it alone and traditions they had good store whose original they pleaded from Moses himself directing them in that interpretation Christ and his Apostles whom they looked upon as poor ignorant contemptible persons came and preacht a doctrine which that Church determined utterly contrary to the Scripture and their Traditions what shall now be answered to their Authority which was unquestionably all that ever was or shall be entrusted with any Church on the earth Our Author tells us that this great argument of the Jews could not be any way warded or put by but by recourse unto the Churches infallibility pag. 146. Which sit verbo venia is so ridiculous a pretence as I wonder how any block in his way could cause him to stumble upon it What Church I pray the Church of Christians When that argument was first used by the Jews against Christ himself it was not yet founded and if an absolute infallibility be supposed in the Church without respect to her adherence to the rule of infallibility I dare boldly pronounce that argument indissoluble and that all Christian Religion must be therein discarded If the Jewish-Church which had at that day as great Church-power and prerogative as any Church hath or can have were infallible in her Judgment that she made of Christ and his Doctrin there remains nothing but that we renounce both him and it and turn either Jews or Pagans as we were of old Here then by our Authors confession lies a plain Judgment and Definition of the only Church of God in the world against Christ and his Doctrine and it is certainly incumbent on us to see how it may be waâ—ed And this I suppose we cannot better be instructed in then by considering what was answered unto it by Christ himself his Apostles and those that succeeded them in the profession of the faith of the Gospel 1 For Christ himself its certain he pleaded his miracles the Works which he wrought and the Doctrine that he revealed but withall as to the Jews with whom he had to do he pleads the Scriptures Moses and the Prophets and offers himself and his Doctrine to be tryed to stand or fall by their verdict Joh. 5.39 46. Mat. 22.42 Luk. 24.27 I say besides the testimony of his Works and Doctrine to their authority of the Church he opposeth that of the Scripture which he knew the other ought to give place unto And it is most vainly pretended by our Author in the behalf of the Jews that the Messias or great Prophet to come was not in the Scripture specified by such Characteristicall Properties as made it evident that Jesus was the Messiah all the descriptions given of the one and they innumerable undeniably centring in the other The same course steered the Apostle Peter Act. 2. 3. And expresly in his second Epistle chap. 2. v. 17 18 19. And Paul Act. 13.16 17 c. And of Apollos who openly disputed with the Jews upon this Argument it is said that he mightily convinced the Jews publickly shewing by the Scripture that Jesus is the Christ Act. 18.28 And Paul perswaded the Jews concerning Jesus at Rome both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning until evening Act. 28.23 Concerning which labour and disputation the censure of our Author p. 149. is very remarkable There can be no hope saith he of satisfying a Querent or convincing an Opponent in any point of Christianity unless he will submit to the splendor of Christs Authority in his own Person and the Church descended from him which I take to be the Reason why some of the Jews in Rome when St. Paul laboured so much to perswade Christ out of Moses and the Prophets believed in him and some did not Both the coherence of the words and design of the Preface and his whole scope manifest his meaning to be That no more believed on him or that some disbelieved notwithstanding all the pains he took with them And what was the reason of this failure Why St. Paul fixed on an unsuitable means of perswading them namely Moses and the Prophets when he should have made use of the Authority of the Church Vain and bold man that dares oppose his prejudices to the Spirit and Wisdom of Christ in that great and holy Apostle and that in a way and work wherein he had the express pattern and example of his Master If this be the Spirit that rules in the Roman-Synagogue that so puffes up men in their fleshly minds as to make them think themselves wiser then Christ and his Apostles I doubt not but men will every day find cause to rejoyce that it is cast out of them and be watchful that it return to possess them no more But this is that which galls the man The difficulty which he proposeth as insoluble by any wayes but an acquiescing in the Authority of the present Church he finds assoyled in Scripture on other Principles This makes him fall soul on St. Paul whom he finds most frequent in answering it from Scripture not considering that at the same time he accuseth St. Peter of the like folly though he pretend for him a greater reverence However this may be said in defence of St. Paul that by his Arguments about Christ and the Gospel from Moses and the Prophets many thousands of Jews all the World over were converted to the Faith when it 's hard to meet with an instance of one in an age that will any way take notice of the Authority of the roman-Roman-Church But to return this was the constant way used by the Apostles of answering that great difficulty pleaded by our Author from the Authority of the hebrew-Hebrew-Church They called the Jews to the Scripture the plain Texts and Contexts of Moses and the Prophets opposing them to all their Churches real or pretended Authority and all her Interpretations pretended to be received by Tradition from of old so fixing this for a perpetual standing Rule to all Generations that the Doctrine of the Church is to be examined by the Scripture and where it is found contradictory of it her authority is of no value at all it being annexed unto her attendance on that Rule But it may be replyed That the Church in the dayes of the Apostles was not yet setled nor made firm enough to bear the weight that now may be laid upon it as our Author affirms pag. 149. So that now the great Resolve of all doubts must be immediately upon the Authority of the present Church after that was once well cleared the fathers of old pleaded that only in this case and removed the Objections of the Jews by that alone I am perswaded though our Author be a great admirer of the present Church he is not such a stranger to Antiquity as to believe any such thing Is the Authority of the Church pleaded by Justine Martyr in that famous dispute with Trypho the Jew wherein these very Objections instanced by our
by his example he commends unto them But it will be said He only shews the uncertainties that are about Scripture that men may not expect by or from them deliverance from the darkness and ignorance before spoken of Suppose then they come to be perswaded of such an uncertainty What course shall they take Apply themselves to the roman-Roman-Church and they are safe But seeing the being of a Church much less the roman-Roman-Church hath no foundation in the light of Nature and men can never know any thing of it especially of its Prerogative but by and from the Scripture whose Authority you have taught them to question and made doubtful to them What remains for rational men but to renounce both Scripture and Church and betake themselves to your commendable piece of witty Atheism This is the old lurry The Scripture cannot be known believed understood but by the Church the Church cannot be proved to have Being Constitution or Authority but by the Scripture and then if you doubt of the Authority of that proof of the Church you must return to the Church again and so on until all Faith and Reason vanish or men make shipwrack of their Faith and become brutish in their Understanding pretending to believe they know neither what nor why And this imployment of raising surmises and stirring up jealousies about the Word of God it's Pen-men and their Authority do men put themselves upon I will not say to gratifie the Roman-Court but I will say in obedience to their prejudices lusts and darkness and saddest drudgery that any of the sons of men can be exercised withal And if he would be believed he professeth himself an Anti-Scripturist and in that profession which he puts upon himself an Atheist For my part I am amazed to think how men are able to hold their Pens in their hands that an horrour of the work they have before them doth not make them shake them out when they are thus traducing the holy Word of Christ and exciting evil surmises about it Should they deal with a man of any Power and Authority they might not expect to escape his indignation even to publish to all the World that he is indeed an honourable person but yet if men will question his Honour Truth Honesty Authority and affirm him to be a Cheat Thief Murderer Adulterer they cannot see how they can be disproved at least he would have a difficult task in hand that should endeavour to free him from objections of that nature Yet thus men dare to deal with the Scripture that Word which God hath magnified above all his Name If this be the Spirit that breathed in the Apostles the holy Army of Martyrs of old and all the Fathers of the Primitive Church I am much mistaken nay I am greatly so if with one consent they would not denounce an Anathema against such a defence of any Religion whatever But you will say The same person defends also the Scripture just as he in the Poet did Pelilius Me Capitolinus convictore usus amicoque A puero est causaque mea permulta rogatus Fecit incolumnis laetor quod vivit in urbe Sed tamem admiror quo pacto Judicium illud Fugerit A defence worse and more bitter then a down-right accusation I am not now to observe what prejudice this excuse brings to the cause of our Author with all intelligent persons having noted it once and again before nor what contentment Protestants take to see that the Truth they profess cannot be shaken without inducing men to question the Fundamental Principles of Christian Religion and if this course be persisted in for ought that I can understand the whole Controversie between us and the Romanists must needs be at last reduced unto this head Whether the Scripture of the Old and New-Testament was given by Divine Inspiration For the present having in the consideration of the general suppositions of this Treatise spoken before to this head I shall not need to answer particular Exceptions given in against its Authority nor do I think it incumbent on me so to do unless our Author own them for his sense which if he be pleased to do I promise him if God give me life to give him a distinct answer to every one of them and all that is contained in them Moreover these things will again occurre in his 15. Section where he expresly takes the Scripture to task as to its pleas for judging of and setling Men in the Truth Proceed we to his next Section p. 126. CHAP. VIII Use of Reason Sect. 11. THis Section is set apart for the cashiering of Reason from having any hand in the business we deal about and the truth is if our Author can perswade us first to throw away our Bibles and then to lay aside the use of our Reason I suppose there is no doubt but we shall become Roman-Catholicks This work it seems cannot be effected unless men are contented to part with Scripture and Reason all that whereby they are Christians and Men. But unless our Author have emptyed Circe's Box of Oyntment whereby she transformed Men into Swine he will confess it somewhat a difficult task that he hath undertaken Methinks one of these demands might suffice at once But he presumes he hath put his Countrey-men into a good humor and knowing them free and open-hearted he plyes them whilest they are warm We have indeed in this Section as fair a flourish of words as in any other but there can be but little reason in the words that men make use of to plead against Reason it self And yet I am perswaded most Readers think as well of this 〈◊〉 as any in the Book To whom the unâ—easonableness of this is evident that of the others is so also and those who willingly imbibe the other parts of his Discourse will little strain at this Nothing is to be trusted unto Prejudice Nor if we will learn are we to think strange of any thing Let us weigh then impartially what is of Reason in this Discourse against the use of Reason What ever he pretends he knows full well that he hath no difference with any sort of Protestants about finding out a Religion by Reason and adhereing only to its dictates in the Worship of God All the World of Protestants profess that they receive their Religion wholly by Revelation from God and no otherwise Nor is it about ascribing a Soveraignty to Reason to judge of the particulars of Religion so Revealed to accept or refuse them according as that shall judge them suitable or not to its principles and liking This is the Soveraign dictate of Reason That whatever God reveals to be believed is true and as such must be embraced though the bottom of it cannot be sounded by Reason's line and that because 〈◊〉 reason of a man is not absolutely reason but being the reason of a man is variously limitted bounded and made defective in its ratiocinations An objective
