Narrative which we may find exemplyfied in Mr. Rush. Collections from p 438. to 462. assirmeth that he thrice complained of Mr. Mountagues Arminian Book but he was held up against him by the prevalence of the Duke of Buckingham who magnified him as a well-deserving man that the whole Narrative if he that will read shall have a key put into his hand to unlock several misteries of our Church declining and a character of the men who were most busie to advance the Remonstrant opinions Laud The Doctrine of Praedestination is the root of Puritanism and Puritanism the root of all rebellious and disobedient untractableness in Parliaments and of all schism and sauciness in the Countrey nay in the Church it self this hath made many thousands of our people and too great a part of our Gentry Laytons in their hearts Last Parliament they left their Word Religion and the Cause of Religion and begun to use the name of Church and our Articles of the Church of England and wounded our Church at the very heart with her own name Dr. Brooks his Letter to the Archbishop extant in Can. Doome p. 167. there were then some who were tantum non in Episcopatu Puritani they saw their holy cause would not succeed by opposition therefore they came up and seemed to close with the Church of England in her Discipline to use the Cross and wear the Clothes but for her Doctrine they wave it preach against it teach contrary to what they had subscribed that so through foraign Doctrine being infused secretly and instilled cunningly and pretended craftily to be the Churches at length they might wind in with foraign Discipline also and so fill'd Christendem with Popes in every Parish for the Church and with Popular Democracies and Democratical Anarchies in State App. p. 111. el 43 44. Pacif. The wrathful expressions you are continually using against the Puritans do not work the righteousness of God and they are the more to be disliked because it is sufficiently known that Puritans have been as conscientious as any that ever lived in our Church Laud Puritanism had indeed a form of godliness but denyed the power and for any thing I can discern is as dangerous as Popery the only difference being Popery is for Tyrannie Puritanism for Anarchy Popery is original of Superstition Puritanism the high way to profaneness both alike enemies unto piety Ap. p. 320 321. Pacif. Puritanism the way to profaness How came it then to pass that there was so little of profaneness in Puritans so much of it in those who gloried in their Anti-Puritanism but I leave this to be decided by the Judge of quick and dead who shall render to all according to what they have done in the flesh How is it that of late years you have learned to call all Puritans who will not say a confederacy with you in your Popish and Arminian Errors which have been so generally reputed contrary to the Doctrine of our Church Laud What you call Error that seems to me to be Truth and because the doubts hung in the Church of England unto the Publick Doctrine of the Church of England do I appeal contained in those two authorized and by all subscribed Books of the Articles and Divine Services of the Church let that which is against them on Gods Name be branded with Error and as Error be ignominiously spunged out App. p. 9. Pacif. What ever is against the Word of God or contrary to any opinion which hath been maintained in the Catholick Church by all in all places at all times I am content should be called an error but you know I hope that no Church of Particular Denomination is Infallible and therefore I shall not grant that whatever is against the Tendries of the Church of England is erroneous for I know that our first Reformers and the Composers of our publick Records of Doctrine did place the Nature of Faith in Assurance or a perswasion that our sins are actually pardoned which you will grant to be a mistake but a mistake that was scarce seen by any till of late except Mr. John Fox who indeed placed the Nature of Faith in Recumbence nevertheless in those matters wherein you and I differ I am very willing to be tryed by the Articles and Lyturgy but then I premise this that I take the Homilies to be part of our Churches Lyturgy for the Rubrique in the Communion Office speaks affirmative enough After the Creed shall follow one of the Homilies and the Preface to the first Book of Homilies commandeth all Parsons Vicars Curates c. every Sunday and Holy-day in the year c. after the Gospel and Creed in such order and place as is appointed in the Book of Common-Prayer to read one of the said Homilies Evidently implying as Mr. Lestrange notes they were no more to be omitted then any other part of the Service but where the Rubrique gives a toleration Laud I willingly admit the Homilies as containing certain godly and wholesome exhortations to move the people to honor and worship Almighty God but not as the publick Dogmatical resolutions confirmed by the Church of England the 33. Article giveth them to contain godly and wholesom Doctrine and necessary for these times which they may do though they have not Dogmatical Positions or Doctrine to be propagated and subscribed in all and every point as the Books of Articles and of Common-Prayer have They may seem to speak somewhat too hardly and stretch some sayings beyond the use and practice of the Church of England both then and now and yet what they speak may receive a fair or at least a tolerable construction and mitigation well enough App. 260. Paeif I am glad to hear you acknowledge that the Homilies do contein certain godly and wholesom exhortations which if all had thought we had not been pestered with a vain discourse pretended to be made by a Lady in defence of Auxiliary Beauty or Artificial