from the Advocates own Words that none can justly plead for a Tolleration whose Devilish Principles and furious Practices tend to the Subversion of Government which both by what has been said and by Experience the surest Demonstration in the World both Papists and other Dissenters especially Presbyterians have been proved guilty of Let us now see how he manages the Cause of his own Party for whose sake this Project of a Tolleration was principally intended as is plain by his comparing Luther Calvin Buchanan c. with Mariana Suarez and Bellarmine Whose Doctrines are at least as he says as Dangerous to Monarchy and therefore unfit to be Tollerated the one or the other LET us therefore examine the Plea of Innocency which he descends to defend in particular And as their manner always is pag. 70. he tells us That the Roman Catholique Religion was the first Christian Religion planted in our Countrey from whom we had our very Christianity Suppose it were yet Quantum mutatus ab illo The present Roman Catholique Religion is not the same which they planted But with his good leave his Assertion is contrary Pol. Virgil. Hist Angl. l. 2. not only to great Probability but to the consent of Historians for Polydore Virgil tells us Test is est Gildas Britannos jam inde ab initio arti Evangelii Christianam accepisse Religionem That our Ancestors received the Christian Faith according to the Testimony of Guildas in the very beginning of the Gospel Baronius thinks St. Peter was here Theodoret Bar. An. 58. n. 51. Theod. de curand Graec. affect l. 9. Niceph l. 2. cap. 40. Baron An. 36. n. 5. Bede lib. 1. cap. 25 26. lib. 2. cap. 2. Saint Paul Nicephorus Simon Zelotes Some Joseph of Arimathea and even when Austin the Monk came from Gregory to Convert us as they say to the Christian Faith he found a Church among us as Beda testifies Bertha a Christian Queen and at Bangor a Monastery or rather a Colledg of many hundreds who upon the Question Whether they should admit of Austin put it upon this Issue Si sit humilis admittatâ—â—â— But finding him proud and Imperious they rejected him which they durst never have done had they believed even the bare Primacy of his Master or that they were owing for their Faith and Conversion to the Roman Church I will not enter into a long dispute about Merits Pardons Purgatory Adoration of Images or Transubstantiation which were but actum agere only methinks the Apothecaries Argument deserves to be put upon the File who being pressed to believe the Doctrine of Transubstantiation told the Zealous Agressor pleasantly but truly Sir I will make a Wafer and set a mark upon it that it may not be changed you shall send it to the Pope let him Consecrate it and I will venture you a 100 l. you dare not take it Oh says the other but I dare and would well reply'd the Apothecary then I will venture a 1000 l. that you shall be dead before next Morning which if it were really transubstantiated were impossible that the poison of the Body should be the food of the Soul and Christ be made a Murderer which demonstrative Conclusion so little expected puts the Romanist a little out of Conceit with his Doctrine and struck him as dumb as the other would have done dead for all the Transubstantiation there are very gross Stories and Slanders abroad if some in the Romish Church have â—â—â—tried the Experiment and have received their Death by what was given them as the Body of Christ and the Bread of Life BUT I will observe his Method p. 166. He tells us confidently That there makes for them all that may or can be of any Christian man required Literal Text of Holy Scripture approved Tradition General Councels Ancient Fathers Ecclesiastical Histories Christian Laws Conversion of Nations Divine Miracles Heavenly Visions Vnity Vniversality Antiquity Succession all Monuments all Substance all Accidents of Christianity Here is not a word of Proof and therefore I may take the same Liberty in contradicting it if I please But to answer this There makes against them Literal Text of Holy Scripture â—usanus Ep. 2. ad Bohem. of that Scripture which a Cardinal says is a Nose of Wax of that Scripture which the Pope has Power to inlarge at his pleasure as the Trent Councel has done making the Apochrypha Canonical Of that Scripture which speaks not a single word for the Popes Supremacy Transubstantiation Purgatory Masses for the Dead Invocation of Saints Vows of single Life c. but in a thousand places against them and therefore they are obliged to fly for refuge to their Approved Traditions and set them in the Throne above the Scriptures whose mouths must be stopped by the vulgar Latin and the Vulgar confined from reading them and even these approved Traditions are most of them such as the Universal Church never knew never acknowledged Conc. Trid. Sess 4. Dec. 1. which yet must be received with the same Reverence and Affection as the Scriptures for as Baronius affirms Bar. Ann. 53. Num. 11. Traditio Scripturarum Fundamentum and the Traditions of Men are made the Foundation of Scripture and of Faith And the Canon Law of Pope Gregory XIII Dist 40. Si Papa in Ann. Margin goes higher yet and sets the Pope above them all For men rather desire to know the ancient Institution of Christian Religion from the Popes mouth than from the holy Scripture