the grace of Christ and the Holy Ghost 2. Professed Christians are Sacramentally Sanctifyed when by outward Baptism they are devoted to God in Christ 3. Even bad Ministers are externally sanctifyed as separated and consecrated to a Holy Office 4. Temples and Books and Church Utensils are sanctifyed when by men they are separated from common and unclean usage to Gods Worship So that tho' Holiness in all be this separation to God yet as the Persons and things are not the same so neither is their Holiness in specie but only in genere And there is a Superstitious and an Idolatrous Mock-Holiness when men will devote that to God and Holy uses which he abhorreth or accepteth not nor ever required of them And say as the Hypocrite Pharisees it is Corban who required this at their hands The Hypocrites and Idolaters have always been forward for this unrequired Mock-Holiness to quiet their Consciences instead of real saving Holiness It 's Cheaper and Easier to have Holy-Water Holy-Oil Holy-Spittle Holy-Images Holy-Crosses Holy-Vestments of many sorts Holy-Altars Holy-Shrines and Pilgrimages Holy-Bones and Chips and Places than to have Holy-Hearts and Lives which love God and Grace and Heaven above all this World and Life it self and by the Spirit mortify all fleshly Lusts The Seven and Thirtieth accused Point That Children may be saved by their Parents Faith without the Sacrament of Holy Baptism Ans Can you unriddle this charge Whether the man mean that they may be saved by Baptism without their Parents Faith Or that both must be conjoyned as necessary to Salvation He will not tell us that 1. That God hath made abundance of promises to the Seed of the Faithful and taketh them into the Covenant of Grace with their Parents and saith that they are Holy 1 Cor. 7.14 Protestants have copiously proved against Anabaptists and Papists But it is Gods Mercy and Christs Merit Grace and Covenant that they are saved by The Parents Faith is but that Qualification and Relation which maketh them receptive and capable of this saving Grace The Parenrs Faith saveth themselves but as the Moral qualifying disposition and condition of Gods saving Gift And to Infants it is required not that they be Believers but Believers Seed devoted to God by Parents or Pro-Parents whose they are 2. We doubt not but regularly where it may be had this Dedication should be solemnly made by Baptismal Covenanting Ask the Anabaptists whether we hold not this But we believe that as private Marriage maketh Husband and Wife before God but solemn Matrimony is necessary for publick Order without which they may be punished as Fornicators So if an Infant be the Child of one believing Parent dedicated to God he is Holy and in the same Covenant with the Parent and were else unclean But that before the Church he is not regularly to be judged in Covenant till it be solemnized in Christs appointed way by Baptism Still excepting where Baptism cannot be had and there even sober Papists say that the Votum the Vow or desire will serve And this necessity is manifold 1. When the Child dieth before Baptism could be had 2. Where there is no capable Person to do it or that will not utterly deprave it 3. When the Parent is an Antipoedo-Baptist and omitteth it thinking it a Sin If they think that the Infant is not saved by the Parents Faith why should they think that believing Parents Children are damned because the Parent Erreth in such an external thing But Papists that turn other parts of Holiness into Form and Ceremony and make a Religion of the Carkass mortifyed would here also perswade People that the very outward act of Washing is of so great moment with God that though it were the holyest Persons or their Seed a mistake or a delay or surprize of Death will damn them if they be not Baptized or Martyred This tendeth to Subject all to the Mercy and Dominion of the Priests that they may seem more necessary to Salvation than they are or at least their external Forms by Lay-men or Women Baptizers administred Constantine himself the Churches great Deliverer was not Baptized till near his Death Are they sure that he was till then in a state of Damnation and had been Damned if he had so Died Methinks in gratitude the Church of Rome should have cast him no lower than the Torments of Purgatory The Eight and Thirtieth accused Point That the Sacrament of Confirmation is not necessary nor to be used Ans You may so mean by the Word Sacrament and Confirmation as that we do deny them And you may so mean as that we are more for them than you are 1. If by a Sacrament you mean one of Gods Institution appointed by him to be his Solemn Delivery and Investiture in a state of Christianity or necessary Grace and if by Confirmation you mean Arch-Bishops anointing Infants or Ignorant Children or Persons with hallowed Oyl compounded once a year and his Ceremonious boxing them and such other Formalities then we deny that such Confirmation is any such Sacrament nor is necessary or to be used because Holy