handsomeness the which are so expresly condemned by the Homily against excess in Apparel But I am sorry to find you saying that the Homilies are not the avowed Doctrine of the Church for the Preface tells us they were set forth for the expelling of erroneous and poisonous Doctrines and more fully the Orders of K. James The Homiles are set forth by authority in the Church of England not only for a help of non-preaching but withall as it were a pattern for preaching-ministers I have read among the Romanists that there is fides temporum a Faith that followeth the Times It is no marvel saith Cusanus though the practise of the Church expound the Scripture at one time one way and at another time another way for the understanding or sence of the Scripture runneth with the practise and that sense so agreeing with the practise is the quickning Spirit and therefore the Scriptures follow the Church but contrariwise the Church followeth not the Scriptures ad Bohem. Epist. 7.
saying St. Laurence pray for me Gagg p. 200. 'T is most probable there are Angel keepers if thus my self resolved do infer Holy Angel-keeper pray for me I see no reason to be taxed with point of Popery or Superstition much less of absurdity or impiety Invocation of Saints p. 99. in principio Save all other labour in this point prove but only this their knowledge of any thing ordinarily I promise you straight I will say Holy St. Mary pray for me Answ. to Gagg p. 229. Pacif. Here are sundry things wherein you seem to me to depart from our Church and from Scripture which is worse for to pray St. Laurence pray for me in such a sense as the Papists do must needs be great impiety no less than Idolatry because they do ascribe that unto the creature which is only proper unto the Creator I judge it also absurd and impious to pray to the Angel Gardian to pray for us for 't is not possible that any one without a Revelation from Heaven should attain to any certainty that there are any Angel Gardians and to go upon opinion and probability in my prayers is impiety but I do not in the least think that if it were proved that the Saints departed had knowledge ordinarily of what we do and are that therefore we might presently pray to them to pray for us If you ask me why not as well as to the Saints on the earth the Homily will answer for me Part. 2. p. 116. Christ our only Mediator is sufficient in Heaven and needeth no others to help him Why then do we pray one for another in this life some men may perhaps here demand Forsooth we are willed so to do by the express Commandment both of Christ and his Disciples to declare as well the Faith that we have in Christ towards God as also the mutual charity that we bear one towards another in that we pity our brothers case and make our Petition to God for him But that we should pray unto Saints neither have we any Commandment in Scipture nor yet example which we may safely follow so that being done without authority of Gods Word it lacketh the ground of Faith and therefore cannot be acceptable to God For what soever is not of faith is sin And the Apostle saith That faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Yet thou wilt object further That the Saints in Heaven pray for us and that their prayer proceedeth of an earnest charity that they have toward their Brethren on earth Whereto it may well be answered First that no man knoweth whether they do pray for us or no And if any man will go about to prove it by the nature of charity concluding that because they did pray for men on earth therefore they do much more now in heaven then may it be said by the same reason that as oft as we do weep on earth they do also weep in Heaven because while they lived in this world it is most certain and sure they did so And whereas some of late have much endeavoured to re-introduce into our Church the antiquated custom of praying for the dead I shall only say at present there is nothing in any of our Articles Homilies Lyturgies enjoyning or so much as approving or commending Prayer for the dead there is rather something that makes against any such kind of prayer Part. 2. of Homil. p. 116. The like I say about Canonical hours of Prayer no mention made of them by our Church therefore no obligation upon us to observe and yet 1637. there was a Sermon printed with Licence by one Mr Wats who would needs perswade us That King David observed all Canonical hours for these are his words upon that speech of the Royal Psalmist Psal. 119. 62. At midnight will I arise to give thanks unto thee Mark here that he praised not God lying but used to rise to do it at other hours the Saints may sing aloud on their beds but when a Canonical hours comes of which mid-night was one David will rise to his Devotion the morning watch was another Canonical hour And this David was so careful to observe that he oft-times waked before it Psal. 149. 5. Were this true I should think it were a fault not to appoint some one to awake me at midnight that I might rise up out of my bed to put up some prayers unto my Creator but till there be some proofs of such Canonical hours I shall bless God for undisturbed rest and sleep Laud It seems by Clement Epis. ad Corin. p. 52 53. edit. Junia that no small part of that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or good order required by St. Paul whose mind he might best know as one of his Disciples 1 Cor. 14. 