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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74986	An antidote against heresy: or a preservative for Protestants against the poyson of Papists, Anabaptists, Arrians, Arminians, &c. and their pestilent errours. Shewing the authors of those errours, their grounds and reasons, the time when and occasion how they did arise; with general answers to their arguments taken out of holy scripture and the ancient fathers. Written to stay the wandering and stablish the weak in these dangerous times of Apostasy. / By Richard Allen, M.A. sometime Fellow of Penbrooke [sic] Colledge in Oxford.	Allen, Richard, b. 1604 or 5.	1648 (1648)	Wing A1045A; Thomason E1168_2; ESTC R208803	57,457	159

Serpent through all his turnings and windings from the primitive times to this present to observe the subtile ways and methods he hath used to note by what steps and degrees he hath from time to time insinuated himself into the very bosom of the Church spreading this deadly poyson over all its Members and every point of Doctrine so that the true Religion at this day lays gasping and labouring for life is a work too great for so small a volum The first Instrument he found fit for this purpose was Simon Magus of whom we read Acts 8. how he bewitched the people of Samaria This Sorcerer is the Father of all Hereticks and his Heresie the cursed womb from whence sprang that numerous brood that now covers the face of the earth and hath raised the devil a mighty Kingdom At this day it is divided though not against it self in two main provinces the Mahumetan in the East in the West the Antichristian of the one the Turk is Viceroy of the other the Pope is Vicar Vnder these two Generalissimoes all those enemies of Christ are listed both the enemies of his Person and the enemies of his Office among whom though there be a seeming difference yet indeed there is a secret league like Sampsons Foxes their heads look contrary ways yet they are all Foxes and joyned together by the tails These are the Foxes that spoyl the Lords Vineyard and do more hurt by secret fraud then the wild Boar by open force Baalam a false Prophet did the Israelites more hurt then the Amorites with all their Armies And that Heretick Arrius did the Christian Church more hurt then the Savage Emperours did with all their Legions No marvell then we are so often warned in holy Scripture to beware of these Seducers and false teachers because they creep in unawares Jude 4. They bring in their Heresies privily and insinuate themselves with fained words 1 Pet. 2.1 3. They have a form of godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 And with their fair outsides get within us surprise and lead us captive And therefore we had need be very wary and never more need then now for Seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 4. They compass Sea and Land they fill Town and Country and not only creep into houses but up into high places so bold they are grown Now as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so do these resist the truth men of corrupt minds of no judgment concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 But that they proceed no further here are discovered their Errours that being seen they may be shun'd and avoided And though here be not discovered all which is almost impossible yet here are if I mistake not the principal whereunto the rest are but accessory The end of this small work is to furnish the weaker sort with general answers out of Gods own Word to the Arguments of the Adversaries and with plain Reasons if not sufficient to defeat the enemy yet enough I hope to defend themselves that they may be provided for them whensoever they be encountred by them lest being unprepared at unawares they be led away with the Errour of the wicked 2 Pet. 3.17 These are the first fruits of a larger harvest if it be accepted being but a handful taken out of a heap Imprimatur James Cranford March 28. 1648. AN ANTIDOTE Against HERESIE CHAP. I. Of the holy Scriptures THe holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the very Word of God Truth written by holy men as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and contain all things that are necessary to be known or beleeved to eternal salvation being sufficient of themselves to instruct the Church or people of God thereunto By holy Scripture we understand only those books that were anciently accounted and are now received by the Church of England for Canonical Adversaries and Errours Errours that oppose this truth are many but may all be reduced to these three heads 1. Are those that enlarge the Canon of holy Scripture adding many things to it that are not of it 2. Are those that diminish the same denying some parts and taking some books from it 3. There be those that refuse and re●ect the whole debasing and despising the Authority of the holy Scriptures and esteeming no better of them then of humane writings 1. Of this latter sort were anciently Simon Magus Montanus and such deceivers and they are followed at this day by the Anabaptists who call the written Word a dead letter and ground their new doctrines upon revelations dreams and visions whereunto they give such credit that at Sangal a Town of Switzerland one of them cut of his brothers head pretending a revelation or command from heaven so to do Sleidan Comment l. 6. By this art Mahomet brought his damnable religion in credit with the world for having the falling sickness