and their Successors the true Ministers of the Gospell who by their preaching declare who have their sinnes pardoned and who not So as your colouring over your usuall evasion of the Papists about their merits which they say are not absolutely meritorious of themselves but as being dipped and dyed in Christs blood whence they receive the tincture of merit But as the merit of Christ is altogether immanent in himselfe and not transient to us but onely by Imputation through faith and not by any infusion or inherencie as Papists teach So the power of Priestly Absolution is so proper and peculiar to the Person of Christ that it is not communicative or derivative to any Creature No not I say to the Leviticall Priests who otherwise were Types of Christ. They onely offered sacrifices for sinnes but as Types and which could never take away Sinnes as the Apostle speakes And their Office was to discerne and judge of the Leprosie and to pronounce a man cleane or uncleane according to those signes and markes which God himselfe gave Now Leprosie was an Embleme of Sinne. And as those Ministers of the Old Testament did with the Leprosie namely pronounce or declare it onely to be or not to be So the Ministers of the Gospell are to declare unto beleevers the pardon of sinnes by those signes and markes which God hath set in his Word and to impenitent persons condemnation except they beleeve and repent But for power of Absolving men from Sinnes as to Say Thy Sins are forgiven thee that 's Christs voyce alone Never any of the Apostles used this voyce to any Thy Sins are forgiven thee but as Peter said to those that were pricked in their hearts and asked Men and Bretheren what shall we doe Repent saith he and be baptised every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of Sins But to Say I absolve thee from thy Sins or Thy Sins are forgiven thee is onely his who can give Repentance and Faith These two Prerogatives are inseperable in Christ as Peter sheweth Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give Repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of Sinnes and we are witnesses of these things Saith he Now if you can prove that Christ hath made you Such Princes and Saviours as to give you a power which Symon Magus would have bought with his money to give Repentance to any man then I will without any more adoe confesse that you have also a power to forgive Sins Otherwise not till then by your assumed and usurped Priesthood and presumptuous yea blasphemous forgiving of Sins I Absolve thee you deny Iesus to be the Christ the onely Christ to wit the onely Priest who onely hath merit and power as to give Repentance so remission of Sins to whom he will And thus as you take upon you to be a Priest both by your profession and practise you are an Antichrist For who is a lyer but he that denyeth Iesus to be the Christ He is Antichrist Saith the Apostle Iohn Secondly neither were it any great difficulty to prove that you Prelates and that according to your owne Doctrine in many places of your Book do deny Iesus to be the Christ to wit the onely Prophet of his Church For you allow no beliefe that the Scripture is the voyce of Christ the Prophet except the voyce and Tradition of the present Church doe first usher it in And this Church must alwayes be meant of a Prelaticall Church No question of that And for Exposition and Sense of Scripture you deny that the Scripture it selfe and of it selfe hath sufficient light as at after we shall see at large and therefore you referre us either to the Exposition of the Primitive Church or the Decisions of Generall Councels for the right Sense of the Scripture Thus you doe akurōsa as Christ saith or make voyd and of no authority the voyce of Christ by your Tradition Nay you Say also That if a Generall Councel should Conclude and Decree an Errour yet all men ought to yeeld obedience at least externall thereunto till another Generall Councel equall to that shall reverse and correct it And by the way what if it shall make it worse or adde more Errours to it But thus doe you not deny Christ to be the onely Prophet of his Church of whom God Saith Heare Him Him onely His Word onely His Voyce onely when you do not take his Word to be light enough and to be sufficient to interpret it selfe but that you must have recourse to Generall Councels consisting of Prelates as your Oracles to decide all doubts and controversies of Faith Doe you not thus attribute a greater light to men then to the voyce of Christ GOD Saith of Christ that Prophet Heare him in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you but you say In all doubts and controversies of faith heare what a Generall Councel Saith yea though it determine Errours yet all men are bound to yeeld obedience thereunto Thus the expresse voyce and cleare word of Christ that Prophet must depend upon Men and those an Assembly of Prelates or Priests which Christ never ordained in his Church and not men upon It. And so in this respect also denying Christ to be the onely All sufficient Prophet to instruct and establish his Church in all Truth while you deny his word to be Autópistos and Autà rkes of selfe-Credit of it selfe to be beleeved and selfe-sufficient to shew and interpret it selfe you prove your selfe an Antichrist For who is a lyer but he that denyeth that Iesus is the Christ He is Antichrist Your Grace therefore is an Antichrist But I come to the third Instance to which I confesse I thought to have confined my selfe and not to have touched the other two in this place though they be no lesse proper then this which is That you Prelates both by Profession and Practise as you are Prelates doe deny Iesus to be the Christ in that you deny him to be the onely Lord and King of his Church For what is for Christ to be the King of and over and in his Church but as to exercise his Almighty power and Fatherly care and Spouse-like love in protecting and preserving his Church from all evills in comforting her in the midst of afflictions in supplying her with all necessary Graces and Blessings and in vindicating the cause of his People against all their Persecuters and Oppressors So also in bearing a Speciall Kingly Rule in and over their Soules and Consciences in all things concerning Faith in the Worship and Service of God So as the people of God doe and ought to acknowledge Christ herein their onely King and not to suffer their consciences to be captivated and insnared by any ordinance of Man whatsoever in point of faith and ceremonies in Gods service injoyning a necessary conformity thereunto 'T is Christs Prerogative alone in
shall set forth to the contrary I must crave pardon if it be not of the same faith with you And thus farre you allow any in the Church of England this liberty for your words are Is it not lawfull for any in the Church of England to say I conceive thus or thus of it c Although you adde L. p. 51. It is one thing to hold an opinion privately within himselfe and another thing boldly and publickly to affirme it P. I doe I confesse boldly and publickly affirme this my faith concerning this Article which my faith I doe assure my selfe is true being grounded upon good and cleare evidence of the Scripture on which my faith is built and not upon any thing of humane Authority And in making open confession of this my faith I doe therin follow the Rule of Scripture which saith Bretheren if any of you doe erre from the Truth and one convert him Let him know that he which converteth a Sinner from the errour of his way shall save a Soule from death and shall hide â— multitude of Sinnes Now what know I that this Declaration of my Faith with Reasons from the Scripture may by Gods grace be a meanes to convert if not your Lordship from your errour yet others or may preserve them from falling into it being dangerously entred into it by such an example as your selfe And however if it be lawfull for you boldly and publickly to affirme such things of beliefe which are not found to be in Scripture why may it not be as lawfull for me boldly and publickly to affirme the Contrâ—ry But the Scope of your Speech as I conceive is to maintaine your practise in punishing in High Commission such as expound this Article by and according to the Scripture L p. 53. For that all the Positive Articles of the present Church of England are grounded upon Scripture we are content to be judged by the joynt and constant beliefe of the Fathers which lived within the first foure or five hundred yeares after CHRIST when the Church was at the best and by the Councels held within those times and to submit to them in all those points of Doctrine P. But first as is before noted as you give accasion why have you made your Articles to be DÃpsucoi of a double sense So as in that respect how can you call them Positive being so perplexed in themselves And againe Whom doe you meane here by Wee I suppose you and your church of England You are contented to be Judged by Fathers and Councels within the first 500. yeares whether your Church-Articles be grounded on Scripture or not Are you contented so indeed Then you must be contented to undergoe the Censure of departing both from the judgement of the Scriptures as disavowing them for the onely rule of Faith and Doctrines to be tryed by and also from the joynt and constant beliefe both of Fathers and Councels within the first 500. yeares For their joynt constant and unanimous beliefe was that nothing besides the Scripture is to be Judge in matters of Faith And if you want leasure to read the Fathers doe but peruse the learned Discourses and Disputes of the Divines of the Church of England before your being a Prelate as Dr. Carleton of the Church De Ecclesia Dr. Whitakers forementioned Dr. White his way to the true Church Dr. Bilson yea and all those that have written of these Controversies and they will abundantly show this that it was ever held as a Principle and therefore not to be denyed nor needfull to be proved and which Dr. Carleton in his said Book proves never to have been altered till in and by the Councel of Trent That the Scripture is the sole rule of Faith But thus you and your Church of England are contented to be one and the Same Church with Rome in refusing the Scripture as the Sole Iudge of your Doctrines But will you be judged by the joynt and constant beliefe of Fathers and Councels within the first 500. yeares whether your Articles about Grace Election Predestination c. bearing as you Declare a double and opposite sense in their Pelagian and Arminian sense be according to the Scriptures or no If I name onely Augustine who was Pelagionorum Malleus that Hammer to knock down the Pelagians both the Fathers and Councels within those first 500. yeares did joyntly and constantly professe that which he writ to be the Beliefe of the whole Church it was so clearely and fully proved out of Scripture In so much as you may read in the Histories of the Councels as in Binius how that some Councels and Bishops of Rome set downe Large Passages in Augustins Tracts against the Pelagians as the Jugement of the Catholick Church and the particular Decrees and Acts of such and such councels If then you will stand to the Judgement of those ancient Fathâ—rs and Councels then you must at their Barre hold up that hand which was a chiefe instrument in drawing up the said Declaration which hath so enigmatized and darkened the Articles as they have no other Light left but a kind of twilight which inclines rather to the night then to the day rather to favour the Pelagian Heresie then the Orthodox verity But this being your language all along that you put not onely your Articles and the Articles of the Creed but the Mysteries also of the Scriptures to the Iudgement of the Primitive Church Fathers Generall Councels we will Supersede from speaking more of it in this place Again where you say that the Church was then at the best if you understand it during the age and time of the Apostles 't is most true but if of the Succeding ages within 500. yeares we may doubt of it or rather resolve the contrary unlesse you meane it comparatively to the ages after that wherein Antichrist and the Mystery of Iniquity began more brightly to shine forth and display themselves in the Roman Sea both in corruption of doctrine and of Gods worship beyond all excesse For you may know that within the space of the first 500. yeares the Church was so overgrown and pestered with the heresie of Arius as the world groaned under it wondering it was become an Arian as Hierome speakes Totus ingemuit mundus miratus se factum esse Arianum And among many corruptions and much unsoundnesse in Doctrine what multitudes of Superstitious devises and heathenish Customes not onely crept but crowded into the service of God Which Heathenish Rites as we find in B. Rhenanus his Annotations upon Turtullian were by the Christians in a kind of carnall policie admitted both because many ancient men being converted to Christianity such as it was could not easily part with their old Customes as also that thereby they might draw other of the Gentiles to become Christians Just such a policie as our new Doctors I meane of your Church of England have used in a pretence at least making us beleeve
for beliefe And you place the Authority of the Present Church in the forefront as a prime leader and inducer to this beliefe And this you inculcate very often and Say pag. 120 I confesse every where that Tradition introduces the knowledge of them And pag. 126. you tell the Jesuite A. C. saying Herein we goe the same way with you because we allow the Tradition of the present Church to be the First inducing Motive c. So as herein you jumpe with the Jesuite So then Authority of the present Church is the Prime Or as sometimes you call it Tradition or otherwhiles The voyce of the Present Church All comes to one reckoning Then to this Leader you muster up a troop of followers as here Ordinary Grace a mind morally induced and reasonably perswaded and before a mans owne Reason and humane Testimony morall perswasion Reason and Force of the present Church the Holy Ghost Conferring of the Scripture with it selfe and other writings And what then Then and not before the Scripture gives greater and higher Reasons of Credibility to it selfe then Tradition alone could give What No more effect for all this but a Credibility I expected you should with such a Troope under the command of such a Generall as the Authority Tradiâ—ion and voyce of the present Church have effected that Rockie Forâ— of mans heart to have yealded to open the Gates of his Infidelity to let in this Beliefe that Scripture is the word of God And can you obtaine no more then a Credibility Alas poore Scripture Can all Mans witty inventions advance thy credit which they have taken away no higher then to a Credibility But thus we may see the vanity of Mans wit when it hath cast away the truth This is right as the Preacher Saith Lâ—e this onely have I found That God made man upright but they have sought out many inventions So when men reject the word of the Lord what wisdome is in them Then they fall to their inventions like Michals stuffing her Image with Goates haire and laying it in the bed instead of David Or a right Embleme hereof we have in our First Parents when they had disrobed themselves of that plain simple seamelesse but glorious robe of their Innocencie having thus lost their uprightnesse wherein God made them presently they fall to their inventions they will supply the want of that robe with a many faire fresh Fig-leaves sowed together without either needle or thread vainly imagining that this would cover their shame when indeed it was a plain signe they had lost their Glory and yet could not hide their nakednesse So when a man hath lost the Truth he shall loose his wits in his manifold Inventions before he shal be able thereby to make up his losse Thus did the Church of Rome of old no sooner had they thrust out Gods word and the preaching of it out of their Temples but up goe their Images for Lay-mens Books and in comes crowding a multitude of Ceremonies the Inventions of man as if these would make amends with advantage instead of the holy Scriptures Just your practise in the Church of England at this day And just your like practise here When you have cast a black veile over the Scriptures native beauty and light disabling them as sufficient witnesses to prove themselves the word of God you invent here a number of things to stop our mouthes to make us beleeve that by these you will bring Mans naturall blindnesse to see and his infidelity to beleeve just nothing at all that the Scriptures are the word of God So as you deale with us here as some Parents doe with their Children take the piece of gold from them and please them with a handfull of deafe nuts Onely they doe it providently to preserve the Gold from being lost but you Popishly to destroy the Gold and to set up the painted dresse of your New-nothing Or you put out the Eyes of the Scripture and then light your Candle before it as after you tell us But let 's a little examine your words First I note here what a blind guide you commend to blind men to lead them to the beliefe of the Scriptures to be the word of God For what is it Certainty No Probabilty A man is probably led But of Probability we have spoken before And take this with you for a certaine truth Probability may beget an opinion but never a belief But by whom probably led By the Authority of the present Church What present Church Of the Prelates or Hierarchy ever But who gave you Authority to be a Church Or Suppose you were the true Church of Christ who gave you this Authority to take away from the Scriptures their sufficiencie of guiding men to the faith of them and to tie men to depend upon the Authority of the present Church thereby to be induced to beleeve the Scriptures And what 's your present Church Is it not the Same with that of Rome And is not this Authority which you arrogate Romish And what if your present Church with Rome shall induce us to beleeve the Apocryphall Bookes to be part of Scripture Or some word unwritten which you call Apostolick Traditions to be equall with the word written as you agree with Bellarmine in this Distinction of the word written and unwritten as before is touched And what if as you have given us too much proofe you should limit us in beleeving the Scripture what part to beleeve for Canonicall and what otherwise For as Hierome saith The Scripture consists more in the marrow of Sentences then in the barke of words more in the Sense then in the Syllables What say you then to the 4 th Commandement which your present Church denyes to be Morall for a Seventh day Sabbath and thereby overthrow the Sanctification of the Lords day What say you of the Doctrines of Grace which you have overthrowne by your Declaration before your Articles What of Altars and the like If herein you overthrow the Sense of Scripture doe you not proclaime to the world that such and such Scriptures are not Canonicall Or if the words be still holden for Canonicall yet it must be according to the Sense of your present Church As Paulus 4. the Pope in the End of the Councel of Trent tyes all Priests by oath to interpret the Scriptures no otherwise but according to the Sense of the Catholick Church the Summe whereof is the Decrees and Canons of Trent Is not thus the whole Scripture made voyd But come on let men be primely induced by the Authority of the present Church to wit of the Prelates or Hierarchy for no other Church you allow nor we you to be any other but of Antichrist by what Argument trow you is it likelyest they will be perswaded that the Scriptures are the word of God Will you give me leave to tell you my Opinion It is this in briefe When men upon
England because her Great Metropolitan a little before beleeves it Or because Ipse dixit he said Christ thought it fitter to governe his Church by Divers Vice-roys then by One Is there such an Infallibility in your bare word as for the Church of England to establish her beliefe upon Certainly this is an Addition to the Articles of the Faith of the Church of England which in her former dayes she was not acquainted with Well for your Arch-bishops and Bishops we have said I hope enough and perhaps you will say too much and desire no more to be troubled with them Yet I see we must whether we will or no. For first here againe you doe most impiously ne dicam impudenter ye blasphemously bely the Lord Iesus Christ as before you have done more then once or twice and are not yet ashamed but rather hardned in your Habit as being reserved to be confounded Secondly as before you would make Christ to be the Author of such Governours and Vice-Roys as Arch bishops and Bishops so here Besides his Law-Books the Scripture he hath you say made you visible Magistrates and Iudges Surely That is besides the Scripture indeed yea not onely praeter but contra not onely besides but against the expresse Scripture as is but a little before proved that Arch-bishops and Bishops though they have gotten a degenerate Beeing as Mules in Rerum natura yet should have any Beeing at all in the Church of Christ much lesse that they should be Iudges at all in spirituall matters being themselves altogether carnall And For Arch-Bishops it hath not so much as a Name in Scripture as your Bishops have usurped that Title from Scripture and you confesse the Apostles were all equall in what night then grew up this Mushrum And we have before given a touch and tryall what kind of Iudges you would prove would men but pin their faith on your White sleeve But except you can bring some better Authority then your own blasphemous speech that Christ hath left such visible iudges to his Church your Church of England will have but a cold pull of it when she shal be put to give a reason of this her beliefe that Christ did so Or what Or why For truth and peace These words are with you as Mel in ore verba lactis honey in the mouth words of milke but we can discerne by them Fel in Corde fraus in factis Gall in the heart and fraud in actions But by what means will you procure us truth and peace By governing How or by what Law or Rule According to the Scripture say you Stay there and govern according to that for that is the onely way were your Prâ—laticall Government according to the Scripture both to procure and preserve truth and peace But unlesse you can prove which you never can by the Scripture and not by your own single-soled bold affirmation that Christ hath made you Governours of his Church you shall never perswade us to beleeve or hope that you will ever Govern according to the Scriptures But yet is this all Will you be such honest Governours as you will not go beyond Christs Law-books the Scriptures Nothing lesse For there follows immediately a dangerous Conjunction Copulative And. According to the Scriptures And. And what I hope you have no other Law-books to adde to Christs Law-books Have you Produce them And her own Canons and Constitutions Nay then Farewell Christs Law-Books Christ may put up his Pipes as it is said When your Canons and Constitutions come in Place And then farewell Truth and Peace your own Canons and Constitutions can make no Room for them For he that shall hold the truth never so right and firm and shall transgresse but one of your Canons what peace He shal be put to read the Canon that is he shal be shattered to pieces with your shooting off of your Canon And he that comes under the command of your Canon is ipso facto brought under the Babylonian and Antichristian yoak so as not onely his peace is destroyed but the truth power and verture of Christs death which hath freed his people from the bondage of all humane ordinance as hath been shewed in Gods worship and service is overthrown As also your selfe elswhere saith That Peace and Truth are rent by superstitious deâ—iâ—es from which I hope all your Canons and Constitutions are not altogether free How much lesse can that Church be free from most miserable slavery that puts her neck under the yoak and her shoulders under the intollerable burthen of your Canons and Constitutions Nay I will say more If you be the visible Magistrates and Iudges of the Church as the High Priests and Pharisees were although the High-Priests office was grounâ—ed upon Divine Ordinance and Authority and had Christ himselfe to stand at your Barre to be judged though you had not as the Jews said they had a Law to put him to death yet you would find Church-Canons and Constitutions enough or some new devise though not to condemn him to be Crucified yet to Censure him to be Pillorified and to have his Eares closse cropt and his blood shed in a great measure and stript naked and perpetually Imprisoned and exiled as being the Arch-enemy of your Hierarchy Tyranny Hypocrisie and all Impiety And all this you would do by vertue of your Canons and Constitutions which yet were never ratified by any Law of the Land or Act of Parliament But yet seeing you must have your Church-Canons and Constitutions besides Christs Law-Books to govern by yet the Church of England may think her selfe well appayd and in some tolerable though intollerable case if she have but her own Canons such as her selfe hath constituted and assented to For volenti non fit injuria If the Church of England be willing to be an Asse to her Prelates as once she was to the Pope she may And so she hath her amends in her own hands If the yoak of Canons pinch her she may thank her selfe for putting her neck under I but this is not all There be other Canons besides that are not hers that she must be governed by What more Bonds and Fetters yet for thee poore Church of England Yes As well her own Canons and Constitutions as Those also of the Catholicke Church What are those Alas your Church of England is an Ignoramus in all such Canons as you call Catholicke And your Church Catholike you know and tell us doth Comprehend that of Rome and Rome hath innumerable Canons Consâ—itutions and Decretalls so as under the Canons of the Catholicke Church you may bring upon the Church of England all the Canons and Decrees of Trent all the Popes Decretalls and the whole body of the Popes Canon Law so large a field is your Canons and Constitutions of the Catholicke Church But you qualifie the matter in adding Which crosse not the Scripture and the just Laws of the Realme That 's somthing
to the Testimony if they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Art thou not Christs Spouse Then heare Christs voyce the Scripture Say with the Spouse in the Canticles Tell me O thou whom my soule loveth where thou feedest where thou causest thy flocks to rest at noone For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions To whom Christ her beloved Spouse answereth If thou know not O thou fairest among women goe thy way to the footsteps of the Flocke and feed thy Kiddes besides the shepheards Tents Here the true Church Christs Spouse in her perplexities and doubts wherein she is like to loose her selfe goes to Christ to her shepheard and asks of him where he feedeth where he causeth his Flocks to rest at Noon where his Congregations may find a shady layre rest and refreshing from the meridian heat of Persecutions or her Faith find rest in doubtfull cases of Faith or Conscience For why saies she should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions Why should I be uncertain and unsettled in depending upon the guidanâ—â— and conduct of false shepheards such as pretend to be as thy fellow-shepheards that sit as God in the Temple of God shewing themselves to be God equall to thee in power and Regall Authority over thy Kingdome and Church making what Laws they please in binding our Consciences and that even to their erronious Decrees To whom Christ Answereth If thou know not O thou fairest among women although despised by men goe thy way forth by the footsteps of the Flocke to the green Pastures and the waters of comfort the Scriptures where my flocke doth ordinarily find pasture For man liveth not by bread onely but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God there thou shalt find the true Pasture by the footsteps of the flocke by the continuall treading of my sheep which know no other pasture but this For here my sheep heare my voyce even here by the shepheards Tents my Ministers whom I have set over the flocks to feed them with understanding and knowledge Here be those waters for every one that thirsteth here is the milke and wine that 's to be had without money Hearken diligently unto me incline thine Eare and come unto me and thy soule shall live search the Scriptures for in them is eternall life and they are they that testifie of me These are the onely light which I have left to be a lampe for thy feet and a light for thy steps These are the onely Oracles of God which shall clearly resolve thee in all thy perplexed doubts These are my onely faithfull witnesses which I have left to witnesse the truth and to establish thy heart in the faith in me if any man teach otherwise and consenteth not to the wholsome words of Scripture which are mine own lâ—vely voyce and which containe all things pertaining to faith and godlinesse he is puft up and knoweth nothing he is a false Prophet a false shepheard a blind Guide a seducer an Antichrist Thus Christ speaketh to his Spouse in the Scripture his owne voyce the onely true living and infallible Iudge And to this Judge Christs voyce in the Scripture the true Spouse of Christ in all Ages hath still resorted and therein been resolved in her doubts and comforted in her distresse For here is that wisdome which is justified of all her Children And whatsoever is therein written is written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Nothing can comfort us in our calamities nothing can confirm and establish our faith and hope in all our perplexed doubtings but this Before we shewed how all the Fathers with one voyce took this sanctuary came to this Iudge made this the onely Rule to determine all doubts and disputes by so Augustine so Tertullian so the incertain Author upon Mat. 24. in Chrysostome saith that in the times of Antichrist even in these our Times one cannot know the true Church but by the Scripture because Antichrist with his wicked Clergy make such a faire shew and pretence that they are the Catholicke Church just as your Lordship doth Therfore let all true Christians in these perillous times of Antichrist and Antichristian Prelates which cry down the Scriptures as an insufficient Iudge in Controversies of faith and cry up their own usurped Authority as the supreme Iudge of the Scripture at least in all doubtfull cases though they confesse their Judgement not to be of Infallible Credit fly to the Mountaines and to the Fountaines the Scriptures the lively voyce of Christ they they onely will resolve us and settle our faith in all doubts and difficulties and will discover unto us the true Church of Christ from all false pretended counterfeit Antichristian Prelaticall Hierarchicall Churches and Synagogues Now seeing though you arrogate but are not able to prove that Christ hath left your Catholicke Church an Infallible certainty which yet you confesse to be uncertaine give us leave though we touched this before now againe upon a fresh occasion to vindicate the Truth of Christ that he not onely intended but indeed hath left unto his true Church an infallible certainty of his Spirit which by the rule of his word doth guide his Elect into all truth in all ages successively unto the end of the world When he took his long Farewell of his Apostles and Disciples as concerning his bodily presence with them upon earth he left them this Promise yet to comfort them concerning his perpetuall spirituall presence with them saying Lo I am with you alwayes unto the end of the world To the end of the world Ergo with all those that are his true Disciples unto the end of the world So as wheresoever Christs Churches and Congregations be there his Spirt is This Spirit leads his into all Truth into all necessary and saving Truth infallibly and most certainly This is that Anoynting of which before He that hath not this Spirit of Christ this Spirit of truth is none of his And he that hath it is preserved from the seducements of false Prophets which come in Christs Name and shall deceive many but not the Elect for that 's not possible Every true beleever cannot will not willingly erre in any point of faith and truth necessary to Salvation I say not wittingly For many of Gods deare Children doe that ignorantly whereby Christ is denyed as in yeelding obedience to mans devices in Gods worship and that through custome wheras if they were rowsed and put to it and asked if they beleeved not that Christ is the onely King of his Church and Lord over the Conscience oh they beleeve and acknowledge none other King Aske them againe whether they beleeve that any man may exercise this Authority over them oh
in his innocent nakednesse then with his devised Fig-leaves how applyed to the Prelaticall Church 103 104. Prelates Service sensuall and heathenish as done to an unknown God fully displayed 104. Prelates pompous Ceremonies like the Cardinals Sumpter 105. No necessity of Prelates Ceremonies sith both Superstitious and Superfluous saving that they are all the Substance of their Religion 106 107. True Reformation ought to have no Ceremonies at all to bind the Conscience 107. Prelates Ceremonies strengthen Superstition and Idolatry and destroy true piety 108. What is that Substance of Religion which Prelates Ceremonies doe fence 106 107. And what strength they adde to his Religion how it is weaknesse not to see 108. Prelates Ceremonies are beggerly Rudiments yea Aegyptian bonds and Babilonish Chaines 108. How by the Prelates Ceremonies so eagrely urged the Jesuites win ground 108 109. Romes Reconciliation hastened by hossing up wodden Altars and hurling down golden Ministers 109. The Jesuites hale in Popery through the Prelates broad Gates he hath layd open ibid. 21. How the Prelate hath layd open the wider-gates of his Catholicke Church by pulling down the walls and bulwarks of Christs true Church 109. The Prelates wider-Gates whither they lead 110. The Prelate hath nothing to doe with the true Faith nor Communion with the true Saints ibid. He perverteth the Scripture Jude 3. falsely applying the Saints Faith to his boundlesse Catholicke Church 110. What Truth the Prelate professeth and with what singlenesse of heart 110 111. And his notorious hypocrisie in deluding the King 111. The Prelate puts all his Book upon the King as published in obedience to his Majesties command ibid. What we may expect from the Prelate who resolves to dye in that Faith wherein he hath lived ibid. And so what hope he can have of Gods favour 112. THE CONTENTS OF THE MAINE POINTS AND PASSAGES IN THIS insuing Reply to the Relation it selfe 2. WHat is that Church whose judgement the Prelate would have the people to depend upon 113. And not to be too busie with Seripture but moderately in things obvious 114. How the Prelate yeelds the Jesuite this that the Church of Rome is a true Church on whose judgement people must depend 115. The Prelate a Subtile underminer of the Truth 116. 4. The papall Church holds no one point of Saving Truth ibid. 23. How the Prelate vants himselfe for the great Champion of the Church of England 117. 29. How the Prelate overthrows Christ while he makes things not Fundamentall in the Faith necessary to some mens Salvation but tells us not who those be 117 118. 31. How the Prelate can bind all men to peace by his Churches Declaration yea though it be not the Churches 118. The dangerous Consequences hereof 119. 32. The Prelate selfe-condemned for adding things contrary and detracting things necessary 120. 35. How against the Prelate things considered in the manner of Beeing onely are fundamentall in the Faith Instanced in sundry particulars 120 121. The many absurd consequences of Popish Reall-presence ibid. 37. How the Prelate makes things which are fundamentall in the Faith not to be so to all men 122. See 117.118 If the Prelate doe at all discerne what the true Faith is what use he makes of it 122. 39. How the Prelate falsifies Lyrinencis and is loth to English some of his words 123. If the Church of Rome be Lupanar Errorum a Stews of Errours 't were good that all should know her in plain English to be so to avoyd her though the Prelate be loth English men should know it ibid. How the Prelate applauds the Iesuite Stapleton in a grosse point of Popery whom Dr. Whitakers in the Chaire at Chambridge confuted 124. How therein the Prelate prefers Stapleton before Bellarmine who comes nearer to the Truth ibid. 40. How the Prelate is justly as an Enemy to Assurance of Salvation and so of true Saving Faith 124. 43. How the Prelate makes it whether for a penny Beliefe of Scripture or the Creed hath the Precedencie of a Prime Principle of Faith 125. 44. The Prelate allows some Traditions for Apostolick though not fundamentall in the Faith ibid. 45. The Prelates Faith of Christs Descent into hell which Article is by the Replyer discussed 126 to 129. 47.48 For default of examining the Articles of the Creed by Scripture the Prelate overthrows two Articles The Catholicke Church and the Communion of Saints 129. 51. Notwithstanding the Prelate we ought boldly and publickly to affirme The Truth against errour 132. 53. The Prelate submits the Faith of the Church of England to the judgement of the Fathers whether her Articles be according to Scripture How by those Fathers he is condemned 132 133. With what limitation the Church within the first 400 or 500. yeares may be sayd to have been at the best 133 134. How the Replyer declines the occasion of entring into a comparison between the truly Reformed Protestant Churches and that within the first 500. years after the Apostles 134. Conformity to Popish Rites a Pretence to bring Papists to Church as the Christians anciently intertained Heathen manners to draw them to be Christians 134. Augustine complained of Ceremonies then when if the Prelate say true the Church was at the best ibid. 62. The Prelates false professed Faith concerning the Catholicke Church in the Creed which he defines to be the Society of all Christians 135. 66. How the Prelate jumpes with Bellarmine for a word of God as well unwritten as written 135 136 137. Baptisme of Infants a Doctrine of Scripture not an unwritten Tradition We ought to repaire to Scripture in all doubts of Faith 137. 72 73. How the Prelates words not well examined may make us beleeve he is no Arminian but Orthodox in the Doctrine of Grace while he abuses the Scripture most palpably and grosly 138 139. 75 76. What the place and office of naturall Reason is in judgeing of Scripture against the Prelate magnifying naturall Reason to the vilifying of Scripture the blindnesse and vanity thereof in judging of Divine things and matters of Faith 140 141 142 143. Vnsanctified Reason how it judges the Scripture to be false 143. How the Prelate is put to his naturall Reasons pregnancy in matters of Faith 1â—2 77. The Prelates extreme blindnesse or malice in saying The Scripture is strengthened with probable Arguments from the light of Nature and humane Testimony to convince men without which it is not so demonstratively evident of it selfe 144. At large confuted 14â— to 149. A secret power in Scripture convincing a naturall man in the reading or hearing of it preached that it is the very word of God 148 149 150. See also A motion of the Replyer to the Prelate how he shall make tryall of the Scriptures powerfull sufficiencie to convince him that it is the word of God 149. A comparison of the Scripture with the Sun 151. Gods word preached and not Church-Tradition the ordinary prime motive and instrument of Faith Illustrated
