only Christ is to be heard we ought not to regard what any before us hath thought fit to be done but what Christ who is before all hath first done For we must not follow the Custome of Man but the truth of God And in another place Custome without truth is nothing but Antiquity of Error Idem ad Pomp. cont Epist. Steph. Papae Nothing must be ordained concerning the Things which belong to Religion God alone is the Law-giver of his Church without the Word of God 1. THe Reason of that is because God alone is the Law-giver of his Church And the onely Author of the Doctrine Concerning Faith or Belief And Religious Worship That God is the onely Authour of the Doctrine concerning Faith or Belief we prove it by the following Arguments 1. THe 1. is taken from the Nature of Faith For all the Doctrines of Faith in regard of the matter which is to be believed must have a certain infallible and undoubted Truth Now it is the property of God alone to be infallibly true of his own nature Let God be true but every man a lyar saith S. Paul Rom. 3.4 And therefore God alone is the Author of the Doctrine of Faith 2. The 2. Argument is taken from the Quality of the Articles of Faith For the proper documents and Doctrines of Faith do exceed the capacity and apprehension of the Creature And therefore they could not be revealed but onely by the Creator Such is the Doctrine of the Trinity of the Persons in the unity of an Essence Such is the Doctrine of the Eternal Birth of the Son of God Such that of the Procession of the Holy Ghost And such that of the hypostaticall union of the two Natures of Christ Divine and Humane And such are all other Articles concerning Faith properly and strictly taken which in that they are above the naturall knowledge of the Creature cannot be known by us but by the supernaturall Revelation of the Creator Of all them this of Christ may be said Flesh and Bloud hath not revealed these things unto mankind but God the Father which is in Heaven Matth. 16.17 3. The 3. Argument is taken from the reward of Faith and the punishment propunded to unbelief and infidelity Which doe manifestly argue that it belongeth to God alone to frame and prescribe to Men Articles and dogmes concerning beliefe and Faith For the reward propounded to Faith is Eternall Life Iohn 3.36 And that is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6.23 And the punishment denounced against infidelity is Eternall Death Which punishment God alone is able to inflict Christ teacheth it Matt. 10.28 in these words Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell He teacheth it also John 3.36 when he sayes that he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him 2. That God is the onely Author of the Doctrine concerning Religious Worship We prove it by the following Arguments 1. THe 1. Argument is taken from the Relation which is between God And the Church God alone in the Spiritual Government of the Soul is Soveraign Monarch Is the Housholder Is the Husband In regard of his Church This Church in regard of her Relation to God Is Called The City of God The House of God The Spouse of God Now who should be so Impudent As to prescribe Laws to a Foreign City Concerning her Duties to her King Or to Another Mans Family Or to Another Mans Wife Concerning the Manner Of Obeying And Rendring Service To her Master Or to her Husband 2. The 2. Argument is taken From the Reward And Punishment Annexed to the Works of Divine Worship For the Works of Divine Worship Piously observed have from the Munificence of God a Promise of Eternal Reward But being Neglected or Contemned a Commination of Eternal Death From whence it may be Gathered That God Alone who is the Lord of Life and Death Hath the Power To Ordain such Works And to Injoin Them By the Empire of a Law-giver 3. The 3. Argument is drawn from the Prohibition of God For God himself by an Expresse Law hath attributed to Himself Alone The Authority to Ordain his Service Deut. 12.32 What thing soever I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not adde thereto nor diminish from it From whence also is that of our Saviour Matth. 15.9 But in vain they do worship me Teaching for Doctrines the Commandements of men 4. The 4. Argument is Because the Works of Worship depend from the Will of God who is to be Worshipped Therefore God is not Worshipped at all by those Works By which he did not declare whether he would be Worshipped or Not. But in This None can know the Will of God unlesse he doth reveal it and Injoines it For who hath known the Mind of the Lord Or who hath been his Counsellour That is Confirmed by This That all whosoever did think to Worship God with their own Invented Works Did provoke him to Anger rather than honour him Nay they are found To have worshipped the Devil Or the Idols of their own heart rather than God They went a whoring with their own Inventions Therefore was the wrath of God-kindled against his People Psal 106.39 40. §. The onely Ground and Rule of Faith And Divine Worship Is the Holy Scripture 1. NO Mortal Creature can Teach Religion 2. Nor Carnal Man can attain true knowledge unlesse God Instructs Him And his Spirit lead Him to the Truth 3. The Phrophets Agree to the Truth of this Doctrine Esa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony 4. So doth Christ Joh. 5.39 Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal Life and they are they which testifie of me 5. And so do the Apostles calling the Scriptures a Rule As S. Paul doth Gal. 6.16 And as many as walk according to this Rule And Philip. 