Narrative which we may find exemplyfied in Mr. Rush. Collections from p 438. to 462. assirmeth that he thrice complained of Mr. Mountagues Arminian Book but he was held up against him by the prevalence of the Duke of Buckingham who magnified him as a well-deserving man that the whole Narrative if he that will read shall have a key put into his hand to unlock several misteries of our Church declining and a character of the men who were most busie to advance the Remonstrant opinions Laud The Doctrine of Praedestination is the root of Puritanism and Puritanism the root of all rebellious and disobedient untractableness in Parliaments and of all schism and sauciness in the Countrey nay in the Church it self this hath made many thousands of our people and too great a part of our Gentry Laytons in their hearts Last Parliament they left their Word Religion and the Cause of Religion and begun to use the name of Church and our Articles of the Church of England and wounded our Church at the very heart with her own name Dr. Brooks his Letter to the Archbishop extant in Can. Doome p. 167. there were then some who were tantum non in Episcopatu Puritani they saw their holy cause would not succeed by opposition therefore they came up and seemed to close with the Church of England in her Discipline to use the Cross and wear the Clothes but for her Doctrine they wave it preach against it teach contrary to what they had subscribed that so through foraign Doctrine being infused secretly and instilled cunningly and pretended craftily to be the Churches at length they might wind in with foraign Discipline also and so fill'd Christendem with Popes in every Parish for the Church and with Popular Democracies and Democratical Anarchies in State App. p. 111. el 43 44. Pacif. The wrathful expressions you are continually using against the Puritans do not work the righteousness of God and they are the more to be disliked because it is sufficiently known that Puritans have been as conscientious as any that ever lived in our Church Laud Puritanism had indeed a form of godliness but denyed the power and for any thing I can discern is as dangerous as Popery the only difference being Popery is for Tyrannie Puritanism for Anarchy Popery is original of Superstition Puritanism the high way to profaneness both alike enemies unto piety Ap. p. 320 321. Pacif. Puritanism the way to profaness How came it then to pass that there was so little of profaneness in Puritans so much of it in those who gloried in their Anti-Puritanism but I leave this to be decided by the Judge of quick and dead who shall render to all according to what they have done in the flesh How is it that of late years you have learned to call all Puritans who will not say a confederacy with you in your Popish and Arminian Errors which have been so generally reputed contrary to the Doctrine of our Church Laud What you call Error that seems to me to be Truth and because the doubts hung in the Church of England unto the Publick Doctrine of the Church of England do I appeal contained in those two authorized and by all subscribed Books of the Articles and Divine Services of the Church let that which is against them on Gods Name be branded with Error and as Error be ignominiously spunged out App. p. 9. Pacif. What ever is against the Word of God or contrary to any opinion which hath been maintained in the Catholick Church by all in all places at all times I am content should be called an error but you know I hope that no Church of Particular Denomination is Infallible and therefore I shall not grant that whatever is against the Tendries of the Church of England is erroneous for I know that our first Reformers and the Composers of our publick Records of Doctrine did place the Nature of Faith in Assurance or a perswasion that our sins are actually pardoned which you will grant to be a mistake but a mistake that was scarce seen by any till of late except Mr. John Fox who indeed placed the Nature of Faith in Recumbence nevertheless in those matters wherein you and I differ I am very willing to be tryed by the Articles and Lyturgy but then I premise this that I take the Homilies to be part of our Churches Lyturgy for the Rubrique in the Communion Office speaks affirmative enough After the Creed shall follow one of the Homilies and the Preface to the first Book of Homilies commandeth all Parsons Vicars Curates c. every Sunday and Holy-day in the year c. after the Gospel and Creed in such order and place as is appointed in the Book of Common-Prayer to read one of the said Homilies Evidently implying as Mr. Lestrange notes they were no more to be omitted then any other part of the Service but where the Rubrique gives a toleration Laud I willingly admit the Homilies as containing certain godly and wholesome exhortations to move the people to honor and worship Almighty God but not as the publick Dogmatical resolutions confirmed by the Church of England the 33. Article giveth them to contain godly and wholesom Doctrine and necessary for these times which they may do though they have not Dogmatical Positions or Doctrine to be propagated and subscribed in all and every point as the Books of Articles and of Common-Prayer have They may seem to speak somewhat too hardly and stretch some sayings beyond the use and practice of the Church of England both then and now and yet what they speak may receive a fair or at least a tolerable construction and mitigation well enough App. 260. Paeif I am glad to hear you acknowledge that the Homilies do contein certain godly and wholesom exhortations which if all had thought we had not been pestered with a vain discourse pretended to be made by a Lady in defence of Auxiliary Beauty or Artificial handsomeness the which are so expresly condemned by the Homily against