he pretended it was a trance wherein he received revelations fr●m heaven and by the same art Muncer Becold Cnipperdolling and other false Prophets of the Anabaptists in Germany seduced a world of poor miserable people to their own destruction The Papists say the Scriptures are of no more credit and authority then meer Fables without the Testimony and approbation of the Church and take them quite away from the reading of Lay-people as dangerous and hurtful and have burnt not only the books of Scripture but bodies of men too for having them in a known tongue such bitter enemies they are to the Word of God 2. There be others that deny not the whole but diminish only the Canon of holy Scripture refusing some parts and rejecting some books 1. The whole New-Testament as the Jews do Or 2. all the Old Testament as the new Libertines do who affirm it is abrogated the Socinians who say it is unnecessary and may well be spared 3. And there be others that enlarge the Canon of holy Scripture adding many things to it that are not of it so the Papists do not only traditions or unwritten verities as they call them but fabulous legends also and written lyes upon a pretence of want and defect in the Scriptures as not containing all truths necessary to salvation nor sufficient to instruct us thereunto without a supply of Apochryphal books traditions and divers humane inventions Antidote The Scriptures are the only touchstone to try and discern Truth from Error by and are called a Testament because they are testis mentis the witness of Gods most holy will against all adversaries then and their errours we affirm First that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the very Word of God of sufficient authority and credit without the Church or any humane testimony to establish any point of doctrine and decide any controversie of Religion For such as the authority of the author of any writing is such is the authority of the writing it self but God is the Author of holy Scripture therefore the Scriptures are of

the god of this world hath blinded Their eyes c. 2 Cor. 4.3 The end of the Scriptures is the instruction of the Church Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever things were written were written for our learning and one necessary mean to attain this end is the perspicuity and plainness of the Scripture for if it were dark or doubtful how should it instruct us In vain is it called a Light if it be dark in it self and to no purpose are we sent to learn it if it be so to us The Scriptures are an instrument to beget Faith Joh. 20.31 Rom. 10.17 And the first step or degree of faith is knowledg which the Scriptures could not beget if they were dark difficult or obscure Object But S. Peter says there are many things in S. Pauls Epistles hard to be understood which unlearned men wrest to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 Sol. If any thing be hard in one place either it is such as the ignorance thereof will not hazard our salvation or else it is explained and made easie in another place And by unlearned men the Apostle understand not men wanting humane learning as the liberal arts and sciences c. but men unlearned in the Scriptures themselves such as most times the learned and wise men of the world are For it is known that men otherwise unlearned simple a●d ignorant coming in humility the fear of God and love of truth using prayer reading comparing of Scriptures c. have attained unto a sufficient measure of saving knowledg For the Scriptures discover themselves by their own proper light one place expounding and opening the meaning of another August de Doct. Christ .l 2. c. 2.9.24 all things are seen by the light but light by it self Lastly Those books that we commonly call Apocrypha are not of divine authority because they were not written by the Prophets or men divinely inspired as the other Scriptures were that are therefore called the Scriptures of the Prophets Rom. 12.26 Our Saviour divides all Canonical Scripture into Moses and the Prophets Luk. 16.29 But none of those books were written by Moses or any of the Prophets nor dictated by the Spirit of God but savour of a prophane and lying spirit as containing matter and stories both vain foolish and fabulous very often contradicting themselves and also the known Word of God as in the books of Tobit and the Maccabees the Stories of Bell and the Dragon are specially to be found The Jews received none of those books in their Canon neither by any of the primitive Christians or ancient Fathers were accounted for Canonical and what account the learned Papists themselves make of them may appear by Arias Montanus who in the front of his Bible hath these words There be added in this Edition the books written in Greek which the Catholick Church following the Canon of the Hebrew reckoneth amongst the Apocrypha CHAP. II. Of the Blessed Trinity Truth THere is but one living and true God everlasting and in the unity of this Godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and the holy Ghost Errours This one point of Christian Religion is the very basis or foundation of all the rest and if this be shaken the rest must needs totter and fall to the ground and therefore the devil hath raised up such furious adversaries to oppugn it with strange and monstrous blasphemies as of old did Simon Magus Cerinthus Ebion Manes a Persian a man according to his name furious and mad and such like at this day the adversaries to this doctrine of the Trinity