whereas each parcell of the Catholik faith even those you call popish additions have apparently stood permanent for eleaven hundred years together as all men know or may know if they will but read their own history and by this imutability they are convinced to be raies of that unchangeable essence and truth wch is eternally the same But if we consider the promises of God to conserv his church in all truth and for that end to be ever wth it even to the worlds consummation and that it is now granted on all hands that the church hath not been visibly existent in all times and places but onely in and by the Roman Catholik then will it appear altogether impossible that human inventions and falsitys should ever be able to thrust in to that church or go for truths Nor is it les improbable that the immaculat spous of Christ wise spotles and unblamable should by an adulterous mixturs of errours destroy her self We see that an ordinary secular state be it Monarchy aristocrasy or others will never admit of rules that be quite opposit to those in wch she was first founded wherwth she has been fed and strengthend and by wch she has triumphed and flourisht And if she do it she destroyes her self Wch altho it may happen to worldly states built upon human prudence for to do yet I do no doubt but that your selvs and all men will grant mee that the church of Christ was first raised upon divine principles and setled upon the wisedom of God unto eternall permanence And yet if she should admit of all these mixturs she would cease to be spotles and unblamable and consequently cease to be her self In all things much of ill corrupts the good but Religion if it be not absolutly sincere is not properly religion For ther is somthing of good even in paganisme and mahometisme wch no man calls religion but superstition the denomination following the greater and worser part Reading Mr Chillingworths book not long ago I could not but smile in my self to see that flourishing Hixius Doxius so to play dance and triumph as hee does quite through his book upon a supposall himself never prooved nor any yet for him namely that the Roman church had admitted errours in it self We saith he saw and beheld to our grief that the Roman Church had tainted herself wth errours we calld upon her to reform she would not do it in her whole body we therfore being part of that body provided for our own safty we reformd our selves wch was lawful necessary and just both before God and man This discourse in substance for I have not the book now by me to set down just punctually his words is over and over repeated in his book and is indeed one of the chief ropes wherupon that fanatick funambulo dances Such empty words may beguil others not me dear Lady they prevaile nothing wth me Mr Parson they do not indeed nor ever will Ms Persona LA. Come Sr Harry I hope we shal have you in a better mind to morrow We are now calld in to dinner Let 's go MIN. Let us in Sr Harry ther 's the fittest time and place in my mind to talk of religion I never found that dry discourses wrought any great effect VIC Madam a word wth you now they are gone in I marvell your Lap. would talk of to morrow I never read of any one in my life that was converted to morrow Is it not written to day if you will hear my voyce Ps 95. Had you given me occasion I would have done the deed to dav even my self alone LA. How VIC I would have faln a dropping of texts wth him and kept him close to the word of God I am sure where he has one text for him I have a thousand and where he has ten I have ten thousand according as t is written One of them shall chase a thousand ten of them put ten thousand unto flight Deut. 32. I like not human discours t is tedious to me I have fild al my bible wth dogs ears for good Sr Harries sake and could not come in handsomly to use any of them all this while by reason of his redious oratory Indeed I needed not to have bent down any one leaf at al opening my bible at random I should be sure to meet wth somthing against popery every chapter every verse cries it down Open it Madam and you shall find so much Read The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans Paul a servant of Iesus Christ Rom. 1. Look you there The Epistle not a legend of Paul not of Peter the Apostle not the Pope to the Romans not to the Romish papish or popish he would never write to them I warrant him O the father I 'am even as full of scriptur as a new layd egge as they say I could confute Sr Harry before dinner com up yet as near as it is LA. Sr Harry is not here now VIC Altho he be not Well Madam ther coms not a dish to the table but I le have a text for it from the very first dish of porredg to the apples and chees LA. Well well VIC Madam I could wthout the help of scriptur have mentiond twenty innovations that Papists have made in the world had I been incouraged to speak LA. What I prithee VIC The sect of Quakers lately brought up here in England is I think an innovation in religion And this was instituted by two fryars and two Iesuyts as Mr Prinne witnesseth in a book of his lately set forth for that very purpos For thou Mr Prinne be said to be a man of an ill hearing yet is that defect recompensed by a fair length of language his text is so orthodox that the Ministers have preacht upon it all England over and illustrated it by pretty similitudes as of those nine and thirty papists that flew over out of Lincoln shire into Norfolk amongst a flock of wild gees to pick up their corn for wch crime their houses wer ransackt of seaven other papishes that taught children to speak wth their elbowes against wch innovation of nature our Ministers inveighed bitterly in their pulpets of three more papists that walkt in the ayr all over the citty of London passing from steeple to steeple at a step and pist fire as they went upon the top of houses wch our Ministers wer stark mad at preacht violently against thē out of the Revelations saying that if they were not rooted out of the land they would sindg al their caps fire their hayry scalps as they stood in their pulpets Many other pretty remembrances they had wch have been recorded by Mr Pyn and Prinne Mr Iohn an okes Will stiles wherat people beat their breasts shaked their heads cryed Out upon these wicked papishes t is pitty they are suffred to live LA. I beleev papists will not own these things VIC They must own them whether they