by pregnant Comparisons ib. 83. How the Prelate hangs the Beliefe of Scripture to be the word of God necessarily upon the Authority of the present Church and other such poore inducements all but meere probabilities which may beget opinion but never beliefe 152 153 154 155. All examined and proved to be meere vanity in all which the Prelate destroyes all Faith and hope of Salvation 156. also 157. In what sense and way onely a Naturall Man being led by the Prelates hand as of the present Church to read the Scripture may be induced to beleeve it is the very word of GOD 154. 84. Further notorious blasphemies of the Prelate in derogating from Scripture as having no light but as a candle in a box of 12 in the pound till Tradition of the present Church doe light it Examined 157 158 159. How the Prelate perverts the Scripture and puts out the light of it 157. Other blasphemies of the Prelate against the Scripture Gods word and the Holy Ghost making his Church-Tradition the eyes inlightner 159 160 161. Gods own voyce in Scripture read and preached begets beliefe that it is Gods word 161. 85. The Prelates prosecution of this Argument in advancing his present Church Authority further confuted 162 163. 85 86. A Subtile and Sly evasion of the Prelate from the Jusuites true objection 164. A pretty tricke of Legerdemain 195. Scriptures full light teacheth a perfect knowledge against the Prelates Evasion 165 166. 87. The Prelates perverting of Scripture in his Babylonish confounding the Historicall with the Saving and justifying Faith as he alwayes doth and another Scripture in confounding the regenerate with the unregenerate 166. to 170. Whereupon the Replyer addes a notable Discourse of the nature of true Saving Faith 170 to 174 as namely of its admirable operations in the severall faculties of the Soule with its excellencie c. The Prelate Contradicts himselfe not knowing wherof he affirmeth Saving that by Faith he ever meaneth a false Faith whereby he destroyeth the true 173. The Sure beliefe of Scripture is a Christians sure comfort in trouble 172 173. 88. Hookers Sensible Demonstration so applauded by the Prelate throughly scanned and soundly proved to be false by most evident Demonstrations proving the Scripture to prove it selfe Gods word 174 to 177. The Prelates Ground from Nature being applyed to Scripture proved false and Christs Saying which the Prelate objecteth cleared 177 178. 89. Hookers stating of the Question commended by the Prelate for Tradition as the Key to open the Entrance to Scripture proved false in the Prelates sense and that Key to be a false pick-lock 178 179. 91. How the Prelate in charging the Pope for usurping Lordship over the world is taken tardy for doing the like himselfe over All England contrary to S. Peters rule alledged by the Prelate 180. 93. What assistance Lawfully sent Pastors and Teachers have ordinarily of God 180.181 95. The Prelate selfe-condemned ibid. 98. The Prelate belyes the Scripture to credit his Church-Tradition 182. Scripture little heholden to the Prelates Church-Tradition ib. His bold belying the Scripture as if that gave Authority to his usurped Church-Tradition ib. The Prelate catcht in his own Delemma or Net ibid. A Solecisme of the Prelate ibid. 100. The Prelate maliciously yoakes the precise party as he calls it with the Jesuite onely making that 10 times worse 183 184. The precise party with the Prelates factious silence Ministers vindicated from his wicked and false reproches 184 185 186. The Prelates 3 marks of his imagined Author of Ipswich Newes 186. The Prelates hypocriticall words and desperate deeds for Preaching how they agree and his cursed hypocrisie cryed shame of by his infamous practises 187. The Prelate knows not what true Preaching meanes 188. Difference between true Sermons and the Preachers for infallibility ibid. The Prelates Diabolicall malice against the true Preachers of Gods word 189. The Replyer at length forced by the Prelate to answre his compari-tween the Ancient Fathers and the best moderne Reformed Dison be vines for Preaching 190 191. Other Cavils of the Prelate answered 192 193. 104. The Prelate perverteth the Fathers to uphold Tradition still which they were against to the Prelates sense 194 195 196. Prelates Popish pretence of Scriptures deepnesse to draw men from them to seek to the Oracles of the present Church Tradition 196 to 199. With the mischiefes that may follow upon it ibid. The Prelates Popish zeale noted by occasion in his forcing all Bibles to be bound with Apochrypha 196 197. How the Prelate overthrows a true Principle and Maxime by a false 198. Grace makes Supernaturall truth more evident then Nature doth the Naturall 199. 106. Another excellent discourse of Saving Faith occasioned by the Prelate bewraying his profound ignorance herein 200 201 202. The Prelats bold belying and blaspheming Gods secret Councels 202. The Prelates broad blind Popish way 203. Fully confuted 203 204. 109. Prelate againe blasphemeth in belying Gods Councels 205. 1â—6 The Prelate hangs the Credit of Scripture upon mans opinions of Gods sufficiencie ibid. Mans opinion of Gods sufficiencie how vaine blind and impotent 206. The Prelate himselfe proved to have a blind opinion of God and of his Sufficiencie and consequently he is an Infidel not beleeving the Scripture to be Gods word 207 108. as which saith he depends on mans opinion of Gods sufficiencie 111. The Prelate still detracts from Scripture all along 208. 113. By the Prelates Doctrine the Faith of all the Apostles Martyrs ancient Fathers and Doctors which know no such Tradition of the present Church as a necessary prime inducement to lead them to the beliefe of Scripture to be Gods word is Hereticall and Schismaticall 206 210. Ergo the Prelaticall Church Schismaticall and Hereticall 115. Most notorious blasphemy of the Prelate against the Holy Ghost making him the Author of falshood as is shewed 211 212 213 214. Sundry probable Reasons layd down by the Replyer why the Prelate should as he doth chuse the light of nature as the Second to his Church Tradition to introduce beliefe of Scripture to be Gods word and of God to be God 212 213. No reverend perswasion of Scripture had till first the Tradition of of the present most Reverend Father commend it as Laudable 212. How the Prelate dallies with Romish Idolatry 211. How the Prelate hangs mans beliefe of God as of Scripture upon his Church Tradition 212. 116 The Prelates good inclination to mans free-will in beleeving The Prelates notorious and grosse hypocrisie pretending respect to the Scripture to be the motive of his tedious vain groundlesse and gracecâ—ssâ— discourse in disgracing and vilifying of it altogether and that as gâ—osly as ever any â—esuiâ—e did 215 216. The Prelaâ—es most wickâ—d perverting and abusing of Scripture 216 Wâ—o are his Christianly dâ—sposed men whom in his Discourse he â—ndâ—avoureth to satisfie ibid. 118. A nimble shift and put off of the Prelates 217. The absurbity of his Comparison of his
and of Rome doe agree upon 363 364. He contradicts himselfe ibid. 307. Jesuites Commendation of the English Liturgy whether it be a good signe 364. 318. How the Prelate rewards the late Dr. White for his Deserts and what they were 364 365. The true Church of Christ proved against the Prelate not to be alwayes visible and conspicuous by many Instances Though the Prelaticall be alwayes conspicuous 366 367 368. Most pittifull and perplexed contradictions and confused and false Speeches of the Church of Rome by the Prelate 369. Rome a Tree wholly corrupt without so much as the Barke of a true Church 370. 321. Dr. Whites Errours Fundamentall reductivè confuted 371 372. 325. Wherein the Prelates Church of England is departed from the Foundation 373. The Prelates Latitude of faith in reference to different mens Salvation which he can no more fit to them then a coat for the Moâ—ne 373 374. True Preachers must teach all what and how to beleeve though it be no worke for the Prelates pen 373. 327. The Prelate confesseth that Romanists dare not beleeve but as the Church of Rome beleeves which saith he beleeves not aright How then can his Ignorants be saved 374 375. 332. Apocrypha by the Prelate how neatly brought in as a Co-witnesse with the Scripture to prove points of Faith 375. 336. The Prelates Resolution to live and dye in the Faith of the Primitive Church confuted by sundâ—y Instances 375 376. 338. The Prelate holds not the Saving Faith as not acknowledging other then Romes Faith 377 378 379. And the Saving Faith is not in the Church of Rome 377 The Prelate holds a false Hope and Charity together with a false Faith with Rome wherein he will live and dye an English Romish-Catholicke 379 380. 339. The Prelates haâ—ting and halfing with the Jesuite 380. In charging Rome he checketh himselfe 340. His halting againe 381. Yet he confesseth that the now Roman Faith is not the Catholicke which Roman Faith he will live and dye in 380. What Contradiction is ib. His contradiction noted 382. His halting down-right all along 382 383. 342. How the Prelates Saving Faith of Rome is by himselfe proved to be Infidelity 384. So as compared with the former he will live and dye in the Roman Infidelity Conferre 375 376 377. His Collusion 382. 349 Who the first Founder of Purgatory 386. 365. The Prelates false root of the true Churches existence and true root of the false 387 388. 370. The Church of Rome how yeelded by the Replyer to be visible yet not Apostolicke against the Prelate 387 388. 371. Of Peters being at Rome 388. The Church of Rome for what preserved of God 389. 375 How the Prelate gives more liberty to his Protestants to goe to the Romish Church to heare Masse which he calls the Service of God then the Jesuite doth to his Roman Catholicks to goe to the English Service 390 391 392. 376. The Prelates Assertion That the Church of Rome and the Protestant Church of England do not set up a different Religion 392. And so no great difference of going to either yet that both accuse each other of grosse corruptions indangering Salvation 393. Ibid. Who are the Prelates Indifferent Readers to whom it appeares by his Discourse as himselfe saith That the Religion profest in the Church of England comes nearest to the Primitive Church And what Readers will judge the contrary 394. 377. Not onely Superstition as the Prelate stints it but grosse Idolatry in Adoration of Images in Invocation of Saints in Adoration of the Sacrament 395. 378. By the Prelates confession to the Priest A. C. there should be but little pride in his heart 396. 379. The Prelates wan hope of mercy to the dead Lady 396 397. 388. The Prelates Close or Conclusion wherein he excuseth himselfe by reason of his other weighty affaires and of his Age His misnaming of the Penman of the 90 Psalme least he should through all his Booke but touch or name any one Scripture and withall not mistake misapply or pervert it His fearefull and desperate condition layd home unto him by the Replyer His mocking and abusing Gods Name and Mercy in his hypocriticall Prayer and impenitent heart His blaphemy in Fathering all his Booke written and published for the meeting of his Popish Truth and Peace in a Reconciliation with Rome upon Gods Free Grace His wicked and false hope that God will bring to passe that his Diabolicall Designe and Desire which cannot come to passe but with the utter confusion of the whole Land His hypocriticall and faithlesse giving Glory to God after all his blacke mouthed blasphemies and disgraces throughout his Booke cast upon the Majesty of God of Christ and of the Holy Ghost also upon Gods holy word the Scripture as if he would in the close of all with this one plaister heale so many broken heads 397 to 405. This suffice for a rude Model But what 's that to the House it selfe Enter therfore and take a free and full view Consider what thou readest and the Lord give thee understanding in all things TO THE AVTHOR AND PVBLISHER OF THE RELATION MY Lord that you find not my Name in Front the Reasons are to my selfe And when you find it 't will appeare that feare of your displeasure though terrible enough was not the Cause But whoever I be you will Say perhaps I am some madde fellow and too bold to make a Reply to your Relation But your own words will I hope excuse me for that For you Say A right sober mâ—n may without the least touch of insolency or madnesse dispute a businessâ— of Religion with the Roman either Church or Prelate so it be with modesty and for the finding out or confirming of Truth free from â—anity and purposed opposition against even a Particular Church So you Now my manner in disputing with one so Great though a single Prelate and no Church being with modesty and 〈◊〉 from vaniâ—y and purposed opposition against your Person and the end for finding out and confirming the Truth which God himselfe knoweth I hâ—pe I Say your Lordship wil be as good as your word not to cast upon me an aspersion or Censure of the least touch of Insolâ—nâ—ie or madnesse But this indeed I must confesse unto you and professe before all the world that in a Cause so weighty as this wherein I find my Lord Iesus Christ so deeply ingaged so much dishonoured and his onely true Faith and Religion so much depressed and disparaged and that by so great a Prelate I must crave pardon if herein I be both zealous and plain with you And that so much the more that one so Great I say so high in favour in Court and so potent and prevalent in the State should so doe And to this purpose I remember another Speech in your Booke Worth is no necessary concluder for Truth For worth once misled is of all other the greatest misleader And such is
in a Cloake-bag as most of the rest were was for them and favoured their side And the present Oracle of the Church of England Papa alterius Orbis hath so handled and hammered the matter in his forge that by a Declaration before the Articles of Religion he hath with no great difficulty made those Articles concerning Grace so to speak as to please both the dissenting parties Like to a Picture which each man in the room imagins looks upon him in particular Or as easily I say as if a man should take away the prick of a Hebrew Letter from the right side and place it on the left according to which variation a man pronounceth respectively the word Schiboleth or Sibboleth The false pronounciation of which word cost the Ephraimites their lives Lastly to end as I began The Church of England and of Rome are One and the same in turning Christs Kingdome which is altogether Spirituall and not of this world into an earthly and seculer Kingdome although Styled a Spiritualty and Hierarchy or holy Government and Kingdome whose Governours are temporall Lords calling themselves Christs viceroys whose kingdome glory pompe dignity riches is all earthly not heavenly carnall not spirituall verefying that of the Apostle They are the enemies of the Crosse of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is in their Shame which mind earthly things Here are particulars enough to be silent in the rest to prove your Speech true That the Church of England and the Church of Rome are in Substance one and the Same no doubt of that As for Romes corruptions as you account and call them they are neither so many nor so great So long as they overthrow not the foundation as you not say they doe but that the large Mantle of your Charity is broad enough to cover them So as that need not to break square or greatly hinder your so much desired and attempted Reconciliation wherein I know you will be ready to meet Rome the halfe way or three quarters and more rather then faile to give his Holinesse the kisse of peace so he will be content to leave your Patriarchate or Popedome in England while himselfe enjoyeth the Vicarship of the wider world and at his death leave you his Heir apparent of the triple Crown Yet perhaps for your Reputation sake you would require that some grossenes at least might be payred off the outsides of her fouler corruptions and they a little smoothed over and for your part I dare say you will not be behind hand to bring on the Church of England in such a faire forwardnesse and neernesse as possibly the time will permit to a just conformity in all things fecible But is the Church of England now come to this to be in Statu quo So as a man may find her just there where Rome is now Alas poore England Shall not now all thy brave Worthies that are for the most part dead and gone and Some yet surviving as brands out of the flame rise up and bring their Evidences as witnesses aganst Rome that Shee is a False Hereticall Idolatrous Apostatized Antichristian Church the very Whore of Babylon plainely described in the Revelation And one of the last Bookes written against her to purpose indeed Intituled BABEL no BETHEL which came forth in a good season somwhat before you came to sit in the Chaire of Canterbury and for which you may remember you convented the Author before your High Commission Board at London house out of Terme and committed him to prison Mr. BURTON I mean now a closse prisoner and Exile hath by many impregnable Arguments so strongly proved the Church of Rome to be no true Church of Christ but a meere Antichristian Apostacie from the Faith So as neither his two hot Antagonists your Brothers Champions nor any Jesuites since hath undertaken to Answer it as being indeed unanswerable And so it Stands his Adversaries giving him the Bucklers in the plain Field And yet now is the Case so altered that so suddainly the Church of England is become One and the Same with the Church of Rome So as She may find her selfe just there where Romes is now and that no doubt of that But how doth this appeare Surely you may take it for truth for the Primate and Metropolitan of all England hath so bestirred himselfe and playd his part in Chopping and Changing puting down truth and seting up errour and superstition in the Church of England that she is Sodainly so metamorphosed into another form and in a manner transubstantiated into a new Substance of a Church as now you may find her just there where Romes is now both one and the Same Church no doubt of that If then we may take your word for your Church of England in this Case and considering that the Church of Rome is that notorious Harlot how any true Christian as I said before that will not become the member of a Harlot can hold longer communion with you I cannot see And for my part I doe here ingenuously professe and protest against you againe and againe that I abhorre you and all such Churches as hold communion with Rome as one and the Same Church and doe utterly seperate from you till you seperate from all communion and conformity with that Babylon in all those particulars forementioned And so I have done with you thus farre in this point You proceed L. p. 17. According to Christs Institution the Scripture where 't is plaine should guide the Church and the Church where there 's doubt and difficulty should expound the Scripture P. How Where I pray hath Christ so instituted And who hath bewitched you to dare to utter such a notorious and pernicious untruth as this and to Father it upon Christ and that upon your bare word For What Scripture doe you or can you bring For this Nay if the Scripture Christs own voyce and wherein the Spirit of Christ breatheth be not sufficient to interpret it selfe and that in all more doubtfull and difficult places of it what Man or Men or Church shal be able to doe it For how can any interpret difficult places of Scripture especially such as concerne Faith and Salvation but by the Scripture it selfe But we shall speake more fully of this afterwards And you have told us what the Church is namely a Hierarchy or Kingdome of Prelates who generally Savour the things of the flesh and not of the Spirit And if youâ— Lordship should but stand for a proofe and Say in this Case and that all other Prelates would hazzard their credit upon your Ability in interpreting the Scripture it would quickly appeare what hope the world might have of Prelates helpe at a dead lift for the establishing of our Faith and Consciences in some perplexed Cases O then what brave Prelaticall Glosses should we have As for the purpose Some doubts of late are risen in England
have stopped all the Ministers mouthes binding them to peace and externall obedience Although I cannot yet conceive how that Declaration should be the Church of Englands though published in the Kings Name and perhaps compiled in the Conclave of Canterbury And thus also that Order for the Altar of S. GREGORIES which yet is but Dormant in Cryptis not published in Print in which respect it cannot be called the Declartion of the Church yet must be of force to bind all Ministers to Peace and Obedience first to Peace not to speake a word against Altars for his Eares and next to Obedience that if he refuse to have an Altar set up in his Church himselfe shal be made a Sacrifice But why should such an Order thus bind I must crave pardon for making Question And the rather because your Lordship here gives us a Rule or Canon saying The Churches Declaration can bind us to Peace and externall Obedience where there is no expresse Letter of Scripture and Sense agreed on Now though we have expresse Letter of Scripture proving Christ to be the onely Altar of Christians as before is shewed yet because this sense is not agreed on by your Lordship and so by your present Church of England therefore men must be peaceable and obedient in that point and quietly submit to Authority in the admitting and the Adoring too if you will of Altars in every Church And so in all other your superstitious Ceremonies of what force is the expresse Letter of the Scripture where the Sense of it is not by you and your Church agreed upon To give an Instance or two more This is my Body the Sense of these words is not agreed on between your Church of England and that of Rome though you are in Substance both one Church what then Ergo Ministers are bound to Peace and Obedience in not medling to or fro with the manner How Christ is present in the Sacrament though your Article of the Lords Supper doth declare it both affirmatively and negatively how it is and is not but to content themselves with Really which is a very peaceable word about which Rome and you have no great reason to fall at oddes Againe for bowing at the nameing of the Name Iesus although you have no expresse Letter of Scripture for it no not Phil. 2.10 where it is Said En to onómati In or as your Translation hath it at the name of Iesus every knee should bow but it is not Said En to onomazethai tò onoma Iesoun or Iesous In the naming of the name Iesus every knee should bow So as that place is plainly expounded and agreed on by other places of Scripture as Isa. 45.23 and Rom. 14.10 as some of your old English Bibles note those places in the Margent over against the place as in that of Isaiah there is set in in the Margent Rom. 14.10 and Phil. 2.10 all which three places unanimously shew the universall Subjection of all Creatures in heaven and earth and under the earth to Christ in the day of Iudgement yet because this Sense is not agreed on by the present Church of England therefore her Declaration in her Canon binds all to Peace and Obedience to Peace in not speaking or writing against bowing at the nameing of the name Iesus nor in preaching to expound the Letter of Scripture Phil. 2.10 by the plain sense of other Scriptures as afore cited and to Obedience by bowing themselves when they heare that Name to be named So as your Lordships Rule here is very usefull for many things although you have neither Letter nor Sense of Scripture for them L. p. 32. The power of adding any thing contrary and detracting any thing necessary are alike forbidden No power of the Church can doe this P. This Sentence you alledge out of Vincentius and allow it So as it is to be accounted your owne Confession which I suppose you will not deny Whereupon you with your Church fall under just condemnation both for adding things contrary and detracting things necessary For you adde to the service of God as you call it your Altars and sundry other superstitionâ— which the Scripture excludes and condemnes and so are contrary and you detract things necessary as Preaching of the saving Doctrines of Grace Preaching on the Lords dayes in the after noon Preaching Week-day Lectures and Cathechising by expounding the Grounds of Religion Which things are necessary profitable and usefull to the people of God and which God commaundeth as 2 Tim. 3.15.16 and 4.1.2 Gal. 6.6 Let him that is Katekoúmenos Cathechised in the word communicate To katekounti to him that Catechiseth or instructeth him in all good things Thus you and your Church take upon you to do those things which are alike forbidden and which no power of the Church can doe though you can L. p. 35. Wrangle while you will you shall never be able to prove that any thing which is but de modo a consideration of the manner of being onely can possibly be fundamentall in the Faith P. Wrangle I will not but prove that some things which are de modo considered in the manner of being onely not onely may possibly but are really in that very respect fundamentall in the Faith So as to deny them or not to beleeve them is in it selfe damnable And hereof I shall give some Instances 1. Christs body in receiving of the Sacrament is to be considered in the mâ—nnâ—r of its being present to the beleeving Communicant In so much as to exclude such manners of being present as doe destroy either the Article of his perpetuall Residence in heaven till his câ—ming againe or the truth of his Naturall Body doth deny and destroy two Articles of the Faith 1. touching Christs sitting 〈◊〉 tâ—e rigâ—â— hand of God from whence he shall come to Judgemâ—â—â— and 2 ly that he was borne of the Virgin Mary with a true humane body As the Papists apprehending and beleeving Christs naturall body to be locally present in the Eucharist doe thereby overthrow his perpetuall residence in heaven till his coming againe and withall the truth of his naturall body which being a true naturall body with all its naturall properties cannot be locally or corporally in many places at one and the same time which yet the corporall presence in the Eucharist doth necessarily import And if the truth of Christs naturall body be destroyed as by the Manichees and other Hereticks Christ is wholly evacuated and shall profit nothing Besides this Popish beliefe of Christs corporall Presence in their Eucharist makes Christs natural body which hath its dimensions of length breadth thicknesse to be a meere fantasticall and imaginaâ—y body as being contained within the narrow circle and compasse of a thinne Wafer-cake and so they destroy Christs body And so also in that they beleeve they eat this body of Christ which is to destroy it as 1 Cor. 6.13 And this beliefe of Christs corporall presence as aforesaid
did locally in Soule descend into Hell the place of the damned without any proofe from Scripture is Sin My reasons are these 1. Because this opens a gappe to men to beleeve humane Traditions to be of Faith to Salvation as of equall credit and authority to the Scriptures Now it cannot be proved that the Creed it selfe with its forme and words and Articles and Title called The Apostles Creed is other then a humane Tradition or that the Apostles composed the Creed Secondly This argues as a too high estimation of a thing humane as if it were autópistos of selfe-Credit so a too base estimation and undervaluing of the holy Scripture as if they alone were not the Rule of Faith or not to be relieâ— and rested on alone for all matters concerning Christian Faith So as to give Credit to any thing else besides the Scripture as of equall Authority with the Scripture as you make your Creed to be and not examining it by the Scripture is a detracting from the Authority of Scripture and consequently a denying of the Scripture to be the Sole Rule of Faith For the Creed it is either a part of the Scripture or not a part if it be not a part of Scripture as indeed it is not then all the Articles of Faith in it being but a small abridgement of Christian Faith and so of necessity and in comparison of Scripture it selfe very obscure and Scanty are to be proved and illustrated from Scripture the Sole Rule of Faith and Tryall of all Truths Thirdly in Particular to beleeve Christs descent in Soule into hell locally must stand with some reason and analogy or proportion of Faith layd downe in the Scripture For Christ did or suffered nothing but the Scripture shews the Reason Cause and End of it For instance Isaiah Saith To us a Child is borne to us a Son is given So the Angel to the Shepheards To you is borne this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. This then shews the End of Christs Incarnation namely for our Salvation Then for his Death He was delivered up for our Sins And Forasmuch as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himselfe likewise took part of the Same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of dâ—ath that is the Devil And deliver them who through feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage So for his Resurrection He rose againe for our Iustification So for his Ascention It was that he might send the Holy Ghost and goe to prepare a place in heaven for all his So for his Sitting at Gods right hand There he makes Intercession for his people rules as King his Church in preserving protecting governing his people and makeing his and their foes his Footstoole But for any such thing as Descent into hell neither is it found in the Scripture nor much lesse any reasons given there of it Indeed Peter Speaking of Christs Resurrection alledgeth Psal. 16. Thou wilt not leave my Soule in Hell So in the English In the Hebrew it is commonly taken for the Grave not for the place of the damned But will you take Peters exposition of it Speaking by Christs owne Spirit This saith he David Seeing before Spake of the Resurrection of Christ that his Soule was not left in Hell neither his flesh did see Corruption So then this place Psal. 16. was by the Holy Ghosts owne Interpretation a Prophecie of Christs Resurrection from the Grave and not of any Descent into Hell the place of the damned For he is not said to rise out of hell as you say he went downe into Hell nor to ascend out of Hell as you beleeve he descended into Hell Will you have a particular Article of Christs descent into Hell and shall you not need another Article for his Ascent out of Hell againe And the Apostle saith Christ descended Eis tà katótera mère tes ges to the lowest parts of the Earth which is spoken of his humiliation to the Death and the Grave but here is no word of his Descent into any such place as Hell the place of the damned But admit your Faith to be true that Christs Soule descended locally into Hell I aske to what end or purpose Can you shew any Reason from Scripture for this Will you say his Soule went thither to suffer Surely that had its Consummatum est upon the Crosse there it was finished Will you say he went to triumph over the Devil in his owne Dâ—nne That was also done on his Crosse as on his Triumphall Chariot And can you give any reason why Christ should descend into hell in regard of us What that so he might deliver our Soules out of Hell Surely this also was done in his Death And againe if it were necessary that Christs soule should goe locally into hell to deliver our soules then also it was necessary for his body to descend into hell to deliver our bodies from thence For he came to redeem our bodies as well as our soules Or what els can you Say Certainly what ever you can invent the Scripture will presently discover the vanity of it But for my part I dare beleeve nothing concerning Christ and my Salvation but what the Scripture hath revealed But the Scripture hath revealed no such thing as the Descent of Christs Soule into Hell locally But you will then object unto me Do I not beleeve my Creed and every Article in it I answere I doe Why then say you Doe I not beleeve the Article of Christs Descent into Hell I say I doe being understood or expounded according to the Scripture and the Analogy of Faith therein How is that Christ dyed and in his Passion he suffered the Torments of Hell in his Soule on the Crosse and in the Garden But his Descent into Hell is set after his buriall And doe you not know that the ancient Heathen used to put Hádes for the state of the dead So as katelthein eis hadou is to goe or to abide in the state of the dead which Christ did for 3. dayes and then arose againe and revived So as the Article shewes the continuance of Christs being dead and buried till his Resurrection Againe you know the Nicene Creed mentions onely Christs buriall and no Descent into Hell and Athanasius his Creed katelthen eis hadou He Descended into Hell without speaking a word of his buriall All which doe confirme what I say that christ in being buried remained so long in the State of the dâ—ad his soule seperated from his body and being said to Dâ—scend into Hell hades signifying also the Grave thereby is meant his being buried for so long a time till his rising againe As it is said in the next Article The third day â—e rose againe from the dead that is from the Grave where he abode in the state of the dead Now I have given
text and so prosecutes them with proofes of Scripture and Reasons and lastly applyes this word in sundry uses to the hearts and Consciences of the hearers reproving this or that sinne and pressing it home And all this while knowing nothing that any such Creature as the Archbishhop of Canterbury is in his Congregation in the ardor of his holy Zeale hee lets flye his Darts of sharpe Reproofe Steeled with Divine Authority of GODS Word the Scripture as against Pride Hypocrisie hatred of GODS Word Persecution of Gods Ministers and People under a colour of piety and peaâ—e-making in the Church and the like and so drives the nayle to the head as that the dart pierceth through all your armour of proofe as the Arrow shot at adventure hit Ahab between the joynts of his Armour to the the very quick of your Conscience not onely to the awakening of it but driving it to a trembling fit as Pauls preaching did to Felix and to be in a cold Sweat and to wax wanne and pale as Belshazzar at the sight of the hand-writing which is a part of Scripture what would you imagine of this Perhaps that the Minister knew of your being there But the contrary appeares to your selfe you did it so secretly as you knew none could discover it as you want neither wit nor art to doe such a feate if you will Well you can draw no other Conclusion from that your Conviction upon this occasion but that sure those were the Darts of the Scripture that wounded you yea and sounded you and found you out in the Croud pulling off the veile of hypocrisie from off the the face of your Conscience and therewithall so terrifying it as you are perswaded all the men in the world could not have struck such terrours into your Soule and therupon you are forced to Conclude and Confesse that surely the Scripture must needs be the word of God having such a mighty power in it being applyed but by a weake man As the Apostle saith We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power might be of God and not of us For you could discerne nothing of the Minister himselfe but that he was a simple plain man and did but speake as his text led him and for which he brought good proofe from the Scripture Thus if your Lordship should make but such an experiment as this would you not doe with this your Book wherein you have besides many other strange passages all along as will appeare yet more at large pronounced so many disgracefull Sentences against the Sufficiencie of the Divine Scripture to prove it selfe to be the word of God as those Converts in the Acts did with their Books of Curious Arts or as you did though against your will with that Popish Book of the Bishop of Geneva in Smithfield But I proceed As the Scripture not onely in and of it selfe but by the Ministry of it discovereth such a cleare selfe-light as whereby even naturall men are convinced and enforced to beleeve and confesse that Surely the Scripture is the very word of God so this word this Scripture is not as the Papists say and you say little better a dead letter but as it is the word of God uttered by his Spirit by which holy men spake and wrote it so it carries meat in the mouth as we say it never goes alone but is accompanied with the Spirit of God which Spake it giving testimony unto it that it is the undoubted word of God For even as the veines in a naturall body doe carry and convey in them the life-blood and as the Arteries doe containe in them those animal Spirits conveyed from the head to all the members whereby they are vegetated and moved So the Scriptures and every part of them have in them the Spirit whereby they are quickned and which is in them as the light in the body of the Sun their proper light wherein they shine forth in such a brightnesse as is sufficient to convince all men that they are the word of God and effectuall in perswading and assuring all the Elect of God of the truth thereof even to their Salvation And as the Soule with its faculties as understanding and Reason in mans body doe shew him to be a reasonable creature Man So the Spirit of God breathing and moving in the Scriptures doe shew them to be the very word of God For in the Scripture doe shine forth Gods Majesty Wisdome Holinesse Power Providence Iustice Mercy Truth Goodnesse Omniscience and all his excellent Attributes so as they all beare testimony unto it that it is the word of God So as to seperate these from the Scripture as they doe who affirme that the Scripture is not bright enough to be a sufficient witnesse to it selfe to the begetting of Beliefe that it is the word of God is as if they should abstract and seperate the light from the Sun and say it is not sufficient to prove it selfe to be the Sun For indeed take away the light from the Sun and then you may say truely it is not bright enough to shew it selfe to be the Sun Nay it ceaseth to be the Sun any more when the light and heat of it is taken away For the Sun is pherónumos according to its names in the Hebrew Shemesh so called because by its light it is a Minister or Servant to the world or some derive it quasi Sham-esh ibi ignis There is fire or according to another name from its property of calefaction or heating But take away its light and it looseth both its nature and its name and serves for no use So if you take from the Scripture those things in it which are its life and soule its native light and â—uster which can no more be seperated from it then the light from the Sun nay the Sun shall come to loose his light as it once did at the Ecclipsing of the Sun of Righteousnesse in his Passion on the Crosse but Gods word endureth for ever in heaven you quite destroy the nature of the Scripture and so make it to be no longer the word of God I might here inlarge my Discourse upon this excellent Subject but I shall have further occasion ministred by you to speake something more of it as I passe along For you proceed L. p. 83. A man is probably led by the Authority of the present Church as by the First informing inducing perswading meanes to beleeve the Scripture to be the word of God but when he hath studied considered and compared this word with it selfe and with other writings with the helpe of ordinary Grace and a mind morally induced and reasonably perswaded by the voyce of the Church the Scripture then gives greater and higher Reasons of Credibily to it selfe then Tradition alone could give P. Here you begin to tell us your manner of proposing the Scripture as a credible object fit
kind of Light potentially in the Scripture as fire in the flint which must be struck out with the steele Nay you compare it but to the light of a Candle and yet not all that neither for the Candle must first be lighted The Scripture then of it selfe is but as a Candle in the box of 12 in the pound as you Say ibid. which hath no Light till it be lighted And Tradition of your present Church must light the Candle And surely then may not the Tradition of your present Church put out the light of this Candle again after you have lighted it As the Pope crowned the Emperour with his feet and then struck the Crown off again with his foot to teach the Emperour that his Crown was at his Holinesse Devotion to dispose of as he pleased So may you do with the Scripture light the Candle and put it out again As you have don with the Doctrines of Grace with the Sabbath or Lords day with preaching and the like And Thy word is a light So David But not So you For David Said Thy word is a lampe unto my feet and a light unto my pathes So say not you You like not it seems such a lampe and light to your wayes For wayes you leave out as the Devil did when he recited that Scripture Psal. 91.11 He shall keep thee but he left out In all thy wayes as Luk. 4.10 And you could never have the hap hitherto to cite Scripture right And no marvaile if you be out of your way when you come to the Scripture seeing you can find no light in it to give you sufficient direction But you Adde A Light Therefore it is as much a manifestation to it selfe as to other things Even just as much as if you had Said A blind man seeth as much in the darke as in the day So 't is here with the Scripture for the light you allow it And what 's that But none still no light till the Candle be lighted 'T is just so then as I say I guest your meaning right But you adde Not till there hath been a preparing Instruction what light it is till the Tradition of the Church and Gods grace put to it hath cleared his understanding How I am here at a losse except you helpe me out and cleare the understanding of your words For before you must have the Candle first lighted and here you seem to grant some light when 't is once discovered to be a preparing instruction what light it is I pray you my Lord deale plainly with us Speake out Hath the Scripture a light in it or no before the preparing instruction hath shewed what light it is For to shew what light it is doth necessarily presuppose that there is a Light And if there be a Light how is it true that you Say Not till it be lighted by Tradition of the Church Must Tradition doe all both light the Candle and also shew what light it is Or doth Tradition with the same act of lighting the Candle shew also what light it is If so then I begin through this darke lanterne of yours to discerne what light the Scripture hath namely a borrowed light lent it by Tradition For you say The Candle is not lighted till Tradition light it Or if I be out 't is for want of Cleare Light from your darke Lanthorne But here followes a worse perplexity For from the lighting the Candle of Scripture by Tradition you come to the lighting of another Candle namely the Clearing of the naturall mans understanding by the Tradition of the Church and Gods grace put to it 'T was well you put Gods grace to it For if the Tradition of your present Church have but Gods grace put to it it may worke wonders But stay Cannot your Churches Tradition or Authority doe the deed without Gods grace at least doe its office of the fore-horse as the necessary prime leader Or is your Churches Tradition some jade that puts all the brunt upon the next horse that follows Then you should rather give Gods Grace the Precedencie But now I remember this Grace of God is but an ordinary Grace as you told us before which at the most worketh but an ordinary morall and probable beliefe that Scripture is the word of God but not certaine and evident So as the naturall mans undestanding being but thus farre cleared to have a probable opinion of Scripture to be Gods word except you can bring him to beleeve in Christ and forsake his sins his opinion will but aggravate his condemnation so much the more But what evidence can you shew us that your Church Tradition is certainly seconded with so much ordinary Grace For if your Tradition be derogatory from the Credit of the Scripture you cannot hope for the least degree of ordinary Grace to give it either assistance or attendance It behoves you therefore to prove that this your Authority in this point is from God is Gods ordinance and if so you may then easily perswade us that Gods grace will accompany his owne Ordinance But this you will hardly prove But will Say Traditions are Traditions and therefore not to be proved from Scripture and this Church-Tradition is that which the Scripture must be proved and tryed by And so here upon belike it is that you conclude So Tradition of the present Church is the first morall motive to beleeve The Conclusion might serve the turne well enough if you had but good logicall or rationall Premises to bring it in better then yet you bring for the inducing of beliefe That Scripture is the word of God L. ibid. So after Tradition of the present Church hath taught and informed the Soule the voyce of God is plainly heard in the Scripture it selfe And then here 's double Authority and both Divine that confirmes Scripture to be the word of God Tradition of the Apostles delivering it and the internall worth and argument in the Scripture obvious to a Soule prepared by the present Churches Tradition and Gods Grace P. The more you speake the more we come to Sound the depth of your meaning You told us before of the present Churches Tradition and Gods Grace put to it by which the naturall mans understanding is first cleared And here Tradition of the present Church alone doth the deed for you say After Tradition of the present Church hath taught and informed the Soule then the voyce of God is plainly heard in the Scripture it selfe Surely my mind gave me all this while that although for fashion sake and for a colour you named the grace of God in the second place after your Tradition yet your principall ayme was to advance the Credit of your Church-Authority as that alone which does the deed This this is it that cleares the naturall mans understanding this it that teacheth and informeth the Soule Tradition I say of the present Church before the voyce of God is plainly heard in the
