Obedience of Faith much less to his assertion That Christians walk by Faith and not by Sight seeing that without it we can do neither the one nor the other For I can neither submit to the truth of things to be believed nor live upon them or according unto them unless I understand the Propositions wherein they are expressed which is the work we assign to Reason For those who would resolve their Faith into Reason we confess that they overthrow not only Faith but Reason it self there being nothing more irrational than that belief should be the product of Reason being properly an assent resolved into Authority which if Divine is so also I shall then desire no more of our Author nor his Readers as to this Section but only this that they would believe that no Protestant is at all concerned in it and so I shall not further interpose as to any contentment they may find in its review or perusal CHAP. IX Jews Objections THe title of this Third Chapter is that No Religion or Sect or Way hath any advantage over another nor all of them over Popery To this we excepted before in general that that way which hath the truth with it hath in that wherein it hath the truth the advantage against all others Truth turns the scales in this business wherever and with whomsoever be found and if it lie in any way distant from Popery it gives all the advantage against it that need be desired And with this only enquiry With whom the Truth abides is this disquisition What wayes in Religion have advantage against others to be resolved But this course and procedure for some reasons which he knows and we may easily guess at our Author liked not and it it is now too late for us to walk in any path but what he has trodden before us though it seem rather a maze then a way for Travellers to walk in that would all pass on in their Journey His first Section is entituled Light and Spirit the pretence whereof he treats after his manner and cashiers from giving any such advantage as is inquired after But neither yet are we arrived to any concernment of Protestants That which they plead as their advantage is not the empty names of Light and Spirit but the truth of Christ revealed in the Scripture I know there are not a few who have impertinently used these good words and Scripture-expressions which yet ought no more to be scoffed at by others then abused by them But that any have made the plea here pretended as to their settlement in Religion I know not The truth is if they have it is no other upon the matter but what our Author cals them unto to a naked Credo he would reduce them and that differs only from what seems to be the mind of them that plead Light and Spirit that he would have them resolve their faith irrationally into the Authority of the Church they pretend to do it into the Scripture But what he aimes to bring men unto he justifies from the examples of Christians in antient times who had to deal with Jews and Pagans whose disputes were rational and weighty and pusled the wisest of the Clergy to answer So that after all their ratiocination ended whether it sufficed or no they still concluded with this one word Credo which in Logick and Philosophy was a weak answer but in Religion the best and only one to be made What could be spoken more untruely more contumeliously or more to the reproach of Christian Religion I cannot imagine It 's true indeed that as to the resolution satisfaction and settlement of their own souls Christians alwayes built their faith and resolved it into the Authority o◠God in his word but that they opposed their naked Credo to the disputes of Jews or Pagans or rested in that for a solution of their objections is heavenly-wide as far from truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I wonder any man who hath ever seen or almost heard of the Disputes and Discourses of Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Theophilus Antiochenus Athenagoras Tertullian Lactantius Chrysostom Austin Theodoret and innumerable others proving the faith of the Christian Religion against the Jews from Scripture and the reasonableness of it against the Pagans with the folly and foppery of theirs could on any account be induced to cast out such a reproach against them But it seems Jacta est alea and we must go on and therefore to carry on the design of bringing us all to a naked Credo resolv'd into the Authority of the present Church a thing never heard of spoken of nor that it appears dreamed of by any of the ancient Christians The objections of the Jews against the Christian Religion are brought on the stage and an enquiry made how they can be satisfactorily answered His words are Pag. 142. In any age of the christian-Christian-Church a Jew might say thus to the Christians then living Your Lord and Master was born a Jew and under the jurisdiction of the High Priests these he opposed and taught a Religion contrary to Moses otherwise how comes there to be a faction but how could he justly do it no humane Power is of force against God's who spak◠as you also grant by Moses and the Prophets and Divine Power it could not be for God is not contrary to himself And although your Lord might say as indeed he did that Moses spake of him as of a Prophet to come greater then himself yet Who shall judge that such a thing was meant of his person For suice that Prophet is neither specifyed by his name nor characteristical properties well said Jew who could say it was he more then any other to come And if there were a greater to come then Moses were surely born a Jew he would being come into the world rather exalt that Law to more ample glory then diminish it And if you will further contest that such a Prophet was to abrogate the first Law and bring in a new one Who shall judge in this case the whole Church of the Hebrews who never dreamed of any such thing or one member thereof who was born a subject to their judgments This saith he is the great Occumenical difficulty and he that in any age of Christianity could either answer it or find any bulwark to set against it so that it should do no harm would easily either salve or prevent all other difficulties c. The difficulty as is evident lay in this That the Authority and Judgment of the whole Church of the Hebrews lay against Christ and the Gospel That Church when Christ conversed on earth was a true Church of God the only Church on earth and had been so for 2000 years without interruption in its self without competition from any other It had its High Priest confessedly instituted by God himself in an orderly succession to those dayes The interpretation of Scripture it pretended was trusted with
purpose insisted on They acknowledge a pure and flourishing Church to have been once at Rome as they maintain there was at Hierusalem Antioch Ephesus Smyrna Laodicea Alexandria Babylon c. that in all these places such Churches do still continue they deny and particularly at Rome For that Church which then was they deny it to be the same that now is at least any more then Argo was the same ship as when first built after there was not one plank or pin of its first structure remaining That the Church of Rome in the latter sense was ever a pure flourishing Church never any Protestant acknowledged the most of them deny it ever to have been in that sense any Church at all and those that grant it to retain the Essential constituting Principals of a Church yet averr that as it is so it ever was since it had a being very far from a pure and flourishing Church For ought then that I can perceive we are not at all concerned in the following Queries the Supposition they are all built upon being partly sophistical and partly false But yet because he doth so earnestly request us to ponder them we shall not give him cause to complain of us in this particular at least as he doth in general of all Protestants That we deal uncivilly and therefore shall pass through them after which if he pleaseth he may deliver them to his friend of whom they were borrowed 1. Saith he This Church could not cease to be such but she must fall either by Apostacy Heresy or Schism But who told him so Might she not cease to be and so consequently to be such Might not the persons of whom it consisted have been destroyed by an earthquake as it happen'd to Laodicea or by the sword as it befel the Church of the Jews or twenty other wayes Besides might she not fall by Idolatry or false Worship or by Prophaneness or Licentiouss of Conversation contrary to the whole rule of Christ That then he may know what is to be removed by his Queries if he should speak any thing to the purpose he may do well to take notice that this is the dogme of Protestants concerning the Church of Rome that the Church planted there pure did by degrees in a long tract of time fall by Apostacy Idolatry Heresie Schism and Profaneness of life into that condition wherein now it is But sayes he 1. Not by Apostacy for that is not only a renouncing of the faith of Christ but the very name and title of Christianity and no man will say that the Church of Rome had ever such a Fall or fell thus I tell you truly Sir your Church is very much beholding unto men if they do not sometimes say very hard things of her Fall Had it been an ordinary slip or so it might have been passed over but this Falling into the mire and wallowing in it for so many Ages as she has done is in truth a very naughty business For my part I am resolved to deal as gently with her as possible and therefore say that there is a total Apostasie from Christianity which she fell not into or by and there is a partial Apostasie in Christianity from some of the Principles of it such as St. Paul charged on the Galatians and the old Fathers on very many that yet retained the name and title of Christians and this we say plainly that she fell by she fell by Apostasie from many of the most material Principles of the Gospel both as to Faith Life and Worship And there being no Reply made upon this instanâ—e were it not upon the account of pure civility we need not proceed any further with his Queries the business of them being come to an end But upon his entreaty we will follow him a little further Supposing that he hath dispatched the business of Apostasie he comes to Heresie and tells us That it is an adhesion to some private or singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general approved Doctrine of the Church That which ought to be subsumed is that the Church of Rome did never adhere to any singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general approved Doctrine of the Church but our Author to cover his business changes the terms in his proceeding into the Christian World to clear this to us a little I desire to know of him What Church he means when he speaks of the approved Doctrine of the Church I am sure he will say the Roman-Catholick Church and if I ask him What age it is of that Church which he intends he will also say That Age which is present when the Opinions mentioned are asserted contrary to the approved Doctrine We have then obtained his meaning viz. The Roman-Church did never at any time adhere to any Opinion but what the Roman Church at that time adhered unto or taught or approved no other Doctrine but what it taught and approved Now I verily believe this to be true and he must be somewhat besides uncivil that shall deny it But from hence to infer That the Roman-Church never fell from her first purity by Heresie that is a thing I cannot yet discern how it may be made good This conclusion ariseth out of that pitiful definition of Heresie he gives us coyned meerly to serve the Roman-Interest The rule of judging Heresie is made the approved Doctrine of the Church I would know of what Church of this or that particular Church or of the Catholick Doubtless the Catholick must be pretended I ask Of this or that Age or of the first Of the first certainly I desire then to know how we may come to discern infallibly what was the approved Doctrine of the Catholick-Church of Old but only by the Scriptures which we know it unanimously embraced as given unto it by Christ for its Rule of Faith and Worship If we should then grant that the approved Doctrine of the Church were that which a departure from as such gives formality unto Heresie yet there is no way to know that Doctrine but by the Scripture But yet neither can or ought this to be granted The formal reason of Heresie in the usual acceptation of the word ariseth from its deviation from the Scripture as such which is the Rule of the Churches Doctrine and of the Opinions that are contrary unto it Nor yet is every private or singular Opinion contrary to the Scripture or the Doctrine of the Church presently an Heresie That is not the sense of the word either in Scripture or Antiquity So that the foundation of the Queries about Heresie is not one jot better layed then that was about Apostasie which went before This is that which I have heard Protestants say namely That the Church of Rome doth adhere to very many Opinions and Errors in Faith contrary to the main Principles of Christian Religion delivered in the Scripture and so consequently the Doctrine approved by the Catholick Church