3.16 Let us walk by the same Rule 6. And so do the Ancient Fathers and Doctors Sequi Divinas Literas De side ad Reginas c. To follow this Rule saith Cyrill is the Path unto Heaven And to be led by this Canon is the way to Salvation And S. Irene Non per alios Dispositionem Salutis cognovimus By the Scriptures we Learn to be saved §. Also The Holy Scripture ought to be among us the Supream Interpreter of Scriptures And the Judge of Controversies 1. FOr Confirmation of That this Language of the Reformed is to be noted and observed How better say They would it stand with wisdome That as Augustine sometime wrote of Counsels August contra Maximian lib. 3. cap. 14. Neither the Papists should object Jerome against the Reformed Nor the Reformed Augustine against the Papists Thereby to Prejudice each Side But that Matter might be tried with Matter Cause with Cause And Reason
perverse and wicked This cannot be done by Ecclesiastical Persons For their Office is to preach to exhort to rebuke and by Spiritual Censures to Correct But they bear not the Sword And they are deprived of that Supream Power which by the fear of punishment may contain the Impious and wicked in their Duty Therefore the very outward face of a Christian Commonwealth shall not be retained if we exclude the Civil Magistrate from the Supream Authority concerning Religion 1. The Prince And Soveraign Magistrate must order and settle nothing Concerning Religion without Consulting the Book of Holy Scriptures 2. And Assembling Learned and Godly Divines whose Charge is to expound them 1. 1. THe Grecians never undertook any matter of great consequence before they received Answer from their Oracles 2. Neither the Jews before they consulted with God by the Ephod 3. Nor the Romans before they had the Approbation of their Sooth-sayers 4. And therefore doubtlesse all Christian Princes and Estates are to expect either a Command Or at least a Warrant from Holy Scripture before they proceed in matter so nearly concerning God and his Service 5. Otherwise they goe about to set the Sun-Dial by their Watch and not their Watch by their Sun-Dial 6. Whether all wise Governours like good Pilates have Manum ad Clavum oculos ad Astra The eye upon the Starres And their hand upon the Helm Steering their Course below by direction from above 2. 1. THough Soveraigns are Supreame Commanders for the Truth yet they are not the Supream or sole directors unto Truth For in Scruples of Conscience And perplexed Controversies of Religion they are to require the Law from the mouth of the Priest That is they are to ask Counsel of the Prophets And generally in all matters appertaining to God to hear the Ministers of God declaring to them the will of God out of his Word 2. Symmachus was bold to tell Anastasius the Emperour that as Bishops owe Subjection to Gods Sword in Princes hands So Princes owe obedience to Gods Word in Bishops mouthes Defer Deo in nobis nos deferemus Deo in te O Emperour hear God speaking by us and we will fear God ruling by thee The same God who hath put a material Sword in thy hands to smite malefactors in their body hath put a Spiritual Sword in our mouth to slay sin in the Soul 3. The Magistrate is the hand of God but the Preacher is his mouth And for this cause all wise and Religious Kings have given them their ears And taken some of them in their bosome As David did Nathan to receive Instruction and direction from them how to sway the Royal Scepter within the walls of the Church In what regard a Soveraign Prince is said to be the Head of the Church which is within his States and Dominions 1. IT is not in the same sense that Christ is called the Head of the Church which is Mystically For this honour is proper onely unto him And cannot without an horrible blasphemy be attributed to any Creature 2. Neither also is it in the same senâ—â— that the Popes of Rome do call themselves Ministerial Heads of the Universal Church Pretending thereby to have an Universal and a Supreame Power in Spiritual things belonging to Religion and Conscience As also an Universal Jurisdiction over all Ecclesiastical Persons For this Title belongeth not unto them neither by Divine nor Humane Right But they assume it by a meer Antichristian Usurpation 3. The Soveraign then is called Head of the Church of his States and Countries in the same sense that in Gods Word King Saul is