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
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
the end and write over it Desinit in piscem The sum of this whole Paragraph is that all sorts of Protestants and others here in England do ridiculously contend about their several perswasions in Religion and put trouble on one another on that account whereas it is the Pope only that hath Title and Right to prescribe a Religion unto us all which is not to me unlike the fancy of the poor man in Bedlam who smiled with great contentment at their folly who imagined themselves either Queen Elizabeth or King James seeing he himself was King Henry the Eighth But seeing that is the business in hand let us see what is this Title that the Pope hath which Protestants can lay no claim unto It is founded on that of the Apostle to the Corinthians Did the Word of God come forth from you or came it unto you only This is pretended the only Rule to determin with whom the preheminence of Religion doth remain Now the Word came not out originally from Protestants or Puritans nor came it to them alone So that they have no reason to be imposing their conceptions on one another or own others that differ from them But our Author seems here to have fallen upon a great mis-adventure There is not as I know of any one single Text of Scripture that doth more fatally cut the throat of Papal pretensions than this that he hath stumbled on It is known that the Pope and his adherents claim a preheminence in Religion to be the sole Judges of all its concernments and the imposers of it in all the world What men receive from them that is Truth what they are any otherwise instructed in it is all false and naught On this pretence it is that this Gentleman pleads Nullity of Title amongst us as to all our contests though we know that Truth carries its Title with it in whose hands soever it be found Give me leave then to make so bold at least at this distance as to ask the Pope and his Adherents An à vobis verbum Dei processit an ad vos solos pervenit Did the Gospel first come from you or only unto you that you thus exalt your selves above your Brethren all the World over Do we not know by whom it first came to you and from whom Did it not come to very many parts of the World before you to the whole World as well as to you Why do you then boast your selves as though you had been the first revealers of the Gospel or that it had come unto you in a way or manner peculiar and distinct from that by which it came to other places Would you make us believe that Christ preached at Rome or suffered or rose from the dead there or gave the Holy Ghost first to the Apostles there or first there founded his Church or gave order for the empaling it there when it was built Would we never so fain we cannot believe such prodigious Fables To what purpose then do you talk of Title to impose your conceits in Religion upon us Did the Gospel first come forth from you or came it unto you only Will not Rome notwithstanding its seven Hills be laid in a level with the rest of the World by vertue of this Rule The truth is as to the Oral dispensation of the Gospel it came forth from Jerusalem by the Personal Ministry of the Apostles and came equally to all the world That Spring being long since dryed up it now comes forth to all from the written word and unto them who receive it in its Power and Truth doth it come and unto no other What may further be thought necessary to be discussed as to the matter of fact in reference to this Rule the Reader may find handled under that consideration of the first supposition which our Author builds his Discourse upon Sect. 4. Pag. 48. Heats and Resolution is the Title of this Section in which if our Author be found blameless his charge on others will be the more significant The Impartial Reader that will not be imposed on by smooth words will easily know what to guess of his temper In the mean time though we think it is good to be well-resolved in the things that we are to believe and practise in the worship of God yet all irregular and irrational Heats in the prosecution or maintenance of mens different conceptions and apprehensions in Religion we desire sincerely to avoid and explode Nor is it amiss that to further our moderation we be minded of the temper of the Pagans who in their Opinion-Wars we are told used no other Weapons but only of Pen and Speech For our Author seems to have forgotten not only innumerable other Instances to the contrary but also the renowned Battel between Ombos and Tentyra But this forgetfulness was needful to aggravate the charge on Christians that are not Romanists for their heat fury and Fightings for the promotion of their Opinions as being in this so much the worse than Pagans who in Religion used another manner of moderation And who I pray is it that manageth this charge Whence comes this Dove with an Olive-branch This Orator of Peace If we may guess from whence he came by seeing whither he is going we must say that it was from Rome This is their Plea this the perswasion of men of the Roman-Interest This their charge on Protestants To this height the confidence of mens ignorance inadvertency and fullness of present things amounts Could ever any one rationally expect that these Gentlemen would be publick decryers of Fury Wars and Tumults for Religion May not Protestants say to them Quae regio in terris nostri non plena cruoris Is there any Nation under the Heavens whereunto your power extends wherein our blood hath not given testimony to your wrath and fury After all your cursings and attempted depositions of Kings and Princes translations of Title to Soveraignty and Rule invasions of Nations secret Conspiracies Prisons Racks Swords Fire and Fagot do you now come and declaim about moderation We see you not yet cease from killing of men in the pursuit of your fancies and groundless Opinions any where but either where you have not power or can find no more to kill So that certainly whatever reproach we deserve to have cast upon us in this matter you are the unfittest men in the world to be mannagers of it But I still find my self in a mistake in this thing It is only Protestants and others departed from the Roman Church that our Author treats It is they who are more fierce and disingenious than the Pagans in their contests amongst themselves and against the Romanists as having the least share of Reason of any upon the earth His good Church is not concerned who as it is not lead by such fancies and motives as they are so it hath right where it hath power to deal with its Adversaries as seems good unto it This then Sir is
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
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
or do deserve not the least notice from men who will seriously contemplate the hand power and wisdom of God in the work accomplished by them The next thing undertaken by our Author is the ingress of Protestancy into England and its progress there The old story of the love of King Henry the Eighth to Ann Bullen with the divorce of Queen Katharine told over and over long ago by men of the same principle and design with himself is that which he chooseth to flourish withall I shall say no more to the story but that English-men were not wont to believe the whispers of an unknown Fryer or two before the open redoubled Protestation of one of the most famous Kings that ever swaid the Scepter of this Land before the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland These men whatever they pretend shew what reverence they have to our present Soveraign by their unworthy defamation of his Royal Predecessors But let men suppose the worst they please of that great Heroick Person What are his miscarriages unto Protestant Religion for neither was he the Head Leader or Author of that Religion nor did he ever receive it profess it or embrace it but caused men to be burned to death for its profession Should 〈◊〉 by way of Retaliation return unto our Author the lives and practices of some of many not of the great or leading men of his Church but of the Popes themselves the Head sum and in a manner whole of their Religion at least so farre that without him they will not acknowledge any he knows well enough what double measure shaken together pressed down and running over may be returned unto him A work this would be I confess no way pleasing unto my self for who can delight in raking into such a sink of Filth as the lives of many of them have been yet because he seems to talk with a confidence of willingness to revive the memory of such ulcers of Christianity if he proceed in the course he hath begun it will be necessary to mind him of not boxing up his eyes when he looks towards his own home That Poysonings Adulteries Incests Conjurations Perjuries Atheism have been no strangers to that See if he knows not he shall be acquainted from stories that he hath no colour to except against For the present I shall only mind him and his friends of the Comaedian's advice Dehinc ut quiescunt porro mâ—neo desinant Maledicere malefactae ne noscant suâ— The declaration made in the days of that King that he was Head of the Church of England intended no more but that there was no other person in the world from whom any Jurisdiction to be exercised in this Church over his Subjects might be derived the Supreme Authority for all exterior Government being vested in him alone That this should be so the Word of God the nature of the Kingly Office and the antâ—ent Laws of this Realm do require And I challenge our Author to produce any one Testimony of Scripture or any one word out of any general Council or any one Catholick Father or Writer to give the least countenance to his assertion of two heads of the Church in his sense an head of Influence which is Jesus himself and an head of Government which is the Pope in whom all the sacred Hierarchy ends This taking of one half of Christs Rule and Headship out of his hand and giving it to the Pope will not be salved by that expression thrust in by the way under him For the Headship of influence is distinctly ascribed unto Christ and that of Government to the Pope which evidently asserts that he is not in the same manner head unto his Church in both these senses but He in one and the Pope in another But whatever was the cause or occasion of the dissention between King Henry and the Pope it 's certain Protestancy came into England by the same way and means that Christianity came into the World the painful pious Professors and Teachers of it sealed its truth with their bloud and what more honourable entrance it could make I neither know nor can it be declared Nor did England receive this Doctrine from others in the days of King Henry it did but revive that light which sprung up amongst us long before and by the fury of the Pope and his adherents had been a while suppressed And it was with the blood of English-men dying patiently and gloriously in the flames that the truth was sealed in the dayes of that King who lived and dyed himself as was said in the profession of the Roman faith The Truth flourished yet more in the dayes of his pious and hopefull Son Some stop our Author tels us was put to it in the dayes of Queen Mary But what stop of what kind of no other than that put to Christianity by Trajan Dioclesian Julian a stop by fire and sword and all exquisite cruelties which was broken through by the constant death and invincible patience and prayers of Bishops Ministers and People numberless a stop that Rome hath cause to blush in the remembrance of and all Protestants to rejoyce having their faith tryed in the fire and coming forth more pretious than Gold Nor did Queen Elizabeth as is falsly pretended indeavour to continue that stop but cordially from the beginning of her Reign embraced that faith wherein she had before been instructed And in the maintenance of it did God preserve her from all the Plots Conspiracies and Rebellions of the Papists Curses and Depositions of the Popes with Invasions of her Kingdomes by his instigation as also her renowned Successor with his whole Regal posterity from their contrivance for their Martyrdom and ruin During the Reign of those Royal and Magnificent Princes had the Power and Polity of the Papal world been able to accomplish what the men of this innocent and quiet Religion professedly designed they had not had the advantage of the late miscarriages of some professing the Protestant Religion in reference to our late King of glorious Memory to triumph in though they had obtained that which would have been very desirable to them and which we have but sorry evidence that they do not yet aim at and hope for As for what he declares in the end of his 10th Paragraph about the Reformation here that it followed wholly neither Luther nor Calvin which he intermixes with many unseemly taunts and reflexions on our Laws Government and Governours is as far as it is true the glory of it It was not Luther nor Calvin but the Word of God and the practise of the primitive Church that England proposed for her rule and pattern in her Reformation and where any of the Reformers forsook them she counted it her duty without reflexions on them or their wayes to walk in that safe one she had chosen out for her self Nor shal I insist on his next Paragraph destined to the advancement of his interest