And yet all of their own Church do not approve these Approved Traditions for Basil says Basil Reg. contract p. 502. It is necessary and agreable to Reason that all men learn what is their Duty out of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both for the fulfilling all Godliness and lest they should be accustomed to Humane Traditions Iren. l. 3. c. 2. And Irenaeus tells us it was the Custom of Hereticks to call in Tradition to their assistance against Scripture alledging that those Truths as they called them which they held were not delivered by Writing but by word of Mouth AGAINST his General Counsels we oppose the first four and have offered a thousand times to put the Issue upon their Verdict Against Ecclesiastical Histories Ancient Fathers Christian Laws we oppose the frequent Forgeries of all these detected even by themselves and the Index Expurgatorius which Castrates all the Fathers that they may be fit Eunuchs for the Papal Seraglio the Vatican by being disabled to propagate truth For Conversion of Nations we refer them to the Acts of the Apostles for the first Age and for these last to Acosta the Jesuite and Bartholomeus Casas a Bishop in the Indies Acost de Ind. salut procurand their Conversion was such that the miserable People chose to go to Hell with their Ancestors rather than to Heaven with such Christians and if their Relations are true gives occasion to the Romanists to blush rather than boast
with the Title of Religion You call Rebellion Reformation Schism and Separation Godliness Division from the Church Communion and Union with God You put Darkness for Light and Worship the blackest Crimes and Vices in the habit of Vertue Piety and true Religon Thus whilest you spie the Moat in your Mothers Eyes and would pull that and them too out to make her see clearly you never consider the Beam that is in your own And whilest you Vehemently accuse others of Worshipping God in vain according to the Traditions of Men you never regard how you make the Commandments of God of no Effect by your Traditions Matt. 15.6 God says Honour the King and thou shalt not speak Evil of the Ruler of thy People Obey Magistrates c. Your Traditions say Dishonour him by Disobedience Insinuate Jealousies and evil Surmisings concerning him and his Government Your Actions are a thousand Tongues and every Tongue a Trumpet to Proclaim your thoughts And however with your Lips you may pretend to honour the King and with your Mouths to draw near to God your Heart is in reality far from both Your Will is your God the Idol of your Heart which you set up and Worship For what I pray is your way of Worship but Tradition from the Heads of your Party Is there ever a Word in Scripture for your long Extempore Prayers full not of Tolerabiles ineptiae with which Calvin charges our Liturgy but of Intollerable Tautologies vain Repetitions rash Expressions and indigested Matter Christ is Positive against them Use them not says he as the Heathens who think to be heard for their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their much speaking The Wise King who had Survey'd all the Vanities of the World makes this not only a Vanity Eccl. 5.1 2. but a dangerous Rashness and a Sacrifice of Fools And yet you use it commend and applaud it as the only way pleasing and acceptable to God Is the Scripture clear that there ought to be no Bishops in the Church Or that Lay-Elders who understand neither Sense nor it may be English and in some places who cannot write their Name should yet be impowered to Define and Determine in Matters of Faith Are you any where forbidden to wear a Surplice or to use the Sign of the Cross or to bury Christians in hope of Charity and Resurrection to Eternal Life Or to pray in set and appointed Words which is true praying by the Spirit when we pray with understanding also knowing what will be said If these be not Gods Commands or Prohibitions they are Yours and if they are not in Scripture as I am sure they are not they are not only the Commandments and Traditions of Men but of Men who have no Power to Command or Impose the most indifferent thing And yet you perswade all Men every where that they owe Obedience to these forgetting that God is to be Obeyed rather than Men and that he commands you to Obey those that have the Rule over you If you will be Followers of God as Dear Children you must if it be possible and as much as in you lies be Followers of Peace with all Men much more with your Superiors both in Church and State But this is very possible for you to do And that it is not only Possible but Honest and Necessary and your Duty the Ensuing Papers will plainly inform you To them therefore I refer you they were designed for you And if you will Esteem me your Enemy because I tell you the Truth without Flattery Interest or Partiality yet I had rather be so Esteemed than be so in Reality by Skinning over your Festred Gangreen with words smooth as Oyl Whereas in Truth it ought to be laid open to prevent the further Eating of the Canker And this is the only way that I know to approve my self to be Your most Affectionate And real Friend The Contents CHAP. I. The INTRODVCTION CHAP. II. OF the Obstacles of Truth and Peace The necessity of removing them before we can obtain the other The great value all men have