make love the mark of his true Disciples seeing those are onely Christs true Disciples which so learne Christ as they draw that spirit from him which teacheth them love and breatheth it into them And surely if a sonne of God by that spirituall eye which hee receiveth from Christ Jesus with his Sonne-ship do clearly behold another son of the same father how can hee chuse but love him as a brother he cannot chuse but love him for the unity that is betweene them for they are one spirit by being begotten of one Spirit in Christ Jesus and as none hateth his owne flesh but cherisheth and loveth it so none should hate his owne spirit but cherish and love it Secondly hee should love his brother for uniformity aswell as for unity there is a spirituall likenesse and conformity betweene spirituall brethren and commonly likenesse breedeth love they are both created unto one image and how can a sonne of God but love his owne likenesse which hee seeth in his brother As in a glasse face answereth to face so a Saints soule answereth to the soule of a Saint and when one sees his owne shape in the other from this likeness and harmony there must needs arise spirituall love and amity Thirdly if a Saint consider the excellency of a Saint how can he chuse but love him for his excellency God is the chiefest and highest excellence and he that most resembleth God is therefore most excellent Now among visible creatures there is none that resembleth God more then a Saint for he is a sonne of God begotten to the true image of God his father therefore hee that loves God that begat loves also the Sons whom God hath begoâ—ten and the man according to Gods own heart because his goodness the fruits of love extends not unto God therefore he communicates it to the Saints and Sons of God that excell in vertue as if that were the next degree to doing good unto God himself to love cherish and doe good to his sons and Saints And indeed what is a fitter object of love next to the chiefe and soveraigne Good then a Saint who by a derivative goodnesse most representeth him God is light and a Saint is light in the Lord God is goodnesse and righteousnesse and a Saint is created according to God in righteousnesse and true holinesse The heart of a Saint is according to Gods heart yea he is partaker of a divine nature and groweth in it from glory to glory And as this divine nature is glorious and lovely so are the fruits of it atractively amiable Love joy peace long suffering goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance yea all goodnesse righteousnesse and truth The beauty of the body is by no means comparable with the beauty of the soule for the beauty of the soule is the Image of God and the glory of this Image having in it divine light vertue and goodnesse shines in the soul with a farre higher excellence then colour and complexion laid on the clay and earth of a fading and corruptible body and according to this excellence the beauty of the soule is preserved to immortality when the beauty of the body is suffered either to vanish before the body or to lye with it in the dust and there to die a kinde of second death neither shall it ever recover life againe but by a conjunction with the beauty of the soule If corporall beauty have been joyned with spirituall beauty then shall it rise in a farre more excellent beauty but if it had not with it spirituall beauty purity and goodnesse and fairenesse of soule it shall not arise in glory and beauty it shall not see the face of God but it shall be sent away with ougly spirits being it self transformed into the deformed character of a countenance weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth If then a Saint be so lovely and the love of a Saint is so just and reasonable and God doth love this Love and doth give his Saints the Spirit of love of purpose to love one another and so this love is the marke of a Saint a Sonne and a Christian let every Saint make himselfe sure of this love and not onely of the shew and word of it but of the essence and life of it Let him love a Saint whom God loves and love him because God loves this love of a Saint Let him love a Saint as hee loves his owne safety which is annexed to the love of the Saints Let him love a Saint because a Saint loves God Let him love a Saint because hee is like himselfe and because the Saint loves him Dilige Deum tuum dilige in Deo tuo charum tuum Imaginem Dei tui Ille te perinde diligendo Deum in Deo diligat Love thy God and in God love thy brother the image of God and let thy brother in requitall by loving God love thee also in God SECT II. Peace is declared to be the first fruits of love and to make love fruitfull in other graces and is further commended 1. By the beauty and usefulnesse of it 2. By the mischiefs which proceed from dissention 3. By the authority of Scriptures 4. By the example of Christ. TRue Christian love will not bee solitary and fruitlesse but it must bring forth peace and bee attended by it Love is it selfe the fruit of the spirit and peace is the fruit of this love yea love which delights to bee fruitfull loves this peace because by her shee communicates her other fruitfulnesse It is best sowing in a calme and if we will beleeve Saint Iames the fruit of righteousnesse is best sowne in peace So Peace the eldest daughter of Love is a midwife to her mother and delivers her of the rest of her children and without her help the mother doth nothing but make abortions Therefore as thou wouldest have thy love to be fruitfull and by her fruits profitable to the Saints so be thou sure to have her attended by peace that through peace with the Saints thy love may profitably extend it selfe to the Saints The unity of the spirit must be kept in the bond of peace and indeed with whom wilt thou keepe peace if thou wilt not keepe it with those who are one spirit with thee By one spirit are we all baptized into one body and we be members one of another by our unity in this one body How comely yea how necessary is it to the preservation and prosperity of the body that the members of one body bee at peace and unity and how monstrous and destructive is it when one member fights with another That fatall sentence cannot bee avoyded If yee bite one another yee shall bee consumed one of another But contrarily the kingdome of God which is peace flourisheth by the peace of the subjects of that kingdome and therefore St. Paul having taught the former to the Romans adjoyneth the latter
him a right Citizen of Sodom And now call him a Monk if you will hee shall bee but a Monk of the Order of Sodome his function farre from sacred farre from the Spirit but even a hellish trade of fleshly abominations And so I think we have drawn up these conclusions First That it should not bee true Christian charity which by excessivenesse gives that provision which makes such a childe of hell Secondly It may bee no charity because it may bee an erroneous opinion of merit and satisfaction And it is too well knowne that the supposed expiation of crying sins hath laid the foundation of too many Monasteries Thirdly This Provision may be a fruit not of Romish Charity but of Romish Policy for Rome may cherish this provision and enriching of Monasteries that they may serve as so many Garrisons for Rome against Princes for by them they may diminish Kingdoms and as much as they take from these so much they adde to the Kingdome of Rome The Champion passeth on and having wrought a glittering curtaine bespangled with the seeming good works of Visiting the condemned Redeeming captives Instructing the ignorant hee spreads this curtaine before the eyes of his Readers at once to dazle them with this glorious shew and to cover from them the horrid spectacle of Romes bloudy uncharitablenesse That there are no good works in the limits of Rome I will no more say then I will say there are no knees there â—hat doe not bow to Baal And these as I said before serve well the turne of the Beast to make his hornes shew like those of the Lambe as they doe at this time serve our Author to make a shew that Rome is charitable But take out of his Inventory those works that are done for satisfaction to pay God the debt of sins and so to make them Saviours or for merit and supererogation to bring God in debt unto man I doubt not the remaining works like Gideons Army will abate from thousands to hundreds And indeed the greater multitude there is of erroneous works the more Arguments not of Romish charity but of Romish error and superstition But when among these works of Romish charity I see the Instructing of the ignorant I wonder at the Cavaliers blinde partiality that could not see this which hee brings forth as a proofe of Romish charity to bee an high proofe and accusation of Romish uncharitablenesse and this uncharitablenesse is the greater for his owne reason because soules are more precious then bodies So that the great deluge of this transcendent uncharitablenesse to soules seemes to drowne all the former wâ—rks of charity to the body And indeed what instruction can a Latin Pater noâ—ter a Latin Creed a Latin Ave Maria a Latin Masse give to an ignorant soule It hath been to mee a