The Reclaimed PAPIST OR The Process of a Papist Knight reformd by a Protestant Lady wth the assistance of a Presbyterian Minister and his wife an Independent And the whole Conference wherby that notable reformation was effected 1655. The PROLOG To my Noble and ever honoured Friend JOHN COMPTON Esquire FInding my self unable to master the trouble and alteration wherwith I was surprisd upon the loss of two Friends about Christmas last whom I had reason to esteem and severall other afflictions that came upon me all at once I took the advice after a few days disquiet to divert my thoughts by som unusuall emploiment which might turn the stream not choak up the source giving work enough to entertain my mind not tire it being both substantiall and yet an easy exercise Walking therfor all alone in your garden I fell into remembrance of this present subject wch liked me well becaus my head was full of the story and passages therof that it would prove easy to me on that account to write it and yet being unaccustomed to make books this being the first I should be sufficiently taken up therby if not in the inventing of matter yet at least in the ordering of words to the exclusion of unprofitable passion wch would otherwise creep in and to much annoy my mind The conceit has proovd right For at two months end wherin my mind as busy as any Bee was wholly taken up in inventing contriving writing and reviewing these Dialogs by that time I had fully finished them I perceivd my passion wholly allayd and my spirit in its wonted temper And now I see clearly and do publikly proclaim that every passion is in the comand of reason and that industry both prevents sin and subdues sorrow The whole work consists of three parts wherin nine arguments ar handled in each part three T is disputed I. Whether innovation of Christian doctrin may be made by man or hath ever been made by the Papist II. Whether it be prudence to cast away our explicit articles of beleef and betake our selvs to the Bible for our faith and whether hearing and preaching of the Word of God be the capitall and essentiall work of Christian religion III. Whether the church may for the quiet of some person or nation comply wth opinions she would otherwis dislike of and wt opinions have happed at times contrary to popery IV. Whether it be sufficient to salvation onely to beleev in Christ as the unum necessarium V. Whether the articles propounded in the oath of abjuration as the popes supremacy real presence purgatory worship of saints and merit of good works be plausible doctrin VI. Whether the said oath may be honestly taken by any man upon earth Christian Iew or pagan whether in al every controversy of religion there may be given one generall rule against wch no sectary can except that shall notwthstanding conclude infallibly for the Catholik wthout turning a leaf of Scriptur councells or fathers and wt may be the grounds can retard a papist from reformation VII Whether the Apostls and Evangelists wer all papists that is to say such Catholiks as be at this day VIII Whether any one text of Scriptur may justly be brought out of the old or new Testament against the Catholik church or any one article of her faith and whether reason may possibly frame an argument to convince a papist or remove him from the rock wheron he is seated IX Whether each particular opinion or positiv article of popery rejected by the reformation will not seem to right reason indifferently stated if it allow of any religion at all more rationall and pious than the contrary negativ These be the principal things disputed in my nine conferences wch be so ordered that they have not dependence or connexion one wth another but each several Dialogue is a book by it self Some doctours have thought that the sacred Dialogues called the book of Job are Historically true for the ground and subject of the Discours as that ther was such a person as Iob brought into such a dejected condition set upon and checkt by three neighbour Disputants there named and the like But the words and tenour of their speech this they think was ordered by the sacred Penman according the property of the persons proportionable to his own drift and purpos not so much heeding to set down word for word what they did say as what they might say The same is to be thought of these Dialogs for the ground and occasion of them is reall History A papist Knight offering love to a Protestant Lady could not have audience but under condition of changing his religion For that purpos she brought him a Divine accompanied wth his wife a witty woman to confer wth him and by their help reclaimd him But my Vicares was you may think more pregnant in her gnomeys texts and doxes than I have suffered her to be in this literall accoast wherin she stands like a saltsellar at a banquet only for a grain or two of seasoning for I was loth to have my book overswoln wth her witty vanity I was somwhile in doubt whether I should let her com in at all or no but becaus in the last Dialog she alone wth the Lady in the Ministers