that are to partake of that Bread thereby may feed upon the Body of Christ which is the true Bread and by him live for ever Then he breaketh the Bread pronouncing the words of Christ This is my Body c. willeth the People to receive it in remembrance of Christ and as shewing forth the Death of Christ till he come the second time without sin to Salvation In like manner he taketh the Cup after the People have received the Bread and with Prayer suitable to that great Mystery it being sanctified he poureth out of the Wine remembring the words of Christ This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood c. partakes of it himself as he did also of the Bread and gives it to the Deacons to Communicate to all the Congregation and they all drink of it Then some word of Exhortation is given to the People under the consideration of the unspeakable Mercy of God in the gift of his Son to dye for us that we might live Eternally with him all is concluded with Prayers to the Lord for all his Blessings in the most joyful manner that the Minister is able to express them and then usually something is given to the Poor as every mans heart maketh him willing being not constrained thereunto but as the love of Christ constraineth him TO say nothing here of the Roman Church denying to give the Cup to the People the Priests only drinking of it nor of the Priest only partaking of the Bread and Cup in divers of their Masses the People only looking on neither of their Adoration of the Elements of Bread and Wine in these words I Worship thee I Glorifie thee I Praise thee Nor yet of that Passage in the Communion of the Mass Let us Worship the Sign of the Cross which are things too large to be discoursed in a Letter It shall suffice to set down the manner of their Celebration 1. All is done in an unknown Tongue which the People understand not 2. The Benedicamus Domino is sung ten times together and Ite Missa est is sung thirteen times with long and tedious Notes 3. The Priest is to say divers Prayers privately to himself 4. He is taught by the Rubrick to make thirty several Crosses upon the Bread the Cup the Altar and his forehead 5. Their Gestures are as followeth The Priest boweth his Body and lifting up himself kisseth the Altar on the right side then he boweth again and looketh toward the Host that is the Bread he joyneth his hands wipeth his fingers lifteth up the Host then he lifteth up his eyes and boweth himself and lifteth up his eyes again he boweth again and lifteth up the Host above his forehead then he uncovereth the Cup and holdeth it between his hands keeping his thumb and his finger together Then he boweth and lifteth up the Cup a little then to his Breast or above his Head. He setteth it down again and wipeth his fingers then he spreadeth his Arms a-cross He boweth his Body rising up he kisseth the Altar on the right side He smiteth his Breast uncovering the Cup he makes five Crosses with the Host beyond the Cup twice on each side under the Cup and before it Then he layeth his hands upon the Altar the Deacon reaching him the Paten he putteth it to his right eye then to his left he maketh a Cross beyond his head with it he kisseth it and layeth it down Then he breaketh the Host in three holding two pieces in his left hand and one in his right over the Cup which with a Cross he letteth fall into it Then he kisseth the Corporas the Deacon taketh the Pax from the Priest giveth it to the sub-Deacon and he to the Quire. Then humbling himself he first taketh the Body and then the Blood so he goeth to the right horn of the Altar the sub-Deacon poureth in Wine and the Priest rinseth the Cup and washeth his hands turning himself to the People Cometh again to the Altar and turneth to the People the second time Then bowing his body and closing his hands he prayeth to himself he riseth again making the sign of the Cross and bowing again goeth from the Altar Thus Brethren I have given you a brief account of the Ceremonious Observations of those who would be thought the truest Church on Earth though they have assuredly changed the Ordinances of our Lord more than any sort of Christians I have also set before you the purity and simplicity and yet the great utility of these two great Ordinances that you may be more inwardly affected with them but especially with him whom they so excellently represent for to this end are they ordained to set forth Christ and him Crucified Of all the difficulties with which you are likely to be tried in respect of your Religious Profession that Question which concerns the Judge of these and other Controversies in Religion is like to be the most dangerous because you have been little exercised in it as also because many persons of great Eminency and Authority are deeply radicated and very expert in an opinion diametrically opposite to yours for they say that the living voice of the Church assembled in a General Council of her Bishops and Doctors is the only infallible Judge