impenitent sinners what in the Covenant of his Grace to them that fly for refuge to the hope that is set before them even that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would give unto us the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him that the eyes of our understanding being enlightned we may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards them that believe according to the working of the might of his power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places that our hearts may be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the FULL ASSURANCE OF UNDERSTANDING to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge and by whom alone we may obtain any saving acquaintance with them who also is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true This is the Port-Haven of Protestants whatever real darkness may be about them or whatever mists may be cast on them by the sleights of men that lye in wait to deceive That they need know no more of God that they may love him fear him believe in him and come to the enjoyment of him than what he hath clearly and expresly in Christ revealed of himself by his Word Whether the storms of this Gentleman's indignation be able to drive them or the more pleasant gales of his Eloquence to entise them from this Harbour time will shew In the mean while that indeed they ought not so to do nor will do so with any but such as are resolved to steer their course by some secret distempers of their own a few strictures on the most material passages of this Chapter will discover It is scarce worth while to remark his mistake in the foundation of his discourse of the Obscurity of God as he is pleased to state the matter from that of the Prophet asserting that God is a God who hides himself or as he renders it an hidden God His own Prophet will tell him that it is not concerning the Essence of God but the Dispensation of his Love and Favour towards his People that those words were used by the Prophet of old and so are unwillingly pressed to serve in the design he hath in hand Neither are we more concerned in the ensuing Discourse of the Soul 's cleaving to God by Affection upon the Metaphysicall representation of His excellencies and perfections unto it it being purely Platonical and no way suited to the revelation made of God in the Gospel which acquaints us not with any such amiableness in God as to endear the souls of sinners unto him causing them to reach out the wings of their love after him but only as he is in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself a consideration that hath no place nor any can obtain in this flourish of words And the reason is because they are sinners and therefore without the Revelation of an Attonement can have no other apprehension of the infinitely Holy and Righteous God but as of a devouring Fire with whom no sinner can inhabite Nor yet in the aggravation of the obscurity of God from the restless endeavours of mankind in the disquisition of him who as he sayes shew their love in seeking him having at their birth an equal right to his favour which they could no wise demerit before they were born being directly contrary to the Doctrine of his own Church in the head of Original Sin That which first draws up towards the design he is in persuit of is his Determination That the issuing of mens perplexities in the investigation of this hidden God must be by some Prophet or Teacher sent from God unto men but the uncertainty of coming into any better condition thereby is so exaggerated by a contempt of those wayes and means that such Prophets have fixed on to evidence their coming forth from God by Miracles Visions Prophesies ashew of Sanctity with a concourse of Threats and Promises as that means also is cashiered from yielding us any relief Neither is there any thing intimated or offered to exempt the true Prophets of God nor the Lord Christ himself from being shuffled into the same bag with false pretenders in the close that were brought forth to play their game in this pageant Yea the difficulty put upon this help of the loss we are at in the knowledge of God by Prophets and Prophesies seems especially to respect those of the Scripture so to manifest the necessity of a further evidence to be given unto them then any they carry about them or bring with them that they may be useful to this end and purpose And this intention is manifest a little after where the Scripture is expresly reckoned among those things which all men boast of none can come to certainty or assurance by Thus are poor unstable souls ventured to the Borders of Atheism under a pretence of leading them to the Church Was this the method of Christ or his Apostles in drawing men to the Faith of the Gospel this the way of the holy men of old that laboured in the Conversion of Souls from Gentilism and Heresie Were ever such bold assaults against the immoveable Principles of Christianity made by any before Religion came to be a matter of carnal Interest Is there no way to exalt the Pope but by questioning the Authority of Christ and Truth of the Scripture Truly I am sorry that wise and considering men should observe such an irreverence of God and his Word to prevail in the spirits of men as to entertain thoughts of perswading them to desert their Religion by such presumptious Insinuations of the uncertainty of all Divine Revelation But all this may be made good on the consideration of the changes of men after their profession of this or that Religion namely That notwithstanding their former pretensions yet indeed they knew nothing at all seeing that from God and the Truth no man doth willingly depart which if it be universally true I dare say there is not one word true in the Scripture How often doth God complain in the Old-Testament that his people forsook Him for that which was not God and how many do the Apostles shew us in the New to have forsaken the Truth It is true that under the notion of God the cheifest Good and of Truth the proper object and rest of the understanding none can willingly and by choyce depart but that the mindes of men might be so corrupted and perverted by their own lusts and temptations of Satan as willingly and by choyce to forsake the one or the other to embrace that which in their stead presents it self unto them is no less
Truth our Reason supposes all that it hath to do is but to judge of what is proposed to it according to the best Principles that it hath which is all that God in that kind requires of us unless in that work wherein he intends to make us more then men that is Christians he would have us make our selves less then Men even as Brutes That in our whole obedience to God we are to use our Reason Protestants say indeed and moreover that what is not done reasonably is not Obedience The Scripture is the Rule of all our Obedience Grace the Principle enabling us to perform it but the manner of its performance must be Rational or it is not the supposition of Rule or Principle that will render any act of a man Obedience Religion say Protestants is revealed in the Scripture proposed to the minds and wills of men for its entertainment by the Ministry of the Church Grace to Believe and Obey is supernaturally from God but as to the Proposals of Religion from Scripture they averre that men ought to admit and receive them as men that is judge of the sense and meaning of them discover their truth and finding them revealed acquiesce in the Authority of him by whom they are first revealed So far as men in any things of their concernments that have a moral good or evil in them do refuse in the choice or refusal of them to exercise that judging and discerning which is the proper work of Reason they un-Man themselves and invert the order of Nature dethroning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Soul and causing it to follow the faculties that have no light but what they receive by and from it It 's true all our carnal reasonings against Scripture-Mysteries are to be captivated to the Obedience of Faith and this is highly reasonable making only the less particular defective collections of reason give place to the more noble general and universal principles of it Nor is the denying of our reason any where required as to the sense and meaning of the words of the Scripture but as to the things and matter signified by them The former Reason must judge of if we are men the latter if in conjunction with unbelief and carnal lusts it tumultuate against it is to be subdued to the Obedience of Faith All that Protestants in the business of Religion ascribe unto men is but this that in the business of Religion they are and ought to be men that is judge of the sense and truth of what is spoken to them according to that Rule which they have received for the measure and guide of their Understandings in these things If this may not be allowed you may make a Herd of them but a Church never Let us now consider what is offered in this Section about Reason wherein the concernment of any Protestants may lye As the matter is stated about any one's setting up himself to be a new and extraordinary Director unto men in Religion upon the account of the irrefutable Reason he brings along with him which is the spring and sourse of that Religion which he tenders unto them I very much question Whether any instance can be given of any such thing from the foundation of the World Men have so set up indeed sometimes as that Good Catholick Vanine did not long since in France to draw men from all Religions but to give a new Religion unto men that this pretension was ever solely made use of I much question As true Religion came by Inspiration from God so all Authors of that which is false have pretended to Revelation Such were the pretensions of Minos Lycurgus and Nunia of old of Mahomet of late and generally of the first Founders of Religious Orders in the Roman-Church all in imitation of real Divine Revelation and in answer to indelible impressions on the minds of all men that Religion must come from God To what purpose then the