good Works that are our Obedience to the Law of Christ are but the performance of our Baptismal Covenant and the Fruits of Faith without which it is dead Hypocrisie and are of absolute necessity to Salvation to all that have time to do them Against the charge That we are Sinners deserving Hell we are justified by Christ believed in Against the accusation That we are Infidels Ungodly Hypocrites we must be justified by our Faith Godliness and Works or perish But we do also hold 1. That if a man be convicted as the Theif on the Cross and should die suddenly no outward good which he cannot do is absolutely necessary to his Salvation but only his inward Faith Love and Repentance and Confession if able 2. We do firmly hold that Works done with a conceit of obliging God by Merit in commutative Justice or as conceited sufficient without a Saviour and the pardon of their failings are such as more further Damnation than Salvation at least in those that hear the Gospel 3. And we are no Papists and therefore believe not that ignorant words of Prayer in a Tongue not understood and wearing Reliques and going on Pilgrimages and needless confessing to Priests and subjection to an universal Vice-Christ and living upon the Blood of Saints Murdering the Living and praying to the Dead and the Sons honouring their Days Relicks and Monuments whom their Fathers Burnt or Persecuted these are not Good Works necessary to Salvation as is plain Math. 23. and Revel 14.17 18 c. We do with Paul renounce all Works of our own that are thought to make the Reward to be of Debt and not of Grace and that are set in the least opposition or competition with Christs Merits or any place save commanded Subordination to him The Two and Twentieth accused Point That no Good Works are Meritorious Ans The word Merit is ambiguous and so abused by Papists that indeed the Protestants are shyer of it than the Fathers were lest the use of it should cherish the abuse 1. There is Merit of man and of God 2. And this in Commutative Justice conceited or only in Governing distributive Justice 3. And this is either according to the Law of Innocency or Moses or according to the Law of Christ Now Protestants hold 1. As to the Name that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy and worthiness are Scripture words and may be used and Merit is but of the same signification and we condemn not the Ancients that so used it But the worst Sence must not be cherished 2. Do they hold 1. That no Creature can merit of God in Commutative Justice that giveth quid pro quo to his Benefit God receiveth not from Man or Angels unless he will call Acceptance and Complacence Receiving 3. None but Christ merited of strict Governing Justice according to the Law of Senceless Innocence nor by any Works that will save man from the charge of Sin and desert of Death 3. All at Age that will be saved must have good Works according to their Capacity for Christ is the Author of Salvation to all those that obey him Heb. 5.9 Tho' they obey not an unknown Priest at Rome But all these Works are our Obedience to Christs own healing Government such as the Laws of a Physician to the Sick And we all agree that he will Judge that is Justifie or Condemn in Judgment all men according to their Works that is according to the Law and it's promulgation by which in their several Ages and Nations he governed them 4. Your own Doctors that know what they say tell us that by Merit they mean nothing but the Rewardable quality of their acts related to Gods promise through Christs Merits And doth any Protestant Church deny this The Three and Twentieth accused Point That Faith once had cannot possibly be lost Ans Still confused slander and deceit Protestants hold 1. That the Faith not rooted prevalent and saving is frequently lost such as you call sides informis 2. That even sincere Faith may be lost as to the Act for some little time that is suspended in a deliquium as Peters and theirs Luk. 24. that said We trusted this had been he c. 3. That many lose to the Death some degree of their habitual Faith 4. But they differ in the rest just as you do among your selves Dominicans and Jesuits 1. Some think that no one at Age at least in a State of such Faith as at present would have saved him doth ever totally lose it 2. Some think that many have but such loseable Grace as Adam had 1. As being not Elect to Salvation and therefore not in Gods decree of Preservation and Perseverance 2. As having a Faith not Rooted and Confirmed And that these may fall from a justified State But that 1. The Elect. 2. Nor the Confirmed never fall away This was Austins Judgment and his followers of which see Vossii Theses And is that Jesuit honest that feigneth this proper to the Protestants where the Controversie is the same among themselves The Four and Twentieth accused Point That God by his will and inevitable decree hath ordained from all Eternity who shall be Damned and who Saved Ans What a false Deceiver is this that would make us believe that this is proper to the Protestants when it is the Common Doctrine not only of the Dominicans but of the very Jesuits themselves and all their Church 1. None of them dare say that men are Damned or Saved without Gods foreknowledge nor against his absolute will by overcoming his Power 2. None of them dare say that this fore-knowledge of God was not from Eternity but that he knew one day what he knew not before 3. All that the Jesuits themselves say is that God decreed it upon this fore-knowledge and that he hath a Scientia media what will come to pass positis quibusdam if such and such things be done by man and that this fore-knowledge in order of Nature is before the Decree but both from Eternity But Cardin Cameracensis Petrus de Aliaco hath irrefragably confuted this imposing Priority and Posteriority of act on God tho' I think some Divine acts as denominated only Relatively from the order of Objects may be so distinguished 4. In all this we say not that God hath by his will and decree ordained from Eternity or in time that men shall sin or will and choose Evil but only who shall be Damned for sin which God never willed or caused but foresaw not as if he were an idle Spectator but a willing suspender of his own acts so far as to leave Sinners to their self-determining wills 5. But God being the cause of Good and Men and Devils of Evil our Salvation is of him and our Destruction of our selves and therefore God decreeth not Men's Salvation or Sanctification meerly on foresight of our Faith but decreeth our Faith it self Sin he permitteth but Faith he effecteth and decreeth
without teaching and that sound teaching nor by hearkening to Erroneous Deceivers 3. Nor that the Slothfull that will not meditate on it can understand it tho' they have the soundest teachers 4. Nor that Novices can understand as much in a short time and small Study as aged long exercised Students 5. Nor that wicked proud men that forfeit Gods help can savingly understand it without his Grace and Spirit 6. Nor that any man how holy soever perfectly understandeth every word in the Scriptures 7. Nor that a person may not be fallible and deceived that yet knoweth which is the Infallible Rule It maketh not all Infallible that know it 8. Nor that any Church or any Number of Christians on Earth have such a Vnity as consisteth in perfect knowledge and agreement in all matters of Faith that is of Scripture-record from God 9. Nor that God hath tyed this Infallible Regulation to the Bishop of Rome or made him this Rule seeing no such word of God is extant and General Councils have condemned Popes of Heresie Infidelity Ignorance and most brutish lust and wickedness 10. Nor that the Judgment of the major part of Christians or Bishops is the Infallible Rule for 1. The Papal part are but a third part And they will hardly believe that the other two or three parts Abissines Egyptians Syrians Armenians Georgians Circassians Greeks Muscovites Protestants are the Infallible rule 2. And if they met in an equal Council they that are most out of the Council would be the most in it And Ephes 2. and many others now condemned have had the Major part And Chrysostom that thought that few Bishops or Priests were saved thought not the greater number to be the infallible Rule 11. And Pope and Councils agreeing are not that Infallible rule for two fallibles makes not one infallible nor two Knaves one honest Man Popes and Councils have oft condemned one another yea they have oft agreed in evil as did that at Laterane the 4th under Innocent the 3d. that decreed the deposition of Princes that exterminate not all that renounce not all Senses and Humanity for those that have led into the Churches of the West all the horrid Errors of Rome to pretend yet that they are the Infallible rule of understanding Scripture is Impudency quite beyond that of Satan himself 12. If this Deceiver hold what is contrary to his accused Protestant Opinion he must condemn the Church of Rome that agreeth not of the sense of a thousand Texts of Scripture Horseloads of Commentators and Cartloads of School-contenders contradicting one another And he that will say that all revealed in Scripture is not matter of Faith reproacheth God as revealing that which is not to be believed All matters of Faith are not essential to Christianity but some are only for the perfection of it All is matter of Faith that we are bound to believe as Divine Revelation All the Scripture is such thô the ignorant must have time and help to understand it and explicitely receive it The Popes themselves e. g. Sixtus Quintus and Clem. 8. have differed in many hundred Texts about the very Latine Translation Many hundred Volumes of Controversies among them tell us how far they are from ending Controversies and agreeing in all matters of Faith But in so much as is necessary to Salvation all serious believing Protestants