are all the enemies of Christ and his divinity as the unbeleeving Jews all Mahometans Turks Moors and such miscreants among Christians only such as have suckt their principles from the schools of those Infidels They stand marshalled all in two Regiments 1. The first is of those that deny all distinction of persons in the Godhead making the Father Son and Holy Ghost but several names only of one and the same person in regard of some distinct actions or offices This Heresie was commonly ascribed to Sabellius but Noetus a disciple of Montanus hatcht it and Simon Magus layd the egg long before at this day it is revived by one M. Erbury a late Chaplain of the Army who taught That there is but one person in the Godhead and when we read of the Father Son and Holy Ghost we must not take them for so many distinct persons but only as so many appearances of God unto men And truly if M. Erbury had been that Sorcerers own disciple he could not have devised a doctrine more like his as it is recorded by St. Augustin lib. de Haeres ad Quodvultdeum cap. 1. There be others that admit a distinction of these 3 persons but deny the equality of them That the Son and Holy Ghost are not God equal with the Father of one substance and eternity with the Father This was the Heresie of Arius whose chief undertaking was against the Son of God and his eternal generation and of Macedonius who denyed the Godhead of the holy Ghost They are both revived at this day among us that of Macedonius by one M. Biddle who not questioning the Godhead of the Son a point as he professeth wherein he is not yet so well resolved denies only the Godhead of the holy Ghost granting no more but that he is an excellent creature and chief of all the ministring spirits One M. Best not fearing that fearful judgment that befel Arius who burst asunder in the midst like Judas the traitor that his bowels gushed out hath notwithstanding revived his Heresie and in these times of general and desperate Apostacy hath found many favorors and followers Now the fountain of all these impure waters was Simon Magus an impious sorcerer and the conduit that conveyed them to our times almost was Mahomet an impudent impostour For about the year 630. or as others please 670. that vile and lewd Arabian began his cursed book called the Alcoran and therein amongst a multitude of other impure follies impious fables and lyes he raked also together cōmended to his barbarous followers all those Heresies and Blasphemies against the Trinity Out of this filthy puddle Michael Servertus a Spaniard a man better read in Mahomets cursed Law then in the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ suckt his Heresie about the year 1530. for denying the eternal Son of God he was burnt at Geneva and out of his ashes arose that monster Socinus But to pass by particular persons the first Country that made defection from this truth was Transylvania a Country bordering upon the Turks from whom they received this point of their Religion for to gratifie or comply with those barbarous neighbours they abjured their Faith in the holy Trinity about the year 1593. denying the Son and holy Ghost the contagion of this pest is now spread into most places of Christendom The devil hath devised

the right hand of God Acts 3.21 Whom the heavens must receive until the time of restoring all things 1 Cor. 11.25 The Communion is a remembrance of his death till his coming again Object Our Saviour himself says Behold I am with you always even to the end of the world Sol. That is according to his Godhead grace and Spirit for according to his manhood he is altogether absent from us and locally in heaven So our Saviour says again Me ye have not always Mat. 26.11 CHAP. XI Of Predestination Truth SEeing the benefits of Christs death reach not to all but to a certain chosen number now follows the Decree of Gods Predestination chusing some to life eternal and rejecting others leaving them in their sins to be damned for the same Adversaries to this truth are 1. Errours Pelagians both old and new that scoff at this doctrine denying the same as there are at this day that say it is not sutable to God nor agreeable to his nature to pick and choose thus among men to chuse some and refuse others is partial and unjust 2. Libertines abuse this doctrine as of old the Predestinates did to all looseness thinking that now they are predestinated it is no matter how they live because nothing can help or hinder their salvation 3. Socinians and Arminians say That Predestination signifieth nothing else in holy Scripture but Gods decree and purpose to save those that shall beleeve and obey and dam● those that shall not denying the Independency of it 4. Denying the eternity of Predestination affirm That God doth elect none until they do beleeve 5. And deny the certainty and stability of it affirming that it is changeable so that the elect may become reprobates and the reprobates elect 6. The Papists in this point are contrary to themselves affirming both that God hath chosen freely of his meer grace and yet hath not chosen us but upon foresight of our good works Bellarm. l. 2. de Gra. et lib. arb c. 16. But the general opinion among them is That the Kingdom of Heaven is prepared for them that are worthy of it and deserve it by their well doing and that a man doth make himself eligible to life eternal by his good works Antidote There is a Predestination i. an election of some to eternal life and a reprobation of others to eternal