excess in Apparel But I am sorry to find you saying that the Homilies are not the avowed Doctrine of the Church for the Preface tells us they were set forth for the expelling of erroneous and poisonous Doctrines and more fully the Orders of K. James The Homiles are set forth by authority in the Church of England not only for a help of non-preaching but withall as it were a pattern for preaching-ministers I have read among the Romanists that there is fides temporum a Faith that followeth the Times It is no marvel saith Cusanus though the practise of the Church expound the Scripture at one time one way and at another time another way for the understanding or sence of the Scripture runneth with the practise and that sense so agreeing with the practise is the quickning Spirit and therefore the Scriptures follow the Church but contrariwise the Church followeth not the Scriptures ad Bohem. Epist. 7.
Now this being one of the attributes of God which are called communicable it is truly affirmed That that Justice which is in God is the very same in substance communicated to men though in a lower degree Reason of Christian Religion p. 24 Pacif. As it is seems a Paradox to me that Metaphysical Goodness is all one with Truth Goodness and Truth being by all that I have met with made distinct affections of Ens so it is to me also at least propositio male sonans that the Justice which is in God is the very same in substance communicated to men though in a lower degree for the Justice which is in God is the same with his Infinite Essence so is not the finite justice in the creature the same with his finite essence but really distinct from it Now that thing which is substantially just and that whose justice is but an accident seem to differ more than gradually But I pray you proceed and it may be I shall be better able to find out your mind Laud For a thing to be true i. e. to have a being either potential or actual depends partly on Gods power partly on his will in respect of its potential being it depends on his power in respect of its actual on his will Now Gods power though it may in some sense be said communicable to the creature because all ability in the creature is a gleam of infinite ability in God yet is not this so communicated as his Justice or Goodness was said to be for goodness in the creature is a kind of image truly resembling the goodness in God and that a kind of natural image as is the face in the glass not a voluntary one which hath its being from the variable will of the Artificer But power in the creature is not thus a natural image of Gods power but as reflection of a thing which voluntarily and variously casts its beams Voluntarily I say because the dispensing of his power either in manner or measure is a free act of his will and variously because he doth it first unequally and secondly not so to any but that he can and sometimes doth withdraw or suspend it when it is bestowed so that I cannot say that as that which is just in God to be done is just to be done by the creature so what is possible to be done by God is possible to be done by the creature the reason of the not communicating of Gods power to the creature as well as his justice may be this because it conduced not to the end of the creatures creation as the other did for though God intended to make a creature truly good and just yet he did not truly powerful Reas. Christ Relig p. 25. Pacif. Here are sundry things which I cannot digest 1 I do not see but that the creature is truly powerful as well as truly just or good if that power which is in the creature be true power then it denominates the creature truly powerful 2 Nor secondly Do I see but that goodness is as the reflection of a thing which voluntarily and variously casts its beams as well as power for doth not God communicate his goodness unequally as well as his power 3. I dare not say that what is just in God to be done is just to be done by the creature To let a creature starve whom it was in my power to relieve it would not be just in me but it is just in God he being not so bound to the creature as I am And 4. I must from all conclude that as the reason of the creature apprehends many things to be impossible which yet are possible so it may also apprehend sundry things not to be just which yet are just as the Stulta Dei sunt credenda so the Impia Dei sunt facienda that which our reason counts folly is to be believed that which it counts wicked to be done Laud The Church Representative cannot err in points of Faith Gagg p. 48. The Decision of the Catholick Church we receive as the dictate of the Holy Spirit Gagg p. 19. Pacif. This had need to be well and warily understood or else it will contradict the 21. Article General Councils when they be gathered together for as much as they are an Assembly of men whereof all be not governed by the Word and Spirit of God they may err and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining to God wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor authority unless they may be declared that they be taken out of the Holy Scriptures Laud Many things appertain unto God which are not of necessity to salvation both in practice and speculation in these haply General Councils have erred in the other none can Appeal p. 124. Pacif. This doth not satisfie Those words things ordained of them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority unless do suppose that it is not impossible for a General Council to determine those points to be necessary to salvation which are not and if so why not also those not to be necessary which are Besides the reason assigned is because they are an assembly of men whereof all are not governed by the Spirit and Word of God Now I would argue thus May a General Council consist of men not guided by the Spirit