first part of his Discourse about the coyning of Religion from Reason or the framing of Religion by Reason is I know not unless it be to cast a Blind before his unwary Reader whilest he steals away from him his Treasure that is his Reason as to its use in its proper place Though therefore there be many things spoken unduly and because it must be said untruly also in this first part of his Discourse until toward the end of Pag. 131. which deserve to be animadverted on yet because they are such as no sort of Protestants hath any concernment in I shall pass them over That wherein he seems to reflect any thing upon our Principles is in a supposed reply to what he had before delivered whereunto indeed it hath no respect or relation being the assertion of a Principle utterly distant from that imaginary one which he had timely set up and stoutly cast down before It is this That we must take the words from Christ and his Gospel but the proper sense which the words of themselves cannot carry with them our own reason must make out If it be the Doctrine of Protestants which he intendeth in these words it 's most disadvantagiously and uncandidly represented which becomes not an ingenious and learned person This is that which Protestants affirm Religion is Revealed in the Scripture that Revelation is delivered and contained in Propositions of Truth Of the sense of those words that carry their sense with them Reason judgeth and must do so or we are Brutes and that every ones Reason so farr as his concernment lies in what is proposed to him Neither doth this at all exclude the Ministry or Authority of the Church both which are entrusted with it by Christ to propose the Rules contained in his Word unto Rational Creatures that they may understand believe love and obey them To cast out this use of Reason with pretence of an antient sense of the words which yet we know they have not about them is as vain as any thing in this Section and that is vain enough If any such antient sense can be made out or produced that is a meaning of any Text that was known to be so from their Explication who gave that Text it is by reason to acquiesced in Neither is this to be make a man a Bishop much less a chief Bishop to himself I never heard that it was the office of a Bishop to know believe or understand for any man but for himself It is his Office indeed to instruct and teach men but they are to learn and understand for themselves and so to use their Reason in their Learning Nor doth the variableness of mens thoughts and reasonings inferr any variableness in Religion to follow whose stability and sameness depends on its first Revelation not our manner of Reception Nor doth any thing asserted by Protestants about the use of Reason in the business of Religion interfere with the rule of the Apostle about captivating our Understandings to the
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
unlearn their antient Barbarism and to encline to the Manners Fashions and Religion of the people to whom they were come and with whom after their heats were over and lusts satisfied they began to incorporate and coalesce Together I say with their manners they took up by various wayes and means the Religion which they did profess And the Bishop of Rome having kept his outward Station in that famous City during all those turmoils becoming venerable unto them unto him were many Applications made and his Authority was first signally advanced by this new race of Christians The Religion they thus took up was not a little degenerated from its Primitive Apostolical purity and splendor And they were among the first who felt the effects of their former barbarous inhumanity in their sedulous indeavour to destroy all Books and Learning out of the World which brought that darkness upon mankind wherewith they wrestled for many succeeding generations For having themselves made an intercision of the current and progress of studies and learning they were forced to make use in their entertainment of Christianity of men meanly skilled in the knowledg of God or themselves who some of them knew little more of the Gospel then what they had learned in the outward observances and practises of the places where they had been educated Towards the beginning of this hurry of the world this shuffling of the Nations was the Province of Brittain not long before exhausted of it stores of Men and Arms and defeated by the Romans invaded by the Saxons Picts Angles and others out of Germany who accomplishing the will of God exstirpated the greatest part of the British Nation and drove the remainders of them to shelter themselves in the Western Mountainous parts of this Island These new Inhabitants after they were somewhat civilized by the Vicinity of the Provincials and had got a little breathing from their own intestine feuds by fixing the limits of their Leader's Dominions which they called Kingdoms began to be in some preparedness to receive impressions of Religion above that rude Paganism which they had before served Satan in These were they to whom came Austine from Rome a man as farr as appears by the story little acquainted with the mystery of the Gospel yet one whom it pleased God gratiously to use to bring the Scripture amongst them that inexhaustible Fountain of Light and Truth and by which those to whom he preached might be infallibly freed from any mixture of mistakes that he might offer to them That he brought with him a Doctrine of Observances not formerly known in Brittain â—s notorious from the famous Story of those many Professors of Christianity 〈◊〉 which he caused to be murdered by Pagans for not submitting to his power and refusing to practise according to his Traditions whose unwillingness to the â—â—ain if they could have otherwise chosen is that which I suppose our Author call's their disturbing good St. Austine in his pious work But you neither will this Conversion of the Saxons begun by Austine the Monk at all advantage our Author as to his pretensions The Religion he taught here as well as he could was doubtless no other than that which at those dayes was profest at Rome mixtures of humane Traditions worldly Policies Observances trenching upon the Superstitions of the Gentiles in many things it had then revived but however it was farr enough from the present Romanism if the Writers and chief Bishops of those dayes knew what was their Religion Papal Supremacy and Infallibility Transubstantiation religious veneration of Images in Churches with innumerable other prime fundamentals of Popery were as great strangers at Rome in the dayes of Grâ—gory the great as they are at this day to the Church of England After these times the world continuing still in troubles Religion began more and more to decline and fall off from its pristine purity At first by degrees insensible and almost imperceptible in the broaching of new opinions and inventing new practises in the worship of God At length by open presumptuous transgressions of its whole rule and genius in the usurpation of the Pope of Rome and impositions of his Authority on the neâ—ks of Emperours Kings Princes and people of all sorts By what means this work was carried on what advantages were taken for what instruments used in it what opposition by Kings and learned men was made unto it what testimony was given against it by the blood of thousands of Martyrs others have at large declared nor will my present design admit me to insist on particulars What contests debates tumults warrs were by papall pretensions raised in these nations what shameful intreating of some of the greatest of our Kings what absolutions of subjects from their Allegiance with such like effluxes of an abundant Apostolical piety this nation in particular was exercised with from Rome all our Historians sufficiently testify Tantaemolis erat Romanam condere gentem The truth is when once Romanism began to be enthroned and had driven Catholicism out of the world we had very few Kings that past their days in peace and quietnesse from contests with the Pope or such as acted for him or were stirred up by him The face in the mean time of Christianity was sad and deplorable The body of the people being grown dark and profane or else superstitious the generality of the Priests and Votaries ignorant and vitious in their conversations the oppressions of the Hildebrandine faction intolerable Religion dethroned from a free generous obedience according to the rule of the Gospell and thrust into cells orders self-invented devotions and forms of worship superstitious and unknown to Scripture and antiquity the whole world groaned under the Apostacy it was fallen into when it was almost too late the yoak was so fastned to their necks and prejudices so fixed in the minds of the multitude Kings began to repine Princes to remonstrate their grievances whole Nations to murmure some learned men to write and preach against the superstitions and oppressions of the Church of Rome Against all which complaints and attempts what means the Popes used for the safe-guarding their Authority and opinions subservient to their carnal worldly interests deposing some causing others to be murdered that were in supream power bandying Princes and Great men one against another exterminating others with fire and sword is also known unto all who take any care to know such things what ever our Author pretends to the contrary This was the state this the peace this the condition of most Nations in Europe and these in particular where we live when occasion was administred in the providence of God unto that Reformation which in the next place he gives us the story of Little cause had he to mind us of this story little to boast of the primitive Catholick faith little to pretend the Romish Religion to have been that which was first planted in these Nations His concernments lye not in
by their breaking off from Rome with Schisms and Seditions they made way for others on the same principles to break off seditiously from themselves So did Celsus charge the Jews and Christians telling the Jews that by their Seditious departure from the common Worship and Religion of the World they made way for the Christians a branch of themselves to 〈◊〉 them and their worship in like manner and to set up for themselves And following on his Objection he applies it to the Christians that they departing from the Jews had broached Principles for others to improve into a departure from them which is the sum of most that is pleaded with any fair pretence by our Author against Protestants Doth he insist upon the Divisions of the Protestants and to make it evident that he speaks knowingly boast that he is acquainted with their persons and hath read the books of all sorts amongst them So doth Celsus deal with the Christians reproaching them with their Divisions Discords mutual Animosities Disputes about God and his Worship boasting that he had debated the matter with them and read their Books of all sorts Hath he gathered a Rhapsody of insignificant words at least as by him put together out of the books of the Quakers to reproach Protestants with their Divisions So did Celsus out of the books and writings of the Gnosticks Elionites and Valentinians Doth he bring in Protestants pleading against the Sects that are fallen from them and these pleading against them justifying the Protestants against them but at length equally rejecting them all So dealt Celsus with the Jews Christians and those that had fallen into singular Opinions of their own Doth he mannage the Arguments of the Jews against Christ to intimate that we cannot well by Scripture