things are not to be mortyfied and profaned 2. But if by a Sacrament you mean but a Solemn renewal of our Covenant with God in Christ and by Confirmation you must that those Baptized in Infancy should at due Age understandingly under the Pastors hand or Care profess their serious personal Consent to that Covenant which by others they imputatively made in Baptism we are so far from denying this that we think till this Solemn personal Covenanting and owning their Baptism with understanding and seeming seriousness be made the Entrance into the state of Adult Church Communion the woful Corruption of the Church is never to be well healed but while one side turn Confirmation into a dead Shadow and Mockery and the Anabaptists scandalized Heresie are all for Rebaptizing instead of Confirmation Prophanation and Schism will gratifie Satan You know that the English Bishops practise Confirmation and the Liturgy describeth it as I here do And are the Church of England no Protestants And divers Protestant Non-Conformists here have about 29 and 30 years ago written full Treatises for Confirmation The Nine and Thirtieth accused Point That the Bread of the Supper of our Lord was but a Figure or Remembrance of the Body of Christ received by Faith and not his true and very Body Ans 1. Protestants hold that as all words are to be taken according to the usage of the Subject or Science that they are used about Physical Terms Physically Rhetorical Rhetorically Geometrical Astronomical Arithemetical accordingly Law Terms according to Law and Moral and Theological Terms Morally and Theologically so if as Naturalists we ask what the matter of that Sacrament is we say Bread and Wine If as Moralists and Theologues we say it is the Body and Blood of Christ As if you ask of a Gold and Silver Coyn what it is in a Natural Sence we say
must understandingly joyn Doth their Priest celebrate their Mass alone out of the peoples sight or hearing in a Sanctuary while they are in the outer Court Do not their people assemble to their Mass Will they stand to it that their Church renounceth all worship of God in Holy Assemblies save by the Priest alone And is this the Holy Catholick Church And the man here professedly calls the Priests solitary action the publick Service which is for the people and not by them and therefore they need not understand and all the peoples Prayers are private and should be understood so that the Mystery opened either the Priest is all the Church or else they have no publick Church Service if they must meet that every one may have a secret Prayer of his own and may only see the Priests Service called publick And by this he pretends that he answereth Paul 1 Cor. 14. Adding most shamelesly 1. That it seemeth there by the Text that the common Service of the Church was not then in a Tongue commonly understood 2. Because there was one to supply the place of the Ideots to say Amen where he saith that the Geneva-men most deceitfully and maliciously Translated He that is an Ideot how shall he say Amen And raileth at them for putting So be it O! what is man and how incredible is the pretended infallible Clergy that can expect that all men trust their Souls on such palpable deceit When St. Paul spent a great part of the Chapter to disswade those that by Inspiration could speak strange Languages that they should not use them in the Church as being unedifying or at least not without an Interpreter this man gathers that the common Service was in an unknown Tongue As if this disswaded use of some Prophets gift were the common Service 2. And when he disswadeth them from Praying in an unknown Tongue or giving thanks in it saying else how can he that occupieth the Room of the unlearned say Amen this man feigneth that yet they were to give thanks in an unknown Tongue and one was to supply the place of the Ideot or unlearned in saying Amen See vers 23. Paul would have all say Amen this man says one was to do it for them Paul argueth that therefore they must speak to the understanding of the unlearned This man turneth his own words against him Doth his Supplier of the Ideots place himself understand or not If not Paul saith How can he say Amen If he do how doth he supply the place of the Ideots that are supposed should say Amen and cannot For the sake of this Chapter and Instance I shall never think any words so plain that Papists cannot turn against their most evident sense But what is the Man's pretence for this erroneous Confidence Why the Vulgar Latine Translateth it Qui supplet locum instead of Qui implet locum And that Latin Translator by supplet meant the same as implet possidet vel tenet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is well known to signifie to fill up Their own Expositors are many of them for the Sence which this Doctor chargeth as deceitfully and maliciously given Cornelius a Lapide saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Denuo implere vel simul Communiter omnes implere to fill again or all together