to determine all Controversies in matters of Faith and Religion On the other side We have been taught and have constantly believed that it is all Christians Duty to rely chiefly and before all things upon the Authority and sufficiency of the voice of God himself as he speaks in the Holy Scriptures as the best and only infallible Decider of all Questions that shall arise especially in the Christian Church and since the holy Scriptures were written and received about matters of Faith and Religion And indeed it seems very strange that any man should think there is a better Judge than God himself of what is true and what is otherwise in matters of Religion and to be sure he speaks to us with the greatest Certainty and Authority by the holy Pen-men of the Scriptures And it is as strange that the Church who must derive all her Light and Authority from God and his Word should appeal men to her self rather than to him methinks they should say to us as Caesar's Substitute said to St. Paul Hast thou Appealed to God as he speaks in his Scriptures to God and his Scriptures shalt thou go And especially when this is the question What sort of Christians are the true Church of Christ for it seems then the most unreasonable thing in the World that any Party contending for this Title The Church should be her own Judge and seeing the Church cannot by meerly avouching upon her own Testimony only that she is the Church make any proof or demonstration that she is so it remains then that we must have some Infallible Rule by which to find the Church And now if God himself does not reveal to us
question be about Christ and his Church there must we find them both or no where If any Man like not this Doctrine let him shew me if he can these lovely Objects without being beholden to the Scripture Some I have known to attempt this but with lamentable success being soon driven to a shameful silence and indeed the whole World must depart into utter silence as touching this great Mystery Christ and his Church unless the Word of God as it is delivered in the Holy Scriptures through Faith makes us wise in these great Concernments of Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 14. Let men alledge all the Authors in the World and all the Tradition that ever was if the Holy Scriptures must not be their own Evidence and so capable to command our Belief of them then for the same or rather more forcible Reasons then any Man can bring against the Scriptures all Authors and all Traditions shall be dumb and useless as to the production of the least iota of Divine Faith so that the Papists at the long-run must if they know how shew us their Church without Scripture or any Author and without Tradition also as I have formerly written unto you being provoked thereunto by seven Queries sent by a Learned Papist who in his last to me does undertake to deliver himself from this difficulty after this manner We may saith he prove the Church by the Holy Scripture and the Scripture by the Church and this by a Regressus Demonstrativus without a vicious Circle because we suppose them both sufficiently proved and prudently accepted for such by all the Motives of Credibility as Miracles Holiness c. by which Christ proved himself and his New Gospel But as for the Sense of the Scripture I have more than sufficiently demonstrated that the Scripture it self cannot bear witness for it but that this must be had from a Living Judge viz. the Church the Infallible Interpreter of Gods Word To this I answer briefly That is a vicious Circle out of which no man can lawfully deliver himself but must run in a Round without end and truly such is this Circular Argumentation of my Adversary he will prove his Church by the Scripture 2. He will prove the Scripture to be true by his Church and he will prove his Church true by the Scripture before the Scripture be proved true and he will prove the Scripture to be true after it hath proved his Church true This Meander is no way to be avoided that I can see but by suffering either the Scripture or the Church to be its own Evidence for his Demonstrative Regress makes his Case worse for by it they be both sufficiently proved before either of them be proved and both prudently accepted before either of them be accepted and which is most strange of all the rest these things are all done before the Scripture hath any sense known for of this he is the most of all confident that the Sense of the Scripture must be had from a living Judge viz. the Church the Infallible Interpreter of God's Word So that this is the Conclusion of the whole Matter The Scripture without Sense must prove the Roman Church and the Roman Church must then give the Sense of that Scripture which had no Sense before when it proved Her to be the Church here is indeed a Regressus but no such thing as a Demonstrativus Methinks wise men should consider that the Holy Scripture is its own Interpreter in a great if not the greatest part of it the New Testament being the best Interpreter of the Old Testament and of it self also in many places for Example It tells us in one place that the Heavens must receive Christ from the time of his Ascension till the times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord. Act. 3. 