spectacle of compassion when beyond the Seas in some principall City I have met with a poore Popish soule that spake some of these her devotions in that which was thought to be Latin but could not bee understood to bee Latin by those who knew that language much lesse by the party that knew it not what instruction can these words give to the ignorant which the ignorant know not This is not to take away ignorance but to add new ignorance to the old And surely they need not to send men to compasse sea and land to convert Infidels abroad untill they have converted their ignorant unbeleevers at home for if they make no better Christians abroad then they leave thousands at home it is but to pollute that glorious Name wherewith wee are called and to put the name of Christians on those that know not Christ. Now that Rome is this cruell Stepmother whose children thus lye swowning dying in the streets for hunger though our eies have seen it let Romish words speak it Let us hear their great Jesuit Navarre setting forth the ignorance of the Romish Church as her shame whereas the Cavalier sets forth the Instruction of the ignorant as her glory Hee sins mortally saith he who being come to the judgement of reason neglects explicitely and particularly to know the second Person of the Trinity that is That the Sonne of God the Father was made man was born and dyed c. And he that is ignorant of other Articles of the Creed at least those which the Church doth solemnize by Festivall dayes c. Wherefore we desire all Curates Godfathers Parents Confessors especially of the common people and all Preachers of Gods Word that they will not cease to inculcate this particular and explicite faith of these Articles and of those other which are contained in the Apostles Creed which the holy Church of Rome doth use For in the whole Church of Christ there is so great negligence about these that every where you shall finde many that beleeve no more explicitely and in particular of these then an heathen Philosopher endued onely with the naturall knowledge of one true God And now if the Reader withdraw this painted and deceitfull curtaine that seemes to represent a Heaven sprinkled with the Starres of seeming good works and looke into the Hell of Romish uncharitablenesse whereof a small but true modell was represented in the former Chapter Or if he see it not there he will look into the Inquisition House and there behold it set forth to life or rather to death in severall torments I doubt not but this pleasant image will soon be frighted out of his Imagination by the terrible shape of Rome appearing all bloudy and drunken with the bloud of the saints And so the improbability of Romish uncharitablenesse to Protestants will vanish away like a fantasie and a Poeticall fable And indeed if the Pharisee notwithstanding his tyth-paying and fasting went away condemned because proudly and uncharitably hee despised and damned the Publicane though hee did neither imprison noâ— burne him how shall Rome escape this condemnation which both despiseth and damneth and imprisoneth and tortureth and burneth Protestants whom shee accounteth worse then Publicans and Heathens And thus though the Cavaliers words may bee true that At the first sight it is wholly improbable that Rome is uncharitable yet at the second sight it is more then probale because it is proved This Chapter is almost ended but before the end of it the Champion shoots an arrow like a Parthian flying even then to hurt us when hee seemes to looke from hurting us Hee would seeme to spare Protestants in not recriminating yet in naming this not recriminating hee did not spare us but indeed hee did spare himselfe most in not urging it more for wee have such proofs of Protestant charity as may shame his Recrimination For they are ready to bee brought forth against a Recriminator and may binde his Recrimination as a crown to the head of the Protestants And when a catalogue of them is brought forth wee may boldly say and that not without Recrimination to Romists that
none of them are the bastard fruits of Romish and carnall errors of merit and satisfaction But a patterne of these works of charity hath been already presented to the world and yet not of all Protestants but of this Kingdome and yet not of the whole Realme but of some part for the whole And that I send not away the Reader altogether empty I will take a part of that part and this part I doubt is not to bee matched by any proportionable part of the Romish Jurisdiction in the same proportion of time Thus he begins Whereas the Professors of the Gospel are generally charged by the Romanists as barren and fruitlesse of good workes I will to stop their slanderous mouthes shew by a particular induction that more charitable works have been performed in the times of the Gospel then they can shew to have beene in the like time of Popery or in twice so much time now going immediately before And because it would require an endlesse labour to make collection of all such works I will give instance onely of three most famous places of this Land which have most abounded in these fruits namely the City of London and the two Universities And then having reckoned and summed up divers gifts hee thus concludes his totall They want not much of a Million But if all other gifts which came not to my knowledge were added the summe would farre exceed a Million In which summe I comprehend not the yeerely collection of 30000. pounds through the Parishes of this Land And I think the time since this computation hath yet beene more fruitfull the summes being very great which have been given for the maintenance of forrain Preachers and exiles repairing of Churches redeeming of captives enlarging and beautifying of Colledges erecting or increasing Libraries amongst which that of Oxford growes to so large and glorious a lustre that doubtlesse it dazels the eyes of Popery to behold it CHAP. IV. Opposed to the Cavaliers second Chapter wherein he labours to excuse the uncharitable censure of Papists in damning Protestants SECT I. The Protestants Religion is declared to be a saving Religion In respect 1. of the Object of faith 2. Of the meanes of beleeving the Word and Sacraments 3. Of the effects of faith charity and repentance WEe are told in this Chapter that when Romists give the sentence of damnation against us they doe it not against us but against our heresie or if you will Protestancy But I answer If Protestancy doe not damne us then Papists doe damne us for as a guiltlesse person whom his owne crime doth not condemn may be truly said to be slaine and condemned by the witnesses which falsely accuse him so Protestants not being condemned by Protestancy are damned by the false witnesses of Rome And indeed if they would suspend their uncharitable censures of damnation untill they had manifestly proved the faith of Protestants to be damnable the Cavalier on this quarrell might have had no need to put on his defensive Armour yea if hee had but considered the whole verse whereof he takes a part therewith to conclude this Chapter hee needed not to have begun it his peece is this Hee that beleeveth not shall bee coâ—demned and that which he left out is this He that beleeveth and is baptized shall bee saved now hereunto I subjoyn But Protestants do beleeve and are baptized and how can it chuse but follow Therefore Protestants shall bee saved And that there may be no quarrell about saving faith Let the Author and Finisher of our faith the Judge of quick and dead bee Judge betweene us Heare the Word of that Word which is God This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Sonne and beleeveth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day And if this Word who is Truth had any need of witnesses it were easie to produce them So that whatsoever distance betweene Christ and a soule this Author doth speake of it is taken away by that justifying faith which uniteth us to Christ and makes us one spirit with him For by faith wee being made his Spouse flesh of his flesh bone of his bone and spirit of his spirit Christ is ours and we are Christs our debts are his his merits are ours for indeed if Christ bee ours all things are ours and among those all things are Christs merits And now being in Christ Jesus let Rome and the present Romists say what they will Saint Paul to the pure and primitive Romans plainely said There is to us no condemnation None can separate whom God hath thus put together no not the gates of Hell though set open in the Papacie and sending sorth Champions against us can separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus Againe for the meanes and furtherance of this uniting and saving faith the advantage is incomparably on our side The ordinary and maine meanes of begetting and increasing this faith is the preaching of the Gospel if wee will beleeve the Spirit of God speaking in the Apostles And let the Pope take a survey of his Dominions and I thinke it will palpably appeare that hee comes farre short of matching this Nation with any proportionable part of his Kingdome in the Gifts Abilities and Numbers of solide and profitable Preachers These gifts