40. doth consist in the due observing of those times and hours limited and prescribed by authority for our prayers and devotions The use of Dayly Publick Prayers printed 1641. p. 5. Pacif. How much the scope of this place is mistaken might easily be shewn but I refer any learned man to the Observations of Mr. William Burton upon that Epistle p 77 78. I think the main that Christians are now to look after is that when they pray they pray for things agreeable to Gods Word and with fervency Laud There is but one thing in the world that God hates besides sin that is indifferency and lukewarmness which although it hath not in it the direct nature of sin yet it hath this testimony from God that it is loathsom and abominable and excepting this thing alone God never said so of any thing in the New Testament but what was a direct breach of a Commandment Dr. Tayl. Ret. of Prayer p 61. Pacif. I am glad to hear you say that luke-warmness and indifferency in Religion are loathsom to God but wonder to find you averring that these have not in them the direct nature of sin or that they are not a direct breach of a Commandment for doth not the Commandment require that we serve God with all our might strength and power Are we not commanded to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord nor do I think that God would hate these tempers if they were not directly sinful and direct breaches of his Law Laud Christians consider that God forbad to the Jews the very having and making images and representments not only of the true God or of the false and imaginary Deities but of visible Creatures which because it was but of temporary reason and relative consideration of their aptness to superstition and their conversing with Idolatrous Nations was a command proper to that Nation part of their Covenant not of eternal indispensable reason not of that which we usually call the Law of Nature Grand exem part 2. p. 111. Pacif. I do not think that God ever forbad to the Jews all images or representments of Creatures but as Vasquez saith Omnem imaginem seu effigiem modo
But God forbid our Church should have any Doctrines good and wholesome for some times and not for others Laud If there be any difference betwixt us about the sense and meaning of any Clause or Period in Articles Lyturgy Homilies how shall that difference be decided Pacif. It is scarce to be supposed that our Church in her publick Records of Doctrine should use any so great obscurity as that we should if we are unprejudiced need an Interpreter but if there be any need of an Interpreter who fitter then such Martyrs as had an hand in composing of the Articles in King Edw. the 6th his Time or elselived then and were well acquainted with the mind and judgment of the Composers and such Divines as lived and were famous in the beginning of Q Eliz. when the Articles were confirmed and let me tell you it will be a strong presumption that a Doctrine is contrary to the Church if it be contrary to the professed tenents of all or most of those eminent Divines by whose help she did at first recover her self out of Popish darkness Laud How little our old Martyrs did favour the Calvinians in the five points appears plainly by a Book entituled An Historical Narration composed by one who was famous in K. Edw. dayes and Q. Eli. and a voluntary exile for Religion in the raign of Q. Mary Partif Are you not ashamed to call him a famous Divine who created such disturbances in the raign of Q. Eliz. and K. Ed. whose Book is put into the Catalogue of Popish Pamphlets by Dr. Fulke in his answer to Bristow of the reprinting of which A. Laud was so much ashamed that at his tryal he durst not own it but averred that he had put his Chaplain out of his place for putting such a cheat on the world I might rather infer that the English Martyrs were no favourers of Arminianisme because in the late A. Bishops Time the Professor of Mathematicks in Gresham was troubled for but permitting an Almanack in which some Popish canonized Saints names were expunged and the names of some of our own English Martyrs that were Saints indeed put in their room and because by Dr. Bray Pochlintons Altare Christianum was licenced in which how bitter a passage is used against our old Martyrs and Confessors may be seen in the Recantation imposed upon that Doctor Laud It may be the passage might refer to John Wickliffe and such as he and if so I know no reason why it should be recanted for though he held many points against those of Rome yet had his Field more Tares then Wheat his Books more Heterodoxies then sound Catholick Doctrines for they who have consulted the Works of Thomas Waldensis or the Historia Wicklesiana writ by Harpssield will tell us that Wickliffe among many other errors maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of bread 2. That Priest have no more authority to minister Sacraments then Lay-men have 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawfulito christen a Child in a Tub of Water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Church 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any divine Service in 7. That buryings in Church-yards be unprofitable and vain 8. That Holy-dayes ordained and instituted by the Church are not to be observed and kept in reverence in as much as all dayes are alike 9. That it is sufficient to believe though a man do no good works 10. That no humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian and finally That God never gave grace or knowledg to a great Person or rich man and that they in no wise follow the same Dr. Heyl. Cert Epist. p. 151. Pacif. Whether these things are collected out of Wald. and Harpssield I neither know nor have leisure now to examine I find the same things charged and charged in the very same words upon those who indeavoured reformation in King H. the 8th his dayes about Anno. 1536. as may be seen in Mr. Tho. Fuller's History lib. 5. p. 209. 210. 