is in the Scripture such a light as is of force to breed faith Nay you have already again and again and I know not how often expresly and flatly denyed that there is in Scripture so much light as of it self hath force to breed so much faith as to beleeve it to be the word of God And this was all the Question with you but even now But how comes in this Negative Not to make a perfect knowledge The Question was not all this while whether the Scripture had so full a light in it as to make a perfect knowledge But seeing you took this in to cast a myst before mens eyes that they may not so easily discern your jugling trick in answering A.C. and yet keeping your credit as if you herein maintained no other thing then what they Divines of the Church of England have held that which you say the Jesuite pretends I will answere this too That all Orthodox Divines do hold and that according to the Scripture that there is in it such a full and cleare light as to make a perfect knowledge For First there is a knowledge perfect and 2 ly we have no other Schoolmaster to teach it but the Scripture and 3 ly this perfect knowledge is required of Christians Be not children in understanding saith the Apostle but in understanding be men So the English hath it But the Originall is tais dè phresì téleio gÃnesthe In understanding or wisdome be ye perfect So Heb. 6.1 Wherfore leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us be caried on to perfection That is to perfection of Knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Now this knowledge is no where but in the Scripture and so this perfection no way to be attained unto but by the Scripture as the onely rule and meanes thereof So the Apostle to Timothy saith From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousnes that the man of God may be perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works So as Tertullian might well say Adoro plenitudinem Scripturarum I adore or admire the fullnesse of the Scriptures It is a Fountaine yea an Ocean of Knowledge And if we cannot attaine to that full perfection of Knowledge in this life which is to be found in the Scripture it is defectus vasis non fontis the defect is in the vessell mans soule For we know but in part and we prophecy in part saith the Apostle and not in the fountaine the Holy Scripture which is like Iacobs Well full of Water but deep so as every one hath not such a lage vessell and long line as can draw forth a full measure of knowldge out of it yet he may draw for a plenitude or fullnesse of the vessell according to its quantity and the proportion of Faith given to every man yet not so exactly full by reason of our infirmity and in-capacity of our vessell which is partly of a leaking condition plenus rimarum as he said full of cracks and a great deale we lose in the very drawing of it up as a bucket doth of water before it come to the toppe So as the defect is not in the Well wherein it was but now over head and eares as we Say under water and fuller then it could hold but in the bucket in bringing it up or containing and retaining of it L. p. 87. Faiths evidence is not so cleare for it is of things not seen Heb. 11.1 in regard of the object and in regard of the subject that sees it is in enigmate in a glasse or darke speaking Now God doth not require a full demonstrative knowledge in us that the Scripture is his word and therefore in his Providence hath kindled in it no light for that but he requires our faith of it and such a certaine demonstration as may fit that And for that he hath left sufficient light in Scripture to Reason and Grace meeting when the Soule is morally prepared by the Tradition of the Church P. Speaking Still of that Faith whereby a man beleeves the Scripture to be the word of God which Faith is Historicall here you confound it with the Saving justifying Faith just as the Papists doe For as they so you here alledge for your faiths unclean evidence Heb. 11.1 where the Apostle describes Faith thus Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen By which very description it is cleare and evident that he speakes not of that Historicall Faith of Scripture common to all men but of the Saving Faith peculiar to Gods Elect Tit. 1.1 and given to the Saints Jude 3. which notwithstanding comprehends in it the Historicall Faith of Scripture to be the word of God and that in a higher degree and measure then any Reprobate can have even as the Rationall Soule of man being it comprehends in it the Sensitive faculty in a more excellent manner then it is in the bruit beasts and the Vegetative faculty in a more excellent manner then it is in the plants because as the sensitive and vegetative qualities of the soule of man being comprehended under the Rationalls are subjected to the rule and command of Reason and so doe participate in some kind of the very nature of the Rationall faculty man being both moving and seeing and hearing and smelling and tasting and touching not as a bruit beast but as a Reasonable creature So Historicall Faith being comprehended under the Saving and Justifying Faith in a true beleever it is in him more excellent and advanced to a higher pitch of perfection then it is or can be in a naturall man so as it participates so farre of that plerophorÃa tes pÃsteoes that full assurance of Saving Faith as that it not onely apprehends and beleeves the Scripture to be the word of God but doth beleeve it so certainly and firmly and with such an affiance and affection as that the Beleever will rather dye then for the terrours of death it selfe be brought to deny this truth And what is this trow you but a full and certaine demonstrative knowledge that perswades him to this But for This Historicall Faith in a meere naturall man or one unregenerate though he be sufficiently convinced in his Conscience that the Scripture is the word of God yet he hath neither so much affiance in it nor affection to it as that he wil be content to loose life and all if need be for the maintenance of this truth This full Demonstration he wants But for that Faith which the Apostle speakes of and describes Heb. 11.1 which you make to be your Historicall Faith and the evidence of it in regard of the objest not so cleare as being of things not seene it is
Peters Rule But you restraine this to Romes usurped Infallibility as if without this she could not Lord it over Christendome How comes your Lordship then with your Hierarchy to Lord it over the Soules and Consciences of Gods people even over all England that other world You disclaime your Church-Authority and Tradition here to be Divine and Infallible By what Authority then doe you Lord it over all England Certainly Divine Authority you have none for it And as you Say of Rome so I doe to you Certainly you are no successors of the Apostles in this as both hath been and shal be more shewed And because you cite here that place of Peter what think you of it Doth it not condemn all kind of Lordship over Gods heritage As Lordship over mens Consciences in captivating them to humane Ordinances as Ceremonies in Gods worship As Lordship over Ministers forbidding them to Preach Gods word both how farre and when you please As Lordship over the very Commandements of God in dispensing with them as in the 4 th and 5 th Commandement Or Lordship over mens Soules as touching their beliefe and reading of Scriptures as the word of God all which must depend upon a necessity of your present Church-Authority as without which you tell them it is not fit that they should either read the Scriptures or beleeve them to be the word of God Now is Rome so far gâ—n in puting home her Infallibility as therby to Lord it over the greatest part of Christendome Then how farre are you gone in Lording it over the Soules and Consciences of all the People in England and Ministers too in all these particulars formentioned But to proceed L. p 93. The Lawfully sent Pastors and Doctors of the Church in all Ages have had and shall have continuall assistance but not infalliâ—le at least not Divine and Infallible P. Such therefore as are not Lawfull Pastors and Teachers have not continuall Assistance as all Prelates and Priests as you call yourselves But for Lawfull Pastors if they have continuall assistance whence have they it but from Christ And how then is it not â—ivine And if Divine how not Infallible The assistance certainly for so much as it is and in those things wherin it is is no lesse Infallible then Divine For that which is Divine is Infallible as was touched before But because this Assistance Divine is given to every man but in part for we know in part and we prophecie in part and to some in one kind to some in another both to whom and when and how much and to what speciall purpose as it seemeth good to the Divine wisdome but to all to profit withall and for edification as the Apostle speakes therefore it comes to passe that even good men and good Pastors lawfully called may somtimes run into some errours both by reason of humane frailties and infirmities and when they passe the bounds of their peculiar karÃsmata or Ministeriall Graces bestowed upon in this or that kind or measure and doe not keep closse to the Rule Gods word Having therefore gifts saith the Apostle differing according to the Grace that is given unto us whether Prophecie Let us Prophecie according to the proportion of Faith or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth on Exhortation And yet when we have done all that we can we come farre short of what we should doe Yet all Gods Elect both Pastors and People have Christs promise so farre fullfilled in them and made good unto them by continuall Divine and Infallible Assistance of his Grace and Spirit dwelling in them that they are preserved from all those Errours which might seduce them from Christ as himsefe Saith Math. 24.24 L. p. 95. When Command is for Preaching the Restraint is added Goe Saith Christ and teach all Nations But you may not Preach all things what you please but all things which I have commanded you The publication is yours the Doctrine is mine P. How then dare your Lordship be an Instrument of Restraining and Prohibiting any Doctrine of CHRIST which hee hath in his Word commanded to be Preached and Published to his People How will you answere this be-before that Judge And why do you suborne your Arminian Faction to preach their Heresies out of your dâ—psucoi double minded Articles while you restrain Gods Ministers from preaching the Truth and Suspend them for so doing L. p. 98. Though Tradition and Scripture doe mutually yet they doe not equally confirme the Authority either of other For Scripture doth infaâ—libly confirme the Authority of Church Traditions truly so callâ—d but Tradition doth but morally and probably confirme the Authority of the Scripture P. Then Surely your Church-Traditions make the Scripture but a poore requitall when for an infallible confirmation of them they returne a Confirmation onely morall and probable Can they not returne such as they receive at least in some degree But what be those Traditions of the Church truly so called That inducing Tradition which of necessity must lead men to beleeve the Scriptures to be the word of God But shew us where hath the Scripture given you any such Authority much lesse infallibly confirmed it Or how is this a Tradition truly so called Because you call it so But if Scripture have not sufficient Light to prove themselves to be Gods word what Light find you there infallibly to confirme the Authority of your Tradition And if your Church Tradition doe not confirme the Authority of Scripture infallibly how then Ergo fallibly and deceitfully But probably you Say But probability cannot confirme truth This is a meere Solecisme of yours and any common Aristotelian would hisse it out of the Philosophy Schooles And in a Law-Case a Probable Testimony is not Legall it is no Testimony And will you Say then that the Scripture hath confirmed to your present Church such an Authority infallibly to be a confirming Testimony of the Authority of Scripture which is insufficient and illegall How much the neerer is Scripture Authority for such a Testimony Or your probable testimony doth confirme Scripture-Authority to be probable That 's all and that 's nothing saving that hereby you make the Scripture to be of no Authority at all For first you Say The Scripture hath no testimony of its Authority sufficient in it selfe Secondly that it must first have testimony from the Authority of the present Church and thirdly that this testimony is but probable not infallible Therefore necessarily it followeth that it is but at the most probable if the Scripture have any Authority at all And this is that Goates-haire wherewith you have full stuffed almost 30 of your Folio-leaves as before we have noted And yet the thread of that 16 th Section is not yet cut off or spun out L. p. 100. The Iesuite in the Church of Rome and the precise party in the Reformed Churches agree in this That the Sermons and
Preachings by word of mouth of the Lawfully sent Pastors and Doctors of the Church are able to breed in us Divine and Infallible Faith Nay are the very word of God So A. C. expresly And no lesse then so have some accounted of their owne Factious words to Say no more then as the word of God †in the margent at this marke For the freeing of Factious and Silenced Ministers is termed The restoring of Gods word to its Liberty In the Godly Author of the Late Newes from Ipswitch p. 5. P. That the Sermons and Preachings by word of mouth of the Lawfully sent Pastors and Doctors of the Church are able to breed in men Divine and Infallible Faith being according to the Rule and Evidence of Scripture as true Preaching is what good Christian makes a doubt though you deride it I pray you you that are the great Rabbi and Champion of the present Church of England What Say you of the Apostles words How shall they call on him in whom they have not beleeved And how shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they heare without a Preacher And how shall they Preach except they be Sent So then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God But we shall heare your judgement by and by As for A. C. with whom you yoak the precise party in the same sentence surely were he no Jesuite nor illegitimate Priest but either a Sound Christian or a Lawfully sent Pastor and Doctor of the Church of Christ the words rightly meant and understood are most true I remember I have read a Story of a Grecian State I take it of Athens where when a vitious Senator in Court on a time gave very good Counsell for the Common-Weale they approved of the Counsell but would not have it Registred in his name but caused an honest man to utter the same forme of words in Court and so under his name it was recorded So I may here Let a good Christian or if you will one of the precise party you mention utter these words and not A. C. and then the sense wil be good and true And by your own words we shall convince you of folly by and by Now for the precise party in the Reformed Churches doe you not meane those who are most reformed in their life and conversation and most refined from the drosse and dregges of all Deformed Churches Superstitions and Idolatries in the pretended worship of God and from all grosse errours in Faith and Doctrine Surely those you must and do meane as whom you most deadly hate and therefore in your wretched malice do couple them with A. C. Of which precise party Iesus Christ is the head that pure and precise Nazarite and Seperatist from all sin and errour with all the Apostles Prophets and Martyrs And what do they say No lesse say you then A. C And what faith A.C. Expresly that Sermons c. as before are the expresse word of God And how prove you that this precise party saith no lesse Nay you say more that they account their own Factious words no lesse to say no more then as the word of God To Say no more Nay surely you have said enough if it be true But if not true a great deale too much Well true or not true 't is enough you Say it and so you make this precise party to be ten times worse then the Jesuite And so you would have it For say you the Jesutie saith Sermons are the very word of God but the Precise That their own factious words are What The word of God No but As the word of God Why do you call them factious words because they are As the word of God Doe you not know that true Preachers words should be hoes logâ—â—â—eou as the Oracles or word of God as Peter speakes such words as become Sound Doctrine Sound Speech that cannot be condemned but unjustly by such as doe heterodidaskalein teach strange Doctrines and agree not to wholsome words keeping the Forme of Sound words But you charge here the precise party with factious words How prove you that For Si sat est accusasse quis innocens erit If your single Accusation be sufficient who shal be Innocent But you bring your proofe è Scriptis good evidence sure What 's that †For the freeing of factious and Silenced Ministers is termed The restoring of Gods word to its Liberty But where do you find these factious words In the Godly Author of the late Newes from Ipswich Well then here be 2 things obserbable 1. The Matter 2. the Author 1. The Matter charged The freeing of factious and Silenced Ministers is termed The restoring of Gods word to its Liberty And who are these factious and Silenced Ministers Namely a matter of about an hundred godly and Conscientious Ministers in Norfolke Suffolk Essex Kent Surrey and other Shâ—res who were in one Summer and the most in the Circuit of one Visitation some silenced some suspended some also excommunicated from Church and Chimney ab Aris ac Focis aqua igni and with their Wives and Children exposed to beggery and all calamity Wherefore They were factious Wherein They would not obâ—y and conforme to the Orders of their Ordinary What Orders For the reading in their severall Congregations the Book for Sports on the Lords dayes For the setting up of Altars in their Chancels For the causing of their People never accustomed to it before to come up to the Altar and there receive the Communion or the Lords Supper on their knees For these and the like which they refused to do they are doomed Factious But the Ministers aledged these were new Impositions praeter praescriptum Legis besides the prescript Law or Statute so as their obedience should have incurred a Premunire No matter for that They are a sort of factious fellows and ringleaders of Puritan-people as you apologised in the Starre-Chamber and so being once silenced 't is too late to talk Yet these men were all Conformists to the Discipline by Law established and lived peaceably How then were they Factious Why surely they would not observe Orders They would notwithstanding an Order to the Contrary preach twice every Lords day They would open the Catechisme-points and not content themselves with the bare words of Question and Answere as it is in the Booke they would hold the people so long with their preaching in the Afternoons that they had no time left to goe to their Laudable Sports nor could the people enjoy their pleasures with a quiet Conscience the Ministers would so trouble them with pressing the Sanctification of the Sabbath according to the 4th Commandement and the like Well then diligent Preachers they were and they preached the word of God by expounding and applying it which we shall heare you by and by to commend if we may beleeve your words when we see your deeds contrary So
did they speake this out of any disesteem of those Fathers but when they were I say so urged to defend the truth against the Adversaries of it by the evidence whereof they were able to make good what they sayd that those Fathers were but men and might erre Now for this who is more apt then your Lordship to cast in the dish of this precise party as you call them that they should upon just cause speake thus of your antient Fathers What would you say then if all this party should as one Man rise up and openly professe against you as a notorious enemy of the truth and of the Church of God in England and elswhere and of all pious sincere and zealous Preachers of the Gospell and that under the Name of the precise party which you so yoake with the Jesuites you doe maliciously not onely seek to undermine but even professedly to invade and oppugne the whole Kingdome of Iesus Christ as also your practises and this your Book can witnesse And how doe you come to know the thoughts of this precise party so well that you say they think their own preachings were infallible Surely you do but think so You might therfore judge more charitably But as I said of those Fathers so do I of these what they have a good and sure ground in Scripture for to preach and teach they may be sure and they know it to be the truth and so infallible As for those that preach of cursing and lyes as David speaks and suggest slanders and false reports into the eares of Princes and Courts against Gods Ministers and Preachers let them thinke and be assured too that what they preach or print is not onely not infallible but most malicious and detestable both before God and Man as tending also the blinding and so to the downfall of such as beleeve such falshoods to be infallible L. p 104. When the Fathers say we are to rely upon Scriptures onely they are never to be understood with exclusion of Tradition in what causes soever it may be had Not but that the Scripture is abundantly sufficient in and of it selfe for all things but because it is deep and may be drawn into different senses and so mistaken If any man will presume upon his own strâ—ngth and goe single without the Church And citing an excellent sentence out of Vincentius Lynnenâ—is quum sit perfectus Scripturarum Canon sibique ad ommia satis superque sufficiat c. Forasmuch as that Canon of Scripture is perfect and superabundantly selfe-sufficient to all things and if you adde this your note upon it in the margent And if it be sibi ad omnia then to this to prove it selfe at least after Tradition hath prepared as to receive it P. A little before you cite also Augustine seting downe 4 speciall notes and marks internall to the Scripture to prove it to be the word of God As 1. The Miracles 2. That there is nothing carnall in the Doctrine 3. That there hath been such performance of it 4. That by such a Doctrine of humility the whole world almost hath been converted And there also to the same purpose Lynnenâ—is who placeth the Scripture before Tradition And here againe That the Scripture is selfe-sufficient to all What room then for Tradition Or if Tradition have any place at all it were good manners for it to come behind as a Handmayd waiting on her Mistris But you can salve all with a wet finger or with one drop out of your pen If it be sibi ad omnia that is selfe-sufficient to all things then to this to prove it selfe at least after Tradition â—ath prepard us to receive it This is your own Addition or Comentary and Glosse of your own Mother wit which is as Tertullian saith of the old Roman Senate which had made a decree that none should be taken into the number of their Gods but such as the Senate it selfe should first think worthy and approve of So as Tiberius Caesar under whose Empire Christ suffered when he had heard much fame of Christ he moved the Senate that Christ migh be entertained for one of their Gods But the Senate for the foresaid Reason rejected it because they first had approved of it Whereupon Tertullian saith Ergo nisi homini plaâ—uerit Deus non erit Deus Therfore except it please man God shall not be God A fit parralell for this very purpose The Scripture by the consent of all the antient Fathers is abundantly selfe-sufficient to prove it selfe to be the word of God but the present Church hath a Senatus consultum a Decree Tradition which must first give her voyce and approbatiton that the Scripture is the word of God otherwise in vaine are all those Encomiums and Commendations of the Fathers though never so antient affirming and confirming the Scriptures selfe-sufficiencie even beyond all measure The Tradition of the present Church must first give her voyce Ergo nisi homini placuerit Scriptura non erit verbum Dei Therfore except it please man the Scripture shall not be the word of God Onely herein you goe beyond the Roman Senate for their Decree for the admiting of a God was by the generall voyce of all the Senators But yours is here from the sole and single Oracle of the Church of England The Chaire of Canterbury 'T is enough that you tell us with an if if the Scripture be Sibi ad omnia then to this to prove it selfe at least after Tradition hath prepared us to receive it Otherwise never talke of Fathers Authority all is in vaine The Scripture cannot be beleeved to be the word of God unlesse The Tradition of the Present Church prepare the way to receive it And at least you say which is no small deminution of the Sâ—riptures selfe-sufficiencie which you put with an if at least But of this sufficiently But let 's heare your Reasons further for your Tradition The Scripture Say you is deep and may be drawn into different sences and so mistaken that any man will presume upon his own strength and goe single without the Church So it seemeth your Articles of Religion are deepe as which not onely may be but are drawne into different sences and so mistaken and that by the presumption of one mans strength going single without the Church But for the Scripture though it be deep yet it affords us both line and Bucket sufficient to draw water out of those wellâ— of Salvation and so to give us a full tast whereby to relish and resent whose word it is except the Tradition and Authority of your present Church doe cut off our line and breake our Bucket The Scripture hath both Milke for Babes and strong Meat for Men. In the Sea both the Elephant may swim as AUG and GREG. saith and the Lamb wade and when it is by unstable men wrested and drawn into different sences and so mistaken yet it remaines the
witnesse to it selfe But this Say you it hath not Ergo not the other Againe you Say pag. 81. Church-Authority must first light the Candle Ergo the Scripture hath no light of it selfe much lesse light enough for faith to beleeve But though it should though it be granted that Scripture had light enough for Faith to beleeve yet light enough it gives not to be a convincing Reason and proofe for knowledge As if you said Neither for Faith for we have proved before that faith and knowledge goe inseperably together true faith being a seeing and knowing faith and not a blind faith The Scripture teacheth no blind faith And why should not Scripture give light enough to be a convincing Reason and proofe for knowledge When it is a sufficient light to discover unto a man the secret thoughts and intents of his heart wherof man himselfe is thorowly convinced and thereby in himselfe condemned of his own Conscience But this knowledge you cannot away withall But you can never put out the eyes of your Conscience though you may for a time fold it or lull it fast asleep Much lesse shall you be able to put out the light of Scripture which is greater then the light of your Conscience As Saith the Apostle If our heart or Conscience condemnes us God is greater then our heart and knoweth all things If therfore the heart or Conscence that is in man be a sufficient witnesse of all his thoughts good and bad and layeth them before him as the Apostle saith much more is Gods word a sufficient witnesse and giveth light enough to be a convincing reason and proofe for knowledge And Solomon Saith The spirit of man is the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly If such then be mans spirit the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly that is all the secrets of mans heart how much more is the Spirit of God in the Scripture his Word such a searcher yea saith the Apostle The Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God And these deep things of God he hath revealed unto us by his Spirit And where but in his word the Scripture is the voyce of this Spirit of God And it was the constant sentence of all the Ancient Fathers whom you would seem so much to adore which Augustine expresseth in these words In Scripturu sacris apertè continentur ea omnia quae necessaria sunt ad Sâ—lutem In the holy Scriptures are clearly contained all those things which are necessary to Salvation Now how should this be true if the Scripture doth not give light enough to be a convincing reason and proofe for knowledge L. p. 113. To prove the Scripture to be the word of God first cometh in the Tradition of the Church the present Church So 't is no Hereticall or Schismaticall beliefe Then the testimony of former Ages c. P. Here at length you come neere the winding up of the long thread of your endlesse Discourse in this your 16 th Section the summe wherof is to prove that the Scripture is of no selfe-credit and Authority And first and last your present Church Tradition must be the Prime hand to lead the blâ—nd to this beliefe that Scripture is the word of God For otherwise the beliefe thereof should be Hereticall or Schismaticall For thus you say To prove the Scripture to be the word of God First comes in the Tradition of the Church the present Church So 't is no Hereticall or Schismaticall beliefe Ergo Beliefe of Scripture to be Gods word comes by any other way as by the word of God it selfe read and heard in the preaching of it and by Gods Spirit speaking in it then wherein the Tradition of the Church the present Church hath been the Prime leader This beliefe is Hereticall and Scismaticall Ergo this beliefe in all the Apostles Martyrs Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Primitive Ages who never knew any such Tradition of the present Church as whereon this beliefe should depend for its necessary prime inducement was Hereticall and Schismaticall They constantly held till Rome and you brought in this your blind guide to tread down under feet the light of the Scripture and to exalt the Authority of your Antichristian Hierarchy that the Scripture was of self-Authority and Sufficiency to prove it selfe to be the word of God and by the hearing of it preached and read to beget and confirme faith in al beleevers without any such inducement of Church Tradition as you speake of And therefore here you passe your sentence of condemnation of this beliefe in all those forementioned for Hereticall and Schismaticall But how justly may this sentence be retorted upon your selfe and your present Church as both Hereticall and Schismaticall Hereticall as in the maintenance of Doctrines of Devils as afore of the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian Heresies under colour of your doubtfull Articles of Religion as you have made them by publik Edict and Declaration and flatly forbidding to preach of the Saving Doctrines of Grace as they are clearly layd down and taught in the Scripture and in seting up and maintaining of your Altars whereby the onely Altar Iesus Christ is denyed and in dâ—spensing with the 4 th Commandement yea destroying and unmoralizing of it and so overthrowing the Lords-day-Sabbath wherein you subvert the whole worke of Redemption with the Resurrection and the like thus your present Church is Hereticall as also in this in holding and stiffly maintaining by you a necessity of your present Church-Tradition for the inducing of beliefe of the Scripture to be Gods word as not sufficient and wanting light of it selfe to doe it and which otherwise is of no credit at all Thus I say you are damnably and desperately Hereticall Secondly your present Church is also Schismaticall being a Seperation from the true Church of Christ in your Hierarchy or Prelacy which being altogether â—ntichristian hath no communion in that respect with Christs Church and therfore is notoriously Schismaticall yea in this also Schismaticall that you account and brand that beliefe of Scripture to be Gods word for Hereticall and Schismaticall which is not first induced by your present Church-Tradition wherein you are Schismaticks from the Faith and so from the Church of the Apostles and Ancient Fathers and succeding Churches which never held any such Hereticalll opinion concerning any such insufficiencie of the Scriptures and Authority of the present Church as you most pertenaciously and pernitiously hold Therfore I Conclude that if the present Church of England approve of your Book and hold as you doe it is both Hereticall and Schismaticall But you conclude L. p. 115. So then the way lyeth thus as farre as it appeares to me The Credit of Scripture to be Divine reduces finally into that which we have touching God himselfe and in the same order For as that So this hath three main Grounds to which
of God inwardly inclining our hearts and sealing the full assurance of the sufficiency of all three unto us We meet Who Surely you never met with this Spirit of God in your conversing with the Text it selfe Which if you had you would not have uttered such things Yet if this Third ground you had put single by it selfe as the sole excluding the former it were true Divinity but puting the two former before it as necessary inducing causes to perswade the Scriptures sufficiency you do therby utterly overthrow it as also that Spirit of God breathing in it and inwardly inclining and perswading the heart to beleeve For how come we to meet with the Spirit of God in our conversing with the Text but because conversing a â—ight by prayer and humility we find it breathing and speaking unto us in his own word and voyce For the Spirit is never seperated from his word as is shewed before Now if Gods Spirit breath in the Scripture and in our reading thereof with a mind rightly disposed we find the same speaking effectually unto us to the setling of our faith is this spirit and word tyed to any necessary dependance of any outward things as without which it can have no operation Doth not this spirit as the wind to which Christ Compares it blow where it listeth Can you by any art or invention cause the wind to blow Doth not God bring it out of his Treasures But your Conclusion is the foulest of all For you say this Spirit of God sealeth the full assurance of the sufficiency of all Three unto us That is First of your Church Tradition as aforesaid 2dly Of the light of Nature And â—dly and in the last place of the Scripture But you make the sufficiency of these 3 equall and alike Saving that you give your Church Tradition and the light of Nature the Precedency of the Scripture And in saying that Gods Spirit sealeth the sufficiency of those two to wit Church Tradition and light of Nature for the reason aforesaid which are altogether insufficient and are a meere lye and falshood and have no ground nor warrant from Scripture but are contrary thereto and destroy the credit authority and sufficiency thereof I must tell you that herein you do most impiously blaspheme the spirit of Truth as if it were the Author Approver and ratifier of a lye And you adde And then an not before we are certaine that the Scripture is the word of God both by Divine and Infallible proofe Here still you shut out from the Scripture all Self Authority sufficiency and Testimony to prove it selfe the word of God not allowing it so much as you doe to Tradition and the light of Nature for these say you perform their offices sufficiently but you have nothing to say for the Scripture as if that had any thing at all to doe but to wait upon the good pleasure of Lady Tradition and light of Nature for their Commendation and approbation and then having their good words this is sufficient to bring in the Spirits testimony to seale the sufficiency of all three the Scriptures sufficiency being this to be recommended by the other two And then and not before we are certain that the Scripture is the word of God both by Divine and infallible proofe but not of the Scripture it selfe in any case But say you our certainty is by Faith and so voluntary not by knowledge of such Principles as in the light of Nature can enforce assurance whether we will or no Why what certainty can we have but by Faith in Christ But what mean you by voluntary By your Free-will That which Luther calls Servum Arbitrium servile Will such as mans naturall will is to Spirituall things And surely this you mean by voluntary For before you do so highly magnifie the light of Nature as being of such sufficiencie as we need not doubt of your good opinion of the Naturall Will of man having as much liberty in heavenly things as light Well by Faith and so voluntary not by knowledge of such Principles as in the light of Nature can enforce assent whether we will or no. You spake of such Principles before which we answered as also the forceing of assent We come now to the close of the 16 th Section L p. 116. I have said thus much upon this great occasion because this Argument is so much pressed without due respect to Scripture And I have proceeded in a Syntheticall way to build up the Truth for the benefit of the Church and the Satisfaction of all men Christianly disposed And a little after I labour for Edification and not for Destruction P. When I look back to the premises of this Argument and now upon the conclusion I cannot but stand amazed at two things 1. Your notorious vilifying or rather nullifying the Authority sufficiency and Testimonys of the Scripture to prove it selfe to be the word of God and 2 dly your egregious hypocrisie here in the close of all as if you had done all with due respâ—ct to Scripture And how finely you would seem to put it off from your selfe but laying the blame upon others as the Jesuites As if you had taken all this paines to vindicate the Scripture from that Disrespect which Iesuites haâ—e of it in their pleading for Church-Tradition And yet doe not you tell us before that you goe the same way with the Iesuites in advancing Church-Tradition onely you say you goe not so faare as they And wherein I pray you doe you come short of them They say Scripture Authority that it is the word of God depends upon the Authority and Tradition 〈◊〉 of the Church and you say Scripture without Church-Tradition of no Credit Authority or sufficiencie to prove it selfe the word of God Nay you goe further â—or for all your Tradition and the light of Nature going before yet not one word hath dropt from your pen that Scripture I say after all your preceding inducements is sufficient of it selfe to prove it selfe the word of God but that still its Authority is precaria at the good will of Tradition and Authority of the present Church whose sufficiency you preferre before the Scripture in many respects as hath been shewed And you haue proceeded in this way you say Synthetically What 's that That is in the true Eâ—imon of the word by way of composition or confederation with the Jesuite to bring both the Churches to a reconciliation by your mutuall discrediting of the Scripture as Herod and Pilate could not be made Friends but in consenting to put Christ to death And as Pilate gratified Herod in sending Châ—ist bound unto him whereupon they became Friends so you here ingratiate your selfe with Rome in sending her this Book as I suppose it is there before this time wherein you present her with the Scripture bound in the fetters of Tadition which puts on your Synthesis or League in a faire forwardnesse the
