he presumeth the Church also to be a thing altogether Holy and such as neither hath Erred nor can Err for should he question this he must question the whole of his Religion it self opposite to which Character we shall now consider The Character of a Protestant But the Protestant Church on the other hand having separated from the Church of Rome not only upon the Supposition that she hath actually Erred but that she hath been grosly corrupted as well in Manners as in Faith And the Protestant Church having for the better Justification of her own Practice both in the matter of Worship and in all things relating to Doctrine and Faith SET UP The Scriptures as the Sole and Soveraign Rule of Gods Mind and Will to his Church As she cannot challenge the Exercise of any Authority therefore that is beyond that of the Scripture or any that is not subordinate to the said Scripture it self So it is expected that all the Duties which she requires and all those Articles or Points of Faith which she at any time recommends to such as are the Members of her should always be enforced from those Arguments properly and only which are drawn from the Scripture Because it is this which she her self hath appealed unto and this only which she challengeth to justifie her A Protestant then that understands the Grounds of his Religion or that hath been at all instructed in the Rise or Principles of the Reformation taking this for the very first Article of his Faith That a Church may Err and may have Corruption in it and may in its Worship possibly swerve and depart from the pure Mind Word and Wisdom of God And laying that no less firmly as the Foundation of his Belief on the other hand viz. That the Scripture cannot Err nor can be other than the unalterable and incorruptible Rule of Gods Law and of his Will and Mind to his People he cannot possibly hold the Authority of the Church to be Divine any further or otherwise than as it appears to be clearly grounded upon the Scriptures as the Word of God And therefore the Tye or Obligation which he hath to obey the Church so far as it relates to the Conscience and binds the Conscience ariseth out of no other Ground than from the Conformity which he seeth or is perswaded that the said Church hath in her Laws Orders and Doctrines to the said Word and if this Conformity doth or shall once cease in the said Church a Protestant as a Protestant cannot but judge his Tye or Obligation to her as a Church ought to cease also with it And this being the true State of that Radical or Essential Difference that is between the Principles of a Protestant and the Principles of a Papist as a Papist It will hence follow That if a Church that professeth her self to be Protestant or the Ruling Clergy of a Protestant Church shall not much consider or regard the justifying of what Laws and Orders she makes by the Consonancy they expresly have to the Law or Mind of God in his Word which is his Rule to the Church nor shall much concern it self to clear and inforce the Faith and Doctrine which she holds by the Evidence of its Truth or by the Authority of it as sufficiently grounded upon that Word that is absolutely Divine But shall on the contrary in whatever she Commands or in the things she Teacheth constrain or exact an Obedience from her Members to her self and to her own Authority as absolute and as unsubordinate to the Word of God and therefore to her Authority as it is a distinct thing from the said Word That Church or the Clergy rather that are the Rulers of it so far as she doth this in any Doctrine or in any Law that she makes indispensable doth so far cease in her Principles and Practice to be Protestant and doth so far disclaim not only a main and chief Ground of her Separation from the Church of Rome but the very Principle it self upon which she pretends to guide her self in her Reformation For it cannot be denyed that these were the great and the main Causes of our Separation from the Church of Rome viz. First Because she had made her self Absolute and had set up an Authority in the matters of Worship and Faith above that of the Scriptures as the only Word of God And Secondly Because she did not barely excommunicate men but did also persecute them and did deprive them both of their Estates Liberties and Lives upon a Principle as contrary to humane Reason as it was contrary to humane Society and Quiet viz. not for any evil in their Conversations in their Morals or in their Lives But meerly for obeying what they sincerely judged to be the Law Mind and Will of God And meerly for believing that his whole Law Will and Mind to his Church as a Church especially relating to the Worship of himself was contained in his Word Thirdly Because by this persecution as it was extended to the extreme Punishment of Persons both in their Liberties and Goods and sometimes in their Lives by stinking Prisons and want of Necessaries she did unavoidably draw upon her self the Guilt of mens Apostacy Hypocrsie and Dissimulation who durst not but obey and comply with her Commands meerly out of fear And did as unavoidably draw upon her the Guilt of all that Suffering Cruelty and Blood whatever it were she spilt and did inflict upon those persons who withstood her Commands and who were otherwise in all things blameless both as to their Morals Lives and Conversations I say if it be matter of Fact and that which cannot be denyed that these three things were some of the Main and Principal Causes for which we separated from the Church of Rome and for which our first Reformers themselves called her Antichristian and sometimes Bloody and sometimes the Scarlet Whore And if these three things when at any time mentioned with reference to the Church of Rome are still acknowledged to be evil and so stiled to this day so far as it concerns her Yea if these three things are at this very present in our Controversies with that Church not only charged upon her but cast in her teeth among many other things by way of reproach and to set forth the just ground that we even as the Church of England as well as other Churches have both of exception against and hatred of her MUST NOT these three things be MUCH MORE EVIL in a Protestant Church who after she hath condemned all these things not only as evil but as Antichristian in the Church of Rome and after she hath pretended to separate from the said Church for them doth nevertheless give her self leave to practise them without condemning her self at all in them And MUST NOT This Practice cast a manifest Blemish and Reproach upon on her own Reformation and evidence to the world that she doth not either believe the Principles
equally and with as good warrant be alledged Secondly she discerns that if she should allow the Grammar of the Scripture to be Authoritative at all she should never be able to prevent the pretences that others would have even among the Laity it self to be as competent Judges of the said Grammar as her self Thirdly besides these two extreme Inconveniences which by her are not to be endured she evidently also seeth that the Words of Scripture themselves will not of themselves by any literal Construction or Exposition of them be sufficient to prove any such Authority as she claims and that should the words of the Scripture be urged therefore no further than according to the express Tenor of them or according to the sence that the Grammar it self would bear of them she should be so far from gaining the Power and Commission which she pretends to have a Warrant for that instead of it she should expose her Authority to a manifest hazard even not only to be sifted ventilated and discussed by others but as freely censured by such as should observe the nature of her Inferences and how weakly and infirmly they are deduced with respect to the genuine Force or Construction of the words themselves And therefore as for all these Reasons she apparently discerns that the Grammar of the Scripture is an Adversary absolutely to her so she doth as smartly and dexterously perceive that the Scripture it self were the Authority of it allowed to be in the Grammar would be as great an Enemy every way to her as even the literal and Grammatical Sence of it is For in as much as these three things are at once both equally and necessarily Incumbent upon her and such as cannot any of them possibly be dispensed with by her viz. First to prove the peculiarity of her Authority above any other Church beside her whatever And Secondly to justifie the Incorruption of her Doctrine And Thirdly to preserve the pretence that she hath by this consequently to Infallibility And seeing these three do so much concern her that it is a thing very plain and very easie to perceive that unless they can all be maintained upheld and defended in some measure rationally by her she can no way keep up her temporal Power nor any way avoid a lyableness to a Reformation Wherefore having upon a due and serious survey of the Letter and Grammar of the Holy Scripture sufficiently found and clearly observed that the Scripture as thus strictly considered in the Order Disposition and Construction of its Letter will never be serviceable to her in any one of these three Respects but will on the contrary expresly oppose her As she is hereby expresly convinced then that there can be no cause why she should magnifie the express word of it and much less any cause why she should trust in it or appeal to it so lest that others should be carried away with a rational Opinion of it and should for this cause be induced to urge and press several things against her from it She saw it but necessary that she should come to a deliberate Resolution with her self To weaken the Credit of the Scripture wholly and not only to deny all Authority and even all Divinity it self to be in the Word Letter and Grammar of the Scripture strictly considered by it self but to deny also that any Sence is capable to be certainly had from it or any truth that is infallible which how hold a thing soever it might seem to be yet she saw it no way avoidable by her because she had no way besides this to secure her self against all that Inconveniency that she knew the Scripture would and must otherwise cast upon her necessarily by vertue of the expressness and Authority of its Letter Having then taken up this Resolution in the first place considering nevertheless maturely with her self that if she should cast off all her Relation to the Scripture