those that preach of cursing and lyes as David speaks and suggest slanders and false reports into the eares of Princes and Courts against Gods Ministers and Preachers let them thinke and be assured too that what they preach or print is not onely not infallible but most malicious and detestable both before God and Man as tending also the blinding and so to the downfall of such as beleeve such falshoods to be infallible L. p 104. When the Fathers say we are to rely upon Scriptures onely they are never to be understood with exclusion of Tradition in what causes soever it may be had Not but that the Scripture is abundantly sufficient in and of it selfe for all things but because it is deep and may be drawn into different senses and so mistaken If any man will presume upon his own strâ—ngth and goe single without the Church And citing an excellent sentence out of Vincentius Lynnenâ—is quum sit perfectus Scripturarum Canon sibique ad ommia satis superque sufficiat c. Forasmuch as that Canon of Scripture is perfect and superabundantly selfe-sufficient to all things and if you adde this your note upon it in the margent And if it be sibi ad omnia then to this to prove it selfe at least after Tradition hath prepared as to receive it P. A little before you cite also Augustine seting downe 4 speciall notes and marks internall to the Scripture to prove it to be the word of God As 1. The Miracles 2. That there is nothing carnall in the Doctrine 3. That there hath been such performance of it 4. That by such a Doctrine of humility the whole world almost hath been converted And there also to the same purpose Lynnenâ—is who placeth the Scripture before Tradition And here againe That the Scripture is selfe-sufficient to all What room then for Tradition Or if Tradition have any place at all it were good manners for it to come behind as a Handmayd waiting on her Mistris But you can salve all with a wet finger or with one drop out of your pen If it be sibi ad omnia that is selfe-sufficient to all things then to this to prove it selfe at least after Tradition â—ath prepard us to receive it This is your own Addition or Comentary and Glosse of your own Mother wit which is as Tertullian saith of the old Roman Senate which had made a decree that none should be taken into the number of their Gods but such as the Senate it selfe should first think worthy and approve of So as Tiberius Caesar under whose Empire Christ suffered when he had heard much fame of Christ he moved the Senate that Christ migh be entertained for one of their Gods But the Senate for the foresaid Reason rejected it because they first had approved of it Whereupon Tertullian saith Ergo nisi homini plaâ—uerit Deus non erit Deus Therfore except it please man God shall not be God A fit parralell for this very purpose The Scripture by the consent of all the antient Fathers is abundantly selfe-sufficient to prove it selfe to be the word of God but the present Church hath a Senatus consultum a Decree Tradition which must first give her voyce and approbatiton that the Scripture is the word of God otherwise in vaine are all those Encomiums and Commendations of the Fathers though never so antient affirming and confirming the Scriptures selfe-sufficiencie even beyond all measure The Tradition of the present Church must first give her voyce Ergo nisi homini placuerit Scriptura non erit verbum Dei Therfore except it please man the Scripture shall not be the word of God Onely herein you goe beyond the Roman Senate for their Decree for the admiting of a God was by the generall voyce of all the Senators But yours is here from the sole and single Oracle of the Church of England The Chaire of Canterbury 'T is enough that you tell us with an if if the Scripture be Sibi ad omnia then to this to prove it selfe at least after Tradition hath prepared us to receive it Otherwise never talke of Fathers Authority all is in vaine The Scripture cannot be beleeved to be the word of God unlesse The Tradition of the Present Church prepare the way to receive it And at least you say which is no small deminution of the Sâ—riptures selfe-sufficiencie which you put with an if at least But of this sufficiently But let 's heare your Reasons further for your Tradition The Scripture Say you is deep and may be drawn into different sences and so mistaken that any man will presume upon his own strength and goe single without the Church So it seemeth your Articles of Religion are deepe as which not onely may be but are drawne into different sences and so mistaken and that by the presumption of one mans strength going single without the Church But for the Scripture though it be deep yet it affords us both line and Bucket sufficient to draw water out of those wellâ— of Salvation and so to give us a full tast whereby to relish and resent whose word it is except the Tradition and Authority of your present Church doe cut off our line and breake our Bucket The Scripture hath both Milke for Babes and strong Meat for Men. In the Sea both the Elephant may swim as AUG and GREG. saith and the Lamb wade and when it is by unstable men wrested and drawn into different sences and so mistaken yet it remaines the