then being given by Him that ascended on high for the edifying and saving of his Body wee will make no doubt but that the Harvest is great where the Labourers sent forth with these gifts are so many And withall hereby wee may learne That to obtaine thâ—se gifts from on high by which soules may bee saved and to obtaine salvation by the ministry of those gifts there is no need of being subject to the Popes Supremacy seeing wee have both very plentifull without it But this Champion is still angry because we have not great store of Sacraments and yet he knoweth that his owne Doctors do confesse that a man may bee saved if hee have no more Sacraments then we doe use and acknowledge And indeed if a man in Regeneration whereof Baptisme is a seale doe put off originall sinne with the guilt of it and receive a new life of Grace and by the use of the Lords Supper put off the guilt of actuall sinne and nourish and increase this new life I doubt not but hee may goe safe and sound from strength to strength untill he see God in Sion And therefore the French Bishop Fulbertus said five hundred years past that in three things A right Faith in the Trinity To know the reason of Baptisme And of the Lords Supper the whole summe of Mans salvation did consist As for charity and pennance which the Author would commend to us wee acknowledge that charity is the sap which issueth from the true vine Christ Iesus into those that are ingrafted in him by faith But wee must
be in the vine before wee can draw this sap from him And if wee be in him then as Saint Paul told us before wee are even at the same instant those to whom there is no condemnation And penitence for I hope that is the best pennance also is the fruit of this union and of the new life which wee receive by it For Regeneration makes a Well of water in the soule which springeth up to eternall life Now the nature of a Well is by an ever springing purity to purge and cast out the filth that is cast into it And thus doth the Well of Grace in our soules cast out the filth of actuall sins by repentance And indeede to both these doth our Church call us in our preparations to the Lords Supper so that in regard of the care of our Church and her Remembrancers wee have no need of Popish admonitions towards charity and repentance and in regard of the Lords Supper which is Christs remembrance of these duties to us wee have no need of more Popish Sacraments And now if there were cause I could say much more of the sufficiency of our faith for wee beleeve that which Canisius the Jesuite saith is the summe of things to be beleeved the Creed of the Apostles And if there were yet need of a larger faith Let us heare King James of ever glorious memory what he saith of his Protestant faith I am such a Catholique Christian as beleeveth the three Creeds I reverence and admit the foure first generall Councells as Catholique and Orthodox Briefly wee have so full and saving a faith in Jesus Christ and his Gospell that except the Pope bring us another Jesus and another Gospell wee neede not to heare him and if hee bring another Jesus and another Gospell then hee is accursed SECT II. The presumption of Papists in condemning this saving faith whereas the Cavalier denyes that they hold Protestants to be in the case of those who sinne against the Holy Ghost it is shewed by a fearfull example that denying the Doctrine of the Protestants hath been taken for the sin against the holy Ghost ANd now being justified by God in Jesus Christ through a saving faith who shall condemne us Certainely the faith which saveth us will not condemne us Therefore if Romists condemne us when wee have this saving faith they are to bee condemned for unjust condemning us They must have that judgement wherewith they have judged others and so they have not so much condemned us as themselves They draw the woe and curse upon themselves which is denounced against those that call good evill and take the righteousnesse of the righteous from him And thus doing they are far from taking the place of Almighty God in judging his servants which this man saith som of ours do lay against them as a charge For indeed to speak more rightly they might say that herein Romists take the place of the Accuser of the Brethren They put themselves into the place of that Father of untruth and uncharitablenesse that falsely accused Job as an Hypocrite and assayed to provoke God and Men against the Children of God Yet doth not the Divell nor his instruments falsly accuse and terrifie the faithfull without an especiall craft For hee is a cunning Fowler and a Fowler when hee hath spread his net before some cleft of a Rock where birds rest in safety he assayes by noyses out-cries and terrors to fright them out of their safety that so they may come into his net So the Divell when he seeth soules safely resting by faith in the Rock Christ Iesus hee assayeth to fright them out of their safety by the out-cries and terrors of damnation And the Romists joyne with them in these terrible noyses so to fright Protestants from their Rock of safety into their net of errors superstitions idolatries and especially that large Net of Idolatry the Popes Deity and Supremacy But as the onely safety of the bird is not to feare these out-cries neither by feare of a false danger to runne into a true one so it is the safety of Protestants not to feare these noyses nor for the feare of a false damnation to runne into a true one Let them keepe close to their Rock of safety Christ Iesus and from this safety they may assuredly expect salvation But contrarily the false Accusers and affrighters and casters of damnation shall be truely in danger of the same damnation which they have falsely laid on the heires of salvation This Author speakes yet further of a charge laid by us on Romists That they say Protestancy is as the sinne against the Holy Ghost I thinke the meaning of this charge is onely to this purpose That Romists in saying that unrepented Protestancie doth damne men doe make it in effect as mortall as the impenitent sinne against the Holy Ghost But for every way of charging them for their uncharitable censure I doe not undertake for it may suffice mee any way to shew that this censure is uncharitable Yet seeing wee are fallen into the mention of comparing Protestancy to the sin against the Holy Ghost let us behold in a patterne how neerely falling from Protestancie hath been taken for the sin against the Holy Ghost F. Spira a learned Lawyer dwelling neere Padua having embraced the true Religion with great zeale and making open profession of the same was complained of to the Popes Legate which when hee understood and saw the danger after hee had long deliberated and consulted what was best to bee done hee resolved at last to goe to the Legate accordingly he went to him to Venice craved pardon and promised future obedience The Legate for an example to others commanded him after his returne to make an open recantation which accordingly hee performed But having done this against his conscience to maintaine himselfe and his charge being returned to his house hee could not rest an houre no not a minute nor feele any ease of his continuall anguish And even from that night hee was so terrified and had such horror of his actions as hee held himselfe for lost For as he himselfe did confesse hee saw plainely before his eyes all the torments of hell and the damned and in his soule did heare the fearfull sentence being drawn before the Judgment seat of Iesus Christ. Hee was carried to Padua where famous and excellent Physicians did visit him and gave him Physicke with singular affection but they soone found that he was little sick in body but grievously in minde Nothing came out of his mouth that was lightly or foolishly spoken or that might discover any raving in him They asked him if hee thought his sinne to bee so foule that it could not be pardoned through the bounty and infinite mercie of God His answer was That hee had sinned against the Holy Ghost which was so great a sinne as it is called a sinne unto death
