Narrative which we may find exemplyfied in Mr. Rush. Collections from p 438. to 462. assirmeth that he thrice complained of Mr. Mountagues Arminian Book but he was held up against him by the prevalence of the Duke of Buckingham who magnified him as a well-deserving man that the whole Narrative if he that will read shall have a key put into his hand to unlock several misteries of our Church declining and a character of the men who were most busie to advance the Remonstrant opinions Laud The Doctrine of Praedestination is the root of Puritanism and Puritanism the root of all rebellious and disobedient untractableness in Parliaments and of all schism and sauciness in the Countrey nay in the Church it self this hath made many thousands of our people and too great a part of our Gentry Laytons in their hearts Last Parliament they left their Word Religion and the Cause of Religion and begun to use the name of Church and our Articles of the Church of England and wounded our Church at the very heart with her own name Dr. Brooks his Letter to the Archbishop extant in Can. Doome p. 167. there were then some who were tantum non in Episcopatu Puritani they saw their holy cause would not succeed by opposition therefore they came up and seemed to close with the Church of England in her Discipline to use the Cross and wear the Clothes but for her Doctrine they wave it preach against it teach contrary to what they had subscribed that so through foraign Doctrine being infused secretly and instilled cunningly and pretended craftily to be the Churches at length they might wind in with foraign Discipline also and so fill'd Christendem with Popes in every Parish for the Church and with Popular Democracies and Democratical Anarchies in State App. p. 111. el 43 44. Pacif. The wrathful expressions you are continually using against the Puritans do not work the righteousness of God and they are the more to be disliked because it is sufficiently known that Puritans have been as conscientious as any that ever lived in our Church Laud Puritanism had indeed a form of godliness but denyed the power and for any thing I can discern is as dangerous as Popery the only difference being Popery is for Tyrannie Puritanism for Anarchy Popery is original of Superstition Puritanism the high way to profaneness both alike enemies unto piety Ap. p. 320 321. Pacif. Puritanism the way to profaness How came it then to pass that there was so little of profaneness in Puritans so much of it in those who gloried in their Anti-Puritanism but I leave this to be decided by the Judge of quick and dead who shall render to all according to what they have done in the flesh How is it that of late years you have learned to call all Puritans who will not say a confederacy with you in your Popish and Arminian Errors which have been so generally reputed contrary to the Doctrine of our Church Laud What you call Error that seems to me to be Truth and because the doubts hung in the Church of England unto the Publick Doctrine of the Church of England do I appeal contained in those two authorized and by all subscribed Books of the Articles and Divine Services of the Church let that which is against them on Gods Name be branded with Error and as Error be ignominiously spunged out App. p. 9. Pacif. What ever is against the Word of God or contrary to any opinion which hath been maintained in the Catholick Church by all in all places at all times I am content should be called an error but you know I hope that no Church of Particular Denomination is Infallible and therefore I shall not grant that whatever is against the Tendries of the Church of England is erroneous for I know that our first Reformers and the Composers of our publick Records of Doctrine did place the Nature of Faith in Assurance or a perswasion that our sins are actually pardoned which you will grant to be a mistake but a mistake that was scarce seen by any till of late except Mr. John Fox who indeed placed the Nature of Faith in Recumbence nevertheless in those matters wherein you and I differ I am very willing to be tryed by the Articles and Lyturgy but then I premise this that I take the Homilies to be part of our Churches Lyturgy for the Rubrique in the Communion Office speaks affirmative enough After the Creed shall follow one of the Homilies and the Preface to the first Book of Homilies commandeth all Parsons Vicars Curates c. every Sunday and Holy-day in the year c. after the Gospel and Creed in such order and place as is appointed in the Book of Common-Prayer to read one of the said Homilies Evidently implying as Mr. Lestrange notes they were no more to be omitted then any other part of the Service but where the Rubrique gives a toleration Laud I willingly admit the Homilies as containing certain godly and wholesome exhortations to move the people to honor and worship Almighty God but not as the publick Dogmatical resolutions confirmed by the Church of England the 33. Article giveth them to contain godly and wholesom Doctrine and necessary for these times which they may do though they have not Dogmatical Positions or Doctrine to be propagated and subscribed in all and every point as the Books of Articles and of Common-Prayer have They may seem to speak somewhat too hardly and stretch some sayings beyond the use and practice of the Church of England both then and now and yet what they speak may receive a fair or at least a tolerable construction and mitigation well enough App. 260. Paeif I am glad to hear you acknowledge that the Homilies do contein certain godly and wholesom exhortations which if all had thought we had not been pestered with a vain discourse pretended to be made by a Lady in defence of Auxiliary Beauty or Artificial handsomeness the which are so expresly condemned by the Homily against excess in Apparel But I am sorry to find you saying that the Homilies are not the avowed Doctrine of the Church for the Preface tells us they were set forth for the expelling of erroneous and poisonous Doctrines and more fully the Orders of K. James The Homiles are set forth by authority in the Church of England not only for a help of non-preaching but withall as it were a pattern for preaching-ministers I have read among the Romanists that there is fides temporum a Faith that followeth the Times It is no marvel saith Cusanus though the practise of the Church expound the Scripture at one time one way and at another time another way for the understanding or sence of the Scripture runneth with the practise and that sense so agreeing with the practise is the quickning Spirit and therefore the Scriptures follow the Church but contrariwise the Church followeth not the Scriptures ad Bohem. Epist. 7.