Government is nothing according to our Great Kings Laws but according to your own devised Canons and in nothing in Nothing I say agreeable to the Laws of Christ in the Scripture for the right Government of his Church Nay that Government which Christ hath prescribed in his word and which is practised in the best Reformed Churches beyond the Seas you doe utterly and openly condemn and the Churches themselves that doe practise the Discipline of Christ and his Apostles while you deny them to be any Churches of Christ at all Againe Every Kingdome as it hath but one King over it so it is capapable of no more then onely one Vice-Roy so as by that Title he that is your Ordine Primus and hath a more Potent Principality the Pope had he but a good Title would carry that honour from you all if you value the worth and Dignity of that Vice-Royship after the value of your Bishopricks and not after vertue Either then you must acknowledge the Pope to be the sole Vice-Roy which you are loth to doe For why should not the Patriarch of the other world be as capable of that honour as he or you must give us leave to find out the onely true Vice-Roy of Christ in his Church and that is The Holy Ghost For when our Great King went into his Celestiall Kingdome to his Church Tryumphant leaving his Militant here on Earth under the Kingdome of Grace as touching his bodily presence he sent the Holy Ghost to be his Vice-Roy or Vice-Gerent to be perpetually resident in his Kingdome of Grace here for the Governing of his Church Militant and that according to the Law of Christ in his written word leading the People of Christ into all truth by revealing unto them all the Mysteryes of Christs will contained in the Scripture As Christ saith He shall gâ—orifie Me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you And v. 13. When the spirit of Truth is come whom v. 7. I will send unto you he will guide you into all Truth for he shall not speake of himselfe but whatsoever he shall heare that shall he speake Loe here then a faithfull Vice-Roy indeed And will or dare you deny this Spirit of God to be an All sufficient Vice-Roy who doth execute Christs Kingly Office in his Church in all things just so as Christ himselfe willâ—th And therfore except you can prove that Christ hath many Kingdomes of Grace here on earth or any more Churches Militant then one onely here is no Rome for any such Vice-Roys as you pretend to be For here we see it plain that of Christs one and onely Kingdome of Grace here on earth the Holy Ghost is the onely Vice-Roy And who is fit to be Christs Vice-Roy in his spirituall Kingdome but the Spirit of God and of Christâ— Ye are therfore no Vice-Roys because you are altogether carnall and your Kingdome is of this world And therfore Thirdly how can you Prelates pretend to be Vice-Roys over Christs Church whenas as is noted before ye are not so much as any members at all of Christs Kingdome For you are the Members of Antichrists Kingdome and so you are or may be Antichrists Vice-Roys over his severall Provinces 'T is true you style your selves spirituall Lords spirituall and your Courts spirituall and you are an Hierarchy as much to say as a Holy Kingdome or Government but it is not spirituall of Christs spirit but of that spirit that ruleth in the ayre that gave you all that Authority So as you do with Bellarmine turne those words of Christ to Peter Pasce oves meas Feed my Sheep to Regio more Impera Rule as a King And what similitude is there between Christ and you that you should be his Vice-Roys in his Church-Militant When he was here in person he was among his own as a servant and Minister He had no staâ—ely and Princely Palaces he kept no such Pontificiall house nor Court he governed not his Church by Chancellors Arch Deacons Deanes Chapters Commissâ—â—â—â—s Offiâ—ialls Pursuivants Apparitors and all that Rabble Christ had no such face of a Kingly Government So as you have altogether perverted the Kingdome of Christ which is altogether spirituall and holy into a meere temporall and carnall Kingdome wherein therfore you are none of Christ Vice-Roys but Viâ—ious Roys and Tyrannicall Lords O Antichâ—istian Generation O notorious Hypocrites O proud and blind Guides How shall you escape the vengeance to come that dare thus impiously abâ—se the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ and so impose upon the world by your bold usurpations Vsurpations indeed