and be no Christians it must néedes followe that such as did euer execute this power were Antichrists and no children of God at that time or before they repented But this is false euen by your owne confession which acknowledge that those woorthie seruants of God which sometime executed that power and after suffered death for the Gospell in the dayes of Quéene Mary were blessed Martyrs I conclude therefore that the Brownists can not but with heresies and most heinous iniurie and inordinate dealing condemne a Church as quite diuorced and separated from Christ for such imperfections and corruptions in Gods worship as be not fundamentall nor destroy the substance for that wicked men come with the godly to the publike exercises of religion for some wants in calling and ordeyning Ministers and in Ecclesiasticall discipline Article 1. The Brow We seeke aboue all things the peace and protection of the most high and the kingdome of Christ our Lord. G. G. The first Article is that which all true Christians doo séeke indéede But the kingdome of Christ or the kingdome of God as Christ sayth is within men it consisteth in righteousnesse and peace and ioy of the holy Ghost For the preseruation of this Christ hath ordeyned a Church gouernment They sinne against God which doo not couet and according to theyr calling labour to haue so great a helpe But to transport the name of Christs kingdome which is chiefely Spirituall in the heart vnto this which is but a part and as though the kingdome of God could not be in any vnlesse they haue this so they doo not wilfully despise it I say is false and the contrary to be proued by the Scriptures The Brow Our Article beeing by you confessed to be the bounden dutie of all true Christians wee see not with what equitie you can in this manner cauill at our words or with what conscience you can misconstrue and constrayne them as you doo seeking thereby to retract by sleight what you can not gaynesay in truth and taking occasion to contende about wordes namely the kingdome of Christ you make it only inward and vse Christ like one of the Phisitions Planetarie Signes assigning to him in hypocrisie your heart and soule to rule whilest in the meane whyle you yeeld your bodyes and whole assemblyes to the obedience and rule of Antichrist making no conscience to obey his lawes openly and to transgresse Christes thinking belike Christs kingdome so inward and spirituall as that he requireth no bodily nor outwarde obedience or because it consisteth in righteousnes and peace and ioy of the holy Ghost that there may be peace without righteousnes or ioy without peace or inward righteousnes where is such outward disobedience and wilfull transgression c. G. G. I did confesse and doo still acknowledge that this fyrst Article is that which all true Christians should séeke I hold that Christes Kingdome is chiefely inwarde and Spirituall and that the discipline is but a part thereof your selues haue repeated my words and yet charge me that I make Christes Kingdome only inwarde assigning the Soule to him and the body to Antichrist to be ruled I can not but wonder at your boldnesse in lying You say that to discusse how farre euery Christians calling and duty extendeth héerein were to dismisse all mine answers and to plucke away the mantle of shame wherewith we couer our nakednesse negligence and abhominations I meruaile why ye doo not then discusse it for we hold that no man is to labour beyond his calling to reforme any thing amisse in the Church and when it shall be declared vnto what bounds and limits the calling of priuate men is restrayned I am sure there will be no mantle nor ragge to couer the presumptuous dealing of Brownists which intrude themselues without calling Yée let this thing passe therefore and will only aske two questions The first is whether any which haue their calling of Antichrist be his marked Ministers and waged seruants can truly and vprightly couet and labour for Christs sincere gouernment which is his whippe wherewith he scourgeth out all théeues intruders and idle bellies out of his house The other question is whether to remayne wittingly and seruilely in the bondage and yoake of Antichrist xxix yeares be to labour for the gouernment of Christ faithfully in our callings Ye must graunt me some time to answer to these two questions and that shalbe when you answer these two which I propound The first is whether ignorant hereticall and rash Scismatikes be méete and competent Iudges to condemne all the learned Ministers in a Kingdome The other is whether false and lying accusations be to stand for due proofe Ye séeme to graunt that the Kingdome of God may be in the scattered faithfull which yet haue not the discipline I did not charge ye with the contrarie but only shewed how I did allowe the Article Yet remember what ye doo hold in this place Article 2. The Brow We seeke and purpose to worship God aright according as he hath commaunded in his word G. G. This second Article ought all men that will please God to approoue The Brow This article say you ought all that will please God to approoue How then seeke you to please God which continue in idolatrie and are a minister thereof which prophecie in Baal and plead for Baal or how approoue you it when yee condemne vs of schisme and heresie because we forsake your false and Antichristian worship and seeke to worship Christ according to his word