called the Head of the Nations That is to say not only as he is the first the Noblest member of the Church of his States and Countries but because he is her Defendor her Nursing Father and Supream Inspector and who is bound by the virtue of his Supream Authority to establish therein defend and maintain Religion and the Divine truth As also a good and a lawful Government Of the Marks of the True Religion By which it is distinguished from the False Religion of Pagans c. 1. THe First Mark of the True Religion is This That it direct us And all our Religious Service unto the true God Creator of Heaven and Earth The onely Searcher of Mens Hearts Of which chiefly he will be served By this first Mark true Religion is distinguished from all Idolatrous Religions which seek unto Wood to Stone to the Sun to the Moon to Men to Angels and to all the Creatures that are in Heaven and in Earth 2. The second Mark of the true Religion is That the Service of God which Religion is to teach us must be grounded upon his word And Revealed unto us by his own self This Second Mark will serve us to discern the True Religion from the Inventions of Men. And to reject as untruth whatsoever is not grounded upon Gods word 3. The Third Mark of the True Religion is That True Religion must put into our Hands a Mean to satisfie Gods Justice Without the which not only all other Religions but also even that which concerneth the true serving of the true God were utterly vain and unprofitable By this third Mark True Religion is distinguished from all False Religions Man's Reason hath well perceived that some such Mean was needful in Religion But to know what that Mean is was too high a Thing for man's Reason to attain unto 4. The True Religion then And which deserveth the Name of Religion is only that Which hath God for her Scope His Word for warrant of her worshipping And a Mean appointed by him to pacifie him towards us And in that Religion onely and in none other resteth Salvation The Ancient Judaical Religion hath been a True Religion The Jews having had the knowledge of the true God And having served and worshipped him alone 1. AMong the great Nations Of the Assyrians Of the Persians Of the Greeks Of the Aegyptians And of the Romans Whose Religions did not bear the Livery of one onely true God But of Many There was discovered a little Nation called the People of Israel Which worshipped the Creator of the World Acknowledged him for their Father Did call upon him alone in their need And for all the small Account that others made of them Did abhorre all the glistering gloriousnesse of the Great Monarchies and Kingdomes that were out of the way The first Christian Religion was Pure and True 1. FOr it was wholly According to the Will of God Declared by the Prophets by Jesus Christ And By his Apostles 2. It was a Pure and a True Religion Because It Had All the Marks and Parts of the True Religion 1. Teaching to know one onely God Creator of Heaven and Earth And who Conserves And Governs All Things By his Providence 2. It Discovers to the sinful Man the true Mean to be Reconciled with God Namely By the Mercy of Jesus Christ our Redeemer
the end that none should think her over excellent he calleth her woman Prophesying as it were aforehand of the Heresies which should arise And premonishing that none in admiration of her Sanctity should fall into this Heresie of Adoration 5. Of which doting Heresie of Adoration of the Virgin the Papists are guilty in a high degree For in the Countries subject to the See of Rome all men and women wheresoever they are in the City or in the Field thrice a day when the Ave Mary Bell rings send up their united devotions to her and where one professeth himself a devote to our Saviour whole Towns devote themselves to her where one prayeth at a Crucifix ten pray at her Image where one fasteth on Friday which they account our Lords day Many fast on Saturday which they count our Ladaies day To conclude they conclude all their prayers with an Ave Maria As we do with our Lords Prayer and most of their Treatises with Laus Deiparae Virgini Praise be to the Virgin Mother of God And in the Psalter called Bonaventures they have Intituled all the 150. Psalms of David to her and where he saith Lord they put Lady Touching Adoration of Relicks It is Idolatry the Church of Rome is very much guilty thereof What office is to be rendred to the Bodies of those that are deceased by those that are alive It is not to worship them but to bury them 1. THis the Protestants reproves concerning Relicks of Saints 1. Such Adoration of Relicks as S. Hierome himself and S. Augustine condemned 2. The attributing of Supernatural Effects to Monuments and Relicks which they have not by any ordinance of God 3. To place confidence and merit in these things without any divine authority and to cause people to gad and wander to this or that place that they may receive benefit by them 4. We most of all condemn the Impostures and