and in that manner you see me do it exercising before your eye my Priestly Function according to the order of Melchisedech with which power I do also invest you and appoint you to do the like even unto the Consummation of the world in commemoration of my Death and Passion exhibiting and shewing forth your Lords Death until he come This Protestants do not and we are mad-angry that the Papist does what his Redeemer injoyned him I fear his Readers which shall consider this odd medly will begin to think that they are not only Protestants who use to be mad-angry This kind of Writing argues I will not say both madness and anger but one of them it doth seem plainly to do For setting aside a far-fetched false notion or two about Melchisedech and the Doctrine of the Sacrament here expressed is that which the Pope with Fire and Sword hath laboured to exterminate out of the world burning hundreds I think in England for believing that our Lord instituting his blessed Supper commanded his Apostles to do the same that he then did and in the same manner even to the Consummation of the world in the commemoration of his Death and Passion exhibiting and shewing forth their Lord's death until he come a man would suppose that he had taken these words out of the Liturgie of the Church of England for therein are they expresly found and why then have not Protestants that which he speaks of Yea but Christ did this in the exercise of his Priestly Function and with the same power of Priesthood according to the order of Melchisedech invested his Apostles Both these may be granted and the Protestants Doctrine and Faith concerning this Sacrament not at all impeached but the truth is they are both false The Lord Christ exercised indeed his Priestly Function when on the Cross he offered himself to God through the Eternal Spirit a Sacrifice for the sins of the world but it was by vertue of his Kingly and Prophetical power that he instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud and taught his Disciples the use of it commanding its Observation in all his Churches to the end of the world And as for any others being made Priests after the Order of Melchisedeck besides himself alone it 's a figment so expresly contrary to the words and reasoning of the Apostle that I wonder any man not mad or angry could once entertain any approving thoughts of it That our Author may no more mistake in this matter I desire he would give me leave to inform him that setting aside his proper Sacrificing of the Son of God and his hideous figment of Transubstanatition both utter strangers to the Scripture and Antiquity there is nothing can by him be named concerning this Sacrament as to its honour or efficacy but it is all admitted by Protestants He pretends after this loose Harangue to speak to the thing it self and tells us that the consecrated CHALICE is not ordinarily given to people by the Priest in private Communion as though in some cases it were given amongst them to the body of the people or that they had some publick communion wherein it was ordinarily so given both which he knows to be untrue So impossible it seems for him to speak plainly and directly to what he treats on But it is a thing which hath need of these artifices If one falsity be not covered with another it will quickly rain through all However he tells us that they should do so is neither expedient nor necessary as to any effects of the Sacrament I wish for his own sake some course might be found to take him off this confidence of setting himself against the Apostles and the whole primitive Church at once that he might apprehend the task too difficult for him to undertake and meddle with it no more All expediency in the administration of this great Ordinance and all the effects of it depend solely on the institution and blessing of Christ If he have appointed the use of both elements what are we poor worms that we should come now in the end of the world and say the use of one of them is not expedient nor necessary to any effects of Communion Are we wiser then he Have we more care of his Church then he had or Do we think that it becomes us thus arbitrarily to chuse and refuse in the institutions of our Lord and Master What is it to us what Cavils soever men can lay that it is not necessary in the way of Protestants nor in the way of Catholicks we know it is necessary in the way of Christ. And if either Protestants or Catholicks leave that way for me they shall walk in their own wayes by themselves But why is it not necessary in the way of Protestants Because they place the effect of the Communion in the operation of faith and therefore according to them one kind is enough nay if we have neither kind there is no loss but of a Ceremony which may be well enough supplyed at our ordinary Tables This is prety Logick which it seems our Author learned out of Smith and Seaton Protestants generally think that men see with their eyes and yet they think the light of the Sun necessary to the exercising of their sight and though they believe that all saving effects of the Sacrament depend on the operation of faith and Catholicks do so too at least I am sure they say so yet they believe also that the Sacrament which Christ appointed and the use of it as by him appointed is necessary in its own kind for the producing of those effects These things destroy not but mutually assist one another working effectually in their several kinds to the same end and purpose Nor can there be any operation of faith as to the special end of the Sacrament without the administration of it according to the mind and will of Christ. Besides Protestants know that the frequent distinct Proposals in the Scripture of the benefits of the death of Christ as arising sometimes from the suffering of the body sometimes from the effusion of the bloud of their Saviour leads them to such a distinct acting of faith upon him and receiving of him as must needs be hindred and disturbed in the administration of the Sacrament under one kind especially if that Symbol be taken from them which is peculiarly called his Testament and that bloud wherewith his Covenant with them was sealed So that according to the Principles of the Protestants the Participation of the Cup is of an indispensible necessity unto them that intend to use that Ordinance to their benefit and comfort and what he addes about drinking at our ordinary tables because we are now speaking plainly I must needs tell him is a prophane piece of scurrility which he may do well to abstain from for the future What is or is not necessary according to their Catholick Doctrine we shall not trouble our selves knowing that