G. G. When yée haue prooued that our worship is Idolatrie and that we prophesie in Baal and for Baal let men take yée to be no schismatikes nor heretikes But such as boast that they séeke to worship God according to his word and yet arrogantlye breake sundrye speciall rules thereof cannot but in their vaine bosting be liers as S. Iames saith against the truth Article 3. The Brow We seeke the fellowship and communion of his faithfull and obedient seruants And together with them to enter couenant with the Lord and by direction of his spirite to proceed to a godly free right choise of Ministers c. G. G. The third Article if it be taken in this sence that ye do set vp a societie seperated from all other within this land which make publike profession then I sée not when yée haue gone by your selues and set vp your officers howe you will cléere your selues from Donatisme If theirs were a damnable fact which God did accursse then take héed to yours For if it can be shewed that their heresies are not holden by you I will change my minde The Brow The words of our article being that we seeke the fellowship and communion of Christs faithfull and obedient seruants c. cleere vs of all schisme and heresie so farre forth so that if you would conuince vs of these crimes it had been expedient you had first prooued your assemblies as they generally stand by the euidence
the name and I haue heard diuers say they go beyond Browne But whosoeuer shal reade his books and peruse all their writings shall well see that he deserueth to haue the honour if any be and to be called the Captaine and maister of them all They haue all their furniture from him they do but open his packe and displaye his wares They haue not a sharpe arrowe which is not drawne out of his quiuer Then next touching the question betweene them and me let the reader consider it is not about the controuersie in our Church as whether there be imperfections corruptions and faults in our worship ministerie and church gouernment nor how many great or small But whether there be such heynous enormities as destroy the verye life and being of a true Church and make an vtter diuorse from Christ I will lay it open more plaine by a comparison which the Scripture vseth The Church is like a man in whom there be many parts and members Rom. 12. If all the parts or members of the body haue their iust proportion be whole and sound and set in their due order the soule and life departed he is no longer a man to speake properly but the dead carcasse of a man But now if he be sicke and diseased so that all partes are feeble or if he be deformed with sores and maimes wanting hand foote eye nose or such like yet is he still a man so long as the soule and life remaine in him All men doo know this to be true yea euen the simplest make no doubt or controuersie about it Let vs see therefore whether it be a fitte comparison with the Church and whether it be so in it of necessitie and as manifest by the doctrine of the holy scriptures as this other is vnto our bodily senses To finde this we must first consider whether there be no true Church of GOD but that which is perfect in this worlde Wee knowe that there are none but Heretikes yea ranke abhominable heretikes which obstinately deny this cleere doctrine of the holy Scriptures namely that euen the most faithfull and the most godly are not perfect while they liue vpon the earth We know but in part 1. Cor. 13. In many things we sinne all Iam. 3. v. 2. And who vnderstandeth his errors or who can tell how oft he offendeth Psal 19. The perfectest members of the Church doo erre doo sinne are maimed are weake are spotted and deformed many wayes Nowe whereas all the members be in this case needes must the whole body which is composed of them be in the same estate Then we may not looke for a Church in this world which is not spotted deformed maymed and weake in some respects But the question must bee how farre it may bee deformed and maimed and yet remaine aliue and so a true Church of God Let all the partes bee ioyned together let there be all sortes of officers and offices yet if the life and as it were the soule of the Church be wanting it is but a dead carcasse Contrarywise let there be some members wanting some maimed all parts deformed and weake yet is it a true Church of God so long as the soule and life dooth remaine in it And what is the soule and life of the Church Iesus Christ apprehended by faith I liue now saith Saint Paul but not any longer I but Christ liueth in me Galath 2. ver 20. All the members of the Church are incorporate and graffed into Christ by faith and doo growe in him and through the operation of his spirite receiue the iuice and sappe of life from him Iohn 15. Whosoeuer beleeueth in the Sonne of God shall be saued though he be full of errors full of infirmities and deformities both in body and soule labouring to be purged But if a man or an assembly do hold that which ouerthroweth the faith in Christ they are gone there is no life remaining As the Papacie holdeth many things aright touching Christ but it holdeth sundry things contrary which ouerthrow the very foundation of the faith and so the Papacie it selfe is not Gods true Church Thus haue I laide open the question betweene mee and the Brownists wherein then are the Maisters and Capitaines of Brownisme deceiued And what is it in which they seeke victorie and glory They knowe there