in and by the Church of Rome especially since Trent-Council assembled and ended above your hundred years ago is inconsistent with and destructive of this individual Headship true Faith and Church-constitution being nothing else but an Anti-christian miscellany and compound oppositum in apposito of God and the Creature God-man and meer-man in the most material points and principles of Christianity the Persons of both in point of Worship the Power and Authority of both in matters of Faith the Righteousness and Merit of both in point of Satisfaction and Justification the Wills of both in the act of Conversion the Intercession of both in the great office of Mediation yea an universal co-equivalency or equal concurrence of Worth Vertue and Efficacy from both throughout the whole business of Redemption and Salvation especially from Christ and the Virgin Mary constituted therein Corredemptress with her Son and Saviouress a latere as if her Brests as well as his Sides had been no less then sacramental and the Mothers Milk and the Son's Blood equally saving Moreover to prosecute this Religious medley God and the Creature in the Decalogue Christ and the Church in the Creed Scripture and Tradition in the Canon Pater-Noster and Ave-Maria in the Litany Sacrament and Sacrifice in the Supper c. all so many Riddles in the Mystery of Iniquity A Religion consisting of such Trent-Forge-Principles and Practices as these viz. In point of Doctrine Papal Supremacy and Authotity Church Infallibility unwritten Traditions equall'd in authority with the Holy Scriptures the doctrine of Man's free-Will in opposition to God's Free-Grace the Doctrine of Perfection of Merits Pardons and Indulgences redounding from a surplusage of Works of super-erogation and satisfaction as they are termed as if any meer Man could fullfill in obedience beyond what the Law requires and satisfy in penance beyond what Sin deserves a rare Religion the doctrine of Purgatory and Souls Departed the doctrine of Mass-service and Transubstantiation the Consecrating Priestling turning a petty Creator as is supposed converting sacramental Forms into real Substance and Commemoration into Expiation celebrating Christ's Death with his death as well as with his own in destroying instead of discerning the Lord's Body yea both Saviour and Sacrament at once the doctrine of Ministration in an unknown Tongue by means whereof they do most sacrilegiously robb the Children of their Bread in the Scriptures as they do of the Cup in the Supper and many more such like Doctrines not of men onely but of Divels which I list not to dwell upon the Subject being so Frightful In point of Worship Idolatry and Imagery Superstition Saint-Worship c. In point of Polity absolute Tyranny the Keys turned into a Sword sufficiently exercised and dearly experienced throughout the World upon Princes-Crowns their Subjects-Consciences and Protestant-Blood in sanguinary Lawes a bloody Inquisition direful Anathemaes execrable Massacres rageing Persecutions c. the violent Calentures of that Torrid Zone The Religion in fine of that Church which is in Doctrine damnably Heretical in Worship grossely Idolatrous in Polity and Government intollerably Tyrannical in all palpably Antichristian opposite to and virtually destructive of Christs fundamentality and headship in his Person or Natures in his Offices in all their parts in his States in his vertues merits graces priviledges Institutions and ordinances c. in one or more or all of those and consequently destruction of the Catholick Faith and Religion by Himself and his Apostles and the whole successive series of Christians throughout the World professed and practised and finally of the truth of a Christian Church his Body all in effect nullified thereby yea and a false head other foundation and another name being substituted in opposition to the true the Religion I say professed and practised in the Church of Rome and that Church her self especially since Trent-Council being such as is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 described it followeth by necessary consequence that the separation of the Church of England both primitive in her first Reformers and present in their Successours persisting in that happy divorce from her and embodyed into a contradistinct but true Church under Christ the onely true Head in a Joynt profession of his Faith the true Religion is so far from being Schismatical this being ever a causeless and groundless separation in or from matter of true Religion in a true Church that on the contrary it is righteous and Justifyable yea absolutely necessary by the authority of that