suffer Inquisitions Persecutions Excommunications and what not so among us you must believe Scripture as Interpreted by the Church of England or you are condemned by them you must believe Scripture as Interpreted by the Presbyterians or you are accursed by them you must believe as Anabaptists do or you are damn'd by them and not one Congregation among us but would Root all the others out of the World if it could and we do not fear that danger whereof St. Paul Gal. 5.15 warns us If we bite and devour one another let 's take heed we be not consumed one of another giving us likewise a wholsom advice in the same place how to prevent this Evil Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not intangled again with the Yoke of Bondage The World did groan under this heavy Yoke in Popery wherein our Rule of Faith was Scripture as Interpreted by the Pope and Church Scripture was kept from the hand of the flock No man permitted to give or believe any Interpretation or Sense of it but what the Pope Church and Fathers did approve Our Reason our Judgments our Consciences were Slaves under this Yoke until that God raised our glorious and blessed Reformers Luther Calvin Zuinglius Beza and others who took a Holy Liberty and gave us all Liberty for to Read and Interpret Scripture to believe no Doctrine but what we judged to be true Scripture To believe any Sense of it which we judged to be true tho contrary to all the World They took for their Rule of Faith Scripture and nothing else but Scripture as each one of them understood it this same Rule of Faith they left to us and a Holy Freedom and Liberty of our Judgments and Consciences that any man of sound Judgment may hold and believe whatever Sense of it he thinks to be true This therefore is the scope and end of my following Treatise that whereas our Rule of Faith as I will prove by the unanimous Consent of our whole reformed Church is Scripture or Gods Written Word as interpreted by each Person of sound Judgment that whereas by the Principles of our Reformation no Man is to be constrained to believe any Doctrine against his Judgment and Conscience otherwise why were not we left in Popery it is impious tyrannical and quite against the Spirit of the Reformation to force us by Acts of Parliament Decrees of Synods Invectives and Persecutions of indiscreet Brethren to embrace this or that Religion that every one ought to be permitted to believe what he pleases if you think Bigamy to be the Doctrine of Scripture If you think by Scripture there is one Nature and four Persons in God if you think Transubstantiation to be true if you judge by God's Words there 's neither Purgatory nor Hell finally whatever you think to be the true Sense of Scripture you are bound as a true Reformed Child to believe it that it is quite against the Spirit of Reformation to Censure oppose or blame the Doctrine or Tenets of any Congregation or of any Doctor of the Reformed Church because that any Doctrine professed by any Christian-Congregation whatever the Popish excepted or that ever was delivered by any Man of good Judgment of the Reformation since the beginning of it until this Day is as truly and really the Doctrine of the Reformation as the Figurative Presence or Kings Supremacy is Consequently Protestants are deservedly to be check'd for Persecuting Quakers Quakers for murmuring against Presbyterians these for their invectives against Anabaptists and Socinians All are very good and you may lawfully according to the Principles of our Reformation believe them or deny them This Evangelical Liberty of believing any thing which we judg to be the Sense of Scripture though all the rest of the World should Judge it to be a Blasphemy is the most distinctive sign of the Reformation from Popery for Papists are the Children of Agar the Slave they live in Bondage and Constraint to believe any Doctrine which the Pope and Church proposes to them and if a Learned Man or Vniversity should judge it to be contrary to Scripture he must submit his Judgment to that of the Pope or be condemn'd as an Heretick In our Reformation we are the Children of Sarah the free our Rule of Faith is Scripture as each Person of sound Judgment in the Church understands if we do not like the Doctrine of the Pope Church or Council we may gainsay them all and hold our own Sense of Scripture We enjoy the Prerogative of Rational Creatures we are lead by our own Reason which God has given us for our Conduct and are not like Beasts constrained to follow that of others We follow the Rule given us by S. Paul Rom. 14. He who Eats let him not despise him who does not Eat and who does not Eat let him not despise him who does Eat for God hath received him That 's to say he who believes let him not check him who does not believe as he does And he who does not Believe let him not blame him who does believe But let each one believe or not belive as he thinks best in the Lord This holy Liberty and freedom is the Spirit of God for where the Spirit of God is there is Liberty 2 Cor. 3. Says the great Apostle The Lord inspire to our Parliament that now sits upon a perfect and new settlement of Government and Religion to follow the Footsteps of our first renowned Reformers To enact that there may be no other Rule of Faith but that which we received from our Reformers