covetousnesse of the Romanists who in stead of true Reliks brought in counterfeits The Lance is found wherewith Christs side was pierced A Brazen Serpent made of the same Brass which Moses his Serpent was at Milan in S. Ambrose his Church Tunica Inconsutilis Domini nostri c. 5. And consequently for filthy lucre bartered and made Portsale of these Relicks abusing herein the Ignorance and Superstition of fond people 2. And on the side the said Protestants declare That the office which is to be rendred to the Bodies of Saints Deceased by those that are alive is not to Worship them but to bury them In that regard Eusebius writeth thus concerning Polycarp After we had gathered his Bones being more precious than Pearls and Gold we buried them where it was fit Of Miracles wrought by Dead Bones and Carcasses of Saints 1. VVHen it pleaseth the Lord to shew his Power and to work Miracles in any place or by any means as seemeth Good unto himself we admire his power and praise his goodness 2. And we are not Ignorant how God hath used dead bones as an Instrument of Life 2 King 13. v. 21. 3. And concerning these things Bishop Jewel hath written in this manner Reply Art 1. p. 39. Almighty God for the Testimony of his Doctrine and Truth hath oftentimes wrought great Miracles even by the dead carkasses of his Saints In witness that they had been his Messengers and the Instruments of his Will But as they were godly Inducements at the first to lead people unto the Truth So afterwards they became snares to lead the same People into Errors We Protestants must not frequent Exercises of Popish Worship nor assist to the Mass 1. VVE cannot be present there but either we must give great offence or commit a Greater 2. Give great offence if we do not as the Papists do and joyn not with them in Censing Images bowing before them offering unto them and kissing In calling upon Saints and praying for the releasing of Souls out of Purgatory 3. Or commit a greater if we joyn with them in their superstitious Rites and Idolatries In so doing we give greater offence to the Church of God And not onely receive a mark from the Beast but a grievous Wound 4. Constantine the Emperour thought himself defiled if he had but seen an Heathenish Altar Ambros Epist. 31. David if he had but made mention of an Idol Psal 16. v. 4. Their Offerings of Blood I will not offer nor take their names into my mouth 5. The Corinthians might not be partakers of such meats as were offered to Idols May we be partakers of such Prayers as are offered unto them It was unlawful for them to fit at the same Table with Idolaters when they kept their Solemn Feasts Can it be lawful for us to stand at the same Altar with them 6. Let us think again and again upon those fearful menaces Apoc. 14. v. 9. If any man worship the Beast and his Image and receive the mark in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God and he shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the holy Angels and before the Lamb And the smoake of their torments shall ascend for ever And they shall have no rest day nor night which worship the Beast and his Image and whosoever receiveth the Print of his Name 7. We have not received any print of the Beast we are free from the least suspition of Familiarity with the Whore of Babylon we have kept our selves unspotted of Popery Therefore as we tender not onely our Honour and Reputation but chiefly the salvation of our Bodies and Souls let us keep our selves still from Idols Let us be zealous for Gods honour and he will be zealous for our safety Let us abstain from all appearance of that evil which the Spirit of God ranketh with Sorcery and Witchcraft As the Church of Rome became corrupted by Degrees in Regard of the Doctrine of Faith since the Apostles Times So did she in regard of Manners 1. This is True in regard of the Pope her Head 1. THe Common Opinion which Men did conceive of the Time in which Gregory the Great lived was that Gregory the Great was the last good and the first ill Bishop of Rome 2. He was no better then should be 3. And all the other Bishops that suceeded him were stark nought Every one striving to goe beyond his Predecessor in all leudnesse 4. So that now a Sink of all wickednesse hath hath violently burst into the Church 2. This is true in respect of the Popish Clergy and in respect of other Members of the said Roman Church 1. A Sink of all wickednesse doth now possesse all the Parts of the Roman Church 2. The Adversaries do force us Reformed to open the Sores of their Church which we had rather not touch But they are so unreasonable that they neither spared us nor themselves 1. Bernard who was the onely Religious Man the Church of Rome had for many years How often