211. I believe those were then slandered and so I think is Wick. if Wald. and Harps have charged all those things upon him for the proof of this let what Dr. James hath collected in his Wick Conformity be consulted for that industrious Scholar hath made it appear out of the Writings of Dr. Wickly that he held no community of goods but what all good Christians hold by a Christian Charity not as touching the right Title and possession as the Anabaptists now and a certain bald Priest in his time did hold And so far was he from holding that good Faith alone would save a man without good Works that he is charged by Walden to have held the Doctrine of merits though very falsly as appears by many passages in his Commentaries upon the Psalms He held vocal confession to a Priest not to be necessary in case a man were truly contrite and sorrowful for his sin with full purpose of amendment unless the party offending do find himself very much grieved in which case he counselleth him to repair unto a Priest that hath cunning and good living But let us joyn issue on the terms formerly propounded What think you of the Church of Rome Laud It may be you account it a piece of Popery to call the Church of Rome a true Church Pacif. I account it no Popery to call the Church of Rome a true Church for it was so esteemed by Dr. John Reynolds Chamier Junius Gisbertus Voetius Ludovicus Capellus and his fellow Professor Amyraldus all very learned men and far enough from doting either upon Ceremonies or Prelacy indeed they will much disadvantage themselves in dealing with the Papist about the visibility of the Church who shall affirm that Rome is not a true Church but you know the Pope is made by Romanists to be the Church The Pope ought to tell it to the Church that is to himself saith Bellarmine Do you judg this Pope to be the Antichrist Laud Some Protestant Divines at home and abroad I grant have thought so wrote so disputed so in good zeal no doubt against that insolent and insufferable and outragious Tyranny and Pride of the Bishops of Rome and their infinite enormities in the Church and out of that affection have been too violently forward out of conjectures and probabilities to pronounce the Pope is that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition The Synod of Gapp in France made it a Point of their belief and concluded it peremptorily to be so but who can find it to be the Doctrine of the Church of England what Synod resolved it Convocation assented to it what Parliament Law Proclamation or Edict did ever command it to be
is a demonstration that their soul hath nothing in it that 's Idolatrical if their confidence and fancyful opinion hath engaged them upon so great mistake yet the will hath nothing in it but what is a great enemy to Idolatry Et-nihil ardet in inferno niso propria voluntas Liber Prop. p 258. Pacif. Belike then if any man can make a shift to be so ignorant as to think that the Sun is God and so give Divine Adoration to the Sun he shall be no Idolater I think that the will of the Papists hath something in it that is no great enemy to Idolatry and had they not been wilful in so absurd an opinion so much reason hath been offered against it that they must needs before this time have recanted such a senseless Tenent Laud Although they have done violence to all Philosophy and the reason of man and undone and cancelled the Principles of two or three Sciences to bring in this Article yet they have a Divine Revelation whose Literal and Grammatical sense if that were intended would warrant them to do violence to all the Sciences in the Circle and indeed that Transubstantiation is openly and violently against Natural Reason is no argument to make them disbelieve who believe the Mysterie of the Trinity in all those niceties of Explication which are in the School and which now a dayes pass for the Doctrine of the Church with as much violence to the principles of Natural and Supernatural Philosophy as can be imagined to be in the point of Transubstantiation Liber Prop. p. 258 Pacif. Here 's as fair quarter for the Socinians as could be wished that the niceties of the School as you are pleased to call them about the Trinity are as contrary to the principles of natural and supernatural Philosophy as Transubstantiation Prove this and our New Arians will thank you prove it and I 'le never more believe the Mistery of the Trinity For I am sure God the first Truth did never command or oblige any one to believe that which offers violence to the principles of natural and supernatural Philosophy but I confess I have a long time been offended at some passages that I have met with in sundry Divines who call themselves Protestants Dr. Laurence in his Sermon before the King le ts us know That as he doth not like those who say Christ is bodily present in the Sacrament so he likes not those who say his body is not there because Christ saith t is there and St. Paul saith it is there and the Church of God say ever 't is there and that truly and substanlially and essentially These words though I think they may be expounded to a good sense yet they do malè sonare and should not be used nor know I what made men so much delight to call our Sacrament a Sacrifice or the Communion Table an Altar or our Ministers Priests especially seeing Dr. Heylin hath told us that it is no improper Sacrifice no improper Altar Sure I am our Church never took pleasure in calling it an Altar never made any injunction the Table should be placed Altarwise nay Queen Elizabeths injunctions made the first year of her raign do appoint That the holy Table in every Church be decently made and set in the place where the Altar stood and so to stand saving when the Communion of the Sacrament is to be distributed at which time the same shall be so placed in good sort within the Chancel as whereby the Minister may