any clearer certain Enumeration of them in holy Writ though the last little Chapter of Malachi pointing so directly to the Sun of Righteousness who was the Expectation of all Nations and to his Fore-runner the Baptist may seem to have been designed for the period of those that were to be before his coming Our Saviour himself divides all Scripture into the Law and the Prophets Luke 16. 29. but none of the Apocryphal Books were writ by either We retein the same Canon of Scripture which the Christian Church received from the Jews unto whom were committed the Oracles of God being therein as St. Augustin terms them our Library-keepers They never had deposited to them those Books which are called Aprocryphal whereof Epiphanius saith They are profitable but yet not reckoned amongst those that are by the Church held Canonical and were not laid up with Aaron's Rod nor in the Ark of the New Testament Isidore flies as high as I would desire any man to do where he tells us Although there is some Truth to be found in them yet propter multa falsa for many things that are not so they are not of Divine Authority Melito Bishop of Sardis having drawn at the instance of Onesimus a Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament makes no mention of Judith Tobit Ecclesiasticus or the Maccabees though he professeth to have made a very diligent search as witnesseth Eusebius who affirms too that Origen as he received the Canon of the Jews viz. 22 Books so he rejected those that we admit not of So St. Hierom who was a great Linguist and was not without the best helps to further his Quest after he had laboured much nominates all those Books which we make use of and afterwards denies that any but they are impowered to prove or confirm a point of Doctrine That Council of Carthage where Augustin was present commanding that none should be read in the Church as Canonical but such as were indeed so leaves out the Maccabees and as for Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Judith c. that Father gives us to understand they were reputed no part of the Jews Canon which he determines to be most Authentick Peruse I pray and believe if you cannot confute what Doctor Cosin has lately held forth unto us that the Council of Trent first drest up a new additional Canon whereon to build their Religion equalling the Apocryphal Writings and Traditions of Men to the sovereign Dictates of God and allowing them the same power in Fideal Contests With how much reason we deny to the Bishop of Rome the sole Superintendency and in what sort we decline all humane Writings and Councils whilst yet we willingly subscribe to this that they are of singular use for the absolute decision of such like Controversies you may best learn out of the right Reverend Davenant his Tractate De Judice Norma Fidei And I forbear to quote any thing from thence here because I would put you upon the perusal of the whole which you may do at a small and wise Expence both of money and time I will take lieve at present of you when I have told you in the words of that Golden mouth'd Father That whatever is necessary is in the holy Scriptures manifest and they are the most exact Ballance Rule and Square of Divine Verity In them the Lamb may with no less safety wade than the Elephant swim Though it may seem to stand like an Independent to this place I shall here lie before the Reader a Collect which came to my Eye in a Missal or at least an authorized Prayer-Book so gross as I could not have imagined Thus it runs Per Thomae sanguinem quem pro te impendit Fac nos ascendere quò Thomas ascendit And all this of our Becket who surely does not merit either to be concluded a fit Saviour or a good Subject however odious their part was who slew him with that aggravating circumstance in his own Church LETTER VI. MY Task in this is not so much to make good our Doctrine which so soon as understood aright stands clear upon its own Basis as to wipe off the Calumnies which our Adversaries do very disingenuously endeavour to load us withal whilest they frame themselves and would obtrude upon us such Positions as have indeed no being at all but in the apprehensions and mouths of those bitter Antagonists and if one of their great Accusations could be justly fastened upon us it would certainly stop our mouths for ever and spread our faces all over with Confusion But if there be any in these worst and giddy Times that dare flatly say God is the Author of Sin 't is a poyson they have like enough suck'd even out of the Popish Volumes for they were the first though only with design to make Protestants odious that brought the World acquainted and that in Print with such Conceits Their own hands have both put on and scrued up even to a Note beyond Ela those strings which are of harsh Sound and make a jarring Discord in our Ears If you turn over our publish'd Authors weighing their greatest Latitude of Expression in an equal ballance you may I believe observe the Word of God himself running parallel with them For which of them has gone about to interess our ever holy Creator in the sinfulness of any Action otherwise than as they cannot be perswaded that the most remote Event doth escape the all-discerning Eye of his Prescience or outreach the Arm of his Almighty Power Compare 2 Sam. 24. 