that Paganism having been banish'd out of our Land upon the false Information of our first Teachers that it was an Adoration of Devils or evil Spirits and wicked debaucht Men who by counterfeit Wonders and Cheats gained the peoples Adoration since that Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Burnet and other Reformed Writers will make it out thar the Pagans Adored no Devils but One true Omnipotent Supream God blessed for ever more which they called Jupiter and the rest of the Gods as Inferiour Deities as Papists do their Saints and will prove that the Pagans were charged by the first D. Doctors of Christanity and by all our Ancestors with more than they are guilty of why should not Paganism be restored again to the Land and heard to speak for it self and Dr. Stillingfleet and his zealous companions be Licenc'd to plead for them and for holy Jupiter so foully mis-represented by Antiquity as to be believed an Arch-Devil whom Dr. Stillingfleet will prove to have been a true blessed God for evermore That Paganism was so unjustly banish'd from our Nation if what Dr. Stillingfleet says be true he is a learned Religious and diligent searcher into Scripture the Ancient D. Drs. and Fathers of the Church reading Scripture judged and taught that Jupiter was a Devil as well as the rest of the Gods which the Gentiles Adored Dr. Stillingfleet and other Reformed D. Doctors reading Scripture judge he was no Devil but the true God blessed for evermore any Child of the Reformation may believe either of both and put Jupiter into our Litanies as well as JESUS Christ and offer Sacrifice to him as formerly our Ancestors did for whatever any Man of sound judgement judges to be the Doctrine of Scripture may be safely believed and is the Doctrine of the Reformation Here follows the Sense of Scripture as Interpreted by the Church Councils and Fathers in lieu of those fond fancies which the Protestant Preachers have possest the people with as the belief of Catholicks faithfully reported from a true zeal and affection to my Country-men that they may not plead Ignorance before the Tribunal of the Almighty in so important a concern as their Salvation to the manifest hazard of their Souls Eternity THe Catholicks teaches Pennance Mortification of the Body subjection of the Flesh to the Spirit the sensitive part to the rational by Praying Fasting Obedience Humility Poverty To Crucifie the Flesh and the Lusts thereof Gal. 5.12 Pardoning Injuries loving one another Praying for Enemies doing good to those that Persecute us Forsake all and follow Christ Mat. 19.22 suffering Persecution for Conscience sake making Vows of Chastity And out of the same Chap. v. 27 28 29. By Vowing perpetual Chastity St. Mat. 19.12 leaving the World our friends and possessions to Consecrate our selves by Prayer and the service of God to keep Lent and fasting days to observe Religious Vows St. Mat. 15.15.25 to sell all we have and give it to the Poor Tobit 12. to take up our Cross and follow Christ Tobit 1. to leave Father Mother Isai 58. Brothers Sisters and Wife St. James 5. and all things for the love of God St. Matt. 18. in fine Galib Prov. 27. that there is no way to Heaven Eccles 5. but by the way of Pennance Fasting Rom. 15. and Prayer and such like Mortifications and Austerities of the Body St. Mark. 11. St. James 2. 26. to make Restution of ill-gotten good St. John 4.16.3 v. 14. James 5.20 and Reparation for any Violations of anothers good Name or Reputation 1 St. John 3.14 to feed the Hungry give drink to the Thirsty Cloath the Naked Redeem the Captives Harbour the Harbourless Visit the Sick Bury the Dead to Correct the Obdurate Instruct the Ignorant Reduce the Wavering Comfort the Sorrowful bear wrongs patiently forgive all Injuries and to pray for the Living and the Dead as also that God shuts the Gate of Heaven against the Impenitent and that there is no Salvation without Charity but that Charity it self covers a Multitude of Sins that Charity gives Spiritual Life to the Soul that in Charity we know we are Translated from Death to Life because we love the Brethren That the good Pastor giveth his life for his Sheep St. John 10.12 As That Faith without Charity is dead St. James 2.26 And that the highest act of Charity is to give our Life for Gods Honour and the Salvation of our Neighbour these ways are not pleasing to the people nor easie to Flesh and Blood without Gods Grace If Protestants and Reformers go to Heaven with more liberty and with greater ease and pleasure we must say broad is the way and many there be that find it But if there be no Salvation without following the above-cited Doctrines as the Catholick Church teaches the Catholick is much nearer that the Protestant to the strait way and narrow Gate that leads and opens to Eternal Life There are no Doctrines mentioned here but what are contained in the Catechisms of all Roman Catholicks and that which they teach all Children and which are very wide from those Doctrines that Protestant Preachers report of them about Dispensations with Allegiance Oaths and all other Tyes how solemnly sacred soever all which are no less commonly than untruly suggested for I shall demand of such by what Councils received by the Catholick Church such Dispensations have been allowed or from what Church Tradition such pernicious Tenents have been handed I desire of Protestants to produce one for if it be any point of Faith it must have taken rise either from the Authority of some Council received in the Church or of Universal Tradition since whatever obliges all Roman Catholicks must of necessity enter into their belief or practice at one of these two doors And if these Dispensations have been taught neither by Councils nor Traditions it remains that Protestants have been gull'd by their Pastors in receiving such for Catholick doctrines which are taught no where but in Protestant Books and Pulpits For had such Dispensations been the Doctrines or Practices of Papists what folly had it appeared in Protestant Magistrates to require Oaths of them who hold themselves under no obligation to them when they have taken them and what madness had it appeared in Papists to incur the Forfeiture heretofore of their lives and late of their liberty and fortunes rather then take such Oaths with which if they had advised with the Protestant Minister they might have dispensed at pleasure Country-men read your Chronicles peruse your Statutes and Records review many of your Ancient Customs and Observances look upon the Windows of the Churches reflect upon the Names and Dedications of the same Chruches of divers days of the year of divers of your Colledges upon the Crosses every where erected upon the Multitude of Monasteries Abbies and other Religious Houses which heretofore flourished in this Kingdom and then suffer you selves to doubt
Lady our King and Queen our Empress and Emperour And if further than this we acknowledge Her to be Head of the Church of England we ought also to grant that the Emperour or any other Prince being Catholick and their Subjects Protestants are to be Heads of their Church Whereby we shall do an Act as disagreeble to the Protestants as this seems to Catholicks If you say The Supremacy consists in Spiritual concernments Then it would be considered what the Spiritual Government is and in what points it doth chiefly consist Which being first agreed upon it would be further considered of your Wisdoms whether this House may grant it to her Highness or not And whether her Highness be an apt Person to receive the same So by through Examination of these parts your Honours shall proceed in this matter groundedly upon such sure knowledge as not to be deceived by ignorance Now to the First Point wherein I promised to examine what matter of weight danger or inconvenience might be incurred by this our forsaking and flying from the Church of Rome if there were no further matter therein than the with drawing our Obedience from the Popes Person supposing that he had declar'd himself to be a very Austere and Severe Father to us then the business were not of so great importance as indeed it is as will immediately here appear For by relinquishing and forsaking the Church or See of Rome we must forsake and fly from all General Councils Secondly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of Christ Thirdly From the Judgement of all other Christian Princes Fourthly and Lastly we must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's Church and so by leaping out of Peter's Ship we hazard our selves to be overwhelmed in the waves of Schism of Sects and Divisions First Touching the General Councils I shall name unto you these Four The Nicene Council the Constantinopolitan Council the Ephesine and the Chalcedon All which are approved by all Men. Of these same Councils Saint Gregory writes in this wise Sicut enim Sancti Evangelii quatuor Libros sic haec quatuor Concilia Nicenum Constantinopolitanum Ephesium Chalcedonense suscipire ac venerari me fateor That is to say in English I confess I do receive and reverence those Four General Councils of Nice Constantinople c. even as I do the Four Holy Evangelists At the Nicene Council the