Edification of the Christian Doctrine wresting the Scripture to his own Senses dare to interpret the Holy Scripture contrary to the Sense which Holy Mother Church whose Right it is to Judge of the true Sense of Sacred Scriptures hath held or doth hold or against the unanimous Consent of the Fathers though even such Interpretations be never intended to be Publisht Thus the very Words of that pretended Council wherewith agrees Bellarmine de Verbo Dei lib. 1. cap. 7 8 and 9. whereby it plainly appears That the Church of Rome not only Adds to Gods Word Six whole Books besides several parts of Books As the Epistle of Jeremiah the 13 and 14 Chapters of Daniel The Song of the three Children added to the 3d. of Daniel and an Appendix to the Third Chapter of Hester beginning v. 10. all which are in the Vulgar Latin more than the Church of England receives and holds her Accursed for not receiving them but also prefers the Vulgar Latin Edition the most Corrupt and Imperfect Edition extant before the original Texts in Hebrew and Greek And binds up all Christians to interpret Scripture in her own Sense and according to her Pleasure Nor is it any wonder That they should thus treat these Sacred Oracles if we Consider what Esteem they have of them This very Council you see accounts them Imperfect and not a sufficient Rule of Faith and Manners without Traditions and equals Traditions with them declaring They are to be received pari pietatis affectu reverentiâ with the very same Reverence and Pious Affection But the Council was subtlely modest For their Doctors cannot forbear to load the Word of God with Reproaches Scripturae sunt muti judices sunt veluti nasus quidam Cereus The Scriptures are dumb Judges and but like a Nose of Wax says Pighius de Ecclesia pag. 89 90. And Eccius calls them a Black Gospel and Inky Divinity Nor is Cardinal Bellarmine less hold For he maintains Scripturas sine Traditionibus nec simpliciter necessarias nec sufficienter Finem proprium praecipuum non fuisse ut esset Regula Fidei De Verbo Dei l. 4. cap. 4. and 12. That the Scriptures are not simply necessary nor sufficient without Traditions and that their proper and chief end was not That they should be a Rule of Faith And Eccius in his Enchiridion is very positive That the Scripture is not Authentick but by the Authority of the Church wherewith agrees Azorius Instit Mor. Part 2. l. 5. cap. 24. Scriptura Canonica non Agnoscitur aut habetur nisi Ecclesiae Authoritate probetur The Scripture is not own'd or esteem'd Canonical unless it be approved by the Authority of the Church In a Word nothing is more Common in the Works of Popish Authors than such Titles as these Of the Insufficiency of the Obscurity and of the Vncertainty of the Scripture c. Nor have their Practices been unsuitable For in the Bohemian Persecutions between the Years 1620 and 1630 the Papists were wont to say The Scriptures were the Fountain of Heresy and thereupon Nick-nam'd the Bible Wiblia which in the Bohemian Language signifies Vomit A thousand Bibles they burnt and destroyed some at the Market place as was done at Fulneck others brought them in Carts without the Walls as was done at Zalicum and Frutnovia others brought them in heaps to the Gallows as at Hadritium and so in great heaps burnt them The like was done in the Irish Massacre in 41. A plague on 't that damn'd Book has done all the Mischief said some of those Bloody Tories Nor do our English Papists want any thing but an Opportunity to Act the like Villanies For their Principle and Malice is the same as appears by one of their English Pamphlets Intituled The Reconciler of Religions Printed Anno 1663 and Dedicated to one Mr. Lawrence Dibusty Merchant of London in p. 26. we have these Words The Protestants and Sectaries saith he you see he makes no differencen the Case between the Church of England and Dissenters dash out for Apocrypha whole Books as Tobias Judith Ecclesiasticus Wisdom Maccabees Baruch c. whole Chapters as the 13 and 14 of Daniel from the 10 to the 16 of Esther Whole Histories as that of Susanna and the Elders of Bell and the Dragon c. All which the Vniversal Church of God receiveth for Authentical Holy and Canonical And thereupon p. 41. he concludes thus As the Protestant Bible is 't is no more the Word of God than is the Alchoran or Aesops Fables yea it is worse than Aesops Fables it 's a Diabolical Invention and an Heretical Labour and a Sacrilegious Instrument to Deceive and Damn all such poor Souls as Believe it and therefore worthy to be burnt with Fire in the middle of the Market at Noon and let all the People say Amen So be it I give you exactly his Words wherein you have the true Spirit of Popery others may politickly mince the Matter but this is their general Sentiment and accordingly they practice beyond the Seas where to have a Bible in the Vulgar Tongue is Capital And where is now the Man that hath the least Spark of Grace or Modesty that would rather be a Papist than a Presbyterian The seventh Article of the Church of England Of the Old Testament THE Old Testament is not contrary to the New For both in the Old and New Testament Everlasting Life is offered to Mankind by Christ who is the only Mediatour between God and Man being both God and Man wherefore they are not to be heard which feign that the Old Fathers did look only for Transitory Promises Although the Law given from God by Moses as touching Ceremonies and Kites do not bind Christian Men nor the Civil precepts thereof ought for necessity to be received in any Common-Wealth yet notwithstanding no Christian Man whatsoever is free from the Obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral The Presbyterians The Substance of this Article is Asserted and at large Explained and Proved by Calvin in the Second Book of his Institutions cap. 7. 