many other crimes doe not accordingly God often calls Idolatry by the name of Adultery and thereupon threatens a divorce to his people And in that commandement alone which forbids this Spirituall Adultery doth God onely mention his Jealousie Againe if a man be jealous let a stranger be never so like him his jealousie will not suffer his wife to love that stranger as himselfe yea he will not indure it though shee say it is for his sake and for likenesse to to her Husband How much more should the jealousie of God arise when his worship is given to things infinitely inferior to himselfe and so farre below that it is a kinde of blasphemy to name them in a comparison Accordingly God casts it off with a scornefull indignation To whom will yee liken God If this jealousie of God could not indure that Dagon should stand in one place with the Arke shall we thinke that the same jealousie will indure an Idol to dwell quietly with him in the soule of that man which is truly the Temple of God What agreement saith S. Paul hath the Temple of God with Idols For yee are the Temple of the living God And if Saint Paul aske this question as if it could not receive an answer How dare men to answer this question at least with such facility to dissolve it how dare they say Yes S. Paul It hath beene seene very generally that the Temple of God even ignorant Christians have had agreement with Idols for if Christians knew not but that the Idols ought to bee worshipped with divine worship they beleeving this might give divine worship to idols and this Idolatry is not damnable Surely if such an answer may thus get safe passage through this Text by some narrow way to make Idolatry to agree with God and salvation doubtlesse it seemes by Saint Pauls question the common and ordinary relation between them is disagreement and there is some great difficulty or some great rarity in this agreement And this great danger and difficulty should bee greatly pressed at least not lesse then the narrow way of escaping And indeed to expresse this danger and difficulty is my businesse at this time and for a further expression of it let the words of Iosua bee considered Yee cannot serve the Lord for hee is an holy and a jealous God Hee will not forgive your transgressions and sinnes except yee put away the strange gods which are among you I might add from many places of Scriptures That they who feared the Lord and served their own gods did not feare the Lord. And in the daies of good Iosiah God would Cut off those that worship and sweare by the Lord and sweare by Malcam And that Idolatry is generally clothed in Scripture with the title of Abomination and it is not easie nor usuall with God to dwell with Abomination But referring the Reader to his owne reading I conclude with that piercing and affrighting speech of Saint Paul There is a brother and it is a weake brother and this brother out of his weaknesse eates things sacrificed unto Idols with conscience of religious honour of the Idols the same weake brother seeing a strong brother eating in the Temple of Idols is strengthened in his making conscience and giving honour and worship to the Idoll and yet of this weake brother Saint Paul saith that Hee perisheth No doubt this weake brother making conscience of the Idoll beleeved this honour which his conscience gave to the Idoll was due and lawfull yea he beleeved it the more as Saint Paul saith by seeing a strong brother in the Idols Temple whom hee thought to have made the same conscience of the Idoll yet this brother for whom Christ dyed thus weake thus beleeving and upon such a tentation if wee beleeve Saint Paul perisheth by this Idolatry There is yet a third dangerous yea deadly infection of Rome in the Idolatry of Merits of which soules should bee wary for generally those merits are by by them made Saviours while they think that they are able to justifie or stand in judgement before Gods Justice and that they deserve life eternall yet Christ Jesus who is God blessed for ever could onely performe such merits for mankinde As for us when wee speake most of our good works Let us say with that holy man Remember me O Lord concerning this and spare mee according to the multitude of thy mercy and then put this clause to it from our Saviour When wee have done all wee are unprofitable servants Let not this Idolatry seeme small to us which the chiefe of them dare not maintaine when they dye though the Papall profit makes it pleasant whilest they live But let it bee as one of the botches of Egypt which kill the soules of thousands with death eternall Thus have wee seene errors deadly and damnable to many that professed them in the Church of Rome and beleeved what they professed wherefore the safest way by which charity joyned to verity may more clearly save some in this Church is to finde some that are cleare from these errors And these being produced may serve for patternes to others to drive them from these errors And accordingly it is possible to find some within the Romish territories that have been cleer from these Idolatries yea some that have beene Teachers and Writers and no doubt they have begotten some Auditors and Readers like to themselves And first for the killing error of making the Pope or his Church the god and utmost foundation of faith there are not a few of the late Writers as Lorca tels us that wholly deny it The authority and testimony of the Church doth nothing pertain to the assent of faith neither as part of the object nor as a condition without which faith cannot bee which opinion of Canus not a few of the later men doe imbrace to this hee adds which was the opinion of Calvin And to make this yet more cleer that often objected place of S. Augustine I would not beleeve the Gospel except the authority of the Church did move mee Lorca saith Canus Calvin answer with the very same words That Augustine meant nothing in this sentence but that the Church is an apt beginning and as it were an introduction by which a man wholly ignorant of the faith is fitly led unto it but not that the Church should bee the reason of beleeving for that is Because God speaks in the Scripture and it is an infallible instrument of the divine Testimony And Lorca afterwards affirmes That the resolution of this question Why you beleeve is lastly and directly resolved into the testimony of God and this is the adaequate reason of beleeving Because God saith it Thus are there some and not a few of the Church of Rome as Lorca tels us that avoid the shipwrack of soules which is visually suffered by faith in the Pope or testimony of man even
the Man of sinne Secondly for that Idolatry which giveth divine worship to Images though it be an evill that hath too largely overspread the Romish dominions and the denyall of it in Spaine hath beene censured for heresie Yet there are divers of the Romish communion that have not thus bowed to Baal in so much that Papyrius Massonus thus writes in his Preface before Agobardus and of him Hee manifestly discovers the errors of the Greeks concerning Images and Pictures and denyeth that they ought to be worshipped which opinion all Catholicks doe approve So it seemes hee thought it a Catholick opinion not to worship Images and those not Catholicks which doe approve this worship And Pamelius dares tell the Pope himselfe That if the question bee proposed concerning the use of Images How they are forbidden in the Decalogue which is that they bee not worshipped Tertullian sheweth it in his Booke against Marcion and after in his Notes upon Tertullian's Apologetick Tertullian saith not that Christians did hate Statues and Images but that they did not worship them which certainly as the Fathers of the seventh Synode Damascen and Jonas doe often inculcate none of us ever attempted I meane not with the worship of latria which is due to God alone But though his speech be somewhat too large when hee excludeth all Romists from giving this worship as hereafter in another Chapter will more plainely appearâ— yet it is possible that this all might 〈…〉 lâ—â—arned ones wherewith hee 〈…〉 for I doubt the common 〈…〉 understood the distinction betweene doulia and latria yet thus it is likely wee may finde some at least of the Learned that are cleere also of this pestilence In this ranke also of Idolatry may bee mentioned the worship and adoration of the Sacrament which is likely to bee the more universall because it seemes back'd with a Councell which some thinke universall But indeede all doe not take it to be universall as the Author of the Examen Pacifique doth plainely shew And of this Idolatry wee may well beleeve that there are some free in the Romish Territories For wee finde that because without the Priests Intention Romists doe acknowledge that the Bread is still but Bread and withall that the worship of bread is abominable Idolatry It hâ—th been thought safest by some to direct all the Sacramentall worship to Christ Jesus sitting at the right hand of God where hee is sure to be found This is the doctrine of Vasques and I could name a Lady in England who professed so to worship Christ in the Sacrament and I hope shee is not without followers Another Romish Idolatry is turning merits into Saviours This we have seen is too common among the vulgar yet by some they are removed from this office and especially at the time of death for even persecuting Gardiner thought it good doctrine for them that were dying to put their whole trust in the merits of Christ. And Cardinall Bellarmine in his last will desires to bee crowned by God not as a Regarder of merits but as a Giver of mercy And Bernard Thomas de Kempis Cassander and Ferus who have many Readers and I hope herein some beleevers appeare sound in their Writings both from this and other Idolatries Briefly the catholick Apologie brings forth divers Authors of theirs that have taught their Readers Doctrine contrary to the mortall and damnable errors which wee complaine of for massacring soules in the Kingdome of the Pope So that though a pestilence hath generally over-run his Territories yet there are some healthy and living soules therein though there may bee millions that bowe unto their many Baals yet there may bee thousands that bow not unto them And though wee bee not of one Religion with the