21. And hence we hold that no Christian must say that the real Body of of Christ which ascended to Heaven is upon the Earth till he shall be sent the second time for God shall send Jesus saith St. Peter because the Scripture tells us in another place That if Jesus were on Earth he should not be a Priest Heb. 8. 4. It is therefore as plain as plain can be that the Papists make void the Priesthood of Christ and contradict St. Peter himself when they tell the World that the real Body of Christ which ascended into Heaven is now really carnally corporally present upon the Earth that is upon their Altars and in the Hands and Mouths of their Priests and People as often as they celebrate Mass and consequently he is so far from being received into Heaven till the time of his second coming that he is according to their own Opinion received bodily upon Earth ten thousand times and in ten thousand places to his being once received bodily into Heaven Sure their Opinion is directly against the Scripture as sure as their Transubstantiation is directly against the best Sense and the best Reason with which Almighty God hath endowed the best of Men as has been clearly evidenced by many learned Discourses among which I would commend to your Perusal one lately published under the Title of A Discourse against Transubstantiation Printed this Year and sold by Mr. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange Price Six Pence My Learned Adversary and indeed the Papists generally do urge us vehemently after this manner admitting that the Church is to follow the Rule of God's revealed Word in all her Definitions yet they hold it extreamly irrational that all that can read it should be his own Interpreter of it for so say they He will be his own Judge And as in a Nation where no Judge of the Law is appointed there can be no Justice but every man will be his own Judge so likewise unless there be a Supream Judge in Matters of Faith to wit the Church from whom no Appeal may be allowed there can be no end of Controversies c. This Objection is considerable to which I say 1. What my Adversary means by God's revealed Word I do not very well understand but I doubt he extends that Term farther than the Holy Scripture else I am sure enough the Church of Rome has no revealed Word of God to follow in very many of her Observations but to let this pass at present I answer to the Objection thus 2. It seems to be built upon many dangerous Suppositions such as these That we ought to rest upon the Sentence of a Priest for we must hear the Church out of his Mouth for the state of our Soul as on the Sentence of a Judge in a Civil Court for a matter of Debt c. and that we are no more bound to search the Scriptures for Eternal Life than to search the Statute-Book for our Temporal Life nay here I do them no wrong for they will permit us to read the Statute-Book but they forbid us to read the Holy Scripture It supposes
thing upon their own knowledg sight or hearing as the Apostles did 1 John 1. 2 Pet. 1. 16. for scarce so much as one hundred years and this their Testimony also being but of human Authority it remaineth of necessity that some Books of Record must be received upon the Authority of the Author in whose Name they speak and the Divine Evidence of the Matter contained in them and hence we argue the Sufficiency of the Scriptures own Authority to command our reception of them speaking to us in the Name of God and carrying in themselves Divine Evidences in respect of the matters therein contained Papist Query 3. Baptist Anti-query 3. How know you that your Copies and Translations of the Bible are the true Word of God since the Original Writings are not come to your Hands What Copies and Translations of the Scriptures have you that are more true than ours And where are the Original Manuscripts of the Prophets and Apostles Seeing it was not the Pleasure of the Divine Wisdom to preserve and present to all Nations the very first Pieces of Paper in which the Divine Oracles were written but rather to preserve many Copies and cause them to be spread throughout the World. And seeing no sort of Christians dare pretend to have Translated any of those Copies by an infallible Pen but only according to the best Skill they have acquired or learned in the Original Tongues It would better become all Learned Christians to bend their Minds to rectifie what they may any Imperfection or Mistake that may be in any of the Translations rather than by such Queries as this to open a Gap to Vnbelief and Irreligion And though much might be said by a captious Person against the English Translation of the Papists yet to prevent vain Jangling we refuse not to be tried in the