the life which will be maintained in it springing only from secular advantages and inveterate prejudices would together with them decay and disappear Neither can any thing but a confidence of the ignorance of men in all things that are past yea in what was done almost by their own Grandsyres give countenance to a man in his own silent thoughts for such insinuations of quietness in the World before the Reformation The Wars Seditions Rebellions and Tumults to omit private practises that were either raised occasioned and countenanced by the Pope's absolving Subjects from their Allegiance Kings and States from their Oaths given mutually for the securing of Peace between them all in the pursuit of their own worldly interests do fill up a good part of the Stories of some ages before the Reformation What ever then is pretended things were not so peaceable and quiet in those dayes as they are now represented to men that mind only things that are present nor was their Agreement their vertue but their sin and misery being centred in blindness and ignorance and cemented with bloud V. That the first Reformers were most of them sorry contemptible Persons whose Errors were propagated by indirect means and entertained for sinister ends is in several places of this Book alledged and consequences pretended thence to ensue urged and improved But the truth is the more contemptible the Persons were that begun the work the greater glory and lustre is reflected on the work it self which points out to an higher cause then any appeared outwardly for the carrying of it on It is no small part of the Gospels glory that being promulgated by persons whom the World looked on with the greatest contempt and scorn imaginable as men utterly destitute of whatever was by them esteemed noble or honourable it prevailed notwithstanding in the minds of men to eradicate the inveterate prejudices received by Tradition from their Fathers to overthrow the antient and outward glorious Worship of the Nations and to bring them into subjection unto Christ. Neither can any thing be written with more contempt and scorn nor with greater under-valuation of the abilities or outward condition of the first Reformers then was spoken and written by the greatest and wisest and learnedst of men of old concerning the Preachers and Planters of Christianity Should I but repeat the biting Sarcasms contemptuous reproaches and scorns wherewith with plausible pretences the Apostles and those that followed them in their work of preaching the Gospel were entertained by Celsus Lucian Porphyry Julian Hierocles with many more men learned and wise I could easily manifest how short our new Masters come of them in facetious wit beguiling eloquence and fair pretences when they seek by stories jestings calumnies and false reports to expose the first Reformers to the contempt and scorn of men who know nothing of them but their names and those as covered with all the dirt they can possibly cast upon them But I intend not to tempt the Atheistical wits of any to an approbation of their sin by that complyance which the vain fancies of such men do usually afford them in the contemplation of the wit and ingenuity as they esteem it of plausible calumnies The Scripture may be heard that abundantly testifies that the Character given of the first Reformers as men poor unlearned seeking to advantage themselves by the troubling of others better greater and wiser than they in their Religion was received of the Apostles Evangelists and other Christians in the first budding of Christianity But the truth is all these are but vain pretences those knew of old and these do now that the Persons whom they vilifie and scorn were eminently fitted of God for the work that they were called unto The receiving of their Opinions for sinisters end reflects principally on this Kingdom of England and must do so whilst the surmises of a few interested Fryers shall be believed by English-men before the solemn Protestation of so renowned a King as he was who first casheer'd the Popes Authority in this Nation For what he being alive avowed on his Royal word and vowed as in the sight of the Almighty God was an effect of Light and Conscience in him they will needs have to be a consequent of his lust and levity And what honour it is to the Royal Government of this Nation to have those who swayed the Scepter of it but a few years ago publickly traduced and exposed to obloquy by the Libellous Pens of obscure and unknown persons wise men may be easily able to judge This I am sure there is little probability that they should have any real regard or reverence for the present Rulers farther then they find or hope that they shall have their countenance and assistance for the furtherance of their private Interest who so revile their Predecessors for acting contrary unto it And this Loyalty the Kings Majesty may secure himself of from the most Seditious Fanatick in the Nation so highly is he beholding to these men for their duty and obedience VI. That our departure from Rome hath been the cause of all our Evils and particularly of all those Divisions which are at this day found amongst Protestants and which have been since the Reformation is a supposition that not only insinuates it self into the hidden Sophistry of our Authors Discourse but is also every where spread over the face of it with as little truth or advantage to his purpose as those that went before So the Pagans judged the Primitive Christians so also did the Jews and do to this day Here is no new task lyes before us The Answers given of old to them and yet continued to be given will suffice to these men also The truth is our Divisions are not the effect of our Leaving Rome but of our being there In the Apostasie of that Church came upon men all that darkness and all those prejudices which cause many needless Divisions amongst them And is it any wonder that men partly ledd