Idolaters yet with those that serve God in spirit and truth and keep themselves from Idols wee have one Religion in Essentialls and Fundamentalls and so both may be saved Let us conclude in the words of one of them upon the conclusion of S. Iohns Epistle and in him see what saving Religion is taught and I hope learned by some of them Babes keep your selves from Idols This Corollary S. John not unfitly nor without cause annexed to this Epistle For seeing he had taught that there is one onely God who hath manisted himselfe in his Sonne and hath taught us by him that the true worship of God consisteth in faith hope and love and in purity and sanctity of life hee doth now necessarily admonish us that we remaine in that faith and true worship of God and beware of all Idolatry So John in this whole Epistle would teach us two things That there is but one true God And one true Religion Iesus Christ with the Father and the Holy Ghost is that and one true God and Christian Religion is the onely true worship of God For this Religion gâ—veth all glory to God by Christ and by the same Christ bringeth to us life and salvation Behold that one Religion which we all so professe Yet for a caution to be annexed to the conclusion I thinke that true zeale and charity though they take such for living soules which are safe in fundamentalls yet they pity other grosse errours which make the soule sick though they kill not and a true lover of soules resembles the head both of soules and of love and desires to present unto God soules without spot and blemish And because they love them as on the one side they acknowledge the life that is in them so they desire to add growth to this life and to bring it onward toward perfection They doe not tell them that they are well enough because they live for that is rather to build their contentment on their owne safety then on the full pleasing and serving of their Saviour Therefore they call on them for the washing away of other errours which are blemishes in the eye of the Heavenly Bridegroome that thus the Bride being all glorious within may bee ready and prepared for the day of her gladnesse even her marriage in eternall and consummate felicity CHAP. IX Wherein divers objections are re-inforced against the Romists concerning those divisions amongst them which the Cavalier in vaine seekes to reconcile in his seventh Chapter SECT I. Wherein is shewed First that Protestants in submitting to the holy word and spirit of God have therein a true ground of unity actually in those things wherein they agree intentionally in other things wherein they differ Secondly that their Romish submission to the Pope though it produce a seeming unity in many points yet it leaves divers irreconcileable differences amongst them THe Cavalier in his last chapter hath rid on much out of his way and in this he rides apace and the faster the more out of the way He was out of his way when hee travelled to free Romists from want of charity by proving Protestants and Romists not to have one saving faith seeing Protestants
having that saving faith the Romists shew want of charity in damning those who are saved Hee was againe out of the way in bringing his owne Romists into schisme and damnation by dividing them from Protestants which have that one saving faith And now he goes further out of the way in removing the reasons that may make for unity though by unity with Protestants Romists may avoid uncharitablenesse schisme and damnation so it seemes hee is so earnest for division and dis-union that to attaine it he will hazzard both charity and salvation to his owne fellow Romists as a high price and farre above the value of that which hee would purchase though it were the richest jewell in the world Yet on hee goes upon this adventure And whereas differences amongst Romists are brought forth to make Romists more equall to differences among Protestants or to some differences betweene Protestants and Romists and likewise to make Romists thinke there may be a spirituall unity notwithstanding some differences because notwithstanding their owne differences they affirme there is an unity among themselves this the Author thinkes too peaceable and therefore strives to take it out of the way Toward this he is willing to deny that there are such differences amongst Romists and he strives to shew that they agree even in those things wherein they differ But differ they doe and strong evidences wee have for it which may hereafter be produced Neither indeede their Poeticall Heade of unity the Pope nor any one man on earth can make the whole Church to bee inwardly of one minde and soule but onely that Lord and maker of Spirits by his owne Spirit his true and onely Vicar For that one Spirit enlightning and guiding the spirits of men with one faith of one word delivered by the ministery directed and enabled by the same one spirit can onely make a true reall internall and spirituall unity And accordingly S. Paul leading us to the unity of faith thus rightly ordereth his words toward unity One Spirit one Lord one Faith And thus hee goes on and sheweth how this one spirit of one Lord which inwardly workes this unity of faith in the Lords body outwardly also concurres to the working of it by the gifts given to the ministery For this working without in the ministery and inabling them to teach one and the same doctrine of saving faith and inwardly working in the hearts and soules of Christs members these members are brought into the unity of faith and so into one body of Christ and as in this body of Christ there are different members of different measures and capacities by the different gifts of the spirit so these different capacities doe not reach or containe one measure of divine truth Christ the Foundation and Head is made knowne to all his members for by this knowledge they become his members and so have they all unity in so much divine truth as knits them to Christ But by reason of their different measures some attaining such holy truths of which others are short there must needs bee a difference in the apprehension of those truths to which some attaine and others doe not come yet in all is a settled desire and purpose to beleeve the whole truth revealed by God if it be also revealed to them that it is the truth of God And so whatsoever force was in the Champions speech That true spirituall faith beleeveth the whole Body of divine doctrine makes not against us but for us and much more for us then for them For we upon the right motive which is God speaking in his word doe beleeve plainly whatsoever we conceive and what we doe not conceive wee beleeve in purpose and intention And thus have wee perfect unity while in the fundamentalls we have an actuall unity of faith and in the lesser points an unity of purpose and will But in this true and kindly unity one Spirit not one Pope doth cause inwardly one faith And againe that one spirit giving gifts to men not to one man outwardly bringeth to the inward unity of faith And indeede that none but the spirit the true vicar of Christ can make this solid spirituall and internall unity it appeares by the confession of the very Romish craft which hath coyned the Pope to be the head of unity For that they might make and prove him to be such they have put him into the place of the holy Ghost and made him the Vicar of Christ accordingly they say that the holy Ghost speaks by him and so the speech of the holy Ghost being infallible verity is a right ground of unity A foule errour and without ground of Scripture which never since the departure of Christ from earth tyed the holy Ghost to one man so that from him the whole Church should fetch Oracles and resolutions But indeed it is a high and blasphemous imposture which puts the Pope in place of the holy Ghost And when this man speakes it pronounceth of him as the people of Herod The voice of God and not of Man And how little this differs from Montanisme I wish Romists would consider who reduced the promise of sending the Comforter Christs Vicar as Tertullian cals him to be performed in Montanus And the very same place doe the Romists apply to the Pope which was applied to Montanus but yet thus it appeares That even they that erre in the application yet hold truth in the position That the holy Ghost is the true root of union though erroneously and blasphemously they put the Pope into his roome and make the voyce of the Pope to bee the voice of the holy Ghost And surely the Pope himselfe plainely shewes that hee doubts his owne spirituall power of making unity and therefore hee flyes to the grosse and materiall instruments of unity the Sword and Faggot And so calling downe fire on those that obey him not if he have any spirit it seems it is not that spirit which Christ said was the Evangelicall spirit of the Apostles but rather of him which is called the Destroyer And indeed this device of man to make unity of faith by one man called the Pope being thus thrust into the place of the Spirit of God as it proceeded from the spirit of errour so hath it made unity in errour as the last best of Popes Gregory the Great did in a manner prophecie but it never will make unity in solide and universall Faith and Truth for the beleevers in this counterfeit head of unity have both gotten from him an unity in many errors and have beene left in many great and weighty differences whereof there is little hope of resolving them into union the sight whereof turnes our eyes from this humane and fictitious Head of unitie to the true roote and meanes of unity set forth by the Apostle And because this Author strives to put away from mens eyes the differences which arise under this false Head of union let us shew him