in the Worship of God according to the mind of Christ before the Relinquishment of the Roman-See by our fore-fathers V. That the First Reformers were the most of them sorry contemptible persons whose Errors were propagated by indirect means and entertained for sinister ends VI. That our departure from Rome hath been the cause of all our evills and particularly of all those Divisions which are at this day found amongst the Protestants and which have been ever since the Reformation VII That we have no Remedy of our Evils no means of ending our differences but by a return unto the Rule of the Roman-See VIII The Scripture upon sundry accounts is insufficient to settle us in the truth of Religion or to bring us to an agreement amongst our selves seeing it is 1. Not to be known to be the Word of God but by the Testimony of the Roman Church 2. Cannot be well translated into our vulgar Language 3. Is in it self obscure And 4. We have none to determine of the sense of it IX That the Pope is a good man one that seeks nothing but our good that never did us harm and hath the care and inspection of us committed unto him by Christ. X. That the Devotion of the Catholicks far transcends that of Protestants nor is their Doctrine or Worship liable to any just exception I suppose our Author will not deny these to be the Principal nerves and sinews of his Oration nor complain I have done him the least injury in this representation of them or that any thing of importance unto his advantage by himself insisted on is here omitted He that runs and reads if he observe any thing that lies before him besides handsome words and ingenious diversions will consent that here lies the substance of what is offered unto him I shall not need then to tire the Reader and my self with transcriptions of those many words from the several parts of his Discourse wherein these Principles are laid down and insinuated or gilded over as things on all hands granted Besides so far as they are interwoven with other reasonings they will fall again under our Consideration in the several places where they are used and improved If all these Principles upon examination be found good true firm and stable it is most meet and reasonable that our Author should obtain his desire And if on the other side they shall appear some of them false some impertinent and the deductions from them Sophistical some of them destructive to Christian Religion in general none of them singly nor all of them together able to bear the least part of that weight which is laid upon them I suppose he cannot take it ill if we resolve to be contented with our present condition until some better way of deliverance from it be proposed unto us which to tell him the truth for my part I do not expect from his Church or Party Let us then consider these Principles apart in the order wherein we have laid them down which was the best I could think on upon the suddain for the Advantage of him who makes use them The first is an hinge upon which many of those which follow do in a a sort depend yea upon the matter all of them Our Primitive receiving Christian Religion from Rome is that which influences all perswasions for a return thither Now if this must be admitted to be true that we in these Nations first received the Christian Religion from Rome by the Mission and Authority of the Pope it either must be so because the Proposition carries its own evidence in its very terms or because our Author and those consenting with him have had it by Revelation or it hath been testified to them by others who knew it so to be That the first it doth not is most certain for it is very possible it might have been brought unto us from some other place from whence it came to Rome for as I take it it had not there its beginning Nor do I suppose they will plead special Revelation made either to themselves or any others about this matter I have read many of the Revelations that are said to be made to sundry persons canonized by his Church for Saints but never met with any thing concerning the place from whence England first received the Gospel Nor have I yet heard Revelation pleaded to this purpose by any of his Co-partners in design It remains then that some body hath told him so or informed him of it either by writing or by word of mouth Usually in such cases the first enquiry is Whether they be credible Persons who have made the report Now the pretended Authors of this Story may I suppose be justly questioned if on no other yet on this account that he who designes an advantage by their Testimony doth not indeed himself believe what they say For notwithstanding what he would fain have us believe of Christianity coming into Brittain from Rome he knows well enough and tells us elsewhere himself that it came directly by Sea from Palestina into France and was thence brought into England by Joseph of Ariniathea And what was that Faith and Worship which he brought along with him we know full well by that which was the Faith and Worship of his Teachers and Associates in the work of propagating the Gospel recorded in the Scripture So that Christianity found a passage to Brittain without so much as once visiting Rome by the way Yea but 150 years after Fugatius and Damianus came from Rome and propagated the Gospell here and 400 years after them Austin the Monk Of these stories we shall speak particularly afterwards But this quite spoiles the whole market in hand this is not a FIRST receiving of the Gospel but a second and third at the best and if that be considerable then so ought the Proposition to be laid These Nations a second and third time after the first from another place received the Gospell from Rome but this will not discharge that bill of following Items with is laid upon it What ever then there is considerable in the place or persons from whence or whom a Nation or People receive the Gospel as farr as it concerns us in these Kingdoms it relates to Jerusalem and Jews not Rome and Italians Indeed it had been very possible that Christian Religion might have been propagated at first from Rome into Britany considering what in these dayes was the condition of the one place and the other yet things were so ordered in the Providence of the Lord that it fell out otherwise and the Gospell was preached here in England probably before ever St. Paul came to Rome or St. Peter either if ever he came there But yet to prevent wrangling about Austin and the Saxons let us suppose that Christian Religion was first planted in these Nations by Persons coming from Rome if you will men sent by the Pope before he was born for that purpose What then
suppose do they believe it themselves for indeed if they do I know not how they can be freed from being thought to be strangely distempered if not stark mad For not to talk of the Tower of London this I am sure of That we have whole Cart loads of Comments and Expositions on the Scripture written by Members of the Church men of all Orders and Degrees and he that has cast an eye upon them knows that a great part of their large Volumes are spent in confuting the Expositions of one another and those that went before them Now whâ—t a madness is this or childishness above that of very Children to lye swaggering and contending one with another before all the World with fallible Mediums about the sense of Scripture and giving Expositions which no man is bound to acquiesce in any further than he sees Reason whilst all this while they have One amongst them who can infallibly interpret all and that with such an Authority as all men are bound to rest in and contend no further And the further mischief of it is That of all the rest This man is alwayes silent as to Exposition of Scripture who alone is able to part the fray There be two things which I think verily if I were a Papist I should never like in the Pope because methinks they argue a great deal of want of good nature The one is that we treat about That he can see his Children so fiercely wrangle about the sense of Scripture yet will not give out what is the infallible meaning of every place at least that is controverted and so stint the strife amongst them