be made a Topick for these ends and purposes that is that indeed that is of no use in Religion The trouble and comfort of it are by a due mixture so allaid as to their proper qualities that they can have no operation upon the minds of men to sway them one way or other Had some of our Forefathers been so far illuminated all things had not been at the state wherein they are at this day in the Papacy but it may be much more is not to be expected from it and therefore it may now otherwise be treated than it was yerst-while when it was made the sum and substance of Religion However the time will come when this Platonical Signet that hath no colour from Scripture but is opposite to the clear testimonies of it repugnant to the grace truth and mercy of God destructive to the mediation of Christ useless to the souls of men serving only to beget false fears in some few but desperate presumptions from the thoughts of an after-reserve and second venture after this life is ended in the most abused to innumerable other Superstitions utterly unknown to the first Churches and the Orthodox Bishops of them having by various means and degrees crept into the Roman-Church which shall be laid open if called for shall be utterly exterminated out of the confines and limits of the Church of God In the mean time I heartily beg of our Romanists that they would no more endeavour to cast men into real scorching consuming fire for refusing to believe that which is only imaginary and phantastical CHAP. XXII Pope SECT 29. IT is not because the Pope is forgotten all this while that he is there placed in the rear after Images Saints and Purgatory It is plain that he hath been born in mind all along yea and so much mentioned that a man would wonder how he comes to have a special Paragraph here alloted to him The whole book seems to be all-Pope from the very beginning as to the main design of it and now to meet Pope by himself again in the end is somewhat unexpected But I suppose our Author thinks he can never say enough of him Therefore lest any thing fit to be insisted on should have escaped him in his former discourses he hath designed this Section to gather up the Paralipomena or ornaments he had forgotten before to set him forth withall And indeed if the Pope be the man he talks of in this Section I must acknowledge he hath had much wrong done him in the world He is one it seems that we are beholding unto for all we have that is worth any thing particularly for the Gospel which was originally from him for Kingly Authority and his Crown land with all the honour and power in the Kingdom One that we had not had any thing left us at this day either of Truth or Unity humanely speaking had not he been set over us One in whom Christ hath no lesse shewen his Divinity and Power than in himself in whom he is more miraculous then he was in his own person One that by the only Authority of his place and person defended Christ's being God against all the world without which humanely speaking Christ had not been taken for any such person as he is believed this day So as not only we but Christ himself is beholding to him that any body believes him to be God Now truly if things stand thus with him I think it is hightime for us to leave our Protestancy and to betake our selves to the Irish mans Creed That if Christ had not been Christ when he was Christ St. Patrick the Pope would have been Christ. Nay as he is having the hard fate to come into the World so many ages after the Ascension of Christ into heaven I know not what is left for Christ to be or do The Scripture tells us that the Gospel is Christ's originally from him now we are told It is the Popes originally from him That informes us that by Him the wisdom of God Kings Reign and Princes execute Judgement now we are taught That Kingly Authority with his Crown-land is from the Pope That instructs us to expect the preservation of Faith and Truth in the world from Christ alone the establishment of his Throne and Kingdom for ever and ever His building guidance and protection of his Church but we are now taught that for all these things we are beholding to the Pope who by his only Authority keeps up the faith of the Deity of Christ who surely is much ingaged to him that he takes it not to himself Besides what he is for our better information that we may judge aright concerning him we may consider also what he doth and hath been doing it seems a long time He is one that hath never been known to let fall the least word of passion against any nor move any engine for revenge one whose whole life and study is to defend innocence c. That by his general Councels all held under and by him especially that of Nice hath done more good than can be expressed Careful and more than humanely happy in all ages in reconciling Christian Princes c. One who let men talk what they will if he be not an unerring guide in matters of Religion and Faith all is lost But how shall we come to know and be assured of all this Other men as our Author knows and complains speak other things of him Is it meet that in so doubtful and questionable a business and of so great importance to be known we should believe a stranger upon his word and that against the vehement affirmations at least of so many to the contrary The Scripture speaks never a word that we can find of him nor once mentions him at all The antient Stories of the Church are utterly silent of him as for any such person as he is here described speaking of the Bishop of Rome as of other Bishops in those dayes many of the Stories of after-ages give us quite another Character of him both as to his personal qualifications and imployment I mean of the greatest part of the series of men going under that name In stead of Peace-making and Reconciliation they tell us of fierce and cruel warrs stirred up and mannaged by them of the ruine of Kings and Kingdoms by their means and instead of the meekness pretended their breathing out threatnings against men that adore them not persecuting them with Fire and Sword to the utter depopulation of some Countreys and the defiling of the most of Europe with bloudy cruelties What course shall we take in the contest of assertions that we may be able to make a right Judgment concerning him I know no better than this a little to examine apart the particulars of his Excellency as they are given us by our Author especially the most eminent of them and weigh whether they are given in according to truth or no. The first that
to mince the matter and give opportunity to new cavils and exceptions by babyâ—meâ—â—y-mouthed Petitions of some small things that there is a strife abouâ— when a man may as honestly all 〈◊〉 once suppose the whole Truth of his side and proceed without fear of disturbance And so wisely deals our Author in this business That which ought to have been his whole work he takes for granted to be already done If this be granted him he is safe deny it and all his fine Oration dwindles into a little sapless Sophistry But he must get the great number of Books that he seems to be troubled with out of the World and the Scripture to boot before he will perswade considerate and unprejudiced men that there is a word of Truth in this Supposition That we in these Nations received not the Gospel originally from the Pope which pag. 354. our Author tells us is his purely his whereas we thought before it had been Christ's hath been declared and shall if need be be further evinced But let us suppose once again that we did so yet we constantly deny the Church of Rome to be the same in Doctrine Worship and Discipline that she was when it is pretended that by her means we were instituted in the knowledge of Truth Our Author knows full well what a facile work I have now lying in view what an easie thing it were to go over most of the Opinions of the present Church of Rome and most if not all their practises in Worship and to manifest their vast distance from the Doctrine Practise and Principles of that Church of old But though this were really a more serious work and more useful and much more accommodated to the nature of the whole difference between us more easie and pleasant to my self then the persuit of this odd rambling chase that by following of him I am engaged in yet lest he should pretend that this would be a division into common places such as he hath purposely avoided and that not unwisely that he might â—â—ve advantage all along to take for graâ—â—â—d that which he knew to be principally in question between us I shall dismiss that business and only attend unto that great proof of this Assertion which himself thought meet to shut up his Book withall as that which was fit to pin down the Basket and to keep close and safe all the long Bill'd Birds that he hoped to Lime-twig by his preceding Rhetorick and Sophistry It is in pag. 362 363. Though I hope I am not contentious nor have any other hatred against Popery then what becomes an honest man to have against that which he is perswaded to be so ill as Popery must needs be if it be ill at all yet upon his request I have seriously pondered his Queries a captious way of disputing and falling now in my way do return him this answer unto them 1. The Supposition on which all his ensuing Queries are founded must be rightly stated its termes freed from ambiguity and the whole from equivocation which a word or two unto first the Subject and then secondly the Predicate of the Proposition or what is attributed unto the Subject spoken of and thirdly the proof of the whole will suffice to do The Thesis laid down is this The Church of Rome was once a most pure excellent flourishing and mother Church This good St. Paul amply testifies in his Epistle to them and is acknowledged by Protestants The Subject is the Church of Rome And this may be taken either for the Church that was founded in Rome in the Apostles dayes consisting of Believers with those that had their rule and oversight in the Lord or it may be taken for the Church of Rome in the sense of latter Ages consisting of the Pope its Head and Cardinals principal members with all the Jurisdiction dependent on them and way of Worship established by them and their Authority or that collection of men throughout the world that yield obedience to the Pope in their several places and subordinations according to the Rules by him and his Authority given unto them That which is attributed to this Church is that it was once a most pure excellent flourishing and Mother-Church all it seems in the superlative degree I will not contend about the purity excellency or flourishing of that Church the boasting of the superlativeness of that purity and excellency seems to be borrowed from that of Revel 3.15 But we shall not exagitate that in that Church which it would never have affirmed of it self because it is fallen out to be the interest of some men in these latter dayes to talk at such a rate as primitive humility was an utter stranger unto I somewhat guess at what he means by a Mother-Church for though the Scripture knows no such thing but only appropriates that Title to Hierusalem that was above which is said to be the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 which I suppose is not Rome and I also think that no man can have two Mothers nor did purer Antiquity ever dream of any such Mother yet the vogue of latter dayes hath made this expression not only passable in the world but sacred and unquestionable I shall only say that in the sense wherein it is by some understood the old Roman Church could lay no more claim unto it then most other Churches in the world and not so good as some others could The proof of this Assertion lies first on the Testimony of St. Paul and then on the acknowledgement of Protestants First Good St. Paul he says amply testifies this in his Epistle to the Romans This what I pray That the then Roman Church was a Mother Church not a word in all the Epistle of any such matter Nay as I observed before thogh he greatly commends the faith and holiness of many Believers Jews and Gentiles that were at Rome yet he makes mention of no Church there but only of a little Assembly that used to meet at Aquila's house nor doth St. Paul give any Testimony at all to the Roman Church in the latter sense of that expression Is there any thing in his Epistle of the Pope Cardinals Patriarchs c any thing of their power and rule over other Churches or Christians not living at Rome Is there any one word in that Epistle about that which the Papists make the principal ingredient in their definition of the Church namely subjection to the Pope What then is the This that good St. Paul so amply testifies unto in his Epistle to the Romans Why this and this only that when he wrote this Epistle to Rome there were then living in that City sundry good and holy men believing in Christ Jesus according to the Gospel and making profession of the faith that is in him but that these men should live there to the end of the world he says not nor do we find that they do The acknowledgement of Protestants is next to as little