destruction Rom. 9.22 23. There are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction vessels of mercy prepared for glory Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained to eternal life beleeved Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself yea the wicked for the day of evil Jude 4. Before of old ordained to this condemnation August De civit dei l. 15. c. 1. There are two Cities or Societies of men one predestinated to raign for ever with God the other to suffer eternal punishment with the Divel Secondly Predestination both election and reprobation is eternal Rom. 9.11 Before we are born or have done good or evil Ephes 1.4 Before the foundation of the world 2 Tim. 1.4 Before the world began Thirdly It is free and independent there is no moving cause of election to life in the persons predestinate either foresight of faith or good works but only the will and good pleasure of God And although sin be the cause of damnation being an act of Gods Justice yet of reprobation being an act of his absolute power there is no cause but the good pleasure of God Rom. 9.18 He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth Ephes 1.5 We are chosen according to the good plesure of his will Verse 7. According to the riches of his grace Verse 11. After the Councel of his own will 2 Tim. 1.9 Not according to works but according to his own purpose There can be no other cause beside the Wil of God because there is nothing before the Will of God which is it self the cause of all things that are August Faith and obedience are the effect of election and cannot be the cause because they follow after and do not go before it Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained unto eternal life beleeved 1 John 4.19 We love God because he loved us first Rom. 8.29.30 From Gods Purpose proceeds Predestination from Predestination Calling from Calling Justification Faith Obedience c. To say then we are predestinate in respect of our faith or works is not only to invert the words of the Apostle and falsifie his doctrine but even to alter the very course of nature by setting the effect before the cause Rom. 9.12 Before they had done either good or evil it is said Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Was it the foresight of their good or evil works to come that moved God hereunto That the Apostle denies in these words That the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth August lib. de Predest c. 7. Fourthly It is immutable and unchangeable the elect can never perish nor the reprobates be saved 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God remaineth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth who are his Luke 10.20 Their names are written in the book of life John 10.3 He calleth his sheep by name 1 Pet. 1.5 They are kept by the power of God unto salvation They can never fall away and perish for whom he did predestinate them he also called c. Affording them in due time all those means that shall infallibly bring them unto glory If any man making a fair shew of holiness fall away it is no Argument that the elect may fall away but that those which fall away are not elect 1 John 2.19 They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us We see it plain now that God hath made a difference between men chusing some and refusing others Latet discretionis ratio non latet ipsa discretio Ambros de Vocat Gent. We see the effect we cannot perceive the cause the thing it self is manifest the reason of it is hidden and secret to us and yet though it be unknown we know it cannot be unjust because it is the good pleasure of his will who is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Doth any man yet complain Hear the Apostle Rom. 9.20 21. O man who art thou that repliest against God! Hath not the Potter power over the clay Do not dispute but fear and admire with the same Apostle Rom. 11. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom of God how unsearchable searchable are his Judgments But we are all by nature one mass of corruption one is chosen another is left God sheweth mercy upon one and not upon another how can any man complain now when all were alike corrupt and culpable and no desert in any Will every man dispose freely of his own and shall not God If any man

is spiritual heavenly and divine The matter of the thing present the Apostle shews plainly 1 Cor. 10.16 But for the manner of presence we have no such evident demonstration To conclude the truth is present with the signs the Holy Spirit with the Sacrament feeding our souls with the truth of Christs body and blood but the invisible working of that Divine Spirit herein is unsearchable the natural man cannot perceive it because it is spiritual Let us firmly beleeve then what we cannot conceive and rest assured in this truth that we receive in the Sacrament the very body and blood of Christ by Faith though we cannot conceive it by sense or reason CHAP. XXVII Of Reformation Truth THere is no particular Church on earth and never was so priviledged but that it may and many have faln into dangerous Errours both of life and doctrine as the examples of all both former and latter times have witnessed so that there is no Church consisting of men that may err but may need Reformation even as a material building doth need often reparation And for as much as many horrible abuses and superstitions were lately brought through the deceitfulness of some into the Church of England to the great dishonor of