prove him to be so The very same thing did Celsus almost in the very words here used Doth he declaim openly about the obscurity of Divine things the nature of God the works of Creation and Providence that we are not like to be delivered from it by books of Poems Stories plain Letters So doth Celsus Doth he insist on the uncertainty of our knowing the Scripture to be from God the difficulty of understanding it its insufficiency to end mens Differences about Religion and the worship of God The same doth Celsus at large pleading the cause of Paganism against Christianity Doth our Author plead that where and from whom men had their Religion of old there and with them they ought to abide or to return unto them The same doth Celsus and that with pretences far more specious then those of our Author Doth he plead the quietness of all things in the World the Peace the Plenty Love Union that were in the dayes before Protestants began to trouble all as he supposeth about Religion The same course steers Celsus in his contending against Christians in general Is there intimated by our Author a decay of Devotion and Reverence to Religious things Temples c Celsus is large on this particular the relinquishment of Temples discouragement of Priests in their dayly Sacrifices and heavenly Contemplations with other Votaries contempt of holy Altars Images and Statua's of Worthies deceased all Heaven-bred Ceremonies and comely Worship by the means of Christians he expatiates upon Doth he profess love and compassion to his Countreymen to draw them off from their folly to have been the cause of his writing So doth Celsus Doth he deride and scoff at the first Reformers with no less witty and biting Sarcasms than those wherewith Aristophanes jeered Socrates on the Stage Celsus deals no otherwise with the first Propagators of Christianity Hath he taken pains to palliate and put new glosses and interpretations upon those Opinions and Practises in his Religion which seem most obnoxious to exception The same work did Celsus undertake in reference to his Pagan Theology and Worship And in sundry other things may the parallel be traced so that I may truly say I cannot observe any thing of moment or importance of the nature of a general Head or Principle in this whole Discourse made use of against Protestants but that the same was used as by others of old so in particular by Celsus against the whole Profession of Christianity I will not be so injurious to our Author as once to surmise that he took either aim or assistance in his work from so bitter a professed Enemy of Christ Jesus and the Religion by him revealed yet he must give me leave to reckon this coincidence of argumentation between them amongst other instances that may be given where a similitude of Cause hath produced a great likeness if not identity in the reasonings of ingenious men I could not satisfie my self without remarking this parallel and perhaps much more needs not to be added to satisfie an unprejudiced Reader in or to our whole business For if he be one that is unwilling to fore-go his Christianity when he shall see that the Arguments that are used to draw him from his Protestancy are the very same in general that wise men of old made use of to subvert that which he is resolved to cleave unto he needs not much deliberation with himself what to do or say in this case or be solicitous what he shall answer when he is earnestly entreated to suffer himself to be deceived Of the Pretencesâ— before-mentioned some with their genuine inferences are the main Principles of this whole Discourse And seeing they bear the weight of all the pleas reasonings and perswasions that are drawn from them which can have no further real strength and efficacy then what is from them communicated unto them I shall present them in one view to the Reader that he loose not himself in the maze of words wherewith our Author endeavours to lead him up and down still out of his way and that he may make a clear and distinct judgement of what is tendered to prevail upon him to desert that Profession of Religion wherein he is ingaged For as I dare not attempt to deceive any man though in matters incomparably of less moment then that treated about so I hope no man can justly be offended if in this I warn him to take heed to himself that he be not deceived And they are these that follow I. That we in these Nations first received the Christian Religion from Rome by the Mission and Authority of the Pope II. That whence and from whom we first received our Religion there and wiâ—h them we ought to abide to them we must repair for guidance in all our concernments in it and speedily return to their Rule and Conduct if we have departed from them III. That the Roman Profession of Religion and Practise in the Worship of God is every way the same as it was when we first received our Religion from thence nor can ever otherwise be IV. That all things as to Religion were quiet and in peace all men in union and at agreement amongst themselves
will follow Was it the Popes Religion they taught and preached Did the Pope first find it out and declare it Did they baptize men into the name of the Pope or Declare that the Pope was crucified for them You know whose arguings these are to prove men should not lay weight upon or contend about the first ministerial Revealers of the Gospel but rest all in Him who is the Author of it Christ Jesus Did any come here and preach in the Popes name declare a Religion of his Revealing or resting in him as the fountain and sourse of the whole business they had to do If you say so you say something which is near to your purpose but certainly very wide from the Truth But because it is most certain that God had not promised originally to send the rod of Christs strength out of Rome I shall take leave to ask Whence the Gospel came thither or to use the words made use of once and again by our Author Came the Gospell from them or came it to them only I suppose they will not say so because they speak to men that have seen the Bible If it came to them from others what Priviledge had they at Rome that they should not have the same respect for them from whom the Gospel came to them as they claim from those unto whom they plead that it came from themselves The case is clear St. Peter coming to Rome brought his Chair along with him after which time that was made the head spring and fountain of all Religion and no such thing could befall those places where the Planters of the Gospel had no Chaires to settle I think I have read this Story in an hundred writers but they were all men of yesterday in comparison who what ever they pretend know no more of this business than my self St. Peter speaks not one word of it in his writings nor yet St. Luke nor St. Paul nor any one who by Divine inspiration committed any thing to remembrance of the state of the Church after the Resurrection of Christ. And not only are they utterly silent of this matter but so also are Clemens and Ignatius and Justin Martyr and Tertullian with the rest of knowing men in those dayes I confess in after-ages when some began to think it meet that the chiefest Apostle should go to the then chiefest City in the world divers began to speak of his going thither and of his Martyrdom there though they agree not in their Tales about it But be it so as for my part I will not contend in a matter so dark uncertain of no moment in Religion this I know that being the Apostle of the Circumcision if he did go to Rome it was to convert the Jews that were there and not to found that Gentile-Church which in a short space got the start of the other But yet neither do these Writers talk of bringing his Chair thither much less is there in them one dust of that rope of Sand which men of latter dayes have endeavoured to twist with inconsistent consequences and groundless presumptions to draw out from thence the Popes Prerogative The case then is absolutely the same as to those in respect of the Romans who received the Gospel from them or by their means and of the Romans themselves in respect of those from whom they received it If they would win worship to themselves from others by pretending that the Gospel came forth from them unto them let them teach them by the example of their devotion towards those from whom they received it I suppose they will not plead that they are not now in rerum naturâ knowing what will ensue to their disadvantage on that plea. For if that Church is utterly failed and gone from whence they first received the Gospel that which others received it from may possibly be not in a much better condition But I find my self before I was aware faln into the borders of the second Principle or Presumption mentioned I shall therefore shut up my consideration of this first Pretence with this only that neither is it true that these Nations first received Christianity from Rome much less by any mission of the Pope nor if they had done so in the Exercise of a Ministerial work and authority would this make any thing to what is pretended from it Nor will it ever be of any use to the present Romanists unless they can prove that the Pope was the first Author of Christian Religion which as yet they have not attempted to do and thence it is evident what is to be thought of the second Principle before-mentioned Namely II. That whence and from whom we first receive our Religion there and with them we must abide therein to them we must repair for Guidance and return to their Rule and Conduct if we have departed from them I have shewed already that there is no privity of Interests between us and the Romanists in this matter But suppose we had been originally instructed in Christianity by men sent from Rome to that purpose for unless we suppose this for the pâ—â—sent our talk is at an end I see not as yet the verity of this Proposition With the Truth where-ever it be or with whomsoever it is most certainly our duty to abide And if those from whom we first received our Christianity ministerially abide in the Truth we must abide with them not because they or their Predecessors were the Instruments of our Conversion but because they abide in the Truth Setting aside this Consideration of Truth which is the Bond of all Union and that which fixeth the Center and limits the bounds of it one Peoples or one Churches abiding with another in any Profession of Religion is a thing meerly indifferent When we have received the Truth from any the formal reason of our continuance with them in that union which our reception of the Truth from them gives unto us is their abiding in the Truth and no other Suppose some Persons or some Church or Churches do propagate Christianity to another and in progress of time themselves fall off from some of those Truths which they or their Predecessors had formerly delivered unto these instructed by them If our Author shall deny that such a Supposition can well be made because it never did nor can fall out I shall remove his Exception by scores of Instances out of Antiquity needless in so evident a matter to be here mentioned What in this case would be their duty who received the Gospel from them Must they abide with them follow after them and imbrace the errors they are fallen into because they first received the Gospel from them I trow not It will be found their duty to abide in the Truth and not to pin their Faith upon the sleeves of them by whom ministerially it was at first communicated unto them But this case you will say concerns not the Roman-Church and Protestants for as these