professed or have imposed penalty upon repugnants of non-consentients unto it Ap. p. 143. There is no such Doctrine concerning Antichrist in the Book of Articles or in any other publick Monument or Record of the Church of England but the contrary rather and this appeareth by a prayer at the end of the 2d Homily for Whitsunday viz. That by the mighty power of the H.G. the comfortable Doctrine of Christ may be truly preached truly received and truly followed in all places to the beating down of sin Death the Pope the Devil and all the Kingdome of Antichrist Dr. Pet. Heylin Res. Pet. p. 133. Pacif. There 's scarce any opinion more generally received and owned by Divines that wish well to our reformation then this that the Pope is the Antichrist but I 'le not contend by their testimonies but by passages which I have excerpted out of the Homilies Tom. 1. p. 17. edit. 1623. Justification is not the office of man but of God or man cannot make himself righteous by his own works neither in part nor in whole for that were the greatest arrogance and presumption of man that Antichrist could set up against God p. 38. Honour be to God who did put light in the heart of his true faithful Minister of most famous memory K. H. 8th and gave him the knowledg of his word and an earnest affection to seek his Glory and to put away all such superstitious and Pharisaical Sects by Antichrist invented p. 70. For our Saviour Christ and St. Peter teach most earnestly obedience to Kings but the Bishop of Rome teacheth that they are under him are free from all burdens and charges of the Common-wealth and obedience toward their Prince most clearly against Christs Doctrine and St. Peters He ought therefore rather to be called Antichrist and the successor c. See more of the like nature and purport collected by Dr. Bernard See also the Prayer made for the Fifth of November Laud If a Controversie were referred by the Church or an Heresie to be corrected in the Church which touched the case of the Catholick Church it could not be put over more fitly to any one man by the Church representative in a Council then unto the Pope first Bishop of Christendom of greatest not of absolute power among Bishops Answ. to Gagg p. 29. Pacif. Never did the Church of England call the Pope first Bishop of Christendom nay she censures him for his bold usurpation of such a title Part. 2. Hom. p. 214 215. And he that thinks the Pope to be the fittest to refer a controversie he must bring us to such a Pope as I think did never sit in the See of Rome But it may be you and I have not the same thoughts of the dangerousness of Popery Laud It is a hard case that we shall think all Papists and Anabaptists and Sacramentaries to be fools and wicked persons certainly among all these Sects there are very many wise men and good men as well as erring and although some zeals are so hot and their eyes so inflamed with their ardors that they do not think their adversaries look like other men yet certainly we find by the results of their discourses that they are men that speak and make Syllogisms and use Reason and read Scripture and although they do no more understand all of it then we do yet they endeavour to understand as much as concerns them even all they can even all that concerns repentance from dead works and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ Dr. Taylor Epist. Dedic. to Liberty of Pro. p. 9 10. Pacif. A little charity will serve a man to think there are wise men and good men among Sacramentaries and Anabaptists but I do not like your joyning together of Papists Anabaptists Sacramentaries nor do I think that the learned Papists such are all they that can speak and make Syllogisms do endeavour to understand as much as concerns them or all that they can for an easie endeavour will inform them That their Church hath been and is mistaken in many points of great concernment and if she hath been mistaken she is not infallible Laud We have no other help in the midst of our distractions and disunions but all of us to be united in that common term which as it does constitute the Church in its being such so it is the medium of the Communion of the Saints and that is the Creed of the Apostles and in all other things an honest endeavour to find out what truths we can and a charitable and mutual permission to others that disagree from us and our opinions Ibid. p. 33. Pacif. I like it well that the Apostles Creed should be had in reverence but sure there are Articles necessary to salvation that are not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} contained in that Symbole Laud None of those who hold the Creed entire can perish for want of necessary Faith neither are we obliged to make our Articles more particular and minute then the Creed for since the Apostles and indeed our Blessed Lord himself promised Heaven to them who believed him to be the Christ that was to come into the world and that he who believes in him should be partaker of the Resurrection and Life Eternal he will be as good as his word yet because this Article was very general and a Complexion rather then a Proposition the Apostles and others our Fathers in Christ did make it more explicite and though they have said no more then what lay entire and ready formed in the bosome of the great Article yet they made their extracts to great purpose and absolute sufficiency and therefore there needs no more deductions or remoter consequences from the great Article than the Creed of the Apostles Liber Prop. p. 12. Pacif. In this you must allow me to differ from you and so do all that wish well to the reformed Protestant Religion the secinians such a wretched sort of men that Grotius before Crellius had tampered with him counted not worth the name of Hereticks would fain be called and received as Christians because they receive and embrace the Apostles Creed Vid. Jonam Schlict apud Hora. Sosci confut p. 255 256. and yet they deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ they deny his satisfaction to Divine Justice for the sins of his people they deny the Holy Ghost to be a Person or else they make him to be but a finite created Person Hear Smalius contra Frantz Disp. 119. De Ecclesiâ p. 280. Apage istam puerilem tractandi homines pios cordatos rationem In Symbolo ait docenter tres personae Trinitatis In quonam Si aliud ostendat quam Apostolicum quod vocant tanquam humanum Commentum ridebo illud respuam si Apostolicum nego in eo doceri tres Trinitatis Personas Docetur quidam in eo patrem esse Filium Spiritum Sanctum in eos ut hoc concedam