partly driven out of the right way and turned a clean contrary course for sundry Generations should upon liberty obtained to return to their old paths somewhat vary in their choice of particular Tracts though they all agree to travail towards the same place and in general steer their course accordingly Besides let men say what they please the differences amongst the Protestants that are purely religious are no other but such as ever were and take away external force ever will be amongst the best of men whilst they know but in part however they may not be mannaged with that prudence and moderation which it is our duty to use in and about them Were not the Consequences of our Differences which arise meerly from our solly and sin of more important consideration then our differences themselves I should very little value the one or the other knowing that none of them in their own nature are such as to impeach either our present tranquillity
impenitent sinners what in the Covenant of his Grace to them that fly for refuge to the hope that is set before them even that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would give unto us the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him that the eyes of our understanding being enlightned we may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards them that believe according to the working of the might of his power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places that our hearts may be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the FULL ASSURANCE OF UNDERSTANDING to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge and by whom alone we may obtain any saving acquaintance with them who also is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true This is the Port-Haven of Protestants whatever real darkness may be about them or whatever mists may be cast on them by the sleights of men that lye in wait to deceive That they need know no more of God that they may love him fear him believe in him and come to the enjoyment of him than what he hath clearly and expresly in Christ revealed of himself by his Word Whether the storms of this Gentleman's indignation be able to drive them or the more pleasant gales of his Eloquence to entise them from this Harbour time will shew In the mean while that indeed they ought not so to do nor will do so with any but such as are resolved to steer their course by some secret distempers of their own a few strictures on the most material passages of this Chapter will discover It is scarce worth while to remark his mistake in the foundation of his discourse of the Obscurity of God as he is pleased to state the matter from that of the Prophet asserting that God is a God who hides himself or as he renders it an hidden God His own Prophet will tell him that it is not concerning the Essence of God but the Dispensation of his Love and Favour towards his People that those words were used by the Prophet of old and so are unwillingly pressed to serve in the design he hath in hand Neither are we more concerned in the ensuing Discourse of the Soul 's cleaving to God by Affection upon the Metaphysicall representation of His excellencies and perfections unto it it being purely Platonical and no way suited to the revelation made of God in the Gospel which acquaints us not with any such amiableness in God as to endear the souls of sinners unto him causing them to reach out the wings of their love after him but only as he is in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself a consideration that hath no place nor any can obtain in this flourish of words And the reason is because they are sinners and therefore without the Revelation of an Attonement can have no other apprehension of the infinitely Holy and Righteous God but as of a devouring Fire with whom no sinner can inhabite Nor yet in the aggravation of the obscurity of God from the restless endeavours of mankind in the disquisition of him who as he sayes shew their love in seeking him having at their birth an equal right to his favour which they could no wise demerit before they were born being directly contrary to the Doctrine of his own Church in the head of Original Sin That which first draws up towards the design he is in persuit of is his Determination That the issuing of mens perplexities in the investigation of this hidden God must be by some Prophet or Teacher sent from God unto men but the uncertainty of coming into any better condition thereby is so exaggerated by a contempt of those wayes and means that such Prophets have fixed on to evidence their coming forth from God by Miracles Visions Prophesies ashew of Sanctity with a concourse of Threats and Promises as that means also is cashiered from yielding us any relief Neither is there any thing intimated or offered to exempt the true Prophets of God nor the Lord Christ himself from being shuffled into the same bag with false pretenders in the close that were brought forth to play their game in this pageant Yea the difficulty put upon this help of the loss we are at in the knowledge of God by Prophets and Prophesies seems especially to respect those of the Scripture so to manifest the necessity of a further evidence to be given unto them then any they carry about them or bring with them that they may be useful to this end and purpose And this intention is manifest a little after where the Scripture is expresly reckoned among those things which all men boast of none can come to certainty or assurance by Thus are poor unstable souls ventured to the Borders of Atheism under a pretence of leading them to the Church Was this the method of Christ or his Apostles in drawing men to the Faith of the Gospel this the way of the holy men of old that laboured in the Conversion of Souls from Gentilism and Heresie Were ever such bold assaults against the immoveable Principles of Christianity made by any before Religion