or future happiness So that neither are the Divisions that are among Protestants in themselves of any importance nor were they occasioned by their departure from Rome That all men are not made perfectly wise nor do know all things perfectly is partly a consequent of their condition in this World partly a fruit of their own lusts and corruptions neither to be imputed to the Religion which they profess nor to the Rule that they pretend to follow Had all those who could not continue in the Profession of the Errors and Practise of the Worship of the Church of Rome and were therefore driven out by violence and bloud from amongst them been as happy in attending to the Rule that they chose for their guidance and direction as they were wise in choosing it they had had no other differences among them than what necessarily follow their concreated different constitutions complexions and capacities It is not the work of Religion in this world wholly to dispel mens darkness nor absolutely to eradicate their distempers somewhat must be left for Heaven and that more is than ought to be is the fault of Men and not of the Truth they profess That Religion which reveals a sufficient Rule to guide men into Peace Union and all necessary Truth is not to be blamed if men in all things follow not it's direction Nor are the differences amongst the Protestants greater than those amongst the Members of the Roman-Church The imputation of the Errors and miscarriages of the Socinians and Quakers unto Protestancy is of no other nature then that of Pagans of old charging the follies and abominations of the Gnosticks and Valentinians on Christianity For those that are truly called Protestants whose concurrence in the same Confession of Faith as to all material points is sufficient to cast them under one denomination What evils I wonder are to be found amongst them as to Divisions that are not conspicuous to all in the Papacy The Princes and Nations of their Profession are or have all been engaged in mortal fewds and wars one against another all the World over Their Divines write as stiffly one against another as men can do mutual accusations of pernitious Doctrines and Practises abound amongst them I am not able to guess what place will hold the Books written about their intestine differences as our Author doth concerning those that are written by Protestants against the Papacy but this I know all publick Libraries and private Studies of learned men abound with them Their Invectives Apologies Accusations Charges underminings of one another are part of the weekly news of these dayes Our Author knows well enough what I mean Nor are these the ways and practises of private men but of whole Societies and Fraternities which if they are in truth such as they are by each other represented to be it would be the Interest of mankind to seek the suppression and extermination of some of them I profess I wonder whilst their own house is so visibly on fire that they can find leisure to scold at others for not quenching theirs Nor is the remaining agreement that they boast of one jot better than either their own dissentions or ours It is not union or agreement amongst men absolutely that is to be valued Simeon and Levi never did worse then when they agreed best and were Brethren in evil The grounds and reasons of mens agreement with the nature of the things wherein they are agreed are that which make it either commendable or desirable Should I lay forth what these are in the Papacy our Author I fear would count me unmannerly and uncivil But yet because the matter doth so require I must needs tell him that many wise men do affirm that Ignorance inveterate prejudice secular advantages and external force are the chief constitutive Principles of that union and agreement which remains amongst them But whatever their evils be it is pretended that they have a remedy at hand for them all But VII That we have no Remedy of our Evils no means of ending our Differences but by a Returnal to the Roman See Whether there be any way to end differences among our selves as farr and as soon as there is any need they should be ended will be afterwards enquired into This I know that a Returnal unto Râ—me will not do it unless when we come thither we can learn to behave our selves better then those do who are there already and there is indeed no party of men in the world but can give us as good security of ending our differences as the Romanists If we would all turn Quakers it would end our Disputes and that is all that is provided us if we will turn Papists This is the language of every Party and for my part I think they believe what they say Come over to us and we shall all agree Only the Romanists are likely to obtain least credit as to this matter among wise men because they cannot agree among themselves and are as unfit to umpire the differences of other men as Philip of Macedon was to quiet Greece whilst he his wife and children were together by the ears at home But why have not Protestants a remedy for their evils a means of ending and making up their differences They have the Word that 's left them for that purpose which the Apostles commended unto them and which the Primitive Church made use of and no other That this will not serve to prevent or remove any hurtful differences from amongst us it is not its fault but ours And could we prevail with Roman-Catholicks to blame and reprove us and not to blame the Religion we profess we should count our selves beholding to them and they would have the less to answer for another day But as things are stated it is fallen out very unhappily for them that finding they cannot hurt us but that their Weapons must pass through the Scriptures That is it which they are forced to direct their blowes against The Scripture is Dark Obscure Insufficient cannot be known to be the word of God nor understood is the main of their Plea when they intend to deal with Protestants I am perswaded that they are troubled when they are put upon this Work It cannot be acceptable to the minds of men to be engag'd in such undervaluations of the word of God Sure they can have no other mind in this Work than a man would have in pulling down hiâ— House to find out his Enemy He that shall read what the Scripture testifies of it self that is what God doth of it what the Antients speak concerning it and shall himself have any acquaintance with the nature and excellency of it must needs shrink extreamly when he comes to see the Romanists discourse about it indeed against it For my part I can truly profess That no one thing doth so alienate my mind from the present Roman Religion as this treatment of the word of God I cannot
that which you intend that we should agree amongst our selves and wait for your coming with power to destroy us all It were well indeed if we could agree it is our fault and misery if we do not having so absolutely a perfect Rule and means of agreement as we have But yet whether we agree or agree not if there be another Party distinct from us all pretending a right to exterminate us from the earth it behooves us to look after their proceedings And this is the true state of all our Author's Pleas for Moderation which are built upon such Principles as tend to the giving us up unarmed and naked to the power and will of his Masters For the rest of this Section wherein he is pleased to sport himself in the miscarriages of men in their coyning and propagating of their Opinions and to gild over the care and success of the Church of Rome in stifling such births of pride and darkness I shall not insist upon it For as the first as generally tossed up and down concerns none in particular though accompanyed with the repetition of such words as ought not to be scosfed at so the latter is nothing but what violence and ignorance may any where and in any age produce There are Societies of Christians not a few in the East wherein meer darkness and ignorance of the Truth hath kept men at peace in Errors without the least disturbance by contrary opinions amongst themselves for above a 1000 years and yet they have wanted the help of outward force to secure their Tranquillity And is it any wonder that where both these powerful Engins are set at work for the same end if in some measure it be compassed and effected And if there be such a thing among the Romanists which I have reason to be difficult in admitting the belief of as that they can stisle all Opinions as fast as they are conceived or destroy them assoon as they are brought forth I know it must be some device or artifice unknown to the Apostles and Primitive Churches who notwithstanding all their Authority and care for the Truth could not with many compass that end Sect. 5. Pag. 54. The last Section of this Chapter contains motives to moderation three in number And I suppose that no man doubts but that many more might be added every one in weight out-doing all these three The first is that alone which Protestants are concerned to look unto not that Protestants oppose any motive unto moderation but knowing that in this Discourse Moderation is only the pretence Popery if I may use the word without incivility the Design and aim it concerns them to examine which of these pretended motives that any way regards their real principle doth tend unto Now this Motive is the great ignorance our state and condition is involved in concerning God his Works and Providence a great motive to Moderation I wish all men would well consider it For I must acknowledge that I cannot but suppose them ignorant of the state and condition of mortality and so consequently their own who are ready to destroy and exterminate their neighbors of the same flesh and bloud with them and agreeing in the main Principles of Religion that may certainly be known for lesser differences and that by such rules as within a few years may possibly reach their nearest Relations Our Author also layes so much weight on this Motive that he fears an anticipation by men saying That the Scripture reveals enough unto us which therefore he thinks necessary to remove For my part I scarse think he apprehended any real danger that this would be insisted on as an Objection against his motive to moderation For to prevent his tending on towards that which is indeed his proper end this obstacle is not unseasonably layed that under a pretence of the ignorance unavoidably attending our state and condition he might not prevail upon us to increase and aggravate it by entising us to give up our selves by an implicite faith to the conduct of the Roman-Church A man may easily perceive the end he intends by the Objections which he fore-sees No man is so madd I think as to plead the sufficiency of Scripture-Revelation against Moderation when in the Revelation of the Will of God contained in the Scripture Moderation is so much commended unto us and pressed upon us But against the pretended necessity of resigning our selves to the Romanists for a relief against the unavoidable ignorance of our state and condition besides that we know full well such a resignation would yield us no relief at all this plea of the sufficiency of Scripture-Revelation is full and unanswerable This put our Author on a work which I have formerly once or twice advised him to meddle no more being well assured that it is neither for his reputation nor his advantage much less for his souls health The pretences which he makes use of are the same that we have heard of many and many a time The abuse of it by some and the want of an Infallible Interpreter of it as to us all But the old tale is here anew gilded with an intermixture of other pretty stories and application of all to the present humours of men not forgetting to set forth the brave estate of our fore-fathers that had not the use of the Scripture which what it was we know well enough and better then the prejudices of this Gentleman will give him leave to tell us But if the lawful and necessary use of any thing may be decryed because of its abuse we ought not only to labour the abolishing of all Christian Religion in general and every principle of it in particular out of the world but the blotting out of the Sun and Moon and Stars out of the Firmament of Heaven and the destruction of the greatest and most noble parts at least of the whole Creation But as the Apostles continued in the work of Preaching the Gospel though by some the grace they taught was turned into lasciviousness so shall we abide to plead for the use of the Scripture whatever abuse of them by the wicked lusts of men can be instanced in Nor is there any reason in the world why food should be kept from all men though some have surfeited or may yet so do To have a compendious Narration of the Story and Morality of the Scripture in the room of the whole which our Author allows of is so jejune narrow and empty a Conception so unanswerable to all those divine Testimonies given to the excellency of the Word of God with Precepts to abide in the meditation and study of it to grow in the knowledge of it and the mysteries contained in it the commendations of them that did so in the Scripture it self so blasphemously derogatory to the Goodness Love and Wisdom of God in granting us that inestimable benefit so contrary to the redoubled Exhortations of all the Antient Fathers that I wonder