of that true Church whereof Christ is the Head They are not so truly Christians of Christ as Papists of the Pope But still I inferre that when the Authour hath his two grounds granted That if Protestants and Papists bee not of that one Church wherein is salvation yet Papists are uncharitable for damning Protestants who are of that Church wherein is salvation so that neither are his grounds sufficiently secured neither if they were are Papists secured sufficiently from uncharitablenesse But after his pretended sufficient securing of his grounds either by way of supererogation or because hee was not secure of his securing hee yet brings in more proofe that we are of two Religions And now for the finall proofe of this last point according even to their practice as well as ours Let my Reader but look upon the body of their Lawes made against us and especially upon the Preambles thereof wherein they plentifully shew how hatefull an opinion they have of our Church Let him looke upon the severall Acts of State which have issued from my Lords of the Councell Let him look upon the Proclamations which have beene made and published from time to time Let him looke upon the large Commissions which have beene granted to Pursuivants whereby that scumme of the world hath beene and is enabled both to ransome and ransack us at their pleasure Surely thus farre there is little said but that many of the late Traytours against the French King may take up for a proofe that they were not of one Religion with that King because against them there issued Acts of State Proclamations Messengers or Pursuivants though all of them perchance were not the scumme of the Countrey to apprehend and ransack them But hee goes farther Let him looke upon those speeches which have beene uttered in both Houses of Parliament not onely against Professours but even the Profession it selfe of our Religion and how his most excellent Majestie hath beene importuned by their petitions to add more weight to our miseries for thus it will easily bee scene how false how rotten how superstitious how idolatrous how detestable how damnable and even destructive of all truth and goodnesse they professe themselves to esteeme our Religion And in fine that wee carry such a marke of the Beast in our foreheads as must needs in their opinion shut up the gates of heaven against us and set open the gates of hell to devoure and swallow us up So that certainly wee are no more of one Church with them in their opinion then they are of one with us in ours Here indeed hee hath many good Epithites of Popery rotten superstitious idolatrous c. but I finde one great one wanting and that is trayterous for this Epithite had a great share in the Parliamentary Complaints and Accusations of Popery But to answer his many words in few because they were answered in that which last preceded wee deny not but that which wee call Popery and Papists call their Religion that is a beleeeving in the Pope and obeying of him commanding Idolatry Treason Rebellion and whatsoever else hee shall please to decree for a point of faith is a rotten superstitious idolatrous and traiterous Religion And of this it is truely said in the prayers of the fifth of November This their Religion is Rebellion their faith is faction their practice murdering of soules and bodies But yet wee charitably hope that there are some though two few who have not so bowed the knees of their soules to this Baal of Rome that they submit their soules and faiths to him in all his idolatrous and trayterous Doctrines Decrees and Commands but being rather in Rome then of Rome are Christs and not the Popes and therefore will heare Christs voice and not the Popes when the Popes voice is the voice of a stranger and an enemy to Christ. CHAP. XII Wherein the Cavaliers tenth and last Chapter is annihilated which hee calleth a Recapitulation SECT I. The totall of the Cavaliers many nothings is cast up in two short Conclusions contrary to all that which hee hath indeavoured to prove And some additionals to that totall examined viz. The false remedies of his impertinent feare lest Papists should grow in love with the civility of Protestants THe Cavalier having said many nothings in his former discourse hee now summes up these nothings which being never so many yet it is well knowne they can amount but to nothing Wherefore not to make this work tedious by unnecessary repetitions I referre the Reader to the former severall confutations and annihilations of the particulars out of which he would here frame this Recapitulation and insteed of the Authour 's not inferred but intruded Conclusion upon forlorne and vanishing premisses this Conclusion still stands right and strong for us that since there is but one true Church and one saving faith and the Protestants notwithstanding any of this Authours hollow answerable and answered objections from difference in Sacraments Traditions c. doe hold and beleeve this saving faith and so are the true Church the Papacie and adherents thereof professing a difference and division from them so farre as to bee of another Church and faith doe excommunicate themselves most heavily even to damnation And secondly The Protestants being the true Church the Romists separating themselves from us persecuting us and pronouncing damnation against us doe herein exceeding uncharitably while they cut off hate persecute and sentence unto hell and damnation the true Church even the living members of Christ Jesus For indeed Papists can never prove against us any change of the Foundation and therefore are uncharitable in damning those who are lively stones built on that onely Foundation and corner stone Christ Jesus But as if Rome were not enough uncharitable and though the Title seemed to tell us that the Cavalier would but have recapitulated his former uncharitable speeches yet hee breakes forth into new Capitulations and Incentives of uncharitablenesse He doubts yea seemes to bee grieved that some of the Romish Communion seeing the faire and just conversation of Protestants may grow into love with them and their Religion But let the Cavalier upon better consideration remember that this is not the great and most dangerous and suspicable fault of Popery that it is so in love with Civility that for it it neglects Religion but that Popery hath so mightily depraved and corrupted Religion that Popish Religion hath destroyed Civility and fairenesse of Nature So that whereas Religion should have advanced men beyond naturall candour and fairenesse Popish Religion hath destroyed this naturall fairenesse and made them worse then men whom true Religion would have lifted up above men unto Saints an evident mark that it is not a true but a false and foule Religion This appeareth plainely in those of the powder Treason divers of which were men of candid natures and ingenuous dispositions yet by Popish Religion turned out of nature made worse then themselves and brought
to the acting of the most unnaturall of Treasons A foule Religion that doth blacke even the white of nature yet the Cavalier desiring Romishly to dye white into black hee prescribes Antidotes and Remedies of Love and Charity and thus adviseth his Readers to hatred and opposition against Protestants See how Saint John carryed himselfe towards Cerinthus and Policarpe to Marsyon and Saint Anthony to the Arrians and a thousand others And lest it should bee thought that Saints fall not foule but onely upon such Hereticks that deny even the very prime Articles of Christian Religion which concerne either God the Father or the immediate person of Christ our Lord himselfe Cast but an eye upon Saint Bernard that milde and mercifull man of God and see how hee treats the Hereticks of his time who had too much affinity with those of ours See yee Dogges see yee Detractors Behold how hee gives his Romists patternes and presidents to make them fall foule with us but indeed his first Presidents are impertinent for they shew a falling foule with such as wee are not wherefore because his first patternes were incongruous and would not serve the turne those heresies of Cerinthus not belonging to us hee leapes over many hundred yeeres of the purer times of the Church where it seemes hee could not finde grounds for his better falling foule with us and at length comes unto the times of Popish errours and superstitions there hee findes a good old man one I thinke of the seven thousand which belonged to Gods Election though not altogether without a glasse on his eyes party-coloured by the prejudice of his birth and education in those times of superstition This good man hee seeth angry