but think that a sad profession of Religion which enforceth men to decry the use and excellency of that which let them pretend what they please is the only infallible Revelation of all that Truth by obedience whereunto we become Christians I do heartily pity Learned and Ingenious men when I see them enforced by a private corrupt Interest to engage in this woful work of undervaluing the word of God and so much the more as that I cannot but hope that it is a very ingrateful work to themselves Did they delight in it I should have other thoughts of them and conclude that there are more Atheists in the World than those whom our Author informs us to be lately turned so in England This then is the Remedy that Protestants have for their evils This the means of making up all their differences which they might do every day so far as in this World it is possible that that work should be done amongst men if it were not their own fault That they do not so blame them still blame them soundly lay on Reproofs till I cry Hold but let not I pray the word of God be blamed any more Methinks I could beg this of a Catholick especially of my Countrey-men That whatever they say to Protestants or however they deal with them they would let the Scripture alone and not decry its worth and usefulness It is not Protestants Book it is Gods who hath only granted them an use of it in common with the rest of men And what is spoken in disparagement of it doth not reflect on them but on him that made it and sent it to them It is no Policy I confess to discover our secrets to our Adversaries whereby they may prevent their own disadvantages for the future But yet because I look not on the Romanists as absolute Enemies I shall let them know for once that when Protestants come to that head of their Disputes or Orations wherein they contend that the Scripture is so and so obscure and insufficient they generally take great contentment to find that their Religion cannot be opposed without casting down the word of God from its excellency and enthroning somewhat else in the room of it Let them make what use of this they please I could not but tell it them for their good and I know it to be true For the present it comes too late For another main Principle of our Authors Discourse is VIII That the Scripture on sundry accounts is insufficient to settle us in the Truth of Religion or to bring us to an agreement amongst our selves and that 1. Because it is not to be known to be the word of God but by the Testimony of the Roman Church And then 2. Cannot be well Translated into any vulgar Language And is also 3. In its self obscure And 4. We have no way to determine of what is its proper sense Atqui hic est nigrae sumus Caliginis haec est Aerugo mera I suppose they will not tell a Pagan or a Mahumetan this story At least I heartily wish that men would not suffer themselves to be so far transported by their private Interest as to forget the general concernments of Christianity We cannot say they know the Scripture to be the word of God but by the Authority of the Church of Rome And all men may easily assure themselves that no man had ever known there was such a thing as a Church much less that it had any Authority but by the Scripture And whither this tends is easie to guess But it will not enter into my head that we cannot know or believe the Scripture to be the word of God any otherwise than on the Authority of the Church of Rome The greatest part of it was believed to be so before there was any Church at Rome at all and all of it is so by Millions in the World who make no account of that Church at all Now some say there is such a Church I wish men would leave perswading us that we do not believe what we know we do believe or that we cannot do that which we know we do and see that millions besides our selves do so too There are not many Nations in Europe wherein there are not Thousands who are ready to lay down their lives to give testimony that the Scripture is the word of God that care not a rush for the Authority of the present Church of Rome And what further evidence they can give that they believe so I know not And this they do upon that innate evidence that the word of God hath in it self and gives to its self the testimony of Christ and his Apostles and the teaching of the Church of God in all Ages I must needs say There is not any thing for which Protestants are so much beholding to the Roman Catholicks as this That they have with so much importunacy cast upon them the work of proving the Scripture to be of Divine Original or to have been given by inspiration from God It is as good a work as a man can well be imployed in and there is not any thing I should more gladly en professo ingage in if the nature of my present business would bear such a Diversion Our Author would quickly see what an easie Task it were to remove those his Reproches of a private spirit of an inward testimony of our own Reason which himself knowing the advantage they afford him amongst vulgar unstudied men trisles withal Both Romanists and Protestants as far as I can learn do acknowledge That the Grace of the Spirit is necessary to enable a man to believe savingly the Scripture to be the Word of God upon what Testimony or Authority soever that faith is founded or resolved into Now this with Protestants is no private Whisper no Enthusiasm no Reason of their own no particular Testimony but the most open noble known that is or can be in the World even the voice of God himself speaking publickly to all in and by the Scripture evidencing it self by its own Divine innate light and excellency taught confirmed and testified unto by the Church in all Ages especially the first founded by Christ and his Apostles He that looks for better or other Testimony Witness or Foundation to build his faith upon may search till Dooms-day without success He that renounceth this shakes the very root of Christianity and opens a door to Atheism and Paganism This was the Anchor of Christians of old from which neither the Storms of Persecution could drive them nor the subtilty of Disputations entise them For men to come now in the end of the World and to tell us That we must rest in the Authority of the present Church of Rome in our receiving the Scripture to be the word of God and then to tell us That that Church hath all its Authority by and from the Scripture and to know well enough all the while that no man can know
there is any Church or any Church Authority but by the Scripture is to speak Daggers and Swords to us upon a confidence that we will suffer our selves to be befooled that we may have the after-pleasure of making others like our selves Of the Translation of the Scripture into vulgar Tongues I shall expresly treat afterwards and therefore here passe it over 3. It s Obscurity is another thing insisted on and highly exaggerated by our Author And this is another thing that I greatly wonder at For as wise as these Gentlemen would be thought to be he that has but half an eye may discern that they consider not with whom they have to do in this matter The Scripture I suppose they will grant to be given by inspiration from God if they deny it we are ready to prove it at any time I suppose also that they will grant That the end why God gave it was that it might be a Revelation of himself so far as it was needful for us to know him and his mind and will so that we may serve him If this were not the end for which God gave his Word unto us I wish they would acquaint us with some other I think it was not that it might be put into a Cabinet and lock'd up in a Chest If this were the end of it then God intended in it to make a Revelation of himself so far as it was necessary we should know of Him and his Mind and Will that we might serve him For that which is any one end of any Thing or Matter That he intends which is the Author of it Now if God intended to make such a Revelation on of Himself his Mind and Will in giving of the Scripture as was said he hath either done it plainly that is without any such Obscurity as should frustrate him of his end or he hath not and that because either he would not or he could not I wish I knew which of these it was that the Roman Catholicks do fix upon it would spare me the labour of speaking to the other But seeing I do not that they may have no evasion I will consider them both If they say It was because he could not make any such plain Discovery and Revelation of himself then this is that they say That God intending to reveal Himself his Mind Will plainly in the Scripture to the sons of men was not able to do it and therefore failed in his Design This works but little to the glory of his Omnipotency and Omnisciency But to let that pass wherein men so they may compass their own ends seem not to be much concerned I desire to know Whether this plain sufficient Revelation of God be made any other way or no If no otherwise then as I confess we are all in the Dark so it is to no purpose to blame the Scripture of Obscurity seeing it is as lightsom as any thing else is or can be If this Revelation be made some other way it must be by God himself or some body else That any other should be supposed in good earnest to do that which God cannot though I know how some Canonists have jested about the Pope I think will not be pleaded If God then hath done this another way I desire to know the true reason why he could not do it this way namely by the Scripture and therefore desisted from his purpose But it may be thought God could make a Revelation of Himself his Mind and Will in and by the Scripture yet he would not do it plainly but Obscurely Let us then see what we mean by plainly in this business We intend not that every Text in Scripture is easie to be understood nor that all the matter of it is easie to be apprehended We know that there are things in it hard to be understood things to exercise the minds of the best and wisest of men unto Diligence and when they have done their utmost unto Reverence But this is that we mean by plainly The whole Will Mind of God with whatever is needful to be known of him is revealed in the Scripture without such Ambiguity or Obscurity as should hinder the Scripture from being a Revelation of him his Mind and Will to the end that we may know him and live unto him To say that God would not do this would not make such a Revelation besides the reflection that it casts on his Goodness and Wisdom is indeed to say that he would not do that which we say he would do The truth is all the Harangues we meet withal about the Obscurity of the Scripture are direct Arraignments of the Wisdom and Goodness of God And if I were worthy to advise my Roman-Catholick-Countreymen I would perswade them to desist from this Enterprize if not in Piety at least in Policy For I can assure them as I think I have done already that all their