as you imposed upon me So as No Right that is No Orthodox Church at Rome And yet no newes it is that I granted the Roman Church to be a true Church For so much very learned Protestants have acknowledged before me and the Truth cannot deny it For that Church which receives the Scripture as the Rule of Faith though but as a partiall and imperfect Rule and both the Sacraments as instrumentall Causes and seales of Grace though they adde more and infuse these yet cannot but be a True Church in Essence How it is in manners and Doctrine I would you would loâ—ke to it with a single eye P. Not Right then not Orthodox you hold the Church of Rome to be That 's somthing yet Yet True you ever have and will hold her to be unlesse she absolutely fall away from the Faith Well And yet I wot well you give absolutely falling away from the Faith So large bounds as it is to be feared you will never come to give her for absolutely gone and fallen away from the Faith so long as she can have but one bare thread or ragge of the profession of the Faith of the Creed nay if she can but say over her Creed though as you Confesse elsewhere she hath quite overthrown the sense of it And if the sense of it be destroyed surely the Faith of it also This will more fully appeare as we goe along We come to your Reasons why you hold Rome a True Church 1. For very learned Protestants which hold with you in this First we can set both as learned and double the number of of Protestants who will weigh down the Scale against those that seem to be of your opinion Secondly we could out of those very Protestant Authors whom you mean though I suppose you seldome read such Authors and in other things scarce name them Honoris causa collect more against this opinion That the Church of Rome is a true Church then you can for it As out of Iunius himselfe for Instance I mentioned before a laâ—e Book intituled Babel no Bethel never yet answered by any Jesuite or other Priest Romish or English where the Author hath cleared all or most of those Protestants which his Adversaries alledged and I suppose you meane from this opinion of yours And then also the Author proves by many concluding Arguments and in my opinion unanswerable that the Church of Rome is no true visible Church of Christ as having lost the very Essence of a true Church To which Booke I referre your Lordship could your patience but brook the Authors name or your Conscience not tremble at the mention of him To your Second Reason First I deny that the Church of Rome receives the Scriptures as A Rule of Faith For first The Rule of Faith must be in it selfe simply Divine and Infallible But such to the Church of Rome the Scripture is not For she makes the Infallibility and Divine Authority of the Scripture to depend upon the Church as you do upon Church Tradition which you confesse to be not simply Divine and Infallible Ergo Rome receives not the Scripture as A Rule of Faith Secondly Rome receives not holds not The Rule of Faith Ergo she is not a true Church As the late Dr Carleton of Chichester in his Book of the Church hath well and learnedly proved For not to hold the Rule of Faith is to deny and destroy the Faith and to fall absolutely away from the Foundation of Faith and to set up a new and false Faith upon a new and false Foundation Nor dare or doe you say that Rome receives the Scripture as The Rule of Faith but onely as A Rule of Faith to wit a partiall Rule as Bellarmine calls it But if the Scripture be as it is The onely Rule of Faith and ever hath been in all ages so held till Rome in the Councel of Trent changed this Rule then not to hold it so for The Rule that is the onely Rule but onely as a partiall Rule joyned with other Rules equall to it as her Traditions which Bellarmine in his Book de verbo Dei non scripto calls the word of God unwritten is to reject the onely Rule and so to fall absolutely away from the Faith And you confesse that the Church of Rome holds the Scripture but as a partiall and imperfect Rule And is this nothing with you What is this but to evacuate and utterly make voyd the Rule when for a perfect intire and absolute onely Rule it is made but a partiall imperfect and joynt Rule And when humane Authority is equalled with Divine Humane Traditions with Divine Scriptures as an equall Rule of Faith Nay and those her Traditions which she calls her word of God unwritten are such as teach things directly contrary to the Doctrines of Scripture as of Purgatory Invocation of Saints and the like Is not this a'kurosai as Christ saith to make voyd and of no Authority the Commandements of God by mens Tradition Yet this Camel you can easily swallow you slight this over as a matter of nothing as if it were all one thing in a manner to hold the Scripture The Rule of Faith and A Rule of Faith namely a part or piece of the Rule The whole Rule and a partiall Rule The onely perfect Rule and An imperfect Rule All this breakes no squares with you but that Rome for all this holds the Rule of Faith and therfore you hold her for a true Church of Christ. But yet in so saying you plainly imply That if Rome held not the Rule of Faith she is no true Church of Christ but is absolutely fallen away from Christ the Foundation For you give this for a Reason that Rome is a true Church because she holds the Rule of Faith Ergo If she hold not the Rule of Faith she is no true Church of Christ but is absolutely fallen away from the Faith Whereupon I argue thus That Church which denyeth the Scripture to be the onely Intire Absolute perfect Rule of Faith is fallen absolutely away from Christ and so ceaseth to be a true Church that is to have the very Essence and beeing of a true Church of Christ But the Church of Rome denyeth the Scripture to be the onely Intire Absolute Perfect Rule of Faith Ergo the Church of Rome is absoluely fallen away from Christ and so ceaseth to be a true Church that is to have the very Essence and beeing of a true Church of Christ. The Minor Proposition is confessed by your Lordship For you say The Church of Rome holds the Scripture but as A Rule a Partiall Rule an Imperfect Rule Thus she denyeth the Scripture to be the onely Intire Absolute Perfect Rule of Faith And for the Major Proposition you doe by necessary Consequence confesse it also to be true For you set it down as a Reason why you hold the Church of Rome to be a true Church because she holds the
Rule of Faith the Scripture Implying that to hold the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith is one speciall note of A true Church But now you confesse againe that Rome holds not this Rule but as a partiall and imperfect Rule And therefore denying this Rule of Faith she ceaseth to be a pure Church of Christ And which is the more this the Church of Rome doth ex professo solemni Decreto professedly and by solemne Decrees ratified as irrefragable and that under Anathema to be received of all And this is farre more then to doe it by Practise onely And yet in Practise to destroy and overthrow but onely some speciall Doctrines of Scripture though otherwise the Scripture be professed and confessed in this or that particular Church to be the intire and onely Rule of Faith is de facto to disclaime the whole Scripture and to unmake it the perfect Rule of Faith and so thereby such a Church possessing such and such Errors as are Fundamentall that is against the Foundation is fallen from Christ as hath been formerly proved Now if but any one part of Scripture in this or that Doctrine of Christ be overthrown so as therein it is not made the Rule of Faith and this overthrowing such Doctrines being once professed and maintained generally in any one particular Church makes that Church to cease to be a true Church of Christ as not holding the Scripture intirely but professedly overthrowing it in such and such particulars then how much more the Church of Rome professing and maintaining gumne kephale with a whores forehead that the holy Scripture is not the onely Rule of Faith intire and perfect but partiall and imperfect as your Lordship confesseth doth thereby proclaime her selfe to all the world to be fallen away absolutely from Christ and so ceaseth to be a true Church of God And denying the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith she denyeth the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner stone and so is fallen quite from the Foundation Nor onely thus by Addition of another Rule doth the Church of Rome overthrow the onely Rule of Faith the Scriptures but also by denying the selfe Authority of them as also you doe and withall by tying the sense of Scripture to the interpretation of the Church as also you doe at least in difficult places and by holding and maintaining false Doctrines against the Scriptures which overthrow Christ and wherein they will not be regulated by the Scriptures as you also doe in your Altars and forbidding the Doctrines of Grace to be Preached and other things which if the Church of England hold with the Church of Rome and with you you and both your Churches are fallen absolutely from Christ and so cease to be true Churches of God As also your very Hierarchy makes you to be no true Church of Christ were there nothing else as before is sufficiently proved And if you desire any further proofe that the Church of Rome is no true Church of Christ I still referre you to the forementioned Book Babel no Bethel And though you supprest the Book yet ten to one but one of your Hounds will hunt it out for you Next for the Sacraments which is your second Reason you say The Church of Rome holds both the Sacraments as instrumentall Causes and Seales of Grace though they adde more and misuse these Ergo she cannot but be a true Church in Essence For Answere First she holds them not absolutely to be Sacraments but dependently upon the Priests intention which you mention elsewhere And so hath the Councel of Trent defined of the Sacraments so Vega so Bellarmine Secondly if she be sure the Priests intention be not wanting or going a wool-gathering in his Consesecration then she makes the Sacraments to be not Instrumentall Causes of Graces but aitia kúria Principall and efficient working causes of Grace ex opere operato as they barbarously speake by the immediate vertue of the worke wrought So the Councel of Trent also So as they shut out the Holy Ghost from this worke as the Principall Efficient worker and sealer of Grace Thirdly For Baptisme which you make to be an Infallible Marke of that Church to be Christian besides their infinite corruptions of the Element of water which the Apostle calleth pure water with their spittle salt creame exorcismes or conjurations of the Devils insultations and the like they hang the very beeing not onely the vertue of this Sacrament upon the Priests intention which intention of the Priest is so uncertaine as Vega one of the prime Sticklers in the Councel of Trent as aforesaid in his Booke upon the Councel of Trent especially the sixt Session where he treateth of certainty of Faith in Iustification Confesseth that there can be no certainty of Salvation to a man because he cannot be certain whether he hath true Baptisme or no and that in regard of the Priests intention whereof he cannot be certaine So as by this their own Doctrine no one Papist can be sure that he is a Christian and so consequently neither can all the members of that Church severally nor conjunctly the whole Body it selfe be sure whether they or it be Christian or no and so the Church of Rome upon this very ground cannot resolve certainly whether she be a Church of Christ or no unlesse your Testimony will help her out at a dead lift And that not onely in regard of the Priests intention in the Sacrament of Baptisme but also in their Additionall Sacrament of Orders one of these more which they have added to the two So as for default of the Popes intention in ordering of Prelates or of the Prelates invention in ordering one another and in ordering of Priests and of Priests intention in Consecrating their Sacrament of Baptisme as themselves Vega and others do argue the case they are all put to the stagger whether they have in that Church either Priesthood or Sacraments For all hangs upon that weake pin or haire of the Priests intention So as another of their Primipili a Standard-bearer of the Dominicans in the same Councell Dominicus Soto forementioned in his Book de natura gratia saith that Deus in potestate Sacerdotis posuit Populi salutem GOD hath put the peoples Salvation in the Priests power Now all this considered and withall the time when this was made a Decree in the Councel of Trent a matter of 100 yeares agoe and when it was but new and the Pope and Prelates and Priests could not perhaps of a good while learne their lesson perfectly and so get a habit of it but that in all their Consecration of Prelates and Priests still intention was to seek and where it breakes off as in the Pope and Prelates in their Consecration of Orders there followes a meere nullity in succession of the whole Generation of Priests downwards and so through that whole body no Priesthood now no Sacraments
works as you may read in Binius his Councels And therfore I say had you indeed perused well those Tracts and yet had persisted such a tanter of that Heresie which Arminius of late hath raked out of hell which Augustine and the Orthodox Fathers and Councels had remaunded to hell you for your part and so others too might truly call it That Great Bewitching Heresie And that the Councel of Aurang as you say did set the Church right in those Doctrines of Grace and Free-will wherein they followed Augustins judgement before them how have you set the Now Church of England right of being one Instrument at least if not the greatest if not sole of seting forth such an Edict no Decree of a Councel so much as Provinciall wherein those Articles of Religion concerning the foresaid Points and Doctrines of Grace which were set so Right before you unset them as the whole Church of England maintained the Orthodox truth of them according to the Scriptures and so Augustine and the Fathers and that unanimously and universally are made like Ianus with two faces the one looking but frowningly upon the Orthodox party who are forbid to preach the Orthodox Doctrines the other looking upon your Arminian Favorites and that with an Amiable aspect as who may find their opinions in your Articles and so not onely impunity for preaching them but Dignities in your Church for but affecting and holding those Opinions so Great a bewitching Heresie is it O blind Guides of the Church of England and thou qui Primas tenes the Pilot that steers the stern if you be capable of any shame and have not drunk of that Circaean Cup blush at these things And dost thou after all thy notorious practises in suppressing the Preaching of the Doctrines of Grace and the Printing of Books written in defence of Gods saving Truth in the Church of England too intollerable to be borne and which the earth groaneth under and for which the wrath of heaven is already kindled now come thinking to blanch all by telling us a tale of this and that Councel and of St. Augustine and of that Great bewitching Pelagian Heresy Dost thou think the world is such a Baby grown or the Old Mother Church of England come to that Dotage as to beleeve because her Arch-Prelate tells her such a Provinciall councel wherein S. Augustine was condemned the whole course of the Great bewitching Heresy of Pelagius and another Provinciall set the Church right in those great Controversies of Grace and Free-will therfore her Arminian Pilot is no Pelagian Thinkest thou I say to bewitch the world with these thy inchantments which thou workest by the golden cup of thine hypocrisie Surely heavens patience cannot long brooke these darings and deep dissemblings which yet are so grosse as they are not of a thread fine enough for Hypocrisie to make a veyle of L. p. 155. To these two to wit Our Princes and the Clergy Principally the power and direction for Reformation belongs P. You told us before how the King and the Priest more then any other are bound to looke to the Integrity of the Church in Doctrine and Manners and that in the first place Here you tell us of Princes and Clergy This is some inlargement For Clergy is not one Priest except one Priest be so great as that of Rome or Canterbury that he is equivalent to the whole Clergy or is in himselfe the Clergy Collective And yet suppose your whole Clergy of Priests were assembled in Convocation what relation have you to the Princes you doe not meane I dare say the Princes assembled in Parliament Beware of that No you are content but to obtaine a Congè or License from the King to have your Convocation and then let you alone for Reformation The Princes shall not need to trouble themselves further That 's your sole worke But yet this agrees not with your two Patterns which you set in the Margent touched before to wit of King Ezechiah 2 Chro 29. and King Iosia 4. Reg. 23. though you might as well have cited 2 King 23. according to our English but you love the old latine vulgar better Now as we noted before the Kings of Israel in their Reformations of Religion did not mate themselves with the Clergy but together with all the Princes and chiefe Fathers in Israel like a Parliament for all the world commanded the Priests to execute their office according to the expresse Law of God and they also looked strictly to have it done And this you confesse elsewhere That those Kings reformed no otherwise but according to the prescript Rule of Gods Law Ergo The Priest reformed not but was himselfe to be reformed by the King and all according to Gods prescript Law But now if the Prince and Clergy or rather as I said the Clergy by the Princes leave which you can no where shew Gods prescript Law for should be the Principall or rather sole for Reformation I pray you what Reformation should we have or could we expect The Church of England once thought her selfe to be under Reformation as you tell us before although at the best it was but as one calls it in his Sermon preached in Queen Elizabeths dayes at Pauls Crosse and published in Print by Authority a halfe Reformation because as the Author of the Hunting of the Fox saith the great Fox the Pope had but his eares cropt but his whole body remained still in England in the Prelacy yet this was called a Reformateon 〈◊〉 which the Church of England thought her selfe well separated from Rome yet this is not that Reformation that gives you content And much lesse that Reformation beyond the Seas Well what Reformation is it then which you mean here Surely the same which you meant before by sincerity and integrity in Doctrine and Manners in the Church to which I referre the Reader where he shall find this Reformation clearly expounded And in summe your Reformation here will differ from the former Reformation of the Church of England in this that as that was but a halfe Reformation because it retained the Prelacy with some of Romes Ceremonies so this your Reformation shall make that up in reducing the Church of England to the Integrity and sincerity of the Church of Rome in Doctrine and Manners full and whole A thing indeed which can no otherwise but be expected so long as the Hierarchy stands in its full ruffe as it doth now in England For like will to like as you know who used the Proverbe to the Colyer Or as the Philosopher saith Every thing aspires after its perfection And the Perfection of the Hierarchy is at Rome and thence All Hierarchy and Prelacy now adayes hath and had its first Rise and Originall And therfore no mervaile if Prelates naturally affect their native Countrey Rome As the Romane Poet said in his banishment Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine cunctos Ducit immemores
after the Pleasures after the Ease and after the goodly Palaces and Demeanes of your Bishoprickâ— in all which you cannot shew kâ—lòn ' érgon a worthy worke And so indeed these words of the Apostle and elswhere concerning a Bishop do nothing concerne you but onely to convince you that you are none of those Bishops whom the Scripture so styleth Well what be those speciall qualities which the Apostle requireth in a true Bishop set over the Congregation of the Lord It shall suffice to mention for the present purpose but some of them As first He must be Anégkletos unreprovable such as cannot be justly accused of any crime Now none of you come thus cleane to your Bishopricks for you are or may be justly accused of having been Pluralists which is against your Old Canons Non-Residents Idle Dreanes seldome Preaching in their own Cures but by a poore Stipendary Curate flattering Court-Preachers and the like Nay who is capable or heire apparent of a Bishopricke or Prelacie that hath not two or three â—at livings with a Prebend or two and a Deanery that being thus qualified having his Purse well lyned I say not that he may purchase his Bishopricke he may be able at least at his In-coming to defray five or six hundred Pounds or a thousand Markes for Fees and Feasts and Gloves at his Consecration Well secondly He must not be Authádas selfe-willed so our last Translation renders the word And beleeve me this may come neere the proudest of your Coats when you come with your Volumus Iubemus We will and command and that without either Law or Canon And you must have your will ther 's no remedy for that else ye will take the pet or pepper in the nose and cry out of contempt of Authority And the word signifieth also one that is arrogant and proud a selfe-pleaser You may take all these senses if you will Thirdly He must not be Plékges a strikâ—r whether with his own or others hands as delivering over to the secular Power or Sword whereby he so strikes as he sheds the blood of the Innocents He must be none of that society Fourthly he must not be OrgÃlos soon Angry testy or touchy such as Naâ—al that one might not speake to him he was so snappish and curst Fiftly he must not be Aiskrokerdès given to filthy lucre as in exacting Fees he or his Officers of poore Ministers either extraordinary at their Admissions or ordinary at Visitations and a thousand wayes besides Viis modis sine modo in your Bishops Courts Sixtly He must be Philágados a lover of good men not a hater and persecuter of them Seventhly he must be DÃkaies just not oppressing Innocents by a faction and confederacy of voyces forepacked in your Courts before the Cause come to be heard Eightly He must be Osios holy not one that is an enemy to all true holinesse and persecutes the very name of it and suppresse the practise and meanes of it as by crying down the sanctification of the Lords day and the sincere Preaching of the word of God and commending and dispensing with profane sports on that day Ninthly He must be Didáktikos apt to teach not onely sufficient and able for his Scholarship or one that can make a Sermon if he will but he must be diligent in preaching in season and out of season He must hold fast the faithfull Word that he may be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and to convince the Gainsayers So farre must he be from abbetting and countenancing false Teachers and unsound Doctrine and old damned Heresies and forbidding to preach sound Doctrine and punishing those that doe I might reckon up sundry more qualities which Christ requireth in those whom onely he allowes and appoints as fittest to govern and feed his People as becomâ—th good Pastors to doe their flocks as 1 Tim. 3. and Tit. 1. and elsewhere But because Lord Prelates or Diocesan Bishops as I said before are none of those Bishops here which the Apostle requires to be thus qualified therfore I have said enough to convince you that you are none of Christs Bishops if you do but look your selves in this Glasse And if you mark it well these are those that immediately succeded the Apostles and Euangelists in the Ministeriall function As we read Eph. 4.11 where the Pastors and Teachers are those who are elswhere called Presbyters and Bishops such as Paul and Barnabas did Keirotonesi elect ordaine or appoint by imposition of hands Kat ' e'kklesÃan in every Church or particular Congregation A place very remarkable And these Presbyters Bishops Pastors Teachers Preachers Ministers for all is one and the same Office as they succeded the Apostles but with a particular limitation every one to their peculiar charges and Congregations respectively so while the Apostles lived they were still next unto them as we see Act. 15.2.4.6.22 23. And these are those Elders that rule well which especially doe Kopian labour hard in the Ministry of the Word and Doctrine These are those Aristoi those Optimates the best men by whose Aristocraticall Government according both to the thought we may boldly and truly say and to the expresse word of Christ the severall Churches and particular Congregations and flocks of Christ are governed and that not by any their own devised Canons but by the onely Canon of Scripture wherein are expressed all those Laws and Rules by which all true Ministers of Christ doe regulate themselves and govern their severall Congregations For although Christs faithfull and true Ministers are the best men and therfore are but few in comparison and who is fit or sufficient for these things saith the Apostle yet Christ left them not to governe his Churches or flocks as they should thinke best but according to his own Laws as Deputies are to govern the people according to the Kings Laws and no otherwise For such is the Government of Aristocratie it is established upon good Laws of the Common-weale otherwise it should degenerate into the corrupt and bad Government of Oligarchia So as here is no roome for your Diocesan Lord Bishops for you are none of those Aristoi Optimates the best mâ—n whom Christ thought fit for the Aristocraticall Government of his Church sith ye are neither qualified for it as he requires in his true Bishops nor will you confine your Prelaticall Government to the Laws of Christ expressed in his word but will govern by your own Canons and lusts as usurpers use to doe And therfore by the way no mervaile if you speake so contemptibly and basely of the holy Scripture seeing in them you can find no ground either of Precept or Apostolick Precedent for your Antichristian Hierarchy All which considered doth in the second place give us just cause to doubt at least or rather to be well assured indeed that Diocesan Prelates or Bishops as you usurpe the Title are no Vice-Roys under the Great King Iesus Christ because your
Government is nothing according to our Great Kings Laws but according to your own devised Canons and in nothing in Nothing I say agreeable to the Laws of Christ in the Scripture for the right Government of his Church Nay that Government which Christ hath prescribed in his word and which is practised in the best Reformed Churches beyond the Seas you doe utterly and openly condemn and the Churches themselves that doe practise the Discipline of Christ and his Apostles while you deny them to be any Churches of Christ at all Againe Every Kingdome as it hath but one King over it so it is capapable of no more then onely one Vice-Roy so as by that Title he that is your Ordine Primus and hath a more Potent Principality the Pope had he but a good Title would carry that honour from you all if you value the worth and Dignity of that Vice-Royship after the value of your Bishopricks and not after vertue Either then you must acknowledge the Pope to be the sole Vice-Roy which you are loth to doe For why should not the Patriarch of the other world be as capable of that honour as he or you must give us leave to find out the onely true Vice-Roy of Christ in his Church and that is The Holy Ghost For when our Great King went into his Celestiall Kingdome to his Church Tryumphant leaving his Militant here on Earth under the Kingdome of Grace as touching his bodily presence he sent the Holy Ghost to be his Vice-Roy or Vice-Gerent to be perpetually resident in his Kingdome of Grace here for the Governing of his Church Militant and that according to the Law of Christ in his written word leading the People of Christ into all truth by revealing unto them all the Mysteryes of Christs will contained in the Scripture As Christ saith He shall gâ—orifie Me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you And v. 13. When the spirit of Truth is come whom v. 7. I will send unto you he will guide you into all Truth for he shall not speake of himselfe but whatsoever he shall heare that shall he speake Loe here then a faithfull Vice-Roy indeed And will or dare you deny this Spirit of God to be an All sufficient Vice-Roy who doth execute Christs Kingly Office in his Church in all things just so as Christ himselfe willâ—th And therfore except you can prove that Christ hath many Kingdomes of Grace here on earth or any more Churches Militant then one onely here is no Rome for any such Vice-Roys as you pretend to be For here we see it plain that of Christs one and onely Kingdome of Grace here on earth the Holy Ghost is the onely Vice-Roy And who is fit to be Christs Vice-Roy in his spirituall Kingdome but the Spirit of God and of Christâ— Ye are therfore no Vice-Roys because you are altogether carnall and your Kingdome is of this world And therfore Thirdly how can you Prelates pretend to be Vice-Roys over Christs Church whenas as is noted before ye are not so much as any members at all of Christs Kingdome For you are the Members of Antichrists Kingdome and so you are or may be Antichrists Vice-Roys over his severall Provinces 'T is true you style your selves spirituall Lords spirituall and your Courts spirituall and you are an Hierarchy as much to say as a Holy Kingdome or Government but it is not spirituall of Christs spirit but of that spirit that ruleth in the ayre that gave you all that Authority So as you do with Bellarmine turne those words of Christ to Peter Pasce oves meas Feed my Sheep to Regio more Impera Rule as a King And what similitude is there between Christ and you that you should be his Vice-Roys in his Church-Militant When he was here in person he was among his own as a servant and Minister He had no staâ—ely and Princely Palaces he kept no such Pontificiall house nor Court he governed not his Church by Chancellors Arch Deacons Deanes Chapters Commissâ—â—â—â—s Offiâ—ialls Pursuivants Apparitors and all that Rabble Christ had no such face of a Kingly Government So as you have altogether perverted the Kingdome of Christ which is altogether spirituall and holy into a meere temporall and carnall Kingdome wherein therfore you are none of Christ Vice-Roys but Viâ—ious Roys and Tyrannicall Lords O Antichâ—istian Generation O notorious Hypocrites O proud and blind Guides How shall you escape the vengeance to come that dare thus impiously abâ—se the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ and so impose upon the world by your bold usurpations Vsurpations indeed You call your selvs Vice-Roys Apostolicke Bishops Spirituall Church Grace Holinesse meere Nominalls which you have usurped and patched together to become a veile to cover your deep hypocrisie and to seem glorious in the eyes of the world and all to hold up your earthly Kingdome which consists altogether of earthly things honours riches pleasures But blind world that suâ—ferest thy selfe to be thus guld and befoold with such glittering stuffe and to be made a slave to such Lords and to be cheated of thy salvavation by these Antichristian Mountebanks And yet they pretend and professe that this their carnall pompous and Pontificiall Kingdome is Christs spirituall Kingdome here in the state of Grace Let them then cleare themselves herein from that damned Heresy of that old Heretick â—erinthus who lived in S. Iohns time His Heresy was That Christs Kingdome after his Resurrection was earthly and that now the flesh conversing in Ierusalem was to serve lusts and pleasures See Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib 3. cap. 22. Now is not the Prelates Kingdome just that in practise with Cerinthus his Heresy If so As S. Iohn forsook the Bath wherein Cerinthus was what cause have Christians to fly from that roofe where such an Antichristian Hierarchy domineereth But in the next place let 's consider of your Reason How stands it good that because Christs Church is as large as the world therfore he thought it fitter to governe it by Diverse then by One Vice-Roy Now we have proved your Hierarchy not to be an Aristocrasie a Government of the Best men and that by good Laws seeing therfore you must needs be some Government then it must be an Olegarchie that is the Government of a few of the worse men such as rule by their lusts and not by any good Laws either of God or Man But now tell me my Lord if you argue upon this ground that because the Militant Church is as large as the world therfore 't is fitter it be governed by many Vice Roys then by one why may not aswell one Prelate as the Pope be sole Vice-Roy over the whole world as my Lord of Canterbury be a Vice-Roy over all England For doth not the Pope and you Governe your Churches by substitutes Why then may not the Pope Governe the whole by his Curates as you doe all England by your Curates For
Conscience Whether the High-Priest Azariah did transgresse or no when King Vzziah in the Temple burnt Incense on the Altar he with fourescore Priests of the Lord that were valient men went in after the King and withstood him saying It perteameth not unto thee Vzziah to burn Incense unto the Lord but to the Priests c. Loe here was a withstanding the King But I will not presse you for your Judgement for I find in the next verse Gods own Judgement of the Case for Vzziah with the Censer in his hand being incensed even while he was wroth with the Priests the leprosie even rose up in his forehead before the Priests in the house of the Lord from beside the Incense-Altar And Azariah the Chiefe Priest and all the Priests looked upon him and behold he was leprous in his forehead and they thrust him out from thence yea he himselfe hasted also to goe out because the Lord had smitten him And Vzziah the King was a Leper unto the day of his death and dwelt in a severall house being a Leper for he was cut off from the house of the Lord and Iotham the Kings son was over the Kings house judging the people of the Land Now to apply this to the present purpose You make your self as the High-Priest of the Church of England Now suppose the King of England should doe that whereby the foundations of Faith and good Manners were shaken what would your Lordship doe I aske not what you would doe in case you should be the Chiefe Agent and Instrument a Counceller a Promoter and a Contriver of such a thing For then it were a vaine Question But suppose you had no hand nor head in it at all and were a man zealous of Gods glory and truly pious and found in the faith and one that knew well what the foundations of Faith and good Manners are and when they are shaken and one that respected more the Kings good and Honour then your own private ends and more Christs Kingdome then any Hierarchy or spirituall-Temporall Principality on Earth and one that loved more to speake the Truth to Kings though you were sure of displeasure then to flatter and speake pleasing things to the ruine of the State and Kingdome though for the present it pleased suppose I say all this for even impossibilities may be supposed then tell me what your selfe a man of such high Place and Grace in Court and of so great Power to perswade and disswade would doe when you should see the Foundations of Faith and good Manners to be shaken by the King or supreme Magistrate For the very Name of shaking the Foundations of Faith and good Manners is enough to shake a Mans heart and cause him to abhorre the very thought of it if he were not either altogether senselesse and ignorant what the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners do meane or knowing them were not either an open or secret enemy unto them For what is such a shaking but a mâ—king way for the sodaine precipitation of the state of all things into inevitable Destruction a dissepating of all humane society a mingling of heaven and earth together in one Chaos of all Confusion And therfore now that we are upon a point of such Moment as it were the Center wheron the worlds Globe is pitched or as the two Pillars in Solomons Temple Iâ—chin and Boas stability and strength Faith and good Manners being the stability and strength of all true Religion of humane society and Civil Politie it wil be worth our Inquiry a little what it is to shake these Foundations or when these Foundations are shaken And it is possible that these Foundations may at this very time be shaken in the Church and state of England and so threaten if not hasten Ruine in somuch as a speedy remedy for prevention upon the discovery may be required You will say God forbid What God forbid that in such a Case a speedy remedy should be used No not so by your leave Well what say you then to your Articles of Religion wherein the Doctrines of Faith of the Church of England and those of them that are according to the expresse Scriptures as Gods Grace in Election Predestination Salvation c. are shaken Are they not shaken and that terribly too by an Edict or Declaration so as they doe at the least nutare et huc illuc fâ—luctuare so reele too and â—ro like a drunken man as no sober man knows to which side they will fall And are not those Doctrines of Gods free and saving Grace in Christ the foundations of Faith which are contained in those Articles Can you deny this Again what say you to the Two Tables wherein are contained the Ten Commandements of Gods Morall Law Are they not also Foundations Yea and Foundations both of Faith and Good Manners For the Foure Commandements of the First Table concern Faith and Religion the Six of the Second Good Manners So much all confesse and your selfe too And you say Emperours and Kings are Cussodes utriusque Tabulae They to whom the Custody and preservation of both Tables of the Law for worship to God and duty to man are commited And That a Booke of the Law was by Gods own command in Moses his time to be given to the King Deut. 17.18 So you Is it so then What say you then to those two Great Commandements the Last of the First Table and the First of the Second Do they not stand closse together as those two formentioned Pillars in Solomons Temple Iachin and Boaz Is not holy Obedience to God in his worship on his own day as Iachin the stability of the the Church and Temple of God And is not Civil subjection to superiours as Boaz the strength of the Common-wealth So as when these two Commandements are shaken are not two maine Pillars and Foundations of Faith and good Manners shaken and so the Foundations both of Church and Common-wealâ—h shaken What say you to this ô Great High Priest Is it true or no For I must now put you to it You give just occasion But you answere nothing siâ—ence in this Case is consent and such as proceeds frâ—m guilt of Conscience And how ever Res ipsa clamat The thing it selfe proclaimes it and cleare evidence proves it For doth not the Edict for Sports so often upon fresh occasions mentioned declare as much And doth it not shake the Fourth Commandement for the sanctification of the Lords Day the Lords Sabbath-Day Which Dispensation of such profane and madde sports can it consist with sanctification or any holinesse or common sobriety of a Christian or with Christian Profession or with our Baptismall vow to the Contrary much lesse with the direct and expresse immediate solemn sanctification of that day commanded in that Fourth Commandement Is not here then a Foundation of Religion and so also of Good Manners too shaken For what Good Manners doth our May-pole-dances and