Students not only privately within the Colledg walls but also publickly in the Schools Thus runs the decree extant Libro senioris procuratoris B. fol. 35. A. Decretum Convocationis Anno Domini 1579. Jan. 27. ad extirpandam haeresin quamcunque ad informandam juventuntem in verâ pietate Vetus statutum contra Haereticos perverse de Christianâ fide sentientes renovandum in usum revocandum duximus additâ hac explanatione Ad extirpandam Haeresin quamcunque ad informandam in verâ pietate juventutem Libros hosce legendos censemus statuimus viz. Catechismum Alexandri Nowelli majorem Lat. aut Graec. Vel Catechismum Johannis Calvin Lat. Gr. aut Hebr. vel Elementa Christianae Religionis Andreae Hyperii Vel Catechesin Heidelbergensem pro captu auditorum arbitrio legentium 2. His adiungi possunt Henrici Bullingeri Catechismus pro adultis Institutiones Calvini vel Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae vel articuli Religionis in Synodo Londinensi Latine conscripti autoritate regia editi cum explicatione locorum Communium testimoniis è sacra scriptura aut interdum è patribus desumptis Ad primam lectionem Juniores ad secundam provectiores omnes nullo gradu insignitos astringi volumus 3. Catechismos omnes sanae huic doctrinae contrarios aliosque libros superstitiosos Papisticos legi haberi penitus interdicimus 4. Hanc legendi interpretandi provinciam demandamus privatim Tutoribus publice alicui Catechistae in singulis Collegiis Aulis per praefectos assignando 5. Quo Decretum hoc diligenter inviolate observetur examen habeatur domi per Catechistam aut etiam Praefectos in Academiâ singulis anni terminis per Procancelarium adhibitis praeleetoribus sacrae Theologiae qui à studiosis convocatis profectus rationem exigant 6. Si quis discentium aut docentium negligentior ant alioqui culpabilis deprehendatur judicio praefectorum aut si opus sit Procancellarii corrigatur puniatur I would fain know how it came to pass that there 's no mention of this Decree in our new Statutes if our late Grandees did not steere a course quite contrary to our old Protestant Divines Nor do I know any ground that the Articles of our Church and Calvins Institutions which this Decree joyned together should now with so much Zeal be put asunder Laud Private Opinions heretofore especially if countenanced by some eminent Name were looked on as the publick resolution of the Anglican Church and the poor Church condemned for teaching those Opinions which by the Artifice of some men had been fastned on her Dr. Crackanthorp when he was commanded to make answer to the Archbishop of Spalato his Consilium redeundi chose rather to defend those Lutheri Calvini dogmata which had been charged upon this Church in the Bishops Pamphlet then to assert this Church to her genuine Doctrine They that went otherwise to work were like to speed no better in it or be otherwise requited for their honest Zeal then to be presently exposed to the publick envy and made the common subject of reproach and danger So that I must needs look upon it as a bold attempt as the times then were in Bishop Mountague of Norwich in his answer to the Popish Gagger and the two Appellants to lay the Saddle on the right Horse to sever or discriminate the opinions of particular men from the received and authorized Doctrines of the Church of England to leave the one to be maintained by their private fautors and only to defend and maintain the other And certainly had he not been a man of a mighty Spirit and one that could easily contemn the cryes and clamours which were raised against him for so doing he could not but have sunk remedilesly under the burden of disgrace and the fears of ruine which that performance drew upon him To such an absolute Authority were the Writings and Names of some men advanced by their diligent followers that not to yield obedience to their ipse dixits was a crime unpardonable It is true King James observed the inconvenience and prescribed a remedy sending instructions to the Universities bearing date Jan. 18. 1616. wherein it was directed among other things That young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and to bestow their time in Fathers and Councils Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long on Compendiums and Abbreviations making them the ground of their studie And I conceive That from that time forwards the names and reputations of some leading men of the foraign Churches which till then did carry all before them did begin to lessen Divines growing every day more willing to free themselves from that servitude vassalage to which the authority of those names had enslaved their judgements But so that no man had the courage to make such a general assault against the late received opinions as Bishop Mountague though many when the ice was broken followed gladly after him Dr. Heylin Preface to Theologia Veterum Pacif. You have given me a large account how as you conceive Calvin Bullinger c. came to decrease but such as is no way satisfactory for 1. It is gratis dictum that the reading of Fathers Councils c. will make any one abate his esteem of any Orthodox Cystem 2. It is no way probable that King James should by his instructions in An. 1616. design the hindering of the Calvinian Doctrines who appeared so very zealous An. 1618. against the Tenets of Arminius who did contradict Calvin in those points which of all others held by him are most liable to exception 3. Nor is it any way probable that if any Calvinistical or Lutheran Dogmata had been super-induced to the Articles of our Church which had the least seeming contrariety to them that none should be either acute enough to discern such superseminations or couragious enough to pull up such tares but only Richard Mountague B. D. Had he only learned to deny himself had the spirit of courage and resolution departed from all the English Clergy and rested upon him alone Sure I am that Dr. Forbes of Edenburgh leaveth this Mr. Mountague under this censure that he too much complyed with Calvinism in the point of justification Propter puritanorum undique strepentium clamores nescio quomodo refugerit ad distinctionem Forbes de Justif. lib. 2. c. 5. 4. 'T is scarce credible if Mr. Mountague had only separated chaffe from the wheat and distinguished only the received Doctrines of the Church from some busie Puritans private Opinions that he should have been so severely censured for his Book by the Parliament and confuted by some Divines of great note and learning and as conformable as himself particularly by his Reverend and much Reverenced Diocesan And Archbishop Abbot in his