be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his Prayer and Ministration the Communicants also more conveniently and in more number communicate with the said Minister And after the Communion done from time to time the same holy Table to be placed where it stood before And Bishop Jewel doth peremptorily maintain That the Communion Table ought to stand in the middle of the Church among the people and not Altarwise against the wall Reply to Harding And as I could never satisfie my self about placing the Table Altarwise so neither could I ever satisfie my self about bowing to the Altar why should we more bow towards the empty Table or Altar more then towards the empty Pulpit from whence the word is wont to be preached to us or towards the Bible or towards the Font Laud The Altar is the greatest place of Gods residence upon earth I say the greatest yea greater than the Pulpit for there 't is hoc est Corpus meum but in the Pulpit 't is at most but hoc est Verbum meum and a greater reverence no doubt is due to the Body then to the Word of our Lord and so in relation answerable to the Throne where his Body is usually present then to the Seat where his Word useth to be proclaimed and God keep it there at his Word for as too many use the matter 't is hoc est verbum Diaboli in too many places witness Sedition and the like to it A. Laud his Speech in the Star-Chamber Pacif. If this be all you can say I shall never be troubled that bowing towards the Altar is disused for when you say that in the Altar 't is hoc est Corpus meum either you mean that it is the Body of Christ in a gross carnal way or in a spiritual Sacramental way if in a gross carnal way you shall excuse me if I cannot swallow that opinion in defiance and detestation of which our Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes did lose their lives If you mean only in a Sacramental way is not the bloud of Christ and whole Christ and so by consequence his Body exhibited and represented to us in Baptism as well as in the Supper Why then were men enjoyned rather to worship towards the Table or the Eucharistical Bread then towards the Baptismal water or the Baptistery Besides when there was no Sacrament there was upon the Table or Altar neither the Body of Christ nor any sacred Symbole of Christ nay if there were a Sacrament yet I hope the Bread was not in any sense the Body of Christ till it was consecrated by the Word and Prayer but as I take it we were bound to bow towards the Table not only when there was a Sacrament and after the consecration of the Elements but at all times And when the Sacrament was administred in private houses might not it be said that there it was hoc est Corpus meum and yet I trow men were not under obligation to bow towards that Table upon which the Bread did stand when it was consecrated This sufficiently invalidateth your argument and therefore I need not further ask whether that honor which you expressed by bowing towards the Altar were civil or divine and religious though which soever part you should choose you would run into most grievous absurdities and inconveniences What are your thoughts of Invocation of Angels and Saints departed this life Laud Perhaps there is no such great impiety in
accommodato adorationi erectam aut constitutam modus autem aecomodatus adorationi est cum imago depicta aut sculpta est per se non veluti appendix additamentum alterius rei in ornatum illius rei Beware lest thou make to thy self i. e. to any religious use any grauen image Homily Perill of Idol p. 42. Laud The examples of the Seraphims and Brazen Serpent tell us that to make pictures or statues of creatures is not against a natural reason and that they may have uses which are profitable as well as be abused to danger and superstition Now although the nature of that people was apt to the abuse yet Christianity hath so far removed that danger that our blessed Law-giver thought it not necessary to remove us from superstition by a prohibition of the use of images and pictures and for the matter of images we have no other rule left us in the New Testament the rules of reason and nature and the other parts of the Institution are abundantly sufficient for our security And possibly St. Paul might relate to this when he affirmed concerning the fifth that it was the first Commandment with a promise for the second Commandment had a promise of shewing mercy to thousand generations but because the body of this Commandment was not transcribed into the Christian Law the first of the Decalogue which we retain and in which a promise is inserted is the fift Commandment G. E. part 2. p. 111 112. Pacif. Do you then think that the second Commandment is not retained by us Christians I never thought but that it was if not natural yet moral of universal and perpetual obligation of this judgement were the Ancients Irene lib. 4. cap. 31. August lib. 19. contra Faus cap. 18 Epis 119. cap. 12 Not to speak of Clem Alex. who in his Adhortatory Oration to the Gentiles plainly saith that the Commandment obligeth us as well as the Jews though he seem to be mistaken in giving the sense of it this way also go all Protestants though indeed the Papists do make this law but temporary In a word God allowed the Jews a civil use of Images and other he alloweth not to us under the Gospel who are not so much out of danger of Idolatry and superstition as you seem to imply Laud Images have three uses assigned by the Popish Schools instruction of the rude commonefaction of History and stirring up of devotion they and we also give unto them Gagg p. 300. The pictures of Christ the blessed Virgins and Saints may be made had in houses set up in Churches respect and honour may be given to them the Protestants do it and use