and which is laid down for us in the 39 Articles of the Church of England That is Scripture as each one best understands it without regarding the Judgment Sense or interpretation of any but the pure Word of God as we understand it And to enact Penal Laws against any so bold and uncharitable as to censure or blame the Tenets of any Congregation be it Lutheranism Presbytery Arianism Judaism or Paganism Or any Doctrine whatever that any Man of sound Judgment thinks in his Conscience to be the Sense and Doctrine of Scripture Three things make me hope that this Treatise will be welcome to the well inclined and pious Reader of our Reformed Church First that there is not one Author quoted in this Book but our own Doctors Learned and Godly Children of the Reformation and this I observe that my Reader may know there 's not a jot of any Doctrine here but what is of the Reformatiâ—n and also advertise our Writers and School-Men how much they discredit our Reform'd Church by making so much use of Popish Doctors and Books in their Writings as if we had not great and learned Men of our own if we look into our Bishops and Ministers Libraries we shall meet with Books either of confessedly Papists or strongly suspected of Popery and you shall hardly meet in any of them the works of Luther
could not be Christ the Son of God because he wanted providence and upon this reflection he renounced Christ and became a Jew And no man can say but that he acted and behaved himself like a true Child of the Reformation in so doing for he followed Scripture as he understood it and as he was a true Reformed Child in forsaking Popery because he understood by Scripture that the Reformation was better so since he understood by reading Scripture more that Judaism was better than the Reformation he acted like a good Reformed in chusing that which he understood by Scripture to be the best this is the Reformations Rule of Faith do you if you please as he did and you 'll be as good a Reformed as he And if you chuse to believe that there is a Church establisht on earth by Christ you must beware never to believe or perswade your self that we are bound to believe her Doctrin or live in her if you do not judge by Scripture that she teaches the Doctrin of Christ This is the most essential point of Popery an obligation of submitting our judgments to the Church and believing her Doctrin without any more examining and in this the Church of England is much like the Popish Church which by Acts of Parliaments and other severities would oblige all men to believe her Doctrin Rites and Ceremonies No God has given us Scripture for our Rule of Faith as we forsook the Popish Church because we discovered by Scripture her many Errours in Doctrin so we are not bound to believe the Doctrin of any other Church but as we find by Scripture her Doctrin is true Do and speak as Luther to 1. Edit Jen. in Resolut I will be free and will not submit to the Authority of Councils Popes Church or Vniversity to the contrary I will confidently teach whatever I Judge to be true whether it be Catholick Doctrin or Heretical condemned or approved Ismael Must I not believe that the Doctrin of Jesus Christ delivered to his Apostles and the Church is true Doctrin Isaac The Reformation teaches it is and you may safely believe it You may as safely believe it is not in the Principles of the Reformation because it teaches that Christ err'd in Doctrin and Manners Vere Pharisaei erant viri valde boni says Luther and Christus minime debuit eos taxare and Calvin says it 's a folly to think he was not ignorant in many things lastly David Georgius a Man of God and of a holy life says Osiander writes If the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles had been true and perfect the Church which they planted had continued but now it is manifest that Antichrist has subverted it as it 's manifest in Papacy therefore it was false and imperfect See these words quoted in the History of David George Printed by the Divines of Basil at Antwerp Anno. 1568 both Doctrines are Scripture as interpreted by Men of sound Judgment a Child of the Reformation may believe which he will. Ismael Is it not the Doctrin of the Reformation that the Apostles were infallible in their Doctrin much more must we believe that Jesus Christ was so Isaac Yes it is you may believe it and it 's also the Doctrin of the Reformation that they were not infallible neither in their written or unwritten Doctrin so many of our most renowned Doctors speak and whatever any Men of sound Judgment Judge to be true by Scripture is the Doctrin of the Reformation Zuinglius one of the greatest Oracles of our Church says It 's a great ignorance to believe any infallible Authority in the Gospels or Epistles of the Apostles Beza not inferiour to Zuinglius blotted out of St. John the History of the Woman Adulteress Judging it a fable Clebitius affirms that Luke's relation of Christ's passion is not true because it does not agree with that of Matthew and Mark and more credit is to be to two than to one Calvin says Peter consented to and added to the Schism of the Church to the overthrow of Christian liberty and Christ's Grace Whitaker says It 's evident that after the Descent of the Holy Gospel the whole Church even the Apostles erred and Peter erred in Doctrin and