universal Faith of Christ we are truely Christians and Catholicks believing so and professing so 2. And are content with these Names and desire no other §. Let the Papists be called as they will the Reformed who Reprove and Confute the multitude of their Namss will not be grieved at them 1. LEt the Papists be called Diversly Franciscanes Benedictines Dominicanes And whatsoever other Title they can take up the Reformed are not grieved at the multitude and variety of their Names 2 Who being in Truth almost any thing rather then Christians delight in any Name rather then in the Name of Christians Against the Reconcilement and Reunion of the two Religions the Reformed and the Roman 1. BEing true that the Roman Church is Heretikcal and Impure And on the contrary the Reformed Churches Orthodox and Pure It follows manifestly that there can be none well grounded hope to agree and reunite Popery with the Reformed Churches And therefore that the labour of those who would think upon such a thing were not a seasonable labour 1. Because that in the differences which are amongst us we are so contrary one to the other that the one do clearly maintain the Negative and the others the Affirmative Now it must necessarily be that one of the Propositions be true and the other false Because two contradictories cannot be together true And it is not possible to soulder them by the mastick of some distinctions having no ground in the Word of God 2. The Errors of the Church of Rome have been solemnly ratified and confirmed by the Council of Trent upon pain of Anathema And therefore since that Ratification and confirmation there is no way nor mean left of reconcilement and Agreement For if there were the said Church should be bound to acknowledge her Errors to the end that they may be reformed And to disanul and abrogate concerning them the Canons of the said Council of Trent which is not to be expected from her as long as she shall maintain this poin as she doth vehemently that she cannot Erre And that she layes down and propounds no other Principle of Faith than her belief Against Toleration of false Religions with the pure and Reformed when they differ in Fundamental grounds 1. IT is not onely evil to do but also to suffer evil when it is in our power to hinder it Therefore Religion differing in Fundamental Grounds are not to be Tolerated together 2. This is proved by many Arguments Drawn 1. From the Law forbidding to plow with an Ox and an Asse And punishing Idolaters with Death Deut. 22.10 11. and Deut. 19.6.8 9. 2. From the Gospel denying the service of two Masters Mat. 6.24 And interdicting all fellowship and communion of light with darkness or Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. 3. From the Spirits Bill of enditement framed against the Angels of Pergamos and Thyatira for tollerating the Nicolaitans Rev. 2.15 20. 4. From Gods threatning to cut off all such as swear by him and by Malcham Zeph. 1.5 5. From the Imputation which is laid by the Spirit upon many Kings of Israel and Judah for not taking away the High places 1 King 15.14 6. From the Examples of Asa Josiah Ezekiah Constantine Jovian Theodosius and other Religious Princes who by severe Laws restrained Heresie and Idolatry and constrained the true worship of God 7. From the great danger of Heresie which like a Canker soon spreads over the whole body of the Church and if it be not looked into killeth and that eternally thousands of souls breaketh the bands of Nature and cutteth in sunder all sinews of human Society Putteth enmity variance and implacable discords in families Soweth seeds of Sedition in the State and Rebellion against the Prince Refutation of this Slander of the Popish Doctors That the Reformed are Enemies to Scriptures 1. THe Reformed say that this is indeed a very impudent Slander 2. For who ever thought and spoke more Honourablie Reverently and with more due Regard of the Scriptures then they Who have received and imbraced all Scripture given by Inspiration as the very voice of God himself Holding it for the onely Ground and Rule of their Faith and Religion And so resting in it as that they desire no other help as necessary to Salvation Which if they had not with more diligence and devotion defended then the Romanists ever did long ere this the glory of it had perished and it had been counted as a dead Letter 3. For what have the Reformed done for these many years with more endeavour and diligence then to maintain the Majesty and Excellencie of the Scriptures 4. Which the Romanists have so unworthily violated 5. And yet they blush not to match the Reformed with the Manichees and Ebionites who have violently laid villanous hands upon those Sacred Books Of the Apocryphal Books excluded from the Canon by the Reformed Churches Jesuits THe Jesuites and other Papists do demand of the Reformed by what Authority they Maime and Rob the Corps of the Bible Answer of the Reformed to that Demand 1. WE offer no violence to this Body neither do we cut off any which do appertain to the substance and perfection of it we pull away no Member 2. For we do not cut out any true Canonical Scriptures but cull out such as are not Canonical but foisted