charity which is the end of them though not the exact severity So many holy men had dispensation in those times which is not competent with us Abraham to make his halfe sister his wife Iacob to have many wives which is not competent with other ages Mal. 2.15 and therefore reproved by the Prophet So neither are those actions imitable which many were agitated to by zeal and fervour of spirit for Gods cause as that of Moses to excite one brother to slay another nor that of Phineas in transferring Zimri and Cosbi for what actions are exorbitant from common Law are not to be made exemplar Mathe. What may we judge of those that are called Apocryphall books Ph. We are to think them as helps to understand Scripture in many places especially Solomon Wisd and Eccl. Judith Tobie Esdras Mac. and to know the State of the Jewes before the Prophet Malachies time in their captivity and after it also And so neither to contemn them nor yet to build our faith upon all things there written as the Church of Rome injoineth people to do under penalty of a curse as we are to beleeve the Canonicall Scriptures Conc. Trid. but to trie what analogy they hold with truth and so make use of them as in Heb. 11.35 takes an instance of faith from the mother of seven sons 2 Machab. 7.7 Mathe. Some make doubt of the Scriptures Canonicalness because they say there be more books in the world then we have inserted in our Bibles and all that we have in our account Canonicall are not thought to be so Phila. You need not trouble your selfe with that but rather make an holy use of that we have by building our selves up in our holy faith and thank God that he hath reserved for us by his Church a copy of sacred writ sufficient for our salvation which is written that we may beleeve and the rest lost or left out John 21.25 that we may not look after more then is necessary The Jewes reckoned but 22 books of the old Testament we find more Joseph cent Appion Vid. Concil Lao. de lib. Canon Magd. cent 4. fol. 838. c. 4. yet they contained as much as we have but their compiling differed from ours And these were consigned by Ezra the scribe after the return from Babylon in the time of Hagge Zachary and Malachy all in Hebrew Which tongue though it be a good signe of Canonicall Scripture yet it is not the only signe for many of the Apocryphall books were so written at first as Ecclesiasticus seems to be by the Preface a book of great worth and next sure to the Wisedome of Solomon So Tobit and the fourth of Esdras but rather the consignation of the Jewish Church and their continuall receipt of them for such Atha in Synop. So some write of more Psalms of David then 150. but if we should admit of more I feare it would encourage many selfe conceited men to make Psalms too under pretence that they had the spirit of God as well as David as did some in the Councill of Laodicea Conc. Lao. ut supra c. 59. and urged for it Ioel 2. your sons and daughters shall prophecy which Council excludes or at least omits the Epistle to the Colossians and the Apocalyps yet it reckons 14 Epistles of St Pauls of which that to the Colossians must be one or else there is but 13. Kirstonius in Arab. notes on the Evangel Calv. vid. Bod. method hist c. 7. And why the Apocalyps was left out it may be was because more lately written and divulged except the Councill were of their minds who reckoned it Apocrypha or theirs who slighted it as Ambrese did Persius the Satyrist because of its obscurity We read also of the Gospell of St Thomas and St Bartholomew all which is nothing to us so long as we know that our old Testament and the Jewes agree together still and are the same they were in the time of Christ And for the New Testament we have those that have been generally received as Orthodoxall by the Church and for 1300 years together consigned as Canonicall by the Councils as Nice Laodicea and Carthage Mathe. But whether have not the Iewes corrupted the old Testament Phila. 1. Aug. They would not certainly out of envy to the Gentiles rob their own posterity of the truth Philo. Beside they held it as a sin inexpiable so to do Polanus leb 1. cap. 37. and would die an hundred deaths rather then change one jot of them They know also that the world was created for the Scriptures sake and therefore the world would be turned to a chaos ere they should be altered and so they were faithfull trustees Rom. 3.2 But 2. They could not do it for there was so many Copies dispersed by reason of their dispersion over the world that it was impossible to corrupt it Bellarm. Beside certainly God would not suffer that to be corrupted by which he meant to save the world and therefore Christ said Luke 16.17 that not one iota should perish till heaven and earth passed away Mat. 5.18 And 3. They did not for then they would above all other places expunged or altered those that related to Christ as Esa 7. ver 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive Gnalemah Bethulah not a young woman for that had been no wonder nor worth the world Behold So Esa 9.6 To us a child is born and a Son is given called Wonderfull c. Nor did they deface his passion though they deformed him foreprophecied so clearly Esa 53. Bellarm. Which words in their own language do more forcibly convince the Jewes then the Vulgar Latine doth as in Psal 2.12 Kisse the Son Nesheku Bar. i. embrace Christ not Discipline And therefore certainly the Old Testament was not corrupted by the Jewes 4. Our Saviour never charged them with corrupting the Text but only with misunderstanding or mis-interpreting nor any of the Fathers in their writing against them Just Marr. except one for wronging the Septuagints translation So that it is void of corruption however in the reading there may be some variation yet no deprvation of the Copy Mathe. But methinks they deliver things impossible and some things contradictory and some things in them seem doubtfull in regard of difference of text and margent in the old Testament and diversity of readings in the new Phila. Not things impossible to him whose word it is who to his works requires our faith more then our understandings else his works did not exceed magitians 2. Nor is there any contradictions in them if you observe the rule of contradictions which must be a assertion of the same thing at the same time according to the same part notion or apprehension You must know therefore that there is a vast difference between Scriptures and other books For they do not omit somethings out of mis-knowledge as other books