Law whereby we are strictly commanded to renounce and abjure her society upon peril of sharing in her Plagues from which Good Lord deliver us Sir if in this short defence of our Reformation which it is like may seem a kind of morose Tragedy to an airy Mercurius but that I aim at a further goal you think I have falsified or misrepresented any principle of the Romish Church charge me with it and spare not and if I do not Justify what I have asserted brand me for as great a slanderer as your self Again Sir True Religion being that onely of which the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth is the Author the Holy Scriptures the Word of Truth is the Rule and the Holy Church whereof our Church of England is part the Pillar and Ground of Truth is the publick Trustee Keeper and Conservatory as Pillars or Tables are of affix'd Papers and Proclamations to wit modo forensi non architectonico derived and delivered as is above-said to her from the Apostles and to them by Christ from God himself And the Reformed Religion Faith Doctrine and substantial Worship professed and practised in and by the Church of England being such as may appear from her publick tests and monuments especially the three Creeds Apostolick Nicene and Athanasian and her doctrinal Articles unanimously agreed upon in two several Convocations viz An. Dom. 1562 and 1604 c. compared with the Sacred Canon whose test and trial in the Case she is willing to undergo It follows that the Reformed and onely reforming Religion professed and practised in and by the Church of England is the onely true Religion which when you assault with Argument as now you undermine by Stratagem you shall be dealt withall Moreover Sir The Church of England is no less satisfied in her Clergy then in her Religion that as God hath by a Law of as long duration as that of Sun and Moon in the ordinary course of his Providence appointed to publish and propagate his Truth and instruct his Church by a constant series and succession of persons of holy Order and Office authorised and qualified thereunto so her Clergy is such having derived their orders together with their Religion ex traduce Apostolica from the original Seminary Founders of Christianity in England who are recorded in History the monumental Memory and best Intelligencer in such cases to have been Apostles or Men Apostolical whether Philip or Joseph of Arimathea sent by him as Tertullian
Hieragonisticon OR CORAH'S DOOM BEING AN ANSWER To Two Letters of Enquiry into the Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion In Vindication of the Contemned By way of Epistle to the Author of the said Enquiry Contra Rationem nemo sobrius contra Scripturam nemo Christianus contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus London Printed by Tho. Milbourn for Dorman Newman at the Kings-Armes in the Poultry 1672. An Answer to two Letters of Enquiry into the Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion in Vindication of the Contemned By way of Epistle c. SIR THe Reformed Religion and Clergy England's Glory being by you betrayed to Contempt under pretence of an amicable Enquiry into the Grounds and Occasions of it which I here offer to make good I cannot conceive how I may better manage my vouch'd Vindication of both then 1. By Vnriddling the mystery of your Inquest to the Laity and 2. By answering to your Process form'd in it against Religion and Clergy This therefore is the method which I will observe in the present Contest which had I reckoned it Certamen de Oleastro a debate about matters of no greater consequence than are Achilles's Toes the Graecian's Boots or Neapolitan Chesnuts c. I had never I assure you contrasted you in to your the worlds or my own trouble As touching the First General viz. the Vnriddling of the Mystery and detecting of the stratagem project and imposture of your Inquisition and that in order to the prepossessing and guarding of the Laity against it This Sir I will endeavour by way of distinct gradual paragraphs commenced not a Nannaco from Adam or the Prae-adamites nor yet from your great Mormo Belshazzar but from the very Genealogy of the Christian Religion by you impeached thence proceeding ab Equis ad Asinos till in fine Sphinx do upon the matter become his own Oedipus and your Riddle whether one in the Mystery of Iniquity or not the Reader shall be Judge as legible as that plain truth as great a one as any that occurrs throughout your whole Rhapsody namely Let. 2. pag. 10 that there is a near relation between Atheisme and Contempt of the Clergy wherein let me tell you you have in a manner prophesied your own doom as