them for helps of Piety in rememoration and more effectual representing of the Prototipe Ans. to Gagg p. 818. Pacif. The Church of England teacheth her children quite another lesson Hom. against the peril of Idol Part 3. p. 42. It is unlawful that the Image of Christ should be made or that the Image of any Saint should be made especially to be set up in Temples to the great and unavoidable danger of Idolatry we grant Images used for no Religion or Superstition rather we mean Images of none worshipped or in danger to be worshipped may be suffered but Images placed publickly in Temples cannot possibly be without danger of Idolatry many such passages may be picked out of that Homily which are the more considerable because of all our Homilies it seemeth to be penned with most exactness Laud It is the Consecration that makes Churches holy and makes God esteem them so which though they be not capable of grace yet by their consecration they receive a spiritual power whereby they are made fit for Divine Service and being consecrated there is no danger in ascribing holiness unto them Tedder his Visit Sermon licensed by Dr. Baker an. 1637. Pacif. That Churches do by Consecration receive any spiritual power whereby they are made more fit for Divine Service than other places or that the same company meeting in a private house and praying by the same Spirit should not be as acceptable to God as in the Church is Superstition to affirm nor did the Church of England ever teach any such Doctrine yet I easily grant that in peaceable times and under Christian Princes the people of God ought to have their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that it is a broach of civil decency to employ these places set a part for Gods Worship to any common uses ordinarily Laud We use signing with the sign of the Cross both in the fore-head and elsewhere witness that solemn Form in our Baptism for which we are so quarrelled by our factions the flesh is signed that the soul may be fortified saith Tertullian and so do we Ans. to Gagg p. 320. Pacif. If any one besides the Minister useth signing with the Cross or if he use it at any time but in Baptism or on any place but on the forehead 't is done without any warrant at all from the Church of England and our Church retained the sign of the Cross in Baptism only as an outward Ceremony and honorable Badge but it doth not ascribe any efficacy unto it of fortifying the soul and declares the child to be perfectly baptized before it be signed with the sign of the Cross as plainly appears from the Book of Canons agreed upon 1603. Chapter Of the lawful use of the Cross Laud Baptism of Infants is most certainly a holy and charitable Ordinance and of ordinary necessity to all that ever dyed and yet the Church hath founded this Rite on the Tradition of the Apostles and wise men do easily observe that the Anabaptists can by the same probability of Scripture enforce a necessity of communicating Infants upon us as we do of Baptizing Infants upon them if we speak of an immediate Divine Institution or of practice Apostolical recorded in Scripture and therefore a great Master of Geneva in a Book he writ against Anabaptists was faign to fly to Apostolical Traditive Ordination and therefore the Institution of Bishops must be served first as having fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants and yet they that deny this are by the just Anathema of the Church Catholick condemned for Hereticks Dr. Tayl. Episc. Asser. p. 100 101. Pacif. 'T is gratis dictum that the Institution of Bishops hath fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants nor can you prove that they who deny the Baptism of Infants are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick much less that they who deny the Institution of Bishops superior in order to Presbyters are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick Hath a whole Book been written to prove that none are to be anathematized who consent to the Articles of the Apostles Creed and must it now be worthy an Anathema to deny Infant Baptism who but a Papist ever said
and they answer the objections of the despairing as well as of the presumptuous concluding at last thus God which hath promised his mercy to them that be truly repentant although it be at the later end hath not promised to the presumptuous sinner either that he shall have long life or that he shall have true repentance at the last exd And I pray you why may not God work the habit of saving grace and give the Holy Ghost to those who are ready to give up the ghost are not such habits infused Laud We may as well say there can be a habit born with us as infused in to us for as a natural habit supposeth a frequency of actions by him who hath natural abilities so doth an infused habit if there were any such it is a result and consequent of a frequent doing the works so that to say that God in an instant infuseth into us an habit of chastity is to say that he hath in an instant infused into us to have done the acts of that grace frequently Un. Necess p. 272. Pacif. I see not any absurdity in saying a habit may be born with us Original righteousness is thought to have the nature of an habit yet had not the Protoplast lapsed it had been born with us and been natural to us and me thinks it is no strange thing that there should be habits in the soul which are not the result and consequence of frequent actions for what think you of the gratiae gratis datae are not they habits and yet were they not instantaneously produced in the souls of Prophets and Apostles it would be strange that there should be from a natural man any supernatural action were not the natural faculty first elevated by some supernatural habit