or Reformed Catholicks are agreed Now to trouble the Reader with the proof of any of these twelve particulars would be but to abuse Time and him as to prove that no Man is perfect and he that saith he hath no sin is a Lyar and to prove that the grand Deceivers of the Church are not Infallible and that Gods Word is not unevident and unintelligible and that such Villains as their own Councils and Historians say many Popes were speaks not more intelligibly and wisely than God and that the Volumes of Canons and Priests Writings are not of more evident meaning than Gods Word these need proof to none but those that are uncapable of it What Rule is there for the Infallible understanding the sence of all our Statute Laws none but what I mentioned The intelligible evidence in the words what else are words used for to men duely instructed and studyed The Judges govern by deciding particular causes by the Law but are not an Infallible Rule for all Men to understand the true sence of the Law by while Judges and Parliaments differ from each other as Popes and Councils did The Texts cited by the Deceiver are so vilely abused as if he purposed but to make sport by taking Gods Word in vain Point 2. Accused That in matters of Faith we must not rely on the Judgment of the Church and of her Pastors but only on the written word Ans The Deceiver would Cheat the Ignorant by Confusion and belying the Reformed Catholicks for 1. It 's false that the Reformed hold any of this undistinguishing Assertion They distinguish between humane Faith and Divine And I hope God and Man may be distinguished They say that it must be a Divine Faith that is The Belief of Gods word for the Infallible Veracity of God that must save us and not the belief of Man alone But that a humane Faith is needful in Subserviency to a Divine God hath appointed humane Teachers to the Flocks and Oportet discentem Credere He will never learn that will believe nothing on his Teachers Credit But he must believe Man but as Man an imperfect fallible Creature yet as like to know more than he that chooseth him for his Teacher And that which Man is to teach us is to see the Evidence of Gods own Word that we may believe it for that Evidence as our Teachers themselves must do For if the Teachers do but believe one another and not God or God only for Man's Authority this is not Religion nor Divne Faith but humane such as they had that believed Pythagoras Plato Mahomet c. If Boys learn of their School-Master to understand the Greek or Latin Testament and believe them as to Sence this is not Divine Faith but a help towards it The word of God is Infallible And by the help of fallible Men such as disagreeing Commentators be we are furthered for understanding it But false bloody Usurpers are not the likest to teach us the Truth nor fittest to be trusted His Citations of Scriptures to mistated Controversies are so putidly impertinent that I am ashamed to detect them by words which every Man may do The Third accused Point That the Scriptures are easy to be understood and therefore none are to be restrained from Reading them Ans Meer Cheat to the Ignorant by confusion and falshood 1. We and all Papists with us agree the more is the Guilt of the Deceivers Fraud that some of the Scripture is easy to be understood and is actually understood by all true Christians even all that is essentsal to Christianity and necessary to Salvation Bellarmine Castrus
and many others tell us that for all that the Scripture is plain and sufficient Yea so it is in many Thousand particular Texts If this be not so let this Man tell us if he can how it cometh to pass that Papists Greeks and Protestant Commentators agree of the meaning of most of the Scripture perhaps of Nineteen Texts in Twenty if it be not plain But do Protestants say that there is nothing in the Scripture hard to be understood the Father of Lyes will scarce affirm this of them lest their Commentaries and Controversies shame him 2. But what Must the people be forbidden to Read Gods Word because some passages are dark Why not also forbidden to Read Statutes Canons Fathers Jesuits Fryars and the Loads of Papists Controversies Is there nothing hard in all these Volumes what not in all the Canons In all Chrysostom Austin Cyril c In all Lombard Aquinas Bonaventure Scotus Ockam Cajetane and all the Tribe In all Suarez Vasquez Huctado Albictine c In all Cajacius and his Tribe Why are not these forbidden Do but rub your Foreheads and tell me 1. Whether the Law was not darker than the Gospel and yet God charged them Deut. 6. and 11. To teach the words to their Children and that lying down and rising up at home and abroad and to write them on the posts of their Houses and their Gates And every blessed Man Psal 1. was to delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate in it Day and Night Read Psal 119. 2. Whether Christ did not Preach the words Recorded in the Gospel to the unlearned common people and Peter and Paul and all the Apostles to all the vulgar Jews and Gentiles 3. Whether they writ not their Recorded Epistles to the Vulgar even to all the Churches 4. Whether it is not Gods Word that we must all be Ruled and Judged by and is the Charter of our right to Heaven and should we be forbid to read it 5. Whether Hierom Chrysostom Austin and all the Fathers do not press Men and Women of all Ranks to read or learn and study the Scriptures 6. Whether he be not like Antichrist that will forbid Men to read that which God sent his Son from Heaven to Preach and Christ appointed Apostles Pastors and Teachers to communicate to all the World 7. Whether the Prince of Darkness and Pride himself would not be ashamed openly to say I have so much skill to speak Intelligibly and God so little that you must read my Books and not read his And whether Popes and Priests Volumes are not as unskilfully written as Gods and as like to draw Men to Heresie and Sin 8. Whether he that thus Condemneth God and his Law and extolleth Man's be like to make good his accusation at God's Barr Alas must such things as these be disputed by Men that would be our Infallible Rule 9. Either the knowledge of God's Word is needful or not If not why did God write part of it himself And send his Son to Preach it And his Spirit in his Prophets and Apostles to write and Record it Are blind Worms fit to accuse God of Folly and needless Work Can Men obey God's Law that know it not But if the knowledge of it be needful to our Obedience and Salvation ask common Reason whether the Difficulties should not rather oblige us to read and study it so much the more â—till we understand it rather than not to read it at all Do their ductile Followers that read it not understand it better than those that study it Day and Night The less we know of needless things the better and quieter we are If God's Law and Gospel be such what a God and Governour have we Can Heathens and Turks Blaspheme him more than to take him for so foolish a Governour of the World as to make a stir by his Son from Heaven and by Angels and Prophets to give them so needless yea pernicious a Law and Gospel as that Men must be kept from reading it lest it Poyson them with Heresie 10. Is it not essential to him that relatively we take for our God to be the Governour of the World and to be our Saviour and the Holy Ghost to deliver and Seal the Gospel as glad Tidings to all Nations And is it not by his Law that God Governeth and by his Gospel that Christ Saveth and the Holy Ghost doth illuminate and Sanctifie And doth not that Man or Clergy then put down God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and set up themselves in the stead who forbid the reading of God's Law and Gospel and Command the knowledge and observance of their own Canons and Dictates instead of them as more Intelligible and safe And is not this as Robert Grosthead told Innocent 4. next the Sin of Lucifer and Antichrist or rather plain Antichristianism it self 11. Is the Stage manner of Massing liker to make the people understand God's Law and Gospel by multitudes of Gestures Motions Crossings Ceremonies that need long Expositions that overwhelm the strongest Memories than the reading and study of the plain and full words of God in Scripture 12. Did this Deceiver ever hear Protestants say that the Apocalypse and Daniel and Ezekiel and the Canticles and the Chronologies of Scripture are all easy to be understood For if he have heard such a Fool did he ever read this in the Confessions of any Church Do not their Commentaries tell the difficulty And ask this Man or his fellow Creature whether the Infallible Pope or Councils have overcome all these difficulties to the Papists and made all this easy to them Or do not their Valuminous disagreeing Commentaries and Controversies shew that they are still as hard to them as to us 13. And ask them whether Pope or Council have ever yet written an Infallible Commentary on the Bible or all such difficult Texts If not is it because they cannot or because they will not And what the better then is their Church for their feigned skill and power infallibly to decide difficult Scripture Controversies What can be more shameless than this pretence in Men that will not do it nor ever did 14. And if still they tell you that the people were always bound to believe and obey the Churches Rites without dispute or Contradiction ask them whether it was not the Church Rulers that killed Christ and called him a Blasphemer and Deceiver and that Persecuted and accused the Apostles And whether the People were bound to believe them as Jewish Papists and whether all the Apostles and Christians were Rebels and Hereticks for not believing them And whether it was not for the Sins of Priests and Princes and the peoples complying with them that God by his Prophets reproved the Israelites and at last forsook them to Captivity 2 Chron. last Jer. 5 last 15. And if they tell you of the Peoples need of Teachers tell them that that is none of the Controversie But whether their Teachers