wholly and entirely she could not maintain the very Authority of the Church it self and much less should be able to defend either the Divinity or the Infallibility of those things that are sought by her She therefore cometh to a second Resolution which she judgeth no less necessary and expedient for her than the former viz. To maintain the Divinity and set up the Authority absolutely of the Scripture though not in the express Letter of it nor in the Sence proper to it yet as we have said already in another Sence that she sets up instead of it That is according to such a Sence which she judges convenient that she her self should as a Church put upon it and put upon it in such manner also and with such a Construction and Exposition as might be most sutable to her own end and most answerable to her own particular Interest which Sence she therefore stiles by the specious Name or Appellation of the Catholick Sence or of the Sence of the Universal Church in distinction at least from and for the better avoiding of that Sence which is truly literal and is properly Constructive and Grammatical And as it is this Sence alone therefore as Catholick that she confines both the Authority and Divinity of the Scripture to and that also entirely So she doth this in her own more than ordinary Judgment and Prudence In regard she is sure that this Sence will never fail her but will always be ready to abett whatever shall upon any occasion be determined by her Because this Sence requires no deeper Reason nor any firmer Bottom or Ground at any time for it Than what resolves it self at length into the meer arbitrary Will and Pleasure of her self And so she can never be accountable further for it than barely to declare it or affirm it to be the Catholick Sence because she saith it is the Sence of the Universal Church And is not this rare Policy And therefore to justifie this medly Sence which if what she saith be true is both the Sence of the Scripture and is not And which must necessarily be the Sence of the Scripture because the Church will so have it and not because it is a Sence really properly or radically inherent in it To justifie also her Rightful throwing off the Authority of the Grammar it self and to justifie her transferring the whole Divinity of the Scripture from the natural Order and Construction of its Words to a Sence altogether forreign to its Letter and to the expressness of it I say to justifie ALL THIS she pleads her own Authority not only as Divine but as absolute and infallible and consequently as that which ought to be submitted unto by every one and that readily as to the very Ordinance and Appointment of God himself Which being the very Question it self that was in dispute and that very thing therefore that was first of all necessary to be proved by her she is constrained by this means whether she will or no to run round in a Circle viz. To
prove her proper Authority by the Catholick Sence of the Scripture And To prove the Catholick Sence of the Scripture by vertue of her proper Authority And at length not only without all ground but without all shame or sence of Justice to beg the whole Argument it self in Controversie between us Than which we say there can be nothing whatever that is either more unreasonable or more impudent and base And having gotten her Authority therefore in this manner not only or not so much by shuffling as by plain snatching it and being conscious to her self that it would be a very vain thing for her to suppose she should be able to defend the said Authority by any better Argument than that very Stratagem she made use of it to prove it she concludes it to be most safe to maintain it therefore in the same manner as she got it which is by force and therefore resolves to punish all men with Death that will be so hardy as to deny it so far at least as her Power or Mediation can any way extend to do it And yet lest the Quarrel should by this means look as if it were too personal and too private and that such Princes as were less concerned at it should not be much disposed to ingage with her in it She as if she were Pious in the very Execution of her Malice pretends this shedding the Blood of men though it may seem indeed to be very severe yet is absolutely necessary not so much because they disobey her as because they disobey and oppose the Catholick Sence of the Holy Scripture In which Catholick Sence all the Authority and Divinity of it if you will believe her is properly placed and that by opposing of this they oppose by Consequence not only the Catholick Faith of the Church but the consent of all Christianity it self In the unquestionableness of which the Security and Salvation of men can only and alone rest which pretext is another part as well of her Absurdity as of her Violence and Fraud That notwithstanding she neither hath nor can prove any Obligation that men in Conscience can have to her Authority or to rely upon the Determination of it And though she cannot otherwise require the belief of it from any but as it is a thing meerly precarious yet she puts all to death that yield not to this absolute Usurpation of her Power The Use of this last preceding Discourse From this brief Scheme or summary Prospect of the Nature of this new and peculiar Policy of the Church of Rome We may easily make a measure of her Wisdom as well as of her Truth for by this short State or Account that we now have of these Motives which did mainly induce the said Church intirely to lay aside the express Letter and Grammar of the Scriptures at least as to the Certainty Truth or Infallibility of it we may easily have a view of several horrible Absurdities Contradictions and indeed Impieties that she is by this means forced and necessitated to fall into of which we shall now mention a few Particulars For first as it is Matter of Fact which is the most infallible Evidence in the World that all the Doctrines of the Church of Rome do depend solely upon The Authority of the said Church So it is Matter of Fact equally That both the said Doctrines and the said Authority it self which upholds the said Doctrines do depend upon the Catholick Sence of the Scripture For the same Reason therefore it is even from the strictness of the Connexion and mutual Dependance of these three one upon another That as the Doctrines of the Church of Rome must necessarily be all of them True and all of them Divine If the Authority of the said Church is altogether True and altogether Divine So also the Authority of the Church of Rome must be unquestionably Divine If the Catholick Sence of the Scripture upon which it is alone built be absolutely Divine and free from all possibility of Error And consequently then as the surest proof that we can possibly have of the Divinity of all the Doctrines of the said Church doth lye in the proof the divine Authority of the said Church and in the sureness of it So the surest proof of this doth lye in the proof of the Catholick Sence of the Scripture viz. in the Proof that this Catholick Sence is both divine and infallible and free from all manner of Error imaginable For it is this Sence alone that gives being to the said Authority In as much then as it is strongly alledged that the Catholick Sence cannot possibly but be Divine Infallible and free from all manner of Error The Authority of the said Church therefore must necessarily be Divine Infallible and free from all manner of Error and therefore it is impossible but the Doctrines which are taught by the said Church must be such also that is They must be Divine Infallible and free from all Error So then these three are and must be all of them Divine alike viz The Doctrines of the Church of Rome and the Authority of the said Church and The Catholick Sence of the Scripture And consequently the Sence of the Universal Church must be as Divine as any of these three Because the Catholick Sence of the Scripture and the Sence of the Universal Church is but one and the same Et quae in eodem Tertio conveniunt inter se conveniunt wherefore seeing of all these The Catholick Sence of the Scripture is The main and sure Basis of all the rest and that upon the Divinity certainty and infallibility of This ALL the Divinity Authority and Infallibility of the Church of Rome with its whole Doctrine doth and must wholly and intirely depend The absolute and unquestionable Certainty or Divinity of this therefore is first to be cleared seeing this as we said is of all others the most strongly alledged To one that is an apt Schollar to understand and receive whatsoever the Church of Rome teacheth we shall here shew how this is by her cleared To evidence then the truth of the Catholick Sence of the Scripture how Infallible and Unquestionable it is and to manifest not only the necessity but the absoluteness of its Divinity We need not much more than one Reason because this doth of it self upon the matter amount to a Demonstration which is That there is nothing more clear or more certain than that the said Catholick Sence neither really is the Sence of the Scripture nor really is not nor any thing more certain than that the said Catholick Sence is Both That is to say both it is and it is not the Sence of the Scripture And that we may be yet the more fully and distinctly instructed in the nature of this Mistery and of the strangeness of it we are to know That the extraordinary wonderful and peculiar Power of this Catholick Sence lyeth in the singular Relation which it hath