for Truth and for Imposture under its Name The first Obstacle Self Interest of its prevalency upon Jews Pagans Mahumetans the Romish Church and all Dissenters p. 10 CHAP. III. Of the second Obstacle to Peace Truth and Vnity Prejudice and Prepossession of Mind The Nature and Effects of Prejudice Of Ceremonies The reason why hated Of the meaning of the word Ceremony Some Ceremonies absolutely necessary in all Religious Worship All not Popery which Papists do Of Education and Custom how they are the Foundation of Prejudices p. 25 CHAP. IV. Of Pride and Ambition most dangerous Obstacles of Truth and Peace because Vices of Temper and Inclination The Difficulty of subduing these sins of Complexion Religion made their usual disguise The danger of them manifested in a short Character of Oliver Cromwell Of the danger of these in Church-men The Methods of such Persons as are infected with them to advance themselves to dignity A way to discover such fiery spirits from the Peacable spirit of Christianity p. 40 CHAP. V. Of the necessity of Vnion That the only way to Establish Happiness in any Nation The Intent of Religion the Happiness of Mankind here in this Life as well as in a future state That the truest Religion which advances this great Intention for which God gave it Of the true Church Of degrees of Purity in Churches Of the Seven Churches of Asia Distinction and Coordination of National Churches proved Faith the Common Bond of Vnion in the Catholique Church Of the Independency of National Churches one from another in point of Limits and Jurisdiction How the Peace of the Church Vniversal is thereby preserved p. 64. CHAP. VI. Objections against the Independency or Co-ordination of National Churches Why it cannot be admitted in several Churches in the same Nation It takes away the Power and Soveraignty of the Prince It is the Ruin of the Society Of the Foreign Protestant Churches The reason of their Disunion from Rome matter of Faith not of Ceremony only or of Government p. 78. CHAP. VII Of Vnity in Government that it is the bond of a National Church as Vnity in Faith is of the Catholique The Practice of the Primitive Church Of the Difference about Easter The Opinion of Irenaeus Bishop of Lions about it A National Church an intire Polity of Christian Men. The Laws of the Church and State mutual and recipocral design the same End viz. the Happiness of the Society Disobedience to either is so to both All Society as well as Happiness destroyed by Disunion The necessity of Vnity in Government upon a Religious account No Charity without it and without Charity no Religion p. 96. CHAP. VIII Of the Power of the Keys by Excommunication and Absolution How render'd impracticable by Tollerating many Churches in the same Nation Of the Decay of Christian Piety That and the Growth of Errors must lye at the
for suffering this which they will call Persecution for Righteousuess sake Now from this way of Procedure these inconveniencies will necessarily follow FIRST The most Notorious Sinners shall be incouraged in their Impenitence and shall be perswaded that to be reconciled to God Almighty there is no necessity of Submission Repentance or Absolution from the Church which they have offended but rather they shall be inspired with principles of Hatred and Revenge against the Church from which they are Excommunicated and though they be denyed Salvation without Repentance in one Church yet they can go to another where they shall certainly meet with the Promise of it upon cheap and easie terms viz. those of Joyning with them in their way of Worship SECONDLY Hereby men come to have a mean and contemptible Opinion of this Power of the Church And value Excommunication from any Church no more than some idle Servants do to be turned out of their Masters Doors who will presently tell you that the World is wide enough and if one will not another will That there are more Services to be had So will this sort of People tell you there are more Churches and no question but where in any Nation this Principle is allowed there would be almost as many Churches as People and when once they are come to slight the Censure and the Church they will never so much as think of being released from the Dangerous Bond of Excommunication or to have their Sins remitted upon Earth by the power of that Church which they have offended THIRDLY Hereby others of the most Loose and Licencious Lives will be incouraged to continue impious and Irreligious though owning no Sect or Faction And coming by their Example to despise this Power of the true Church and to look upon Excommunication as a thing of no Danger they will value no Church but abandon themselves to all manner of Wickedness Irreligion and Atheism and provided they can but scape the danger of Humane Laws they will never trouble themselves about the Ecclesiastical FOURTHLY People will in a little time come to believe that the only Duty of the Minister consists in their abilities to Preach and Exhort and that to Admonish and Correct is no part of their Office and this being so easie a thing to be attain'd and many times Eloquence as before was observed being a Natural Talent Hereby Bold Illiterate Unexamined Unqualified Conceited and Pragmatical Opiniatres will invade the Sacred Function by which means Errors will