must teach them to understand God's Book or to throw it away May not the Teacher and the Book consist together Must School-Boys be forbid to Learn their Grammar because they must have a Teacher Must he teach them the Book or teach them without Book But all the Craft is to get all the World to take only such Cheaters as this for their Masters and then Bible or no Bible may serve turn 16. Is it not the Office of Teachers to Translate God's Word into known Tongues that the People may understand it This is the first part of Preaching it If not why do they use Translations in the Church of Rome the Septuagint and the Vulgar Latin And why did Sixtus 5th and Clem. 8. make such a stir to Correct the Latin And why do so many Comment on them And the Rhemists turn it into English But what is all this for but to help Men to understand the Book 17. Doth not all the Word of God cry down Ignorance and cry up Knowledge from End to End And what Knowledge is it but Divine of the Word and Law of God What else is the scope of all the first Nine Chapters of Solomons Proverbs and of Psal 1. 19. and 119 c. God saith Hos 4. 6. My People perish for lack of knowledge And Isa 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not save them Ignorance and Blindness are made the common cause of Errour Sin and Misery But we are so far from taking all parts of Scripture to be equally necessary to be understood that we are more than the Papists for first and most diligently teaching them the Essentials the Creed Lord's Prayer and Commandments and Baptism and Church Communion and the Lord's Supper and lesser parts as they grow up what they must learn first their Teachers must instruct them 18. If he say as they still do that the Ignorant will misunderstand the Scripture and every one turn it to his own Fancy and Heresie I answer The way to prevent this is to teach it them diligently what else is the Ministry for and not to forbid it them Every Knave may pervert the Law of the Land to maintain his own ill Cause and must the Law therefore be forbidden them Reason is far more commonly abused than Scripture There is no Heresie or Error no Villany Perjury Cruelty Persecution Oppression or Injustice but Reason is pleaded for it Must Reason therefore be renounced Heresies are for want of understanding God's word and must be cured by understanding it 19. And if all the World must take the Popes or Priests words instead of Gods or for their Rule how shall those in Aethiopia Syria America or here know what the Popes Word is That never see him or any that hath seen him And how shall we know when above twenty times there have been two Popes at once which of them is the Right And when they contradict and Damn each other which of them must we believe And when General Councils accuse them of Errour and Condemn them which is to be trusted with our Souls Or if it be Councils that must be to us instead of Scripture when they Damn each other which must we believe And so abundance of them have done When the Pope and they agreed to depose Christian Princes and give away their Dominions and disoblige their Subjects from all their Oaths of Allegiance is it as true as the word of God that all Subjects must believe and obey them But how shall all the poor People know what the Pope and Councils say and hold They can neither read their Volumes nor understand them nor know which are authentick and true Must they all believe their Parish Priest What if he be as very a Deceiver as the writer of this Touchstone that doth but Cheat from the beginning to the end Yet must we take his word instead of Gods Or when other Priests or Fryars contradict him which of them must we believe What if his Parishoners know him to be ignorant or a common Lyar Yet must our Salvation rest on his word and God's word be forbidden us What if we obey him in Error and Sin will he undertake to be Damned for us Or will his undertaking or Damnation save those whom he mislead c. As to his Citation of Scripture against Scripture it is so palpable a perversion that I will leave any Man that will but Read the Text to his own ability to answer him Rev. 5.1 No Man in Heaven or Earth was worthy to open the Sealed Books that John saw in his Vision What then must no Man therefore open the Bible Or because the Revelation is hard must therefore the People be forbidden to Read it and the rest of God's word which was written for them as sufficient to make them wise to Salvation yea to make the simple wise Psal 19. And with as shameless a Face doth he cite the Fathers against the drift of all their writings and Labours and the Judgment of all the Churches of Christ for many hundred years of its purest foundest Primitive times The Fourth accused Point That Apostolical Traditions and ancient Customs of the Church not Founded in the written word are not to be received nor do oblige us Ans This is but more Deceit by confusion and false report The Reformed Catholicks hold 1. That Memory is not so sure a way to deliver any Laws and Doctrines to Posterity through many hundred years as writing is For it must lie on the Memories of so many Thousands in so many Ages and so many parts of the World Of so many Languages Kingdoms and cross Interests and Opinions in their quarrels and the things to be remembred are so many that this needs no proof with any but Fools or Mad-men What a Religion should we have had if instead of the Bible it must have all been brought us down by the Memories of all the Rabble of ignorant and wicked Popes yea or of the best and by the Memories of all the Prelates and Priests that have pretended to be the Church Why do they themselves write their pretended Traditions if writing them were not needful And why have we all our Statutes Records and Law-Books if the Lawyers and Peoples Memories would keep and deliver them without these When Men's Memories Wits and Honesty are so weak that we can scarce get one Story carried without falsifying through many Hands 2. We hold that God in mercy hath therefore considered Man's Weakness and Necessity and before the Apostles died inspired them to Record so much of his Law and Gospel and Will as was universally necessary for all his Subjects to know in order to Divine belief Obedience and Salvation And hath left nothing of this importance and necessity unrecorded in the Law of Nature God's Visible works and Scripture knowing that after Ages were not to have new universal Legislators to make such Laws for all the
World nor to have Men miraculously enabled to do it and give proof that it is Divine 3. We hold that God's written Word and Law is perfect in its kind Psal 19. and sufficient to its proper use and end Which Bellarmine Cassinus and the Council of Basil and many School-men in their Prologues on the Sentences confess extendeth to all things commonly necessary to Salvation yea and to be the Divine Rule of Faith 4. Yet we deny not that if God had seen meet to deliver any necessary part of Law or Gospel Faith or Practice as his will by bare word and Memory of Man we had been bound to believe and obey it when we had sound proof that it was indeed from God 5. We hold that for fullest certainty we have possession of the Bible it self and of the Essentials of Christianity brought us by two Means Conjunct that is The Scripture and practical Custom of the Church As the Scripture or written Word shineth to us by its own Light so Tradition tells us which be the Canonical Books and how the Church received them as Divine and that there are no other such And the practice of Baptismal Profession and Covenanting and of the Church Assemblies and reading Scripture and Catechizing and of Eucharistical Communion and Prayer c. tell us what in all Ages hath been taken for true Christianity As we hold a humane Belief needful in Subserviency as a means to Divine Belief so we hold humane Tradition needful to the conveyance of God's Word to us But by your leave we will distinguish the Messenger from the Authour If the King send me a Law or Mandate by a Messenger or by the Penny-Post I will receive and obey it and yet not take the Post or Messenger for King or Legislator or Infallible 6. And the Reformed Catholicks do own all true Tradition but are for a far surer Tradition than the Roman Sect. Our Tradition of Scripture and the great points of Christianity cometh to us by Evidence Infallible that may be called Natural with the greatest advantage of Moral Evidence also and not on the boast and bare word of one proud Sect that pretendeth to Fanatick Inspiration and Authority above all others I call that Natural Evidence which ariseth from such necessary Causes that cannot be otherwise nor can deceive And I call that the best Moral Evidence which cometh from Mens testimony of greatest credit for skill and honesty and we have both these Mans Soul hath some necessary acts that cannot but be and cannot be otherwise Such is sensation of sensible objects duely presented Intellectual perception of things presented according to the evidence in which they appear The Love of our selves and our own known welfare and any thing that is known to be an only and necessary means thereto and hath Omnimodam ratiomem boni The Love of Truth as Truth and Good as Good The hatred of misery c. These all Men have as men and that which dependeth on these dependeth not only on mens honesty And our evidence of Tradition is such as this It is from the Common Consent of all capable Witnesses of various Opinions Passions and Interests Friends and Foes whereas the Tradition of Sectarian Papists dependeth on the Credit of one Sect that falsly pretend a peculiar trust with both Scripture and Tradition tho' against the greater part of Christians And pretend Fanatically that even