past Practises of the men of that Church and Religion which he defends will not allow him to entertain such hard thoughts of the latter as he pretends unto so as to the former where he has made some progress in his work and either warmed his zeal beyond his first intendment for its discovery or has gotten some confidence that he hath obtained a better acceptance with his Reader then at the entrance of his Discourse he could lay claim unto laying aside those counsels of moderation and forbearance which he had gilded over he plainly declares that the only way of procuring Peace amongst us is by the extermination of Protestancy For having compared the Roman-Catholick to Isaack the proper Heir of the House and Protestants to Ishmael vexing him in his own Inheritance the only way to obtain Peace he tells us is Projiee ancillam cum filio suo Cast out the handmaid with her son that is in the gloss of their former practices either burn them at home or send them to starve abroad There is not the least reason then why I should trouble my self with his flourishes and stories his Characters of us and our neighbour-Nations in reference unto moderation and forbearance in Religion that is not the thing by him intended but is only used to give a false Alarum to his unwary Readers whilst he marches away with a Rhetorical Perswasive unto Popery In this it is wherein alone I shall attend his motions and if in our passage through his other Discourses we meet with any thing lying in a direct tendency unto his main end though pretended to be used to another purpose it shall not pass without some Animadversion Also I shall be farr from contending with our Author in those things wherein his Discourse excelleth and that upon the two general reasons of Wil and Ability Neither could I compare with him in them if I would nor would if I could His quaint Rhetorick biting Sarcasms fine Stories smooth Expressions of his high contempt of them with whom he has to do with many things of that sort the repetition of whose Names hath got the reputation of incivility are things wherein as I cannot keep pace with him for Illud possumus quod jure possumus so I have no mind to follow him CHAP. I. Our Author's Preface And his Method IT is not any Disputation or Rational debate about Differences in Religion that our Author intends nor until towards the close of his Treatise doth he at all fix directly on any thing in Controversie between Romanists and Protestants In the former parts of his Discourse his Design is sometimes covered alwayes carryed on in the way of a Rhetorical Declamation so that it is not possible and is altogether needless to trace all the particular passages and expressions as they lye scattered up and down in his Discourse which he judgeth of advantage unto him in the mannagement of the work he has undertaken Some Suppositions there are which lye at the bottom of his whole Superstructure quickning the Oratory and Rhetorical part of it undoubtedly it's best which he chose rather to take for granted then to take upon himself the trouble to prove These being drawn forth and removed what ever he hath built upon them with all that paint and flourish wherewith it is adorned will of it self fall to the ground I shall then first briefly discuss what he offers as to the method of his procedure and then take this for my own Namely I shall draw out and examin the Fundamental Principles of his Oration upon whose tryal the whole must stand or fall and then pass through the severals of the whole Treatise with such Animadversions as what remaineth of it may seem to require His method he speaks unto pag. 13. My method saith he I do purposely conceal to keep therein a more handsom decorum for he that goes about to part a fighting fray cannot observe a method 〈◊〉 must turn himself this way and that as occasion offers be it a corporal or mental Duel So did good Sc. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans which of all his other Epistles as it hath most of solidity so it hath least of method in the context the reason is c. These are handsom words of a man that seems to have good thoughts of himself and his skill in parting frays But yet I see not how they hang well together as to any congruity of their sense and meaning Surely he that useth no method nor can use any cannot conceal his method no though he purpose so to do No man's purpose to hide will enable him to hide that which is not If he hath concealed his method he hath used one if he hath used none he hath not concealed it for that which is wanting cannot be numbered Nor hath he by this or any other means kept any handsom decorum not having once spoken the sense or according to the Principles of him whom he undertakes to personate which is such an observance of a decorum as a man shall not lightly meet with Nor hath he discovered any mind so to part a fray as that the Contenders might hereafter live quietly one by another his business being avowedly to perswade as many as he can to a conjunction in one Party for the destruction of all the rest And what ever he saith of not using a method the method of his Discourse with the good words it is set off withall is the whole of his Interest in it He pretends indeed to pass through loca nullius anâ—â— Trita solo yet setting aside his mannagement of the Advantages given him by the late miserable Tumults in these Nations and the Provision he has made for the Entertainment of his Readeâ— are Worts boyled an hundred times over as he knows well enough And for the method which he would have us believe not to be and yet to be concealed it is rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather a crafty various distribution of entising words and plausible pretences to enveagle and delude men unlearned and unstable then any decent contexture of or fair progress in a Rational Discourse or Regular Disposition of nervous Topicks to convince or perswade the minds of men who have their eyes in their heads I shall therefore little trouble my self further about it but only discover it as occasion shall require for the Discovery of Sophistry is its proper Confutation However the course he steers is the same that good St. Paul used in his Epistle to the Romans which hath as he tells us most of solidity and least of method of all his Epistles I confess I knew not before that his Church had determined which of St. Paul's Epistles had most of solidity which least For I have such good thoughts of him that I suppose he would not do it of his own head nor do I know that he is appointed Umpire to determin upon the Writings that came
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
in the Worship of God according to the mind of Christ before the Relinquishment of the Roman-See by our fore-fathers V. That the First Reformers were the most of them sorry contemptible persons whose Errors were propagated by indirect means and entertained for sinister ends VI. That our departure from Rome hath been the cause of all our evills and particularly of all those Divisions which are at this day found amongst the Protestants and which have been ever since the Reformation VII That we have no Remedy of our Evils no means of ending our differences but by a return unto the Rule of the Roman-See VIII The Scripture upon sundry accounts is insufficient to settle us in the truth of Religion or to bring us to an agreement amongst our selves seeing it is 1. Not to be known to be the Word of God but by the Testimony of the Roman Church 2. Cannot be well translated into our vulgar Language 3. Is in it self obscure And 4. We have none to determine of the sense of it IX That the Pope is a good man one that seeks nothing but our good that never did us harm and hath the care and inspection of us committed unto him by Christ. X. That the Devotion of the Catholicks far transcends that of Protestants nor is their Doctrine or Worship liable to any just exception I suppose our Author will not deny these to be the Principal nerves and sinews of his Oration nor complain I have done him the least injury in this representation of them or that any thing of importance unto his advantage by himself insisted on is here omitted He that runs and reads if he observe any thing that lies before him besides handsome words and ingenious diversions will consent that here lies the substance of what is offered unto him I shall not need then to tire the Reader and my self with transcriptions of those many words from the several parts of his Discourse wherein these Principles are laid down and insinuated or gilded over as things on all hands granted Besides so far as they are interwoven with other reasonings they will fall again under our Consideration in the several places where they are used and improved If all these Principles upon examination be found good true firm and stable it is most meet and reasonable that our Author should obtain his desire And if on the other side they shall appear some of them false some impertinent and the deductions from them Sophistical some of them destructive to Christian Religion in general none of them singly nor all of them together able to bear the least part of that weight which is laid upon them I suppose he cannot take it ill if we resolve to be contented with our present condition until some better way of deliverance from it be proposed unto us which to tell him the truth for my part I do not expect from his Church or Party Let us then consider these Principles apart in the order wherein we have laid them down which was the best I could think on upon the suddain for the Advantage of him who makes use them The first is an hinge upon which many of those which follow do in a a sort depend yea upon the matter all of them Our Primitive receiving Christian Religion from Rome is that which influences all perswasions for a return thither Now if this must be admitted to be true that we in these Nations first received the Christian Religion from Rome by the Mission and Authority of the Pope it either must be so because the Proposition carries its own evidence in its very terms or because our Author and those consenting with him have had it by Revelation or it hath been testified to them by others who knew it so to be That the first it doth not is most certain for it is very possible it might have been brought unto us from some other place from whence it came to Rome for as I take it it had not there its beginning Nor do I suppose they will plead special Revelation made either to themselves or any others about this matter I have read many of the Revelations that are said to be made to sundry persons canonized by his Church for Saints but never met with any thing concerning the place from whence England first received the Gospel Nor have I yet heard Revelation pleaded to this purpose by any of his Co-partners in design It remains then that some body hath told him so or informed him of it either by writing or by word of mouth Usually in such cases the first enquiry is Whether they be credible Persons who have made the report Now the pretended Authors of this Story may I suppose be justly questioned if on no other yet on this account that he who designes an advantage by their Testimony doth not indeed himself believe what they say For notwithstanding what he would fain have us believe of Christianity coming into Brittain from Rome he knows well enough and tells us elsewhere himself that it came directly by Sea from Palestina into France and was thence brought into England by Joseph of Ariniathea And what was that Faith and Worship which he brought along with him we know full well by that which was the Faith and Worship of his Teachers and Associates in the work of propagating the Gospel recorded in the Scripture So that Christianity found a passage to Brittain without so much as once visiting Rome by the way Yea but 150 years after Fugatius and Damianus came from Rome and propagated the Gospell here and 400 years after them Austin the Monk Of these stories we shall speak particularly afterwards But this quite spoiles the whole market in hand this is not a FIRST receiving of the Gospel but a second and third at the best and if that be considerable then so ought the Proposition to be laid These Nations a second and third time after the first from another place received the Gospell from Rome but this will not discharge that bill of following Items with is laid upon it What ever then there is considerable in the place or persons from whence or whom a Nation or People receive the Gospel as farr as it concerns us in these Kingdoms it relates to Jerusalem and Jews not Rome and Italians Indeed it had been very possible that Christian Religion might have been propagated at first from Rome into Britany considering what in these dayes was the condition of the one place and the other yet things were so ordered in the Providence of the Lord that it fell out otherwise and the Gospell was preached here in England probably before ever St. Paul came to Rome or St. Peter either if ever he came there But yet to prevent wrangling about Austin and the Saxons let us suppose that Christian Religion was first planted in these Nations by Persons coming from Rome if you will men sent by the Pope before he was born for that purpose What then
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