1. with 1 Chron. 21. 1. You may then discover how God is said to move and Satan to provoke David unto that Act of numbring the People in a forbidden and therefore sinful way The first did it only permissively forasmuch as he did foreknow it and if it had stood with his Will could have prevented it the other so as he really had an hand in its pravity and a partnership in the Guilt It 's here I confess that we ought to put on abundance of fear and trembling that we must cloath all our words and our very thoughts in a profound and cautious reverence But since the Protestant Doctrine of Predestination rightly understood makes very much for the consolation and establishment of a Christian Let us not refuse to make such modest enquiries thereinto as may repel those invenomed Arrows even bitter words wherewith some who will needs pervert our Order in handling this point do incessantly molest us and strive to fasten a sad Reproach upon an innocent Cause We are far even as far as any Papist or Arminian can be from thinking that the Motions of Sin invade the Soul by the Impulse of our holy merciful and good God yet we do so much adore his Wisdom and Power Attributes no less Essential in him than the other as we know all Events are within the Verge of his Cognisance and do not fall out
the ancient Doctors of the Church When I observe him going on with a kind of indignation thus Now and therefore but newly We learn That Christ in the business committed to him by the Father owed to his Mother Obedience That now in Heaven she may command him according to a Form of Invocation it seems then usual Shew thy self a Mother That Heaven is a Debt to our Works of Condignity When I say such a man as he groans as it were under the burthen of the Innovations in his time it 's enough to establish in me this belief That ab initio non fuit sic The first divinely inspired Workmen upon a good foundation built up a Noble Structure of Gold and Silver but their degenerating Prentices laid thereupon rows of Stone Brick Lome Slime Rubbish Yet though the Church of Rome was in respect of many of the chief Prelates and a Predominant Faction guilty of Errors there were divers disliked them and desired a Reformation though not holding themselves obliged to refuse her Communion till she with open face owned some grosser Tenets and enjoyned them to be received under a Curse about the year 1160. and then came out from her a People professing the same Affirmatives and Negatives with us And there wanted not some who may be said to have even Prophesied long before Luther of that Restauration of Primitive Truth which we and our Fathers have seen I suppose those mens Faith which eyes onely the splendour and outward glory of Professors if they had been to chuse their Religion when God was pleased to support his almost despairing because to his own sight single Prophet with an assurance That there were seven thousand who had not bowed the knee unto Baal would have been at a sore loss And however those who sat in Moses's Chair had at our Saviour's Coming made the Law of God of none effect by their Traditions yet many believed on him old Simeon Zachary and Elizabeth c. who Communicated in the outward Sacraments and Discipline of the Church but were the Flock of another Fold You will reply here perhaps The Word of God is large in Promises concerning the great Extent and flocking of the Gentiles to the Church of Christ. How are they fulfill'd The very taking down the Partition-Wall when the whole World was cried free to come to God and the enlarging of the Churches Bounds till then impaled within the Confines of Jury even to as many as the Lord our God shall before his second Coming call was certainly a very glorious Work and the main end of such Predictions Thus St. Paul affirms the Gospel to have in his time been preached to every Creature under Heaven and doubtless there was grand access to the Church by the Labours of the Apostles and their Successors Yet we are told of a Mystery of Iniquity beginning to Creep even then and ought not to forget that we are fore-warned of a season when the Woman was to be forced into the Wilderness The Estate of the Church is like that of the Moon sometimes in the Wane and sometimes by God's permission suffering grievous Eclipses but since by his goodness she can again at other seasons elevate her head the Gates of Hell cannot be said to have prevailed against her Next let me intreat you to put one Question to those ne'er-erring Doctors and if they give you a positive Answer it may incourage you to take more of their advices Is it the Pope