But God forbid our Church should have any Doctrines good and wholesome for some times and not for others Laud If there be any difference betwixt us about the sense and meaning of any Clause or Period in Articles Lyturgy Homilies how shall that difference be decided Pacif. It is scarce to be supposed that our Church in her publick Records of Doctrine should use any so great obscurity as that we should if we are unprejudiced need an Interpreter but if there be any need of an Interpreter who fitter then such Martyrs as had an hand in composing of the Articles in King Edw. the 6th his Time or elselived then and were well acquainted with the mind and judgment of the Composers and such Divines as lived and were famous in the beginning of Q Eliz. when the Articles were confirmed and let me tell you it will be a strong presumption that a Doctrine is contrary to the Church if it be contrary to the professed tenents of all or most of those eminent Divines by whose help she did at first recover her self out of Popish darkness Laud How little our old Martyrs did favour the Calvinians in the five points appears plainly by a Book entituled An Historical Narration composed by one who was famous in K. Edw. dayes and Q. Eli. and a voluntary exile for Religion in the raign of Q. Mary Partif Are you not ashamed to call him a famous Divine who created such disturbances in the raign of Q. Eliz. and K. Ed. whose Book is put into the Catalogue of Popish Pamphlets by Dr. Fulke in his answer to Bristow of the reprinting of which A. Laud was so much ashamed that at his tryal he durst not own it but averred that he had put his Chaplain out of his place for putting such a cheat on the world I might rather infer that the English Martyrs were no favourers of Arminianisme because in the late A. Bishops Time the Professor of Mathematicks in Gresham was troubled for but permitting an Almanack in which some Popish canonized Saints names were expunged and the names of some of our own English Martyrs that were Saints indeed put in their room and because by Dr. Bray Pochlintons Altare Christianum was licenced in which how bitter a passage is used against our old Martyrs and Confessors may be seen in the Recantation imposed upon that Doctor Laud It may be the passage might refer to John Wickliffe and such as he and if so I know no reason why it should be recanted for though he held many points against those of Rome yet had his Field more Tares then Wheat his Books more Heterodoxies then sound Catholick Doctrines for they who have consulted the Works of Thomas Waldensis or the Historia Wicklesiana writ by Harpssield will tell us that Wickliffe among many other errors maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of bread 2. That Priest have no more authority to minister Sacraments then Lay-men have 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawfulito christen a Child in a Tub of Water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Church 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any divine Service in 7. That buryings in Church-yards be unprofitable and vain 8. That Holy-dayes ordained and instituted by the Church are not to be observed and kept in reverence in as much as all dayes are alike 9. That it is sufficient to believe though a man do no good works 10. That no humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian and finally That God never gave grace or knowledg to a great Person or rich man and that they in no wise follow the same Dr. Heyl. Cert Epist. p. 151. Pacif. Whether these things are collected out of Wald. and Harpssield I neither know nor have leisure now to examine I find the same things charged and charged in the very same words upon those who indeavoured reformation in King H. the 8th his dayes about Anno. 1536. as may be seen in Mr. Tho. Fuller's History lib. 5. p. 209. 210. 211. I believe those were then slandered and so I think is Wick. if Wald. and Harps have charged all those things upon him for the proof of this let what Dr. James hath collected in his Wick Conformity be consulted for that industrious Scholar hath made it appear out of the Writings of Dr. Wickly that he held no community of goods but what all good Christians hold by a Christian Charity not as touching the right Title and possession as the Anabaptists now and a certain bald Priest in his time did hold And so far was he from holding that good Faith alone would save a man without good Works that he is charged by Walden to have held the Doctrine of merits though very falsly as appears by many passages in his Commentaries upon the Psalms He held vocal confession to a Priest not to be necessary in case a man were truly contrite and sorrowful for his sin with full purpose of amendment unless the party offending do find himself very much grieved in which case he counselleth him to repair unto a Priest that hath cunning and good living But let us joyn issue on the terms formerly propounded What think you of the Church of Rome Laud It may be you account it a piece of Popery to call the Church of Rome a true Church Pacif. I account it no Popery to call the Church of Rome a true Church for it was so esteemed by Dr. John Reynolds Chamier Junius Gisbertus Voetius Ludovicus Capellus and his fellow Professor Amyraldus all very learned men and far enough from doting either upon Ceremonies or Prelacy indeed they will much disadvantage themselves in dealing with the Papist about the visibility of the Church who shall affirm that Rome is not a true Church but you know the Pope is made by Romanists to be the Church The Pope ought to tell it to the Church that is to himself saith Bellarmine Do you judg this Pope to be the Antichrist Laud Some Protestant Divines at home and abroad I grant have thought so wrote so disputed so in good zeal no doubt against that insolent and insufferable and outragious Tyranny and Pride of the Bishops of Rome and their infinite enormities in the Church and out of that affection have been too violently forward out of conjectures and probabilities to pronounce the Pope is that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition The Synod of Gapp in France made it a Point of their belief and concluded it peremptorily to be so but who can find it to be the Doctrine of the Church of England what Synod resolved it Convocation assented to it what Parliament Law Proclamation or Edict did ever command it to be