first of the Four the Bishops which were there Assembled did write there Epistles to Sylvester then Bishop of Rome That their decrees then made might be confirmed by his Authority At the Council kept at Constantinople all the Bishops there were obedient to Damasus then Bishop of Rome He as cheif in the Council gave Sentence against the Hereticks Macedoneus Sabillius and Eunomius Which Eunomius was both an Arrian and the first Author of that Heresie That only Faith doth juctifie And here by the way it is much to be lamented that we the Inhabitants of this Realm are much more inclined to raise up the Errors and Sects of Ancient condemned Hereticks than to follow the True Approved Doctrine of the most Catholick and Learned Fathers of christ's-Christ's-Church At the Ephesine Council Nestorius the Heretick was condemned by Celestine the Bishop of Rome he being chief Judge there At the Chalcedon Council all the Bishops there Assembled did write their humble Submission unto Leo then Bishop of Rome wherein they did acknowledge him there to be their Chief Head Six Hundred and Thirty Bishops of them Therefore to deny the See Apostolick and its Authority were to contemn and set at nought the Authority and Decrees of those noble Councils Secondly We must forsake and fly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of Christ his Church whereunto we have already professed our Obedience at the Font saying Credo Sanctum Ecclesiam Catholicam that is I believe in the Holy Catholick Church Which Article contains That we must receive the Doctrine and Sacraments of the same Church obey her Laws and live according to the same Which Laws do depend wholly upon the Authority of the See Apostolick And like as it is there openly professed by the Judges of the Realm that the Laws agreed upon in the Higher and Lower Houses of this Honourable Parliament be of small or none effect before the Royal Assent of the King or Prince be given thereunto Even so Ecclesiastical Laws made cannot bind the Universal Church of Christ without the Royal Assent and Confirmation of the See Apostolick Thirdly We must forsake and fly from the Judgement of all other Christian Princes whether they be Protestant or Catholick Christians when none of them do agree with these our doings King Henry the VIII being the first that ever took upon him the Title of Supremacy And whereas it was of late here in this House said by a Nobleman That the Title of Supremacy is of right due to a King for that he is a King then would it follow That Herod being a King should be Supream Head of the Church at Jerusalem And Nero the Emperour Supream Head of the Church of Christ at Rome they being both Infidels and therefore no members of Christ's Church And if our Saviour Christ at his departure from this World should have left the Spiritual Government of his Church in the hands of Emperours and Kings and not to have committed the same to his Apostles how negligently then should he have left his Church It shall appear right-well by calling to mind That the Emperour Constantinus Magnus was the First Christian Emperour and was Baptized by Sylvester Bishop of Rome about Three hundred years after the Ascension of Christ Jesus If by your Proposition Constantine the first Christian Emperor was the First Head and Spiritual Governor of Christs-Church throughout his Empire then it follows That our Saviour Christ for the space of Three Hundred years unto the coming of this Constantine left his Church which he had so dearly bought by effusion of his most precious Blood without any Head at all But how untrue the saying of this Nobleman was it shall further appear by the Example of Ozia and also of King David For King Ozia did take the Censor to do Incense to the Altar of God. The Priest Azarius did resist him and expelled him out of the Temple and said unto him Non est Officii tui Ozia ut adoleas Incensum Domino sed est Sacerdotam Filiorum Aaron Ad hujusmodi enim Officium consecrati That is to say It is not thy Office Ozia to offer Incense to the Altar of God. But it is the Priests Office and the Sons of Aaron for they are Consecrated and Anointed to that Office. Now I shall most humbly demand this question When the Priest Azarius said to the King Non est Officii tui whether he said Truth or not If you answer that he spake the Truth then the King was not Supream Head of the Church of the Jews
Interpreted by Luther Calvin Willet and several others that it 's impossible to any man assisted with what Grace soever to keep the Commandments None has ever yet says our great Calvin and God has decreed none shall ever keep the Commandments Again u Harm Evang. in Luc. c. 10. verse 26. the Law and Commandments were given us to no other end but that we should be damn'd by them t Lib. 2. Instit c. 7.5 inasmuch that it is impossible for Us to do what they Command The same Doctrine is taught by Luther in several places of his Works by Willet x In Synop. Papismi pag. 564. and by our Brethren the Gomarists of Holland and many of our French Synods Believe which you please both Doctrines are of the Reformation It is also the Doctrine of Luther and Calvin that God does not cast Men into Hell because their sins deserve it nor save Men because they merit it but meerly because he will have it so He crowns those who have not deserved it says Luther y Lib. de Servo Arbit cont Erasm 2. Lib. 3. Inst c. 21. sect 5. 7. c. 22. sect 11. cap. 13.1 and he punishes those who have not deserved it 't is Gods Wrath and Severity to damn the one 't is Gods Grace and Mercy to save the other Calvin also z Men are damn'd for no other cause but because God will have it so he is the cause and Author of their Damnation their Damnation is decreed by God when they are in their Mothers Womb because he will have it so this is also the belief of our Gomarists in Holland of many French Churches and of several learned Calvinists though the Church of England denies this Doctrine none will dare say it is not the Doctrine of the Reformation because it is Scripture as Interpreted by such eminent men of our Church The Church of England understands by Scripture that God is not the Author nor cause of sin that does not force us to sin who doubts but that this is therefore the Doctrine of the Reformation But Calvin Brentius Beza and several others understand by Scripture that God is the cause and Author which forces our Will to Sin That Man and the Devil are but Gods Instruments to commit it That Murthers Incests Blasphemies c. are the Works of God that he makes us commit them And who doubts but this also is the Doctrine of the Reformation being Scripture as Interpreted by such eminent and sound judgement God says Calvin a Lib. 2. Inst c. 4. sect 3. lib. 1. c. 18. sect 2. lib. c. 23. sect 4. Lo. 1. de deprovid c. 6. in Synops pag. 563. In manifest stratag Papist directs moves inclines and forces the Will of man to sin insomuch that the power and efficacy of Working is wholly in him Man nay and Satan when he impells us being only Gods Instruments which he uses to make us sin Zuinglius Willet Beza teach the same The Church of England has Scripture for her Rule of Faith and gives us the liberty to Interpret Understand and Believe some Text of it as each one thinks best and so permits Presbyterians to deny Episcopacy Lutherans to deny Figurative Presence c. and confesses they are all her Brethren of the Reformation but she will give no liberty at all to Interpret other Texts but all must understand them as she does or all must be Hereticks and damn'd Men No that Text My Father and I are one must be Interpreted to signifie the Unity and Nature of the Father and Son as the Church of England believes none must interpret it otherwise So that the difference betwixt the Popish Church and that of England is the first gives us no Liberty at all the second gives us some Liberty the first robs us of all the second but of one half The Rule of Faith in Popery is Scripture as Interpreted by the Pope and Councils the Rule of Faith in the Church of England as to some Articles is Scripture as Interpreted by the Church of England and as to other Articles Scripture as each person of sound judgement understands it and thus Protestants are but half Papists and half Reformed Let any unbyass'd and impartial man judge if the Church of England proceeds justly in this For if our Rule of Faith be Scripture as each person of sound judgement understands it and if as the whole Reformation believes we are not to be constrained to believe any Church Council or mans sense of Scripture if we do not judge by the Word of God it 's true by what Authority Rule or Reason can the Church of England give me Liberty to understand and believe some Texts as I please and deny me Liberty to understand and believe others as I judge by Scripture they ought to be understood I pray observe well this Discourse here are Luther Calvin Beza Zuinglius and our other first Reformers they Interpret some Texts against the Doctrine of the Church of England They are praised for the first and esteemed Apostolical Reformers because without any regard of what the Church of Rome said they freely taught and believed what they judged by