came to be a matter of carnal Interest Is there no way to exalt the Pope but by questioning the Authority of Christ and Truth of the Scripture Truly I am sorry that wise and considering men should observe such an irreverence of God and his Word to prevail in the spirits of men as to entertain thoughts of perswading them to desert their Religion by such presumptious Insinuations of the uncertainty of all Divine Revelation But all this may be made good on the consideration of the changes of men after their profession of this or that Religion namely That notwithstanding their former pretensions yet indeed they knew nothing at all seeing that from God and the Truth no man doth willingly depart which if it be universally true I dare say there is not one word true in the Scripture How often doth God complain in the Old-Testament that his people forsook Him for that which was not God and how many do the Apostles shew us in the New to have forsaken the Truth It is true that under the notion of God the cheifest Good and of Truth the proper object and rest of the understanding none can willingly and by choyce depart but that the mindes of men might be so corrupted and perverted by their own lusts and temptations of Satan as willingly and by choyce to forsake the one or the other to embrace that which in their stead presents it self unto them is no less
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-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
those things but only in that Tyrannical usurpation of the Popes and irregular devotions of some Votarys which latter ages produced CHAP. XIII Reformation THe story of the Reformation of Religion he distributes into three parts and allots to each a particular Paragraph the first is of its occasion and rise in general the second of its entrance into England the third of its progresse amongst us Of the first he gives us this account The pastor of Christianity upon some sollicitation of Christian Princes for a general compliance to their design sent forth in the year 1517. a plenary Indulgence in favour of the Cruciata against the Turk Albertus the Archbishop of Ments being delegated by the Pope to see it executed committed the promulgation of it to the Dominican Fryers which the Hermits of St. Augustine in the same place toâ—k ill especially Martin Luther c. Who vexed that he was neglected and undervalued fell a-writing and preaching first against Indulgencies then against the Pope c. He that had no other acquaintance with Christian Religion but what the Scriptures and antient Fathers will afford him could not buâ— be amazed at the canting Language of this Story it being impossible for him to understand any thing of it aright He would admire who this Pastor of Christianity should be what this plenary Indulgence should mean what was the preaching of plenary indulgence by Dominicans and what all this would avail against the Turk I cannot but pitty such a poor man to think what a loss he would be at like one taken from home and carried blindfold into the midst of a Wildernesse where when he opens his eies every thing scares him nothing gives him guidance or direction Let him turn again to his Bible and Fathers of the first â—or 500 years and I will undertake he shall come off from them as wise as to the true understanding of this story 〈◊〉 he went unto them The Scene in Religion is plainly changed and this appearance of an Universal Pastor Plenary indulgeâ—â—es Dominicans and Cruciata's all marching against the Turk must needs affright a man accustomed only to the Scripture-notions of Religion and those embraced by the Primitive Church And I do know that if such a man could get together two or three of the wisest Romanists in the world which were the likeliest way for him to be resolved in the signification of these hard names they would never well agree to tell him what this plenary Indulgence is But for the present as to our concernment let us take these things according to the best understanding which their framers and founders have been pleased to give us of them the Story intended to be â—old was indeed neither so nor so There was no such solicitation of the Pope by Christian Princes at that time as is pretended no Cruciata against the Turk undertaken no attempt of that nature ensued not a penny of indulgence-Money laid out to any such purpose But the short of the matter is that the Church of Mentz being not able to pay for the Archiepiscopal Pall of Albertus from Rome having been much exhausted by the purchase of one or two for other Bishops that died suddenly before the Pope grants to Albert a number of pardons of to say the truth I know not what to be sold in Germany agreeing with him that one half of the gain he would have in his own right and the other for the pall Now the Pope's Merchants that used to sell pardons for him in former dayes were the Preaching friers who upon Holy-dayes and Festivals were wont to let out their ware to the people and in plain terms to cheat them of their money and well had it been if that had been all What share in the dividend came to the venders well I know not probably they had a proportion according to the commodity that they put off which stirred up their zeal to be earnest and diligent in their work Among the rest one Fryer Tecel was so warm in his imployment and so intent upon the main end that they had all in their eye that Preaching in or about Wittenberg it sufficed him not in general to make an offer of the pardon of all sins that any had committed but to take all scruples from their Consciences coming to particular instances carryed them up to a cursed blasphemous supposition of ravishing the blessed Virgin so cocâ—sure he made of the forgiveness of any thing beneath it Provided the price were paid that was set upon the pardon Sober men being much amazed and grieved at these horrible impieties one Martin Luther a Professor of