Caiaphas did our Saviour's unawares First then Sir The Christian Faith or Religion is That which God the Father the original Author of Truth as well as Being hath delivered to his Son his Son to his Apostles his Apostles to his Church the primitive to succeeding Churches and all to their respective Members and Matriculates This is a prescript of the learnedst Apologist and Defender of the Faith that ever the Church enjoyed namely the great Tertullian and with me a grand piece of Orthodoxy Again Sir This Religion thus conveyed from God the Father by his Son to his Apostles and by the intermediation of both to his Church hath been in all the successive Ages thereof from the Apostles downwards to this present time and will be to the end of the world published preached and propagated by a constituted Hierarchy or continual Series of persons of holy Order and Office duly authorized and qualified thereunto stiled the Lights of the World the Stewards of Divine Mysteries the Embassadours of Christ the Pastors Teachers Guides Angels and Overseers of the Church For this Sir besides its congruity to the principles of general Equity I would produce Scripture-Arguments but that I fear lest they might share in the common lot of sacred Promises Precepts Narratives c. by your over-daring Witt facetiously abused sacra sacris Hence Sir it follows Thirdly There cannot be a more compendious method or stratagem devised for propagating of any sinister innovation or revolution Pagan or Papal in matter of Religion and the most Atheistick Idolatrous loose licentious principles and practices whatsoever even to an universal re-paganizing of a Nation than either by utterly subverting of an Orthodox Clergy therein or else by rendering it useless and unserviceable For if either the Persons of those Sacred Stewards Teachers Guides and Supervisers be removed or which is all one as to use and serviceableness in the Church their authority rebated and infringed those Lights either quite exstinct or at leastwise eclipsed those sacred Pipes cut or stop't c. what other can the sequel be then gross Ignorance And what may not be obtruded upon an Ignorant Laity of all that the arbitrary Lawes and lusts of their new Masters to whose service and blind obedience they are now most humbly envassal'd shall impose their swallow being sufficiently prepared by this time not for their Gnats only Tushâ— that 's ordinary with the blind to a proverb but for their Camel the Beast himself for a nauseous deadly Crambe a blasted Nehushtan for Stocks Stones Idols Images and what you will even to an unknown God! which undoubtedly is the reason why Satan his Accomplices have in most of the Catastrophes that have befallen the Church still commenced the tragedy from the Ministry witness both history and experience addressing all their power and policy to an utter either extirpation or exauctoration of the same This Sir I have likewise adopted into my Creed as following consequentially from the former Fourthly The most artificial and expedite way either to destroy the Clergy or which is much the same to render it useless and unserviceable to the Church as this is to destroy Religion is to expose and betray it to misprision and Contempt in the Laity This Sir I take to be as high a strain of Politicks as ever Socinian Loyolite or Jesuited Pandor throughout the world could write himself master of and indeed a very sacra anchora in the Romish Sea for all other artifices failing Enchantments Arguments Anathemaes Menaces Massacres Altar-Coals the Learned Quill the Charming Cup the sacred Key the thirsty Sword c. inter sacrum saxum Ahab's prejudice will do the business The Jesuite's Powder-Plot An. Dom. 88. was a shrewd stratagem as being levelled at the Community in Ruler and Representative where each unite stands for thousands universally devoted to a tout a coup such an epitomised stroke upon the English as the enraged Caligula imprecated to his offending Romanes without the trouble of a repetition But now those Ghostly Politicians are taught by experience that sacred enterprizes never luck more prosperously then when managed surdo verbere and that the Serpent is far more serviceable in the cause then the Dragon as acting with less noise greater execution Once throughly leaven an ungovernable Laity with contempt and prejudice against their Clergy and what the consequents hereof might prove may be perceived without a prospective-glass this active ferment will doubtless by degrees foment the whole mass of Blood and Spirit with which it once incorporates to an utter rejection of that which it ought if call'd for to be expended in defence of and thus