or may it not If you say it may not I ask what assurance have you that there shall never be an Assembly made up of such men If you say it may why then I ask why such may not as well err in Fundamentals as in Non-Fundamentals Do you think an elect person may not err fundamentally I wish you did but I know you do not If one single elect person may err why may not an Assembly or the major part of an Assembly consisting of such But let us now proceed to the consideration of the several estates of mankind Laud That Adam was made mortal in his nature is infinitely certain and proved by his very eating and drinking his sleep and recreation by ingestion and egestion by breathing and generating his like which immortal substances never do and by the very tree of life which had not been needful if he should have had no need of it to repair his decaying strength and health D. J. T. Fur. Explic. of Orig. sin p. 453. Death came not in by any new sentence or change of nature for man was created mortal and if Adam had not sinned he should have been immortal by grace i. e. by the use of the Tree of Life To die is a punishment to some to others not it was a punishment to all that sinned before Moses and since upon the first it fell as a consequent of Gods anger upon Adam upon the later it fell as a consequent of that anger which was threatned in Moses Law but to those who sinned not at all as Infants and Ideots it was meerly a condition of
Arminian or Popish but be it known to you That I disclaim all aspersion of Popery and am further from it than any Puritan in the Kingdom I am indeed well acquainted with such imputation as Popish and I know not what the ordinary language of our precise Professors against any man that is not as themselves More furioso Calvinista and having had this measure often meted out to me from their very great zeal and very no charity I contemn their malice a Scold cannot any better be charmed than by contempt As for Arminius if he in Tenents agreeth unto Scripture plain and express if he hath agreeing unto his Opinions the Practice Tradition and Consent of the Antient Church I imbrace his opinions let his person or private ends if he had any alone I nor have nor will have confarreation therewith If Calvin so far in account and estimation before Arminius dissenteth from Antiquity and the Universal ancient Church I follow him not No private man or peculiar spirit ever did or ever shall tyrannize upon my belief I yeeld only to God and the Church App. p. 4 5 12. Pacif. Your flings at Puritans Precise Professors Furious Calvinists might well have been spared so might your Apologie for your self as to Popery and Arminianism with which my discourse did not in the least charge you I could easily quote you sentences out of Sacred and Prophane Writers concerning such as make defences before they are impleaded but being resolved not to exasperate I forbear any thing of that nature and humbly take leave a little further to explain my self lest I should be mistaken in what before I said 1. I make not consent of Fathers but Scripture the Rule of my Faith 2. Nor do I account the Fathers fit to be appealed to in some Controversies now a foot in Christendom 1. Because there are some Heresies newly sprung up of which they took no notice in their writings yea in the favour of which they may seem to speak being engaged against such as were in the contrary extream That none should be pressed with the judgements of Fathers in matters that were not throughly discussed till after they were dead and gone hear not me but St. August de Praed. Sanct. cap. 14. Quid igitur opus est ut corum secrutemur opuscula qui priusquam ista haeresis oriretur non habuerunt necessitatem in hac difficili ad solvendum questione versari quod procul dubio facerent si respondere talibus cogerentur unde factum est ut de gratiâ Dei quid sentirent breviter quibus dam Scriptorum suorum locis transeuntes attingerent immorarentur vero in iis quae adversus alios inimicos Ecclesiae Disputabant To the like purpose writeth he in his Euarration on the 54. Psal. Nunquid enim perfecte de Trinitate tractatum est antequ an eblatrarent Arriani nunquid perfecte de poenitentiâ tractatum est antequam obsisterent Novatiani sic non perfecte de Baptismate tractatus est antequam contradicerent foris positi rebaptizatores nec de ipsâ Christi unitate enucleate dicta sunt quae dicta sunt nisi posteaquam separatio illa urgene cepit fratres informos ut jam illi qui noverant haec tractare atque dissolvere ne perirent infirmi sollicitati quaestionibus impiorum sermonibus suis disputationibus obscura legis in publicum deducerent yea the very Appealer p. 131. hath these words That the Fathers those before Augustine being to deal against Fatal Necessity urged by Paynims Philosophers in those dayes as also against the execrable impiety of the Manichees extended the power of Free-will unto the uttermost and set it upon the tenters especially having then no cause to fear any enemie at home unto the contrary ante mota certamina Pelagiana there being yet no Pelagians sprung up in the world enemies to Grace advancers of Nature and Natural Power beyond degree of Power and of possibility Yea p. 129 130. He professeth plainly that in and concerning this point of Free-will those Fathers did so far out-lavish and speak so inlargedly that the very Jesuites post mota certamina Pelagiana fore fear of seeming to Pelagianize dare not say so much as they have said 2. The Fathers of Prime Antiquity did either write nothing at all or but very little and what of theirs is come to our hands is so interpolated that it is extreamly difficult to find out their meaning yea the Editions are so various that I know not which to prefer e. g. If I follow Vedelius his Edition of Ignatius I could not but think the Father to be of the opinion that the making of any one a true Christian is a work not of moral suasion but of strength and power for these are his words according to him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} yet should I quote this passage in the controversie about free-will I should be told that the words do not run so in some other Editions and so occasion much strife of words Laud You must expect nothing from the Geneva Printers but deceits and impostures nor hath that importune Vedelius brought any thing to fill his Pages with but impudence and singular ignorance Montacutius Apparat. 