absence reclaimd the Knight I had too much prevaricated from the truth of my story wrongd her honour if I had quite left her out Besides sith the Minister his wife wer commilitores in this imployment I could not well separat whom not onely the common wealth but even their common warfar had united Quos comune homine genus telluris Origo Deinde thorus junxit tandem ipsa periculajungunt That all the world may see and acknowledg how necessary it is for parsons to marry to the end they may have a fellow labourer in the harvest and when the good man is sick his wife may be ready at hand to supply the place You will surely love my Vicares when you meet wth her for she is in a right description a featous body and soul linkt together wth words for the good of somthing The work being ended so much as I mean to put forth at this time comes running voluntary and of its own natur as you see Sr unto your friendly hands wher it doubts not but to find a favourable entertainment both by the candour of your own natur and your particular good will to the Authour severall wayes exprest If it be so happy as to give you content I shall applaud the evill that occasiond me so much good as indeed all crosses of this life if they be well managed do operat unto further good and benefit than would have happed wthout them It will be to me a double comfort by these few exercitations both to have overcom my own trouble and also to entertain a friend I do so highly respect Your many civilitys and much kindnes towards me clayms a
right in all my thoughts and actions and therfor indeed when they be presented to you they com not as offerings of worth but of duty though I should my self take most pleasur in duty that is serviceable Altho Sr I had not a motiv of obligation the great temperance and moderation I have observed in you such as I have seldom seen in young Gentlmen of your age your retired disposition self sufficiency to live contentedly in your own breast whilst others wth much expens of time seck themselvs abroad would hav invited me to the boldnes of this addres for books love to be presented to the hands of such as will peruse them Wch way soever your inclination bends in matter of Religion either my Knights discours will answer to it or at least the reasonings of his three opponents against him either his valour in the defence of his Religion or his fall from it Three things I have mainly aimed at in these conferences that they should be useful familiar and new Usefull and beneficiall both by the choise of a grave and weighty subject such as is Religion and vertue also by a rational vindication defence therof Familiar and easy both by an ordinary form of words natural and proper to the language wherin they be written and by the easy flowing strain wthout any logical collection of syllogism or citation of authours autority of Latin sentences Unusuall and new both by handling such things as have not yet at least for aught I know been treated of by abstaining both from all common places heads of controversys well have been already over and over and more than enough discust and also from the ordinary way of handling them if they do chance as in the fift Dialog they do to light in my way For we find that a crambical repetition of the same things brings a nauscousnes upon men how important soever the things in themselvs may be peopl also are now run into new ways of errour and ther for new ways must be thought on to reduce them This purpos of mine I am sure is good but God knows how far I have hit it Wher any man that is my friend perceivs me to fail let him not spend time in vain to chide and censur me but help me for his helping hand I do humbly crave of him if he be an enemy let him use his discretion If I find these three Dialogues pleas I shal be encouraged to bring up the arrear The book is perfect already of it self yea each particular Dialogue is a book wthout dependance of another but the Papist yeelds not till the last where he submits either to the understanding of his two opponents or to the will of his Lady either to the great beauty of theyr reason or to the reason of her great beauty The parson is absent in the last Dialog but the Vicares fights it out to the last and leavs not the field till she see the Knight prostrated at the Ladys feet whose constant champion she was So that the papists overthrow must indeed be attributed to the Vicaresses valour who therfor fell becaus she disputed according to that kind of demonstration Artistotle makes mention of Sol lucet quia Socrates ambulas Noble Sr continue still to love him whose gratest pleasur is to serv you J. B. V. F. C. THE FIRST DIALOG LADY I have Sr Harry according to my promis brought here a worthy Divine to inlighten you in the way of truth to the end that the lettance of popery removd we may at length com to that period you have so earnestly and so long desired For I am resolvd before the conclusion of any such match either wth your self or any other so to provide aforehand that I may meet wth nothing afterwards to disturb my union repos and peace with him I wed my self VICARES So indeed it is written In the beginning God made heaven and earth And then afterwards he gav himself rest Gen. 1. LADY Your birth and breeding Sr is noble your person pleases me well and your natur is very agreable I lov your deportment your spirit is very pregnant and its endowments numerous your conditions all good your fortun is plausibl and kinred renownd your knowledge and activity equally high and comendable your conversation towards all men sober prudent and sincerly just Onely one things spoils all your other good qualitys you are a Papist VICARE It spoils all indeed according as t is written One knot