by his example he commends unto them But it will be said He only shews the uncertainties that are about Scripture that men may not expect by or from them deliverance from the darkness and ignorance before spoken of Suppose then they come to be perswaded of such an uncertainty What course shall they take Apply themselves to the Roman-Church and they are safe But seeing the being of a Church much less the Roman-Church hath no foundation in the light of Nature and men can never know any thing of it especially of its Prerogative but by and from the Scripture whose Authority you have taught them to question and made doubtful to them What remains for rational men but to renounce both Scripture and Church and betake themselves to your commendable piece of witty Atheism This is the old lurry The Scripture cannot be known believed understood but by the Church the Church cannot be proved to have Being Constitution or Authority but by the Scripture and then if you doubt of the Authority of that proof of the Church you must return to the Church again and so on until all Faith and Reason vanish or men make shipwrack of their Faith and become brutish in their Understanding pretending to believe they know neither what nor why And this imployment of raising surmises and stirring up jealousies about the Word of God it's Pen-men and their Authority do men put themselves upon I will not say to gratifie the Roman-Court but I will say in obedience to their prejudices lusts and darkness and saddest drudgery that any of the sons of men can be exercised withal And if he would be believed he professeth himself an Anti-Scripturist and in that profession which he puts upon himself an Atheist For my part I am amazed to think how men are able to hold their Pens in their hands that an horrour of the work they have before them doth not make them shake them out when they are thus traducing the holy Word of Christ and exciting evil surmises about it Should they deal with a man of any Power and Authority they might not expect to escape his indignation even to publish to all the World that he is indeed an honourable person but yet if men will question his Honour Truth Honesty Authority and affirm him to be a Cheat Thief Murderer Adulterer they cannot see how they can be disproved at least he would have a difficult task in hand that should endeavour to free him from objections of that nature Yet thus men dare to deal with the Scripture that Word which God hath magnified above all his Name If this be the Spirit that breathed in the Apostles the holy Army of Martyrs of old and all the Fathers of the Primitive Church I am much mistaken nay I am greatly so if with one consent they would not denounce an Anathema against such a defence of any Religion whatever But you will say The same person defends also the Scripture just as he in the Poet did Pelilius Me Capitolinus convictore usus amicoque A puero est causaque mea permulta rogatus Fecit incolumnis laetor quod vivit in urbe Sed tamem admiror quo pacto Judicium illud Fugerit A defence worse and more bitter then a down-right accusation I am not now to observe what prejudice this excuse brings to the cause of our Author with all intelligent persons having noted it once and again before nor what contentment Protestants take to see that the Truth they profess cannot be shaken without inducing men to question the Fundamental Principles of Christian Religion and if this course be persisted in for ought that I can understand the whole Controversie between us and the Romanists must needs be at last reduced unto this head Whether the Scripture of the Old and New-Testament was given by Divine Inspiration For the present having in the consideration of the general suppositions of this Treatise spoken before to this head I shall not need to answer particular Exceptions given in against its Authority nor do I think it incumbent on me so to do unless our Author own them for his sense which if he be pleased to do I promise him if God give me life to give him a distinct answer to every one of them and all that is contained in them Moreover these things will again occurre in his 15. Section where he expresly takes the Scripture to task as to its pleas for judging of and setling Men in the Truth Proceed we to his next Section p. 126. CHAP. VIII Use of Reason Sect. 11. THis Section is set apart for the cashiering of Reason from having any hand in the business we deal about and the truth is if our Author can perswade us first to throw away our Bibles and then to lay aside the use of our Reason I suppose there is no doubt but we shall become Roman-Catholicks This work it seems cannot be effected unless men are contented to part with Scripture and Reason all that whereby they are Christians and Men. But unless our Author have emptyed Circe's Box of Oyntment whereby she transformed Men into Swine he will confess it somewhat a difficult task that he hath undertaken Methinks one of these demands might suffice at once But he presumes he hath put his Countrey-men into a good humor and knowing them free and open-hearted he plyes them whilest they are warm We have indeed in this Section as fair a flourish of words as in any other but there can be but little reason in the words that men make use of to plead against Reason it self And yet I am perswaded most Readers think as well of this 〈◊〉 as any in the Book To whom the unâ—easonableness of this is evident that of the others is so also and those who willingly imbibe the other parts of his Discourse will little strain at this Nothing is to be trusted unto Prejudice Nor if we will learn are we to think strange of any thing Let us weigh then impartially what is of Reason in this Discourse against the use of Reason What ever he pretends he knows full well that he hath no difference with any sort of Protestants about finding out a Religion by Reason and adhereing only to its dictates in the Worship of God All the World of Protestants profess that they receive their Religion wholly by Revelation from God and no otherwise Nor is it about ascribing a Soveraignty to Reason to judge of the particulars of Religion so Revealed to accept or refuse them according as that shall judge them suitable or not to its principles and liking This is the Soveraign dictate of Reason That whatever God reveals to be believed is true and as such must be embraced though the bottom of it cannot be sounded by Reason's line and that because 〈◊〉 reason of a man is not absolutely reason but being the reason of a man is variously limitted bounded and made defective in its ratiocinations An objective
used in the late times to say of the Excommunication in Scotland He would not care for their Devil were it not for his horn and I suppose had not Papal Excommunication been alwayes attended with Warrs Bloud Seditions Conspiracies Depositions and Murders of Kings Fire and Faggot according to to the extent of their Power it would have been lesse effectual then our Author pretends it to have been Sir do but give Christians the liberty that Christ hath purchased for them lay down your carnal weapons your Whips Racks Prisons Halters Swords Faggots with your Unchristian Subtilties Slanders and fleshly Machinations and we and you shall quickly see what will become of your Papall Peace and Power These are the goodly Principles the honest Suppositions of the discourse which our Author ends his Third Book withal It could not but have been a tedious thing to take them up by pieces as they lie scattered up and down like the limbs of Medea's Brother cast in the way to retard her persuers The Reader may now take a view of them together and thence of all that is offer'd to perswade him to a relinquishment of his present profession and Religion For the Stories Comparisons Jests Sarcasms that are intermixed with them I suppose he will know how to turn them to another use Some very few particulars need only to be remarked As 1. No man can say what ill Popery did in the world untill Henry the Eighths dayes Strange when it is not only openly accused but proved guilty of almost all the evill that was in the Christian world in those dayes particularly of corrupting the Doctrine and Worship of the Gospel and debauching the lives of Christians 2. With the Roman Catholicks unity ever dwelt Never The very name of Roman Catholick appropriating Catholicism to Romanism is destructive of all Gospel-unity 3. Some Protestants say they love the Persons of the Romanists but hate their Religion the Reason is plain they know the one and not the other No they know them both And the pretence that people are kept with as from knowing what the Religion of the Romanists is is vain untrue and as to what colour can possibly be given unto it such an infant in comparison of that vast Giant which of the same kind lives in the Romish Territories that it deserves not to be mentioned 4. Protestants are beholding to the Catholicks that is Romanists for their Universities Benâ—fices Books Pulpits Gospel For some of them not all For the rest as the Israelites were to the Aegyptians for the Tabernacle they built in the Wilderness 5. The Pope was antiently believed sole Judge and general Pastor over all Prove it ask the antient Fathers and Councils whether they ever heard of any such thing they will universally return their answer in the Negative 6. The Scripture you received from the Pope Not at all as hath been proved but from Christ himself by the Ministry of the first planters of Christianity 7. You cannot believe the Scriptures to be the word of God but upon the Authority of the Church We can and do upon the authority of God himself and the influence of the Churches Ministry or Authority into our believing concerns not the Church of Rome 8. You account them that brought you the Scriptures as lyars No otherwise then as the Scripture affirms every man to be so not in their Ministry wherein they brought the Word unto us 9. The Gospel separate from the Church can prove nothing Yes it 's