Gospel Ministers and Gospel Churches both the one and the other may be called in a safe sense the pillar and ground of truth But what is this to the Church of Rome How ridiculous a reason were it saith Mr. Cartwright for the Apostle to exhort Timothy to walk circumspectly in the Church of Ephesus Cartwr in locum because the Church of Rome is thepillar and stablement of truth The Papists saith Calvin dum ad se transferunt hoc encomium improbe faciunt alienis se plumis vestiendo Nam ut evehatur Ecclesia supra tertium Coelum nego id totum ad eos ullomodo pertinere Calvin in loc Quinetiam locum presentem adversus eos retorqueo nam si Ecclesia columna est veritatis sequitur non esse apud eos Ecclesiam ubi non modo sepulta jacet veritas sed horrendum in modum diruta eversa sub pedibus calcatur When the Papists transfer this glory to themselves they do wickedly cloathing themselves with the feathers of other Birds For suppose the Church be extolled and lifted up above the Third Heavens I deny that any thing of all this excellency belongs in the least to them yea further I retort this place against them For if the Church be the Pillar of Truth then it follows that the Church is not amongst them where the Truth doth not only lie buried but is torn down and overthrown and trampled under foot in a fearful manner An hoc est vel aeuigma vel cavillum Paulus Ecclesiam non vult agnosci nisi in qua excelsa conspicua stat Dei veritas in Papatu nihil tale apparet sed disiectio tantùm ruinae ergo genuina Ecclesiae nota illic non extat Is there any difficulty or any cavilling in this Paul will not have any Church acknowledged but such as wherein the Truth of God stands on high conspicuous to the view of all men But there is no such thing to be seen in the Papacy but the overthrow and ruines of the Truth therefore there is no true note or mark of the Church to be found there The plain Truth is That Apostate Church and the Head thereof that is Babylon and Antichrist hath no right to any one promise in the Book of God but stands directly under all the Threatnings and Curses written therein because they have both added thereto and taken from it Revel 22.18 19. Indeed those Churches and those Souls have the best right to the promises that prize them most Therefore the Protestant Churches have a better right to them than the Church of Rome By the Protestant Churches I intend all that do subject themselves to the Scripture as the Rule of Faith and Life And by the Church of Rome all those that suffer the Pope to have dominion over their Faith for we do not judge every Individual in the external communion of that Church but onely such of them as have drunk down her deadly poyson What have they to do with the promises What have they to do with God to take his Covenant into their mouths Who do believe in a man that can lye and in a Church of men who may deceive and be deceived How much better and safer would it be for your eternal peace to cleave to the Scriptures which are the voyce of God and so to bottom and ground your Faith upon the truth and faithfulness of him that cannot lye then thus to ground it upon a man that shall dye and upon the sons of men that shall be made as grass For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you CHAP. VII Of Humane Testimonies for and against the See of Rome THat which remains of your Discourse is partly Quotations without so much as attempting to prove your interest in them of some parallel Texts with those before answered partly repetitions of those impertinent Queries Whether did the Roman Church go from any other known Church c Answered also before under the Head of Schism partly Humane Testimonies for the See of Rome for so you phrase it the Body of your Discourse having run upon this expression the Church of Rome the Title being the Roman Faith To your Humane Testimonies I would humbly offer three things to your serious consideration which I suppose may suffice to all you say or can say from the Fathers in whom you seem to repose your greatest confidence for the defence of your cause Consid 1. That you know we do not own the Fathers but the Scriptures onely as the Supreme Judge of Controversies Though we honour them as blessed Instruments in their Generation yet we know they were but men and not Apostles infallibly inspired and assisted by the Holy Ghost Yea we do ingenuously acknowledge That the darkness and inadvertency of the Fathers in some points did contribute and make way for the rise and growth of Popery They had their hands so full of other work partly from without in all their Conflicts both with Jews and Pagans both by writing and suffering while the Christian Princes also in the mean time were not idle but had their hands full in the Wars of Michael against the Dragon against the persecuting Pagan Emperors during that fourth Century And partly from within by those intestine mischiefs which through the malice and craft of Sathan were bred within the Churches own bowels such as Arrianism with all the Errors and Blasphemies accompanying and flowing from it against the Person and Natures of Christ and against his blessed Spirit As also Pelagianism wretchedly undermining the work of