1. p. 19. Pacif. I 'm not ignorant that such a severe censure is passed upon Vedelius and his Edition but he hath answered for hinself in his Preface to his Tract De Deo Synagogae And Bishop Vsher who hath taken more pains about Ignatius then that bilious writer speaks honorably of the Geneva Edition yea Dr. Hammond prefers it to the very edition of Isaac Vossius judged the most perfect and incorrupt in one particular but this is a diversion 3. I say thirdly That I frequently see just occasion to prefer the expositions of Scripture made by our later Writers before those which are given by the Ancient Doctors this is acknowledged even by Romanists Stella in Luc. c. 10. Bishop Fisher in his confutation of the Lutheran Artic. Art 18. We scarce find any setting themselves to making of Homilies or Commentaries till about the third Century and many of those who have commented on Scripture were so ignorant either of Hebrew or Greek or both that they have fallen into sad mistakes as no Scholar conversant in their Writings can deny 4. I have much wondred and do still wonder how it comes to pass that the Systems and Models of Divinity or Catechisms composed some by our own some by Transmarine Divines are so exceedingly decryed for I am sure heretofore they were recommended to Tutors to read to their Pupils as good means to keep them Orthodox which appears by a Decree of Convocation made Anno Domini 1579. which I shall take the boldness to recite verbatim because it shews what Authors were then in credit and may possibly provoke the present University to revive the long neglected but very necessary work of catechiting and examining young
Students not only privately within the Colledg walls but also publickly in the Schools Thus runs the decree extant Libro senioris procuratoris B. fol. 35. A. Decretum Convocationis Anno Domini 1579. Jan. 27. ad extirpandam haeresin quamcunque ad informandam juventuntem in verâ pietate Vetus statutum contra Haereticos perverse de Christianâ fide sentientes renovandum in usum revocandum duximus additâ hac explanatione Ad extirpandam Haeresin quamcunque ad informandam in verâ pietate juventutem Libros hosce legendos censemus statuimus viz. Catechismum Alexandri Nowelli majorem Lat. aut Graec. Vel Catechismum Johannis Calvin Lat. Gr. aut Hebr. vel Elementa Christianae Religionis Andreae Hyperii Vel Catechesin Heidelbergensem pro captu auditorum arbitrio legentium 2. His adiungi possunt Henrici Bullingeri Catechismus pro adultis Institutiones Calvini vel Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae vel articuli Religionis in Synodo Londinensi Latine conscripti autoritate regia editi cum explicatione locorum Communium testimoniis è sacra scriptura aut interdum è patribus desumptis Ad primam lectionem Juniores ad secundam provectiores omnes nullo gradu insignitos astringi volumus 3. Catechismos omnes sanae huic doctrinae contrarios aliosque libros superstitiosos Papisticos legi haberi penitus interdicimus 4. Hanc legendi interpretandi provinciam demandamus privatim Tutoribus publice alicui Catechistae in singulis Collegiis Aulis per praefectos assignando 5. Quo Decretum hoc diligenter inviolate observetur examen habeatur domi per Catechistam aut etiam Praefectos in Academiâ singulis anni terminis per Procancelarium adhibitis praeleetoribus sacrae Theologiae qui à studiosis convocatis profectus rationem exigant 6. Si quis discentium aut docentium negligentior ant alioqui culpabilis deprehendatur judicio praefectorum aut si opus sit Procancellarii corrigatur puniatur I would fain know how it came to pass that there 's no mention of this Decree in our new Statutes if our late Grandees did not steere a course quite contrary to our old Protestant Divines Nor do I know any ground that the Articles of our Church and Calvins Institutions which this Decree joyned together should now with so much Zeal be put asunder Laud Private Opinions heretofore especially if countenanced by some eminent Name were looked on as the publick resolution of the Anglican Church and the poor Church condemned for teaching those Opinions which by the Artifice of some men had been fastned on her Dr. Crackanthorp when he was commanded to make answer to the Archbishop of Spalato his Consilium redeundi chose rather to defend those Lutheri Calvini dogmata which had been charged upon this Church in the Bishops Pamphlet then to assert this Church to her genuine Doctrine They that went otherwise to work were like to speed no better in it or be otherwise requited for their honest Zeal then to be presently exposed to the publick envy and made the common subject of reproach and danger So that I must needs look upon it as a bold attempt as the times then were in Bishop Mountague of Norwich in his answer to the Popish Gagger and the two Appellants to lay the Saddle on the right Horse to sever or discriminate the opinions of particular men from the received and authorized Doctrines of the Church of England to leave the one to be maintained by their private fautors and only to defend and maintain the other And certainly had he not been a man of a mighty Spirit and one that could easily contemn the cryes and clamours which were raised against him for so doing he could not but have sunk remedilesly under the burden of disgrace and the fears of ruine which that performance drew upon him To such an absolute Authority were the Writings and Names of some men advanced by their diligent followers that not to yield obedience to their ipse dixits was a crime unpardonable It is true King James observed the inconvenience and prescribed a remedy sending instructions to the Universities bearing date Jan. 18. 