ignorant Popes and Prelates in Council have a gift of infallible knowledge For Example If there were a doubt raised Whether there be any such City in the World as Rome Paris Vienna or whether there was ever such persons as K. James K. Charles Ludovicus 14 of France c. Or whether the Statutes in our Books were really made by the Kings and Parliaments named in them and be the same unchanged c. There is Natural evidence of all this because it ariseth from necessary acts All sorts of men of contrary interests could never agree to lie and deceive men in such cases no more than they could all agree to kill themselves And if some would be falsifyers the rest would presently detect and shame them If any Lawyers would falsyfie or change the Statutes others would presently manifest the deceit they being commonly known and the cross interests of so many depending on them yea I say not only that this is Natural Infallible Evidence but that it is more than very much other Physical Evidence of many other things because we have better means to know Mans Natural necessary acts than we have to know most other Creatures of God And then for Moral Evidence we have all the Godly's attestation of all Ages and Nations and Sects of Christians and among the rest the Papists also agreeing that This Bible and This Creed and these Essentials of Christianity were all certainly transmitted to us from Christ and his Spirit in his Apostles And what 's the Tradition of the Papal Sect to all this who tell us falsely you cannot know the Scripture to be God's Word but by taking it on the belief of the Pope and Church of Rome as Endowed with the Power of Judgment and the gift of Infallibility Alas what abundance of Impossibilities must be proved true before any Man can by this method believe God's word 1. Before they can believe the Gospel and that Jesus is the true Christ they must believe that he hath a Vicar 2. And a Church 3. And the Pope is this Vicar and his Sect this Church And 4. That he hath the Office Power and Gift of infallible Judging which the Major number of Christians or Churches have not 5. And that Christ not yet believed in gave him power and Infallibility 6. And that he that now Reigneth is the true Pope by due Election Consecration Qualification c. With many more such Impossibilities And what is it to give up the Cause to the Infidels if this be not 7. But we judge that God's Law in Scripture secured from the charge of pretended Rememberers and Vsurpers is so sufficient to its proper use that there needeth no Supplemental Tradition as if it were but half God's Law but only subservient historical Tradition And we challenge the Papists to prove de facto 1. That any such supplemental Tradition is Existent 2. That they possess any other but what the other Churches know 3. That they are more than other Churches authorized to be the Keepers and Judges of that Tradition And 4. We fully prove them Innovators and that Popery is a meer Novelty It is copiously proved by Peter Moulin de novitate Papismi David Blondel de Ecclesia Andrew Rivet Defence of Morney against Coffetean and against Silvester and many others Can they without the most profligate Impudence pretend Apostolical Tradition for denying the Laity the Cup in the Eucharist and for their praying in an unknown Tongue and forbidding the Scripture and deposing Princes and dissolving Oaths of Allegiance and for tormenting and
killing all baptized persons that obey not the Pope with many such 8. If Tradition tell us of any Customs used in the Apostles or Primitive times that be not in Scripture and so be not made matters of Necessity to all yea or of any occasion all mutable Customs that are mentioned in Scripture as washing the Saints Feet the Holy Kiss the Womans Vail long or short Hair Collections each Lords Day Preachers Travelling on Foot c. we quarrel not with the then use of such Traditions when they were seasonable no more than with forbearing things strangled and blood Nor quarrel we with the Churches after that setled Easter Day and made the 20th Canon of the Nicene Council and used divers Ceremonies at Baptism But Traditions of things Indifferent and Mutable we receive but as such to be laid aside when the occasion ceaseth And if any will turn them into a necessary common Law we disclaim such Usurpers for they cross that very Tradition It was delivered as Indifferent and you feign and make it a necessary Law and so destroy it 9. We maintain openly that Tradition is against the Papacy and its Corruptions They are but a third or fourth part of Christians The other two or three parts of the Christian World profess that the Tradition of their Churches is against the Popes universal Sovereignty and against all the Corruptions of which they accuse him None but the shameless will deny that the Abassians Armenians Greeks and others plead that this is their Tradition And Reader tell us why the Tradition of two or three parts of the Church should not rather be believed against a third part than that which the third part boast of against all the rest 10. Ask them which way they know and keep their Traditions Whether they have any History Records or any other way which we may not know as well as they If they pretend that it is a Secret kept by their Church it 's a strange Secret that so many Thousands know But if it be a thing proveable let them prove it 11. Is it not unmercifulness to tell all the Christian World that as big and hard as the Bible is if they knew and obeyed it all they cannot be saved unless they believe and do more kept by the Pope and called Tradition When yet these Deceivers can dispense with the knowledge and practice of God's own word and think the Bible a Book too big and hard and the Prophane say too strict to be commonly understood and kept And yet all the Bible is not Enough but we must be bound to as much more as they will call Tradition yea Volumes also of Papal Canon Laws 12. Did not Christ for this thing Condemn the Old Pharisees Mat. 15 Prove your Traditions to be Apostolical and about things necessary and not your Forgeries or about things mutable and indifferent and we will obey all such Apostolical Traditions But your Novelties and Usupations shall not pass with us for Divine Laws because you can call them such The Fifth accused Point That a Man by his own understanding and private Spirit may rightly judge and interpret Scripture Ans Can any Man unriddle what this Deceiver meaneth 1. Can a Man judge without his own understanding 2. What meaneth he by a private Spirit Little know I. If he mean God's Spirit it is no contemptible nor private Spirit even in a private Man If he mean a Man 's own Spirit Soul or Intellect it is the same as his own understanding If he mean any Evil Spirit or fancy and Erroneous self-conceit we defie such Spirits and Deceivers that use them To understand without our own understandings is a Mystery fit for Rome Why may not a Dog or a Sheep be said so to understand the Scripture if it may be understood without our own understandings What a Curse is on the ignorant Nations that will be led by such words as these But if he will say that he meant By his own understanding alone without a Teacher why did he not say so but say one thing and do another But that had been too gross a Lye to have been believed by them that see that we set up Teachers in all our Congregations 3. Therefore I can imagine nothing but absurdity in his words unless he mean that we hold that a Man may rightly Interpret Scripture by his own understanding immediately instructed by his Teacher and God's Spirit without taking the Sence only at the rebound on the belief of the Pope and his Clergy For we never thought that a Man 's own natural Wit without a Teacher and the help of God's Spirit can savingly understand and apply the Scripture And yet we would fain tell Papists a better way to Convert a Philosopher or a Turk than to Preach to them thus God hath written his Law and Gospel to the World but you cannot tell what is the meaning of it till you take that sence on trust from our Pope and Clergy and know that Christ authorized him to be Judge and that before you believe in Christ or understand the word that so authorizeth him Were not corrupted Nature very blind in things Spiritual Plow-men and Tinkers and Coblers would be able to confute such Fopperies and much more Priests and Popes and Prelates 4. But I pray you tell me whether the Pope and his Prelates do not interpret Scripture by their own understandings Whose understandings else do they judge by in Conclaves or Councils 5. And tell me whether he that judgeth that the Pope is Christs Vice-Christ and Ruler at the Antipodes and is infallible tho' he be by Councils condemned for a Simonist and Infidel an Atheist a Seducer or an ignorant Sot Doth not this Man judge all this by his own understanding If a Man take an ignorant sottish Priest for the Mouth of the Catholick Church tho' he know no more what he talks against than this Roman Deceiver doth he not judge this by his own understanding If a Sot will believe you that your Sect is the whole Church and all are Damned tho' they love God and believe in Christ if they will not be ruled by the Pope and every Mass-Priest doth he not judge thus by his own understanding Do you Preach to Men or Beasts that have no understanding of God's Law and Will If a Man must believe all the Canons of Popes and Councils in Baronius Binnius Surius Nicolinus Caranza c. doth he not do it by his own understanding 6. Oh! But the meaning is You are all private ignorant Men and we are the Clergy Kings choose some of us and Popes choose others and whether we are Wise or Fools Learned or Vnlearned Infidels or Christians you are all Damned if you will not follow us and if we be Damned you must be content to be Damned with us And is it so Hath God made Man for no safer and better a Condition than to be Damned when ever Sottish Drunken Priests will