his Grace and Spirit in the effectual application of Christ and his redeeming Love to the Souls of his Elect. Donatism likewise at the same time dreadfully disturbing the peace and order and fellowship of the Gospel by dischurching and disbaptising all other Christians and re-baptising themselves whil'st othres in the mean time wereas much too large and loose as they too rigid The faithful Servants of Christ were thus assaulted in those dayes on every side over and beside the daily work of Teaching and Governing their respective Flocks and Churches All which did so severely call upon them for their deepest intentions and endeavours that as it rendred the work heavy upon the shoulders of the faithful Ministry in those conflicting times so truly to my narrow capacity it is no wonder if in the mean time the deep and subtile workings of the mystery of Iniquity in the Papacy did in a great measure escape their observation And the rather if we consider the disadvantage they were under both for want of Printing and of well regulated and formed Universities and Schools of the Prophets The Monastick Institutions at first as some have thought coming nearest and seeming to
will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel for ye are not my people and I will not be your God Hos 1.6 Plead with your mother plead for she is not my wife neither am I her husband Hos 2.2 God may remove the candlestick out of its place Rev. 2.5 You see in all these Scriptures what the Lord hath threatned and done to other Churches in dayes of old which as it utterly overthrows any such imagination That a True Church cannot fall away so it shews That your Church claims such a priviledge as never any Church enjoyed Go to Shiloh where I set my name at first Jer. 7.12 14. Go to Jerusalem and see what God hath done unto it for the wickedness of his people Israel Never any Church enjoyed such a priviledge as yours pretendeth to of Indefectibility and Impossibility of losing their Church estate and priviledges It was Christs own threatning to the Jewes The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Matth. 21.43 Yea the Lord hath denounced the like Threatnings and brandished the same flaming Sword against the Church of Rome in particular and that from this very instance and example of the Jewish Church before mentioned Kem. 11.17 18 19 20 21 22. And if some of the branches were broken off and thou being a wild Olive tree wert grassed in among them Boast not against the branches which your Church doth against all the Churches in the World pretending to such transcendent priviledges and prerogatives above all other Sister-Churches But if thou boast thou bearest not the root but the root thee Thou wilt say the branches were broken off that I might be graffed in Well because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by faith Be not high-minded but fear This is written to Her that saith She cannot erre For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest be also spare not thee Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shalt be out off You see he threatneth Her with cutting off And he hath executed these his righteous Threatnings because She hath not continued in his goodness therefore he hath cut Her off and given Her a bill of Divorce having declared Her in the Scriptures of Truth to be Babylon and Her Head Antichrist even Babylan the Great the Mother of Harlots a monstrous Beast the principal object of all the vyals of his wrath And her Head a false Prophet a Star fullen from Heaven a persecuting Horn wearing out the Saints of the most High as it is written in these and the like Scriptures Daniel 7. and Dan. cap. 11. vers 36 c. 2 Thess 2. 1 Tim. 4.1 c. And it is the chief scope of the Book of the Revelation to discover and reveal Antichrist in every Chapter from the sixth to the twentieth This is something that doth some way concern this great Apostasie in all which Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament She may read as it were the Letters of her Divorce The Lord who was Her Husband having published them and left them upon Record to all the Churches that they may take notice that She is not his Wife nor he Her husband and that they may do as is written Revel 18 4. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of bet plagues And accordingly we for our parts in obedience to this command have protested against Her and are come out from Her and our defence must be without shifts and subterfuges by making good the charge against Her What can She say for Her self How will She clear and vindicate Her self from all this fin and shame You attempt it under three Heads of Apostasic Haresie and Schism and I must follow you in your own method though it be none of the best But whether you took your Discourses hereof out of Fiat Lux for there they are verbatim there is more than a meer coincidence of matter or that Fiat Lux had learned them privately from you and then published them in Print suppressing your name I leave it to him and you to dispute that point and to your infallible Judge to determine it and judge between you Both he and you speak thus CHAP. II. Of the Nature and Kinds of Apostasie and