Scripture to be true why must not they be praised and esteemed true Reformers also for not regarding what the Church of England or any other says but teach the impossibility of Gods Commandments the sufficiency of Faith alone and all those other Tenets which you much mislike since they judge by Scripture such to be true Doctrine Are they bound to submit their judgements to the Church of England more than to that of Rome The Veneration and use of the Sign of the Cross is flat Popery in the judgement of all our Congregations yet any Reformed Child may laudably and piously use it inasmuch as our Common Prayer in the Administration of Baptism Commands the Minister to use it saying We sign him with the sign of the Cross in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Chrst Crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil And in our Kalender printed since his Majesties Restauration it is called the Holy Cross Our Congregations generally believe it is Popery to keep Holy-days except the Sabbath-day and Saints-day to Fast Lent Vigils commanded Ember-days and Fridays and yet all this is recommended to us in our Common-Prayer-Book and the Minister is commanded in the Administration of the Lords Supper to publish the Holy-days of the Week and exhort us to Fast and surely he is not commanded to teach or exhort us to any thing but the Doctrine of the Reformation It is true the Students of our Colledges of Oxford and Cambridge are much troubled with scruples in this point these Pauperes de Lugduno are compelled to fast all Fridays throughout the year and it is not hunger that makes them complain but tenderness of Conscience because they fear
be proposed but much more how they ever came to be received in the World For what can be more ignorantly Blasphemous than to say God raised up Men to restore his Church who yet could by no means Agree among themselves in matters of Faith as hereafter will appear and whose Followers do at this day pursue each other with Excommunications and Anathema's If Calvin was the Messenger of God then was Luther a Sacrilegious Impostor if the Church of England be Orthodox then were Luther and Calvin both Impostors and if any other of the Reformers were in the right the Church of England is in the wrong Which then of the Dissenting Protestants Doctrin shall we say was the belief of the Primitive Church Were all these at once the Primitive Faith. or was some one Denomination of Protestants the primitive Believers and those of all other Denominations in the wrong It being impossible as I have proved that the True Faith should ever be Invisble at any time if therefore Protestancy had ever been professed it could never have been totally extinguish'd Though most certain it is that no footsteeps of any of the Reformers Principles were known for almost 1500 years in the Christian World except in some Heresies condemned in several Ages of the Church which do indeed much resemble the Innovations of our Modern Reformers as their Doctrine of the Sacrament in the Heresie of Berengarius of Invocation of Saints in the Heresie of Vigilantius of Prayer for the Dead in Aerius of Images in Xenias and the Iconaclasts of Confession in the Novatianus their practice of no mingled Chalice in the Heresie of the Armenians and of Priests Marriages in Jovinian as Luthers Marrying a Nun borrowed from Marcions corrupting a Virgin and to add no more their Famous Naggshead Consecration copied from Novatus that was made a Bishop in a Tavern and deposed by Cornelius And now for the Church of England she must ever stand or fall on her own Bottom having so notoriously condemned all other parts of the Reformation That the Lutherans are condemn'd by the Church of England every body knows and that the Calvinists are so too I will in one word plainly shew A Protestant Parson that comes from France from Holland or Geneva to be Beneficed in England cannot be admitted to Preach nor Administer the Sacraments after the Rites of the English Church till he has renounced that Mission he had before and taken new Orders according to the form of the Church of England which to all Men of sense implies that the Church of England does assuredly believe the Calvinist Teachers are false Imposters that they have no Mission no Authority no Ordination and by consequence no Sacraments being in their conceits purely Lay-men From hence I take the liberty to ask the Doctors of the English Church how they can in honour and conscience call them their Brethren as they do of the Reformation from whom they have seperated at so great a distance as to reject all their Ordinations at once as null and void and how they can suffer the French and Dutch Hugonots to have Churches and free exercise of their Religion here and some of them also the Church of Englands Liturgy at the same time as they believe them neither to have Priesthood nor Sacraments and by consequence no such thing as a Church at all Seeing then the Church of England look on themselves as the only Church of the Refonmation it follows that she must accordingly prove her self the true Church and shew how that Sum of Christian Doctrin which she now holds has been constantly held in all past Ages of the Church which I am sure all the English Doctors in the World will not make out nay I think they do not so much as pretend to For to end all Controversies let them shew but one Service-Book in all the 1500 years before Luther in any one vulgar Tongue which agreeth with their Service Book and for that one Book sake we will submit the cause no they say contrariwise that for about 1000 years Popish Superstition was the only Religion known in the World Which Superstition as they call it I shall now endeavour to prove to be that true Religion which has been from our Saviours time and which must Infallibly last to the end of the World. The Arguments by which I have briefly and I hope evidently shewn that the Protestant Church neither single nor aggregate can be the true Church do at the same time as evidently prove the Church of Rome to be so For as the Protestant Churches want of Antiquity their not having been from the beginning of Christianity nor Visible till within 200 years proves them not to be the Catholick Church so the Antiquity of the Church of Rome her having been from the beginning and continuing still Visible by propagating the Gospel and Administring the Sacraments in all Ages since Christ does as plainly evince her to be the only true Church the spouse of Christ and Pillar of Truth I demand has not this Church in all Ages had a visible Succession of Bishops a settled Government with a visible Head from St. Peter to this very day Has not this been the only Church that has duly planted the Faith and as duly suppressed Heresie and Schism Is not this the Church that has held all General Councils and has not the Bishop of Rome Presided in the four First seemingly allowed of by the Church of England Is not this the only Church that has sent Apostles and Missionaries out to plant the Gospel in all the Infidel corners of the Earth and from whence England first received the Christian Faith Is there any other Church that can pretend to have been assisted by God Almighty in the working of Miracles and in the Conversion of Nations What other Church can shew an Army of Martyrs and Confessors a number of Men that lead most Holy and Austere Lives forsaking the World to follow Christ What other Church in the World can pretend either to Unity or Universality to be every where the same and to have all her Children at perfect Agreement in matters of Faith and Doctrine for the disputes of Catholicks are about matters not defin'd and so controvertable but never about a Doctrine that has been once determined in a General Council These are the Marks and essential ones of the true Church but these agree to no other Church but that of Rome the Church of Rome is therefore the only Church Whatever the Grecian or the Abyssine Churches have to say in answer to this which does not much concern us sure I am the Church of England has nothing plausible to excuse her Schism and Rebellion against her Mother Church and under whose subjection she has been bred and maintained for many Ages in the World. Every one knows and no Church of England Man can deny that this National Church was in all Ages subject to and a part of the Western