The Church hath two sorts of Government One by the Word of God and the Keys called Ecclesiastical The other by the Sword called Princely or Magistratical We never had King or Queen that claimed the former and none but Enemies of Government deny the latter Queen Elizabeth and all our Kings since have publickly disclaimed the Priest by Office of Words Keys and Sacraments which maketh the Clergy Tryers and Judges what to Preach and whom to Baptize and receive to Church Communion absolve or Excommunicate But ask this Deceiver Must the Church have none to Govern by the Sword All Christians are the Church and so all Christian Princes are deposed because they are Christians Or must the Clergy have no such Government over them Yes the Pope say the Papal Canons he is Sword-bearer over the Clergy So you see what Church-power is come to But I trow few Papist Kings will grant that they have no Sword-Government over the Clergy lest every Priest be Master of their Houses Wives and Lives The King is no Physicain or Philosopher no Architect Shipwright Pilot c. but may he not be King and Ruler of all these He is no Clergy-man or Priest but the Ruler of the Clergy But they say it must not be in Causes Ecclesiastical Ans Causes Ecclesiastical have two sorts of Government in order to two Ends. As if one be accused for Preaching against God or Christ or the Life to come or for Perjury Adultery Murder c. Here the Bishops are Judges and the Church whether this man be Guilty in order to his Communion or Excommunication or admonition But the King and his Judges are to Judge whether he be Guilty and so whether to be Imprisoned Fined Banished c. so far as Causes of Religion or Church are to be punished by the Sword the King is Head or Governour and Judge who would think that a sort of men that deny this should have the Face to say that they are Loyal to Kings or any forcing Government Must Kings Burn or Kill as many Thousands at the Popes command as the Pope will call Hereticks and yet never have power to judge whether they are such and do deserve it O! how much worse than Hangmen would such men make all Kings and Magistrates Was not all the Christian World in a sad case then when the Pope was under the Arrian Goths and the Subject of a Foreign Arian must Rule all Kings and Kingdoms No man of Brains can be ignorant that Popedom or Prelacy do not always make men mortified Saints that oft have been scarce Men much less Christians nor that the Prince hath a great Power both in Choosing and Ruling the Clergy that are his Subjects It fell out happily that Theodorick the Arian and divers Spanish Arian Kings were an honest sort of men but sure they were very mighty Princes at Rome when one Subject of an Arrian Goth was Ruler of all the Kings and Souls on Earth de jure say our Deceivers And if the Turk should possess Rome as he doth C.P. all Kings and Nations must be subject to his Subject And what Power he hath over the four Patriarks of C.P. Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem is too well known And when Baronius Binnius c. tell us of famous Whores Marozia and Theodora that made and Ruled and unmade Popes how was the World Governed As it was said by a Lord Mayors Child that he Ruled all London saying my Father Ruleth London and my Mother Ruleth my Father and I Rule my Mother so might it be said these Whores Ruled all the Kings and Nations of Christians on Earth if the Roman claim be Currant for they made and Ruled Popes that claimed the Rule of all the World O! how much greater was a Roman Whore Marozia Theodora c. than Pallas Venus or the great Diana of the Ephesians But the mischief was that they were mutable and could unmake a Pope as well as make him and set the City and Country by the Ears as Aequa Venus Teucris Pallas iuiqua fuit And if all Kings must be Subjects to the Subject or Chaplains of him that can win Rome let us wish that he may not be a Mahometan Pagan or Arian And why said I an Arian when an Anti-arian Pope can Murder Christians by Thousands when a Theodorick would not have hurt them The Thirteenth Point accused That Antichrist shall not be a particular man and the Pope is Antichrist Ans This is Popish Stating Cases Protestants find in the Creed the Name of Christ but not the Name of Antichrist and therefore while they know and trust Christ they think it not necessary to Salvation to know Antichrist But they believe Christ who said that many should come in his Name saying I am Christ and deceive many even before the Destruction of the Jews and rhey believe St. John that said there are many Antichrists already The Fathers and Papists say there is some one Great Antichrist to come towards the end of the World Most Protestants think it is Antichrist that is described in 2 Thes 2. and Rev. 12.13 17. To confute King James Bishop George Downame Dr. Henry More above all Mr. Mede Cluverus Grasserus c. will require more than this Writers Impertinencies There are many Protestants that think it a meer mistake that there will be any one Antichrist so Eminent as to obscure all the rest And they pretend not to judge of Antichrist by the Apocalyps but by the Ten Commandments and all the Gospel And they believe that he is Antichrist that usurpeth Christs Prerogative and yet opposeth his Kingdom And such they think the Eastern Antichrist Mahomet is the most notorious and the Western Antichrist the Pope is his Second in that he claimeth Christs Prerogative of Governing all Nations of the Earth as Vice-Christ and yet by Lies Malice and Blood suppresseth his true Gospel Grace and Kingdom confute this if you can Amending would be your best defence We doubt not but Antichrists past have been Individual men such was Barchocheba and some say Herod and some Dioclesian but undoubtedly Mahomet And if the Pope be the Western Antichrist it is the Individual Popes that are such but many of those Individuals may make a Succession of Antichristian Policy Answer Dr. More and Cluveruâ— of this if you are able We lay not our opposition to Popery chiefly on the dark Revelation Prophecy or on the question Who is the Antichrist But on the plain Word of God If we find a Succession of men claiming Omnipotency and Christs Prerogative to Govern all Kings and Nations on Earth and this by bare and base Vsurpation and Novelty and find these men set up their numerous false treasonable inhumane Canons and forbid and revile Gods Law and Word and find them turning Gods Worship into unintelligible Mummery and Stage-Shows and Ceremony and find them living at Leeches on Blood yea on the Blood of Thousands of the best Christians and damning and
have of their own a Redundancy to save others But we all with thankfulness confess that God useth to bless the Houses of the Faithful the Children for the Parents sake and hath exprest this in the Decalogue and by many Promises Yea that he would have spared Sodom had there been but Ten Righteous persons there And a Potiphars House and a Prison may be blest in part for Josephs sake And when Parents are Dead this blessing may be on their Children through many Generations And God remembred Abraham when his Posterity provoked him David had a special promise for his Seed None of this is denyed by us But 1. There is no Merit in any mans Works but their Rewardableness by Gods free Grace and promise for the sake of Christs meritorious Righteousness Sacrifice and Intercession their Imperfection being pardoned through him and their Holiness amiable to God 2. No man shall be saved for anothers Merit or Holiness or Works that is not truly Regenerate and Holy himself The Eighteenth accused Point That no man can do Works of Supererrogation Ans Supererrogation is a sustian word of your own by which you may mean what you please 1. No man can perform to God more Duty than he oweth him It 's a Contradiction Duty is quod debetur 2. No man can profit God by any thing that he doth 3. No man save Christ lived wirhout all Sin And he that sinneth doth not all his Duty or keep all Gods Law perfectly And he that doth not all doth not all and more 4. There is no Moral good done by any man which was not his Duty and Gods Law commanded not For Gods Law is perfect and therefore obligeth to all Moral good And as Sin is the Transgression of the Law so Moral good is the conform Obedience to the Law 5. God hath not Counsels to Moral action which are not obliging Laws and make not our Duty For to keep them is Moral good and the Law were imperfect if it obliged not to all such good If the Counsel oblige ut norma officii it 's a Law If it oblige not it 's vain 6. But there are many actions that are neither Commanded nor Counselled nor forbidden But those are not Moral actions as being no objects of our Choosing or Refusing by Reasons Conduct The nictus oculorum our Breathing our Pulse the Circulation of the Blood c. are no Moral acts Commanded or forbidden but necessitated Man maketh it no act of deliberation and choice which Foot he shall set forward first or just how many Steps he shall go in a Day which of two equal Eggs he shall Eat and an hundred such These are neither Duty nor Sin Commanded nor Counselled nor forbidden neither virtuous or vicious 7. And there are innumerable actions that are not the Matter of any Common-Law or Counsel and so as such are neither Sin nor Duty which yet as Circumstantiated and Cloathed with Accidents are to this or that man either Duty or Sin This not understood maketh these Ignorant Casuists abuse the words of Christ and Paul about Chastity and Marriage And because Christ saith every man cannot receive this Saying and Paul she hath not Sinned He that Marrieth doth well and he that doth not doth better they gather that there are Moral actions which are not best and yet no Sin The true plain solution is from the two last Considerations 1. God hath