9 10 and 11. too tedious here to Recite The Papists Two Clauses of this Article are Contradicted by the Papists First That of Christs being the only Mediatour between God and Man For they Assign Angels and Saints to be also Mediators and especially the Virgin Mary and pray to them accordingly But of this see more Article the 18 and 31. Secondly Whereas 't is said no Christian Man is free from the Obedience of the Commandements which are called Moral we know the Pope pretends he can dispense with the Moral-Law c. For we find in his Canon-Law Caus 15. q. 6. cap. 2. Auctoritatum in the Glosse are these Words Contra jus Naturale potest dispensare contra Apostolum The Pope can dispense against the Law of Nature and against the Apostles The eighth Article of the Church of England Of the three Creeds THE three Creeds
no longer they may remain in an Implicite Faith but read Consider and with understanding embrace what they before out of Compliance or Custom rather than Judgment seem'd to own and adhere to 2. There are many too That in words detest Popery yet not being throughly grounded in the Doctrines of the Church of England nor acquainted with those of the Church of Rome may be in danger of mistaking the one for the other and by Jacob's voice be deluded into Esau's hands and imbibe Poison unawares unless fortified against it by some such discriminating Antithesis 3. Hereby will appear the malice and falshood of these suggestions That the Dissenters stand at as great a distance from and are as much opposite to the legally Established Church of England as the Papists a mischievous conceit promoted by the Jesuites and other Factors for the See of Rome on purpose to divide and weaken us and consequently thereby to accomplish at last their own ends which are utterly to subvert and destroy all the Professors of the Reformed Religion whether Episcopal Presbyterial or under what ever other Denomination 4. I know not what could better tend to uniting us at least in affection amongst our selves than this demonstration That in the main and all essential Doctrinal points we are already agreed and since the other matters in Controversie are acknowledged to be indifferent what occasion is there for all this heat and violence unless the lesser our differences are the greater still must be our Animosities and Contentions about them 5. I do not despair but this small Treatise may be profitable to weak Capacities for instructing them in Fundamentals of Christian Religion since it contains a general Systeme of Faith rendered the more intelligible by the variety of Expressions though concurrent Sense of the Church-men and Protestant-Dissenters on the one side and the apparent Contradictions of the Papists on the other For Contraria juxta se posita magis Elucescunt contraries aptly compared illustrate each other Thus much for the End and general Intention of this Work As to the manner how it is perform'd I could indeed have wisht it might have come from some abler Hand whose Skill might have rendered it more useful and his Name more acceptable to the publick But rather a Mite than no Offering at all for the Churches Peace I have done what my small Reading and interrupted Leisure would permit and need only Advertise the Reader that here he shall find 1. The Nine and Thirty Articles of the Church of England agreed upon and Establisht Anno 1562. and never since altered but required by Law to be subscribed unto by all Ministers of our Church faithfully recited Verbatim and Printed in a different Letter 2. The Doctrines of those commonly called Presbyterians comprehending the Body of our Dissenters produc'd from the Confession of Faith agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines in the late Times and their Catechism and the Institutions of Mr. John Calvin 3. The Tenets of the Church of Rome delivered either in the Words of the Council of Trent or those of their great Champion Cardinal Bellarmine and the Annotations of their Colledge of Rhemes on the New Testament Other of their Authors sometimes but sparingly are Cited and never any but what are allowed by them and known to speak according to the common Dictates of that Church I knew not where to seek more Authentick Testimonies of each Parties Sentiments and can without Injury to Truth aver That I have not wilfully baulk'd added to detracted from or in any kind perverted the Sense of either side but fairly stated their Doctrines in their own words And generally without Reflections or Animadversions unless only where the matter is such that it could not justly be omitted Some may expect to have had added in a Fourth Comparison certain Notions advanc'd of late years by some Divines amongst us that seem to thwart these Articles of their Mother-Church which at their Ordination they solemnly subscribed But as the same have in part been already noted by others so my desire is rather to bring Balm than Vinegar to the too gaping wounds