is no sinne no error no corruption nor no abuse but that if all the learnedest in the worlde would take vpon them to cleere and to defend the same they shall not be able Then they are desirous of victorie of triumphe and glorye ouer all both wise and learned Heere therefore they entrench themselues they make their Bulwarkes plant their ordinance set themselues in arraye and sound the Trumpet of defiance against all They presume none shall euer be able to driue them out of their holde And indeed he that condemneth an error and goeth no further can neuer be vanquished But heerein they are deceiued that out of this Forte they will batter downe the Church For theyr ordinance is ouer weake for that they stoppe in powder in great plenty for they laye on toong enough and so make terrible thundering crakes But the Bullets which come foorth and which should doo the deed are nothing but hereticall erronious and fantasticall opinions and so all vanisheth into smoake They must therefore at the last leaue their holde and take them to their heeles for Gods Church will not be battered downe by any assaults of Schismatikes Some will thinke hardly that I terme them Schismatikes seeing they be men that are accounted zealous and stand for good things But the truth is they be not onely a Schisme yea a vile Schisme rending themselues from the Church of England and condemning by their assertions the whole visible Church in the worlde euen as the Donatists did of olde time but also they maintaine heresies and some that touche the very foundation of faith and Christian religion they be vtter violaters of ecclesiasticall discipline they abridge the power of the ciuill Magistrate beside sundry fantasticall opinions For when as the life of the church consisteth in the apprehensson of Christ through faith it must needs be an heresie to conclude as they doo a nullitie a quite ouerthrow of the same from errors faults which are not fundamentall Faith and regeneration being vnperfect in all that liue vpon the earth it is heriticall to say that is no Church of God which holding the sounde doctrine hath sinnes and great abuses in it The stablenesse of Gods couenant towarde the Church being founded onely vpon his free grace it is detestable impietie to hang it vpon the works of men as the Brownists do when they affyrme that where there is any open sinnes suffered in an assemblie the couenant is disanulled with them all And if men consider well they shall finde that the whole Brownisme resteth vppon the heresie of perfection and Anabaptisticall freedome For from hence that it
vsed vpon them in publike assemblyes Diuers Churches also among vs are called by the names of those Saincts which they were dedicated vnto but to say that we do therefore dedicate Churches vnto them is very ridiculous In the City Athens there was a place of Iudgement which bare the name of Mars S. Luke calleth it by the same name doth he therefore dedicate it also vnto that heathen God of battaile When we call S. Peters Church or Paules Churchyard it is but to distinguish them by the names by which they are commonly knowne and called Then follow our Comminations Rogations Purifications Touching Comminations they be a part of the Canonicall Scripture which is to be read in the Church Rogations I take to be the compassing in of the limits and bounds of Parishes which is commaunded only to auoide contention and strife that might growe and there is nothing in the booke of Common Prayer touching these that euer I could finde Purifications are annexed only to make vp your riming figure for neither the booke nor the doctrine of the Church of England doth speake of any Purification but only in the bloud of the Lambe There is a Thanksgiuing prescribed for Women after Childbirth but neyther for Iewish Purification or Popish Superstition therefore not in such sort to be condemned After comes in our Tithes Offerings Mortuaries For the Tithes and Mortuaries I do not finde them once named in the booke the Offrings in déede are But ye will say that is no great matter séeing they be in our Church That is true but yet they are but for maintenance of the Ministerie not as a matter tyed of necessitie vnto a Priesthoode as in the time of the Lawe and if they were the error could not be fundamentall In the next place are brought in our manner of visiting the sicke and howsling them with the Sacrament our Absolution blasphemous Dirges and Funerall Sermons ouer and for the dead There is prescribed a manner of visiting the sicke and so is there in the leiturgies of some other Churches that professe the Gospell but where haue ye séene it practised or the practise vrged by those that haue the gouernment of our Church at their hands which are able and diligent Pastors Whereby your iniurious dealing may appeare in charging all the assemblies as they generally stand in England with matters which the greater part do not practise nor yet are required For if the sicke man be by the Minister of the word instructed exhorted comforted and strengthened in faith and repentance yea euery way prepared to depart ioyfully in the Lord it is that which the booke aimeth at neither is there any more required although he vse no prescript forme set downe By your phrase of howsling with the Sacrament ye would make the simple beleeue that the Popish Howsling is retained among vs. This is but a false kind of packing seeing our