he confesseth that he doth purposely conceal But the truth is it is easily discoverable there being few pages in the Book that do not display it The Reader then must understand that the plain English of all his Commendations of Moderation and all his Exhortations to a relinquishment of those false Lights and Principles which have lead men to a disturbance of the Publique Peace and ensuing Calamities is that Popery is the only Religion in the world and that centring therein is the only means to put an end to our differences heats and troubles Unless this be granted it will be very hard to find one grain of sincerity in the whole Discourse and if it be no less difficult to find so much of Truth So that whatever may be esteemed suitable to the fancies of any of them whom our Author courts in his Address those who know any thing of the holiness of God and the Gospel of that Reverence which is due to Christ and his Word and wherewith all the concernments of Religion ought to be mannaged will scarsely judge that that blessed Fountain of Light and Truth will immixe his pure beams and blessing with such crafty worldly sophistical devices or such frothy ebullitions of Wit and Fansie as this Discourse is stuffed withall These are things that may be fit to entangle unstable spirits who being regardless of Eternity and steering their course according to every blast of temptation that fills their lusts and carnal pleasures are as ready to change their Religion it men can make any change in or of that which in reality they neither leave nor receive but only sport themselves to and fro with the cloud and shadow of it as they are their cloaths and fashions Those who have had experience of the power and efficacy of that Religion which they have professed as to all the ends for which Religion is of God revealed will be little moved with the Stories Pretenses and Diversions of this Discourse Knowing therefore our Author's design and which we shall have occasion to deal with him about throughout his Treatise which is to take advantage from the late miscarriages amongst us and the differences that are in the world in Religion to perswade men not indeed and ultimately to mutual moderation and forbearance but to a general acquiescency in the Roman-Catholicism I shall not here further speak unto it The five Heads of his matter may be briefly run over as he proposeth them pag. 13. with whose consideration I shall take my leave of his Preface The first is That there is not any colour of Reason or just Title to move us to quarrel and judge one another with so much heat about Religion Indeed there is not nor can there be no man was ever so madd as to suppose there could be any reason or just Title for men to do evil To quarrel and judge one another with heats about Religion is of that nature But if placing himself to keep a decorum amongst Protestants he would insinuate that we have no reason to contend about Religion as having lost all Title unto it by our departure from Rome I must take leave unto this general head to put in a general Demurrer which I shall afterwards plead to and vindicate His second is That all things are so obscure that no man in prudence can so far presume of his own knowledge as to set up himself a guide and leader in Religion I say so too and suppose the words as they lye whatever be intended in them are keenly set against the great Papal pretension whatever he may pretend we know the Pope sets up himself to be a guide to all men in Religion and if he do it not upon a presumption of his own knowledge we know not on what better grounds he doth it And though we wholly condemn mens setting up themselves to be Guides and Leaders to their Neighbours yet if he intend that all things are so obscure that we have no means to come to the knowledge of the Truth concerning God and his mind so far as it is our duty to know it and therefore that no man can teach or instruct another in that knowledge I say as before we are not yet of his mind whether we shall be or no the process of our Discourse will shew 3. He adds That no Sect hath any advantage at all over another nor all of them together over Popery Yes They that have the Truth wherein they have it have advantage against all others that have it not And so Protestancy hath advantage over Popery And here the Pretext or Vizor of this Protestant begins to turn aside in the next head it quite falls from him That is 4. That all the several kinds of Religion here in England are equally innocent to one another And Popery as it stands in opposition to them is absolutely innocent and unblameable to them all I am little concerned in the former part of these words concerning the several kinds of Religion in England having undertaken the defence of one only namely Protestancy Those that are departed from Protestancy so far as to constitute another kind of Religion as to any thing from me shall plead for themselves However I wish that all parties in England were all equally innocent to one another or that they would not be willing to make themselves equally nocent But the latter part of the words contain I promise you a very high undertaking Popery is innocent absolutely innocent and unblameable to them all I fear we shall scarce find it so when we come to the tryal I confess I do not like this pretence of absolute innocency and unblameableness I suppose they are Men that profess Popery and I do know that Popery is a Religion or Profession of mens finding out how it should come to be so absolutely innocent on a suddain I cannot imagine but we will leave this until we come to the proof of it taking notice only that here is a great promise made unto his noble and ingenious Readers that cannot advantage his cause if he be not able to make it good The close is 5. That as there neither is nor can be any rational motive for Disputes and Animosities about matters of Religion so is there an indispensable moral cause obliging us to moderation c. But this as I observed before though upon the first view of the sign hanging up at the door a man would guess to be the whole work that was doing in the house is indeed no part of his business and is therefore thrust out at the postern in two short leaves the least part of them in his own words after the spending of 364 pages in the pursuit of his proper design But seeing we must look over these things again in the Chapters assigned to their adorning we may take our leave of them at present and of his Preface together CHAP. V. Chap. I. Contests about Religion and Reformation Schoolmen
c. THe Title of this Chapter was proposed the persuit of it now ensues The first Paragraph is a declamation about sundry things which have not much blame-worthy in them Their common weakness is that they are common They tend not to the furtherance of any one thing more then another but are such as any Party may flourish withal and use to their several ends as they please That desire of honour and applause in the world hath influenced the minds of men to great and strange Undertakings is certain That it should do so is not certain nor true so that when we treat of Religion if we renounce not the Fundamental Principle of it in Self-denyal this consideration ought to have no place What then was done by Emperours and Philosophers of old or by the later School-men on this account we are little concerned in Nor have I either desire or design to vellicate any thing spoken by our Author that may have an indifferent interpretation put upon it and be separated from the end which he principally persues As there is but very little spoken in this Paragraph directly tending to the whole end aimed at so there are but three things that will any way serve to leaven the mind of his Reader that he may be prepared to be moulded into the form he hath fancyed to cast him into which is the work of all these previous Harangues The first is his inâ—â—nuation That the Reformation of Religion is a thing pretended by aemulous Plebeians not able to hope for that Supervisorship in Religion which they see intrusted with others How unserviceable this is unto his Design as applyed to the Church of England all men know for setting aside the consideration of the influence of Soveraign Royal Authority the first Reformers amongst us were persons who as they enjoyed the right of Reputation for the Excellencies of Learning and Wisdom so also were they fixed in those places and conditions in the Church which no Reformation could possibly advance them above and the attempt whereof cost them not only their dignities but their lives also Neither were Hezekiah Josiah or Ezra of old aemulous plebeians whose lasting glory and renown arose from their Reformation of Religion They who fancy men in all great undertakings to be steered by desire of applause and honour are exceeding incompetent judges of those actions which zeal for the glory of God love to the Truth sense of their duty to the Lord Jesus Christ and compassion for the souls of others do lead men unto and guide them in and such will the last Day manifest the Reformation traduced to have been The Second is a gallant commendâ—tion of the Ingenuity Charity Candor and sublime Science of the School-men I confess they have deserved good words at his hands These are the men who out of a mixture of Philosophy Traditions and Scriptureâ— all corrupted and perverted have hammâ—â—ed that faith which was afterwards confirmed under so many Anathemaes at Trent So that upon the matter he is beholden to them for his Religion which I find he loves and hath therefore reason to be thankful to its Contrivers For my part I am as far from envying them their commendation as I have reason to be which I am sure is far enough But yet before we admit this Testimony hand over head I could wish he would take a course to stop the mouths of some of his own Church and those no small ones neither who have declared them to the world to be a pack of egregious Sophisters neither good Philosophers nor any Divines at all men who seem not to have had the least reverence of God nor much regard to the Truth in any of their Disputations but weâ—â— wholly influenced by a vain Reputation of Subtility desire of Conquest of leading and denominating Parties and that in a Barbarous Science barbarously expressed untill they had driven all Learning and Divinity almost out of the World But I will not contend about these Fathers of Contention let every man esteem of them as he seems good There is the same respect in that bitter reflection which he makes on those who have managed differences in Religion in this last Age the Third thing observable That they are the Writers and Writings that have been published against the Papacy which he intends he doth more than intimate Their Disputes he rells us are managed with so much unseemly behaviour such unmanerly expressions that discreet sobriety cannot but loath and abhor to read them with very much more to this purpose I shall not much labour to perswade men not to believe what he sayes in this matter for I know full well that he believes it not himself He hath seen too many Protestant Books I suppose to think this Cenâ—â—re will suit them all This was meet to be spoken for the advantage of the Catholick cause for what there hath been of real offence in this kind amongst us we may say Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra Romanists are Sinners as well as others And I suppose himself knows That the Reviling and Defamations used by some of his Party are not to be paralleld in any Writings of man-kind at this day extant About the Appellatioâ—s he shall think meet to make use of in reference to the Persons at variance we will not contend with him Only I desire to let him know That the reproach of Galilean from the Pagans which he appropriates to the Papists was worn out of the World before that Popery which he pleads for came into it As Roman-Catholicks never tasted of the sufferings wherewith that Reproach was attended so they have no special right to the honour that is in its remembrance As to the sport he is pleased to make with his Countrey-men in the close of this Paragraph about losing their wits in Religious contests with the evils thence ensuing I shall no further reflect upon but once more to mind the Reader that the many words he is pleased to use in the exaggerating the evils of mannaging differences in Religion with animosities and tumults so seemingly to perswade men to moderation and peace I shall wholly pass by as having discovered that that is not his business nor consequently at present mine It is well observed by him in his second Paragraph that most of the great Contests in the world about perishing things proceed from the unmortified lusts of men The Scripture abounds in Testimonies given hereunto St. James expresly From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight and warr yet you have not chap. 4.1 2. Mens lusts put them on endless irregularities in unbounded desires and foolish sinful enterprizes for their satisfaction Neither is Satan the old Enemy of the well-fare of mankind wanting to excite provoke and stir up these lusts by mixing himself
with them in his temptations thrusting them on and intangling them in their persuit As to the Contests about Religion which I know not with what mind or intention he terms an empty airy business a ghostly fight a skirmish of Shaddows or Horse-men in the clowds he knows not what principle cause or sourse to asoâ—ibe them unto That which he is most inclinable unto is That there is something invisible above man stronger and more politick then he that doth this contumely to mankind that casts in these Apples of Contention amongst us that hisses us to warr and battail as waggish Boys do Doggs in the street That which is intended in these words and sundry others of the like quality that follow is that this ariseth from the intisements and impulsions of the Devil And none can doubt but that in these works of darkness the Prince of Darkness hath a great hand The Scripture also assures us that as the Scorpions which vexed the world issued out of the bottomless pit so also that these unclean spirits do stir up the powers of the Earth to make opposition unto the Truth of the Gospel and Religion of Jesus Christ. But yet neither doth this hinder but that even these religious fewds and miscarriages also proceed principally from the ignorance darkness and lusts of men In them lies the true cause of all dissentions in and about the things of God The best know but in part and the most love darkness more than light because their works are evils A vain conversation received by tradition from mens fathers with inveterate prejudices love of the world and the customs thereof do all help on this sâ—d work wherein so many are imployed That some preach the Gospel of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all their strength in much contention and contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered unto the Saints as it is their duty so it is no cause but only an accidental occasion of differences amongst men That the invisible substances our Author talks of should be able to sport themselves with us as Children do with Dogs in the street and that with the like impulse from them as Dogs from these we should rush into our contentions might pass for a pretty notion but only that it over-throws all Religion in the world and the whole nature of man There is evil enough in corrupted nature to produce all these evils which are declaimed against to the end of this Section were there no Daemons to excite men unto them The adventitious impressions