in and Counterfeit 3. Herein we do the Canonical Scriptures no injury dividing them from such Books as are not of that absolute Authority That they which are in truth Canonical may remain intire and whole together no more then the Shepheard doth injury to the Sheep in sorting the Goats and other Cattel from them The Doctrine of the Reformed Churches and particularly of the Church of England that the Ministers of God hath power to Forgive Sins if the Sinner repent and believe the Gospel maketh not the English Reformed Ministers to be Priests as they are called in the Church of Rome 1. WE Reformed say that the Ministers of God hath power to forgive sins not in some Cases only but in all whatsoever if the sinner repent and believe the Gospel 2. This Authority is given unto him by Christ 3. This in the State and Church of England the Parliament and the Communion Book confesse 2. 1. NEvertheless a Popish Writer is far from his purpose to prove thereby the Popish Order of Priesthood 2. For this maketh not the English Reformed Ministers to be Priests as they are called in the Church of Rome but Preachers of Repentance which bring the glad Tidings of the Gospel to all those that be heavie laden and desire to be refreshed 3. 1. NEither have they power themselves to forgive sins but God alone forgiveth sins Mark 1.7 2. But having the word of Reconciliation committed unto them from God they offer pardon and in his Name pronounce pardon to the sinner that believeth and that turneth from his wickednesse and sinnes unto the Lord. Refutation of this Accusation of the Jesuites
accepted of the Protestants by toleration because at first they could obtain no more then by an absolute approbation 3. The same Service-book was changed and reformed and many things were left out of the said Liturgie by another Edition thereof established in the Fifth Year of Edward the Sixt. 4. And that latter Service-book of King Edward is in substance all one with the Service-book of Queen Elizabeth 5. And that since King Edwards Reigne there hath been no material Alteration of the English Service book 6. The Papists have no cause to inveigh against this alteration of the Service-book of the Church of England if they remember that themselves have changed their Breviaries Portesses and Missals more then once even of late years See Possevin Appar v. Missal Etver Breviarum Of the mention of Saints made in the Liturgie of the Church of England and of their Feasts keeping yearly 1. VVHen in the Church of England according to the Liturgie thereof the said Church doth adorn the Calendar with the Names of some Eminent Saints and do make honourable mention of them in her Religious publick worship as the Antient Church did of her Martyrs yet she doth not call upon them She doth not lift up the hands nor bow the knees nor present offerings nor direct her prayers nor intend any part of Religious worship to them But to their God and ours as S. Augustine answereth for the practice of the Church in his time 2. She doth remember the Saints of God but in no wise made Gods of Saints She doth blesse God for them and not worship them for God 3. Although her Devotion doth glance by their Names yet it doth pitch and is fixed upon the Angel of the Covenant the Holy of all Holy ones our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ On the blessed Virgins Anniversary she doth honour Christ in his Mother On S. John Baptists she doth honour him in his forerunner On S. Michaels she doth honour him in his Archangel On the Apostles she doth honour him in his Ambassadours On the Evangelists she doth honour him in his Chroniclers On S. Stephen she doth honour him in his Martyr On S. John the Divine his day she doth honour him in his beloved Disciple who also leaned on his breast at Supper It is a great Error in the Worship of God to be altogether for Prayer and to make no esteem of the Preaching of the Word of God both must not be severed one from the other 1. FOr if it be said of Christ that his House is an House of Prayer and not of Sermons We must observe where he spake this it was in the Temple where he spake it And were not these very words part of a Sermon which he Preached to the Buyers and Sellers there 2. He hath but little skill in the Language of Canaan who knoweth not that Prayer and Invocation of Gods Name is in the Scripture by a Synecdoche taken for the whole Worship of God Acts 2.21 Rom 10.13 3. Yet admit that our Saviour should in that place take Prayers strictly for that part of Gods Worship which consisteth in lifting up our hands to prefer our Petitions and Supplications unto him S. Paul furnisheth us with a direct answer to this Objection even by those Questions he propoundeth Rom. 10.14 How then shall they call on him on whom they have not believed How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher 4. As there is no powerful Preaching without Prayer to God for a blessing upon it so no good Prayer without