You call your selvs Vice-Roys Apostolicke Bishops Spirituall Church Grace Holinesse meere Nominalls which you have usurped and patched together to become a veile to cover your deep hypocrisie and to seem glorious in the eyes of the world and all to hold up your earthly Kingdome which consists altogether of earthly things honours riches pleasures But blind world that suâ—ferest thy selfe to be thus guld and befoold with such glittering stuffe and to be made a slave to such Lords and to be cheated of thy salvavation by these Antichristian Mountebanks And yet they pretend and professe that this their carnall pompous and Pontificiall Kingdome is Christs spirituall Kingdome here in the state of Grace Let them then cleare themselves herein from that damned Heresy of that old Heretick â—erinthus who lived in S. Iohns time His Heresy was That Christs Kingdome after his Resurrection was earthly and that now the flesh conversing in Ierusalem was to serve lusts and pleasures See Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib 3. cap. 22. Now is not the Prelates Kingdome just that in practise with Cerinthus his Heresy If so As S. Iohn forsook the Bath wherein Cerinthus was what cause have Christians to fly from that roofe where such an Antichristian Hierarchy domineereth But in the next place let 's consider of your Reason How stands it good that because Christs Church is as large as the world therfore he thought it fitter to governe it by Diverse then by One Vice-Roy Now we have proved your Hierarchy not to be an Aristocrasie a Government of the Best men and that by good Laws seeing therfore you must needs be some Government then it must be an Olegarchie that is the Government of a few of the worse men such as rule by their lusts and not by any good Laws either of God or Man But now tell me my Lord if you argue upon this ground that because the Militant Church is as large as the world therfore 't is fitter it be governed by many Vice Roys then by one why may not aswell one Prelate as the Pope be sole Vice-Roy over the whole world as my Lord of Canterbury be a Vice-Roy over all England For doth not the Pope and you Governe your Churches by substitutes Why then may not the Pope Governe the whole by his Curates as you doe all England by your Curates For
to defend their ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be countod Rebells So he But this by the way But I have somthing more to say about the shaking of the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners though I mentioned it before but now upon this occasion And that is concerning Ceremonies of humane ordinance in Gods worship which being imposed upon mens Consciences is not onely a shaking of the Founâ—ation of Faith but an overthrowing of it for thereby Christ is denyed to be the onely King of his Church And therfore as the Kings of Israel did nothing in reforming of Religion and the worship of God but what was expresly commanded and prescribed in Gods Law so Christian Kings and Magistrates ought not to doe any thing no not to impose any one humane Ceremony or Ordinance in Gods service besides that which is written in Gods word otherwise the Foundations of Faith is overthrown Of such moment is the least Ceremony in Gods service that it is of the substance and Foundation of Faith L. p. 210. But 't is time to return For A.C. in this Passage hath been very carefull to tell us of a Parliament and of living Magistrates and Iudges besides the Law books Thirdly therfore The Church of England God be thanked shines happily under a Gratious Prince and well understands that a Parliament cannot be called at All times and that there are visible Iudges besides the Law-books and one supreme long may he be and be hapâ—y to settle all Temporall Differences which certainly he might much better perform if his Kingdome were well ridde of A. C. and his Fellows And she beleeves too that our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-books the Scripture Visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops under a Gratious King to governe both for Truth and Peace according to the Scripture and her own Canons and Constitutions as also those of the Catholicke Church which Crosse not the Scripture and the Iust Laws of the Realme But she doth not beleeve there is any Necessity to have one Pope or Bishop over the whole Christian world more then to have one Emperour over the whole world P. It were time indeed for you to return from your Course when once there is mention of a Parliament For thriving If you mean that your Church of England hath of late dayes well thriven in her prevailing for the seting up of Images and Altars for bringing in more Superstitions into your Service for puting down sincerity Purity and power of the true Religion and of the Preaching