manners Luther says Peter lived and taught extra Verbum Dei and Brentius his Disciple say that Peter and Barnabas together with the Church of Jerusalem erred after receiving the Holy Ghost If our Rule of Faith be Scripture as each person of sound Judgment understands it undoubtedly this must be the Doctrin of the Reformation and may be believed by any Reformed since it's Scripture interpreted by such renowned men Ismael This is most wicked Doctrin I 'll never believe it Isaac If you think by Scripture it 's wicked do not follow your Rule of Faith Scripture as you understand it but if any other understands by Scripture as those Authors did that the Doctrin is good give him leave to believe it he 'll but follow his Rule of Faith Scripture as he understands it Ismael I would gladly know which are the true Canonical Books of Scripture Isaac The Reformation teaches and you may believe with the Church of England that St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews those of James and Jude the 2. of St. Peter the 2. and 3. of St. John are true Canonical Scripture the Reformation also teaches they are not Canonical because Lutherans deny them believe which you like best But if you 'll live in peace and out of all strife with Protestants Lutherans and others who dispute if this or that be Canonical Scripture your readiest and speediest way will be to say there 's no true Canonical Scripture Scripture is no more to be regarded than other pious Books if you say this is not the Doctrin of the Reformation read Hossias de expresse Verbo Dei lib. de Har. where he relates this to be the Doctrin of the Swinfeldians as good Reformers as the best of us they say that we are not to regard any Instruction from Man or Book but Gods immediate inspiration which speaks secretly to our hearts for which they alledge those comfortable words of the Prophet I will hear what my Lord my God speaks in me for say they the Book which we call Scripture is a Creature and we must not seek for light and instruction from any Creature but from God the Father of Lights This is Scripture as interpreted by Men of sound Judgment any Child of the Reformation may believe it Ismael I thought to settle my mind in my choice of some Religion and you go the way to beat me from all for if you renverse the Authority of Scripture what warrant shall we have for any Religion God forbid the Reformation should deny the true Canon or the infallible truth of Scripture and let all the world say the contrary I will constantly aver and believe it's Gods infallible word Isaac How
Calvin Beza or any of our own Authors if you do not meet some Comedies or Romances If you read our modern Writers you shall find their Books to be stuft with Arguments stolen from Strapleton Peron Bellarmin and other Popish Doctors whereas they ought to take their Doctrine from Luther Calvin and our other first Reformers Apostles raised by Gods Heavenly Spirit Oracles by whose Mouths and Pens he delivered the pure and Orthodox Doctrine of the Gospel Heavenly Fountains from which we ought to drink the Doctrine of the Reformation Therefore I have made a particular Study for the Comfort of my Reader not to profane this Treatise with any quotation of any Popish Writers none but our own Doctors Secondly my Reader will be pleased with this Treatise because I do not oblige him to believe the Contents of it if he mislikes any Doctrine couched in this Book let him not believe it what I pretend is to maintain his Liberty for to believe or not believe what he pleases and that none can say black is his Eye for believing whatever he judges to be the Sence of Scripture let all others think of it what they will for our Rule of Faith as I will prove being Scripture as each Person understands it who can be so bold as to check you for teaching and believing what you understand Scripture to say some Doctrines there are in this Book delivered by Luther Calvin Zuinglius Beza and others which our Church of England and some others do call Blasphemies and scandalous Tenets and their irreverence and arrogance it run so far as to condemn those Blessed Men for teaching such Tenets and say that they swerved from the Truth and had their frailties insomuch that many of us are ashamed to own those great Men to have been our Reformers and Leaders This is an impiety altogether insupportable it cannot be suffered with Patience that such Apostolical Men who were undeniably our first Masters of the Reformation should be so vilified and abused Therefore I do prove that there 's no Doctrine delivered by them but is to be esteemed and called the Doctrine of the Reformation And can be according to the Principles of the Reformed Church believed and taught by any Reformed Child For what is our Rule of Faith in the Reformation but Scripture as each Person of sound Judgment understands it Consequently what is the Doctrine of the Reformation but what any Person of sound Judgment understands to be of Scripture Whatever Doctrine therefore Luther Calvin or others judged to be of Scripture How can you deny it to be the Doctrine of the Reformation or blame them for teaching and believing it If you do not like The most you can in Justice do is not to believe it But you cannot justly say it 's not the Doctrine of the Reformation because it 's Scripture as