made no Law commanding or forbidding Marriage or Celibate as such or in Common To Marry is no Sin considered meerly as Marriage 2. But God hath made Laws against hurtful and injurious Marriages and to guide men to know when Marrying is a Duty or a Sin 3. And if any ones case were so neutral as that it could not be discerned whether Marrying were a hurt or benefit it would be no Moral eligible or refuseable action 4. But to some it is a great Duty by accidents and to some a great Sin Therefore Paul never meant that it was no mans duty and no mans sin but only that simply as Marriage it was no mans duty or sin or the matter of a commanding or forbidding Law but only by accident it may be such to one more than to another That this is Pauls meaning the Papists must confess For 1. Do not they say that the Marriage of Priests Fryars and Nuns are Sin 2. If any one Marry an Infidel or utterly unsuitable Person without necessity against Parents wills or one that is impotent or hath the Pox or that he cannot maintain c. Is not this a hainous Sin What else signifie Gods Law and mans against unlawful Marriages And if one cannot live chastly without Marriage and Parents command it it is not a Sin to refuse The Law saith Let all things be done to Edification and whether ye Eat or Drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God And is it only Counsel and no Command to Marry or not Marry as it makes to Gods Glory or against it There are few actions of a mans Life that make so much to his hurt and utter misery as unwise and unmeet Marrying And is this on Sin May they not see Pauls meaning then if they were but willing It is hard to imagine a case in which so important an action as Marriage can be neither Sin nor Duty 2. But sometime men use the word Sin and Sinners for meer Wickedness and such Sin as is inconsistent with a state of Salvation And we easily grant that all Sins are not such Sins as these But Gods Law is perfect tho' man be imperfect and forbiddeth all Sin even the least 3. But see the Heresies of Popery This man here saith To do that which is Counselled is not necessary because one may nevertheless be saved But he who omitteth what is commanded unless he do pennance cannot escape Eternal pains 1. See here what a frivolous Counseller they make Christ when it 's not necessary to follow his Counsel 2. See here how they make Necessity to be only of that which a man cannot be saved without When Saul a Persecutor and Blasphemer an Infidel Murderer c. may be saved if he be truly Convicted Obedience hath it's Necessity tho' we knew that God would forgive Disobedience to the Convicted 3. See here how they damn themselves and all mankind every man living omitteth what is commanded many hundred times for which he doth not that which they call Pennance He is a Lyar that saith he hath no Sin specially of Omission Gods Law bindeth us all to Believe to Hope to desire Holiness and Heaven to love God and our Neighbours and our Enemies with a stronger degree of Faith Hope Desire and Love than we do Every Prayer and Meditation is sinfully defective Every hour hath some omission of improvement And all this is not remembred nor all confest to a Priest nor all known or observed by any Sinner And some omission we are guilty of at our very
because not only they will not by pravity do what they have natural strength to do but also because they will not choose and do what morally they might have chosen and done as to the wills own power 6. And we still say that whenever a man sinneth it was not because it was naturally impossible to do otherwise as to touch the Moon to see without Eyes or through the Earth c. nor for want of natural faculties nor doth God by Grace give man other natural faculties making him an Animal of another Species But men sin because they will sin and they will because they are tempted and now vitiously inclined from which their wills are made free only in that measure that Gods Grace doth sanctifie them If our Priest would have told us what there is in all this Doctrine of Free-will that he dare accuse and what dare he not cccuse we should have seen cause to consider of his Arguments But now he citeth Scripture as in a Dream The Twentieth accused Point That it is impossible to keep the Commandments of God tho' assisted with all his Grace and the Holy Ghost Ans Still meer Confusion Protestants distinguish 1. Impossibility as natural or Moral 2. Of Grace as perfect or Imperfect and as determitately Operative or only Assisting and not Determining And they hold 1. That no Duty is Impossible or the performing of no Commandment by meer Physical Impossibility The reason is because God commandeth no Physical Impossibles Such as before named to speak without a Tongue to see without Light or Object to know things not knowable or revealed to read without any Teaching or Learning c. If a man indeed disable himself as put out his Eyes that he may not read or cut out his Tongue that he may not Preach the disabling act is vitiously aggravated from all the good to which he disabled himself as if it still had been his Duty But we cannot say that God still commandeth him when Blind to Read or when Dumb to Speak c. Indeed God changeth not his Law but recipitur ad modum recipientis The man hath changed his Capacity and is now no Subject capable of such an Obligation or Command tho' he be capable of punishment for disabling himself and Non-performance Sin is no further Sin than it is Voluntary by the wills Omission or Act immediately or mediately 2. But that it is Morally by our pravity now Impossible for any man to keep all Gods Commandments and never Sin what needs there more than sad experience of the matter of Fact 1. Did he ever know the man himself that from his first use of reason to his Death did spend every minute of his time as God commanded him and did Believe and Love God and Man and all good with as great Love as God commanded him And was as free from every Fault Thought Passion Desire Fear Care Trouble Pleasure Word and Deed as God commanded He would be no small Sinner that were so self ignorant proud unhumbled as to say that he is no Sinner 2. Why else do these Priests force all men to confess their Sins to them if men be such as never sinned 3. Why do they compose all their Liturgies and Offices for their Churches with Confessions of Sin and Prayers for Forgiveness 4. Why do they Baptize all if they have no Sin And in what Sence do they give them the Eucharist 5. How little use do they feign such men to have of a pardoning Saviour 6. In what Sence shall such say the Lords Prayer Forgive us our Sins or Trespasses 7. Doth not the Text expresly call him a Lyar that saith he hath no Sin as aforesaid And Christ condemn the Pharisee that justified himself and justified the confessing Publican But it 's like he will say that he did not mean that any man doth keep all the Commands but that he can do it tho' he do not Ans I again say 1. He can as to natural strength if he were but perfectly and constantly willing But it cannot be that he should be so willing without Grace and Grace is not perfect in this Life 2. The more he boasteth of his Power to keep all Gods Laws the more he condemneth himself that can and will not 3. And frustra fit potentia quae nunquam a nemine reducitur in actum If he confess that no man doth it he must confess such a Moral impossibility as the Prophet meant that said Can the Leopard change his Spots or the Blackmore his Skin Then may they that are accustomed to do Evil learn to do well But perhaps he meant not that it is possible to keep all the Commands for all our Lives but for some short time I answer 1. While a man hath the use of his Reason he doth not reach the commanded degree of Faith Love Joy Heavenlyness one moment of time But indeed when a man is asleep in a Swoun an Apoplexy stark mad c. he may for that time break no Command nor keep any But perhaps he speaketh but of sincere Obedience and not of absolute sinless perfection Ans If so he is a deceiver to feign that we deny it But their Doctrine of Perfection and Supererogation is contrary Obj. But he speaketh not what man can do without Grace but by it's assistance Ans Grace maketh no man absolutely sinless and perfect in this Life Let him know that Protestants do not only say that man by Gods Grace may keep Gods Commandments sincerely tho' not sinlesly and perfectly but that no man of Age and Reason shall be saved that doth not so 2. And that tho' all our Obedience be imperfect the Imperfections are pardoned and our Obedience accepted and rewarded for the Merits of the perfect Obedience Sacrifice and Intercession of our Saviour The One and Twentieth accused Point That Faith only Justifieth and that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation Ans Many wordy Controversies are made about things that in Sence men are commonly agreed in 1. We all believe Gods Word that they were deceived that thought they could be justified either by the Law of Innocency or Nature or the Law of Moses or any meritorious Works of their own without or as a supplement to the Sacrifice Merits and free Grace of Christ our Saviour and Faith in him 2. By Faith is meant Christianity In the Gospel it is all one to be a Believer a Disciple of Christ and to be a Christian. The Christian Faith is that which is exprest in the Baptismal Covenant believing in and giving up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost To Christ as our Prophet Priest and King to be saved by his Merits and free Grace And this is put in opposition to the Works of Adam's or Moses Law or any other that are conceited to suffice and merit without the foresaid Redemption by Christ And is not this the true Doctrine of all true Christians 2. These