of Gods word for suppressing the Doctrines of Grace forementioned for hampering the Puritans as you call them by puting down suspending and silencing of Godly and painfull Preachers and by crying down both the Doctrine and Practise of the sanctification of the Sabbath or Lords day and by smothering in the birth all sound and Orthodox Books against Popery and other Heresies not suffering them to be Printed and by licencing of Popish Books to be Printed and Publâ—shed and the like and if this be the way of the well thriving of your Church whomsover you have cause to thanke yet surely you have small cause to thanke God whose Name herein you doe abuse and blaspheme as perhaps your own Conscience may tell you as if he favoured such practises of yours because for a time he patiently suffers and winks at them and that in judgement to a sinfull Land and for tryall of his own servants and people and for a preparative to your certaine ruine if speedy repentance prevent it not For God is not mocked with such thanks though he be mocked but whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reape How then doth it concerne all Christian Magistrates to look to it least if they suffer Christs Kingdome to be betrayed into the hands of Antichristian Usurpers by giving way unto them to doe what they list while themselvs seem to sleep they provoke God too much For as Samuel sayd to the People If ye doe wickedly you shall perish both you and your King For my part though I will not joyne in Prayer with such a Profane Hypocrite as you are and an enemy of Iesus Christ and his Truth no more then the Apostle Iohn would be in the same Bath with that Heretick Cerinthus yet my dayly Prayer is and shall be that God would more and more let the King see how miserably he is abused and the Peace and safety of his Kingdome distracted and indangered both by the late violent practises which have been held in Church-affaires and now by the publishing of such a Book as this so notoriously perillous or rather most pernicious and so much the more in these times of troubles about Religion lately sprung up in the Iland of Great Britaine Which Book though it make many faire pretences for Peace yea Peace and Truth yet in truth it will prove the greatest troubler of Israel and the falsest friend to true Truth that the light hath seen these many yeares This I speake not by conjecture much lesse out of malice to the Authors Person but from the cleare evidence of the word of Prophecy in Scripture in such cases But how comes your Church of England to be so well seen in State-Mysteries I pray you as so well to understand that a Parliament cannot be called at all times Or by the Church of England doe you not meane the the Chaire of Catnterbury as the Church Collective or representative of England For you should better understand such State-matters especially for the not calling of Parliaments at all times or suppose it were at Notime or Nevermas least perhaps it might prove as a Frost to nippe your thriving and overforward spring then your Lordship For my part I am no States-man and so I leave State matters to States-men who should best understand them But if your A.C. and his Fellows be such troublesome fellows why doe you trouble your selves with them when a good honest Parliament might ease the King and Kingdome â—oo of that trouble provided that good Laws already enacted and by the next Parliament if ever there shal be any quickned by a new Law to put them in better execution there may be also a good season to bring forth such Visible Iudges as without straining the strings either of their Purses or Consciences coming clearly to their Benches and not making them as Banks but siting Rectè in Curia they may without feare of any Prepotent Prelate or Partiality in respect of Persons do Justice I passe now from the understanding of your Church of England to her Beliefe which you also tell us of She beleeves too What doth she beleeve That our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-books the Scriptures visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops How Is this come already to be an Article of the Faith of the Church of