Divinity at Wittenberg an honest warm zealous Soul set himself to oppose the Fryers Blasphemies wherein his zeal was commended by all his discretion by few it being the joynt-opinion of most that the Pope would quickly have stopped his mouth by breaking his neck But God as it afterwards appeared had another work to bring about and the time of entring upon it was now fully come At the same time that Luther set himself to oppose the pardons in Germany Zwinglius did the same Switzerland And both of them taking occasion from the work they first engaged in to search the Scriptures so to find out the Truth of Religion which they discovered to be horribly abused by the Pope and his Agents proceeded farther in their discovery then at first they were aware of Many Nations Princes and people multitudes of learned and pious men up and down the world that had long groaned under the bondage of the Papal yoke and grieved for the horrible abuse of the worship of God which they were forced to see and endure hearing that God had stirred up some learned men seriously to oppose those corruptions in Religion which they saw and mourned under speedily either countenanced them or joyned themselves with them It fell out indeed as it was morally impossible it should be otherwise that multitudes of learned men undertaking without advising or consulting one with another in several farr distant Nations the discovery of the Papal Errors and the Reformation of Religion some of them had different apprehensions and perswasions in and about some points of doctrine and parts of Worship of no great weight and importance And he that shall seriously consider what was the state of things when they began their work who they were how educated what prejudices they had to wrestle with and remember withall that they were all Men will have ten thousand times more cause to admire at their agreeement in all fundamentals then at their difference about some lesser things However whatever were their personal failings and infirmities God was pleased to give testimony to the uprighâ—ness and integrity of their hearts and to bless their endeavours with such success as answered in some measure the Primitive work of planting and propagating the Gospel The small sallies of our Author upon them in some legends about what Luther should say
themselves but in some additional terms supplyed by himself to make them appear Contradictions For instance to take those given by himself if one say the Papists worship stocks and stones another say they worship a piece of Bread here is no contradiction Again If one charge them with having their Consciences affrighted with Purgatory and Domesday and Penances for their sins that they never live a quiet life another that they carry their top and top gallant so high that they will go to Heaven without Christ or as we in the Countrey phrase it trust not to his merits and righteousness alone for salvation here may be no contradiction for all Papists are not we know it well enough of the same mould and form Some may more imbibe some Principles of Religion tending in appearance to mortification some those that lead to pride and presumption and so be liable to several charges But neither are these things inconsistent in themselves Men in their greatest consternation of spirit from sense of punishment real or imaginary wherewith they are disquieted may yet proudly reject the righteousness of Christ and if our Author knows not this to be true he knows nothing of the Gospel The next instance is of the same nature One he saith affirmes that Murders Adulteries Lies Blasphemies and all sin make up the bulk of Popery another that Papists are so wholly given to good Works that they place in them excessive confidence I scarce believe that he ever heard any thus crudely charging them with either part of the imagined contradictory Proposition Taking Popery as the Protestants do for the exorbitancy of the Religion which the Romanists profess and considering the product of it in the most of mankind it may be some by an usual hyperbole have used the words first mentioned but if we should charge the Papists for being wholly given to good works we should much wrong both them and our selves seeing we perfectly know the contrary The sum of both these things brought into one is but this that many Papists in the course of a scandalously sinful life do place much of their confidence in good works which is indeed a strange contradiction in Principles between their speculation and practise but we know well enough there is none in the charge Let us consider one more one affirmed that the Pope and all his Papists fall down to pictures and commit Idolatry with them another that the Pope is so farr from falling down to any thing that he exalts himself above all that is called God and is very Antichrist If one had said he falls down to Images another that he falls not down to Images there had been a contradiction indeed but our Author by his own testimony being a Civil Logician knows well enough that the falling down in the first Proposition and that in the second are things of a divers nature and so are no contradiction A man may fall down to Images and yet refuse to submit himself to the power that God hath set over him And those of whom he speaks would have told him that a great part of the Popes exalting himself against God consists in his falling down to Images wherein he exalts his own Will and Tradition against the Will and express commands of God The same may be shewed of all the following instances nor can he give any one that shall manifest Popery to be charged by sober Protestants with any other contradictions than what appears to every eye in the inconsistency of some of their Principles one with another and of most of them with their practise In the particulars by himself enumerated there is no other shew of the charge of contradictory evils in Popery then