abound new Heresies will spring up daily and old ones revive flourish and increase without control or contradiction the Holy Sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism will be either neglected and laid aside or prophaned by unhallowed hands and in short those great Mischiefs which are so much feared must break in upon us either Atheism or superstitious will Worship the Commandments and Traditions of Wilful Ignorant and Erroneous Men and when once the Church is trampled under foot by so many Sects and Heresies Ignorance will daily get ground and that sets the Dore wide open either to the dreaded thing call'd Popery to Paganism or the Turkish Alchoran which comes with the fairest Pretence and the finest Dress to win their Favour I do heartily wish all this were spoken like the Prophecy of Jonah against the Ninivites what was such occasion of grief and discontent to him as to oblige him in a sullen humor to wish to dye would be to me the greatest Joy of my Life But Experience that fatal Mistress has taught us the truth of some of these Effects and may well give us terrible apprehensions of what we may expect For no sooner can an Offender fall under the deserved Censure of Excommunication or but in the danger of it but presently he turns Dissenter is received into the bosom of some Sect or Faction and then he bids Defiance to all the Power of the Church and fears nothing but the Secular Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo Nay I have my self heard some Persons boast of their being Excommunicated and pretend to receive it as a savour to be prohibited coming into the Church from these mens contempt and vilifying of this dreadful Sentence others who have no Religion have learned to despise it too nor is there any thing in it formidable to them besides the expence of their Money to the Lay-Officers of the Ecclesiastical Courts and when once men come to place all their Religion in fear of the Secular Power and have no other bridle upon their unruly Passions and Desires besides the Reins of Humane Punishments and the Laws of the Civil Magistrate it is not to be admired if they run headlong into Brutish Impiety and downright Atheism and they who are taught to believe and easily learn the Lesson both by Example and Precept that the Priest or Bishop has no more Power over their Souls than over their Bodies will not be long before they Despise both the Persons and their Office and when men are arrived at that for my part I look upon their condition to be next to Desperate for however they may please and flatter themselves in their Gay and Jolly humor of despising these contemptible Priests the affront is really done to God Almighty and I cannot see any great security in such Atheistical Drollery Hear ye Despisers and Tremble at what our Great Lord and Saviour says concerning the 70 Disciples whom he sent abroad to Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom Luk. 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me and St. Paul is plain 1 Tim. 4.8 He that despiseth despiseth not Man but God WHAT can be the End of this but Misesery here and Eternal Damnation hereafter He that despised Moses Law died without Mercy Heb. 10.28 29. of how much sorer punishment then are they worthy who despise the Son of God which all those do who despise his Servants the Governors of the Church who are sent by him which if I do not prove let them go on and despise but if they are let them have a care of falling into the hands of a revenging God for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God Heb. 12.28 for our God is a consuming fire This is certainly the utmost despight to the Spirit of Grace and the most unpardonable affront that can be offer'd to the Divine Clemency and against which there is no remedy A dismal Example of which we have in the Nation of the Jews That God who proclaims himself Merciful slow to anger of great Compassion and that repenteth him of Evil after he had born all their Iniquities and Rebellions could not bear with this 2 Chron. 36.15 16 c. For the Lord God of their Fathers sent to them his Messengers rising up betimes and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling
be such a Condition in Order to this End Psal 51.4 as All may have That so God may be Justified when he speaks and clear when he Judges and if men be not saved it may appear it was through their own Folly and not from the difficulty of the Condition which God offers For it would be infinitely derogatory to the Wisdom and Goodness of the Divine Nature to the God of Love the only Wise God to give such a Condition of Salvation as All were not capable of attaining For Salvation is not confined to the Wise and Learned 1 Cor. 1.26 nay St. Paul seems to intimate the Contrary Not many Wise men are called Jude 3. but it is the Common Salvation in which all Rich and Poor High and Low Young and Old the Learned and Unlearned the Wise and the Simple have a share The Foundation of this Assent to the Conditional Propositions of Salvation is not therefore our Understanding of them to be true by the Power of Reason our comprehending or apprehending the manner of them but it springs from the Confidence that we have of the Veracity of him who propounds them to our Belief and that we are assured that he