of the Apostasies of the Church of Rome DISCOURSE This Church could not cease to be so but She must fall either by Apostasie Heresie or Schism ANSWER THis Enumeration is very defective and confused in that it makes Apostasie one particular species or kind of falling away whereas Apostasie and falling away is the same thing the one being a Greek word and the other English for Apostasie is contrary to the True Christian Religion which is the tying of man to God again from re and ligo after his fall in the bonds of Faith and Love or obedience of Love The Scripture everywhere makes these the two parts of True Religion 2 Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 3.9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience Hence therefore there be two wayes of Apostasie viz. either from the Faith of the Gospel by fundamental ignorance and heresie and unbelief or from Gospel-obedience which is as large as the rule thereof of which David saith Thy Commandments are exceeding broad Psal 119.96 Therefore under this head comes Idolatry Superstition Schism Witchcraft Perjury Persecution Sedition Murther Whoredom Theft Equivocation c. Men may Apostatize and fa'l away from God by making shipwrack of the faith and by putting away a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 The Apostle speaks of some who profess they know God but in werks they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Titus 1.16 But this kind of Apostasie by evil works and scandalous sins is omitted and forgotten which is another Error in your distribution though it is that which your Church and Popes are deeply guilty of notwithstanding all your boastings of your good works and merits and supererogations with God The sixth Trumpet instanceth in Idolatries Murthers Sorceries Fornications Thefts as Sins that do abound among you Revel 9. ult And all Histories bear witness to it The corruption of Life as well as Doctrine was so great before the Protestant Reformation so many the offences abuses and scandals and such the degenerated notoriety of them that as it was the common desire of Sober men in Luthers time that there might be a free and general Council in order to a general Reformation of the Church which all men observed to be wofully degenerated So there were Nine Select Cardinals and Prelates of your own Church Câ—sil Delect Card. Praed De Emendanda
They had learned to say our father Jacob as well as you can say Saint Peter John 4.12 So in like manner the Church of Rome though She hath not Renounced the very Name and Title of Christianity yet She is deeply guilty of Apostasie from God divers other wayes both in her Head and Members She is and may be called an Apostate Church as having fallen away from the Faith and Doctrine of the Gospel by fundamental Unbelief Ignorance and Herefie and from Gospel obedience by the most abominable profaneness of life by the grossest kind of sins and scandals against all the Ten Commandments concerning which you prudently forbear to say any thing but concerning the former head viz. Apostasie from the Faith Your Defence is this CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Heresie DISCOURSE Heresie is an adbesion to some private and singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general and approved Doctrine of the Church If Rome did ever adhere to any such Opinion c. By what General Council was it ever condemned Which of the Fathers ever wrote against Her Or by what Authority was She ever Reproved ANSWER This Description of Heresie and the Queries grounded thereupon as they are not agreeable either to the Scriptural or Ecclesiastical sense and use of the Word so they are indeed no better than a begging of the thing in question between you and us For you know we hold That the Rule whereby to judge of Heresie is the Scripture and not the Opinions of Churches of Fathers Mr. Gales Idea of Jansenism Histor dogmat Part. 2. Sect. 28. p. 157. or Councils Tertullian makes it the Badge of an Heretick to decline the Scriptures he saith They are Noctue Lucifugae Scripturarum Night Owls that do not love the light of that Sun yea some of your own Church who are the pars sanion thereof if yet they be of you have said That it is an Herefie to judge of Heresies without the Word of God So the Jansenists And the Reason why the generality of Papists are so desirous to derline the Scripture is because they are conscious to themselves that it is against them as Mr. White hath well observed 〈◊〉 of Brisom White 's way to the Church Sect. 7. Numb 8. Bristow Motiv ult Canus loc lib. 3. cap. 3. Confil. Episc Bononi Congreg Anno 1553. De stabilienda Roman Eccles Fol. 5. who teaching his Scholar how to deal with a Protestant 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proud Heretick out of his weak and false Castle of unely Scripturs into the plain field of Traditions Miracles Councils and Fathers and then like Cowards They shall not stand Another Papist saith There is more strength is confine Hereticks in Traditions than in the Scriptures yea all Disputations with them must be determined by Traditions Those Reverend Fathers of your Church that met at Bononia by the Popes appointment to consult