seeing it seems he can if he would And the other is That he suffers so many souls to lye in Purgatory when he may let them forth if he please and that I know of hath received no order to the contrary But the truth is That neither the Romanists nor we have any infallible living Judge in whose determination of the sense of Scripture all men should be bound to acquâ—esce upon the account of his Authority This is all the difference We openly profess we have none such and betake us to that which we have which is better for us They pretending they have yet acting constantly as if they had not and as indeed they have not maintain a perpetual inconsistency and contradiction between their Pretentions and their Practice The holy Ghost speaking in and by the Scripture using the Ministry of men furnished by himself with gifts and abilities and lawfully called to the Work for the oral Declaration or other Expositions of his mind is that which the Protestants cleave unto for the interpreting of the Scripture which its self discovers when infallible And if Papists can tell me of a better way I will quickly imbrace it I suppose I may upon the considerations we have had of the reasons offered to prove the insufficiency of Scripture to settle us in the Truth to end our differences conclude their insufficiency to any such purpose We know the Scripture was given us to settle us in the Truth and to end our differences we know it is profitable to that end and purpose and able to make us wise to salvation If we find not these effects wrought in our selves it is our own fault and I desire that for hereafter we may bear our own blame without such Reflections on the holy Word of the Infinitely Blessed God IX We are come at length unto the Pope of whom we are told That He is a good man One that seeks nothing but our good that never did us harm but has the care and inspection of us committed unto him by Christ. For my part I am glad to hear such news of him and should be more glad to find it to be true Our Forefathers and Predecessors in the faith we profess found it otherwise All the harm that could be done unto them by ruining their Families destroying their Estates imprisoning and torturing their Persons and lastly burning their Bodies in fire they received at his hands If the alteration pretended be not from the shortning of his Power but the change of his Mind and Will I shall be very glad to hear of it For the present I confess I had rather take it for granted whilest he is at this distance than see him trusted with Power for the tryal of his Will I never heard of much of his Repentance for the Blood of those Thousands that hath been shed by his Authority and in his Cause which makes me suspect he may be somewhat of the same mind still as he was Time was when the very worst of Popes exhausted more Treasure out of this Nation to spend it abâ—oad to their own ends thâ—â— some aâ—e willing to grant to the best of Kings to spend at home for their goods Iâ— may be he is changed as to this Design also but I do not know it nor is any pâ—oof offered of it by our Authoâ— Let us deal plainly one with another and without telling us That the Pope never did us harm which is not the way to make us believe that he will not because it makes us suspect that all we have suffered from him is thought no harm let hâ—m tell us how he will assure us That if this good Pope get us into his Power again he will not burn us as he did our Fore-fathers unless we submit our Consciences unto him in all things That he will not find out wayes to draw the Treasure out of the Nâ—tion nor absolve Subjects from their Allegiance nor excommunicate or attempt the Deposition of our Kings or the giving away of their Kingdoms as he has done in former dayes That these things he hath done we know that he hath repented of them and changed his mind thereupon we know not To have any thing to do with him whilst he continues in such Distempers is not only against the Principles of Religion but of common Prudence also For my parâ— I cannot but fear until I see Security tendered of this change in the Pope that all the good words that are given us concerning him are but Baits to enveigle us into his Power and to tell you the truth terrent vestigia How the Pope imployes himself in seeking our good which our Author paints out unto us I know not when I see the effects of it I shall be thankful for it In the mean time being so great a stranger to Rome as I am I must needs say I know nothing that he does but seek to destroy us Body and Soul Our Author pleads indeed That the care and inspection of our condition is committed to him by Christ But he attempts not to prove it which I somewhat marvel at For having professedly deserted the old way of pleading the Catholick Cause and Interest which I presume he did upon conviction of its insufficiency whereas he is an ingenious Person he could not but know that Pasce
the end and write over it Desinit in piscem The sum of this whole Paragraph is that all sorts of Protestants and others here in England do ridiculously contend about their several perswasions in Religion and put trouble on one another on that account whereas it is the Pope only that hath Title and Right to prescribe a Religion unto us all which is not to me unlike the fancy of the poor man in Bedlam who smiled with great contentment at their folly who imagined themselves either Queen Elizabeth or King James seeing he himself was King Henry the Eighth But seeing that is the business in hand let us see what is this Title that the Pope hath which Protestants can lay no claim unto It is founded on that of the Apostle to the Corinthians Did the Word of God come forth from you or came it unto you only This is pretended the only Rule to determin with whom the preheminence of Religion doth remain Now the Word came not out originally from Protestants or Puritans nor came it to them alone So that they have no reason to be imposing their conceptions on one another or own others that differ from them But our Author seems here to have fallen upon a great mis-adventure There is not as I know of any one single Text of Scripture that doth more fatally cut the throat of Papal pretensions than this that he hath stumbled on It is known that the Pope and his adherents claim a preheminence in Religion to be the sole Judges of all its concernments and the imposers of it in all the world What men receive from them that is Truth what they are any otherwise instructed in it is all false and naught On this pretence it is that this Gentleman pleads Nullity of Title amongst us as to all our contests though we know that Truth carries its Title with it in whose hands soever it be found Give me leave then to make so bold at least at this distance as to ask the Pope and his Adherents An à vobis verbum Dei processit an ad vos solos pervenit Did the Gospel first come from you or only unto you that you thus exalt your selves above your Brethren all the World over Do we not know by whom it first came to you and from whom Did it not come to very many parts of the World before you to the whole World as well as to you Why do you then boast your selves as though you had been the first revealers of the Gospel or that it had come unto you in a way or manner peculiar and distinct from that by which it came to other places Would you make us believe that Christ preached at Rome or suffered or rose