or in common to fill It is not Qui supplet vicem indocti but Qui locum occupat inter in doctos or Idiotae locum tenet And so it is expounded by the ancients Chrysostom Occumenius Theophysact And are not these Roman Priests notoriously Perjured that all Swear to expound the Scripture according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers when as besides that the Fathers have but few of them written Commentaries on the Scriptures there are very few of them that unanimously agree of the Sence of the one half of the Scripture Texts but either say nothing of them or differ And not only in this but in most points named by this Doctors Touchstone he and others go flat against them And what meaneth the man to rail at them that say So be it instead of Amen Is it not a true Translation But he will prove that it should not be Translated and consequently that Servict may be said in an unknown Tongue for Amen is not Greek but Hebrew Ans 1 Who can stand before these Arguments if they be but backt with Guns and Swords or Smithfield Fires which are too hot for any Answer save Patience He may also prove it from Christs Words on the Cross Eloi Eloi Lamasabacthani For Christ was now the most publick Priest and was offering the most publick Service by his Sacrifice Ergo the publick Service should be in an unknown Tongue And it may be they may find some other untranslated word that shall confute not only all the Bible but all the Septuagint and Vulgar Latine Translations But seeing these Men's Arguments are too hot for me to answer as they might know that the Church of England refuseth not AMEN so neither will I though as I can prove that the Corinthian Church were Hebrews and Gentiles mixt and that Amen was understood by both so Protestants use it as a word understood From the Serpents Seed and his deceiving subtil Lies From Cain and his Successours and the malignant and Blood-thirsty Enemies of Abels faithful acceptable worship from such a worldly and fleshly Sacred Generation as take gain for Godliness and make their worldly carnal interest the Standard of their Religion and their proud Domination to pass for the Kingdom of Christ From an Vsurping Vice-Christ whose ambition is so boundless as to extend to the Prophetical Priestly and Kingly Headship over all the Earth even at the Antipodes and to that which is proper to God himself and our Redeemer From a Leprous Sect which Condemneth the far greatest part of all Christs Church on Earth and separateth from them and calleth it self the whole and only Church From that Church that decreeth Destruction to all that renounce not all humane Sense by believing that Bread is not Bread nor that Wine is Wine but Christs very Flesh and Blood who now hath properly no Flesh and Blood but a Spiritual Body and that decreeth the Excommunication Deposition and Damnation of all Princes that will not exterminate all such and absolveth their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance From that Beast whose Mark is PER Perjury Perfidiousness and Persecution and that think they do God acceptable Service by killing his Servants or tormenting them and that Religion which feedeth on Christs Flesh by Sacrificing those that he calleth his Flesh and Bones Ephes 5 From the infernal Dragon the Father of Lies Malice and Murder and all his Ministers and Kingdom of Darkness GOOD LORD make haste to deliver thy Flock and confirm their Faith Hope Patience and their Joyful desire of the great true final Glorious Deliverance AMEN AMEN AMEN FINIS This Book was delivered by Mr. Baxter himself to the
it is Gold and Silver But if you ask in a Civil Political and Law-Sence we say it is a 20 s. piece a Jacobus a Carolus piece or it is a Crown or a Shilling So we say that Sacramentally and Morally and Relatively that which is naturally true Bread and Wine is yet also the true Body and Blood of Christ And we say not that it is only a Figure and Remembrance but it is such a Figure as is Representatively his very Flesh and Blood And it is to Deliver to us and Invest us in a Spiritual Vnion with Christ himself and right to his saving Grace A proxy that as Representative of a Prince Marrieth a Foreign Lady is more than a Remembrance and so is his Image if it be used in the Marriage A Key or a Twig and Turf by which Investiture in House and Land is delivered and a Staff and Ring by which Bishopricks were of old delivered by Investiture are all more than a bare Remembrance 2. As to your implied Doctrine of Transubstantiation that after the words of Consecration there is left no real Bread and Wine it is Copiously and undenyably proved a Novel Doctrine so monstrous as if it had been formed to engage Mankind in a Renunciation of Christianity Humanity and common Senses and to be an obliging profession of this Renunciation It is enough for us to believe that after the true Consecration it is no more meer Bread and Wine as after the Coyning a 20 s. Piece a Crown or a Noble or an Angel it is not meer Gold but