Cases depending in these Queries and Anti-queries either by their Translation of the Bible or by that which is allowed by Authority And seeing no Papist is able to produce the prime Originals let them beware how they quarrel with our Copies lest some quarrel with theirs and â—so instead of Edification they bring forth nothing but vain Contention and show themselves ungrateful to God and mischievous to men For what man of any Modesty would upbraid another because he never saw the Original Writings when neither himself nor any man living ever saw them nor is ever like to see them Papist Query 4. Baptist Anti-query 4. Where we differ about the Sense of the Word by whom must we be tried The dead Letter cannot explain it self When we differ about the true Church or the Meaning of Authors be they Fathers or Councils by whom must we be tried These cannot speak for themselves more than the Scriptures And whether the Scriptures being compared together do not explain themselves Also whether this be not an opprobrious and ignominious Speech for you to call the Scripture a dead Letter And whether the true Lovers of the Scriptures ever vouchsafed them such ill and indeed improper Language Of all the Seven Queries this is the most difficult see what we have said to this Difficulty in our precedent Epistle Let the Papists prove themselves to be the true Church and the Contention about the Power of the Church to decide Differences which may arise about the Meaning of the Scriptures will with more ease be brought to a period In the mean time as we must every one give an account of our selves to God so it is the Duty of every Christian to labour to understand the Scriptures Mat. 24. 15. Pro. 22. 20 21. Papist Query 5. Baptist Anti-query 5. What clear Text have you out of the Scriptures for the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son Or for changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday Or for prohibiting Poligamy or Infant-Baptism And whether there be not as clear Texts to prove unwritten Traditions Purgatory and the Real Presence Whether the Baptism of the true Church be not One And whether the one Baptism be not expresly found in the Scriptures and whether the Scriptures do not prohibit all Baptism of Water beside that one And whether the Papists have not confessed in many of their Books that Infant-Baptism is not found in nor grounded upon the Scripture And then whether it be not clear that all the Texts which speak of Baptism in Water do prohibit Infant-Baptism Also whether John 15. 26. 14. 26. 16. 7. be not clear Texts that the Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father and the Son Also whether 1 Cor. 7. 1 2 3. do not as much prohibit one Man for having two Wives as one Woman for having two Husbands And whether it do not clearly prohibit the latter Also whether there be any thathold the First Day of the Week under the Notion of a Sabbath among the Baptized Churches and yet whether there be not clear proof for the Religious Observation of it Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Also whether it be not absurd for you to ask for clear Texts to prove unwritten things Also whether Purgatory and the Real Presence as you hold them are not plainly destructive to some Articles of the Christian Faith. For is not this the Faith of all sound Christians 1. That Almighty God does love no Creature in this World so much as the Creature Man nor does he take any Creature on Earth into that nearness of Vnion with himself as the Souls and Bodies of those that shall be saved 2. That the blessed Body of Christ after his Ascension into Glory admits of no Change either by Addition to his Substance of his Flesh and Blood or Diminution of any part thereof from either Now it is most certain that the Opinion of the Real Presence by Transubstantiation of Bread and Wine into the very Body and Blood of Christ God-Man doth evidently militate against these clear Truths with the greatest opposition as will appear by these Considerations following 1. Though the Love of God to Mankind especially to all that shall be saved is exceeding great yet it is certain he never died nor ever will SO take them into Union with himself AS to Transubstantiate their Bodies into the Divine Substance of Christ and so make their Flesh of the same Essence with himself as he is God Blessed for ever And therefore it is in no wise to be believed That God Almighty so loves the Creatures Bread and Wine as to turn or transubstantiate the very Substance of them into the very Substance of the only Son of God whom we believe to be of one Substance with the Father It is also further to be considered That though the two Natures in Christ i. e. the Divine and Human are united after an unspeakable manner yet no Christian does believe that God did transubstantiate the Substance of the Humane Nature into the Substance of the Divine Nature and that the Forms of Flesh and Blood only does remain How then is