will not because he cannot deceive us because he is Truth it self as whoever believes a Supreme Being must of Necessity believe Truth to be of his Essence THUS I believe the Glorious Mystery of the Trinity Three Persons but one God the Incarnation of the Son of God the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son the Resurrection of the Body and the rest of the Articles of the Christian Faith not because I dare pretend to understand them or to give a Satisfactory Reason to my self how this can be Or why it should be but I rest my self satisfied upon the assurance that he who requires me to believe it cannot deceive me nor require me to believe what is not most certainly true But God being in Heaven in that inaccessable Light of Glory and I upon Earth there must be therefore some Internuncius between us that so I may receive these Conditions of Salvation to be believed This Office was in former times committed to the Prophets Rom. 3.4 2 Tim. 3.16 2 Pet. 1.21 and God spake by them For God is only true and all Men may be Lyars and therefore all Scripture was given by Inspiration and came not at any time by the Will of Men but Holy Men of God spoak being moved by the Holy Ghost Heb. 1.1 But the great Prerogative of Christian Religion is That God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds Now these Holy Instruments whom God employed to declare his Will to Men that they might obtain Credit to their Message were assisted with power of working Miracles which were the Letters Testimonial the Credentials of Heaven in their behalf to assure the incredulous World that they were Messengers and Ambassadors from God for it is a Natural Inference which Nicodemus made even whilest he was so Unregenerate that he thought Regeneration an Impossibility Jo. 3.2 Rabbi we know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these Miracles that thou doest except God be with him This Revelation of Gods Will Confirmed to be so by Miracles Signs and Wonders when it comes to be considered and attended to will gain the Assent of the Mind and that these must needs be Truths of a Divine Extract and Original Since All their Precepts are free from any Design but the Advantage of those to whom they are proposed and to make them partakers of the Divine Nature by the practice of that Truth Innocence Justice Temperance and Purity which they do so Universally require as the Way to Happiness both in this Life and that of Celestial Glory and Immortality And these Commands Collected into a Body we call the Holy Canon of Sacred Scriptures I think I need not produce Arguments to prove those Writings to be the Word and Will of God that being a Principle so confessed that without it no Man can be called a Christian I am not now to deal with Heathens or Infidels FROM this Postulatum granted these Conclusions will Naturally follow First That Faith does not depend upon Humane Authority but upon Divine Revelation For it came not by the Will of Man but by the Will of God And therefore no Humane Authority has any power to Impose upon the Belief any thing either contrary or more than God has plainly revealed to be his Will as the Condition of our Salvation for to Command what God has not commanded as such a Condition is insufferable Pride and Insolence an Usurpation upon the Incommunicable Prerogative of him Heb. 12.2 who is the Author and the Finisher of our Faith How great then is the Impiety of those who contrary to the practice of the Universal Church for 1500 years have added the Books of Apocrypha meer Humane Writings to the Holy Canon and under pain of Damnation Impose them upon us as matters of Faith and Conditions of Salvation How Unreasonable is it to make Tradition the Foundation of Faith and of Equal value with the Holy Writings Of which Traditions there being so great Uncertainty it is very Improbable our Faith should receive any Confirmation from them For what is liable to a doubt it self is very unlikely to take away all cause of Doubting Yet this is the Faith of the Roman Church in their Vnwritten Verities SECONDLY it follows That nothing ought to be Imposed as De Fide and the Necessary Condition of Salvation but what is clearly Demonstrable to be the Will of God revealed and which all Men because all are capacitated for Salvation may easily Understand to be so And since all men have an Equal Title to Salvation upon their performance of the Conditions by God required to be believed and done therefore what Faith will Save the Unlearned will also save the Learned For God proposeth no different Methods more for the one than the other for he is no respecter of Persons Act. 10.35 but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him So that he who is Baptized Repents Lives Righteously Godly and Soberly in this present World believing the Gospel of our Lord and obeying it according to that Belief shall certainly receive the end of his Faith and hope the Salvation of his Soul For these are Truths so clearly contained in the Scripture that the meanest Capacity may understand them and perform the Conditions required Now what is necessary and sufficient for all and whatever is proposed more is Superfluous since he that believes this and no more shall certainly be saved and he that believes more shall but be saved It is