1616. wherein it was directed among other things That young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and to bestow their time in Fathers and Councils Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long on Compendiums and Abbreviations making them the ground of their studie And I conceive That from that time forwards the names and reputations of some leading men of the foraign Churches which till then did carry all before them did begin to lessen Divines growing every day more willing to free themselves from that servitude vassalage to which the authority of those names had enslaved their judgements But so that no man had the courage to make such a general assault against the late received opinions as Bishop Mountague though many when the ice was broken followed gladly after him Dr. Heylin Preface to Theologia Veterum Pacif. You have given me a large account how as you conceive Calvin Bullinger c. came to decrease but such as is no way satisfactory for 1. It is gratis dictum that the reading of Fathers Councils c. will make any one abate his esteem of any Orthodox Cystem 2. It is no way probable that King James should by his instructions in An. 1616. design the hindering of the Calvinian Doctrines who appeared so very zealous An. 1618. against the Tenets of Arminius who did contradict Calvin in those points which of all others held by him are most liable to exception 3. Nor is it any way probable that if any Calvinistical or Lutheran Dogmata had been super-induced to the Articles of our Church which had the least seeming contrariety to them that none should be either acute enough to discern such superseminations or couragious enough to pull up such tares but only Richard Mountague B. D. Had he only learned to deny himself had the spirit of courage and resolution departed from all the English Clergy and rested upon him alone Sure I am that Dr. Forbes of Edenburgh leaveth this Mr. Mountague under this censure that he too much complyed with Calvinism in the point of justification Propter puritanorum undique strepentium clamores nescio quomodo refugerit ad distinctionem Forbes de Justif. lib. 2. c. 5. 4. 'T is scarce credible if Mr. Mountague had only separated chaffe from the wheat and distinguished only the received Doctrines of the Church from some busie Puritans private Opinions that he should have been so severely censured for his Book by the Parliament and confuted by some Divines of great note and learning and as conformable as himself particularly by his Reverend and much Reverenced Diocesan And Archbishop Abbot in his
credendum etium esse Sed Filium Personam esse Trinitatis Spiritum vero Sunctum Personam esse simpliciter nec verbis nec sensu ibi exprimitur He that will obviate many Heretical abominations now abroad in the world by any words in the Creed not drawing consequences from them shall but loose his labor Laud In the first three hundred years there was no sign of persecuting any man for his opinion though at that time there were very horrid opinions commenced and such which were exemplary and parallel enough to determine this question for they were then assaulted by new Sects which destroyed the common principles of Nature of Christianity of Innocence and publick Society and they who used all the means Christian and Spiritual for their disimprovement and conviction thought not of using corporal force otherwise then by blaming such proceedings and therefore I do not only urge their not doing it as an argument of the unlawfulness of such proceeding but their defying it and speaking against such practises as unreasonable and destructive of Christianity for so Tertullian is express ad Scap. Humani juris naturalis potestatis unicuique quod putaverit colere sed nec Religionis est cogere Religionem quae suscipi debet sponte non vi Epis. Dedic. p 19. Pacif. 'T is strange that it should be destructive of Christianity to use corporal force against the broachers of Tenents which destroy the common principles of Nature of Christianity of Innocence and publick Society all understanding men will grant with Lactantius Instit. lib. 5. c. 14. That Religion cannot be compelled nor can justice mercy or love to our neighbours be complelled all such good dispositions or habits must be perswaded by the Word and wrought by the Spirit Christians ought not to compel Jews to be of their Religion but the Sword is a means to punish acts of false worship in those that are under the Christian Magistrate and profess Christian Religion in so far as these acts come out to the eyes of men and are destructive to the souls of those in a Christian Society But if you will not allow the Magistrate to punish the blaspheming seducing Heretick with death yet you will allow him to discourage any false Teacher Laud If men must be permitted in their opinions and that Christians must not persecute Christians I have also as much reason to reprove all those oblique Arts which are not direct persecutions of mens persons but they are indirect proceedings ungentle and unchristian servants of faction and interest provocations to zeal and animosity and destructive of learning and ingenuity and these are suppressing all the monuments of their adversaries forcing them to recant and burning their Books all such Arts shew that we either distrust God for the