the said named Coyn. But if ever Satan shewed himself a Dragon under the Name of an Angel of Light it was when he made the Canons of the 4th Laterane General Council under Innocent the 3d. that set up Transubstantiation and the Murdering of all that deny it of deposing Princes that will not exterminate them This adjuncts and effects will shew the difference between this Counterfeit Sacrament and Christ Christs Sacrament was instituted to be a Sacrament and Covenant of dearest Love between God and Man and one another But as Satan when he Covenanteth with Witches to sell him their Souls must have it sealed by his sucking their Blood so the seal that he set to the Monster of Transubstantiation was that his Church and it must live by the blood of those that own it not But what will convince men that by Noise and Worldly Interest have Conquered all that is proper to a man yea or a living sensible Animal 1. They pretend Christs Words This is my Body when they know that it was his ordinary parabolical phrase and they will take this Physically and singularly as different from all the rest Tho' he say I am the Door I am the Vine and ye are the Branches and my Father is the Husband-man and the Field is the World and the Tares are the Children of the Wicked one and the Harvest is the end of the World and the Reapers are the Angels they that received the Seed by the High-way are they that c. And so he speaketh usually 2. They know that in 1 Cor. 11. Paul calls it Bread after the Consecration three times in the three next Verses And would they have Burnt Paul for a Heretick What can they devise against these plain words 3. They sentence all to Death and Hell that will believe their Eyes Taste Feeling or any Sense of themselves and all others that perceiveth true Bread and Wine after Consecration 4. Hereby they make God as Creator the Grand Deceiver of the World by deluding all Men's Senses 5. And hereby they overthrow all certainty of Faith Divine and Humane For Sense and Humanity are before Faith and Christianity and their perception presupposed And if Sense be presupposed fallible yea false Faith must needs be so For we are not sure that ever we saw a Book or Man or Light or heard man speak or what he saith And how can he believe Gods Word or the Popes or Priests that is not sure that ever he heard or saw them 6. They feign every sottish filthy Priest to work more Miracles at his pleasure by his transubstantiating than Christ or his Apostles did 7. They enable a drunken Priest to undoe Bakers and Vintners by saying the words of Consecration Intentione Consecrandi over all their Bread and Wine And then they have none left 8. They feign Christ to have eaten his own Body by his Body and either that the same Body did eat it self or that he had two Bodies that did eat neither 9. They feign that his whole Body did eat his broken Body and that his Disciples did eat it before it was broken and drank his shed Blood before it was shed 10. When two General Councils C.P. the 5th and Nice the 2d tell us that Christs body in Heaven now is not Flesh and Blood and Paul saith 1 Cor. 15 that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God yet they maintain that Christ hath had these 1600 years a body of Flesh and Blood 11. They feign abundance of Accidents without subject Substances that are the Accidents Quantity Quality c. of nothing 12. They feign a sottish Priest to make his Maker day by day 13. When Christ saith He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood shall live for ever they feign the most wicked men to eat his Flesh and drink his Blood 14. They feign Mice to eat God 15. They feign every wicked man to eat his God and digest part of him into his own Flesh and Blood and cast out the other part into the Jakes 16. They teach men to commit Idolatry by worshiping Bread as God 17. All this is enforced by Fire and Sword against the Blood of Holy men 18. All this is Novel Heresie contrary to the Doctrine of the Universal Church for a Thousand years after Christ and more 19. It 's contrary to Paul's Quere 1 Cor. 12. Are all workers of Miracles understood Negatively 20. It 's feigned a sufficient ground to depose Princes and destroy whole Lands But these things and specially the forged Miracles of the Transubstantiation are more largely confuted in many Treatises What hope of ending any Controversies with Papists that agree not with us in the credit of Senses as Heathens do Can we bring any Controversie to a plainer issue than to all Men's common Senses about due Objects and due Mediums And is there any disputing where no principle is agreed on The Fortieth accused Point That we ought to receive under both kinds and that one alone is not sufficient Ans It concerneth them that deny this either to keep men from Reading Gods Word or to tell them it is false and the Pope's is true that contradicteth it What is a flat defyance of God or his Word if this be not Christ saith Math. 26.27 28. Drink ye all of it For this is my Blood of the New-Testament which is shed for many for the remission of