to the Universal Church and to the Scripture as it is the Sence of neither of them properly and entirely and yet is the Sence of both of them at one and the same time For though this Catholick Sence cannot be had without the Scripture and though it is and must necessarily be given therefore to the said Church by the Scripture Because it is the Scripture only that the said Church doth always refer to when it doth at any time cite or alledge the said Sence as it is Divine And consequently though without the said Scripture it had been wholly impossible that the said Church should either have Challenged or laid Claim to any Truth that had been Authoritative or Divine Notwithstanding this The said Catholick Sence both is given and must necessarily be given to the Scripture by the said Church because without the said Church it would be impossible that this Sence should ever be found out in the Scripture it self in regard nothing is more certain than that the Scripture hath of it self properly no Sence at all at least none that is True Certain and Infallible but as this is by the Universal Church and by the Prudent Care and Foresight of it bestowed upon it And so we must unavoidably grant that though the Catholick Sence be but One yet this One Sence is both created by the Church for the Scripture and created by the Scripture for the Church Which is a very rare and unusual sort of Production And therefore it will follow also that if we regard the Truth Certainty and Infallibility of this Catholick Sence it is wholly and entirely from the Church because neither the Authority properly of it nor its Divinity doth consist in its Truth or in its Certainty If we regard the Divinity and Authority of this Catholick Sence it is not only originally but entirely from the Scripture because it may be Divine though it have neither Certainty nor Infallibility in it at least as the Church of Rome tells us And consequently the said Catholick Sence considered as it is strictly in the Scriptures hath indeed both Authority absolutely in it and Divinity but it neither hath Truth Certainty nor Infallibility But considered as it is strictly in the Church it hath both Truth Certainty and Infallibility absolutely in it But it hath not for all this any thing of Divinity or Authority for this it must borrow from the name of the Scripture So that it is plain That the said Catholick Sence is neither the Sence of the Church properly and entirely nor the Sence of the Scripture properly and entirely and yet that it is the Sence of both of them entirely And the Reason for this is also plain viz. Because according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Divinity of the Catholick Sence is one thing its Truth and Infallibility is quite another for though the Church can give to the Catholick Sence its Truth and Infallibility entirely yet she cannot give any part of its Divinity And though the Scripture can give to the Catholick Sence its whole Divinity and consequently its Authority entirely yet it cannot of it self give it any thing of truth or any thing of Infallibility but this it must have from the Church So mystically is this Catholick Sence parted and divided between both By which partition of the Catholick Sence which is strange we come to know another thing also which is as strange and which otherwise we should never have been able to have found out viz. That though the end of giving the Scripture was unquestionably for the enlightening Ruling and Governing the Church yet the end of setting up the Church was equally also for the enlightening Ruling and Governing of the Scriptures Which as it is a Consequence that can no way be avoided by the Rules of the Church of Rome so it is as manifestly absurd as all the rest Secondly The Divinity of the Catholick sence with the necessity absolutely of it will appear also yet the more clearly if we shall consider that unless we do admit the Church in the first place to be holy infallible and free from all manner of Error imaginable it will and must be impossible that the Catholick sence of the Scripture should be absolutely True Holy Infallible and free from all Error Because the sence of the Scripture becomes thus Catholick Holy Infallible and True only as it is the sence of the Catholick Church first and as it is by this means derived to the Scripture it self And for any to seek a sence in the Scripture therefore that is Holy True Infallible and free from all Error alone by the Scripture it self without the Direction and Assistance of the said Catholick or Universal Church is manifestly absurd Both because the Scripture hath properly of it self no sence at all that is certain and because it is the immediate Authority of the Church only upon which the sence of the Scripture so far as it is properly Catholick Infallible and absolutely True is wholly and entirely built And yet on the contrary in regard it must be confessed that the Church could not possibly have so much as either Name or Being were it not for the Scripture it self and much less that it could have those Privileges or that Authority placed in it which it challengeth above all others for being Holy True Infallible and free from all manner of Error Unless we admit therefore the Scripture in the first place to be originally True Holy and Divine and therefore to contain all Authority and Truth prmitively in it self that is Holy Absolute and Divine and that by reason of this its primitive Sanctity Divinity and Truth it hath a power simply and properly of its self to confer a Divine Right Authority and Infallibility to the Church it will and must be impossible that the said Church should be any way impowered or enabled either to teach such Doctrines as are Certain True Holy and Divine and without any fallibility whatever or that it should be able to declare what that sence of the Scripture is which is absolutely Holy True Infallible and free from all manner of Error Because if the whole being of the Church is entirely from the Scripture then not only all the Holiness Truth and Infallibility of the said Church with the truth of whatever it teacheth but all the Authority also which it hath or challengeth by reason of any of these extraordinary Properties is and must unavoidably be built upon the Scripture also and upon the primitive Truth Authority and Sanctity of it Both which things now being admitted it must necessarily follow that if we will fully comprehend the Divinity of the Catholick sence and come to be convinced of the necessity and absoluteness of its Infallibility Authority and Truth we must grant that the Truth Holiness Infallibleness and Authority of the Church was and could not but be before the Truth Holiness and Infallibility of the Scripture sence And
must also grant that the Truth Sanctity and Authority of the holy Scripture was and could not but necessarily be before any Truth Holiness Infallibility and Authority was or could possibly be in the Church and consequently we must grant that these were both first and so both of them were one before another respectively In like manner we must grant that as there is an absolute necessity that the Church and its Authority as infallible should be built upon the Scripture entirely and upon the Original Authority of it so there is as great a necessity that the Sence of the Scripture with the truth of it wherein its Authority doth properly and principally consist should be built upon the Church and upon the Authority of it and therefore a necessity that both these should be built each upon the other mutually and respectively and therefore a necessity that the Church should be the Foundation of all the Scriptures truth and that the Scripture should be the Foundation of all the Church its Truth and therefore that each of these should be the respective Basis or Ground of the other of these mutually The Clearness Consonancy Coherence and manifest Consistency of all which things whoever doth not understand and doth not also fully and unquestionably believe is neither a Schollar that is quick enough nor a schollar that is qualified enough for the sufficient and substantial comprehending of the Divinity of the Catholick sence And therefore upon the consideration of the whole we may conclude that if all these things now mentioned are substantially true and capable to be clearly understood by rational Persons and that they are consistent really one with another Then it must be certain that the Church of Rome is both a true Church and its Doctrines are all certainly and unquestionably true and all its followers must be true Christians also and free from all Error for these things must be all of them true and certain alike But if these several things above mentioned are manifestly contradictory and absurd and such therefore as are no way possible to be rationally understood or capable to be consistent any way one with another then these things can never be true viz. Either that the Church of Rome should be a true Church or that its Doctrines should be all of them true or that its followers should be such true Christians as to be free from all Error Seeing none of these three things can be otherwise true or certain than as the several things above mentioned are true or certain which are manifestly absurd and utterly false The horrible Wickedness of the Church of Rome further manifested The Impiety and Wickedness as well as Absurdity of the Church of Rome in this invention of the Catholick Sence and in her setting up of it will be evident also to any that will consider that even while she goeth about not only to corrupt but to defeat the Scripture of its proper Authority as a Divine Writing by her denying that any Sence is capable to be had from it but what the Church only doth give it and by denying therefore that the Litteral or Grammatical Sence or Construction of the Scripture is in any place certain or at least not so certain as it may be said of its self to be simply absolutely or infallibly true or so certain that it is in any place sufficient to give an infallibility of truth to us she doth no other than discover by all this what her drift is throughout all this Device For she would never run her self upon so many Rocks to maintain things so manifestly gross and absurd as this Invention puts her upon were it not that her aim by all this is To spoyl and deprive the Scripture utterly not only of all power and Authority but of all Right immediately and absolutely of its self to bind and oblige the Consciences of men to it even though the sence of it should from the plain and genuine Construction of its words appear never so strong clear or coherent to them which Scope or Design of the Church of Rome for withdrawing our Obedience and Subjection wholly from the Scripture it self even in things that are plain and can be no way doubted by us as we are rational Persons and understand well enough what the Nature and Import of Sence is I say this scope or design of withdrawing our Obedience from the Scripture it self and from the plain and genuine fence of it is no other than openly to withdraw us from the plain and express Mind of God the Scripture being his Word which is not only to offer an Injury to the Authority and Councel of God but to his very Grace also in giving his Word to us And yet that this is the Chief and Principal Aim of the Church of Rome in her contending for the Catholick Sence