endeavours for the extenuation of the Worth Excellency Fullness Sufficiency of the Scripture do exceedingly confirm Protestants in the truth of their present perswasion which they see cannot be touched but by such horrible Applications as they detest 4. But yet they say Scripture is not so clear but that it needs interpretation and Protestants have none to interpret it so as to make it a means of ending differences I confess the interpretation of Scripture is a good and necessary work and I know that he who was dead and is alive for ever continues to give gifts unto men according to his Promise to enable them to interpret the Scripture for the edification of his Body the Church If there were none of these Interpreters among the Protestants I wonder whence it is come to pass that his Comments on and interpretations of Scripture who is most hated by Romanists of all the Protestants that ever were in the World are so borrowed and used that I say not stollen by so many of them And that indeed what is praise-worthy in any of their Church in the way of Exposition of Scripture is either borrowed from Protestants or done in imitation of them If I am called on for instances in this kind I shall give them I am perswaded to some mens amazement who are less conversant in these things But we are besides the matter It is of an infallible Interpreter in whâ—se Expositions and Determinations of Scripture-sense all Christians are obliged to acquiesce and such an one you have none I confess we have not if it be such an one as you intend whose Expositions and Interpretations we must acquiesce in not because they are true but because they are his We have infallible Expositions of the Scripture in all necessary Truths as we are assured from the Scripture it self But an infallible Expositor into whose Authority our faith should be resolved besides the Scripture it self we have none Nor do I think they have any at Rome what-ever they talk of to men that were never there nor I
c. THe Title of this Chapter was proposed the persuit of it now ensues The first Paragraph is a declamation about sundry things which have not much blame-worthy in them Their common weakness is that they are common They tend not to the furtherance of any one thing more then another but are such as any Party may flourish withal and use to their several ends as they please That desire of honour and applause in the world hath influenced the minds of men to great and strange Undertakings is certain That it should do so is not certain nor true so that when we treat of Religion if we renounce not the Fundamental Principle of it in Self-denyal this consideration ought to have no place What then was done by Emperours and Philosophers of old or by the later School-men on this account we are little concerned in Nor have I either desire or design to vellicate any thing spoken by our Author that may have an indifferent interpretation put upon it and be separated from the end which he principally persues As there is but very little spoken in this Paragraph directly tending to the whole end aimed at so there are but three things that will any way serve to leaven the mind of his Reader that he may be prepared to be moulded into the form he hath fancyed to cast him into which is the work of all these previous Harangues The first is his inâ—â—nuation That the Reformation of Religion is a thing pretended by aemulous Plebeians not able to hope for that Supervisorship in Religion which they see intrusted with others How unserviceable this is unto his Design as applyed to the Church of England all men know for setting aside the consideration of the influence of Soveraign Royal Authority the first Reformers amongst us were persons who as they enjoyed the right of Reputation for the Excellencies of Learning and Wisdom so also were they fixed in those places and conditions in the Church which no Reformation could possibly advance them above and the attempt whereof cost them not only their dignities but their lives also Neither were Hezekiah Josiah or Ezra of old aemulous plebeians whose lasting glory and renown arose from their Reformation of Religion They who fancy men in all great undertakings to be steered by desire of applause and honour are exceeding incompetent judges of those actions which zeal for the glory of God love to the Truth sense of their duty to the Lord Jesus Christ and compassion for the souls of others do lead men unto and guide them in and such will the last Day manifest the Reformation traduced to have been The Second is a gallant commendâ—tion of the Ingenuity Charity Candor and sublime Science of the School-men I confess they have deserved good words at his hands These are the men who out of a mixture of Philosophy Traditions and Scriptureâ— all corrupted and perverted have hammâ—â—ed that faith which was afterwards confirmed under so many Anathemaes at Trent So that upon the matter he is beholden to them for his Religion which I find he loves and hath therefore reason to be thankful to its Contrivers For my part I am as far from envying them their commendation as I have reason to be which I am sure is far enough But yet before we admit this Testimony hand over head I could wish he would take a course to stop the mouths of some of his own Church and those no small ones neither who have declared them to the world to be a pack of egregious Sophisters neither good Philosophers nor any Divines at all men who seem not to have had the least reverence of God nor much regard to the Truth in any of their Disputations but weâ—â— wholly influenced by a vain Reputation of Subtility desire of Conquest of leading and denominating Parties and that in a Barbarous Science barbarously expressed untill they had driven all Learning and Divinity almost out of the World But I will not contend about these Fathers of Contention let every man esteem of them as he seems good There is the same respect in that bitter reflection which he makes on those who have managed differences in Religion in this last Age the Third thing observable That they are the Writers and Writings that have been published against the Papacy which he intends he doth more than intimate Their Disputes he rells us are managed with so much unseemly behaviour such unmanerly expressions that discreet sobriety cannot but loath and abhor to read them with very much more to this purpose I shall not much labour to perswade men not to believe what he sayes in this matter for I know full well that he believes it not himself He hath seen too many Protestant Books I suppose to think this Cenâ—â—re will suit them all This was meet to be spoken for the advantage of the Catholick cause for what there hath been of real offence in this kind amongst us we may say Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra Romanists are Sinners as well as others And I suppose himself knows That the Reviling and Defamations used by some of his Party are not to be paralleld in any Writings of man-kind at this day extant About the Appellatioâ—s he shall think meet to make use of in reference to the Persons at variance we will not contend with him Only I desire to let him know That the reproach of Galilean from the Pagans which he appropriates to the Papists was worn out of the World before that Popery which he pleads for came into it As Roman-Catholicks never tasted of the sufferings wherewith that Reproach was attended so they have no special right to the honour that is in its remembrance As to the sport he is pleased to make with his Countrey-men in the close of this Paragraph about losing their wits in Religious contests with the evils thence ensuing I shall no further reflect upon but once more to mind the Reader that the many words he is pleased to use in the exaggerating the evils of mannaging differences in Religion with animosities and tumults so seemingly to perswade men to moderation and peace I shall wholly pass by as having discovered that that is not his business nor consequently at present mine It is well observed by him in his second Paragraph that most of the great Contests in the world about perishing things proceed from the unmortified lusts of men The Scripture abounds in Testimonies given hereunto St. James expresly From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight and warr yet you have not chap. 4.1 2. Mens lusts put them on endless irregularities in unbounded desires and foolish sinful enterprizes for their satisfaction Neither is Satan the old Enemy of the well-fare of mankind wanting to excite provoke and stir up these lusts by mixing himself
that which you intend that we should agree amongst our selves and wait for your coming with power to destroy us all It were well indeed if we could agree it is our fault and misery if we do not having so absolutely a perfect Rule and means of agreement as we have But yet whether we agree or agree not if there be another Party distinct from us all pretending a right to exterminate us from the earth it behooves us to look after their proceedings And this is the true state of all our Author's Pleas for Moderation which are built upon such Principles as tend to the giving us up unarmed and naked to the power and will of his Masters For the rest of this Section wherein he is pleased to sport himself in the miscarriages of men in their coyning and propagating of their Opinions and to gild over the care and success of the Church of Rome in stifling such births of pride and darkness I shall not insist upon it For as the first as generally tossed up and down concerns none in particular though accompanyed with the repetition of such words as ought not to be scosfed at so the latter is nothing but what violence and ignorance may any where and in any age produce There are Societies of Christians not a few in the East wherein meer darkness and ignorance of the Truth hath kept men at peace in Errors without the least disturbance by contrary opinions amongst themselves for above a 1000 years and yet they have wanted the help of outward force to secure their Tranquillity And is it any wonder that where both these powerful Engins are set at work for the same end if in some measure it be compassed and effected And if there be such a thing among the Romanists which I have reason to be difficult in admitting the belief of as that they can stisle all Opinions as fast as they are conceived or destroy them assoon as they are brought forth I know it must be some device or artifice unknown to the Apostles and Primitive Churches who notwithstanding all their Authority and care for the Truth could not with many compass that end Sect. 5. Pag. 54. The last Section of this Chapter contains motives to moderation three in number And I suppose that no man doubts but that many more might be added every one in weight out-doing all these three The first is that alone which Protestants are concerned to look unto not that Protestants oppose any motive unto moderation but knowing that in this Discourse Moderation is only the pretence Popery if I may use the word without incivility the Design and aim it concerns them to examine which of these pretended motives that any way regards their real principle doth tend unto Now this Motive is the great ignorance our state and condition is involved in concerning God his Works and Providence a great motive to Moderation I wish all men would well consider it For I must acknowledge that I cannot but suppose them ignorant of the state and condition of mortality and so consequently their own who are ready to destroy and exterminate their neighbors of the same flesh and bloud with them and agreeing in the main Principles of Religion that may certainly be known for lesser differences and that by such rules as within a few years may possibly reach their nearest Relations Our Author also layes so much weight on this Motive that he fears an anticipation by men saying That the Scripture reveals enough unto us which therefore he thinks necessary to remove For my part I scarse think he apprehended any real danger that this would be insisted on as an Objection against his motive to moderation For to prevent his tending on towards that which is indeed his proper end this obstacle is not unseasonably layed that under a pretence of the ignorance unavoidably attending our state and condition he might not prevail upon us to increase and aggravate it