highly to gratifie or please him offered to expiate some Crime that displeaseth him or by pleasing to procure some benefit from him Among Heathens and Jews there were various sorts of Sacrifices Some Hilastical some Eucharistical Some of things Lifeless and some of Living Creatures where strictly part was burnt and so offered to God and part given to the Priest and part eaten by the Offerers We hold 1. That Jesus Christ offered his Body on the Cross a Sacrifice to God for the expiation of Sin as a thing pleasing to God in a sence which no other Sacrifice ever was or is not that God delighted in his Blood Pain or Death as such but as finis gratiâ it was the most excellent means to demonstrate his Wisdom Love Justice and Mercy and save a sinful race of men with the honour of his Law and Government 2. We hold that Christ hath instituted his Sacrament to be a visible Representation of this his Sacrifice both for Commemoration and for actual Investiture and Collation of Christ to be our Saviour and Head in Union and of his Grace and Benefits Pardon Reconciliation Adoption Justification Sanctification and Title to Glory And we know that the ancient Churches called this often a Sacrifice Not in the same sence as Christ was our Sacrifice nor as the Mosaical Types were Sacrifices but a Representative Sacrifice representing Christs own But we are the shier to use the name Sacrifice where Papists apply it to Idolatry 3. We know that all Christians are bound to dedicate themselves to God and even to lay down their Lives when he requireth it and bound to offer him penitent Confession Praise Thanksgiving and to give Alms to the poor and serve and honour him with all their Wealth and Power And all these are called Sacrifices in Scripture because they are sacred oblations acceptable to God through the merits of Christs Sacrifice Is not this man a Calumniator then that faith we hold that there is not in the Church a true and proper Sacrifice unless he call none true and proper but what no man can offer to God But what say we to the Sacrifice of the Mass We say that for the Priest to pretend that after his words Bread is turned into Christs Flesh in a Physical sence and Wine into his Blood and that this is our God and that he sacrificeth this God to God and eateth and drinketh him so sacrificed and that all that so receive him have Eternal Life This is a prophanation of Holy things a deceiving of Souls a blaspheming of Christ and Idolatry against God And all sacrificing in their Mass that is more than a Representation of Christs own sacrificing himself for Commemoration and Communication of the gifts of his Testament and the expression of our Gratitude and Devotedness to God by him is their own prophane invention How do they offer his broken body and blood shed any otherwise than Representatively unless they kill him and eat him when he is Dead It was only a Representation of his own sacrificed Body and Blood which he made at the Sacrament himself not then broken and shed but to be broken slain and shed soon after unless he had two bodies one dead and one alive The Sacrament indeed was called a Sacrifice by the ancient Churches to signifie that it is not Christs body as now glorified in Heaven that is there Represented but his body as once flesh and blood sacrificed on the Cross And how can it be that but by Representation sacrificing it was killing it Do they kill Christ a thousand thousand times over yea and kill his Gloryfied body He hath no existent Flesh and Blood in Heaven speaking properly and formally but a Spiritual glorified body that was Flesh and Blood on Earth And doth every Priest turn Christs Spiritual glorified body into Flesh and Blood again O what a Mass of prophanation is their Mass Tho Two and Fortieth accused Point That Sacramental Vnction is not to be used to the Sick Ans In those Hot-Countries anointing their bodies was used as a great refreshment for Delight and Health And Christ and his Apostles applyed it to the Miraculous use of Healing as Christ did Clay and Spittle to a blind Man And while that miraculous use continued St. James bids those that are sick as a punishment for some sin to send for the Elders of the Church that they may pray for the pardon of his sin and for his recovery and anoint him with Oil and if he have not sinned unto Death that is a Capital Crime which God would have Magistrates punish with Death and will do so himself his Sin shall be forgiven and he shall be healed See now the Malice of the Prince of Darkness He that tempteth men to cast out half the substance of the Lords Supper meerly to shew what they can and will and dare do against his Word and tempteth men to forbid the very Scripture it self yet to undoe he will overdoe and draw men to be wise and Righteous over much Who would think these men are against the sufficiency of Scripture that will turn its temporary occasional actions into perpetual