which the ungodly have no propriety of estate By which doctrin the people are filled with mad zeale and coveting of rich mens estates and marking them out for destruction by fire and sword God keep his people from becomming their prey Mathe. What are our Antisabbatarians Phila. Such as are against the keeping of any Sabbath whether the Jewish Sabbath or the Christians Lords day Of which opinion was one Hetherington a Box-maker who said not only the Jewes Sabbath day was of no force since Christs time and the Apostles but also taught that every day was a Sabbath as much as the Lords day But he recanted his error at Pauls Crosse God be praised And good reason for though the Jewish Sabbath being but a shadow of Christ be now abolished and we are not to be judged by the keeping of it Col. 2.16 yet the morality of that Commandement is observed in keeping still one day in seven holy to the Lord for delivering us from the bondage of sin by Christs resurrection as the Jewes kept theirs in remembrance of their freedome from the bondage of Egypt Deut. 5.15 And thus the Law by the Christians observing the first day of the week Rom. 3.31 is not made void but established It is true that there is no precept for the changing of it because there was no need for the morall intent of the Law commanded only that one day in seven be kept so that if the Patriarchs before the Law was given by Moses kept a seventh day in respect to the creation and the Jewes kept a seventh in respect of their liberation from Egypt and the Christians keep their seventh day in relation to Christs redemption that Commandement is fulfilled so far as it requireth an holy seventh day And though we have no precept for changing yet we have their practice and examples who had the mind of Christ For the first day of the week called since Christs time the Lords day was first kept at Jerusalem Acts 2.1 upon which the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles Then again at Troas Acts 20.7 in which verse is declared that it was their usuall meeting day And the holy Fathers have alwaies observed it Epist ad Magnes and urged the keeping of it as Ignatius scholler to St Iohn the Apostle his auditor about thirty years the second Bishop of Antioch and a Martyr but 107 years after Christ in the raign of the Emperour Trajan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He saith let every one that loveth Christ instead of the Sabbath celebrate the Lords day And Basil saith that when all daies prescribed by the Law are abolished yet there remains one great day of the Lord which shall never be abolished Of this opinion for the seventh day Jewish Sabbath and against the celebration of the Lords day Traskilus was one Iohn Trask and Theophilus Brabourn but both recanted their errors for which glory be to God Trask preached against eating of blood and unclean creatures upon mistake of the injunction of the first Councill of the Apostles to the Gentiles Acts 15.2 where blood and things strangled do not relate to such things prepared for meat but to the barbarous or canibal eating of things halfe alive and halfe dead in their blood or eating any thing that was torn from a living creature therefore Paul saith that every creature of God is good Mathe. What are your Soule-sleepers Phila. Those that revive that Sect in the time of Origen Soul-sleepers in the third centurie of years after Christ who held the soule did sleep in the dust with the body after death because God said to Adam Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return not perceiving this was spoken of the body only not of the soule which came not from thence Gen. 2.7 And also because Solomon saith Eccle. 3.10 that man and beast all return to one place yet they might have considered that he saith also the spirit of a beast goeth downward and the spirit of a man goeth upward even to God that gave it Eccles 12. and that the soules of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord Wisd 3. In the sight of the unwise they seem to die but they are in peace Mathe. What are your seekers Phila. Surely people that have so long contended about truth and the Church Seekers that they have quite lost it and therefore they say there is no true Church nor Minister nor Ordinances yet they expect and seek with Loe here it is and then there it is and catch at every thing but hold nothing like one that leaps out of a boat into the water and then catches at every rush and flag to save himself Mathe. What are your Divorcers Phila. Another sprout of the Anabaptists Divorcers who like the Jewes would put away their wives for a small cause under pretence that he finds her not an help meet for him But this is contrary to Christs rule Mat. 5.31 and c. 19.9 that no man should put away his wife but for whoredome lest he cause her to commit adulterie or another man to marry her and so he commit adultery Mathe. Is there any more such weeds in the Churches field Phila. Yes surely for I hear of some that account the Scriptures a thing of nought both the holy books of the Old and New Testament such were put to death under Moses Law Heb. 