r. hang p. 16. l. 16. r. or p. 17. l. 20. after controversie add to p. 19. l. 4. r. Horn l. 12. r. Smalcius l. 14. r. docentur l. 19. r. etiam p. 22. l. 10. r. verita l. 11. r. quotidie p. 24. l. 22. r. Manducaveritis p. 40. l. 7. r. I find p. 41. l. 34. after would add not p. 42. l. 37. after such add thing p. 67. l. 11. r. their own l. 30. r. platted p. 69. l. 11. dele 245. P. 74. l. 35. r. hath God p. 77. l. 22. r. wherefore l. ult. r. is Laudensium Apostasia OR The Canterburians Apostasie from the Doctrine Received in the Church of ENGLAND Pacificus HAving found my self inclined to the work of the Ministry and being by my Parents thereunto designed and having also put my hand to that Plough I dare not notwithstanding the high affronts and base indignities that are daily offered to Preachers look back lest I should render my self unworthy of the Kingdom of Heaven yet as oft as I think upon that pungent Interrogation Who is sufficient for these things I cannot choose but tremble in sense of my own weakness and humbly implore the assistance of Divine Grace that I may be enabled to stir up the gift that is in me and so shew my self a skilful workman that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of God and do therefore most gladly take all opportunities of discoursing with those who may be any way helpful to me in improving my parts and I account it no small happiness that I have met with you Mr. Laudensis whom common fame hath voyced to be very able and whom I must in charity presume to be very willing to further me in my studies Laudensis I am glad to find that you are not of the number of those who account themselves sufficiently qualined for the work of the Ministry assoon as they have got a good measure of impudence and four or five Sermon Note-books and shall according to the best of my skill give you some directions the which if you will use your five talents may gain five other talents My first counsel is That you would not address the course of your studies to modern Epitomizers balk if you be wise the ordinary and accustomed by-paths of Bastingius his Catechism c. and betake your self to Scripture the Rule of Faith interpreted by Antiquity the best Expositor of Faith and Applyer of that Rule for I hold it a point of discretion to draw water as neer as a man can to the Well-head and to spare labour in vain in running further off to Cisterns and Lakes I alway went to enquire when doubt was of the dayes of old as God himself directed me and hitherto I have not repented me of it I have not found any Canon Order Act Direction in the Church of England against it for it I have found many I never held it wisdom to tire my self with haling and tugging up against the stream when with ease enough I might and with better discretion should secundo flumine navigare we know the further the current is the more muddy troubled and at length brackish the water is App. p. 11. 12. Pacif. I hugely like your advice to study the Fathers and should have far worse thoughts of the Lutherans Calvinists and our English Puritans than as yet I have if they did so exceedingly undervalue the authority of the Antient Doctors as Canus Lessius Possevinus Becanus Grotius Mountague charge them to do But the truth is none have more aviled the Fathers than the Remonstrants and Papists that in the account of the former they stand for little more than cyphers these speeches of theirs Apol. cap. 2. Vanum est quia purior impurior antiquitas non nisi inanes voces sunt Puritatem impuritatem quisque pro arbitrio suo prout usu venit aestimat in Dedic. f. 3. Quare nec pro dignitate c. Vt Declarationem Remonstrantium non tam erroris convincerent quam similitudinis cum iis quos errasse olim antiquitas nunc communis credit opinio Hoc eorum est qui cum causae suae diffidant adversarios suos speciosis autoritatibus c. with many others scattered up and down their Apology and Answer to the Professors of Leyden do sufficiently evince How little the same men do reverence Synods and Assemblies I leave to any to judge who will but be at pains to read what Vedelius hath collected out of them Arcan Remon l. 2. c 6. As for the Papists they do mostly speak loud in the mendation of the Fathers but if one examine their mind to the bottom he shall find they call none Father but their Pope for they say his determination is to be followed though contrary to the judgement of all the Fathers Suarez in 3. com 1. qu. 2. Art 2. Disp. 42. Sect. 1. Desinitio Pontificis omnino vera est Etsi dictis omnium sanctorum esset contraria illis esset praeferenda It is one thing to interpret the Law as a Doctor another thing as a Judge of the one is required learning of the other authority the opinion of the Doctors is to be followed according to reason but the Judges opinion is to be followed of necessity St. Augustine and the Fathers in their Expositions supplyed the places of Doctors which we may follow as we see cause the Pope and Council supply the places of Judges with a Commission from God and therefore they must be observed and followed of necessity To the Pope and his Cardinals or others imployed by him they allow a liberty of correcting the Fathers and expunging out of them such passages as suit not to the mysterie of iniquity working in that Romish Synagogue If a Father in any thing dissent from the Pope and be forbidden to be read the reading of a Father is not forbidden for in that case he is not Pater but Vitricus Grot. de jure more prohib. libros malos lib. 2. c. 10. Yea we are told that when the Church reviews the writings of her sons and where need requires corrects them she doth a work of mercy cap. 2. of the same Book Voetius tells us out of the Summa Bullarii seu Constitut. Pontif. p. 256. of a Constitution of Sixtus 5. appointing the Fathers pretending them to be in many places to be corrupted to be put forth in more correct Editions but with this condition S graviores dubitationes difficultates in veterum codicum autoritate librorum correctione emendatione inciderint rebus prius in congregatione examinatis ad nos referant ut in lectionuns varietate id quod Orthodoxae veritati maxime consonum erit ex speciali Dei privilegio huic sanctae sedi concesso statuamus Laud I am a little jealous that some body hath done me no good office for me thinks your former implyeth that you look upon me as