to defend their ancient and accustomed Liberty Regiment and Laws they may not well be countod Rebells So he But this by the way But I have somthing more to say about the shaking of the Foundations of Faith and Good Manners though I mentioned it before but now upon this occasion And that is concerning Ceremonies of humane ordinance in Gods worship which being imposed upon mens Consciences is not onely a shaking of the Founâ—ation of Faith but an overthrowing of it for thereby Christ is denyed to be the onely King of his Church And therfore as the Kings of Israel did nothing in reforming of Religion and the worship of God but what was expresly commanded and prescribed in Gods Law so Christian Kings and Magistrates ought not to doe any thing no not to impose any one humane Ceremony or Ordinance in Gods service besides that which is written in Gods word otherwise the Foundations of Faith is overthrown Of such moment is the least Ceremony in Gods service that it is of the substance and Foundation of Faith L. p. 210. But 't is time to return For A.C. in this Passage hath been very carefull to tell us of a Parliament and of living Magistrates and Iudges besides the Law books Thirdly therfore The Church of England God be thanked shines happily under a Gratious Prince and well understands that a Parliament cannot be called at All times and that there are visible Iudges besides the Law-books and one supreme long may he be and be hapâ—y to settle all Temporall Differences which certainly he might much better perform if his Kingdome were well ridde of A. C. and his Fellows And she beleeves too that our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-books the Scripture Visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops under a Gratious King to governe both for Truth and Peace according to the Scripture and her own Canons and Constitutions as also those of the Catholicke Church which Crosse not the Scripture and the Iust Laws of the Realme But she doth not beleeve there is any Necessity to have one Pope or Bishop over the whole Christian world more then to have one Emperour over the whole world P. It were time indeed for you to return from your Course when once there is mention of a Parliament For thriving If you mean that your Church of England hath of late dayes well thriven in her prevailing for the seting up of Images and Altars for bringing in more Superstitions into your Service for puting down sincerity Purity and power of the true Religion and of the Preaching of Gods word for suppressing the Doctrines of Grace forementioned for hampering the Puritans as you call them by puting down suspending and silencing of Godly and painfull Preachers and by crying down both the Doctrine and Practise of the sanctification of the Sabbath or Lords day and by smothering in the birth all sound and Orthodox Books against Popery and other Heresies not suffering them to be Printed and by licencing of Popish Books to be Printed and Publâ—shed and the like and if this be the way of the well thriving of your Church whomsover you have cause to thanke yet surely you have small cause to thanke God whose Name herein you doe abuse and blaspheme as perhaps your own Conscience may tell you as if he favoured such practises of yours because for a time he patiently suffers and winks at them and that in judgement to a sinfull Land and for tryall of his own servants and people and for a preparative to your certaine ruine if speedy repentance prevent it not For God is not mocked with such thanks though he be mocked but whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reape How then doth it concerne all Christian Magistrates to look to it least if they suffer Christs Kingdome to be betrayed into the hands of Antichristian Usurpers by giving way unto them to doe what they list while themselvs seem to sleep they provoke God too much For as Samuel sayd to the People If ye doe wickedly you shall perish both you and your King For my part though I will not joyne in Prayer with such a Profane Hypocrite as you are and an enemy of Iesus Christ and his Truth no more then the Apostle Iohn would be in the same Bath with that Heretick Cerinthus yet my dayly Prayer is and shall be that God would more and more let the King see how miserably he is abused and the Peace and safety of his Kingdome distracted and indangered both by the late violent practises which have been held in Church-affaires and now by the publishing of such a Book as this so notoriously perillous or rather most pernicious and so much the more in these times of troubles about Religion lately sprung up in the Iland of Great Britaine Which Book though it make many faire pretences for Peace yea Peace and Truth yet in truth it will prove the greatest troubler of Israel and the falsest friend to true Truth that the light hath seen these many yeares This I speake not by conjecture much lesse out of malice to the Authors Person but from the cleare evidence of the word of Prophecy in Scripture in such cases But how comes your Church of England to be so well seen in State-Mysteries I pray you as so well to understand that a Parliament cannot be called at all times Or by the Church of England doe you not meane the the Chaire of Catnterbury as the Church Collective or representative of England For you should better understand such State-matters especially for the not calling of Parliaments at all times or suppose it were at Notime or Nevermas least perhaps it might prove as a Frost to nippe your thriving and overforward spring then your Lordship For my part I am no States-man and so I leave State matters to States-men who should best understand them But if your A.C. and his Fellows be such troublesome fellows why doe you trouble your selves with them when a good honest Parliament might ease the King and Kingdome â—oo of that trouble provided that good Laws already enacted and by the next Parliament if ever there shal be any quickned by a new Law to put them in better execution there may be also a good season to bring forth such Visible Iudges as without straining the strings either of their Purses or Consciences coming clearly to their Benches and not making them as Banks but siting Rectè in Curia they may without feare of any Prepotent Prelate or Partiality in respect of Persons do Justice I passe now from the understanding of your Church of England to her Beliefe which you also tell us of She beleeves too What doth she beleeve That our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-books the Scriptures visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops How Is this come already to be an Article of the Faith of the Church of
and needs the Churches mouth and if it be dead as being not living Certainly it can be no fit Iudge at all except ye will admit of a Judge that is both blind and dumb and dead As three Romans being sent in Ambassage one a Foole an other a Coward the third having the Gout Cato told the Senate they had sent an Ambassage that had neither Head Heart nor Feet And such a Judge would you make the Scripture But 't is visible you say So are your dumb dead and blind Images in your Churches they are visible and very conspicuous when the Scripture oftentimes can neither be seen nor heard Now to your Generall Councels L. p. 192. And surely what greater or surer Iudgement can we have where sense of Scripture is doubted then a Generall Councel I do not see And pag. 211. The making of Canons which must bind all particular Christians and Churches cannot be concluded and established but there to wit in a Generall Councel P. 224. I said The Determination of a Generall Councel erring was to stand in force and to have externall obedience yeelded to it till evidence of Scripture or a Demonstration to the Contrary made the errour appeare and untill thereupon another Councel of equall Authority did reverse it And pag. 226. Now suppose a Generall Councel actually erring in some point of Divine Truth I hope it will not follow that this Errour must be so grosse as that forthwith it must be known to private men And doubtlesse till they know it obedience must be yeelded Nay when they know if the Errour be not manifestly against fundamentall verity in which case a Generall Councel cannot easily erre I would have A. C. and all wise men consider whether externall obedience be not even then to be yeelded And p 227 Therfore it may seem very fit and necessary for the peace of Christendome that a Generall Councel thus erring should stand in force till evidence of Scripture or a Demonstration make the errour to appeare as that another Councel of equall Authority reverse it And ibid. No way must lye open to private men to refuse obedience till the Councel he heard and weighed And p. 261. A Councel hath power to order settle and define Differences arisen concerning Faith This power the Councel hath not by an immediate Institution from Christ but it was prudently taken up in the Church from the Apostles example Act 15. And ibid. If the Councel be lawfully Called and proceed orderly and conclude according to the Rule the Scripture then the Dâ—finitions therof are binding but not from calling another Councel to reverse or abrogate the former Asts upon just cause P. 346. 'T is true that a Generall Councel de pace facto after 't is ended and admitted by the whole Church is then Infallible for it cannot erre in that which it hath already clearly and truely determined without Errour After 't is confirmed 't is admitted by the whole Church then being found true it is also Infallible that is it deceâ—ves no man And p. 347. For a man upon the pride of his own Iudgement to refuse externall obedience to the Councel was never lawfull nor can error stand with any Government P. 357.358 Christ did just intend to leave an Infallible certainty in his Church to satisfie either Contentious or Curious or presumptuous spirits And therfore in things not fundamentall nor necessary 't is no matter if Councels erre in one and another and a third the whole Church having power and meanes enough to see that no Councel erre in necessary things c. If it erre in things necessary we can be Infallibly assured by the Scripture the Creed the 4. first Councels and the whole Church where it erres in one and not in another And pag. 360 For one Faith necessary to Salvation a most infallible certainty we have already in the Scripture the Creeds and the 4. first Generall Councels to which for things necessary and fundamentall in the Faith we need no assistance from other Generall Councels P. 378. I submit my Iudgement with all humility to the Scripture interpreted by the Primitive Church and upon new and necessary doubts to the judgement of a lawfull and free Generalâ— Councel And I absolutely make a lawfull and free Generall Councel Iudge of Controversies by and according to the Scripture And p. 386. I have expresly declared that the Scripture interpreted by the Primitive Church and a lawfull and free Generall Councel determining according to these is judge of Controversies P. Thus in your Commending of Generall Councels you are very large that I may not say lavish too And surely in one respect especially you have great Reason for your Generall Councels must consist of Prelates onely so as in exalting Generall Councels you magnifie your Prelacie But I remember a saying of Basill that in his Observation he never knew any good to come of Generall Councels of Bishops who when they met in Councel were more zealous and eagre for their own particular Honours and Dignities then of the Church of God And as Bernard saith Totus fervet Ecclesiastiâ—us zelus sola pro Dignitate tuendâ— All the zeale of Church-men is infâ—amed altogether for the advancing and upholding of their Dignity But let us now take a briefe view of your words which we will collect and reduce to certain summary Heads First That Generall Councels are the supreme Iudge of the sense of Scripture when and where 't is doubted p. 192. Secondly that the Canons and Decrees of Generall Councels bind all Christians of necessity p. 211. Thirdly yea though Generall Councels determine Errors yet that requires at least externall obedience Fourthly That Generall Councels erring in some points of Divine Truth yet you hope it will not be so grosse as to come to the common view or if it doe yet obedience must be yeelded p. 226. onely except the Error be not manifestly against the fundamentall Verities Fifthly That a Generall Councel hath no power from Christ to be Iudge in Controversies but the Church prudently tooke it up from the Apostles example Act. 15. Sixtly That the Difinitions of Generall Councels bind being according to the Rule the Scripture yet that those may be reversed by an after-Councel Seventhy A Generall Councel in things clearely and truly determined cannot erre but in that is infallible Eightly That it is pride not to obey the Councels Difinitions yea unlawfull and not standing with any Government Ninthly That Christ intended to leave an Infallible certainty in his Church but not to satisfie contentions or curious or presumptuous spirits Tenthly That it is no matter if Generall Councels erre in one two three c. things not fundamentall nor necessary Eleventhly That for necessary Faith to Salvation we have an Infallible certainty in the Scriptures Creeds and 4. first Generall Councels to which for things necessary we need not the Assistance of any other Generall Councel Twelfthly That the Scripture interpreted by the
whatsoever faith is requisite and necessary to salvation as the beliefe of Scripture to be the word of God as is shewed before And this saving faith is the faith of all them that are heires of salvation to wit of all Gods Elect and all the Saints But it seems with Father Bellarmine you have an Implicit faith for your ignorants and an Explicit for you that are great Clerks or the letter of the Creed for those and the sense for these But I handled this also before Onely you propound a Paradox which is no worke for your pen wherein you are the wiser not to take upon you to read or expound such riddles had you been so wise as not to have propounded â— And yet it is the worke of every good Minister of Chrâ—â—t to teach the people what to beleeve and to exhort them to grow in Grace and knowledge and Faith and so declare unto them the whole Counâ—el of God and to keep nothing backe and to build men up in knowledge more and more unto perfection As the Preacher saith Because the Preacher was wise he still taught the people knowledge yea he gave good heed and sought out and set in Order many Proverbs The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of truth The words of the wise are aâ— Goads and Nayles fastened by the Masters of Assemblies which are given from one shepheard But this is not a patterne for you to follow neither by your tongue nor pen. You have other imployment for them But though we cannot set a bound to faith in respect of perfection of degrees yet we ought to teach the people all the parts of saving faith and knowledge striving unto perfection And besides it is the duty of every good Minister of Christ to limit and set bounds to all the negatives of faith in discovering all manner of sins and errours which are all contrary and enemies to faith and salvation For which end they must open all the ten Commandements as Christ did Mat. 5. and all other points of saving Doctrine in the Scriptures Now though you have not the skill or will to set bounds how farre men shall beleeve yet you want no will nor power to inhibit and restraine Preachers shewing them how little a way they must goe in teaching the people and so consequently how little a way the people must goe in beleeving and saving knowledge as in restraining and forbidding to preach the Doctrines of Grace as before forbidding Lectures and especially all Sermonâ— on the Lords day afternoon forbidding long Preaching at any time forbidding expounding of the Catethisme as many of your Prelates doe and the like Thus you can finely set men bounds how little thy shall beleeve or know of God to their salvation That 's a worke if not for your pen or hand yet for your head and not unlikely of your hand and pen too L. p. 327. The Romanists dare not beleeve but as the Roman Church beleeves And the Roman Church at this day doth not beleeve the Scripture and the Creeds in the sense in the which the ancient Primitive Church received them P Dare they not How then say you there is possibility of salvation in the Roman Church for any when it condemneth and accurseth saving faith and justification thereby with other saving truths For if the Papists dare not beleeve but as their Church beleeves then they are bound to good behaviour they dare not beleeve to their salvation And if they dare not beleeve to their salvation then they cannot be saved And if they cannot be saved what possibility of salvation for them living and dying in that faith And here Why do you noâ— say in the sense of the Scriptures themselves and not of the Primitive Church But you doe not like the Scripture sense except the Church interpret it You allow not Scriptures to speake for or testifie for themselves You are the same man still And as we sayd before you doe wisely in that to stoppe the mouth of Scripture as Ahab did Michaiahs for it never speaks good of you but evil alwayes L. p. 232. I will acknowledge every fundamentall point of faith as proveable out of the Canon as we account it as if the Apochryphall were added unto it P. As if Apocryphalls were any divine proofe at all of the fundamentall points of faith in Scripture or ought any way in that respect to be so much as named with the Scripture Apocryphalls saith Ierome may be read for instruction of manners but not for confirmation of faith as before L. p. 336. I have lived and shall God-willing dye in that faith of Christ as it was professed in the ancient Primitive Church and as it is professed in the present Church of England P. As you handle the matter ther 's a vast difference between the faith of Christ professed in the ancient Primitive Church and that which is now professed in the present Church of England For the Ancient Primitive Church taken properly and strictly as somtime in your Booke as before you put it was that wherein the Apostles lived Now will ye be tryed by the Ancient Primitive Church of the Apostles held and professed What say you my Lord for your faith in this case Will you put your faith and Religion to the tryall of the most intire and upright Jâ—ry the Twelve Apostles Certainly if you decline this tryall 't is a shrewd suspicion that the faith of yours wherein you are so resolute to live and dye is not right Therfore for shame of the world you must at least professe or pretend that you wil be tryed by the the Faith and Religion which the Apostles and the true Church of God in their time as being the most Pure Prime Ancient Primitive Church held and professed First then That Primitive Church neither held nor professed nor practised any Hierarchicall government of Prelates or Bishops but have câ—ndemned it in their writings the Scriptures of the New Testament And yet I are say you resolve to live and dye Primate of Canterbury and Metropolitan of all England Secondly The Apostles and the ancient Primitive Church in their Age and time had no Altars but onely the Lord Iesus Christ Heb. 13.10 as it is formerly proved but you and your Church of England both set up and worship Altars and â—each the people both by your Books and practise to do so too and force Ministers to erect Altars or force them out of their Churches And this Faith and Religion also I dare say you resolve to live and dye in Thirdly The Apostles and the anciciâ—nt Primitiâ—e Church in their time celebrated and sanctified every Lords day in holy duties onely and in preaching as well in the afternoon as in the fâ—â—enoon never forbidding but still exhorting to preach in season and out of season giving no liberty to vaine and profane sports and Pastimes either upon
against Iesus Christ and his High-Throne in oppressing and trampling upon his sacred Word and Ministers and People least by standing out in open defiance against God and in the defence and maintenance of her Rebellion with a high hand God be provoked altogether to confound her So as if a more mature Reformation of such hideous enormities whereof the Relator is here by the Replyer convinced be not seriously thought of and speedily and effectually put in execution to be secure in looking for Peace or any Good not having thus made peace with God were but to bewray a mind desperate and past all hope of remedy And lastly whereas the Replyer to all these his high Charges upon the Relator hath for some speciall reasons to himselfe not set his Name it being neither out of any distrust of the goodnesse of his Cause nor yet feare of men by others Example when as your Majesty shal be pleased to send forth your Royall Edict commanding that the Repyer whoever he be come forth and appeare to make proofe of all his Allegations against the Relator assuring him of an equall just and faire unpartiall hearing in such a Court of Iustice as the Replyer himselfe shall nominate and appeale unto which is not cannot be lesse then the most High and Honourable Court of Parliament which the necessity of things so nearely concerning the whole Land doth with all importunity call for he the Replyer will then be ready God giving him life and health in all humble duty and allegeance to present himselfe and personally face to face before the Honourable Court by the assistance of that Grace which first set him aworke and inabled him to finish it make good his whole Reply against the Relator It would therefore please your most Excellent Majesty the waighty Premises seriously consiâ—ered and upon your mature Revisall of this Reply or at least of the brief contents thereof prefixed to the Reply with the eye of your soundest and sollidest judgement directed by the wisdome of Gods owne Spirit which hath the hearts of Kings in his all-swaying hand and for vindicating of Gods glory and your own honour so deeply suffering in the forenamed respects and for staying of Gods hand stretched out and the preventing of further calamities not onely to take to heart and into your Royall hand the speedy reformation of such things as have been done and all in your Majesties Name still for that must beare all the burthen since the Relators Primacy as namely in the first place to send forth your Royall Edict for the taking downe of all Altars which where ever they stand doe stand in open defiance against Christ another for the calling in of your Book for Sports on the Lords dayes a third for the calling in of your Declaration before the Articles of Religion a fourth for the calling in of all Orders for the restraint of Preaching a fift for the restoring in Integrum that is not onely to their Ministry and Charge but to their liberty in Christ from the bondage both of Prelates and Ceremonies all those godly Ministers who out of Coâ—scienâ—e and duty towards God and not out of any disrespect or mucâ— lesse disloyalty towards your Majesty for refusing to read the said Book have been by the Prelates thrust out of all a Sixt if not the First for the quite releasing and setting at full liberty your three poore banished Prisoners that the loud cry of their oppressions breake not through the walls and barres and roofes of their straight inclosure to the piercing of the heavens and the provoking of their wrath to dart downe the thunderbolt of Divine revenge to the blasting of the beauty of your State while as a tall Ceder or sturdy Oake it stoutly lifts it selfe up on high as if it would threaten heavens throne and lastly all this done without which what can prosper and that you may make your Peace with GOD as you have done with Scotland to Proclaime a Publick Fast with Prayer and Humiliation for the deprecating of Gods high displeasure for what is past and the procuring of his favour and blessing upon you and your Kingdome and thereupon send forth your Royall writs for the calling of a Parliament for the redressing and removing of the maine Causes of all the disorders and enormities in the Church and State So shall your Kingdome be established and your Crowne flourish in abundance of Peace and Prosperity to your Majesty and your Royall Posterity which the Petitioners the true Church and Children the true Faith and Religion of Iesus Christ will never be wanting to sollicite the throne of Grace for THE CONTENTS OF THE PRINCIPALL PASSAGES IN THIS INSUING REPLY AND first to the Relators Epistle Dedicatory The left-hand Figure notes the Page of the Relators Book the right-hand the Replyers L. page 1. HOw the Prelate by pinning his Booke upon the Kings Patronage doth thereby expose him to the perill of being guilty of patronizing all the blasspemies falsities therein page 2. 2. What Truth and how the Prelate seeks it ibid. 7. What use the Prelate makes of Gods restoring him from his Fever p. 3. 7. What he meanes by the Scandalous and Scurrilous pennes of some bitter men with a short Narration of their Cause and Tragicall suffering ibid. Notorious Hypocrisie of the Prelate and taking Gods name in vaine pag. 3 4.6.8 Prelates mercies exceed all Heathen cruelty 6. A strange Precedent without Precedent to censure a Man because he would not consent to the condemning of his Cause before the Hearing 7. The Prelate Shrewdly put to it for his blood-guiltinesse and shamelesse hypocrisie 7 8. A new-found Art under colour of Answering Jesuites to strike a leagve with Popery 9. 7. The Prelates notorious perverting of Scripture which is retorted upon himselfe by a true Application 10 11 12. 7. Gods Ministers for sharpe and particular reproving of sin and sinners proved not to be Libellous nor Scandalous by many examples 11 12 13. How Prelates with the High Priests and Pharisees are guilty of all the blood of the Saints shed from Abel hitherto 15 16. True marks of a Minister of Christ extraordinarily raysed up of God ibid. 7. What kind of Men the Prelates Divines of worth and Note be 16 17. How the Prelate publisheth his Booke to vindicate his Reputation and with whom ibid. 7. A Prosopopaeia representing the Prelates Divines speaking to him 17 18. 7. The Prelate selfe-deluded by the unanimous Councels of his Divines as Ahab was by his false Prophets 19. The Prelates Booke like Caesars sacrifice ibid. The Replyers Councel to the Prelate 19. The Prelates Booke how reprobate Silver 21. The Mystery of burning Salis his Devotions opened 20. How the Prelates Tract needs leading into the light 21. 11. Notorious hypocrisie of a most persecuting Prelate detected as most detestable 21 22. worse then that of Stephen Gardiner and Bonner ibid. The Prelate sore pressed with sundry Scriptures by the
you a reason of my Faith Can you give one reason of yours concerning this Article as you take and beleeve it with your Church of England Show but one reason or shadow of a reason out of Scripture Nay except you bring every Article of the Creed to the examen or tryall of Scripture for the staying and establishing of your Faith you may run into many monstrous errours What doe you beleeve concerning Christs death You beleeve that hee dyed But for whom Whether for the Elect onely in Gods Purpose Account Appointment Acceptance or universally for all men Elect and Reprobate I tell you my Lord if you beleeve that Christ dyed for all men universally as well for the Reprobate as the Elect you destroy both Gods Grace in giving Christ for his people onely the Elect and also the merit and effâ—icacy of Christs death The Scripture shewes these things aboundantly But I mention this onely by the way Againe What doe you beleeve concerning the holy Catholicke Church You beleeve I dare say and you doe say it that the Catholicke Church on earth consists visibly of all Prelates and those that are subject unto them as one intire Body This is your Faith But if you examine this by the Scripture you will find it to be an Errour no lesse soule then false as hath been shewed So doe you not beleeve the Article of the Communion of Saints You doe But who are your Saints on earth You will hardly allow any Saints on earth till after their death they be Canonized by his Holinesse at Rome Nay in plaine termes you persecute both the Saints themselves and their Communion Can you indure such as but professe holinesse And for their Communion doe you not hunt out and persecute Private Fasting and Prayer among the poore soules of Christ when publick they can have none and no other remedy or weapons are left them to defend themselves withall against your bloody Cruelty So as the truth is you neither rightly beleeve the Holy Catholicke Church nor the Communion of Saints but are a notorious both denyeâ— and persecuter of both And therefore we see what a necessity there is that we should bring the Articles of the Creed to the Standard Rule the Scripture both as the surest and safest way yea and the onely way to preserve our Faith from Errour But you object the Fathers for the Sense of this Article of Christs Descent into hell as you beleeve it What if they beleeved so Is their example a sufficient Rule for us We must examine their sense they held of it by the Scripture If it be not according to the Scripture we reject it The Fathers might for a time hold an erronious generally received opinion before it came to be controverted and well sifted and examined by Scripture But they were ever ready to have their faith and opinions tryed by the Scriptures All the ancient Fathers were of this mind and spirit As before Pelagius his time the Fathers spake too liberally of Mans Free-will which after upon his Heresie they reformed and by Scripture abundantly confuted the Pelagians and especially Augustine Ierome Prosper Fulgentius Hilarius and others And Augustine inticing a Donatist to dispute about that Heresie Saith unto him Ratione agamus divinarum Scripturarum authoritate agamus Let us dispute the matter by Argument let us be guided by the Authority of the Divine Scriptures Not what I and thou Say but what Christ Saith And this was the Spirit I say and practise of all the Fathers in such cases So as if this Article of of Christs descent into hell had been by occasion of controversie about it well searched into and examined by the Scripture no doubt but the Fathers would therein have regulated their Faith according to the truth of Scripture But the Church of England say you holds and beleeves that Article as you doe No marvaile when you doe And should you hold otherwise must it not doe so too And yet we have but your bare word for it But you will alledge your Article That Christ went downe into hell But we must examine your Article by the Scripture And it is not the sound of your Article but the sense and that it agreeth with Scripture But we have shewed that no such thing is in Scripture And you tell us withall what Mr. Rogers upon the Articles saith of this That then Then I say in diebus illis the Church of England was not resolved of this Article and he was then the Arch-bishop of Canterbury his Chaplein your Predecessor Richard Bancroft But now your Lordships bare word is enough to Sway the Ballance which before stood but in aequilibrio in an even peize not resolved but now resolved But this I can tell you what ever your Church of England now beleeves there is and I hope a good sound Church of Christ yet in England that beleeves the Creed and all the Articles thereof and this in particular no otherwise then they find them agreeable to the Scripture and the Analogy of Faith And this is agreeable to that which once a Prelâ—te of England said By the generall confâ—ssion of all Antiquity Traditions must he warranted by the Scriptures or els we must reject them And Isidore saith A Prelate if he teach or command any thing besides that which is evidently cammanded in the holy Scriptures let him be taken for a false witnâ—ssie to God and a committer of Sacriledge But looking a little further I find you confessing That the Church of England hath not determined as yet either way by open Declaration upon this Article No hath she not How then doe you affirme and would perswade us that you beleeve with the Church of England that Christ descended into hell without any further Dispute We hope therefore it will not be long before your Declaration come forth with a Definitive Sentence determining the sense of this Article one way or other And the rather because in the late Declaration before the Articles wherein this Article of Christs going down into hell is particularly set downe for one they are declared to be of ambiguous sense and yet men must hold to the letter of the Article So as by that Declaration we are lesse resolved of the Articles then before A new Declaration therefore we would faine see which is cleare Declarative and Determinative and therein tell us whether Christs Soule descended into Hell the place of the damned or into Purgatory the Suburbs of hell and whether Locally and for what end and purpose because the Scripture is altogether silent in this whole mystery and whether you find hell to be in the Center of the Earth or no because your Article saith He went down into hell c. But in the mean time I have for my part ingenuously given you a reason of my Faith touching this Article which I am so resolved on by the Scripture that whatsoever Declaration you or your Church of England
that coming as neare as you can to the Papists in their Ceremonies you shall thereby bring them to the Church And surely this is the ready way either to bring Papists to your Church or you to their Church But I say the Church was so pestered with Rites and Ceremonies even in Augustins dayes that he complained that Christians were now in a worse case and condition under the Gospel then the Iewes were under the Law for though their yoake was grievous yet those Leviticall rites were of Gods owne ordaining and commandement but Christians saith he are brought under an intolerable yoake of Ceremonies of mens devising and imposing But now on the other side if I should enter into a Comparison between the Reformed Churches since Luther and those Primitive and ancient Churches as aforesaid I know it would be very tedious to your Lordship and extremely move your Patience especially if I should by many degrees preferre Calvin Bezâ— Zanchius Iunius and many hundred more Worthies both for learning and piety and chiefly for Soundnesse in Doctrine in the Reformed Churches beyond the Seaes yea and not a few on this side as Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper all Martyrs Iewel Whitakers Reynolds Perkins with infinite more and all within one Century before such as those Centuries aforesayd produced whose Names for Envy-sake I forbeare to mention Lastly you say you are content to submit to them in all those points of Doctrine If you be then for Shame cleare away those Cloudes which the said Declaration hath over-cast your Articles withall and cast away your Arminian Pelagian sense and take off your Suspension of them and let them speak one single truth as they formerly did and as all understood them according to the Scriptures L. p. 62. The Catholicke Church we beleeve in our Creed to be the Society of all Christians P. What you beleeve is one thing But we beleeve the Catholicke Church of Christ in the Creed to be the number and Society of all the Elect as the next Article expounds it The Communion of Saints but not that Company of all Christians which you name and meane Christians in name and profession tag and ragge pell mell good and bad Papists and Protestants of which the greatest number are no true living members of the true Catholick Church the mysticall body whereof Christ is the Head and which by Faith onely we apprehend for we beleeve the Holy Catholicke Church but cannot discerne with our bodily eyes as we doe a visible Object This is that Church which Christ loved for which he gave himselfe that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word to present it to himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish This we beleeve to be the Holy Catholicke Church and no other But thus indeed as you tell us before you make wider the Gates of the Catholicke Church then ever Christ made them or rather indeed you exclude the Catholicke Church of Gods Elect and set up a new Catholicke Church which may be seen but ought not to be beleeved L. p. 66. Agreed on for me also it shal be that Gods word may be written and unwritten P. Agreed on with whom Even with no lesse then Bellarmine For in the very next words you give us the reason why it is agreed upon for you that Gods word may be written and unwritten For Say you Cardinall Bellarmine tells us truely that it is not the writing or Printing that makes Scripture the word of God but it is the Prime unerring Essentiall Truth God himselfe uttering and revealing it to his Church that makes it Verbum Dei the word of God Doth Bellarmine say so And that truely And to what end I pray you doth the Cardinall say so Is it not to overthrow the Scripture for being the Sole word of God and to bring in another word of God which he calls verbum non Scriptum an unwritten word that is a word besides the Scriptures and equall to the Scriptures which is Romes unwritten Traditions And to this end and purpose Bellarmine using these words doth he tell you truely and is this the reason for which it is agreed on for you that Gods word may be written and unwritten Now though it be true that that which is spoken by God is his word though it be not written yet to us there is now no other word of God but that which is written that which is contained in the Scriptures And this word written is that alone which our Faith is grounded and settled upon According to that of Iohn Many other Signes truely did Iesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Booke But these things are written that ye might beleeve that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that beleeving ye might have life through his Name So as we are not to inquire further what Christ spake or did besides what we find written But your Lordship tells us before of certaine Traditions Apostolicall which it seems are that word of God which may be unwritten For you say If the Scripture be a Foundation to which we are to goe for witnesse if there â—e doubt about the Faith and in which we are to find the thing that is to be beleeved as necessary in the Faith we never did nor never will refuse any Tradition that is Vniversall and Apostolicke for the better exposition of the Scripture And to this place you referre that which you say pag. 58. As for Tradition I have said enough for that and as much as A. C. where 't is truely Apostolicall From which words first we observe that you make but an If of the Scripture as a Foundation If the Scripture be a Foundation and If in it we are to find the thing that is to be beleeved as If it were to be found in any thing else And Secondly how home you come to A C. the Jesuite in admitting Tradition Apostolicke to expound any doubt about the Faith and so with Bellarmine you are agreed for a word of God unwritten as well as written And you further adde here pag. 66. Speaking of the Scriptures their being written gave them no Authority at all in regard of themselves Written or unwritten the Word was the same But it was written that it might be the better preserved and continued with the more integrity to the use of the Church and the more faithfully in our memories So you Now 't is true that by the writing of the Scripturâ—s Gods word contained therein is preserved continued in integrity and the more faithfully kept in our mâ—mories But is thiâ— all Nay the very writing of them though it added no Authority to Gods word in regard of it selfe yet as the Scriptures are to us Gods word is of the greater Authority because written For we acknowledge no other word of God as
requisite here a little to consider the Apostles words First Faith saith he is e'lpizomenon vpostasis the substance or subsistence or confidence at the Apostle useth the word elswhere of things hoped for And as some well expound it such a Faith as causeth the things hoped for so to subsist in our hearts not onely in a sure expectation but also in a degree of possession and fruition as if they were present with us And this object of things hoped for argues plainly that this Faith is not your Historicall Faith to beleeve simply that the Scripture is the word of God but the true lively and Saving Faith which hath not onely for its common object the Scripture but for its more proper and peculiar object Christ and the Promises of God in him contained in the Scriptures which are those things hoped for here Whereas your Historicall Faith as that of the Papists as both Vega and others affirme looks onely to the common object the Scriptures but not specially on the Promises therein contained This I say is the proper worke and object that Saving Faith doth chiefly exercise it selfe upon Faith is the substance of things hoped for Secondly it is pragmaton elegkos ou blepoménon the evidence or Demonstration of things not seen Which things not seen are also the proper object of Saving Faith wherof it is the evidence And those are eternall things in heaven as the Apostle sheweth The things which are not seen are eternall So Rom. 8.25 If we hope for that which we see not then doe we with patience abide for it But now your meere Historicall Faith which beleeves in generall that the Scripture is the word of God looks no farther then things that are seen But for the Faith which is the evidence of things not seen is the evedence of it therefore not so cleare because it is of things not seen Surely had you such an evidence of thosâ— things not seen as Faith is you would not goe on thus blindly in speaking of divine things which it appeares are farre above out of your sight Is Faith the evidence of things not seen and therefore not of so cleare evidence in regard of the Octject Nay certainly being an evidence of things not seen it argues the quick and piercing cleare eye of faith whereby it so clearely seeth things not seen as it is a cleare evidence of them As Chrysostome upon these words commenteth poÃa lèxis saith he What a speech or expression is this elegkos an evidence Whereupon he Saith That faith is a farre clearer and surer evidence of things not seen then the eye is of a visible object before it And you have here forgotten what you writ but in the next page before That beliefe is firmer then any knowledge can be Which it seemes you mean as the Papists doe who to elude certainty of faith doe say That Faith is certain ratione objecti in respect of the Object the Scripture but not ratione Subjecti of the Beleever himselfe Otherwise how doe you say here that Faiths evidence is not so cleare as being of things not seen But I conceive the reason to be because you beleeve no further then you see So as what things you doe not see with your bodily eye you have not any such cleare evidence of by your faith as if they were present before your Eyes Thus you may see could you see what all your Faith comes to But that faith whereof the Apostle there speakes and elswhere hath an eye more piercing then the eye of an Eagle For by this faith as by a most cleare Perspective we so see things afarre off eveâ— in the highest heavens as if they were present before us Thus the beleeving Saints in the Old Testament by the eye of this same Faith illustrated by so many examples in the same Chapter did See the promises afarre off and were perswaded of them â—nd imbraced them By this â—aith Moses forsook Aegypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he indured as seeing him that is invisible And by this Faith Abraham though afarre off saw Christs day and rejoyced As Stephen at his stoning saw Iesus Christ standing at the right hand of God This you will Say was with the eyes of his body miraculously 'T is true But I will Say again Stephen with his bodily eyes at that time saw not Christ more certainly nor more clearely then a true beleever by the eye of his faith sees him standing at the right hand of God as a mighty Saviour Advocate Judge Protector Avenger of his People when so used as Stephen was So as the faith of all true beleevers being one and the Same it fully agreeth with that Difinition of the Apostle Faith is the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen therefore it hath an eye that sees those things not seen more clearely then I dare say your Lordships eye seeth when you look upon the Kings Countenance Smiling upon you For you think you see now clearely the object before you when indeed you see it not clearely but through a false glasse of your imagination as apprehending your chiefe happinesse to consist in that Object the Kings favour which may easily be overclowded Whereas God saith Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For though he may flourish for a time yet he shal be like the Heath in the Desert and shall not see when good cometh Againe this Faith of yours Say you is not of such cleare evidence in regard of the Subject that sees it is in enigmate or darke speaking We shewed but now how this Historicall Faith is different according to the Subject in which it is in the Reprobate or in the Elect beleever For in the true beleever being comprehended under the Saving Faith it is so much both the more cleare and infallible in beleeving the Scripture to be the word of God as wherein all along he finds Christ in whom all the Promises wherwith as so many Sweet Roses that Garden is set and strowed or as so many Starres shining in that Firmament are yea and Amen to the glory of God the Father And thus to every true beleever the Scripture is the sure word of God and more especially sure to him in all the Promises of it Thus Davids Faith tells him The Testimony of the Lord is sure Thy Testimonies are very sure All his Commandements are sure So Esay The sure mercies of David Thus the Apostles were sure We beleeve and are sure c. Now are we sure c. And Paul It is of Faith by Grace that the Promise might be sure to all the seed And Peter We have a most sure word of Prophesie Thus the whole word of God with the Promises therein are sure to a true beleever both as being of God and belonging