and in her disallowing all other Sence whatever to the Scripture is the more clear because it is matter of Fact that wheresoever she can or doth exercise any Dominion either by her self or by her delegates there she will suffer none even not of her own Clergy to depend upon the Scripture strictly But will have all men at all times to submit all their Judgments and all their Consciences absolutely to her particular Determinations in all things relating to Faith whether the things she doth determine be agreeable or not agreeable to the Word or Rule of Faith it self And if all her own Natives are treated with this Severity and Arbitrariness by her is is easie then to imagine what Strangers may expect from her especially if we consider that for the more effectual preventing the Laity also to shew any manner of Duty immediately to the Scripture and lest they should be convinced even by the very sight of it or should hold themselves obliged to the things plainly and expresly commanded by it she doth throughout all places where she hath any Power utterly forbid all use of the Scripture to them and will not suffer the Scripture so much as to be read or heard by them in a Vulgar or known Tongue By which Instances it may sufficiently appear seeing these things are matters of Fact that the Indeavour used by the Church of Rome to lessen the Credit of the Scriptures Letter Grammar or Word as if there were no certainty of sence in it is not really grounded upon any thing which may justly be attributed to the Scripture it self * But is a thing absolutely plotted Contrived formed or purposely Designed by the said Church for no other end but that men might not rely upon the Scripture or trust to the truth of those things that may be plainly and expresly founded in the very Letter of it and so might be moved to give Obedience to the Authority of it and to be led by it NOR for any other end but that Men might not be able to plead the said Word with the expressness of it against her or have a
Clergy therefore singly for this Reason even because of their meer Calling and Relation to Religion to be considerable in every Nation both for Power and Interest 5 That though they dare not meerly because of their Calling any way challenge an Order or Superiority above the Prince nor can Yet they are by consequence always made Independent upon the Prince and sometimes absolute over the Prince when the Prince himself shall intirely and without any check commit the Affairs of the whole Church and Religion to them Because if they govern Religion well and intirely according to the Peoples satisfaction they must unavoidably draw and ingage the very Souls Hearts and Consciences of the People to them and that by the firmest strongest and most lasting Tye of any which is that of their Minds and Affections and of the Duty they owe unto God If on the contrary they Rule the Affair of Religion wholly and perfectly to the Disgust Oppression or Bondage of the people they must of necessity as much disgust the Government though not for it self yet because of that absolute Authority which it maintains and upholds in the Clergy 6 That the committing the Affairs of Religion and of the Church intirely to the Clergy without any check at all upon them is yet the more against the Interest of the Prince because it layeth an express Temptation upon them to Govern both the Church and Religion absolutely and at their own Will and consequently to govern Religion with much less Care Heed Circumspection and Moderation than otherwise they would have done 7 While the Clergy govern the Affairs of the Church and of Religion absolutely and by their own Will without any Check whatever upon them The Prince himself neither hath nor can have the least security that they will not Govern all things directly agreeable to their own Interest and to their private and particular Concern let that Interest with the Means best to effect it be never so distinct to the Interest of the Prince or to the Interest of the People or never so destructive or contrary to either 8 That it is less adviseable for a Protestant Prince to commit the Affairs of the Church and of Religion absolutely and entirely to the Clergy than it is for any other Prince Because the Clergy are by this without any Head at all over them and without any Council whatever that is superiour to them which they are not under the Papists themselves and because the Prince must by this means inevitably subject himself to their Advice and to the Effect of it let the Issue of it prove never so inconvenient or rash to him as is manifest from the Examples before mentioned 9. That it is the less adviseable also for a Protestant Prince than for any other Prince Because it is not only against the Example of Holland but against the Example of all the Protestant Princes that were Instrumental in the first Reformation and of most of their Successors 10. That as it must be utterly against the Interest of a Prince to take part with the Clergy when ruling of Religion wholly and perfectly to the disgust of the People so it must recommend him not only to the Judgments but to the Minds Hearts and Affections of the People even beyond what any thing else hath a power to do if he shall please more especially at such a time as that is to gratifie them with the sence of his own Care of them And there cannot well be a greater Season and Opportunity put into the hand of any Prince either to Honour himself or to oblige a People and to oblige them to him in strictness by all Ties that are possible to be laid in Gratitude or Conscience upon them Than for a Prince to take the Affairs of Religion or of the Church into his own hand at such a time as they have most miscarried in the hand of the Clergy And to manifest to his people that it is his fixed resolution to defend that which is the Foundation of Protestantism and which is the true glory of it in opposition to the Popish Religion of which I shall now more particularly discourse The Glory of the Protestant Religion is That by the Reformation there was a restoration of the Scriptures in the Vulgar Tongue as well to the common people as to any others and this was one main part of the Reformation if not the chiefest of any that came by the Reformation it self and it is the true glory of it without which any thing else that came by the Reformation could have been but of little advantage to us And if a Protestant Prince do assure his people that he will maintain and defend this Principle or Foundation of Protestantism This will and must firmly and strongly ingage all the Hearts and Affections of his Protestant Subjects unto him But whether the Prince will defend and maintain this Principle or not yet it is unavoidable That all Protestants as well in all other Nations beyond the Seas where any Protestants are as well as in these three Kingdoms do irresistably cleave to this Principle viz. That by the Reformation the free use of the Scripture is restored to all people And this Principle being fixed in them it hath these four following Effects The first Effect 1. That no man or men that no party of the Clergy or any other shall ever be able to remove the influence which the Divine Authority of the Scripture must have and cannot but have upon the Minds and Consciences of the People professing the Protestant Religion as the Scriptures are acknowledged to be The ONLY Word the ALONE Rule of the mind of God unto his People This Character or Apprehension of the Dignity and Authority of the Scriptures being so Essential to our Reformation it self that there is no Protestant can so much as doubt of it It being that which is not only commonly taught in our Pulpits but frequently inculcated to us while we are Children by our Parents and by those Masters which take the Care of us while we are at School The Second Effect And secondly this Principle of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures being from our very Education thus firmly rooted in us it must make the influence of it to be equally as strong and equally as powerful upon the Consciences of us even as the Scriptures themselves are which is equal with the very Authority of God himself and especially upon all such as are religiously Educated and Bred so that there is no Obligation or Tye whatever which is capable to be laid upon men upon any civil outward or temporal Account that is able to have any part of that strength or influence upon them as the Scriptures must necessarily have upon and over the generallity of all Persons in the Protestant Church which is a second Effect which can never be removed by any Authority of man whatsoever The strength and prevalency of which Tye as made
upon the Consciences of all Persons as Protestants by or from the Scripture is yet the more considerable because whatever Worship Service or Religion we as Protestants do profess to give unto God we profess it only from the Authority of the Scriptures themselves and from the Authority of them as they are thus owned and professed by the Protestant Church to be our Supreme and consequently our immediate Tye in all that we believe and in all that we act as Protestants towards God which hath not its Termination in or its dependance so much upon men or upon the Ruling Clergy or upon the Church as upon the Scripture or Word of God it self We judging it lawful enough to forsake the Church when we once judge the Church in what it believes or in what it acts or practiseth toward God to have forsaken his Word And our Profession or Religion being thus founded I mean out of Conscience purely to Gods Word Every man then properly as a Protestant if he be Sincere doth as much believe that the Worship whatever it be that he professeth is as truly agreeable to the Mind and Will of God as is the very Scripture it self And consequently that he is as much to contend for the said Worship as he is bound to contend for the Authority of the Scripture it self For these two being taken by him but for one thing viz. the Truth and Authority of the Scripture and the Truth and Authority of what he professeth consequently the same Tye that binds him to the Scripture must of necessity bind him to that Religion whatever it be which he as a Protestant professeth unto God And consequently if there be no Tye so firm or so strong upon the Conscience as that of the Divine and Absolute Authority of the Scripture is There can be no Tye stronger than what