by entising us to give up our selves by an implicite faith to the conduct of the Roman-Church A man may easily perceive the end he intends by the Objections which he fore-sees No man is so madd I think as to plead the sufficiency of Scripture-Revelation against Moderation when in the Revelation of the Will of God contained in the Scripture Moderation is so much commended unto us and pressed upon us But against the pretended necessity of resigning our selves to the Romanists for a relief against the unavoidable ignorance of our state and condition besides that we know full well such a resignation would yield us no relief at all this plea of the sufficiency of Scripture-Revelation is full and unanswerable This put our Author on a work which I have formerly once or twice advised him to meddle no more being well assured that it is neither for his reputation nor his advantage much less for his souls health The pretences which he makes use of are the same that we have heard of many and many a time The abuse of it by some and the want of an Infallible Interpreter of it as to us all But the old tale is here anew gilded with an intermixture of other pretty stories and application of all to the present humours of men not forgetting to set forth the brave estate of our fore-fathers that had not the use of the Scripture which what it was we know well enough and better then the prejudices of this Gentleman will give him leave to tell us But if the lawful and necessary use of any thing may be decryed because of its abuse we ought not only to labour the abolishing of all Christian Religion in general and every principle of it in particular out of the world but the blotting out of the Sun and Moon and Stars out of the Firmament of Heaven and the destruction of the greatest and most noble parts at least of the whole Creation But as the Apostles continued in the work of Preaching the Gospel though by some the grace they taught was turned into lasciviousness so shall we abide to plead for the use of the Scripture whatever abuse of them by the wicked lusts of men can be instanced in Nor is there any reason in the world why food should be kept from all men though some have surfeited or may yet so do To have a compendious Narration of the Story and Morality of the Scripture in the room of the whole which our Author allows of is so jejune narrow and empty a Conception so unanswerable to all those divine Testimonies given to the excellency of the Word of God with Precepts to abide in the meditation and study of it to grow in the knowledge of it and the mysteries contained in it the commendations of them that did so in the Scripture it self so blasphemously derogatory to the Goodness Love and Wisdom of God in granting us that inestimable benefit so contrary to the redoubled Exhortations of all the Antient Fathers that I wonder
Truth our Reason supposes all that it hath to do is but to judge of what is proposed to it according to the best Principles that it hath which is all that God in that kind requires of us unless in that work wherein he intends to make us more then men that is Christians he would have us make our selves less then Men even as Brutes That in our whole obedience to God we are to use our Reason Protestants say indeed and moreover that what is not done reasonably is not Obedience The Scripture is the Rule of all our Obedience Grace the Principle enabling us to perform it but the manner of its performance must be Rational or it is not the supposition of Rule or Principle that will render any act of a man Obedience Religion say Protestants is revealed in the Scripture proposed to the minds and wills of men for its entertainment by the Ministry of the Church Grace to Believe and Obey is supernaturally from God but as to the Proposals of Religion from Scripture they averre that men ought to admit and receive them as men that is judge of the sense and meaning of them discover their truth and finding them revealed acquiesce in the Authority of him by whom they are first revealed So far as men in any things of their concernments that have a moral good or evil in them do refuse in the choice or refusal of them to exercise that judging and discerning which is the proper work of Reason they un-Man themselves and invert the order of Nature dethroning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Soul and causing it to follow the faculties that have no light but what they receive by and from it It 's true all our carnal reasonings against Scripture-Mysteries are to be captivated to the Obedience of Faith and this is highly reasonable making only the less particular defective collections of reason give place to the more noble general and universal principles of it Nor is the denying of our reason any where required as to the sense and meaning of the words of the Scripture but as to the things and matter signified by them The former Reason must judge of if we are men the latter if in conjunction with unbelief and carnal lusts it tumultuate against it is to be subdued to the Obedience of Faith All that Protestants in the business of Religion ascribe unto men is but this that in the business of Religion they are and ought to be men that is judge of the sense and truth of what is spoken to them according to that Rule which they have received for the measure and guide of their Understandings in these things If this may not be allowed you may make a Herd of them but a Church never Let us now consider what is offered in this Section about Reason wherein the concernment of any Protestants may lye As the matter is stated about any one's setting up himself to be a new and extraordinary Director unto men in Religion upon the account of the irrefutable Reason he brings along with him which is the spring and sourse of that Religion which he tenders unto them I very much question Whether any instance can be given of any such thing from the foundation of the World Men have so set up indeed sometimes as that Good Catholick Vanine did not long since in France to draw men from all Religions but to give a new Religion unto men that this pretension was ever solely made use of I much question As true Religion came by Inspiration from God so all Authors of that which is false have pretended to Revelation Such were the pretensions of Minos Lycurgus and Nunia of old of Mahomet of late and generally of the first Founders of Religious Orders in the Roman-Church all in imitation of real Divine Revelation and in answer to indelible impressions on the minds of all men that Religion must come from God To what purpose then the first part of his Discourse about the coyning of Religion from Reason or the framing of Religion by Reason is I know not unless it be to cast a Blind before his unwary Reader whilest he steals away from him his Treasure that is his Reason as to its use in its proper place Though therefore there be many things spoken unduly and because it must be said untruly also in this first part of his Discourse until toward the end of Pag. 131. which deserve to be animadverted on yet because they are such as no sort of Protestants hath any concernment in I shall pass them over That wherein he seems to reflect any thing upon our Principles is in a supposed reply to what he had before delivered whereunto indeed it hath no respect or relation being the assertion of a Principle utterly distant from that imaginary one which he had timely set up and stoutly cast down before It is this That we must take the words from Christ and his Gospel but the proper sense which the words of themselves cannot carry with them our own reason must make out If it be the Doctrine of Protestants which he intendeth in these words it 's most disadvantagiously and uncandidly represented which becomes not an ingenious and learned person This is that which Protestants affirm Religion is Revealed in the Scripture that Revelation is delivered and contained in Propositions of Truth Of the sense of those words that carry their sense with them Reason judgeth and must do so or we are Brutes and that every ones Reason so farr as his concernment lies in what is proposed to him Neither doth this at all exclude the Ministry or Authority of the Church both which are entrusted with it by Christ to propose the Rules contained in his Word unto Rational Creatures that they may understand believe love and obey them To cast out this use of Reason with pretence of an antient sense of the words which yet we know they have not about them is as vain as any thing in this Section and that is vain enough If any such antient sense can be made out or produced that is a meaning of any Text that was known to be so from their Explication who gave that Text it is by reason to acquiesced in Neither is this to be make a man a Bishop much less a chief Bishop to himself I never heard that it was the office of a Bishop to know believe or understand for any man but for himself It is his Office indeed to instruct and teach men but they are to learn and understand for themselves and so to use their Reason in their Learning Nor doth the variableness of mens thoughts and reasonings inferr any variableness in Religion to follow whose stability and sameness depends on its first Revelation not our manner of Reception Nor doth any thing asserted by Protestants about the use of Reason in the business of Religion interfere with the rule of the Apostle about captivating our Understandings to the
were it so that by the Ministry of the Roman-Church of old the Faith was first planted in these Nations would that one inch promote our Author's pretensions unless he could prove that they did not afterwards lose or corrupt at least that which they communicated unto us which he knows to be the thing in Question and not to be granted upon request though made in never so handsome words To say then That the Gospel is the Romanists own Religion from them you had it you contend about that which is none of your own hear them whose it is from whom you had it who have the precedency before you is but to set up scare-Crows to fright fools and children Men who have any understanding of things past know that all this bluster and noyse comes from emptiness of any solid matter or substance to be used in the case 2. It is also doughtily supposed That whatever is spoken of the Churnh in the Scripture belongs to the Roman Church and that alone The Priviledges the Authority the Glory of the Church are all theirs as the madd-man at Athens thought all the Ships to be his that came into the Harbour I suppose he will not contend but that if you deny him this all that he hath said besides is to little purpose And I believe he cannot but take it ill that any of his Readers should call him to an account in that which he every where puts out of question But this he knew well enough that all Protestants deny that they grant no one priviledge of the Catholick Church as such to belong to the Roman All that any of them will allow her is but to be a putrid corrupt member of it some say cut off dead and rotten But yet that the Catholick Church and the Roman are the same must be believed or you spoil all his market The Church is before the Gospel gives testimony unto it none could know it but by her Authority nothing can be accepted as such but what she sets her seals unto so that to destroy the Church is to destroy the Gospel What then I pray Suppose all this and all the rest of his Assertions about the Church pag. 199 200 c. to be true as some of them are most blasphemously false yet What is all this to his purpose Why this is the roman-Roman-Church of which all these things are spoken It may be the roman-Roman-Church indeed of which much of it is spoken even all that is sinfully derogatory to the glory of Christ and his Apostles upon whom and whose Authority the Church is built and not their Authority on it Ephes. 