of the means for establishing of the Church of Rome or healing the Wound of the Daughter of Babel in the counsel they gave to Pope Julius the Third They do confess Certè vix umbram quandam retinemus in nostris Ecclesus ejus Doctrinae Disciplinae quae Apostolorum temporibus floruerunt prorsùs aliam accersivimus The truth is we searce retain a shadow in our Churches of that Doctrine and Discipline which flourished in the Apostles times but we have brought in altogether another There was no mention Fol. 2. say they for we may confess the Truth to your Holiness but it must he kept close either of Popes or Cardinals in the Apostles times nor of some years after There were no Monasteries nor Priors nor Abbots much less were there these Doctrines these Laws these Customs no nor that Empire which now we enjoy over several people and Nations They say further That the not studying the Canon Law and Sophistry and Metaphysicks c. Fol 5. But learning the Greek and Hebrew Tongues and examining Translations by the Greek and Hebrew verity hath been the cause and fountain of the late decay of the Church of Rome and of the deplorable state and condition of her Affairs at this day And finally which they reserve to the last place as the weightiest of all their ghostly counsels They advise That as little as may be of the Gospel Fol. penult be read amongst the people in their vulgar Tongue For hic ille in summa est liber qui praeter caeteros hasce nobis tempestates acturbines conciliavit quibus prope abrepti sumus For this is in brief That Book which above all others hath raised and brought upon us these storms and whirlewinds by which we are almost carried away headlong Thus speak they It appears by all this wherefore it is that you love not the Scripture even because it restifies against you For he that doth evil hateth the light and cometh not to the light lest his deeds should be reproved John 3.16 20. As to the word Heresie for your mistakes call upon me to open it a little if we look at the notation of it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capio eligo so it signifies any thing of choice or option as Galen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Methodical and the Empirical way of Physick when applyed to matters of Religion it imports in the largest signification any Sect or way of Religion that a man makes choice of whether true or false So the Sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Sadduces Acts 5.17 the Sect of the Pharisees Acts 15.5 called the most exquisite Sect of our Religion Acts 26.5 the Sect of the Nazarens Acts 24.5 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herefie in all these places But it is frequently restrained by a Synecdothe to signifie a false Religion as some other words ex gr Tyrannus magnus c. which are commonly taken in deteriorem partem Thus Epiphanius seemeth to take it in his Book of Eighty Heresies where he numbers Barbarism Seythism Stoicism Platonism c. amongst Heresies But it is commonly restrained yet more by a further Synecdoche to such Errors as overthrow the Foundation and are obstinately maintained against Conviction by persons pretending in part to the True Religion and so we do not call Pagans Hereticks but Infidels This sense of the word seems to be grounded on 1 Cor. 3.10 11. and 2 Pet. 2.1 and Titus 3.10 11. where the Apostles do distinguish of Doctrines comparing some to Hay and Stubble yet retaining the true foundation But there is another sort which they call damnable Heresies or Heresies of perdition Soul-destroying Heresies the Assertors whereof are subverted or overturned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from off the true foundation and self-condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sinning against their own light Now the written Word of God being the onely Rule of True Religion hence nothing ought to be rejected under the Notion of Heresie but what the Scripture doth
condemn as such viz. as false and destructive unto Souls and dangerously intrenching upon the very Vitals and Fundamentals of Religion And if it be demanded of us What are the Heresies of the Church of Rome in this last sense This is a large Field Popery saith Dr. Ames Ames Cas l. 5. c. 4. de Haeres Non est una aliqua singularis Haeresis sed quasi corpus quoddam ex variis Haeresibus conflatum productum Sicut enim Mahumetismus est antecedentium Haeresâ—â—n mixtura in Oriente Meridie sic Papismus quamvis aliâ specie variarum Haereseâ—n sentina est in Occidente Septentrione Popery is not one single Heresie but a Sink of many Heresies a dead Sea a Sodomitick Lake of many poysonous and erroneous Opinions Look as Mahometism is a mixture of former Heresies in the Eastern and Southern Countries so is Papism though under different pretensions a Sink of many Heresies in the Western and Northern parts of the old Roman Empire Take at present for I would not leave things at random these few Instances of the Heresies your Church hath fallen into It is easie seeing you call us to it it is easie in the strength of Christ in the evidence of his Word and Spirit to make good the Charge against Her CHAP. IV. Of the Heresies of the Church of Rome eight particulars instanced THe first grand Error of your Church is this Your Dethroning and Unlording the Scripture It is Christs own phrase Matth. 