the grace of Christ and the Holy Ghost 2. Professed Christians are Sacramentally Sanctifyed when by outward Baptism they are devoted to God in Christ 3. Even bad Ministers are externally sanctifyed as separated and consecrated to a Holy Office 4. Temples and Books and Church Utensils are sanctifyed when by men they are separated from common and unclean usage to Gods Worship So that tho' Holiness in all be this separation to God yet as the Persons and things are not the same so neither is their Holiness in specie but only in genere And there is a Superstitious and an Idolatrous Mock-Holiness when men will devote that to God and Holy uses which he abhorreth or accepteth not nor ever required of them And say as the Hypocrite Pharisees it is Corban who required this at their hands The Hypocrites and Idolaters have always been forward for this unrequired Mock-Holiness to quiet their Consciences instead of real saving Holiness It 's Cheaper and Easier to have Holy-Water Holy-Oil Holy-Spittle Holy-Images Holy-Crosses Holy-Vestments of many sorts Holy-Altars Holy-Shrines and Pilgrimages Holy-Bones and Chips and Places than to have Holy-Hearts and Lives which love God and Grace and Heaven above all this World and Life it self and by the Spirit mortify all fleshly Lusts The Seven and Thirtieth accused Point That Children may be saved by their Parents Faith without the Sacrament of Holy Baptism Ans Can you unriddle this charge Whether the man mean that they may be saved by Baptism without their Parents Faith Or that both must be conjoyned as necessary to Salvation He will not tell us that 1. That God hath made abundance of promises to the Seed of the Faithful and taketh them into the Covenant of Grace with their Parents and saith that they are Holy 1 Cor. 7.14 Protestants have copiously proved against Anabaptists and Papists But it is Gods Mercy and Christs Merit Grace and Covenant that they are saved by The Parents Faith is but that Qualification and Relation which maketh them receptive and capable of this saving Grace The Parenrs Faith saveth themselves but as the Moral qualifying disposition and condition of Gods saving Gift And to Infants it is required not that they be Believers but Believers Seed devoted to God by Parents or Pro-Parents whose they are 2. We doubt not but regularly where it may be had this Dedication should be solemnly made by Baptismal Covenanting Ask the Anabaptists whether we hold not this But we believe that as private Marriage maketh Husband and Wife before God but solemn Matrimony is necessary for publick Order without which they may be punished as Fornicators So if an Infant be the Child of one believing Parent dedicated to God he is Holy and in the same Covenant with the Parent and were else unclean But that before the Church he is not regularly to be judged in Covenant till it be solemnized in Christs appointed way by Baptism Still excepting where Baptism cannot be had and there even sober Papists say that the Votum the Vow or desire will serve And this necessity is manifold 1. When the Child dieth before Baptism could be had 2. Where there is no capable Person to do it or that will not utterly deprave it 3. When the Parent is an Antipoedo-Baptist and omitteth it thinking it a Sin If they think that the Infant is not saved by the Parents Faith why should they think that believing Parents Children are damned because the Parent Erreth in such an external thing But Papists that turn other parts of Holiness into Form and Ceremony and make a Religion of the Carkass mortifyed would here also perswade People that the very outward act of Washing is of so great moment with God that though it were the holyest Persons or their Seed a mistake or a delay or surprize of Death will damn them if they be not Baptized or Martyred This tendeth to Subject all to the Mercy and Dominion of the Priests that they may seem more necessary to Salvation than they are or at least their external Forms by Lay-men or Women Baptizers administred Constantine himself the Churches great Deliverer was not Baptized till near his Death Are they sure that he was till then in a state of Damnation and had been Damned if he had so Died Methinks in gratitude the Church of Rome should have cast him no lower than the Torments of Purgatory The Eight and Thirtieth accused Point That the Sacrament of Confirmation is not necessary nor to be used Ans You may so mean by the Word Sacrament and Confirmation as that we do deny them And you may so mean as that we are more for them than you are 1. If by a Sacrament you mean one of Gods Institution appointed by him to be his Solemn Delivery and Investiture in a state of Christianity or necessary Grace and if by Confirmation you mean Arch-Bishops anointing Infants or Ignorant Children or Persons with hallowed Oyl compounded once a year and his Ceremonious boxing them and such other Formalities then we deny that such Confirmation is any such Sacrament nor is necessary or to be used because Holy things are not to be mortyfied and profaned 2. But if by a Sacrament you mean but a Solemn renewal of our Covenant with God in Christ and by Confirmation you must that those Baptized in Infancy should at due Age understandingly under the Pastors hand or Care profess their serious personal Consent to that Covenant which by others they imputatively made in Baptism we are so far from denying this that we think till this Solemn personal Covenanting and owning their Baptism with understanding and seeming seriousness be made the Entrance into the state of Adult Church Communion the woful Corruption of the Church is never to be well healed but while one side turn Confirmation into a dead Shadow and Mockery and the Anabaptists scandalized Heresie are all for Rebaptizing instead of Confirmation Prophanation and Schism will gratifie Satan You know that the English Bishops practise Confirmation and the Liturgy describeth it as I here do And are the Church of England no Protestants And divers Protestant Non-Conformists here have about 29 and 30 years ago written full Treatises for Confirmation The Nine and Thirtieth accused Point That the Bread of the Supper of our Lord was but a Figure or Remembrance of the Body of Christ received by Faith and not his true and very Body Ans 1. Protestants hold that as all words are to be taken according to the usage of the Subject or Science that they are used about Physical Terms Physically Rhetorical Rhetorically Geometrical Astronomical Arithemetical accordingly Law Terms according to Law and Moral and Theological Terms Morally and Theologically so if as Naturalists we ask what the matter of that Sacrament is we say Bread and Wine If as Moralists and Theologues we say it is the Body and Blood of Christ As if you ask of a Gold and Silver Coyn what it is in a Natural Sence we say
sins And St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 11.23 I have received of the Lord that which I delivered to you That the Lord Jesus the Night in which he was betrayed took Bread c. Vers 25. After the same manner also he took the Cup when he had Supped saying This Cup is the New-Testament in my blood This do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me For as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lord's Death 'till he come Wherefore whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that Cup. These words do so plainly say it is bread after the Consecration and do so plainly require all to drink of the Cup as well as to eat of the Bread that the Infallible Clergy are fain to accuse the Light of Darkness the Text of deceitful Obscurity till the Pope and his Prelates have expounded it by giving it the Lye Just like the Knave in Ignoramus's Play that Proclaimed the man to be Mad from whom he intended to extort Money that is for binding and abusing him What is it to proclaim Christ and Paul to be Fools that could not speak Sense if this be not But the Doctors have also contradictions to charge on Christ even that else-where he saith He that eateth his Flesh shall live for ever Ans 1. That is He that trusteth in a Sacrificed Christ as the means of his Salvation as bread is the means of natural Life He that would not understand cannot understand the plainest Words But doth Christ say that any man eateth his flesh that drinketh not his blood Or that he shall have Life that doth the one without the other 2. And seeing they take every Rogue that eateth their Wafer to eat Christs Flesh do they not here falsly say that all such shall have Eternal Life O happy miserable Church that hath Eternal Life how wicked soever for eating the Wafer and calling it Christs Flesh And all this that Faith may not be thought to be meant by eating 3. But seeing it must needs be eating by the Teeth or by Flesh eating that is meant they have found out a crafty literal way Christ saith that he loveth and cherisheth his Church as his own Flesh and we are Members of his body of his flesh and of his bones And so they that Murdered a Million of the Albigenses c. and Massacred 40000 in France and 200000 in Ireland and Burnt them in England Germany the Low Countries and Tormented and Killed them in Bohemia and many other Lands did learn the literal way of eating Christs Flesh And who doubts but the Devil tells them that they shall thereby obtain everlasting Life But why then are they against drinking his blood when actually they draw it out by streams Perhaps by Burning his Bones as they did Buceâ—s Phagius Wickliffes and 1000 more they think that their Teeth scape the trouble of gnawing them and thus they feed on Christs body flesh and bones For their Masters beat Witches if they bring him not account at every Meeting of some mischief that they have done 3. And what but flat opposition to Christ should move these men to forbid one half of his Sacrament which he calls the New-Testament in his blood One would wonder what should be their Motive It is no matter of Pleasure Profit or Honour This very Deceiver had more