infused into us we being only the recipients Laud This device of infused habits is a fancy without ground and without sense without authority or any just grounds of confidence and it hath in it very bad effects for it destroys all necessity of our care and labour in the wayes of godliness all cautions of an holy life it is apt to minister pretences and excuses for a perpetually wicked life till the last of our dayes making men to trust to a late repentance it puts men upon vain confidences and makes them relie for salvation upon dreams and empty notions it destroys all the duty of man and cuts off all entercourse of reward and obedience Unum Necess 273. Pacif. This is high language especially seeing it must needs concern almost the whole Protestant Church whose suffrage certainly will gain an opinion some credit and esteem among sober modest persons verily why there should be more non-sense in infused habits then in acquired habits I know not and cannot reject a distinction generally received without some very pregnant reason as for what you pretend that the doctrine of infused habits doth produce sad effects destroying all necessity of care and labour c. it moves me not you hold I suppose that the soul is not ex traduce but by immediate creation Creando infunditur infundendo creatur yet none ever thought on this account that marriage and due benevolence among married people is needless the new creature is the workmanship of God but yet there are certain antecedaneous preparatory works wrought by attendance on Ordinances whereby the soul is qualified and made a fit and meet receptacle for supernatural grace if we resist these we make a bloudy adventure upon the patience forbearance and long sufferance of God But this conceit of destroying labour and endeavour of making Exhortations needless and useless is an old stale objection of the Pelagians and Massilians the grand adversaries of divine grace confuted by Austin Prosper Fulgentius Laud A special confession unto a Priest of all our sins committed after Baptism so far forth as we remember is necessary unto salvation in the judgement of Fathers Schoolmen and almost all Andquitie not only Necessitate praecepti but also necessitate medii so that according to the ordinary or revealed means appointed by Christ there can be no salvation without the foresaid Confession Mr. Adams referente Pryn. in Canterbury's Doom p. 192. Pacif. I shall now know what to think of those who cry all Fathers Schoolmen Antiquity that they do but boast of things that they never examined for he that is any way conversant in the writings of the Fathers cannot but know that no such doctrine is generally delivered by them nor do all the Schoolmen deliver any such Doctrine sure I am the Church of England hath imposed no such burden on her sons and members nay she hath most clearly determined against the necessity of this Confession in her Homilies Part. 2. Of the Sermon of Repentance p. 266 267. And in her Lyturgy she only adviseth it where a mans conscience is so perplexed that he cannot extricate himself without calling in the assistance of another Laud Men are taught that they must pass through the terrors of the Law before they can receive the mercies of the Gospel The Law was a Schoolmaster to bring the Synagogue to Christ it was so to them who were under the Law but cannot be so to us who are not under the Law but under Grace for if they mean the Law of Works or that imposition which was the first entercourse with man they lose their title to the mercies of the Gospel if they mean the Law of Moses then they do not stand fast in the liberty by which Christ hath made them free but whatsoever the meaning be neither of them can concern Christians Unum Neces p. 42. Pacif. Do you then think that the Law is of no use to us Christians Laud The use that we Christians are to make of the Law is only to magnifie the mercies of God in Jesus Christ who hath freed us from so severe a Covenant who does not judge us by the measures of an Angel but by the span of a mans hand But we are not to subject our selves so much as by fiction of Law or fancy to the curse and threatnings of the Covenant of Works or of Moses his Law though it was of more instances and less severity by reason of the allowance of Sacrifices for Expiation Un. Neces p. 41. Pacif. I judge with all Divines that we are to make another use of the Law then that you mention we are to use it as a regula officii to shew us our duty how much we owe to God and how much God may justly require of us and so it will be a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ for whilest we see how much short we fall of our duty we shall see a necessity of closing with Christ upon the terms and conditions of the Gospel we are as much under the Law of Moses the moral part of it as ever were the Jews and the Jews were as much under grace as we aeque I say though not aequaliter Laud Every