5.28 But we live in greater times of liberty I may say Libertinisme The Lord hold the reine which Magistrates let too slack lest these unruly creatures hurry both the Church chariot and the horsemen of Israel to destruction Mathe. I pray what are the Shakers Phila. A kind of people that pretend to have the spirit by fits But what spirit it is that casts them into these seeming or swooning extasies I know not but I doubt much whether it be the spirit of God or of Satan or of dissembling I have read of the spirit of Apollo that used such feats upon the bodies of those whom he had possessed namely of shaking and quaking which being past they have spoken some words which have been received for his Oracles So I have read and heard of Nuns pretended to be possessed by evill spirits beyond the seas which the Friers can expell at their pleasure But I never knew nor ever read in any credible author that the spirit of God doth or hath entred the body of men in any such manner but hath enlightned the mind with sober knowledge and sound repentance and comfortable faith and well grounded speeches that are unreprovable and lead them in a life unblameable But these Quakers their speeches are confused and yet perverse and peremptorie Their lives erroneous not knowing or refusing to use the creature of God as lawfully they may I find them people of no sound knowledge yet despising learning and rejecting Gods Ministers and Ordinances by which they may be better instructed They dare not use their
years after Meses Acts 7.27 It is true the Scripture saith he was learned in all the learning of the Aegyptians but their learning consisted rather in the hieroglyphick emblems then in letters And though there were Magicians and wise men among them before Josephs time Psal 105.21 Gen. 41.8 yet they are said to learn wisedome of Joseph and might also of the Patriarchs being in Aegypt four hundred years who had by tradition the sciences from Sheth which afterward might be called the learning of the Aegyptians who at that time had the Israelites in bondage and so took the name of learning to themselves But these books of Moses are most clearly divine and authentick declaring an history from the Creation for two thousand years forward with excellent revelation of divine oracles which teach men to know the true God 3. They be the word of God because it treateth of those works which are proper only to God and of which none can give evidence but the spirit of God and such as are inspired therewith As of the creation of the world the preservation and destruction of it the restauration of it again the qualifying of the Church with divine Oracles and religious services typicall and spirituall morall ceremoniall judiciall honouring it with unparalleld miracles declaring mans eternall redemption and by prophecies of the state of the Church to the worlds end Mathe. This proofe being taken only from Scripture will not suffice some who beleeve them not for their own sakes Phila. It is true such therefore may be confirmed of the truth of them from prophane writers who testifie of their truth and antiquity if they had rather beleeve such then the Scriptures themselves the Fathers or Ecclesiastick writers For many prophane Authors attest what is written in them as Homer and Plato and others Homer Plato Ovid. Hieron Aegypt Berosus Epolemus Plut. in l. ratio brutorum Vid Euseb l. 9. c. 34. de prop. Evangel Lactan. l. 4. c. 6. speak of the Creation others of the long lives of the Patriarchs as Ephorus and Alexander the historian before the flood others of the drowning of the world others of the Tower of Babel as Alydenus so Damascenus of Abrahams travels Plutarch of Noahs Dove so Pliny of Moses miracles Diodorus Siculus of Moses and Strabo with much reverence as well as Dionys Longinus The Sybils prophecied of mans Redeemer Suetonius in the life of Nero speaks of Christs miracles and Pliny of the wise mens star Macrobius of Herods massacring the infants of Bethelem Mathe. All this proves only the historicall part to be true Phila. If we beleeve the history to be a divine truth we cannot well doubt of the doctrinall part being interserted one with another and both of them equally attested by divine miracles both of Moses the Prophets and Christ and his Apostles which miracles being from the divine power would never have been produced to attest false doctrines in Scriptures therefore the Scriptures in doctrine as well as in history is the word of God But beside the rare modification of them sheweth them no lesse For though they transcend reason yet they deliver nothing contrary to right and pure reason nor any thing contrary in nature though things above nature Again the doctrinal part of them is agreeable to the nature of God is who Goodness Righteousnesse Love and Truth and Holinesse yea they discover to man all his secret corruptions which is the property only of God to do nor doth it in any thing contradict it selfe being rightly understood though written by divers men in divers ages and therfore surely were indited by that one eternall Spirit who is Unity in Verity as wel as Unity in Trinity Farther it shews man a way to be saved from sin and damnation without annihilating the Justice of God or making his mercy degenerate into fond pitty for want of satisfaction to his justice and this surpasseth the wisedome of Angels and men yea the effects of it are divine for it brings rest to a troubled mind which no book else can do and satisfieth mans knowledge in things worthy of faith and affords as much and more reason why we should beleeve them then any book beside Therefore the wisest and soberest men of all ages have consented to it and thousands of godly Martyrs have sealed it with their pious lives and constant deaths Vid. Martyrol Mathe. I pray give me some proofe that the Scriptures have as much reason and more to be beleeved then other writings Phila. 