Protestants as such and as Sincere must necessarily have for the Religion whatever it be that they do respectively profess unto God The Third Effect And Thirdly This now being made clear and undoubted viz. That the Tye and Obligation that every man hath to the Worship which he professeth unto God properly as a Protestant lyeth in and riseth immediately from the Scriptures And it being likewise cleared that the highest Tye which can possibly be laid upon the Conscience of any man is that proceeding from the Scriptures as they are The ONLY Rule of God's Mind and Will to us It must necessarily follow that if the Authority of men can neither remove the Use of the Scriptures themselves nor remove the Obligation which they have above all things upon the Consciences of men even from their very Education as they are The only Rule of God's Mind then no Authority of man can ever possibly remove the Obedience which men will always conceive themselves obliged to give to the said Word in whatever it be they apprehend it doth clearly command Seeing this Obedience is looked upon to be the same and no other with an Obedience given to God himself And if an Obedience given unto God be in Conscience also infinitely preferrable to any Obedience to man then must an Obligation to the immediate Law and Will of God be always preferrable to and stronger than any Obligation whatever to the Law or Command of men which is a third unavoidable Effect of it The Fourth Effect And Fourthly if the Law of the Church or of the Ruling Clergy cannot in the matter of Worship any way compel or bind men to Obedience farther or otherwise than as they apprehend it to be agreeable to the Law of God or to the Law of his Word Then neither can the Law of the Prince or the Law of the Civil Government bind mens Consciences in the matter of Worship further or otherwise than the Law of the Church viz. no otherwise than as the said Law shall appear to them to be agreeable to Gods Law which is the Law of his Scripture or Word And consequently it can never be avoided by any Protestant Prince but his Authority as relating purely to things Civil with the Efficacy of it must stand upon one Rule And his Authority as relating to things of Divine Worship with the Efficacy of it must necessarily and unavoidably stand upon another Rule And therefore that his Authority over his Subjects in the one and in the other of these must of necessity be distinguished Which is the fourth thing that we say cannot in any Protestant Government possibly be prevented That these four things are the certain Effects of that which is the Main part or the Chiefest Privilege of any that came by the Reformation it self before mentioned may be further and more fully demonstrated thus For if no Law can possibly Eradicate that Notion That there is a God Then no endeavour of man whatever can hinder his being worshipped by such at least as have a sence of his being and do verily believe that HE IS Wherefore if we are trained up from our Childhood and trained up not only as men but as Protestants firmly to believe that God will accept of no other Worship at all from us as Christians but what is agreeable to his Word And if it be a thing continually inculcated to us even from our very Infancy That it is in a Conformity to this Word alone that all Religion whatever doth consist Then it is not Reason only but Experience it self which attests it That a man may as soon quit his Notion that there is a God or be affraid to own it And may assoon quit the Notion that God is to be worshipped or be affraid to own it As he may quit or be affraid to own as he is a Protestant this Notion viz. That God is so only to be worshipped and no otherwise than he hath set down in his Word And if this Notion then about his Word as the only Rule of the Worship of God be as firmly planted in us by our Education as any Notion can be planted in us that belongs to our nature as men It must needs follow that a Government may as well and with as good success hope or propound to it self by a Law to extinguish common Notions as hope or propound to it self by a Law to extinguish among any Protestant Nation the Notion of the necessity of Worshipping God according to his Word And therefore if it be rightly considered it will likewise appear That it must be to him that is truly educated as a Protestant every way as grievous to be commanded by a Law to forsake Christianity it self as to be commanded by a Law to forsake that Worship which he as a Protestant cannot but believe in his heart is alone agreeable to the Mind and Law of God which is that Worship that is given to God directly conformable to his Scripture or Word And of the Truth of this the Martyrs in Queen Maries time are a competent Witness And consequently they that pretend to take another
all men as men have by Nature unto God as unto their Supreme Lord and Creator Wherefore in as much as it is clear that all Laws which command men to forbear that Worship which they as Protestants do in their hearts judge and believe to be agreeable to the Mind Will and Word of God or which commands them to conform to such a Worship as they judge according to their own Understandings and connot but believe it to be disagreeable to the said Mind Will and Word of God are of this nature that is First they are such Laws as have a manifest Inconsistency either with the Law writ in the heart it self which is That God is indispensably to be worshipped in some manner or another Or Secondly they are such Laws as have an Inconsistency with the Law writ in the Word of God which is That he will reward all such as shall obey him according to the Rule which he hath given them in his said Word and will punish such as shall do the contrary Or Thirdly they are such Laws as have an Inconsistency with the Rule of the Reformation it self which is that all Worship which is Christian and foederal is to be given to God according to the Scriptures and that whatever IS NOT read in the Scriptures nor may be proved by the Scripture IS NOT to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith Which are the very words of the sixth Article of the Church of England and which Article if wounded the rest of the thirty nine Articles must be wounded equally with it seeing they are judged to be founded mainly upon it I do therefore with all humbleness say that all such Laws in any Protestant Government whatever which restrain such a Worship as is agreeable to the Word of God or is really believed to be such by them that practise it I say all such Laws are entirely against that Prior Law or preceding Obligation which men as men have by Nature indispensably unto God as to their Immediate Creator and Lord above any which they have or can have unto man how lawfully soever he may be the Superior of them And consequently that all Non-obedience or Non-conformity to any of the said Laws though it be in a sence voluntary yet it is neither elective nor indeed truly or properly free And therefore that such Non-obedience is not any the least breach of affection Nor any the least forfeiture of a mans Duty to his Prince or to the Government Because it is a Non-conformity or Disobedience that is absolutely constrained compelled and of an inevitable and indispensible nature in its self by reason of the Prior Law or of the preceding and indispensible Obligation which we have both as Men and as Christians unto God And have above and beyond any Obligation that we have or can have possibly to any person as the Prince or Superior of us And all men that maintain the contrary and that either out of a Luxury of Wit or out of a Super-foetation of Vanity Insolency or Pride do seek to baffle this Argument or to evade the force of it from or under the pretence of the Capriciousness Humoursomness and affectation of Singularity that may be in some Persons may with as good Reason and with as solid a Judgment make a meer Mock or Ridicule of all the Martyrs that have ever been since the World stood and may as well call Daniel and the three Children and all the Primitive Christians and the Apostles who suffered for God and for the Testimony of his Word and of Christ Revel 6.9 Revel 1.9 men that were only capricious humourous and persons that did affect a Singularity as call all men so at this Day whoever they are that do not conform to the Laws Nationally made about Worship and Religion For if their bare Allegation that all men that do not conform are men only of humorous and capricious Tempers and men who meerly affect a Singularity and Disturbance shall be taken for a sufficient Evidence against them By as just a Law the Testimony of any Atheist may as well be taken against all the Martyrs that ever were And the Testimony of any common Person may be taken against them themselves that alledge this that they are Atheists And if this last be not reasonable neither is the first For if anothers bare Allegation is not to be taken against them nor ought to be allowed as an Evidence So neither is their bare saying to be taken against others By all that I have said then it will appear that there is a clear difference between the Authority of a Prince in things Civil and in things relating to Worship and Religion For as a Princes Authority in things Civil is unquestionable and enterferes with no Law of God whatever and can have no pretence therefore to intrench upon the Conscience or upon any prior Obligation or Duty that a man oweth unto God and as it must for all these Reasons be necessarily and indispensably obeyed and submitted unto by all his Subjects So on the contrary a Prince especially as a Protestant can put out no Law about Divine Worship but his Subjects so far as they are Protestants are bound in Conscience and by the very Principles of that Religion which they profess not only to Consider it But to Examine it whether it be agreeable to the Word of God or not and if it appear not to be such at least according to the best of their Understandings As they will have a Plea always not to submit to it by Reason it intrencheth upon a Prior Obligation So this Plea cannot well with Justice be denyed them if no Crime whatever in their Conversation can be proved against them NOR can men in this Case be actually punished and proceeded against without the Sence and Grief of that Wrong or Oppression that is manifestly done to them and suffered by them especially seeing their Non-conformity to the said Laws proceeds not as we said either from their Election or Liberty Nor yet from any breach of Duty or Affection to their Prince But only from what appears to them to be an Inevitable or Indispensable Necessity that ariseth and is occasioned from their meer Profession as they are of the Protestant Religion To this end I shall therefore offer one Argument more which shall be taken from The Character of a Papist The thing which doth Essentially distinguish a Protestant from a Papist more than any Note Mark or Character whatever besides is That a Papist by his Principles as a Papist may not and indeed cannot dispute any Law whatever relating to the Worship or Service of God provided it be declared and established by what he acknowledgeth to be the Church Because he takes the Authority of the Church for the whole Argument or for the only Foundation of all his Obedience unto God rather than the Divine Authority of the Scripture or Word And because