self to be sent of God and so doing is the foundation of the Church Sundry other passages of the like nature might be remarked if I could imagine any man would judge them worthy of consideration CHAP. XII Story of Religion THe fourth and last part of our Author Discourse is spent in two Stories one of Religion the other of himself His first of Religion is but a summary of what was diffused through the others parts of his Treatise being insinuated piece-meal as he thought he could make any advantage of it to his purpose Two things he aims to make his Readers believe by it First That we in these Nations had our Religion from Rome And secondly That it was the same which is there now professed Those whom he tels his Tale unto are as he professeth such as are ignorant of the coming into and progress of Religion amongst us wherein he deals wisely and as became him seeing he might easily assure himself that those who are acquainted before his Information with the true state of these things would give little credit to what he nakedly averrs upon his own Authority For my part I shall readily acknowledg that for ought appears in this Book he is a better Historian then a Disputant and hath more reason to trust to his faculty of telling a Tale than managing of an Argument I confess also that a slight and superficial view of Antiquity especially as flourished over by some Roman-Legendaries is the best advantage our Adversaries have to work on as a thorough Judicious search of it is fatal to their pretensions He that from the Scriptures and the Writings extant of the first Centuries shall frame a true Idea of the State and Doctrine of the first Churches and then observe the adventitious accessions made to Religion in the following ages partly by mens own inventions but chiefly by their borrowing from or imitation of the Jews and Pagans will need very little light or help from artificial Arguments to discover the defections of the Roman-Party and the true means whereby that Church arrived unto its present condition To persue this at large is not a work to be undertaken in this seambling chase It hath been done by others and those who are not unwilling to be at the cost and pains in the disquisition of the Truth which it is really worth may easily know where to find it Our present task is but to observe our Author's motions and to consider whether what he offers hath any efficacy towards that he aims at A triple Conversion he assigns to this Nation The first by Joseph of Arimathea about which as to matter of fact we have no contest with him That the Gospel was preached here in the Apostles daies either by him or some other Evangelist is certain and taken for granted on all hands nor can our Author pretend that it came hither from Rome but grants it to have come immediately from Palestine Whether this doth not overthrow the main of his plea in his whole Discourse concerning our dependance upon Rome for our Religion I leave to prudent men to judge Thus farr then we are equal As the Gospel came to Rome so it came to England to both from the same place and by the same Authority the same Ministry All the question is Whether Religion they brought with them that now professed in England or that of Rome If this be determined the business is at an issue We are perswaded Joseph
those things but only in that Tyrannical usurpation of the Popes and irregular devotions of some Votarys which latter ages produced CHAP. XIII Reformation THe story of the Reformation of Religion he distributes into three parts and allots to each a particular Paragraph the first is of its occasion and rise in general the second of its entrance into England the third of its progresse amongst us Of the first he gives us this account The pastor of Christianity upon some sollicitation of Christian Princes for a general compliance to their design sent forth in the year 1517. a plenary Indulgence in favour of the Cruciata against the Turk Albertus the Archbishop of Ments being delegated by the Pope to see it executed committed the promulgation of it to the Dominican Fryers which the Hermits of St. Augustine in the same place toâ—k ill especially Martin Luther c. Who vexed that he was neglected and undervalued fell a-writing and preaching first against Indulgencies then against the Pope c. He that had no other acquaintance with Christian Religion but what the Scriptures and antient Fathers will afford him could not buâ— be amazed at the canting Language of this Story it being impossible for him to understand any thing of it aright He would admire who this Pastor of Christianity should be what this plenary Indulgence should mean what was the preaching of plenary indulgence by Dominicans and what all this would avail against the Turk I cannot but pitty such a poor man to think what a loss he would be at like one taken from home and carried blindfold into the midst of a Wildernesse where when he opens his eies every thing scares him nothing gives him guidance or direction Let him turn again to his Bible and Fathers of the first â—or 500 years and I will undertake he shall come off from them as wise as to the true understanding of this story 〈◊〉 he went unto them The Scene in Religion is plainly changed and this appearance of an Universal Pastor Plenary indulgeâ—â—es Dominicans and Cruciata's all marching against the Turk must needs affright a man accustomed only to the Scripture-notions of Religion and those embraced by the Primitive Church And I do know that if such a man could get together two or three of the wisest Romanists in the world which were the likeliest way for him to be resolved in the signification of these hard names they would never well agree to tell him what this plenary Indulgence is But for the present as to our concernment let us take these things according to the best understanding which their framers and founders have been pleased to give us of them the Story intended to be â—old was indeed neither so nor so There was no such solicitation of the Pope by Christian Princes at that time as is pretended no Cruciata against the Turk undertaken no attempt of that nature ensued not a penny of indulgence-Money laid out to any such purpose But the short of the matter is that the Church of Mentz being not able to pay for the Archiepiscopal Pall of Albertus from Rome having been much exhausted by the purchase of one or two for other Bishops that died suddenly before the Pope grants to Albert a number of pardons of to say the truth I know not what to be sold in Germany agreeing with him that one half of the gain he would have in his own right and the other for the pall Now the Pope's Merchants that used to sell pardons for him in former dayes were the Preaching friers who upon Holy-dayes and Festivals were wont to let out their ware to the people and in plain terms to cheat them of their money and well had it been if that had been all What share in the dividend came to the venders well I know not probably they had a proportion according to the commodity that they put off which stirred up their zeal to be earnest and diligent in their work Among the rest one Fryer Tecel was so warm in his imployment and so intent upon the main end that they had all in their eye that Preaching in or about Wittenberg it sufficed him not in general to make an offer of the pardon of all sins that any had committed but to take all scruples from their Consciences coming to particular instances carryed them up to a cursed blasphemous supposition of ravishing the blessed Virgin so cocâ—sure he made of the forgiveness of any thing beneath it Provided the price were paid that was set upon the pardon Sober men being much amazed and grieved at these horrible impieties one Martin Luther a Professor of Divinity at Wittenberg an honest warm zealous Soul set himself to oppose the Fryers Blasphemies wherein his zeal was commended by all his discretion by few it being the joynt-opinion of most that the Pope would quickly have stopped his mouth by breaking his neck But God as it afterwards appeared had another work to bring about and the time of entring upon it was now fully come At the same time that Luther set himself to oppose the pardons in Germany Zwinglius did the same Switzerland And both of them taking occasion from the work they first engaged in to search the Scriptures so to find out the Truth of Religion which they discovered to be horribly abused by the Pope and his Agents proceeded farther in their discovery then at first they were aware of Many Nations Princes and people multitudes of learned and pious men up and down the world that had long groaned under the bondage of the Papal yoke and grieved for the horrible abuse of the worship of God which they were forced to see and endure hearing that God had stirred up some learned men seriously to oppose those corruptions in Religion which they saw and mourned under speedily either countenanced them or joyned themselves with them It fell out indeed as it was morally impossible it should be otherwise that multitudes of learned men undertaking without advising or consulting one with another in several farr distant Nations the discovery of the Papal Errors and the Reformation of Religion some of them had different apprehensions and perswasions in and about some points of doctrine and parts of Worship of no great weight and importance And he that shall seriously consider what was the state of things when they began their work who they were how educated what prejudices they had to wrestle with and remember withall that they were all Men will have ten thousand times more cause to admire at their agreeement in all fundamentals then at their difference about some lesser things However whatever were their personal failings and infirmities God was pleased to give testimony to the uprighâ—ness and integrity of their hearts and to bless their endeavours with such success as answered in some measure the Primitive work of planting and propagating the Gospel The small sallies of our Author upon them in some legends about what Luther should say
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