1. Because we can find no just exception against the Writers in regard of their abilities or their integrities and upon the same ground we beleeve all other Historiographers But if you say you know not whether those are the Authors of the books that are entitled to them as Moses and Paul I say you have as much reason to beleeve that as that any ancient writer is the Author of his own book 2. We may rather and ought rather to beleeve them then others not only because of the excellency of their matter as I said before but also because the Authors of them had no selfe interest in writing these books as either of gain or glory favor or the friendship of men nay they were content with labor and travell poverty and persecutions scorns and infamy misery and death Therefore certainly they be the Word of God Cyril 10. and so to be beleeved To call the Authors of them into question were to outdo Julian the Apostate who would not deny that Luc. Philo. and scoffing Lucian who did not deny Paul to be the Author of the second Epistle to the Corinthians twelfth chapter though he scoffs at his professed extasie Indeed they may challenge as much beleefe of their authors in this point as any writing both because they have been so successively delivered continually so mentioned and generally so acknowledged by all parties Mathe. Doth God declare himselfe in all the books of Scripture alike Phila. No but in some more historically as in the five books of Moses In some more my stically as in the Prophets In some more clearly as in the New Testament but in all instructively both for faith and manners perfectly and sufficiently Mathe. Why are some called Canonicall and some Apocryphall books Phila. They are called Canonicall which are the rule of faith and manners namely for us to beleeve and practice and they are numbred by the Church to begin with Genesis and to end with the Prophet Malachy for the Old Testament And the New Testament begins with St Matthew and ends with the Revelation of St John And all these are the subject of our faith but not all for our practice Mathe. Why so Phila. Because many precepts in it are temporall as the Ceremoniall Law some for the Jewes particular state only as the Judiciall Lawes the equity whereof we may observe though not according to the letter as we are bound to observe the
do nor at all contradict themselves but sometimes things are omitted for mystery sake as Moses a most accurate describer of Genealogies leaves out the Father and Mother of Melchisedeck that he might be a type of Christ to Abraham and all others For Christ considered simply as God had no mother and simply as man he had no father not that Melchisedeck had no generation though not in the Genealogy Heb. 7.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid Arab. caten c. 31. fol. 67 c. 30. fol. 66. at a. For we may find in some Eastern writings that he was the son of Heraclim the son of Phaleg the son of Eber. So sometime that is set before which is done afterward to stir up our diligence to search as 1 Sam. 16.21 Saul entertaineth David and loveth him and chap. 17.55 Saul enquireth whose son he is So there is great difference between Moses Genealogy from Shem to Abraham and of Lukes from Abraham to Shem in which we find two Nachors Gen. 11. and two Canaans Luke 2.34 c. So Heber to be the son of Nachor whom Moses sets down for the son of Selah which differences may be reconciled by comparing the Hebrewes account with the Grecists or Greek Jewes who very likely have made the mistake So by the Genealogy of Matthew Jacob is Josephs father and by St Luke Heli is his father but Iacob was his naturall father and Heli his father in law Mat. 1. Luke 2. by having Mary to his wife The doctrine of Scriptures also seems to vary but doth not and is reconciled by distinguishing as St Paul saith faith only justifieth and St Iames saith works justifie that is faith only justifieth by applying Christs merits to the soul but faith alone justifieth no mans christian profession but that is justified by works in the sight of men and faith it selfe is also approved by them These differences do vindicate the Scripture from any politike or crafty design that the authors had to impose upon men a sounder beleefe by continuing all circumstances most precisely without any appearing difference 3. R. Moses B. Maimon As for any diversities of readings in the Text and Margent of the Old Testament there be waies and books of directions enough to reconcile them the marginall notes being put down by the members of their great Synagogue Manasseh B. Israel his Conciliator vet Testam R. Isaac Jacob and Elias Levits a modern Jew who made the consignment of the Canonicall books such as was Daniel Ezra Haggai Zacharie and Malachi and that not because the Text was doubtfull but for some mystery Mathe. But we find divers books rejected by some Churches Phila. If they rejected them upon reason no doubt other Churches found as great reason to receive and hold them and I know not why one reason should not prevaile with you to hold them as well as the other to doubt of them I know Ecclesiastes is condemned by some as a book maintaining Epicurisme but it is rather Solomons recantations in the beginning crying down all for vanity and in the end concluding the summe of mans duty Others takes the Canticles for a love-ditty made to Pharaohs daughter but many of the expressions of it are not competible with womanhood nor beauty Cant. 7.4 It is rather a spirituall song full of Antiphona's and Responsories betwixt Christ and his and his Church Rab. Abr. Aben Ezra in cant cap. 1. The Jewes that best knew their own Canon say that it is abominable to think that this book treateth of venereall matters