of the Church and without giving any such Exasperation shall hope That those Gentlemen will see and repent of such their Mistakes At least since Rectum est Index sui Obliqui A streight Line is the measure both of it self and of that too which is crooked I cannot despair but when once People are brought throughly to understand the Doctrines of the Church of England grounded on the Holy Scriptures without or contrary to which no Church in the World has any power to impose any Articles of Faith They will easily be able to discover such Aberrations and refuse them with a just Abhorrence though never so speciously obtruded But because there is such a noise raised and such heaps of Durt continually thrown on the memory of poor Mr. Calvin and those called Presbyterians whereby they would inflame us both to hardships towards dissenting Protestants at home and set us at odds with most of the Reformed Churches abroad I shall for the Information of the Vulgar Reader give a brief account here what esteem our Ancestors of the Church of England heretofore had both of John Calvin and those Neighbouring Churches and the Testimonies I shall avouch shall be of undoubted Authority both for Dignity and Learning The Reverend and Pious Dr. George Carleton Bishop of Chichester in a Book Intituled An Examination of those things wherein the Author of the late APPEAL holdeth the Doctrines of the Pelagians and Arminians to be the Doctrines of the Church of England Printed anno 1626 and Dedicated to King Charles the First p. 217 hath these Words Though the Church of England be the best Reformed Church yet it is not the only Reformed Church and it might seem no good Providence in us to stand so by our selves as to reject and disdain the Consent of other Churches though they do not agree with us in Discipline It is observed by Eusebius That Polycrates and Irenaeus did both reprove Victor because for matters of Ceremonies he was too much offended with other Churches which otherwise agreed with him in Doctrine Irenaeus doth admonish him That the ancient Bishops of Rome before Victor did keep Unity and Consent with the Eastern Bishops though in Ceremonies there was difference between them Omnes isti cum in Observantia vararierent inter semetipsos nobiscum semper pacifici fuerant Euseb l. 5. cap. 24. All those that varied in Observances yet were always peaceable both amongst themselves and with us He saith there also That the Dissonance in Ceremonies need not break the Consonance in Faith with those Churches which do not agree with us in Ceremonies if we seek the peace of the Churches that profess the same Doctrine or strugling as more like one sleeping than dying leaving with that noble Roman Aemilius Poverty with Honour to his Friends his Library and
of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church viz. Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther Job Psalmes Proverbs Ecclesiastes Solomons Song Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi And the other Books as Hierom saith the Church doth Read for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners All the Books of the New Testament as they are commonly Received we do Receive and Account them Canonical The Presbyterians Under the Name of Holy Scripture or the Word of God Written are now Contain'd all the Books of the Old and New Testament which are these Genesis c. just as the Church of England reckons them All which are given by Inspiration to be the Rule of Faith and Life The Books commonly called Apocrypha not being of Divine Inspiration are no part of the Canon of the Scripture and therefore are of no Authority in the Church of God nor to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other Humane Writings The Authority of the Holy Scripture for which it ought to be Believ'd and Obey'd dependeth not upon the Testimony of any Man or Church but wholly upon God who is Truth it self the Author thereof and therefore it is to be Receiv'd because it is the Word of God We may be mov'd and induc'd by the Testimony of the Church to an High and Reverend esteem of the Holy Scriptures And the Heavenliness of the Matter the Efficacy of the Doctrine the Majesty of the Stile the Consent of all the Parts the Scope of the whole which is to give all Glory to God the full Discovery it makes of the only way of Mans Salvation the many other incomparable Excellencies and the entire Perfection thereof are Arguments whereby it doth abundantly Evidence it to be the Word of God yet notwithstanding our full Perswasion and Assurance of the Infallible Truth and Divine Authority thereof is from the Inward Work of the Holy Spirit bearing Witness by and with the Word in our Hearts The whole Council of God concerning all things necessary for his own Glory Mans Salvation Faith and Life is either expresly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary Consequence may be deduc'd from Scripture unto which nothing at any time is to be added whether by New Revelations of the Spirit or Tradition of Men nevertheless we do acknowledge the Inward Illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are Revealed in the Word and that there are some Circumstances concerning the Worship of God and Government of the Church Common to Humane Actions and Societies which are to be ordered by the Light of Nature and Christian prudence according to the general Rules