of dead flies spoils a whol box of ointment Eccl. 10. LADY To deal sincerly with you I lov not popery this you must renounce or me If som few conferences with this worthy orthodox may avail to that purpos your conversion once effected I am yours KNIGT Madam I shall be willing to learn very glad you may be sure to gain two paradises at once MINISTER Well Sr I will show you in scriptur that ther is not in the whol word of God any such thing as Masses Popes Breviaries Missals Monks Cardinals Nuns Beads Liturgy Shrines Altars Vows Indulgences Lents Purgatory Dirges Priests Free-will Rosarys Merit Jesuits and the rest of popish medly VICARES Well don sweet-heart lay his load upon him that he may feel it and couch under it for so it is written Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens Gen. 49. You use to say that Issachar it Greek for a papist and the two burdens a pair of panniers fild with popish trumpery LADY Fair and softly good D that we may not irritat but heal Proceed we step by step that my good Knight may chearfully accompany us in our conference beginning first with generalitys Sr. Harry you must not be obstinat in old errours but be willing upon good sufficient motivs to leav any whatsoever opinion be it never so antient T is antiquity keeps you hood winkt VICARES Old things ar past away behold all things ar becom new saith the Scripture 2 Cor. 4. MINISTER The multiform grace and industry of severall reformers raised by the Lord have brought things to light wch wer hidden in former ages And you may see daily new discoverys made both by particular persons and parlaments Luthers lamp that was first held up in the midst of darknes reveald very much of truth afortime unknown but after him severall other torches lighted at his opend yet more in severall Christian Countries I need not travell far to show you this Our English writers from Harry the eight unto this present day will make it sufficiently manifest unto you if you could peruse them how that still the succeeding Doctours added ever new degrees of light to the discoverys of forgoing divines Parlaments in the sam manner did not all at once remov superstition out of the land but perfected the work of reformation by degrees wch is indeed a progres most conformable both to to natur and art Room was not built in a day nor will it in
one another whence is it that we all conspire to hate condemn and rail against the Catholik Church having as much cause to inveigh against one another and let her alone as to rail against her alone and applaud one another This is a shrewd sign we ar all rebels to that one Church and hav no truth amongst our selvs For one truth is opposit to twenty falshoods and these falshoods however they be contrary to one another that one primary truth still stands against them all Catilin and Cethegus and the other conspiratours against Rome their mother City could fall out one amongst another tho they jointly resisted her and she as indifferently confronted them all Besids these reformers must needs be liars all of them if we may beleeve any of them For as they did most vehemently inveigh against that part of popery wch themselves rejected so did they tooth and nail defend the purity of that portion they still retaind wch by the succeeding reformers was deeply censurd and condemnd And so from the very first to the last they still condemned one another for wt they retaind as the Church of God condemnd them all for wt they rejected Who shall unfold this riddle or tell me in wch reformation the truth lies Surely in non of them if by the mouth of two witnesses a truth may be established for ther is ever the Catholik Church and one reformation against the judgment of any other reformation every sect hath still the Church against her for one and some other sect if not all other reformations besides Ar all thes men sent from God for one and the same thing yet all fail in doing it and al condemnd by one another in the deed Still wt any one of them casts away is popery and what he keeps is the sincere word and will of God tho not only the Church that censurs them all together but even all other reformations say the contrary So that if we put all judgments together ther will result thus much That the Catholik on the one side all sectaries of severall opinions on the other they be all Papists and differ but secundum magis minus So that the Roman is a Catholik Papist and all the rest be heretick Papists but Papists all For every sect is condemnd by his fellowes of some popery and the Church as the source of all And indeed all sects do retain som thing more or les of that religion and faith wch our land received at first from the pape and wtsoever positive doctrin they still keep they had it onginally from him At least they keep all of them the Bible eyther whol or in part wch is the great book of the pope wch he ever sends wth his missioners since he orderd and canonised it to any nations conversion as conformable to the great rule of Christian faith wch is tradition And consequently if the Papist be a child of Antichrist all sectaries are no other so far as they be Christian or have any thing of Christianity amongst them onely wth this difference that the mark of the beast if he be a beast is lesse in som than it is in others but t is in the for heads of all so many as be baptised and beleeve in Christ by his means and missioners and by the Sacraments and precepts they had originally from him VIC The Lord shield us from the fiend of darknesse the pope upon my forehead the Bible the popes and all we Papishes confute him husband some way or other if this be true hee l not fear texts at all LA. S. Harry you have brought things about very strangly Can you