from the dead there or gave the Holy Ghost first to the Apostles there or first there founded his Church or gave order for the empaling it there when it was built Would we never so fain we cannot believe such prodigious Fables To what purpose then do you talk of Title to impose your conceits in Religion upon us Did the Gospel first come forth from you or came it unto you only Will not Rome notwithstanding its seven Hills be laid in a level with the rest of the World by vertue of this Rule The truth is as to the Oral dispensation of the Gospel it came forth from Jerusalem by the Personal Ministry of the Apostles and came equally to all the world That Spring being long since dryed up it now comes forth to all from the written word and unto them who receive it in its Power and Truth doth it come and unto no other What may further be thought necessary to be discussed as to the matter of fact in reference to this Rule the Reader may find handled under that consideration of the first supposition which our Author builds his Discourse upon Sect. 4. Pag. 48. Heats and Resolution is the Title of this Section in which if our Author be found blameless his charge on others will be the more significant The Impartial Reader that will not be imposed on by smooth words will easily know what to guess of his temper In the mean time though we think it is good to be well-resolved in the things that we are to believe and practise in the worship of God yet all irregular and irrational Heats in the prosecution or maintenance of mens different conceptions and apprehensions in Religion we desire sincerely to avoid and explode Nor is it amiss that to further our moderation we be minded of the temper of the Pagans who in their Opinion-Wars we are told used no other Weapons but only of Pen and Speech For our Author seems to have forgotten not only innumerable other Instances to the contrary but also the renowned Battel between Ombos and Tentyra But this forgetfulness was needful to aggravate the charge on Christians that are not Romanists for their heat fury and Fightings for the promotion of their Opinions as being in this so much the worse than Pagans who in Religion used another manner of moderation And who I pray is it that manageth this charge Whence comes this Dove with an Olive-branch This Orator of Peace If we may guess from whence he came by seeing whither he is going we must say that it was from Rome This is their Plea this the perswasion of men of the Roman-Interest This their charge on Protestants To this height the confidence of mens ignorance inadvertency and fullness of present things amounts Could ever any one rationally expect that these Gentlemen would be publick decryers of Fury Wars and Tumults for Religion May not Protestants say to them Quae regio in terris nostri non plena cruoris Is there any Nation under the Heavens whereunto your power extends wherein our blood hath not given testimony to your wrath and fury After all your cursings and attempted depositions of Kings and Princes translations of Title to Soveraignty and Rule invasions of Nations secret Conspiracies Prisons Racks Swords Fire and Fagot do you now come and declaim about moderation We see you not yet cease from killing of men in the pursuit of your fancies and groundless Opinions any where but either where you have not power or can find no more to kill So that certainly whatever reproach we deserve to have cast upon us in this matter you are the unfittest men in the world to be mannagers of it But I still find my self in a mistake in this thing It is only Protestants and others departed from the Roman Church that our Author treats It is they who are more fierce and disingenious than the Pagans in their contests amongst themselves and against the Romanists as having the least share of Reason of any upon the earth His good Church is not concerned who as it is not lead by such fancies and motives as they are so it hath right where it hath power to deal with its Adversaries as seems good unto it This then Sir is
for himself without order from any Protestant when he sets up an excuse for this change in them by a relinquishment of their first Principles and re-assuming Popish ones for their defence against the Presbyterians He that set him a work may pay him his wages Protestants only tell him that what was never done needs never be excused Nor will they give him any more thanks for the plea he interposes in the behalf of Episcopacy against Presbyterians and Independents being interwoven with a plea for the Papacy and managed by such arguments as end in the exaltation of the Roman-See and that partly because they know that their Adversaries will be easily able to disprove the feigned Monarchical Government of the Church under one Pope and to prove that that fancy really everts the true and only Monarchical State of the Church in reference to Christ knowing that Monarchy doth not signifie two heads but one and partly because they have better Arguments of their own to plead for Episcopacy then those that he suggests here unto them or then any man in the world can supply them with who thinks there is no communication of Authority from Christ to any on the Earth but by the hands of the Pope So that upon the whole matter they desire him that he would attend his own business not immix their cause in the least with his which tends so much to their weakning disadvantage If this may be granted which is but reasonable they will not much be troubled about his commendation of the Pope pag. 178. as the Substitute of Christ our only visible Pastor the chief Bishop of the Catholick Church presiding ruling and directing in the place of Christ and the like elogium's being resolved when he goes about to prove any thing that he sayes that they will consider of it But he must be better known to them then he is before they will believe him on his bare word in things of such importance and some suppose that the more he is known the less he will be believed But that he may not for the present think himself neglected we will run over the heads of his plea pretended for Episcopacy really to assert the Papal Soveraignty First he pleads That the Christian Church was first Monarchical under one Soveraign Bishop when Christ who sounded it was upon the Earth True and so it is still There is one sheepfold one Shepherd and Bishop of our souls he that was then bodily present having promised That presence of Himself with his Church to the end of the World wherein he continues its one Soveraign Bishop And although the Apostles after him had an equality of power in the Church among themselves as Bishops after them have also yet this doth not denominate the Government of the Church Aristocratical no more then the equality of the Lords in Parliament can denominate the Government of this Kingdom to be so The denomination of any Rule is from him or them in whom the Soveraignty doth reside not from any subordinate Rulers So is the Rule of the Church Monarchical The subversion of this Episcopacy we acknowledge subverts the whole Polity of the Church and so all her Laws and Rule with the guilt whereof Protestants charge the Romanists He addes It will not suffice to say that the Church is still under its Head Christ who being in Heaven hath his spiritual influences over it It will not indeed But yet we suppose that his presence with It by his Spirit and Laws will suffice