2.18 19 20. But what is truly spoken in the Scripture of the Church doth no more belong to the Roman then to the least Assembly of Believers under Heaven wherein the Essence of a true Church is preserved if it belongs unto it at all And yet this rude Pretence and palpable Artifice is the main Engine in this Section applyed to the removal of men from the Basis of the Scripture The Church the Church the Roman-Church the Roman-Church and these forsooth are supposed to be one and the same and the Pope to have Monopolized all the priviledges of the Church contrary to express Statute-law of the Gospel Hence he pretends That if to go out from the Catholick be evil then not to come into the Roman is evil when indeed the most ready way to go out of the Catholick is to go into the Roman 3. Moreover it is taken for granted That the Roman Church is every way what it was when first planted Indeed if it were so it would deserve as much particular respect as any Church of any City in the World and that would be all As it is the case is altered But its unalteredness being added to the former Supposition of its Oneliness and Catholicism it is easie to see what sweet work a witty man as our Author is may make with this Church among good company Many and many a time have the Romanists attempted to prove these things but failing in their attempt they think it now reasonable to take them for granted The Religion they now profess must be that which first entered England and there saith our Author it continued in peace for a thousand years when the truth is after the entrance of their Religion that is the corruption of Christianity by Papal usurpations these Nations never passed one age without tumults turmoils contentions disorders nor many without wars bloud and devastations and those arising from the Principles of their Religion 4. To this is added That the Bible is the Pope's own Book which none can lay claim to but by and from him This will be found to be a doubtful assertion and it will be difficult to conclude aright concerning it He that shall consider what a worthy person the Pope is represented to be by our Author especially in his just dealing and mercifulness so That he never did any man wrong and shall take notice how many he hath caused to be burned to death for having and using the Bible without his consent must need suppose that it is his Book For surely his heavenly mind would not have admitted of a provocation to such severity unless they had stoln his goods out of his Possession But on the other side he that shall weigh aright his vilifying under-valuing of it his preferring himself and Church before and above it seeing we are all apt to set a high price upon that which is our own may be ready to question whether indeed he have such a property in it as is pretended Having somewhat else to do I shall not interpose my self in this difference nor attempt to determine this difficulty but leave it as I find it free for every man to think as he seeth cause 5. But that which is the chief ingredieet of these Sections is the plea that We know not the Scripture to be the word of God but by the Church that is the present Church of Rome which he manageth by urging sundry objections against it and difficulties which men meet withall in their enquiry whether it be so or no. Nor content with that plea alone he interweaves in his discourse many expressions and comparisons tending directly to the slighting and contempt both of its Penmen and Matter which is said to be Laws Poems Sermons Histories Letters Visions several fancies in a diversity of composure the whole a book whereby men may as well prove their negative in denying the immortality of the soul heaven or hell or any other thing which by reason of many intricacies are very difficult if not impossible at all to be understood see p. 190 191 192 c. Concerning all which I desire to know whether our Author be in good earnest or no or whether he thinks as he writes or whether he would only have others to believe what he writes that he may serve his turn upon their credulity If
used in the late times to say of the Excommunication in Scotland He would not care for their Devil were it not for his horn and I suppose had not Papal Excommunication been alwayes attended with Warrs Bloud Seditions Conspiracies Depositions and Murders of Kings Fire and Faggot according to to the extent of their Power it would have been lesse effectual then our Author pretends it to have been Sir do but give Christians the liberty that Christ hath purchased for them lay down your carnal weapons your Whips Racks Prisons Halters Swords Faggots with your Unchristian Subtilties Slanders and fleshly Machinations and we and you shall quickly see what will become of your Papall Peace and Power These are the goodly Principles the honest Suppositions of the discourse which our Author ends his Third Book withal It could not but have been a tedious thing to take them up by pieces as they lie scattered up and down like the limbs of Medea's Brother cast in the way to retard her persuers The Reader may now take a view of them together and thence of all that is offer'd to perswade him to a relinquishment of his present profession and Religion For the Stories Comparisons Jests Sarcasms that are intermixed with them I suppose he will know how to turn them to another use Some very few particulars need only to be remarked As 1. No man can say what ill Popery did in the world untill Henry the Eighths dayes Strange when it is not only openly accused but proved guilty of almost all the evill that was in the Christian world in those dayes particularly of corrupting the Doctrine and Worship of the Gospel and debauching the lives of Christians 2. With the Roman Catholicks unity ever dwelt Never The very name of Roman Catholick appropriating Catholicism to Romanism is destructive of all Gospel-unity 3. Some Protestants say they love the Persons of the Romanists but hate their Religion the Reason is plain they know the one and not the other No they know them both And the pretence that people are kept with as from knowing what the Religion of the Romanists is is vain untrue and as to what colour can possibly be given unto it such an infant in comparison of that vast Giant which of the same kind lives in the Romish Territories that it deserves not to be mentioned 4. Protestants are beholding to the Catholicks that is Romanists for their Universities Benâ—fices Books Pulpits Gospel For some of them not all For the rest as the Israelites were to the Aegyptians for the Tabernacle they built in the Wilderness 5. The Pope was antiently believed sole Judge and general Pastor over all Prove it ask the antient Fathers and Councils whether they ever heard of any such thing they will universally return their answer in the Negative 6. The Scripture you received from the Pope Not at all as hath been proved but from Christ himself by the Ministry of the first planters of Christianity 7. You cannot believe the Scriptures to be the word of God but upon the Authority of the Church We can and do upon the authority of God himself and the influence of the Churches Ministry or Authority into our believing concerns not the Church of Rome 8. You account them that brought you the Scriptures as lyars No otherwise then as the Scripture affirms every man to be so not in their Ministry wherein they brought the Word unto us 9. The Gospel separate from the Church can prove nothing Yes it 's self to be sent of God and so doing is the foundation of the Church Sundry other passages of the like nature might be remarked if I could imagine any man would judge them worthy of consideration CHAP. XII Story of Religion THe fourth and last part of our Author Discourse is spent in two Stories one of Religion the other of himself His first of Religion is but a summary of what was diffused through the others parts of his Treatise being insinuated piece-meal as he thought he could make any advantage of it to his purpose Two things he aims to make his Readers believe by it First That we in these Nations had our Religion from Rome And secondly That it was the same which is there now professed Those whom he tels his Tale unto are as he professeth such as are ignorant of the coming into and progress of Religion amongst us wherein he deals wisely and as became him seeing he might easily assure himself that those who are acquainted before his Information with the true state of these things would give little credit to what he nakedly averrs upon his own Authority For my part I shall readily acknowledg that for ought appears in this Book he is a better Historian then a Disputant and hath more reason to trust to his faculty of telling a Tale than managing of an Argument I confess also that a slight and superficial view of Antiquity especially as flourished over by some Roman-Legendaries is the best advantage our Adversaries have to work on as a thorough Judicious search of it is fatal to their pretensions He that from the Scriptures and the Writings extant of the first Centuries shall frame a true Idea of the State and Doctrine of the first Churches and then observe the adventitious accessions made to Religion in the following ages partly by mens own inventions but chiefly by their borrowing from or imitation of the Jews and Pagans will need very little light or help from artificial Arguments to discover the defections of the Roman-Party and the true means whereby that Church arrived unto its present condition To persue this at large is not a work to be undertaken in this seambling chase It hath been done by others and those who are not unwilling to be at the cost and pains in the disquisition of the Truth which it is really worth may easily know where to find it Our present task is but to observe our Author's motions and to consider whether what he offers hath any efficacy towards that he aims at A triple Conversion he assigns to this Nation The first by Joseph of Arimathea about which as to matter of fact we have no contest with him That the Gospel was preached here in the Apostles daies either by him or some other Evangelist is certain and taken for granted on all hands nor can our Author pretend that it came hither from Rome but grants it to have come immediately from Palestine Whether this doth not overthrow the main of his plea in his whole Discourse concerning our dependance upon Rome for our Religion I leave to prudent men to judge Thus farr then we are equal As the Gospel came to Rome so it came to England to both from the same place and by the same Authority the same Ministry All the question is Whether Religion they brought with them that now professed in England or that of Rome If this be determined the business is at an issue We are perswaded Joseph
unlearn their antient Barbarism and to encline to the Manners Fashions and Religion of the people to whom they were come and with whom after their heats were over and lusts satisfied they began to incorporate and coalesce Together I say with their manners they took up by various wayes and means the Religion which they did profess And the Bishop of Rome having kept his outward Station in that famous City during all those turmoils becoming venerable unto them unto him were many Applications made and his Authority was first signally advanced by this new race of Christians The Religion they thus took up was not a little degenerated from its Primitive Apostolical purity and splendor And they were among the first who felt the effects of their former barbarous inhumanity in their sedulous indeavour to destroy all Books and Learning out of the World which brought that darkness upon mankind wherewith they wrestled for many succeeding generations For having themselves made an intercision of the current and progress of studies and learning they were forced to make use in their entertainment of Christianity of men meanly skilled in the knowledg of God or themselves who some of them knew little more of the Gospel then what they had learned in the outward observances and practises of the places where they had been educated Towards the beginning of this hurry of the world this shuffling of the Nations was the Province of Brittain not long before exhausted of it stores of Men and Arms and defeated by the Romans invaded by the Saxons Picts Angles and others out of Germany who accomplishing the will of God exstirpated the greatest part of the British Nation and drove the remainders of them to shelter themselves in the Western Mountainous parts of this Island These new Inhabitants after they were somewhat civilized by the Vicinity of the Provincials and had got a little breathing from their own intestine feuds by fixing the limits of their Leader's Dominions which they called Kingdoms began to be in some preparedness to receive impressions of Religion above that rude Paganism which they had before served Satan in