from them by temptations and suggestions doubtless promote them and make men precipitate above their natural tempers in their productions but the principal cause of all our evils is still to be looked for at home Nec te quaesiveris extra Sect. 3. Pag. 34. In the next Section of this Chapter whereunto he prefixes Nullity of Title he persues the perswasive unto Peace Moderation Charity and Quietness in our several perswasions with so many reasonings and good words that a man would almost think that he began to be in good earnest and that those were the things which he intended for their own sakes to promote I presume it cannot but at the first view seem strange to some to find a man of the Roman party so ingeniously arguing against the imposition of our senses in Religion magisterially and with violence one upon the other it being notoriously known to all the world that they are if not the only yet the greatest Imposers on the minds and consciences of men that ever lived in the earth and which work they cease not the prosecution of where they have power until they come to fire and fagot I dare say there is not any strength in any of his queries collections and arguings but an indifferent man would think it at the first sight to be pointed against the Roman interest and practice For what have they been doing for some ages past but under a pretence of Charity to the souls of men endeavouring to perswade them to their Opinions and Worship or to impose them on them whether they will or no But let old things pass it is well if now at last they begin to be otherwise minded What then if we should take this Gentleman at his word and cry A match let us strive and contend no more Keep you your Religion at Rome to your selves and we will do as well as we can with ours in England we will trouble you no more about yours nor pray do not you meddle with us or ours Let us pray for one another wait on God for light and direction it being told us that If any one be otherwise minded than according to the Truth God shall reveal that unto him Let us all strive to promote Godliness Obedience to the Commands of Christ Good works and Peace in the world but for this contending about Opinions or endeavouring to impose our several perswasions upon one another let us give it quite over I fear he would scarsely close with us and so wind up all our Differences upon the bottom of his own Proposals especially if this Law should extend it's self to all other Nations equally concerned with England He would quickly tell us that this is our mistake he intended not Roman-Catholicks and the differences we have with them in this Discourse It is Protestants Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Quakers that he deals with al and them only and that upon this ground that none of them have any Title or pretence of Reason to impose on one another and so ought to be quiet and let one another alone in matters of Religion But for the Roman-Catholicks they are not concerned at all in this Harangue having a sufficient Title to impose upon them all Now truly if this be all I know not what we have to thank you for Tantúmne est otii tibi abs re tua aliena ut cures eaque quae ad te nihil at tinent There are wise and learned men in England who are concerned in our differences and do labour to compose them or suppress them That this Gentleman should come and justle them aside and impose himself an Umpire upon us without our choyce or desire in matters that belong not unto him how charitable it may seem to be I know not but it is scarsely civil Would he would be perswaded to go home and try his remedies upon the distempers of his own family before he confidently vend them to us I know he has no Salves about him to heal diversities of Opinions that he can write Probatum est upon from his Roman-Church If he have he is the most uncharitable man in the world to leave them at home brawling and together by the ears to seek out practise where he is neither desired nor welcome when he comes without invitation I confess I was afraid at the beginning of the Section that I should be forced to change the Title before I came to
any one who dares pretend to have read it or to be a Christian can own and avow such a notion All the fine Stories Allusions and Speculations about madness that he is pleased to flourish withall in this matter are a covering too short and narrow to hide that wretched contempt of the holy Word of the great God which in these Notions discovers its self Men who by corrupt Principles have been scared from the study of the Scripture or by their lusts kept from its serious perusal or attendance unto it that value not the Authority of God of Christ or his Apostles commanding and requiring the diligent study of it that dis-regard the glorious mysteries revealed in it on set purpose that we might all come to an acquaintance with them and so consequently that have had no experience of the excellency or usefulness of it nor lye under any conviction of their own duty to attend unto it may perhaps be glad to have their lusts and unbelief so farr accommodated as to suffer themselves to be perswaded that there is no need that they should any further regard it than hitherto they have done But in vain is the Net spread before the Eye of any thing that hath a wing for them who have tasted the sweetness of the good Word of God who have attained any acquaintance with its usefulness and excellency who have heard the voyce of God in it making the knowledge of his Will revealed therein of indispensable necessity to the salvation of their souls believe me Sir all your Rhetorick and Stories your pretences and flourishes will never prevail with them to cast away their Bibles and resolve for the future to believe only in the Pope Of the interpretation of the Scripture I have spoken before and shewed sufficiently that neither are we at any such a loss therein as to bring us to any incertainty about the Principles of our Religion nor if we were have we the least reason to look for any relief from Rome When I happen upon any of these Discourses I cannot but say to my self What do these men intend Do they know what they do or with whom they have to deal Have they ever read the Scripture or tasted any sweetness in it If they instruct their Disciples unto such mean thoughts of the holy Word of God they undo them for ever And if I meet with these bold efforts against the wisdom of God twenty times I cannot but still thus startle at them The two following Motives being taken up as far as I can apprehend to give our Author an advantage to make sport for himself and others in canvasing some expressions discourses of our talkative times and the vulgar brutish management of our differences by some weak unknowing Persons need not detain us Did I judge it a business worthy of any prudent mans consideration it were easie to return him for his requital a collecâ—â—on of the pretty Prayers and Devotions of his good Catholicks of their kind treatments one of another or the doubty Arguments they make use of amongst themselves and against us abundantly enough to repay him his kindness without being beholding to any of those Legends which they formerly accommodated the people withall in room both of Scripture and Preaching though of late they begin to be ashamed of them CHAP. VI. to Chap II. Obscurity of God c. UNto the ensuing whole Chapter wherein our Author exspatiates with a most luxuriant Oratory throughout and oft times soars with Poetical raptures in setting forth the obscurity and darkness of all things 〈◊〉 ignorance and disability to attain a right and perfect knowledge of them canting by the way many of those pretty Notions which the Philosophical discoursive men of our dayes do use to whet their wits upon over a glass of Wine I have not much to offer Nor should I once reflect upon that discourse were it not designed to another end than that which it is ushered in by as the thing aymed to be promoted by it Forbearance of one another in our several perswasions on a sense of our infirmity and weakness and the obscurity of those things about which our minds and contemplations are conversant is flourished at the entrance of this Harangue After a small progress the Snake begins to hiss in the grass and in the Close openly to shew it self in an enticement unto an imbracing of the Roman-Religion which it seems will disintangle our minds out of that maze about the things of God and Man in which without its guidance we must of necessity wander for ever As for his Philosophical notions I suppose they were only vented to shew his skill in the Learned talks of this Age to toll on the Gallants whom he hath most hope to enveagle knowing them to be Candidates for the most part unto that Sceptism which is grown the entertainment of Tables and Taverns How a man that is conversant in his thoughts about Religion and his choice of or settlement therein should come to have any concernment in this Discourse I cannot imagine That God who is infinitely wise holy good who perfectly knows all his own excellencies hath revealed so much of Himself his Mind and Will in reference to the Knowledg which he requires of himself and Obedience unto him as is sufficient to guide us whilst we are here below to steer our Course in our subjection to him and dependence on him in a manner acceptable unto him and to bring us to our utmost end and blessedness in the enjoyment of him This Protestants think sufficient for them who as they need not so they desire not to be wise above what is written nor to know more of God than he hath so revealed of himself that they may know it Those barren fruitless Spâ—culations which some curious Serpentine Wits casting off all reverence of the Soveraignty and Majesty of God have exercised themselves in and about even in things too high and hard fâ—r them darkning counsel and wisdom by words of pretended subtilty but real folly are fitter to be exploded out of the world then fomented and cherished in the mâ—nds of men Nor doth that discourse about God and his Essence which lies before us seem to grow on any other roots than ignorance and curiosity Ignorance of what it is that God requireth us to know of him and how and Curiosity in prying into and using words about what we do not understand nor is it the mind of God that we should Were poor sinners throughly sensible of their own condition and what acquaintance with God their concernment doth lye in they would little value such vain towring imaginations as some mens minds are exercised withal Come Sir Let us leave these vain flourishes and in deepest abasement of soul pray that we may know how the Father whom no man hath seen at any time is revealed by the only begotten Son who is in his bosom What he is in his Law towards
is a fair way to question another which came by the same hand and this a third till the very Authority of the first Revealer be at stake which can no more defend himself then he can his Law For the same Axe and Instrument that cut down the branches can cut up the root too and if his reverence for which all the rest was believed defend not their truth it must needs at length utterly fail in his own for all the Authority they had was purely from him and he fails in them before he falls in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Papists or Roman-Catholicks first brought Christ and his Christianity into this Land is most untrue and I wonder how any one that hath read any story of the Times that are past should so often averre what he cannot but know to be untrue The Gospel might have been brought into England by Romans and yet not by Papists for I cannot find nor can this Gentleman shew that the Romans St. Paul wrote unto were any one of them in any one poynt Papists But neither was it brought hither by Romans but came immediately out of the East from whence also about the same time it came to Rome Nor is it any jot truer That we no sooner heard news of Christianity than Popery with its Crucifixes Monasteries Reliques Sacrifice that is the Mass and the like Apage nugas What do we talk of tother-day things when we speak of the first news of Christianity The first planting and watering of these things was in after-Ages and their growing up to that consistency wherein they may justly be called Popery a work of many Centuries And yet I shall grant that most of them got the start in the World of that Papal Soveraignty whence Popery is peculiarly denominated But the first news we hear of Christianity is in the Gospel where there is not the least tidings of these trifles nor was there in some Ages that next succeeded the publication of it If this Gentleman give any further occasion the particulars shall be evinced to him For my part I know not how nor to whom a Papist is become odious which nextly he complains of I can and do love their persons pitty them in their mistakes hate only their vices But yet certain it is a Papist may be odious that is men may not love those parts of his Religion from whence he is so denominated without the least impeachment of that faith that extirpated Gentilism in the World It is for that faith which ruined Gentilism that we contend against Papists Let us have that and no more and there is an end of all our Contests The things we strive about sprang up since Gentilism was buryed the most of them out of its grave some from a deeper place if there be a deeper place For the practical Truths of the Papists which he complains to be abolished I was in good hope he would not have mentioned them their speculations are better then their practises whether he intends their moral Divinity or their agenda in Worshâ—p I would desire this Gentleman to mention them no more lest he hear that of them which I know he is not willing to do As for the Practical Truths of the Gospel they are maintained and asserted in the Church of England and by all Protestants and about others we are not solicitous What tendency then the Rejection of Popery which had no hand in supplanting Gentilism and which is no part of the Religion of Christ hath to the leading of men into