accommodato adorationi erectam aut constitutam modus autem aecomodatus adorationi est cum imago depicta aut sculpta est per se non veluti appendix additamentum alterius rei in ornatum illius rei Beware lest thou make to thy self i. e. to any religious use any grauen image Homily Perill of Idol p. 42. Laud The examples of the Seraphims and Brazen Serpent tell us that to make pictures or statues of creatures is not against a natural reason and that they may have uses which are profitable as well as be abused to danger and superstition Now although the nature of that people was apt to the abuse yet Christianity hath so far removed that danger that our blessed Law-giver thought it not necessary to remove us from superstition by a prohibition of the use of images and pictures and for the matter of images we have no other rule left us in the New Testament the rules of reason and nature and the other parts of the Institution are abundantly sufficient for our security And possibly St. Paul might relate to this when he affirmed concerning the fifth that it was the first Commandment with a promise for the second Commandment had a promise of shewing mercy to thousand generations but because the body of this Commandment was not transcribed into the Christian Law the first of the Decalogue which we retain and in which a promise is inserted is the fift Commandment G. E. part 2. p. 111 112. Pacif. Do you then think that the second Commandment is not retained by us Christians I never thought but that it was if not natural yet moral of universal and perpetual obligation of this judgement were the Ancients Irene lib. 4. cap. 31. August lib. 19. contra Faus cap. 18 Epis 119. cap. 12 Not to speak of Clem Alex. who in his Adhortatory Oration to the Gentiles plainly saith that the Commandment obligeth us as well as the Jews though he seem to be mistaken in giving the sense of it this way also go all Protestants though indeed the Papists do make this law but temporary In a word God allowed the Jews a civil use of Images and other he alloweth not to us under the Gospel who are not so much out of danger of Idolatry and superstition as you seem to imply Laud Images have three uses assigned by the Popish Schools instruction of the rude commonefaction of History and stirring up of devotion they and we also give unto them Gagg p. 300. The pictures of Christ the blessed Virgins and Saints may be made had in houses set up in Churches respect and honour may be given to them the Protestants do it and use them for helps of Piety in rememoration and more effectual representing of the Prototipe Ans. to Gagg p. 818. Pacif. The Church of England teacheth her children quite another lesson Hom. against the peril of Idol Part 3. p. 42. It is unlawful that the Image of Christ should be made or that the Image of any Saint should be made especially to be set up in Temples to the great and unavoidable danger of Idolatry we grant Images used for no Religion or Superstition rather we mean Images of none worshipped or in danger to be worshipped may be suffered but Images placed publickly in Temples cannot possibly be without danger of Idolatry many such passages may be picked out of that Homily which are the more considerable because of all our Homilies it seemeth to be penned with most exactness Laud It is the Consecration that makes Churches holy and makes God esteem them so which though they be not capable of grace yet by their consecration they receive a spiritual power whereby they are made fit for Divine Service and being consecrated there is no danger in ascribing holiness unto them Tedder his Visit Sermon licensed by Dr. Baker an. 1637. Pacif. That Churches do by Consecration receive any spiritual power whereby they are made more fit for Divine Service than other places or that the same company meeting in a private house and praying by the same Spirit should not be as acceptable to God as in the Church is Superstition to affirm nor did the Church of England ever teach any such Doctrine yet I easily grant that in peaceable times and under Christian Princes the people of God ought to have their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that it is a broach of civil decency to employ these places set a part for Gods Worship to any common uses ordinarily Laud We use signing with the sign of the Cross both in the fore-head and elsewhere witness that solemn Form in our Baptism for which we are so quarrelled by our factions the flesh is signed that the soul may be fortified saith Tertullian and so do we Ans. to Gagg p. 320. Pacif. If any one besides the Minister useth signing with the Cross or if he use it at any time but in Baptism or on any place but on the forehead 't is done without any warrant at all from the Church of England and our Church retained the sign of the Cross in Baptism only as an outward Ceremony and honorable Badge but it doth not ascribe any efficacy unto it of fortifying the soul and declares the child to be perfectly baptized before it be signed with the sign of the Cross as plainly appears from the Book of Canons agreed upon 1603. Chapter Of the lawful use of the Cross Laud Baptism of Infants is most certainly a holy and charitable Ordinance and of ordinary necessity to all that ever dyed and yet the Church hath founded this Rite on the Tradition of the Apostles and wise men do easily observe that the Anabaptists can by the same probability of Scripture enforce a necessity of communicating Infants upon us as we do of Baptizing Infants upon them if we speak of an immediate Divine Institution or of practice Apostolical recorded in Scripture and therefore a great Master of Geneva in a Book he writ against Anabaptists was faign to fly to Apostolical Traditive Ordination and therefore the Institution of Bishops must be served first as having fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants and yet they that deny this are by the just Anathema of the Church Catholick condemned for Hereticks Dr. Tayl. Episc. Asser. p. 100 101. Pacif. 'T is gratis dictum that the Institution of Bishops hath fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants nor can you prove that they who deny the Baptism of Infants are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick much less that they who deny the Institution of Bishops superior in order to Presbyters are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick Hath a whole Book been written to prove that none are to be anathematized who consent to the Articles of the Apostles Creed and must it now be worthy an Anathema to deny Infant Baptism who but a Papist ever said