to the Testimony if they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Art thou not Christs Spouse Then heare Christs voyce the Scripture Say with the Spouse in the Canticles Tell me O thou whom my soule loveth where thou feedest where thou causest thy flocks to rest at noone For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions To whom Christ her beloved Spouse answereth If thou know not O thou fairest among women goe thy way to the footsteps of the Flocke and feed thy Kiddes besides the shepheards Tents Here the true Church Christs Spouse in her perplexities and doubts wherein she is like to loose her selfe goes to Christ to her shepheard and asks of him where he feedeth where he causeth his Flocks to rest at Noon where his Congregations may find a shady layre rest and refreshing from the meridian heat of Persecutions or her Faith find rest in doubtfull cases of Faith or Conscience For why saies she should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions Why should I be uncertain and unsettled in depending upon the guidanâ—â— and conduct of false shepheards such as pretend to be as thy fellow-shepheards that sit as God in the Temple of God shewing themselves to be God equall to thee in power and Regall Authority over thy Kingdome and Church making what Laws they please in binding our Consciences and that even to their erronious Decrees To whom Christ Answereth If thou know not O thou fairest among women although despised by men goe thy way forth by the footsteps of the Flocke to the green Pastures and the waters of comfort the Scriptures where my flocke doth ordinarily find pasture For man liveth not by bread onely but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God there thou shalt find the true Pasture by the footsteps of the flocke by the continuall treading of my sheep which know no other pasture but this For here my sheep heare my voyce even here by the shepheards Tents my Ministers whom I have set over the flocks to feed them with understanding and knowledge Here be those waters for every one that thirsteth here is the milke and wine that 's to be had without money Hearken diligently unto me incline thine Eare and come unto me and thy soule shall live search the Scriptures for in them is eternall life and they are they that testifie of me These are the onely light which I have left to be a lampe for thy feet and a light for thy steps These are the onely Oracles of God which shall clearly resolve thee in all thy perplexed doubts These are my onely faithfull witnesses which I have left to witnesse the truth and to establish thy heart in the faith in me if any man teach otherwise and consenteth not to the wholsome words of Scripture which are mine own lâ—vely voyce and which containe all things pertaining to faith and godlinesse he is puft up and knoweth nothing he is a false Prophet a false shepheard a blind Guide a seducer an Antichrist Thus Christ speaketh to his Spouse in the Scripture his owne voyce the onely true living and infallible Iudge And to this Judge Christs voyce in the Scripture the true Spouse of Christ in all Ages hath still resorted and therein been resolved in her doubts and comforted in her distresse For here is that wisdome which is justified of all her Children And whatsoever is therein written is written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Nothing can comfort us in our calamities nothing can confirm and establish our faith and hope in all our perplexed doubtings but this Before we shewed how all the Fathers with one voyce took this sanctuary came to this Iudge made this the onely Rule to determine all doubts and disputes by so Augustine so Tertullian so the incertain Author upon Mat. 24. in Chrysostome saith that in the times of Antichrist even in these our Times one cannot know the true Church but by the Scripture because Antichrist with his wicked Clergy make such a faire shew and pretence that they are the Catholicke Church just as your Lordship doth Therfore let all true Christians in these perillous times of Antichrist and Antichristian Prelates which cry down the Scriptures as an insufficient Iudge in Controversies of faith and cry up their own usurped Authority as the supreme Iudge of the Scripture at least in all doubtfull cases though they confesse their Judgement not to be of Infallible Credit fly to the Mountaines and to the Fountaines the Scriptures the lively voyce of Christ they they onely will resolve us and settle our faith in all doubts and difficulties and will discover unto us the true Church of Christ from all false pretended counterfeit Antichristian Prelaticall Hierarchicall Churches and Synagogues Now seeing though you arrogate but are not able to prove that Christ hath left your Catholicke Church an Infallible certainty which yet you confesse to be uncertaine give us leave though we touched this before now againe upon a fresh occasion to vindicate the Truth of Christ that he not onely intended but indeed hath left unto his true Church an infallible certainty of his Spirit which by the rule of his word doth guide his Elect into all truth in all ages successively unto the end of the world When he took his long Farewell of his Apostles and Disciples as concerning his bodily presence with them upon earth he left them this Promise yet to comfort them concerning his perpetuall spirituall presence with them saying Lo I am with you alwayes unto the end of