of it OR doth not at least dare to Trust to it Wherefore if the said Church or the Clergy rather as the Rulers of it meerly upon these Grounds and only to these ends which are both thus evil in themselves and thus contrary to the very Grounds and Ends of our Reformation shall endeavour to Ingage the power of the Civil Magistrate to her Assistance which God forbid they should ever do any more in England for we have good ground to believe that several of the Ruling Clergy if not all do abhor it to their Praise be it spoken I humbly offer it to Consideration whether in moving this to a Prince especially as he is a Protestant she doth or can move him to any other purpose than That his Authority may promote the Defection she hath made from her own Principles and may Countenance her in that which she knoweth that the Rules of the Reformation and of Protestantism cannot viz. not only her Cruelty and Severity but her Exorbitancy And whether she hath or can have any Argument to the said Prince for his Countenancing of her greater than this viz Than as she knoweth that all the evil which would be charged upon HER wholly and ONLY as a Church may now through his countenancing of her be in part as well charged upon his Royal Authority and Pleasure as upon her Which Argument being really of no better a nature than this whether it be therefore reasonable in it self or whether it be so much as fit or modest for the said Church to make or whether it be agreeable to that Duty Honor and Sincerity which she as a Church professeth to owe and ought at all times uprightly to pay to her Prince I humbly leave and submit to the Judgments of all Ingenious Persons and especially when with reference to the Effect of this Motion it is matter of Fact that though twenty six private Persons would be thereby gratified some of whom are men of no Birth Interest or temporal Estate in the Nation and more than twice so many thousands are greatly grieved injured and wronged in their Persons and Estates which are equally his Majesties Subjects as well as they And many of which are every way Peers to them for Birth for Vertue for Loyalty for Temperance for Morality for Mercy for Charity for temporal Estates and even for Learning also And here it will be necessary in the next place to consider again what it is in these respects that we blame the Church of Rome for I mean What the Guilt of the Church of Rome is For either Guilt is a thing of Weight before God or it is not And either the Guilt which hath been charged upon the Church of Rome by reason of her Persecution by our Reformers first and by many worthy Men of the Church of England since is justly charged upon her or it is not But if that Guilt be Real and that it is justly charged upon the said Church It is apparently Criminal two ways First as she through her Persecution is the cause of all that Hypocrisie Dissimulation and Apostacy which men commit for meer fear of her and by which though out of weakness they do greatly wrong their own Conscience and greatly injure their former Profession before God and know they do so and lye oft-times under trouble of Conscience all their lives afterward for it And secondly she is equally guilty as she is the cause by reason of her Persecution of the Sufferings Distresses and great Afflictions which many particular Persons and many Families groan under by which she occasions many solemn Complaints Cries and Appeals to be made unto God which men who are conscious to themselves of their Sincerity towards God did pour out to him as the Righteous Judge of all persons And if this be The Guilt of the Church of Rome and if we as Protestants when we write against the Church of Rome do say that all the Righteous Prayers Appeals and Complaints to God against her shall be heard And that she shall answer as well for the Crimes of others as for the Oppressions and Wrongs that she hath done to others What then can be said when a Protestant Church or the Clergy rather who are the Rulers of it shall be guilty of the same manner of Persecution and upon the very same unjust or upon more unjust Grounds or Principles that the Popish Clergy are and when by the means of this Persecution the said Protestant Clergy are the occasion of many mens Hypocrisie Dissimulation and Desertion of their Principles through weakness to the extreme injury and wrong of their Consciences and are the express Cause of the Sighs Sufferings Groans and Complaints of divers others that are poured out in the very bitterness of their Souls unto God and when the said Protestant Church or the Ruling Clergy rather of it shall have no sence at all of the evil of any of these things nor seem to be in the least moved or concerned for them These things being considered the Question is whether any man that is rational can draw any other Conclusion from them but that The said Protestant Church or the Ruling Clergy of it do not believe themselves at all when they write against the Papists for these things and that notwithstanding they do threaten the Church of Rome with the Judgments of God because of their Cruelty and of their Persecutions of men for their Conscience sake yet they do indeed but laugh in their sleeves at it and do not believe any such thing as that the direful Judgments of God shall come upon any either for Cruelty or for Persecution of others for Conscience sake or for being the occasions of many mens sinning against and wounding of their own Consciences but that when they speak of the Judgments of God they speak of them but as Scare-Crows Bug-bears or Pot-Guns For would it not be an uncharitable thing or rather is it not an incredible thing for any man to think that the Protestant Clergy should do the very same things which they expresly declare and acknowledge to be heinous Offences and Crimes against God in their Adversaries the Church of Rome if they did really believe themselves in what they usually write when they threaten them with the Judgments of God upon them for the said things If to avoid this which they perhaps may look upon as some imputation or reflection upon them the said Protestant Church or rather the Ruling Clergy of it shall deny the Case to be the same and shall say that the Grounds or Principles upon which they persecute men are much different from those of the Papists or Church of Rome Let them I mean the Ruling Clergy lay down the State of it and shew us wherein the greatness of the said difference doth consist For if the Fact for which men are punished by the said Protestant Clergy be the very same or of the same nature with that for which the
Popish Clergy do punish men viz. for their worshipping God and for their worshipping of him not contrary to the Scripture or contrary to any thing that seems clearly and plainly their Duty in the Word of God but contrary only to some Order or other in the Church And if the quality of the Persons that do suffer and that are punished by the Protestant Clergy are the same also with those that are punished by the Popish Clergy that is such men as are neither blameable in Nor so much as accused or charged by them with or for any Crime Or any Immorality in their Lives and Conversations But such as otherwise demean themselves in all Duty and with all Subjection to their Superiors I say if both these are the very SAME one with another wherein doth the Essential Difference lye between the Persecution of the Popish Clergy and the Persecution of the Protestant Clergy unless it be strictly in this That the Protestant Clergy do pretend to believe the Scriptures to be the Supreme Rule and mind of God to his Church and if asked do freely grant That men are NOT bound in Conscience to any Rule Superior to this Nor can be bound in the things of Faith or in things relating to the Worship of God to any Rule above this And yet at the same time that they own this they persecute their Brethren not only in their Liberties but in their Goods Fortunes and Estates and sometimes in their Lives also through nasty Prisons and want of Conveniences for acknowledging the said Scriptures to be such as they themselves do own them to be and for that they accordingly conform to their own Principles Whereas The Popish Clergy though they persecute men for the same Crimes yet they do not give so much Honour to the Scriptures nor do so much as pretend to it But which of these two Are for this very Cause the greater Crimes before God may be left to all rational men to consider In the mean time I am most sure of this That whereas our first Reformers did call the Church of Rome Antichristian and did charge her with Innocent Blood and did put the name of Scarlet-Whore for this Reason upon her Yet now it is most certain the Stain and Discredit of it is in her eyes manifestly lessened if it be not wholly bletted out For it is impossible that the Church of Rome should ever hereafter grant these things to be Stains or Crimes proper only to her which she doth not only see but can daily observe some Protestant Church or other to follow her in upon such Grounds as are far less justifiable in the said Protestant Church according to the Principles they profess than they are in her self And that this is not a thing ever to be hoped or expected from her hereafter is the more clear in regard the said Church of Rome hath already in so many words sharply and closely Retorted it upon the Protestant Church So that the VERY things which we blame the said Church of Rome for and for which we accuse her Criminally And