even the lake of Gehenna and so to the place of the neerest Denomination Epis. Asser. p. 379. Pacif. Your wit lying in the affinity of sound betwixt Geenna and Geneva is much like that of Campian Elizabeth and Jezabel But as for Lay-Elders I am not much solicitous about them thinking the Church may be well enough without them only I cannot think they are so destitute of all Antiquity and Scripture as you imagine that of 1 Tim. 5. 17. hath more for Lay-Elders than many places in Scripture urged by our Bishops have for Episcopacy Dr. Whitgist is said to have these words That he knoweth that the Primitive Church had in every Church certain Seniors to whom the Government of the Congregation was committed and in a Book against Mar-Prelate subscribed by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Winchester Lincoln and London it is affirmed That the Government by Elders was used under the Law and practised under the Gospel by the Apostles though not fit for our times Though afterwards repenting this plain Confession they caused certain words importing the contrary to be printed in a sheet of Paper which paper was pasted in all the books of the first impression to cover and conceal the former assertion This I take on the Testimony of an Author who so printed in Queen Elizabeths time in a Tract called A Petition directed to her most Excellent Majesty but Mr. Nowel is plain in his Catechism in Latine p. 155. Edit. 1570. Grotius also acknowledgeth that Geneva did not first institute these Officers but only restored them nor may it be amiss for the learned Reader to consult about this point of Elders Bodins Method cap. 6. p. 245. Le ts on to the third Commandment Land Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain This our blessed Saviour repeating expresseth it thus It hath been said to them of old Thou shalt not forswear thy self to which Christ adds out of Numb. 30. 2. But thou shalt perform thy Oaths unto the Lord the meaning of the onewe are taught by the other We must not Invocate the Name of God in any promise in vain i. e. with a lie this is to take the Name of God i. e. to useit to take it into our mouths for vanity i. e. according to the perpetual stile of Scripture for a lie and this is to be understood only in promises for so Christ explains it out of the Law Thou shalt perform thy Oaths for lying in judgement which is also with an Oath or taking Gods Name for a witness is forbidden in the ninth Commandment Grand Exemp part 2. p. 114. Pacif. At this rate indeed write Maldonate and the Composer of the Racovian Catechism but without any reason for it is gratis dictum that our Lord doth repeat or give the sense of the third Commandment Exod. 20. 7. It is more probable that he intends those words Levit. 19. 12. As for the words in the third Commandment they have alway been so interpreted by Protestant Commentators as to forbid not only false swearing but vain swearing yea all irreverent use of the Name of God whether with an Oath or without an Oath So the Catechism in King Edward the 6ths raign so Bishop Hooper in his Exposition of the Decalogae so the Common Church Catechism so the Homily part 1. p. 45 46. No one that hath but a smattering skill will deny {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sometime to signifie mendacium or falsum but it doth also signifie gratis in vanum as often if not more often The LXX Exod. 20. 7. render {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Aquila {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Yet I can more easily excuse this if you will but acknowledge that vain and unnecessary Oaths were unlawful to the Jews as well as us Laud By the Natural Law it was not unlawful to swear by an oath that implyed not Idolatry or the belief of a false God I say any grave or prudent oath when they spake a grave truth And it was lawful for the Jews in ordinary entercourse to swear by God so they did not swear to a lye to which also swearing to an impertinence might be reduced by a proportion of reason for they that swear by him shall be commended saith the Psalmist Psal. 63. 11. And swearing to the Lord of hosts is called speaking the Language of Canaan Isa. 19. 18. Great Exem part 2. p. 114. Pacif. This is Theology that a sober Heathen would startle at How do you prove that by the Natural Law it was not unlawful to swear an Oath when they spake a grave truth Doth any Scripture say so Do the more sage sort of profane Writers say so or do not all rather say who have not blinded Natural Conscience That it is not lawful to swear in the gravest matter if a man may be credited without an oath or if his oath be not like to be an end of strife Or what man who knows that God was alway tender of his Name and Glory canthink that it was lawful for the Jews to swear by God in ordinary entercourse They did ordinarily swear but it was not lawful so to do The son of Sirach reproves it Heathens condemn it it is indeed said They that swear by him shall glory Psal. 63. 11. but it is not said They that swear by him in ordinary entercourse shall glory if they should they would glory in their shame As for the place Isa. 19. 18. it proves not that swearing to the Lord in ordinary entercourse is speaking the Language of Canaan but it is a Prophecy only of the calling of Egypt that sundry of that Nation should make the same Profession and Confession of Faith that Gods people did and that they should by solemn Oath engage themselves to depend on the living Lord alone How doth this prove that it was lawful for the Jews to swear by God in ordinary entercourse or that their ordinary communication ought not to be yea yea and nay nay as well as ours Pass we on to the fourth Law of the Decalogue Laud There was nothing Moral in it but that we do Honour to God for the Creation and to that and all other purposes of Religion separate and hallow some portion of our time Great Exem part 2. p. 119. Pacif. Surely this is the way to rob us of one of the laws of the Decalogue for either the fourth Commandment is moral for a determinate time or for nothing at all some time being moral by the other Commandments and it would be strange that the Church of England should appoint this fourth Commandment to be publickly read and teach her members to pray Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law and yet think it had only that latent morality you speak of if the fourth Commandment be not in force in the words of it according to their literal and Grammatical