Preaching to direct both in the matter and form and to enflame our hearts with zeal How the Magistrate is to carry himself toward Seducing and Seditious Hereticks that are not Tolerated in a State 1. LEt it be accounted Mercy not to execute the Rigour of Penal Statutes upon silly seduced Sheep But certainly it is cruelty to spare the Wolves which worry them 2. I mean those Wolves who plot Treason against their Natural Prince who scandalize the State and who stain with impure breath the Gold and Silver Vessels of the Sanctuary who turn Religion into Statism or rather into Atheism 3. Such Wolves are in England the Popish Priests and the Jesuites 4. Who not onely shew their Rage in not sparing our Sons and our Daughters and daily enticing them and by their Agents conveying them over beyond the Sea to sacrifice not their bodies but their souls their Faith their Religion to the Moloch of Rome 5. But besides who plot the ruine and overthrow of the State who say as the Children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem down with it down with it even to the ground or rather up with it up with it to the trembling Aire blow up King Queen Prince Parliament Clergy Laity Nobility Gentry Commons Lawes Statutes Charters Records all in a Cloud of fire that there remain not so much as any Cindars of them upon the Eearth lest parhaps the Phenix might revive out of her own Ashes We must not in England frequent Hereticks Seducers nor keep familiar society with them rather we must fly from them and detect them to the Magistrate when they be banished from the Countrey 1. WE must beware in England of the Agents of Rome Priests and Jesuites who go about to withdraw us from the love of our Countrey from our Allegiance to our Prince and which is worst of all from the true and pure Worship of God 2. If stealing away the bodies of our Sons and Daughters be so hainous a crime that many conceive it better to deserve the Gallows then the stealing of a Horse or of a Sheep what punishment do we suppose they do deserve who steal away their souls from God and their hearts from their Parents 3. If we account them as capital Enemies who seek the ruine of our Estate can we esteem otherwise of them who seek the utter ruine and overthrow of our Souls 4. And let us not be deceived in regard of them because their outward behaviour is fair and their company delightful For as they are Panther like which hideth her ugly visage which she knoweth will terrifie the Beasts from coming near her and allures them with the sweet smell of her body but as soon as they come within her reach she maketh a prey of them 5. Therefore as we tender the Salvation of our Body and Soul our Estate in this Life and in the Life to come let us take heed how we play at the hole of the Cockatrice And do familiarly converse with the great Whore or with any of her Minions lest they draw us to naughtiness and spiritual lewdness 6. Let us have no part with them that have no part in God or who have part with abominable Idols 7. Nay furthermore let us detect such Persons to publick Authority that they may learn not to blaspheme the truth of our Religion nor seduce his Majesties Subjects from
the Doctrine thereof Schisme is the wound of Charity and by which the Church is divided which Division is not for points of Faith but for the Ceremonies and Discipline of the Church received and established in her since a long time and well grounded upon the Word of God and that by a Spirit of contention and trouble to purchase the glory of some particular and extraordinary wisdome and sufficiencie 8. Hereticks are called Antichrists 1 John 2. v. 18. because they are fore-runners of the great Antichrist the man of sin and the Son of Perdition Heresie is a most dangerous thing and spreads soon over the whole body of the Church and produceth woful Effects 1. HEresie like a Canker soon spreads over the whole body of the Church 2. And if it be not looked into killeth and that eternally thousands of Souls breaketh the bonds of nature and cutteth asunder all sinews of humane society putteth enmity variance and implacable discords in Families soweth Seeds of Sedition in the State reacheth Daggers and Daggers to Subjects to assacinate the Sacred Persons of the Lords Anointed layeth Traines in the deep Vaults of disloyal hearts to blow up Parliaments and to offer whole Kingdomes for an Holocaust Of the Impudency of Error and Hereticks in these Times IN this wretched Time Error and Hereticks which were wont but to whisper men in the Eare and to mumble between the Teeth have been so bold as to step into the Pulpit and to belch out blasphemies against God and the true Christian Religion Concerning the Books of Hereticks whether they are to be tolerated or absolutely abolished by the Prince 1. Concerning the Books of Hereticks this is our Judgement that of them 1. Some are Magicall 2. Some are Defamatorie Books 3. Some are Blasphemous Books 4. And some are Books