Atheism is as hard to discover as the quadrature of a Circle or a Subterranean passage into the Indies But he gives his reasons If one truth be denyed a fair way is made to question another which came by the same hand and this a third till the very Authority of the first Revealer be at stake which can no more defend himself then he can his Law This first Revealer I take to be the Lord Christ he that grants a thing or doctrine to be taught and delivered by him yet denyes it to be true doth indeed deny his Authority However he will defend himself and his Law let men do what they please But he that denyes such a thing to be truth because it is not revealed by him nor consistent with what is revealed by him doing this out of subjection of soul and conscience to his Authority is in no danger of questioning or opposing that Authority Nay be it that it be indeed a truth which he denyes being only denyed by him because he is perswaded that it is not of Christ the first Revealer and therefore not true there is no fear of the danger threatned But the matter is That all that is brought from Christ by the same hand must be equally received It is true If it be brought from Christ by the same hand it must be so not because by the same hand but because from Christ They that preached Christ and withall that men must be circumcised had put men into a sad condition if in good sooth they had been necessitated to embrace all that they taught the same men teaching Christ to be the Messias and Circumcision to be necessary to life eternal Amongst those that were converted to the Gospel by the Jews that were zealous of the Law how easie had it been for their Teachers to have utterly frustrated St. Paul's Doctrine of Christian liberty by telling them that they could not forgo Circumcision but they must forgo Christ also for all those things they received by the same hand If indeed a man comes and delivers a Systeme of Religion upon his own Authority and Reputation only he that denyes any one point of what he delivers is in a fair way of everting all that he asserts But if he come as sent from another and affirm that this other commanded him to declare that which he delivers for Truth in his Name and produce for that end his Commission wherein all the Truths that he is to deliver are written if he deliver what he hath not received in Commission that may honestly be rejected without the least impeachment of any one Truth that was really committed unto him by him that sent him And this was the way this the condition of them who planted the Gospel in the Name of Christ not being themselves divinely inspired So that if in the second Edition of Christianity in some parts of this Nation by Austine and his Associates any thing was taught or practised that was not according to the Rule and Commission given by Christ it may be rejected without the least impeachment to the Authority of the first Revealer nay his Authority being once received cannot be preserved entire without such rejection I confess I do almost mistrust that by this Revealer of Christianity and his Authority which he discourses about our Authour intends the Pope which if so what we have discoursed of Christ is I confess to
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
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-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
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
it alone and traditions they had good store whose original they pleaded from Moses himself directing them in that interpretation Christ and his Apostles whom they looked upon as poor ignorant contemptible persons came and preacht a doctrine which that Church determined utterly contrary to the Scripture and their Traditions what shall now be answered to their Authority which was unquestionably all that ever was or shall be entrusted with any Church on the earth Our Author tells us that this great argument of the Jews could not be any way warded or put by but by recourse unto the Churches infallibility pag. 146. Which sit verbo venia is so ridiculous a pretence as I wonder how any block in his way could cause him to stumble upon it What Church I pray the Church of Christians When that argument was first used by the Jews against Christ himself it was not yet founded and if an absolute infallibility be supposed in the Church without respect to her adherence to the rule of infallibility I dare boldly pronounce that argument indissoluble and that all Christian Religion must be therein discarded If the Jewish-Church which had at that day as great Church-power and prerogative as any Church hath or can have were infallible in her Judgment that she made of Christ and his Doctrin there remains nothing but that we renounce both him and it and turn either Jews or Pagans as we were of old Here then by our Authors confession lies a plain Judgment and Definition of the only Church of God in the world against Christ and his Doctrine and it is certainly incumbent on us to see how it may be waâ—ed And this I suppose we cannot better be instructed in then by considering what was answered unto it by Christ himself his Apostles and those that succeeded them in the profession of the faith of the Gospel 1 For Christ himself its certain he pleaded his miracles the Works which he wrought and the Doctrine that he revealed but withall as to the Jews with whom he had to do he pleads the Scriptures Moses and the Prophets and offers himself and his Doctrine to be tryed to stand or fall by their verdict Joh. 5.39 46. Mat. 22.42 Luk. 24.27 I say besides the testimony of his Works and Doctrine to their authority of the Church he opposeth that of the Scripture which he knew the other ought to give place unto And it is most vainly pretended by our Author in the behalf of the Jews that the Messias or great Prophet to come was not in the Scripture specified by such Characteristicall Properties as made it evident that Jesus was the Messiah all the descriptions given of the one and they innumerable undeniably centring in the other The same course steered the Apostle Peter Act. 2. 3. And expresly in his second Epistle chap. 2. v. 17 18 19. And Paul Act. 13.16 17 c. And of Apollos who openly disputed with the Jews upon this Argument it is said that he mightily convinced the Jews publickly shewing by the Scripture that Jesus is the Christ Act. 18.28 And Paul perswaded the Jews concerning Jesus at Rome both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning until evening Act. 28.23 Concerning which labour and disputation the censure of our Author p. 149. is very remarkable There can be no hope saith he of satisfying a Querent or convincing an Opponent in any point of Christianity unless he will submit to the splendor of Christs Authority in his own Person and the Church descended from him which I take to be the Reason why some of the Jews in Rome when St. Paul laboured so much to perswade Christ out of Moses and the Prophets believed in him and some did not Both the coherence of the words and design of the Preface and his whole scope manifest his meaning to be That no more believed on him or that some disbelieved notwithstanding all the pains he took with them And what was the reason of this failure Why St. Paul fixed on an unsuitable means of perswading them namely Moses and the Prophets when he should have made use of the Authority of the Church Vain and bold man that dares oppose his prejudices to the Spirit and Wisdom of Christ in that great and holy Apostle and that in a way and work wherein he had the express pattern and example of his Master If this be the Spirit that rules in the Roman-Synagogue that so puffes up men in their fleshly minds as to make them think themselves wiser then Christ and his Apostles I doubt not but men will every day find cause to rejoyce that it is cast out of them and be watchful that it return to possess them no more But this is that which galls the man The difficulty which he proposeth as insoluble by any wayes but an acquiescing in the Authority of the present Church he finds assoyled in Scripture on other Principles This makes him fall soul on St. Paul whom he finds most frequent in answering it from Scripture not considering that at the same time he accuseth St. Peter of the like folly though he pretend for him a greater reverence However this may be said in defence of St. Paul that by his Arguments about Christ and the Gospel from Moses and the Prophets many thousands of Jews all the World over were converted to the Faith when it 's hard to meet with an instance of one in an age that will any way take notice of the Authority of the Roman-Church But to return this was the constant way used by the Apostles of answering that great difficulty pleaded by our Author from the Authority of the Hebrew-Church They called the Jews to the Scripture the plain Texts and Contexts of Moses and the Prophets opposing them to all their Churches real or pretended Authority and all her Interpretations pretended to be received by Tradition from of old so fixing this for a perpetual standing Rule to all Generations that the Doctrine of the Church is to be examined by the Scripture and where it is found contradictory of it her authority is of no value at all it being annexed unto her attendance on that Rule But it may be replyed That the Church in the dayes of the Apostles was not yet setled nor made firm enough to bear the weight that now may be laid upon it as our Author affirms pag. 149. So that now the great Resolve of all doubts must be immediately upon the Authority of the present Church after that was once well cleared the fathers of old pleaded that only in this case and removed the Objections of the Jews by that alone I am perswaded though our Author be a great admirer of the present Church he is not such a stranger to Antiquity as to believe any such thing Is the Authority of the Church pleaded by Justine Martyr in that famous dispute with Trypho the Jew wherein these very Objections instanced by our
for himself without order from any Protestant when he sets up an excuse for this change in them by a relinquishment of their first Principles and re-assuming Popish ones for their defence against the Presbyterians He that set him a work may pay him his wages Protestants only tell him that what was never done needs never be excused Nor will they give him any more thanks for the plea he interposes in the behalf of Episcopacy against Presbyterians and Independents being interwoven with a plea for the Papacy and managed by such arguments as end in the exaltation of the Roman-See and that partly because they know that their Adversaries will be easily able to disprove the feigned Monarchical Government of the Church under one Pope and to prove that that fancy really everts the true and only Monarchical State of the Church in reference to Christ knowing that Monarchy doth not signifie two heads but one and partly because they have better Arguments of their own to plead for Episcopacy then those that he suggests here unto them or then any man in the world can supply them with who thinks there is no communication of Authority from Christ to any on the Earth but by the hands of the Pope So that upon the whole matter they desire him that he would attend his own business not immix their cause in the least with his which tends so much to their weakning disadvantage If this may be granted which is but reasonable they will not much be troubled about his commendation of the Pope pag. 178. as the Substitute of Christ our only visible Pastor the chief Bishop of the Catholick Church presiding ruling and directing in the place of Christ and the like elogium's being resolved when he goes about to prove any thing that he sayes that they will consider of it But he must be better known to them then he is before they will believe him on his bare word in things of such importance and some suppose that the more he is known the less he will be believed But that he may not for the present think himself neglected we will run over the heads of his plea pretended for Episcopacy really to assert the Papal Soveraignty First he pleads That the Christian Church was first Monarchical under one Soveraign Bishop when Christ who sounded it was upon the Earth True and so it is still There is one sheepfold one Shepherd and Bishop of our souls he that was then bodily present having promised That presence of Himself with his Church to the end of the World wherein he continues its one Soveraign Bishop And although the Apostles after him had an equality of power in the Church among themselves as Bishops after them have also yet this doth not denominate the Government of the Church Aristocratical no more then the equality of the Lords in Parliament can denominate the Government of this Kingdom to be so The denomination of any Rule is from him or them in whom the Soveraignty doth reside not from any subordinate Rulers So is the Rule of the Church Monarchical The subversion of this Episcopacy we acknowledge subverts the whole Polity of the Church and so all her Laws and Rule with the guilt whereof Protestants charge the Romanists He addes It will not suffice to say that the Church is still under its Head Christ who being in Heaven hath his spiritual influences over it It will not indeed But yet we suppose that his presence with It by his Spirit and Laws will suffice Why should it not Because the true Church of Christ must have the very same Head she had at first or else she cannot be the same Body Very good and so she hath the very same Christ that was crucified for her and not another But that Head was Man-God Personally present in both his Natures here on Earth But is he not I pray the same Man-God still the same Christ though the manner of his presence be altered This is strange that being the same as he was and being presert still one circumstance of the manner of his presence should hinder him from being the same head I cannot understand the Logick Reason nor Policy of this Inference Suppose we should on these trisling instances exclude Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday to day and for ever from being the same Head of his Church as he was Will the Pope supply his room Is he the same Head that Christ was Is he God-Man bodily present or what would you have us to conclude A visible Head or Bishop if the Church hath not now over her as at first she had she is not the same she was and consequently in the way to ruine This too much alters the Question At first it was that she must have the same Head she had at first or she is not the same Now that she must have another Head that is not the same or she is not the same For the Pope is not Jesus Christ. These arguings hang together like a rope of Sand And what is built on this foundation which indeed is so weak that I am ashamed further to contend with it will of its own accord fall to the ground CHAP. XI Scripture and new Principles THe next Paragraph p. 182. is a naughty one A business it is spent in and about that I have now often advised our Author to meddle with no more If he will not for the future take advice I cannot help it I have shewed my good will towards him It is his debating of the Scripture and its Authority which I intend This with the intertexture of some other gentle suppositions is the subject of this and the following Section And because I will not tire my self and Reader in tracing what seems of concernment in this Discourse backward and forward up and down as it is by him dispersed and disposed to his best advantage in dealing with unwary men I shall draw out the Principles of it that he may know them where ever he meets them though never so much masked and disguised or never so lightly touched on and also what judgment to pass upon them Their foundation being so taken away these Sections if I mistake not will sink of themselves Some of these Principles are co-incident with those general ones insisted on in the entrance of our Discourse others of them are peculiar to the design of these Paragraphs The first I shall only point unto the latter briefly discuss 1. It is supposed in the whole Discourse of these Sections That from the Roman Church so stated as now it is or from the Pope we here in England first received the Gospel which is the Romanists own Religion and theirs by donation from them whom they have here pleased to accommodate with it This animates the whole and is besides the special life of almost every sentence A lifeless life for that there is not a syllable of truth in it hath been declared before nor
were it so that by the Ministry of the Roman-Church of old the Faith was first planted in these Nations would that one inch promote our Author's pretensions unless he could prove that they did not afterwards lose or corrupt at least that which they communicated unto us which he knows to be the thing in Question and not to be granted upon request though made in never so handsome words To say then That the Gospel is the Romanists own Religion from them you had it you contend about that which is none of your own hear them whose it is from whom you had it who have the precedency before you is but to set up scare-Crows to fright fools and children Men who have any understanding of things past know that all this bluster and noyse comes from emptiness of any solid matter or substance to be used in the case 2. It is also doughtily supposed That whatever is spoken of the Churnh in the Scripture belongs to the Roman Church and that alone The Priviledges the Authority the Glory of the Church are all theirs as the madd-man at Athens thought all the Ships to be his that came into the Harbour I suppose he will not contend but that if you deny him this all that he hath said besides is to little purpose And I believe he cannot but take it ill that any of his Readers should call him to an account in that which he every where puts out of question But this he knew well enough that all Protestants deny that they grant no one priviledge of the Catholick Church as such to belong to the Roman All that any of them will allow her is but to be a putrid corrupt member of it some say cut off dead and rotten But yet that the Catholick Church and the Roman are the same must be believed or you spoil all his market The Church is before the Gospel gives testimony unto it none could know it but by her Authority nothing can be accepted as such but what she sets her seals unto so that to destroy the Church is to destroy the Gospel What then I pray Suppose all this and all the rest of his Assertions about the Church pag. 199 200 c. to be true as some of them are most blasphemously false yet What is all this to his purpose Why this is the Roman-Church of which all these things are spoken It may be the Roman-Church indeed of which much of it is spoken even all that is sinfully derogatory to the glory of Christ and his Apostles upon whom and whose Authority the Church is built and not their Authority on it Ephes. 2.18 19 20. But what is truly spoken in the Scripture of the Church doth no more belong to the Roman then to the least Assembly of Believers under Heaven wherein the Essence of a true Church is preserved if it belongs unto it at all And yet this rude Pretence and palpable Artifice is the main Engine in this Section applyed to the removal of men from the Basis of the Scripture The Church the Church the Roman-Church the Roman-Church and these forsooth are supposed to be one and the same and the Pope to have Monopolized all the priviledges of the Church contrary to express Statute-law of the Gospel Hence he pretends That if to go out from the Catholick be evil then not to come into the Roman is evil when indeed the most ready way to go out of the Catholick is to go into the Roman 3. Moreover it is taken for granted That the Roman Church is every way what it was when first planted Indeed if it were so it would deserve as much particular respect as any Church of any City in the World and that would be all As it is the case is altered But its unalteredness being added to the former Supposition of its Oneliness and Catholicism it is easie to see what sweet work a witty man as our Author is may make with this Church among good company Many and many a time have the Romanists attempted to prove these things but failing in their attempt they think it now reasonable to take them for granted The Religion they now profess must be that which first entered England and there saith our Author it continued in peace for a thousand years when the truth is after the entrance of their Religion that is the corruption of Christianity by Papal usurpations these Nations never passed one age without tumults turmoils contentions disorders nor many without wars bloud and devastations and those arising from the Principles of their Religion 4. To this is added That the Bible is the Pope's own Book which none can lay claim to but by and from him This will be found to be a doubtful assertion and it will be difficult to conclude aright concerning it He that shall consider what a worthy person the Pope is represented to be by our Author especially in his just dealing and mercifulness so That he never did any man wrong and shall take notice how many he hath caused to be burned to death for having and using the Bible without his consent must need suppose that it is his Book For surely his heavenly mind would not have admitted of a provocation to such severity unless they had stoln his goods out of his Possession But on the other side he that shall weigh aright his vilifying under-valuing of it his preferring himself and Church before and above it seeing we are all apt to set a high price upon that which is our own may be ready to question whether indeed he have such a property in it as is pretended Having somewhat else to do I shall not interpose my self in this difference nor attempt to determine this difficulty but leave it as I find it free for every man to think as he seeth cause 5. But that which is the chief ingredieet of these Sections is the plea that We know not the Scripture to be the word of God but by the Church that is the present Church of Rome which he manageth by urging sundry objections against it and difficulties which men meet withall in their enquiry whether it be so or no. Nor content with that plea alone he interweaves in his discourse many expressions and comparisons tending directly to the slighting and contempt both of its Penmen and Matter which is said to be Laws Poems Sermons Histories Letters Visions several fancies in a diversity of composure the whole a book whereby men may as well prove their negative in denying the immortality of the soul heaven or hell or any other thing which by reason of many intricacies are very difficult if not impossible at all to be understood see p. 190 191 192 c. Concerning all which I desire to know whether our Author be in good earnest or no or whether he thinks as he writes or whether he would only have others to believe what he writes that he may serve his turn upon their credulity If
brought no other Religion with him then what was taught by Peter and Paul and the rest of the Apostles and Evangelists in other parts of the World What Religion men taught vivâ voce in any age is best known by their Writings if they left any behind them No other way have the Romanists themselves nor other do they use in judging what was the Doctrine of the Fathers in the following ages The writings of the Apostles are still extant by them alone can we judge of the Doctrine that they preached That Doctrine then unquestionably taught Joseph in Brittain and that Doctrine blessed be God is still owned and professed amongst us All and only what is contained in their Writings is received with us as necessary to Salvation This Conversion was wholly ours Quod antiquissimum id verissimum Being the first it was certainly the best Our Author indeed tells us of Crosses Shrines Oratories Altars Monasteries Vigils Emberâ— honouring of Saints you must suppose all in the Roman-mode making Oblations and Orisons for the dead and that this was the Religion in those dayes planted amongst us If this be so I wonder what we do to keep the Bible which speaks not one word of that Religion which the Apostles and Apostolical men preached Strange that in all their writings they should not once mention the main parts and duties of the Doctrines and Worship which they taught and propagated that Paul in none of his Epistles should in the least give the Churches any direction in or concerning the things and ways wherein their Worship principally consisted and their Devotion was chiefly exercised but how comes our Author to know that these things in the Roman-mode were brought into England at the first entrance of Christianity Would he would give us a little Information from what Writings or Monuments of those times he acquired his knowledge I know it is unreasonable to put an Historian to his Oath but yet unless he can plead that he received his acquaintance with things that are so long past by inspiration as Moses wrote the Story of the Creation and Ages before the Floud being destitute of any other Monuments or Testimony that might give evidence to what he says I hope he will not be offended if we suspend our belief Solus enim hoc Ithacus nullo sub teste canebat This first conversion then as was said is wholly ours it neither came from Rome nor knew any thing of that which is the present Religion of Rome wherein they differ from us That which is tearmed our second Conversion is the Preaching of Damianus and Fugatius sent hither by Eleutherius Bishop of Rome in the dayes of King Lucius in the year 190. as our Author saith Beda 156. Nauclerus Baronius 178. Henricus de Erfordia 169. in the dayes of Aurelius or Commodus I have many reasons to question this whole Story And sundry parts of it as those about the Epistles of Lucius and Eleutherius are palpably fictitious But let us grant that about those dayes Fugatius and Damianus came hither from Rome and furthered the Preaching of the Gospel which had taking footing here so long before and was no doubt preserved amongst many We know God in his Providence used many various wayes for the propagating of his Gospel Sometimes he did it by Merchants sometimes by Souldiers sometimes by Captives as a poor Maid gave occasion to the Conversion of a whole Province What will hence ensue to the advantage of the pretensions of the Romanists The Religion they planted here was doubtless that and no other which was then professed at Rome and in most other places in the world with some small differences in outward observances wherein each Church took liberty to follow Traditions or Prudential Reasonings of its own When our Author or any for him can make it appear that any thing material in that which we call Popery was in those days taught believed preached or known among the Churches of Christ they will do somewhat to the purpose But the present flourish about the Catholick Faith planted here which no man ever denyed is to none at all It was the old Catholick Faith we at first received and therefore not the present Romish After those dayes wherein this Propagation of Christianity by the Ministry of Fugatius and Damianus in this Province is supposed to have fallen out a sad decay in faith and holiness of life befel Professors not only in this Nation but for the most part all the world over which especially took place after God had graciously in the Conversion of the Emperours to the Faith intrusted them with outward Peace and Prosperity I desire not to make naked their miscarriages whom I doubt not but in mercy God hath long since pardoned but it cannot be denyed that the Stories of those dayes are full of nothing more then the oppressions luxury and sloth of Rulers the Pride Ambition and unseemly scandalous contests for preheminence of Sees and extent of Jurisdiction among Bishops the sensuality and ignorance of the most of men In this season it was that the Bishop of Rome advantaged by the Prerogative of the City the antient Seat and Spring of the Empire began gradually to attempt a Super-intendency over his Brethren according as any advantages for that end which could not be wanting in the intestine Tumults and Seditions wherewith Christians were turmoyled offered themselves unto him Where-ever an opportunity could be spyed he was still interposing his Umpirage and Authority amongst them and that sometimes not without sinful Arâ—ifices and down-right forgeries wherein he was alwayes accepted or refused according as the Interest of them required with whom he had to do What the lives of Priests and People what their knowledge and profession of the Gospel of the poor Brittains especially in those dayes were our own Countrey-man Gildas doth sufficiently testifie and bewail Salvianus doth the same for other parts of the world And generally all the pious men of those ages whilst the Priests strove for Soveraignty and Power the people perished through ignorance and sensuality Neither can we possibly have a more full conviction of what was the state of Christians and Christianity in those dayes in the world than may be seen and read in the horrible Judgments of God wherewith he punished their wickedness and ingratitude When he could no longer bear the provocations of his people he stirred up those swarms of Northern Nations Goths Vandals Hunnes Franks Longobards Alans Saxons c. Some few of them Arians the most Pagans and poured them out upon the Western Empire to the utter ruine of it and the Division of the Provinces amongst themselves After a while these fierce cruel and barbarous Nations having executed the Judgments of God against the ungodliness of men seating themselves in the warmer Climates of those whom they had in part subdued in part exstirpated as is the manner of all persons in transmigration from one Countrey to another began to