Almighty God the decay of piety and imminent ruine of the true Protestant Religion therefore this present Reformation was extreamly necessary and is no Innovation but a Restauration only of our Church to its ancient purity of doctrine discipline and divine worship as it was established by the noble Princes K. Edward 6. and Q. Elizabeth of famous memories Although this truth be as clear as the light Errours as shall immediately be made appear and that this present Reformation hath cast out many gross abuses that contrary to the determinations of our Church have been lately put upon us yet there are divers adversaries that either out of malice or ignorance or both do still with all their might oppose it And so I shall reduce them all under three heads The first is of those that do it of pure malice as all lewd and dissolute persons who hate all reformation whatsoever that shal hedg up their extravagant ways and give a check or stop to their loose courses among these we may reckon some Papists and other Sectaries The second is of those that do it of meer ignorance as divers civil Protestants that think no Religion so ancient as that they were bred in and strangely mistaking Church-men for the Church take up most of their religion upon their credit The third sort do it of malice and ignorance both as divers fiery spirits that think there is no way to reform the Church unless they pull it to pieces as if there were no way to cure the head-ache but to knock a mans brains out There be also divers hypocrites that can drive on a reformation for their own ends and advantages and yet are as great enemies to the truth of it as any of the former Antidote I shall endeavor to satisfie the honest Protestant that is engaged against the reformation for want of better information and would soon perhaps imbrace the truth if he were not courted with so many lyes by deceivers that abound in the world The common complaint and cry is for the Religion that was in Queen Elizabeths time again And that we have not now the same Religion The Answer in brief is that we have the same Religion still not a new And that the true Protestant Religion which was then profest is now not altered but settled being restored to its pristine purity and purged from many abuses wherewith it was but lately corrupted As First Many Popish and Arminian tenents were taught and publickly maintained that are contrary to the doctrine of our Church at first established as will appear by comparing them with the 39. Articles and the book of Homilies the nine Articles of Lambeth and other learned writings of our former Bishops Secondly Many Crucifixes Images or Idols were set up in our most eminent Churches and most eminent places of them and that partly by connivence partly by command of men at that time of most eminent place and note whereby Superstition was nourished and Idolatry committed But now these Images are contrary 1. To the Word of God expresly forbidding them 2. To the judgment of the ancient Christians Fathers and Councels with great zeal condemning them And 3. of our own Church of England as in the book of Homilies and 39. Articles may be seen Thirdly The Communion Table was altered both in name and place from a Table to an Altar from the body of the Church to the head or upper end of the Chancel contrary to express order s●t down in the book of Common Prayer before the communion where it is said that the Table shall stand in the body of the Church or in the Chancel and the Priest shall stand at the north side which he cannot do if he stand close up to the wall And if it might be placed according to the discretion of the ordinary yet he must have more discretion then ordinary that will make the end of a table the side as one endeavored to do but that his Geometry failed him Fourthly The Bowing used to the Communion Table was a matter of worse consequence then was commonly imagined It is the attendant on Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation It serves to nourish those Errours still in mens minds ushers in many other Popish superstitions and is the occasion of gross Idolatry Fifthly The rails wainscot and traverse courtains before the Table as if it were the Sanctum sanctorum of the Jews or a Chappel intended for private Mass or as if none were holy enough to approach neer it but the Priest also the Tapers Copes Vestments and many other things lately used though they seemed but small matters to some yet they were not the less dangerous for being little for like little thieves they crept in at our Church windows to open doors to the great ones and if these had continued by this time they would have brought in the whole Mass of Popish Idolatry and those that plead for them are but the devils pimps that seduce the people and under the name of things indifferent would lead them a whoring after Idolls Hereunto we may add that horrible abuse of Excommunication the highest censure of the Church that in the Courts Christian was made a messenger to fetch in fees and men were cast out of the Church for not comming into the Court to say no more Lastly They err as much on the other hand and are to be condemned that scornfully or basely abuse the Church and places set apart for the use of Gods Ordinances which is seldom done but in open or secret contempt of the ordinances themselves Let them among other examples remember that of Julian unckle to the Apostate who in contempt pissed against the Communion Table his bowels rotting out he voyded