Church and that the Bishop of Rome is Patriarch of the West is acknowledged by King James and T. Bishop of Winchester Now for a part to set up against the whole for a few Bishops of one National Church to Reform the Church of all Nations and for a National Synod to condemn all the General Councils at once is what all the Learning in the World can not justifie I would fain know why bâ— the same reason might not the Metropolitan of York Reform the National Church of England if he should pretend gross intollerable errours or the Diocesan of Carlile Reform the Metropolitan of York on the same score and any single Presbyteâ— again his Diocesan of Carlisles which indeed happen'd in the fundamental Reformation when Luther first Revolved and though but a single Presbyter yet took up on him boldly to Reform not only his own Superiour or Diocesan but even no less than the five Proto-Patriarchs at once The Church of Christ is surely an Established Government with power sufficient to chastise her Rebellious Subjects and certainly our Saviour never meant that every Presbyter should be Independent or that ever Bishop should be so or that every Province should be so nor that any Rational Church should be independent of the Whole For our Saviour expresses himself clearly that all his Sheep should be fed by one visible Head that all the Christians in the whole world should be subject to one Law and he gave sufficient Authority for the putting of it in execution If any private Gentleman here in England should declare he found gross intolerable Errours in the Government that he absolutely disliked Monarchy and should stir up a Party in the Nation to a Rebellion against the King. Suppose a Peer should do so or suppose a Province as for Instance that of Kent should pretend to discover these Errours and Revoult from their Sovereign what think you would not that Gentleman that Peer or that Province deservedly fall under the punishment of the Law and be thought by all the World guilty of Treason The Aplication is obvious and I defie any Man living to shew the disparity for the National Church of England was at least as much and as unavoidably subject to the Western Patriach Church as any one Province of England to the Laws of the whole Kingdom I never yet saw this objection answer'd nor any plausible reason given for the Grounds and Motives of the English Reformation And indeed the Schism is so obvious the Defection so apparently inexcusable and the Motives that induc'd Henry the VIII and those that prevailed with Edward thee VI. and Q. Eliz. so notoriously scandalous as Blood Divorce Perjury Sacriledge the maintainance of an Usurped Title that it seemeth to me little less than a Miracle how considering Men who have regard to their Eternal wellfare should be able to persuade themselves into a Belief that they may safely venture in the Communion of a Church sprung out of the Ruins of Churches and Religious Houses begun with the Divorce of Queen Catherine reveled with the Blood of Mary Queen of Scots made an Engine of state to support the Precatious Title of an Usurper and which has continued ever since in force by vertue of Sanguinary Penal Laws This subject has given occasion and vent to many Volumes and I might easily have extended it to a far greater length but I hope the Brevity will recommend it to the Perusal of all those who will not lose themselves and the Question in reading prolix Discourses I hope the old way of Answering will be no more taken up by Protestants to confute this or any Paper of the same Nature For when they can find no Reasons nor Arguments that may pass with Discerning Men to justifie the defection of the English Church or satisfie the people that the Roman is not the Catholick Church they still fly from the point in hand into Harangues and Rhetorical Digressions falling foul on some Doctrine of the Romish Church which they endeavour with Tropes and figures to paint out in the colours of Idolatry and Superstition Thus when hard pressed with the Sin of Schism and not able to justifie their Seperation they fall a railing at Transubstantiation Purgatory c. I would caution every Man that searches after Truth not to be put of with this Sophistry If the English Church can not shew Persuasive Arguments for her deserting her Mother the Church of Rome she fails in what is expected from her 'T is enough to fall foul on particular Doctrines she ought to shew that no subjection was due from her to the Western Patriarchal Church In treating of particular Controversies as Purgatory c. the Roman Church is very well able to satisfie all reasonable and impartial Men but she knows 't is the trick of Protestant Writers to wheedle Men into the Labyrinth of Controversial points and then dezle their eyes with fine words and elaborate Expressions I will Insert a Speech made in Parliament against Supreme Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Authority granted to Queen Elizabeth The Person that spake it was Nicholas Heath who was first Bishop of Worcester and Lord President of Wales Afterwards Arch-bishop of York and Embassador into Germany And made Lord Chancellor of England by Queen Mary in the year of our Lord 1555 and continued until he did surrender it up in Queen Elizabeth's time to Sir Nicholas Bacon The Person from whom I had this Speech is yet living who told me That he found it in Manuscript amongst Papers and Notes of his great Grandfather George Parrey who had been High Sheriff of Hereford-shire in the second year of the said Queen A Speech Made in the Vpper House of Parliament against the Supemacy to be in Her Majesty by Nicholas Heath Lord Chancellour of England in the first year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth above an 100 years fince In the Original Copy it is stiled A Tale told in Parliament For Oaths the Land shall be Cloathed in Mourning My LORDS WIth all humble submission of my whole Discourse to your Wisdoms I purpose to speak to the Body of this Act touching the Supremacy that so what this Honourable Assembly is now adoing concerning the passing of this Act may thereby be better weighed and considered by your Wisdoms First When by the Virtue of this Act of Supremacy we must forsake and fly from the See of Rome it would be considered what matter lies therein and what matter of danger or inconvenience or else whether there be none at all Secondly If the intent of this Act be to grant or settle upon the Queens Majesty a Supremacy it would be considered of your Wisdoms what this Supremacy is and whether it doth consist in Spiritual Government or Temporal If in Temporal what further Authority can this House give Her more than what She already hath by right of Inheritance And not by your Gift but by the Appointment of God Being our Sovereign Lord and
If you shall say No Why did God plague the King with Leprosie and not the Priest The Priest Azarias in resisting the King and thrusting him out of the Temple in so doing did the Priest play the faithful part of a Subject or no if you answer No why then did God spare the Priest and not spare the King If you answer Yea then it is most manifest Ozia in that he was a King could not be Supream Head of the Church And therefore King David did go before the Ark of God with his Harp making Melody and placed himself amongst the Minstrels and humbly did abase himself being a King as to dance and leap before the Ark of God like as his other Subjects did Insomuch as his Queen Michol King Saul's Daughter beholding and seeing this great Humility of King David did disdain thereat Whereunto King David making answer said Ludam vilior siam plùs quà m factus sûm c. That is I will dance and abase my self more than yet I have done and abjecting my self in mine own eyes I shall appear more glorious with those Handmaids that you talk of I will play here before my Lord which hath chosen me rather than thy Fathers House And whereas Queen Michol was therefore plagued at God's hand with perpetual Sterility and Barrenness King David received a great praise for his Humility Now may it please your Honours to consider which of both these Kings Examples shall be most convenient for your Wisdoms to make the Queens Majesty to follow whether the Example of Proud Ozia moving Her by your perswasions and Councils to take upon her spiritual Government and thereby exposing her Soul to be plagued at the hand of God as King Ozia was or else to follow the Example of the good King David which in refusal of all Spiritual Government about the Ark of God did humble himself as I have declared unto you Whereunto our Sovereign Lady the Queens Highness of Her own nature being well inclined we may assure ourselves to have of Her as Humble as Virtuous and as Godly a Mistress to Reign over us as ever had English People here in this Realm if that her Highness be not by your Flattery and Dissimulation seduced and beguiled Fourthly and Lastly We must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of christ's-Christ's-Church Seeing that St. Cyprian that Holy Martyr and great Clerk doth say that the Unity of the Church of Christ doth depend upon Peter's Authority and his Successors Therefore by leaping out of Peter's Ship we must be overwhelmed with the Waves of Schisms of Sects and Divisions Because the same Holy Martyr in his Third Epistle to Cornelius testifies That all Heresies Sects and Schisms do spring only from hence that Men will not be obedient to the Head Bishop of God. And how true this saying of St. Cyprian is we may see it most apparent to all Men that list to see both by the Example of the Germans and by us the Inhabitants of this Realm of England And by this our forsaking and flying from the Unity of the Church of Rome this inconveniency amongst many we must grant the Church of Rome to be the True Church of God where Jesus Christ is truly taught and his Sacraments rightly Administred how can we disburthen our selves of our forsaking and flying from that Church which we do confess and acknowledge