by a proclamation of the late Tumults Seditions and Rebellions in these Nations which he ascribes to the Puritans He hath got an advantage and it is not equal we should perswade him to forego it only I desire prudent men to consider what the importance of it is as to this case in hand for as to other considerations of the same things they fall not within the compass of our present discourse It 's not of Professions but of persons that he treats The crimes he insists on attend not any avowed Principles but the men that have professed them And if a rule of chusing or leaving Religion may from thence be gathered I know not any in the world that any can embrace much less can they rest in none at all Professors of all Religions have in their seasons sinfully miscarried themselves and troubled the world with their lusts and those who have professed none most of all And of all that is called Religion that of the Romanists might by this rule be first cashiered The abominable bestial lives of very many of their chief Guids in whom they believe the Tumults Seditions Wars Rebellions they have raised in the World the Treasons Murders Conspiracies they have countenanced encouraged and commended would take up not a single Paragraph of a little Treatise but innumerable Volumes should they be but briefly reported they do so already and which renders them abominable whilest there is any in the world that see reason not to submit themselves unto the Papal Soveraignty their professed Principles lead them to the same courses and when men are brought to all the bestial subjection aimed at yet pretences will not be wanting to set on foot such practises They were not in former dayes when they had obtained an uncontrouleable omnipotency If our Author supposeth this a rational way for the handling of differences in Religion that leaving the consideration of the Doctrines and Principles we should insist on the vices and crimes of those who have professed them I can assure him he must expect the least advantage by it to his party of any in the world nor need we chuse any other Scene than England to try out our contests by this rule I hope when he writes next he will have better considered this matter and not flatter himself that the crimes of any Protestants do enable him to conclude as he doth that the only way for Peace is an extermination of Protestancy and so his tale about Religion is ended he next brings himself on the stage CHAP. XIV Popish Contradictions THis is our last task our Author 's own Story of himself and rare observations in the Roman-Religion make up the close of his Discourse and merit in his thoughts the title of Discovery The design of the whole is to manifest his Catholick Religion to be absolutely unblameable by wiping off some spots and blemishes that are cast upon it indeed by gilding over with fair and plansible words some parts of their profession worship which he knew to be most liable to the exceptions of them with whom he intends to deal His way of managing this Design that he may seem to do something new is by telling a fair tale of himself and his Observations with the effects they had upon him which is but the putting of a a new tune to an old Song that hath been chanted at our doors these 100. years and some he hopes are so simple as to like the new tune though they were sick of the old Song His entrance is a blessing of the world with some knowledg of himself his Parentage Birth and Education and proficiency in his Studies as not doubting but that great enquiry must needs be made after the meanest concernments of such an Hero as by his acchievements and travails he hath manifested himself to be And indeed he hath so handsomly and delightfully given us the Romance of himself and Popery that it was pitty he should so unhappily stumble at the threshold as he hath done and fall upon a misadventure that to some men wil render the design of his discourse suspected For whereas he doth else-where most confidently averr that no trouble ever was raised amongst us by the Romanists here at unawares he informs us that his own Grand-father lost both his life and his estate in a Rebellion raised in the North on the account of that Religion Just as before attempting to prove that we received Christianity originally from Rome he tells us that the first Planters of it came directly from Palestina It is in vain for him to perswade us that what hath been can never be again unless he manifest the Principles which formerly gave it life and being to be vanished out of the world which as to those of the Romanists tending to the disturbance of these Kingdoms I fear he is not able to doe There is not any thing else which Protestants are universally bound to observe in the course of his life before he went beyond the Seas but only the offence he took at men's preaching at London against Popery not that he was then troubled if we may believe him that Popery was ill reported of but the miscarriage of the Preachers in bringing in the Papal Church hand over-head in their Sermons speaking all evil and no good of it and charging it with contradictions was that which gave him distaste He knows himself best what it was that troubled him nor shall I set up conjectures against his assertions The triple evil mentioned so farr as it is evil I hope he finds now remedyed For my part I never liked of mens importune diversions from their Texts to deal with or confute Papists which is the first part of the evil complained of I know a farr more effectual way to preserve men from Popery namely a solid instruction of them in the Principles of Truth with an endeavour to plant in their hearts the power of those Principles that they may have experience of their worth and usefulness That nothing but evil was spoken of Popery by Protestants when they spake of it I cannot wonder they account nothing evil in the Religion of the Romanists but Popery which is the name of the evil of that Religion Noe Protestants ever denyed but that the Romanists retained many good things in the Religion which they profess but those good things they say are no part of Popery so that our Author should not by right have been so offended that men spake no good of that which is the expression of the evil of that which in its self is good as Popery is of the Papists Christianity The last parcel of that which was the matter of his trouble and offence he displayes by sundry of the contradictions which Protestants charged Popery withal To little purpose for either the things he mentions are not by any charged on Popery or not in that manner he expresseth or the contradiction between them consists not in the assertions
beautiful and according to the mind of God If our Author be able to make a right Judgement of these things and find them really abounding amongst his party I hope we shall rejoyce with him though we knew the Spring of them is not their Popery but their Christianity For the outside-shews he hath as yet instanced in they ought not in the least to have influenced his Judgement in that disquisition of the Truth wherein he pretends he was engaged He could not of old have come amongst the Professors and Mystae of those false Religions which by the light and power of the Gospel are now banished out of the World where he should not have met with the same Vizards and appearances of Devotion so that hitherto we find no great discoveries in his Messach From the Worship of the Parties compared he comes to their Preaching and finds them as differing as their devotion The Preaching of Protestants of all sorts is sorry pittiful stuffe Inconsequent words senseless notions or at least Rhetorical flourishes make it up the Catholicks grave and pithy Still all this belongs to persons not things Protestants preach as well as they can and if they cannot preach so well as his wiser Romanists it is their unhappiness not their fault But yet I have a little reason to think that our Author is not altogether of the mind that here he pretends to be of but that he more hates and fears then despises the Preaching of Protestants He knows well enough what mischief it hath wrought his Party though prejudice will not suffer him to see what good it hath done the world and therefore doubting as I suppose lest he should not be able to prevail with his Readers to believe him in that which he would fain it may be but cannot believe himself about the excellency of the Preaching of his Catholicks above that of Protestants he decryes the whole work as of little or no use or concernment in Christian Religion This it had been fair for him to have openly pleaded and not to have made a flourish with that which he knew he could make no better work of Nor is the preaching of the Protestants as is pretended unlike that of the Antients The best and most famous Preacher of the antient Church whose Sermons are preserved was Chrysostom We know the way of his proceding in that work was to open the words and meaning of his Text to declare the Truth contained and taught in it to vindicate it from Objections to confirm it by other Testimonies of Scripture and to apply all unto practise in the close And as farr as I can observe this in general is that method used by Protestants being that indeed which the very nature of the work dictates unto them wherefore mistrusting lest he should not be able to bring men out of love with the Preaching of Protestants in comparison of the endeavours of his Party in the same kind he turns himself another way and labours to perswade us as I said that preaching its self is of little or no use in Christian Religion for so he may serve his own design he cares not it seems openly to contradict the practise of the Church of God ever since there was a Church in the world To avoid that Charge he tells us That the Apostles and Apostolical Churches had no Sermons but all their Preaching was meerly for the Conversion of men to the faith and when this was done there was an end of their preaching and for this he instanceth in the Sermons mentioned in the Acts ch 2 3 5 10 7 8 13 14 16 18 19 20 22 24 26 28. I wonder what he thinks of Christ himself whether he preached or no in the Temple or in the Synagogues of the Jews and whether the Judaical Church to whose Members he preached were not then a true yea the only Church in the world and whether Christ was not anointed and sent to preach the Gospel to them If he know not this he is very ignorant if he doth know it he is somewhat that deserves a worse name To labour to exterminate that out of the Religion of Christ which was one of the chief works of Christ for we do not read that he went up and down singing Mass though I have heard of a Fryer that conceived that to be his imployment is a work unbecoming any man that would count himself wronged not to be esteemed a Christian. But what ever Christ did it may be it matters not the Apostles and Apostolical Churches had no Sermons but only such as they preached to Infidels and Jews to convert them that is they did not labour to instruct men in the knowledge of the mysteries of the Gospel to build them up in their Faith to teach them more and more the good knowledg of God revealing unto them the whole counsel of his will And is it possible that any man who hath ever read over the New Testament or any one of Paul's Epistles should be so blinded by prejudicies and made so confident in his assertions as to dare in the face of the Sun whilst the Bible is in every ones hand to utter a matter so devoid of truth and all colour or pretence of probability Methinks men should think it enough to sacrifice their consciences to their Moloch without casting wholly away their reputation to be consumed in the same flames It is true the design of the story of the Acts being to deliver unto us the progress of the Christian faith by the Ministry of the Apostles insists principally on those Sermons which God in an especial manner blessed to the conversion of souls and encrease of the Church thereby but Is there therefore no mention made of Preaching in it to the edification of their Converts or Is there no mention of Preaching unless it be said that such a one preached at such a time so long on such a Text When the people abode in the Apostles Doctrine Acts 2.42 I think the Apostle taught them And the Ministry of the Word which they gave themselves unto was principally in reference unto the Church Ch. 7.4 So Peter and John preached the Word to those whom Philip had converted at Samaria Ch. 18.25 A whole year together Paul and Barnabas assembled themselves together with the Church of Antioch and taught much people Ch. 12.26 At Troas Paul preached unto them who came together to break bread that is the Church until midnight Ch. 20.7 9. which why our Author calls a dispute or what need of a dispute there was when only the Church was assembled neither I nor he do know And ver 20. 27. he declares that his main work and employment was constant Preaching to the Disciples and Churches giving commands to the Elders of the Churches to do the same And what his practice was during his imprisonment at Rome the close of that book declares And these not footsteps but express examples of and precepts