think ever to perswade us that we have any thing of popery in us KN. Assuredly you have so much as is not yet clipt of by reformation be it more or les And this discours I have faln upon insensibly to mitigat the strang rancour against Catholik religiō wch people conceiv by contagion of custome and not any true knowledg they have thereof and the pleasing opinion each one fosters of the reformation himself is part of Take the four generall opinions that be now in England the Catholick the Protestant Presbyterian and independent Consid er seriously and you shall find that as they be antecedent in time so still the succeeding is but a deficiencie from the foregoer and the last the greatest negation of the positions laid by the first yet still what he holds positively he hath it from him and the first wch is the Catholik had all his whole positive faith from the Pope as himself professes and our own histories witnesse part whereof was cut of by the Protestant as the Presbyterian after him took away some things wch the Protestant still retaind and the Independent others wch the Presbyterian kept He is very ignorant in history that discerns not by his reading how the Catholik now existent in England retains universally all the points of faith wch were brought hither into England at its conversion from paganisme by S. Austin and other good children of blessed S. Bennet sent hither to that purpose by Pope Gregory eleaven hundred years ago concerning priests altars sacrifices the reall presence merit of good works consecrations pennances purgatory lents pilgrimages popes supremacy and the rest to the least iota of wt they then received Nor hath he any parcell of faith either over or under wt he received then so that the Catholik is a papist in print and a legitimat child of that venerable pastour A thousand years after the Saxes or English-mens conversion and the unanimous profession of the Catholik faith all that while in an unluky ho wt rises Luther who having been himself born and and bred up in the bosome of the Church through the instigation of Satan and his two instruments pride and lust apostatised from the Church and made a reformation as he called it wherunto the worst of people at first adhered altho now both wise and honest minded people go along wth it not so much by their own choise as unfortunate custome This protestancy took away at once almost three parts of the Churches practicall doctrin retaining the speculative Within the compasse of ten years it had run into severall divisions or subreformations in Germany Holland Switzerland and Geneva Upon Harry the eights schism and afterward these people of severall Reformations cam flocking over into England by whos severall directions to pleas all parties was made up that miscellan of the English protestancy by rejection of severall points of the Catholik faith then in our land some according to Luther others according to Calvin Swinglius the rest together wth an establishment of an apish prelacy in stead of the Catholik one wch had beene overthrown for the security of the state and of the fond Church they had then set up the other few remainds of our Catholik faith now wholly dismembred yet standing as the base of this
either keep me still from you or split me wth you LA. Wt shall we do wth you Sr Harry sith you decline scripture wch as it is the purest so t is the easiest way for your conversion VIC Shall I tell you he wil even go out of his way as Balam and his ass did I le show you the story as t is written in 22 chapter of numbers t is a very pretty one Ther you wil see how the ass confuted his rider and said unto him Am not I thine ass so prettily Read here from the 22 vers to the 36. If you go not in the right way Sr Harry as we would have you be sure you shall be checkt by a very ass When any such thing happens you may take it for a certaine sign that you ar out of your way KN. Scriptur is a good instrument to drawn men from paganisme to Christianity but no fit means to divert us from Catholik Religion to heresy That heavenly seed wch makes sons of God can never make children of perdition except it self be mischievously corrupted And therfore I decline it not at all but admit allow and embrace it as containeing that irrefragable doctrine wch eminent persons in the church of God penned wch industrious and religious persons in the same Catholik church coppied transcribed wth their owne hands above a thousand years together before printing was invented to keep that sacred letter alive and lastly wch by the Catholik body of the said Church hath beene authenticated and canonised and therfore it must needs be pure and holy being madâ— conserud and ratified by holy Church But its facility and easinesse that I do not so easily conceive or agree unto especially if you separate it from the Church whose book it is The mind and meaning of any writing no man can understand so well as the Authour no man can interpret aright contrary to the Authour no man where it is obscure and uncouth may peremptorily interpret wthout the Authour MIN. You will soon grant it to be easy if you consider that t is called a light to the understanding Wt thing is there more apparent than light And therfore t is said in the Ephesians if our Gospell be hid t is hid to them that are lost VIC Sweet heart you are mistaken that sayeing is not in the Ephesians but Corinthians 2. Ep. and the 4. c. LA. T is no matter Mr person so we find out your riddle tho it be by plowing wth your heyfer according to the saying of Samson Iud. 14. VIC I told you even now Madam that the ass will rebuk his rider when he goes astray KN. A light if it be set behind us or under a bushell or to an eye ill affected inlightens not