sense it is not in force at all for both Lawyers say and reason it self shews that a law is no longer in force then the words of it are in force at least those that contain the substance of it Laud The Primitive Church kept both the Sabbath and the Lords day till the time of the Laodicaean Council about 300 years after Christs Nativity and almost in every thing made them equal and therefore did not esteem the Lords day to be substituted in the place of the obliterated Sabbath but a Feast celebrated by great reason and perpetual consent without Precept or necessary Divine injunction Gr. Ex. part 2. p. 119. Pacif. There are in the few words by you uttered certain things that you must pardon me if I cannot presently close with 1. You say that the Primitive Church till the Laodicaean Council kept both the Sabbath and the Lords Day Quanta est haec propositio Do you mean that the whole Primitive Church did so that will be hard if not impossible to prove for the Books that are come to our hands have neither declared nor do they pretend to declare what all the Churches of Christ did nay it appears from Socrates that the Roman and Alexandrian Church kept not the Saturday at all as I think is acknowledged by Dr. Heylin himself Part. 2. But dato sed non concesso that there had been such an universal custom of observing both dayes how doth it hence follow that the Lords Day was not substituted in the place of the obliterated Sabbath Would you argue that Baptism came not in the place of Circumcision because to gain over the weak Jews they used Circumcision for some season They might use the Saturday as a meeting day that by complying with the Jews and Proselytes they might obtain familiar access and gain opportunity to instruct them in the Christian Faith by reason that the people had been accustomed to meet together on that day Laud Ignatius would have both dayes observed the Sabbath first though not as would the Ebionites in a Jewish sort and after that the Lords Day which he so much magnifieth the better to abate that high esteem which some had cast on the Sabbath Hist. of Sab. Part. 2. p. 41. Pacif. I know the place you intend though you refer us not to any Epistle but you are not ignorant that Ignatius his Epistles are much corrupted and have been so accounted by all great Scholars who have impartially spent their judgement upon them this place particularly which you quote out of this Epistle to the Magnesi is depraved and if you will take the pains to consult either the old Latine Manuscript of Ignatius published by the Right Reverend Archbishop Usher or the Greek Edition published by Isaac Vossius which undoubtedly are the truest that ever were printed you will find no such thing can be drawn out of Ignatius as is by you inferred yea rather it will appear that Ignatius is against the keeping of the Saturday Sabbath at all Laud 'T is true that in some tract of time the Church in honour of Christs Resurrection did set a part that day on which he arose to holy exercises But this upon their own authority and without warrant from above that we can hear of more then the General warrant which God gave his Church that all things in it be done decently and in comely order Hist. Sab. Part. 2. p. 7. Pacif. Our Homily saith it plainly appears that Gods Will and Commandment is to have a solemn time and standing day in the week wherein the people should come together and have in rememberance his wonderful benefits Part. 2. p. 125. And that the Apostolical Church would not change the day from the seventh to the first without authority and Commission from Christ so to do is certain enough 'T is to me sufficient that the Lords Day is of Divine Institution whether immediate by Christ or mediate by his Apostles and that it is of Divine Institution one of these wayes is I take it easily proved by Antiquity and Reason The Homilie entitled De Semente hath these plain words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This testimony is made use of by Archbishop Usher for the purpose to which I bring it Laud Neither the Author whom he cites nor the authority by him cited will evince the point 1. The Author will not do it the Homily being supposed by the Learned not to have been writ by Athanasius but put into his Works by some that had a mind to entitle him to it 2. The authority or words cited will not do it though at first fight they seem to come home to make proof of it for the words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are to be understood not as if the Translation of the day were made by his commandment but on his occasion the Resurrection of our Lord upon that day being the principal motive which did induce his Church to make choice thereof for a day of Worship Res. Pet. Pacif. Do you make this gloss upon the words in jest or earnest Do you really think that the meaning of of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is this that the Church did translate the day with relation to Christs Resurrection Laud Yes for otherwise the false Athanasius whosoever he was must cress and contradict the true who having told us that it was commanded at the first that the Sabbath should be observed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in memory of the accomplishmrnt of the Worlds Creation ascribes the Institution of the Lords Day to the voluntary usage of the Church of God without any Commandment from our Saviour {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. We celebrate saith he the Lords Day as a memorial of the beginning of the new Creation which is plain enough Resp. Pet. p. 7. Pacif. The words you refer to I acknowledge to be found in Athanasius de Circum Sabbatho and confess them to be plain enough but neither plain enough nor plain at all for the evincing of that for which you produce them for how doth it follow that if Athanasius say {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that he must mean we celebrate the Lords Day by the voluntary usage of the Church without any Commandment from our Saviour may we not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} though there be a Divine Institution of the day But for satisfaction in these points Irefer any indifferent person to what is said by Mr. P. Caw in Sabbat Rediv. fourth Part. Laud What shall we think of Knox and whittingham and their fellows who in their Letter to Calvin depart from the Constitution Ordinance and Practice of the Apostles and Apostolick men and call not this day the Lords Day or Sunday but with the Piety of Jeroboam make such a day of it as they have devised in own their hearts to serve their own turn and Anabaptizing