to be of God we ought to be One and not to admit of any Separation If you Answer the Church of Rome is not of God but a Malignant Church then it will follow that we the Inhabitants of this Realm have not as yet received any Benefit of Christ seeing we have received no Gospel or other Doctrine nor no other Sacrament but that which was sent unto us from he Church of Rome First in King Lucius his days at whose humble Epistle the Holy Martyr Elutherius then Bishop of Rome did send into this Realm two Holy Monks Fugatius and Damianus by whose Doctrine and Preaching we were first brought to the knowledge of the Faith of Jesus Christ of his Holy Gospel and his most Holy Sacraments Then Secondly Holy St. Gregory being Bishop of Rome did send into this Realm two other Holy Monks St. Austin called the Apostle of England and Milletus to receive the very self same Faith that had been before planted here in this Realm in the days of King Lucius Thirdly and Last of all Paulus Tertius being Bishop of Rome did send hither the Lord Cardinal Pool his Grace by Birth a Nobleman of this Land his Legate to restore us unto the same Faith which the Martyr St. Elutherius and St. Gregory had Planted here many years before If therefore the Church of Rome be not of God but a false and Malignant Church then have we been deceived all this while seeing the Gospel the Doctrine Faith and Sacraments must be of the same nature as that Church is from whence it and they came and therefore in relinquishing and forsaking that Church the Inhabitants of this Realm shall be forced to seek further for another Gospel of Christ other Doctrine other Faith and Sacraments than we have hitherto received Which will breed such a Schism and Error in Faith as was never in any Christian Realm And therefore of your Wisdoms worthy of Consideration and maturely to be ponder'd and be provided for before you pass this Act of Supremacy Thus much touching the First chief Point Now to the Second Deliberation wherein I promised to move your Honours to consider What this Supremacy is which we go about by vertue of this Act to give unto the Queen and wherein it doth consist whether in Spiritual Government or Temporal But if Spiritual as these words in the Act do import Supream Head of the Church of England immediately and next unto God Then it would be considered in what Points this Spiritual Government doth consist and the Points being well known it would be considered Whether this House hath Authority to grant them and her Highness Ability to receive them And as concerning the Points wherein Spiritual Government doth consist I have in reading the Gospel and the whole course of Divinity thereupon as to my Vocation belongeth observed these Four as chief among many others whereof the first is The power to loose and bind sins When our Saviour in ordaining Peter to be Chief and Head-Governour of his Church said unto him Tibi dabo Claves Regni Coelorum c. That is To thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Now it would be considered by your Wisdoms whether you have sufficient Authority to grant unto her Majesty this first Point of Spiritual Government and to say unto Her Tibi dabimus c. To Thee will we give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven If you say Yea then do we require the sight of Warrant and Commission by the Virtue of God's Word And if you say No then you may be well
assured and persuade your selves that you have not sufficient Authority to make her Highness Supream Head of the Church of Christ here in this Realm The Second Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of these words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 20th Chapter of St. John's Gospel Pasce Pasce Pasce That is Feed my Lambs feed my Lambs feed my Sheep Now whether your Honours have Authority by this Court of Parliament to say unto our Sovereign Lady Pasce Pasce c. That is to say Feed you the flock of Christ you must shew your Warrant and Commission for it An further it is evident that Her Majesty being a Woman by Birth and Nature is not qualified by Gods word to feed the Flock of Christ appears most plainly by St. Paul in this wise Taceant Mulieres in Ecclesus sicut lex dicit Let Women be silent in the Church for it is not Lawful for them to speak but to be in subjection as the Law saith And it followeth in the same place Turpe est enim Mulieris loqui in Ecclesiâ that is for that it is not seemly for a Woman to speak in the Church And in his Second Epistle to Timothy Dominari in virum sed esse silentes that is to say I allow not that a Woman be a Teacher or to be above her Husband but to keep her self in silence Therefore it appears likewise as your Honours have not Authority to give her Highness this second Point of Spiritual Government to feed the Flock of Christ So by St. Pauls Doctrine her Higness may not intermeddle her self with the same And therefore She cannot be Supream Head of the Church here in England The Third chief Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of those words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 22th Chapter of St. Lukes Gospel Ego rogavi pro To ut non deficiat fides Tua Tu aliquando conversus confirma fratres Tuos That is I Prayed for Thee that thy Faith shall not fail and thou being converted Confirm thy Brethren and ratifie them in wholesome Doctrine and Administration of the Sacraments which are the Holy Instruments of God so Instituted and Ordained for our Sanctification that without them his Grace is not to be received But to Preach or to administer the Sacraments a Woman may not be admitted to do neither may she be Supream of Christ's Church The Fourth and Last chief point of Spiritual Government which I promised to Note unto you doth consist in Excommunication and Spiritual Punishment of all such as shall approve themselves not to be the Obedient Children of Christ's Church Of which Authority our Saviour Christ speaks in St. Matthew's Gospel in the 18th Chapter saying If your Brother offending will not hear your charitable admonition whether secretly at first or yet before one or two Witnesses then we must complain of him to the Church and If he will not hear the Church let him be taken as an Heathen or Publican So the Apostle did Excommunicate the notorious Fornicator that was amongst the Corinthians and by the Authority of his Apostleship unto which Apostles Christ Ascending into Heaven did leave the whole Spiritual Government of his Church as it appears by those plain words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians Chap. 4th saying Ipse dedit Ecclesiae suae c. He hath given to his Church some to be Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Doctors for consummation of the Saints to the work of the Ministry for edifying of the Body of Christ But a Woman in the degrees of the Church is not called to be an Apostle nor Evangelist nor to be a Pastor as much to say a Shepheard nor a Doctor or a Preacher Therefore she cannot be Supream Head of Christ's Militant Church nor yet of any part thereof For this high Government God hath appointed only to the Bishops and Pastors of his People as St. Paul plainly witnesseth in these words in the 20th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles saying Attendite vohis universo gregi c. And thus much I have here said right Honourable and my very good Lords against this Act of Supremacy for the discharge of my poor Conscience and for the Love and Fear and Dread that I chiefly owe unto God to my Sovereign Lord and Lady the Queens Majesties Highness and to your Honors All. Where otherwise without mature consideration of all these Premises your Honors shall never be able to shew your faces before your enemies in this matter being so strange a spectacle and example in Christ's Church as in this Realm is only to be found and in no other Christan Realm Thus humbly beseeching your Honors to take in good part this my rude and plain Speech which here I have used out of much Zeal and fervent good will And now I shall not trouble your Honors any longer Thus at to this Speech But notwithstanding this Speech or whatever else could be said against it the Act passed and this Supremacy was granted to the Queen A further Prosecution of the Settlement of this Change of Religion Established by Parliament and of the Opposition of the Catholick Clergy against this strange Innovation By which my dear Country-men may see as is prov'd by their own Histories how you are seduced into Erronious Religions endangering thereby no less than their Salvation Dr. Heylyn pag. 108. NOw for the better exercising and enjoying the Jurisdiction thus acknowledged in the Crown there was this Clause put into the Act That it should be Lawfull for the Queen to give Power to such as she thought fit to exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and to vist reform redress order correct and amend all kind of Errors Heresies Schisms c. With this Proviso notwithstanding that nothing should from henceforth be accounted Heresie but what was so adjudged the Holy Scripture or in one of the four four General Councils or in any other National or Provincial Council determining according to the word of God or finally which should be adjudg'd for the time to come by the Court of Parliament This was the first Foundation of the High-Commission Court And from hence issued that commission by which the Queens ministers proceeded in that visitation in the first year of her Reign for rectifying all such things as they found amiss There also pass'd another Act for recommending and imposing the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of Sacraments according to such Alterations and Corrections as were made therein by those that were appointed to review it In performance of which service there was great care taken to expunge out of all such passages in it as might give an Scandal or Offence to the Papists or be urg'd by them in excuse for their not coming to Church In the Litany first made and published by King Henry the Eighth and afterwards continued in the two