and a prejudiced mind is a veyld understanding where light cannot enter I must say more he that goes out of the Church puts out his own eyes and he that never enterd in never had any but gropes in darknes Light is come into the world saith our Lord but men love darknes more than light Jo. 1. namely because they shut their eyes against it and no marvell that unto such the Gospell should be hid Catholikes all of them have indeed the whole Gospell by heart and comprehendit sufficiently for the life and spirit of it yet still the bark and letter of it hath obscurity enough wch is opend and manifested as far as is needfull upon occasion by the lips of priests wch preserve knowledg No man understands the mind of man but the spirit that is in man nor the meaning of scriptures can any comprehend but the spirit of that Catholik body whose the scriptures be For these be imediatly the word and doctrin of the Church and therfore called the Word of God because that Catholik body from whence it issued is animated by the spirit of Jesus Christ her naturall head who is God blessed for ever and the particular penmen therof being members of the sayd church were peculiarly illustrated by that spirit unto such an effect So then the word of God is a light and enlightens good Catholiks it enlightens not others that remain blinded in infidelity and separated from that holy mysticall body of Christ and yet t is a light still t is hid to them that are lost People that live in a family colledg or corporation by the daily sight and practis of things to be don therin do fully comprehend all that is to be said or acted there But others who be out of those societys shall never by bare reading of books written of such emploiments so long as themselves stay out attain to any satisfactory light therof but remain pusled in a wood of dark words and either mistake or not apprehend the reality and truth of things So our people wthin the Church see distinctly and clearly the truths of God in whose practis they are daily conversant so that words and writtings are not necessary unto such as be in a continuall exercise of their trade but sectaries paymins al infidels who be aliens and strangers to this Society out of the family altho they should look upon their book of statutes scripturs or laws yet will they still be pusling about words and never clearly understand the secrets of the profession One artist or tradesman knows more by heart and practise than the whole world besides that is out of that body or not conversant in the society can ever attain unto by reading A man may demonstrat by Philosophicall reason that light it self enlightens not but by reflexion no more do the word and scripturs except they reflect upon us from the bosom of the Catholik body wch actuats them in their operation If you would seriously ponder these few words you should quickly perceive unto whom the scriptures be obscure and unto whome they be easy and how they be easy to Catholiks for the practise life and meaning of them tho the letter may still keep its obscurity as children of a family may clearly understand all the whol affaires and businesses of the house tho if books should be written therof they might not so easily understand the letter of those books Yet these have great advantage in the understanding of such books abov those who are not coversant in the affairs being aliens and strangers to the family For t is easier by the knowledg perfect comprehension of things to understand words that be written of them than by reading of words to perceiv things we are altogether unexperienced in But to speak abstractively of the letter of Scriptur wthout reference unto persons as if the case were that neither you nor I ever knew any thing of the Christian religion but what we get out of the Bible or new Testament put now into our hands Could either of us or all of us together see clearly in this letter the whole state of the Catholick Church or without obscurity discern wt is to be
for the worlds conversion carried any written Gospell at all wth them wch might be made by themselves much less is it to be thought that they staied to write out theirs having their own breasts so well fraught wth all that and far more than they found ther written especially considering that two of the Evangelists were but their pupills and disciples Nay before those Gospels were written out and completed especially that of S. John the Church of God was spread up and down the world and flourisht in all the duties of Christianity By wch it may appear that even the written Gospell is neither it self necessary to the being of the Church nor the reading or expounding of a text the essentiall work of Christianity As for the Epistles wch be the other part of the new Testament written by S. Paul and others These t is well enough known were pend a long while after the Church of God was perfectly formd and grown up in most parts of the known world in particular after those Churches of Rome Corinth Ephesus Galatia Thessalonica and the rest unto whom they are addrest were perfected in all the essentialls of Christian faith and they were occasiond merely accidentally upon the creeping in of some disorders and errours in those places contrary to the tradition of faith they had received as may soon appear to him that reads and understands the tenour of those spirituall Epistles So then the Church is antecedent to her Scriptur and altogether independant theron either for her being or profession helps of memory as all these writings be do presuppose both the memory and the things to be remembred before those helps were brought to light And so the reading of these Scriptures or hearing them expounded can no wise be the