is it a Councel or both together or which of them severed is it upon which you ought to Pinn your Belief Believe me and that were a thing worth knowing But let not the Romanists vaunt so much of their Unity so long as in this Cardinal Point for no less than the whole Frame of their Religion turns with it they are at variance amongst themselves The Jesuits for the most part cry up the Pope many others both ancient and modern stand for the Councils in my judgment the third sort who plead for them conjoin'd are the least irrational though 't is evident enough that even their United Results have deviated for we discover them Poynt-blank thwarting one another and that of Trent protested against even by the French domineering over them all Sixtus the Fifth and Clement the Eighth authorized both their very much disagreeing Editions of the Bible both injoyned their own and only that to be used under an Anathema both were back'd with the Authority of a Council What stir has been about the introducing and rejecting Images What Animosities and Bickerings between Stephen the Sixth Formosus Theodorus the Second Romanus John the Tenth and Sergius Even such as would not suffer them to rest in their Graves without being taken thence dismembred and thrown into Tyber The first Nicene Council allowed the Marriage of Priests and Communion in both kinds The later Councils of Constance and Basil forbid the Laity the use of the Cup and Trent interdicteth both Marriage to the Clergy and the Cup to the People The General Council of Constantinople overthrows Images the second Nicene decrees for them again that of Franckford under Charles the Great determines them Idolatrous and goes so far as solemnly to accurse the Council of Nice The third Council of Carthage pronounceth him accursed that shall call himself Universal Bishop and terms such an one the Forerunner of Antichrist The Tridentine Assembly threatens in no lower Phrase all whosoever do deny the Pope that Title which he could never scrue himself into till the Eastern Patriarchs and their Jurisdiction now swallowed up by the Turk and the Western Empire weakned by its own divisions gives him lieve still to think himself secure in it he drove on his Ends by striking such a Bargain with Phocas that Murthering Usurper Lastly to draw off something from the opinion which may I suspect possess you of their perfect Unity at present though their Religion consisting much in the Shell of Outward Rites and Performances is more easily conspired in I shall let you see how even since the Famous Definition of Trent as Vasquez phrases it their disagreements and differences are not inconsiderable Else why could not that Council declare what was its own meaning when it was called on to arbitrate betwixt Dominicus Soto and Ambrose Catherinus who both were present at the drawing the Canons yet Writ in Books now Extant irreconcileably concerning Original Sin and the Doctrine of Justification But those Fathers had it certainly in design to speak ambiguously in most of their Decrees framing them so as every one might take them in a sence best suting to his own apprehension and then forbad all manner of Commentaries to be made upon them so their words were Unisons not regarding what differing Crotchets were retained in their Opinions c. Now for our selves though I do infinitely bewail the differences amongst us it lessens my
Calvin is not New One Allfrick of Malmesburie in an Homily writ 650 years ago and publickly read on Easter Dayes before the Communion fully consents with the Reformed Churches herein And in another Book Dedicated to Woulstan Arch-bishop of York he says The Bread is Christ's Body and the Wine his Blood as Manna and the Water out of the Rock mentioned by Paul 1 Cor. 10. 3 4. were of old to the Israelites By these and some others was the right and true Doctrine contended for and in good measure held-forth though in the midst of those times wherein Knowledge both as to the concernments of Religion and of humane Literature was at a low Ebb till at length that Council at Lateran Anno 1215. Decreed That the Body and Blood of Christ must be believed to be in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation I know they will to this answer This Council did but invent a significant word to express what was before the Tenent of the Church But I am in some hopes what has been said will convince you of the contrary If not I wish I could prevail with you laying aside Prejudice to peruse the never enough honoured Primate and a late well writ piece of Doctor Taylor 's But what need we go farther for the Sence of the words of Institution than that place Joh. 6. ver 35. whereby our Lord himself had prepared his Disciples to receive them plainly attributing the quenching of that Appetite he desired to excite in them unto Faith or Believing LETTER IV. LET us in the next place use what means we can to discover that fitting Esteem and Value we ought to put upon the Heavenly Hoste I mean the blessed Quire of Angels and Saints who now rest from their Labours and reign with God You shall find us ready to afford them as much reverence and respect as the Word of God doth either Commend or Command and to deny them no honor which the purest or Primitive times thought requisite to give them We read in the New Testament of divers who made supplications immediately to Christ Rom. 5. 