Liturgies of King Edward the sixth there was a Prayer to the deliver'd from the Tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the Bishop of Rome which was thought fit to be left out as giving matter of Scandal and dissatisfaction to all that Party In the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sacrament of our Lord's Body was deliver'd with this Benediction that is to say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for the Preservation of thy Body and Soul to Life Everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Which being thought by Calvin and his Disciples to give some countenance to the Carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament which pass'd by the name of Transubstantiation in the Schools of Rome was altered into this Form into the second Liturgy that is to say Take and Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith with Thanksgiving take and drink this c. But the Revisors of the Book joyn'd both Forms together lest under colour of rejecting a Carnal they might be though also to deny a real presence as was defended in the Writings of the Antient Fathers Upon which ground they expunged also a whole Rubrick at the end of the Communion Service By which it was declar'd That kneeling at the Communion was required for to other reason than for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledgment of the Benefits of Christ given therein unto the worthy Receiver and to avoid that Prophanation and Disorder which otherwise might have ensued And not for giving any Adoration to the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily receiv'd or in regard of any Real or Essential Presence of Christ's Body and Blood. This Rubrick is again lately inserted And to come up closer to those of the Church of Rome it was order'd by the Queens Injunctions That the Sacramental Bread which the Book requir'd only to be made or the sinest Flower should be made round in the fashion of the Waters used in tâ—e time of Queen Mary She also Order'd that the Lord's Table should be placed where the Altar stood and that the accustom'd Reverence should be made at the Name of Jesus Musick retain'd in the Church and all the other Festivals observ'd with their several Eves By which compliances and the expunging of the passages before mentioned the Book was made more plausible And that it might pass the better in both Houses when it came to the Vote it was thought requisite That a Disputation should be held about some Points which were most likely to be keked at Two speeches were made against this Book in the House of Peers by Scot and Feckenham and one against the Queens Supremacy by the Archbishop of York But they prevail'd little in both Points by the Power of their Eloquence In the Convocation which accompained this present Parliament there was little done because they despaired of doing any good to Themselves or their Cause The chief thing they did was a Declaration of their Judgments in some certain Points Which at that time were conceiv'd fit to be commended to the sight of the Parliament that is to say First That the Sacrament of the Altar by vertue of Christ's Assistance after the words of Consecration are duly pronounced by the Priest the Natural Body of Christ conceiv'd of the Virgin Mary is really present under the species of Bread and Wine As also his Natural Blood. Secondly That after the Consecration there remains not the Substance of Bread and Wine nor any Substance but the Substance of God and Man. Thirdly That the true Body of Christ and his Blood is offer'd for a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead Fourthly That the Supream Power of Feeding and Governing the Militant Church of Christ and of Confirming their Brethren is given to Peter the Apostle and to his lawful Successors in the See Apostolick as unto the Vicar of Christ Fifthly That the Authority to handle and define such things as belong to Faith the Sacraments and Ecclesiastical Discipline hath hitherto ever belonged and only ought to belong unto the Pastors of the Church whom the Holy Spirit hath placed in the Church and not unto Lay-men These Articles they caused to be Engrossed and so commended them to the Care and Consideration of the Higher House presented by Boner to the Hands of the Lord Keeper Bacon by whom they were candidly receiv'd But they prevail'd no further with the Queen or House of Peers when imparted to them than that possibly they might help forwards the afore-mention'd Disputation It was on the four and twentieth of June that the Publick Liturgy was to be officiated in all the Churches of the Kingdom In the performance of which service the Bishops giving no encouragement and many of the Clergy being backward in it it was thought fit to put them to a Final Jest and either to bring them to Conformity or to bestow their Places and Preferments on more tractable Persons The Bishops at that time were reduced into a narrow number than at any other time before there being no more than fifteen of that sacred Order left These being call'd by certain of the Lords of the Council were requir'd to take the Oath of Supremacy Kitchen of Landaff only takes it Who having formerly submitted to every Change resolv'd to shew himself no Changling in not conforming to the pleasures of the Higher Powers By all the rest it was refus'd Whereupon they were depriv'd of their Bishopricks The Bishops being thus put out the Oath is tendred next to the Deans and Chapters and lastly to the rural Clergy Thus Dr. Heylyn It is here to be noted That during the fore-mentioned Convocation there came from both the Universities a Writing sign'd by a publick Notary by which they both signified their concurrence to the aforesaid Articles only with a little alteration of the last But these Declarations and Protestations of the whole Representative Clergy and Universities were not like to signifie much since a Change of Religion was absolutely resolv'd on An account of the Years in which these Changes in Religion were made IN her First year she being resolv'd upon an Alteration of Religion as knowing well that her Legitimation and the Pope's Supremacy could not stand together called a Parliament which totally complied with her Designs in order to such a Change. But the Convocation of the Clergy which accompanied this Parliament totally oppos'd it And thereupon were depriv'd of their Ecclesiastical Benefices a company of Ignorant and Illiterate Men being Substituted in their places Which gave occasion to the Calvinists or Presbyterians to obtain great Ecclesiastical Preferments here By which they have continually laboured to supplant and undermine the Church of England It was the Second year of her Reign before any Protestant Bishops were elected The main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees so long vacant was that in the mean time the best Flowers might be
culled out of them Aid this year was sent to assist the Rebels in Scotland against their Lawful Queen The Presbyterians seeing Episcopal Government settled begin to play their Game The Bishops being thus settled begin the next year to make Laws and to compose Articles of Religion and to exact a Conformity to them Upon which they find great opposition from the Presbyterians In her fourth year she was solicited by Pope Pius to send her Orators to the Council of Trent which she refus'd to do The Emperour also writ to her to desist from these Alterations of Religion and to return to the Antient Catholick Faith of her Predecessors In her fifth year the Articles of Religion were agreed on in the Convocation In her sixth year she would have Married the Earl of Leicester to the Queen of Scots Calvin dies this year and Cartwright the great promoter of Presbytery retires out of England upon a discontent to Geneva In her seventh year the Calvinists began first to be called Puritans Dr. Heylyn In her eighth year the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops was Confirm'd And for this we are beholding to Boner the late Bishop of London Who being call'd up to take the Oath of Supremacy by Horn of Winton refus'd to take the Oath upon this account because Horn's Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land. Which the insisted upon because the Ordinal Establish'd