maintenance of his Truth or that we distrust the cause or distrust our selves and our abilities Epist. Ded. p. 34 36. Pacif. The Arts you so condemn have been used in England both by the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authority and therefore you who call your self an obedient son to both do forget your self to censure such proceedings so severely especially seeing such courses have been followed by none more then by the Brethren of your own perswasion and interest But what makes you so very favourable to men who differ from us in matters not fundamental as you call them is it because the Scripture doth not plainly speak against them Laud God who disposeth of all things sweetly and according to the nature and capacity of things and persons hath made those only necessary which he hath taken care should be sufficiently propounded to all persons of whom he required explicite belief and therefore all the Articles of Faith are clearly and plainly set down in Scripture no man can be ignorant of the foundation without his o vn apparent fault and God hath done more for many things which are only profitable are also set down so plainly that as Austin Nemo inde haurire non possit si modo ad hauriendum devote acpie accedat but of such things there 's no question commenced in Christendom Liber of Prop. p. 59. Pacif. Sir you astonish me Are there no questions commenced in Christendom about things necessary to be believed nor yet of things that are hugely profitable If not it would be the best counsel could be given to Christian Magistrates to burn all Controversie Books but sure That our natures are corrupted with sin that Christ made satisfaction to Divine Justice that our good works are not meritorious that the Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father that Sacraments and Ministry are to continue in the Church are matters necessary or at least very profitable to be believed But whence ariseth the difficulty and uncertainty of Arguments drawn from Scripture in questions that you call not simply necessary not literally determined Laud There are so many thousands of copies that were writ by persons of several interests and perswasions such different understandings and tempers such distinct abilities and weaknesses that it is no wonder there is so great variety of readings both in the Old Testament and in the New This variety of reading is not of small consideration for though it be demonstrably true that all things necessary to faith and good manners are preserved from alteration and corruption because they are of things necessary yet in other things which God hath not obliged himself punctually to preserve in these things since variety of readingsis crept in every reading takes away a degree of certainty from any proposition derivative from those places so read And if some copies especially if they be publick and notable omit a verse or title every argument from such a title or verse loseth much of its strength and reputation Liber of Proph. p. 61 63 64. Pacif. I am glad to find it acknowledged that all things nenecessary to faith and good manners are preserved from alteration and corruption but you are not ignorant and your own examples prove it that there is variety of readings in things necessary to faith and good manners as well as in matters that are not of such necessity but in such variety of readings we are not left without that which may direct us what reading to prefe Thus Austin hath answered Faust who was wont when he had nothing else left that he could reply to say Libros N. Test. salsatos fuisse Thus Simeon de Muis in his Assertio Hebraicae veriti p. 31. Nemo tibi negat in quaedam exemplaria potuisse ac posse quotidia mendas irrepere c. Dr. Edw. Kellet no Puritan in his Miscellanies of Divinity denieth not but that some Copies are corrupted but saith that if in any one Point or Article we should affirm a corruption to be got into all Copies it will be impossible to prove any part or word of the New Testament to be incorrupt Lib. 2. c. 8. Laud There are very many senses and designs of expounding
by Scripture or sufficient reason Liber Prop. p. 89. Pacif. Points of good concernment not determinable by Scriptures nor yet by Reason How contrary is this to what is quoted out of Chrysostom and Fulgentius in the Homlly Exhorting to the reading of the holy Scripture p. 2. Besides such an assertion doth very much tend to discourage men from making enquiry into Truth for if such points are not determinable by either Scripture or Reason how shall they be determined If by the Church I say the Church in her determinations must be guided by Scripture and Reason or else her members are not obliged to regard her determinations Laud I must negatively conclude that all things necessary to the Salvation of all are not of themselves clear in the Scripture to all understandings whereby I say not that all such things are not contained in the Scriptures as if some things necessary to the salvation of all were to be received by Tradition alone Nor that being in the Scriptures they are not clear and discernable to the understandings of those that are furnished with means requisite to discern the meaning of Scripture But that which I stand upon is that it is not nor ought to be a presumption that this or that is not necessary to Salvation because it is not clear in the Scriptures which if it were admitted whosoever were able to make such an argument against any Article of Faith as all understandings interessed in salvation could not dissolve should have gained this that though it may be true yet it cannot be an Article of Faith Principles of Christian Truth p. 25. Pacif. It is beyond all dispute that all things contained in Scripture are not clear to all understandings there are some understandings