what by his Additions and wresting expressions is put upon them Weary of such preaching in England our Author addressed himself to travail beyond the Seas where what he met withal what he observed the weight and strength of his own Conversion being laid in pretence upon it indeed an Apology for the more generally excepted against parts of his Roman practise and worship being intended and persued must be particularly considered and debated CHAP. XV. Masse SECT 22. THe Title our Author gives to his first head of Observation is Messach on what account I know not unless it be with respect to a ridiculous Hebrew Etymologie of the word Missa as though it should be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word quite of another signification If this be that which his title intends I wish him better success in his next Etymologizing for this attempt hath utterly failed him Missa never came out of the East nor hath any affinity with those tongues being a word utterly unknown to the Syrians and Graecians also by whom all Hebrew words that are used in Religion came into Europe He that will trouble himself to trace the pedigree of Missa shall find it of no such antient stock but a word that with many others came into use in the destruction of the Roman-Empire and the corruption of the Latine-tongue But as it is likely our Author having not been accustomed to feed much upon Hebrew roots might not perceive the insipidness of this pretended traduction of the word Missa so also on the other side it s not improbable but that he might only by an uncouth word think to startle his poor Countrymen at the entrance of the story of his Travels that they might look upon him as no small person who hath the Messach and such other hard names at his fingers ends as the Gnosticks heightned their Disciples into an admiration of them by Paldabâ—oth Astaphaeum and other names of the like hideous noise and found Of the Discourse upon this Messach what ever it is there are sundry parts That he begins with is a preference of the devotion of the Romanists incomparably above that of the Protestants This was the entrance of his Discovery Catholicks Bells ring oftner then ours their Churches are swept cleaner then ours yea ours in comparison of theirs are like stables to a Princely Pallace their People are longer upon their knees than ours and upon the whole matter they are excellent every way in their Worship of God we every way blame worthy and contemptible Unto all which I shall only mind him of that good old advice Let thy neighbour praise thee and not thine own mouth And as for us I hope we are not so bad but that we should rejoyce truly to hear that others were better Only we could desire that we might find their excellency to consist in things not either indifferent wholly in themselves or else disapproved by God which are the wayes that Hypocrisie usually vents it self in and then boast of what it hath done Knowledge of God and his Will as revealed in the Gospel real mortification abiding in spiritual Supplications diligent in Universal Obedience and fruitfulness in good works be as I suppose the things which render our profession
scarce a forward Emissary amongst them who cries not in such a season An ego occasionem mihi ostentatam tantam tam bonam tam optatam tam insperatam amitterem What baits and tacklings they would principally make use of was also foreknown But the way and manner which they would fix on for the mannagement of their Design now displayed in this Discourse lay not I confess under an ordinary prospect For as to what course the wisdom of men will steer them in various alterations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is no mean Prophet that can but indifferently guess But yet there wanted not some beams of light to guide men in the exercise of their Stocastick faculty even as to this also That accommodation of Religion and all its concernments unto the humours fancies and conversations of men wherewith some of late have pleased themselves and layed snares for the ruine of others did shrewdly portend what in this attempt of the same party we were to expect Of this Nature is that Poetical strain of Devotion so much applauded and prevailing in our neighbour-Kingdom whereby men ignorant of the heavenly power of the Gospel not only to resist but to subdue the strongest lusts and most towring imaginations of the sons of men do labour in soft and delicate Rhymes to attemperate Religion unto the loose and aery fancies of Persons wholly indulging their minds to vanity and pleasure A fond attempt of men not knowing how to manage the sublime spiritual severe Truths of the Gospel to the ingenerating of Faith and Devotion in the souls of sinners but yet that which they suppose is the only way left them to prevent the keeping of Religion and the most of theâ— party at a perpetual distance So Mahomet saw it necessary to go to the Mountain when the Mountain for all his calling would not come to him And of the same sort is the greatest part of the Casuistical Divinity of the Jesuits A meer accommodation of the Principles of Religion to the filthy lusts and wicked lives of men who on no other terms would resign the conduct of their souls unto them seems to be their main design in it On these effects of others he that would have pondered what a wise and observing person of the same Interest with them might apprehend of the present tempers distempers humors interests provocations fancies lives of them with whom he intends to deal could not have failed of some advantage in his conjectures at the way and manner wherein he would proceed in treating of them It is of the many of whom we speak on whose countenances and in whose lives he that runs may read provocations from former miscarriages supine negligence of spiritual and eternal concernments ignorance of â—hings past beyond what they can remember in their own dayes sloth in