with some of his time that derided the Baptisme of infants Prayers for the dead and the Suffrages of Saints the former of which did justly deserve a sharpe reproofe and indeede upon that hee chiefely insists in his confutation But the later wee impute to the superstitious darknesse of the times and would have covered these sores of this holy man but that this Authour will needes discover the nakednesse of his father Yet if he will but looke into that very Sermon of Bernard hee shall see more just and weighty reasons to accuse his owne Romists for crimes which draw Almighty God himselfe to fall foule with some of their chiefe limbs and members For here hee disputes against that forbidding of marriage which defiles the Church with adulterous incestuous and unnaturall sinners whom hee calls The monsters of men yet by Romes forbidding marriage such monsters have been too often found among those who yet are called Priests Abbots Monkes and Friars But yet that this Champion may still nourish his root of wormwood and division and that the Romish palates may be still kept in distaste and loathing of us he saith of Protestants That they are cruell enough to such as they see not and withall their civility and curtesie and suavity in ordinary conversation they can find in their Hereticall hearts at a clap to rob all dead men of the help and comfort of the prayers of the living and all living men of the prayers of the Saints who are in heaven and the same Saints of all the honour which Catholickes pay to them here on earth to omit in this place their infinite and innumerable detractions and slanders and reproaches of the whole Church of God But here is as little verity as charity for the three All 's are all three untruths For it is not true that Protestants rob all the dead of the prayers of the living For first those dead which are in heaven are not robbed of prayers by denying prayers to those that are not in heaven but supposed to be in Purgatory Secondly those prayers that belong to the dead wee give for them and that is to joyne with them in their own prayers even the prayers of the soules of Saints under the Altar We pray that God would hasten the comming of Christ and so their resurrection and their consummation in glory And to this end that God will hasten the judgement of the great Whore which hath shed their bloud and avenge it on her A second untruth is this That wee rob all living men of the prayers of the Saints in heaven I might indeed say that this building is of another stuffe and different from the foundation That wee are cruell to those that wee see not for wee see those that are living But howsoever it is also untrue for wee allow and imbrace the prayers of the Saints in heaven for the living yea wee doubt not but that those soules who are in the triumphant part of the Church and perfect in charity doe love that part of the Church which is here militant and pray for her victory and that it may bee joyned with her in triumphant glory True it is that we find not in the Scripture that the Saints departed have such knowledge of the particular affaires of the Saints living that wee can beleeve by a supernaturall faith that they know our necessities our thoughts and desires And what is without faith being sinne we dare not offer prayers without faith lest they should bee turned into sinne Thirdly it is no lesse untrue That wee rob Saints of all the honour which true Catholickes pay unto them The name of the Saints is to us as a precious ointment and it is kept by us in everlasting remembrance We delight to make mention of their heavenly vertues of their valiant actions and constant passions of their wise counsells powerfull exhortations excellent expositions of divine truths in their sayings sermons and writings We desire to follow their examples to bee instructed by their knowledge to bee inflamed with their zeale and enlived with their heats who quicken being dead as the dead Prophet enlived the dead souldier These honours we doe them and thus should it bee done to those whom God doth honour And if thus we doe honour them then far from truth is it that wee rob them of all that honour which true Catholickes pay them And lastly where hee speakes of infinite detractions slanders and reproaches of the whole Church of God this is a most unjust and unjustifiable slander We reverence the whole Church of God as our Mother we love her peace and to this end is that which is written in the first Chapter and to this end are these lines which write against this slander Wee reproach not the whole Church but a botch a wen a disease and burthen in the Church A faction that disturbs and distracts the Church and which to set up a counterfeit head teares the true body of Christ into pieces And this seemes also to bee the businesse of this Champion in this worke and even at this time when by unjust accusations hee both perswades to uncharitable divisions and strives by his clamours to terrifie soules into the net of the Papacie
Pelagian businesse of the possibilitie of keeping the Law which S. Hierome long since told them was but to speak of a power which was never brought to effect For it is affirmed by the Fathers and too much experience confirmeth it that how possible soever the keeping of the Law is yet no man ever brought this possibility to an actuall keeping of the Law To what end then doth hee talk of this possibility which gives such small encouragement by being ineffectuall that his owne words may neer bee retorted against him For what encouragement doe Romists give to the keeping of the Commandements when they speake of such a possibility of keeping them by which no man yet did ever keepe them So that a man may thus only encourage himselfe by this possibility that except he do that by it which never man did before him hee shall never keepe the Commandements by it Besides S. Paul saith That the flesh so lusteth against the spirit that Christians cannot do what they would which is as much as if he had said They cannot be perfect if they would for even Paul saith of himself That the good which he would do he had not power to effect neither had he yet attained a full resurrection from the dead and yet no doubt he improved the power which he had beyond any Romist For hee saith he did reach forth a terme of straining and mighty indeavour yea hee did presse towards the marke yet notwithstanding all this he confesseth that hee had not attained he was not already perfect And now let Romists encourage their disciples by proposing a perfection of righteousnesse to which S. Paul attained not And the question lies not in this what the grace of God can do but what man can do having grace only in measure and withall a great measure and remainder of concupiscence and law of the members For though the foot of grace would go upright yet the other foot of corruption addeth a lamenesse and so the best Christian like Iacob goes halting Neither therefore is it a just reason for a son that goes halting yet with halting is able to perform some messages of his father not to performe what hee may being commanded by his father yea he may be hereby encouraged to indeavour the more to do his fathers commands because he hath a father that knowes his infirmity and his striving against it and the more he strives the more hee will reward him A learner that cannot write so well as his coppy yet is to bee encouraged to write so well and so like it as he can And surely if it were otherwise the Cavaliers reason might discourage most Schollers from the study of Philosophy because they cannot bee so good Philosophers as Aristotle And it might have discouraged the Cavalier from writing Controversies because there was no possibility for him to do it so well as Bellarmine But to give this point a more serious conclusion This state of imperfection wherein with the new man begotten by grace there is left a remnant of the old man begotten by nature doth not lessen the power of Gods grace but sets forth the wisdome of Gods dispensation God whose Spirit bloweth where and how hee listeth for many wise ends and especially for his owne glory dispenseth his grace in this manner and measure and mixture For first the corruption remaining with grace doth humble man before God and cause him to have a low conceipt of himselfe and an high estimation of Gods grace of which hee hath continuall need the sufficiency whereof alone can forgive his falls and raise him from falling and enable him to stand and walke in the pathes of holinesse in such a manner as the same grace will accept Secondly This life being appointed to the Church militant for a warfare and the warfare for a way to the Crowne this contrariety of the flesh to the spirit is not the least part of this warre and to those that fight the good fight of faith it serves for a way of advancement to the Crowne For the more combates of the flesh the more conquests of the spirit and so the greater enjoyings of the celestiall Crowne And thirdly God is mightily glorified who by a little grace even a graine of mustard-seed opposed by a strong concupiscence and that backed by a world of tentations and by those Tempters which