Saviour I deny it necessary that they were therefore in Hell that Region I call Abrahams Bosome which though it be not Heaven yet is it higher then Hell Gagg 281. Pacif. The souls of the godly separated from the body do and alwayes did go immediately into Heaven Our Homilies as you cannot but know make but two places after this life Homily of Prayer p. 122. Laud It appears from S. August de civ. Dei lib. 20. cap. 15. that it was then an opinion generally received in the Christian Church and such as might well be believed as himself acknowledgeth without any absurdity that the Patriarchs and others of the Saints of the Old Testament were detained in some lower places amongst the inferi but without any sense of those infinite torments which were endured by the wicked and that they were detained there till the coming of Christ till he by his descent thither did release them thence This makes me to consider it as a matter questionable only I shall not dare to say it is false or impious Dr. Heyl. Fid. vet. p. 221. Pacif. You may if you will choose whether you 'l say that opinion is false but the Church of England hath plainly expressed her self in the third part of the Sermon of the fear of death The holy Fathers of the Old Law and all faithful and righteous men which departed before our Saviour Christs ascension into heaven did by death depart from troubles unto rest from the hands of their enemies into the hands of God from sorrows and sicknesses unto joyful refreshingin Abrahams bosome a place of all comfort and consolation as the Scriptures do plainly by manifold words testifie Laud The opinion carryeth no impiety with it nothing derogatory to the Gospel or Kingdom of Christ but rather seems to add much lustre to our Saviours person and much conduceth to the honour of the Faith and Gospel For what can be more honourable to the person of Christ then that the Patriarchs and other holy men of God who dyed under the Law were kept from being admitted into a participation of the joyes of heaven till he by his divine power took them by the hand conducted them into the blessed gates of Paradise What could add more to the dignity and reputation of the Gospel of Christ then that all such as faithfully believe the same and frame themselves to live thereafter should have a greater priviledge then their Father Abraham and all the rest who dyed before in the fear of God before the coming of our Saviour and be admitted presently into the joyes of Paradise Id. ibid. Pacif. It is strange if the opinion tend so much to the honor of Christ and the glory of the Gospel that the Church of England should give her children no notice of it but rather express her self against it And seeing you have laboured to make it appear that both the Greek Hades and the Latin Inferi signifie Hell and the place of Torments how can the Patriarchs and other holy men of God be said to be in or amongst the inferi and not participate of the Torments of that wretched place Laud In answer to this it may be replyed That there might be some part or region of the inferi wherein the greatest or rather the only punishment was poena damni a want of those Celeftian comforts which were reserved for them in the land of Paradise which to a soul that longed for the sight of God could be no small infelicity 2. It may be said That though the inferi in it self were a place of punishment yet God was able to command the fire that it should not burn them and the torments of the pit that they should not touch them Nor is this all that may be said in justification and defence of those ancient writers c. Id. ibid. p. 222. Pacif. It is well this is not all that may be brought in defence of them if it were I should venture to say That just nothing could be alledged in their justification But what can be said else Laud Possibly they might mean no more by those expressions of bringing back the souls of the just from Hades then that by the descent of Christ into Hell all the claim and challenge which the devil could pretend unto them were made void and of none effect Id. ibid. Pacif. Very good Then it seems till Christ descended into Hell the claime of the Divel to the souls of the just was not made void and of none effect but I had thought that the death of Christ though he had never descended into Hell had been sufficient to have vacated all the claim that the Devil could make to the souls of those who dyed in the fear of God And this death of Christ had its effects and operations upon those who dyed before Christ as well as upon those who dyed since he actually offered himself upon the Cross But the truth is all this discourse of Christs bringing of the souls of the Fathers out of Hades doth depend upon that which is hugely uncertain and inevident viz that Christ did descend into Hell Now this I humbly conceive can neither be proved from Scripture nor yet from the Apostles Creed nor yet from any Article of our Church Laud If we search into the publick Monuments and Records of the Church we shall find thisDoctine of Christs local descent into Hell to have been retained and established amongst many other Catholick verities ever since the first beginning of her Reformation Fid. vet. p. 223. Pacif. That this was the mind of the major part of those who met together for the composing of the Articles in 1552. is certain but it is as certain that there were then men of eminent parts and in all probability men imployed in that Synod of a contrary mind I instance only in Bishop Hooper who in his Exposition on the Creed doth most expresly and in terminis write against the Local descent of Christ into Hell As for the Articles of 1562. they are so worded as to leave to all their liberty to opine in this matter as in their own minds they shall be perswaded and so much is asserted by Mr. Rogers in his Exposition of the Articles As for the Apostles Creed it is and that most deservedly of great credit and esteem in all the Churches of Christ throught the whole world but then it must be considered that the Symbol of the Apostles hath not been alwayes the same particularly Ruffinus assures us that this additament descendit ad inferos is neither found in the Creed used by the Roman Church nor yet in the Creeds of the Eastern Church Vid. Mr. Peirs on the Creed p. 456. Amyraldus also hath observed that in some Creeds where these words He descended into Hell are found there is no mention of Christs Burial nay the Learned observe That in the very Aquileian Creed where this Article was first expressed there was no mention of