to all the faithfull As the Apostle Saith Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope But on the other side this beliefe that the Scripture is the word of God being in a Reprobate or wicked man the stronger it is in a perswasion and conviction that it is Gods word and so a word of truth the greater terrour it strikes into him when he considers of those fearefull judgements punishments and torments of hell therein denounced against all impenitent persons As Felix trembled when he heard Paul reasoning of judgement to come And Agrippa said to Paul en olÃgo somewhat or almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian when Paul had said unto him Beleevest thou the Prophets I know that thou beleevest So that a wicked man may be throwly convinced in his Conscience that the Scripture is the word of God he may certainly be perswaded of it and that hoes en horámati as a thing visibly before him and he apprehends it as too true But that place of the Apostle We see here dì ainìgmatos as through a darke Saying it is not to be applyed to this Faith that is in a wicked man For the Apostle there speakes of true beleevers We Saith he now doe see through a glasse darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known So as there he speakes of the estate of the godly here comparatively to their estate of glory hereafter and that concerning their knowledge and spirituall vision of God here and hereafter Here we doe with Moses see but Gods back parts in comparison to that we shall see when we shall see him face to face here we know him at the best but imperfectly but then we shall know even as we are knowne in full perfection And yet so great and glorious is our knowledge of God in the State of Grace that the Apostle saith We all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord. So glorious is the Image of Christ in every new-Creature or regenerate man had men but eyes to see it But this by the way On the other side againe as some naturall and morall men may have a certaine evidence of an Historicall Faith thus farre that the Scripture is the word of God and so he trembleth at it So others again and such as think themselves great Clerks and glorious Priests may perhaps see but en skotómati blindly in a brainsick miorim or giddinesse so as their head swimming with wâ—imses the eyes of their understanding being darkened or rather blinded with the god of this world they imagine the world goes round with them and while they so much dispute of the Authority of the present Church in clearing a mans understanding to beleeve the Scripture to be the word of God the conclusion is that they can bring never a good Evidence to prove that themselves have any faith at all You goe on and Say Now God doth not require a full demonstrative knowledge in us that the Scripture is his word and therefore in his Providence hath kindled in it no light for that but he requires our faith of it and such a certaine demonstration as may fit that When shall vaine words have an end as Iob Speaks You have reproched the Scripture these 10 times and therein blasphemed God and are not ashamed as he Speaks in another Case God doth not require Say you a full demonstrative knowledge in us that the Scripture is his word No Doth he not But he requireth such a faith in us which hath in it a full demonstration of knowledge For such is Saving Faith whereof we formerly Spake it is a demonstration of things not seen it is a plerophorÃa a full assurance Now whereon is this faith grounded Is it not grounded upon the Scripture And if this full demonstration of faith be grounded on the Scripture is there not such a full demonstrative knowledge in the Scripture For alwayes the Foundation must have a full latitude and depth proportionable to beare up the building which is layd upon it Faith then being a full demonstration and the Scripture being the foundation of it the Scripture then must have in it a full demonstrative knowledge and if such a full demonstrative knowledge be in the Scripture God requires in us also such a full demonstrative knowledge as is sutable to that full demonstration of Faith As the Apostle saith I know whom I have beleeved And our Saviour joynes knowledge and faith together saying That ye may know and beleeve And so the Apostle speaking of beleevers saith Which beleeve and know the truth And that which in other places is attributed to faith is Ioh. 13.3 attributed to knowledge This is life eternall that they may know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom â—hou hast sent And the act of beleeving is typed out by an act of the eye in seeing to shew that beleeving is a seeing and knowing As Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wildernesse even so must the Sonne of Man be lifted up that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have eternall life Where beleeving in Christ lifted up upon his Crosse hath relation to those in the wildernesse who being stung with the fiery Serpents looked up upon the brazen Serpent upon the Pole which Moses by Gods appointment lifted up and looking upon it they lived There being then such an affinity or rather unity or union between Faith and knowledge Faith being a certain knowledge of the thing beleeved which is the Scripture and faith being begotten by the word of God which is therfore call'd the word of Faith both because it is the seed of Faith and the ground wherin it is rooted and every seed having in it the nature of that which springeth of it it necessarily followeth that there is in the Scripture a full demonstrative knowledge and consequently God requireth in us such a full demonstrative knowledge as whereby we are fully assured and know certainly that the Scripture is the very word of God And this full demonstrative knowledge is in true Faith which apprehending and imbracing Christ the beleever by the same Faith doth know assuredly that that Scripture by the heareing wherof preached he came to beleeve is the very word of God And there is such a necessity of this full demonstrative knowledge to be in every beleever it is both de esse of the beâ—ing of a beleever and also de bene esse of his well-beeing That it is of the beeing of a beleever we have proved out of Scripture because it is of the very beeing of Faith And secondly it is necessary for
to another it is grounded upon Nature which admits of no created thing to beare witnesse to it selfe and is acknowledged by our Saviour If I beare witnesse of my selfe my witnesse is not true that is is not of force to be reasonably accepted for truth P. Though the Scripture as it is considered in the written Letter be a Creature yet the matter of it the Light the Truth the Authority and Evidence of it is meerly Divine as wherein God hath imprinted and expressed his Divine Nature Counsell and Will So as as is said before we must never abstract the Scripture from that Spirit of God which is alwayes in it and with it as a cleare and sufficient witnesse of it and as the very life and Soule of it Whereas you with the Papists take the Scripture for no other but as a bare Letter or barke of a Tree or dead Corps without any Divine Spirit in it But you aledge Christ Saying of himselfe If I beare witnesse of my selfe c. You must know that Christ here speaks as the Jewes took him for no other as a meere Man But take him as Christ God-man in one Person and is he not a'utâ—pistos worthy of himselfe to be beleeved And what Saith he when the Pharisees objected unto him Thou bearest record of thy selfe thy record is not true Though I beare record of my selfe yet my record is true Saith he For is not Gods record true And againe v. 17. It is written in your Law that the testimâ—ny of two men is true I am one that beare witnesse of my selfe and the Father that sent me beareth witnesse of me So may the Scripture say Though I beare record of my selfe yet my record is true for the Father speaketh in me and Christ speaketh in me and the Holy Ghost speaketh in me and all these joyntly beare witnesse in me with me and to me that I am the word of God And in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established And hereunto might I adde the many Divine and Admirable works and effects which the word of God produceth all which beare witnesse abundantly that the Scripture is the word of God Why what works what effects doth it produce Yea what not It enlightneth the eyes it quickeneth dead Soules it is that great Engine of battery that subdueth the world unto Christ. It is the sharpe two-edged sword lively and mighty in operation c. it is the mighty power of God to Salvation it is to all men the sweet savour of God the savour either of life unto life or of death unto death Loe my Lord what think you now of this Word Is it trow â—ou onely a dead letter being of such a Divine and Spirit-full efficacie as no word of man is or can be And here might I bring many negative proofes to shew it cannot be the Word of Man But let this suffice I will passe on L. p. 89. No man can set a better State of the Question then Hooker doth his words are these The Scripture is the ground of our beliefe the Authority of man that is the name he gives to Tradition is the Key which opens the doore of entrance into the Knowledge of the Scripture P. We have already answered sufficiently that the Scripture is both the Garden wherein all the pleasant Flowers and wholesome Fruits of Paradise are planted and grow which are of that beauty fragancie sweetnesse and relish as he that beholds them smells to them and tasts of them may easily discerne they are not of a terrene or earthly nature Non vox hominem sonâ—t and it selfe is the Key that lets in those that will to tast of her Fruits which I say when they once tast they will Say This is none other but the Garden and Paradise of God even the Word of God This is that Key of knowledge for the taking away whereof Christ denounceth a Woe to the Pharises And that by this Key is not meant Tradition is plain seeing the Pharisees did not take away Tradition but they exalted it so farre as therby they made the Word of God of none effect Is this the Tradition that you call the Authority of Man and so highly commend which the Pharisees used for no other Key but as a false Key or picklocke to robbe the Scripture of their Divine Authority But if you understand by Tradition here the Delivery of the Scripture from hand to hand to be kept as a Depositum by the Church of God thus the Scripture is a rich Cabinet full of precious Jewels together with the Key or Spring-lock so united unto it as it is a part of the Cabinet and so deposited with the Church of God as by the Ministry and preaching of the Word the Key is turned and the Cabinet unlocked the Key being no other but of Gods owne making and appointing and so the Cabinet thus opened and man looking into it his eyes being also opened by the same Key there he finds that goodly Pearle of the Kingdome and that rich Treasure which to purchase he goes and sells all that he hath But suppose now for all this we should either grant your Lordship such a Key as Prelaticall Authority whereby you assume a power of opening an entrance to men to read the Scriptures when the Key is once in your hand what if you should prove so closse fisted and so churlish a Keeper as not to suffer them to come to read the Scriptures as you have done in not suffering them to heare them preached on the Lods dayes at least in the After-noones As also in so keeping fast under Locke and Key those precious Jewels of the Doctrines of Gods Grace as aforesaid as the Ministers themselves may not come at them once to touch them So as it might prove a dangerous thing and too suspicious if you had such a Key of Authority or the Authority of such a Key put into your hand men should rather be shut out from the Scriptures then have the entrance open to goe freely to them when they will But if you will needs perforce wrest this Key as the Preaching of Gods word out of the hands or from between the teeth of Godly Ministers as you have done we have no remedy but to complain to the Lord of the Vineyard and pray him to vindicate his Key out of such Hucksters hands and to force you to give up your usurped false Keyes L. p. 91. Could the Pope and his Clergie put this home upon the wâ—â—ld as they are gone farre in it that the Tradition of the Present Church is Divine and Infallible how might they and would they then Lord it over the Faith of Christendome contrary to S. Peters Rule whose Successors certainly in this they are not P. Thus you confesse there is or may be a Lording of the Clergie over the Faith of Christendome or Christians contrary to S.
worship The GREAT WITNESSE but a great meanes not The great meanes nor the GREAT MEANES put in Capitall Letters much lesse doe you say as the Apostle That preaching is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that beleeveth Or as 1 Cor 1.18 The preaching of the crosse is to them that perish foolishnesse but to us that are saved it is the power of God Or To them that are called we preach Christ the power of God and the wisdome of God And yet with you it is but a great meanes And well too that you will vouchsafe to give it so good a word But it is such a great meanes as there is none other ordinary meanes of saving knowledge whatsoever to be compared with it But you cannot thinke Sermons divinely infallible I thinke not such Sermons as you make But are not those Sermons which being a true explication and application of the the word of God the Scripture doe convert soules to God doe beget faith in the hearers and make of them new Creatures divinely infallible can such Sermons be otherwise then divinely infallible I doe not meane your Court Sermons And can that preaching which is a great meanes as you confesse of saving knowledge but be divinely infallible Can that which brings men to salvation deceive men I speak still of true preaching But you put Sermons which you say are expositions and application of Scripture and a great meanes of saving knowledge and preachers together whom you doe not think to be infallible There is some difference by your leave For the Sermon may â—e divinely infallible saving the hearers soules and yet the preacher himselfe be deceived and put by his purpose in preaching of it For instance I remember Augustine tells how on a time preaching upon a text he did besides his purpose and intention extravagate from his text and fell upon the Manichean Heresie which was nothing to his text in which extravagant discourse he notwithstanding according to his dexterity â—oundly confuted that Heresie Well after the Sermon a Manichean that there had heard him came to Augustine and told him that his Sermon had much wrought upon him and convinced him of his error desiring him further to instruct him in the true Faith Hereat Augustine fell into an admiration saying to the man give glory to God and never thank me for it for I never intended when I came into the Pulpit at that time so much as to touch upon that poynt But now I see Gods mercifull hand led me out of my intended course that I should going out of mine owne way bring thee into the right way Thus we see the Sermon may be divinely infallible when yet the Preacher himselfe was deceived Againe the Preacher being a man is subject to error when yet his Sermon is infallible being divine that is according to Gods word the Scripture and his life through infirmity may have many errors when yet his doctrine is upright and sound being regulated by Gods word and Spirit which is not wanting to his faithfull Servants in his owne Ordinace But say you the ancient Fathers of the Church preached beyond any of these of either Faction and yet no one of them durst thinke himselfe infallible much lesse that whatsoever he preached was the word of God Here first you shew still your teeth and utter your extreme malice against Christ in calling his faithfull servants the Ministers of his word a Faction and such a Faction as you yoake with that of the Jesuites Certainly if godly Ministers such as you place in the precise party of the reformed Church be a Faction it is under and with their King and Captain Christ fighting and confederating against all Antichristian adversaries the disguised enemies of Christ and of his word and true Church and of all his faithfull Ministers and people that doe sincerely professe his Name Which your malice being so Diabolicall the Lord reprove you for it and reward you according both to your words and deeds who doe thus confound the precious with the vile the good with the evill light with darknesse Christ with Belial true Christians with Antichristians Certainly ther 's a woe belongs to you for this We doe utterly reject all Iesuites and Antichristians as who neither doe nor dare nor can preach Gods word truly to the begeting of Saving Faith and Saving Knowledge For then they must preach against the Popes Kingdome and his cursed doctrines which in the Councel of Trent doe both forbid and accurse all saving doctrines of grace and burne with fier and fagot the Preachers of them whom you also most cruelly persecute with all the Engines of cruelty that malice it selfe can invent and a desperate man against all Laws of God and man dare execute For the antient Fathers of the Church whose preaching you farre preferre before any of that precise party as you call it for as for A. C. and his Faction we altogether exclude them out of the number of preachers in the reformed Churches whether ignorance or malice hath more blinded your judgement in this I cannot directly say Ignorance not onely of the Fathers preaching but much more of the preciser party of preachers in the Reformed Churches whose Sermons and writings I suppose you have but a little acquainted your selfe withall but for your malice against these I dare confidently say you have no want of that And seeing you draw me though against my will to enter within the lists of such a comparison between those antients and our moderne reformists I hold it fit to speake somthing of it though I declined it before when you gave the like occasion both to discover the weaknesse of your judgement herein and to vindicate the truth it selfe in maintaining the just reputation of the truly Reformed Churches Now no reason can be given why those Antients though otherwise of honourable mention should preach farre beyond the best preachers of the Reformed Churches For they could not have that knowledge and learning which so many ages since have produced together with much experience all which the truly reformed preachers make use of Again doe but compare most of the writings and Sermons of those Antients with our moderne Reformed Divines and a right judgement will find the oddes of your farre beyond to be on the side of the reformed party In comparison of whom how poore were those Antients both in their expositions and applications of Scripture Augustine that excellent light in those times though in his Polemicall Tracts and especially against the Pelagians and Semi-pellagians in the vindicating of Gods grace and so in opening all those places of Scripture concerning those points he shewed an accute dexterity and sound judgement yet in his other exercises or Sermons and expositions of Scripture he was not so pregnant As in his 8 th Tome containing his expositions and Sermons upon the Psalmes although the Reader shall not repent him of his labour because he
shall meet with many passages of good note yet he may observe how farre wide he is of the scope and meaning of the Psalmes which he handleth all along He preached indeed every day as Calvin did at Geneva besides all his other weighty imployments but what a disparity there is between their expositions I referre to the judgement of K. Iames who commended Calvins Commentaries above all those of the Ancients So for the Greek Church as Aug. for the Latine that golden mouthed Chrisostome according to his Name the best preacher in his time though many of his expositions were good yet when he came to his tò u'thikòn his morall or application though in it selfe it was very good yet for the most part no way pertinent to his text he handled but he would sometimes make his use against covetousnesse somtimes against pride or some other sinne or to exhort to some morall vertue or other but I say without any coherence to his text for the most part And for the most of those Antients what was the common Theame of their preaching but morality delighting rather to contemplate in a solitary life then to practise such preaching as might win soules How few of them did preach the Doctrine of Iustification by Faith in Christ. In somuch as Bernard who lived many hundred yeares after those ancients and in those times wherein he noted Antichrist to be come which he plainly poynted out to be the Pope did preach more soundly of this doctrine of Iustification by Faith onely then all those Fathers had done if we may judge of their preaching by their writings They spent themselves more in preaching for good works Then to set forth the faith in Christ though some flashes they had here and there And whether this be not one reason why you so commend the Fathers preaching because they were so much for good works and so little for faith I know not Whereas the moderne Divines of the Reformed Churches are most singular and excellent in seting forth the Mystery of faith and that doctrine of Iustification thereby therein exalting Gods grace and excluding mans merits though not negligent in exhorting to good works as the fruits of faith Those Doctrines of Grace and faith being the main substance of the Gospell and the true practising of Iesus Christ besides which there is no true preaching Admirable they are also in seting forth the nature of sinne to bring man out of himselfe and to plant him into Christ. And in a word have so set forth the whole body of Divinity as the Fathers writings to theirs are in comparison in respect of sound Divinity but as a barren Field to a fruitfull well planted and well watered Garden And great reason there is for this The Fathers had to deale with some Hereticks as with Arius whose Mal was Athanasius and with Pelagius knockt down by Augustine and others but they knew not as yet the Mistery of iniquity which in these latter times seeking to overtop the Gospell and to overthrow the Doctrine and Kingdome of Christ hath given occasion not onely of a reformation in a seperation from that Whore of Babylon but to many Worthies whom God hath raysed up in these last times to bestirre themselves and to study Christ his Military Discipline and spirituall warfare against the Beast and his Crew and to be expert in maintaining Christs Cause with weapons both offensive and defensive So as by this occasion Gods Grace working with it this last Century hath produced more excellent sound and learned Divines and famous preachers then I may say truly though not without envie have been ever since the Apostles times The Name of our God and of our Lord Iesus Christ who by this meanes hath Tryumphed over Antichrist be praysed and glorified for evermore These have been and are Christs Triarian band fighting against Antichrists power with the sword of the Spirit in their lippes their pike their pen in their hand and fighting on their knees by Prayre and have so confounded Antichrist by the dint of their Sword and Pike the word of God that he hath no meanes left him but by his legates à latere to negotiate his cause with Kings and Princes of the earth to incite them against the precise party by taking their weapon Gods word and the preaching thereof from them leaving them nothing but their bare knees to plead their Cause upon even Prayers and Teares these which the powers on earth may cause but never deprive them of And how farre you have been a stickler and instigator in this kind I appeale to your practises and to this your Book sufficient and competent witnesses against you But to return to your Fathers you say that they for all their preaching so farre beyond others yet no one of them durst think himselfe infallible much lesse that whatsoever he preached was the word of God 'T is true they had been no wise Fathers but Children rather yea proud and foolish Men if they had thought themselves to be infallible which is proper to God alone But whatsoever they preached out of Gods word that they had good evidence it was according to the Scripture why should they not not onely thinke but be assured that being the truth it was infallible as being the substance of Gods word which they preached And so all other preachers Lastly where you say It may be observed that no men are more apt to say that all the Fathers were but men and might erre then they that thinke their own preachings were infallible And what say you I pray you of your antient Fathers Were they any others but mâ—n And might they not erre But you are not perhaps so apt to say They were but men and might erre You are willing to entertain and retaine a higher opinion of them then so Or at least you are not so apt to say so of them as they then whom none are more apt to say The Fathers were but men and might erre Sure if there were cause enough and urgent too so to say as when it concernes the glory of God and the truth it selfe he that is aptest to say so is the most to be commended And now let us here a little inquire who these men be that are so apt to say thus of the ancient Fathers and for what cause That they were but men and might erre Why who should they be but the precise party of the reformed Churches as all the worthy reverend pious religious learned and judicious Divines both beyond the Seas and on this side who undertaking to defend the truth of Christ against Antichrist and their Adversaries objecting and pressing so much the authority of the antient Fathers in such things wherein they could not be otherwise excused but that they did a'nâ—ropopathein speake as men who are not in all things infallible what could they in such a case answere otherwise But that those Fathers were but men and might erre Nor
proof of the things beleeved How say you then that the maine grounds which prove them are concealed from our view and folded up in the unrevealed Councel of God And what main grounds I pray you be those Can you tell Or doe you speake in the Clouds that you may seem to say something which you understand not For certainly this Mystery of Faith is concealed from your understanding as appeareth by your darke and clowdy words And is that unrevealed councell of God the object of our Faith Cometh not Faith by hearing of the word of God wherein God hath revealed his will to us Or doth the Tradition of your present Church lead you to beleeve such sencelesse speculations Indeed the Apostle saith That in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Hid that is layd up and contained as a Treasure But not hid from his true Church and faithfuâ—l people as the Apostle saith If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that beleeve not least the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them And againe Eye hath not seen nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit But where Search the Scriptures saith Christ for in them ye thinke to have eternall life and they are they which testifie of me so to this purpose the Apostle speaketh excellently Ephes 3.4 5 6. and 1.9.17 18 19 and in many other places But to you it seems these things are hid and folded up and therfore no mervaile you know not what you say nor wherof you affirme As the Apostle saith of some Who were turned aside from Charity out of a pure heart and a good Conscience and of Faith unfained unto vaine â—angling Desiring to be teachers of the Law understanding neither what they say nor wherof they affirme Let therfore the Prophet Esay read you a Lecture Stay your selves and wonder Cry ye out and cry They are drunken but not with wine They stagger but not with strong drinke For the Lord hath powred on them the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes The Prophets and your Rulers the Seers hath he covered And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee And he saith I cannot for it is sealed And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee And he saith I am not learned Wherfore the Lord said Forasmuch as this people draw neere me with their mouth and with their lippes doe honour me but have removed their heart farre from me and their feare towards me is taught by the Precepts of men Therfore behold I will proceed to doe a mervailous worke amongst this people even a marvailous work and a wonder for the wisdome of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shal be hid Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their councel from the Lord and their works are in the darke and they say who seeth us And who knoweth us surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the Potters Clay Loe my Lord I hope this word is not folded up if to you it be you shall one day both see and feele it more clearly and sensibly fulfilled But you goe on God in Christ say you resolving to bring Mankind to their last happinesse by Faith and not by Knowledge What by a blind Faith For by Faith and not by Knowledge is all one as to say by such a Faith as is without Knowledge and so without light in it and so blind Wheras the true saving Faith is a knowing Faith it is the evidence of things not â—een it sees him that is invisible as before is shewed But my Lord if the maine grounds be folded up in the unrevealed counsell of God I wonder by what revelation you come to know his secret That God in Christ hath resolved to bring Mankind to their last happinesse by Faith and not by Knowledge surely God hath no where in Scripture revealed any such resolution of his And if it be not written Timeas 〈◊〉 illâ—d as Tertullian forementioned said to Hermogenes the Heretick Feare that Woe to them that shall adde to the Booke of Scripture But if you had leasure to Read the Scripture it reveales unto us plainly what God in this businesse hath resolved to do and how he will bring Mankind to his last happinesse and that is by a seeing not a blind Faith by a Faith explicit and cleare not implicit and folded up by light and not by darknesse This is Gods way that he hath chalked out unto us in the Scripture as before is fully proved of Faith and therfore we are sure that God in Christ in his eternall councell resolved to bring us this way to heaven and no other way And this way is Christ and Christ is light and in this way we must walke as children of the light and not as children of darknesse And every true beleever as he becomes a new man so of a blind man he becomes a seeing man For this cause Christ came the true light that he might lighten every man that comes to him For this cause was Paul sent to preach to the Gentiles To open their eyes and to turne them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance among them which are sanctified by Faith that is in me saith Christ so that every true Christian in his conversion of blind becomes seeing of darknesse becomes light in the Lord of Satans boâ—dmâ—n Gods serâ—ant and by this way onely through Faith in Christ they receive forgivenesse of sinnes here with sanctification and hereafter the eternall inheritance But as for you my Lord as you have found out another way namely a blind way not by the way of knowledge by which yet you pretend to your last happines so be assured of this that the place you are going unto is just like the way that leads unto it blind and darke yea utter darknesse where the Pit is into which both the blind leader and the blind led shall fall And for your further conviction or else confusion and confutation of your folly and information of your blind Disciples and confirmation of the truth to all the children of truth note what Christ himselfe saith expresly point blanke against you You say God in Christ resolved to bring Mankind to their last happinesse by Faith and not by Knowledge But Christ saith This is the will of him that sent me this God hath resolved on that every one
the Scripture depends not upon the Church wheron then On the Author Say you and the opinion we have of his Sufficiencie Here be two things which you couple together 1. The Author 2. The opinion we have of his Sufficiencie 1. For the Author which is God 't is true that God himselfe is the Author of the Scripture and so it is the word of God and God the Author beares witnesse of the Scripture that it is his owne word And where doth God beare this witnesse Is not this his witnesse in the Scripture it selfe Doth not his Spirit speake in it and tell us that it is his word Saith not his Spirit expresly that All Scripture is given by Inspiration from God And doth not the Scripture it selfe tell us this Saith it not then of it selfe that it is Gods word And so saying doth it not beare witnesse to it selfe that it is the word of God And is not the witnesse therof true And if true doth not the credit of the Scripture depend upon it selfe as it is the word of God that speaks in it that it is the word of God Or how can you so seperate the Author from the Scripture he speaking in it but that you must confesse the credit of the Scripture to depend upon it selfe when you acknowledge it depends upon the Author For as God was in the Soft and Still voyce so he is in the Scripture which is the Soft and Still voyce of God And as Elias knew by the soft and stil voyce that the Lord was in it So we know by the Soft and Still voyce of God the Scripture that God is in it and therein speakes unto us And what God therein speakes unto us the Scripture which is his voyce speakes unto us So as the Scripture being Gods own voyce speaking unto us what it saith is of the Same credit that God himselfe the Author and Speaker is of And therfore if the Credit of Scripture depend upon the Author it depends withall upon it selfe because it is Gods own voyce But Secondly you couple here with the Author the opinion we have of his Sufficience So as first it seems you doe not allow the Credit of Scripture to depend simply and Solely upon the Author but withall upon the opinion we have of his Sufficiencie And what if we fayle in our good opinion of the Authors Sufficiencie Wheron will you then hang the Credit of the Scripture Surely it must depend upon our opinion That 's the dint of your speech But of our selves we are altogether ignorant of Gods Sufficiencie How then or whence shall we come to have such an opinion of his Sufficiency as whereon the Credit of the Scripture may infalliby depend From the Authority or Tradition of the present Church Alas your present Church will tell us that the holy Trinity may be expressed in a Picture and that God the Father may be pictured like an Old Man because Christ in Daniel is called the Ancient of dayes For thus you pleaded against Mr. Sheruile in the Starre-Chamber when you fined him 500. pound to the King for defacing the Images of the Trinity in his owne Church-window he being a Justice of Peace If therefore the Almighty and Incomprehensible God may be expressed in an Image what opinion can we have of his Sufficiencie to be the God of truth and the Author of the Scripture as whereon the credit therof may depend when we expresse and represent him by that which is a lye a meere vanity For the Scripture calls an Image a lye as Esa. 44.20 And a teacher of lyes Hab. 2.18 And vanity wind and confusion Esa. 41.29 And falshood Jer. 10.14 And v. 16. God the portion of Iacob is not like them And an Image made to represent God is a lye and falsehood because it is a false representation of God For God is a Spirit Invisible And Esa. 40.18 To whom will ye liken God Or what likenesse will ye compare unto him And the Second Commandement expresly forbids any Image to be made to represent God by So as the practise of your present Church in adoring and seting up and maintaining Images in Churches and Copes and the like whereby you represent God doth teach men a base and false opinion of God and so of his All-Sufficiencie And therfore Secondly in Saying Wee upon the opinion Wee have of his Sufficiency you that are the Setters up and maintainers of lying Images of God in your Churches must needs be those Wee upon whose opinion of Gods Sufficiency must depend the Credit of the Scripture And what opinion can you have of Gods truth that represent him by a lye and falshood And what opinion can you have of his Sufficiency in being the Author of the Scripture that hold and affirme his Scripture and word to be an insufficient witnesse to prove it selfe the word of God And what opinion can you have of Gods Sufficiency who doe every where by your open practises and your Shamelesse blasphemies in fathering your lyes upon God in this your Book as hath been noted but now proclaime to the world what little feare or dread you have of his Majesty as if he were not a just God in punishing wickednesse or in his power insufficient to tame proud Rebells Thus if by the Tradition of the present Church we cannot come to such a knowledge of God as to have a right opinion of his Sufficiencie whence shall we have it Surely all true knowledge of God is to be learned from the Scripture But that you make to be of no credit but as it depends upon the Author and your opinion of his Sufficiency which what it is we have taken a Scantling of And so the conclusion is from these your Premisses that No credit of Scripture to teach no true knowledge of God no right opinion of his Sufficiency nothing for the Credit of the Scripture to depend upon and having no credit in and of it selfe Ergo the Scripture is of no Credit at all This is the very Summe and Sequele of your Speech and indeed the upshot of those sharpe arrows which you have with all your might and malice let fly at the Credit of Scripture to give it the deaths wound Yet you adde L. p. 111. Scripture though it give light enough for Faith to beleeve yet light enough it gives not to be a convincing Reason and proofe for Knowledge P. These words are to be expounded by what you have formerly Sayd Though it give light enough that is though it should or could give â—ight enough For that it doth not give light enough for Faith to beleeve you have plainly told us As pag. 80. The light which is in Scripture is not bright enough it cannot beare sufficient witnesse to it selfe If it cannot then neither can it give light enough for faith to beleeve For sufficient light for Faith to beleeve springs from a sufficient light in Scripture to beare