15.6 and Mark 7.13 by way of Reproof to your Predecessors those ancient Papists the Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unlording the Word of God through your Tradition But to this written Word did Jesus Christ appeal John 5.39 Search the Scriptures for in them ye think to have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me We are commanded to try the spirits 1 John 4.1 even by the Rule laid down in that Scripture ver 2. The Bereans are commended by the Holy Ghost as Christians of the right breed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they would not take the Apostles Doctrine upon trust but searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Therefore many of them believed Acts 17 11 12. But with you it is a Nose of Wax attramentary Divinity of no more Authority in it self than Aesop's Fables or Titus Livius but that your Church hath christened it for Scripture but yet She tells us withall That we must receive Her Traditions Pari pietatis affectu reverentia Concil Trident S ss 4. Decret 1. with as much pious affection and reverence as we receive the Scripture So your Tridentine Council It is lamentable to consider how many Bibles you have burnt and how many Christians you have burnt alive for having Bibles and labouring to acquaint themselves therewith In King Henry the Eighth's time those of you who then had the conduct of Affairs in England did cause to be put forth a publick and authentick Instrument for the abolishing and inhibiting of the Scriptures wherein ye thus express your selves Daâ—ed May 24. 1531. That foras much as there is ingendered an Opinion in divers of his Subjects that it is his Graces duty to cause the Scripture of God to be Translated into the English Tongue to be communicated unto the people It appeareth That the having of the whole Scripture in English is not necessary to christen men Fox Acts and Mon. Vor. 2. Eâ—it 1641. the divulging of the Scripture at this time in the English Tongue to be committed to the people considering such pestilent Books and so evil Opinions as be now spread among them should rather be to their further confusion and destruction than to the edification of their Souls Thus you said and did your worst but you could not hinder the Sun from rising at its appointed hour nor frustrate the Oath of him who sware that your time should be no longer and he gave the book to his servants to prophesie again Rev. 10. ver 6 9 11. This wretched neglect and contempt of the Scripture is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very corner stone of the Tower of Babel We look upon it as the first and chief of all your Heresies and the source and fountain of all the rest Ye do erre not knowing the Scripture Matt. 22.29 For there is a self-evidencing light and majesty in the Scripture it bears the stamp and impress of the Divine Attributes upon it which he that sees not must needs be blind as to other Truths also As he that cannot see the Sun when it shines at Noon-day can see nothing else he that cannot hear the voyce of Thunder is not like to be awakened by a silent whisper 2. The Authority and Infallibility of your Church and Pope as if they were not men but gods for humanum est errare Let God be true and every man a lyar Rom. 3.4 This is the great Idol that you set up against the Scripture and consequently against God himself for the Scripture is God speaking to Mankind Hence it is written of Antichrist that he exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself that he is God 2 Theff 2.4 He takes upon him to dispense even with the Laws of God therefore it is made the brand of a Reprobate to worship the Beast Revel 13.8 And the Lord denounces and thunders forth damnation to them Reve 14.9 10 11. The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and their doom is just for they make a god of him for put case the Pope should erre and go to Hell Bell. De summo Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 5. Bellarmine would fain make us believe that we are bound in conscience to go with him for thus he speaketh Si Papa exraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare If the Pope should erre in commanding Vices and forbidding Vertues the Church were bound to believe that Vice is good and that Virtue is evil unless she would fin against her Conscience Here is sweet Catholick Doctrine is it not yet such stuffe as this is of such value with you that the same Bellarmine saith Bell. Praefatin liâ—res â—e Fortif Quâ de re agitur cum de primatu Pontificis agitur brevissime dicam de summa rei Christianae The Primacy of the Pope sayes he is the sum of Christian Religion he means Antichristian 3. Your arrogant Attributions to corrupted Free-will in derogation to the sovereignty and efficacy of converting and electing Grace yea to the utter corrupting and undermining of sundry great Gospel-truths as Election Regeneration Assurance Perseverance your Free-will is an Error that draws a soul tail after it But the Scripture saith We are not born again of the will of man