the disquisition of the truth willingness to be accommodated with a Religion pretended secure and unconcerned in present disputes that may save them and their sins together without further trouble delight in queint language and Poetical strains of Eloquence whereunto they are accustomed at the Stage with sundry oâ—her inward accoutâ—ements of mind not unlike to these To this frame and temper of spirin this composition of humours it was not improbable but that those who should first enter into the Lists in this design would accommodate their style and manner of procedure Nec speâ—â— fefellis expectatio The Treatise under consideration hath fully answered what ever was of conjecture in this kind Frequent repetitions of late provocations with the crimes of the provokers confident and undue assertions of things past in the dayes of old large promises of security temporal and eternal to Nations and all Individuals in them of facility in coming to perfection in Religion without more pains of teaching learning or fear of opposition all interwoven with tart Sarcasms pleasant diversions pretty Stories of himself others flourished over with a smooth and handsom strain of Rhetorick do apparently make up the bulk of our Author's discourse Nor is the Romance of his conversion much influenced by the tinckling of Bells and sweeping of Churches suited unto any other principles A matter I confess so much the more admirable because as I suppose it in the way mentioned to have bin his singular lot and good hap so it was utterly impossible that for five hundred I may say a thousand years after Christ any man should on these motives be turned to any Religion most of them being not in those days in rerum natura A way of handling Religion he hath fixed on which as I suppose he will himself acknowledge that the first Planters of it were ignorant of so I will promise him that if he can for a thousand years after they began their work instance in any one Book of an approved Catholick Author written with the same design that this is he shall have one Proselyte to his Profession which is more I suppose then otherwise he will obtain by his learned labour That this is no other but to perswade men that they can find no certainty or establishment for their Faith in Scripture but must for it devolve themselves solely on the Authority of the Pope will afterwards be made to appear nor will himself deny it But it may be it is unreasonable that when men are eagerly engaged in the persuit of their Interest we should think from former Presidents or general Rules of Sobriety with that reverence which is due to the things of the great and holy God to impose upon them the way and manner of their progress The event and end aimed at is that which we are to respect the management of their business in reference to this world and that which is to come is their own concernment No man I suppose who hath any acquaintance with the things he treats about can abstain from smiling to observe how dexterously he turns and winds himself in his Cloak which is not every ones work to dance in how he gilds over the more comely parts of his Amasia with brave suppositions presumptions and stories of things past and present where he has been in his dayes covering her deformities with a perpetual silence ever and anon bespattering the first Reformation and Reformers in his passage Yea their contentment must needs proceed to an high degree of complacence in whom compassion for the woful state of them whom so able a man judgeth like to be enveigled by such flourishes and pretences doth not excite to other affections The truth is if ever there blew a wind of Doctrine on unwary souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have an instance of it in this Discourse Such a disposposition of cogging slights various drafts in entising words is rarely met with Many I think are not able to take this course in handling the Sacred things of God and Eternal concernments of Men and more I hope dare not But our Author is another man's Servant I shall
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
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
oveâ— meas Tu es Petrus Tibi dabo claves are as weak parts of the old Plea as any made use of belonging nothing at all to the thing whereunto they are applyed it is somewhat strange that he would substitute no new Proofs in their room But it seems it is not every ones hâ—p with him of old to want Opinions sometimes but no Arguments When he has got Proofs to his purpose we will again attend unto him In the mean time in this case shall only mind him That the taking for granted in Disputations that which should principally be proved hâ—s got an ill name amongst Learned men being commonly called Begging X. The last Principle which I have observed diffusing its influences throughout the whole Discourse is That the Devotion of Catholicks far transcends that of Protestants Their Preaching also which I forgot to mention before is far to be preferred above that of these And for their Religion and Worship it is liable to no just exception I desire that our Author would but a little call to mind that Parable of our Saviour about the two men that went up into the Temple to pray To me this discourse smels rank of the Pharisee and I wish that we might all rather strive to grow in Faith Love Charity Self-denyal and universal Conformity unto our Lord Jesus than to bristle up and cry Stand further off for I am holier than thou In the mean time for the respect I bear him I intreat our Author to speak no more of this matter lest some angry Protestant or some Fanatick should take occasion to talk of old matters and rip up old sores or give an account of the present state of things in the Church of Rome all which were a great deal better covered If he will not take my advice he must thank himself for that which will assuredly follow I must also say by the