essentiall work of Christian religion or the totall exercise therof but somthing that is altogether independent of them more ancient than they be and that is more intrinsecally a worship homage adoration and service of the most high God than hearing or looking upon words and syllables can be I make no doubt but the whol Scriptur or writing of the new Testament both Epistles and Gospells was merely casuall and accidentall For I find it long ago foretold by the Prophets that the law and government of the Messias should in this differ from the Law of Moses that Moses Law was all committed to paper but the doctrin of Iesus should be writ in the heart and entrailes of his Church You may see one place in the Prophet Ieremy c. 31.33 wch the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrewes applies unto Christ our Lords dayes Heb. 10.16 and S. Paul doth not obscurely allude unto it in one of his letters he wrote to Corinth c. 3.3 Indeed to imprint in the churches breast a law from wch she should never deviat is in my judgment a greater argument of divinity than any written Gospell could afford The things wch Solon Numa Lycurgus Draco and other such like men contrived and dictated for the good of their common wealths did much commend their gravity vigilance and wisedome and elevated them above other men not above manhood Moses himself the most profound judicious Lawmaker the world ever had by the excellency of his written Laws hath merited the title of a divine and sacred legislatour but he is known to be a man by his hand-writing and the paper he wrote on He is a God that writes on the velin of the heart characters indelible unto eternity The Law of Christ onely is written not wth ink but wth the spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart I do also verily think that the religion wch the Son of God deliverd to his church was neither commanded by him to be written nor yet ever intended either by the Euangelists or other of those primitiv writers to be totally set down under the notion of a rule of faith altho so much as ther is of it drawn principally for the use of devotion and charity be a rule of faith also What the occasion might be that moved the four Euangelists to write their compendious Gospells by the little learning I have I could never yet assuredly gather altho I remember I have read somthing thereof in a learned latin book made by a friend of mine called Systema fidei put forth some few years ago wherein be very many things of excellent learning worthy of the Authour but I have not now the book at hand Wt occasion moved S. Paul to write his Epistles unto Rome Corinth and other places is manifest enough and I shall afterward declare it when I shall come to discover the religion of the Apostles and Euangelists and make it appear that they were all papists and of the very self same religion Catholiks be of at this day All this put together that Christ himself neither wrote any thing nor comanded any thing to be written yea gave notice that he would use his speciall prerogative of legislatourship and write his law in hearts promising to animate the body of his Church wth his own spirit wch should lead them into all truth and that the church was disperst over the earth before any Christian writting was made wch was afterwards drawn to confirm and strengthen the faith and devotion it found already planted All this being true it follows apparently that hearing or reading or preaching upon a text is not the great capitall work of Christian Religion Indeed t is childishnes to think that God unto whom all prostration adoration all homage service and worship both of the outward inward man is more than due should be sufficiently served wth a little labour of the lips or ears when a man thinks good so to do Preaching is indeed necessarily antecedent to Christian faith yet it onely disposes unto furrher actions as may easily appear both by autority of Scriptures wch exclaime bitterly against such as hear and go no further and also by the very natur of hearing and all kind of exhortation wch ever tends to somthing besides it self For who ever heard onely to hear and no further who but our mad reformers ever preacht onely to be heard And how can speaking on one side and hearing on the other complete the whol duty of man to his God as if one were nothing but tongue and ear or had receivd nothing from him but those two organs Tell me Madam ingenuously Do not you think you have sufficiently done your duty to God if you go but forth once a Sunday to hear a Sermon and if you read a chapter or two in a week day this is nothing else in effect altho by your favour you do not think you self bound under sin to either but if you like the weather or the parson pleases or your clothes be neat and handsom then you will go forth to church if not you will stay at home if you find your self
disposed in the week time to be godly you read a chapter if not you let it alone And this is all you do or ever mean to do And if your preacher do sometimes upon occasion exhort you to the abnegation of worldly desires to the castigation of your body by fasting and discipline that you become not reprobate to hospitality or almsdeeds to a generall abdication of all things for Christ by leaving father and mother wife and lands to follow him in that nakednes himself practised finally to an universall conformity to the Son of God in piety and poverty These and such like things he speaks by cours and out of formality to make a plausible noise in the Church and fulfill his houre But he is not so mad as to think you will ever practise any of these things nor do you hear him wth any such purpos the practise of such things being well enough known by both of