which we pretend to be the main Grounds why we could no longer have any Communion with her which was her laying aside the sole Authority of the Scriptures And her persecuting such as desired to walk according to the Rule of it some Protestant Churches have not only imitated her in but have outgone her and have done so much worse than she ever did by how much we have contradicted the Principles we profess which she hath not And that she hath cast this as a Reproach upon us in words and hath alledged several Arguments to confirm it and such as have not to this very day been answered by us is matter of Fact And if in all Courts of Judicature matter of Fact be good Evidence and if the highest Evidence that can be given in matter of Fact is when the Fact is able to speak and attest it self or when it is capable to be attested to by thousands then is the Evidence which I here bring every way as good and every way as vallid to prove what I affirm Which is That the Church of Rome hath endeavoured to justifie and acquit her self from the Crime of unjust Persecution and Blood by instancing the same thing in the Practice of Protestants one toward another and therein hath exonerated her self from the sole Guilt of this evil and from the sole Guilt of her being alone that Babylon mentioned Rev. 17. which hath been frequently fixed singly upon her and attributed to none besides her And she hath produced several Arguments also and those of Weight to make it appear That Protestants In their Persecution one of another are far more unjust upon the Principles we profess as Protestants than she is upon her own Principles how much so ever we have pleased to inveigh against her and revile her And these Arguments she hath no way scrupled publickly and openly to divulge in English to the end that every man that is rational may the better examine them and judge of them And that we have not as yet pleaded to the said Arguments Or to the Retortion she hath made upon us either by denying the Fact it self absolutely or by distinguishing the respective differing Circumstances and Grounds of it is also well known Whereby she hath the more just occasion to think that those Protestants that have thus persecuted others are conscious to themselves of their own Guilt And seeing all this is pure matter of Fact one of these two Conclusions therefore do seem to be impossible to be avoided viz. That either we have done very evil in charging the Church of Rome as Antichristian and in charging her as guilty of the Blood of the Saints which is mentioned Rev. 17.6 which must nevertheless be inevitably charged some where and very evil to impose the name of Scarlet-Whore and of Babylon upon her Or If the Protestant Churches have said all this really in Judgment and really in Truth against her Then have some Protestant Churches done much worse themselves in being actually guilty of the same things which have been so criminally charged upon her And if the Church of Rome be guilty of Innocent Blood then none that is sober can doubt but she must at length be lyable to the extreme Judgments of God for it And therefore if any Protestant Churches have followed her in that very Guilt the same judgments must as unquestionably come upon them and perhaps more severe And to the end that all Protestant Churches may be awakened to consider their great Danger in this Case if they have been Persecutors of their Brethren I need do no more than to lay before them the express Prophesie of our Lord Jesus Christ in this Case viz. That there should be some who delaying in their hearts the Consideration of his coming should instead of giving a portion of Meat to their fellow-Servants be found smiting of them The
Heart smote him And some things he was about to do for the prevention of which he gave solemn thanks to God For we find that Davids Heart smote him after he had numbered the people and after he had but cut off the Skirt of Sauls Garment 2 Sam. 24.10 and 1 Sam. 24.5 And he gives solemn Thanks for Abigails being an Instrument to prevent him from shedding Blood 1 Sam. 25.32 For if the Church of Rome do punish others really and indeed upon the Principle of Disobeying her Authority though she dare not pretend this openly lest her Cruelty and Blood-Guiltiness being for no other Cause should be so manifest that it would never be able to admit of a competent Apology Colour or Excuse And therefore leaving this she insists upon the Ground of Her Persecution as it is for Herefie only But if we on the other hand punish others not only with loss of Goods but with loss of Liberty Banishment and perpetual Imprisonment which is far more Cruelty than Immediate Death it self and would be more willingly chosen by most men and do all this for a Non-conformity and Disobedience to the Orders and Rites of the Church without so much as a pretence to any Guilt of Heresie Then Where is the difference between these two sorts of Persecutors unless the Ruling Clergy of our Church have done it more daringly and more Broad-facedly than the Church of Rome doth But which is more to be considered and laid to heart If the Church of Rome do not punish those that acknowledge her to be a True Church but those only that condemn her as a false Church and who do under this Notion professedly separate from her as from that Babylon mentioned in the Revelations And if we on the other hand punish those that own not only the same Faith and Doctrine But the very same Principles of Reformation with our selves and who therefore give no just Provocation nor use any such reproachful Language to our Church as the Protestant Churches generally do to the Church of Rome Where then is the difference unless it be that she renders evil to her professed Enemies who cannot but openly own a Hatred and Contempt for her We inflict all manner of Evil upon our Brethren that supplicate for Peace with us and would be glad not to separate from us and which of these two then is the more ingenious But which is yet more If we as we are Protestants cannot but grant that there is to be a Subordination of the Church not only immediately to the Lord Jesus Christ himself but to HIS Word and that we utterly deny that he hath any such One as a Vicar upon the Earth and utterly deny that any man whatever hath any power to dispence with the Commands of our Lord Jesus Christ so far as they appear to be clear to us from his Word wherefore if we notwithstanding we make these things to be the very Profession of our Faith yet shall never punish any But such as keep exactly to all and every of these Principles and shall observe them conscientiously and strictly Whereas the Popish Clergy on the contrary punish none but such only who deny or oppose wholly the things which their Church affirms Where then is the Reasonableness of our Punishment and the Unreasonableness of theirs and which of these two hath the greater Resemblance of Hypocrisie even in our own Judgment whether our Punishment or theirs seeing we punish men for following the Principles we allow They never punish any but for following those Principles that they totally disallow But the evil of this Persecution further appears thus for if we as Protestants say we have separated from the Church of Rome out of Conscience First because she imposed those things that were Inscriptural upon us And secondly because she was guilty of Blood and that the Characters of a false Church did for both these Reasons lye upon her and therefore that we cannot but give thanks solemnly unto God for our Deliverance out of her power And if the Ruling Clergy of a Protestant Church have nevertheless not spared to persecute unto Blood even those that have not only out of the same two Motives separated with us But by persisting constantly in the said Motives do daily justifie us How comes our Blood and Persecution to be less sinful than hers and why should it be less crying unto God for had we never so intently studied how we might have put the greatest stumbling-Block we could before our Adversaries or how we might have brought the greatest Blemish Scandal and Reproach that was possible upon our Reformation or how we might have opened the Complaints and Exclamations of men most against us What Course could possibly have been taken to all these ends that could have been more effectual than this For how can he that is thus persecuted by the Ruling Clergy of a Protestant Church give Thanks unto God solemnly for his Deliverance out of the Church of Rome's Thraldom when the very same Persons that pretend to be delivered with him Imposeth nevertheless the like Thraldom upon him Or how shall he that is thus persecuted be any way able to imagine and much less to believe that the Church which persecutes him is serious in her Profession of Thanks unto God for her own freedom when she is no sooner freed her self but she brings others into the same Hardship and Servitude that she her self did but a little while since greatly complain of and groan under But leaving these things to be most seriously considered by all Protestant Churches in these three Kingdoms and elsewhere even by all whomsoever they Concern I shall now proceed to give in this place A Description of the Absurd Ridiculous and Contemptible Grounds and Foundations on which the Papists Build Though nothing is more Evident than this that the Thraldom or Bondage of the Church of Rome doth principally consist in the disagreeableness of her Doctrines to the Rule of the Scripture yet nevertheless it is Matter of Fact That the Church of Rome doth not in plain and express Terms deny the Truth or deny the Authority of the Scripture or deny the end of them as they are appointed for the Church And if we cannot for this Cause justly charge her with any of these things Then we must necessarily grant that the said Doctrines so far as they are corrupt and have a real Inconsistency with the Scripture it self could have their Rise at first no otherwise Than by vertue of her Authority as a Church And consequently that as they had thus their Rise at first so they have had their whole Maintenance and Support ever since no otherwise than as this Authority being Absolute and Arbitrary hath defended them against whatever might be said from the Authority of the Scripture in opposition to them And therefore here we shall lay open her Shame and Nakedness and her great Absurdity that lyeth in the Manner and Method and