it at all credible that God should Deifie the Creatures of Bread and Wine by turning them into the Divine Essence as well as Human to be worshipped with the highest degree of Adoration which is proper to God himself Con. Trent Sess 13. Can. 6. And the Words of Bellarmin are very plain God saith he is verily and truly to be worshipped Mat. 4. But Christ in the Eucharist is very God Ergo. Thus much of the First Proposition And for the Second 2. It is to be considered That if the very Substance of Bread and Wine be really transubstantiated into the Substance of Christ's Flesh and Blood then they do either remain that same Substance of Christ's Flesh for ever or else they are after some time either annihilated or turned to Corruption But to say either of these is flatly to deny or oppose express Scripture which tells us That the Flesh of Christ saw no Corruption and that he continueth ever And for the first that Bread and Wine after the Words of Consecration remains for ever of the Substance of Christ's Real Body it is no way credible For then the Body of Christ must have received a mighty Augmentation since its Ascension For If all the Bread which has been consecrated for almost 1700 years shall be supposed to be all in one place at any time as sure the whole Flesh of Christ's Body is so it might for Magnitude compare with a Mountain And if all the vast quantity of Wine which hath been consecrated for the like space of time were supposed to be collected as sure all the Blood of Christ remains in his Body being impossible to be shed since he went into Heaven it might compare with a considerable Fountain of Water But both these are so very absurd that 't is hoped no Christian will affirm them and therefore that Doctrine of Transubstantiation which necessarily infers these and many more Absurdities is by no means to be received If the Papists shall reply and say That though the Bread and Wine be really turned into the Flesh and Blood Body Soul and Divinity of Christ yet it is not necessary that they remain so for ever I shall earnestly desire them to shew us what becomes of it then And I ask whether by such reply they do not make the Real and Glorious Body of Christ the most mutable thing in Heaven and Earth being according to this Doctrin subject to be really made and unmade every day and that in a thousand places on the same day If any who are little acquainted with the Doctrine of the present Church of Rome shall question whether they do indeed hold so gross an Error as to teach that the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist is turned into the very Substance of the Divine Nature of Christ as well as his Humane Nature he may see it fully asserted by a Learned Papist in a certain Catechism entituled An Abridgment to Christian Doctrine the last Edition Printed at Doway 1661. pag. 194 195. in these Words Quest What is the Blessed Eucharist Answ It is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ true God and true Man whole Christ under the outward Forms of Bread and Wine Quest In what manner is Christ present under these Forms Answ By the true and Real Presence of his Divine and Human Nature and not Figuratively only as some would have it God in Mercy open the eyes of all that are thus blinded with the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which Word Transubstantiation the Papists confess is not found in Scripture See the said Catechism pag. 196. Papist Query 6. Baptist Anti-query 6. Whether Vniversality both for time and place be not an evident Mark of the true Church What Church can you name that hath that Mark And whether the Woman which St. John saw called Mystery Bablyon be not meant of Rome and whether her Cup was not universally received so that all Nations were made Drunk thereby Papist Query 7. Baptist Anti-query 7. Whether you have really this Mark that is whether you can fetch out of all Ages and Nations Professors of your Religion in particular you are desired to name but one or two in the first six hundred years after Christ of your Profession for example such as held the sole sufficiency of Scripture for the deciding Controversies and denied the Lawfulness and Vsefulness of Infant-Baptism Whether any man can shew this Mark as it is here called for without the help of Human History and whether Human History be infallibly true so as to be a ground for Divine Faith and whether those Human Records which concerned Christian Religion for the first three hundred years after Christ were not the most of them burnt by the Persecutors of Christians and whether those which remain have not been much altered and whether they are not in many things contradictory Also whether Infant-Baptism was so much as heard of in the first Century and then how should any be named which denied the usefulness of it in this Age And whether the first clear mention of it be not from Tertullian and whether the Learned do not confess that he opposed it in the third Century as an irrational and unwarrantable Custom Also whether that Church whose manner of admitting Persons into her Communion her Constitution and Government are according to the Scriptures Mat. 28. 