understood by Persons of good Judgment Nor can you in Justice blame them or any other for believing it if they like it For must not we believe what we judge in our Consciences to be the Doctrine of Scripture Lastly my Reader will be pleased with the sincerity and plain dealing of this Treatise As much as we are all offended by the dissimulation and double dealing of our Modern Writers whose aim and scope in the Books they give out seem to be nothing else but to say somewhat whereby they may be thought to be no Papists and nothing is less found in their Writings than the pure and Orthodox Doctrine of the Reformation And what is to be bemoaned that you 'll hardly see in the Houses or Hands of the Flock the Works of Luther Calvin or our other first Reformers they are hid from us to keep us in ignorance of the true Reformed Doctrine and we see but Bramhall Tillotson Taylor Stillingfleet Thorndike and such others whose Doctrine is neither Popery nor of the Reformation but a new compound of both they do so mangle the Questions controverted with their Scholastical subtilities and distinctions as if they were ashamed to own openly our Tenets and did endeavour to get the Opinion of moderate sober Men with the Papists by drawing as near as their Interest can permit them to their Doctrine Ask them if we be obliged to believe the Doctrine and Sense of Scripture delivered by a general Council Our first Reformers resolved roundly that we are not Nay Luther says expresly we are bound to gainsay and work against the Decrees of any Council But our modern Doctors answer with a pretty Distinction There 's a a civil obligation quoth one but no Obligation in Conscience There 's an obligation in Conscience says another provided you do not believe they are infallible You may believe they are infallible objectively or terminatively says another but not subjectively They are infallible in Fundamental Points says another but not in inferior Truths Another will come yet and say they are absolutely infallible in all Articles and thus by little and little the Papists gain Ground against us and the lustre of our Reformation is clouded by the Cowardliness or Insincerity or Hypocrisie of our modern Teachers 1 Kings 18. How long halt ye between two Opinions If the Lord be God follow him But if Baal then follow him Luther Calvin Beza and our other first Reformers were raised by God to teach us the purity of the Gospel Let us not be ashamed to follow their Doctrine To speak Preach and Believe as they did Therefore I do propose the Doctrine in this Treatise in its native Colours that if you like it you may believe it and if any be so bold as to say you believe false or scandalous Doctrine you must answer It 's the Doctrine of the Reformation because it 's Scripture as understood by Persons of Judgment and the greatest Oracles we had And if you do not like it you may deny it but beware never to blame or check any other for believing it This is the Holy Liberty of the GOSPEL and of our Primitive REFORMATION First DIALOGUE ISMAEL I have read your Preface and Principles and methinks you drive to establish a new Religion for that unlimited Liberty which you assert for to believe or not believe whatever we please with a safe Conscience is not allowed by any of our Reformed Congregations and it were to be wish'd you should rather stick to some one of the Congregations now Established than to erect a new one for we have but too many already Isaac The Lord forbid I should think or speak otherwise than as becometh a true Child of the Reformation If you will oblige me to believe Scripture as interpreted by the Lutheran Church the like I say of any other Congregation and deny the Tenets of all others what difference betwixt me and a Papist in the Election of my Religion For the Papists Religion must be no other but Scripture as Interpreted by the Pope and Councils my Religion must be Scripture as interpreted by the
he reads the Works of Arius and convinc'd by the energy of his Arguments and Texts of Scripture produced by him may alter his Judgment and become an Arian Wherein can you say does this Man transgresâ—…against the Doctrine or Principles of the Reformation Does he forsake the Reformation because he forsakes Lutherism for Calvinism No sure for Calvinism is as much of the Reformation as the other Is not Protestancy as much the Doctrine of the Reformation as Presbytery tho' he changes therefore one for the other he still holds the Doctrine of the Reformation Is not the Doctrine of the Reformation Scripture not as Protestants only or Presbyterians only interpret it but as any Congregation or Man of sound Judgment holds it It is therefore evident that according to the Doctrine and Principles of the Reformation he may with a safe Conscience change Religions and be to day of one to morrow of another until he runs all over Point me out any Congregation the obstinate Papists excepted who will dare say I cannot live with a safe Conscience in any other Congregation but in it self all other Congregations will laught at it Why then may not I lawfully forsake any Congregation and pass to another And be in England a Protestant in Germany a Lutheran in Hungary an Antitrinitarian or Socinian Ismael It 's against the grain of Mans reason to believe that we can with a safe Conscience