the world To the end of the world Ergo with all those that are his true Disciples unto the end of the world So as wheresoever Christs Churches and Congregations be there his Spirt is This Spirit leads his into all Truth into all necessary and saving Truth infallibly and most certainly This is that Anoynting of which before He that hath not this Spirit of Christ this Spirit of truth is none of his And he that hath it is preserved from the seducements of false Prophets which come in Christs Name and shall deceive many but not the Elect for that 's not possible Every true beleever cannot will not willingly erre in any point of faith and truth necessary to Salvation I say not wittingly For many of Gods deare Children doe that ignorantly whereby Christ is denyed as in yeelding obedience to mans devices in Gods worship and that through custome wheras if they were rowsed and put to it and asked if they beleeved not that Christ is the onely King of his Church and Lord over the Conscience oh they beleeve and acknowledge none other King Aske them againe whether they beleeve that any man may exercise this Authority over them oh
the end of the world Whereas by saying Peter represented the Person of the Church you must meane that the Church is wholly contained in the Ministers For you usually call your Clergy the Church as if you had no Church but that whereas the Congregation or society of all the Faithfull is the Church of God as is shewed before So as in no respect did Peter receive the Keys in the person of your Priest and Prelaticall Church L. p 258. Where 't is said That Christ makes to himselfe a Church without spot or wrinckle Eph. 5. That is not understâ—â—d of the Church Militant but of the Church Tryumphant And to maintain the contrary is a brand of the spreading Heresie of Pelagianisme P. That speech of the Apostle includes as well the truâ— Church Militant as the Tryumphant both which containe and consist of all the Elâ—ct onely And these Elect that in the Church Militant live by Faith though they have enoikouâ—an kì euperÃstton aâ—mratÃan as the Apostle saith sinne dwelling in them and easily besetting them yet they are in Gods sight through Faith in Christs blood that fountaine set open for Israel washed from all the spotâ— of sinne being in Christs imputed Righteousnesse and holynesse presented and accepted in Gods sight as most pure without spot or wrinkle As the the Apostle Iohn saith The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sinne And Christ saith to his Spouse his Church Militant Thou art all faire my Love there is no spot in thee Concerning that place which you cite out of Augustine where he saith The whole Church prayeth forgive us our debts 'T is true speaking there of the visible Church quae in toto terrarum orbe clamat ad deum which over all the earth crys to God And if he meane it of the Elect onely which are the onely true Spouse of Christ in all the world their praying forgive us our debts hinders not nor interrupteth their perpetuall purity in Gods sight notwithstanding For we may be and are through faith in Christ accepted for pure in Gods eyes when in our own eyes through sin and manifold corruptions still dwelling but not raigning in us we are impure And therfore we pray forgive us our debts because we have dayly failings and infirmities whereof our Consciences accuse us and the confession of them with deprecation is a meanes to have that stain and guilt cleaving to our Conscience and corrupt nature wiped off Faith still renewing the application of Christs merits as a Balme to heale our wounds and to assure us that our sinnes are blotted out in his blood For as Iohn saith If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnes Now as for the Pelagians One of their errours was in Arrogating purity to their own sect and that they had no Originall sinne but that they were Justi by a selfe-Righteousnesse calling those of their own sect Justi Righteous as Augustine tells us But where you name the spreading Heresie of the Pelagians I know none to whom that is more beholden then to him your selfe I meane who hath given it a footing and rooting too in the Articles of the Doctrines of the Church of England and under whom it hath shot forth its branches both in height and breadth that it dare both overtop and overdrop the Truth without controule But I had almost forgot one thing and that is this you allow not Purity in your Church Militant in this life If therfore there be not a full purgation of the Church and her Children here in this world where will you have her purged Purged she must be and that thorowly that she be without spot or wrinkle before she come into heaven For in thither no unclean thing entâ—eth Me thinks then I smell here the smoke of some Purgatory fire after this life which