These were they to whom came Austine from Rome a man as farr as appears by the story little acquainted with the mystery of the Gospel yet one whom it pleased God gratiously to use to bring the Scripture amongst them that inexhaustible Fountain of Light and Truth and by which those to whom he preached might be infallibly freed from any mixture of mistakes that he might offer to them That he brought with him a Doctrine of Observances not formerly known in Brittain â—s notorious from the famous Story of those many Professors of Christianity 〈◊〉 which he caused to be murdered by Pagans for not submitting to his power and refusing to practise according to his Traditions whose unwillingness to the â—â—ain if they could have otherwise chosen is that which I suppose our Author call's their disturbing good St. Austine in his pious work But you neither will this Conversion of the Saxons begun by Austine the Monk at all advantage our Author as to his pretensions The Religion he taught here as well as he could was doubtless no other than that which at those dayes was profest at Rome mixtures of humane Traditions worldly Policies Observances trenching upon the Superstitions of the Gentiles in many things it had then revived but however it was farr enough from the present Romanism if the Writers and chief Bishops of those dayes knew what was their Religion Papal Supremacy and Infallibility Transubstantiation religious veneration of Images in Churches with innumerable other prime fundamentals of Popery were as great strangers at Rome in the dayes of Grâ—gory the great as they are at this day to the Church of England After these times the world continuing still in troubles Religion began more and more to decline and fall off from its pristine purity At first by degrees insensible and almost imperceptible in the broaching of new opinions and inventing new practises in the worship of God At length by open presumptuous transgressions of its whole rule and genius in the usurpation of the Pope of Rome and impositions of his Authority on the neâ—ks of Emperours Kings Princes and people of all sorts By what means this work was carried on what advantages were taken for what instruments used in it what opposition by Kings and learned men was made unto it what testimony was given against it by the blood of thousands of Martyrs others have at large declared nor will my present design admit me to insist on particulars What contests debates tumults warrs were by papall pretensions raised in these nations what shameful intreating of some of the greatest of our Kings what absolutions of subjects from their Allegiance with such like effluxes of an abundant Apostolical piety this nation in particular was exercised with from Rome all our Historians sufficiently testify Tantaemolis erat Romanam condere gentem The truth is when once Romanism began to be enthroned and had driven Catholicism out of the world we had very few Kings that past their days in peace and quietnesse from contests with the Pope or such as acted for him or were stirred up by him The face in the mean time of Christianity was sad and deplorable The body of the people being grown dark and profane or else superstitious the generality of the Priests and Votaries ignorant and vitious in their conversations the oppressions of the Hildebrandine faction intolerable Religion dethroned from a free generous obedience according to the rule of the Gospell and thrust into cells orders self-invented devotions and forms of worship superstitious and unknown to Scripture and antiquity the whole world groaned under the Apostacy it was fallen into when it was almost too late the yoak was so fastned to their necks and prejudices so fixed in the minds of the multitude Kings began to repine Princes to remonstrate their grievances whole Nations to murmure some learned men to write and preach against the superstitions and oppressions of the Church of Rome Against all which complaints and attempts what means the Popes used for the safe-guarding their Authority and opinions subservient to their carnal worldly interests deposing some causing others to be murdered that were in supream power bandying Princes and Great men one against another exterminating others with fire and sword is also known unto all who take any care to know such things what ever our Author pretends to the contrary This was the state this the peace this the condition of most Nations in Europe and these in particular where we live when occasion was administred in the providence of God unto that Reformation which in the next place he gives us the story of Little cause had he to mind us of this story little to boast of the primitive Catholick faith little to pretend the Romish Religion to have been that which was first planted in these Nations His concernments lye not in
or do deserve not the least notice from men who will seriously contemplate the hand power and wisdom of God in the work accomplished by them The next thing undertaken by our Author is the ingress of Protestancy into England and its progress there The old story of the love of King Henry the Eighth to Ann Bullen with the divorce of Queen Katharine told over and over long ago by men of the same principle and design with himself is that which he chooseth to flourish withall I shall say no more to the story but that English-men were not wont to believe the whispers of an unknown Fryer or two before the open redoubled Protestation of one of the most famous Kings that ever swaid the Scepter of this Land before the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland These men whatever they pretend shew what reverence they have to our present Soveraign by their unworthy defamation of his Royal Predecessors But let men suppose the worst they please of that great Heroick Person What are his miscarriages unto Protestant Religion for neither was he the Head Leader or Author of that Religion nor did he ever receive it profess it or embrace it but caused men to be burned to death for its profession Should 〈◊〉 by way of Retaliation return unto our Author the lives and practices of some of many not of the great or leading men of his Church but of the Popes themselves the Head sum and in a manner whole of their Religion at least so farre that without him they will not acknowledge any he knows well enough what double measure shaken together pressed down and running over may be returned unto him A work this would be I confess no way pleasing unto my self for who can delight in raking into such a sink of Filth as the lives of many of them have been yet because he seems to talk with a confidence of willingness to revive the memory of such ulcers of Christianity if he proceed in the course he hath begun it will be necessary to mind him of not boxing up his eyes when he looks towards his own home That Poysonings Adulteries Incests Conjurations Perjuries Atheism have been no strangers to that See if he knows not he shall be acquainted from stories that he hath no colour to except against For the present I shall only mind him and his friends of the Comaedian's advice Dehinc ut quiescunt porro mâ—neo desinant Maledicere malefactae ne noscant suâ— The declaration made in the days of that King that he was Head of the Church of England intended no more but that there was no other person in the world from whom any Jurisdiction to be exercised in this Church over his Subjects might be derived the Supreme Authority for all exterior Government being vested in him alone That this should be so the Word of God the nature of the Kingly Office and the antâ—ent Laws of this Realm do require And I challenge our Author to produce any one Testimony of Scripture or any one word out of any general Council or any one Catholick Father or Writer to give the least countenance to his assertion of two heads of the Church in his sense an head of Influence which is Jesus himself and an head of Government which is the Pope in whom all the sacred Hierarchy ends This taking of one half of Christs Rule and Headship out of his hand and giving it to the Pope will not be salved by that expression thrust in by the way under him For the Headship of influence is distinctly ascribed unto Christ and that of Government to the Pope which evidently asserts that he is not in the same manner head unto his Church in both these senses but He in one and the Pope in another But whatever was the cause or occasion of the dissention between King Henry and the Pope it 's certain Protestancy came into England by the same way and means that Christianity came into the World the painful pious Professors and Teachers of it sealed its truth with their bloud and what more honourable entrance it could make I neither know nor can it be declared Nor did England receive this Doctrine from others in the days of King Henry it did but revive that light which sprung up amongst us long before and by the fury of the Pope and his adherents had been a while suppressed And it was with the blood of English-men dying patiently and gloriously in the flames that the truth was sealed in the dayes of that King who lived and dyed himself as was said in the profession of the Roman faith The Truth flourished yet more in the dayes of his pious and hopefull Son Some stop our Author tels us was put to it in the dayes of Queen Mary But what stop of what kind of no other than that put to Christianity by Trajan Dioclesian Julian a stop by fire and sword and all exquisite cruelties which was broken through by the constant death and invincible patience and prayers of Bishops Ministers and People numberless a stop that Rome hath cause to blush in the remembrance of and all Protestants to rejoyce having their faith tryed in the fire and coming forth more pretious than Gold Nor did Queen Elizabeth as is falsly pretended indeavour to continue that stop but cordially from the beginning of her Reign embraced that faith wherein she had before been instructed And in the maintenance of it did God preserve her from all the Plots Conspiracies and Rebellions of the Papists Curses and Depositions of the Popes with Invasions of her Kingdomes by his instigation as also her renowned Successor with his whole Regal posterity from their contrivance for their Martyrdom and ruin During the Reign of those Royal and Magnificent Princes had the Power and Polity of the Papal world been able to accomplish what the men of this innocent and quiet Religion professedly designed they had not had the advantage of the late miscarriages of some professing the Protestant Religion in reference to our late King of glorious Memory to triumph in though they had obtained that which would have been very desirable to them and which we have but sorry evidence that they do not yet aim at and hope for As for what he declares in the end of his 10th Paragraph about the Reformation here that it followed wholly neither Luther nor Calvin which he intermixes with many unseemly taunts and reflexions on our Laws Government and Governours is as far as it is true the glory of it It was not Luther nor Calvin but the Word of God and the practise of the primitive Church that England proposed for her rule and pattern in her Reformation and where any of the Reformers forsook them she counted it her duty without reflexions on them or their wayes to walk in that safe one she had chosen out for her self Nor shal I insist on his next Paragraph destined to the advancement of his interest