of Origen's Hexapla or the Polyglott Bible otherwise than to be possessors of them in the little Hole over the Oven provided it be large enough to hold it or that they be able to preach with Cloven Tongues or to offer good Hypotheses about the Longitude the Quadrature of the Circle a perpetuum mobile besides Non-residents a Vacuum in Nature besides what you alledg to be in themselves or that they be skill'd in the Circulation Fermentation and all the various Phaenomena of the Blood and in reading of Lectures of Anatomy besides that of the Heart and least of all that they skill in the Mysteries of your approved-of Cobler and Tinker nor yet which comes nearer to Primitive example in the employ of a Customehouse-man or Fisher-man or the like In a word that they be absolute Linguists Orators Philosophers Naturalists Mathematicians Astronomers Civilians Canonists Politicians c. qualified for the Academy as well as for the Church the Chair as the Pulpit and the Bench or Cabal as for either and all this I say upon peril of the censure of Ignorance from you or of Contempt from the Laity else Sir you might as well have extended your charge to the whole sixteen hundreds of years last past as to the last single Century and have quarrell'd the Apostles themselves for their little skill in Politicks or Mathematicks and other Parts of Philosophy and that they were not as dexterous in Squaring of the Circle as many of them were in casting of a Net that they have not left us as exact a Description of the World in the Moon as of that beyond it and especially the Fathers of the Church both Eastern and Western in that of the whole Paternity only one single Duumvirate one for each Climate Origen and Jerome those Christian Masorites were Masters of the Holy Tongue the Hebrew the knowledge whereof is so necessary to that Holy Profession Well then there is a singular sort of Knowledge requisite in the Clergy as such and what that is must as I conceive be determined partly by the respective Exigencies of the Church whose Lights and Guides the Clergy are or ought to be partly by those particular Services which the All-wise Founder of the Society hath appointed and apportioned to each of them therein and both the one and the other again partly by the respective Constitutions of the Church and partly by the Successive Revolutions and Interchanges as corruptions in Doctrine or Life or both Apostacy Captivity and Persecution c. incident thereunto though the Quotient or particular Dimensum and definite proportion of Knowledge res ectively necessary in each Minister for each piece of Service incumbent upon him under each Constitution or Condition of the Church or each emergent exigency thereof is hardly I think determinable by any ordinary Mortal unless he had been with S. Paul in the third Heavens or could see beyond the Firmament and read by that Light which I understand is in accessible Now then the Constitution of the Church being as hath been declared above first Domestical impropriated within the Confines of one Family as from Adam downwards during the Patriarchy from thence advanced to National and at last to Oecumenick or Vniversal as may appear if you turn your Bible backward to the First Adam and then in a reversed order downward again to the Second the great Continent of both Jew and Gentile founded by Christ and his Apostles This Christian Church again being considerable both as originally founded and as successively propagated and both the Jewish and Christian Church being subject to yea frequently the Subjects of Heresie Idolatry Captivity Persecution Contempt c. It is rational to believe that the wise God hath all along appropriated and apportioned persons furnished with sutable Knowledge and necessary Qualifications to all those respective Constitutions Revolutions and emergent Exigencies of his Church Yea in matter of Fact it is certain from History both Sacred and Prophane and very observable amongst other provisions was both the Confusion of Languages preparatory to a National extent in the Jewish Church and the sacred Effusion of them in order to an Oecumenick and Vniversal one in the Christian the chief Subject of this Enquiry The Architect and chief Founder of the Christian Church is Jesus Christ in whom is the fulness both of the Godhead and of Godliness Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge accumulative measures of the Divine Spirit the Apostles his Associates and Ministerial Co-operaries with him in the Plantation were furnished with an extraordinary share in the same Spirit joyntly demonstrating the Divinity of the Word in