Church vtterly condemneth all the wicked blasphemous corrupt doctrine of the Papists touching the Lords Supper and also denyeth that a man is of necessitie to receiue this Sacrament at his death If yes replie that howsoeuer we teach yet the booke implyeth a necessitie which appeareth by that it doth appoint a priuate Communion I answer that euen the booke doth denie it to be a matter of necessitie and doth appoint it but to relieue the trouble which might arise in weake consciences through the want thereof for these be the words of the booke The Curates shall diligently from time to time but specially in the Plague time exhort their Parishioners to the often receiuing in the Church of the holy Communion of the bodie and bloud of our Sauiour Christ which if they doo they shall haue no cause in their suddaine visitation to be disquieted for lacke of the same And if any sicke person that would receiue this Sacrament hath any impediment that he can not the Booke willeth the Minister to instruct him that if he do truly repent him of his sinnes and stedfastly beléeue that Iesus Christ hath suffered death vppon the Crosse for him and shead his bloud for his redemption earnestly remembring the benefites he hath thereby and giuing him hartie thanks therefore he doth eate and drincke the Bodie and Bloud of our Sauiour Christ profitably to his soules health although he do not receiue the Sacrament with his mouth How maliciously then do you charge the assemblies in England with howsling the sicke with the Sacrament when all the learned faithfull diligent Pastors do as the booke requireth exhort those that be of their flockes to the often receiuing of this holy Sacrament in the publike assemblie as the due place for publike seales and the people by instruction being growen so strong that they do not in their sicknesse require it and so in the most Congregations which are well taught the thing is not practise◠The Sinagog of Antichrist deuised a purgatorie which is blasphemous against the bloud of Christ They had indéed their Dirges euen blasphemous prayers for the dead That Purgatorie do we vtterly deny as a wicked inuention we condemne prayer for the dead and therfore where ye tearme those prayers which are read at burials blasphemous Dirges ouer and for the dead yee are more then impudent in lying Funerall Sermons I finde not inioyned by the booke nor commaunded by any Lawe Ye adde further our corrupt manner of administring the Sacraments the Font the Crosse in Baptisme Baptisme by women Gossippings the blasphemous Collects that we vse vnto this Sacrament Byshopings with all the hereticall Collects of the Booke which as ye say is a wearines vnto ye to repeate though not to vs both to tollerate and defend When ye shewe some reason why the Font is an abhomination I shall knowe what to say Touching the Crosse it must needes be confessed that it was blasphemously and horribly abused in Poperie they ascribing vnto it power to driue out and expell Deuils and worshipping it with deuine honour In my iudgement also the holy Church of God within short time after the blessed Apostles and the reuerend godly Pastors did offend in taking ouermuch libertie to ordeine Ceremonies Symbolicall as that and such like yet no doubt very reuerend godly learned men led by the example of those holy Fathers of olde haue iudged it lawfull for the Church to ordeine such Ceremonies Touching the Baptisme by women it is condemned both by the chéefe gouernours in our Church and others and is not practised vnlesse it be among the popish and supersticious ignorant sort By Gossyppings I suppose yée meane the witnesses at baptisme a thing vsed in the best reformed churches and thought to be expedient so that yée doo not heerein condemne the Church of England but all Churches Bishoping of children is little practised for vnlesse the people require it by offering their children few Bishops doo vrge them thervnto onely this excepted that they be taught and instructed in the Catechisme The
vnto others What maketh this for priuate men Doubtlesse ye haue no patterne in the Scriptures which you follow but of Corah Dathan and Abyram with their company who cried Are not all the Lordes people holye euen as you Brownists with the Anabaptists crye out Are not all the Lordes people frée Yee hane no commission from GOD it is the Deuill that hath thrust yee forwarde and will yée in such vile and wretched manner pretend the examples of the Primitiue Churches But your reason dependeth much vpon this that the Primitiue Churches stayed not the pleasures of Princes If this were granted that princes are not to be stayed for yet dooth it not follow there vpon that priuate men are to establish Church gouernement but there must bee some to doo it which are called and furnished with authority from God Yet the question dooth remaine touching Princes whether they be to be stayed for Browne maketh many arguments to prooue that they are not to be stayed for nor yet haue to do by publike power to establish religion which opinion of his is with such abridging the sacred power of Princes and with such horrible iniurie to the Church contrarye to the manifest worde of God that if there were nothing else it is enough to make him an odious and detestable heretike vntill he shew repentance You follow him héere and alledge some reasons which are to be considered But first the question which is generall