Foundation being already layd For you say It is to build up the Truth for the benefit of the Church We have discovered before what the truth is you speak of through your Book which is as much to say as all that wherein you agree with the Church of Rome as one and the same Church for the benifit where of you have writ this Discourse to discredit the word of Truth So as by your building up of Truth is meant your pulling of it down with that hand that wrote this Book And for satisfaction of all men Christianly disposed that is of a peaceable Disposition and not perverse peevish and refractory but willing to meet Rome at least in the halfe way And in a word All your Labour is for Edification not for Destruction For Edification Wherin By rasing the Foundation of Faith the Scripture to build up the Tower of Babel againe in England And not for Destruction but onely of the Puritan Profession and Religion and the power of Godlinesse and the Purity of Gods worship and the sincere Preaching and Preachers of the word of God and in a word in rooting out the precise party where ever your Arme of flesh can reach them This being your practise too well known this must needs be your meaning and sense of these words of the Apostle For Edification and not for Destruction Which as you most wickedly pervert and abuse as you doe all other Scriptures to your false purposes so in this respect it is a Conclusion not unsutable to your whole Section while thus you make the word of God of no Authority by your Traditions And so here an end of this Section But not an end of the prosecution of the same subject still For it follows L. p. 118. You see neither Hooker nor I nor the Church of England for ought I know leave the Scripture alone to manifest it selfe by the light which it hath in it selfe No but when the present Church hath prepared and led the way like a preparing morning light to Sun-shine then indeed we settle for our Direction but not upon the first opening of the morning light but upon the Sun it selfe P. In the former Section 17. consisting of one page the Jesuite objecting your words The Bishop said That the Books of Scripture are Principles to be supposed and needed not to be proved your Answere is Did I say it needed no proofe at all to a naturall man or to a man newly entring upon the Faith yea or perhaps to a doubter or weakling in the Faith Can you think me so weake I doe but mention this by the way as taking notice with what a pretty slight you put off your recantation of that speech But the next passage will cleare this more fully Now this your Comparison of the morning light let us clearely see how weake and improper it is for your purpose For what is the morning light but a beame or beames of that Sun which as children of the Bridegroom doe usher him out of his Chamber signifying his neare approach These beames I say are of the very same nature of that light which is in the body of the Sun and do immediately issue and spring from it inlightning the Sky or that part of heaven above the Horizon which beames or morning light as the Sunne advanceth nearer to his Rising waxeth clearer and clearer unto the perfect day But now the Authority of the present Church which you compare to the morning light is no such beame of the Sun of Righteousnesse shining in the Scripture as in his Sphere as that it is of the same nature of the light of the Scripture For the Scripture light is Divine and Infallible but of Tradition you say I cannot find that the Tradition of the present Church is of Divine and Infallible Authority Which if you could by all the light in the Sky at noon day find you would be no Churle in hiding it from the world or puting it under a bushell But to hold you to the propriety of your Comparison which at first blush showes as faire as the first morning light you may know That the Sunne makes the beames to shine and not the beames the Sunne whereas you say The Authority of the present Church lights the Candle of Scriptures which otherwise gives no light and so makes it to shine Againe 2 dly The morning light is an Infallible Index or immediate foregoing token of the approach of the Sunne riâ—â—ng which it ushereth in but you dare not say yea you deny that the present Churches Testimony or Authority is infallible for the inducing of beliefe that Scripture is the word of God Thirdly the morning light so soon as ever it first peepeth or dawneth we say and that truly It is day but an Infiel or doubting or weake Christian upon the first hearing of the testimony of the present Church That the Scriptures are the word of God is not so infallibly Convinced and perswaded as therfore to beleeve it to be true Fourthly The morning light is alone a sufficient and infallible signe as being an immediate effect an essentiall quality issuing from the Sun of its neare rising but you confesse that though your present Church Authority be the Prime yet it is not the Sole Index or finger to point us out the Scripture to be the word of God but you joyne with it sundry other helps as before you tell us Thus no way can we find your Comparison proper or pertinent to your purpose being as a blind Horse that halts downright of aâ—l foure But this by way of application to the right purpose I conclude out of it That as the morning light which certainly and infallibly tells us of the approching of the Sun rising and which perswades every man whose eyes are awake of the truth therof is an immediate beame of that Sun and of the same nature and quality of its native and essentiall light So that which is both Prime and Sole in leading us Certainly and Infallibly to beleeve that the Scripture is the word yea and working also and begetting this Faith in us is the light or beame of the Scripture it selfe displayed by the Ministry or Preaching of the Word which is as the dawning of the day or the Day Stars first arising in our hearts as Peter speakes by meanes whereof we come actually not onely to beleeve without any other externall Cause that Scripture is the word of God but also to know and feele that the Sun of Righteousnesse hath now begun to shine in our hearts by the beame of his Spirit the immediate forerunner of his rising unto the perfect Day L. p. 120. A C. Cannot but perceive by that which I have clearly layd down before that when I said Scriptures were Principles to be supposed I did not I could not intend they were prius cognita known before Tradition since I confesse every where that
Tradition introduceth the knowledge of them P. I doe but name these your words as before being but an Inculcation and Confirmation of such things as I have abundantly Confuted before Onely this I adde That if the Scripture be not before the Tradition or Authority of the present Church whence hath the present Church this her Authority and so whence her Testimony the Credit to be of that absolute necessity to bring men to beleeve the Scripture to be the word of God Must you not be forced to come into the same Circle where a little before you found A.C. as to say which yet you never went about to prove to prevent the losse of your labour the Scripture authoriseth Church-Tradition and Church-Tradition necessarily introduceth beliefe of Scripture to be the word of God But if you be in this Circle there I leave you L. p. 121. This Principle then The Scriptures are the Oracles of God we cannot say is cleare and fully manifest to all men simply and in selfe-light for the reasons before given P. The Reasons we have weighed and found them too light But to all true beleevers in Christ This Principle The Scriptures are the Oracles of God is cleare and fully manifest and that simply and in selfe-light For the reasons and proofes before given and which all true Christians and Saints of God Confesse L. ibid. Yet we say After Tradition hath been our Introduction the Soule that hath but ordinary Grace added to Reason may discerne light sufficient to resolve our Faith that the Sun is there P. As this so often repeated by you usque ad nauseam as crambe bis cocta Coleworts twise boyld and to no other purpose it seemeth but to fill the empty belly of this your volume and to make your present Church Authority swell the bigger with its ventosity is but a repetion of the former So I shall not need to repeat the Refutation Onely this Do or can you discerne the Sun in the Scripture by the light of your divine Candle your Church Tradition And hath it not so much shining light or is it so over-clouded or ecclipsed with the black letters as nothing but the Authority of the present Church must in the first place put to her hand to withdraw the Curtaine Surely the Sun is so glorious in it selfe as be it never so much clouded yet that will shew day above our heads if we doe but looke up L. ibid. Now men may be apt to thinke out of Reverence that Divinity can have no Science above it But your own Schoole teacheth me that it hath namely The knowledge of God and of the blessed in heaven P And truly my Lord how ever you account and Reverence Divinity yet for my part I do not onely most highly reverence it but conceive and beleeve the excellencie of it to be so transcendent as I hold there can be no Science above it For what is Divinity in its native and proper Notion Divinity in its proper Prime and most sublime Notion is the Deity or God-head it selfe Theiòtes signifying the Divinity or Deity the derivation from â—eòs GOD. This is the Prime Notion of this word Divinity The second Notion of Divinity is pan tò gnoston tou Theou all which may be known of God which being in God as the light in the Sun comes to be made known unto us as by so many beames shining partly though in Comparison more obscurely in his works and partly and that most clearely in his word and most gloriously in Christ the Sun of Righteousnesse himselfe the brightnesse of his Glory and the expresse Image of his Person the very light of the Scripture and so of his Church And of this Divinity as Christ is the full patterne and perfect platforme so the Essence of the eternall Deity and the subsistances of the 3 Persons in that one Godhead together with all the glorious Attributes of God but also the whole Mystery of Christ the Redeemer comprehending and expressing whatsoever is necessary for us to know and beleeve for our Salvation In which respect the Scripture may be called and that most proproperly as by a Title proper to it quarto modo Gods Divinity-Booke and his Churches Divinity-Schoole So that in the Scripture we have a most perfect and Compleat body of Divinity of all Divinity of whatsoever holy knowledge of God and of Christ and of our selves requisite to our Salvation and the setting forth of the Glory of God In which respect unlesse a man will presume above that which is written we may truly say That Divinity being but one and the same and Science therof one and the Rule of this Science but one all comprehended in the Scripture That Divinity hath no Science above it Yet your Lordship hath learned in the Iesuites or Romes Schoole wherein it seems you have been more trained up then in Christs Schoole That Divinity hath a Science above it And what is that super-science I pray you The knowledge of God say you and of the blessed in heaven If you meane such a knowledge of God and of the blessed in heaven as is not revealed in the Scripture I say Quae supra nos quid ad nos And it is presumption to conceive of any other knowledge of God fit for us to know then what is revealed in the Scripture wherein is declared the whole counsell of God concerning his Glory and our everlasting good And for the knowledge of the blessed in heaven If you meane of the blessed Angels we may know as much of them as the Scripture hath made known unto us But this knowledge is not a Science above Divinity And if you meane the knowledge of the blessâ—d Saints in heaven it is the same with that of the Saints on earth onely Differing in Degrees of perfection Or if you had meant the knowledge that is in God and in the blessed in heaven you should so have exprest it In and not Of. But I think you speake of such a speculation as is above the Spheare of our expression Onely something though it be de non ente you must say that we may take notice what a profound Proficient you are in Romes Schoole in teaching us such a sublime and hyperbolicall Science as is inexpressible in Babylons language and therfore the fitter to darken the lustre of that Divinity which so gloriously shineth and is so exactly set forth in the Scripture But you have plentifully shewed us what Reverence you beare to this Divinity L. p 122. In the margent I would fain know why leaning too much upon Tradition may not mislead Christians as well as it did the Iews P. And I would fain know why leaning so much upon Tradition of the present Church as you doe might not be the Cause that hath lead you so much to undervalue the Scriptures and may not mislead Christians by teaching them as base an opinion of the whole Scripture as the Jewes have
before him in the view of all the Councel And the maine point of their Contentions was about Precedency which Bishoprick should be before another Oh devout and humble Prelates O holy successors of the Apostles Are these men like to remedy Schisme in the Church that are the Authors of them themselvs How came the great Schisme of Arius but by the Prelates when but one chiefly stood up against him How got Antichrist to be Caput Vniversale Universall Head or Bishop but by the dessent of the Bishops which causing their Appeales to Rome brought the Roman Bishop to that height so as the Prelates being worse divided among themselves then the Presbyters had been before them for remedy of whose Schisme they were by mans prescription erected gave occasion to the two Bishops of the two Imperiall Cities Rome and Constantinople to stickle for one Headship over all to reconcile all And so the Popedome it selfe the Throne of the Beast was erected in Schismatis remedium for the onely Remedy of all Schisme And it is to be noted how these two Prelates strove for this supremacy and both under the veile of humility Iohn of Constantinople becomes a great Faster whereupon he was styled Iohannes Iejunator Iohn the Faster Gregory then of Rome though he thundred against Iohns Ambition calling him that had or affected that Title the forerunner of Antichrist yet seeing Iohn like to prevaile with pretence of holinesse and humility Gregory stiles himselfe servus servorum Dei He thought he would not come behind for humility but indeed therein bewraying his pride when his humility was but in emulation And we see in Gregories Registrum in sundry of his Epistles how low he descends in most base flattery to that Parricide Phocas and his Empres to visit the thresholds of Peter and Paul c. But what will not Episcopall zeale doe for the Hierarchy But thus he kept Iohn off and so made way for his own Prophecy which was Filius superbiae prope est The son of pride that is Antichrist is neere at hand And neerer surely then he was aware For Gregory deceasing and Sabianus succeeding and siting but one yeare Boniface 3. the next successor obtaind this Title of Phocas and so each confirmed other the Emperour the Pope in the Throne of Antichrist which is a Tyranny over mens Soules and the Pope the Emperours Cruelty in a Tyranny over mens Bodyes And thus came that Prophecy of the Angel Revel 17.18 to be fulfilled The Woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigned over the Kings of the Earth As Rome then did in S. Iohns time So as according to Gods word not Constantinople which was not the Imperiall Câ—ty till Constantine so made it but Rome must be the feat of the Beast and of the Whore thus described Thus from Bishops emulation ambition contention one against another for honour precedency and greatnesse in the world came Antichrist to mount upon that Beast which had 7 heads and ten hornes And your selfe confesseth The difficulty was to accommodate the Places and Precedencies of Bishops among themselves And for this you say The most equall and impartiall way was that the Honours of the Church should follow the Honours of the State So that the greater City the greater Bishop And thus Romes Primacy in Order brought him to his supremacy in Authority Againe you say The Calling of Bishops Whence this Calling Not from God And of Aarons Priesthood it was said No man takes this honour upon him but he that is called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5.4 So all the Apostles had a speciall Calling and Commission from Christ to preach c. Paul Called to be an Aposâ—le of Iesus Christ. He stood upon his Calling he had a lawfull Calling wheron his Apostolicke Authority was founded Now you would be accounted Apostolick and the Apostles successors but where 's your Calling We find no such Calling as of Lord-bishops in the Scripture Therfore you have no Authority over the inferiour Clergy not over Gods Ministers I meane Either therfore prove your Calling from God or give us leave to deny your Authority as being an usurped Tyranny If you aledge those Bishops so called Act. 20.28 Phil. 1.1 1 Tim. 3.1 Tit. 1.7 c. Prove they were Diocesan Bishops We prove them by the plain Text to be but Presbyters over the severall Congregations over which the Holy Ghost made them Episkópous Bishops or Overseers as more fully at after If you aledge Timothy and Titus for Bishops that 's soon answered they were onely Euangelists no Bishops Those Epigraphees in the end of that to 2 Tim. and Tit. they are no part of the Text but were added long after at the leasâ— 400. years It behoves you therfore to prove your Calling better before you so presse and oppresse us with your Authority But you adde L. p. 177. Among these to wit Patriarchs Metropolitans Bishops there was effectuall subjection respectively grounded upon Canon and positive Law in their severall quarters P. Here you confesse that all subjection of Metropolitans to the Patriarchs and of Bishops to the Metropolitans was but grounded upon Canon and Positive Law Ergo not upon the Canon of Scripture nor the Law of God As you confessed openly in High Commission that no one Apostle had Authority or Iurisdiction over the Rest or any of their fellows so as though you call your calling Apostolicke yet your Arch-Bishoprick is not Apostolicke in exercising Authority and Iurisdiction over all the Bishops in your Province This you have not from the Scripture I know not from what Papall Canon For as for Positive if you meane the Politick Laws of Princes you will not take your Authority from them And the Judges have declared their judgement in the Kings Edict that your exercising your Authority and keeping Courts in your own Names is now no more a trenching upon the Kings Prerogative then formerly it hath been Where the Judges are to be commended for their Discretion But it is very well Thus you are loose off from the Positive Law of the Prince and we deny you any title either of Authority or Calling over the Ministry and so you may prove to sit between two stooles or as he that hath not one string to his bow But whereas you confesse before that Bishops have no Jurisdiction one over another because the Apostles had not hence it is evident that those who are true Bishops to wit Presbyters have no jurisdiction over one another and so there is no such Order or Calling of Lord Bishops whereby they have Authority over the true Bishops and Pastors of the flocks of Christ. These things are noted sufficiently before but as Augustine writing against the Pelagians saith By these things so often repeated though the importunity of the Adversary will not be repressed yet the Truth shal be the more confirmed and the Faith of Beleevers the more firmly established L. p. 183. The
Patriarch of Rome had potentiorem Principalitatem a more powerfull Principality then other Churches had And that the Protestants grant too and that not onely because the Roman Prelate was Ordine primus First in Order and Degree which some one must be to avoyd confusion but c. P. What the Protestants grant to have been de facto is one thing that such a thing is or was so and so but what they grant to have been de Iure but what Right is another And this the Reformed Protestants never granted to the Pope or any Prelate But there must be some one say you to avoyd Confusion and this according to the honour of the state and Place And that must needs be the Pope of Rome But for the purpose or end you are farre wide For instead of avoyding Confusion this strowed the way to build up Babylon Confusion it selfe And your selfe saith as much This was the very fountaine of Papall Greatnesse the Pope having his Residence in the Great Imperiall City So as Primacy joynd with Power and Authority too as that of the Pope in Rome and yours in England the Pope residing in the Imperiall City and you in the Royall Court What confusion the one hath brought to the Empire it selfe the world knows and what the other may bring to the State Royall the Lord knows and he in mercy prevent and if such confusion to States then what to the true Religion and the Churches of Christ. But hath the Pope then that pretended successor of the poore Fisherman such a Principality This is more then Primacy Unlesse Primacy be by your interpretation Principality Nay it must needs be so because if the Popes Principality be more potent then other Churches then surely your Primacy is at least a Principality too though lesse potent And who doubts of that For at your High Commission Board at Dr BASTVVICKS Censure you did prove most bravely from Scripture it selfe that you were Princes What Scripture You aledged Psal. 45.16 Instead of thy Fathers shal be thy Children whom thou mayst make Princes in all the Earth What conclude you hence Ergo Prelates are Princes We deny your inference and consequence How prove you it I know you will straight appeale to a Generall Councel if we doubt of it Stay awhile A Generall Councel is an Assembly of Prelates And then They shal be their own Iudges That 's not faire play And Bellarmine would have a great stroke there for he also aledges this place for you and himselfe too to prove that the Pope is a Prince and so all Prelates under him But by your leave we appeale to the Scriptures themselves for Interpretation as best knowing their own meaning and ablest to expresse themselves Now comparing this with other Scriptures we find that those Princes there spoken of in all Lands are understood of all Gods Children true Beleevers throughout the whole earth now under the Gospell For of these the Spirit saith He Christ hath made us Kings and Priests to God his Father Now if all true Beleevers be Kings then also Princes And in Peter we are called a royall Priesthood So Rev. 5.9 10. Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests c. And Jam. 2.5 Hearken my beloved brethren hath not God chosen the poore of this world to be rich in Faith and heires of the Kingdome which God hath promised to them that love him How if heires of the Kingdome then Princes And Rom. 8.16 17. The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the Children of God And if Children then heires heires of God and joynt heires with Christ if s◠be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together And many other places to this purpose We are the brethren of Christ the congregation of the first borne Therfore Princes And yet poore in this world But if Prelates be Princes they are such as Salomon describes by another Title being compared to the true Princes Gods Children There is saith he an evil which I have seen under the Sun and he saw it by the eye of Prophecy as an error which proceedeth from the Ruler What is the evil What that error of Rulers Namely Folly is set in great Dignity and the Rich set in low place I have seen Servants on Horses and Princes walking as Servants upon the earth Now who are these rich that sit in a low place The rich in Faith saith Iames. And who are these Princes that walke as Servants upon the earth Namely Gods Children who are true Princes heires of the Kingdome that are afflicted and oppressed in the world And what folly is that which is set in great dignity Who more properly then Prelates which are as those of whom Iames speakes in rich and gorgeous apparell who are set in a goodly place while Gods poore Children sit below on the footstoole And who those Servants on Horses Prelates on their footcloth riding in pompe while Gods people trudge a foot on the earth If you say you are not here meant because you are no fooles nor servants Indeed you are no small fooles For there are no greater fooles in the world then such as seem wisest in their own conceit as Prelates doe As Salomon saith Seest thou a man wise in his owne conceit there is more hope of a foole then of him Now doe not you make your selves the wisest men in the world as the onely Guides and Oracles of the Church and that even as you are Prelates And againe are there any such fooles as those who preferre the riches and honours in the world before heaven Or that warre and fight against Christ and his Kingdome And doe not you Prelates so Your own vain profession and practises proclaime you to be folly it selfe set in great dignity And are you not servants servants of sinne servants of your own lusts and other mens having them in admiration for advantage And under colour of humility as if you were servi servorum servant of servantes as the proud Pope styles himself which was Chams curse doe you not exalt your selves as Domini dominantium mounted on your rich and prancing Palphrys while you ride over the heads of the true heaven bred Princes that goe afoot on the ground And how came you to be so mounted but through the 〈◊〉 of Rulers of the earth How mounted the Pope but by the Emperours holding of his stirrup And when the Pope was terrible angry with the Emperour for holding the wrong stirrup did not the Emperour trow you then begin to see his error But it was now too late Having given their Kingdome to the Beast 't is just with God they should become his Vasalls till the time appointed But to conclude this your Ordine primus which you apply to 〈◊〉 Pope I cannot more properly and truly parallell or compare it
â—enders helps in Governments And all this according to the expresse Law of Christ our King recorded in the Scripture as being the most perfect pattern of the Government of his Church for every particular Congregation to be regulated and ordered by So as in truth those Congregations that are thus governed are the onely true Churches of Christ as wherein himselfe his spirit his word doe govern both Minister and people whereas on the other side all Prelaticall Churches are false and Antichristian as wherein not Christ and his spirit and his word do beare rule but Antichristian men by the pride of their spirit and by their Canons doe altogether beare sway thrusting Christ out of his Throne despising his word and puting a yoake of bondage over the necks both of Ministers and people To conclude this point because you are of such a beliefe and so confidently tell us and peremptorily avouch that Christ thought it fitter to govern his Church by Diverse then by One Vice-Roy besides what is already sayd I will a little more presse and present before you Christs own words at full which I doe to put you out of all such beliefe or so much as any such conceit that Christ had ever any such thought Math. 20. upon occasion of those two at that time ambitious bretheren sent to Christ by their Mother to be chiefe about him in his Kingdome Christ first tells them Ye know not what ye aske Then calling his Disciples to him he saith thus unto them Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whâ—so ever wil be great among you let him be your Minister c. Which the Euangelist Luke expresseth thus The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Euergétai Benefactors But ye shall not be so Ye Who Not the Apostles of Christ not the Ministers of Christ in succeding ages Not so How Ye shall not exercise Dominion Lordship Authority one over another you shall not be called Benefactors Patrons Lords Gratious Lords Honourable your Grace your Honour c. Why so For such are the Kings of the Gentiles who exercise Dominion over them and are called Benefactors You shall not be as they in exercising any Authority or Jurisdiction one over another Nor shall ye be called Euergâ—tâ—i My Good lord My Benefactor My Patron My lords Grace or My Gratious lord and the like Thus under those words Christ chaâ—geth his Apostles not to affect not to be ambitious of not to exercise Superiority or Prelacy Iurisdiction and Authority one over another or over Christs Kingdome his Church and 〈◊〉 as Peter saith Not as Lords over Gods heritage where the Apostle useth the same word that Christ his Master used M◠〈◊〉 katakuriéuontes ton kâ—úron not exercising Dominion or 〈…〉 God 's Inheritance or if you will over his Clergy though they be not his onely Inheritance but his people are no 〈…〉 unto him and are kleros Gods lot But now for Christs 〈◊〉 do you not think that Christ spake as he thought and 〈◊〉 as he spake Or can you beleeve any other And do not his 〈◊〉 to his Apostles in them reach to all his Ministers 〈…〉 succeed them in future ages If you say you are the 〈◊〉 onely successors why are you then lâ—rds ovâ—r Goâ—s 〈…〉 why do you exercise â—uâ—hority and Dominion over his 〈◊〉 and peopâ—e as Heathen Kings doe over then people 〈…〉 expresly forbid to his Apostles and to all their Successors But you shew your selves to be none of Christs Disciples and so none of his Apostles successors for you obey not Christs word as the Apostles did What do you answere then to Christs words Or what interpretation can you devise to avoyd them You will answere perhaps with Bellarmine that Christ forbad his Apostles to be like the Heathen Princes in exercising a temporall Government or Authority one over another This is indeed all the evasion Bellarmine hath But how vain Let 's bring it to the Touch. How shall it be tryed What saith Christ Humeis dè ouk outos you shall not be so Now if you be not so all is well you may prove Apostolicall men But if you prove to be like the Heathen Princes in exercising Lordship over the people under your Government and in exercising Authority over them what can you say for your selves why you should not be proclaimed for proud Contemners of Christs word and for usurping Tyrants over his peopl and so for a rebellious Faction and Confederacy against Christs Kingdome Let 's therfore draw our Parallell Those Heathen Powers were called Princes so you call your selves they were Kings and so were Gods Vice-gerents you call your selves Vice-Roys of Christ they were called Benefactors though they never did good so you are styled My lords Grace and when in your Court you condemn poore innocents yet they must confesse the justice and favour of your Court They were called Fathers of their Countrey so you Right Reverend Fatheres Most Reverend Father your Grace c. They were lords so you yea you are temporall lords and so sit in Parliament though styled spirituall they exercised lordship dominion Authority over the people and that with tyranny and without Law so do you And in a word Is not your Pompe and state your Power and Greatnesse your Palaces and Courts your Traine and Attendants your Fasces and Lictors to wit your Pursuivants and Apparitors your Kinglike Attire in Purple and Scarlet and fine lynen soft rayment of silkes and sattens your Tables overflowing with delicacies of viands and wines in all abundance and variety and what not like that of Kings Thus doe you not beare the Image of the Beast the Dragon the Heathen Emperour who gave power to that other Beast the Pope who in himselfe erected the Image of the first Beast from top to toe namely the Imperiall state and magnificence being fully expressed and limmed out in the Papall though but in somwhat a lower degree in your Episcopall Pontificiall state As Pope Boniface 8. in the first day of his Jubilee came forth pompously arayed in all his Pontificalibus and the next day in the Imperiall Ropes with two Swords caried before him And a lively Image of this is my Lord Bishop a mixt Creature partly temporall and partly spirituall spirituall in name onely and temporall in his whole outward state as the Kings and Princes of the Gentiles were as the Creaâ—ure called Amphibius that lives now in the water and now on the Land and yet is neither good Fish nor Flesh. Now tell us my Lord whose Image you beare Christs or Caesars yea in all things you resemble Caesar but not many one thing the Lord Iesus Christ. I say not in one thing Shew any one thing wherein you instate either Christ oâ— his Apostles after his
what one wise and honest man did in preventing so wicked a Decree of a whole Generall Councell of many Prelates And assure your selfe were there but a few sound Puritans admitted to your Generall Councel and might have free liberty to speake you would not be able to resist the evidence of Truth which they should bring in as Arelatensis told the Prelates in the Councel of Basil concerning the poore inferiour Priests But if you shall exclude the Puritans and so all Reformed Non Prelaticall Churches out of your Prelaticall Councel Generall how should it be a Generall Councel But I cry you mercy Puritan Reformed Churches are already by you doomed for no members of your Catholicke Church whereof and wherein yours and Romes Church are one and the same and therfore as Heathen they ought to be shut out for Wranglers as they were from the Councel of Trent Another Reason against a Generall Councel being Iudge in Controversies is because all sound and Orthodox Divines both Ancient and Moderne both Forraigne and Domesticke in the Church of England formerly with all the Orthodox Fathers in this point have held professed and beleeved That the holy Scripture is the sole sufficient Iudge in all Controversies of Faith And for proofe hereof What say you to Dr Whitakers Lectures against Bellarmine and Stapleton in this Point Or how do or can you answere any of his Arguments drawn from cleare Scriptures and Testimonies from the Ancient Fathers But it seems you have not been acquainted with him as not once mentioning him in all this For that were besides your Purpose But you will except against him as a Puritan which is a sufficient confutation with one puffe of your mouth And so you doe all honest sound learned Religious Orthodox Divines whatsoever whom particularly to alledge here would but make your stomacke rise and so I passe on to the rest Secondly and Thirdly and againe and againe I deny that the Decrees of Generall Councels bind any true Christians Faith and Conscience so much as to outward obedience to any one Ceremony as before Yea though your Councel Decree according to the Scripture yet jure proprio and absolutely of its own Authority it binds not the Conscience That 's proper and peculiar to the Scripture alone immediatly the onely binding Rule of Faith and Conscience How much lesse doth a Councel bind in a matter of error in a point of Faith This is such an abominable point of Divinity as never any Arch-Prelate of Canterbury since the Reformation and I presume before ever uttered Divinity say I yea Divinity Diabolicall and monstrous Impiety and Antichristian Tyranny to be hissed out by all that beare but the bare name of Christians And this Answereth also to the Fourth which is as full of ridiculous absurdity as of impious folly You hope forsooth that a Councels errors will not be so great as all men shall discerne them That may well be when many thousands take no notice at all of any such Councel Decrees And how many men have not the eyes to discern even the grossest errors How many in the Church of England doe discerne the grossenes and danger of your seting up of your Altars in all the Churches of England as namely that it is a denying of Christ the onely Altar And the bringing in of the Popish Priesthood and sacrifice But what if you could in a Provinciall Councel of Canterbury make a Decree for seting up and worshiping of Altars as you doe and that all men did see the grossnes of it Would the sight of it exempt them from at least externall obedience being once defined in that your Synod And so of a Generall Councel for universall obedience No the knowledge of the grossnes of the error will not serve their turnes to excuse them from obedience For you tell us We must notwithstanding yeild obedience If so surely it were the safest way then for men to close their eyes that they may not see at all and so yeeld blind obedience to your Decrees pinning their soules as I said to the Prelates Innocent white sleeve to be led blindfold to hell then seeing and knowing to sin against their Conscience in yeelding obedience But how ever seeing or not seeing hang or be damned the Decree of a Generall Councel even in point of error in the Truth yea though men know it to be against Gods word must be universally obeyed till evidence of Scripture or a Demonstration to the contrary made the error appeare and untill thereupon another Generall Councel equall to that did reverse it Which may be long enough before all these things concurre What Must the Decree of the seventh Generall Councel the second of Nice for the worship of Images bind all men to Obedience till another Generall Councell equall to that upon Demonstration to the contrary shall reverse it Or must the Decree of the Councel of Lateran under Pope Innocent 3. for Transubstantiation be beleeved and obeyed by all men at least in externall obedience to worship the Altar and Hoast till another Councell equall unto that shall reverse it Or must the Decree of the Generall Councel of Constance for the taking away of the Cup in the Sacrament from the People bind all to obedience till another Councel equall unto that shall reverse it Or lastly shall the Decrees of the Councel of Trent which calls it selfe a Generall Councel ratifying the worship of Images Transubstantiation and the taking away of the Cup wiâ—ing the Peoples nose of it besides all those other damnable and damning errors against the cleare Truth and Faith of Christ bind all to obedience till another Councell equall to that shall reverse it Then certainly all Papists by your sentence are bound to be damned Nay are not you and your Church of England bound to obey all those Decrees of Former Generall Councels as that of the second of Nice for worship of Images not yet reversed by a Generall Councel equall to that though by a Councel at Frankford called by Carolus Magnus Emperour of the West that wicked Decree was condemned But the Decrees of this Councel are smothered and kept in hugger mugger as being outfaced by such a prevailing generallity of unblishing Images and so have lost their place among the Records of the Councels And besides that Councel at Frankford was not for generallty equall to that of Nice under that wicked Empresse Irene Which being so and so that Decree of Nice not yet reversed why say I doe not you obserue your own Rule in obeying that Decree in worshiping of Images Or why at least though you here write somthing against them to some small purpose as coming neare to Idolatry doe you not yeeld externall obedience in doing corporall Reverence to those Images you have set up onely reserving your internall worship and keeping your Faith to your selfe But to satisfie us for that you have over or upon your Altar in your own Chappel at Lambeth
guidance of the Spirit of God determined what was fittest to be done for the present necessity And the determination was that those Christian Gentiles should abstaine from Blood and strangled and Idoll-offerings and Fornications And this Decree lasted no longer then the present occasion required Though to abstaine from Idoll-offering and from Fornication so frequent among the Gentiles is perpetuall according to Gods Morall Law but abstinence from Blood and strangled was a Ceremoniall Law and so was not to outlast that time of the Iews tendernesse For otherwise all the Leviticall Ceremonies were abrogated in Christs death And yet for that time and occasion these abstinences were called Necessary things that is onely in regard of the occasion though to abstanain from Idoll offerings and from Fornication we are for ever and to all necessary But now this example ought not to be drawn into a Rule no not to the true Church of God and to the Ministers of his word or to any humane power to impose what Ceremonies they please upon the Consciences of Gods people This did not the Apostles What they did here was by the Holy Ghosts direction and for the occasion aforesaid And such an evidence can no Generall Councell of Prelates shew us And in a word you that have so prudently taken up that Power for Generall Councels to be Iudges in Controversies of Faith from the example of that Councel of the Apostles Acts 15. doe you truly conforme to the pattern of that Assembly You must understand that that Assembly or Councel consisted not of the Apostles alone but also of the Elders the Presbyters nor onely so but also of the Brethren the beleevers who were also members of that Assembly and who with the Apostles and Elders are mentioned in the Epistle as whose joynt Assent was to the Decree Here was then a Compleat Pattern of a Generall Councel when the Ministers and Brethren the people are the joynt body of the Councel For otherwise how is it a Generall Councel if it consist of the Ministers alone So as that 's a true difinition of a Generall Conucel which consists Generally of the Ministers and People together But you have prudently left out of your Generall Councels not onely the People of God but also his true Ministers the Presbyters these you shut out not onely from your Councel but also from your Catholicke Church as not members of it as they are not indeed So as your Generall Synod or Councel may truly be called how prudently soever you have taken it up as that second Councel of Ephesus was lustrikè a stollen Councel Thus though you Prelates would be thought to be the Apostles successors and propose their example here yet in nothing do you follow them no not in that which you say you have here prudently taken up from their example But your prudence is no other but to make the Apostles states for your tyranny while you Challenge the office of being the sole Iudges in Controversies of Faith and of the Scriptures too which not even the Apostles themselves did ever take upon them though they had the Spirit of Christ which you have not To the Sixth it is answered in the former For Difinitions of your Generall Councels though they be for the matter according to Scripture yet doe they not bind as the Councels Difinitions Gods word in and of it selfe onely bindeth as is said before Nor doe your Generall Councels bind for the manner and forme which is ever false seeing they are not such Councels as the Scripture alloweth And againe neither doe they bind because they are alwayes fallible because never Infallible by your own confession and they are often erronious as you also confesse And therfore as when false they bind not so neither when true are men bound to beleeve them as he that is accustomed to lye is ever suspected although he somtimes tell truth For the Seventh it is as ridiculous as some of its fellows For you say That in things truly determined by the Councel being done In that it cannot erre Which being understood in the most perfect sense of the words is as if a man should say He that tells the truth being told therein he cannot lye But yet things may be said to be truly determined which yet being so determined may be said to be erronious For a thing may be said to be truly Determined quoad externam formam modum determinandi when the externall forme and manner of the Determination is observed And yet quoad materiam ipsam determinata in regard of the matteâ— and thing it selfe determined it may be false and erronious As those 400. Prophets in the case of Ahab did truly consent with one unanimous voyce but yet it was a lye which they truly consented in So a thiefe may be said to be a true man in respect of the substance of a man or truly to live because he liveth yet he is a thiefe and lives a lewd life So your Generall Councel may observe all its accustomed forms and manners of Determining matters by voyces and the like yea and also may do it according to the letter of Scripture as they take and interpret it and yet the thing so determined may be erronious because they mistook and misinterpreted the Scripture So as neither in this speech of yours is there a truth Or doe you meane being rightly after your manner done hath it some vertue ex opere operato not to erre Or do you mean That so being once done for the manner it must not for the matter be questioned but then right or wrong must be obeyed as truth And againe your expression is very improper to say of a thing already done and past It cannot erre Non posse or possibility is properly of a thing not yet done So as you should have said A Generall Councel in the things so and so done hath not erred nor cannot erre But who shall reduce your words to reason or free them from being ridiculous For Perlectum admissi risum â—eneatis amici Can any refrain laughter that reads your words Or from saying They are as a fooles coat made up of sundry pieces and sundry colours For thus they are framed 1. 'T is true that a Generall Councel de post facto after 't is edded and admitted by the whole Church is then Infallible 2. The reason For it cannot erre in that which it hath clearly and truly determined without errour 3. After 't is confirmed 't is admitted by the whole Church 4. Then being found true it is also Infallible that is it deceives no man Is not here Mira verborum complexio as the Orator saith A ridiculous babling Or as the Poet saith is not this Humano Capiti Cervicem sungere equinam to paint a mans head standing upon a Horses neck Would ever any man have spoken thus that had not first bid adieu â—o common Sense Reason Judgement And if the Reader require a