their mouths by infallible Signs and Seals of it in their hands Oracles with Miracles Again the Church being founded and the chief Founder removed from his Colony and the rest ready to follow the same God who appointed Prophets Apostles and Evangelists for the Original Foundation and Gathering of his Church provides Pastors and Teachers a constant and inviolable Order and Series of Ecclesiastical persons for the successive edification and perfecting thereof in propagating and preserving the received Religion all Copartners in the same hereditary Spirit though with the difference of ordinary and extraordinary between them and their Predecessors and also some considerable diversification amongst themselves as touching particular Gifts or particular set Forms and Degrees of those Gifts or their usefulness and serviceableness in the Church being all universally suted to her particular emergent States Conditions and Exigencies thus in case of carnal Security there is a Boanerges in case of Persecution and Calamity a Barnabas in case of Neutrality and Lukewarmness a Zelotes in case of Heresie or Corruption in Doctrine Champion-Defenders of the Faith Origen against a Celsus Jerome against a Helvidius Jovinian Vigilantius c. Augustine against an Arrius as also Athanasius a Donatus a Manichean a Pelagius c. Basil against an Eunomius Cyprian against a Novatus Hilary against a Constantius Arnobius and Lactantius against obstinate Gentiles nay whole Councils and Consistories of Orthodox Fathers against the prevailing Heresies of their Times successively the Nicene Constantinopolitan Epâ—esine and Chalcedonian against the same number of Arch-Hereticks Arrius Macedonius Nestorius and Eutyches so that the Church is never left without a witness of Gods Truth more than the World is of his Power Moreover in case of Defamation Reproach or Contempt of Religion or Clergy still some or other strenuous Apologist for a Tertullus a Tertullian c. Briefly Sir in this Mystical Body like as it is in the Natural S. Pauls Simile else I durst not use it some of her Official Members are eminent for one gift others for another some for Tongues others for Interpretation of Scripture others for Prophecy or Preaching some for Positives others for Controversie others for a dexterous resolution of Cases of Conscience others again not all for you know Sir a double Cap may fit a Head which a Mitre will not for
I see to have any for themselves But to return thither from whence I have digressed Must not then your inquisitive Method needs appear to any discerning Reader very wild and irrational For if only some or other of the Clergy be ignorant or poor how comes it to pass that the only some or other of the Clergy instead of the Generality is not by you endited and enquired into as contemptible Or if upon the slender foundation of such Premises the Ignorance of some and the Poverty of others you must needs erect an Inquisition of Contempt why of all other Orders and Professions is the Clergy singled out for the subject matter hereof why not for instance Lawyers and Physitians Especially since you confess that in both those Professions there be not some or other but many a Contemptible Creature and it is true Let. 1. p. 80 81. and for ought you know I am one of those Contemptibles but if so how comes it to pass that they luck to escape your Inquest Is it because you are afraid of theirs if occasion should be as in case of Over-intimacy with your Hects in the one or Cozen Abigail in the other For he must be an Ignoramus himself that knows not that what you charge upon the Clergy reigns in both Faculties Nor can you be insensible that in Physick in particular a Plush Jacquet is of that authority to Dubb with a Doctorato as never was Black-Coat in the Spiritual-ship though you cannot be a greater stranger to the Mysteries of Grace than this Master Doctor is to those of Nature devoid of all the Magisterial Accomplishmenns of that Noble Profession especially if our man in Plush do but luck upon as good a Knack of unriddling the Neapolitan Mystery one of greater iniquity than that of Chesnuts as your Gentlemen of the Inns of Court those Nurseries of Law and Lawyers have of knowing the four Terms the Porter's Name and eating without a Trencher yet is your Contempt poured wholly upon the Clergy But Sir to proceed That notwithstanding your Particularities here of some or others Ignorant and Poor c. the very Body and Generality of the Clergy is to be understood as co-involved crimine in uno Besides what hath been already said it will appear to your Reader from the third and last Observable viz. That your Charge