of the Word which are always to be observed The Old Testament in Hebrew which was the Native Language of the People of God of old and the New Testament in Greek which at the time of the Writing of it was most generally known to the Nations being immediately inspir'd by God and by his singular Care and Providence kept pure in all Ages are therefore Authentical so as in all Controversies of Religion the Church is finally to Appeal to Them But because these Original Tongues are not known to all the People of God who have Right unto and Interest in the Scriptures and are Commanded in the Fear of God to Read and Search them Therefore they are to be Translated into the Vulgar Language of every Nation unto which they come that the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all they may Worship him in an acceptable manner and through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures may have hope The Infallible Rule of the Interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture it self and therefore when there is a question about the true and full Sense of any Scripture which is manifold but one it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly The Supream Judge by which all Controversies of Religion are to be Determined and all Decrees of Councils Opinions of Ancient Writers Doctrines of Men and Private Spirits are to be examined and in whose Sentence we are to rest can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture The Papists The Decree of the Council of Trent touching the Canonical Scriptures Session the Fourth The Holy Oecumenical and General Tridentine Council lawfully Congregated in the Holy Spirit the three Legats of the Apostolick See presiding therein considering That the Purity of the Gospel as to Truth and Discipline is contained in Books Written and in Traditions not Written which received by the Apostles from the Mouth of Christ himself or by the Apostles by the Dictates of the Holy Ghost delivered as from Hand to Hand have come down even unto us following the Example of the Fathers does with an equal Affection of Piety and like Reverence receive and regard as well all the Books of the Old and New Testament since one God is Author of both as such Traditions pertaining either to Faith or Manners the same being dictated either Orally by Christ or by the Holy Spirit and Conserv'd by a continual Succession in the Catholick Church and as touching the Books of Holy Scripture that none may doubt which they are which by this Sacred Synod are received an Index of them is annexed and they are as follows Of the Old Testament five Books of Moses that is Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth Four Books of Kings under that name they include the two Books of Samuel two of Chronicles the first of Esdras and the Second which is called Nehemias Tobias Judith Esther Job David's Psalter of 150 Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes the Canticles Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Isaiah Jeremiah with Baruch Ezekiel Daniel Twelve lesser Prophets viz. Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonas Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechary and Malachi and the First and Second of the Maccabees Of the New Testament the Four Evangelists Matthew Mark c. as we reckon them And if any Person shall not receive all the said whole Books with all their Parts as they have wont to be read in the Catholick Church and as they are in the old Vulgar Latin Edition for Sacred and Canonical or knowingly shall contemn the aforesaid Traditions Let him be Anathema or Accursed And the said Sacred Council does also Appoint and Declare That the said old Vulgar Latin Edition which hath by the long use of so many Ages been approved of in the Church shall in all publick Readings Disputations Preachings and Expositions be esteemed Authentick And that none on any pretence whatsoever shall dare or presume to Reject the same And for the restraining of wanton Wits does likewise Decree That no one Person leaning on his own Prudence shall in matters of Faith and Manners pertaining to
the Living but also for those that are departed in Christ who are not yet fully purged Whoever saith That by the Sacrifice of the Mass the most Holy Sacrifice of Christ finished on the Cross is Blasphemed or that it derogateth from it Let him be Anathema The two and thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of the Marriage of Priests BIshops Priests Deacons are not commanded by Gods Law either to vow the Estate of single life or to abstain from Marriage Therefore it is Lawful for them also as for all other Christian Men to Marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to Godliness The Presbyterians Certainly the forbidding Marriage to Priests is an ungodly Tyranny not only against Gods Word but also against all Equity If an impossible Vow be the certain destruction of the Soul which God would have to be Saved not lost it follows That we are not to persist therein but the Vow of Continency to those who have not a special Gift is impossible The Papists Whosoever shall say That Clerks entred into Holy Orders or Regulars that is Monks Friers and Nuns having solemnly professed Chastity may contract Matrimony or that being contracted it is good any Law Ecclesiastick or Vow notwithstanding or that all who feel not that they have