you or at least beleeved to be down right popery by all reformations discarded His preaching is a talking to your eares and your hearing a listning to his lips till the sound cease and then the essentiall work of your religion is done But if haply you like the wit of the preacher and give him your applaus then you have both of you your finall expectation and the whole work of religion both essentiall and accidentall is accomplisht This kind of hearing and preaching tending to no further end is so far from being the sole act religion that t is no religion at all nay t is a mere mockery and abuse of religion condemnd by the Scriptures both of the old and new Testament where t is concluded that not hearers but doers are justified VIC I could wish you would remember Sr that Christ said more than once he that hath ears to hear let him hear but he never said he that hands to work let him work or he that hath knees to kneel let him kneel or he that hath meat to eat let him fast Leave your talking Sr Harry and read the bible MIN. The acts of the Apostles will make it manifest that after Pentecost Peter and Iohn and Paul and others of the Apostles were wholly taken up in preaching as the sole act of Christian religion KN. Christian preaching is of two sorts The first is absolutly necessary the other onely expedient The first is made to Paynims and such as have not yet heard of Christ or respect him not as they ought to convert them to his religion and faith the other to Christians to put them in mind of the practis and end therof the first is the parent and productiv power of faith the second a mistres and overseer of works Of the first kind of peaching is often mention both in the Acts of the Apostles and other parts of the new Testament For both in Gospell when our saviour sent out his Apostles to preach unto all nations and when they exercised this their mission in the Acts preaching before Iewes and Pagans and when S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans and elswhere speaks so much of preaching t is every where meant of this preaching unto Gentils Paynims and unbeleevers for their conversion But concerning the second kind of preaching made unto Christians ther is no news or mention at all therof in the whole book of the Acts nor did ever any of those primitiv beleevers come together to hear a Sermon but onely to supplication and prayer and fraction of bread wch is the Catholik Masse Indeed on the day of Pentecost after the Holy Ghost had visibly descended upon the Catholik church congregated together in one place and made them all speak wth strang tongues Upon noise herof all sorts of people both Iews and Gentils came flocking in to behold the wonder then S. Peter took the occasion to make a Sermon to those strangers who stood amased at the sight Act. 2. but that speech was not directed at all to the Christians as may appear by the very matter and tenour therof and all the Christian service was ended before the people unto whom he addrest his speech came in Nor for some hundred years after do we find or hear tell of any preaching made to Christians nor were they ever accused by the Roman prefects for other than for meeting together and breaking of bread wheras Sermons if they had had any made had afforded a more plausible accusation against such as already tho wthout any desert of theirs bore the name of seditious As soon as any person or nation had embraced his Christian faith he then wthout expecting further preaching fell presently to those works his faith dictated to him and according to his obligation applied himself to the rule he had received as may be seen in the book of the Acts. And doubtles all prelats who had care of soules held forth unto beleevers that great dictamen of perfection and justice wch S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We will and comand that all who have once beleevd in God do make it their care to attend unto good works Tit. 3.8 Tho indeed in after times when that first fervour of Christian charity grew cold and especially upon times of singular mortification and fasts as in Lent and Advent as also upon high solemnitys the Catholik Church hath ever made use of this secondary preaching wch is made unto Christians for the incitement of works of piety This secondary peaching is indeed a religious exercise profitable to distrest and slack spirits for comfort and advice But no good Christian ever lookt upon it as the great work of his religion or ever thought his duty to be don when the Sermon was ended In a word the Catholik church uses both these kinds of preaching the one to infidels for their conversion the other to Christians for their exhortation But she places the sum of her religion in neither of them but in the performance of those things wherunto people are converted and exhorted And a third kind of preaching wch is to no further end at all but onely to spend time was never thought of by Christians till this wretched heresy invented it For your preaching is not Mr Parson to convert your auditours who have already received their faith and be as good Christians as your self nor yet to excite them to good works wch be in both your judgments justly casherd long ago as popish But your preacher he preaches till for his livelihood he has stood his howr and the hearers hear till they have sat their hour and then all hasten home and the work of God is ended This is all your holocaust an ear-offering and he that wants his ears or has them stopt by cold may stay at home as unfit for service In my judgement t is pure non sens and no religion at all to be still preaching faith as reformers do unto people wch already understand their faith as well as their teachers or think