Nature of her Policy For the Acquiring of that Arbitrary Absolute and unlimited Power which she exerciseth And first we find that she doth upon her own Authority affirm That it is neither the Letter of the Scripture nor the Grammar of it how Plain Clear or Express soever it be that doth or ought to bind the Consciences of men but the sence of the said Scripture only And Secondly she doth affirm That it is not the sence of the Scripture also which doth or can any way directly bind the Consciences of men if this sence be considered nakedly in it self either as literal or mystical but that the said sence is capable of binding only considered as it is Catholick And Thirdly That it is not either in the Letter or in the Grammar of the said Scripture how clear or plain soever it be that the Divine Authority of it is placed but simply and only in the sence of it as this sence is the sence of the Universal Church and therefore that sence which is properly called Catholick Which Propositions she having in her Prudence thus peculiarly laid down as the Grounds or Foundations not only of all Christian Faith but of all Christian Verity and Truth it self In the next place she builds upon these unsound Grounds an Assumption that is parallel to them and that is every way as entirely her own as the former viz. That she alone hath not only the Right as exclusive to all others of Dispencing this Catholick Sence to all the Members of the Christian Church but of dispencing it in order to their Salvation and hath inherent in her the full and absolute Power finally and Inappealeably to determine at all times and upon all Occasions what the said Catholick Sence is concerning all Points whatever that may be controverted and concerning all places of Scripture whatever that may be doubted of or disputed And that as this Power is absolutely necessary for the Preservation of the Unity so for the Preservation of the Purity of the said Christian Faith in regard it is impossible that such a Sence of the Scripture as is wholly Universal and Catholick should at any time Err. The Conclusion then if all these Premises be true is That the Church of Rome is to be believed and that all her Determinations whatever they be are for Conscience sake to be Obeyed and Submitted unto even by the whole Christian Church without any Dispute or without so much as any scruple of Mind This Conclusion being that which all the Partizans and Champions of the Church of Rome do labour with Might and Main to bring every man to and therefore it is the same with that Security and Rest which they pretend all men may have not only with absolute Safety but with absolute satisfaction in the Bosom of their Church But indeed this Conclusion hath not any tendency to Salvation at all but is quite contrary to all that is alledged and leads expresly to nothing else but to the utter Overthrow and Subversion of the whole Scripture it self with the Mind Law Will and Counsel of God so far at least as depends upon Revelation in regard it puts the Scripture together with the whole Authority of it though Divine in it self absolutely perfectly and entirely into the Arbitrary Will and Power of the said Church And therefore the Protestants upon Consideration of the extreme Mischiefs that must of necessity follow from such a Conclusion as this they do with Indignation reject it And First The Protestants do wholly deny that the said Church of Rome hath any rightful Authority to make null the Grammar of the Scripture Secondly The Protestants do much more deny that she hath any Right to institute or set up such a Sence of the Scripture under any name or pretence whatever that is either opposite to the Grammar of the Scripture or that at least pretends that there is not a necessity to follow and observe the Rules of it Thirdly Consequently they utterly deny that she hath any Right to transfer the Authority of the Scripture from the Sence proper to the Letter of it self to such a Sence as is only and properly hers And Fourthly They deny that she hath any Right or any Power to set up any Sence of her own at all which is not absolutely subjected to the Rule and Authority that is inherent to the Scriptures Letter and Word with the proper Sence of it as this is and ought to be Supreme to all others Fifthly And they do much less acknowledge that she hath any such Right in her or derived to her therefore as to make her Sence of the Scripture or what she declares to be so the Sence of the Universal Church Sixthly Or that she hath any Right to make her sence of the Scripture to be the Absolute or Supreme Rule of all Infallible and Christian Truth or to disallow any Appeal from her proper Determinations to the living Rule of the Scriptures Grammar and to the Letter or Word of it Seventhly And the Protestants denying all these things they do deny therefore that she hath any Authority Power or Right to dispence with That Duty and Obligation which is divinely and absolutely laid upon the Consciences of men which is To obey the Word of God in the litteral plain and express Sence of it Eighthly And the Protestants do deny consequently that the Consciences of men are or can any way possibly be obliged to her bare Determination of the Sence of the Scripture Especially so far as this is set up absolutely by her and is not dependant upon any Sence proper to the Words and Grammar of the Scripture it self All and every of which Powers as the Protestant Church doth wholly deny to the Church of Rome So for as much as the Church of Rome can pretend to no one of the said Rights or Authorities now mentioned otherwise than as it must by some means or other be lawfully conveyed or derived to her The Protestant Church therefore challengeth her and provoketh her to shew that special and peculiar Commission by which SHE and SHE alone is impowered to do all or any of those things before named Because without this Commission can be produced and produced upon some Clear Evident and Sufficient Warrant or Ground for it All Her pretences to the said Authority seeing it is so manifestly destructive to the Scripture it self must needs appear to be not only Precarious but very frivolous and very absurd The Church of Rome being thus challenged and provoked in the point of her Commission and yet well knowing that there is nothing which she can possibly appeal unto for the proof of her Authority beside the Scripture it self She becomes hereupon to be several ways distressed and perplexed First because she finds that she cannot allow of the Grammatical Sence of the Scripture in any one Case whatever But she must necessarily and unavoidably allow it in all other Cases also where it may
just ground to examine her Doctrines or Authority by it and to withdraw from her or to assert there is a necessity that divers things should be reformed in her And for this Reason it is therefore that she neither hath any Subjects nor can or will admit of any to be her Subjects whether of the Laity or Clergy who will not withdraw their Obedience immediately from the Letter of the said word and from the Authority of it and give it to her as a Church Which injury against the Authority of the Scripture or written Letter of the word of it as it is therefore knowingly wittingly and willingly committed by the Church of Rome must for this cause be much the greater But the greatness and heinousness of it is made most manifest by that Argument which the Apostle useth Heb. 2.2 3. Heb. 10.28 29. Heb. 12.25 For if the Law or Covenant of Moses how divine soever was given to the Church nevertheless by one that was no more than a Servant only in Gods house And if that the Grace and Truth which came by Jesus Christ was given us by the only Son of God who was properly the Lord himself of the House Then a Sin or Crime done purposely against the Gospel of Christ and out of a real intent or design to turn men from the express Word or Letter of that Law or Covenant which was set up by Christ must be a far greater Evil or Impiety against God than the like sin attempted against the Law of Moses with a purpose or intent to turn men from the Letter and express Word of it There is such Force and Strength in this Argument added to what hath been already said as there needs no more to be said to manifest the abominableness of this Evil and therefore we shall herewith conclude this Discourse as with that great word of Truth which ought in this case to be most of all pondered and considered by them whom it most concerns For if it were evil in any even in him that had the name of a Prophet to turn men from the Law or from the Word of Moses who was but the Servant of God with an intent that they should rely upon another word different from it even upon his Word or upon such a Sign or Wonder as was wrought by him who did desire so to turn them from Moses and if this was such an Evil as was by Gods own Command to be punished absolutely with Death Then how much greater evil must it be in the sight of God to go about to turn men from the express Word and Law of the Lord Christ who was the only begotten Son of God with an intent that they should rely upon another Word different from it and to do this not only wilfully but avowedly and professedly by preaching to men openly that it is not their duty to rely upon the Word of Christ as it is immediately and expresly set down by the Holy Spirit but upon the Church only and what the Church shall declare to them concerning the said Word and when to effect this also the better men shall throw so great Contempt and Scandal upon the said Word as to affirm it to be so dark and confused that no certain or infallible Sence either is in it or can possibly be had from it And if this sin were the greater under the Law because of those Miracles which God had wrought by Moses to testifie him to be the Servant of himself Then it must be an aggravation of the said sin under the Gospel Because God hath not only by Miracles but even by Moses himself and by many other means and ways in his Providence born a far greater Testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ than ever he did bear unto Moses and hath abundantly manifested That he was the Only begotten Son of himself And if any man under the Law that did attempt to turn men from the word of the said Law was to be accounted as a false Prophet much more then ought he to be so accounted that doth both with all Industry and set Design indeavour to do this under the Gospel FINIS