is co-extended to Times both Past and Present Whatever say you hath heretofore or doth at present lessen the valuableness or serviceableness of the Clergy may be referred to Ignorance and Poverty Now Sir the Extent of Time best proves the Extent of Persons charged and what this Extent of Time past and present is doth best appear from your own Comment which hath been sufficiently scann'd namely that it is not a Decade or two ten twenty or thirty years but a whole Century the age of our Reformation though not of our Religion which is as ancient as God himself viz. the hundred years last past Let. 1. p. 59. the usual Doctrine Preached yea and Printed during which time and consequently the Reformed Religion it self is by you charged with Folly Let. 1. p. 38. and such ridiculous and impertinent Matter as is apt to bring Contempt upon the Preacher and the Religion by him professed and therefore doom'd by you as a hinderance of Salvation Let. 1. p. 81. rather than a Means conducing to it From all which Sir it is abundantly manifest your Reader be Judge that the very first Reformers of the Church of England and their Successors to and at this day as touching the Generality of them are understood in and by the Clergy in your Letters of Enquiry which is charged how justly is to be tried with Ignorance and Poverty Which Charge being a kind of complex Theme but what doth like your Ministers Text untwist it self containing two Articles Ignorance and Poverty shall in my Answer thereunto be distinctly considered As touching the Ignorance of the Clergy I will briefly enquire into these Particulars viz. 1. What particular kind of Knowledge is requisite in the Clergy so as to free them from the just imputation of its opposite Ignorance 2. Whether the Clergy of the Church of England be justly chargeable with the want of that Knowledge And lastly 3. I will give a Formal Answer to your Charge and Allegations in the Particular for I have vouch'd it though it cost me more Pen Ink and Paper than both the other two As touching the first Knowledge Sir is a matter of very large extent indeed an Encyclopoedy comprehensive of Divine Angelical and Humane Diabolical we excommunicate and yours if such Humane again first Natural-Moral the Original Habits of first Principles and connate Notions that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or universal Seminary which Anaxagoras dream'd of but what every Son of Adam is more or less possess'd of Secondly Artificial and acquired both Mechanick as inferiour Arts Mysteries and Manufacture and Magistral Mental and Principal namely Natural-Moral parts and principles advanced polished and improved by all the Accessary and Artificial helps and advantages of Education Experience Discourse Converse with Men or Books c. but especially that of Literature or all concurring fam'd throughout the world in case of considerable proficiency in it under the notion of Learning the Lucriferous Profession of many the distinguishing Accomplishment of all that are ennobled herewith justly valuable amongst men partly by the excellency of its Obâ—ect partly by its necessity in point of use and humane exigency comprehensive of all the several Acquists of Knowledge Natural Moral Civil Divine c. both of Philosophy in all its parts the Liberal Arts and Sciences Logick Rhetorick Physicks Metaphysicks Mathematicks Astronomy Geometry Opticks c. Ethicks Politicks Oeconomicks c. and of the Learned Languages the Deferents and Vâ—hâ—cles of Knowledge both Western and Oriental Latine Greek Hebrew Syriack Arabick c. And of the noble Professions whereunto all these are subservient particularly Law Physick and Divinity Theology or Divinity again the only Profession concern d in your Enquiry Dogmatical Polemical Acroamatical or Concional Casuistical c. that the Man of God may be an accomplished Artist in Positives and Raiser of Doctrine Confounder of Heresies Interpreter of Scripture Resolver of Cases of Conscience c. to use your own Idiom as that which happily will like you best And what is an Appendant hereupon Skill in Jewish Learning Ecclesiastical History Chronology Heresiology Martyrology Practicals and the like And Thirdly and lastly Knowledge supernatural immediately infused by God whether extraordinary or ordinary common or special c. Now Sir I hope it is not required of the Clergy that they all or the generality of them by you arraigned be upon peril of imputation of Ignorance from you or Contempt from the Laity Masters of Solomons Encyclopoedy noted by a little acquaintance of yours Pineda or Justinian's Pandects or yet which hath a nearer relation to their Faculty