confirming of them and establishing of the throne of the Beast and power of Antichrists Kingdome against Iesus Christ. Nor were it a hard matter to demonstrate this by many instanecs which for the present I omit In the meane time How prove you here your As little Question Or how come you to name This spirit of Truth in the Scripture What after all that you have said before of the Scripture that it is not bright enough that it hath no light till it be lighted by the Authority of the present Church and the like come you now to confesse that The spirit of Truth is in the Scripture Told you us not a while agoe That the Scripture is no living Iudge What not living when the spirit of Truth breaths in it Is not the spirit in the Scripture living And is not a Iudge a living Iudge when and while his spirit is in him What nothing but absurd and sencelesse contradictions with you Nothing but Babilonish language But thus we may see into what gulfes of perplexities they plunge themselves that presume and undertake to exalt their high imaginations against the Truth of God And you say againe A Generall Councel hath not this Assistance to Infallibility but as it keeps to the whole Church and Spouse of Christ whose it is to heare his word and determine by it As it keeps closse Why is it not your Catholicke Churches Representative How can it then but keep closse being of the same Body and spirit with your Church Secondly speaking here of the whole Church the Spouse of Christ you doe equivocate applying that to a false Church which is univocè univocally proper and peculiar to the misticall body of Christ. For your whole is Prelaâ—icall that of the Hierarchy and none other which we have before proved to be the Synagogue of Antichrist which heareth not Christs voyce but as your Church is pleased to interpret it and to give it Authority And that which you say of your Generall Councâ—ls may be truly said of any particular Assembly two or three met in Christs name which doth not erre being led by the spirit of Truth in the Scripture Christ himselfe according to his Promise being in the midst of them No nor yet any particular single Beleever erreth being so led So as you speake to no purpose when you say A Generall Councel cannot erre in that wherin it hath already determined according to the Scripture the vanity wherof we shewed before But the conclusion is you still leave the the Infallibility of your Generall Councel unresolved upon yea and nay sometimes affirming somtimes denying except your negative be according to that Rule in Logicke That one Negative is of more Force then a thousand Affirmatives L. p. 213. Sect. 27. My Answere was That the Councel of Trent was not onely not legall in the necessary conditions to be observed in a Generall Councel but also that it was no Generall Councel P. Though this be true you say yet the Councel of Trent was so legall according to Romes own Law that it wanted no conditions observable to make it in that behalfe not onely a legall but a Generall Councel too And secondly so Generall for the Romane Catholicke Church of Rome that all the Decrees thereof doe bind all Papists to a necessary obedience and conformity unto them and that under Anathema And your Rule is That a Generall Councells Decrees and Canons bind all Christians and a Provinciall Councels Decrees bind all of that Province And therfore I hope you will grant that the Papall Councel of Trent is of force to bind all Papists who acknowledge and accept the Pope for their Head or Primate So as though it were not a Generall Councel in the largest sense yet it was a Generall Councel for the Roman Catholicke Church which say they is the onely Catholicke Church And with which say you the Church of England is one and the same Now this I doe here touch by the way as whereof I shall have occasion to make some use anon though perhaps your thus Arguing against the generallity of Trents Councels is one of those Passages which you think may be an ingredience of the salve of your Reputation But this I say by the way L. p. 227. It may seem very fit and necessary for the Peace of Christendome that a Generall Councel thus Erring should stand in force till evidence of Scripture or c. P. This passage I cited before upon occasion among sundry other of like nature and now I repeat it onely for this to shew how your zeale for Peace made you forget Truth For still you are telling us of Peace and Truth or Truth and Peace But here your Peace stands single without Truth What Peace without Truth For you say It may seem very fit and necessary for the Peace of Christendome that a Generall Councell erring should stand in force What will you force a Peace against Truth by an Authorised errour O blush for shame L. p. 254. Suppose they Key of Doctine be to let in Truth and shut out errour and suppose the Key rightly used infallible in this yet this infallibility is primeâ—y in the Church in whose person not strictly in his own S. Peter received the Keys P. Suppose Do you make it but a supposit on that the key of Doctrine is to let in Truth and shut out Errour So it seems with you when you use that Key of your Doctrine to shut out Truth and let in errour as both your Practises and writings do shew But what is this Key of Doctrine Is it not the sincere Preaching of Gods word And then this Key is rightly used and here is the use therof Infallible But say you this Infallibility is primely in the Church How Can we get no other language from you Still all Primely in the Church Certainly not at all in your Antichristian Church where the spirit of errour raigneth and where the whole bunch of Keys hangeth at the Prelates gâ—râ—le As Pope Paschall 2. when he rode in Pompe had his seven Keys hanging at his girdle the Chiefe wherof was to open and shut Paradise to whom he pleased But we say still that this infallibility is primely in the Scripture and not in the Church not in Christs own Church For the Scripture containes that infallible Truth which the Ministeriall key Christs own ordinance and voyce openeth to the Church or Congregation of Gods people And this Ministeriall key Christ committed to Peter not simply as sustaining the person of the whole Church but chiefly and properly as he was an Apostle and Minister of Christ to preach the Gospel in which respect also he might represent the person of all faithfull Ministers of the Gâ—spel rightly and truly called to the Function to whom Christ did in Peter as afterward he did in all the Apostles commit and entrust the key of knowledge of the Doctrine of Christ to be used and imployed to that end to
the end of the world Whereas by saying Peter represented the Person of the Church you must meane that the Church is wholly contained in the Ministers For you usually call your Clergy the Church as if you had no Church but that whereas the Congregation or society of all the Faithfull is the Church of God as is shewed before So as in no respect did Peter receive the Keys in the person of your Priest and Prelaticall Church L. p 258. Where 't is said That Christ makes to himselfe a Church without spot or wrinckle Eph. 5. That is not understâ—â—d of the Church Militant but of the Church Tryumphant And to maintain the contrary is a brand of the spreading Heresie of Pelagianisme P. That speech of the Apostle includes as well the truâ— Church Militant as the Tryumphant both which containe and consist of all the Elâ—ct onely And these Elect that in the Church Militant live by Faith though they have enoikouâ—an kì euperÃstton aâ—mratÃan as the Apostle saith sinne dwelling in them and easily besetting them yet they are in Gods sight through Faith in Christs blood that fountaine set open for Israel washed from all the spotâ— of sinne being in Christs imputed Righteousnesse and holynesse presented and accepted in Gods sight as most pure without spot or wrinkle As the the Apostle Iohn saith The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sinne And Christ saith to his Spouse his Church Militant Thou art all faire my Love there is no spot in thee Concerning that place which you cite out of Augustine where he saith The whole Church prayeth forgive us our debts 'T is true speaking there of the visible Church quae in toto terrarum orbe clamat ad deum which over all the earth crys to God And if he meane it of the Elect onely which are the onely true Spouse of Christ in all the world their praying forgive us our debts hinders not nor interrupteth their perpetuall purity in Gods sight notwithstanding For we may be and are through faith in Christ accepted for pure in Gods eyes when in our own eyes through sin and manifold corruptions still dwelling but not raigning in us we are impure And therfore we pray forgive us our debts because we have dayly failings and infirmities whereof our Consciences accuse us and the confession of them with deprecation is a meanes to have that stain and guilt cleaving to our Conscience and corrupt nature wiped off Faith still renewing the application of Christs merits as a Balme to heale our wounds and to assure us that our sinnes are blotted out in his blood For as Iohn saith If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnes Now as for the Pelagians One of their errours was in Arrogating purity to their own sect and that they had no Originall sinne but that they were Justi by a selfe-Righteousnesse calling those of their own sect Justi Righteous as Augustine tells us But where you name the spreading Heresie of the Pelagians I know none to whom that is more beholden then to him your selfe I meane who hath given it a footing and rooting too in the Articles of the Doctrines of the Church of England and under whom it hath shot forth its branches both in height and breadth that it dare both overtop and overdrop the Truth without controule But I had almost forgot one thing and that is this you allow not Purity in your Church Militant in this life If therfore there be not a full purgation of the Church and her Children here in this world where will you have her purged Purged she must be and that thorowly that she be without spot or wrinkle before she come into heaven For in thither no unclean thing entâ—eth Me thinks then I smell here the smoke of some Purgatory fire after this life which must purge away all the reliques of sins spots And upon this very ground that you goe on it is that the Papists have very prudently as in a case of necessity devised their Purgatory to cleanse all after this life seeing here they say there is no Perfection of Purity But perhaps you thought not of this consequence when you writ those words That the Church Militant is not without spot or wrinkle But so how will you avoyd the consequence of Purgatory So as while you pretend to avoyd the Pelagian Rocke you fall into the Roman fiery Phlegetom or Purgatory-Gulfe According to the old Proverbe Incidit in Scyllam dum vuâ—t vitare Charâ—â—â—in But you seem afterwards not to allow of Purgatory telling some stories of it but bringing not one Argument from Scripture against it as That the blood of Christ doth cleanse a true beleever from all sinne in this life and the like But hereof in its place Againe In saying That Christ doth not make the Church Militant in this life to be without spot or wrinkle you doe 〈◊〉 overthrow that Article of Faith I beleeve the holy Catholicke Church Now doth not the holy Catholicke Church 〈…〉 Church Militant Is not the Church Militant 〈…〉 if holy is it not then without spot or wrinkle 〈…〉 But this is no Article of your Faith because your Catholicke Church is not thus holy without spot or wrinkle L. p. 275. In and by the Councel of Trent the Pope 〈…〉 of Saints and Adoration of Images to the 〈…〉 of Christianity and as great hazzard of the weake P. What no more but so First In the Councel â—f 〈…〉 the Pope teach no more but these two And these two he could teach long before the Councel of Trent There they had the Pâ—pâ— confirmation but not their Christendome But you tell us not â— word in all your Booke of the Popes teaching of 〈…〉 mans works and merits and of his Anathematizing of 〈…〉 by Faith onely which the Scripture teacheth Nor a 〈…〉 teaching the Masse to be a Propitiatory sacrifice for 〈…〉 quicke and dead Nor how he teacheth a New order of sacriâ—â—â—cing Priests Nor That Originall sinne is no sinne saying Although the Apostle define it to be sinne yet the holy Councel of Trent decreeth it not to have the nature of sinne And all these and many more such the Pope teacheth in the Councel of Trent Secondly Are Invocation of Saints and Adoration of Images no more but a great hazzard to the weake Are they not so also to the strong while they make the strongest to stoope to them and therfore so much the more hazardous Except you meane that to the strong they are damnable not onely dangerous But is plaine Idolatry in both these both adoration of Images and Invocaâ—iâ—n of Saints onely hazardous to the weake Is not Idolatry damnable Nay is it not damnation to Idolaters Doth it not shut them out of heaven For no Idolaters shall inherit the Kingdome of God Know ye it not saith the Apostle
They are taught this one Maine Principle That they must be saved not by Faith onely but by their good Works whereby they must merit their Salvation Now this all Papists learned and unlerned professe This unlesse they cease to be Papist they live and dye in and so they are necessarily and certainly damned For to adde any thing to Faith in Iustification is damnation as before it shewed And saith the Prophet They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy But Thirdly you say They may be saved so they conforme to a Religious life Now what is the Religious life of a Papist and especially of a silly ignorant Papist Namely to goe to Shrief or Confession to the Priest his Ghostly Father as often as may be as the Fernall Glory published by your Chapleins licence teacheth or at the least once a yeare against Easter to keep his Lent-fast strictly so as upon paine of damnation or greivous penance not to eat an egge all that time and so observe all othor Fasting-dayes in the yeare together with all Holydayes to say over their Beads every day in repeating their Pater Noster Ave Mary Creed and ten Commandements â—f either they be so learned or devout to goe to their dayly Masse and Mattens where it is their safety to understand never a word nor to say Amen to the Priest but by the sound of his voyce which they understand no more then the chattering of a Magpy to call upon such a Saint his speciall Mediator and say a Pater Noster and Ave Mary before such an Image and especially of their Lady and a thousand such like observations wherein a Popish Religious life consisteth And so this is the Religious life of your ignorant silly Papist wherin living and dying he may be saved if he may beleeve your Doctrine But to this you adde An humble and peaceable obedience To What Or to whom As to the Priests Ghostly Discipline when he injoynes sore penance as whipping-cheare in Lent or the like Or if you meane peaceable obedience to the Civil Magistrate as in England that must be according to their Ghostly Fathers direction and limitation they must not take the Oath of Supremacy nor in some cases the Oath of Allegiance when it makes for the Catholick Cause And though to satisfie the Law and save his purse he come once a moneth to Church and heare your service yet Sermon he must not heare especially if the Preacher be Puritannicall for that might turn him quite from his Popery And thus such partly by their peaceable civill life and partly by their humble Popish Religious life so living and dying may be saved And therfore to such silly Ignorants we must not deny salvation Why so For first We have not so learned Christ say you Wee What wee Wee to wit you and your present Church of England And surely you had not need to deny salvation to that Church with which you and your Church is one and the same Church least otherwise you might leave your selves as little hope of salvation as others doe them But this is a piece of your learning of Christ it seems to beleeve that a silly ignorant Papist that knows not the right hand from the left that is drowned in Ignorance blindnesse superstition Idolatry Infidelity and as a drowned man knows it not may securely wrappe himselfe in the shrowd or mantle of his silly ignorance and so goe to heaven Thus have you learned Christ. But Wee Wee I say that renounce all communion with the Whore of Babylon and with all her Abominations have not so learned Christ as having heard him and been taught by him as the truth is in Iesus as to beleeve there is salvation to be hoped for of any but such as walke according to Christs rule and live and dye in his Faith And what 's Christs rule Even that which follows in the same place vers 22 To put off and renounce the former conversation of the Old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts waâ—king v. 18. in the vanity of our minds having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through ignorance as the Gentiles because of the blindnesse of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves to all â—â—sâ—viousnesse to worke all uncleannes with greedinesse Wherupon the Apostle addes But have not so learned Christ so as to thinke to be saved in a Heathenish life drowned in ignorance from which you cannot distinguish the life of an ignorant Papist except that it is infinitely more stupid and fuller of grosse ignorance and all abominations then the Heathen were and saving that Papists professe the name of Christians We have not I say so learned Christ. What is then the learning of Christ To put off the Old Man and that ye be saith the Apostle renewed in the spirit of your mind putting on the New man which after God is created in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse This is the learning of Christ. So as without this learning neither any silly ignorant Papist nor the most pregnant acute learned Arch-Prelate can be saved We must have both the Righteousnesse of justification by Faith imputed and of Sanctification of the spirit of Christ inherent and shining forth in a holy life and conversation It is not a Pope-holynesse in keeping of a Lent fast or worshiping of an Altar and such like counterfeit holines of mans devising This you learne not of Christ. For Christ saith In vaine they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commadements of men or humane Traditions This holinesse saves not but shuts men out of the Kingdome of Heaven But secondly You call it stifnesse and churlishnesse in Protestants to deny all Papists salvation We shall by and by see your Charity to Papists which is so extreame great as we need not wonder at your malice against those some Protestants you speake it Is it stifnesse to avouch the truth And if they do bebaiousthai as the Apostle exhorteth Titus constantly affirme what not onely is truth but also necessary to be spoken as being a matter of such moment and consequence as concernes the savation of soules by denying salvation to whom it belongeth not and when men are seduced in a false perswasion therof call you this churlishnesse Certainly this churlishnesse in so denying is better then your charity in affirming a falshood Nay what will you say if this which you call churlishnesse be found to be true Charity when your Charity will be found to be deadly hatred against the soule of that silly ignorant Papist For true Charity ever consists with verity els it is no Charity but vanity Now those Protestants which deny salvation to all Papists living and dying in the Roman faith doe it upon sound and solid grounds even upon cleare evidence of Scripture For the Roman Faith is not the true Christian Faith as we have proved And without the true Christian Faith
the same honour that you give to the Saints which they represent as divine honour to the Crosse and Crucifix as they teach as we have shewed Is not here a full and home contradiction to the Scripture For Contradiction is not onely in an expresse Negative but in an impiâ—â—â— Negation when such and such a Doctrine doth necessarily imply a contradiction to the Scripture And in this kind all the Doctrines of Popery whereof we have given sundry Instances before are direct contradictions to the truth of the Scriptures L. p. 340. It doth not follow since the Councel of Trent hath added a new Creed that this Roman faith is now the Catholick For it hath added extravea things without the foundation disputable if not false Conclusions to the Faith So that now a man may beleeve the whole and intire Catholicke faith even as St. Athanasiâ—â— requires and yet justy refuse for Drâ—sse a great part of that which is now the Roman faith P. Is it so then Hath the Councel of Trent added a new Creed and so Roman faith is not now the Catholicke but to be refused as drosse extraveous false without the foundation How then doth this agree with that faith which even now you confessed that the Church of Rome had and hath the saving Faith that One Faith of the Apostles as whereby a Papist living and dying in that Faith may be saved And if Rome hath added a new Creed how holds she still that one Faith And do not you beleeve Romes new Creed For what is this Creed That the Roman faith is now the Catholicke How is this then a new Creed That Romes faith is now the Catholicke For say you it hath added extravious things without the foundation Disputable if not false conclusions to the Faith Is this all Parâ—urient Mâ—ntes I expected here some monstrous evidence against the Church of Rome when you began to tell us she had brought forth a new Creed But this your Rumor will not be taken for a Creed without some sounder proofe then we see you yet bring for all your faire florish For what 's this new Creed Alas a poore Cento patcht up of certaine extravious things What without the Foundation Good enough yet so long as nâ— Canon against the Foundation or a mine of Powder to blow up the foundation Onely without the foundation Alas that 's not worth the talking of If the new Creed be of things onely without the foundation you may leave them out of your Creed as things not necessary to be beleeved or at least not to be beleeved of all Christians alike as you teach us before and Bellarmine too that All things de fide are not necessary to be beleeved of all men or are not necessary to salvation And perhaps Bellarmine means Romes new Creed you speak of which though the Councel of Trent hath made it to be de fide yet it is not necessary for every man to beleeve it or not absolutely necessary for every mans salvation But what more 2. Disputable As you sayd before Disputed Quâ—stions Disputed and Disputable still Ergo what can you make oâ— such a Creed at the worst but some disputable matter not yet sufficiently discussed though determined in the Councel of Trent and sit perhaps to be reserved to be determined upon some clearer demonstrations in your next Generall Councel whose Decrees then true or false shall be received as your Creed And as we said before things Disputable may yet prove to be truth being throughly scanned and thus Romes neâ—â— Creed may prove as Credible as you call it disputable But any more yet yes if not false conclusions If Which receiving a faire interpretation from your mouth may be all one as if you had said Nâ—t false Conclusions because as yet Disputable And while things are but disputable and in dispute they are as yet no false Conclusions For the Premisses of the Argument must goe before the Conclusion But yet your Conclusion is somwhat 〈◊〉 For you say A man may beleeve the whole and intire Catholick faith and yet justly refuse for drosse a great part of that which is now the Roman faith What Drosse And Iusâ—ly refuâ—e as Drosse What are you that man that may doe thus And will you doe thus Nay you for your part have bound your hands from taking any thing as drosse which Rome hath put in her new Creed For those things even the worst of them you say are disputable Therfore not yet concluded and determined for Drosse And if you shall now take those things for drosse which with you are but disputable how can you justly doe it For if mettall be in dispute among the râ—siners it is not presently doomed for drosse being yet in their best judgements but disputable the Test must first try it whether it be drosse or not And so it is the Test or the Testaments of Christ that must try all false mettals shine they never so gold like and discover and condemne them for Drosse And surely my Lord your single judgement through never so singular will never be taken by any as solid enough to preponderate the Decrees of a whole Councel as Trent to conclude those Decrees to be Drosse both after you have called them but disputable and after Rome hath Decreed them for her new Creed But you goe no further yet then Posse a man may take them c. And you may in time come actually to take those disputables for no Drosse but good Currant Coine not onely passing for Currant in Rome but also in England as holding the same Creed and being one Church So as a little more Allay then Ordininary shall not disable the currantnesse of it And what is there in all Romes new Creed of Trent which you say is of things Disputable which is any worse drosse but rather as good silver as those her Altars and oâ—her superstitions which you have borrowed of her Which were they but soundly disputed would prove drosse indeed as formerly also is proved Againe here you confine the whole and intire Catholicke faith to Athanasius his Creed You might have at least taken in the other two Creeds to boot and yet not all of them together will make up the adequate Rule of the whole and intire Catholicke faith For the Catholicke faiths full latitude whole and intire cannot be measured but by the line and Rule of Scriâ—ture alone The onely túpos didâ—kus as the Apostle caâ—ls 〈◊〉 the Matrix or Mold wherein faith must be cast 〈◊〉 to receive its perfect forme which is not cannâ—â— be whole and intire but as it is according to the whole and 〈◊〉 Scripture conformed And you adde L. p. 3â—2 No man can properly be said to beleeve the whole Creed that beleeves not the whole sense as well as the letter of it and as intirely P. Now you told us before that Rome hath lost the sense of the Creed at least in some things
And Virgil also a heathen Roman Poet did afterwards take and borrow this from Plato expressing it in his Aeneads And so from these two might Origen borrow his Purgatory and the Church of Rome from them all three might out of this lake of Plato or Pluto if you will borrow so much Bitumen or Pitchy matter and so casting into it the stone Asbestos which being once kindled is not quenched againe it became the hot-burning lake of Purgatory as namely for the purging of Indifferent men such as are neither hot nor cold neither Beleevers nor Infidels neither Christians nor Heathen neither good fish nor flesh Indifferent between Papists and Protestants halfe for Christ and halfe or rather All for Belial Reconcilers of light and darknesse of Truth and Errour or as the Papists say such as had onely veniall sinnes not throughly purged with holy-water in this life and therfore must be purged with fire what water could not doe untill after a Venal Masse chanted for their soules they should be delivered and so passe the Pikes into the Elâ—sian Fields And this is both Authority and Antiquity sufficient for your Purgatory though you bestow much sweat in this hot Stove and in pursuing this Ignis fatuus yet haply it may purge youâ— Reputation of that venial opinion which men have of you L. p. 375. Rome but with all other particular Churches and no more then other Patriarchall Churches was and is radix existentiae the root of the Churches existence And The uniâ—ersall Nature and Beeing of the Church hath no actuall â—xistence in all her particulars And this I say for her existence onely not the purity or forme of her existence which is not here considered P. These words confirm what you have said before of your Catholicke Church consisting of particular Patriarchall Prelaticall or Hierarchicall Churches throughout the world all of them visible and conspicuous in these it existeth as in the root this existence may be without the consideration of purity as a Church may be a true Church of Christ and yet not be holy Having then answered these things before it is sufficient for this And this still confirmes what I have said of Christs true and onely holy Catholick Church which is a matter of faith in the Creed This true and onely holy Catholick Militant Church of Christ hath for its prime Radix or Root Christ in whom it existetth subsisteth and hath its beeing Then it is diffused into all the members of Christs mysticall body all the Elect over the world or in any corner thereof to the end of the world and hath no existence at all in the Hierarchy or Prelacie or in any one visible Church or particular place or Countrey but it lyes hid as the sappe in the root in all the Persons of the Elect onely and the substance and life thereof is hid with Christ in God the Prime root And the existence of this Catholicke Church cannot be considered possibly without Purity and Holinesse for it exists no where but in purity and holynesse so as every person is holy in whom it existeth And so much for this L. p. 370 371. But if she be not the Catholicke nor the root of the Catholicke Church yet Apostolick I hope she is Indeed Apostolicke she is as being the sea of one and he a Prime Apostle But then not Apostolicke as the Church is called in the Creed from the Apostles no nor the onely Apostolicke Visible I may not deny God hath hitherto preserved her but for a better end doubtlesse then they turne it to The Church of Rome indeed Apostolicke Why so As being the sea of one and he a prime Apostle That was Peter you mean sure He was a Prime Apostle though not the Prime 〈◊〉 somtimes Iames is placed before him Gal. 2.9 And Paul was no whit inferiour to those 3. Iames Peter and Iohn who were Pillars and seemed to be somwhat And in this respect may you not possibly meane Paul rather then Peter for Paul we are sure was in Rome and there preached though in prison But we read no where in Scripture that Peter was at Rome much lesse that he sate there Bishop of Rome and so fixed his Chaire there If therfore you mean Peter and pitch upon him though the Popes are faine to use somtimes two strings to their bow and to challenge their succession both from Peter and Paul and some stories speake both of Peter and Paul as Bishops there I say if you pitch upon Peter how doe you prove that Peter was at Rome and if at Rome whether Bishop there and if a Bishop there why consequently must that Sea be still Apostolicke seeing non sedes sed fides not the seat but the Faith makes Apostolicke But there be many reasons and arguments from Scripture some that Peter was not at Rome others and those more demonstrative that he was never Bishop of Rome as Pontifex or Prelate such a Bishop as you meane I have seen a Booke Printed in English by Authority which proveth that Peter was never at Rome And this he doth by computing and comparing the times and other Circumstances in the Acts and Pauls Epistles with those Histories which say he was there and Bishop there which stories neither agree with the Scripture nor with themselves nor with other Histories profane And if Peter were at Rome how cometh it that Paul being there doth not in all his Epistles make mention of him Was Peter either so obscure as Paul should not know him to be at Rome Or so proud of his new Prelacie as not to acknowledge his fellow Apostle now a Prisoner Or what was it that Paul doth not so much as mention him Because Peter being for the Circumcision should a'llotrtoepiskopoin take Pauls Bishoprick over his head who was for the Uncircumcision whereof Rome was the Metopolis Or had Peter with Demas forsaken Paul imbracing this present world in a Lordly Bishopricke But let it be given you that Peter was at Rome and Lord Bishop of Rome what then Ergo is the Church of Rome indeed Apostolicke Did Peter leave his Apostolick Bishopricke by an Intayle â—o all his successors in Rome Are â—hey Apostolicke when they are become Apostates from the faith Alas alas your words utter your spirit but no truth Onely one thing you deliver as doubtlesse where you say Visible I may not deny God hath hitherto preserved her but for a better end doubtlesse then they turne it to Visible Ergo the Pope is Peters successor Ergo the sea of Rome is indeed Apostolicke Ergo a true Church of Christ. For visible it is It is indeed that visible and conspicuous City on its seven tops or hils whereon it stood in Iohns time and now that Woman that sits and rides mounted on her seven-headed ten-horned Beast Visible with a witnesse otherwise all her pompe would loose the Grace if it wanted spectators as her Scarlet and Purple and Pearle and
all the Ministers in England are but your Curates And suppose you were one of the Popes Bishops and so his Creature what difference would there be between your Governing of your Province under the Pope as it were his Deputy and Governing according to Romes Canons and Customes and as you do now in your own Name And the Pope challenging the whole world for his Diocesse and you the Province of Canterbury for yours all the difference is that he needeth the more Curates which he may have with a wet finger and you the fewer Onely perhaps his Holinesse would now and then fleece your Graces Clergy as he was wont of old to doe But in the mean time both the Pope and your Lordship do much mistake the matter in judgeing or estimating and measuring the latitude and extent of Christs Church For you both measure it according to the extent of your large and Potent Principalities Patriarchall Countries Archiepiscopall Provinces Episcopall Diocesse But you are farre wide in casting your line For though Christs Church is said to be dispersed over the whole earth being confined to no place yet of all this wide world he hath the least number and fewest of all where commonly your Hierarâ—hy is most predominant For those that belong to Christ are a sort of poore Snakes despised in the world and alwayes persecuted and oppressed by your Hierarchy so as they can hardly find so much as a little corner any where in the world much lesse in all the Circuit of your Diocesse or Provinces where they may hide their heads or live in any peace So as of all your full Vintages and fruitfull Fields Christ is glad of the refuse of a few gleanings And so Christs flock alas is so small and so poore and his Kingdome on earth so despised as to set up such Lordly Vice-Roys as the Prelates over it the very Fees of your Courts would eat them out And therfore because Christs sheep are here and there scattered in the world and many times as sheep without a shepheard being driven by your Dogges from their own pasture Christ thought it fitter to place over his small and scattered flocks poore sheheards that should feed their severall flocks respectively with the wholesome food of the word of God and therfore appointed to every particular Congregation a peculiar Pastor of their own that should alwayes be personally resident with his flocks keeping his watch over them night and day and so much the more in regard of so many Wolves and Foxes and wild Beasts which without continuall watching would make a prey of them Neither would Christ permit his shepheards to commit their Flocks to Hirelings or Stipendaâ—y Curates while themselvs should take their pleasure and ease for the Hireling when he seeth the theef or wolfe coming fleeth because he is an Hireling neither careth he for the Sheep Therfore Christ wisely and providently hath appointed to every particular Congregation or flocke of his a shepheard of their own and that after his own heart to feed them with knowledge and understanding And as the shepheard governes and guides his own flocke so every faithfull Minister or Pastor is appointed by Christ to be the Governour of his own Congregation according to the Rule of Christ. So as in this respect Christ thought it fitter to appoint many Governours in his Church namely to each Congregation their own Shepheard rather then a few such as you speake of as one over a whole Countrey or Province Neirther let your Lordship thinke that every such Congregation having a faithfull Pastor over it hath yet need of any your Episcopall Inspection or Trienniall Visitations or your Archdeacons Annuall Visitation wherein you inquire onely whether your owne Canoâ—s be observed and if so Omnia bene All is well onely the poore Ministers paying their Procuration the Visitor never inquiring if the Minister be diligent in preaching to his flocke but whether he hath kept the Order for not preaching in the After-noons on the Lords day and the Order for not Preaching such and such Doctrines and such like so as commonly your visitation is like that of the Plague saving that this is from God immediately and yours from another sourse And Ministers and People too could think themselves happy to be freed from your awfull and terrible viâ—its wherein your maine ayme is to root out all good Ministers for which the omission of one of your Ceremonies is sufficient So as Christs Congregation I say needs not any such Inspection of the Bishops eye over them which is as l' aeil de beuf or the weather gall called the Ox eye which portends a storme to follow For Christ hath promised his perpetuall Presence and residence with his people and his eye watcheth over them night and day least any hurt them As he saith When two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Loe here an intire and compleat body of a Church having Christ as head over them and his Spirit in them and his Word before them and their own shepheard appointed by Christ to feed them so as here is no place left for your Prelaticall Vice-Roys Object Put you say No Bishop no Church so say I too but the Apostles Bishop he must be not your Diocesan Lord Bishop What order then say you wil be in the Church A good and decent order in every Congregation where Christs order and ordinance takes place and where mans presumption breaks not this order And consider here the excellent wisdome and order of Oeconomy that Christ hath appointed every Congregation to be governed by For as that is the most perfect and compleat form of Civil Government which is mixed of all the 3 states as the Monarchiall Aristocraticall and Democraticall when the King governeth by his good Laws using the best men as the noble and most vertuous in the higher places of the Kingdome and the bâ—st and disâ—reetâ—st of the common people in the bearing of inferiour offices such as every one is most fit for a representation whereof we have in the 3 states in Parliament the King the Nobles and the Commons so the Lord Iesus Christ hath established this most compleat form of Government in his Church First himselfe rules as King over all Governing by his Spirit Secondly he hath set over every particular Congregation such as are Aristâ—i the optimates the best and ablest to be Pastors and Teachers each of his own flock And thirdly he hath added also the Denocraty or government of the people appointed to be chosen out of every Congregation the gravest wisest sobriest and discreetest some as Elders some as Deacons to be helpers to the Minister in matter of Discipline of Sacramentall Provision of reliefe of the poore of visiting the sicke and of other Church affaires for that Congregation And these are called by the Apostle Antilâ—pseis kubernâ—seis which our English