19 20. Heb. 6. 1 2 c. be not the true Church of Christ And whether the Baptized Churches commonly called Anabaptists do not excel in these Particulars all other Churches whatsoever Of all the Marks of the Church so much stood upon by the Papists this of Antiquity leads and indeed it is of that importance that if they fail of this Mark they are like to miss all the rest and that they must fail of the best Antiquity in the case of their Baptism without which they can have no true Church will with much ease be made evident 1. Because by their own Confession Infant-Baptism which is the Baptism of the present Roman-Church is not grounded upon the Scripture Here they fail of Scripture-Antiquity which is the best 2. Because they have not one Credible Witness for Infant-Baptism in the first Century after Christ 3. Because it is acknowledged by themselves that they have changed the manner of the Administration of Baptism from Dipping to a little Sprinkling which indeed is no Baptism Whereas on the contrary the best Antiquity is as clear for our Baptism i. e. Believers Baptism as the light of the Sun many thousands of Believers being Baptized by John Baptist and more by Christ or his appointment John 3. 23. 4. 1. three thousand Believers Baptized in one day Act. 2. 40. And multitudes of Believers being Baptized in every Age since the Institution of Baptism yea all the Antient Fathers for the first three hundred years if not for the first six hundred years after Christ were Baptized Believers so that I should think the Gates of Hell cannot
who is his Church we shall never find her nor does he reveal this but by the Testimonies of the Scripture there must we find the Church of God or no where For none but Enthusiasts pretend to any other Revelation in this Case and to speak feeely I doubt the Papists are more then a little Enthusiastical for rather than let God's Word decide this Question about the Church they will flye to Miracles as if a false Prophet may not shew a Sign or a Wonder yea and that Sign and Wonder come to pass too and yet the thing he brings it to prove be nothing but a lye see Deut. 15. Surely he that shall pretend to work a Miracle or Wonder in these days to prove such or such a People to be the Church I should the more suspect both him and his Church because we have a sure Word of Prophecy confirmed by Miracles already which Word doth as fully set forth the Church as it sets forth any thing insomuch as men may as well call for Miracles to prove there is a God and that this God is true as to call for Miracles to prove the true Church Indeed the Church of Christ being once found then all wise and modest men will readily lend an Ear to her in all things and especially when she undertakes to expound the dark or mysterious points of our Religion or offers her Judgment in things doubtful for as for the common point of the Christian Faith he that is a wise and good Man and no ways byassed by Interest may perhaps know these things as well as the Church or at least such as call themselves Church-men But to be bound to adhere to any Church in these days as to a people which cannot possibly be mistaken in any matters of Faith or Religion seems to be an Atribute too high for any Society of Sinful men and there is none that liveth and sinneth not For seeing God hath not told us any such thing That the Church cannot Err or be Mistaken it ought not to be spoken and if it be only proper to the Almighty to say He cannot lye It must not be said of the Church that She cannot lye lest he reprove us and we be found Lyars Rom. 3. 4. Let God be true and every Man a lyar for thus it is written and again Hos 11. 12. Ephraim compasseth me about with Lyes and the House of Israel with Deceit This was the Case of the ten Tribes and though Judah be justified as to these Impieties yet Chap. 12. 2. God tells them he had a Controversie with them also Certain it is that famous Churches have erred in matters of Faith and others were as liable to err as they no Church being herein priviledged above another for any thing that God has said in his Word but he every where exhorts his People to beware of Sin Error and Apostacy and commands every one that hath Ears to hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches but he does not say to any of them that they cannot Err therefore we are not to hear such a story of any Church Mat. 16. 