Indeed it is the rarest and most excellent not only of many which Solomon made to whit as some say 1005. but also the best of any other in sacred writ because it containeth in it doctrin of all sorts Porphyr So some say the Prophecy of Daniel is but an history written after the things there written were done namely in the time of Antiochus but indeed the book was delivered to King Alexander by Iaddus the high Priest 150. years before that time Others refuse the Epistle to the Hebrewes because it hath not the name of the author set to it They may as well reject the Book of Iudges and Ruth But this Epistle was alwaies received in the Greek Church as for the Latine Church it makes too bold with Scripture to put in or to dash out of it at her pleasure So some have questioned the Epistle of St Iames and Peters second Epistle and Iohns third Epistle yet upon debate they have been received and therefore now the lesse to be doubted Mathe. But some regard Scripture not to be the word of God the more for the Canon John 1.1 1 John 1.1 John 6.63 For they say the Word of God is God himselfe and that Christ the Son of God is the Word and that Gods word is Spirit and life not the letter for the letter killeth Phila. You may easily answer these thus Ask them from whence have they these arguments against the written Word but in the written Word If they allow not the written Word from whence they have these to be the word of God their arguments against the written Word are nothing If they do allow it so to be then they make God to fight against himselfe We know that a word of God there is that may be called himself As 1. The Word essentiall in the divine mind Genesis 1. as when God said i. the Trinity said or determined Let us make man This word cannot be any thing but God nor divided from God no more then thoughts can be from our minds 2. Hence is the Word personall and so Christ is the word begotten before all worlds by whom the world and all things were made and he is called God 3. Hence is the Word prophorical or enuntiative which God giveth by his spirit divers waies to men as by visions dreams inspiration and by an audible voice this is not called properly God though the fountain of it the holy Spirit be God The first of these words is immanent and consultative The second is emanent and generative The third is proceedent and communicative and therefore communicates Gods will declaratively to certaine men who spake and wrote as they were inspired by that divine spirit whose writing the Scripture is and is as improperly called God as God may be called the Bible The fourth is the word operative or efficacious Gods spirituall benediction of it to us But these men must pretend to some hidden way to make the world wonder a while and at last to smile at their simplicity who are not content to hear God speake in his word but must turn the word into God himselfe and so make him or it a kind of Idoll Mathe. But men doubt it because their translations are differing Phila. Either the Scriptures must be translated or else are never like to be known to the world abroad 2. They must be translated as every language will
Cleophas of 120. years old he was scourged and crucified So Ignatius suffered martyrdome by being devoured by wild beasts being allured by himselfe to come and grind him in their teeth that he might be found as fine flower in the house of his Father Plinius secundus Deputy of Bithinia being troubled in his mind to see so many Christians suffer innocently and patiently wrote to Trajan that they were honest and vertuous people deresting murther and adultery and such like only in the morning early they had meetings where they sang Psalms to one Christ who they said was God This mitigated the persecution To him succeeds Aelius Adrianus by whom the Jewes were all banished from Iudea and Ierusalem given to other nations to inhabit and called Aelia Chytr Chron. In his time Aristides and Quadratus writ Apologies for the Christian Religion and the Christians petitioned that they might not be put to death for the clamors of the people except they were found to be worthy of death for some offence against the Law Eus l. 4. c. 9. To which purpose this Emperor writ an Epistle to Fundanus Deputy of Asia and would have built a Temple for Christians but for feare the Heathen Temples would have been utterly neglected Antonius Pius succeeds being adopted by Adrian In his time Iustin Martyr writ Apologies for Christians Eus l. 4. c. 13. which were read in the Senate and moved this Emperour much towards them and proclaimed his edict at Ephesus in their behalfe Antoninus Philosophus called Marcus Aurelius succeeds Pius his Father in Law together with his brother Verus for nine years There was now two Augusti ruling the Empire but Aurelius outlived Verus 4. Persecution and raised the fourth persecution which raged extreamly but the Christians were undaunted and wearied their tormentors Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna and Iustin Martyr suffered in his time Eus l. 5. c. 1. Photinus Bishop of Lyons in France and Blandina that cried in her torments I am still a Christian In this time the Christians were slandered with eating mens flesh and incestuous copulation but had it been true they could not have been so willing to die and so lose all those pleasures He was admonished by many good men as Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis and Melito Bishop of Sandis to mitigate his fury against Christians but he did not till being refreshed by the praiers of his Christian Legion when his whole army had like to perish for the want of water the Christians praied and there fell abundance of raine with thunder and lightning which helped to put their enemies also to flight Eus l. 5. c. 5. This asswaged his mind and he wrote to