in the Reign of King Edward the VI. by which both Horn and all the rest of Queen Elizabeths Bishops received Consecration had been Repealed by Queen Mary and not restor'd by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign which being first declar'd by Parliament in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus Omissus or rather that the Ordinal was look'd upon as a part of the Liturgy confirm'd in the First year of this Queen They next Enacted and Ordain'd That all such Bishops as were Consecrated by it in time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Consecrated Baker In her Eleventh year there arose a Sect openly condemning the receiv'd Discipline of the Church of England together with the Church Liturgy and the very Calling of Bishops This Sect so mightily encreas'd that in the Sixteenth year of her Reign the Queen and Kingdom was extreamly troubled with them In the same Sixteenth year were taken at Mass in their several Houses the Lord Morley's Lady and her Children the Lady Gilford and the Lady Brown Who being thereof Endicted and Convicted suffer'd the Penalties of the Laws In her Twentieth year the severe Laws against Roman Catholicks were Enacted In her Twenty third year a Proclamation was set forth That whosoever had any Children beyond Sea should by a certain day call them home and that no Person should harbour any Seminary Priest or Jesuit At this time also there arose up in Holland a certain Sect naming themselves The Family of Love. In a Parliament held the 26th year of her Reign the Puritan Party labour'd to have Laws made in order to the destroying of the Church of England and the setting up of their own Sect. In her Twenty eighth year the Queen gave a special Charge to Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury to settle an Uniformity in the Ecclesiastical Discipline which lay now almost a gasping And at this time the Sect of Brownists deriv'd from one Robert Brown did much oppose the Church of England In her One and Thirtieth year the Puritan-Flames broke forth again In her Thirty sixth year the Severity of the Laws were Executed upon Henry Barrow and the Sectaries for condemning the Church of England as no Christian Church Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here is an End of this Work. Wherein I hope there is full satisfaction given concerning the Alterations of Religion which have been made by Publick Authority in the Reigns of these Kings and Queens With a sufficient discovery of the Actings of the Presbyterians in this Nation and the ground of multiplying other Sects Here ends of Historical Collections Gentlemen of the Reformation this following Discourse I assure you is not intended to make any Reflection upon your Tenets but meerly out of zeal to your good and desiring the Almighty to give you his Grace not to be deluded by the Principles of the first promoters of the Reformation For it may well be that every one of you does not know the Principles of those first Authors of the Reformation therefore out of Charity and zeal to you and the good of your Souls I declare them here The Preface to the Children of the Reformation BE not concern'd to know whose Hand it is which holds the Link but follow the Light it gives directing you to a view of the Principles upon which the Reformation supports it self asserting a Holy Liberty to each Person and to act as he pleases with a safe Conscience according to the Principles of our Reformation to grant any humane Power can oblige our Consciences against our Judgements in matters of Religion is but an imaginary Remedy for a real Evil. Our common Reformation is cemented and was first rais'd upon this Holy Liberty that every one should read Scripture Interpret it for himself and believe what he though was the true Sense of it without any compulsion or constraint and not to believe either Church State Vniversity or Doctors if he did not judge by Scripture his Doctrine was true Considering the Infancy of the Reformation our blessed Reformers taking to themselves and giving to others this Holy Liberty for to Teach and Believe whatever they judg'd to be the Doctrine and true Sense of Scripture though it should be against the received Opinion of the Councils Church Vniversities and Doctors Look into the Reign of Edward the VI. then did our Reformation flourish in England and was miraculously propogated by the Liberty of Martin Bucer Cranmer Ochinus Peter Martyr and others in teaching Calvinism Lutheranism Zuinglianism by Scripture as every one understood it Descend to the Reign of Queen Mary then the light of the Gospel was ecclipsed in the sense of the Reformers because the flock was again Popishly compell'd to believe not what every one judg'd by Scripture to be true but what the Church judg'd was such Come down a step lower to Queen Elizabeth's time then the flock recovering their holy Liberty to believe what each one though was the Doctrine of Scripture the Reformation gain'd ground and our Protestancy was establish'd the Religion of the Land which others were not totally suppress'd Step down a degree lower to King James his time the Reformation held its course because their Consciences were not oppress'd Look down a step lower to King Charles the I's Reign His Majesty carried with a Godly Zeal of restraining the diversity of Opinions would by new Laws and Ordinances force the flock to an Uniformity of Doctrine then those of the Reformation pleaded for the Evangelical Liberty to believe nothing nor use any Rites or Ceremonies but
Jesus Christ the Son of God who establisht the Church that this is the Doctrine of our Reformation is apparent for it is Scripture as Interpreted by Ochinius a Man of sound judgement whom all Italy could not match says Calvin In whose presence England was happy and unhappy in his absence says B. Bale Ochinus speaks thus a In Prefat Dialog Considering how the Church was establisht by Christ and washt with his Blood and considering again how it was utterly overthrown by the Papacy I concluded that he who establisht it could not be Christ the Son of God because he wanted providence and upon this reflection he renounced Christ and became a Jew And no man can say but that he acted and behaved himself like a true Child of the Reformation in so doing for he followed Scripture as he understood it and as he was a true Reformed Child in forsaking Popery because he understood by Scripture that the Reformation was better so since he understood by reading Scripture more that Judaism was better than the Reformation he acted like a good Reformer in chusing that which he understood by Scripture to be best this is the Reformers Rule of Faith. And if one chuse to believe that there is a Church establisht of Earth by Christ you must beware never to persuade your self we are bound to believe her Doctrine or live in her if you do not judge by Scripture that she teaches the Doctrine of Christ This is the most essential point of Popery an obligation of submitting our judgements to the Church and believing her Doctrine without any more examining and in this the Church of England is much like the Popish Church which by Acts of Parliaments and other severities would oblige all men to believe her Doctrine Rites and Ceremonies No God has given us Scripture for our Rule of Faith as we forsook the Popish Church because we discovered by Scripture her many errours in Doctrine so we are not bound to believe the Doctrine of any other Church but as we find by Scripture her Doctrine is true Do and speak as Luther to 1. Edit Jen. in result I will be free and will not submit to the Authority of Councils Popes Church or University to the contrary I will confidently teach whatever I judge to be true whether it be the Catholick Doctrin or Heretical condemned or approved Must I own and believe that the Doctrin of Jesus Christ delivered to his Apostles and the Church is true Doctrine The Reformation teaches it is and you may safely believe it You may as safely believe it is not after the principles of the Reformation because it teaches the Christ err'd in Doctrin and Manners Verè Pharisaei erant viri valdè boni says Luther b Serm de 50 Artic. in summa summarum Christus minimè debuit eos taxare and Calvin says c In Harm super Luc c. 8. it 's a folly to think he was not ignorant in many things lastly David George d Epitom Cent. 16. par 2. a man of God and of a holy life says Osiander writes If the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles had been true and perfect the Church which they planted had continued but now it is manifest that Antichrist hath subverted it as it is evident in the Papacy therefore it was false and imperfect See these words quoted in the History of David George Printed by the Divines of Basil at Antwerp Anno 1668. both Doctrines are Scripture as Interpreted by Men of sound judgement and so a Child of the Reformation may believe which he will Zninglius e Tom. 2. cont catabapt fol. 10. one of the greatest Oracles of our Church says It 's a great ignorance to believe any Infallinble Authority in the Gospels or Epistles of the Apostles Beza not inferiour to Zuinglius blotted out of St. John the