must purge away all the reliques of sins spots And upon this very ground that you goe on it is that the Papists have very prudently as in a case of necessity devised their Purgatory to cleanse all after this life seeing here they say there is no Perfection of Purity But perhaps you thought not of this consequence when you writ those words That the Church Militant is not without spot or wrinkle But so how will you avoyd the consequence of Purgatory So as while you pretend to avoyd the Pelagian Rocke you fall into the Roman fiery Phlegetom or Purgatory-Gulfe According to the old Proverbe Incidit in Scyllam dum vuâ—t vitare Charâ—â—â—in But you seem afterwards not to allow of Purgatory telling some stories of it but bringing not one Argument from Scripture against it as That the blood of Christ doth cleanse a true beleever from all sinne in this life and the like But hereof in its place Againe In saying That Christ doth not make the Church Militant in this life to be without spot or wrinkle you doe 〈◊〉 overthrow that Article of Faith I beleeve the holy Catholicke Church Now doth not the holy Catholicke Church 〈…〉 Church Militant Is not the Church Militant 〈…〉 if holy is it not then without spot or wrinkle 〈…〉 But this is no Article of your Faith because your Catholicke Church is not thus holy without spot or wrinkle L. p. 275. In and by the Councel of Trent the Pope 〈…〉 of Saints and Adoration of Images to the 〈…〉 of Christianity and as great hazzard of the weake P. What no more but so First In the Councel â—f 〈…〉 the Pope teach no more but these two And these two he could teach long before the Councel of Trent There they had the Pâ—pâ— confirmation but not their Christendome But you tell us not â— word in all your Booke of the Popes teaching of 〈…〉 mans works and merits and of his Anathematizing of 〈…〉 by Faith onely which the Scripture teacheth Nor a 〈…〉 teaching the Masse to be a Propitiatory sacrifice for 〈…〉 quicke and dead Nor how he teacheth a New order of sacriâ—â—â—cing Priests Nor That Originall sinne is no sinne saying Although the Apostle define it to be sinne yet the holy Councel of Trent decreeth it not to have the nature of sinne And all these and many more such the Pope teacheth in the Councel of Trent Secondly Are Invocation of Saints and Adoration of Images no more but a great hazzard to the weake Are they not so also to the strong while they make the strongest to stoope to them and therfore so much the more hazardous Except you meane that to the strong they are damnable not onely dangerous But is plaine Idolatry in both these both adoration of Images and Invocaâ—iâ—n of Saints onely hazardous to the weake Is not Idolatry damnable Nay is it not damnation to Idolaters Doth it not shut them out of heaven For no Idolaters shall inherit the Kingdome of God Know ye it not saith the Apostle
But Thirdly you say These are a great scandall of Christianity No more Why sure they are the very badges and proper markes of the whore of Babylon and the Doctrines of Antichristianity For they are spirituall whoredome And as for true Christianity it so abhorres them and that whore that uses them that it is not easily scandalized with them as you are that would so faine be â—econciâ—ed to Rome For what communion hath the Temple of God with Idolls Or Christ with Beliall Or true Christianity with Antichristianity L. p ibid. Transubstantiation taken properly cannot stand with the ground of Christan Religion P. Why is there some other taking of Transustantiation then properly Is there a Transubstantiation improperly taken shew it us I pray you Is not Transubstantiation Transubstantiation To 〈◊〉 a Câ—anging of one substance into another As the changing of the substance of water into the substance of wine which Christ truly did miraculously As the changing of waters into blood which Moses did miraculousâ—y As the changing of the breaâ— into Christs body and of the wine into Christs blood which the Papists falsly teach and beleeve as if done miraculously when no Miracle at all doth appeare Or they say it is done by verture of pronouncing the words of Consecration Hoc est corpus meum This is my body whereas the Text plainly sheweth that these were not the words of Consecration as also some Schoolmen confesse for Christ had Consecrated before in his blessing or giving of thanks after which and after he had broken the bread giving it to his Disciples he uttered these words This is my body But what is your Transubstantiation improperly taken Indeed some of the Ancient Fathers speaking of the Sacramentall Elements after Consecration being then set apart from common use called it a Mutation saying that the Elements were changed into another Nature but withall they expresse their meaning to be not the changing of their substance but of