the Gift of Chastity may although they have vowed it Marry Let him be Anathema The three and thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of Excommunicated Persons how they are to be avoided THat Person which by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the Vnity of the Church and Excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the Faithful as an Heathen and Publican until he be openly reconciled by Pennance and received into the Church by a Judge that hath Authority thereunto The Presbyterians Church Censures are necessary for the reclaiming and gaining of offending Brethren for the deterring of others from the like offences for the purging out of that Leaven which might infect the whole lump for vindicating the Honour of Christ and the Holy profession of the Gospel and for preventing the wrath of God which might justly fall upon the Church if they should suffer his Covenant and the Seals thereof to be profan'd by notorious and obstinate offenders For the better obtaining of these ends the Officers of the Church are to proceed by Admonition Suspension from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for a season and by Excommunication from the Church according to the nature of the Crime and demerit of the Person The Papists Do not in Terms contradict this Article but are guilty of many Errors and vile Superstitions about Excommunication As 1. In the form of it For thus Gratian in the Decrees Caus 11. q. 3. cap. 106. debent reports the manner of it in that Church Twelve Priests ought to stand round about the Bishop with lighted Tapers in their hands which at the end of the Curse or Excommunication they ought to throw upon the ground and tread upon with their Feet and then a Letter is to be sent throughout the Parishes with the Names of those Excommunicated and the Causes of it Others relate the Ceremony more largely thus That it is done with three Candles or Tapers and that they Curse the Parties Soul and Body to the Devil and say Let us quench their Souls in Hell Fire if they be Dead as this Candle is put out and therewith one of the lights is presently extinguisht If they be alive Let us pray that their Eyes may be put out at this Candle and so out goes the Second And that all their Senses may fail them as this Candle loseth its light and so the Third is gone All which is performed with ringing of a Bell as the Magdeburgenses Cent. 13. cap. 6. relate whence arises our Proverb of Cursing With Bell Book and Candle 2. In the Causes of it gross Sins escape For their ungodly Law saith He that hath not a Wife but instead of a Wife a Concubine Let him not be debarred from the Communion They are the very Words of Gratian decret dist 34. cap. 4. Is qui non habet Uxorem pro Uxore Concubinam a Communione non repellatur and yet they Trifle with this Tremendous Censure in most trivial Cases The Arch Bishop of Canterbury in King Henry the 4ths time laid an Interdict on the Churches of London for not Ringing their Bells when he went through the City D'Auroult himself a Jesuite in his Book Intituled Flores Exemplorum Tom. 1. Tit. 63. ex 9. Licensed by the Provincial of that Order not 70 years ago complains thus We are fallen now saith he into such times That if a Person hath but lost his Rakes or Mattocks or his Fork he thinks he cannot find them by any more convenient means than by the Sentence of Excommunication viz. upon the Stealers if they do not Restore them 'T is true the Council of Trent Sess 25. cap. 3. inter Decret Reform Ordains That no Excommunications for discovery as they are called of lost or stollen Goods should pass by any other Person than the Bishop himself and then with great Circumspection Which shews that such abuses had been commonly practis'd and that they held the same not unlawful Provided the Bishop granted the Sentence 3. In the Subjects They extend it to the Dead Their grand Council of Constance Cursed Wickliffe more than forty Years after he was Dead And D'Auroult in his Book last cited Tom. 1. Tit. 62. Ex. 1. gravely gives the Reason of it Although saith he the Dead cannot properly be Excommunicated or Absolv'd yet in as much as they are in respect of their Bodies either in the Bowels of the Earth or upon it the Church for terrors sake Excommunicateth and Absolveth some Nay they thunder it out against Insects and Inanimate things For St. Bernerd they tell us Excommunicated the Flies that troubled him when he went about to Consecrate an Oratory at Fusniack and in the Morning they were all found dead if you will believe the Life of that Saint l. 1. cap. 12. Sparrows us'd to foul St. Vincents Church The Bishop of the Place Excommunicated them and they never came there more nay if any caught a Sparrow and thrust it into the Church 't would presently dye de Tempore Serm. 69. A Priest saying Mass to the Young Men they would be running out to gather Fruit in an adjoining Orchard and he Excommunicated it and it ever after was barren Promptuar Serm. dist Exempl 41. To conclude the Devil himself hath not escaped them A Woman was six years plagued with an Incubus Devil soliciting her to naughtiness she complains to St. Bernard he Excommunicates the Devil and Interdicts his Access to her or any other St. Antonines Chronicle part 2. tir 17. cap. 5. Sect. 9. What a graceless Religion is this to tell such ridiculous lyes and sport thus with an Institution