Why should it not Because the true Church of Christ must have the very same Head she had at first or else she cannot be the same Body Very good and so she hath the very same Christ that was crucified for her and not another But that Head was Man-God Personally present in both his Natures here on Earth But is he not I pray the same Man-God still the same Christ though the manner of his presence be altered This is strange that being the same as he was and being presert still one circumstance of the manner of his presence should hinder him from being the same head I cannot understand the Logick Reason nor Policy of this Inference Suppose we should on these trisling instances exclude Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday to day and for ever from being the same Head of his Church as he was Will the Pope supply his room Is he the same Head that Christ was Is he God-Man bodily present or what would you have us to conclude A visible Head or Bishop if the Church hath not now over her as at first she had she is not the same she was and consequently in the way to ruine This too much alters the Question At first it was that she must have the same Head she had at first or she is not the same Now that she must have another Head that is not the same or she is not the same For the Pope is not Jesus Christ. These arguings hang together like a rope of Sand And what is built on this foundation which indeed is so weak that I am ashamed further to contend with it will of its own accord fall to the ground CHAP. XI Scripture and new Principles THe next Paragraph p. 182. is a naughty one A business it is spent in and about that I have now often advised our Author to meddle with no more If he will not for the future take advice I cannot help it I have shewed my good will towards him It is his debating of the Scripture and its Authority which I intend This with the intertexture of some other gentle suppositions is the subject of this and the following Section And because I will not tire my self and Reader in tracing what seems of concernment in this Discourse backward and forward up and down as it is by him dispersed and disposed to his best advantage in dealing with unwary men I shall draw out the Principles of it that he may know them where ever he meets them though never so much masked and disguised or never so lightly touched on and also what judgment to pass upon them Their foundation being so taken away these Sections if I mistake not will sink of themselves Some of these Principles are co-incident with those general ones insisted on in the entrance of our Discourse others of them are peculiar to the design of these Paragraphs The first I shall only point unto the latter briefly discuss 1. It is supposed in the whole Discourse of these Sections That from the Roman Church so stated as now it is or from the Pope we here in England first received the Gospel which is the Romanists own Religion and theirs by donation from them whom they have here pleased to accommodate with it This animates the whole and is besides the special life of almost every sentence A lifeless life for that there is not a syllable of truth in it hath been declared before nor
he be in good earnest indeed he calls us to an easie welcome imployment namely to defend the holy Word of God and the wisdom of God in it from such slight and trivial exceptions as those he layes against them This path is so trodden for us by the Antients in their Answers to the more weighty Objections of his Predecessors in this work the Pagans that we cannot well erre or faint in it If we are called to this task namely to prove that we can know and believe the Scriptrue to be the Word of God without any respect to the Authority or Testimony of the present Church of Rome that no man can believe it to be so with faith Divine and Supernatural upon that testimony alone that the whole counsel of God in all things to be believed or done in order to our last end is clearly delivered in it and that the composure of it is a work of infinite wisdom suited to the end designed to be accomplished by it that no difficulties in the interpretation of particular places hinder the whole from being a compleat and perfect rule of Faith and Obedience we shall most willingly undertake it as knowing it to be as honourable a service and employment as any of the sons of men can in this world be called unto If indeed himself be otherwise minded and believes not what he says but only intends to entangle men by his Sophistry so to render them plyable unto his further intention I must yet once more perswade him to desist from this course It doth not become an ingenious man much lesse a Christian and one that boasts of so much Mortification as he doth to juggle thus with the things of God In the mean time his Reader may take notice that so long as he is able to defend the Authority Excellency and Usefulness of the Scripture this man had nothing to say to him as to the change of his Religion from Protestancy to Popery And when men will be perswaded to let that go as a thing uncertain dubious useless it matters not much where they go themselves And for our Authour methinks if not for reverence to Christ whose book we know the Scriptures to be yet for the devotion he bears the Pope whose book he sayes it is he might learn to treat it with a little more respect or at least prevail with him to send out a book not liable to so many exceptions as this is pretended to be However this I know that though his pretence be to make men Papists the course he takes is the readyest in the world to make them Atheists and whether that will serve his turn or no as well as the other I know not 6. We have not yet done with the Scripture That the taking it for the only rule of faith the only determiner of differences is the only cause of all our differences and which keeps us in a condition of having them endless is also pretended and pleaded But how shall we know this to be so Christ and his Apostles were absolutely of another mind and so were Moses and the Prophets before them The antient Fathers of the Primitive Church walked in their steps and umpired all differences in Religion by the Scriptures opposing confuting and condemning Errors and Heresies by them preserving through their guidance the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace In these latter dayes of the world which surely are none of the best we have a few unknown persons come from Rome would perswade us that the Scripture and the use of it is the cause of all our differences and the means of making them endless But why so I pray Doth it teach us to differ and contend Doth it speak contradictions and set us at variance Is there any spirit of dissension breathing in it Doth it not deliver what it commands us to understand so as it may be understood Is there any thing needful for us to know in the things of God but what it reveales Who can tell us what that is But do we not see de facto what differences there are amongst you who pretend all of you to be guided by Scripture Yea and we see also what Surfeitings and drunkenness there is in the world but yet do not think bread meat and drink to be the causes of them and yet they are to the full as much so as the Scriptures are of our Differences Pray Sir do not think that sober men will cast away their Food and starve themseâ—â—es because you tell them that some