way That that Devotion which consists so much as our Author makes it to do in the sweeping of Churches and tinckling of Bells in counting of Beads and knocking of Breasts is of very little value with Protestants who have obtained an experience of the excellency of Spiritual communion with God in Christ Jesus Now whether these parts of the Profession and Practise of his Church which he is pleased to undertake not onely the Vindication but the Adorning of be lyable to just exception or no is the last part of our work to consider and which shall in its proper place be done accordingly As I before observed He that shall but cursorily run through this Discourse will quickly find that these false Suppositions ungrounded Presumptions and unwarrantable Pretensions are the things which are disposed of to be the Foundations Nerves and Sinewes of all the Rhetorick that it is covered and wrought withall and that the bare drawing of them out leaves all the remaining Flourishes in a more scattered condition than the Sybils leaves which no man can gather up and put together to make up any significancy at all as to the Design in hand I might then well spare all further labour and here put a Period to my Progresse and indeed would do so were I secure I had none to deal with but Ingenious and Judicious Readers that have some to tolerable acquaintance at least with the estate of Religion of old and at present in Europe and with the concernment of their own souls in these things But that no pretence may be left unto any that we avoided any thing material in our Author Having passed through his Discourse unto the end of it I shall once more return to the beginning and pass through its severals leaving behind in the way such Animadversions as are any way needful to rescue such as have not a mind to be deceived from the Snares and Cobwebs of his Oratory CHAP. III. Motive Matter and Method of our Author's Book WHat remains of our Author's Preface is spent in the persuit of an easie task in all the branches of it To condemn the late Miscarriages in these Nations to decry Divisions in Religion with their pernicious consequences to commend my Lord Chancellour's Speech are things that have little difficulty in them to exercise the skill of a man pretending so highly as our Author doth He may secure himself that he will find no opposition about these things from any man in his right wits No other man certainly can be so forsaken of Religion and Humanity as not to deplore the woful undertakings and more woful issues of sundry things whereunto the concernments of Religion have been pleaded to give countenance The rancour also of men and wrath against one another on the same accounts with the fruits which they bring forth all the world over are doubtless a burden to the minds of all that love Truth and Peace To prevent a returnal to the former and remove or at least allay the latter how excellently the speech of that great Counsellour and the things proposed in it are suited all sober and ingenious men must needs acknowledge Had this then been the whole design of this Preface I had given his Book many an Amen before I had come to the end But our Author having wholly another mark in his eye another business in hand I should have thought it a little uncivil in him to make my Lord Chancellour's Speech seemingly subservient to that which he never intended never aimed at which no word or expression in it leads unto but that I find him afterwards so dealing with the words of God himself His real work in this compass of words is to set up a blind or give a false alarm to arrest and stay his unwary Reader whilst he prepares him for an entertainment which he thought not of The pretence he flourisheth over both in the Preface and sundry other parts of his Discourse is the hatefulness of our Animosities in and about Religion their dismal Effects with the necessity and excellency of Moderation in things of that nature the real work in hand is a Perswasive unto Popery and unto that end not of moderation or forbearance are all his Arguments directed Should a man go to him and say Sir I have read your learned Book and find that heats and contests about differences in Religion are things full of evil and such as tend unto further misery I am therefore resolved quietly to persist in the way of Protestancy wherein I am without ever attempting the least violence against others for their dissent from me but only with meekness and quietness defend the Truth which I profess I presume he will not judge his design half accomplished towards such a man if at all Nay I dare say with some confidence that in reference to such a one he would say to himself Opâ—ram Oleum pâ—rdidi And therefore doth he wisely tell us pag. 12. that his matter is perceived by the prefixed general Contents of his Chapters his Design which he cals his Method
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
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
Author are thoroughly canvassed Doth he not throughout his whole Disputation prove out of the Scriptures and them alone that Jesus was the Christ and his Doctrine agreeable unto them Is any such thing pleaded by Origen Tertullian Chrysostom or any one that had to deal with the Jews Do they not wholly persist in the way traced for them by Paul Peter and Apollos mightily convincing the Jews out of Scripture Let him consult their Answers he will not find them such poor empty jejune Discourses as that he supposes they might make use of pag. 148. and to the proofs whereof by Texts of Scripture he sayes the Rabbies could answer by another Interpretation of them He will find another Spirit breathing in their Writings another efficacy in their Arguments and other evidence in their Testimonies than it seems he is acquainted with and such as all the Rabbies in the World are not able to withstand And I know full well that these insinuations that