18. Is a gracious Promise indeed That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church of Christ as founded upon himself in the true Faith of St. Peter But this Promise belongs to all true Churches equally yet no man ever durst affirm from hence That no true Church can possibly err And St. Peter who understood this Promise never told any Church of his Planting that they could not Err but rather tells them they may err so as to fall from their stedfastness and be led away with the error of the Wicked Indeed if any Church could be assigned here on Earth that cannot err or be deceived in matters of Faith it were the easiest thing in the World to find the Truth having once found the Church for we should have no need to know any thing but what that Church speaks and to receive her Determinations as God's Oracles but then I consider again that we should perhaps have great inconvenience also For if all the Decrees made by General Councils be obliging to us and were bound up together we should never be able to read them nor I doubt to understand them it will then be our best at the long-run to take Sanctuary at the Word of God as our Guide and Superiour to the Church But I consider farther that no man makes any particular Church this Guide but does refer us to the Universal Church as assembled in a General Council Surely either this is to make as many Universal Churches at least as there has been Ages since Christ was upon the Earth or if all make but one Universal Church the direction given to follow her Sentence is scarce practicable for how long will it be before a man can be assured what was held and what was rejected by the Church in all Ages indeed there are Men born of great confidence who will tell us that the Catholick or Universal Church hath always held such Doctrines and such Traditiors as are unwritten c. Now it highly concerns all Christians as much as in them lieth to make sure work with such bold Talkers about the truth of the things which they affirm especially about the truth of the Antiquity of these things that is that they appear by some Divine Record to have been delivered to the first Churches by Men approved of God to be the deliverers of Divine Institutes and if they fail here it will be ill venturing to follow them in their after-enquiries And there is the highest Reason in the World to stand as strongly as possible for the first Age for such pure and undoubted Antiquity is necessary in our Case from the tenour of our Blessed Saviour's Argumentation against the Jews in opposition to a Tradition or Mosaical Precept in the Case of Divorce Mat. 19. 8. From the beginning it was not so For seeing the Apostles did faithfully deliver the whole Counsel of God to the first Churches condemning all that shall teach otherwise than they had taught the the Doctrine of Godliness or that should not consent to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ it is therefore necessary to bring all Doctrine and Practices in the Christian Church to the Test of the most pure and Primitive Antiquity for that Church which hath that Argument fairly on her side cannot fail of all other Arguments which can be any way necessary for her Justification for indeed this first Argument does infer all the rest and they that have not this have none of the other which thing being well considered look back upon your Principles O ye Baptized Christians and upon what hath been said for them even by your Adversaries and take comfort for whoever boasts of the best Antiquity it is certain that you only have it For what is the most ancient Record Doubtless the Holy Scripture and if so let the
they have punished with the cruelest Death such as in Conscience could not subscribe unto it God give them a better Vnderstanding and more Moderation for the future But ye Brethren as you have received these Holy Decrees among the rest of the Heavenly Rules left unto us by the most Antient Fathers even the Apostles of our Lord so walk in them and keep the Ordinances as they were delivered by them who received them of the Lord. Now the Lord increase our Faith that we may be able to stand fast in the Truth and to overcome all Difficulties So prays your Brother Thomas Grantham Hear the Church c. OR AN EPITOME OF THE CHIEF CONTROVERSIES BETWEEN THE PAPISTS AND THE Baptized Believers By THOMAS GRANTHAM Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the Beginning if that which ye have heard from the Beginning shall remain in you ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father and this is the Promise which he hath Promised us even Eternal Life 1 John. Unto the perfect Words of the New-Testament nothing may be added and from which nothing may be taken away by him that will lead a Life agreeable to the Gospel Apollinar l. 5. c. 14. LONDON Printed in the Year 1687. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Christian Friend IT is now about six and twenty years since it pleased a Learned Papist to send seven Queries to the People commonly called Anabaptists in the County of Lincoln about which many Papers were exchanged and in the Year 1662 some part of them were Printed under the Title of the Baptist against the Papist or the Scripture and Rome in Contention about the Supreme Seat of Judgment in Controversies of Religion To which the Querist never replied in Print but only sent me a few Notes in Manuscript which seven Queries with my seven Anti-queries I shall annex to this Epistle The Truth is I did then and do still look upon this sort of Christian-Adversaries so I call them to be the most subtil as well as coherent with their Principles keeping close to their Arguments and using all very much the same Mediums and were the Truth with them as in many things I am satisfied it is not this very thing would be their high Commendation But missing the Heavenly Mark more is the pity they must needs be the more dangerous wherein they stand opposed to the Truth of which being very sensible I cannot as I love plain Truth and the Souls of all Men but indeavour as much as in me is after a Christian sort to undeceive if it may be some of them and to prevent others from being deceived by them I speak not this as fearing them but as truly loving them as they bear the name of Christians and doubtless are as zealous in their way as any tho I do verily believe they are under the greatest mistakes of any that profâ—ss the Christian Religion except professed Enthusiasts That I treat them in Love is no new thing let my Words written more than twenty years since witness now in my Epistle to the Reader thus you find them Not that I envy those of the Papal Church or desire them any evil Not that I desire they should be exposed to a Suffering Condition for matters of Religion or that they should be denied any liberty in that Respect which I desire my self nor for any other prejudice God knoweth do I publish this small Treatise c. And what I said then I say now being verily perswaded by the Scripture and all good Principles which I could ever meet with that they and all men living soberly and quietly under the Government ought to have at least a friendly connivance under our differing sentiments from the established Form or Order of Worship c. But I am no Dictator I must leave these things to the pleasure of God and the prudence of our Governors only this is my Determination in Christ's strength to live and die faithful to what I know of the ways of Truth and to my own Conscience Praying constantly for the happiness of my Prince and all his peaceable Subjects Tho. Grantham Hear the Church The Third PART CONTAINING AN EPITOME OF THE Controversies depending between those who are commonly called PAPISTS and those commonly called ANA-BAPTISTS Occasioned by Seven Queries propounded by a Learned PAPIST LET the Christian Reader know that it is no idle Conceit of the Parts of the Author above his Brethren nor yet above his Adversaries many of whom are undoubtedly Men of very rare Parts and Accomplishments which moveth him thus to appear and to call forth all the Strength of Rome in Argument to defend their Church and Religion against the poor Baptized Churches in this Nation But it is only the Clear Evidence of Truth on their side as contained in the holy Oracles of God which gives Boldness to this great Undertaking Which in all due Humility Christian Love and yet with holy Confidence is thus attempted for a fair Trial of the Case or Cases depending between the Parties above mentioned In the Name of God therefore let us proceed to the Particulars of the Seven Queries sent to the Baptists by a Learned Papist which indeed contains the Sum of the Controversies between the said Parties Papist Query 1. Baptist Anti-query 1. Whether we are to resolve all Differences in point of Religion only out of the Written Word of God What Controversie in point of Religion can you resolve without the Written Word of God And whether the written Word of God be a perfect Rule for Matters of Religion The first Part of this Anti-query concludes in the Negative the latter Part in the Affirmative and affords as I think this undeniable Argument That which is the only perfect Rule to all Christians in the greatest Matters of Religion and that without which neither Christ the Church nor Christian Religion can be known is the only infallible Rule by which all Controversies in point of Religion are to be resolved But the Holy Scriptures are the only perfect Rule to all Christians in the greatest Matters of Religion and that without which neither Christ the Church nor Christian Religion can be known Ergo The Holy Scriptures are the only infallible Rule by which all Controversies in point of Religion among Christians are to be resolved Papist Query 2. Baptist Anti-query 2. How know you precisely what is the true Word of God Whether some Book must not of necessity speak for it self or be received for God's Word upon its own Evidence and whether the Holy Scriptures do not best deserve that privilege And whether it be not too great presumption to say There are no Holy Books but those which you and we have received for such seeing those which we have tell us there were other Holy Writings which never yet came to our Hands nor to yours Forasmuch as no Society of Christians in these days can bear witness to the truth of any