full of divers Errors 2. The Magicall Books are to be burned Acts 19.19 3. The Defamatory Books are to be forbidden The Emperours Constitutions do ordain a Capital Punishment for the Authors of them 4. The Notoriously Blasphemous Books of Hereticks are also to be abolished 5. Concerning the Books of Hereticks which containe divers Errors the reading of them is not to be permitted to every one and chiefly not to those who did not yet sufficiently know the grounds of true Faith and Religion 6. But for that they are not absolutely to be abolished but the reading of them is to be permitted to the Learned 7. Which we prove by the following Arguments The first is taken from the Apostles Injunctions Prove all things saith S. Paul 1 Thes 5.21 And S. John 1. Epist 4. v. 1. Brethren helieve not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God The 2. Argument is taken from the Commodities and Utilities which proceeds from the reading of such Books In the Books of Hereticks such things are written by which the Heresies themselves are confuted Besides it is profitable to know what is happened in every Age. The 3. Argument is this Which of the Fathers hath been free from all kind of Errors And in the Books of the Gentiles and of the Jews many things are contained contrary to the true Christian Faith and yet we do not abolish them Hereticks and Deceivers and Impostors grace themselves with high and strange Titles and glorious Names to blear the eyes of the simple 1. THeudas said he was some great one Simon Magus stiled himself the great Power of God Montanus arrogated to himself the Title of Paracletus the Comforter and to his three Minions Priscilla Maximilla and Quintilla the names of Prophetesses Manes bare himself as if he were an Apostle immediately sent from Christ 2. Therefore it is a silly shift of a bankrupt Disputant in the Schools to argue à vocibus ad res from the bare name of things to their nature and yet Bellarmine fights against us with this Festraw De Not. Eccles We are Sir-named Catholicks therefore we are so The Devil often maketh of women strong Instruments to dispread the Poyson of Heresie 1. SImon Magus had his Helena Marcion his female Fore-runner Apelles his Philumena Montanus his Maximilla Donatus his Lucilla Elpidus his Agape Priscillian his Galla Arius the Prince his Sister Nicholaus Antiochenus his Feminine Troops and Quires and all Arch-hereticks some Strumpets or other to serve them for Midwives when they were in Travel with Monstrous and mis-shapen Heresies Thou sufferest the woman Jazabel We must avoid the familiar company of Gods Enemies and of true Religion for fear of Infection 1. FOr such enemies are like Jacobs Poplar rods they are like the two Rivers in Mercator Axius and Aliacmon like the two Fountains in Spain whereof Maginus 1. Omnia Injecta respuit refuses all that is cast into it 2. Omnia injecta sibi assimilat makes all things cast into it like to it self 2. The danger is noted by Solomon Prov. 6.27 And by the sharp speech of Jehu the Prophet to Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 18.3 2 Chron. 19.2 3. Therefore is the Exhortation of the Apostle Wherefore come out from amongst them and touch no unclean thing 2 Cor. 6.17 4. If Saint John the Evangelist would not stay in the Bath with Cerinthus the Heretick shall we dare freely to communicate with worser Hereticks Of the Chief Errors of the Socinians 1. Their Errors concerning the Vnity of the Divine Essence and the Trinity of Persons THey deny the Trinity of Persons They deny the Divinity of the Son They say that the Birth of the Son is altogether impossible They deny the Divinity of the Holy Ghost They denie that the Holy Ghost is a Person They maintain that the Holy Ghost is onely the Power of God They teach that the Holy Ghost dwelling in the hearts of the Faithful is nothing else but a firm and certain hope of Eternal Life They deny that a particular operation of the Holy Ghost be required for the production of Faith They deny also that in God there be a certain natural Justice and Mercy 2. Their Errors concerning Christ the Mediatour THey deny that there be two Natures in Christ the Divine and the Humane They deny that Christ is risen from the Dead by his own power and vertue They deny that Christ by his Death did satisfie for our sins or that he be dead to merit Salvation unto us They deny that Christ hath reconciled us unto God They deny that Christ be come to fulfil the Law for us on the contrary they say that Christ hath added new Commandments to the Law They deny that Christ upon the Altar of the Cross did offer himself to God for us They deny also that Christ was a Priest before his Ascention in Heaven They deny that by the Sacrifice of Christ any other thing is to be understood than a deliverance from our Necessities They deny that Christ doth properly interceed for us And they say that by the Intercession of Christ nothing else is to be understood but that