their use from being common bread and wine to become Sacramentall or Sacred But for Transubstantiation they never so much as dreamed of any such kind of Metamorphosis or MetousÃosis or monstrous Paradox as Transubstantiation But this your Distinction of properly and improperly may perhaps prove usefull for to make a Reconciliation with Româ— in this matter and so to remove this mégakásma so as both you and the Church of Rome may hold Transubstantiation onely with this difference or rather verball distinction Rome holding it properly and you improperly L. ibid. As for communion in one kind Christs Institution to cleare against that P. And is not Christs institution as cleare against Trâ—nsubstantiation upon which you immediately adde this And first even naturall Reason or the blind light of Nature is against it For the Heathen man can tell you who is so madde or vaine as to beleeve or imagine that to be God which he eateth Although saith he we call Bread by the name of the Goddesse Ceres and Winâ— by the name of Bacchus c. Againe to beleeve Transubstantiation is against those very words of institution This is my body For these words are an usuall Sacramentall Phrase or manner of speech which the Scripture useth in all the Sacraments both of the old Testament and of the new As in all of them to call the outword visible signes by the name of the thing signified As Circumsition was called the Covenant Gen. 17.10 though but a signe of it vers 11. And a seale of it also Rom. 4.11 so the eating of the Paschall Lambe it was a memoriall or commemorative signe and sacrifice of the Passover and yet it is called the Passover So Baptisme succeeding Circumcision though it be a visible signe and Sacrament of the washing of Christs bloud to remission of sinnes And so as Circumcision a signe and seale of the Covenant yet it is called râ—generation beâ—ng but a signe of it And so also the Lords supper the Elements theâ—ein bread and wine Consecrated being signes to remember and seales by Faith to apply Christs death the one is called his body the other his blood And thus Christs institution is as cleare against Transubstantiation as it is against communion in one kind Thirdly Transubstantiation is against the Article of our Faith of Christs incarnation of the Virgin and of his sitting at Gods right hand whom the heavens must receive till his coming againe And so against our Faith of his coming againe as before seeing Transubstantiation makes him Corporally present every day And as for communion in one kind though it be commonly so called yet both improperly and untruly For it is not communion so much as in one kind Transubstantiation being admitted as Papists beleeve it for they destroy the very substance of the Element of bread by their Transubstantiation and how then is it a communion in one kind They have left nothing of the bread but the bare Accidents And Accidents we know do not constituere speciem do not constitute any species or kind of things Nay according to the Rule of Philosophy the Papists have by taking away the substance of bread not left so much as the Accidents of Bread but in a meeer Phantasme or Apparition For Philosophy and Logicke teacheth that Accidentis Esse est messe The Beeing of an Accident iâ— its immediate In-beeing in its proper subject Now the substance of bread is the proper subject of the Accidents of bread which are no longer the Accidents of Bread then they inhere in the bread so as the Bread being destroyed the Accidents are destroyed And if as they say the substance of Bread is vanished in Transubstantiation then certainly the Accidents And lesse proper is it that accidents proper to bread should have their inherence in humane flesh as they say Christs flesh is under the accidents of bread as if it were coloured over with the accidents of bread which yet cannot subsist but in some body yea and in their naturall and proper body which is bread Againe wheras you say Transubstantiation was never heard of till the Councel of Lateran 't is true that â—s was never decreed to be beleeved and publiâ—kly received as a Doctrine of the Church of Rome till in the Councel of Lateran under Innocent 3 as before is touched But it was hatched before and was privately crope into the bosome of many mens beliefe and there fostered as a tender Chicke before it came to get spurres and so to be made a Cocke of the Game in that Councel So also Communion under one Kind as you call it secundum Apparentiam grew into use in sundry places through â—egligence of the Priest or otherwise before it came to be Decreed in the Councel of Constance to be of necessity universally received L. p. 277. For Adoration of Images the modern Church of Rome is too likâ— to Paganisme in the Practise of it P. The Moderne say you Nay the Church of Rome