the Senate in their behalfe and the Christian Legion after that was called the thundring Legion Commodus his son succeeds him a bad man In his time Apollonius a Noble man of Rome suffered martyrdome After him followed Pertinax murthered by the Praetorian band Next Didius Iulianus bought the Empire of the souldiers and was slain in two months Septimius Severus succeeds him chosen by the Senate He raised the fifth persecution 5. Persecution which raged much in Alexandria and in Africa In his time Leonides the Father of Origen was beheaded Eus l. 6. c. 1. who was exhorted by that his young son to persevere in the faith of Christ One Potamiaena a young beautifull Lady in Alexandria was committed to Basilides a Captain to see her executed who did courteously defend her from the outrage of the people therefore she praied for his conversion and was heard of God for he turned Christian and was a martyr also Many of Origens schollers also now were martyred This Emperour was slaine at York by the Northerne people Next followed Bassianus his son who slew his brother Geta in his mothers arms he was slain by Macrinus Macrinus succeeds him who chose his son consort in the Empire He delaying to come to Rome Heliogabalus was chose who lead an army against him and slew him and his son at Chalcedon Heliogabalus succeeds a lascivious glutton slaine by the Praetorian souldiers Alexander Severus his adopted son succeeds His government was called unbloody yet in his time were divers martyrs as Agapetus Hist Magdeb. Cent. 3. first tormented then beheaded So some Senators and noble men of Rome as Pammachius Simplicius Quintilius Mammea his mother was a Christian and instructed by Origen whom she sent for No Churches could be obtained of him for Christians to worship in nor hardly any place without great difficulty yet it is thought he would have builded them one but his Priests hindered him He was very severe in punishing hainous crimes in souldiers therefore the German Legion killed him and his mother Maximinus succeeds him of mean parentage but a giant-like man Bucol Indes Chron. 6. Persecution he procured the death of Severus and was saluted Emperour by the army without the Senates advice He raised up the sixth persecution especially against the chiefe Teachers Few names of the martyrs are found in this time because the book that Origen writ in this time dedicated to the persecuted Pastors of Caesarea is lost He and his son were slaine by his owne souldiers at the siege of Aquileia Then Gordianus declared Emperor with his son both cut off by the Mauritanians Then Pupienus and Balbinus chosen by the Senate which displeasing the people they associated with them one Gordianus of thirteen years old Nephew to the former The souldiers killed Pupienus and Balbinus Gordianus had Philip set to be his Tutor who got the souldiers to make him generall and then slew young Gordianus Philip succeeds and turns the first Christian Emperour The first Christian Emperour Eus l. c. 34. and became so repentant that he was contented after that he was baptized by Fabianus Bishop of Rome to stand among the penitents who made confession of their sins Decius a Captain of his army slew him Decius succeeds and his son He raiseth the seventh persecution 7. Persecution The martyrs innumerable Alexander Bishop of Jerusalem and Babylas Bishop of Antiochia die in prison Origen to avoid the defilement of his body by an Ethiopian woman offereth incense before an Idol for which he is excommunicated by the Church of Alexandria but received at Judea where being desired to preach he only read Psal 50.16 and wept and so sate down and all the people wept with him No age nor sex was spared in this persecution as appeareth by the martyrdome of Apollonia whose teeth were dashed out and then her selfe burned Eus l. 6. c. 41. Julianus an old man Diosconus a youth of fifteen years Many Captains and Knights standing by the Tribunall encouraged the weak by professing themselves Christians so that the Judges were amazed This Tyrant after two years reign perished in the Scythian war but his body was not found Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian his son succeeded and were slaine by Aemilianus a Captain and
Cardinall that we read of except in the counterfeit decretall Epistles before Pope Sylvester After Leo the fourth succeeds Pope Joan or John the eight born in Mentz went to Athens in mans apparell came to Rome and was to the Popedome advanced proved with child delivered as she was going to the Church of Lateran of whom Anastasius a Chronologer who lived about this time maketh no mention for shame of the fact but passed it Benedict the third honoured much the funerals of the Clergy with his own presence and desired the Bishops might by the whole Clergie Nicolaus the first succeeds him who suffered the Emperour Ludovicus the second to alight and lead his horse by the bridle a full mile He permitted divorces without consent of parties as the Anabaptists do and or dained that the Clergy should not be subject to civill Magistrates seats of Judicature And that none should receive the Sacrament from a married Clergy man and that the Emperour should not be present at Ecclesiasticall meetings unlesse some point of faith were to be handled and the common service of the Church to be in Latine in all Churches but dispensed with Sclavonia and Polonia He added to the Liturgie the Hymn of Glory be to God on high Hadrian the second succeeds who proudly commanded the King of France Carolus Calvus to let Hircmanus Bishop of Laudunum to appeale to Rome after his condemnation by a Councill in France but he refused However John the ninth his successor crowned him Emperor and after him Balbus and then Crassus all three named Charls Hadrian the third ordained that the Clergy and people of Rome