2. Ephes. 3. 12. Heb. 4. 16. John 2. 1. for he is by the Wisdom of the Father appointed to be our Intercessor and Advocate but not of one that prayed to the blessed Virgin Mary or other Saint and with Hierom we fear not to say Non Credimus quia non Legimus We read farther of some who being forward to prostrate themselves before appearing Angels were prevented by a See you do it not Revel 22. 9. We cannot but take notice of that interdictive Precept which disswades us from voluntarie humilitie c. Col. 2. 18 23. And therefore though we doubt not but those glorious Spirits do rejoyce at any access of happiness that befals the Church Militant or any Member thereof Though we should grant that they are instant with God for the consummation of the felicity of his Elect and that perhaps too they sollicite him for the particular concernments of his Servants here below Yet Invocation being a Prerogative belonging to the great Creator only and Intercession being an Office affixed so clearly to the person of Jesus Christ only We hold it safe for us and no way derogatorie from them to propose them to our selves for our Imitation but not for our Adoration 2 Chron. 6. 30. For thou Lord only knowest the hearts of the children of men If I had an express Precept for it really I would do it with all my heart and I am perswaded I could be a great Zealot in the way but in Religious as well as other affairs Sunt certi fines Quos ultra citráque nequit consistere Rectum and Will-worship is no venial Idolatry The Church of Rome has attributed so much of Merit to the Devotions Vows and Pilgrimages made to Saints and their Shrines that they have almost justled all other Piety out of door and drawn a dark cloud betwixt the eyes of the Vulgar and the Offices and Functions of our Saviour Whatever Artifice is used by the great Ones to usher in this very gainful Tenent unto the well-meaning sort of Papists under the Notion of Dulia a sort of worship which they will have to consist of an under-qualification to their Latria Yet the reverend Davenant hath made it apparent enough That the Orisons Vows Dedication of Churches with Altars as they are by Romanists directed to them are inconsistent with Truth Reason or Practice of Antiquity And here I shall insert what I promised in my first Letter an Ejaculation so strange that methinks it is sufficient to turn the stomachs of any and make them nauseating so absurd a practice not swallow down all that 's offer'd to them as wholesome food Mary of Portugal wife to Prince Alexander Farnezes calls upon her Husband in the Church of Scala to joyn in Prayer to the blessed Virgin supplicating Christ That in Obedience to his Mother he would give them another Son This yet hath more of Modesty in it than those particular Applications to her in terms which Erasmus a man that stood enough in awe of the Churches Name hath as before is hinted taxed of both vanity and novelty Such as this found in their Psalters Compel him to have Mercy upon us I am resolved before I end this Letter to rake together a huge bundle of such Applications made to and Appellations obtruded upon her out of Authors you will not disown as the wisest Papists will I believe not approve and the learnedst of them never can prove to be rightly used towards her Which may extenuate if not excuse the tartness of some of ours who seem to have mingled a great deal of Vinegar into their Ink when they inveigh not against her Person but the performance of such Devoyrs as are not due unto her Yet first I will give you in a few places out of the Fathers which speak my very thoughts to the full as to this point Epiphanius askes What Scripture hath delivered any thing concerning this Which of the Prophets have permitted a man that I may not say a woman to he worshipped For a choice vessel she is indeed but yet a woman Let Mary be in honour but let the Father Son and holy Ghost be worshipped This Mystery is appointed I do not say for a woman nor for a man but for God The Angels themselves are not capable of such kind of glorifying Although Mary be most excellent and holy and to be honoured yet she is not to be worshipped the Virgin indeed was a Virgin and honourable but not given unto us for Adoration c. Next Origen against Celsus exhorts us to endeavour to please God and to have him propitious unto us and if Celsus will yet have us to procure the good will of any other after him that is God over all Let him consider That as when the body is moved the motion of the shadow follows