to whom her Son hath committed the administration of Mercy keeping that of Justice to himself with many other the like horrid blasphemies which he shall hear more of if he desire it But in stead of this difficult task he takes up one which it seems he looked on as far easier falsly to accuse Protestants of blaspheming her We usually smile in England at a short answer that one is said to have given Bellarmine's works I hope I may say without offence that if it were not uncivil it might suffice for an answer to this Paragraph But though most men will suppose that our Author hath overshot himself and gone too far in his Charge he himself thinks he hath not gone far enough as well knowing there are some bounds which when men have passed their only course is to set a good face upon the matter and to dare on still Wherefore to convince us of the truth of what he had delivered concerning Protestants reviling and blaspheming the blessed Virgin he tels us that it is no wonder seeing some of them in forrain parts have uttered words against the very honour of Jesus Christ himself To make this good Calvin is placed in the Van who is said to taunt at His ignorance and passion and too much haste for his breakfast when he curst the figtree who if as is pretended he had studyed Catholick Divines they would have taught him a more modest and pious interpretation It is quite beside my purpose and nature of the present discourse to recite the words of private men and to contend about their sense and meaning I shall therefore only desire the Reader that thinks himself concerned in this report to consult the place in Calvin pointed unto and if he finds any such taunts as our Author mentions or any thing delivered concerning our Lord Christ but what may be confirmed by the Judgement of all the antient Fathers and many learned Romanists I will be content to lose my reputation with him for any skill in judging at the meaning of an Author But what thoughts he will think meet to retain for this informer I leave to himself What Catholick Divines Calvin studyed I know not but I am sure if some of those whom his adviser accounts so had not studyed him they had never stole so much out of his Comments on the Scripture as they have done The next primitive Protestants that are brought in to make good this charge are Servetus Gibraldus Lasmaninus and some other Anti-trinitarian Hereticks in opposition to whose errors both in their first rise and after-progress under the management of Faustus Socinus and his followers Protestants all Europe over have laboured far more abundantly and with far greater success then all his Roman-Catholicks It seems they must now all pass for primitive Protestants because the interest of the Catholick-cause requires it should be so This is a communicable branch of Papal Omnipotency to make things and persons to be what they never were From them a return is made again to Luther Brentius Calvin Swinglius who are said to nibble at Arianism and shoot secrets darts at the Trinity though all impartial men must needs confess that they have asserted and proved the Doctrine of it far more solidly then all the Schoolmen in the world were able to do But the main weight of the discourse of this Paragraph lies upon the prety tale in the close of it about a Protestant Bishop and a Catholick Boy which he must be a very Cato that can read without smiling It is a little too long to transcribe and I cannot tell it over again without spoyling of it having never had that faculty in gilding of little stories wherein our Author excelleth The sum is that the boy being reproved by the Bishop for saying a Prayer to her boggled at the repetition of her name when he came to repeat his Creed and cryed My Lord here she is again what shall I do with her now To whom the Bishop replyed You may let her passe in your Creed but not in your Prayers Whereupon our Author subjoyns as though we might have Faith but neither Hope nor Charity for her Certainly I suppose my Countrimen cannot but take it ill that any man should suppose them such stupid blockheads as to be imposed on with Sophistry that they may feel through a pair of Mittens Tam vacui capitis populum Phaeaca putasti For my part I can scarce think it worth the while to relieve men that will stoop to so naked a lure But that I may pass on I will cast away one word which nothing but gross stupidity can countenance from needlesseness The blessed Virgin is mentioned in the Creed as the person of whom our Saviour was born and we have therefore faith for her that is we believe that Christ was born of her but do we therefore believe in her Certainly no more then we do in Pontius Pilate concerning whom we believe that Christ was crucified under him A bare mention in the Creed with reference to somewhat else believed in is a thing in its self indifferent and we see occasionally befell the best of Women and one of the worst of Men and what Hope and Charity should we thence conclude that we ought to have for her We are past charitable hopes that she is for ever blessed in heaven having full assurance of it But if by Hope for her he means the placing of our hope trust and confidence in her so as to pray unto her as his meaning must be how well this follows from the place she hath in the Creed he is not a man who is not able to judge CHAP. XVII Images SECT 24. THe next excellency of the roman-Roman-Church which so exceedingly delighted our Author in his travails is their Images It was well for him that he travailed not in the days of the Apostles nor for 4 or 500 years after their decease Had he done so and in his choice of a Religion would have been influenced by Images and Pictures he had undoubtedly turned Pagan or else a Gnostick for those pretended Christians indeed wretches worse then Pagans as Epiphanius informes us had got Images of Christ which they said were made in the dayes of Pontius Pilate if not by him Their Temples being richly-furnished and adorned with them whilst Christian Oratories were utterly destitute of them To forward also his inclination he would have found them not the representations of ordinary men but of famous Hero's renowned throughout the whole World for their noble acchievements and inventions of things necessary to humane life and those pourtrayed to the life in the performance of those actions which were so useful to mankind and by which they had stirred up just admiration of their virtue in all men Moreover he would have found their learned men profound Philosophers devout Priests and Virgins contemning the Christians for want of those helps to devotion towards God which in those Images they
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
speech So doth our Author advance his Wisdom and Judgment above the Wisdom and Judgment of all Churches and Nations that ever embraced the Faith of Christ for a 1000 years all which notwithstanding what there is of truth in any of his insinuations judged it their duty to translate the Scripture into their Mother Tongues very many of which Translations are extant even to this day Besides he concludes with us in general ambiguors terms as all along in other things his practice hath been What means he by the Bible's own Sacred phrase opposed to a prophane and common one Would not any man think that he intended the Originals wherein it was written but I dare say if any one will ask him privately he will give them another account and let them know that it is a Translation which he adorns with those Titles so that upon the matter he tells us that seeing the Bible cannot be without all the inconveniences mentioned it 's good for us to lay aside the Originals and make use only of a Translation or at least preferre a Translation before them What shall we do with those men that speak such Swords and Daggers and are well neither full nor fasting that like the Scripture neither with a Translation nor without it Moreover I fear he knows not well what he means by its own Sacred phrase and a prophane common one Is it the Syllables and words of this or that language that he intends How comes one to be Sacred another prophane and common The languages wherein the Scriptures were originally written have been put to as bad uses as any under Heaven nor is any Language prophane or common so as that the Worship of God performed in it should not be accepted with him That there is a frequent loss of Propriety and amplitude of meaning in Translations we grant That the Scriptures by Translations if good true and significant according to the capacity and expressiveness of the Languages whereinto they are translated are divested of the Majesty Holiness and Spirit is most untrue The Majesty Holiness and Spirit of the Scriptures lyes not in words and Syllables but in the Truths themselves expressed in them and whilest these are incorruptedly declared in any language the Majesty of the Word is continued It is much that men preferring a Translation before the Originals should be otherwise minded especially that Translation being in some parts but the Translation of a Translation and that the most corrupt in those parts which I know extant And this with many fine words prety Allusions and Similitudes is the sum of what is pleaded by our Author to perswade men to forgo the greatest priviledg which from Heaven they are made partakers of the most necessary radical duty that in their whole lives is incumbent on them It is certain that the giving out of the holy Scripture from God is an effect of infinite love and mercy I suppose it no less certain that the end for which he gave it was that men by it might be instructed in the knowledge of his will and their obedience that they owe unto him that so at length they may come to the enjoyment of him This it self declares to be its end I think also that to know God his mind and Will to yield him the obedience that he requires is the bounden duty of every man as well as to enjoy him is their blessedness And can they take it kindly of those who would shut up this gift of God from them whether they will or no or be well pleased with them that go about to perswade them that it is best for them to have it kept by others for them without their once looking into it If I know them aright this Gentleman will not find his Countrey-men willing to part with their Bibles on such easie tearms From the Scripture concerning which he affirmeth That it lawfully may and in reason ought and in practise ever hath been segregated in a language not common to vulgar ears all which things are most unduly affirmed and because we must speak plainly falsly he proceeds to the worship of the Church and pleads that that also ought to be performed in such a language It were a long and tedious business to follow him in his guilding over this practise of his Church we may make short work with him As he will not pretend that this practise hath the least countenance from Scripture so if he can instance in any Church in the world that for 500 years at least after it set out in the use of a Worship the Language whereof the people did not understand I will cease this contest What he affirms of the Hebrew Church keeping her Rites in a language differing from the Vulgar whether he intend before or after the Captivity is so untrue as that I suppose no ingenious man would affirm it were he not utterly ignorant of all Judaical Antiquity which I had cause to suspect before that our Author is From the dayes of Moses to the captivity of Babylon there was no Language in vulgar use among the people but only that wherein the Scripture was written and their whole Worship celebrated After the captivity though insensibly they admitted corruptions in their language yet they all generally understood the Hebrew unless it were the Hellenists for whose sakes they translated the Scripture into Greek and for the use of the residue of their people who began to take in a mixture of the Syro-Chaldean Language with their own the Targum were found out Besides to the very utmost period of that Church the solemn Worship performed in the Temple as to all the interest of words in it was understood by the whole people attending on God therein And in that language did the Bible lye open in their Synagogues as is evident from the offer made by them to our Saviour of their Books to read in at his first entrance into one at Capernaum These flourishes then of our Orator being not likely to have the least effect upon any who mind the Apostololical advice of taking heed lest they be beguiled with inticing words we shall not need much to insist upon them This custom of performing the Worship of God in the Congregation in a Tong unknown to the Assembly renders he tells us that great act more majestick and venerable but why he declares not A blind veneration of what men understand not because they understand it not is neither any duty of the Gospel nor any part of its Worship St. Paul tells us he would pray with the Spirit and pray with Understanding also of this Majestick shew and blind Veneration of our Author Scripture Reason Experience of the Saints of God Custom of the Antient Churches know nothing Neither is it possible to preserve in men a perpetual veneration of they know not what nor if it could be preserved is it a thing that any way belongs to Christian Religion Nor can any