continually abuse and surfeit on that very kind of food which they use Nor will some mens abuse of it prevail with others to cast away the food of their souls if they have any design to live eternally 7. The great safety and security that there is in committing our selves as to all the concernments of Religion unto the guidance rule and conduct of the Pope is another great principle of this Discourse And here our Author falls into a deep admiration of the Popes dexterity in keeping all his Subjects in peace and unity and subjection to him there being no danger to any one for forsâ—king him but only that of Excommunication The contest is between the Scripture and the Pope Protestants say the safest way for men in reference to their eternal condition is to believe the Scripture and rest therein The Romanists say the same of the Pope Which will prove the best course methinks should not be hard to determine All Christians in the world ever did agree That the Scripture is the certain infallible word of God given by him on purpose to reveal his mind and will unto us About the Pope there were great Contests ever since he was first taken notice of in the world Nothing I confess little or low is spoken of him Some say he is the head and spouse of the Church the Vicar of Christ the successor of Peter the supreme Moderator of Christians the infallible judge of Controversies and the like others again that he is Antichrist the man of sin a cruel Tyrant and Persecutor the evill Servant Characterized Mat. 24.48 49 50 51. But all as far as I can gather agree that he is a Man I mean that almost all Popes have been so for about every individual there is not the like consent Now the question is Whether we shall rest in the Authority and Word of God or in the Authority and Word of a Man as the Pope is confessed to be and whether is like to yield us more security in our assiance This being such another difficult matter and case as that before mentioned about the Bibles being the Popes book shall not be by me decided but left to the Judgment of wiser men In the mean time for his feat of Government it is partly known what it is as also what an influence into the effects of peace mentioned that gentle means of Excommunication hath had I know one that
concerning Preaching to the Churches themselves and their Disciples we have in that book purposely designed to declare their first calling and planting not their progress and edification Should I trace the commands given for this work the commendation of it the qualifications and gifts for it bestowed on men by Christ and his requiring of their exercise recorded in the Epistles the work would be endless and a good part of most of them must be transcribed In brief if the Lord Christ continue to bestow Ministerial gifts upon any or to call them to the Office of the Ministry if they are bound to labour in the Word and Doctrine to be instant in Season and out of Season in Preaching the Word to those committed to their charge if that be one of the directions given them that they may know how to behave themselves in the Church the house of God if they are bound to trade with the Talents their Master entrusts them with to attend unto Doctrine with all diligence if it be the duty of Christians to labour to grow and encrease in the knowledge of God and his will and that of indispensable necessity unto salvation according to the measure of the means God is pleased to afford unto them if their perishing through ignorance will be assuredly charged on them who are called to the care and freedom and instructing of them This business of Preaching is an indispensible duty among Christians If these things be not so indeed for ought I know we may do what our Adversary desires us even burn our Bibles and that as books that have no truth in them Our Authors denial of the practice of Antiquity conformable to this of the Apostles is of the same nature But that it would prove too long a diversion from my present work I could as easily trace down the constant sedulous performance of this duty from the dayes of the Apostles until it gave place to that ignorance which the world was beholding to the Papal Apostacy for as I can possibly write so much paper as the story of it would take up But to what purpose should I do it Our Author I presume knows it well enough and others I hope will not be too forward in believing his affirmations of what he believes not himself The main design of this discourse is to cry up the Sacrifice that the Catholicks have in their Churches but not the Protestants This Sacrifice he tells us was the sum of all Apostolical Devotion which Protestants have abolished Strange that in all the writings of the Apostles there should not one word be mentioned of that which was the sum of their Devotion Things surely judged by our Author of less importance are at large handled in them That they should not directly nor indirectly once intimate that which it seems was the sum of their devotion is I confess to me somewhat strange They must make this concealment either by design or oversight How consistent the first is with their goodness holiness love to the Church the latter with their wisdom and infallibility either with their office and duty is easie to judge Our Author tells us They have a Sacrifice after the order of Melchizedeck Paul tells us indeed that we have a High Priest after the order of Melchizedech but as I remember this is the first time that ever I heard of a Sacrifice after the order of Melchisedech though I have read somewhat that Roman Catholicks say about Melchisedechs Sacrifice Our Priest after the Order of Melchisedech offered a Sacrifice that none ever had done before nor can do after him even Himself If the Romanists think to offer him they must kill him The Species of Bread and Wine are but a thin Sacrifice next door to nothing yea somewhat worse then nothing a figment of a thing impossible or the shaddow of a dream nor will they say they are any It is true which our Author pleads in justification of the Sacrifice of his Church That there were Sacrifices among the Jews yea from the beginning of the World after the entrance of sin and promise of Christ to come made to sinners For in the state of innocency there was no Sacrifice appointed because there was no need of an atonement But all these Sacrifices properly so called had no other use in Religion then to prefigure and represent the great Sacrifice of himself to be made by the Son of God in the fulness of time That being once performed all other Sacrifices were to cease I mean properly so called for we have still Sacrifices Metaphorical called so by Analogy being parts of Gods worship tendred unto him and accepted with him as were the Sacrifices of old Nor is it at all necessary that we should have Proper Sacrifices that we may have Metaphorical It is enough that such there have been and that of Gods own appointment And we have still that only one real Sacrifice which was the life and soul of all them that went before The substance being come the light shaddowing of it that was before under the Law is vanished The Apostle doth expresly place the opposition that is between the Sacrifice of Christian-Church and that of the Judaical in this that they were often repeated this was performed once for all and is a living abiding Sacrifice constant in the Church for ever Heb. 10.1 2. So that by this