History of the Woman Adultress judging it a Fable Clebitius affirms that Luke's relation of Christ's passion is not true because it does not agree with that of Matthew and Mark and more credit is to be given to two than to one g In cap. 2. ad Gal. Calvin says Peter consented to and added to the Schism of the Church to the overthrow of Christian liberty and Christ's Grace h de Eccles cont Bellarm cont 2. q. 4. Whitaker says f Victoria verit arg 5. It 's evident that after the Descent of the Holy Ghost the whole Church even the Apostles erred and Peter erred in Doctrin and Manners i To. 5. Wettem an 1554. in Epist ad Gal. c. 1. Luther says Peter liued and taught extra Verbum Dei and Brentius k In Apol Cof c. de Concil his Disciples say that Peter and Barnabas together with the Church of Jerusalem erred after receiving the Holy Ghost If our Rule of Faith be Scripture as each person of sound judgement understands it undoubtedly this must be the Doctrin of the Reformation and may be believed by and any Reformed since it is Scripture interpreted by such renowned men As to the true Canonical Books of Scripture The Reformation teaches and you may believe with the Church of England that St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews those of James and Jude the 2 of St. Peter the 2. and 3 of St. John are true Canonical Scripture the Reformation also teaches they are not Canonical because Lutherans deny them believe which you like best But if you 'll live in peace and out of strife with Protestants Lutherans and others who dispute whether that of this or that Church be Canonical Scripture your readiest way will be to say there 's no true Canonical Scripture Scripture is no more to be regarded than other pious Books if you say this is not the Doctrine of the Reformation read de expresso Verbo Dei lib. de Har. where he relates this to be the Doctrine of the Swinckfeldians as good Reformers as the best of us they say that we are not to regard any Instruction from Man or Book but Gods immediate inspiration which speaks secretly to our hearts for which they alledge those comfortable words of the Prophet I will hear what my Lord my God will speak in me for say they the Book which we call Scripture is a Creature and we must not seek for light and instruction from any Creature but from God the Father of Lights This is Scripture as interpreted by men of sound judgement any Child of the Reformation may believe it It is the doctrine of the Reformation that you cannot because God has forbid it add to and take away from his Word It is also the doctrine of the Reformation and the practice of our best Reformers when the Text does not speak clear enough that to refute Popery and establish our doctrine we may add or diminish a word or two which is not to change the Word of God but to make it speak more expresly as when Luther had a mind
Doctrine be of the Reformation you must try it by our Test or Rule of Faith which is the written Word of God and whatever any man of sound judgement of a sincere and humble Heart judges to be contained in Scripture or an indubitable consequence out of it that Man may believe that Doctrine let all others judge of it as they list and by so believing will be a true Child of the Reformation wherefore since that the Church of France that of England in Edward the VI ' s. time Luther Melancthon Grotius and other Authors do judge Transubstantiation Popes Supremacy and Communion in one kind to be the Doctrine of Scripture we must call it the Doctrine of the Reformation and if you judge as they did you may believe the Doctrin and be still of the Reformation as well as they Can you shew me any other Tenet of Popery which you can call the Doctrine of the Reformation You can hardly shew me any Tenet of Popery but what is it's Doctrine what Doctrine more Popish than that of Confession and Absolution from Sins yet it is as truly the Doctrine of the Reformation as Figurative Presence for not only k In Disput Theol. pag. 301. Lobechius l In Cocilliat loc Scrip. loce 191. Altamerus m In locis Commun To. 1 de potest Eccl. Saecerius and n In Apol. Confes Aug. art 13. lib. pag. 234. Melancthen says it 's a Sacrament but the Church of England in our Common Prayer Book declares that Priests have not only the power of declaring their Sins to be forgiven to their Penitents but also the power of forgiving them and sets down the form of Absolution which the Minister is to use Our Lord Jesus Christ who left power to the Church to Absolve all Sinners which truly Repent of his Mercy forgive thee and thine offences and I by his Authority committed unto me do Abosolve thee from all thy Sins The Ministers of the Diocess of Lincoln in their Survey of the Book of Common Prayers checkt this Doctrine as Popery and petitioned to have it blotted out but could not prevail whereby we are given to understand it 's the Doctrine of the Reformation It is Popery we say to call extream Unction Confirmation and Holy Order of Priesthood Sacraments and who can justly deny all this to be the Doctrine of the Reformation for o In. p. 5. Epist Jac. v. 4. Calvin says I confess the Disciples of Christ did use Extream Unction as a Sacrament I am not says he of the opinion of those who judge it was only a Medicine for corporal diseases Calvin p Lib. 4. Inst. c. 14. Inst c. 14. sect 5. also and with him our Common Prayer Book and all our Divines say a Sacrament is nothing else but a Visible Sign of the invisible Grace we receive by it and they say with q In modest Examin Couel r In Eccl. Polit. c. 5. sect 66. Hooker and others that this definition fits exactly Confirmation wherefore the Ministers of the Diocess of Lincoln checkt the Common-Prayer Book for giving the Definition of a Sacrament to Confirmation Å¿ In locis Commun tit de Numero Sacram Melancthon t In perpet Regem pag. 109. Bilson u In Eccl polit lib. 5. sect 77. Hooker and x lib. 4. Inst c. 20. Calvin expresly teach that the Order of Priesthood is a Sacrament And when Men of so eminent Judgement of our Reformation teach this to be the Doctrine of Scripture who doubts but that it is of the Reformation By this you destroy the Doctrine of the Reformation of two Sacraments only Destroy it God forbid Because the Church of England says there are but two Sacraments I say it is the Doctrine of the Reformation there are but two and because so many eminent Men judge by Scripture there are more I say it is the Doctrine of the Reformation there are more that 's to say six Baptism Confirmation Euchrist Pennance Extream Vnction and Holy Order and very likely our Bishops and Ministers for their Wives sake will not stick to grant that Matrimony also is a Sacrament But can you say that Prayers to Saints and Images Prayer for the Dead and Purgatory are not meer Popery and in no wise the Doctrine of Reformation Without doubt these Tenets are Popery but all the World knows the Lutherans use Images in their Churches and pray before them and the holy Synod of Charenton has declared that the Lutherans have nothing of Superstition or Idolatry in their manner of Divine Worship this is also the Doctrine y Epit Colloq Montisbel of Jacobus Andreas z In Centaur Exercit. Theol pag. 270. Brachmanus a Kemnitiut Luther and Brentius quoted by Beza a Exampâ—… 4. b In responâ— ad acta Colloq Montisbel par 2. in Prefas c In locis Commun c. 18. 19. and why should not a Doctrine judged by such eminent Men to be of Scripture be called the Doctrine of the Reformation Prayers for the Dead and Purgatory is Popery confessedly but alas it is taught expresly by Vrbanius Regius d Inscrip Angl. pag. 450. Bucer c To. 1. in Eupian Art. 90. Art. 60. Zuinglius f In Apolog. Confess Aug. Melancthon g To. 1. Wittem in resol de Luther h Indul. concl 15. the common-Prayer Book in King Edward's time Printed 154.9 and many others of our Learned Doctors and what can you call more properly the Doctrine of the Reformation than what such Men teach to be the Doctrine of Scripture And though our Brethren Quakers Anabaptist Presbyterians and Protestants judge Prayers to Angels and Saints to be nothing else but Popery yet our Common Prayer Book has the same Collect or Prayer to Angels in St. Michael's day that the Popish Mass-Book has and desires that the Angels may succour and defend us on Earth and Prayers to and Intercession of Saints is taught by Luther i Epist ad Spalâ—t Bilney and Latimer quoted by Fox k Acts Mon. pag. 462 312. and consequently it is the Doctrine of the Reformation Listen to our Apostolical and Divine Luther l To. Germ. fol. 214. If a General Council says he did permit Priests to Marry it would be a a singular mark of Piety and sign of Godliness in that case to take Concubines rather than to Marry in conformity to the Decree of the Council I would in that case command Priests not to Marry under pain of Damnation And again he says m De formula Missa To. 3. Germ. If the Council decree Communion in both kinds in contempt of the Council I would take one only or none See these words of Luther quoted by our learned Hospinian n and Jewel o and see it is not only my Doctrine but of great Luther k In Histor Sa. part 2. fol. 13. that in case the Pope and Councils