But we have other things yet pleaded as the Example of the Hebrew Church who neither in the time of Moses nor after translated the Scripture into the Syriack yea the book was privately kept in the Ark or Tabernacle not touched or looked on by the people but brought forth at times to the Priest who might upon the Sabbath day read some part of it to the people and put them in mind of their Laws Religion and Duty I confess in this passage I am compelled to suspect more of ignorance then fraud notwithstanding the flourishing made in the distribution of the old Testament into the Law Prophets and Hâ—giography For first as to the Translation of the Scripture by the Jews into the Syriack Tongue to what purpose doth he suppose should this be done it could possibly be for no other than that for which his Masters keep the Bible in Latine I suppose he knows that at least until the Captivity when most of the Scripture was written the Hebrew and not the Syriack was the vulgar language of that people It 's true indeed that some of the noble and chief men that had the transaction of affairs with Neigbhour-Nations had learned the Syriack language toward the end of their Monarchy but the body of the people were all ignorant of it as is expresly declared 2 Kings 18.26 To what end then should they translate the Scripture into that Language which they knew not out of that which alone they were accustomed to from their infancy wherein it was written Had they done so indeed it would have been a good argument for the Romanists to have kept it in Latine which their people understand almost as well as the Jews did Syriack I thought it would never have been questioned but that the Judaical Church had enjoyed the Scripture of the Old Testament in their own vulgar language and that without the help of a Translation But we must not be confident of any thing for the future For the present this I know that not only the whole Scripture that was given the Church for its use before the Captivity was written in the Tongue that they all spake and understood but that the Lord sufficiently manifests that what he speaks unto any he would have it delivered unto them in their own Language and therefore appointing the Jews what they should say unto the Chaldean Idolaters he expresseth his mind in the Caldee Tongue Jerem. 10.11 Where alone in the Scripture there is any use made of a Dialect distinct from that in vulgar use and that because the words were to be spoken unto them to whom that Dialect was vulgar And when after the Captivity the people had learned the Caldee Language some parts of some books then written are therein expressed to shew that it is not this or that Language which on its own account is to confine the compass of Holy Writ but that that or those are to be used which the people who are concerned in it do understand But what Language soever it was in it was kept privately in the Arâ— or Tabernacle not touched not looked upon by the people but brought forth at times to the Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Book was kept in the Ark the Law Prophets and Hagiography who told you so A Copy of the Law indeed or Pentateuch was by God's command put in the side of the Ark Deut. 31.26 That the Prophets or Hagiography were ever placed there is a great mistake of our Author but not so great as that that follows that the Book placed in the side of the Ark was brought forth for the Priest to read in on the Sabbath days when as all men know the Ark was placed in the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Tabernacle and Temple which only the High Priest entred and that once a a year and that without liberty of bringing any thing out which was in it for any use whatever And his mistake is grossest of all in imagining that they had no other copies of the Law or Scripture but what was so laid up in the side of the Ark. The whole people being commanded to study in it continually and the King in special to writeout a Copy of it with his own hand Deut. 17.18 out of an Authentick Copy yea they were to take sentences out of it to write them on their fringes and posts of their doors and houses and on their gates all to bind them to a constant use of them So that this Instance on very many accounts was unhappily stumbled on by our Author who as it seems knows very little of these things He was then evidently in haste or wanted better provision when on this vain surmise he proceeds to the encomiums of his Catholick Mother's indulgence to her children in leaving of the Scripture in the hands of all that understand Greek and Latin how little a portion of her family and to a declamation against the preaching and disputing of men about it with a commendation of that reverential ignorance which will arise in men from whom the means of their better instruction is kept at a distance Another Discourse we have annexed to prove That the Bible cannot be well translated and that it loseth much of its grace and sweetness arising from a peculiarity of Spirit in its writers by any Translation whatever I do for my part acknowledg that no Translation is able in all things universally to exhibit that fulness of sense and secret vertue to intimate the Truth it expresseth to the mind of a believer wâ—â— is in many passages of Scripture in its Original Languages but how this will further the Romanists pretensions who have enthroned a TranslatioÌ„ for the use of their whole Church and that none of the best neither but in many things corrupt and barbarous I know not Those who look on the Tongues wherein the Scripture was Originally written as their Fountains if at any time they find the streams not so clear or not to give so sweet a rellish as they expected are at liberty if able to repair to the fountains themselves But those who reject the Fountains and betake themselves to one only stream for ought I know must abide by their own inconveniencies without complaining To say the Bible cannot be well translated and yet to make use principally at least of a Translation with an undervaluing of the Originals argues no great consistency of Judgement or a prevalency of Interest That which our Author in this matter sets off with a handsome flourish of words and some very unhandsome similitudes considering what he treats of he sums up p. 283. in these words I would by all say thus much The Bible Translated out of its own Sacred phrase into a prophane and Common one loseth both its propriety and amplitude of meaning and is likewise devested of its peculiar Majesty Holiness and Spirit which is reason enough if no other why it should be kept inviolate in its own style and
be made a Topick for these ends and purposes that is that indeed that is of no use in Religion The trouble and comfort of it are by a due mixture so allaid as to their proper qualities that they can have no operation upon the minds of men to sway them one way or other Had some of our Forefathers been so far illuminated all things had not been at the state wherein they are at this day in the Papacy but it may be much more is not to be expected from it and therefore it may now otherwise be treated than it was yerst-while when it was made the sum and substance of Religion However the time will come when this Platonical Signet that hath no colour from Scripture but is opposite to the clear testimonies of it repugnant to the grace truth and mercy of God destructive to the mediation of Christ useless to the souls of men serving only to beget false fears in some few but desperate presumptions from the thoughts of an after-reserve and second venture after this life is ended in the most abused to innumerable other Superstitions utterly unknown to the first Churches and the Orthodox Bishops of them having by various means and degrees crept into the Roman-Church which shall be laid open if called for shall be utterly exterminated out of the confines and limits of the Church of God In the mean time I heartily beg of our Romanists that they would no more endeavour to cast men into real scorching consuming fire for refusing to believe that which is only imaginary and phantastical CHAP. XXII Pope SECT 29. IT is not because the Pope is forgotten all this while that he is there placed in the rear after Images Saints and Purgatory It is plain that he hath been born in mind all along yea and so much mentioned that a man would wonder how he comes to have a special Paragraph here alloted to him The whole book seems to be all-Pope from the very beginning as to the main design of it and now to meet Pope by himself again in the end is somewhat unexpected But I suppose our Author thinks he can never say enough of him Therefore lest any thing fit to be insisted on should have escaped him in his former discourses he hath designed this Section to gather up the Paralipomena or ornaments he had forgotten before to set him forth withall And indeed if the Pope be the man he talks of in this Section I must acknowledge he hath had much wrong done him in the world He is one it seems that we are beholding unto for all we have that is worth any thing particularly for the Gospel which was originally from him for Kingly Authority and his Crown land with all the honour and power in the Kingdom One that we had not had any thing left us at this day either of Truth or Unity humanely speaking had not he been set over us One in whom Christ hath no lesse shewen his Divinity and Power than in himself in whom he is more miraculous then he was in his own person One that by the only Authority of his place and person defended Christ's being God against all the world without which humanely speaking Christ had not been taken for any such person as he is believed this day So as not only we but Christ himself is beholding to him that any body believes him to be God Now truly if things stand thus with him I think it is hightime for us to leave our Protestancy and to betake our selves to the Irish mans Creed That if Christ had not been Christ when he was Christ St. Patrick the Pope would have been Christ. Nay as he is having the hard fate to come into the World so many ages after the Ascension of Christ into heaven I know not what is left for Christ to be or do The Scripture tells us that the Gospel is Christ's originally from him now we are told It is the Popes originally from him That informes us that by Him the wisdom of God Kings Reign and Princes execute Judgement now we are taught That Kingly Authority with his Crown-land is from the Pope That instructs us to expect the preservation of Faith and Truth in the world from Christ alone the establishment of his Throne and Kingdom for ever and ever His building guidance and protection of his Church but we are now taught that for all these things we are beholding to the Pope who by his only Authority keeps up the faith of the Deity of Christ who surely is much ingaged to him that he takes it not to himself Besides what he is for our better information that we may judge aright concerning him we may consider also what he doth and hath been doing it seems a long time He is one that hath never been known to let fall the least word of passion against any nor move any engine for revenge one whose whole life and study is to defend innocence c. That by his general Councels all held under and by him especially that of Nice hath done more good than can be expressed Careful and more than humanely happy in all ages in reconciling Christian Princes c. One who let men talk what they will if he be not an unerring guide in matters of Religion and Faith all is lost But how shall we come to know and be assured of all this Other men as our Author knows and complains speak other things of him Is it meet that in so doubtful and questionable a business and of so great importance to be known we should believe a stranger upon his word and that against the vehement affirmations at least of so many to the contrary The Scripture speaks never a word that we can find of him nor once mentions him at all The antient Stories of the Church are utterly silent of him as for any such person as he is here described speaking of the Bishop of Rome as of other Bishops in those dayes many of the Stories of after-ages give us quite another Character of him both as to his personal qualifications and imployment I mean of the greatest part of the series of men going under that name In stead of Peace-making and Reconciliation they tell us of fierce and cruel warrs stirred up and mannaged by them of the ruine of Kings and Kingdoms by their means and instead of the meekness pretended their breathing out threatnings against men that adore them not persecuting them with Fire and Sword to the utter depopulation of some Countreys and the defiling of the most of Europe with bloudy cruelties What course shall we take in the contest of assertions that we may be able to make a right Judgment concerning him I know no better than this a little to examine apart the particulars of his Excellency as they are given us by our Author especially the most eminent of them and weigh whether they are given in according to truth or no. The first that