Sacraments They make Conscience of washing Feet of bearing Palms of the Holy-Kiss but on the Pax and a Sacrament of anointing the sick And why they make not a Sacrament of anointing the Blind with Clay and Spittle of washing at Jordan or Siloam Pools and of the said Kiss and washing of Feet of bearing Palms of the Popes Riding on an Ass c. I know not But for the Name of a Sacrament bring first a Military and then a Church Term not used in Scripture we will not quarrel with them They may laxly extend it to almost any Ceremony or sign Religiously used rightly or wrongly But 1. They use that to the Dying when they judge them past hope which St. James spake of using for Recovery 2. They use that as an ordinary thing which was to be used only for miraculous Cures and yet shew not that they have the Faith or gift of Miracles nor cure any by it 3. They force men to that feigned Sacrament now ceased with that gift which was used to none but such as Voluntarily desired it Why are they not conâ—â—â—â—ed to use it themselves but they must force all others to it as necessary What Man Woman or Child do you read of in all the New-Testament that was anointed in order to Death save a Woman that meant no such thing that anointed Christ in Health Where read you that Dragoons or Inquisitors inforced it and draged naked the bodies through the Streets and Buryed them in Dunghils or where Dogs may eat them if they refuse it Whose Sacraments can we think are these The Three and Fortieth accused Point That no Interior Grace is given by Imposition of hands in Holy Orders And that ordinary Vocation and Mission of Pastors is not necessary in the Church Ans Contrarily the Reformed Catholicks hold
The Church hath two sorts of Government One by the Word of God and the Keys called Ecclesiastical The other by the Sword called Princely or Magistratical We never had King or Queen that claimed the former and none but Enemies of Government deny the latter Queen Elizabeth and all our Kings since have publickly disclaimed the Priest by Office of Words Keys and Sacraments which maketh the Clergy Tryers and Judges what to Preach and whom to Baptize and receive to Church Communion absolve or Excommunicate But ask this Deceiver Must the Church have none to Govern by the Sword All Christians are the Church and so all Christian Princes are deposed because they are Christians Or must the Clergy have no such Government over them Yes the Pope say the Papal Canons he is Sword-bearer over the Clergy So you see what Church-power is come to But I trow few Papist Kings will grant that they have no Sword-Government over the Clergy lest every Priest be Master of their Houses Wives and Lives The King is no Physicain or Philosopher no Architect Shipwright Pilot c. but may he not be King and Ruler of all these He is no Clergy-man or Priest but the Ruler of the Clergy But they say it must not be in Causes Ecclesiastical Ans Causes Ecclesiastical have two sorts of Government in order to two Ends. As if one be accused for Preaching against God or Christ or the Life to come or for Perjury Adultery Murder c. Here the Bishops are Judges and the Church whether this man be Guilty in order to his Communion or Excommunication or admonition But the King and his Judges are to Judge whether he be Guilty and so whether to be Imprisoned Fined Banished c. so far as Causes of Religion or Church are to be punished by the Sword the King is Head or Governour and Judge who would think that a sort of men that deny this should have the Face to say that they are Loyal to Kings or any forcing Government Must Kings Burn or Kill as many Thousands at the Popes command as the Pope will call Hereticks and yet never have power to judge whether they are such and do deserve it O! how much worse than Hangmen would such men make all Kings and Magistrates Was not all the Christian World in a sad case then when the Pope was under the Arrian Goths and the Subject of a Foreign Arian must Rule all Kings and Kingdoms No man of Brains can be ignorant that Popedom or Prelacy do not always make men mortified Saints that oft have been scarce Men much less Christians nor that the Prince hath a great Power both in Choosing and Ruling the Clergy that are his Subjects It fell out happily that Theodorick the Arian and divers Spanish Arian Kings were an honest sort of men but sure they were very mighty Princes at Rome when one Subject of an Arrian Goth was Ruler of all the Kings and Souls on Earth de jure say our Deceivers And if the Turk should possess Rome as he doth C.P. all Kings and Nations must be subject to his Subject And what Power he hath over the four Patriarks of C.P. Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem is too well known And when Baronius Binnius c. tell us of famous Whores Marozia and Theodora that made and Ruled and unmade Popes how was the World Governed As it was said by a Lord Mayors Child that he Ruled all London saying my Father Ruleth London and my Mother Ruleth my Father and I Rule my Mother so might it be said these Whores Ruled all the Kings and Nations of Christians on Earth if the Roman claim be Currant for they made and Ruled Popes that claimed the Rule of all the World O! how much greater was a Roman Whore Marozia Theodora c. than Pallas Venus or the great Diana of the Ephesians But the mischief was that they were mutable and could unmake a Pope as well as make him and set the City and Country by the Ears as Aequa Venus Teucris Pallas iuiqua fuit And if all Kings must be Subjects to the Subject or Chaplains of him that can win Rome let us wish that he may not be a Mahometan Pagan or Arian And why said I an Arian when an Anti-arian Pope can Murder Christians by Thousands when a Theodorick would not have hurt them The Thirteenth Point accused That Antichrist shall not be a particular man and the Pope is Antichrist Ans This is Popish Stating Cases Protestants find in the Creed the Name of Christ but not the Name of Antichrist and therefore while they know and trust Christ they think it not necessary to Salvation to know Antichrist But they believe Christ who said that many should come in his Name saying I am Christ and deceive many even before the Destruction of the Jews and rhey believe St. John that said there are many Antichrists already The Fathers and Papists say there is some one Great Antichrist to come towards the end of the World Most Protestants think it is Antichrist that is described in 2 Thes 2. and Rev. 12.13 17. To confute King James Bishop George Downame Dr. Henry More above all Mr. Mede Cluverus Grasserus c. will require more than this Writers Impertinencies There are many Protestants that think it a meer mistake that there will be any one Antichrist so Eminent as to obscure all the rest And they pretend not to judge of Antichrist by the Apocalyps but by the Ten Commandments and all the Gospel And they believe that he is Antichrist that usurpeth Christs Prerogative and yet opposeth his Kingdom And such they think the Eastern Antichrist Mahomet is the most notorious and the Western Antichrist the Pope is his Second in that he claimeth Christs Prerogative of Governing all Nations of the Earth as Vice-Christ and yet by Lies Malice and Blood suppresseth his true Gospel Grace and Kingdom confute this if you can Amending would be your best defence We doubt not but Antichrists past have been Individual men such was Barchocheba and some say Herod and some Dioclesian but undoubtedly Mahomet And if the Pope be the Western Antichrist it is the Individual Popes that are such but many of those Individuals may make a Succession of Antichristian Policy Answer Dr. More and Cluveruâ— of this if you are able We lay not our opposition to Popery chiefly on the dark Revelation Prophecy or on the question Who is the Antichrist But on the plain Word of God If we find a Succession of men claiming Omnipotency and Christs Prerogative to Govern all Kings and Nations on Earth and this by bare and base Vsurpation and Novelty and find these men set up their numerous false treasonable inhumane Canons and forbid and revile Gods Law and Word and find them turning Gods Worship into unintelligible Mummery and Stage-Shows and Ceremony and find them living at Leeches on Blood yea on the Blood of Thousands of the best Christians and damning and
separating from the far greater part of the Christian World because they refuse Subjection to this usurping Vice-Christ and judging all to Fire and Ruine that renounce not all humane Senses and worship not Bread pretended to be deifyed by daily numerous Miracles of the basest Priests and deposing Kings that will not be such Executioners and justifying their Subjects in Perjury and Rebellion We will not differ with you for the Name whether you will call those that are such Antichrists or Diabolists Whether such a State be the Babylon or far worse as sinning against more Light and by more horrid abuse of the Name of Christ against himself The Fourteenth accused Point That no man nor any but God can forgive or retain Sins Ans False as undistinguished We hold 1. That to forgive Sin being the forgiving of the Punishment of Sin and the obligation thereto 1. Parents may on just cause forgive Corrective punishment to their Children and Masters to their Servants 2. Magistrates may on just cause forgive Corporal punishment to Subjects 3. Equals may forgive Injuries to Friends and Enemies 4. Pastors may on just cause forgive the Church penalties of Excommunication which they had power to inflict And all the Flock must forgive and receive the penitent accordingly 5. When a Sinner by Faith and Repentance truly performeth the Condition of Gods pardon expressed in Scripture the Ministers of Christ are by Office authorized to declare and pronounce him pardoned by God and by the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper to Invest him in a pardoned State by delivering him a Sealed pardon But only Suppositively If his Faith and Repentance be sincere else he hath