rule the repetition of the same or any other Sacrifice in the Christian-Church can have no other foundation but an apprehension of the imperfection of the Sacrifice of Christ For saith he where the Sacrifice is perfect and makes them perfect that come to God by it there must be no more Sacrifice This then seems to be the real difference between Protestants and Roman-Catholicks in this business of Sacrifice Protestants believing the Sacrifice of Christ to be absolutely perfect so that there is no need of any other and that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fresh and living way of going to God continually with whom by it obtaining remission of sin they know there is no more offering for sin they content themselves with that Sacrifice of his continually in its vertue and efficacy residing in the Church Romanists looking on that as imperfect judge it necessary to institute a new Sacrifice of their own to be repeated every day and that without any the least colour or warrant from the word of God or example of the Apostles But our Author puts in an exception and tells us those words of Luke Acts 13.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are well and truly rendred by Erasmus sacrificantibus illis Domino which one text saith he gives double testimony to Apostolical Sacrifice and Priestly Ordination and he strengthens the Authority of Erasmus with reason also for the word can import nothing but Sacrifice since it was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for other inferiour Ministeries of the Word and Sacraments are not made to God but the people but the
all the antient Fathers of the Church they are exhorted unto that they need noâ— understand those Prayers which they are commanded to pray with understanding and wherein lies a principal exercise of their faith and love towards God are the things which are here recommended unto us Let us view the arguments wherewith first the general custome of the Western Empire in keeping the Mass and Bible in an unknown tongue is pleaded But What is a general Custome of the Western Empire in opposition to the command of God and the evidence of all that reason that lies against it Have we not an express Command not to follow a multitude to do evill Besides What is or ever was the Western Empire unto the Catholicism of the Church of Christ spread over the whole world Within an hundred years after Christ the Gospel was spread to Nations and in places whither the Roman power never extended it self Romanis inaccessa loca much less that branch of it which he calls the Western Empire But neither yet was it the custom of the Western Empire to keep the Bible in an unknown Tongue or to perform the worship of the Church in such a Language Whilst the Latin Tongue was only used by them it was generally used in other things and was the vulgar Tongue of all the Nations belonging unto it Little was there remaining of those Tongues in use that were the Languages of the Provinces of it before they became so So that though they had their Bible in the Latin Tongue they had it not in an unknown no more than the Grecians had who used it in Greek And when any people received the Faith of Christ who had not before received the Language of the Romans good men translated the Bible into their own as Hierom did for the Dalmatians Whatever then may be said of the Latin there is no pretence of the use of an unknown Tongue in the worship of the Church in the Western Empire until it was over-run destroyed and broken in pieces by the Northern Nations and possessed by them most of them Pagans who brought in several distinct Languages into the Provinces where they seated themselves After those tumults ceased and the Conquerors began to take up the Religion of the people into whose Countries they were come still retaining with some mixtures their old Dialect that the Scripture was not in all places for in many it was translated for their use was the sin and negligence of some who had other faults besides The Primitive use of the Latin Tongue in the worship of God and translation of the Bible into it in the Western Empire whilst that Language was usually spoken and read as the Greek in the Grecian is an undeniable argument of the Judgement of the antient Church for the use of the Scripture and Church-Liturgies in a known Tongue What ensued on What was occasioned by that inundation of barbarous Nations that buried the world for some ages in darkness and ignorance cannot reasonably be proposed for our imitation I hope we shall not easily be induced either to return unto or embrace the effects of Barbarism But saith our Author Secondly Catholicks have the sum of Scripture both for history and dogm delivered them in their own Language so much as may make for their salvation good orders being set and instituted for their proficiency therein and what needs any more or why should they be further permitted either to satifie curiosity or to raise doubtâ— or to wrest words and examples there recorded unto their own ruin as we see now by experience men are apt to do What Catholicks have or have not is not our present dispute Whether what they have of story and dogm in their own Language be that which Paul calls the whole Counsel of God which he declared at Ephesus I much doubt But the question is Whether they have what God allows them and what he commands them to make use of We suppose God himself Christ and his Apostles the antient Fathers of the Church any of these or at least when they all agree may be esteemed as wise as our present Masters at Rome Their sense is That all Scripture given by inspiration from God is profitable for Doctrine it seems these judge not so and therefore they afford them so much of it as may tend to their good For my part I know whom I am resolved to adhere to let others do as seems good unto them Nor where God hath commanded and commended the use of all do I believe the Romanists are able to make a distribution that so much of it makes for the salvation of men the rest only serves to satisfie curiosity to raise doubts and to occasion men to wrest words and examples Nor I am sure are they able to satisfie me why any one part of the Scripture should be apt to do this more then others Nor will they say this at all of any part of their Mass. Nor is it just to charge the fruits of the lusts and darkness of men on the good word of God Nor is it the taking away from men of that alone which is able to make them good and wise a meet remedy to cure their evils and follies But these Declamations against the use and study of the Scripture I hope come too late Men have found too much spiritual advantage by it to be easily driven from it It self gives light to know its excellency and defend its use by But the Book is sacred he says and therefore not to be sullied by every hand what God hath sanctified let not man make common It seems then those parts of the Scripture which they afford to the people are more useful but less sacred than those that they keep away These reasons justle one another unhandsomly Our Author should have made more room for them for they will never lie quietly together But what is it he means by the Book the Paper Ink Letters and Covering His Master of the Schools will tell him These are not sacred if they are the Printers dedicate them And it 's a pretty pleasant Sophism that he adds That God having sanctified the Book we should not make it common To what end I pray hath God sanctified it Is it that it may be laid up and be hid from that people which Christ hath prayed might be sanctified by it Is it any otherwise sanctified but as it is appointed for the use of the Church of all that believe Is this to make it common to apply it unto that use whereunto of God it is segregated Doth the Sanctification of the Scripture consist in the laying up of the Book of the Bible from our profane Utensils Is this that which is intended by the Author Would it do him any good to have it granted or further his purpose Doth the mysteriousness of it lie in the Books being locked up I suppose he understands this Sophistry well enough which makes it the worse