should chuse their Pope without attendance upon the Emperours allowance or leave And that after the death of Carolus Crassus who died without succession that the imperiall title and government of Italy should belong to an Italian Prince which bred great contention and debate among the Princes and much trouble to the Chair of Rome every Prince striving to advance him to it that was most friend to himselfe Stephanus the fifth followed who ordained that whatsoever the Church of Rome appointed was to be perpetually observed Pormosus succeeds him who crowned the Emperour Arnulphus and then Boniface the sixt was next Then Stephanus the sixt who offered great violence to the dead body of Formosus cutting off his fingers and disanulling his ordination yea and his crowning the Emperour Arnulphus and set up Albertus Marquesse of Tuscia in his stead Now Antichrist appears more then ever before by putting down and setting up Emperours Romanus succeeds him and nuls the decrees of Stephanus Theodorus succeeds him and alloweth them againe John the tenth nuls the decrees of Stephanus the sixt and alloweth them of Formosus How were these men led infallibly by the spirit Sergius the third who again took up the body of Formosus after eight yeers and beheaded it He loved Marozia and on her begot a son who was afterward made Pope and called Iohn the twelfth Pope Iohn the thirteenth committing adultery was slain by the womans husband but first deposed by a Councill called by Otho the first Emperour Leo the eighth succeeds who finding and being weary of the sedition and insolence of the Roman people resigned the chusing of Popes to the Emperour Iohn the fourteenth succeeds who first brought in baptizing of bels and he called the great bell of the Church of Lateran by his own name Iohn Then Gregory the fifth who after much trouble by the advice of the Emperour O ho the third The seven Electors of the Empire appointed made a constitution of seven Electors to chuse the Emperour for the time to come which continueth still namely the Bishops of Mentz Colen and Tryer the Count Palatine the Duke of Saxony and the Marquesse of Brandenburgh and in case of difference the King of Bohemia Next followed Sylvester the second Platina a great scholler but a Magician He enquired of the devill how long he should live Pope he did answer him till he said masse at Ierusalem which fell out at a Chappell so called at Rome where this Pope saying masse in Lent was stricken with a feaver of which he died Mathe. But yet we hear of no great persecutions Phila. True Why no great persecution yet by the Pope because yet the Church was of one language and none stands up against the corrupt tenets of Rome Mathe. Why do you then reckon up this bedroll of Popes Phila. Because you may know how and by whom corruption crept in which corruption being contradicted by some whom God enlightned then began persecutions Mathe. I pray now go on Phila. I have not nor shall trouble you with all of them but with some who have acted things very remarkable Therefore after Sylvester the second and divers other Popes Leo the ninth called a Councill against Berengarius who denied transubstantiation Nicolaus the second followed who forced by a Councill Berengarius to recant who did yet afterward wrote against transubstantiation He was poisoned as other Popes before him Alexander the second followed who denied to rule as Pope without the Emperours consent For which he was beaten in a chamber by Hildebrand in his pontificials and cast into prison where he died Hildebrand called Gregorius the seventh succeeds He called the marrigâ—e of Priests the heresie of the Nicolaitans and receiving Ecclesiasticall preferments and offices from Lay men though Princes symony About this time William the Conquerour came into England This was brought to passe by the thunder of excommunications which made the Emperour Henry the fourth travell to Rome in the hard winter to get absolution from the Popes curse Vrbanus the second excited Princes to war against the Turks who had got Jerusalem This he did in a Councill held at Cleremount in France and by divers Princes recovered it for a while But this war made Christian Princes so weak both in power and purse that the Pope more easily brought them all under his girdle Paschalis the second succeeds him who at the Church of Lateran had a scepter put into his hand and girded with a girdle having seven seals and keies hanging at it signifying his power of binding and loosing shutting and opening sealing and resigning and judging He excommunicated Henry the fourth the Emperour and excites his son Henry the fifth against him He took up the corps of Henry the fourth and kept it above ground five yeers Well did the Bishop of Florence write in this Popes time that Antichrist was born and manifested to the world and therefore he was silenced by the Councill of Florence which this Pope called and his book burnt You see how persecutions began now upon Emperours and Bishops This Pope would not crown Henry the fifth Emperour unlesse he would give over his right of investment of Bishops by the staffe and ring but the Emperor laid hold of him and his Cardinals and compelled him to do it and the Pope solemnly divided the