not Gods pardon of the Divine Punishment This is all true and plain and enough But we detest their Doctrine that say 1. That men can pardon the Spiritual and Eternal Punishment any otherwise than consequently declaring and delivering Gods pardon which shall hold good if the Priest refuse to declare or deliver it 2. Or that Popes or Priests pardon Purgatory pains and Masses and Money and the Redundance of Saints Merits and pleasing the Pope conduce thereto But if you will Speak so absurdly as to say that if the King send a pardon to a Traytor or Murderer the Messenger pardoned him we leave you to your phrases None of the Texts or Fathers cited speak for any more than what we hold The Pastors are to declare men pardoned that God pardoneth And while they so judge according to Gods Word it is pardoned in Heaven But not if they pardon the wicked and impenitent The Fifteenth accused Point That we ought not to confess our Sins to any man but to God only Ans This is a mere impudent Lie 1. We ought to confess our Sin to the Magistrate at his Judicature when we are justly accused of it 2. And to those that we have injured when it is needful to repair the wrong or to procure their forgiveness 3. And to those that we have tempted into Sin or encouraged in it when it is needful to their Repentance 4. And to some faithful bosome Friend when it is needful that such know our Faults that they may watch over us or advise us or pray for our pardon and deliverance 5. And when in Sickness danger of Death or other Affliction we get the Pastors of the Church to pray for us we should confess our Sin to them that they may know on what cause they speak to God for our forgiveness 6. And in any case of Guilt Trouble Fear or Difficulty in which we need the Pastors Counsel for our safety ease and peace of Conscience our selves and other Friends being insufficient hereto we should confess our Sins to the Pastors whose advice we seek As a Patient must truly open his Case to his Physician and a Clyent to his Councellor if he will not be deceived by deceiving them Is all this no Confession But Protestants believe not 1. That we must go to a Physician for every Flea-biting or Scratch or Cut-Finger or to a Lawyer to give him an account of all our Actions Money ot Lands nor to Priests in cases that our selves or ordinary Friends can safely and satisfactorily resolve 2. Nor that our Confessor must needs be a Papist Priest or one chosen by the Pope or our Enemies and not by our selves 3. Nor that we must open all our Secrets to him or make any Confession which will do more hurt than good nor over far to trust the Fidelity of a Knave nor a suspected or untryed person 4. And we have reason to suspect them that are importunate to know our Secrets 5. And when Confession is required as in order to obtain a false forged pardon and to set up the Domination of Usurpers over men's Consciences and over the World it 's then unlawful If Protestants would force Papists to confess all their secret Sins to them would not this same Deceiver say it were unlawful The Sixteenth accused Point That Pardons and Indulgences were not in the Apostles time Ans Another meer Lie as undistinguished Such Pardons as I before owned were in the Apostles times But the Popish feigned pardons were not The Seventeenth accused Point That the actions and passions of the Saints do serve for nothing to the Church Ans Most impudent calumny and falsehood 1. We hold that the Prayers of all the Saints on Earth are of great importance for the Churches welfare 2. And that their Doctrine Counsel and Reproof is so too they being the Lights of the World and the Salt of the Earth 3. And that their Example is of greaâ— benefit to the Church and World whiâ—â— their Light so shineth before men that theâ— may see their good works and glorifie theâ—â— Father which is in Heaven 4. And their Charitable Works of themselves sure are beneficial to the Church And so is their Defence of the Truth 5. And their Sufferings Glorifie Gods Power and his promises of reward and they encourage others to Victorious Constancy Do all these serve for nothing to the Church 6. Yea we are so far from holding what he feigneth that it is not the least cause of our hatred of Popery that it liveth by the Defamations Slander Persecution and cruel Murder of Saints 7. Yea as Abels Blood cryed against Cain so the Blood of Martyrs and dead Saints cryeth for Vengeance against the Persecutors of the Church 8. And seeing Christ saith that the Children of the Resurrection are like or equal to the Angels we have reason to believe that even now they are perfected Spirits Heb. 12.24 And knowing that Angels are very serviceable and beneficial to the Church on Earth we know not how far the Spirits of the just are so too But we have a sufficient Mediator and Advocate with the Father whose Sacrifice Merits and Advocation are perfect and need no supplement And the Spirits of the just do praise him as saved by his Merits and never boast that they