purpose insisted on They acknowledge a pure and flourishing Church to have been once at Rome as they maintain there was at Hierusalem Antioch Ephesus Smyrna Laodicea Alexandria Babylon c. that in all these places such Churches do still continue they deny and particularly at Rome For that Church which then was they deny it to be the same that now is at least any more then Argo was the same ship as when first built after there was not one plank or pin of its first structure remaining That the Church of Rome in the latter sense was ever a pure flourishing Church never any Protestant acknowledged the most of them deny it ever to have been in that sense any Church at all and those that grant it to retain the Essential constituting Principals of a Church yet averr that as it is so it ever was since it had a being very far from a pure and flourishing Church For ought then that I can perceive we are not at all concerned in the following Queries the Supposition they are all built upon being partly sophistical and partly false But yet because he doth so earnestly request us to ponder them we shall not give him cause to complain of us in this particular at least as he doth in general of all Protestants That we deal uncivilly and therefore shall pass through them after which if he pleaseth he may deliver them to his friend of whom they were borrowed 1. Saith he This Church could not cease to be such but she must fall either by Apostacy Heresy or Schism But who told him so Might she not cease to be and so consequently to be such Might not the persons of whom it consisted have been destroyed by an earthquake as it happen'd to Laodicea or by the sword as it befel the Church of the Jews or twenty other wayes Besides might she not fall by Idolatry or false Worship or by Prophaneness or Licentiouss of Conversation contrary to the whole rule of Christ That then he may know what is to be removed by his Queries if he should speak any thing to the purpose he may do well to take notice that this is the dogme of Protestants concerning the Church of Rome that the Church planted there pure did by degrees in a long tract of time fall by Apostacy Idolatry Heresie Schism and Profaneness of life into that condition wherein now it is But sayes he 1. Not by Apostacy for that is not only a renouncing of the faith of Christ but the very name and title of Christianity and no man will say that the Church of Rome had ever such a Fall or fell thus I tell you truly Sir your Church is very much beholding unto men if they do not sometimes say very hard things of her Fall Had it been an ordinary slip or so it might have been passed over but this Falling into the mire and wallowing in it for so many Ages as she has done is in truth a very naughty business For my part I am resolved to deal as gently with her as possible and therefore say that there is a total Apostasie from Christianity which she fell not into or by and there is a partial Apostasie in Christianity from some of the Principles of it such as St. Paul charged on the Galatians and the old Fathers on very many that yet retained the name and title of Christians and this we say plainly that she fell by she fell by Apostasie from many of the most material Principles of the Gospel both as to Faith Life and Worship And there being no Reply made upon this instanâ—e were it not upon the account of pure civility we need not proceed any further with his Queries the business of them being come to an end But upon his entreaty we will follow him a little further Supposing that he hath dispatched the business of Apostasie he comes to Heresie and tells us That it is an adhesion to some private or singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general approved Doctrine of the Church That which ought to be subsumed is that the Church of Rome did never adhere to any singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general approved Doctrine of the Church but our Author to cover his business changes the terms in his proceeding into the Christian World to clear this to us a little I desire to know of him What Church he means when he speaks of the approved Doctrine of the Church I am sure he will say the Roman-Catholick Church and if I ask him What age it is of that Church which he intends he will also say That Age which is present when the Opinions mentioned are asserted contrary to the approved Doctrine We have then obtained his meaning viz. The Roman-Church did never at any time adhere to any Opinion but what the Roman Church at that time adhered unto or taught or approved no other Doctrine but what it taught and approved Now I verily believe this to be true and he must be somewhat besides uncivil that shall deny it But from hence to infer That the Roman-Church never fell from her first purity by Heresie that is a thing I cannot yet discern how it may be made good This conclusion ariseth out of that pitiful definition of Heresie he gives us coyned meerly to serve the Roman-Interest The rule of judging Heresie is made the approved Doctrine of the Church I would know of what Church of this or that particular Church or of the Catholick Doubtless the Catholick must be pretended I ask Of this or that Age or of the first Of the first certainly I desire then to know how we may come to discern infallibly what was the approved Doctrine of the Catholick-Church of Old but only by the Scriptures which we know it unanimously embraced as given unto it by Christ for its Rule of Faith and Worship If we should then grant that the approved Doctrine of the Church were that which a departure from as such gives formality unto Heresie yet there is no way to know that Doctrine but by the Scripture But yet neither can or ought this to be granted The formal reason of Heresie in the usual acceptation of the word ariseth from its deviation from the Scripture as such which is the Rule of the Churches Doctrine and of the Opinions that are contrary unto it Nor yet is every private or singular Opinion contrary to the Scripture or the Doctrine of the Church presently an Heresie That is not the sense of the word either in Scripture or Antiquity So that the foundation of the Queries about Heresie is not one jot better layed then that was about Apostasie which went before This is that which I have heard Protestants say namely That the Church of Rome doth adhere to very many Opinions and Errors in Faith contrary to the main Principles of Christian Religion delivered in the Scripture and so consequently the Doctrine approved by the Catholick Church
and if this be to fall by Heresie I add that she is thus fallen also from what she was But then he asks 1. By what general Council was she ever condemned 2. Which of the Fathers ever wrote against her 3. By what Authority was she otherwise reproved But this is all one as if a thief arraigned for stealing before a Judge and the goods that he had stoln found upon him should plead for himself and say If ever I stole any thing then by what lawful Judge was I ever condemned what Officer of the State did ever formerly apprehend me by what Authority were Writs issued out against me Were it not easie for the Judge to reply and tell him Friend these Allegations may prove that you were never before condemned but they prove not at all that you never stole which is a matter of fact that you are now upon your tryal for No more will it at all follow that the Church of Rome did never offend because she is not condemned These things may be necessary that she may be said to be legally convicted but not at all to prove that she is really guilty Besides the truth is that many of her Doctrines and Practises are condemned by general Councils and most of them by the most learned Fathers and all of them by the Authority of the Scripture And whilst her Doctrine and Worship is so condemned I see not well how she can escape so that this second way also she is fallen 3. To Apostasie and Heresie she hath also added the guilt of Schism in an high degree For Schisms within her self and her great Schism from all the Christian world besides her self are things well known to all that know her Her intestine Schisms were the shame of Christendom her Schisms in respect of others the ruin of it And briefly to answer the triple Query we are so earnestly invited to the consideration of I shall need to instance only in that one particular of making Subjection to the Pope in all things the Tessera Rule of all Church-Communion whereby she hath left the company of all the Churches of Christ in the world besides her self is gone forth and departed from all Apostolical Churches even that of Old Rome its self and the true Church which she hath forsaken abides and is preserved in all the Societies of Christians throughout the Earth who attending to the Scripture for their only Rule and Guide do believe what is therein revealed and worship God accordingly So that notwithstanding any thing here offered to the contrary it is very possible that the present Church of Rome may be fallen from her Primitive Condition by Apostasie Heresie and Schism which indeed she is and worst of all by Idolatry which our Author thought meet to pass over in silence IV. It is frequently pleaded by our Author nor is there any thing which he more triumphs in That all things as to Religion were quiet and in peace all men in union and agreement amongst themselves in the Worship of God before the departure made by our fore-Fathers from the Roman See No man that hath once cast an eye upon the Defensatives written by the Antient Christians but knows how this very consideration was managed and improved against them by their Pagan impugners That Christians by their Introduction of a new way of worshipping God which their fore-Fathers knew not had disturbed the Peace of humane Society divided the World into Seditious Factions broken all the antient Bonds of Peace and Amity dissolved the whole Harmony of Man-kinde's Agreement amongst themselves was the subject of the declamations of their Adversaries This complaint their Books their Schools the Courts and Judicatories were filled with against all which clamors and violences that were stirred up against them by their means those blessed souls armed themselves with patience and the testimony of their Consciences that they neither did nor practised any thing that in its own nature had a tendency to the least of those evils which they and their way of worshipping God was reproached with As they had the opportunity indeed they let their Adversaries know that that Peace and Union they boasted of in their Religion before the entrance of Christianity was but a Conspiracy against God a consent in Error and Falsehood and brought upon the World by the craft of Satan maintained through the effectual influence of innumerable prejudices upon the innate blindness and darkness of their hearts That upon the appearance of light and publishing of the Truth divisions animosities troubles and distractions did arise they declared to have been no proper or necessary effect of the work but a consequent occasional and accidental arising from the lusts of men who loved darkness more then light because their works were evil which that it would ensue their blessed Master had long before fore-told them and fore-warned them Though this be enough yet it is not all that may be replyed unto this old pretence and plea as mannaged to the purpose of our Adversaries It is part of the motive which the great Historian makes Galgacus the valiant Brittain use to his Countrey-men to cast off the Roman-yoke Solitudinem ubi fecerunt pacem vocant It was their way when they had by force and cruelty layed all waste before them to call the remaining solitude and desolation by the goodly name of Peace neither considered they whether the residue of men had either satisfaction in their minds or advantage by their Rule Nor was the Peace of the Roman-Church any other before the Reformation What waste they had by Sword and Burnings made in several parts of Europe in almost all the chiefest Nations of it of mankind what desolation they had brought by violence upon those who opposed their rule or questioned their Doctrine the blood of innumerable poor men many of them learned all pious and zealous whom they called Waldenses Albigenses Lollards Wicklevites Hussites Caliptives Subutraguians Picards or what else they pleased being indeed the faithful witnesses of the Lord Christ and his Truths will at the last Day reveal Besides the event declared how remote the minds of millions were from an acquiescency in that Conspiracy in the Papal Soveraignty which was grown to be the Bond of Communion amongst those who called themselves the Church or an approbation of that Doctrine and Worship which they made profession of For no sooner was a door of Liberty and Light opened unto them but whole Nations were at strife who should first enter in at it which undoubtedly all the Nations of Europe had long since done had not the holy wise God in his good Providence suffered in some of them a sword of power and violence to interpose it self against their entrance For whatever may be pretended of Peace and Agreement to this day take away force and violence Prisons and Fagots and in one day the whole compages of that stupendious Fabrick of the Papacy will be dissolved and