wit than to pretend Antiquity for it or any one ancient Doctor of the Church They dare not deny save to Ignorants and Fools that it is a Novelty contrary to unquestioned Consent and Practice of all Christs Church for above a thousand years or near at least It is undenyably against Christs Institution and Command against his Apostles Doctrine and Scripture Practice against all the Judgment and Practice of the ancient Church against the Nature and Integrity of the Sacrament against the Concord of the Church that will never Unite against all these against the Sense and Comfort of Believers What then doth over-rule so many men to Tear the Church to Murder so many Bohemians as they did c. for such a thing as this is Reader I will tell thee all that I know The Devil is in constant War against Christ and his Kingdom and the Souls of men As he thought he could have triumphed in making Job curse God to his Face so he would fain shew that he can make Christs own pretended Ministers oppose and despise the plainest of his Commands and defie his Word and him to his Face To this he gets by the baits of Worldly Wealth Honour and Dominion a sort of Fleshly Worldly men to be Bishops whose very hearts are against the Laws of Christ And puffing up these men by degrees he tells them how they must be Great and arrogate Power equal to Christs Apostles and so domineer over the Souls of men and all this on pretence of honouring Christ And having gotten a Generation of gross ignorant debauched Villains into the Papal elevated Seat and the Ruling Church Power when some poor Woman once or twice shed some of the Wine or a Priest chanced to spill it their prophane Holiness decreed that they should drink the Wine no more save the Clergy but should eat Christs Blood which they said was in his Flesh and a while they dipt the Wafer in Wine and then pretended Infallibility being their vain Glory they must not change lest they should seem to be fallible and should Repent for Repenting undoes Satans Kingdom The One and Fortieth accused Point That there is not in the Church a true and proper Sacrifice and that the Mass is not a Sacrifice Ans True and proper if the words are intelligible are put against false and equivocal or figurative And what man can tell us which Sence of the word Sacrifice must be taken for the only proper Sence when with Heathens and Christians the word is used in so many Sences and there are so many sorts of Sacrifices This man would not tell you whether it be the Thing or the Name that he controverteth that would be to come into the Light If it be the thing we never doubted but divers things are and must be in the Church which are called Sacrifices some in Scripture and some by Papists And some things by them called Sacrifices are in their Church which God is against If it be the Name that is the question we know that in a General Sence it may be given to many things of different Species and equivocally yet to more but which Sence to call proper among so many let quibling Grammarians tell him We strive no further about Names than tendeth to preserve the due Judgment of things Sometime a Sacrifice signifieth a second thing offered to God by way of worship Sometime more strictly somewhat supposed
Prince countermand the Vow in Youth But if they can keep it and that keeping become not Sin by consequent accidents or changes they ought to keep it though they must repent of their rash unlawful making it Gods Law is perfect and maketh Duty enough for us and we should not foolishly make more as Law-givers to our selves when we are conscious how far short we come of keeping Gods own Laws The Five and Fortieth accused Point That Fasting and abstinence from certain Meats is not grounded on Holy Scripture nor causeth any Spiritual good Ans Still deceitful Confusion Protestants hold 1. Fasting is a needful Duty to several Persons in several cases As 1. To take down the Flesh when it groweth too strong in Lust 2. For the cure of many Diseases from fulness 3. To exercise our Humiliation in times of publick Danger and Calamity or of personal repentance for some great Sin or under some affliction that calleth for great Humiliation 2. They hold that Abstinence is needful in it's time and place as Fasting is in it's And that all Eating and Drinking is unlawful which gratifieth the Appetite by Quantity or Quality against Men's health and the just Rules by which we should judge what is healthful Yea that bare Eating and Drinking to please the Appetite which doth not some way conduce to fit us for our Duty is Sin 3. We know that the same Meat and Drink for Quality and Quantity which is best for one is hurtful and mortal to another And we know that Fasting is as Physick whether for Health or for the Soul and if we are fallen into the hands of such Physicians as will tye all the Land and all the World to take the same Physick and on the same days to take a Purge or a Vomit every Wednesday Friday and Holy Evens we shall obey them when we are a-weary of our Lives I think our London Colledges would deride such prescribers 4. And if any will tell us that we shall merit of God and save our selves by forbearing the coursest sort of Flesh and eating the more costly Fish Junkets Sweet-meats and drinking Wine and strong-Drink we abhor such Mock-Fasts for God will not be mocked But Hipocrites turn all Religion into a Mockery I have heard those called strict precise Protestants accused as being against abstinence and Fasting and upon enquiry I found that those of my acquaintance eat and drink less all the year than their accusers of my acquaintance do on their Mock-fasting days To such their Diet would seem a strict Fast even Calvin that macerated his body with eating but a few bits once a day is by some Papists called a sensual Glutton though Massonius saith the contrary The Six and Fortieth accused Point That Jesus Christ descended not into Hell nor delivered thence the Souls of the Fathers Ans 1. And do not these false Accusers know that both the Creed which we all profess and the Articles of the Church of England say expresly that Christ descended into Hell 2. And those ahat dislike the Translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Hell yet grant Christ went into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that 's all the Scripture saith So that all the doubt is but what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Whether the Hell of Torment or more Generally the unseen state of separate Souls If you mean the last what Protestants deny it If you mean the first what presumptuous cruelty is it to believe that all the Souls of the Fathers were in Hell till the Death of Christ Christ alleadging I am the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob sure meant not that God was their God because they were in Hell Was Lazarus in Hell when Abraham said Now he is Comforted It was a Hell of Joy and Comfort Were Samuel Elisha Job Daniel c. in Hell Was Moses in Hell that appeared in Glory on the Mount with Elias But what is it that the Infallible Church cannot make good when they have once presumed to affirm it The Seven and Fortieth accused Point That there is no Purgatory Fire or other Prison wherein sin may be satisfied for after this Life Ans 1. Which way this Church came to be so much acquainted with Hell and Purgatory and Prisons and satisfying in them in the other World more than is revealed in the Word of God we know not unless some have told them that come thence or from Heaven But for our parts we think Gods Word more trusty than Dead men whom we know not God sendeth us to the Law and to the Testimony If they speak not according to these it is because there is no Light in them Isa 8.20 Abraham preferred Moses and the Prophets before one from the Dead The prophane citation of Scripture by him for such a Purgatory-Prison and Satisfaction needs no answer save the perusal of the Texts What mean these men by satisfying for Sin 1. If they mean that Satisfaction by the merits whereof God pardoneth sin without dishonour to his Justice Government or Law Christ and he only hath thus fully satisfied for sin already and there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sin for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified 2. But if by satisfying for sin they mean that all must suffer all the punishment that their sin deserveth then God forgiveth no sin at all For to forgive the sin is to forgive the punishment And then they renounce the Office Sacrifice and Blood of Christ which are for the pardon of Sin And they renounce Baptism and the Lords Supper that give and Seal it And they cast away all hopes of Salvation and damn all Mankind For all Sin deserveth some degree of Damnation in Hell But if the Pope can pardon sure God doth pardon some To deny pardon is to deny all the Scripture and all humane hope and mercy 3. But if by satisfying for sin they mean that God when he forgiveth through Christ the destructive everlasting Punishment will yet require some corrective temporal punishment with which he is said to be satisfied in that he requireth no more we confess de re that such a thing there is in this World Death as Death and Pain as Pain are such and the Curse on the Earth and the loss of some degrees of Grace they are all corrective Penalties And if any say that a lower degree of Glory for the loss of some degree of Grace is such or that the separation of the Soul from the Body till the Resurrection hath some nature of Penalty we strive with no man about such things But de nomine we justly here dislike the Word Satisfying because in common Sence it soundeth as some Compensation and somewhat that is of the same nature with Christs satisfaction and that is all that Justice requireth to purchase our pardon And it encourageth the ill use of it by Papists that make it meritorious And de re we believe no such