followers accounted him the Son of God that was to come to judge the world and whosoever obeieth not his doctrine shall be rooted out and that their Family of Love shall possesse the earth and their posterity shall remain for ever He made himselfe a greater light then Christ and said that in his light Christ was perfected and that he was codeified in God and God hominified in him and this they count the everlasting Gospell spoken of Rev. 11.15 They said the speech of Christ was made good in H.N. I must walk to day and to morrow Luke 13.32 and the third day I shall be perfected that is by to day is meant the time of Christ by to morrow the time of the Romish Religion and by the third day the time of H.N. and his Family If you demand how this Sect came into England I answer by those that translated the book of David George called the Wonder Book and H. N. his book called the Gospell of the Kingdome So did one Christopher Viret a Joiner in Southwark in Queen Maries daies translated some of them out of Dutch into English If you desire to know more of their blasphemous and abominable errors you may read their confession set down by Mr Knewstub and Henock Claphams book Mr Knewstub Conf. called the error of the right hand and of the left They be made up of many heresies their conversation is full of uncleannesse they partake with the old Adamites of whom St Augustine writeth who in their Conventicles or Paradice made warm by stoves they exercise the rites of their religion in praying hearing of sermons Lamb. Horten. p. 53. Gaftius p. 222. and receiving the Communion all naked both men and women Some of these have begun to practice their naked truth as they call it here in England since the year 1642. Mathe. But it may be Sir I shall not find these books and so shall not be able to discover them when they speake and therefore I pray tell me some of their errors which you can remember Phil. They say every one of their congregation is as perfect as Christ Familists opinions or else he is a devill the latter part whereof I do believe Also that it is lawfull to do whatsoever the higher power commands though it be against Gods command Herein they perform blind obedience like Papists and the Jesuits Novices If a man do so how doth he forsake his father and mother for Christ Or why said the Apostles to the higher powers that it was more fit to obey God then man So they affirm that in saying God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost we acknowledge three Gods not perceiving we call them so because they are all but one God in essence 1 John 5.7 though three distinct persons Here they smell of the old heresie of Noetians that held there was but one person in the Godhead as the Socinians do now They say there is no other heaven nor hell than in this world among us What place then is that to which Christ is gone before to prepare for us or that fire foretold of Christ into which wicked men must depart So that they are not bound to give alms but to their own Sect yet St Paul saith do good to all So that there ought to be no contrary both to the Law and Gospell practice in all ages that there was a world before Adams time this is to be wise above what is written So that they ought not to bury their dead because it is said let the dead bury their dead Mat. 8.22 which he spake not as to have the dead neglected nor despising those that did that charitable work but to warn him that he out of too much care of worldly ceremonies neglect not the blessed state of life to which Christ called him saying follow me Also that they need not say Davids praiers because they have no sin but St John saith 1 John such deceive themselves and the truth is not in them But farther they have blasphemous opinions concerning God as that God hath no other Deity in himselfe but such as men partake of in this life 2 Pet. 1.4 Indeed we are said to partake of the divine nature but that is not by the participation of equality but of quality both of grace and glory not of the divine essence but the holy disposition or conditions thereof So they hold that Christ is not a person God and man but an estate or condition in men common to them only who have received the doctrine of Henry Nicholas So they say that Adam was all that God was and God all that Adam was as if God communicated his whole essence to Adam as to Christ which no man can well beleeve Again they would have none baptized till they be thirty yeers old Indeed Christ was not nor could not till there was one sent to baptize namely John the Baptist They say there was no truth preached since the Apostles times yes even that which they have often heard but perverted because they did not entertain it in a love thereof and so God hath given them up to delusions So they affirm that the resurrection of the body is only a rising from sin and wickednesse But St John tels us of another Rev. 20.5 6. Rev. 20.6 as well as St Paul in the 1 Cor. 15. They account marriage whoredome where the parties married have not true faith Yet surely it is more holy then the copulation of H. N. with the three women in his house clothed all alike and called his Wife Sister and Cousin which Cousin falling sick confessed that he had made unlawfull use of her body and made her beleeve she should never die The Governor hearing of it came to apprehend him but the unclean bird was fled so the Governor seized on his nest in the yeer 1556. even when H. N. was fifty seven yeers of age Knewstub p. 15.27 older than wiser As for their high conceits of H. N. that he could no more erre then Christ and of their great opinions of their illuminated elders I refer you to authors Knewstub p. 15.27 Mathe. Who else hath disturbed the Protestant Church Phila. The Antinomians so called Antinomians because they hold that there is no use of the Law under the Gospel Some say the first author of this Sect was one John Agricola of Isleby who set forth his opinions 1535. But the first that appeared here was John Eaton Curate of St Katherine Colemans Parish in London He writ the book called the Hony-comb wherein he endeavors to prove that God does not nor cannot see any sin in justified people That he seeth no sin to condemn them for is most true as Num. 23.21 He beheld no iniquity in Jacob to bring him under the curse yet he saw enough in Israel to punish them in the wildernesse To think otherwise is to take part with the