change Religions as you say If you be a Protestant and you Judge it to be the true Religion you are bound to stick to it and never to change it Isaac If I did discourse with a Papist I would not wonder he should say it 's against the grain of Mans reason to believe it lawful but I admire that a Child of the Reformation be he of what Congregation he will should be so Ignorant of his Principles as to say a Man cannot change Religions when he pleases Nor do I undertake to prove against the Papist that this is lawful but I undertake to prove it lawful against any Reformed Child or force him to deny the Principles of the Reformation Is it against reason that a Man may read to day Scripture and the Lutherans Interpretation upon it and like it very well and that he should in this case embrace that Religion Is it against the grain of Mans reason that this same Man should next Year afterwards hit upon Calvin's Works upon Scripture and after better consideration think his Doctrine to surpass that of Luther and could not he then being obliged to chuse the best forsake Lutheranism and stick to Calvinism And is it against Mans reason that he in following Years may meet other Books of Arians Socinians c. and do the like Have not we many examples of this in our best and most renowned Reformers Did not Ochinus that great light says B. Bale in whose presence England was happy reading Scripture Judge the Reforformation to be better than Popery and of a Capuchin Fryar became a Reformed after some Years reading Scripture he Judged Judaism to be better than the Reformation and became a Jew Did not Martin Bucer one of our first Reformers of England and Composers of our Liturgy reading Scripture judge Lutheranism to be better than Popery and of a Dominican Fryar became a Lutheran Soon after reading Scripture he judged Zuinglianism to be better than Lutheranism and became a Zuinglian not long after he became a Lutheran again as he Confesses and forsook Lutheranism the second time and returned again to Zuinglianism as Sklusser says b Did not Cranmer one of our first Reformers also of England and Composers of the 39. Articles a Wise and religious Man profess Popery in Henry the VIII's time and Compose a Book in defence of Real Presence then in Edward the VI's time upon better Consideration he professed Zuinglianism and writ a Book against Real Presence then again in Queen Mary's Reign being Sentenc'd to Death he declared for Popery but seeing his Recantation would not preserve his Life he renounced Popery and died a Zuinglian I could tire your Patience in reading and Mind in relating the number of our Prime and most renowned as well first Reformers as Learned Doctors who without any scruple changed several times their Religions nor in the Principles of our Reformation ought they to be blamed For whereas our Rule of Faith is Scripture as with the assistance of Gods Spirit we understand it who doubts but we may to day Judge sincerely Luther's sense of it to be true to morrow we may read with more attention and Judge Arius his sense to be true next day that of Calvin and so of the rest I do not think but that we have in England many Abettors of this Doctrine Alas how many Bishops Deans and rich Parsons do we know and have we known who were zealous Presbyterians and declared Enemies of Protestancy in our Gracious Soveraign's Exile and no sooner was he restored and had Bishopricks and Ecclesiastical Dignities to be given but they became stiff Protestants Observe the difference betwixt the Papists and us if of a Papist you become of any other Congregation the Popish Church Excommunicates you thou art lookt upon as an Heretick and Apostate a stray'd Sheep they will not admit you to their Communion or Liturgy nay could they well avoid you they would never admit you to their Company and why Because they are fondly perswaded their own is the only true Religion and all others to be Synagogues of Satan and if any of us will become a Papist he must first abjure his former Profession But if of a Protestant you should become a Presbyterian a Lutheran Quaker or of any other of our Societies you are never looked upon to be a jot the worse for it we are not a whit scandalized at such changes which we daily see and it is an unspeakable Blessing with what Accord Unity and Charity you may see at our Liturgy and Communion the Protestant Presbyterian Anabaptist Socinian and Hugonot all praising the Lord in one Congregation in our Church none bid out of the Church none Excommunicated no previous abjuration required of their former Tenets and there 's nothing more frequent among us than to go to the Protestant Liturgy in the Morning in the Evening to the Prebyterian especially if our Interest or Convenience requires it Can there be a more convincing Proof that we esteem it all alike what Religion and Tenets we profess Let a Lutheran go to France Alas He will never stick to go to the Hugonots meeting and Service let a Protestant go to Germany he will go as cheerfully to the Lutheran Church as in England to the Protestant Let a Hugonot or Presbyterian go to Hungary or Poland he is welcome to the Antitrinitarians and Socinians and when any of them returns home he will be as before Ismael But can you prove this Doctrine by the Testimony of any of our Synods Did any teach that