fixed in the Scripture Of the same importance is the next Section pag. 170. Entituled Protestants Pro and Con wherin the differences that are amongst many in these Nations are notably exagitated I presume in the intention of his mind upon his present design he forgot that by a new change of Name the same things may be uttered the same words used of and concerning Christians in general ever since almost that name was known in the world Was there any thing more frequent among the Pagans of old than to object to Christians their Differences and endless Disputes I wish our Author would but consider that which remains of the Discourse of Celsus on this Subject particularly his charge on them that at their beginnings and whilst they were few they agreed well enough but after they encreased and were dispersed into several Nations they were every where at variance among themselves whereas all sorts of men were at peace before their pretended Reformation of the Worship of God and he will find in it the sum of this and the four following Sections to the end of this Chapter And if he will but add so much to his pains as to peruse the excellent Answers of Origen in his third Book he will if not be perswaded to desist from urging the objections of Celsus yet discern what is expected from him to reply unto if he persist in his way But if we may suppose that he hath not that respect for the honour of the first Christians methinkes the intestine irreconcileable brauls of his own Mothers children should somewhat allay his heat and confidence in charging endless differences upon Protestants of whom only I speak Yea but you will say They have a certain means of ending their Controversies Protestants have none And have they so the more shame for them to trouble themselves and others from one generation unto another with Disputes and Controversies that have such a ready way to end them when they please and Protestants are the more to be pittied who perhaps are ready some of them at least as farr as they are able to live at Peace But why have not Protestants a sure and safe way to issue all their differences Why Because every one is Judge himself and they have no Umpire in whose decision they are bound to acquiesce I pray Who told you so Is it not the Fundamental Principle of Protestantism that the Scripture determines all things necessary unto Faith and Obedience and that in that determination ought all men to acquiess I know few Roman-Catholicks have the prudence or the patience to understand what Protestancy is And certain it is that those who take up their knowledge of it from the Discourses and Writings of such Gentlemen as our Author know very little of it if any thing at all And those who do at any time get leave to read the books of Protestants seem to be so filled with prejudices against them and to be so byassed by corrupt affections that they seldom come to a true apprehension of their meanings for who so blind as he that will not see Protestants tell them that the Scripture contains all things necessary to be believed and practised in the Worship of God and those proposed with that perspicuity and clearness which became the wisdom of it's Author who intended to instruct men by it in the knowledge of them and in this Word and Rule say they are all men to rest and acquiess But sayes our Author why then do they not do so why are they at such fewds and differences amongst themselves Is this in truth his business Is it Protestants he blames and not Protestancy mens miscarriages and not their Rule 's imperfection If it be so I crave his pardon for having troubled him thus farr To defend Protestants for not answering the Principles of their Profession is a task too hard for me to undertake nor do I at all like the business let him lay on blame stil until I say Hold. It may be we shall grow wiser by his reviling as Monica was cured of her intemperance by the reproach of a Servant But I would fain prevail with these Gentlemen for their own sakes Not to cast that blame which is due to us upon the holy and perfect Word of God We do not say nor ever did that who ever acknowledgeth the Scripture to be a perfect Rule must upon necessity understand perfectly all that is contained in it that he is presently freed from all darkness prejudices corrupt affections and enabled to judge perfectly and infallibly of every truth contained in it or deduced from it These causes of our differences belong to individual persons not to our common Rule And if because no men are absolutely perfect and some are very perverse and froward we should throw away our Rule the blessed Word of God and run to the Pope for rule and guidance it is all one as if at noon-day because some are blind and miss their way and some are drunk and stagger out of it and others are variously entised to leave it we should all conspire to wish the Sun out of the Firmament that we might follow a Will with a Wisp I know not what in general needs to be added further to this Section The mistake of it is palpable some particular passages may be remarked in it before we proceed pag. 173. he Pronounceth an heavy doom on the Prelate Protestants making them Prevaricators Impostors Reprobates an hard sentence but that it is hoped it will prove like the flying Bird and Curse causeless But what is the matter Why in dealing with the Presbyterians They are forced to make use of those Popish Principles which themselves at first rejected and so building them up again by the Apostles rule deserve no better terms But what I pray are they why the difference betwixt Clergy and Laity the efficacy of Episcopal Ordination and the Authority of a visible Church unto which all men are to obey There are but two things our Author needs to prove to make good his charge First that these are Popish Principles Secondly That as such they were at any time cast down and destroyed by Prelate-Protestants I fear his mind was gone a little astray or that he had been lately among the Quakers when he hammered this charge against Prelate Protestants For as these have been their constant Principles ever since the beginning of the Reformation so they have as constantly maintained that in their true and proper sense they are not Popish Nor is the difference about these things between any Protestants what-ever any more then verbal For those terms of Clergy and Laity because they had been abused in the Papacy though antiently used some have objected against them but for the things signified by them namely that in the Church there are some Teachers some to be taught Bishops and Flocks Pastors and People no Protestant ever questioned Our Author then doth but cut out work