to which nothing is clear it is also past dispute that they who understand Scriptures must be first furnished with all means necessarily requisite for the understanding of Scriptures and which is more they must make use of those means and pray to God for a blessing upon them but this is said by Protestants against Papists that God hath made nothing necessary for the Salvation of all men Necessitate praecepti medii but such things as are so clearly laid down in the Word that all who will make use of the abilities God hath vouchsafed may find them out and that men may safely conclude that is not a necessary Article of Religion which is not clear in some place or other of Scripture clear I say with such a clearness as may satisfie the conscience though not with such as may satisfie curiosity Laud The holy Scriptures in the first time of the Christian Church were not communicated to all men all at once for the Primitive Fathers wisely considered how extreamly perillous it might be to expose the whole Scripture unto ignorant mens use and judgement or indeed abuse rather and want of judgement surely more dangerous and pernicious it might prove unto mens souls then to leave a whole Apothecaries shop open to a diseased person who might as well choose and take deadly poyson to his destruction as a Soveraign medicine to the recovery of his health Had the souls of men been so carefully watched over by their Governors and such portions of Scripture wisely and fatherly dispensed unto them as might with such holy reservedness have met with mens proficiency surely such prodigious Monsters had not been counterfeited out of the Word of God by the spirit of Opinion as in these later dayes we have seen and lament to see Dr. Gell. Preface to his Essay about the amendment of our English Translation Pacif. That by the free reading of the Holy Scriptures some very dangerous Opinions have been occasioned accidentally is no question but that therefore any part of the Scripture should be locked up in an unknown Tongue from the Vulgar is no stronger an inference then if one should argue because some have burned their fingers and houses with candle and fire therefore the free use of those creatures is not to be vouchsafed in a Common-wealth And as I think the conclusion to be absurd so I am sure 'T is quite contrary to the whole scope and design of the Homilies called an Information of them that take offence at certain places of Holy Scripture Laud The further we proceed in the survey of the Scripture the Translation is the more faulty as the Hagiographa more then the Historical Scripture and the Prophets more then the Hagiographa and the Apocrypha most of all and generally the New-Testament more then the Old Idem near the end of his Preface Pacif. Such a censure might have been born from the pen of the Rhemish and Doway Divines but who can bear it from one pretending to be an English Protestant the Translation is Vsque ad invidiam aliarum gentium elaborata Translatio It was sufficiently defended in the parts that you find most fault with by Dr. Fulk and Cartwright against the Cavils of the Rhemists and may more easily be defended against the exceptions taken to it by you But there is another thing that offends me in your former words viz. That you seem to make the Apocrypha part of the Scripture which word when it is taken absolutely and without addition should suppose only for Canonical Scripture and I do the more doubt that you advance the Apocrypha higher then do our Reformed Divines because I find you ascribing the Book of Wisdom to Solomon p. 51. whereas that Book was sure written by one of a spirit far inferior to that which acted Solomon in his writings Laud Such is the boldness and ignorance of some that they have left out of their impressions the Apocryphal Scriptures whereby they have gotten this whereof to glory that they have done that which no wise or honest man hath done before them so far as I have yet known or I hope will adventure to do after them Dr. Gell Pref. Pacif. To devest all those who had an hand in leaving the Apocrypha out of our English Bibles of all wisdom and honesty is very hard for what if those Apocryphal writings be of some good use yet there 's nothing in them should make it necessary or expedient to bind them up with the Canon why may they not be kept in a Volume by themselves or indeed how can they be read by private Christians at all without apparent hazard and scandal seeing some of them contain notorious lyes some of them justifie such things as God Law and the Law of Nature too do condemn But before we proceed any further suffer me to know your mind about Reason and Councils Laud All Controversies are reducible to two heads Goodness or Truth so that the question is Whether right reason can infallibly judge what is good or bad true or false for a thing to be morally good for Metaphysical Goodness is all one with Truth depends by sure connexion from that Eternal Justice which is primarily in God