are Principalities and Powers though through many foyles faintings and failings the little graine becomes a tree the smoking flaxe becomes a fire and judgement is brought to victory Though wee lose in some single combats yet wee are gainers in the whole warre and wee become more then Conquerours through him that loveth us And indeed this growing nature of the seed of grace and especially the victorious successe which Gods grace giveth to it is a most strong encouragement to good works even such as all objected imperfection of righteousnesse can never overthrow for though it bee so little either at first in the beginning of it or perchance after in some spirituall desertions for there are ebbs and flouds of grace yet wee are mightily encouraged to good workes because that seed is not onely a remaining but a growing seed the house of Saul growes weaker and the house of David stronger wee come still neerer to perfection though wee doe not fully attaine it wee grow from babes to young men from young men to that measure of stature which is appointed to us in Christ Jesus Lastly our state of imperfection doth serve for an incentive to spur up our desires towards the state of perfection For when wee draw up hardly and painfully towards Gods holy mountaine with a weight of flesh pressing downe and a body of sinne cleaving fast wee pant towards heaven and send up grones of the Spirit which speake in their language when shall wee come and appeare before God Wee desire to bee delivered from the body of sinne unto the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God our soules being wearied and parched and dryed up with the flames and vexations of tentations and sinnes thirst for the living God and desire to satisfie their thirst in the River of pleasures which floweth from his presence whose streames are perfect holinesse and perfect happinesse SECT III. That the doctrine of denying free will doth not abridge the doing of good and justice of punishment for evill doing THere is yet one question more which must have an answer rather for some weakenesse which it may meet then for any strength which is in it When they profess that men have not so much as free will to doe any good work at all when they are first moved and assisted to it by the good grace of God with what sense can they encourage men to do any thing which is good or with what justice can they punish them for omitting the same The Cavalier is deceived himselfe as it seems and goes about to deliver
But this Champion while hee liveth will never be able to prove that the Papacy or the Pope and his faction is the Church And yet untill he prove this all his booke is but a carkasse meere dead paper without strength and life In the meane time they are most guilty of detractions slanders and reproaches of the whole Church of God that lay the title of damnable Heretickes or Schismatickes on all the members of the whole Catholick Church that are not subject unto the Man of sinne which sits as God in the Temple of God SECT II. An absurd complement of the Cavaliers attended with three grosse slanders of the Protestants Religion That it is a profession suted to the pleasure of superiours Secondly that the ground of it is sense and appetite Thirdly that they labour more for conformity then unity are all answered ANd now after his bitter pill of dissention to take away the offence of it and that at parting hee may flatter the taste of his Reader with a farewell of sweetnesse he puts this sugar to it All which I have not said either by way of aggravating their sinnes or of alienating men from their persons which I esteeme and love and desire to serve with my whole heart If the Reader will make a due conjunction of this with the former and make a right construction of the whole he may see it runne into this confusednesse The Romish faction must bee rigorous to Protestants and avoid them as Saint John did Cerinthus c. Yea they must fall foule upon them though holding lesser heresies and call them Dogs they must take them for cruell Robbers of the living and the dead for slanderers and detracters and all this is well done and may bee done without being alienated from their persons But doth this Authour thinke that there will bee a separation a falling foule and an accounting of us for Dogs without alienating of affections from our persons Or would hee have such a not alienating from our persons as upon meeting with us to part presently from us or to fall foule upon us and to call us Dogs Surely whatsoever this Authour afterwards speakes of his intent his former words teach such a separation division and hatred that these later words doe not take them away but onely make a faire shew by a mannerly distinction teaching a counterfeit art of falling foule upon men without being alienated from their persons But will any wise man thinke it a charitable speech if Catesby should say unto Faulx Be not alienated from the person of the King nor of his royall issue nor of the Nobility but onely fall foule upon them and blow them up with gun powder As for that following profession towards their persons so diversly expressed which I esteeme and love and desire to serve with my whole heart I acknowledge them to be faire words and of a very good countenance But perchance by some other way there might have been given to a doubtfull Reader more solid satisfaction For a scrupulous Reader may possibly say that these words by Travellers are vented often but as the froth of complement and by Romists are often eluded by a latent equivocation or mentall reservation and may now bee doubted because they doe come in suspiciously with very bad company even as attendants on exhortations and incentives to separate from Protestants to esteeme them as Dogs and to fall foule upon them yea not to hold the Reader in doubt but to let him see there is no soundnesse in your distinction of not hating our persons you have in this booke before taught that hee who doth not obey your Church bee taken for no other then a Pagan or a Publican that is a meere Idolater in his Religion and for a most infamous and base person in his conversation The Reader might have been more soundly satisfied if in stead of all these verbs esteeme love and serve the Cavalier had onely said this single sentence with one adverb I have heartily taken the oath of Allegiance As for his good intent in shewing us what Heresie is and how odious we thank him for it and doe make this use of it That because Heresie is so odious therefore we abhorre the Papacy which hath in it sundry Heresies Idolatries and Doctrines of Divels and is not the Church but a faction in the Church and desire by grace to continue true and lively members of the Church truly Catholick consisting of all Kinreds Tribes and Nations over the face of the whole earth whereof Christ Jesus is the onely and unquestionable Head And if by the Authours mis-perswasions wee should remove from this truly universall Church to become members of the Papacie wee should remove from the Church truely Catholick to a piece and portion in the Church and that not so much a piece of the Church as a faction and disease in the Church whereof the taking away and not the increase is a speciall if not only preservation of the unity and health of the Church truly catholick And towards this let the Pope hear his better even a better Pope then any since him making a question which he cannot well answer but by removing his universall Headship What wilt thou answer to Christ the Head who goest about to subjugate all his members to thee And elsewhere he saith that such a one is the fore-runner of Antichrist But such a one was the Pope within twenty yeers after this was written And if the Pope a thousand yeers since was the fore-runner of Antichrist we may well thinke that Antichrist is not all this time behind his fore-runner And now if the Popes universall Headship bee an Antichristian errour and an errour unanswerable at the last day it were good that the Authour himselfe being moved by his owne motives would withdraw his faith from this Antichristian hereticall Headship and become a right childe of the Church truely Christian and Catholick wherein and not in the Papacy is salvation But how farre from verity this is which followeth I thinke hee cannot but see when he comes to himselfe his words or insimulations are these What indeed doe they but shew by their whole course that they desire and resolve to beleeve and professe according to the occasion and to comply with the superiour powers of this world But doth the Authour beleeve when hee is awaked what hee spake in this dreame Have the Protestants done thus or doth not this Authour know that they have not thus done Whom doe Papists esteeme a superiour Power in the world above the Popes Therefore they have blasphemed him into a King of kings and Lord of lords And did Luther and the first Protestants comply with this superiour Power of the world Hee neglected both the threatnings of Cajetane and the faire promises of Vergerus Againe in Queene Maries dayes did those whom you burned here comply with the superiour powers in point of Religion Yea looke through