Christians are not able justifiably to convince confute and stop the mouths of Jews from the Scripture would have been abhorred as the highest piece of blasphemy by the whole antient Church of Christ and it is meet it should be so still by all Christians Is there no way left to deny pretences of Light and Spirit but by proclaiming to the great scandal of Christianity that we cannot answer the Exceptions of Jews unto the Person and Doctrine of our Saviour out of the Scriptures And hath Rome need of these bold Sallyes against the vitals of Religion Is she no other way capable of a defence Better she perished 10000 times than that any such reproach should be justly cast on the Lord Jesus Christ and his Gospel But whatever our Author thinks of himself I have very good ground to conjecture that he hath very little acquaintance with Judaical Antiquity Learning or Arguments nor very much with the Scripture and may possibly deserve on that account some excuse if he thought those Exceptions insoluble which more learned men than himself know how to answer and remove without any considerable trouble This difficulty was fixed on by our Author that upon it there might be stated a certain retreat and assured way of establishment against al of the like nature This he assigns to be the Authority of the present Church Protestants the Scripture wherein as to the instance chosen out as most pressing we have the concurrent suffrage of Christ his Apostles and all the antient Christians so that we need not any further to consider the pretended pleas of Light and Spirit which he hath made use of as the Orator desired his Dialogist would have insisted on the Stories of Cerberus and Cocytus that he might have shewed his skill and activity in their Confutation For what he begs in the way as to the constitution of St. Peter and his Successors in the Rule of the Church as he produceth no other proof for it but that doughty one that It must needs be so so if it were granted him he may easily perceive by the Instance of the Judaical Church that himself thought good to insist upon that it will not avail him in his plea against the final resolution of our Faith into the Scripture as its senses are proposed by the Ministry of the Church and rationally conceived or understood CHAP. X. Protestant Pleas. HIs Sect. 13. p. 155. entituled Independent and Presbyterians Pleas is a merry one The whole design of it seems to be to make himself and others sport with the miscarriages of men in and about Religion Whether it be a good work or no that day that is coming will discover The Independents he divides into two parts Quakers and Anabaptists Quakers he begins withal and longest insists upon being as he saith well read in their Books and acquainted with their persons some commendation he gives them so farr as it may serve to the disparagement of others and then falls into a fit of Quaking so expresly imitating them in their Discourses that I fear he will confirm some in their surmises that such as he both set them on work and afterwards assisted them in it For my part having undertaken only the defence of Protestancy and Protestants I am altogether inconcerned in the entertainment he hath provided for his Readers in this personating of a Quaker which he hath better done and kept a better decorum in than in his personating of a Protestant a thing in the beginning of his Discourse he pretended unto The Anabaptists as farr as I can perceive he had not medled with unless it had been to get an advantage of venting his pretty Answer to an Argument against Infant-Baptism but the truth is if the Anabaptists had no other Objections against Infant-Baptism nor Protestants no better Answers to their Objections then what are mentioned here by our Author it were no great matter what become of the Controversie but it is Merriment not Disputation that he is designing and I shall leave him to the solace of his own fancies No otherwise in the next place doth he deal with the Presbyterians in personating of whom he pours out a long senseless rapsody of words many insignificant expressions vehement exclamations and uncouth terms such as to do them right I never heard uttered by them in preaching though I have heard many of them nor read written by them though I suppose I have perused at least as many of their Books as our Author hath done of the Quakers Any one with half an Eye may see what it is which galls the man and his Party which whether he hath done wisely to discover his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will inform him that is the Preaching of all sorts of Protestants that he declares himself to be most perplexed with and therefore most labours to expose it to reproach and obloquy And herein he deals with us as in many of their Stories their Demoniacks do with their Exorcists discover which Relick or which Saints name or other Engine in that bufle most afflicts them that so they may be paid more to the purpose Somewhat we may learn from hence Fas est ab hoste doceri But he will make the Presbyterians amends for all the scorn he endeavours to expose them to by affirming when he hath assigned a senseless Harangue of words unto them that the Protestants are not able to answer their Objections Certainly if the Presbyterians are such pitiful souls as not to be able any beter to defend their cause than they are represented by him here to do those Protestants are beneath all consideration who are not able to deal and grapple with them And this is as it should be Roman-Catholicks are wise learned holy angelical seraphical persons all others ignorant dolts that can scarse say Boe to a Goose. These things considered in themselves are unserious trifles but seria ducunt We shall see presently whither all this lurry tends for the sting of this whole Discourseis
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
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