accommodato adorationi erectam aut constitutam modus autem aecomodatus adorationi est cum imago depicta aut sculpta est per se non veluti appendix additamentum alterius rei in ornatum illius rei Beware lest thou make to thy self i. e. to any religious use any grauen image Homily Perill of Idol p. 42. Laud The examples of the Seraphims and Brazen Serpent tell us that to make pictures or statues of creatures is not against a natural reason and that they may have uses which are profitable as well as be abused to danger and superstition Now although the nature of that people was apt to the abuse yet Christianity hath so far removed that danger that our blessed Law-giver thought it not necessary to remove us from superstition by a prohibition of the use of images and pictures and for the matter of images we have no other rule left us in the New Testament the rules of reason and nature and the other parts of the Institution are abundantly sufficient for our security And possibly St. Paul might relate to this when he affirmed concerning the fifth that it was the first Commandment with a promise for the second Commandment had a promise of shewing mercy to thousand generations but because the body of this Commandment was not transcribed into the Christian Law the first of the Decalogue which we retain and in which a promise is inserted is the fift Commandment G. E. part 2. p. 111 112. Pacif. Do you then think that the second Commandment is not retained by us Christians I never thought but that it was if not natural yet moral of universal and perpetual obligation of this judgement were the Ancients Irene lib. 4. cap. 31. August lib. 19. contra Faus cap. 18 Epis 119. cap. 12 Not to speak of Clem Alex. who in his Adhortatory Oration to the Gentiles plainly saith that the Commandment obligeth us as well as the Jews though he seem to be mistaken in giving the sense of it this way also go all Protestants though indeed the Papists do make this law but temporary In a word God allowed the Jews a civil use of Images and other he alloweth not to us under the Gospel who are not so much out of danger of Idolatry and superstition as you seem to imply Laud Images have three uses assigned by the Popish Schools instruction of the rude commonefaction of History and stirring up of devotion they and we also give unto them Gagg p. 300. The pictures of Christ the blessed Virgins and Saints may be made had in houses set up in Churches respect and honour may be given to them the Protestants do it and use them for helps of Piety in rememoration and more effectual representing of the Prototipe Ans. to Gagg p. 818. Pacif. The Church of England teacheth her children quite another lesson Hom. against the peril of Idol Part 3. p. 42. It is unlawful that the Image of Christ should be made or that the Image of any Saint should be made especially to be set up in Temples to the great and unavoidable danger of Idolatry we grant Images used for no Religion or Superstition rather we mean Images of none worshipped or in danger to be worshipped may be suffered but Images placed publickly in Temples cannot possibly be without danger of Idolatry many such passages may be picked out of that Homily which are the more considerable because of all our Homilies it seemeth to be penned with most exactness Laud It is the Consecration that makes Churches holy and makes God esteem them so which though they be not capable of grace yet by their consecration they receive a spiritual power whereby they are made fit for Divine Service and being consecrated there is no danger in ascribing holiness unto them Tedder his Visit Sermon licensed by Dr. Baker an. 1637. Pacif. That Churches do by Consecration receive any spiritual power whereby they are made more fit for Divine Service than other places or that the same company meeting in a private house and praying by the same Spirit should not be as acceptable to God as in the Church is Superstition to affirm nor did the Church of England ever teach any such Doctrine yet I easily grant that in peaceable times and under Christian Princes the people of God ought to have their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that it is a broach of civil decency to employ these places set a part for Gods Worship to any common uses ordinarily Laud We use signing with the sign of the Cross both in the fore-head and elsewhere witness that solemn Form in our Baptism for which we are so quarrelled by our factions the flesh is signed that the soul may be fortified saith Tertullian and so do we Ans. to Gagg p. 320. Pacif. If any one besides the Minister useth signing with the Cross or if he use it at any time but in Baptism or on any place but on the forehead 't is done without any warrant at all from the Church of England and our Church retained the sign of the Cross in Baptism only as an outward Ceremony and honorable Badge but it doth not ascribe any efficacy unto it of fortifying the soul and declares the child to be perfectly baptized before it be signed with the sign of the Cross as plainly appears from the Book of Canons agreed upon 1603. Chapter Of the lawful use of the Cross Laud Baptism of Infants is most certainly a holy and charitable Ordinance and of ordinary necessity to all that ever dyed and yet the Church hath founded this Rite on the Tradition of the Apostles and wise men do easily observe that the Anabaptists can by the same probability of Scripture enforce a necessity of communicating Infants upon us as we do of Baptizing Infants upon them if we speak of an immediate Divine Institution or of practice Apostolical recorded in Scripture and therefore a great Master of Geneva in a Book he writ against Anabaptists was faign to fly to Apostolical Traditive Ordination and therefore the Institution of Bishops must be served first as having fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants and yet they that deny this are by the just Anathema of the Church Catholick condemned for Hereticks Dr. Tayl. Episc. Asser. p. 100 101. Pacif. 'T is gratis dictum that the Institution of Bishops hath fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants nor can you prove that they who deny the Baptism of Infants are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick much less that they who deny the Institution of Bishops superior in order to Presbyters are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick Hath a whole Book been written to prove that none are to be anathematized who consent to the Articles of the Apostles Creed and must it now be worthy an Anathema to deny Infant Baptism who but a Papist ever said