must be restrained vnto the speciall We must distinguish for there be Heathen and Idolatrous Kings and there be Christian Princes Those are against Christ and these are for Christ When the holye Apostles were sent foorth to Preach the Gospell in the whole world the Kings were all Heathen and bent their power against them To what end should they hauing commission from Christ to establish discipline sue vnto the Courts and Parliaments of such Princes or attend their pleasure The case is all one where the kings professe Christ in name and be idolaters As in France the Ministers whom God hath raised vp and sent to publish the Gospell in former yeares attended not the pleasure of those their idolatrous Kings for the setting vp of discipline for they might aswell at their inhibition haue ceased from preaching But where there is a Christian Prince the sacred power of the sword is with Christ and for his Church and héere the case is cleane changed For this Magistrate King or Quéene sitting vpon the royall Throne and holding the Scepter is the chiefs and principall member of the Church This Magistrate béeing Gods minister and bearing the Sword to take vengeance vppon all euill dooers Rom. 13. and to mayntayne peace with all godlinesse and honestie Timoth. 2. hath the charge and burthen not only to prouide for the bodyes of the Subiects and theyr outward ciuill estate but also by good ciuill Lawes to procure the establishing of Gods true Religion and worship among them for the comfort of theyr Soules for how shall he punish all euill and mayntayne all Godlynesse by the Sword but by establishing Christes holie Religion Therefore this Magistrate is to assemble all the learned the wise the graue and experienced that he may conueniently and to haue it discussed by the Word of God which is the true and pure Doctrine and which be the rules and orders that Christ hath giuen for the gouernment preseruation of his Church Then are Lawes to bée made for Kings can not rule but by Lawes to destroy and abolish all false Religion Superstition Idolatrie and Heresies and to compell all states and degrées of persons within the Kingdome to receyue the holie doctrine and rules of Christ and to walke in the same This dyd the Kings of Iuda as the holie Scriptures doo playnely declare Nowe if this Christian Prince doo erre in some matters of Doctrine or touching the rules of discipline yet holding and mayntayning all the fundamentall poynts of the Christian faith so that there be abuses and corruptions in the Churche euerie priuate godlie man is to kéepe a good conscience not breaking the vnitie and peace of the faithfull but not to take publike authoritie to reforme Then yée demaund If they should tarrie Princes leysures where were the persecution wee speake of Héere ye vtter a most beastlie spéeche Saint Paule willeth to make earnest prayers and supplications for Princes that wee may liue in peace with all godlinesse 1. Timoth. 2. Whereby it appeareth that the defence of the Christian Magistrate is a singular blessing vnto the Church And you take it the Crosse of Christ is abolished vnlesse the Magistrate be prouoked and doo persecute The faithfull doo beare the Crosse of reproches and afflictions vnder the most Godly Kings who yet in dutie are vppon knowledge to redresse it Do yée thincke the Godly did not beare the Crosse vnder King Dauid who was not frée himselfe Or would yée haue no peace by Christian Kings If your meaning be not such why doo yée vtter so wicked spéech Then yée say we make Christ attend vpon Princes I answere that Christ hath ordinarie Ministers if these be slacke when he will haue hys woorke doone he can and hath raysed vp extraordinarie workemen If his Kingdome lye waite doth that warrant priuate men to steppe foorth and to reforme or establishe Or shall Christ bée brought to stoupe vnto Princes if euerie Schismatike intrude not himselfe to runne when GOD hath not sente him There be certayne Answers which go vnder the name of Henry Barowe where béeing demaunded whether the Quéene may make Lawes for the Church which are not contrarie to the Word of God The Answere is this I thincke no Prince neyther the whole world nor the Church it selfe can make any Lawes for the Church other then Christ hath left in his Word This séemeth vnto simple men a verie sound Answere drawne from two firme principles the one that there is but one Law-giuer which is God the other that he hath by Iesus Christ giuen full and perfect Lawes for hys Church The deceypt lyeth hid in this that men doo not consider there be generall lawes or rules giuen by Christ for matters of circumstance that bée indifferent and variable in the particulars and so to be altered and abolished as the peace and edification of the Churche shall requyre And therefore that Princes with the Church are to ordeine and to establish such orders by those generall rules as may afterward for iust cause be altered Wherefore it is manifest that the answer of Barow dooth cut off a great part of the Discipline and shorten the power of the Prince And moreouer it is not considered that the Prince being to punishe all euill by the doctrine of Sainte Paul and to maintaine all godlinesse cannot doo it but by lawes and so is to establishe by lawes the whole Christian religion Where vpon this Anabaptisticall answere of Barow I thinke it the dutie of euerye Christian and principally of the Prince